Community member protests the treatment of Dr. David Dao, who was forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight on Sunday by the Chicago Aviation Police, at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, US, April 11, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

United Airlines and its chief executive faced mounting pressure on Tuesday from a worldwide backlash over its treatment of a passenger who was dragged from his seat on a plane on Sunday to make room for four employees on the overbooked flight.

Lawyers for the passenger, Dr. David Dao, issued a statement late on Tuesday confirming his identity and saying that he and his family were "focused only on Dr. Dao's medical care and treatment" in a Chicago hospital.

The US Department of Transportation launched an inquiry into the incident, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called for new rules to curb the airline practice of overbooking flights.

United CEO Oscar Munoz issued a statement on Tuesday apologizing to Dao without naming him. "I'm sorry. We will fix this," Munoz said. "I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way."

On Monday, Munoz issued a memo to employees defending the company but not apologizing to the passenger.

Munoz, a former railroad executive who took over the helm at United in 2015, had already been under pressure from activist investors to improve the airline's performance, including its customer relations.

Video showing Dao being yanked from his seat by airport security Sunday evening and dragged from United Airlines Flight 3411 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport went viral and sparked global outrage.

An online petition calling for Munoz to step down had nearly 22,000 signatures by early Tuesday evening.

On Chinese social media, the incident attracted the attention of more than 480 million users on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform.
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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) attempted early Sunday to test-fire an unidentified missile on its east coast, which was believed to have failed, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The JCS confirmed the botched missile launch, saying it is still analyzing what type of missile was launched.

On April 5, the DPRK test-fired a ballistic missile at a nearby region on the east coast, but it fell in eastern waters after abnormally flying about 60 km.

At the time, the South Korean military identified it as Pukguksong-2, an intermediate-range ballistic missile known to be newly developed based on a technology of submarine-launched ballistic missile.

The failed show of force by the DPRK came amid mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which was caused by the USS Carl Vinson and its accompanying warships that have re-routed and headed to the peninsula about a week earlier.

The DPRK held a massive military parade on Saturday to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of DPRK founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current top leader Kim Jong Un.

During the parade, the DPRK showed off what were believed to be three types of intercontinental ballistic missile.

South Korea's top presidential advisor for security affairs, Kim Kwan-jin, planned to convene a meeting of national security council at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Sunday morning.

The security council meeting would be attended by ministers of foreign affairs, unification and defense as well as intelligence agency chief and senior presidential secretary for security and foreign affairs.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is serving as acting South Korean president following the impeachment of Park Geun-hye.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is set to arrive in South Korea later Sunday for his trip to Asia. Pence is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Hwang and hold a joint press conference in Seoul on Monday.
GRANVILLE  The Slate Valley Museum has received a Library of America grant to allow it to intensify its focus on the centennial of World War I.

The grant will allow the museum to present three special events this year and will highlight writings and discussions around issues important to those who fought and the family and friends left behind.

Putting the World in the First World War will be the first program, and will be at 2 p.m. April 29. The free talk will be presented by SUNY Albany professor Richard S. Fogarty, associate professor of history and associate dean for general education.

The focus will be on examining how the war the United States joined in 1917 became a global conflict.

Fogarty, an historian of modern France and Europe with particular interests in the histories of culture, politics, war, and the military, has written extensively on World War I, the French army, racism, and French and European attitudes toward Islam and Muslims.

The museums participation in the World War I and America project links with two planned exhibitions that the museum is developing for 2017 and 2018. The 2017 exhibition will highlight the Word War I conflict from elements within the forces and people of Great Britain.

I think the real highlight of this grant is that we are the only facility north of Poughkeepsie to get this grant, and since we serve part of Vermont, we are the only museum serving Vermont that got it, said Bob Isherwood, the museums director of education.

Isherwood said the museum is still working on the other two programs, but he said one will likely be in September and will include performances of writing and letters from soldiers and others during the time period.

He said the museum will be working with Stone Valley Arts in Poultney, Vermont, on that project. He said the third presentation will likely be a panel discussion in October.

Its really exciting, said Isherwood, who noted one of the museums planned shows includes a reproduction of panels from a World War I exhibit done by the National Slate Museum of Wales.

The war began in 1914 and impacted many European countries prior to direct American involvement, which began April 6, 1917.

We are hoping to have the involvement of the local veterans, said the museums director, Krista Rupe. We want to give them a place to honor their fellow soldiers and learn more about World War I.

Rupe said the war is strongly connected with the regions history.

When war came, many slate workers put down their mallets and signed up for the American cause, she said. It is very connected to our local history.

The April program and the two additional presentations this year are part of World War I and America, a two-year national initiative of the Library of America presented in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the National World War I Museum and Memorial and other organizations.
New Yorks exaltedly named Excelsior Scholarship program doesnt just have strings attached, it has an anchor.

We loved the idea of free tuition from the beginning. Anything that could provide young people and their parents with relief from the crushing debt of a college education was going to be a monumental step forward in how we view the importance of education, and the role government plays in ensuring it is within reach.

Gov. Andrew Cuomos plan  following in the footsteps of Tennessee and Oregon, which offered free tuition at two-year colleges  will be the first in the country to provide free tuition to four-year state schools.

Gov. Cuomo said that nearly a million New York families might be able to reap the benefits, and its $163 million price tag was far lower than many thought possible. If it works, it is a bargain.

But since passing the budget last week, the details of the program are giving us pause. Because of all the strings attached, we suspect it will help far fewer New York families than the governor originally predicted. SUNY officials estimate about 80,000 students would qualify for the program.

The Excelsior Scholarship will only be for first-time traditional college students who have just graduated from high school, or are currently in college and on track to graduate.

From the beginning, this was intended as a break for middle-class families. Its one of the things we really like about it. While the income limit will increase over several years, a students family income cannot exceed $100,000 for those who enroll this fall, followed by $110,000 in 2018 and $125,000 in 2019.

Its some of the other strings attached that worry us.

Students must complete 30 credit hours per year and graduate in four years to remain in the program.

The reality is that fewer than half of college students graduate in four years.

According to statistics for the Chronicle for Higher Education, 38.7 percent of students at New York public colleges graduated in four years in 2013.

At SUNY Plattsburgh, 40.6 percent of students graduated in four years. At the University at Albany, 55.6 percent of students graduated in four years.

Furthermore, since many high school students take advanced placement courses in high school for college credit, they often take fewer than 15 credits in a semester while remaining on track to graduate.

So while there is something to be said about giving students an economic incentive to graduate in four years, even under the best of circumstances most students are coming up short.

Perhaps more egregious is the requirement to keep students tied to the state of New York after they graduate.

The legislation dictates that each scholarship recipient shall agree to reside exclusively in New York state, and shall not be employed in any other state for a continuous number of years equal to the duration of the award received within six months of receipt of his or her final award payment.

The language is a kneejerk emotional response to what some believe is a give-away, despite the fact that state officials estimate 85 to 90 percent of students stay in New York after college anyway.

We dont see this as a giveaway. We see it as an investment.

Asking high school seniors to project their career objectives four years into the future and commit to jobs that may or may not exist in their home state seems to be an unrealistic hardship, especially in upstate where good-paying jobs continue to be hard to find.

We dont see the point of educating our sons and daughters and then limiting their opportunities. It would be one thing if upstate New York was booming economically, but that is not the case.

As it stands now, if a student decides to work in a different state, their free tuition scholarship will be converted to a loan that must be repaid. They will be punished for trying to better themselves.

What the provision does is further limit the number of students it will help, which is the exact opposite of its intent.

Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature should tweak the details of this groundbreaking plan to ensure it helps the most families possible and reverse its decision to bind students to New York after graduation.

The goal should be to give our students  our sons and daughters  every opportunity, not to hold them back.

CORRECTION

Inthe original editorial on the state's new free tution program, it was incorrectly stated that a student currently enrolled in a state school could not get the scholarship money when in fact students who are currently attending college are eligible to receive an award, provided they are currently on track to complete their degree on time.
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It may have never occurred to the people of Kafraya and Foa towns that death ghost was lurking on their long journey to safety.

They had been waiting over 24 hours in their buses without food or water, waiting for a glimpse of hope to get them to safety in Aleppo city after a deal concluded between the government and the rebels for their evacuation from their towns in the countryside of Idlib province.

The evacuation is in exchange of the same move of rebels and their families to evacuate from the towns of Zabadani and Madaya near Damascus.

While efforts for their transportation was being exerted, a suicide car bomber detonated his truck, which was packed with food and explosives, in the gathering point of the buses carrying 5,000 people from the two Shiite towns, killing 70 and wounding 124 others.

Some activists placed the death toll at 112.

The photos of some bodies hanging out from bus windows and others laid on ground near the vehicles haunted Syria as well as the world.

The so-called Jaish al-Islam claimed responsibility for the attack against the Shiite evacuees, who were stuck in the rebel-held area of Rashideen west of Aleppo waiting for their transportation toward government-controlled areas in Aleppo city.

At first, fear rose about the possibility of continuing the deal, which was brokered by Iran, on the side of the government, and Qatar and Turkey on the rebels' side.

While the buses of the Shiites from Kafraya and Foa were waiting in Rashideen, buses of the rebels and their families from Madaya and Zabadani were waiting at the government-controlled Ramouseh crossing south of Aleppo, with the hope of continuing their way toward rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The evacuation from the four towns began on Friday, but the rebels in Rashideen held the buses from Kafraya and Foa, making extra demands, which delayed the process.

But after the deadly bombing, they apparently succumbed to the pressure of their regional backers and allowed the buses to proceed to the government-controlled Aleppo city.

After the blast, anger hit high among the people of the two Shiite towns, with some threatening retribution, which caused the government forces to secure the buses of Madaya in Ramouseh.

During the night, all the buses carrying 5,000 people from the Shiite towns arrived in Aleppo, and the buses carrying 2,300 rebels and their families from Madaya reached Rashideen and will move later to the rebel-held Idlib province.

Jaish al-Islam, which is largely based in the countryside of Damascus, was seemingly against the deal, as it saw a demographic cleansing behind it, particularly that Madaya and Zabadani will be largely emptied, save for the people who want to live under the government control.

Now, the first part of the deal was implemented, through a prisoner swap that began on Wednesday and the evacuation that started on Friday and ended on Saturday.

Still, around 3,000 people are still in the Shiite towns waiting their turn in evacuation. Once they are out, both towns will be completely emptied of their population, and the rebels will take over, after besieging the towns for years.

The same with Madaya and Zabadani, as the army entered Madaya on Friday following the evacuation of the first batch of rebels and their families.

The next step of evacuation will be in Zadabani, where 500 rebel commanders and civilians are set to leave next.

Still, it's not clear when the second batch will leave the four towns, particularly after the explosion.

Earlier, an eyewitness from those waiting in Rashideen told Xinhua that three people died while waiting due to poor medical conditions, before the explosion.

He added that the three dead are all women, who gave birth inside the buses in tough situation as those people had been waiting there for 24 hours without enough food or water.
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Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on Saturday accused the right-wing opposition of trying to foment a Venezuelan-style "state of upheaval" through baseless claims of electoral fraud.

"Part of their strategy is to take us towards a state of upheaval similar to the one in Venezuela, to prevent governability. They are desperate," Correa said in his regular weekly report.

An April 2 runoff saw the ruling PAIS Alliance candidate, Lenin Moreno, defeat opposition rival Guillermo Lasso, of the Creating Opportunities-led coalition Creo Suma.

Lasso, a life-long banker who lost his second run for top office, is contesting the outcome. He indicated even before the election he would not accept defeat, and declared victory on election night based on an exit poll.

He has cried electoral foul and called on his supporters to go out into the streets and protest the results.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) has agreed to a partial recount, to take place on Tuesday, and has invited universities, unions, embassies, and political organizations and parties to accompany the process, which is to be broadcast live nationwide.

"We hope to have delegates of the PAIS movement and the Creo Suma coalition" there to observe the recounting, CNE President Juan Pablo Pozo said on Saturday.

Lasso planned to boycott, saying "we will not accept anything less than the opening of all of the ballot boxes to recount all of the votes, that is why we will not endorse any partial opening of the ballots with our presence."

A bitter power struggle between the ruling socialist party in Venezuela and the right-wing opposition has created an economic and political crisis marked by frequent street protests that have occasionally turned violent, shortages of basic goods and a highly divisive society.

"I don't want to frighten (anyone), but recall what has happened in Venezuela through the same right-wing strategy. They want to do the same thing to us here, to discredit the results," said Correa.

"We are faced with ... the capricious whim of an uppity rich boy who wants to buy the presidency of the republic. We will not allow him to destabilize the country in order to do that," said Correa.
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At least 70 people were killed and 128 others wounded in a blast Saturday targeting the transit point for Syrian evacuees in northern towns. (Xinhua Photo)

At least 70 were killed and 128 others wounded in a blast Saturday targeting the gathering point of buses transporting Shiites evacuating from two pro-government towns in northern Syria, a well-informed source told Xinhua.

The blast, carried out by a suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped potato truck, rocked the rebel-held Rashideen area in the countryside of Aleppo province, where buses carrying 5,000 pro-government Shiite people were waiting the reactivation of a deal designed to secure their transportation to government-controlled area in Aleppo.

The deal, recently reached between the rebels and the government under the supervision of Iran, Turkey and Qatar, was designed to secure the evacuation of the people from the pro-government Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa in Idlib province toward government areas in Aleppo province.

In return, the government will allow rebels and their families to leave the rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani in northern Damascus to reach Idlib province.

The evacuation started on Friday, with 5,000 Shiite people leaving Kafaraya and Foa and 2,300 rebels and their families leaving the town of Madaya as first batches.

The Shiite people reached the rebel-held town of Rashideen, while the rebels reached the government-controlled Ramouseh crossing in Aleppo.

Both convoys were set to leave to their respective destinations, before the rebels in Rashideen held the convoy of the Shiite people, adding new demands to the original deal.

The rebel convoy was also stuck at Ramouseh, amid reports that communications were underway to continue the implementation of the deal.

A source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that the rebels' new demand was the evacuation of the Shiite fighters first from Kafraya and Foa, before the civilians.

But the demand was rejected as there is a fear that if the Shiite fighters, who are defending the towns, left the towns first the rebels could attack the towns and commit massacres there.

Now, there is a state of extreme dismay among the evacuees from Kafraya and Foa.

An eye witness from those waiting in Rashideen told Xinhua that three people with medical conditions died while waiting, before the explosion.

He added that three women gave birth inside the busses amid tough humanitarian situation as those people have been waiting there for 24 hours without enough food or water.
While North Korea is expected to carry out another provocative nuclear test on Saturday  the 105th anniversary of the birth of the regime's founder, Kim Il Sung  threats and provocations from the Kim regime have become common.

But the cooperation seen lately between the world's two greatest powers to contain Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions is new.

"Currently, with the cooperation of 'somebody,' the US is planning to collapse our system, the action that is such a naive and foolish delusion," a North Korean think tank said, according to NK News.

That reference to "somebody" appears to be a swipe at China, which recently rejected coal shipments from the Hermit Kingdom, thereby hamstringing the North Korean economy. Additionally, Air China announced on Friday it would suspend its only direct flights to North Korea, according to the South China Morning Post.

While China has signed on to every UN resolution against North Korea since 2006, it remains North Korea's biggest economic and political backer.

But since US President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week and threatened trade retaliation against China should it fail to cooperate on denuclearizing North Korea, the Chinese have signaled a new willingness to act.

Trump said at a press conference on Wednesday that he told his Chinese counterpart: "The way you're gonna make a good trade deal is to help us with North Korea. Otherwise, we're just going to go it alone."

Meanwhile, despite reports that the US and North Korea are at the brink of all-out war, Gui Rui, the director of Jilin University's Institute of Northeast Asian Studies, told The Associated Press that war wasn't likely.

Instead, he said that should Pyongyang carry out its test, the regime could expect harsher rebukes from Beijing, which could single-handedly hobble North Korea by restricting its energy trade, thereby accomplishing what decades of UN sanctions have failed to do: destabilize the Kim regime.
The White House has been consumed by increasingly visible drama between warring camps led by Trump's more moderate son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, an anti-Wall Street economic nationalist.

Cohn is reportedly working to cut through Washington drama and politics to enact his agenda of reforming the tax code, crafting an infrastructure plan, cutting financial regulations, and renegotiating international trade agreements.

He has hired about two dozen policy experts to help him develop these plans, according to The Post.

"Cohn might be a newbie to policy and Washington, but you have to give him credit for one thing," Gene Sperling, the director of the NEC under President Barack Obama, told The Post. "While others seemed engaged in ideological and 'House of Cards'-like staff warfare, he quietly and quickly focused on the first rule of governing: He hired some competent, professional staff at the NEC, and it has paid off for him."

Cohn, who received a $285 million payout when he left Goldman to advise Trump on domestic and global economic policy in January, may have moved to Washington, but he's maintaining his ties to Wall Street. He recently had drinks at the Four Seasons with Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, according to The Post.

Kushner, Cohn, and Dina Powell, a former Goldman colleague, appear to be behind Trump's recent shifts toward a more moderate economic agenda.

Over the past week, Trump has retracted his criticism of Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen; said he would not, as he had promised, label China a currency manipulator; and announced his support for government subsidies for exports.
For Ghanaians and all the people who made it to the Accra International Conference Centre on Easter Saturday as part of remembering Christs death, it was a different kind of pain in the ribs.

Pain from too much laughing and happiness. Not that they could help it as performer by performer and even attendees wowed the audience with too much laughter than their ribs could handle.

The Easter Comedy Show that was graced by former First Lady of the land Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings did not start on time as scheduled for 8:00 pm on Saturday night.

However, one of a perfect comedy shows strength is its ability to read the audience and adapt quickly and boy did MC on the night and Ghanaian comedian Khemikal adapt quickly.

Khemikal reacted to the audience complain that it wasnt normal to be late by cracking a joke themed on why Ghanaians cant be suicide bombers because of their poor time management. The complaints quickly escalated to pure moments of happiness and rib cracking laughter.

But this was just the beginning.

Kofi Bentil showed the audience that old is still amazingly gold with a great performance as he paved way for Lekzy De Comik on the night.

Lekzy took a page from the former president of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahamas book to treat fans to an evidence-based comedy show inviting a few people to the stage in his funny display.

The Easter Comedy Show sandwiched a great musical mash-up display between Lekzy De Comik and Ghanas Queen of Comedy Heiress Jacintas performances.

When Jacinta took to the stage, ladies in the room could not help but cheer her on with shouts and applause all around. The gentlemen had no option that to join the jeers throughout Jacintas performances as people gasped for air for laughing too much than they had estimated.

Then it was time for Nigeria who still has a huge role in African stand-up comedy. Maybe its the way they talk or how they have absolutely no fear to take a dig at their own, whichever way, Nigerian stand-up comedian Acapella was just too good on the night.

Comedy is a creative art and Acapella was damn too creative for someone who had brought a list on stage so as not to forget his jokes. The really creative part was how he got the audience to make him check his list without them even knowing it was all a plan. His jokes, absolutely rib cracking.

It was Easter and there had to be some form of pastoral ministration. And there was! Pastor Alewa (so the audience made it known), however, was not in the mood to minister on the death of Christ.

Ofori Amponsahs entry was epic for the romantic he tried to achieve (and did in grand style) on stage with a red and white outfit. The Ghanaian musician practically got everyone standing and singing to his tunes. Except the very few who just loosened a few hinges of their seats with not being able to sit still as Pastor Alewa did his thing. Ofori Amponsah singing one of Sarkodies rap lines in his song, epic!

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DKB mounted the stage to make jokes on current affairs concerning a TV3 presenter saying the VAGIMA instead of VGMA and Delta Force saga.

People in the auditorium who werent that enthused at the point came back to life when Becca ignited the place with her spectacular vocal fortitude. The Ghanaians dance moves with her dancers on the night was one to behold.

Beccas performance was an introduction for the final act on the night and Ugandas funniest man alive, Salvador.

Looking at Salvadors face will make you laugh your somewhere out!

The Ugandan entered with a few cheers as he politely greeted the audience.

Salvador told the audience that, where he comes from, people go crazy for him whenever he appears on stage. So for the constituency, he was gonna go backstage and make Khemikal who was MC on the night reintroduce him.

He did get the loud cheers for his second coming but you just had to be there to know how funny he made the whole thing. Typical comedian.

Using his family life and ugly face, Salvador made jokes that showed he was a true Lord of the Ribs. Saving the best for last could not have a better meaning that that.

But there was a cliffhanger. Salvador started to make a joke about men of God when a mic fell to create a big boom sound in the auditorium. With the sound coming from behind the Ugandan comedian, it caught him by surprise as he jumped with a scare on his face. One could see that wasnt planned. Everybody in the room saw it caught Salvador unawares.

So he hilariously thanked Ghana for worshiping God in truth and in spirit and said his goodbyes, promising to say the joke next time he visits.
Both are members of the Ogun State Vigilance Group and were tried for committing murder in the course of performing their duties.

Justice Olatokunbo Olopade said the men were found guilty of killing the duo of Raji Morufu and Akeem Usman.

He noted that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubts by the evidence adduced.

With all the evidence tendered in court during trial, I found out that the two accused persons killed the deceased while they were performing their duties and they could not provide any of the robbers they claimed shot the men on their arrival at the scene.

I do not find it as an accident or mistake and so the court found them guilty as charged; I hereby sentenced the accused persons to six years imprisonment with hard labour, Olopade said.

The offences contravened Sections 317 and 308 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ogun 2006.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the convicts, who had been standing trial since April 27,2015, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The prosecution said the vigilantes shot and killed the two men at about 4, 30 a,m, on July 7, 2013 at Oniyorin, off Quarry Road in Abeokuta.

The convict were said to have received a distress call from one Mrs Lawanson who live in the neighborhood that robbers had invaded her compound.

During investigation. the two accused persons had made confessional statements that they shot one Raji Morufu, and Akeem Usman mistakenly when one of them was trying to struggle with them."

Earlier, the defence counsel, Mr J.A. Apanishele, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing them.
Sadly, she did not last much longer.

Phalatse died at the Dr. George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa, South Africa on Wednesday, April 12.

She was one of two ladies suffering from the birth condition in South Africa.

Progeria which is a rare genetic condition that causes the body to age at a rapid rate has left Phalatse looking a hundred years old.

She was diagnosed with the condition back in 2009 with doctors saying that she would not live beyond age 13.

Phalatse not only lived a longer life but a full life considering her bubbly disposition in the face of a very hard life.

She marked her 18th birthday with a meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma on Saturday, March 25, 2017.

During her meet with President Zuma, she joked: I call myself a first lady because Im the first black child with this disease. Which other black child do you know with this disease?

She was well known for her daring bubbly and infectious nature.
He said: Some words will be repeated all over the world by religious leaders, politicians, friends and family  new beginning, renewal, fresh start, etc. Some nations will be asked to give peace a chance. People will be asked to give a little to feed the poor. In Kwahu, some people will just want to give fun another chance, and will try very hard to play hard all in the name of Easter.

But the people are tired of listening to and reading about hope when we face senseless deaths on our roads, in our hospitals and homes; when politically clothed groups act with impunity; and when our farms and rivers are destroyed. All we need are a few doers to right our wrongs, fix our problems and lead us to the light of the new dawn.

Ndoums message follows president Nana Akufo-Addos Easter address to the nation in which he vowed to deal with the perpetrators of the Kumasi Circuit Court raid.

He said crime has no political colour, saying political lawlessness will not be allowed to spread under his watch.

Former president John Mahama, on his part, asked Ghanaians to renew their strength with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We have seen a huge number of withdrawals from some of the illegal miners. In the Western Region, about 75 excavators have so far been captured, and these things have been going on all over the country, he told Accra-based Citi FM.

He added: We are still sending signals to people that it is not right, and they need to mine in a more sustainable way for the environment and that is what we have been doing so far.

Vote threat bluff

Mr Awewus deputy, Owusu Bio, has called the bluff of galamseyers who have threatened to vote out the Akufo-Addo government if it is bent on ending galamsey.

Responding to the threat, Bio said: If collapsing galamsey will make you vote us out of power,that is fine. We know there are well-meaning Ghanaians who will support us in this cause because we are doing this to save our future generations.
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In a furious response to multimedia, the parent company of Joy FM, Acting General Secretary of the NPP, John Baodu, described the statement as "unsavoury" and unfortunate, demanding an apology from the station and the host.

In a statement, Boadu said Boakye and Twum are members of the NPP's national communications team and are therefore qualified to represent the party on the show.

The party demands an immediate and an unqualified apology from Multimedia and from Samson Anyenini, the statement said.
We are working very hard to come up with a policy within which we can find a long-lasting solution to the galamsey problem, he said.

The president made the comment in response to an appeal by Nana Effa Opinamang III for the government to deal with illegal miners.

Speaking in Twi, the chief said: Galamsey is destroying our lands and water bodies. You made a promise to solve all, our president when we vote you to into power.

Now that you are president please ensure that you solve this problem for us in order to save the lands for current and future generations.

Nana Effa Opinamang III also lamented about the activities of Fulani herdsmen, urging the president to come up with policies to guide cattle rearing in the country in order to save farms.
Honestly, if I look at all the names coming up, I still dont see any of them more competitive. Spio Garbrah, Goosie Tanoh and my own friend from Dadekotopon, who says he is prepared to only defer to Joshua Alabi none of them is as competitive as John Mahama in my candid opinion, he told Samson Lardy Anyenini, host of Newsfile on Joy FM.

Asked if Joshua Alabi isnt a strong candidate to lead the NDC, he said: it would be unfair for me to comment but if you force me, none of them is as competitive as John Mahama in my candid opinion.

About 17 people are said to be interested in leading the party for the 2020 elections. Among the 17, the only person who has made his intentions know is Nii Amasah Namoale, former MP for Dadekpotopon.
He gave the hint when he was asked about his presidential ambition. Responding, he said: Wont you be happy if I contest.

But for me, if you even ask my teacher M.A Seidu he will tell you that my dream from childhood has been to become a president so people wont be surprised, but you will be happy to see me contest the presidency, the second deputy speaker of parliament said.

READ MORE: Nobody can stand against change - Alban Bagbin

The veteran National Democratic Congress legislator was the lead voice of the party in opposition during the Kufuor administration when he served as the minority leader.
He said: Were not going to leave the NPP today nor tomorrow, we love the party and well die for it. Weve all these while supported the NPP to ensure the party comes to power to enhance the living condition of Ghanaians and not for only our personal gains.

If we misbehaved and the President has condemned us and the law is taking its course, which saw us being remanded, that does not discourage us but teaches us a lesson to be law abiding, he said.

No one is downhearted, NPP is the only party we know and we remain committed to because its the party that will put the country back on the path to prosperity, after years of economic hardship under ex-President John Mahama.

Thirteen of the members are standing trial for allegedly assaulting the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator.

They also raided the Kumasi Circuit Court to free 13 of its members, drawing condemnation from Ghanaians and leading voices.
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In a series of tweets, Trump first responded to critics who have highlighted that following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he has reversed on his promise to declare China a currency manipulator.

During the 2016 campaign, the then-Republican presidential nominee often said that China was manipulating its currency to boost exports, a policy that cost American manufacturing jobs.

After wishing America a happy Easter, he blasted organizers of Saturday's Tax March. The nationwide protest urged Trump to release his tax returns, a presidential tradition he has declined to uphold.

Saturday's Tax March protest was organized by a network of left-leaning groups whose support and sponsorship was public on the march's website. Organizers reported that a total of 100,000 protesters participated in Tax March events across the US.

The march came as Democratic lawmakers renewed their calls for the president to release his tax returns.

In a video released Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren questioned whether Trump was attempting to hide mob ties or unsavory foreign business connections.

"Who really calls the shots over the man who now sits in the White House?" Warren asked. "He could clear this up just like that if he would make his taxes public."
To God be the glory, my wife Fatia Opeyemi Adufe Marshal did it again, @ Exactly 11:14pm at St Bernard Hospital in the City of Chicago, State of Illinois, delivered another baby Girl. Mother & child doing very well. Opeyemi a new record has been set by you. Thank you, God Almighty. K1 De ultimate, he was quoted to have texted.
The festival which had kicked off in the early hours of the day at 12pm, which had games and other fun activities set the tone for the music concert that was to follow on the night.

Breathtaking performances were dished out by Diplo, Davido, Burnaboy, Nneka, Falana, Simi, Reekado Banks, Dremo, Mayourkun, Wale Turner, Pryse, BOJ with SDC and Poe, Niniola, Fresh L of DRB Lasgidi, Ckay, Seyi Shay and lots more.

Hypeman Jimmie and Folu Storms were official hosts for the evening, while Mavins' DJ Altims and DJ Neptune provided the music.

Burna thrilled the crowd with his sheer energy and range of crowd favourite songs, as Davido came through with 'Dami duro' with fireworks all over rthe stage. The OBO performed his classics and his reigning song 'IF' to the joy of the fans.

Then American producer and DJ Diplo of Major Lazer drove the crowd wild with his mixes and was joined by group member Walshy Fire, both acts giving major respect and shout out to Nigerian music with their mixes.

A remix of Mr Eazi's 'Leg over', Tekno's 'Pana' among others was played to the audience leaving the crowd on a major high. Kenyan group Sauti Sol and Tanzania's Vanessa Mdee also made appearances on Diplo's set.
The accused  Benjamin Segun, 34; Kamoru Adeyemi, 40; Ajayi Oladele, 27; and Akanimodo Adekunle, 33  are facing a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing.

The Prosecutor, Sgt. Ihiehie Lucky told the court that the accused committed the offences on April 5 at New Motor Park, Ojota, Lagos.

He said the complainants  Mohammed Ali and Olawale Kupoliyi  reported the incident at Ogudu Police Station on April 6.

According to him, at about 11. 00 p.m. on April 5, the complainants (a trader and a driver) were returning home when the accused waylaid them.

They collected a sum of N175, 000 from Mohammed Ali and 3 phones, while from they robbed Olawale Kupoluyi of N50, 000.

They also collected an Infinix phone valued at N25, 000, a Techno phone vaued at N9, 000, a pair of jeans trousers and also collected the trousers he was wearing and left the scene in pants.

Ihiehie said the accused were arrested the following day by the Chairman of the motor park, who handed them over to the policemen on patrol.

The offences contravened Sections 166, 285 and 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).

The four men, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Magistrate, Mrs O.S. Amzat, granted the accused bail in the sum of N20, 000 each with two sureties each in like sum.
The pair made the shocking discovery while struggling to conceive and had visited a fertility clinic for help.

During the in vitro fertilization process the doctor discovered there were too many similarities in their DNA profiles.

Further investigations into the case revealed that the twins, separated at a young age after their biological parents died in a car accident.

They were separately adopted into different families without the foster parents knowing about the other's twin.

The couple are mostly devastated as sibling marrige is outlawed in their Southern state.

The doctor who attended to them told Mississippi Herald, They were attracted to each other due to their similarities. They felt they could really connect with each other. If only they had known the truth, it could have saved them so much pain later on.

For me, its a particularly unusual case because my job is all about helping couples conceive a child. This is the first time in my career that Ive been glad I havent succeeded in that regard.
According to the traditional ruler, the additional title holders will assist him in running the affairs of his domain.

He said the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari had saved the country from imminent collapse and disintegration due to insurgent activities and other challenges facing the nation.

He cautioned Nigerians against inflammatory comments, adding we need to be disciplined and very careful and considerate in our utterances.

Farouk said without peaceful co-existence and mutual understanding, Nigerias quest for development may not be feasible, stressing that peace was the bedrock of development.

He said the traditional institutions were solidly behind the reform agenda of the president, especially on the fight against insurgency, corruption and injustice.

Farouk enjoined his subjects to embrace agriculture as the only solution that would bail out the nation from recession as well as provide jobs for the people.

He urged his subjects to key into the Federal Governments Borrower Agricultural Programme, adding that it would promote food security and self-reliance.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the four appointed traditional title holders are: Alhaji Usman Ibrahim to serve as information officer to the emirate, Abdullahi Rabe as Santurakin Daura, Nasiru Abdullahi as Yakudiman Daura, and Sabiu Isa Cika Soron Daura.

He warned the new traditional title holders against injustice, exploitation and unfair treatment of their subjects, adding we would not hesitate to sanction whoever is found wanting.
The organization also called on the president to ensure legal backing for his governments whistle-blowing policy by vigorously pursuing the passing by the National Assembly of the Whistle-blower Bills.

Both Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and the National Intelligence Agency last week reportedly claimed ownership of the cash, casting doubts on the real claimants.

In a statement today by SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni the organization said that, The governments increasing reliance on whistle-blowers tips to fight corruption has to be backed by some level of transparency and accountability in the real identities of those claiming recovered cash. Clearing the doubts surrounding the real identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul would demonstrate that the president values transparency over secrecy, provide further encouragement to blow the whistle on governmental corruption, and enhance the public right to know.

According to the organization, Democracy abhors secrecy, and for Nigerians to be able to hold elected leaders accountable, they must have access to information such as on the real identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul. This transparency is fundamental to the operation of the governments whistle-blower policy, and inextricably rooted in the notions of good governance and the rule of law under the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended).

The statement read in part: No good comes from secrecy in governance, as officials who have become accustomed to operating without accountability are loath to relinquish the power that comes from conducting their business without public scrutiny. When public authorities resist efforts to shine a light on their activities, it gives the impression that there is something to hide. Its counter-productive to overstate national security based secrecy needs, as secrecy encourages poorly informed and under-vetted decision-making.

Public scrutiny is a prerequisite for changing harmful, entrenched practices. Rather than operating the whistle-blowers policy as hidden, mysterious mechanism at the far edge of democracy, this government should make the operation of policy more transparent and accessible to the public. Both transparency and accountability are necessary to uphold the rights of victims of corruption and ensure that suspected perpetrators are held to account. The sky will not fall if the true identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul are revealed.

Its clear that as the EFCC continues to uncover more suspected looted or ill-gotten cash, those blowing the whistle will need greater level of protection. But without outlawing retaliation and attacks against whistle-blowers, and taking a firm stance on protecting them, the incentive of bounty rewards would be negated, as potential whistle-blowers may be discouraged from performing invaluable public interest service.

It shouldnt be the case that the government knows the risks of whistle-blowing and yet fails to provide the needed legal protection against retaliation and attacks, regardless of whether whistle-blowers are entitled to bounties.

The policy of giving whistle-blowers some percentage of recovered loot would seem to be a game changer in the fight against corruption but this government now has to squarely address the significant risks that those who blow the whistle face by urgently working with the National Assembly to ensure the necessary legal backing that would ensure protection against reprisals and attacks.

The government should ensure that the National Assembly expedites the process of passing the Whistle-Blower Bill, as ensuring that the bill is passed without further delay would recognize the necessity of whistleblowers and the value they add to the anti-corruption fight by reporting otherwise unknown corruption-related information. It would also ensure that whistle-blowers are fully protected from any retaliation and attacks they may experience, and that the government fully appreciates the information they provide.

ALSO READ: Wizkid reacts to money EFCC found in Ikoyi apartment

Continuing delay in the passing of the Whistle-Blower Bill would have a chilling effect on potential whistleblowers and hinder the public's ability to learn about the kind of cash haul found in Ikoyi and elsewhere across the country. Its also contrary to Article 33 of the UN Convention on Corruption, which Nigeria has ratified. The convention obligates the government to put in place appropriate measures to provide protection against any unjustified treatment for any person who reports in good faith and on reasonable grounds to the competent authorities any facts concerning offences established in accordance with the convention."
In a statement signed by his special adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Turaki Hassan, Dogara, he urged Christians and Nigerians in general to imbibe the lessons of the resurrection as living evidence that every challenge, including even death, can be overcome through abiding faith in God and dogged determination, noting that this should serve as a springboard to rise above the challenges they are currently faced with.

"As we remember the crucifixion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we should draw a lesson from his resurrection and rise above the challenges we currently face in this country.

"Even in recession, which the present administration is working hard to exit, there are many business opportunities for providing services and goods that will increase our gross domestic product, improve our economy and empower more of our citizens.

"We must put on our thinking caps, ginger our acclaimed spirit of innovation, rise above our challenges and get our country working.

"On our part, the House of Representatives will continue to collaborate with the Executive by providing legislative backing to policies and programmes aimed at improving the living standard of Nigerians," the Speaker promised. "
Fayose said that the development is a cover up by the government, adding that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is not fighting corruption.

The Governor also said that the discovery of funds in the Ikoyi apartment has rubbished President Buharis corruption war.

According to Daily Post, Fayose said Yesterday, it was made public that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) claimed ownership of the $43,449,947, 27,800 and N23, 218,000 seized on Wednesday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from Osborne Towers, a luxury residential complex in Ikoyi, Lagos.

This, to my mind is one cover-up too many and this federal government seeming plot to protect the original owner of both the money and the apartment where it was found has further shown that the anti-corruption fight is political, selective and therefore a ruse.

Nigerians should recall that I have consistently maintained that the APC-led federal government was not fighting any corruption. Rather, the government is using the anti-corruption fight as a major political tool to cripple opposition and turn the country to a one party state.

Therefore, for once, the federal government should operate with the mind-set that Nigerians are no fools. They are capable of asking questions and they are already doing that.

Some of the questions being asked are: who is the owner of the apartment in which the money was found? does the apartment also belong to the NIA? if the apartment belong to the NIA, when was it bought and from whom,? if the apartment does not belong to the NIA, from whom and when was it rented?

How could a whistle-blower be aware of movement of money into one out of many apartments in a building without knowing the owner of the apartment? if truly the NIA was carrying out a covert operation as claimed, was President Muhammadu Buhari not briefed of the so-called covert operation when he took over power?

Was the National Security Adviser (NSA), whose office controls all intelligence agencies, including the EFCC and DSS not aware of the covert operation? was there any security presence at the vicinity of the apartment to suggest that it was being used as warehouse for over N13 billion cash belonging to the NIA?

Does NIA need an unprotected apartment to keep such huge sum of money purportedly meant for covert operation? how much was released for the so-called covert operation? how much has been spent and to who was account rendered up to date?

As for me, the script being acted on this discovered cash is a cover-up that will mar the EFCC and the federal government. It is a movie well scripted for some alawada (comedians) but acted so badly.

It is case of a dog that has been eating other peoples children to the admiration of its owner suddenly attacking the beloved son of the owners friend and they are now trying to cover-up the dog owner.

It is a major test of the integrity of the APC federal governments so-called anti-corruption fight, and the earlier the proponents of the cover-up plot come back to their normal senses and tell Nigerians who owns the apartment in which the money was found, the better for them.

In the last few weeks, we have been served with dramas of recovery of funds by the EFCC.

N49 million in cash was said to have been found in Kaduna Airport and was promptly arrested by EFCC officials. But up till now, Nigerians have not been told the identities of those who brought the five sacks in which the cash was found into the airport despite the presence of CCTV cameras at the airport.

EFCC also fed Nigerians with tales of recovery of N448,850,000 (Four hundred and forty eight million, eight hundred and fifty thousand naira) cash from a shop at LEGICO Shopping Plaza, Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos. We were told that the shop had not been opened for two years and one wonders how the cash got into the shop.

Up till today, EFCC is yet to tell Nigerians the identity of the owner of the shop and Nigerians are asking whether or not the Legico Shopping Plaza, Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos, is not owned by anyone and the owner of the Plaza wont be able to identify his or her tenant.

As for this latest drama, which has boomeranged, even though we know that the APC-led federal government has the capacity to sweep it under the carpet like many others before it, Nigerians will have it on record that they are being ruled by a government of the more you look, the less you see.
Mohammed assured in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Mr Segun Adeyemi, that all the recovered looted funds were safe and government will give full account to Nigerians.

The minister thanked Nigerians for their enthusiasm and commitment in helping the government to tackle corruption through disclosure of useful leads to appropriate government agencies.

Since we launched the whistle blower policy, we have received immeasurable support from Nigerians.

Yes, there is monetary reward for any information that leads to recovery of looted funds, but from what we have seen, most of the Nigerians who have come forward with useful leads were driven by patriotism rather than reward.

Nigerians, fired by a fervid resolve to help banish corruption from their country, have daily inundated the offices of the appropriate government agencies with valuable information.

We have been told how looters have resorted to burying stolen funds in their backyards, in deep forests and even in burial grounds.

Thanks to whistle-blowers, it is now clear that a rapacious few have pillaged the nations wealth through a vicious orgy of corruptpractices, he said.

The minister, however, noted that more funds were in the possession of looters than were available to government at all levels to meets its obligations including paying workers salaries and providing social amenities.

He stressed that the government will not abandon the policy for whatever reason, but will continue to rejig it and make it more effective as a tool for fighting corruption.

The minister assured that as soon as the necessary reconciliation process and the litigation in some of the cases were concluded, government would give full account of the recovered looted funds to Nigerians
Adoke, who spoke through his media aide, Victor Akhidenor said he acted on the orders of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to Daily Post, Adoke also issued a statement alleging that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is planning to raid his home in Okene, Kogi state.

The statement reads: We have been reliably informed of a plan by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to raid the Okene, Kogi country home of Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), the former minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation.

We gathered that the swoop on the country home of the former attorney-general and minister of justice will happen any moment from now as part of EFCCs sustained campaign to soil the good name of Mr Adoke in the guise of seeking evidence to indict him.

After turning up with nothing in Kano, now the EFCC wants to conduct another dramatic campaign in Okene for the cameras, and we are certain that like the previous raids which turned up nothing, no incriminating document or item would be found in the premises in Okene or anywhere else for that matter because no such document exist.

Mr Adoke has made it clear times without number that on the Malabu matter, he only acted as directed by the former president, H.E Goodluck Jonathan, and in the best interest of the country. He did not enrich himself or anyone through the course of the transaction, which had been concluded long before he assumed office. He completed his brief to the best of his abilities and knowledge, and has since moved on.

However, for whatever reasons, the EFCC appears to have a different opinion on the Malabu issue and has made the harassment of Mr Adoke, his family and associates their past time, without providing any proof of wrongdoing.

ALSO READ: 12 things you should know about the controversial Malabu deal

We wish to warn that Mr Adoke would no longer take this harassment of his family and serial invasions of his homes lying low and will now seek all legal means to enforce his rights, including asking for damages. He will also petition international human rights organisations, the UN and other international groups to intimate them of the wilful abuse of his rights by the EFCC.
According to The Nation Online, Buhari has also asked Malami to get an official brief from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

The NIA reportedly claimed ownership of the recovered funds, saying it was meant for a covert operation.

A source also revealed that the government is worried that comments made by Governors Ayo Fayose and Nyesom Wike of Ekiti and Rivers states respectively, might complicate the matter.

The source also said What many Nigerians do not know is that the President is a man of due process and he does not rush to judgment.

Although he got to know of EFCC operation in the media, the Director-General of NIA, Amb. Ayo Oke personally briefed him on Thursday morning at his residence in the presence of the AGF and a few others (names withheld).

At the session, the President raised some issues on staff houses and the cash which the NIA DG clarified. And on the spot, the President gave an order that the cash be kept in the Central Bank (CBN).

He also directed that the AGF should get official brief from NIA and EFCC. The Minister supervises EFCC and the President asked him to examine the circumstances surrounding the recovery and come up with a report.

Malami has received reports/ brief from the two agencies and will report back to the President before making an official declaration on the status of the money.

Reports also say the Director-General of NIA, Amb. Ayo Oke has briefed the President, Vice-President Osinbajo, the National Security Adviser, Gen. Babagana Monguno and the DSS boss, Alhaji Lawan Daura on the issue.

Another source told The Nation Online that The Buhari administration has nothing to hide at all. The AGF will soon speak on the status of the cash.

Some governors have taken advantage of constitutional immunity to make claims which have complicated the recovery by EFCC. But in his transparent manner, Buhari has directed that the nation must be fully briefed.

This process took a little long because NIA is involved. It is both a national and an international security agency and the government needs to be careful in handling any sensitive matter involving NIA. And for the NIA DG, he is well respected in the international community. He actually worked closely with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo as a desk officer at the Nigerian High Commission in the UK to recover Abacha loot.
According to Daily Post, Peterside also said that Wike has rubbished the achievements of the former Governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi.

The NIMASA DG alleged that Rivers state under Wike has recorded the highest number of assassinations in Nigeria.

He said While Wike can never come near the record of Amaechi, the current governor is doing everything to reverse the unmatchable records of his predecessor.

As at today, no one has seen copies of 2016 and 2017 budgets of Rivers State. Schools and health centres are shutting down with thousands of school age children out of school.

Rivers children on scholarship abroad have been withdrawn. The same governor has wasted Rivers money to host two failed conventions of a sinking PDP. His party chairman has accused him of using $6m to influence judicial officers.

Wike has the unenviable record of governing a state having the most state-linked killings in Rivers history. He rose to become the governor of Rivers State on the bloods of innocent people.

It is people like Wike who have made Nigerians to call to question the issue of immunity in the Constitution. He is taking immunity as shield to abuse the dignity of the office of Governor.

ALSO READ:Wike accuses FG of covering corruption

The governor can still retrace his steps and follow the path of dignity, decorum and respect the office he occupies for he holds it in trust on behalf of Rivers people.
Speaking with select journalists in Abuja, including , Frank noted that 'Oyegun has dragged the APC into deep crisis' since he became chairman of the party.

Today, practically I dont even think we have a party, Frank said.

The party today is in disarray, there is confusion. I think we are even more disorganised than the opposition.

I challenge anybody who will come out and say we are not disorganised; I have every proof to show that we are even more disorganised than the opposition.

Speaking on the recent cancellation of the APC national convention due to financial reasons, the APC spokesman said the party has become 'broke' due to the lack of trust for Oyegun, the national chairman.

Its very disappointing; if the chairman can come out and say we will have a convention in April; then suddenly he reversed himself with an embarrassing statement that we cannot have the convention because we have no money. This is very embarrassing for a ruling party.

There was no time when we were in PDP, PDP will come out and say such. A party with over 19 governors? A convention is a very important issue. If I was the national chairman, I would have resigned. A ruling party does not need to beg for money, all you need is to have a strong agenda.

During the time of Baba , he was acting chairman. That was my best time in the party. During that time, with less governors and no president, but we could come up to hold our convention. The party had money, we were paying salaries at that time, today we cannot pay salaries at the secretariat; even light bills we cannot pay.

Even with the crisis within the PDP, they can still pay light bill and renovate their building. The APC still cannot boast of a befitting secretariat. And you tell me all is well with the APC? No, lets not deceive ourselves, he said.

He warned that if Oyegun is not relieved of his position as the national chairman, the APC may become an opposition party in 2019.

Frank further called on President Muhammadu Buhari to deliver his 2015 campaign promises to Nigerians.

Until our party we get it right, we should not expect anything good in 2019. The votes of Nigerians will and must count in 2019 as it did in 2015. If the people voted us in, 2015; then they can equally vote us out, if they are not happy, he added.

Frank who was suspended in November 2016 over anti-party statements has described the event as a kangaroo suspension.
Peterside told a news conference in Port-Harcourt on Sunday that there was no disagreement in the APC in the state.

There is absolutely no disagreement in the APC. APC in Rivers state is united under the leadership of Mr Chibuike Amaechi.

 All of us in the party subscribe to his leadership and we have all agreed to subject ourselves to his leadership, he said.

Peterside, the party`s governorship candidate in the 2015 election in Rivers, said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) used propaganda to create an impression that there was disagreement in the APC.

What is going on is that the PDP has been churning out cheap, stale propaganda to paint a picture that there is division in the APC.

It is easy to sell the story that Magnus Abe, the Senator representing my Senatorial district has formed his own camp of the APC. I am in regular touch with Abe and I can say there is no such thing.

APC is one, united big family driven by the passion to offer Rivers people good governance, he said.

ALSO READ:Dakuku Peterside slams Gov Wike for claiming Ikoyi loot

Peterside said that the party was not talking about the governorship candidate for the 2019 election.
Mr Kwamkur Samuel, CAN Director of Legal and Public Affairs, said on Saturday that the crisis was resolved after interventions by the current leadership, top religious leaders and well-meaning Nigerians.

Samuel recalled that the election process that led to the emergence of the present President of CAN, Rev. Samson Ayokunle was full of challenges.

He said the challenges led to one of the aggrieved aspirants, Rev. Jeremiah Gado, the President, Evangelical Church for Winning All (ECWA) to file a lawsuit against the former leadership, Pastor Ayo Oritsajafor.

He said the matter, which was filed in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court since June 2016, had generated interest from Christian groups, governments and well-meaning Nigerians.

He affirmed that after rigorous battles in court, the parties involved in the case saw the need for an amicable resolution of the issues after several interventions.

According to him, the parties resolved and prepared an agreed terms built on the need for the unity of the church.

The agreement, which he said, finally put the matter to rest in April 2017, was filed in Kubwa High Court, Abuja.

He said that this new development had put CAN in a better position to speak for all Christians in the country.

CAN sincerely appreciates the individuals, Christian organisations and all those who created time to ensure that genuine reconciliation is attained.

With the ongoing efforts to ensure oneness in the body of Christ, it is better positioned to provide a stronger voice for the Christians and ensure the development of our nation, Samuel said.

The CAN chairman for the North Central, Rev Israel Akanji, who also played prominent roles in the peaceful resolution, confirmed the amicable settlement.

We thank God for the peaceful settlement of the matter out of court.

We are the people of God and being the light of the world and the salt of the earth, it is our responsibilities to reconcile the world back to God.
The music festival has just been concluded today, April 16th, at the Eko Atlantic, Victoria Island.

While many would go home with the memory of a night filled with lots of rain and some amazing music, we know a man that'll be going home with a sweeter, more romantic memory.

In a clip exclusive to Pulse, the unnamed man can be seen on his knees, a smiling excitedly as he slides the ring onto his girl's finger, the little crowd around them cheering him on.

ALSO READ: Agbani Darego shares photos from honeymoon

And after the ring was well placed on her finger, she pulled him up in an embrace before a kiss of acceptance followed to the absolute delight of the increasing crowd around them.

The organisers of the Gidi Fest couldnt possibly have foreseen this during their planning, but they surely wouldn't be complaining.
The Mediterranean resort island has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded the northern third in response to an Athens-inspired coup.

Successive peace efforts between its Greek- and Turkish-speaking communities have stumbled over issues including territory and security.

The current process, which saw talks resume in May 2015, is seen by analysts as the best hope for a lasting peace deal.

Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci have agreed to schedule four new meetings, in a new phase of talks, with the first beginning on April 20.

"In order to achieve a solution acceptable by the people, we must establish conditions that will allow us to live in a well-organised European state without any dysfunctions or open wounds," the Greek Cypriot leader said.

Much of the progress in recent talks was based on the strong personal rapport between Anastasiades and Akinci, leader of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The Turkish-held north is recognised only by Turkey.

But a row over Greek Cypriot schools marking the anniversary of an unofficial 1950 referendum supporting Enosis -- union with Greece -- has eroded trust.

And the leaders are still far apart on core issues such as power sharing, territorial adjustments and property rights.

Also in the mix are Greek Cypriot presidential elections year and the search for oil and gas, which Ankara wants to see stopped until peace talks have reached an outcome.
Zazueta had been locked up in February but escaped through the front gates of his jail on March 16 with four other detainees, including the son of another cartel chief associated with Guzman. The prison's head of security disappeared soon afterward.

Guzman, who twice escaped prison in Mexico, is being detained in the United States after being extradited in January.
The 10-day drill in Kathmandu, dubbed "Sagarmatha Friendship 2017" referring to the Nepali name for Mount Everest, will focus on counter-terrorism, according to Nepal's army.

"This is in line with our efforts to hold joint exercises with countries that have diplomatic relations with Nepal," military spokesman Jhankar Bahadur Kadayat told AFP.

The drills will likely be watched closely by India, which is often accused of playing "big brother" to its tiny neighbour.

Landlocked Nepal remains dependent on India for the majority of its imports, but the previous administration aggressively courted China as part of a nationalist drive to decrease the country's reliance on New Delhi.

"Nepal and China share a multi-faceted tie and a joint military exercise broadens that relationship," said Tanka Karki, former Nepali ambassador to China.

Last month China's defence minister Chang Wanquan visited Nepal -- the first by a Chinese defence minister in 15 years -- to discuss the joint military exercise.

The current Maoist-led government in Nepal has sought to repair strained ties with Delhi while continuing to accept cash from its powerful northern neighbour.

China has lavished grand infrastructure promises on Nepal, including recently pledging $8.3 billion in investment -- equivalent to nearly to 40 percent of its entire GDP.
But last month, one of Spain's top criminal courts found the 21-year-old guilty of "justifying terrorism" and humiliating its victims -- the latest in a series of such convictions for social media pranks that has the country divided, and partisans of free speech worried.

"They ruined my life," Vera tweeted about the 13 posts about the 1973 murder of Luis Carrero Blanco, the prime minister and heir-apparent of dictator Francisco Franco who was killed in an ETA bomb attack that sent his car hurtling into the air.

"ETA combined a policy against the use of official vehicles with a space programme," read one of her posts.

Another said: "Did Carrero Blanco also go back to the future with his car?"

Vera is unlikely to spend time behind bars, as offenders of non-violent crimes with a sentence of under two years do not serve time in jail.

But she now has a criminal record that will prevent her from getting a scholarship for her studies.

The National Court that sentenced her, which specialises in terrorism cases, ruled that her jokes did not form part of a "healthy humoristic environment" and that her attitude was "disrespectful" and "humiliating."

But Carrero Blanco's own granddaughter, Lucia, said in a letter sent to the El Pais daily that she was "scared of a society in which freedom of expression, however regrettable it may be, can lead to jail sentences."

'Cult of hate'

Luis Conde, a historian of comic books, told AFP he remembered more lenient times, even under Franco's dictatorship when people would sing a song that featured the lyrics "Carrero flew," in reference to the attack.

"And now, we can't say it anymore?" he asked.

But Consuelo Ordonez, head of the Covite association for victims of terrorism, said laughing at the expense of Carrero Blanco -- a man associated with Franco's iron-fist rule that ended after he died in 1975 -- was a big mistake.

"If we had been serious about that fact that nothing justifies violence, we wouldn't be talking about more than 800 ETA deaths," she told AFP, referring to the 829 people killed during the group's four-decade campaign for Basque independence.

"The cult of hate that always moved terrorists has not been defeated," she warned.

'Sensitive issue'

The number of court rulings involving alleged acts of "justifying terrorism" has risen from a dozen a year to 26 in 2015, 37 in 2016 and 12 for the first quarter of this year, according to judicial authorities.

Most of them are linked to organisations that are now inactive, such as ETA, which declared a permanent ceasefire in 2011.

In January, for instance, Spain's Supreme Court sentenced rocker Cesar Strawberry to a year in prison for tweets, including one that joked about the 1996-7 ETA kidnapping of a right-wing politician.

"Terrorism is the most sensitive issue," acknowledged Jose Luis Martin, a former editor at satirical weekly "El Jueves", in a country still reeling from decades of violence brought about by ETA and other extremist groups.

"It doesn't compare to criticism of the monarchy, the Church," he added, which the magazine targets on a regular basis.

Black humour 'therapeutic'

Ignacio Gonzalez Vega, spokesman for the "Judges for Democracy" professional association, pointed to a new 2015 anti-jihadist legislation as a possible explanation.

Among other things, the law provides for tougher sentences for "justifying terrorism" online.

But "in a democratic society, there are genres such as comedy, black humour" that should be exempt, he said, calling for the law to be modified.

Martin said black humour often played a "therapeutic role," which he believed Spain still needs as it tries to heal the wounds of its bloody 1936-9 civil war and ensuing dictatorship.

For his part, Cesar Strawberry chose to exorcise his conviction with a song.

"Inquisitor!" he sings to hard-rock music.
The 300-foot (91-metre) high dump came crashing down on neighbouring homes Friday as the country marked the traditional new year.

Military spokesman Brigadier Roshan Seneviratne said troops were keeping up a rescue operation 24 hours after disaster struck, but feared that chances of finding anyone alive were slim.

Businessman Saman Wimalasiri was one of the first responders and said he helped to rescue several people trapped inside wrecked homes.

"We used ropes and pulled out an elderly woman who was trapped under the debris of her own home," Wimalasiri told AFP. "It took us about four hours to get her to safety."

He said some areas could not be reached because the garbage slide had made them unstable.

The initial rescue was carried out by volunteers such as Wimalasiri before President Maithripala Sirisena ordered hundreds of troops to search for survivors through the night.

Police said 145 homes were destroyed.

'Moving mountain'

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is currently visiting Japan, said arrangements had been made to remove the garbage dump, but it came crashing down before relocation work could begin.

"Those who lost their homes and those who have to be relocated will be compensated," Wickremesinghe said in a statement. "we will deliver on our promise to remove the garbage dump."

Guttila Silva, a former mayor and local politician, said residents were angry that the Colombo Municipality had continued to dump hundreds of tonnes of garbage at the site daily, despite safety concerns.

About 800 tonnes of solid waste is added per day to the open dump.

"People are naturally angry because their protests were ignored," Silva said. " I fear the death toll could go up because more than a dozen are still missing."

Police said a total of 145 homes, mostly shacks, were destroyed when a side of the garbage mountain came crashing down on Friday following heavy rain the previous day and a fire hours earlier.

More than 600 people were given temporary shelter at a government-run school in the area as authorities looked for alternative accommodation for those living near the dump.

Many residents had evacuated their homes before the disaster because of the heavy rain.

"The casualties would have been much higher if most people had not left their homes earlier in the day," a disaster management official told reporters at the site.

Three homes in the area were destroyed in February last year following a minor garbage slide and the authorities had warned another 25 households to evacuate because of risks to them.

Sri Lanka's parliament was warned recently that the 23 million tonnes of garbage rotting at Kolonnawa was a serious health hazard.
The boats approach within a few metres (yards) of the Korean shore, giving residents of the world's second largest economy a view of their impoverished and sanctions-hit but nuclear-armed neighbour.

Further south, the border between North and South Korea is one of the world's most heavily fortified. But the atmosphere is a great deal more relaxed along the Yalu river, even though the North's ally China enforces a range of UN sanctions intended to curb its nuclear and missile programmes.

The sanctions have had a limited effect. After a huge military parade in Pyongyang on Saturday, the North Sunday defied international condemnation to test-fire another missile.

Tensions have been rising for weeks and the US has sent a naval strike group led by an aircraft carrier to the region. The North has reiterated it is ready for war with the US, and its army Friday vowed a "merciless" response to any provocation.

But the soldiers seen Sunday appeared notably relaxed -- whether sitting on a bicycle, immersed in their reading or puffing on a cigarette next to women busily washing clothes in the river.

It's a world away from the thousands of goose-stepping troops and missiles which packed Pyongyang's Kim Il-Sung Square Saturday to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of the nation's eponymous founder.

Unconcerned at the prospect of provoking an incident, one Chinese tourist uses a slingshot to shoot a stone into the river as the boat approaches Sinuiju, the North Korean frontier town linked to Dandong by the Friendship Bridge.

From a green wooden observation post, a North Korean soldier placidly watches the tourists through binoculars.

The river cruises are an important money-spinner in Dandong, where dozens of boats offer trips for a modest 70 yuan ($10).

The cruise vessels stop off at a boat where an enterprising trader sells North Korean products: eggs, cigarettes and alcohol.

In the wider world the tensions persist. Sunday's missile test was a failure, according to South Korea and the US military.
Here are five ways the referendum could shape Turkey:

Enhanced or weakened powers?

If he wins, Erdogan will enjoy enhanced powers, be able to appoint ministers and have an entire bureaucracy centralised within his presidential palace. Opponents worry that the new system will lack the "checks and balances" that mark the US system, moving the presidency toward one-man rule.

The new system would be implemented from November 2019 when presidential and legislative elections would be held simultaneously.

With the clock wound back under the new system Erdogan, who became president in 2014, could hold two more terms, allowing him to stay in power until 2029 rather than 2024 currently.

The executive presidency system "amasses unprecedented power in the hands of one man," said Alan Makovsky, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Erdogan in combative speeches has not countenanced the prospect of a 'No' vote and not given the slightest indication he would consider his future. But given the advantages of the 'Yes' campaign a 'No' would be a massive blow to his status as Turkey's all-powerful leader.

EU integration or disintegration?

Relations between Turkey, a longstanding candidate to join the European Union, and its EU partners plunged to bitter lows during the referendum campaign as the president lashed out at Europe for what he said was behaviour reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

Erdogan has said Turkey's membership bid would be "on the table" after the referendum and in every single campaign speech said he would sign any bill restoring capital punishment, a move that would automatically end its bid to join the bloc.

"The tactics of constantly bullying the EU... for domestic political purposes have now reached their limits," said Marc Pierini, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe.

In the event of an easy 'Yes' victory, Erdogan could have the confidence to take a decisive move away from EU integration and show Turkey can forge alternative strategic alliances, including with Russia.

One alternative to full membership could be a strengthened customs union, but it is unclear if that would be palatable for Erdogan.

Peace process or military action?

Erdogan was the first Turkish leader to undertake peace talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), resulting in an unprecedented ceasefire.

But the PKK truce shattered in 2015 and Erdogan has since waged a controversial campaign to destroy the group.

In the event of a 'Yes', it is not excluded that Erdogan could adopt a more reconciliatory attitude on the "Kurdish problem", even to the point of reopening dialogue.

jpegMpeg4-1280x720"In the case of a narrow 'Yes' win, he (the president) may feel compelled to be conciliatory," said Asli Aydintasbas, senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

"Turkey could return to the peace process."

The Yeni Safak daily has claimed that the government will open a new front with cross border operation against PKK camps in Sinjar, northern Iraq, in a new effort to destroy the group.

Reconciliation or polarisation?

Turkey's hugely diverse society has starkly polarised during Erdogan's tenure as prime minister and president since 2003. Erdogan has frequently demonised opponents, saying those who wanted to vote 'No' were playing into the hands of the PKK and US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed for the failed July 15 coup.

"He wins, but in the end half of the country is in love with him, and the other half loathes him, and herein lies the crisis of modern Turkey," said Soner Cagaptay, author of a forthcoming book, "The New Sultan."

While Erdogan has forged a coalition with nationalists, he has in the past showed considerable pragmatism in his alliances.

Economic rally or downturn?

Markets are cautiously expecting a 'Yes' and hoping this will bring much needed stability. A rally in Turkish assets is expected in the event of a 'Yes'.

jpegMpeg4-1280x720In the medium term the prospects are much more uncertain, with some economists fearing that any democratic deficits in Turkey and increased polarisation in society, coupled with the government's loss of its enthusiasm for reform, will hit long term growth rates.
A man convicted in the Davenport murder of a well-known Quad-City bartender during a robbery in 1983 will get one more shot to have his latest petition for post-conviction relief heard after the Iowa Court of Appeals kicked it back to Scott County District Court.

B. C. Basil Pendleton, 57, of Waterloo, and Daryl Louis Hollins, 58, of Davenport, each were convicted in separate trials for the murder of 56-year-old Carol Stinger during a robbery of the St. Louis House, a Davenport tavern.

Pendleton has filed for post-conviction relief at least three times. The first two times occurred in 1989 and 2002. Both of those petitions were denied and the decisions were upheld on appeal.

His latest petition for post-conviction relief was filed in September 2013. In that petition, Pendleton claimed he had an affidavit from a witness at his trial who claimed he was recanting his trial testimony because it was all a fabrication. Pendleton also claimed he had a second piece of evidence for his case, an unsigned affidavit in which one man recanted his 2003 testimony to police, although it was never offered at trial. In view of this alleged new evidence Pendleton wanted his conviction for murder overturned.

After a hearing on Oct. 23, 2014, Scott County District Judge Mary Howes summarily dismissed the petition for post-conviction relief at the States request saying that the second piece of evidence was immaterial since the man never testified at trial. She also said that while the first piece of evidence is material to the case, it is unlikely that it would overturn the jurys guilty verdict as there were other stronger witnesses in the case.

But according to the Iowa Court of Appeals, it does not appear that Pendleton got the chance to argue against the summary judgement. Also, the record of the hearing before the Court of Appeals was incomplete.

So even though the Court of Appeals said in its ruling that Howes could rule to dismiss the petition once again, it still goes back to District Court for another hearing, which has been set for Jan. 19, 2018.

The robbery and murder

At 12:45 a.m. August 18, 1983, Pendleton and Hollins, both then 24, walked into the St. Louis House, a tavern located at 402 W. 2nd St., Davenport.

Hollins, armed with a gun the two men had purchased that night at another tavern, planned to rob the St. Louis House, according to testimony from the case.

When the two walked in, they found Stinger, who was alone behind the bar and who had worked at the tavern for six months.

According to court testimony given by Tawana Harris, who at the time lived with Pendleton, Pendleton told her he was taking cash from the registers when he heard a shot and looked to find Hollins standing over Stingers body.

Frank Lingard, the owner of the tavern, was walking in an adjoining door and saw the two men running north on Ripley Street.

He found Stinger behind the bar, but didnt know shed been shot until, while calling police, he noticed a pool of blood forming on her clothes. Stinger, who had been a popular bartender in the Quad-Cities for 35 years, had been shot once in the chest. She was pronounced dead about 45 minutes later at Mercy Hospital.

According to testimony in Pendletons trial, Stinger was shot because she saw their faces during the robbery.

The men ran away with about $400 and two guns they found behind the counter.

Pendleton and Hollins were indicted on murder and robbery charges Jan. 31, 1984. Pendleton already was in the Scott County Jail at the time of the indictment and had testified during grand jury proceedings.

Hollins was captured in San Francisco and returned for trial.

Pendleton had a chance to serve a 25-year-prison sentence in the case as part of a plea agreement to plead guilty to first-degree robbery and testify against Hollins. Pendleton initially agreed, telling Scott County District Court Judge Margaret Briles that he was not armed during the robbery. He said as they left the bar he heard a shot and found out later that Hollins had shot Stinger.

But the next day, Pendleton changed his mind, according to court documents, as he was afraid he would be killed by a prison gang if he testified against Hollins, who allegedly was a member of the Almighty Unknown Vice Lords. That put fear into my heart, Pendleton told Judge Briles.

The St. Louis House had been around for 137 years at the time Stinger was killed. In its early years, it was a favorite stopping place for farmers who hauled produce in from the country in horse-drawn wagons and usually stayed in Davenport overnight before making the long, slow trip home.

Bill Davis who was the county attorney at the time the murder occurred, said that since the transcript of the hearing was not made part of the record of appeal, the court was lacking what Howes used in making her decision.

"I'm sure she did it right," Davis said of Howes.

The St. Louis House was torn down not long after the murder.

Both men were convicted and sentenced to a prison term of life without the possibility of parole.

Hollins currently is serving his time in the Clarinda Correctional Facility, according to Iowa Department of Corrections online records.

Pendleton is housed in the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.
The original plan was to meet for Free Pie Wednesday at the Village Inn on North Harrison Street in Davenport. But schedules didnt work out that way and so we found ourselves in a quiet booth of the Village Inn on a Thursday. I ordered pie anyway  blueberry.

But that wasnt the point of the meeting. Ken Sherman and I were there for another What They Dont Know About Us conversations and he had volunteered to tell me how a small-town Iowa childhood, a long career in and around the military and a happy retirement in the Quad-Cities shapes a mans worldview.

Sherman is a very political person these days. He checks the news on his phone, writes letters to the editor and walks four miles a day, partly to work off his frustration with how things are going in this country. He spent 30 years as a civilian working in logistics for the U.S. Army, half of those years at the Rock Island Arsenal. Thanks to the Hatch Act, Sherman couldnt be a political person during his working years. I didnt know I was a political person until Trump was elected and I became concerned. It hit me really hard. Sherman has never supported either party. He votes based on the candidate, he said.

Sherman served in the military at the tail end of the Vietnam War. He then moved to civilian roles within Department of Defense. He said his experience in the military made him an open minded person. You are more aware of the rest of the world, he said. It opens your eyes to all kinds of people and behaviors and cultures.

Part of what frustrates him about the politics of today is how insulated people are from anyone who is different from them, especially people of different classes.

People in this country dont know any poor people, he said. We dont socialize with them or talk to them at church. And that doesnt work out so good for the poor in the political process. We seem to have a political system now that is redirecting benefits for poor people to big business and the wealthy.

This is the Midwesterner in me, but I like to think were in this together and we need to be concerned about those around us.

Sherman grew up in Albernet, a town of almost 700 people north of Cedar Rapids. When Sherman was a child, there were closer to 300 people. The school he attended had all grades, K-12, in one building, and all around them in every direction were fields of corn, soybeans, oats and the sounds and smells of dairy and beef cows. There were 36 people in his senior class.

From the age I could, I was doing chores, he said. I fed livestock, picked corn, learned to drive a tractor. He didnt hate it, but he didnt love farming and when he got a chance to leave and explore the world, he took it. But I look back at the benefits to a kid to grow up that way.

Sherman was the first in his family to go to college, but when he left after two years to get his bearings, he was drafted and got his orders that he was headed to Vietnam. He remembers talking to his mom on the phone on Good Friday before Easter weekend. I couldnt get myself to tell them, he said. And he never had to tell them, because the next morning his orders were rescinded. It was 1971, the beginning of the Vietnam Drawdown. I was one of the last people to almost go. He ended up in Kansas as a military policeman instead. I have a little guilt because I didnt go, he said. So many went. It was the luck of the draw. I felt proud to support the effort.

Sherman finished his bachelors in Botany from Iowa State, graduating in 1975, but the economy was in a recession and jobs were hard to find. When he got an offer for $18,000 a year doing maintenance management of helicopters, tanks and weapons, his father told him to take it.

I have no regrets about that, he said about taking the job that launched his career. Sherman said that sentence a few times as we talked about the path his life took.

Growing up on a farm, he said, he was insulated. School was 10 miles away and they rarely saw their neighbors, except at church. I was not a frivolous child. I was serious. I was always looking for ways to try to grow myself. He read a lot. I read for learning. I stuck to serious topics, stretching toward being adultish.

In some ways, he took the same approach to his career. He was switftly and regularly promoted, moving his family five times before they returned to Iowa. And when he found himself living in Virginia, among the politics of Washington, D.C., he would watch others use the force of their personality and their connections to grease the wheels. We had an individual at the Pentagon who single-handedly provided the sparks when things needed to happen. He was savvy and knew the system. I wasnt naturally born to do that. I was more hands on, get the job done.

He moved back to Iowa in 1993 and chose to live in Blue Grass, where he continued to live after his retirement in 2008. I knew it was time to retire. I didnt have the memory I used to have. I wasnt at the top of my game anymore. You have to recognize that in yourself.

Almost ten years after retirement, he still dreams about meetings he was in where there was a problem to be solved.

When Sherman looks back on a long career, most of it during the Cold War, hes proud of playing a role in toppling the Berlin Wall. Hundreds of thousands of us were part of that, he said. If we hadnt done our job, we wouldnt have looked so strong. Through weapons systems and money budgeted through Congress, we outspent the Soviet Union in a meaningful way that they knew they wouldnt defeat us.
In 2016, Alpha Cigar Company launched a unique line of cigars known as Alpha Absinthe Infused. As the name indicates, this line is infused with a spirit known as absinthe. Absinthe is a highly alcoholic beverage that is distilled with herbs and botanicals. The name absinthe comes from Artemisia absinthium, the scientific name for its key ingredient, wormwood. Absinthe has garnered popularity in France. In particular, the Alpha Absinthe Infused line utilizes a French absinthe known as La Maison Fontaine. Alpha Cigar Company describes its cigar infusion process as a light infusion. The Absinthe Infused line consists of three blends  a Connecticut Shade, San Andres Maduro, and a San Andres Claro. Today we take a look at the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro in the Robusto. Overall I found this to be a unique infused cigar and enjoyable smoke.

The La Maison Fontaine absinthe is produced at the Les Fils dEmile Pernot distillery located in Pontarlier, France  a place considered the absinthe capital of the world. This absinthe uses 15 different herbs that are soaked into a neutral spirit before the distillation process begins. The Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro actually is infused with a chocolate absinthe. This is produced by mixing Creme de Cacao, a liquor produced from cocoa beans.

As mentioned, Alpha Cigar Company utilizes a light infusion process. In this process, only one leaf is re-humidified with the absinthe (while the remaining leaves are re-humified with water). In this case it is the binder that undergoes the infusion process. According to Alpha Cigar Company, the infusion process is done in a an off-site, specially designed misting room. There is no artificial flavoring or sugar is used anywhere in the cigar.

In addition to the Alpha Absinthe Infused line, there is a second line made by Alpha Cigar Company known as the Defuser. The Defuser is a non-infused (i.e. traditional) line that is also offered in the Connecticut, San Andres Maduro, and San Andres Claro options.

Without further ado, lets break down the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

In addition to San Andres Claro wrapper, there are Dominican and Nicaraguan tobaccos incorporated into the blend of the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro. The cigars are produced at the PDR Cigars factory located in Tamboril in the Dominican Republic.

Wrapper: San Andres Claro

Binder: Dominican Olor

Filler: Piloto Cubano, Nicaraguan Ligero

Country of Origin: Dominican Republic (PDR Cigars)

Vitolas Available

The three blends in the Alpha Absinthe Infused are each offered in the same four sizes and are each package in 24 count boxes.

Half Corona: 3 1/2 x 46

Robusto: 5 x 50

Box Press Belicoso: 6 1/2 x 52

Gordo: 6 x 60

Appearance

The Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto had a medium to dark brown color with a rosado tint to it. This was definitely a darker claro wrapper. I didnt find much in the way of oil on the wrapper of the cigars surface. I also found this wrapper to be somewhat bumpy. There were a few toothy visible veins and most of the wrapper seams visible.

The band is maroon colored with gold font. The center of the band contains the a pegasus-like logo with the text ALPHA in large font. This logo is surrounded by what I would term an urban-style sunburst like design. The lower part of the band has the text ABSINTHE INFUSED. The left side of the band has a @ symbol while the right side has the text HAND MADE surrounded in a circular logo. The remainder of the band has various gold designs.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As I typically do, I went with a straight cut to remove the cap of the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto. Once the cap was removed, I proceeded with the pre-light draw phase. The dry draw delivered a mix of leather and unsweetened cocoa. As I proceeded with the pre-light draw, I detected a very subtle liquor note. I did wonder whether the power of suggestion played into my taste perception, but I feel confident these are the flavors I derived. Overall I considered this to be a satisfactory pre-light draw. At this point, I was ready to light up the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto.

Flavor Profile

Right out of the gate, I picked up some semi-sweet cocoa notes on the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto. While it might sound like dessert, these cocoa notes still had a tobacco quality to them. Meanwhile in the background I picked up subtle notes of leather, liquor, and spice. At times the liquor had some sweetness while at other times it had a slight bitterness. The spice component was mostly cedar, but also had a little white pepper quality to it. Meanwhile on the retro-hale, there was a combination of cocoa and cedar.

During the second third, I found the liquor notes made their way into the forefront and alternated with the cocoa notes in intensity. Meanwhile the leather and spice component remained in the background.

Toward the end of the second third of the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto, I still found the cocoa and liquor notes alternate in intensity in the forefront. There was a slight increase in spice in the background and the leather note became more earthy. This flavor profile continued through the last third. As the cigar experience came to a close, the cigar remained flavorful right until the end. The resulting nub was firm to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

The burn of the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto maintained a straight burn path from start to finish. Along the way, there was a slight amount of curvature on the burn line, but this did not warrant more frequent touch-ups. The resulting ash was tight and firm with a near white color. The burn rate and burn temperature were both ideal.

The draw to the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto also scored nicely. I found this cigar had the right amount of resistance to it. This made the cigar a low maintenance cigar to puff on.

Strength and Body

While this isnt a cigar that hits you with a lot of infusion, it is also a cigar that is dialed back in terms of strength and body.

I found the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto to start out with mild strength. By the second third, the strength level moved into mild to medium territory where it remained for the duration of the smoking experience. Meanwhile I found this cigar started out mild to medium-bodied before progressing to medium. There was a slight increase in body for the remainder of the smoke, but overall I found the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto to remain medium until the end.

In terms of strength and body, I found the body to have the edge.

Final Thoughts

From a personal standpoint, I have been always open to smoking an infused cigar. Typically I usually am a little underwhelmed because the infused flavor tends to overpower the natural tobacco flavors  and it results in a more one dimensional smoke. With the Alpha Absinthe Infused Claro Robusto, I did not come up with that problem. The light infusion combined with the dialed back strength and body gave this cigar more complexity than I expected. Most importantly I think the flavors worked quite well on this cigar.

Overall this is a cigar I would recommend to any cigar enthusiast. Even for someone who doesnt smoke infused, its a cigar Id encourage them try. Overall I found this to be an enjoyable cigar. Its one I would smoke again  and its worthy of a box split.

Summary

Key Flavors: Cocoa, Liquor, Cedar, Leather, Earth

Burn: Excellent

Draw: Excellent

Complexity: Medium+

Strength: Mild (1st Third), Mild to Medium (Remainder)

Body: Mild to Medium (1st Third), M (2nd Third)

Finish: Very Good

Rating

Assessment: 3.5-Box Split

Score: 90

References

News: n/a

Price ~$8.00

Source: Alpha Cigar Company

Brand Reference: Alpha Cigar Company

Photo Credits: Cigar Coop

Alpha Cigar Company is a sponsor of Cigar Coop.
For two years, a political paralysis has had a grip on Illinois government. For two years, we have operated the state without a regular budget  the longest in American history. Unfortunately, even though we dont have a budget, the spending spree continues unabated. With no controls, spending is out-of-control. The state is on pace to spend 38 billion in the current fiscal year when we expect to collect $32 billion in revenue.

The budget proposals offered over the past two years have either been wildly out of balance or raised taxes first while doing little to restrain the growth of government. Tax and spend solutions have never worked for the long-term fiscal health of our state, nor contributed to sustainable economic growth and job creation.

The Taxpayer Bargain budget plan we unveiled April 4 would end the failure of what passes as business as usual in Springfield, because it would begin to put our fiscal house back in order. It took years of mismanagement to get into this crisis and it will take years to get out of it. We must begin now. We are approaching an insurmountable debt crisis, but there is hope if we act in a fiscally responsible manner from this point forward. Under the Taxpayer Bargain budget, for the first time in many years, Illinois will have a complete and constitutional budget, meaning spending is limited to the actual revenue collected. It requires reforms that make government more efficient and accountable, and creates guidelines to reduce the waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars. It does this with no tax increase and no new taxes.

The plan is very strong medicine for a very sick state. It forces the Legislature to make tough decisions between needs and wants. The Taxpayer Bargain requires lower spending, with 10 percent across-the-board cuts at state agencies and departments. It simply asks for a dime of savings for every dollar spent. Recognizing that there are priorities, primary and secondary education is protected, as is Medicaid for the most vulnerable, and pension payment obligations. The plan includes a hard, enforceable cap on spending. Part of the fiscal management under the Taxpayer Bargain includes borrowing $7 billion to begin to pay off old bills so we can eliminate $500 million in late payments and fees. Paying back the bonds (borrowed money) will be tied to the spending cap. If the Legislature ignores the cap and returns to its overspending abuses of the past, lawmakers lose their salaries for that fiscal year. On the other hand, any revenue collected that comes in above the cap, will go directly to priorities: Education  25 percent. Capital construction (roads and bridges)  25 percent. Pension debt payments  10 percent. Paying off old bills  40 percent.

A lot of input from both Republican and Democrat legislators was included in the Taxpayer Bargain. It also includes pending legislation sponsored by members of both parties. It is a compromise between political differences, but does not compromise or sellout common sense principles that Illinois government must live within its means just like Illinois families and businesses. If Illinois families cant afford to overspend year after year then state government cant afford it either. We know that making these cuts will be difficult and painful, but in order to restore Illinois fiscal health for today and for future generations we must act. The Taxpayer Bargain is the only budget proposal without punishing tax increases.

Weve been asked, Why make this effort when your plan wont have a chance of passing, especially in the House. The answer is simple: We are obligated, as elected members of the General Assembly, to do whats right, regardless of the political probabilities.

Remember the results the last time taxes were raised without reforms: People fled the state, prosperity and opportunity were diminished as jobs were lost and businesses closed or moved away. There is another way. Intrigued? We created a website www.taxpayerbargain.com where we are continually adding details of the Taxpayer Bargain. Our challenge is to save our state. The Taxpayer Bargain is how to do it without asking for one more dime from you. Contact your senator and representative and ask them to sign on as a sponsor to one of the 15 bills that are needed to deliver a no-tax-increase-balanced-budget to the governor.
For abortion advocates, a bill making its way through the Iowa Legislature has become more worrying.

The Senate this week once again is expected to debate Senate File 471, a bill that would ban almost all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but this time, the legislation also will include an amendment that would enact a 72-hour waiting period before any abortion and require physicians to perform an ultrasound as well as offer the woman the ability to listen to the heartbeat, a description of the baby and counseling.

The basic right to life should belong to every single human being, said Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, during debate of the bill earlier this month. It passed the House on a 55-42 vote. Unborn lives matter, thats why this legislation matters.

Eleven children on average are aborted every day in Iowa, he said, adding the legislation could prevent an estimated 51 abortions each year.

But Planned Parenthood of the Heartland argues the legislation puts an undue burden on women, forcing them to return to a health center unnecessarily.

In addition, the bill requires biased counseling that lacks scientific foundation and shames a woman making a deeply personal, private, safe and legal health decision, the womens health care organization said in a statement. (We) will continue to fight for womens rights to make their own health care decisions.

Twenty-seven other states already have enacted waiting periods, according to information from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health care policy and research organization, although Iowa joins only a handful of states that have extended that time frame to three days.

Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah require a 72-hour waiting period. Another 19 require 24 hours, and three require 48 hours.

Elizabeth Nash, senior state issue manager at the Guttmacher Institute, said the length of the waiting period does not necessarily have that much of an effect; nearly 90 percent of women have made up their minds before they go to get an abortion, according to a Guttmacher study. However, the waiting period itself adds logistical difficulties, she said.

Its not just the waiting period thats the issue here, she said. Its all the logistical factors of getting to the abortion clinic.

Waiting periods mean women now will have to make two trips to the clinic timed very close together, she said, and if the clinic performs abortions only on certain days of the week, the waiting period could push the procedure into the next week entirely.

Whats more, women now might have to take more time off work, coordinate twice the amount of transportation if they dont drive and pay for child care, she said. If the clinic they are traveling to is a good distance away, that adds even more barriers.

I think its also true that the burdens of an abortion restriction fall on women who are younger and poorer more than they do on older women who are more financially secure, Nash said. They dont have the same resources.

In Iowa, women 15 to 29 years old accounted for more than 3,000 of the 4,400 abortions performed in 2013, according to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, and more than 3,600 were unmarried. National data from Guttmacher estimates that nearly half the women who obtain abortions live below the federal poverty level.

This bill is going to reshape abortion access in the whole state, Nash said. It will fundamentally change how abortion is accessed in Iowa, and not for the better.
A critical need for mental health services in the Black Hills region became apparent after by two recent policy changes at Rapid City Regional Hospital.

As of Feb.1, the hospital announced it would no longer accept mentally ill patients not in need of acute medical treatment whenever the hospitals behavioral health center is full.

Instead, the hospital said it will call the Pennington County Sheriffs Office to take them into protective custody. Also, the hospitals behavioral health center no longer accepts individuals with autism, dementia or Alzheimers.

Western Resources for Independent Living, a nonprofit care center with three locations in western and central South Dakota, can help take some of the demand for mental health care by providing independence training services for the disabled and an adult day care for those with neuro-cognitive disorders.

When one service essentially disappears out of a community were just letting people know there are other services out there like ours that can assist them instead of putting (patients) in the hospital, said Western Resources executive director Chad Ratigan.

Western Resources has locations in Rapid City, Spearfish and Pierre.

The Rapid City, WRIL offices are at 405 E. Omaha St., Suite D, with the Adult Day Care center at 4110 Winfield St.

In Spearfish, WRILs independent living services are at 420 Oriole Drive, Suite 16, with the adult day care at 430 Oriole Drive, Suite C. Pierres WRIL center is at 633 E. Sioux Ave., Suite 6.

Along with adult day care, the centers specialists will serve as advocates for those needing help with social security programs and other bureaucratic issues and offer assistance with disability products and services and learning independent living skills, such as housekeeping chores.

The center also offers help with applications for Social Security programs along with information and referral services and peer support from other disabled people willing to share their experiences.

Help in finding suitable housing or in making modifications to existing homes along with mobility training, finding recreation opportunities and employment assistance.

Those eligible for the centers services must have a significant physical, mental, cognitive or sensory impairment and an inability to function in a family or community, or a limited ability to obtain, maintain or advance in a job.

Adult day care helps both victims of early- to-midstage Alzheimers Disease and dementia by providing a break for their primary caregivers.

Its a lot of respite for the caregiver, peace of mind knowing theyre in a safe and caring environment, Ratigan said. Thats what were here for is for that break.

The nonprofit center contracts with Medicaid and contracts with Veterans Adminisitration. Some insurance plans will also cover the centers services, he said.

The centers services also include recreational outings in the community, walks and fishing trips.

The center is serving about 30 clients and has openings. State per-square-foot standards for nursing homes limit capacity to about 80 patients. A more realistic patient number is between 50 and 55, Ratigan said.

We cant take care of everybody, but we do our best to take care of everybody that comes though our doors, he said.

More information is available at 605-718-1930 or by email at ils@wril.org.
Kim Oslund believes everyone should have a needle in their hands.

In a good way, she quickly adds.

Oslunds way involves needles for just about anything having to do with knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving, dyeing, or rug hooking at her newly moved and refocused shop called Slip-Knits at 2120 W. Main St. Suite 2, next to Strain Chiropractic.

Anybody with fiber issues can come here. We can fix them up, Oslund said.

Slip-Knits is the reincarnation of another shop called Framing, Fibers and High-End Curiosities, formerly located at 230 Main St., across from Black Hills Federal Credit Union.

Now Oslund is focusing more on yarns and framing and less on curiosities, like second-hand goods and collectibles. She hosts classes and what she calls yarn tastings where company representatives will come in and talk about new products.

Oslund said she sees customers of all ages at her shop, which is open six days a week.

Its quite an active group, she said.

See her Facebook page, email her at slipknitswest@gmail.com or call 605-430-5154 for more information.

Another Wal-Mart?

Rumors of another Wal-Mart Supercenter in the Rapid City area are apparently just that, rumors.

Reports circulating had a new Wal-Mart coming to northwest Rapid City, Black Hawk or Summerset as soon as next year, joining existing Supercenter locations on Lacrosse Street and off of Catron Boulevard.

However, numerous phone calls and emails this week to anyone who would know well in advance of a first shovel of dirt moved for any project this big revealed nothing to substantiate these reports.

And finally this from Wal-Mart senior director of communications Delia Garcia:

While we are always looking for opportunities to better serve our Rapid City customers, we dont have any new stores to announce, Garcia said in an email Tuesday.

We are proud to have served the community for over 26 years and look forward to continuing to serve area customers at the two existing Rapid City Walmart Supercenters, she said.

To Infinity and Beyond

However, there is development to announce in Summerset just off the westbound lane of Interstate 90, Exit 52.

Infinity Salon and Wellness Spa is moving to a new building being built by the owner of Infinity Diesel, located just across Infinity Drive.

Thats a lot of Infinity in one spot.

Salon owner Brian Hargens said the former owner of the salon is the wife of the owner of the diesel shop.

Hargens said the city of Summerset is taking over the salons former location at the corner of Leisure Lane and Sturgis Road.

We needed a place to move to and (the owner of Infinity Diesel) wanted to develop that area so hes building a building, and were going to rent from him," Hargens said.

The salon closed Saturday and will reopen in the new building, which went up in a hurry, on May 1.

Hargens said he plans to add more stylists and another massage therapist to take advantage of more space in the new building.

Well add a couple more stations, and we can expand some of our services, make extra rooms instead of having everything in one room, he said.

There is a second building also going up quickly farther along Infinity Drive, but I wasnt able to confirm what will be going in there before deadline.

Native Sun News Today moves

The Native Sun News Today weekly newspaper completed a move of its offices from 1026 Jackson Blvd. to 530 Cambell St., Suite 3, on Rapid Citys east side.

The move was completed on April 7, timed to not interfere with the papers publishing schedule.

We had to plan the move carefully because we didnt want to be caught in the middle of it and not be able to get our newspaper published and to our readers this week, said publisher Christy Tibbitts in a release.

Everything fell into place and it was business as usual, she said.

Tibbitts said the move was a chance to take advantage of a new strip mall on a busy street, at much lower cost.

Editor Ernestine Chasing Hawk said the east side location is more convenient for the papers Native American customers.

Business Expo and Blood Drive

The Foothills Area Chamber of Commerce of Summerset is hosting its second annual Business Expo on April 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Elk Creek Steakhouse, 9408 Elk Creek Road in Piedmont.

More than 50 local vendors will be exhibiting at the expo.

There will also be a community blood drive open to the public that day. Elk Creek is offering a pint-for-a-pint promotion  a pint of beer for a pint of blood  during the drive.

Follow the United Blood Services link, at bloodhero.com to sign up for the blood drive.
It's a short walk across a graduation stage, but a memorable one.

And for most high school grads, the traditional mortar board "cap" and long academic gown attire are taken for granted. But what if you can't afford them?

That's why Rapid City High School is accepting donations of used caps and gowns from Rapid City Central and Rapid City Stevens high school graduates, according to Diane Thomas.

Thomas is record secretary in the guidance office at Rapid City High School, an alternative high school that takes in students from Rapid City Central and Stevens. Its graduation ceremony is at 7 p.m. May 26 at the Historic Theater in the Rapid City High School building.

But Thomas said even though Rapid City High School has its own graduation ceremony, it is not a diploma-issuing school and doesn't have its own caps and gowns.

Students attending the alternative high school from Rapid City Stevens receive a diploma from Stevens and will wear that school's traditional blue gowns. Likewise, students attending from Central receive a diploma from there and wear red.

To accommodate those students who can't afford to buy their own, Thomas said the alternative high school is accepting donations of blue and red gowns but is especially low on red right now.

She said smaller sizes, for students 5 feet to 5 feet 8 inches tall, are especially needed, as well.

"If I have a student that walks in now thats 5-5, were just going to have to hem up the gown," Thomas said.

Donations can be dropped off at the Rapid City High School main office, at 601 Columbus St., from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 394-4028 and ask for Thomas or Kathy Calhoun.

'Can'structing meals and hope

A quirky building competition will raise funds for local and state nonprofits, according to a release.

"CanStruction," a building competition, starts at 8 a.m. Saturday at Rushmore Mall. Four local teams will use cans of food to create their own "Cansculptures," according to the release.

Teams have 12 hours to complete their sculptures using only the cans, tape and -inch plywood. The four building teams are Black Hills Federal Credit Union, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Boy Scouts and Scull Construction.

The sculptures will be judged April 23, and the public will get to help in the judging by making a donation at the locked and secured bins at each structure. The bins will be out until 4 p.m. April 29, when the final tally will be taken.

Awards will include: Best use of labels, structural ingenuity, most cans, best meal and best original design.

The event is sponsored by Mel's AutoBody. All of the donations from the Peoples Choice Award will go to the Hope Center for the Soap for Hope project. At the end of the event, all the cans of food will go to Feeding South Dakota.

Youth philanthropy group hosts event

Black Hills Youth Philanthropy will host a grant award ceremony and question-and-answer event this week.

For the 2016-2017 school year, Black Hills Youth Philanthropy focused on the environment. The release says the students researched local organizations within that field of interest and invited several to apply for the grants.

The two $2,500 grants will go to Trinity Eco Prayer Park and Black Hills Raptor Center.

The event starts at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Trinity Eco Prayer Park in Rapid City, according to a release from Black Hills Area Community Foundation, which partnered with local high school students to form the philanthropy group.

Business donates pool toys to YMCA

YMCA of Rapid City received a donation of "oodles of pool noodles" recently, according to a release from the organization.

Shane and LeAnn Herman, the owners of Enviro Shield Products Inc. in Sturgis, donated more than 4,500 of the popular pool toys, which are long foam cylinders shaped a bit like noodles, as the name would suggest.

"With so many of them we were able to share the awesome gift with other YMCAs, partners and not-for-profits," the release said, noting cases were sent to YMCAs in Custer, Edgemont and Buffalo, the city of Rapid City, Outlaw Ranch, Crazy Horse School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Club for Boys and YFS Girls Inc.

Students win Kiwanis award

Local students were recognized recently for their efforts to help fight a worldwide fight against tetanus.

A release from Rapid City Area Schools says former Lt. Gov. Vern Hagedorn for Kiwanis of the Black Hills presented Corral Drive Elementary with the "Zellar Award" from the Eliminate Project. Corral Drive raised $1,250 at its family service night last year.

According to the Kiwanis website, Kiwanis International and UNICEF worked together to create the Eliminate Project, an effort to stamp out neonatal tetanus in third world countries.
When a freight train stopped briefly during an almost seven-minute crossing of Fifth Street in downtown Rapid City on Thursday afternoon, it may have violated a city law.

But the railroad company wont get a ticket or fine. City Attorney Joel Landeen said the ordinance, which prohibits train stoppages from blocking traffic for more than five minutes, is unenforceable.

Trains are regulated by federal law and are not subject to local control, Landeen said. While ordinances like this are not uncommon, the courts have uniformly struck them down.

Judges have said locally imposed time limits on blocked crossings could force train engineers to violate federal laws. To get across a city street in less than five minutes, for example, a train engineer might have to exceed federal speed limits or skip a federally required air-brake test.

Federal laws trump local and state laws, which means South Dakota might be similarly unable to enforce its law prohibiting standing trains from blocking the progress of emergency vehicles for more than 20 minutes.

There is little to nothing, then, that local and state governments can do to mitigate traffic backups caused by trains, which can be frustrating. Some impatient drivers Thursday on Fifth Street in Rapid City performed potentially illegal U-turns rather than wait for the train that rolled through at 2 p.m. Traffic backed up only about a block, but some days in Rapid City  especially when trains roll through around noon or 5 p.m., as they often do  traffic backs up for several blocks.

Jerry Vest, senior vice president of government and industry affairs for Genesee & Wyoming Inc., said it might be soothing for frustrated drivers to consider the importance of a train's freight.

Wed like them to think of all those cars, those covered hoppers or box cars or whatevers in the train, to think of that as the economy, Vest said.

Connecticut-based Genesee & Wyoming owns the Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern Railroad, which consists of 670 miles of track from Tracy, Minn., to Rapid City with branches into northeast Wyoming and northwest Nebraska.

RCP&E's freight includes bentonite clay mined at Colony, Wyo. Bentonite is used in molds for the casting of metal automotive parts, and it also serves as a primary ingredient in cat litter, among numerous other uses. Five days per week, loaded bentonite trains of about 60 cars enter Rapid City around midday, going 10 mph. Unloaded trains head back to Wyoming several hours later. RCP&E trains also transport cement from the local GCC Dacotah plant, grain from the local Dakota Mill & Grain elevator and other kinds of freight.

Freight trains, unlike passenger trains, do not follow rigidly predictable schedules. The time of a freight trains passage through Rapid City varies depending on the timing of connections with other railroads down the line, the amount of time needed to set up a train for different kinds of freight, and the availability of work crews.

Some accommodations are made for vehicle traffic. RCP&E does its grain loading at the Dakota Mill & Grain elevator at night to avoid long daytime traffic backups on busy Omaha Street. Otherwise, trains come through the city whenever they happen to come through, regardless of traffic patterns.

Mayor Steve Allender said he gets few complaints about train-caused traffic jams, and he suspects most local drivers accept the backups as part of everyday life in the city.

Its one of those things where you wish the railroad would spend $100 million of its money to move the tracks to some more convenient neighborhood, but thats not really realistic, Allender said.

A more solvable problem, according to Allender, is the noise from train horns that annoys downtown residents, shoppers, diners, hotel guests and business people. He recently appointed a Quiet Zone Task Force to seek solutions.

Allender said Friday that the task force has already soured on official quiet zones  which he said consist of gates and synchronized traffic lights in place of train horns  because they could cost the city $800,000 per intersection. The task force is now researching directional horns at intersections, which Allender said are less expensive than quiet zones and less noisy for nearby building occupants than train horns, while still being effective at warning drivers.

Locals who want to learn more about trains will have opportunities to do so this summer, when the RCP&E plans to man a booth at the Thursday night outdoor concerts downtown. The company will highlight Operation Lifesaver, a nationwide campaign to reduce collisions, deaths and injuries at highway-rail crossings.

No one wants to get delayed, whether its waiting at a crosswalk for traffic or waiting in their car at a crossing, Vest said. People would rather move, but first and foremost wed ask that they think of safety and make sure theyre approaching that grade crossing in a safe fashion.
A white Rapid City woman who alleged she was the victim of racial discrimination at work has reached a settlement with her former employer, a private jail services provider.

Alicia A. Cline filed the lawsuit in January 2016 in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit said Cline suffered from discrimination when her boss found out she was not Native American. The suit also said Cline suffered retaliation for reporting the discrimination.

"The parties have reached a settlement, have signed a settlement agreement and Plaintiff has received the settlement funds from this Defendant," said a legal motion filed in the case last month. No further details of the settlement were disclosed in public court documents.

From 2009 to 2015, according to Cline's lawsuit, she worked at Community Alternatives of the Black Hills, along Highway 79 in southern Rapid City. The facility is a halfway house where qualifying federal and state inmates are sent for help re-entering society while they finish their sentences.

Cline sued the facilitys national parent corporation, Community Education Centers, which is headquartered in New Jersey (last week, about a month after the notice of Cline's settlement was filed in federal court, Community Education Centers was bought by The GEO Group for $360 million).

Cline's lawsuit said the discrimination began after she came under the supervision of a new boss in October 2014.

Throughout his first few weeks of employment, (the supervisor) made several comments to Cline that suggested that he thought that Cline was of Native American descent, the lawsuit said, but Cline did not correct him or make any comments in response.

Then, a few days prior to Thanksgiving 2014, Cline missed work to take her ill children to the doctor, her lawsuit said. Upon returning to work, she commented to her supervisor that she was relieved the childrens illnesses happened before Thanksgiving, because she assumed the clinic would be closed on the holiday.

According to Clines lawsuit, the supervisor said Cline could have taken her children to Sioux San Hospital, the local Indian Health Service facility, if they had been ill on Thanksgiving. Cline told the supervisor that neither she nor her children are Native American and are therefore not eligible for care at an Indian Health Service facility.

After the November 24th conversation, (the supervisor's) communication to Cline became less responsive and more critical and confrontational, Clines lawsuit said. The lawsuit said the supervisor also removed some of Cline's responsibilities.

The supervisor also made other racial comments toward Cline," including but not limited to the supervisor's vision for hiring only Native Americans, the lawsuit said.

The supervisor's race was not stated in the lawsuit, which described the supervisor as the former director of Community Alternatives of the Black Hills.

Clines lawsuit said she reported the supervisor's comments to a number of people, starting locally and then working up the corporate chain of command. In response, the lawsuit said, she was disciplined for a separate matter, and then inexplicably suspended without pay, and then fired Jan. 16, 2015, for a list of causes including gross misconduct. At the time of her termination, she was the facilitys deputy director.

Cline filed discrimination charges with the state Department of Labor and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but both offices dismissed her claims.

Community Alternatives of the Black Hills was represented in the lawsuit by a Minneapolis-based attorney who did not respond to a Journal email. Cline was represented by Kassie McKie Shiffermiller of the Lynn, Jackson, Shultz & LeBrun law office in Rapid City.

"I cannot comment on the terms of the settlement agreement," McKie Shiffermiller said, "except that the parties have settled the matter and are pleased to put the matter behind them."
In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
The US must not get involved in "perpetual warfare in the Middle East," Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday in explaining why he was one of the few senators to oppose the recent US missile strike on Syria.

In an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper, the Vermont independent said the key to ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was to forgo unilateral action and instead convince Russia and Iran to withdraw their support for the dictator at the heart of the more than six-year-long war.

"Assad has got to go. ISIS has got to be defeated," Sanders said. "But I do not want to see the United States get sucked into perpetual warfare in the Middle East, see our men and women get killed, trillions of dollars being spent."

The senator who ran unsuccessfully in last year's Democratic presidential primary brought up the US military's ongoing presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying the US could be "dragged into another war" to the detriment of domestic priorities.

"We have got to start paying attention to the needs back home," Sanders said. "The war in Iraq was the worst blunder in the modern history of this country -- precipitated mass instability. We cannot continue to make those mistakes."

President Donald Trump greenlit a cruise missile strike earlier this month on an Assad airbase after the US said the Syrian president used chemical weapons to slaughter civilians. Many politicians on both sides of the aisle hailed Trump's action.

Asked about support for the strike from within the Democratic Party and even former Obama administration officials, Sanders said the Syria strike, as well as the US dropping one of its largest non-nuclear bombs in Afghanistan, were ineffective for problems that required a multilateral, diplomatic solution.

"It's not a question of one strike or one big bomb in Afghanistan," Sanders said. "What you need is a strategy. ... This will require intensive negotiations to tell Russia that they cannot support a dictator who is destroying his entire country. One strike is not going to do very much in that process."

Meanwhile, Sanders said he believed Trump understood he needed to work with China to rein in the North Korean nuclear threat.

"The United States must not act impulsively, and we must not act unilaterally," Sanders said.

Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the US earlier this month and spoke by phone with him last week to discuss North Korea's progress in missile development and another potential nuclear test.

Both Sanders and Trump have said the focus on the issue must remain on China. In recent days, China has signaled a possible shift on North Korea, including an editorial in Chinese media warning China could support UN sanctions on oil shipments to the isolated nation.

However, Sanders did not credit Trump with the possible progress, saying it was part of a trend.

"I think this policy shift on the part of China has been taking place for quite a while now," Sanders said.
PIERRE | The Legislature created a new state board in the 2017 session that will focus on technical education.

Sen. Jim Bolin, R-Canton, led the way. Waiting on the other side of the Capitol was Rep. Mark Mickelson, R-Sioux Falls.

Mickelson, the speaker of the House, had his arguments ready. He favored the measure, SB 65, and was its House sponsor.

Earlier this week, state Department of Education official Tiffany Sanderson explained the pending law (it takes effect July 1) to the South Dakota workforce development council.

Mickelson was an instrumental player in that bill, Sanderson said afterward.

The new boards nine members can hire an executive director. Thats an action we expect theyll take on after the board comes on in July, she said.

The concept took root in 2015. Mickelson proposed constitutional amendment R for the November 2016 general-election ballot.

I was cautiously optimistic, he said last week.

Amendment R passed statewide with 178,209 yes and 173,945 no. It carried in only 18 counties and failed in 48.

South Dakotas attorney general, Marty Jackley, authored the ballot explanation.

Under the amendment, post-secondary technical institutes will be governed separately in a manner to be determined by the Legislature, Jackley wrote.

He continued: The amendment also clarifies that the Board of Regents retains control over state-funded post-secondary educational institutions offering associate of arts, associate of sciences, bachelors, and postgraduate degrees.

A few days ago Mickelson explained his reasons for caution and optimism.

We were fortunate to have a lot of really good industry support. I think we ran a (grade) "C" marketing campaign. I was worried we hadnt spent the money as well as we should have, Mickelson said.

I felt that in my heart what we wanted was right, he continued. But I also found a lot of really smart people who didnt understand the issue.

Amendment R won in Codington County by more than 2,200 votes and Davison County by more than 1,500. Its largest margin  more than 6,700  came in Minnehaha County. Lincoln County voters approved it by more than 2,000 and Yankton County by more than 1,300.

But there were no difficulties in getting SB 65 through, according to Mickelson.

The legislation transferred power from the secretary of education and the state Board of Education to a new citizen board.

I view their authority as funding advocacy for the technical institutes, Mickelson said. We dont need them to tell us how to teach a class. We need them to go get us more money.

The next step, he said, is present the funding case to the new board and ask them to make that a priority and submit a report to the governor.

South Dakotas public technical institute students in Watertown, Mitchell, Sioux Falls and Rapid City are paying about $230 in tuition and fees per credit hour.

Mickelson said thats too high.

He estimated that reducing the South Dakota tuition and fees to about $180 per credit hour  the approximate price across the border at a technical school in Sheldon, Iowa  would take $9 million.

No one gets paid to think about advocating for the technical schools, he said.
We don't know if President Donald Trump was purely motivated to fire cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield. Was he genuinely horrified by the nerve-gas attack on a rebel-held town ordered by dictator Bashar Assad? His strongest critics insist that Trump saw the revulsion at the deaths of the innocents, including children, really and cynically as an opportunity to boost his approval ratings, which have spiraled ever downward during the constant embarrassments that have defined the earliest days of his administration. There is no way to know.

He wouldn't be the first president whose commander in chief actions raised that same woeful question. In August 1998, Bill Clinton ordered a missile attack of his own, against the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Khartoum, Sudan. He contended that it supplied chemical weapons to al-Qaida, although there has never been any actual proof of that. What is a fact is that it took place on the day that Monica Lewinsky was scheduled to testify before a grand jury in connection with, well, you know. Suddenly, the intense news focus shifted from a Washington courthouse to across the world.

I know this because during my CNN phase I covered the various Clinton scandals and was set for another day of live shots to service all the news networks in the Turner Broadcasting empire. Then came word from the White House of the rain of missiles on Khartoum, and suddenly I had nothing to do. I couldn't buy airtime. More than once I've quoted a colleague who observed, "We (the news networks) can only overcover one story at a time."

To this day, we don't have any idea how the Monica factor influenced the Clinton calculations, any more than we do about Trump's incentives. As a distraction, it ultimately didn't work; four months later, President Bill Clinton was impeached. As for President Donald Trump, the early positive responses literally gushed. Suddenly, the pundits couldn't be ecstatic enough about how Trump had been soooooo commander in chiefish, even the ones who had just moments before described him as soooooo buffoonish.

It didn't take long, though, for the ones who hadn't been totally caught up in the personalities of this administration to start raising substantial questions about the long-term effects this jolt of decisiveness would have. Would it hasten the tattering of U.S.-Russian relations, even as charges continued to swirl about The Donald and The Vladimir colluding to push the election Trump's way? Was the withering Russian response in the face of American chest-beating just rhetoric, or did it escalate the chance of a physical collision between the superpowers' forces on the ground in Syria? Would the cruise-missile attack cause Assad to think he had to prove his manhood with another attack, either on U.S. forces or with some other horrific provocation.

As it stands now, the vengeance for the war crime and the grotesque deaths it caused has amounted to a few blown-up Syrian jets. Some optimists contend that it could even become a basis for some diplomatic negotiation that ultimately could hasten an end to a bloody war that has claimed a half-million lives and created a flood of refugees. How can we forget that the President Trump who was so moved by the Syrian victims of nerve gas is the same President Trump who tries to block any of them from entering this country after fleeing their homeland?

Some questions will be answered only in the days and months ahead. The ones about motivation, as we learned with Bill Clinton, will probably never be answered to the satisfaction of everyone. The fact that they are asked at all speaks volumes about our politics.
Under Montana law, the crime of rape is called sexual intercourse without consent.

The language implies that a crime occurs if one person says no to sex. In fact, "no" doesnt mean "no" under Montana law. Instead, the statute makes rape prosecution extremely difficult if the victim is an adult unless he or she was cut, bruised or otherwise injured. No other criminal law requires victims to prove they resisted their attacker.

Requiring evidence that a victim fought back or suffered injury in addition to the rape is one reason why zero cases of rape were charged last year in Yellowstone County, despite at least 60 adults reporting rape to law enforcement agencies. The state Legislature now has the responsibility to strengthen and update Montanas criminal code by passing Senate Bill 29.

The Senate was unanimous in approving SB29 and it has passed the House Judiciary Committee. Now, it must be approved by the full House and return to the Senate as amended.

SB29 is supported by the Montana County Attorneys Association, Montana Board of Crime Control, Montana Sex Offender Treatment Association, Disability Rights Montana, Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and Montana Attorney Generals Office.

SB29 says that an expression of lack of consent through words or conduct means there is no consent or consent had been withdrawn and that a current or previous dating or social or sexual relationship or the manner of dress of the person involved with the accused in the conduct at issue does not by itself constitute consent. This is similar to the definition of consent other states have adopted in recent years.

We believe that all sexual assault victims deserve justice, said Kelsen Young, executive director of the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. Lack of ability to prosecute the crime is overwhelming.

Young said SB29 would make an important change in Montana law by clearly stating that no means "no" consent in the crime of sexual intercourse without consent. Also, SB29 would define a more serious crime of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent for incidents that also involved the use of force by the attacker. SB29 would set a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison for aggravated sexual intercourse without consent.

We call on the House to consider the evidence that persuaded the committees and the Senate to unanimously approve SB29. Send this desperately needed legislation to the governor's desk.

As Young said: We dont believe that changes in our criminal code are the only answer, but they are a start.
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For nearly a decade, the city of Rapid City and Big Sky LLC have been locked in litigation over who is ultimately responsible for $1.1 million worth of street repairs for the dilapidated roads within the Big Sky subdivision.

Over that time, the city has spent $374,200 on legal fees. Now, after deciding to appeal a Jan. 27 ruling by a Pennington County jury that absolved Big Sky LLC of any responsibility for the roads, the city expects to sink another $10,000 to $20,000 into a legal battle with an uncertain outcome against a development company that its owner says has no money.

Prior to the city council meeting on Feb. 6, Mayor Steve Allender and the council held an executive session in which City Attorney Joel Landeen briefed them on the issues ruled on in the Jan. 27 decision. That included updates on what the city and its legal team of Nooney & Solay might address in its appeal, and an estimate of the appeals chances of success and overall cost.

The mayor and council then came to a general consensus to go forward with the appeal because, as Allender explained in a Journal interview, the cost of the appeal is very low and there was a fairly positive expectation that it may go our way. Landeen also addressed the appeals cost in an interview outside his office Wednesday.

When youve gone this far and youve expended a significant sum of money the cost of an appeal is fairly minimal, Landeen said. The problem with litigation is, when the average person sees what an expensive case costs, its a lot of money.

If the city is successful in its appeal, Landeen said it would then have two options: Seek to reach a settlement with Big Sky LLC and its owner, Rapid City attorney Doyle Estes, or prepare for a new trial in Seventh Judicial Circuit Court.

In a November 2016 settlement, the city received $250,000 from Estes, Big Sky LLC, Rapid Construction LLC and Dream Design International Inc. stemming from road issues within Big Sky subdivision. That money, Landeen said, wouldnt have been recouped had the city decided against filing its first appeal to the South Dakota Supreme Court in 2010.

Estes said he has yet to have a discussion with the city about a settlement in this case.

The jury spoke and the judge spoke, Estes said in a Journal interview. Declining to say how much he has spent on the lawsuit, Estes said it would be hard for the city to recoup money from Big Sky as the limited liability company is now worth almost nothing.

It has not needed to file an income tax return for several years, he said.

Landeen said the city knew that before it appealed.

The worst case scenario is that we would end up with a judgment that we would not be able to collect on, Landeen said. He added that if the city had chosen not to pursue Estes and Big Sky LLC, it would essentially send the message that any developer could form a limited liability company, strip it of assets, fail to follow city codes during construction and have no fear of being held liable for the consequences.

Thats not probably the message you want to send to people, he said.

The city is seeking roughly $914,000 in reimbursement from Big Sky LLC. Roughly 20 years after the property east of Elk Vale Road was developed, the residents may finally see some road relief now that the city has annexed the subdivision into the city limits, paving the way for road repairs and reconstruction to begin this year and be completed by the end of 2018, city spokesman Darrell Shoemaker has said.

The message the city hopes to get across in its appeal to the Supreme Court is that the instructions provided by Judge Warren Johnson of the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court to the Pennington County jury were an error of law. If successful, the next step would likely be a new trial between the city and Big Sky LLC. If the city were to also prevail in that case, it would then have to recoup whatever money the jury found Big Sky responsible for paying.

But if Big Sky LLC  the lone defendant after Judge Johnson handed down a directive verdict removing Estes himself as a defendant in the case  has little to no assets on its balance sheet, the city would face perhaps its toughest legal test of all: trying to pierce the corporate veil.

Thomas Geu is dean of the law school at the University of South Dakota and has been teaching and studying corporate law since the 1980s. In a phone interview, Geu made it clear that holding an owner, director or shareholder personally liable for a corporations actions or debts, aka piercing the corporate veil, was no small feat.

Both in the LLC world and the corporate world it is very difficult to pierce the corporate veil, Geu said, adding that theory underlying limited liability companies can be traced back to Ancient Rome. The rationale for LLCs, Geu said, is that they promote commerce and economic activity.

It makes lenders more comfortable with lending to that LLC, or investors more willing to invest in that LLC, because they can look at that specific deal and have some assurance that whatever other projects a developer is involved in, those projects wont negatively affect the project in the particular LLC.

To pierce the veil in situations like these, Geu said the city would have to demonstrate that Estes and Big Sky LLC failed to maintain a distinction between the individual and the company. Factors such as failing to maintain separate bank accounts or bookkeeping records could be used as evidence to show the commingling of corporate and personal funds. Then, theres the enterprise theory.

It is not uncommon for developers to form multiple LLCs and frequently reallocate funds from one LLC to another to limit any one companys liability. Estes declined to say how many LLCs he is currently associated with but offered two others besides Big Sky LLC: Elk Vale Business Park LLC and DTH LLC.

The enterprise theory is an attempt to dissolve the walls between multiple LLCs so all the assets are put together. It can be accomplished, Geu said, but its even rarer than piercing the veil by tying an owner and LLC together. And while the constant movement of funds from one LLC to another may seem like a subversive practice, Geu said there arent many rules tied to LLCs, hence their popularity.

If there are less rules, there are less rules they can break, Geu said. Can they be abused? Yes. But its a public policy choice of where you want to draw the line. He later added: There are some old cases that clearly establish that the policy line typically favors encouraging commerce.

Even amid these challenges, Landeen seems to believe the city has a case to be made should it get to that point.

When youre doing things like maybe paying your attorney fees out of your own pocket or paying yourself the settlement from something directly rather than through the corporation, those are things that tend to show the corporation is not probably as (detached) as somebody who is being sued and trying to hide behind the corporate protections, Landeen said in reference to Estes possible past actions.

In the end, the city seems hopeful that if it wins the appeal, there will be another chance for a settlement with Estes.

My goal would be to get Doyle to sit down at the table and seriously talk about trying to resolve the case, Landeen said. That would be best for everybody.

And if Estes refuses?

They may be able to be successful in court by arguing, Hey, were not the same thing as Big Sky LLC, but are they going to be as successful arguing that to the citizens of Rapid City? Landeen said. I dont think the public is going to buy that. So I guess he needs to figure out how much his reputation means to him.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the Ravalli County Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence is organizing three different activities, April 18, 22 and 27.

According to Jamie Ogden, SAFEs Community Programs Manager, young adults represent the biggest cohorts or risk group for experiencing sexual assault.

We partnered with the Bitterroot College this year and have a really active coalition of community members who decided to do our Take Back the Night event but also to host some consent workshops that are piggy backed with self-defense training, she said.

Ogden said the workshops will offer education on sexual assault, how to keep it from happening and what to do if you are a bystander.

Ogden said pairing the workshops with the self-defense training does not imply that victims are responsible for the assault.

Most victims are assaulted by someone they know, she said. But we do know that self-defense can be an empowering experience and attendees sometimes they get the message that they are valuable and have a right to say no assertively.

The self-defense training is with Hidden Fist and Tim Greek.

The event is on from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. On April 18, SAFE will be the host and use some of their standard curriculum with some added elements. The event 10 a.m. to noon on April 22 will be led by the Student Assault Resource Center through the University of Montana. The material will be similar to the sexual assault consent education all freshman take at most colleges. It is appropriate for high school students, with parental consent, young adults, college students and adults.

Its for everyone but I want to recognize the landscape of sexual assault in all various forms. The people most affected are young adults , she said. One in five college women are assaulted. It is a time in life when people are not as experienced with achieving consent in their sexual relationships and also interested in having those types of relationships.

The Take Back the Night March begins at 7 p.m. on April 27. It starts at Legion Park and goes to the Bitterroot River. There will be signs with I speak out because and people fill them out.

Take Back the Night Marches have been happening all over the world for decades and they are a way for women to be out at night and be safe in our communities, Ogden said. It is an opportunity for people to come together and say this community belongs to us and we want it to be safe. We want it to be safe from the crimes that are most shrouded in silence.

Ogden said children, people of all ages and their dogs are welcome.

Your body is yours and no one has a right to violate it, she said. There are many, many people who have experienced sexual assault. We want a gentle way to say it affects us all and youre not alone. It is celebratory, gentle and fun and a nice way to be encouraged to continue conversations we out to be having more frequently.
Montana Rockies Bluegrass Association is hosting their Old Time Bluegrass Festival and fundraiser, April 22, at Lone Rock School.

Mike and Tari Conroy are organizing the event for the association of 200 members.

This years festival features 18 bands including everybody and their dog, Mike Conroy said.

The event starts at noon with Kids in Bluegrass then a new band every half hour until 9 p.m.

There is food available including a homemade turkey dinner, chili dogs, hot dogs and soup.

We ask people to bring desserts to share, Conroy said.

The festival features many new bands with bands from Washington, Idaho and Montana.

The schedule is: 12:30 p.m. , Holtzens/Bluegrass 101; 1 p.m. , Bittergrass Strong Band; 1:30 p.m., Darby Sireens; 2 p.m., Tin Cup; 2:30 p.m., Skookumchuck Bear Claws; 3 p.m., Loose Strong Band; 3:30 p.m., Mike & Tari Conroy Band; 4 p.m., Silver Gravelys; 4:30 p.m., Sapphire Mountain Bluegrass; 5 p.m., Spring Thaw; 5:30 p.m., Lil-Grass; 6 p.m. , Salmon Valley String Band; 6:30 p.m., Song Dog Serenade; 7 p.m., East Ridge Ramblers; 7:30 p.m., Black Mountain; 8 p.m., Ruby Jewel Band; 8:30 p.m., Heartbreak Pass Express.

What I like about this is for some bands it will be their first time on stage and some bands are professional and have played for years, years and years, Conroy said. There will be jamming backstage and in various rooms around the school. Bluegrass is a big family of friends. We have campouts, jam circles and we get together throughout the winter. If you like bluegrass music you should join the association.

Learn more about the Montana Rockies Bluegrass Association by calling 406-821-3777 or online at MTbluegrass.com or Facebook.com/mt.bluegrass.

Admission to the Old Time Bluegrass Festival & Fundraiser, April 22, costs $5 for non-members, $3 for MRBA members and under 12 get in free.

Lone Rock School, 1112 Mile Creek, is located 5.5 miles north east of Stevensville on East side highway, then three miles up Three Mile Creek.
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Apr-15-2017 21:55 TweetFollow @OregonNews Lebanon's Outlawing of Palestinian Civil Rights Update on the fighting at Ein al-Hilwe Palestinian camp in Lebanon

Another ceasefire begins in Ein al-Hilwe Palestinian camp in Lebanon.

Photo by Mohammad Attawi 4/13/2017

(Ein el Helweh Camp, Saida, Lebanon) - Its half a century overdue for Lebanon to grant Palestinian refugees, now the fourth post-Nakba generation, the most elementary civil rights to work and home ownership. Both fundamental rights are mandated by international law and enjoyed by every refugee on our planet. Sauf Lebanon. As a direct and foreseeable consequence half of Lebanons 12 Palestinian refugee camps and several dozen refugee gatherings are careening toward violence while most Lebanese politicians, some of whom are clients of other countries, turn a blind eye or dither. One example is East Saidas Ein al Hilweh camp where nearly one hundred thousand refugees, including approximately 7000 from Yarmouk and other Palestinian refugee camps in Syria live in squalor on just 2 Sq. Km of space. Arguably the most sardine-canned population on earth today. April 12, 2017 marked the sixth day of clashes as Palestinian joint security force mobilized to enter the notorious Al-Tiri neighborhood of Ein al-Hilweh as UNWRA was forced to close its nine schools which educate many thousands of camp children and its two medical clinics which treat hundreds of patients daily. At least 20 stores and homes were burned to the ground during the fighting. Al-Tiri is a stronghold of extremist Bilal Badr and his supporters, who have been engaged in clashes with the Fatah Movement since last week. The fighting has so far left ten dead and more than 60 wounded over six days, including numerous civilians. On 4/13/2017 a local Palestinian security force numbering 100 fighters from several Palestinian factions, was finally able to deploy throughout most of the camp as Islamist militants went, for now at least, into hiding. Without the right to work or the right to own a home in Lebanon, there are few hopeful signs from young Palestinians here about their future. But there are some. And one is similar to the Arab revolts of 201011, being a growing rebellion among camp Palestinians in Lebanon against paternalism and their growing demand for elementary civil rights. For Palestinians this means the right to work and the right to purchase a home. The younger generation of Palestinians here is increasingly turning away from the traditional Arab reverence for strong man paternalism whether in politics, culture, or religion. They seek a reorientation and erosion of the current autocracy by sectarianized politicians in Lebanon who many argue have been the main barrier to the achieving the elementary right to work. This rejection of the old order is unfolding against the backdrop of changes in the Palestinian populations demographics and psyche. Whatever is the veracity of the oft repeated claim that David Ben-Gurion tried to encourage militia under his control half a century ago during the 1948 Nakba when his forces ethnically cleansed 57% of Palestines indigenous inhabitants and his followers: Dont worry! The old will die and the young will forget. He was partly right. But he could not have been more wrong about todays young Palestinians forgetting their history, culture and country as the 4th generation of Palestinians here increasingly demand Full Return to Palestine. Ben-Gurions intent was clear and his thinking is reflected in a 1937 letter to his son, wherein he wrote: We must expel Arabs and take their place.  if we are compelled to use force  not in order to dispossess the Arabs of the Negev or Transjordan, but in order to guarantee our right to settle there  our force will enable us to do so. The old have indeed died among the three quarter million Palestinians who experienced the trauma of ethnic cleansing from their homeland by Zionist gangs. Only a few thousand of the original refugees are still living, half a century after the 1948 Nakba. A two-year study of survivors in Balata camp in Nablus found that among the dozens interviewed in 2003, one in 24 were still alive in 2015. Todays 64 Palestinian refugee camps and scores of gatherings bear witnesses to these massive crimes against humanity. Fifty eight camps are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), being 19 camps in the West Bank, eight in the Gaza Strip, ten in Jordan, nine in Syria and 12 in Lebanon. Three of the original 16 camps in Lebanon were destroyed and one transferred its population other camps. In 1974, the Israeli air force demolished the entire Nabatiyeh camp, displacing about three thousand of its inhabitants. In the summer of 1976, the al-Kataeb Party (Christian) Forces and their allies besieged the Tel al-Zatar, eventually destroying it after 52 days of resistance, with three thousand of its people killed, mostly civilians, and around twenty thousand displaced anew. In September 1982, the Sabra and Shatila massacre took place at the hands of the same forces, under Israeli military cover, killing about three thousand Palestinians and Lebanese; this bloodbath became one of the most prominent testimonies to the suffering of the Palestinian people in the countries of refuge. The number of Palestinians living in camps here in Lebanon has doubled while the authorities have outlawed camp area expansion. Consequently camp residents have had to add rooms skyward such that today more than one third of the houses never are touched by sunlight and more than half of the alleys are so narrow that cars cannot pass and even the moving furniture is blocked forcing it to be lifted to roofs by rope. Camp alleys can barely accommodate two people walking side by side with hundreds of dangerously exposed electric cables above their heads surrounded by dilapidated infrastructure. In the past 36 months more than two dozen camp residents have been electrocuted in Burj al Barajneh camp near Beiruts airport. The power supplying camps is cut more than 12 hours a day while three quarters of the refugees live below the poverty line. This as drug use and respiratory and other diseases rise along with unemployment, school dropout rates and Palestinian youth sense that that they have no future. Most experts who have studied this subject argue that these problems would be resolved if Palestinians were allowed the right to work. Indeed studies by the UN International Labor Organization (ILO) and several economic studies by Universities and others have shown that if Palestinian refugees were granted the right to work Lebanons ailing economy would dramatically grow and Lebanon would achieve much needed infrastructure rehabilitation, including electricity, water, garbage collection and disposal, road repairs, and medical services. A related cause of growing unrest in Palestinian camps, as they careen toward violent explosion, is the poisonous 18 sect sectarianism based Lebanese society-fueled the past decade by the growing Sunni-Shia conflict. Some who claim to be part of a Resistance have exhibited no willingness to act to improve camps conditions, partly because Palestinians are nearly all Sunni or Christian. Partly because they wait instructions from their regional sponsors. A true Resistance would support the camps in their struggle and recognize that resistance begins with supporting the camps, while using their power in Parliament to provide assist with infrastructure, employment opportunities and health and educational services. These appalling conditions attract outsiders with non-camp agendas and today they are posing great dangers. For example, more than 5 thousand fugitives wanted by the Lebanese judiciary reportedly reside inside Ein al-Hilweh camp on various charges, some expired. The Lebanese Army (LAF) continues to pressure camp residents with erected walls, sand barriers, and checkpoints and prohibit home improvements while restricting the work and activities of UNRWA. Another factor is the failure to achieve a unified Palestinian political, military, and security administration to enforce order and bar outsiders who enter and align with various Palestinian factions while encouraging in-fighting, especially between Fatah and Islamic groups which Fatah has failed to eradicate. This is exacerbated by the lack of Lebanese government interest, including most political factions in the living conditions of Palestinian refugees and in improving, their economic and social conditions. At the same time they ignore camp security and any camp development planning. There is also a growing radicalism in Ein al-Hilweh and some of the other 12 camps in Lebanon influenced by conflicts and divisions in the region. Ein al-Hilweh has often experienced the entry of fugitives to the camp, such as Badi Hamadah, who killed three Lebanese soldiers in 2002 and was later executed, Fadil Shaker, who entered the camp after the clashes in Saidas suburb of Abra in 2013, and Shadi al-Mawlawi, who took up residence in the camp in 2014. For years the Palestinian factions have failed to apprehend them, and today some enjoy the support of certain groups in the camp. Recently there has been an increase in the number of Islamist fugitives in the camps from various countries in the region who are targets of the global war on Terrorism. To its credit, the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) in Ramallah has tried to apprehend and prosecute or kill the Islamist fugitives in Lebanons camps and elsewhere. But their efforts have been largely stymied by the fact that while Fatah seeks to regain its diminishing zones of influence in some of the camps they have faced opposition from many factions who oppose the political, social, and ideological orientations and who reject many of the policies and programs of the Ramallah based PLO. Against this dismal backdrop, and the deprivation of the most elementary civil rights to work and to own a home, the situation in Lebanon is increasingly likely to explode, first in Ein al-Hilweh, next in Shatila and then perhaps Bedawi camp near Tripoli and Rasheidiyeh camp in Tyre, followed by others. Lebanons largely dysfunctional government is unlikely to meet its international legal obligation to grant Palestinian refugees the most elementary civil right to work and home ownership without the immediately application of serious international pressure and sanctions including the suspension of foreign aid, to be lifted only when these mandated civil rights are written into law. _________________________________________

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 "Sentencing Disparities" | Main | Reviewing the realities of a new sheriff in charge at the US Department of Justice 

April 15, 2017

Utah judge under fire for calling former bishop "good man" in course of his rape sentencing

As reported in this local article, "complaints are mounting against a Utah County judge who earlier this week praised a former Mormon bishop before sending him to prison for sexually abusing two women." Here are the details:

Fourth District Judge Thomas Low on Wednesday became emotional as he handed down a prison sentence to Keith Robert Vallejo, whom a jury convicted of 10 counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and one of count of object rape, a first-degree felony. "The court has no doubt that Mr. Vallejo is an extraordinary, good man. But great men," the judge said Wednesday before taking a long pause, "sometimes do bad things." Two women testified at the trial that Vallejo had inappropriately touched them during separate stays at his Provo home in 2013 and 2014. Julia Kirby  who was 19 when Vallejo, her brother-in-law, abused her  told The Tribune after the sentencing that she was shocked by the judge's words to her abuser. Now, she plans to file a judicial complaint against him. And she's not the only one. Restore Our Humanity, a Utah civil rights group that has launched an initiative to help sexual assault victims, will also file a complaint against Low. Director Mark Lawrence said Saturday that Low's comments showed "absolute disregard" for Kirby, who was sitting in the courtroom that day. "He completely disregarded her," Lawrence said. "He did something that we see happening over and over from position in authority dealing with these kind of cases: Making the perpetrator into the victim, showing sympathy and praise for the perpetrator and trying to make him into the victim. It's completely inappropriate." Lawrence said he expects to file the complaint after reviewing transcripts of Low's comments this next week. He said the goal of the complaint is not to disbar Low, but to have him sanctioned and perhaps go through training to better understand sexual assault victims. "There are some people who would think that we're making a big issue out of this," Lawrence said. "But this isn't a simple misdemeanor or victimless crime. Sexual assault cannot be taken lightly, and everyone must stand up for these victims and survivors." Criticism of Low initially began in March, after The Tribune published a story about Low's decision to allow Vallejo to remain free on bail pending sentencing and return home to his wife and eight children  even after the jury handed down the guilty verdicts at the February trial. Kirby said last month that she felt the decision indicated that Low did not believe that she and the other woman had been abused. Low reversed that decision during a March 30 hearing, and Vallejo had been at the Utah County jail until his Wednesday sentencing. Jennifer Yim, the executive director of the Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, told the Associated Press that the commission has received roughly 40 emails, six voicemails and some Facebook messages about Low's handling of this case since late March. Ryan McBride, the prosecutor on the case, said Low's comments were inappropriate and said it may have come in response to more than 50 character letters about Vallejo, most of them detailing the good things he has done. The defendant's brother spoke at the hearing and compared Vallejo to Jesus in making the argument that he was wrongly convicted, McBride noted. "I don't think it's wrong to acknowledge the good things that someone has done in their lives," the prosecutor told The Associated Press. "But I think whenever you do that in a case like this, you've also got to say, 'But it doesn't excuse what you've done.' " Low on Wednesday sentenced Vallejo to concurrent sentences of one-to-15 years in prison for each of the second-degree felonies, and a five-years-to-life term for the object rape charge.

April 15, 2017 at 06:39 PM | Permalink

Comments

He condemned the act and sentenced the man. Why does he have to say he is a bad person?

Posted by: Dan Jay | Apr 16, 2017 8:43:25 AM

Short of rape rape, the damage and the crime ain't worth shit. If you are older than 12, you can slap the face of the insolent pig, and clearly say, "I don't play that, you swine. Touch me again, I plunge this kitchen knife into your genitals, as you sleep." There is an affirmative moral, but not legal duty, to defend your virtue.

Next, you get the picture a little sooner, and leave the place, if the piggish behavior continues. Not only is self help far more effective, it is also much cheaper. But then, the above fiasco would not be employing 3 worthless, thievin's, government make work lawyer assholes for months.

None may gaze upon the Virgin Empress of China without getting beheaded. That is where the vile feminist lawyer and its vile male running dogs are taking sentencing law and policy. For the rent. Ancient Chinese feminism made today's false ideology look tame.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/critical-feminist-studies/melal/mulan-real-life-chinese-women-soldiers-and-feminism

Direct action committees, driving 1988 red Camaros, should visit the vile feminist lawyer and its male running dogs, at night. To deter.

Posted by: David Behar | Apr 16, 2017 9:02:21 AM

More incompetent Judges (glorified attorney's) - we need common sense and common Law. Every case is different and many give false statements and very few are investigated properly when a persons life and many families are involved. Not one innocent person should be in prison! The 9th Commandment is ignored for profit.

Two women don't know how to say NO! Are they seeking some sort of benefit?

In my opinion/experience: Women are being taught to use the system and the system uses the male population for their benefit.

Posted by: LC in Texas | Apr 16, 2017 9:46:24 AM

I hope the judge was and will be evenhandedly fair and emotional when sentencing other "good people" who do bad things.

Posted by: Joe | Apr 16, 2017 12:16:14 PM

I have no idea who LC is. He is obviously from earth, not from the lawyer profession, stating the obvious, and what I have been saying here, for years. My message is the thinking of all ordinary people. The dirtbag, male witch hunting, rent seeking, filthy traitor lawyers must be stopped.

Many have heard the saying, like taking candy from a baby. Anyone who has ever tried to do that knows, the saying refers to how hard it is in real life, not to an easy task. Now try taking $trillion from 1.5 million members of the largest and most powerful criminal cult enterprise in human history, which has infiltrated and totally controls the three branches of government. It will not be easy, and will never happen peacefully. The legal immunities they have dealt themselves fully justify violence in formal logic. Formal logic is more certain than the laws of physics, with no exceptions.

Here is another over-lawyered nation. It is even more over-lawyered than our nation, so the effect is worse than here. It represents our future if we do not stop the criminal cult enterprise besetting our nation. It recently solved its toilet paper shortage. It has a bread shortage.

http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-venezuela-capriles-2017-story.html

Posted by: David Behar | Apr 16, 2017 12:19:18 PM

South America has more lawyers than we do for population. Revolts against government are spreading everywhere. It should spread to the United States. The judge in this case should have tossed the case as frivolous, or as containing implied consent to the crime. The defense stank. The defendant likely did no worse than the man we elected to the Presidency.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/protests-sweeping-south-america-show-rising-antigovernment-anger/2017/04/15/c086c10c-1f92-11e7-bb59-a74ccaf1d02f_story.html?utm_term=.4f029a48945c

Posted by: David Behar | Apr 16, 2017 1:34:33 PM

Sounds like the judge was even-handed here-

He acknowledged that the accused was a "good man" while also acknowledging that "sometimes great men do bad things".



Posted by: kat | Apr 17, 2017 10:01:48 AM

We must all make every attempt to stroll carefully through the minefields that are people's feelings, lest we be censored for using our right to free speech.

Posted by: Oswaldo | Apr 17, 2017 10:23:22 AM

Post a comment
#BREAKING UPDATE: Berkeley police have made 15 arrests and "anticipate more" as violent protesters swarm city roads. https://t.co/s1SrxHksnZ pic.twitter.com/i38hv9jH0E  NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) April 15, 2017

In Berkeley Saturday morning, and into the afternoon, hundreds of demonstrators on opposite ends of the political spectrum once again clashed in the city's Civic Center Park, breaking into fights, lighting fireworks, and generally causing mayhem. As NBC Bay Area reports, the crowds  both attendees of a "Patriot's Day" rally and a counter-protest, and inevitably others who show up to these things just to participate in anarchic behavior  spilled out over to Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley, and police were advising people to avoid the area.

As of noon or just after, police said they had made 15 arrests and anticipated more.

Also, Berkeley cops have brought in Alameda County Sheriff's deputies for backup, and NBC Bay Area reports that "rocks and bottles were launched at officers and many were assaulted."

ABC 7 reports that "some type of gas" was released in the park this morning, and thus officers have had to wear gas masks."

In response to the "civil disturbance," BART was not making stops at Downtown Berkeley station, and that remained the case as of 4 p.m.

Giving a speech at one more secured end of the park was alt-right blogger Lauren Southern, as the LA Times reports, railing against "societal change, Kim Kardashian and the media," and calling on the alt-right to become more like the left in their tactics, "subversive."

This is the third time in recent months that a clash like this has taken place in the streets of Berkeley, beginning with the night of a planned Milo Yiannopoulos speech on the Cal campus on February 1, and continuing with a rally and counter-protest similar to the ones held today just a month ago, on March 4. Berkeley police continue to seek suspects who were caught on camera assaulting others during that event.

CNN has picked up the story, noting that the violent clash in Berkeley is just one of many demonstrations happening around the country for Tax Day, with some of these focused on pushing for President Trump to release his tax returns.

TMZ had some helicopter footage of one mass fight breaking out in Berkeley where demonstrators can be seen wielding sticks and carrying shields.

15 arrested as violence breaks out between supporters and detractors of Pres. Trump holding rallies in Berkeley: https://t.co/oDRdtN0Kz0 pic.twitter.com/SPE43XSge3  CBS News (@CBSNews) April 15, 2017

In one video below, you can see where demonstrators on either side of a makeshift orange barrier end up crossing over it to engage in skirmishes with each other. And one demonstrator is carrying a a sign with that symbol of the alt-right, Pepe the frog, and the message "Green Lives Matter."



Meanwhile, a more peaceful Tax Day rally was going on in San Francisco's Civic Center, with Jane Kim and Nancy Pelosi making appearances, among others.



Previously: Berkeley Braces For Another Pro-Trump Rally Saturday, Cancels Farmers Market
Though the battle is far from over regarding the country's sanctuary cities, President Trump's strong rhetoric regarding how he planned to punish cities that stuck by their guns to shelter illegal immigrants maybe just that, rhetoric. As ABC 7 reports, in a hearing Friday in federal court in San Francisco, Assistant Attorney General Chad Readler tried to make the case that San Francisco and Santa Clara counties did not need to be suing the government because they had not faced any penalties yet. And he suggested that they stood to lose far less than the $1 billion in federal funding that was originally anticipated under the President's January executive order, so everyone just needs to calm down.

Readler told U.S. District Court Judge William H. Orrick, "We dont know yet exactly how the policy is going to be applied," according to the LA Times. He said the penalties would likely apply "only to a limited range of grants" from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, and may not amount to any dollars lost at all for San Francisco (and perhaps about $1 million for Santa Clara County). Readler added, "We dont know whether there will be any enforcement action and what it will look like."

U.C. Hastings Professor David Levine commented to ABC 7, "The Justice Department seemed to be saying, well we're not doing anything to them right now, so what's the need for any litigation right now, we're all friends."

But Mollie Lee from the San Francisco City Attorney's Office wasn't having it, and told the station, "[The President's action] was an attempt to bully jurisdictions like San Francisco and Santa Clara into abandoning their sanctuary city status through the use of an unconstitutional executive order."

And an attorney representing Santa Clara County, John W. Keker, said in a statement, "The government argument boils down to the hope that President Trump and Atty. Gen. Sessions wont do what they are saying they are going to do with this executive order."

Under questioning from Judge Orrick, Readler agreed that the Trump administration "could not put new conditions on federal funds already authorized by Congress," per the LA Times. And Orrick said he would issue a ruling as soon as possible.

San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties are seeking an injunction against the executive order that would apply nationwide.

Previously: Feds To Send More Immigration Judges To SF To Speed Up Deportations
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125 Years Ago

City news: A large number of gasoline and gas lamps in the outskirts of Sioux City are not being lighted these nights because it is so muddy that the lighters cannot get through the streets to all of them. A petition to pave Jackson street between Fifth and Eighth streets with bricks instead of with cedar block was referred to the city paving committee.

River rescue: Thomas Fraser fell from the Nebraska bank of the Missouri while waiting for a skiff to take him over and was carried a quarter of a mile down stream. He was drunk when he fell in, but when Ed Roswell pulled him into his boat, he was extremely sober.

Cake walk: At the Peavey Grand Opera House Friday evening, there will be a grand cake walk immediately after the performance of Devils Mine. It will be under the auspices of the African M. E. Church. There will be four prizes given. No extra charge to participate.

100 Years Ago

Military training: School Supt. M. G. Clark recommended to the school board that the high school boys should be taught military training minus uniforms and guns. Several board members disagreed, with G. R. Bliven declaring that military training without rifles and uniforms were like strawberry shortcake without the strawberries. No decision was reached.

Preacher warning: The Rev. G. O. Kidder in his sermon at Trimble Methodist Episcopal Church warned that playing cards in so-called Christian homes is responsible for the downfall of coeds. He rapped dances in the public schools, declaring many young people lost their virtue before leaving school as a result of the dances.

Liquor haul: Police reported that 240 bottles of beer and 14 half-pints of whiskey were seized in a raid on the new Mondamin Hotel, Third and Douglas streets. Ray Rustad, the proprietor, was charged with maintaining a nuisance, while two men were charged with disturbing the peace.

50 Years Ago

Outstanding unit: The Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, which parallels the Legion of Honor for an individual, will be presented to two air defense units at the Sioux City Air Base Friday. The awards will be presented to Headquarters, 30th Air Division, and the 4644 Support Squadron during a formal parade ceremony on the flight line.

In the news: James M. Searing, 319 Pelletier Drive, a senior at Central High School, has been appointed to attend the U.S. Naval Academy by U. S. Sen. Jack Miller. Miss Careta Friend was installed as president of the Quota Club. Newell F. Guernsey of Sioux City, widely known landscape architect, was awarded honorary membership by the Iowa Planning Association.

Safe found: A safe stolen from the Biltmore Dining Room two weeks ago was found by some boys Tuesday under a bridge on a blacktop road between Iowa 141 and the west edge of Bronson. The door of the safe had been torn off and the dial was punched. The burglars apparently dumped the safe from the bridge.

25 Years Ago

Surprising storm: Siouxlanders traded their Easter bonnets for hooded parkas after the area was buried under up to 10 inches of wet snow Tuesday accompanied by 50 mph winds. The snow caused many schools and businesses in Siouxland to shut down. Dozens of accidents were reported.

Bird watching: More than 100 cedar waxwings munch nonstop in a tall, gnarled crab apple tree outside Lincoln Elementary School. Teacher Karen Swanson has made a project each year for her third-fourth grade pupils to use the birds in assignments.The cedar waxwings have been feeding on this tree for years.

No minors: The City Council Monday agreed to end the practice of several bars having non-alcohol teen nights in their establishments. Siouxland CARES made the request to enforce the city ordinance prohibiting minor in bars. Police Chief Gary Maas said teen nights generate a number of police calls because some youths go out to their cars to drink and then return inside.

These items were published in The Journal April 16-22, 1892, 1917, 1967 and 1992.
SIOUX CITY -- The Iowa Mortgage Association recently announced that Julie Schmidt, Janelle Noreen and Holly June of Security National Bank, Sioux City, Iowa, were recently accepted into the its 2016 Presidents Club/Winners Circle.

This is an ongoing recognition program in which the IMA recognizes mortgage originators who meet an outstanding level of loan volume for the year.

The members of the 2016 Winners Circle and Presidents Club were honored at the IMA Spring Conference on March 28 at the IMA's annual event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Julie Schmidt, vice president of mortgage services, qualified for the IMAs Presidents Club by virtue of producing $25,869,510 in loan volume with 142 closed residential loans. Schmidt has qualified for this honor every year since its inception in 2004.

Mortgage loan officer Janelle Noreen also qualified for the Presidents Club after closing out 82 loans last year with a production value of $21,199,389.

Holly June, mortgage originator, qualified for her third time as a Winners Circle honoree. Her production of $17,829,906 with 128 closed residential loans exceeded the minimum requirements for consideration into the Winners Circle.
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If you havent gotten over the last presidential election, you might want to see the new season of Veep.

It shows life on the other side  after President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is out of office and struggling to remain relevant.

Although Gary (Tony Hales), her common-law assistant, is still in tow, the rest of her presidential team has scattered.

The over-ambitious Dan (Reid Scott) is working on CBS This Morning. Her go-to aide Amy (Anna Chlumsky) is trying to help her boyfriend get elected and her spokesperson Mike (Matt Walsh) is trying to deal with an expanded family and no income.

Jonah (Timothy Simons), the idiotic White House aide who became a congressman and derailed Meyers re-election, is pretending to be battling cancer just to win voter sympathy.

Assorted other operatives are around, too, to see how the former president deals with life out of the spotlight. Among her first goals: a presidential library. Although nobody is willing to spearhead the campaign, she does see interest from foreigners who are looking to buy her influence. A 2020 presidential bid isnt out of the question, either. She toys with visiting Omaha, just to get to Council Bluffs for the Madison-Monroe Dinner where most hopefuls show.

Louis-Dreyfus, as usual, is brilliant. She still has the thirst for power but no visible way to quench it. When shes inspecting someone elses presidential library, she immediately becomes jealous and begins to plot her course. Gary tries to mask her ambition but, often, its too late.

While the shows writers might have done a little more research on Omaha and Council Bluffs (theyre not as far away as they think), they do get the dynamics of power just right.

In the third episode of the new season, Meyer is called to Georgia (the country) to monitor the first free election. There, she meets someone from the shows past whos just as funny as she was the first time around. The contribution floodgates open and its almost a sure thing shes going to be mounting yet another campaign.

In a Weiner-esque twist, she also discovers what its like to reconnect with someone from her past. The revelation (always at the risk of her ego) is delightful. The moment she hears a phone conversation, Louis-Dreyfus provides the visual evidence that explains why shes the one whos winning all the Best Actress in a Comedy Emmys. Chlumsky gets her moment in a similar situation and Scott is about as telegenic as TV anchors get. When he spars with his shows anchor, Veep shows new life (and potential for a spinoff).

While there are far too few Veep episodes each season, the ones that begin this, the sixth, are jewels to treasure.

Unimpeachable, Veep remains the best comedy on television. Now, more than ever.

Veep begins its sixth season at 9:30 p.m. Sunday on HBO.
SIOUX CITY | The gaming floor of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino was temporarily shut down following a problem in its information technology system Saturday afternoon.

Patrons on the floor-- where the slot machines and gambling tables are-- were asked to leave once the problem happened after noon and security would not allow anyone back in the gated area.

The casino, at 111 Third St., "experienced a temporary interruption of our Information technology system," a company press release said. "Iowa gaming law requires that... our information technology systems be fully functional in order for the gaming floor to be occupied."

Hard Rock officials said the floor would be opened back up Saturday evening.

The hotel, World Tour Buffet and Main + Abbey remained open during the shutdown.

The release did not specify what kind of information technology problem was to blame.
SIOUX CITY | Nearly two years after being arrested and charged with killing his estranged wife, Rogelio Morales remains in a Woodbury County Jail cell, awaiting trial.

Since Morales' arrest, two other homicides occurred in Sioux City. The two men charged in those cases have been tried and convicted.

The Hubbard, Nebraska, man's case is a rare example of what can happen in a case involving serious charges such as first-degree murder.

"Could a case take two years? Yes. Is it common? No. There's all sorts of reasons that cases can be delayed," said Robert Rigg, a Drake University law professor and director of the school's Criminal Defense Clinic.

In Morales' case, three different attorneys have withdrawn, pushing his case back to square one each time a new attorney was appointed.

Other legal issues have been filed and ruled upon. Psychological experts have been retained. A number of pending motions still await a judge's ruling.

There currently is no trial date set.

It's not an ideal situation, Woodbury County Attorney Patrick Jennings said.

"It's always our desire to do a case sooner rather than later. The longer a case takes to come to a conclusion, there's always an increase in the potential for unforeseen issues to come up," Jennings said.

Court records show a time line filled with delays.

Morales was arrested April 19, 2015, the day Margarita Morales, 21, was killed.

According to court documents, Morales told investigators he was talking to his wife in his car in the 2200 block of Floyd Boulevard at about 12:40 a.m., when he became upset after she told him she no longer wanted to be in a relationship with him and had been seeing another man. Morales showed investigators how he put his hand around his wife's neck, then said his next memory was that Morales was not breathing and she may have been dead, court documents said.

He drove to his sister's home, according to court documents, and she called 911. Margarita Morales was declared dead upon arrival at UnityPoint Health -- St. Luke's.

Mike Williams, then working in the public defender's office, was appointed to represent Morales.

Eleven days after the arrest, First Assistant Woodbury County Attorney Mark Campbell filed a formal charge of first-degree murder. Morales, 29, pleaded not guilty via a written arraignment the next day.

Williams began filing routine pretrial motions, then on Aug. 5, filed a motion to withdraw as Morales' attorney, saying that after studying confidential matters in the case, there was a conflict of interest in the public defender's Sioux City office that would prevent him from representing Morales.

District Judge Jeffrey Poulson appointed Peter Tenney from the public defender's office in Council Bluffs to represent Morales. At an October status conference, Poulson set Morales' first trial date: March 15, 2016.

In February 2016, Tenney sought a continuance of the trial, saying in court filings that more time was needed for investigation and for Morales to undergo an evaluation.

To accommodate the request, Morales waived his right to speedy trial within one year of arraignment. Poulson rescheduled the trial for Sept. 20, 2016.

After Poulson overruled a defense motion to keep Morales' interview with police from being used at trial, little action took place in the case until Aug. 1, when Tenney filed a motion to withdraw, citing a conflict of interest in representing Morales.

Three weeks later, Jason Dunn, then with the special defense unit of State Public Defender's Office in Des Moines, entered his appearance as Morales' attorney. Morales' trial was rescheduled for Jan. 24, 2017.

Dunn withdrew in October, citing his supervisor's determination that the Des Moines office was too busy to handle Morales' case.

Poulson then reappointed Williams, who had left the public defender's office for private practice, to the case.

Williams in November requested and Poulson approved the defense to retain the services of Dr. Richard Frederick, of Springfield, Missouri, a clinical psychologist. As the January trial date approached, Williams asked for a continuance, saying more time was needed to prepare for trial.

Poulson continued the trial indefinitely.

With other defense motions and requests pending, there's no sign that a trial will occur anytime soon. Campbell and Williams both declined to comment.

Given the several changes in attorneys and the possibility that Morales' mental health may be a factor in his defense, it's not too surprising that Morales has yet to go to trial, Rigg said.

Though Morales has waived his right to speedy trial, that doesn't necessarily mean lawyers have unlimited time to bring the case to trial. It would be up to Poulson, who declined to comment, to determine if both sides are moving the case along in a timely fashion.

"Judges have an end to their patience," Rigg said. "There are limits. It's up to the court to decide what those limits are, and it depends on the case."

Morales faces a lifetime prison sentence if found guilty as charged. With so much at stake, Rigg said, it's important that lawyers have enough time to prepare a case and lessen the chances of mistakes, which can lead to appeals and retrials.

"Sometimes cases involve complex issues that must be resolved on a pretrial basis, and that can take time," Rigg said.

In this case, it appears, it will take more time.
"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?)" Those are among Jesus' last words on the Cross that first Good Friday.

It was a cry of agony, but not despair. The dying Christ, to rise again in three days, was repeating the first words of the 22nd Psalm.

And today, in lands where Christ lived and taught and beyond where the Christian faith was born and nourished, the words echo. For it is in the birthplace of Christianity that Christians face the greatest of persecutions and martyrdoms since the time of Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin.

President Donald Trump, outraged by pictures of infants and children who had perished in the nerve gas attack in Syria, ordered missile strikes on the air base from which the war crime came.

Two days later, Palm Sunday, 44 Coptic Christians celebrating Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem were martyred in terrorist attacks in Egypt. The first bombing was at St. George's Church in Tanta, the second at St. Mark's in Alexandria, where the Coptic Pope Tawadros II was at Mass.

The pope was unhurt, but 100 Christians were injured in the attacks. At St. George's, one witness described the scene after the bomb exploded near the altar: "I saw pieces of body parts. ... There was so much blood everywhere. Some people had half of their bodies missing."

The Islamic State group claims credit for the murders, and the pictures of dead children from those churches were surely as horrific as the pictures the president saw after the gas attack.

Copts are among the earliest Christians, dating to the first century A.D., when St. Mark, one of the Twelve Apostles, established the first church outside the Holy Land and became bishop of Alexandria.

The Copts make up 10 percent of Egypt's population. They have been especially targeted for terrorist attacks since the 2013 overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, who had been elected president after the ouster of longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak.

In the subsequent struggle between Egypt's Islamists, whose base is in Sinai, and the Cairo regime of Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who was welcomed to the White House in March, the Copts are seen as soft-target allies of Gen. el-Sissi's and hated for their faith.

Whatever they did for democracy, the U.S. interventions in the Middle East and the vaunted Arab Spring have proved to be pure hell for Arab Christians.

In Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Christians were left alone if they did not interfere in politics. Indeed, they prospered as doctors, lawyers, journalists, academics, engineers, businessmen. A Christian, Tariq Aziz, was Saddam's foreign minister who negotiated with Secretary of State James Baker to try to prevent what became the Gulf War.

Before 2003, there were still 800,000 Christians in Iraq. But after a decade of church bombings and murders of priests, their numbers have plummeted. When the Islamic State seized a third of Iraq, Christians under the group's rule had to convert to Islam and pay a tax or face beheading.

On Dec. 26, St. Stephen's Day, which honors the first martyr, Pope Francis hailed the Iraqi Christians lately liberated from Islamic State rule, noting, "They are our martyrs of today, and there are so many we can say that they are more numerous than in the first centuries."

In 2016, an estimated 90,000 more Christians worldwide died for their faith.

Under Syria's dictator Hafez al-Assad and son Bashar, Christians have been 10 percent of the population and protected by the regime. They thus have sided with Assad against the terrorists of the Islamic State and al-Qaida, whose victory would mean their expulsion or death.

Of the 10 nations deemed by Christianity Today to be the most hateful and hostile toward Christianity, eight are majority-Muslim nations, with the Middle East being the site of the worst of today's persecutions.

Afghanistan, which we "liberated" in 2001, is listed as the third-most hostile nation toward Christians. The punishment for baptism there is death. A decade ago, a Christian convert had to flee his country to avoid beheading.

Consider. Christianity, whose greatest feast day we celebrate today, is the cradle faith of the culture and the civilization of the West. And in our secularized world, Christianity remains the predominant faith.

A millennium ago, Christendom mounted crusades to ensure that its pilgrims would not lose the right to visit the Holy Land in peace.

Now, a decade and a half after we launched invasions and occupations of the Muslim world in Afghanistan and then Iraq to bring the blessings of democracy, the people there who profess that Christian faith are being persecuted as horribly as they were under the Romans in Nero's time.

Where are the gains for religious freedom and human rights to justify all the bombings, invasions and wars we have conducted in the lands from Libya to Pakistan -- to justify the losses we have endured and the death and suffering we have inflicted?

Truth be told, it is in part because of us that Christianity is on its way to being exterminated in its cradle.

Happy Easter!
WASHINGTON -- The world is agog at Donald Trump's head-snapping foreign policy reversal. He runs on a platform of America First. He renounces the role of world policeman. He excoriates parasitic foreigners that (I paraphrase) suck dry our precious bodily fluids -- and these are allies! On April 4, Trump declared: "I don't want to be the president of the world. I'm the president of the United States. And from now on, it's going to be America First."

A week earlier, both his secretary of state and U.N. ambassador had said that the regime of Bashar Assad is a reality and that changing it is no longer an American priority.

Then Assad drops chemical weapons on rebel-held territory and Trump launches 59 Tomahawk missiles into Syria.

This was, in part, an emotional reaction to images of children dying of sarin poisoning. And, in part, seizing the opportunity to redeem Barack Obama's unenforced red line on chemical weapons.

Whatever the reason, moral or strategic, Trump acted. And effectively reset his entire foreign policy.

True, in and of itself, the raid will not decisively alter the course of Syria's civil war. Assad and his Iranian, Russian and Hezbollah co-combatants still have the upper hand -- but no longer a free hand. After six years of U.S. passivity, there are limits now and America will enforce them.

Nor was the raid the beginning of a campaign for regime change. It was, however, a reassertion of an American stake in both the conduct and the outcome of the war. America's abdication is over. Be warned.

Moreover, the very swiftness of the response carried a message to the wider world. Obama is gone. No more elaborate forensic investigations. No agonized presidential handwringing over the moral dilemmas of a fallen world. It took Obama 10 months to decide what to do in Afghanistan. It took Trump 63 hours to make Assad pay for his chemical-weapons duplicity.

America demonstrated its capacity for swift, decisive action. And in defense, mind you, of an abstract international norm -- a rationale that dramatically overrides the constraints of America First.

Trump's inaugural address had boldly rejected the 70-year American consensus to bear the burdens of world leadership. Less than three months later, the Syrian raid abruptly changed that course with a renewed interventionism -- not, to be sure, in the service of a crusade for democracy, but in the service of concrete strategic objectives, broadly defined and extending far beyond our shores.

To the North Pacific, for example. The Syria strike sent a message to both China and North Korea that Trump's threats of unilateral action against Pyongyang's nukes and missiles are serious. A pre-emptive strike against those facilities is still unlikely but today conceivable. Even more conceivable -- perhaps even probable -- is a shoot-down of a North Korean missile in flight.

The message to Russia was equally clear. Don't push too far in Syria and, by extension, in Europe. We're not seeking a fight, but you don't set the rules. Syria shared the Sharyat base with Russian troops. Russian barracks were left untouched, but we were clearly not deterred by their proximity.

The larger lesson is this: In the end, national interest prevails. Populist isolationism sounds great, rouses crowds and may even win elections. But contra White House adviser Steve Bannon, it's not a governing foreign policy for the United States.

Bannon may have written the come-home-America inaugural address. But it was the old hands, Trump's traditionally internationalist foreign policy team led by Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, who rewrote the script with the Syria strike.

Assad violated the international taboo on chemical weapons. Who would enforce it, if not us? Candidate Trump would have replied: None of our business. President Trump brought out the Tomahawks.

His foreign policy has gone from mere homeland protection to defending certain interests, values and strategic assets abroad. These endure over time. Hence the fundamental continuity of our post-World War II engagement abroad.

With apologies to Lord Palmerston, we don't have permanent enthusiasms, but we do have permanent interests. And they have a way of asserting themselves. Which is why Bannonism is in eclipse.

This is not to say that things could not change tomorrow. We've just witnessed one about-face. With a president who counts unpredictability as a virtue, he could well reverse course again.

For now, however, the traditionalists are in the saddle. U.S. policy has been normalized. The world is on notice: Eight years of sleepwalking is over. America is back.
At the state and federal level, April is designated as the Month of the Military Child. Officially, it is designed to recognize the 1.7 million children of service members for their sacrifices and for their successes. Over 900,000 have had one or both parents deployed multiple times. More than 10,000 Iowa children have at least one parent in the military.

Im grateful for the patience and perseverance my children have shown in my career. Although they had the advantage of more time with their mother and grandparents, the monthly absences and year-long deployment have created challenges.

Military children bear a significant burden, having to deal with separations ranging from weekends to years or, in some cases, lifetimes. The only choice they have in these circumstances is in how they deal with the challenges. Sometimes this results in adverse situations. However, far more emerge stronger and with greater maturity than their peers.

One of the ways in which military children bear an even greater share of national responsibility is reflected in their military enlistment rates. According to information from the Department of Defense, more than 25 percent of military enlistees in 2014-15 had one or more parent serve in the military. In fact, 80 percent of troops come from families where at least one parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, sibling or cousin has also worn the nations uniform.

A narrow segment of the total population, less than 1 percent, serves the nation in uniform. One-fourth are children of military parents and four-fifths have close military relatives. This, despite significant examples that broke previous barriers to service. A small band of Americans is called upon to conduct this nations military affairs, leaving the overwhelming majority of our citizenry far removed from the effects of employing them.

This distance might contribute to the casualness in which military force is approved by Americans. A survey in December 2015 showed that 60 percent of 18-to-19-year-olds favored using ground troops to fight ISIS, but only 16 percent were willing to serve in combat.

A survey in March 2014, at the height of the Russian occupation of Crimea, asked people to identify Ukraine on a map and whether the U.S. should intervene militarily there. Only 16 percent correctly identified Ukraine; those placing it furthest from its actual location had the highest desire for U.S. involvement. In another survey a year ago, 19 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of Republicans surveyed supported bombing Agrabah, the fictional kingdom in Aladdin.

Since so few are able to relate to the military or the sacrifices that military children bear, how can people appropriately honor them?

One way would be to devote as much time to understanding foreign and military policy as is paid to reality television or extraneous activities. Failing that, perhaps people could refrain from issuing accolades or condemnation of decisions being made based on headlines or social media.

Another way would be to urge Congress to consider foreign and defense policy seriously. Congress has a constitutional role in the use of military force. The country also would be well-served by having budgets based on real threats, and passed on time.

A final way would be to support local organizations that provide assistance to service members and their families. Local veteran service organizations, non-profits and National Guard and Reserve Family Readiness Groups work to provide help to service members and their families.

When the nation sends its military to conduct its operations, it sends not only its sons and daughters, but fathers, mothers and grandparents. Our leaders and citizens should be mindful of that.

Next week: Charese Yanney

A Sioux City resident, Steve Warnstadt is government affairs coordinator for Western Iowa Tech Community College and a former Democratic state senator. He and his wife, Mary, are the parents of one son and one daughter.
The editorial page of any newspaper, including The Sioux City Journal, contains opinions, not news. Anyone who routinely reads The Journal's editorial page becomes familiar with the worldview and biases of the regular editorial writers. Pat Buchanan is a conservative nationalist and E.J. Dionne is a progressive liberal, to offer two examples.

Being aware of an editorial writer's politics enables the reader to assess with a critical eye the opinion the writer is advancing.

On Saturday, April 8, The Journal published a guest column by Drew Klein, who was identified as Iowa state director of Americans for Prosperity.

This was a disservice to Journal readers. As someone who regularly reads The Journal editorial page, Mr. Klein is not a regular contributor and so his political philosophy was not known to me.

In order for me and other readers to determine Mr. Klein's political belief system, The Journal should have included that Americans for Prosperity is an organization created and financially supported by the Koch brothers, two of the country's most far-right corporate leaders. The Koch brothers use their immense wealth to promote their extreme reactionary agenda.

Mr. Klein's piece was Koch brothers propaganda and should have been identified by The Journal as such.

According to Webster's Dictionary, an opinion is a belief not based on absolute certainty or positive knowledge. Propaganda is promoting particular ideas, doctrines, practices, etc., by deception or distortion.

Mr. Klein's writing style is to begin a paragraph with a cherry-picked fact and then finish the paragraph with a specious conclusion purported as fact. - Keith Sutherland, Sioux City
ROCK VALLEY, Iowa | As the Rock Valley, Iowa, community celebrates the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Hegg Memorial Health Center Avera, growth continues in the form of a $26.8 million construction project.

The effort tabbed "Building Communities" involves renovating inpatient and outpatient wings, clinic, surgery and Emergency Department.

Ground was broken for this upgrade in September 2016. The new areas will open in January 2018 and in November 2018 (the new clinic portion).

"We're replacing inpatient beds, replacing outpatient services, areas like lab, radiology and emergency room services, labor and delivery," said Glenn Zevenbergen, hospital administrator. "The nursery will be new, the entire surgery area will be new; and when we're done building this new piece, we'll remodel the family practice clinic."

Zevenbergen, an employee with 28 years of experience at Hegg, noted that patient privacy and confidentiality served as the main drivers for this project.

"In the original hospital, everything centered around the nurses' station and the majority of the work was on the inpatient side. Everyone flowed right past and near the nurses' station and the inpatient area. Healthcare has since shifted to some 80 percent of the care occurring on the outpatient side. The new facility allows us to work on that outpatient-based system, while the inpatient services are off to the side (and more private)."

Hogendoorn Construction, of Canton, South Dakota, serves as general contractor for the effort, while Graham Construction of Des Moines works as construction manager. Hoefer Wisoki of Kansas City is the architect.

A $4 million capital campaign was completed in less than one year's time to help bring the project about. The hospital contributed $3 million from cash reserves and the remainder, some $19.8 million, is funded through a USDA Rural Development loan spanning 35 years at 2 3/8 percent interest.

Zevenbergen noted that the local capital campaign surpassed its $4 million goal and currently stands at $4.2 million. By reaching a $4.5 million level, the hospital staff will able to add some technological components to the expansion.

Hegg Memorial Health is named for Dr. Lester Hegg, who served Rock Valley for decades prior to the opening of the hospital. Hegg, in fact, died in 1966, before he was ever able to use the hospital, a structure that has grown to mirror the growth of this Sioux County city, whose population has ballooned by nearly 2,000 residents since the 1950s.

"We are so grateful for our community and their ongoing support," Zevenbergen said. "It was amazing the support we received as we went around to raise money for this capital campaign."

Annual payroll at Hegg for 200 full-time equivalent positions comes to $10 million.

This "Building Communities" effort comes on the heels of the completion of the rehab center and wellness center project, which culminated about five years ago.

"As that was being done, we took a look at the rest of the 13-acre campus and said that most of the rest, including long-term care, had been updated and replaced," Zevenbergen said. "The area that remained was our hospital in- and outpatient services."
JACKSON, Neb. | The Jackson-based Siouxland Ethanol is firing on all cylinders this spring after undergoing an $8 million expansion that's anticipated to increase yearly production by over 20 percent.

The ethanol plant at 1501 Knox Blvd. completed the major project in January, raising its projected output from 65 million gallons of the corn-based fuel per year to 80 million.

Pam Miller, Siouxland Ethanol's director of industry and investor relations, said the result has been higher profits as it reduces its overall manufacturing cost per gallon.

"We're able to spread our fixed costs over more gallons," Miller said. "That translates to bottom-line increased profits."

The plant first fired up its machinery in 2007 with the capacity to produce 50 million gallons of ethanol per year. In February 2016, the company completed a push that streamlined its processes, tweaked some ingredients and added new equipment, boosting capacity to 65 million gallons.

The Board of Directors in June approved the $8 million expansion, which has now brought production up to its current status. The expansion also increased Siouxland Ethanol's projected output of distillers grain from 164,000 tons per year to 190,000 tons and boosted corn oil output from 22 million gallons per year to 27 million.

Miller said the largest portion of the expansion project included the addition of two new fermenters, bringing the number at the facility to six. The plant also added substantial cooling capacity, which helps it run more smoothly in the hotter months.

The 24/7 facility, which has a staff of 37, is backed by around 700 investors, most living within a 100-mile radius of Jackson.

Miller said the company last year received "efficient producer" status, an Environmental Protection Agency designation that takes into account greenhouse gas emissions.

"Our running average is about 28.1 percent lower in greenhouse gas emissions as compared to a refinery," she said. "That's a really good number."

Revenue in the plant's 2016 fiscal year, which ended in September, totaled $11.6 million, up from $10.5 million the year before. Miller said she believes the next year will be another positive one.

Miller, one of Siouxland Ethanol's founders, assumed the role of director of industry and investor relations last year. She has been chairwoman of its board of directors since 2012.

The company last year also hired Nick Bowdish with N Bowdish Company from Carroll, Iowa, as president and CEO for Siouxland Ethanol. Bowdish has day-to-day responsibilities for the operation.

Miller said efforts are ongoing to boost public awareness about higher ethanol blends, such as E-30, which contains 30 percent ethanol to 70 percent gasoline, as opposed to the 10 percent included in E-10, the blend used by the majority of vehicles across the United States.

"Although not approved by the EPA for use in non-flex (fuel) vehicles, we have strong evidence that it performs extremely well for its high octane, which causes complete combustion in the engine and results in fewer tailpipe emissions," she said.

Miller said efforts include educating motorists about alternative fuel options such as E-30 and E-15 blends, as well as working with retailers to expand the number of pumps selling such fuels in the region.
STORM LAKE, Iowa | Dr. Jason Dierking, a surgeon serving Buena Vista Regional Medical Center in Storm Lake, fixed a hernia on a late morning in late March. He then sat down for a chicken-and-mac-n-cheese lunch while speaking about the latest physical and technological upgrades at the hospital.

And, then it was on to a colonoscopy.

Dierking, a 1994 graduate of Storm Lake High School, serves one of the first health-care institutions in Iowa that has the VISERA 4K Ulta High-Definition (UHD) System, a big-screen TV and camera system that delivers four times the pixels, higher resolution, better light, and a wider color spectrum than standard high-definition displays.

The system uses the same Sony technology used in filming Netflix 4K shows.

"It is super high-resolution," Dierking said. "I just like having more pixels. You can see everything better."

The technology should allow BVRMC surgeons to operate with increased precision and confidence, providing the surgical team with an immersive experience similar to that of watching a concert or sporting event at home.

Additionally, the images and footage captured during a surgical procedure are saved for surgeons to call up at any time, any place.

"You can pull up the images at the office or at home," Dierking said. "There's so much more information in pictures than in a dictated operative report."

The Storm Lake-based hospital erected its first 4K tower in August while updating the lighting systems in all four operating rooms. Screens were then mounted on that tower and subsequent units. The two larger operating rooms received the 4K boost in January.

The upgrades throughout the surgical areas, Dierking remarked, began with the 4K technology. The fact those improvements spread, he said, was akin to having a new dishwasher lead to a kitchen-remodeling project.

Doctors serving Buena Vista Regional Medical Center completed nearly 3,000 surgical procedures in the most recent fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016.

The VISERA 4K UHD System was created to address unmet needs in surgical imaging by improving visual elements, such as resolution, light, and color, essential for laparoscopic and arthroscopic surgery.

"The color and contrast in the Olympus 4K image provides superb clarity, giving us images that we have never had before," Dierking said. "The image is so clear that I am able to see down to the capillary level, which is important for improved dissection of tissue and evaluating the perfusion of the tissue."

More vivid shades of red and yellow allow for better visualization, allowing a surgeon to observe fine patterns and structures with high precision while delivering higher contrast levels with more detail to support greater accuracy.

"A high-definition TV has 1,080 pixels," said Casey Orth-Nebitt, an RN who manages the surgery department. "This is 4,000 pixels. We can zoom in and not lose quality. And, the color spectrum expands the field of color with the 4K system."

A slight change in tissue color, for example, can mean big things to a surgical staff.

The VISERA 4K UHD System also enhances a surgeon to see inside the patient's body during minimally invasive surgical procedures involving a miniature camera, an endoscope. Images from the endoscope are projected onto a monitor in the operating room, presenting a clear, magnified view of the surgical site.

Minimally invasive surgeries can offer improvements in morbidity and mortality over open surgical procedures with benefits to patients including less post-operative pain and faster recuperation.

The 4K system is the latest in a series of developments at BVRMC over the past several years, a period in which no single area of the hospital has remained untouched. The new entrance, for example, leads to a number of offices that allow for privacy and interpretive assistance for those checking into the hospital. The word "Welcome" is shown in some 26 languages above the main entrance point.

Each wing also has limited points of entry, safeguards put in place to offer patients and their families a higher degree of security in a place that, like all regional hospitals, has transitioned over the years from a site that largely serves inpatients to one that deals with scores of outpatients on a daily basis.

"We are a rural, or critical-access health center, and one of the busiest in the state for surgical volume and patient volume," Orth-Nebitt said.

Dierking said he never had an overarching goal to return to Storm Lake to work in the hospital, which employs more than 400 people who reside in 54 communities. After working eight years in Iowa City and five years in South Carolina, he was about to interview at hospitals in Pella and Dubuque, Iowa, when he learned about an opportunity in his hometown.

"The opportunity worked out here first," he said. "I never did interview in Pella or Dubuque."
SIOUX CITY  Tri-Rinse, a seed box restoration and storage company, is approaching its one-year anniversary in Sioux City.

The family-owned company was founded in 1981 and is based in St. Louis. Tri-Rinse operates multiple facilities throughout the Midwest, including its newest location in Sioux City, which opened last May.

Nancy Pfankuch, a customer service manager for Tri-Rinse, said expanding to Sioux City made logistical sense for the company.

That location serves dealers and farmers in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and the Dakotas  its like a regional plant, she said.

Sioux City Tri-Rinse operates out of the former Soo Tractor facility on 2525 Hawkeye Drive. Soo Tractor was a farm equipment manufacturer that had been in business since 1942, but closed all operations in 2015 due to the slumping agricultural economy.

The loss of Soo Tractor eliminated 53 jobs from the local economy. Coupled with the closing of the companys other Sioux City location at 1400 W. First St., it also left more than 200,000 square feet of unoccupied manufacturing space.

Staffers from the Sioux City Economic Development office worked to fill that void. Renae Billings, a Sioux City economic development specialist, worked directly with Tri-Rinse to bring the company to town.

They were considering Sioux City and Illinois for their next choice for expansion, she said. They came here and we showed them several locations and they decided on a building on Hawkeye Drive.

Marty Dougherty, economic development director of Sioux City, said that with enough forewarning his office will work with entities looking to conduct business in the community.

When we get a lead, we basically are available to help," he said. "Sometimes its a business, sometimes its a developer, sometimes a commercial realtor or site-selector and depending on whether they are here now or somebody looking for a location, we show them the community, tell them about the various kind of business assistance programs that either we have or the state has and tell them about all of the great things about our community and try to meet whatever need they have.

The nearly 150,000-square-foot Hawkeye Drive site was perfect for Tri-Rinse, which employs 19 people at the site.

We have plants in four different cities so that we can serve regional bases so that they dont have to send boxes all the way from Indiana to Sioux City; Indiana boxes go to our Illinois site, Pfankuch said.

So far, Pfankuch said Tri-Rinse has been pleased with the decision to come to Sioux City.

Location to our market was primary and then secondary was labor base, she said. We have another plant in Ackley, Iowa, so you know Iowa is a big state for us. You know what your three main exports up there are and its all farming  corn, beans and pork  and we serve two of those, corn and beans, so thats a big reason that is appealing and location is everything to us. We want to be convenient to our customers.
HULL, Iowa | Western Christian High School in Hull dedicated a $7.1 million addition and renovation in October, welcoming alumnae from every decade back to the 1930s.

Guests toured new administrative offices, a new student commons and renovated areas such as the old gym, which is now an event center, a backstage area, an FFA wing and more.

The private school has raised $4.8 million in pledges, expectancies and cash for the effort. The balance has been secured through loans, some of which come from the Western Christian Foundation.

The school, which was founded as Western Academy in 1919 in a large home in Hull, began as a Christian school to primarily educate teachers and pastors. Since 1927, it has been located on the north side of Hull, a Sioux County community that's home to three high schools, including Boyden-Hull and Trinity Christian. Hull itself has grown by nearly 1,100 people since 1950.

Western Christian was so named because, at the time it was established, it was the first school affiliated with Christian Schools International to stand west of the Mississippi River. Enrollment peaked at more than 500 students in grades 9-12 some five decades ago. Currently, enrollment is 274, a spike of 25 students from one year ago.

Western Christian didn't operate for one academic year in the early 1930s, thanks to the Depression. When payments for the school building couldn't be made, Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was operated by the Christian Reformed Church, assumed the first mortgage for $10,000 and was awarded title of the building.

The history of Western Christian High School is displayed on several panels that line the south wall of the new student commons. The area features historic photos as well as tidbits about Western's founding and rich academic and extracurricular history. When class reunions are held in this new space, as they were this summer, composite photos from the graduating class are presented.

"It is fun to see our current students look at those older composite photos and make connections to people who have graduated from Western," said Dan Barkel, high school principal.

Just across the hall near administrative offices set off by large windows is an ever-changing Western Christian history case that displays a 1922 diploma, a number of band uniforms and other items bearing the school's name and insignia.

Down the hall is Western's old gymnasium that has been renovated into the high school event center. Barkel said that while students, faculty members and boosters sought a new auditorium, such an endeavor wouldn't fit within the confines of this project. So, members of the building committee challenged the pros from Cannon Moss Brygger Architects to transform the gym into a multi-use facility.

"They really succeeded in doing that," said Barkel, who came to Western Christian to lead the choir program 25 years ago.

The old gym now has a new floor, new lighting, heating/air-conditioning units and sound boards for better acoustic delivery. There are also 350 theater seats that fold up along one wall and extend to center court before rolling as one unit to the front of a stage that has been enlarged.

"We did our plays and music programs on the stage in the old gym and the acoustics were horrible," Barkel said. "The major thrust of this portion of the project was to make the area better for our fine arts programs and chapel."

The Hull Chamber of Commerce in mid-October helped baptize the new event center with a Night of Hope event to raise funds and awareness to fight breast cancer. "It's a wonderful facility, with room and much better acoustics and lighting," said Shelly Van Otterloo, executive director of the Hull Area Chamber of Commerce. "The new sound system alone helps us feel like we're doing a better job for the entertainers we are hosting."

The project also realized the gutting of the old music area and the installation of new systems for heating and air conditioning in classrooms throughout the high school. A new FFA wing, established in the former family and consumer science area, already is seeing widespread use as the ag program numbers 92 students, healthy enrollment for a first-year effort directed by rookie teacher Kylie Miller.

The science classrooms were also renovated, allowing teachers to split classrooms for traditional desk work and that done in labs. The classrooms and labs are divided by windows, giving teachers the chance to observe students working in both areas.

Work continued throughout the structure, as interior designer Michelle Rosenboom, a Western grad, led the effort, including work on the Western "senior bench" area, a popular one during a pair of five-minute breaks each day. The top level of the high school was also painted by a pair of Western supporters, aided with the receipt of grants from Diamond Vogel Paints and True Value.

"The paint matches the new construction," said Barkel, lauding the work done by general contractor Poppema-Sikma Construction of nearby Sheldon, Iowa. Again, principal contractors Robert Poppema and Dan Poppema knew the area well. Both men are Western grads.

"We are really pleased with it," said Barkel, noting how construction took the entire 2015-16 academic year. "It was our first major construction project in the past 20 years."
SPENCER, Iowa -- After a long dry-spell for construction of new apartments in Spencer, the city should see 100 new units by mid-summer,

Spencer-based Community Housing, Inc. (CHI) already has 30 new two, three and four-bedroom, income-dependent units partially leased at Southern Pointe, with only landscaping remaining to complete the $4.7 million project. Steve Bootes Sioux Falls-based Eagle Construction Co. plans to have its $9 million, three story, 70-unit Windcrest Apartments available for market rate leasing.

As Spencer Planning & Zoning director Kirby Schmidt explained recently, he has worked for the city for 25 years. And Windcrest is the first market-rate apartment Ive issued a permit for. All the others were either income subsidized, tax credit, or senior housing projects. The last market-rate apartment building was Oak Crete, a three-story complex with one and two-bedroom units across from East Leach Park on East 4th St. Oak Crete was built in the early 90s. Thats a long gap.

Both Southern Pointe and Windcrest are located in the southwest corner of the city. And both experienced unexpectedly slow construction during the winter, due to early snowfall and frost.

CHI FILLS NEED

CHI leasing agent Brittany Spieker says CHI is filling a need in the low-to-moderate income area with all-electric three and four-bedroom units and four-bedroom townhomes. Rent on a three bedroom unit ranges from $520 per month, to $560, with a limited number of $620, market rate units.

The three-bedroom, two-story townhomes are the most popular, Spieker said. But it all depends on the family dynamic. The older applicants really like the three-bedroom units because there are no stairs.

The townhouse units have a full-size first-floor laundry in a 1,125 square-foot space. Kitchen appliances include a dishwasher and microwave oven, along with a stove, and a full-size washer and dryer. CHI also provides window blinds. Internet service is included in the rent, as is a one car garage.

Spieker said, When youre in the Southern Pointe apartments you feel like youre in a downtown Des Moines loft with high ceilings, and exposed duct work. Its doesnt feel like youre in Spencer, Iowa.

Whats most unique is the apartments that are handicapped accessible. Its really awesome to see someone in a wheelchair turn around in a hallway. Its the simple things Id never even thought of, like going into a bathroom and turning around. Its really been great, Spieker said.

Every unit meets Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA ) widths. We even have units with lower kitchen countertops, and some with the lower cabinets removed so that a wheelchair can be rolled under the counters.

CHI is hoping to have Southern Pointe fully leased by June. It was been a difficult construction season. We poured concrete in a blizzard. Landscaping is to be completed as soon as the weather allows. That is my favorite part of the project, she added.

CHI marketing director Matt Hauge says rental rates for range from $520 to $570 for a three-bedroom unit, depending on income. The goal of affordable housing is to keep housing costs to one-third or less of a persons income.

LIKE TALLGRASS

Steve Boote says he is, not just happy, but super excited to be building his Windcrest Apartments in Spencer -- a nearly identical project to the recently opened Tallgrass Village in Spirit Lake, and five others in South Dakota earlier. It just feels right.

Prefab walls allowed Bootes company to work through the winter, and finish most of the exterior before the first day of Spring. That kept several crews busy through the normally slow winter months, Boote said. In the rural areas its tough to get the crews for a project of this size.

Boote is also building three, six-unit townhomes -- with attached garages -- next to the three-story, 70-unit complex just north of Southpark Mall. There are garages available for tenants. And, he explained that he has enough land to add a similar 70-unit structure, more townhomes and garages, if there is the need. A similar complex in Yankton, S.D. is already in its second phase, he added.

Windcrest includes one, two and three-bedroom units, with a couple efficiency apartments. There is an elevator near the center of the facility where a multipurpose community room is planned.

While some of Bootes projects have included a fitness area instead of a community room, Boote explained that Spirit Lake was the first to have the community room instead of a gym, as the Tallgrass complex is located just across the road from the Bedell Family YMCA. There is also free wi-fi in the Tallgrass community room and a big screen television in the commons area, he said.

Ground was broken in March for three, six-unit townhomes at Windcrest.

We just opened 10 of these three and four bedroom townhome units in Spirit Lake. Six are leased already -- in just a matter of weeks. Its a unique concept. We studied several plans, toured other communities, and worked hard on the floor plan. Theyve been received extremely well.

Boote partnered with the city of Spencer in this project after seeing the need, and after Spencer adopted a 10-year tax abatement. What that does for us in Spencer is get the one bedroom rate down to the low to mid sixes, where it would probably need to be somewhere in the $750 range without the abatement, he said.

It is an incredible gift back to the community. Suddenly, housing becomes quite affordable. And, because it is what we call market-rate apartments, they arent subsidized through a federal or state program where a renter would have to meet income guidelines. Anyone can rent.

What we see in our communities, two or three years into it, is that a lot of the younger people in the building, get married, they grow in their job, they buy a house. And thats the best thing a town has ever seen. For me, its the most rewarding part of what we do. Were going to the rural areas and were making it affordable.

Boote says apartment living has become more common in recent years, especially since the Dodd-Frank legislation that tightened the criteria for home loans. Appraisal rules have gotten tougher, too. And that has hurt the rural areas the most, because you cant get the appraisals, they cant get the downstroke, and they cant buy.

Touring the skeleton of what he called a typical three-bedroom unit, Boote explained that the units have nine-foot ceilings, a coat closet, a pantry, a bathroom for the kids bedroom, a full in-suite laundry, a living area with kitchen, a master bedroom suite with a walk-in closet, and a private bath for mom and dad -- all in an apartment.

The kitchens will feature upgraded appliances like glass-top stoves, Boote said. And each unit will also have a deck.

Boote says he expects to find a broad demographic spectrum in his renters. Along with the young working people and young families, youll see some older residents -- empty-nesters and the like.
ORANGE CITY, Iowa | In the year Vogel Paint Inc. celebrated its 90th anniversary, the company added another layer of expansion, breaking ground for an addition of 91,000 square feet to its Peridium Powder Coatings production facility, more than doubling its capacity.

"We began with site work one year ago and then began erecting the facility during the late summer," said Scott Heemstra, director of manufacturing at Diamond Vogel, the paint manufacturing farm started by Andrew Vogel some nine decades ago.

"We have 10 production lines in the powder coating facility and we'll have room for 15 more over time," Heemstra disclosed.

Initially, the company will install six of those 15 lines while hiring an additional 25 employees. In a five-year time span, as production lines are added, a total of 49 additional employees will join the firm in that capacity.

"We employ 65 people right now between the research and development lab and in quality control lab and production," said David Vander Werff, director of human resource services.

The sprawling manufacturing concern on Orange City's southern edge began powder coating in 1998 and five years later built its powder coating plant, which measures 67,000 square feet.

"We began with two lines, grew to three lines and now operate two shifts," Heemstra said.

The company employs about 330 people in Orange City, reaching peak employment during the summer months. All told, Vogel Paint employs nearly 800 people in a 14-state region.

"Our demand predominantly comes from that 14-state region, but it is growing all over North America," Heemstra said.

"We have seen consistent double-digit growth," Vander Werff explained, citing a reason for the $29.9 million expansion effort.

Heemstra said the plant continues to achieve efficiencies through redundancy, allowing Diamond Vogel to schedule groups of colors to realize that efficiency. Equipment for the new plant addition comes from North America and Europe.

"A lot of the techniques and the way we produce are unique to the industry," said Heemstra, noting that the company's partners across the globe have labeled the Diamond Vogel powder coating effort as a world-class process that gives the firm a competitive advantage and leads to even more demand.

Vogel's powder enables the company's customers to paint more efficiently, thus becoming more cost-effective in the process.

"It ends up being a win/win situation for our customers," Vander Werff said.

Diamond Vogel, a family-owned enterprise based in the Sioux County seat, recently welcomed the fourth generation of the Vogel family into its ownership and management roles, at a time when an expansion shows the continued investment into a community that has grown by more than 4,000 people in the past six decades or so.

"The expansion certainly signals the company's commitment to the community while also giving thanks to past and current employees that have helped it achieve success," said Vander Werff.

The 2017 project is the latest in a series of advancements within the sprawling Vogel footprint along Sioux County Road K-64. Just five years ago, the firm completed a warehouse expansion of 13,500 square feet.

"We've grown a lot faster than we expected," said Heemstra.
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Minerals Technologies Inc. develops, produces, and markets various specialty mineral, mineral-based, and synthetic mineral products, and supporting systems and services. The company operates through three segments: Performance Materials, Specialty Minerals and Refractories. The Performance Materials segment supplies bentonite and bentonite-related products, as well as leonardite. This segment also offers metal casting products; household, personal care, and specialty products; and basic minerals, environmental products, and building materials. In addition, it provides products for non-residential construction, environmental, and infrastructure projects, as well as for construction and remediation project customers. The Specialty Minerals segment produces and sells precipitated calcium carbonate and quicklime; and provides natural mineral products comprising limestone and talc. This segment's products are used in paper and packaging, building materials, paint and coatings, glass, ceramic, polymer, food, automotive, and pharmaceutical industries. The Refractories segment offers monolithic and shaped refractory materials; specialty products, services, and application and measurement equipment; and calcium metal and metallurgical wire products that are used in the applications of steel, non-ferrous metal, and glass industries. The company markets its products primarily through its direct sales force, as well as regional distributors. It serves in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Minerals Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
WASHINGTON

(April 16, 2017)The U.S. Department of Defense recently announced the following contract awards that pertain to local Navy activities., is being awarded afirm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery requirements contract for depot level maintenance, logistics, and sustaining engineering services in support of the C-12 utility lift aircraft for the Navy and Marine Corps. Services to be provided include site support maintenance, aircraft depot maintenance, engine depot maintenance, aircraft and aircraft systems modifications, potential site stand-ups and closures. Work will be performed in San Angelo, Texas (58.5 percent); Bahrain (4.7 percent); Atsugi, Japan (4 percent); Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (4 percent); Iwakuni, Japan (3.7 percent); Miramar, California (3.5 percent); New River, North Carolina (3.0 percent); Beaufort, South Carolina (3 percent); Belle Chasse, Louisiana (3 percent); Yuma, Arizona (2.9 percent); Kadena, Okinawa, Japan (2.8 percent); Patuxent River, Maryland (2.3 percent); Futenma, Okinawa, Japan (2.2 percent); Misawa, Japan (1.6 percent); and Manassas, Virginia (0.8 percent), and is expected to be completed in July 2022. No funds are being obligated at time of award. Funds will be obligated against individual delivery orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals, five offers received. The, is the contracting activity (N00019-17-D-0088)., is being awardedfor modification P00156 to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-11-C-0020) to provide additional funding for MH-60R/S common cockpits, Minimum Avionics Configuration (MAC) kits, non-MAC kits, and logistics support. Fiscal 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $17,687,047 will be obligated at time of award, $4,100,781 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Fiscal 2012, 2013 and 2014 air procurement (Navy) funds are authorized obligation adjustments and expenditures of expired funds in accordance with, 31 U.S. Code 1553(a). The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded afirm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for depot level engine repair for the AE21000D3 engine on the KC-130J aircraft in support of the Marine Corps and the government of Korea. Work will be performed in Oakland, California (40 percent); Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (30 percent); Alverca, Portugal (20 percent); Farnborough, Hampshire, United Kingdom (5 percent); and Indianapolis, Indiana (5 percent). Work is expected to be completed in April 2022. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Funds will be obligated on each delivery order as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured via electronic request for proposals; three offers were received. The, is the contracting activity (N00019-17-D-0090)., is being awardedfor modification P00007 to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-17-C-0017) to conduct additional risk reduction activities in support of the MQ-25 Unmanned Carrier Aviation Air System, including refinement of concepts and development of trade space for requirements generation in advance of the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program. Work will be performed in Rancho Bernardo, California (50 percent); Space Park, California (30 percent); and Palmdale, California (20 percent), and is expected to be completed in September 2018. Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $24,797,517 are being obligated at time of award; all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awardedfor modification P00005 to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-16-C-0084) to conduct additional risk reduction activities in support of the MQ-25 Unmanned Carrier Aviation Air System, including refinement of concepts and development of trade space for requirements generation in advance of the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri (99 percent); and Puget Sound, Washington (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in September 2018. Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $19,145,579 are being obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awardedfor modification P00006 to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-16-C-0086) to conduct additional risk reduction activities in support of the MQ-25 Unmanned Carrier Aviation Air System, including refinement of concepts and development of trade space for requirements generation in advance of the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program. Work will be performed in Palmdale, California (98 percent); and Fort Worth, Texas (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in September 2018. Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $18,893,482 are being obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awardedfor modification P00005 to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-16-C-0085) to conduct additional risk reduction activities in support of the MQ-25 Unmanned Carrier Aviation Air System, including refinement of concepts and development of trade space for requirements generation in advance of the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program. Work will be performed in Poway, California (90 percent); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (5 percent); and Rancho Bernardo, California (5 percent), and is expected to be completed in September 2018. Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $18,735,000 are being obligated at time of award; all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded acost-plus-fixed-fee task order (4769) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0003) for initial integrated logistics support and training for the Joint Standoff Weapon for the government of Saudi Arabia under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in Tuscon, Arizona (50 percent); and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (50 percent), and is expected to be completed in December 2020. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $16,871,813 will be obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awardedfor firm-fixed-price delivery order 0055 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-16-G-0001) for retrofit non-recurring engineering, support data, validation and verification kits, and tooling for the Engineering Change Proposal 631 "Changes to the Inner Wing Panel" in support of the F/A-18A/B/C/D aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be completed in April 2020. Fiscal 2016 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $11,792,262 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded afirm-fixed-price contract for 300 BRU-55A/A aircraft bomb ejector racks. Work will be performed in North Amityville, New York (52 percent); Johnstown, Pennsylvania (22 percent); Franklin, Pennsylvania (10 percent); Newbury Park, California (9 percent); and Riverside, California (7 percent), and is expected to be completed in April 2020. Fiscal 2017 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $29,464,211. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(b)(2). The, is the contracting activity (N00019-17-C-0029).
Divisional champion Yoga Pants continues to impress in British Columbia, capturing the fastest of two $10,000 Penny Bath Memorial eliminations for three-year-old pacing fillies on Saturday (April 15) at Fraser Downs.

With trainer and regular driver Jim Marino in the sulky, Yoga Pants sprinted out quickly and kept her rivals' eyes on her tail. After fractions of :28.2, :58.2 and 1:27, Yoga Pants repelled a late challenge from Alexas Princess (Jim Burke) for a length-and-a-half score in a seasonal best 1:56.

Last Time To Play (Serge Masse) was a non-factor from the pocket to complete the triactor while Cardinal Rule (John Chappell) finished fourth for a spot in the Bath final.

Now two-for-two in 2017, JJJ Stables' Yoga Pants (Sportswriter - Lucks Pleasure) has an enviable seven-for-eight lifetime summary and a bankroll exceeding $126,000. She looks to be the best heading into next week's final for Marino, who enjoyed a training triple on the Saturday card.

Tahuya Gameday stayed perfect in four starts this year with a passing lane pounce in the first elimination.

With driver John Abbott in tow, Tahuya Gameday sat patiently in the pocket while favoured Keys Please (Masse) fronted the field through fractions of :28.4 and :59.3. Shesamysterytome (Ryan Grundy) recovered from an early miscue to apply pressure down the backside and keep Keys Please honest through a third station of 1:28.2. As the field hit the stretch, Abbott steered his charge into the passing lane. Making ground on the leader with every stride, Tahuya Gameday got up in the final feet to trip the timer a neck the best in 1:57.1. Keys Please stayed for second with an impressive Shesamysterytome (Ryan Grundy) right with the leaders in third. Cays Blessing (Marino) finished fourth to also advance.

A homebred owned by trainer Erik Neyhart along with Juan Samper, Tahuya Gameday (Mystery Chase - Under Five) boasts a 5-2-0 summary from eight lifetime starts and more than $36,000 in purses.

The top four finishers plus one fifth-place finisher will advance to the $75,000 Penny Bath Memorial Final, one week from today on April 22 at Fraser.

The weekly $11,000 Open Pace was won by the Rod Therres-trained Buddy Weiser, who prevailed from the pocket to end the top class win streak of his rival Illwinifican.

Entering the race off three straight Open wins, Illwinifican (James Burke) took the lead from the quick-leaving Buddy Weiser and driver Serge Masse during the :27.1 first quarter then fought off Get Thereovernight (David Hudon) through middle splits of :56.4 and 1:24. However, Buddy Weiser shot through the passing lane to win by one and a quarter lengths in a career-best time of 1:52.2.

The five-year-old Western Ideal-Buddys Gal gelding now boasts four wins and three other top-three finishes in his nine seasonal starts for owner Veikko Pajunen.

For the charts from Saturday's card at Fraser, click the following link: Saturday Results - Fraser Downs.
De veronderstelling dat politieke leiders het goed voor hebben met hun bevolking is geenszins op de realiteit gebaseerd. Niet in het Oosten,...
On the evening of March 22, the Kalama Community Building was packed with people. Most residents were there for exactly one reason.

The City Councils agenda had been posted to the citys Facebook page. Among the agenda items regarding an architectural agreement for the citys police station and zoning discussions for Maruhn Park, one item read: discussion regarding Kalama becoming a sanctuary city.

Councilman Dominic Ciancibelli had asked city attorney Erin Hillier to do some research about what it would mean for Kalama to become a sanctuary city. This term has been broadly applied to describe cities that limit local law enforcements cooperation with federal immigration officers. There is no legal or official definition of the term.

But the comment thread on the Facebook page raged.

WTF? Wrong idea around here, one community member commented. Does someone ... actually think the people who live around here will support this?? Have they gone completely *expletive* stupid??

Another commented: Absolutely should be a sanctuary town. That would make me proud.

The fallout captures the tension and anxiety about illegal immigration that have gripped the nation and the region since the election of President Donald Trump, who wants to block federal funding for so-called sanctuary cities.

Ciancibelli clarified his intentions in a letter to the editor of The Daily News on March 27 titled, Divided Kalama.

In fact the council was only seeking information as to the implications from our attorney, Ciancibelli wrote. I was asked why I had our attorney look into the matter instead of gaining the information from the Internet or discussing the topic in executive session. Both would have been inappropriate. Several in the angry crowd insisted we vote to never bring up the possibility of a sanctuary city again. In my 46 years as a resident of Kalama I have never witnessed such anger and division among our citizens.

A similar turnout was expected at the citys next meeting on April 5, but only a couple of individuals showed up. The issue was never put on the agenda and not discussed.

City attorney Hillier did not respond to requests for comment on whether she would be advising the city council on sanctuary city implications.

Tensions across the region have escalated even more so since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement roundup that led to the detention of 84 undocumented immigrants across Washington, Oregon and Alaska in March. Three of those were from Cowlitz County, and three others were from Clark County.

The round up targeted those residing in the U.S. without legal permission, including 60 with other criminal offenses outside of immigration-related violations, according to an ICE press release.

Shortly after the ICE roundups, Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson, speaking as President of the Washington State Sheriffs Association, issued a carefully-worded statement declaring that county sheriffs will cooperate with ICE in apprehending criminals but will not comply with ICE detainer requests.

A detainer is a written request that a local jail or other law enforcement agency detain an individual for an additional 48 hours after his or her release date in order to provide ICE agents extra time to decide whether to take the individual into federal custody for removal purposes. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled them an unconstitutional violation of due process.

Let there be no mistake: sheriffs support and cooperate with ICE in their efforts to identify and deport criminal aliens. Preventing crime and holding criminals accountable are key duties of our elected positions, Nelson wrote. But we also swore an oath to follow the law and obey the constitution. To do our duty we must balance all interests.

In Cowlitz County, its the county commissioners who set jail policy. They, on the advice of their lawyers, have said they will not comply with ICE detainers.

Over the past several days, as many as 750 detainees at the 1,500-bed Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma have gone on a hunger strike protesting their living conditions, according to the anti-detention group NWDC Resistance.

The recent deportations have had local immigrants living in the US without legal permission worried about what happens to their children if theyre deported.

People are really nervous, said Ethnic Support Council board president Cindy Lopez Werth. Theyre worried. Theyre fearful. They dont know whats going to happen next.

In the past month, the Ethnic Support Council, along with Cowlitz Wahkiakum Legal Aid and several other regional groups, including the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, have stepped up their services in the community.

On April 1, a program titled Know Your Rights was held at St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Longview. It was meant to answer questions about what people should do if approached by an immigration official.

Several local attorneys are also interested in providing their services, including Longview personal injury and employment attorney Wesley Johnson, an Ethnic Support Council board member. With a lack of immigration attorneys in the area, some want to assist immigrants with safety plans for their children and property if they do end up deported.

The faith community has been involved too, with several local churches providing space for informational workshops to take place, Lopez Werth said. Whats really interesting is seeing people that dont usually get involved in things are really, really working together, Lopez Werth said.
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Following a Supreme Court order, state-owned telecom major BSNL has deactivated its mobile tower in the Dal Bazar area here. "We have already deactivated the tower in compliance with the apex court's order of March 30," Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's Gwalior region general manager M S Dhakad told PTI. The bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha had directed BSNL to deactivate the tower in seven days.

The Supreme Court's direction came on a petition filed by Harish Chand Tiwari (42) who alleged that he contracted cancer because of electromagnetic radiation from the tower. Tiwari, who works as a domestic help in a house in Dal Bazar area, contended that the tower was illegally installed on the rooftop of neighbouring house in 2002. This came right after trying to allay fears about the mobile tower emissions, the telecom industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Wednesday appealed to the public not to panic about the Supreme Court order on tower radiation.

For the telecom industry consumer health and interest are paramount. The industry appeals to the citizens and the public to not panic and read the interim order in its entirety. There are four EMF related cases which have been clubbed together. The interim SC order relates to only one of them whereas cell towers included in the other cases were left untouched, said Rajan S. Mathews, Director General of COAI.

With inputs from IANS
tech2 News Staff

Snap Inc., the company that operates the popular Snapchat app has come under heavy fire recently after it was alleged that its CEO Evan Spiegel discarded India as an area for expansion because it was poor. Social media is ablaze with articles criticising the statement and memes mocking the statement. There's even a #boycottsnapchat tag gaining momentum on Twitter at the time of writing.

Dear "Rich" @Snapchat, Good Bye from my "Poor" mobile. I love my country more than this app. #boycottsnapchat pic.twitter.com/uaROoXPSCP  Amanpreet Singh (@AmmyPreet_) April 16, 2017

One thing to note here is that Spiegel is alleged to have made this statement at a meeting in 2015. The only reason it got out was because Snap decided to drop "efforts to keep the unredacted complaint under seal," reports Variety. According to Variety's report, this statement was part of a lawsuit that Anthony Pompliano, an ex-Snap employee filed against the company. The statement was filed in a redacted form in January in the L.A Superior Court. Snap Inc. claimed that it has nothing to hide, especially since it's a publicly traded company.

Snapchat unredacted lawsuit by gmaddaus on Scribd

According to allegations in the lawsuit, Pompliano met the senior management at Snap in 2015 and expressed his concerns at how critical data like the number of new users registering, number of daily active users (DAU) and number of total users was inaccurate. He detailed that the company relied on two inaccurate metrics under programs Flurry and Blizzard. The former took into account push notifications, resulting in higher numbers and the latter program ignored older users, undercounting the user base.

Other metrics like rate of growth and the users retained after a week, etc. were inaccurate and inflated, alleges Pompliano. He made a PowerPoint presentation to detail these inaccuracies in two meetings but neither of them went well and he was fired from the company. All his claims were allegedly discarded and cross-questioned by pointing out that the points made in the presentations didnt matter.

In the first meeting Pompliano alleges that he pointed out that Snapchat was not gaining enough traction and growth in terms of users in India and Spain, to which Spiegel apparently made remarks that Snapchat was for rich people and that he wasn't interested in "poor countries". The CEO then allegedly stormed out of the meeting. The report further suggests that John Pierce, the attorney representing Pompliano pointed out that Snap gave up on efforts to keep the statements redacted because it was certain that it would lose the case. Snap Inc. has filed for a motion to force the case into arbitration, which really means that the company wants to settle the case using an arbitrator rather than have it go to court.

Snap Inc. responded saying, This is ridiculous. Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! Its available worldwide to download for free, as reported by Hindustan Times. In a recently disclosed court document, the company also refutes the claims that it misstated user metrics.
One man is facing charges after he struck an officer for attempting to restrain him following a commotion in Muncie.



It happened just before 2 p.m. Saturday inside a Goodwill store when officers were responding to a call for a fight.



Upon arrival, officials found 24-year-old Khalid Bilal confronting store employees.



According to reports, Bilal then went on to break an officers hand after an attempt to place Bilal into custody.



Bilal was later tased after charging another officer that arrived on scene. After the tasing, the officer was eventually able to corral Bilal into handcuffs. The suspect then began to kick the officer repeatedly with both legs, causing authorities to shackle his legs.



Reports stated that Bilal was yelling Allah Akbar throughout the ordeal.



One customer told 24-Hour News 8 she was scared for her life. She was inside the store shopping with her three children when she heard a man screaming at the front.



A guy had become very irate and was screaming at one of the employees and then grabbed him by the collar and start pushing him and screaming are you scared, said Chasity Fraley, customer.



He was just so full of rage and violence I never seen anything like that before, Fraley added.



Not sure what was going on, Fraley said she began moving her kids.



We moved to a different aisle so I could take my kids away from the situation because they got very scared at that point and then I heard him say Im going to kill everyone in here, she said.



Thats when Fraley says a female employee stepped in trying to calm the man down.



With her, she kinda used a softer tone with him at first, lets talk about this, whats the matter can we take it outside, Fraley recalled.



But out of nowhere, she said the man attacked that employee.



He violently grabbed her around the neck and just was punching and whatever he could to her, she said. A bunch of employees came out to keep him away from customers.



It is believed that Bilal had beaten a female worker at the store and grabbed her by the throat prior to officers arrival. Bilal reportedly had become upset while attempting to convert the employee to Islam.



Fraley believes employees handled the situation very well.



They were protecting one another and protecting us they (did) an excellent job at keeping him in a somewhat secured area, she said. They were telling people to get back trying to protect people in the store and one another.



Police said the man was taken to the hospital and continued to attack officers when they tried to restrain him.



Once at the hospital for treatment, Bilal went on to strike an officer three times when the officer attempted to secure a restraint that held Bilal to a hospital bed.



He faces preliminary charges of battery on police, resisting law enforcement, disorderly conduct, battery with injury, intimidation and strangulation.

24-year-old Khalid Bilal was arrested on March 25. Bilal is accused of attacking a clerk at the Goodwill in the 5000 block of West Hessler Road and threatening to kill the clerk if she didnt convert to Islam. Investigators said Bilal tried to strangle her.



An officer that tried to stop Bilal had his hand broken during the scuffle. Officers said during the attack Bilal began yelling allahu akbar, a phrase sometimes said by Islamic radicals during attacks.



Bilal has now been charged in Delaware County with eight felonies and seven misdemeanors.



The United States Department of Homeland Security was notified of the arrest two days later. DHS requested a search warrant of Bilals Muncie apartment because he showed signs of radicalized behavior in the March 25, 2017, incident and is a danger to the community. DHS said he is a Saudi Arabian national.



That search warrant was granted, and several items were seized on March 29. Items taken into evidence include two computers, a camera and travel documents.

A recent case of Muslim violence for the sake of it took place in Muncie, Indiana (Hat tip: Pamela Geller ):Obsessed with baseless vengeance so long as he could move. That he tried to convert any employees is sickening too.Update: Here's more news on the topic:After he serves prison time, he should be deported.

Labels: anti-americanism, House of Saud, immigration, islam, jihad, misogyny, racism, terrorism, United States
The wildfires, which are more than 100 in number, and have burned through more than 20,000 acres. On Tuesday, April 11, Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency , which he said would "make it easier for our state, regional and local agencies to quickly work together to protect our families, visitors and communities."

Blazes have destroyed more than 2,300 square miles through the four states. Thousands of farm animals have been lost and six human deaths have been reported due to the wildfires.

BRADENTON  Florida Farm Bureau Federation announced on Friday that it donated a total of $10,000 to a Disaster Relief Fund to support farm families in those states affected by wildfires."Structures, fences and livestock have been lost due to the devastating wildfires across Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado. When a natural disaster hits, the feeling of helplessness is overwhelming. Our agricultural family has permanent bonds. When our fellow farmers and ranchers are in distress, it is our duty to help," said FFB President John Hoblick in a statement.More than 100 wildfires are burning across Florida. On Tuesday, April 11, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency due to the recent wildfires. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 42 percent of Florida is experiencing moderate drought conditions, while 13 percent is experiencing severe drought.
World's oldest person dies at 117

AP, Rome :

Emma Morano, at 117 the world's oldest person who is also believed to have been the last surviving person born in the 1800s, died Saturday at her home in northern Italy, her physician said.

Dr. Carlo Bava told The Associated Press by phone that Morano's caretaker had called him to say she had stopped breathing in the afternoon while sitting in an armchair at her home in Verbania, a town on Italy's Lake Maggiore.

Bava said he had last seen his patient on Friday when "she thanked me and held my hand," as she did every time he called on her. While Morano had been increasingly spending more time sleeping and less time speaking in recent weeks, she had still eaten her daily raw egg and biscuits that day, he said.

A woman in Jamaica, Violet Brown, who was born in that Caribbean island on March 10, 1900, is now considered the oldest known person in the world, according to a list kept by the Gerontology Research Group. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness tweeted his congratulations to her.

Morano's doctor, who lives a few blocks away from his patient, had been her physician for nearly a quarter of a century.

Morano, born on Nov. 29, 1899, had been living in a tidy, one-room apartment, where she was kept company by her caregiver and two elderly nieces.
Khagrachhari celebrates Sangrain festival

BSS, Khagrachhari :

The traditional Sangrain Festival of the Marma community started here with much enthusiasms of the community this morning.

The Marma community arranged elaborate programmes to celebrate Sangrain, marking the New Year.

'Jal Khela' (splashing water) is the biggest attraction of the Sangrain festival.

A large number of enthusiastic locals-along with Marmas from the three hill districts of Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari-joined the festival. The community also arranged a colorful rally at Pankhaiyapara of the district town. Kujendra Lal Tripura MP inaugurated the rally. Kongjari Chowdhury

Khagrachari Hill District Council Chairman, Mong Raja Saching Prue Chowdhury, Khagrachhari Regional Commander Brigadier General Mir Mushfikur Rahman, BGB Sector Commander Colonel Motiur Rahman, Captain of DGFI M Mahabubur Rahman Siddique, Deputy Commissioner Rashedul islam and Police Super M Ali Ahamed Khan were attendant the rally, among others.

After the rally two groups of young Marma boys and girls respectively, splashed each other with water jets.

In his speech, Kujendra Lal Tripura said, "We are proud of the Bengali traditions as well as customs of all the indigenous communities living in CHT which have greatly enriched the collective culture of the country."

A cultural programme was held after the 'Jal Khela' session.




Country's first ever cancer database soon

Chittagong Bureau :

Approximately 8.57 per cent patients of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) are at risk of cancer, a recent study says.

Although the result comes from a small sample of 700 outdoor and indoor patients who admitted in CMCH within 15 days in 2017, among them, a total of 600 were diagnosed of carrying or developing cancer cells.

Among them, 73 per cent patients came from rural area while 27 per cent are from urban area.

The study was jointly conducted by 'Laboratory of Eukaryotic Gene Expression and Function' under Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department (BMBD) of Chittagong University (CU) and Chittagong Research Institute for Children Surgery (CRICS).

But the most striking feature of the study was that women, aged around 40-60 years, are risk at severe risk of cancer than men and the report also remarked that 53 per cent cancer patients were women and 47 percent were men.

According to the report, cancer patients from Cox's Bazar are 31 percent, 15 percent in Banshkhali and Satkania upazila and 19 percent in Boalkhali, Patiya and Rangunia Upazila.

The report also remarked that cousin marriage, excessive using of DTT powder in dry fish and smoking are the main reasons behind cancer. Thamina Banu, Director of CRICS and who led the study told the Daily Observer that 21 percent of cancer patients are suffering 'lymphoma' (Blood Cancer) in Bangladesh and has no central information database about the cancer patients. Around 16 percent people are suffering head and neck cancer.

Due to lack of database we give the references of other countries patients while teaching medical students, she added.

Tahmina Banu, former Head of Paediatric Department of Chittagong Medical College Hospital said for the first time ever she along with her team is going to prepare a cancer database. The report was a sample of pilot project and they are working for a long research project, she added.

Meanwhile, through the next project they can identify categories of cancer, age group, reason of cancer disease and income level of affected cancer patients.

Sunanda Badya, Lecturer and Research Assistant of BMBD of CU said the curative treatment of cancer is very expensive and most of the people of the country cannot afford the cost, it is important to take cautionary measures to prevent cancer.




March 10, 2017

After a monthslong standoff, Morocco has agreed to pull out of a neutral zone in Western Sahara, but fighters representing the latter decry the action as mere showmanship designed to minimize negative publicity and curry favor with the United Nations.

The Polisario Front, the independence movement of the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara, wants to keep the dispute front and center in the publics eye and hasnt withdrawn from the Guerguerat village buffer zone. Guerguerat lies in the far southwest of Western Sahara near the border with Mauritania.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975 after Spain withdrew from the region. The Polisario embarked on a guerrilla war and has been seeking a self-determination referendum since 1991. However, Morocco has refused any resolution that includes independence.

Each side has sought support from the UN Security Council. Many negotiating sessions were held at UN headquarters without resolving the stalemate. But the standoff at Guerguerat brought the Western Sahara question to the international scene, as it became a threat to regional security.

In August, Guerguerat became a main concern for the UN Security Council, which called on both sides to return to the negotiation table to work on a lasting solution regarding the disputed Western Sahara territory. The tension began when Moroccan forces crossed a military wall into Guerguerat, 3 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Polisario sent its troops to stand face to face with the Moroccan army, separated only by about 200 yards.

But soon after Antonio Guterres started his first term as UN chief Jan. 1, Morocco saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. It reconciled with the UN and announced Feb. 26 that it was withdrawing its military personnel from Guerguerat. The move was hailed by Guterres spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, who said in a press briefing that the UN welcomes the  positive movement.

France also welcomed Moroccos decision and called on all parties to show responsibility and to unconditionally and immediately withdraw all armed elements from the region. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal urged a return to the status quo in the conflict.

The Polisario is not keen on the status quo, something it has been battling for decades. Keeping Western Sahara stable, with half of its population in refugee camps in Algeria, will not solve the protracted dilemma. The Polisario Front saw Moroccos withdrawal as a maneuver to contain the Western Sahara question.

Polisarios representative in Washington, Mouloud Said, downplayed the importance of the Moroccan stance and said in an interview with Alhurra that Polisario troops will stay in Guerguerat forever. He added that events in Guerguerat are only a small problem within the dispute with Morocco over Western Sahara.

It is apparent that ending the Guerguerat confrontation would push the Western Sahara question back to where it started, and Morocco would have full control over the rich part of the territory, with a lighter burden from the security situation. The Polisario wouldnt have as much to bargain with, and the UN Security Council wont consider the area a priority without a tangible threat.

Plus, the UN secretary-generals special envoy to Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, has decided he no longer wants the position, which is another sign that the situation will remain indefinitely in a state of stagnation. A new UN representative will have to start over to revive the all-but-dead talks between the Polisario and Morocco.

Moroccan forces departure from the buffer zone also seems timed toward easing tensions with Mauritania, as Morocco seeks approval to join the Economic Community of West African States, just after it rejoined the African Union in January.

The Polisario seems to have already taken advantage of that recent strain in relations between Morocco and Mauritania to boost its presence in the West Saharan village of La Guera, which is controlled by Mauritania. The town is a crossroads and lifeline for Mauritania. Its railway extends to Nouadhibou, which is a free zone where Mauritanian minerals are exported to Europe.

In fact, La Gueras strategic location makes Mauritania reluctant to support Moroccos claim on the Western Sahara.

Mauritanias geographical status makes it the bridge Morocco needs to access its considerable investment in West African countries, especially Senegal.

All these developments shape Moroccan foreign policy, which centers on tightening its grip on the Western Sahara.

The Polisario wants the UN Security Council to organize a self-determination referendum for Western Sahara. Using what leverage it has left, the Sahrawi liberation movement has been hinting that its youth are eager to return to the armed struggle  well beyond Guerguerat. Though that has not taken place yet, the young generations restlessness will be a Polisario pressure card, particularly because of the diversified background of its young Sahrawis, who have studied in Algeria, Cuba and Libya.

The Polisario will spare no effort to keep the case in the spotlight. Morocco, however, will take all necessary steps to neutralize the issue on the international level, hoping it will drop off the UN agenda as something that must be resolved to establish peace and security in the region and the world, as the territory sits on the coastal boundary with Europe.
BIDA chief seeks Kyrgyz, Luxembourg investment in Bangladesh

BSS, Dhaka :

Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) Executive Chairman Kazi M Aminul Islam on Sunday urged the Kyrgyz and Luxembourg investors to invest more in Bangladesh as an investment friendly environment prevailing in the country.

"BIDA is providing different investment related services, including policy, registration and infrastructure for the both local and foreign investors," he said while meeting with Bangladeshi Honorary Consul General in Kyrgyzstan Temirbek Erkinov and Bangladeshi Honorary Consul General in Luxembourg Thierry Reisch at BIDA headquarters in the city.
Walton takes part in Canton Fair

Economic Reporter :

Electronics goods brand Walton has taken part at the "Canton Fair 2017" to explore global markets and consumers.

Canton Fair 2017, also known as China Import and Export Fair, is the largest biannual China trade fair began April 15 and will end on 19 at Pazhou Complex in Guangzhou.

Walton, as a Bangladeshi company, is participating in the expo for the second consecutive year and will show products with "Made in Bangladesh" level to promote and brand Bangladesh as a manufacturer of electronics products, according to a press release.

Roqibul Islam Rakib, Head of International Marketing of Walton Group, said Walton secured the apex position in the local electronics and electrical market.

He said: "Now the target is to make a strong foot on the international market. Canton Fair would play a vital role in the successful implementation of the company's target."

As people of all countries of the world usually visit this mega expo, Walton's participation would help the company creating a business relationship with the importers of household electronics and electrical appliances across the world, he added.

To attract the fair's visitors, Walton is conducting massive branding campaigns in different countries like UK, USA, Africa and Middle East.
Govt to procure 16 lakh MT food grains in Boro season

Economic Reporter :

The government has decided to procure a total of 16 lakh tonnes food grains, including paddy, rice and wheat, in 2017-18 fiscal year.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee (FPMC) held at the conference room of the food ministry on Sunday.

Under the decision, the government will procure 7 lakh tonnes paddy, 8 lakh tonnes rice and one lakh tonne wheat in the upcoming Boro season.

The procurement price for per kg paddy has been fixed at Taka 24, boiled rice at Taka 34, atap rice at Taka 33 and wheat at Taka 28.

The paddy and rice procurement drive will begin from May 2 and continue till August 31, said a press release. On the other hand, the wheat procurement drive will begin from April 18 and continue till June 30.

"We want to bring a revolutionary change in procurement drive ...the government will purchase food grains directly from the growers through paying account payee cheque," said Food Minister Advocate Quamrul Islam.

With Food Minister Advocate Quamrul Islam in the chair, the meeting was also attended, among others, by Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury and Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed and senior officials of the ministry.
South Asian writers are getting picked up by publishers

Life Desk :

Gone are the days when readers would look up to international authors who had earlier set a benchmark for sophisticated literature. With Indians picking up more and more desi literature in English off the shelves, the sale of South Asian books has shot up over the decade.

South Asian writers, apart from harking their original, authentic and rooted voice, call for a diverse set of readers who not only relate to the regional synergies, but also crave for elegant storytelling. This is one of the reasons South Asian writing has increasingly become more popular among readers as well as publishers.

Bookshops across India and publishing companies report that readership for South Asian literature is constantly on the rise, making it one of the most popular genres at the moment, the sixth largest in the world and second for the English language.

Modern Indian literature: Mystic themes of hybrid identities

What makes the new wave of literature popular is the wide range of exotic themes unique to the geographical construct, such as, inter-generational conflicts, multiculturalism, religion, mixed identities etc. South Asian writers are almost shaping the psyche of present society and the Indian book market has tapped the opportunity well.

Mahesh Dattani, the prolific playwright of modern India, tells us in an exclusive interview, "South Asian writers are at a distinct advantage combining their writing skills with rich memories of lost ancestral homes or growing up in feudal villages."

Indian literary bigshots like Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Aravind Adiga, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Anita Desai, and others have all been accoladed in the international platform tremendously well. Their fan-following spreading across the globe testifies that people love to read about the real voice of people through a more authentic form of storytelling from the Indian subcontinent. India, for the white reader, is no more just the land of snakes, mangoes, monsoons and an oppressive colonial society, and we owe it to these writers for changing the dynamics.

Arundhati Roy's Man Booker Prize winner The God of Small Things spellbound readers with its linguistic charm and established a bar too high for international writers.

Pakistani literature: Human feelings encased in the socio-political milieu

With more and more Pakistani literary figures seen at international festivals and with their books charted as favourites by the international intellectual audience, it is certain that the scene for the Pakistani English writers has changed and for the better. Ajay Mago, Publisher of Om Books describes the scene of literary festivals as "extra-political, artistic twin-track diplomacy to keep a healthy exchange alive against a backdrop of political hostility".

Some of the famous Pakistani names among international honorary prize lists are Mohsin Hamid, Mohammed Hanif, Kamila Shamsie, S.S Mausoof, and Nadeem Aslam. Their writing emphasises on the pains and predicaments of belonging and longing, caged in the socio-political environment and dwells around moving tales of loss and diaspora.

Pakistani author Feika Mansab Jehangir, who also writes under the pseudonym, Zeenat Mahal, says, "People are hungry for stories that reflect their lives, their struggles and achievements. People want to get in touch with their roots and reclaim their identities through literature that has been neglected for years. Art is how we establish identity."

Author S.S Mausoof, the Pakistani-American author of The Warehouse , says, "Current South Asian writers circumvent the English Literature debate on cultural appropriation. Authenticity is much desired by the publication industry. And today's readers enjoy language vernaculars within the framework of an English novel from authors who craft their postcolonial narrative."

Mohammed Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes received the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book Overall. A riveting thriller written beautifully, the book set an exemplary literary standard internationally.

Meru Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief, Penguin Random House India shares, "A lot of good writing has come out of Pakistan over the last decade or so, but a brilliant author can really pop up from just about anywhere. Talent knows no boundaries."

The 'local' flavour of Sri-Lankan literature

Blessed with a repository of stories and narrative techniques, Sri Lankan English literature has carved its robust niche in the global platform. The critically acclaimed South Asian writers like Michael Ondaatje, Shyam Selvadurai, Punyakante Wijenaike, Nihal de Silva, Ashok Ferrey, Romesh Gunesekera, and Naomi Munaweera, all hail from Sri Lanka and have well contributed to the immense success of Sri Lankan English literature.

Michael Ondaatje's Booker-winning novel The English Patient brought Sri Lankan literature not only to the international forum, but also got the global reader to recognise the country as an important literary source.

Sri-Lankan author Nayomi Munaweera writes, "South Asian writers are taking on a wide array of subjects and styles. We are versatile, we are vocal and perhaps publishers see that we have a great deal to say that hasn't been voiced yet." Her debut novel Island of a Thousand Mirrors won the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Asia and was short-listed for the Northern California Book Award.

The popularity of South Asian authors can also be accredited to the number of international literary festivals in modern times. Ajay Mago believes, " Starting from the SAARC Literary Festival, South Asian authors travel to the Jaipur Literature Festival, Times Literary Festival, Dhaka Literature Festival, Galle Literary Festival and many more. Literature festivals serve as extra-political, artistic twin-track diplomacy to keep a healthy exchange alive against a backdrop of political hostility,"

Bangladeshi literature: A tale of linguistic loyalty

A country where the struggle for nationhood was stimulated by the freedom of language itself, has a public holiday devoted to a moment of history, Language Martyr's Day. Therefore, Bangladesh, essentially, writes, publishes, and reads in Bengali. But recently, the scene has begun to change with several complex linguistic nuances at work. Bangladeshi English writers like Tahmina Anam, K. Anis Ahmed, Maria Chaudhuri, Shazia Omar, and Mahmud Rehman have emerged and are leading the way.

Tahmima Anam's trilogy, which begins with her debut novel The Golden Age , received the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and paved the way for a more liberal linguistic front.

-TNN


Nazrul song in Kona`s voice again

Sheikh Arif Bulbon :

Earlier in Konas voice, music lovers enjoyed the song Priyo jai jai bolo na. Under the music arrangement by Bappa Mazumder Kona rendered the song to keep main tune of the song. Gazi Shuvro made its music video.

Konas rendering style and her performance in the music video were highly appreciated by the viewers. As a part of its continuation, Kona is again coming with Nazrul song.

This time Kona has rendered the song titled Pordeshi megh jaorey firey, bolio aamar porodeshirey. Amzad has arranged its music. Its music video has already been prepared to be finished under the banner of Dhruba Music Station. Shooting of its video was done at Coke Factory in the citys Tejgaon area recently.

Meanwhile, on the occasion of Pahela Boishakh Kona and Imran rendered a song titled Kotha dao was released on Youtube. Irfan Sajjad and Mehazabien performed as models in the video.

Tomorrow Kona will take part in video of a song titled Chander Kona which will be made by Shuvabrata Sarkar. Mir Masum has composed its music under the lyrics written by Robiul Islam Jibon. DJ Rahat has featured the song. Konas birthday was on Pahela Boishakh. This year she celebrated the day joyfully.

While talking in this regard Kona told this correspondent, Before night of my birthday I got many surprises at home. I was impressed to receive many wishes in Facebook, mobile phone, etc. I got many nice remarks regarding me which really impressed me. In the morning, I took many meals those were made by my mom. I had stage shows and also cut cake. Overall it became a superb birthday celebration for me. I am grateful to them who remembered me and also wished me on that day.

Kona informed that on April 28 she will go outside the country to perform in stage shows in Switzerland, Germany and Sweden. In the meantine, she may visit to Italy. After returning to Bangladesh she will take part in two music videos. Konas Nazrul song will be released in Nazrul related any special day.


5 fundamentals of urbanization

Joan Clos :

The model of urbanization over the past two decades has been far from "smart" and sustainable. This is the major conclusion of Habitat III, the third United Nations' Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development that took place in Quito, Ecuador, in 2016. Our cities are growing very quickly and spontaneously. Decreased planning and excessive urban expansion, alongside reduced density, is leading us to unprecedented levels of chaos, urban poverty and environmental degradation.

These trends cannot be ignored. In fact, urbanization is increasingly a strategic issue at both national and subnational levels because it affects our immediate living environment: Our cities.

"A city that has an advanced model of technology but is badly planned, with outdated legal frameworks or lacking a good financial model, will only aggravate the dysfunction in the city. A 'smart city' is a city that uses technology in a 'smart' way to reinforce the pillars of urbanization."

Along with the rapid growth of urbanization, the proliferation of communication technologies in our cities has become another major trend of our times. Digital technologies have significantly impacted urban development and management in recent years and will continue to do so, contributing in some ways to a more functional development in areas such as transport, governance and energy efficiency. However, we must not count solely on digital technologies and smart cities to solve many of the challenges faced by our urban areas.

The diagnosis for a more sustainable and "smart" urban model is found in five fundamental pillars of urbanization, with Habitat III concluding with the adoption of the "New Urban Agenda" - an action-oriented plan based on these pillars. It includes very clear tasks and responsibilities for national and subnational governments. Here are five highlights and practical examples:

1. National urban policies

The first of the fundamental pillars of urbanization is the call for national governments to assume their responsibility in the process of urbanization, by implementing properly developed and established national urban policies. Sustainable urbanization must be led by national governments working closely with subnational and local governments.

The government of Cameroon, UN-Habitat and other stakeholders began formulating and implementing the Cameroonian National Urban Policy in Feb. 2016. The policy will be an instrument for applying a coherent set of decisions in relation to the future of urban areas in Cameroon, drawing upon a process of consultation and coordination among different actors. It will also help the government revise planning tools, improve the implementation of the planning rules and regulations, increase the sources of financing and optimization of public infrastructure, and strengthen the capacities of the stakeholders both at the national and subnational levels.

2. Establishing rules and regulations

The second is the categorical need for urbanization to be based in the rule of law. Urbanization without rules and regulations tends to be spontaneous and ad-hoc. As the world's population grows more and more urban, we have no choice but to become more efficient in our urbanization, by establishing rules and regulations, and implementing them.

Like many developing countries, Zambia is undergoing rapid urbanization, but the current planning system is not equipped to deal with the resulting effects of climate change, resource depletion and economic instability. The planning system has also, to a large extent, failed to meaningfully consider the existing land tenure - an estimated 85 percent of the total land is held in customary tenure - or involve communities and other stakeholders in the planning of urban areas, thus contributing to the problems of spatial marginalization and exclusion.

To combat this, the government of the Republic of Zambia recently enacted the Urban and Regional Planning Act, the principal legislation for urban land use planning. It aims to fundamentally transform the land use planning system, planning frameworks and planning process.

3. Urban planning and design

The third pillar refers to the design of buildable plots and public spaces, and the relationship between the two. Urbanization without the proper allocation of basic space and the correct design of street patterns and buildable plots is doomed to failure.

Johannesburg's Spatial Development Framework is a policy that addresses spatial inequalities, job-housing mismatch, urban sprawl and fragmentation, exclusion and disconnection of urban areas, inefficient residential densities and land uses, and increasing pressure on the natural environment and green infrastructure.

The framework links the spatial development of the city with the financial resources available in the municipal budget, and has proposed six priority transformation areas, as devised by a variety of local, national and international actors. This policy has established how the city should develop over the next 25 years, and its implementation will have a positive impact on the lives of the city residents.

With a peri-urban structure and a population that is projected to grow by half a million people annually over the coming years, Kenya's Kiambu County needs to acquire budgetary resources to quickly upgrade and build public infrastructures.

The county requested UN-Habitat's support in 2014 to advise on private investment for local infrastructure and services, municipal finance, generation of local revenues to facilitate service provision, and to foster economic development within municipals. So far, the project has improved the county's revenue generation, and has strengthened and developed its institutional framework for undertaking detailed planning, financial structuring, overseeing the management of projects and reorganizing tax collection systems.

Preliminary results indicate a potential increase in revenue by 300 percent, with a shift from tax burdens from small businesses to larger businesses, and a reduction in the cost of collection and administration for revenue mobilization.

4. Form a financial plan

The fourth pillar is to invest in a financial plan for urbanization. Urbanization without a financial plan will flop. Urbanization should be approached not as a cost, but as an investment, because the cost of urbanization is minimal compared to the value that it can generate. If local authorities decide to recategorize rural land to urban, the value of that land multiplies tenfold at the moment that decision is taken, as a clear example of value generated. The key issue is to guarantee that the urban value generated is properly shared among various constituencies, not just a few. A municipal financial plan should have three elements:

The first refers to core urbanization functions that should comprise an urban land registry (cadastre and land registry), urban planning and design, building codes, municipal ordinances, urban inspection and correction, and tax collection. These core functions are exclusively municipal.

The second relates to the basic urban services required to guarantee street and public space maintenance, sanitation, waste management, water, energy, telecommunication, mobility and public transportation. There are different modalities of concession of these services.

The third covers the complementary services provided by the welfare state, mainly safety and security, education, health, public housing, local economy promotion, and cultural services. The role and capacity of local governments to guarantee these services largely depends on the delegation of such authority by the national government.

To ensure effective urban planning and management in order to curb the excessive urban sprawl and unplanned land use in Ghana's Greater Accra Region, a Metropolitan Strategy for Greater Accra was created, and with it the Ningo Pram Pram Planned City Extension. This aims to provide access to housing, services and work for between 1.5 and 2 million inhabitants, representing a large share of the expected population growth of the Greater Accra Region, in an area already experiencing high residential pressure.

5. Local implementation

And finally, local implementation. Local governments, in particular, are often not given the means to address the challenges of unplanned urbanization. The New Urban Agenda offers planned city extensions, urban redevelopment and planned city infills as the best three tools to address rapid urban growth within our cities.

ICT also potentially has a large role to play in the deployment of the five pillars toward good urbanization. A smart city requires the use of technology to support these pillars. At the same time, technology itself is not a panacea of development. A city that has an advanced model of technology but is badly planned, with outdated legal frameworks or lacking a good financial model, will only aggravate the dysfunction in the city. A "smart city" is a city that uses technology in a "smart" way to reinforce the pillars of urbanization.



(Born in Barcelona, Dr. Joan Clos joined the United Nations in 2010 as under-secretary-general and executive director of UN-Habitat).
Ensure sustained benefits to city commuters

IN spite of transport owners' pledge to stop illegal "sitting service" from yesterday - Dhaka commuters have yet been reportedly charged with extra fares for their respective trips to several destinations on Dhaka's Jatrabari to Mirpur routes. The move to end such self-devised scheme came amid media reports as numerable bus authorities were charging passengers high fares in the name of offering 'sitting service', 'gate-locked service' or 'special service'. Corresponding with the promise, the transport owners on April 4 announced that such dubious services would stop in the capital after April 15. It wouldn't have happened, only if strict monitoring was put in place to ensure whether exact fares were honestly collected from passengers. And it would have effectively stopped if all bus owners had united to implement the vow collectively.



Many of the passengers' apparent fear is that transport workers would continue charging extra fare in overcrowded buses if the authorities didn't keep a watch on bus operations had turned to be only true. If not all, but here we clearly mark a fraction of bus owners who are unwilling to cooperate from charging extra fares. However, the bus owners who are unwilling to cooperate in this case should be held accountable for their additional charging.



Moreover, they should clearly explain why they are continuing to do so. The menace of charging the extra buck has come a long way; which should have been addressed long ago. Now this malpractice has become so rampant that it cannot be easily stopped. Reportedly, some 150 transport companies are operating around 4,500 buses in the city. The need of the hour is to bring all of them under a regular scanner. Mobile teams started monitoring at important city inter-sections but its long-term success yet to be seen. Most importantly, the drive for deterring bus owners from charging extra should not be restricted within particular time or season - it should be consistent throughout the year.



Our message is simple - if buses don't operate lawfully in the city, they should be penalised in the light of legal codes of conduct. That said - our bus companies must conduct their businesses while make legitimate profits. Furthermore, they should fix their fares of different routes in accordance with the fare charge clearly determined by the government. All of them must hang the government's fixed chart inside their respective buses. Currently, many buses with stickers reading "sitting service" glued to their windows still don't hang the fare chart, which has been made mandatory by BRTA. Rather, they display charts inconveniently made up by them for taking extra fares from passengers. This unfair practice must be stopped by enforcing strict rules.






PKB to become scheduled bank

Staff Reporter :

Probashi Kallyan Bank (PKB) is likely to be turned into a scheduled bank soon to help bring home the hard-earned money of Non-Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) at nominal costs.

Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam declared this at a programme on Sunday in the city.

"When Probashi Kallyan Bank will start functioning as a scheduled bank, the remittances sent by the NRBs will come through formal channel and the inflow of remittances will go up," the Minister hoped.

The programme was organised to hand over a cheque for Tk 50 crore from the fund of Wage Earners' Welfare Board (WEWB) to the Minister to reconstitute the PKB's paid-up capital of the bank for turning it into a scheduled bank.

Nurul Islam said he has a plan to open at least a PKB branch in each district and upazila in phases for the welfare of the NRBs and their families.

Asking the PKB officials to be more conscious in providing loans, he said appropriate people should be given loans from the PKB.

Secretary in charge of the Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry Zabed Ahmed presided over the programme, attended, among others, by PKB Managing Director A.N.M. Masrurul Huda Siraji, WEWB Director General Gazi Mohammad Julhas, Additional Secretary Md Azharul Haque and Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) Managing Director Maran Kumar Chakravorty.

PKB started its journey with a paid-up capital of Tk 100 crore, WEWB gave Tk 95 crore and the government provided Tk 5 crore-in 2011 for the welfare of the NRBs.

Later, the government has planned to turn the bank into a scheduled bank by raising the paid-up capital to Tk 400 crore. Of this amount, the government will provide Tk 250 crore while WEWB Tk 50 crore.

The PKB has so far provided Tk 211.98 crore in credit to 22,334 people.




Sitting service stopped, but collection of extra fare not

Bangladesh Road Transport Authorityas team started raiding against Gate Lock, collecting extra fare in the name of \'Sitting Service\'. This photo was taken from Asad Gate on Sunday.

Reza Mahmud :

Sitting bus services have been stopped from Sunday but collection of extra fares continue in the capital city.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority on Saturday announced as a 'final' decision to stop collecting extra fare on public buses in the name of 'sitting service', 'gate lock' and 'non-stop' services from Sunday.

It also directed the bus operators to hang fare list in buses, remove bumpers, side angles, roof carriers and extra seats.

But it was found that the bus supervisors were collecting extra fare like previous sitting services and other so-called special services. Many of the buses have no fare chat. The Mobile Court fined many buses for those irregularities.

"Suprovat and Anabil Paribahan have collected sitting bus fare from Saidabad to Gazipur. The supervisors of those buses said they did not know about the new decision of BRTA," said Mehedi Hasan, an Engineer, told The New Nation from Jatrabari area.

Raida Paribahan bound for Gazipur from Jurain area in the city was found collecting Tk 10 from Jurain to Jatrabari while the real fare is Tk 5. When asked the conductor of the bus said, it is special rate for the bus.

The Rongdhonu Paribahan bound to Mohammadpur from Jurain found collecting Tk 15 from passengers from Jurain to Motijheel as previously sitting bus fare.

Bihongo Paribahan bound to Sadarghat from Mirpur Duaripara was found collecting extra money as a sitting service.

On the spot at Shahbagh it was found that the

supervisor of Bihongo Paribahan charged Tk 25 from a passenger as fare from Shewrapara to Motsyo Bhaban while the local bus fare is Tk 15. The passenger, Jakir Hossain, has given a note of Tk 20 and asking Tk 5 return but the supervisor was asking more Tk 5.

The supervisor was found engaged with quarrel with other passengers who insisted to give local bus fare. He told passengers that the fare of the bus is unchanged as the gas price not reduced.

The same incident was found in Dishari Paribahan. It collected Tk 25 from passengers Mirpur-1 to Shahbagh where the real fare is Tk 15 according to the BRTA list.

"The so-called special services like sitting service, non-stop and gate lock have stopped but the chaos and quarrel with conductor increased. As all the buses have been converted as local bus, they are taking huge passengers and taking fare like sitting and direct services like previous days," Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, Secretary General of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity told The New Nation yesterday.

The passengers in Farmgate, Shahbagh, Gulistan, Jatrabari and many other places in the city also alleged of fare anarchy in buses in different routes.

The Mobile Court also conducted drives against the irregularities of public buses.

It stopped buses and checked their irregularities in Asad Gate, Agargaon, Hazrat ShahJalal International Airport, Ramna and Jatrabari areas.

Executive Magistrate Munib Rahman told journalists at Agargaon that he filed 30 cases against public buses. Some buses were found collecting extra fare and some have no fare list.

A total Tk 69,500 was collected as fine from different buses due to such irregularities.

The BRTA said they will drive against irregularities of public vehicles six days in a week, while the vehicle owners association will drive three days in a week.

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said the drive will continue to stop all irregularities in passenger vehicles.

"It was found that some buses involved in some irregularities like collecting special services fare and not to hang fare list in buses. As the first day, some supervisors may not understand the real meaning of stopping special services. But we are hopeful that these irregularities will go soon," said, Khandakar Enayet Ullah, General Secretary of Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity yesterday.

Apart from these, the female passengers said they feel uneasy as there is no sitting bus service where they would feel free to journey. Most of them do not feel easy the congested journey with male passengers, they said.


MP Rana`s bail stayed

Court Correspondent :

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday stayed the bail of MP Amanur Rahman Khan Rana in freedom fighter Faruk Ahmed murder case.

Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order in response to a petition filed on behalf of the government seeking stay on the bail order earlier granted

by the High Court. However, the Chamber Judge stayed the bail for three days up to April 18.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said that the court fixed April 18 for further hearing on the government's petition that sought stay, as no lawyer for Rana was present during its hearing on Sunday. He added that ruling party MP Rana cannot be released from jail until further order of the SC.

On April 13, the High Court granted ad-interim bail to Rana and also issued a rule asking the government to explain as to why Rana should not be granted regular bail in the case. Earlier, this court refused him bail in the case four times for different reasons.

The bullet-hit body of freedom fighter Faruk, also a district Awami League leader of Tangail, was found on January 18, 2013. Later, a murder case was filed. Police reportedly found evidence of the involvement of Rana and his three brothers in the murder. Amatur Rahman Rana, MP elected from Tangail constituency-3, surrendered in a Tangail court on September 18 last year.


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Editor's Note: The following are letters and thoughts from sixth graders at Cairo Junior/Senior High School. Mary Beth Goff, a 14-year-veteran of Cairo public schools, encouraged her students to wage a letter-writing campaign.

There are times in every teacher's career when something happens within the school or community that impacts the students. That moment happened for me this week when half of my students were told that they were being relocated out of public housing in Cairo. When I entered my classroom on Tuesday morning and looked into my students eyes and hearts, I saw kids who were broken. As a teacher there is no worse moment. I have always taught my students that we are a family and that their voices have power and so we began to talk about what our voices would look like and what we wanted for the future. I want my students to feel safe and to live in a place that is as clean and free from filth that other kids around the country enjoy. I want them to know they are loved and that they have the power to be anything they want to be and that they are worth people caring for and about them.

Mary Beth Goff

Sixth-grade teacher

Cairo Public Schools



HUD: Do your part

We have been learning about housing and housing conditions for the last month. We have seen pictures of what housing is like in poor countries around the world and then compared it to where we live. Ours is worse because it should be better in the United States.

Here is what it is like. Some of us are afraid to play outside, even though we are kids. Some of us have bugs in our house and mold and mice no matter how much our mamas clean. Some of our mamas spray bug spray around our beds so the roaches dont crawl in our ears and mouths while we sleep. Some of us have asthma and are afraid that we will die or that our little brothers and sisters will.

This is not right. Just because we are poor does not mean we should live like this. At the same time most of us do not want to leave. What we do want to understand is why there was money that was given to housing to keep it up and it was stolen. If we steal money we get in trouble. Why dont the grown-ups?

Our teacher talked to us about rent. Rent is a contract and we paid ours. Why isnt HUD doing their part? We do not think it is fair because we were born and raised here and dont have anywhere else to go. You are asking us to leave what we know. To leave our friends and family and the only place we have known. Do you think that is easy? Because it is not. Since the news came out people have been trying to figure out what to do and where to go. Our mamas have been crying and trying to find someplace to go. This is our life and for some of us it is life and death. Why does that not matter to people? Why dont we matter?

Cairo Junior/Senior

High sixth-graders



Individuals

I feel angry about the whole thing. If a lot of people move away we could lose our school and our sports. Pircola

If this happens I will miss my friends and my family. Mikayllah

I will lose over half my friends ... I will be very upset. I hate that this is happening. Paris

I wish they would not tear down Elmwood and McBride. They should just send maintenance to do their job and clean them up. Roneka

I feel sad because I dont want to move. I love it here. Demarion

I think this is very wrong. Something should have been done earlier to solve the problem. I wish this was just a nightmare. Keri

I wish we could find the money to fix all the chaos that is going on. Latrece

If this happens, I will have so many emotions I will not be able to explain. Gabriella

I feel mad and sad. I wish ACHA had not taken the money. Chazzidy

I have been in Cairo since I came home from the hospital. I have memories in McBride. My memories of my grandma are there. She died of breast cancer and when I go there I think of her. Here is my question: Where is all the money that was supposed to go to the projects? I need to know because I feel like the people who stole the money are running free and here we are getting put out of Cairo. Aurhea

I have been wondering why someone doesnt ask what happened to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that was supposed to go to housing. We have paid our rent. We are kids trying to do big things in life. Why cant you help us? Karmond

Residents in housing dont like the conditions but dont want to move either. Housing conditions are horrible but getting run out of town is worse. Latrece

I think the people who stole the money should go to jail because they ruined everything for us. Pircola

I am currently living in the housing projects. I have been living there my whole life. At times, I hate living in the in the projects, but Im always gonna love where I came from. Why doesnt anyone care about us? Robert

I think you all feel like people who live in the projects are nothing. John
WEST FRANKFORT  Its time again for West Frankfort to light the flame and dust off the crown  Old King Coal is around the corner.

What has been an almost yearly tradition since 1976  though it began in 1941  the Old King Coal Festival has been a way for residents of Franklin County, and the entire region, to honor one of its biggest benefactors  coal.

We are really recognizing the whole region, the impact that coal has had on this region since the early 1900s, Marcia Raubach, a member of the Old King Coal Committee, said. She said coal has had an indelible impact on the region, citing the many workers that flooded into the region during coals big boom early last century. She said it really helped build Southern Illinois.

The whole population of this area was impacted, since the early 1900s, by the fact that this area was rich in coal. So we like to continue recognizing that impact, she said.

When the festival began, the crowning of Old King Coal and Princess Flame  so named for the flame of coal  has always been a big part of the festivities. Originally, Raubach said nominations were made and votes were cast by the thousands of coal miners working in the ground in Southern Illinois. However, since the slowdown of coal mines, the tradition has since been up to a committee.

This years Old King Coal is 80-year-old retired coal miner Charles Bartoni Jr., of West Frankfort. It will be his duty to reign over the festival from May 11 to 14. He will officially be crowned April 22 alongside Princess Flame.

According to a news release, Bartonis father, Charles Bartoni Sr., worked 10 years at the Old Ben No. 8 mine before taking a job at the Orient No. 2 mine in 1950. The next year, Bartoni Sr. was one of the 119 men killed in the No. 2 mine explosion. Still, despite his mothers protest, the release said Bartoni Jr. began working for the mines 25 years later.

He started working above ground as a mechanic, but within two years found himself down in the ground for Freeman Coal Company. He later retired from the mines in 1995.

Along with the pageant and annual parade, this year Raubach said they are also honoring coal miners by adding 27 new bricks to the Coal Miners Memorial Park walkway, started originally with 119 bricks commemorating those who died in the No. 2 coal mine explosion in 1951. This puts them well on their way to meeting their goal of adding 50 new bricks in 2017.

Amidst this years celebration, there is a sense of hope. Raubach said with the Trump administration favoring rollbacks of Environmental Protection Agency regulations that slowed coal production nationally, there is anticipation that coal may again reign king in Southern Illinois.

We feel like that coal will come back, Raubach said. We are hoping for that.
CARBONDALE  Brehm Preparatory School is celebrating its 35th year of educating students with learning disabilities and learning differences.

In 1982, Carol Brehm founded Brehm Preparatory School. She wanted the school to have a home-like feel and provide specialized education for its students.

The school opened in August 1982 at 1245 E. Grand Ave. with four dorms and two modest academic buildings. The first class had 19 students and 17 full and part-time staff. By the end of the year, enrollment had nearly doubled.

Today, Brehm has space for 100 students between the ages of 11 and 22 who have learning disabilities, speech and language impairments, other health impairments and social-emotional disorders. The program is staffed by more than 150 full- and part-time employees using best practices to meet the academic, social and emotional challenges that Brehm students present.

Alumni of the school gathered at a recent weekend celebration to share the successes and remember their days at Brehm.

Brian Brown, executive director of Brehm, said seeing so many students from 1992 to 2015 has been a real privilege and honor.

So many come back and talk about the impact the school has had on them, Brown said.

One after another, Brehm graduates thanked the staff and shared memories of classrooms, activities and even cleaning dorms before Parents Weekend.

Jennifer Bode graduated from Brehm in 1998. She said she loved every single day at Brehm.

My fondest memories are making friends, she said.

Brock Leach, a member of Brehm Class of 1996, said his favorite day at Brehm was graduation day. The crowd laughed.

The thing I know is that day wouldnt have come without the people at Brehm, Leach said.

Today, Leach and his wife own veterinary hospitals.

That sentiment was echoed by many alumni. They completed high school and were able to go on to college and careers because of Brehm. Many feel like they would not have finished high school or grown up to be self-supporting without their education at Brehm, which includes life skills as well as academics.

Scott Donaldson of Carlyle came to the school at age 11 and graduated in 2009. During his years at Brehm, the school started a robotics program and paint ball team. The robotics team took second in national competition.

Donaldson said he learned to make his own decisions during his years at Brehm. He is now a mill operator and a member of the Machinists Union.

I am supporting myself with my new job, Donaldson said.

Andrew Sheriff, class of 2011, is director of plant health at Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion in Philadelphia and served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He believes it is important for current Brehm students to see where the alumni are now, and that they are supporting themselves and following their dreams.

Going here at a young age and learning to do things on my own put me ahead, Sheriff said. I switched careers to be in a position to give back. I learned that through the values taught at Brehm.

Richard Collins, director of Brehm Institute and former executive director, loves that the school is still fulfilling Carol Brehms dream.

Carol had a dream. She knew we needed to have a school which also focused on the family because kids had to leave home and that is hard. She wanted to create a safe place where we really teach social, emotional and academic skills. I am proud to be a part of it, Collins said.
SPRINGFIELD  Some Illinois lawmakers want to cap ATM fees at a dollar, but banking organizations say it would likely be the end of free ATMs.

According to Bankrate, the average out-of-network ATM surcharge in the United States is $4.57, but a bill sponsored by state Rep. Art Turner, D-Chicago, would force banks and other businesses that provide ATMs to limit their charges to only a dollar.

Kraig Lounsberry with the Community Bankers Association of Illinois said most banks have promotions that allow their customers to use their banks' own ATMs for free. Forcing a cap on everyone else likely would mean the end of that perk.

"With the sudden loss of that revenue stream, something that the bank will have to look at is the possibility of charging fees for all customers, including those that are in-network," he said. "The ability to provide this service to their customers is something that community banks want to do but in order to do that, they have to be able to charge fees (to non-customers) as opposed to a fee arbitrarily set by the government."

And it might not apply to all ATMs. Lounsberry thinks that the law wouldn't apply to locations belonging to national chain banks since they would be able to abide by their home state's rules, not Illinois'.

"Because of federal law, big banks might not even be required to abide by the statute," he said. "It could only apply to state-chartered financial institutions."

ATMs are expensive to maintain, according to Lounsberry.

"Upgrading ATMs is an expensive process," he said. "Many ATMs are currently going through with upgrades to accommodate chip readers."

Debbie Jemison with the Illinois Bankers Association said in an email that the government cap on fees would reduce consumer choice, saying "It would force financial institutions and non-bank ATM owners to eliminate many of their terminals."

A recent survey by ATM Marketplace says that 45 percent of respondents called free ATMs "essential."

The summer of 2017 marks 50 years since the first ATM was used.

Rep. Turner could not be reached for comment.
CARBONDALE  With birds chirping in the background and an early warm spring sun shining down, the steps at the back side of the building became the backdrop for Thursday's Street S.M.A.R.T.S. class at the Boys & Girls Club.

The three students in that day's Whiz Kids class answered questions about what child abuse is, how to recognize it and how to keep themselves and others safe from danger. They sometimes answered with all the bravado an about-to-be-10-year-old could muster or the whimsical and childlike responses of a child.

"What are some of the effects of child abuse?" asked Denise Blair, a social work intern at the Carbondale Boys & Girls Club. "How do you think people feel once they've (been abused).  How do you think the child feels if they're being abused?"

"Devastated," said Yani Taylor, who turned 10 on Saturday. "Devastated and hurt, too."

"Nasty. They feel nasty," said Sarah-Nay Powell. "They're probably gonna take showers every five seconds."

Why would they be inclined to take lots of showers, 10-year-old Corey Gilbert Jr. wanted to know.

"'Cause maybe they want to wash the pain away," Blair began to explain.

The youth in the class were learning what child abuse is, and how to report it and combat it. Also leading in the discussion that day was Zach Myers, a volunteer with AmeriCorps.

The Street SMARTS is a life skills program that teaches about violence prevention, conflict resolution, staying safe and gang resistance. The small group discussed some seemingly mature topics, such as how they would respond if an adult family friend came to them, saying they would give them money for touching or being touched inappropriately.

On a question about child abuse taking the form of food deprivation or forced hunger, three children seemed to have a hard time grasping what food-deprivation would look like. But, they agreed in the end, if they saw "Billy Bob," a fictitious classmate, looking hungry or malnourished, they would alert their teacher or some other adult.

Or, as Sarah-Nay noted, "I know we're not supposed to share our food, but I'd give him some of my food."

Program celebrating 13 years

The program has existed since the club was started in 2004, according to Tina Carpenter, the center's director of operations.

The Street SMARTS program is a component of the national Boys & Girls Clubs' SMART Moves  Skills Mastery And Resilience Training  part of its life skills training program created to help youth deal with such issues as drug and alcohol use and premarital activity. In addition to the Street Smarts program, the Carbondale club also has a Passport to Manhood program for 11 to 14-year-olds and its SMART Girls healthy lifestyles and self-esteem enhancement program for 8- to 17-year-old girls.

At the Carbondale location, the program's components include its Smart Moves and Street Moves components. The Smart Kids component, for 6- to 9-year-olds, teaches youth to practice healthy behaviors and avoiding risky behavior, such as becoming involved with drugs. The Start Smart component, for 10- to 12-year-olds, adds to instruction components about teaching self-esteem and peer support. Stay Smart, for 13- to 15-year-olds, adds conversations about postponing sexual activity. Street Smarts, a gang and violence prevention curriculum is targeted toward 10- to 14-year-olds.

The programs run year-round. Street Smarts, for instance, is typically taught in the spring and the Smart Moves in the fall.

"We have the curriculum guide that we are provided, but we also make sure that they provide us a basis, and then we will tweak it to meet the needs of the kids we serve at the time, Carpenter said.

In this area, there is focus on understanding bullying and what role that the youth, as a bystander, observer, perpetrator or victim, play and experience, Carpenter said. She said that teaching is also extended to focus on equipping youth to be able to withstand the pressure to join gangs, which she said are in the region.

"Theyre not the gangs of Chicago, but there is gang activity, and we talk a lot with the kids of what do gangs provide for them  thats positive and negative." she said. For example, one positive perception could be that gangs give children a sense of belonging, she said.

But, she noted, the youth are taught that some of the negative aspects of being in a gang are that one loses one's identity.

"A way to combat that (gang membership) is to help kids build self-esteem and self-confidence," she said. "They have the tools and skills to overcome something like that. Its really about them ... We got to teach them to value who they are as a person, in order to help them be resilient to that. Resiliency is key, giving them the skills to be resilient."

The classes are offered to youth who are members of the Boys & Girls Club; membership is $20 a year, but membership is provided for youth who are unable to pay it, Carpenter said. Membership for teens is $10 a year.

Community can help youth feel safer

A community can play a huge part in making it safe for youth and in helping them feel secure, Carpenter said. She said it is not uncommon to have youth come to the center and say they heard gunshots outside their home the night before.

"And you think, 'this is Carbondale,' that shouldnt be happening," she said. "One way to support the kids is to assure them and let them know where their safe place is: where can they go that they have a safe place."

In addition to businesses, that could include churches or other youth-focused outlets.

"We need people to step up, Carpenter said. Just simple things like when you see a child, smile at that child.  I tell people, show them some teeth. Youre letting them know, hey youre a kid, Im not above you. We need to just talk to kids, (promote) youth-friendly businesses.  What that means is there are some businesses where they dont want kids coming in there unless they are with adults."

"How do we make a youth feel like if things are bad at home, I can go hang out at the local Hucks (or some other business, church or center) and people are going to talk to me," she said.
The Captain was the largest coal shovel ever built and was a Southern Illinois mining fixture until it was destroyed by fire in 1991. Those of us who have been around here remember that  the biggest machine every built and it was here in Southern Illinois.
An attempted missile launch by North Korea on Sunday failed, US and South Korean defense officials told CNN.

The attempted launch occurred a day after the regime of Kim Jong Un showed off a bevy of new missiles and launchers at a large-scale military parade on its most important holiday.

A South Korean defense official said the action took place in Sinpo, a port city in eastern North Korea. That was the site of a ballistic missile test earlier this month in which the projectile fell into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.

The North Koreans use Sinpo shipyard for their submarine activity, and US satellites have observed increased activity there in April, a US official said at the time of the previous test.

South Korean and US intelligence officials are trying to determine what type of missile was used Sunday, but initial reports said it could be a medium-range missile, according to a White House foreign policy Adviser.

Here are the latest developments:

 US Vice President Mike Pence, who is in the area as part of previous scheduled trip, was briefed on the launch, administration officials said. Pence and President Donald Trump have been in contact, aides to the vice president said.

 "The President and his military team are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The President has no further comment," US Defense Secretary James Mattis said.

 The White House has no plans of sending nuclear weapons to South Korea or the area, according to a White House adviser.

 "Other actions would have been taken by the US" if it had been a nuclear test, the adviser said.

 South Korean officials convened a meeting of the National Security Council.

 "Our government condemns this serious threat on the Korean peninsula and overall international society," the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.

 If Sunday's missile launch leads to a nuclear test or an ICBM launch, there would be "a powerful punishing measure that North Korean authority can't endure," South Korean officials said.

 US Pacific Command said it tracked a missile launch at 5:21 p.m. ET and said the missile blew up almost immediately.

 "It was a land-based missile," US Pacific Command spokesman David Benham told CNN.

 The missile was launched from the same point of the April 5 launch, a White house foreign policy adviser said.

 At this point, US military officials don't believe the missile had intercontinental capabilities, a US defense official told CNN. The official said the missile blew up so quickly there is limited data.

 Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the think tank RAND Corporation, said he thinks the missiles were not the kind that could reach the United States' mainland. "The North doesn't seem to be quite at the place to test an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile)," he said.

 CNN's Will Ripley in Pyongyang, North Korea, reported there was no immediate confirmation from North Korean state media about the launch.

Rising tensions

North Korea's actions come as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have spiked to alarming levels.

The US Navy dispatched the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson strike group to the region last weekend, and Trump has been tweeting this week that if China can't rein in North Korea's nuclear program, the United States will.

The group brought ships that could shoot down missiles that North Korea has been testing.

"I think the (Trump) administration anticipated that a ballistic missile launch would occur, and I have to wonder whether they were prepared to use the ships that are with that carrier group to shoot down that missile" as long as the ships were positioned in the right spots, Bennett said.

Pence is headed to Asia this weekend, with planned stops in Seoul; Jakarta, Indonesia; Tokyo and Sydney.

Analysts had expected North Korea to conduct a nuclear missile test around the time of his visit, possibly on Saturday as the nation celebrated the 105th birthday of its founder -- Kim II Sung, the late grandfather of North Korea's current leader.

The status of the North Korean underground nuclear test program is unchanged, a senior US defense official told CNN, and a test could come at any time.

The reported failed test comes at a time of year when North Korea has previously tried to launch missiles. Last year, Pyongyang attempted to launch a Musudan missile on April 15, an auspicious date on which millions celebrate Kim II Sung's birthday.

That test also failed, as there was "no evidence the missile reached flight," a US official told CNN.

CNN's Paula Hancocks reported from Seoul, Barbara Starr reported from Washington and Steve Almasy reported and wrote in Atlanta. CNN's Josh Berlinger in Hong Kong, Kevin Bohn, Lauren Suk and Taehoon Leen in Seoul contributed to this report.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.  Psalms 96:3.

That Bible verse might well be Orangeburg resident Jerry French's testimony of his commitment to Christ in spreading his message of love and unity not just abroad, but also here at home.

The 65-year-old has traveled all over the globe -- Africa, Mexico, Peru and Haiti and many other countries -- feeding orphaned children and providing clean drinking water systems for impoverished families.

French, a member of First Baptist Church of Orangeburg, doesnt consider his work a burden but rather a calling from Christ to share his message of compassion and lend a helping hand where it is needed.

I want to express that love to others

When I think about Christs message, I really think about just simply being who you are as a child of God, French said.

His view of a being a missionary is simple.

When I think of a missionary, I think of how Christ just simply interacted with people. He helped them in their time of need, and he did it just simply by knowing what they needed. And as a missionary, our call is really just to help people in their place of need, French said.

As I go out to help people, its just an expression of who I am in relation to my love for Christ and how I want express that love to others.

He got his start in mission work serving with the youth leadership team at First Baptist Church of Orangeburg. He and Marvin Bozard, with whom he became good friends, were among the adults who took a group of youth to Reynosa, Mexico.

We went to a very poor area of Reynosa. People were literally living at the site of a trash dumpster. We went there with the intention of building housing for them, and we were able to build homes for them so they wouldnt have to live on the grounds of the local dumpster, French said.

It was during one of those visits that Marvin and I became good friends and I began to think about going on international missions to Africa. So Marvin and his wife and I began going on trips to various parts of Africa, he said. And throughout those experiences, it just really made me realize how much God was pulling me to work as a missionary.

French said two most memorable experiences as a missionary took place in Mombasa, Kenya, where he and others in his missionary group were asked to go into the local school system to talk to the children about God.

The school leaders did not want them to speak about Christ, but he recalled how a way was provided for them to do so.

Within that group was one lady who was the head teacher of the children. As the other leaders left the room, she stayed behind and said, You can speak about Christ all you want to. I can assure you that they will not say anything to you or harm you," French said.

At the end of the presentation and prior to us leaving that day, those same leaders that had asked us not to talk about Christ thanked us for being there and for all we had said to help the children."

The other memorable experience took place in Monrovia, Liberia, which had come to the end of a 13-year civil war. French said he got to hold a toddler who had been abandoned on the side of a road and feared dead by the soldiers who found him nearly three years before.

Someone told the soldiers about a lady, Mama Feeta, who had been taking in children from the war. Her first reaction was, I dont know if we can save him or not, but well try with Gods help. She had taken a ring and placed it on that little boys leg so that as she began to feed him, she would know that he was gaining weight and strength as the ring became tight on his leg over time, said French, noting that the child was one of many abandoned in the midst of the war.

Living out what you believe

French has served as executive director of Catch the Vision International, an Orangeburg-based mission group, for the past two and a half years. The nonprofit group is run largely with the support of volunteers.

Through this group, French has spent countless hours serving abroad and in the Orangeburg County community doing everything from building wheelchair ramps for the disabled to repairing rotting floors for homes that have fallen into disrepair.

Catch the Vision is very involved in international mission as well as local mission. Were building a brand new campus in Nina Rumi, Peru. This campus is being built in the middle of a 1,000-resident community of 450 families and tons of children," he said.

We are working with Water Mission in Charleston to install a purified water system, and upon completion, we will provide fresh drinking water to those 1,000 residents."

French said CTVI will also use the campus for pastor conferences, short-term mission trips and as a center for helping to meet local needs, including providing medical and dental needs and vacation Bible school.

Through our Peru River Ministry, we have built churches in many of the villages along the Amazon River Basin. We also have an orphanage in Haiti, where we house 40 children. Many of those children and their families were left devastated by the earthquake of 2010, he said.

When Catch the Vision started a campaign to sponsor a child at the Haiti orphanage, many First Baptist Church of Orangeburg members and others sponsored each child in the orphanage, providing clothing, school supplies and meals for a year, French said.

He shared a moving experience during his visit to the Haiti orphanage in 2013.

I had an opportunity to help feed the children. It was rice, meat and some vegetables mixed together in one large tray. The children were lined up in one line with one large spoon. Each child would come up and take a spoonful of that food and then go back to the end of the line  until all the food is gone," French said.

Thats the only meal they will get that day. As a father, that impacted me because I had never seen a child have to be fed that way. But it meant so much to that child to have a meal that they didnt think about the fact that it was being given from the same spoon."

He added, It caused me to think about how fortunate we are and to think of ways that we may be able to help them improve their way of living.

French and his wife, Debbie, are the parents of two sons, Jeffrey and Josh, and the grandparents of two.

He said being a missionary brings joy to his soul.

It really is a joy because it helps me understand Christs message to us, which is to just simply help others to the extent we can. Its not about trying to force or push your belief and understanding of Christ in our lives to anyone else, but its simply about living out who you feel like you are as Gods child, French said.

Being a missionary is just simply living out what you believe. The way you live your life and the way youre helping others causes them in many ways to think more about who they are and who they want to be in their lives, he said.

Its been very fulfilling

French said the CTVI headquarters on Russell Street in Orangeburg has been a valuable site through which local mission work is accomplished.

Weve been able to use the building for a variety of things. Weve been able to partner with the Fatherhood Coalition in giving them a meeting room within the building. We provide a place for a mens Bible study every week, and we also have a carpenters shop where we were able to work with a Bootstraps (mentoring) program and teach 17 students how to build bird houses," he said.

Also, each summer for the last three years, we have brought youth groups from nine to 10 different churches together for a one-week mission during the summer in the Orangeburg community, where we have repaired or remodeled five homes for families in need. This past summer, we remodeled five homes where there was a single mother in each home with children."

French said mission work is not about race or denomination, but rather Gods love for everyone and realizing that every life is valuable.

We all come from different backgrounds and different experiences, different lifes examples that weve been through. But within each and every one of us, there is a feeling of need for love and appreciation for who we are, and we are all truly Gods children," he said.

Were all striving for the same thing: to accept and share the love of Christ, said French, who was ordained into full-time mission ministry in September. He said he considers the Orangeburg County community his pulpit.

This has been a very important time in my life because it now gives me an opportunity to help people in other ways. The highs of mission work certainly include being able to see how you impact a persons life so that it makes today and tomorrow better than yesterday, French said. But the low is realizing that you cant help everyone.

He said he appreciates the many volunteers and donors who help CTVI continue its mission work, but he is also grateful for his own opportunity to be one of Gods messengers through mission work.

French noted, Its been very fulfilling. Its allowed me to be able to do things that I never imagined Id be able to do, go places I didnt think Id be able to go, help people I didnt think Id be able to help and, most importantly, get to know people that have come to mean an awful lot to me in my life.
SPRINGFIELD  The 51st Annual Governors Frog Jump and International Egg Strike not only has Easter and other traditions that extend back to a little over half a century but centuries and even millennia themselves, and with these traditions, the people of small town Springfield and the region have known exactly who they were and what they were meant to do on Saturday.

They were to jump frogs and strike eggs  traditions that range in history from hundreds to thousands of years. According to the Springfield Town web-site, the Frog Jump in Springfield dates back to the first officially marked frog jump, the Frog Jump Jubilee, in Angels Camp, California. Mark Twain based his 1865 short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Caleveras County, on stories he had heard from locals at the Angel Hotel there.

Dr. Timothy Parsons, a doctor at Lowcountry Health in Fairfax, and Sueh Parsons, of Salley, attended the event this year. Sueh said she was originally from California. They said they were going to try to find their sons Hunter, 9, and Luke, 8, a frog to enter in the frog jump the day of the event. Frogs are occasionally sold by different people at the event. Most local individuals catch theirs in nearby rivers or ponds before the event.

One hundred seventeen frogs were registered in the Frog Jump this year, and the line for registration extended well past the platform and down to a road behind it. Registrants were excited as they entered their frogs.

George Landrum, a Coast Guard member from Norway, entered four bullfrogs in the frog jump. He said his daughter won it last year, his niece finished second last year, and that hes done it five or six years.

John Ulness, 10, from Pelion, was entering a few bullfrogs for his first year and said his grandfather told him about the event.

Dr. Parsons said, We like to take the boys to some of the small events around here.

Dr. Parsons said he thinks its good for small towns to see that those from other areas come to their events.

The frog jump took approximately two hours or more. Each registered frog is given a chance to jump from a pad. If the first jump doesnt make it past the pad that does not count. If the frog does not move for 10 seconds, it is disqualified. Volunteers measure the length of three jumps for each contestant and total the length of those jumps. Frogs with names like Elvis, Rainbow, and Caffeine were announced, and each had variable performances. Contestants were from as far away as Key West, Florida, and Durham, North Carolina, in addition to those from the region.

The frog Marvo, whose trainer was Kobe Sampson of West Columbia., won first place for a total jumping distance of 14 feet 10 inches. The frog Oscar Cooper, whose trainer was Haiden Padgett of Salley, won second place for a total jumping distance of 14 feet 7 inches. Third place went to the frog Clemson, which was trained by Joe Huggins of Barnwell, with a length of 13 feet 11 inches.

Egg strikes, just like the one done on Saturday, were done in colonial America and even in Europe at times, but they extend all the way back to shortly after the formation of the Greek Orthodox Church.

In early tradition, the person whose egg survived was supposed to have good luck throughout the year.

The winners of the 51st Annual Egg Strike had good luck too in the form of a cash prize of a $100 bill to the overall winner and trophies to the first and second place winners.

They took turns striking eggs against each other until one person remained.

Sueh Parsons said she had just heard of egg striking and thought it involved hitting a target with an egg. She said she learned that individuals take turns striking eggs against each other and that it is a tournament.

Dr. Parsons, her husband, said he had never heard of the concept before Saturday either.

Thirty-two adults and 17 youth participated in the egg strike this year. The completion of each person in two divisions, youth and adult, took over an hour or more.

Max Dempsey, 10, from Cope won first place in the Youth Division of the 2017 Egg Strike. Sam Demsey, his brother, won second place in that same division.

Kimberly Williams won first place in the Adult Division.

Mark Williams won second place in the Adult Division.

Max Dempsey won Overall after one of his eggs cracked Kim Williams.

Max said, Ive done the egg strike for three years. I feel good because I beat my brother and Miss Kim. He added that Ms. Kim / Kimberly Williams is his fathers girlfriend.

Im going to spend my one hundred dollars on fishing lures Max added.

Those in the broader Williams family have been winners before. Lynn Williams stated she won the Egg Strike last year.

Mark Williams of Neeses, who was interviewed before the contest, said, Ive done the Egg Strike for 40 years. I go through a lot of eggs. Youve got to get fresh eggs. They have to be organic or from a local farmer to be very good.

My uncle got me started in it. They used to meet on the streets of Springfield and would bet on the hardest eggs he added.

Williams said after the egg strike was over that he had picked out the hardest eggs for his daughter, Kimberly, who won first place in the adult division and added that he was satisfied with his second place win.

The Frog Jump parade this year included everything from church floats with Christian themes to vintage cars.
Property owners near the new Yonder Field concert venue near Bowman are worried that plans for a Memorial Day weekend event there are moving forward even though the owners of the company have not submitted a traffic study to the S.C. Department of Transportation for review.

The company announced last week it will hold its first music festival at the 228-acre site off Interstate 26 on Saturday, May 27.

Headliners for the "Bowman Bound" festival will be Dr. John, Phillip Phillips and Uncle Kracker on the main stage. Edwin McCain, Villanova, Trade Pierce and The T-Stones will appear on the Tailgate Stage.

"No word on traffic plan, emergency safety, fence protection nor local travel for residents," said Les Orr, owner of LOCK Realty, which adjoins the Yonder Field property directly to the north of the stage and the camping area.

The concert venue has been the subject of controversy since its development was announced, with nearby residents taking their concerns about crowds, noise, traffic and other issues to Orangeburg County Council.

They worry the large influx of people will endanger their way of life in the previously undeveloped rural area.

Yonder Field organizers project it will have an economic impact in the county of $40-50 million annually. They plan to hold 10 to 15 concerts a year at the site, with crowds expected to number from 20,000 to 30,000 for each event.

As a result of residents' concerns, Orangeburg County Council developed two new ordinances stipulating the allowed noise levels and law enforcements response. The council has also discussed a special events ordinance, which would define special events and oversight of the events.

Orr said he is disappointed that nothing has been done for the citizens of the area since the last public meeting about the site.

"There was also supposed to be additional meetings with updates scheduled, yet none have been announced," he said.

"It is very disappointing that county council is continuing to allow the process to continue without adequate infrastructure in place to protect its citizens, including the patrons who attend Yonder Field events," Orr said. "I truly hope that legal action is not the way to forcibly make the Yonder Field operations to cooperate with county and citizen safety and protection."

The Orangeburg County Department of Emergency Services was scheduled to meet with the Yonder Field owners Thursday morning to review the traffic study documents, with plans to forward the materials to the SCDOT for review. That meeting was postponed.

OCDES Executive Director Billy Staley said the Yonder Field owners had a scheduling conflict.

"We will try to meet sometime next week," Staley said. "We are still waiting on their final plan to come in. We are in the process of rescheduling."

County Administrator Harold Young said, "As soon as we get the whole report, we will have a meeting to disseminate copies to the residents."

Yonder Field officials have said the plan is to use Interstate 26 exits 154 and 159 to get concert-goers in and out, but Homestead Road and Timrod Lane must also be able to handle the traffic.

SCDOT District Seven Engineering Administrator Kevin Gantt said he is awaiting the traffic study.

"We are going to have to review it, and it goes through a process," Gantt said.

The SCDOT typically takes a week to review traffic studies, but it could take a month if revisions are needed.

Yonder Field scheduled a job fair for April 15 with plans to hire security personnel; campground and parking assistants, VIP services, food and beverage, catering and production assistants and site crews.

The additional jobs and overall economic impact of Yonder Field are no consolation for Orr. He says his Bowman property is a vacation destination for him, noting that family and friends gather there on Memorial Day weekend.

"From here on out, we shall probably be eliminated from our property," he said. "With safety concerns, we are not going to expose our kids and friends to potential unsafe environments."

While Yonder Field owners have promised a fence to contain its guests, Orr said no such fence is in place.

"With zero buffer from the campgrounds to our property, there will be trespassing -- and not welcomed," he said.

As a local business owner, Orr says he is all for progress and people making money, "just not at the expense of others and the environment."

He said he feels the county's handling of Yonder Field is "out of line with its mission statement, which notes the county would be accountable to its citizens by providing the most effective and efficient services possible."

"I can honestly see no accountability to the citizens in our area," Orr said.

Resident Pam McArthur said she is frustrated that Yonder Field's first "trial" will be Memorial Day weekend.

"Traffic on I-26 will already be congested with travelers heading out for Memorial Day, and the traffic at the Pilot Truck stop will look like a feeding frenzy with cars and trucks getting gas, food and snacks," she said. "It is also a weekend that our friends and neighbors host cookouts with family and friends, and due to the gates opening at 12 p.m., this could complicate their plans."

McArthur said the times of the concert were misrepresented by Yonder Field to concerned residents.

"We were told gates would open at 2 p.m. and music at 6 p.m. Now it is 12 p.m. and music at 3 p.m.," she said.

McArthur added, "The traffic study has not been shared with SCDOT, and it is rude to only give them six weeks to plan when law enforcement is already stretched for a holiday weekend."

With only one route to their homes, Homestead Road and Timrod Lane residents will have to stay home all day that Saturday, she said.

"If they wish to have a cookout, their guests will be caught up in the traffic nightmare that we have been warning everyone about for months."

Concerned residents "will have to regroup" and "find another way to present our concerns as it seems like they are falling on deaf ears," McArthur said.

"Leaving town for the weekend is not an option since security is one of our concerns with the attendees and campers," she said.

She said county council seems "mesmerized by the 1 percent of sales tax they will get to pocket."

"It seems like Ms. White (Stacie Darr White, Yonder Field owner and operator) and her family get to proceed regardless of the county's efforts to try and protect the residents and landowners," McArthur said. "It is sad that we the residents and landowners have little or no options to protect our interests, homes and families from this venue."

She said she hopes the Army Corps of Engineers will be able to somehow halt the event from moving forward.

Councilman Johnny Ravenell said the county has done all that could be done in light of the fact that "we came in on the tail end of things."

He said his constituents who are concerned have been encouraged to continue to come to the council meetings and invited to the county's public works meetings.

Councilman Harry Wimberly said, "I think county council has done its due diligence. I will let the highway department handle that (the traffic study), and we will deal with it accordingly."

Wimberly said the council has tried its best to answer the concerns of residents, and now it is a matter of "seeing how it will work out."

"We will have to deal with it when it comes."
Local lawmakers are displeased with Gov. Henry McMasters promise to veto legislation that would increase the state's gas tax.

In a letter to House leadership, McMaster threatened to veto pending gas tax legislation and a bond bill that helps finance higher education projects and other capital improvements throughout the state.

He suggested using a bond bill, which would borrow nearly $500 million for overdue maintenance at colleges and other state-owned buildings, to fix the states roads.

Theres money in the bond bill for S.C. State, OCtech and Denmark Tech, Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, said. His proposal says forget that.

Nearly $1 billion would be borrowed to pay for road repairs, but legislators say thats not enough and is only kicking the proverbial can farther down the road.

We need a sustainable source of revenue to fix our roads, not a one-time bond bill, Cobb-Hunter said.

Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews, described the decision as putting a very small band aid on a gaping wound.

The bond bill is not a recurring stream of revenue, he said.

S.C. Department of Transportation Director Christy Hall said an additional $28 billion is needed over the next 25 years to bring the state's existing highway system up to good condition.

Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman said the roads will cost more to fix the longer they go unfixed and deterioration will continue.

Matthews estimates the cost for South Carolina to be $300 million for every year we wait.

Its no way that we can fund the gas tax out of general funds or through the bond bill because that is only one-time money, Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, said. I think the governor is making a serious mistake.

Personally, Im very disappointed that hes chosen to embark upon the same route as our previous governor, Govan said.

Govan said using a bond bill will only scratch the surface.

The bigger issue is how does he propose making up for the billion dollars that would come out of the general fund? Cobb-Hunter said. What services is he proposing to cut to pay for (it)?

She said the money still has to come from somewhere and in the end, South Carolinians will have to pay back the $1 billion planned to be borrowed.

It is time to bite the bullet and say enough is enough, Cobb-Hunter said.

South Carolinas gas tax rate has not been changed since 1987.

Last month, the S.C. House overwhelmingly backed a plan that would raise the states lowest-in-the-nation 16.75-cent-a-gallon tax by two cents a year over five years.

The full 10-cent increase is estimated to raise roughly $600 million a year.

Ott said increasing the gas tax means travelers who live outside of South Carolina and use the roads will contribute to roughly 33 percent of the overall cost of fixing the roads.

The bond bill would not. Were forcing South Carolinians to pick up 100 percent of the tab, he said.

With 41,400 miles of roadway, South Carolina has the fourth largest system in the nation.

Ott said of McMaster's stand: Unfortunately I think its a campaign ploy.

He believes the 2018 election is influencing the governor's position. Then lieutenant governor, McMaster became governor earlier this year when Nikki Haley assumed the position of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Govan said, Sounds more to me like politics.

I believe what it amounts to is a lack of long-term vision, he said.

The Legislature returns to session this week with the bond bill on the agenda in the House.
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By Trend





Every year, 730,000 tons of condensate and 1.57 billion cubic meters of gas will be produced from the first well to be drilled at the Absheron field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR said in a message.

SOCAR Vice President for Field Development Yashar Latifov, Director General of the Azneft Production Union Dashgin Iskandarov, Vice President of Frances Total for Security Nicolas Brunet and others took a working trip to the Oil Rocks field, according to the message.

The purpose of the visit was to get acquainted with the possibility of transporting condensate and gas from the first well at the Absheron field to the Oil Rocks field and from Oil Rocks to the shore.

Daily production from the first well at Absheron will be 2,000 tons of condensate and 4.3 million cubic meters of gas. The guests reviewed a gas turbine power plant at the Oil Rocks field and examined a compressor, gas tanks and a first-aid station at the 28 May Oil and Gas Production Department, the message said.

They also mulled the current state and prospective development of deposits, as well as transportation of output from the first well at the Absheron field to the shore.

Reserves of the Absheron field are estimated at 350 billion cubic meters of gas and 45 million tons of condensate, according to SOCAR.
By Azertac





"Azerbaijan and Jordan enjoy excellent friendly and brotherly relations," said president of the Greater Amman Municipality GAM committee Yousef Shawarbeh as he met with Azerbaijani ambassador to Jordan Sabir Aghabayov.

Shawarbeh said he heard a lot about Azerbaijan and its Baku. He said his invitation to the 4th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue to be held this May in Baku will be a good opportunity to familiarize himself with the country and its capital, Azertac reported.

Ambassador Aghabayov expressed his confidence that bilateral relations between the two countries will be further strengthened.

They hailed the positive impact of personal friendly relationship of President Ilham Aliyev with the King Abdullah II on the development of Azerbaijan-Jordan bilateral relations. They also discussed cooperation within international organizations, development of economic relations, highlevel reciprocal visits and a Jordanian delegation's participation in the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games to be held in Baku.

The Azerbaijani ambassador described the fact that there is a street and a square named after national leader Heydar Aliyev in Amman as a shining example of friendly and brotherly relations between the two countries.

Ambassador Aghabayov highlighted the history of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, aggression and ethnic cleansing policy carried out by Armenia, genocides committed against the people of Azerbaijan, official Baku's stance on the settlement of the dispute, successful April battles and the reconstruction works carried out in the liberated Azerbaijani territories.

The ambassador commended Jordan's fair and firm position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.








First Bit, a global IT company and BDO, a worldwide network of professional services firms, have partnered on a joint seminar on VAT implementation in UAE.



The event will bring together seasoned tax professionals, technology experts and top managers to help local businesses build their expertise on the practical aspects of VAT implementation.



In particular, the companies will give a joint VAT implementation seminar on April 17 at the Address Boulevard hotel in Dubai, featuring global experts from Malaysia and the UK and focusing not only on methodological, but also on technological aspects of transition.



Starting from January 1, 2018, a 5 per cent VAT will be introduced in the UAE. It is expected to have a deep impact on the way businesses operate in the whole region. Early preparation is a key to a successful transition to the new business environment in terms of people, processes, controls, and technology.



Interest in VAT is rising rapidly and we are receiving a numerous requests for advice and assistance with VAT implementation. However, some businesses are still delaying their preparations for the new tax, said Brian Conn, regional head of VAT at BDO.



This is a worrying trend and the time it will take to get ready for VAT should not be underestimated, particularly if major changes to systems and accounting processes are required  which will be the case for many businesses. If the trend continues it is likely that a large portion of the business community will not be ready. It is also likely that the demand for advisory services will outstrip supply making it more difficult for businesses to prepare.



The message is simple: if businesses are not already preparing for VAT, the time to start is now, he added.



The speaker line-up includes BDOs executive director Mok Chew Yin and Brian Conn, as well as First Bits business development manager Hakim Kuvatov and head of Automation Evgenii Podborskii.



Key topics to be covered in the seminar include:



 Latest news on how the introduction of VAT is progressing across the GCC.

 Analysis of the VAT Framework Agreement and country-by-country laws (as at the time of the seminar).

 Early steps to be taken by businesses to get ready for VAT implementation.

 Building a roadmap for a smooth transition and full compliance from day one.

 Preparing IT systems for VAT implementation.



Unlike many similar events, which focus mainly on methodology and advisory, the seminar will specifically cover the aspect of technology readiness for VAT implementation.



Technology adoption is critical to a successful VAT transition, said Evgenii Podborskii, head of Automation at First Bit. To ensure compliance from day one, businesses will have to customize their IT systems and if its in-house IT resources are sufficient to do this, or if an external consultant is needed.



In addition to insights shared by the hosts, seminar attendees will also have access to personal consultations and demos of the latest software solutions for VAT compliance.



Combining BDOs worldwide strategic vision and First Bits technological competence allowed the organizers to create a seminar that provides a truly 360-degree view of the upcoming changes and the actions that can be taken right now to better prepare for them.  TradeArabia News Service
Manazel Real Estate, a leading UAE developer, is set to showcase four major projects including its gated community development, Manazel Amman, the companys first development outside the emirates, at the upcoming Cityscape Abu Dhabi.



At the top real estate event to be held from April 18 to 20 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, Manazel will be giving updates on its new real estate projects.



Manazel Amman, the development located in the Jordanian capital, will include 1,253 units with a mixture of apartments and villas divided into two-, three- and four-bedroom units.



The planned mixed-used development is situated in a peaceful area which consists of half-a-million sq m of real estate and is just 10 minutes away from Jordans Queen Alia International Airport and 25 minutes from the center of Amman by car.



As the first gated community in Amman, Manazel said it had focused on creating an attractive, peaceful and secure development which will also include retail areas, mosques, gyms, pharmacies as well as a medical center and kindergarten on site.



At Cityscape, Manazel will also be unveiling further details on its planned Ghantoot development which was recently launched as one of the biggest real estate projects in the tourism sector in the UAE.



The development, which is a new take on community development, is located in Ghantoot one of the most attractive coastal areas situated between Abu Dhabi and Dubai that also provides buyers the opportunity to own prime coastal land.



Besides this, Manazel will be showcasing its Dari initiative which is being managed and operated by its subsidiary Al Manzel and the Manazel Medical City which is the groups first integrated medical development in the UAE.



The project demonstrates the companys core strategy of diversifying its real estate projects and revenue streams through the strategic use of land owned by the company. The Medical City project is being established in response to the needs of the health care sector in the UAE.



Manazels chairman Mohamed M. Al Qubaisi said: "We continue to work towards achieving the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, by taking sound steps and studying endeavors which deliver unique and creative real estate projects for the greater community."



"In the pursuit of delivering sustained and optimal shareholder value, Manazel remains focused on the delivery of unique and diverse real estate and tourism projects, which reflects the companys commitment to its on-going expansion strategy to enter new growth markets, which will both diversify the companys real estate portfolio while also creating new revenue streams also fulfilling its revenue diversification strategy," he added.



The new real estate project and initiatives are a testimony to the companys achievements, a reflection of the measured steps it has taken since inception, and showcases its commitment to the delivery of well-designed and creative real estate projects which are based on the accumulation of experience gained through each level of project planning.-TradeArabia News Service
Honeywell will host engagement sessions with two space industry veterans at Think Science Connect 2017 taking place in Dubai this week.



Retired Nasa astronaut Don Thomas, who orbited Earth almost 700 times as a veteran of four Nasa Space Shuttle missions, will engage with students and teachers, and take questions alongside Dr Deborah Barnhart, CEO of the US Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) affiliated to Nasas Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, US, at the event.



Think Science Connect 2017 will be held at the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) from April 18 to 20.



As a Think Science sponsor and global software-industrial company with involvement in most major space missions and satellite projects since the beginning of the space age, Honeywell is hosting the sessions as part of efforts to help inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a statement said.



Think Science Connect 2017, which is spearheaded by Emirates Foundation, is a national program that strives to empower Emiratis to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related fields. Its aim is to nurture a culture of scientific thinking whilst helping to grow the next generation of technology pioneers in the country. The fair will also provide the opportunity for hundreds of youth participating in the Think Science Competition to showcase their innovations to thousands of visitors, parents, investors, and stakeholders. - TradeArabia News Service


The first UK to China export train departed yesterday (April 10) laden with containers full of British goods from DP World London Gateways state-of-the-art rail terminal in South Essex.



The train, bound for Yiwu in the Zhe Jiang province in eastern China, will make the 7,500-mile journey in three weeks, said a statement.



Products on board include soft drinks, vitamins, pharmaceuticals and baby products, it said.



Liming Liang, vice governor of the Zhejiang province, joined Rupert Soames, UK Prime Minister's business ambassador for infrastructure and transport; Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, DP World Group chairman and CEO; the Mayor of Yiwu, Shi Wenzhen, Xubin Feng, chairman of Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment Co. and other Chinese and UK regional and local government delegates, customers and staff attended a ceremony and reception at DP World London Gateway held yesterday (April 10), it added..



The gathered group watched as the last three containers were loaded onto the wagons before seeing the train depart.



This inaugural export train bound for China departed just under three months after the first ever import train from China arrived in the UK.



The service is part of China's One Belt, One Road programme - reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes to the West.



After passing through the channel tunnel into France and Belgium, the DB Cargo locomotive will call in Duisburg, Germany before InterRail pull the cargo through Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan before the train crosses to Yiwu, China, said a statement.



Container operator OneTwoThree Logistics is overseeing the transportation and booking of cargo for the UK/China rail freight trains, in conjunction with Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment Co., which is running the service with China Railway Container, it said.



This first consignment of cargo to go by rail  which is cheaper and less restrictive than air freight and faster than sea freight  comes less than two weeks after the triggering of Article 50 and the start of the formal process of leaving the European Union, which has placed an emphasis on the UK to secure trade deals with countries all over the world.



Greg Hands, UKs Minister of State in the Department for International Trade, 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 ($1.86 billion) London Gateway Port as it also welcomes its first regular container ships from Asia, he said.



Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and CEO, DP World, said: We are proud to be playing a key role in facilitating this significant trade occasion between the UK and China.



DP World is a leading enabler of global trade, with its network of marine and inland terminals, industrial zones and logistics and ancillary services to ensure nations all over the world can move goods in, out and inland efficiently and reliably, he said.



DP World London Gateway, one of the UKs 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, he added.



We look forward to enabling and facilitating more trade between the UK, China and the whole world, Bin Sulayem concluded.



Xubin Feng, chairman, Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment Co., said: We are proud to be able to offer the first ever UK to China export train.



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, he said.



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, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
Dubai Women Establishment has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dubai Financial Market (DFC) to enhance womens participation on the boards of listed companies.



The MoU was signed by Mona Al Marri, chairperson of the board of Dubai Women Establishment and Essa Abdulfattah Kazim, chairman of Dubai Financial Market (DFM).





The agreement will enable both parties to exchange knowledge and expertise, as well as boost the professional development of women in the financial sector within an aim to encourage more women to take up decision-making positions.



Al Marri said: This partnership reflects the commitment of Her Highness Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to support womens economic empowerment by enhancing their participation at work. Working with DFM will further boost the Dubai Women Establishments pioneering initiative Women in Boards that aims to enhance the presence of Emirati women on the boards of listed companies; as well as contribute to achieving UAEs target of 20% female presence in corporate boardrooms of listed companies by 2020.



Promoting Emirati womens participation in the business world and enabling them to excel as effective decision makers are top priorities. We are confident that the agreement will facilitate an increase in the number of females in leadership roles and on boards, leading to a positive impact on companies performances and contributing to the continued development of UAEs economy, Al Marri added.



DFM is delighted to collaborate with Dubai Women Establishment in strengthening the role of women in various sectors and particularly on Boards of Directors of DFM-listed companies. These efforts stems from the national strategy and directions of the wise leadership regarding gender balance and paving the way to strengthen the presence of UAE women, Kazim said.



UAE women have always been actively participating in various businesses and the legacy of their participation in traditional activities in the past has certainly created a strong foundation for todays achievements, Kazim said.



The wise leadership constantly emphasizes empowering women and due to this support, UAE women have surpassed their counterparts in the region in terms of not only education, government work and management of private and family businesses, but also occupying ministerial and parliamentary top jobs.



DFM is looking forward to collaborate with Dubai Women Establishment in order to achieve a stronger presence of women on Boards of Directors over the coming period. We aim to build upon DWEs diversified database that includes women from various sectors to provide publicly listed companies the opportunity to engage larger number of women as Board members.



In fact, DFM has always been committed to empowering women. Most of DFM Boards of Directors included women members since the inception and females represent 60 per cent of its workforce. Similarly, we look forward to see a stronger presence of women on the Boards of Directors of various listed companies in the future, Kazim concluded.



The MoU stipulates that the two parties will support the Women in Boards initiative and cooperate in implementing programmes designed to increase the number of women in higher positions across the listed companies. It aims to help women become effective leaders and positively engage them in the business world, so they can contribute to the national development by means of joint activities, awareness drives, educational campaigns, agreements and research and database exchange.  TradeArabia News Service
GAC, a leading provider of integrated shipping, logistics and marine services with a major presence in Middle East region, said its Russian unit has marked an important milestone with its successful handling of the first LNG carrier designed to withstand harsh Arctic conditions at the icy Russian ports of Murmansk and Sabetta.



The Christophe De Margerie is the worlds first specialised LNG ship in the reinforced ice Arc7 class, and the first of a fleet of 15 designed to export liquefied natural gas from Sabetta to European and Asian markets.



When it arrived in Murmansk for its ice trails in the Kara Sea, GAC Russia provided the vessel with a range of services, including: obtaining its permit to operate in Russian territorial waters; boarding engineers and scientists for the trials; delivering equipment and supplies on board; coordinating her route with the Russian Coast Guard Service; and providing valuable advice on navigation in the Arctic.



Once the trials were concluded, customs and border formalities were completed and the ice crew disembarked.



GAC Russia also handled safe passenger operations in Murmansk, arranged bunker supplies and delivered machine parts and ship supplies.



The ship then set sail for her first call at Sabetta, on Yamal. The port is dedicated to exports of gas and gas condensate from the South-Tambeyskoye gas field and home to a natural gas liquefaction plant to prepare the raw hydrocarbons for transportation by sea. Commercial shipments are expected to commence before the end of this year.



Tatyana Shorokhova, GAC Russias general manager, said the expertise of GACs team at the port was an integral part of the successful preparation and implementation of the high profile maiden call of the first ice LNG carrier to the port.



"This was an important milestone, both for us and for the country, and one which attracted considerable media attention," she stated. "We believe that this is the start of a new era for Sabetta, and we look to forward with confidence to the part that we will play in that future," she added.-TradeArabia News Service
Oman-based Daleel Petroleum has awarded a contract for a new gas treatment train to its processing facilities in onshore Block 5 in Dhahirah Governorate, a report said.



The contract, representing the Phase 2 expansion of the companys gas processing plant, will enhance the production of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas liquids (NGL), as well as contribute additional volumes of lean gas into the government gas grid, the Oman Observer report quoted the company as saying.



The project will also eventually eliminate flared gas in the near future, Daleel Petroleum added in an overview of its 2016 performance.
Airbus Corporate Jets has launched a new initiative, called Easystart, offering tailored support to the buyers of its corporate jets already in service.



Easystart will help buyers to understand how an Airbus corporate jet can perform on their key missions, how it can be an attractively affordable upgrade, and how services  such as training, support and upgrades  are available to ensure a smooth entry into service.



Being customer-orientated has always been part of the Airbus recipe for success, and providing advice, care and support throughout an aircrafts life, including beyond first ownership, is an important part of that, said Airbus chief operating officer, Customers John Leahy.



Airbus began delivering A320 Family-based corporate jets at the end of the Nineties and, with new models such as the ACJ320neo on the horizon, more owners are interested in trading up.



Airbus airliners are designed for 20 years or more in service, while flying several thousand hours a year. They have potentially much longer lives as corporate jets, which typically only fly a few hundred hours a year, helping to ensure excellent residual value.



Pre-owned Airbus corporate jets thus have a lot to offer and, because they are the most modern aircraft family in their class, longevity is in their genes, with much potential for new owners.



Key ACJ320 Family features include a much wider and taller cabin than any other business jet, while being similar in size externally. This delivers more sociable, comfortable and productive travel, because passengers can easily move around  as well as allowing more passengers.



Airbus corporate jets already include many features that customers expect when buying a business jets today. Such as the enhanced protection of fly-by-wire controls, weight-saving new materials, and cost-saving centralised maintenance - features often lacking in competitors.



More than 180 Airbus corporate jets are in service on every continent, including Antarctica. They are supported by a worldwide network of technical advice, spares and training that is sized for the needs of more than 500 customers and operators, including services dedicated to the particular needs of corporate jet fliers.  TradeArabia News Serive
Disneyland Paris celebrated its 25th anniversary in Dubai at the JamJar Gallery with a sparkling evening filled with magical surprises.



On this occasion, the French destination hosted a unique event in Dubai at the JamJar Gallery. During The Blue And Silver Night, the invitees got the chance to discover whats new for the 25th Anniversary but also to meet Mickey and Minnie as guests of honour.



With the celebration of the 25th Anniversary, Disneyland Paris launches two new shows, a new attraction, a new Parade and a new nighttime spectacular that illuminates the sky over Disneyland Park. This milestone event makes the French resort the perfect Summer destination vacation for families coming from the GCC region, said Brigid McDonnell, head of sales, International Sales and Marketing, Disney Destinations International. And we have even more surprises to come this summer for the 25th Anniversary.



The Blue and Silver Night showcased magical moments including a surprise visit from Mickey and Minnie Mouse in their new 25th Anniversary costumes, the reveal of a Mickey Mouse statue designed by the French artist Richard Orlinski, a sparkling blue carpet moment and a magical mirror that turned the invitees into some of their favorite Disney Characters.



Now, more than ever before, Disneyland Paris is the place where dreams come true. With all the new experiences opening in Disneyland Park, there is no better time to visit Disneyland Paris than during the 25th Anniversary, said Charlotte de Chevigny, head of marketing, International Sales and Marketing, Disneyland Paris. Its Time to Sparkle



This is the year Disneyland Paris transforms into a galaxy of star-filled moments, glittering with Disney stories shining brighter than ever. Starting today, guests of Disneyland Paris can experience:



 Disney Stars on Parade  Another exciting journey awaits guests in the brand new Disney Parade. With dizzying new floats, new music, a plethora of Disney Stars and new costumes, Disney Stars on Parade will dazzle guests of all ages. Guests follow Mickey and Friends on a real journey of discovery to the land of imagination  with eight chapters of fun



 Disney Illuminations  As night falls, it is time for the final night-time spectacular new experience: Disney Illuminations. This all-new show, featuring state-of-the-art technology, incorporates sound, lights, projections, fountains and breathtaking pyrotechnic effects.



 Star Tours: The Adventures Continue  Launched at the opening of Disneyland Park in 1992, Star Tours soon established itself as a cult attraction. 25 years later, its back with a new experience, new destinations, a new pilot, new characters and new 3D technology. Introducing Star Tours: The Adventures Continue! Prepare for lift-off on an all-new, action-packed, 3D intergalactic voyage its sure to be epic.



 Meet the Dark Side of the Force  Disneyland Paris guests will finally get the chance to meet the formidable Darth Vader every day. Head to the new dedicated area near the Star Tours: The Adventures Continue attraction for a private meet and greet.



 Mickey presents Happy Anniversary Disneyland Paris  A brand new stage show specially-created for the 25th Anniversary. Disney Stars invite guests to gather in front of the stage at Sleeping Beauty Castle for a huge anniversary celebration, every day of the year.



 The Starlit Princess Waltz  Another brand new show. With a sprinkle of fairy dust, Tinker Bell opens the festivities in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Aurora wants to invite the other Disney Princesses to the ball: Ariel, Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Jasmine, Rapunzel and Tiana. Each princess makes her entrance in a magnificent ball gown, specially created for the 25th Anniversary. Their message: to remind the audience that every little girl, regardless of her age or background, is a Princess. - TradeArabia News Service
Leading hotel management company Rotana has unveiled plans to open four new properties in Abu Dhabi, valued at $300 million, by 2020, said a report.



According to a report in Gulf News, President and chief executive officer Omer Kaddouri revealed that two out of the four properties would open this year, including the Pearl Rotana with 315 luxurious rooms and suites (scheduled to open in Q3 2017) and Saadiyat Rotana Resort & Villas, a star property featuring 354 upscale rooms and suites (set to open in Q4).



This will be followed by the opening of Beach Arjaan by Rotana (326 keys) in the third quarter of 2018 and Marina Mall Arjaan by Rotana with 376 keys by 2020.



"Upon completion, the new hotels will add 1,371 keys to Rotanas existing inventory in Abu Dhabi and take our total number of hotels in the capital to 16, the report cited Omer Kaddouri as saying.



Giving an outlook for Abu Dhabis hotel industry, Kaddouri expects growth at a moderate pace, as the widening portfolio of theme parks and tourist attractions is now helping the emirate become an increasingly popular choice for leisure travellers.



Already, the emirates hotel industry has witnessed a 6 per cent increase in guest numbers in the first two months of 2017 compared to the same period of the previous year. Occupancy rates remain strong across all segments, with midscale hotels and hotel apartments in particular seeing high demand, he said.



Demand has been driven primarily by UAE nationals visiting from other emirates, as well as rising tourist arrivals from China, India, UK and the Saudi Arabia.



The hotel group remains positive about growth prospects in the emirate in 2017 with a number of family-oriented attractions set to open in Abu Dhabi in the near future.



Rotana is forecasting corporate travellers to account for 60 per cent of their business in our hotels in Abu Dhabi this year, with leisure travellers contributing the remaining 40 per cent.



The group has a portfolio of 105 hotels in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe including 55 operating properties and 49 properties that are under development.
The Dubai World Trade Centre has recorded a significant milestone since inception, hosting 3.03 million delegates and attendees to events, said a report.



Announced by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Board of Dubai World Trade Centre Authority, DWTCA, the results represent an impressive 11 per cent year-on-year footfall increase attracting attendance from 185 countries with 51,711 exhibiting companies, of which nearly 70 per cent were foreign exhibitors, said a report in WAM.



Sheikh Ahmed said in his board address, "Since inception, DWTC has consistently built international repute as a strategic driver of growth for the regions MICE sector and 2016 has continued this trajectory, delivering strong double digit performance across the business. Our strategic agenda to build a highly diversified events calendar for Dubai has been instrumental in allowing DWTC to retain undisputed regional leadership in the global MICE industry. Today, we continue to leverage our unique geographic positioning and the strength of the entire portfolio of DWTC businesses to collectively raise Dubais profile as a critical node on the new global silk road, by building the profile of the DWTC events programme, increasing the variety and number of events, improving the venue occupancy and accelerating regional and international visitation. DWTCs 2016 results have unfailingly reiterated Dubais attractiveness for exhibiting companies and trade delegates from every corner of the globe, and the importance of the MICE sector for the emirates economy."



Through 2016, DWTCs Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, DICEC, venue hosted 298 MICE and business events, including over 100 'mega-events', delivering a record 3.03 million attendees, delegates and visitors to these events reflecting double digit year-on-year increase over 2015 traffic, the report said.



With international participants growing 4 per cent each across the number of visitors and the number of exhibiting companies, DWTCs venue welcomed over 1.05 million foreign business travellers to Dubai last year, representing a strong 45 per cent of its overall mega-event participant volumes.
Town Hall April 18

Indivisible Casper invites you to Constituents Town Hall Three. Every political point of view is welcome.

Wyomings members of Congress have been invited by certified letter to attend to discuss the issues of the day. Since Congress in not in session, it is hoped they will attend. If they do not, your comments and questions will be passed on to them in writing.

Please come with your questions and ideas at 7 p.m. April 18 to the Food for Thought building, 900 St. John in North Casper.

Please call Andrea at 251-0352 with any questions about the town hall.

Indivisible is a nationwide organization formed to respond to the Trump agenda in a non-violent manner. It is built on the values of inclusion, acceptance and fairness.

Buddhists meet

Want to meet Buddhists in Casper? E-mail: davidvaughn991@yahoo.com.

Learn Cybersecurity

The Natrona County Library will offer a Cybersecurity class from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, April 19. This course will help you to understand online security and start to protect your digital life, whether at home or work. You will learn how to recognize the threats that could harm you online and the steps you can take to reduce the chances that they will happen to you. Call 577.READ x2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Using maps in geneology research

The Natrona County Library and Natrona County Genealogical Society will host a genealogy workshop on maps at 7 p.m., on Thursday, April 20 in the librarys glass enclosure on the first floor. The workshops primary focus will be the use of maps in genealogy research: what can be learned from them, where to find them, and the best types of maps. Free and open to the public. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Saturday watercolor sessions

The schedule for the Saturday Morning Watercolor Sessions from 10 a.m. to noon for April at Art 321 is below. These are coordinated by Ellen Black, 265-6783. $10 per session.

April 22, practice session; April 29, building perspective, Dave Sneesby.

Beginning Experience in Douglas

Beginning Experience of Wyoming is a weekend program that offers healing and renewal to divorced, widowed and separated men and women. It is a nonprofit, faith-based comprehensive program offered to all, regardless of religious preference. A Beginning Experience weekend offers support and direction to help resolve grief or anger that can follow the end of a marriage by divorce, separation or death. The next Beginning Experience weekend will be in Douglas and starts at 7 p.m. on Friday evening, April 28, and runs through Sunday around 4 p.m. on April 30. The cost of the weekend is $150, which includes sleeping arrangements, meals, and materials.

Scholarships are available. Registration deadline is April 26, 2017.

Ask these team members for more information: Curtis at 307.240.1232 or email westcurtis2014@gmail.com; Diane at 262.4142, Paulette at 267.6375.

Landowner solutions workshop

A casual learning conversation about country living issues will be held at 6 p.m. April 25 at the Glenrock Community Library, 506 S. Fourth St. Admission is free. Topics will include fighting weeds and animal health among others. Please pre-register so materials will be available. Contact Scott Cotton, UW Extension, 235-9400 or Scotton1@uwyo.edu.

Write Brain

Books training

Mercer Family Resource Center will host a Write Brain Books Training from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 26, at Mercer Family Resource Center, 535 W. Yellowstone Hwy. The training is $30 and includes lunch. The founder of Write Brain Books will facilitate the training, and is for anyone who works with youth and look for a new way to incorporate literacy into his or her programming/instruction.

Write Brain Books are illustrated, wordless books that inspire kids of all ages to become published authors of their own storybooks, each receiving published, hardcover copies of their original tales. To register for the training, please contact Mercer Family Resource Center at 265-7366.

For more information on the Write Brain Books training, please contact Keri Owen, NCPC grant assistant, at 265-7366 or kowen@mercercasper.com.

DAV mobile van

in Casper

The DAV Mobile Service Office Van will make a visit to Casper on April 26, parked at the Casper National Guard Armory.

One of the various services DAV provides at no cost to veterans is the Mobile Service Office (MSO) Program. These offices-on-wheels travel to under-served communities across the country to help veterans and their families obtain the services and benefits they have earned. Staffed by highly trained DAV National Service Officers, the MSOs provide professional support throughout the claims and appeals process. When you come to one of the MSO locations, please bring your identification, Social Security number, and any other pertinent documentation regarding your military service. DAV membership is not required to utilize these free services. For more information about MSO stops in the area, please call Leroy Kenner, NSO Supervisor at (307) 433-2752.

Call for portraits

at Art 321

This is an open call to all artists in the community, working in any medium, to exhibit their artwork in the Art 321Casper Artists Guild Portrait Exhibit in May. Please note that artwork needs to be delivered to Art 321 Gallery by April 28.

McIntyre photo workshop May 5-6

If you love the photography of Suzette McIntyre now on display at Art 321 Gallery, you will be eager to sign up for her workshop coming in May. Convergent Photography is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday and Saturday, May 5 and 6, instructed by McIntyre. Participants need to bring a digital camera. Fee is $130 for members/ $170 non-members.

Job fair May 3

The Department of Workforce Services is holding a Youth Job & Career Fair with the intent of informing youth and young adults in Casper of job openings, career opportunities, and college or training options that are available to them in the Casper community.

Youth and young adults between ages 16 and 24 who want to jump-start their careers are encouraged to attend. Individuals should dress to impress and take copies of their resumes to the Agriculture Resources & Learning Center from 9 a.m. to noon on May 3.

The event aims to connect youth with a range of employment opportunities and help them explore the diversity of education and career options available to them in the future.

For more information, call 234-4591.

Felt scarf

workshop at Nic

A felt scarf workshop will be held from noon to 3:30 p.m. May 13 at the Nicolaysen Art Museum, instructed by Tatiana Lushnikova. Fees are $40 for members, 30 for students with valid student ID, and $55 for non-members. Please pre-register and pay by May 8. Bring a friend and save $10 on your class fee. This class is recommended for high school students and older.

In this class, students will learn the process of wet felting and produce their own piece of handmade fiber art.

For more information, contact Zhanna at zgallegos@thenic.org or call 235-5247.

Corporate team building with (theater) murder

Casper Theater Company will be teaching teambuilding workshops.

After determining areas of emphasis designed to a specific business, the workshop will be steered in that direction.

For more information, visit www.caspertheatercompany.net, or Casper Theater Company on Facebook or call Casie at 247-6167, or Donna at 267-7243 to set up a time.

Teen Challenge spring groups

Smart Step Families: Putting two families together is never easy. The Smart Step Families, led by a Christian couple, will give answers and encouragement. Thursday evenings starting in March. Call Pastor Mark or Linda at 259-1081.

Insight: Discovering the path to Christian character, especially in the midst of stress. For more information, call Teen Challenge Wyoming at 258-5397. There are nine sessions to the class.

Professionals in Recovery: An ongoing Christian recovery group. For more information, call Gary at 267-7777.

Free to Grow: Helping people overcome disappointments and setbacks that have arrested or are presently hindering their emotional and spiritual development. Starts in February and meets on Thursdays. For more information, call Jane at 797-7271 or Judy at 251-5644. There are 12 sessions to the class.

Peacemaking: In this world of division and conflict, its important for Christians to stay grounded in what the Bible teaches about resolving differences with others in a God- honoring way. Sunday at 4 p.m. For more information, call Teen Challenge Wyoming at 258-5397. There are 12 sessions to the class.

Stepping into Freedom: A Christ-centered 12-step program that offers support for anyone struggling with a life controlling problem like drug addiction, alcoholism, sexual addiction, gambling or workaholism. There are 12 sessions to the class.

New ministry

at HPCC

Family Life Ministry at Highland Park Community Church is offering premarital, marriage enrichment, and parenting workshops, seminars, retreats and conferences, empowering families to thrive through Gods love. Please visit the website for more information or to register, http://hpcc.church/FLM.

Self-transformation class set

A Conscious Co-Creation/Self-Transformation & Healing seminar/live webinar will be offered from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 22 and 23, taught in person at the Agricultural Resources & Learning Center, 2011 Fairgrounds Road, and also via live webinar.

In the seminar/playshop, participants will learn how the universal and physical laws of creation work together with thoughts and ideas to form daily experience; how modern science bears out what the ascended masters have known for eons; and how to become aware of, and instantly start changing, the patterns of thought and emotion that are prevent realizing best potentials for a healthy, joyful, fulfilling life. The class is taught by Cathy Hazel Adams, practitioner of Intuitive Multidimensional Transformation & Healing, and Matrix Energetics certified practitioner.

For full class description and registration information, visit: www.cathyhazeladams.com and click on Classes & Webinars in the left sidebar, or call 797-9677 for more information.

Dementia caregiver support

Wyoming Dementia Care offers five Alzheimers Caregiver Support groups each month. Caregivers of those with dementia-related illnesses and the loved ones they care for are welcome at any of the group sessions. Professional staff from Intermountain Home Companions will be on hand to offer separate activities and snacks for those who need care. There is no charge for Wyoming Dementia Cares support groups or for the respite care provided during the approximately one-hour sessions.

The morning support group sessions meet on the first and third Thursday of each month at 10 a.m. at Central Wyoming Senior Services, 1831 E. Fourth St. The afternoon support groups meet at 1 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at Life Care Center of Casper, 4041 S. Poplar. The evening groups meet on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at Meadow Wind Assisted Living, 3955 E. 12th St.

For information, email wyodementia@casperseniorcenter.com or call Dani Guerttman at 265-4678.

Family continues suicide support

Good Grief, Support will continue at 5:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at the 12-24 Club, 500 S. Wolcott, by request of attendees. Anyone who is grieving a suicide or death or considering suicide is encouraged to attend. Attendance, as well as the content, will be strictly confidential. The Fresh Start Cafe will be open, and you can eat during the meetings. This meeting place was offered by Dan Cantine of the 12-24 Club. You need not be a member to attend. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

New depression group begins

J.R.s Hunt for Life is offering See it Clearly, a free peer support group for people suffering from depression and other mental conditions that lead to suicidal thoughts and actions. The group is led by like-minded peers wishing to offer support. Anonymity and confidentiality is offered to all attending. Meetings are at 6:45 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at 500 South Wolcott in the conference room on the second floor, (12-24 Club). Those who have considered or attempted taking their life or are struggling are welcome. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

Family offers faith-based groups

The family of J.R. Hunter, who committed suicide, now has two additional support groups, these faith-based, in addition to the groups they run on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at the 12-24 Club. Those continue. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

J.R.s Hunt for Life presents two faith-based grief and depression peer to peer support groups at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. at Restoration Church, 411 S. Walsh. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

Grief Support Group, Good Grief: A faith-based grief support group that the family hosts on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 5:30 p.m. at Restoration Church. The familys loss has moved them to offer this to anyone grieving. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

Depression Support Group, See It Clearly: A faith-based free peer to peer support group for persons suffering from depression and other mental conditions that may lead to suicidal thoughts and actions. The group is led by like-minded peers wishing to offer support. Anonymity and confidentiality is offered to all attending. Meetings are at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at Restoration Church. Those who have considered or attempted taking their life or are struggling are welcome. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

Parkinsons exercise

Rocky Mountain Therapy is offering a Parkinsons exercise program. Join us from noon to 1 p.m. Thursdays at Rocky Mountain Therapy, 2546 E. Second St., Building 500. These classes are open to anyone with Parkinsons or caring for someone with Parkinsons.

Thursdays class is tailored for the individual with more advanced Parkinsons and focuses on improving endurance, safety and managing symptoms. We are open to all ages and can tailor the class to meet varying exercise needs. The cost of the class is $5. To RSVP, call 577-5204 and ask for Jerri or Shannon.

Celebrate Recovery every Friday

Celebrate Recovery meets at 5:30 p.m. every Friday at Highland Park Community Church, just south of Elkhorn Valley Rehabilitation Hospital on East Second Street. A family meal starts the evening, followed by praise and worship. At 7 p.m., theres either a lesson from Celebrate Recoverys planned curriculum or a testimony by a person who has found recovery through Christ. Then, people go to gender-specific small groups until 8:30 p.m., when dessert and fellowship conclude the evening. Child care is available at no cost. For more information, contact Chris at 265-4073.

Here and Now: Dementia-focused monthly art class

Classes are every third Tuesday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m. There is no charge. Here and Now is a program made possible through a collaboration between Wyoming Dementia Care and the Nicolaysen Art Museum. It is designed to provide a supportive environment for people with dementia and Alzheimers and their loved ones.

To register, contact Dani with Wyoming Dementia Care 265-4678, ext. 106, or at wyodementia@casperseniorcenter.com or Zhanna Gallegos at 235-5247 or at zgallegos@thenic.org.
Sunday support meetings

Alcoholics Anonymous: 10 a.m., 500 S. Wolcott, Ste. 200; 10:15 a.m., 917 N. Beech; noon, 500 S. Wolcott, Ste. 200; 6:30 p.m., 1124 Elma, Imitate the Image Church; 6:30 p.m., 500 S. Wolcott; 6:30 p.m., 328 E. A; 8 p.m., 917 N. Beech; 8 p.m., 328 1/2 E. A. Douglas: 1 p.m, Douglas, 628 E. Richards (upstairs in back), womens meeting; 7:30 p.m., 628 E. Richards (upstairs in back). Unless otherwise noted, all meetings are open. Casper info: 266-9578; Douglas info: (307) 351-1688.

Narcotics Anonymous: Noon, 500 S. Wolcott, 12-24 Club; 6:30 p.m., 500 S. Wolcott, 12-24 Club; 8 p.m., 15th & Melrose at the church. Web site: http://www.urmrna.org.

Nicotine Anonymous: 5 p.m., 500 S. Wolcott, 12-24 Club. Info: Pam M., 577-0518.

Easter brunch open to public

Easter brunch at the Elks from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The menu will be scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits & gravy, french toast, fried potatoes, baked ham, baron of beef, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, hard-boiled eggs, vegetable tray, tossed salad, fruit salad, crepes, coffee, tea and juice. Cost is adults $12, children 6 to 12 $6, and 5 and under free when with a paying adult. (Be prepared to wait in line). Open to the public. For more information, call 234-4839.

Our Saviours Lutheran

Join us at Our Saviours Lutheran Church, 318 E. Sixth St. for a celebration of Easter. Worship is at 9 and 10:30 a.m. Enjoy the traditional Easter pancake breakfast in Fellowship Hall from 8 to 10:30 a.m. Donations will benefit the OSL Youth Ministry.

Cornerstone E Free

Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church, 4100 Casper Mountain Road, invites all to Easter worship services at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. Nursery and childrens ministries will be available at all worship services.

Church of the Resurrection

Join the Anglican Church of the Resurrection for Resurrection service at 8:30 a.m. in Glenrock, 506 W. Birch St. In Casper, at 342 S. Grant St., two blocks south of Peaches, Resurrection service at 10:30 on Resurrection Sunday. After the Resurrection service on Sunday, there will be a childrens Resurrection egg hunt. Services are family- and visitor-friendly.

Prince of Peace

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 2300 E. 15th, invites all. On Easter Sunday we will celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ at 9 a.m.

St. Marks

St. Marks Episcopal Church, Seventh and Wolcott, a festival celebration of the Holy Eucharist will be held at 9 a.m.

Mountain View Baptist

Mountain View Baptist Church invites all to an Easter production featuring music, songs, drama and expressive worship at 9:30 a.m. to 4250 Poison Spider Road.

Christ Episcopal

Christ Episcopal Church, 415 West Cedar in Glenrock, celebrates the Resurrection of our Lord on Easter Day with Holy Eucharist and music at 9:30 a.m. and brunch after the service.

Grace Lutheran

Grace Lutheran invites the community to join in the Gift of the Lord. Easter Sunday, the gift of the resurrection, worship at 10 a.m., with breakfast at 8:30 a.m., and brunch at 11 a.m., and an Easter egg hunt at 11:30 a.m.

Flower communion at UU

The public is invited to attend the Unitarian Universalist Community of Casper services and other events at 1040 W. 15th St., just north of the CY Avenue Albertsons. UU Casper is a welcoming, doctrine-free church that fosters individual spiritual growth, ethical living and inclusive fellowship. UUs are people of many beliefs and backgrounds, but are aligned in the desire to make a difference for the good. Services are at 10 a.m. Sundays. Sunday is the annual flower communion led by RE children. Everyone is encouraged to bring a flower to this service, which celebrates beauty, human uniqueness, diversity and community.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 1350 E. C St., announces its services for Holy Week: Agape Vespers, noon.

April at Mountain Plaza

Mountain Plaza Assisted Living, 4154 Talon Dr., announces its April activities for residents and their families. Noon, traditional family Easter dinner.
North Dakotas sage grouse population hangs on the brink of extinction, and 60 Wyoming grouse may be the key to its survival.

The birds  40 female and 20 male  were captured in early April near Rawlins and shipped to North Dakota for the first export of Wyoming sage grouse in recent history.

Relocating sage grouse hasnt always worked in the past, said Tom Christiansen, sage grouse program coordinator for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Early attempts generally led to the birds flying off, wandering into areas with meager food and shelter or trying to return back home. They almost always died.

But North Dakota biologists think they have a plan. And if it works, it could save the states dwindling population, which may have dropped to fewer than two dozen male birds.

There is a bit of a learning curve, Christiansen said. There hasnt been a whole lot of sage grouse translocations done. Its a measure of near last resort.

But between the first relocation in 1933 and now, biologists believe theyve figured out ways to keep those birds alive.

The research could also help Wyoming with some of its struggling populations.

The accumulated knowledge will help us in the future, he said. It will benefit us if we see results and perhaps we could apply it in Wyoming, someplace where maybe weve lost sage grouse and habitat conditions have improved.

The first step is to fertilize the females eggs through artificial insemination. Transplanted birds ready to lay eggs may be more likely to stay where theyre placed and look for a nest, hypothesized a proposal by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center and Utah State University.

Since knowing the reproductive status of a female sage grouse can be tricky, biologists artificially inseminated a portion of the birds they captured in Wyoming. Follow-up research will show scientists if the theory holds true, and the pregnant ones stayed and successfully reared young.

The next step is monitoring, which requires tiny radio transmitters akin to sage grouse fanny packs. Data from the packs will let biologists know which birds survived.

Its the first artificially inseminated sage grouse, Christiansen said. It was done experimentally. Its been done with other grouse species around the world but never with sage grouse in the West.

Wyoming has the largest sage grouse population in the world, which is one reason North Dakota came to the Cowboy State to ask for the birds. But it is not the only state participating. The conglomeration of research groups is also running a similar study in California and Utah to compare results.

Christiansen figures more than half the birds will likely die, but to North Dakotas population, any additional grouse could mean the difference between survival and a total loss.

North Dakota has one of the smallest sage grouse populations of the 11 states where the birds still live. The brown, chicken-sized birds lived primarily in the far southwestern corner near the borders of Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana. While the population has declined for the past 46 years, it generally still persisted, the proposal read.

But between the annual declines and a 2007 outbreak of West Nile virus, numbers of strutting male sage grouse  the way grouse numbers are estimated  crashed from more than 500 to 17. Habitat in the area, the researchers said, is stable.

Presently the population has declined to the point that reproduction and recruitment are not offsetting mortality caused by natural events, the proposal read. Essentially, the North Dakota population has dropped below a threshold to support a viable population.

Why not wait to see if it can recover on its own?

Research shows that translocations are more successful when birds are placed in areas where sage grouse already live, Christiansen said.

The study is designed to take two years, which means another batch will be collected next year from Wyoming.

The population north of Rawlins where the birds were captured is healthy, Christiansen said, and should recover within a few years. Radio collars will also go on some of the remaining birds in Wyoming to monitor the effects on the population loss.

As part of the direct trade, Wyoming will receive wild pheasants from North Dakota to help augment the states rearing program.

Most importantly, if the translocation is successful, it could help keep the iconic western bird off of the endangered species list, he said.

Were all in this together. If we lose North Dakota, while the scope of their habitat and numbers arent great, it sends a bad message to say we dont have 11 sage grouse states anymore  we have 10, Christiansen said. That perception isnt good to have that population falling by the wayside.
A Casper College organization that rescues soon-to-be discarded food will help feed braised beef and roasted vegetables to low-income senior citizens tonight.

Campus Kitchen will partner with food bank Joshuas Storehouse to provide a full-service meal to seniors at St. Anthonys Manor at 6 p.m., according to a news release. Campus Kitchen is the local chapter of a national organization that seeks to reduce food waste by repurposing leftover food and distributing it to those in need.

In this case, the food was leftover from an event at Casper College. Campus Kitchens partner, Sodexo, recognized that the surplus food could be used by the group and stored it away.

Kelsey Phillips, who heads Casper Colleges Campus Kitchen and is also an instructor at the school, said while a large part of the community dinner is to provide food, it will also serve to build social connections with seniors who might not have many.

Social aspects are also a problem because when you look at our seniors, a lot of times they tend to be a little more isolated, she said. And when youre alone, you dont tend to eat and you certainly dont eat what you should.

Our goal is to actually bring together the seniors of St. Anthonys Manor, put them in contact with college students so were feeding them both hunger-wise and social-wise.

Though this dinner is only for seniors at St. Anthonys, Campus Kitchen sends prepared meals to low-income seniors every Sunday. On Wednesdays, they offer the meals to the homeless.

The dinner will hopefully be the first of many hosted by Campus Kitchen and Joshuas Storehouse. Ideally, the groups will serve a dinner at St. Anthonys once a month. Phillips added that her organization couldnt exist without Joshuas or Sodexo, which runs the dining halls at Casper College.

In addition to five student volunteers and a handful of younger helpers, Phillips said she will also be bringing five students from the occupational therapy assistant program at the college, to help seniors who have trouble eating.

Those students will bring tools like counterbalance spoons, to help seniors who have tremors.

Kim Perez, the CEO of Joshuas, said in the release that she hopes Campus Kitchens meals can replace Meals on Wheels for seniors who dont receive that service.

Joshuas partnership with Campus Kitchen began several months ago, Phillips said. Her organization had too many meals to hand out, and Joshuas had lost its supplier. It was a perfect fit, she said.

Campus Kitchen is staffed by student volunteers, who assemble and hand out the meals twice a week. Phillips said in a previous interview that meals have gone to the YMCA and the Veterans Center. Now, she said, they go to the homeless and seniors. Other food also goes to the Self-Help Center.

Student volunteers take food left over from the colleges dining service, perform a temperature check to ensure the food is still safe to eat and prepare an assembly line for other volunteers to package the foods in Styrofoam to-go containers. Recipients are advised to either eat or freeze the food within two days.

Phillips stressed that Campus Kitchen must meet the same health codes as a commercial restaurant.

She added that Campus Kitchen was a way for Casper College to interact with the community and take a stand against food waste and food insecurity.

Casper, its a really close-knit community, Phillips said. It also a very generous community. And this was just one way that I was able to incorporate the curriculum and classes that I teach into giving back to that community.
CHEYENNE  The city of Cheyenne is moving forward with plans for its 150th anniversary celebration this year.

Mayor Marian Orr named a committee to prepare the celebratory events about two months ago. Committee coordinator Mona Pearl says they've already planned a host of events scheduled from July through August.

The first will be a formal kickoff event on July 4 at Cheyenne's Romero Park featuring a hot dog eating contest and games for children.

Other celebrations this summer will feature live music, a fireworks show and a history night.

Pearl says the committee has two events planned for Aug. 8, which marks the day the city was officially incorporated 150 years ago.
The first confrontation was around 2012.

U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, serving as Wyomings sole member of the House, sat in a subcommittee meeting in her role on the powerful Appropriations Committee, trying to understand a spending bill that Republican leadership expected her to support.

The legislation affected the budgets of the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service  agencies that make a big mark on Wyoming.

The staff and the leadership of that committee  and this is still true today and it is true under both parties  would write that spending bill in secret, said Pete Obermueller, one of the congresswomans top staff members. Not even elected members, not even Cynthia, could read that bill and digest it before having to vote on it at the subcommittee level.

The bill would eventually be made public later in the legislative process. But to Lummis, the process lacked transparency.

She ultimately advanced the legislation, but when the subcommittee adjourned, she broke the rules and took the bill with her, said Obermueller, who was present as the scene unfolded.

Seconds later, an Appropriations Committee staffer told Lummis she accidentally grabbed the bill.

She said, No, it wasnt an accident. Im a member. I want to read it. So he backed off, Obermueller said.

And with that move, Lummis openly disobeyed the most powerful person in the House.

The Cheyenne rancher, attorney and businesswoman returned to Wyoming recently, after eight years as the states U.S. representative.

But Wyoming insiders say her political career is not finished. She previously told the Star-Tribune she was not ruling out a governors race, and her name frequently comes up in talks about potential 2018 candidates.

While some say her disobedience in the House, and a series of other battles to follow, resonated with Wyoming voters, other political insiders say her fights with former House Speaker John Boehner and association with the rebellious House Freedom Caucus could become a liability.

Spending bill

Later on the floor, Republican Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, who had a higher rank on the committee than Lummis, approached her and asked her to return it. She made a political calculation, and knowing she should choose her battles wisely, handed over the legislation, Obermueller said.

But it came with a cost.

In December 2012, news broke that Lummis would no longer serve on Appropriations. She was assigned to the House Natural Resources Committee.

Obermueller described the decision as mutual between Lummis and GOP leadership.

You dont climb the ladder in that (Appropriations) committee without subscribing to their rules, he said.

Lummis was unavailable for an interview. But Tucker Fagan, who worked as Lummis chief of staff, recalled the story of the bill.

In this case it was taking it to read it, he said. She would never have divulged it, leaked it or anything.

Uranium

Lummis and Boehner also clashed over uranium.

Wyoming is the countrys top producer of the ore.

The United States has uranium stockpiles dating to the Cold War that were being sold off so fast that the market was flooded with the element and Wyoming ore prices were plunging, Fagan said.

There was an agreement among lawmakers that sales from the federal stockpile wouldnt hurt companies that produce yellowcake, Fagan said.

But Boehner walked away from the deal, Fagan said.

In Boehners Ohio district was a large facility that benefited from the sale of the federal stockpiles, Fagan said. The facility reprocessed uranium  which entails repurposing nuclear weapons for use in thermal power reactors.

That directly affected Wyoming, he said. They violated the deal. They just did it to take care of themselves.

Before Lummis, retired U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin held Wyomings House seat as Boehner was ascending the ranks of Republican leadership.

I know she was frustrated because of the inability to get anything accomplished by the Republican Party, Cubin said. I can certainly relate to that because John Boehner was the speaker and John Boehner was a do-nothing guy.

Mine money

The nail in the coffin of their relationship occurred after a last-minute negotiation on a highway bill that removed hundreds of millions of dollars in Abandoned Mine Land funds that had been directed to Wyoming.

Lummis tried to talk to Boehner about the AML provision, but he wouldnt budge, Fagan said.

The states congressional delegation was blindsided by the deal, but momentum was too fast to stop it, Obermueller said.

That was a turning point for Cynthia in terms of her relationship with John Boehner, Obermueller said.

Lummis, in an interview with the Star-Tribune in December 2015 in which she chronicled the steps she and the states senators took over four years to funnel the money back to the state, said AML became her top issue.

In December 2016, $242 million for Wyoming was inserted into a transportation bill, the same way it was removed.

House leaders knew that this was a live-and-die issue for me because I was a broken record about the importance of it to Wyoming, she said. I had written memos to House leaders. I had met with them in their offices about the memo. I had followed up with the relevant committees. It was a long, hard process and to the outside, it might look like it was more serendipitous than that. It was far from serendipitous.

Freedom Caucus

The House Freedom Caucus was an offshoot of the Republican Study Committee, of which Cubin was a founding member. The Study Committee was originally composed of people who saw themselves as conservative reformers. But eventually, it grew to over 100 members and became a check box enterprise for Republicans who had been elected, Obermueller said.

The House Freedom Caucus assembled in early 2015 and had 36 members around the time Lummis was involved in the group. Its goal was to move leadership further to the right. Journalists and Washington insiders called the members obstructionists who were more successful in blocking House legislation than advocating for their own bills.

Boehner finally resigned in 2015 after a number of run-ins with conservative Republicans, including a battle in which the Freedom Caucus refused to support any government spending bill that used federal money for Planned Parenthood. The fight at one point threatened a government shutdown.

Lummis time in the Freedom Caucus may not bother many Wyomingites, said Rodger McDaniel, a former Democratic state lawmaker who ran for the U.S. Senate in 1982.

Wyomings gotten pretty far right, and I dont think youd find enough Republicans in a primary to disagree with her on that, McDaniel said. Certainly in a general election, it wouldnt be decisive.

In fact, her association with the group may even be a selling point in a bid for governor.

It shows shes willing to stand with her convictions, said state Rep. Tyler Lindholm, a Republican from Sundance.

I think that struck a chord with a lot of conservatives, he said. She took a stand against the establishment. She paid dearly for it with her committee assignments.

But Cheyenne Democrat Jeran Artery said progressives and some moderates in Wyoming dislike the tactics the caucus engaged in.

I feel the Freedom Caucus is too extreme for Wyoming, and their unwillingness to compromise isnt good for Wyoming either, he said. Weve had too much divisiveness as of late, and look where its gotten the state.
Wyoming made international headlines last year when an investigation revealed it was a haven for offshore money.

To change the states image, lawmakers tried to raise the annual filing fee for limited liability companies from $50 to $75. The nominal increase was meant to try to deter seedy characters such as Russian oligarchs from using Wyomings laws to move cash.

But Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Murray, whose office registers businesses, attacked the bill in a vociferous social media campaign.

We are at a pivotal time in the history of our state with the need to diversify and grow our economy and exit our boom/bust cycles, Murray wrote in a Jan. 31 op-ed in the Star-Tribune. We must nurture and protect our business friendly climate  not only for our existing businesses but in order to attract and encourage new business formation and entrepreneurship in Wyoming.

Murrays ultimately successful no-holds-barred advertising to stop the legislation took lawmakers by surprise and led many to the same conclusion: He was positioning himself to run for higher office.

That kind of points toward the governors race, said state Rep. Tyler Lindholm, a Sundance Republican.

In a recent interview, Murray did not confirm or deny lawmakers suspicions. He said he arrived at the secretarys job from the private sector and has seen a lot of dysfunction in state government. Hes considering how he can best serve the people of Wyoming.

Im open to the possibility, but Im waiting until later this year to decide whether or not to run for governor, he said. And Im not going to rush it, that decision.

The 2018 primary is 17 months away. Yet with Gov. Matt Mead saying hes not interested in challenging the law that limits him to two terms, the race will be wide open.

People considering a run have been talking to other prominent members of their political parties. Theyre asking who they can count on for support and what people are saying about them.

I have visited extensively with more than one, said Sen. Ogden Driskill, of Devils Tower, who did not reveal names.

Potential candidates

In addition to Murray, prospective Republican candidates, according to members of the party who talked to the Star-Tribune, include former U.S. congresswoman Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming State Treasurer Mark Gordon, former Wyoming House speaker Ed Buchanan, 2016 U.S. House candidate Darin Smith and 2014 gubernatorial candidate Taylor Haynes.

Lummis was unavailable to comment for this story, said Annaliese Wiederspahn, a Republican strategist and Lummis daughter. Last year, she said she was not ruling out a bid for governor.

In a message, Gordon described projects hes working on as state treasurer. He said earning Wyoming money in that role is my first priority.

He didnt explicitly say whether or not hes in the race.

Smith, a Cheyenne attorney who works on humanitarian issues for the Christian Broadcasting Network, said friends have talked to him about entering the race. He hasnt given it much thought, he said.

As of now, Im not planning to run, he said.

Haynes didnt return a message.

Buchanan said he currently has no plans to run for governor in 2018.

My motto in politics has always been to never say never, and its pretty early, in my estimation anyway, to make any decisions on that, he said.

For a time, Republicans said that Wyoming GOP Chairman Matt Micheli would enter the race, but he said he is not running.

Insiders offered a handful of names on the Democratic side, including former state legislator Mary Throne, Sen. Chris Rothfuss of Laramie, 2016 U.S. House candidate Ryan Greene and former Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources director and current Wyoming director of the Nature Conservancy Milward Simpson.

Throne, a natural resources attorney in Cheyenne, said shes exploring the possibility.

I think we have a lot of strong Democratic potential candidates, she said. And I think we want to have a strong candidate. I have heard a lot of people say to me the state seems to function better when we have a Democratic governor.

Three of Wyomings past five governors have been Democrats, including Edgar Herschler, Mike Sullivan and Dave Freudenthal.

Rothfuss said hes leaning toward seeking another term in the state Senate.

Greene said he hasnt ruled out a governors race.

Simpson said hes not currently thinking about seeking the position.

Potential problems in the Trump administration may bode well for the states minority party.

Given this administration and the performance of Congress over the last few months, I would say this may be a strong opportunity for Democrats, even in red states like Wyoming, to make gains, said state Rep. Charles Pelkey, a Laramie Democrat.

Top-dollar race

Lummis, Gordon and Murray all have personal wealth that could make the race expensive and give pause to others considering throwing in their names.

Typically, a well-run governors race in Wyoming costs between $750,000 to $1.5 million. A serious candidate should have at least five employees and volunteers in every county, said Bill Novotny, a Buffalo Republican who managed Meads campaign in 2010 when the field was open.

In 2018, political expenditures could be higher, said Driskill, the state senator.

I expect it to be in excess of $1 million, probably in the $2 million to $3 million range, he said.

Lummis, a rancher and attorney who has other business holdings, had a net worth of $48 million in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, making her one of the richest members of Congress at the time.

The organization estimated her net worth to be around $11 million in 2014.

Before serving as a U.S. representative, Lummis was state treasurer and a member of the Wyoming Legislature.

Its harder to pinpoint state officials wealth. State law doesnt require them to provide dollar figures of their assets.

A financial disclosure form that Murray, a Cheyenne real estate developer, submitted showed he is involved in 16 business entities, including being president of Harmony Homes and Polaris Properties.

Gordon, the state treasurer who also was a Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City director, is on the boards of three ranching companies in Johnson County. He also lists the movie theater in downtown Buffalo as a business enterprise.

Name ID

Name recognition is key to winning a political race.

In that respect, Lummis has the advantage.

Shes the elephant in the room when it comes to this Republican primary, said Lindholm, the Sundance lawmaker. Without a doubt, Cynthia is one of the most successful politicians weve seen in the state. If she jumps into the race, there will be individuals who step back, and rightfully so. Shes a titan.

And Lummis has cash remaining from her last race for Congress, said Bill Cubin, a Casper CPA who is treasurer of the Lummis for Congress campaign committee.

It would be fairly easy, from a legal and accounting standpoint, to transfer that money into an account for a state race, he said.

She has a quarter of a million in cash right now, he said. Thats a good start, but when you look at this campaign and potential candidates, that will get you to first base.

In recent election cycles, the candidates who spent the most in statewide races have been the ones who slid to the finish as victors.

Money is important, but Cubin noted that in the 2008 U.S. House primary, Gordon outspent Lummis nearly 3 to 1. Still, Lummis won because of her name recognition and statewide network of support, Cubin said.

I think it is a $2 million race, he said. If Cynthia decides to run, she wont have to spend $2 million. But shes going to be attacked, and shes going to have to spend a lot of money to defend herself. Otherwise, those attacks sit out there, and people start to believe them.

Drawbacks

Lummis, Gordon and Murray each have vulnerabilities.

Lummis was a member of the House Freedom Caucus, which fought the establishment Republicans in Congress.

The affiliation could work for or against her.

If current members of the Freedom Caucus cant buck the establishment, or if Trump fails to deliver on promises to boost energy production and bring jobs, she will have to back away from those ties, said Novotny, who has managed GOP campaigns in Wyoming and across the U.S.

With Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, candidates cannot continue beat the drum about how the Democrats are failing the country. A winning message will be ideas for how the state can generate revenue and solve its fiscal slump, Novotny said.

The pounding on the table and being anti-Clinton and anti-Pelosi is not really a message thats going to resonate, he said.

In the 2008 campaign for U.S. House, Gordon was hammered for $6,500 in donations he made to the Democratic Central Committee and Democratic candidates, including the 2004 presidential candidacy of John Kerry.

To refute attacks that hes too liberal in deeply red Wyoming, Gordon must point to his work of managing the states funds for investment income  sorely needed when revenues have plunged, Novotny said.

You have to look at his track record for the state, he said. Hes a fiscal conservative.

Tensions between the Legislature and Murray smoothed out by the end of the session, when the Senate killed the business registration fees bill and lawmakers decided to study the issue over the months before the 2018 session.

Murrays biggest challenge is name recognition, said Novotny, who managed Murrays 2014 secretary of state campaign.

Hell have to continue to work on his name identification in relaying why the office of the secretary of state is a good training ground to be governor, Novotny said. Its not enough to say youve been the acting lieutenant governor when the governor leaves the state.

Choosing sides

Many Wyomingites are well acquainted with the Lummis and Gordon families. If both candidates enter the race, people will have a tough time choosing whom to support.

Its difficult when youre friends with them, and you have to pick one out of two, three or four people, said Driskill, who has decided he would support Lummis if she entered the race. It hurts feelings.

When Liz Cheney, daughter of the former Vice President Dick Cheney, briefly challenged U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi in 2014, Republicans across the state camped out in two factions. Tensions flared among some GOP establishment families, such as the well-documented feud between the Cheneys and the clan of retired U.S. Sen. Al Simpson.

Rep. Lindholm foresees a Lummis-Gordon race being more divisive because its an open primary, he said.

The last time Gordon and Lummis faced off, they became closer friends after the election.

And although Gordons name has been widely mentioned for governor, the treasurer told Novotny about a month ago that he wasnt going to run, Novotny said.

Certainly that doesnt mean he cant reconsider, Novotny said. We will have folks that are in today, out tomorrow and back in as this thing gels.

Bottom line

Candidates will formally announce their bids in November, December and January.

The last two governors  Mead and Freudenthal  formerly served as U.S. attorneys for Wyoming, a position thats currently vacant, Novotny said.

But Novotny noted that its still early.

Youll have some people who will kick the tires a little bit and decide its too much of a commitment of time or treasure, he said. And then youre going to have that dark horse that jumps out of nowhere.

Regardless of who ultimately runs, political operatives told Star-Tribune the ticket will be hot.

It will be a fantastic race, Lindholm said. Youll have great candidates, you really will.
RIVERTON  The Shoshone Business Council has filed a lawsuit over federal funds possibly being restored to the Northern Arapaho Tribe.

At the same time, the Shoshone filed a motion seeking to join the Northern Arapaho's separate lawsuit against the federal government as a plaintiff. The Shoshone contend that that their interests are likely to be affected by any settlement in the Northern Arapaho lawsuit.

The two tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation have been feuding over administration of the reservation since the Northern Arapaho pulled out of the Joint Business Council in 2014.

Both tribes have separately applied for self-determination funds to unilaterally continue programs that had been administered through the Joint Business County.
In Greek mythology, sirens were beautiful creatures that lured sailors to their doom with their hypnotic voices. In Homers epic The Odyssey, ships came to ruin on jagged reefs, following siren song, the pull of the beautiful voices so strong that the hero Odysseus, in order not to succumb, commanded that his crew lash him to the mast of his ship, and not untie him, until they were in safe waters.

Thats a lesson American presidents might have learned.

After repeatedly criticizing President Barack Obama for his Middle East policy from which candidate Donald Trump said America got nothing in return, President Trump ordered a missile strike on a Syrian airbase reportedly used to launch chemical weapons attacks. Some on the right are beating their chests claiming this is a demonstration of leadership. To what end? Does anyone believe that Bashir al-Assad will not continue killing Syrians by other means?

Last week during meetings with King Abdullah of Jordan, the New York Post writes, a report revealed that the administration wants to host a Mideast summit between Israel and the Palestinians as soon as this summer. Trump said he and Abdullah would advance the cause of peace in the Middle East, including peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Since Palestinian leaders dating back to Yasser Arafat, along with terrorist groups like Hezbollah (and ISIS), have vowed never to make peace with Israel, that can only mean one thing: pressure on Israel to do more by relinquishing additional territory to her enemies and watching as those enemies use that territory to advance their timetable for the eradication of the Jewish state.

When I asked Sarah Stern, president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, a pro-Israel think tank and policy center based in Washington, D.C., about this, she responded in an email: After all of these years of experience in the Middle East, it is about time that we realize that the Israel-Palestinian dispute does not lay at the root of the problem. ... It is rather the growth of radical Islam and a 14-century-old Sunni versus Shiite divide, coupled with the breakdown of the arbitrary lines drawn by the Sykes-Picot agreement, which amalgamated various tribal, feuding factions into nation states, where there was no common denominator.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement, commonly known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret 1916 deal between Britain and France, with the assent of the Russian Empire, to arbitrarily carve up the region into spheres of influence should the Triple Entente succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire.

In 1921, Winston Churchill, Herbert Samuel, the head of Britains Liberal Party and Abdullah I of Jordan met in Jerusalem and redrew the lines of the Levant, ensuring the conflicts that have raged even before the 1948 re-establishment of Israel in its ancient homeland where Jews have always lived, despite Palestinian and Arab efforts to rewrite history.

Every American president since Dwight Eisenhower has tried to reduce conflict and bring peace to the region. But peace can be achieved only when people decide not to fight and kill each other anymore. Thats what happened in Northern Ireland, but its a long way from happening in the Middle East, especially when those committed to Israels destruction find hope in summits and meetings they use to pressure Israel into, in effect, committing suicide by making agreements her enemies, who believe they have a religious mandate, have not and will not live up to.

Only a president with the power God gave Moses to part the Red Sea could do something as miraculous as bring peace to the Middle East. Even a brief review of history proves the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not the cause of instability. Arabs were fighting Arabs before 1948 and conflicts between Sunni and Shia Muslims have nothing to do with Israel.

If Trump thinks he can be the ultimate peacemaker, hes listening to a siren song  and heading for the reef.
As President Trump asserted on Sunday that China was working with the United States on the North Korea problem, his vice president visited a military base near the Demilitarized Zone separating the Koreas, a day after the North conducted a failed missile launch.

Vice President Mike Pence, who has called the failed missile launch a provocation, arrived at Camp Bonifas on Monday morning for a briefing with military leaders and to meet with American troops stationed there.

Pence warned in a visit to the DMZ dividing North and South Korea that the North Korean people and military should not mistake the resolve of the United States of America to stand with our allies. He said the era of strategic patience is over with North Korea.

Pence told reporters near the DMZ that the alliance between South Korea and the U.S. is iron-clad and is reiterating that all options are on the table to pressure North Korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons and missile program.

While the North did not conduct a nuclear test, the specter of a potentially escalated U.S. response trailed Pence as he began a 10-day trip to Asia amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric.

Trumps national security adviser cited Trumps recent decision to order missile strikes in Syria after a chemical attack blamed on the Assad government as a sign that the president is clearly comfortable making tough decisions.

But at the same time, H.R. McMaster said, its time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully.

In a broadcast interview that aired on Sunday, McMaster said the U.S. would rely on its allies as well as on Chinese leadership to resolve the issues with North Korea.

I mean, North Korea is very vulnerable to pressure from the Chinese, McMaster said on ABCs This Week.

The bottom line, McMaster said, is to stop the Norths weapons development and make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free: Its clear that the president is determined not to allow this kind of capability to threaten the United States. And our president will take action that is in the best interest of the American people.

After a two-month policy review, officials settled on a policy dubbed maximum pressure and engagement, U.S. officials said Friday. The administrations immediate emphasis, the officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.

The officials werent authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

Pence will be tasked with explaining the policy in meetings with leaders in South Korea and Japan during the trip, which will also include stops in Indonesia and Australia. He will aim to reassure allies in South Korea and Japan that the U.S. will take appropriate steps to defend them against North Korean aggression.

A North Korean missile exploded during launch on Sunday, U.S. and South Korean officials said. The high-profile failure came as the North tried to showcase its nuclear and missile capabilities around the birth anniversary of the Norths late founder and as a U.S. aircraft carrier neared the Korean Peninsula.

A White House foreign policy adviser traveling with Pence said no U.S. response to the missile launch was expected because there was no need for the U.S. to reinforce the failure.
Complaints have been filed with the Arizona Attorney Generals Office over non-refunded investments in an air service between Arizona and Guaymas/San Carlos, Sonora, that has yet to begin.

Dozens of people have repeatedly been assured that refunds were imminent but only a handful have received full or partial refunds for purchases ranging from $500 to $2,500. And, some business invested more than $10,000 on the pending flights.

Frank Jackson, owner of Paradise Air, the now-closed company that was coordinating the flights, announced the new air service last year and held information sessions to sell vouchers that he said were intended to give residents first priority on the new flights.

The start date was pushed back multiple times over the summer and fall.

Many San Carlos residents have family in the U.S. and Canada and eagerly lined up to buy travel vouchers for the flights, initially accepting the reasons given for delays.

Once the holidays neared, Jackson assured everyone that the flights were definitely going to begin and several people bought tickets for family members to fly to Phoenix or Tucson to catch the new flight south.

Norene Sullivan Sauser, a broker with Coldwell Banker Encanto Realty in San Carlos, had three family members buy tickets to Phoenix to catch the San Carlos flights.

I even went in person to their office and had several emails where I was assured it was safe for my family to purchase their tickets to Phoenix where Paradise Air would fly from and arrive in Guaymas, she said. I was given all thumbs up and green lights to move forward.

A week before the trip, Jackson announced the flights were not ready and Sullivan Sauser ended up chartering a flight to get her family to and from San Carlos for more than $7,000  which Jackson agreed to reimburse her.

She had also bought advertising for the future inflight magazine and eight travel vouchers for a total investment of $12,000.

We have been in constant contact with him.  It is always one excuse after another, Sullivan Sauser said. I can only come to the conclusion that it has been one big scam all along.

Realtor Diane Barroll, with Remax First Choice Realty, also bought $2,500 worth of vouchers and close to $7,600 for ads in the inflight magazine.

And, during a recent visit to San Carlos, the Star learned that manufacturing companies had paid thousands of dollars toward the flight vouchers.

Last month, Jackson told the Star he had collected about $70,000 from individual investors.

He did respond to multiple requests for updates from the Star.

On March 21, Jackson forwarded the Star two letters from investors dated March 17.

Jackson said the investors were not willing to go public yet and would make a public statement down the road.

Both letters were from renewable energy companies from Canada, but the website listed on one letterhead was not valid and neither company could be located on the web in either Canada or the U.S.

The Star asked Jackson for contact information to interview the investors, but he said they were traveling and unable to speak over the telephone.

On March 24, Jackson told the Star via email that the payment from investors had been delayed.

Even though I am confident they will fund the investment I cannot explain the delay and wait any longer for the funds, he wrote. I am ordering liquidation of the escrow today and will know when the funds will be available Monday morning. It will be quick and all payments will be made quickly.

He said everyone would be reimbursed by the end of March.

On April 1, Jackson said the release of funds was taking longer than expected, but the bank said it would only be a couple of days.

This may sound like more of the same but it is the truth, Jackson said via email.

He did not respond to a request to interview someone at the bank who could confirm the activity and said he would be in Phoenix and unable to meet with a reporter in person in San Carlos the first week of April.

On April 13, Jackson wrote that he had given up on the investors and had found another way to reimburse people.

I have taken the investors out of this issue as they are not involved and their interest in the San Carlos area goes far beyond air service, he said.

He could not provide a timeline for refunds.

The process has become more involved due to the escalation of issues of non-payment by some of those seeking refunds, Jackson said. Due to the involvement of various types of complaints, all of which I am addressing, the return process has become more formal. The process for formal acknowledgment and indication of satisfactory acceptance of payment has been added.

Jackson said he is solely responsible for the money owed.

This program is wholly on me, no other entity was or is involved, he said. There are a lot of untrue things being said and things being taken out of context. The truth is the funds exist and are being returned.

Meanwhile, three people told the Star they had filed a consumer complaint with the Arizona Attorney Generals Office, which by policy, cannot confirm or deny an ongoing investigation.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some April 16 papers in history. With a subscription to newspapers.com you can search the Arizona Daily Star and many other newspapers using keywords or dates, and download articles or pages.
A Tucson Fire captain shot and killed a man and wounded his ex-wife before turning his gun on himself in a busy Foothills restaurant Friday night.

Frederick Bair, 60, a 24-year veteran of the Tucson Fire Department, worked as an Emergency Management and Homeland Security captain.

The Tucson Fire Department is heart broken over the news regarding the shooting at La Encantada that occurred Friday night, department spokesman Capt. Barrett Baker wrote in a news release. The department extends it thoughts and prayers to the families of this tragic event.

The murder-suicide occurred at about 7:30 p.m. inside Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, a popular restaurant at the high-end La Encantada mall at North Campbell Avenue and East Skyline Drive.

When deputies arrived, they found Bair and another man already dead.

On Saturday, authorities identified the victims as Eliot Cobb, 65, and Mary Jo Bair, 57, Bairs ex-wife. She was shot in the leg and taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries described as not life-threatening.

Detectives had to interview dozens of witnesses, who were rushed out of the restaurant after the shooting, said Deputy Cody Gress, a Pima County Sheriffs Department spokesman.

David Hardin was celebrating his grandsons 18th birthday when they heard gunshots in the main dining room.

We hit the deck, Hardin said. People hid under tables before being ushered out of the building. It was pretty startling, surreal actually, he said.

Hardin said he was impressed by how quickly sheriffs deputies and other personnel arrived and how many came. Sheriff Mark Napier arrived, as did representatives from Victims Services, to help calm people down and hand out information, Hardin said.

Paul Hallums was walking across the courtyard in front of Firebirds with his wife and two children when a crowd of people came crashing out of the restaurants front doors.

Many were screaming as they ran in all directions. One man was running, carrying a highchair with his young child still in it, Hallums told the Star. We didnt hear any shots, but we could hear crashing sounds like furniture being knocked over as people poured out the front door.

Although the situation seemed to begin to calm down, people continued to run from the area for several minutes, Hallums said.

Friends and colleagues expressed shock and disbelief in posts on social media after Bair was identified as the shooter Saturday.

Bairs younger brother, Frank, died Monday of diabetes-related complications, according to a post on the Rincon High School Alumnis Facebook page. Services and burial were held Thursday, an obituary notice said.

Pima County Superior Court records show that Frederick Bairs divorce was finalized in September.

Mary Jo Bair is a Pima County court reporter, according to her Facebook page.

Over the years, the Arizona Daily Star published several photographs taken by Bair at Tucson Fire Department incidents. The most recent accompanied a story in October about a man who was rescued after getting stuck in the chimney of his home near the University of Arizona.

In 2011, Bair crawled through a home filled with heavy smoke to rescue a mother of two who was trapped inside. After she recovered at a hospital, the woman presented Bair with a bouquet and hugged him, the Star reported.
PHOENIX  Arizona lawmakers want to know whether every employee who has a state-issued car actually needs one.

State senators are on the verge of approving legislation that would require all state agencies to go through their records and determine if they need all their vehicles. The goal is to cut the fleet size by 10 percent, said Rep. Jeff Weninger, R-Chandler.

That would be a significant dent, as the most recent report shows the state owns more than 10,500 vehicles (not including another 1,200 operated by the three universities).

Not only does the state have to buy expensive new cars and trucks when the old ones wear out, Weninger said, theres also the cost of operating them.

Overall, the average vehicle uses $1,266 in fuel each year, says the state Department of Administration, which manages the fleet. Theres another $819 in maintenance.

The legislation, HB 2440, does more than set the goal of a 10 percent fleet reduction. It requires the Department of Administration to try to reduce use of state-owned vehicles by finding other ways to get people around, such as renting cars as needed but also using rideshare services like Uber and Lyft.

Weninger said the goal is achievable, citing his own experience when he was on the Chandler City Council. When the recession hit, we looked at our fleet. We found a lot of vehicles that were severely underutilized.

For example, he said there were city employees who were assigned vehicles full-time, even though they drove two times a week for three hours each day. The system was revamped so that such employees would check out a car on an as-needed basis.

On the state level, too, Overall, Im convinced that we have too many vehicles and we could get by with less, Weninger said.

He conceded that the 10 percent figure is arbitrary, but said hes been flexible. His original measure mandated a 20 percent reduction in vehicles for each agency. That got cut to 15 percent during debate.

And the 10 percent figure in the measure awaiting final Senate approval remains only a goal, not a mandate. He said that ensures agencies get credit for the moves theyve already made.

The 10 percent goal is across the board, meaning some agencies might escape with smaller cuts while others shed more vehicles.

Its a far cry from where I started, Weninger said.

About the only opposition to the legislation came from Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson. Farley said hes not opposed to what Weninger wants to do, but finds it too narrow. He sought to add a requirement for the Department of Administration to also look at public transit.

It would be a lot cheaper if there was a convenient way for state employees to get from one place to another on the bus or on the light rail, Farley said. Its going to be a lot cheaper than even an Uber.

Farley was unsuccessful in attaching the amendment during Senate floor debate, but Weninger said the public-transit goal isnt precluded.

If the Governors Office and ... different departments see that theyre along the light rail system and they could jump on and go down Central Avenue and go to an appointment they can, Weninger said.

He said hes not trying to do anything to state employees that he would not apply in the real world. Its what I do in my restaurant business, said Weninger, part owner of a firm that runs Dillys Deli and Floridinos Pizza and Pasta. If I can save two seconds on a transaction, Im like a geek and Im excited about that, he said.

He said his next target will be the amount of heavy equipment owned by not just the state but also local governments.

Why does Mesa need to buy a $300,000 or $500,000 earthmover and Chandler buys one and Tempe buys one, and they all use them 20 or 30 days a year? he asked.

It just seems insane to me.
More than two years after the $18.8 million La Canada Drive widening was largely finished, the legal battle that flared up in its wake between Pima County and the main contractor for the project is now largely concluded.

In early April, the Western Surety Co.  acting as the attorney for contractor Select Development and Construction  agreed to a $1.3 million offer from the county, payable to Select but delivered to the surety company.

It was Western, not Select, that accepted a settlement because the contractor failed to either accept it on its own or post $1.1 million in collateral after Western took on sizable losses from claims paid on this project and settlements of others, according to letters obtained by the Star through a public records request.

In late 2015, Select filed a lawsuit alleging the county was responsible for a number of costly delays that resulted in the project being extended 132 days. Those delays resulted in nearly $5.6 million in additional costs, which it sought in the suit, along with interest, attorney fees and a final payment of $970,000 held by the county.

The delays were caused by untimely responses to company requests for information, including one request that took the county nine months to respond to, as well by project plan errors, interference from utility companies and sequencing problems, the complaint says.

In its response, the county rejected the companys claims and said that any delays were caused by the companys failures to diligently pursue the work and any additional costs  incurred arose from its repeated failures to properly manage the project.

Pima also countersued, claiming that Select had failed to promptly pay subcontractors and properly report those payments, allegations the company later denied, according to court documents. The final payment was withheld to ensure the company met such contractual obligations.

While the project to widen La Canada between West Ina and River roads was underway, the county determined the company was not paying certain of the subcontractors and suppliers, according to the finalized settlement.

County Transportation Director Priscilla Cornelio said the suit had been a headache for Pima County, and Im glad its all been settled.

I think it was a good settlement, in particular for the subcontractors to be paid, she added.

As a part of the settlement, Western agreed to pay most of the subcontractors with outstanding claims, which exceed $210,000. However, the company has asserted defenses to claims made by contractors A&M Fencing and European Pavers.

Matt Gage, owner of A&M, said hes nevertheless hopeful hell see at least a part of his companys remaining $34,600 claim in the wake of the settlement. However, he said he feels the county should have been more cautious contracting with Select, which he said had previously been accused of not paying subcontractors.

All that stuff is right there, he said.

A brief search of Pima County Superior Court records turned up a handful of cases in which subcontractors and other parties sued Select, alleging nonpayment and other issues.

For example, the Antech Corp. sued Select in 2007 for an unpaid balance of over $70,000 in labor, materials and equipment, according to court records. Antech won a judgment in that amount, plus interest and attorney fees. A settlement was reached later.

The county also canceled a $10 million 2013 contract with Select for improvements to Magee Road between La Canada and North Oracle Road after significant delays and similar complaints from subcontractors, marking the first time the county had ever taken that step on a major project. The La Canada contract was awarded the year before.

When evaluating bidders, the county does a number of things, including license verification and checking corporate standing through the Arizona Corporation Commission, as well as seeing if they have been debarred from federal projects, according to written comments provided by county Procurement Director Mary Jo Furphy.

In the case of Select, the county was aware  of past litigation prior to awarding the first contract, Furphy said. As a result, the county took additional measures, including getting performance references from other companies, which were positive. Additionally, county bonding requirements ensure both that projects get completed  even if a contractor goes under or is otherwise unable to finish a job  and subcontractors get paid.

There are protections in place, Furphy said.

The Star attempted to contact Select representatives for comment through a number of means, but was unsuccessful. CNA Financial, Westerns parent company, said it does not comment on litigation.

DOWN THE ROAD

In last weeks column, the Road Runner gave readers the heads-up about an upcoming six-month closure at Interstate 19s southbound on-ramp at Pima Mine Road starting Monday. On Thursday, ADOT sent an update that the on-ramp will not be closed for six months beginning Monday, April 17. The closure is still coming, and an ADOT spokesman said he doesnt expect the delay to be too long.

Its just taking a little longer to get things in place for the work, ADOT spokesman Tom Herrmann told the Road Runner.

On Tuesday, city contractor Markham will install temporary traffic signal wires and take out existing signal poles at the East Grant Road/North Sixth Avenue intersection. The work will take place between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, during which east and westbound left turn lanes will be temporarily closed and left turns from Grant to Sixth will not be allowed. Right turns will not be impacted. The work is part of Phase 2 of the Grant Road Improvement project.

Early Monday, Tucson Estates Parkway at Arizona 86 (Ajo Way) will close for roughly five weeks to allow for intersection work and new road construction. Access will be maintained with a detour from South Kinney to West Bopp roads.

Also Monday morning, Arizona 86 traffic will be shifted south at the South Camino Verde intersection for lane striping. There will be a similar shift to the north once the striping is complete.
When their eyes met, they immediately knew. Nothing was said. Instead, they sang to each other.

Javier was performing with Mariachi La Fuente, at the old popular restaurant on North Miracle Mile, when he saw Stephanie, who had come with some friends to enjoy the music. Javier serenaded Stephanie with La Barca, a classic Mexican bolero, a song about distant love.

Our eyes were just locked, he said.

A couple of songs later, Stephanie, a mariachi herself, got up on the stage and responded to Javier with her serenade of Entrega Total, another enduring Mexican classic about being with the one you love forever.

It was captivating, she said.

Within a couple of months, Javier, who had been working as a mariachi in Los Angeles, returned to pursue the beautiful woman who lured him back home that summer night. It was mariachi love, through and true.

Since that memorable night in August 2005 when they captured each other, the Molinas have become well-known instructors of youth mariachis, inspiring their students with the same passion that they have for the music that is embedded in Tucsons culture.

Mariachi brings us together, said Stephanie after a recent rehearsal of Mariachi Sensacional, in preparation for the groups participation in next weeks 35th annual Tucson International Mariachi Conference, April 26-29 at Casino del Sol Resort.

Sensacional, which the Molinas formed in 2009, is composed of 15 middle- and high-school students from Tucson, Sahuarita and Three Points. The Molinas also are the instructors/directors of White Elementary Schools Mariachi Los Toritos on the citys southwest side, and are instructors/directors of mariachi at Viva Performing Arts Dance Studio on South Park Avenue. They also perform professionally with Mariachi Quinto Sol.

Theirs is a mariachi marriage, to each other, to their students and to the music.

The Molinas think of the kids as their family, said Celeste Salomon, a mariachi mom from Sahuarita, describing Javier and Stephanie as caring, warm and generous. Salomon, whose 14-year-old daughter Jordan Holland plays violin, admires the Molinas focus on details of musical instruction.

But like all other good mariachi instructors, the Molinas are teaching more than music, said Salomon, who comes from a musical family that included her grandfather, Lalo Robles, a post-World War II Tucson orchestra leader. The students learn discipline, commitment, preparation and focus. Its no surprise then that mariachi students excel in the classroom.

They foster a single-group mentality, Salomon said.

Javier, a graduate of Pueblo Magnet High School, and Stephanie, who went to Cholla High Magnet School, have followed in the footsteps of Tucsons rich mariachi legacy. Its not a stretch to claim Tucson as the birthplace of youth mariachi groups and the springboard for mariachis across the country.

Javier began his path reluctantly while in the eighth grade. His two older mariachi brothers, Miguel and Israel Molina, both of whom today perform with Tucson-born Mariachi Cobre in Florida, encouraged Javier to join Mariachi Changuitos Feos de Tucson, the mother of Tucsons youth groups. His doubt turned into determination. He eventually performed occasionally with Mariachi Cobre and worked with several mariachi groups in Los Angeles.

Stephanie took a slightly different route. As a child she studied classical piano. She eventually learned the violin while a student at White Elementary School and began her mariachi lessons while in middle school. At Cholla, she performed with the schools Mariachi Los Potrillos and with professional groups.

Today, in addition to their mariachi work, Javier and Stephanie study and perform opera. They recently performed with the UA Opera Theaters Dialogues of the Carmelites.

While some married couples might sag under the burden of working together, the Molinas, who have a 6-year-old son, feel little pressure.

I actually think the music calms us. Were not uptight. Were not jealous, Stephanie said.

Its this calmness, their commitment to their craft and each other, that the young mariachis pick up on. They feed off the Molinas mutual love and respect.

The young musicians realize there is more to music and mariachis.
Advancements in the treatment of contaminated south-side water have left Tucson Water officials looking to shut down a 22-year-old plant they say is no longer necessary, but still required by law.

A newer treatment plant completed in 2014 removes all the same contaminants as its older counterpart in addition to the carcinogen 1,4-dioxane, which was recently found to be more dangerous than previously thought, said Jeff Biggs, Tucson Waters administrator of strategic initiatives. The progress has rendered the old plant obsolete, he said.

Its redundant now and its costing money unnecessarily, he said.

Contaminated water has plagued the lower-income, largely Hispanic south-side community since the 1950s when defense-related industries used the carcinogen trichloroethylene, known as TCE, as an industrial degreaser and dumped it into the soil and unlined wells.

For almost 30 years, south-side residents unknowingly drank and bathed in contaminated water. Studies link long-term exposure to TCE to diseases like kidney cancer, liver cancer and blood cancer.

Tucson Water began operating a treatment plant, funded by the industries that originally polluted the groundwater, at the Tucson International Airport Area Superfund Site Area A in 1994. The area contains the contaminated groundwater plume that extends north from Los Reales Road to just past Irvington Road. The plume is bounded on the west by Interstate 19 and the Santa Cruz River, and on the east by South Sixth Avenue and Nogales Highway.

Over the past 22 years, 5,303 pounds of TCE have been removed from the water. The first engineers of the original TIAA Superfund site plant believed enough TCE would have been removed by now to close the plant.

But it could be another 30 years before enough TCE is removed to halt the treatment system, estimates Chad LaPora, the environmental and regulatory compliance supervisor for Tucson Water.

The original treatment plant stripped water of contaminants of concern including TCE but did not remove the carcinogen 1,4-dioxane from the water. That wasnt a problem until the EPA discovered 1,4-dioxane was more dangerous than previously thought.

Tucson Water built the new Advanced Oxidation Plant to target both TCE and 1,4-dioxane using ultraviolet light combined with hydrogen peroxide to rid the groundwater of toxic chemicals.

The groundwater plume near Tucson International Airport was declared a federal Superfund site in 1983. The parties responsible for polluting the water at the TIAA Superfund Site Area A and now legally bound to clean it up are the U.S. Air Force; city of Tucson; Tucson Airport Authority; Hughes Aircraft Co., acquired by Raytheon in 1997; and McDonnell-Douglas Corp., acquired by Boeing in 1997.

Last month the EPA held a public forum at El Pueblo Activity Center to propose amendments to the 1988 record of decision, which laid out cleanup plans for the Superfund site. The EPAs proposed amendments would allow for the closure of the older treatment plant and add 1,4-dioxane to the list of contaminants of concern.

The EPA will accept public comment on proposed changes to the Superfund site by letter or email until April 21.

RESIDENTS DONT

TRUST WATER

The legacy of toxic dumping in the south side has left some residents suspicious of treated water coming from the Superfund site.

At last months forum, residents voiced fears about continuing family health issues including cancers and the chronic autoimmune disease known as lupus. Some demanded the EPA conduct a study to determine whether these diseases are linked to the contaminants.

EPA toxicologist Gerry Hiatt responded at the forum that although the EPA uses health-risk assessments to make decisions at Superfund sites, the EPA is not a health agency.

We dont have physicians working for us that can go into a community and evaluate the health status of a community or talk to people whove had health issues and may have been affected by the contamination, Hiatt said.

Together with Tucson toxicologist Dr. Farshad Shirazi, south-side resident Linda Robles is in the process of creating a house survey to take to her neighbors to find how many illnesses have resulted from the water contamination. Shes also started a community group called the Environmental Task Force.

They just keep finding more chemicals, Robles said. Where are these coming from?

CHROMIUM-6

Tucson Water is also braced for the possibility that another chemical may require treatment at the Superfund site. Chromium-6, the carcinogen featured in the 2000 movie Erin Brockovich, has been under scrutiny by the EPA since 2010. The agency told PBS in 2013 that it would release findings from its review of chromium-6s health effects this year, but it has not yet done so. EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones did not respond to the Stars questions about when the study will be released.

In November, Tucson Water found chromium-6 concentrations of up to 8.8 parts per billion in TIAA Superfund Site Area A wells, which water officials say is safe. Concentrations are even lower  1.6 parts per billion  after the groundwater from all Area A wells is blended together before distribution for drinking, LaPora said.

The EPA hasnt yet established a threshold for safe consumption of the carcinogen, but California established a legal level of 10 parts per billion and a public health goal of .02 parts per billion.

In the event that chromium-6 levels rise at the Superfund site or the EPAs review finds the contaminant more dangerous than previously thought, Tucson Water will need to construct a new plant to treat the water for that chemical, Biggs said.

Tucsonan Yolanda Herrera, 64, has watched the south-side water cleanup from the beginning. She applauded Tucson Water for its cleanup efforts.

I was glad they were more proactive than reactive, Herrera said.

While Herrera said she would support a health-survey effort, she said her neighbors distrust of the cleanliness of Tucson Water is misguided. She co-chairs the Unified Community Advisory Board that meets quarterly with Tucson Water officials and representatives from the industries responsible for contaminating south-side water to talk about the cleanup progress.

A second-generation board member, she has seen first-hand the damaging effects of TCE.

Her mother developed a cancerous tumor after drinking the contaminated water and had to have part of her jaw removed. She suffers immense pain every day, Herrera said. Herrera said some of her siblings have also gotten cancer and her family has experienced stillborn babies and had others born with heart and kidney problems.

EDUCATING YOUTH

University of Arizona College of Education associate professor Kristin Gunckel developed a high school curriculum, with funding from the National Science Foundation, that uses computer modeling to teach students about the TIAA Superfund site groundwater contamination.

Over the past school year, shes worked with science teachers from Desert View and Sunnyside high schools to teach students about their groundwater.

They didnt really know about it, Gunckel said of the water contamination, but as they started learning about it they became much more interested and engaged.

On March 9, five Sunnyside high schoolers took a tour of the two plants at TIAA Superfund Site Area A.

Quiet and reserved, the students let the information of the history of south sides water contamination seep in.

Sunnyside senior Francisco Martinez said he felt it was important to learn about the water contamination. His grandmother lived off Drexel Road when the tap water was contaminated, so he was familiar with the issue.

Local activist Herrera tagged along on the tour and spoke to the kids about her advisory board, whose members are aging, she said.

I think its imperative that we do have kids at the table, Herrera said. We need the younger generation to have the knowledge to hold the government agencies feet to the fire.
Amazing Grace is a term often used to describe Graciela Gil Valero Olivarez, a resourceful woman who went from a life of poverty to standing beside presidents. She was a tenacious volunteer, helping individuals down on their luck regardless of their race, culture, or religion.

Born in Phoenix on March 9, 1928, Graciela spent her childhood in the old mining town of Barcelona, Arizona, which is now part of the town of Kearney. Her father worked as a machinist and her mother gave piano lessons to help support their 5 children.

Dropping out of high school at 15, Graciela continued her education after moving to Phoenix by enrolling in Lamson Business School. Her bilingual skills attracted the attention of a local Spanish-language radio station, KIFN, which hired her as a secretary. She soon worked her way into a broadcasting job becoming the citys first female disc jockey.

By 1952, Graciela was the womens program director for the KIFN, a position she held for 14 years. She hosted her own show, Action Line, and delved into the inequities rampant throughout the inner-city barrios and among migrant workers in the Hispanic community. The station owners, however, preferred their female disc jockey limit her programming to less controversial issues such as womens and childrens activities, cooking and music.

During this time, Graciela married. Her son, Victor Rene, was born in 1959, and shortly thereafter, she divorced.

When philanthropist Robert B. Choate initiated the program Careers for Youth in Phoenix, Graciela saw an opportunity to work with Mexican-American families in lowering the juvenile delinquency and dropout rates. She counseled families and established a program of after-school study halls to keep students interested in their classwork. She recorded lessons in Spanish for the blind, directed Spanish plays at the Phoenix Little Theater and worked with the Maricopa Council for Retarded Children.

Despite not having a high school diploma, her work with those less fortunate attracted the attention of Arizona Gov. Samuel P. Goddard who appointed Graciela state director of the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1965. A year later, she was on the National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity, appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

During her tenure on the National Advisory Council, she met the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, then president of the University of Notre Dame. Hesburg recognized Gracielas intelligence and concern with racial and cultural issues and encouraged her to return to school and acquire a law degree.

Never one to pass up an opportunity, and despite being a single mother caring for her young son, Graciela enrolled in Notre Dame Law School. Graduating in 1970, she was the first woman to earn a law degree from Notre Dame.

She returned to Arizona as a consultant for the National Urban Coalition and became director of Food for All, managing the community action program to improve federal food initiatives such as food stamps, school lunches, and surplus food distribution.

In 1972, Graciela left Arizona to teach law at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Three years later, she was appointed director of the New Mexico State Planning Office and that same year, she was named one of 44 Women Who Could Save America by Redbook magazine.

In an interview she gave at the University of Texas El Paso while serving as New Mexicos Planning Office director, Graciela was asked about her work with the Chicano movement. My goal has always been to bring my people up to a level where they can make a choice, she said,  ... and know what it is that theyre choosing.

The other day somebody accused me of not being a typical Mexican. I asked them why, and they said because I had a good job, and ... I had been successful. This means to me that a typical Mexican is one who fails, and I dont agree with that ... . I think the more you move up, the more secure you become and the more youre able to practice your culture without having to apologize anymore, or without having to hide to use your culture.

As a charter member of the National Organization for Women, founded in 1966, she was often asked her views on womens rights. The womens movement is ... a movement to acquire rights, which means that you want to be equal with the men, not the same. Youve got to learn the difference between being equal and being the same ... . So when they say, Now that youre liberated do you still want me to open the door for you, and light your cigarette, and pick up the tab at the restaurant? I answer, The only door I want opened is the door of opportunity, and I think I can do that myself.

In 1977, her work to improve living conditions among the impoverished attracted the attention of President Jimmy Carter, who appointed her director of the Community Services Administration, making her the highest ranking Mexican-American woman in his administration.

In 1980, Graciela returned to Albuquerque and started The Olivarez Television Co., the first Spanish-language television network in the country.

On Sept. 19, 1987, Graciela died in Albuquerque at the age of 59.

Each year, Notre Dame Law School bestows the Graciela Olivarez Award on a Hispanic attorney or judge who is continuing Gracielas commitment to community service, demonstration of the highest ethical and moral standards, and dedication to justice.
The US must not get involved in "perpetual warfare in the Middle East," Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday in explaining why he was one of the few senators to oppose the recent US missile strike on Syria.

In an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper, the Vermont independent said the key to ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was to forgo unilateral action and instead convince Russia and Iran to withdraw their support for the dictator at the heart of the more than six-year-long war.

"Assad has got to go. ISIS has got to be defeated," Sanders said. "But I do not want to see the United States get sucked into perpetual warfare in the Middle East, see our men and women get killed, trillions of dollars being spent."

The senator who ran unsuccessfully in last year's Democratic presidential primary brought up the US military's ongoing presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying the US could be "dragged into another war" to the detriment of domestic priorities.

"We have got to start paying attention to the needs back home," Sanders said. "The war in Iraq was the worst blunder in the modern history of this country -- precipitated mass instability. We cannot continue to make those mistakes."

President Donald Trump greenlit a cruise missile strike earlier this month on an Assad airbase after the US said the Syrian president used chemical weapons to slaughter civilians. Many politicians on both sides of the aisle hailed Trump's action.

Asked about support for the strike from within the Democratic Party and even former Obama administration officials, Sanders said the Syria strike, as well as the US dropping one of its largest non-nuclear bombs in Afghanistan, were ineffective for problems that required a multilateral, diplomatic solution.

"It's not a question of one strike or one big bomb in Afghanistan," Sanders said. "What you need is a strategy. ... This will require intensive negotiations to tell Russia that they cannot support a dictator who is destroying his entire country. One strike is not going to do very much in that process."

Meanwhile, Sanders said he believed Trump understood he needed to work with China to rein in the North Korean nuclear threat.

"The United States must not act impulsively, and we must not act unilaterally," Sanders said.

Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the US earlier this month and spoke by phone with him last week to discuss North Korea's progress in missile development and another potential nuclear test.

Both Sanders and Trump have said the focus on the issue must remain on China. In recent days, China has signaled a possible shift on North Korea, including an editorial in Chinese media warning China could support UN sanctions on oil shipments to the isolated nation.

However, Sanders did not credit Trump with the possible progress, saying it was part of a trend.
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.
After being voted in on the swaggering, billionaire "I'll-get-it-done-at-any-cost" ticket Donald Trump is finding that running the most powerful country in the world is not like closing a business deal. In his short time in office, the Commander in Chief has lurched chaotically from one disastrous decision to another, leaving in his wake unfinished plans, ostracised minorities and a puzzled electorate.

The problem in Syria

The president was decisive enough when it came to unleashing fifty-plus Tomahawk missiles onto Syria after Assad used chemical weapons on his own people in one of the bloodiest civil wars in history.

But that decision meant his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had to endure a fraught meeting with Vladimir Putin, Syria's ally, in an attempt to get Russia to distance themselves from Assad's regime. The result is that trump now says relations between the US and Russia ' have reached a low point,' which may well be the understatement of the year.

The detonation of MOAB in Afghanistan

As if the sabre rattling and antagonising of Russia were not enough Trump followed this up by giving the green light to the detonation of the Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) on Thursday 13th April. Only 15 MOAB's have been built and it is so powerful that the last time the US detonated anything of this magnitude, it was in Nagasaki to effectively end WW2.

The attack was supported by the Afghan government in its' continued fight against Islamic State and destroyed a network of tunnels and caves meant to support the movement of IS troops.

Provocation of North Korea

With Syria, Russia and Islamic State and suitably antagonised Trump was not prepared to stop there as he then took on another dictator in the form of North Korea's Kim Jong-Un.

In a series of increasingly aggressive tweets the president accused China of " taking money and wealth from the US in a totally one-sided trade", then accusing China of not being prepared to help with the problem of North Korea and finally in his most incendiary tweet that "If North Korea is looking for trouble...we will solve the problem without them(China)." He then sanctioned sending an 'Armada' of US warships to North Korea.

Kim Jong-Un is not a leader to be trifled with and sees Trump's threat as a direct challenge and vows a " merciless response" to any US provocation.

What next for Trump?

What is clear is that the administration is provocative and highly volatile. The president is a businessman, not a politician. He has scant regard for debate and diplomacy and sees aggression as a suitable way to end any threats. It is also clear that however powerful the US army is, it cannot fight on three fronts simultaneously in Syria, North Korea and Afghanistan and yet President Trump seems to be leading his country headlong into conflict on three fronts, one of which in particular with North Korea could have catastrophic consequences across the world.
middle east expert Michael Luders in an interview with Deutsche Welle analyzed the latest confrontation between the United States and Russia. He believes that the US is already preparing the attack on the mainstay IS Raqqa and is not sure that the Russians will remain passive.

"It is clear that there is a dangerous potential for escalation. A replacement war is happening in Syria. On one side, the United States, the EU, Turkey and Persian Gulf countries want to drop Assad. Russia, Iran, and China do not want to in any case. If therefore, they carry out such an attack that is now ordered by Trump, then, of course, there is a risk that they will not stay with this one attack.

That thing is escalating and very quickly on Syrian soil, we will have Americans and the Russians on the opposite side of each other." Said Luders. He added that Moscow believes that at this time they will not respond, but in the case of a new attack that could hurt the Russia and that we should expect a very rapid escalation.

The offensive in Raqqa?

"Let us not forget that the United States intends after the constitutional referendum in Turkey on April 16 to launch a land offensive with US elite troops to Raqqa, the main stronghold of IS in the east of Syria. 400 US troops are already stationed in Syria. Will it work to take Raqqa and then what? That would, in any case, mean a confrontation.

How it will develop in time we can not know, but in any case, this is the greatest degree of danger," believes this political scientist, an expert on Islam and publicist for DW.

US aircraft carrier headed for North Korea with a fleet

Less than 48 hours after bombing the Syrian air base to punish the Assad regime for chemical attacks, the US decided to show their power in the framework of the North Korean nuclear dispute.

A US aircraft carrier and its fleet are heading toward the Korean peninsula, the spokesman for the American command in the Pacific revealed, mentioning clearly the North Korean nuclear threat.

The US command in the Pacific has ordered an air-naval group staggered around the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to be available and presented in the west Pacific as a precaution.

Commander Dave Benham noted that the number one threat in the region remains North Korea because of its irresponsible, destabilizing program of missiles, and the continuation of research to have nuclear weapons.

The group is composed of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson from class aircraft carrier Nimitz, air squadrons, two destroyers to launch rockets and cruisers to launch missiles. Although originally supposed to go to Australia, it went through the Western Pacific near Singapore. North Korea performed five nuclear testings since 2016 and two satellite images suggest that a sixth test mode is in preparation.
Princeton State Police have arrested a man after DNA tests match DNA found on the slain Google employee Vanessa Marcotte. On August 7, 2016, while on a visit to her family home, 27-year-old Marcotte was reported missing by her mother after not returning from an early morning run. Her body was later found in a wooded area a half-mile away from the home. Authorities claimed that evidence found shows that there were signs of a struggle which would have left scratches and bruises on the killer.

Arrested man's DNA found on victim

Angelo Colon-Ortiz (31), a local resident, was arrested at his home Friday without incident after investigators determined that his DNA sample matched DNA found on the victim's hands.

At a press conference today, Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. stated that last week a state trooper spotted Colon-Ortiz and noted that his appearance and vehicle matched the description that investigators were searching for. The trooper wrote down the license plate of the dark SUV that Colon-Ortiz was driving and the next day went to his home requesting a saliva sample for testing. Colon-Ortiz provided the DNA sample without resistance.

Colon-Ortiz has now been charged with battery and assault with intent to rape, aggravated assault, and aggravated assault and battery. District Attorney Early said that it is anticipated that murder charges will follow.

Vanessa Marcotte helped solve her own murder

At Saturday's press conference, District Attorney Early thanked investigators and the public for helping with the case. He gave the most credit to the victim herself for fighting the killer which resulted in his DNA being found on her hands and at the crime scene, ultimately leading to his arrest.

Ortiz's DNA sequence occurs only once in 1.1 quintillion sequences, Early said at the conference, which is why they are confident that he is the killer.

It was through her determined fight and her efforts that we determined the DNA of her killer, District Attorney Early said at Saturday's press conference.

Worcester Man Charged in Marcotte Slaying https://t.co/w5vGP3vpXL  Joseph D. Early Jr. (@worcesterda) April 15, 2017

Police officials stated that the attack on Marcotte occurred during the early afternoon of August 7.

ABC News reported that police said evidence suggests that Marcotte had been sexually assaulted and confirmed burn marks on her body.

District Attorney Early said that Marcotte worked as a Google manager in New York City and often visited her family in Massachusetts. Her family said that she was going to return to New York City on the day she died.

This is how investigators say they found #VanessaMarcotte's killer more than 8 months after her death: #NBCBoston pic.twitter.com/LvU49Q59mC  Perry Russom (@PerryNBCBoston) April 15, 2017

Alleged killer has no criminal history

Not much is known about alleged murderer Angelo Colon-Ortiz. Investigators could not find documentation or criminal records for the alleged killer but the investigation is still underway.

Colon-Ortiz is being held at state police barracks on a 1 million dollar cash bail.

"We got him": Worcester DA announces arrest in murder of Vanessa Marcotte, killed while out for a jog last August: https://t.co/uegHwifYzv pic.twitter.com/spzii2BDuy  ABC News (@ABC) April 15, 2017

The Vanessa Marcotte foundation website says that they want Vanessa to be remembered "for the quality of her life, the strength of her character, and the goodness within her heart -- not by the tragic circumstances of her death."
For the Donald Trump administration, the month of April has been consumed and dominated by foreign policy decisions. As tensions with North Korea continue to escalate, the president is not backing down his use of social media in the war of words against the rival nation.

Trump's Twitter warning

Earlier this month, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on his own people. The results left close to 100 innocent people dead, including women and children. The images of the deceased reportedly bothered not just Donald Trump, but First Daughter Ivanka to the point that she pushed her father to make a move.

Within 48 hours, the former host of "The Apprentice" ordered the United States military to fire off 59 tomahawk cruise missiles to strike an airbase in Syria. While the majority of nations around the world approved of the United States reaction, others weren't too pleased, North Korea used the opportunity defend their use of nuclear weapon testing, which has since concluded with the failed launch of a missile over the weekend. In response to the current clash with North Korea, Trump voiced his thoughts on Twitter on April 16.

Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

Even before he sent out a "Happy Easter" tweet, Donald Trump took to Twitter to lash out over the issue with North Korea.

The first message was in reference to Trump not labeling China a currency manipulator during his recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. "Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem?" Trump asked, before adding, "We will see what happens!"

Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

In a follow-up tweet just an hour later, Donald Trump once again bragged about beefing up the military, warning that the United States has "no choice," in an apparent hint of a potential military fight with North Korea.

"Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before," Trump tweeted out, before warning, "Frankly, we have no choice!"

Moving forward

After only three months in power, Donald Trump is already coming under fire for not just his actions on critical foreign policy issues, but also his rhetoric. Just last week, North Korea's vice foreign minister warned against Trump's use of Twitter, calling his tweets "aggressive." In addition to the strike against Syria and the rift with North Korea, the United States also dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in history in Afghanistan last week, targeting tunnels used by the Islamic State (ISIS), reportedly killing 94 members of the terrorist group in the process.
North Korea tried to implement a new missile launch near SINP on the east coast, but it is believed that the attempt failed, it was reported by the South Korean military sources.

An attempt to launch the rocket took place a day after the military parade held in Pyongyang, marking the birthday of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, and on which apparently, ballistic missiles were shown.

Growing tensions in the region

From the same region, a ballistic missile was launched earlier this month. The launching happened ahead of the meeting of the United States and China, a key North Korean ally, and the main topic of the meeting was supposed to be the North Korea's intensively arming.

The tension in the region has escalated, and there is increasing concern that North Korea may soon implement the sixth nuclear test or test a ballistic missile.

The White House announced that US President Donald Trump warned North Korea on the possibility of US military action against them. US President ordered the naval fleet to travel towards the region, to demonstrate the power, and his office has announced the possibility of introducing more stringent economic sanctions for "northerners." North Korea responded and threatened with a possible nuclear attack on the United States.

Mike Pence arrived in South Korea

US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea at the start of his Asia-Pacific tour, during which he will visit four countries in an effort to confirm the alliance with them.

Pence arrived in Seoul shortly after Pyongyang tried to launch an unidentified projectile from the port city Sinpo who "blew up almost immediately," US command in the Pacific Ocean said. Pense is notified of unsuccessful firing, CNN reported citing government officials.

North Korea marked the 105th birthday of the late founder state and "eternal president" Kim Il Sung large military parade in the capital Pyongyang on Saturday at the height of concerns that it could carry out a new nuclear test.

The senior US official on the eve of Pence's visit to South Korea told reporters that the military option "is being estimated" in the midst of the growing threat of North Korea. President Donald Trump was informed of North Korea's unsuccessful firing missiles, said Defense Minister Jim Mattis.

"The president and his military team were informed of North Korea's unsuccessful firing missiles," he said, adding that "the president has no comment." US official traveling with Pence told Reuters that testing a medium-range missile is not a surprise to the United States.

"We had good intelligence information before the launch and good data after the launch," the unnamed official said, adding that it was a failed test, which followed an earlier unsuccessful testing. "We do not have to waste our strength because of that." The official said the North Korean missiles were in the air only four to five seconds.
A Jackson, Mississippi couple is re-evaluating their relationship after a shocking discovery recently. The couple was struggling to conceive a child, and after attending a fertility clinic for Dna Testing  required prior to having a child by in vitro fertilization  they found out a horrifying truth. Not only did they discover that they are brother and sister, it also turns out they are biological twins.

Couple attends IVF clinic for DNA testing

While their names are being kept confidential, a doctor at the IVF center they attended in Jackson told their story to the Mississippi Herald.

He said the DNA test was purely routine and they wouldnt normally check to find if there was a relationship between the two samples. However, in this particular case, the lab assistant was reportedly shocked by the similarity between the two profiles. Initially it was thought that the man and woman were first cousins, but then the lab assistant noticed just how close the DNA match was between the couple. On looking further into the couples history, it was found that they were both born in 1984 and shared the same birthday. According to the doctor, the only conclusion they could reach was that the man and woman were biological twins. However, neither of them were aware of this fact.

Doctor tells Mississippi couple they are twins

According to a report by Fox News, the doctor called the couple in for an appointment, hoping to break the news to them gently. He asked them if they knew they were twins. Apparently both of them laughed. According to the doctor, the man told him many people had remarked that they both shared the same birthday.

They also said the couple looked similar to each other, but they had always believed it was a coincidence and that they couldnt possibly be related. It turns out they are.

On further investigation of the man and womans histories, it was found that their biological parents had died in a car crash. Both children were then adopted by different families.

Both children were institutionalized at the time and because of a filing error, neither family knew their adopted child had a twin.

Married couple discover they are biological twins after IVF clinic visit to start family https://t.co/MNk11eaIA3  IBTimes UK (@IBTimesUK) April 15, 2017

According to the doctor, the man and woman met in college and were probably attracted to each other because of their similarities. Having both been adopted after the death of their parents meant they led a similar childhood and felt connected to each other. However, if only the truth had been known earlier, a lot of pain could have been saved later in life.

It is a very difficult situation for the couple, as marriage between siblings is illegal in Mississippi and can result in ten years behind bars. Since finding out the results of the DNA testing, they are going to have to think very seriously about how they proceed in life.
Isaac Robitille was just 13 years of age when his mother put alcohol into his Feeding Tube, effectively cutting his life short with alcohol poisoning. Melissa Robitille, 41, and her boyfriend came up with the plan to kill the disabled boy by putting vodka into his feeding tube. As reported by the New York Post, Isaac was reportedly born blind, with no ears, had a cleft palate and also had developmental issues, meaning he required constant care. He was reportedly being fussy at the time they put the vodka into his feeding tube. At the time of his death, Isaacs blood alcohol level was 0.146 percent, nearly twice the legal limit for adults when driving.

Glad Isaac finally got justice

According to Kristen Millard, Isaac was like a brother to her children and was part of their family. She has found it very difficult since he passed away. Millard and her husband helped to care for the severely disabled teenager who depended on others  and the feeding tube  to keep him alive. Millard said she worked as a deaf-blind intervener for Isaac at school, while her husband gave him personal care at their home.

However, despite the Millards care, it was Isaacs own mother, in his own home, that was the problem. According to the prosecutor, Robitille and her boyfriend came up with the idea to put vodka in her sons feeding tube a few hours before he passed away in 2014.

However, it has taken until now for her to be found guilty of the crime. As reported by Wcax.com, a St. Johnsbury, Vt. jury found Robitille guilty of manslaughter on Friday. The mother reportedly showed no emotion in court when the jury announced its verdict.

Mum Melissa Robitille guilty over son's feeding tube vodka death https://t.co/nACqOXtmY7  Sky News (@SkyNews) April 15, 2017

Isaac's uncle was in court when the verdict was read and while he says he will be OK, he worries about what the trial and Isaacs death will do to his three girls, who spent so much time with the disabled teenager.

According to David Robitille, the whole experience has affected his daughters profoundly. While he says they will get through it with help, the stress of the whole trial has been tough on the girls.

Millard said her family can now start to heal and that they are happy with the jurys decision. She said it has been a difficult couple of years and the week of the trial was particularly hard on her husband and children.

Robitille to face sentencing for the death of her disabled son

According to the court, Robitille could be spending the next 15 years behind bars and is already in prison, awaiting her sentencing. Walter Richters, 40, her boyfriend at the time of the crime, took a plea deal for manslaughter and is already serving three years in prison. At the time of the plea deal, Robitille was facing a second-degree murder charge, but pleaded not guilty.

In other similar recent news, Blasting News reported on the story of a couple who watched Manchester by the Sea one evening. The movie inspired them to set their home alight, with their severely disabled son still inside. Heather Franklin, 33 and her husband, Ernest Franklin II, 35, killed their 16-year-old special needs adopted son Jeffrey within two hours of watching the film. Both parents have been convicted of murder and could face 25 years behind bars.
The Duggar family came out with another announcement today. While fans have been anticipating another baby on the way, it was quite surprising to find out which couple was expecting this time around. Many believed Jinger Duggar would announce she was expecting her first child, but that is not how it went.

Anna Duggar is pregnant

After a few years of hard times, Anna Duggar is pregnant once again. This will be baby number five for her and Josh Duggar. The couple already has two sons and two daughters. While a due date was not revealed, the couple has chosen to release the sex of the baby to the public.

According to Us Weekly, Anna is having another little boy.

This has sent shock waves through fan pages and social media. The critics are spewing harsh words while the fans are praising Anna Duggar for rebuilding her marriage and standing behind Josh Duggar. After police reports were released that revealed he molested his siblings and then a few months later finding out he belonged to Ashley Madison, their marriage was in shambles. In between the two incidents in 2015, Anna gave birth to their youngest child Meredith.

One year out of rehab

This month marks one year of Josh Duggar being out of treatment. At the end of 2015 he decided to attend a faith-based rehabilitation center in Rockford, Illinois for sex addiction.

While he was there, Anna visited him. Rumors have been circulating for several months that the couple was expecting and finally, the announcement confirmed that was the case. Because Josh has been banned from appearing on "Counting On" because of sponsor issues, fans will not be able to follow the pregnancy like they have with the previous four children.

Fans are wishing the couple the best and hoping that Josh Duggar is a man redeemed. Anna Duggar has stood beside him through the darkest moments in their marriage. While it was possible that she could walk away, she remained true to her vows and worked through the bumps. After nearly two years of bad times, the Duggar family is ready to relish in the good times.
On Friday, President Donald Trump met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House. From the moment the two spoke to the conclusion of the press conference, social media users and Hollywood stars were quick to point out how awkward the entire situation was.

Trump and Merkel

It's no secret that Angela Merkel and Donald Trump don't see eye to eye when it comes to politics. Merkel was a strong ally of Barack Obama with both holding more liberal views. With the election of Trump, it was expected that the relationship between the United States and Germany would change.

When Merkel arrived in Washington, D.C. on Friday, the two world leaders met at the White House, and then had photos taken by the press. During the exchange, the German chancellor asked Trump if he wanted to shake her hand, but the president ignored her request. When the two took part in a press conference sometime later, the president attempted to joke about his wiretapping conspiracy, but it didn't go over to well. As seen across Twitter on March 17, social media users were quick to troll the former host of "The Apprentice."

When asked to shake hands by reporters and photographers, Trump and Merkel didnt budge https://t.co/Av1S0FkWod pic.twitter.com/JGhRaywDDW  CNN (@CNN) March 17, 2017

"The pathological liar uses Angela Merkel to continue his lying crap & press laughs.

He may be POTUS but he's sick," actor and director Rob Reiner tweeted out, before adding, 'Don't normalize." Actor George Takei, who is often outspoken against the president, also chimed in with his thoughts. "Yesterday Sean Spicer accused UK of spying on Trump. Today Trump refused to shake Angela Merkel's hand," Takei tweeted, while sarcastically noting, "This is how they treat our friends.

The pathological liar uses Angela Merkel to continue his lying crap & press laughs. He may be POTUS but he's sick. Don't normalize.  Rob Reiner (@robreiner) March 17, 2017

Yesterday Sean Spicer accused UK of spying on Trump. Today Trump refused to shake Angela Merkel's hand. This is how they treat our friends.  George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 17, 2017

While celebrities gave their thoughts, other Twitter users voiced their opinions using movie quotes and satirical memes.

Trump quickly became the viral butt of the joke, as the opposition to the billionaire real estate mogul continued.

President Trump repeats wiretapping claim while standing beside Angela Merkel https://t.co/c3KlcjT5rI pic.twitter.com/3wVi15dANM  TIME (@TIME) March 17, 2017

@CNN @realDonaldTrump Someone who claims to "respect" women. Can't even be a gentleman for the sake of our country. He is a embarrassment.  Dori Kesson (@dori_kesson) March 17, 2017

More fake news

Another uncomfortable moment during the press conference came in the form of Donald Trump accusing a member of the German media of reading "fake news" after claiming he is an "isolationist." "I dont know what newspaper youre reading, but I guess that would be another example of, as you say, fake news," Trump said, as Angel Merkel looked stunned in the process.

LOL: see Merkel's face

after Trump tells German reporter she's reading fake news pic.twitter.com/LaKIxxyVEM #FlashbackFriday #StPatricksDay  (REAL) POTUS 4 US (@saneplanet) March 17, 2017

Donald Trump's allegations of "fake news" have become one of his go-to talking points when hit when reports that he doesn't agree with. Despite often using debunked or inaccurate information to back up his own claims, it doesn't appear like facts are going to get in the way of the Trump administration anytime soon.
"Prison Break" season 5 opened with Lincoln Burrows discovering seven years later that his brother Michael Schofield may actually be alive. If so, Michael is imprisoned in Yemen. Lincoln decides to travel to Yemeni to break Michael out of prison. Benjamin Miles Franklin, one known as C-Note and also in prison with Lincoln, offers to use his contacts in Yemen to help Lincoln locate Michael and help him break out. When they get to Yemen, things don't work out as they planned. The prisoner they believe to be Michael Schofield is claiming to be someone else.

Who is Kaniel Outis?

Kaniel Outis is a big name terrorist in Yemen. It seems Michael is posing as the terrorist in the Orygia Prison, but to what end it isn't revealed. He is planning an escape from the prison. Since the only prisoner of importance to be revealed in the show to be imprisoned in Orygia Prison is Abu Ramal, this may be who Michael has been sent to break out. Ramal was sent to Orygia five years ago, and is an infamous terrorist known for terrorist acts that include beheading people and also many rapes.

How Ramal is connected to Kaniel Outis/Michael Schofield isn't revealed. They embrace at the end of the show when Abu Ramal is released into the general population 24 hours before Michael has planned an escape.

When Abu Ramal appears, he and Michael embrace, and Michael calls him "Brother."

Sarah and Mike get on with their lives

Back in the states Sarah and Mike, her son, move on, and Sarah remarries. After Michael supposedly died in the original "Prison Break," Sarah took Mike and tried to create a new life on her own. She is now married to an economist named Jacob Anton Ness.

Sarah talks to him about Michael and asks him what to do after she speaks to Kellerman at the State Department. Kellerman reveals that only someone powerful could have changed Michael's identity, and Michael is guilty of murdering the Assistant Director of the CIA. Mike later receives an origami flower from Michael to warn him and Sarah that a storm is coming and to get to safety.

Who is the Sheik of Light?

Lincoln and C-Note receive an origami message from Michael. He tells them to find the Sheik of Light, and then Michael can be free. Lincoln and C-Note approach a woman named Sheba and offer her money to help them to track down the Sheik of Light. They travel into the most dangerous part of the city to track down this man. He is an engineer who has been trapped in this part of the city with his daughter. Lincoln, C-Note, and Sheba rescue the man and his daughter and get them to safety. Now the question becomes: Who is this mysterious man, and how can he save Michael? Will Michael and his group escape the prison before it is bombed?

"Prison Break" airs on Monday nights at 10:00 p.m. on Fox.
US President Donald Trump sent a positive signal to the China-US economic and trade relationship last week when he said that China was not manipulating its currency. On Friday, the US Treasury Department released its semiannual report to the Congress to reiterate that conclusion.

In the report, the Treasury finds none of the six US trading partners on the monitored list  the Chinese mainland, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Switzerland  have been manipulating their currencies in the previous months.

While the Treasury did not name China a currency manipulator, its assessment on China was longer and harsher than its last report released in October 2016.

The new report described China as engaging in "persistent, large-scale, one-way foreign exchange intervention" in previous years. It said the distortion imposed significant and long-lasting hardship on US workers and companies.

The report also accused China of restricting market access and investment, and called China's goods trade surplus with the US, at $347 billion in 2016, as by far the largest among any of the US major trading partners.

However, the report said that China's multilateral external position has undergone greater adjustment in recent years. China's current account surplus had decreased most recently from 2.8 percent of GDP in 2015 to 1.8 percent of GDP in 2016.

The report stated that China's recent intervention in foreign exchange markets has sought to prevent a rapid RMB depreciation that would have negative consequences for the US, China and the global economy.

The US Treasury said it will be scrutinizing China's trade and currency practices, especially in light of the large bilateral trade surplus that China has with the US.

While many still remember Trump's campaign pledge of naming China a currency manipulator on his first day in office, most US economists and Treasury officials don't agree with the label.

They argue that China has in recent years been propping up its currency to prevent RMB depreciation, rather than appreciation, thereby helping US competitiveness and doing the US a big favor.

On Sunday morning, Trump tweeted: "Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!"

The fact is that these two things are not linked, and what is clear to economists is that China is not manipulating its currency.

Larry Summers, former US treasury secretary, admitted that the US government has been wrong all these years trying to push for the appreciation of renminbi, or yuan, while market forces are pushing it down.

Unlike years ago, China's currency policy has also become less of an issue on Capitol Hill in recent years.

Though the latest Treasury report highlighted the US bilateral trade deficit with China as an issue, most US mainstream economists have dismissed such a concern as a wrong approach. Economists such as Caroline Freund of the Peterson Institute of International Economics and Yukon Huang of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace argue that the bilateral trade deficit does not matter.

They say that the trade deficit should not be an indicator of the health of the economy because the US trade deficit actually went down during the financial crisis in 2009 as well as during the Great Recession.

Economists such as Stephen Roach, former chief economist for Morgan Stanley, believes it is the low personal savings rate in the US along with Americans living beyond their means that led to the US trade deficit.

For Freund, who had previously worked at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Federal Reserve Board, the trade deficit has more to do with US domestic fiscal policy rather than trade policy with other countries.

It also has to do with the method of calculation. A typical example raised is the Apple iPhone assembled in China, with technology and components from all over the world, including mostly from the US.

While China makes only about $15 from each iPhone, each unit is counted as some $600 in China's exports to the US. That had made the total bilateral trade imbalance grow dramatically since 2001, when Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong relocated many assembly plants to the Chinese mainland.

If the US does not buy from China, it will disrupt the Asian supply chains, of which the US is a part. US consumers are set to pay higher prices when substitute imports come from other parts of the world.

While the Trump administration now seems to be seeing eye to eye with economists on China's currency policy, no one is sure if it will change its attitude on the bilateral trade deficit.

Contact the writer at chenweihua@chinadailysua.com
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One last personal note, I always love when people who consider themselves the media, who attack people who use no comment, have nothing to say when a story is about them:





Wigderson declined further comment.



Wisconsin Watchdog Bureau Chief M.D. Kittle could not be reached for comment. His office number was not in service Friday, and he did not respond to a message left on his cell phone.

On Thursday, Wisconsin Watchdog tweeted: "God bless. #wiright"









But a Franklin Center spokeswoman said in a statement that the center and Watchdog.org will continue.

"The Franklin Center has not shut down; it continues to operate and we expect growth as we progress through 2017," said Franklin Center spokeswoman Laurel Patrick, who previously worked for Walker. "In order to achieve this growth, it is undergoing a reorganization." Finally, one last point. Watchdog,org and The Franklin Center are not going away. As they told Bice:





Remember that when you check out his blog or Right Wisconsin!





Which means that Wiggy can not help himself but lie, and can not even bring himself to tell the truth when the story is about himself.Remember that when you check out his blog or Right Wisconsin!





Case in point!
HAI DUONG  The fall in Hai Duongs Provincial Competitive Index for the second consecutive year has prompted the northern province to figure out ways to improve its investment and business environment.

The results of the PCI in 2016, released by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, VCCI, shows that Hai Duong ranks 36th in the country and ranks ninth among 11 provinces and cities in the Red River Delta, followed only by Thai Binh and Hung Yen provinces.

This is the second year in a row that Hai Duongs position has dropped in the ranking. In 2014, the province was ranked 31st out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide, but it was down to 34th and 36th in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

In particular, five indicators surveyed by VCCI have had their points increased (the higher the point, the worse the situation), namely: market entry costs, access to land, dynamism of provincial leaders, business support services, and labour training services. One indicator unchanged is the unofficial charges, and four indicators which saw decreases are transparency, time costs, legal institutions and fair competition.

Reasons

In a meeting with provincial leaders this week, Nguyen Ngoc Lan, a specialist from the VCCI, pointed out that the four indices declined because the province did not pay enough attention to small and micro enterprises. Small and micro enterprises account for 90 per cent of the total number of firms operating in Hai Duong.

VCCIs survey shows that small and micro businesses are often at a disadvantage and receive unfair treatment when compared with medium and large enterprises.

For example, 67 per cent of small and micro enterprises in the province confirmed that they did not receive written information related to policies for production and business. Meanwhile, only 30 per cent of medium-sized and large enterprises in the locality had the same answer.

Small and micro businesses are also put at a disadvantage in accessing support policies. Only 28 per cent of micro firms and 46 per cent of small ones are entitled to corporate support policies. Meanwhile, as many as 60 per cent of medium-sized and large enterprises assume they benefit from the policies.

When enterprises ask for information, more than 80 per cent of large enterprises and FDI enterprises receive feedback, but 30 per cent of small and medium enterprises get responses from the local government or authorities.

VCCIs survey also shows that 34 per cent of enterprises in Hai Duong must spend 10 per cent of their time in a year learning and implementing administrative procedures, such as taxation, land, fire prevention and social insurance.

The annual inspections and checks still overlap. For example, 20 per cent of private enterprises in Hai Duong are subject to at least four inspections. Businesses have complained that the inspections were troublesome, and businesses have had to pay a lot in unofficial fees.

Nguyen inh Kiem, director of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment, said that the decline in the provinces PCI was due to administrative reform of the agencies, still far beyond the real demand and expectations of enterprises.

Co-ordination among State agencies in handling administrative procedures is not tight, information related to procedures has not been regularly updated, and civil servants and employees have limited capacity and a low sense of responsibility, Kiem said.

Solutions

VCCI specialist Nguyen Ngoc Lan said that to lift its PCI ranking, Hai Duong needs to build an equal business environment for all sectors, and have suitable solutions to support small and micro business groups.

In addition, the province should continue working on administrative procedure reform, especially in the fields of taxes, fees, land and social insurance as well as reducing the burden on the enterprises during inspections.

Lan also highlighted the need to increase business consultation and promote the role of provincial business associations to consolidate the trust of the business community.

VCCI Vice Chairman oan Duy Khuong said that geographical position is no longer an advantage to the province, and so it needs to focus on three solutions: building an effective government, building supportive mechanisms and creating a competitive environment for business development.

Khuong also suggested that localities select industries and products with high competitiveness and develop strategies to promote the products and services.

Localities should create mechanisms and policies to support small and medium enterprises, such as capital support, information, training and policy advice, but should not expect that the economic efficiency of small businesses would be the same as that of big ones, Khuong said.

Small businesses create job stability, ensure social security, provide logistics and supportive products for large businesses, he added.

Nguyen Manh Hien, Secretary of Hai Duong provincial Party Committee, said the province was determined to promote the application of information technology to reduce the unofficial costs and time for businesses.

Provincial agencies would provide public hotlines for feedback from people and businesses. Provincial leaders and localities needed to increase the dialogue with business communities to solve pressing problems quickly, Hien noted.

At the same time, the inspection of public duties would be strengthened and civil servants who caused trouble for businesses or violated regulations would be strictly punished, he added.  VNS
Back in the war days, ovens in which pots were made were destroyed in the village of Phuoc Tich, outside Hue.

It took twelve years for them to be repaired.

Then, the people of the village had to once again learn how to make pots in their special way.

Recently, some famous pot designers came to Phuoc Tich to help bring back this tradition.

By Hue Phong

In mid-March, Minh Hanh, one of the countrys most prominent contemporary fashion designers, led a group of young, gifted designers to Phuoc Tich, a 546-year-old village on the outskirts of Hue, for a two-day clay workshop.

The pottery of this particular village is unique and they produce good quality products. The key is to make attractive designs that can be sold at the market, said Minh Hanh, adding that the fashion designers would use pottery to convey their design ideas.

The presence of the showy designers was incongruous against the backdrop of the ancient village, 40 kilometres from the former royal capital city. The sight of the designers, including some celebrities, getting dirty with the sticky clay attracted a lot of attention from the public.

Over the course of two days at the villages pottery workshop, the designers were instructed to give facelifts to the pre-made pottery designs. Over almost 16 hours of work on March 16 and 17, the designers sought inspiration to fulfill their assignment before being able to start on their own work.

More familiar with air-conditioning and clean, modern tools, the designers slummed it with their bare hands and dirty clay. Surprisingly, there was a lot of enthusiasm. Even the female designers seemed to have no qualms with getting stuck in and possibly ruining their manicures.

Of course, [working with clay] is something unfamiliar to me but I could get used to it. Obviously we came here with a love of art, so the unfamiliarity is no hindrance to our creativity, said Hien ang, a designer from Ha Noi.

Hien completed her assignments on the first day by putting additional patterns on unbaked vases, and thus on the second day had the chance to put her creations on terracotta trays embossed with lotus flowers, roses and red kapok flowers.

She explained that those were her favourite flowers and the trays would reflect her love of Phuoc Tich pottery.

Different designers came up with different methods to turn the rusty pottery items into art works, including cut-outs, embossed patterns or reshaping the items to give them a more artistic value.

According to Luong Thanh Hien, manager of the pottery workshop, the usual designs have remained unchanged for years, and so have seen a drop in popularity.

We have collaborated with the designers not only to improve the quality of our products, but also to increase public awareness of our village and its pottery heritage, Hanh said.

Ngoc Han, for example, live-streamed her work on Facebook, attracting over 10,000 views.

Han was Miss Viet Nam 2010 and has a great number of followers on Facebook. She is also working as a fashion designer and was part of the group that visited the pottery village.

Hanh explained that the ultimate aim of the working visit was to find a better market for Phuoc Tich pottery. [The members of the group] have shops in Hoi An and Hue and could help selling these items, Hanh said. We hope we can get some good sales thanks to our connections.

Products redesigned or crafted by the designers would be displayed at an upcoming festival in Hue for craft villages around the country.

Hien, manager of the workshop, said the unbaked pottery would need weeks to be baked and packaged before its ready for presenting at the festival.

He said the items could be sold as works of art.

No matter what they are, we hope that the designs by the designers will help attract customers to our village and its pottery, he said.

The village began to craft potteries in 1470, and enjoyed a period of success during the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), when the village was the only supplier for the royal familys pottery.

Products included jars, pots and containers used for cooking and storage. Some of the most outstanding works by Phuoc Tich artisans are preserved at the Hue Museum of Royal Antiquities.

At that time, the villages potteries were also available for home use in the central provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai.

However, kilns at the village stopped burning in 1967 due to the war and it took the village 12 years to restart the craft. The villagers had to travel long distances to Ha Noi and Binh Duong to learn craft skills from Huong Canh and Lai Thieu artisans, so they could resume production.

All 12 earthen kilns at the village, used for centuries, had been ruined, and the villagers had to adopt a gas-operated kiln. Unfortunately the products remained unsold, despite the villagers best efforts.

Later in 2010, a project funded by Luxembourg helped to rebuild a wood burning kiln that is a replica of the ancient kilns used by the village. This delighted local potters and they hoped to regain the glory days of their ancestors.

Once again Phuoc Tich potters came to study at the pottery facilities of northern and southern localities, including Bat Trang in Ha Noi.

The working visit by the fashion designers once again nurtures hope for the villagers, who are still seeking a way to save the craft of their ancestors. VNS

GLOSSARY

In mid-March, Minh Hanh, one of the countrys most prominent contemporary fashion designers, led a group of young, gifted designers to Phuoc Tich, a 546-year-old village on the outskirts of Hue, for a two-day clay workshop.

Prominent means important and famous.

Contemporary fashion designers are fashion designers who are working in the industry now and not in the past.

Gifted means very clever and with incredible natural skills.

The pottery of this particular village is unique and they produce good quality products."

If something is unique there is only one of it.

The presence of the showy designers was incongruous against the backdrop of the ancient village, 40 kilometres from the former royal capital city.

Incongruous means not fitting into the surroundings.

The sight of the designers, including some celebrities, getting dirty with the sticky clay attracted a lot of attention from the public.

Celebrities are famous people.

Over the course of two days at the villages pottery workshop, the designers were instructed to give facelifts to the pre-made pottery designs.

Instructed means ordered.

To give a pot a facelift means to give it a better new design.

The designers sought inspiration to fulfill their assignment before being able to start on their own work.

Sought is the past tense of "seek", which means "looked for".

Inspiration means the feeling of seeing or experiencing something that makes you want to go out and do something positive.

More familiar with air-conditioning and clean, modern tools, the designers slummed it with their bare hands and dirty clay.

To slum it means to live in the way of people much poorer than yourself and to be in discomfort.

Surprisingly, there was a lot of enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm is a feeling of being very eager and keen about something.

Even the female designers seemed to have no qualms with getting stuck in and possibly ruining their manicures.

To have no qualms means to not have any worries that might stop you from doing something.

Ruining means destroying.

Manicures are done when the skin on your hands is made to look and feel beautiful.

Of course, [working with clay] is something unfamiliar to me but I could get used to it."

If something is unfamiliar you are not used to it and you do not know it very well.

"Obviously we came here with a love of art, so the unfamiliarity is no hindrance to our creativity, said Hien ang, a designer from Ha Noi.

A hindrance is something that gets in the way of what you are hoping to achieve.

Creativity is the use of your imagination to make something.

Hien completed her assignments on the first day by putting additional patterns on unbaked vases, and thus on the second day had the chance to put her creations on terracotta trays embossed with lotus flowers, roses and red kapok flowers.

Completed means finished.

An assignment is a project.

A vase is a pot that holds flowers.

An unbaked vase is one that has not been into a special pottery oven called a kiln.

To emboss a design on a pot means to draw it on the pot in such a way that it stands out.

She explained that those were her favourite flowers and the trays would reflect her love of Phuoc Tich pottery.

Reflect means show.

According to Luong Thanh Hien, manager of the pottery workshop, the usual designs have remained unchanged for years, and so have seen a drop in popularity.

If something suffers a drop in popularity, it becomes less popular and not as many people like it as once liked it.

We have collaborated with the designers not only to improve the quality of our products, but also to increase public awareness of our village and its pottery heritage, Hanh said.

To collaborate means to work jointly on something.

If there is public awareness about something, people generally know about it.

Heritage is made up of values, culture and things you may own that are passed down from generation to generation.

Ngoc Han, for example, live-streamed her work on Facebook, attracting over 10,000 views.

Live streamed means broadcast live.

Hanh explained that the ultimate aim of the working visit was to find a better market for Phuoc Tich pottery.

Ultimate means "at the end"or final.

Products redesigned or crafted by the designers would be displayed at an upcoming festival in Hue for craft villages around the country.

If something is displayed it is put on show.

Some of the most outstanding works by Phuoc Tich artisans are preserved at the Hue Museum of Royal Antiquities.

Outstanding means exceptionally good.

Artisans are technical people who make, fix and build things.

Preserved means kept.

However, kilns at the village stopped burning in 1967 due to the war and it took the village 12 years to restart the craft.

Kilns are ovens in which pottery is made.

A craft is an activity that involves a skill in which you use your hands.

The villagers had to travel long distances to Ha Noi and Binh Duong to learn craft skills from Huong Canh and Lai Thieu artisans, so they could resume production.

To resume production means to go back to producing something after not having done so for some time.

Later in 2010, a project funded by Luxembourg helped to rebuild a wood burning kiln that is a replica of the ancient kilns used by the village.

If a project is funded by Luxembourg, then Luxembourg pays for it. Luxembourg is a small country in Europe.

A replica of an ancient kiln is a structure made to look like an ancient kiln.

This delighted local potters and they hoped to regain the glory days of their ancestors.

To regain something means to get it back after losing it.

Your ancestors are your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on.

The working visit by the fashion designers once again nurtures hope for the villagers, who are still seeking a way to save the craft of their ancestors.

To nurture something means to look after it as it grows.

WORKSHEET

See if you can find words that mean the following in the Word Search:

1. An oven in which pots are baked.

2. Something that was happening in Viet Nam in 1967.

3. The social media platform where Ngoc Hans live-streaming attracted many followers.

4. Ngoc Hans job at the pottery workshop.

5. A type of flower.





w s o w a r m n s n i j u i l p i o n e o a s a n l k i l s m e t r e t a i i n c e c c a c t a c c l i f a c e b o o k y o n o n f c o a s u t i n c a i g n r p s m c a r g c n t p i o u p t w r i t e r h j s s e s o p i m a n a g e r t s

ANSWERS:

 Duncan Guy/Learn the News/ Viet Nam News 2017

1. Kiln; 2. War; 3. Facebook; 4. Manager; 5. Rose.
HA NOI  Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his wife have begun an official visit to Viet Nam at the invitation of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

The visit, which started yesterday and will last until April 19, aims to encourage bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, telecommunications, aquaculture and seafood processing, machinery manufacturing and construction material. The two sides will also take the occasion to discuss international and regional issues of mutual concern.

Viet Nam and Sri Lanka established diplomatic relations in 1970. The Sri Lankan Embassy was opened in Ha Noi in 2003, while Viet Nam reopened its embassy in Colombo in 2011.

In recent years, trade between the two countries has grown significantly, reaching US$192 million in 2015 and US$325.6 million in 2016.

The two sides established a sub-committee on joint trade in August 2014, and agreed on the early negotiation and signing of a preferential trade agreement, with the aim of accelerating commercial activities.

By the end of 2016, Sri Lanka had 15 operating investment projects capitalized at $83.77 million in Viet Nam , ranking 48th among foreign investors. -VNS
Nebraskans United for Property Tax Reform and Education sent two guiding principles to school districts across the state.

No 1.  Adequate and sustainable funding of high-quality K-12 education is imperative for the future of Nebraska.

No. 2  Reform is needed to reduce the reliance on local property taxes to fund public schools and ensure the tax system is fair to all Nebraskans.

The Schuyler Community Schools Board of Education voted last week to support those principles.

Nebraskans United is a coalition initiated by the Nebraska Farm Bureau and Schools Taking Action for Nebraska Childrens Education (STANCE) so agricultural producers and school districts could form a shared platform to present to the Legislature regarding property taxes and school funding.

The group's two principles are the result of weeks of meetings with producers and superintendents. As the coalition has publicly pushed for property tax reform, more ag, education and tax-reform organizations have signed on, including Schuyler residents.

Several groups in the community have been part of that, said SCS Superintendent Dan Hoesing. Many of our ag producers are part of Farm Bureau.

Hoesing presented the resolution to board members so they could decide whether the district should support the effort, though hes concerned that with the states projected budget shortfall the problem will only become worse.

The state is short of money. We know that there will be less support in the state aid formula right now for public schools, Hoesing said.

The superintendent and school board decided to sign to send a message to the Legislature and community.

I think our ag community needs to see that our board is actively involved in supporting some kind of legislation focused on providing some kind of property tax relief, said Hoesing. We thought if the board didnt support it that it might leave the wrong message with our public that we werent for reducing reliance on property taxes.

At the same time, Hoesing does not support any particular plan for restructuring the school funding formula, though many have been proposed by state lawmakers and organizations.

We know that with any shift in taxing for our schools that there are winners and losers, he said. Thats why theres no particular piece of legislation this board is supporting.
CAN THO  Fire flared up again at the Taiwanese Kwong Lun-Mekong garment factory in Can Tho City yesterday morning, fifteen days after an earlier fire. No casualties were reported.

Six fire trucks and some 50 firefighters were sent to the factory, where the fire was extinguished after 30 minutes.

The fire broke out at about 9am on the first floor, where dozens of workers were cleaning up from the earlier fire that burned from March 23-27.

Initial investigations show that the fire was caused by workers welding iron frames on the first floor, creating a fire that spread to cotton and feathers stored nearby.

The foreign-owned factory is located in the Tra Noc Industrial Park, specialising in the manufacturing of garments.

A fire broke out at the factory on the morning of March 23, but was brought under control by firefighters that night, then flared up again on March 26. The fire destroyed one million dollars in materials, affecting hundreds of people and some 1,200 workers.  VNS
ONG NAI  A traffic police officer was killed on Saturday while on duty on Nation Route 1A in Bien Hoa Citys An Binh Ward.

Major Le Quang Minh, 41, was run over by a truck while trying to stop the vehicle at the ong Nai toll station, the Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper reported yesterday.

The driver of the truck, who has not been identified, escaped.

According to authorities, at 7:15 pm a patrol team from the ong Nai traffic police division ordered the driver of a truck, licence plate 60C-107.62, to stop at the toll station.

The truck was running from Vung Tau City to HCM City when police attempted to stop it.

The driver did not comply and continued driving through the toll station. Major Minh pursued the vehicle, which then stopped.

In the middle of a discussion with the officer, the driver got back into the truck and drove away.

In attempt to stop the vehicle, Major Minh clung to the left rear view mirror of the truck, fell and was run over by a left wheel.

An investigation is underway.  VNS
On the anvil for about a decade, Culture Ministry gets serious about transforming the Ha Noi Opera House and its environs, Thien Huong reports.

The iconic Ha Noi Opera House will open up to become the centrepiece of a special cultural space that incorporates the August Revolution Square, the Co Tan Park and the Museum of National History.

The grandiose plan that would aesthetically and functionally transform downtown Ha Noi and enhance its status as a major tourism destination was announced at recent press briefing by Culture Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thien.

Thien said his ministry would invite foreign consultants to landscape the area around the Opera House.

The Opera House itself would be renovated, surrounding fences removed and the cafe beside it turned into an open park that connects with the August Revolution Square in front of it.

The new site would be one that presents both featuring traditional and contemporary shows of fine arts and performing arts, he said.

The plan has been supported by the citys leaders.

We will finish choosing consultants and preparing a draft plan by the end of this year, said Nguyen Thai Binh, a ministry official.

The State budget would be used for a part of the project expenditure, with the rest contributed by individuals and organisations, he added.

Architects pitch in

Renowned architect Ho Thieu Tri, who directed renovation of the Opera House in 1995, welcomed the idea of a new cultural space.

It (Opera House) is a special historical building with a special cultural meaning. This project will enhance the special image of the capital city in the world, Tri told Viet Nam News."

The plan of rearranging spaces around the Opera House and connecting with nearby museums has been considered since 1992, said ao Ngoc Nghiem, vice chairman of Ha Noi Urban Planning and Development Association.

The plan also mentioned connecting streets of Trang Tien-Trang Thi and nearby architectures and turning them into a cultural space for Ha Noi.

Another architect, Tran Huy Anh, said that associating the Opera House with neighbouring buildings and parks was the original plan of the French when they built it more than a hundred years ago.

Anh recalled a similar project proposed by Prof Ton ai and his students, which won high appreciation.

Anh stressed that the Opera House was among five historical buildings in the area, including the Revolutionary Museum in Tong an Street (the first building in Ha Noi with pre-colonial architectural features), the National Museum of Vietnamese History, the Guest House of the Ministry of Defence, and the Museum of Geology on Pham Ngu Lao Street.

These buildings have been divided into small spaces for cafes, restaurants and car parking, Anh said, adding a general plan for architectures in the area is needed to bring into full play the real values of these buildings.

Cultural haven: The Opera House at night. VNA/VNS Photo Trong at

Architect Nghiem noted that future tasks are not limited to opening up spaces. They also involve relocating some offices in the area to the outskirts.

In the past decades, there have been many workshops and contests on the cultural space surrounding the Opera House, Nghiem said, but it was seen as a headache for the city authorities to move some agencies, including the General Department of Geology, to the outskirts.

Architect Hoang Thuc Hao noted that there were two parks on either side of the Opera House that should be linked when creating an open space for public.

To make this happen, it will be necessary to rearrange traffic routes and create pedestrian zones, Hao said.

Nghiem suggested that authorities poll city residents, experts and other sectors to prepare a master plan for the project.

We should open design contests for special spaces like Co Tan Park that will include sculptures, grass, flowers and benches, he said.

Besides, if we call for contributions (from all sectors), we should ensure the contributors profit, he said, adding, We should plan areas for them to open services like cafes, restaurants and parking lots.

East-west axis

Architect Tri suggested that with the Opera House being the centre point of the open space, the axis should run east-west from the House towards the Hong River. To the west of the Opera House is Trang Tien Street, which runs into the green space of Hoan Kiem Lake. Commercial activities on Trang Tien should be continued, he said.

On the north-south axis, we should maintain the green public spaces on Phan Chu Trinh, Le Thanh Tong and Ly Thai To streets, he said.

"The Opera House should also connect with plans to develop both banks of the Hong River with green spaces, forming a united complex," Tri added.

Opera House Director Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet said the idea of the cultural space had just been proposed by the Culture Ministry. The Opera House has not been assigned any concrete duties.

She noted that the Ha Noi Opera House carried great historical and architectural value for the nation. Along with the August Revolution Square (formerly called Theatre Square), it was the scene of great events associated with the August Revolution and the early years of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam.

On August 17, 1945, at the Theatre Square, a meeting was held to introduce the Viet Minh (Viet Nam Independence League) Front.

On August 29, 1945 the North Vietnamese Army was introduced at the Theatre Square.

In early October 1945, a meeting was held in the Theatre Square in support for resistance against the return of French troops in South Viet Nam.

On May 3, 1945, the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam held its first meeting at the Opera House.

Since then, the Opera House was the venue for National Assembly meetings until the Ba inh Meeting Hall was constructed in 1963.

After nearly a hundred years of use, the Opera House underwent a major renovation led by famed architect Ho Thieu Tri between 1995 and 1997.

It has since been assessed as one of the most beautiful buildings in Southeast Asia. It is now the most opulent building in Ha Noi, and houses major events, including meetings and high-class performances by domestic and international artists.  VNS
A throat affliction putting paid to her chosen vocation as a teacher, a young woman stumbles on to a new art form, courtesy some lotus flowers and a Buddhist spirit. Hong Van tells an inspiring story.

Nguyen Nhat Minh Phuong was very clear about her choice of career.

She majored in pedagogy and duly became a teacher. She loved her job.

Two years ago, at the start of the 2015-2016 academic year, she found that her throat was hoarse all the time. At the hospital, she received shocking news.

They told me that I would have to undergo surgery or quit teaching, otherwise, I may not be able to speak anymore.

It was very hard at first. I couldnt help feeling lost and was uncertain about the future, Phuong said. I still loved children and I loved teaching a lot.

A few months later, life sprung another surprise.

"It was late in 2015 that I happened to see a few lotus flower paintings by Ha Hung Dung (an artist famous for works themed on the nations northwestern region) on the Internet. I was struck immediately. It is a flower I love, and I started looking for collections of lotus paintings.

Looking at the paintings, she was struck by a desire to make her own lotuses, though shed never been an artist, never painted anything.

In fact, no one in my family pursued art or had a special interest in drawing.

However, she used to create small pieces of jewelry and accessories as a hobby, and a way to augment her income. A main ingredient in the accessories she was making was copper strings, and she was inspired to use them, somehow. And as soon as she started, she was hooked. For four days straight, it was all that she did.

It is hard to describe in words. I just poured all my heart and soul into the painting"

Planning it was the hardest step, she said.

Saying it with flowers: Phuongs first work, featuring lotuses, was given to a charity organisation called Thousand Paper Cranes to raise funds for children. It raised VN3.7 million (US$163).

Divine guidance

As it is all about bending the copper string into shapes and objects using my imagination, I had to be meticulous and accurate, she said.

But there was divine guidance as well.

I have always been very close to Buddhism, I love the peaceful ambience of pagodas that I was taken to as a child. The lotus, a flower that my mother loves too, has special significance in Buddhism. Therefore, this flower, and later the Buddha, gave me lots of inspiration, she said.

Phuong gave her first work to a charity organization called Thousand Paper Cranes to raise funds for children. It raised VN3.7million (US$163).

When she looks back to that day, she has mixed feelings.

I was lucky that it was not too late [after she decided to quit her job] before I realised my true passion and ability to paint.

It [her illness] took away my chance to teach, but it also gave me the opportunity to find this.

Phuong does not market her accessories and paintings, and keeps things low-key, but she finds it difficult to meet demand from customers who manage to find her despite not having a website and not sharing anything on social networks.

Her paintings use copper and aluminium wires without any additional colour. So her works mostly carry hues of black, pink, orange, dark brown and white. Each painting fetches around $2,000 and can go up to $4,000.

Divine guidance: Phuongs second painting sold for VN15 million ($660). Both her professional and social work are inspired by the Buddha. Photos courstesy of Nguyen Nhat Minh Phuong

Sharing success

Her unprecedented success has not shifted her focus from wanting to help others.

As demand is already more than supply, I have been giving special attention to a project where I will train disabled people so that they can make these copper wire paintings and earn a living.

The project will be launched by April 16. I have already contacted a local facility for the disabled and asked them to select five people to join the project.

I want to help the poor, especially disabled people as they are marginalised in society, and face many disadvantages in life. You know the saying, Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, I want to teach them how to fish.

Some investors have offered her money to develop and expand the business, but Phuong has declined, wanting to reserve the skill for disadvantaged people.

People without disabilities have many more opportunities out there to work. So I will reserve this craft for those with disabilities. I will train them group by group. Those who acquire this craft can pass it down to others and gradually they will be able to have a stable life.

When our business develops more and our products reach international markets, they will realise the value.

The core message is that those without a background in art, just like me, can still make art and reach the world through their artwork.

Feeding orphans

Besides the training project, Phuong is also running a Kitchen project, in which she and her friends provide nutritious meals for children in orphanages.

Meals for these children, which is only around VN5.000 (less than 25 US cents), dont provide necessary nutrients, said Phuong.

She is calling for funds for the project and has undertaken frequent travels throughout Viet Nam, mostly to remote areas in the Central Hihglands province of ak Lak, Gia Lai or the northern province of Lao Cai to give poor kids commodities, talking to them and teaching them life skills.

My training and experience as a teacher gives me valuable skills for these field trips, said Phuong.

Business is busy, but I will continue my social projects, going to different corners of the country to talk and share with disadvantaged people first-hand.  VNS
WATERLOO  A judge has ordered a monetary judgment over a jailhouse assault go toward the estate of a murder victim.

James Robert Ernst II took the Black Hawk County Jail to court after he was attacked by friends of the man he was charged with killing while awaiting trial in custody.

A federal judge sided with Ernst in the civil suit, awarding him $1,000 because the jail failed to separate him from his victims associates.

Now another judge has ordered Ernsts award money be put toward $176,000 he owes in restitution to his victims estate and court costs.

Ernst had attempted to quash the states attempt to divert his money, citing statutes that limit garnishment of earnings.

But in a March 13 ruling, District Court Judge Andrea Dryer ruled the funds didnt qualify as earnings under Iowa law.

Ernst shot and killed 23-year-old Orintheo Campbell Jr. outside a Broadway Street convenience store on Dec. 6, 2014. After his arrest, jail staff placed Ernst in protective custody  confined to his cell for 23 hours a day  because he said he had been the subject of threats.

Ernst challenged his confinement conditions and was released to general population after jail staff took steps to keep him separate from Campbells friends and family and members of a local street gang. In March 2015, he was moved to a different pod and assaulted.

Ernst was convicted for first-degree murder following a February 2016 trial and was sentenced to life in prison.
WATERLOO  The proposed $1.7 million cut to victim services represents a tiny fraction of the overall state budget and a sliver of budget reductions so far this year.

But area agencies say the cut  from a $6.7 million state appropriation to $5 million  would have an outsized impact on survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

I know theyre looking at tough cuts throughout all realms, whether its education or victim services or whatever else, but this is a tough one to swallow, said Carson Eggland, executive director of Helping Services for Youth and Families, which serves seven rural counties in Northeast Iowa.

Hes not alone. Alicia Smiley, Iowa program director at Riverview Center, called the proposed cuts disheartening.

Were nervous, Smiley said.

The cuts are part of the Republican Legislatures $559 million Justice Systems budget unveiled Wednesday. At Democrats urging, there will be a public hearing at 10 a.m. Monday at the Capitol on that proposal and four other appropriation bills.

Beth Barnhill, Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault executive director, estimates as many as 10,000 survivors could go without crisis and advocacy services if the cuts go through.

Numbers served at area agencies vary. Egglands agency, for example, covers seven rural Northeast Iowa counties with about 350 clients; Waypoint, which serves Black Hawk and Linn counties and 77 other communities across seven counties, served 2,543 domestic violence survivors last year. Waypoint also helped thousands more through a 24-hour support line and offered support groups.

The agencies literally can be life-saving.

These services dont feel important to people until you need them, and then, when you need these services, you realize how life-saving they are, whether its you or a family member, said Ben Brustkern, executive director of Cedar Valley Friends of the Family.

Impact

Administrators are not sure how the state would allocate a reduced victim services budget. They expect a cut of about 25 percent.

Estimates suggest that could mean 1,228 fewer clients served in Northeast Iowa. It would mean 760 fewer people get domestic violence services, 173 fewer people get sexual assault services and 295 fewer get shelter and housing services.

Shelter and housing for survivors would be particularly hard hit. Brustkern said state dollars to help abuse survivors temporarily pay rent already are used up within five months.

Administrators stressed providing top-quality services is their goal no matter their funding. But they said losing staff would impact services and have larger ramifications.

These cuts, they affect all walks of life, as domestic violence is a public health and safety issue that does not discriminate, said Carrie Slagle, managing director of critical services at Waypoint.

Brustkern noted state cuts put more pressure on local foundations and other partners to make up funding. Smiley said small agencies like Riverview dont have the money to employ a development director to focus full-time on seeking donations.

Brustkern and Eggland said cuts would hit particularly hard in rural areas.

Keep in touch

Though agencies are preparing for the cuts, they are working with lawmakers and community supporters to explain why funding is necessary.

They credited ICASA and the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence for being strong advocates at the Capitol. Cuts as large as 45 percent have been discussed.

Brustkern said a reorganization in 2013 made services more effective and led to a funding boost agencies maintained until today. That led to a 125 percent increase in the number of sexual assault survivors served, according to ICASA.

Local administrators also says state dollars could be more important due to uncertainty about federal funding.

Despite their concern, the advocates assure their work will continue.

Well still be here. Well still be providing the services to victims of domestic violence the best way that we know how, Eggland said.
Does anybody here remember Blanche Lincoln? She was a two-term senator from Arkansas, a moderate Democrat who prospered in a red state by defying liberal power brokers like big labor.

The unions and ultra-left pressure groups went after her big-time in 2010, backing a primary challenge by Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. She survived the primary  barely  but suffered mortal wounds in the process and lost badly in the fall to Republican John Boozman.

We thought of Lincoln as the purist wing of the Democratic Party re-emerged this spring and threatened to run primary opponents next year against senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. Their sin: daring to support President Trumps nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch.

As one of those purist pressure groups, We Will Replace You, said in their manifesto: The next crucial step is escalating our demands, and demonstrating that we wont accept anything less than full opposition  by showing Democrats just how many people are willing to back primary challenges to Democratic collaborators and enablers of Trump.

This harassment is beyond stupid. Its suicidal.

Democrats are struggling to win elections and have lost control of both Congress and the White House. Trump won West Virginia by 67 percent, North Dakota by 62 percent and Indiana by 56 percent.

The only Democrats who could possibly hold Senate seats in those states are ones like Manchin, Heitkamp and Donnelly: moderates who separate themselves from the rigid tenets of liberal theology. Lincolnizing them, purging them as heretics, would have only one result: making it easier for Trump and his congressional allies to retain power.

Look at the facts. Yes, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million, but thats a highly misleading figure, based entirely on huge Democratic margins in a few coastal and urban enclaves. In California alone, Clinton rolled up a lead of 4.3 million; in New York, it was 1.7 million. Take away those two states and Trumps national margin was above 3 million.

Trump won about 84 percent of the counties in America; Clinton, 16 percent. Only 26 percent of voters identified as liberals in Election Day exit polls, with 39 percent calling themselves moderates and 35 percent conservatives.

Add the nature of the American system: House members represent individual districts that are often gerrymandered to protect the party in power; each state gets two senators, no matter its size; and the Electoral College determines the president, not the popular vote.

The math is undeniable and unrelenting: Democrats cannot take back the White House or Congress simply by building up large majorities in Brooklyn and Boston. Politics is always about addition, not subtraction. Condemning moderates as collaborators and enablers will condemn the party to permanent minority status.

Groups like We Will Replace You are directly connected to Bernism, the mass mania that infected liberals during the Democratic primaries. They deluded themselves into believing a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist, mouthing totally unrealistic slogans like free college tuition, could actually win.

Sure, Sanders backed Clinton after the conventions, but he stayed in the primaries far too long and convinced far too many of his followers she was a flawed candidate not worth voting for. Yes, Clinton was a poor candidate, but without a doubt, Sanders helped elect Trump. He Lincolnized Clinton.

The fallout from Bernism is not just bad for the Democrats; its bad for the country. Moderates like Manchin, Heitkamp and Donnelly are an essential part of a functioning Senate. They are the dealmakers, the conciliators, the lubricators who make the legislative machinery run. Their shrinking numbers help explain why the Senate is imploding over Gorsuchs nomination to the high court.

In 2005, a group called the Gang of 14  seven Democrats, seven Republicans  brokered a pact over judicial nominations that avoided a partisan showdown. Only three of those 14 Senators, all Republicans, remain in office. All the Democrats are gone, including four moderates from red states: Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

There was no deal this year comparable to the one forged 12 years ago, because there are so few dealmakers left.

If the Democrats forget Blanche Lincoln, if they insist on purging anyone who strays from liberal orthodoxy, they will misread  once again  the nature of the American electorate. And they will weaken, not strengthen, their ability to resist Trump.
On Monday, Art Cullen of the Storm Lake Times was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing. His work, explained the Pulitzer board, fueled by tenacious reporting, impressive expertise and engaging writing  successfully challenged the powerful corporate agricultural interests in Iowa.

Challenged, yes; beat them, no.

Cullen, who co-owns the tiny, twice-weekly Times (circulation 3,000) with his brother, John, won journalisms highest honor for a series of 10 tough-worded editorials last year that demanded and got answers on why Iowa, a mostly rural state, has the dirtiest surface water in America.

The question arose after the Des Moines Water Works sued the drainage districts of three northwestern Iowa counties for the high level of nitrates it said was contaminating the Raccoon River, the source of drinking water for its 500,000 central Iowa customers.

The ensuing court fight was bitter, costly and secretive. Cullen, through the Times editorial page, doggedly asked two questions. First, how were the three counties  Storm Lake is the county seat of Buena Vista County, one of the defendants  paying their legal bills, estimated to be upwards of $1 million.

And, second, why todays ag production system of farming into the ditch and over the fence line should be defended at all. It had played the key role, he noted, citing Iowa State University research, in delivering the dirty water at the center of the lawsuit. Defending that reality was really defending the dirty water status quo.

He had Iowas public behind him and Iowas biggest ag groups in front of him. Almost every public poll supported the lawsuit and almost every farm group and local government group opposed it. If the public wanted the dirty water cleaned up, reasoned the small town editor in print, why were public officials fighting any cleanup?

After months of shoe-leather journalism, the Times  meaning Cullen, his reporter son Tom and other family members  finally uncovered the source of the money underwriting the counties status quo defense. In typical fashion, he announced the funders in a Sept. 16 editorial:

Buena Vista County officially is a Farm Bureau county. The Farm Bureau and Iowa Corn Growers have pledged to cover the legal bills (of the three defendant counties) so, now at least we know who our boss is, he opined. The Farm Bureau and the commodity groups.

Fair enough, Cullen went on. Everything is above board.

Except, he added in a one-word paragraph.

We did not elect Farm Bureau to define our interests. We elected five county supervisors and a county attorney.

Were Cullens sharp words directed at Farm Bureau and its Big Ag allies, or were they meant as an admonishment to the weak-kneed Buena Vista County public officials? Maybe all three.

In the end, however, it didnt matter. Three weeks before Cullen was awarded the Pulitzer, the federal judge overseeing the contentious Des Moines Water Works lawsuit dismissed it by noting Iowas county drainage districts, the targets of the suit, were immune to damage claims.

In short, said the judge, no money, no lawsuit.

The Water Works board announced Tuesday it will not appeal the dismissal of the lawsuit.

The farm groups and Iowas ag-dependent politicians declared victory and moved on. Cullen, who remains in Buena Vista County, conceded nothing: We still have a surface water problem in Iowa, he said in one post-Pulitzer interview. Weve been reporting on it for 25 years.

Will it take another 25 years for agriculture  for us  to acknowledge and act on the growing threats to our rural environment and the worlds food-growing future? Clearly, we have the money and talent to delay any legal and legislative effort to change todays soil, air and water regulations.

What we need more, however, is the courage and foresight to invest that money and talent in ensuring the future rather than litigating the past. Its the right thing for our communities now and our grandchildren later.
Almost a year ago to this date, I wrote the Iron Curtain was again falling across eastern Europe. Nothing that has happened in the last 366 days has changed my opinion.

In the first of these three articles, we explored the fact the dismal economy within the former Soviet Union might be one cause for Russias new, aggressive foreign policy. Nationalism and victories abroad can serve as an effective distraction from difficulties at home. The second discussed how a country that had experienced massive foreign invasions in each of the last three centuries might be driven to try to lengthen its borders as a cushion against future attacks.

I fear the Russian threat to the United States and Western Europe goes even deeper than mere diversion and imposing long supply lines for invaders. The Russian bear again aspires to be the controlling country of the 21st century. Not just a world power, but the dominant one.

Did they attempt to influence our presidential election? Of course, they did. Now please hold the pencils, those of you who supported President Trump. I didnt say they succeeded, only that they tried. Frankly, we should be insulted if they hadnt. After all, they played in the British election to exit the European Union, just recently saw the candidate they supported in the Netherlands lose and are quite active in the upcoming French election.

But this disruption of western elections is only one sphere of the Russian advance warfare. Thats right, Russian warfare.

Writing recently in Politico, Molly K. McKew observed both the Obama and Trump administrations have failed to recognize this fact. It may not be a war we recognize, but it is a war, she wrote. This war has traditional and new weapons focused specifically on Western democracies.

The one we experienced most recently was a deliberate attempt to create and distribute misinformation and information designed to expose and fracture further the divisions of opinion and belief all democratic societies normally tolerate. Cyber warfare is a prime feature of this new conflict.

Why is Vladimir Putin actively supporting one candidate for the French leadership? Simple. Marine Le Pen hates Germany. In other words, whenever the Russian leader can exploit disunity among the traditional American allies and ourselves, he will. If he can succeed and each country is forced to confront him alone, Russia gains leverage and power.

Nor will the Kremlin hesitate to use what McKew termed hard power. That means armed intervention in places like the Middle East or funding other military forces, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan. Putin has, as we know, moved forces closer to Eastern Europe but has also commenced a presence back in Nicaragua.

Perhaps most troubling though is what weve just learned: Russia will place on line in 2018 a new nuclear warhead delivery system, called a hypersonic missile, and it can fly at the unheard-of rate of 4,600 miles an hour. We dont have anything like it, and it could give the false impression it provides first-strike capabilities.

I am afraid we are back to what President Kennedy termed a long twilight struggle of neither victory nor defeat, but a constant guard to protect our liberties and those of our allies. This can only be accomplished with unity against a common foe. The first step in that battle is to realize we are in an adversarial relationship, once again, with the Kremlin. Secondly, a splintered alliance and the breakup of NATO must be avoided.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has recognized the renewal of the Cold War and has been critical of Russias attempt to influence our election, its expanded role in the Middle East and its continued interference in the Ukraine.

We are not now nor will we be in the foreseeable future able to hit a re-set button with Russia. McCain understands this, and we should be hopeful the president soon shares his viewpoint.
Because of Bashar al-Assads recent chemical weapons attack on citizens in Syria, Donald Trump waged an aggressive act of war by bombing an airfield there. The U.S. launched 59 1,000-pound bombs costing approximately $50 million. Tyrannically and dictatorially, Trump failed to seek congressional approval beforehand.

Ironically, in 2013 Trump criticized President Barack Obama for considering a military response after a similar chemical attack in Syria. Trump tweeted in 2013, President Obama, do not attack Syria. There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save your powder for another (and more important) day!

Following constitutional law, Obama sought congressional approval but was denied by the Republican majority. Hearing about this most recent chemical attack in Syria, Trump hypocritically blamed the Obama administration. Trump stated the 2017 chemical attack was a consequence of the past administrations weakness.

Trumps aggressive act of war seems suspiciously politically motivated. This attack has come at a time when Trump has been unsuccessful and demonstrated he is a weak leader. His approval rating in a recent poll was only 35 percent. Trump must have had a notion dropping bombs while at the same time entertaining the leader of China would make him appear strong and presidential.

Interestingly, Trump warned his Russian buddies prior to the attack, and the bombing was so ineffective hours later planes used the airfield. Many officials say this bombing will have no effect on Assads behavior in the future or his ability to use chemical weapons, but it may jeopardize the safety of Americans in Syria. After the bombing Russias leader Vladimir Putins reaction was to pledge even more military support for Assads regime.

Trump commented about the 2017 chemical attack, Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric act. But it is estimated before this recent chemical attack, more than 17,000 children and 11,000 women had already been killed during the Syrian civil war. As horrific the images seem of chemical warfare on children, they are no more horrific than images of those who have died from explosions, starvation and disease. The U.N. has identified 13.5 million Syrians requiring humanitarian assistance, 6 million displaced within Syria and 4.8 million refugees outside of Syria.

Trumps travel ban sought to stop the inflow of refugees from Syria into the U.S., the very type of refugees and beautiful babies killed or injured by chemical weapons. It is unfortunate the U.S didnt contribute more to moving these refugees out of harms way. Imagine what allowing more Syrian refugees asylum in the U.S. and using the $50 million missile money could have done to help these displaced souls. Complicating this, Trump has no real foreign policy or strategy for Syria after initiating this act of war on a sovereign nation.

On the campaign trail in 2016 Trump promised numerous times to keep the U.S. out of war, but just a few days ago Trump commented about the growing threat in North Korea, Well, if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. The thought of Trump suddenly ordering another aggressive act of war toward North Korea is frightening since it is estimated North Korea has more active and reserve troops than the U.S, South Korea and China combined. Trump chillingly proposed arming the South Koreans with nuclear weapons. The DMZ between North and South Korea is only 2.5 miles wide, and America has 30,000 troops stationed in South Korea. Imagine the catastrophe if North Koreas considerable forces broke through that DMZ.

Diplomacy for the U.S. in the world is crucial right now. Unfortunately our State Department is presently understaffed, poorly briefed, facing massive budget cuts and has extremely poor leadership. America needs to diplomatically convince China to implement sanctions against North Korea to avoid possible tragic outcomes. It took only 77 days for Trump to start an unsanctioned war. He has now sent part of our Navy fleet to South Korea. Could this be a prelude to another world war?
Health insurance

MARY BALDWIN

TRIPOLI  Are there any Christian politicians? Or Christian Republicans? Write your senators, representatives and governor. We the taxpayers are repealing your health care. We the taxpayers want single payer (Medicare) for all.

Americans pay $605 billion for administrative costs or $30 per hundred dollars of medical care. This $30 goes to the CEO and health insurance company. Who are the robbers processing your medical insurance for profit? Medicare for all costs $2 per $100.

Check the hospitals amount of charity care. This increases your cost for those who have health insurance. Single payer for all Americans makes sense. No one knows when they need health care. Your prescription costs you $5 to $200-plus to go through three patient care companies. Wake up Americans on the cost of your health care and prescriptions for profit.

Legislative forums

LEAANN SAUL

CEDAR FALLS  It seems Walt Rogers deciding to not attend the usual legislative forums has raised the ire of some in the community. After hearing his reasoning, I support his decision but also agree with working on a solution.

The forum leaders have been primarily left-leaning Democrats, which hasnt resulted in a truly nonpartisan discussion. Lets agree to work on a really great solution and move forward.

Tax credits

AL CHARLSON

WAVERLY  I am encouraged to see Iowa House Budget Committee Chairman Pat Grassley is willing to examine the states myriad tax credits (April 9 Courier). I also agree with him any change in tax credits should be part of a larger overhaul of tax laws.

Iowa legislators across party lines need to begin their discussion with a clear acknowledgement every time they give special tax breaks (including deductions and exclusions as well as credits) to favored groups they shift the burden to other Iowans through both higher tax bills and reduced resources available for critical needs.

As an example, my wife and I belong to a favored group; we are retirees. We qualify for more than $55,000 in special tax breaks annually. As a result we pay no Iowa income tax. It is hard to imagine any justifiable reason we should be shifting our share of the cost of Iowa government to our neighbors. It is reasonable to protect and assist low-income older Iowans. That could be easily accomplished with an appropriate personal exemption.

Town hall

LIZ CONKLIN

CEDAR FALLS  Rep. Rod Blum has not held any public events in his district since the November election. I have called his local office several times to inquire when an event would be scheduled and the answer is always the same: Were working on it.

During this April recess he has scheduled a couple of private events but not a public forum where he could hear his constituents concerns. Yet, he has the time to headline a Republican fundraiser April 18 in Clinton County, which he doesnt represent.

Other Iowa representatives are meeting with voters in their districts. Its time for Representative Blum to do the same. He needs to hear from Iowans, even those who didnt vote for him. He is paid to represent all of us.

Editors note: Rep. Blum announced Wednesday he will hold four town hall forums the week of May 8.

Hurray, volunteers

DEE EUCHNER

WATERLOO  The Volunteer

The Volunteer is one with a heart  no task too large, no task too small;

One who will help with anything at all,

Will be there in the morning light, or help in the dark of night.

The Volunteer, our extra hand, on whose future our children stand.

Never anyone so dear as a Waterloo Schools volunteer!

 Margaret A. Francis

Thanks to all our wonderful RSVP Prime Time volunteers. Hope to see you in the fall!

On Steve King

Carol (Mrs. John) Petersen REINBECK  Unfortunately, Congressman Steve King was confined to the limited format of Twitter when he ended a tweet with: We cant restore our civilization with somebody elses babies.

King was trying to counter express (inexplicable) hatred of America, mostly by those who should feel most blessed by what America has made possible for them, but is being called a racist.

King subsequently fleshed out his tweet on CNNs New Day: Its the culture, not the blood. If you could go anywhere in the world and adopt these little babies and put them into households that were already assimilated into America, those babies will grow up as American as any other baby with as much patriotism and as much love of country as any other baby. Its not about race, its never been about race.  Its a clash of cultures, not a race.

He said further, (paraphrased), ideally, intermarriage would take the beleaguered subject of race out of the conversations. MSNBC and social media arent covering those sentiments. They are having too much fun calling him a racist as they twist his meanings.

The term racist has been so overused nowadays it is losing its real meaning.
Q: What are they going to do with the land Edison was on?

A: The Waterloo Board of Education is expected to consider disposal options this year. The city of Waterloos planning staff has suggested the property be rezoned for residential use with some commercial land along Falls Avenue.

Q: Is Scheels at Crossroads closing?

A: It closed in January 2013.

Q: What town are the Pickers on TV from in Iowa?

A: From LeClaire, north of Bettendorf on the Mississippi.

Q: How long is sugar good for before you have to throw it away?

A: The shelf life of granulated sugar is indefinite, according to the U.S. Sugar Co., as long as insects havent gotten into it.

Q: Is Tamron Hall going to be on another station?

A: She hasnt announced her next step yet, as far as we can tell.

Q: When will Americas Got Talent be on again?

A: The new season starts May 30, according to NBC.

Q: Is there a connection between the St. Judes Ranch that accepts greeting cards and St. Judes Childrens Hospital?

A: As far as we can tell, there is no official connection, but they were both named for St. Jude, the patron saint of desperate causes. The ranch was founded in 1967 in Nevada to help abused and neglected children. Danny Thomas founded the hospital in 1962 in Tennessee to treat seriously ill children.

Q: Where does beautiful weather lady Rachael Peart get her lovely clothes? Does she make them?

A: Meteorologist Rachael Peart shops mostly online for her television outfits, according to KWWL, and mostly orders from Amazon.com.

Q: There mustve been global warming after the ice age. What caused that? There were no animals/humans on the earth at that time.

A: This question is too complicated for this space, but here goes: According to a 2012 article in the journal Nature, scientists believe  for reasons that remain unexplained  the waters of the Southern Ocean began to release enough carbon dioxide to raise atmospheric concentrations by more than 100 parts per million over millennia  roughly equivalent to the rise in the last 200 years. That CO2 then warmed the globe, melting back the continental ice sheets and bringing the oceans to todays levels.

Q: What are the telephone numbers for our Waterloo City Council members?

A: Telephone numbers, mailing addresses and email addresses for the council members are all posted on the city website, while phone numbers are also posted on the wall in City Hall. The phone numbers are: Tom Powers, 269-1553; Bruce Jacobs, 215-8267; Tom Lind, 232-1818; Ron Welper, 234-6013; Pat Morrissey, 232-7315; Steve Schmitt, 610-1938; and Jerome Amos Jr., 505-2653.
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Apr 15, 2017 | By David

Here's another roundup of what's been going on recently in the 3D printing world, with some brief stories that could have easily passed you by in another non-stop week of exciting developments. 3D printed implant company 4Web Medical has announced record growth for the first quarter of this year, and 3D Systems has reduced the price of its ProX SLS 500 3D printer, and more besides.

1. 3D printed implant company 4Web Medical announces record growth

Industry leader in 3D printed implant technology 4Web Medical chose the annual meeting of the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery (ISASS), held April 13, to announce their record fiscal quarter. The first quarter of 2017 saw the largest revenue since the company was founded in 2008, in Dallas, Texas. Success was mostly attributed to high demand for its Posterior Spine Truss System product line, used for TLIF procedures. Investments in sales and distribution infrastructure also contributed to the record achievement.

According to Jim Bruty, 4WEB's Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, "The proliferation of 3D printed titanium implants across the industry has fueled the market adoption of these devices in spine surgery." Increased bone implant surface interface and more volume for bone through-growth were cited as two of the main advantages 4WEB Medicals implants offered over other products. 4WEB is named after the unique geometrical structure that was discovered around the time the company was started, that can be used to make lightweight structures with a high degree of strength. The 4WEB Medical product portfolio includes the Cervical Spine Truss System, the Anterior Spine Truss System, the Posterior Spine Truss System, the Lateral Spine Truss System, and the Osteotomy Truss System.

2. 3D Systems reduces price of its Pro X SLS 500 3D printing system

In a move that is intended to encourage more widespread implementation of its 3D printing technology, 3D Systems has announced a 30 percent reduction in the price of the Pro X SLS 500 3D printing system. As 3D printing is increasing in popularity across the manufacturing industry, 3D systems are looking to grab a bigger share of the market. This reduction will bring the total cost of operations for their Pro X SLS 500 in line with similar competing systems, starting at around 250,000.

"The ProX SLS 500 is winning deals today because of its superior capabilities; the new price point makes it accessible to additional customers, which we believe will enable us to increase our installed base faster and be more competitive in the market," said Jim Ruder, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Plastics, 3D Systems. The Pro X SLS 500 boasts one of the lowest amounts of waste for any 3D printing system, and automation means that it can produce parts up to 7 times faster than a standard FDM machine.

3. Additive Orthopaedics gets FDA clearance for new 3D printed orthopaedics device

The FDA has given the go-ahead for a 3D printed Locking Lattice Plating System developed by Additive Orthopaedics to be used in surgical applications. This clearance will be a huge boon for the company and for the medical world, which has been making use of other FDA-approved Additive Orthopaedics products since the end of last year. Over 300 of their devices have been implanted since the first full commercial launch.

The new 3D printed Locking Lattice Plating System is intended to address stabilization and fusion of fractures, osteotomies, and arthrodesis of small bones. According to Greg Kowalczyk, President of Additive Orthopaedics, "We are excited to be one of the first companies to leverage the geometric flexibility, clinical advantages and manufacturing cost benefits of additive manufacturing in the orthopaedic plating market.

4. Autodesk announces end of its Open Source Ember 3D Printer range

Since it launched 2014, the Ember 3D printer has been an influential product in the industry, inspiring new companies to develop materials for SLA printing that were previously not possible. Autodesk worked beside several clients to develop new, efficient 3D printing network production processes, demonstrating how 3D print speed can be impacted with a connected system and how it is possible to achieve sub-pixel resolution.

Now Autodesk has announced that it will no longer be manufacturing 3D printers, and will be transitioning sales of all Ember consumables, including resins, trays, and build heads, to Colorado Photopolymer Solutions. Part of this range will be a new investment casting resin developed in partnership between the two companies, offering very clean burning and excellent detail in printed parts. Embers Print Studio is also being succeeded by Netfabb.

5. ECU professor 3D prints full-color flowers from the Pocono Mountains

Darlene Farris-LaBar, an Art and Design professor at East Stroudsburg University, Pennsylvannia, will soon be displaying her work at a number of locations in the U.S and internationally. She took photos of flowers with a macro iPhone lens while hiking in the Swiss mountain range, using these as the basis for her 3D printed replicas.

She has made 60 3D printed flowers, that will be part of an exhibition called A Planet that Dreams at the Eckert Gallery at Performing Arts Center at Millersville. They will also be exhibited at shows in Greece, Brazil and England. Her work was intended to encourage environmental awareness of the Pocono region.

6. 3D printer manufacturer Aleph Objects eyes significant expansion

Based in Colorado, Aleph Objects has been experiencing some impressive growth recently, mostly thanks to its award-winning LulzBot 3D printers. Now the company will be expanding its physical footprint and financial flexibility, with the purchase of a new facility and a $3m line of credit with the Bank of West.

The LulzBot design philosophy was freedom, getting as many people as possible involved in 3D printing and fast prototyping without any limitations on their creativity. It is this that proved to be so popular with customers, and saw Aleph Objects listed as the United States fastest growing privately-held computer hardware company on the 2016 Inc. 500 list. The new building in Loveland, Colorado, is located across the street from scenic Lake Loveland, and has 3 floors over 6,500 square feet. It features a creative studio for content production as well as numerous collaborative spaces. According to Julie Pettit, Aleph Objects R&D Manager, Additional space will increase our efficiency so we can get next generation LulzBot technology in customers hands sooner.

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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Winter storm could mean 7" of snow from Aberdeen, 2.5" for Watertown

The first winter storm of the season is on its way, and that could mean 7 inches of snow for Aberdeen and 2.5 inches of snow in the Watertown area.
Jio employee Vikas Kumar has become the latest victim of online fraud.

Even though technology has made our lives easier but it has come with its share of perils. Nowadays there has been a surge in the number of online financial scams as victims have to incur huge losses on account of it. Many people dont come forward to file complaint as they are unaware about whom to approach. Jio employee Vikas Kumar has become the latest victim of online fraud. His SBI card was cloned and used by juvenile to withdraw a sum of Rs 2,000 but the amount was withdrawn in smaller denominations of Rs 100. The fraud came to light when he received several notifications from bank in real time pertaining to multiple transactions of generating one time passwords and transactions.

When AV spoke to Vikas Kumar he said, Some person is still trying to use my card even though there is no balance available in it. According to me some juvenile is involved in this fraud. Vikas also posted comments on facebook addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he has become a victim of cashless economy and online fraud. He has urged the PM to take this matter seriously. He nonetheless has not filed any police complaint due to minimal amount which has already been siphoned off from his account. During online transaction one time password is needed to complete the transaction and it is sent on the card holders registered mobile number, however the hacker had got access to these multiple one time passwords. Such frauds cannot happen until the banks system and data are not compromised which in his case happens to be State Bank of India. The hacker carried out online transactions through www.helpchat.in (Tapzo App) which provides online gateways for multiple services like Uber, Ola, Zomato, Telecom recharges, Mobikwik, Nearbuy etc, added Vikas.

There are several reported and unreported cases of online fraud. Angelov, who arrived in India on a tourist visa, has been remanded into police custody till April 18. Police have seized a laptop, three mobile phones, three hard disks, eight plastic cards, a pen drive and Rs 59,900 cash from him. He has been booked under sections 419, 420 of the IPC and Information Technology Act. The fraud came to notice after bank officials informed police that on April 1 a credit card had been retained by their ATM machine at Juhu. On scanning the footage of the CCTV installed inside the kiosk, the bank found out that a foreign national had tried to insert that card thrice. The cyber police arrested a 45-year-old Bulgarian national who tried to withdraw money from a Juhu ATM using a cloned credit card. The police said the accused, Milcho Gashev Angelov, is part of a gang that siphons off cash from ATM machines using cloned credit cards. This is not the first time that a foreign national has been arrested in a skimming racket. In 2015, 37 persons, including 14 cops, were duped by a Bulgarian gang in a skimming racket at an ATM outside the police headquarters at Crawford Market.

Akhilesh Singh, deputy commissioner (cyber police) said, The accused may have entered the wrong password thrice and that is why the ATM machine must have retained the card,. We are investigating how many people are involved in this fraud and till now how many accounts have been comprised, he further stated.

Angelov had come to Mumbai a month ago and was staying in a rented apartment in Andheri (east). The gangs modus operandi is to steal credit/debit card data using skimming machines, clone them and later use them to siphon off money, said police.

The accused used to clone cards and then withdraw money. He was living a lavish life. He paid Rs 1.5 lakh as rent for the house. Angelov is currently in police custody till April 17. He has been booked for data theft, impersonation under Section 66C, 66D of Information Technology Act. The police is now searching for a translator to record his statement. Angelov is on an year-long tourist visa to India.
The report card of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath gives his government a good result. People think most effective pronouncement given by him was banning illegal slaughterhouses; exclusion of illegal slaughterhouses was the most successful decision taken by him, anti-Romeo squads was the second most appreciated initiative.

But in actual, unemployment is the biggest problem plaguing the state; law and order bags second position, whereas women safety is in the third position. But nowadays Yogi is too much active in appeasing Muslims and ignoring crucial issues. Though his government offered big relief to farmers waiving farm loans upto Rs 1 lakh interestingly 70per cent farmers of Uttar Pradesh are Muslims. Yogi has taken many swift decisions since he resumed to power. He is trying to cut a development man image for himself on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had catapulted himself to centre from state riding on his developmental work in Gujarat.

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is planning to organise mass wedding of poor girls belonging to religious minorities, in an apparent attempt by the CM to shed his Hindu hardline image. Muslims account for nearly 20 per cent of the States population and a lions share of the benefits under the scheme will go to brides from that community. Besides extending monetary assistance of  20,000 to each bride, the government will bear other expenses for the mass wedding. Initially, it will be a pilot project, and if it receives a good response, the government plans to make it a bi-annual affair.

The idea of mass wedding from minority communities that would include Sikhs and Christians are announced, Hindu voters are still waiting for their share of rewards. Voters of Uttar Pradesh voted for BJP to have staunch Hindutva leader, who can construct Lord Rama temple and do some welfare to community, which was, suppressed all these while by secular and Dalit forces in the state.

Yogi has also promised to provide land for Maulana Azad National Urdu University for its Lucknow campus. Maulana Azad National Urdu University has 11 campuses across the country, but none in UP. Interestingly, there are 48,000 madarsas in Uttar Pradesh that are given financial assistance by the state government but, the ground reality paints a very different picture.

Moreover, CM Adityanath has also given a nod to be the speaker at Taalim-O-Tarbiyat. It is an event organised by Sareshwala to spread awareness on the need for education among the minorities across the country. The event is likely to be held in the third week of May.

In the past few weeks, Yogi Adityanath has been in news for his new style of working. But no one ever thought he would also get in to minority appeasement, many voters are hurt by this gesture of Adityanath, because they aimed at different perspectives for Hindu community.

Before elections, Samajwadi party- Congress and BSP were accused and attacked by BJP and its leaders over minority appeasement. This was strongest allegation by right wing Hindu parties to bring religious polarization in India, to secure majority vote. This is the allegation which Congress party accepted gladly to secure Minority vote, under the pretext of being their sole protector. Congress had been flaunting this allegation as a medal or a proof of their secularism. Secularism is still a very hot topic in India, particularly now when the BJP is in power. Media just tries to exploit the fact that there is huge minority population in India.

Its high time we should accept the fact that every political party appeases minority mollifiers and that includes BJP too. In early 2000s prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made an announcement to appoint 1 lakh Urdu teachers if his party comes back to power in 2004 elections. Congress, SP, BSP, AAP and others do appeasement openly however only difference is BJP does it covertly.

In the name of minority rights the most fanatic political parties in India too is trying to again notch the Indian politics in their divisive communal lines. Voters may not be against Muslims or minorities getting any extraordinary benefits, but they are definitely feeling cheated by BJPs secular avatar. Hope Yogi soon rectifies the need of people and stands tall fulfilling the promises of his voters of majority lobby too.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Sunny. High around 75F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 47F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph.
Chaldean Patriarch: 'Let the Easter Flame Not Be Turned Off in Your Hearts'

The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad, Iraq released his Easter message to the people of Iraq this week, telling them not to let the spirit of Easter be dimmed, despite the suffering they face daily from persecution and terrorism, Vatican radio reported. "Since Christianity means to bear what we are called for in life, I urge Christians in general and the Chaldeans in particular not to allow the above mentioned 'incidents' to frustrate them and turn off the Easter flame in their hearts," Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako wrote in his message. Those "above-mentioned incidents," include, Sako wrote, "heartbreaking attack by terrorists causing serious wounds that cannot be ignored, especially for expelling them from their homes." Sako urged Iraqi Christians to "work efficiently with their fellow Iraqi citizens of different faiths, such as Muslims, Yazidis, Sabian Mandaeans, etc., in confronting the challenges they face together as a nation.

We expect the government officials and religious authorities to embrace [Christians], and do more than routine courtesy and the consideration of the majority and the minority, by releasing a concrete initiative to support their continued existence, as native people of this land; to guarantee their rights as equal citizens; and to treat them as genuine partners in self-determination.

In the midst of the deterioration in the Iraqi security; infrastructure; and economy during the past 14 years, the defeat of ISIS (Daesh, those who brought death, destruction and displacement), and the subsequent triumph of all courageous armed forces in the area has made Iraqis proud and hopeful. Thus, the time has come for politicians to; unite and correct their routes; commit their energies in the right directions to build a modern civil state; integrate into the national identity; and adopt sound economic, social and educational programs.

Finally, in 2017, after all of the genocides, ethnic cleansings, persecutions, abuse, and injustice, representatives of the Turkmens, Assyrians, Yezidis and Shabak peoples are declaring a new coalition to brings their peoples together for the defense of their lives and the assertion of their rights as specified in the constitution of the Republic of Iraq.

"This will ultimately guide people in this country to promote diversity, multiplicity and respect differences within the framework of a completely practiced citizenship and the common rules of moral conduct," Sako wrote. But the spiritual message sent by the Patriarch also addressed political issues, including the successes and failures of the Iraqi government. He said the government has "unfairly made decisions and unjust legislations" that affect Iraqi Christians. Sako wrote:He also noted the success of the government in its fight against radical Islamic terrorism:"So that our country will find its way to a qualitative revival at all levels," Sako wrote. "Then Iraqis will enjoy a more secured and peaceful future of justice, dignity and freedom." Last month, some of Iraq's religious minorities, including the Assyrian Christians and Yazidis, joined forces to urge Baghdad and the global community to let them to establish a semi-autonomous region in northwestern Iraq. David Lazar, chairman of the American Mesopotamian Organization , said in a statement about the development:Sako told Iraqi Christians to "deepen their fidelity to Christianity and to their Church; strengthen their affiliation to their homeland; renew trust and consolidate ties with their fellow citizens of different backgrounds; and to keep in mind that their presence in this land is a sign and a story of a historical existence for 20 Centuries." Sako wrote that the Chaldean Church in Iraq has dedicated 2017 as a year of peace.
April 16, 2017

Is there a Syrian Medvedev? (Part 2)

Maxim Suchkov writes that following the visit of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow this week, the departure of President Bashar al-Assad was and remains a non-starter for Russia. What neither Lavrov nor Putin would probably say to Tillerson, but do expect him to understand, is that Russia has invested so much into Syria now, politically and militarily, that Moscows primary concern is less about Assad than about the principle, power and prestige of maintaining its position. Hence, any plan that might move Moscow from this standing would have to involve some face-saving mechanism that the Kremlin could package as a win-win internationally, and as a 'decision made in Russias best interest' domestically.

This column last week anticipated that there would likely be little movement in the Russian position on Syria, noting that Putin has given top priority to re-establishing Russia as a regional power in the Middle East. His backing of the Syrian government boosted his reputation as a credible partner, and he will be loath to lose face. Putin has absorbed the lessons of 2011, when his government acquiesced in a UN resolution authorizing military intervention in Libya, which led to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafis overthrow.

Suchkov adds, So far, the US vision has been to get Russia on board by offering Moscow an opportunity to 'play a constructive role in the humanitarian and political catastrophe in the Middle East.' That approach misses a critical point in Russian political psychology: The Kremlin believes it has already stepped up as a constructive player to counter the increasingly destructive forces unleashed by the United States. This belief  no matter how uncomfortably it sits with anyone  is not entirely groundless. Many players in the region perceive Russia in this capacity, even if its just for their own political reasons.

Tillersons remark, We do think its important that Assads departure is done in an orderly way  an orderly way  so that certain interests and constituencies that he represents feel they have been represented at the negotiating table for a political solution, is considered by Moscow as a positive outcome, according to Suchkov, because it leaves open the prospect of returning to the political process that was underway for several months before the gas attack and the airstrikes.

The reference to certain interests and constituencies that he [Assad] represents reflects an approach to Syrias transition that Al-Monitor has consistently stressed. In our very first Week in Review column in November 2012 we wrote, Assad is the leader of the Alawites, until the armed Alawites decide otherwise. Simply put, until the Syrian Alawites themselves make a change, they will back Assad. Any initiative that therefore leaves out these same Alawites of Syria, and overlooks the sectarian, local and regional dimensions of the Syrian conflict, is a recipe for diplomatic failure and more deaths among all Syrians.  Until such a time there is a change from within Syrias Alawite community, the conclusion one must reach, is that for now Assad is their leader, for whatever reason.  Discussion of a 'post-Assad' future for Syria solely among the Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul or Doha, absent a role for the Alawites inside Syria  who are presently represented and defended by Assad  will come to naught.

And with regard to Tillersons comment that Russia has the best means of helping Assad recognize this reality [that his reign is 'coming to an end'], it may be worth recalling that in August 2012 we published Is there a Syrian Medvedev? which noted that Putin is not willing to concede Russias influence in Syria and can easily stomach the violence. Russia is more relevant than ever in Syria.  This is not simply about the Russian base in Tartus or arms sales. The strong ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Antioch reflect deep cultural ties that influence the perception of Syria among many Russians. The US diplomatic surge [in Syria] should include new approaches to Moscow, Tehran and Ankara. The objective would be to encourage them to engage Assad to facilitate the emergence of a 'Syrian Medvedev,' a transitional figure acceptable to the regime, the Syrian people and the relevant outside powers, who would allow Assad a face-saving way out.

Qassem: Hezbollah protecting "resistance" axis

In an exclusive interview with Ali Rizk for Al-Monitor, Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah, criticized the US missile attack on Syria and denied that Hezbollah is seeking a permanent presence in Syria.

Hezbollah is currently present in Syria to support our Syrian brothers so that the Syrian resistance will not fall under the mercy of Israel, Qassem told Al-Monitor. As long as we are needed in Syria, we will remain there. When Syrians reach political solutions to save their country, and they no longer need us, we will return home. We do not have any political, military or financial ambitions in Syria. We are fighting there to protect the resistance axis. This does not require our permanent presence there.

Iran sees gain from US strike

Ali Hashem writes that the US missile attack was received in the Iranian capital as a message from Washington to all parties fighting along the forces of Syrias defiant President Bashar al-Assad that the grace period given to all involved in the war-torn country by the United States had come to an end. In fact, the Syrian crisis seemed for a few months to have had some rules of engagement when it comes to major incidents like the one that occurred at the Shayrat air base near Palmyra, but this time the whole scene was a shock, given US President Donald Trumps previous statements with regard to Syria and the region in general. As such, those in Tehran who spoke to Al-Monitor see the missile attack as closer to political maneuvering than a complete change in strategy.

Hashem concludes, Despite the anger in Tehran over the US attack, the Iranians have emerged as the main winners of the latest turn in the Syrian crisis. Once again, Russia has no trusted partner in Syria but Iran, and Tehran is now able to push Moscow to adopt a stronger stance against the US role in the Syrian crisis, meaning that mainly from the Iranian point of view, if such strikes are left without a strong response  even if verbal  they will become a daily or weekly occurrence."

Iraqs mixed messages on Syria

Ali Mamouri explains that Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadrs call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down reflects a mixed and complicated approach to the Syrian conflict by Iraqs Shiite leaders.

Sadrs stance on the Syrian regime is not new, Mamouri writes, as other clerics have criticized the Syrian regime for its atrocities against its own people. They have also criticized Shiite militias for backing Assad in the fight against the Syrian opposition.

Mamouri continues, Many prominent Najaf clerics have never supported the Syrian regime, with some even forbidding their followers to fight in Syria. Four prominent Najaf clergymen  Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Sheikh Ishaq al-Fayyad, Seyed Mohammad Said al-Hakim and Sheikh Bashir al-Najafi  were quoted by Asharq Alawsat as adopting a unified stance in 2013: 'Individuals who go to Syria for jihad are disobeying the commands of religious authorities.' In Qom, no prominent clerics have issued fatwas in support of sending Shiite fighters to Syria.

With the Islamic State (IS) nearly defeated in Iraq, there are growing concerns that Shiite militias from the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) might head to Syria to fight for the Syrian regime. These militias have not only been strengthened by their experience fighting IS, they now have a legal standing under the PMU law passed in November 2016. Shiite PMU factions have long voiced their readiness to take the fight to Syria as soon as possible. The factions calling for going to Syria are directly affiliated with Iran, as is the case with Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Saraya al-Khorasani, who maintain a military presence in both Iraq and Syria. These factions constantly reiterate their intention to step up their presence in post-IS Syria. On March 8, Harakat al-Nujaba announced its plan to form a special military force in Syria.

Sistani has issued a fatwa to prevent the PMU from operating outside Iraq, and outside Iraqi government control. The restrictions put Iran-affiliated factions in a difficult position, as they were looking forward to stepping up their presence in Syria independently of the Iraqi government. Recalling the backdrop against which the PMU was established  the fall of Mosul into IS' hands  Sistani is now pulling the rug of legitimacy from under the feet of Iran-affiliated factions.  Sistani and Sadrs positions are intended to support [Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-] Abadi in curbing Iran-affiliated factions and establishing stability in post-IS Iraq and protect it from regional tensions and the US-Iranian conflict, Mamouri adds.
April 13, 2017

An Egyptian online platform is offering on-demand booking of home cleaners with the aim of digitizing the market for household services as well as minimizing the possibility of mistreatment and abuse of domestic and foreign workers by homeowners.

MerMaid, a startup that was launched in July 2016, provides a location-based service that allows customers to find home cleaners in a few clicks.

Our mission is to make cleaning services conveniently accessible to Egyptian households. With MerMaid, finding a cleaner takes only a few clicks, MerMaid founder Gehad Abdullah, 27, told Al-Monitor.

Abdullah added that MerMaid puts home cleaning in the hands of every Egyptian and helps migrants and refugees find a dignified job.

Abdullahs startup was incubated by American University in Cairos Venture Lab last year and was selected this year to participate in RiseUp Explores trip to Berlins Tech Open Air conference in July.

The launch signals the beginning of a new trend in Egyptian e-commerce  that of the home-services boom. Customers can log on to MerMaids platform and book their appointments by entering a location, choosing a date and time, and paying securely through a company that collects the money after the service is concluded.

MerMaid has also partnered with an insurance company that secures the propertys values from theft. The startup also offers subscription models for people who want to have the same maid come every week.

The service starts at a rate of 200 Egyptian pounds ($11), which changes according to the size of the apartment and the number of rooms. Using technology, MerMaid matches customers with local cleaners. Customers are also able to re-book their favorite cleaners even faster with their preferences saved.

MerMaid now operates in three upscale Cairo districts: Maadi, Zamalek and Mohandessin. The startup, which has a network of 25 cleaners who are mostly migrants and refugees, plans to expand the service to other parts across the country, Abdullah said.

The young entrepreneur added that her startup acts as a middleman between homeowners and domestic or foreign workers  a matter that helps prevent mistreatment and abuse in the workplace. Actually, the timeframe of cleaning a home mitigates the chances of any kind of abuse. It is highly unlikely that a home cleaner will get sexually or verbally abused during their work mission spanning over three or four hours at maximum, she noted.

Abdullah added that the home cleaner and the homeowner both give a rating to each other after the service is done. This also ensures a high-quality service and allows us to know what our clients and home cleaners need and dislike, she said.

In Egypt, there were 187,838 registered refugees and asylum seekers of more than 50 different nationalities by the end of August 2016, according to data released by the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

In Egypt, domestic work is the only type of employment available to the majority of foreign migrants since the Egyptian Labor Law does not allow non-Egyptians to work as employees in Egyptian companies or institutions. The work has also proved to be a crucial source of income for their survival. It has also resulted in more work for women who have become the main breadwinners for their families. Local agencies in Cairo, which usually offer meager salaries, operate to place migrants, refugees and Egyptians into domestic work.

According to a 2007 survey conducted by the Development Research Center of the University of Sussex on migrant and refugee domestic workers in Egypt, 59% of those surveyed said that they had been yelled at, 27% said they had been physically abused and 10% complained about sexual harassment.

However, significant gains have been made in the fight to protect domestic workers in the Arab world. The International Labor Organizations 2011 Domestic Workers Convention No. 189, which establishes basic rights for domestic workers, was passed with strong support, including from Arab delegates. On the anti-trafficking efforts, countries from the Middle East and North Africa region, including Egypt, have ratified the UN protocol to suppress and combat trafficking in people.

In 2010, the Arab League also endorsed a strategy to combat trafficking and have since implemented an anti-trafficking law. Nonetheless, legal coverage and enforcement remain challenges and much more work needs to be done on this front.

Tiara Martinez, one of MerMaids customers, said that such startups turn household services into a formal sector and seek to change the way people treat maids or cleaners in Egypt.

The sector is very informal and vulnerable. Moreover, many people in Egypt do not treat maids or cleaners as normal employees although they are people who work. What is interesting about MerMaid is that it tries to change that, Martinez, a 27-year-old American entrepreneur and homeowner, told Al-Monitor.

Martinez also said that what has encouraged her to use the MerMaid service is that the company trains the maids on how to clean, to be punctual and how to treat their customers.

Our vision is that it is not bad to be a home cleaner and it is not the right of the homeowner to abuse the cleaner in any way, Abdullah said. We seek to change that culture and set a model for society and the cleaning agencies here on how we treat our domestic workers and how we create a suitable work environment for them, she added.
April 12, 2017

NABLUS, West Bank  Five friends were hanging out in a cafe and came up with an idea that would be profitable and fun at the same time. One of them asked jokingly, Why dont we organize tours on donkey back? At first his friends scoffed at him, but the next day they realized and agreed that it was a brilliant idea.

The five friends, who are from the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, are final year students at An-Najah National University. Four of them are majoring in engineering and the fifth in veterinary medicine. They began to raise money to buy donkeys. Each contributed 1,000 Israeli shekels ($274) to buy five donkeys.

They launched Donkey Tours in mid-February 2017. The first of its kind in the city of Nablus, Donkey Tours allows people to tour the city on the back of a donkey.

Dating back 3,000 years, Sebastia is seen as one of the most important archaeological towns in Nablus governorate and the largest archaeological site in Palestine. It is also home to ancient Roman ruins.

Given its historical archaeological significance, the town lies within the borders of Area C, which is administratively and legally controlled by Israel under the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles (Oslo Accord).

Yazan Kayd, a Palestinian activist and one of the people behind the Donkey Tours initiative, told Al-Monitor, At first, people in the town of Sebastia found the initiative to be a little peculiar, but later decided to give it a try. We chose the donkey because it was the means of transportation in the Palestinian countryside.

In the past, our grandfathers used to ride on donkeys, and today this animal is rarely used by Palestinian farmers. This is why we decided to use donkeys in our tours given the historical link of this animal to the land of our ancestors, he added.

Now the group has 16 donkeys.

The first tour that took off in mid-February included four people from the town. However, in the most recent tour on April 7, the number of participating people reached 14, mostly tourists from outside the town.

Kayd said that tours are organized on Fridays and Saturdays once a day, noting that every tour is a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) ride that takes up to seven hours.

The tour starts from the town of Sebastia, through the streets of Columns, the Massoudieh area, which was previously an Ottoman railway, and ends in one of the natural valleys, he said.

The tour costs 75 shekels ($20) per person and includes a ride from the city of Nablus to Sebastia and breakfast.

During the tour, the business owners promote positive ideas such as encouraging their customers to preserve the environment and animal welfare.

People have this misconception that animals need to be beaten to move forward. We try to dispel this misunderstanding and tell them that donkeys need to be treated gently without a stick, Mufid al-Haj, one of the five young men behind the idea, told Al-Monitor.

He said that they are also keen on supporting national products by offering a Palestinian breakfast. Our tour includes a breakfast prepared on firewood, which is part of the customs and heritage of the Palestinian families who used to dwell in the countryside, he said.

Haj also said that Sebastia is neglected in terms of preserving the towns heritage. We focus on the towns heritage during our tour, raising awareness and knowledge of the towns historical and archaeological sites, Haj said.

He added that the group started their own Facebook page to promote their initiative, noting that it was well-received by the public, given the increased number of families participating in the tour.

As summer approaches, the Donkey Tour organizers are planning camping trips during the tour so as to not walk under the scorching sun during the day.

The Donkey Tour initiative is a youth initiative that promotes the culture of sightseeing and the sense of belonging to the land and to increase the peoples steadfastness in Palestine.

The originators of the idea did not receive any support from the government or any other institutions. They rely on self-funding, and the proceeds they receive are from tourists. They are now working on extending the tour to reach neighboring towns and villages.
Easter vigil.PNG

Parishioners hold candles during the Easter Vigil on April 15, 2017, at Holy Infant of Prague Catholic Church in Trussville, Ala.

(Photo by Greg Garrison/AL.com)

"Descent to Hell," painted by Duccio, 1308-1311 A.D.

During the Easter vigil, Christians anticipate the resurrection with the lighting of candles.

But between the crucifixion and the resurrection, where was Jesus?

After Jesus was crucified, did he "Descend into Hell," as millions of Christians recite during weekly church services in The Apostles' Creed?

Nearly 2,000 years of Christian tradition and a scriptural reference in 1 Peter 3:19-20 make the case:

"After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits - to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built." (New International Version)

The "harrowing of hell" refers to what Christ did when he descended to Hades or hell between his death and his resurrection. The early church believed that after his death Christ descended into hell in order to rescue the souls of the righteous, such as Adam and Eve. Jesus descends and breaks down the doors of hell, unbinds the prisoners and leads the just to heaven.

In ancient paintings from the Eastern Orthodox Church, and in similar icons still used in Greek and Russian Orthodox churches now, the art depicts Christ standing over the broken gates of hell, angels binding Satan and Satan crushed under the gates of hell, while Christ pulls out two figures representing Adam and Eve who have been imprisoned because of sin.

The Apostles' Creed

An early version of the Apostles' Creed, the Interrogatory Creed of Hippolytus from about 215 A.D., refers to Christ's descent to the dead.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead (or "he descended into hell" or "hades" depending on the translation). On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Here are some more Bible verses that relate:

1 Peter 4

6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, that though judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the spirit like God.



Acts 2.27, 31

because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay.... Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.



Ephesians 4

8 Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men." 9 (In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)



Revelation 1

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades."

What is Hell?

Human ideas about hell were still in ferment as the Bible was being written. The theological concept of hell has a rich cultural heritage, according to historian Alan Bernstein, author of "The Formation of Hell."

The ancient Hebrews focused on the afterlife following their Babylonian captivity, when they experienced the torment of ungodly enemies who seemed to have an unjustifiably good life on Earth. During the Babylonian exile, Jews were exposed to Zoroastrianism, which asserts there is an eternal struggle between good and evil, with good triumphing in the end.

The Hebrew concept of "Sheol" -- the realm of the dead -- may also have been influenced by the Greek mythology of Tartarus, a place of everlasting punishment for the Titans, a race of gods defeated by Zeus, Bernstein writes.

From about 300 B.C. to 300 A.D., those influences combined with Hebrew speculation about an eventual comeuppance to the worldly wicked.

In translating the Bible from Hebrew to Greek, the Greeks used the terms Tartarus, Hades and Gehenna. In Greek thought, Hades is not a place of punishment; it's where the dead are separated from the living.

The term Gehenna referred to a ravine outside Jerusalem that was used as a garbage dump. It had once been a place of child sacrifice and became a symbol of pain and suffering. As a garbage dump, it was probably often a place of fire as trash was burned, emphasizing the symbolism of the flames of eternal damnation.

The Bible contains a litany of colorful images of hell as both fire and darkness, as in the Gospel of Matthew, which refers to "the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" and "the outer darkness" where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."

In Revelation 20:14, it is described as a lake of fire: "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire."
Former Miss Alabama Catherine Crosby Long plans to give her children Easter baskets this morning filled with candy, but also religious books.

This Easter Sunday morning, former Miss Alabama Catherine Crosby Long will give her two children Easter baskets filled with candy, toys and eggs.

"The Easter bunny will come," said Catherine, an attorney and business litigator in Birmingham.

Her older son, Franklin, 7, will have a youth Bible tucked in amidst the candy. Her younger son, Crosby, 5, will have an illustrated book about Jesus.

"We try to help them remember that Easter is not really about the Easter bunny and all the candy," she said. "It's far more important than that."

Christians across Alabama and all over the world on Sunday will proclaim, "He is risen!" and celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus.

"I don't know that they fully understand yet," Catherine said of her children. "They know they're going to see their extended family. They understand we're celebrating something."

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Church of the Holy Nativity in Huntsville has three services on Easter morning, with an Easter egg hunt for children on the church grounds following the 8:45 a.m. service. The eggs are considered a sign of new life.

"For us as followers of Jesus Christ the central message is that Jesus was raised, and so we will also be raised," said the Rev. Bonnie Mixon McCrickard, associate rector of the Church of the Nativity in Huntsville.

The observance begins on Saturday night with an Easter vigil.

"The service begins in complete darkness," said Bonnie, who was born and raised in Huntsville. "We bring in the new flame that signifies new life, and say, 'Alleluia, Christ is risen!'"

The Rev. Bonnie McCrickard, associate rector of Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, plans to give her mother flowers on Easter Sunday morning.

Bonnie will bring a spring mix of flowers to her mother on Easter Sunday morning.

"I get my mother some lovely flowers," Bonnie said. "My mother and I are both allergic to lilies."

The display of Easter flowers continues a tradition that goes back to her childhood.

"My dad always buys my mom a corsage for Easter," Bonnie said. "When I was a girl he used to buy me one. Now my husband buys me a corsage."

The church will likely be filled for all three services on Easter, and many of the families will have already started the morning with Easter baskets for their children.

"It is sort of funny watching parents worry about messing up their Easter outfits by getting into the candy," Bonnie said. "The chocolate's going to melt."

Easter is a fragrant mix of the secular and the sacred.

"I think children are able to accept that there's mystery in life, that adults sometimes forget how to do," Bonnie said. "There's candy and the Easter bunny and flowers and excitement. There's also something holy and unique. It doesn't have to be a dichotomy."

The Long family will leave early on Sunday and drive from Birmingham to Brewton in South Alabama, where Catherine grew up. The family will wear their Easter finest. Her husband, Frank, has a suit for the occasion.

"My husband has a seersucker suit that he doesn't often wear," Catherine said. "He's from Mobile and they wear a lot of seersucker. He will definitely sport it on Easter."

Catherine will wear her green Easter dress. The boys will wear dress shirts, perhaps augmented with a bow tie. They'll attend the Easter Sunday worship service at the First United Methodist Church of Brewton, along with her parents.

"It's definitely always one of the most well-attended services," Catherine said.

Last year, when the pastor asked the children to come to the front of the church for the children's lesson, her youngest son ran down and sat in the pastor's lap.

The sermon for grown-ups was about redemption.

Alabama could use some of that this week. It's been a tough Holy Week, with former Gov. Robert Bentley resigning and Gov. Kay Ivey taking over the office.

"This Easter week I'm even more grateful for a loving and merciful savior who will always love me - and you - unconditionally," Bentley said as he resigned.

Across Alabama, there will be much joy this Easter, with little concern for politics.

There's joy in Brewton. Catherine's sister had a baby this past week.

Hiding Easter eggs

Easter in Alabama is about family, spring, renewal and redemption.

After church, the family will gather for lunch.

"We always have ham, deviled eggs and potato salad," Catherine said. "The older cousins hide Easter eggs for the young ones."

Easter eggs colored and decorated on Good Friday will be hidden on Easter for the children to find.

One time, when it rained, they hid the Easter eggs in the house. That turned out to be a hard-boiled lesson.

"Not all of them were found," Catherine said. "We never hid them in the house again."
Cathedral of the Cross

Carnival rides sit idle next to the Cathedral of the Cross A.O.H. Church of God Sunday, April 16, 2017.

(William Thornton / wthornton@al.com)

Under a beautiful blue sky this morning, members of Cathedral of the Cross A.O.H. Church of God arrived for Easter Sunday services thankful that a shooting incident the night before at a carnival adjoining the church wasn't worse.

Four young people -- three teenagers and a baby -- were injured by gunfire Saturday night at a festival at the church off Center Point Parkway. A pregnant woman was also taken to the hospital for minor injuries she received when she was knocked to the ground by people fleeing gunfire. The injuries were described as non-life threatening.

The shooting happened just before 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

The festival organizers, in a statement, said the carnival would be closed today "in the best interest of all parties involved." The carnival was not affiliated with the church.

"The community's faithful support of our event means a lot to us, and we want the public to know that we are doing everything possible to ensure that families' safety is preserved and remains our top priority," the statement read.

Demarcus Betsey and his wife Brenda arrived shortly before 11 a.m., with Brenda ready to sing in the choir. The couple, who have been members at the church for about five years, said they were unaware of what had happened.

"We had no idea," Demarcus said, clearly shaken. "I'm just glad there weren't any fatalities. It's just so sad. You think a family should be able to go out and enjoy themselves."

Five people were taken into custody following the incident Saturday night, authorities said.

Center Point Fire Chief Donnie West said the shooting victims were three teenagers and a child under the age of one. The older three victims were taken to UAB Hospital, the youngest Children's of Alabama.

On Saturday night, roughly 60 Birmingham police and Jefferson County deputies and 35 firefighters went to the scene, responding to reports of a mass casualty event. Approximately 900 people were at the carnival at the time - 800 inside the event and 100 waiting in line to get in.

Authorities said it appeared a fight broke out inside the carnival, and gunfire followed. It wasn't immediately clear how many people were shooting.

The Spring Carnival Extravaganza, now in its 10th year, began April 12. Organizers called the shooting "a senseless act of violence," saying it "took every safety precaution made available to us."

Organizers said the event planners hired sheriff's deputies and private security, installed fencing around the rides, provided additional lighting, had search and seizure procedures and posted signs reading, "No weapons of any kind allowed." They thanked deputies, police and fire and rescue responders who quickly descended on the carnival Saturday night.

Still, the news shook members who came to celebrate this morning to celebrate Easter.

"I hope it doesn't end the carnival," Brenda Betsey said. "It's terrible that you can't go anywhere any more without something happening."
Update:





Original story:

Four young people -- three teenagers and a baby -- were injured by gunfire Saturday night at a festival at Cathedral of the Cross A.O.H. Church of God on Center Point Parkway, authorities said.

Chief Deputy Randy Christian of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said the injuries were non-life threatening. A pregnant woman was also taken to the hospital for minor injuries she received when she was knocked to the ground by people running from the gunfire. The shooting happened just before 9:30 p.m. A 10-year-old was briefly missing but was later found unharmed at a nearby restaurant.

Five people have been taken into custody for questioning, Christian said.

Center Point Fire Chief Donnie West said the shooting victims were three teenagers and a child under the age of one. The older three victims were taken to UAB Hospital, the youngest Children's of Alabama.

Approximately 900 people were at the carnival at the time - 800 inside the event and 100 waiting in line to get in. Authorities said it appeared a fight broke out inside the carnival, and gunfire followed. It wasn't immediately clear how many people were shooting.

Felicia Stubbs was at the carnival with four of her children when the shots rang out. "I panicked. I couldn't breathe," Stubbs said. "I saw my 5-year-old and then I didn't. You either jumped the fence or you got shot. I just thank the Lord Jesus Christ that we're still here."

Stubbs said a man knocked down a portion of the fence, and people escaped through that opening. "We were all running," she said. "I could have lost my kids and my life."

Roughly 60 Birmingham police and Jefferson County deputies and 35 firefighters went to the scene.

The shooting happened during the 10th annual Spring Carnival extravaganza. The event began Wednesday and was set to run through Easter Sunday.

"It is kind of shocking because we have had festivals for 15 years ever since we have been a city and never had anything occur. It was a shock," Center Point Mayor Tom Henderson said.

The initial information from dispatch was that there were mass casualties and active shooters- possibly up to three people firing guns. There were deputies working off-duty jobs at the carnival, and Chief West said they were able to capture some of those now undergoing questioning. He described the scene as "mass chaos."

"This could have been extremely bad," West said.

He said the response went well. "We train for mass casualties," West said. "We were trying to triage the victims...and get them to the hospital as soon as possible."

Stubbs, who lives just across the street, said she's attended the festival before and there have never been any major problems. "I'm trying to see how they got a gun in there. Who shoots on church grounds?" she said. "It's so sad. And it's ridiculous."

Efforts to reach organizers for comment were unsuccessful.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

AL.com reporter Erin Edgemon contributed to this report.
A 10-hour standoff ended peacefully Saturday night after an Lauderdale County inmate on the run since April 7 turned himself in.

WHNT-19 is reporting that Christopher Wayne Kilpatrick, 43, gave up after staying inside a building off Cloverdale Road near Florence.

Police surrounded the address near Florence Saturday after receiving a report that Kilpatrick was in the area, Sheriff Rick Singleton said. A deputy spotted a stolen Toyota Tacoma pickup truck out of Tennessee at the address, and Kilpatrick was suspected to be traveling in the vehicle.

Lauderdale County officials shut down the roadways in the area. Multiple law enforcement agencies responded.

After several hours, Kilpatrick turned himself in peacefully. He escaped on April 7 from the Lauderdale County Detention Center.
With little attention, President Donald Trump's administration has been quietly loosening firearms restrictions in the United States after successfully seeking the support of gun owners on the campaign trail.

His agencies narrowed the definition of "fugitive," a change that cuts the number of people who'll be included in a database designed to keep firearms from people who are barred from owning them.

Federal officials have also signaled that they may no longer defend the Army Corps of Engineers' ban on carrying loaded firearms and ammunition on federal lands.

Trump signed a bill behind closed doors that killed an Obama-era regulation that required the government to add to the no-buy list people whom the Social Security Administration has deemed eligible for mental disability payments. He signed another one that lifted restrictions on hunting on federal lands in Alaska.

With Republicans in control of the White House and Congress, gun rights groups are on the offensive for the first time in years, aggressively looking to push a series of new laws on Capitol Hill and regulations in various federal agencies to ease restrictions.

"All of these things considered in isolation may not be a big deal," said Chelsea Parsons, vice president of guns and crime policy for the left-leaning Center for American Progress. "But what is the overall goal, keeping in mind the extreme investments made by the NRA?"

The National Rifle Association was a strong backer of Trump from the start, unlike most traditional conservative organizations, many of which were leery of the brash businessman-turned-reality-TV-host and political novice. It endorsed him earlier than it had other candidates in previous years and became one of his top donors, with $30 million in contributions and TV ads that targeted his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

"Ultimately you judge a politician on whether he or she keeps their promises that they made during the campaign," said Chris Cox, chief lobbyist and principal political strategist for the Institute for Legislative Action, the NRA's lobbying arm. "NRA members and supporters across this country are very pleased with what we've seen out of this administration so far. But there is still a lot of work to do."

Before he hit the campaign trail, Trump, who says he doesn't hunt but does own a gun, had come out in favor of a waiting period for gun purchases and a ban on assault weapons. But after he entered the race, he changed his views, speaking forcefully on behalf of gun rights regularly as he found support in many rural pockets of the country.

"We're gravely concerned and have been all along ... to the extent he was making himself beholden to the corporate gun lobby," said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "He is looking to pay them back."

Trump has already rescinded 13 Obama-era regulations through the rarely invoked Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers and a new president to reverse regulations imposed recently by a previous president. Two of those reversals were related to firearms -- those involving the Social Security Administration and hunting on federal lands in Alaska.

"We inherited, this administration did, the biggest regulatory burden, we believe, of any president in American history," said Marc Short, director of legislative affairs for the White House. "We believe this is fulfilling a campaign promise."

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives referred questions to the FBI, which referred questions to the Justice Department, as did the White House. Justice and the Army Corps of Engineers did not respond to questions for comments.

Gun rights groups have a pair of bills they are pushing in Congress this year: allowing Americans to carry concealed firearms from state to state -- bypassing a confusing patchwork of laws -- and making it easier and cheaper to purchase silencers. But while those fights will play out in front of cameras on Capitol Hill, others worry about what is being done behind the scenes.

Trump quickly nominated a trio of leaders that gun rights groups supported: Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. By far and away, the NRA's most important goal was to help secure an acceptable Supreme Court nominee.

On his first day as interior secretary, Zinke canceled a ban on the use of lead ammunition on federal lands -- leading some to worry that the lead could be ingested by birds -- and directed all agencies managing federal lands to identify areas where hunting could be expanded.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which controls 12 million acres of land around lakes and rivers, allows hunting in some of the areas it controls. But it's banned carrying loaded firearms and ammunition on its lands since the 1970s. Courts have disagreed on whether the ban violates the Second Amendment.

The NRA has long advocated that those federal lands be treated the same as national parks, where some guns are allowed or where state gun laws apply. Last year, it supported a bill that would have allowed gun owners to carry firearms on Army Corps of Engineers land.

Last month, the Army Corps of Engineers signaled that it was considering dropping its gun ban in a case now before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals involving a Georgia couple who objected to the ban. "The Army Corps of Engineers is reconsidering the firearm policy challenged in this case, as well as plaintiff's requests for permission to carry firearms on Army Corps property," the Army Corps of Engineers argued in a motion asking that the couple's case be moved to mediation.

And in February, the Justice Department resolved a long-standing dispute between the FBI and the ATF about who should be called a fugitive -- and be barred from buying a firearm.

The ATF considers a fugitive to be anyone subject to an arrest warrant who crossed state lines to avoid arrest. The FBI had a broader definition, describing a fugitive as anyone who'd left the city or county where the warrant had been issued.

In a Feb. 15 memorandum, the FBI agreed to adopt the narrower definition, saying a person must have fled the state to avoid imminent prosecution or court testimony to be considered a fugitive. The NRA did not weigh in on the issue.

Gun control advocates are bracing for Trump to appoint a new head of the ATF, fearful that he'll pick Ron Turk, the ATF's associate deputy director and chief operating officer. Critics say Turk managed the agency at a time it was involved in a series of botched sting operations and that he wrote a controversial memo that closely tracked gun rights groups' priorities, including studying whether the ban on imported assault weapons should be lifted.

"We've been reluctant to discuss some of these things for years in ATF, and I think that's not healthy," Turk said at a congressional hearing April 4 about his January memo. "It's important for our staff to be able to totally discuss the entire broad range of gun regulatory issues."

Article written by McClatchy Washington Bureau reporter Anita Kumar.
The decomposing body of a man was found face down in a pond in Pike County near Brundidge on Saturday.

Brundidge Police Chief Moses Davenport said the body was discovered in the water in a wooded area off County Road 3310 about 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

The landowner and his son had gone to the area to fish when they found the body in the water.

The identity and cause of death of the man has not yet been determined. The body has been sent off to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy.

Anyone with information regarding the investigation is asked to call the Brundidge Police Department at 334-735-3333.
Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

Alabama's Best State Parks

Alabama's Best State Parks

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What a wonderful journey

What an incredible journey! Getting to see all of the beauty and splendor of Alabama's 21 state parks is a dream come true for an outdoors lover. I traveled by car and motorhome over 2,300 miles in September and had a chance to see these amazing state parks through the eyes of those that know them best, the rangers, managers and superintendents. These folks showed me not only the wonder of nature protected in these state parks, but their love and devotion to them. Here is a link to the collection of Alabama State Parks I visited.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

My top 10 favorite state parks

This was tough to narrow down. Each of Alabama's 21 state parks has a charm and identity that needs to be explored. Naturally I have a few favorites that would probably be on most folks' lists. But, this took some time. There are several state parks, not on this list, that I will definitely revisit soon. I finally asked myself this question: What state parks would I recommend to a person who has never visited any of them? So, here we go!

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

10. Wind Creek State Park

Wind Creek State Park encompasses 1,445 acres that hug the shoreline of beautiful Lake Martin, making the park an angler's paradise. Crappie, bluegill and striped bass are just a few of the species the lake has to offer. 586 campsites makes this one of the largest campgrounds in the state park system.

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What I loved about it

The campground is one of the best I visited, with concrete pads, 50 amp. power, sewer and cable. The gorgeous views of Lake Martin surround the campground. I saw lots of wildlife and the fishing is fantastic!

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What to do

Visitors can launch a boat at the marina and see Lake Martin. The beach area offers a nice place to cool off and the pavilions offer a place for large gatherings. A visit to the Nature Center offers an up-close look at live critters. The camping is second to none. Here is a link to more info about Wind Creek State Park.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

9. Meaher State Park

Meaher State Park sits on 1,327 acres of the northern edge of Mobile Bay in Spanish Fort, Alabama. Nice RV campground, day use area, and access to thousands of acres of public waters on Mobile Bay and the Mobile-Tensaw Delta for boating, hunting and fishing.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What I loved about it

Meaher State Park is a cool little park that offers a retreat into nature in the shadow of the Mobile skyline. Once I entered the front gate I was immersed in natural beauty. The campground and fishing pier are within easy walking distance. In fact, you can walk anywhere in the park in less than 5 minutes. The boardwalk is a great way to see the natural beauty of the area, including alligators! And the sunsets are incredible!

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What to do

Camping at modern campsites right on the water is a huge draw for me. Also visitors can take a nature walk on the boardwalk. The fishing pier is a great place to catch fish and view incredible sunsets. There are two well appointed cabins and primitive camping as well. Here is more info about Meaher State Park.

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8. Oak Mountain State Park

Oak Mountain State Park is located in Pelham, Alabama near I-65 in Shelby County. The park is one of the most visited parks in Alabama. Pristine lakes offer boating, fishing and swimming, and the mountain views are breathtaking.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What I loved about it

Oak Mountain State Park is a great place to get away from the big city. The park is one of the most visited in the state due to its proximity to Birmingham and Hoover. I am very familiar with this park and have always enjoyed going there to just relax. The serenity of the lakes and woodlands and the spectacular autumn colors always draw me in.

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What to do

Oak Mountain State Park has so much to offer. From championship golf to horse riding, hiking and swimming, the park has something for everyone. The park is also a great place to see wildlife. Bird watchers flock to the park during migrations. The demonstration farm is a favorite for children and school groups. The new archery park is a favorite for bow hunters. BMX biking riding is growing in popularity with two riding tracks.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

7. DeSoto State Park

Continuing in the rustic tradition of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), mountainous DeSoto State Park is nestled atop beautiful Lookout Mountain in scenic Northeast Alabama and accented by many rushing waterfalls and fragrant wildflowers. Located in Fort Payne in DeKalb County, the park encompasses 3,500 acres.

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What I loved about it

One of the most beautiful places in the fall is Desoto State Park Falls. During autumn the park explodes with color from native hardwoods. It is such a peaceful place. One of my favorite places is the Talmadge Butler Boardwalk that ends at Azalea Cascade. It is an easy walk and well worth a visit.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What to do

DeSoto State Park Falls is the centerpiece of the park but there is lots more to do. The park offers a modern campground, cabins, chalets and primitive camping if you want to spend more than a day. The boardwalk to Azalea Cascade is a must see in spring and fall. The falls overlook is a great place for a picnic. Here is a complete look at DeSoto State Park.

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6. Cheaha State Park

Located at 19644 Highway 281 in Delta, Alabama, Cheaha State Park is the home to Alabama's highest point, 2,407 feet above sea level. The park has 2,799 acres with campground, lodge, restaurant, lake and many hiking trails. It was Alabama's first state park.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What I loved about it

The views! Majestic mountain vistas almost everywhere I looked. The park was built in the 1930's mostly by the Civilian Conservation Corps. and the stone work around the park is amazing. The hike to Bald Rock is one of the my favorite memories of my visit. The view from the swimming pool at the lodge and restaurant is stunning at sunset.

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What to do

The beautiful vistas at Alabama's highest point is the main reason to visit Cheaha State Park but there is lots more to do and see. The Bald Road Boardwalk hike is amazing! I can't wait to see it this autumn. There are two campgrounds at the park as well as a mountain top lodge and primitive camping. While visiting the highest point, check out the CCC Museum. A trip to Cheaha isn't complete without dining at the Cheaha Restaurant with a breathtaking view of the Talladega National Forest.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

5. Cathedral Caverns State Park

Cathedral Caverns State Park encompasses 461 acres. Originally called Bat Cave, Cathedral Caverns was opened to the public by Jacob Gurley in the 1950s. The cave was renamed because of its cathedral-like appearance. Purchased by the state in 1987, it was opened as a State Park in the summer of 2000. The park is located in Woodville, Alabama. The caverns tour travels over 3/4 mile.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What I loved about it

Cathedral Caverns is a subterranean wonderland. I visited the caverns on a 95 day. It was refreshing when we entered the cave and were greeted with a constant temperature of 59. The cave is now being outfitted with LED lighting and wow, what an improvement! The tour is awe inspiring! It is an easy walk with only a few elevation changes. The tour guides are very informative. It is a place you must visit.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What to do

The cave tour is the centerpiece of any visit to Cathedral Caverns State Park. But there are other things to do. The park has an RV campsite and a nicely shaded primitive camping area. There are pavilions for picnics and gem stone mining for the kids. Snacks and souvenirs are available at the welcome center.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

4. Lakepoint State Park

Lakepoint Resort State Park is located on the banks of the 45,000-acre Lake Eufaula, also known as "The Bass Capital of the World." Lakepoint offers a variety of amenities such as a full service restaurant and lounge, marina, hiking trails, modern campground, swimming complex, tennis courts and playgrounds. The park sits on 1,220 acres near Eufaula, Alabama.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What I loved about it

Beautiful sunsets and quiet serenity is what I love about Lakepoint State Park. Lake views from the lodge and restaurant are stunning and the campground is shady and inviting. It was also fun to watch the alligators in their natural habit. Wildlife abounds at Lakepoint and can be easily viewed also anywhere.

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What to do

There is lots to do at Lakepoint State Park. Lake Eufaula is known for world class freshwater fishing and the park offers boat launches and a marina to take advantage of the lake. The Waters Edge Restaurant has an extensive menu of fine food and the lodge and conference center has the space to accommodate large groups and weddings. The campground offers full hook-ups in a restful setting with water views. A beautiful pool and playground are near the cottages and cabins.

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3. Joe Wheeler State Park

Joe Wheeler State Park is nestled on 2,400 acres along the Tennessee River. The park touches Lauderdale, Limestone and Lawrence counties. Overnight accommodations, golf course, marina, day use area, and access to thousands of acres of public waters on Wheeler Reservoir for boating, swimming and fishing.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What I loved about it

Joe Wheeler State Park offers amazing views of the Tennessee River and all that the river has to offer. The views from the lodge, marina and day use area are breathtaking. The food at the lodge restaurant was amazing. I saw deer on my drive into the park at mid-day and constantly saw wildlife through the park during my stay. Sunsets in the day use area are incredible.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What to do

Joe Wheeler State Park offers tremendous fishing and boating opportunities. The marina is one of the finest in the state. The golf course is a beautiful design and not far from the lodge. Disc golf is also available. The campground is spacious and quiet with views of the lake. The park offers several pavilions for large group gathering and picnics. There are lakeside cottages and cabins as well as primitive camping. The beach is a favorite place during summer months and the lodge pool offers water views. The park also has miles of well maintained hiking trails.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

2. Lake Guntersville State Park

Lake Guntersville State Park encompasses 6,000 acres in Guntersville, Alabama. The park features stunning views of Lake Guntersville from the lodge and surrounding overlooks. World class fishing, boating, golf and 36 miles of hiking trails make this one of my favorite state parks. the park also boasts a very healthy bald eagle population which draws thousands of visitors every year.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What I loved about it

Guntersville State Park is truly one of my favorites! I grew up in the mountains and this place reminds me of my childhood. It is a great place to get away and unwind. The amazing vistas of Lake Guntersville from the park lodge are truly breathtaking. The lodge is a great place to view spectacular sunsets and fall foliage. The park is teeming with wildlife and has one of the largest bald eagle populations in the state. It is just a wonderful place to visit. I recommend this park to anyone that asks me about Alabama State Parks. It is always on my short list of places people need to visit.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What to do

Lake Guntersville State Park has so much to offer. Fine dining, comfortable accommodations at the lodge, fishing, hiking and great places to camp out. the park has a challenging, well kept golf course within walking distance of the lodge. If you want to stay awhile, the park has a wonderful lakefront campground with full hook-ups , cabins, and chalets. The is also primitive tent camping. If you want to take a swim, the beach is a popular place and the lodge pool offers an amazing mountaintop view of Lake Guntersville. The lodge overlook is a great place to watch sunsets and see the fall foliage.

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1. Gulf State Park

Gulf State Park encompasses 6,150 acres on Alabama's beautiful Gulf Coast in Baldwin County. Overnight accommodations, extensive recreational trails, golf course, three interior lakes and access to thousands of acres of public waters on the Gulf of Mexico for boating, swimming and fishing, three miles of beaches, beach pavilion, educational pier on beach providing interpretive programs and improved recreational access to coastal waters, and zip line concession.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What I loved about it

Gulf State Park is a lot like the Gulf Coast in general: it is a state of mind. The park is one of the most visited vacation destinations in Alabama and visitors, including me, travel there to relax and unwind. There are many things to do and see at Gulf State Park from fishing to hiking and biking to just watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico. I think that's the key, you can do everything or nothing at all.

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Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

What to do

Gulf State Park offers so many options for visitors, from swimming and fishing to camping and hiking. The park fishing pier is a great place to fish or watch beautiful sunsets. The park has miles of paved hiking/biking trails with rest areas and even a butterfly house. The park offers many ways to stay on site. There are lakeside cottages and cabins, a modern RV campground with water views, primitive camping includes tent camping and the new Outpost "off the grid" campsites. Swimming options include the sugar white sand beaches of the Gulf of Mexico and a huge pool (pictured above). There is even a live alligator at the Nature Center. The park has plenty of places to have a picnic and for larger groups the Beach Pavilion is a popular place for family reunions and beach weddings.

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Helpful links

21 Alabama State Parks I visited

Alabama State Parks website

More of Alabama's Best
The stories of three women who were abandoned by their parents during Chinas one-child policy.

Cai Fengxia: Being reunited feels like a dream

Cai Fengxia cried as she had dinner with her biological parents for the first time in 38 years.

She had spent the past 12 years looking for the people who had wrapped her in white cloth and left her at the gate of the peoples commune of Qiaoqi Town in Jiangyin city, eastern China, when she was 25 days old.

But as she shared a meal with them she could only think about her elderly adoptive father, who was back home in Dangshan, hundreds of miles away.

I missed him so much, and I was wondering if he had eaten dinner or not, she said.

While her parents and siblings were smiling, Cai felt lonely. It didnt help that she spoke a different language to her biological family.

Cai was born in 1979, the year the one-child policy was introduced in China to curb the countrys explosive population growth. Violations were penalised with hefty fines.

Zhou Maodu, Cais father, had wanted a son. Then his wife gave birth to a second daughter. Raising three children was not feasible: the fine they would face was too steep. And as a manager at a local factory, Zhou was under pressure to be a model citizen and comply with the newly implemented family-planning policy. A third child would certainly lead to his dismissal.

So Zhou made a decision that several others in his community had made before him: to abandon his newborn daughter and try for a son. Zhou said he cried for days after leaving Cai at the peoples commune. Two years later, he had a son.

According to Jiangyins Civilian Statistics, 425 children were orphaned in Jiangyin in 1979 alone  a number that includes children whose parents died as well as those abandoned by their parents because they didnt have enough money to raise them, in part due to the one-child policy fines.

The vast majority of the abandoned children were girls. Parents often thought it worthwhile to pay a fine for a son: they would pass on the family name and, in Chinas patriarchial society, once he reached adulthood a son would be in a stronger position to financially support his parents.

Growing up, other children would often tell Cai that she was adopted. But when she would confront her adoptive parents about it, they would dodge the question, telling her: Dont listen to them, they are adopted themselves.

In 2012, Cai joined the Jiangyin Relatives Searching Volunteer Association. It was founded in 2010 by Li Yongguo, a civil servant who, after reuniting one woman with her family in his hometown, realised that there were many others in a similar position.

When she joined, Cai gave a DNA sample which was sent to a pool at the Institute of Forensic Sciences at Soochow University. Four years later, in May 2016, she was told that a 99 percent match had been found in Qiaoqi Town; her mother had taken a DNA test three months before.

On the morning after Cai had her first dinner with her parents, her father apologised to her with tears in his eyes. He said that there had been no other way but to leave her. That day, Cai returned home to her adoptive father. She has been in touch with her parents a few times since and returned to Jiangyin for Chinese New Year with her adoptive father, husband and two sons.

Being reunited with my biological parents feels like a dream. Nothing has changed, life continues, she said. I just have more relatives.

Lin Chunhong: I never fully experienced a fathers love

Lin Chunhong was left in front of a factory in Qinyang, Henan province, when she was two days old. It was 1979 and she was the third daughter of Wang Xing, who  just like Cais father  was a senior manager in a local factory. Barely able to feed his two oldest daughters, and faced with a fine or dismissal from his job, Wang asked his sister to leave the baby in front of a factory. She was wrapped in red clothes without a note or any form of identification.

But Wang felt torn about his decision. A few hours after his sister returned he went to the spot where Lin had been left, secretly hoping she was still there for him to take home. But a stranger had already found her and taken her away. Wang said he cried for days.

Lin Chunhong grew up 500km from her birth parents. She had been adopted by Sun Xian, a 40-year-old single woman, and brought to Shandong province where she grew up in poverty. Sun remarried a number of times and, throughout her life, Lin called three different men dad. I have never fully experienced a fathers love, she said.

Sun never told Lin where she had come from  all she heard was gossip by classmates and neighbours about her abandonment and adoption. The accusations scarred Lin and for much of her childhood she said she felt inferior to her peers, confused about her identity and resentful towards her biological parents.

While enforcement of the one-child policy was gradually relaxed  by the mid-1990s, rural families were allowed a second child if their first born was a daughter or disabled  it wasnt fully abandoned until January 1, 2016, when a two-child policy was implemented. According to the Chinese government, the policy had by then prevented about 400 million births.

Lin was affected by the one-child policy again in 2009, when she and her husband had a second child and her husband was jailed for one month.

When Lins adoptive mother died in 2004, she started the search for her biological parents. Having children of her own softened her resentment, she said, as she now understood how difficult it must have been for her parents to let her go. She even felt some gratitude towards them. Things could have been much worse. While infanticide and gendercide were a problem in China before the one-child policy, the law exacerbated the issue. In 2010, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicted that by 2020 there would be 30 to 40 million more men than women under the age of 20 in China.

In 2016, Lin was told that a match had been found for her DNA. She cried tears of joy when she met her mother and has been slowly building a relationship with her parents ever since. After their first reunion, Lins biological parents travelled to Shandong where they visited Suns grave and burned an offering there to show their gratitude towards her for raising their daughter.

In 2016, Lins mother even moved in with her to help with the household. I wanted to make up for lost time together, she said.

Chen Kaijing: Meeting my parents would be the happiest moment of my life

For Chen Kaijing, the story of where she came from is murkier. Her adoptive father brought her to Suzhou, eastern China, from the Jiangyin Welfare Institute in 1982, but she doesnt know exactly when or where she was born.

Chen grew up in a loving household, raised by her adoptive father  who never married  and his sister. My aunt loves me like a mother, Chen said. Nevertheless, she grew up as an introvert, feeling different from her peers and dropping out of elementary school when she was 10 years old.

Boys are still preferred in many Chinese households. When Chen gave birth to her second daughter in 2008, an acquaintance suggested that she give the child up for adoption  but she refused. I was abandoned and I dont know where I came from, she said. I dont want my daughter to experience what Ive experienced.

While figures for abandoned children in China have dropped steadily in the past decades, the problem persists. These days, it is mostly children with disabilities who are abandoned. In 2014, so-called baby hatches, where parents could leave their newborns were installed in several cities. A hatch in Guangzhou was closed after the citys local welfare institute was overwhelmed by the 262 babies who were left there in under than two months.

Chen further defied the one-child policy in 2009 when she got pregnant with her third child, a boy. To avoid paying a fine, she moved with her youngest daughter to a different city where nobody knew her and gave birth to her son there. Her husband and oldest daughter stayed behind in Xuzhou.

Fearing that Chen would have a future without relatives, her adoptive father told her where he had taken her from on his deathbed, three years ago. Chen has been searching for her biological parents ever since. Her daughters, now 15 and nine years old, help her post information online and Chen has joined the Jiangyin Relatives Volunteer Association.

She said: Meeting my birth parents would be the happiest moment of my life.
A fact sheet about Syrias evacuation deals between the regime and armed opposition groups.

The large blast that targeted Syrian evacuation convoys on Saturday and killed at least dozens of residents who were evacuated from the rebel-besieged towns of Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province under a deal reached between the Syrian government and rebels, has brought the focus back to the evacuation deals signed between the Syrian regime and opposition armed groups.

Since 2014, the Syrian government and the armed opposition groups have reached a series of reconciliation agreements in a number of besieged areas, mainly aiming at allowing armed opposition fighters to leave government-besieged cities and town to opposition-held areas in northern Syria , near the borders with Turkey.

These deals also offer civilians the opportunity to flee conflict zones and allow entry of humanitarian aid into war-afflicted areas. International actors involved in the Syrian conflict such as Russia , Iran and Turkey have been acting as mediators.

While the Syrian government positively regards such reconciliation agreements, armed opposition groups and activists, however, view them as compulsory displacement aiming at reshaping the demographic population structure of the country.

The compulsory deportation agreement in Al Waer neighbourhood in Homs came to announce the forceful entrance of the Russians in line with the [regimes] demographic change plans targeting all those who are regarded by the Syrian regime as part of a useful Syria, under the patronage of Russia, wrote Syrian activist and writer Omar Kokash in reference to the recent swap deal carried out on April 8 in Al Waer neighbourhood, the last opposition-held district in Homs, with some 2,500 people expected to leave.

Here is a timeline of the main people evacuation agreements that have been implemented since 2014 until the present day.

READ MORE: Syrias civil war explained from the beginning

Homs, February 2014

An agreement was reached between the Syrian regime and the United Nations on the evacuation of Syrian civilians from Homs and the entry of humanitarian aid into the city.

Yarmouk, December 2015

The Syrian Human Rights Observatory reported that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ( ISIL , also known as ISIS) and the Syrian regime had reached an agreement to facilitate the departure of ISIL fighters and their families from southern Damascus neighbourhoods, including the al-Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugees camp.

The agreement was discreetly reached between the regime and ISIL through local and international mediation. It stated that the evacuees would be transferred to Beer Qassab town in Damascuss southeastern countryside, Homss eastern countryside or Raqqa city.

Qamishli City, April 2016

An agreement was reached between the Syrian regime and the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units in Qamishli city. The agreement stated the following:

 Exchange of prisoners between the two parties.

 Upholding a ceasefire in the city.

 Discussing locations of posts where government forces and pro-government militias would be deployed and others where Kurdish forces would be deployed.

 All Kurds held prisoners by the government in Qamishli since before 2011 must be released.

 The regime will not arrest any Kurd for any reason nor will it arrest any Arab or Christian affiliated with the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units or working with the Kurdish administration.

Daraya, August 2016

An agreement reached between the Syrian regime and opposition allowed civilians and armed opposition fighters to leave Daraya town in Damascuss countryside. The agreement stated the following:

 Civilians leave Daraya and head to regime-controlled areas in Sahnaya town, in Damascuss countryside.

 Armed fighters leave Daraya and head to Idlib, in northern Syria.

 The agreement is implemented under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Crescent.





Al Waer, September 2016

 Al Waer Agreement  between the Syrian regime and the opposition under the patronage of the United Nations. The agreement stated the following:

 The regime halts the bombing of Al Waer neighbourhood in Homs.

 Opposition fighters are allowed to leave the neighbourhood, in separate groups, and head towards northern Syria, as follows:

1. Three hundred fighters leave with their families from Al Waer to opposition-held areas in Idlib, and in return, the regime opens all roads leading to the neighbourhood and allows entry of food supplies to the area.

2. The regime releases 200 Al Waer residents held in jail, and in return, 500 opposition armed fighters and their families will leave the neighbourhood and head towards Idlib.

3. The regime reveals information about prisoners held in jail, and in return, 300 opposition armed fighters leave with their families.

4. The opposition withdraws from government sites and posts in the neighbourhood as the rest of the armed fighters leave with their families.

5. The Syrian regime is handed over full control over the neighbourhood.

Moadamiyah, October 2016

Hundreds of armed opposition fighters and their families left on October 19, 2016, the Damascus suburb of Moadamiyah heading towards Idlib, in northern Syria.

Up to 3,000 people were set to leave Moadamiyah as part of this deal between the Syrian regime and the opposition, including 620 armed fighters, their families and people from Daraya and Kafr Sousa who had been living in Moadamiyah after fleeing their homes.

In the same month, an agreement between the Syrian regime and opposition was reached on the departure of 600 opposition fighters with their families from Qudssaya and al-Hama towns in Damascuss countryside. The agreement, effective starting from October 11, stated the following:

 Five hundred opposition fighters and their families leave Qudssaya and head towards Idlib.

 One hundred opposition fighters and their families leave Hama and head towards Idlib.

 The fighters must hand in their weapons.

 Opposition fighters who choose to stay in the towns hand in their arms and get their situation settled by the regime.

 The regime lifts the blockade imposed on civilians in the two towns.

 The regime restores water and electricity services in the two towns.

Al Tal, November 2016

An agreement reached between the Syrian regime and the opposition in Al Tal town in Damascuss countryside. The agreement stated the following:

 The opposition hands over Al Tal town to the regime.

 The regime allows opposition fighters, armed with light weapons, to leave Al Tal and head towards Idlib.

Khan al-Sheeh, November 2016

An agreement reached between the Syrian regime and the opposition groups to evacuate all the oppositions armed fighters from the Palestinian refugee camp of Khan al-Sheeh in Damascuss countryside to opposition-held areas in Idlib.

The agreement stated that opposition fighters could keep their light arms but must hand in their medium and heavy arms in return for ending the regimes shelling on the refugee camp, lifting the siege, allowing entry of humanitarian aid and restoring all public services in the camp.

East Aleppo, December 2016

An agreement reached between the Syrian regime and the opposition on the evacuation of civilians and opposition armed fighters from east Aleppo , to head towards Aleppos northern and western countryside.

Aleppo, December 2016

An agreement between the Syrian armed opposition, including Ahrar al-Sham, on one side, and the Syrian regime and Russia, on the other, to allow the evacuation of civilians from Aleppo . The agreement stated the following:

 Full evacuation of Aleppo civilians in return for the evacuation of a set number of people from Kefraya and Foua, in Idlibs countryside, two towns besieged by the oppositions Jaish al-Fatah, and others from Madaya and Zabadani, in Damascuss countryside, that are besieged by the pro-regime Hezbollah forces.

Wadi Barada, January 2017

Wadi Barada agreement signed between the Syrian regime and the opposition through the mediation of a German delegation. The agreement stated the following:

 Ceasefire between the two parties in Wadi Barada region.

 Armed opposition to leave Ain al-Fijeh town and head towards Deir Muqaran village.

 Armed opposition fighters and civilians who choose to remain in Wadi Barada must reach reconciliation with the regime and get their situation settled by the regime. Otherwise, they must leave to Idlib.

 The return of families of opposition fighters who had previously fled from Wadi Barada so they can escort the fighters (their relatives) as they head towards Idlib.

INTERACTIVE: Idlib  Who controls what

Four Towns agreement, April 2017

The Four Towns agreement between the Syrian oppositions Tahrir al-Sham and Ahrar al-Sham, on one side, and the Syrian government, the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iranian side, on the other. The agreement stated the following:

 Up to 3,800 people, including opposition fighters, to leave from Zabadani, in Damascuss countryside, and head towards Idlib.

 Up to 8,000 people, including pro-regime militiamen, to leave from Kefraya and Foua, in Idlibs countryside, and head towards Aleppo.

 Exchange of prisoners and dead bodies.

 Departure of those who want to leave Madaya, Zabadani and Bloudan towards the north.

 Release of 1,500 prisoners held by the Syrian government, mostly women.

 Resolving the case of 50 families, originally from Zabadani and Madaya, stuck in Lebanon in return for the departure of all of Kefraya and Fouas residents in two groups.

Foua and Kefraya, April 15

A large blast in Rashidin, west of Aleppo, targeted residents who were evacuated from the rebel-besieged towns of Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province under a deal reached between the Syrian government and rebels. the attack has killed dozens of people.

Qaboun and Barzeh, May 15

More than 1,500 rebels and their family members left the devastated district of Qaboun on the edge of Damascus on Sunday, as the Syrian army and its allies continue to advance in areas in and around the capital, rebels and state media said.

Hundreds of rebels and their families were also evacuated from the adjacent Barzeh district after rebels there decided to lay down their arms and leave to rebel-held Idlib province.
Mexico City- Every April for the last 174 years, massive crowds have been gathering in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, to express their Catholic devotion at the annual Passion of the Christ procession. A country with a massive Catholic majority, more than 80 percent of the population belonging to the faith in the last census, the event brings in millions of spectators to Iztapalapa  already Mexico Citys most populous borough. They come to watch thousands of actors in full costume wind their way through Iztapalapas streets to the summit of Cerro de Estrella where Jesus crucifixion is re-enacted, fake blood and all. The players come from all demographics, like Miguel Julian, a handyman from Iztapalapa who has been dressing as a Roman legionary for the last 17 years. When asked why he gives his time to sweat in the Mexican sun, clothed in heavy leather armour, he says, to give thanks to God.

Unlike in other parts of Latin America, where similar passion tributes date back to Spanish colonial times, Iztapalapas event was formed after a cholera epidemic in 1843 ended. To express their faith that God had saved them from death, locals wrote and stages their own version of the Passion of the Christ  an event that has now grown to be one of the regions largest religious events.

The procession has become a point of local pride for Iztapalapa, an urban sprawl on the eastern edge of Mexico City, home to nearly two million people. One of the citys lowest-income areas, Iztapalapa has been plagued by high crime rates and instances of domestic violence for years. The prestige and scale of the Passion procession are, therefore, a much-needed source of honour for a community that is so often portrayed negatively in the news. Ive been coming to this event since I was a little boy, said 38-year old taxi driver and Iztapalapa local Omar Zepeda. I used to carry the crosses up the hill like the others, and it always made me feel proud that this event happens here in Iztapalapa.

While there are thousands of actors and participants in the parade, the competition for the main parts  especially Jesus  is fierce as the honour associated with such a role is immense. The actor who is chosen (this year 27-year-old Eder Omar Arreola Ortega won the part) must be able to drag a 100 kg wooden cross for roughly six kilometres, much of which is uphill. In order not to collapse in front of the nations TV cameras, he must train up to six months in advance.

Broadcast by satellite and now the internet all across the Spanish-speaking world, Iztapalapas Passion of the Christ is only growing in popularity, just as the religion itself continues to gain ground in the developing world. And there is every indication that massive crowds will continue to gather on Cerro de Estrella for years to come.
Rotterdam, the Netherlands  The Palestinians in Europe conference convened this week for their 15th annual gathering in the Netherlands second largest city, Rotterdam. The event brought together thousands of Palestinians under the slogan 100 years on, a victorious nation and unbreakable determination.

Saturdays conference coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, in which the British government pledged its support for a Jewish national home in Palestine, at the expense of the Palestinian indigenous population.

Many key issues related to the Palestinian cause were discussed in the conference, such as prisoners, the Israeli siege of Gaza, illegal settlements in Palestinian territories and the conditions of Palestinian refugees in the camps and across the diaspora.

The conference was attended by participants from all over the European continent, representatives of Palestinian associations, institutions and organisations both from within Europe and beyond.

For the first time, the event hosted dual conferences in English and Arabic, as well as one dedicated to Palestinian children.

The sessions highlighted the importance of the Balfour Declaration Apology campaign launched in the UK in February 2017 and discussed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS).
Everything you need to know about the French voting system, from who is running to what time the vote will be announced.

The first round of the French presidential election was held on April 23.

As none of the 11 candidates won more than 50 percent, the vote goes to a second round. That run-off election will be held on May 7 between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen  the two candidates who won most votes on April 23.

Once elected, the French president can serve a maximum of two five-year terms in office.

Click here for more news and analysis of the French elections, 2017.
Russia has sought the opportunity to expand its influence in Afghanistan at the expense of the US.

On Friday, Russia held a regional conference to explore the prospects for settling the long-running Afghanistan conflict. This follows a similar conference that Moscow held in February, which was preceded by a tripartite meeting between Russia, China and Pakistan in December on the same subject.

While the Afghan government was not invited to the first meeting, raising Kabuls ire, the second one was expanded to include Afghanistan, Iran and India. However, the United States as the main power in Afghanistan has not been invited to any of these forums.





Why the surge in Russian interest in Afghanistan?

The Afghans have bitter memories of the Russians, given the Soviet invasion and occupation of their country for nearly a decade in the 1980s. During that period, more than a million Afghans were killed, hundreds of thousands injured, with some eight million becoming external and internal refugees, not to mention the extent of the countrys physical destruction.

However, times and conditions have changed. The inability of the United States, together with its NATO allies, to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, following the US-led military intervention in response to the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks on the US, have opened a new window for a resurgent Russia.

Fighting extremism in Central Asia

Russia has three main objectives in Afghanistan. One is to see a stable friendly Afghanistan, so that the former Soviet republics, especially those bordering Afghanistan  Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan  are not affected by Afghan instability.

Moscow is particularly concerned about preventing threats from Islamic extremist groups arising from Afghanistan. Its policy is to fight such groups, whether in Chechnya or Afghanistan or Central Asia, where the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) continues to be a potential threat. The rise of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS), with an estimated 1,000 activists  some from the ranks of the radical Taliban and others from outside Afghanistan  has increasingly caught Moscows attention.

Vladimir Putins leadership has since 2013 come to the view that the Taliban are less of a danger than ISIL, given the formers opposition to the latter, and that the Taliban are likely to have a role in the future of Afghanistan. It has found it expedient to establish links with receptive elements of the Taliban, who are in a turf war with ISIL operatives, as a means to counter ISIL. This is something that the Islamic Republic of Iran, nowadays a close friend of Russia, has also done for a similar purpose. In 2015, Zamir Kabulov, Putins special representative for Afghanistan, stated that the Talibans interest[s] objectively coincides with ours.

Another Russian objective is to limit the growth of the narcotics trade from Afghanistan, the largest producer of heroin in the world, to Central Asia and Russia. The latter accounts for 20 percent of the $70bn opiate market, with around 1.8 million injecting drug users in 2015. Around 90,000 Russians die from drug overdose, including heroin, every year.

Geopolitical influence

The third objective is to expand Russian influence in the face of the declining US military involvement in Afghanistan, especially from the end of 2014 when the US and its allies withdrew most of their troops from the country. The US drawdown, without Washington achieving its original goal of transforming Afghanistan into an effectively viable and secure state, has opened an important arena for competition between different regional powers, leading to claims of a new great game between Russia and the US.





Indeed, the former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai (2001-2014) often moved close to Russia as his relations with Washington became strained over the US reluctance to do enough to target the safe sanctuaries of the Taliban and their associates on the Pakistani side of the border and exert sufficient pressure on Pakistan to curb its support for the insurgents.

He most notably attended the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and stated: The Soviet money went to the right place. They were efficient in spending their money and doing it through the Afghan government. At the same time, the downturn in US-Russian relations, notably over Ukraine and Syria, has precipitously underpinned Moscows reorientation towards Afghanistan, with increased economic and military ties.

Economically, Russia has become involved, though modestly, in housing and construction  largely because other projects require financing and backing from international organisations and donors that are hesitant to endorse Russian enterprises. Russo-Afghan bilateral trade increased from $571.3m in 2010 to $1bn in 2013. By 2014, Russia was Afghanistans fifth-largest export and sixth-biggest import market, involving over 140 construction projects, mostly restoring Soviet-era housing complexes, facilities and factories and improving infrastructure.

Russias military involvement has so far largely been confined to selling MI-17 helicopters to the Afghan army, paid for by the United States, and performing maintenance on military equipment. In February 2016, Russia also donated 10,000 AK-47 automatic rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition to the Afghan security forces. Moscow is currently negotiating the sale of several MI-35 helicopters to Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Russia has established a number of military bases in Central Asian states, especially Tajikistan, where it has deployed forces along the border with Afghanistan. It is developing links with regional powers (such as China through the Security Cooperation Organisation  SCO) and its neighbours (particularly Tajikistan through the Collective Security Treaty Organisation  CSTO) to develop a regional security framework for Afghanistan.

Russian military ties with Afghanistan are limited, largely due to US objections to its arms sales, but they are nonetheless on the rise. In February 2017, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov once again stressed the importance of closer economic and military ties with Afghanistan.

Of course, Russia has not been able to compete with the United States economically or militarily in Afghanistan, which remains extensively dependent on US assistance. The US has spent $1 trillion on the Afghan war and $100bn on Afghanistans reconstruction over the last fifteen years. Nonetheless, Russia has made a concerted effort in recent years to make an inroad into Afghanistan for fighting extremism and strategic gains.

Amin Saikal is Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Public Policy Fellow and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University, and author of Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival (2012).

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.




The Philippine army says Abu Sayyaf fighters have beheaded one of four Filipino fishermen they took captive in December.

Brigadier-General Cirilito Sobejana, military commander on the southern island of Jolo island, said on Sunday the boats captain had been executed in the jungle near the town of Patikul on Thursday but that his remains had yet to be recovered.

Noel Besconde was abducted along with three crewmen by the Abu Sayyaf group, which has ties to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, in December while on board a fishing vessel in the Celebes Sea.





Abu Sayyaf is a small group known for beheadings, kidnappings, bombings and extortion in the south of the mainly Catholic country.

Sobejana said it was possible the abductors beheaded Besconde because he was sick and had become a liability

The reason why he was beheaded is that he was delaying their movement, Sobejana said. They [Abu Sayyaf fighters] are highly mobile and we are pursuing them.

Troops have not yet found Bescondes body, but Sobejana said the military received a video of the beheading.

Sobejana said the group had demanded about $60,500 as ransom for Bescondes release but the government maintains its policy of refusing to pay ransom.

The Philippine army has declared all-out war against Abu Sayyaf on the islands of Jolo and Basilan, but is constrained by the groups presence among large civilian communities.

Rooted in separatism

Abu Sayyaf has its roots in separatism, but its activities are mostly banditry and piracy. It has invested the profits of its business in modern weapons and fast boats.

Sobejana said Abu Sayyaf is still holding Bescondes crew, along with more than a dozen foreign nationals in Jolo, which is the primary island of the province of Sulu.

READ MORE: Inside Abu Sayyaf  Blood, drugs and conspiracies

The group last year beheaded Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall. An elderly German, Jurgen Kantner, suffered the same fate in February when a $600,000 ransom demand was not paid.

The army said on Wednesday that an Abu Sayyaf leader who was directly involved in the kidnapping and execution of the Ridsdel and Hall was among those was killed by Philippine troops during clashes last weekend on a resort island.
Death toll rises to at least 23 as hopes for survivors fade after 90-metre man-made mountain of rubbish collapsed.

Hopes of finding anyone alive under a collapsed mountain of rubbish in Sri Lankas capital faded on Sunday as the death toll reached at least 23, police said.

Hundreds of soldiers were digging through the rubbish and the wreckage of some 145 homes that were destroyed in northeast Colombo when a side of the 90-metre high dump crashed on Friday.

The rescue is fast becoming a recovery operation, a senior police official at the site said. It is difficult to imagine anyone could survive under these toxic conditions.

He said a woman and three men were reported missing after Fridays disaster at Kolonnawa on the northeastern edge of the capital.

The Colombo National hospital said four children aged between 11 and 15 were among the 21 people killed.

Hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa said a man and a woman pulled out of the dump on Friday were still in intensive care.

Reports of looting

Police have stepped up security in the area following reports of looting and said they arrested 18 people suspected of robbing belongings of the victims.

President Maithripala Sirisena ordered hundreds of troops to search for survivors and bolster the fire departments rescue efforts.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is currently visiting Japan, said arrangements had been made to remove the rubbish dump, but it came crashing down before relocation work could begin.

Wickremesinghe said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered help with the recovery effort and a technical team would be sent to Sri Lanka to evaluate the situation.

About 800 tonnes of solid waste is added a day to the open dump.

Police said a total of 145 homes, mostly shacks, were destroyed when the rubbish mountain came crashing down following heavy rain the previous day and a fire hours earlier.

More than 600 people have been given temporary shelter at a government-run school in the area, as authorities looked for alternative accommodation for those living near the dump.

Many residents had evacuated their homes before the disaster because of the heavy rain.

Sri Lankas parliament was warned recently that the 23 million tonnes of rubbish rotting at Kolonnawa was a serious health hazard.

Efforts are under way to generate electricity using solid waste as fuel.
The soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division will mainly train and equip Somalias army to better fight al-Shabab.

The United States is deploying a few dozen troops to Somalia to assist the national army and conduct unspecified security operations, a US military spokeswoman said on Saturday  the largest such deployment to the Horn of Africa country in about two decades.

Samantha Reho, spokeswoman for the US Africa Command based in Germany, said the soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, a light infantry unit specialised in air assaults, will mainly train and equip Somalias army to better fight al-Shabab, an armed group fighting to overthrow the countrys internationally recognised government.

They will also conduct security force assistance, she told the AFP news agency, confirming a report by Voice of America.

REPORTERS NOTEBOOK: Filming al-Shabab with a drone

For operational security issues, we will not discuss specifics of military efforts nor speculate on potential future activities or operations, Reho said, declining to say precisely how many troops were being sent.

The US in recent years has sent a small number of special operations forces and counter-terror advisers to Somalia, and President Donald Trump recently approved an expanded military role there.

Somalias fragile central government is still propped up by the international community and a 22,000-strong African Union (AU) peacekeeping force after nearly three decades of civil war.





While al-Shabab fighters have lost large swaths of territory and were forced out of the capital, Mogadishu, by AU troops in 2011, they have been on the offensive in recent months, retaking strings of towns in south and central Somalia.

The group also continues to launch attacks in Mogadishu and the countryside, and have claimed responsibility for major attacks in East Africa, including one at Garissa University in neighbouring Kenya in April 2015 that killed 148 people.

In February 2016, al-Shabab also claimed responsibility for the bombing of an airliner that made an emergency landing with a gaping hole in the fuselage shortly after taking off from Mogadishu.

The armed group has threatened a merciless war against the new administration of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who goes by the nickname Farmajo. He took office in February.

It announced this week that its recent escalation of deadly attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere is in doubled response to Trumps approval of expanded US military efforts.

On April 9, Somalias new military chief survived a suicide car bombing following his swearing-in, in at attack that killed at least 13 people. A day later, a suicide bombing at a military academy in Mogadishu killed at least five soldiers.

The most notorious US military operation in Somalia was in 1993, when an ill-fated attempt to snatch militia leaders led to two Black Hawk helicopters being shot down in Mogadishu. A chaotic rescue was mounted, resulting in hundreds of deaths, including those of 18 US soldiers.

OPINION: Why are African men and women still fleeing to Yemen?

Pressure is growing on Somalias army to assume full security for the country as the AU force plans to leave by the end of 2020. Last month, the head of the mission said Somalias army had been unable to take charge as expected.

The AU force will begin withdrawing in 2018, and if this departure begins prior to Somalia having capable security forces, large portions of Somalia are at risk of returning to al-Shabab control or potentially allowing ISIS to gain a stronger foothold in the country, the head of the US Africa Command, Commander General Thomas Waldhauser, said last month.
Candidates must convince voters they are best placed to solve the economic and security issues facing the country.

France heads to the polls in two rounds of voting on April 23 and May 7 to elect a new president who will inherit a country looking for change, and a population that is increasingly intolerant of politicians who fail to deliver on their promises.

Like his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, Francois Hollandes presidency lasted just one term. The incumbent opted not to stand for re-election amid low approval ratings.

A French president can serve for a maximum of two five-year terms.

Eleven candidates will compete in the first round of the election.

It is widely expected that none of them will win an outright majority of 50 percent in the first round, meaning a runoff vote is almost certain.

The two top contenders will go through to a decisive second round on May 7.

Campaigning kicked off officially on April 10 and ends on the night of April 21.

The final result will be announced at 8pm on April 23.

Opinion polls in France show that only around 65 percent of the electorate are planning to vote in the first round, and up to 50 percent of 47 million voters remain undecided on who to vote.

The 30 percent who are planning to abstain would help set a record low turnout.

Exceptional election

It is increasingly difficult to predict the outcome of the election. The race is tight and five of the 11 candidates have been constantly polling at more than 10 percent of the vote.

According to the latest polls, none of the traditional centre-right and centre-left parties, which have ruled France since the 1950s, are projected to make it to the May 7 runoff.

READ MORE: The populist drift of the French election campaign

This election comes within a year of the unexpected Brexit vote in the UK and the election of populist Donald Trump as president of the United States last November.

In France, the possibilities are no less dramatic with the steady advance of the far-right National Fronts Marine Le Pen.

Who will win?

According to pollsters, 48-year-old Le Pen, an anti-EU candidate, is expected to reach the second round but ultimately lose to Emmanuel Macron, 39.

A Le Pen victory would send shockwaves every bit as seismic as events in the UK and US, likely spelling the end of the European Union in its current form.

Her victory would also domestically test the countrys already strained relations with its sizeable Muslim community.

UPFRONT: Is France on the brink of a Le Pen future? (25:15)

Macron, Le Pens main challenger and favourite to win, has campaigned on a pro-EU, pro-status quo, centrist outlook, hoping to secure support from those weary of the disruption an unknown quantity, such as Le Pen, may bring.

But Le Pen is not alone in promising major change.

Along with the conservative Francois Fillon, who is 63, the 65-year-old leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon favours a rapprochement with a Russian government increasingly at odds with the Western order.

UPFRONT: Macron  Mr Continuity, or candidate of change? (11:09)

Like Le Pen, Melenchon is a eurosceptic who has promised a referendum on the countrys continued membership of the bloc.

While pro-EU, Benoit Hamon, the 49-year-old Socialist Party candidate, is no less radical. He has promised the eventual introduction of a basic income for all French citizens.

The other six candidates include a leftist economics teacher, an anti-American nationalist convinced that the EU is a CIA-backed plot and a conspiracy theorist who has before called for a thermonuclear corridor between Earth and Mars.

None of them is expected to win more than five percent of the vote.

Issues to fix

Whoever becomes president will be tasked with fixing a number of issues, the biggest of which will be to recover the countrys stagnated economy.

OPINION: Elections in France  Its all about security

The problem of youth unemployment, tensions involving Frances Muslim and ethnic minority populations and the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) group, will also top the agenda.
Two million Palestinians in the besieged territory now down to a few hours of electricity a day as tensions rise.

The Gaza Strips only functioning power plant has shut down after running out of fuel, leaving two million people in the Hamas-governed Palestinian territory with only six hours of electricity a day.

Samir Metir, head of Gazas electricity provider, told AFP news agency that all the plants fuel, purchased with funding from Qatar and Turkey, had been used up.

He said it was not clear when the territory would receive another shipment, owing to a dispute between the electricity authority in Gaza and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank.

Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007 from Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

A mooted power-sharing agreement between the two factions in Gaza has failed to materialise, and residents have been subjected to a decade-long Israeli blockade, strangling the local economy and severely limiting supplies.





Metir said the power plant cannot afford to pay the enormous fuel taxes imposed by the PA.

Today we had about six hours of electricity at my house. Now its off for the next 12 hours, Ezz Zanoun, a photographer in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

Tomorrow it might be worse. Were expecting about four hours [of electricity]  and from there the real problems start.

Protests broke out in January over the power shortages, which the Gaza health ministry said could have dangerous consequences for patients in hospitals.

The crisis was resolved by tax-free donations from Qatar and Turkey, which ran out last week. But now the PA is no longer willing to waive the fuel for Gaza.

Fuel supply for Gazas two million inhabitants has been a long-running source of dispute, with most homes in the territory receiving two eight-hour periods of electricity a day even when the power plant is operating normally.

READ MORE: Gazas female fixers

As things stand, residents can expect two six-hour periods of electricity, Metir said, including electricity bought from Israel and Egypt.

Zanoun told Al Jazeera that due to shifting schedules, households are often relegated to only one six-hour period a day.

At least 65 percent of residents in Gaza live in poverty, 72 percent are food-insecure, and 80 percent have grown dependent on international aid, according to a recent report published by the EU-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

Unemployment in the territory hit an unprecedented 43 percent in the last quarter of 2016.

A Fatah-led delegation is expected to travel to Gaza later this month to discuss reunification efforts with Hamas.

Additional reporting by Dylan Collins: @collinsdyl
Kabul, Afghanistan  An attack that saw the United States drop the largest non-nuclear bomb on Afghanistan was a brutal act against Afghan people, the environment and the countrys sovereignty, Hamid Karzai, former president, has told Al Jazeera.

The 9,797kg GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) was unleashed in combat for the first time on Thursday, targeting a complex of caves and tunnels used by ISIL fighters in Nangarhar province, according to the US army.

Dubbed the Mother of All Bombs, the device can devastate the area around its landing of a radius of more than 1.6km.

This was an inhuman act, a brutal act against an innocent country, against innocent people, against our land, against our sovereignty, against our soil and against our future, Karzai said in Kabul.

A bomb of that magnitude has consequences for the environment, for our lives, for our plants, for our water, for our soil  this is poison.

WATCH: What impact will MOAB have in the fight against ISIL?

At least 90 ISIL fighters were killed in the attack, according to the US and Afghan armies.

For the most part, Afghan officials welcomed the bombing, saying it was a step towards security. They have also said that there were no civilian casualties.

But Karzai, who was president from 2004 until 2014, said the US should stop using Afghanistan as a testing ground and re-engage with Afghans towards a peaceful solution.

If these conditions are met, he said, they [US] can stay on  if the Afghan people agree to it. If they continue this militant approach, this heavy-handed military approach in Afghanistan, then, of course, I want them out of the country.

READ MORE: Condemnation, praise over massive bombing

The massive bomb was dropped after fighting intensified over the past week and US-backed ground forces struggled to advance in the area.

A US soldier was killed on April 8 in Nangarhar while conducting operations against ISIL, which stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and is also known as ISIS.

Karzai said he was speaking up because many Afghan officials  some of whom were part of his own cabinet  had endorsed the bombing.

I considered it a treason and I stood up against them, and I will continue, he said.

This poison will be there for years and years to come. How can we allow our country to be used this way And why? How many [ISIL fighters] have they killed, 100, 200, 300?

Why should Afghanistan suffer in such a massive way with a bomb so big, so dangerous that they themselves call it the mother of all bombs.

Karzais time in office was at times plagued by accusations from the US of corruption and incompetence.

Fahim Dashty, a journalist, politician and political analyst, said that Karzais comments were unlikely to be welcomed by the majority of Afghans, dismissing the former presidents rhetoric as an attempt at heroism.

There were lots of problems while he was president of Afghanistan, Dashty told Al Jazeera from Kabul.

OPINION: Bombs away! Wag that dog!

At least for a decade, he was using US bodyguards to protect himself. Now he is talking about pushing the US to leave Afghanistan. This is something people will not believe.

On the bombing, Dashty said Afghans had little reason not to welcome the attack on ISIL targets.

There werent any reports of civilian casualties in the last attack, he said.

It was said that it was targeting ISIL leaders. As much as it targets terrorist groups, I think people will welcome it.
McMaster discusses joint efforts to combat terrorist groups, just days after US use of GBU-43 bomb in countrys east.

US President Donald Trumps national security adviser has met Afghan officials in Kabul, just days after the US dropped the mother of all bombs on suspected ISIL fighters in the countrys east.

General HR McMaster, the first high-level US official to visit the country since Trump took office, held meetings on Sunday with President Ashraf Ghani; Hanif Atmar, national security adviser; and other high-level Afghan officials to discuss joint efforts to counter terrorist groups, according to a statement released by the US embassy.

For its part, the Afghan presidential palace said via Twitter that the two sides discussed bilateral ties, security, counter-terrorism and development.





Speaking to ABC News from Afghanistan, McMaster said the Trump administration is weighing diplomatic, military and economic responses to the Taliban and ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, in Afghanistan.

Our enemy sensed that and they have redoubled their efforts and its time for us, alongside our Afghan partners, to respond, said McMaster.

The visit comes just days after the US dropped the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, one of the largest conventional weapons ever used in combat nicknamed the mother of all bombs, during an operation against ISIL, also known as ISIS, in the Achin district of Nangarhar province.

While military officials say the strike was based solely on tactical needs, it has led to speculation that Trumps defence advisers are planning to escalate the war against armed anti-government groups in Afghanistan.

In a sharp warning to the US administration, Hamid Karzai, the former Afghan president, has called the bombing an inhuman act, a brutal act against an innocent country.

OPINION: Afghanistan: A pawn in major power rivalry?

A bomb of that magnitude has consequences for the environment, for our lives, for our plants, for our water, for our soil  this is poison, he told Al Jazeera.

The GBU-43 is estimated to have killed nearly 100 fighters and no civilians, according to Afghan officials, although this has not been independently verified.

General John Nicholson, the US forces commander in Afghanistan, has requested thousands of additional troops to break the stalemate, between the Afghan forces and the Taliban, on top of the estimated 8,000 US troops already stationed in country.

Anti-corruption efforts

Trump, who took office on January 20, had asked US officials, including some in the treasury and commerce departments, to work together to integrate the various political, diplomatic, military and economic responses available, McMaster said.

Well give [President Trump] those options. And well be prepared to execute whatever decision he makes, he said.





McMaster praised anti-corruption efforts and assured Ghani that the US would continue to support and cooperate with Afghanistan on a number of issues.

Ghani told McMaster that terrorism is a serious issue for the security of the world and the region and if serious steps are not taken it would affect generations of people, according to the palace.

Illicit drugs and corruption also top the list of threats to Afghanistans security, Ghani told the visiting officials.

The Afghan government refers to both the Taliban and ISIL as terrorists.

Afghan forces have struggled to contain Taliban fighters since most international troops were withdrawn in 2014, leaving them to fight largely alone.

At the peak in 2011, the US had more than 100,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan.
Javier Duarte, accused of stealing millions of dollars from government, found in Guatemala and could face extradition.

A fugitive former governor of Mexicos Veracruz state suspected of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars has been detained in Guatemala after six months on the run, officials said on Saturday.

Javier Duarte was located and detained for the purpose of extradition in the municipality of Panajachel, in Guatemalas Solola department, Mexicos attorney general said in a statement.

A photo released by Guatemalan police showed a bespectacled Duarte, clad in a grey shirt and black jacket-vest, being escorted by Interpol agents.

Manuel Noriega, deputy director of Interpol in Guatemala, said Duarte was located at a hotel where he was staying with his wife. He was asked to leave his room, did so voluntarily and then was arrested without incident in the lobby.

Noriega said Duarte would be presented before a judge to consider his possible extradition.

Mexico requested Guatemalas assistance in capturing the fugitive ex-governor of Veracruz, which borders the Gulf of Mexico.The operation was carried out jointly with national civil police and Interpol.

Corruption charges

Duarte, who became governor in 2010, resigned last year before the end of his term and then went on the run.

Interpol issued an international arrest warrant against him. A reward of 15 million pesos ($730,000) had been offered for his capture.

In January, authorities got two companies to return $19.3m obtained illegally from the Duarte government.

A month later, authorities seized a warehouse full of Duartes artworks, antiques and personal journals. They also found luxurious saddles, silverware sets, ostentatious furniture, school supplies and even wheelchairs  presumably owned by the government.

Investigators were said to have found a set of documents linking the ex-governors wife, Karime Macias de Duarte, directly to the preparation and execution of actions to divert public resources for the personal benefit of some accomplices.

During Duartes tenure, Veracruz became one of the most violent states in Mexico, with bloody murders by drug cartels, several cases of enforced disappearance and the murder of 17 journalists.

For many Mexicans, Duarte came to symbolise the worst aspects of the political class here: corruption, incompetence and, until his capture, impunity, Al Jazeeras John Holman, reporting from Mexico City, said.

Thats why his capture is really important for Mexicos federal government because until now it seemed that they just let him slip through their fingers despite all these allegations swirling around him.
The 2016 rains failed in the Horn of Africa; this season will be critical for Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda.

The main rainy season in Somalia was deficient in 2016. Then the important short rains of October to November 2016 failed, causing crop failures and severe food shortages.

A report this month from the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the humanitarian situation in Somalia is on the verge of catastrophe, and concern is growing that the trajectory is worryingly similar to Somalias 2011 famine disaster, when an estimated 260,000 people died. Today, an estimated 6.2 million, more than half the countrys population, face acute food shortage and the number of severely malnourished children is on the rise.

Drought is also affecting neighbouring countries, with some 16 million people severely food insecure in the Horn of Africa region: 5.6 million people in Ethiopia, 2.6 million people in Kenya, 6.2 million people in Somalia and 1.6 million people in Uganda.

Human population and agricultural practices affect water usage and distribution, but the climate brings the rain, and the climate is changing. Over the past 30 years, the long rains have been steadily decreasing in intensity as the climate has warmed.

East Africa has two rainy seasons; the critical long rains of March to June, connected to the development of the Indian monsoon, and the less critical but still important short rains of October to November.

The 2016 rainfall failure was due to the negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). This is the name describing cooler than average waters in the western Indian Ocean, and warmer than average waters in the Eastern Indian Ocean. A negative IOD causes stable, sinking air over the Horn of Africa and this suppresses any rain-bearing clouds.

The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) index went sharply negative during the second half of 2016 in a probable response to the Pacific Oceans rebound from the earlier El Nino. Fortunately for the East African rainy season, the IOD is predicted to move through neutral to positive territory during 2017.

During the first week of April, the rains finally began in southwestern Sudan, with daily amounts up to 25mm common. The long rains are forecast to arrive in Somalia imminently. Six out of eight seasonal rain forecast models are suggesting a near-average to above-average wet spell in May and June in Somalia.

With thanks to Jeff Masters, Weather Underground.
After arriving in South Korea, Mike Pence says Sundays failed missile launch shows need for US protection.

Visiting American Vice President Mike Pence described North Koreas failed missile test on Sunday as a provocation and assured South Korea of Washingtons full support against the threat from its volatile neighbour.

Pyongyang launched the missile hours before Pence arrived in Seoul for talks on curbing the Norths weapons programmes as fears grow that it is planning another nuclear weapon test.

But US officials said the missile exploded seconds after it was fired.

This mornings provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face each and every day in the defence of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defence of America in this part of the world, Pence said.

Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in the South.

North Korea launches missile despite US tensions

The latest launch came a day after the North held a defiant massive military parade in Pyongyang that showcased nearly 60 missiles  including a suspected new intercontinental ballistic missile.

The missile blew up almost immediately, the US military said of Sundays early morning launch from near Sinpo on the Norths east coast.





The type of missile was not clear.

The North has a habit of test-firing missiles to mark major dates such as Saturdays 105th anniversary of the birth of the nations founder Kim Il-sung, or as gestures of defiance when top US officials visit the region.

South Koreas foreign ministry said by conducting the latest test just a day after displaying a series of missiles, North Korea has threatened the whole world.

Last August a submarine-launched ballistic missile tested from Sinpo flew 500km towards Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hailed that test as the greatest success and said it brought the US mainland within range of a mobile delivery system.

Pyongyangs rogue atomic ambitions have come into sharp focus in recent weeks, with Trump vowing a tough stance against the North and threatening unilateral action if China failed to help curb its neighbours nuclear programme.

Trump has repeatedly said he will prevent Pyongyang from developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

With speculation mounting that the North is preparing to conduct a sixth nuclear test, he sent an aircraft carrier-led strike group to the Korean peninsula.

OPINION: Will China intervene in North Korea?

The North has reiterated its constant refrain that it is ready for war with the United States, and its army on Friday vowed a merciless response to any US provocation.

Recent satellite images suggest its main nuclear site is primed and ready, according to specialist US website 38North.

China, the Norths sole major ally, and Russia have both urged restraint.

On Monday Pence is scheduled to meet acting-President Hwang Kyo-ahn for talks expected to focus on the Norths weapons programmes and a controversial US missile defence system known as THAAD.
Proposed changes seek to transform governance from a parliamentary system to an executive presidency.

Istanbul, Turkey  Counting is under way in Turkey after polls closed in a key referendum on whether the country should adopt a presidential system with extended executive powers.

The constitutional changes proposed in Sundays vote seek to transform Turkeys governance from a parliamentary system to an executive presidency, significantly expanding the powers of the top office.

Unofficial results are expected later in the day.

A Yes vote in the referendum will give the president new powers to assign ministers, high-level state officials and vice-presidents, as well as half the members in the countrys highest judicial body.

It will also allow the president to dissolve parliament, and issue executive decrees and state of emergencies.

READ MORE: Turkeys constitutional reform  All you need to know

The changes are backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) founded by him, and the leadership of the far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP), whose parliamentary support was vital to take the amendments to a public vote.

The main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy Party (HDP) and other critics argue that the amendments will give too much power to one individual, undermining the separation of powers in the government.

Here's how Turkey could change if it votes 'Yes' on April 16: https://t.co/m2RQKUTrnG pic.twitter.com/0qpD4cLWhw  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 15, 2017

After casting her vote on Sunday morning, Macide Dogan, a 67-year-old housewife, told Al Jazeera that Erdogan is a one-in-a-million leader and praised Turkeys development under his rule.

READ MORE: Essential reading on Turkeys crucial referendum

I cast my Yes vote as conservative Muslim against infidels who are threatening Turkey. Erdogan defies the world powers trying to challenge him, she said at a polling station on the Asian side of Istanbul.

We remember the times [before Erdogan] when young girls with headscarves could not enter universities in this country. We remember the times when there was no proper healthcare and transportation.

Ahmet Erturk, 52, was also a Yes voter.

We were stuck with coalition goverments before [AK Party] came to power. God willing, we will wake up to a more stable Turkey as of tomorrow, he said.

Sezer Sarikaya, a 28-year-old logistics manager, told Al Jazeera he was voting No.

I will vote against the constitutional changes as I believe our parliamentary system set up by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk [the founder of modern Turkey] is good for us, he said.

REPORTERS NOTEBOOK: Constitutional change and questions on power

Ayse Mucek, also a No voter, said that she feels democracy and rule of law are under threat in Turkey under the current administration.

Today, there are widespread and arbitrary detentions in Turkey and there is no press freedom and rule of law anymore. This should stop in this referendum. I believe in it, the 65-year-old pensioner told Al Jazeera.





I am at an old age. I dont think about my future anymore. But if a Yes vote comes out of this referendum, young people should leave this country for better places.

Erdogan addressed supporters in Istanbul for the last time on Saturday, calling on citizens to vote Yes to the constitutional changes.

[The new system] will strengthen the stable and secure environment our country needs to develop, he said.

In contrast, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the CHP, urged supporters in Ankara to back the No campaign.

We are going to vote for Turkeys future, he said. Would you let your children go on a train without any brakes?

The Turkish presidency has traditionally been a largely neutral and ceremonial role, without many political responsibilities, as specified under the current constitution.

However, Erdogan has effectively transformed the office into a more politically active one after he became Turkeys first president to be elected by popular vote in 2014  in line with a set of prior constitutional changes passed in a similar referendum in 2010.

INTERACTIVE: How will Turkey change if it votes Yes on April 16?

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 in July 2016 that killed around 300 people in total.

In recent years, bomb attacks claimed by, or blamed on, Kurdish fighters groups and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) have killed hundreds of security forces and civilians.

Turkeys relations with the European Union, particularly with Germany and the Netherlands, have been tense since last month after these two EU member states barred Turkish ministers from holding referendum campaign rallies within their borders, where millions of Turkish voters live.

Follow Umut Uras on Twitter: @Um_Uras
The proposed changes seek to transform Turkeys governance from a parliamentary system to an executive presidency.

Istanbul, Turkey  Turkish citizens have begun voting in a key referendum on whether to adopt a presidential system with extended executive powers.

The constitutional changes proposed in Sundays vote seek to transform Turkeys governance from a parliamentary system to an executive presidency, significantly expanding the powers of the top office.

People started casting their ballots in eastern Turkey at 7am (04:00 GMT), while voting in the rest of the country started at 8am (05:00 GMT). Polls will close at 4pm (13:00 GMT) in the east and 5pm (14:00 GMT) elsewhere. Unofficial results are expected later on Sunday.

READ MORE: Turkeys constitutional reform  All you need to know

A Yes vote in the referendum will give the president new powers to assign ministers, high-level state officials and vice-presidents, as well as half the members in the countrys highest judicial body. It will also allow the president to dissolve parliament, and issue executive decrees and state of emergencies.

Here's how Turkey could change if it votes 'Yes' on April 16: https://t.co/m2RQKUTrnG pic.twitter.com/0qpD4cLWhw  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 15, 2017

The changes are backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) founded by him, and the leadership of the far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP), whose parliamentary support was vital to take the amendments to a public vote.

READ MORE: Essential reading on Turkeys crucial referendum

The main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy Party (HDP) and other critics argue that the amendments will give too much power to one individual, undermining the separation of powers in the government.

After casting her vote on Sunday morning, Macide Dogan, a 67-year-old housewife, told Al Jazeera that Erdogan is a one-in-a-million leader and praised Turkeys development under his rule.

I cast my Yes vote as conservative Muslim against infidels who are threatening Turkey. Erdogan defies the world powers trying to challenge him, she said at a polling station on the Asian side of Istanbul.

We remember the times [before Erdogan] when young girls with headscarves could not enter universities in this country. We remember the times when there was no proper healthcare and transportation.

Ahmet Erturk, 52, was also a Yes voter.

We were stuck with coalition governments before [AK Party] came to power. God willing, we will wake up to a more stable Turkey as of tomorrow, he said.

REPORTERS NOTEBOOK: Constitutional change and questions on power

Sezer Sarikaya, a 28-year-old logistics manager, told Al Jazeera he was voting No.





I will vote against the constitutional changes as I believe our parliamentary system set up by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk [the founder of modern Turkey] is good for us, he said.

Ayse Mucek, also a No voter, said that she feels democracy and rule of law are under threat in Turkey under the current administration.

Today, there are widespread and arbitrary detentions in Turkey and there is no press freedom and rule of law anymore. This should stop in this referendum. I believe in it, the 65-year-old pensioner told Al Jazeera.

I am at an old age. I dont think about my future anymore. But if a Yes vote comes out of this referendum, young people should leave this country for better places.

INTERACTIVE: How will Turkey change if it votes Yes on April 16?

Erdogan addressed supporters in Istanbul for the last time on Saturday, calling on citizens to vote Yes to the constitutional changes.

[The new system] will strengthen the stable and secure environment our country needs to develop, he said.

In contrast, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the CHP, urged supporters in Ankara to back the No campaign.

We are going to vote for Turkeys future, he said. Would you let your children go on a train without any brakes?

The Turkish presidency has traditionally been a largely neutral and ceremonial role, without many political responsibilities, as specified under the current constitution.

However, Erdogan has effectively transformed the office into a more politically active one after he became Turkeys first president to be elected by popular vote in 2014  in line with a set of prior constitutional changes passed in a similar referendum in 2010.

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 in July 2016 that killed around 300 people in total.

In recent years, bomb attacks claimed by, or blamed on, Kurdish fighters groups and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) have killed hundreds of security forces and civilians.

Turkeys relations with the European Union, particularly with Germany and the Netherlands, have been tense since last month after these two EU member states barred Turkish ministers from holding referendum campaign rallies within their borders, where millions of Turkish voters live.

Follow Umut Uras on Twitter: @Um_Uras
Constitutional changes transform Turkey from a parliamentary system to an executive presidency with more powers.

Istanbul, Turkey  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed the Yes vote in the referendum to amend Turkeys constitution and grant the countrys presidential office new executive powers.

We have been attacked by other nations of the world. You have seen how the West attacked us, Erdogan told cheering supporters in Istanbul on Sunday.

We have not been divided  We have already been on our way, now we will gear it up [with the new system], he said. We have so much work to do in this country.

The constitutional changes were backed by Erdogan, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) founded by him, and the leadership of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), whose parliamentary support was vital to take the amendments to a public vote.

READ MORE: Turkey referendum  Erdogans AK Party claims victory

Speaking before Erdogan, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim thanked the Turkish people for their decision to back the constitutional amendments.

We are all brothers and sisters in a single body standing against traitors, Yildirim said, speaking at the headquarters of his governing AK Party in Ankara.

Thank you Turkey, thank you my holy nation  The nation said the last word and said Yes, he said.

The Yes campaign won with 51.4 percent of the vote with 100 percent of ballots counted, according to the unofficial results.

The main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) demanded a recount, citing voting irregularities. There were demonstrations in various parts of Istanbul until morning challenging the referendums results.

The new constitutional changes transform Turkeys governance from a parliamentary system to an executive presidency, significantly expanding the powers of the top office.

The result gives the president to be elected in 2019 new powers to appoint vice-presidents, ministers, high-level officials, and senior judges.

It will also allow the president to dissolve parliament, issue executive decrees, and impose states of emergency.

Speaking to Al Jazeera outside the AK Party headquarters in Istanbul, Erdal Erdinc Durucu, 37, said Erdogan has started a new age for Turkey, and ended another.

Until today, our hands were tied. Our president has been trying to do many good things for us. But different powers tried to prevent him from doing so, Durucu said.

The recent coup attempt was the latest example of this. God willing, we beat this attempt like others  Turkey is ready to rule the world now. The Ottoman Empire is coming back.

INTERACTIVE: How will Turkey change if it votes Yes on April 16?

Another supporter, Yasemin Ozgen, a 43-year-old housewife, said: Good days are coming. With this result, Turkey will break away from Europe as a strong power by itself. An independent Turkey will take its own decisions and will use its resources.

There is growing negative sentiment against the European Union in Turkey as Ankaras relations with the bloc, particularly member states Germany and the Netherlands, have been tense since last month. Those two nations barred Turkish ministers from holding referendum campaign rallies within their borders, where millions of Turkish voters live.

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 in July 2016 that killed around 300 people in total.





In recent years, bomb attacks claimed by, or blamed on, Kurdish fighters groups and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) have killed hundreds of security forces and civilians.

Turkeys presidency has traditionally been a largely neutral and ceremonial role, without many political responsibilities, as specified under the current constitution.

However, Erdogan has effectively transformed the office into a more politically active one since he became Turkeys first president to be elected by popular vote in 2014, following prior constitutional changes passed in a similar referendum in 2010.

The main opposition CHP, the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy Party and other critics argue that the amendments give too much power to one individual, undermining the separation of powers in the government.

Additional reporting by Cagan Orhon

Follow Umut Uras on Twitter: @Um_Uras
Changes to constitution aim to transform governance from a parliamentary system to an executive presidency.

Istanbul, Turkey  Supporters of constitutional changes that seek to extend the powers of Turkeys presidential office have taken lead in a referendum that could change how Turkey is governed.

As of 18:00GMT on Sunday, the Yes campaign, which is backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was leading with 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent with 98.4 percent of votes counted.

The constitutional changes seek to transform Turkeys governance from a parliamentary system to an executive presidency, significantly expanding the powers of the top office.

A victory for the Yes vote gives the president new powers to assign ministers, high-level state officials, and vice-presidents, as well as half the members in the countrys highest judicial body. It will also allow the president to dissolve parliament, and issue executive decrees and state of emergencies.

READ MORE: Turkeys constitutional reform  All you need to know

The changes are backed by the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party), founded by Erdogan, and the leadership of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), whose parliamentary support was vital to take the amendments to a public vote.

The main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy Party (HDP) and other critics argue the amendments give too much power to one individual, undermining the separation of powers in the government.

Here's how Turkey could change if it votes 'Yes' on April 16: https://t.co/m2RQKUTrnG pic.twitter.com/0qpD4cLWhw  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 15, 2017

After casting her vote on Sunday morning, Macide Dogan, a 67-year-old housewife, told Al Jazeera that Erdogan is a one-in-a-million leader and praised Turkeys development under his rule.

READ MORE: Essential reading on Turkeys crucial referendum

I cast my Yes vote as conservative Muslim against infidels who are threatening Turkey. Erdogan defies the world powers trying to challenge him, she said at a polling station on the Asian side of Istanbul.

We remember the times [before Erdogan] when young girls with headscarves could not enter universities in this country. We remember the times when there was no proper healthcare and transportation.

Ahmet Erturk, 52, was also a Yes voter.

We were stuck with coalition goverments before [AK Party] came to power. God willing, we will wake up to a more stable Turkey as of tomorrow, he said.

Sezer Sarikaya, a 28-year-old logistics manager, told Al Jazeera he was voting No.

I will vote against the constitutional changes as I believe our parliamentary system set up by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk [the founder of modern Turkey] is good for us, he said.

REPORTERS NOTEBOOK: Constitutional change and questions on power

Ayse Mucek, also a No voter, said that she feels democracy and rule of law are under threat in Turkey under the current administration.

Today, there are widespread and arbitrary detentions in Turkey and there is no press freedom and rule of law anymore. This should stop in this referendum. I believe in it, the 65-year-old pensioner told Al Jazeera.





I am at an old age. I dont think about my future anymore. But if a Yes vote comes out of this referendum, young people should leave this country for better places.

Erdogan addressed supporters in Istanbul for the last time on Saturday, calling on citizens to vote Yes to the constitutional changes.

[The new system] will strengthen the stable and secure environment our country needs to develop, he said.

In contrast, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the CHP, urged supporters in Ankara to back the No campaign.

We are going to vote for Turkeys future, he said. Would you let your children go on a train without any brakes?

The Turkish presidency has traditionally been a largely neutral and ceremonial role, without many political responsibilities, as specified under the current constitution.

However, Erdogan has effectively transformed the office into a more politically active one after he became Turkeys first president to be elected by popular vote in 2014  in line with a set of prior constitutional changes passed in a similar referendum in 2010.

INTERACTIVE: How will Turkey change if it votes Yes on April 16?

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 in July 2016 that killed around 300 people in total.

In recent years, bomb attacks claimed by, or blamed on, Kurdish fighters groups and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) have killed hundreds of security forces and civilians.

Turkeys relations with the European Union, particularly with Germany and the Netherlands, have been tense since last month after these two EU member states barred Turkish ministers from holding referendum campaign rallies within their borders, where millions of Turkish voters live.

Follow Umut Uras on Twitter: @Um_Uras










English News Urdu version of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China released in Pakistan

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 16 Avril 2017



The book is as much about our contemporary world as it is about China, he noted, adding that Chinas unique experience in state administration and reforms can offer enlightenment to the rest of the world.

By Xu Wei from Peoples Daily The Urdu edition of the book "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China", which collects speeches, talks, interviews, notes and letters of the Chinese leader, was released on Friday in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan.



The launching ceremony, organized by State Council Information Office, China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration as well as Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, attracted more than 300 Pakistani and Chinese officials, academicians and researchers.



Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif unveiled the ceremony together with Jiang Jianguo, director of the State Council Information Office.



Sharif said that the rich content of the book, in which Chinese President Xi Jinping shares his experiences and thoughts with wisdom, empathy and kindness, is both "enlightening and inspiring".



Hailing Xi as a great leader of China and of the world, as well as a reliable friend of Pakistan, the prime minister stressed that the book is not just about high politics, but also about moving stories of ordinary people, their lives and inspirations about hard work and family values.



The book is as much about our contemporary world as it is about China, he noted, adding that Chinas unique experience in state administration and reforms can offer enlightenment to the rest of the world.



Sharif added that Pakistan, an all-weather strategic cooperative partner of China, is now engaged in participating the Belt and Road initiative, and feels proud to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with China.



For his part, Jiang said that thanks to the direction pointed out by Xis governance ideas, China has yielded remarkable accomplishments from various undertakings since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012.



To create a community of shared future of mankind is an important governance idea of Xi, and the conception, which aims to seek the common value and interest of all countries in the world, is a cure-to-all remedy to many global challenges, Jiang added.



Marriyum Aurangzeb, Pakistans Minister of State for Information Broadcasting & National Heritage, told the Peoples Daily that the book, in a detailed way, expounds on Xis governance philosophies and gives an explanation to the reasons behind Chinas rapid economic and social progress in recent years.



It is a good model that Pakistan can refer to in its development course, she said.



Praising the long-standing friendship between both countries, the minister said that as the construction of the CPEC is making headway, Pakistan needs national governance as good as China, so that it could propel CPEC construction and contribute more to regional stability and prosperity.



The publication of Urdu version will help spread Xis governance philosophy to Pakistani citizens, and governmental departments at all levels should absorb the experience written in the book, in order to improve their administration capabilities and better benefit local residents, Aurangzeb added.



Akram Zaki, former Pakistani ambassador to China, said that he was impressed by Xis great insight and foresight to benefit the whole mankind after studying the books English edition.



The book is of special significance since it can offer reference to Pakistan in eliminating its current development roadblocks, said Zaki, who is also the former Pakistani Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.



Pakistani residents should deepen their understanding of China, and the book will play a key role in this process, he added.



Farrukh Sohail Goindi, founder and managing director of the Jamhoori Publications in charge of the Urdu version's translation, told the Peoples Daily that the ideas of Chinese president, a wise leader in todays world, is a valuable reference for Pakistans social and economic development, as well as economic growth of the region and the world at large.



The book is helpful not only to the Pakistani public, but also to the people around the world who pursue better state governance, said Goindi, who reads the book eight to nine times in different periods in different stages.



"Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" contains 79 speeches, talks, interviews, notes and letters of the Chinese leader between November 2012 and June 2014. To date, it has been translated into 16 languages and has a distribution of more than 6.2 million copies around the world.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > Yunnan dispatches sci-tech experts to South Asia, Southeast Asia, builds bridge of int'l technological cooperation China's Beidou reaches world-leading level: white paper Silk Road e-commerce promotes trade among Belt and Road countries Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
My focus this week is on the wiretapping (electronic interception of communications, if you insist) of President Trump and his associates during the campaign. It seems to me this story is rapidly unfolding -- if only mostly in overseas press and online -- and promises to be far more explosive than the Watergate story, an account that says frightening things about our intelligence agencies and those of some of our allies, most particularly Great Britain. It has become increasingly clear to me that there was widespread wiretapping of President Trump and his associates and that the underlying justification was pretextual -- it was actually intended to spy on a political opponent. And it is equally clear that the nonsensical post-election tale that Russia colluded with Trump so that he could beat Hillary Clinton was a coverup tale to justify the unmasking and leaking of some of the information -- particularly about General Flynn -- which has taken place. The prior administration was so confident Hillary would win that they left their tracks uncovered and afterward were desperate to hide the truth so they projected and whispered the Russians were colluding with Trump.

Carter Page and the FISA Order

The Washington Post reported that the FBI and the Department of Justice (read Loretta Lynch and James Comey) got the FISA order for the purpose of monitoring a campaign foreign policy adviser to Trump, Carter Page, who had earlier worked in Moscow for Merrill Lynch and had invested (but sold his stock) in Gazprom, the large Russian energy outfit. It is unclear where the Post obtained this information, as the FISA request and order are still secret.

In any event -- and I assume this was an inside leak (probably by someone on the staff of Congressman Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee) to justify Lynch and Comeys action -- there was no basis for the order. The nub of the charge -- which likely originated in the now-discredited dossier by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele (originally hired by Hillary Clinton) was that Page had met with Igor Sechin, a Putin confidant. Both Page and Sechins company deny such a meeting ever took place. (This echoes an earlier charge in the dossier that a Trump attorney met in Prague with a Russian aide, which has been credibly debunked.) Page also had some minor contact with Russian diplomat Victor Podobny, to whom he provided on request basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents. Page has asked to be allowed to testify before the investigating committee.

Catherine Herridge on FOX interviewed him:

Page: I have nothing that I want to hide, and the more that the truth comes out the better, because there has just been so much lies, and now potentially false evidence, which is the next step beyond lies, when it is potentially used in a Court of Law, so that will be very interesting to see how this all plays out.

Th e opposition research firm that engaged Steele to compile the Dossier (Fusion GPS) is refusing to answer questions posed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, inexplicably claiming, attorney-client privilege.

Linking anyone however remotely connected with Trump was key to the wiretapping as a correspondent with knowledge of such things reports:

The key part is where they apparently claim that Page "was an agent of the Russian government and knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of Moscow" I can easily imagine that the incident where he was asked for some open source material would be characterized in the application as "responds to tasking requirement from known FSB agent" or something like that. Almost any act could be interpreted in that fashion. Page's eagerness to testify strongly suggests that he thinks he has nothing to hide. The thing is, of course, that the Russian, as the representative of a foreign power that is placed in the highest category of threat to National Security, would have already been subject to a Full Investigation and all his communications with the rest of the world would have been subject to collection -- including communications with Donald Trump. Thus there wouldn't normally be any need to collect Page's communications with Russians because they were already being collected from the other end. Problem: I doubt that the Russian ever communicated with Trump, and if political intel on Trump was your true goal then collecting communications with the Russian and Page wasn't good enough. You'd need to have a full [full investigation]and do FISA collection from some American who was in touch with Trump or Trump's circle. Thus the need to identity some American as "an agent... " Not to belabor the obvious, but being contacted by a Russki and asked for open source material isn't evidence of someone being an agent of a foreign power -- it's evidence of the foreign power's interest in recruiting that person. Two very different things. And it simply doesn't approach predication for a FISA order. It's predication for a Preliminary Inquiry (under which you can't even apply for a FISA) to check further on the nature of the relationship, but it won't get you a Full Investigation, which you need for a FISA. Unless they had some much better info -- which, as Hinderaker [Powerline blog cited below] says, probably woulda been leaked by now -- there was some serious fudging going on." [Snip] But of course, these people all worked for Obama, so there's a big red flag there. In any event, if the FISA court could be (and likely was) hoodwinked into allowing Pages communications to be captured and monitored, the government could collect all his communications with everyone without limit.

My friend Harry Lewis reminds us of the consequences of using a pretext to obtain a FISA order to invade the privacy American citizens:

The technical term for pretextual collection of intelligence by deliberately misidentifying the target to fool the FISA court -- which seems to have happened here-- is "reverse collection". I'm thinking perjury on the misleading affidavit to the court, and also by Lynch, who had to sign every application. Maybe obstruction of justice if there's a coverup. Rice hasn't yet been questioned under oath, so that will be her big chance to perjure herself or to take the Fifth.

Evidence of Other Western Intelligence Agencies Corroboration in the Snooping on Trump

John Hinderaker of Powerline, whose work my correspondent referred to above, notes that there was a cabal of Western intelligence agencies working with Obama to spy on Trump.

The Guardian adds to our knowledge of how the Obama administration and its allies overseas tried to discredit Donald Trump. (For purposes of this post, I assume that everything the Guardian says is true, even though it is based on anonymous sources who are pursuing their personal and political interests.) Britains spy agencies played a crucial role in alerting their counterparts in Washington to contacts between members of Donald Trumps campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, the Guardian has been told. GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious interactions between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added. Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trumps inner circle and Russians, sources said. The European countries that passed on electronic intelligence -- known as sigint -- included Germany, Estonia and Poland. Australia, a member of the Five Eyes spying alliance that also includes the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, also relayed material, one source said. Another source suggested the Dutch and the French spy agency, the General Directorate for External Security or DGSE, were contributors. So just about every Western intelligence service was collaborating with the Obama administration in trying to elect Hillary Clinton. Yet, amazingly enough, they failed. The blindingly obvious point that the Guardian tries to obscure is that the combined assets of all of these agencies failed to find any evidence of collaboration between the Trump campaign and Russia. We know this, because the Democrats have pulled out all the stops. Both before the election, and especially after the election, they have leaked furiously to try to discredit President Trump. If there were any evidence of collusion between Trump (or even obscure, minor advisers like Carter Page) and Russia, there would have been nothing else in the Washington Post or the New York Times for the past five months. But they have nothing.

As Hinderaker also notes, the cabal thought thered be no consequences for this dirty game because having read the Washington Post and New York Times, they were sure Hillary was going to win and theyd be rewarded for their treachery.

Its also true, as Snowden revealed in 2013, that the British Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) had been partly funded by the U.S. NSA to the tune of over 100 million British pounds. So they had even more incentive to play ball with Obama. Three days after Trumps inauguration the head of that outfit unexpectedly resigned for personal reasons.

Theres every reason to believe that the head of NSA Mike Rogers did not participate in this scam and eight days after the election met with Trump, doubtless to apprise him of the skullduggery that had occurred. On that same date, then-defense secretary Ashton Carter and then-director of national Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr. recommended Trump fire Rogers. Trump got rid of them instead, accepting their resignations.

FISAs not the only way the Spying May Have Occurred

The great reporter Sharyl Attkisson, herself a victim of Obamas spying operation, notes he had at his disposal other tools for spying on his opponents. (Given his history of winning by snooping, I cant believe he didnt use them all.)

Besides the FISA court, wiretapping or electronic surveillance can also be done under Title III authority. The government used this authority, for example, in the Justice Departments secret Fast and Furious gunwalking case. Additionally, U.S. presidents have the power to issue secret presidential directives that can authorize otherwise illegal acts (theoretically in the countrys best interests). These directives may come with pre-planned cover stories to be used in the event the operation is exposed, and they come with indemnity for those involved, giving them permission to lie about the operation or their involvement without fear of prosecution. The public will rarely know about such presidential directives since most who see them must sign agreements that promise nondisclosure and consent to polygraphs. [snip] There are back-door ways to collect and report on a target without Title III or FISA court authority. If its for political purposes or blackmail, this may consist of inventing an excuse to surveil the target. If the work of targeting an individual cannot be accomplished by government intel officers, it can be contracted out to third parties or to foreign parties who arent bound by U.S. law. Incidental collection of a U.S. citizen target may be orchestrated for political reasons by those who have tools and tradecraft available to them because of their positions of power. There are ways to do it with no fingerprints. For example: 1. Locate a foreign target already under CIA surveillance. 2. Have a government agent use the foreign targets phone and/or computer to make it look like the foreigner contacted the U.S. citizen whose communications are sought. The contacts can be benign, but they establish a record that falsely implies a relationship exists between the U.S. citizen and the foreign target. 3. The government agent can also mimic a communication back from the U.S. citizen to the foreign target, creating an appearance that the U.S. citizen initiated contacts. This could be favorable to justifying a warrant on the U.S. citizen later. 4. The U.S. citizen is now tied to the foreign entity and is now an incidental collection target that can be surveilled in a masked format. Although masked, the surveilling agency knows the U.S. citizens identity. 5. If the U.S. citizen does anything that can be construed as illegal or suspicious, its possible the intel agency can then receive approval to surveil him directly rather than only incidentally. Possibly inappropriate requests to unmask names of U.S. citizens captured during surveillance of a foreign target may be preceded by a chain of communications intended to provide a pretense or cover story to justify the unmasking.

Do you see a pattern here? I do.

The Russian Role

In his well-considered post linked above, John Hinderaker offers the most likely explanation for the hacking of Debbie Wasserman-Schultzs email account and sending it to Wikileaks -- if that is how Wikileaks got it and Assange denies they were the source -- it was not to help Trump win; it was to bedevil her after Hillary won.

Rich Lowry writes in the NY Post that Obamas record of bowing to Russian interests provides circumstantial evidence that he was the real Russian stooge. Theres no reason to believe that his long-time Secretary of State would have proven less so than he was.

Theres every reason to believe that Trump, on the other hand, will not be. Theres also every reason for the heads of the Western allies whose intelligence agencies cooperated in the electronic eavesdropping of Trump and his associates to come clean and apologize, and for those in the U.S. who orchestrated this to suffer fully the legal consequences of unlawful acts.
Steve Apfels "Jewish Values Gone Haywire" depicts Jewish people who, like members of so many other ethnic and social groups, bend over backwards to further the interests of those whose values clash with their own, and often are downright wrong. While I agree with the authors condemnation of this tendency among some of our liberal coreligionists, I submit that we must now turn to the question of "Where do we go from here?" It is true that there is not much we can do on a pragmatic level, other than to educate that the liberalism that is rightly condemned in Apfels essay is not the way of authentic Judaism, but let's take a step back and reconsider the larger picture.

I addressed this overall phenomenon from a general perspective in my essay "American Jews Are Becoming More Conservative," but Id like to now focus on some compellingly solid facts on the ground  facts that deal with worldwide Jewry and not only the scene in America.

Apfels essay showcased an incident in Cape Town  one of the most liberal hotspots on the globe  as well as an incident in Johannesburg. Yet by the same token, let us not forget that the immensely popular Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, is a man of squarely conservative religious (and social) values and practice, who has made great strides to lead the countrys Jewish population back to tradition and away from a religion of liberalism that has swept up much of the world, including both its Jewish and Gentile inhabitants.

In England, a seismic change has occurred, as Jews have aligned themselves with the Conservative Party and have abandoned the Labour Party en masse. It is not surprising that the Orthodox Jewish communities in Britain are growing, whereas the more liberal Jewish communities are downsizing.

While Apfel wrote about Obamas Jewish supporters, readers should note major patterns of shifting toward the Republican Party among American Jewish voters. (Also see here.) Although anecdotal evidence is of course of limited significance, I find it extremely telling that every single member of my immediate and extended family, spanning three generations and multiple lines of cousins, including all blood relatives and relatives through marriage, as well as every single Jewish friend of mine, is now a Republican -- and solidly so.

Readers are advised to examine the growing number of major and popular conservative-oriented Jewish media organs, such as Jewish World Review, Israel National News, Haym Solomon Center, Yated Neeman, Matzav, Jewish Press, The Algemeiner, Jewish News Service, Coalition for Jewish Values, and countless more. These Jewish media organs, plus numerous others in both online and print form, closely mirror a serious and traditional religious commitment on the part of most of their publishers and writers. On the other hand, the number and popularity of the liberal Jewish media organs are at best stagnant. The fact that most of these liberal organs so often resort to filling their pages with articles written by and about conservative-minded Jews says it all.

Those Jews with little or no connection to genuine Jewish values are destined to lose their way and, in most cases, to become totally detached from their origins and to be eventually rendered moot in the totality of things. The sad case of liberal Jewrys assimilation and road to disappearance in this regard has been comprehensively documented.

Rather than focus on the unfortunate and errant path of those who have chosen liberalism over self-preservation, as we witness their shrinking numbers and importance, notwithstanding their sometimes loud voices, may we focus on those who espouse correct values, and let us do our best to promote and further their positive and worthy efforts.

Avrohom Gordimer serves on the editorial board of Jewish Action magazine, is a staff writer for the Cross-Currents website, and is a frequent contributor to Israel National News and a host of other publications. He is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and the New York Bar, and he is also a Senior Rabbinic Fellow at Coalition for Jewish Values, (http://coalitionforjewishvalues.org/), a national organization that speaks on behalf of what are commonly known as Judeo-Christian ethics  the moral voice of the Torah. By day, he works as an account executive at a large Jewish organization based in Manhattan. The views expressed in the above article are solely those of the writer.
A good rule of thumb for conservatives is that If Nancy Pelosi favors something, oppose it. Pelosi liked the administration's April 7 cruise missile strike on Syria.

Time to roll out another truism: there is an exception to every rule.

A fair number of conservatives don't see it that way. A strange conglomeration of hardcore Trump supporters and die-hard Trump-haters objected to the attack variously on populist, constitutional, and Realpolitik grounds. To make the situation even odder, they effectively joined the leftist lunatic fringe (where Pelosi can often be found), which opposes almost any American military action based on strained interpretations of both existing and imaginary international law.

All of these various groups are likely wrong about the attack, an assertion that seems increasingly true as time passes. But let's quickly review their briefs.

On the hardcore Trump side, some commentators see the attacks as inconsistent with Trump's electioneering (which is true) and his general America First bent. Trump felt compelled to explain away the charge by asking Americans to recognize and accept the difference between campaigning for president and governing. If he did not do this at some point in his administration, he'd be truly unique. Trump's turned rather quickly on this issue and others, but he took a lot of positions during the campaign that were bound to be brutalized by reality. Duly assaulted, Trump is punching back in an increasingly sensible manner that might irk some true believers but was probably inevitable.

Then there are the constitutionalists, many of whom do not much like Trump but nonetheless hoped he might rein in the exercise of executive power. That was always a pipe dream. Again, Trump really would have been unique had he done that, and it's always been pretty obvious that temperamentally, he is ill suited to give up power. In any case, the constitutionalists are wrong about Trump's use of force, as Professor John Yoo explained to some of his rather apoplectic colleagues over at National Review, generally a bastion (if significantly weakened) of anti-Trumpism.

There are the foreign policy pragmatists, like Daniel Pipes, who has no love for Assad or Putin or ISIS or Hezbollah or pretty much any faction in the Syrian imbroglio and quite reasonably prefers that they bash each other's brains in while we watch from a distance. I don't have a problem with this approach but by the same token don't see how the missile strike undermined it.

Finally there are the moralists. They acknowledge that the Syrian chemical attack was horrid, but then point out that Assad has killed multitudes more by conventional bombs and bullets. People are killed and maimed either way they say, so if you don't try to stop it all, the attack is merely an act of vainglory.

So far, it appears that the attack should be seen exactly for what it appears to have been  an appropriate retaliatory operation against a criminal regime that blatantly violated codified and accepted international law. This simple analysis answers all the critics' questions.

The attack was constitutional because it was not an act of war, but rather akin to a retaliatory and deterrent strike against pirates. Just as no one would actually expect a president to request a declaration of war so a naval vessel could bombard a nest of pirates, the same applies when a couple of American naval vessels bombard a Syrian airbase for their blatant and illegal use of a prohibited weapon.

The strike was legal under international law for the same reason. There is no international policeman to enforce the laws of war, and it is impractical if not usually impossible to have international bodies authorize such action. If no nation enforces the law, why even bother to have it? Just as any nation can act legally against pirates internationally, so too can nations act against users of banned chemical weapons.

On a related note, the only thing that bothered me about the cruise missile attack was that both Pelosi and the Pentagon asserted that the action was okay because it was "proportional." This is pure nonsense, and the Pentagon should stay away from bragging about proportional strikes, because next time, Ms. Pelosi and her comrades probably won't see it that way. The Russians and Syrians were warned beforehand about the attack and so suffered few casualties. That makes the proportionality crowd happy, but had, say, 100 Syrians died  equal to the death toll of the chemical attack  they'd be screaming that the attack was not proportional.

This brings us the practical military-political argument. The Syrian strike was not proportional; it was economical  that is, it followed the military dictum of economy of force and used appropriate weapons for the target. In that, it differed from Bill Clinton's use of cruise missiles against al-Qaeda tents in Afghanistan, and Vladimir Putin's gratuitous cruise missile attack on ISIS last year. That makes people who understand military power and its appropriate use take notice. The days of feckless rhetoric and bogus red lines are over. But it does not necessarily mean that the U.S. is now committed to overthrowing Bashar Assad or is now going to wade directly into the Syrian civil war, as some fear.

As to the morality of a reprisal for a ruthless chemical attack whereas we ignore brutal non-chemical attacks, here we must invoke the practical distinctions between ethics and law and how those concepts operate in the real world. The Westphalian principle that has governed international relations since the 17th century says that nations should not interfere in the internal conflicts of other nations, particularly as they relate to ideology and religion. The Thirty Years War taught that such intervention is generally worse than the cure. And were we to intervene against every tin-pot dictator who kills his own people, we'd be at war all over the globe constantly. The bottom line is that Assad's war on his own people may be wrong, but it is not strictly illegal. When he uses chemical weapons to do it, the action is both wrong and illegal, and so it is legally and morally worth intervening. That is not a perfect moral position, but neither do we live in perfect moral universe.

Trump is muddling through this imperfect universe and, so far, at least, is doing a lot better than his predecessor, as the Syrian operation demonstrates.
There is no end in sight for the Syrian War because both sides have a lot of fight left in them. This is due in part to the fact that losing is not an option for either and both sides are being financed by oil money.

What started as a civil war in 2011 quickly escalated in a sectarian war between Shiites, (Iran, Alawite Syria, and Hizb'allah) and local Sunnis aided and abetted by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states and from time to time Turkey. Almost from the start, President Obama backed the ouster of Assad by Turkey and some Gulf states with the intention of installing the Muslim Brotherhood to run it just as he installed the Muslim Brotherhood to run Egypt.

Victory was almost within the Sunni grasp until Russia entered the fray on the side of the Shiites and turned the tables. At some point along the way, Obama, in pursuit of the Iran Deal, backed away from original plans to oust Assad. This deal greatly strengthened Iran by giving it $150 billion and a license for seeking hegemony.

This conflict between Shiites and Sunnis dates back to a dispute over succession to Muhammad as a caliph of the Islamic community upon his death in 632. The dispute intensified greatly after the Battle of Karbala, in which Hussein ibn Ali and his household were killed by the ruling Umayyad caliph Yazid I, and the outcry for revenge divided the early Islamic community.

Today at least 85% of the 1.5 billion Muslims are Sunni, but the Shiites are concentrated in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Bahrain.

The eight-year IranIraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq lasting from 22 September 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran, to August 1988. The war was motivated by fears that the Iranian Revolution in 1979 would inspire insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shi'ite majority, as well as Iraq's desire to replace Iran as the dominant Gulf state.

In 2003 President Bush removed Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and attempted to transform Iraq into a democracy. The end result was that the majority Shiites were put in power and Iranian influence in Iraq dramatically escalated. This action, in effect removed the most important bulwark to Irans hegemonic ambitions.

In contrast the Syrian War is in its sixth year.

The turmoil in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq can rightly find its roots in the Sykes-Picot agreement which Britain, France, and Russia signed in 1916 believing that they would defeat the Ottoman empire in WW I. Essentially, in it, they divided up the spoils into three spheres of influence, one for each of them. When Russia withdrew from the war, it were no longer part of the agreement.

Due to the hue and cry that followed when this agreement became public, Sykes-Picot morphed into the division of the Ottoman Empire into Mandates, namely the Palestine, Syria, and Iraq mandates, in which the ultimate goal was to usher in independence for the inhabitants of each area. No regard was held for the Shiite/Sunni divide. And thus we have sectarian conflict in Syria and Iraq.

Although Palestine was originally intended by the mandate to be a Jewish state, Britain thwarted this goal by restricting Jewish immigration and encouraging Muslim immigration. And thus we have sectarian conflict in Israel. This conflict has resulted in many wars and has defied resolution.

For six years now the conflict in Syria and Iraq has defied resolution because there are no good choices.

Frank Gaffney Jr., in a recent interview in which the removal of Assad was the topic, said:

The choices, unfortunately, seem to be more of the same. At best, its an Assad-Lite, supported by the Russians, supported presumably by the Iranians, supported by Hezbollah. Or, alternatively, its sharia supremacists of the Sunni stripe supported by the Saudis, supported by the Turks, supported by perhaps al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, or simply the Muslim Brotherhood. All very bad choices, in my judgment.

He did, however, support the creation of an independent Kurdistan in both Syria and Iraq.

I personally think the President of the United States ought to be thinking about a Kurdistan in at least the parts of Syria  and maybe even Iraq or Iran for that matter  that are Kurdish, that have the opportunity or the basis for being safe havens for minorities that are currently very much at risk and are being helped by the Kurds.

But what to do with the Sunni populated territories.

He worried that Trump would abandon his goal of defeating radical Islamic terrorism and its ideology.

I think the president is now being buffeted by individuals who have come in who apparently do not agree with his priority of defeating radical Islamic terrorism, as he calls it, and who have, instead, have the view that we should align ourselves with people who are the prime movers behind radical Islamic terrorism. That would include, by the way, the Saudis. It would include the Turks. It would include the Qataris and others in the region. I think thats a grave concern.

I share his concerns but have some suggestions to make.

At the beginning of the Syrian War, Turkey had visions of taking over Syria and recreating the Ottoman Empire. Why not play into that?

Lets say, President Trump, the master of the deal, approaches Turkey with the following deal:

Turn from your Islamist drift to a 'neo-Ottoman jihad state' and reestablish the modern, secular nation-state of Turkey based on the reforms of Kemal Ataturk instituted in 1923. Allow the secession of southern Turkey where 10 million Kurds live so they can have their independence and join the New Kurdistan if they so choose. In return, the U.S. will assist you to take over the Sunni areas of Syria and Iraq and to annex them if you so wish.

In return The U.S. will assist Turkey in taking over the Sunni areas of Syria and Iraq and to annex them if it so wishes.

That would leave Alawite Syria as a state in which Russia could maintain their port and airfield.

Whats not to like? Turkey would get rid of a decades long insurgency and a financial liability and would gain far more territory than it gave up. Russia would keep what matters to them. The Alawites would have their own state and Assad would remain in power there. Israel would share a border with expanded Turkey with whom they have normal diplomatic ties. The Kurds would finally have a state of their own with a population at least double that of Israel. America would have pro-American allies Israel and Kurdistan as bookends to the problematic areas.

And finally, Trump would have brokered the deal of the century.
President Trump changed the entire calculus of the non-stop war on terror, by dropping a MOAB - the Mother of all Bombs - on the terrorist cave dwellers of eastern Afghanistan.

Incredibly, the New York Times found a way not to praise Trump, but to give more credit to Obama. Get a load of this sophomoric stupidity:

The attack seemed to have a limited purpose and to be less significant than implied by the news coverage that focused principally on the unusually large size of the bomb. By comparison, under Mr. Obama, the Air Force killed more than 100 Qaeda militants in Syria in the waning hours of his presidency by dropping bombs with no memorable name from B-52 planes.

For them, it's a mathematical numbers game, green eyeshades at all. Reminds me of the Best and Brightest's body counts. Weren't the Best and Brightest drawn from the same gene pool as the New York Times types anyway?

For Trump, it's about something much bigger than body counts: Winning the war on terror. Just as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki stunned with their ferocious firepower and made the then-enemy government want to surrender for fear of getting more of it, so the MOAB is likely to have the same effect on all the terrorist beasts out there, hiding in their caves and plotting their next murders. Would the self-important minions of the Times understand that? Not from this article.
Black clad thugs, many wearing hoods and masks, catch up to a Trump supporter at a rally in Berkeley yesterday and put a beating on him.

It appears that anti-Trump protesters - many clad in anarchist black - initiated much of the violence.

Needless to say, the press portrayed the riot a little differently.

"These Trump people are here because they want to start things," Jeff Vernon of Berkeley said. But Stephanie Edd, also of Berkeley, viewed the protest as an attempt "to co-opt the history of free speech." By midday, Allston Way between Milvia Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way was blocked, as protesters moved from the park to the streets, followed closely by officers. Police urged residents to avoid the area of Center and Miliva streets. Soon the warning extended to include Shattuck Avenue and Center Street. NBC Bay Area's SkyRanger captured people burning flags  with one man posing for a selfie beside the torched cloth  and others punching each other and using helmets and skateboards as weapons. Demonstrators were also seen tipping over a garbage can and igniting its contents. An investigation into Saturday's violence is ongoing. Police are asking the public to submit photos and video of the protests to help them identify additional suspects.

The anarchists are professional rioters while the Trump supporters are ordinary Americans. Who do you believe was responsible for most of the violence?




With the pathetically humiliating failure of North Korea's missile launch in the wake of a very big puffy buildup, the shark tank must be working overtime over in Pyongyang. You wouldn't want to be one of the North Korean minions who worked on that wretched fizzle-out that has humiliated the vicious little dictator on the world stage. He gets mean when the world is laughing.

And what a coincidence, it happened as Vice President Pence makes his way to South Korea.

And more interesting still, an intriguing leak of sorts has come to light: That the U.S. hacked the launch, ensuring its failure. It comes from former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind, who served under Prime Minister John Major, speaking with the BBC in a buried lede if there ever was one.

"It could have failed because the system is not competent enough to make it work, but there is a very strong belief that the US - through cyber methods - has been successful on several occasions in interrupting these sorts of tests and making them fail," he told the BBC.

Riftkind qualified himself by saying that there have been other successful launches. But the hacking possibility took precedence in the popular press. The infomation was mined out by The Sun and front-paged on the Drudge Report, both of which have far greater reach and are sure to reach Kim Jong Un's ears, if the BBC report doesn't.

If it's true, it would be part of a trilogy of victories for Donald Trump - following his successful Syria strike, his MOAB blast at the Taliban in Afghanistan, and now this. Note also that the news of the actual failure was announced by U.S. officials almost instantaneously for the U.S. press, suggesting they may have known it was going to happen. It all comes just in time for Vice President Pence's triumphant visit to South Korea.

The news is intriguing to me because I heard the same thing last night from someone I know from association with the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica. RAND is a U.S. intelligence-linked think tank with many tech and foreign policy projects and experts. Hearing it from such a source first and then from Rifkind means it's a 'leak' that's getting around - in Los Angeles and in London, not directly from spies or the Deep Staters who leak to the Washington Post, but from the second tier of policy-watchers not quite affiliated with the U.S. government yet with possible intelligence links. Rather the same way many China links come through its government-affiliated think tanks. That may mean a calculated leak from the real spies - and intended to reach the likes of the Drudge Report for maximum coverage.

If so, it would create deniability for the U.S. for sure. That deniability would be for world consumption and the Council on Foreign Relations crowd.

But t might not even matter if it's true or not. After all, is there anyone out there who thinks Kim Jong Un would believe any U.S. denials?

News of this sort would mean uncertainty for Kim, a psychologically discombobulating worry that he may now be hacked and his every move recorded. Rifkind cautioned that North Korea has already done successful missile tests 'so don't get too excited.' But for Kim, this unsuccessful one raises the possibility that a new spy may be in place, providing the crucial timing or other information needed for a successful hack. He's already seeing a lot of top-level defectors.

If so, it would be a vintage CIA operation. Duane Clarridge, in his superb memoir, 'A Spy For All Seasons' wrote about how the CIA made a Lebanese terrorist group turn on itself and its leader slaughter his lieutenants by having every CIA official loudly approach and crudely attempt to recruit every terrorist associated with it. The result was that the terrorist chieftain got so paranoid he began killing his minions by the dozen. As I recall, Clarridge wrote: "We're pretty good at making people paranoid."

With the possibility of being surrounded by spies dawning on the already-paranoid North Korean dictator, expect the shark tank to be running overtime. The victory may actually be in the skillful manipulation of Kim.
As in the United States, Japan's teachers (and their union) tend to be far to the left of the public they serve. Currently, a huge controversy is roiling Japanese education and politics  one that bears comparison to the battles over multiculturalism in our schools.

Of course, multiculturalism per se is not an issue in Japan, a country that is ethnically homogeneous, save for a tiny (1 or 2%) minority of ethnic Koreans, the descendants of laborers brought to Japan in virtual slavery during the period of Japanese colonization of Korea (1895-1945). Nonetheless, the internationalists among the Japanese are mouthing the same sort of platitudes about diversity, as evidenced by the banner seen below, next to the Olympic Park in Tokyo, where the 1964 Olympic facilities will be used again in 2020, when Tokyo once again hosts the Olympics. Look closely at the lower right corner:

The current issue dividing educators, bureaucrats, and the public is much more basic and distinctively Japanese: the role of patriotism and the imperial institution in education.

Following Japan's catastrophic defeat in World War 2, patriotism itself was held to be in bad odor, and Japan's "Peace Constitution" renounced the use of military force forever. It is an open secret that this constitution was written by Occupation authorities and translated into Japanese. As the Korean War raged barely a hundred miles from Japan in the early 1950s, even the Occupation authorities decided that "self-defense" military force would be okay, an evasion that continues to this day. Japanese naval vessels are currently part of the USS Carl Vinson strike force that is off Korean waters in response to the escalating nuclear threat of North Korea.

When Japan began its modernization under Emperor Meiji in the last third of the 19th century, it became evident that public education would be necessary for the country to rise to its potential as a leading nation of the world. Under the slogan of "rich country, strong military" (Fukoku Kyohei), Japan began industrialization and building a modern military. In 1890, Emperor Meiji issued the "Imperial Rescript on Education," which was read to student assemblies so often that many committed it to memory. Written in the archaic language reserved for emperors, it listed 12 virtues for students to dedicate themselves to, including the spirit of self-sacrifice for emperor and nation. This, in turn, formed a basis for demands made on military conscripts, up to and including most famously the kamikaze fighter pilots, who crashed their airplanes into American warships in the late stages of the war.

As a result, when Japanese education was reconstituted under the Occupation, the rescript was expunged from the schools and forbidden by the Ministry of Education, which closely oversees all school curricula, public and private. Until last month.

Under Prime Minister Abe, who appears to have formed a close personal alliance with President Trump, the Cabinet issued a statement approving the voluntary use of the rescript in education. The version of the rescript it approved is a modernized version, a "translation" into idiomatic modern Japanese, downplaying the sacrifice of the individual in the name of the emperor and instead praising patriotism (along with filial piety and other virtues).

So far, only a few private schools, including one run by a friend of P.M. Abe, have started reading the rescript to student assemblies. But this move has sparked powerful resistance and attempts to discredit the schools using it on various pretexts.

While the excesses of patriotism in wartime were disgusting (talk to any South Koreans about Japan, and you will get a well justified earful), does Japan have the right or even responsibility to teach patriotism now?

All of this may seem minor in an era when American public school students seem to be taught to hate our own country and focus exclusively on national sins of slavery and conquest of territory from Native Americans (not to mention sexism, racism, homophobia, and now "transphobia"), but I think it is related to our own struggles against idealization of victims as the sole bearers of virtue.

P.M. Abe seems to share a character trait with President Trump in never giving up against his ideological opponents. It will be enlightening to see if Japan can embrace patriotism without the undeniable negative aspects of its prewar version.
Rep. Maxine Waters has been calling for the impeachment of President Trump since his first week in office. So it wasn't surprising that, addressing a crowd of protesters calling for the president to release his tax returns, that she would once again urge that Trump be thrown out of office.

Unfortunately for Waters, the Constitution requires that the president actually, like, do something to warrant removal. To date, Waters has yet to point to a specific act for which the president should be impeached.

But that hasn't stopped her one bit.

The Hill:

Days after Trump took office, Waters said her greatest desire is to lead [Trump] right into impeachment. In March, Waters argued that Trump should be impeached if evidence emerged that he colluded with the Russian government. Later in the month, she tweeted "get ready for impeachment." In addition to the impeachment talk, Waters also blasted Trump at the rally Saturday for refusing to release his tax returns. The D.C. Tax March is one of a number of rallies being held Saturday to press Trump to release his taxes. Waters called Trump a "liar" because he has said he can't release his returns because of an audit, while the IRS has maintained that nothing prevents individuals from releasing their own tax information. "Show the people your taxes. Stop stonewalling, stop hiding," Waters said. She also criticized Trump for his campaign tax-reform plan delivering most of its benefits to wealthy people. "The 1 percent will be the only ones who meaningfully benefit on the backs of millions of already struggling Americans," she said. Waters also blasted Trump for refusing to make the White House visitor's log public, which was announced Friday, and for spending taxpayer dollars on regular trips to Mar-A-Lago, his Florida club. "We know one thing, you do know you know something about taxes," she said. "Donald Trump, you sure know how to spend our taxes on your weekly trips to Mar-A-Lago," she said.

If Waters had mentioned Barack Obama's travel expenses when he was president, she might have a leg to stand on in criticizing Trump for his Mar-a-Largo trips. But, as with the rest of her Trump critique, it's all partisan blather.

Apparently, since there's no evidence of presidential wrongdoing, Waters wants to impeach Trump because she disagrees with him politically. This makes Waters a dangerous demagogue. The Democrats have given Waters a prominent role as a party spokesman.

Is this really how they want their party to be perceived?
Many in the left are in shock that President Trump dropped the bomb in Afghanistan.

I even saw a comment from someone saying it's wrong to say "the mother of all bombs," because mothers give life, not kill people. I asked the person if that applied to abortion or Obama's drones. He did not answer. Maybe he will one of these days.

It is great to see commanders and generals fight the war again, as I read in The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. military commanders are stepping up their fight against Islamist extremism as President Donald Trump's administration urges them to make more battlefield decisions on their own. As the White House works on a broad strategy, America's top military commanders are implementing the vision articulated by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis: Decimate Islamic State's Middle East strongholds and ensure that the militants don't establish new beachheads in places such as Afghanistan. "There's nothing formal, but it is beginning to take shape," a senior U.S. defense official said Friday. "There is a sense among these commanders that they are able to do a bit more  and so they are." While military commanders complained about White House micromanagement under former President Barack Obama, they are now being told they have more freedom to make decisions without consulting Mr. Trump. Military commanders around the world are being encouraged to stretch the limits of their existing authorities when needed, but to think seriously about the consequences of their decisions.

Of course, no one is suggesting that the war will end soon. At the same time, it is refreshing to see that the men on the ground are putting aside political correctness and killing terrorists.

President Trump's approach comes at a time when ISIS is regaining strength in Afghanistan, and tough measures are necessary to "smoke them out," as President Bush used to say.

As the father of a young man who just finished his military service, I hate war as much as the loudest pacifist. However, I hate even more sending young men to a conflict and tying their hands with legalisms and indecisive politicians who appear more concerned with the U.N. reaction than protecting the lives of the soldiers they send to war.

We are probably going to be in Afghanistan for a while. Let's kill as many terrorists as we can!

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
US intelligence detected a test of a North Korean long range missile on Sunday, but it blew up just seconds after launch.

Some sort of demonstration was expected during the North Korean commemoration of the birth of the country's founder, Kim Il Sung.

The failed launch took place as US Vice President Mike Pence was visiting South Korea as part of a 10 day swing through Asia.

USA Today:

The U.S. had good intelligence both before and after the launch, said a White House foreign policy adviser traveling with Vice President Mike Pence, who arrived in Seoul in the afternoon to start a 10-day trip to Asia. No planned response is expected from the Trump administration because the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's initial understanding of the launch, said there was no need for the U.S. to reinforce the failure. The official said that had it been a nuclear test, "other actions would have been taken by the U.S." North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time. The White House believes that Sunday's test involved a medium-range ballistic missile that failed within 4-5 seconds after launch, and that it did not involve an intercontinental ballistic missile, the adviser said. The North regularly launches short-range missiles, but is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target U.S. troops in Asia and, eventually, the U.S. mainland. The failed launch will sting in Pyongyang because it came a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather. President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the failed launch, which was attempted from the east coast city of Sinpo. In a statement, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump and his military team "are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."

Kim's attempt to send a message to the US president backfired in the most embarrassing manner possible. But the North Korean people will never hear of the failure - nor will they hear if any of the scientists and technicians connected with the test are put to death. Kim has been known not to tolerate failure.

During the military parade that accompanied the celebrations of Kim's grandfather's birth, the North Korean military displayed a couple of new missiles thought to be major improvements over previous models. It seems pretty clear that the Kim regime is inching closer to being able to deliver a nuclear warhead to almost anywhere in the world - including the US. President Trump knows this, which is why the North's major ally, China, will have to convince Kim that testing a missile capable of hitting the US is a red line that the North crosses at its own peril.
For the past ten days, I have been visiting Japan with AT cofounder Richard Baehr and his wife Lijana. Richard and I were close friends in college when I left to spend my junior year at Waseda Univeristy in Tokyo fifty years ago. Since he has never been here, I wanted to take the opportunity to show him the country  and to reflect on my own life, which was forever changed by that year. (Upon returning from my junior year, I decided to make the study of Japan the focus of my subsequent education and professional life, earning three graduate degrees in various fields and becoming a professor at Harvard. The story of how and why I left academia remains to be written, if anyone cares to know.)

Today, we are in Kyoto, one of the world's cultural treasures, a city full of temples and shrines (literally, one can hardly walk a block or two without encountering some cultural or religious facility). Thanks to a tacit agreement between the U.S. and Japan during World War II, Japan did not locate any military targets or production facilities in Kyoto, and the U.S. refrained from firebombing the city. Everyone really should visit Kyoto, and in the midst of the cherry blossom tourist season, it appears that everyone is visiting it today.

But for reasons I do not fully understand, like Boston, the sister city to which Kyoto is often likened, Kyoto leans left politically. In the upscale neighborhood in which we are renting an Airbnb house, there are lots and lots of political posters, mostly for Communist Party politicians. Here are two examples:

Showing the smiling face of Mr. Kokuda of the JCP (Japan Communist Party), this reads, "Through the power of citizens + opposition parties, we can change politics." (corrcted - my kanji are pretty rusty)

This strikes me as somewhat outdated, since only about 2% of Japanese today are farmers, but historically, the uniting of farmers and workers has been a JCP slogan.

The slogan here is similar: "Farmers and city-dwellers combine forces to open the future." (It makes a little more sense in Japanese.)

I was a resident in Japan in 1972 or so when the JCP decided to become a "friendly" party with a "smiling face," tossing aside militant confrontation and class struggle. In 1949, the party attempted a general strike to bring down the government. General MacArthur, leader of the Occupation, put a stop to it.

Apparently, they have kept up the pretense of a warm and cuddly Communist Party.

Communism is a virus that refuses to die  even in a country that has gone from poverty to wealth thanks to the power of markets.
It is said that when President Reagan fired the air traffic controllers early in his presidency, it sent a message not only to the unions, but to leaders around the world. This guy is not Jimmy Carter, and this guy is serious. It was no coincidence that our hostages held by Iran were released the day Reagan took office.

It should not be surprising that President Trump has accomplished something in three months that Obama couldn't accomplish in three months what Barack Obama didn't in six years: find and apprehend the killer of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, murdered with a weapon smuggled into Mexico by the Obama administration's gun-running program, Operation Fast and Furious. All it took was an administration serious about enforcing our existing immigration laws, from ending "catch and release" to moving to build a promised border wall. Illegal crossings plummeted 72 percent in three months, and a message was sent to Mexico.

It is no coincidence that suddenly a joint U.S.-Mexico task force found and arrested Brian Terry's killer. As Fox News reported:

The cartel member suspected of shooting and killing Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in 2010 with a gun supplied by the U.S. government was arrested in Mexico Wednesday, senior law enforcement, Border Patrol, and congressional sources told Fox News. The suspect, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, was apprehended by a joint U.S.-Mexico law enforcement task force that included the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals and the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC). A $250,000 reward had been sought for information leading to the arrest of Osorio-Arellanes, who was captured at a ranch on the border of the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua. U.S. authorities have said they will seek his extradition. Terry was killed on Dec. 14, 2010 in a gunfight between Border Patrol agents and members of a five-man cartel "rip crew," which regularly patrolled the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border looking for drug dealers to rob. The agent's death exposed Operation Fast and Furious, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operation in which the federal government allowed criminals to buy guns in Phoenix-area shops with the intention of tracking them once they made their way into Mexico. But the agency lost track of more than 1,400 of the 2,000 guns they allowed smugglers to buy. Two of those guns were found at the scene of Terry's killing.

Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes is not the only one responsible for Brian Terry's murder. An accessory before the fact is one Eric Holder, former attorney general under President Obama. Then-president Barack Hussein Obama and then-attorney general Eric Holder conceived and ran a gun-running operation called Fast and Furious, which resulted in the deaths of U.S. agents Jaime Zapata and Brian Terry.

Investors Business Daily editorialized on ATF special agent John Dodson's attempt to spread the truth on the Obama administration's effort to supply Mexican drug lords with semiautomatic weapons:

ATF Special Agent John Dodson is a national hero who in 2011 blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious, the Obama administration's gun-running operation to Mexico. Testifying before Congress, he disclosed that his supervisors had authorized the flow of semiautomatic weapons into Mexico instead of interdicting them, weapons that found their way into the hands of Mexican drug cartels with deadly results. Dodson has put his intimate Fast and Furious knowledge into a book titled "The Unarmed Truth." It provides the first inside account of how the Obama administration permitted and helped sell some 2,000 guns to Mexican drug cartels, guns used in the murder of two federal agents and hundreds of Mexican citizens. ... The operation was exposed when Brian was killed in December 2010 by an illegal immigrant working for the Sinaloa Cartel near Nogales, Ariz., just 10 miles from Mexico. Two Fast and Furious weapons were found at the murder scene. Two such weapons also were used to murder Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico on Feb. 15, 2011, came from suspects who were under ATF watch but not arrested at the time. ... "Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated," Dodson, then attached to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) Phoenix office, testified before Rep. Darrell Issa's House Government Reform and Oversight Committee on June 15, 2011. "Rather than conduct enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals for a short time after their purchases, but nothing more," Dodson testified. "Knowing all the while, just days after these purchases, the guns that we saw these individuals buy would begin turning up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico, we still did nothing."

Democrats did their best to hide the truth about Fast and Furious, with A.G. Holder, the only Cabinet member ever to be held in contempt of Congress, arguably lying to Congress about his knowledge and involvement and repeatedly saying he "didn't get the memo."

American citizens and Mexican nationals to this day are in jeopardy from criminals using weapons the Obama administration funneled to them. As Fox News reported about Mexican drug kingpin "El Chapo":

A .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's hideout in Mexico was funneled through the gun-smuggling investigation known as Fast and Furious, sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News. A .50-caliber is a massive rifle that can stop a car or, as it was intended, take down a helicopter[.] ... Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that 'El Chapo' would put his guardsmen on hilltops to be on guard for Mexican police helicopters that would fly through valleys conducting raids. The sole purpose of the guardsmen would be to shoot down those helicopters, sources said. As for Holder's claim that he wasn't in the loop, Investor's Business Daily noted that the paper trail indicated otherwise: Somewhere, Scooter Libby must be scratching his head. He was indicted and convicted simply because his recall of when a meeting occurred differed from others. He didn't lie about a gun-running operation that led to the deaths of two American agents and at least 200 Mexicans. But Attorney General Eric Holder did, according to memos obtained by CBS News and Fox News. They show Holder lied to Congress on May 2, 2011, when he was asked about when he knew about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Fast and Furious gun-running operation. He told House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa he was "not sure of the exact date, but I probably learned about Fast and Furious over the last few weeks." Holder learned of the operation as early as July 2010 in a memo from the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center informing him of an operation run by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force out of the Phoenix ATF office, under which "straw purchasers are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug cartels."

So Eric Holder knew about Fast and Furious months before Brian Terry's murder. He not only knew about it, but even bragged about it to Mexican officials during a trip to Mexico:

A 2-year-old video shows a high Justice official saying "the president has directed us," including the attorney general, to speed up Project Gunrunner and the offshoot that got a border agent killed[.] ... The video shows Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, who would resign nine months later after less than a year's service, telling reporters at a Department of Justice briefing of major policy initiatives to fight the Mexican drug cartels. "The president has directed us to take action to fight these cartels," Ogden begins, "and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration's comprehensive plan." At the president's direction, Ogden said, the administration's plan included DOJ's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives "increasing its efforts by adding 37 new employees in three new offices, using $10 million in Recovery Act funds and redeploying 100 personnel to the Southwest border in the next 45 days to fortify its Project Gunrunner," of which Operation Fast and Furious would be a part. As we have noted, Attorney General Eric Holder himself gave a speech to Mexican authorities in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, taking credit for Gunrunner as well as Fast and Furious for himself and the Obama administration. Holder told the audience: "Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner."

Project Gunrunner was the precursor for Fast and Furious.

The cartel member who actually pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Brian Terry will get his final justice. Eric Holder, whose department knowingly and willfully put the murder weapon in his hands while running guns to Mexican drug cartels, has not. But that may change under the new sheriff in town. As the respected gun news website AmmoLand reports:

The brother of a slain Border Patrol agent says Donald Trump has promised answers about the Operation Fast and Furious "gunwalking" program leading to Brian Terry's death. Kent Terry met with Trump, and says the presumptive Republican nominee will use his authority to act if he's elected president, Terry said in a Twitter post Tuesday. "Mr. Trump said 'It's a shame Fast and Furious started and shame on them for what they are doing about it," Terry explained to this column, referring to an event at a community college in Michigan (see photo). "When I become president I will open the books on Fast and Furious and Brian. God bless your family Kent." "Then at end of campaign speech when he got off stage he remembered me again," Terry elaborated. "First time in Brian's death I honestly believe Mr. Trump will get answers."

Final justice will happen when Eric Holder and Barack Obama are held accountable for their lies on Fast and Furious; the withholding of documents under the guise of "executive privilege," something even extended to Holder's wife; and the entire cover-up on why Brian Terry had to die. Eric Holder has never been prosecuted for his contempt of Congress citation in this matter. Attorney General Sessions, call your office.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
Draining the swamp? Or putting a fox in the henhouse?

President Trump nominated former congressman Scott Garrett to become president of the Export-Import bank. Garrett is a noted critic of the bank, believing it embodies the corruption of the free enterprise system.

Trump spoke out against the bank while on the campaign trail, but reversed himself this past week by indicating his support.

The Hill:

If confirmed, Garrett would serve a four-year term at the helm of the bank, which aims to make U.S. exports more competitive around the world by lending money to foreign buyers. Trump is also nominating another former lawmaker to the bank: Spencer Bachus of Alabama, who once led the financial services panel. Bachus, who served on Capitol Hill from 1993 to 2014 and supported the banks reauthorization. Trump opposed the Ex-Im Bank on the campaign trail, but he did an about-face this week, saying he now supports it. Instinctively, you would say, Isnt that a ridiculous thing,  the president told The Wall Street Journal. But actually, its a very good thing. And it actually makes money, it could make a lot of money. Conservative groups including Club for Growth, Heritage Action and Americans for Prosperity have long opposed the bank, saying it promotes crony capitalism. Garrett faced a tough reelection battle last year and ended up losing his seat, despite strong support from conservative outside groups like Club for Growth. During the two-year election cycle, his top contributors were individuals who worked at Club for Growth, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Garrett served in Congress from 2003 to 2016 and served on both the House Budget Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. He railed against the bank during a floor speech in October 2015, when Congress let the banks charter expire after GOP infighting about whether it should be reauthorized. We have the opportunity to save capitalism from cronyism.  We have the opportunity to keep the export-import bank out of business, and we should take those opportunities, Garrett said in opposition a measure to revive the bank. The Export-Import Bank transformed the role of government from a disinterested referee in the economy into a biased actor that uses your taxpayer dollars to tilt the scales in favor of its friends. Conservatives in Congress ultimately won a temporary shutdown of Ex-Im that lasted for nearly six months. The charter was reauthorized in December of 2015 after a group of House Democrats and Republicans teamed up to employ a rarely used procedural move that let the bank lend again.

It appears that the presdident has cut the baby in half, giving something to both the pro and anti Ex-Im bank factions. But by appointing anyone to head the bank - even someone who opposes its existence - the president has signalled that he wants the bank to continue to operate.

Perhaps Garrett can introduce reforms that make the bank less of a haven for crony capitalists. But by its very nature, the bank encourages a clubbiness that favors large US corporations and does relatively little to improve our balance of trade.

The Ex-Im bank is a waste of tax dollars that could be better spent giving tax cuts to business to make their products more competitive. Perhaps the president will change his mind again when tax reform will be considered later this year.
On April 17, the Western world would may wake up having to answer the urgent question: "Who lost Turkey?" The day before that, Turkey will have completed its shocking transition from a long-term NATO ally and an imperfect democracy into an Islamist dictatorship that threatens the West and peace in the Middle East more than any other state actor, Russia included. There will be many answers, excuses, and justifications for this sad state of affairs, but what's not at issue is that Turkey is lost, perhaps for a long time, as a friend of the West.

In the run-up to the Turkish referendum on the 16th, there are still many pundits in the West who continue arguing that Turkey could go either way, implying that Recep Tayyip Erdogan could still lose the referendum, which is more a testimony of willful self-deception than of Turkish reality. The reality is that Turkey stopped being a democracy quite some time ago, and to imagine that democratic elections could take place under these conditions is wishful thinking at best.

Witness the following developments just since the purported coup last July: lifting the immunity of duly elected parliamentarians and jailing them on bogus terrorism charges; arresting and jailing 85 elected Kurdish mayors and 1,478 politicians; and closing down hundreds of NGOs and media organizations and firing countless teachers, university professors, and government officials. In yet another government crackdown reminiscent of the communist takeover of Eastern Europe after WWII, Erdogan confiscated no fewer than 600 private companies worth $10 billion and accused them of terrorism.

How did all of this come to pass with barely any notice, let alone disapproval by the democratic West? We can start by suggesting two grievous miscalculations. Though it was obvious from the beginning that Erdogan is a dyed-in-the-wool Islamist and a self-proclaimed "servant of sharia," this did not prevent those ever hopeful of finding a democratic Islamist, like the Obama administration, from declaring Erdogan's Turkey a "strong, vibrant, secular democracy" even as he was arresting scores of journalists for criticizing his policies and throwing hundreds of top-brass military in jail on trumped up charges of plotting against the state.

The second reason is of more recent vintage and is just as uninformed. After German chancellor Angela Merkel made the catastrophic mistake of inviting millions of migrants to come to Europe in 2015, she sought to fix the problem by relying on Erdogan to stem the tide in exchange for money. This has predictably led to even greater European unwillingness to confront Turkish misdeeds while convincing Erdogan that blackmailing Europe pays.

What losing Turkey means has yet to seriously register in both Washington and Brussels, but it will, and soon. Turkey's transformation from a reliable ally into a rogue Islamist state will have huge and likely unpredictable consequences far beyond its immediate neighborhood.

Alex Alexiev is chairman of the Center for Balkan and Black Sea Studies (CBBSS) and editor of the geopolitical website bulgariaanalytica.org. He tweets on national security at @alexieff and can be reached at alexievalex4@gmail.com.
The Last Easter: nuclear war, nuclear bunker puzzles and killer eggs

Its Easter, when Christians thank God for being alive. But will they make it to next Easter? The newspapers are full of doom.

On the Mail, it looks like two reality TV stars are threatening to blow up the world. But its not Kim Kardashian, of course, its Mr Kim, North Koreas hereditary leader, and Donald Trump, formerly of The Apprentice and now as President of the USA giving top jobs in USA Inc. to enthusiastic amateurs, not all of whom hes related to.

At least the Mail is looking on the bright side of life with this brilliant front page.

Over in the Mirror, help is at hand for all of you spending the holiday in nuclear bunkers. The papers tales of Armageddon are padded by a full eight pages of puzzles and games. The world might well be IN CRISIS, but theres no excuse to be bored at you await annihilation. You can even place a bet, and those cheeky bookies will most likely lay odds on you being alive to collect any winnings and them being around to rub their stumps when you dont.

And hold any thought of enjoying your Easter chocolates left by the housebreaking Easter bunny. Those Easter eggs are out to kill you, says the Daily Star.

Happy Easter!

Paul Sorene

Posted: 16th, April 2017 | In: Politicians, Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink


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The warrant was issued on the request of the film producers lawyer, as Sanjay Dutt failed to appear before the court.

Mumbai: The metropolitan magistrate court in Andheri on Saturday issued a bailable warrant against Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt in the case where he is charged with threatening film producer Shakeel Noorani.

The warrant was issued on the request of Mr Nooranis lawyer, as the actor failed to appear before the court after coming out of jail.

Speaking to The Asian Age, Dutts spokesperson said, This case has been going on for a long time and the present situation has arisen because of the communication lapse between our lawyers and us. We respect the urgency shown by the honourable court regarding our attendance/ representation and we would take immediate measure to rectify the situation.

According to reports, the case dates back to 2002 when Mr Noorani  who alleged that Dutt had failed to complete his movie Jaan Ki Baazi, despite pocketing Rs 50 lakh as the signing amount  filed a complaint.

Mumbai police spokesperson Ashok Dudhe, confirmed the news, saying, The Andheri court has issued a bailable warrant against Dutt in connection with 2013 case where the actor is facing charges of threatening Noorani.

In 2013, when Dutt had refused to come to court, a non-bailable warrant was issued at that point as well, but was cancelled after he appeared in court. Later, Dutt had to go to jail in the 1993 Mumbai serial blast case where he was sentenced to five years imprisonment for possessing illegal arms.

When Dutt came out of jail, Nooranis advocate Neeraj Gupta had moved a plea for Dutts appearance in the court in February this year.
The Da-bang group will later travel to Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia too.

Mumbai: Salman Khan has reached the first-stop of his Da-bang tour, Hong Kong, with his group, which comprises of Sonakshi Sinha, rapper Badshah, host Maniesh Paul, Daisy Shah and the monkey-couple Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover.

The actor is very well averse with maintaining the connection between him and his fans.

He avidly posts updates about his every professional move.

Ever since the news of Da-bang tour emerged, the star kept on posting their schedule and preparations for it.

Salman recently posted a video of himself rehearsing with Bipasha for this spectacular show in Hong Kong.

They were seen grooving on Salmans popular number Hangover, which has been crooned by the star himself.

Salman captioned the video on Twitter yesterday saying, "Rehearsals for the 1st show in Hongkong tomo ! #DaBangHK"

Take a look:

Rehearsals for the 1st show in Hongkong tomo ! #DaBangHK pic.twitter.com/hqe5NRn2lI  Salman Khan (@BeingSalmanKhan) April 15, 2017

He also shared a black and white picture of his, which might make you fall in love with his intensity and aura.

Here is the picture which he tweeted:

The group will later travel to Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia for other events.
Contrary to speculation, she wont feature in his film, was on the set to just click a picture.

Austrian model Ronja Forcher is a Salman Khan fan. Recently, when the Bollywood superstar shot in Austria for Ali Abbas Zafars Tiger Zinda Hai, Ronja, who is Playboy magazine model dropped in on the sets to meet her idol.

The brief meeting picture that went up on Instagram, sparked off rumours that Ronja is part of Tiger Zinda Hai. Turns out, thats not true.

The films director Ali Abbas has clarified that Ronja is not a part of the movie at all, and that she had in fact dropped in on location only to meet Salman Khan because she is a huge fan.

Given Salmans devotion to giving foreign talent a break in Bwood, it isnt unusual for one to speculate a work association, but turns out thats not the case this time around  at least for now.
James is survived by his sisters, Cicely and Beverley and his five children, Cory, Winkie, Hardy, Lynn, and Mary.

The actor passed away just blocks afar from his childhood home.

Mumbai: Actor Clifton James, who was famous for his role as Sheriff J W Pepper in James Bond films, has died at the age of 96.

The actor passed away just blocks afar from his childhood home, surrounded by friends and family, loved ones told Variety in a statement.

James was born as the eldest child of Grace and Harry James in the year 1920.

He grew up just outside Portland, Oregon during the heart of the Great Depression. According to his kin, he fought for five years on the front lines of the South Pacific, thereby earning two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star for his service during the World War II.

James' acting career spread out around six decades, where he showcased his talent in theatre, film and television.

He appeared on stage in the plays The Time of Your Life and went on to perform in many Broadway shows which included names such as All The Way Home.

But he gained major recognition when he starred as he crowing Louisiana sheriff, J W Pepper in two Bond films, Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

He played similar roles with Southern background in films like Silver Streak and Superman II.

James is survived by his sisters, Cicely and Beverley; his five children, Cory, Winkie, Hardy, Lynn, and Mary; fourteen grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.
The AIMPLB also said that they would abide by the Supreme Court's decision on the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir dispute matter.

Lucknow: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday said that the community members, who give triple talaq without valid reasons will face social boycott.

AIMPLB member Maulana Khalid R. Firangi said, "It has been decided in the executive body meeting that those misusing triple talaq will face social boycott."

Maulana also informed about the moral code of conduct, which will solve the misunderstanding with regard to the triple talaq issue.

"There has been misunderstanding on this issue, we will issue a code of conduct on it," he added.

The AIMPLB, which has opposed the PILs filed against the triple talaq in the Supreme Court, had earlier on Wednesday said the board will do away with the practice of verbal divorce in one-and-a half years, adding there is no need for government interference.

A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court will start hearing from May 11 the petitions against triple talaq.

The court will hear pleas filed by several Muslim women challenging the practice under which men can divorce their wives instantly by uttering the word talaq thrice.

The AIMPLB also said that they would abide by the Supreme Court's decision on the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir dispute matter.

Talking to the media, a member of the AIMPLB said, "We will go by the Supreme Court's order on Babri-Ayodhya matter."

Earlier, the Supreme Court suggested of an out-of-court settlement of the Ayodhya dispute and said aggrieved parties should keep in mind its "sensitivity" while discussing the matter.

"These are issues of religion and sentiments. These are issues where all the parties can sit together and arrive at a consensual decision to end the dispute. All of you may sit together and hold a cordial meeting," said the apex court.
Sources claimed that the defence ministry has not given clearance to the Pakistani delegation.

File photo of former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of 'espionage'. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Amid growing tension over the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistani military court, India on Saturday called off bilateral maritime security dialogue scheduled for early next week.

A three-day conference, between Indias Coast Guard and Pakistans Maritime Security Agency, was to be held in the capital from April 16 to 19, to discuss various aspects related to the search and rescue of fishermen from the two countries.

Sources claimed that the defence ministry has not given clearance to the Pakistani delegation.

Once again reiterating the governments commitment to providing all possible help to Mr Jadhav, minister of state for external affairs, V.K. Singh, said that steps are being taken to gain consular access to him even though Pakistan has denied Indias request 13 times in the past.

On Friday, India requested Pakistan for the 14th time, for consular access to Mr Jadhav.

As per provisions of the Vienna Convention, a country has to provide consular access if it detains the national of another country.

Talking to the media on the sidelines of an event here, Mr Singh maintained that Mr Jadhav was abducted from Iran.

Pakistan has labelled Mr Jadhav a R&AW agent and a military court has awarded him the death sentence for carrying out sabotage and espionage activities in Karachi and Balochistan. New Delhi has said that it would not only appeal against Mr Jadhavs death sentence, but has also demand a copy of the chargesheet and the final court order to finalise the future course of action.

India has said that if Mr Jadhav, a former Indian naval officer, is executed, it will be premeditated murder.
There is a substantial online trade in breast milk in the US, where women advertise their expressed milk for sale.

New Delhi: Even as the country seeks to scale up human milk banks to save premature and sick babies, the Union health ministry is working on a regulation to ensure that donors are not paid so that human milk is not commercialised in India. In a new set of guidelines, to be released by the ministry soon, the ministry proposes to make it mandatory that milk is given out on doctors prescription and the donors are not paid.

Boon to fragile infants and mothers with delayed lactation or those who cannot nurse, the easy availability of human milk poses both ethical and public health challenges. In fact, many countries have been critiqued for the sale of breast milk from the poor and vulnerable women for profit and commercial purposes. There is a substantial online trade in breast milk in the US, where women advertise their expressed milk for sale.

Therefore, to regulate the milk banks in the country the way they do blood banks, the health ministry is working on safety standards, which makes screening of donors for various diseases like HIV, VDRL (syphilis test) and Hepatitis B test, compulsory. The guidelines makes mothers consent compulsory for donation too. Human milk banks will be the part of the lactation management centre, where women would be given support for breastfeeding, kangaroo mother care and encouraged to donate milk, said Ajay Khera, deputy commissioner (incharge), child and adolescent health programme in the ministry.

The proposed guidelines will also focus on hygiene and handling of milk. Hospital staff will be trained for Hazard Analysis and Critical Care Points (HACCP) systems. This system is usually used for food safety. Pasteurisation techniques and temperature for storage will also be described in the guidelines, said Ruchika Sachdeva, who heads the nutrition department at the international health NGO, Path, and has worked with the ministry on milk bank guidelines.

Aimed to counter the use of formula feed, the health ministry proposes to establish human milk banks in tertiary care hospitals or well performing Sick New born Care Units (SNCUs) with high load facility and collection centers in smaller hospitals. At present there are 661 SNCUs in the country. Government wants to increase access and uptake of human milk to all the SNCUs in the country through human milk banks and collection centres. A Centre of excellence or reference center will be established in each state for monitoring and evaluation and capacity building through training ,added Dr Khera.
The state BJP said that the statement made by the SP chief indicated that he has not been able to digest the SP's loss in the UP polls.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday blamed the media and voters for the party's electoral loss in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls but the state BJP said that he was "putting a question mark on the wisdom of the people of the state".

Yadav claimed that the media only highlighted the family feud in the Samajwadi Party, while the people of Uttar Pradesh were "befooled" by the BJP.

"Despite rendering a good performance (by the Akhilesh Yadav government), the voters inflicted a defeat to the SP. The people were befooled by call of Chal Modi - Chal Modi, and they went with the BJP".

"The media only gave prominence to the family feud of the Samajwadi Party family. If the media had shown anarchy during the SP rule, it must highlight the same during regime of other parties as well," Yadav said while speaking to reporters in Etawah.

On the issue of change of leadership in the party following the drubbing in the UP Assembly polls in which SP got 47 seats, he said that for him the post of party chief is "meaningless".

"Which post did socialist ideologues Ram Manohar Lohia and Jai Prakash Narayan hold?," he asked.

The SP patron also categorically mentioned that whatever be his next step, it would be in the interest of the party and people.

The state BJP said that the statement made by the SP chief indicated that he has not been able to digest the SP's electoral loss in the UP Assembly polls.

"SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav has not only questioned the decision of the voters of UP, but also raised questions on the wisdom of the people of the state," UP BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla said.

Shukla claimed that similar statements were made by the SP patron, after the BJP registered a landslide win in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"The people of Uttar Pradesh have given a historic verdict in favour of the BJP. Instead of questioning the wisdom of the people of the state, the SP should introspect the reasons for its defeat, the mis-governance unleashed by it and the rampant corruption, which prevailed during its rule, else the SP will not be able to retain even its family bastions in 2019 Lok Sabha elections," the BJP spokesperson said.
The video triggered public outcry in the Valley, prompting civil and Army authorities to launch separate investigations.

New Delhi: Army Chief Bipin Rawat on Sunday met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and apprised him of the situation in the Kashmir Valley caught in a fresh spiral of violence.

The 30-minute meeting comes amidst a raging controversy after a video surfaced showing a man tied to an Army jeep as a shield against stone-pelters during polling for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

The video triggered public outcry in the Valley, prompting civil and Army authorities to launch separate investigations. Later in the night former public prosecutor Imtiyaz Ahmad Khan and an ex-militant were shot dead in separate incidents in the Valley.

The J&K police also asked its field personnel to avoid visiting their homes for the next few months, following incidents of attacks by militants on their residences and family members.

In Shopian district on Sunday, militants opened fire on security forces. A civilian was hit by a bullet, though it was not known whether he was injured in firing by militants or security forces.

Meanwhile, normal life was affected on Sunday in the Valley due to a strike called by separatists.
This is the first state visit of the President of Nepal after assuming office of the President in October 2015.

New Delhi: At a time when Nepal is conducting a joint military drill with China, India is pulling out all stops to welcome Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari, who will be visiting India on a five-day visit from Monday. The Nepalese President will also visit the Dwarka and Somnath Temples in Gujarat and the Jagannath Temple in Puri. This is her first state visit abroad after assuming the office in October 2015. She is visiting at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee.

A high-level delegation comprising minister, MPs and senior officials will be accompanying her. Her visit will reflect the priority that India attaches to further strengthening the age-old and unique partnership with Nepal, shared cultural and historical linkages and strong people-and-people relationship, joint secretary (north) in the ministry of external affairs (MEA) Sudhakar Dalela said on Sunday.

She will meet President Mukherjee, vice-president Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Rajnath Singh, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and other leaders, he said at an MEA briefing.

The President will host a banquet in her honour on April 18. She will also visit Gujarat and Odisha and pay obeisance at temples of Dwarka, Somnath and Puri, Mr Dalela said.

Ms Bhandari was scheduled to visit India in May last year, but it was cancelled after the then cabinet in Nepal did not endorse the programme citing lack of preparations on the part of the government, according to news agency reports. The bilateral ties had faced turbulence last year due to the Madhesi agitation and subsequent blockade by the Madhesi demonstrators which halted the supply of essential goods to landlocked Nepal from India.

The MEA had recently said, Bidya Devi Bhandari, President of Nepal will be visiting India on a state visit from April 17-21, 2017, at the invitation of President of India Mr. Pranab Mukherjee.

This is the first state visit of the President of Nepal after assuming office of the President in October 2015. The upcoming visit reflects the priority that both India and Nepal attach to further strengthening of their age-old, unique, wide-ranging partnership, underpinned by shared historical and cultural linkages and strong people-to-people connections.

The MEA had added, During the visit, the President of Nepal will meet with the President of India, vice-president and the Prime Minister. The external affairs minister and other ministers will call on the President of Nepal. Apart from official engagements in New Delhi, the President of Nepal will be visiting Gujarat and Odisha. The upcoming visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries, and will further deepen the cordial and cooperative ties that exist between India and Nepal.
The RSS had also organised Makar Sankranti functions in Kolkata.

New Delhi: With the BJP and the RSS unleashing the Hindutva card in Bengal, its trouble time for Trinamul supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been branded by the saffronites as the queen of minority politics.

The rapid consolidation of the Hindu votebank by BJP became evident when the party stunned all by coming second in the Kanthi (south) Assembly by-poll and grabbing nearly 30 per cent of the vote share. While Trinamul won the elections, CPI(M) and Congress candidates lost their deposits.

Also, for the first time Bengal witnessed massive rallies across the state during Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti. Nearly 200 rallies with participants wielding swords, brandishing lathis were held across the state.

A section of the Trinamul Congress leaders feel that Ms Banerjees politics of minority appeasement is helping the BJP become an alternative among the Hindus, which include the so-called Bengali bharalok.

Last month, in Coimbatore, the RSS in its National Council meet spoke of the alarming situation in West Bengal, and accused the ruling Trinamul for the rise of jihadi elements and the decline of the Hindu population in Bengal. The RSS had also organised Makar Sankranti functions in Kolkata.

Pushing its Hindutva agenda in Bengal, the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, launched a scathing attack on Ms Banerjee, claiming that her blatant and brazen appeasement of Muslims in West Bengal has created a volatile situation, unprecedented in the states history. It then went on to say that never has the state seen such radicalisation of this community as it has witnessed in recent days.

Incidentally, Bengal has also witnessed a steady rise of RSS shakhas. According to RSS sources, from merely 500 shakhas in 2010, the number has gone up to nearly 3,000 across Bengal. Besides this, RSS affiliated schools run by Vidya Bharti have also been going up in numbers. Recently, Ms Banerjee had threatened to shut down nearly 125 schools run by Vidya Bharti.

With the RSS growing rapidly in the state, the West Bengal Minority United Council on Thursday urged the state government to ban the outfit in the state. The council had accused the RSS of trying to destroy the atmosphere of peace and plotting a communal riot in West Bengal.
The hoardings have also come up near the residences of senior administration and police officials, including the district commissioner.

Lucknow: A week after Uttarkhands higher education minister and a former RSS functionary Dhan Singh Rawat said that if you want to stay in Uttarakhand, you have to sing Vande Mataram, hoardings declaring that people should chant Yogi Yogi if they wanted to live in Uttar Pradesh have been put up across the city purportedly by the district unit of the Hindu Yuva Vahini.

Pradesh mein rehna hai to Yogi Yogi kehna hai (Chant Yogi Yogi if you want to live in the state), reads one such hoarding.

The posters that were put up on Friday, apparently by the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), carried photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the Meerut district president of Hindu Yuva Vahini Neeraj Sharma Panchali.

The hoardings have also come up near the residences of senior administration and police officials, including the district commissioner.

SSP Meerut J. Ravinder Goud has ordered a probe into the incident after the district officials removed the hoardings late on Friday night.

The SSP told reporters on Saturday that the local intelligence unit of Meerut had been asked to find out those behind the hoardings and register a case against them.

We have clear instructions from the state government to deal firmly with anything that has the potential to disturb communal harmony, he said.

It may be recalled that the Hindu Yuva Vahini activists, two days ago, has harassed a couple and charged them with indulging in immoral activity.

The activists harassed, interrogated and humiliated a young couple that had an inter-faith marriage, in a rented room. In a video that has gone viral on the social media, the activists are seen asking the couple, Baap ka naam kya hai? Bhai ka naam kya hai?
Surat Collector MS Patel said that the roadshow will cover the 11 km stretch between Airport and Circuit House.

Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his two-day Gujarat visit by holding a roadshow in Surat after arriving there on Sunday evening.

Surat Collector MS Patel said that the roadshow will cover the 11 km stretch between Airport and Circuit House.

At Circuit House, the PM will meet BJP leaders and stay there for the night.

On Monday, the PM will inaugurate Rs 400-crore Kiran Multi Super Specialty Hospital and Research Centre, built by a trust, Patel said.

He is also scheduled to address a gathering at Sumul Dairy, officials said.

Modi will then visit Silvassa in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli where also he will address a gathering apart from inaugurating new projects and distributing assistance to beneficiaries.

Around 21,000 beneficiaries of different schemes of the Centre will be given help kits there.

Modi will then head to Botad in Saurashtra to inaugurate phase-1 of Sauni project for Botad and surrounding districts.

He will also lay foundation stone for phase-2 of the project.

In August 2016, Modi had inaugurated the first phase of ambitious Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (Sauni) Project from Jamnagar.

Under this project, which is divided in four phases, the Gujarat government plans to fill 115 dams of Saurashtra region with excess overflowing water of Sardar Sarovar Dam across river Narmada through a web of pipeline network.

This is Modi's second visit to his home state this year. He had earlier visited Gandhinagar on March 8 to address women sarpanchs from across the country on International Women's Day.
Modi in a dig at Congress said, 'The massive struggle for independence in our country was restricted to a few families and incidents'.

Bhubaneswar : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met the family members of freedom fighters, who undertook an armed rebellion against the British rulers in the state in 1817.

He felicitated the families of freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives during the Paika Rebellion. Modi said that 'unfortunately, the massive struggle for independence in our country was restricted to a few families and incidents' in a dig at the Congress.

After meeting freedom fighters, Prime Minister Modi visited the famous Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar. The Prime Minister arrived in Odisha on Saturday amid massive fanfare for the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) two-day national executive meeting.

Senior party leader M.M. Joshi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and other party leaders are also expected to be present at the meeting.

Prime Minister Modi landed at Biju Patnaik International Airport around 3:30 PM and was given a grand welcome by ministers.

Supporters thronged the streets as Prime Minister Modi made his way to the venue of the party meet from the airport. He leaned out of his vehicle many times to wave and greet the party workers and admirers who were trying their best to get a glimpse of him.

After reaching the venue, Prime Minister Modi got down at the entrance of the Raj Bhawan to greet onlookers and a few women leaders of the BJP. He also shook hands with many of them before getting into the car again to drive into the Odisha Governor's residence.

On arriving at the venue, Prime Minister Modi lit the lamp while Vande Mataram was played to mark the start of the national executive meet.

All 13 BJP Chief Ministers, including Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath, their deputies and 45 Union ministers are also attending the meet to prepare a roadmap for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

The leaders will discuss the BJP's strategy to increase the party's political footprint ahead of the 2019 general elections, while eyeing the 2019 Odisha state elections.
Patnaik had made light of the BJPs assertion to come to power in 2019 saying, it is their wishful thinking.

Bhubaneswar: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik ruled out plans to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his two-day stay in the state capital.

He said since the Prime Minister was on political mission, there was no need to meet him.

The Prime Minister has come to Odisha to attend a political programme of his party. Hence, there is no plan to meet him this time, Mr Patnaik said.

Asked about the massive congregation of BJP national leaders in Bhubaneswar and almost all of them calling for overthrowing his government in 2019 Odisha Assembly polls, Mr Patnaik as usual appeared defiant and he perceived no threat from the BJP to his party and government.

I dont see any threat from the BJP to my party and government, said the chief minister.

Earlier, Mr Patnaik had made light of the BJPs assertion to come to power in 2019 saying, it is their wishful thinking.

Countering Mr Patnaiks remark, Gujarat CM Vijay Ramniklal Rupani, Union minister Venkaiah Naidu and BJP leaders such as Subramaniam Swamy, Poonam Mahajan said that BJP would surely come to power in Odisha in 2019.

Mr Naidu, who is in Bhubaneswar, said BJP was growing in Odisha and the party was all set to come to power here in 2019.

The focus at national executive meet will be to ensure that all welfare schemes and policies of PM Modi reach the grassroots level, he said.
Mulayam Singh, while talking to reporters in Etawah, also blamed the media and voters for the partys electoral loss in Uttar Pradesh.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav said on Sunday that there was no need for the party to enter into any alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

This is in contradiction to the Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadavs statement that he was ready for an alliance to defeat the BJP in 2019. Akhilesh Yadav was responding to BSP president Mayawatis readiness to ally with like-minded parties to defeat the BJP.

Mulayam Singh Yadav said, There is no need for any alliance now. The Samajwadi Party is capable of defeating the BJP on its own.

UPCC president Raj Babbar said on Sunday that the Congress has not taken any decision on the 2019 elections. We are meeting our party workers and leaders and we will have to respect their views on this issue, he said.

Mr Babbar and other senior leaders had to face the wrath of party workers at a meeting here on Sunday. The party workers squarely blamed the decision of the alliance for the Congress rout in the elections.

Mulayam Singh, while talking to reporters in Etawah, also blamed the media and voters for the partys electoral loss in Uttar Pradesh.

The Akhilesh Yadav government performed well, but the voters defeated the party. The voters were misled by the campaign of Chal Modi, Chal Modi, and they went with the BJP. The media only gave prominence to the family feud inside the Samajwadi Party. If the media had shown anarchy during the SP rule, it should have highlighted the same during regime of other parties as well, he said.

The SP leader also said that whatever his next step is, it would be in the interest of the party and the people of the state.
The complaint has been filed by the BJP's Legal Committee at the Parliament Street police station, said state BJP chief Manoj Tiwari.

New Delhi : The Delhi BJP on Sunday said it has lodged a complaint with police against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for dubbing the Election Commission as 'Dhritrashtra' and "misleading" hoardings put up by the AAP.

The complaint has been filed by the BJP's Legal Committee at the Parliament Street police station. A separate complaint has also been filed with the State Election Commission in this regard, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said.

Earlier this week, Kejriwal had attacked the Election Commission over alleged tampering with the electronic voting machines (EVMs), accusing the poll body of acting like 'Dhritrashtra' to help son 'Duryodhana' (BJP) win the recent state assembly elections.

He alleged that the Commission's only intention was to bring the BJP to power in the poll-bound states and that is why it was not paying heed to his request to investigate the defective EVMs.

"In the complaint, objection has been raised to Kejriwal's statement in which he had called the Election Commission as 'Dhritrashtra' and the BJP as 'Duryodhan'," Tiwari told reporters in a press conference.

He said in the complaints with police and State Election Commission, the party has also objected to the "misleading charge" against the BJP regarding hike in power and water tariffs by the Chief Minister and his deputy Manish Sisodia through the hoardings.
The number of cases registered in 2014 was 56. In 2015, the figure dropped to 39 and in 2016, the number dropped to 14.

Apart from registering Prevention of Corruption Act (POC) cases and taking up probe, strict departmental action was taken against the defaulting personnel. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: About 109 Delhi police officials were caught by the vigilance branch of the Delhi police for taking bribes from 2014 to 2016.

According to the data, the number of cases registered against erring Delhi police personnel In 2014, the figure was 56 and in 2016 the number decreased to 39 and in 2016, such cases has shown the decline from 39 to 14. We have taken action against these officials as per law, said a police official on conditions of anonymity.

In 2016, five constable, one head constable, three inspector, three ASI and two SI were booked for taking bribes and appropriate action has taken against them, said the official.

Apart from registering Prevention of Corruption Act (POC) cases and taking up probe, strict departmental action was taken against the defaulting personnel. Many of these officers have been suspended, and others were dismissed on corruption charges.

In 2016, the Delhi police vigilance department had conducted 55% more inquires against its men. A Delhi police survey found 34% of the cops to be corrupt in 2015, down from 66% in 2014. Last year the department registered 88 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act against 77 policemen. Inquiries were conducted against 838 policemen, of which charges were proved against an ACP, 12 inspectors, 18 sub-inspectors, two ASIs, five head constables and 15 constables. Of the 490 cops suspended in 2015, 10 were inspectors, 90 sub-inspectors, 46 ASIs, and the rest were constables and home guards. Departmental inquiries were ordered against 1,017 officers and 90 policemen were dismissed from service following complaints.

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.
According to preliminary investigation, the middle-aged IAF officer fell from the balcony at the officers' mess.

Kolkata: An Indian Air Force (IAF) officer was found dead in Fort William, the headquarters of the Eastern Command, under mysterious circumstances in the wee hours of Sunday.

Wing Commander SVR Moorty was posted as the legal officer at the Advance Headquarters of the Eastern Air Command located in Fort William for the last six months, sources revealed. He was originally from Hyderabad where his family stays.

The IAF officer is survived by his wife, a 22-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.

According to preliminary investigation, the middle-aged IAF officer fell from the balcony at the officers' mess. But how he fell is not clear till the reports last came in. The body was found later.

On Sunday morning Eastern Command spokesperson Wing Commander SS Birdi said, "Wg Cdr SVR Moorty died last night night after falling from the balcony on 2nd floor. It is not known what time he fell since the body was discovered only on the morning at around 5. It does not appear to be a case of suicide but rather an accident." The body was sent for post-mortem.

Asked if any inquiry into the incident Wg Cdr Birdi added, "It's a case of unnatural death. The police shall investigate the cause. Side by side the air force will carry out a departmental inquiry for the same, as per procedure. Post-mortem will be carried out after some time. Conduct of inquiry by the police and the air force is routine in such cases and is as per the laid down procedure."
The two apprehended are frequent fliers to India and are in trading activities in textile material, readymade garments and cosmetics.

Personal search resulted in the recovery of 25 gold bars weighing 2915 grams valued at Rs. 87,45,000.

Mumbai: The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) on Sunday arrested two Sri Lankan passengers for smuggling 25 gold bars from Dubai.

42-year-old Jameer Abdul Wahid and 48-year-old Althaf Sahul Hameed arrived from Dubai by the Emirates Airlines flight EK508 and were intercepted in the arrival hall of Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Their personal search resulted in the recovery of 25 gold bars weighing 2915 grams valued at Rs. 87,45,000.

The said gold bars were concealed in the rectum of their body.

They are frequent fliers to India and are in trading activities in textile material, readymade garments and cosmetics.

Earlier on April 14, the AIU officers intercepted one passenger named Sayed Noorulameen, 26-year-old, a resident of Karnataka's Bhatkal, who had arrived from Dubai by Gulf Airways flight GF 64 on suspicion that he was concealing gold in person.

Upon interception, he was found carrying one hand operated juicer.
Two smugglers were intercepted in Mumbai on Saturday and one on Friday amounting to gold seized over Rs 1 crore.

Mumbai: The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Mumbai customs on Saturday arrested two Sri Lankan passengers for smuggling 2.92 kg of gold in their rectum. The passengers, who are textile traders by profession, arrived in Mumbai via Emirates. The unit, on Friday, had intercepted a 26-year-old resident of Karnataka for smuggling around 570 grams of the yellow metal. The gold seized from all three accused is valued at over one crore.

Jameer Abdul Wahid (42), a holder of Sri Lankan passport, arrived from Dubai by Emirates flight EK508 and was intercepted at the arrival hall of the airport. A personal search resulted in the recovery of 13 gold bars weighing 1,516 grams approximately valued at Rs 45 lakh. The said gold bars were concealed in his rectum after which he was arrested. In another case, Althaf Sahul Hameed (48), who also holds a Sri Lankan passport and had arrived from Dubai by the same flight, was arrested for smuggling 12 gold bars weighing 1,399 grams, which are approximately valued at Rs 42 lakh. They too were concealed in his rectum.

Both the arrested passengers hail from the Puthalam district in Sri Lanka. They are frequent fliers to India and are in trading activities in textile material, readymade garments and cosmetics, said an AIU official.

The AIU officers had also intercepted Sayed Noorulameen on Friday for smuggling gold. He had arrived from Dubai by Gulf Airways flight GF 64 and was stopped on suspicion that he was concealing gold on his person. After his interrogation, he was found carrying a hand-operated juicer machine, in which two cylindrical gold rods were concealed in the hollow portion of the vertical column fixed to the base.
Graham reveals the abuse was the start of a number of toxic relationships with older men.

Melbourne: She may be one of the most influential models of her generation, but Ashley Grahams rise to fame was marred by a dark childhood memory.

Opening about how a family friend sexually abused her in her upcoming memoir A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty and Power Really Look Like, the Vogue model said an 18-year-old boy forced her to touch his erection while they were drying off after a swim in the pool, News.Com.Au reported. Thats what you did to me, the boy told her, before a terrified Graham ran away. She added that it left me with so many lingering questions.

Graham reveals the abuse was the start of a number of toxic relationships with older men. It didnt matter how inappropriate, unsolicited, or confusing it was, any male attention was good attention as far as I was concerned, she wrote. After moving to New York to pursue her modelling career, Graham admitted that she was almost fired by her agency for her use of drugs and alcohol. I hit bottom, she noted after revealing she had to apologise to her agent after missing a flight to a job because of partying all night.
The Union government seems to be trying to appear muscular in the nationalist cause and giving democratic decencies and rights a burial.

In July last year, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court of Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U. Lalit practically produced a manifesto of citizens rights for areas where the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is in operation, as it ordered investigations into extra-judicial killings of some 1,500 persons in Manipur over the past decade.

In the case of custodial deaths, the Bench held that there must be a FIR instituted against security personnel and CrPC may be attracted even in areas where AFSPA was in force. This, it said, was within the purview of the CrPC as well as the Army Act.

The point at issue is whether the security forces can have a carte blanche in AFSPA areas and kill civilians at their sweet will, using excessive or disproportionate force, unmindful of the circumstances. The top court says they absolutely cannot, and seeks to make a distinction between deaths in action and those in custody or in cold blood.

This is not palatable to the Union government. Last Wednesday, attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi argued for a dilution of the apex courts earlier judgment. The State said if that order is not changed, it may, one day, be well-nigh impossible to maintain peace and security.

This is plainly absurd unless it can be argued that democratic states must give their soldiers and police the licence to kill and become police or military states in areas suffering from internal disturbances. The governments top law officer forgets that disproportionate force against non-combatants is not permitted even in conditions of war. Indeed, that is why the category of war crimes exists.

The experience of Kashmir shows that aberrations notwithstanding, the conduct of the security forces, especially the Army, has been wholly civilised. The Army, in many instances, has suo motu tried its own personnel and has openly expressed regret. On the whole, other Central forces have also behaved well, although human rights violations have occurred. These have quickly come to light. Just the other day, in Budgam, a CRPF personnel was attacked and dragged by mobs, but the courageous man did not use his weapon to fire on his attackers. He could have. Instances such as these indicate that the security forces are frequently ahead of the curve even as the State bats for a retrograde position.

The A-G argued that the Army has to take quick action and these must not be subjected to judicial review as ordinary murders can be. Use of force in the line of duty is not what we are talking about here, but the leeway to practice murder. The Union government seems to be trying to appear muscular in the nationalist cause and giving democratic decencies and rights a burial.
Google recently updated its messaging-app Allo to version 9.0. The new update came along with several bug fixes and improvements. A new report suggests that the company plans on bringing a desktop client to the app soon.

Several weeks back, Googles VP of Communications Products, Nick Fox released a teaser, suggesting the arrival of web client for Allo.

According to 9to5Google, just like WhatsApp, Allos latest version has options for pairing the smartphone with the web client by simply scanning the QR code. Moreover, users can also use the text code method to pair the device.

Unfortunately, there are a few limitations to the new addition. For instance, the device requires to be in vicinity when users are setting it up with the desktop. Plus, data connection should be present on both devices in order to connect.

Google will be launching the web client commercially soon.
Canada contributes to investigations on use of chemical weapons and collection of evidence to aid the prosecution of war crimes in Syria.

Canada says the chemical weapons attack in southern Idlib is a war crime and is unacceptable. (Photo: AP)

Ottawa (Canada): Canada has sanctioned 27 high-ranking officials in the Syrian Government to put pressure on President Bashar al- Assad to end 'indiscriminate' violence in the war-torn country.

According to the Toronto Star, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement that those people are now subject to an asset freeze and dealings prohibition.

Calling for meaningful negotiations, Freeland added the move is a part of international pressure on the Assad regime to end indiscriminate violence against their own people like this month's chemical weapons attack.

Earlier, Freeland urged Russia, a longtime Assad ally, to break with the Syrian President and help broker his departure in order to establish a lasting peace. Freeland further said the new sanctions against key officials are part of Canada's continued efforts to pressure the Assad regime to stop the violence against innocent children, women and men.

The statement issued on Friday said Canada is contributing to investigations on the use of chemical weapons and the collection of evidence to support the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.

"Last week's chemical weapons attack in southern Idlib is a war crime and is unacceptable. Canada is working with its allies to end the war in Syria and hold those responsible to account," she said.

The Syrian regime faced global ire over an alleged chemical attack in rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun which killed 87 people including many children.

The Syrian Government has, however, denied involvement in the toxic attack and blamed rebel groups. Russia has also backed Syrian claims.

Denouncing the chemical attack, US President Donald Trump ordered a strike that saw 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles destroy the airbase in central Syria.

It was the first direct US military action against Assad's forces since the start of Syria's civil war six years ago and led to a quick downward spiral in ties between Washington and Moscow. Russia accused the United States of breaking international law with the strike against Syria.
Pyongyang warns Washington of nuclear strike on its annual military parade.

Pyongyang: North Korea warned the United States of a nuclear war on Saturday as it unveiled what analysts said could be a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at a giant military parade in Pyongyang to mark the 105th anniversary of the countrys founder Kim Il-sung.

Choe Ryong-hae, considered by analysts as the Norths No. 2 official, addressed the packed Kim Il-Sung Square with a characteristically bellicose warning to the US as nearly 60 missiles were paraded.

If the United States wages reckless provocation against us, our revolutionary power will instantly counter with annihilating strike, and we will respond to full-out war with full-out war and to nuclear war with our style of nuclear strike warfare, Choe said adding that US President Donald Trump is guilty of creating a war-like situation on the Korean Peninsula by dispatching forces to the region.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, looking relaxed in a dark suit and laughing with aides, oversaw the festivities on the Day of the Sun, which celebrates the 1912 birthday of his late grandfather Kim Il-sung.

The North saw the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi in Libyaneither of whom had nuclear weapons as proof of the weapons power. It will be the largest of miscalculations if the United States treats us like Iraq and Libya, which are living out miserable fates as victims of aggression, and Syria, which didnt respond immediately even after it was attacked, the general staff of the North Korean Army said on Thursday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The North vice-foreign minister had told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview on Thursday that Trumps tweets have inflamed tensions. Trump is always making provocations with his aggressive words, Han Song-ryol said.

The parade displayed devices in increasing order of range and it was four huge green missiles rolled out on articulated trailers towards the end that caught the attention of military specialists. This appears to be a new ICBM, Yonhap news agency quoted a South Korean military official as saying A US military official said that America doesnt intend to use military force against Pyon-gyang.
North Korean missile 'blew up almost immediately' on its test launch on Sunday, as informed by the US Pacific Command.

A North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately" on its test launch on Sunday, the US Pacific Command said. (Photo: Representational Image/AFP)

Pyongyang, (North Korea): South Korea said on Sunday, North Korea's latest missile launch threatened the entire world, warning of a punitive action if it leads to further provocations such as a nuclear test or a long-range missile launch.

" North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at Saturday's military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile Sunday is a show of force that threatens the whole world," South Korea 's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
by Bernardo Cervellera

Zhan Silu was ordained in 2000. Ma Daqin, still under house arrest, but could "visit the Diocese of Mindong," where the ordinary bishop, Msgr. Guo Xijin, has disappeared in police custody. In the ceremony, Ma Daqin was called "bishop" and not "father" as before. The Patriotic Association undisputed master of the Church in China. "The Vatican is a joke". The PA attempts to destroy dialogue between the Holy See and the government.

Rome (AsiaNews) - "It's big news, but also news of great sadness". "The Vatican is being mocked by the Patriotic Association": These are the first hot comments on the news that is going viral online with a series of photos: Illicit Bishop Vincenzo Zhan Silu of Mindong concelebrating the Easter morning Mass with Msgr. Thaddeus Ma Daqin, Bishop of Shanghai, together with two priests.

The news is that Zhan Silu is an illegitimate bishop - self-ordained in 2000 and took office in 2006 - who still awaits reconciliation with the Holy See. Meanwhile his career has led him to becoming vice-president of the Chinese Bishops Council at the Assembly of Chinese Catholic Representatives last December.

Thaddeus Ma Daqin, ordained bishop by the Holy See with government agreement in 2012, was put under house arrest soon after having resigned from the Patriotic Association (PA). Later he seems to have recanted his position by publishing several articles in favor of the PA. For this, while still confined to isolation in the seminary of Sheshan, he was able to participate in some meetings, but has always been presented as "Father Ma," and not as a bishop.

This time, at the concelebration in Mindong, he was presented to the faithful as "Bishop Ma Daqin," visiting the Diocese of Mindong. The people welcomed him with a long applause.

It is important to remember that in the days before Easter, the ordinary bishop of Mindong, Msgr. Vincent Guo Xijin, belonging to the underground community, was seized by security forces to force him to "learn and study." He is recognized by the Holy See and not by the government.

It is very likely that Msgr. Guo has been arrested because he has opposed the celebration, which was supposed to involve all three Zhan, Ma and Guo. In fact, the PA directive, repeated many times, is that the PA (and the Ministry of Religious Affairs) decides who are valid" bishops, not the Vatican. For this reason, the PA continues to meddle in celebrations involving licit and illicit bishops, excommunicated and in communion with the Pope, as has happened in the past ordinations of Chengdu and Xichang.

As for the "mockery" of the Vatican, "it must be said that - as Card. John Tong explained in his article - the Holy See is seeking the way to an agreement on the appointment of bishops, but reconciliation with illicit bishops takes place according to internal arrangements to the Holy See, and according to canon law. But apparently, the PA does not care about canon law or obedience to the pope. Neither does it seems to care about dialogue between the government and the Holy See. Rather these moves seek to undermine the dialogue and make them fail by presenting both the Chinese government and the Holy See with a fait accompli: the celebration of its power over the Church and bishops.
by Papa Francesco

In his Easter message, Pope Francis recalls the massacre of refugees bombed yesterday while they were fleeing Aleppo. "The signs of the Passion" of Jesus to draw "on his way, the way of life." "The Risen Shepherd is our traveling companion of those who are forced to leave their homelands because of armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, famines, oppressive regimes." A reminder that Europe lacks "hope."

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - A "special thought" for the Syrian people, remembering "the last despicable attack on fleeing refugees which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries" yesterday on the outskirts of Aleppo, which has caused dozens of deaths. But even a hope for the Middle East; for "conflicts" and famines "of Africa; for Ukraine and for "political and social tensions" of Latin America. A thought also for Europe, because the Risen Lord "gifts hope to those experiencing moments of crisis and difficulty, especially due to high unemployment, particularly among young people". These are some of the themes that Pope Francis has mentioned in his speech that preceded the Urbi et Orbi blessing today at 12 (local time) from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica.

Previously, the Pope celebrated the Easter Mass from the atrium of the basilica overflowing with a floral composition from Holland. Originally, it was announced that there would be no sermon  already given last night at the vigil - and followed by the message Urbi et Orbi. But then Francis has expressed some thoughts off the cuff. " In this culture of waste where what is not needed is thrown away, discarded, the stone - Jesus - is discarded and is the source of life. And we too, pebbles on the ground, in this land of pain, tragedy, with faith in the Risen Christ we have a sense among many calamities. The sense to look beyond the and say, "Look there is a wall; there is a horizon, there life, there is joy, there is the cross with this ambivalence. Look ahead, do not close in on yourself".

This is the Easter Message from Pope Francis:

URBI ET ORBI

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy Easter!

Today, throughout the world, the Church echoes once more the astonishing message of the first disciples: Jesus is risen!  He is truly risen, as he said! The ancient feast of Passover, the commemoration of the liberation of the Hebrew people from slavery, here finds fulfilment. By his resurrection, Jesus Christ has set us free from the slavery of sin and death, and has opened before us the way to eternal life. All of us, when we let ourselves be mastered by sin, lose the right way and end up straying like lost sheep. But God himself, our shepherd, has come in search of us. To save us, he lowered himself even to accepting death on the cross. Today we can proclaim: The Good Shepherd has risen, who laid down his life for his sheep, and willingly died for his flock, alleluia (Roman Missal, IV Sunday of Easter, Communion antiphon). In every age, the Risen Shepherd tirelessly seeks us, his brothers and sisters, wandering in the deserts of this world. With the marks of the passion  the wounds of his merciful love  he draws us to follow him on his way, the way of life. Today too, he places upon his shoulders so many of our brothers and sisters crushed by evil in all its varied forms.

The Risen Shepherd goes in search of all those lost in the labyrinths of loneliness and marginalization. He comes to meet them through our brothers and sisters who treat them with respect and kindness, and help them to hear his voice, an unforgettable voice, a voice calling them back to friendship with God. He takes upon himself all those victimized by old and new forms of slavery, inhuman labour, illegal trafficking, exploitation and discrimination, and grave forms of addiction. He takes upon himself children and adolescents deprived of their carefree innocence and exploited, and those deeply hurt by acts of violence that take place within the walls of their own home.

The Risen Shepherd walks beside all those forced to leave their homelands as a result of armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, famine and oppressive regimes. Everywhere he helps these forced migrants to encounter brothers and sisters, with whom they can share bread and hope on their journey. In the complex and often dramatic situations of todays world, may the Risen Lord guide the steps of all those who work for justice and peace. May he grant the leaders of nations the courage they need to prevent the spread of conflicts and to put a halt to the arms trade.

Especially in these days, may he sustain the efforts of all those actively engaged in bringing comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death. Just yesterday there was the latest despicable attack on fleeing refugees which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. May he grant peace to the entire Middle East, beginning with the Holy Land, as well as in Iraq and Yemen.

May the Good Shepherd remain close to the people of South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, who endure continuing hostilities, aggravated by the grave famine affecting certain parts of Africa.

May the Risen Jesus sustain the efforts of all those who, especially in Latin America, are committed to ensuring the common good of societies marked at times by political and social tensions that in some cases have resulted in violence. May it be possible for bridges of dialogue to be built, by continuing to fight the scourge of corruption and to seek viable and peaceful solutions to disputes, for progress and the strengthening of democratic institutions in complete respect for the rule of law.

May the Good Shepherd come to the aid of Ukraine, still beset by conflict and bloodshed, to regain social harmony. May he accompany every effort to alleviate the tragic sufferings of those affected by the conflict.

The Risen Lord continues to shed his blessing upon the continent of Europe. May he grant hope to those experiencing moments of crisis and difficulty, especially due to high unemployment, particularly among young people. Dear brothers and sisters, this year Christians of every confession celebrate Easter together. With one voice, in every part of the world, we proclaim the great message: The Lord is truly risen, as he said! May Jesus, who vanquished the darkness of sin and death, grant peace to our days.

Happy Easter!
In the face of women who go to the tomb we see "the faces we can see reflected all those who, walking the streets of our cities, feel the pain of dire poverty, the sorrow born of exploitation and human trafficking. We can also see the faces of those who are greeted with contempt because they are immigrants". "Let us go back to proclaim, to share, to reveal that it is true: the Lord is alive! He is living and he wants to rise again in all those faces that have buried hope, buried dreams, buried dignity."

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The Resurrection of Christ "wants also to break down all the walls that keep us locked in our sterile pessimism,  in boundless ambition that can make us compromise the dignity of others", "the pain of dire poverty, the sorrow born of exploitation and human trafficking"," contempt because they are immigrants, deprived of country, house and family". But "the beating heart of the Risen Lord is given to us, and we are asked to give it in turn as a transforming force, as the leaven of a new humanity."

The Easter Vigil, the night in which the Church recalls Jesus' victory over death, the triumph of good over evil. Pope Francis words reveal a hope despite the evils that still plague humanity, in particular, praise for the fidelity of the women who followed Jesus on his way to the cross and the tomb, and who now run to spread the happy event: He is risen. As he had said.

The rite begins with the blessing of fire and preparation of the Paschal candle, it includes the baptism of some catechumens: 11, almost all adults, and also from China - a young woman - Malaysia, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, United States of America, Albania, Malta.

In his homily, Francis begins from the surprise of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary when they go to the tomb and find it empty. Unlike the disciples, the women are present  just as they had been present as the Master breathed his last on the cross, and then, with Joseph of Arimathea, as he was laid in the tomb. Two women who did not run away, who remained steadfast, who faced life as it is and who knew the bitter taste of injustice. We see them there, before the tomb, filled with grief but equally incapable of accepting that things must always end this way.

If we try to imagine this scene, we can see in the faces of those women any number of other faces: the faces of mothers and grandmothers, of children and young people who bear the grievous burden of injustice and brutality. In their faces we can see reflected all those who, walking the streets of our cities, feel the pain of dire poverty, the sorrow born of exploitation and human trafficking. We can also see the faces of those who are greeted with contempt because they are immigrants, deprived of country, house and family. We see faces whose eyes bespeak loneliness and abandonment, because their hands are creased with wrinkles. Their faces mirror the faces of women, mothers, who weep as they see the lives of their children crushed by massive corruption that strips them of their rights and shatters their dreams. By daily acts of selfishness that crucify and then bury peoples hopes. By paralyzing and barren bureaucracies that stand in the way of change. In their grief, those two women reflect the faces of all those who, walking the streets of our cities, behold human dignity crucified.

The faces of those women mirror many other faces too, including perhaps yours and mine. Like them, we can feel driven to keep walking and not resign ourselves to the fact that things have to end this way. True, we carry within us a promise and the certainty of Gods faithfulness. But our faces also bear the mark of wounds, of so many acts of infidelity, our own and those of others, of efforts made and battles lost. In our hearts, we know that things can be different but, almost without noticing it, we can grow accustomed to living with the tomb, living with frustration. Worse, we can even convince ourselves that this is the law of life, and blunt our consciences with forms of escape that only serve to dampen the hope that God has entrusted to us. So often we walk as those women did, poised between the desire of God and bleak resignation. Not only does the Master die, but our hope dies with him.

The beating heart of the Risen Christ is what we have been given and what we are asked to give

And suddenly there was a great earthquake (Mt 28:2). Unexpectedly, those women felt a powerful tremor, as something or someone made the earth shake beneath their feet. Once again, someone came to tell them: Do not be afraid, but now adding: He has been raised as he said! This is the message that, generation after generation, this Holy Night passes on to us: Do not be afraid, brothers and sisters; he is risen as he said! Life, which death destroyed on the cross, now reawakens and pulsates anew (cf. ROMANO GUARDINI, The Lord, Chicago, 1954, p. 473). The heartbeat of the Risen Lord is granted us as a gift, a present, a new horizon. The beating heart of the Risen Lord is given to us, and we are asked to give it in turn as a transforming force, as the leaven of a new humanity. In the resurrection, Christ rolled back the stone of the tomb, but he wants also to break down all the walls that keep us locked in our sterile pessimism, in our carefully constructed ivory towers that isolate us from life, in our compulsive need for security and in boundless ambition that can make us compromise the dignity of others.

When the High Priest and the religious leaders, in collusion with the Romans, believed that they could calculate everything, that the final word had been spoken and that it was up to them to apply it, God suddenly breaks in, upsets all the rules and offers new possibilities. God once more comes to meet us, to create and consolidate a new age, the age of mercy. This is the promise present from the beginning. This is Gods surprise for his faithful people. Rejoice! Hidden within your life is a seed of resurrection, an offer of life ready to be awakened.

That is what this night calls us to proclaim: the heartbeat of the Risen Lord. Christ is alive! That is what quickened the pace of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. That is what made them return in haste to tell the news (Mt 28:8). That is what made them lay aside their mournful gait and sad looks. They returned to the city to meet up with the others.

Now that, like the two women, we have visited the tomb, I ask you to go back with them to the city. Let us all retrace our steps and change the look on our faces. Let us go back with them to tell the news In all those places where the grave seems to have the final word, where death seems the only way out. Let us go back to proclaim, to share, to reveal that it is true: the Lord is alive! He is living and he wants to rise again in all those faces that have buried hope, buried dreams, buried dignity. If we cannot let the Spirit lead us on this road, then we are not Christians.

Let us go, then. Let us allow ourselves to be surprised by this new dawn and by the newness that Christ alone can give. May we allow his tenderness and his love to guide our steps. May we allow the beating of his heart to quicken our faintness of heart.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has signed into law legislation that imposes a $100 fine on drivers who fail to maintain vehicle control and commit a moving violation or cause a crash because of distraction.

The state vehicle code amendment broadens the states definition of distracted driving to include any extraneous activity  not just texting  that might impair the drivers ability to operate the vehicle safely. That would include such commonly seen driver distractions as eating, reading and grooming.

The change in law takes effect Aug. 1.

North Dakota law already prohibits the use of wireless communications devices to compose, read or send electronic messages while driving. But the newly approved vehicle code change also updates the law to permit such communications when conducted through hands-free, voice-activated means. The state doesnt prohibit all handheld phone use.
Hybrid Kinetic Group has a trick up its sleeve. The H600 hybrid luxury sedan is definitely a very beautiful car. But there is much more to the vehicle than just being pretty.

It is now officially announced that the H600 hybrid luxury sedan will start production in 2019 or 2020. This news was revealed by the board member Carter Yeung. It is also stated that the prototype that was shown at the Geneva Motor Show is almost 85 to 90 percent similar to how the actual car will look like. The concept car that was revealed at Geneva was simply stunning.

Hybrid Kinetic Group is planning to build the H600 at a plant in China. Before the production commences, Pininfarina will do a trial run in Italy to make sure everything is in order. It is reported that the company is planning to produce over 200,000 vehicles of the model in the next 5 to 10 years, reported Auto Blog.

It is expected that the H600 hybrid luxury sedan will start production very soon. It is revealed that the car will have the popular all-wheel-drive. The HK H600 will be powered by electric motors. It has an onboard microturbine range extender. This can top up the batteries on the go. What's amazing about it is that it produces more than 800 horsepower, reported Digital Trends.

The top speed of the car is stated at 155 miles per hour. It is reported that it can zoom from 0-60 in under 3 seconds.

It is not a secret anymore that the H600 hybrid luxury sedan targets Tesla Model S as its competitor. The company also views Mercedes-Benz as a future competitor.

It is expected that the H600 hybrid luxury sedan will not only be known for the good looks that the car possess. It will spell luxury and will also be loaded with specifications to die for!
Jaguar Land Rover recently released a report revealing that the company had hit record sales of more than 600,000 vehicles during the 2016-2017 financial year. With this recent milestone, many market analysts regarded the company as the fastest growing car brand in Europe.

Jaguar Land Rover reported sales of 604,009 vehicles, and this figure includes sales from the company's joint venture in China. This new sales figure represents an improvement of 16 percent compared to the company's record the previous year. This is also the first time the automaker surpassed the 600,000 sales mark in its history.

"We continue to make encouraging gains in key markets such as China and North America, as well as seeing sustained customer demand for the Jaguar F-Pace, Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport," Jaguar Land Rover group sales operations director Andy Goss said.

A win-win. #FPACE



The Jaguar F-PACE was awarded World Car of the Year and World Car Design of the Year at the @WorldCarAwards. pic.twitter.com/5ptn1k65jt  Jaguar USA (@JaguarUSA) April 12, 2017

Jaguar Land Rover's sales output in China went up by 32 percent, 24 percent in North America, 16 percent in the United Kingdom, and 13 percent in Europe, according to Wheels24. This figure is a record for the whole financial year.

Jaguar Land Rover hopes that it can keep this positive pace as it expands its market, especially with the emerging Chinese market which is steadily turning to be the world's biggest car market. Aside from China, the company is also aiming to make it big in South Africa.

As part of this effort, the company released the Range Rover Velar last month. This is the newest addition to the growing Range Rover family and sits in between the Range Rover Sport and the Evoque. The Velar is expected to hit the South African market within the last quarter of this year.
At first glance, the Toyota FT-4X may look like a piece of box with sharp edges, four wheels, and an engine. However, there is more to this rather uncharacteristically designed concept car than meets the eye.

The New York Auto Show is an appropriate stage for carmakers to show off their latest models, and more importantly their concepts of the future. As for the Toyota FT-4X, it looks like it is a concept car straight out of a boxcar's dream.

Toyota said that FT-4X is designed to attract nerdy-types who love the outdoors. While those two words rarely meet each other in a sentence, Toyota is keen with its marketing strategy. The company has even come up with a new moniker for its target consumers, "casualcore."

Toyota did not provide all the techy features that lurk inside the FT-4X. However, since the car is aimed towards millennials, it is expected to pack quite a lot of high-tech features. Toyota might even go as far as develop an autonomous driving software for 4x4 driving.

Millennials are known to be highly attached to their smartphones and gadget, which is why the Toyota FT-4X has a power outlet on its roof. It is probably Toyota's way of persuading millennials to get out of the car, through charging.

One particular design which was pointed out by many observers is just how sharp the edges of the FT-4X are. Some even joked that the FT-4X has so many sharp edges it reminds them of the Batmobile, according to The Verge. That is if Batman shifts his motif to orange.

Speaking of color, the Toyota FT-4X is adorned in bright orange paint with some white linings. Two-colored cars are not exactly the epitome of hipness, not unless the car is a Bugatti Chiron.
The Nissan Leaf is beating the Chevrolet Bolt in terms of sales output in recent months. The two electric cars have the same price, but the Bolt have a much impressive mileage. It is quite a mystery as to why buyers would choose the Leaf, with less mileage, over the Bolt.

In a report published by InsideEVs, Chevrolet was able to sell 978 Bolts in March. In comparison, Nissan shipped 1,478 Leafs during the same month.

Range anxiety is still a serious issue for electric cars, which is why it is puzzling as to how the Nissan Leaf outsold the Chevrolet Bolt. For the first three months of the year, Nissan has sold 3,287 Leafs while Chevrolet managed to ship 3,092 Bolts.

Here's to a little fun in the sun. pic.twitter.com/JUkzOnhMEU  Nissan Electric (@NissanElectric) March 29, 2017

The electric car market is still in its early phase. This means that these figures are not entirely crucial to each company's overall sales performance. In a statement acquired by Jalopnik, Electric Power Reaserch Institute director of energy utilization Mark Duvall said, "It takes a long time to change someone's inherent perceptions about new technology. Especially with one of the two biggest purchases people make."

Aside from problem with mileage, the electric car industry is also beset with problems like lack of charging stations and the ridiculous amount of time needed to charge electric car vehicles. For long range driving, planning each route is necessary in order to compensate for the much needed charging stations as well as the time required to charge the vehicle, both hurdles not only increase travelling time but also adds hassle.

Electric carmakers are already working on these problems with upgrades such as battery packs. Governments, in their bid to preserve the environment, are also jumping into the electric car craze. Some governments are joining forces with electric car makers in building charging stations.
General Motors recently announced that the company will be bumping up its self-driving division. The automaker said that it is adding more than 1,100 in California for the next five years. The added manpower will work on the company's Cruise Automation division which develops self-driving technologies.

Prior to the announcement, General Motors received $8 million in state tax credits. Considered as the biggest automaker in the United States, GM said that it will invest $14 million in upgrading its research and development facility in San Francisco. Instead of building a completely new facility, GM will just upgrade its current facility in order to double its floor space in order to accommodate more researchers and engineers on site.

As part of its effort to boost its self-driving technology, GM acquired Cruise Automation in March 2016 for $1 billion. Despite being owned by General Motors, Cruise Automation still operates as an independent startup. The company is working as part of GM's Autonomous Vehicle Development Team.

In a statement acquired by Autoblog, GM chief executive officer Mary Barra said, "Running our autonomous vehicle program as a startup is giving us the speed we need to continue to stay at the forefront of development of these technologies and the market applications."

GM is currently testing a fleet of 50 Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles equipped with self-driving technology. The company is allowed to test on public roads in three separate locations: in San Francisco, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Detroit metropolitan area.

Traditional car manufacturers have been throwing their resources in order to take piece of the emerging autonomous car market. Car manufacturers have been working alongside notable tech companies in order to advance the development of autonomous cars on both software and hardware sides.
In a surprising turn of events, Jaguar F-Pace has recently been announced 2017 World Car of the Year at the New York Auto Show. This is the first time the prestigious car has been given the award.

Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralph Speth said that they never imagined that they will be winning the prestigious award. He explained that despite being a small team they still wanted to deliver optimum performance. They do not only want to transform their company but they also want to innovate the industry.

Jaguar F-Pace managed to beat Audi Q5 and Volkswagen Tiguan for the title. The three contenders are actually SUVs that is not that surprising considering the demand for these cars.

The Jaguar F-PACE has won both the World Car & World Car Design of the Year titles - the only car to have earned both titles in 13 years! pic.twitter.com/pUUsaX5uya  Marshall Jaguar (@MarshallJaguar) April 15, 2017

Critics believe that this car is an exceptional vehicle that deserved the award it got. It has comfortable and well-supported front seats and a spacious cabin.

It may lack Apple CarPlay and Android Auto but it still did not lessen the fact that it still remains as one of the best cars in the market right now. Setting that aside, it has a fast-charging USB port glove box that an easily charge an iPhone.

Jaguar F-Pace also has a spacious back seat that can accommodate two adults or two bulky child seat, leaving enough room for a five or 10-year-old child in the middle. It may look like a coupe car but it has enough headroom, making the car really special.

It could be remembered that the company was put under scrutiny because of its late release of its SUV when most of its competitors have already released new vehicles for this year. So far, the company had a tripled its sales this year in Canada.

Aside from being the World Car of the Year, Jaguar F-Pace also garnered the World Car Design of the Year Award. Its original price starts from $74,340 that can be expensive but still worth buying.
The union representing Jet Airways pilots has ordered its Indian pilots to refuse to work with non-Indian pilots and has demanded the airline fire all non-native cockpit crew. Jet has about 100 non-Indian captains (who are presumably also in the union) and the National Aviators Guild is demanding they be purged from the airline. According to the Times of India, the union says there are plenty of Indian pilots looking for work and while non-Indian pilots have their uses when new aircraft are introduced, they should be fired when indigenous pilots are up to speed. Its been 15 years since Jet introduced a new type. We feel the management has had more than enough time to replace the expats with Indian national pilots. We therefore demand that all expats be released immediately, the union said in a statement. The exclusivity provisions begin May 1 but the union said all training and currency activity involving non-Indian pilots was to stop April 16. The airline has rejected the demands at all levels.

In a statement, the airline said Jet Airways is an equal opportunities employer and is diverse in race, gender, caste, creed or religion  Jet Airways is committed to offer equal opportunities to all pilots and follows a structured plan for their recruitment based on business outlook. The union also cited a confrontation between a non-Indian pilot and a wheelchair passenger whose personal chair was incorrectly loaded as baggage. The passenger claimed the pilot was aggressive and abusive toward him because retrieving the chair caused a departure delay, but it did not directly explain what his nationality had to do with the fracas. The safety of our passengers and pilots is of prime importance and these kind of issues cannot be tolerated at all, the union statement said. The expats are also a huge drain on the companys and the nations finances.
The Air Force moved quickly last week to quell concerns that it would force pilots to stay in uniform beyond their agreed-to separation dates. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told an event in Washington last week thats not currently an option to stem the exodus of pilots to the airlines. I want to make it as clear as I possibly can. This isnot something I am considering, he said. Its a tool in the Secretary of Defenses toolbag to use when were in a state of emergency. And were not in a state of emergency. Another general mentioned stop-loss as an option earlier in the week and the resulting report was widely circulated.

The other option to stop the bleeding of talent is to up the ante even higher to entice pilots to stay. Those coming to the end of their contracts are now offered up to $35,000 a year in retention bonus but Lt. Gen. Mark Nowland, deputy chief of staff for operations, said that might have to be increased. Were going to work the retention issue hard, Nowland told the Air Force Times. The key is weve got to work with Congress and talk to Congress as we do it, but continue to work with Congress to up that retention bonus as we look to retain guys in the future.
What a difference a year makes.

A year ago, almost to the day, we were excoriating Icon for its lopsided buyer contract that made draconian sound like an upgrade. In the midst of a beat down by the press, Icon circled the wagons at Sun n Fun, conducted tight-lipped interviews, if any at all, and finally re-engineered the buyer agreement.

The year-to-the-day part came two weeks ago when the company had its first accident, or least the first significant one that we know about. Operating in Biscayne Bay off Miami, the aircraft had a hard landing and either shipped water or breached the hull and sunk up to the wings. No injuries. Whats different is that Icon reached out to us with a brief statement explaining the accident so we wouldnt have to chase them down for the inevitable no comment or the usual enervating spin. Or be tempted to quote an Icon-hating source.

Note to companies: If whatever you do is about to hit the news cycle or already has, thats the best way to tamp it down and get it out the news cycle as quickly as possible. United Airlines, take note.

In the news comment section, someone cracked: So much for Icon training. Tough crowd. Icon said the accident was its first in about 3500 hours of flying. So what does it mean? Absolutely nothing, other than this: If you fool around in boats that fly, youll eventually screw up a landing, hit an obstruction in the water or otherwise spooge something and youll sink one. Welcome to reality. No amount of training, no matter how perfect, will change that. When the type has 10 times as many hours, well know more about its accident pattern. For now, it looks like par.

Is it news? Of course its news. In the same way we covered the early rash of Cirrus crashes was news. When a company throws down and says its going to change everything, were going to pay a lot more attention than if they just introduce another exciting white-painted airplane with a panel full of virtual reality. Once Cirrus beat back the accident rate, we covered that, too. Now we dont cover Cirrus crashes unless theres video of the CAPS deployment, and even that has become pass.

On a darker note, it has now been 631 days since I have not been allowed to fly in an Icon A5.

Gyrocopter Guy Two Years Later

What a difference two years makes.

Yes, it has been two years since the whacky postman, Doug Hughes, caused another Washington &^%fit by landing his gyrocopter on the Capitol lawn, thereby becoming a graying American Mathias Rust.

At the time, I was outraged that he was so self-centered as to risk damaging the entire aviation community for his own narrow interests of highlighting political dysfunction by delivering 535 letters lamenting the infusion of big money into politics. Like many, I thought that maybe he shoulda just mailed the stupid letters. On the other hand, this sort of theater has been a durable feature of American politics and, in a way, is what a pluralistic democracy should be about. It occasionally features harmless civil disobedience.

Aye, Ive mellowed. A recent story in Politico updated the Hughes story and noted that he was sentenced to four months in a federal slammer and served three, followed by a stint in a halfway house to ease his reintegration back into society. If that part sounds just slightly risible, consider this: When a fellow inmate asked Hughes what he was in for, he replied illegally parking of a gyrocopter at the Capitol building. Well, it was a little more than that, but not much more. That it came to that shows how paranoid weve become about terrorism juxtaposed with things that fly.

Why the United Story Wont Die

What a difference a week makes. Or doesnt.

The United Airlines story about removing a passenger by force did not, as many predicted, die overnight. It remained above the fold all week and were running yet another story today. Predictably, the third, fourth or fifth evolutions now have United disowning Republic Airways, which operated the flight under Uniteds flag. This week, ALPA fired off a press release rightfully deploring the fact that a passenger was treated so poorly, but couldnt resist a but it wasnt us rejoinder, noting that neither United nor its ALPA-member pilots were involved.

In my view, this is the sort of buck passing that tends to keep the ember of such stories smoldering. My view is that the sooner you own it unconditionally, the sooner you can mend the PR damage. (See Icon, above.) It took United CEO Oscar Munoz four days to get there, but he eventually did and said it should never have happened. Period. And that it wont again.

In my view, that this story continues to reverberate is emblematic of the frustration people feel in being treated so poorly as customers, and not just by the airlines. Modern business is festooned with scam offers, bait-and-switch pricing and fine-print contracts with hidden charges. The airlines usurious $200 change fee is just a visible example.

To sample public opinion on this, I read news columns and blogs until my eyes glazed over. One feature of these was consistent and especially dispiriting. By my rough score keeping, between 10 and 20 percent of people think the passenger deserved the beating he got. In other words, failing to give up his seat was righteously paired with a concussion and a broken nose. I suspect youll see a similar percentage in the AVweb poll were running this week. Pardon me, but that lack of perspective strikes me as being worse than the event itself. Id hate to see the punishment these folks would dole out for something serious.

Still, I think United actually has an opportunity here. It consistently rates at the bottom or near the bottom for customer service and this sort of traumatic event can serve as a pivot point to turn things around. Judging by reaction and notes from United employees, they are proud, dedicated people rightfully appalled by what happened on that aircraft. If Munoz is smartand hes supposed to behes got a rare opportunity to forthrightly lead in the right direction.

Now we can wait to see if a year makes any difference.
16 April 2017 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Under instructions of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the construction of a residential building in Ovchular Evi area on Metbuat Avenue, Yasamal District, has been halted because the building company illegally cut down 54 trees and completely destroyed a green space at the site. According to a placard installed in the construction site, Boyuk Plaza residential and shopping center was being constructed there. But the building company violated the existing laws and illegally cut down trees in the area using machinery. This caused serious concern of the people living in adjacent buildings. These violations of law and the cutting down of trees in the construction site provoked a sharp reaction from President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who ordered to immediately halt the construction work and investigate the issue.

The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources inspected the area on the Metbuat Avenue, Yasamal District, and drew up a report on the cutting down of trees. A 130,000 manat fine was levied against the company, and an investigation was launched into the case.

Destruction of the existing green spaces and the illegal cutting down of trees despite the measures being taken to create green areas and improve the ecological situation and ongoing tree-planting campaigns is absolutely unacceptable.

President Ilham Aliyev stressed unacceptability of the illegal cutting down of trees, and emphasized the importance of taking serious measures against these violations and holding those who do this accountable. President Ilham Aliyev said:

We pay constant attention to the issues relating to ecological situation. But what concerns the public and myself is the cutting down of trees. This should be stopped. I think that we should apply a more serious accountability here. The cutting down of trees should be completely stopped. Only in exceptional cases and only on the basis of a conclusion of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources can a tree be cut down or transplanted somewhere. This is why I have repeatedly expressed my opinion on these issues. I can say that the situation is relatively more positive in comparison with the previous years. But we have not fully achieved what we want. People come at night, illegally cut down trees and level a place in order to build a house. This is dishonesty, this is a disgrace, this is a crime. Therefore, appropriate authorities should make proposals, we should take more serious action against those who cut down trees. They should be held accountable. Once again I reiterate that not a single tree in the city can be cut down without permission, conclusion of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. This is my final warning. (Excerpt from the closing speech of President of Ilham Aliyev made on 13 April 2014 at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of the first quarter of the year and future tasks.)

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16 April 2017 10:39 (UTC+04:00)

"Azerbaijan and Jordan enjoy excellent friendly and brotherly relations," said president of the Greater Amman Municipality GAM committee Yousef Shawarbeh as he met with Azerbaijani ambassador to Jordan Sabir Aghabayov.

Shawarbeh said he heard a lot about Azerbaijan and its Baku. He said his invitation to the 4th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue to be held this May in Baku will be a good opportunity to familiarize himself with the country and its capital, Azertac reported.

Ambassador Aghabayov expressed his confidence that bilateral relations between the two countries will be further strengthened.

They hailed the positive impact of personal friendly relationship of President Ilham Aliyev with the King Abdullah II on the development of Azerbaijan-Jordan bilateral relations. They also discussed cooperation within international organizations, development of economic relations, highlevel reciprocal visits and a Jordanian delegation's participation in the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games to be held in Baku.

The Azerbaijani ambassador described the fact that there is a street and a square named after national leader Heydar Aliyev in Amman as a shining example of friendly and brotherly relations between the two countries.

Ambassador Aghabayov highlighted the history of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, aggression and ethnic cleansing policy carried out by Armenia, genocides committed against the people of Azerbaijan, official Baku's stance on the settlement of the dispute, successful April battles and the reconstruction works carried out in the liberated Azerbaijani territories.

The ambassador commended Jordan's fair and firm position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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16 April 2017 10:51 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijan and Iran plan to discuss the bilateral military cooperation and regional security, said press service of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Apr. 15.

The talks will be held during the official visit of Azerbaijani defense minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov to Iran.

He is expected to meet with the political and military leadership of Iran.

Zakir Hasanovs visit takes place at the invitation of the Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehgan.

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16 April 2017 17:33 (UTC+04:00)

Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Shamkhani has expressed his country`s support for Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity as he met with Azerbaijani Minister of Defense Zakir Hasanov.

Shamkhani emphasized that his country supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, opposes the change of borders by means of force and backs a negotiated resolution of problems, restoration of stability and security in the region, Azertac reported.

Noting that terrorism and the use of force pose a threat to the region and the world as a whole, they stressed the importance for Azerbaijan and Iran to intensify efforts to combat such challenges.

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16 April 2017 16:20 (UTC+04:00)

A delegation of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has visited an exhibition highlighting Iran's defense industry achievements in Tehran.

Minister of Defense Zakir Hasanov viewed military products manufactured by the country's defense industry complex, Azertac reported.

The minister was presented with various exhibits, including weapons and military equipment used by the Iranian armed forces.

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16 April 2017 16:08 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan and Iran have discussed ways of expanding the bilateral military cooperation as defense ministers Zakir Hasanov and Hussein Dehgan met in Tehran.

The ministers explored prospects for enhancing cooperation in military and military-technical areas, and also exchanged views over regional security issues, Azertac reported.

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16 April 2017 10:18 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

A delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking Countries (TURKPA) is now in Ankara to observe the referendum on constitutional amendments, to be held in Turkey on Apr. 16, said a TURKPA message.

The TURKPA delegation headed by Ahliman Amiraslanov, chairman of Azerbaijans parliamentary health committee, held a series of meetings on the eve of the nationwide referendum.

The delegation also comprises Azerbaijani MP Aghalar Valiyev, Secretary General of TURKPA Jandos Asanov, as well as Kazakh and Kyrgyz parliamentarians.

The delegation members met with Sadi Guven, head of the Turkish Supreme Electoral Council, who said that preparations for the referendum have been completed.

The referendum on constitutional amendments in Turkey will provide for introduction of presidential system in the country.

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.

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16 April 2017 10:23 (UTC+04:00)

Turkish people will head to the polls on Sunday to vote on the proposed change to a presidential system to replace the parliamentary democracy, with 18 articles proposed to be amended in the constitution, according to Anadolu Agency.

With less than one day left for the historic referendum that will determine the country's future system of government, the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party says the presidential system will make Turkey a more stable country; both politically and economically.

The Yes campaign is also backed by the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), whereas the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) remains opposed to the proposed changes to the current constitution which was adopted in 1983 following a military coup in 1980.

The constitutional changes have been discussed since Erdogan was voted president in August 2014. The 18-article bill was passed by parliament in January, with 339 votes in favor -- nine more than needed to put the proposal to a referendum.

The reforms would hand wide-ranging executive powers to the president and the post of prime minister would be abolished. The president would also be allowed to retain ties to a political party.

Other changes would see the minimum age for parliamentary candidates reduced to 18 and the number of deputies rise to 600. Simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections for a five-year term would be held in November 2019 under the new constitution.

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16 April 2017 12:38 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

European Union lawmakers could summon French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen to discuss the lifting of her immunity over the alleged misuse of European Union money, before the second round of the French election, an influential legislator said on Saturday, Reuters reported.

French judges have asked the European parliament to lift the immunity of the National Front leader, who is a member of the EU legislature, to permit further investigations over alleged misuse of funds to pay for party assistants [nL8N1HM0CR].

"The legal affairs committee has agreed that Le Pen will be summoned for a hearing on the first possible date in May," Laura Ferrara, the deputy chair of the committee, told Reuters.

She said the hearing could take place in the first week of May, before the May 7 runoff in the French election, which polls show Le Pen is likely to reach.

Le Pen has denounced legal proceedings against her as political interference.

Opinion polls have put Le Pen in first or second place in the first round of voting on April 23, although her three main rivals are now close enough for any two of the four to go through to the runoff.

Polls show Le Pen is not likely to win the runoff.

Ferrara, who is a member of the Italian eurosceptic 5 Star Movement, said that Le Pen may decide not to appear before the parliamentary committee.

The European parliament has already sanctioned Le Pen for misusing EU funds. Since February her monthly salary as EU lawmaker has been cut by half to around 3,000 euros and other allowances have been withdrawn [nL5N1FL3TT]. The French investigation is aimed at establishing whether other sanctions are warranted.

The EU legislature lifted Le Pen's immunity in March to allow a separate French investigation over her posting of pictures of Islamic State violence on social media, an offence that in France can carry a penalty of three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros ($79,567) [nL5N1GF38X].

Before deciding to lift the immunity of a lawmaker, the EU parliament's legal affairs committee usually arranges a hearing with the accused legislator. The actual decision follows a few months later.

In the majority of cases, the immunity has been lifted.

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Today

Rain likely. Morning high of 69F with temps falling to near 55. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with showers. Low 47F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
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A Bath-born actor has been reported to be the next Doctor Who.

Kris Marshall is said to have already joined the cast for the new series of Doctor Who.

Marshall, who still lives in the area with his wife Hannah and their two children, made his name as the idle son in My Family.

According to the Mirror , he will be the 13th Doctor, following Peter Capaldi's departure.

The new Doctor is set to join the show during the 10th series, which aired on Saturday (April 15), rather than in the Christmas special.

A source said: "Kris Marshall has already joined the cast and will regenerate at the end of this series, not in the Christmas special.

"They won't risk a woman Doctor.

"They want a David Tennant type."

Bookies have stopped taking bets on the identity of the new Doctor.

A BBC spokesman said: "No casting decisions have yet been made on series 11."

Despite that, if Kris was to appear this series, it would not be a casting decision for the 11th series.

Typically the Doctor regenerates into his new form during the Christmas special.

poll loading Would Kris Marshall make a good Doctor Who? 0+ VOTES SO FAR Yes, he'd be perfect No, just can't see him in the title role

In 2009's The End of Time, fans saw David Tennant's 10th Doctor transform into Matt Smith's 11th Doctor, and in 2012's The Time of the Doctor, Matt regenerated into Peter's 12th Doctor.

If Marshall does join the show, it could be a West Country one-two.

The new series will also introduce Bristol Old-Vic graduate Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts, the Doctor's newest travelling companion.

Meanwhile Matt Lucas, who was given an honorary degree from the University of Bristol, reprises his role as Nardole, who appeared in the two previous Christmas specials.

The crews filmed in various locations in Bristol over the last year.

They were spotted at Kings Weston House during the 2016 August Bank Holiday weekend, and returned to film in January this year at the Redcliffe Caves.

The latter scene involved a two-day shoot, facilitated by Bristol Film Office.

The Tardis was fitted into the narrow tunnels of the cave, while Redcliffe Wharf was used as a unit base.

Natalie Moore of Bristol Film Office said: "Doctor Who is an iconic example of the best in British TV with a large and loyal audience, so it's fantastic to have supported the latest series with our city's locations.

"This isn't the first encounter we've had with the Doctor and his Tardis - Peter Capaldi filmed series nine at Leigh Court in 2015 and Matt Smith filmed series seven at Tyntesfield House in 2012, as well as Tyndall Avenue and Royal Fort House in central Bristol.

"Most recently of course we facilitated filming at Redcliffe Caves for last year's spin-off series Class, starring Capaldi alongside a cast of new talent."

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Berkeley Prep students in Tampa are using a new virtual reality program to get hands on experience.

Berkeley Prep introducing virtual relaity into assignments

BN9 Education resources

Google Expeditions

Students have been using the new program at the school to do everything from explore ancient ruins to travel to far away places.

Students from 7th grade to 12th grade have been using the school's virtual reality program this school year.

"We've gone to Machu Picchu," said Berkeley 7th grader Anna McDermott. "And we were learning about the Aztecs and the Incas."

The program stems from a new curriculum that's using virtual reality from Google Expeditions.

"It felt like you were just walking down the street in a normal city," said senior Alexa Rudolph of the first time she tried the VR. "I felt like I was actually there."

The process is simple.

The students download an on app on their cell phones that attach to virtual reality headsets. The students then join in on their teacher's expeditions.

Berkeley Technology integration coordinator Meghan Campagna spearheaded the idea of bringing a virtual reality involved-curriculum to the private school.

"I definitely see the kids hold on to the information more," Campagna said. "There are huge educational benefits as far as information and also as far as experience."

While deep in the virtual reality world, students can take tours as their teachers guide them along while giving quizzes and answering questions. Teachers say the experience has been invaluable to students and it gets them even more excited about learning.

So much so that teachers are planning to incorporate virtual reality tours to other subjects.

"The fact that we can take kids to these places right from Tampa Florida, is an invaluable learning experience for them," said Global Studies Director Tim Torkilsen.
Firefighters are battling a large wildfire in the Withlacoochee State Forest, according to the Florida Forest Service.

Wildfire started in the Richloam area

Fire grew from 15 acres to 100 acres in 45 minutes

No structures have been affected

The 400-acre fire started in the Richloam area of the forest near State Road 471 and Center Road, which is about 23 miles from Brooksville.

The Florida Forest Service said no structures had been affected. The nearest homes and businesses are less than 10 miles away in Tarrytown.

The Florida Forest Service, which is working the fire, is using six dozers and two helicopters to fight the fire.

Hernando County Fire Rescue is monitoring the fire, in case it heads toward that area.



Fire officials are urging people to avoid using the forest roads while crews work to suppress the flames.

A spokeswoman with the Florida Forest Service says fire grew from 15 acres to 100 acres in 45 minutes.
State Seeks Input on Which Oregon Coast Beaches to Monitor

Published 04/16/2017 at 4:43 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Oregon Coast)  What Oregon coast beaches do you think need to be monitored for health hazards? The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) wants to get public input and opinion.

OHA is taking suggestions until May 8, based on beaches the agency is proposing to be part of its monitoring system during this summer. Beaches are normally monitored from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

OHA's Monitoring Program works with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to determine beaches that need monitoring based on several established criteria. Among the issues looked at are pollution hazards that may be present, beaches that have had previous water quality issues, type and amount of beach use, and public input.

The list of 2016 beaches included one or two sections of many beach towns and areas between  but it is not comprehensive. Out of more than 90 separate beaches along the Oregon coast, about 30 were monitored last year. The state has only one full-time beach monitoring professional.

OHA regularly re-evaluates which beaches and sampling locations are used to protect public health. This year, their criteria has led them to propose the following beaches for monitoring in 2017:

Seaside Beach, Cannon Beach and Tolovana State Park Beach in Clatsop County. In Tillamook County, they are proposing Short Sand State Park Beach, Rockaway Beach, Twins Rocks Beach, and Neskowin State Park Beach.

On the central Oregon coast, Lincoln County proposed beaches are Lincoln City's D River State Park Beach; Newport's Beverly Beach, Agate State Park Beach, and Nye Beach; and Seal Rock State Park Beach just south of Newport. The one Lane County beach proposed is Heceta Beach (in Florence).

On the southern Oregon coast, beaches include Bastendorff Beach, Sunset Bay State Park Beach, Hubbard Creek Beach, Harris Beach State Park and Crissey Field State Park. A copy of the 2017 beach evaluation report is available on the OHA website.

The proposed list very similar to last year's, and looks at beaches most frequently visited, where bacteria has been previously found, or which local partners and the public have requested monitoring due to potential pollution concerns.

The list of the 2016 monitored beaches and sampling schedule is available on the program's website.

OHA will accept public comments and suggestions on the proposed 2017 beaches through May 8. Comments can be submitted by email at [email protected] or by calling 971-673-0400.

Advisories are issued when test results show bacteria levels are at or above the standard 158 cfu/100ml marine water. They are lifted when results show levels below that, which typically takes 48 hours or so. Most often these are caused by fecal bacteria getting into the water, but it is usually not known exactly what that source is in each instance. One known source for some areas are the large flocks of seagulls that occur when people feed them, and their droppings make it into outgoing streams.





















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Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has branded Russia a "super villain" in Syria as he told Moscow it still has time to be on the "right side of the argument" in the conflict.

Mr Johnson, who was widely attacked for failing to get the G7 to back his bid for new sanctions against senior Russian and Syrian figures in the aftermath of the chemical weapons attack on civilians in Idlib province, continued to criticise Vladimir Putin's stance.

The Foreign Secretary called on Russia to change course in Syria, asking if the country wanted to be part of a "league of super villains".

"We need to show the Russians the horrific nature of the regime they are backing in terms they cannot fail to understand. This is in fact an opportunity for Russia.

"Moscow has reached the high point of its influence in Syria. They still have innumerable rebel groups to subdue, and they find themselves in a league of super villains with Hizbollah and Assad. Is that what they want?" he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Johnson also branded Syrian president Bashar Assad an "arch terrorist".

"Assad uses chemical weapons because they are not only horrible and indiscriminate. They are also terrifying.

"In that sense he is himself an arch-terrorist, who has caused such an unquenchable thirst for revenge that he can never hope to govern his population again.

"He is literally and metaphorically toxic, and it is time Russia awoke to that fact. They still have time to be on the right side of the argument."

The Foreign Secretary insisted it was "highly likely" Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons atrocity as Mr Johnson insisted America "could of course strike again".

"British scientists have analysed samples from the victims of the attack. These have tested positive for Sarin or a Sarin-like substance.

"The UK, the US and all our key allies are of one mind: we believe that this was highly likely to be an attack by Assad, on his own people, using poison gas weapons that were banned almost 100 years ago, under the 1925 Geneva protocol."

Mr Johnson said the chemical assault had changed the West's stance on Syria.

"Let us face the truth: Assad has been clinging on. With the help of Russians and Iranians, and by dint of unrelenting savagery, he has not only recaptured Aleppo. He has won back most of "operational" Syria.

"Before the chemical weapons attack on April 4, the West was on the verge of a grim consensus - that it would be more sensible to concentrate on the fight against the terrorists of Daesh, and to accept reluctantly that removing Assad - though ultimately essential - should await a drawn out political solution."
Andy Murray is among celebrities who have signed the letter to Theresa May

Leading environmental campaigners have warned the Government against scaling back on commitments to tackle climate change and end the illegal market in wildlife in order to secure post-Brexit trade deals.

Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth, and high profile figures such as Andy Murray, and Will Young are among those who have signed a joint letter to the Prime Minister urging Theresa May not to engage in an "environmental race to the bottom" after withdrawal from the EU.

The campaigners say they fear international green commitments could be "watered down" in return for lucrative bilateral trade agreements.

The letter states: "We are alarmed by recent media reports suggesting that the UK's commitments to tackling climate change and ending the illegal wildlife trade could be watered down to secure post-Brexit trade deals.

"To be a great, global trading nation, the UK must deliver on its promises for the environment and the climate and honour our international commitments. In doing so we will help build a greener, better and more prosperous future for everyone, rather than driving an environmental race to the bottom."

WWF chief executive officer Tanya Steele said: "An African elephant is killed every 25 minutes by ivory poachers, and we are already seeing the serious impacts of climate change, with more severe weather events in the UK.

"Our environment must not be sacrificed during the Brexit negotiations. The UK Government must deliver on its promises and leave the environment in a better state for future generations rather than trading away protections for our nature and climate."

A Government spokesperson said: "The UK is a global leader in tackling the illegal wildlife trade and a key part of worldwide efforts on climate change, including implementing the commitments made under the Paris Agreement. Our commitment to both issues is as strong as ever.

"The Government also has a clear ambition to be the first generation to leave the natural environment in a better state than we found it while securing the best deal for the country as we leave the EU."
Gerry Adams called for fresh elections if no agreement is reached

The Irish government must make clear to the UK government that direct rule is not an option if talks to restore powersharing in Northern Ireland fail, Gerry Adams has warned.

The Sinn Fein president said another snap Assembly election was the only way to proceed if negotiations do not deliver agreement.

Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire has said he will either trigger an election or move to a return to Westminster decision-making if there is no deal by "early May".

Last month, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he and Prime Minister Theresa May shared the position that direct rule was not an option.

But with Northern Ireland approaching seven weeks without a devolved government following March's election, it appears that option is now very much on the table in Downing Street.

Current legislation dictates Mr Brokenshire should call another a poll if negotiations to form an administration fail.

The Government lost its power to suspend devolution and reintroduce direct rule in the 2006 St Andrews Agreement.

It would require emergency legislation in Westminster for Mr Brokenshire to regain that authority.

Addressing an Easter Rising commemoration in Co Tyrone, Mr Adams said: "Sinn Fein wants a deal.

"But if there is no deal then there has to be an election.

"The role and responsibility of the Irish government must be to assert that an election is the only legal course open to the British government, if the current talks fail to elect an Executive."

Negotiations to save devolution remain log-jammed, with two deadlines to form a new ruling executive falling by the wayside.

Sinn Fein demands for legislative protections for Irish speakers, an end to the region's ban on gay marriage and the implementation of a Northern Ireland-specific bill of rights are among the issues of dispute.

Talks will reconvene after Easter, working to the new early May deadline.

Sinn Fein has accused the DUP of preventing the formation of a "rights-based" government.

The DUP has claimed Sinn Fein is focused only on the demands of its own supporters, and is failing to appreciate that others want movement on other issues.

The main unionist party hinted at a shift in approach to the Irish language last week when party leader Arlene Foster, who previously insisted she would never support an Irish Language Act, pledged to meet Gaelic speakers to hear their concerns.

While Sinn Fein welcomed her comments as a "positive step", Mr Adams insisted the DUP had to go further.

"Arlene Foster needs to reflect over this Easter time on whether she wants to reinforce unionist separation, segregation, from the rest of us or whether she seizes the opportunity to bring unionism in a new direction to respect diversity and end division," he said at the commemoration in Carrickmore.

"The alternative will not work."

The DUP is seeking to secure protections for Ulster Scots speakers and have also pressed for the introduction of a military covenant in Northern Ireland, a series of policies that define the state's obligations to its armed services.

Mr Adams said seeking a "counter balance" represented a "flawed approach".

"The DUP leader can cast about for some 'counter balance', some quid pro quo, to legitimate progressive measures which benefit everyone," he said.

"She will achieve absolutely nothing but continued division if she thinks she can build a strategy on such a flawed approach."

Ahead of the Easter weekend, DUP MP Gregory Campbell urged Sinn Fein to rethink its approach to negotiation.

Mr Campbell told republicans they need to look beyond their own wish list.

"Sinn Fein's closed-mind approach has led to Stormont being closed, it needs to change," he said.

"The current impasse was created when Sinn Fein walked out of Stormont.

"Critical public services suffer whilst the deadlock is maintained through their refusal to re-establish the executive. The DUP is prepared to establish the executive and work through the range of problems people from across Northern Ireland face."

He added: "The Easter break offers them (Sinn Fein) the opportunity to refocus on issues which they have to get their collective heads around.

"That can be of benefit but only if they use the opportunity and come back to begin looking at the issues which people beyond Sinn Fein's closed circle want to get resolved."

Devolution first crashed in January when Sinn Fein pulled the plug on the last executive over a row about a botched green energy scheme, triggering last month's snap election.
Rape accused Kato Harris was found not guilty of all charges following his trial at Isleworth Crown Court

A geography teacher cleared of raping a pupil has warned that men should steer clear of the profession, after a false allegation shattered his dream career.

Kato Harris, a head of department at an all-girls school in London, was accused of attacking a 14-year-old three times in a classroom during lunch breaks in autumn 2013 - but was found not guilty after a trial last year.

The 38-year-old said before his ordeal began, "life was like a wonderful dream", and with a successful career and a child also on the way he was "looking forward to a great future".

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday he has revealed that "one of the biggest challenges" he now faces is forgiving his accuser, something he said he will do, "just not now".

He told the newspaper: "I would certainly advocate that no man qualify as a teacher. It is just not worth it. What is the lesson here? There is nothing to protect the male teacher."

A jury found Mr Harris, from Richmond, not guilty of all charges following his trial at Isleworth Crown Court.

"I had to give up my dream job because of a crime I didn't commit," he said.

"I am unemployed, living in a bedsit and will soon be on housing benefit. I am toxic."

Mr Harris, who revealed he is now considering a job in a crematorium, added: "If I knew on the day I qualified what I know now, I would never have become a teacher.

"I will never work with children again - I will never put myself in that position of vulnerability."

The accusations emerged in December 2014, and Mr Harris said he was in "total shock" when police arrested him.

He told the newspaper he had made the decision to kill himself if he was charged, but that with the arrival of a baby daughter he wanted to carry on and prove his innocence.

Mr Harris added: "I've looked into the abyss. But every day I wake up and I'm a daddy and not in prison - and that's the best thing that I could have hoped for."
Javier Duarte, pictured in Mexico City last August, has been detained in Guatemala (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

The former governor of the Mexican state of Veracruz who is accused of running a corruption ring has been detained in Guatemala after six months on the run.

Javier Duarte was seen as a high-profile symbol of government corruption in his country.

Mexico's Attorney General's Office said Duarte was detained on Saturday with the co-operation of Guatemalan police and the country's Interpol office.

He was in the municipality of Panajachel, which is a picturesque tourist town on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala's highlands.

Duarte was wanted on suspicion of money laundering and organised crime, and prosecutors directed the foreign relations department to request his extradition.

A photo released by Guatemalan police showed a bespectacled Duarte being escorted by Interpol agents.

Manuel Noriega, deputy director of Interpol in Guatemala, said Duarte was found at a hotel where he was staying with his wife.

He was asked to leave his room, did so voluntarily and then was arrested without incident in the lobby.

Mr Noriega said Duarte would be taken before a judge to consider his possible extradition.

Duarte, 43, was governor of Veracruz from 2010 until he left office on October 12 2016, two months before the scheduled end of his term.

He said he was doing so in order to face the allegations against him.

At the time he denied having links to phantom businesses that allegedly won state contracts, and said he had not stolen a single peso of state money or diverted government funds overseas.

"I don't have foreign accounts," he said last year. "I don't have properties anywhere."

Duarte promptly disappeared and had been sought by Mexican authorities ever since. Earlier this year Interpol issued a notice for his capture.

The Mexican government has found millions of dollars purportedly linked to Duarte, frozen more than 100 bank accounts and also seized property and businesses tied to the former governor.

A reward of 15 million pesos (583,000) had been offered for his capture.

The detention comes a week after Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Mexico's Tamaulipas state, was arrested in Italy, also on allegations of organised crime and money laundering.

Another ex-governor, Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state, is also wanted on suspicion of corruption and is said to have fled to El Paso, Texas. He is not related to Javier Duarte.

All three ex-governors were members of the ruling Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI, of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The party, which expelled Javier Duarte on October 25 last year, and has sought to distance itself from him, applauded the arrest.

"The PRI calls for all the relevant investigations to be carried out and, respecting due process, for the ex-governor of Veracruz to be punished in an exemplary fashion, as well as anyone who is confirmed to have taken part in his criminal ring," the party said.

Duarte became a powerful symbol of alleged corruption during mid-term elections last year in which the PRI lost several governorships, including Veracruz, that it had held uninterrupted since its founding in 1929.

He has also been widely criticised for rampant violence in the state during his administration, as drug cartels fought for territory and thousands of people were killed or disappeared.

The dead include at least 16 journalists killed in Veracruz during his six years in office.

AP
The Queen received Asma Assad and Syrian president Bashar Assad at Buckingham Palace in 2012

MPs are urging the Government to remove the UK citizenship of Syrian president Bashar Assad's British-born wife.

A group of Liberal Democrats sent a letter to Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Sunday, saying Asma Assad should not be able to represent her husband and retain British nationality.

MP Tom Brake said Asma Assad should either stop defending Syria's "barbaric acts" or lose her citizenship.

"The first lady of Syria has acted not as a private citizen but as a spokesperson for the Syrian presidency," said Mr Brake.

Britain has called for her husband to leave the presidency and condemned his use of chemical weapons.

Asma Assad was educated in Britain and worked as an investment banker before she married in 2000.

AP
Pope Francis celebrates the Easter Mass in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis has lamented the horrors generated by war and hatred in his Easter Sunday message in which he also condemned the "latest vile" attack on civilians in Syria.

Francis, in his balcony address, prayed that God would sustain those working to comfort and help the civilian population in Syria, "prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death."

He condemned the explosion on Saturday that ripped through a bus depot in the Aleppo area where evacuees were awaiting transfer, killing at least 100 people.

"Yesterday saw the latest vile attack on fleeing refugees," said Francis, who also prayed for peace in the Holy Land, Iraq and Yemen.

Addressing some 60,000 faithful, Francis encouraged people to hold fast in their "fearful hearts" to faith, acknowledging that many people wonder where God is amid so much evil and suffering in the world.

He reflected on suffering including wars, oppressive regimes, human trafficking, corruption, famine and domestic violence in an impromptu homily during Mass in St Peter's Square and in his formal "Urbi et Orbi" Easter message delivered from St Peter's Basilica.

The crowds, smaller than in some previous years when 100,000 have turned out, endured tight security checks and a brief downpour to hear Francis and receive his blessing.

Francis attacked the "scandalous reality of a world still marked by the divide between the endless number of indigent" and the "tiny portion of those who possess the majority of riches and presume to decide the fates of humanity."

He made the criticism in a letter to the bishop of Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis, whose name he chose for his papacy.

Francis recalled "all those forced to leave their homelands as a result of armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, famine and oppressive regimes."

The Catholic Church's first pontiff from Latin America voiced concern over the "political and social tensions" in the world as well as the "scourge of corruption" on his home continent.

He also mentioned hostilities and famine plaguing parts of Africa.

Francis spoke of Europe's problems, mentioning the continued conflict and bloodshed in Ukraine, and prayed for hope for those struggling with high unemployment, especially young people.

In his homily, he also described a question for many faithful: Why are there so many tragedies and wars if Jesus has risen from the dead, a belief that Christians celebrate each Easter?

"The Church never ceases to say, faced with our defeats, our closed and fearful hearts, 'stop, the Lord is risen.' But if the Lord is risen, how come these things happen?" Francis asked.

He said having faith on Easter gives sense in the middle of "so many calamities: the sense of looking beyond, the sense of saying, look, there isn't a wall, there's a horizon, there's life, there's joy."

AP
Mexico was situated mostly in St. Stephens Parish & extended into the Parish of Middle St. Johns (containing 1450 acres more or less). This land had been purchased by Peter Porcher II from Blake Leay White. In 1796, Mexico became the home of Samuel Porcher (1768-1851), son of Peter Por Read moreHistorical account of the Mexico Plantation
Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia
FREETOWN - Sierra Leone said that it was extending the bidding for a massive 709-carat diamond found by an evangelical preacher last month, after the government received only six offers for the gem.

Bids will now be accepted until May 10 - in particular to allow more time for potential buyers from Belgium, Israel, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, a government spokesman said - with the auction to be held the following day.

The diamond was unearthed by Emmanuel Momoh, a 39-year-old pastor who is also one of hundreds of so-called artisanal miners in Kono, Sierra Leone's key mining district.

Source: NDTV.com

"I also had an opportunity to escape with the diamond to Belgium through a local dealer, but I was convinced that the government is committed to helping our people, so I handed it over to the government," Momoh said.

"I have been part of all the processes in the weighing, bidding and cleaning of the diamond, and it has been transparent, and I'm very satisfied with the process so far," he added.

But the Sierra Leone authorities lack the necessary equipment for properly cleaning and polishing the uncut stone, which currently appears to be coated by a reddish stain.

The Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources said it had tried to clean the diamond "by boiling (it) in hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid for 72 hours," but it was not enough to be able to set an accurate estimate of its value.

"We had to do with what we have to ensure that the diamond is sold with quality to the highest bidder as soon as possible," said Sahr Wonday, director general of the National Minerals Agency.

"We want more individuals or companies to bid for the diamond so that we can get the best price" for what is expected to be between the 10th- and 15th-biggest diamond ever found, Wonday said.

The government has pledged to hold a "transparent" bidding process, mindful of the history of cross-border diamond trafficking that fuelled Sierra Leone's civil war from 1991-2002.

Such "blood diamonds" were often found by enslaved members of the population, who were killed or maimed by rebel groups if they refused to dig.

"The president is keen to use proceeds of the diamond to develop Kono and other parts of the country," said Abdulai Bayratay, the government spokesman.

Momoh is the still the official owner of the diamond, but it is unclear what percentage of the sale price he will have to pay the government in taxes.
CIA Director Pompeo with Vice President Pence after his swearing in

In his first speech [extract, full] in office, CIA Director Mike Pompeo rather than focusing on China, North Korea, or the rise of extremism, chose to announce an offensive against WikiLeaks and other publishers. In doing so Director Pompeo characterized WikiLeaks as a non-state intelligence service.

The CIA Director's targeted WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange by name claiming that the new U.S Administration will not be "squeamish about going after [WikiLeaks] under some concept of this right to publish", and invoking "less constitutional law and a lot more of a philosophical understanding" that WikiLeaks is a "non-state hostile intelligence agency" to which "no First Amendment Freedoms apply".

It is improper for the CIA director to suggest that he has the authority to proscribe any new limits on freedom of expression. Pompeo's absurd redefinition would have many media organizations and human rights groups transformed into "non-state intelligence services" with the explicitly stated goal of stripping away their First Amendment rights.

History shows the danger of allowing the CIA or any intelligence agency, whose very modus operandi includes misdirection and lying, to be the sole arbiter of what is true, prudent or lawful. Otherwise every day might see a repeat of the many foolish CIA actions which have led to death, displacement, dictatorship, terrorism and torture.

All serious media organizations are in the business of obtaining information by encouraging sources to step forward. The key difference between media and intelligence is that the media is in the business of publishing what it discovers to a wide audience. WikiLeaks is an award winning media organization that is well known for the accuracy and volume of its analysis and primary source publications and its millions of readers.

Unsurprisingly it is the strength of WikiLeaks publications relating to the CIAs illegal activities, including espionage against Frances last presidential election and its attempts to infect its allies and consumer products with viruses that has led to Director Pompeos claims that its editor Julian Assange has no First Amendment protections. These claims are dangerous and should be critically examined.

Director Pompeos statement sought not only to threaten Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks, but to definitively subvert the First Amendment and fundamental notions that are intrinsic to American democracy. The First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting free speech and the press; it is not only a right for the publisher. It is a limitation on the executive designed to check authoritarianism and guarantee the public knowledge and debate which is necessary to preserve the democratic ideals on which the idea of America was built.

As for the Director's attempts to demonize a publisher as a fraud and a cowardthe public can judge what is fraudulent about a decade-long record for publishing the truth and what is cowardly about standing up to years of authoritarian bullying. Director Pompeo lacks irony when he suggests WikiLeaks should focus its fire on autocratic regimes while simultaneously calling for a crackdown on free speech. Director Pompeos finds himself in the company of Erdogan of Turkey (57.934 documents published by WikiLeaks), Assad of Syria (2.3 million documents) and the Saudi dictatorship (122,609 documents), to name but a few autocratic regimes that have attempted, and failed, to censor WikiLeaks.

The CIA's attempts to stifle speech only serves to underscore why WikiLeaks publications are necessary. WikiLeaks will continue to publish true, newsworthy information that contributes to the public debate.

Americas Founders, with brilliant foresight, understood the absolute necessity for preservation of a free press to foster critical debate about the actions of the government. The alternative is tyranny.

Julian Assange

Editor-in-chief & Publisher

WikiLeaks
Why Are People With Diabetes At Increased Risk Of Depression? Diabetes oi-Shivangi Karn

World Diabetes Day is celebrated every year on 14 November to mark the birth anniversary of Sir Frederick Banting who had discovered insulin along with his assistant Charles Best in 1922. The day is celebrated to raise awareness on this chronic global health issue for its early prevention, as well as, support diabetics to manage the condition well and prevent its complications.

Diabetes prevalence is on a steady rise. As per a report published in the journal Elsevier, the number of people above 18 years and living with diabetes have increased significantly to 400 per cent from 1980 to 2014.

Pic Credit: World photo created by jcomp - www.freepik.com

The study also adds that depressive symptoms or major depressive disorders are twice as prevalent in people with diabetes compared to those without the condition. [1]

However, having diabetes does not necessarily make you prone to depression, considering there are other factors too that increase the risk.

According to a WHO report, people with both the conditions: diabetes and depression, are more likely to rate themselves with 'poor' health in comparison to people with only depression or only diabetes.

In this article, we will discuss an association between diabetes and depression. Take a look.

Pic Credit: Food vector created by macrovector - www.freepik.com

Why Are Diabetics Considered To Be At Increased Risk Of Depression?

1. Psychological trauma

A study says that the prevalence of depression is moderately high in people with prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetics or people with recently diagnosed diabetes, compared to normal glucose metabolism individuals.

This could probably be due to the psychological trauma that comes with the stress of getting diagnosed with a chronic disease that could affect their lifestyle for a lifetime. The tension of living an entire life with diabetes and fear of its complications often leads to depression in these people. [2]

2. Physical symptoms of diabetes

Diabetes is a condition that causes hyperglycemia or an increase in blood glucose levels every day, unless managed by medications or proper diet and exercise. The elevated glucose levels in the body cause symptoms such as extreme thirst, frequent urination, sleep disturbance, weight loss, feeling of tiredness all the time, inactive lifestyle, very dry skin and many others, that often burden diabetics, leaving them irritated most of the time and making them depressed.

3. Fear of diabetes complications

Diabetes-related complications are much worse than diabetes symptoms. It includes heart diseases, neuropathy, eye problems, kidney diseases, blood-clotting problems and even amputation of the legs, resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. This fear of complications affects diabetics from the beginning and keeps their mental stress high all the time.

Experts say that the fear and anxiousness of complications often takes diabetics more towards it, even if they are managing their lifestyle properly and are at decreased risk. [3]

4. Treatment of the disease

As diabetes is a lifelong disease with increased prevalence, there are chances of an increase in the cost of diabetes treatment each year. According to a study, in 2017, the annual total on diabetes care in the US was around 327 billion dollars, which was around 2.3 times more than non-diabetics. [4]

Also, in India, the cost of diabetes medicines, diagnosis, transportation, consulting free and hospitalisation comes under direct cost fees, causing increased financial burden on patients themselves. [5] Thus, the cost of treatment and related stress increases the risk of depression in diabetics.

5. Family history of depression

A study mentions that depression largely seems to affect those diabetics who have a history of depressive symptoms or any other mental disorders. The episodes of depression in diabetics are both persistent or recurrent. The study adds that even after successful initial treatment of depression in diabetics, the symptoms seem to recur in around 80 per cent of patients. [6]

Note: In many diabetics, depression is developed as a result of a combination of one or more of the aforementioned factors.

Other Risk Factors For The Development Of Depression In Patients With Diabetes

Being female

Being younger in age [7]

Less social support or relationships

Low income

Low socioeconomic status

Physical impairment

Marital status such as not having a spouse

Lack of education

Smoking habits

Presence of other chronic diseases along with diabetes

How To Cope With Both The Conditions?

Some of the treatment methods to cope with both the conditions include:

Managing diabetes: It includes programs and behaviours to strictly manage the glucose levels and improve your physical health which could affect the state of mind. The best way is to start with a proper diet and regular exercise/meditation/yoga.

It includes programs and behaviours to strictly manage the glucose levels and improve your physical health which could affect the state of mind. The best way is to start with a proper diet and regular exercise/meditation/yoga. Psychotherapy: It includes methods like behaviour therapy, holistic therapy and cognitive therapy that focus on remission of depression with time and give positive treatment outputs.

It includes methods like behaviour therapy, holistic therapy and cognitive therapy that focus on remission of depression with time and give positive treatment outputs. Self-management: Alleviating depressive symptoms is moreover in the hands of diabetics through self-management of the condition. When people are willing and motivated towards their goal, they are more likely to prevent it.

What Is Serotonin Syndrome? Causes, Symptoms, Complications And Treatments

To Conclude

It is always good to talk to your medical expert during the initial stage on how you can keep yourself fit and away from depressive symptoms, especially when you have a history of the same. Also, stay in touch with your doctor at regular intervals and watch out for signs and symptoms of depression.

Is there a link between diabetes and depression? Yes, many studies link diabetes to depression. This is because of some of the leading factors like psychological trauma, fear of complications and family history of depression and secondary factors like smoking and poor socioeconomic status. What percentage of diabetics have depression? A study published in the journal Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience says that prevalence of depressive disorders in diabetics is in the general range of 10% to 15%, which is around twice as high as the prevalence of depression in non-diabetics. Can high blood sugar cause suicidal thoughts? High blood sugar does not directly cause suicidal thoughts, but may affect the physical and mental state of mind of diabetics and put them at a risk of depression, which if left untreated, can bring them suicidal thoughts. This could be more in people with a history of depression or any mental disorders.
LEBANON  No one will ever know how John Walton convinced his brother Donald to give him back his guns.

Its quite possible that Donald Walton didnt know he was doing anything wrong. Donald had only been holding Johns guns while John was under a Protection From Abuse order. That order had been withdrawnalthough the Luzerne County sheriffs office hadnt given Donald permission to return the firearms, according to the (Hazleton) Standard-Speaker.

It was a fatal mistake.

John Walton fatally shot his estranged wifeStacy Walton, a local school teacherand killed himself on Dec. 7, 2012 at their Luzerne County home with the gun Donald had given back to him, police determined.

What she endured the hours before he killed her can only be characterized as torture, her family said in a written statement, according to local news reports.

If the story sounds familiar, it should. Its just one example of an all-to-common pattern.

According to a Lebanon Daily News analysis, there have been at least 27 Pennsylvania cases from 2012 to 2016 in which PFA proceedings were initiated against someone who later committed a murder with a gun.

One of the 27 cases: the Mt. Gretna murder of Stacey Pennington in early 2015 by ex-boyfriend Patrick Derr, who obtained guns owned by his deceased father and used one to murder Pennington.

If you want to get one, youre going to get one. But in this case, it was too easy, said Richard Cheri, who was Penningtons current boyfriend when she died. Whats happening now is still unacceptable.

A Republican state senator is braving the issue of gun control to try to prevent such murders. Sen. Tom Killion, R-9, recently introduced a bill that would eliminate the third-party safekeeping option for firearms in PFA cases, and would require judges to order the removal of firearms whenever a PFA is issued.

Federal law forbids people under a domestic restraining order from owning a firearm. In Pennsylvania, however, judges typically dont order PFA defendants to turn over their weapons.

Gun rights advocates worry about the loss of PFA defendants Second Amendment rights, and argue that a person intent on murder will get their hands on a weapon. But supporters of Killions bill say something needs to be done to end an all-too-common trend.

She heard screaming

Most of the 27 murderscollected from news reports, records kept by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence and a report on PFAs compiled by the Joint State Government Commissiondont involve third-party safekeeping of firearms. In some cases, the PFA had expired or been dropped before the murder occurred. In others, the murder victim was associated with but not the same as the person who sought the PFA (for example, the PFA plaintiffs child).

Still, a glance at the homicides reveals a troubling pattern that verges on monotonous: a person is sufficiently concerned about their significant others behavior to seek a PFA, yet the defendant still finds access to a gun, bringing himself and his loved ones to a violent end. Among the examples:

Susan Hoke was so worried her estranged husband Scott would murder her that she barricaded doors, changed locks, and even asked her son if he wanted Scott killed, the York Daily Record reported. Although she had obtained a PFA, and Scott had pled guilty to a domestic violence crime, family members said firearms were not taken from him. On Sept. 12, 2016, Scott went to Susans York County home and fatally shot her before turning the handgun on himself. Her 17-year-old daughter, Tiffany, heard the screaming.

Violeta Isackov was looking forward to the future in April 2013 when the past violently intervened. She had just left a dress shop in Bucks County in preparation for her upcoming wedding when her ex-husband, Kenneth Philipp, fatally shot her while she was sitting inside a car with her daughter. Philipp died in a shootout with police. Isackov had a protection-from-abuse order against Philipp. David Zellis, then chair of the Bucks County Domestic Violence Fatality Commission, told NBC10 Philadelphia that Philipp shouldnt have had access to a gun.

Tierne Ewing not only had a PFA against estranged husband Kevin Ewing, officials said he had held her captive and tied up for two weeks while he beat, pistol-whipped, and spat on her, according to news reports. Yet Kevin Ewing somehow made bail and gained access to a gun. In August 2016, he forced Tierne Ewing to leave their Washington County home at gunpoint before he murdered her and shot himself.

Since there is no official database of domestic violence-related homicides, it is difficult to say how many people are killed with a firearm after a PFA is entered, said Ellen Kramer, deputy director for PCADV. However, there are probably many more domestic homicides than they are able to identify, she said.

Guns not removed

The coalition did list at least four cases in which a killer gained access to weapons that had been transferred to a third-partyand one case in which a murder could happen any day.

An unnamed Adams County resident obtained a PFA in September 2014 after her spouse beat and choked her in front of their children, according to PCADV. The spouse owns approximately 12 firearms, which were transferred to a friend after the PFA order.

The catch: her spouses friend is in the midst of his own divorce and is now living with them. Shes tried to get the friends possession of the weapons revoked, but proving he lives in their home has been a challenge, PCADV said. Meanwhile, continued actions by her spouse have her living in fear.

She feels like she is not the protected party but he is, PCADVs description of her case stated.

There are restrictions on who can take possession of a PFA defendants firearms. The third party is not allowed to be a member of the defendants household, be themselves prohibited from possessing firearms, or have an active PFA against them, Kramer said. Even so, a defendant intent on murder can often figure out how to get the gun back, she said.

What we know about abusers is that they are uncannily good at manipulation, she said.

Killions bill would eliminate that option, requiring guns to be turned over to the sheriffs office or other law enforcement agency.

The biggest impact of the bill, however, would likely come from requiring judges to remove firearms after all final PFAs are granted.

In Pennsylvania, judges usually dont make that order. Only 14 percent of final PFA orders in Pennsylvania required the relinquishment of firearms from 2011-2015, according to PCADV. Lebanon County Sheriff Bruce Klingler said it happens about 10 percent of the time in Lebanon County.

Eliminating a right

Gun rights groups are queasy about expanding the removal of guns from people who havent been convicted of a crime. A PFA is a civil order signed by a judge, not the result of a criminal jury trial, and only a preponderance is needed to obtain a final PFA.

Kim Stolfer, president of Pennsylvania-based Firearm Owners Against Crime, said Killions bill in its current form would violate the concept of innocent until proven guilty.

All were asking for is reasonable protections before a person loses their constitutional rights, Stolfer said.

There is no proof that eliminating the third-party safekeeping option would prevent murders, he said. While stories of domestic violence are tragic, there are also stories of innocent PFA defendants whose lives were impacted by plaintiffs taking advantage of the PFA law.

Were all for protecting domestic violence victims from being harmed. Were not for throwing the baby out with the bathwater, which is the constitution, he said.

However, Killions bill is backed by a major police organization, in part for very personal reasons. Two police officers were killed in the line of duty responding to domestic violence calls in 2016, including state trooper Landon Weaver. In both cases, the shooter had previously been served with a PFA.

(Domestic disputes) are a very high priority and a very dangerous type of call to respond to, said Tom Gross, executive director of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association. These PFA orders are all based on a lot of situations that can result in violence.

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan, speaking on behalf of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, which favors the bill, said he supports gun rights and believes police and judges should take care to assume the circumstances leading to the PFA are legitimate. But with the right to own a firearm comes a responsibility, he said.

If a PFAs been granted, if you have guns, youre a risk, Hogan said. If youre a gun owner, you always have to be the calmest, most rational person in the room.

A judges choice

Former Lebanon County District Judge Michael Smith also believes judges should use any means possible to protect victimsin fact, he believes district judges should be able to order the confiscation of firearms, not just county Court of Common Pleas judges. However, he doesnt believe in taking the choice out of the judges hands. There are cases in which someone happens to apply for a PFA right before their spouse is set to go on a hunting trip, for example, he said.

Its not covered in the bookyoure trying to do whats right on one end, and ensure safety on the other, he said. You are dispossessing someone of a constitutional right.

Will this bill, alone, eliminate domestic violence fatalities? Not completely, Kramer said in an email. But we are certain that under the leadership of Senator Killion and his Senate colleagues, we can and will have a major impact in reducing this senseless loss of life.

Sen. Tom Killions bill to restrict access to firearms by abusers is only one of four Pennsylvania bills designed to make Protection From Abuse orders more effective at preventing domestic violence.

The other bills include:

SB 449, which would clarify that judges can use risk assessment tools when setting bail in domestic violence criminal cases. The bill is named Tiernes law after Tierne Ewing, who was killed by her husband in 2016 while he was out on bail. Patrick Derr was also out on bail before killing Stacey Pennington in Mt. Gretna in 2015.

SB 502, which would address incarcerated abusers. Extensions of PFAs typically require proof that the defendant has continued to engage in acts that place the plaintiff at risk, but that may not be possible if the defendant has been in prison. The bill would allow for extension of PFAs without proof of further abuse in those cases.

SB 500, which would require law enforcement to accompany the victim when a PFA order is served. Tom Hogan, Chester County District Attorney, said that is the least controversial proposal, since it cements what is already considered a common sense best practice. In Lebanon County, a sheriffs deputy always directly serves the PFA on the defendant, Sheriff Bruce Klingler said.

Still, Killions bill is probably the most controversial. Two of three other Republican legislators involved in proposing this package of legislation havent joined Killions bill, and some Lebanon County legislators are also skeptical.

I would want to hear more about the reasons for (eliminating the third-party safekeeping option), before I would decide to support that or not, said State Rep. Russ Diamond, R-102.
Thyroid Dysfunction Can Cause Heart Failure - Finds Study Wellness ians-Lekhaka

People with higher levels of underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism) may be at risk of severe heart failure, an Indian-origin researcher has found.

According to the study, those with an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) may be more likely to have irregular, often rapid heart rate.A thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) blood test is used to check thyroid gland problems.

TSH causes the thyroid gland to make two hormones: triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). T3 and T4 help to control body's metabolism and are needed for normal growth of the brain, especially during the initial years of life.

The findings showed that in patients with pre-existing heart failure, higher TSH, higher free T4 and lower T3 concentrations were each associated with more severe heart failure, while only higher free T4 was associated with atrial fibrillation.

"Our results indicate that having subclinical hypothyroidism, a mild decrease in thyroid function, is associated with increased likelihood of needing mechanical assistance to the heart with devices, transplantation or death," said led author Lakshmi Kannan from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, US.

"We also found that blood tests commonly performed to assess thyroid function, including thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and two distinct thyroid hormones called thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), are associated with the severity of heart failure," Kannan said.

The results were presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, ENDO 2017 in Orlando. To examine the association between thyroid disorders and the risk of adverse outcomes, including ventricular assist device placement, heart transplantation or death, Kannan and her team investigated 1,382 patients with pre-existing moderate to advanced heart failure.

In the participants, subclinical hypothyroidism with TSH 7.0 milli-international units per liter (mIU/L) or higher was linked with worse survival.

With Inputs From IANS

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Story first published: Saturday, April 15, 2017, 10:57 [IST]
MILFORD, Pa.  He decided to attack a state police barracks only a few days before squeezing the trigger. He was surprised the manhunt for him wasnt more aggressive. He feared hed be shot by police but figured he had it coming.

Eric Freins videotaped statement to police, recorded on the night of his 2014 capture and aired publicly for the first time during his capital murder trial last week, offered new details into what the suspect was thinking and doing before, during and after the deadly ambush that killed one trooper and left a second with devastating injuries.

While chain-smoking cigarettes given to him by police, Frein answered many of the investigators questions with a nod or shake of the headand, in the process, implicated himself over and over.

His attorney, Michael Weinstein, told reporters after the video was played in court that its not for us to decide if its a confession. But he added the video showed Frein displayed legitimate remorse.

The 33-year-old college dropout, who eluded capture for nearly seven weeks after the ambush, faces a potential death sentence if hes convicted in the attack that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson. Hes pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have said they could rest their case this week.

Some things we learned about Frein from the video and from other evidence presented at his trial:

Plan developed quickly

Frein told police he began plotting the ambush the first weekend of September, only a few days before the Sept. 12, 2014, attack. He used Google Earth to scope out state police barracks near his home in Canadensis, picking the Blooming Grove station because it was surrounded by woods and offered good cover. He said he didnt visit the area ahead of time and knew no one at the barracks.

Hide and seek

Frein wasnt exactly on the run during a large portion of the manhunt. He told police he spent most of his time as one of Americas most wanted men living in an airplane hangar attached to a defunct and abandoned Poconos resort more than 20 miles from the shooting scene. It was stocked with everything he needed to live in relative comfort, though he did say he burglarized a home a few days before his capture to steal food. He called it scary and a little bit disconcerting to be the target of a manhunt but added he didnt care if he got caught.

Reluctant on motive

Faced repeatedly with questions about why he did it, Frein demurred. I dont know, he said at one point. At another, Frein seemed to suggest he was dissatisfied with his life as a 31-year-old man who lived with his parents and had few job prospects. Finally, toward the end, he agreed with the investigators suggestions that he shot Dickson and Trooper Alex Douglass to wake people up and force a change in government. He complained there was no one worth voting for.

Another key piece of evidencea letter to his parentslends credence to the idea that Frein was a wannabe revolutionary. He wrote that only another revolution can get us back the liberties we once had.

Religious claim

Asked if he considered himself a man of faith, Frein nodded his head yes. He talked about Old Testament prophesy and the New Testament book of Luke. He made the sign of the cross when an investigator said thank God nobody got seriously hurt during the manhunt. He spoke of his soul and said theres already enough to answer for.

And, in a handwritten journal recovered from the hangar, he asked Jesus Christ for mercy.

Frein did not square his professions and displays of piety with the sniper who plotted, laid in wait and chose his victims at random.
DEAR HARRIETTE: I live in a small town and have noticed my ex-girlfriend's car driving around outside my house more than usual. When we broke up, she slashed my tires and keyed my car, so I don't want to put myself at risk of an outburst from her, but I want to stop feeling so uneasy knowing she is rolling my home. I don't think the police should get involved, but I don't know how she'd react if I confronted her about her behavior. How do I get her to stop looping around my home? -- Repeat Sightings, Near Pikesville, Maryland

DEAR REPEAT SIGHTINGS: Unfortunately, the only real measure you have is to report your ex-girlfriend's behavior to the police. It is unlikely that she will be arrested since she isn't doing anything illegal right now, but it will set a precedent. You can tell the police about what your ex did upon your breakup. Be specific and unemotional. Ask the authorities for advice on what to do to protect yourself from your ex now. Meanwhile, keep your distance.

If you have occasion to communicate with her, apologize for whatever you did to hurt her. Invite her to agree to move on, just as you are doing.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My young adult children have been slyly drinking at family events recently. They are 20-year-old twins, so they have not reached the legal drinking age. I caught my son holding a beer in the kitchen and immediately made him pour it down the drain. He does not even know his own limits!

Is my son being disrespectful by drinking in my home? I think so; however, my wife thinks it is safer that he drinks with us to figure out how he handles his liquor. -- Family Not Booze, Dallas

DEAR FAMILY NOT BOOZE: You probably already know that it is common for teenagers to drink without their parents' permission. Your children are almost of-age. While I do not condone underage drinking, I will say that it is likely that if they were drinking in your home, there's a good chance they have been drinking in other places, too.

Do your best to have a nonjudgmental conversation with your kids about their choices. Remind them of the reasons you do not recommend that they drink. At the same time, acknowledge how common it is for people their age. Ask them how often they drink. Go slowly with this conversation, as it is usually difficult for young people to admit their illicit behavior, especially to their parents.

I cannot recommend that you let your children drink at home. I can tell you that many families do make that choice so that they can watch their children, know that they are not driving and help them to learn to make smart decisions. If you do allow them to drink at home, do not let them have parties with their friends with alcohol. You will be liable if anything happens to them, from alcohol poisoning to drunk driving.

Harriette Cole is a life stylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106
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Brandon police werent misled by the false name one man gave them on Wednesday, since officers already knew who he was.

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Brexit has placed Irish unity back on the political agenda almost a century on from partition, Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill has told her party's Easter Rising commemoration.

Delivering the annual oration at Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin on the 101st anniversary of the rebellion, the republican party's Stormont leader said the UK's departure from the European Union despite a majority in Northern Ireland voting Remain had "changed everything".

"The Brexit referendum result has swept away many of the previous political assumptions about the constitutional, political and economic status quo in Ireland," she said.

"Ireland's political landscape, North and South, will change dramatically - and this poses a severe threat to the Good Friday Agreement and the political and economic future of the island.

"This has brought the issue of Irish reunification firmly back on to the political agenda.

"The people of the North clearly voted to see their future in the European Union in the referendum last June. Those who voted remain came from all walks of life. They were nationalists, unionists, republicans and others.

"They did so not because the EU is such a great institution, but because it is in their best interests politically, socially and economically and because they did not want to see any strengthening of the border in Ireland.

"The British government's reckless Brexit agenda offers nothing to the people of the north who are being dragged out against our will.

"The Brexit referendum was driven by the narrow, right-wing interests of the most hard-line elements of the British Tory party and the far right of Ukip. These parties have never shown any regard for the North of Ireland or our people.

"Since the referendum, Theresa May and her government have done nothing to indicate this has changed. In fact, they have blatantly ignored the democratic will of the majority of the people of the north."

Mrs O'Neill reiterated her call for Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny to press for Northern Ireland to secure special designated EU status post-Brexit.

"What Enda Kenny must now do is stop standing by and start to take serious his moral duty and political responsibility to act in the national interest of all Irish citizens," she said.

She added: "We are entering a defining period in Irish political history. The opportunities for real change are within our grasp.

"The old certainties are gone. The grip of the old parties is loosening."

The Mid Ulster Assembly member concluded: "We want to be in government in both parts of Ireland in order to serve the Irish people and to deliver a Real Republic.

"To finish the business of 1916 and the great challenge of the Proclamation in uniting all the people of this island, whatever their background or tradition, in equality and mutual respect together."
A ceremony to mark the 101st anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising will take place outside the GPO on OConnell Street in Dublin today.

It will be led by President Michael D. Higgins, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, and the Minister for Defence, Paul Kehoe.
Family and friends of a murdered Irish backpacker have issued an international appeal to help secure justice.

Co Donegal woman Danielle McLaughlin, 28, was raped and killed in Goa on the west coast of India on March 13.

One local man has been charged with her murder but others are suspected of involvement in the brutal killing.

Ms McLaughlin, who was from Buncrana but had lived in Liverpool before travelling overseas, had been celebrating Holi, a Hindu spring festival, in Palolem, a coastal village in Goa.

She left the village late at night and her naked body was found in a nearby field the next day with injuries to her head and face.

A spokesman for the Truth for Danielle Campaign said: "We seek truth and justice."

The campaign has assembled an international legal team, headed by Derry solicitor Des Doherty, to pursue the case.

They urged anyone with potential information to come forward.

The spokesman said: "At this time we are especially interested in any mobile phone or cellular device footage that you may have, if you were present in Goa for the Holi Festival in the area of the Festival Valley at Palolem Beach and Collomb Bay on the 13th March 2017, and the days leading up to the 13th March 2017.

"We are seeking to identify all potential witnesses from the footage and photographs that so many people have already sent to us.

"If you feel that you can help at all please upload what images or footage you have with date, time and location, identifying any person that you can. Any assistance will be invaluable and much appreciated by Danielle's family, friends and legal team."

A childhood friend of Ms McLaughlin has already released a music single to raise money to support the justice campaign.

Anyone with information can upload images and footage to christytduffy@gmail.com or can contact Mr Doherty on des@desmondjdoherty.co
The Irish Government must make clear to the UK government that direct rule is not an option if talks to restore powersharing in Northern Ireland fail, Gerry Adams has warned.

The Sinn Fein president said another snap Assembly election was the only way to proceed if negotiations do not deliver agreement.

Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire has said he will either trigger an election or move to a return to Westminster decision-making if there is no deal by "early May".

Last month, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he and British Prime Minister Theresa May shared the position that direct rule was not an option.

But with Northern Ireland approaching seven weeks without a devolved government following March's election, it appears that option is now very much on the table in Downing Street.

Current legislation dictates Mr Brokenshire should call another a poll if negotiations to form an administration fail.

The British government lost its power to suspend devolution and reintroduce direct rule in the 2006 St Andrews Agreement.

It would require emergency legislation in Westminster for Mr Brokenshire to regain that authority.

Addressing an Easter Rising commemoration in Co Tyrone, Mr Adams said: "Sinn Fein wants a deal.

"But if there is no deal then there has to be an election.

"The role and responsibility of the Irish Government must be to assert that an election is the only legal course open to the British government, if the current talks fail to elect an Executive."

Negotiations to save devolution remain log-jammed, with two deadlines to form a new ruling executive falling by the wayside.

Sinn Fein demands for legislative protections for Irish speakers, an end to the North's ban on gay marriage and the implementation of a Northern Ireland-specific bill of rights are among the issues of dispute.

Talks will reconvene after Easter, working to the new early May deadline.

Sinn Fein has accused the DUP of preventing the formation of a "rights-based" government.

The DUP has claimed Sinn Fein is focused only on the demands of its own supporters, and is failing to appreciate that others want movement on other issues.

The main unionist party hinted at a shift in approach to the Irish language last week when party leader Arlene Foster, who previously insisted she would never support an Irish Language Act, pledged to meet Gaelic speakers to hear their concerns.

While Sinn Fein welcomed her comments as a "positive step", Mr Adams insisted the DUP had to go further.

"Arlene Foster needs to reflect over this Easter time on whether she wants to reinforce unionist separation, segregation, from the rest of us or whether she seizes the opportunity to bring unionism in a new direction to respect diversity and end division," he said at the commemoration in Carrickmore.

"The alternative will not work."

The DUP is seeking to secure protections for Ulster Scots speakers and have also pressed for the introduction of a military covenant in Northern Ireland, a series of policies that define the state's obligations to its armed services.

Mr Adams said seeking a "counter balance" represented a "flawed approach".

"The DUP leader can cast about for some 'counter balance', some quid pro quo, to legitimate progressive measures which benefit everyone," he said.

"She will achieve absolutely nothing but continued division if she thinks she can build a strategy on such a flawed approach."

Ahead of the Easter weekend, DUP MP Gregory Campbell urged Sinn Fein to rethink its approach to negotiation.

Mr Campbell told republicans they need to look beyond their own wish list.

"Sinn Fein's closed-mind approach has led to Stormont being closed, it needs to change," he said.

"The current impasse was created when Sinn Fein walked out of Stormont.

"Critical public services suffer whilst the deadlock is maintained through their refusal to re-establish the executive. The DUP is prepared to establish the executive and work through the range of problems people from across Northern Ireland face."

He added: "The Easter break offers them (Sinn Fein) the opportunity to refocus on issues which they have to get their collective heads around.

"That can be of benefit but only if they use the opportunity and come back to begin looking at the issues which people beyond Sinn Fein's closed circle want to get resolved."

Devolution first crashed in January when Sinn Fein pulled the plug on the last executive over a row about a botched green energy scheme, triggering last month's snap election.
Detectives have urged those protecting the killers of a father-of-four who died in a paramilitary-style attack to give them up.

Officers also stressed the need to identify two men who called at Michael McGibbon's Belfast home to threaten him the day before he was shot.

The 33-year-old taxi driver was shot three times in the legs in an alleyway close to his house in the nationalist Ardoyne area in April last year.

He died in hospital the following day.

It is understood he went to the alleyway having been ordered to attend.

Dissident republicans were being blamed for carrying out what was apparently intended as a so-called "punishment shooting".

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Detective Chief Inspector Alan Dickson said: "We are grateful for the support and information we have already received from the community, but there are people living locally who know exactly who was involved.

"They are protecting murderers and we need to hear from them."

The former chef's wife Joanne, a nurse, rushed to her husband after the attack and desperately tried to save his life.

On the first anniversary of the death, Mr Dickson issued a fresh appeal for information to catch those responsible.

"We continue to carry out a thorough and painstaking investigation into all of the circumstances surrounding Michael's tragic murder," he said.

"It was a particularly brutal and callous attack during which Michael was shot a number of times in the leg in an alleyway in a densely populated residential area.

"Easter is traditionally a time for families to spend time together and I would urge everyone to spare a thought for Michael's family who have been deprived of a cherished husband and father.

"One year on, and the McGibbons are still coming to terms with their grief, pain and loss.

"They deserve to see his killers brought to justice and pay for their ruthless actions.

"There is nothing that can justify or explain the senselessness of this attack, which bears all the hallmarks of a paramilitary murder.

"He was a man with no criminal record, no apparent criminal connections or associations.

"Those who carried it out have no legitimacy in this community and today I would like to mark the first anniversary of Michael's killing by appealing to local people to help us find them.

"Help us bring justice to the McGibbon family."

He added: "I am appealing in particular about two males who called at the McGibbon home late in the evening of April 14 2016.

"These men asked Mr McGibbon to step out of the house.

"When he refused, they stated that they would be back.

"The first male is described as in his early 20s, slim and was wearing a red hooded top, baseball cap and had a scarf over his face.

"The second is described as in his late teens, wearing a grey hooded top, baseball cap and also had a scarf over his face.

"I am asking these men, or anyone who knows their identity, to get in touch with police.

"If there is an innocent explanation for your presence at the house on that night allow us to eliminate you from this inquiry."

Mr Dickson encouraged people to phone detectives on 101 or the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111.
The President has laid a wreath at the focal point of the Easter Rising as the nation marked the 101st anniversary of the rebellion.

Michael D Higgins was joined by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the event outside the General Post Office on O'Connell Street, the landmark building that served as the headquarters of the 1916 rebels.

Members of the Irish Defence Forces personnel took part in the state ceremony.

The event began with the lowering of the Irish tricolour. A prayer was read and a piper played a lament before the Proclamation of Independence was read by a Defence Forces officer.

On Easter Monday 1916, rebel leader Patrick Pearse stood outside the GPO and read out the proclamation to herald the start of the insurrection against British rule.

After Mr Higgins laid the laurel wreath, a minute's silence was held and the Last Post played. The official ceremony concluded with the raising of the tricolour, the playing of the Irish national anthem - Amhran na bhFiann - and a fly-past by four planes from the Irish Air Corps.

The event was lower key than last year, when hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of the capital for a huge military parade to mark the 100th anniversary.

The Easter Rising was a military failure for the revolutionaries, who included poets, journalists and teachers, but it sparked a chain of events that ultimately led to the partition of Ireland and the creation of an independent Republic as well as Northern Ireland.

Earlier on Sunday, Heritage minister Heather Humphreys and deputy UK ambassador to Ireland Neil Holland attended a series of commemorative events in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin.

President Michael D Higgins inspects a presidential guard of honour at the 1916 Commemoration ceremony. @rtenews pic.twitter.com/otqiRMFRdK  Petula Martyn (@petulamartyn) April 16, 2017

The programme included the raising of the tricolour over the monument to celebrated poet Dora Sigerson and the laying of wreaths at the graves of Edward Hollywood, the man who delivered the first tricolour flag to Ireland from France, and Peadar Kearney, the composer of Amhran na bhFiann.

Minister Humphreys said: "These moments of commemoration provide us with an opportunity to recognise the legacy of those who went before us and their enduring influence on the Ireland of today."

The great grandson of Peader Kearney, Dualta O' Broin, sang the anthem at the event.

John Green, chairman of Glasnevin Trust, said: "In remembering Dora Sigerson, Edward Hollywood and Peadar Kearney each Easter Sunday morning we hope to encourage today's generations to explore the complex and intricate period in our history a century ago."

A granite memorial incorporating the names of all those who died in the Rising, including rebellion leaders and British soldiers, was unveiled in Glasnevin as part of the centenary commemorations last year.

Almost 500 people were killed in the uprising, the majority of them - 268 - were civilians caught up in the violence.
The death toll from the collapse of a massive rubbish mound near Sri Lanka's capital has climbed to 22 with up to 20 more people feared buried underneath the debris.

Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe, who is heading the rescue efforts, said authorities were struggling to determine exactly how many people were trapped under the debris due to a lack of information from the residents.

But lawyer and activist Nuwan Bopage, who had worked with local residents in their protests to have the dump removed, said about 20 people were buried under the debris.

Military personnel were still searching the site in Meetotamulla, a town outside Colombo, the capital, and speaking to survivors to determine how many were missing.

The tragedy occurred on Friday evening as people were celebrating the local new year.

One resident said that he and others were searching for three neighbours, an elderly man, his daughter and granddaughter, who were buried under the collapse.

Twelve people who were injured in the disaster remained in the hospital.

Maj Gen Ranasinghe said 78 houses were destroyed and more than 150 were damaged.

The site has been used to dump Colombo's rubbish for the past few years as authorities sought to give the capital a face-lift. But residents living in the area have protested because of health hazards.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the government would soon remove the dump from the area.

He also said 625 people whose homes were either destroyed or under threat from the collapse were being housed in nearby schools.

AP
The former governor of the Mexican state of Veracruz who is accused of running a corruption ring has been detained in Guatemala after six months on the run.

Javier Duarte was seen as a high-profile symbol of government corruption in his country.

Mexico's Attorney General's Office said Duarte was detained on Saturday with the co-operation of Guatemalan police and the country's Interpol office.

He was in the municipality of Panajachel, which is a picturesque tourist town on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala's highlands.

Duarte was wanted on suspicion of money laundering and organised crime, and prosecutors directed the foreign relations department to request his extradition.

A photo released by Guatemalan police showed a bespectacled Duarte being escorted by Interpol agents.

Manuel Noriega, deputy director of Interpol in Guatemala, said Duarte was found at a hotel where he was staying with his wife.

He was asked to leave his room, did so voluntarily and then was arrested without incident in the lobby.

Mr Noriega said Duarte would be taken before a judge to consider his possible extradition.

Duarte, 43, was governor of Veracruz from 2010 until he left office on October 12 2016, two months before the scheduled end of his term.

He said he was doing so in order to face the allegations against him.

At the time he denied having links to phantom businesses that allegedly won state contracts, and said he had not stolen a single peso of state money or diverted government funds overseas.

"I don't have foreign accounts," he said last year. "I don't have properties anywhere."

Duarte promptly disappeared and had been sought by Mexican authorities ever since. Earlier this year Interpol issued a notice for his capture.

The Mexican government has found millions of dollars purportedly linked to Duarte, frozen more than 100 bank accounts and also seized property and businesses tied to the former governor.

A reward of 15 million pesos (583,000) had been offered for his capture.

The detention comes a week after Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Mexico's Tamaulipas state, was arrested in Italy, also on allegations of organised crime and money laundering.

Another ex-governor, Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state, is also wanted on suspicion of corruption and is said to have fled to El Paso, Texas. He is not related to Javier Duarte.

All three ex-governors were members of the ruling Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI, of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The party, which expelled Javier Duarte on October 25 last year, and has sought to distance itself from him, applauded the arrest.

"The PRI calls for all the relevant investigations to be carried out and, respecting due process, for the ex-governor of Veracruz to be punished in an exemplary fashion, as well as anyone who is confirmed to have taken part in his criminal ring," the party said.

Duarte became a powerful symbol of alleged corruption during mid-term elections last year in which the PRI lost several governorships, including Veracruz, that it had held uninterrupted since its founding in 1929.

He has also been widely criticised for rampant violence in the state during his administration, as drug cartels fought for territory and thousands of people were killed or disappeared.

The dead include at least 16 journalists killed in Veracruz during his six years in office.

AP
A North Korean missile exploded during launch in a high-profile failure that came as a powerful US aircraft carrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

It was not immediately clear what kind of missile was fired from the city of Sinpo on North Korea's east coast, but the failure will sting in Pyongyang.

It comes the day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year- celebrations of the 105th birthday of the country's late founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather.

The North's test firing can be seen as a message of defiance to Washington, coming as it does on the day US Vice President Mike Pence is set to arrive in Seoul for talks on North Korea.

President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the failed launch of the missile.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Mr Trump and his military team "are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."

Mr Trump has been leaning on China to put pressure on North Korea, but has also threatened to take on the country alone if necessary.

He tweeted on Thursday: "I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will!. U.S.A."

Washington and Seoul will try work out what exactly North Korea fired.

While North Korea regularly launches short-range missiles, it is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target US troops in Asia and, eventually, the US mainland.

The ultimate goal is to have a full array of nuclear-tipped missiles in response to what Pyongyang says is hostility by Washington and Seoul meant to topple its government.

North Korea is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles.

Many outside analysts believe that North Korea has not yet mastered the technology to build warheads small enough to place on long-range missiles.

But some civilian experts say North Korea can already build nuclear-tipped shorter range missiles that have South Korea and Japan within its striking range.

The US Pacific Command said that Sunday's missile exploded on launch. South Korea's defence ministry said it was analysing exactly how the North Korean test failed. Neither military knew what kind of missile was fired.

In Seoul, South Korea's presidential office convened a national security council meeting to examine its security policy.

Chronically high animosity has risen on the Korean Peninsula in recent months, as the US and South Korea conduct annual war games that North Korea claims are invasion preparation, and the North prepared for Saturday's anniversary celebrations.

A US aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, is heading to waters off Korea in a show of force.

Analysts warn that even failed missile launches provide valuable knowledge into North Korea as it tries to build its weapons programme.

The country launched a long-range rocket and conducted two nuclear tests last year, including its most powerful to date.

Aside from improving the technology, North Korean missile and nuclear tests are seen by outside analysts partly as efforts to bolster the domestic image of leader Kim Jong Un and apply political pressure on Seoul and Washington.

Kim Jong Un has overseen three nuclear tests and a string of missile and rocket launches since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.

Another missile test from Sinpo failed earlier this month, when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean.

That launch came shortly before Mr Trump's first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China is North Korea's only major ally.

The extended-range Scud missile in that earlier launch suffered an in-flight failure and fell into the sea off North Korea's east coast, according to US imagery and assessments.

Despite Sunday's failure, the North's previous claim to have used "standardised" warheads has led to worries that it was making headway in its push to develop small and sophisticated warheads to be topped on long-range missiles.

Washington sees North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to world security and to its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea.

The United States, South Korea and other countries have vowed to apply more pressure on the North, but so far nothing has worked to stop Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear programme in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

AP
Update 11am: US Vice President Mike Pence has branded North Korea's failed missile launch a "provocation".

Speaking to American military personnel in South Korea, he told them they were serving on the "frontier of freedom".

"This morning's provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face every day in the defence of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defence of America in this part of the world.

"In these troubled times in this part of the world your courage and your valour still amazes the American people."

The US Vice President was speaking after American officials said a North Korean medium-range missile exploded seconds after it was launched on Sunday.

"We are going to rebuild our military" says US Vice President @mike_pence while addressing troops in South Korea pic.twitter.com/U6yIKFCwHJ  Sky News (@SkyNews) April 16, 2017

Earlier: US Vice President Mike Pence has arrived in South Korea at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia that comes amid turmoil over North Korea's threats to advance its growing nuclear and defence capabilities.

His visit comes just after a failed missile launch by the North.

President Donald Trump's vice president arrived in the region after North Korea celebrated the birth anniversary of the country's late founder with a military parade.

Mr Pence is joined by his wife and two adult daughters and will lay a wreath at the Seoul National Cemetery and join US and South Korean troops for Easter Sunday church services and a dinner.

Mr Pence is the son of a Korean War veteran and displays his late father's Bronze Star in his office.

AP
Protesters in France threw firebombs at police who responded with tear gas as hundreds marched against far-right National Front leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.

The skirmishes happened during today's march from suburban Aubervilliers to Paris, near where Le Pen is due to hold a rally tomorrow.
Two Russian warships will be escorted by a Royal Navy ship as they pass through the English Channel.

HMS Sutherland will monitor Steregushchiy-class corvettes Soobrazitelny and Boiky as well as a Russian support tanker and ocean-going tug as they sail close to UK territorial waters on Saturday.

The boats were located by the Plymouth-based Type 23 frigate as they sailed through the North Sea towards the Dover Straits on Friday morning.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: "HMS Sutherland is carefully marking these Russian ships as they pass close to UK waters.

"The Royal Navy maintains a vigilant watch and is always ready to keep Britain safe."

It comes at a time of heightened-tension with Russia, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault, criticising the country for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution on Syria.

They accused Moscow and Tehran of covering up details of Bashar Assad's chemical weapons use.

Commander Andrew Canale, Commanding Officer of HMS Sutherland, said: "As one of the Royal Navy's high-readiness units, HMS Sutherland is required to escort warships that approach the UK and this task is considered routine business for us.

"It is vitally important the Royal Navy demonstrates its presence and commitment to the integrity of UK territorial waters as we work around the clock to secure the seas of our island nation."

The Royal Navy frigate was designed to deal with the Soviet submarine threat, but now acts as a high-readiness unit and can be called upon for escort duties, marine search and rescue, or to conduct counter-terrorism operations.

In January, HMS St Albans escorted Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, battlecruiser Petr Velikiy and a tug as they passed close to UK territorial waters.

The RAF and Navy were also scrambled several times last year to escort Russian aircraft and ships near the UK.

PA
Update 10pm: Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in Sunday's referendum that will grant sweeping powers to the presidency, hailing the result as a "historic decision".

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Mr Erdogan said unofficial results showed the "yes" side had won by a margin of 1.3 million votes.

The president struck a conciliatory tone, thanking all voters regardless of how they cast their ballots and describing the referendum as a "historic decision".

"April 16 is the victory of all who said yes or no, of the whole 80 million, of the whole of Turkey of 780,000-square kilometres," Mr Erdogan said.

Earlier:

Turkey's prime minister has declared a victory based on unofficial results for backers of a referendum to greatly expand the powers of the country's president.

Opposition figures questioned the result, however, and indicated they would challenge some of the counts.

Results carried by the state-run Anadolu news agency showed the "yes" vote had about 51.3% compared to 48.7% for the "no" vote with nearly 99% of the vote counted.

Addressing thousands of flag-waving supporters on tonight, prime minister Binali Yildirim said the "unofficial' final result is 'yes'" for the constitutional referendum.

Mr Yildirim spoke on the balcony of his governing AK Party headquarters in Ankara, addressing a crowd of about 3,000 people who waved flags and chanted the name of the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Earlier, the leader of Turkey's main nationalist party also claimed victory.

Nationalist Action Party head Devlet Bahceli said in a statement that Turkish voters chose of their free will to move the country from a parliamentary to a presidential system of government.

Mr Bahceli called the outcome "a very important success; a win that makes neglect and denial impossible".

He said Turkey rejected international "pressure, blackmail, imposition, force and threats by the whole world to put the 'no' choice forward".

The party, the fourth largest in parliament, backed Mr Erdogan and the governing Justice and Development Party in their push to change Turkey's parliamentary system into a presidential one.

The main opposition party said it will challenge 37% of the ballot boxes counted.

Republic People's Party, or CHP, deputy chairman Erdal Aksunger predicted the figure could even increase to 60%.

Mr Aksunger said: "Since this morning, we have determined some 2.5 million problematic votes."

The country's pro-Kurdish opposition party, which also opposed the constitutional changes, says it plans to object to two-thirds of the ballots.

The Peoples' Democratic Party said on its Twitter account: "Our data indicates a manipulation in the range of three to 4%."
Nine people have been wounded, two critically, during a shooting in a club in Ohio.

Five females and four males were shot, with wounds ranging from minor to life-threatening, and two people are still in a critical condition.
Seven years after the GFC dealt a major blow to the Sunshine Coast, the region is well and truly back in business.

Projects such as the $1.8 billion university hospital, the Sunshine Coast airport expansion and development of the new Maroochydore CBD have buoyed business confidence  but a vital piece of the puzzle remains orphaned on the sideline.

Last year the G:link at the Gold Coast carried 640,000 people a month and a third stage to Burleigh Heads is now planned. Credit:Glenn Hunt

There needs to be a clearer government commitment to improving the public transport network serving Australia's 10th largest city.

Its passenger rail line currently connects smaller hinterland communities, while coastal centres such as Maroochydore and Caloundra are only served by buses.
Charlie Murphy, the comedian, voice-over artist and older brother of the actor and comic Eddie Murphy, died on Wednesday at a hospital in New York City. He was 57.

His publicist, Domenick Nati, said the cause was leukaemia.

Charlie Murphy: "When Charlie Murphy ain't here no more, I'll have a body of work that people can laugh and remember me by." Credit:AP

With his brother's help, Murphy began his show business career in the late 1980s, mostly taking bit roles in movies. Decades later, he became best known for a part on Dave Chappelle's acclaimed sketch-comedy series Chappelle's Show, which was broadcast on Comedy Central from 2003 to 2006.

In the fan-favourite series of sketches known as Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories, which Murphy helped write, he would spoof himself, regaling viewers with stories of his encounters with celebrities like Rick James and Prince. Both Mr James and Prince later confirmed that the skits were based in truth.
Labor has backed the United States to deal with the "rogue" state of North Korea, but Opposition Leader Bill Shorten also called on China to play a larger role in addressing the security threat posed by its erratic neighbour.

Mr Shorten, who described Donald Trump during the US election campaign as "barking mad" and "entirely unsuitable to be leader of the free world", said the US was vital to maintaining order in the Pacific despite some of the incendiary language of the new president.

"I know these days there is some concern about the United States. I have to say, when you look at the role that the United States' security plays in our region I am grateful for their presence and certainly I regard the American alliance with Australia as being very important, especially at times of heightened uncertainty that the North Korean regime presents," Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.

"I for one am grateful that the Americans do contribute so much to security in the Pacific region."
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, pulled a perfect granddaughter-in-law move as the Royal family celebrated Easter Sunday by curtsying to the Queen while looking elegant in a custom-made coat from Catherine Walker with matching pillbox hat.

The label is a favourite of both Catherine and the late Princess Diana, the Duchess' mother-in-law.

The Royal Family arrive for the Easter Sunday service. Credit:Getty

It is protocol for Catherine to curtsy to the Queen upon seeing her for the first time, normally this would happen in private.

Her husband, Prince William, nodded in deference to his grandmother, the 90-year-old monarch.
Two teenagers and woman have been charged after allegedly holding an 86-year-old man at knifepoint while they robbed and ransacked his Rockhampton home.

Police said two boys, aged 14 and 16, and a 21-year-old woman forced their way into the Boreham Street house in West Rockhampton just after midnight on Saturday.

The three accused were charged with a string of offences including armed robbery and wilful damage. Credit:Rob Gunstone

Once inside it will be alleged the trio held the man at knifepoint while they cut his phone line, damaged his mobile, drank his alcohol, damaged property and stole numerous items from the house.

The man was not physically injured during the incident and all three accused have been charged with entering with intent, armed robbery, stealing and wilful damage. The woman was expected to appear in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court on Monday.
The Queensland government has been urged to run a marketing campaign to help consumers make better-informed decisions about the milk they buy.

The recommendation was made by a parliamentary committee, chaired by Labor member for Greenslopes Joe Kelly.

The Queensland government should help the dairy industry run a marketing scheme to help consumers make better-informed decisions about the milk they buy, a committee has recommended. Credit:Nicolas Walker

The Agriculture and Environment Committee is considering a Katter's Australian Party bill which would establish criteria and legal protection for voluntary "fair milk price" logos to be placed on containers of milk.

The logos would inform consumers where the milk was produced and that the dairy farmer received a certain minimum price for milk.
Fire crews have extinguished a blaze that engulfed 120 tonnes of brown coal near Bacchus Marsh, west of Melbourne.

The Country Fire Authority was called to the fire at an industrial park on Rowsley Station Road, Maddingley about 6.30am on Sunday.

Fire crews are fighting a brown coal fire near Bacchus Marsh.

A CFA spokeswoman said there were several hoppers containing coal inside an industrial building.

"One of the hoppers is fully involved with fire," she said. "The conveyor belt has also caught fire."
A sex attacker jailed for indecent acts in front of a child is on the run after escaping a regional Victorian prison overnight.

Barry Dettman, 51, was less than a month from being released when he left Langi Kal Kal Prison in Trawalla, north-west of Ballarat, police say.

Victoria Police Crime Command Detective Senior Sergeant Michael Phyland said the man was serving time in a minimum-security prison for charges including wilful obscene exposure.

It was unclear how and at what time Dettman escaped, but Detective Senior Sergeant Phyland said he was sighted near the prison on Sunday morning.
Beirut: The death toll from a bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy outside Aleppo has reached at least 126 in the deadliest such incident in Syria in almost a year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Sunday.

The Observatory and the United Nations cited reports that more than 60 children were among the dead.

Syrian rescue workers of the Civil Defence said that they had taken away at least 100 bodies from the site of Saturday's blast, which hit buses carrying Shiite residents as they waited to cross from rebel into government territory in an evacuation deal between the warring sides.

The British-based Observatory said the number was expected to rise.
The following is full text of the article published by the Chinese state-run tabloid, Global Times, on 14 April 2017 under the headline "Will Mother of All Bombs scare NK?"(Begin text)The US on Thursday dropped the "Mother of All Bombs" - the most powerful nonnuclear bomb used by the US so far - on an Islamic State cave complex in Afghanistan.Trump said Thursday that the mission was "very successful" and that he does not know whether the bomb will send a message to North Korea.In less than three months since Trump's inauguration, the US military has launched at least two strikes that grabbed the world's attention, the first being the airstrike on a Syrian airfield, and the second being the use of "Mother of All Bombs" in Afghanistan. Trump uses military force more aggressively than Barack Obama. He has demonstrated a certain level of obsession and pride toward US military prowess.Even for George W. Bush, who fought two wars during his presidency, every attack had to go through lengthy procedures, and starts of war had been widely expected. However, the two recent attacks came rather abruptly. With this frequency and speed in use of force, Trump may go down in history as the "war president.""Mother of All Bombs" is a vicious weapon that consumes a large amount of oxygen during explosion. Because of its devastative capability, the actual probability of hurting the civilians is very high. The US in the past has killed and injured civilians in its attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. The use of "Mother of All Bombs" showed Washington is turning a blind eye on civilian casualties.This bombing is clearly aimed at testing the weapon in real combat and provides a new gimmick in US military deterrence. North Korea must have felt the shock wave traveling all the way from Afghanistan. It would be nice if the bomb could frighten Pyongyang but its actual impact may just be the opposite.Pyongyang's logic in the recent years has been that, without nuclear weapons, what happened to Saddam and Gaddafi would befall its own administration. The "Mother of All Bombs" may once again misguide Pyongyang, leading it to believe that it is crucial to upgrade its explosives.It's been widely speculated that North Korea is preparing for its sixth nuclear test and its leader Kim Jong-un is weighing his options. The message sent by the US military is not conducive to helping Pyongyang make a reasonable decision.It has been reported that Russia owns a similar device called the "father of all bombs." Imagine how the US and the West would react if Russia drops that bomb on the Islamic State during its Syrian airstrikes.The US seems to enjoy a privilege to do whatever it likes. To the world, this could bring more danger than security. (End text)Poster's comment: The US has the "Mother of All Bombs" while Russia owns the "Father of All Bombs". In my opinion, North Korea has the "Baby of All Bombs" while China owns the "Grandfather of All Bombs".For those who are curious about the "Grandfather of All Bombs", this is how it works. China can drop a bombshell on North Korea by telling the devil incarnate frankly that she is washing her hands of all Korean conflicts:"We Chinese had enough sufferings from the late Qing dynasty to the end of the Second World War. We don't want to lose overnight the little bit of progress and prosperity which we have achieved since 1976. You are not a Chinese province, yet we treat you better than any of our provinces. If you want to fight against the US, please go ahead. If you want to die, please die faster. Don't drag us along to the brink of the abyss. Henceforth we have nothing to do with you any more."
In this image made from video broadcast by North Korean broadcaster KRT, military tanks prepare for a parade at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang on Saturday. Credit:KRT via AP The type of missile was still being assessed. A US Pacific Command spokesman said the US military was "fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security". A portrait of the country's founder Kim Il-sung is carried during a parade in Pyongyang on Saturday. Credit:KRT via AP

US Vice-President Mike Pence was briefed on the situation while travelling to Seoul on Air Force 2, and has been in contact with US President Donald Trump, CNN reported. US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said in a statement: "The President and his military team are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch." Mr Trump was not making any further comment, the statement said. Mr Pence arrives in South Korea at 3.30pm local time and will talk with the acting South Korean President Hwang Kyo-ahn about the situation. His visit is part of a 10-day trip to Asia, in what his aides said was a sign of the US commitment to its ally in the face of rising tensions over the North's weapons programs. Show of force

On Saturday, what analysts say were three types of intercontinental ballistic missiles rolled through Pyongyang, the North's capital, as the country tried to demonstrate that its military reach is expanding at a time of heightened tensions with the US. During the parade, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watched from a platform surrounded by elderly military officers as long columns of goose-stepping soldiers marched through a large plaza, accompanied by a fleet of tanks, missiles and rocket tubes. Saturday was the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the country's founder, Kim Jong-un's grandfather and the man the younger Kim tries to emulate, in looks and action. Kim Il-sung's birthday, called the Day of the Sun, is the North's most important holiday and a key moment for scoring propaganda points. The US, China and other regional powers had feared that North Korea might mark the occasion by conducting its sixth nuclear test or by launching an intercontinental ballistic missile. The US sent a naval strike group to the coast of the Korean Peninsula in a show of force that has become a first, wary showdown between Pyongyang and Washington. But no seismic tremor emanated on Saturday morning from the North's nuclear test site, where recent satellite photographs have shown what appeared to be preparations for an underground detonation.

Instead, Mr Kim seemed to have decided to celebrate his grandfather's birthday not with a nuclear test or a missile launching, but with a military parade meant to demonstrate his missile capabilities. He is acutely aware that the threat that he could soon possess - a missile that could strike the continental US - is Washington's biggest concern, and both the number and the variety of missiles he showed on Saturday seemed to be sending the message that a pre-emptive strike against his facilities would be fruitless. New missile debuts in parade To military analysts scrutinising North Korea's broadcast of Saturday's parade, the most noteworthy element seemed to be three types of long-range ballistic missiles, one of them apparently new. While the North has repeatedly claimed that it can strike the US with a nuclear warhead, it has never flight-tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of crossing the Pacific.

In addition, some analysts doubt that the country has mastered the skills to build a warhead that can survive re-entry from space or one small enough to mount on a long-range missile. They said the intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, that had been displayed in recent North Korean military parades might have been mock-ups of systems still under development. In a New Year's Day speech, however, Mr Kim claimed that his country was in the "final stage" of preparations for its first ICBM test. Mr Trump responded with a Twitter message saying that the launching would never be permitted to happen. One missile shown off was the KN-08, which the North first displayed in a 2012 parade and is widely believed to have been its first attempt at an intercontinental ballistic missile. Making their parade debut on launcher trucks with huge wheels were very large missiles encased in tubes or canisters. Analysts said the tubes appeared to have been designed for two other kinds of long-range ballistic missiles. There were multiple examples of each tube; it was impossible to see what was in them, but analysts said it was likely that they contained missiles that were either completed or under development.

Militaries use such canisters to "cold launch" missiles, ejecting them high into the air before their fuel ignites. If North Korea perfected that technology, it would help the nation better protect its mobile missiles from environmental damage while being driven around, and from fiery exhaust during launch. The method can also make missiles harder to detect once fired. "They're not just showing off missiles that are hard to build," said Jeffrey Lewis, a North Korea specialist at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in California. "They're showing off all the associated technologies you need for credible deployments." Kim Dong-yub, a missile expert at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul, said one kind of tube appeared to be for the KN-14, a modified version of the KN-08 that was first displayed in a parade in 2015, during which the North claimed that its missiles were tipped with nuclear warheads. The other tube design was new to the analysts. "Given the size, it looks like it contains a new ballistic missile with a range of at least 6000 kilometres," making it potentially an intercontinental threat, said Shin In-kyun, a military expert who runs the Korea Defence Network, a civic group specialising in military affairs. "Officials in the region will scramble to figure out whether this is a new solid-fuel, long-range ballistic missile the North was believed to be developing."
Beijing: This wasn't the big one.

There was no need for the US military to shoot down North Korea's anniversary salvo - the missile failed at launch.

With North Asia on high alert for a feared sixth nuclear test or intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch this weekend from Kim Jong-un's rogue state, speculation had been rife that the Trump administration would intercept a missile to show that it was prepared to take military action to finally solve the North Korea problem.

Reflecting jitters in the region that rhetorical brinkmanship could spiral into conflict, China warned on Friday there could be no winners in a war.
Ankara: Votes for constitutional change to hand President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping powers held a narrow lead with almost all ballot boxes opened on Sunday, but Turkey's three largest cities and the mainly Kurdish southeast looked set to vote "No".

The "Yes" votes stood at 51.7 percent after 95 percent of ballots had been opened, state-run Anadolu news agency said, with the lead narrowing in the final stages of an increasingly tight count.

A supporter of the "Yes" vote, waves Turkish flags during celebrations in Istanbul. Credit:Lefteris Pitarakis

A "Yes" vote would replace Turkey's parliamentary democracy with an all-powerful presidency and may see Erdogan in office until at least 2029, in the most radical change to the country's political system in its modern history.

The outcome will also shape Turkey's strained relations with the European Union. The NATO member state has curbed the flow of migrants  mainly refugees from wars in Syria and Iraq  into the bloc but Erdogan says he may review the deal after the vote.
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.
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...
Everything you need to know for election day in Burlington County

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THE CHESSBOARD AND THE WEB

Strategies of Connection in a Networked World

Anne-Marie Slaughter

Yale University Press

296 pages; $26

At the start of the 2015 Henry L Stimson Lectures at Yale, on which this book is based, Anne-Marie Slaughter, a distinguished political scientist, authority on international law and now president of the New America think tank, explained that the topic came to her while she was serving as director of policy planning at the State Department  in effect while she was practicing what she had preached in her academic career. The time-honoured exercise of international politics as a great game, an endless competition for strategic advantage among sovereign and equal powers, was in urgent need of a radical update for a world in which networks spawned by the internet and social media, both benign and malignant, were shaping a far different global order. The Chessboard and the Web is meant as a guide for foreign policy in this new world.

Whether in human interrelations or terrorism, efficient businesses or nefarious crime syndicates, government services or governments meddling in each others politics, Slaughter declares, we are at the dawn of a Networked Age when all humanity is connected beneath the surface like the giant colonies of aspen trees in Colorado that are actually all one organism. Yet foreign-policy makers, she argues, still play on the two-dimensional chessboard fashioned by the 17th-century Peace of Westphalia, partly because they lack the strategies for the web.

The grand strategy she proposes is an international order based on three pillars: Open society, open government and an open international system. Open versus closed, she declares, is the fault line of the digital age, the way capitalism versus Communism was in the last century. In the new order, in which competing states have been replaced by networks, openness means participation, transparency, autonomy and resistance to controls or limits on information.

Slaughter, a former dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, develops her ideas in a detailed journey through existing research and scholarship, guided by numerous charts and graphs, on how new technologies and ever-widening webs have affected the behaviour of people and nations. The narrative is not always easy to follow, and I found myself longing for more concrete examples when confronting riffs like A network strategy to build resilience across a society could start by searching for affiliation networks, with the idea that these repositories of social capital can be mobilised into civic capital. But the fascinating complexity and consequence of the web that is enveloping the world certainly justifies a readers extra effort.

Slaughters government service was in Hillary Clintons State Department, and her book was evidently completed before the 2016 presidential election (there is no mention of Donald Trump); the grand strategy she outlines is described as something the next president should adopt. Granted, the book is about a continuing global shift in international relations and not about the political movements du jour that have led to the election of President Trump or to the rise of authoritarian and nationalist movements in Europe and elsewhere, yet on reading The Chessboard and the Web and listening on YouTube to the lectures Slaughter gave, I found myself repeatedly yearning to ask her how the grand strategy she advocates would apply to these political realities.

Growing nationalism and authoritarianism, after all, are also in part consequences of the digital age and the echo chambers it has enabled, and if indeed the Networked Age is a clash of open and closed, many Americans and Europeans seem to be opting for closed in all the forms Slaughter outlines. That does not negate the need for a grand strategy of openness, of course, but exploring the consequences of choosing closed would make for a fascinating follow-up to a valuable study.



 2017 The New York Times News Service
For most large-scale businesses like e-commerce platforms, processing unstructured data operations call for outsourcing. Claiming to be a first of its kind, the SaaS (software-as-a-service) start-up Squad combines human intelligence (HI) with artificial intelligence (AI) to break down the process in an efficient and cost-effective manner.



Data automation start-up has raised $2.1 million in its second round of funding from Blume Ventures, Contrarian Capital, 91springboard, angel investors, and others. Besides, it has partnered Uber, Sephora, Tata group, Flipkart, and others.
Infrastructure firm Dilip Buildcon, in a bid to get National Highway (NH) contracts, is planning to monetise its old projects for executing new hybrid annuity projects being offered by the central government.
A couple of Uttar Pradesh-based large sugar mills are planning to participate in the raw programme to extend operations of their refineries despite risk on profit margins due to high inland transportation cost from the designated ports to the refinery.
Hundreds of home buyers staged a protest outside a police station here on Saturday against Jaiprakash Industries and others for duping them by failing to hand over flats even several years after the promised time.

Followed by a massive protest outside Surajpur police station where the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police is also located, the local police lodged a FIR against the company.

Noida Police has booked Jaiprakash Associates, its Managing Director Manoj Gaur and Directors Sunny Gaur and Pankaj Gaur, company Jaypee Infratech Limited and its Managing Director Sameer Gaur and Director Sachin Gaur, along with two others  Ajit Kumar and R K Anand.

One of the complainants, Chander Goyal told IANS that the accused have been booked under various charges dealing with criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and forgery.

The FIR was lodged in the Expressway police station in Noida.

Devender Yadav, who was leading the association of Jaypee Wish Town investors, told IANS that the assurance by a senior police official came after the huge protest since early morning.

Yadav accused Jaiprakash Industries of cheating around 30,000 home buyers.

"The company assured to deliver 35,000 houses in Jaypee Wish Town project in Greater Noida, an around Rs 25,000 crore project across 12,000 acres, by 2013," he said, adding that that till now only possession has been given to 5,000 people while 30,000 people are still waiting.

He said that people started investing money in the project from 2007 with the company promising possession by 2013 but four years have already passed and the project has not been completed.

Another investor, Pranab Dhekial, said that he was attracted by the company's attractive advertisements to get a flat in Kasa Isles in Jaypee Wish Town and booked a three bedroom flat for which he paid Rs 30 lakh.

He said that the company assured him to hand over possession by 2013 but failed to do so till even now on one pretext or the other.

Vikas Arora, another investor, alleged that officials of the company were involved in diverting funds for their own benefits with an intention to cheat and expressed concern that the company was never willing to complete the projects.

A disappointed Niti Singh, one of the buyers of Kasa Isles homes, said that she is waiting for the delivery of her flat from the past seven years while paying 90 to 95 per cent of the entire amount.

An FIR against Jaiprakash Associates, Manoj Gaur, Sunny Gaur and Pankaj Gaur, Jaypee Infratech Ltd and Sameer Gaur and Sachin Gaur under various charges, including cheating, criminal breach of trust and fraud, was lodged by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing on a complaint by Delhi-based investor Sanjiv Bansal.

Bansal, who also supported the protest of other buyers, has alleged that accused intended to cheat innocent buyers since they started the projects.

In his FIR, he said that he has been a victim of the conspiracy hatched by the accused and had been deprived of hard-earned money which could have been utilised for the better future of his children.

He also said that when he visited the company's office in Noida, the staff told him that now it will be difficult to complete the flats as there are no funds available for the project.
BROWNSVILLE  This small towns downtown has seen a flurry of new businesses thanks to an improving economy, a dose of nostalgic charm and increased exposure due to the Bi-Mart Willamette Country Music Festival and other events, officials and shop owners say.

Just since February, a masseuse opened a spa on Spaulding Avenue and a beauty salon started up across the road.

Were excited. Were rolling really well right now, said Scott McDowell, city administrator for Brownsville, which has a population of 1,700 people.

Patrick OConnor, regional economist for the Oregon Department of Employment, said that job growth has been spreading outside urban areas in recent years. It shouldnt be surprising that its hitting even the smaller towns, he added.

Business owner Lisa Keith said it was great to see the new stores and that there was a significant increase from five years ago at the height of the recession. Its probably doubled, she said.

I dont think theres a vacant storefront, Keith added.

Keith operates Abundance Co-op and Boutique, which opened in August at 331 Main St., in the old Key Bank building downtown. The shop features upcycled and handcrafted items, antiques, local products and clothing.

Michelle Smith-Harper grew up in Brownsville and said people used to look at the small town dismissively.

Now, its a destination, said Smith-Harper, the owner of Harpers Wine House, which opened at 320 N. Main St. in May and offers special dinners as well as vino and tapas.

I get customers from all over the place. Eugene, Corvallis, Springfield, Smith-Harper added.

Shes looking forward to the spring and summer when there will be even more foot traffic thanks to the warm weather and special events, including the Bi-Mart Willamette Country Music Festival, held in nearby Crawfordsville.

Hundreds of country music fans flock to Brownsville. Some even stay in several rental units or houses leased out for the music festival.

But Smith-Harper said other events, including Carriage Me Back, the Pioneer Picnic and Stand By Me Day, also bring plenty of people to town.

John Morrison, president of the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce, wondered if the solar eclipse this summer might bring an influx of visitors.

I do hear about people who come to an event and decide to look for a house or that sort of thing, Morrison said.

Discovering a gem

People who visit Brownsville for the first time feel like theyve discovered a gem, said Kay Franciosa. She and her husband, Marco Franciosa, own In the Farm Kitchen, a shop that sells farm fresh goods and home decor and moved into a larger location at 431 Main St. about a half year ago.

Part of Brownsvilles charm is that it feels like its from another era, thanks to brick buildings and other historic structures.

Stand By Me was filmed there and star Wil Wheaton said the tiny town was perfect for the movies setting, as it looks like it was lifted straight out of the 1950s.

Beci Loeschen of Corvallis was taking part in the Thursday knitting group at the Brownsville Stitching Parlor, 104 Spaulding Ave., and said that historic values are a major draw for the community.

People come here and they step back in time, she added.

Thats doubly true with Carriage Me Back, an annual drive-through historical play thats set to transport attendees to 1898 on May 6 and 7. Last year, the event was set in 1929.

The historic feel also includes the manners of residents, said insurance agent Sandy Mooers-Kaymer, who opened her office in October 2015 in Brownsville at 403 N. Main St.

I grew up in this area and I like the feel of the small town. Everyone is extremely friendly. You go outside and someone is saying, Hi, to you. I compare it to Mayberry. During the summer, somebodys out there sweeping the sidewalk, Mooers-Kaymer said.

Mooers-Kaymer has clients throughout the valley and could have opened up her business anywhere in Linn or Benton counties. She chose Brownsville.

Ann Elsasser helps run CC & Annies, a home goods and decor shop that opened in September at 333 Main St., and she said that she also loves the small town feel.

Lisa Olson moved to Brownsville from Eugene to get out of the big city, and because her aunt lives in town. Her salon, Hairitage, which also offers waxing, spray tanning and eyelash extensions, opened in March.

Olson has already been roped into volunteering as a character for Carriage Me Back. Im excited to be part of it. We all support each other here, she said.

Tishma Kurtz has been a hairstylist in Brownsville for 15 years, but she and three business partners opened up Main St. Reflections Salon & Day Spa, 402 N. Main St., in November. Besides haircuts and colors, the business does nails and massages.

Kurtz, a 1992 graduate of Central Linn High School, said she could operate in a bigger nearby town, but people in Brownsville are rooting for her.

You can still have what you want here, Kurtz said.

Anna Carnegie-Marx, owner of Early Dawn Bakery, which opened at 431 A Main St. in January, said that local support stretches to include relative newcomers like her family, who moved from Prescott, Arizona about five years ago.

It carries a lot of weight in this community if youre local, she added.

Marco Franciosa said theres been a bit of friendly competition between the stores downtown as of late. One shop opens thats kind of nice and then people start stepping it up a little bit, he added.

The people who have opened up recently, theyre here to make a living. Its not a hobby. This is something theyve committed to and theyre not just doing it on a lark, Carnegie-Marx said.

Smith-Harper said that there are more residents in their 20s and 30s, including business owners and residents who never left their hometown.

They live here on purpose. You never used to see that, Smith-Harper added.

High-tech edge

Morrison of the Chamber of Commerce said that there certainly are fewer vacancies on Main Street and on Spaulding Avenue than during the recession.

But he and Jamie Kampfer, proprietor of the Brownsville Stitching Parlor, said that downtown stores have come and gone over the years.

Every couple of months, it changes, Kampfer said.

We are getting perhaps more restaurants, and more restaurants attract people in the evening, Morrison said.

McDowell said that the current crop of businesses have unique products and are a bit more professional, with regular hours. And just as importantly, theyre small town but high-tech.

I think they are more equipped to make it in todays era than in previous ones because of the internet being the great equalizer with helping people get online sales, McDowell said.

In the Farm Kitchen, for example, does about 95 percent of its sales online, Kay Franciosa said.

Longtime businesses are getting into the act, as well. The Brownsville NAPA Auto Parts store and Carlsons Hardware both have robust online sales, as well, McDowell said.

Morrison said that construction businesses in the Brownville area, like in many communities, have been the real winner with the economic recovery. Linn County has a shortage of houses for sale, and that includes small towns like Brownsville.

Its hard to get a carpenter because they have so much to do, Morrison added.
If you are taking a flight from Mumbai, Hyderabad or Chennai on Sunday, you may have to face increased security checks due to the hijack threat received by airport authorities.
Pakistan has prepared a new dossier to be submitted to the United Nations, in regard with more 'evidence' against alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is set to be executed on the charges of espionage and sabotage.

The new dossier is based on the early video confessional statement and also statements given in front of the court by Jadhav for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan, Pakistan media reports.

The attested report of Court Martial General will also be included in the dossier.

The dossier will also reportedly include the timeline of Jadhav's militant activities and also the court proceedings.

Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale on Friday asked Pakistan to provide a copy of the chargesheet filed and the judgment given against Jadhav while strongly raising this issue.

The Indian side also conveyed that it will appeal the order and is studying the Pakistan Army Act for the same.

In a meeting with Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua, the Indian envoy sought consular access to Jadhav for the 14th time. However, Janjua said since it is a case of espionage, consular access can't be granted contrary to the Indian High Commission's claim that the same must be granted under international law.

A military court in Pakistan earlier this week found Jadhav guilty on two counts of espionage and sentenced him to death.

Jadhav was arrested in March last year, "for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan," according to a statement released by the Pakistan armed forces.

India has strongly objected to the sentencing, saying consular officials were denied access to Jadhav during his trial.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had earlier this week issued a stern warning to Pakistan, saying that Islamabad should be wary of taking such an extreme step as it could result in damaging the bilateral relations between the already hostile neighbours and vowed to go "out of the way" to save Jadhav amid an outrage in India.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday said that the community members, who give without valid reasons will face social boycott.

AIMPLB member Maulana Khalid R Firangi said, "It has been decided in the executive body meeting that those misusing will face social boycott."

Maulana also informed about the moral code of conduct, which will solve the misunderstanding with regard to the issue.

"There has been misunderstanding on this issue, we will issue a code of conduct on it," he added.

The AIMPLB, which has opposed the PILs filed against the triple talaq in the Supreme Court, had earlier on Wednesday said the board will do away with the practice of verbal divorce in one-and-a half years, adding there is no need for government interference.

A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court will start hearing from May 11 the petitions against triple talaq.

The court will hear pleas filed by several Muslim women challenging the practice under which men can divorce their wives instantly by uttering the word talaq thrice.




Prime Minister on Sunday paid his respects at the Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar and responded warmly to the enthusiastic people who greeted him outside the 11th century Shiva shrine.

Soon after his arrival at the temple, Modi was greeted by people who had gathered outside the building and also positioned themselves atop rooftops to take a glimpse of the leader.

A beaming prime minister waved at them before being escorted into the shrine by senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, priests and servitors.

Modi, who spent around 25 minutes at the temple premises amid tight security, offered flowers, bel leaves, milk, coconut water and sweets in a special puja to Lord Lingaraj, a priest who accompanied the prime minister said.

Prime Minister waves to people during his visit to Lingaraj temple after darshan of Lord Lingaraj in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. Photo: PTI



The prime minister then went around the temple premises and offered prayers before other deities, including Devi Parvati, he said.

Modi also interacted with the sevayats and enquired about different aspects of the famous shrine.

He was apprised about the temple's history, rituals and architecture, a servitor said.

The prime minister emphasised the need to keep the temple premises clean and ensure "Swachhata" all over.

Several servitors were also seen taking selfies with the prime minister. "It was a rare opportunity and we did not want to miss it," said a servitor.

Before leaving the temple, Modi put his signature on the register meant for VVIP visitors.

As a cheering crowd waited outside, the PM walked quite a distance barefoot waving at the people, then went up to the barricade to reciprocate as the crowd shouted "Modi, Modi" before proceeding to Janata Maidan, to attend the second day's proceedings of BJP's executive meeting.
The last part of a four-part series on the impact of a strong rupee on key export-oriented industries looks at the automobiles sector
Even as the Centre has finally made the move to end Coal India Limiteds (CIL's) virtual monopoly in the market by allowing commercial private mining, it has proposed a higher price of coal to be sold by private mining companies. Analysts feel it might dampen private investment in this sector.
President of India to attend a felicitation ceremony to honour freedom fighters on the occasion of Centenary of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagraha tomorrow

. The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee will visit Bihar (Patna) on April 17, 2017 where he will attend the felicitation ceremony to honour the freedom fighters on the occasion of Centenary of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagraha. . .
Alternative energy investments like wind and solar power have not performed well in recent years. To make matters worse, the Trump administration has opted for a resurgence of coal and other carbon fuels, not an emphasis on alternative energy.
Nepal and China on Sunday began their first-ever joint military exercise with a special focus on combating terror, a move that could make India uneasy.

The 10-day-long military drill "Sagarmatha Friendship 2017" that will last till April 25 is being organised by the two countries as part of their preparedness against terrorism that has posed as a serious security threat globally, the Nepal Army said.

Sagarmatha is the Nepali name of Mt Everest, the world's highest peak.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army's squad has already arrived in the capital to participate in the military exercise that will focus on counter-terrorism and disaster response, it said.

The joint training with China marks Nepal Army's extension of military diplomacy. The Nepal Army has long been conducting joint military drills with Indian and American Army.

"A small Chinese troop will be participating in the first ever drill with an equal number of Nepali Army personnel," said military spokesman Jhankar Bahadur Kadayat.

He did not mention the strength of the participating troops. The exercise will take place at the Army's Maharajgunj-based Training School, where Yuddha Bhairab, Mahabir and Bhairabnath Battalions are located.

The Nepali Army has said the joint military exercise with China is a step towards preparations against the possible threat from terrorism.

It maintains that the drill is a part of its regular bilateral and multilateral military exercises aimed at sharing experiences, skills and professional knowledge which it has been doing regularly with the nations that Nepal shares diplomatic ties.

Nepal had proposed joint military exercises during Chinese Defence Minister General Chang Wanquan's official visit to Nepal on March 24.

Experts believe that the joint military exercise could make India uneasy as China attempts to exert influence in the region. Nepal, a landlocked country, is dependent on India for its imports.

Nepal had witnessed a shortage in essential supplies from India during the 2015 Madhesi blockade. China at that time had extended its help to Nepal to ease the situation.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Jane Lubchenco's call to her scientific colleagues to climb down from their ivory towers (well, Lubchenco actually used the phrase "lofty perches above society") and "engage more vigorously with society."

Lubchenco, a distinguished professor in Oregon State University's College of Science and the former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, issued this challenge to scientists in a piece that appeared in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment: "Stand up for science by demonstrating its value and our relevance," she wrote. "Science needs to be trusted and valued, not seen as imperious, threatening, wasteful, or doom-and-gloom. Let's shed the entitlement rhetoric and show, not just assert, the merits of science. Make science accessible."

And all this came before the proposed budget from the Trump administration that would dramatically strip funding for essential scientific research, another sign of Trump's disregard (and possible contempt) for science.

The good news today is that scientists and supporters of science appear to be in a mood to follow Lubchenco's rallying cry. On Saturday in Washington, D.C., and in 425 other locations across the nation, including Corvallis, people will participate in a "March for Science." Some of the goals of the marches mirror exactly the goals Lubchenco outlined: Humanize science. Partner with the public. Advocate for open, inclusive and accessible science. Affirm science as a democratic (with a small "d") value.

You can gear up for the march Saturday morning by attending an event at Oregon State University's Learning Innovation Center: Science Worth Spreading will feature a series of short talks from OSU scientists (you know, your neighbors) about the work they're tackling. The event starts with a tea, coffee and interactive science demonstration at 9 a.m.; the talks, which include a video introduction from Lubchenco herself, are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Pizza is promised afterward, but there will be time for people to get to the march. (For more information about the event, follow the link that is included with the online version of the column.)

It is gratifying to see this renewed interest in science, but it is worth remembering that we didn't get to this spot overnight; since long before Trump pondered running for the presidency, the United States has been failing to adequately fund basic scientific research. And we remain, as a nation, shockingly illiterate in terms of science: A survey in 2011 found that only 4 percent of Americans could name a living scientist. And our general ignorance of how science works and how the scientific method operates has helped to feed a culture in which false information thrives, one in which a single study (often years old) can be given the same weight as the broad weight of evidence on a topic.

The misinformation extends to a basic misunderstanding of what science even is: To paraphrase a recent piece by Wisconsin writer Kavin Senapathy on the website of Forbes magazine: Science really isn't knowledge. Science is the process through which we gain knowledge  the often lonely, time-consuming, frustrating and expensive process through which we start to better understand our world.

We've already paid a price in the United States for our benign neglect of scientific research and our general ignorance of how science works. The March for Science and associated events represent promising first steps in trying to reverse that tide.

But it won't happen overnight. And it won't happen if scientists clamber back into their "lofty perches above society" shortly after the last piece of pizza is polished off next Saturday. This will require continued effort. It might require more marches. It will require more innovative outreach efforts such as the "Microbiomes" exhibit at The Arts Center in Corvallis. It will require consistent work on the part of scientists, to engage the public in new ways. It will require that citizens brush up on the scientific method and learn basic tools to assess the latest studies.

In other words, this is work that will require more than one pizza. Let's plan on ordering a few more pies. (mm)
The United States, its allies and China are working together on a range of responses to North Koreas latest attempted ballistic missile test, US President Donald Trumps national security advisor said on Sunday, citing what he called an consensus to act.
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With Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaching out to the 'Muslim sisters' in the wake of the ongoing controversy surrounding the triple talaq in the country, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday lauded his efforts in ensuring development of every strata of the society.

BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain while supporting the Prime Minister's stance stated it is important for the Muslim women to be supported at this time of crisis.

"Our Prime Minister has urged everyone to share the burden of the Muslim women. He has always encouraged wholesome development of the society," he told ANI.

Reiterating the importance of exercising power in the right direction, Hussain said Prime Minister Modi has been inspirational in his approach towards good governance.

"Our Prime Minister has taken initiatives envisioning the completion of 75 years since India's independence," he said, adding that his 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' strategy is mirrored in all his efforts.

Echoing similar opinion, Union Minister and BJP leader Babul Supriyo hailed Prime Minister Modi for his prolonged emphasis on proactive governance and urged that ministers must not become complacent.

"With power comes great responsibility. Our Prime Minister has a very clean thought process. He has always reminded ministers that victory should not be a distraction from good governance. He also emphasised on the importance of raising issues with utmost deliberation, especially when on record," he said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Modi called on the BJP to tackle the triple talaq issue at the district level.

"Our Muslim sisters deserve justice. We should try to solve this issue at the district level. We should also proceed on the formula of a new India. We can't simply move forward on a slow pace, but charge ahead with full speed," the Prime Minister said during the BJP Executive Meeting.

Further to this, BJP leader Shrikant Sharma asserted that the party has always been against the concept of triple talaq primarily because it is related to a woman's dignity and safety.

"It has been banned in other Muslim countries, so why not ban it in India as well," he argued.

Another BJP leader Shazia Ilmi while lauding the Prime Minister's agenda stated that tackling the triple talaq issue at the grass-root level is the only way to solve the issue.

"The issue should be solved at the district level so that each and every individual should be aware about it. The women who are downtrodden, especially the ones who are economically weak will get a lot of help and support from this initiative by Prime Minister Modi," she added.

Meanwhile, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMLPB) today stated that those who give triple talaq without the reasons prescribed by the Sharia law will face social boycott.

The AIMPLB, which has opposed the PILs filed against the triple talaq in the Supreme Court, had earlier on Wednesday said the board will do away with the practice of verbal divorce in one-and-a half years, adding there is no need for government interference.

A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court will start hearing from May 11 the petitions against triple talaq.

The court will hear pleas filed by several Muslim women challenging the practice under which men can divorce their wives instantly by uttering the word 'talaq' thrice.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pitching the formula of a 'pro-active and pro-people' governance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday exuded confidence about the NDA Government coming to power yet again, adding that his party will in 2022 bring about a social economic change which will make India number one economically.

Briefing the media about the Prime Minister's address in the BJP Executive meeting today, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "The Prime Minister pitched a new India political thought his speech with the main focus on 'Janadhan, Vandhan and Jaldhan'."

"Under Janadhan, 28 crore have opened bank accounts under the government's policy. But for the remaining two policies, the Prime Minister said that we need to work honestly, as our policies have given faith to the people," he added.

Talking about the all round development of the country in terms of economy and social equality, the Prime Minister emphasized on envisaging an India sans discrimination of any kind.

"Making the poor man as a central point and to make his life sustainable, the thought of 'new India' is to free the poor man from unemployment and hunger. This was pitched by the Prime Minister," Gadkari said.

Elaborating on the Prime Minister's P2 and G2 formula, the Union Minister further said that they stand for pro active-pro people and Good Governance respectively.

"These will not be achieved through talks alone only. In 2022, when we will be in power we will bring that social economic change which will make our nation number one economically," Gadkari added.

Asserting that triple talaq was a menace crippling the lives of Muslim women in India, Prime Minister Modi today called on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to attack the issue on a grass-root level.

"Our Muslim sisters deserve justice. We should try to solve this issue at the district level. We should also proceed on the formula of a new India. We can't simply move forward on a slow pace, but charge ahead with full speed," the Prime Minister said.

Making an intervention during the discussion on the motion for granting constitutional status to the commission for backward classes, the Prime Minister highlighted there are sections among the Muslims, who are backwards, adding that they should be included in the discussion over backward classes.

Prime Minister Modi also launched an attack on the Opposition over the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) matter, saying they are trying to churn up rows particularly ahead of the MCD polls.

"Opposition is concoction new issues in a factory of some kind. During the Delhi elections, Church attacks were the highlights and during the Bihar polls 'Award Wapasi' was the issue. And right now it is the EVM," the Prime Minister said during the meeting.

However, Prime Minister Modi also called on the BJP leaders to maintain caution while making statements and not get carried away with emotions and make untoward remarks.

"If there are any complaints then the matter should be passed on to the party leaders, who will convey it to me," he said.

The Prime Minister also called on the BJP to not get too excited over the recent state assembly elections victory and ensure they keep the momentum going.

"The BJP will launch a special campaign for those 120 Lok Sabha seats which have been out of our reach," he added.

The Prime Minister also hailed the efforts of BJP president Amit Shah, saying that he was the ideal model of an able strategist.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Security has been stepped up at Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai Airports following a hijack threat call.

"An e-mail was sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, about a hijack plan from Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. Following this, the security was beefed up," Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Director General O.P. Singh said.

The e-mail mentioned about a lady overhearing six boys discussing simultaneous hijack plan from Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai.

In this regard, a special meeting of the Airport Passenger Service Charge (APSC) was convened at the Mumbai Airport yesterday.

The contents of the e-mail were read out to all the members and they were briefed about the anti-hijacking measures to be ensured.

All the agencies were requested to take all measures, which are ensured during the high alert of the Independence Day and Republic Day.

"The e-mail could well be a hoax but we didn't take any chances....Embarkation security increased, anti-contingency plan put in place, meeting of all stakeholders held," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi in a call with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, exchanged views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula on Sunday.

The talk came after North Korea had reportedly fired an unidentified missile early on Sunday from its eastern coastal city of Sinpo. But the missile was believed to have exploded on launch, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump also held a telephonic conversation to discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Syria.

Yang and Tillerson also discussed the implementation of those agreements reached by the two countries' presidents, during their first meeting in the U.S. state of Florida earlier this month, reports Xinhua.

During the phone call, Yang told Tillerson that the two sides should make joint efforts, in accordance with the spirit and consensus reached in the two heads of state's meeting and phone conversation, to strengthen high-level exchanges and dialogues and expand mutually beneficial cooperation.

He added that China and the United States should manage their differences on the basis of mutual respect and promote greater development of bilateral ties, so as to better serve the two people and people of the .

For his part, Tillerson noted that the United States looks forward to enhancing communication with China, preparing for the next stage's high-level exchanges and dialogues, and jointly pushing forward bilateral relations, said Tillerson.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amidst the ongoing tussle between New Delhi and Islamabad following the death sentence to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, the Congress Party on Sunday stated it is impossible for him to get justice in Pakistan.

Commenting on the present status of relations between both sides, Congress leader Ashwani Kumar told ANI it is impossible to have any constructive relations with Pakistan in the wake of the latest developments in Jadhav's case.

"We all know it is impossible for Jadhav to get justice in Pakistan. The lawyers' body of Lahore and Pakistan has stated that any lawyer, who defends Jadhav, will lose his license to practice. In such a situation, there is no question of any justice for Jadhav," he said.

Lauding the government's efforts in ensuring justice for Jadhav, Kumar stressed that all political parties must back the ruling dispensation in this regard.

A military court in Pakistan had earlier this week found Jadhav guilty on two counts of espionage and sentenced him to death.

He was arrested in March last year for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan, according to a statement released by the Pakistan armed forces.

India has strongly objected to the sentencing, saying consular officials were denied access to Jadhav during his trial.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had earlier issued a stern warning to Pakistan, saying that Islamabad should be wary of taking such an extreme step as it could result in damaging the bilateral relations between the already hostile neighbours and vowed to go out of the way to save Jadhav amid an outrage in India.

Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale on Friday asked Pakistan to provide a copy of the chargesheet filed and the judgment given against Jadhav while strongly raising this issue.

The Indian side also conveyed that it will appeal the order and is studying the Pakistan Army Act for the same.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday released its manifesto for the upcoming municipal polls in Delhi.

To provide relief to small traders and shopkeepers paying high conversion charges, the Delhi BJP announced lower rates.

The manifesto also focuses on education and health sectors.

To improve the standard of education in municipal schools, compulsory English from nursery, compulsory moral education for classes I to V, computer labs for class IV and V students and a change in the midday meal menu to include more nutrients are a part of the manifesto.

The BJP in its manifesto asserted that they are not merely announcing but they determined to bring change in the capital.

Deendayal Antyodaya Rasoi Yojana will be introduced wherein every meal will be served for Rs. 10.

A nodal officer will be appointed to bring transparency in the works of the MCD and to monitor development works.

The manifesto also stated that the party will make sure the presence of women rise in the Startup India campaign.

Property tax of religious and social places will be charged for Rupee one.

The move will benefit those who couldn't pay the tax and are still paying penalties.

Every week a council meeting will be arranged with the Resident welfare association (RWA).

The BJP said they will make the capital free from corruption and make sure every pointer mentioned in the manifesto is implemented with sincerity.

The general election to three municipal corporations of Delhi will be held this month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), an alliance of seven Madhes-based parties, and the Federal Alliance (FA), an alliance of disgruntled federal parties, are set to hold fresh protests as their demands are yet to be addressed.

The UDMF and FA on Sunday disclosed their plans of nationwide baton protest aiming to disrupt the local-level elections scheduled for May 14.

"The leaders of three main parties promulgated the Constitution in name of Fast Track violating the provisions in interim constitution, agreements made at time of Constituent Assembly, State Restructuring Commission's report," Om Gurung, the spokesperson of Federal Alliance, said in press meet.

As per the schedule, the protest will go into effect from April 18 with a torch rally in every district headquarter and major city and will be held on several dates until May 10 that will witness indefinite general strikes across the nation.

Though the government recently tabled a new amendment proposal in the Parliament to appease the disgruntled parties, it has been rejected by both the FA and the UDMF.

The UDMF and the FA have been demanding constitutional amendment promulgated in 2015 that includes amendments in the provisions of citizenship.

Delineation is their primary demand to go for the May polls.

An attempt to amend the Constitution has already failed as the present government withdrew the second amendment replacing it with a new one, not accepted by the agitating parties.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sketching exercises can help students learn many subjects, but they are woefully underused in classrooms, according to a recent study.

"Sketches are difficult and time-consuming to grade," said Northwestern University's Ken Forbus. "Intelligent tutoring systems, which enable students to receive feedback on their work anywhere and anytime, rarely are capable of understanding sketches."

Forbus and his team developed a new solution called 'Sketch Worksheets,' a software equivalent of pencil and paper worksheets commonly found in classrooms. The difference? The software can also provide on-the-spot feedback by analyzing student sketches and then comparing them to the instructor's sketches.

An instructor might ask students to draw the chambers of the heart, for example. If a student misplaces an atrium, then he or she is immediately alerted to the mistake by the Sketch Worksheet.

Sketch Worksheets software is based on CogSketch, an artificial intelligence platform previously developed in Forbus' laboratory. A sketch-understanding system and high-level model of human vision, CogSketch uses visual processing algorithms to automatically reproduce and understand human-drawn sketches.

Sketch Worksheets' comparisons of student and instructor sketches are carried out by an analogy model, developed in collaboration with Northwestern psychology professor Dedre Gentner.

Students and instructors apply conceptual labels to their sketches to express relationships among the drawings' different parts. (For example, the Earth's core is inside the mantle, or the heart's aorta is above the left atrium.) Without needing a deep understanding of the sketch's subject matter, CogSketch uses analogy to compare the labels and provide feedback.

One of Forbus' main goals is for Sketch Worksheets to be accessible to instructors in any field, not just computer . To ensure this, his team and SILC collaborators tested the software on more than 500 students in biology, geoscience, and engineering, ranging from the fifth grade through college.

A team of geoscientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has already used the software to develop a set of 26 sketches that cover topics in introductory classes. These worksheets are publicly available and have been used in classes at the University of Wisconsin and Northwestern.

"We hope that others will follow the lead of the geoscientists and create Sketch Worksheets to help their students learn," Forbus said. "This is a step in creating software that can communicate with people as flexibly as we communicate with each other."

The study is published in the journal Topics in Cognitive .

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Looks like, the quote 'any publicity is good publicity' held true for the brand 'Pepsi,' which recently hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

According to the Independent, a survey conducted by Morning consult, a media and survey research company found that 44 percent of people actually had a more favourable view of the soda company after watching the ad.

The survey asked 2000 Americans how their perceptions have changed for Pepsi, after watching their now-infamous ad and surprisingly only a quarter had a less favourable view.

The survey found the Republicans were more likely to not be fans of the ad than Democrats.

29 percent of the Republicans said it gave them a less favourable view of Pepsi compared to 23 percent of the Democrats.

But, the poll found that the controversial ad did not make people warm to its reality star-turned-model Kendall Jenner.

Only 28 percent of the people surveyed said it made them see Jenner more favourably.

For the uninitiated, the global company's advert saw 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' star ditching her modeling shoot to join a mass of young protestors. The 21-year-old-model hands a can of Pepsi to a riot officer, getting a prompting applause from the crowd and a grin from the police officer.

After facing a lot of backlash, the global corporation removed the video from their YouTube channel.

Pepsi also issued a statement regarding the video which read, "Pepsi was trying to project a global a message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark, and we apologise. We did not intend to make light of any serious issue. We are pulling the content and halting any further rollout. We also apologise for putting Kendall Jenner in this position.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amidst the ongoing backlash on Twitter regarding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Evan Spiegel's recent remark on expansion in India, the parent company 'Snap's' attorneys rubbished claims while stating that no such remark was made.

Denying an employee's claims of being termed as a 'rich people's app', the attorneys while lashing out at the former said he is a 'disgruntled employee fired for poor performance'.

"The simple fact is that he knows exactly nothing about Snap's current metrics. He and his lawyers are  not to put too fine a point on matters  just making things up," said the attorneys, as reported by Variety.

The CEO had earlier while discussing the expansion plans in a meeting allegedly dismissed an employee's concern of the slow growth rate of the app in India, stating that it was only meant for the 'rich people'.

According to one of the employees, Spiegel had during a meeting said, "This app is only for rich people. I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain."

After reports of Spiegel's alleged claims of being a 'rich people's app' surfaced, the Indian users took to Twitter to express their dissent over the comment, thus paving the way for widespread negativity.

Soon after Variety published the alleged comment, the app's ratings on Google play store witnessed a sharp decline, a 4.4 to a 3.6 rating. Furthermore, the number of one-star rating by the users shot up from 39,102 to 192,906 in just 24 hours.
Asserting that Triple Talaq was a menace crippling the lives of Muslim women in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to attack the issue on a grass-root level.

"Our Muslim sisters deserve justice. We should try to solve this issue at the district level. We should also proceed on the formula of a new India. We can't simply move forward on a slow pace, but charge ahead with full speed," the Prime Minister said during the BJP Executive Meeting here.

During a discussion on the Commission for Backward Classes, Prime Minister suggested that the party should hold conferences for 'backward Muslims'.

Making an intervention during the discussion on the motion for granting constitutional status to the commission for backward classes, the Prime Minister highlighted that there are sections among Muslims, who are backward, adding that they should be included in the discussion over backward classes.

Meanwhile, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMLPB) today stated that those who give triple talaq without the reasons prescribed by the Sharia law will face social boycott.

The Board further noted that there has been misunderstanding on this issue, and that it will issue a code of conduct on it.

The AIMPLB, which has opposed the PILs filed against the triple talaq in the Supreme Court, had earlier on Wednesday said the board will do away with the practice of verbal divorce in one-and-a half years, adding there is no need for government interference.

A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court will start hearing from May 11 the petitions against triple talaq.

The court will hear pleas filed by several Muslim women challenging the practice under which men can divorce their wives instantly by uttering the word talaq thrice.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday attacked the recent calls demanding the release of his individual tax returns, saying it should be investigated that who "paid for" the marches held nationwide.

Trump took to his Twitter to say, "Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!"

Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

The tweet came after thousands of organized protests, by lawmakers and Americans citizens, urged him to release his returns on the Tax Day, on April 15.

Over a dozen people were arrested in Berkeley, California, over the weekend, after violent clashes erupted on the streets between pro-Trump and anti-Trump groups.

In another tweet he wrote, "I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?"

I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017
More than 55 million Turkish citizens began voting across the country on Sunday in a historic referendum proposing key constitutional changes that would allegedly give wide-ranging executive powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Citizens are casting their ballots at 1,67,000 polling stations nationwide. Over one million of them are first-time voters who recently turned 18, reports Anadolu news agency.

Inmates - except for the criminals who are convicted for intentional crime - are also allowed to vote at 463 polling stations located inside state prisons.

The electorate in is being asked to vote Yes or No to an 18-article reform bill, which would also change the current parliamentary system to a presidential one.

The Yes campaign is backed by the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), whereas the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) does not support it.

Erdogan was voted to power in August 2014, the first time a Turkish President had been directly chosen by popular vote.

The 18-article bill was passed by the Parliament in January with 339 votes in favor.

The other major changes include lowering the age to become a lawmaker to 18 from 25, increasing the number of seats in the Parliament from 550 to 600, closing down military courts and same-day parliamentary and presidential elections after every five years.

Approximately 2.9 million Turkish expatriates have already voted in the referendum between March 27 and April 9.

The country's current Constitution was formed in 1983 following a military coup in 1980.
Shah Rukh Khan, who was honoured with a special tribute at the 60th San Francisco Film Festival, got the hilly city grooving to 'Lungi Dance.'

Brett Ratner, who shared the stage with the Bollywood King at the festival, posted a video on Instagram, wherein SRK is seen teaching him the famous 'Lungi Dance' move.

Ratner captioned the video, "With King Khan doing the Lungi dance during the SFFILM. Inspiring, humble, a great dancer, and smells great too."

With music unavailable, the 51-year-old actor took the mic and sportingly sang the song as well as taught Ratner some of the steps.

In the video, the 'Rush Hour' fame can be seen copying SRK's steps before ending the session with a hug.

During the chat, filmmaker Brett Ratner also expressed a desire to direct the actor in a sequel to 'Rush Hour' in India.

"One day I want to make Rush Hour's sequel in India with SRK in it," he shared.

For the unversed, Shah Rukh's 'My Name is Khan' was screened as part of the line-up of movies at the festival, which is even paying tribute to artists like John Ridley, Gordon Gund, Ethan Hawke and James Ivory.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 15 people were arrested after thousands of protesters took to the streets across the US to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

The arrests took place on Saturday in Berkeley, California, when fistfights broke out between supporters and opponents of the President, Efe news reported.

Two people were also injured in the fights.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and quell the fights, reporting that they had found some people in possession of prohibited items including a knife, helmets, clubs and a fake pistol.

Local authorities knew that there would be two demonstrations on Saturday both for and against Trump, while protests elsewhere in the country, however, were reported to be generally peaceful.

The "Tax March" movement had called for protests to begin at noon, coinciding with the day by which Americans traditionally must have filed their tax returns, though this year because April 15 fell on the weekend and Monday is a local holiday in Washington, taxpayers have until Tuesday, April 18, to file their returns.

The largest march took place in Washington, where protesters marched from the Capitol to the White House, but sizable anti-Trump demonstrations were also staged in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Austin, Texas.

In New York, hundreds of people carrying anti-Trump signs and effigies of the President gathered in downtown Bryant Park, from where they marched to Trump Tower.

Activists in Florida held dozens of marches around the state, in front of the condominiums at Trump Plaza in West Palm Beach and the entrance of his Mar-a-Lago mansion, where he is spending the weekend with his family.

The movement calls for "transparency" and complains in a statement on its Web site that "despite intense public pressure, President Trump has not yet done so (published his tax returns) - breaking with 40 years of precedent in the process."

The statement rejects the Trump government's excuse that "people don't care," and recalls an ABC/Washington Post survey that showed 74 per cent of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, want to know the president's tax history.

During Trump's presidential campaign, he kept postponing the release of his tax returns with the excuse that they were under audit.

Two days after he entered the White House, Presidential Adviser Kellyanne Conway said Trump was not going to disclose his tax situation because it became obvious during the campaign that US citizens really did not care about the matter.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One is Canada's Defence Minister and the other is the Chief Minister of a state (Punjab) that has strong connections with the North American country.

Both are politicians of standing and share a military background too. One has been a frontline trooper in war-ravaged Afghanistan as a Lt. Colonel in the Canadian Army; the other has seen war from close quarters as a Captain in the Indian Army.

But the forthcoming visit of Canadian Defence minister Harjit Sajjan to Punjab, the land of his birth, has led to a political war of sorts with Punjab Chief Minister .

Amarinder has gone on record to say that Sajjan is a "Khalistani sympathiser" and that they will not meet during the latter's visit to Punjab starting next week. Even though there is no direct proof of Sajjan's links to Khalistani elements, Amarinder has stuck to his guns.

Amarinder's stand, besides the protocol issues involved with the visiting Canadian Defence Minister, has stirred up a political storm in Punjab  a state which has such strong connections with Canada through its non-resident Indians (NRIs) settled there that the country is, in a lighter vein, referred to as Punjab's 23rd district.

The background of Amarinder's rather hard stand on Sajjan dates to as recently as April last year when his visit to that country was scuttled at the last minute after the Canadian authorities denied him permission to visit. Amarinder was to address rallies and meet with Punjabi NRIs in Canada, who are an influential and cash-rich group, in the run-up to the Punjab assembly elections.

A hurt Amarinder had shot off a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, protesting the move. Amarinder had later even refused to meet the Canadian High Commissioner in India.

Amarinder, who became Chief Minister of Punjab for a second time last month, feels that pro-Khalistan political leaders of Punjabi origin, including Sajjan, secretly backed the move by radical elements to deny him entry into Canada.

While the Canadian authorities did not let Amarinder in on the ground that political activity was not allowed, leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) openly campaigned within the NRI community in Canada.

The Punjab Chief Minister has, however, said that Sajjan will get all the security and protocol in the state that has to be provided to a dignitary of his stature.

Sajjan, 46, otherwise has strong credentials for visiting Punjab. His parents and family lived in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district before migrating to Canada in 1976. He is the first Sikh to become the Defence Minister of another country.

During his visit to Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Chandigarh, Sajjan won't essentially miss meeting Amarinder as political and religious leaders in Punjab will welcome him with open arms.

The controversy over his visit to Punjab was quite avoidable had Amarinder not taken a stand. After all, political leaders do hobnob with all kinds of elements in public life.
Those using recklessly and without justification should be made to face social boycott, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) said on Sunday at the conclusion of its executive meet in Lucknow.

The body, which represents major sects, also came out with a code of conduct for divorce, in case the separation becomes inevitable. It notably does not recommend instant divorce or as a way of separation.

"It has been decided in the executive meet that men who arbitrarily use should face social boycott," AIMPLB member Kamal Farooqui told IANS.

He said that the decision comes in the light of the fact that Islam deems divorce as unpleasant and its used only as the last resort.

"We have also formulated a code of conduct for divorce, in case it becomes inevitable. We are appealing to all the imams (prayer leaders) across the country to publicise it during Friday sermons," he added.

The code of conduct put forth by the Board advocates using single talaq as a last resort if other attempts at reconciliation fail. A man can rejoin with his wife in three months after single talalq, and can remarry after three months without the woman having to go through nikah halala.

Farooqui said that the AIMPLB is always ready to help the victims of triple talaq, but noted that is a matter of Shariah and Muslims are free to practise their religion.

"Just as it is unfair to impose Islam on the unwilling, in the same way it is unfair to force Muslims to follow laws from other religions," he said.

Farooqui said that the AIMPLB would ask parents to make it a point to give the girls their share in paternal property rather than giving fancy dowry in marriage.

On the question of Babri Masjid dispute in which AIMPLB is also a party, Farooqui said that the body would go by the Supreme Court's verdict.
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday moved a bill in the State legislative assembly to hike reservation quota for backward Muslims and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) to 12 and 10 per cent respectively.

As soon as the day-long special session began, the Chief Minister moved the Backward Class, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Reservation Bill, 2017, to increase the quota for socially and economically backward among Muslims under the Backward Classes (E) category from the existing four per cent to 12 percent.

The reservations for STs in education and jobs has been increased from 6 per cent to 10 per cent.

The bill will be passed by both houses of the legislature after a debate and it will be sent to the Centre for President's assent and with a request to include it in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution as it was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.

The Chief Minister clarified that the reservations were being provided purely on the basis of socio-economic backwardness and not on the basis of religion or caste as some parties were trying to mislead people.

Terming it as a historic day, Rao said Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had during the elections promised that quota for the BC (E) and the STs will be increased in proportion to their population in the state.

He pointed out that STs are currently enjoying 6 percent quota though their population as per 2011 Census is 9.8 percent.

He assured Backward Classes that there will be no injustice to them because of increase in quota for the BC (E) and announced that the quota for the BCs will be increased. The state government has directed the BC Commission to submit a report within six months.

Rao also said that the reservation for the SCs, who constitute 16.3 per cent of the state's population, will be increased by one per cent. He said the government would soon constitute an SC Commission.

The SCs are currently enjoying 15 per cent reservations while the BCs have a total quota of 25 per cent.

The legislation will increase the total reservations in the state to 62 per cent.

The Chief Minister argued that there is no constitutional bar on providing more than 50 per cent reservation.

Rao said with 90 per cent of Telangana's population comprising the BCs, SCs, STs and minorities, the state definitely needed more than 50 per cent reservation, and pointed out that states like Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand were already providing more than 50 per cent quota.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Over 30 people have been held hostage in a suburban village in Hanoi on Sunday.

Hanoi municipal authorities have called for the release of many police officers who have been held hostage by disgruntled villagers of My Duc District on Sunday over a land dispute.

"All unlawful actions must be stopped," the city said in a statement Sunday.

Land violations have recently become frequent, according to the city authorities. Despite multiple dialogues and attempts to resolve the situation, "the situation is escalating."

On Saturday, Hanoi police detained four people from My Duc's Dong Tam Commune, around 30 kilometers (19 miles) in the outskirts of the capital city, and launched a criminal investigation for disrupting public order.

The arrest resulted in a clash with the villagers, who subsequently took hostage over 30 people, many of them policemen. The exact number of the police officers held hostage is not immediately clear.

Roads leading to the communal house, where the officials are held, were blocked by a crowd of around 30 holding sticks as of Sunday afternoon.

Two men who identified themselves as commune representatives said they wanted the government to release the detained villagers.

"All we want is for the land to be cleared in accordance with the law," one woman told VnExpress.

"We provide enough food and water for the police officers and we treat them courteously," a resident named Loan added.

Hanoi authorities are taking measures to rein in the situation with priority given to rescuing the detained officers. Local authorities have also urged the residents to stay calm and cooperate and ensure the safety of the officers.

Land grievances remain the main source of concern and protests in Vietnam.
The car of Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Bhuj Nima Acharya was attacked by unidentified persons near Loriya village of the district on Sunday.

Acharya was passing along the highway near Loriya when the attackers started pelting stones at her car and smashed its window panes.

The driver immediately sped off and the legislator managed to escape unhurt.

She was later closeted with regional BJP leaders and party supporters at the Bhuj Circuit House.

When reporters confronted her, the assembly member was all smiles and evaded questions related to the attack on her car.

However, her remark that "the party's image will be affected (if she discussed the attack in public)" set the tongues wagging that the incident was organised by party insiders to garner sympathy.

No police complaint has been lodged yet.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Coming down heavily on the Congress and other opposition parties for blocking in the Rajya Sabha a bill to grant constitutional status to the OBC Commission, the BJP on Sunday accused them of depriving the poor of their benefits.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, at its two-day National Executive meeting here, passed a special resolution condemning the blocking and hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for granting constitutional status to the bill.

"Today, when the BJP government led by Modi has taken this step to bring in equality in the society, the Congress and other regional parties are disappointed and their frustration is obvious," Human Resource and Development Minister Prakash Javadekar told the media.

"These parties have always suppressed the interests of the backward classes of the society and only given them false hopes."

He said the manner in which the bill was opposed in the Rajya Sabha exposed the real attitude towards backward classes.

"It is evident that despite being in power for so long, the Congress did not initiate any concrete step towards fulfilling interests of backward classes. Now when the BJP has got the mandate to rule the country, the government has achieved the goals by handling these issues on priority," the minister added.

The resolution alleged that despite the suggestions of Kaka Kalelkar Commission (1950) and Mandal Commission (1979), the Congress governments did not take any action in this direction.

"It is known that the OBC Parliamentary Committee made a recommendation in this regard and the MPs from all parties had personally requested the Prime Minister to amend the Constitution in this regard. Considering these suggestions, the BJP-led government took strong steps and was successful in bringing consensus on the issue in the Lok Sabha," the resolution read.

The resolution was moved by BJP's OBC MP Hukumdev Narayan Yadav and was seconded by Chief Ministers like Raghubar Das of Jharkhand and Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh.

Javadekar, however, hoped that collective wisdom would prevail and the bill would be passed in the months to come.

"This issue is directly linked with the interests of backward classes, so it needs to be supported by every single political party."

The BJP also called on all party workers and every social institution to make people aware of the historic step and ensure equal opportunities to the people of backward classes.

"It is a noble step taken by Modi towards creating an egalitarian society. It is the duty of every leader of the party to reach this message to the remote parts of the country," the resolution said.

"It is after 70 years of India's independence, a government has taken this historic decision aimed at fulfilling the interests of the poor who have been living in remote areas without any basic facilities.

"It is indeed a very important step forward that will help improve the living conditions of the poor and bring them in the mainstream. This is fulfilment of the long pending demand of providing social justice to the backward classes," it added.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hailing the NDA government for its pro-poor policies, the BJP on Sunday urged people to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi form the next government too - in 2019.

Also seeking to consolidate its footprint among Other Backward Classes -- a group having sizeable presence across many major states, the party accused the Congress and other opposition parties of "blocking" in the Rajya Sabha a bill to grant constitutional status to the OBC Commission.

The political resolution adopted on the concluding day of the two-day national executive meeting dwelled on the party's electoral successes, saying the BJP not only has the largest number of MPs but also largest number of MLAs across the states.

Noting that Modi had worked hard and translated his words into action, it said: "The BJP calls upon the people of our country to take a pledge to form a government under the leadership of Narendra Modi in 2019 in order to have the continuity of development and welfare policies for all."

The resolution also called upon party workers to take a pledge to work hard to win the confidence of the people.

Addressing media, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said the last three years of BJP-led central government under Modi's leadership has led India down the path of fast and sustainable economic development.

The party also adopted a separate resolution on the government's decision to accord constitutional status to the National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes.

Javadekar said that BJP-led government has taken this step to bring in equality in society and the Congress and other regional parties were "disappointed and their frustration is obvious".

He said the manner in which the bill could not be taken in the Rajya Sabha during the budget session "exposed" the opposition's real attitude towards backward classes, adding that he hoped the bill would be passed in the months to come.

The BJP also called on all party workers to make people aware of "the historic step".

BJP sources said that the party had got support of a sizeable section of OBCs in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and is keen to continue expand its base among the community. The OBC community also has significant presence in Gujarat, Modi's home state, which will go the polls later this year.

The resolution said that policies of the government have established India's credibility on world forums as a fast growing and progressive nation, while the government is also "diligently working towards fulfilling aspirations and expectations of all the downtrodden and marginalised sections".

The resolution, however, made no mention of the BJP's core issues like Ram Mandir, Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code. Even the issue of the ban on cow slaughter was not discussed.

Referring to the demonetisation last November, it said the party's performance in subsequent polls showed people support the Prime Minister's drive against corruption.

Citing the government's schemes including Jan Dhan Yojana, Ujjwala Scheme, LED lighting scheme, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, it said: "The poor have started feeling a sense of trust and belonging in the present government. This trust and faith in the minds and hearts of the millions of common people has been proved again in the mandate and overwhelming support given to the party in the last many elections."

It applauded the government for making sincere efforts to get the GST bills passed in Parliament, bringing the National Health Policy 2017 and "discipline" in the budget.

Noting that India's credibility has "also significantly increased in the trade, strategic and diplomatic forums," it said the "only reason for this change is the fact that there is a strong government in the country".

"Modi's style of working, his policies dedicated to public welfare, his strong will and the strong leadership and capability has been accepted and recognized at the global level," it added.

---IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht paid a total of $3.37 billion in bribes to government officials from 2006 to 2014, according to a report.

The detailed report submitted on Saturday to prosecutors by Hilberto Mascarenhas, a former executive, says bribes gradually grew from $60 million in 2006 to $730 million in both 2012 and 2013, Xinhua news agency reported.

Mascarenhas used to head a special department specifically established to pay officials for lucrative public works contracts.

The department continued to function until 2015, even after federal police launched Operation Car Wash, a wide-ranging investigation into government corruption.

Mascarenhas said that payments were made with suitcases full of cash delivered to middlemen working for the politicians, or through companies expressly created and registered in offshore tax havens for the purpose of making the transactions.

Odebrecht, once Latin America's most successful engineering firm, negotiated a far-reaching plea agreement with Brazilian investigators last year, according to testimony by about 80 company executives and employees.

It also agreed to pay at least $3.5 billion to investigators in the US and Switzerland for international charges related to the scandal.

On Saturday, Estado de S. Paulo, a leading daily, reported that Brazilian authorities were investigating if any of the foreign kickbacks the company has already admitted to violated Brazilian law.

So far, the investigation has incriminated about 200 political figures, including former presidents, current cabinet members, and speakers of both houses of Congress.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Sunday said civilians in have become the target of both militants and the security forces, adding that a feeling of distrust among people has developed after the PDP-BJP government came to power.

"The civilians are being killed from both sides in Valley. From one end, the militants are killing them and on the other, they are becoming the target of the security forces," Singh told media persons here.

"To understand what the people of are going through, one should go there and find out. One cannot form opinions about Kashmir sitting here. Many families have lost their loved ones and many have lost their eyes too," he added.

He also said that after the Peoples Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government came to power in Jammu and Kashmir, a feeling of distrust has developed among the people of the Valley towards the government.

"The situation in Kashmir was improving. From 2005 to 2013-14, except for 2010-11 when there was some unrest, peace was established in the Valley, normal elections were going on," Singh said.

"But after PDP-BJP came to power, a sense of distrust among the people towards the government has developed. If you want to have Kashmir in India, then won't you also keep the people of Kashmir as well. Don't you think we should win people's confidence in Kashmir," the leader asked.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jakarta's controversial Christian Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama is leading polls ahead of the Indonesian capital's municipal elections on Wednesday, despite accusations of blasphemy by Muslim radicals, officials said on Sunday.

The polls on voter intentions conducted by market researcher Charta Politika puts the Governor at the top spot with 47.3 per cent. Efe news reported.

In second place, with 44.8 per cent, appears the academic and former Culture Minister Anies Baswedan Rasyid while the remaining 7.9 per cent are undecided.

The elections of the governor and lieutenant governor of Jakarta, whose first round was held on February 15, have been marked by mass protests by Muslim radicals against the Chinese origin Purnama whom they accused of having offended Islam in statements he made in September 2016.

He alleged that the video with the controversial comments was doctored but nevertheless issued an apology.

The day after the election the judicial process for alleged blasphemy against Purnama will resume.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world with 87 per cent of its 263 million people practicing Islam.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dubbing triple talaq a "bad social practice", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said such practices can be ended by social awakening but stressed that the BJP didn't want a conflict in the society for this.

His observation came during his concluding remarks at the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) two-day National Executive meeting here.

"As far as social justice is concerned, our Muslim sisters should also get justice. There should not be injustice to them. No one should be exploited," Union Minister Nitin Gadkari quoted Modi as saying.

According to Gadkari, Modi added: "We should not allow conflict in the society. We don't want any conflict in Muslim society over the issue. We need to end such bad practices by awakening the society."

Earlier, making an intervention during the discussion over the resolution passed on a new OBC commission, the Prime Minister said that even Muslim communities have backwards and marginalised and it was the duty of the government address their concerns.

Sources said that Modi asked the party leaders and workers to hold district-level conferences over the issues of backward Muslims and women.

Gadkari said Modi in his speech also expressed his desire to rid India of social and economic inequalities.

Accusing the opposition of creating manufactured issues in a "factory", Modi said: "It seems that opposition manufactures these issue in some factories. During Delhi elections, church attacks was highlighted and during the Bihar polls 'Award Wapsi' was the issue. And right now, it is the EVM."

The Prime Minister also asked the party workers not to deviate from their path and work with "positive approach".

He also called on the BJP leaders to maintain caution while making statements and to not get carried away by emotions and make untoward remarks.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Industry chamber Assocham on Sunday asked the government to clearly define the scope of e-commerce under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, as the current definition is wide enough to even cover commodity derivatives exchanges.

"E-commerce definition, as given in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) dispensation, has been left so wide that it could go well beyond Amazon or Flipkart marketplace platforms and may even cover the commodity exchanges," the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said in a statement here.

"It covers all businesses where the supply of goods/services is through a digital or electronic network," Assocham said.

"In our opinion such an interpretation will not be in consonance with the object and intent of special provisions for the electronic commerce business. There are distinguishing legal and operational factors between e-commerce operators and commodity exchanges."

"The commodities exchanges cannot be treated as electronic commerce operator in their legal capacity as well as in common parlance," it added.

The industry organisation said it fears futures and commodity exchanges may get treated as electronic marketplaces even though derivatives trading means no delivery of actual goods.

In a communication addressed to various ministries, Assocham has also sought clarity on treatment of goods and services under GST for exports, gems and jewellery, micro, small and medium (MSME) sector, banking and telecom.

"Assocham would like a seamless and flawless roll out of the GST to infuse a sense of confidence among the consumers, trade and industry. Eventually, the GST should become a showpiece of our reforms," Assocham Secretary General D.S. Rawat said in the statement.

The industry lobby noted that the Central GST law is silent on exemptions provided on interest on loans.

"The exemption under services tax, which exempts interest, should be replicated under GST," it said.

GST being a unification of multiple indirect taxes into a single law "it is presumed current exemption would be continued for banking and other financial institution, including non-banking financial company, as these exemptions create the basic foundation for taxing services provided by them," it added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Christians in most parts of the northeast with traditional pomp and gaiety celebrated the Easter Sunday signifying Jesus Christ's victory over death after his crucifixion to redeem the world.

Accompanied by men, women and children dressed with vivid traditional attires, band parties of different corps of the Salvation Army woke the populace of several northeastern states by playing the hymn "He's arisen" to mark the beginning of the Easter Sunday.

Over 5.3 million Christians live in Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur while there are a significant number of Christians in the other northeastern states -- Tripura, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

Sunrise services were organised by the youth wings of all local churches in their areas of the region.

Special prayers and worship were also held by the church members breaking their fast after Good Friday.

In Nagaland, thousands of people, including people from other religious faiths, both young and old, gathered at the World War II cemetery in Kohima to attend the Easter sunrise service on Sunday morning and prayed that with the power of resurrection, the people be free from fear, division, corruption and guilt.

Believers across Nagaland offered special prayer services, and participated in the Lord's Supper and thanksgiving feast.

Nagaland Governor P.B. Acharya and Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu extended warm greetings to the people of the state on the occasion of Easter.

Amidst a warm sky and sunny temperature, the day was celebrated on Sunday with religious solemnity across Mizoram.

Mizoram Governor Lt. Gen. Nirbhay Sharma and Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla greeted the people on the occasion of Easter.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed victory in a Sunday referendum on granting him sweeping new powers, saying it was won by a clear majority.

The Turkish Election Commission has yet to release its official results and the two main opposition parties are challenging the results, but according to the state-run Anadolu Agency, with more than 99 per cent of the ballots counted, "Yes" was on 51.36 per cent and "No" on 48.64 per cent.

"Today... Turkey has taken a historic decision," BBC quoted him saying in a briefing at his official Istanbul residence, the Huber Palace.

"With the people, we have realised the most important reform in our history."

Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said the results were not what they expected. "The 'yes' votes are lower than what we expected, but still they are ahead," Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

But declaring victory for Edogan, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the Turkish nation gave its final word by voting "Yes" in the country's constitutional referendum.

Speaking at the Ankara headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, that Erdogan founded, Yildirim said: "I thank and express my gratitude to all our citizens who went to the ballot box with a high turnout, and who protected our democracy."

"We have said different things in (rally) squares; we have voiced different things to the nation but the nation gave its final world by saying 'Yes'," Anadolu agency quoted him as saying.

Saying that Turkey's new government system would be put into practice in the 2019 general elections, Yildirim said: "Our nation made its choice, and it confirmed the presidential system."

The leader of Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli, who supported the "Yes" campaign, said the outcome of the referendum was an "undeniably successful achievement" and should be respected.

"The Turkish people have gone to the polls with a great dignity and decided on shifting to the presidential system of their own free will.

"This is a very significant achievement and cannot be ignored or rejected," Anadolu quoted Devlet Bahceli as saying in a statement.

Bahceli said everybody "should respect and approve" the result in which Turkish citizens voted "Yes" to moving to an executive presidency.

However, Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said they would challenge the results of the referendum due to claims of irregularities and demand a recount of up to 60 per cent of votes.

The main opposition party also said they will object decision of the Supreme Election Board (YSK) that it would accept unsealed ballot papers, Xinhua news agency reported.

It received many complaints that the voters were given envelopes without stamps from officials, the board said in a written statement while people were casting their votes on Sunday.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) suggested "an indication of a three-four percentage point manipulation of the vote".

The new administrative system will take effect after the elections in 2019 when Erdogan's current term ends, yet immediate changes are enabled for the President to head the AKP while serving as the President, and make high-level appointments including members of Turkey's top judicial body without the parliament's approval.

The charter change will abolish the office of the Prime Minister and hand all executive power to the President,

According to the amendments, the President is enabled to select, without the approval of parliament, as many government ministers and Vice Presidents as he likes. Parliament's oral questioning duty and authority to acquire information from the executive body will be lifted with the amendments.

The President is given the authority to annul parliament and declare an election, according to the charter change.

The charter change introduces accountability before law for the President, but makes it more difficult for the President to be referred to the Constitutional Court for trial.

The number of lawmakers at the parliament will be increased from 550 to 660 and the minimum age to be elected will be reduced to 18 from 25.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police dropped the case despite reports from the family the 13-year-old had been raped on multiple occasions.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered an urgent investigation into the handling of a child rape case in the southern province of Ca Mau after the victim committed suicide in February following police inaction.

The order was sent to the Ministry of Public Security and authorities in Ca Mau following widespread media coverage of the suicide in recent days.

Reports say the family of the 13-year-old girl filed a complaint in September last year after she told them that a 57-year-old neighbor had raped her on multiple occasions.

She committed suicide in February after police said they did not have enough evidence to continue their investigation.

Her parents said she had told them that she felt too ashamed to live.

A suicide note was found after her death.

Having sex with a person under 13 years old is ruled as child rape in Vietnam, a crime punishable by death.

Phuc ordered the ministry and provincial authorities to investigate why police had dropped the case.

In Vietnam, more than 8,200 cases of child abuse came to light between 2011 and 2015, including 5,300 cases of sexual abuse, according to official figures released more than a year ago.

In most cases, the perpetrators were people familiar with the children, such as teachers, school security officials, relatives and neighbors.

Experts said at a recent conference that sexual abuse cases in Vietnam tend to be prolonged or even buried due to legal loopholes that require evidence of serious physical effects on the victims.

Last month, intensive mainstream and social media reports angered the public and prompted top government officials to intervene. Police arrested two suspects: a 76-year-old accused of molesting seven girls at an apartment building in the southern beach town of Vung Tau, and a 34-year-old Hanoian accused of assaulting his 8-year-old neighbor.
Microsoft has said that the vulnerabilities exposed by anonymous hacking group Shadow Brokers were addressed by prior patches, a media report said.

Microsoft researchers were working till late on Friday and addressed the issue for systems running Windows 7 and later, Tech Crunch reported on Sunday.

"We have investigated and confirmed that the exploits disclosed by the Shadow Brokers have already been addressed by previous updates to our supported products. Customers with up-to-date software are already protected," the company was quoted as saying.

The company also said it verified the exploits and discovered that nine were already been addressed by previously issued patches.

Microsoft Security Response Center recommends that users keep their machines up to date to ensure that they're protected.

The "Shadow Brokers" is a group -- believed to be tied to the Russian government -- of anonymous hackers that published hacking tools used by the NSA last year.

According to experts, the leaks, published by the Shadow Brokers on Friday, targeted a variety of Windows servers and Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows 8, CNN reported.

The document dump -- which is mostly lines of computer code -- amounts to an emergency for Microsoft because the hacks consist of a variety of "zero-day exploits" that can serve to infiltrate Windows machines for purposes of espionage, vandalism, or document theft.

The group also published another set of documents that indicate that NSA penetrated the SWIFT banking network in the Middle East.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) provides a network that enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardised and reliable environment.

"This reportedly gave the US spy service a window into the financial activities of a range of organisations, including those belonging to firms in Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian territories," said a report in The Wired on Saturday.

Meanwhile, EastNets Service Bureau, that provides outsourced SWIFT connectivity, on Saturday denied that its bureau was compromised and said that the reports of hack are "totally false and unfounded".

Shadow Brokers did not provide a coherent explanation of why they chose to publish the Microsoft and SWIFT vulnerabilities.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Four robbers were arrested here and 18 kg of silver bricks looted from two employees of a Meerut jeweller recovered, police said on Sunday.

Police said that on March 28, nine criminals looted the silver bricks from two employees - Monu and Neetu - of the Meerut-based jeweller Bhushan Swaroop Jain in Sihani Gate police station area.

On Saturday evening, a team of the Crime Branch and local police, acting on the tip of an informer, nabbed four criminals in Raj Nagar Extension area.

During interrogation, they confessed their crime and enabled police recover the stolen silver. Police also seized a car, a pistol, a home-made pistol and three live cartridges from their possession.

The four were identified as Rituraj, Anuj, and Raj Kumar, all residents of Meerut, and Sushil, a resident of Muzaffar Nagar. They further revealed the names of the other five criminals involved were Rohit, Kuldeep, Deepak, Gulab and Ashu, all residents of the same area.

"Raids are being conducted to nab others who are absconding," said Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar at a press conference here.

--IANS

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A former Mexican state governor who has been on the run for six months after being accused of corruption and embezzling millions, was arrested in Guatemala, the police said.

Javier Duarte, the former governor of Veracruz state, was found and arrested in a hotel lobby in the city of Solola on Saturday during a joint operation between Interpol and the Guatemalan police, according to Mexico's attorney general.

He is expected to be extradited to Mexico at a later date, the BBC reported.

Duarte is suspected to have siphoned off at least 645 million Mexican pesos ($35 million) of public money.

He resigned his post to face corruption allegations but then disappeared in October 2016.

When authorities raided his luxury ranch, they found 17 paintings believed to be by famous artists such as Spain's Joan Miro, Colombian Fernando Botero and English-born Mexican Leonora Carrington.

He was suspended from this party, PRI -- which is also the party of President Enrique Pena Nieto -- before he disappeared.

--IANS

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Security has been beefed up at Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai airports following an e-mail from a woman who warned of a possible hijack, a CISF official said on Sunday.

In the e-mail sent to Mumbai Police, the woman, who did not reveal her identity, said she heard six unidentified youths discuss hijacking three flights in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai on Sunday.

Mumbai Police got the e-mail on Saturday and forwarded it to Mumbai Airport Security Group to go on high alert, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) official told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

The woman, whose email was in broken English, said she overheard the young men at a restaurant in Hyderabad over lunch.

She claimed hearing the persons say that 23 people would split up from Hyderabad and board three flights in the three cities for hijacking.

Airport authorities, immigration and Mumbai Police held a meeting after getting the e-mail. The officials were briefed about anti-hijacking steps taken during Independence Day and Republic Day, said the CISF official.

Security was beefed up at the Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai airports and security agencies were put on alert.

Officials said while it could be a fake alarm, they were not taking any chances. The Mumbai Police is trying to get in touch with the woman who sent the email.

Police in the three cities beefed up security at the main entry points to the airports. All vehicles were thoroughly checked.

The CISF, responsible for security at 59 airports in the country, set up additional security measures and alerted its officials to be more vigilant in and around the terminals at Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad airports.

CISF Director General O.P. Singh said passengers need not panic.

"There is no reason to panic as security measures have been put in place. All operations at these airports will be normal and passengers will not face any problem," Singh told IANS.

The CISF has enhanced baggage scanning, pre-embarkation checks and frisking of passengers. Other airports in the country have been alerted too. The force has called in sniffer dog squads and quick reaction teams.

The airlines were also told to be more vigilant.

Airlines have advised passengers to report on time and avoid last-minute check-ins. Passengers have been told to cooperate with security personnel.

--IANS

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Success has ruined more people than failure, believes actress Sonakshi Sinha, who says she neither shouts from the rooftop when her films do well, nor does she sit in the dark and cry over her movie debacles.

"I have been brought up in a way that I treat success and failure in the same way," the actress told IANS while promoting her forthcoming film "Noor" here.

"Somebody once said, 'success has ruined more people than failure'. So it's very important to learn from mistakes and not dwell on them. When I had my huge successes, I never got on to a rooftop and shouted that my films are a hit; and in the case of failures, I don't sit in a corner and cry about them.

"You move on and do your next film," added Sonakshi.

The 29-year-old, who is the daughter of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha and Poonam Sinha, made her debut with "Dabangg", a film that starred Salman Khan.

Subsequently, she delivered hits like "Rowdy Rathore" and "Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty" and a female-driven film like "Akira". She also tried her hand at a different genre with "Lootera", which gave her a chance to show her range as an actor.

She will next be seen playing a journalist in "Noor", scheduled for a worldwide release on April 21.

Sonakshi credits her past work for helping her reach a point in Bollywood where she is getting to play title roles.

"I feel my journey in Bollywood has been great. Some of the initial roles I did have put me in a position today where I shoulder a film like 'Akira' by myself. I have played two title roles and it is really exciting to be able to do that.

"Honestly, the films that I have done in the past have put me in a position that I can do roles like 'Noor' today," she said.

She is also glad that the industry is changing in a way that's favourable for women.

"We are moving in a direction where films are being made with female protagonists, and it's really exciting because, finally, good and amazing roles are being written keeping women in mind. I am very happy to be part of this change and to be able to do those kind of roles," she added.

Directed by Sunhil Sippy, "Noor" is a crime thriller-comedy adapted from Pakistani novel "Karachi, You're Killing Me!".

The novel centres on a 20-year-old reporter, Ayesha Khan, living in Karachi, her misadventures and finding a nice lover. However, the film is set in Mumbai.

Asked about how this cross-cultural exchange between India and Pakistan can help, she said: "We are just here to entertain people and that's our purpose. It's an entertaining film taken from the book with the only purpose to entertain and nothing else."

The message she wants the audience to take is: "Your voices are important. Youth has the power to make a difference."

(Nivedita can be contacted at Nivedita.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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An Indian Air Force (IAF) team is embarking upon an expedition to climb Mt Dhaulagiri, the seventh-highest mountain in the world, in Nepal, a defence release said on Sunday.

"A team of twelve IAF mountaineers led by Gp Capt R.C. Tripathi, would attempt to summit the peak," it said.

The expedition will be carried out from from April 15 to June 3.

"Keeping the spirit of its motto 'Touch the Sky with Glory', IAF is poised to hoist the national and IAF flag on summit of this mountain," the release said.

In 2005, IAF, in its first-ever mountaineering expedition, climbed Mt Everest and again in 2011, IAF's all women expedition team climbed it.

Mt Dhaulagiri, with height of 8,167 metres (26,795 feet), is the last peak to be conquered among the peaks above 8,000 metres.

--IANS

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For long a pariah in the global nuclear technology market, Indian policymakers are pleasantly discovering how the boot is on the other foot as they are furiously courted by foreign firms themselves facing financial ruin.

American nuclear giant Westinghouse, which is in talks with the Indian government on a proposed project in Andhra Pradesh, filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. A year ago, the French energy major Areva, which has offered to build reactors at a Maharashtra site, began a process of major restructuring following huge losses.

Westinghouse is proposing to build six reactors of 1,000 MW capacity each at Kovvada in coastal Andhra Pradesh. The government has indicated this site in place of the originally proposed Mithi Virdi in Gujarat, where the local population protested against plans to erect a nuclear plant in their area.

Minister of State for Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh said in Parliament earlier this year that the land acquisition process at Kovvada had begun, while discussions had also started with Westinghouse on the techno-commercial aspects of a project proposal.

"I don't understand why the government is so keen to talk to these nuclear power companies that are in major financial difficulty, unless it is to bail them out," former Union Power Secretary E.A.S. Sarma told IANS.

"The inevitable fallout of Westinghouse being in a financially weak position will be delay in completing the project and resulting cost over-runs. In this scenario, our government is looking to bail out American companies... to create jobs in the US," he said.

"On the other hand, the government is going ahead with acquiring land, as if the opposition of locals at Kovvada is of no consequence as compared to the protests at Mithi Virdi," he added.

Sarma said there are also concerns about the fuel for the reactors to be supplied as per contractual practice, by a financially crippled Westinghouse.

"Westinghouse has sold its fuel fabrication facility to the Chinese and so our fuel will come from the latter, which is a cause for concern, and I have written to the government on this," the former Secretary said.

The case of Areva, which is proposing six EPR-type 1,650 MW reactors at Jaitapur, is even more complex, with the French firm having signed the agreements with Larsen & Toubro and state-run Nuclear Power Corp during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's France visit in 2015. Soon after, Areva declared massive losses of 4.8 billion euros and the French government, which owns 87 per cent of the company, announced its nuclear power arm would be sold to another state-run firm, EDF.

Sarma pointed out that Areva has struggled to complete two identical EPR reactors, one at Olkiluoto in Finland, which is still not operational despite over a decade-long delay and a trebling of costs, and the other in Flamanville, France, plagued by serious construction and security issues, delays and massive cost over-runs.

"The French nuclear security watchdog has issued a number of severe warnings to Areva on major security issues and manufacturing and construction flaws in the reactor being built in Flamanville," Sarma said.

Flamanville is one of four EPRs under construction worldwide, and its cost overrun -- from an estimated 3.3 billion euros to over 10 billion euros -- is at the heart of Areva's current problems.

"Now with their current troubles, there is even more likelihood of Areva compromising on design safety features, on which they have such poor track record," Sarma said.

M.R. Srinivasan, a former Secretary to the Union government and ex-Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, is equally concerned about the time-delays and cost-escalations involved in closing the deals with these beleagured foreign companies.

"Both these proposals are facing great uncertainty. Toshiba (the Westinghouse parent) is in serious financial difficulty, while Areva is undergoing major restucturing," Srinivasan said.

"Some technical discussions are on, but the issue of financing will surely come up owing to concerns about cost-escalation," he said.

According to Sarma, in the changed situation, "Westinghouse itself says it can only supply the technology for the nuclear island and does not want to undertake any construction activity."

This is a complete reversal of the situation that prevailed before an agreement with the US in 2008 allowed India to engage in nuclear commerce and start importing uranium fuel again for its reactors.

Srinivasan said that in a world where multilateral financing is absolutely scarce for nuclear projects, which have long gestation periods, old allies Russia, whose state-run Rosatom is constructing the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu, provides a tried, tested and less expensive option.

"That is why we are going ahead with the Russians on more Kudankulam units -- 3,4,5 and 6. The agreements with Russia also have provision for government financing," he said.

Rosatom is currently in talks with the Indian government on the site for a second project of six reactors.

Russia has offered India a new range of reactor units -- the VVER Generation 3 pressurised water reactors of 1,200 MW capacity -- for the third and fourth units of the Kudankulam project.

An inter-governmental agreement between India and Russia was signed in December 2008 for setting up Kudankulam's units 3 to 6. The ground-breaking ceremony for construction of units 3 and 4 was performed last year.

"All the Russian built units at Kudankulam, including the first and second, are 'Generation 3 plus' reactors. They meet all current safety requirements," Srinivasan said.

"Their design has benefited from the review conducted of nuclear accidents like Three-Mile Island (US) and Fukushima (Japan)," he added.

(Biswajit Choudhury can be reached at biswajit.c@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.)
India is yet to receive copies of the Pakistani chargesheet against alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and the copy of the judgment sentencing him to death, informed sources said on Sunday.

"We are yet to receive the chargesheet and the copy of the judgment on Jadhav's sentence," said a source in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua in Islamabad with a request for consular access to Jadhav and also sought a copy of the chargesheet against him.

The request for meeting Jadhav was turned down. "We demanded a meeting (with Jadhav), but they denied," Bambawale told reporters after meeting Janjua.

India said it has sought consular access to Jadhav 13 times earlier, but the permission was refused each time.

Jadhav, sentenced to death by Pakistan's military court on April 10, faced seven charges, including sponsoring IED attacks on important installations and attacks on Shias in Pakistan -- according to the list read out by the country's foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz on Friday.

As a fallout of the case, India on Saturday called off bilateral maritime security talks with Pakistan scheduled for April 17.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a lawyer in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district late on Sunday evening, police said.

Advocate Imtiyaz Ahmad Khan was shot at and critically injured by unidentified gunmen in Pinjura village of Shopian.

"He was shifted to hospital, but succumbed to injuries," police said.

Ahmad worked as a public prosecutor during the National Conference government in the state.

--IANS

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Unveiling its manifesto for the MCD polls, the BJP on Sunday promised social security for the unorganised sector, ownership rights for autorickshaw drivers, and more modern schools among other promises.

In the manifesto, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) announced it would give relief to the street vendors and small traders and others from the unorganised sector by providing them with a 'social security card', enabling them to avail insurance, education, and health facilities through it.

The scheme, it said, will include autorickshaw drivers, daily-wage labourers, factory workers, domestic helps, and other weaker sections of society.

"This election will decide the course of things for Delhi, it will decide whether next 5 years will be years of administrative deceit and anarchy or of development as visualised by Prime Minister Narender Modi," Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said in a statement.

Focussing on the rickshaw-drivers (auto and otherwise) of Delhi, the manifesto promised to devise a scheme to get ownership rights to the autorickshaw drivers.

It also promised to simplify rules for a bank loan and registration process to make purchase of 'battery-driven' rickshaws more accessible to the drivers.

The party also promised to increase the number of 'Model schools' in the city and vowed to bring government schools upto the level of public and private schools. Every schools will be installed with a water-purifier and CCTV camera, it also said.

On the health front, the party provisioned for a 'permanent health card' for inhabitants to avail medical facilities at the hospitals.

Complete eradication of whooping cough, tetanus, diptheria, and measles through vaccination was also assured.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
From time to time, the United States identifies certain individuals as crucial to the operation of terrorist organizations. Most often these are top leaders, or they help finance terrorist organizations. In all cases, these are people who have committed, or are deemed to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.

When such an individual is identified, the U.S. Government places that person's name on the Specially Designated Nationals List. His assets within U.S. reach are immediately frozen, and he is locked out of the global financial network. No U.S. citizen or company may conduct business with a designated individual. In this way, the United States disrupts support networks for terrorists and terrorist organizations.

Such is the case with Abu Anas al-Ghandour, a military commander for the Specially Designated Foreign Terrorist Group Hamas. He leads a Hamas brigade in Gaza, has served on the Hamas Shura Council and political bureau, and has been involved in many terrorist operations.

In June 2006, Ghandour was involved in the attack on an Israel Defense Forces outpost at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and another two were wounded. A fifth, French-Israeli citizen Gilad Shalit, was kidnapped. He was held in captivity for five years.

For these and other activities, the United States Department of State designated Abu Anas al-Ghandour as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.

Todays action notifies the U.S. public and the international community that Abu Anas al-Ghandour committed or poses a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism. Designations expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and result in denial of access to the U.S. financial system. Moreover, designations can assist or complement other U.S. agencies and governments law enforcement actions.
Candlelight processions, baptism of newborns and coloured Easter eggs and buns were the hallmark of the day as Christians in Meghalaya on Sunday joined their brethren the world over in celebrating Easter.

Cathedrals and churches across this Christian-majority state were thronged by people for special mass and other celebratory events.

Archbishop of Shillong Dominic Jala presided over Easter mass at the St. Dominic Church in Mawlai Parish.

Pascal commemoration in many parishes was marked by candlelight processions and baptism of newborn.

Leaders of various political parties greeted the people on the occasion.

Wishing the people of Meghalaya, Governor Banwarilal Purohit said Easter is a festival of hope and millions of people over the world are inspired by this festival of sacrifice and forgiveness.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and National People's Party President Conrad K. Sangma greeted the people on the occasion of Easter Sunday.

Nearly 75 per cent of Meghalaya's three million population are Christians.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met the descendants of historical Paika Rebellion martyrs, who undertook an armed rebellion against the British rulers in Odisha in 1817.

He felicitated the families of freedom fighters at Raj Bhawan here in presence of Governor S.C. Jamir.

"Today, the history was recalled with pride. It is my honour to see the descendants of martyrs. Unfortunately, the long years of freedom movement was confined in few persons and specific period. We should recall the events and contribution of everyone who participated in the freedom struggle," said the Prime Minister.

He said Odisha secured the top position for its immense contribution for freedom movement.

After felicitating the family members of the freedom fighters, Modi also paid a visit to the famous Lingaraj temple here.

The Prime Minister is in the Odisha capital to attend the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's national executive meeting. He arrived here on Saturday amid massive fanfare as he held a roadshow.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday offered prayers at the 11th century Lingaraj Temple here, officials said.

The Prime Minister spent around 25 minutes in the temple premises.

He offered flowers, bel leaves, milk, coconut water and water to the deity.

Modi also visited the temple of Goddess Bhubaneswari and Parbati, said Manoranjan Panigrahy, CEO of the Lingaraj Temple Administration.

"The Prime Minister was so enthusiastic to know about Lingaraj temple. He prayed for the welfare of the nation and 'Swachh Bharat'," said chief priest of the temple.

The 'seveyats' or temple priests did not miss a chance to take selfies with the Prime Minister.

The 54-metre high temple is spread over a 25,000 sq.ft area and has over 150 small and big subsidiary temples in its premises.

Before his visit to the temple, Modi met the families of freedom fighters who were part of the Paika rebellion against the British East India Company in 1817.

He felicitated them at the Raj Bhawan.

Modi arrived here on Saturday to attend the two-day BJP National Executive meeting that began later in the day.

He also held a roadshow ahead of the meet.

The Prime Minister will address the concluding session on Sunday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The first ever joint military drill between Nepal and China -- Sagarmatha Friendship-2017 -- kicked off at Nepal Army's Para Training School in Maharajgunj here on Sunday.

The Chinese Army's squad is participating in the military exercise that will focus on counter terrorism and disaster response. The 10-day exercise will conclude on April 25.

DGMO of Nepal Army General Binod Kumar Shrestha inaugurated the exercise.

Though Nepal and China were planning a big-scale military exercise, the strong opposition from New Delhi given its special diplomatic and military ties with Kathmandu has forced Kathmandu to limit the size and nature of the drill, sources said.

"We hope that such joint military exercise would help the Nepali and Chinese armies to boost their professional capabilities," Gen. Shrestha said.

Highlighting the historic ties between Nepali and Chinese armies, Colonel Yang Shumeng, leading the Chinese side, said such exercise would help understanding on counter terrorism and strengthening military ties.

The joint training with China marks the Nepali Army's extension of military diplomacy.

The army has long been conducting joint military drills with the Indian and US armies.

A small Chinese troop contingent will be participating in the first ever drill with an equal number of Nepal Army personnel whereas it was earlier planned at battalion-level.

The exercise is taking place at the Maharajgunj-based training school where Yuddha Bhairab, Mahabir and Bhairabnath Battalions are located.

Initially it was planned outside Kathmandu.

The country's army said the military exercise with China was a step towards preparations against the possible threat from terrorism.

The Nepal Army maintained that the drill was part of its regular bilateral and multilateral military exercises aimed at sharing experiences, skills and professional knowledge which it has been doing regularly with the nations that Nepal shares diplomatic ties with.

The national defence forces from the two countries have increased their engagement of late.

On February 19, Major General Zhao Jinsong of the western command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was in Nepal on a three-day visit.

This was followed by a visit by Defence Minister and State Councillor Chang Wanquan in March. Chang had announced 300 million Yuan (Rs 4.5 billion) in military aid to Nepal.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With Nepal's President Bidya Devi Bhandari beginning her state visit on Monday, India said its relations with Nepal are people-centric and are focused on improving connectivity between the neighbours as well as energy infrastructure.

"We have maintained our focus on implementation of ongoing connectivity and development projects such as Terai roads, cross-border rail lines linkages, development of integrated check posts on the border, cross-border oil pipeline -- the first in South Asia -- and cross-border transmission lines," said Joint Secretary, Nepal and Bhutan, in the Indian External Affairs Ministry Sudhakar Dalela while briefing media on the upcoming visit in New Delhi.

In her first foreign tour, Bhandari is paying a state visit to India from April 17 to 21 at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee. Besides meeting top Indian leaders, Bhandari, who will be accompanied by a high-level 33-member delegation, will also visit Gujarat and Odisha.

The visit reflects "the priority India attaches to further strengthening the age-old unique partnership with Nepal and our shared historical and cultural linkages and strong people to people connection", Dalela said.

On the cooperation between the two neighbours in the area of energy infrastructure, he said this is witnessing a new high with the Indian cabinet last month approving investment of Rs 5,723 crore for Arun 3 power project in Nepal and operationalisation of the Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar high capacity transmission line, which has taken India's electricity supply to Nepal to about 380 MW.

The project, located on Arun River in Sankhuwasabha district of eastern Nepal, will provides 21.9 per cent free power to Nepal for the entire concession period of 25 years while the surplus will go to India.

About the power transmission lines, Dalela said: "We have almost finished work on two more transmission line projects from Raxaul to Parwanipur(Nepal) and Kushaha (Nepal)-Kataiya and we believe with the conclusion of these two projects, we will be able to supply more power to Nepal."

India is supplying 80 MW more through the Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar (Nepal) transmission line from this year.

Dalela also said that India had also agreed to Nepal's proposed 16 road projects and bridges of amount for approximately $300 million under the $550 million line of credit India had extended.

On the trade imbalance, he said that bilateral trade is about $5 billion and Nepal's exports to India about $600 million and both governments are trying to improve the condition of trade including issues related to non-tariff barriers.

He also said that the bilateral oversight mechanism, which was established in last October, has met three times in last six months and has been extremely helpful in addressing implementation challenges of both sides.

On the border Integrated Check Post, he said the one at Birganj is 85 per cent done and will be completed this year while the contract for Birganj has been awarded, while the work on two rail links - Jogbani-Biratnagar and Jayanagar-Bartibas is on.

On the ongoing consultation for exchange of demonetised Indian currency notes held by Nepalis, he said: "Nepal's Rashtra Bank and the Reserve Bank of India have been in consultation in process of dialogue. Very recently a delegation of RBI visited Nepal to hold discussions. Progress so far has been very good... This issue is in focus of both sides."

To a query on the constitution making process in Nepal, he said: "India has an abiding interest peace stability and development in Nepal" and is supportive of Nepal's "efforts to address all constitutional implementation issues by taking all section of the society on board".

Meanwhile in Kathmandu, the Nepal government said that no MoU will be signed during the visit, which is just a goodwill visit mainly focusing on consolidating and strengthening the bilateral ties.

Bhandari's 33-member delegation includes Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat and Peace and Reconstruction Minister Sita Devi Yadav, five women parliament members representing various political parties, two former MPs, senior officials at the President's Office and the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs, security personnel and three media persons.

The Nepal government has decided to have two public holidays - on Monday and Friday - during the departure and return of the President. Law Minister Ajay Shankar Nayak said that as per custom, public holidays are given whenever the head of state embarks on an official visit to any nation.

Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport has declared no-fly zones for 35 minutes from 10.30 a.m. when the President is due to leave.

--IANS

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The state-of-the-art transverse ventilation system in the newly-opened 9.2 km Chenani-Nashri tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar highway may not be working effectively as commuters are complaining of high pollution levels, eye irritation and suffocation inside what has been labelled as one of India's infrastructural wonders.

Some of the commuters using the strategically-important tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir on a regular basis told IANS that they were also battling poor visibility caused by high pollution levels inside what is India's first and the world's sixth road tunnel that uses a hi-tech ventilation system to extract polluted air and maintain a constant flow of fresh air.

Balvinder Singh, a Delhi-based orthopaedic surgeon from Jammu, said he suffered breathing problems when he was inside the tunnel, built with Austrian technology at a cost of Rs 2,900 crore ($450 million) and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 2.

"The ventilation system inside the tunnel probably doesn't work effectively. As soon as we enter the tunnel during peak hours, the visibility starts plummeting. If we travel with the windows down, the pollution level rises. It causes breathing issues as well," the surgeon with Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital told IANS.

"It feels as if we are passing through a gas chamber," the surgeon said.

Anil Manhas, who works with the Jammu and Kashmir Education Department, uses the tunnel that has reduced the 41-km distance between Chenani in Udhampur to Nashri in Rambhan to just 11 km, slashing his travel time from two-and-a-half hours to a mere 10 minutes.

"I took it lightly when I used the tunnel for the first time. I had irritation in my eyes. It was also smoke-filled. This is happening regularly now and I think the ventilation system is not working. If this prevails for long... there are chances of vehicles meeting with accidents due to poor visibility," Manhas said.

Asked about the problem, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) spokesperson Vishnu Darbari said since Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) had constructed the tunnel, only they would be able to answer queries about it.

But Ashutosh Chandwar, Vice President, IL&FS, contended that the problem has to do with claustrophobia caused by travel though such a long and confined space.

"I do not know why the passengers are feeling such problems... There is absolutely no possibility of it. Whenever there is pollution inside the tunnel, its ventilation system will automatically start and exhaust out the pollution. What people are suffering is phobia of travelling through a long tunnel," Chandwar told IANS.

He said the ventilation system of the tunnel was "well tested and can tackle every kind of pollution inside the tunnel".

Environmentalist Vivek Chattopadhyay said pollution levels inside such a long tunnel were bound to increase but could be controlled if the ventilation functions properly.

The Programme Manager at the Centre for Science and Environment said such problems occur in hilly terrain and assimilation of pollutants often occur as these do not disperse easily.

"The problem of poor visibility due to pollution levels inside the tunnel is genuine and it is commonly seen. The problem can be solved only if the ventilation system works effectively," Chattopadhyay told IANS.

Another problem commuters face on a routine basis is traffic congestion inside the tunnel.

"The traffic congestion due to the continuous flow of all kinds of vehicles is another major problem," said Bhushan, a Jammu resident who works with the state government.

The NHAI had earlier said vehicles below BS-III engines won't be allowed in.

However, the directive couldn't be executed considering the volume of trucks that ply daily carrying essentials between Jammu and Kashmir, Chandwar of IL&FS said.

(Rupesh Dutta can be contacted at rupesh.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said he looked forward to the success of a Syria-led political solution fulfilling the aspirations of the Syrian people.

Extending greetings and felicitations to the people of Syria, Mukherjee in his message to President Bashar Al-Assad on the eve of the country's National Day said: "India and Syria have traditionally enjoyed warm and cordial relations."

"The tragic loss of human lives and violence during the many years of conflict that have devastated Syria have greatly saddened us in India," the President said.

Speaking on the political process to end the conflict, Mukherjee said: "We look forward to the success of the recently re-launched political process in achieving a comprehensive political solution through a Syrian-led, all inclusive effort, taking into consideration the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people."

"We welcome all initiatives in this direction and remain hopeful of an early solution to the crisis in Syria," Mukherjee said.

"I convey my best wishes for your health and well-being and for peace and prosperity in Syria," he added.

On April 17, 1946, Syria proclaimed full independence after the complete withdrawal of French rule.

--IANS

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Thousands of protesters took to the streets across the United States on Saturday to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

According to organisers, demonstrators came out in large numbers in about 200 cities, including a few outside the US, CNNMoney reported.

Images of tax protesters in cities including Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and New York flooded social media.

Comedy writer Frank Lesser, whose tweet in January sparked the idea for the 'Tax March', said the participation in the nationwide marches proves that people want to see Trump's returns, Xinhua news agency reported.

Trump has said Americans "don't care at all" about his tax returns, but polls show 74 per cent of Americans say he should release them.

Many lawmakers, including some Republicans, have also called on him to make them public. And a petition demanding that Trump release his returns has garnered more than 1 million signatures.

For the past 40 years, every US President and presidential candidate has released tax documents.

Still, the White House has not indicated that Trump has any intentions of releasing his returns.

Trump has repeatedly said he can not release his tax returns because they are under audit, though many tax experts have said he is not barred from releasing the information during the audit.

"We march to demand that the President release his returns, as he has repeatedly promised, but failed, to do," the Tax March website reads.

"We march because it is in the best interest of the American people to know what financial entanglements and conflicts of interest our leaders have."

Much like the "Pussyhats" symbolised by the Women's March in January, the hallmark of this protest are giant inflatable chickens.

Organisers have nicknamed the march's symbol "Chicken Don".

On Saturday morning, chickens could be spotted on the steps of the Capitol building and outside the Trump Hotel.

Thirty-foot inflatable chickens, designed purposely made to resemble Trump, were also seen at the marches in New York City and San Francisco.

--IANS

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Actor Ajay Ghosh, best known for playing a menacing police officer in National Award-winning Tamil film "Visaaranai", says working with filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli can be very rewarding for any artiste.

In "Baahubali 2: The Conclusion", Ajay plays the role of a dacoit.

"Even though it's a small role, the time spent with Rajamouli sir on the sets is equivalent to going to a film school. Working with him has been rewarding. You can learn so much even if you spend a few hours with him," Ajay told IANS.

Excited about being part of one of India's biggest motion pictures, he said he can't wait to see himself on the screen.

"To see myself as part of the country's most anticipated film is the biggest achievement of my career so far. I play a dacoit in Anushka's kingdom and very excited to know how audiences will receive me," he said.

The actor will next be seen in Tamil film "Thappu Thanda".

Meanwhile, "Baahubali 2: The Conclusion" is slated for worldwide release on April 28. It also stars Rana Daggubati, Prabhas, Tamannaah Bhatia, Anushka Shetty, Ramya Krishnan and Sathyaraj.

--IANS

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"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" The Shadow, the mysterious narrator of a 1930 American radio show, knows -- as he told us with his eerie laugh -- but he wasn't the only one. Various detectives -- Sherlock Holmes, et al -- made it their business to find out too, as well one whose calling exposed him to it. And he was equally effective despite being Holmes' polar opposite.

Unlike the tall and lean and striking Holmes, Father Brown, a Roman Catholic priest, is short and stumpy, with "a face as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling", "eyes as empty as the North Sea" beneath his spectacles, wears shapeless black clerical garb and always carries a large umbrella.

The real difference is in their methods. While Holmes uses the deductive approach -- reasoning from one or more premises towards a logical conclusion -- as well as the abductive, using his superb observation and sharp brain to fashion from available evidence a theory that can explain it, Father Brown is intuitive, seeking to place himself in the criminal's mind to find how the deed was done and thus ascertain who did it.

But there were similarities too. Both rejected supernatural causes and had keen insights into evil -- Holmes by dint of research and our priest by his work, once telling an adversary: "Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?"

Debuting in 1911, Father Brown was the creation of author and lay theologian G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), a colossus both in appearance and intellect, and also a poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, and a literary and art critic.

Chesterton, who had read Holmes (he prepared a number of illustrations for them -- which weren't used and have been only recently discovered), however sought to create a counterpoint to the trend of the coldly analytical detective. The good priest's reliance on philosophical and spiritual truths also serves to express Chesterton's own point of view of the world.

The 50-odd stories, 48 published in five collections: "The Innocence/Wisdom/ Incredulity/Secret/Scandal of Father Brown" between 1911 and 1935 (three stories were found and published posthumously) are masterpieces of the genre, with their ingenious puzzles, fiendish plots set out against evocative descriptions of time and place, and spirited dialogue and observations. Chesterton, termed the "prince of paradox", was also gifted in creating a supernatural ambience -- but one that is easily dissipated and stumping us with the unexpected, but perfectly reasonable, solution.

Brown debuts in "The Blue Cross" in which French policeman Valentin, in England on the trail of notorious criminal Flambeau, sees him in his rail carriage but dismisses him as pitiable. But it is the seemingly oblivious priest who enables the arrest of Flambeau (disguised as a fellow priest) by identifying and outsmarting him while laying a strange but unmistakable trail across London for Valentin to follow.

But after encountering Flambeau in two further stories in the first volume itself, Brown succeeds in weaning him off a life of crime and making him a companion (like Dr Watson) in most of the canon, a strange assortment of tales, set not only in Britain, but also in rest of Europe, the US and in Latin America. And all may not be crimes, despite the evidence (if you pardon the pun).

A recently-deceased Scottish lord's castle has several strange things -- candles without candlesticks, jewels lying loose, prayer books mutilated and so on -- and when his body is exhumed, the skull is missing ("The Honour of Israel Gow"); a retired soldier faces some inexplicable attempts on his life after a strange curse in India while an assailant runs off with condiments from the dinner table ("The Salad of Colonel Cray"); a dog howls in despair at the time its master is stabbed to death back at home ("The Oracle of the Dog"); an unclaimed glass which held whiskey helps to solve a murder in a bar ("The Quick One"); are the simultaneous murders of three American millionaires ("The Ghost of Gideon Wise") a conspiracy by the militant trade unionists and so on.

Father Brown also shows how a revolution-minded university teacher cannot have murdered two businessmen in an Oxbridge college ("The Crime of the Communist") , how an eminent criminologist and psychic researcher are misled in two cases ("The Absence of Mr Glass" and "The Blast of the Book"), and exposes a number of charlatans, including holy men drawn from various sects/religions.

But the priest-detective, who like Holmes, continues to be written about long after his creator passed on and appearing in other media, had another prominent legacy. The good father, who according to Italian Marxist ideologue Antonio Gramsci, far outstripped Holmes, also inspired the trend of clergy detectives (nearly 350 according to Philip Grosset of www.detecs.org, mainly from Christianity and Judaism but even Buddhism). Other religions are only represented by devout laity. Anyone keen to address the deficiency?

(Vikas Datta is an Associate Editor at IANS. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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A day after Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel's purported disinterest in expanding business to "poor countries" like India created controversy in social media, parent company Snap Inc denied the allegation, saying no such remark was made, reports said on Sunday.

US-based news website Variety on Saturday quoted Snapchat's ex-employee Anthony Pompliano as saying that Spiegel in September 2015 told him that "the app is only for rich people. I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain".

But the company denied the remarks reports of which had resulted in the rating of the popular app dropping to a "single star" from an apparent "five star" on the App Store.

"The simple fact is that he (Pompliano) knows exactly nothing about Snap's current metrics. He and his lawyers are -- not to put too fine a point on matters -- just making things up," Variety reported Snap's attorneys as saying.

Denying the claims of Snapchat being termed as a 'rich people's app', the attorneys termed Pompliano a "disgruntled employee fired for poor performance".

The portal YourStory published an official statement from Snap that said: "This is ridiculous. Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! It's available worldwide to download for free."

Meanwhile, the rating of the popular app dropped to a "single star" from "five star" on the App Store.

According to the app info on App Store, the "Customer Ratings" of the current version of the app was "single star" (based on 6,099 ratings) and all versions' rating was "one and half star" (based on 9,527 ratings) as on Sunday morning.

The rating for the app on Android Play Store was "four star" (based on 11,932,996 ratings).

Indians did not take the comment lightly and took to social media to lash out at the statement from the CEO. As the ratings of the app dropped, the criticism of the CEO and the app increased.

"First of all, I didn't even want to give any freakin' star to this app. Evan (CEO of Snapchat) shows how stupid he is by saying this. I bet 3/4th of his company is run by Indian employees. If he didn't want to expand it to poor countries, then why is this app free? Why didn't he put any charges on it?" a user wrote on App Store, condemning the CEO.

Some users wrote, "Poor India & Spain need better than Snapchat", "Good bye, My Snapchat Account and Snap Inc. You'll be product of gone by era and derision", and "Poor Evan Spiegel".

The app was also trolled on Twitter. #boycottsnapchat became the most trending hashtag on Twitter overnight.

"I haven't seen any Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc Tweets yet. Thanks @Snapchat for Uniting us," a user tweeted.

"I was addicted to @Snapchat but I love my country more than this app. Let's see how you earn without Indians. @evanspiegel #boycottsnapchat," another user wrote on twitter.

Some users even flagged the app for hateful content and left a message, "Dear @snapchatsupport, flagged you for hateful content. #boycottsnapchat".

According to a report in Forbes on Thursday, Facebook's photo-sharing app Instagram surpassed Snapchat in daily active users of "Stories" feature, though the format was first launched by Snapchat in 2013.

Instagram's "Stories" feature was now used by more than 200 million people every day -- an increase of 50 million since January.

On the other hand, Snapchat which launched the "Stories" format in October 2013, had 161 million daily active users in February.

"Stories" feature is an ephemeral chain of photo and video clips with filters and special effects. More recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also introduced the feature, imitating Snapchat.

Snapchat has more than four million users in India.

--IANS

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A Taiwanese monastery on Sunday returned an ancient pagoda body stolen 19 years ago from Shanxi province in China.

Dengyu stone tower, originally from Dengyu village of Shanxi, features Buddha images carved into the four-faced tower body. The colourful piece was made in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Xinhua news agency reported.

The tower was 320 cm high and composed of a base, a 177 cm body, a tower eave and spire.

It is an excellent example of Tang Dynasty stone carving and was given provincial-level protection in 1965.

In 1996, the spire was stolen and is still missing. The tower body was stolen in 1998, taken out of the Chinese mainland and donated by a private collector to Taiwan's Chung Tai Chan Monastery in 2015.

The monastery decided to return the tower to Shanxi after it confirmed its origins in 2016.

The tower arrived at Shanxi museum on January 24.

"We really appreciate the temple's decision," said Wang Taiming, head of Yushe county's cultural relic bureau.

"The donation is an excellent example of cultural exchange between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland," said Master Jian Deng, abbot of the Chung Tai Chan Monastery.

--IANS

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The rooms feel like hotels -- fully furnished and well-maintained, says Shivalika Verma, one of the 77 residents in the first building of Your-Space, a new venture that aims to disrupt the student housing market by providing premium facilities - plus comfort and safety that feels like home.

Another resident of the Greater Noida facility, Samiksha Singh, who is pursuing M.Tech at Galgotias University, couldn't stop talking about how the round-the clock security system, centralised air-conditioning and free Wi-Fi help her make the most of her time and pursue her studies in a secure environment.

"My parents want me to stay here for the next year too," she told IANS, adding that all that the residents have to pay for the lodging and food is Rs 10,000 per month.

"For a bed in a double-seater room, we need to pay Rs 125,000 a year and for one in a three-bed room it is Rs 105,000," Verma, who is pursuing B.Tech from the same university, added.

But most students in India, especially those who migrate from remote villages or small towns to their city of dreams to pursue higher education, are not that lucky.

In the absence of a reliable, branded, student-housing solution, they often spend a days, sometimes weeks scouting for a suitable place, and ultimately settle for a ramshackle place with unknown individuals because of the skyrocketing rents in the cities.

And what is more, some even end up spending most of their time doing daily chores, rather than on studies.

The co-founders of the start-up -- Shubha Lal, Karan Kaushish and Nidhi Kumra, all in their early 30s -- understood the need for a clean, serviced, home-like place for students to come back to at the end of the day even when they were students themselves and staying in hostels. But little did they realise then that one day they would take steps to fill the gap.

"I saw my friends struggling to find a good, clean and safe place to live," Lal, who did her graduation from Lady Shriram College in New Delhi, said.

"This situation hasn't changed in the last 10 years, and premium, standardised accommodation for students is definitely a niche market that is untapped. We launched our first girls' hostel in Greater Noida in July 2016 and secured 100 per cent occupancy within a month," she added.

Sumit Tyagi, who agreed to offer the building on lease to Your-Space is not complaining either.

"I thought of starting a guest house or a hostel accommodation myself. But when the founders of Your-Space approached me, I decided to give the building on lease as I liked their proposal. Now I don't have to concentrate on managing the hostel, which allows me more time to devote to other work," Tyagi said.

"It was a good decision. The journey with the Your-Space team has been fabulous so far," Tyagi added.

Going ahead, however, Your-Space would stop taking buildings on lease and would rather develop accommodation in partnership with developers, Kaushish, an alumnus of the University of Oxford's Said Business School, revealed, adding that more changes are on the cards for the young start-up.

"Your-Space currently offers accommodation only for female students. But we have realised that the living conditions of male students too are far from satisfactory. From 2018 onwards, we plan to roll out housing solutions for boys too," Kaushish said.

The model provided by Your-Space has already attracted the interest of investors.

In March this year, the company announced the closure of an angel round of half a million dollars towards expansion of their premium student housing venture.

This was a first angel round after the promoters invested their own capital in the seed round. HNI and angel investors from both India and abroad participated. The investor-profile included people from leading financial institutions, and the real estate and hospitality sectors.

Globally, the student housing market is estimated to be about $200 billion, according to a recent report by education consulting firm Eduvisors.

With continued growth of higher education institutes and the estimated projection of over 300 million college students by 2020, the market opportunity remains massive in India too.

With organised players like Your-Space embracing an aggressive expansion spree, the face of the segment is likely to change soon, when more such players start crowding the space.

The founders of Your-Space aim to more than double their capacity this year and expand to other educational hubs in the Delhi NCR region, and eventually to other cities.

"We aim to be a pan-India brand that is trusted by students, parents and universities across the country," Kumra said.

So, does the future look bright? Watch this space.

(Gokul Bhagabati can be contacted at gokul.b@ians.in)

--IANS

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Sommet Education, one of the worlds reputed and most extensive network of hospitality management institutions, is endeavouring to expand its footprint in the Indian space.

Through its twin institutions -- Glion Institute of Higher Education and Les Roches Global Hospitality Education -- Sommet has seven campuses in Switzerland, Spain, China, Jordan, United Kingdom and the US.

Sommet Education Chief Executive Officer Benoit-Etienne Domingate, has been camping in India for the past week talking to stakeholders of the Indian hospitality industry.

While it has no immediate plans to set up a campus here, Domingate said the priority was consolidating the links with India. Nearly 15 per cent of its students are Indians.

"We have around 400 Indian alumni and the focus is to consolidate our relationship with India. We are not present here in terms of an institute but our teams here have been functioning here for nearly 30 years now.

"Enhancing the relationship between Indian industry players -- hotels, travel, tourism -- and both our schools Glion and Les Roches is the priority," Domingate told IANS here.

Accredited at the university level by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. (NEASC), Les Roches has been ranked No.4 among the world's top institutions for Hospitality and Leisure Management and No.2 worldwide for employer reputation by QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017.

Meeting representatives of Indian hospitality sector including educational institutes and entrepreneurs, Domingate and his team discussed ways of increasing their involvement with India.

"We are now focussing on consolidating our existing campuses and don't have immediate plans to set up an institute here. But working with the Indian industry, forging partnerships is an important priority.

"India being a fast booming market, it is important for our students to know about India," Domingate said, adding that efforts are on to forge partnerships, including exchange programmes of students and faculty with Indian hospitality entities.

"We see India as a major country with long tradition of hospitality. India is not a new market for us. We have our here endeavouring to develop relationships of our schools with India.

"But it is important to have constant dialogues of our schools with the Indian market -- hoteliers, restaurateurs, educational institutes -- in our endeavour to be locally relevant and constantly evolve," he said.

Talking about hospitality management education, he said it was imperative to give equal importance to the practical aspect as much as theory.

"Practical aspects ensure that a student is constantly in relationship with the industry, with the world outside. It's the right blend of theory and practical that makes our students stay relevant in the complex and the ever evolving markets," he said.

Experts have often lamented the dearth of hospitality management institutes in India and stressed on the need to upgrade the system with more emphasis on the practical aspects.

Both Glion and Les Roches offer a wide range of graduate and post-graduate hospitality management degrees with a focus on international business and global service industry applications.

(Anurag Dey can be contacted at anurag.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that more inclusiveness is needed for those who are backward among the Muslim community and hoped that this will pave the way for increasing the reservations for Muslims in the state.

"It augurs well," said Rao about Modi's remark which he made while intervening during a discussion on the Backward Commission at the BJP's National Executive meeting at Bhubaneswar.

Speaking in the Telangana Legislative Council while introducing a bill to increase reservations for Muslims from four percent to 12 percent, KCR, as Rao is popularly known, referred to the PM's statement while stressing the need to provide quota to socially and economically backward among Muslims.

The bill, which also increased the quota for the Scheduled Tribes from 6 percent to 10 percent, was earlier passed by by the Assembly.

"If this statement of the PM had come earlier, perhaps the BJP members would not have got suspended," remarked KCR referring to suspension of all five Bharatiya Janata Party members from the Assembly for disrupting the proceedings to protest hike in quota for Muslims.

Pointing out that Muslim population in the state has crossed 14 percent, he told the House that only backward sections among the community will get the reservations, reiterating that the reservations are not based on religion.

As the overall reservations in Telangana will now go up to 62 percent, the state will be sending the legislation to the Union Government for President's assent and request for including it in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution as was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.

The Chief Minister urged the Union Government to keep in mind the changes which had come over last seven decades and allow states to provide quota to different sections on the basis of their backwardness and in proportion to their population.

Referring to the growing demands from various sections of people for reservations, he cited the example of BJP-ruled Rajasthan which accepted the demands from Gujjars and Jats to provide them reservations and as the overall quota in that state increased to 68 percent, passed a legislation and sent it to the Centre for President's assent.

--IANS

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The Telangana legislature on Sunday unanimously passed a bill to hike the reservation quota for backward Muslims and the Scheduled Tribes to 12 and 10 per cent respectively.

Barring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which vehemently opposed the bill both inside and outside the legislature, the entire Opposition supported the Backward Class, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Reservation Bill, 2017.

After the assembly, the legislative council debated and passed the bill unanimously on Sunday evening.

The bill increased from the existing four per cent to 12 per cent the quota for the socially and economically backward among the Muslims under the Backward Classes (E) category, while the reservations for the Scheduled Tribes in educational institutions and government jobs go up from 6 per cent to 10 per cent.

The legislation will be sent for the President's assent with a request to include it in the Constitution's 9th Schedule as was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.

While all five members of BJP were suspended from the assembly, its lone member in council staged a walk-out.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement at BJP meet in Bhubaneswar in support of backwards among Muslims came handy for Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to put the party in a fix.

Speaking in the council, he welcomed the PM's statement and hoped that this will pave the way for implementation of hiked quota for backward among Muslims.

Replying to the debate, Chandrasekhar Rao said if the Centre refuses to accept Telengana's request to include the legislation in the 9th Schedule, the state would approach the Supreme Court.

"Tamil Nadu is implementing 69 per cent reservations for over two decades. Five to six states are providing more than 50 per cent reservation. How can you deny this to Telangana?" he asked.

The Supreme Court has put a cap of 50 per cent on all reservations both at the Centre and in the states.

The Chief Minister clarified that the reservations were being provided purely on the basis of socio-economic backwardness and not on the basis of religion or caste as some parties were projecting.

Terming it as a historic day, Rao said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), had during the election campaign, promised that quota for the Backward Classes (E) and the Scheduled Tribes will be increased in proportion to their population in the state.

He assured the Backward Classes that there will be no injustice to them and quotas for them too will be increased. The state government has directed the Backward Classes Commission to submit a report within six months.

Rao also said that the reservation for SCs, who constitute 16.3 per cent of the state's population, will be increased by one per cent and the government would soon set up an SC Commission.

The SCs currently enjoy 15 per cent reservations while the BCs have a total quota of 25 per cent and the new legislation will increase the total reservations in the state to 62 per cent.

The Chief Minister argued that there is no constitutional bar on providing more than 50 per cent reservation, while noting that as 90 per cent of Telangana's population comprises Backward Classes, SCs, STs and minorities, the state definitely needed more than 50 per cent reservation.

He made it clear that he will not beg the Centre but will fight to get the new quotas included in the 9th Schedule.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, said Telangana would raise this issue at the meeting of the Niti Aayog and in Parliament. He hoped that a debate on the issue will begin and consensus will build at the national level.

He defended the state's hike in quota for Muslims and hit back at the BJP for opposing it.

"Why can't we give them reservation? Why should they be denied reservation just because they are Muslims? Are they not part of this country? Are they not paying taxes?" he asked.

He pointed out that India has the largest Muslim community in the world and even some of the so-called Islamic countries do not have such a large Muslim population.

KCR said the promise to increase the Muslim quota was part of the TRS manifesto and people approved this agenda by giving their mandate to the party.

The AIMIM suggested to the government to take steps to protect the existing four per cent reservation while increasing the quota by eight per cent. Its member Ahmed Pasha Khadri said a new category BC (F) be created for hiked quota.

The Chief Minister, however, said there was no need for any apprehensions as there will be no threat to the existing four percent reservations.

--IANS

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Security was tightened in and around Chinnaswamy Stadium here for the IPL-10 match between hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) after a bomb scare, which was later found to be a hoax, police said on Sunday.

"Security has been tightened and vigil stepped up though no bomb or any harmful object was found in a bag left at a bus stop adjacent to one of the stadium gates," Bengaluru Additional Commissioner of Police Malini Krishnamoorthy told IANS.

Police personnel deployed at the venue went into a tizzy when an unidentified bag was found on a bench at the bus stop near VIP gate number 1 during a security drill earlier in the day. On being searched, the bag was found to contain some old clothes wrapped in newspaper.

"Someone who may have slept on the bench overnight must have left it (bag) behind or some miscreants would have tried to play mischief. The fact that it was found shows our security is in place with strict vigil," reiterated Krishnamoorthy.

The bomb scare worried the police as it reminded them of the twin bomb blasts outside the stadium on April 17, 2010 at an Indian Premier League match between RCB and Mumbai Indians (MI), in which 15 people were injured. The match was delayed by hour.

"High security is always provided for the IPL matches as thousands of fans come to the stadium and crowd management is a challenging task for us. Besides sanitising the entire venue, we make elaborate arrangements to ensure the security of fans and players," said another police official.

About 1,100 personnel from the city police, state reserve police and two teams of special forces from the state anti-terror squad are deployed around the stadium to maintain law and order and prevent any untoward incident.

"In addition to surveillance cameras installed in and around the venue, we have a bomb detection and disposal squad, and a dog squad to ensure fool-proof security," added the official.

As part of stringent security, fans are not allowed to take even handbags, water bottles, food packets, helmets, power-banks or any item with them into the stands. Special counters have been set up outside the stadium to deposit them before entering the gates.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Demanding immediate action on the part of state and central governments in resolving the issues of Tamil Nadu's famers, opposition parties on Sunday decided to observe shutdown strike on April 25.

A meeting of opposition parties chaired by DMK Working President M.K.Stalin at the DMK's headquarters here decided to call for a state wide shutdown on April 25 among the several resolutions adopted there.

Condemning Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not meeting the farmers who are protesting in Delhi, the meeting also decided to meet Modi along with farmers and highlight their plight.

The opposition parties also urged the Tamil Nadu government to waive all farm loans and convene a special session of the assembly to discuss the farmers' issues.

The meeting also passed resolutions urging the central government to constitute the Cauvery Management Board, the Cauvery Regulatory Authority, declare the Cauvery delta region as Special Agriculture Zone, scrapping of the hydro-carbon project and others.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The year 2017 will see change and consolidation in the telecom towers industry, according to a top official of the Towers and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA).

"The year 2017 will be the year of innovation, disruption and transformation. It will also witness mergers and acquisitions (M&As)," Tilak Raj Dua, Director General, TAIPA, told IANS in an interview.

Asked where the towers industry was headed, Dua said that rural telephony will see a fillip as an investment of $2 billion from USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund) would facilitate expansion into non-urban areas. "It will bridge the rural-urban digital divide," he said.

Investments in telecom infrastructure will see a rise, and expansion of public WiFi will take place, Dua added.

He said the development of robust telecom infrastructure with the proliferation of in-building coverage, ICT, 4G and public WiFi will lead to accessibility to affordable high-speed internet for the common man. "This is likely to transform society into a knowledge-led and a connected one," Dua said.

The expansion of 4G networks, affordability, penetration of smartphones and surge in data demands have opened up new opportunities for the telecom tower industry.

"In the next few years, growth in data demands will pave the way for infrastructure providers to establish and maintain in-building solutions, small cells, public Wi-Fi and fiberisation of backhaul networks," Dua said.

All these opportunities for tower companies will play a significant role in reducing rental and energy costs besides many other advantages like savings in capital expenditure and faster rollouts.

Regarding the much talked-about issue of call drops, Dua said the Indian telecommunication sector has significantly picked up to curb call drop issues by adding around 1,500 BTS (base transceiver stations) per day.

The sector has installed additional 212,917 such stations across the country during the period from June 2016 to February 2017, taking the total number to 1.5 million, he said.

Further, to ensure quality of service, seamless connectivity and spectrum efficiency India would need around 100,000 towers in the north-east alone, in addition to the 450,000 in operation.

The tower roll-out is increasing at a rate of 3-5 per cent year-on-year.

Talking about the Right of Way (RoW), Dua said the delay in providing RoW by the state is adversely affecting the development of telecom infrastructure and services.

The government unveiled the RoW policy in November 2016 which allows only a licensee to deploy telecom infrastructure.

"The policy needs to be extended to IP-1 companies too. IP-1s are formed with the sole mandate of servicing telecom operators and providing shared infrastructure. We are seeking clarification from DoT and persuading them for the same," Dua said.

Infrastructure Providers category 1 (IP-1) policy was launched by DoT in 2000.

(Aparajita Gupta can be reached at aparajita.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 woman was arrested for allegedly throwing acid from her shop injuring at least four pedestrians, including a civic volunteer, in Kolkata on Sunday, police said.

"Manika Naskar (35), a shopkeeper, was arrested for allegedly attacking a person with acid during an altercation over money in Salt Lake's Nayapatty area. Some pedestrians present at the spot were also injured in the attack," an officer from Electronic Complex police station said.

According to police, Naskar had some financial dispute with a local person. During an altercation on Sunday afternoon, she hurled acid aiming at him. The acid also spilled on some pedestrians, including a civic volunteer, who were present at the spot.

"The victims suffered minor burn injuries in the attack and were released after administering primary first aid," the officer said.

Naskar was arrested and slapped with charges of acid throwing (IPC 326A) and criminal intimidation (IPC 506). The acid stored in her shop has been seized, police said.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Kolkata Police ran a joint raid with the state police personnel to seize nearly 90 kg of illegally stored sulphuric acid from Bardhaman district's Katwa on Saturday, a senior CID official said on Sunday.

"We have seized a huge amount of illegally stored acid from Burdwan and Katwa. We are investigating how the culprits managed to store so much acid without proper documents," the officer added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Geopolitics left investors puzzled and without a clear sense of direction in the past fortnight. The US hit Syria with a missile strike and dropped a massive, non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan. The Syrian strike has led to heightened tensions with Russia. Turkey heads into a referendum that could lead to constitutional change to a presidential government. Either way, the results will cause volatility across forex and affect European Union equity as well.
As per the plans of the Delhi government, the state should have had 1,000 mohalla or community clinics in place by end-2016. However, only one-tenth the promised number had come up by the end of last year, despite health being at the top of the agenda of the elected state government.

Mohalla clinics aim to make select health services available and accessible to poor and underserved communities. As per an official report released in August 2016, nearly 800,000 people availed themselves of the health services, and 43,000 pathological tests were conducted over a period of five months. During the dengue and chikungunya outbreak in Delhi in September-November 2016, laboratory tests were done and doctors examined people with symptoms at mohalla clinics, contributing to less crowding and panic at hospitals.

The concept has received acceptance across the political spectrum and several states (Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka, for example) and a few municipal corporations (Pune) have shown interest in launching a variant of these clinics.

This is not surprising, as primary health care infrastructure is largely non-existent in urban India. People have to go to big hospitals, which are usually overcrowded and far from their homes. They have to wait long hours, losing their daily wages, with no assurance of health care services. Alternatively, people delay seeking health care, which leads to a worsening of their health condition.

To address this, the Union government in 2013 launched the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), which aims to have a doctor at an urban primary health centre (U-PHC) for every 50,000 people. In contrast, mohalla clinics aim to provide a doctor and a slightly lower range of services for every 10,000 people.

Until now, the lowest contact point for people to see a doctor in the health system was the 370-odd allopathic dispensaries run by the Delhi government. However, while these dispensaries have good infrastructure, utilisation of their services has remained low owing to lack of clarity on the scope of service provision, lack of human resources, and other factors.

While the design of mohalla clinics is cost-effective, their success will depend on effective implementation. Moreover, having been set up within the community with the availability of a qualified doctor, these clinics could help in eliminating unqualified practitioners. These also provide an opportunity for community participation in health care delivery.

Mohalla clinics in Delhi have been set up through a number of innovative approaches, including doctors on contract on a fee-for-service basis, use of rented premises, and flexible and variable clinic timings to ensure convenience. However, in recent months, there have been hiccups in setting up additional clinics, such as delays in land allotment, official approval procedures, and infighting between the Delhi government and municipal corporations over land.

While the mohalla clinics initiative had two important ingredients for success  political will and financial resources  apparently not enough was done for timely implementation. There could have been improvements in three areas.

First, no operational plan was prepared for almost a year. Had there been a road map from the beginning, the challenges might have been identified, understood and addressed. A few independent technical experts believe that the target of setting up 1,000 mohalla clinics in such a short period was extremely ambitious, unrealistic and reflected political naivete and disrespect for processes.

Second, this was projected as a flagship state government scheme. Engagement with other stakeholders, such as municipal corporations, was not thought through. Health facilities run by the state government in Delhi serve nearly half of all people who go to any public health facility. However, allotment of land is controlled by a separate body, and getting land for these clinics had become a tug of war. The core concept of mohalla clinics as an efficient referral linkage to the next level of health facility works best when there is coordination among all agencies providing health services. Engagement with both health and non-health stakeholders is essential for success.

Third, though political parties would like to continue to be in power forever, the reality is different; following a change in government, the flagship initiatives of the previous government tend to suffer. The current government should engage with other political parties and seek to build a consensus in order to ensure political as well as financial sustainability for the programme.

Though the timeline for the setting up of these clinics has been shifted, lessons need to be learnt. The government should engage with all stakeholders; develop a detailed road map and operational blueprint, shared and agreed with stakeholders; and explore mechanisms for political sustainability.

Mohalla clinics have generated hope among the poorest of gaining access to quality health care, and have the potential to improve the way people seek health services. Above all, the success of the initiative in Delhi could focus attention on restructuring and revamping primary health care across states. That would be the real contribution of mohalla clinics to Indias health care system.

The writer is a public health expert based in New Delhi. The views are personal.

Published with permission from Ideas For India (www.ideasforindia.in), an economics and policy portal
There are reports of strong protests having broken out in Gurgaon and Faridabad over the steep hike in the by some 40 private schools. Schools do charge usurious fees, do not invest in better education systems and then arm-twist parents to buy products and services from vendors dictated by them. On top of all these costs, parents are often forced to hire teachers from the school for private tuition. If you dont, your kid is penalised. The whole business of education stinks. Parents grit their teeth and go through it. Since they couldnt stand it any longer, they took to the streets. The public anger is justified. But not the default solution we think up as our immediate reaction: Appeal to the government to fix it. We dont realise that it is the government that is the problem.
A large three-bedroom house can be difficult to maintain for an elderly couple living on their own, especially in a metro like Mumbai or Delhi, where the cost of living is higher. But, if they rent out the extra room, it can be an additional source of income.
At 70, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has had several avatars. He has been a painter, author, an expert on Indian designs and handlooms and a politician. In the 1970s, Patnaik and Rajya Sabha member Naresh Gujral used to jointly run a business and had a shop at one of Delhis five star hotels.
With an eye on victory in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls for the third consecutive time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday released its 'Sankalp Patra' (manifesto), promising not to levy any new municipal tax and work for a Delhi "as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi".

Taking a cue from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the manifesto, described by BJP leaders as the "charter of commitment", promised to provide meals for Rs 10 through the civic bodies.

The elections for the 272 wards of the three municipal corporations in New Delhi are due on April 23. The BJP, which ruled the unified MCD, had also won the three corporations after the trifurcation of MCD in 2012.

Delhi BJP Chief Manoj Tiwari, who released the manifesto along with senior party leaders, including Union ministers Harsh Vardhan and Vijay Goel, said, "The sankalppatra embodies Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies and the views of party president Amit Shah."



"We are committed to work for a Delhi of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dreams after winning the corporation elections."



The party promised that no new tax will be levied or rates hiked if it is voted to power. This comes in the backdrop of the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) allegation that power and water tariffs will go up if the BJP wins the MCD polls.

"Kejriwal is trying to scare the people. We will neither levy any new tax or hike rates, nor allow anyone else to do it. We will strongly resist any such move," said Tiwari.

A scheme  the Deendayal Antyodaya Rasoi Yojana  will be launched and the civic bodies will provide meals priced at Rs 10, he added.

The exemption from getting building plans approved for plots measuring up to 105 square metres will now be extended to plots measuring up to 500 square metres, Tiwari said.

He also said the BJP will work for direct transfer of funds from the Centre to the municipal corporations.

Over the last two years, the BJP-ruled civic bodies and the AAP government had been engaged in a war of words over transfer of funds amid strikes by sanitation workers in east Delhi.

"The Delhi government has an annual budget of Rs 48,000 crore in which, the civic bodies have a share of Rs 9,000 crore. But, they received only Rs 2,800 crore. We will force the government to release the dues," said Tiwari.

Taking a dig at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his allegations of corruption and non-performance in the civic bodies, he said, "He (Kejriwal) should sit in the parks of MCD and his cough, for which he goes to Bengaluru, will be cured."



The manifesto promised a "transparent and corruption- free" rule. It also promised to regularise the temporary sanitation workers, digitalisation of citizen services, putting pressure on the Delhi government for regularisation of unauthorised colonies.

It also promised a Rs 10 lakh insurance cover for the students in the MCD schools, health cards for citizens, open gymnasiums, scrapping factory licences, promoting enterprises run by women under the Centre's Startup India scheme, special arrangements to address the problems faced by the people of north-east in the city.

It also promised autorickshaw and taxi stands with restrooms for drivers and issuance of licences to hawkers and street vendors under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.

The 27-page 'Sankalp Patra' devoted two pages to the party's allegations against the Congress and the AAP.
Setting a new target for party leaders and workers, President Amit Shah said on Saturday that despite being in power at the centre and in 13 states, the party is yet to achieve its peak and urged them to devote themselves to the cause.

Shah also hit out at opposition parties for questioning EVMs and said that blaming EVMs is disrespecting the Election Commission.

Shah's remarks came here at the inaugural address of the two-day Executive of BJP, being held at Bhubaneswar after a gap of 20 years.

"Many (people) declared after the 2014 general elections that the BJP reached its peak, but it was not so. They then said in 2017 (after elections to the five states, including Uttar Pradesh) that the BJP has now attained it peak, but it is not the case," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted Amit Shah as saying at the inaugural session .

"But the BJP is yet to be at its peak. The BJP will attain its peak when BJP will have Chief Ministers in all the states and it has members everywhere -- from panchayats to Parliament," Shah added, according to Prasad.

"Let's resolve to make BJP a pan-India party from panchayats to Parliament. BJP's golden period should be associated with country's golden period," Shah said.

Noting that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will complete three years in office on May 26 and had worked hard during this period, he said: "... we have done work which other governments would do in two-three terms."

The BJP Chief also said that earlier there was a perception that BJP was doing well only where there was Congress and not against the regional parties, but the recent election results of Uttar Pradesh has proved this perception wrong.

Targeting the opposition for questioning EVMs, Shah said despite making excuses these parties should have honestly introspected the reasons.

"It was expected from the defeated parties that after their defeat, these parties should have honestly accepted it but they began making excuses. Among the excuses EVMs are being discussed.

"Such talks are not only about accepting defeat honestly but to dishonour the Election Commission," he said.

In a sarcastic attack, Shah said that when United Progressive Alliance won the 2004 and 2009 general elections or the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party won the Uttar Pradesh elections in 2007 and 2012, then there was no problem, but now all of sudden questions are being raised about EVMs.

The BJP also challenged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to accept the open challenege of Election Commission to hack EVMs.

"The EC has publicly asked to hack EVMs. Why don't he (Kejriwal) and hack it. He is an IIT graduate. An experienced hacker is Chief Minister of a state," Prasad told reporters in response to a query.

Urging party workers "not to be lethargic" after stunning victories in recently-concluded assembly polls, Prasad also said that the BJP chief would tour, for 95 days, different parts of the country till September.

"Shah will extensively tour the country till September. During this tour Shah will spend three days in Kerala also," he said.

Enthused by its resounding victory in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP seems quite confident that it would come to power in Odisha, where it has never been in a commanding position despite being an ally of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for nine years.

The BJP hoped that it would be able to build its prospects in the state in the wake of the anti-incumbency tide against the Naveen Patnaik government, which has been in power since the last 17 years.

Shah has given a clear signal in the executive meeting that the party would work relentlessly to grab the eastern state in the 2019 elections.

"The people in Odisha want change from the incumbent government, which is in power since 2000. The Naveen Patnaik government has failed to provide basic amenities to the people in the state," he said.

The party has been encouraged by its performance in the recently-concluded panchayat polls, where it emerged second, relegating the Congress to the third position.

The first day of the two-day meet was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 13 Chief Ministers including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was given a grand welcome.

The Prime Minister, earlier, held a roadshow in the state capital ahead of the meeting.

A huge crowd gathered on both sides of the road to catch a glimpse of Modi. BJP supporters raised slogans of 'Modi-Modi' and 'Vande Mataram' and some showered flowers on the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister on Sunday stressed the need to pursue a road map of P2G2  combining pro-poor proactive initiatives with good governance  as he shared his governments vision of building a new India by 2022.
The state legislative assembly on Sunday passed the Reservations Bill, which seeks to enhance the quota under BC-E category to 12 percent from the existing 4 percent for Muslim community and ST reservations to 10 percent from the present 7.5 percent in jobs and education.
Hundred more establishments of oil companies, security personnel, fertiliser and others are expected to become in next three months, a top official of Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals (GNFC) said.

A township of GNFC at Bharuch has been declared as India's first 100 per cent cashless town and the government has decided to replicate GNFC's model in other big townships to promote digital payments.

Now the company acts as an advisor to entities interested in setting up less cash ecosystem around their facilities.

A township is declared less cash once it starts conducting 80-100 per cent of transactions using digital means.

"There is potential of setting up of thousands of in the country. We, as nodal agency of Niti Aayog, have received numerous interest for this. We expect there will be at least another 100 in next 2-3 months," GNFC Managing Director Rajiv Kumar Gupta told PTI.

He said that 81 less cash townships have been approved as on April 14 which will account for at least about Rs 9 crore digital transactions per year.

"Niti Aayog is working with the Human Resource Development Ministry to establish less-cash townships in collaboration with educational institutes. We are working on converting universities and their colonies into less-cash townships," Gupta said.

"We earlier went around training and motivating people to use digital wallets. Now the Prime Minister has launched BHIM app linked Aadhar where only thumb impression is required and there are no transaction charges. We will now insist people to use this app," Gupta said.

He said that GNFC is working with Niti Aayog to convert six townships of BSF and five of Central Reserve Police Force into less cash establishments.

"The new townships will include colonies and facilities of oil, steel and other fertiliser . This will be mainly driven by public sector units because we feel the ecosystem can be easily established in controlled environment," Gupta said.

Niti Aayog is promoting less cash townships as part of its efforts to achieve the target of 2,500 crore digital transactions in the current financial year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched 75 cashless/less-cash townships, with an overwhelming 56 of them being in Gujarat.

These townships are likely to generate over 1.5 lakh digital transactions every day thereby leading to about 5.5 crore digital transactions in a year.

To qualify as a less-cash township, the establishment must have completed deployment of a payment acceptance infrastructure, and all the families residing there would have to be covered under training programmes.

Also, more than 80 per cent of the total number of transactions must have been done through digital modes of payments.
As many as 12 states and four Union Territories have favoured making it mandatory for medical students to clear the National Exit Test (NEXT) to get the 'doctor' title.

Replying to an RTI query, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha and Punjab have favoured the conduct of the exam.

Union Territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar and Puducherry have also supported it.

Nine states -- Assam, Goa, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand -- have said there is no need of conducting such a test.

A high-powered committee had last year proposed NEXT for MBBS students passing out of government as well as private colleges to address concerns over the standard of medical education in the country.

The move was part of wide-ranging reforms in the medical sector, including recommendations to scrap the Medical Council of India with a National Medical Commission (NMC)to oversee under-graduate and post-graduate education, accreditation and rating of colleges.

Following the introduction of draft of Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill 2016, the Union Health Ministry had asked the states if they favoured NEXT.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The 164th anniversary of the first train, which ran between Mumbai and Thane, was today celebrated by a group of citizens at the railway station here.

A programme was organised by a Passengers Association - Railway Pravasi Sanghatana. A five kilo cake was cut and distributed to passengers to mark the occasion.

Sanghatana's President Nandkumar Deshmukh said travel safety was important.

The first train in India ran between Boribandar to Thane on April 16, 1853.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two Sri Lankan nationals were today arrested at the city international airport for allegedly trying to smuggle gold bars worth over Rs 87 lakh into the country, a Customs official said.

The action was taken when Jameer Wahid (42) and Althaf Hameed, both holding Sri Lankan passports, arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here from Dubai by an Emirates Airlines flight in the wee hours, the official said.

"The duo was intercepted at the arrival hall of the airport. Wahid's personal search resulted in the recovery of 13 gold bars weighing 1,516 grams valued at Rs 45,48,000. Similarly, 12 gold bars weighing 1399 grams valued at Rs 41,97,000 were recovered from Hameed," the official said.

"The duo had concealed the gold bars in their rectums," he said.

Both the passengers belong to Puttalam district in Sri Lanka. They are frequent fliers to India and were involved in trading of textile material, ready-made garments and cosmetics.

In another incident, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs intercepted one Sayed Noorulameen (26), who had arrived from Dubai yesterday.

"The youth was carrying cylindrical gold rods weighing 567 grams valued at Rs 17 lakh that were concealed in hand-operated juicer machine," the official added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Five school students were injured when a group of dogs attacked them at Dhabheri village in Shamli district, police said today.

The incident occurred yesterday morning when the five children were on their way to school here, they said.

Alisha (10), Ashu (9) Ana (12) Shaman (8) shaman 12 were rushed to a hospitalwith serious injuries, police said.

According to reports, similar incidents had taken place in Saharanpur and Bijnor districts where two persons lost their lives.

A 20-year-old man was yesterday killed by dogs in Bijnor district. A six-year-old child was killed by dogs in Chilkana village of Saharanpur district two days ago, according to the reports.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As many as 6,000 pupils may be faced with the threat of extremism at illegally operating schools in the United Kingdom, according to the latest figures released by British schools watchdog today.

In the past 15 months, Ofsted inspectors have identified 241 suspected illegal schools in England, 'The Sunday Times' reported.

Around 99 of these schools have been inspected, 33 of which were confirmed to have been operating illegally. Of those, 25 have either been closed or have been registered as legal schools.

These include Islamic, Jewish and Christian faith schools as well as secular centres set up to teach pupils with behavioural difficulties who have been excluded from mainstream education.

The sites used by such schools include warehouses and old factory buildings.

More than 140 of the suspected illegal schools have not been inspected and no criminal cases have reached court, though two were considered for prosecution, the report said.

Most of the schools remain open and more than half have not yet been visited by inspectors, prompting fears that some children are at risk of radicalisation.

There are also fears that children are being taught by adults whose backgrounds have not been vetted.

When an unregistered school is identified in Britain, local councils are supposed to write to parents with children there but Ofsted fears some councils are failing to do that.

"We continue to investigate the remaining and will take all necessary action to close these down," said an Ofsted spokesperson.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has revealed that he will star in R Balki's upcoming film "Padman" as himself.

The 74-year-old actor confirmed the on his blog, where he said that he filmed a few shots along with lead actors Akshay Kumar and Sonam Kapoor at IIT Delhi for the film, where he will be seen in small role.

"R Balki shoots a film with Akshay Kumar and Sonam at the IIT Delhi, one of the most prestigious institutes of world reckoning and wishes that I make a small appearance as myself for a few shots..." wrote Bachchan in his blog.

The "Pink" actor also shared a few photographs with Akshay and Sonam from the sets of the film.

This will be Bachchan and Balki's fourth collaboration together after "Cheeni Kum", "Paa" and "Shamitabh".

He also did cameos in films produced by Balki, such as "English Vinglish" and "Ki & Ka".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat today apprised National Security Advisor Ajit Doval of the security situation in Kashmir, amidst growing outrage in the Valley over the controversial "human shield" video.

Rawat's meeting with Doval comes a day after he had separate deliberations with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Governor N N Vohra over the law and order situation in Kashmir during his visit to the state.

Government sources said the Army chief called on Doval at his residence and briefed him about the overall state of security in the Kashmir Valley



The video, showing a man tied to an army vehicle purportedly as a shield against stone pelters during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election, has triggered a public outcry prompting civil and army authorities to launch separate investigations.

In her meeting with Gen Rawat, the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister had raised the issue of the video that has now gone viral on social media.

Gen Rawat has assured the J&K CM of timely action against the personnel who were responsible for the act of tying the man to the vehicle at Budgam.

According to the sources, the army officials told a probe team that they had received a call from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the local police guarding a polling station to save them from a mob that was out to lynch them.

The army convoy rushed in from Kandipura and tied 36- year-old Farooq Dar to a jeep, they said.

This incident, which took place on April 9, was shot by unidentified persons on their mobiles and the video showing Dar



being used as a shield against stone-pelting protesters was circulated on social media.

The video surfaced days after another clip, showing a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel walking down a street being beaten up by some youths, triggered nationwide outrage.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lawyers across Bihar will on April 21 burn 'copies' of the proposed recommendations of the Law Commission of India and "The Avocates (Amendment) Bill, 2017" that bars advocates from holding agitation and make them liable to compensate litigants if they go on strike.

More than one lakh lawyers of the Patna high court, district and sub-divisional courts and tribunals will participate in the burning of copies to show their solidarity against the proposed amendments in the Advocates Act.

The decision was taken at a meeting convened by Bihar State Bar Council which was attended by 126 different advocates bar associations across the state, State Bar Council Secretary Ashok Kumar told PTI.

Today's meeting was attended by Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, ex-chairmen of the state bar council namely Rajendra Prasad Singh, Baleshwar Sharma and others.

"On 21st April during lunch hours, lawyers throughout the state will assemble outside the court premises and burn the copies of recommendations of Law Commission and the Bill," Patna high court senior advocate Yogesh Chandra Verma, also member of extended body of state bar council, said.

According to the resolution, if the recommendations of Law Commission are not rejected, they will hold a rally in Delhi on May 2,



Lawyers across the state had on March 31 abstained from their professional duty to protest against the proposed recommendations on the call given by BCI.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Britain said it was "concerned" by reports that North Korea conducted a missile test today, which the US Defence Department said blew up almost immediately.

The Foreign Office in London said it was "concerned by reports of a missile test by North Korea" and was "monitoring the situation closely".

The failed missile came the day after Pyongyang publicly showcased its ballistic arsenal at a giant military parade.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson earlier urged North Korea to abide by UN resolutions and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

"We have been here before but continue to monitor the situation carefully," Johnson said in a statement.

"We stand alongside our international partners in making clear that North Korea must adhere to UN resolutions designed to secure peace and stability in the region and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons."



The nuclear-armed state is under United Nations sanctions over its weapons programmes.

North Korea's weapons of war rolled through Pyongyang on yesterday and a senior figure in the regime said it could "beat down enemies with the power of nuclear justice", as leader Kim Jong-Un mounted a spectacular show of strength.

Ostensibly yesterday's event was to mark the 105th anniversary of the North's founder Kim Il-Sung's birth.

But it was also intended to send an unmistakable message to Washington about the isolated country's military might.

Tensions over North Korea's nuclear ambitions are stretched to the limit, with US President Donald Trump deploying an aircraft carrier battle group to the region.

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UK lawmakers are calling on the government to strip Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's wife of her British citizenship, for supporting her husband's regime during the country's ongoing war.

The Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, MP Tom Brake, today accused Assad of using her international profile to defend "a barbarous regime".

"(Foreign Secretary) Boris Johnson has urged other countries to do more about Syria, but the British government could say to Asma Al-Assad -- either stop using your position to defend barbaric acts, or be stripped of your citizenship," Brake said.

His remarks follow Johnson branding the Syrian president an "arch-terrorist", in a Sunday Telegraph newspaper article calling on Syria ally Russia to end its support for Bashar al-Assad.

Brake's comments echoed those of MP Nadhim Zahawi, from the ruling Conservative Party.

"The time has come where we go after (Bashar) Assad in every which way, including people like Mrs Assad, who is very much part of the propaganda machine that is committing war crimes," he was quoted in the Sunday Times newspaper as saying.

Once hailed as a progressive rights advocate, Assad has fallen from international grace during Syria's ongoing war which has killed more than 320,000 people since erupting in 2011.

The 41-year-old, who is believed to hold joint British- Syrian nationality, has stood by her husband's side in his rare public appearances, posing for selfies with supporters in photos posted to the presidency's Instagram account.

The couple's marriage was announced six months after he assumed the country's leadership in July 2000. They had met at a party hosted by the British Syrian community in London.

Assad's ongoing support for her husband allows Britain to deprive her of her UK citizenship, according to the Liberal Democrats, which served in an uneasy five-year coalition government with the Conservative Party until 2015.

"If Asma continues defending the Assad regime's murderous actions, the onus will be on the UK Government to deprive her of her citizenship or demonstrate that her actions are not seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the United Kingdom," said Brake.

He is due to write to Home Secretary Amber Rudd outlining the view of the Liberal Democrats, which holds nine seats in British parliament.

The home office would not comment on whether the government would take action against Assad, who previously worked as an analyst for Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan.

"The Government takes its duty to protect the British public exceptionally seriously.

"We cannot discuss individual cases but the Home Secretary can deprive individuals of their citizenship where it is conducive to the public good to do so," a spokesman told AFP.

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A 30-year-old British Muslim Islamic State fighter has been allegedly using an encrypted messaging service Telegram to call on his supporters to launch bomb attacks in London.

Omar Hussain, a former supermarket worker from Buckinghamshire who had fled to Syria in 2013, has also posted bomb-making guidelines using the same service.

Hussain has called on his followers to carry out a nail bomb assault similar to the attack in St Petersburg which killed 15 people earlier this month, the 'Mirror' reported.

He reportedly posted a picture of a finished explosive device with a caption that said: "Looks like creme brulee."



Hussain had left his UK home to join the al Qaeda affiliated group Jabhat al-Nusra before switching allegiance to the ISIS terror network.

In December last year, he had delivered a Christmas message urging followers to rob party-goers in order to get money for knives and bombs.

"At Christmas the kuffaar (non-Muslims) are loaded with money so it's the best time. Wait around the corner from a pub for a drunk kafir (non-Muslim) to exit and go down an alleyway," he wrote on a secure message service.

"Once in the alleyway it only takes a few punches for a drunk kafir to fall unconscious. Take a few ikhwa (brothers) and u can rob him. They could stab a kafir or slit his throat. I had friends in the UK who would do this in London and they never once got caught," he wrote.

Hussain, who had completed a university course in IT in Britain, has now reportedly taught graphic design to students in the ISIS terror group in the war zone.

He first came in when he appeared in an ISIS propaganda video, urging then Prime Minister David Cameron to send troops to fight the terror group, vowing "we'll send them back one by one in coffins".

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China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi today held telephonic talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, even as Beijing remained silent over North Korea's 'failed' missile test.

China, which warned two days ago that conflict could break out "any moment" in the Korean peninsula, did not comment on North Korea's missile test but stepped up dialogue with the Trump administration, state-run CCTV reported.

However, no details about the telephone conversation between Chinese State Councillor Yang and Tillerson were released to the media.

China has also cautioned North Korea against going for sixth nuclear test defying US warnings.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week said the conflict over North Korea could break out "at any moment" and warned there would be "no winner" in any war.

The North Korean missile, which was fired from the Sinpo area, exploded almost immediately, according to military officials in South Korea and the US.

Intelligence agencies in South Korea and the US were attempting to extract more details about the missile, including its exact type.

Lu Chao, director of the Border Studies Institute at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, said the latest test, despite its failure, could be another defiant message from Pyongyang that it will not change its tough stance in the face of US pressure even amid a growing threat of military action.

However, he said the failure showed that Pyongyang missile technology was flawed.

Such a defiant move was likely to draw even more pressure from the US which ordered its nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group to the region, Lu told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

China would also face greater pressure from the US to take further action, including ratcheting up its sanctions against Pyongyang, he added.

Liu Ming, from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing was unlikely to take further action at this stage unless Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test or long- term ballistic missile test as Beijing insisted that talks, not military action, were the only solution to the North Korean issues.

"China needs to create conditions and the right atmosphere to draw different parties back to the talks table," Liu said.

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A middle-aged couple died while their 12-year-old son escaped with minor injuries when their car hit a roadside tree after colliding with a truck near Choudwar on the outskirts of the city here today.

The deceased couple was identified as Sibaprasad Das (45) and Kabita (40) of Bhubaneswar.

The accident happened when they were travelling to Dhenkanal from Bhubaneswar, said local police inspector R R Mohapatra.

Police said that their minor son Ayushman was rushed to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.

His condition was stated to be stable.

The impact of the accident was so severe that the ill-fated car was completely mangled beyond recognition.

Mohapatra said that fire brigade personnel, policemen and few onlookers had to struggle for over 15 minutes to remove the injured boy and his dead parents from the mangled vehicle.

The truck was seized and its driver was taken into custody, he added.

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A 55-year-old man riding a bicycle was killed after allegedly being hit by a truck in Loni area here, triggering violent protests by his associates who damaged around a dozen vehicles and blocked the roads.

Ram Bhadur Maurya was returning to his home in Rajdhani enclave under Loni Kotwali area from his working place in Delhi last night when a speeding truck crushed him near Gadhi Katiyya village, leaving him dead on the spot, Superintendent of Police (rural area) Om Praksh Yadav said.

An FIR has been lodged by Sanjay, the son of Maurya, against the unidentified driver in the matter.

Enraged over Maurya's death, his associates blocked Khazoori embankment road and burnt another truck besides damaging around two dozen vehicles, which were stuck in queue due to standstill traffic, the SP said.

A police team soon reached the spot and tried to pacify the agitated people, who remained adamant on not lifting the blockade but instead pelted stones on them, the SP said.

Meanwhile, the police also registered a case against of rioting and related offences against the people who damaged vehicles and blocked the traffic, the officer added.

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The defeat of the ISIS in Syria is only a matter of time, but there is a need for a security situation that is conducive to reconstruction in the war-torn country, a top US official said today.

US national security adviser H R McMaster said the forces who will take over after the defeat of ISIS will be critical for establishing security and legitimacy of the population in the country.

"It is a matter of time only until ISIS is defeated there (in Syria)," said McMaster, who is currently in Afghanistan.

"What's going to be really critical though is what forces can then establish enduring security in those regions that have a legitimacy with the population, that are representative of the population, that can set conditions for reconstruction to begin," he told ABC in an interview.

McMaster said the US was now supporting partner forces in Syria in certain parts of the country, including the northeastern part along the Euphrates river valley.

"The cities of the Sunni Arab world in that region are in rubble. And so in a very successful conference in Washington two weeks ago, the United States State Department organised a bunch of donors and like-minded allies, part of coalition to pledge money for reconstruction," he said.

"But what we need now is we need a security situation that's conducive to that reconstruction, that can allow so many of these displaced people and refugees to return. And for those long-suffering people to enjoy the security, stability, that they deserve," McMaster said.

War in Syria has killed more than 320,000 people since it began with protests in 2011 that were brutally repressed.

It has involved jihadist groups as well as regional and international powers in a complex multi-sided conflict.

The fighting has caused millions to flee their homes and triggered a major humanitarian and refugee crisis.

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Hundreds of devotees thronged the Shrine Basilica at Vailankanni in Nagapattinam district in connection with the Easter celebrations today.

As a mark of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, a candle light procession commenced at 11 PM on Saturday. When the clock struck 12, resurrection of Jesus was announced by Prabhakar Adigalar, the parish priest and special prayers were held.

Prayers in all South Indian languages commenced this morning and will be held throughout the day.

Pilgrims from various parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra participated in the festival.

At Tarangambadi, special prayers were held at the New Jerusalem church, Asia's oldest protestant church.

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Nearly 70 children were among 126 people killed when a suicide car bombing tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, a monitor said today.

Yesterday's blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.

At least 68 children were among those killed in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead.

At least 109 of the dead were evacuees, the Britain-based monitoring group said, while the rest were aid workers and rebels guarding the convoy.

The evacuations were taking place under a deal between Syria's regime and rebels that is also seeing residents and rebels transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus which are surrounded by pro-government forces.

The agreement is the latest in a string of evacuation deals, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad says are the best way to end the violence after more than six years of civil war.

Rebels say they amount to forced relocations after years of bombardment and crippling sieges.

Body parts and the belongings of evacuees - including clothes, dishes and even televisions - were still strewn at the scene of the attack today, an AFP correspondent said.

The shattered buses were nearby as was the shell of a pick-up truck - with little left but its engine block - that was apparently used to carry out the bombing.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, though the key Ahrar al-Sham rebel group denied any involvement. The government blamed "terrorists" - a catch-all term for its opponents.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to monitor the conflict, said hundreds of people were also wounded in the blast.

It said a petrol station at the transit point was caught up in the explosion, adding to the number of victims.

The Syrian Red Crescent said three of its workers were among the wounded.

Maysa al-Aswad, a 30-year-old evacuee from Kafraya, said she was sitting on one of the buses with her six-month-old son Hadi and 10-year-old daughter Narjis when the blast shook the parked convoy.

"Hadi was on my lap and Narjis on a chair next to me. When the explosion happened I hugged them both and we fell to the floor," she told AFP by telephone from near Aleppo.

"I didn't know what was happening, all I could hear was people crying and shouting," she said.

"All I can think about is how we survived all the death during the last few years and then could have died just after we finally escaped."



More than 5,000 people left Fuaa and Kafraya and about 2,200 left Madaya and Zabadani on Friday, the latest in a series of evacuations from the four towns under the agreement.

The evacuation process resumed after the bombing, the Observatory said, with the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya eventually arriving in Aleppo, Syria's second city which the government gained full control of last year.

Wounded survivors, including many children, were taken for treatment at an Aleppo hospital.

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Turkish President has narrowly won a historic referendum that will tighten his grip on power, but the knife-edge result left the country bitterly divided and the opposition crying foul.

The sweeping constitutional changes approved in the vote create a presidential system that will grant Erdogan more power than any leader since modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his successor Ismet Inonu.

The result could also have even wider implications for Turkey which joined NATO in 1952 and for the last half-century has set its sights on joining the European Union.

The 'Yes' campaign won 51.4 per cent of the vote against 48.6 per cent for 'No', the election commission said yesterday in figures quoted by state news agency Anadolu, in a count based on 99.5 per cent of the ballot boxes.

As huge crowds of flag-waving supporters celebrated on the streets, Erdogan praised Turkey for taking a "historic decision".

"With the people, we have realised the most important reform in our history," he added.

Supreme Election Board chief Sadi Guven confirmed that the 'Yes' camp had emerged victorious, but the opposition has vowed to challenge the outcome.

The referendum was held under a state of emergency that has seen 47,000 people arrested in an unprecedented crackdown after the failed military putsch against Erdogan in July last year.

In a nail-biting end to a frenetic campaign, the 'No' share of the vote climbed as more ballots were counted, after lagging well behind in the early count, but failed to overtake the 'Yes'.

"This is a decision made by the people. In our democracy's history, a new page has opened," said Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, whose job will disappear under the constitutional changes.

In a television interview on Friday Erdogan had predicted a far clearer victory saying polls showed a 55-60 per cent share of the vote.

But voting patterns showed Turkey deeply divided over the changes, with the 'No' vote victorious in the country's three biggest cities.

The 'Yes' vote held up strongly in Erdogan's Anatolian heartland but the Aegean and Mediterranean coastal regions and Kurdish-dominated southeast backed the 'No' camp.

In a major disappointment for the president, the 'No' vote was just ahead in his hometown of Istanbul and in the capital Ankara and clearly ahead in the third city of Izmir.

A statement issued by European Commission head Jean- Claude Juncker and EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said that in view of the closeness of the result, the Turkish authorities need to seek the "broadest possible national consensus" for the changes.

Erdogan made relations with the EU a key issue in his referendum campaign, lambasting Brussels for failing to make progress on Ankara's stalled accession talks and he accused Germany and the Netherlands of acting like the Nazis when they barred pro-government rallies.

Turkey's two main opposition parties said they would challenge the results over alleged violations.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said it would challenge two-thirds of the votes, saying: "There is an indication of a 3-4 percentage point manipulation of the vote."

Republican People's Party (CHP) chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu said the actions of the election authorities "caused the referendum's legitimacy to be questioned".

"Believe me, this election is not over," deputy CHP leader Erdal Aksunger told CNN Turk, quoted by the Dogan news agency. "This is totally invalid. We are declaring this here."

The opposition had already complained that the referendum has been conducted on unfair terms, with 'Yes' posters ubiquitous on the streets and opposition voices squeezed from the media.

Supporters see the change as an essential modernisation step for Turkey that will remove the risk of the political chaos that blighted the 1990s and is blamed for the 2000-2001 financial crisis.

Opponents fear it risks granting Erdogan authoritarian powers and allow him to ride roughshod over key institutions like the judiciary and parliament.

Closely watched today will be the initial assessment of the observer mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Erdogan again warned Brussels he would sign any bill agreed by parliament to reinstate capital punishment, a move that would automatically end Turkey's EU bid.

If the opposition failed to support the bill, Erdogan said another referendum could be held on reinstating the death penalty.

Western reactions to the referendum will be crucial after Erdogan accused Turkey's allies of failing to show sufficient solidarity in the wake of the failed coup.

"We would like other countries and institutions to show respect to the decision of the nation," Erdogan said.

The new system would dispense with the office of prime minister and centralise the entire executive bureaucracy under the president, giving Erdogan the direct power to appoint ministers.

It is due to come into force after elections in November 2019. Erdogan, who became president in 2014 after serving as premier from 2003, could then seek two more five-year terms.

"I don't think he (Erdogan) will reverse course. I don't think Erdogan will change the robust and muscular approach to that he has adopted so far," said Fadi Hakura, Turkey expert at London-based Chatham House think tank.
US First Lady Melania Trump and her 11-year-old son are set to move into the White House this summer, according to a media report.

President Donald Trump moved to Washington DC upon his inauguration while Melania and their son Barron stayed behind in New York City so that he could finish out the school year.

Trump's wife and their young son will officially be moving into the White House this summer, following the end of the school year, a senior White House official told Fox .

The move is in line with what senior Trump transition officials said in December about Melania and son Barron's timeline for moving from Trump Tower in Manhattan to Washington.

A senior White House aide was quoted as saying that the first lady has been directly involved in arranging the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the summer time move.

The former model, born in Slovenia, appears to be taking an increasing role as first lady in her husband's early presidency and frequently joins him at their South Florida retreat, Mar-a-Lago, the report said.

Barron will be the first boy to live at the White House since John F Kennedy Jr, who was a toddler, in 1963.

"Mrs Trump said on the campaign trail that she wanted to be a traditional first lady like Michelle Obama or Pat Nixon," Andrew Och, a White House historian and author known as 'The First Ladies' Man', was quoted as saying.

"Melania Trump bringing and unifying her family under one roof of the White House is a very smart move, and a very traditional move," he said.

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A fugitive former governor of Mexico's Veracruz state suspected of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars has been detained in Guatemala after six months on the run, officials have said.

Javier Duarte "was located and detained for the purpose of extradition in the municipality of Panajachel" in Guatemala's Solola department, Mexico's attorney general said in a statement yesterday.

Mexico requested Guatemala's assistance in capturing the fugitive ex-governor of Veracruz, which borders the Gulf of Mexico. The operation was carried out jointly with national civil police and Interpol.

Mexican authorities issued an arrested warrant against Duarte in October for his alleged responsibility in organised crime and embezzlement.

Duarte resigned last year before the end of his term and then went on the lam.

Interpol issued an international arrest warrant against him.

In January, authorities got two companies to return USD 19.3 million obtained illegally from the Duarte government.

A month later, authorities seized a warehouse full of Duarte's artworks, antiques and personal journals. They also found luxurious saddles, silverware sets, ostentatious furniture, school supplies and even wheelchairs presumably owned by the government.

Investigators were said to have found a set of documents linking the ex-governor's wife Karime Macias de Duarte directly to the preparation and execution of actions to divert public resources for the personal benefit of some accomplices.

During Duarte's tenure, Veracruz became one of the most violent states in Mexico, with bloody murders by drug cartels, several cases of enforced disappearance and the murder of 17 journalists.

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Health workers in Mali called off a month-long strike today that paralysed hospitals after reaching an agreement with the government.

The stoppage was called by the country's two main health unions, demanding raises for staff and jobs for contract workers, though a skeleton emergency service was maintained.

"The demand for strike action is lifted because we are satisfied," said Yossouf Maiga, a senior official with one the unions, adding that eight of nine demands had been met.

Government spokesman and commerce minister Abdel Karim Konate confirmed to AFP the strike was over.

"The strikers and the government have reached agreement," he said.

The strike was the longest ever to hit hospitals in Mali's history and badly affected the majority of patients who could not afford private care, pushing them to seek help from traditional healers.

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The mercury in most parts of northern India hovered above the 40 degree mark and severe conditions disrupted normal life in Rajasthan even as the IMD has forecast thunderstorm in eastern parts of the country.

It was another hot day in the capital with the mercury hovering slightly below the 40 degree mark.

The maximum temperature was recorded at 39.8 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal, while the minimum was 21.4 degrees Celsius.

Normal life was thrown out of gear in Rajasthan as a severe heatwave swept through the desert with minimum temperatures seeing a increase of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius from yesterday.

Sriganganagar was the hottest place in the state with maximum temperature of 46 degrees Celsius, followed by Barmer 45.8 degrees Celsius, Churu 45.5 degrees Celsius, Bikaner 45.4 degrees Celsius, Jaisalmer 45.1 degrees Celsius, Kota 44.3 degrees Celsius.

Pilani recorded a high of 43.5 degrees Celsius, Ajmer and Dabok 43 degrees Celsius each and Jaipur 42.8 degrees Celsius.

The searing heat intensified in Odisha today with Balangir being the hottest place in the state at 44 degrees Celsius, where two sunstroke deaths have been reported so far.

The mercury breached the 40-degree mark in at least 10 places in the state.

Titlagarh recorded maximum temperature of 43.6 degrees Celsius, followed by 43 degrees Celsius in Bhawanipatna and 42.4 degrees Celsius in Malkangiri.

Sonepur recorded 40.8 degrees Celsius, while the maximum temperature in Hirakud was 40.5 degrees Celsius, in Phulbani it was 40.2 degrees Celsius and 40 degrees Celsius at both Sundargarh and Talcher.

Adilabad district in Telangana recorded the highest maximum temperature of 44.4 degrees Celsius. Nizamabad and Mahabubnagar both recorded maximum temperature of 44 degrees Celsius, followed by Ramagundam 43.4 degrees Celsius and Medak 43.2 degrees Celsius.

The mercury soared to 42.4 degrees Celsius in Hyderabad.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a heatwave alert over Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana for the next three to four days.

Intense heat waves swept many parts of Haryana and Punjab, with Narnaul turning out to be the hottest at 44.3 degrees Celsius.

Besides Narnaul in Haryana, Hisar recorded maximum temperature of 43.6 degrees Celsius, six notches above normal while Ambala recorded a high of 39 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal, the MeT department here said.

In Punjab, Amritsar experienced a hot day at 42 degrees Celsius, seven notches above normal, while Ludhiana and Patiala recorded 42 degrees Celsius and 40.8 degrees Celsius respectively.

In Uttar Pradesh, weather remained dry with maximum temperatures hovering above normal limits at many places with Banda being the hottest in the state, recording a high of 45 degrees Celsius.

Maximum temperatures were appreciably above normal in Kanpur, Bareilly, Jhansi and Meerut divisions.

The IMD has also issued a thunderstorm warning over Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya. Cyclonic storm, Maarutha, which lay centred over east central Bay of Bengal, about 735 km East-Southeast of Paradip, may trigger rains or thundershowers at few places in Odisha.

The weather in Bihar remained dry since yesterday with Dehri in Rohtas district being the hottest place recording a high of 41 degrees Celsius for the second consecutive day.

Gaya recorded maximum temperature of 35.8 degrees Celsius, while in Patna it was 33.2 degrees Celsius. Bhagalpur recorded the maximum temperature of 33 degrees Celsius and Purnea 30.4 degrees Celsius.

One or two places in the north east and the north central parts of the state witnessed light to moderate rainfall, while the rest remained dry.

Severe heatwave conditions are likely at Rajasthan, West Madhya Pradesh, Saurashtra, Kutch, Vidarbha and East Madhya Pradesh during next three to four days. Heatwave conditions are likely in Punjab, Haryana, south Uttar Pradesh and central Maharashtra at the same time, the IMD said.

"Heatwave conditions at isolated places are very likely over the lower reaches of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during next 3-4 days," it said.

The lower hills of Himachal Pradesh reeled under scorching heat and Una in Shivalik hills recorded a high of 41.2 degrees Celsius while the mercury rose to 27 degrees Celsius in Shimla. Kalpa in tribal Kinnaur district also recorded a high of 23.8 degrees Celsius, five notches above normal.
Premium leather goods manufacturer Hidesign is looking to launch 15 stores across airports and malls this financial year.

"Hidesign plans to open 15 stores, nine of which will be in airports, and about 5-6 will be across malls," its president Dilip Kapur told PTI.

The company will invest Rs 20 crore to open new stores, he said.

Hidesign will open stores at the airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kochi, and some more stores will be opened at tier-I cities, he added.

The brand has 80 stores across the country and abroad. It entered the US in 2014 to make international inroads.

For a premium brand like Hidesign, the segment is small but growth is higher than the mass market, Kapur said.

The brand has greatly benefited from the e-commerce wave and has made strong inroads into the US market, he said. Itmarkets and distributes competitively priced bags and small leather goods in the US through online as well as high-end independent retailers.

"E-commerce has aided us greatly in our expansion in the US. Selling directly through e-commerce is very useful and building a brand is much easier," he said.

He said the company is considering selling directly in the US instead of going through distributors.

The company also plans to overhaul Hidesign's India- oriented lifestyle brand 'Holii' this year in terms of product mix, and price points.

Founded over 35 years ago, Hidesign, besides its 80 exclusive stores, sells products through several independent stores and major department stores in international markets. Premium brand Louis Vuitton owns a minority stake in the company.

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Hundreds of rescuers raced against time today to find survivors after a mountain of garbage collapsed on dozens of homes following a fire near the Sri Lankan capital two days ago, as the death toll in the tragedy reached 24.

Several heavy earth-moving equipment were digging through the dump in Meetotamulla area in Kolonnawa near Colombo to find survivors as at least six were still reported missing.

The military said 1,000 security personnel, including police and special task forces, have been deployed for rescue operation. It said troops from the Sri Lanka Light Infantry, Commandos, Gemunu Watch and Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment were carrying out relief operations, the Colombo Gazette reported.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was to proceed to Vietnam from Japan on an official visit, is to cut short his trip following the tragedy, his office said.

Wickremesinghe's office said that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzoi Abe, who was in a meeting with him in Tokyo today, has offered Japan's assistance with the rescue efforts.

The National Building Research Organisation said the site of the accident be declared a "danger zone" and people living in over 130 houses in the area must be relocated for safety.

RMS Bandara, a top building research official, explained the incidents leading to the mishap. "What happened was that the weight of the garbage dump had caused the nearby lands to pop up, causing the collapse of the houses. Later the garbage dump had fallen on the houses burying them."



Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harsha De Silva said nearly hundred people have been moved to temporarily shelters and the government will soon begin shifting more people.

Schools and others facilities will be moved as well.

De Silva said the dumping of garbage at the site has been banned. Ironically, the government had signed agreements a few weeks ago to convert the waste into energy, he said in a post on Facebook.

Police were investigating whether the collapse of the 91 -metre open garbage pile could be a sabotage. A 10-member team of geologists, officials from mining and excavation divisions, have been sent to the spot.

More than 600 people had to flee in the aftermath of the mishap on Friday. Twenty-four people, including four children, were killed and 11 others injured, officials said.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe in a statement has apologised for the delay in relocating the garbage dump.

"We had all plans in place to relocate the garbage dump at Meetotamulla. But the tragedy struck before we could put them into action. We apologise for the government's inability to complete the task before the disaster," he said.

The residents near the dump had been protesting for months, demanding that the garbage dump be relocated.

The authorities, however, claim that they had given enough warning to the slum dwellers to relocate themselves.

"We had even paid compensation to them to relocate," De Silva said. He said the state will bear the funeral expenses of the dead.

The massive garbage caught fire and collapsed on dozens of homes as the residents celebrated the traditional New Year. Police said the true scale of the damage remained unclear.

Sri Lanka's Parliament was recently warned that 23 million tonnes of garbage at Kolonnawa dump was a serious hazard. About 800 tonnes of garbage were added to the dump daily.

"This is not a natural disaster but man made due to the sheer negligence by the authorities concerned," M S Marikkar, the ruling party local member of parliament, said.

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Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad today supported the idea of forming a 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) along with the SP and the BSP in Uttar Pradesh to counter the surge of the BJP.

"The idea of 'mahagathbandhan' is good," the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said here.

However, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar, while commenting on the issue, said, "It is too early to say. If we do not honour the feeling of the people and workers, it will be wrong. We will also talk about 'mahagathbandhan' with our senior leaders."



He also claimed the Congress does not practice votebank politics as done by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

The party's Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari, when asked about the idea of formation of a grand alliance with the SP and the BSP, said, "My best wishes are with them."



Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has yesterday supported the idea of forming a coalition of political parties against the BJP, saying, "There should be a coalition, which can pave the way forward. We are ready to welcome it. We had welcomed such a move earlier too."



BSP chief Mayawati too had asserted that she would join hands with other parties to take on the BJP.

The Congress' district unit presidents, who had gathered here to deliberate upon the strategy for the upcoming civic body elections in the state, alleged that the pre-poll tie-up with the SP was a major roadblock for the party's prospect in the Assembly elections.

"Most of the district presidents are of the view that the SP-Congress pre-poll alliance proved to be a major roadblock for the party's poll prospect in the 2017 UP Assembly elections," a party office bearer who attended the meeting said.

According to party sources, nearly 30-40 district chief of the Congress, from eastern and central Uttar Pradesh, attended the meeting at the party's state unit headquarters here.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Tiwari said, "The party workers are sad over the poll outcome in Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, but their morale is high and we will resurrect the Congress with the help of this spirit."



On any possible changes in party leadership at the state level, the Rajya Sabha MP said, "There is no question of any hints being given in any organisation. Whenever, changes take place, it would be visible to all.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Best identified by its quintessential large floral motifs in bright hues printed on a light coloured background, the 18th century textile tradition of Chintz did not survive the test of time.

To rediscover the art form that inspired small block- printed Calico patterns in the United Kingdom and 'batik tulis' in Indonesia, textile revivalist Renuka Reddy has been stalking buffaloes and sheep herds for the last six years.

For Reddy, it was the joy of rediscovering the "mysterious art" that led her to experimenting endlessly with different dyes and wax samples to restore the art form's originality of technique and design.

Her extensive research has manifested into an exhibition underway at Gallery Art Motif here which seeks to unlock the secrets of the art form.

"Inspired by the beauty and workmanship of the historic chintz and compelled by the unknown, I ask 'is it possible to produce the 18th century quality chintz today?'



"As I rub the buffalo milk and myrobalan (a natural dye) into the cloth, as I gently coax the colour out of madder (a red dye obtained from a Eurasian plant), as I paint a wax line willing it to be finer, even as I become a familiar sight to a certain herd of sheep. I am seeking to unlock the secrets of this mysterious art," Reddy said.

Originating in India as a hand-painted, mordant and resist-dyed cotton cloth, Chintz remained one of the most traded items for centuries.

While the designs were believed to be mostly European, the patterns were said to be derived from styles of Indian origin and often reflected elements of Mughal and other Islamic art, including arabesque forms as well as the Safavid art of Persia.

At one point of time, it became so popular that Western countries banned its import from India, lest it affect local textile businesses.

"The potential of Chintz was not fully realised in the European market until the mid-17th century, before which it was used only for barter.

"In 1662, original designs were sent to India from England to make Chintz. This trend became so popular that it alarmed local manufacturers, and in 1686, France was the first country to ban its import. Later England followed suit in 1700 and in year 1720 they also banned wearing Chintz," Reddy said.

Through her adventures with the hand-painted textile, she has found that buffalo milk, among other technique improvisations, is better for the process than that of the proverbial Mother cow.

One of the first steps in the long and arduous process of making Chintz on a hand-woven cotton cloth involves treating the fabric with buffalo milk and myrobalan.

After several experiments with different milk samples, Reddy found that higher fat content was ideal for the Chintz process.

"The buffalo milk has high fat content so when it is applied to the cloth, it makes it possible to paint mordant and dyes without spreading. I have tried cow's milk, but it did not work for me.

"I live in Bangalore, there are many cows around but very few buffaloes. I have become a buffalo stalker and I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see a buffalo around my house. Without buffalo milk I can't start work," Reddy, whose work has found a permanent place at Fries Museum in Netherlands, said.

Bleaching the cloth with sheep dung is another curious step in the process, which is also used by Kalamkari craftsmen, to remove the dye in the background caused by the myrobalan treatment.

"Using dung to bleach is an age-old practice not just in India, but around the world. I have to tell you that apart from the buffalo milk I am also obsessed with dung.

"At first it was a bit difficult for me to work with dung. I tried cow, goat and sheep dung. Cow dung was a bit too messy for me and goat dung was just too hard. So sheep dung worked for me as it is not too soft or hard. And once soaked, it is easier to turn into a paste," Reddy said.

However, one crucial step that continues to elude Reddy is the resist application using wax.

"Very quintessential to the historic Chintz pieces are the very fine white lines of resist. And without these white lines the design would look very different. Resist applied on the cloth acts as a barrier so that the dye doesn't penetrate into the covered areas, leaving white lines," she said.

Having travelled to Java to study 'batik tulis', where the wax resist work continues to be practiced even today, Reddy discovered the technique has undergone a transformation and contemporary work has "thicker lines".

"I have experimented with several wax samples and wax applicators but I have found that wax solidifies too quickly. I am still trying to figure out a way so the wax is molten enough to penetrate the cloth without solidifying too fast," Reddy said.

The exhibition is set to continue till May 6.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a strong pitch against the divisive issue of 'triple talaq', insisting the exploitation of Muslim women should end and justice be done to them.

He, however, deprecated any attempts at creating a "conflict" within the Muslim community on the issue and suggested tackling it through social awareness.

"He (Modi) talked about social justice. He said our Muslim sisters should also get justice. Injustice should not be done with them. Nobody should be exploited," Union Minister Nitin Gadkari told journalists briefing about Modi's address to the delegates at the BJP's executive in Bhubaneshwar.

"We do not want that there is conflict within the Muslim community over this issue. What we have to do is that if there are any social evils, we have to wake up the society and make efforts to provide justice to them (Muslim women). That was the Prime Minister's spirit," Gadkari said quoting Modi.

The Prime Minister's comments came on a day when the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) asserted Muslims have a "constitutional" right to follow their personal law of which 'triple talaq' was a part.

AIMPLB General Secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani, however, said the board has decided to issue a code of conduct and warned that those who give talaq (divorce) without following the 'Sharia' (Islamic law) will face social boycott.

"A code of conduct for talaq is being issued. With its help, the real picture of Shariat directives will be brought out on the talaq issue. If talaq is given without Shariat reasons, those involved will be socially boycotted," Rehmani told reporters in Lucknow.

The board is issuing appeals to all maulanas and imams of mosques to read out the code of conduct during Friday 'namaz' and emphasise on its implementation, he said.

Though the Islamic law provides for a period of separation between estranged couples before 'talaq' is pronounced on three different occasions, husbands have been divorcing wives by pronouncing the word thrice at one go, through postcards, text messages on mobile phones and even twitter.

The board has made it clear that it will not tolerate any interference in the Shariat laws, and claimed an overwhelming majority of the Muslims in the country do not want any change in their personal laws.

The Union government had on October 7 last year opposed in the Supreme Court the practice of triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy among Muslims and favoured a relook on grounds like gender equality and secularism.

The Ministry of Law and Justice, in its affidavit, had referred to constitutional principles like gender equality, secularism, international covenants, religious practices and marital laws prevalent in various Islamic countries to advocate that the practice of and polygamy needed to be adjudicated upon afresh by the apex court.

In the Supreme Court, where a batch of petitions by divorced Muslim women are pending, AIMPLB had opposed any move to interfere with the Muslim personal law.

The Yogi Adityanath government had recently said it would submit its views on the subject after eliciting the opinion of Muslim women.
Do not allow your husband to tie the nuptial knot again while he is still married to you; be updated with the regimental number and rank of your husband.

These are some of the instructions that border guarding force ITBP has compiled in a unique booklet and distributed among the wives of its troops deployed in far-flung frontier areas and in the hinterlands.

The Sino-India frontier force has undertaken a first-time initiative to make aware the wives of its troops about their "rights and duties".

The booklet has been attached in another book that the paramilitary has prepared to educate its jawans and their families about issues of health and personal hygiene.

Over 85,000 copies of these two booklets have already been printed and dispatched to the field formations of the force.

ITBP Director General Krishna Chaudhary, who has also written a foreword in the book, told PTI that strict directions have been issued to all the formations to ensure that these books are handed over by the troops to their families when they visit them on leave.

"We got these booklets prepared by talking to experts and doctors of the force. The aim is to keep the troops and their families healthy and happy given the fact that they are deployed in hard areas where communication with the world is minimal," the DG said.

The booklet for wives tells them that they should be updated and informed about the regimental number (force ID), rank, current pay, location of battalion or unit and even the number of official leaves their husbands are entitled to.

"Ensure that your name is included in his service book, your name has been entered as the next of kin in the service record and all bank accounts and life insurance policies," the instructions state.

ITBP spokesperson Deputy Commandant Vivek K Pandey explains the rationale behind the initiative:



"The duty charter of the force is such that troops are on duty and away from home for long and visit their homes only during the leave period and it is the wives who run the household in their absence.

"It was found that many jawans and their families were totally ignorant about their rights and their entitlements and hence the books were prepared to make them aware," he said.

The booklet, prepared by the wives welfare association of the force, is an attempt to make sure that wives can make an informed choice and no one is able to mislead them in case of any eventuality, Pandey said.

The booklet for wives also speaks about the legal rights they have: "Do not give your husband the right to marry again while he is still married to you. If any force personnel remarries while his first wife is still alive and without her written consent, then according to ITBP rules he can be terminated from service."



It also tells them in detail that a government servant demanding dowry is illegal and is a punishable offence and also about the grounds a wife can seek divorce.

However, divorce is the last resort, it states.

Woman can take help of family, friends and the commanding officer and the stress counsellor of her husband's battalion.

The wives are also suggested to "understand" the service conditions of their husbands which are quite tough and that they should "cooperate" with them in this regard.

"Inform your husband's seniors officers about any doubtful activities of your husband. Try to be self reliant and mentally strong to face any situation," it said.

The health awareness guide book informs the jawans about various lifestyle diseases and ways to live healthy without indulging into alcohol or drugs abuse.

It also makes them understand various aspects of healthy living and the correct procedure for undertaking daily ablutions like brushing teeth and the benefits of doing regular exercises.

The health book also warns them about the drawbacks of having junk food and not adopting a healthy lifestyle and undertaking excessive stress.

A special mention has been made on health challenges faced on high-altitudes and mountains as the force is largely deployed in the Himalayan region along the China border.

The about 86,000 personnel strong force is tasked with securing the 3,488-km-long frontier apart from rendering a variety of duties in the internal security domain of the country including undertaking anti-Naxal operations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
FMCG major ITC is spicing up its food portfolio, with master chefs from its hotels curating different blends of spices for a premium range to be sold under the 'ITC Master Chef' brand.

The company, which is pursuing to create world class brands by leveraging on enterprise strengths, is banking on spices sourced by its Agri Business division from different states, including Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

"We are focusing on blended spices through ITC Master Chef brand. This is one new segment on which we are working," ITC Foods Division Divisional Chief Executive Hemant Malik told PTI.

Elaborating how the company has leveraged on its internal expertise, he said: "Master chefs from ITC Hotels have curated each spice blend. We are positioning it as a premium range considering the effort taken to develop the blends."



The chefs decide on the ratios of condiments to get the right taste.

A lot of effort has been put into developing the spice range with over 470 tests so that the product is compliant with not just Indian standards but also EU standards, he added.

The company has launched ITC Master Chef super-safe spices in the capital. It is promoting the brand as "super safe spices" through its communication in print, outdoor, radio and digital platforms.

ITC's idea behind the spice blends is to celebrate the local cuisine and bringing alive the flavors and taste of North India.

On the sourcing of the spices, Malik said the ingredients are sourced by ITC's Agri Business division from states, including Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The company is relying on its integrated pest management programme under which it has worked with farmers to produce crops that are compliant with not just Indian standards but also EU standards.

The Kolkata-based firm, which has set a target of achieving Rs 1 lakh crore revenue from its FMCG business by 2030, is also expanding retail points of its luxury chocolate brand Fabelle and is targeting shop-in-shops.

"Right now they are sold in hotels only but very soon we are trying to take it outside, such as malls," he said.

ITC is also setting up new integrated factories for its food division and has completed some of them.

"We have already started two units in West Bengal, one in Guwahati and by July or August this year our unit in Punjab should start and around same time one more unit in West Bengal would start," Malik said.

ITC is also 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 market. The company is adding new flavours and focusing on local fruits. It is also boosting its sales network to meet the target.

When asked about the contribution of Food Division in ITC's total fold, Malik said: "In the FMCG space, ITC Food is the largest contributor".

In FY16, ITC had a consolidated net sales were of Rs 39,066.85 crore, in which FMCG without cigarettes had contributed Rs 9,723.85 crore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Clifton James, who was famous for his role as Sheriff J W Pepper in "James Bond" films, has died at the age of 96.

The actor passed away just blocks afar from his childhood home, surrounded by friends and family, loved ones told Variety in a statement.

James was born as the eldest child of Grace and Harry James in the year 1920.

He grew up just outside Portland, Oregon during the heart of the Great Depression. According to his kin, he fought for five years on the front lines of the South Pacific, thereby earning two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star for his service during the World War II.

James' acting career spread out around six decades, where he showcased his talent in theatre, film and television.

He appeared on stage in the plays "The Time of Your Life" and went on to perform in many Broadway shows which included names such as "All The Way Home".

But he gained major recognition when he starred as he crowing Louisiana sheriff, J W Pepper in two Bond films, "Live and Let Die" (1973) and "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974).

He played similar roles with Southern background in films like "Silver Streak" and "Superman II".

James is survived by his sisters, Cicely and Beverley; his five children, Cory, Winkie, Hardy, Lynn, and Mary; fourteen grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A court here has rejected the anticipatory bail applications of a New Delhi-based woman journalist and a retired army official charged with abetting suicide of Lance Naik D S Roy Mathew.

Mathew had committed suicide after he purportedly figured in an expose by a portal over alleged abuse of the "buddy" (orderly) system in the army.

District and Sessions Judge M S Pathan rejected the applications of Poonam Agrawal, a journalist with a portal, and retired army officer Deepchand Kashmirsing yesterday after the court was informed that they needed to be arrested to get more information in connection with the case.

Both Agrawal and Kashmirsing had moved their bail plea in the court on April 9.

The prosecution told the court that it was necessary to impound the camera and the memory card used by Agarwal in carrying out the sting operation by entering an army area illegally.

The jawan had hanged himself after a video on the "abuse" of buddy system surfaced which showed soldiers, working as 'sahayaks', walking dogs of senior officials or taking their children to school.

Mathew had gone missing on February 25 soon after the video became public and his body was found in a decomposed state in a barrack at Deolali's Heig Line on March 2.

Deolali police had on March 27 registered a case against Agrawal and Kashmirsing for offences under the stringent sections 3 (spying) and 7 (interfering with officers of the police or membersof the armed forces of the Union) of the Official Secrets Act.

Agrawal was also booked for violating army rules by entering prohibited areas and conducting a shoot there without permission.

She was also charged under sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 451 (criminal trespass), 500 (defamation) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
JK Tyre & Industries is eyeing over 20 per cent market share in the two-wheeler segment over the next 18 months as it readies to roll out new products as well as expand reach across the country.

The tyre major entered the segment last year with the Rs 2,195-crore buyout of BK Birla flagship firm Kesoram Industries' tyre manufacturing plant at Haridwar.

It currently sells tyres in 14 sizes mainly catering to products in the 100-125 cc category. The company now plans to introduce another 14 sizes, catering to 150 cc and above category, under its Blaze brand in June.

"In just 7-8 months of launching the two wheeler tyres, we already have inched towards a market share of 10 per cent. In another 18 months we expect to touch a market share of 20 per cent," JK Tyre & Industries Marketing Director Vikram Malhotra told PTI.

With 14 tyre sizes in two-wheeler segment, the company is catering to 75 per cent of the demand. With the new launches slated in June it would be able to cater to 95 per cent of the demand, he added.

The company, which also makes tyres for three wheelers, now plans to go full hog in terms of reach in the country. It is targeting to go deeper in small towns and rural areas.

"With two wheeler sales now recovering in rural areas, it gives us confidence to get a bigger pie in terms of sales in these areas," Malhotra said.

The company's Blaze range of tyres is well suited for smaller towns and rural areas as they can be used in both tube-type and tube-less applications.

Further, in order to reach to a bigger audience, the company has rolled out a comprehensive advertisement campaign for the Blaze range of tyres.

The Rs 2,195 crore buyout had also helped the company to add 100 lakh tyres per annum capacity and enter the high-growth two and three-wheeler tyre segment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kairali Ayurvedic Group is embarking on a major expansion in the US and China where it will open a majority of 118 new centres it has planned by the end of 2018.

The ayurvedic treatment provider currently has 35 centres in 10 countries besides India.

While it already has one centre in the US, this will be the first time that it will enter China.

"We are looking to open 118 treatment centres overseas and in India by the end of 2018. Out of these, 50 will be in the US and 50 will be in China," Kairali Ayurvedic Group Executive Director Abhilash Ramesh told PTI.

While eight centres will be across cities where the group is already present in India, the rest will be in other countries, he added.

At present, the company has presence in 10 countries overseas including Japan, Lebanon, Mauritius, Poland, UAE, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and the US.

It has 13 centres across India in locations such as Delhi and NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Patna, Dibrugarh, Raipur and Palakkad among others.

Commenting on the expansion strategy, he said the centres outside India will be mainly operated through a franchise model.

"We have already signed mandates with our franchise partners for the US and China," Ramesh added.

The eight centres in India will be company-owned and operated, he added.

The group offers treatment for conditions such as sciatica, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, besides providing general and detox rejuvenation, Ramesh said.

In addition to the treatment centres, he said the group's pharmaceutical and herbal division has been strengthening ancient ayurveda tradition through research and development to suit modern life style.

"We make a range of 180 products at our factories," Ramesh said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kolkata Police have summoned Narada CEO Mathew Samuel in connection with a case involving an extortion call to a former MP of Bihar.

In the summon sent to Mathew yesterday, Muchipara Police station officer-in charge asked him to appear at the said station by April 20.

The Narada CEO, however, told PTI tonight that travelling for him was prohibited as doctors advised him complete bed rest for at least three months after a surgery.

"I'll consult my lawyers and send my replies to Kolkata Police. I have been prescribed complete bed rest by my doctors after the surgery. And travelling is strictly no for me," Samuel said.

A case was lodged against Mathew in connection with an extortion case in which an ex-MP of Bihar was asked to pay Rs five crore, otherwise a sting operation footage of him accepting bribe would be made public.

Samuel had conducted a sting operation which showed people resembling senior Trinamool Congress leaders receiving money allegedly for giving future favours. Footage of the sting operation was made public before the West Bengal Assembly election last year.

The extortion call was allegedly made from a hotel in Muchipara area of the city.

Police had raided the hotel room and seized a laptop and mobile phone and claimed the occupant was not in the room. The laptop allegedly had a photo that resembled Samuel.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
More than 37.15 lakh tonne (LT) wheat has arrived so far in the mandis of Haryana.

Of the total arrival, the 5 government procuring agencies have purchased 37.12 LT and traders have purchased 3,000 tonnes of wheat at Minimum Support Price.

While stating this here today, a spokesman of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department said the procurement process was running smoothly in the mandis.

Giving details of the wheat procured by government agencies, he said more than 9.36 LT wheat has been procured by Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, whereas Haryana State Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation Ltd (HAFED) has purchased more than 12.54 LT wheat.

He said the Food Corporation of India has purchased more than 4.25 LT wheat, Haryana Agro Industries Corporation have purchased more than 3.09 LT and more than 7.85 LT wheat has been procured by Haryana Warehousing Corporation.

The spokesman said that district Kaithal was leading in wheat arrival where more than 4.71 LT of the crop had been procured followed by district Karnal, which recorded more than 4.61 LT.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Punjab State Scheduled Castes Commission today set up a four-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the custodial death of 26-year-old Dalit youth Balbir Ram.

Rajesh Bagha, the Commission's chairman said that the Phagwara Additional Deputy Commissioner Babita Kler will head the SIT while the local Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), the Deputy Suprintendant of Police (DSP) and a government doctor will be its members.

"The SIT will submit its report to the Commission within five days and the panel will forward it to the state government for necessary action," Bagha said.

Earlier, Bagha visited the bereaved family at their Basant Nagar residence where the youth's aged mother Parkash Kaur, elder brothers Mithu Ram and Prem Lal apprised him of their anguish.

They alleged that Balbir, who worked as a daily wager, was picked up by police from his sister's house in Rawalpindi village here on April 10 but his arrest was shown in Satnampura Police Station, Bagha told reporters.

Among other allegations, they claimed that Balbir had been falsely implicated. They also alleged that a police head constable had demanded Rs one lakh from them for letting off Balbir, Bagha said.

Baga also held meeting with civil and police officials to get first-hand information of the incident.

The alleged custodial death had sparked off an angry protests here yesterday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
British Prime Minister Theresa May today used her Easter message to strike a conciliatory note post-Brexit, saying people were "coming together" and uniting behind the opportunities that lie ahead following the vote.

She also said that people should feel "confident" about Christianity's role in the society and feel free to speak about their faith.

"This year, after a period of intense debate over the right future for our country, there is a sense that people are coming together and uniting behind the opportunities that lie ahead. For at heart, this country is one great union of people and nations with a proud history and a bright future," May said in her video message released by the Downing Street.

"And as we face the opportunities ahead of us -- the opportunities that stem from our decision to leave the European Union and embrace the world -- our shared interests, our shared ambitions and above all our shared values can -- and must -- bring us together," she noted.

The daughter of a vicar who has been vocal about her faith in the past, May said, "We should be confidentabout the role that Christianity has to play in the lives of people in our country."



"We must continue to ensure that people feel able to speak about their faith, and that absolutely includes their faith in Christ.

"We must be mindful of Christians and religious minorities around the world who do not enjoy these same freedoms, but who practise their religion in secret and often in fear," she said.

She asserted that more needs to be done to stand up for the freedom of people of all religions so that they can practice their beliefs openly and in peace and safety.

Opposition leader and Labour party's chief Jeremy Corbyn used his Easter message to call on the people to use the principles at the heart of Christianity to overcome society's problems.

"We hear painful stories every day, of homelessness, poverty or crisis in our health service -- or across the world, of the devastating consequences of war and conflict, including millions forced to become refugees," Corbyn said.

"It would be easy to retreat into our private lives because the challenges seem overwhelming, or allow ourselves to be divided and blame others. But we need to respond to these problems head on, through action and support for social justice, peace and reconciliation," he said.

Those principles are at the heart of Christianity, he said, noting that Christians throughout the world will this weekend be remembering Jesus's example of love and sacrifice, and the Easter message of redemption and peace.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron hit out at the sense of nostalgia and nationalism which came through the British Premier's message.

"Given that we are turning the clock back to the early 1970s with Brexit (or indeed the 1580s if we do end up declaring war on Spain), then nostalgia is most definitely the mood of the moment," Farron said.

Nostalgia and nationalism have become the fuel for an aggressive and irrational brand of politics that is the opposite of what liberals stand for, he asserted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A PIL in the Bombay High Court has questioned the Union govenment's policy of allowing public sector insurance companies to invest in the tobacco industry, which, it said, contradicts the "anti-tobacco" stance taken by the Centre.

The PIL was recently filed by Sumitra Pednekar, widow of Maharashtra's former home and labour minister Satish Pednekar who died of oral cancer in 2011, and six others including officials of Tata Trust and doctors of Tata Memorial Hospital.

The petition, which is expected to come up for hearing in due course, seeks directions from the court to respondent insurance companies to divest their shareholding from tobacco companies and not to make such investments in future.

It wants that the government and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) be directed to frame guidelines or a code of conduct to ensure such disinvestment takes place and also to ensure that no such investments are made in future.

The petition said that India is a signatory to WHO's most comprehensive anti-tobacco convention -- the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, 2003 (FCTC).

Article 5.3 of the convention says that the parties must create, implement and protect policies for tobacco control.

Furthermore, Article 7.2 of the convention restrains parties from investing in tobacco industry in order not to promote production of tobacco, the petition said.

"While on the one hand, the government is committed to tackling the problem of tobacco and the ill-effects caused by it, the insurance companies, in complete disregard to the government's policy, continue to invest in ITC, dehors the spirit and intent of the FCTC, more particularly the Article 7.2," the PIL argued.

The PIL said before signing and ratifying the FCTC, India had begun strengthening its anti-tobacco laws by enacting 'The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003' on April 30, 2003.

It also said that the investments made by insurance companies are in contradiction to the anti-tobacco stance taken by the Union government on a national and international level.

Quoting official statistics, the PIL said that about ten lakh people die from tobacco-related diseases every year in India. There are 27.5 crore tobacco users in the country, -- every third adult person uses some form of tobacco.

Tobacco kills a consumer prematurely through cancer, heart attack, lung disease, stroke among others and accounts for nearly 50 per cent cancers in the country. Besides, 90 per cent of mouth cancer patients die within 12 months of diagnosis, said the PIL.

It said that insurance companies, along with the SUUTI (the Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India), hold a 32 per cent stake in ITC Ltd, which is primarily a tobacco company.

The 383 crore shares that are held by respondent insurance companies and the SUUTI amount to a huge stake in ITC. The total value of the stake works out to Rs 1,07,000 crore, as per the petition.

The respondents to the petition are Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), The New India Assurance Company Ltd, General Insurance Corporation of India, The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd, National Insurance Company Ltd, the IRDA and the Union government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Polish round-the-world yachtsman had to be convinced of the "gravity of the situation" before he agreed to be rescued from his stricken craft in a remote part of Pacific Ocean today, New Zealand authorities said.

A Polish speaker was taken on a four-hour flight from New Zealand to persuade him to abandon his craft.

The sailor, identified by local media as 64-year-old Gregor Wegrzyn, had activated an emergency beacon on Thursday after the steering failed on his 10.6-metre yacht Reginar R.

He was located by a New Zealand Air Force search aircraft 2,700 kilometres east of New Zealand and a cargo vessel was diverted to pick him up.

But when the ship Key Opus arrived yesterday, the man was reluctant to leave, New Zealand search and rescue coordinator Dave Wilson said.

The air force plane, with the Polish speaker onboard, had to return to the yacht and drop a radio to the sailor today to establish communication and convince him to abandon his yacht.

"The man spoke little English, a hurdle we had to overcome for this operation," Wilson said.

"Once the Polish speaker, who was known to the man, made radio contact with him, he was able to convince him of the gravity of the situation and he agreed to leave his boat.

"The fact it took two full days of sailing for the Key Opus to reach the man's position underscores the remoteness of this rescue."



Weather conditions in the area were rough throughout the operation with 25-knot winds and a three-metre swell.

The Key Opus, with the sailor on board, is expected to arrive at its next port of call in Chile on May 4.

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Private radio operators in Mali today denounced a state crackdown on pirate broadcasters, with 47 stations threatened with closure for failing to obtain licences.

High levels of illiteracy in the largely desert west African nation make radio a lifeline for isolated communities with few other means of getting local and information.

"You have to give these stations time to conform to the law," said Bandiougou Dante, president of the Union of Free Radio and Television of Mali (UFRTM).

"The problem is that these stations in the interior of the country only have provisional licences and are useful to the local population," Dante said.

On Thursday Mali's communications regulator announced the stations affected had been sent notices to shut down "for not respecting the rules".

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South Asian countries in particular India need not worry much from potential protectionist measures from the US and other developed nations as such a move is bound to benefit them and open up new vistas of opportunities, a top World Bank official said today.

"We remain optimistic that is the fastest growing region in the world. We believe that even if there are mounting protection pressures (from the West) they will not affect too much. If anything, they may provide new opportunities," World Bank Region Chief Economist Martin Rama told PTI in an interview.

"In light of the recovering advancing economies we strongly believe that South Asia should continue to look outward and not to think about an inward oriented growth strategy," Rama said as the World Bank released its report 'Globalisation Backlash' of its latest twice-a-year edition of South Asia Economic Focus.

The report, released ahead of the annual spring meeting of the Monetary Fund and World Bank, says that South Asian countries could even benefit from the backlash against globalisation. It also confirms that South Asia remains the fastest-growing region in the world, gradually widening its lead relative to East Asia.

Rama said the report tries to address the concerns that South Asian nations would be hit by potential protectionist measures from the US and European nations post-Brexit.

"We hear voices that say, 'Oh, South Asia should basically look inwards.' That's what this report tries to address. What it tries to do is, it doesn't forecast what will happen with trade policy in advanced economies. It has hypothetical scenarios. If trade policy was to go in this direction, what will happen to South Asian countries? If it was to go in this different direction, what will happen? That's what it does," he said.

If indeed there are protections, it will be more expensive, especially in the US, to import goods from other parts of the world - China, Mexico perhaps.

"We are at the point where advanced economies see growth accelerating. We may have these two forces that may play in opposite direction, trade barriers that make it more difficult to export, more growth and make it easier to export.

"And where we come out is in a very negative scenario, where there will be protection across the board. It will not be too good for South Asia, but it will not be devastating, because the effect of the tides will not be too high and because the faster growth in advanced economies will have settled," he said.

Rama said the report talks about hypothetical scenarios as to what would happen to countries in the region like India and Bangladesh if the US and other nations adopt protectionist measures.

Noting that countries like China and Mexico are likely to be badly hit by such protectionist measures, the top World Bank official said that countries like India and Bangladesh could fill up some of the space created by it.

"There will be trade diversion. South Asian countries could be taking some of this space for exports that others will be facing difficulties with," he said, adding the report says that it is not advisable for South Asian countries to give up on the idea of pushing for exports or pushing for global integration.

"In fact, if this scenario where there is different degree of protections with different countries material, if in the country, South Asia was to diversify its exports, it could gain quite a lot," Rama asserted.

However, the report does not cover the issue of H-1B, which of late has emerged as of utmost importance for India.

Indian companies believe that Indian would be badly hit if the US adopts a protectionist approach on H-1B visas.

"That (H-1B) is an important issue. It's not among the issues we cover in more detail in these reports. We refer to it. But the impression is the following, is that..., anything that is barriers to trade, barriers to mobility, we don't think it's good for development," he noted.

"But if highly qualified people from India cannot go to work in the US, there may be firms that come to India to work with them. Capital and labour have to be together. If labour cannot go where the capital is, capital may come where the labour is," Rama said.

The first of its kind of report - based on a survey of a group of 200 economists from the region - recommends South Asian nations to diversify their export basket.

"The main message is, try to diversify exports, try to have an elastic response so that you seize the opportunity when it arises. These are policies that have to do with infrastructure, with logistics, with the business environment, with the kind of things that help the private sector move in that direction," he added.
State-owned firms, including behemoth Life Corporation (LIC), have made huge gains of thousands of crores of rupees with significant investments in cigarette maker even as private insurers and mutual funds have turned 'responsible' by drastically cutting their exposure.

companies and mutual funds typically use the premium or funds collected from their customers to invest in various securities including stocks to generate returns, but globally many insurers and fund houses have been staying away from investing in sectors like tobacco.

During the last quarter itself, all four state-run insurers in India recorded an appreciation of more than Rs 15,000 crore in their collective holding of over 21 per cent, while the gains have been worth more than Rs 20,000 crore for the financial year (FY) 2016-17.

Besides, the government also owns a significant stake worth about Rs 31,000 crore in through SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India) that acts as a holding entity for the erstwhile UTI's investment portfolio.

This is despite SUUTI selling a stake of nearly 2 per cent in ITC recently for about Rs 6,700 crore, following which its holding has now come down to 9.1 per cent in the private sector conglomerate. ITC has market value of close to Rs 3.4 lakh crore for which cigarettes remain the biggest revenue generator despite its diversification into FMCG and other businesses.

However, it is Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) which has a lion's share of the stake in ITC at nearly 16.3 per cent, which increased by about 2 per cent during the last quarter ended March 31 and is now worth over Rs 55,000 crore, shows an analysis of the company's shareholding pattern.

In addition to LIC, state-run general insurers  Oriental Insurance Company, the New India Assurance Company and General Insurance Corp of India  also continue to hold significant stakes in ITC, which are collectively worth about Rs 17,000 crore now.

This assumes significance in the wake of an PIL (Public Interest Litigation) filed in the Bombay High Court against what it calls the government's contrarian policy on tobacco.

The petition has alleged that the substantial investments made by wholly-owned public sector undertakings in the tobacco industry is in contradiction to the anti-tobacco stance taken by the Government of India on a national as well as on an international level.

The petition was filed last week by Sumitra Pednekar, wife of Maharashtra's former home and labour minister Satish Pednekar who died of oral cancer in 2011, top executives of Tata Trust and Tata Memorial Hospital in their individual capacity, among others.

The respondents include all government Insurance companies, IRDA and the Ministry of Health.

The government-owned insurers have remained invested in ITC for many years now even as an analysis of the company's shareholding data shows that some private sector insurers including ICICI Prudential Life and several mutual funds have pared their stakes fully or substantially in the recent years.

ICICI Pru is no more listed as a shareholder, though it had a stake of over 1 per cent (the threshold limit for disclosure as an investor) till FY13, while all mutual funds put together now hold less than 4 per cent stake in ITC.

The total holding of mutual funds in the company used to be close to 13 per cent or even higher till the financial year 2014-15.

Top executives of several mutual funds and private sector insurers said they have taken a conscious decision over the years to exit their investments or at least pare their investments in the sectors like tobacco and liquor as part of a 'responsible investment strategy' as investors value such measures these days.

However, none of them was willing to be named given the sensitivity of the issue in the wake of the government companies being invested heavily in this sector.

There have been some cases globally where big insurance companies have decided to exit their investments in tobacco sector stocks while committing against any such investment in future.

Banks and other financial institutions hold less than 0.1 per cent stake, while even HNIs have an exposure of just about 1 per cent in the company.

It is the foreign portfolio investors who hold more than 20 per cent stake in the company, while small individual investors also have nearly 8 per cent.

All insurers together have nearly 22.5 per cent stake in the company, out of which more than 21 per cent is with the four state-run entities.

Other shareholders include Tobacco Manufacturers India (24.5 per cent), Middleton Investment Company (4 per cent) and Rothmans International Enterprises (1.28 per cent).

There have been talks about the government planning to monetise the SUUTI stake in ITC even further along with other shares held through this undertaking entity that include shares in Axis Bank and L&T.

The shareholding analysis for ITC shows that the gains for the investors have also come in form of dividend payouts and bonus issuance of shares.

The foreign portfolio investors currently own shares worth over Rs 68,000 crore, after gaining nearly Rs 1,000 crore in the last quarter and close to Rs 15,000 crore in the full fiscal.

Government of Singapore is also an investor with 1.28 per cent stake worth about Rs 4,000 crore.

More than five lakh small individual investors are also invested in it and saw their holding grow by about Rs 4,800 crore in the last fiscal to close to Rs 28,000 crore.

Besides, there are 375 HNIs invested in the stock with a holding of nearly Rs 4,000 crore, while some NRIs and foreign nationals also hold these shares.
Police say they have detained four migrants in a northwest coastal area commonly used by people from the Dominican Republic to get into this US territory.

Officers said they detained a man and a woman yesterday afternoon aboard a 28-foot wooden boat with an outboard motor just off an area beach. They said another man and a woman were detained at a nearby landing area on the beach.

The travellers' country of origin was unknown.

Authorities say the four people will be turned over to US Border Patrol officials for processing.

Thousands of Dominican migrants try to cross the dangerous Mona Passage every year in an attempt to land in Puerto Rico.

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The Supreme Court collegium has recommended 51 names for appointment as judges in 10 high courts in the country.

The collegium headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) J S Khehar cleared the names after finalising the memorandum of procedure (MoP) for the appointment of judges, official sources said.

The 51 names were cleared by the collegium by trimming a list of 90 names received from the various high court collegiums, they said.

Of the 51, 20 are judicial officers and 31 are advocates, the sources said.

The collegium has recommended the names for the high courts of Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, Patna, Hyderabad (for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh), Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

The high courts of Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Gauhati and Sikkim are also expected to get judges if the Centre agrees with the apex court collegium's recommendations.

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A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Goa crime branch has summoned former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat to appear before it in connection with an illegal mining case of 2013.

"Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat has been summoned to appear before the SIT on April 18," Superintendent of Police, Goa crime branch, Priyanka Kashyap told PTI today.

This is the second summon issued to Kamat in connection with the illegal mining case. He was first questioned by the SIT in February 2014.

According to a senior crime branch official, Goa Mines and Geology Department's former director Arvind Lolienkar has also been summoned along with Kamat.

Lolienkar was arrested by the SIT in connection with the case in March 2014. He is currently out on bail.

A report of Justice (retd) M B Shah Commission had earlier stated that illegal mining to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore took place in Goa from 2005 to 2012, when the Supreme Court banned iron ore extraction in the state.

A complaint was filed by the Mines and Geology Department in July 2013 seeking to fix criminal liability on those involved in the illegal mining as pointed out by various committees, including the Centre-appointed Shah Commission.

The crime branch then registered an FIR in August 2013 against those named in various reports (Shah Commission and other committees) including Kamat, Lolienkar, and some other officials of the department, mining firms and others.

The FIR was registered under various IPC sections, including 120 (b) (conspiracy), 166 (public servant disobeying law), relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act, Mines and Minerals Development Act, Mineral Conservation and Development Rules and Goa Prevention of Illegal Mining Transportation, Storage of Minerals Rules 2004.

Based on the complaint, the SIT was formed by the then BJP government to probe the case.

An apex court appointed Central Empowered Committee and state Legislative Assembly's Public Accounts Committee had also confirmed illegal mining in the state.

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NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats, which launched its first solar ferry in Kerala earlier this year, is eyeing Rs 28 crore revenue this fiscal -- a 14 times rise over 2016-17, a top company official said.

NavAlt, founded in 2013 is a joint venture between parent company Navgathi Marine Design and Construction with two French companies -- Alt.En Systems and EVE Systems.

"In FY17, we clocked revenues of only Rs 2 crore. We already have orders for 10 boats in hand and generally the cost to client is around Rs 2-3 crore. So, we are expecting nearly Rs 28 crore revenue this fiscal," NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats Chief Executive, Sandith Thandasherry told PTI here.

Navgathi, which is into the construction of commercial boats and ferries, decided to develop solar-powered ferries and joined hands with the two French firms for the exercise, he said.

Thandasherry said the first solar ferry was launched in Kerala and now it is looking at opportunities in other states like West Bengal, Gujarat and Goa, among others.

He further said the company is also looking to introduce this solar ferry model in Asian countries where sunshine is abundant.

"Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal and other South East Asian nations are our target markets. Among these, Nepal is the main target as they use the waterways for transportation very effectively," he added.

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Describing Afghanistan as a "modern-day frontier" between "barbarism and civilisation", US National Security Advisor General H R McMaster today said the stakes are high in the war-torn country.

"What's clear in Afghanistan is the stakes are high. This is really the modern-day frontier between barbarism and civilisation," said McMaster told ABC .

"So with those high stakes in mind, recognising that the Taliban groups that we're fighting here, that the ISIS groups that we, really the Afghan forces are really fighting and we're just enabling them -- in the eastern part of the country, are a threat to all civilised peoples," said McMaster who is on his first visit to the country as President Donald Trump's envoy.

"So really what we do from this point on is going to depend on the decision that the President makes," he said.

McMaster arrived in Kabul today days after the American military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on Islamic State group hideouts in eastern Afghanistan, killing nearly a hundred militants.

The US President Donald Trump, he said, has asked his team to integrate efforts of various departments.

This is "because what we haven't had, really here is a very well stitched-together effort that combines what we're doing politically and diplomatically and militarily and economically. So that hasn't been stitched together as well as it might have, along with the efforts our multinational partners," he said.

"That's what we're assessing now and the President has asked for a range options, and we'll give him those options. We'll be prepared to execute whatever decision he makes," McMaster said adding that in the form of Ghani Government, the US now has a willing and reliable partner.

"What this long campaign here in Afghanistan shows is that the future course of events in war depends not on what you decide to do, but also on the actions of your enemies. So what we've seen here is an interaction between ourselves, our NATO and other partners here, and especially our Afghan partners, and very determined and brutal enemies," he said.

"What has happened in recent years, at a period of our maximum effort, we didn't have as reliable a partner in the Afghan government as we would've liked. Now we have a much more reliable Afghan partner and we have reduced to considerably the degree and scope of our effort," he said.

"It is time for us, alongside our Afghan partners, to respond," McMaster said.

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Actress Kriti Sanon said her co-star Sushant Singh Rajput kept her on her toes during the shooting of their upcoming film "Raabta".

"He (Sushant) is fabulous. He is an amazing actor so he keeps you on your toes. He gets into the skin of the character and does a lot of homework in detail. If you have a good co-actor your performance also enhances," Kriti told reporters.

The actress was talking on the sidelines of International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) voting weekend press meet here today.

Ever since Sushant and Kriti began shooting for their upcoming romantic drama, reports of their growing closeness started doing the rounds.

When asked about the same, Kriti said, "It's better to ignore them."



The 26-year-old actress will be seen doing some action sequences in "Raabta" and she enjoyed every bit of it.

"There is a section in the film that requires action. I always wanted to do it. So I am excited about it. It makes you feel little stronger when you doing and learning it. It is very difficult to do it. I have had lot of cuts and bruises but it was a great experience," she said.

Directed by Dinesh Vijan and produced by Homi Adajania and T-Series, the film is set to release on June 9.

Kriti was last seen in 2015 "Dilwale" and had no release last year, but the actress said absence from big screen did not bother her.

"I was working constantly. If I am not working and sitting at home then I get very restless. But I was constantly working. I have finished 'Raabta' and 'Bareily Ki Barfi'. I will have back-to-back releases. Release of a film is unfortunately not in my hands," she said.

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Syrian President is an "arch-terrorist" and it is time Russia realised he is "literally and metaphorically toxic", British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Sunday.

Johnson said Assad's ally Moscow still had time to be on the "right side of the argument", in a Sunday Telegraph newspaper article.

"Assad uses chemical weapons because they are not only horrible and indiscriminate. They are also terrifying," Johnson wrote.

"In that sense he is himself an arch-terrorist, who has caused such an unquenchable thirst for revenge that he can never hope to govern his population again. He is literally and metaphorically toxic, and it is time Russia awoke to that fact. They still have time to be on the right side of the argument."



Johnson was widely criticised for failing to get the G7 to back his bid for new sanctions against senior Russian and Syrian figures following the chemical weapons attack in Syria's Idlib province that killed dozens and caused an outcry.

But he said the chemical assault had changed the West's stance on Syria.

"The UK, the US and all our key allies are of one mind: we believe that this was highly likely to be an attack by Assad, on his own people, using poison gas weapons that were banned almost 100 years ago," he wrote.

"Let us face the truth: Assad has been clinging on. With the help of Russians and Iranians, and by dint of unrelenting savagery, he has not only recaptured Aleppo. He has won back most of 'operational' Syria."



Before the April 4 chemical attack, the West was "on the verge of a grim consensus", which had now changed, said Johnson.

The consensus had been that it would be more sensible to concentrate on the fight against Islamic State jihadists and to accept reluctantly that removing Assad, "though ultimately essential  should await a drawn out political solution".

A suicide car bomb attack on buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns killed 43 people yesterday, as US-backed fighters advanced in their push towards the IS group's Raqa stronghold.
The iconic Times Square was seeped in the colours and tradition of the Sikh culture as members of the community tied turbans to thousands of New Yorkers and tourists to spread awareness about the Sikh identity amid a spike in hate crimes against them in the country.

Non-profit group 'The Sikhs of New York' organised the 'Turban Day' at Times Square here yesterday, with its volunteers tying colourful turbans to close to 8000 Americans and tourists hailing from different nationalities and ethnicities.

The four-hour event, held as part of Vaisakhi celebrations, was aimed at spreading awareness among Americans and other nationalities about the Sikh religion and its articles of faith, especially the turban, which has often been misconceived and misidentified as being associated with terrorism particularly in the years since the 9/11 terror attacks.

During the event, a proclamation by Congressman Gregory Meeks of the 5th Congressional District of New York declared April 15, 2017 as 'Turban Day', lauding The Sikhs of New York for its dedication in educating other communities about the Sikh faith.

The organisation's founder Chanpreet Singh told PTI Turban Day was started in 2013 at Baruch College to promote and educate people about the Sikh religion and identity.

"We are spreading awareness about the Sikh turban and culture. The turban is the crown of each Sikh and represents pride and valour. Turban Day provides an opportunity for those that do not wear a turban to experience a turban and learn about its significance first hand," he said.

Singh added that he had personally experienced hate during his school years and wanted to take the initiative to educate Americans that "Sikh values are American Values".

He said by inviting people from other nationalities to wear the turban, the event also aims to encourage them to avoid discrimination and speak out against hate crimes targeting Sikhs in America going forward.

As Sikhs of New York volunteers tied colourful turbans to excited New Yorkers and tourists, they explained the significance of the Sikh article of faith and informed them of the reasons why Sikhs wear the turban.

They also shared information about the Sikh culture and traditions.

Those who got the turbans tied, including young children, were seen excitedly taking pictures and proudly walking around with their new head gear.

Fallon Mendz, a young student, said she got the turban tied on her head as she liked exploring different cultures.

"Its nice to see a different culture. I am not a Sikh so its nice to learn about different cultures," she said, proudly wearing her pink turban.

She added that the message of the organisation that Sikhs should not be targeted in hate crimes because of their identity is "amazing".

"Everyone should be treated equally, everyone should be welcome no matter what religion you believe in," she said.

Eva John said with so many people sporting the turbans, it seems that there is an Amritsar in New York.

"It is a great event, especially at Times Square where people from all over the world converge. And particularly with the election of President Donald Trump, such an event and its message of harmony and equality is very important."



Sporting a bright green turban, Nikita Madden said "it's nice to embrace a culture that is different from one's own."



The organisation, which has about 600 members, also unveiled a new video featuring Sikh physicians and businesspeople sending a message that while Sikh people have different backgrounds, they are not terrorists.

The event also featured cultural performances and prayers.

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The US today said it is working with China and other allies to develop a "range of options" against North Korea's "provocative and destabilising" behaviour, asserting that President Donald Trump will not allow Kim Jong-Un's regime to have the capacity to threaten America.

"The President has made clear that he will not accept the US and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons. And so we're working together with our allies and partners, and with the Chinese leadership, to develop a range of options," national security adviser H R McMaster said.

McMaster said the latest missile test, which failed, just fits into a pattern of "provocative and destabilising and threatening" behaviour on the part of the North Korean regime.

"I think there's an international consensus now, including the Chinese leadership that this is a situation that just can't continue. The US President has made clear that he will not accept the US and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons," he told ABC .

McMaster said President Donald Trump has asked the National Security Council to integrate the efforts of the Department of Defence, State, and intelligence agencies, so that they can provide options and have them ready for him if this pattern of "destabilising" behaviour continues.

"These options would be used if North Korea regime refuses to denuclearise, which is the accepted objective of both the United States and Chinese leadership, as well American allies in the region," he said.

North Korea launched a missile today but it blew up almost immediately after its launch.

The attempted launch occurred a day after the regime of Kim Jong Un showed off a bevy of new missiles and launchers at a large-scale military parade.

Referring to the display of intercontinental ballistic missile by North Korea during a recent parade, the US National Security Advisor said the purpose of that parade is to demonstrate military prowess in a threatening way.

"So whether those weapons are real or fake is unclear," he said.

Asked about the "options" against North Korea, he said Trump has made very clear that he is not in the business of announcing in advance exactly what he's going to do in any particular situation.

"I think what you saw last week with the President's decisive response to the Assad regime, to mass murder of innocent people, including children, with chemical weapons, that this national security team is capable of rapidly responding to those sorts of crises or incidents and events and providing the President with options. And our President is clearly comfortable making tough decisions and respond," he said.

"All our options on the table undergoing refinement and further development," the top American national security advisor said in response to a question.

McMaster said it should make clear to the North Korean regime that it is in their best interest to stop the development of these weapons, to stop the development of these missiles, and to denuclearise the peninsula.

"While we do not want to telegraph in any way how we'll respond to certain incidents, it's clear that the President is determined not to allow this kind of capability to threaten the United States. And our President will take action that is in the best interest of the American people," he said.

McMaster said what Kim Jong-un is doing is a threat to all people in the region and globally as well.

"This is someone who has said not only does he want to develop a nuclear weapon, but he wants to use it to coerce others. He's said that he was willing to proliferate nuclear weapons once he develops them. And so this a grave threat to all people," he asserted.

Pyongyang had yesterday warned Washington that it is "prepared to respond to an all-out war with an all-out war".

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In the past, when 46-year old information technology (IT) professional Nirmalya Barua had to book hotel rooms for business or leisure travel, he would go to the website of an online travel agency because it offered a wide range of choices. When looking for budget options, he would book through hotel room aggregators, where he was assured of value-for-money pricing and no-frills but standardised quality. Lately, he has begun to rely on multiple mobile apps, depending on his needs, which include travelling at the last moment or seeking a room at his desired price. In recent times, these apps, which negotiate for discounts with hotels on the customers behalf, have grabbed travellers attention in a big way.

Book a room at the last minute: Imagine you have to travel to a city for a business meeting at short notice and have not booked a hotel room in advance. Or, your one-day trip to a new city gets extended at the last minute, leaving you without an accommodation for the night. In all these scenarios, you can turn to the Nightstay app on your mobile phone.

This platform aggregates unsold inventory from hotels and sells it to last-minute customers at a discounted rate. Says Nasr Khan, founder and chief executive officer, Nightstay: Hotel inventory is a perishable commodity. If you dont sell it today, the unsold inventory goes waste. We ask hotels to put their unsold rooms on our platform at a discounted rate. Across India, informs Khan, the average occupancy of hotels is only 61 per cent. In other words, 39 per cent of the inventory goes waste.

The inventory available for the day is put up on the Nightstay app and website at nine in the morning. Starting then, you can book until midnight. Nightstay has tie-ups with 800 hotels across 12 cities.

The rates you can get at Nighstay are at least 25-30 per cent lower than you would on the hotels website. Sometimes, if the supply of unutilised inventory is high, discounts can soar to 40-50 per cent or more (see table).

The Nightstay management ensures the rates on their platform are lower than those offered anywhere else. If a hotel wishes to be showcased by us, it must give us the lowest rates. We check regularly the rates that others are offering for the same hotels. If the prices they have given us are not the lowest, we send a notification. If the hotel still doesnt make amends, our system stops displaying it on the app, says Khan.

Until recently, one limitation of the Nightstay app was that you could book only on the same day. Also, your stay cant extend beyond three nights. We target the unplanned traveller. Our experience has been that unplanned travel does not generally extend beyond three nights, says Khan. Lately, they have relaxed their rules to permit bookings one day in advance. But in that case you must book for at least two nights.

Quote your price: Nowadays, some apps even allow you to quote the price you wish to pay for a hotel room. Findmystay lets you do so through what is known as the reverse bidding model. Customers first enter the date of stay, city and sub-location, and then state the price they are willing to pay for a room.

If you are a novice traveller or unfamiliar with the destination, you would wonder what the average rate of a hotel room in that city and locality is where you wish to stay. To overcome this problem, Findmystay has provided a tool called price slider. It tells you the average cost of the hotel room in a particular locality and of a certain star quality. You can then quote a price lower than that. But, of course, you should not quote one that is ridiculously low, says Simran Sial, co-founder, Findmystay. Next, you get a list of hotels that have accepted your price, and you can choose from these. Sial says travellers can, on an average, get a discount of around 30 per cent through the platform. Findmystay covers about 45 cities and offers accommodation in 4,000-odd hotels.

To get a good rate, it is advisable to book in advance. Rates are lower when a lot of inventory is available and move up as it diminishes, says Sial. He adds that customers are usually able to get a good discount by booking seven days in advance.

Big discounts for small businesses: Large have their own travel desks. Since they can promise large volumes to hotels, they are able to negotiate good discounts. Smaller corporates dont command the same heft. Therein comes Savvymob. We aggregate the demand from a number of smaller and offer it to the hotel. If we offer 10 of our clients to a hotel, it offers us better rates, says Bikram Sohal, chief executive officer.

He adds that they are able to get a price at least 20-30 per cent cheaper than what is offered by an online travel agency. Savvymob now has tie-ups in at least a hundred countries and can offer its customers an inventory of about 300,000 hotel rooms. These apps get you rooms spanning the entire spectrum from budget to luxury and at both business and leisure destinations.

Ensuring quality: Besides a good price, another aspect that worries travellers is whether they will have a quality experience at a hotel. Many of these platforms have tied up with TripAdvisor and offer its ratings of hotels on their app and web site, which you can consult. They also check the hotels standards before signing it up. We have a checklist of 20-25 criteria. Only if a hotel passes them all do we bring it on board. Further, if we get two or three complaints about a hotel, we drop it from our platform, says Nightstays Khan. For these players, ensuring quality is a paramount concern since about half of their business comes from repeat customers.
A few days after the news broke out regarding Snapchat's CEO Evan Spiegel's disinterest in expanding the business to "poor countries" like India, the rating of the popular app dropped to a "single star" from an apparent "five star" on the App Store.



Most of India pretty much knows this app by now and even those who haven't used it are going to app stores to give it a thumbs down vote after Variety magazine quoted a former employee claiming that Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel had said in a meeting in September 2015 that this app isn't meant for poor countries like India and Spain.

On Sunday, Snapchat responded to the claim. The Hindustan Times quoted the company as saying, "This is ridiculous. Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! It's available worldwide to download for free."

Anthony Pompliano, the former Snapchat employee, claims in his lawsuit that Spiegal once said, "This app is only for rich people...I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain." The Indian users took to Twitter to express their dissent over the comment.

After the reports of Spiegel's alleged claims surfaced, Snapchat faced heavy backlash from users and #UninstalSnapchat and #BoycottSnapchat started trending on Twitter on Saturday. Users initially slammed and trolled Spiegal for his alleged comments.

I felt this tide of fury at the Snapchat CEO but then it was gone in ten seconds. - Rohan (@mojorojo) April 15, 2017

Kbye. U were anyway taking too much space in my very cheap 64gb iPhone! #snapchat pic.twitter.com/hUd2BMNxnt - Amrita Ganguly (@GangulyAmrita) April 15, 2017

Snapchat CEO's net worth is USD 4 Billion and Mukesh ambani's USD 30 Billion. He can purchase #snapchat 7 times lol.bas itne hi poor hai - akhilkoul143 (@akhilkoul143) April 15, 2017

#Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel Calls India poor Now if u r indian.

1. Uninstall snapchat

2. Rate it 1 star on play store

3. RT#boycottsnapchat - Viner Aniket (@viner_aniket) April 15, 2017

and other such platforms also witnessed a sharp decline, a 4.4 to a 3.6 rating. Furthermore, the number of one-star rating by the users shot up from 39,102 to 192,906 in just 24 hours,

Due to the alleged comment made by Spiegel, the Snapchat rating on the Google Play Store has also taken a hitwith many users criticising the CEO for his comments.

The former employee Anthony Pompliano, 26, has filed a lawsuit against Snap Inc. in LA district court on Monday for allegedly using inaccurate means to calculate metrics like daily active users (DAU) and user retention. In his lawsuit, Pompliano claims to have uncovered evidence that the tools used by Snapchat were leading to the company claiming higher-than-actual numbers for metrics such as daily active users, month-over-month user growth and user retention.

Snap had filed a counter complaint and described the employee as "disgruntled", only to later drop the complaint.

Earlier established as a platform for teens for merely sharing pictures and videos, this app has come a long way since its inception six years ago.


"The data reflects a situation that has been emerging for the last few years: that is, while there are certainly some spaces available in some year groups in some schools, independent schools are generally running at close to capacity in terms of enrolments," he said.
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.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
Introduction to The Science Of Everyday Thinking is a free online course from Queensland University, this course helps you to learn how to think better, argue better, and choose better.

Interested candidates can enroll for this online course on or before April 24, 2017.

About this course:

This course will help you to explore the psychology of our everyday thinking.

They will discuss and debate topics such as placebos, the paranormal, medicine, miracles, and more.

This course provides tools for how to think independently, how to be skeptical, and how to value data over personal experience.

Also will examine the mental shortcuts that people use and misuse, and apply this knowledge to help make better decisions, and improve critical thinking.

What is learned?

The scientific method and its use in everyday life.

Tools for improving your everyday thinking.

Tips and tricks for changing people's minds

Techniques for learning and retaining information longer.

How to distinguish fact from fiction?

Duration of the course?

Length: 12 weeks

Effort: 2 hours per week

Price: Free. Add a verified certificate for $99

Institution: UQx

Subject: Business and management

Level: Introductory

Languages: English

Video transcripts: English

For further information, candidates can visit the official website

ColumbiaX University Launches Online Course On Robotics
Sergio Marchionne, Fiat-Chryslers CEO, is putting a stop to his search for a suitable partner for FCA. The groups boss that the company is not in a position to seek hold merger talks with anyone and that it will focus instead on achieving their planned goals.



During an investors meeting in Amsterdam, he also said that there were no merger talks currently with Volkswagen, an idea that he toyed with last month.

On the Volkswagen issue, on the question if there are ongoing discussions, the answer is no, Marchionne said according to Reuters. I have a lot of respect for Volkswagen and I think we are not in a position to discuss any alliance, the primary focus is (on) the execution of the plan, he added.

Last month Marchionne said that VW may be interested in pursuing a merger with FCA, following the announcement of PSA buying Opel from GM. VWs first reaction was to flat-out deny any possibility of this scenario, only to be followed by Mattias Mueller saying that VW is more open on the issue of tie-ups, inviting Marchionne to speak to him directly rather with the press.

Marchionne will step down from the seat of FCAs CEO position after the approval of the companys 2018 results. FCA Chairman John Elkann said that Marchionne would be replaced internally.

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After years of stagnation, the mid-size truck market has sprung back to life thanks to the introduction of newer models such as the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, and Toyota Tacoma.



This hasnt gone on unnoticed by other automakers as Ford recently announced plans to launch a new Ranger in 2019.

The plethora of new and redesigned models is missing one key player, namely the Nissan Frontier which has largely been untouched since it was introduced over a decade ago. That could soon be changing as Nissan North Americas senior vice president of Sales, Marketing, and Operations has confirmed the Frontier has a future.

Speaking to Autoguide at the New York Auto Show, Christian Meunier suggested the next-generation Frontier wouldnt simply be a renamed version of the Navara offered overseas, as its a bit of a lifestyle vehicle like a Honda Ridgeline and Nissan North America likes real trucks.

Theres no timetable for when a redesigned model could arrive, but Meunier seemed to suggest the companys recent acquisition of Mitsubishi could play a role in shaping the next Frontier. Both companies have extensive experience developing pickups, so a collaboration could be a win-win.

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Photo: Contributed

Wine: Viognier, 2016

Winery: Liquidity, Okanagan Falls

Why drink it? Vio, once you start adding it to your wine portfolio, will quite likely become one of your go to white wines for its medium body, and not-too-heavy and not-too-light mouthfeel. It is versatile for pairing with many dishes. On the nose, this one has aromas of white peach, tangerine, and a touch of coconut. On the taste buds, youll note passionfruit, orange blossom, apricot. While not overly fruity, there is a lot of flavour to savour and enjoy, and some intrigue as you pick up subtle nuances of the tropics. Its a great addition to the wine rack.

Price: $25

Pair with: Versatile for pairing, its time to break out the grill for some grilled salmon with pineapple salsa or more delicate fish (tuna, trout), chicken skewers served over coconut rice, a selection of good sushi or a poke bowl.

Classic cancon music pairing: Besoin DAmour, Patsy Gallant
Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

Shaylene Bouchard hasn't had a bike to ride for a while, so she was grateful to get a new one in Penticton on Saturday.

Bouchard was one of several children and adults on the receiving end at the Bikes for Kids event, held at Skaha Ford.

"We are giving away bikes donated by the community, because everybody should have a bike," said organizer Marcia Colville with Investors Group Penticton.

Colville came up with the idea last Christmas when Investors Group, which does a lot of charity work, was doing Christmas hampers.

She suggested collecting a few bikes, but they decided to hold off until the spring when the weather was nicer.

"We came to the conclusion that Easter would be fun, so we could brighten these kids' holiday weekend," she said.

They partnered with the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs, which lined up the recipients of the bikes.

Jen Anderson, area director for the boys and girls clubs, said it was a good start for trying something for the first time.

"We are supporting the families by reducing barriers to getting bikes and promoting a healthy and active lifestyle at the same time," she said.

Along with donations from the community, the Bike Barn and Freedom the Bike Shop provided bikes, while Skaha Ford provided a location to store them.

On Saturday, the families joined the organizers for a few brief speeches, along with activities including face painting, 529 Garage bike registration done by community policing volunteers and food and beverages.

Kacia Reid, Shaylene's mother, said something like this really helps a single parent, like herself.

"It's a huge help, because a bike is a large expense and they outgrow them almost yearly," she said. "So this will get her out and active. It's fantastic."

Keremos resident Brittany Wachtler, who received a bike along with her son Tibor, said it was a big day for them.

"We are happy that they are donating bikes to people in the community that need them, and we are excited that Tibor is getting his first bike," she said.

Colville said after the success of the first Bikes for Kids, they hope to make this an annual event.
Photo: Contributed

Only nine days after national park supporters repaired their vandalized billboard sign and reinstalled it at a new location on Highway 3 closer to Osoyoos than its first debut, it has gone missing, they say.

The wooden billboard structure is still standing but the vinyl red and white skin is nowhere to be seen. All that remains are two small pieces of the red vinyl from the skin and a beer can.

I dont believe this has happened again, said Harry Nielsen. I drove by several times. I just couldnt believe it wasnt there. All I saw was a bare billboard with the skin ripped off.

The vandalism has been reported to the Osoyoos RCMP and they will share the information with the Keremeos RCMP to see if the two incidents are connected, say supporters.

Despite the apparent mischief, the South Okanagan Park Network says it will reinstall a new sign as soon as possible and has begun to fundraise for the purpose.

"If this represents the tactics of people who oppose the park, they arent sending a good message. Breaking the law and destroying private property is not an effective way for people to express their opinion about their opposition to a national park," said Doreen Olson, coordinator for SOSNPN.

"For more than a decade national park supporters have volunteered in the community, with business and with elected local, provincial and federal government representatives to share accurate information about the park concept and the benefits it would bring to our region.

There is no official confirmation from the RCMP on the incident at this time.

CPAWS-BC, a registered charity, has offered to help by accepting funds to replace the billboard .

Anyone wishing to help is asked to go online at www.cpawsbc.org/donate.
Photo: Contributed

There comes a time in many peoples lives when they cant silence the voices of despair, cant quell the urge to quit, can no longer exist as they have all their lives.

They reach a point when they realize that the dream job, the dream relationship, the dream life, everything they worked for, as wonderful as they all are, are not enough.

Some deaden themselves with alcohol, drugs, sex, a new house, a new car, a new TV, things. But for those who hunger for something more spiritual, today is a good day to start looking.

We can transform ourselves any day, any moment. Nothing chains us to the past other than our thoughts. We dont have to wait until next week, next year or when we retire to weave a cocoon or to rise in phoenix fire.

But Easter Sunday is synonymous with transformation. Just as the butterfly emerges from its chrysalis, Jesus emerged after three days in the darkness of his tomb, changed and translucent.

We could start our process by chewing on the words in red. In older Bibles, the words of Jesus were in red, maybe to remind the reader this was important, that the black letters were the gravel that kept the gold nuggets in place.

Western civilization has marked Easter Sunday as a red-letter day, or used to on older calendars, as the day of transformation. But politics and religion aside, whether he was a man or a god is irrelevant; we can use his life and teaching as a template.

Whether he turned water into wine, fed the 5,000 with two fish and five loaves, raised Lazarus from the dead, or whether he died on that cross, or was even on the cross, matters not because his teaching can be transformative, as it has been for millions of people.

Even if we dont believe in God, the words in red can stand as a philosophy; they still reverberate and roll like thunder through the millennia.

Sure, sometimes those red words were twisted to fit someone elses agenda, but if we listen to their intent and majesty, its possible to go beyond the history, the politics and the religion, to hear the echo of transformation.

Some of the words in red include:

It is done unto you as you believe

The kingdom of heaven is within you.

All these things that I have done, you can do and greater things.

It is not written in your law, I have said, ye are gods?

Forgive.

In everything, give thanks.

Some of the most profound words in red are in the Sermon on the Mount, which include the Beatitudes, the Lords Prayer and Jesus version of the Golden Rule. (Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.)

If we lived the words in red, even if we have never walked past a church, much of the anxiety cloaking and choking a good chunk of Western society would evaporate.

The World Health Organization has decreed that anxiety is the most prevalent mental health problem in the world. It doesnt matter whether its London, Rome, Toronto, the Okanagan or any place in the Third World, anxiety is a plague.

And these are just the parts that have a touching resemblance to normalcy; imagine what its like in Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan.

Whats happening there makes our anxiety appear small, but since its personal to us, the circumstances surrounding the dis-ease is often irrelevant to the magnitude. If, as Jesus said, it is done onto us as we believe, we induce our own anxiety, our own fear, our own dread.

Our beliefs are like filters between us and the truth, Ernest Holmes writes in Science of Mind.

The truth is we have no control, but we want it desperately so we can feel safe, secure in the knowledge that nothing bad will ever happen to us and ours. But that is an illusion.

Jesus taught not my will, but thine.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

While biblical teaching can point the way, all transformation starts from inside. We walk into the tomb willingly, but we have no choice about what emerges from the dark.

What you run away from, runs you. What you face, you master. This is the path to enlightenment, Alan Cohen writes in Dare to be Yourself. Seek to use everything that come into your world for your transformation.

As we age and gravity works a profound change, even the most secular would like a little transformation, a nip here, a tuck there, a dye job, a teeth whitening, a personal trainer who will force us to sweat ourselves into the body we had at 21.

But sometimes the outward change is merely the beginning of the inner transformation.

While we start the process, eventually the process takes over and were along for the ride. We pay the tolls on a one-way street and theres no turning around, no matter how much we would like to.

Unless and until a man embarks on this quest of the true Self, doubt and uncertainty will follow his footsteps though life, said Ramana Maharshi, a Christ-like figure and one of the great saints of India.

Whats the use of knowing about everything else when you dont know who you are? Men avoid this inquiry into the true Self, but what else is there so worthy to be undertaken?

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Contributed

A union representing staff at two Vancouver newspapers says it has reached a deal to save jobs after dozens of employees were issued lay off notices.

Postmedia announced plans last month to lay off 54 employees at the Vancouver Sun and the Province in a bid to cut costs at the newspaper chain.

Unifor Local 2000, which represents the workers, said at the time that it would fight the cuts.

The union has issued a statement saying a tentative deal has been reached with the company that "includes saving a number of jobs."

No details were provided, but the union says members will vote on the agreement on Wednesday.

Postmedia failed to reach a target set last fall to reduce its salary costs by 20 per cent and has since issued layoff notices to some employees at the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette and the Windsor Star.
The "ringleader" of a years-long telemarketing scheme must pay at least $65,000  and possibly up to $2.2 million  after settling with the Federal Trade Commission in a massive lawsuit.

The consumer protection agency said Thursday that Justin Ramsey, who was responsible for placing millions of unsolicited telemarketing calls to people on the national do-not-call list, will have to pay the full $2.2 million penalty if he and his company are found to have lied about their finances.

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Calling someone whose number is on the national do-not-call registry is illegal for telemarketers unless the recipient has provided his or her explicit, written permission or they have an existing business relationship with the caller.

But as far back as 2012, according to the FTC's lawsuit, Ramsey began collecting phone numbers from websites such as yellowpages.com and 411.com and began calling them in an attempt to sell home security systems.

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The number of calls grew to an enormous scale. In a single week in 2012, Ramsey allegedly placed 1.3 million prerecorded calls, 80 percent of which affected people who were already on the do-not-call list. The range of products Ramsey tried to sell gradually expanded to include "auto warranties, solar products, debt relief services, and vacation and travel packages,'" according to the complaint.

Even after the states of Indiana and Mississippi sued to stop the calls, Ramsey continued. In one case he threw out a document served to him by the Mississippi attorney general's office without reading it, according to the FTC complaint. In an email obtained by the FTC, Ramsey complained about the do-not-call list to a business partner.

The complaint names two other people as defendants: Brian Offner and Christopher Herghelegiu, who were executives of two companies also named in the suit. Both men settled separately with the FTC.

More than 2.4 billion robocalls are placed every month, according to the Federal Communications Commission, which has also taken action to stem the practice. Some are legitimate calls by businesses trying to serve their customers. But many other robocalls  such as the kind Ramsey made  are illegal. Unsolicited automated messages account for the largest source of consumer complaints to the FCC.

Phone companies have asked the government for greater leeway to block problematic calls before they ever reach consumers. In addition to selling services Americans do not want, robocalls are known to have misled innocent people into scams or fraudulent schemes that impose costs on millions of consumers. Many robocalls originate from overseas, or deliberately mask their location using a technique known as "spoofing."

The settlement now goes to a judge for final approval.
Q: I just took my 2012 Audi A3 TDI for an oil and filter change at a nearby service station. The employees told me they use standard Mobil 1 oil and that this oil is fully compatible with my Audi/VW diesel engine. It was only after the fact that I thought to take a look at the Mobil 1 website, where it is indicated that Mobil 1 standard is not the recommended type of oil for my vehicle. What I've been unable to determine so far is whether "not recommended" means not ideal but will do the job  or does it mean, don't wait another day and go get the expensive synthetic oil replaced? The car is no longer under warranty. Later this year it will be sold back to Audi/VW under the buyback program. Thoughts?

 B.J., Philadelphia

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A: "Audi is very particular about the type of oil that can be used in their vehicles, especially since this is a diesel. The regular Mobil 1 does not have a current diesel API rating and would not interact well with the Diesel Particulate Filter. This vehicle needs to be using the Mobil 1 ESP 5W-30, which is specially formulated to protect both the engine and the emissions system. I would replace the oil as soon as possible. If anything happens to the engine, we cannot warranty the oil," according to Jake Ackerman of ExxonMobil. Audi spokesperson Amelia Fine-Morrison said that "the vehicle in question  needs a low-ash synthetic, and therefore the Mobil 1 standard is not recommended. The shop should be held responsible for this error, and we recommend that the customer request that it is replaced with an approved product. While the replacement does not need to happen today, it should be replaced soon. For reference on approved oils, 504/507 oils are what are needed for the TDI engines, as stated in the owner's manual."

Q: I have a 2008 Hyundai Elantra. I have noticed that when I use my TomTom GPS at highway speeds, the mph reading on the GPS is usually 4 mph less than what is shown on my speedometer. In your opinion is the GPS actually more accurate than the speedometer?

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 F.S., Millville, N.J.

A: Geopositioning satellites orbit about 12,550 miles above the earth. Although there are algorithms to correct for delay, your TomTom may not be as accurate as your vehicle speedometer. It is easy to check your speedo. Have a friend clock you with a stopwatch while you maintain exactly 60 mph over one mile, or better yet, over five miles. If it does not jibe at 60 seconds per mile, your speedo is off. Of course an alternative is to speed past a trooper and see if his radar reading is the same as your speedometer reading. This is usually a more expensive option, though.

Q: The instrument cluster on our 2004 Buick LeSabre has been acting strange lately. The rpm gauge is always at zero and the speed gauge acts erroneous at times. The gauge indicated speeds as high as 140 mph when driving very slowly. Is there an easy fix for this problem?

 D.C., Camillus, N.Y.

A: Instrument panel clusters are self-contained units. The entire cluster must be replaced. There are numerous companies repairing and rebuilding clusters. You can search for them on the internet. One shop we have used to replace the cluster on Mrs. Motormouth's car is Southern Electric (www.instrumentclusters.com, 888-363-1599).

Send questions along with name and town to Motormouth, Rides, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Fourth Floor, Chicago, IL 60611 or motormouth.trib@verizon.net.
A standing ovation is typically reserved for the end of a truly impressive performance. But on Saturday night at The Vic, as comedian Norm Macdonald took the stage for the first of two sold-out shows in a bright orange polo shirt and a black jacket (the same outfit he wore a year ago when he made a special appearance opening for Adam Sandler at the Chicago Theatre), the entire crowd got to their feet and cheered.

This is the reaction of true believers before their idol. And in more than a few circles, Macdonald has unlocked idol status.

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Depending on who you talk to, Macdonald, who cracks wise with a halting, seemingly bumbling cadence that intentionally lulls and misleads before dropping unexpectedly pointed punchlines, is either one of the greatest comics of all time, or a completely unfunny drudge. Obviously the audience at The Vic was comprised of many more people from the former group than the latter.

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With his unique delivery and unpredictable storytelling style, watching a Norm Macdonald set is akin to witnessing what it would be like if the word "droll" were to take human form, grab a microphone and start telling jokes.

Even the way he walked into the standing ovation was framed by his calmly enigmatic personality, as he interrupted the cheers to launch into a lengthy bit about how he didn't want to use the same microphone as his opener (longtime Macdonald pal Stevie Ray Fromstein).

Mixing laughter and puzzlement, an expectant audience gamely followed along as Macdonald went so far as to walk offstage and come back with a second stand and microphone. But this microphone didn't have any sound. So, after a Kaufman-esque minute of fiddling with it and looking around concernedly, Macdonald left the new mic on stage, walked back offstage and came back with the original microphone to begin his set in earnest (or had he already begun?).

Most of Macdonald's rambling 70 minutes centered around morality, the impossibility of understanding the world around us, the pure existential angst of being alive, and homosexuality (a topic that he has long had a fascination with, recently taking to calling himself "a deeply closeted gay man").

He said he can understand why people commit suicide. "I can never understand why a person would do that!" he says friends tell him. "And I go, 'You don't?!? What, do you live in a cotton candy house?'" To Macdonald, life is a giant, boring book. Once you've gotten halfway through, if it's not captivating you, stop reading.

Sipping occasionally from cans of Red Bull, he delivered a seemingly stream-of-consciousness show, sometimes starting anecdotes before changing course in the middle of a sentence  or at least appearing to.

In discussing his own youthful transgressions, Macdonald started with, "I admit that I've shoplifted and " Here he trailed off, stretching his arms and pausing a few seconds longer than a safer comedian might. "Manslaughter," he came back with. "You ever manslaughter? I slaughtered a man."

And then, as he does repeatedly with the tales in his recently released book "Based on a True Story: A Memoir," he takes the story to ridiculous lengths. The "slaughter" takes hours. He describes his method. He describes the victim. A judge flies in to witness it. He finds himself in a courtroom pleading his case. And then, abruptly, he changes course and topic.

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This gets back to the benefits of his unique delivery; although his transitions are not always narratively seamless, his dry delivery  characterized by deceptive pauses and unexpected turns  effortlessly carries him from joke to joke.

"I have 10 to twelve hours of material," he said at one point by way of explanation. "Other guys have honed, precise material." But that's part of Macdonald's appeal: even if you've heard some of these bits before (and plenty of the material from his early show has been seen previously), his storytelling style allows him the leeway to switch it up enough from set to set that you're not just hearing recited lines.

"I never end properly with stand-up comedy," he said near the end of his set. "And I know how to end because I've seen a lot of stand-up comedy." He then went on to describe the typical conclusion of a stand-up show: comedian tells especially funny and memorable joke, audience roars, as laughter builds comedian quickly says "Good night" and exits before the laughter ends.

Macdonald knows this is how it's supposed to work. But it's not what he does.

Instead he started talking to members of the audience in the front row, pointing out that one audience member had a shirt with his face on it. "You must really like me," he said, beaming, and following it up with a question: "You know who doesn't like me?" He then gestured to the people directly next to the shirt-wearing fan.

"Why don't you like me?" he then asked bluntly.

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"You were better four years ago," came the equally blunt reply. As a loud boo went up through the theater, Macdonald simply nodded, reiterated the statement and then agreed: "Of course I was better four years ago!"

This is another of Macdonald's traits that endears him to his fans: he is perpetually unfazed. Perhaps this is because all of life seems consistently absurd to him. "Getting through life takes a lot of pretending on your part," he said at one point.

Luckily, Macdonald didn't have to pretend to enjoy the second standing ovation he got when he closed out his set with a joke he pointedly noted he also performed four years ago.

Zach Freeman is a freelance writer.

ctc-arts@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @ZachRunsChicago

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Celebrating Easter Sunday Mass on the South Side, Cardinal Blase Cupich called up families impacted by violence and gave them a blessing to relieve their suffering and grant them peace.

Cupich hosted a jubilant two-hour-long Mass at St. Columbanus Catholic Church, celebrating his first Easter since being elevated to the rank of cardinal in November. Instead of hosting services at Holy Name Cathedral near downtown, Cupich chose the Park Manor neighborhood church, one of the city's oldest African-American parishes.

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The cardinal performed four baptisms during the Mass before asking for peace and tranquillity to be restored to Chicago's neighborhoods and for the public to act as peace builders and ambassadors of love.

"Today we stand together as a community of faith to support our brothers and sisters here today who have been affected by senseless violence," Cupich told a congregation of more than 100. "We also ask you to protect all of our children, all of our families from violence, keep us safe from the weapons of hate."

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Kayla George was one of about 20 people who walked up to the cardinal and remembered the loss her family endured when her oldest brother was shot and killed in 2004 in Englewood at the age of 25, the same age she is now.

"I thought it was nice. It actually made me cry," said George, whose 5-month-old daughter also was baptized by Cupich on Sunday.

Reflecting on her brother's death, the Roseland neighborhood resident talked about the violence plaguing the city.

"Sometimes it makes me scared to go in certain areas," George said. "I'm very aware of my surroundings. It makes me think twice about hanging with certain people."

Sunday marked the second occasion during the holy weekend that Cupich publicly called for peace on Chicago's streets and recognized the toll violence has taken on the city's residents.

On Good Friday, Cupich led a peace walk alongside elected officials, civic leaders and residents through the Englewood neighborhood as he prayed the annual Stations of the Cross, pausing along the route to remember those whose lives were lost to gun violence.

More than 4,300 people were shot and more than 760 killed in Chicago in 2016. So far this year, the city has seen nearly 900 shooting victims through Sunday morning, according to data collected by the Tribune. There were at least 165 homicides in the city through Friday night, according to Tribune data.

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Earlier this month, Cupich pledged $250,000  half of his discretionary funds  to support grass-roots anti-violence programs.

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The cardinal's messages struck a chord with Mary Stevenson, 72, who traveled from Markham to the church for a baptism during the Easter service.

"It's just a sad feeling. You see so much of it on TV and so many young people that are dying," Stevenson said. "What do we do? How do we get past this? I feel for the parents who lose their children. I'm a great-grandmother and I had to sit there and pray that my family is OK. ... I just want to cry. I wish there was something I could do to help."

As Chicago's Roman Catholic leader, Cupich spoke after the Mass about the blessing he gave.

"We have so many parishes that are on the front lines where violence is at the front door of our churches," Cupich said. "It's pastors like Father Matt (O'Donnell) and many others that we have here in Chicago who are offering comfort to our people. So it's only appropriate that I join in that wonderful support and prayer."

lvivanco@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @lvivanco
Chicago police are investigating after a man in his 20s or 30s was found dead early Sunday morning, facedown in a pond.

About 8 a.m., authorities with the marine unit were sent to the West Ridge Nature Preserve in the 5800 block of North Western Avenue, officials said. Dispatchers had gotten a call that a man was floating facedown in a pond on the nature preserve, police said.

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A passing pedestrian saw the body and made the call. Investigators from the marine unit were joined by detectives who launched a death investigation after the body was recovered.

Officials have not yet identified the man but said he was an adult and they estimated his age to be between 20 and 30, police said.

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Check back for more information as it becomes available.
Chicago police interrogated Arnold Day for several hours before he confessed to two homicides.

At trial, Day testified that he confessed only after one officer kicked him in the back of the head and another choked him and threatened to throw him out a window.

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A jury in 1993 acquitted him of one of the killings, but another convicted him of the second slaying.

Day spent more than 20 years behind bars before a state commission earlier this year found sufficient evidence of torture.

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Taxed with a mounting caseload, the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission brought in private attorneys who had never heard of Day's case to investigate his claim on a pro bono basis.

"Our job was not to advocate at all. Our job was to investigate," said Mark Schwartz, an attorney with Chicago's Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd.

Now the cash-strapped commission needs even more help.

A recent change in the law expanded the panel's jurisdiction beyond claims of torture related to disgraced former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge  which had been its charge since its inception in 2009  to anyone convicted in Cook County based on confessions allegedly coerced through torture.

"The new law quintupled our caseload," Executive Director Rob Olmstead recently told senators in Springfield.

The influx of cases brought the total the panel is required to investigate to nearly 400, pushing the commission not only to reach out to established law firms, but also law school interns and even high school students, who do clerical work.

"We can't deal with those numbers the way we're set up now," Olmstead told the Tribune. "I think the legislature's intention was laudable. They wanted to bring potential relief to what they thought was a wider pool of people who needed it, and that's great, but now we need to practically find a way to do it."

Almost immediately after the law went into effect last summer, more than 200 requests for claim forms came in, but it was unknown how many would translate into actual claims.

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So far, more than 180 new claims have been filed, spokesman Michael Theodore said. The commission staff also must investigate 121 cases that had been filed under the old law but sat in limbo because of jurisdictional questions. The new law cleared the path for those to move forward, as well as roughly 75 backlogged cases, Theodore said.

Cases in which the commission finds a preponderance of evidence of torture by police are referred to Cook County Circuit Court for a hearing. A judge may then grant a new trial. Since the panel first began receiving cases in 2011, commissioners have denied more claims than they referred, Theodore said.

Investigations often take years. At least two men died while waiting for their cases to be heard, records show.

Burge and officers who worked under him are alleged to have tortured suspects, most of them African-American, in the 1970s and '80s. Burge was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice for denying knowledge of the torture and was released from federal prison in 2014.

The city of Chicago has spent tens of millions of dollars to settle Burge-era lawsuits, including a $4 million settlement approved in January for a man who spent nearly a quarter-century behind bars.

The laborious process of obtaining court transcripts, police reports and other records sometimes require commission attorneys to go to court, said Cheryl Starks, a former Cook County judge who serves as the panel's chairwoman.

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"In the meantime, every day a person sits in prison who shouldn't be there is an injustice," Starks said.

Last year, the commission decided 16 cases, the highest number in years, Olmstead said. Even at that accelerated rate, the commission would need more than 23 years to make it through the cases currently before them.

While the initial rush of claims has slowed, about three to five claims continue to trickle in weekly, Olmstead said. The new law also extended the deadline to file claims to Aug. 10, 2019.

Olmstead was in Springfield this month making a plea for $10,000 to add to the commission's roughly $300,000 budget. The amount was more of a stopgap measure, he said, and would be used to pay for a grant writer.

Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, who sponsored the law creating the commission, was skeptical it would be sufficient.

"That is not even a decimal point on what we're dealing with," said Trotter, who said Burge and his crew did not operate in a vacuum.

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"If you know you have a problem, and you say you are going to address it, you give people the tools to address it," he said. "If you want to catch a rat, you got to make sure you have a lot of rat catchers."

The commission's funding has long been tenuous, and officials said the state's budget impasse isn't helping. At one point in 2012, the General Assembly pulled the commission's funding, forcing a temporary closure.

While the commission waits, Olmstead is grateful for the pro bono attorneys who heeded his call.

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Schwartz, the attorney who helped investigate Day's claim with an associate attorney from his firm, Carter Stewart, said his firm has signed on for another case. The experience was rewarding, he said, and especially beneficial for lawyers early in their careers. They reviewed about 10,000 pages of records, conducted video interviews and drafted a report with their findings that they presented to the commission.

They documented seven instances in which Day described his alleged torture, though they noted his descriptions were not completely consistent. The report states that Day offered an alibi in the killing of Raphael Garcia, and a jury later acquitted him. The eyewitnesses in the second killing, that of Jerrod Erving, recanted.

That Day may not have been at the scene of Garcia's killing casts doubt on both confessions, they wrote.

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"If Day did not murder Garcia, then there is little reason to believe he would have confessed to that crime  a confession he gave concurrently with the confession of the Erving murder for which Day is now incarcerated  absent coercion," the report concluded.

Day, who filed his claim with the commission in 2011 and is imprisoned downstate, awaits his next court hearing in hopes of eventually winning a new trial.

deldeib@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @deldeib
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un boasted in January that the country was making significant progress in its efforts to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking American targets in the Pacific. (Korean Central News Agency)

Reporting from Seoul, South Korea  North Korea attempted a new missile launch from an eastern city on the Sea of Japan early Sunday, but the operation ended in failure shortly after launch, U.S. and South Korean officials said.

It was not clear whether it was a long-range ballistic missile, but the attempted launch in South Hamgyong province, near a major submarine base at Sinpo, was a sign of the secretive country's continuing attempts to develop an aggressive weapons program.

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U.S. Pacific Command said it detected a missile about 6:20 a.m. Korean time. The device apparently "blew up almost instantly," Cmdr. Dave Benham, a command spokesman, said in a statement. The type of missile is still unknown, he said.

As of Sunday morning, North Korean state media hasn't reported on the test failure. Even government minders chaperoning foreign journalists on a tour of Pyongyang did not know that it had happened.

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On Pyongyang's streets, the mood was calm. Residents  on a three-day vacation for the 105th birthday of the country's founder-president Kim Il Sung  relaxed in rowboats on the Taedong River, which runs through the city, and roller-skated in a small park.

They lined up by the hundreds to file through a flower exhibition where models of intercontinental ballistic missiles were flanked by displays of flowers named for Kim and his son, Kim Jong Il, who ruled the country until his death in 2011.

"This is to demonstrate the might of our national defense," said a guide in a traditional Korean dress. "The scientists and technicians working in national defense, they show their respectful feelings for our president Kim Il Sung."

The missile launched Sunday was never a threat to the United States mainland, though North Korea's increasingly sophisticated weapons are considered a threat to its neighbors, including South Korea and Japan.

"U.S. Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security," Benham said.

The test missile launch fell short of international fears that the secretive state would attempt its sixth test of a nuclear weapon.

In Washington, the reaction was muted.

"The president and his military team are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch," U.S. Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said in a statement. "The president has no further comment."

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The launch came as Vice President Mike Pence flew to Seoul for a 10-day Asia trip intended to discuss North Korea's nuclear ambitions and assure allies in the region.

Sources: globalsecurity.org, Times reporting NORTH KOREA CHINA RUSSIA SOUTH KOREA JAPAN Pyongyang Beijing Tokyo Seoul Punggye-ri, site of previous nuclear tests Sinpo, area of Sundays failed missile launch Missiles launched in a demonstration last month 0 100 mi 100 MILES

North Korea has been conducting frequent tests of ballistic missiles as part of its program to develop a missile capable of reaching the continental United States  a goal many analysts say is at least a decade away.

The attempted launch on Sunday came a day after a massive military parade in Pyongyang, hosted in celebration of the 105th birthday of Kim Il Sung.

On April 15, 2016, North Korea also attempted the test launch of a medium-range ballistic missile, apparently to mark the founder's birthday. That test also failed, but the effort nonetheless drew condemnation from the United Nations Security Council.

The attempted launch, failed or not, is a pointed rebuke at strengthened warnings from China and the U.S., and raises concerns that North Korea is attempting to continue its advance toward becoming a nuclear state despite years of effort by the international community to curb the country's atomic program.

North Korea conducted the test at the same time that it invited dozens of foreign journalists for a rare glimpse inside the reclusive state  and as the world's attention is focused on the region.

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The isolated nation has conducted at least 50 missile tests since the dynastic young ruler Kim Jong Un took power after his father's death in 2011, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan research group in Washington that maintains a database of the nation's activities.

That includes two dozen since the beginning of 2016, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The North successfully launched a medium-range missile, called the KN-15, on the morning of April 5 from a land-based site near the eastern port city of Sinpo, according to U.S. Pacific Command headquarters.

It traveled for nine minutes before landing in the East Sea, as have other recent missiles. That missile test prompted a quick response from U.S. military officials who monitor the North's airspace for provocations; they said it never posed a threat to the American mainland.

North Korea launched the first ballistic missile under President Trump a month after he took office.

The rogue state is still technically at war with South Korea, a U.S. ally that has about 28,000 American forces stationed on bases that are largely within a few hundred miles of the shared Korean border.

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North Korea's military, in a statement released Friday through the official Korean Central News Agency, warned it would "ruthlessly ravage" the U.S. if it came under attack.

The country has handed a lengthy prison sentence to an American tourist, and been accused by South Korea of sneaking across the border in 2015 and planting land mines that severely injured two soldiers.

Malaysian authorities have also accused North Korea of helping carry out the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of Kim Jong Un. That attack  during the day at a crowded Kuala Lumpur international airport  allegedly involved VX nerve agent, a banned chemical weapon.

The North, which security experts say could have more than a dozen nuclear devices, first conducted an underground test in 2006. The tests' power has increased over time, and last year state media reported advancements in the miniaturization and manufacturing of nuclear warheads in addition to its strongest experiment to date in September.

"The standardization of the nuclear warhead will enable the DPRK to produce at will and as many as it wants a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power," the government said in September, using a preferred acronym to identify the country.

"This has definitely put on a higher level the DPRK's technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles."

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Security experts in recent years have begun to shift their focus away from disarming the country to studying methods for deterring the country's desire to use them  and also thinking about limiting its ability to deliver them.

At the same time, the North has made steady progress in its land- and sea-based missile programs, which already have the ability to strike regional American allies in Seoul or Tokyo. In a televised New Year's Day message this year, Kim boasted that the country was also making significant progress in its effort to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking American targets in the Pacific Ocean, or perhaps even the U.S. mainland.

"We see the North Korean weapons programs as increasingly destabilizing, both for Northeast Asia and for the globe," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton.

Range of North Korean ballistic missiles. (Joe Fox and Thomas Lauder )

A looming concern for American officials is the extent to which China can  or is willing to  apply additional economic pressure to persuade the North to denuclearize, or perhaps to talk about it. Trump said recently that the United States would tackle the problem alone, if needed, a posture questioned by experts who note the issue's regional complexity.

"We want to see even better cooperation to try to bring about a solution to the North Korea threat, but we'll certainly be talking to them about what more they can do, and we are looking to them to be doing more in the future," Thornton said.

China, which has supported international sanctions efforts, also fears destabilizing the Kim government. If the country were to fall, the Chinese face the prospect of a refugee crisis on their shared border or, perhaps more troubling to them, a united Korea backed by the United States.

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Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, on Friday warned that conflict could break out "at any moment" and cautioned both sides to stay calm.

"Once a war really happens, the result will be nothing but multiple loss," he said. "No one can become a winner."

jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com

Special correspondents Stiles reported from Seoul and Meyers from Beijing, and Times staff writer Kaiman reported from Pyongyang, North Korea. Times staff writer W.J. Hennigan contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

ALSO

Timeline: How North Korea has pushed to become a nuclear power

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North Korea: A potential train wreck in motion

North Korea puts its long-range missiles on parade in massive military show

UPDATES:

7:45 p.m.: This story was updated with details from Pyongyang, North Korea.

5:30 p.m.: The story was updated with a statement from the U.S. defense secretary.

4:35 p.m.: The story was updated with a statement from U.S. Pacific Command.

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This story was originally published at 4:25 p.m.
By reversing President Barack Obama's efforts to reduce America's carbon footprint, Donald Trump continues to build his bridge to the 1950s. Although he no doubt thinks of himself as a strong leader, his policy on the environment is either clueless or cynical. Unless he can change the laws of physics, chemistry and biology, climate change will continue to alter the very nature of the planet on which all of us depend for our survival.

By promising to bring back coal jobs, he ignores the fact that those jobs vanished even though Obama's Clean Power Plan was stalled by the courts. The jobs were eliminated partly due to the increased use of natural gas produced by fracking. They were also lost when coal companies employed machinery to a far greater extent in their mining operations. Is he really going to tell coal companies that they must scrap their machinery and hire people to extract coal?

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He also ignores the fact that solar and wind energy are two of the fastest growing segments of our economy and have created new American jobs. If Trump had been president in the early 20th century, no doubt he would have fought the rise of the automobile industry to save jobs in the horse breeding and horse carriage industries.

 Michael McInerney, Chicago
A new superintendent advisory council in Waukegan District 60 is made up of junior April Barrera, sophomore Aurora Flores Gaytan, sophomore Cesar Moino-Guzman, sophomore Rejanae Jemerson, senior Misael Martinez-Tolentino and senior Carson Newsome from Waukegan High Schools Washington campus; sophomore Alex Galvez, sophomore Thomas Morris, senior Soubrette Johnson, sophomore Scarlet Mencia-Cardoza, freshman Melisa Nunez Garcia and senior Kyra Stiver from Brookside campus; sixth-grader Brian Botero from Abbott Middle School; sixth-grader Celeste Esparza from Juarez Middle School; seventh-graders Santiago Garcia and Milan Moore from Benny Middle School; sixth-grader Kaleyana Jones from Webster Middle School; and sixth-grader Edward Taylor and eighth-grader Mahira Shujathullah from Jef (Nick Alajakis / HANDOUT)

Participating in after-school activities can be tough for many Waukegan students, including Jefferson Middle School eighth-grader Mahira Shujathullah.

That's why she wants to talk to Waukegan District 60 Superintendent Theresa Plascencia about adding an activity bus, so more kids can get involved.

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Mahira is getting her chance.

She was one of 19 students, from sixth-graders through high school seniors, chosen to serve on the new superintendent advisory council.

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The other students include junior April Barrera, sophomore Aurora Flores Gaytan, sophomore Cesar Moino-Guzman, sophomore Rejanae Jemerson, senior Misael Martinez-Tolentino and senior Carson Newsome from Waukegan High School's Washington campus; sophomore Alex Galvez, sophomore Thomas Morris, senior Soubrette Johnson, sophomore Scarlet Mencia-Cardoza, freshman Melisa Nunez Garcia and senior Kyra Stiver from Brookside campus; sixth-grader Brian Botero from Abbott Middle School; sixth-grader Celeste Esparza from Juarez Middle School; seventh-graders Santiago Garcia and Milan Moore from Benny Middle School; sixth-grader Kaleyana Jones from Webster Middle School; and sixth-grader Edward Taylor from Jefferson Middle School.

Making the selections was difficult, Plascencia said.

The students will provide her feedback and brainstorm on different topics, a similar set-up to the one she has with the buildings' principals.

"I believe in giving our students a voice, showing them advocacy and empowering them to be the leaders among themselves," she said.

The students were chosen from 80 applications, according to district spokesman Nick Alajakis, who added that interviews were one of the most enjoyable things he's gotten to do.

"They were smart, and they were funny, and they were articulate," Alajakis said, adding that their passion about their district was evident.

Many of them talked about wanting to help their classmates, he said.

The first meeting is set and the agenda already has quite a few items like dress code and the cellphone policy on it, Alajakis said.

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The in-person meetings will occur monthly, but the students will ultimately have the ear of superintendent and the board at any time because they can email her with any issues or concerns, he said.

One of the students may also be chosen to sit on the school board in an advisory role, something that board member Miguel Rivera has asked, Alajakis said.

Soubrette Johnson, a senior at Brookside campus, said she decided to apply despite having only a few months left before graduating because Waukegan High School is like family to her.

"Being a senior, I knew all the pros and cons at Waukegan High School," said Soubrette, who's still deciding between colleges. "I knew what needed to be changed and what needed to be kept going."

She said she thinks the teachers and administrators do a good job explaining where they're coming from and working with students to reach solutions, but she wishes she had learned more about African-American heritage and civil rights history that would put what's happening today in context.

Mahira would also like to see improvements in organization and communication across the district, and more technology focused on the upper grades instead of the elementary schools, she said.

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The council is a "really good idea" because it represents a lot of different grades and has both newcomers to the districts and students like Mahira, who have been in the district since preschool.

"There's no better way to get answers than to ask who it's going to affect," Soubrette said. "If it's not benefiting the students, what's the point?"

emcoleman@tribpub.com

Twitter @mekcoleman
Lake County voters are a step closer to being able to vote on whether they'd like to vote  that is, if there are enough votes for a bill being pushed by state Sen. Terry Link (D-Waukegan) in Springfield.

The bill, which moved out of the Senate's Local Government Committee earlier this month, would put a public question on the 2018 ballot, asking voters whether they think the chairman of the Lake County Board should be elected at-large. If the referendum passes, the first countywide election for board chairman would be in 2020.

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Right now, the board chairman is selected in similar fashion to the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, with members deciding among themselves who will be the chairman. For example, current Chairman Aaron Lawlor was elected in District 18 and represents Vernon Hills and Indian Creek, along with parts of Hawthorn Woods, Long Grove, Mundelein and unincorporated Lake County. The board then chose Lawlor to be its chairman.

Lake County is the only remaining Chicago-area county that does not choose its leader in an at-large election. Cook, DuPage, Will, Kane and McHenry counties all already do so.

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"This is about giving the voters the opportunity to hold their county government accountable," Link said in a news release. "The voters should have the right to decide who runs the day-to-day operations of the county services they pay for."

Link amended his bill after Lawlor publicly raised concerns about it. The original legislation would have simply mandated that Lake County voters elect the chairman at-large beginning in 2020. But Lawlor wanted voters to be able to vote on whether they want to vote first  and Link obliged.

Lawlor also wanted Link to include binding questions on the proposed 2018 referendum about whether the County Board should be reduced in size and whether the county should find a way to more fairly and independently draw the boundaries between board districts. But those proposals weren't included in the amendment to the bill. Link has previously said the County board can undertake those efforts itself without the help of the state legislature.

Lawlor said any referendum the county, rather than the state, forwards to voters wouldn't be binding but would only be advisory. Nevertheless, he said, the county will "move forward with the reform package with or without the state as a partner."

The county has formed a government reform commission to consider Lawlor's proposals. The 16-member commission includes Link, who is also chairman of the Lake County Democratic Party; Mark Shaw, the chairman of the Lake County Republican Party; retired County Administrator Ike Magalis; and retired state Reps. JoAnn Osmond (R-Gurnee) and Kathy Ryg (D-Vernon Hills), among others.

Of course, Link's bill isn't law yet. The full Senate  and the Illinois House  still have to vote on the matter.

Judge dismisses dispute between county, townships

A federal judge earlier this month dismissed a lawsuit brought by five township assessors and a group of taxpayers against Lake County and Marty Paulson, the chief county assessment official.

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The county said the five assessors who brought the suit, "have unlawfully been making changes to property values annually," as opposed to every four years, as required by state law, Communications Manager Jennie Vana said in an email.

Meanwhile, the assessors in the Grant, Ela, Libertyville, Cuba and Vernon townships accused Paulson and Lake County of making "a blanket reversal of most of the (property valuation) changes (the assessors) submit, without even reviewing them," because, they allege, Paulson believes townships should be abolished. The complaint accuses Paulson of eliminating the changes the assessors made to more than 17,000 of property within 72 hours, "simply to retaliate against the township assessors."

The complaint gives as an example one commercial taxpayer who, after a call to Paulson, received a revaluation reduction of $11 million without a hearing, reducing the taxpayer's taxes by more than $900,000 and causing other taxpayers in the township to make up the difference.

The judge dismissed the plaintiffs' claims, saying they did not sufficiently make the case that the county was depriving them of their equal-protection and due-process rights. The judge found the Illinois Property Tax Code gives Paulson the authority to revise the assessors' decisions.

"The facts are very clear, and I believe they're in our favor," Lawlor said, adding that "litigation should be our last option, not our first." He acknowledged the tax code is "cumbersome, confusing, and, I think, broken," and he said he wants to work with the townships rather than "using tax dollars to sue each other."

Lake County News Sun Twice-weekly News updates from Lake County delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Close race in North Chicago

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Five to three. That's not the score of the latest Blackhawks game, but the current tally in the race for alderman in North Chicago's 7th Ward between independent challenger Paula Carballido (who has three votes) and write-in incumbent Kathy January (who has five).

January was taken off the ballot after Carballido successfully challenged her nominating papers.

With such a low turnout, and a thin margin, the result of the race could still change before results are made official Tuesday. There were still nearly 3,400 uncounted ballots across the county as of Wednesday, most of them vote-by-mail ballots.

Stay tuned for more on the race's final result  and a look at why turnout was so low in that ward.

lhammill@tribpub.com

Twitter @lucashammill
It's Election Day, Pueblo. Make sure your vote is counted

Ballots must be returned to a staffed voter center or a drop box by 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8 at the latest to be counted. It's not too late to register.
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Aerial photo taken on April 1, 2017 shows Xiongxian County, north China's Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Wang Xiao)

China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have voiced support for Xiongan New Area in Hebei province, pledging efforts to participate in its construction.

Telecom giants China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom said they would offer advanced communication services to the area, supported by innovative models such as cloud computing, big data and e-commerce.

China Mobile and China Telecom will make sure Xiongan is covered by a 5G network.

Wang Yupu, chairman of oil giant Sinopec, said the company will increase investment into geothermal energy in Hebei, and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) plans to focus on natural gas businesses in the region.

China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) joined the chorus of support, promising a plentiful supply of clean energy to the region.

Other state firms, including China Guodian Corp., and China Huaneng Group, also pledged to contribute to the construction of the new area.

The plan for Xiongan New Area was officially announced on April 1. The new area will span Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin counties in Hebei Province, eventually covering 2,000 square kilometers, with a population of 2 to 2.5 million.

Chinese leaders hope the new area will help address the severe "urban ills" of traffic congestion and air pollution in Beijing, by curbing the capital's population growth and moving non-capital functions out of Beijing.

China's top SOEs regulator on Friday announced it would establish a special working group to encourage state firms to map out future development strategies for the area.

"The centrally administered SOEs have been encouraged to support the construction of the zone in areas like energy security, infrastructure, electricity, telecommunications, rail transport, ecological protection, information-based network and smart city," noted the statement from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
A Chinese official has called for more to be done to ensure ecological security as the country observed National Security Education Day on Saturday.

China faces multiple challenges in this regard, including water loss, soil erosion and smog, noted an unnamed official with the National Development and Reform Commission.

China has 2.95 million square kilometers of land suffering from water losses and soil erosion, and 1.73 million square kilometers of desertificated land, according to the official.

To improve the environment, China needs to strengthen control and regulation over the use of land and resources, and implement green industrial policies, the official stressed.

Related laws and regulations should be improved to hold local officials to account when environment damage is incurred, the official said, calling for the building of a mechanism for paid use of natural resources.

China will also step up protection and restoration of the ecological system and address key problems such as water, air and soil pollution.

In addition, China will intensify monitoring of ecological security and actively engage in the global mechanism for improving the ecological environment, the official pledged.

China's environmental protection lags far behind its economic status, and decades of breakneck growth have left the country saddled with problems such as smog and contaminated waterways and soil.

Earlier this year, China's central authorities issued guidelines on an ecological "red line" strategy that will make certain regions protected. The zones will be clearly defined by the end of 2020.

China passed the National Security Law on July 1 of 2015, declaring April 15 the day to raise awareness of national security among the public.
The flag-lowering ceremony at Wagah border is a daily military practice that the security forces of India and Pakistan have jointly followed since 1959. The drill, characterized by elaborate and rapid dance-like maneuvers, has been described as "colorful." It is alternatively a symbol of the two countries' rivalry, as well as brotherhood and cooperation between the two nations. [Photo by Gong Jie/China.org.cn]

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a political, economic and security forum bringing together China, Russia and the Central Asian states of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In a matter of weeks, Pakistan and India will complete the requirements to attain full membership at the upcoming summit in June.

Originally named the Shanghai Five in 1996, the five-member forum helped to resolve border disputes and controlled arms transfers between China and Russia. Traditionally the SCO, as it was renamed in 2001, served as a political/security organization focusing on intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism efforts in Central Asia and cyber-terrorism.

The ethos of the platform has always remained in line with the "Shanghai spirit" as consensus, mutual respect and closer cooperation are compulsory in the decision making format, focusing on mutual assistance and the pursuit of shared development. All members are equal under the frame work of the group.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said recently, "We expect the process of providing full membership to India and Pakistan to be completed at the SCO Council of Heads of State meeting scheduled to be held in Astana next June. It is without a doubt a historical step that will elevate the political and economic profile of the SCO and significantly strengthen its security capabilities."

After this expansion, SCO will represent 40 percent of the world population; the addition of the two South Asian rivals greatly expands the sphere of influence of the organization as all important regional players come under the umbrella.

Ideally, the SCO could prove to be the perfect platform for solving Pakistan-India bilateral issues with dialogue and confidence-building measures on the borders. In the past it has helped China sign agreements with Russia and the Central Asian republics on the transparency of the deployment of conventional forces on borders.

In addition, SCO military exercises will enable India and Pakistan to take part in drills, trainings and data sharing that might improve their bilateral relations in the long run.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi outlined the proposed expansion as an ordered process at the SCO Summit in 2016. He noted that the accession of India and Pakistan was a new, maturing phase in the forum's development and member states should consult on improving organizational structure. He was optimistic about the accession of both states and surmised that the integration of a wider Asian region into the SCO would boost its growing relevance in global affairs, auguring well for the "vitality and bright prospects of the organization."

Critics differ over the proposed accession of India and Pakistan as they observe that "constant bickering" between the two nations would harm the equanimity and harmony of the organization, making it difficult to achieve consensus and slow down momentum of the SCO as specified in its development strategy toward 2025.

In any case, Pakistan was the first country outside the original grouping that applied for membership in 2005. Its inclusion augments its positive role as an anchor in regional trade, peace and stability.

The flagship corridor of the Belt & Road Initiative, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, traverses through Pakistan. It is the future transport link for exporting CARS energy resources and a gas pipeline project (TAPI) is already under construction.

Needless to say, Pakistan does not see any glitches ahead in its cohesion with other members. The anti-terrorism structure under the SCO provides Pakistan the opportunity to collaborate with the Central Asian states on security issues and to further explore military and technical cooperation with Russia and participate in communication projects with China.

Potentially, the SCO has similarities to the U.S.-led military alliance, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) but could ultimately be more like the United Nations as it gradually takes in more key members and focuses further on security. Having said that, SCO is not visualized as a "military bloc," and the alliance was formed to jointly meet challenges and it completely adheres to international law and the UN Charter.

Foreign media has often debated the real purpose of the forum, taking into account its Eastern elusiveness when it emerged in global politics ten years ago. As a journalist wrote, "In the muted chord of letters, it was easy to discern oriental, Asian symbols -- wild winds of the steppe, subtle murmurs of the desert, rustling wings of golden eagles and the hissing of a snake." Apparently, the SCO concept of multi-polarity appears confusing to the West which is used to a unipolar global order.

Lately, the organization aims to improve and synchronize security arrangements. At the 12th session of SCO Security Council secretaries in Astana, it was agreed to boost security cooperation, mutual political support and strategic trust. China proposed the signing of an anti-extremism treaty that could legally counter the three forces of extremism, separatism and terrorism and also work on cyber security and drug control.

Sabena Siddiqui (Twitter: @sabena_siddiqi) is a foreign affairs journalist and lawyer based in Pakistan.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
"The direction of China's science and technology development is innovation, innovation, and innovation."  President Xi Jinping, 2014

"The White House Office of American Innovation will focus on implementing policies and scaling proven private-sector models to spur job creation and innovation."  President Donald Trump, 2017

In 2016, China joined the ranks of the world's top 25 most innovative economies for the first time. Its performance in the Global Innovation Index was also the first time that a middle-income country has joined an area traditionally been dominated by the highly-developed economies.

China's progression from emerging economy to innovative nation reflects the country's substantial commitment to scientific and technological advancement. China has pledged to be a fully innovative country by 2020 and a global innovation leader by 2050, transforming the country from a factory-driven economy to an innovation-driven one. That commitment has been most visible in research and development expenditures that are edging closer to developed countries such as the U.S. A 2014 U.S. National Science Board report noted a clear and unmistakable trend: The center of high-tech gravity is shifting to Asia, and to China in particular.

This is not to say that U.S. innovative power has diminished, because it hasn't. Rather, China has risen to the competitive challenge through a combination of innovation policies and state-guided entrepreneurship. Since the reform and opening-up began, China has experienced rapid economic growth and advancement from low-end manufacturing and cheap products to high-tech creation.

This will have global game-changing consequences as China can rightly claim that its strategy of compressed development is a viable alternative model for emerging nations seeking to pursue scientific and technological innovation.

Both China and the U.S. believe that innovation is essential to continued economic development and prosperity. With this in mind, they pursue policies aimed at making innovation a key component in fostering policy solutions to a variety of economic and social challenges.

Chinese and U.S. innovation policies arose in different ways. Those in the U.S. grew out of World War II and the Cold War. Practical applications of research were married to academic interests and direct government funding in order to produce nuclear weapons, technologies for manned space flight, and Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

During the past 30 years, U.S. innovation policy has been focused primarily on maintaining the country's lead in basic research in science and technology while also promoting sustainable economic growth.

Chinese science and technology policy reflects the history of New China. In the early years, innovation policy largely emulated the Soviet model. In 1956, the central government implemented the country's first 12-year science and technology development plan. Since then, it has exponentially increased investment in basic research to place the country at the forefront of global innovation.

In 2016, President Xi Jinping noted that science and technology was to be a bedrock upon which "the country relies for its power, enterprises rely for success, and people rely for a better life."

However, "the situation of our nation being under others' control in core technologies of key fields has not changed fundamentally, and the country's science and technology foundation remains weak."

Strengthening this foundation requires a long-term strategy for promoting economic growth by advancing mass entrepreneurship and mass innovation. That strategy is prominent within the 13th Five-Year Plan.

Moving China towards indigenous innovation has been a long-standing plan, embodied in large part by successive policies such as the Medium and Long-term Plan for Science and Technology (MLP), the Five-Year Plan for Science and Technology (FYP), and the National Science and Technology Programs that have promoted technology transfers, increased research output, and boosted patent applications.

Echoing President Xi's concerns, Premier Li Keqiang's Government Work Report to the National People's Congress in the past two years stressed innovation. Specifically, Premier Li emphasized the need to implement policies that can promote technology innovation and the transformation of traditional industries, as well as strengthening China's capability to make technological innovations.

Part of this is the "Made in China 2025" strategy, moving the economy beyond the stage of creating value for labor-intensive industries into a deeper industrial manufacturing phase, which will include high-end technology. The policies include the creation of national innovation demonstration zones, financial support, facility construction and administrative assistance for start-ups, new financial service models, the simplification of foreign investment rules, and the reduction of regulations to create an amicable environment for business start-ups and innovation.

China is no longer the haven for cheap, low quality products that unfortunately remains fixed as a stereotype in the imagination of some Americans. China is home to four of the world's ten largest internet and technology companies  Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and Xiaomi.

China's transition from being an imitative latecomer to an innovation-driven leader should not be viewed by Americans as a threat. Rather, it should be seen as a welcome sign of growing global prosperity.

Dr. Jon R. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of St. Thomas in Houston.
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A disco in Mexico's Pacific coast resort of Ixtapa, Guerrero, which had been closed in the wake of a deadly shooting, burnt down in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday.

Authorities shuttered the Malkerida Disco after four people were shot dead inside the establishment last Saturday, two of them identified as members of a criminal ring.

ln a statement, Guerrero state's Secretary of Civil Protection said the 911 emergency hotline received a call at 3:20 a.m. reporting a fire at the disco, which is located at the Plaza Laguna shopping center along the resort's hotel strip.

"So far, we do not know what caused the fire, but believe it could have started at the Malkerida," the agency said.

The fire then spread to surrounding businesses and at least one home, according to the agency, with another disco-bar (Kopados) and a boutique (Too Late) burnt to the ground.

Another two bars and the home were partially damaged, while two other bars suffered minor damage.

No one was injured in the incident.
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United Airlines and the City of Chicago have agreed to preserve the evidence requested for a possible lawsuit related to the brutal removal of a passenger on April 9, said the passenger's lawyer on Saturday.

A hearing for the petition scheduled for next week "will not take place," said Thomas Demetrio, attorney for the passenger David Dao, in an email.

Demetrio filed the petition on behalf of Dao, the 69-year-old Vietnamese American doctor who was violently removed by Chicago aviation security officers from one United flight at O'Hare International Airport to make room for its own crew members.

Dao suffered concussion, broke his nose, and lost two front teeth, said his attorney on Thursday.

The video of this bloody incident went viral and sparked social media uproar, in which many echoed a call to boycott the airline.

Facing public outrage, United finally apologized and promised that this kind of incidents would never happen again.

It is not clear if the United would like to choose a settlement or go to court. The City of Chicago could also be sued, as the aviation security officers were hired by the city.
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More than 167,000 polling stations across Turkey opened at 7 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) on Sunday for a referendum on expanding presidential powers.

More than 55 million Turkish citizens, including 1 million first-time voters, will vote on constitutional amendment that proposes replacing the current parliamentary system with an executive presidential system.

The referendum, initiated by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will end at 4 p.m.(1300 GMT).

In Turkey's western provinces, the voting process will start and end one hour later than the official time. Ballot counting will begin as soon as the polls close.

The referendum is expected to attract a high turnout, with 1.2 million young people eligible to vote for the first time.

The "Yes" campaign is backed by the ruling Justice and Development Party and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party, whereas the main opposition Republican People's Party is in favor of "No."
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A Chinese frigate helped Panamanian ship ALHEERA who was attacked by pirates. [Photo: CGTN]

A convoy sent by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy rescued a Panamanian ship that was being attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday.The PLA Daily reported Sunday that Frigate Hengyang of China's 25th convoy fleet received a report around 9:30 p.m. Saturday Beijing Time from the Mercury system saying that the ship ALHEERA was under attack by five pirates and was requesting help.

Hengyang set out immediately and dispatched its shipboard helicopter to the area. The helicopter arrived at the oil tanker at around 10:30 p.m. and drove away the suspected pirates.

The ALHEERA was deemed safe and continued its passage, said the newspaper.

Since 2008, Chinese fleet have escorted more than 6,000 ships through this vital sea route and have successfully rescued or aided more than 60 Chinese and foreign ships.
TALLINN  Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli has expressed appreciation for Estonia's support and participation in the Belt and Road Initiative, calling on both sides to fully tap the potentials to step up economic and trade cooperation.

Zhang made the remarks while meeting with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid on Thursday evening in Tallinn, capital of the Baltic country.

Estonia is an important country by the Baltic Sea and an important partner of China in the Central and Eastern Europe, Zhang told Kaljulaid.

"China hopes the two countries can integrate each other's development strategies so as to add new impetus into the bilateral cooperation," Zhang said.

He called on both sides to fully explore cooperation potentials in the areas of infrastructure construction, production capacity, equipment manufacturing, agriculture and information technology in order to step up the bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

Zhang said China is willing to discuss with Estonia the possibility to cooperate on the Rail Baltic, an international rail connection that will connect Estonia with Central and Western Europe and its neighbors.

China attaches great importance to the relations with Estonia, said the vice premier. The two countries celebrated 25th anniversary of forging diplomatic ties last year, marking that the bilateral ties have entered a new stage of steady and mature growth, he added.

China would like to further cement traditional friendship with Estonia, enhance mutual trust, expand two-way cooperation so as to lift the relationship to a new height, Zhang said.

For her part, Kaljulaid said her country pays great importance to the exchanges with China at various levels under the "16+1" cooperation mechanism.

The "16+1" refers to China and the 16 Central and Eastern European countries.

Estonia would like to take the opportunity of the Belt and Road Initiative to expand its economic cooperation with China, she said.

Estonia will take the rotating EU presidency in the second half of 2017. Zhang said China firmly supports the European integration and hopes Kaljulaid and her country can exert active influence within the European Union (EU) so as to promote China-EU relations.

Kaljulaid said it is in line with both sides' interests that the EU conducts free trade with more partners. Estonia is committed to forging ahead EU-China ties, she added.

She also expressed her willingness to visit China at an early date and confidence in a brighter future of Estonia-China cooperation.

On Thursday night, Zhang also held talks with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas, calling on both countries to boost high-level exchanges and cooperation in areas including transportation and logistics, agriculture, culture and tourism.

He reaffirmed that China will continue its reform and opening up policy featuring mutual benefit and win-win results.

Ratas noted that the two countries' economic ties now are the closest ever in history, expressing willingness to deepen bilateral cooperation in areas of economy and trade, transportation, logistics and third-party market.

Estonia hopes to welcome more Chinese tourists, Ratas added.

Zhang arrived in Tallinn Thursday afternoon from Moscow for a two-day visit. This is the second leg of his nine-day visit to five Eurasia countries. The trip will also take him to Slovenia, Albania and Kazakhstan.
BEIJING  Trade between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region totaled $36.6 billion in the first two months of this year, down 1.5 percent year-on-year.

Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce showed that mainland-Hong Kong trade during the period accounted for 6.5 percent of the mainland's total overseas trade volume.

In January and February, mainland exports to Hong Kong hit $35.5 billion, an increase of 1.5 percent on a year-on-year basis, while the mainland's imports from the region saw a decrease of 48.9 percent to $1.1 billion.

Hong Kong is the mainland's sixth-largest trade partner and fourth-largest export market, according to the ministry.

The mainland approved 1,847 Hong Kong-invested projects in the first two months, with the actual use of Hong Kong capital reaching $14.9 billion, up 27.5 percent from the same period of last year.

By the end of February, the mainland had approved 400,813 Hong Kong-invested projects, with the actual use of Hong Kong capital reaching $929.7 billion, accounting for 52 percent of the total overseas investment in the mainland.
BEIJING  China's centrally administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have voiced support for Xiongan New Area in Hebei province, pledging efforts to participate in its construction.

Telecom giants China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom said they would offer advanced communication services to the area, supported by innovative models such as cloud computing, big data and e-commerce.

China Mobile and China Telecom will make sure Xiongan is covered by a 5G network.

Wang Yupu, chairman of oil giant Sinopec, said the company will increase investment into geothermal energy in Hebei, and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) plans to focus on natural gas businesses in the region.

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) joined the chorus of support, promising a plentiful supply of clean energy to the region.

Other state firms, including China Guodian Corp, and China Huaneng Group, also pledged to contribute to the construction of the new area.

The plan for Xiongan New Area was officially announced on April 1. The new area will span Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin counties in Hebei Province, eventually covering 2,000 square kilometers, with a population of 2 to 2.5 million.

Chinese leaders hope the new area will help address the severe "urban ills" of traffic congestion and air pollution in Beijing, by curbing the capital's population growth and moving non-capital functions out of Beijing.

China's top SOEs regulator on Friday announced it would establish a special working group to encourage state firms to map out future development strategies for the area.

"The centrally administered SOEs have been encouraged to support the construction of the zone in areas like energy security, infrastructure, electricity, telecommunications, rail transport, ecological protection, information-based network and smart city," noted the statement from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
People visit the China Import and Export Fair, or the Canton Fair, in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, April 15, 2017. The 121st Canton Fair kicked off on Saturday.[Photo/Xinhua]

More than half of foreign buyers and exhibitors at this year's spring Canton Fair, or 121st China Import and Export Fair, are from Belt and Road countries, organizers said.

Karn Chopra is a new buyer from India. This trip is the young man's first to the Canton Fair.

Karn said the fair is helpful to his business.

Although the young man said he knows little about the Belt and Road Initiative, he believes that trade between China and India will increase in the future.

"I think China and India are important trading partners." he said.

Because China is the world's second-largest economy and India has remarkable market potential, the bilateral business cooperation enjoys great development potential.

At present, some Chinese smartphone vendors, such as Xiaomi, have increased investment in the Indian market.

Last year, the China-India trade volume reached $70 billion.

The Belt and Road Initiative is a win-win project for China and these countries; they can achieve cooperation in many areas such as infrastructure and trade, a Russian buyer said.

The Belt and Road Initiative not only provides business opportunities to foreign companies, but also drives Chinese companies to search for deals in these countries.

Visitors from the Belt and Road countries have increased significantly, and orders from these countries are expected to reach a record, most Chinese exhibitors said.

The Belt and Road countries will be primary markets for our company in the future, said a man who works for Canca Group.
The Belt and Road Initiative may become China's most significant contribution to the Middle East peace process, China's special envoy on Middle East affairs said in Cairo during his recent visit to Egypt.

China seeks comprehensive solutions to the Middle East crisis, and an essential part of it will be economic restoration, where the Belt and Road Initiative will conjoin with restoration plans of regional countries, Gong Xiaosheng said in an interview with Chinese media outlets in Cairo.

BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE ECONOMIC SOLUTION TO CRISIS

"The ancient Silk Road witnessed frequent trade and cultural exchanges between the Arab world and China, which is part of the reason why the Middle East countries have been so eager to cooperate with China after the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013," Gong said.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, aims at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along ancient trade routes.

As a senior diplomat who started his career working in Egypt almost 40 years ago, Gong hailed the robust economic and trade cooperation between the region and China.

"When I visited some Middle East countries in 1995, there were almost no Chinese commodities in the market. But seven years later I found half of the goods in an Emirati supermarket were made in China," he said, adding that the economic ties would only be more active in the future.

Furthermore, Gong said he believes Belt and Road Initiative will contribute to the Middle East peace process.

Regional countries stuck in crisis will start after-conflict restoration process sooner or later, Gong said, adding that economic issues like renovating infrastructure and creating jobs will be relevant again.

"I think the Belt and Road Initiative is highly likely to become China's most significant contribution to the Middle East peace process because it will provide the economic solution the region needs," Gong said.

PALESTINIAN ISSUE CORE OF REGIONAL CRISIS

Gong reiterated in the interview that China seeks a comprehensive solution to the Middle East crisis, stressing that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is "the core of the regional crisis."

"All the crises in the regions have been entangled, and it is impossible to solve one without solving the others, especially without handling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict properly," the senior diplomat explained to Xinhua.

The international community should respect the relevant United Nations resolutions and seek the political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Gong said.

Most countries in the world agree to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the Arab Peace Initiative and the two-state solution because they are the most feasible solutions on the table, Gong said.

CHINA HAS NO SELFISH INTERESTS IN MIDDLE EAST

As an emerging power, China will shoulder its due responsibilities in the Middle East but it has no selfish interests in the region, Gong said in the interview.

China is keen to see the Middle East countries regain peace and stability and achieve economic prosperity, he said.

China's Middle East policy focuses on pushing forward peace process on an equal and just basis, the Chinese envoy said.

"China always seeks to quench the fire rather than stir the flame, which is a traditional Chinese wisdom of conflict management," Gong said.

Speaking of the recent twin suicide attacks in Tanta and Alexandria in Egypt, Gong said China condemns all forms of terrorist activities and supports Egypt in combating terrorism.

"China stands together with Egypt especially during hard times," he said.
BEIJING - A convoy sent by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy rescued a Panamanian ship that was being attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday.

The PLA Daily reported Sunday that Frigate Hengyang of China's 25th convoy fleet received a report around 9:30 p.m. Saturday Beijing Time from the Mercury system saying that the ship ALHEERA was under attack by five pirates and was requesting help.

Hengyang set out immediately and dispatched its shipboard helicopter to the area. The helicopter arrived at the oil tanker at around 10:30 p.m. and drove away the suspected pirates.

The ALHEERA was deemed safe and continued its passage, said the newspaper.

Since 2008, Chinese fleet have escorted more than 6,000 ships through this vital sea route and have successfully rescued or aided more than 60 Chinese and foreign ships.
TAIYUAN -- A donation ceremony was held Sunday for a monastery in Taiwan to return an ancient pagoda body that was stolen 19 years ago from North China's Shanxi province.

Dengyu stone tower, originally located in Dengyu village of Yushe county, Shanxi, features Buddha images carved into the four-faced tower body. The colorful piece was made in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The tower was 320 centimeters high and composed of a base, a 177-centimeter body, a tower eave and spire. It is an excellent example of Tang Dynasty stone carving and was given provincial-level protection in 1965.

In 1996, the spire was stolen and is still missing. The tower body was stolen in 1998, taken out of the Chinese mainland, and donated by a private collector to Taiwan's Chung Tai Chan Monastery in 2015. The monastery decided to return the tower to Shanxi after it confirmed its origins in 2016.

The tower arrived at Shanxi Provincial Museum on January 24, 2017.

"We really appreciate the temple's decision," said Wang Taiming, head of Yushe county's cultural relic bureau.

"The donation is an excellent example of cultural exchange between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland," said Master Jian Deng, abbot of the Chung Tai Chan Monastery.

The museum said it will speed up improvements to safety facilities to preserve the pagoda and organize an exhibition.
SHENZHEN -- The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen saw an increased number of overseas-educated Chinese choosing to find work or start businesses in the city 2016, local authorities said Sunday.

Shenzhen attracted more than 10,500 overseas returnees in 2016, an increase of 49.3 percent year on year, according to the city's human resource and social security bureau.

By 2016, the city had employed more than 8,000 people classed as high-level talent, 80,000 returnees and 4.5 million professional-level employees, accounting for 38 percent of the city's total permanent residents.

Shenzhen is fast becoming the favored employment destination thanks to its vigorous development, huge market potential, policies that support startups, and expansive talent promotion drive, said Tang Anli, an official with Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Returnees Association.

"I secured a startup grant of 250,000 yuan (36,000 U.S. dollars) from Shenzhen government in 2012," said Chen Di, who returned to Shenzhen after studying in Britain. "Then I garnered 1.3 million yuan in awards and aid for starting a business in an emerging industry in the following years."

In 2016, 53 firms set up by overseas returnees in Shenzhen were allocated about 22 million yuan in startup grants.

By the end of 2016, Shenzhen had 30 incubators accommodating 4,000 firms established by overseas returnees.
Inspectors from the Ministry of Environmental Protection on Sunday exposed 239 companies in the northern region with violations of illegally producing pollutants and lacking pollutant reduction equipment.

Inspectors checked 329 companies in 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and neighboring provinces, of which 239 were found with various violations, accounting for 73 percent of those inspected, the ministry said.

Among the violations, most prominent were 69 small companies that contributed heavy pollution - when these companies should have been shut down but were still in production - and another 22 companies that had not installed equipment to reduce emissions, based on a statement from the ministry on Sunday.

The ministry sent 28 teams to 28 major cities, including Beijing and Tianjin and others in Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi provinces, to inspect the companies, making it the ministry's largest scale inspection.

The ministry said it will conduct 25 inspection rounds from April 8 to April 8, 2018, meaning there will be a round of inspection about every two weeks.

In the first round, which is ongoing, the ministry sent 224 inspectors to these 28 cities.
Policies also to draw talent to parts of the country that need more support

China will continue to strengthen preferential policies to attract top foreign talent, encourage more of them to play a leading role at universities, and further simplify work permit procedures, a senior official said.

The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and the Ministry of Education last year allowed 16 Chinese universities to appoint expats as deans as part of a pilot project.

This year, the project will be expanded to more universities, Zhang Jianguo, director of the foreign experts administration, said in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Conference on International Exchange of Professionals over the weekend in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

"China values talent more than ever before. We'll encourage more expats to play a leading role not only in the education sector, but also in some enterprises," he said.

Schools and businesses are the workplaces that most frequently hire foreigners, accounting for 50 percent and 33 percent of all foreign employees, respectively, according to a report released at the conference.

Zhang said regulations will be drafted soon to provide better guidance in helping more foreign experts become leaders of some important research projects and participate in national science and technology programs.

"We will also encourage foreign experts to participate in the selection of China's science and technology awards, in equal measure with their Chinese colleagues," he said.

To encourage more foreign talent to work in regions like western China, that have a greater need for support, the administration has launched pilot projects to provide financial and other preferential policies to universities.

Fifteen universities joined in the project last year, according to Nie Biao, director of the administration's Cultural and Educational Experts Department. He said the number of applicants is expected to grow this year.

Zhang said expedited visa applications also will be available for top talent, like allowing them to do an application online, without any paperwork, as well as cutting the time needed to complete the procedure from 10 to five working days and offering a visa of up to five years at a time.

"Together with other sectors, we may consider giving high-end expats a quick way to get a multiple-entry visa with a longer validity period, to make sure that the visa issue will not become a hurdle preventing high-end overseas talent from coming to China," he said.

More than 900,000 foreigners worked in China last year, according to the administration. That same year, 1,576 permanent resident cards were issueed, according to the Ministry of Public Security's Bureau of Exit and Entry Administration.

In terms of lowering the threshold for permanent residence applicants, Zhang citied Shanghai as a model in reforming its talent recruitment policies.

The city's newest policy allows expats who have worked in the city for four consecutive years and have lived in China for at least six months a year to apply for residence permits providing their salaries met required levels.

"Such preferential policies show our determination and effort to welcome more top foreign talent to work and live in China," Zhang said.
United Airlines had issued a new policy change that would require its staff to check into flights one hour before departure, local media reported on Saturday.

The policy change, made by the company late Friday, would require United commuting staff and crew members to check in for all flights 60 minutes prior to departure, according to the U.S. TV network CNN.

The policy change came after its violent removal of an Asian-American passenger from a flight on Sunday night evolved into a public relations crisis.

Earlier this week a video went viral on social media showing airport officers violently dragging the 69-year-old Asian-American physician David Dao from his seat on a sold-out United Express flight.

Dao and three other passengers were ordered off the plane at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago after four airline employees showed up at the last minute and demanded seats so they could be in place to operate a flight the next day in Louisville, Kentucky.

The video has been viewed millions of times worldwide, and caused a global uproar and grabbed headlines in multiple countries.

Members of the U.S. Congress have also expressed concern, as U.S. House Representative Judy Chu, a Chinese American, has written both to the United Airlines and to the U.S. Department of Transportation demanding answers.
SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) attempted early Sunday to test-fire an unidentified missile on its east coast, which was believed to have failed, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The JCS confirmed the botched missile launch, saying it is still analyzing what type of missile was launched.

On April 5, the DPRK test-fired a ballistic missile at a nearby region on the east coast, but it fell in eastern waters after abnormally flying about 60 km.

At the time, the South Korean military identified it as Pukguksong-2, an intermediate-range ballistic missile known to be newly developed based on a technology of submarine-launched ballistic missile.

The failed show of force by the DPRK came amid mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which was caused by the USS Carl Vinson and its accompanying warships that have re-routed and headed to the peninsula about a week earlier.

The DPRK held a massive military parade on Saturday to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of DPRK founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current top leader Kim Jong Un.

During the parade, the DPRK showed off what were believed to be three types of intercontinental ballistic missile.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon confirmed on Saturday that a new missile launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) had failed.

According to US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham, the command detected and tracked what the U.S. military assessed was a DPRK missile launch at 11:21 am Hawaii time (2121 GMT) April 15.

"The launch of the ballistic missile occurred near Sinpo," said Benham. "The missile blew up almost immediately. The type of missile is still being assessed."

The new missile test, which took place near the port city of Sinpo, South Hamgyong Province, came hours after the DPRK showed in a festive parade all of its most-advanced ballistic and tactic missiles, including a submarine-launched ballistic missile which could strike targets 1000 km away.
SEOUL - South Korea on Sunday denounced the failed test-launch of an unidentified missile by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that came amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the DPRK's ballistic missile firing was in a clear violation again of UN Security Council resolutions, expressing its strong denunciation against the provocation.

The DPRK fired an unidentified missile at about 6:20 am local time (2120 GMT Saturday) from its eastern coastal city of Sinpo, but it was believed to have exploded on launch, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The South Korean military said it was still analyzing what kind of missile was launched.

On April 5, the DPRK test-fired a ballistic missile at a nearby region on its east coast, but it plunged into the sea off the east coast after abnormally flying about 60 km.

At the time, the South Korean military identified it as Pukguksong-2, an intermediate-range ballistic missile known to be newly developed based on a technology of submarine-launched ballistic missile. The US military estimated it to be an extended-range Scud missile that is known to be capable of traveling as far as 1,000 km.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry depicted the botched missile launch as a grave threat to peace and security in the peninsula and the international community, saying the DPRK regime would face hard-to-endure punitive actions if it conducts strategic provocations such as another nuclear test or the launch of intercontinental ballistic missile.

To mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of DPRK founder Kim Il Sung, a massive military parade was held in the center of Pyongyang on Saturday.

The DPRK paraded a series of military arsenal, including what were believed to be three types of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Tensions tended to escalate on the peninsula this spring when combined forces of the United States and South Korea staged their joint war games, codenamed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle that were scheduled to continue till the end of this month.

Pyongyang has denounced the U.S.-South Korea military exercises as a dress rehearsal for northward invasions.

The US nuclear-powered Carl Vinson aircraft carrier was approaching the peninsula after participating in the joint war games last month.

US Vice President Mike Pence is set to arrive in South Korea later Sunday for his trip to Asia.

Pence is scheduled to meet with South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is serving as acting president, on Monday.

South Korea's top presidential advisor for security affairs, Kim Kwan-jin, convened a meeting of national security council at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Sunday morning.

The security council meeting was attended by ministers of foreign affairs, unification and defense as well as intelligence agency chief and senior presidential secretary for security and foreign affairs.
SEOUL -- US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Sunday as part of his first trip to Asia, and is expected to talk with the ROK's side about issues related to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Pence is scheduled to pay a visit to the Seoul National Cemetery and have dinner with combined forces of the ROK and the United States later in the day. About 28,500 US troops are stationed here.

His visit to the ROK followed the DPRK's failed test-launch of an unidentified missile earlier in the day.

The missile was fired from the DPRK's eastern coastal city of Sinpo, but it exploded during launch.

Tensions escalated on the Korean Peninsula as an US aircraft carrier re-routed and headed to the peninsula, just after participating in the US-ROK joint military exercises last month.

The rare re-routing of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships triggered concerns here about possible US airstrike on DPRK targets.

The US vice president is set to meet Monday with the ROK's Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is serving as acting president following the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye.

Hwang and Pence are said to talk about the DPRK issues amid the growing tensions on the peninsula.

Pence is also scheduled to meet with the ROK's National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun and businessmen here, before leaving for Japan on Tuesday.
MOGADISHU -- Several people are feared dead in multiple explosions near Aden Adde Airport in Somalia capital Mogadishu on Sunday, witnesses and security officials said.

A vehicle loaded with explosives belonging to terror group Al-Shabaab exploded after being captured by security forces in Mogadishu near the airport.

Witnesses and security officials said the incident which caused huge explosion sparked off a fierce exchange of gunfire between the security forces and the armed attackers in the restive city.

Some witnesses said three mortar shells landed at residential areas adjacent to the airport and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)'s Halane military base.

"The security forces are currently engaging the armed attacks in gunfight. A truck with the mortar gun has been seized," said one of the witnesses who declined to be named.
American and occasionally European law students and recent law school graduates are always contacting our China lawyers to ask what they should do to become international lawyers focused on China law. My advice is usually a somewhat rambling dissertation on the need to build a solid legal foundation while constantly working to improve your Chinese language skills. I then talk about how almost every lawyer I know just fell into/morphed into their practice area after many years as a lawyer. I always get the sense this is exactly what these law students/young lawyers do not want to hear.

They want specifics and I am giving lectures on following ones heart, foundations, basics, training, morphing, and luck. They want to become a China attorney tomorrow and I tell them how if they follow an unclear and difficult and convoluted path they might become one some day.

Here then are some specifics, some of which are my own ramblings and some of which were purloined and appropriated from others.

International Lawyer Career Paths

Many international firms in mainland China seek attorneys with American or British law degrees and high level Chinese language skills, but for various reasons, it is difficult to enter the China legal market without previous experience in the United States or the UK.

It is important to note that Westerners generally cannot become licensed China lawyers; they can only become Foreign Representative Attorneys. and there is a law requiring Foreign Representative Attorneys have at least two years experience in another jurisdiction before they can work in China. Many lawyers get around this by splitting their time between another jurisdiction (including Hong Kong) and China. If you spend 6 months + 1 day in the other jurisdiction and the rest of the year in China, that will count as a year in another jurisdiction. If you do that for two years, you are eligible to work in China as a Foreign Representative Attorney. You still cannot practice law in China, but you can work there.

Generally, the best way to do this is to spend your first few years practicing law at a major US London law firm and then go to China to practice for a couple more years. This way you bring an American or British legal education and the requisite high level law firm experience. Even if your Chinese is excellent, your added value to a law firm in China is your American/British legal background. If you go to China immediately after graduation you cut into what you can offer. It is important to note thought that the real key to increasing your value as a foreign lawyer doing China law is to be able to read and write in Chinese. Being able to order a beer or discuss the weather in Chinese is great as a tourist, but nearly meaningless as a new lawyer whose chief job is usually to research and analyze written laws and contracts.

On the other hand, there is something to be said for going to China right after law school. Ten years ago if you went immediately to China you would arguably be ending your legal career before it began. I know a ton of fine lawyers who went to Japan or to Korea or to China and spent decades in those countries and by doing so became virtually unemployable as lawyers in the United States. Globalization is changing this rapidly, but it is still a little risky and I frankly do not know the current situation well enough to advise anyone. I have heard though that if you dont want to be a partner at a major law firm, going to China first is probably fine. However, if you are looking for an American legal career, It is probably still best to stay in the States for at least a couple of years after graduating law school.

Law Schools

Speaking of law school, one of the more common emails our China lawyers get comes from law students and potential law students, asking us what they should start doing now to prepare themselves for a career practicing China law. My advice on that is also probably a bit too Zen-like for their tastes, but here goes. Get into the best law school you can, not in China. Take as many corporate and intellectual property and private international law courses as you can. Get the best grades as you can. Travel as much as you can. Hone your Chinese language skills as much as you can. Hone whatever other foreign language skills you have as much as you can.

Lately, I have been getting many emails from people who are already working in China in non-lawyer jobs, asking about getting a law degree from an English language law school program tied in with a Chinese law school. My response to them is to ask what that degree will allow them to do once they complete it, because it is my understanding that it will NOT allow you to practice law in either China or the United States. If anyone believes I have this wrong or if anyone is aware of a country that does permit a graduate with one of these degrees to practice law, please let me know via a comment below. See also China International Law Schools???!!!!

Requisite Traits

Practicing law tends to require certain traits. Practicing law in China or even with China also requires certain traits. Far too many people get into law when it is not suited for them and they end up unhappy. You should passionately want to become a lawyer or not bother. You should passionately want to become a China lawyer or not bother.

The book, China CEO: Voices of Experience from 20 International Business Leaders, lists the traits CEOs seek in their expat managers for China and these traits are pretty much the same traits needed to be a good international lawyer or a good China lawyer. Here is the list, with my comments in italics:

Technical and Corporate Expertise: Select people with a rock-solid professional background and an excellent knowledge of the company.In the legal arena, this means smart people who understand complex legal issues, no matter what the country. International Expertise: A posting in China becomes vastly more manageable after an assignment either in an Asian location or another developing market, or both. The person who has spent time in another country tends to be better equipped to deal with other countries, including those countries to which he or she has never been. I have seen this time and again with both lawyers and clients. We have many clients who when their business dried up in one country moved nearly effortlessly to another country. We also see domestic companies that simply cannot make the leap to go international at all, even when they should. What you learn in one country (but obviously not everything) will help you in another country. Multicultural Mindset:When selecting an executive for an overseas posting, look for someone with an adventurous spirit, a sense of humor, and an open mind. This also applies to lawyers. In a 2004 article I wrote how doing business in emerging market countries means taking nothing for granted:

I have a mantra for my own legal work in these countries that translates well to the business world: Assume nothing, but assume that you are assuming things without even realizing you are doing so.

Things will be different. Very different. Things you take for granted in your home country might not exist in the emerging market country. Things you take for granted in your home country might be the exact opposite in the emerging market country. Things you think will be totally different in the emerging market country may be exactly the same. Things you thought you knew about emerging market countries based on what you know from another emerging market country may be completely different in a neighboring country, or even in another region within the same country.

The principle, one more time: Keep an open mind, and assume nothing.

Commitment to Learn: Learn from those around you. Listen to your employees, JV partners, clients, and customers. This is equally true for international lawyers. Humility: Be humble and avoid using an authoritarian style. Influencing and coaching is the way to get the best out of your Chinese employees. Of course. This is also the way to get the best out of the lawyers in other countries with whom you will be working. Strength: Be unyielding in defending core corporate values and culture. In the legal context, this means doing things by the law, even if you see others around you not doing so. This also means always telling your clients the truth. Patience: Be patient; use a step-by-step approach in China, not a Big Bang approach. I will borrow again from my emerging markets article:

Exercise Extreme Patience. This principle stems from the maxim that everything takes twice as long as you think it will. If it takes twice as long in the West, triple that in emerging market countries. Youll go in both as a businessperson and a teacher  and in both roles, the learning curve of your partner will almost certainly take way more time to deal with than you think.

For example, many emerging market countries have a history where bad business meant thinking long-term. A year or two after the fall of Soviet communism, I was involved in a matter where an investor put $250,000 into a Russian joint venture. The business very quickly was making good money and all indicators pointed towards steadily increasing profitability. But, quite quickly, the Russian company stole the $250,000. Was it so irrational for him to think so short term in a country where the government and tax systems had such a history of unpredictability?

Guanxi-Building: Build your guanxi not only internally (with subordinates, peers and superiors) but also externally with clients, suppliers and government officials). A strong guanxi network is a fundamental element of your success in China. As a lawyer, both you and your practice will benefit by your doing more than just staying in your office poring over law books. Get to know your clients, your fellow lawyers, good people in the industries in which you are working, and treat them with respect. This is basic good business for anyone. Speed: Be flexible and quick. Stay well informed; the business environment in China is in a constant and rapid flux, probably much more so than in other markets. This is true of international law as well, and if one is going to practice in this area, one must enjoy and thrive on constant change and even constant uncertainty. You need to be prepared to work tirelessly just to keep up.

Are you Sure?

A few years ago, a law student emailed me a link to a Quora question and answer session on what it takes for someone to succeed in working for a company in China as a foreigner. The law student asked whether those things apply to China lawyers as well. They most certainly do.

The specific question on Quora was What are the key skills needed to succeed working for a company in China as a foreigner? David Wolfs excellent answer shows as number one because the highest number (including a number of prominent China bloggers) voted it number one. Wolfs answer was that as someone who has hired on behalf of large and small companies here in China, I can tell you the kind of young foreigner who gets hired has most or all of the following: (my comments are in italics)

Chinese language skills: Language is the key to culture, and if you dont understand the culture here, you arent going to add much value, and youll be gone within 2-3 years. Sure, a lot of people speak English, and it is easy to operate in an English bubble in larger companies. But the better your Chinese and the better your appreciation for the culture, the better youll fit in. For lawyers, being able to read and write a language are more important than being able to speak it and law students need to realize this. Being able to order a beer in Chinese is great, but being able to read and analyze Section 308 of such and such code and being able to read a ten-page contract in Chinese in the same amount of time it would take you to read it in English is what law firms need. Communications skills: industry specific knowledge and skills can be learned. You need to come in with the clear ability to express yourself in both written and spoken form. Absolutely. Want to piss off a client? Send them a long email giving them six options without making any recommendation. Want to make a client happy? Send them an email clearly explaining and ranking their best three options. An ability to roll with the punches: operating in a cross-cultural environment is trying at the best of times, and at the worst of times would test the patience of a saint. If you are high-strung or expect things to work the way theyre supposed to all the time, dont even get on the plane to come here. This is particularly true at smaller law firms and companies and this is a crucial element in my law firms hiring at all levels. One of our lawyers began with us as a legal assistant and we hired her for that position because she had great marks as a cocktail waitress at a Vegas casino. We figured if she could keep her cool while dealing with a bunch of drunk losers, she could keep her cool in a fast-paced office. We once hired a receptionist who had been the interface between a private school and the students parents because we figured if she could deal with parents who are wildly concerned with their kids, she could deal with clients who are wildly concerned about their legal matter. I love asking potential hires about their travels and I do so because I want to know if they like going to the same ski resort every year or prefer going to remote villages in Guatemala (which was true of another of our legal assistants). The person who treks to Guatemala in his or her spare time has learned to roll with the punches. A very clear idea of what you offer that is hard to find or is unobtainable from among your Chinese peers, and the ability to express that well. If you cant tell me in 50 words or less what you have that I need but I cant get from a fresh Tsinghua University graduate, you are wasting your time and mine. If a potential hire cannot pitch me on his or her skill-set, it is unlikely they will be able to instill confidence in our clients. Passion for the business that is so real that others can feel it walking into the room. If you interview with me and I think you have not spent hours poring over our website or that you are talking to me just because you want a job (as opposed to this job), you have no chance. I stretch this even further by wanting to see passion in other things as well. I want someone who shows passion for something and I do not care what it is. Passion translates. The last kind of person I want to hire (for a million reasons) is the person who just doesnt seem to care about anything. Integrity: Like few other places on the planet, China will test your character and your ethics. If you do not know when or how to stick to your principles when the chips are down, youre part of the problem. This is in many respects everything. The lawyer-client relationship is based on trust and it cannot work without it. Excellent project management skills: This is something in fairly short supply among people coming out of school in China, and it is expected from expats. This is very important, but in law there is generally a high correlation between high grades and the ability to develop these skills. Creativity: I dont mean Pixar-style creativity, but the ability to come up with new ideas, to not only think outside of the box but burn the box altogether. Far more important for the law than most law students realize, and more important in an international context than a domestic one. Last and by no means least, a demonstrated commitment to China: Most hiring decisions for China and Asia positions  even for multinational companies  are made on the ground here in the region. If anything, this is more the case now than it was a decade ago, as most firms have so expanded their operations in the region that the Asia HR function is managed separately. See number 5 above.

Go forth and prosper.
(Photo : USAF) Elephant Walk by USAF warplanes at Kadena Air Base in Japan on April 14.

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The U.S. Air Force conducted its second massive show of force in Asia in just 11 months with another "Elephant Walk," this one at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan yesterday.



On display for North Korea and China to see were the warplanes of the 18th Wing stationed at Kadena. This combat wing is the largest combat-ready wing in the Air Force.



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It operates two squadrons of McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagles air superiority fighters (32 aircraft); Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft; Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search and rescue helicopters and Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker military aerial refueling aircraft.



The 18th Wing is the largest combat unit in the Pacific Air Forces Fifth Air Force. Involved in the elephant walk were its two fighter squadrons: the 44th Fighter Squadron "Vampire Bats" (F-15C/D) and the 67th Fighter Squadron "Fighting Cocks" (F-15C/D).



The Pave Hawks are part of the 33d Rescue Squadron while the E-3 Sentry belong to the 961st Airborne Air Control Squadron. The KC-135s belong to the 909th Air Refueling Squadron "Young Tigers."



In May 2016, the Air Force conducted an Elephant Walk at Osan Air Base in South Korea involving of Fairchild A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft and General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons as part of Exercise Beverly Herd 16-01.



The A-10s were from the 25th Fighter Squadron "Draggins" while the F-16s were from the 36th Fighter Squadron "Fiends" of the 51st Fighter Wing.



An Elephant Walk involves taxiing entire squadrons of aircraft in close formation as they'd do in a short-notice wartime situation. The unannounced exercise at Kadena was held to prepare aircrews to respond quickly to an attack. It also serves as a show of force to potential aggressor nations in the surrounding region.



The Air Force said the Kadena Elephant Walk was undoubtedly triggered by growing tensions with North Korea over the past weeks. The reclusive communist state continues to develop nuclear weapons, in response to which the U.S. recently sent the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) carrier strike group to patrol in the Sea of Japan off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.



The Air Force and the U.S. Marines are massing aircraft in Japan and South Korea. At the start of the year, the Marines deployed the first 10 Lockheed Martin F-35B Joint Strike Fighters belonging to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VMFA-121) to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, marking the first permanent international deployment of the U.S. stealth fighter.



VMFA 121, also known as the "Green Knights," flies the Marine Corps version of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, the F-35B. This variant is a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) jet that will replace current inventories of both the F/A-18 Hornet and the AV-8B Harrier II in the fighter and attack roles.



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TagsU.S. Air Force, Elephant Walk, Kadena Air Base, okinawa, 18th Wing]
(Photo : USAF) Airstrike on Mosul.

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The United States military and coalition allies fighting to destroy ISIS in both Iraq and Syria unleashed 62 percent more bombs and missiles against the terrorist group from January to March compared to the same period in 2016.



The stepped-up pace of air support operations reflects on the intensity of the fighting around the ISIS-held cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. Both cities are being battered by coalition forces on the ground led by the Iraqi Army supported by the U.S. Air Force and allied air forces.



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United States Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT), the combatant command responsible for U.S. security interests in both countries and the Middle East, said the coalition released 3,878 weapons in March. In the first three months of this year, the coalition unleashed 10,918 weapons against ISIS, a 62 percent increase over the 6,730 weapons released in the first quarter of 2016.



Each month has seen more air-to-ground weapons released than any single month over the first 2  years of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), which began August 2014. OIR is the U.S. military's operational name for its military intervention against ISIS, including the campaigns in Iraq and Syria.



The number of sorties with at least one weapon release also increased to 3,187 for the first quarter of this year compared to 2,781 in the same period last year. The number of overall close-air support, escort and interdiction sorties in the first three months of the year, however, fell to 4,741 this year from 6,080 last year.



AFCENT said part of the increase stemmed from Iraqi and other allied forces' efforts to retake the strategically key cities of Mosul and Raqqa, which coalition aircraft are supporting. Last month, AFCENT also said the coalition tends to increase its airstrikes as partner forces make progress in seizing territory.



AFCENT's statistics, however, don't account for all coalition weapons released, meaning the true number of weapons released is likely higher. The statistics include weapons released by aircraft under Combined Forces Air Component Commander control, which includes aircraft from all U.S. military branches and coalition aircraft.



Strikes conducted by attack helicopters and armed drones operated by the Army, for example, are not included in AFCENT statistics.



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TagsUnited States, ISIS, Mosul, Raqqa, aerial bombing, United States Air Forces Central Command
(Photo : PLAGF) PLAGF infantry on parade.

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The emasculation of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF) continues with news the Communist Party of China (CPC) has decided to slash the number of men in the PLAGF reserve force while increasing reserves for all the other armed services comprising the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the armed forces of the CPC.



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Chinese state-run media said the news was confirmed by Gen. Sheng Bin, Director of the National Defense Mobilization Department of China's Central Military Commission (CMC).



Gen. Sheng said while PLAGF reserves will be reduced, reserves for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN); the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) will be increased in a bid to keep up with China's military buildup as military reform make continuing progress.



He also announced reserve forces for all the armed services will be reoriented towards information warfare instead of focusing on traditional combat-oriented and mechanized roles.



New CMC guidelines also establish a new structure in which CMC will take charge of the overall administration of the PLA; the People's Armed Police (PAP); the militia and reserve forces. Battle zone commands will focus on combat preparedness while various military services will pursue development projects.



China last year announced a cut of 300,000 troops by the end of 2017 to build a more elite and efficient military.



Major General Chen Zhou, who heads the Research Center for Defense Policies at the PLA Academy of Military Science, said many officers will retire and will be assigned to new positions in this round of military reform.



China will step up efforts on the national level to help retired servicemen resettle to civilian life by adopting a series of laws and regulations, said Gen. Chen. China lacks the detailed laws or regulations to assist servicemen and servicewomen after they retire from military service.



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TagsPeople's Liberation Army Ground Force, PLAGF, reserve force, Gen. Sheng Bin, Central Military Commission, Major General Chen Zhou
(Photo : Getty Images) China has delivered the third maritime patrol ship to Pakistan.

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China on Tuesday officially turned over a 600-ton maritime ship to Pakistan in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.



The ship, which is the third of its kind, will be used to protect Pakistan's maritime interest at a time when both countries are pushing the CPEC initiative. It was built by China Shipbuilding Trading Company Ltd. and China State Shipbuilding Corporation Xijiang Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.



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Pakistan's maritime safety expressed appreciation for the ships' quality as well as the smooth cooperation with the Chinese manufacturers, who offered to provide after-sale services as well.



The vessel's predecessors have both shown their reliability and excellent performance while conducting visits and exchanges, joint drills, maritime rescue, among other missions in Pakistan. All three ships are key to strengthen China and Pakistan's ties.



Meanwhile, China has approved more infrastructure projects in Pakistan under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, with investments reaching $62 billion from $55 million. The country has been heavily investing in Pakistan since it launched the CPEC program in 2015.



According to Sindh Government spokesman Mohammad Zubair, the $62 billion investment is good news for citizens who will gain dividends from the investment. About $34 billion will be allocated to electricity production and distribution, as CPEC aims to add over 10,000 MW electricity to the national grid by the end of next year.



Zubair also noted that if private sector investments are included, China's investment volume in Pakistan would be higher than $62 billion.



"CPEC will create massive economic momentum in Pakistan," he said.



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No matter how short or how long, we want to be a family for you.

This slogan captures Pastor Yoon Lees desire for every person who visits and attends Yoido Full Gospel Churchs English ministry (YEM), located in Seoul, South Korea.

YEM has been Lees church family since he moved to Seoul in 2012. But when he first took up the position to lead the YEM congregation, he found that building that community was vastly different from what he had experienced in America. Born in Portland, raised in Chicago, and attended seminary in Southern California, Lee had attended and served in Korean immigrant churches for most of his life, where most of the members were Korean American and were settled down in their respective cities.

Lee found upon coming to Seoul that the congregation at YEM was the complete opposite. Members came from all over the world, and many stayed only for short-term stints of a few months to a few years. Those who would stay for several years were few and far between.

Those were the two things that caught me off guard  the demographic, and the transience, Lee recalled.

But the first church [ever] was like YEM, he added. People from all different nations, gathering in one place for a short period time, and then God sent them out. Once God revealed that to me  I started embracing that.

YEM consists of some 250 members, many of whom have little in common, from the native Koreans, the Korean expatriates from various parts of the world, and the non-Korean members from countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Columbia, Ghana, and Guatemala, to name a few.

Lee says this lack of common ground allows the members to skip the small talk and get to the important stuff really fast.

You cant do small talk anymore, he said. You just get down to what is going on in your life, and thats refreshing.

We have people from the States, from Columbia, from the Philippines, from Ghana. And we just think, Okay, whats something that we have in common? We love the Lord. Okay, lets start there,' said Lee. It becomes very beautiful when you just get down to the most important thing.

Meanwhile, embracing the transient nature of the international community meant breaking some unspoken rules that pastors followed back in America, Lee said.

For instance, while many pastors in the States would implement months-long membership classes in hopes to ensure a healthy base of committed members in the church, such a long-term commitment was often difficult or meaningless for those who may have come across YEM during the second month of their six-month-long study abroad program, for instance.

Lee felt that keeping such a commitment simply for the sake of doing so came at the cost of being able to provide a community that members could belong to as soon as possible in the midst of the transient, fast-paced culture. Instead, YEM focuses on getting people plugged into cell groups as early as their first week at church, and focusing on the training and communication between cell group leaders to discern whether certain individuals may need additional help in understanding the gospel, or if they might cause others to go astray.

While keeping in mind that the members may soon leave Seoul to return to their home countries, or take on another work stint at another nation, Lee said he considers each of the members as potential future partners.

These are not just members while theyre here, but these are partners in the gospel, Lee said.

Lee is hopeful to see more and more members of the international community rising up to take on leadership positions within the church. No matter how short or how long, and regardless of their ethnic background, Lee says, he has been investing in the members in his church family in hopes to cultivate leaders abroad and in Seoul.

Honestly, its been a big blessing, Lee said. I really had to come out to Korea to experience the world in a sense. What God is doing is beautiful, and Im getting a small taste of it here.

    press@cdaily.co.kr



- Copyright ,    

#YEM
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A fiery truck crash shut down the Southwest Freeway for hours Saturday night.

Around 7:30 p.m., a flat bed trailer hauling a dump truck and other large vehicles, lost control and rolled onto its side before bursting into flames near the Texas 288 exit, Houston police reported.

All the vehicles burned, forcing a highway closure that sealed off all lanes roughly below Alabama Street.

It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured in the blaze.
The two remaining defendants charged in the Dec. 16, 2015, robbery and murder of a Cleveland convenience store clerk were sentenced to prison Thursday in the 253rd State District Court in Liberty.

Last month, Frank Hernandez and Michael Richardson, both 19 and from Cleveland, accepted plea bargains from the Liberty County District Attorney's Office to reduce the charges against them from capital murder to murder.

In exchange for their pleas, the two men cooperated with law enforcement to provide full accounts of the incident that claimed the life of 40-year-old Conbino Crasto at the Exxon store located at 1030 FM 2025 in Cleveland.

Hernandez and Richardson's plea agreements also required them to testify against each other and two other defendants, Roberto Alvarado Jr. 23, and a juvenile, 16.

Hernandez, who was 17 at the time of the crime and the admitted shooter, was given a life sentence but could be eligible for parole in 30 years. His hearing was held before 253rd State District Judge Chap Cain an hour after Richardson's four-day trial ended Thursday afternoon.

Richardson, unsatisfied with the 50-year sentence he originally was offered by the DA's office, opted for the jury to determine his fate. The roll of the dice worked in his favor as he was given a 28-year sentence and could be eligible for parole in 14 years.

When his sentence was announced, Richardson was noticeably relieved. His attorney, Keaton Kirkwood, said afterward he is pleased for his client and there are no plans to appeal.

Liberty County District Attorney Logan Pickett, frustrated by the light sentence for Richardson, said he respects the jury's decision but had hoped for a harsher punishment.

"As a prosecutor, we make difficult decisions every day. In this case I reduced Richardson's charge from capital murder to a murder, and let the jury decide his punishment," Pickett said. "Sometimes we see things much different than juries but that is part of what makes the jury system so great. I will continue to do my very best to make sure murderers like Michael Richardson are punished for their crimes and I look forward to presenting many more cases to the great citizens of Liberty County.

TWO OTHERS SENTENCED

On March 16, 2017, Alvarado, the getaway driver who had planned the robbery, was sentenced to 65 years in prison by a Liberty County jury. During his trial, it was proven that Alvarado provided the handgun, clothing, masks and gloves that his three accomplices used during the commission of the crime.

The juvenile defendant received a 10-year sentence with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. During Richardson's trial, the juvenile was subpoenaed by the defense to appear in court but he declined to testify on the advice of his attorney, Michelle Merendino.
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Ivanka Trump  and the many brands associated with the First Daughter  continues to be called out by women who aren't buying into the Trump's line of "female empowerment."

Executive chef Angela Dimayuga of Mission Chinese Food is the latest to voice her feelings of distaste for the Trumps and their rhetoric, in epic fashion.

On her Instagram account, Dimayuga published a message sent by a freelance reporter from IvankaTrump.com, requesting an interview with the chef.

In it, the writer praised Dimayuga's accomplishments, and asked if she would be willing to do an interview for the site. The reporter wrote that the intent was to spotlight Dimayuga's work "as a strong female entrepreneur" stating that IvankaTrump.com is a "non-political platform of empowerment for modern working women."

Rather than firing off a quick reply, Dimayuga instead looped in friend (and activist) Shakirah Simley to pen a powerful response, the Huffington Post reported.

Had this message slide in my DM last week which had me screaming. Sent her this response today. #resist #fucktrump #dragher @dear_ivanka A post shared by Angela Dimayuga (@swimsuit_issue) on Apr 10, 2017 at 2:34pm PDT

And it was quite the response. Dimayuga, a San Jose native, referenced her background as a queer person of color and stated that as long as the Trump name is involved, the site remains politically involved.

"I don't see anything empowering about defunding Planned Parenthood, barring asylum from women refugees, rolling back safeguards for equal pay, and treating POC/LGBT and the communities that support these groups like second class citizens.

As a queer person of color and daughter of immigrant parents I am not interested in being profiled as an aspirational figure for those that support a brand and a President that slyly disparages female empowerment. Sharing my story with a brand and family that silences our same voices is futile."

Dimayuga has received a number of encouraging responses from fans, as well as from fellow chef Anthony Bourdain, who left a, "My hero!" message in the Instagram comments, according to Huffington Post.

Dimayuga was named a 2017 Rising Star Chef for her work at Mission Chinese Food  for the New York location, not San Francisco  and was also part of the 2015 class of Eater Young Guns, comprised of promising young chefs from across the country.

SFGATE reached out to Dimayuga for comment and will update if she responds.

Read Dimayuga's full reply:

Thank you for thinking of me. I'm glad you are a fan of my work so much that you want to provide more visibility for my career to inspire "other working women." However, I'm for women who actually empower other women.

I don't believe that IvankaTrump.com is truly "a non-political platform of empowerment for [women]". So long as the name Trump is involved, it is political and frankly, an option for the IvankaTrump.com business to make a profit.

I don't see anything empowering about defunding Planned Parenthood, barring asylum from women refugees, rolling back safeguards for equal pay, and treating POC/LGBT and the communities that support these groups like second class citizens.

As a queer person of color and daughter of immigrant parents I am not interested in being profiled as an aspirational figure for those that support a brand and a President that slyly disparages female empowerment. Sharing my story with a brand and family that silences our same voices is futile.

Thank you for the consideration.
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On April 16, 1947, one of the largest industrial explosions ever killed an estimated 576 people in Texas City, about 40 miles south of Houston.

A cargo ship called the Grandcamp, which had previously been docked in Houston, was docked in Texas City. While there it was being loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer, an extremely flammable substance.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Plans for Texas City ammonia plant spark environmental, health concerns

A fire broke out in the ship's cargo hold and despite efforts to extinguish the flames, the fire spread and at 9:12 a.m., the ship exploded.

The blast was so massive that it leveled or damaged more than 1,000 surrounding buildings, shattered windows in Houston 40 miles away, and in Denver, over 900 miles away, a seismograph registered the explosion as if it were an earthquake.

Now Playing: Latest Local And State News Video: Houston Chronicle

The fire from the devastating explosion continued to grow throughout the day. The bright orange smoke, caused by burning nitrate, attracted crowds that included school children. As the flames grew, they spread to another ship, the SS High Flyer, and fifteen hours later a second blast occurred.

"A young mother, wounded and with blood streaming down her face, roamed the streets, clutching a small baby in her arms," the Houston Chronicle said in the next day's edition. "The baby was dead. The mother did not seem to realize it, for she violently fought off all attempts to take the baby from her."

BOLD HISTORY: This is what Texas looked like the year you were born

Along with the 576 people killed by the blasts, more than three thousand people were injured. Neighboring emergency staff, including police, fire and medical personnel from Houston, raced to the Bay Area community to help.

Over 1,000 people attended the memorial service at the Central High School gymnasium and celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Jack Benny also participated in fundraising events to bring thousands of dollars for the recovery effort.

Following the explosion, more than 3,000 lawsuits against the federal government were filed because the ammonium nitrate came from U.S. ordnance plants. By 1955, Congress resolved the lawsuits by settling the claims for $16.5 million. Furthermore, the accident resulted in new regulations for the manufacturing and shipping of chemicals.

Click through the gallery above to see the photos of the devastating Texas City explosion that shook the community 71 years ago.

POWERFUL COMMUNITY: 40 photos that will fill you with Texas pride
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A man was found stabbed to death late Saturday inside a Houston apartment, police said.

Officers made the grim discovery around 11 p.m., after a neighbor alerted authorities to a death in nearby home at Gentry and Brooks.

The victim, a man in his 40s, had apparently been stabbed in the chest, although officers said it was unclear whether the crime had occurred inside the building or at another scene.

Only one other person - a female relative who authorities did not identify - was believed to be home at the time. Detectives detained her for questioning.

"We don't have a lot of facts to the case," Houston police detective Kyle Heaverlo told reporters at the scene.
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A man was found shot to death Sunday morning in a rental car in Missouri City, according to police.

Around 1 a.m., officers responded to a call on McClain, just blocks from the Houston border. On scene, police found an unidentified man dead in the passenger seat of a car, later identified as a rental vehicle.

"He was there by himself," Willis Huff, a Houston Police Department detective, told reporters at the scene.

"We don't know whether or not he was shot in the car, whether he was put in the car. We don't know that at the moment. If he was a passenger, then the driver has fled the scene."

Officers are still determining who rented the car and how it ended up in Missouri City. It's unclear how many times the victim was hit and authorities did not immediately release his name.

Although the gruesome discovery fell within Missouri City limits, Houston police responded thinking the slaying could be connected to a previous call for shots fired a little over a mile away, on the Houston side of the city border.

After the earlier call, from the 12800 block of Dunlap, police came up empty-handed. But once the Missouri City discovery an hour later, investigators began probing whether the two scenes could be connected.
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Kids playing in a vacant East Texas building made a ghoulish discovery.

Police in Tyler said the kids were playing in what appears to have been a funeral home, but that is now out of business.

Inside the building, amid empty bottles, mattresses and miscellaneous debris, the kids found a mummified body.

COLD CASES: Sheriff turning to retired detectives to help with unsolved mysteries

Tyler Police Department Public Information Officer Don Martin told KXAS-TV no one knows how long the body has been in the building and it is unclear whether it is a man or a woman.

Martin said the body will be sent off for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

"If they are transient it may be a long time before they are missed, Martin told the Tyler Morning Telegraph. The challenge is identifying the person.

Scroll through the gallery to see other cases of unidentified remains and cold cases in Texas
It's been a turbulent week for United Airlines. It didn't get any better over the weekend.

United, trying to recover from video of a man being pulled off a plane, took it on the chin again Sunday when a Utah couple told their story of being removed from a flight in Houston.

Michael Hohl and Amber Maxwell were traveling to Costa Rica for their wedding on Sunday.

The couple, and a group of friends, were flying from Salt Lake City with a layover at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

PROMOTIONAL IDEA: Minor league baseball team's idea takes flight after United incident

Hohl and Maxwell boarded the plane last and found a sleeping man spread across their row of seats, Hohl claimed. The groom-to-be said they didn't want to wake the man, so the couple moved three rows up in the half-empty flight and didn't think about it.

Hohl told KHOU-TV in Houston when they sat down, the crew informed them they were in the wrong seats and moved them to the correct seats.

In a statement, United Airlines said Hohl and Maxwell "repeatedly attempted to sit in upgraded seating" and wouldn't follow the crew's instructions about where their purchased seats were.

"Were disappointed anytime a customer has an experience that doesnt measure up to their expectations," airline spokeswoman Maggie Schmerin said in a written statement.

TOUGH TIMES: Worst airline controversies in recent history

After the couple returned to their seats, Hohl said, things got weird. Shortly before Flight 1737 was scheduled to take off, the crew asked the pair to get off the plane.

Flashbacks to the video of Dr. David Dao being dragged off a Chicago-to-Louisville flight a week earlier came to mind. Then, the couple claimed, a U.S. Marshal came onto the plane and asked them to get off.

The TSA's Federal Air Marshal Service later told the Chronicle that "no Federal Air Marshals were involved in this alleged incident."

The couple cooperated and left without incident, they said. They rebooked for Sunday, but said this was their last flight on United Airlines.

It was just under a week ago that footage of Dao's removal from a United flight went viral, sparking outrage overseas. In the melee, Dao sustained injuries and now plans to file a lawsuit against the airline. After the incident, United put in place a new rule stipulating that crew members will no longer be allowed to displace passengers already on board the plane.

Scroll through the gallery above to see how social media roasted United Airlines after a man was dragged off a plane in Chicago
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Hundreds of sign-wielding protesters congregated outside City Hall Saturday as part of a nationwide appeal to President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

The green-shirt clad anti-Trump protestors planned Tax March Houston in response to Trump's post-election statement that Americans "don't care" about seeing his tax returns. "The only ones that care about my tax returns are the reporters," Trump said, prompting everal marches on tax day 2017.

Trump is the first president since Richard Nixon to refuse to release his tax returns in office.

"The anti-Trump resistance is strong. We must keep this resistance going," Brian Harrison, of Socialist Alternative, told the crowd that congregated on Smith Street. "If you want to fight back against Trump and fight for socialist policies, please join us."

Signs that read "Chicken Don - Where's your money?," "Hide Eggs, Not Taxes" waved about the growing crowd as young families, elderly couples and millennials fell in line for the downtown march.

Pet owners brought dogs with anti-fascist signs hung from their collars. Participants poured out onto the streets as organizers chanted into megaphones.

Gabriella Nissen and Paige Moore held signs high in the crowd as they waited for the march to keep moving.

"This isn't fair. We're all taking part in our duty to pay taxes and he hasn't proven that he's taking part in his," Moore said. "Just look at the disparity in the wealth that he's generated for himself and refuses to share with the country versus the money that we're working for and contributing to society with."

Both participated in the Jan. 21 Women's March in Washington in protest of Trump's election.

"I've been upset from the beginning," Nissen said. "It seems like everything he's doing is hurting the citizens of the United States."

An inflatable chicken resembling Trump floated alongside the march, which took place on the sidewalks of McKinney, Travis and Capitol before returning to the plaza at City Hall.

Event organizer and co-director Elle Church said she had never planned a march before. After having a hip replacement, the responsibilities of spearheading Tax March Houston grew to be "exceptionally exhausting."

Even while enduring pain throughout the activities, she said she was amazed by the turnout.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Church said. "I don't know how powerful our impact is going to be, but I'm more than pleased with how it turned out  Even if 200 people showed up, I would've been thrilled."

Protestors waved signs at policemen on horseback as children as young as 5 chanted in the streets.

Passersby walked alongside the march to take photos and ask activists Trump-related questions, to which they chanted "What do we want? Tax returns. When do we want them? Now."

"He's not divulging his connections," participant Greg Broyles said. "There's a strong suspicion that he's interconnected to Vladimir Putin - and Putin has blown up Chechens, he's a murderer. Trump is connected."

ACLU of Texas Legal Observer volunteers directed participants toward Sen. Ted Cruz's office, where the march briefly stopped. Marchers also carried signs with portraits of the Republican senator that read "Hateful Ted."

"Cruz is not representing the citizens of Texas. He needs to go," said first-time marcher Theresa San Miguel. "I was disappointed when he went to the Republican convention and did not endorse Trump, but then he switched his endorsement and said he did."

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, arrived at the end of the march to voice her support of Tax March Houston. Protesters formed a crowd around the City Hall steps as she removed her signature scarf due to the heat of the morning, to a raucous applause.

"We will not be run and ruled by kings," she said.
A Texas man known for a half-naked, drunken statement recorded in 2006 on a dash-cam outside Houston and wanted for the killing of his girlfriend is now an international fugitive.

William Joseph Greer, 51, has been added to the database of wanted persons with Interpol, the international police agency.
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A one-time bodyguard for a son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman died in a confrontation with Mexican marines, the Sinaloa state attorney general's office announced Saturday.

Francisco Javier Zazuelta Rosales, who had been on the run since he and four others escaped from prison March 16, was killed Friday afternoon in a small town near Culiacan, the capital of the state of Sinaloa, officials said.

RELATED: ICE deports Mexican man wanted for aggravated homicide, has been removed from U.S. multiple times

The Marines recovered numerous high-caliber weapons, including a grenade launcher, as well as tactical and communications equipment.

Zazuelta, who officials said was a leader in the Sinaloa cartel as well as the bodyguard for Ivan Archvialdo Guzman, had been linked to a deadly ambush of a Mexican military convoy in September, leaving five soldiers dead and 10 others wounded. Two military vehicles were incinerated in the attack.

"El Chapo" remains in U.S. custody in New York, awaiting trial. The 60-year-old one-time head of the Sinaloa cartel was extradited to the United States last year.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
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Euclid police are investigating a homicide that happened Saturday morning.

(File photo)

EUCLID, Ohio - Euclid police are investigating a homicide that happened Saturday morning.

Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner spokesman Christopher Harris confirmed a homicide happened on Halle Drive south of Lakeshore Boulevard.

The victim has been identified as 33-year-old Ricardo A. Debrossard, medical examiner records say.

Police and the medical examiner's office have not disclosed how Debrossard died. Scanner traffic indicated it was a shooting.

Police would not release any information on the homicide.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comments section.

cleveland.com is a partner of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. Every dollar buys four meals for the hungry. Click here to donate.
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Nine people were shot early Sunday at a Columbus after-hours club, police say.

(File photo)

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Nine people were shot early Sunday at a Columbus after-hours club, police said.

The shooting happened about 3:20 a.m. at the J&R Party Hall in Columbus's South Linden neighborhood, according to a post on the Columbus police department's Facebook page. Shots rang out from inside the club during an argument, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

Five female victims and four male victims were injured in the shooting, police said. Their injuries range from minor to life-threatening.

Seven of the victims were taken to the OhioHealth Grant Medical Center for treatment, and two were listed in critical condition as of 6:30 a.m., the Dispatch reports. All of the other victims are in stable condition.

Investigators found different caliber shell casings inside the club, 10TV reports. While no suspects have been publicly identified, officers are following up with persons of interest.

No further information about the incident was immediately available Sunday morning.

Last month, 15 people were shot and one person was killed in a nightclub shooting in Cincinnati. Cincinnati police identified the shooters in the incident and arrested them, yet they were still hospitalized at the time of their arrest, Fox 8 reports.

This post will be updated when more details are released.

If you'd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.

cleveland.com is a partner of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. Every dollar buys four meals for the hungry. Click here to donate.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Sylvia Pisorn of Kirtland remembers when her mother sewed her first traditional Slovenian costume using pieces of velvet and lace when she was six years old. Decades later, Pisorn still adorns a version of the intricate, colorful costume for the Easter Sunday sunrise service at St. Mary of the Assumption in Collinwood. "It wouldn't be Easter without this," Pisorn said during their vibrant procession outside the church.

"The Resurrection Mass", lead by Father John Kumse, was performed in the Slovenian language. Father Kumse has led Sunday morning masses in Slovenian for 30 years. To preserve the heritage and tradition of the local Slovenian community, the church still teaches children the Slovenian language at the Saturday Slovenian Language School. St. Mary's opened in 1906 and within 10 years, the congregation swelled to 2,200 members.

The Cleveland area is home to the largest population of Slovenians in the world outside of Slovenia.

Christians from around the world are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead today on Easter Sunday.
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Six students from Parma Senior High School got to express their concerns about state funding on Advocacy Day in Columbus March 30.

(Courtesy of the Parma City Schools/special to cleveland.com)

PARMA, Ohio - The Tri-City MyCom Youth Planning Council took part in Advocacy Day March 30 in Columbus.

Seven Hills Ward One Councilman Tony Biasiotta and community activist Gene Lovasy, along with Project Coordinator Jean Micklewright of Ohio Guidestone, accompanied six Parma Senior High students on the trip.

MyCom is a Cuyahoga County project designed to link activities to children, adolescents and families. The Tri-City MyCom project serves youth between ages 5-24 in Parma, Parma Heights and Seven Hills.

Students from Parma Senior High who went on the trip were: Zahraa Alribeawi, Noah Utterback, Ebony Cianciola, Christina Huffman, Alexis Puleo and Ilene Jones. The students had previously attended Advocacy Training provided by Voices for Ohio's Children at the Neighborhood Leadership Institute.

"Our group had 'face time' with both State Representative John Barnes and the legislative aide to Senator Mike Skindell," Biasiotta said. "Our student leaders did an impressive job effectively articulating their concerns and the consequences that might occur as a result of cuts in funding for Out-of-School programming and infrastructure spending for road repairs.

"In response to their request, during the next month or so, our group will prepare and forward to both legislators additional documentation noting their concerns," Biasiotta said.

Great to see that the area students are showing the initiative in voicing their concerns with regards to cuts in school funding by the state.

Pottery Class: The Independence Art Guild pottery instructor Don Fritz will lead pottery classes weekly on Wednesday May 3-June 21 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at the Art Studio in the rear of the Historic Hall, 6675 Brecksville Road.

Students will create functional, decorative pottery in these introductory classes. Cost is $123 for members, and $126 for non-members.

Call Regi Brosnan at 216-524-6824 for more information.

Bowling Ballerinas: The Great Lakes Youth Ballet is holding a fundraiser at Freeway Bowling Lanes, 12859 Brookpark Road, from 1-3 p.m. April 23.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students. Tickets include two games of bowling, shoe and ball rental and a slice of pizza and pop.

There will be a bake sale and a gift basket raffle, too. Lane sponsorships are available for $50.

Visit greatlakesyouthballet.com for more information.

Summer Classes: The Cassidy Theatre's Youth Theatre Summer Classes will take place June 19-Aug. 5. Classes feature acting, singing and dance instruction.

Classes are offered for children 4-6 and ages 7-19.

Call the theatre at 440-842-4600 or visit cassidytheatre.com

West Creek News: West Creek Conservancy is hosting an Open House at 7 p.m. April 25 at Parma City Council Chambers to get the public's input on the Parmadale project.

West Creek Conservancy is in the process of acquiring the Parmadale property, which was founded in the 1920s. Public input is needed to help shape the next phase of this project and its integration into the West Creek Reservation.

The meeting will address linking the 80-acre Parmadale property into the existing 326-acre West Creek Reservation and restoration and recreational ideas for the property.

For more information, contact Dawn Petkov at 216-749-3720, ext. 10 or email dpetkov@westcreek.org.

More Information: Send me any updates and news items on your organization or family's achievements. Email marklholan@yahoo.com

"cleveland.com is a partner of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. Every dollar buys four meals for the hungry. Click here to donate."
Richard Goldbergs wife Laurie with their oldest daughter Hailey in her college dorm. Source: Richard Goldberg

With four children between the ages of 13 and 21, Richard Goldberg knew financing college would be a challenge. "Even though we started saving early, the cost of paying for all of this was daunting," he said. When his oldest daughter Hailey was accepted to a private liberal arts college in Pennsylvania  with a tuition tab of nearly $50,000  he envisioned a lifetime of loans for him and his wife Laurie, as well as their children. "Because of our income level, I knew we wouldn't get much of anything in need-based aid," said Goldberg, who runs a marketing agency in Montclair, New Jersey. So Goldberg tried another route. He approached the financial aid office and asked for more help. What he wanted  and got  was a discount.

Brian A. Jackson | Getty Images

The school upped their scholarship offer for a total savings of $31,000 a year, the equivalent of over $120,000 for four years of school. "It was like winning the lottery," Goldberg said, "it changed the trajectory of how many years I have to work and it allowed my daughter to go to a school that has made a huge difference in her life."

It was like winning the lottery. Richard Goldberg father who successfully negotiated for more aid

"The reality is that a lot of colleges will negotiate, they just don't advertise this," said Eric Greenberg, president of Greenberg Educational Group, a New York-based consulting firm. The first thing families should do is look at what kind of aid they received and from what kind of school. "What may look like the largest offer might not be the best," according to Rick Castellano, a spokesman for Sallie Mae, which provides loans to students. Families need to understand the difference between scholarships and loans. In other words, "what needs to be paid back and what is free money," he said. "It's about maximizing money that you do not have to pay back."

From there, do some research on your chosen school's average financial-aid package, said Joel Peck, a college financial consultant who worked directly with the Goldbergs and developed a course called "Getting Money for College." "If your offer is below the benchmark, that gives families something to shoot for." When it comes to appealing for more aid, private schools typically have more money to spend to attract high-caliber students, Peck explained. There also tends to be more wiggle room regarding how that money gets doled out. "Once your child is accepted, your offer can only get better," he said.

Come prepared

Peck advises clients to meet with the school aid office in person and come prepared with your strengths: Any kind of achievements or things that makes you unique, places you've lived, things you've done. "It doesn't only have to be the student who has found a cure to an incurable disease," he said. Accentuate the quality of the student and the student's credentials, added Greenberg, as well new information or new circumstances in your family's financial picture like an older sibling who moved back home after college, care for elderly grandparents, increased health-related expenses or the loss of a job.

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Given it's massive population, China represents a key market for consumer goods companies, and even a small change in Chinese behavior can have a massive impact on bottom lines. Diageo , the multinational company selling alcohol brands including Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan, has its eye on the emergence of China's whisky drinkers. "What we're seeing in China right now is really positive," Sam Fischer, Diageo's president of Asia, told CNBC. "We're seeing an increasing curiosity around people asking, 'What is whisky? Where does it come from? What taste do I like?'"

Employees box bottles of Johnnie Walker at Diageo Plc International Supply Center Getty Images

Whisky is a big business for Diageo, especially in Asia where it accounts for 40 percent of its total sales, compared to 25 percent of sales globally. Fischer cited demand from China's increasingly urbanized population and its rising middle class. Meanwhile, for the younger generation, status is becoming less about material possessions, and increasingly about the experience of consumption and story behind the brand. That's where Johnnie Walker hopes to come in. During an investor call recently, Fischer said the changing demographics are positive for new sales growth, pointing to a prediction that by 2022, 630 million Chinese will be classified as middle class.

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Inside Spacious, a co-working service that operates out of New York restaurants. Andrew Frasz | Spacious

A few New York City restaurants that are idle during the daytime are getting a boost to their traffic, thanks to a service that turns otherwise empty dining rooms into makeshift work spaces . Spacious, a work-sharing company, is helping to connect freelancers and employees that work remotely with eatery owners. Spacious members can set up shop  and even give presentations or hold meetings  at participating restaurants, which all offer coffee and WiFi, for a starting fee of $95 a month. The arrangement is mutually beneficial: Remote workers get a quiet working space, while restaurants get potential happy-hour customers  or at least a group of people to help attract early birds. Meanwhile, Spacious  which operates out of seven restaurants in the New York City region and is looking to expand to Boston and San Francisco  is looking to ride the growing wave of workers who are escaping the confines of the office using just a laptop and a mobile device. "Independent, mobile employees were finding themselves increasingly able, through technology and corporate policies, to be able to work from anywhere," Spacious co-founder Preston Pesek told CNBC recently. "We were matching trends in the business world with what's available in commercial real estate."

Inside a Spacious, a coworking service that operates out of New York restaurants. Andrew Frasz | Spacious

Spacious is indirectly competing against a fast-growing industry of co-working spaces like WeWork or the female only The Wing, as well as regular coffee shops that host telecommuters.

In cities like New York, there are dozens of other co-working spaces, and many operate 24 hours a day. They also boast different amenities like community building and refreshments, and vary in scale. Some are organized by industry. Spacious is looking to make inroads in an increasingly mobile workforce, with anecdotal evidence suggesting traditional office hours, as well as the cubicle life they represent, are on their way out. Recently, a Gallup survey showed that 43 percent of U.S. workers spent at least some time working outside the office  and many of them described themselves as being enthusiastic about work. With that in mind, industries like real estate, human resources and technology are recruiting a slew of new workers for remote jobs. Spacious member Daphne Taranto started using the service after she quit her full-time job to work on an independent project that eventually became a full-time gig. Before Spacious, "I was mostly in cafes or public libraries beforehand as needed," Taranto, co-director of international art fair Fully Booked, told CNBC in an email. "Or at home, but there's not really space, mental or physical, for working from home very much." Working from a Spacious location "is a very concentrated work environment that you jump into when you start your day," she added.

We didn't need something so formal as a WeWork or one of the others where we'd have permanent space. That would be overkill for how we operate our business. Michael Alexis Museum Hack
President Donald Trump on Twitter Sunday lashed out against citizens who'd taken to the streets to exercise their First Amendment rights.

While claiming that thousands of people who on Saturday demanded Trump finally release his full tax returns were "paid" protesters, Trump tweeted, "The election is over!"

"Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies," Trump tweeted a day after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in more than 150 cities across the country.

An hour after wishing his 28 million followers a Happy Easter, Trump hailed his November win and called out those making his undisclosed tax history an issue.

Read more from NBC News:

The top democrats who could challenge Trump in 2020

Supreme Court scheduled to hear important freedom of religion dispute

'SNL' pokes fun at Bannon, Kushner and Spicer gaffes

"I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?" Trump said on Twitter.

@realDonaldTrump Tweet: I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?

@realDonaldTrump Tweet: Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!

The president then followed up by repeating an unsubstantiated claim he's made before that some of the protesters against him were "paid," an allegation that became popular in some right-wing circles in the build up to the 2016 presidential election, before noting that the election was "over."

Trump himself used paid actors to pose as rally attendees during his campaign, and has talked at length about the election results since his victory while criticizing his former rival Hillary Clinton.

More than four months after winning the presidency, Trump continued to attack Clinton at a rally in Nashville, Tennessee, this March.

The Tax Day protesters called for Trump to release his tax returns  something nearly all major presidential candidates have done since the 1970s  and call on lawmakers to represent their interests over those of major corporations.

Trump and his administration have repeatedly dismissed calls for him to release his taxes, first claiming he couldn't because he was being audited, then saying the issue was more of interest to journalists and liberal politicians.

But a poll from the Pew Research Center in January found that more than two-thirds of all Americans believe the president has an obligation to release his tax returns.

This is not the first time the president has tweeted such accusations in the wake of major demonstrations against him and his policies. On Nov. 10, Trump tweeted that protests against his victory were "unfair" and said "professional protesters, incited by the media" were turning out in the streets.

@realDonaldTrump Tweet: Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!

And on Feb. 3, in the midst of major protests against Trump's first executive order on immigration, the president tweeted that "Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
MALVERN, Pa.  The Vanguard trading floor is the epicenter of one of the great financial revolutions of modern times, yet it is a surprisingly relaxed place.

A few men and women gaze at Bloomberg terminals. There is a muted television or two and a view of verdant suburban Philadelphia. No one is barking orders to buy or sell stock. For a $4.2 trillion mutual fund giant that is still growing rapidly, it occupies a small fraction of the space of a typical Wall Street trading hub.

You can barely hear the quiet hum of money being invested  money in scarcely imaginable quantities, pouring into low-cost index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (E.T.F.s) that track financial markets.

In the last three calendar years, investors sank $823 billion into Vanguard funds, the company says. The scale of that inflow becomes clear when it is compared with the rest of the mutual fund industry  more than 4,000 firms in total. All of them combined took in just a net $97 billion during that period, Morningstar data shows. Vanguard, in other words, scooped up about 8.5 times as much money as all of its competitors.

Read more from the New York Times:

Uber wants to rule the world. First it must conquer India.

From 'zombie malls' to Bonobos: America's retail transformation

Markets saw a Trump bump, then hit a speed bump

"Flows of this magnitude into one company are unprecedented," said Alina Lamy, an expert on fund flows at Morningstar. "Since the crisis, investors have been saying, 'I may not be able to control the market, but I can control how much I pay in mutual fund expenses.' And when they look for quality funds with low fees, the first answer is Vanguard."

The triumph of index fund investing means Vanguard's traders funnel as much as $2 billion a day into stocks like , and , as well as thousands of smaller companies that the firm's fleet of funds track. That is 20 times the amount that Vanguard was investing on a daily basis in 2009. It is manageable, in large part, because no stock-picking is involved: The money simply flows into index funds and E.T.F.s, and through February of this year, nine out of every 10 dollars invested in a United States mutual fund or E.T.F. was absorbed by Vanguard.

By any measure, these are staggering figures. Vanguard's assets under management have skyrocketed to $4.2 trillion from $1 trillion seven years ago, according to the company. About $3 trillion of this is invested in passive index-based strategies, with the rest in funds that rely on an active approach to picking stocks and bonds.

More broadly, this deluge of money abandoning higher-price actively managed funds for Vanguard's plain vanilla cut-rate vehicles has come as an existential shock to a mutual industry that has long been resistant to change.

What is being called the Vanguard effect was felt last month when the indexing giant's rival, , announced that it would revamp its stock-picking operations, promoting instead a process that relies more on computer-driven methodologies.

The effect within Vanguard has been no less profound. For decades, the firm has made the case that cheaper index funds will, over time, outperform more-expensive mutual funds that rely on brainy portfolio managers to pick stocks.

The main advocate of this doctrine was the founder, , who retired in 1999 but runs a research operation on the Vanguard campus. For years, the firm has relied more on his simple message and the passion of his devotees than on fancy advertising campaigns to spread the word.

Unlike its peers, Vanguard is owned by its funds  and ultimately its investors  so as money rushes in, expenses are persistently reduced, resulting in perpetual savings for the legions of Vanguard clients. They number well over 20 million and include New York Times employees: Vanguard runs the company's 401(k) retirement plans.

The model has been a powerful one: Since 1976, fees on Vanguard funds have fallen to about 0.12 percent from about 0.70 percent. By comparison, Lipper calculates that the average fee for all mutual funds is currently 1 percent, although it has been coming down rapidly.

"Mr. Bogle used to say, 'This is not our money,' and I agree," said F. William McNabb III, Vanguard's chief executive, referring to the extraordinary inflows. "For many years, there has been a real move to our way of investing. And it's more than active versus passive  it's high cost versus low cost."

This no-frills approach has come under some strain as cash flowing into Vanguard funds reaches new highs year after year, some people who follow Vanguard closely say. There have been reports of operational snarls, including website outages, longer-than-usual wait times on the phone and misdirected fund transfers.

"All this growth has come at the same time that the company has been cutting costs," said Daniel P. Wiener, the editor of the Independent Adviser, a newsletter for Vanguard investors, who says he has received many complaints about the current state of customer service at Vanguard. "Most companies when they are growing spend more. Vanguard is trying to spend less. At some point, cutting costs will bite you."

There is no doubt about Vanguard's commitment to pinching pennies. In touring the 287-acre campus of pathways, low-slung buildings and a commanding statue of Mr. Bogle, the sensibility is decidedly puritan.

There are few flashy cars to be found in the parking lots. The walls are largely devoid of eye-catching art  with the exception of some musty paintings of the HMS Vanguard, a Napoleonic-era British warship that inspired the company's name.

In sum, the look is slightly drab, certainly by Wall Street standards: rows of uniform cubicles, colorless carpets and an executive boardroom that seems more appropriate for a community college than one of the largest financial institutions in the land.

Vanguard executives say they are disciplined in terms of plowing money back into people and technology, but not overly so. "Our true investment spending has doubled in the past five years," Mr. McNabb said.

This tension between breakneck growth and spending restraint is most acutely felt in the firm's retail division  or the front lines, as they are referred to here  where 6,000 customer service representatives attend to the wishes, demands and whims of the close to eight million clients who purchase their mutual funds directly from Vanguard. In 2015 and 2016, this division added 350,000 new accounts each year, numbers never before seen at the firm.

"The spotlight is on us, given the growth, and there have been operational challenges," said Karin A. Risi, who oversees Vanguard's retail investor group and is in the midst of an aggressive hiring push. "But it is not fair to say we are not investing. Bringing in 2,000 crew on a base of 6,000 is not insignificant."

As with many executives at Vanguard, Ms. Risi gets a glint in her eye when she talks of the virtues of investing in low-cost index funds. Like the majority of her peers, she has spent the bulk of her career at the firm and, as a certified culture carrier, it is clear that she is taking the current growing pains to heart.
Dennis Gates' career lessons lifted Mizzou Monday, and will again in 22-23
A VPN is simply an encrypted connection between two computers, each side running VPN software. The two sides, however, are not equal.

The software that you, as the user of a VPN service deal with, is known as the VPN client. The software run by a VPN company is a VPN server. The encrypted connection always starts with a VPN client making a request to a VPN server.

There are many different flavors of VPN connections, each with its own corresponding client and server software. The most popular flavors are probably L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN, IKEv2 and PPTP.

Some VPN providers support only one flavor, others are much more flexible. Astrill, for example, supports OpenWeb, OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP, Cisco IPSec, IKEv2, SSTP, StealthVPN and RouterPro VPN. At the other extreme, OVPN, as their name implies, only supports OpenVPN.

I mention this to counter some mis-leading information from normally trustworthy sources.

When Brian Krebs recently wrote about whether you should use a VPN, he said "... VPNs rely on specialized software that you download and install on your computer."

Likewise, Lily Hay Newman, in Wired, recently wrote " ... the set-up process is fairly straightforward: You pay for access from the VPN of your choice, create an account, and then download the VPNs portal program onto your computer and mobile devices."

The fact is, VPNs can be used without installing software. And, a case can be made, that this is the safer way to go.



BUILT-IN VPN SOFTWARE

To avoid installing software, the operating system on the computer/device that is the VPN client has to natively support the same VPN flavor(s) offered by a VPN provider.

As my recent blog, Triple your privacy with a Chromebook and two VPNs, showed, Chrome OS, the operating system on a Chromebook, natively supports L2TP/IPsec and OpenVPN.

iOS version 10 supports IKEv2, IPsec and L2TP. You can see this with Settings -> VPN -> Add VPN Configuration -> Type. iOS 9 supported these three plus PPTP, but support for PPTP was removed in version 10.

Android version 6 supports PPTP, L2TP/IPSec PSK, L2TP/IPSec RSA, IPSec Xauth PSK, IPSec Xauth RSA and IPSec Hybrid RSA. You can see this with Settings -> More -> VPN -> Plus sign -> Type.

OS X 10.11 El Capitan supports PPTP, L2TP, IPSec and IKEv2. The previous version, 10.10 Yosemite, did not support IKEv2. The latest version, macOS Sierra 10.12, dropped support for PPTP.

Configuring a VPN on Sierra does not have to be hard. These instructions from Apple, macOS Sierra: Set up a connection to a virtual private network, talk about using a VPN settings file to automatically import VPN settings that configure the built-in VPN client software.

Windows 7 and Windows 10 support PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP and IKEv2.

Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN give their customers a Windows phonebook file (.pbk) for use with the VPN client software built into Windows. The file is pre-configured to work with the multiple VPN servers each company supports.



NordVPN describes this in their Windows 7 setup instructions. ExpressVPN refers to the file as a Windows Dialer file and describes its use here.



OPEN SOURCE



And, there's another option.

Open source client software is available for OpenVPN and IKEv2 based VPNs (not sure about other VPN flavors). With this option, you can use software that has, hopefully, been audited or vetted. OpenVPN provider Mullvad is flexible, they let their customers use either Mullvad-provided software or an open source alternative.

Open source software is not always an option though, some VPN providers, such as TunnelBear and F-Secure Freedome, require customers to use their software.

NordVPN NordVPN Windows VPN client options

The NordVPN tutorials page (above) shows that they support all three types of VPN software on Windows. With Windows 7, 8 and 10, they offer six ways to connect to their VPN service.

"Application" uses software provided by NordVPN, "OpenVPN" uses software downloaded from openvpn.org. The other four options (L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, IKEv2/IPSec and SSTP) use no external software, they merely configure Windows to use VPN client software that is built into the system. To a Windows VPN user, this total flexibility is as good at it gets.



CHOOSING A TYPE

Which of these three types of VPN client software is the safest is debatable.

Software from a VPN provider, while tempting, is probably the least secure option.

It's tempting for non-techies because it can paper over the complexity of making the VPN connection. It can also be tempting for nerds because of extra bells and whistles such as a kill switch, IPv6 blocking and easy access to multiple VPN servers.

Tempting or not, software from a VPN provider is a black box (Note: Mullvad is an exception, their software is open source). There is no practical way to fully know what it's doing. There is also no way to test the quality of the software. There have been multiple reports over the years about VPN client software not doing what it should be doing. There is no way to know if it is actively maintained with bug fixes or if has been abandoned.

Running a VPN service requires expertise in networking, server software and encryption. To also expect an organization to employ good programmers for their macOS, Windows, iOS and Android software is a lot to ask.

I have no first hand knowledge, but it's likely that some VPN providers outsource the programming of their apps. It's bad enough that you have to trust the VPN provider not to spy on you, you may also have to trust whoever wrote their VPN client software on the operating system you use.

Anyone running Windows, may not trust Microsoft. Fair enough. But at least if you use the VPN client software built into Windows you know who wrote it.

If you trust Apple to protect your privacy, then you are probably safest using their VPN client software built into iOS and macOS.

And, speaking as a long time Windows user, I have seen too many instances where installing software creates a problem. None of the older operating systems (Windows, OS X, macOS, Linux) are as good as the newer systems (iOS, Android, Chrome OS) at isolating application software, so any software installation on these "desktop" systems carries some risk.

Amul Kalia of the EFF recently suggested we "look for services that you can use with an open source client. There are many clients that support the above-mentioned OpenVPN or IPSec protocols." The article, however, offered no links or suggestions for finding such software.

And, while open source software may be an open book, that doesn't make it perfect or bug free.

Personally, I find a specific VPN feature important enough that, on my cellphone, I consider it a must have.

My phone spends most of its time disconnected. That is, both the Wi-Fi and the LTE/4G are disabled. When I connect to the Internet, I want the VPN software to kick in immediately. If I had to manually enable the VPN, I would surely forget every now and then. Even when I did remember, data transmitted before the VPN kicks in, can leak information, so I want that interval as short as possible.

Thus, I look for VPN client software that runs all the time and immediately detects when the phone goes on-line and protects that connection, be it Wi-Fi or LTE/4G.



BROWSER BASED VPNS

The three options described so far all work at the operating system level. Any VPN connection made this way should (if all is working correctly) send everything to/from your computing device to the VPN server.

But VPNs can also exist at the web browser level. These are not nearly as secure because they only protect data coming/going from the browser.

Presently, the desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux) version of the Opera browser stands alone - it is the only browser to include VPN client software. Opera is hard wired into a VPN provider called SurfEasy that they purchased in 2015. The VPN access is disabled by default, but turning it on is a simple matter. Its also free and there is no bandwidth limitation.

On the downside, SurfEasy is based in Canada, a Five Eyes country. Also, Opera is owned by a consortium of Chinese companies, including Qihoo 360. And, as of September 2016 at least, many of the technical details of the VPN were unknown.

Other browsers can gain VPN functionality via add-ons/extensions. Many VPN providers, such as Mullvad, TunnelBear, PureVPN, Private Internet Access and ZenMate offer Chrome extensions. Some of these can also be installed in Opera and at least one works with Firefox.

AND FINALLY

The first five types of VPN client software are designed to work on a single computing device, be it a laptop, desktop, tablet or phone. Anyone wanting to use a VPN to protect multiple devices has a sixth option, a router with VPN client software.

This is a somewhat rare feature, but there are, nonetheless, many choices. Some of the router operating systems (the official term being "firmware") that support VPN clients are DD-WRT, Tomato, OpenWRT, MikroTik, Sabai and DrayTek.

Among consumer routers, Asus has been offering a VPN client for a long time. Many Asus routers can function as clients for OpenVPN, L2TP and PPTP VPNs. ExpressVPN offers instructions for configuring an Asus router to work with their service.

For anyone that does not want to configure a router, there are at least three companies that sell modified routers pre-configured to act as VPN clients. Many VPN providers, such as ExpressVPN, BlackVPN, StrongVPN, WiTopia and VyprVPN will sell you a router customized to work with their service. I keep a list of routers that can act as VPN clients on my Router Security site.

Some articles about VPN client routers assume it will be the only router. This is a mistake. A VPN client router is best installed behind an existing router. When you need privacy connect to the VPN client router, when not, connect to the normal router.

So, that's it. Six types of VPN software to choose from. Not to mention the many flavors of VPNs themselves. Thanks go to Republicans in the U.S. government for making all this necessary.

FEEDBACK

Get in touch with me privately by email at my full name at Gmail. Public comments can be directed to me on twitter at @defensivecomput
When the purges began he rapidly set up a new repair yard and herded over 1,000 Jews into it, from laborers and academics to children and old folks, insisting they were all skilled mechanics. His superiors were somewhat dubious about toddlers' abilities to repair transmissions, but Plagge managed to convince them that keeping families together was essential for the sake of morale and productivity.

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Keep in mind, the SS weren't idiots. This was a hell of a risk he was taking, every day; on at least two occasions, it required fake beatings of his workers to keep the SS off his back.

German Federal Archives

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Growing the mustache may have been a little overboard.

But possibly his boldest move came right at the close of the war, with the Russian army pressing in. Standard practice in this case was for the SS to execute any remaining Jewish prisoners. However, a day before this was to take place, Plagge told his workers, with an SS officer standing right beside him, that the prisoners would "be escorted during this evacuation by the SS, which, as you know, is an organization devoted to the protection of refugees. Thus there is nothing to worry about." This is the equivalent of saying, "You guys will be totally safe if you wait for this evacuation and don't escape on your own beforehand" with a heavily animated wink.
CLICK HERE for Bahrain Grand Prix - Qualifying Results

Jolyon Palmer says he is looking forward to what the future brings after making his long awaited first appearance in the final phase of qualifying for his maiden top ten F1 starting position in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

In a remarkable session-to-session turnaround for the British driver - competing in his second season with Renault - Palmer was 20th and last after FP3 but a rapid effort in both Q1 and Q2 would see him end both knockout phases inside the top ten.

Though a 'scruffy' lap when it mattered in Q3 consigned him to tenth place, Palmer was otherwise thrilled to go the distance in qualifying for the first time after a disappointing start to the year blighted by issues.

"I think China to be honest we could have made it as well, but here we've been really struggling through practice and the car has never been in a sweet spot. Through qualifying we through we knew why and then we made some changes and immediately it was much better.

"So I was in the top ten in Q1, Q2 and in the end I think probably could have had ninth but Nico was really quick today to be fair. So it's definitely good and also from the team point of view it's very good to have two cars in the top ten, and with a lot more upgrades coming it's exciting."

With team-mate Nico Hulkenberg demonstrating Renault's apparently impressive single lap form in seventh place too, Palmer admits he did take advantage of the German's data to find improvements in his car after FP3.

"I made some changes for the supersoft and the car was an absolute nightmare [in FP3] - I was 20th and the car was all over the place and then Nico has just been on a really steady but really quick weekend so we tried to see what they were doing a little bit on the other side of the garage and it certainly helped."

ANALYSIS: How McLaren is saving itself off track if it can't win on it
Most people dont like to think about what will happen to them when theyre older.

Will a nursing home, assisted-living facility or home care be necessary? What costs could a future sickness lead to, besides those covered by health insurance? And who will pay those additional expenses?

The financial aspects of long-term care often dont come up until people see loved ones trying to figure it out, said David Guttchen, director of the Connecticut Partnership for Long Term Care, which operates within the states Office of Policy and Management.

When a child or grandchild sees that, oftentimes they say to themselves, I dont want that to happen to me, Guttchen said. Long-term care most often refers to custodial care, or bathing, feeding and other types of care needed by patients, which most people dont realize are not covered by health insurance or Medicare.

The partnerships mission over the last two and a half decades has been to educate Connecticut residents about the importance of planning for long-term care. Close to 60,000 people have bought plans through the partnership, with about 41,000 currently in force.

Still, not many people in Connecticut have policies. Fitch Ratings estimates that only about 5 percent of state residents have a long-term care insurance policy. And those who have it tend to be in the upper middle class.

The lower income brackets cant afford the policy and people in the high end have enough money, or think they do, to pay their long-term care needs, said Doug Meyer, managing director and head of U.S. life insurance for Fitch Ratings.

Premiums are dependent on a persons age, how long their policy lasts and a number of other factors, with the average annual premium paid across the country between $1,600 and $1,800.

This is often more than people can afford and this, in turn, leads to an over-reliance on Medicaid to cover the long-term care costs, said Matthew Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities.

He estimated Medicaid is used to pay for 70 percent of the $2.8 billion spent annually on long-term care costs, with about $1.3 billion spent on home care costs and $1.2 billion on nursing facilities, across the country.

Guttchen said the cost for a semi-private nursing facility bed is over $150,000 a year. Even people who have savings can end up going through those funds quickly and end up on Medicaid, a system meant to help low-income individuals with health care costs.

Unfortunately, the way long-term care is financed hasnt changed for 25 years or more, Guttchen said.

This fact will likely become a problem in the future, as baby boomers continue to age.

But the long-term care insurance industry is also feeling the pinch, based on a business model that isnt working. When insurers were making assumptions in order to price the premiums in the 1990s and early 2000s, they miscalculated a number of factors because they lacked historical experience, which essentially meant they significantly underpriced the plans, experts say.

For this reason, insurers have been seeking premium rate increases over the years to make up for the mistaken assumptions and policyholders are facing significant rate increases. This year alone, four insurers have opened requests for rate increases with the state Insurance Department that range from 27 percent to 229.5 percent.

Since 2007, the state Insurance Department has received 261 rate increase requests, 55 percent of which have been outright rejected. Only 10 percent of requests have been approved as submitted, with the rest approved at a lower increase than requested.

Paul Lombardo, actuary for the Insurance Department, said the department has been approving higher increases in recent years. While the increases have not been granted at the level requested, they have been higher than weve approved in the past, he said.

He said this is a result of insurers paying out at or above the statutory minimum required for long-term care costs in recent years. For individual long-term care, the minimum statutory loss ratio is 60 percent, meaning that at least 60 cents of every premium dollar is spent on benefits, according to the departments website.

For group insurance, the ratio is 65 percent.

In 2016, insurers requested an average rate increase of 49 percent but received approval to increase premium rates by an average of only 18 percent on approximately one out of four Connecticut policyholders, according to Fitch. This compares to a 14 percent increase on almost one out of three CT poIicyholders in 2015. Fitch expects this trend to continue.

Because of this, many companies have backed out of the long-term care insurance industry. While there were more than 100 insurers offering this type of insurance a decade ago, there are less than 15 now across the country.

John Hancock, the second largest player in the long-term care insurance industry, recently backed out of the business, no longer accepting new policies. The company is now seeking increases in Connecticut on existing individual and group plans.

Several years ago, Connecticut passed a law that requires any premium increase equal to or greater than 20 percent to be phased in over three years.

Barrett said the state and federal governments have over the years explored different ways to fund long-term care, including through a 2013 national report by the Commission on Long-Term Care.

He said some suggestions that have been explored are the application of tax credits for the cost of premiums or direct subsidies for these costs. Considering the state and national economies, these are not options that seem feasible at the moment, Barrett noted.

ktorres@hearstmediact.com; 203-330-6227
On a recent morning, Phil Lodato, whose family runs the home furnishings store United House Wrecking in Stamford, heads to a settee from the Rachael Ray Home collection in the stores design center. The shape is eye-catching, with a back that is a bit taller than one would expect.

Look, Lodato says, pushing away some toss pillows and unearthing what it really is. It looks like a regular couch. You wouldnt know it was a bed. (Rays) style is a bit different. She has a classic style with a modern twist. We call it a transitional style, which is a really nice look. It has traditional elements, as well as contemporary elements, so it can really work anywhere.

Ray joins a host of celebrities with furniture lines, ranging from those known for their domestic talents to celebrity models and actors. One of the earliest was Kathy Ireland, a model turned businesswoman, who was followed by Cindy Crawford, Lauren Conrad and even Brad Pitt. Then there are Martha Stewart and Paula Deen, who, like Ray, found fame because of their expertise in the kitchen. One of Deens couches sits in a vignette at United House Wrecking not far from a scene created with some of Rays armchairs.

United House Wrecking is one of only a few retailers in the area carrying Rays line. (Jennifer Furniture in Westport, Jennifer Convertibles in Stamford and Jordans Furniture in New Haven are some of the others.) For years the television personality, celebrity cook, best-selling cookbook author, lifestyle expert and editor-in-chief of her self-titled lifestyle magazine has invited us into her kitchen, but now asks us to take a seat, put up our feet and rest our drinks on a table she designed. Last year more than 100 items were launched by Rachael Ray Home at High Point Market, the annual home furnishings trade show in High Point, N.C. Her line spans three collections, and was made by Legacy Classic (the case goods) and Craftmaster (the custom-order upholstered pieces), two leading furniture manufacturers.

The collections  Soho, Highline and Upstate  reflect Rays sophisticated, yet casual style, and her love of the eclectic, particularly in the two former groupings. A more homey and cozy look is saved for the pieces she favors for her upstate New York abode. She was integral in the design of all of them, so they would accurately represent how and where she lives.

While launching her line on her syndicated talk show, Rachael Ray, last year, she kept with the casual style that has endeared her to her fans. They all combine, she said of the pieces. Nothing fights each other. I have a very eclectic home. I hope you mix and match from all of them.

From the start, Ray was integral to the look, says Roy Calcagne, president and CEO of Craftmaster, which also manufactures Deens collection. His team and Legacy Classic designers built off Rays visual musings, including the doodles she penned in the margins of her recipe notebooks, and the vision of Michael Murray, general manager of Rachael Ray Home.

Calcagne says this is the furniture you find in her homes with the improvements she hoped for herself. Rays sketches answered the question, What I wish pieces of my furniture did, she has said.

We had to understand her lifestyle and what she likes, Calcagne says. Our team went up to her apartment in New York City and saw how she lived  the accessories she had in her home, her furniture and how it was all put together. They became immersed in what her likes were and what her dislikes were.

Those likes include electrical outlets and USB ports hidden in drawers and a kitchen island with a built-in garbage bowl. Shelves and tables are finished on both sides so they can serve as dividers in open-space planning. All of it is a nod to the multi-use life and decluttered style of a lifestyle mogul who needs to find peace when she finally puts her feet up. Depending on where you purchase the items, they can range from several hundred dollars to a couple of thousand.

It has been a successful launch, says Christopher Phillips, Legacy Classics director of marketing, who says the future will bring some youth-oriented collections and some smaller-scale items for big city apartments and other tight spaces.

The personality and appeal of a celebrity certainly attracts fans to a showroom, says Jocelyn Ornato Bramhall, director of design at United House Wrecking. The pieces, however, ultimately need elements that make for successful interior design.

It still has to fit and look good in someones home, she says. There is a flexibility in her line, which works well for her other pieces and items you already have in your home.

chennessy@hearstmedia.com;

Twitter: @xtinahennessy
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BRIDGEPORT  Watching Kayana Reid draw is like watching one of those time-lapse films of an artist creating a pencil sketch.

In less than a minute, with a pencil and a blank sheet of paper, she free-handed a beautiful image of a bride in a wedding gown  without using an eraser.

Reid, 15, a freshman at Kolbe Cathedral High School, has more up her sleeve than artful speed drawing.

Shes also a businesswoman  theres no such word as businessteen  with her own line of tops and costume jewelery that shes selling under the name Chastity Divas. Theres a childrens book in the works, too.

On the face of it, Kayana hasnt had the kind of life that would lead to entrepreneurship.

Shes one of 14 children. Her mom drives a tractor-trailer. She doesnt see much of her dad.

You might think that after all of this that she would be the recipient of a cash award. Instead, shes on the other end of the generosity yardstick; shes awarded a total of $1,000 to the Elizabeth Pfriem SWIM Center for Cancer at St. Vincents Medical Center and another charity close to hear heart, Jersey City Fashion Week.

The money came from the sale of her Diva T-shirts.

It all started when my mom had breast cancer, she said. I like drawing and art and fashion, and I thought that it would help people take their minds off of their problems.

Kayanas efforts havent gone unnoticed. Last year she received the Sojourner Truth Youth Award from the Bridgeport Chapter of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Womens Clubs.

She also received an official citation from the General Assembly for her outstanding leadership, and the annual City of Bridgeport Youth Award in 2016 that was signed by Mayor Joseph P. Ganim.

After high school she hopes to attend Spelman College in Atlanta, and major in nursing.

But its still early  Im not really sure what direction Ill take, she said.

Her church, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit on Union Avenue is an important part of her life, where she sings in its Youth Praise Team.

Her mom, Kisha Reid, has had a difficult life. She was raped at a young age and she was told that she had breast cancer about five years ago. The family lives in a tidy home on Ruth Street in the North End.

My life is built on faith, Kisha says. Without faith I wouldnt be here today  when I was raped, I almost lost my life. But, so far, my cancer has been in remission.

At the moment, Kayana is going through her own stint of teenage torment  the staff at Kolbe Cathedral impounded her cell phone after it rang in class.

And it only went ding ding,  she said.

Kayana it the oldest sibling still living at home  seven others are either off to college or are on their own. So whats it like having 13 brothers and sisters?

Its good, she said, but I have to have patience.

jburgeson@ctpost.com
Hate him or despise him, Gov. Dan Malloy is doing it his way.

Having seen an emotional Malloy sob on several occasions in the days after the ultra-violent murders from a military-style rifle in Sandy Hook Elementary School, the drops that moisturized his cheeks Thursday were neither from grief nor defeat.

For a son of Stamford who hadnt stopped running for governor since his first unsuccessful campaign in 2004-06, these had to be tears of relief when he let the cat out of the bag: he would not seek a third term next year. Its probably the best thing that can happen for Connecticut right now.

We need an adult in the room who will make life very, very miserable for the Legislature. And this is the year of reckoning.

The General Assembly is immersed in its annual charade of law-making. The House and Senate are static; essentially in denial over the $1.7-billion deficit in a $20-billion budget, minus $12 billion of baked-in costs. So the 151 House members and 36 senators have to cut $1 billion of the $8-billion in so-called discretionary spending. And thats only if the state employee unions belly up for $700 million in concessions, which is not a done deal.

The legislators are going about their business, holding public hearings for hundreds of bills that will die and for programs that will go unfunded. Veteran lawmakers and leaders are letting this play out, knowing that the budget will eventually cast a nasty, gnarly shadow and the adults will have to take over.

So Malloy, in what can only be described as a hastily planned surrender, for the betterment of the state, finally decided to avoid seeking a fatal third term.

Remember John Why Should I Resign If Ive Done Nothing Wrong Rowland?

Hes the former governor, now serving a 30-month bit in USP Lewisburg in Pennsylvania a high security U.S. penitentiary with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp as it says on its website, with 469 hand-picked minimum inmates.

Rowland was in his fatal third four-year term in the Governors Residence when his pay-to-play culture crashed. He didnt get halfway through the term before waiving the indictment, pleading guilty to federal corruption charges. We still have the $56-million boys prison in Middletown, sadly called the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, which Rowlands contractor buddies built in exchange for some nickel-and-dime home improvements  well, the kitchen cabinets were handmade  on Johnny Gees summer shack at Bantam Lake in Litchfield.

Rowland never really cared about nuts-and-bolts of government, along with the budget process. But he was always fun to cover, especially during the impeachment investigation of 2004, when he essentially turned into a ghost, a poor poker player with a bad hand mumbling a demand for a fair and transparent process on his way to prison.

Malloy isnt as much fun. Hes a wonk. Hes sassy. As a former prosecutor, hes tough to corner in an argument. If he doesnt like a question from a radio or TV reporter, who depend on a full sentence reply, Malloy will spit out a one-word answer.

In the back-and-forth with reporters the other day, he got applause from his clack of 120 supporters when someone asked whether his no-reelection status frees him from political considerations. Ive been doing that for a long time, Malloy said, and the clapping began.

The fact is, Malloys first act was to order Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to stop papering over the states financial picture. He also took billions of Medicaid dollars off budget, creating the illusion of a lower bottom line in spending. He invested needed billions in pension fund payments. He extracted some changes in state worker pensions during the long summer of 2011.

This year, he quietly attacked every high-earning suburb, proposing a budget that forces them to  horrors!  pay more for their teacher pensions. Crime has fallen off and the prison population of 20,000 under Rowland is down to 14,000. Proposed reductions in local aid have most lawmakers working against him.

Im the governor and I have laid out a very clear vision of what we need to accomplish before this session is over, Malloy said. A reporter asked about his rock-bottom approval rating of 24 percent in last Junes Quinnipiac Poll. He recalled that his statewide recognition was at 6 percent when he first ran for governor. The reporter pointed out the difference between recognition and approval.

Listen, you cant love somebody until youve come to know them, Malloy chimed. It was time to wind it up.

Who would have thought a kid who was spastic when he was born, who was thought to be mentally retarded as late as the fourth grade, whose wife had to type all of his papers as I dictated them ... he was lapsing into emotions again.

Cathy Malloy quickly leaned into the microphone would ever be governor and would ever be mayor. And its the best job ever and weve loved every minute of it, but its a new chapter and were moving on. Thats it.

The governor recovered. I thought I was supposed to dictate that.

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/
Outside my window in one of the worlds most advanced cities, I can hear protesters chanting angrily against Crazy Trump.

Barely 120 miles north, the worlds nastiest regime is displaying its military muscle in a menacing show of strength.

Just beyond them, the biggest army on earth is gathering on the border. To the east, a naval strike force sent by the planets superpower is steaming fast in this direction.

Trump is playing into his enemys hands, since the Kim regime relies on supposed threat of invasion from South Korea and the US to justify repression and poverty

As the crisis over North Korea heats up with incendiary posturing and talk of nuclear attacks, these are fearful days  and Seoul is the planets hottest spot, trapped in the midst of a terrifying tussle between two maverick leaders.

There is dark humour on the streets of the South Korean capital but behind the jokes, nerves are jangling.

For this mega-city of 24 million people  overflowing with tech firms and fashionable teenagers  has most to lose if war breaks out again on the Korean Peninsula. It sits squarely in Pyongyangs sights, in reach of conventional artillery dug into North Korean mountains only 35 miles away over the border, never mind Kim Jong Uns arsenal of chemical and nuclear weapons.

Yet growing dangers of conflict on this peninsula could spark far wider conflagration. I am not given to scaremongering, having reported on crises and wars around the world.

But today theres no doubt in my mind we face risks more dangerous and pressing than at any time since the first year of my life, when in 1962 the nuclear-armed US and Soviet Union came so close to fighting over placement of missiles in Cuba. Even cautious Chinese officials warn of storm clouds gathering.

The core issue is missiles again  only this time North Koreas secret and rapidly accelerating development of nuclear weapons aimed at America. Back in the Sixties, at the height of the Cuban drama, cool heads prevailed.

Yesterday saw more symbolic defiance and sabre-rattling, with massed ranks of soldiers marching to military bands through Pyongyangs Kim Il Sung Square

Now, look at the nature of the two men squaring off in this new arms struggle: the brash property baron who won the White House unexpectedly versus a portly young despot who inherited the blood-splattered throne of a hermit kingdom.

Both men are impulsive and unpredictable, playing to domestic galleries to disguise deep-seated problems in their nations. Maybe the rhetoric will turn out to be just that.

Yet in this game of diplomatic chess, small mistakes could have global consequences. Donald Trump has discovered a sudden enthusiasm for intervention, with attacks on Afghanistan and Syria despite disavowing such activities during his campaign.

Confronting him is the worlds youngest head of state, who has shown ruthless determination to cling to power and contempt for international norms. Trumps armada has provoked Kim to threats of not just pre-emptive action but nuclear annihilation.

Six years after taking over his family dictatorship, Kim still runs grim gulags that enslave 120,000 people. He has ramped up rewards for border guards who kill defectors. He has used a banned nerve agent to kill his half-brother. And having butchered some of his fathers most senior advisers, even his own uncle, which aide would dare counsel caution?

Yesterday saw more symbolic defiance and sabre-rattling, with massed ranks of soldiers marching to military bands through Pyongyangs Kim Il Sung Square. Alongside the tanks, troops and guns were new submarine-launched ballistic missiles and weapons designed to hit mainland America, while the Peoples Army talked of merciless retaliation to US provocation.

Trump has pledged to halt the nuclear progress. I have sympathy for his desire given the vile nature of Kims fascist regime, which sees nuclear weapons as a means of survival, to restrain enemies and keep the ruling dynasty in power.

In rising to this provocation, Trump is playing into his enemys hands, since the Kim regime relies on supposed threat of invasion from South Korea and the US to justify repression and poverty. Now that threat is backed up by childish tweets from the 45th President  met with typically blood-curdling talk of retaliation from Pyongyang. There are signs the north may be preparing its sixth nuclear test even as the heavily-armed US flotilla steams forward.

Alongside the tanks, troops and guns were new submarine-launched ballistic missiles and weapons designed to hit mainland America, while the Peoples Army talked of merciless retaliation to US provocation

So what can be done? I have met prominent South Koreans who favour a military strike to force regime change. Yet if US forces fail to eliminate Kim Jong Un, it could produce a lethal response. Given his rhetoric, it is hard to see how Kim Jong Un would not retaliate.

It might be a few shells lobbed at Seoul. But it might be hit squads, nerve agents and even nuclear weapons.

Sensing escalating trouble, Bill Clintons administration pondered air strikes on North Korea in 1994 to stop fuel rod reprocessing at a nuclear complex. The plan was pulled after military advisers warned up to one million people might die if Pyongyang hit back.

Casualties could be far higher this time. So, how do we avert doomsday? The simplest way would be for China, the main ally and trading partner, to pull the plug. Its leaders dislike Kims provocative behaviour and dont want such an erratic leader having weapons of mass destruction.

Yet China prizes regional stability and fears seeing a unified, US-supporting Korea on its doorstep. Despite cutting coal imports and hinting at stopping oil supplies in the event of another nuclear test, trade has been growing fast between the two nations. Perhaps the best hope is for Beijing to find a way to remove Kim Jong Un and evolve the regime, similar to changes seen in China over recent decades.

People talk of other solutions. Perhaps a few US nuclear mis-siles could be moved to South Korea to strengthen deterrence, although that might only inflame a volatile situation. Still tougher sanctions? This is a regime unperturbed by a famine that may have killed two million.

Yesterday saw the crisis ratcheting up another notch as North Koreas leaders pledged response to all-out war with an all-out war. We have heard such bellicose talk before from this repulsive regime.

But these are dangerous days of brinkmanship in a deathly new missile crisis that could so easily explode into dreadful horror. Apocalypse Now? We must hope not. But only a fool would rule out this fearsome possibility.
Is there any spectacle more distasteful than a sleek elite using its power to cling on to its advantages? But over the past few days, we have seen a sort of elite riot against the very idea of state schools selecting on merit.

Left-wing politicians, almost all of whom know how to fiddle the unequal state schools to get maximum benefit for their own children, have been at the forefront of this since the Government announced plans for new grammar schools.

But so have BBC persons, whose own education was privileged and who no doubt wangle their offspring into elite alleged comprehensives. Why else did the Corporation spend the whole of Thursday cramming the airwaves with the haters of grammar schools?

Over the past few days, we have seen a sort of elite riot against the very idea of state schools selecting on merit, writes Peter Hitchens (file photo)

Likewise liberal newspapers, who without exception twisted the grammar-school story into a false claim that academic selection would increase privilege, the exact opposite of the truth. These people fear the austere fairness of grammar schools. And no wonder. They are obviously not very bright, as well as not being very nice.

The rule used to be that from those to whom much is given, much is required. If you do well in the lottery of life, you should reach your hand down to those struggling up the ladder, and help them. Not this lot. They kick and gouge at those below, pelting them with propaganda lies to keep them in their place.

Unlike these shameless creeps, Ive spent more than ten years researching the crass destruction of state grammar schools, and fighting for their restoration. This doesnt benefit me personally at all, though I treasure a hope that it might benefit my grandchildren. And I can tell you this.

When we still had a national grammar system, 64 per cent of its pupils came from the working class. And during that period, such schools wiped the floor with expensive private schools, their products storming into Oxbridge in unprecedented numbers, without quotas or concessions.

The elite repeatedly shout that the tiny rump of surviving grammar schools are nests of privilege. So they are. But that is because Labour fanatics and Tory cowards spent the late 1960s and early 1970s bulldozing hundreds of fine grammar schools in poor areas.

Almost all the remaining grammars are unsurprisingly in better-off districts, and are besieged by well-off, long-distance commuters.

Far more important for most British people today, who have no access to grammars at all, are the hundreds of elite comprehensives. These are closed to the poor, and just as socially selective as the few dozen surviving grammars.

And thats the way the liberal elite want them to stay, protected from the common people by a barricade of expensive houses called a catchment area.

But its even worse than that. The real point about grammars is that they are vastly better than the best and most fiercely selective comprehensives, and than most fee-charging schools.

They are, in fact, among the best schools in the world.

The House of Commons Library recently produced a briefing paper comparing school exam performance in the year 2014-15. On the key measure of the percentage achieving five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, including English and Maths, grammars achieved 96.7 per cent.

The liberal elite fear the austere fairness of grammar schools. And no wonder. They are obviously not very bright, as well as not being very nice, writes Peter Hitchens (file photo)

The average for all state schools was 58.1 per cent. That was, interestingly, also the average for all independent schools. For comprehensives it was 56.7 per cent. For the (wrongly despised) secondary moderns, it was 49.7 per cent. Note the rather small difference between secondary moderns and comprehensives, which we were told would be so much better. They arent.

Did you ever wonder why the old O-level exam was first watered down and then abolished? And why A-levels are so much weaker than they were? It is because comprehensives couldnt cope with them, whereas grammars could.

A 2006 Freedom of Information request to Oxford and Cambridge universities found that fewer than 20 per cent of state secondaries provided all the state-school entrants to Oxbridge. Most of them came from grammar schools.

For heres the real point. Britain, a country increasingly run by greedy, feckless, ignorant and stupid people who cant think, needs good schools as a man in the desert needs a spring of cool, clear water.

Grammar schools, not private schools, were what kept our education honest and good. Germany, which retained its grammars, remains a country of fairness, competence and efficiency. Without them we have become a second-rate country in which the wrong people are making most of the decisions and making them badly.

And now these privileged buffoons, this dictatorship of elite mediocrities, are fighting with all theyve got to save themselves.

Ignore them. Grammar schools are wholly good and we must have them back.

Another BBC repeat

I continue to wait for evidence on the alleged Syrian gas attack. The BBC doesnt seem to want to wait.

Last week I challenged the distinguished Newsnight correspondent and former soldier Mark Urban, who has asserted that President Assad used gas in 2013.

I asked him repeatedly for a source for this claim. He could not provide one. That is because there isnt one, yet many in media and politics repeat this as if it were true. They should stop.

As I expected from the start  but was reported only in Swedish media  Rakhmat Akilov, the suspect in the Stockholm outrage, is said by acquaintances to be a user of cannabis and cocaine.

Meanwhile Khalid Masood, culprit of the Westminster murders (and a drug abuser and likely steroid taker), is now said by police to have acted alone.

No political connection or motive has been discovered. Time for an inquiry into drugs and violence.

A STARTER FOR TEN ONLY A GENIUS CAN ANSWER Do people never stop to think just how strange a programme University Challenge has become? Almost every year it throws up a sort of star, mainly distinguished for his oddity. Eric Monkman, the Canadian contestant with the ray-gun glare, has filled the role this year, alternately perplexed and impassioned, shouting the answers to dispel the huge forces he has used to bring them out of the storeroom of his immense memory. God bless him. But it shouldnt have happened. Pictured: University Challenge star, Eric Monkman the Canadian contestant with the ray-gun glare Once upon a time I could count on answering quite a few of the questions and I could make a wild guess at several more. Whats more, they followed the definition of general knowledge  which is those things a reasonably well informed person should feel ashamed of not knowing. But those mile-long science questions, which Jeremy Paxman has to read out as if he understands them when he doesnt, arent general knowledge at all. Nor are the ones about the orbits of the minor moons of Jupiter, or the Periodic table of the Blasted Elements, or the flags of newly emergent atolls in the Pacific. These things have crept in because (as the makers of the programme well know from bitter experience) even the best teams are horribly ignorant of English history, geography, literature and poetry. So they must either make the questions hopelessly easy for everyone, and look dumb. Or they must shove in a high number of questions that can only be answered by Eric Monkman. Advertisement

If you want to comment on Peter Hitchens click here
They say that you never forget your first time, but I wouldnt know, because at 55 Im still waiting to be asked. Princess Charlotte, on the other hand, will suffer no such lifelong regret because she is going to be a bridesmaid for the first time at aunt Pippas wedding next month  and shes only two.

Being asked to be a bridesmaid is one of those moments that makes young girls hysterical and their mothers sob with pride.

And with the wedding season starting in earnest, expect to see both emotions in full flow  along with some sour faces as the bride tries to wrestle control of her big day off her mother who has been waiting for this moment since she packed away the christening gown. As the Editor of The Lady magazine, I am besieged for advice on the subject.

Princess Charlotte is going to be a bridesmaid at for the first time at aunt Pippa's wedding next month - and she's only two

Most brides opt for four bridesmaids, with the decision of who is and who isnt going to be one a complex mix of favouritism, obligation and brutal decision-making about who will look good (but not too good) in the photographs.

One of the things that has stopped me making anyones line-up is my size  I am almost 6ft  and even as a child I was a big unit.

The other thing has invariably been the right of veto exercised by the brides mum.

I may have seen their daughters through broken hearts and the Barry Manilow years, but when it came to making the cut for the backing group, Mum said No. And not always that nicely. One mother of the bride told me that I would just unbalance the look. Another said that she didnt want me looming over the grooms head.

Pippas decision to choose the tiny Princess Charlotte and the equally adorable four-year-old Prince George certainly deals with that problem. It also ups the cute factor. Sophie Wessex, Princess Anne and the meringue-draped Sarah Ferguson all chose small children. Only the rather foxier Autumn Phillips bucked the trend by having grown-up girlfriends in off-the-shoulder green Vera Wang cocktail numbers which were a first, and almost certainly a last, for St Georges Chapel, Windsor.

Pippas decision to choose the tiny Princess Charlotte and the equally adorable four-year-old Prince George will certainly up the cute factor at her wedding

There are some women who seem to spend their summers being bridesmaids, because they are on a circuit of girlfriends for which the honour is a reciprocal agreement. I had no bridesmaids when I got married. Instead, I had a maid of honour, who was supposed to be there to support my eight-and-a-half-month pregnant frame, but who ended up losing my bouquet and getting off with the photographer.

It was for scenarios like this that two years ago New Yorker Jen Glantz decided to advertise herself as a professional bridesmaid and received 250 requests overnight. She now gets thousands of requests a week and charges up to $2,000 a time. Her unsentimental attitude may seem calculating to the romantics among us, but weddings are big business. According to Jen, normal bridesmaids may well be well-meaning friends, but theyre usually too busy to spend enough time with the bride and can get carried away with their self-centred concerns about their gowns and whether they will be thin enough.

Rumours have it that Pippa has instigated a ban on unattached women at her wedding

Because, lets face it, the whole point of being in the chorus line is to one day get the starring role.

But if any of Pippas single girlfriends had been hoping to find themselves a husband among the well-heeled guests, they may be sorely disappointed.

If the rumours are anything to go by, Pippa has instigated a ban on unattached women. She may well have upstaged her own sister with a figure-hugging dress that shouted Im on the market, but that loophole has been closed.

Although quite why she hasnt realised that having a beautiful pocket-sized princess and a gorgeous prince hanging off her train might just be the biggest show-stealer in history, I dont know.

She wouldnt have had that problem if shed asked me, of course.

They're in a jam already

The new Bake Off line-up has caused a national furore by putting jam on their scones first

The cameras havent even started rolling yet and the new Bake Off line-up has already caused a national furore by putting jam on their scones first. Paul Winterton, a farmer from Devon, has described it as sacrilege. Really, Paul? Getting jam to spread on top of wobbly cream is really laborious and a task that appears to be beyond even the professionals.

A small comfort among the tears

I pray that Charlies parents will be able to spend this last precious time with him in peace

My heart goes out to Connie Yates and Chris Gard, the parents of little Charlie Gard, who have been told by Mr Justice Francis that their fight for further treatment should end and their beautiful eight-month-old son should be allowed to die with dignity. Our precious daughter, Phoebe, died with dignity last May  she was 15 years old. No parent should be asked to walk behind their childs coffin and I howled with grief, as any parent would howl, but I also took some small comfort in the fact that she was no longer suffering. I pray that Charlies parents will find that comfort and be allowed to spend this last precious time with him alone in peace as a family.

 The latest lifestyle advice from Planet Paltrow is that if you find yourself drawn into a fast-food emporium like a Subway sandwich bar or  shock horror!  a McDonalds, you must not eat their food. Instead, you should ask them to alter their menu to follow Gwyneths instructions. No buns, no fries, hold the mayo, hold the cheese, ask for gluten-free. And then ask for a police escort to deal with the angry mob who have been kept waiting behind you.
On this Easter Sunday, when we should be celebrating hope, the world lies under a shadow of fear darker than we have known for generations.

We have worried for years over the growing danger posed by the actions of the secretive, desperate rulers of North Korea.

But we have never needed to be so concerned about developments in Washington, ultimately a place of cool heads and strategic wisdom.

President Trump entered the White House preaching a doctrine of America First, a repudiation of the globalist interventionist ideas  military and economic  of his opponent, Hillary Clinton. With amazing speed, he is abandoning these pledges

There is still plenty of sense available in the American capital. But recent events give cause for concern.

President Trump entered the White House preaching a doctrine of America First, a repudiation of the globalist interventionist ideas  military and economic  of his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

With amazing speed, he is abandoning these pledges.

He has ordered a missile attack on Syria, without waiting for the United Nations or indeed for verifiable evidence of responsibility for the war crimes alleged against President Assad.

He has dropped an enormous bomb on Afghanistan, seemingly more for its effect on public opinion than for its impact on Americas enemies in that country.

And he has instructed a nuclear-armed battle fleet to steam towards North Korea.

He has ordered a missile attack (pictured) on Syria, without waiting for the United Nations or indeed for verifiable evidence of responsibility for the war crimes alleged against President Assad

Like so many previous Presidents, he has found that military action abroad is easier than change at home, where he has floundered.

But the violence of his change of course is such that the rest of the free world is entitled to worry.

Is Mr Trump acting according to a reasoned plan or merely reacting to events? Is he listening to his advisers or simply giving them orders  as he is entitled to do under the great powers of his office?

Nobody doubts that these problems  above all in North Korea  are huge and serious. But there is a sense that the President has reached for the big stick of naked power long before he needs to.

This is surely a moment for Americas allies, very much including this country, to make their feelings known. We and the rest of Nato cannot leave China and Russia as the only voices urging mature caution. There is far too much at stake for that.

What price justice?

The most wretched part of Kato Harriss story  a false accusation of rape and the resulting public humiliation and personal ruin  is that this inspired teacher will never teach again, and believes that no man should risk entering the profession unless he has nerves of steel and limitless wealth.

His eventual acquittal  the jury took 15 minutes  has not, disgracefully, allowed him to resume his career.

But there is another disgrace. The Crown Prosecution Service  as the trial judge concluded  should never have pursued the case.

The most wretched part of Kato Harriss story (pictured)  a false accusation of rape and the resulting public humiliation  is that this inspired teacher will never teach again

It is possible that they only did so under the influence of expensively hired experts, former police officer Sue Akers and former Crown Prosecutor Alison Levitt QC.

The Justice Department should review this case urgently and in future prevent such senior figures from playing such roles after retirement.

Justice must never be on sale.

It is even more important that the rich should not be able to pay for injustice to be done, as could so easily have happened in this case.
Every parent in the kitchen would know the toughest critics are their children.

But mother-of-two Rhian Allen, from Sydney's Seaforth, has a solution for feeding young fussy eaters around the dining table.

The founder of Healthy Mummy has revealed simple tips and recipes to help parents give their children a healthier menu without the tantrums.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, the 39-year-old said one of the reasons she felt inspired to whip up a book of recipes for fussy eaters was because of her two sons.

Scroll down for recipes designed for fussy eaters

Mother Rhian Allen (pictured with her sons) has revealed tips on how to feed fussy eaters

'One of the most common issues mums face is their fussy eating children,' she said.

'My two boys are extremely fussy eaters.'

The mother's support group, which has more than 100,000 followers, found 74 per cent of Australian households had fussy eaters after conducting a survey.

'I felt that I had to produce a healthy eating cookbook for fussy eaters to help mums all over the country,' Ms Allen said.

She suggests getting children involved in the cooking process was a good way to nip any meal time complaints in the bud.

'Often they are fearful about new foods or anything with colour,' she said.

'I find getting them involved in cooking and feeling new foods starts to break down their fears.'

Ms Allen suggested there were other ways to serve vegetables if children were refusing to eat their greens.

'Make sauces jammed with veggies by using a blender to disguise them,' she said.

I personally try and work with my kids tastes, ensure they are eating nutritionally dense food, and try to encourage new foods wherever possible - even if can take 10 different goes before they like it.'

The mother's support group, which has more than 100,000 followers, found 74 per cent of Australian households had fussy eaters after conducting a survey (stock image)

Ms Allen said she usually encourages her sons to eat their vegetables by telling them the types of nutrients they would gain from it.

Every parent wants their children to eat better (stock image)

'For example the "super powered" Carrot will fuel your body with lots of energy" or "Carrots are orange because they contain beta carotene. Our bodies turn this into vitamin A, which helps us see in the dark,' she said.

'I also find choice works, for example, "you can choose the green beans, the peas or the capsicum" - this way they feel more empowered and can influence the food they eat which causes less dinner table angst.'

Every parent wants their children to eat better - and Ms Allen believes swapping ingredients for healthier options and cooking homemade meals would help.

'Ensure the food they do like is as healthy as possible,' she said.

'For example, if they like pasta, rice and bread - choose wholegrain versions, if they like yoghurt - choose a natural and no added sugar one.

'If they like hot chips - make your own at home. If they don't like milk on its own - but like hot chocolate - make your own healthy no added sugar hot chocolate at home.'

Healthy Mummy Fussy Eaters book has over 75 recipes for fussy eaters.

CHICKEN NACHOS Nut free, Egg free, No added sugar If you have fussy eaters, you can start by offering this recipe 'deconstructed,' with a small portion of each of the ingredients on the plate. You could build to encourage your child to eat two of the ingredients together and progress from there. Remember to think about your phrasing - rather than 'you should eat it together,' try 'I'm having my corn chips with the tasty avocado. Would you like to try?' Serves 4 Prep time: 5mins Cook time: 25mins Ingredients 1 tbsp olive oil 1 red capsicum, diced 400g tinned kidney beans, drained and rinsed 400g tinned tomatoes 1 cup corn kernels 2 tbsp reduced salt taco seasoning 175g plain corn chips 1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded with a fork  cup tasty cheese, grated 1 avocado, mashed 1/3 cup natural yoghurt Method Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the capsicum and cook for 2 minutes until tender. Add the beans, tomatoes, corn and taco seasoning. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Arrange the corn chips in a large baking dish. Top the chips with the bean mix. Place the shredded chicken on top and sprinkle over the cheese. Place in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Divide the nachos between 4 plates. Top each with some avocado and yoghurt to serve. Advertisement

SLOW COOK RAGU For children who like meat this is a great dish. Some children may prefer to have their ragu served next to their pasta, before transitioning to serving it on top. For children who are less fond of meat, they may prefer to start with just some of the juices over their pasta and a small amount of the ragu served on the side of the plate. Remember there is no pressure for your child to try the serving on the side of the plate  it is simply there to allow them to become familiar and comfortable with the food. Partner this with role modelling and conversation about enjoying the food. Serves 4 Prep time: 2mins Cook time: 8 hours Ingredients 400g lean stewing steak e.g. chuck, cubed 400g tinned tomatoes 2 carrots, finely chopped 2 celery sticks, finely chopped 1 tbsp tomato paste 1 garlic clove, crushed 2 tsp mixed dried herbs  cup liquid beef stock, salt reduced 400g cooked wholegrain pasta, to serve Method Place all the ingredients, except pasta, into a slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

In the last few minutes of cooking press down on the meat with a fork or masher and the meat will fall apart and mix with the sauce.

Serve with pasta and steamed veggies. Advertisement
When Rhian Allen found herself pregnant and gaining weight, the mother-to-be began to research weight loss programmes designed specifically for mothers.

Ms Allen had always been interested in fitness and nutrition, but found nothing out there for busy working mums like herself.

In quick succession, the now 38-year-old from Sydney quit her corporate media job and sold her house in order to found her now hugely successful business, The Healthy Mummy - which is designed to help mothers get fit and lose weight.

The business is set to turn over AUD $10 million this year, and on track for $15 million in 2018.

When Rhian Allen (pictured) found herself pregnant and gaining weight, the mother-to-be began to research weight loss programmes designed specifically for mothers

Ms Allen had always been interested in fitness and nutrition, but found nothing out there for busy working mums like herself (pictured with one of her kids)

In quick succession, the now 38-year-old from Sydney quit her corporate media job and sold her house in order to found her business, The Healthy Mummy (pictured right)

'Everyone thought there was something wrong with me, but I knew what I wanted to do,' the talented businesswoman told Stellar magazine on Sunday.

Having worked in corporate media for 12 years, she said she had seen how 'difficult workplaces could be for mums'.

The 38-year-old has said in the past that she wasn't passionate about her previous job, and needed some flexibility once she had given birth.

The business is set to turn over AUD $10 million this year, and on track for $15 million in 2018 (pictured: Rhian Allen)

'Everyone thought there was something wrong with me, but I knew what I wanted to do,' the talented businesswoman said of her beginnings in business (pictured with her kids)

After Ms Allen set up The Healthy Mummy from home, she worked there for the first five years - mixing motherhood with business as and when time allowed it.

'I was living the same life as mums on the programme - breastfeeding, getting no sleep, wanting to lose weight,' Ms Allen recalled.

'That helped me become a better businessperson because I was in the same boat as them.'

After Ms Allen set up The Healthy Mummy from home, she worked there for the first five years - mixing motherhood with business as and when time allowed it (pictured with her son)

'I was living the same life as mums on the programme - breastfeeding, getting no sleep, wanting to lose weight,' Ms Allen recalled (pictured)

These days, The Healthy Mummy boasts more than 200,000 customers online, as well as thousands of social media followers - it has also helped mums lose 20 million kilos

These days, The Healthy Mummy boasts more than 200,000 customers online, as well as thousands of social media followers.

It has also helped mothers to lose more than 20 million kilograms collectively.

Ms Allen told Stellar that a impressive eighty per cent of her employees are mothers - and all are afforded the same flexibility with regards to work that she now enjoys.

'Just because you're a mum, doesn't mean you've lost your brain and can't work; it just means you have children and so you have other priorities,' Ms Allen said.

For more information about The Healthy Mummy, click here.
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It's an archetypal rags to riches story. A family with a love for beach culture founds a swimwear brand that prides itself on fashion-forward prints, cuts and good quality and that brand goes on to become a cult label at home and abroad.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg for the Australian swimwear label, Seafolly, whose campaigns have featured the likes of homegrown talents such as Shanina Shaik as well as hugely successful foreigners like Gigi Hadid.

In the wake of the announcement that Seafolly's partners have acquired South American beachwear label, Maaji, earlier this month - making the pair a bikini behemoth - FEMAIL spoke to the Vice Chairman of Seafolly, Anthony Halas.

Mr Halas discussed the origins of Seafolly, and his career highlights as well as sharing his advice for other budding entrepreneurs.

Australian swim and beachwear label, Seafolly (pictured: Olivia Aarnio wearing Seafolly) has become hugely successful - these days, it turns over millions of dollars annually and has had campaigns featuring Shanina Shaik and Gigi Hadid

FEMAIL spoke to the Vice Chairman of Seafolly, Anthony Halas, about his career highlights, as well as what is next for Seafolly, and his advice for other entrepreneurs (pictured: Jess Hart wearing Seafolly)

'My father, Peter Halas, arrived in Australia as an immigrant from Hungary in 1956. He immediately fell in love with the beach culture in Sydney and even met my mother, Yvonne, in Bondi Beach,' Mr Halas told FEMAIL of Seafolly's origins

According to Mr Anthony Halas, the origins of Seafolly were simple:

'My father, Peter Halas, arrived in Australia as an immigrant from Hungary in 1956. He immediately fell in love with the beach culture in Sydney and even met my mother, Yvonne, in Bondi Beach,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Peter was working as a salesman for a swim label when he decided to start his own swimwear business. The brand you know today as Seafolly actually began as "Peter's Folly", meaning he didn't take it too seriously at first, it was more like a passion project that turned into something much bigger.'

Originally Mr Halas's parents were in control of the label, after they founded it in 1975:

'They built the brand by staying true to the original mission of sharing the Australian beach lifestyle with the world, Mr Halas said.

'Seafolly was the first company to notice the fitness trend, and launched activewear in the mid 70s. In the Jane Fonda-fuelled 80s, Seafolly was actually a leader in the category,' he added.

'The brand you know today as Seafolly actually began as "Peters Folly", meaning he didn't take it too seriously at first, it was more like a passion project that turned into something much bigger,' he said (pictured: Tash Oakley and Erin Holland wearing Seafolly)

'They built the brand by staying true to the original mission of sharing the Australian beach lifestyle with the world, Mr Halas said (pictured: backstage at the Seafolly show in Sydney in 2009)

'Seafolly was the first company to notice the fitness trend, and launched activewear in the mid 70s. In the Jane Fonda-fuelled 80s, Seafolly was actually a leader in the category,' he added (pictured: Olivia Aarnio in Seafolly)

'Any great brand starts with amazing product. If you care deeply about design, fit and quality, the customer demand will follow,' Mr Halas said with regards to advice for other entrepreneurs

'We seek campaign ambassadors and influencers who are naturally beautiful, aspirational and spirited - just like Seafolly' (pictured: Jess Hart in Seafolly)

Mr Anthony Halas took over the brand as CEO in 1998, even though he said he had worked in the business from a young age.

For him, this - as well as the opening of the label's first international store in 2013 in Newport Beach, California - have been among many career highlights.

'Any great brand starts with amazing product. If you care deeply about design, fit and quality, the customer demand will follow,' Mr Halas said.

Speaking about his own plans for the future, Mr Halas said:

'We [want to] create a unique swimwear and beach lifestyle customer experience around the world. We seek campaign ambassadors and influencers who are naturally beautiful, aspirational and spirited - just like Seafolly.'

Currently, combined with Maaji, Seafolly sell more than AUD $200 million of body-hugging beachwear annually, according to recent figures - Seafolly has 20-30 per cent market share in Australia

Currently, combined with Maaji, Seafolly sell more than AUD $200 million of body-hugging beachwear annually, according to recent figures sourced by the Herald Sun.

The managing director at L Catterton Asia, Seafolly's owner, Shantanu Mukerji, said the labels want to become a 'multibrand swimwear company like the global cosmetics retailer, Sephora'.

'Seafolly has 20-30 per cent market share in Australia,' Shantanu Mukerji said.

'That means if you went to Bondi Beach, almost every third woman will be wearing Seafolly.'

For more information about Seafolly, click here. To follow the label on Instagram, click here.
A mere 18 months ago, Constance Hall was just another mummy blogger sharing her daily trials and tribulations in the hope it would help other mothers like herself.

However, just over a year later, the Perth-based writer is one of the biggest names in the mummy blogging business, having written a bestselling book, gained 1.1 million Facebook followers and toured Australia in sellout gigs.

All of this has not come without a public backlash, however - and one which reached its nadir after the 33-year-old split from her estranged husband of six years, Bill Mahon, earlier this month.

Speaking to Perth Now on Sunday, the blogger revealed that things have become really 'nasty' since she split with Bill.

On Sunday, Perth-based mummy blogger, Constance Hall (pictured) opened up about the public backlash she has faced recently, especially since she split from her husband

The Perth-based writer (pictured) is one of the biggest names in the mummy blogging business, having written a bestselling book, gained millions followers and toured Australia

The public backlash reached its nadir after Constance split from her husband, Bill Mahon (both pictured), earlier this month, with Bill accusing Constance of cheating on him

'They are photoshopping my name and my photo and mocking up these messages saying I have been bitching about these bloggers that I haven't even heard of and writing all these horrible things about bloggers as if its coming from me and sending that viral,' Constance told the publication.

'I find myself just rocking in the corners going, "They are going to win".

'These people are obsessed with me,' she continued.

'They are photoshopping my name and my photo and mocking up these messages saying I have been bitching about these bloggers that I haven't even heard of,' Constance said of the current online abuse

'I find myself just rocking in the corners going, "They are going to win". These people are obsessed with me,' she continued (pictured)

The controversial blogger added that the online backlash she has faced has seen her pull back from her writing in recent months.

According to Perth Now, the chief executive of her company suggested she hire a personal bodyguard and take out a restraining order on one particular woman whose comments have become excessively nasty.

'We never went through with it because my lawyer works with a lot of public figures and he said historically, it just gets so much worse the further that you take it, and you just need to avoid it,' Constance said.

The controversial blogger added that the online backlash she has faced has seen her pull back from her writing in recent months - it has been suggested that she hire a personal bodyguard

'I just don't understand why the public looks at women as calculating and manipulative whereas the men are always these easily played victims,' she said (pictured last year and now)

'A lot of trolling has come out and a lot of lies are being spread about the way my marriage ended and the way I am treating my ex,' Constance (pictured) said last weekend

Speaking about the recent vitriol she faced when Bill accused her of cheating with another man 'she has only known for six weeks', Constance said:

'I just don't understand why the public looks at women as calculating and manipulative whereas the men are always these easily played victims.'

The popular author has entirely dismissed claims that she was seeing another man, Denim Cooke, while she was with Bill Mahon on her blog and elsewhere.

'A lot of trolling has come out and a lot of lies are being spread about the way my marriage ended and the way I am treating my ex,' she said last weekend.

'...The other man that I have supposedly "run off with" Denim, I can wholeheartedly say that Bill and I were well and truly over well before I even developed any feelings for him.

'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 absolutely never left Bill for anyone. I didn't cheat on Bill with Denim. I tried and tried and tried with Bill, so many tears and so much trying. My family and friends know the truth,' the blogger concluded.
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The Duchess of Cambridge greeted the Queen with a curtsey as the royal family arrived for an Easter Sunday church service in Windsor.

Kate, 35, beamed as she elegantly shifted one leg behind the other when the monarch, 90, arrived at St George's Chapel, near Windsor Castle.

The duchess, who wore a custom-made cream coat by favourite designer Catherine Walker for the occasion, was joined by her husband Prince William, who bowed his head in a show of deference towards his grandmother.

Kate always curtsies to the Queen however this is rarely seen in public as it only happens the first time the two meet on a given day.

Noticeably absent was Prince Harry, who is spending Easter with his girlfriend Meghan Markle at her Toronto home. Prince Charles and Camilla attended a different service in Crathie church, near Balmoral Castle.

Respect: Kate curtsied and William bowed his head to the Queen as the royal family arrive for the Easter Sunday in Windsor

Bright and beautiful: The Queen received a bouquet of spring flowers and waved to well-wishers as she left the church

Polished: The Duchess of Cambridge wore a custom cream coat from favourite designer Catherine Walker for the occasion

Spring style: The Queen's turquoise hat was decorated with delicate pink blossoms, left. Right, Kate beaming in cream

Spring dresses: Autumn Phillips, left, Princess Eugenie, centre and Princess Beatrice, right, all opted for feminine frocks

Noticeably absent was Prince Harry, who is spending Easter with his girlfriend Meghan Markle at her Toronto home (the Prince is pictured arriving last week)

Prince Philip looked on as the Queen received flowers from two young girls following the church service in Windsor today

Burst of colour: The flowers contrasted beautifully with the Queen's turquoise coat as she left the church with the dean

Honour: The girls curtsied as the Queen and Prince Philip left the church, accompanied by the Dean of Windsor

Accompanied by Prince Philip, The Queen, who wore a vibrant turquoise coat and hat, arrived at the chapel by car while other members of the royal family, including William and Kate, made the journey on foot.

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie both opted for spring-hued ensembles for the service and were seen speaking to Autumn Phillips, Princess' Anne's daughter-in-law, on the walk down from the castle.

Princess Eugenie, 27, wore a classic beige trench coat-style dress with a cocktail hat by London-based millinery brand Goldust Millinery. Her sister Beatrice, 28, opted for a white, high-collared dress with intricate detailing. She paired the ultra-feminine frock with a gold hat.

Meanwhile Autumn Phillips, who was joined by her husband Peter, brought a splash of colour to the proceedings in an eye-catching cobalt blue coat. She wore her long blonde locks loose around her shoulders and topped off the look with a striking black hat by boutique millinery label Emily-London.

Light-hearted: Prince Edward, right, smiled as he left with his sister Princess Anne and brother-in-law Sir Timothy Laurence

Family day: The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh left St George's Chapel following the Easter Sunday service

Royal line-up (from left to right): Princess Anne, Autumn and Peter Phillips, Princess Eugenie, Princess Beatrice, and Kate and William all wait to greet the Queen, in the foreground, and Prince Philip outside the church this morning

The Duchess of Cambridge opted for a custom-made cream coat by favourite designer Catherine Walker for the occasion

Princess Anne, centre, and her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, right, arrive for the church service

Style inspiration: The Duchess of Cambridge followed the Queen's lead and opted for a pair of pearl earrings for the service

Family outing: From left to right, Princess Eugenie, Princess Beatrice, Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge, James, Viscount Severn, Lady Louise Windsor, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, and Prince Edward walked to the church

SHOW OF RESPECT: KATE'S CURTSEY TO THE QUEEN Witnessing the Duchess of Cambridge curtseying to the Queen is a rare sighting - but there's a reason behind it. According to one royal expert, it would usually take place behind closed doors unless it is the first time that Kate has seen the Queen that day. This suggests that Kate and William travelled separately to the Queen without spending any time with her prior to their church service. Speaking to People Magazine about the protocol, Joe Little, managing editor Majesty magazine, said: It is rare, but it indicates that this was the first time that the Duchess saw the Queen. It would normally happen in private. Its unusual to see it in public but not unique. That would have been the first communication between them on that day. Advertisement

Prince Edward, his wife Sophie the Countess of Wessex and children Lady Louise Windsor, James, Viscount Severn were also in attendance.

Princess Anne and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence were also seen arriving at the chapel.

Dozens of people waited outside for the royal arrival, and clapped as the monarch entered the church through the Galilee Porch.

The Easter Mattins Service was officiated by the Dean of Windsor, The Right Reverend David Conner.

After the service the Queen stopped to receive a beautiful bunch of spring blooms from two young girls waiting outside the church.

William and Kate looked the picture of happiness as they walked side by side to the chapel this morning

Classic look: Kate wore her brown locks swept back in a low chignon with a cream hat placed on top

Deep in conversation: The Duchess of Cambridge looked very animated as she spoke to her husband on the walk to church

Welcome: Princess Eugenie, left, Princess Beatrice, Kate and William wait to greet the Queen and Prince Philip at the church

Sophie, Countess of Wessex, placed a hand on her son James' shoulder on their way to church. Right, William and Kate

Autumn and Peter Phillips held hands as they made their way down the hill followed by Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, William and Kate, and Prince Edward and his family. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh made the journey by car

Prince Philip looked on as the monarch stopped and leaned down to speak to the youngsters, who looked delighted at the royal meeting.

The two girls, dressed in pretty dresses, then curtsied as the royal couple walked away.

Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, were noticeably absent from today's proceedings.

The couple were photographed arriving at Crathie Church, near Balmoral Castle, the Queen's country estate in Aberdeenshire.

Rainy day: Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, was photographed arriving at church in Crathie, Aberdeenshire, today

Royal visit: Prince Charles and Camilla, pictured today, are known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay while in Scotland

Theresa May spent time speaking to schoolchildren following an Easter service at a church in Maidenhead, Berkshire

The Prime Minister looked in good spirits as she arrived for the Easter Sunday service alongside her husband, Philip

Meanwhile President Putin attended an Orthodox Easter service at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. Pictured, the Russian leader is embraced by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, his wife Svetlana and Vladimir Putin at the traditional service in Moscow

President Putin chats to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana during the service in Moscow today
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It is one of the biggest celebrations in the Catholic calendar and the Spanish Royal Family kept up their tradition of spending the Easter holiday on the island of Mallorca.

King Felipe, Queen Letizia and their daughters, Princess Sofia and Princess Leonor, made for the picture-perfect family as they arrived at Palma cathedral on the Balearic isle along with Queen Sofia.

Queen Letizia, 44, looked casually chic in blue leather trousers, a white blouse and blue coat, whilst her daughters looked adorable in blue and red coats with coordinating shoes.

King Felipe, Queen Letizia and their daughters Princess Sofia and Princess Leonor made for the picture-perfect family as they arrived at Palma cathedral on the Balearic isle along with Queen Sofia on Easter Sunday

Queen Sofia, 78, was resplendent in a pink suit and King Felipe looked dapper in a smart suit and yellow tie as the cheery family posed for photos.

It is the first time that Princess Leonor, 11, and Princess Sofia, nine, have been spotted at a public engagement for several months; they are on the island for the family's annual holiday at the Marivent Palace royal holiday residence.

Hundreds of well-wishers were keen to catch a glimpse of the young princesses as they clambered over each other to snap a photo of the young royals on their camera phones.

The two girls were last pictured together as a family for their annual Christmas card in December.

Fair-haired Leonor, who is first-in-line to the throne, was seen in a grey jumper adorned with reindeer and snowflakes, as she clutches her father's hand, while her younger sister wore a cable-knit cardigan.

The young royals smiled for the cameras as they posed with their mother and grandmother, whilst King Felipe waved to the wellwishers

The royal family spend plenty of time in Mallorca and love to holiday there

The little girls acted beyond their years as they smiled and waved to the well-wishers on their way into church on Sunday

The family greeted members of the clergy as they headed inside for the traditional Easter Sunday church service

The sartorially clued-up family looked chic as they posed for a group photo

Queen Sofia (R), King Felipe VI of Spain (C) and his wife Queen Letizia (L) and their daughters Princess Leonor (bottom L) and her sister Sofia pose before attending the traditional Mass of Resurrection in Palma de Mallorca

The proud mother-of-two beamed proudly at her daughters as the family posed for pictures outside

Holy Week sees daily parades of participants from 70 church brotherhoods take part holding statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary as well as tableaux of Bible scenes and elaborate floats

Well-wishers clambered over each other to snap a photo of the young royals on their camera phones as the royal family arrived at church

Easter Sunday is the culmination of a week of celebration in Spain, with Semana Santa processions taking place in Seville, Malaga and other cities around the country.

Holy Week sees daily parades of participants from 70 church brotherhoods take part holding statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary as well as tableaux of Bible scenes and elaborate floats.

In the coast city of Malaga, robed hooded figures called Nazarenos also take part in the traditional pointed headgear designed so the faithful could repent in anonymity, without being recognised as self-confessed sinners.

Letizia married into the Spanish monarchy in 2004, following a successful career as a journalist and newsreader.

She was previously married to Alonso Guerrero Perez, a writer, but the pair divorced after just a year and by 2003 Letizia had announced her engagement to Felipe, then the Prince of Asturias.

King Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 in favour of his 48-year-old son, now King Felipe VI.
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There was plenty to celebrate for the Danish royals today as they gathered together to ring in Queen Margrethe's 77th birthday and Easter Sunday.

The royal family took to the balcony at Marselisborg Palace in Aarhus to wave to the crowds on the religious day in Denmark.

Crown Princess Mary, who was joined by her husband, Crown Prince Frederik, played the doting mother as she tenderly cuddled her children, Prince Christian, 11, Princess Isabella, nine, Prince Vincent, six, and his twin sister Princess Josephine, on the balcony.

L-R: Prince Joachim, Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark, Queen Margrethe, Princess Athena, Princess Josephine, Princess Marie, Prince Henrik, Princess Isabella, Crown Princess Mary, Prince Christian, Prince Vincent and Crown Prince Frederik took to the Marselisborg Palace balcony to celebrate Queen Margrethe's 77th birthday, as well as Easter Sunday

Queen Margrethe was understandably in high spirits as she cheered on the balcony alongside her husband, Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark.

The 77-year-old stunned in a bright green coat and was also joined by her second and youngest son, Prince Joachim, and his wife Princess Marie, as well as their children, Prince Henrik and Princess Athena of Denmark.

The royals, who were all in high spirits, gathered on the terrace at the back of the grand Palace to pose for photographs and wave to the locals who had descended on the palace to wish the Queen a happy birthday.

It was the youngsters who stole the show, with Princess Josephine and Princess Athena reportedly impressing the crowds with a dance performance to the live music.

Princess Josephine has made headlines previously for her playful posing and pulling silly faces during various official events.

Crown Princess Mary, who looked chic in a green stitched coat, played the doting mother as she cuddled up to Prince Vincent of Denmark, left, and Princess Isabella, right

Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Christian looked dapper in their suits, whilst cheeky royal Princess Josephine was held by her mother

Queen Margrethe was understandably in high spirits as she cheered on the balcony alongside her sons and their families

Crown Princess Mary was joined by her husband, Crown Prince Frederik, and her children, Prince Christian, 11, Princess Isabella, nine, Prince Vincent, six, and his twin sister Princess Josephine, who made for a very stylish family

It was the youngsters who stole the show, with Princess Josephine and Princess Athena reportedly impressing the crowds with a performance to the live music

According to theroyalforums.com, Josephine ended her performance with a bow.

It is thought that the family had just returned from an Easter church service at Aarhus Cathedral before celebrating the Queen's birthday privately at home.

It's the second time this month that Crown Princess Mary and her family have stepped out all together.

At the start of April, after a busy week with the Belgian royals, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and her four children attended the confirmation of her 14-year-old nephew, Prince Felix.

The 45-year-old Princess was all smiles as she arrived at Fredensborg Church where she joined her husband Prince Frederik and children to pose for photos on the steps.

The glamorous royal donned one of her favourite floral dresses for the occasion - a yellow and grey number from Danish designer Ole Yde.

The royals, who were all in high spirits, gathered on the terrace at the back of the grand Palace

Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary played the doting parents as they cuddled up to their children

The royals, who were all in high spirits, posed for photographs and waved to the locals who had descended on the palace to wish the Queen a happy birthday

Prince Vincent enjoyed a cuddle from his grandfather whilst the other grandchildren waved to the crowds

It is thought that the family had just returned from an Easter church service at Aarhus Cathedral before celebrating the Queen's birthday privately at home
Were about to hit a great cultural landmark: the 40th anniversary of the most excruciating drinks party in history. April 1977 saw the stage debut of Mike Leighs depiction of the agonies of the suburban soiree in Abigails Party, later turned into a BBC TV Play For Today.

Set in the front room of an Essex couples home, the hostess plies guests with cheese and pineapple nibbles, frets over the lack of sherry and dances across the shagpile.

Its a biting satire about the tensions and pretensions of having to keep up with the Joneses. The dreadful hostess, Beverly Moss, is desperate to impress new neighbours Tony and Angela, and another guest, Sue, whos worried about a party her teenage daughter, Abigail, is holding next door. Needless to say, both parties descend into mayhem.

In 1977, prawn cocktail was the height of elegance and avocado was such an exotic food that bathroom firms manufactured suites in that particular shade of green.

How tastes have changed. But are we any less pretentious than Beverly and her husband Laurence? And isnt the social angst about getting it right still as deeply felt?

Here, we compare the typical Seventies drinks party with todays gatherings, that we persuade ourselves are oh-so-sophisticated. . .

Forty years on from biting satire Abigail's Party we're still the same. Nibbles have been replaced with tapas and pickled onions have been beaten by fresh radishes says Matthew Bell

Goodbye Twiglets, hello Trendy TAPAS

Beverly serves little cubes of cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks, laid out in a fan on porcelain plates, along with salted peanuts and crisps in a two-compartment steel snack dish.

Laurence insists on offering olives, but none of the guests likes them (Theyre horrible, arent they? sneers Beverly).

Today, there wouldnt be a cocktail stick in sight  so fiddly and unenvironmentally friendly! Instead, shed be serving chunks of focaccia on a wooden board with bowls of hummus and extra virgin olive oil for dipping.

Crisps have survived through the decades as a party food, though cheese and onion flavour wouldnt be served today because everyone knows they give you bad breath. Balsamic vinegar or sea salt are quite punchy enough.

Here are typical drinks party nibbles from the Seventies and their modern equivalents.

Bowls of Twiglets have been replaced by rustic Italian breadsticks Grissini

THEN: Twiglets (pictured).

NOW: Grissini (Italian breadsticks).

THEN: Quiche Lorraine.

NOW: Caramelised onion and goats cheese tartlets.

THEN: Defrosted prawn vol-au-vents.

NOW: Smoked salmon and soured cream blinis.

THEN: Cocktail sausages on sticks.

NOW: Nigella Lawsons honey and soy glazed cocktail sausages, eaten with your fingers.

THEN: Pickled onions.

NOW: Fresh radishes.

THEN: Primula cheese on Jacobs Cream Crackers.

NOW: Beetroot, parsnip and sweet potato crisps.

THEN: Salted peanuts.

NOW: Cashews, pistachioes or mixed macadamias and almonds.

THEN: Theyd be called nibbles.

NOW: Hors doeuvres or tapas.

FOR MAXImum IMPACT, LESS IS NOW MORE

Beverly looks magnificent in an orange maxi dress with a plunging neckline and bare back, accessorised with turquoise eyeshadow and plenty of jangling jewellery.

Were we meant to wear long? asks Ange nervously, glancing down at her frumpy blue outfit.

No, no, its just informal, Beverly reassures her. But, of course, the hostess has scored the point in the one-upmanship stakes.

These days, less is more, and a simple but expensive looking outfit would trump a cocktail dress. Unless, of course, youre channeling the Seventies look  in which case go all out to ape Beverly.

TIPPLE OF CHOICE

The fold-out Formica bar takes pride of place in the Mosses home. Stocked with gin, brandy and whisky, its the first thing Beverly turns to after a hard days housewife-ing.

Shimmying into her front room, she pours herself a stiff G&T in a heavy cut-glass tumbler, then, with a few puffs on a Rothmans cigarette, collapses onto the brown leather sofa. When posh Sue from next door asks for sherry, Beverly doesnt admit to not having any but steers her towards a gin and tonic instead. Today, the neighbourly glass of sweet brown sherry is all but dead, though the paler Fino sherry has made a comeback as an accompaniment to tapas. After Coronation Streets Jack and Vera Duckworth installed a mini-bar in their home, the fashion for home bars sank. Today, youre more likely to be served white wine straight from the fridge.

LETS GET THE PARTY STARTED . . .

Sparkling Babycham has been ousted by sparkling Prosecco in amber tumblers

THEN: Sparkling Babycham in a special glass with an embossed deer motif.

NOW: Sparkling Prosecco in amber tumblers from Duralex.

THEN: Campari and soda.

NOW: Aperol spritz  Aperol mixed with prosecco and soda.

THEN: Impossible-to-open Watneys Party 7 in a seven-pint can.

NOW: Individual bottles of craft beer with designer labels.

THEN: Harvey Wallbanger cocktail.

NOW: Vodka and cranberry juice.

THE SOFT OPTION

THEN: Orange squash.

NOW: Elderflower cordial; fizzy water.

DIGESTIF

THEN: Grand Marnier, Chartreuse or Benedictine.

NOW: Amaro or grappa Italian liqueurs.

ALL MADE UP

Thin eyebrows have been replaced by 'High Definition brows, waxed and dyed into thick horizontal strips - a la Cara Delevingne

Abba's Agnetta sprayed on ringlets have been replaced by free flowing hair

THEN: Elnett sprayed on ringlets, like Abbas Agnetha.

NOW: Sleek, free-flowing hair.

THEN: Blue eyeshadow.

NOW: Smoky eyes, like Cara Delevingne.

THEN: Eyebrows plucked into thin arches.

NOW: High Definition brows, waxed and dyed into thick horizontal strips.

THEN: Bosoms.

NOW: No bosoms.

THEN: Floaty cocktail dress in glaring orange, pink or turquoise.

NOW: A black shift dress, or designer jeans and a simple top.

THEN: Platform shoes.

NOW: Elegant flats.

WAXING IS IN, HAIRY CHESTS ARE OUT

THEN: Tight-fitting three-piece brown suit and knitted tie.

NOW: A crisp blue shirt, with the top one or two buttons undone, and chinos. Definitely no tie.

THEN: Hairy chest.

NOW: Shaved or waxed chest.

THEN: A medallion.

NOW: A collection of man bracelets  silver and ethnic leather or beaded bands to show youve travelled the world and are in touch with your spiritual side.

CHIT CHAT THAT NEVER CHANGES 

Inevitably, Ange brings up that perennial dinner party staple  house prices. They also discuss cars. Ange and Tony drive a yellow Ford Escort. Estate agent Laurence says he gets a new Mini every year. (Today, hed drive a flash Audi.)

Today, Ange and Tony might still own a Ford but it would be white.

In the Seventies, people prided themselves on having paid for their motor outright. Now the trend is for buying cars on one of a variety of loan schemes.

THEN: Boast about your caravan.

NOW: Bang on about how much you love glamping or staying in your camper-van at Glastonbury.

THEN: Plan a group holiday to Corfu.

NOW Plan a group holiday to Bali.

THEN: Discussion about TV drama Bouquet Of Barbed Wire, with themes of incest and sexual jealousy.

NOW: Talk about Game Of Thrones, with themes of incest and sexual jealousy.

THEN: Is David Owen up to the job of Foreign Secretary?

NOW: Is Boris Johnson up to the job of Foreign Secretary?

FROM SHAGPILE TO LIME-WASHED OAK

Ange is wowed by Beverlys brown leather three-piece suite. Ooh, thats nice! she exclaims. Today, its cool to have one huge L-shaped sofa, rather than individual pieces. Thats because we spend more time watching TV than entertaining guests, so theres no need to face each other. And its vital that everyone has a good view of the 48 in telly.

THEN: Bold patterned wallpaper. NOW: Pale grey painted walls.

THEN: A rubber plant.

NOW: Spiky-leaved succulents.

THEN: Shagpile carpet.

NOW: Lime-washed oak flooring.

THEN: Candelabra.

NOW: Jo Malone Lime Basil & Mandarin multi-wicked candles.

THEN: Valpolicella raffia-covered bottles as lamp bases.

NOW: Fairy lights strung jauntily round a plant or halogen spot lights set into the ceiling.

THEN: Wicker peacock chair.

NOW: Leather recliner.

THEN: Scratchy Izal toilet paper. NOW: Aloe vera-infused quilts.

THEN: Unread books on coffee table  Bruce Chatwins In Patagonia, Jacob Bronowskis Ascent Of Man.

NOW: Unread coffee table books of Scandinavian interior design.

WINE WAS EXOTIC  YES, EVEN BLUE NUN

We all think we know a Pinot Noir from a Chardonnay, but in 1977 wine was considered exotic.

When posh Sue brings a bottle of Beaujolais, Beverly commits the social faux pas of putting a red in the fridge.

However, fashion has come full circle  and today wine buffs recommend that light reds such as a Beaujolais should be chilled.

THEN: Beaujolais Nouveau, rushed to Britain in November just weeks after the grape is harvested.

NOW: Much classier Gigondas from the Rhone valley.

THEN: Blue Nun, the ubiquitous semi-sweet German white wine.

NOW: Sauvignon Blanc, the dry-ish white.

THEN: Mateus Rose in that ubiqitous oval bottle.

NOW: Fancy rose from Provence

DEMIS, ADELE... BUT NO MANILOW!

Adele sets the mood for the coolest dinner parties

But 40 years ago Greek crooner Demis Roussos was the go-to-guy to set the mood

To get in the party mood, before the evening begins Beverly puts on Love To Love You Baby, the risque Donna Summer 1975 disco tune. The song lasts 16 minutes and features erotic moaning and groaning. But perhaps the defining moment in Abigails Party is the row over who wants to listen to Greek crooner Demis Roussos. Beverly  a bit drunk and flirty  loves him, while her husband aspires to Beethoven.

Today, no hostess would want music to dominate. She might compile a playlist on her iPhone with some upbeat but not too intrusive tunes, some world music or the best of Neil Young.

THEN: Funk disco band Chic.

NOW: Coldplay.

THEN: Demis Roussos.

NOW: Barry White, in an ironic way.

THEN: Nana Mouskouri.

NOW: Adele.

THEN: Peruvian pan pipes.

NOW: The best of West Africa.

BUT NEVER ADMIT TO LIKING

THEN: Barry Manilow.

NOW: Barry Manilow.

AND FOR AFTER DINNER:

THEN: Irish coffee, topped with thick cream.

NOW: Herbal teas (preferably using fresh mint): They help me sleep.

WE STILL LOVE OUR KITCHEN GADGETS

Ange is envious of her Beverlys pea-green-tiled kitchen and her rotisserie.

These days, the bigger and whiter the kitchen is the better. And no self-respecting hostess is without a vegetable spiralizer, which turns courgettes and similar into a sorry-tasting spaghetti substitute.

NutriBullets are now breakfast essential for the busy working professional

THEN: Individual avocado dishes.

NOW: Irritatingly-shaped dinner plates; square or rectangular  anything but round

THEN: Giant pepper mill.

NOW: Marble pot of pink Himalayan salt.

THEN: Volcanic Orange Le Creuset.

NOW: Coastal Blue Le Creuset.

THEN: Teasmade machine.

NOW: Cappuccino machine.

THEN: Oven Rotisserie.

NOW: Aga.

THEN: Kenwood mixer.

NOW: NutriBullet to make smoothies.

THEN: Chest freezer.

NOW: Upright American fridge-freezer.

THEN: Hostess Trolley.

NOW: Casual kitchen supper.

THEN: Soda stream.

NOW: Soda stream (theyre back!)

BOILED HAMs NOW AIR-CURED JAMBON

They never actually get round to eating in Abigails Party, but we can imagine what Bev would have served. Prawn cocktail followed by beef tournedos (little round steaks), then profiteroles. The richer the menu, the better, with lots of heavy sauces. Even salads were slathered in salad cream.

Now a dinner party menu is all about freshness and fancy ingredients  pomegranate and chia seeds  and exotic dishes from around the world.

THEN: Consomme.

NOW: Bone broth.

THEN: Salmon en gelee.

NOW: Salmon en croute.

THEN: Black forest gateau.

NOW: Passion fruit souffle.

THEN:Thousand Island Dressing.

Black forest gateau is definitely out but passion fruit souffle is tres chic

NOW: Balsamic glaze.

THEN: Iceberg lettuce.

NOW: Rocket leaves, pre-washed in spring water.

THEN: Nescafe Instant.

NOW: Nespresso capsules.

THEN: Waiting for prawns to thaw.

NOW: Waiting for Ocado delivery.

THEN: Boiled ham.

NOW: Air-cured jamon.

THEN: Trifle.

NOW: Fresh fruit platter.

THEN: Celery sticks in a glass.

NOW: Spiralized vegetables.

FLIRT  AND IT CAN ALL STILL END BADLY

It all goes horribly wrong in Abigails Party, as Beverly gets more and more drunk and flirts outrageously with neighbour Tony. Then husband Laurence has a heart attack. In panic, she shrieks at him while blowing smoke in his face. These days, the fact anyone was smoking indoors would be considered outrageous.

THEN: Park on Tarmac drive.

NOW: Park on block paving thats replaced the front grass to avoid having to pay for parking permits.

THEN: Get barked at by the Alsatian.

NOW: Get slobbered on by the over-friendly Cockapoo.

THEN: Everyone smokes indoors.

NOW: All guests are non-smokers apart from one guilty vaper.

THEN: Flirting in the kitchen with someone inappropriate.

NOW: Flirting afterwards via inappropriate friending on Facebook.
Imperialism today has new exemplars. The old bully boy attitude of the Trumps and the Americans is not necessary. Today's bullies act as if it is they who have rights.

The bully boys of today's world will not allow any dissent, any thought pattern which differs from their official view of the world.

The earlier adage went Joseph Stalin coughed and the entire communist world caught cold. Today, China throws a tantrum, mutters a threat and it expects all of Asia to fall in line.

Chinese President Xi Jinping extended his nation's imperial interests in a summit with new US President Donald Trump last week

China is a world power but it has none of the idealism, the humanism, the little crisis of conscience the West had. The West at least tried to practice hegemony with a heart. China promises a heartless hegemony.

Intolerant

China is a country that refuses to tolerate even the rumour of dissent. It often treats the countries around the way the Chinese empire treated its vassals.

I am emphasising this bully boy attitude because many of our elite wish that India would be like China.

We want to be as assertive, decisive, display the arrogance and machismo of China.

I always feel that the love the middle class feels for Narendra Modi is partly because of his promise to turn India into a power with a similar behavioural syndrome.

'The Dalai Lama is one of the world's truly global figures. Along with Pope Francis, he is one of the few ethical figures left'

The recent controversy around the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang has to be seen with this context.

The Dalai Lama is one of the world's truly global figures. Along with Pope Francis, he is one of the few ethical figures left.

The very symbolic presence of the Dalai Lama threatens the regime in China

Their ethics is based on care and compassion; a sense of conviction that right has to battle might.

One is reminded of Stalin's cynical question: 'How many battalions does the Pope have?'

But the power and example of some of the Popes might outlast Stalin.

The Dalai Lama is a critical ethical figure who has made Tibet as a refugee nation, a symbol of refuge for many dissenting ideas.

The work he has done on a critical idea of science should be an eye opener to the Indian elite which is almost slavish about science.

His translator and associate, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, has produced a substantial critique of economics.

But more powerfully, the Dalai Lama is the ethical litmus test for both India and China. One of the great acts of hospitality that Jawaharlal Nehru's India performed was to give his holiness refuge.

In reciprocity, the Dalai Lama has added to India's moral imagination. He has played the long staying refugee with grace, gratitude and creative dignity.

Director of Assam Tribune newspaper, presents a Sarai, a traditional Assamese brass handicraft, to the Dalai Lama as he travels around India

Hysterical

China is today waxing hysterical over the 81-year-old monk's visit to Tawang, legendary home of the sixth Dalai Lama.

The population is excited and almost euphoric. The very symbolic presence of the Dalai Lama threatens the regime. It has physical power but lacks the moral imagination of the monk.

As he moves around Arunachal Pradesh, one realises how popular he is and all the Chinese dragon does is huff and puff.

Usually it should be enough, even to an India which quakes before China. But something of the magic of the monk has crept into Delhi and even India shrugs of the Chinese tantrums.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, waves to supporters during teachings after consecrating the Thupsung Dhargyeling Monastery in Dirang, Arunachal Pradesh

The Chinese outrage and its language are worth witnessing. Its contempt for India and its unease about the mystique of the Dalai Lama are obvious.

The official China Daily replied that Beijing 'would not hesitate to answer blows with blows.'

The New York Times quotes another state-sponsored mouthpiece as asking: 'Can India afford the consequences?... With a GDP several times higher than India, with military capabilities reaching into the Indian Ocean will Beijing lose to Delhi?'

The Dalai Lama visit is portrayed as subversive.

As the Dalai Lama moves around Arunachal Pradesh, one realises how popular he is and all the Chinese dragon does is huff and puff

Retaliation

Meanwhile the laughing monk renews his compact with his people. The Chinese retaliate by promising to appoint the next Dalai Lama as if he is another Chinese vassal.

The monk retains his composure saying that India has never misused him and also that it is up to the people to elect the next Dalai Lama. It is a moment of simple ethics shrewdly finessing power.

The chief minister of Arunachal pugnaciously adds that an independent Tibet, not China, is India's true neighbour. Even the mandarins of Delhi must be a bit nervous.

There is a truth in it. The Dalai Lama stands happy as an elf delighted to be a few metres from Chinese territory, as the Chinese watch helplessly and futilely.

True, they will not forgive the Dalai Lama or India. Yet, it is equally true that the monk, his teachings, his example, his presence remind China of its conscience outside, unafraid of the empire.

A beautiful moment.

India, usually gross or crass in its foreign policy, for once is showing a maturity - a Chinese dragon playing a slapstick imperial power and Indian democracy seeing in the drama, the beauty of a free society.

No nonsense about security, boundary, realist politics. A fable fit for our time.

The writer is a professor at Jindal Global Law School, and the director of the Centre for the Study of Knowledge Systems at OP Jindal Global University
They face discrimination and harassment at every step. Now, nearly three years after India's transgender people received recognition as the third gender from the Supreme Court, members of the community are set to cast their vote in this month's civic elections in the Capital.

Mail Today spoke to many of them to find out about their grievances and expectations, and lack of public toilets was a common refrain.

'Washrooms,' said Mohini who works as an outreach coordinator for a non-profit. 'There is not a single dedicated toilet block for the third gender. We rarely get access to public washrooms.

Bobby Kinnar, a transgender person who is contesting the civic polls as an independent candidate from Sultanpur

'It is really difficult to enter a public toilet. Most of the times, we end up shaming ourselves in an attempt not to embarrass others.'

The union ministry of drinking water and sanitation issued guidelines this month to the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), stating that members of the third-gender community be allowed to use public toilets of their choice (men or women).

But things haven't got easier. Mohini recalled an experience: 'One day after leaving my office, I felt the need to use the washroom. So I asked the guard which side of the washroom was totally vacant.

'If we use the female washroom when women are around, we are stared at or screamed at. And we feel extremely uncomfortable using male washrooms.'

The community is still waiting to get equal access to sanitation and gender-neutral toilet blocks

The community is still waiting to get equal access to sanitation and gender-neutral toilet blocks.

According to them, transgender people are excluded from all basic civic amenities such as medical services, access to public parks, schools and employment opportunities.

The 2014 SC verdict included a directive for separate toilets for transgender individuals in public places including hospitals.

But, Mysuru is the only Indian city so far that boasts of a 'third-gender' public restroom.

'It is the attitude of people towards us that has to change and would eventually make a difference.

'When civic bodies plan for the optimum utilisation of their services, we are the last ones in their mind.

'It is like anyone who is not a male or female is an alien and does not need civic amenities,' said Whiskey, another member of the community.

'We live in the Capital of the country. One expects to have much better access to civic amenities irrespective of their genders, but that is unfortunately not the case.'

Shockingly, only 636 transgender people had voter id cards ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections

Though the 90,000-strong community is spread across the Capital, they are mostly concentrated in Paharganj, Daryaganj, Burari, Shastri Park, Subhash Park and Laxmi Nagar.

Shockingly, only 636 transgender people had voter id cards ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Apart from lack of washrooms, the community faces difficulty in approaching the corporation's health centres.

'Civic bodies have their health centres but for us approaching a doctor is such a tedious task.

'Most of the time we rely on home-made medicines to cure ailments,' said Bobby Kinnar, a transgender person who is contesting the civic polls as an independent candidate from Sultanpur.

Mail Today spoke to the gurus in the deras, who did not want to be named but said that they do not have access to public parks.

Seeking anonymity, one said that people vacate the spaces the moment they enter the park.

The community also claims to be subjected to financial exploitation at the hands of officials.

'We are forced to cough up more money by way of bribes to get things done,' said Rajni.

Studies show that 85 out of every 100 transgender people live in urban areas. And a lot more are migrating, looking for opportunities and social acceptance.

'Sex work and toil-badhai (giving blessings to married couples) continue to be their main source of income,' said Abhina Aher, a leading transgender activist.

For starters, the authorities can allow them to form separate queues, said Nisha. 'Queues are always designated only for men and women and we are clueless about where to stand.'

'Sex work and toil-badhai (giving blessings to married couples) continue to be their main source of income,' said Abhina Aher, a leading transgender activist

The cost of transphobia in India

By Sangeeth Sebastian

Yashwinder Singh, manager, Humsafar Trust, Delhi, says 'The moment an employer gets to know their sexual orientation, everything else becomes irrelevant'

The emotional toll of homophobia and transphobia is well documented. But what about the substantial economic cost it wrings out too?

While extensive studies are lacking, due to the very invisibility of the community, a few that are available, expose the magnitude of economic fallout to countries including India, due to the rampant discriminatory practices against the community.

MV Lee Badgett, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, estimates that homophobia alone costs 0.1 to 0.7 per cent of India's GDP.

His case study on India also exposed the enormous cost of health care due to homophobia and transphobia as between $712 million (Rs 45,000 crore) and $23.1 billion dollars (Rs 1.4 lakh crore).

'If you reduce the GDP by this much, you call that a recession,' Badgett says.

Though the number of qualified transgender people in the country is extremely low, even those who have the relevant qualification and skill sets often gets a raw deal while looking for a job.

'The moment an employer gets to know their sexual orientation, everything else becomes irrelevant,' says Yashwinder Singh, manager, Humsafar Trust, Delhi.

'The focus then shifts to a candidate's sexuality. The fact that the person is professionally qualified, law abiding or pays taxes becomes secondary,' says Singh.

While the discrimination may not be city specific, Singh believes that attitude towards homosexual and transgender people are extremely hostile in tier II and tier III cities and towns.

Though the number of qualified transgender people in the country is extremely low, those who have the relevant qualification and skill sets often gets a raw deal while looking for a job

'It begins at the school level with name calling,' says Singh. Some of the commonly used verbal abuses against LGBT kids are 'chakka', 'gur', 'halwa', 'Shikhandi', 'Homo', 'Hijra', 'ladki', and 'maal'.

'The damage it does to their personality is devastating. As a result most of them drop out of schools, which in turn leads to very low literacy rates among the community,' says Singh.

But India is no exception when to comes to the loss of revenue to the exchequer due homophobic laws and social norms.

Surprisingly even some of the economically advanced societies such as Western Europe and North America lose nearly $50 billion (Rs 3.2 lakh), according to AIDS researcher Erik Lamontagne.

Some of the world's most inclusive countries for the LGBTQ community are Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Spain, while Saudi Arabia, Comorors, Qatar, Gambia and Afghanistan are among the most homophobic.

Singh of Humsafar Trust says that more corporate houses have expressed their willingness to work with transgenders after the NALSA (National Legal Services Authority) judgment upholding the right of transgender persons to decide their self-identified gender.

'But still the number is fractional when we consider the total population,' says Singh.
How many hours can you stand in the scorching sun with the mercury hovering over 40 degrees, to get a glimpse of your Prime Minister?

Mail Today asked Amulya Ranjan Gochhayh, a geologist and Sanjay, an auto rickshaw driver, Paiyo Mohalik from Bhadrak and a delegation of villagers, mostly farmers and poor workers from Cuttack, who had come from different parts of Odisha.

They waited for several hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his 'show stopper' road show, a replay of Varanasi on Bhubaneswar streets on Saturday afternoon.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to supporters at Bhubaneswar airport before embarking on an almost 8km parade through Odisha's capital

They, along with thousands others had gathered along the route of the roadshow hours before the PM even touched down at the city airport. But they showed no signs of tiring out before seeing the PM.

The nearly 8km road show starting from Bhubaneswar Airport to Janta Maidan, where PM Modi was to finally meet his cabinet colleagues, state chief ministers and top BJP leadership for the National Executive meeting, passed through Odisha's capital's landmark spots - Raj Bhavan to Jaidev Vihar Square, giving the ruling Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal some jitters and anxious moments.

With a simple hope that he is coming to Odisha to change their lives, end unemployment, curb corruption and lift the social status of local poor, people from different parts of the state happily waited for their Prime Minister.

It was a fun affair amidst blaring music, some traditional dance steps by women and drum beats by their menfolk behind the barricades

It was a fun affair amidst blaring music, some traditional dance steps by women and drum beats by their menfolk behind the barricades put up all along the VIP route sanitised for Modi up to Janta Maidan.

'Kucch to karega, hum to unko dekhne aaya hai (something he will do, I have come to see him),' said Akul Raut, a farmer from Badamba in Cuttuck district.

While the local party leaders claimed that the crowd on streets to be in lakhs, even by conservative estimates, it was well over 70,000-80,000.

Union petroleum minister and BJP leader from Odisha, Dharmendra Pradhan, told Mail Today: 'The people of Odisha gathered on Bhubaneswar's streets to thank their Prime Minister for his pro-poor policies benefiting Odisha's poor households.

'The credibility of the Prime Minister would be a game changer in the state.'

Pradhan added: 'Odisha is a laboratory for the Modi government's pro-poor policies in the country.

'His credibility index among the poor is very high and they have conveyed their true feeling about him in the recent zila panchayat elections where we came close second to the ruling BJD.'

Thousands gathered along the route of the roadshow hours before the PM even touched down at the city airport. But they showed no signs of tiring out before seeing the PM

A farmer echoed his views. 'We want to be free of unemployment and poverty.'

The BJP sees this as a chance after the results in Uttar Pradesh where the landslide victory conveys voters' belief in Modi's development politics and his style of governance.

Modi's roadshow in the Odisha capital is critical to BJP's plan to form the next government in 2019 elections and also extend the saffron surge in other eastern and southern states.

State BJP vice-president Sameer Mohanty said he was simply 'stunned' by the crowd response to the rally.

Speaking on phone while he was finding it tough to keep pace with PM's car route, he said: 'I have not seen such a response in Bhubaneswar for any BJP leader...I have been in politics for over 35 years now.

'This is something unprecedented and a message comes out clear - time to work to change the BJD government.'
A day after Ram Navami, around 50 motor-cycle-borne youths sporting saffron bandannas and flags made their way to the Muslim-dominated alleys of Kidderpore, and reportedly chanted 'masjid todenge, mandir banayenge' (we will break mosques and build temples) in front of Ismail mosque.

What followed was an agitated group of Muslims blocking traffic, some of whom broke away to attack the nearby century-old Krishna Chandra Das Modak Sweets shop.

WhatsApp messages were being forwarded by both communities about a communal flare-up.

Saffron supporters were out in full force in West Bengal for the Ram Navami celebrations

Fortunately, good sense prevailed among both communities as elders sought to prevent the situation from spiraling out of hand.

But this is not the scenario everywhere. Communal flare-ups are rampant across Bengal of late and some lead to full scale riots, incidents that are mostly hushed up and denied by the administration.

But what's significant is the new-found assertion of the Hindu community that has traditionally avoided a confrontation in the state.

In some cases as a repercussion and in some as instigation, this Hindu assertion is alien to Bengal.

Communal tension has been rife in recent months in West Bengal (file pic)

The state saw an unprecedented display of enthusiasm over Ram Navami, with an ever-growing BJP parading with swords, tridents and conch shells to drum up support for 'Hindu culture and heritage'.

In all district headquarters, the VHP made a spectacular show of strength with bike rallies.

In the interiors, it was upon 'independent' saffron organisations such as Hindu Samhati to match the scale of show.

Raths were taken out, thousands including women and children took to the streets and 'Jai Shri Ram' reverberated across towns.

A 52-year-old primary school teacher from Garbeta in West Midnapore, who voted for CPI(M) even after regime change told Mail Today: 'I have come here to listen to them. They have come with so much bikes that I am fascinated.

'I never voted for BJP but I share their concern about indifference meted to us.'

The bike rally he was referring to saw a participation of 4,000 bikes, all bearing triangular saffron flags that defied the ban by local police.

Clashes between Muslim and Hindu communities often result in violence, which was thankfully avoided on this occasion (file pic)

'Mamata has made a Bangladesh of Bengal. Here, being a Hindu is seen to be an offence where Durga Puja and Saraswati Puja are not allowed to be celebrated freely.

'We are exercising our right to pray and making people aware,' says young Sourish Mukherjee of the VHP even as he instructs someone about hashtags that needs to be promoted on Twitter.

The BJP played the Hindu card and invited all the legislators, including 211 from the ruling party, to take part in Ram Navami celebrations.

All the 211 MLAs stayed away fearing the wrath of Mamata Banerjee, only to be jolted out of slumber, and then forced to launch their own version of Ram Navami celebrations later in the day.

But it was too late by then and hardly saw any attendance - not even by Trinamool supporters - who had preferred to join the ones organised by VHP.

'People are not fools. They see through it. They are realising it's an existential crisis,' Sourish adds.

All in all, more than 200 rallies were taken out across the length and breadth of Didi's Bengal, with 22 in Kolkata alone.

Between October and January there were as many as 10 incidents of communal tension in the state (file pic)

In Chakraberia, which falls under Mamata's constituency, VHP supporters took out a bike rally brandishing swords.

Scores of women and young girls associated with Durga Vahini took part in the celebrations carrying machetes, taking many by surprise.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh made a similar show with swords in West Midnapore that got the police to register a case against him.

'If tazias during Muharram can have weapons, why not Ram Navami rallies?' he told Mail Today. This communal turn has resulted in at least five flare-ups since Ram Navami alone.

In Khardah, a procession was attacked from inside a mosque. Pandabeshwar in Durgapur has also seen flare-ups.

But the counter muscle-flexing is also taking place, which is a new phenomenon. In March, a temple was vandalised in Uluberia.

Some 18,000 people took to streets in this sleepy town. Interestingly, those comprised almost the half the local unit of TMC and CPI(M).

From October last year to January this year, there have been as many as 10 incidents of communal tensions in those four months alone.
Life in a Metro station got a little more interesting for dozens of Delhiites a week ago when a pornographic video aired for a few seconds on a large screen at the Rajiv Chowk station.

Display terminals have been installed at Metro platforms for broadcasting advertisements and public service messages.

Travelers were left shocked around 4.30pm on April 9 when the porn clip popped up on an LED screen next to exit gates 1 and 2.

Station chiefs allege the Smart TV screens were hacked by three men who were able to play the pornography on them from their mobile phones

While many were flustered and averted their gaze while hurrying through the area, others pulled out their mobile phones to record the visuals that lasted 27 seconds.

Rajiv Chowk, the largest Metro station in Delhi, is situated in the central business district of Connaught Place and is a transfer station between the Blue Line (Dwarka Sector 21-Noida City Centre) on the upper level and the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli-HUDA City Centre) on the lower level.

So, thousands of commuters use the station even on non-working days.

Mobile footage of the incident was uploaded on video-sharing site YouTube and social media following which the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) took notice and ordered an inquiry.

The organisation said the display terminal was under commissioning and testing by a private contractor.

The network was locked in controversy four years ago when leaked footage of hundreds of couples making out on Metro trains hit the internet.

'The LED TV (Smart TV having multiple features) system was under commissioning and Wi-Fi port was accessible.

'Prima facie, as per CCTV footage, 3 men have run a porn clip through their mobile on this TV at Rajiv Chowk station,' said DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal.

'Attempts are being made to identify these men. CCTV footage is under examination to identify the culprits.

Rajiv Chowk station is one of the busiest Metro stations in the Capital with thousands of commuters travelling through it every day

'This sort of interference with the system will not be possible in the future once software is programmed and centrally controlled.

'In the interim, during the commissioning process itself the contractor will be advised to ensure password protection.'

DMRC has so far not contacted Delhi police to register an FIR. Jitendra Mani, the DCP of Delhi Metro, told Mail Today that he has not received any formal complaint from the organisation.

'Delhi Metro police will initiate inquiry only after formal complaint registered at Metro police station,' he said.

In 2015, hundreds of passengers waiting at a bus stand in Kerala's Wayanad district saw a porn video playing on a TV screen installed to broadcast advertisements.

Similar such incidents have happened on numerous occasions in cities in the country and abroad as well, including once in Pune.

An LED screen installed at a busy intersection near Karve Road had started displaying adult videos in August last year leading to a traffic jam in the area as commuters stopped to see what was going on.
Nana Patole, BJP MP for Maharashtra, challenged parliament over its inaction to consider an SC directive on child rape

Four questions asked by Nana Patole, a BJP MP from Maharashtra in parliament to the home ministry, has brought the focus back on the failure of Centre to take steps to bring in harsher punishment for those raping children despite a Supreme Court direction over a year ago.

In January 2016, the apex court, acting on a plea filed by Supreme Court Women Lawyer's Association had asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, to take instructions on 'harsher' punishment for those who raped, sexually abused or molested children aged between two and 10 years.

According to National Crime Record Bureau data, a child aged between two and 10 is abused every 30 minutes in India.

According to National Crime Record Bureau data, a child aged between two and 10 is abused every 30 minutes in India

The country also witnessed a staggering 151 per cent increase in child rapes in the last five years.

According to the government data, while 5,484 children were raped in the year 2011, the figure rose to 13,766 last year.

And these are just the cases where the victims approached the police. Several cases across the country still go unreported.

A bench headed by justice Dipak Misra had pointed out how Section 376 (2) (f) of the Indian Penal Code, which prescribes punishment for rape only talks of rape of a 'woman below 12 years of age'.

It said the Code has no specific provision dealing with punishment for raping girl children below 10 years of age and infants after classifying them as a separate category.

'At present, the language in rape law specifies only women aged below the age of 12. But these days children between the ages of two and 10 are increasingly becoming victims of sexual abuse.

Patole's four questions Has the SC has advised the union government to consider enacting a strict law to ensure that stringent punishment is awarded to the perpetrators of child rape?

If so, what is the reaction of the government thereto?

Has the SC, while expressing its concern on the incidents of rape of minor girls, advised that crimes relating to rape of children should be defined in a different way and if so the details thereof?

Has the government proposed to take any action on the observations of the Supreme Court on the said issues? Advertisement

'Parliament may think of re-defining the term child and impose further rigorous punishment to those involved in sexual abuse of children,' the bench said.

With no signs of any steps to implement the SC order, parliamentarian Patole on April 11 raised the following questions in the parliament to the MHA.

AG Rohatgi said child rape could never be tolerated and had agreed to highlight the court's suggestions to the government for putting it up before the parliament for an appropriate legislation.

Mahalakshmi Pavani and Prerna Kumari, top office bearers of the SCWLA had suggested castration as ideal punishment.

They quoted earlier suggestions of the Madras HC in this regard. However, the apex court had declined castration as an additional punishment, saying the judiciary cannot issue a direction to create a punishment for any offence.

'That is the job of the legislature,' Justice Misra said.

Delhi's child rights panel runs without chairman

By Arpan Rai

The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights has been functioning without a chairperson for nearly two months now even as cases related to Right to Education pile-up without any resolution.

A Right To Information application filed by activist Rajiv Kumar has revealed that the grievance redressal at DCPCR has been unsuccessful in disposing of complaints within the prescribed period of three months in 529 cases submitted between April 2014 and March 2015.

Another RTI filed by RTE activist Yogesh Kumar reveals that no separate cases were dealt by from year 2014 to 2017 and no separate recommendations were made by last DCPCR chairperson Arun Mathur.

The RTI also revealed that records of field visits made by the chairperson in his three-year tenure were not available.

When asked, Mathur refused to comment.

The panel has shut its ears on the plight of several city parents presenting plethora of complaints such as being denied admission in schools, school infrastructure, demands of bribe for entitlements, shortage of teachers, accessibility of books and corporal punishment.

One such case is of Rahul, who transferred to a government school from a private one only to return to a private school as the facilities and quality of education was so poor.

'There were no fans in the classroom. The school principal told us that there was a shortage of faculty on the first day itself.

'We felt compelled to withdraw Rahul's admission and when I went, I was insulted by the principal,' said Sonu, Rahul's cousin, who then filed a complaint with the grievance cell of Directorate of Education.

However, he received a response only months later and even then, the blame was laid on the student.
China and Nepal began their first-ever joint military exercises on Sunday, a move likely to rattle India as Beijing boosts its influence in the region.

Impoverished Nepal is sandwiched between China and India and has in recent years ping-ponged between the sphere of influence of Delhi and Beijing as the Asian giants jostle for regional supremacy.

The 10-day drill in Kathmandu, dubbed 'Sagarmatha Friendship 2017' referring to the Nepali name for Mount Everest, will focus on counter-terrorism, according to Nepal's army.

China's Defence Minister Chang Wanquan (L) is escorted by Nepalese officials after his arrival at Tribhuwan International Airport in Kathmandu on March 23, 2017

'This is in line with our efforts to hold joint exercises with countries that have diplomatic relations with Nepal,' military spokesman Jhankar Bahadur Kadayat told AFP.

The drills will likely be watched closely by India, which is often accused of playing 'big brother' to its tiny neighbour.

Landlocked Nepal remains dependent on India for the majority of its imports, but the previous administration aggressively courted China as part of a nationalist drive to decrease the country's reliance on New Delhi.

'Nepal and China share a multi-faceted tie and a joint military exercise broadens that relationship,' said Tanka Karki, former Nepali ambassador to China.

Last month China's defence minister Chang Wanquan visited Nepal - the first by a Chinese defence minister in 15 years - to discuss the joint military exercise.

The current Maoist-led government in Nepal has sought to repair strained ties with Delhi while continuing to accept cash from its powerful northern neighbour.

China has lavished grand infrastructure promises on Nepal, including recently pledging $8.3 billion in investment -- equivalent to nearly to 40 percent of its entire GDP.

The commitment dwarfed India's investment offer of $317 million.
The boss of BT could be forced to hand back some of his pay as part of the fallout from its 531m Italian accounting scandal.

Gavin Patterson, 49, earned 5.4m last year, including performance bonuses, but is likely to have to give some back after he admitted the problems in Italy were far greater than previously identified.

Markets were stunned in January by BTs admission that inappropriate behaviour had caused it to exaggerate its profits in Italy for a number of years.

Pay back: BT's CEO, Gavin Patterson, 49, earned 5.4m last year

The scandal drove a 37 per cent dent in BTs third-quarter profit as it wrote off 531m and a wave of panic selling wiped almost 8bn off the companys share price.

Now fund managers want payments to be adjusted, because BT bosses were rewarded for hitting targets that, it turned out, were not met.

It is up to BTs remuneration committee to decide if and how much Patterson will have to pay back. But this is just the latest in a string of setbacks for the telecoms boss.

Last month, BT was fined a record 42m after it risked damaging British businesses by taking too long to deliver superfast broadband connections.

A tough six months for investors BT takes 145m hit from accounting errors in Italy Shares plunge as Italian scandal write-off costs 531m Awarded Money Mails Wooden Spoon award for poor customer service  for the second time Fined 42m by Ofcom for unacceptable broadband service and must pay about 300m compensation to rivals

It will also have to pay an estimated 300m in compensation to its rivals which were forced to provide a poor service to their customers because BT was too slow to connect them.

Last month it was fined 880,000 by regulator Ofcom for continuing to charge former customers, delivering another black eye to the companys reputation.

BT has to pay 300m in compensation to its rivals which were forced to provide a poor service

That penalty came just two months after BTs EE mobile division was also fined 2.7m for overcharging customers. And BTs poor customer service led to it being crowned the winner of Money Mails annual Wooden Spoon award  for the second year in a row.

This followed thousands of complaints about BTs infrastructure arm Openreach, which it has since decided to spin off into a legally separate company.

One of BTs top-ten shareholders told Bloomberg that investors were seeking adjustments to prior payouts. It is understood the board is considering clawbacks of management compensation due to its revised financial results.

Analysts at Exane BNO Paribas said Patterson would likely see a significant drop in his bonus for the year that ended on March 31.

His total compensation could be down as much as 70 per cent for the year. The company could also pull back about 20 per cent of last years bonuses, and they could trigger a lapsing of Pattersons stock awards tied to financial performance and shareholder returns, the analysts said.

A BT spokesman said: The BT Group remuneration committee will consider the implications of the BT Italy investigation.
UK tech giant Micro Focus has raised the prospect of job losses once its 7bn deal to buy the software arm of HP Enterprise is complete.

Bosses at the Berkshire-based firm told a presentation in New York that reducing headcount was one opportunity for saving money.

Executive chairman Kevin Loosemore and chief financial officer Mike Phillips said they planned to bring profit margins at HPE Sofware up from 21 per cent to 46 per cent within four years, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Saving money: Micro Focus is looking at the prospect of job losses

The duo highlighted previous deals where they cut staff numbers to boost profit margins. While a proportion of the job losses will come from duplicate roles, the company is understood not to have put a figure on the number of jobs that will go.

Micro Focus employs about 4,600 people across 80 locations, and before its deal with the US giant was worth about 4.4bn.

The firm creates software to allow big businesses to keep their existing computer systems going as well as enabling them to introduce new technology.
The Government is being urged to introduce a time limit on price caps for energy bills, proposals for which are likely to be announced within a fortnight.

A plan from Tory MP John Penrose for a 'relative price cap', where a default tariff is set that is never more than a certain percentage above a supplier's cheapest deal, is regarded by industry and Government sources alike as the likely model for price caps.

In a submission to a Government consultation on the issue, seen by The Mail on Sunday, Penrose suggests the introduction of a relative price cap should be accompanied by a 'sunset clause' aimed at preventing the cap being permanent.

Increase: EDF customers will see electricity prices increase by 9% and gas prices by 5.5%

'This proposal should only be a temporary measure while the more fundamental, long-term pro-consumer initiatives are taking effect... the relative cap should be introduced with a 'sunset clause', so it comes to an automatic halt unless it is deliberately and explicitly renewed at the end of its predetermined life,' he said in his submission.

Penrose wants to make switching suppliers permanently easier for consumers, including by making data on customers accessible to third parties, with their consent.

When this is achieved the price cap could be removed, he proposed.

Government sources suggest that price caps will be introduced within a fortnight and before local authority elections on May 4, allowing the Government to gain political credit from the move.

Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly criticised the energy market, declaring last month that energy prices had risen by 158 per cent over 15 years, with the poorest homes hit by the highest tariffs.

EDF Energy caused renewed outrage last week when it hiked prices for the second time in four months.

From June 21, EDF customers will see electricity prices increase by 9 per cent and gas prices by 5.5 per cent.

It means 1.5 million EDF customers will pay 18 per cent more for electricity this year, with close to 100 added to annual bills.

It is one of the Big Six energy companies that dominate retail energy supply with about a 90 per cent share of the market.

All have raised their prices this year, with the exception of British Gas, which has frozen its until August.

'Price caps look inevitable and I can understand it up to a point,' said Peter Atherton of Cornwall Energy.

'We are in a period where prices are going to rise quite sharply, even if wholesale prices stabilise, because of the costs of Government policies.

'But it is still hard to see how it is a good idea. Any price mechanism is open to manipulation and even a relative price cap would open the way for companies to manipulate their tariffs in a way which could see cheap offers dry up.'
An Islamic sheikh says halal-certification threatens the Australian way of life and is an insult to Christians at Easter.

Sheikh Mohammad Tawhidi, who is already facing death threats, has weighed into the debate about One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's call for Australians to boycott Cadbury chocolates this Easter.

Living in hiding, the Shia imam from Adelaide told his Facebook followers the halal-certification of chocolates funded Muslim religious and business interests, like Islamic schools.

Scroll down for video

Sheikh Mohammad Tawhidi says halal-certification is an insult to Australia's way of life

A Woolworths catalogue showing a halal-certified Cadbury Easter egg on special

'Stamping Australian products with Islamic terminologies is an insult to 98 per cent of Australians, and is a threat to their way of life,' he said.

'I, as an Australian Muslim, feel very insulted when the culture I have adapted to for decades is now being changed.'

While only 2.4 per cent of the Australian population is Muslim, major food producers like Cadbury chocolates, Kellogg's breakfast cereals, Sara Lee ice cream and Mars Bars sell halal-certified products.

Halal certification, to ensure products are permissible in Islam, makes it easier for manufacturers to export food to Indonesia.

Imam Tawhidi said Muslims didn't have a right to demand halal foods at the big supermarkets

The imam from Adelaide, who is living in hiding, set out his concerns in a Facebook post

However, the process requires paying fees to halal certification businesses, that employ Muslims to ensure the products contain no alcohol or pork derivatives, including gelatin.

The fees paid to halal certification businesses funds Islamic schools and mosques, and the slaughter method of animals involves throat cutting.

Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation will make halal foods compulsory from 2019.

Imam Tawhidi said the halal certification industry was an insult to Christians at Easter.

'Muslims would never eat products with Jewish terminologies or the Christian cross, so why do they think it's perfectly fine to have Islamic terminologies on Easter eggs and Mars Bars?,' he said.

'Why do Muslims walk into Woolworths and Coles, public Australian businesses, and expect Halal certified products?

Kellogg's breakfast cereals are all halal-certified, along with many other supermarket foods

Mars Bars are also halal-certified, which means they can be sold in places like Indonesia

'If you want Halal certified products then you must open a private Muslim market.'

The imam, who has previously called for the closure of Islamic schools, said big corporations and politicians cared more about money.

'It's also a shame that our large retailers - including some politicians - do not care about the feelings of the Australian people and only worry about how to make more money on the expense of the taxpayers' happiness,' he said.

This week, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Australians should boycott Cadbury chocolates, which are halal-certified, and instead choose Lindt or Darrell Lea Easter treats.

The Project's Muslim co-presenter Waleed Aly mocked her on live television eating a Lindt chocolate bunny which Senator Hanson had held up on Tuesday in a Facebook video.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson urged Australians to eat a Lindt bunny, which isn't halal
Pacheo Bustamante, 46, was arrested Friday morning for a felony charge of impersonating a Miami police officer

A fake cop armed with a blue light and a BB gun accidentally pulled over a real police officer at a makeshift traffic stop on Friday.

Marcos Pacheo-Bustamante, 46, was arrested Friday morning on a felony charge of impersonating a Miami police officer.

He had taken to playing 'traffic cop', fed up with all the people that were speeding and texting on Interstate 95, police say.

Pacheo-Bustamante was driving a Ford Crown Victoria similar to many police vehicles when he approached the detective's unmarked car and activated his siren around 7am local time, according to a police report.

The detective, Alton Martin, pulled onto the highway shoulder, then arrested Pacheo-Bustamante when it became clear he's not actually an officer.

Pacheo-Bustamante was driving a Ford Crown Victoria (pictured) similar to many police vehicles when he approached the detective's unmarked car and activated his siren around 7am local time, according to a police report

He was driving the fraudulent police vehicle and was armed with a BB gun

Martin was on duty and wearing his full uniform, just driving an unmarked police cruiser when he was 'pulled over'.

The report says that after he was arrested, he was interviewed and confessed to the crime, even telling Miami police he had done this before.

On Friday night, WSVN cameras captured Pacheo-Bustamante as he was released from Turner Guilford Knight Correctional center.

He was seen putting on his jewelry and speaking in Spanish, saying: 'I'm not going to say anything. Enough. Leave me alone, please.'

After being released from jail he was seen putting on his jewelry and speaking in Spanish, saying: 'I'm not going to say anything. Enough. Leave me alone, please'

He had taken to playing 'traffic cop', fed up with all the people that were speeding and texting on Interstate 95, police say

Detective Jennifer Capote told WSVN that the BB gun that was discovered inside the fraudulent police vehicle looked a lot like a real gun, and even came with a holster.

Pacheo-Bustamante's neighbor told the news station that the 'cop impersonator' had been seen before walking around with his gun holstered.

It wasn't immediately clear if Pacheo-Bustamante has found a real lawyer to represent him.
Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai accused his successor Ashraf Ghani of committing treason by allowing the US military to drop the 'Mother of all Bombs' in an attack against the Islamic State.

Karzai condemned the attack and vowed to 'stand against America' in what may signal a broader political backlash that may endanger the US military mission in Afghanistan.

President Ghani said the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast strike in the province of Nangarhar on Thursday was a joint operation between Afghan and US forces.

While US President Donald Trump lauded the strike, which killed nearly 100 suspected militants as a 'very, very successful mission', the response within Afghanistan has been mixed.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai (left) accused his successor Ashraf Ghani (right) of committing treason by allowing the US military to drop the 'Mother of all Bombs' on Thursday

The bomb killed nearly 100 suspected militants, and destroyed weapons, ammunition and underground tunnels. Trump lauded the strike as a 'very, very successful mission'

Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor in Nangarhar said the 21,600-pound GBU-43 killed 94 members of ISIS.

A Ministry of Defense official said on Friday that the number of dead could rise as officials assessed the bomb site in Achin district.

The strike also destroyed weapons, ammunition and three underground tunnels. No civilians were reported dead in the bombing.

Karzai took to Twitter and wrote: 'I vehemently and in strongest words condemn the dropping of the latest weapon.'

He added: 'This is not the war on terror but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and dangerous weapons.

'It is upon us, Afghans, to stop the US.'

The 21,600-pound GBU-43 left a crater believed to be more than 300 feet wide after it exploded just six feet above the ground

During a public event in Kabul, Karzai further undermined Ghani by asking: 'How could you permit Americans to bomb your country with a device equal to an atom bomb?'

'If the government has permitted them to do this, that was wrong and it has committed a national treason.'

While the bomb has been described as one of the largest non-nuclear devices ever used, its destructive power, equivalent to 11 tonnes of TNT, pales in comparison with the relatively small atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, which had blasts equivalent to between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes of TNT.

Ghani's office said the strike had been closely coordinated between Afghan and U.S. forces and replied to Karzai's charges with a statement saying: 'Every Afghan has the right to speak their mind. This is a country of free speech.'

US forces in Afghanistan on Thursday struck an Islamic State tunnel complex. Pictured, an Afghan security police officer walking amidst the rubble

Public reaction to Thursday's strike has been mixed, with some residents near the blast praising Afghan and US troops for pushing back the Islamic State militants

Public reaction to Thursday's strike has been mixed, with some residents near the blast praising Afghan and US troops for pushing back the Islamic State militants.

During Karzai's tenure as president, his opposition to airstrikes by foreign military forces helped to sour his relationship with the US and other Western nations.

As the Kabul government, split between Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah under a US-brokered power-sharing deal, remains fragile, Karzai's political interventions draw close attention.

Ghani has failed to build the kind of domestic following that Karzai still has despite stepping down in 2014.

Karzai said he planned to 'stand against America', a stance he compared to decisions earlier in his life to fight against the Soviets and later the Taliban regime.

'I decided to get America off my soil,' he said. 'This bomb wasn't only a violation of our sovereignty and a disrespect to our soil and environment, but will have bad effects for years.'

While Karzai did not elaborate on how he would oppose the United States, his stance may pose problems for Ghani's administration, which is heavily reliant on the United States and other foreign donors for aid and military support.

On Friday, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, defended the strike, saying the decision to use the bomb was based on military needs, not political reasons.

Afghan troops, backed by US warplanes and special forces, have been battling militants linked to Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan for years.

The most recent operation began in March and continued until troops hit Islamic State fighters entrenched in booby-trapped tunnels in a remote mountain region, leading commanders to call for the use of the GBU-43 bomb.
You can start leaving your umbrellas at home as Sydney is set to remain dry until the end of the month.

Sunshine is expected on Easter Monday as well as Anzac Day, independent forecaster Dennis Luke told The Daily Telegraph.

The rest of April is also predicted to stay dry and relatively warm with above average temperatures also in store for Sydneysiders.

Sydneysiders can rejoice as the city is expected to remain dry until the end of the month

Mr Luke says Anzac Day will remain clear all day with just a little light rain expected around the coast in the morning.

'At the moment, there is a high pressure system coming over South Australia so by the time we get to Anzac Day, we will see a few degrees warmer in the city, and up to five degrees hotter than average inland,' he said.

'The weather will start to dribble its way down at the end of the month.'

But he added there may be thunderstorms and heavy rain by mid-May.

Sunshine is expected on both Easter Monday and Anzac Day, according to forecasters

Above average temperatures are also in store for Sydneysiders throughout April

However, Mr Luke says he doesn't believe winter will be too bad.

'I don't expect a cold winter this year,' he added.

This coming week is set to remain partly cloudy with highs of 24C forecast in Sydney, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Other parts of New South Wales will experience similarly cloudy conditions, with slight chances of rain.

The Central Coast will be mostly sunny on Easter Sunday with light winds and a max of 25C predicted. As the week goes on, the area is set to remain partly cloudy with a slight chance of drizzle in the morning or afternoon.

The Woollongong area is set for partly cloudy weather, with showers expected on Wednesday.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms are set to stay away until around the middle of May

The coming week will see partly cloudy skies in Sydney and temperature highs of 24C
A key EU official involved in the Brexit talks yesterday attacked Theresa Mays bunker mentality in No 10.

Martin Selmayr, the controversial chief of staff to EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, said Mrs May was even worse than David Cameron.

And the German  known as the monster in Brussels for his ruthless methods  revealed that his hostility to Brexit was forged when he met Margaret Thatcher as a student and heard her blast John Major for abandoning her anti-EU stance.

EU official Martin Selmayr, known as 'the monster' in Brussels, attacked Theresa May's 'bunker' mentality in No 10 and said she was 'even worse' than predecessor David Cameron

Selmayr, 46, a member of the EU Brexit negotiating team, is reportedly behind moves to punish Britain with a 50 billion bill for leaving.

He was scathing about the way both Mr Cameron and Mrs May conducted EU relations.

He said: In London its like a bunker, it was a bunker in Camerons times and its a bunker now  its even worse.

'Its difficult to communicate and understand each other if you dont come out of your closet.

He said Britains differences with Brussels were harder to resolve because key Downing Street figures were never here to talk to us  so its very difficult to judge how they see things.

Selmayr, a lawyer, saw Lady Thatcher speak in London in 1993 when she railed about Britain being alone in Europe in not having been invaded for 1,000 years.

He said: In London its like a bunker, it was a bunker in Camerons times and its a bunker now  its even worse.' Mr Selmayr said his stance against Brexit was forged when he met Margaret Thatcher as a student

She basically blasted her successor Mr Major, said Selmayr. He told the Financial Times: I saw the big misunderstanding between Britain and the rest of the EU.

'For the Germans and French it is unthinkable to see the European project only as a market: it is an instrument to achieve something more.

And on his Rasputin reputation, Selmayr said: It can be flattering if it means Im not a wimp. Juncker is the good guy. Im the bad guy. Thats how it is.
The former CIA director and defense secretary under President Obama criticized Donald Trump's statements about the military on Thursday.

During a press conference, the president referred to the armed forces as 'my military' while discussing the authorization of the largest non-nuclear bomb being launched on caves in Afghanistan.

Leon Pancetta told Chris Matthews on his MSNBC series Hardball that the US military belongs to no one man - not even President Trump.

The former CIA director and defense secretary under President Obama, Leon Pancetta, criticized Donald Trump's statements about the military on Thursday

AOL News first reported that Pancetta said: 'When it comes to the military, the military belongs to the country.

'Our defense system belongs to the country. And it's not the president's military, it's the military of the United States of America.

'If you ask the men and women who are in uniform who they are responsible to, I think their answer would be "we're responsible to the United States of America"'.

His comments come after the president praised the bombing in Afghanistan, and said on Thursday that he was 'very proud of our military'.

His comments come after the president praised the bombing in Afghanistan, and said he was 'very proud of our military,' which he later referred to as 'my military'

Trump also called the historic launch the 'mother of all bombs'.

He took on the possessive tone as he continued, saying: 'What I do is I authorize my military. We have the greatest military in the world, and they've done a job as usual.

'So we have given them total authorization and that's what they're doing and frankly, that's why they've been so successful lately.'
Former British commander in Afghanistan Colonel Richard Kemp, pictured, criticised the police and called the investigation a waste of 'vast sums of taxpayers money'

Military police were accused of conducting a witch-hunt last night after a multi-million-pound investigation into claims that the SAS covered up war crimes failed to find any evidence.

Detectives launched the probe  which cost 6 million, according to defence sources  after being tipped off that SAS soldiers had doctored official reports and used fake photographs in an attempt to hide civilian deaths in Afghanistan.

Police officers were so determined to prove their case that they used a software programme to secretly monitor Special Forces troops using computers in a bid to catch them out, The Mail on Sunday has been told.

The investigation was launched last year into claims that SAS soldiers had placed pistols and rifles known to be used by the Taliban near dead civilians to make them look like enemy fighters  a practice known as drop weapons.

Military police believed they could expose this practice by confirming that the serial numbers for these weapons appeared repeatedly in official accounts of SAS battles.

However, not a single instance of drop weapons being used was revealed by the investigation.

Last night, former British commander in Afghanistan Colonel Richard Kemp criticised the Royal Military Police (RMP), saying: It is not their job to waste vast sums of taxpayers money to hound our bravest troops on the basis of flimsy allegations.

'The use of such extraordinary methods to bring down SAS soldiers, seemingly at any cost, smacks of a witch-hunt.

'Almost every household in Afghanistan has an arsenal of small arms, AK-47s and the like. Why would Special Forces need to bring these weapons with them on their raids?

The claim was highly implausible to begin with. The alarming thing is that such a significant RMP investigation would have needed to be approved at a high level of command. I wonder who wanted to target the SAS?

MoD sources confirmed the probe was dropped because the allegation about the SASs use of drop weapons could not be substantiated. Pictured: A sergeant on patrol in Helmand province

The Ministry of Defence refused to comment on the RMP using a software programme called Keystroke, which intercepts emails, records online activity and logs the use of specific phrases and numerical sequences, such as serial numbers.

The software remains invisible to the user so, if it was being used, SAS troops would have been unaware that their communications were being monitored by military police for the duration of the inquiry.

MoD sources confirmed the probe was dropped because the allegation about the SASs use of drop weapons could not be substantiated.

A source added that no SAS soldiers were formally interviewed by military police over the use of drop weapons.

A separate investigation into claims by Afghan civilians that they were abused by troops from across the British Army continues.

The probe  Operation Northmoor  is looking into 600 allegations made by 150 individuals.

Many of the claims have been brought by Afghans who were detained at a prison facility at Camp Bastion, the biggest UK base in Helmand province, where thousands of British troops were stationed.

An MoD spokesman said: We are not aware of any evidence to support this allegation.

'As the Defence Secretary announced in February, the Royal Military Police expect to have discounted around 90 per cent of allegations against our armed forces in Afghanistan by this summer.

Our armed forces served in Afghanistan with great courage and professionalism.

'We hold our military to the highest standards. Where allegations are raised, it is right they are investigated.
Andy Trish has launched a 15 million bid to save HMS Hermes he served on as a teenager

She was the flagship of the task force that wrested the Falklands back from Argentina  but 35 years on, HMS Hermes could be headed for the scrapheap.

Now a businessman who served on the aircraft carrier as a teenager in the 1982 war has launched a 15 million bid to save her.

Andy Trish served in the Falklands aged 18, and after leaving the Navy he became an entrepreneur.

He wants to save the warship, which was sold to the Indian Navy in 1987 and faces an uncertain future after she was retired from service last month.

Mr Trish plans to turn the ship into a tourist attraction, concert venue and offices in Portsmouth.

Carrying Sea Harrier jets and Sea King helicopters, HMS Hermes was the carrier from which the BBCs Brian Hanrahan famously reported I counted them all out and I counted them all back about jets on Falklands combat missions.

Tens of thousands of people turned out to cheer her victorious return to Britain. Indian Navy commanders have said the 23,000-ton warship, which spent 58 years at sea, could be scrapped or even sunk as a wreck for divers after plans to turn her into a luxury floating hotel in the Bay of Bengal fell through.

Mr Trish, 53, who launched a global IT firm after he left the Navy, said: I cannot stand by and watch this great ship suffer a sad death. She needs to be saved. I have been told Ive got four months to get as much money together as I can.

He vowed to put in 500,000 of his own money and plans to target the likes of Richard Branson and Rod Stewart to help him.

He wants to save the warship, which was sold to the Indian Navy in 1987, and turn it into a tourist attraction, concert venue and offices in Portsmouth

Mr Trish believes it will cost 5 million to buy the ship, a further 5 million to tow her back to Britain and another 5 million to transform the carrier into offices and a museum at Portsmouth dockyard.

He served as a naval airman on Hermes before leaving the Navy in 1996 and launching a successful IT business the following year.

He said: HMS Hermes is the iconic flagship of the Falklands War, and she was home to many thousands of sailors who lived aboard her and loved her as the Happy Hermes.

'She was central to those images of the victorious ships returning home from war in 1982. To bring her back to Portsmouth after all these years would be a historic moment.

He served in the Falklands aged 18 (pictured aged 17), and after leaving the Navy he became an entrepreneur

HMS Hermes, named after the Greek messenger god, was launched in 1959.

Prince Charles joined 845 Naval Air Squadron on flying duties from the ship in Caribbean and eastern Canadian waters in 1975, shortly after qualifying as a helicopter pilot.

Three days after Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands, Hermes headed to the South Atlantic. Hanrahan reported from the carriers deck when the Harriers were dispatched for their first attack on Port Stanley airfield.

The Indian Navy renamed the ship INS Viraat, which means giant in Sanskrit. She was retired from service at a decommissioning ceremony in Mumbai last month, which Mr Trish attended as a representative of the HMS Hermes Association.

He said: I want to own the ship as a private concern and I will buy her directly from the Indian government. I am not looking for any money from the UK Government at all. I believe I could make it work as a business.
Brexit Secretary David Davis was last night accused of being taken hostage by the hard Right after remarks emerged in which he praised the European single market and backed staying in the customs union.

Mr Davis, pictured, has been castigated by MPs for leading the UK out of both trading arrangements without clear contingency plans in place.

But he once hailed the market as a success and said staying in the customs union would spare British businesses from punitive tariffs.

David Davis once hailed the single market a 'success' and said it could save British businesses from punitive tariffs. If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, carmakers will face a 10 per cent tariff

Last night Labours Chuka Umunna seized on the remarks, saying that they should shake the faith of this Tory Government in the hard-Brexit path they are pursuing.

Allies of Mr Davis hit back, accusing Mr Umunna of raking over old speeches. Mr Davis made his remarks in November 2012, two months before David Cameron announced that he would hold an EU referendum if the Conservatives won the 2015 General Election.

During the course of an otherwise broadly Eurosceptic speech, Mr Davis conceded that the European Union has enjoyed some successes, namely the single market and of course the enlargement which has brought a number of countries with troubled histories into the modern, democratic world.

On the customs union, which allows free movement of goods within its borders, he said: My preference would be that we should remain within the customs union of the EU [even though we would] give up some freedoms in terms of negotiating our trading arrangements with third countries.

The advantage would be that our manufacturers would not face complex and punitive rules-of-origin tariffs.

Since taking up his Cabinet post, Mr Davis has admitted that if the UK leaves the customs union without a fresh deal with Brussels then British carmakers will face 10 per cent tariffs, while dairy and meat producers would be hit with levies of between 30 and 40 per cent on exports to the EU.

Labours Chuka Umunna seized on the remarks, saying that they should shake the faith of this Tory Government in the hard-Brexit path they are pursuing

Earlier this year, MPs on the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee castigated Mr Davis for refusing to discuss what Government planning had been carried out for a no-deal Brexit in 2019. But he said that, at this stage, such plans would be guesswork.

Mr Umunna, who chairs Vote Leave Watch, which pledges to hold Brexiteers to promises made during the referendum campaign, said: The 2012 version of David Davis recognised the real problems that could emerge if we leave the customs union. Businesses will be hit by punitive rules of origin, which vastly increase tariffs and red tape on companies trying to export to the EU.

The Brexit Secretary needs to explain why he has changed his mind, why we should be leaving the single market and customs union when he admits they have been successes, and what evidence his department has that doing so will not damage our economy. David Daviss U-turn suggests that he, like the Prime Minister, has been taken hostage by the hard Right of the Tory Party.

A source close to Mr Davis criticised Mr Umunna for raking over a speech made when he was a backbencher.

The source said: Mr Davis set out a number of different ways that the UK might thrive if it chose to leave the EU. He is now a member of a Government that is determined to respect the referendum result, build a new partnership with the EU and forge new trading links with the rest of the world rather than spend its time having the same old arguments.
Jeremy Corbyns justice spokesman is in a relationship with a hard-Left student politician who has defended the right of religious extremists to break the law.

Friends say that 36-year-old Richard Burgon grew close to Shelly Asquith, 26, when she was mobilising young supporters behind Mr Corbyns leadership campaigns in 2015 and 2016.

Now Mr Burgon, who was recently singled out by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell as a potential future leader, has gone public with the romance in classic Corbynista style  by posing with Miss Asquith alongside a statue of Karl Marx.

Pictured: Labour MP for Leeds East Richard Burgon, 36, poses alongside girlfriend Shelly Asquith, 26, in front of a statue of Karl Marx during a trip to Berlin, Germany

Miss Asquith, vice-president of welfare for the National Union of Students, has campaigned against the Governments drive to stop young Muslims being radicalised in colleges, describing it as racist and a restriction on free speech.

She said: The Government has defined extremism as vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, which is breaking the rule of law. Well, I think there are some laws that should be broken.

Mr Burgon, who won his Leeds East seat for the first time at the 2015 General Election, is a staunch Republican who staged a protest against the Queen while taking his oath to enter the Commons.

As recently as 2008 he was a guest speaker at a meeting of the Leeds branch of the Communist Party celebrating the 1917 Russian Revolution.

The revelations came as dire new poll ratings for Mr Corbyn added to mounting fears among MPs that Labour is heading for calamitous results in next months local and mayoral elections.

Labour was already bracing itself for a dismal set of results at the May 4 local elections amid predictions the party could lose 125 seats overall.

Friends say that Mr Burgon and Miss Asquith (both pictured) grew close when the latter was mobilising young supporters behind Mr Corbyns leadership campaigns in 2015 and 2016

But last night, Labour MPs privately voiced fears that they could also crash to defeat in the contest for the new post of West Midlands mayor, where Tory Andy Street is said to be running Labours Sion Simon very close.

The ballot for the key post of general secretary of giant union Unite also closes this week, with speculation rife that if incumbent Len McCluskey, a key Corbyn ally, loses to challenger Gerard Coyne, the Labour leader will be severely weakened.

Both Mr Burgon and Miss Asquith declined to comment.
Gilbert Kalonde, assistant professor of technology education at MSU, filed the suit last week in Gallatin County District Court

A Montana State University professor is suing Wal-Mart for libel after he says an employee at the Bozeman store listed his occupation as a 'toilet cleaner' on a fishing license, although he didn't notice the mistake for two years.

Gilbert Kalonde, assistant professor of technology education at MSU, filed the suit this past week in Gallatin County District Court.

Kalonde is seeking unspecified damages.

According to the complaint, Kalonde bought a state fishing license in April 2015, showing the Walmart employee identification of his employment at MSU.

But the employee entered 'clean toilets' into the state database as Kalonde's occupation.

When it came time for Kalonde to renew his fishing license at Walmart he said he told the employee that he worked for MSU, but 'clean toilets' was left as Kalonde's occupation on his license.

The license stated his job was a 'toilet cleaner' but the error wasn't noticed until he showed it to colleagues at the university where he worked more than a year after renewing at Wal-Mart

Kalonde has since had his license corrected but has not yet received a written apology

It wasn't until a lunch break at the university when he showed his teaching assistant his license that he became aware of the error.

The assistant jokingly asked Kalonde's if he had changed jobs.

Kalonde says he was 'very shocked and embarrassed' by the incident.

'In Kalonde's home country of Zambia, the people that do this work are the lowest social class, and are shunned and avoided by society,' the suit said

Wal-Mart spokesman Ragan Dickens told The Associated Press: 'To our knowledge an administrative process to resolve this with Dr. Kalonde is ongoing.

'We've not been served with the lawsuit, but we take the claims seriously and will respond appropriately with the court.'

The suit contends Wal-Mart exposed Kalonde to 'hatred, contempt, ridicule' through the incident.

Two days after getting his license renewed, Kalonde returned to Walmart and asked for it to be corrected along with a written apology, although one was never provided.
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During the Great Depression of the 1930s, photographers traveled across the United States to document how people lived and worked.

As part of the photographic unit of the Farm Security Administration, their task was to to capture images of the land they saw and the people they witnessed.

It was during his assignment in October 1938 that photographer Russell Lee happened across Danos' Nightclub, a roadhouse off Highway 1 in the tiny bayou community of Raceland.

Lee couldn't have timed things better as Danos's free weekly crab boil was getting underway.

He grabbed his camera to take photos of the locals blowing off some summer steam as they crunched and munched their way through piles of crabs and seafood.

In a small dive bar in Louisiana back in 1938, during the Great Depression, a photographer from the Farm Security Administration was sent to document how people lived around the country

Photographer Russell Lee stumbled upon a small alcoholic retreat called Danos Nightclub where he captured rice farmers, oyster fishermen, and other blue collar folks enjoying a Friday night out

Even during the Great Depression, hungry locals still managed to enjoy a night out to eat and drink to blow off some steam

Eating crabs hasn't changed too much over the years. You need some newspaper to eat from and wash it down with a beer

Danos' was a great place for all the girls to catch up on the latest gossip

Dinner then dancing - pretty swell for an Octobe night in 1938

It's hard to tell in this picture if the ladies are waiting in line for their crabs or learning a new dance move

The sign says it all - free crab boil every Friday night. And if there's a problem, they've got guns for protection!

A cozy nook with free crabs allows this couple enjoying the finest and freshest food of the Bayou

Lee was able to snap plenty of pictures without most of the patrons even noticing what he was up to on that October night

Late night drinkers gather around the bar to hear another tale while supping on a beer

The music slowed down for all the lovers and friends to head out onto the dance floor

Bars haven't changed much over the years. People still waited in line to be served with the pretty ones getting the attention

It was bottom's up when this picture was taken at Danos' Friday night crab boil

For just a few hours on a Friday night, everyone was able to forget about their troubles and their worries of the week

A few of the ladies adopt a carefree pose as Lee set about taking pictures of the establishment

The bar looks like a fun place to be on a Friday night when in the Deep South

Beer in one hand, giant crab with enormous claws in the other, with a slot machine just out of reach

It's free crabs all night long, and could also be a lucky night for this man who is enjoying some company

Everyone tucked into their crabs while photographer Russell Lee snapped away in the roadhouse
The actor was a founding Python member and directed three of their films

The effects are largely mental not physical - it impairs communication

Terry Jones pictured in February this year

Monty Python star Terry Jones still enjoys beer, wine and long walks despite suffering from a rare form of dementia which leaves him barely able to speak.

Mr Jones, 75, was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, which gradually impairs ability to communicate, in September 2015.

As his speech deteriorated fast, the actor began writing his thoughts and plans on a computer until they became too jumbled and he had to stop last autumn.

But despite his worsening health, Jones still enjoys long walks, alcohol and watching his favourite films including Some Like It Hot, fellow Monty Python star Michael Palin has revealed.

'Terry still goes on very long walks across Hampstead Heath, often following the most obscure routes and it is very hard to keep up with him,' Palin told The Observer.

Jones is physically fit despite a reduction in mental capabilities with symptoms including impulsive action.

Talking about the star's reducing speech, Palin said: 'I think the most difficult thing must be not being able to say quite simply how you feel on any given occasion.'

Jones is looked after by his second wife Anna Soderstrom, 33, who is from Sweden.

Palin, who often visits Jones at home, previously said: 'People need to be very careful not to write him off.'

Terry Jones, pictured far right with his fellow Monty Python stars (left to right) John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle, has dementia

Much loved: The comedian, left in 2012, was a founding member of Monty Python and in playing Brian's mother in the 1979 film, right, he said one of its most famous lines: 'He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy'

New love: Terry Jones and his second wife Anna Soderstrom, who is 40 years his junior. They have a child, Siri, seven

'What has happened is truly tragic and sad. It's a form of dementia, it's progressive and that's that.

'His wife and child are doing their very best, it's difficult.

'He likes to see old friends and we've got to carry on our friendship. It's not ended, it's just very sad he's got this form of dementia. He can't talk at any great length but he laughs at memories when I bring them up.

'It's very limited but that's the nature of the aphasia he's got. All the Pythons have known about this for a while and no one knows what to do apart from to be supportive.

Mr Jones' health problems emerged after BAFTA Cymru announced he would be honoured at a special event

'He's still a member of the team and as far as we're concerned a working member of the Python team. I don't think he'll be doing any more stage shows but then I don't think any of us will.

'One just has to say what a cruel, cruel stroke of fate for someone who was so articulate, and fluent, and funny, and loved words and loved reading and writing.

'It just seems so dreadfully unfair but there we are, that's life.'

Actress Carol Cleveland, who appeared in the Monty Python's Flying Circus series as well as films Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life and Monty Python And The Holy Grail, said Jones had shown signs of dementia at the 2014 stage reunion.

She said: 'I know his new lady and his little daughter. It's going to be dreadful for them.

'Terry himself indicated he was having memory problems when we were doing the O2 show, but he didn't mention the word dementia.

'It had been noticed that he was struggling a bit with his lines, so we were all a bit concerned at the time. I last saw Terry just under a year ago. I could see he was struggling  he wasn't nearly as coherent as he had been the previous time I'd seen him.'

In 2005 the comedian left first wife Alison Telfer for then-Oxford University student Miss Soderstrom, and married her in 2012.

Miss Telfer, 72, who has two grown-up children with Jones, said: 'The family are all getting together and looking after him.'

Stars: Mr Jones' Python career started in 1969 and he went on to direct three of their films - left to right John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Eric Idle

Famous: Terry, far right, pictured with Michael Palin, left, Graham Chapman, centre, and Eric Idle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Python stars: (L-R) Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle - who reformed for new shows in 2014 - Mr Jones required cue cards

The Welsh star's diagnosis was revealed after it was announced he was to receive a lifetime achievement award from Bafta Cymru but could no longer give interviews.

He met Palin at Oxford before they rose to fame in Monty Python alongside Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle. While others capitalised on their fame, with Palin presenting BBC travel shows and Cleese starring in Fawlty Towers, Jones had money issues.

In 2014 he took part in the reunion with the other remaining Pythons  Chapman had died in 1989  for ten shows at London's O2 Arena, hoping it would help pay off the 700,000 interest-only mortgage on his 2.5million North London home.

But the performances, which made him 800,000, were not as lucrative as the star had hoped.
A former executioner who is now a vocal opponent of the death penalty spoke out against Arkansas' plan to execute eight men in two weeks - which unraveled on Saturday under a federal judge's ruling.

Jerry Givens, who put 62 men to death over the course of his 17-year career at the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond said: 'They are playing Russian roulette with these guys lives.'

Eight men were scheduled to die before the state's supply of midazolam - a drug used in lethal injections - expired at the end of April.

But one convict was granted a reprieve and another execution was blocked through an emergency stay before U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued a preliminary injunction on Saturday to halt the lethal injections set to begin on Monday.

Jerry Givens, who put 62 men to death over the course of his 17-year career at the Virginia State Penitentiary spoke out against Arkansas' plan to execute eight men in two weeks

Givens' (left in the 1970s) belief in the justice system was shaken when he came within hours of putting an innocent man to death in 1985

Givens said executions by electric chair seemed more humane than lethal injections. He also criticized Arkansas for 'playing Russian roulette with these guys' lives'

The decision to fast track the executions before the sedative midazolam was unusable drew condemnation from hundreds of death penalty opponents.

Givens, whose belief in the justice system was shaken when he came within hours of putting an innocent man to death in 1985, has become an outspoken critic of the death penalty.

He told the Mirror: 'They are playing Russian roulette with these guys lives. The expiration date should not be the reason why they are doing this.

'Get more of the drugs. Do it properly rather than move peoples dates up. They are using it as an excuse. It should not be happening.

'No matter what crime these men have committed, they should not be sentenced to death in prison.'

The Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in lethal injections - a controversial decision in 2013, given it was part of a cocktail of drugs that had led to botched executions.

Inmates (top row L to R) Bruce Ward, Don Davis, Ledell Lee, Stacy Johnson, (bottom row L to R) Jack Jones, Marcel Williams, Kenneth Williams and Jason Mcgehee are all on death row

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued a preliminary injunction on Saturday to halt the executions scheduled to begin on Monday

Oklahoma made headlines for 'inhumane execution practices' for the 43-minute killing of inmate Clayton Lockett in April 2014.

He writhed and moaned in the gurney, suffering a heart attack when the injection of midazolam, vecuronium bromide, and potassium chloride failed to kill him swiftly.

Givens explained the difference between an electric chair and lethal injections in a 2013 interview with the Guardian, saying the former seemed more humane.

He said: 'If I had a choice, I would choose death by electrocution. That's more like cutting your lights off and on. It's a button you push once and then the machine runs by itself....

'You can't see the current go through the body. But with chemicals, it takes a while because you're dealing with three separate chemicals...

'You are on the other end with a needle in your hand. You can see the reaction of the body. You can see it going down the clear tube. So you can actually see the chemical going down the line and into the arm and see the effects of it.

'You are more attached to it. I know because I have done it. Death by electrocution in some ways seems more humane.'

Death-penalty opponents in Arkansas gathered in Little Rock Friday to protest the state's plan to execute eight inmates before their supply of a drug expired

Actor Johnny Depp, left, stands with former Arkansas death row inmate Damien Echols, before speaking at a rally opposing Arkansas executions

Arkansas' already compromised plan to execute eight men by the end of the month began unraveling on Friday.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen issued a temporary restraining order blocking the state from using its supply of vecuronium bromide after a company said it had sold the drug to the state for medical purposes, not capital punishment.

Griffen scheduled a hearing Tuesday, the day after the first execution was scheduled.

Griffen's order effectively halts the executions, which had dropped to six after one judge granted a reprieve, while another issued an emergency stay.

On Saturday, Baker granted a preliminary injunction requested by the inmates to block the executions, saying they could have legitimate claims that Arkansas' execution protocol could inflict 'severe pain'.

The state has already appealed the decision.
Charlie Holt was said to be visiting with his family from Charlotte, North Carolina, and they stopped to have lunch at the Sun Dial Restaurant located on the 72nd floor of the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel

The family of a young boy who was killed at a popular tourist location in Atlanta have spoken out after the tragic incident.

The child, identified as five-year-old Charlie Holt, suffered a severe head injury on Friday when he got stuck between the rotating table and the wall at the Sun Dial restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia.

Charlie was said to be visiting with his family from Charlotte, North Carolina, and they stopped to have lunch at the restaurant located on the 72nd floor of the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel.

The Sun Dial spins to offer 360 degree views of the city's skyline, and the boy reportedly became lodged between the wall and a rotating table.

The statement issued by a family spokesperson read: 'The family asks for prayers and privacy right now to come to terms with this tragedy,' the statement read, according to the AJC.

'No words can express their loss. If you have a loved one, please give them an extra hug today.'

The Holt family were reportedly the last customers in the restaurant when the boy wandered away from his parents to see the view of the Atlanta skyline

The family were the last customers in the restaurant when the boy wandered away from his parents to see the views, WSBTV reported.

The hotel's security staff and employees scrambled to pull the boy out after realizing he was stuck in the five inches of space between the wall and table.

They were eventually able to dislodge him, but unfortunately it was too late.

Though the moving floor immediately turned off, Charlie had already suffered severe head trauma.

He was taken to Grady Hospital after the incident around 3.30pm, and was later pronounced dead.

'There was a tragic accident at the hotel involving a young boy,' Westin Peachtree Plaza Manager George Reed said.

'Words cannot express the depths of our sorrow. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.'

The restaurant spins to offer 360 degree views of the city's skyline, and the boy reportedly became lodged in the five inches of space between the wall and a rotating table

The Sun Dial is said to be closed until further notice, and an investigation is being conducted by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

Charlie's death comes just a year after a kitchen employee at the same hotel died after getting accidentally locked in a freezer overnight.

The 61-year-old woman, Carolyn Robinson, had worked with at the Westin hotel for more than 35 years.

Less than a month after that, ten-year-old Stephen Akinlabi died at the hotel's pool after he fell in at a birthday party.
Californias longest-serving governor, Jerry Brown, has now issued 1,330 pardons, including 404 during his first two terms as governor from 1975 to 1983

Gov. Jerry Brown announced Saturday that he has pardoned 72 ex-convicts, continuing his tradition of timing his decisions around major Christian holidays including Easter.

Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian, limited most of his pardons to people who were convicted of drug offenses and other lower-level crimes and who have already completed their sentences. He also issued seven commutations.

Those pardoned included three men who served in the U.S. military but were deported to Mexico after completing sentences for various crimes and a teenage mother who killed her newborn child after giving birth in a bathtub.

One of the men, Hector Barajas Varela, was expelled from the country after serving more than one year in prison for shooting at an occupied home or vehicle.

He founded the Deported Veterans Support House in Tijuana, Mexico, to help deportees adjusting to life there and has advocated to allow deported veterans to return to the United States.

'I'm very humbled,' Barajas said in a video he posted on his Facebook page. 'There are days when I feel like giving up, but it's because of things like these... that I still believe, that I still have faith that eventually we will go home.'

The bulk of the actions by Brown, however, were for nonviolent drug crimes

None of the decisions were as notable as his pardon of Robert Downey Jr. in December 2015 for a 1996 drug conviction that sent the actor to prison for nearly a year.

Downey was imprisoned for violating his probation after he was convicted of felony drug possession in Los Angeles County. His life and career have since rebounded.

Such pardons don't erase the convictions. But state and federal law enforcement agencies are informed, and pardons become public records.

California's longest-serving governor has now issued 1,330 pardons, including 404 during his first two terms as governor from 1975 to 1983.

Pardons were rare for his three immediate predecessors.

Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger gave out 15, Democrat Gray Davis granted none, and Republican Pete Wilson granted 13.

Brown's office says earlier Republican governors were more generous, with Ronald Reagan granting nearly 600 and George Deukmejian more than 300.
General Sir David Richards (pictured) has urged the UK to make beating ISIS in Syria their main priority

The former head of the Armed Forces has issued a stark warning that ISIS are a bigger concern to the UK than North Korea because they are a 'daily threat'.

General Sir David Richards, 65, revealed that Britain is being 'threatened every day' by Islamic State.

He suggested that the UK is 'some way short' of receiving direct threats from North Korea and that the priority should be trying to stop ISIS.

It comes as North Korea attempted to fire a missile it introduced on Friday at a military parade in Pyongyang.

But the launch was an embarrassing failure after the weapon blew up almost immediately.

Sir David, who was formerly the Chief of the Defence Staff, stressed Syria and beating ISIS should be the UK's prime concern, reportsThe Sunday People.

He said: 'We are some way short of being threatened by North Korea, but you could say we are being threatened daily by ISIS.'

Sir David, who served in the Far East and Northern Ireland, urged the UK to unite with other nations in a bid to prevent ISIS from carrying out attacks.

He was quoted in the newspaper as saying: 'Surely it's in all our interests to work with all nations to rid the world of the scourge of ISIS.

'Clearly the benchmark for British military involvement in Syria has to be high because of perceived failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'That should not mean we do not become involved  if it's done properly  if our vital national interests are threatened.'

He was speaking just weeks after Khalid Masood killed five people in London when he drove his car into people on Westminster Bridge.

On Friday, North Korea paraded missiles in the capital - but hours later its launch failed almost immediately

Following the attack, the UK was placed on a 'severe' terror alert.

Sir David spoke before the South Korean defence ministry said it had detected a failed launch from Sinpo - where North Korea's biggest submarine base is located.

According to a military official the weapon is 'presumed to be a new ICBM' as it is longer than the existing KN-08 or KN-14 missiles.

In a statement, the US military said: 'U.S. Pacific Command detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at 11:21 a.m. Hawaii time April 15.

The former head of the Armed Forces said Britain is being 'threatened every day' by Islamic State

'The launch of the ballistic missile occurred near Sinpo.

'The missile blew up almost immediately. The type of missile is still being assessed.'

The failed missile launch came just hours after North Korea unveiled new weapons in the capital.

Kim Jong-Un previously warned of an 'annihilating strike' if the US attacks as tensions between the two nations continued to rise.
Pupils from Kilmorie Primary School in Lewisham, London, met controversial preacher Shakeel Begg (pictured)

Primary school children were taken to meet an Islamic preacher described as 'extremist' at the mosque where Lee Rigby's murderers worshipped.

The trip saw pupils from Kilmorie Primary School in Lewisham, London, meet controversial preacher Shakeel Begg, who the High Court said 'promoted and encouraged religious violence'.

Students at the school, aged eight and nine, were taken to the Lewisham Islamic Centre to take part in a discussion with the imam.

The visit has sparked outrage from a Tom Wilson is a fellow at the Centre for the New Middle East at The Henry Jackson Society.

Photographs of the visit were posted to the mosque's website which shows children sitting attentively on the floor as the imam addressed them.

Mr Begg even praised the children for their keenness to learn about the faith during the visit.

But Mr Wilson has said the trip was unacceptable and the school had a duty of care to protect children.

Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: 'It is shocking and frankly unacceptable that any school should be arranging visits with anyone associated with extremism.

'If this is happening then there is a duty of care that is being woefully neglected.'

Mr Begg, chief imam at Lewisham Islamic Centre, was described in a High Court judgment at the end of October as a 'Jekyll and Hyde character'.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave also warned that Mr Begg's role as imam put him in a position to 'plant the seed of Islamic extremism in a young mind'.

Students at the school, aged eight and nine, were taken to the Lewisham Islamic Centre (pictured above) to take part in a discussion with the imam

The imam brought a libel case against the BBC after Andrew Neil, the presenter of Sunday Politics, accused him of promoting extremism on air, but lost the High Court case

The imam brought a libel case against the BBC after Andrew Neil, the presenter of the Sunday Politics programme, had accused him of promoting extremism on air.

But a judge ruled against him in the High Court and said he 'had recently promoted and encouraged religious violence'.

Mr Neil interviewed Farooq Murad, then head of the Muslim Council of Britain, during the Sunday Politics Show in November 2013.

Mr Neil said the East London Mosque in Whitechapel was 'a venue for a number of extremist speakerswho espouse extremist positions'.

The presenter added: 'This year Shakeel Begg, he spoke there and hailed jihad as the greatest of deeds.'

Mr Begg has said he cannot recall making such a speech at the East London Mosque. But in 2011 he told guests at a charity dinner elsewhere that 'jihad in the path of Allah is one of the greatest deeds a Muslim can take part in'.

Asked about that speech, he explained that by 'jihad' he had meant 'spiritual struggle'.
President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the failed launch of a North Korean missile from the country's east coast.

In a statement, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said: 'The president and his military team are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment.'

Meanwhile, Trump, his wife Melania, son Donald Trump Jr. and his wife Vanessa were spotted mingling with guests at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Donald Trump is pictured arriving in the dining room at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach

Melania Trump (second from left), Donald Trump Jr. and his wife Vanessa (beside Melania) and Donald Trump (second from right) are pictured here at Mar-a-Lago

Trump has been leaning on China to put pressure on North Korea, but has also threatened to take on the country alone if necessary.

'I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will!' he tweeted Thursday. 'U.S.A.'

A North Korean missile exploded during launch Sunday from the country's east coast, U.S. and South Korean officials said, a high-profile failure that comes as a powerful U.S. aircraft carrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

It wasn't immediately clear what kind of missile was fired from the city of Sinpo, but the failure will sting in Pyongyang because it comes a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year- celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather.

North Korean men and women wave flags and plastic flowers as a float with model missiles and rockets with words that read 'For Peace and Stability in the World' is paraded across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang on Saturday

'Saturday is still in fact for the boys': The president was spotted at his Palm Beach golf course amid the chaotic missile situation in North Korea

Washington and Seoul will try hard to figure out what exactly North Korea fired. This matters because while North Korea regularly launches short-range missiles, it is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target U.S. troops in Asia and, eventually, the U.S. mainland.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff says that North Korea has attempted to launch a missile from an eastern coastal city, but the launch appeared to end in failure.

Trump has already begun to rattle his saber, saying he's prepared to 'solve the problem' of a nuclear North Korea on his own

President Donald Trump went to his Palm Beach resort without his chief of staff or other top advisers, as they spent time away for the Easter and Passover holidays

The statement Sunday said it wasn't clear what kind of missile was involved.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket and conducted two nuclear tests last year, including its most powerful to date, and there have been a slew of shorter range missile firings.

North Korea's goal is a long-range nuclear missile that can strike the continental United States.
Friends of a teenager feared drowned after he was caught in a rip at a New South Wales beach have paid tribute to a boy who always 'put a smile on their faces'.

Police are yet to find any sign of the 17-year-old who went missing from Pebbly Beach, north of Coffs Harbour on the NSW north coast, about 4pm on Saturday while he was swimming with two friends.

The search for the teenager was suspended about 90 minutes after he went missing due to fading light but resumed early on Sunday.

Sheltie Bryant described Ali Mosawi as a 'great friend', The Daily Telegraph reported.

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A search for a 17-year-old teenager caught in a rip in an unpatrolled part of Pebbly Beach (pictured) on the NSW North Coast resumed at first light on Sunday

NSW Water police are leading the search for the missing teen, along with the Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter (stock image pictured). The search was called off about 5.30pm on Saturday due to poor visibility and large swells but resumed at first light on Sunday

'Whenever someone needed a friend to talk to he was always there and would put a smile on their faces and have their backs,' she said.

'He would stand up for his boys at school... I'm going to miss him so much.'

The teenager's cousin, Ahmed Alai, said the family was in mourning.

'The family's back in Sydney barely holding on,' Mr Alai told 9 News.

'His mother is sitting over there mourning.'

Local police have spent Sunday scouring the area, supported by specialist police divers, PolAir, volunteers from Surf Live Saving NSW and the Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter.

Police said the trio were in the vicinity of the camping area in the Yuraygir National Park at the time when they got into trouble in dangerous conditions.

The teenager was in a group swimming near the camping area in the Yuraygir National Park. Two of the group made it safely back to shore, but he disappeared. One swimmer who took on water was taken to Coffs Harbour Health Campus and remains in a stable condition

Two of the group returned to shore, but said when they looked back to the water there was no sign of their missing friend.

Surf Lifesaving Australia said in a statement it was understood the 17-year-old was not a strong swimmer.

Emergency services who attended the scene on Saturday treated one of the other boys who had taken on a lot of water.

He was taken to Coffs Harbour Health Campus for treatment and remains in a stable condition.
A Sydney lawyer was banned from 225 venues in the city after he drunkenly stumbled into a Thai restaurant and harassed diners.

Leon Monastirski was arrested on February 24 last year after police were called to Pad Thai restaurant on Oxford Street in Surry Hills about 10.40pm.

Witnesses said he had not ordered any food but was annoying the restaurant's patrons.

Police noted he was intoxicated and was slurring his words, and had a strong smell of alcohol on his breath.

But when plainclothes officers identified themselves and instructed Monastirski to leave the restaurant and move on from Oxford Street, he told them: 'You're not real cops, you can't tell me what to do.'

Leon Monastirski was arrested last year after drunkenly harassing patrons at a Thai restaurant

He refused repeated requests to leave and raised his middle finger towards police, adding: 'You're not real cops, you can go f*** yourself.'

Monastirski was forcibly removed from the restaurant after he continued to swear at police and refused to leave.

He also attempted to swing his elbow towards the arresting officer's face who dodged his attack and placed him in a wrist lock, according to the police report.

While police were searching Monastirski's belongings, he lunged toward another officer, grabbing his forearms and scratching him.

As he was cuffed, he told them: 'You're not real cops, I'm going to have you discharged from your duties as police, I'm a lawyer.'

And when Monastirski was placed in caged truck, he repeatedly banged on the door, saying: 'I'm a lawyer, I haven't done anything wrong.'

Police were called to Pad Thai restaurant (above) in Surry Hills after the lawyer stumbled in drunk and began annoying customers

Pointing at police officers and ambulance workers, he also said: 'I'm going to make you all eat s***, I will make you eat my s***.'

Monastirski was later convicted of two counts of assaulting a police officer and one count of resisting an officer while in the execution of his or her duty.

He was fined $700 and put on a good behaviour bond for 18 months.

But former NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione also applied to the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority to ban Monastirski from entering all 'high-risk venues' in Sydney's CBD and Kings Cross for 12 months from September 29, 2016.

High-risk venues are those which remain open after midnight and sell alcohol.

But Monastirski, who runs a legal practice on Elizabeth Street, challenged the order and it was reduced to three months until December 28.

Monastirski said many of the places he goes for dinner were on the banned list.

Four months after the Pad Thai incident, he was twice ejected from The Colombian Hotel (above) for being intoxicated

He also claimed he often went to Pad Thai for a meal, although the restaurant was not on the list of high-risk venues.

The lawyer also argued he was a member of the City of Sydney Law Society and would not be able to attend meeting and functions at venues on the banned list, including the City Tattersalls Club.

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard 16 police reports of Monastirski misusing alcohol between March 2014 and September 2016.

Fourteen of those reports concern police attending his flat from where they arranged for him to be taken to hospital.

One report said he was thrown out of The Colombian Hotel on Oxford Street for being drunk twice on the night of June 24, four months after the incident at Pad Thai restaurant.

The report said he had accused security of beating him up, but CCTV footage showed the grazes he sustained on his face during the incident were because he fell over while intoxicated.

Monastirski is set to appeal is conviction, the Daily Telegraph reported.
A blind man has had his sight restored using his own tooth.

Goulburn man John Ings undertook radical new surgery called osteo-odonto kerato-prosthesis to restore his vision.

The 72-year-old has gradually lost his vision over the past 16 years after contracting herpes simplex and undertook the groundbreaking surgery at Sydney Eye Hospital.

The procedure will be televised on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.

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A blind man has had his sight restored using his own tooth. Goulburn man John Ings (above) undertook radical new surgery called osteo-odonto kerato-prosthesis to restore his vision

'My vision has been getting worse over the last 16 years to the point where I can't see out of my right eye and hardly at all out of the left eye,' he previously told the Goulburn Post.

'The herpes simplex virus has chewed through the cornea over the years.'

Two former classmates of the University of NSW, oral and maxillofacial specialist Dr Shannon Webber and oculoplastic surgeon Dr Greg Moloney completed the operation which treats corneal blindness.

The operation is a four-part procedure which begins with the patients tooth being removed and a hole being drilled into it to place a plastic lens inside.

The operation is a four part procedure which begins with the patients tooth being removed and a hole being drilled into it to place a plastic lens inside

Mr Ings hailed the procedure a success sayuing 'before the operation I wouldn't have been able to watch anything'

The tooth is then sewn inside the patient's cheek for three months where it grows tissue and develops its own blood supply.

'We rely on the tooth to gain its own blood and tissue supply so when it is removed from the mouth, what you have essentially is a living complex,' Dr Webber told The Courier Mail.

After three months surgeons remove the tooth and insert this into the old cornea and some skin is removed from the mouth and placed over the new cornea to seal it.

An opening is made to allow the new lens to see out.

The surgery has been performed successfully twice in Australia.

On both occasions the surgeons have been supervised by a German specialist who trained the men after revolutionising the procedure in 2004.

Mr Ings hailed the procedure a success.

'Before the operation I wouldn't have been able to watch anything,' he said.




A Sydney restaurant owner has begged the public to stop sending violent death threats after it was forced to apologise when a staff member posted an 'offensive' Easter meme to Facebook.

Surry Hills eatery Mamasan received dozens of threatening messages after an employee shared an image of the Messiah flashing his middle finger with the words, 'We're closed tonight, it's Jesus's fault', online announcing its Easter closure.

The Japanese restaurant received a furious backlash from offended Christians who slammed the religious meme as 'culturally insensitive' - with some even targeting the owner and employees with savage threats of violence and death.

'It's all Jesus's fault:' Mamasan Surry Hills posted the meme on Good Friday stating it would be closed

The trendy Surry Hills eatery (pictured) was forced to apologise and close its doors after it received death threats to staff members

The employee who posted the meme - identified as Adam Hunt - quickly took to the Facebook page to apologise for the 'dumbest stupidest thing I have ever done'.

'You all have every right to be extremely upset and disappointed in me, and you all have every right to be angry with me,' Mr Hunt wrote in the post.

'Obviously I crossed a line, and again, I'm deeply sorry for the offence that I have caused you all. I wish I'd never done something so stupid.'

But after the offensive meme went viral, Mamasan received messages and phone calls which threatened 'extreme violence' against Mr Hunt and other staff members.

Mamasan owner Gemma Lin then took to Facebook to voice her regret over the meme, and asked the violent to trolls to stop attacking the restaurant.

'I have always, and will continue to love, support and encourage my customers from a myriad of races, religions, social minorities and majorities,' Ms Lin said.

'I wish I'd never done something so stupid:' The staff member who posted the meme took to Facebook to apologise

Mamasan owner Gemma Lin pleaded with social media to stop the violent death threats against her and her staff members

'I have also been shocked and worried for my staffs safety in regards to many, many violent death threats and threats of violence sighted today through social media, digital platforms, telephone calls and emails.'

Ms Lin shared screenshots on the Facebook page of the horrific death threats directed towards staff members 'for disrespecting Jesus'.

'Don't worry buddy it will be close [sic] permanently cause I'm doing to burn it and I hope you're in there so I can hear you squeal like a pig,' one person said.

'I will hold him while you nail him. We can use nail guns. They are not painful enough,' another person wrote.

Ms Lin shared shocking screenshots of the violent death threats directed to Mamasan

One social media user even suggested the staff member 'should be hanged' for sharing the picture of Jesus, while another emailed the restaurant and wrote 'your shop gets bombed and you die in the explosion you khanzeer, go die rat'.

Other Facebook users defended the restaurant, claiming that Christianity is a peaceful religion therefore good Christians should forgive the wrongdoing.

One woman said: 'Interesting how these religious people mentioned resort to hate and violence when someone upsets them. On the plus side, it's free advertising, I hadn't heard of your restaurant until tonight and now I'll definitely be bringing my family to dine there.'

'Some people have become so offended about everything that we can't even have a little chuckle to lighten up our already very busy very chaotic life. Death threats and abuse is definitely not Christian like let alone a Christian course of action to take,' another said.

Mamasan was forced to close its doors for the rest of the Easter weekend to protect its staff from the ongoing death threats, Ms Lin said.
The NSW Government has dumped the controversial Safe Schools program and plans to replace it with a broader anti-bullying campaign.

Its replacement was a broader program to combat bullying and discrimination of all kinds, whereas Safe Schools focused on gender identity.

State Education Minister Rob Stokes said the new program would be implemented in term three and would support those struggling at school.

The NSW Government has dumped the controversial Safe Schools program and plans to replace it with a broader anti-bullying campaign

Its replacement was a broader program to combat bullying and discrimination of all kinds, whereas Safe Schools focused on gender identity

'Bullying will never be accepted in NSW public schools - whether it be because someone is overweight, gay, based on the colour of their skin or for any other reason,' he said.

The decision was prompted by the Federal Government cutting off funding for Safe Schools by June 30.

'The Australian government, who fund and oversee the Safe Schools program, have advised that they will no longer be providing funding for the program by mid-year,' Mr Stokes said.

The new program would be funded by the NSW Government with money to be set aside in the upcoming 2017-18 budget.

The Safe Schools program drew controversy over its inclusion of gender fluidity and diverse sexuality, with many conservative MPs criticising the program since its inception

Lesson plans would be tailored to fit the needs of schools and their teachers, and would also help prevent students from being radicalised.

It was still in the draft phase and would be peer reviewed by child psychologists and former school principals in coming weeks.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbot quickly voiced his support for the program being axed and moved to distance his government from it.

'Good that NSW is scrapping so called Safe Schools, a social engineering programme dressed up as anti-bullying,' he wrote on Twitter.

'This was a Gillard govt programme, not - REPEAT NOT - an Abbott govt one.'

The Safe Schools program drew controversy over its inclusion of gender fluidity and diverse sexuality, with many conservative MPs criticising the program since its inception.
Frederick Bair, 60, was identified as the shooter in the murder-suicide

The shooter in a murder-suicide inside a restaurant at an upscale Tucson, Arizona mall was a fire captain, it has been revealed.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department said 60-year-old Frederick Bair fired multiple rounds in the Firebirds Wood Fired Grill Friday night, killing one man and wounding his ex-wife before turning the gun on himself. KGUN9 reported the woman was Frederick's ex-wife, 57-year-old Mary Jo Bair. She was shot in the leg and was expected to recover. Eliot Cobb, 65, was killed at the scene.

Deputies said Frederick, who worked for Tucson Fire Department for 24 years, and Cobb were already dead when they arrived at the busy restaurant in the La Encantada mall.

Eliot Cobb (left) was killed at Firebirds Wood Fired Grill and Mary Jo Bair (right) was injured

A witness told KOLD they heard 10 shots fired inside of the busy restaurant.

Employees ushered restaurant patrons out the back door to safety.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department said in a statement: 'After speaking with witnesses, deputies determined the incident was isolated to the restaurant and no other bystanders were injured as a result of the shooting.

'At this point in the investigation it appears that one handgun was used. This was not a random incident and involved no other parts of the mall or surrounding establishments.'

Frederick and Mary Jo's divorce was finalized in September. According to Facebook, they married in 1991.

Frederick received local media attention in 2011 when he saved two young girls from a burning house, as reported by KOLD.
Donald Trump could be swayed by the 'left wing' influence of his daughter Ivanka, libertarian Australian senator David Leyonhjelm claims.

The Liberal Democrats leader said libertarian Republicans were worried she and her husband, Jared Kushner, had too much influence on the populist U.S. President.

'They were described by some of the people I met as "typical New York liberals",' he told The Australian.

Donald Trump (R) could be swayed by the 'left wing' influence of his daughter Ivanka (C) and her husband Jared Kushner (L)

Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm claimed libertarian Republicans were worried about their influence over Trump

'[Trump] doesn't have an ideological bone in his body, so a great deal depends on who's in his ear, who he's taking advice from, and the concern was that his daughter and Kushner might be having a lot of influence on him.'

Ms Trump and her husband were controversially given White House inner-circle roles last month after informally advising him since the campaign.

She holds the title of assistant to the president while Mr Kushner is a senior adviser, prompting claims of nepotism and conflict of interest.

Ms Trump and her husband (pictured in the White House) were controversially given White House inner-circle roles last month after informally advising him since the campaign

'[Trump] doesn't have an ideological bone in his body, so a great deal depends on who's in his ear, who he's taking advice from,' Mr Leyonhjelm said

Senator Leyonhjelm said his U.S. counterparts were optimistic Trump would lower the company tax rate to 15 per cent as he promised in the campaign.

He said if that happened Australia would be under pressure to cut its own rates from the current 30 per cent and claimed the high rate was hurting foreign investment.

'If Trump reduces their company taxes down to even 20 per cent, our situation is going to look like a joke,' he said.
Managers who flatter their CEOs are more likely to resent and bad-mouth them behind their backs, a new study reveals.

Research published in Administrative Science Quarterly found that when top managers of mid-to-large sized companies in the United States made more of an attempt to flatter their bosses, it also fostered a stronger sense of resentment towards them.

Scientists conducted the study over a three-year period and observed the relationships between 3,895 pairs of CEOs and top managers to arrive at their interesting conclusion.

Research recently published in Administrative Science Quarterly found that when top managers of mid-to-large sized companies in the United States made more of an attempt to flatter their bosses - it also fostered a stronger sense of resentment towards them (stock image)

One of the study's authors, Gareth Keeves, said that increased flattery is seen alongside increased resentment for three primary reasons, Quartz reported.

The first reason is that 'ingratiation' generally involves deceit, or forces the person to be disingenuous, which counteracts our natural desire to be authentic.

Ingratiation is a psychological term which refers to a concentrated effort to be in one's good graces, often by using manipulation or persuasion.

One of the study's authors, Gareth Keeves, said that increased flattery is seen alongside increased resentment for three primary reasons. The figure shown here analyzed a number of mitigating factors leading to resentment and indirect negative statements

The second reason ingratiation fosters resentment is because it involves a sense of submissiveness, which is especially at odds with the gravity the Western world places on the value of individuality.

Being submissive, or the act of deference, insinuates that the person relies on someone more successful than them in order to achieve their goals.

Lastly, ingratiation is contradictory to our ideal of 'meritocracy'. It is distressing because it makes us feel like our success is based off of the fact that we gussied up to the boss rather than because of our own personal attributes and accomplishments.

This behavior was seen across the board - but was especially severe when it came to CEOs who were women, or minorities (stock image)

The researchers came to their conclusion by collecting surveys from the CEOs and top managers, and from journalists who spoke with those top managers, who often criticized their bosses when given the opportunity.

In fact, for every 1-point degree of complimentary behavior, there was a correlation of 1.5- to 2-point increase in resentment.

This behavior was seen across the board - but was especially severe when it came to CEOs who were women, or minorities.

The study's results showed that white men 'especially resented' complimenting their female or minority bosses, and were much more likely to bad-mouth them to press when given the opportunity.




Young women are being paid up to $150 an hour to party with men to supplement their incomes while still holding down full-time corporate jobs, or travelling as tourists.

The women choose to appear topless, in bikinis or fully clothed at the events.

Jordan, 26, said the service is great for picking up last minute hostessing roles, and that she always has a 'great time'.

Jordan (pictured), 26, says the service is great for picking up last minute hostessing roles and that she always has a great time

Partistaff supply party hosts, servers and girls like Tori to about 240 jobs a month

'My girlfriends and I will monitor the site and apply for jobs together usually before a night out for extra money,' Jordan told Daily Mail Australia.

She said the job is 'strictly business'.

On a typical night the striking model, who has more than 31,000 followers on Instagram, is expected to pour drinks, serve food, mingle, party and have a good time.

'There's always a creepy one in the bunch after a few drinks but nothing that's disrespectful or has ever gotten out of hand,' Jordan said.

She said she does not go topless or wear only lingerie.

Another woman cashing in on the website, Tori, has appeared at a range of parties - sometimes in a bikini - while maintaining a full-time job at a boutique stockbroking firm.

An online service is connecting young female waitresses and party hosts with party organisers

Tori, 26, says Partistaff lets her extra money while making new friends and meeting people

'I get to meet new people and do things I wouldn't do normally like go on a boat on the harbour. I've done bikini parties, but never topless,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

Through Partistaff, Tori said she has made lots of friends - including her roommate she met at a party for an art gallery.

She has been working for the company since October last year when she arrived in Sydney from Los Angeles, and says the extra money is fantastic.

'I've probably done about 25 parties. I love it,' Tori said to Daily Mail Australia.



The jobs pay cash in hand with hourly rates that vary from $20 to $150 an hour, depending on the requirements.

The service connects party planners with waitresses and hosts can contact each other when a party is posted. All of the girls are over 18.

Bianca, who moved from Brazil a month ago, raves about the opportunity it gives her to meet new people.

'Everybody is super nice - you don't even think you are working. It's always so much fun. I've met a lot of people, I've become friends with the girls, friends with the boys,' the 30-year-old said.

The service connects party planners with waitresses and hosts who can link with one another when a party is posted

Bianca (pictured) loves the chance it gives her to get out and socialise after moving from Brazil a month ago

'Everyone's happy and always enjoying themselves. It's so easy and simple. It's so fun and it takes zero effort to party so why not get paid while you do it?'

She said most of the parties are lavish experiences with many on boats or 'amazing' houses.

Bianca said she was recommended by her other friends when she first arrived because they said she was beautiful and could meet new people easily.

She makes between $35 - $50 an hour for a party and most jobs are five hours long although she jokes she almost always get asked to stay on longer - for the hourly fee of course.

'I have a big personality, I always try to talk to everyone, even the quiet people,' the brunette beauty said.

'At the end of the day I am working and I want it to be the best experience. It increases my confidence but I wouldn't ever go topless.'

Founder and managing director, Richard Macphillamy, said the idea evolved from hosting his own parties and never being able to find staff.

'Trying to find staff was impossible, unless you wanted to pay agency rates which were expensive. I used to use Gumtree so I did that a few times and started hiring hosts for bucks parties, we'd hire 10 - 15 girls just to use as party hosts,' Mr Macphillamy said.

The jobs pay cash in hand with hourly rates that vary from $20 - 150 an hour dependent on if girls like Tori (pictured) are hosting serving as waitresses

Women can earn up to $150 an hour for appearing in lingerie, bikinis or toples. Pictured is Tori

'Because it was so successful we thought we not put it online so people can just choose people, which is what I had been doing through Gumtree and other methods but it was totally unreliable'.

The website has now been split into two components - with the private party waitresses separated from women who will appear in lingerie, bikinis or topless.

'The private party market is usually made up of 30th or 40th birthday celebrations needing wait staff and bar staff,' Mr Macphillamy said.

'The party host market is bucks parties or guys wanting girls to go party with them whether that's topless, bikini or party hosts.'

Mr Macphillamy told Daily Mail Australia the major seller was the party hosts.

Partistaff is relocating to LA in September.

For girls like Leti, 24, - who moved to Sydney a year ago from Brazil - it helps with picking up English while giving her away to make extra money and new friends.

'We meet people - most of my friends are from Partistaff and we all have fun,' she said.

She has never had any incidents with the party organisers.

'The guys are respectful and we will just talk and have a drink,' she said.
More than 100 pig carcasses will be buried in a cemetery under an ambitious plan to help create extra grave space for humans.

Rookwood Cemetery, in Sydney's west, will house the carcasses which will be used as human substitutes in a scientific study to help fast-track the decomposition process.

The world-first study will see about 120 pigs buried in individual plots in a discreet area of the cemetery, the Sun-Herald reported.

More than 100 pigs will be buried in Sydney's Rockwood Cemetery as part of a scientific study to help fast-track the decomposition process (stock image)

The pigs will be buried in a discreet area of Rookwood Cemetery (pictured)

The carcasses will be faced with 'a lot of different variables' to accelerate the decaying process underneath the ground, which will then allow more than one person to be buried in an individual grave.

With about one million people buried at the cemetery - the largest of its kind in Australia - it is fast nearing capacity.

Both the Muslim and Jewish faiths - which comprise a large number of grave sites at the cemetery - do not allow cremation, leading for calls to accelerate the decaying process.

'The sustainability of cemeteries everywhere is a major issue right now,' George Simpson, the chief executive of the Rookwood General Cemeteries Reserve Trust, said.

Rookwood Cemetery (pictured), in Sydney's west, is fast nearing capacity. About 1 million people are already buried there

The pigs will be used as human substitutes to help fast-track the decomposition process at Rookwood Cemetery (pictured)

'This is a real watershed if we can get it right. It would revolutionise the entire industry the world over.'

Mr Simpson said there has been no objections raised by the Muslim or Jewish communities who are helping to finalise the plan for pig burials.

'It is widely known the world over that pigs are the closest, anatomically, to humans. For us to get as close a match as we can, it was vital we use this proxy,' he said.
A suicidal Oregon father shot dead his two daughters before ultimately killing himself in a confrontation with officers on Wednesday morning.

Jaime Cortinas, 42, shot his two daughters, Janet Cortinas-Duran, eight, and Jasmine Duran-Cortinas, 11, before turning the gun on himself after he set his Land Rover on fire in a shootout with police.

Now, the girls have been pictured for the first time since their murders after memorials took place in Gresham, Oregon.

Jaime Cortinas shot his daughters Janet Cortinas-Duran, eight (L), and Jasmine Duran-Cortinas (R), 11, multiple times before ultimately killing himself

Jasmine Duran-Cortinas (R) and Janet Cortinas-Duran (L) are pictured in their school photos

Both girls attended Glenfair Elementary School, and students were told about the tragedy on Friday morning. Additional counselors and teachers were on hand to offer support to students, reported KGW.

A GoFundMe was set up for the family in honor of the two girls.

The deadly altercation with police took place after Jaime's wife frantically called 911 informing officials that her husband had kidnapped her daughters on Wednesday morning.

When an officer spotted his dark Land Rover at a gas station parking lot and approached Jaime, the man fired at him with a handgun before setting his SUV on fire with his children inside the car.

The Gresham Police Department said on Thursday that an autopsy confirmed that Jaime had shot his daughters Janet and Jasmine multiple times before the blaze.

Officers smashed the car window to try to pull the children out of the back seat, but both were already dead. Jaime died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound from his .32-caliber handgun, according to the autopsy.

Jaime Cortinas, 42, shot dead his daughters Janet Cortinas-Duran, eight, and Jasmine Duran-Cortinas, 11, before setting his SUV (pictured) on fire and turning the gun on himself

No officers were shot but multiple suffered minor injuries while breaking into the burning SUV, including strains, burns and smoke inhalation

The girls' mother reported to police that her husband was armed, dangerous and suicidal, and had disappeared with their daughters early that morning, according to authorities.

Officer Matt Anderson was the officer who spotted Jaime's car and exchanged shots with the man.

Anderson fired at Jaime multiple times but did not kill him and none of the officer's rounds hit the children, Gresham police Sgt. John Rasmussen said.

No officers were shot but multiple suffered minor injuries while breaking into the burning SUV, including strains, burns and smoke inhalation.

All officers involved have now been placed on administrative leave according to standard protocol.

A neighbor of the family never noticed any signs of brewing trouble, he told KOIN6.

The girls' mother reported to police that her husband was armed, dangerous and suicidal, and had disappeared with their daughters early Wednesday morning

Pictured is the home where the girls lived with their father and mother before they were killed

Robert Forthan said: 'There wasnt anything abnormal and they seemed happy. I was really saddened, mainly [for] the kids. Their future is gone.'

Community members have started a memorial to honor the girls, who attended Glenfair Elementary School.

Classmates who were friends with the sisters launched balloons with notes inside them at the parking lot where Janet and Jasmine tragically died.

Friend Aniyah Revees said to KOIN6: 'We dont want to forget them, we want [them] to be in a better place and be free.'

She wrote in her balloon letter: 'When you guys died I was heartbroken, I couldnt believe that happened. I was really frightened.'

All officers involved have now been placed on administrative leave according to standard protocol

Unique Spivey wrote in a note: 'We were really close friends, and youre in a better place now.'

Resident Kimberly Ritter told the Outlook: 'Children should never be involved in this type of violence. I feel for the mother. I could not handle something like this.'

Sgt. Rasmussen earlier said: 'It's a horrible and horrific situation for all involved. It's one of those situations that we don't know exactly what we're walking into.

'So when we pull up to a situation, we're trying to assess what's going to happen, and then things unfold very rapidly, and maybe that initial thought of how this might go changes very quickly.'
A 64-year-old man has allegedly been beaten and burned with a lighter and aerosol can over a two-hour period.

Police allege the 64-year-old man was drinking with the two men at a Gladstone Road address in Brisbane when the trio became involved in an argument.

The men used the aerosol can and lighter like a flame thrower, according to the ABC.

The man was then allegedly beaten and burned for two hours by the two younger men about 7.45pm on Saturday.

A 64-year-old man was allegedly beaten and burned with a lighter and aerosol can by two men over a two-hour period in Brisbane on Saturday night

The 64-year-old managed to escape and raise the alarm.

He was transported to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital where he was treated for burns to his arms, legs, scalp and face.

A 42-year-old and 44-year-old man have been charged with multiple offences including torture, common assault, acts intended to maim/ disfigure/ disable and deprivation of liberty.

They will appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Sunday having been granted conditional bail.
The Australian Federal Police has been given the green light to pursue nine Russians over $30 million alleged to be the proceeds of crime.

The Supreme Court in Queensland last month granted the AFP the right to apply for orders to further investigate the group over money frozen in bank accounts back in December 2013.

The Russians are alleged to have deposited the mystery millions into Surfers Paradise, Queensland bank accounts between April 6, 2011 and August 23, 2013, The Courier-Mail reported.

Russians Sergey Kostyukov (at left) has an annual salary of $65,000 and had $2.95 million frozen in a Queensland bank account, while Andrey Gudkov (at right) has a salary of $16,371 and had $3.3 million frozen

Irina Strelnikova (at left) has an annual salary of $11,235 and had $1 million frozen, while Vladimir Strelnikov (at right) has a salary of $51,360 and had $3.9 million frozen

But the Russians are also fighting to get the money back, arguing the AFP has already had ample time to investigate them.

The AFP believes the Russian's modest incomes do not stack up with the millions frozen across 24 bank accounts.

One of the group has a reported annual salary of $24,000 but the money frozen in his bank account tops out at $11.8 million.

The nine Russians are said to have claimed interests in business in Siberia.

The AFP's was meant to investigate the group via a video link between Brisbane and Irkutsk, southern Siberia in late 2015 but the Russian Government did not provide formal approval.

Eduard Zelinsky (at left) has a reported annual salary of $22,471 and had $2.26 million frozen, while Eduard Karmadonov (at right) has a salary of $24,879 and had $11.8 million frozen

Galina Chuvasova (at left) has a reported annual salary of $12,640 and had $650,000 frozen, while Natalia Gudkova (at right) has a salary of $15,220 and had $2.485 million frozen
A young Saudi woman who was seeking asylum in Australia was stopped on a layover in the Philippines and returned to the kingdom against her will, activists fearing for her safety have said.

In self-recorded videos that have circulated widely on social media, Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, said authorities had held her at the Manila airport for 13 hours and confiscated her passport.

'My name is Dina Ali and I'm a Saudi woman who fled Saudi Arabia to Australia to seek asylum,' she said, adding she feared violence from relatives who came to bring her back home.

'Please help me. I'm recording this video to help me and know that I'm real and I'm here.'

In one of them, Ms Ali said: 'If my family come, they will kill me.'

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Dina Ali Lasloom (above, in a self-recorded video) was stopped on a layover in the Philippines and returned to Saudi Arabia against her will

The woman did not say why she sought refuge abroad, but Human Rights Watch cited a Canadian witness as saying she had intended to flee to Australia to escape a forced marriage.

Arranged marriages are the norm in Saudi Arabia, where a 'guardianship' system requires a male family member, usually the father, husband or brother, to grant permission for a woman's study, travel, marriage and even medical treatment.

The witness said Lasloom approached her while in transit at the airport in Manila, saying 'airport officials had confiscated her passport and boarding pass' for a Sydney-bound flight.

The Canadian, who spent several hours with Lasloom at the airport in Manila, reported the asylum seeker cried when two of her uncles arrived.

She helped Lasloom film social media videos about her plight.

Identified as Meagan Khan by the Australian, she told the newspaper after landing in Bali that she had allowed Lasloom to use her phone to post the videos on Twitter.

Lasloom said authorities had held her at the Manila airport for 13 hours and confiscated her passport. Above, her boarding pass for the Manila-bound flight

'Lasloom's whereabouts are currently unknown,' HRW said in a statement from Manila.

The New York-based watchdog also quoted an airline security official as saying he heard Lasloom 'screaming and begging for help' on Tuesday before security personnel and men who appeared to be Middle Eastern carried her 'with duct tape on her mouth, feet and hands' at the airport.

Asked about the HRW statement by AFP on Friday, the Philippine immigration department said it had held no one of Lasloom's name and no Saudi national.

'There was no Saudi national by that name who presented herself,' spokeswoman Antonette Mangrobang said.

'As far as immigration is concerned, we did not hold any Saudi national.'

The spokeswoman said that if Lasloom was a transiting passenger, then she would not have passed through immigration and it would have been up to the airline to decide what happened to her.

A Saudi activist told AFP that Lasloom, who lived in Kuwait, 'was brought back by force to Riyadh and is now in custody.'

Lasloom had been forced onto a Saudi Arabia Airlines flight to Riyadh on Tuesday night.

But she did not emerge at King Khalid International Airport after the flight landed early Wednesday morning, but multiple passengers told Reuters they had seen a woman being carried onto the plane screaming.

A Canadian witness, who spent several hours with Lasloom at the airport in Manila (above), reported the asylum seeker cried when two of her uncles arrived

'I heard a lady screaming from upstairs. Then I saw two or three men carrying her. They weren't Filipino. They looked Arab,' said one Filipino woman, who declined to give her name.

A rare gathering of about 10 Saudi activists appeared in the arrivals area of the Riyadh airport around midnight on Wednesday, after a hashtag began circulating on Twitter urging people to 'receive Dina at the airport.'

One of them, a 23-year-old female medical student, Alaa Alanzi, was arrested when she tried to inquire about her whereabouts, the Saudi activist said.

Her sister, Nada, said airport officials told her Alanazi had been sent to a police station in central Riyadh, but said she was unable to confirm her sister's whereabouts.

The activist worried that both women could be detained 'for a long time.'

Saudi authorities brook little public dissent and frequently detain activists on charges of undermining social cohesion and participating in demonstrations.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was on a state visit to Saudi Arabia on Monday and Tuesday when the incident occurred.

Activists are fearing for the safety of the 24-year-old woman after she was reportedly forced onto a flight back to the kingdom

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (above, in Riyadh) was on a state visit to Saudi Arabia on Monday and Tuesday when the incident occurred

The Berlin-based European Saudi Organization for Human Rights told AFP that 'the seriousness of what Dina Ali is facing' stems from the guardianship system.

'Women's rights are... the most prominent human rights problem in Saudi Arabia,' the group said.

The Saudi embassy in the Philippines said on Twitter that 'the information that has been circulating over social media is untrue.'

It described the incident as a 'family matter' and said: 'The citizen has now returned with her family to the homeland.'

Human Rights Watch called on Saudi Arabia to reveal whether Lasloom is with her family or is being held by the state at a shelter.

'Lasloom is at serious risk of harm if returned to her family. She also faces possible criminal charges' for alleged parental disobedience and harming the reputation of the state with her public cries for help, the watchdog said.

It called on the Philippine government to also investigate and hold accountable 'any of their officials who failed to protect Dina Ali Lasloom', as required by international law.

Madawi al-Rasheed, a visiting professor at the London School of Economics Middle East Centre, wrote on Twitter that Lasloom's case is 'a classic... in which state and family cooperate against women in KSA.'
Animal rights groups PETA has slammed exclusive department store Harrods for selling a 1,400 cuddly toy made from real rabbit fur.

The 30cm sleeping dog is made by French fur toy and accessory manufacturer Caresse d'Orylag.

The Knightsbridge shop says on their website that the cuddly toy is 'incredibly soft to the touch' and 'luxuriously crafted from tonal grey Orylag fur'.

Animal rights groups PETA has slammed exclusive department store Harrods for selling a 1,400 cuddly toy (pictured) made from real rabbit fur

Orylag is a breed of rabbit specifically reared for its fur and meat. The animals are typically slaughtered at around 20 weeks.

A spokeswoman for animal rights group PETA told MailOnline: 'It's abominable to give young children, who naturally view animals as their brothers, sisters, and friends, the skin of a tormented animal to play with.

'Most children's hearts would break if they knew that those "toys" began as real animals with real feelings who were kept inside tiny wire cages on fur factory farms and denied fresh air, sunlight, and everything else that is natural and important to them  all before being slaughtered via electrocution.'

Orylag is a breed of rabbit (pictured, stock image) specifically reared for its fur and meat. The animals are typically slaughtered at around 20 weeks

She added: 'If parents can't tell children the truth, they should at least stop pretending that such gifts aren't the product of extreme cruelty to animals.

'No compassionate parents should let these horrific toys anywhere near their kids.'

Paris-based Caresse dOrylag say on their website: 'The pure Orylag down is one of the finest in the animal kingdom.

'It comes from a unique and extraordinary rabbit related to the chinchilla.

The 30cm sleeping dog is made by French fur toy and accessory manufacturer Caresse d'Orylag

'It is fully in line with the code of conduct of the Sustainable Luxury Working Group and with the charter developed by the World Organisation for Animal Health.'

Harrods and Caresse dOrylag have both been contacted for comment.

This is not the first time Harrods has been targeted by animal welfare campaigners.

In October 2012, anti-fur trade campaigners demonstrated outside the store during a performance by Lady Gaga.
Owners of old diesel cars should be able to scrap their vehicles for cash in pollution hotspots, the chairman of an influential Commons committee is expected to tell ministers.

According to The Sunday Telegraph, MP Neil Parish will use a House of Commons debate on Wednesday to urge the Government to commit to a targeted scheme to tackle emissions.

He will say that 'households should not just be able to trade in multiple diesels for a cash subsidy', and instead the Government 'should particularly consider targeting a scrappage scheme at poorer households or those earning less than 60 per cent of the median UK household income'.

Neil Parish, Conservative MP and chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee, is to tell Ministers the Government should consider implementing a scrappage scheme to help target emissions

Mr Parish, above, is expected to tell the Government they 'should particularly consider' targeting the scheme at 'poorer households or those earning less than 60 per cent of the median UK household income'

Mr Parish, Conservative chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee, will say: 'If the Government earmarked 500 million for this scheme, it would take nearly 10 per cent of the five million dirtiest diesels off our roads.'

The newspaper reports that he will say: 'Limiting the scheme to these hotspots could potentially take as many as half of these dirtiest diesels out of these pollution hotspots.'

It comes before the Government publishes its updated clean air plans later this month, after courts ruled that existing plans to meet EU-mandated air quality limits are not sufficient.

There had been speculation that the plans would include a scrappage scheme aimed at taking older, more polluting diesel cars off the roads and replacing them with cleaner vehicles.

A poll by the AA last month found that 68 per cent of drivers would support a diesel scrappage scheme

Port Talbot, above, is one of the worst areas for pollution, according to figures

A poll by the AA last month found that 68 per cent of drivers would support a diesel scrappage scheme, with just 10 per cent of motorists opposed to it.

The Telegraph says Mr Parish will suggest families could swap their polluting cars for low emission-producing vehicles, public transport tickets, bicycles or a car club membership.

Worst areas for pollution Town/city PM10 Particles, micrograms

1. Port Talbot

25 2. Stanford-le-Hope 24 3. Glasgow 23 4. Leeds 22 5. London 22 6. Scunthorpe 22 7. Eastbourne 21 8. Nottingham 21 9. Oxford 21 10. Southampton 21

Concerns over the impact of diesel cars on nitrogen dioxide levels were raised by the Volkswagen emissions scandal in September 2015.

A subsequent Department for Transport investigation found that 37 top-selling diesel cars exceeded the legal limit required for laboratory pollution tests when driven for 90 minutes on normal roads.

Drivers were encouraged to switch away from petrol under Tony Blair's government and Prime Minister Theresa May has said that would be taken 'into account' in future plans.

During a recent trip to the Middle East, Mrs May said: 'In relation to the issue of diesel cars, obviously we will be producing a new air quality plan, we've been required to do that by the courts.

'Decisions will be taken when we produce that plan - obviously we will take final decisions as to what we do.

'But I'm very conscious of the fact that past governments have encouraged people to buy diesel cars and we need to take that into account when we're looking at what we do in the future.'
A German couple were allegedly caught trying to smuggle four kilograms of cocaine through Sydney Airport in the lining of their suitcases, which could have fetched up to $1.2 million.

Sami Trabelsi, 37, and Snjezana Stein, 49, were charged with importing a commercial quantity of the drugs after they arrived from Dusseldorf, Germany, on Saturday.

They were selected for baggage examination which 'found anomalies' in the suitcase linings, after which the powder was found and tested positive for cocaine.

A German couple have appeared in a Sydney court charged with trying to smuggle cocaine in the suitcase lining of their luggage

The couple were allegedly caught at Sydney airport with 4kg of cocaine, a commercial amount

The Australian Federal Police will now test the exact weight, purity and street value of the drugs.

The couple appeared in Parramatta Local Court on Sunday via video link and were refused bail, the AFP said.

They are due to appear again on Friday.

They had flown more than 16,000 kilometres from Dusseldorf, Germany's seventh biggest city, on a 20-hour flight to Australia.

Australia, a wealthy country, is considered a lucrative market for cocaine, where a gram can sell for as much as $300.

While the AFP is yet to determine the market value of the cocaine seized, it's possible the 4kg of cocaine allegedly found in the lining of their suitcase would have fetched up to $1.2 million on the streets of Sydney or Melbourne.

Sydney is also the cocaine capital of Australia.

Australian Federal Police forensics specialists are testing the exact weight of the cocaine

The couple charged with importing a commercial amount of cocaine flew in from Dusseldorf
Alastair Campbell slammed Theresa May for bringing her own faith and childhood memories into her Easter message

Labour's ex-spin doctor has slammed Theresa May for talking about her own faith and childhood memories during her Easter message.

May, the daughter of a vicar, said that Christian values could 'bring us together' amid intense debate over Brexit that has divided and continues to divide the nation.

But Alistair Campbell, now the editor of the pro-EU New European newspaper, claimed she was hinting that God would have voted to leave the European Union.

'I think even vicars' daughters should be a little wary of allying their politics to their faith,' he told The Guardian after seeing the three-minute video on YouTube today.

Posting on the most important day of the Christian calendar, May - who believes her faith offers her 'a moral backing' - tries to project a positive message in the video.

She says: 'Easter is a moment to reflect, and an important time for Christians and others to gather together with families and friends.

'This year, after a period of intense debate over the right future for our country, there is a sense that people are coming together and uniting behind the opportunities that lie ahead.

'For at heart, this country is one great union of people and nations with a proud history and a bright future. And as we face the opportunities ahead  the opportunities that stem from our decision to leave the EU, and embrace the world  our shared interests, our shared ambitions and, above all, our shared values can and must bring us together.'

But Campbell, the spin doctor for Tony Blair, suggests today that she has gone too far and suggests she 'gets out more'.

The spin doctor, who famously said that Labour 'don't do God', added: 'I think even vicars' daughters should be a little wary of allying their politics to their faith.

'She does not exactly say if God had a vote he would have voted Leave, but she gets closer to it than she should. If she really thinks she is leading a united country full of hope ... I suggest she gets out more.'

May, the daughter of a vicar, said that Christian values could 'bring us together' amid intense debate over Brexit, in her three-minute video posted today (pictured)

He added: 'I don't think I have ever known Britain more divided. As for her talk of compassion, community, citizenship and obligations to one another, she has taken an axe to those with regard to Britain's relations to the rest of the world, and plenty of her domestic agenda points in the opposite direction.'

Born into a religious family where her father was an Anglican vicar, Mrs May has spoken publicly about her faith, notably on Desert Island Discs, where she said she was a 'regular communicant' of the church.

She has previously said how religion is 'a moral backing to what I do and I would hope that the decisions I take are taken on the basis of my faith.'

She said it is wrong to 'flaunt' religion in British politics but once told the Commons: 'Our Christian heritage is something we can all be proud of.'

That message was reflected today, when she said: 'Values of compassion, community, citizenship. The sense of obligation we have to one another.

'These are values we all hold in common - and values that are visibly lived out every day by Christians - as well as by people of other faiths or none.

'We should be confident about the role that Christianity has to play in the lives of people in our country. And we should treasure the strong tradition that we have in this country of religious tolerance and freedom of speech.

'We must continue to ensure that people feel able to speak about their faith, and that absolutely includes their faith in Christ.

'We must be mindful of Christians and religious minorities around the world who do not enjoy these same freedoms, but who practise their religion in secret and often in fear.

'And we must do more to stand up for the freedom of people of all religions to practice their beliefs openly and in peace and safety.'

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron highlighted Mrs May's intervention in the row over the National Trust and Cadbury Easter egg hunt in his own message

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron highlighted Mrs May's intervention in the row over the National Trust and Cadbury Easter egg hunt in his message, while hitting out at nostalgia and nationalism.

He said: 'I fear that what the Prime Minster and others were actually getting wound up about was the thought that the National Trust might have been airbrushing out something comfortable and traditional.

'And given that we are turning the clock back to the early 1970s with Brexit (or indeed the 1580s if we do end up declaring war on Spain), then nostalgia is most definitely the mood of the moment.'

Today's debate over Christianity's place in politics comes days after a leading author claimed world politics is shaped by Christianity, with many world leader's inspired by their faith.

These are values we all hold in common - and values that are visibly lived out every day by Christians - as well as by people of other faiths or none Theresa May

Nick Spencer says most of the prominent leaders around the world are shaped by their religion, including all but one of Britain's six most recent Prime Ministers.

May's predecessor David Cameron, in 2008, famously described his faith as a bit like the patchy reception for Magic FM in the Chilterns where he lives, adding: 'It sort of comes and goes'.

He added: 'That sums up a lot of people in the Church of England.

'We are racked with doubts, but sort of fundamentally believe, but don't sort of wear it on our sleeves or make too much of it. I think that is sort of where I am.'

Brown, whose father was a minister of the Church of Scotland, spoke of his 'moral compass' but for the most part kept religion private.

Blair generally avoided talking about religion during his decade in Downing Street, fearing he would be viewed as a religious fanatic. His spin doctor believed the British public was instinctively distrustful of religiously-minded politicians.

But Blair converted to Roman Catholicism after his term as PM ended and later spoke of the difficulties of talking about 'religious faith in our political system'.

Alastair Campbell said Mrs May should 'get out more' after she claimed that Christian values could 'bring us together' amid the Brexit debate

He described how he had wanted to give a speech during a time of crisis and wanted to end my words with 'God bless the British people'.

He said: 'This caused complete consternation. Emergency meetings were convened. The system was aghast. Finally, a senior civil servant said, with utter disdain: 'Really, Prime Minister, this is not America you know'.'

John Major was not a man of faith, but Margaret Thatcher was, according to author Eliza Filby, the 'most religious prime minister since William Gladstone' - a description which was later conferred on Blair.

The book also at five US presidents: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. It also addresses five European leaders, three Australian prime ministers and Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Putin has increasingly presented himself as a man of serious personal faith, reportedly prays daily in a small Orthodox chapel next to the presidential office.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is a strong Christian but keeps her faith private. She described religion in 2012 as a 'constant companion.'
Adolf Hitler's heavily distorted Nazi propaganda during the Second World War was undermined by the BBC - who won over German listeners and became the broadcaster of choice for many, a study has revealed.

Accurate reporting of Allied defeats quickly gave the corporation a reputation as an accurate source of information for both sides, including those who were secretly sceptical of the Reich's consistently optimistic transmissions.

And once it had drawn in those who were curious about how the war was really progressing, it used satirical broadcasts to mock Hitler and sow seeds of doubt over the God-like status in which he was viewed by most of the country.

A BBC news operator translating a speech during World War II. The corporation's German Service was key in unpicking the Nazi propaganda in the Reich

The findings have been made by Dr Vike Martina Plock, of the University of Exeter, who was commissioned last month to produce a monograph, entitled Broadcasting to the Enemy: The BBC German Service during the Second World War.

For example, the BBC reported a huge Nazi victory in the North Sea, when 52 Norwegian ships were sunk, resulting in 392 deaths.

And, while these battles were proudly magnified across the airwaves by Hitler's broadcasters, when the BBC did report Allied victories they were strangely ommited by the German media.

Many Germans soon grew skeptical of the reports being peddled by the likes of William Joyce (pictured)

Many Germans grew cautious of the reports being peddled by the likes of William Joyce, an American-Irish fascist who would later be hanged for treason because of his work within the Nazi propaganda machine.

Conversely, Germans were convicted for listening to the BBC.

Once they had tuned in to listen to the real stories of the conflict, shows that aired immediately after, such as Hitler vs Hitler - which pitted his speeches against one another to highlight his regular contradictions - further undermined the dictator.

Dr Plock told the Observer: 'News was the magnet which attracted the audience and consequently talks followed the news, in the belief that the audience attracted by the news would continue to listen to a talk for which they might not otherwise tune in.

Broadcasters such as Thomas Mann, an exiled German who was highly critical of Hitler, were among those at the heart of the BBC's truth movement.

Launched in 1938 when the smell of a war first started to linger, the BBC German service continued for another 61 years, while similar projects were launched in other countries.

Shows such as Hitler vs Hitler - which pitted his speeches against one another to highlight his regular contradictions - further undermined the dictator

Dr Plock added: 'Listeners who heard these news bulletins were inclined to believe in Britains superior military strength.

'If the Allies could openly admit defeats, it was believed, they must be extremely confident, convinced of their eventual victory over Nazi Germany.'

As well as the Second World War, BBC German Service also accurately tracked the post-war confrontation between East and West, and the coming down of the Berlin Wall and reunification.

The last programme broadcast in German, on March 26 1999, was a phone-in discussion on the future of radio broadcasting.
A three-month-old baby was summoned to the US Embassy in London for questioning after his grandfather accidentally marked that the purpose of his trip to the United States was terrorism.

Paul Kenyon, 62, had planned a trip to Orlando, Florida, with his wife Cathy, 57, his daughter Faye, 27, her partner John Cairns, 31, and his grandchildren, three-year-old Ava and three-month-old Harvey.

When filling out Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) immigration forms needed to enter the United States, Kenyon accidentally ticked 'yes' in the section asking if the trip was for terrorism on baby Harvey's document.

The family then had to make a ten-hour round-trip journey from their home in Poynton, Cheshire, to the US embassy in London so officials could interview Harvey, who cannot even speak yet.

Paul Kenyon, of Poynton, Cheshire, (pictured with daughter, Faye, and grandson, Harvey) accidentally ticked 'yes' when asked if a trip to Orlando, Florida, was for terrorism on immigration documents his grandson needed to enter the United States.

The family then had to make a ten-hour round-trip journey from their home in Poynton, Cheshire, to the US embassy in London (pictured) so officials could interview Harvey, who cannot even speak yet

Following the trip, Harvey's visa didn't come in time and flew to Orlando - a nine-and-a-half-hour flight - with his parents days after the rest of the family.

Kenyon, who runs a Clingfoil business in Poynton, said the ordeal cost him an extra 3,000.

The question that Kenyon accidentally marked 'yes' on the ESTA form asks: 'Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?'

He said that he filled out the rest of the ESTA of the forms correctly and had no idea he made the mistake until Harvey's travel documents were refused.

'I had filled in the first five forms all correctly, but it was taking some time,' Kenyon said. 'I had no idea I had made a mistake on the baby's form until Harvey's travel was refused to the USA.

'I couldn't believe that they couldn't see it was a genuine mistake and that a three-month-old baby would be no harm to anyone.

'Harvey was even summoned down for an interview to the US Embassy. I really couldn't believe it.

'I went down with him and his mum and took him in for the interview, but he can't even speak as he's so young.'

Kenyon, who runs a Clingfoil business in Poynton, said the ordeal cost him an extra 3,000, and he had to buy new Virgin Airlines flights for his daughter, Faye, her partner and Harvey after the baby's visa was delayed and the family missed their flight

The family Traveled down to London's Grosvenor Square just four days before their flight.

Kenyon said: 'We went down on the Monday and flew on the Thursday, but sadly the Visa didn't come in time, so half of us went and baby Harvey came a couple of days later with his parents and the whole sorry business cost me an extra 3,000.

'Cathy and myself flew with Ava and then Faye and Jon and Harvey flew out on fresh Virgin flights a couple of days later.

'It was a very expensive mistake, but I was hoping the US Embassy would realise that it was just a simple error without us having to jump through all the hoops.

'If you are a terrorist - I suspect you'd not be ticking YES on the ESTA form anyway.'

Kenyon said that Harvey was 'good as gold' during the interview and didn't cry once.

'Baby Harvey was good as gold for the interview and never cried once  I thought about taking him along in an orange jumpsuit, but thought better of it,' he said. 'They didn't appear to have a sense of humour over it at all and couldn't see the funny side.

'He's obviously never engaged in genocide, or espionage, but he has sabotaged quite a few nappies in his time though I didn't tell them that at the US Embassy.'

MailOnline has contacted the US embassy in London to request a comment on the incident.
British overseas territories are hosting more than 1,000 child sex abuse websites despite a Government crack down on exploitation, it has been revealed.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) found 13 child abuse websites with 1,488 web pages on the .io domain for the British Indian Ocean Territory in 2016.

This revelation is embarrassing for the UK government which has spent 50 million advising other countries on how to tackle child abuse.

British overseas territories are hosting more than 1,000 child sex abuse websites. Pictured, Diego Garcia beach in the British Indian Ocean Territory

The IWF also found its first case of sexual abuse images on the .sh domain for St Helena, according to The Sunday Times.

The British Indian Ocean Territory is a collection of islands in the Indian Ocean overseen by the UK.

The largest island is Diego Garcia, the site of a joint military base used by the United Kingdom and the United States.

Web addresses, or domains, for these British territories are sold by the Internet Computer Bureau (ICB)

The ICB, owned by Paul and Fiona Kane, say they make no profit from the .io domain and that anyone registering a website has agreed not to use it for illegal purposes.

There is no suggestion the Kanes or the ICB have done anything wrong.

An ICB spokesman told MailOnline: 'ICB treats complaints and potential breaches with the utmost seriousness, and enforces its robust policies for removing offending content and domain names, regularly taking enforcement actions when complaints are made with Law Enforcement Agencies.'

Web addresses, or domains, for these British territories are sold by the Internet Computer Bureau - a firm owned by Paul Kane (pictured), 55, and Fiona Kane, 52

Last year the .io domain accounted for almost 3 per cent of all child abuse web pages detected by IWF, the Sunday Times reported.

Almost all of the criminal imagery accessed through the .io domain was held in the Netherlands.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office told MailOnline: 'The British Government has a zero tolerance approach to child abuse and child pornography and is committed to stamping out these horrific crimes.

'We are urgently looking into this and will take action as needed with the relevant authorities.'

According to the IWF: 'Criminals are increasingly using masking techniques to hide child sexual abuse images and videos on the internet and leaving clues to paedophiles so they can find it  hidden behind legal content.'

Susie Hargreaves OBE, IWF CEO, added: 'Whilst it's positive that the UK continues to remain hostile to child sexual abuse material, the global picture isn't good.

The British Indian Ocean Territory is a collection of islands in the Indian Ocean overseen by the UK. Pictured, Diego Garcia military base

'We've opened reporting portals across the globe with more planned.

'In other countries, internet companies are exploited and, worst of all, children who have been sexually abused are further exploited.

'Internet companies and large businesses who are doing nothing, or too little, to address online child sexual abuse imagery need to step up and work with us.'

In June 2016, dedicated web portals to allow people to report images and videos of child sexual abuse were launched in 12 British overseas territories.

A team of IWF analyst were working directly with the internet industry and law enforcement to have abusive imagery removed.
A convicted murderer who kicked a friend to death in Italy was allowed to enter the UK while on the run and live in Britain for six years undetected.

Valentin Jianu is said to have used his own passport to enter Britain on a bus at Dover while he was still a fugitive.

Jianu was then sentenced to 14 year in prison in his absence for kicking a man to death in a vicious Romanian gang attack.

Valentin Jianu is a convicted murderer but was able to enter Britain while on the run from Italy after kicking a man to death as part of a vicious Romanian gang

He was able to get a job, bring his family to Britain and set up a home in London before he was finally detected.

Jianu and two other men, all members of an infamous Romanian gang, were said to have beaten a fellow member to death with sticks and iron bars in 2010.

Taking advantage of the notoriously slow Italian justice system, he fled the country while awaiting a court appearance.

He is said to have entered Britain in 2011 via the port of Dover, where the British Home Office insists the correct checks were made.

Jianu is said to have got a job in a hotel and at a car wash, run by other Romanians, in London, and boasted about his new life on Facebook.

He set up a family home in Wembley, north London, and even brought his wife Michaela and young daughter to Britain.

Valentin Jianu is said to have used his own passport to enter Britain on a bus at Dover (pictured) while he was still a fugitive

Jianu is said to have played a prominent part in the local Romanian community, living in Britain for six years undetected.

But police in Asti, a small city near Turin, recently tracked him down after spotting family photos on Facebook.

They found a video of him on his birthday on YouTube, on which they spotted identifiable local shops.

Police officers from the Met then arrested him and he has now been deported.

Italian Police chief Loris Petrillo said: 'He wasn't very clever and he gave himself away very easily.'

His wife Michaela told The Sun: 'He used his own passport and ID. He didn't lie about who he was. We know he was sentenced to 15 years but he didn't do anything.'

A Home Office spokesperson could not explain how Jianu got in but insisted '100 per cent checks' were carried out at the border.
Boris Johnson has he labelled Vladimir Putin a 'super villain' over his support for the Assad regime, and warned the US could launch fresh strikes on Syria.

The Foreign Secretary maintained a tough stance on Bashar al-Assad, branding the Syrian president an 'arch-terrorist' following the use of Sarin gas on his own people.

He told the Sun on Sunday: 'We need to show the Russians the horrific nature of the regime they are backing in terms they cannot fail to understand.

Boris Johnson has he labelled Vladimir Putin a 'super villain' over his support for the Assad regime, and warned the US could launch fresh strikes on Syria

Vladimir Putin, pictured crossing himself during an Easter service today, has been extremely loyal to Assad during the Syrian conflict

'They find themselves in a league of super villains.'

Mr Johnson was widely criticised for failing to get the G7 to back his bid for new sanctions against senior Russian and Syrian figures in the aftermath of the chemical weapons attack on civilians in Idlib province.

He insisted it was 'highly likely' Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons atrocity as Mr Johnson insisted America 'could of course strike again'.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Johnson said: 'Assad uses chemical weapons because they are not only horrible and indiscriminate. They are also terrifying.

'In that sense he is himself an arch-terrorist, who has caused such an unquenchable thirst for revenge that he can never hope to govern his population again.

'He is literally and metaphorically toxic, and it is time Russia awoke to that fact. They still have time to be on the right side of the argument.'

Putin, pictured with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (left) and his wife Svetlana has been told to 'make sure Russia is on the right side of the argument'

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, embraces Putin during the service, but tensions are running high over the crisis

'British scientists have analysed samples from the victims of the attack. These have tested positive for Sarin or a Sarin-like substance.

'The UK, the US and all our key allies are of one mind: we believe that this was highly likely to be an attack by Assad, on his own people, using poison gas weapons that were banned almost 100 years ago, under the 1925 Geneva protocol.'

Mr Johnson said the chemical assault had changed the West's stance on Syria.

'Let us face the truth: Assad has been clinging on. With the help of Russians and Iranians, and by dint of unrelenting savagery, he has not only recaptured Aleppo. He has won back most of 'operational' Syria.

'Before the chemical weapons attack on April 4, the West was on the verge of a grim consensus  that it would be more sensible to concentrate on the fight against the terrorists of Daesh, and to accept reluctantly that removing Assad - though ultimately essential  should await a drawn out political solution.'
Advertisement

This static caravan takes glamping to a whole other level.

Now holidaymakers can enjoy the Manhattan apartment experience in a field in the Isle of Wight or Lincolnshire.

Park operator Away Resorts has introduced the TriBeCa caravan, equipped with en-suite bathrooms, a stand alone bath, flat-screen TVs and a hot tub.

The TriBeCa comes equipped with en-suite bathrooms, a stand alone bath, flat-screen TVs and a hot tub

The open-plan living space and kitchen has a New York City loft feel

The kitchen: The TriBeCa caravans will be available at Away Resorts's parks in the Isle of Wight and Lincolnshire

Step inside the panoramic screen doors and visitors will find an open plan living room and kitchen reminiscent of a trendy inner city loft.

In the children's room the bunk-beds come complete with dens underneath and each bed has its own TV screen and sockets for gaming.

The idea for the TriBeCa, named after a district in Manhattan, came from Away Resorts boss Carl Castledine who believes caravanning will become much more popular after Brexit.

He said: 'The caravan industry contributes more than 6bn a year to the UK economy, so it's got no shortage of fans. But, it's never really been cool, until now.

'First of all, we know that the lifestyle and leisure needs of the family have changed drastically  especially in the past decade.

The stand alone bath with a television behind the mirror

In the children's room the bunk-beds come complete with dens underneath and each bed has its own TV screen and sockets for gaming

The master bedroom: Away Resorts's boss Carl Castledine believes the TriBeCa makes caravanning cool

'Add to this the massive rise in the popularity of boutique hotels and glamping  both of which have raised the expectations of families in terms of the comfort and aesthetics when on holiday.

'We used valuable feedback and opinions from hundreds of mums as well as dads, and then teamed up with a woman designer to create the TriBeCa.'

The caravans are available at Away Resorts's Tattershall Lakes and Whitecliff Bay parks.
A large, panther-like creature has been spotted by a mother and daughter prowling through the grass at a popular picnic spot.

A mother and her teenage daughter were enjoying the sunshine at Crowcombe Park Gate, in Somerset's Quantock Hills, when she saw a 'big black' animal.

The 32-year-old, who was with her 14-year-old daughter, said the sun was glinting off its fur as it skulked through the long grass metres in front.

This large beast was seen strutting around Crowcombe Park Gate in the Quantock Hills in Somerset

Up close, you can see it has a distinctive wide head, long tail and impressive leg muscles

She pointed her camera at the massive feline and zoomed in to get a better view, taking a photo to give herself a closer look.

By the time she looked up from her phone the creature - with a distinctive wide head, long tail and leg muscles - had disappeared from view.

The mother couldn't believe it when she inspected the photos at home and realised she had photographed a panther or puma-like creature on Saturday afternoon.

The mum from Somerset, who wants to be anonymous, said: 'We went for a drive and parked up in a quiet spot for a walk.

'At first I couldn't see a lot.

'I could see something big and shining in the sun.

'It looked like it was hiding.

The animal is circled here, as it skulks away into the long grass. The mother couldn't believe it when she inspected the photos at home and realised she had photographed a panther or puma-like creature

'The sun was shining off it in the distance but the sun was in my eyes so I tried to look though camera on my phone.

'I zoomed right in but it made screen dark so couldn't see anything, so I just clicked hoping to get a pic.

'I didn't see it properly until I got home and looking at the pic bigger.

'I think it's a big cat - a panther type thing.

'All my family did when I showed them the photo. They couldn't believe it. It certainly looks like one.'

She sent the photo to the BeastWatch UK group - a non-profit online organisation which collates reports of exotic wildlife.

Members speculated it could be two dogs, a bear, a boar or a horse - but many agreed it looked like a big cat, such as a panther or jaguar.

One person said: 'Wow, this is the first time I've actually thought it could be a large feline.

'It's very jaguar panther shape, nice and chunky. Could do well in our climate too.'

Members of BeastWatch UK speculated it could be two dogs, a bear, a boar or a horse - but many agreed it looked like a big cat, such as a panther or jaguar

Another added: 'I'm 99.9% that it's feline. Everything about it is like a melanistic jaguar.'

But another wrote: 'Possibly just two dogs.

'As Arthur Conan Doyle once said 'Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth'.

'I'm not saying it isn't one animal, but I will always look at the most likely first.'

The Quantock Hills is classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and has acres of heathland, woodlands, parklands and agricultural land.

Last year Avon and Somerset Police revealed they had been alerted to 13 sightings of big cats in Somerset, including panthers, lions and pumas.

The 'Beast of Wellington' - a black big cat - was last year blamed for a spike in domestic cat deaths in nearby Wellington, Somerset.
An Australian entrepreneur is fighting for her life after being diagnosed with a horrific disorder that sends intense pain throughout her body, preventing her from walking or even sitting without feeling like she is 'being dipped in acid.'

Chantelle Baker, a 32-year-old philanthropist from Melbourne, was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome  or 'the suicide disease'  in January after a hike in Oregon, U.S., left her with a twisted ankle.

The incurable and rare neurological disorder is described as the most painful condition ever and measures at least 10 points higher than childbirth and losing a limb on the pain scale.

'[The pain is like] someone is melting the bones inside my legs. Like I'm being burnt alive from head to toe. Or that my entire body was being dipped in acid,' Ms Baker, who is using medical marijuana to help manage the pain, detailed on her GoFundMe page.

Chantelle Baker (pictured), a 32-year-old philanthropist from Melbourne, is fighting for her life after being diagnosed with a horrific disorder that sends intense pain throughout her body constantly

Ms Baker (pictured) was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome  or 'the suicide disease'  in January after a hike in Oregon, U.S., left her with a twisted ankle

The 32-year-old has been undergoing treatment at a specialist facility in Arkansas and is raising $32,000 to fund further treatment in Bologna, Italy.

A month after Ms Baker's diagnosis, the constant pain spread throughout body, causing convulsions and a burning sensations all over her skin.

Ms Baker said the excruciating agony left her begging to die.

'When the condition first spread, I ended up in Emergency with full body tremors and in an incomprehensible amount of pain  my body had gone into shock,' Ms Baxter told The Courier Mail.

'My legs felt like the bones were slowly being crushed  and it was relentless, hours and hours and hours of the worst pain I'd ever experienced.'

'I don't even remember making the phone calls, but apparently I called a friend in Australia and begged him to jump on a plane and come to America and kill me.

The incurable and rare neurological disorder is described as the most painful condition ever and measures at least 10 points higher than childbirth and losing a limb on the pain scale (pictured)

A month after Ms Baker's diagnosis, the constant pain spread throughout body, causing convulsions and a burning sensations all over her skin.

Ms Baker said the excruciating agony left her begging to die

Although she is still unable to walk, sit or lie down without pain, the treatment is helping her reach a manageable pain level.

If she raises enough money for treatment in Italy, Ms Baker will be infused with Neridronate Acid over two weeks.

The drug has an 80 percent success rate and could allow the 32-year-old to live a somewhat normal life again.

So far, Ms Baker's GoFundMe page has raised more than $27,500 of the $32,000 total.

Ms Baker is the co-founder of non-profit One Girl and was listed as one of the Top 30 Under 30 Entrepreneurs and one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Melbourne in 2011, according to The Courier Mail.
Goncalo Amaral, 57, claimed in a book that Madeleine died at the McCann's holiday house in Praia da Luz and Kate and Gerry covered it up

The Portuguese detective who led the search for Madeleine McCann has promised to 'clean out' her grief-stricken parents by suing them for damaging his reputation.

Goncalo Amaral, 57, claimed in a book that Madeleine died at the McCann's holiday house in Praia da Luz and Kate and Gerry covered it up.

The McCanns won a libel case against Amaral in 2015, but this was overturned on appeal and that decision upheld in another court.

This means Amaral is now able to sue the McCanns for damages potentially totalling tens of thousands of pounds.

A source told The Sun on Sunday's Alex Diaz: 'Amaral holds the key to making life financially very tough for the McCanns.

'He has told friends he intends to do just that. He wants to squeeze every penny he possibly can out of them, clean them out. He has no shame at all.'

The former policeman has already put in a claim of 8,500 for legal costs.

His publisher and the creators of a DVD about Madeleine's disappearance also want 4,200 each.

The McCanns won a libel case against Amaral in 2015, but this was overturned on appeal and that decision upheld in another court

The continuing legal battle will bring extra pain to the McCanns as they approach the tenth anniversary of their daughter's disappearance next month.

Amaral is said to be working on another book about the case.

His 2008 publication, Maddie: The Truth Of The Lie, was written soon after he was hauled off the investigation in 2008 and took early retirement.

He alleged Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment and the McCanns had faked her abduction.

The McCanns won a libel case against Amaral in 2015 over his book, Maddie: The Truth Of The Lie, but this was overturned on appeal and that decision upheld in another court

The couple told a trial of their desperation, anxiety and pain at being accused by Amaral of hiding their daughters body.

The continuing legal battle will bring extra pain to the McCanns as they approach the tenth anniversary of their daughter's disappearance next month

In February, after a nine-year legal battle, the McCanns finally failed in their attempt to have the book banned from sale in Portugal.

They have always maintained that their aim was to stop Amaral spreading wicked and false lies which they felt hampered the search for Madeleine.

The Portuguese supreme court decision upheld the finding of a lower court last year, which overturned a previous libel win by the McCanns against Amaral when he was ordered to pay them 385,000 in damages.

Their initial victory in 2015 allowed them to block formal publication of the book, but could not stop its circulation on the internet.

The supreme court concluded freedom of expression, in the shape of the Amaral book, must trump the right to protect the reputation of individuals (the McCanns).
Ten prison guards were taken to hospital after being brutally attacked chairs and pool balls by rioting inmates.

The guards were reportedly hurt while trying to restrain a prisoner and others piled in with makeshift weapons.

They used chairs and threw pool balls during rioting that continued well into the next day at HMP Whitemoor, Cambridgeshire.

Ten prison guards were taken to hospital after being brutally attacked chairs and pool balls by rioting inmates at HMP Whitemoor (pictured, stock image)

But police dogs were used to quell the violence when it was re-ignited at the category A facility the following day.

Seven prisoners have been moved to other jails and the Prison Service says the 'separate incidents' have now been resolved.

It allegedly started when an inmate 'with mental health issues' was put on a regular wing as the prisoners were preparing to have dinner.

A source told The Sun: 'It was a nasty and prolonged attack. Staff were kicked, hit with chairs and had pool balls hurled at them.'

The prison holds some of Britain's most dangerous inmates, including rapists and murderers.

Notorious Gooch gang leader Lee Amos is serving a minimum of 32 years there for murder and attempted murder.

Inmates used chairs and threw pool balls during rioting that continued well into the next day at HMP Whitemoor, Cambridgeshire (pictured, stock image

In 2009, Amos and ten other members of gang, who had brought bloodthirsty organised crime to Manchester, were given sentences totalling more than 200 years.

Amos is said to have converted to Islam since being detained at Whitemoor, which is said to have the highest Muslim population of any British prison.

Last year, investigations revealed that extremist literature was being distributed at the jail. said to be a 'breeding ground for jihadists'.
Jeremy Clarkson's ex-wife Frances Cain has been spotted partying with a group of younger men during a night out in Barbados.

Ms Cain, wearing an elegant pastel-coloured top and sporting a deep tan, larked around on the dance floor with the unidentified men at the Elbow Room restaurant on the island's Second Street.

The group looked to be enjoying each others' company as they jumped up and down under flashing lights next to the DJ booth.

Jeremy Clarkson's ex-wife Frances Cain has been spotted partying with a group of younger men during a night out in Barbados

Befitting the Caribbean island's warm climate, the men wore short-sleeved shirts as they danced the night away.

Ms Cain is a regular visitor to Barbados, and was recently seen slipping into a leopard-print halterneck bikini for a day at the beach.

The 55-year-old, who was married to former Top Gear presenter Jeremy for 22 years, appeared to be having a great time on the picturesque island.

The outing comes soon after Mr Clarkson, 56, stepped out publicly with his new girlfriend, Lisa Hogan, 46.

Ms Cain, wearing an elegant pastel-coloured top and sporting a deep tan, larked around on the dance floor with the unidentified men at the Elbow Room restaurant

Befitting the Caribbean island's warm climate, the men wore short-sleeved shirts as they danced the night away

After a string of holidays together over the last few weeks, the pair made their first public appearance together as a couple at the Roundhouse Gala earlier this month.

They were also seen together at an event held at the Royal Albert Hall and watching Chelsea FC at Stamford Bridge.

They have been keeping their relationship under wraps, but the Irish beauty but was quick to gush about her new man.

The way they were: Frances was married to Jeremy Clarkson for 22 years until their 2015 split. They are seen outside the Imperial War Museum in London in 2012

Jeremy Clarkson and Lisa Hogan backstage during the Teenage Cancer Trust annual concert series at the Royal Albert Hall on March 1

She told the Sunday Mirror in the couple's first public acknowledgement of their relationship: 'I'm very happy. He's really great.'

Proving their relationship was going from strength to strength, Jeremy and Lisa also enjoyed a romantic getaway in Barbados last month.

The pair, who had been seen together three times prior to their getaway, had been staying on the island as guests of the English impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber.
A harrowing video has emerged of a drunk government worker savagely beating a cloakroom attendant after being refused entry to the bar where she worked.

The 24-year-old man had been turned away from the bar in the city of Rostov-on-Don in south-west Russia's Rostov Oblast region.

Security guards said he was already drunk and that he walked away after he was refused entry to the bar.

A harrowing video has emerged of a drunk government worker savagely beating a cloakroom attendant after being refused entry to the bar where she worked. The 24-year-old man had been turned away from the bar in Rostov-on-Don in south-west Russia's Rostov Oblast region

But horrific CCTV footage from the cloakroom shows him coming back armed with a concrete and metal sculpture of a flower he had found outside.

In the short clip, the man opens the side door to the booth and rushes in, using the heavy sculpture to beat 52-year-old Elena Zhukova over the head.

Passersby realised what was happening and one rushed into the booth to restrain the assailant.

Ms Zhukova was taken to the hospital with severe injuries and the attacker was arrested.

Security guards said the attacker, pictured in the booth, left, was already drunk and that he walked away after he was refused entry to the bar. Luckily some men were passing and one, pictured right, quickly went into the room to restrain the assailant

The 52-year-old victim, Elena Zhukova, pictured here moments before the attack, was taken to the hospital with severe injuries, and the attacker was arrested. Her son said she sustained trauma to the brain, had to have brain surgery and still has a 'patchy memory'

Her son, who did not give his name, said: 'She had a trauma to the brain so she had to have brain surgery.

'Now she is getting better, but still has a patchy memory.'

Police say they are still investigating the incident.

It is not clear whether the suspect, who was not named, was held in custody.

It is also unclear why the assailant's anger was directed at the cloakroom attendant instead of at the security guards who turned him away.
A mother-of-two has described her Egyptian holiday that spiraled into a nightmare after she contracted a gastric illness from what she says were 'dirty' conditions at the resort.

Lisa Walker, of Yarm, Cleveland, flew to the four-star Iberotel Coraya Beach Resort in Marsa Alam, Egypt, on October 26 last year for a week-long break with a female friend, but was shocked to find dirty cutlery, food left uncovered, filthy swimming pool area and a leaky roof.

The 35-year-old had to take three weeks off work when she returned to the UK, after her doctor diagnosed her with gastric illness.

Now she is fighting for justice and is taking legal action against tour operator TUI UK Limited, trading as First Choice.

Lisa Walker, of Yarm, Cleveland, flew to the four-star Iberotel Coraya Beach Resort in Marsa Alam, Egypt, on October 26 last year, but was shocked to see the resort's 'dirty' conditions

Lisa was looking forward to staying in the hotel set on the edge of a coral reef and cocktails on a private beach, as well as three outside pools, one of them with a swim-up bar.

But when she arrived, the hotel was nothing like she expected.

'I was disappointed with the hotel. It was certainly not what I expected from a holiday I had looked forward to for ages,' she said.

She added: 'Some of the cutlery and crockery in the dining area was dirty, on occasions food was left out and uncovered - even the roof in reception leaked which meant dirty water was flowing through the hotel.

'The area around the swimming pool was also dirty with debris which made its way into the swimming pool.'

Walker said that contracting the gastric illness meant she was restricted in what she could do on holiday and claims other guests told they were also feeling unwell.

'When I got back to the UK I went to my GP and he diagnosed that I was suffering from a gastric illness,' she said. 'I couldn't believe it.

The 35-year-old (pictured with her children) had to take three weeks off work when she returned to the UK, after her doctor diagnosed her with gastric illness

Now she is fighting for justice and is taking legal action against tour operator TUI UK Limited, trading as First Choice

'I lost three weeks off work for the sake of a miserable seven-day holiday. It was a nightmare holiday and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.'

Gastric illnesses can often leave people with long-term health symptoms.

Amadeep Samra, a lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, representing Walker, said that the mother-of-two was still suffering, six months later.

'We are determined to help Lisa to obtain answers regarding the issues she faced,'Samra said. 'As part of our investigation we would be keen to hear from anyone else who was affected or witnessed the problems.'

A spokesperson for First Choice said in a statement: 'We're sorry to hear of the customer's experience. As we understand this matter is now subject to legal proceedings it would be inappropriate to comment at this time.

'We'd like to reassure customers that we regularly audit all of the hotels we feature in respect of health and safety, including hygiene.'
A controversial sheikh who condemned a video by an Islamist extremist group justifying domestic violence had himself argued husbands had a right to sex with their wives.

Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman, president of the Australian National Imams Council, is the first name on a list of 34 prominent Muslims who slammed a Hizb ut-Tahrir video featuring two women making the case for domestic violence.

However, last year he delivered a sermon at Lakemba, in Sydney's southwest, arguing men reportedly had 'authority' over their wives.

He has since denied arguing men had a right to demand sex with their spouses.

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Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman delivered a sermon saying husbands could demand sex from their wives

Muslim men are allowed to hit their wives if they disobey them and domestic violence is a 'beautiful blessing', according to a video from a women's branch of a radical Islamic group

The statement, which includes Waleed Aly as a signatory, boasts over 30 prominent Muslim figures backing the denouncement

Sheikh Shady said husbands needed sex from their wives.

'When a husband calls his wife to bed and if she rejects him, the angels will continue to curse her until morning,' he told his followers in a speech cited by The Weekend Australian.

'A husband has rights to fulfill his sexual desires from his wife; a man has that right.'

However, he has clarified his comments in a Facebook post, arguing he had never said men had the right to 'demand sex'.

'I clearly mentioned that Islamically both husband and wife have the right to fulfill their sexual desires with one another,' he said.

'I do not condone any form of compulsion or force upon anyone.'

Last week, he was the first name on a list of Muslim leaders condemning a Hizb ut-Tahrir video of two women justifying domestic violence.

He was one of 34 prominent Muslims who collectively said: 'Australian men and women, unequivocally, reject suggestions that there are religious justifications for any form of violence against women.

'There is absolutely no justification for men to demean, threaten or abuse women, whether symbolically or otherwise.'

This is the same Sheikh Shady who previously described AIDS as a divine punishment for homosexuals.

His inflammatory comments came to light last year after he was invited to an Iftar dinner at Sydney's Kirribilli House with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The sheikh had shared some of his extreme views in a video posted online in April 2013, where he said if homosexuality was out in the open 'amongst a tribe... Allah will send on them diseases they have never experienced before'.

Waleed Aly discusses the recent online video where two Muslim women are seen suggesting domestic violence is acceptable

Waleed Aly and his Muslim-convert wife Susan Carland were on a list of prominent Muslims condemning domestic violence

'What's the most common diseases these days, HIV, AIDS, that's so common, and there's no cure to it,' he said.

'When did it exist? Just decades ago. And more diseases are coming... homosexuality is spreading all these diseases.'

Last week, Muslim broadcaster Waleed Aly and his Muslim-convert wife Susan Carland were on the same list as Sheikh Shady condemning the Hizb ut-Tahrir video.

Aly used his appearance on The Project to condemn any justification for domestic violence.

'It is infuriating. It is also infuriating that those views still exist within the Muslim community,' Aly said.

The Project co-host also went on to label the creators of the video 'jerks.'

In the provocative video, the women's branch of a radical Hizb ut-Tahrir suggested that Muslim men were allowed to hit their wives if they disobeyed them, describing domestic violence as a 'beautiful blessing.'

Minister for Women, Michaelia Cash said that she 'abhorred' the video

Today Show host Ben Fordham said it's 'never OK to hit your wife'

The Minister for Women, Michaelia Cash was quick to attack the video.

'I am absolutely abhorred that women out there are saying that it is alright for a man to hit a woman,' Senator Cash said.

'It is not alright to hit a woman in Australia.'

Today show presenter Ben Fordham also slammed the video on Thursday saying it's 'never OK to hit your wife.'

Hizb ut-Tahrir's Facebook video featured Sydney primary school teacher Reem Allouche saying men were permitted to hit women with sticks.

During the 30-minute discussion at a meeting in Sydney's west, Ms Allouche and fellow panellist Atika Latifi - who are both wearing headscarves - describe how beating women is a 'symbolic act'.

At one point, they even demonstrated how to use a small stick called a 'sivaak' to hit 'disobedient' women.

Ms Allouche continues by saying men should use the sivaak to punish their wives.

She then uses one of the sticks to hit Ms Latifi while the pair laugh.

Ms Allouche says the act is 'symbolic', while Ms Latifi claims it's 'a beautiful blessing'.

The women agree that they should only be beaten if they are caught 'committing sin' - pointing out that this means seriously disrespecting Allah or their husbands.

Ms Allouche smiles as she adds that does not mean a man can beat his wife simply for not cooking dinner, with the women agreeing that violence should only be used to 'promote tranquility'.

The pair agree that men have the right to beat their wives because husbands take a 'leadership' position within the family.

Sydney primary school teacher Reem Allouche (left) told the women's arm of hardline Islamist political group Hizb ut-Tahrir that men are permitted to hit women with sticks

During the 30-minute discussion at a meeting Sydney's west, Ms Allouche and fellow panellist Atika Latifi (right) describe how beating women is a 'symbolic act'.

'It goes hand in hand that he would have the right to undertake disciplinary measures,' Ms Allouche says.

Ms Latifi adds: 'He is permitted - not obliged, not encouraged - but permitted, to hit her. That is what everyone is talking about. It should not cause pain. Not harsh.'

Islamic leader Keysar Trad apologised at the weekend for saying hitting women was a 'last resort'

During the debate, Ms Allouche says wives who disobey Muslim teachings could face a beating from their husband, but only because 'he loves his wife, he fears for his wife'.

'He's not responding through anger or frustration or rage. He's responding in obedience to Allah's commands, in a measured and staged way, because we know when people talk about violence against women, often it happens in the heat of the moment, in anger, in frustration and what-not, whereas here, it's managed.'

Ms Latifi claims violence should be a last resort for husbands, saying they should admonish them first.

Finally, if that does not work, he 'is permitted to hit her'.

'And what a beautiful blessing, that he said not to take the steps at the one time, but one after the other,' she said.

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Keysar Trad had earlier apologised for this year saying husbands could hit their wives as 'last resort', admitting to Sky News presenter Andrew Bolt that he had made a 'slip up'.
Two people have died in a fight outside a polling station in Turkey as the country decides whether to hand more power to President Tayyip Erdogan.

It is understood shots were fired after a disagreement over political views in the playground of a school which was being used as a centre for civilians to cast their votes.

An argument between two families had escalated and one person was still in hospital after the incident in Diyarbakir which resulted in two arrests, according to local press.

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A voter carrying a child arrives at a polling station in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, on Sunday, April 16, 2017

Voters line up outside the polling station in Diyarbakir where the shooting is thought to have taken place

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan enters a voting booth inside a polling station in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday

People line up to cast their vote on the proposed reform, passed by Turkish parliament on 21 January, would change the country's parliamentarian system of governance into a presidential one, which the opposition denounced as giving more power to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Men sit on a bench with security staff nearby outside the polling station where it is thought two people died following a disagreement over political views

If the 'yes' vote prevails in the referendum, the 18 constitutional changes will replace Turkey's parliamentary system of government with a presidential one, abolishing the office of the prime minister.

It is not known on which side of the political debate the dead voters were on.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his supporters say the 'Turkish style' presidential system would bring stability and prosperity in a country rattled by last year's coup attempt and a series of devastating attacks by the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

But opponents fear the changes will lead to autocratic one-man rule, ensuring that Erdogan, who has been accused of repressing rights and freedoms, could govern until 2029 with few checks and balances.

Mr Erdogan described the referendum as an opportunity for 'change and transformation' as he voted in Istanbul, where bodyguards with automatic weapons stood guard outside the polling station.

'We need to make a decision that is beyond the ordinary,' Mr Erdogan said, adding he hoped Turkish voters would make the 'expected' decision.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party and top 'no' campaigner, called it a vote on Turkey's fate.

'We hope the results will be good and together we can have the opportunity to discuss Turkey's other fundamental problems,' he said.

The official Anadolu news agency reported that military helicopters flew ballots and elections officers to some districts of Diyarbakir due to security reasons.

The proposed changes would grant the president powers to appoint ministers, senior government officials and half the members of Turkey's highest judicial body, as well as issue decrees and declare states of emergency.

It sets a limit of two five-year terms for presidents and also allows the president to remain at the helm of a political party.

Among those who has already cast their vote, somewhat flamboyantly, is Turkish chef Nusret Gokce who found fame as Salt Bae

A voter is fingerprinted inside a polling station in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, on Sunday, April 16, 2017. Voters in Turkey were deciding Sunday on the future of their country, with polling stations opening for a historic referendum, which was called by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on whether to approve reforms that would concentrate power in the hands of the president. (AP Photo/Emre Tazegul)

The changes would come into effect with the next general elections, scheduled for 2019 and among those who have already cast vote, somewhat flamboyantly, is Turkish chef Nusret Gokce who found fame as Salt Bae.

Mr Erdogan, 63, first came to power in 2003 as prime minister and served in that role until becoming Turkey's first directly elected president in 2014.

He has long sought to expand the powers of the president. The result of Sunday's referendum will determine Turkey's long-term political future and will likely have lasting effects on its relations with the European Union and the world.
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It's certainly more energetic than an egg hunt.

These two rival parishes on the Greek island of Chios celebrate Easter Saturday by firing rockets at each other.

Each year the Orthodox congregations of the Agios Markos (St Mark's) and Panagia Erithiani (Virgin Mary Erithiani) churches sit on opposite hilltops in the town of Vrontados and launch tens of thousands of home-made fireworks.

It is known as Rouketopolemos (rocket war) and is a variation of the Greek tradition of throwing rockets during Easter celebrations.

The objective is to hit the bell tower of the church on the other side.

The team with the largest number of hits wins the war but as this is impossible to judge both sides always declare it a draw before agreeing to a rematch the following year.

The origins of the tradition date back to the 19th Century when Chios was under Ottoman rule. During this time the Orthodox Christian community was not allowed to celebrate Easter.

So the parishes staged a fake war as a means of keeping the Turkish authorities away.

The battle used to involve real cannons until the Ottomans banned them in 1889.

The Panaghia Erithiani Church is hit by rockets from supporters of the Aghios Marko Church during the annual Rocket War, known locally as the 'Rouketopolemos'

The moon is reflected in the sea as rockets are fired between the two churches

The congregation begins firing at dusk with a ceasefire being called at about 11.30pm

The objective is to hit the bell tower of the rival church on the other hill

Tens of thousands of rockets are launched during the even which dates back to the 19th Century

As it is impossible to tell which side has had the most hits a draw is declared with a rematch schedulled for next year

Supporters of the Panaghia Erithiani Church prepare to fire rockets from home-made racks at the Aghios Marko Church

Protective fencing is seen on a home, the night before the annual Rocket War. Houses in the area are forced to erect temporary defences to prevent damage to their properties
Mohammed Ali Ege (pictured) has gone on the run in India after he escaped through a toilet window

A drugs lord who ordered a botched 'hit' which killed a British schoolboy has gone on the run in India after he escaped from police custody by clambering out of a toilet window.

Mohammed Ali Ege, 41, ordered two hitmen to kill a rival in a feud over money - but the blundering men got the wrong house and killed 17-year-old Aamir Siddiqi.

Heroin addicts Ben Hope and Jason Richards were jailed for life for stabbing A-level student Aamir as he opened his front door to them in Cardiff.

But Ege, who ordered the mistaken-identity murder in 2010, fled to India after the killing and was arrested a year later.

He has been in custody awaiting extradition ever since - but has now escaped from police after they took him to a court hearing.

Reports in India say Ege told police he needed to use a toilet at a train station - and then escaped out of the window.

Commander Mahendra Kumar Rathod said: 'After the court proceedings, the accused was being brought back to Hyderabad by a train.

Aamir Siddiqi was stabbed in a case of mistaken identity when he opened the door of his house, thinking it would be his Koran teacher

Police at the scene of Aamir Siddiqi's Cardiff home following his tragic murder in 2010

'The escort team reached the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station to board a train to Hyderabad and were waiting at the Government Railway Police room.

'The accused requested the police to allow him to go to the washroom, and he escaped from there by removing the window grills of the washroom.'

Ege's escape means Aamir's heartbroken family are still waiting for justice for the man responsible for their son's murder seven years later.

A spokesman for South Wales Police said they couldn't comment on Ege's escape from custody.

Heroin addicts Jason Richards (left) and Ben Hope (right) were jailed for life with a minimum of 40 years each after being found guilty of murder and attempted murder

Ege's escape means Aamir's (pictured) heartbroken family are still waiting for justice for the man responsible for their son's murder seven years later

Forensics officers take samples from the doorway where Aamir was killed by blundering Richards and Hope

However, the spokesman did say: 'Officers are obviously continuing to engage with the authorities in relation to the ongoing extradition proceedings and will continue to liaise with Aamir Siddique's family, providing them with any relevant information as it becomes available.'

Cardiff Crown Court heard Hope, 43, and Richards, 42, were paid 1,000 each to kill a different man on a nearby street in Roath, Cardiff.

But the 'staggeringly incompetent' pair went to the wrong house and knifed Aamir to death as he opened the door, thinking it would be his Koran teacher.

They also stabbed Aamir's parents as his mother and father battled to save their young son.

Aamir (pictured as a child, middle, and a young adult, left and right) was awaiting the arrival of his Koran teacher when he rushed past his parents to open the door

South Wales Police (another officer pictured at the scene) said they couldn't comment on Ege's escape from custody

Hope and Richards were jailed for life with a minimum of 40 years each after being found guilty of murder and attempted murder.

The judge, Mr Justice Royce, called them 'staggeringly incompetent'.

He told them: 'Aamir was awaiting the arrival of his Koran teacher when he rushed past his parents to open the door.

'You two came in, wearing balaclavas and making a terrible wailing sound.

'Your attack on him was brutal, savage, callous and cruel.'

A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office say they have had no dealings with Ege's planned extradition.
The search for missing 17-year-old Ali Mosawi has been suspended for a second night and will resume early on Monday morning, police say.

Mr Mosawi was wading in Pebbly Beach near Coffs Harbour with his cousins and brother on Saturday afternoon when he was swept away by strong currents and rips, Nine News reported.

The search for the Miller Technology High School student began soon after, but was suspended 90 minutes later due to low lighting and resumed early on Sunday morning.

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Ali Mosawi (pictured), 17, went missing on Saturday afternoon after being swept up in strong currents on Pebbly Beach near Coffs Harbour

'My cousin Ali is currently out there in the water,' his cousin Ahmed Alali told the broadcaster.

'His family back in Sydney is barely holding on, his mother is sitting over there mourning.'

Though it has been more than 24 hours since Ali was seen or heard from, police divers, as well as PolAir, volunteers from Surf Live Saving NSW, Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter and other agencies are all still looking for the teenager.

A program run by his high school, where students build a drag racing car from scratch, posted a tribute to Mr Mosawi on Sunday evening.

A search began briefly on Saturday evening and continued all of Sunday but has been suspended again due to low lighting

The teenager's school posted a tribute to the year 11 student on Sunday

'It is with a sad heart that we acknowledge the passing of one of our students and pitcrew Ali,' they wrote.

'Ali Mosawi, 17, became caught in a rip at Pebbly Beach in the Yuraygir National Park, 55km north of Coffs Harbour, just before 4pm on Saturday.'

Friends of Mr Mosawi have also paid tribute to a boy who always 'put a smile on their faces'.

Sheltie Bryant described Ali Mosawi as a 'great friend', The Daily Telegraph reported.

A search for a 17-year-old teenager caught in a rip in an unpatrolled part of Pebbly Beach (pictured) on the NSW North Coast resumed at first light on Sunday

NSW Water police are leading the search for the missing teen, along with the Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter (stock image pictured). The search was called off about 5.30pm on Saturday due to poor visibility and large swells but resumed at first light on Sunday

'Whenever someone needed a friend to talk to he was always there and would put a smile on their faces and have their backs,' she said.

'He would stand up for his boys at school... I'm going to miss him so much.'

Police said the trio were in the vicinity of the camping area in the Yuraygir National Park at the time when they got into trouble in dangerous conditions.

The teenager was in a group swimming near the camping area in the Yuraygir National Park. Two of the group made it safely back to shore, but he disappeared. One swimmer who took on water was taken to Coffs Harbour Health Campus and remains in a stable condition

Two of the group returned to shore, but said when they looked back to the water there was no sign of their missing friend.

Surf Lifesaving Australia said in a statement it was understood the 17-year-old was not a strong swimmer.

Emergency services who attended the scene on Saturday treated one of the other boys, aged 18, who had taken on a lot of water.

He was taken to Coffs Harbour Health Campus for treatment and remains in a stable condition as of Sunday night.
British-born Asma al-Assad, 41, regularly posts pictures on her Instagram account

Bashar al-Assad's London-born wife is facing calls for her British citizenship to be stripped after she used her prolific Instagram account to accuse the West of lying over her husband's use of Sarin gas.

Asma al-Assad, originally from Acton, west London, is followed by a combined 500,000 across Instagram, Facebook and Telegram - the latter being an app that has been earmarked as a breeding ground for terrorism.

But one post in particular has sparked outrage, as she wrote: 'The presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic affirms that what America has done is an irresponsible act that only reflects a short-sightedness, a narrow horizon, a political and military blindness to reality and a naive pursuit of a frenzied false propaganda campaign.'

The former JP Morgan banker, 41, has already been banned from travelling to Europe since 2012, but now the pressure is being increased for her citizenship to be revoked.

Nadhim Zahawi, a Conservative MP who sits on the Commons foreign affairs committee, told the Sunday Times: 'The time has come where we go after [President] Assad in every which way, including people like Mrs Assad, who is very much part of the propaganda machine that is committing war crimes'

Horrifying images of dead children and people foaming at the mouth sent shockwaves round the world, after her husband ordered his troops to drop Sarin gas on his own people.

But, if you only followed Mrs Assad's account you would be forgiven for thinking life in Syria is picture-perfect.

Pictured is the First Lady of Syria Asma al-Assad speaking to children at a school in Iraq five weeks ago

An unconscious Syrian child receives treatment at a hospital in Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the Idlib province, following a chemical gas attack

The 41-year-old regularly posts pictures showing her speaking to children, holding a baby in a Damascus hospital and embracing a family who lost a loved one in the country's civil war.

Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, added: 'Boris Johnson has urged other countries to do more about Syria, but the British government could say to Asma al-Assad, "Either stop using your position to defend barbaric acts or be stripped of your citizenship".'

Mrs Assad posts professional pictures of her visits, talks and engagement meetings.

One photo, posted on Wednesday, shows her with students who finished top of their class. Another shows her cradling a baby in a Damascus hospital on International Women's Day.

All of the posts use the hashtag '#weloveyouAsma' and reach out to her 120,000 followers. But many people have branded her 'sick', 'twisted' and a 'murderer' in their comments.

One follower described Mrs Assad as 'the devil's side b***h', while another told her to 'rot in hell'.

Syrian expert Andrew Tabler, who worked with the First Lady between 2001 and 2008, said her social media account is designed to portray an 'alternate reality' of life in the war-torn country.

He told Fox News: 'It shows indifference and insensitivity at the highest level. I think she's fully aware of what's going on and it makes your stomach churn.'

Tests carried out on the site in Khan Sheikhun have established the presence of sarin gas, or a similar substance, the UN Security Council heard on Wednesday.

One a post 18 weeks ago, she said: 'The most important achievement after all these years..is that our children can now hear us, talk to us, understand us.'

This photo, posted on Wednesday, shows her with students who finished top of their class

Children get treatment at a hospital after last week's chemical attack by Assad regime forces

While her husband faces calls to tried as a war criminal, Mrs Assad, who was born in London and grew up in Acton, described the world's reaction as 'propaganda' against the regime.

On her Instagram account, she wrote in Arabic: 'The presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic affirms that what America has done is an irresponsible act that only reflects a short-sightedness, a narrow horizon, a political and military blindness to reality, and a naive pursuit of a frenzied false propaganda campaign that fueled the regime's arrogance,' she wrote in Arabic on her Instagram account.'

Mrs Assad holds dual citizenship, British and Syrian.

Her parents, both Sunni Muslims, moved from Syria to London in the Fifties so that her father, who is now based at the Cromwell Hospital and in Harley Street, could get the best possible education and medical training.

This picture shows her Mrs Assad cradling a baby in a Damascus hospital on International Women's Day

A Syrian child receives treatment at a small hospital in the town of Maaret al-Noman after last week's Sarin gas attack

Horrifying images of dead children and people foaming at the mouth sent shockwaves round the world, after her husband ordered his troops to drop Sarin gas on his own people

She was educated at a Church of England school in Ealing before attending a private girls' day school  Queen's College, Harley Street.

Those who knew her said that, given that she spent the first 25 years of her life in London, Mrs Assad had liberal western values.

Meanwhile, President Assad has branded claims his regime launched a chemical attack on his own citizens '100 per cent fabrication'.

The dictator suggested video footage of the alleged atrocity could be fake, and said: 'The story is not convincing by any means'.

He insisted it was 'not clear whether it happened or not, because how can you verify a video? You have a lot of fake videos now.'

And referring to footage which showed people foaming at the mouth, which sent shockwaves around the world, he said: 'We don't know whether those dead children were killed in Khan Sheikhun. Were they dead at all?'

The Syrian president has questioned whether children, such as the twin babies pictured being held by distraught father Abdel Hameed Alyousef, 29, were actually killed in the attack

In response to US President Donald Trump's declaration that Assad was to blame, and subsequent air strike on a Syrian air field, the dictator said Trump must 'eat his words', 'swallow his pride', and perform a u-turn if he wants survive in the job.

Assad made the comment in an interview released today, less than 24 hours after world leaders clashed over a UN resolution condemning the attack, which human rights groups say killed 87 people.

Tests carried out on the site have established the presence of sarin gas, or a similar substance, the UN Security Council heard yesterday.

Speaking to AFP, Assad also said:

His army 'gave up' all chemical weapons in 2013

He will only allow an 'impartial' probe into the chemical attack by 'unbiased' nations

Syrian firepower is 'not affected' by a US strike last week

The US is 'not serious' about finding a political situation to end the country's civil war

He accused US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of 'hallucinating' by saying the Assad family reign was coming to an end

He would not have ordered the strike as it would have been morally wrong

State Department spokesman Mark Toner dismissed the comments when asked to respond to them Thursday.

'Sadly, it's vintage Assad,' Toner said. 'It is an attempt by him to throw up false flags, create confusion. Frankly it's a tactic we've seen on Russia's apart as well in the past,' he said, turning to Syria's ally.

'There can be little doubt that he recent attack and the chemical weapons attack in Idlib was by the Syrian government  by the Syrian regime.' He added: 'It was, we believe, a war crime.'

British Prime Minister Theresa May today said it was 'highly likely' that Assad's regime carried out the attack, which was branded an 'affront to humanity' by Trump.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pictured during an interview with AFP's Beirut bureau chief Sammy Ketz in capital Damascus

In his first interview since 59 American cruise missiles hit a central Syrian air base three days after the chemical weapon attack, Assad said footage of the attack aftermath were not 'conclusive proof' it had happened.

Assad branded Trump 'only one of the performers on their theatre', and said 'if he wants to be a real leader, later he's going to eat his words, swallow his pride if he has pride at all, and make a 180 degree U-turn, otherwise he would pay the price politically'.

He said evidence of the attack came only from 'a branch of Al-Qaeda', referring to a former jihadist affiliate which is among the groups that control the Idlib province, where the atrocity happened.

Images of the aftermath, showing victims convulsing and foaming at the mouth, sent shockwaves around the world.

He said Khan Sheikhun had no strategic value and was not currently a battle front.

He continued: 'Definitely, 100 per cent for us, it's fabrication... Our impression is that the West, mainly the United States, is hand-in-glove with the terrorists. They fabricated the whole story in order to have a pretext for the attack.'

Assad said images of children allegedly killed as a result of last week's attack could be fake

The Syrian dictator said he would only allow an 'impartial' investigation into the incident, stating that he would only sanction a probe by 'unbiased' countries.

He told AFP bureau chief Sammy Ketz: 'We can only allow any investigation when it's impartial, when we make sure that unbiased countries will participate in this delegation in order to make sure that they won't use it for politicised purposes.'

The dictator hit out at the US, saying peace talks aimed at resolving his country's civil war were ineffective because Washington was 'not serious' about ending the conflict.

'The United States is not serious in achieving any political solution. They want to use it as an umbrella for the terrorists.'

He claimed his regime handed over all its chemical weapons stockpiles in 2013, and could not have carried out last week's attack.

He hit out at US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who earlier this week claimed the Assad family 'reign' was coming to an end

Assad claimed his regime handed over all its chemical weapons stockpiles in 2013, and could not have carried out last week's attack

'There was no order to make any attack... We gave up our arsenal a few years ago. Even if we have them, we wouldn't use them,' Assad stated.

And he claimed to be unfazed by international opposition, stating that the suffering of Syria's people 'is the only thing that could deprive me from sleep from time to time, but not the Western statements and not the threat of the support of the terrorists'.

Asked whether he thought there could be further US strikes, he said: 'As long as the United States is being governed by this complex of military industrial complex, the financial companies, banks, and what you call deep regime, and works for the vested interest of those groups, of course. It could happen anytime, anywhere, not only in Syria.'

He hit out at US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who earlier this week claimed the Assad family 'reign' was coming to an end.

The Syrian leader stated: 'There is no reign of Assad family anyway in Syria.

'He's dreaming, or let's say, he's hallucinating, so, we don't waste our time with his statement.'

Images of the aftermath, showing victims convulsing and foaming at the mouth, sent shockwaves around the world

US forces carried out an air strike on a base in central Syria, claiming Assad was behind last week's attack

He accused the US of carrying out its air strike without collecting any evidence his regime was behind the attack, stating: 'The only thing were allegations and propaganda, and then (the) strike.'

The Syrian president said that even if is regime had the means to do so, he would not have ordered the strike on moral grounds.

Assad told AFP: 'Of course, the foundation for us, morally, we wouldn't do it if we have it. We wouldn't have the will, because morally this is not acceptable.

'We won't have the support of the public. So every indication is against the whole story, so you can say that this play that they staged doesn't hold together. The story is not convincing by any means.'

Russia last night blocked a UN resolution which called for a speedy investigation into the use of sarin nerve gas last Tuesday.

President Vladimir Putin has angrily refuted claims that Assad ordered the attack, saying there was 'no evidence' to back this up.
A Sydney lawyer who was banned from 225 venues after he drunkenly harassed diners at a Thai restaurant pleaded for the ruling to be overturned because he didn't 'have culinary expertise.'

Leon Monastirski was banned from entering 'high risk venues' for one year after police were called to Pad Thai restaurant on Oxford Street in Surry Hills in February last year to arrest him.

Unable to visit his usual eateries, the lawyer challenged the ban and it was reduced to three months after he claimed he couldn't cook.

Witnesses said Monastirski had not ordered any food but was annoying the Thai restaurant's patrons when he was confronted by police around 10.40pm on February 24.

Leon Monastirski (pictured) who was banned from 225 venues after he drunkenly harassed diners at a Thai restaurant last year pleaded for the ruling to be overturned because he didn't know how to cook

Police noted he was intoxicated and was slurring his words, and had a strong smell of alcohol on his breath.

But when plainclothes officers identified themselves and instructed Monastirski to leave the restaurant and move on from Oxford Street, he told them: 'You're not real cops, you can't tell me what to do.'

He refused repeated requests to leave and raised his middle finger towards police, adding: 'You're not real cops, you can go f*** yourself.'

Monastirski was forcibly removed from the restaurant after he continued to swear at police and refused to leave.

He also attempted to swing his elbow towards the arresting officer's face who dodged his attack and placed him in a wrist lock, according to the police report.

While police were searching Monastirski's belongings, he lunged toward another officer, grabbing his forearms and scratching him.

As he was cuffed, he told them: 'You're not real cops, I'm going to have you discharged from your duties as police, I'm a lawyer.'

And when Monastirski was placed in caged truck, he repeatedly banged on the door, saying: 'I'm a lawyer, I haven't done anything wrong.'

Police were called to Pad Thai restaurant (above) in Surry Hills after the Sydney lawyer stumbled in drunk and began annoying customers

Pointing at police officers and ambulance workers, he also said: 'I'm going to make you all eat s***, I will make you eat my s***.'

Monastirski was later convicted of two counts of assaulting a police officer and one count of resisting an officer while in the execution of his or her duty.

He was fined $700 and put on a good behaviour bond for 18 months.

But former NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione also applied to the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority to ban Monastirski from entering all 'high-risk venues' in Sydney's CBD and Kings Cross for 12 months from September 29, 2016.

High-risk venues are those which remain open after midnight and sell alcohol.

Monastirski, who runs a legal practice on Elizabeth Street, challenged the order and it was reduced to three months until December 28.

Four months after the Pad Thai incident, he was twice ejected from The Colombian Hotel (above) for being intoxicated

The lawyer also argued he was a member of the City of Sydney Law Society and would not be able to attend meeting and functions at venues on the banned list, including the City Tattersalls Club.

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard 16 police reports of Monastirski misusing alcohol between March 2014 and September 2016.

Fourteen of those reports concern police attending his flat from where they arranged for him to be taken to hospital.

One report said he was thrown out of The Colombian Hotel on Oxford Street for being drunk twice on the night of June 24, four months after the incident at Pad Thai restaurant.

The report said he had accused security of beating him up, but CCTV footage showed the grazes he sustained on his face during the incident were because he fell over while intoxicated.

Monastirski is set to appeal is conviction, the Daily Telegraph reported.
A man who spent 20 years in jail for murdering his fiancee before having his conviction overturned has spoken about the moment he discovered her body.

Henry Keogh, 60, was sentenced to life in prison after he was found guilty of drowning Anna-Jane Cheney, then 29, in a bath at their home in Adelaide's east in March 1994.

He was released from prison in 2014 after the Court of Criminal Appeal found flawed forensic evidence led to a miscarriage of justice in his 1995 trial.

The prosecution dropped the case in November 2015 after former chief forensic pathologist and key witness Dr Colin Manock - who Mr Keogh blames for his conviction - was deemed medically unfit to stand.

Mr Keogh revealed details about the moment he found his fiancee dead toSunday Night, saying he was visiting his mum when Ms Cheney died on March 18, 1994.

Henry Keogh, 60, who spent 20 years in jail for murdering his fiancee before having his conviction overturned, has spoken about the moment he discovered her body

Keogh was sentenced to life in prison after he was found guilty of drowning Anna-Jane Cheney (pictured) in a bath at their home in Adelaide's east in March 1994

Ms Cheney drowned in the bath six weeks before the couple were to be married

'I came back, was walking through the house and called out to her and I didn't get an answer,' he said.

'[I] found her slumped in the bath.

'I hoped that maybe she was just asleep, just fainted, and my brain's screaming get her out, get her out and she'll be OK.''

Mr Keogh told the program he tried to revive his fiancee but she wasn't responding.

'I was just praying that when the ambos came, they'd be able to resuscitate her, that she'd pull through,' he said.

'You can't believe it, you're not ready for it. You don't want to believe it when they tell you she hasn't made it.'

Mr Keogh was sent to jail for a minimum 25 years, after the prosecution mounted a case based mainly on circumstantial evidence, which included more than $1million in life insurance policies that listed Mr Keogh as the sole beneficiary.

The bath where Ms Cheney died while Mr Keogh was out visiting his mother

Mr Keogh said he returned to their Magill house from his mother's and called out to Ms Cheney who didn't respond

The jury also heard testimony from Dr Manock on forensic evidence that was later discredited.

Dr Manock told the court bruising on Ms Cheney's ankles suggested someone had tightly gripped her ankles around the time of her death - possibly in order to hold her legs above her head.

He also said autopsy results showed she was conscious at the time of being submerged in the bath water.

But Dr Manock was later found to be underqualified as a forensic pathologist, and his testimony was rejected by an independent review, according to Sunday Night.

The prosecution dropped the case against Mr Keogh in November 2015 after former chief forensic pathologist and key witness Dr Colin Manock (pictured) was deemed medically unfit to stand

Dr Manock told the court during Mr Keogh's trial bruising on Ms Cheney's ankles suggested someone had tightly gripped her ankles around the time of her death - possibly in order to hold her legs above her head

'[Dr Manock's role] was instrumental in turning what was just a senseless and tragic accident - as it turned out and proven - into something it wasn't  a murder inquiry and a witch hunt,' Mr Keogh told Sunday Night.

The program said the review taken in 2004 by a government appointed medical expert found there was a lack of evidence to support the theory Ms Cheney was murdered.

Ms Cheney died six weeks before the couple were to be married.

Mr Keogh missed his daughter's wedding and the birth of his four grandchildren while in jail.

He said he is looking at compensation over the ordeal.

'The government, politicians and the criminal justice system in particular, they're all strong on accountability. And I think if accountability is good for one, it's good for all,' he said.

'My lawyers and I are looking into compensation right now.'
The suspected getaway driver in the fatal shooting of a Chicago judge outside his home is related to the jurist's girlfriend's ex-husband police say.

Joshua Smith was charged in connection to the shooting death earlier this week of 66-year-old Associate Cook County Circuit Judge Raymond Myles. The judge's 52-year-old girlfriend, who is not being named, was shot in the leg but is expected to survive.

Police say Smith, who is believed to be the getaway driver in the shooting plot, is related to the ex-husband of Myles' girlfriend, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Investigators are now looking into whether the judge's girlfriend for personal reasons, law enforcement sources say.

Chicago Judge Raymond Myles, 66 (left), was shot dead outside his home on the city's south side early Monday morning. Joshua Smith (right), 37, was charged in his shooting death on Wednesday

The judge's girlfriend and her former husband split two years ago after she learned her then-husband was a bigamist.

Her ex later secured an emergency order of protection against her, claiming she had threatened to shoot him, court records show.

Smith told police that he and his partner were trying to rob the judge's girlfriend when Myles was killed, prosecutors said Thursday.

The 37-year-old gave a videotaped statement to police in which he said his partner watched the movements of the woman for several weeks before Monday morning's robbery attempt.

Smith drove a vehicle into an alley near the judge's home on the city's South Side and his partner, who is on the run and whose name hasn't been released, got out to wait for the girlfriend, Assistant State's Attorney Guy Lisuzzo said.

When she came out, the gunman shot her in the leg and grabbed her gym bag, Lisuzzo said.

Myles apparently heard the gunshot and came out on his back porch and confronted the gunman, who then fatally shot Myles, hitting him five times. His girlfriend was also hit but survived.

Smith told detectives the men fled with the woman's gym bag but the gunman tossed it in anger when it didn't contain any money, prosecutors said. |The gunman had been led to believe it would contain $3,000 in cash, The Tribune reports.

Above is Judge Myles' home. Neighbors say they were woken up to gunshots just before 5am on Monday. The victims' bodies were found in the back of the property, where the garage is

DuPage County Judge Robert A. Miller was brought in to handle Thursday's bond hearing to avoid a conflict of interest because of Myles' ties to the Cook County court building. Miller ordered Smith held without bond.

Authorities identified Smith as the getaway driver. He is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and obstruction.

Police still are searching for the gunman.

The FBI is working with Chicago police on the investigation into Myles' shooting, and is offering a $25,000 reward for information in the case.

Smith's attorney, assistant public defender Kristina Yi, asked the judge to set bond.

She argued that Smith wasn't accused of firing gunshots and called the evidence against him circumstantial.

Yi said Smith turned himself in to the police and described him as 'a positive and contributing citizen' who co-owns a business and has two teenage children.

Court records show that the judge's girlfriend had her marriage to to her husband, then 72, declared invalid in February 2015 after learning he was already married to another woman when they tied the knot.

Transcripts record that she had confronted her husband, after learning he was already married, who confirmed it was true.

A 52-year-old woman, who police said was Myles' girlfriend, was also shot in the leg. She is expected to survive as police are searching for the gunman and a third participant (scene above)

She was granted a divorce - the result of which meant her ex had to move out of her home. She also retained ownership of an empty lot she owned and two cars.

Later that year, he obtained the protection order claiming his wife had threatened to shoot him and that he was 'afraid' of her and that she needed a 'mental evaluation.'

The order was granted in August but vacated the following month after her ex-husband failed to appear in court.

The judge's girlfriend's name is not being released because police say she is a witness in the killing.

Smith has now been charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and armed robbery.

This is not Smith's first run in with the law, as he was charged in Cook County Circuit Court in 2002 with armed robbery, aggravated vehicular hijacking and aggravated unlawful restrain, according to court records.

Smith pleaded guilty in 2003 to armed robbery and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples said Wednesday that Smith did not act alone and that the investigation is ongoing.

Authorities are still seeking the gunman and a third participant in the fatal shooting, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Staples said the gun in the shooting was also used in an armed robbery in January that left that victim wounded.

The Cook County state's attorney's office said Wednesday that Smith is the alleged getaway driver and was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and armed robbery. Above police gather outside Myles' home on Monday morning

Video cameras on Myles' home and others in the area helped police identify the car used by the suspects in the shooting and its license plate, Staples said.

When police found the vehicle, it had a different license plate than the one seen in the videos, she said.

She said police don't think the car owner took part in the crime.

Police have said the woman that Myles knew had already been shot and that Myles exchanged words with the attacker and then was shot, too.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said earlier that investigators were 'questioning individuals' in the case who were 'people of interest.' He declined to specify how many.

The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward in the case.

The horrific attack against Myles is thought to be the first fatal shooting of a Chicago-area judge in more than three decades.

Myles was up before dawn as he prepared to go to the gym to exercise with his girlfriend before going to his courtroom.

However, as the woman went outside of his home, she was confronted near the garage by a gunman before being shot in the leg.

Authorities say Myles was killed shortly before 5am on Monday when he came outside of his home to help his girlfriend.

One of his neighbors who was awakened by the gunshots told the Tribune that he heard the woman screaming.

'She was screaming, 'Don't kill him, don't kill him!' ' the neighbor said.

Authorities said they investigate about 10 death threats a year against judges in Cook County, but there was no record of any threats against Myles in recent years.

Myles'd death has shocked his fellow colleagues as many have described him as friendly.

LeRoy K. Martin Jr., presiding judge of the Criminal Division, told the Tribune that Myles 'was enthusiastic about his most recent assignment to the 'youthful offenders' call, where he heard narcotics cases involving defendants about age 27 and younger.'

'He was very patient with people and gave out a lot of tough love,' Martin said.

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, according Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans.
A blind man who had his sight restored earlier this year in an incredible procedure using one of his own teeth said the best part was being able to see his wife again.

Goulburn man John Ings, 72, described his vision as 'a dirty window' to 60 Minutes on Sunday evening.

But with the help of oral and maxillofacial specialist, Dr Shannon Webber and oculoplastic surgeon, Dr Greg Moloney, Mr Ings is now able to get around easily - and gaze at his wife Berry as much as he likes.

Goulburn man John Ings (pictured), whose vision had deteriorated into blindness over the past 16 years said he was most excited about seeing his wife Berry (pictured right) again

'I'm looking forward to [seeing Berry], to see if she still looks as beautiful as ever,' Mr Ings told the program ahead of his surgery.

The surgery took place in four parts - and days after the final procedure his bandages were opened to test his vision.

Heartwarming footage filmed by 60 Minutes shows Mr Ings look at his wife for the first time in a very long time.

Mr Ings undertook radical new surgery called osteo-odonto kerato-prosthesis to restore his vision using a lens placed in his tooth and then attached to his eye

Berry is seen leaning in as Mr Ings puts his arm around her, and the pair are both heard sobbing with happiness.

After some time, Mrs Ings leans back and asks her husband: 'Well? What do you see?'

Mr Ings answers with just one word: 'Gorgeous.'

The amazing procedure saw a lens inserted into one of his teeth, which was extracted and then placed into his cheek so tissue would grow around it, enabling its own blood supply.

Mr Ings' tooth was extracted and placed into his cheek so it would grow tissue around it. It was later sewn into his eye

A lens was placed into the tooth (pictured) before it was attached to his eye to replace his natural eye lens

The end result of the procedure is a pink eye with a small black centre (pictured)

'We rely on the tooth to gain its own blood and tissue supply so when it is removed from the mouth, what you have essentially is a living complex,' Dr Webber told The Courier Mail.

After three months surgeons removed the tooth and inserted it into Mr Ings' old cornea. Skin was then removed from his mouth and placed over the new cornea to seal it.

An opening was made to allow the new lens to work.

It was the first time the surgery, called osteo-odonto kerato-prosthesis, has been performed in Australia.

Mr Ing damaged his right eye in a childhood accident, and gradually lost vision in the other over the past 16 years because of the herpes simplex virus.

'My vision has been getting worse over the last 16 years to the point where I can't see out of my right eye and hardly at all out of the left eye,' he previously told the Goulburn Post.

'The herpes simplex virus has chewed through the cornea over the years.'

Mr Ings hailed the procedure a success, and said it was easy to take eyesight for granted

Since Mr Ings' surgery, a 50-year-old Cairns woman, Leonie Garrett, has also had the procedure and now boasts 20/20 vision, The Daily Telegraph reported.

On both occasions the surgeons were supervised by a German specialist who trained the men after revolutionising the procedure in 2004.

Mr Ings hailed the procedure a success, and warned 60 Minutes it was easy to take eyesight for granted.

'You've got to lose it and regain it to really appreciate it,' he said.
Chloe Brown, 16, was a healthy teenager who was working towards a career as a stage actress. But she is now confined to a wheelchair

A teenage schoolgirl is the latest to claim she has been left wheelchair-bound following a controversial cancer jab.

Chloe Brown, 16, was a healthy teenager who was working towards a career as a stage actress.

But her dreams have been shattered as she is now confined to a wheelchair and forced to spend most of her days in bed.

Chloe and her family blame a cancer-preventing jab which she received at school along with her classmates - triggering a horrific chain of events.

They are certain her symptoms are linked to the vaccine, which protects against the human papillomavirus (HPV) and can cause cervical cancer.

The devastating condition kills around 900 women a year.

But there are increasing calls from parents for more research into preventive jabs, which have been routinely offered to school girls since 2008.

Chloe said that in the months following the routine procedure she fell ill with dizziness, headaches, fatigue and bone and joint pain, and her muscles weakened.

Now, she suffers from constant pain which prevents her from living the life of an ordinary teenager.

Chloe said: 'This time last year I received the second part to my HPV vaccination and within a few months I was wheelchair-bound.

Chloe and her family blame a cancer-preventing jab which she received at school along with her classmates - triggering a horrific chain of events

'I have to battle chronic pain daily. I'm in pain 24 hours a day, seven days a week - and I don't know if I'll ever get better.

'I accepted the assurances that the vaccine is safe and any side effects rare and mild. I can tell you that this is not true and the side effects are devastating and deadly.

'I don't want to see another child and family suffer like we have had to.'

Chloe, who attended All Saints RC Secondary School in Glasgow, received her first jab in January of 2015 and the second in February of last year.

But just three months later her health dramatically deteriorated

She was out walking with friends when her left hip clicked out of place and she broke down in pain, unable to move.

They are certain her symptoms are linked to the vaccine, which protects against the human papillomavirus (HPV) and can cause cervical cancer. Pictured: Chloe when she was healthy

But there are increasing calls from parents for more research into preventive jabs, which have been routinely offered to school girls since 2008

Chloe was put through an MRI scan, X-rays and blood tests but none of them were able to provide a reason for her chronic pain and she was sent home.

She has since experienced severe pains all the way down her left side and feels constantly fatigued.

The teenager attended the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow for a variety of treatments, including physiotherapy and hydrotherapy.

But doctors were unable to find the reason for her suffering.

Chloe was given a cocktail of painkillers, including Tramadol, paracetamol and diazepam - but says she is still experiencing relentless pain.

Chloe was put through an MRI scan, X-rays and blood tests but none of them were able to provide a reason for her chronic pain and she was sent home

Her mother, Pauline Terry, 50, says she has now had to quit her job as a part-time collection agent to look after her daughter.

She said: 'Chloe went into the children's hospital on crutches and came out in a wheelchair.

'She went from being a clever, active, bubbly, outgoing wee girl to being unable to do anything for herself.'

Chloe, from Glasgow, was cast in the main roles as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Belle in Beauty and the Beast for school productions.

And she even had planned to study drama at the city's prestigious Royal Conservatoire.

Millions of high school girls across the country were given the Cervarix jab before it was replaced by the NHS with a new vaccine called Gardasil.

This is the one Chloe received.

European Medicines Agency statistics show that up to January 2017, 3,683 adverse reactions to Cervarix were reported, and 11,802 to Gardasil.

Some 380 families, represented by the UK Association for Vaccine Injured Daughters, have called for more information in schools and research into potential side effects.

Medics have dismissed their concerns and the Scottish Government says that the jab is not dangerous, insisting it has a 'good safety profile and is effective'.

Pauline said: 'I'm not anti-vaccine at all.

'Both my girls have got all their vaccines but I don't think we were given enough information about Gardasil to make a proper informed decision.

The Scottish Government insists the jab is safe and is effective in fighting HPV

Figures show that levels of the cancer-causing human papillomavirus in Scotland have dropped 90 per cent in young women, following a vaccination campaign that began in 2008

'It said that she would have a sore arm for a few days and possibly a bit of a headache in exchange for this cure. Of course, I said she should get it.

'But then I found out there can be up to 25 major adverse reactions. I didn't realise my daughter would be crippled with pain.'

Pauline believes that the HPV jab is the only possible explanation for Chloe's plight having found no answers from doctors.

She added: 'The Gardasil jab is the only new thing that came into Chloe's life at that time. There was nothing else that had changed.

'When we searched around for her symptoms we found several other girls that had gone through the same thing. They were all active and healthy before the jab but then after they were in a similar condition to Chloe.

WHAT IS THE HPV JAB? The human papilloma virus is the name given to a group of viruses that affect a person's skin as well as the membranes lining the body - for example, in the cervix, anus, mouth and throat.

HPV is very common and highly contagious.

More than three quarters of sexually active women acquiring it at some point in their lives.

Most people are oblivious to the fact they have been infected and as a result can pass it on to a partner without realising.

There are more than 100 types of HPV - around 40 of which affect the genital area.

The majority (nine in 10) of infections disappear of their own accord within two years.

The HPV jab has routinely been given to 12 and 13-year-old girls since 2008.

Legally, all students have to sign a consent form before they can receive the vaccine.

Parents are not able to speak on their children's behalf over whether or not to get the vaccine. Advertisement

'I've met with other mums who have gone through the exact same ordeal as we have since their daughter got the jab.

'It's horrendous. My wee girl is completely changed.'

Freda Birrell, a spokeswoman for the UK Association of Vaccine Injured Daughters, warned that cases like Chloe's are not uncommon.

She said: 'Chloe and her parents along with so many other children who have been harmed by the Gardasil vaccine were not given all of the facts at time of consent.

'The Patient Information Leaflet contains many serious reactions which have been reported after marketing, ie dizziness, vomiting, joint pain, aching muscles, unusual tiredness or weakness.

'But this leaflet does not mention that these symptoms do not go away, they can remain for many years, become more disabling until like Chloe the girls lose all their hopes and dreams of being normal teenagers.

'The sad thing is a good many medical professionals would prefer to label many of these girls as having a mental health disorder, rather than look at it in a professional manner and realise that these girls were happy and healthy until they had this vaccine.

'From being once in the sunshine, they are now in the darkness and battling chronic ill health that is not of their making.'

Figures show that levels of the cancer-causing human papillomavirus in Scotland have dropped 90 per cent in young women, following a vaccination campaign that began in 2008.

And researchers believe that this may itself lead to a 90 per cent reduction in cervical cancer cases in Scottish women.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'Since the introduction of the HPV programme for girls in Scotland in 2008, millions of doses of the HPV vaccine have been administered to girls under 18.

'The evidence which has been reviewed, and continues to be reviewed by the bodies from whom the Scottish Government and the other UK administrations take their advice, shows that the HPV vaccine has a good safety profile and is effective.'

A statement from the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHPR) said a recent review found no credible evidence of a link between the HPV vaccine and chronic pain

A spokeswoman for Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited, manufacturers of Gardasil, said: 'Patient safety is MSD's highest priority and we encourage people to self-report or report on behalf of others, any changes to their health which may or may not be medically confirmed'

A statement from the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHPR) said a recent review found no credible evidence of a link between the HPV vaccine and chronic pain.

The spokeswoman said: 'The HPV vaccine is the most effective way for young girls and women to protect themselves against cervical cancer.

'As with all vaccines, the safety of the HPV vaccine is under constant review. Every report of a suspected side effect is taken seriously.

'Health authorities around the world, including UK experts, the World Health Organisation, the US Centre for Disease Control and the European Medicines Regulator have recently extensively reviewed the vaccine's safety and have concluded that there is no credible evidence of a link between the HPV vaccine and a range of chronic illnesses.'

A spokeswoman for Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited, manufacturers of Gardasil, said: 'Patient safety is MSD's highest priority and we encourage people to self-report or report on behalf of others, any changes to their health which may or may not be medically confirmed.

'These reports are taken extremely seriously and are used to monitor long-term safety, however, they do not necessarily prove a causal relationship with the vaccine, but provide MSD and health authorities with information and a line of enquiry for further investigation.

'Gardasil is the result of over 10 years of research and development.

'The safety of the vaccine has continued to be evaluated in several large post-license surveillance studies in more than one million people.

'While no vaccine or medicine is completely without risk, leading international health organisations throughout the world continue to recommend routine HPV vaccination.'
A shooting at an after-hours club in Ohio has left nine people injured, police said.

Police were called to the J&R Party Hall on the 1700 block of Cleveland Avenue, in northeast Columbus in the early hours of Sunday morning after reports of a shooting.

The shootout occurred after an argument broke out inside the after-hours venue at around 3.20am ET, Sgt David Shimberg of the Columbus police department, said.

Five women and four men have been rushed to hospital after a shooting at an Ohio after hours club (pictured)

J&R Party Hall was sealed off with police tape as officers inspected the crime scene after the shooting

Police were called to the J&R Party Hall on the 1700 block of Cleveland Avenue, in northeast Columbus

Officers at the scene after the shootout which left nine injured - and two in a critical condition

When officers arrived at the scene, they reported hearing gunshots and believed that there were multiple shooters inside, WKKJ reports.

'At this point in the investigation there is no information available on the suspect(s),' police said, asking for anyone with information on the case to call.

So far, there is no description of a suspect or a motive.

Nine people, five women and four men, were rushed to a local hospital where two remain in critical condition.

Police list the victims as Sharda Hall, 25, Brookly Bradley, 20, Diamond Harris, 33 and 22-year-old JaVoughn Henderson. Corneicia Pruitt, 25, Keante McGrew, 31, Kaadijah Travis, 23, William Boswell, 27, and Jawaun McCrae, 20, were also injured.

All of the injured are expected to survive. None of victims said they saw what happened.

So far, no arrests have been made.

DailyMail.com has reached out to J&R Party Hall for comment.

The shootout occurred after an argument broke out inside the after-hours venue at around 3.20am
A teacher has defied the hard-left National Union of Teacher and come out in support for more grammar schools at the organisation's annual conference.

NUT member Aleksander Lukic, who teaches at a grammar school in West Yorkshire, told the union event there should be one in 'every town in the UK'.

The 27-year-old added he needed 'thick skin' because other members have been 'frank' with him over his views.

It came as the NUT voted to oppose the Government's drive to increase the number of grammar schools in the country.

Teacher Aleksander Lukic, pictured, 27, went against the NUT and supported grammar school expansion in the UK

Mr Lukic, who teaches at Heckmondwike Grammar School in West Yorkshire, pictured, told the NUT conference there should be a 'grammar school in every UK town'

Mr Lukic, who stood for UKIP against Jo Cox in the Batley and the Spen Valley constituency in the 2015 General Election, said parents should not be 'denied the choice' of selective education.

According to the Guardian, he said: 'Comprehensive education serves most children well but there is contemporary evidence backing up the effectiveness of selective education for driving social mobility, and I'm not sure we should be denying families the choice.'

Mr Lukic, who teaches at Heckmondwike Grammar School in West Yorkshire, added it was 'impossible' to analyse how successful grammar schools because they only exist in 'pockets' of the country.

According to The I, he said: 'Northern Ireland is probably the best example we have to examine where effectively we still have nationwide selection and you might be surprised to learn that across their selective system, across all their types of schools, many more disadvantaged children achieve better results than in England.

Kevin Courtney, pictured, general secretary of the NUT, said it would investigate legal challenges to expanding grammar schools

'Research has also shown that when you compare the 163 grammars with the 163 top achieving comprehensives, the grammar schools take more disadvantaged children, the comprehensive are more socially selective and we've effectively replaced selection by ability with selection by wealth.'

Meanwhile teachers have called for an investigation into possible legal challenges to the expansion of grammar schools.

Kevin Courtney, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) general secretary, said: 'Teachers, parents and head teachers are rightly incensed that the Government has such wrong priorities on education.

'At a time when head teachers across England and Wales are crying out for sufficient funds to run their schools, provide pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum and retain teachers and support staff, the Government is proposing to lavish scarce education funding on a policy which all the evidence confirms will undermine the high standards of education that comprehensive schools have been able to achieve in the decades since selective education was ended in most parts of the country.

'There is no appetite for this programme.

'The NUT will be investigating possible legal routes to challenge the expansion of selective education and will continue to campaign for a good local comprehensive school for every child.'
Robert De Niro rented a West Village penthouse apartment for two years. The owner of the apartment is suing his co-op

The owner of a multimillion-dollar New York City penthouse once rented by Robert De Niro is suing his co-op.

Developer William Monaghan, the owner, added a 300-sq-ft rooftop bedroom to the extravagant West Village 11,000-sq-ft space in 1985.

He alleges that the cooperative that owns the building only decided to charge him extra fees for it in 2015, which he claims violates its bylaws, the New York Daily News reported.

Furthermore, the co-op is adding $2.7m to the home's $20m asking price, which Monaghan asserts is without cause.

When Monaghan received an $18.2m offer in February 2017, the cooperative insisted the extra $2.7m be tacked on, Monaghan's suit states.

'It's like they're holding the ability to sell the apartment hostage,' Monaghan's attorney told the News.

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The owner, William Monaghan, added a rooftop bedroom (not pictured) to the space in 1985. Pictured: the home

Monaghan, in a lawsuit, is stating that the cooperative that owns the building only decided to charge him extra fees for the bedroom in 2015, which he claims violates its bylaws. Pictured: A living room in the home

The cooperative apartment building is located at 165 Perry Street in Manhattan's West Village

Two-time Academy Award winner De Niro and his wife, Grace Hightower, rented the apartment for two years beginning in 2012.

With five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a seven-car garage and 360-degree views of the New York City skyline, it went on the market in 2015 for $39.8m, rather higher than the $20m asking price.

The sprawling duplex, dubbed a 'contemporary masterpiece' and one of the city's 'most magnificent' penthouses' by agents, is situated at 165 Perry Street.

It boasts an enormous living room with a wood burning fireplace, and a master suite with two walk-in closets, an en-suite bathroom and a steam room.

Monaghan is also asserting that the co-op, without cause, is adding $2.7m to the home's price of $20m

In February 2017, Monaghan received an $18.2m offer for the home. In 2015, the home was initially placed on the market for $39.8m

Robert De Niro and his wife rented the home for two years beginning in 2015. Pictured: The kitchen

Agents say the space has 'some of the most impressive private outdoor spaces in Manhattan'

It also features high ceilings, a library, a home office, a grand dining room, and 'some of the most impressive private outdoor spaces in Manhattan.'

These include private landscaped terraces, which are situated across two top floors of the building and create 'an unrivaled setting for entertaining.'

They offer 'sweeping 360-degree views' of the Hudson River and the city's iconic skyline, according to a listing by Dolly Lenz Real Estate.

The penthouse also features a 3,000-sq-ft private garage built for seven cars.
A fundamentalist male sheikh told girls at a youth night that they would go to hell if they befriended non-Muslims or plucked their eyebrows.

Sheikh Mohamad Doar told a room of teenage girls in Sydney's west they needed to stop being friends with non-believers in a lecture that also covered Islamic fashion and grooming.

'The reality is, my sisters, any friendship that is not built on the fear of Allah is only going to lead to hell fire so you need to be cautious,' he said on Saturday night.

'With your actions, you distance yourself from the corrupted people.'

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Sheikh Mohamad Doar told a 'girls'-only night' they would go to hell for non-Muslim friendships

The key speaker at a 'girls'-only night' was a male sheikh who lectured them about beauty

Sheikh Doar, from the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association, told the forum, held at Punchbowl, that women would also be cursed by Allah if they plucked their eyebrows, waxed their body or shaved.

'You are not allowed the remove the hair of the eyebrow, it's a major sin,' he said.

'The lady who plucks her eyebrows and the one who gets them plucked, they're both cursed by Allah.'

He was referring to the hadith, describing the actions of the Prophet Mohammad, as part of a question and answer session organised by Muslim charity Sisters United.

The room of teenage girl in burqas and hijabs receive grooming advice from a male sheikh

The Muslim Sisters United charity promotes the idea of women who wear burqas

Muslim girls at the charity-organised sermon were advised to wear their hijabs loose

Taking questions from the girls, Sheikh Doar told them they needed to wear their hijabs loose and with no bright or colourful patterns.

'It cannot be see-through showing skin. The hijab needs to be as plain as possible,' he said.

'It cannot be an imitation of the disbeliever's dress code. It cannot be attracting to the eye. It cannot resemble the dress of men. It can't be a showing-off cloth.'

He also warned them they would face criticism about their dress sense from other Muslims and kafirs, an Islamic term for non-believers.

Girls at a lecture organised by Sisters United were told to avoid befriending non-Muslims

The sheikh's advice is generally rejected by secular Muslims, who also shun sharia law.

The Sunni ASWJ's fundamentalist elder, Sheikh Feiz Muhammad, last year said it was a major sin for Muslims to attend non-Muslim events like New Year's Eve celebrations

'Is it part of the sharia? Are we allowed to entertain ourselves with celebrations that are built on non-Muslim concepts?,' he said.

'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.'

Another ASWJ Islamic teacher, Abdulghani Albaf, told a male-only mosque at Auburn in March that Muslim men would be judged harshly by Allah if they used urinals.

'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.

'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.'
Lee Broadway (pictured), 41, of Charlotte, North Carolina, died on April 1 of a ruptured brain aneurysm

A North Carolina mother-of-four has died just days after telling her husband she was suffering from one of migraines..

Lee Broadway, 41, of Charlotte, said she had a terrible headache on April 1.

Her husband Eric wasn't too concerned, as she had a history of problems with migraines.

But Broadway told him this headache was different.

They then went to the hospital, and were soon informed of the shocking diagnosis.

'We never once thought we'd never see her again, you know?' Eric Broadway told WUSA 9.

Broadway died from complications of surgery to remove the brain aneurysm. She would have been 42 on April 8.

An aneurysm is an abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel. If it ruptures it can cause a hemorrhage and sometimes death.

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Broadway (fifth to the right) had a pounding headache that day and mistook it for a migraine

An estimated 500,000 people worldwide each year die from brain aneurysms and half the victims are younger than 50.

It is estimated one in 50 people in the United States will develop a brain aneurysm during their lifetime.

Broadway, who was born in Germany to her Air Force parents, married Eric, her high school sweetheart on December 19, 1998.

Broadway (pictured) suffered from migraines, so she and her family weren't concerned

But when the North Carolina woman went to hospital she was told she had a brain aneurysm

Broadway (right) died from complications of surgery to remove the brain aneurysm

'She was just so nice and kind to people and giving,' said their daughter, 10-year-old Alex. 'She was just an amazing person.'

Alex's siblings, eight-year-old Adrien, 16-year-old Averi and 22-year-old Adair our grieving the loss of their mother but remember her as their cheerleader.

'She was sweet and kind and she always was there for me,' Adrien said.

Family friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help cover medical costs. So far, they've raised more than $34,000.
Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea along with his family on Easter shortly after a failed North Korean missile launch that some claim may have been 'thwarted by cyber attacks from the US.'

North Korea attempted to fire a medium range missile that it introduced at a massive military parade, however, the weapon blew up roughly five seconds after being launched from a site near the port city of Sinpo.

Of its failure, former British conservative foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told the BBC on Sunday: 'It could have failed because the system is not competent enough to make it work, but there is a very strong belief that the US - through cyber methods - has been successful on several occasions in interrupting these sorts of tests and making them fail.'

Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland appeared on Fox News Sunday and declined to say whether the U.S. cyber-sabotaged North Korea's failed missile launch.

After attending Easter church services with service members at the U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul, Pence said at a fellowship dinner that North Korea's 'provocation' is another reminder of the risks that U.S. and South Korean service members face every day 'in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world.'

Pence, who will spend the next 10 days touring Asia with his wife, Karen, and daughters Audrey and Charlotte, added that the willingness of military members 'to stand firm without fear inspires the nation and inspires the world.'

The vice president began his trip by laying a wreath at the Seoul National Cemetery where he was photographed with his wife alongside a South Korean official as all three wore distinctive white gloves.

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Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea shortly after a failed North Korean missile launch that may have been thwarted by cyber attacks from the U.S. Pence is pictured with his wife Karen (left) visiting Seoul National Cemetery on Sunday

North Korea attempted to fire a medium range missile that it introduced at a massive military parade Saturday (pictured above), however, the weapon blew up roughly five seconds after being launched from a site near the port city of Sinpo

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (above center) is pictured arriving for the military parade in Pyongyang marking the 105th anniversary of the birth of late North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung

Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers marching through Kim Il-Sung square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea on Saturday

Korean People's Polaris missiles being displayed in front of a grandstand adorning portraits of the country's leaders of thousands of spectators on Saturday

This map shows the approximate location of Donald Trump's armada which he sent to the Korean Peninsula - the location of the missile launch in the Sinpo area of the South Hamkyong Province is also shown above

At the cemetery, VPOTUS and the Second Lady picked up three scoops of incense and dropped them into an urn in front of the wreath.

'At Seoul National Cemetery, I laid a wreath to honor South Koreans who sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom,' Pence, who is the son of a Korean War veteran and displays his late father's Bronze Star in his office, tweeted on Sunday.

A White House official traveling with Pence to told the New York Times the US had 'good intel' both before and after the launch.

Pence's visit comes amid the turmoil over North Korea's threats to advance its growing nuclear and defense capabilities.

During her appearance on Fox News Sunday, McFarland noted that 'we are entering a whole new era, not just with North Korea but with everybody.'

'With any country, major country, we are entering a cyber platform, a cyber battlefield. That is where a lot of the wars of the future are going to be fought,' she said.

She added, 'we all understand that the Korean peninsula should be denuclearized.'

The failed missile is thought to be one of the country's new 'game-changer' intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), which was revealed to the world in a display of military might.

According to a military official the weapon is 'presumed to be a new ICBM' as it is longer than the existing KN-08 or KN-14 missiles.

Mike Pence waves to the crowds as he lands in South Korea (left) and is greeted upon his arrival (right) on Sunday

Mike Pence (center) is welcomed upon his arrival at the US Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaeck on Sunday

Pence burns incense in front of his wife Karen, right, at the Seoul National Cemetery in Seoul, South Korea during a wreath laying ceremony

Pence, second right in front, pays a silent tribute with his wife Karen, second from left, at the Seoul National Cemetery in Seoul, South Korea, at the beginning of his 10-day tour of Asia

US defense secretary James Mattis said President Donald Trump was 'aware' of the launch and had no further comment.

The South Korean defense ministry said in a statement: 'North Korea attempted to test an unidentified type of missile from Sinpo area in the South Hamkyong Province this morning, but we suspect the launch has failed.'

In a statement, the US military said: 'U.S. Pacific Command detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at 11:21 a.m. Hawaii time April 15.

'The launch of the ballistic missile occurred near Sinpo.

'The missile blew up almost immediately. The type of missile is still being assessed.

'U.S. Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security.'

The Foreign Office has said it is 'concerned by reports of a missile test by North Korea' and is 'monitoring the situation closely'.

North Korea's ballistic missiles being displayed during a military parade in Pyongyang marking the 105th anniversary of the birth of late North Korean leader and the nation's founder Kim Il-Sung

Two of the missiles thought to be dubbed North Korea's 'game changing' weapons are paraded through Kim Il-Sung square

Thousands of heavily-armed soldiers march as part of the Easter weekend celebrations in North Korea on Saturday

The display of military might in the North Korean capital Pyongyang was held as Kim Jong-Un warned of an 'annihilating strike' if the US attacks

It comes just hours after North Korea unveiled new weapons during a display of the country's military might in the country's capital Pyongyang as Kim Jong-Un warned of an 'annihilating strike' if the US attacks.

It has left Trump juggling North Korea, China and Russia after a string of threats and promises he made from Washington.

Before meeting Chinese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the beginning of the month, he said if China did not intervene in North Korea, the US would 'take care of it'.

Then when Russia refused to condemn Syria's chemical attack in Idlib a week later, Trump came out to say relations were at an all time low having praised Russian President Vladimir Putin during his election campaign.

It appeared as though The Oval Office was focused on Moscow and its relationship with Syrian President Bashar Assad, but after the failed missile launch and with Mike Pence's tour of Asia starting Sunday, the emphasis may have shifted again to the North and China.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang threatened 'catastrophic consequences' when Trump sent an armada of warships to the Korean Peninsula.

An unidentified rocket is displayed during Saturday's parade, with experts voicing fears that it could have a range of 9,000 miles

Military vehicles carrying the KN-11 missile - which can be launched from a submarine - and potentially gives the country a limited nuclear second strike capability

Military vehicles carry missiles with characters reading 'Pukkuksong' during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of country's founding father, Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang

Russian President Vladimir Putin lights a candle during the Easter Service in the Christ The Saviour Cathedral in Moscow, Russia on Sunday

At the same time, China has moved 150,000 troops to its border to deal with a possible influx of North Korean refugees amid fears Trump may strike Kim following the surprise US missile attack on Syria last week.

The intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), which Pyongyang claim could travel thousands of miles, have increased concerns that the secretive state is preparing for a possible attack on Washington after they were paraded during the country's Day of the Sun celebrations.

A gleeful Kim, wearing a Western-style suit at Kim Il-sung Square, saluted formations of soldiers who yelled out 'long live' to celebrate the 105th anniversary of his grandfather's birth.

The festivities, celebrating the 105th birthday of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong-un's grandfather, took place amid concerns that North Korea is possibly preparing for its sixth nuclear test or a significant rocket launch, such as its first flight test of an ICBM

North Korean soldiers on mobile missile launchers as they are paraded across Kim Il Sung Square during Saturday's military parade

Kim Jong-un was noticeably relaxed and appeared happy as he attended the 'Day of the Sun' military parade on Saturday in Kim Il Sung square - which celebrates his grandfather - the founder of North Korea

The two new kinds of ICBM were enclosed in canister launchers mounted on the back of transporter erector launcher trucks as they were paraded in front of crowds during Sunday's festivities.

Pyongyang has yet to formally announce it has an operational ICBM but experts believe they the new rockets could be liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, or an early prototype.

Submarine-launched ballistic missiles were also among the military hardware on show for the first time.

It indicates an improving technological capability that could help it evade anti-missile systems.

Kim has accused Trump of provoking his nation towards armed conflict with a series of increasingly aggressive moves, including sending the USS Carl Vinson to the Korean peninsula.

One of Kim's top officials, Choe Ryong Hae, vowed North Korea would 'beat down enemies with the power of nuclear justice'.

Thousands of North Korean troops armed with rifles took part in the show of force, which saw North Korea flaunt sophisticated new military hardware Saturday

Suited North Korean men wave flowers above their heads in a colorful celebration in Pyongyang on Saturday

WHAT'S NEXT FOR NORTH KOREA? Though tensions had been rising dangerously between Washington and Pyongyang in the lead-up to the April 15 anniversary, the biggest holiday of the year in North Korea, the heightened rhetoric and saber-rattling on both sides could begin to cool down - a pattern that has been common in recent years, especially in the spring, when the U.S. and South Korea stage their huge annual war games. But this year, there is a new issue. In an interview with The Associated Press, a senior North Korean official said Friday that Pyongyang has determined that Trump is 'more vicious and aggressive' than his predecessor, Barack Obama. And Pyongyang is vowing it won't back down. Though North Korea didn't launch any missiles to mark the anniversary day, it did show them off in a military parade - and in a surprising number and variety. The focus on missiles large and small at the parade was meant to send a signal that the North is able to project its power well beyond its own borders. At the very least, to U.S. military bases in Japan. At the most, to the mainland United States itself. Physicist and North Korea nuclear watcher David Albright, of the Institute for Science and International Security, estimated in a report last week provided to The Associated Press that through 2020, North Korea will have enough plutonium and weapon-grade uranium for about 25-50 nuclear weapons. But he also noted that the North has several options to diversify and expand its capabilities. It could, for example, use its experimental light water reactor to have enough plutonium and weapon-grade uranium 'for up to 60 nuclear weapons by the end of 2020,' Albright said. 'Significantly higher estimates are possible if North Korea significantly expands its gas centrifuge program and dramatically boosts its production and separation of plutonium over what is assumed in the current analysis,' he added. Moreover, Albright said, continued underground testing will provide the North with opportunities to significantly improve its ability to make weapons that require less fissile, are more compact and have higher explosive yields. Developing a thermonuclear weapon - an H-bomb - is a declared priority of North Korea. According to Albright, it appears capable of doing so. And, at the current pace, that could be on Trump's watch. April 15 isn't the only big anniversary in North Korea this month. The country's military marks the anniversary of its founding on April 25, and some experts believe the chances of a nuclear test or missile launch around that date may be higher than they were on Kim Il Sung's birth anniversary. There are two reasons for that. April 15 is intended to be focused completely on honoring Kim Il Sung and by extension his son, Kim Jong Il, and grandson, current leader Kim Jong Un. A test or launch on that day could distract from that focus, especially if it were to fail. The second reason is that the April 25 anniversary is explicitly a military observation. While a failure would still be embarrassing, it wouldn't be quite as bad. More likely, if there is still going to be a test or launch designed to make a political statement, it could be timed just before or after April 25 to further dilute the potential PR impact of a failure. Advertisement

He told the packed-out square: 'If the United States wages reckless provocation against us, our revolutionary power will instantly counter with annihilating strike, and we will respond to full-out war with full-out war and to nuclear war with our style of nuclear strike warfare.'

In his annual New Year's address, Kim said North Korea's preparations for an ICBM launch had 'reached the final stage'.

Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

Reports of the launch from the country's east coast came after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the rogue state it must adhere to UN resolutions in order to secure peace.

As international tension heightened over the country's nuclear weapons program in the face of fierce American criticism of the Pyongyang regime, Johnson said the situation needed to be looked at carefully.

'We have been here before but continue to monitor the situation carefully.

He added: 'We stand alongside our international partners in making clear that North Korea must adhere to UN resolutions designed to secure peace and stability in the region and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons.'

As concern about the situation mounted, there were reports that Trump's military advisers have assured the UK that America has the capability to neutralize North Korea's nuclear program using conventional weapons.

It could come in the form of a preemptive strike with US national security adviser General HR McMaster apparently telling British security chiefs and military top brass that Washington has the intelligence to target key sites in the nuclear program.

Defense Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has been briefed by his US equivalent General James Mattis on American options for dealing with North Korea in recent weeks, The Sunday Times reported.

The Ministry of Defense said it never comments on private conversations between Sir Michael and his international counterparts.
Donald Trump Jr has proved once and for all he is his father's son, by taking aim at the media on Twitter.

Don Jr, who is reportedly considering following his father into politics, posted a picture on social media on Saturday showing him wearing a t-shirt that read: 'Very Fake News.'

The slogan was a reference to the president's routine attacks on the media - particularly CNN and the New York Times, both of which he has regularly singled out in his criticisms.

Along with the picture of himself wearing the green shirt with white writing, the 39-year-old wrote: 'I'm going to have to buy 5-10,000 of these to pass around to our buddies in the #MSM. In the meantime I'll model it for them. #yourewelcome.'

Donald Trump Jr posted this picture and message on Twitter on Saturday morning in the Trump team's latest attack on the media

However, the post did not go over as the son of a mogul would have probably planned, with many taking the opportunity to bash him and his father.

'North Korea's threatening nuclear war, 43 million Americans live in poverty, and your dad's under FBI investigation. Cool shirt though,' Seth Grahame-Smith wrote.

'HAHAHA LOL !!! LMAO,' Chrissy Teigen said, sarcastically.

'You're no model,' Roland Scahill added.

The Trump team has often leveled the accusation of 'fake news' at outlets that published stories critical of the president.

Trump Jr's post was bashed by many on social media who were seemingly offended by the picture
Michael Hohl and Amber Maxwell were removed from a United Airlines flight by a US Marshal as they flew to their wedding in Costa Rica

A bride and groom were removed from a United Airlines flight after moving to an empty row to allow another passenger to stay asleep in their seats.

Michael Hohl and his fiancee Amber Maxwell were flying to Costa Rica for their wedding on Saturday afternoon when they were told to disembark at Texas's George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The couple from Salt Lake City, Utah, say they boarded the plane to find another passenger asleep in their seats.

Rather than wake them up, they went to sit in an empty row which they claim was in the same class.

When a United Airlines flight attendant approached them to ask if they were in their ticketed seats, they explained that they weren't and asked for an upgrade but were turned down.

The couple claims they returned to their original seats calmly but that a US Marshal appeared moments later to escort them off.

They were able to board another flight the following day and make it to Costa Rica in time for their wedding on Thursday.

The couple said they were left bemused by the airline's treatment of them.

'We thought not a big deal, its not like we are trying to jump up into a first-class seat.

'We were simply in an economy row a few rows above our economy seat,' Hohl told NBC about their attempt to move.

The couple had stopped over at Texas's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (above)

The airline however claims the pair did try to sit in an upgraded seat without permission and that they refused to return to the ones they paid for.

'These passengers repeatedly attempted to sit in upgraded seating which they did not purchase and they would not follow crew instructions to return to their assigned seats.

The airline accused them of trying to sit in a more expensive seat without paying

'Weve been in touch with them and have rebooked them on flights tomorrow,' a spokesman said.

A company spokesman told DailyMail.com that the pair were in fact trying to sit in Economy Plus seats and that no police or US Marshals were involved.

They were booked on to another flight on Sunday.

The incident caps off a nightmarish week for the embattled airline which has been flooded with complaints, criticism and worldwide outrage since a video emerged showing police violently dragging a doctor off a flight in Chicago.

Dr David Dao was left with severe injuries and bleeding from the mouth when he was physically dragged against his will from the aircraft.

A video of his shocking removal from the flight went viral last week.

He had been selected at random to be removed from the plane because it was overbooked and was forcibly removed when he refused.

He now intends to sue the airline.
Kimani Stephenson, 24,(pictured) was arrested Sunday for allegedly groping an actress and pushing her onto subway tracks in New York City

A man has been arrested for allegedly groping an actress and pushing her onto subway tracks in New York City.

Kimani Stephenson, 24, is accused of groping Bonnie Currie, a 22-year-old actress, and shoving her onto subway tracks in Manhattan's West Village early Friday morning.

The man was arrested for the terrifying attack and charged with attempted murder, assault and sex abuse, on Sunday morning.

Currie suffered a broken wrist, a torn ligament in her shoulder and deep bruising on her leg after Stephenson allegedly grabbed her breast and crotch before intentionally pushing her onto the tracks.

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Bonnie Currie was the 22-year-old actress pushed onto subway tracks after being sexually assaulted on Friday

The young woman suffered a broken left wrist, a torn ligament in her left shoulder and deep bruising in her left femur

Police were able to identify and arrest Stephenson with the help of surveillance video, showing the suspect at the West 14th Street and Sixth Avenue station at 4.20am on Friday.

Stephenson lives at the New York City Housing's Lillian Wald Houses in the East Village, reported the NY Daily News.

Currie claimed that a man appearing to wear a red bomber jacket, seen in the surveillance footage, approached her and inappropriately touched her while she was waiting for the No. 1 train.

The young woman yelled at him to get away, saying to 'f**k off', and then he shoved her onto the tracks.

Police were able to identify and arrest Stephenson with the help of surveillance video (pictured), showing the suspect at the entrance of the station

Currie said of her attack: 'He pushed me as hard as he could push me onto the subway tracks'

Fortunately, two people at the station heard her screams and were able to pull her off the tracks.

She told CBS2 New York: 'He pushed me as hard as he could push me onto the subway tracks.'

'Then I screamed for help, and luckily, there were two people that were there in that hour  in that early hour  which was so lucky, and they pulled me off of the tracks.'

'I put my arms up, and one man took one arm, and the other took the other, and they pulled me up out of the track.'

The cameras at the West 14th Street station platform were not working when Currie was assaulted (pictured)

The petite 5'4 actress was later taken to Northwell Health Lenox Hill Hospital to be treated for a broken left wrist, a torn ligament in her left shoulder and deep bruising in her left femur.

The cameras at the West 14th Street station platform were not working.

Currie is an actress and is currently a server according to recent Instagram posts. She lives in Washington Heights in north Manhattan.

Her friend Matthew Dirschel told the New York Post: 'She is super outgoing, very loving. We bonded because were both big musical theater fans and actors.'
President Trump spent Easter morning defending not showing the American people his tax returns, one day after protesters took to the streets to demand their release.

'I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?' Trump wrote. 'Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!'

The president, spending Easter weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, was likely responding to coverage of yesterday's tax day protests, which brought out droves of people in cities around the country including New York, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

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President Donald Trump tweeted Easter Sunday morning about yesterday's tax day protests, pointing out that he did 'an almost impossible thing' by winning the Electoral College

Donald Trump dashed too two tweets about yesterday's tax day protests, suggesting the tax return issue should be over because he won the White House

Yesterday in cities across the country, including in Trump's hometown of New York (pictured), people took to the street and demanded the president release his tax returns

'Show us your taxes' reads a sign at the New York City tax day protest Saturday. President Trump still hasn't released his returns, saying they're under an audit

During the campaign, Trump explained that he would not be releasing his tax returns as he was under audit, but said he would release them publicly later on.

Now, in the White House, he still hasn't released them, though the New York Times and journalist David Cay Johnston, who debuted his findings on the Rachel Maddow Show, have exposed partial returns to the public.

Trump didn't just stick to the tax day protests during his Easter Sunday Twitterstorm.

First, Trump tweeted about his negotiations with China, explaining, 'Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem?'

'We will see what happens!' the president added.

Donald Trump started off his Easter Sunday by tweeting about his recent talks with Chinese President Xi, explaining that he wants to work with China to solve the North Korea problem

President Trump was up Sunday morning tweeting about the issues of the day including North Korea, the tax day protests and his decision to strikes Syria and Afghanistan

President Trump tweeted about Easter mid-tweet storm and then pivoted to rail against yesterday's protests against him

Donald Trump defended building up the military, saying 'we have no choice.' The president wrote a number of tweets Sunday morning, likely responding to the Sunday shows

Last weekend, Trump hosted Chinese President Xi at Mar-a-Lago, and the two world leaders discussed the ongoing situation in North Korea.

Trump's tweets come on the heels of a failed North Korea missile launch test.

Trump also acknowledged today's Christian holiday.

'Happy Easter to everyone!' the president wrote.

Trump waited less than an hour to then tweet again, this time about the tax day protesters, as he suggested they should get over his decision not to release his returns, seeing that he won the Electoral College.

Trump, likely listening to the Sunday morning pundits discuss his military strikes in Syria in Afghanistan, responded to that too.

'Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!' he wrote.
Beach huts smaller than a prison cell are going for 25,000 on a remote Scottish beach.

Punters are queueing up for an exclusive development of just 30 huts at Findhorn, on the Moray Firth.

There are no windows, running water or electricity in the new-build timber huts, which measure 6.56 feet by 8.2 feet - but there are few better places to watch seals playing.

Despite there being no statutory minimum size for prison cells in Britain, guidelines suggest they should be no smaller than 60sq ft (excluding toilet cubicle). The huts are 53.8sq ft.

Punters are queueing up for an exclusive development of just 30 huts at Findhorn, on the Moray Firth. Each hut is selling for 25,000

There are no windows, running water or electricity in the timber huts, which measure 6.56 feet by 8.2 feet, in Findhorn, Scotland, - but there are few better places to watch seals playing

Retired teacher Dr Jane Miller, 60, was one of the first to buy one of the huts, at Findhorn beach. She visits regularly from Forres with her 82-year-old mum, Marina.

'Anyone who is stressed should get a beach hut, it's absolutely lovely,' she said. 'It makes you focus on what is really important, which is the natural world. We bring a radio down with us but often we don't even put it on, the sound of the sea is so beautiful.'

A sideboard, sitting bench, table and chairs fit inside Dr Miller's hut. She loves to sit and spend time on her artwork or go for a stroll along the beach.

As for the cost, she's in no doubt it's worth the outlay.

'I have always wanted one,' she said. 'I'd never seen one for less than 40,000 before.

'Some people might spend their money on a car when they retire but I chose this.

'The effect it has on your lifestyle is brilliant. You're able to be outside at the seaside when you otherwise wouldn't be able to because, let's face it, we're in the north of Scotland.'

In the neighbouring hut, occupational therapist Paula Harte, 56, is equally in love with the location.

Despite there being no statutory minimum size for prison cells in Britain, guidelines suggest they should be no smaller than 60sq ft (excluding toilet cubicle). The huts are 53.8sq ft

There are ten huts so far, and developer Ian Sutherland McCook has planning permission for a further 20

'I even came down here on Christmas Day and it was lovely, so idyllic,' she said.

'I take a pair of binoculars down and watch seals from the hut. In the south of England you're looking at 80-90,000 for something similar - astronomical prices.

'The view we have here is amazing and the peace is really something quite special.'

There are ten huts so far, and developer Ian Sutherland McCook has planning permission for a further 20.

Huts were originally built in the area in the 1930s, but the decline in popularity of the UK beach holiday led to their demise.

Mr McCook saw an opportunity to reinstate them but not everyone shared his vision.

Campaigners, claiming they would spoil the beach, challenged Moray Council's decision to grant planning permission and even raised 12,000 to take their case to the Court of Session, but they were unsuccessful.

'These huts are built to last,' said Mr McCook. 'They are capable of withstanding severe winter storms, the walls are triple-layered and the huts weigh almost two tonnes.

'We think nothing of paying 15,000 for a car that's worth almost nothing in 10 years. The value of the hut in 20 years will have doubled.'
Three people have been killed in a shocking head-on collision on a Arizona highway.

The deadly crash took place shortly after 2am on Friday when a 21-year-old man, Keaton Allison, was allegedly driving the wrong way down I-17 at about 80 miles per hour.

Allison slammed into a car being driven by Grand Canyon University student Karli Richardson, 20 - who was traveling with her 18-year-old sister, Kelsey.

Kelsey, who was studying at Western Carolina University, was visiting her big sister over the weekend.

Allison was also a student at Grand Canyon University.

Two sisters have been killed in a shocking crash after their car was hit by a 21-year-old man driving the wrong way on an Arizona Interstate

The Arizona Department of Public Safety released pictures of the shocking crash, showing the Richardson's white car almost entirely crumpled and destroyed.

'The crush damage from that firewall, the engine compartment is pretty much in the passenger's compartment,' a spokesman said.

The department also released a statement, which read: 'The cars collided in the number two lane at a high rate of speed. There were no signs of either vehicle attempting to brake or avoid the collision.'

It went on to state all three were pronounced dead at the scene.

The deadly crash took place shortly after 2am on Friday when a 21-year-old man, Keaton Allison (pictured), was allegedly driving the wrong way down I-17 at about 80 miles per hour

Allison slammed into a car being driven by Grand Canyon University student Karli Richardson (left), 20 - who was traveling with her 18-year-old sister, Kelsey (right)

Investigators released this picture of the Richardson's car after it was hit by the vehicle going the wrong way

Grand Canyon University released a statement about the crash, describing it as a tragedy.

'It is with great sorrow and heavy hearts that we share the news that three people, including two students from Grand Canyon University, were killed in a wrong-way driver accident,' it read, WFMY reports.

'As a close-knit community of students, faculty and staff, please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers during this tragic time.'

Investigators have not ruled out alcohol being a factor in the crash.

This photograph shows Allison's car on the left, and the car being driven by Karli Richardson on the right
Nearly 70 children are among at least 126 people killed by a suicide bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy outside Aleppo.

The bomb tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns, the worst in war-torn Syria in more than a year.

Saturday's blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.

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Nearly 70 children are among at least 126 people killed in a bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy outside Aleppo

The bomb tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, a monitor said on Sunday

At least 68 children were among the 126 people killed in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead.

At least 109 of the dead were evacuees, the Britain-based monitoring group said, while the rest were aid workers and rebels guarding the convoy.

The evacuations were taking place under a deal between Syria's regime and rebels that is also seeing residents and rebels transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus which are surrounded by pro-government forces.

The agreement is the latest in a string of evacuation deals, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad says are the best way to end the violence after more than six years of civil war.

Rebels say they amount to forced relocations after years of bombardment and crippling sieges.

Body parts and the belongings of evacuees - including clothes, dishes and even televisions - were still strewn at the scene of the attack on Sunday.

The shattered buses were nearby as was the shell of a pick-up truck - with little left but its engine block - that was apparently used to carry out the bombing.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, though the key Ahrar al-Sham rebel group denied any involvement. The government blamed 'terrorists' - a catch-all term for its opponents.

Saturday's blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to monitor the conflict, said hundreds of people were also wounded in the blast.

It said a petrol station at the transit point was caught up in the explosion, adding to the number of victims.

Syrian rescue workers of the Civil Defence said that they had taken away at least 100 bodies from the site of Saturday's blast, which hit buses carrying Shi'ite residents.

The Syrian Red Crescent said three of its workers were among the wounded.

Maysa al-Aswad, a 30-year-old evacuee from Kafraya, said she was sitting on one of the buses with her six-month-old son Hadi and 10-year-old daughter Narjis when the blast shook the parked convoy.

'Hadi was on my lap and Narjis on a chair next to me. When the explosion happened I hugged them both and we fell to the floor,' she told AFP by telephone from near Aleppo.

Syrians, evacuated from two besieged government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya, flee into a field near the site of a suicide car bombing

'I didn't know what was happening, all I could hear was people crying and shouting,' she said.

'All I can think about is how we survived all the death during the last few years and then could have died just after we finally escaped.'

More than 5,000 people left Fuaa and Kafraya and about 2,200 left Madaya and Zabadani on Friday, the latest in a series of evacuations from the four towns under the agreement.

The evacuation process resumed after the bombing, the Observatory said, with the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya eventually arriving in Aleppo, Syria's second city which the government gained full control of last year.

Wounded survivors, including many children, were taken for treatment at an Aleppo hospital.

UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien condemned the bombing, saying in a statement: 'The perpetrators of such a monstrous and cowardly attack displayed a shameless disregard for human life.'

Pope Francis on Sunday also urged an end to the war in Syria as he presided over the traditional Easter mass in Rome.

At least 68 children were among the 126 people killed in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead

The pontiff said he hoped that Jesus Christ's sacrifice might help bring 'comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death'.

The residents and rebels from Madaya and Zabadani arrived late Saturday in rebel-held territory in Idlib province, where they were greeted with embraces and shots fired into the air.

It was not immediately clear whether further evacuations were taking place on Sunday.

The evacuation deal was brokered by Qatar, a longtime supporter of Syrian opposition forces, and Iran, a key regime ally.

Shiite-dominated Iran has repeatedly raised concerns for the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya, who are mainly Shiites and were besieged by Sunni rebels.

Syria's war has left more than 320,000 people dead since erupting in 2011, with more than half the population forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands trapped under siege.
Police are searching for a boy who went missing Saturday while swimming off the shore of a Florida beach.

Hezekiah Hill, 8, went straight into the surf when he and his family arrived Saturday at New Smyrna Beach, Florida, from Orlando - and never came out, according to his family members.

'I can't think I can't eat I can't sleep. All I can think about is my son,' his mother, Bonita Hill, told WESH.

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Hezekiah Hill, 8, went missing yesterday off the shore of New Smyrna Beach, Florida (above)

'I can't think I can't eat I can't sleep. All I can think about is my son,' said his mother, Bonita Hill

'(It's) Easter weekend, all the family came together, to have fun and then this happened, so I'm at a loss for words,' Hill said.

Hezekiah Hill's sister even went into the water after him but became overwhelmed by the strong current. The 11 year old had to be rescued and taken to a hospital. She is doing well,WFTV reports.

Officials searched for the boy, who went missing south of the jetties at New Smyrna Beach, for several hours Saturday and couldn't find him.

The boy's sister went into the water after him but became overwhelmed by the strong current

Officials continued their search for the boy Sunday, after doing so for several hours yesterday

The search resumed Sunday and is moving as far north as the lifeguard headquarters in Daytona Beach because of the strong current, according to Volusia County Beach Safety.

They're asking beach goers to swim in front of attended lifeguard towers and that all children should be accompanied when entering the ocean.

'Prayers. That's all I can ask for, that's it,' said Bonita Hill. 'I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, on nobody. I just want my son. That's it.'
A One Nation candidate born in a Muslim-majority country says Islamic voters were embracing Pauline Hanson in the shopping malls.

Tshung Chang, who was born in Malaysia, said secular Muslims concerned about extremism were receptive to One Nation's message at last month's West Australian elections, even though she wants to ban Islamic migration.

'When Pauline came to Perth, we had Muslim women and children not shaking her hand but hugging her in the shopping centres,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'They don't want the extreme part of it here. It's the non-radical ones, the ones who come here because they like the freedoms they're given, that they don't have in Malaysia or Indonesia or other places.'

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Pauline Hanson was popular with voters of all different ethnicities when she campaigned

Malaysian-born One Nation candidate Tshung Chang said Muslims were embracing Hanson

The Perth-based former One Nation candidate added a Somali-born woman had also expressed her support for Senator Hanson, along with voters from other Muslim-majority nations Malaysia and Indonesia.

'A Somalian woman told Pauline, ''Thank goodness, she's allowed to drive here'',' he said.

'There are many of them here that are supportive of Pauline but none of that ever makes it to the television.'

Mr Chang, a ratings analyst who has a Chinese-Malaysian father and an Australian-born mother, said he had no time for racism.

'Someone of my background being bi-cultural, I know a racist when I see it,' he said.

'Pauline, she doesn't have a racist bone in her whole body.'

Pauline Hanson greeted Asian voters at a Perth shopping mall during the recent WA campaign

One Nation candidate Tshung Chang said Pauline Hanson was popular in the Perth malls

Senator Hanson, who told parliament in 1996 Australia was 'in danger of being swamped by Asians', last year also campaigned to ban Muslim migration to Australia and has recently described Islam as a 'disease'.

Mr Chang, a migrant himself, cited a credit-rating term when he said new residents in Australia needed to assimilate.

'The way I look at things is they have to be triple-A with the best credit,' Mr Chang said.

Malaysian-born candidate Tshung Chang said migrants needed to respect Australian law

'When it comes to people migrating, people who are coming to make a living here, it doesn't matter what religion, what background, what ethnicity, what race you are, basically they should be triple A: assimilate, accept and adapt to Australian laws and Australian culture.'

Mr Chang had a direct message for Islamists who want sharia law in Australia.

'It's very simple. You don't bring your own laws here. You come here because it's a peaceful and friendly, a place where the environment is nice and there's a good legal system, so keep it that way,' he said.

Last month, Mr Chang hit out at the ABC's Four Corners program for failing to feature him in an expose of One Nation, even though it sent to camera crew to follow him campaigning in the Riverton electorate in southern Perth.

He said the national broadcaster had also filmed volunteers and party members of Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian heritage handing out for him on election day.
Actress Gemma Arterton has revealed her upcoming adaptation of the classic film Watership Down will deal with the refugee crisis.

The 31-year-old former Bond Girl said the new miniseries, based on the 1972 novel by Richard Adams, will see rabbits cast out of their homes.

The upcoming show from the BBC and Netflix will be broadcast later this year.

Actress Gemma Arterton (pictured) has revealed her upcoming adaptation of the classic film Watership Down will deal with the refugee crisis

Arterton called the new programme 'intelligent and relevant' and said it will deal with the refugee crisis, according to The Sunday Times.

She added: 'Well, they're refugees. The rabbits are being cast out of their homes and have to find a new one.

'They try to find a place to be, and everywhere they go is violence, war and bloodshed.'

Other stars being lined up for voice parts include Olivia Colman, John Boyega, James McAvoy, Ben Kingsley and Nicholas Hoult.

The 31-year-old former Bond Girl said the new miniseries, based on the 1972 novel by Richard Adams, will see rabbits cast out of their homes. Pictured, the 1978 film version of the novel

Based on the 1972 book by Richard Adams, the BBC/Netflix new series will recount the story of a group of rabbits who are forced to find a new warren

The refugee crisis has proved devastating for thousands of migrants who are fleeing conflict, instability and persecution across Africa and the Middle East.

More than 1.3 million people have crossed the Mediterranean since 2015.

Last year was also the deadliest on record for thousands of refugees and migrants crossing the Central Mediterranean to reach Italian shores.

More than 60,000 people are currently stranded in Greece following the signing of an EU-Turkey migrant deal in 2016.

And earlier this month the former head of the UKs Libya mission said as many as one million migrants are already on the way to Libya and Europe from countries across Africa.

The refugee crisis has proved devastating for thousands of migrants who are fleeing conflict, instability and persecution across Africa and the Middle East. Pictured, migrants rescued of Libya earlier today

More than 1.3 million people have crossed the Mediterranean since 2015

Joe Walker-Cousins warned: 'My informants in the area tell me there are potentially one million migrants, if not more, already coming up through the pipeline from central Africa and the Horn of Africa.'

Based on the 1972 book by Richard Adams, the BBC/Netflix new series will recount the story of a group of rabbits who are forced to find a new warren.

It involves the cute characters being poisoned and ambushed by murderous rivals in their struggle to start a new life.

One bloody scene depicts rabbits fighting to the death and in another a bunny chokes on a snare.

Richard Adams, from Whitchurch, Hampshire, died aged 96 in December last year.
A former Mexican state governor who has been on the run from police for more than five months was arrested on Saturday night in Guatemala, police said.

Javier Duarte, a former governor of Veracruz state, is accused of corruption, involvement in organized crime and embezzling millions.

Duarte, 43, was arrested in a hotel lobby in Panajachel, 80 miles west of Guatemala's capital, the national police said in a statement.

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Former governor of Mexican state Veracruz Javier Duarte (center) sits at a police station after he was detained in a hotel in Panajachel, Guatema, on Saturday night

He will be extradited to Mexico at a later date.

Local television footage showed a calm Duarte being led by police outside the hotel on Saturday night, his hands cuffed behind his back.

He was transferred early on Sunday to the Matamoros prison in downtown Guatemala City, said government spokesman Rudy Esquivel.

The prison is known for holding drug traffickers and former Guatemalan government officials charged with corruption.

A news conference at the Mexican embassy later on Sunday was expected to clarify the extradition process Duarte faces.

Duarte is accused of is corruption, involvement in organized crime and embezzling millions

Police raided Duarte's luxury Las Mesas ranch (pictured), built in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, in December and found 17 paintings believed to be by famous artists

Veracruz Governor Miguel Angel Yunes Linares, who replaced Duarte, believed the property (pictured) had been furnished using public funds

'More than 200m pesos ($9.7million) stolen from the people of Veracruz were spent doing up this house so that Duarte could have people over,' Linares said

Elected governor in 2010, Duarte presided over a deterioration in security in the state punctuated by the discovery of mass graves and a spate of killings of journalists during his watch.

He was also accused of carrying out various schemes with illicit resources, including using ghost companies to transfer $35million worth of public funds.

Police raided Duarte's luxury Las Mesas ranch, built in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, in December and found 17 paintings believed to be by famous artists.

Veracruz Governor Miguel Angel Yunes Linares, who replaced Duarte, believed the property had been furnished using public funds.

'More than 200m pesos ($9.7million) stolen from the people of Veracruz were spent doing up this house so that Duarte could have people over, now he won't host anything any more,' Linares said.

Lorenzo Meyer, a political scientist and historian at Mexico's National Autonomous University, said Duarte's capture would likely serve as a boost for Mexico's president, Enrique Pena Nieto, whose popularity has fallen dramatically over the past couple years.

'This is a plus for Pena Nieto because it goes against this accusation that he and (Interior Minister) Osorio Chong were really fine with Duarte fleeing, hiding and not knowing anything about him,' said Meyer.

He resigned his position as governor in October, a few weeks before his six-year term was due to end

Duarte's capture would likely serve as a boost for Mexico's president, Enrique Pena Nieto

Agriculture and oil-rich Veracruz, on Mexico's Gulf coast, is one of Mexico's largest states, and it has historically been a stronghold of Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Duarte was a PRI stalwart for years until he was expelled from the PRI in October.

He resigned his position as governor that same month, a few weeks before his six-year term was due to end.

In June, the opposition National Action Party won a hotly contested race to succeed Duarte in a stinging defeat for the PRI.

An arrest warrant for Duarte was issued in October, about the same time he disappeared, and public auditors have since called his administration of state accounts among the worst cases of misappropriation of public funds in years.
A lack of faith in the Australian government could land Opposition leader Bill Shorten the role of prime minister, Tony Abbott has claimed.

In a letter published in The Daily Telegraph on Sunday, the former PM argued that Australians are frustrated with politicians on all sides.

Mr Abbott said he became aware of the diminished hope people have in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the MPs during a charity bicycle ride called Pollie Pedal.

A lack of faith in the Australian government could help push Opposition leader Bill Shorten into the role of prime minister, Tony Abbott (pictured) claimed this weekend

Mr Abbott said he became aware of the diminished hope people have in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) and the MPs during a charity bicycle ride called Pollie Pedal

'Between the riders, the sponsors, and the passers-by, I reckon I spent the best part of eight days listening to a pretty good sample of Middle Australia. And people aren't happy,' he wrote.

'Inevitably, when people are unhappy, it's the government that gets blamed first. But people seem to be working out that Labor is at least as responsible for our problems as the current government.

'Nonetheless, on the grounds that ''oppositions don't win elections, governments lose them'' there was an expectation that Shorten could soon be in the Lodge,' he said referring to Mr Turnbull's home in Canberra.

Mr Abbott, who Mr Turnbull overthrew in 2015, said the government needs to step up its game to make sure the Labor party leader doesn't take the coveted position.

'In fact, the best way to keep Shorten out is not to sack an elected prime minister yet again but to ensure that the government does its job better.'

Despite many people also being unhappy with Mr Shorten, Mr Abbott said 'there was an expectation that Shorten could soon be in the Lodge,' he said referring to the PM's home (pictured) in Canberra

'In fact, the best way to keep Shorten (pictured) out is not to sack an elected prime minister yet again but to ensure that the government does its job better,' Mr Abbott said

Mr Abbott outlined a five-step plan for improving the political climate:

'Reform the Senate so we have government, not gridlock.'

'Stop subsidising new wind power to take the pressure off power prices.'

'De-fund the nanny-state bureaucracies that persecute journalists but do nothing about Muslim extremists.'

'Protect existing beneficiaries and existing employees but make it easier for future generations to get work.'

'And don't apologise for Australia; celebrate it.'
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President Donald Trump's recent military strikes in Syria, and escalating tensions between Russia, North Korea and the US, have sparked fears that World War III could be just around the corner.

So as millions of Americans prepare for the worst, a Texas bunker manufacturer says he is struggling to keep up with orders of his subterranean shelters.

'If I took 30 people and I worked 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, I still wouldn't be caught up right now,' Clyde Scott of Rising S Bunkers in Murchison, Texas, told CBS.

People who fear an impending apocalypse are buying up underground bunkers from a Texas company. Pictured: A living room and kitchen model for one of the smaller underground shelters

What used to be: The 'Aristocrat' comes complete with a screening room, where dwellers can watch films from pre-apocalypse happy days. they can then go for a game of bowling next door when the movie ends

Swimming in oblivion: The world may end, but at least 'Aristocrat' dwellers in the company's most expensive bunker can swim in their underground bunker

Life down under: A Rising S Company shelter is placed underground. The manufacturer offers an $8.4m 'Aristocrat' dwelling that can sleep up to 44 people

Secret staircase: Scott says that even your unassuming neighbor could have invested in a doomsday backup plan by having a bunker installed near their home

A world below ground: In the event of a global apocalypse, bunker dwellers may have to create whole new lives for themselves. Lynch said: 'It is insurance that you would have a safe place to be in the event that there was a social or economic collapse, or war'

Scott said that most of his buyers were in such a panic to buy a shelter for their family, they didn't even ask him about the cost, just when he can install it.

And with relations between Trump and Putin growing frostier by the minute, the current three-month backlog is only likely to increase.

'You should have got it 6 months ago,' said Scott. 'You shouldn't wait until the threat, until the fuse is lit on the rocket.'

Rising S Company in Murchison, 75 miles southeast of Dallas, offers shelters from a 96-square-foot abode for two to the aptly named 'Aristocrat' which can sleep 44 people and includes 10 individual master bedrooms.

The homes are designed to last forever, and are able to hold a year's worth of food per resident.

Bunking together: The shelters are stuffed with space saving ideas to fit large families or groups

While much of the shelter is outfitted in steel, furnishings have rounded edges to decrease the chance of self-injury

Rising S Company in Murchison manufactures underground homes ranging from $39,500 for a 96-square-foot space ideal for two to multi-million dollar palaces. Pictured: A toilet with a view out towards a bedroom and living room

Lynch said: 'People are asking for comfort, anything that makes them feel like they are inside a home instead of a bunker.' This includes features such as exercise rooms and more cabinet space

Got food? The shelters come equipped with ample storage space. They are designed to hold one year's worth of food per occupant

Employee Gary Lynch said that new orders come in daily for the bunkers, whose costs start at $39,500 and go as high as $8,350,000 for the Aristocrat - though that number can grow even higher as customers can add-on unlimited features.

Scott insists his bunkers aren't just for 'doomsday preppers', and claims he has sold the subterranean shelters to famous athletes, Forbes 500 CEOs, and people on both sides of the political aisle.

'I've sold to billionaires and I've sold to average Joes,' said Scott, adding that even your unassuming neighbor could have invested in a doomsday backup plan.

The most basic bunker comes complete with a toilet, shower, bunk bed and basic kitchen - while the Aristocrat offers features including a sauna, swimming pool, game room with billiards and a media room.

While much of the shelter is outfitted in steel, furnishings have rounded edges to decrease the chance of self-injury - due to delayed access to emergency care. They are powered by solar energy.

Chances of a Trumpocalypse? A game room in the 'Aristocrat' dwelling ensures that dwellers would not get bored

The gun range in the company's most expensive bunker is seen above. The 'Aristocrat' dwelling can hold 44 of your friends and family

A lucky strike: Patrons who survive an apocalypse can pass the time with a spot of bowling. Pictured: The bowling alley in the model 'Aristocrat' dwelling

Company employee Gary Lynch said the shelters are fully furnished as homes. The spaces can hold up to one year's worth of food per occupant. Pictured: A model kitchen for the 'Aristocrat' dwelling

You may get pale, but you can still be buff: The 'Aristocrat' dwelling comes complete with a workout room, so dwellers can be sure to stay fit

Sustainable: The 'Aristocrat' even has plans for a garden - which would prolong the year's food supply for each occupant

You'll need a lot of popcorn to keep you going: The movie theater room is seen above in the 'Aristocrat' bunker

A dining area and kitchen in the huge 'Aristocrat' bunker is seen above. While much of the shelter is outfitted in steel, furnishings have rounded edges to decrease the chance of self-injury - due to delayed access to emergency care

Lynch said: 'People are asking for comfort, anything that makes them feel like they are inside a home instead of a bunker.

'They typically want features like more cabinet space, secure doors, hidden rooms, exercise rooms.'

And in the event that the shelter itself is compromised, an escape tunnel can be added for $16,000.

The old adage that it's better to be safe than sorry seems to be what's driving the company's customers.

Lynch said: 'Everyone is a prepper in one form or fashion.

'You prepare for auto accidents with full coverage insurance instead of just liability, homeowner's policies cover contents and personal injury protection, health insurance before it was mandated, savings accounts, et cetera.

'This is just another form of insurance. It is insurance that you would have a safe place to be in the event that there was a social or economic collapse, or a war.'

What lies beneath: In the event of a global apocalypse that could annihilate even the most suburban of ideals, as pictured, willing and able patrons can secure for themselves an underground bunker home

Explore the possibilities: Larger bunkers can facilitate master bedrooms with queen-size beds

Flat-screen life: Master bedrooms can come equipped with large televisions, perhaps to watch the earth as it would have once been. Pictured: A model bedroom from 'The Aristocrat;

Economical: To maximize available space, buyers can also opt for bunk beds. But whatever option one chooses, as Lynch said, 'These are definitely not Cold War-era shelters'

Bunk beds increase walking space in the dwellings - though larger floor plans can accommodate master bedrooms with queen-size beds. Pictured: A model bedroom in 'The Aristocrat'

Lynch said that business picked up following Trump's election. He said: 'You know, there's some people that maybe even voted for Donald Trump that maybe worry that some of the riots are going to get out of hand.' Pictured: A shelter toilet

European: The slightly cramped bathroom nonetheless features all the essentials

Storage: There's enough space in some of the bunkers to keep a year's worth of food per person

Lynch told the Star-Telegram: 'These are definitely not Cold War-era shelters.'

For those who cannot afford one on their own, some customers - like Nora Holloway of Dallas - posted online asking if anyone wanted to go in with her on a bunker after she became concerned about potential backlash to the bombings in Syria and Afghanistan, and the escalating threats in North Korea.

'I'm in no position to buy one,' said Holloway. 'However, I think that for a lot of people that is a serious concern and a lot of people have done so and will be doing so.'

'It would prepare people, myself specifically for what could and very well may happen in the future.'

The company also saw soaring numbers of orders after Trump's election. Lynch said that even those who voted for him were becoming concerned that riots or civil unrest could get of hand in a Trump presidency.

'You've got people that didn't vote for him that are thinking the same thing that, because he's president, maybe he's going to start a war,' Lynch said in January.
Police officers have been accused of abandoning the scene of wild protests in Berkeley on Saturday, allowing shocking street brawls to go unchecked.

Thousands of people marched during 'Tax Day' demonstrations that were designed to pressure Donald Trump into releasing his tax returns.

The tax day protests in more than a dozen cities were largely peaceful, however hundreds of pro and anti-Trump demonstrators clashed in Berkeley, California.

And now new allegations have emerged claiming police officers were pulled back from the location of the most violent confrontations - which took place at Martin Luther King Jr Civic Center Park.

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Police officers have been accused of abandoning the scene of wild protests in Berkeley on Saturday, allowing shocking street brawls to go unchecked. A team of cops is seen clashing with protesters

Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer documented the violent clashes on Twitter, and at one point spoke to a pair of police officers near a squad car away from the demonstration.

'Hey, how come you guys are hanging back?' he asked an officer standing in an open door of the car and another sat in the back seat.

'That would be a question for the chief of police,' the cop sitting in the car replied.

'It sounds like you want a public statement, right?' the officer stood to the side then said. 'I would refer you to our public information officer.'

I tell a police officer I've been seeing people get beat up all day and they haven't been around. "Okay, and?" he says. pic.twitter.com/OuGEcvvb8R  Shane Bauer (@shane_bauer) April 15, 2017

Police officers are seen intervening during the violent clashes in California on Saturday. Cops have now been accused of letting the situation get out of hand

An anti-Trump protester is seen firing pepper spray at a Trump supporter during the Berkeley demonstration

Donald Trump supporters, one who appears to be bleeding and others wearing helmets and face coverings, are seen shouting in the street

'So they told you to hang back?' Bauer then asked.

'As I said, I refer you to our public information officer,' the cop responded. 'What's your next question?'

Bauer then said: 'I mean, I've been watching all day people get beat up pretty bad and I haven't seen you guys around much.'

'OK, and?' the cop said, just before the video ended.

These two police officers were filmed being asked if they were deliberately 'hanging back' from the clashes

A protester in Berkeley on Saturday afternoon is seen bleeding from the side of his head

A man is pictured receiving treatment while laying on the ground after he was injured during the brawls

Prior to posting the video, Bauer wrote a series of tweets about the lack of police presence.

'I think the cops might literally be gone,' he wrote at 12:51pm local time.

'I haven't seen a cop in like two hours as huge street brawls continue in Berkeley,' he wrote at 2:52pm local time.

The allegation was backed up by another reporter on the scene, Tim Pool, who tweeted: 'As the violence escalated police in Berkeley stood down and retreated from the crowds. I have never seen so few police at an event like this.'

But police were involved at points during the day, as at least 21 people were arrested, including some who were taken on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon charges.

It is unknown how many of the arrests were from either group of demonstrators.

Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer documented the clashes on social media, and at one point said he had not seen a police office in 'two hours'

Tim Pool, another reporter who was on the scene, said police 'retreated' from the crowds in the streets

A Donald Trump supporter is seen wearing a Spartan helmet and holding his arm in the arm during the protests

Eleven people were injured in the brawls, with six taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. One of them had suffered a stab wound.

Photographs and videos recorded during the ugly scenes showed people from both sides of the protest fighting in the streets.

The Los Angeles Times reports both groups were seen throwing rocks and other objects at people.

A member of a pro-Trump group who had traveled to California along with about 50 others as part of the Oath Keepers - which is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an extremist group - said he enjoyed potentially having the chance to punch people.

'I don't mind hitting,' Stewart Rhodes, the group's founder, told the Times. 'In fact, I would kind of enjoy it.'

One of the more disturbing pieces of footage showed a man, who identifies himself online as a pro-Trump protester and 'extraordinary irritant', appearing to punch a woman in the face and then pushing her to the ground.

A Trump supporter is seen assisting another person who was bloodied during the ugly clashes on Saturday

Trump supporters clash with protesters at a 'Patriots Day' free speech rally on April 15, 2017 in Berkeley

A Donald Trump supporter is seen beckoning towards the group of protesters who were against the president in Berkeley on Saturday

Many of the pro-Trump protesters, who referred to the clashes on social media as the 'Battle of Berkeley', claimed on Saturday night to have 'won'.

Then on Sunday morning, the president attempted to dismiss those who took to the streets all across the country, by suggesting they were paid to do so.

'Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!' Trump wrote on social media.

The president and his supporters have attempted to allege anti-Trump protesters are being paid on a number of occasions in recent months.

A Washington Post investigation after the election found the allegation had lacked 'any grounding in reality', and there is 'simply no credible evidence that the opposition to Trump is spurred by anything other than legitimate concern'.

Trump has repeatedly claimed voters don't care about his tax returns, but many demonstrators said they hoped Saturday's marches would convince him otherwise.

A protester is seen being detained by police during the violent clashes in Berkeley, California, on Saturday

A Donald Trump supporter is seen during the demonstration wearing a flag and a t-shirt that support the president

Protesters are seen struggling with the impact of a smoke bomb during the wild scenes on Saturday

'We do care. We want to see his taxes,' Ann Demerlis, who was among hundreds who marched in Philadelphia, said.

The event in Philadelphia went from City Hall to an area in front of historic Independence Hall, with many people carrying signs and chanting 'We want your taxes now!'

Seventy-one-year-old Ilene Singh was another who said he's wrong.

Singh rode a bus from New Jersey to New York City with her friend Geraldine Markowitz, 83, to take part in the protests. 'We're here to say we care,' she said.

Pushing her walker, Karin Arlin, 85, a Holocaust survivor who came to the U.S. from Germany when she was 9, said she's also worried about the direction of the country.

'You don't know which way the country goes,' she said.

'His reputation ... as a businessman and, more importantly, as a true American, a person who is concerned with American values, would be totally destroyed if all his financial information was made public,' Mike Mannshardt, a retired teacher, said.

A protester is seen being arrested and led away by police in Berkeley, California, on Saturday afternoon

A pro-Donald Trump supporter is pictured being arrested during the demonstrations in Berkeley on Saturday
The struggle put up by Google executive Vanessa Marcotte before she was brutally raped and murdered helped catch the suspect in her murder, police said.

State police arrested Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 31, in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Saturday after police used DNA found on Marcotte's hands to link him to the killing.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr commended Marcotte's bravery at a press conference on Saturday.

'It was through her determined fight and efforts that we obtained the DNA of her killer,' he told the crowd.

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Police say that the struggle Vanessa Marcotte (left and right) put up before her death has led to the arrest of a suspect in her killing. She was raped and murdered on August 7, 2016

Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr (pictured on Saturday) said the DNA helped build a profile of the killer that was used to identify the suspect, Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 31

Residents from the community applauded as Early confirmed Colon-Ortiz's arrest, which came after police built a DNA profile of Marcotte's killer.

They used that profile - and a report of a dark SUV spotted near the scene of the August 7, 2016 killing - to identify the suspect, Early said.

In a written statement, her parents said: 'After eight long months, we're able to take the first step toward justice for Vanessa.

'She was a beautiful, intelligent, and generous young woman whose passion for giving back to the community will always be remembered.

'As we move forward, her spirit will live on through The Vanessa T Marcotte Foundation that strives to empower women to live boldly and fearlessly.'

According to its website, the foundation's goal is to to help women 'live free from the fear of violence.'

It aims to to that by 'partnering with organizations that deliver educational programs to promote female empowerment, challenge and undermine gender stereotypes, and provide mentorship opportunities [for women].'

Marcotte's body was found near the Massachusetts home of her mom (right), whom she was visiting from New York. Her hands, feet and head were burned

Marcotte, a graduate of Boston University, was found near her mom's Princeton, Massachusetts, home on August 7, 2016. Her hands, feet and head had been burned.

The New Yorker, who was visiting her mother at the time, was found dead after she didn't return to their home from a run.

Colon-Ortiz is being held in at the state police barracks in Millbury on a $1 million bail.

Early Jr said that a Massachusetts State Trooper saw a dark SUV in Worcester, similar to the one that had been spotted driving from the scene.

The man driving fitted a description of the suspect, he said, so the trooper went to the man's home and was able to take a DNA sample from the man's cheek.

The test results, which came in on Friday, said that the sample matched DNA found on Marcotte's body.

Colon-Ortiz was then arrested, and is set to make his first appearance in court on Tuesday.

Investigators search the wooded area where Marcotte's body was found last year. The Google executive was murdered while out for a jog

Early Jr said that Colon-Ortiz was working near where Marcotte was killed on the day of her brutal death, but there is precious little other information on the man.

He has no criminal history and the DA is unsure whether he is a US citizen.

At present he has not been formally charged with murder; Early said that he is facing multiple aggravated assault charges, and that more charges are likely to follow.

In February, Early Jr said they had made a DNA breakthrough in the case, and revealed that they were seeking a Hispanic man of average height.

The suspect was also likely to have had scratches or cuts on his face, neck, hands and arms that day, police said.

They added that they believed him to be the same man seen driving a dark colored SUV in the area around the time that the young jogger was killed.

Police have not revealed how they acquired the DNA, saying only that they got it during the course of their investigation, and that it was on Marcotte's hands.

Marcotte vanished on an afternoon run while on a visit to the home her mom Rosanna. Investigators are seen combing through the scene

State police received over 1,000 tips in connection with the case after the DNA profile was built. They also linked a dark SUV spotted near the scene to the killing

It is also not clear exactly how the DNA was used to build the profile.

Marcotte vanished on an afternoon run while on a visit to the home of her mom in Worcester from New York.

Her naked body was found at around 8.20pm in woodlands near the home.

It's believed she was killed some time between 1pm, when she left her mom's home, and 4pm.

She had been sexually assaulted, and her hands, feet and part of her head were burned.

Marcotte's shocking murder left her family shattered, they said towards the end of last year.

Her uncle, Steven Therrien, read an emotional statement at a church in the town on December 31, asking for help finding the young woman's killer.

Her body was found not far from this house in Princeton, Massachusetts. She was on a run when she was killed

'It has been more than four months since Vanessa was tragically taken from us,' Therrien said.

'Not a day goes by that we don't reflect on the enormity of our loss. She had already achieved much but we know she had much more to do.

'She was a loving, caring, intelligent young woman who had her whole life ahead of her.'

Marcotte's shocking murder left her family shattered. They have started up a foundation to carry on her memory by helping women 'live free from fear of violence'

Marcotte's parents, Rossana and John Marcotte, stood silent next to Therrien at the news conference, holding back tears.

Her father held a banner that read: 'Justice for Vanessa.'

And at Marcotte's funeral, her best friend, Leah Abrahams, gave a moving eulogy to her slain friend.

'She was so perfect, it was otherworldly,' she said.

'Something about Vanessa always reminded me of the ocean - so breathlessly beautiful, quiet and peaceful.'

She later said: 'You epitomize grace, light, humility, and absolute magic.'

Marcotte was killed just weeks after Queens jogger Karina Vetrano was brutally raped and murdered while she was out for a run. A suspect in her death, Chanel Lewis, admitted murdering her in February.
Being arrested for a crime is usually not on someone's agenda. Being arrested and then having a mugshot go viral isn't usually the plan either.

For these unlucky suspects, they have been booked and photographed under criminal circumstances but with hilarious results.

Snapped on a very bad hair day or wearing an ironic T-shirt that hints at their alleged crimes, these men and women have some of the most unforgettable and bizarre mugshots ever taken.

Something on your face: Alex Tribbet (left) was busted for allegedly huffing spray paint or what Ohio police called 'abusing harmful intoxicants' with the evidence all over his face. Eric Oram Butkiewicz (right) was still celebrating the 4th of July when he was allegedly caught dealing drugs in Miami

It is unclear what is wrapped around this man's head but it makes for an unforgettable mugshot

Rough day? These suspects look to be worse for wear when they had their photos taken. A man (left) seems to have taken a razor straight through his hair and a woman looks to have suffered a head wound (right)

This woman was not feeling all that blue about her arrest when she smiled in her mugshot

Forget your hat? This man probably regrets wearing a shady brim the day he was brought into a police station

It is unclear whether this man was pulling a funny face for the camera or if his face permanently looks like this

Sean Sexton, of Tempe, Arizona, seemed to realize he wasn't cut out for a life of crime when he was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault and felony criminal damage. He was allegedly firing an Airsoft rifle at store windows when officers gave him a reality check

No one wants to be hauled off to jail for a crime, including Sean Sexton, of Tempe, Arizona, who sobbed while his photo was being taken by police, reported the Phoenix News Times.

The man had allegedly been shooting at a store window with an Airsoft rifle when authorities showed up and took him to the station.

Some of the perpetrators have been booked on multiple occasions and are known to their local police for their outrageous looks.

Florida police have met Alan Dale Lee, or as they have nicknamed him 'Dracula', several times for his multiple arrests for drug-related crimes and his legendary front teeth.

An Ohio man was caught with the evidence of his crime all over his face, literally. Alex Tribbet was busted for huffing spray paint or what local police called 'abusing harmful intoxicants' and the proof was the gold paint around his mouth and nose.

Andrew Anderson gave police a pretty obvious tip when he was arrested in Kentucky where police allegedly found weed inside his car. The clue? Anderson was wearing a marijuana-themed shirt.

Andrew Anderson was busted in Kentucky when he was pulled over and police allegedly found weed inside his car. A tip-off may have been his marijuana-themed shirt

These men were booked with some interesting accessories and clothes, a woman's floral top and padlocks for earrings

Ross McMakin was pulled over in Oregon for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol. Ironically, he was wearing a shirt that proclaimed: 'Drunk as s**t'

Rotten to the core? Alan Dale Lee is known to Florida police as 'Dracula' for his teeth. The suspected drug dealer has been arrested several times

The writing on the wall: These men's shirts are ironically hilarious for their circumstances

Stone aged: 'Caveman' Christopher Ray Woods was arrested wearing some 10,000 B.C. apparel when Alabama police accused him of possessing marijuana

It's a shame this woman didn't have the time to finish her hair before her beauty shot

Similarly, to Anderson's bust, Ross McMakin was pulled over in Oregon for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol. Ironically, he was wearing a shirt that proclaimed: 'Drunk as s**t'.

'Caveman' Christopher Ray Woods was arrested while wearing some 10,000 B.C. apparel when Alabama police accused him of possessing marijuana when he was brought into the station wearing a brown, furry vest and not much else.

Eric Oram Butkiewicz was still celebrating the 4th of July when he was caught allegedly dealing drugs in Miami, when police said they found several Xanax pills on him.

His mugshot was proudly patriotic as he was still sporting face paint of an American flag, which covered his face.

These men probably wish they had worn a different shirt the day they were arrested

This man's skewed hairstyle matches his hilarious cross-eyed eyes

In for some trouble: The man on the left seems to be okay with his arrest while the man on the right looks ready for a fight

Busted: This woman is seen with a possible broken nose as bandages seem to cover it up

These bearded men were sporting some unusual facial hair when they were arrested

This suspect seems to have had a fresh (and slightly bloody) shave right before being hauled into a police station

These men are sporting some interesting looks, one with a wild Mohawk (left) and the other with a questionable tattoo (right)
Four young people - including a baby under the age of one - were shot at a church's Easter carnival in Alabama on Saturday night.

The toddler and three teenagers were not critically injured after gunfire erupted at the Cathedral of the Cross A.O.H. Church of God on the border of Birmingham and Center Point,AL.com reported.

They were all taken to hospital, as was a pregnant woman knocked to the ground in the chaos that followed the gunfire.

An infant and three teenagers were taken to hospital after being shot at a carnival held at Cathedral of the Cross A.O.H. Church of God (pictured) on the border of Birmingham and Center Point in Alabama on Saturday night

Police and firefighters were called to the scene and five people are in custody for questioning following the attack

Authorities said a fight broke out at the church, pictured during the daytime, before the gunfire

Authorities said a fight broke out before the gunfire, which occurred around 9.30pm.

The baby was being treated at the Children's Hospital of Alabama and the teenagers were at UAB Hospital's trauma center.

Around 900 people were at the carnival, authorities said.

Nearly 100 total police and firefighters were called to the scene and five people were taken into custody for questioning, WBRC reported.

A pregnant woman was also knocked to the ground amid the chaos that followed the gunfire

Center Point Fire Chief Donnie West told ABC: 'they are just individuals of interest that [police] are talking to.'

Carnival attendee Felicia Stubbs told AL.com: 'I'm trying to see how they got a gun in there. Who shoots on church grounds?'

She added: 'It's so sad. And it's ridiculous.'

The church's Spring Carnival is in its 10th year and had been in operation since Wednesday.
Judge Paul Batty (pictured) lambasted John Lewis Lyons, 66, for lying about needing a wheelchair during his case

A sex offender who groped and threatened to kill his victim while doing maintenance work then falsely claimed that he was wheelchair-bound in court.

John Lewis Lyons, 66, grabbed the woman's breast and tried to convince her to take off her clothes, then told a police nurse he would 'murder' her for reporting him.

He later pleaded guilty to sexual assault and pretended to be wheelchair-bound before being sentenced, forcing the court to make special arrangements for him.

But after forcing barristers to make journeys totalling hundreds of miles, a medical report on the day he was sentenced revealed he did not need the chair.

Yet despite lying to the court and admitting sexual assault, he was still not jailed after appearing via video link before the judge, who lambasted his behaviour.

The court heard how the household odd-job man had used his work to gain the trust of a woman then grabbed her breast from behind while she was at the kitchen sink.

He then tried to persuade her to let him see her naked, grabbed at her and exposed one of her breasts on April 8 2015.

Lyons was arrested and told a police nurse he would 'murder' the woman who had reported him.

The nurse reported the threat to officers and Lyons was convicted and dealt with separately for making a threat to kill.

He appeared at The Castle York, near his home in New Earswick, at an earlier hearing and claimed he could not climb the two flights of stairs to the dock.

Forcing staff to make special arrangements, Lyons later pleaded guilty to sexual assault at Leeds Crown Court, which has better disabled access.

The court is 30 miles from his own home, which is on the outskirts of York, where the courthouse is situated inside the grounds of its famous castle.

He was was then sentenced in York, but forced staff to arrange for him to give evidence via video link at Hull Crown Court, 45 miles away from his home.

Barristers for both prosecution and defence were also forced to make the 60 mile trip to Hull from Leeds Crown Court.

But after sentencing, Judge Paul Batty said he would have made him climb the stairs in York had he received the medical reports earlier than the day of sentencing.

Lyons appeared at a number of courts but lied about needing a wheelchair, forcing barristers to make un-necessary journeys all over Yorkshire

Judge Batty, giving him a suspended sentence, said: 'I want you to be under no illusion, I do not believe, for a moment, you are confined to a wheelchair at all.

'I have read your doctor's report which questions your need for a wheelchair and your behaviour has caused all manner of a carry-on.'

Lyons was given a 21-month prison sentence suspended for two years, on condition he does 20 days' rehabilitative activities.

He was also put on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order indefinitely, barring him from contacting the victim.

Judge Batty added: 'She was in her own home. She had every right to feel safe. You sexually molested her in the most appalling way.

'It was deliberate, continuous and went on for a considerable period of time.

'You have come as close as anyone comes, in these courts, to going immediately to custody.

'If you breach this order and become a sex pest to this woman again, you will come back before me and I will lock you up.'
A violent prisoner who attacked a jail warden and a nurse has had the charges against him dropped because he is considered too dangerous for court.

Andrew Burns, 25, was due to face trial but a report recommended the charges were dropped because 'the potential for harm is too grave,' leaked documents reveal.

After officers carried out a risk assessment, the Crown Office decided his 'propensity for violence' is so great, that there was no public interest in taking him to court.

Andrew Burns, 25, had charges against him dropped because he was considered too dangerous to go to court, leaked documents reveal

The decision sparked a furious outcry from prison officers unions, whose members have been injured by Burns.

Andy Hogg, assistant general secretary for the Prison Officers Association Scotland, told The Mirror: 'It seems they're saying the more violent you become, the less likely it is you will be taken to court.'

Scott Donohue, from Unison, said: 'We have zero tolerance towards any of our nursing staff being assaulted. We believe any violence against our members should be dealt with severely by the courts.'

Burns was accused of attacking the warden and female nurse at Glenochil jail near Alloa, Scotland, where he is serving an indeterminate jail sentence.

Burns was accused of attacking the warden and female nurse at Glenochil jail (pictured, stock image) near Alloa, Scotland, where he is serving an indeterminate jail sentence

REPORTS DETAILING 'VIOLENT' NATURE 'The accused is an extremely volatile and dangerous man. He is routinely violent and will find any way he can of being disruptive and harming those around him. 'He has also attempted to escape on previous occasions. 'He also engages in dirty protests and refuses to be searched by G4S as he claims to identify as a woman. 'I have asked court police officers and G4S to conduct risk assessments should the accused go to trial. 'Both reports highlight the propensity this man has for violence and the lack of provisions for dealing with same at Alloa Sheriff Court. 'I have reached the conclusion that the public interest is not best served by proceeding with these trials. 'The potential for harm is too grave.' Advertisement

He is one of only 100 offenders subject to an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR), meaning he will only be released when he is no longer considered an 'unmanageable risk to public safety'.

Burns has a string of conviction for crimes including assaults, vandalism, resisting arrests, and making false allegations against prison officers.

He has also been known to bite open his own veins and spray blood on other prisoners.

In 2010, he assaulted a nurse when he escaped a hospital in Crewe, Cheshire.

Burns admitted stalking a 13-year-old girl by sending her letters from his cell at Polmont Prison, near Falkirk.

He was sentenced to 14 months and given his OLR at Glasgow's High Court four years ago.

Burns was described as a 'troubled young man who appeared to suffer from psychosis and had difficulty controlling his rages,' when he appeared in court in Cheshire over the assault.

And Burns last year changed his name to Tiffany Scot, claiming that he was transgender and now identifies as a woman.
Cold as ice: Larry G Puleo, 47, was arrested Thursday after deputies serving probation violation warrants found him hiding in the AC unit in his house

A fugitive who tried to give Tampa cops the cold shoulder by hiding in an AC vent ended up giving them his cold shoulders, arms and everything else after her caught hypothermia.

Police arrived at the home of Larry G Puleo, 47, on Thursday to serve arrest warrants for probation violations - but found the house curiously empty.

Or so it seemed. Puleo had in fact carried out a cunning - but enormously misguided - scheme to flee the cops that would end with him begging them to arrest him, the Miami Herald reported.

At first, the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office deputies could hear someone 'scurrying around in the attic,' police said.

But when they went up there they found the place empty.

They called out his name for around an hour with no success, then began to check the attic for possible escape routes.

It was then that they realized there was an AC vent leading down from the attic and through a bedroom closet.

They cut a hole in the vent and saw Puleo hiding inside.

The fugitive stayed in there a little while longer, but changed his tune when the cold began to take its toll and he started to feel 'freezing'.

He eventually begged police to fish him out, and after a hole was cut in the duct he was taken to hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia and released.

He is being held in jail without bond on one count of resisting a police officer without violence and two counts of violation of probation.

Puleo's probation had come after he was convicted of introduction of contraband into a detention facility, possession of heroin.

A Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputy said that as a report had not yet been typed up, she could not elaborate on whether Puleo allowed the police into his home before hiding, or whether they obtained entry some other way.
Lynn Rowe, 58, was arrested on charges of felony child abuse on Friday

A daycare center in Nebraska has been shut down by state regulators after the owner was caught on video violently hitting and shaking a four-year-old girl.

Lynn's Learning Center owner Lynn Rowe, 58, was arrested on charges of felony child abuse on Friday after video emerged showing her sitting across a table from a little girl before losing her temper and hitting the girl.

The Department of Health and Human Services issued an emergency order to shut Lynn'es Learning Center, located at located at 3109 South 112th Street, down following an investigation into the incident.

According to KETV, court documents indicate a staff member, who has since quit, told investigators that she started recording after noticing Rowe was getting 'verbally abusive' with the girl during a lesson on March 28.

The former staff member, who has not been publicly identified, told detectives that she gave the video to the child's mother, Kelley Meyers, on April 2, who then gave the footage to police.

Scroll down for video

Rowe was caught on camera abusing a four-year-old girl. She was seen hitting the girl several times in a video recorded on March 28 by a former staff member at Lynn's Learning Center

Later in the video, Rowe was seen violently shaking the little girl who then began to cry and complained that she had been hurt

Video courtesy of KMTV

At the start of the shocking footage, Rowe can be heard telling the four-year-old girl to 'quit messing with your hair', before she punches her on the arm.

The child immediately begins to cry telling the woman that the slap hurt her.

'Good, I hope it hurt you!' Rowe responds before shaking her violently. 'Do what you're supposed to do!' she continued.

The child's parents were shocked to see the footage, as they said they trusted Rowe who cared for their children for several years.

'We considered these people family,' Al Meyers, the child's father, told KETV.

'We are happy that she will have to take responsibility for her actions now,' his wife said.

The little girl's parents, Kelley (left) and Al (right) Meyers, were shocked at the footage that was presented to them

The Department of Health and Human Services issued an emergency order to shut Lynn's Learning Center, located at located at 3109 South 112th Street (above), down following an investigation into the incident

'She blamed our daughter,' Kelley told KETV. 'She said, you know she's not the easiest child. She can be difficult.'

That's when the Meyers turned over the case to Omaha Police.

The heartbroken mother said she hopes that if there are victims that they come forward and speak with the police.

The family had also sent their now seven-year-old son to the same daycare in years prior and knew Rowe particularly well.

When he saw the video, he confirmed that the same thing had happened to him but was told not to say anything about it.

'It's hard to put the emotions into words and really convey, Al told NBC.

The father said that Rowe refused to admit to her mistakes when they initially confronted her and attempted to minimize the incident by blaming their daughter for being difficult.

'When we presented her with the video, then the real emotions came up,' he said.

'She couldn't watch even three seconds of it and asked us to turn it off. She started to cry and ask us for forgiveness.'

Rowe blamed her behavior on higher levels of stress during that week.
Today on Meet the Press, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., articulated the dangers of the North Korea threat.

'I mean this is very serious,' the senator said. 'This may be the first test of this presidency.'

In the last 24 hours, North Korea attempted yet another missile test  though this one failed  while President Trump tweeted in defense of his decision to cozy up with the Chinese.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pointed to the rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea and suggested it could be the first 'real test' of the Trump presidency

Sitting down with Meet the Press's Chuck Todd (right), Sen. John McCain (left) talked about the 'very serious' problem of North Korea

'Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem?' Trump wrote Sunday morning.

When Todd asked for McCain's take on Trump's tweet, the Arizona senator acknowledge that China is the 'key' to taking care of the North Korea problem.

'They can stop this if they want to because of their control over the North Korean economy,' McCain noted.

The longtime senator pointed out that there's artillery on the border between North Korea and South Korea, and Seoul could be struck before the U.S., or anyone else, had time to react.

'But China can shut them down and we should, whether they're currency manipulators or not, we should expect them to act to prevent what could be a cataclysmic event,' McCain said.

Asked if he approved of Trump's approach, to back off on some of the harder language the president used on China pertaining to currency and trade on the campaign trail in order to get President Xi and the Chinese to help the Americans on North Korea, McCain seemed to agree.

'To prevent North Korea from having a missile with a nuclear weapon that could strike the United States and we would have to rely on our ability to intercept it, and by the way I'm told that we do have that ability, is still awfully risky business,' McCain said.

Donald Trump started off his Easter Sunday by tweeting about his recent talks with Chinese President Xi, explaining that he wants to work with China to solve the North Korea problem

'So this is really very serious,' the Republican added.

Despite touting the U.S.'s missile defense technology, McCain said he didn't quite buy reports that suggested the U.S. sabotaged this weekend's North Korean missile launch.

'I dont think so, but I wouldnt rule it out,' he said.

McCain also said it wasn't Trump's fault that tensions in the region are rising.

'[The North Koreans] have made steady progress while we have made agreement after agreement after agreement,' the Arizona Republican pointed out. 'Chuck, how many times on this show have they said, "Oh, we have now a comprehensive agreement with North Korea?"' he said of American politicians.

'And so I'm not blaming Trump for this. I'm blaming Republican and Democrat presidents over the last twenty years,' McCain said.

He also pointed a finger at North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, noting that the 33-year-old leader is different than his late father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sung.

'This guy in North Korea is not rational,' McCain said. 'His father and his grandfather were much more rational than he is.'

And that's why, McCain argued, you 'never' really want to have to use the military option on the divided Korean peninsula.

'Because of this proximity of North Korean artillery to Seoul, a city of how many million people,' McCain said. 'But, at the same time, to risk a situations where they have that ability and we rely on our ability to intercept.'

'This could be the first test, real test, of the Trump presidency,' he repeated. 'And, by the way, I believe that he'll get very good advice from Mattis and from McMaster.'

More broadly, McCain had suggested Trump was growing as a president.

'There are some that will say, "No, the Washington establishment sucked him in,"' Todd pointed out.

'I hope so,' McCain replied.

McCain explained that Trump had assembled a strong national security team and is listening to them, adding that those in power now aren't the ones responsible for some of the American failures in foreign policy over the last several decades.

'For eight years, we basically did nothing in response to some of the most horrendous war crimes in history,' McCain charged. 'At least he did something. Now I hope that there will be a strategy to follow that up.'

'And look, America is about a moral superiority in our willingness not to fight every fight, but at least respond to horrendous acts of inhumanity and war crimes,' McCain added.
An elderly man has died while receiving a lap dance at a strip club in Texas.

Robert Gene White, 67, had traveled to the Red Parrot in El Paso, which describes itself as a: 'legendary full service gentlemens club', on Friday night.

The club's manager said White was 'unresponsive' when his dance finished, and after the dancer initially thought the sexagenarian could have been trying to get out of paying his bill, they realized he was in trouble and began performing CPR.

An elderly man has died while receiving a lap dance at the Red Parrot strip club (pictured) in El Paso, Texas

A short time later employees called 911, KVIA reports.

He was taken to a nearby hospital, but he was unable to be revived.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office said it appears as though White died of natural causes.

Police would not release any further details.
An American tourist had to be hit with a taser by Israeli police during a crazed rampage, after he claimed that Jesus appeared to him in a vision.

The unnamed man, who reportedly attacked a guard during the rampage at the entrance to the Kibbutz Almagor, near the Sea of Galilee, was seen repeatedly screaming 'Fire!' at Israeli authorities in the police footage taken on Friday.

'In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, fire!' the 31-year-old yelled at police, while grasping a metal tire iron in one hand.

An American tourist had to be tasered by Israeli police after he went on a crazed rampage while claiming that Jesus appeared to him in a vision

'In the power of the Holy Spirit, fire! Fire! Fire!'

The footage then shows the American tourist appearing to lunge towards one of the officers, before he is tasered and wrestled to the floor.

Police told local media the man was 'detached from reality.' He was then arrested and taken to Nazareth Magistrate's Court.

Authorities say that the tourist has been visiting Israel with his wife and son for two weeks, when he claimed he'd had a vision from Jesus,' Israel National News reports.

'Jesus was revealed to him and told him to go north and destroy the credit cards,' his wife told police.

A judge in the Nazareth Magistrates Court on Friday ordered the man held on bail until Tuesday.
Police killer Harry Roberts was seen shopping at Tesco

Triple police killer Harry Roberts continues to enjoy a life a normality as he took a trip to the supermarket.

The 80-year-old was seen stocking up on groceries at a shopping centre just outside Peterborough this week.

Roberts was jailed for life for the murders of Detective Sargent Christopher Head, 30, Detective Constable David Wombwell, 25, and PC Geoffrey Fox, 41, in West London in 1966.

Despite his horrific crime, he was released from Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire in 2014, sparking public outrage.

Wearing a blue bomber jacket and grey trousers, Roberts blended in with other shoppers as he strolled around the store.

On November 15, 1966 he was handed three life sentences for what the judge described as 'the most heinous crime for a generation or more'.

The triple killer was eventually released in 2014 and has since enjoyed a life of relative normality.

However the families of those he murdered last year spoke out against Roberts' release on the anniversary of the massacre.

The 80-year-old stocked up on biscuits at a trip to the supermarket in Peterborough

Pc Geoffrey Fox, 41, left, Detective Constable David Wombwell, 25, centre, and Detective Sergeant Christopher Head, 30, right, were murdered on August 12, 1966

On August 12, 1966, Shepherd's Bush CID officers PC Wombwell, PC Fox, 41, and DS Head were on patrol near Wormwood Scrubs prison when they spotted a van on Braybrook Street.

Harry Roberts, who has enjoyed a normal life since being released from jail

Inside was Roberts with his accomplices John Duddy and John Witney, who were preparing to carry out an armed robbery.

When the unarmed officers approached, Roberts opened fire with a Luger pistol.

Roberts shot at the policemen in Braybrook Street while children were playing nearby.

He killed Det Con Wombell and chased and shot Sergeant Head.

One of his accomplices then shot Geoffrey Fox.

Duddy and Witney were soon caught but Roberts remained on the run for nearly 100 days, sparking Scotland Yard's biggest ever manhunt.

He relied on his training as a soldier to survive and was eventually found near Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, living in a camouflaged den made out of plastic bags and branches.

On November 15, 1966, Roberts was given three life sentences with a 30 year minimum tariff.

His two accomplices are now both dead.

Duddy died in Parkhurst prison in 1981 and Witney was released in 1991 but was beaten to death with a hammer by his flatmate in Bristol in 1999.

Since his controversial release from prison, he has been spotted celebrating passing his driving test last year and laughing and joking on the streets of Peterborough

United in grief: Hundreds of police officers and mourners gathered on the streets of London to pay tribute to the murdered officers

In 2009, he was reportedly refused parole after threatening to kill a family he had worked for after they put a complaint in about him.

At the time of his sentencing, Mr Justice Hildreth Glyn-Jones told Roberts: 'I think it likely that no Home Secretary regarding the enormity of your crime will ever think it fit to show you mercy by releasing you on licence.'

However, an independent Parole Board deemed he was eligible for release, prompting anger among the Police Federation, which said there was 'widespread anger' that the police killer had been freed.

He was eventually released in 2014 and sent to live alongside unwitting elderly people.

Since then he has been spotted celebrating passing his driving test last year and laughing and joking on the streets of Peterborough.
The prestigious George Cross, which was awarded to a heroic seaman who rescued four comrades from a blazing cargo ship, is being sold for an estimated 140,000.

Chief Officer George Stronach was thrown 30ft into the air and knocked unconscious when a bombing raid caused a massive explosion and fire on his ship.

When he came round minutes later he realised the captain was dead, so he ordered the crew to abandon ship.

Despite being knocked unconscious Chief Officer George Stronach spent 80 minutes looking for survivors in the burning boat

But instead of following his own orders he spent 80 minutes looking for survivors while thousands of tonnes of ammunition and aircraft fuel ignited around him.

Dousing himself with water from a hose to protect himself, Chief Officer Stronach searched through the ship.

He found one of the officers unconscious and badly burned and dragged him along the deck to a lowered lifeboat.

He then found another crew-mate trapped by debris, freed him and pulled him through a porthole before lowering him down to the boat.

As the situation became increasingly desperate, he went back again to find a third severely injured officer who he took to the side of the ship and lowered to a raft.

An artist's rendition of Stronach, who doused himself in water to protect himself, rescuing a wounded seaman from the stricken Ocean Voyager

Taking a final look round, he found a greaser lying unconscious. As there was no raft or boat alongside he threw him overboard.

Finally satisfied there were no more survivors, Chief Officer Stronach jumped overboard and swam to a raft.

He then directed the raft back to save the greaser - who tragically died of his injuries.

The heroic action took place on board the Ocean Voyager anchored off Tripoli, a major supply port for the Allies in Libya, in 1943.

Chief Officer Stronach was a highly-decorated officer and was awarded, among others, the George Cross, the 1939-45 Star, the Atlantic Star and the Africa Star (from left to right)

The seaman was awarded the George Cross - the highest British gallantry decoration for someone not in the armed forces.

Stronach's was one of just three awarded to merchant seamen during the Second World War.

His decorations have remained in the family for the past 74 years but Chief Officer Stronach's daughter, who lives in Scotland, has now reluctantly decided to put them up for auction. She will donate some of the proceeds to charity.

The steel and sacrifice of British mariners in the Mediterranean HMS Nelson in action in the Mediterranean in 1942 The Battle of the Atlantic was perhaps the Royal Navy's most famous engagement during World War 2. But the bravery and sacrifice of British servicemen in the Mediterranean was just as crucial to the war effort. Britain held three crucial strategic points of Gibraltar, Malta and the Suez Canal, which kept vital supply routes open. Initially the Royal Navy thought it could leave the western Mediterranean in the care of the French navy. But after they surrendered in 1940 a handful of Royal Navy ships were left to defend against the combined might of the Italian Navy and Air Force, alongside Hitler's Luftwaffe and U-boats. This left merchant ships like Chief Officer Stronach's Ocean Voyager incredibly vulnerable to attack as there weren't enough British ships to defend them all. The battle came to an end in 1943, when Italy surrendered to the Allies. By this time the combined might of British and American forces had made the Mediterranean much safer for transport ships. Advertisement

She said: 'I am extremely proud of my father, for he was a very fine man in every way. I think it could be said of him, as of so many others, that he was a 'reluctant hero'.

'He never spoke about the the war although I know that he never forgot it or those of his ship who were lost during the bombing raid in Tripoli.

'Indeed, one of his greatest wishes was to have been able to visit the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery there in order to pay his respects to his shipmates.

'With regard to the medals and archive being offered for sale, I have had the privilege of being the custodian of his awards since he passed them into my safe-keeping nearly 30 years ago.

'However, I feel that the time has now come for me to pass them on safely to a new owner.

'It is my sincere hope that whoever purchases this archive will honour all of it and display the items for the public to view and ponder on.

London auctioneer Pierce Noonan described Stronach as a 'quiet, reserved Scotsman who showed amazing calmness and courage'

'Following the sale, it is my intention to give some of the proceeds to a charitable organisation in his memory and I am currently looking into which would be the most suitable for this purpose.'

Pierce Noonan, of London auctioneer Dix Noonan Webb, said: 'George Stronach was a quiet, reserved Scotsman who showed amazing calmness and courage as the ammunition below decks on Ocean Voyager began to explode.

'Realising that the ship itself was doomed, he set about rescuing as many of his injured shipmates as he could, putting their lives above his own survival.

'There have been few better examples of such unselfish heroism in the distinguished history of the George Cross.'

Chief Officer Stronach was born in Port Gordon in Scotland in 1914.

He joined the Merchant Navy and was regularly promoted, becoming a Chief Officer in March 1941. He transferred to Ocean Voyager in August 1942.

The Luftwaffe attack happened on March 19, 1943.

The George Cross is Britain's highest award for civilian gallantry

The citation for his George Cross described his 'gallant efforts undertaken with utter disregard of his personal safety' and added 'his action equals any in the annals of the Merchant Navy for great and unselfish heroism and determination in the face of overwhelming odds'.

Chief Officer Stronach, describing the bombing raid in the wartime newspaper Parade, said: 'There were two direct hits through the bridge. I don't quite know what happened then.

'I was thrown about 30 feet right out into the starboard scuppers. It was a few seconds before I realised that I was still alive.

'My left trouser leg had been torn off. My left eye and the whole of my left side seemed affected by the shock.'

In later life, Chief Officer Stronach was a marine pilot on the Clyde. He retired in 1979 and lived in Argyllshire, where he died aged 81 in 1999.

George Stronach's daughter said she was 'extremely proud' of my father and that, like so many others, he was a 'reluctant hero'

Stronach's decorations and medals consist of a George Cross, 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star, Africa Star with clasp North Africa 1942-3, War Medal 1939-45, Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953, Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal 1977 and the Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea.

They are accompanied by an archive of original material including letters of gratitude from two of the men whose lives he saved.

The auction takes place on May 10.
A famed bridge in Madison County, Iowa, was destroyed in a fire and local police believe arson is to blame.

The Cedar Bridge was engulfed in flames early on Saturday morning as firefighters rushed to save their iconic black and red landmark.

The wooden structure was described as a total loss as police marked off the charred overpass with yellow tape.

Madison County is known for being the birthplace of author Robert James Waller, who wrote about the area's covered bridges in his 1992 novel, The Bridges of Madison County.

Cedar Bridge was featured on the cover of the acclaimed and best-selling literary work.

The Cedar Bridge in Madison County, Iowa, was engulfed in flames early on Saturday morning. Local police are investigating the incident as they believe the fire was intentionally set

The bridge was originally built in 1883 and moved to its current location in 1920. It was burned down previously in a suspected arson in 2002. Pictured: The bridge before (left) and after (right) the Saturday fire

The bridges, which were built in the late 1800s, were made popular in the novel and are now there are only five left.

Madison County Sheriff Jason Barnes told The Des Moines Register that because there was no electricity or light source located at the bridge and no severe weather or lightning strikes at the time, his department would be investigating the incident as arson.

He said: 'Its pretty bad. When you think of Madison County, you think of those bridges. Its a direct attack.'

Cedar Bridge was first built in 1883 but burned down in another arson case in 2002. The location was rebuilt and reopened in 2004 after an estimated $1million in repairs.

Madison County is the birthplace of author Robert James Waller (left), who wrote The Bridges of Madison County. Cedar Bridge was featured on the cover (right)
A Democratic Arizona lawmaker sparked outrage after he wrote on social media that he wanted to punch a female Republican senator 'in the throat'.

Rep. Jesus Rubalcava (D-Yuma) was discussing State Sen. Debbie Lesko's (R-Glendale) support for an expanded school-voucher system to help families who want to send their children to private school.

A Facebook friend of Rubalcava's said that they had found it 'slightly enraging; to watch Lesko's victory lap around the state Capitol, as her Senate Bill 1431 was being sent to Gov. Doug Ducey for his signature.

Rep. Jesus Rubalcava (D-Yuma) (left) was angry over State Sen. Debbie Lesko's (R-Glendale) (rigHT) support for a bill to expand the school voucher system

'I wanted to punch her in the throat,' Rubalcava replied, according to Arizona Central.

Lesko, who said she was a previous victim of domestic abuse, was furious over the comments.

'It is kind of disturbing,' she said. 'I don't know if the guy has violent tendencies, or what 

'As a survivor of domestic violence from a previous marriage, Representative Rubalcava's Facebook post... was very disturbing and totally inappropriate especially since he is an elementary school teacher and legislator.

'I hope in the future that he debates issues based on their merit in a civil manner.'

Rubalcava has since deleted the offensive comment and apologized on the floor of the House of Representatives.

'I wanted to punch her in the throat,' Rubalcava said in response to a friend's comments that she'd been 'enraged' by Lesko's victory lap

He admitted his actions were 'definitely unprofessional' and 'unacceptable' but stressed that there had been no intent of real violence behind them.

The representative added that he had been raised by a single mom who never tolerated violence.

'I want this body to know that I have apologized to Sen. Debbie Lesko for my comment, and I sincerely apologize,' he said.

He later apologized to Lesko who in person who accepted and asked him to debate the bill with her some time.

But not everyone was so forgiving.

Rep. Maria Syms, R-Paradise Valley, branded the Democrat a unfit for public office while Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale urged a zero tolerance approach for any threats of violence against women.
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President Donald Trump landed back in Washington on Sunday evening, after attending Easter church services near his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the culmination to his latest weekend away from the White House.

Mr Trump and a retinue of family and aides, including First Lady Melania Trump and youngest son Barron, 11, arrived at Andrews Air Force Base a little after 6 pm and returned to the White House by motorcade.

Earlier Sunday, the first family attended Easter services at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea near his estate in Palm Beach.

The annual ritual for Trump provided a break from a host of foreign policy crises, including escalating tensions with North Korea.

The president attended the service with his wife, his two younger children, Barron and Tiffany, and the first lady's parents.

It's the same church where he and the first lady were married in 2005.

Donald Trump, his son, Barron, and wife, Melania, step off Air Force One as they land back in Washington

The First Lady looked relaxed as she descended onto the Tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base

Donald Trump, seen with Melania and Tiffany, waves to onlookers as he enters the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea on Sunday

Melania posted this picture of her and Donald Trump on Twitter on Sunday, along with the caption: 'Happy Easter'

But the Florida weekend has wrapped up, as Donald, Melania, and Barron were seen on boarding Air Force One before heading back to DC on Sunday afternoon.

The trio stopped at the top of the stairs to wave, but it appeared as though Tiffany was not with them for the Washington flight.

The president had been expected to spend the rest of the afternoon with his family participating in annual Easter festivities at Mar-a-Lago, his private club, including brunch and an Easter egg hunt, spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said.

It will be a test run of sorts. He and the first lady are set to host the official annual Easter egg roll at the White House on Monday.

The president has yet to attend a church service in the Capitol since his inauguration weekend back in January. The church attendance of past presidents has been a topic of intense interest in Washington.

Trump has been speaking more about faith in recent week, invoking God in his statements.

Donald Trump, center, reaches for first lady Melania Trump, left, as they and Barron Trump board Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport

Donald Trump and Melania Trump are seen through the window of their car as they left the Easter service on Sunday

A family is seen outside their house and waving to Trump motorcade as it drove past with the president and first lady inside

Donald Trump leaves in his limousine after attending an Easter Sunday service at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach

Clergy line up to enter for services at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea on Sunday morning ahead of an Easter service

Members of the clergy gather outside The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach on Sunday morning

Donald Trump's motorcade is seen in front of the Episcopal Church on Sunday morning before the president went to an Easter service

In his weekly radio address, the president called Easter Sunday "a holy day of reverence and worship" and "a sacred time that fills the spirit of our nation with the faith of our people."

He also declared, "America is a Nation of believers," adding that: "As long as we have faith in each other, and trust in God, we will succeed."

Trump described himself as a "religious person" during his campaign, but often appeared to struggle to affirm his Christian credentials as he worked to woo the Evangelical voters who helped drive him into office.

The president is not the first commander-in-chief to head to Palm Beach for the Easter weekend, with JFK doing so during his time in office.

Members of the church are seen waiting for Trump's arrival on Sunday. The church was the same location as where Donald and Melania were married in 2005

A police officer blocks the driveway as local residents stand outside and watch as US President Donald Trump's motorcade passes in Palm Beach

The wait staff of a local restaurant stands outside to watch as US President Donald Trump's motorcade drives through Palm Beach on Sunday morning
Hopeful: Joshua Waring, 28, is hoping he'll get out of a potential life sentence after labs said he had no gun residue on his hands or clothes after a June 2016 shooting

Things are looking brighter for the son of ex-Real Housewives of Orange County star Lauri Peterson, who is in the midst of an ongoing attempted murder case.

Joshua Waring, 28, was arrested last year after allegedly performing a drive-by shooting on a house in Costa Mesa, crashing his BMW during the subsequent police chase and trying to hide in a bar's bathroom.

But Waring - who remains jailed in Orange County - hopes that he could be exonerated after scientists were unable to detect residue on his hands or clothes, the LA Times reported.

The results, which Waring received on Monday, came from the Los Angeles County Department of Medical-Examiner Coroner.

He had previously told the paper that he hoped such results would clear his name in the shooting, which left one man seriously injured and could result in him getting life in jail.

However, Debra Gibson, acting chief of forensics laboratories for the Los Angeles County coroners office, wrote in the report that he findings were 'inconclusive'.

And other forensic specialists have warned the Times that the results shouldn't be seen as an indication that Waring is innocent.

One of those experts is Michael Martinez, a forensic scientist supervisor at the Bexar County Crime Laboratory in Texas,

He said that 'gunshot residue is nothing more than an investigatory tool' used to corroborate other evidence, rather than being a case-maker itself.

'Getting an exoneration because gunshot residue can't be found is a huge leap,' he warned.

Troubled: Waring (top-right), son of Real Housewives of Orange County star Lori Peterson (center), says he's innocent of a drive-by on a house that injured three - one seriously

He added that the residue - a powder similar to flour - can easily be washed away or otherwise gotten rid of.

Also, the ideal window for finding the residue is up to six hours after the shots are fired, and Waring was arrested about eight hours after the incident.

On June 20, Waring drove to a house on Babb Road in Costa Mesa in his girlfriend's BMW to pick up a female friend who had asked for a ride.

According to court documents, a man in the house identified as 'Ronald D' became angry when he saw Waring and threw the woman's possessions out of the house, causing an iPhone - which Waring had bought he - to smash.

That was around midnight; Waring says that he left with the woman and did not return.

At around 2:30am that night, someone drove by the house and fired several shots at it, hitting three people, one of whom was seriously injured.

Target: Waring says his TV appearances along with his mom (pictured) made him a target for cops. Experts have warned that a lack of gun residue does not mean he's innocent

One of the men, identified as 'Daniel L,' did not get along with Waring. Some in the house identified Waring as the shooter.

Around eight hours later, his BMW was spotted by police, and pursued with a helicopter until he crashed into another vehicle in Santa Ana, then fled on foot.

He then entered the bathroom of a nearby bar and engaged in a standoff with cops before giving himself up, police claim.

Waring, who has a long list of priors, maintains that he is innocent and that he fled because he had gone to the neighborhood to pick up drugs.

He claims that he began drinking at age 12 and became dependent on drugs - including cocaine and heroin - in his early twenties, due to insecurity.

'The last ten years of my life has been focused on how to be a criminal, stay on drugs and feel comfortable,' he told the LA Times from jail.

'I don't feel comfortable without being loaded.'

He also says that his appearances as a young man on Real Housewives of Orange County from 2006-2009 made him a target for cops.

'The show took my problems and put a bull's-eye on my back for law enforcement,' he complained.

He has a string of convictions, including a hit-and-run in 2008, battery in 2009, possession of drug paraphernalia in 2009 and drug possession and resisting a peace officer in 2015.

But he said he's been off drugs for the ten months since he began his time in jail, and hopes to stay on the wagon.

And despite his problems, he says he would never try to shoot someone down.

'I know myself and I wouldn't do this,' he said.

Waring faces three counts of attempted murder, one count of unlawfully discharging a firearm at an inhabited dwelling, three counts of assault with a firearm, a count of vehicle theft, a count of shooting at another person from a motor vehicle and a count of evading police while driving recklessly.

All of those are felonies.

He also faces misdemeanor charges of battery, resisting an officer and hit-and-run with property damage, along with possible sentencing enhancements on allegations of personal use of a firearm and inflicting great bodily injury.
While Donald Trump's Chief Strategist Steve Bannon remains at the White House, there's ample evidence that he's been cast out of the president's inner circle.

Vanity Fair did a deep dive on Bannon's rift with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and found that Trump was fed up that his top aide was casting Kushner and his daughter Ivanka Trump as liberals, taking credit for the president's popularity and saying he had conservatives in Congress under control during the health care reform push  when Bannon really did not.

More superficially, Frank Bruni in a New York Times column titled 'Steve Bannon was doomed,' noted that not only did the slobbish Bannon pick a fight with Trump's kin, but he did so with the sharply-dressed and svelte Kushner.

'Consider Trump's obsession with appearances, then tell me who has the advantage: the guy who looks like a flea market made flesh or the one who seems poised to pose for GQ?' Bruni mused.

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White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon (left) has fallen out of favor with Donald Trump (right), as the president chooses to elevate his family members to his inner circle instead

President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner (left) and daughter Ivanka Trump (right) were first suspicious of Steve Bannon when he elevated himself to the National Security Council. Now they're pushing for ex-executives like Gary Cohn (center) to have more of the president's ear

The columnist's point was reinforced by Saturday Night Live's fictionalized version of Bannon's firing, which was last night's cold open.

Starring some crypt creature as Bannon and Jimmy Fallon as a silent and handsome Kushner, Alec Baldwin's Trump channels America's Next Top Model to send Bannon back to 'hell.'

In real life, Vanity Fair writer Sarah Ellison suggested Bannon should have known one fairly simple thing about Trump, articulated by the president's longtime friend who headed the Presidential Inaugural Committee, Thomas Barrack Jr.

'Anyone who works for him and becomes victim to unfounded hubris will quickly be taken down to size,' Barrack advised.

Beyond the Time magazine cover, which labeled Bannon, 'The Great Manipulator,' and annoyed Trump for its puppeteer allusions, the chief strategist's 'real undoing,' according to three sources who talked to Vanity Fair, was Bannon's attempts in the media to color Kushner and Ivanka Trump as 'liberal Democrats seeking to undermine a more conservative agenda.'

Saturday Night Live played up the Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon rift, casting Jimmy Fallon (left) as Kushner and a demon as Steve Bannon

President Trump, played by Alec Baldwin (center right), channeled America's Next Top Model to choose who would stay on in his administration. He picked the prettier Jared Kushner , played by Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon (far left)

Jared Kushner's bigger role was evident when he was sent to Iraq by President Trump (left), Jimmy Fallon channeled that look when playing Kushner on Saturday Night Live

Bannon, Vanity Fair pointed out, also took credit for Trump's popularity, especially among those white working class voters who embraced the candidate's populism.

'The reality is, if he keeps this up he's not going to be here,' one official said of Bannon's boasts.

While many expected it to be Chief of Staff Reince Priebus' head to roll over the health care reform ordeal, Bannon got a strike on his record there too, according to Vanity Fair's sources, as he promised the House Freedom Caucus, which eventually derailed the Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan-backed bill, would vote for it without a problem.

'I've got these guys taken care of,' Bannon had reportedly articulated, according to a West Wing source. 'We don't have to worry about them.'

Bannon also bungled the roll-out of Trump's controversial travel ban, which impacted majority-Muslim countries.

'You could have told Homeland Security to really start doing their jobs,' a senior official close to the president told Vanity Fair. 'You didn't have to sign an executive order and piss in everyone's face.'

While a number of these Bannon-is-falling stories come from those whispering in the White House and not using their names, the biggest evidence that his role is diminishing comes from the fact that he no longer sits on the National Security Council.

It was that move, to be put on the National Security Council originally, that put him on Kushner and Ivanka Trump's radar, according to Vanity Fair, as the first daughter and her husband became suspicious of the aide's true motives.

'This was honestly a dark-of-night operation,' a senior administration official told Vanity Fair.

Steve Bannon, sitting through President Trump's news conference last week, is reportedly in trouble for characterizing Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump as 'liberal Democrats'

Looking at the bigger picture, the Wall Street Journal noticed that as Kushner gained more influence in the West Wing, so did the former executives that Trump had brought in, leading the president to change his tune on a number of issues in recent days.

Those in the Kushner camp include Gary Cohn, Trump's top economic adviser who was formerly the president of Goldman Sachs.

Also, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil CEO, who is meeting with Trump more than any other cabinet official.

And finally, Wilbur Ross, a billionaire like Trump, who the president made his secretary of commerce.

Trump named the three of them when referring to the 'very good team' he had assembled, in the same interview where he called Bannon some 'guy who works for me.'

The Journal suggested that they and other top business people were the ones whispering in Trump's ear when the president rethought his approach to NATO, which he no longer calls 'obsolete,' China, which he no longer brands as a currency manipulator and the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

It was Boeing's CEO Dennis Muilenburg who explained the role the Export-Import Bank plays, according to the Journal's sources, which led Trump to change his tune.

The danger with Trump aligning himself more with Kushner over Bannon is alienating his voters, who thirsted for someone to drain the swamp in Washington, not become a beltway creature.

Bannon allies are already pointing this out.

'We didn't elect Kushner to bring a New York establishment mentality to Washington,' one campaign veteran who supports Bannon and his financial backers, Robert and Rebekah Mercer, told the Wall Street Journal. 'The reason we worked so hard and gave so much money was because we were promised a nationalist revolution.'

'We didn't send him to go native once he goes to Washington, D.C.,' the source added.
Champagne is now cheaper than mouthwash thanks to the latest supermarket price war.

Tesco is selling a 750ml bottle of Louis Delaunay champagne for 12, but it has cut the price by a quarter to 9 per bottle for those who buy six.

At 12 per bottle the cost per 100ml is 1.60, but at 9 it is 1.20 per 100ml  less than the equivalent amount of mouthwash from household brands such as Colgate and Corsodyl.

Tesco is selling Louis Delaunay champagne for 9 per bottle for those who buy six - Listerine Advanced Defence Gum Treatment Mouthwash can cost 3.49 for 250ml, or 1.40 per 100ml

The price of a 750ml bottle of Asdas Louvel Fontaine champagne has been reduced from 11.98 to 10  the equivalent of paying 1.33 per 100ml.

And a bottle of bubbly costs as little as 9.99 at budget chains Aldi and Lidl.

Meanwhile, Listerine Advanced Defence Gum Treatment Mouthwash can cost 3.49 for 250ml, or 1.40 per 100ml, and Colgate Peroxyl Mouthwash is selling for 4.50 for 300ml, or 1.50 per 100ml.

Corsodyl Mint Mouthwash can cost 10.00 for 600ml, or 1.67 per 100ml.

Martin Isark, of consumer site Can I Eat It?, said competition was driving supermarkets to lower the price of champagne to match that of Prosecco.

THE CHAMPAGNE PRICE WARS Champagne: Tesco: Louis Delaunay 750ml = 12.00 or 1.60 per 100ml. Buy six bottles, get 25 per cent off = 9.00 per 750ml or 1.20 per 100ml. Asda: NV Louvel Fontaine 750ml - 10.00 or 1.33 per 100ml. Mouthwash: Listerine Advanced Defence Gum Treatment = 3.49 for 250ml or 1.40 per 100ml. Colgate Peroxyl Mouthwash = 4.50 for 300 ml or 1.50 per 100ml Colgate Total Pro Gum Health Antiseptic = 11.77 for 750ml or 1.57 per 100ml Corsodyl Mint = 10.00 for 600ml or 1.67 per 100ml Advertisement

The price of a 750ml bottle of Asdas Louvel Fontaine champagne has been reduced from 11.98 to 10  the equivalent of paying 1.33 per 100ml - making it cheaper than some bottles of Corsodyl

The drinks world has gone really mad when a gargling mouthwash costs more than champagne, he said.

Bubbly is a handcrafted luxury product that has had a minimum of 18 months of bottle ageing.

'It seems supermarkets have decided the only way to shift it off the shelves is to bring the entry level down to the price of Prosecco.
One of Britain's grandest boats will be sold for scrap after it was allowed to rust away.

The Ryde Queen Paddle Boat was used as a gun platform in the D-Day landings at Omaha Beach in Normandy before operating as a passenger ferry between England and the Isle of Wight, where she is now docked.

But after years of neglect, the ship - once the pride of Britain rescuing soldiers from Dunkirk - will now be sold for scrap after being left to rot.

The Ryde Queen Paddle boat helped rescue British soldiers from Dunkirk during World War 2

Bob Hyslop fell in love with the boat when he moved to the Isle of Wight in 1985.

The 48-year-old said: 'She played an important role during the war years when she was used for the Normandy landings, as a mine sweeper and as anti aircraft gun emplacement.

'Many ships like this have been forgotten and allowed to rot away which is a shame.

'They were and still are an important part of the UK's history.'

It helped provide anti aircraft protection for US troops at Omaha beach in Normandy

He has called for a memorial or museum to be erected in the dock once she has been sold.

Bob, a care manager who took some video of the ship using a drone, added: 'It would be nice to think that someday there would be a memorial or museum at her final resting place to help keep the memory alive.'

But the ship has now fallen into a state of disrepair on the Isle of Wight

Marina manager Darren Cooke said they would like to keep her and restore the boat, but she will likely be scrapped and parts sold off.

The 51-year-old said: 'Unfortunately, although we would entertain any offers to save her, it is likely that she will be scrapped.

'She is in a very bad state now and beyond any kind of economic repair.

Locals on the Isle of Wight hoped it could have been converted into a museum or memorial

Plans were made to renovate the ship but the costs were too high to justify it

'We drew up proposals with consultants, but all of them would cost more than could ever be justified, particularly as it would be highly unlikely that we could ever get any kind of subsidy towards its cost.

'Even though she will be scrapped, I am guessing that some time in the next year parts of her can be preserved, such as her steam engines, the ships bell and other parts of her structure, so we can have some kind of memorial to her here for the future.

Darren Cooke, manager of the marina where the ship is beached, said the paddle boat was 'beyond any kind of economic repair'

'Most things of value, were stripped and stolen off her many years ago, so now she is pretty much a rusting iron shell.

'But there will certainly be some parts of her worth keeping as a reminder of Island Harbour's past paddle steamer heritage.'
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They've spent the last month quietly recuperating in French Polynesia since leaving the White House earlier this year.

But Barack and Michelle Obama interrupted the quiet island life they've become accustomed to this weekend with a star-studded jaunt out to sea.

The former First Couple joined Bruce Springsteen Tom Hanks and their wives on music mogul David Geffen's superyacht Rising Sun on Friday, making quite the splash as they arrived at the vessel off the island of Mo'orea in a spruced up speedboat.

Once on board, the Obama's played tourists, posing romantically on the upper deck while they had their photograph taken.

Michelle and Barack Obama pose for a photograph on the upper deck of billionaire music mogul David Geffen's superyacht on Friday as the former First Couple carried on their Tahitian vacation off the island of Mo'orea

The loved-up duo also conducted their own private photo-shoot. Michelle, dressed casually in a pair of white shorts and a black tank top, leaving her hair to fall at her shoulders

Michelle, 53, showed off her world renowned physique in a pair of white shorts and a black tank top. She let her usually coiffed hair fall wildly at her shoulders, elegantly slinging a brown handbag over one arm as she posed with her husband.

The former president was equally laid back in his attire. He sported a pale blue shirt and some beige pants, adding a pair of sunglasses to his off-duty look.

Oprah stood out in a bright yellow day dress. The stunning results of her recent weight loss were on full display as she stood side on snapping photographs of her famous friends.

The former president was also seen taking photographs of Michelle as she posed alone.

Out of sight were Oprah, Hanks and Springsteen, both of whom are considered friends by the Obamas. Both are also close with Geffen, a billionaire music mogul who prides himself on the famous company he keeps on board his $300million yacht.

Springsteen and Hanks are regular guests while Mariah Carey, James Packer, Leonardo di Caprio and Steven Spielberg have also graced its deck.

Oprah, another friend of the billionaire's, was rumored by local media to have also been on board but was not spotted as the group posed for photographs.

The stunning 454ft-long yacht was built for Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and bought by Geffen in 2010.

They made their glamorous arrival on a spruced up speedboat. Hanks and Springsteen sat on the ledge while the former president entertained Mrs Springsteen on the back seats

Welcome aboard! Patti Springsteen jumped off the speedboat first, carrying a large straw hat in one hand

All together! The group, which included Tom Hanks (center), Bruce Springsteen (left) and their wives Patti and Rita Wilson (huddled next to Barack and Michelle) all posed for a snap

The group all settled down for lunch beneath a large umbrella after climbing on board

While the producer is ordinarily keen to share Instagram photographs of what famous guests he has on board, he was quiet during the Obamas' visit on Friday.

The vessel has been in Tahiti since March, according to earlier posts. It coincides beautifully with the Obamas tropical sojourn there.

Friday's outing was decidedly more glamorous than their earlier paddle boarding outings.

Since taking up residence at the exclusive Brando resort last month, the Obamas have kept a low profile. It came after a whirlwind trip around the Caribbean in January where the couple spent time with Sir Richard Branson on Necker Island.

The former First Lady posed up a storm as Barack snapped her picture on an iPhone after boarding the vessel on Friday

A Tahitian paddle-boarder crept up towards the 454ft-long superyacht as the famous guests enjoyed lunch

Aside from a handful of visits to New York City, where their eldest daughter Malia, 18, is taking part in a film production internship at The Weinstein Company, the Obamas have largely been out of the country since January 21 when they officially handed over the White House to Donald and Melania Trump.

The former president is expected to have used the downtime to begin work on his memoir. The couple signed a joint multi-million dollar book deal with Penguin.

They have also spent time in Hawaii and Palm Springs which was their first port of call on January 21. While Malia carries on with her internship in New York before beginning classes at Harvard in the fall, Sasha, 15, is still in school in Washington DC.

Her parents have decided to keep a residence there until she graduates.
This is the moment angry shoppers surrounded a man was he was detained by paedophile hunters for allegedly trying to groom a 15-year-old girl for sex online.

The father-of-two was ambushed outside a Tesco supermarket in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset by five vigilantes.

The 29-year-old claimed he had made a mistake and was only there so he could apologise to the girl's father.

But the group revealed he had been talking to a decoy all along, as part of a sting to expose internet predators.

The father-of-two was ambushed outside a Tesco supermarket in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset by five vigilantes

A crowd gathered to watch the confrontation - filmed live on Facebook - with one bystander saying she would 'f****** kill him'.

In the footage, David Poole, 38 - who runs Hereford-based vigilante group H Division - is seen leading the man away from the store entrance.

Thinking the suspected pervert is about to run, the hunters quickly surround him and back him up against a wall.

One gets right up in his face and says: 'I wouldn't f****** bother.'

The man says: 'Look, I'm not going to run. How can I run? I'm fat and I'm slow.'

David asks: 'So, can you explain to me why you think sending those chats to a 15-year-old girl is appropriate?'

The man calmly responds: 'Well, what do you guys need? What do you guys want?'

The group reveal how the man has been talking to a decoy all along, as part of a sting to expose internet predators

David tells him: 'You're being arrested. You're gonna get up to two years in prison and will be on the sex offenders register.

'We've been on you for a while, mate. We know everything about you.'

The cafe boss - who admitted he has two young children - says he has been 'f****** stupid' but insists he was 'never gonna do anything'.

David says: 'I will give you one thing, you turned up today to apologise, didn't you? To what you thought (was) the father.'

The man says: 'Because I know I done wrong.'

One shocked onlooker says: 'I feel sorry for your family and friends that are gonna have to f****** see this.'

Another says: 'I'd kill him. I'd f****** kill him.'

David reassures the man he will step in if anyone tries to hit him.

Police officers then arrive and escort the suspect away from the store before arresting him

He says: 'This mistake is gonna cost you, mate, the rest of your life. Your poor fiance, your children.'

Police officers then arrive and escort the suspect away from the store before arresting him.

In an unrelated sting, H Division caught another man in the town just 30 minutes earlier for allegedly trying to groom an underage girl for sex.

Both men have been bailed without charge, pending further enquiries.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Constabulary said: 'Two men were detained on Saturday on suspicion of grooming offences.

'The men, aged 29 and 22, were arrested in Weston-super-Mare town centre on suspicion of attempted sexual activity with a child after information was provided by members of the public.

'Both men have been released under investigation.

'We are committed to the safeguarding of young people and will act on various information and intelligence which is provided to us.'
A journalist has been arrested while covering a protesting outside Donald Trump's International Hotel in Las Vegas.

Hundreds had gathered in a peaceful demonstration outside the hotel to call on the president to finally release his taxes on Saturday.

Nebyou Solomon was filming from the sidewalk for KLAS-TV when he was arrested for allegedly trespassing on private property and obstructing a public officer. The photojournalist was the only person to be arrested during the Tax Day March.

KLAS Vice President and General Manager Lisa Howfield told the Las Vegas Review Journal there seemed to be 'a misunderstanding of public property' but that she was 'not exactly sure why our reporter was arrested.'

Nebyou Solomon was filming from the sidewalk when he was arrested for allegedly trespassing on private property and obstructing a public officer

However, the station was 'fully prepared to take the appropriate steps based on the facts and governing laws.'

'Neb was doing his job, carrying out an assignment given to him by his news managers, covering a news event of considerable interest to the community. We support Neb and the rights of all journalists to report from the scene of newsworthy events,' she added to 8 News Now.

The local civil liberties union denounced the police's actions as 'disturbing' and a threat to the freedom of the press.

'It is so, so disturbing that Metro decided to arrest a journalist who was doing his job by filming a political protest,' ACLU Nevada legal director Amy Rose said, adding that court have consistently found that sidewalks are a public forum.

'And the facts as we understand them, this was an assault to his constitutional rights.'

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department claim that Solomon was arrested because he was being uncooperative, even though a spokesman acknowledged that Solomon had been working 'in an official capacity as a member of the media,' at the time.

He was approached by security officers from the Fashion Show Mall who decided that the sidewalk was somehow private property, the police said.

They asked him to stop filming but when he refused, as he believed he was on public property, they got the police.

The KLAS-TV photojournalist (left, and right in his mugshot) was the only person to be arrested during the protest

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department claim that Solomon was arrested because he was being uncooperative, even they acknowledged he was working 'in an official capacity as a member of the media,' at the time

'Upon contact by officers, Mr. Solomon was uncooperative and refused to provide his personal identifying information, in violation of NRS 171.123. Mr. Solomon was told he would be issued a misdemeanor citation for Trespass to which he replied that he would not sign  a violation of NRS 171.177,' the police spokesman said.

Police say that when he refused, he was arrested and transported to the Clark County Detention Center.

The Las Vegas rally was one of many held across the country to protest over the lack of transparency with Trump's taxes.

Trump on Sunday hit back at nationwide protests calling for him to release his tax returns, questioning 'who paid for' the 'small' rallies.

'Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!' the president tweeted Sunday morning.

That message came about an hour after an earlier tweet when he appeared to suggest the matter was a non-issue.

People participate in a Tax Day protest at the Trump International Tower on April 15, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada as activists in cities across the nation marched to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns

Trump has previously said Americans don't care about his returns.

'I did what was almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?' Trump tweeted.

His messages came after thousands of protesters gathered Saturday in cities across America to pressure Trump to release his tax returns, a move of transparency he has repeatedly rejected.

The demonstrations were timed to coincide with the traditional April 15 deadline for annual tax filings, a key date on the calendar for US households, and resulted in dozens of arrests.

For decades, US presidents and presidential candidates have released their returns voluntarily, although there is no legal obligation to do so.

US law requires only the publication of a financial statement that estimates assets, including debt and revenue, but does not give details on the amount of taxes paid.

Protests were held across America: Mike Stutz dressed as a Russian general stands beside a giant Trump chicken as he joins protesters taking part in the 'Tax March' in Los Angeles

Trump, a billionaire property tycoon, released a financial statement but has kept his tax returns private, both during the election campaign and since taking office in January.

He argues that he cannot release them because he is being audited. But tax officials have said he can in fact release them if he so wishes.

Trump has on at least two previous occasions accused demonstrators of being paid to protest against him.

'Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' he wrote on February 3 during protests against his executive order on immigration.
California congresswoman Maxine Waters has renewed her call for President Donald Trump's impeachment during a speech at Saturday's Tax Day rally in Washington, DC.

Waters, a Democrat, has repeatedly called for Trump's impeachment over unfounded allegations that he has colluded with Russia and for not releasing his tax returns.

'I don't respect this president. I don't trust this president. He's not working in the best interests of the American people,' said Waters. 'I will fight every day until he is impeached.'

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Congresswoman Maxine Waters called for Trump's impeachment at Saturday's Tax Rally in DC

The DC tax march was one in a number of rallies held Saturday calling for Trump to release his tax returns.

Waters called Trump a 'liar' for saying he can't release his tax returns because of an audit. The IRS has maintained that individuals can release their own tax information.

His predecessors in the White House going back more than 40 years had done so.

'Show the people your taxes. Stop stonewalling, stop hiding,' Waters said.

The 78-year-old California Democrat wants Trump impeached for not releasing his tax returns

This isn't the first time the Democratic representative has criticized Trump.

Earlier this month, Waters told CNN that Trump had done a number of things to show he didn't understand government.

'He's not willing to learn. He doesn't learn from his mistakes. Instead of learning, he gets up the next morning and tweets something all over again,' she said.

Waters called Trump a 'liar' for saying he can't release his tax returns because of an audit

Waters argued in March that Trump should be impeached if it's proven he colluded with Russia

The 78-year-old congresswoman has quickly become the face of opposition against the president.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Waters said she plans to boycott any meeting, event, ceremony or public event with the president - regardless of whether it was at the White House or in her home district of Los Angeles.

'I don't see myself meeting with him, sitting down with him, believing anything he would say or even respecting anything he would say,' she said.
Three people have been killed in a 'targeted' attack at a home in the foothills of Colorado, police announced Sunday.

The bodies - two men and one woman - were found after police made a welfare check at the home on Saturday at the request of a worried acquaintance.

Police ruled out a murder-suicide, but only after a hazardous materials unit was sent into the home to make sure it was safe for investigators after drugs were found.

'It was a safety precaution,' Commander Mike Wagner of Boulder County Sheriff's Office told the Daily Camera - but he declined to say exactly what it was about the drugs that triggered investigators' concerns.

Three people - two men and one woman - were found dead in this home in the foothills north-west of Denver on Saturday. Police said the victims had 'trauma' and were targeted

Wagner said that although police believe someone targeted the home, located north-west of Denver, there is no general threat to the public.

The bodies showed signs of trauma, said police, who found them at the 800 Divide View Drive home at around 7:30am.

No information about a suspect or a possible motive has been released.

'It's too early to speculate on circumstances or if any suspects are at large or not,' Wagner said.

'We will work to try to figure out what likely happened and if we should be looking for suspects (or suspect) or not.'

The sheriff's office has identified the victims, but the coroner will not release their names or say how they were killed until their families are notified.

We've never had something like that up here,' neighbor Donald Heath told CBS News. 'Especially worrisome if its an outside person. That is of great concern.'

According to Boulder County Assessor's online records, the owners of the home are Wallace L White and Kelly Sloat-White, but there is no indication they were living there.

Video courtesy of ABC 7 Denver

Commander Mike Wagner (pictured) said that they don't yet have any suspects. The victims are not being named, pending family notification

The home, located southwest of Boulder, is set about 100 feet back from the road in a remote and wooded area. No immediate neighboring homes are within view.

Deputies initially found two bodies inside the home and backed out so they could secure a search warrant.

A neighbor, who would identify herself to the Daily Camera only as 'Gail' said she was a good friend of the victims, and that they were lovely people.

'They loved their dogs, they loved the outdoors,' she said, adding that the woman had been ill for some time following a kidney transplant that took place last year.

Neighbor Todd Kreutzian told the newspaper he did not know the people in the house well, but they were pleasant during the few times he interacted with them.

'They were nice and very friendly,' he said. 'There was certainly nothing about them that was more odd, strange or threatening than anyone else around here.

'They were riding their side-by-side ATV and walking their dogs.'

Police said several dogs had been removed from the premises.
Immigrants in the US could face deportation after just one DUI conviction, Homeland Security secretary John Kelly cautioned on Sunday.

Kelly made the remarks while outlining how the Trump administration differs from the Obama administration in its treatment of immigrants.

'Someone, as an example, with multiple DUIs [could face deportation],' he told NBC News's Meet the Press.

'Even a single DUI, depending on other aspects, would get you into the system.'

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Warning: Homeland security secretary John Kelly warned that even one DUI might put an illegal immigrant on track for deportation on Sunday

He didn't elaborate on what those other aspects might be.

Host Chuck Todd asked Kelly whether the definition of criminality, as it applied to deportation, had changed between the administrations.

'It is fair to say that the definition of criminal has not changed, but where on the spectrum of criminality we operate has changed,' Kelly replied.

However, he was quick to absolve ICE - and himself - of responsibility in the deportation of individual people.

'You gotta remember that there's a system, a legal justice system, in place, and the law that deports people,' he said.

'Secretary Kelly doesn't [deport people], ICE doesn't, it's the United States criminal justice system, a justice system, that deports people.'

Kelly was similarly uncomfortable when when Todd brought up Donald Trump's election promise to build a 'deportation force' targeting illegal immigrants.

'There is a plan to hire 10,000 new ICE agents, 5,000 new border patrol agents - what do you call this if not a deportation force?' asked Todd.

'A law enforcement force,' Kelly replied. 'Men and women who will do their jobs in the future as they've done them in the past. And that is execute and uphold the nation's laws.

'There are a huge number, as you know, of illegal aliens or undocumented individuals that have to be dealt with in one way or another.'

Uncomfortable: Kelly was uncomfortable with calling his planned new ICE and border patrol hires a 'deportation force,' saying undocumented immigrants 'have to be dealt with'

He continued: 'I would argue, Chuck, that we have to straighten this out, and I place that squarely on the United States Congress.

'It's a hugely complex series of laws... We are a nation of laws, and I would hope that Congress fixes a lot of these problems.'

When asked to elaborate, he said that 'the laws on the books are pretty straightforward - if you're here illegally you should leave' and that 'the law is the law.'

But he complained that the situation was 'complex' due to immigrants marrying US citizens, or having children, and that he didn't have 'unlimited power'.

It is unclear what exactly he hoped Congress might do.

Also during the segment, Kelly credited Donald Trump's focus on the Mexico-America border with a dramatic drop in border crossings.

'The attention being paid to the border certainly has injected into those people, and the vast majority of them are good people from Central America, but it's injected enough confusion in their minds, I think,' he said.

'They're just waiting to see what actually does happen.'
Removal of failed asylum seekers has collapsed to a record low - adding to concerns that Britain is failing to get a grip on its borders.

Latest figures show the number of unsuccessful refugees booted out of the country has plunged by two-thirds since 2010, when the Tories came to power.

The figures will be an embarrassment for Prime Minister Theresa May, who pledged during six years as Home Secretary to tackle the growing problem.

Removal of failed asylum seekers has collapsed to a record low - adding to concerns that Britain is failing to get a grip on its borders. Pictured: A Romanian national is arrested

Even though there was an official backlog of more than 26,000 failed asylum seekers  deemed 'subject to removal action'  at the end of December, just over a tenth of that number were actually deported in 2016.

Critics said the damning statistics showed too many illegal immigrants were deliberately 'playing the system' to avoid being kicked out of the UK despite not having permission to be here.

Experts have also warned that the number officially awaiting removal is just the tip of the iceberg. Analysis by the Migrationwatch think-tank has estimated there are up to 1.1million foreign people living in Britain illegally.

The Home Office figures will further erode public confidence in a failing asylum system that is supposed to take a strict stance against those caught living in the UK unlawfully.

Yvette Cooper, Labour chairman of the Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee, vowed to hold ministers to account over the shambles.

The figures will be an embarrassment for Prime Minister Theresa May

She said: 'This is a big drop in asylum enforcement at the same time as asylum delays have gone up. Cases aren't being decided on time and immigration enforcement has fallen significantly too.

'If rules are not implemented and properly enforced in a fair and timely way then it undermines confidence in the whole system. Yet it seems to be getting worse.

'The Government needs to explain why this is still happening and why it hasn't been sorted out.'

Conservative MP Tim Loughton, who also sits on the committee, said: 'These figures reinforce the problem that there are still too many people in the country illegally and who are playing the system in order to evade deportation.

'If we are serious about reducing net immigration numbers and making sure that we welcome those to the UK who have most to contribute we need to up our game in saying goodbye more speedily to those who have abused our hospitality in the first place.'

Data released by the Home Office, which dates back to 2004, showed that last year only 3,446 failed asylum seekers were removed from Britain. This compared with 18,220 in 2006 when Labour were in power and 10,394 when the Tory-led Coalition came to power in 2010, itself equating to a 66 per cent drop.

Yet in 2016 alone, a total of 21,059 claims for sanctuary were refused  meaning they were eligible for being kicked out immediately.

The Government says the number who are 'subject to removal action' is 26,879. But this does not count thousands who are embroiled in appeals against rejection  some often launched as they are being put on a plane home.

Two years ago, it was claimed that a staggering half a million failed asylum seekers were in Britain indefinitely because Government cuts meant cash-strapped immigration courts could not afford to hear their appeal cases.

Latest figures show the number of unsuccessful refugees booted out of the country has plunged by two-thirds since 2010. Pictured: Migrants arriving in Greece

The number of forced removals of failed asylum seekers dropped from 10,881 in 2006, to 6,174 in 2010 and then 2,062 last year. Over the same time period, the number of voluntary removals plunged from 7,399 to 4,220 and down to 1,834.

Illegal immigrants who have entered the country without permission can claim up to 1,500 in 'reintegration assistance' including a cash 'relocation grant' of 500 if they agree to go home.

Those with children can claim up to 2,000 per person. The National Audit Office looked at costs of forcibly removing failed asylum seekers in 2005 and found that the average cost was 11,000.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Tom Brake said: 'It is shocking that this government and the Home Office cannot even do the basics. They are an utter shambles. This is another thing to add to Theresa May's record of failure.

'The Government needs to look again at these ridiculous figures and rethink how it can have an efficient deportation system.'

Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of think-tank Migrationwatch, which campaigns for balanced migration, said only half of the 50 per cent of people who were refused asylum were ever removed from the UK.

Yvette Cooper vowed to hold ministers to account over the shambles

He said: 'Clearly there has not been enough focus on this problem and not enough resources dedicated to it. As long as anyone who claims asylum has a 75 per cent chance of staying in the UK, legally or otherwise, there will continue to be queues in Calais.

'Public confidence in the whole asylum system will be severely undermined.'

The Home Office has said that its focus has been on deporting foreign criminals, including murderers, rapists and violent thugs, after they finish their sentences in jails in England and Wales.

Since 2010, more than 35,000 overseas offenders have been booted out, including 5,810 in 2015-16, the highest number ever.

However, a major cause of delay in removals of failed asylum seekers is bureaucratic. Many refugees have fled their countries without a valid travel document or destroyed their passport before entering the UK, meaning it can be difficult to prove their nationality  meaning that some people are effectively unreturnable.

The longer families stay in the UK without being removed, the more chance they have of winning a legal challenge on human rights grounds.

Last year then Home Office minister Richard Harrington admitted Britain was powerless to boot out thousands of people who do not have permission to be here.

In a stark indictment of the UK's porous borders, Richard Harrington said many could not be deported because they had 'no place to go'.

Ministers also suffered a blow in 2015 when they were forced to suspend the entire fast track asylum system amid fears it would be struck down by judges. It involved locking up asylum seekers where officials believe an application could be quickly resolved.

A Home Office spokesman said: 'The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection. Where someone is found not to need our protection we expect them to leave the country voluntarily. Where they do not, we will seek to enforce their removal.

'Through the Immigration Act 2016, we have made it more difficult for people to remain in the UK illegally by incentivising voluntary returns, introducing tougher penalties for illegal working, and restricting illegal migrants' access to services.'
An 18-year-old man was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace for swearing in the presence of a female senior citizen in Louisiana.

Jared Dylan Smith allegedly said the work 'f***' in front of a woman, 75, in West Monroe.

His arrest report, obtained by the Ouachita Citizen, reads: 'While standing next to my 75-year-old complainant, Jared yelled the word 'f***' and clearly disturbed her peace.'

Jared Dylan Smith, 18, was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct. He allegedly said the word 'f***' in the presence of a 75-year-old woman. The obscene language, it is alleged, 'clearly disturbed her peace'

He was booked for disturbing the peace through language and disorderly conduct on April 8.

His bond was set at $200.

Smith denied the allegation and there were no other witnesses, according to the arrest report.

Louisiana law defines disturbing the peace as 'addressing any offensive, derisive, or annoying words to any other person who is lawfully in any street, or other public place;

'Or call him by any offensive or derisive name, or make any noise or exclamation in his presence and hearing with the intent to deride, offend, or annoy him, or to prevent him from from pursuing his lawful business, occupation, or duty.'

If the court finds him guilty, he could serve up to 90 days in jail and need to pay a fine of up to $100, the Advocate reported.

Smith was booked at the Ouachita Correctional Center and awaits sentencing.
A former Michigan drug dealer known as 'White Boy Rick' (pictured), who has spent 29 years behind bars ,could be close to getting out after a parole board ruled it would proceed with hearings

A man who has spent almost three decades behind bars could be close to getting out, after a parole board ruled it would proceed with further hearings.

The Michigan Parole Board will hold a public hearing on whether to release a Detroit-area drug dealer, Richard Wershe.

Wershe has been in prison for 29 years for crimes when he was just 17 years old.

The board voted Friday to proceed to the hearing for Wershe, who was known as 'White Boy Rick.'

The parole hearing will be his first in 15 years.

The 47-year-old old, who was interviewed by the board chairman in February, is serving a life sentence with occasional opportunities for parole.

He was convicted of possessing more than 650 grams of cocaine.

Wershe has been in prison for 29 years for crimes when he was just 17 years old. He is pictured in 1988

The Michigan Parole Board will hold a public hearing on whether to release a Detroit-area drug dealer, Richard Wershe. Wershe is pictured with his mother

Wershe has helped the FBI investigate drugs and police corruption.

The sentence was handed down as part of the now-defunct 650-Lifer Law, which stated anyone found guilty of possessing more than 650 grams of cocaine was given an automatic life sentence without the chance of parole.

Officials said he also stashed more than eight kilograms of high-grade powdered cocaine and nearly $30,000 in 1987.

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy is taking a neutral position on paroling Wershe.

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy (pictured) is taking a neutral position on paroling Wershe

The public hearing is expected to be held in early June.

However, the Detroit Free Press reports 'White Boy' could be stuck behind bars even if his parole was granted.

Wershe pleaded guilty to two felonies, including racketeering, while he was behind bars after being accused of being part of a stolen-car scheme in Florida.

The newspaper reports he was jailed for five years, and he has not been serving those because he was already locked up in Michigan on the drugs charges.
Cleveland police are hunting Steve Stephens, who they say killed a man on in a Facebook video, and has claimed to have killed more

Police are hunting a killer who shared a video of the moment he shot dead an innocent man in Cleveland and claims to have slaughtered 14 more.

Steve Stephens, 37, is on the loose in the Ohio city after he filmed the murder and posted it on social media at around 2pm Eastern Time on Easter Sunday.

An aggravated murder warrant was issued for his arrest late Sunday night, stating residents in the states of Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana and Michigan as well as Ohio should be on high alert.

The horrifying video, which police say is real, shows him driving up to an elderly man, getting out of his car, and opening fire.

The victim has been identified by Cleveland Police as Robert Godwin, 74, and his son told Cleveland.com that he was on an afternoon walk when he was approached by Stephens.

Stephens claimed on Facebook he had killed 15 people on Sunday, but only one death has been confirmed.

Stephens, who works a mental health care manager, also wrote that he 'messed up' in postings on social media, and blamed the shooting on a woman, believed to be his ex-partner.

He wrote in a Facebook post that the woman is Joy Lane, and that he would only stop if she or his mother called him.

Lane is said to be an Air Force veteran, and he said the two dated for three years, and he wishes he'd never met her.

He is 6ft and is said to weight 240lbs. He is bald with a full beard. He is wearing a dark blue and gray or black striped polo shirt.

Stills from a Facebook video appears to show the moments that Stephens shot and killed a man. The victim has been identified as Robert Godwin, 74

The man identified as Steve Stephens' victim - 74-year-old Robert Godwin from Cleveland

Robert Godwin died after being randomly shot in a video posted to Facebook by Steve Stephens, who is still on the run in the Ohio city

Police say he is driving around in a White Ford Fusion with temporary tags and is considered armed and dangerous.

It is understood when officer tracked Stephens' phone, it indicated he had crossed state lines as the signal was picked up in Erie, Pennsylvania, which is 100 miles from where the 37-year-old shot his victim.

Police chief Calvin Williams told gathered press this morning detectives had made contact with the killer early in their investigation via cellphone, but they failed to convince him to turn himself in.

The multi-agency manhunt, which includes the FBI, has not been able to locate the fugitive.

It was revealed the 37-year-old has no criminal record and aside from motor violations was not known to the police.

Stephens' ex-girlfriend, Joy Lane, is reportedly currently in protective custody.

In a text message to CBS, she said: 'We had been in a relationship for several years. I am sorry that all of this has happened.

'My heart and prayers goes out to the family members of the victim(s).

'Steve really is a nice guy. He is generous with everyone he knows. He was kind and loving to me and my children.

'This is a very difficult time for me and my family Please respect our privacy at this time.'

Stevens posted a photo of himself and Joy, who he seems to partially blame for the killing

Stephens is said to be on the loose in the Ohio city after he allegedly recorded the shocking act on social media. He is pictured left in a police issued photo

The killer's mother Maggie Green said Stephens had called by her house on Saturday afternoon and told her, 'If you see me again, it'll be a miracle'.

'He said this is the last time I was going to see him,' she told CNN.

Cleveland Police held a news conference with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and police chief Calvin Williams.

Mayor Jackson said: 'We want to communicate to him that he will eventually be caught. He need not do any more harm to anyone, any innocent people, and any concerns and problems he's having we're here to have a conversation with him.'

Williams then said: 'We need Steve to turn himself in. There are two families out there who are hurting, Mr Godwin's family and people who care about Steve, we are asking him to turn himself in.'

'Everyone is out there looking for Steve. We want this to end with as much peace as we can bring to this right now, and we want him to turn himself in. If that doesn't happen we have all of our partners on this and we'll look till we find him.'

He then said that they have the FBI and state and county partners working with them, and asked for anyone who knows anything to call 911.

Cleveland State University has issued a shelter in place, a campus spokesman told Fox 8.

The university also reportedly sent out a text messages to its students which read: 'Cleveland police are searching for a murder suspect last seen south of Interstate 90 in the area of E93rd.'

Stephens' Facebook and all posts have since been taken down. The video of the shooting was on his page for three hours.

A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement: 'This is a horrific crime and we do not allow this kind of content on Facebook.

'We work hard to keep a safe environment on Facebook, and are in touch with law enforcement in emergencies when there are direct threats to physical safety.'

In the press conference, both men urged Stephens to turn himself in, saying that they will find him

Earlier on Sunday, Stephens blamed casinos and his lack of self control in the 'Easter Sunday massacre' in Cleveland. He specifically named the Jack Casino in Cleveland.

He said that the casinos and his lack of self-control caused him to 'lose everything', and according to court records, he filed for bankruptcy.

In the original Facebook post that has since been removed, he said: 'Easter day slaughter because of joy lane,' and 'I killed 12 people and I won't stop unit my mother and joy lane call me.' The woman named is believed to be his ex-partner.

Later on he reportedly claimed to have killed three more people, and said that the bodies were in an abandoned house.

In the video, he pulls up to an elderly man in his car and says: 'Finally found somebody I'm going to kill, I'm going to go kill this old dude.'

He then gets out and walks up to Godwin, who appears to be holding a shopping bag.

The two exchange a few words and the elderly man looks to be trying to shield himself. Stephens then lifts his gun and shoots him.

Cleveland police tweeted out a photo of the suspect's 'actual vehicle' in an attempt to find him. He was last spotted driving around in a White Ford Fusion with temporary tags

Police chief Calvin Williams said that Godwin was picked out at random in this 'senseless' murder.

The shooting happened on East 93 Street just south of the Interstate 90 in the city's Glenville neighborhood, Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said, told the Plain Dealer.

Cleveland Police said in a statement: 'Cleveland Police are currently investigating a homicide at 635 E. 93.

'Suspect did broadcast the killing on Facebook Live and has claimed to have committed multiple other homicides which are yet to be verified.

'Suspect in this case is a bm (black male) Steve Stephens 6'1 244 bald with a full beard.

Earlier on Sunday, Stephens blamed casinos and his lack of self control for the 'Easter Sunday massacre' in Cleveland. He specifically names the Jack Casino in Cleveland

Stephens posted to Facebook that for the last year his life has been f*** up, and that he lost everything he had due to gambling. He also blamed the murders on 'Joy Lane' who he is pictured with right

'Wearing dark blue and grey or black striped polo shirt. White or cream colored SUV. Armed and dangerous. If seen call 9-1-1. Do not approach.'

Other videos on his social media profile show him at a gun range.

The video was originally thought to have been shared via Facebook live, however the company later clarified, saying that Stephens shared the murder online but did not livestream it.

A man and woman said that the man killed in the video, Godwin, was their father in an interview with Cleveland 19 News.

The two are distraught, and the man says: 'He's a good guy, he'd give you the shirt off his back. I'm not just saying that for these cameras. I'm telling the truth this man right here was a good man.'

The woman adds that her hearts 'feels like it's going to stop.'

Stephens is still at large and is described as 6ft and is said to weight 240lbs. He is bald with a full beard. He is wearing a dark blue and gray or black striped polo shirt

Stephens also wrote that he 'messed up' in postings on social media, and blamed the shooting on a woman, believed to be his ex-partner

In another video posted to his Facebook, Stephens says that he is a case manager at Beech Brook, which is a children's mental health facility in Cleveland. He blames his workplace for driving him to kill people in that video.

'For 165 years, Beech Brook has been serving Northeast Ohio's most vulnerable children. Today as a leading behavioral health agency, Beech Brook will serve more than 18,000 children and families this year,' the company's website says.

'Beech Brook touches the lives of children, teens and families through an array of services ranging from prevention, education and early intervention to community-based programming to strengthen and support youth and families.'

'We are shocked and horrified and we don't know anything more about it,' agency spokeswoman Nancy Kortemeyer told WOIO-TV. 'We hope and pray that he is arrested as soon as possible and we hope and pray for a resolution quickly.'


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Crowds of sweaty-faced men dance in cheap suits and shiny ties. The women opt for bright dresses and wide smiles. Each time the music stops, everyone high-fives and shares a round of ultra-vigorous applause.

By the end of the night, a few brave souls, with their shirt buttons coming undone, appear to be performing a conga.

This might look, at first glance, like the worlds biggest open-air office party, but peer closely at these images and youll soon realise that the public demonstration of fun is all a bit too  shall we say?  organised for that.

The real giveaway is in the background, beneath the exploding fireworks: here youll see, draped on almost every building, the red, white and blue flag of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

Fake party: Crowds of sweaty-faced men dance in cheap suits and shiny ties. The women opt for bright dresses and wide smiles. Each time the music stops, everyone high-fives and shares a round of ultra-vigorous applause

On Saturday, Pyongyang had devoted daylight hours to military parades, with tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen goose-stepping their way past the nations portly 30-something dictator, Kim Jong-un.

The massive parade, to which foreign media were offered a rare invitation, saw the regime showcase what it claims is a brand new, submarine-launched, intercontinental ballistic missile.

Officially, the event was held to celebrate the Day of the Sun, the most important holiday in North Koreas calendar, which marks the 1912 birth of its founder Kim Il-sung, grandfather of the current leader and North Koreas eternal president, even in death.

It was after sunset that the party started, with thousands of office workers and civil servants  the women waving plastic flowers and wearing traditional hanbok dresses  taking over public squares to perform extravagant dance routines.

There was nothing spontaneous about it. The clothes were colour-coded and the displays perfectly choreographed after months of intense practice by the performers who had been required to spend evenings and weekends rehearsing with colleagues.

There was nothing spontaneous about it. The clothes were colour-coded and the displays perfectly-choreographed after months of intense practice

Like the soldiers who marched earlier in the day, the dancers footwork was helped by thousands of special white dots, painted a metre apart across a swathe of central Pyongyang, to ensure jackboots always fell in the correct spot.

To Western observers the pageantry looked contrived, the smiles and applause a little forced; some even speculated that the game-changing missile unveiled earlier may have been a cheap replica.

What no one can doubt, however, is that the intensely controlled nature of Saturdays spectacular was entirely in keeping with modern-day North Korea. It is, after all, an utterly authoritarian state where citizens have almost no contact with the outside world, and where almost every aspect of daily life from where you live (all homes are owned by the government), to what you eat (food is rationed), how you earn a living (there is no private industry) and even how you style your hair (good citizens are encouraged to emulate Kim Jong-uns pudding bowl and centre parting) is orchestrated by the regime.

Leaving your hometown requires a permit. Telephone calls are monitored and religion banned.

Foreign music, books, and clothes are forbidden, with huge antennas placed on the border to block radio and television transmissions.

In the online era, the countrys version of the internet, the kwangmyong, which is largely used by academics and civil servants, was reported last year to permit access to a mere 28 websites. Its Cold War East Germany, times ten, says writer Mark Seddon, who has visited North Korea seven times.

All communication is incredibly difficult. The country is hermetically sealed, there is little public or private transport, and if you know nothing of the outside world what are you to make of life? Propaganda tells you its brilliant and everything else is terrible, so thats what you believe.

The regimes iron fist reaches out long before birth, with society organised according to a complex hereditary caste system called Songbun which rates families according to perceived loyalty to the Left-wing despot.

It sees North Korean households divided into 51 different ranks, categorised in three major groups: the core, the wavering and the hostile, depending on family history and conduct tracking back to the Korean War (1950-53).

The core, roughly a quarter of the countrys 25million population, enjoy plum jobs in government and the ministry, and make up the vast majority of the capital citys 2.5million residents.

Like the soldiers who marched earlier in the day, the dancers footwork was helped by thousands of special white dots

The wavering may include intellectuals whose absolute loyalty is suspect. Members of hostile castes, meanwhile, are condemned to manual labour, in the fields, mines, or factories of the countrys impoverished provinces.

Please the government, and your family might move up a rank or two. Upset it, and you and your descendants will suffer forever.

Commit a real howler, such as telling jokes that mock Kim Jong-un (the UPI news agency this week reported that a handful of soldiers who had been caught telling jokes that compared him to a child have been arrested and face severe punishment) and you will join at least 120,000 North Koreans in the countrys notorious kwanliso, or forced labour camps.

Here, according to a 400-page UN report published in 2014, which compared conditions to those in Nazi-era Germany, inmates work seven days a week, from 5am to 11pm, digging mines, laying roads, or building skyscrapers. Inmates are subjected to murder, enslavement, rape and torture, along with prolonged starvation with some forced to eat rats to survive.

One particularly gruesome punishment meted out to residents of the camps was known as pigeon torture, said a survivor. Your hands were tied behind your back and you could not stand properly or sit down.

This went on for days. It was called the pigeon torture because the more time you spent doing it the more your chest stuck out and your body changed.

What no-one can doubt, however, is that the intensely-controlled nature of Saturdays spectacular in was entirely in keeping with modern-day North Korea

It goes without saying that prisoners are sent to the camps without trial. Occasionally, three generations of a family can be punished for one persons perceived wrongdoing, meaning a dissident is responsible for both his parents and children being incarcerated, sometimes indefinitely.

Proper indoctrination in this despotic system begins in kindergarten, according to the same report, with a programme designed to instil unswerving devotion to the Supreme Leader along with deep-seated hatred of the United States, Japan and neighbouring South Korea.

The milk would arrive and we would go up one by one to fill our cups, recalled Lee, a defector quoted in the report. The teachers would say: Do you know where the milk came from? It came from the Dear Leader. Because of his love and consideration, we are drinking milk today.

Childrens books on the syllabus include The Butterfly And The Cockerel, a story about a violent chicken (representing the US) that is outwitted by a small, heroic butterfly (North Korea).

Aged seven, all youngsters must join the Childrens Union, a youth wing of the Communist Party, and a year later are required to start attending Saturday self-criticism sessions in which they confess the ways in which they fell short of the ten principles underpinning the countrys ideology, which include studying the revolutionary ideas of the Supreme Leader. As teenagers, they move into the Socialist Youth League.

In High School, the syllabus involves 81 hours studying Kim Jong-un, and another 160 hours learning about grandfather Kim Il-sung, the Father of the Nation who seized power in 1948 and cemented his status after the Korean War, ruling until his death in 1994 and creating a sort of hereditary communist dictatorship.

North Korea attempted to fire a medium range missile that it introduced at a massive military parade Saturday (pictured above), however, the weapon blew up roughly five seconds after being launched from a site near the port city of Sinpo

Despite turning North Korea from one of the wealthiest nations in Asia to one of the poorest, hes still regarded, according to a press release put out yesterday by the official Uriminzokkiri news agency as the iron-willed commander and legendary great man unparalleled in history.

Another 148 hours are spent looking at the current leaders father Kim Jong-il, who after taking over the reins of the country (and losing Russian aid following the end of the Cold War) presided over the late-1990s famine in which around 2.5million of his citizens perished.

Famously a lover of Western movies and fine food, who is said to have kidnapped his favourite Japanese sushi chef Kenji Fujimoto and forced him to work as his private cook, Kim Jong-il had foie gras, truffles and kobe beef flown to Pyongyang during the famine, and travelled the country in a 21-carriage personal train containing lobster tanks, a collection of vintage claret and cognac, a cigar humidor, and (allegedly) a harem of prostitutes. According to defectors these women were virgins who were given six months training in sexual techniques, and required to write a pledge of allegiance in their blood, though  amazingly  this fact does not feature on the official syllabus.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (above center) is pictured arriving for the military parade in Pyongyang marking the 105th anniversary of the birth of late North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung

But we digress. After finishing education, all Korean men and women are conscripted into the armed forces, for around a decade. Early years are spent in military training. Later, they are often tasked with helping build roads, or gather harvests.

Having completed national service, they are then free to get on with life.

Many choose this moment to settle down (marriages must be sanctioned by the state), and move into the state-owned home where they will generally spend their entire life, sharing space with portraits of the Kim family, which are mandatory in all homes and workplaces. Their careers are generally assigned according to caste.

Though the snapshots of North Korea shown to the outside world are primarily from Pyongyang (where the military and civil service elites live) the vast majority of its citizens spend their time in rural areas.

Here, as in communist-era Russia, they must work on collective farms, though families are also assigned a 10m-by-10m plot of land to cultivate for their own use. Funnily enough, these tend to be highly productive.

When you drive past, you can see corn climbing above the two-metre fence, says Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based North Korea expert with Troy University. In the surrounding fields, crops were maybe half or two-thirds that size.

Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers marching through Kim Il-Sung square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea on Saturday

Produce from these fields is sometimes sold on the black market, allowing families to squirrel away cash.

But selling it is fraught with danger: each local community is effectively run by an inminban, a sort of neighbourhood-watch scheme in which between 20 and 40 households keep an eye on each others comings and goings.

An inminban is typically run by a middle-aged housewife who is expected to know intimate detail about its members, from how many pairs of chopsticks each family owns to where they spend each Sunday (a day off when patriotic Koreans are supposed to socialise with their family).

They authorise overnight stays by friends or family members from elsewhere in the country, who can only visit for major events such as weddings or funerals, and are expected to report even the most minor infringements to authorities.

Sold as a sort of security measure, the inminban is therefore just another means for the state to peer into everyday life. Here, as in almost every other aspect of a persons existence in North Korea, its all about control.
Turkish voters decision to hand unprecedented new powers to their strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and turn the country into an elected dictatorship is a catastrophe for the West.

He has effectively joined Russias Vladimir Putin as a new authoritarian leader on Europes Eastern border.

That marks an epochal failure for the EU, which for years has been involved in accession talks to encourage the country to join - only to see it slide back into repression and authoritarianism.

Turkey's President Erdogan has effectively joined Vladimir Putin as a new authoritarian leader on Europe's Eastern border, writes Owen Matthews

Erdogan has a tight control of the media. Turkey now has more journalists in jail than any other country in the world and ordinary people can be sacked for mocking the President on social media. Pictured, victory celebrations in Istanbul

It is a disaster for global stability too. If Turkey cant manage to be a functional democracy what hope is there for the rest of the region? Just like Vladimir Putin in Russia, Erdogan has used national security as an excuse to crack down not just on terrorists but also on free speech and political opponents.

He maintains his popular appeal through tight control of the media. Though he hasnt achieved the same kind of almost airtight stronghold on the airwaves as his Russian friend and ally, Turkish courts have successfully put dozens of opposition newspapers and TV stations out of business.

The country now has more journalists in jail than any other country in the world, while academics and politicians who betray any sympathy for the separatist demands of Turkeys Kurdish population can find themselves out of a job  as can ordinary people merely for mocking the President on social media.

Warnings of chaos and a promise of restoring national greatness are Erdogans and Putins common themes. At the ruling AK Partys congress last year Erdogan promised that he would make Turkey a great nation, a great power  and urged the countrys youth to look to 2071.

At the ruling AK Partys congress last year Erdogan promised that he would make Turkey a great nation, a great power. Pictured, young women drive through Istanbul waving 'Yes' flags

Erdogan has made more political capital out of picking fights with Brussels than striving to push through the reforms necessary for membership. Pictured, a supporter of the president holds flares as he celebrates the referendum result

That date will mark the millennium of the Battle of Manzikert, where victorious Turks defeated the Christian Byzantine Empire and established an empire that occupied most of modern Turkey and the Middle East.

But while Erdogans Imperial vision has played well with domestic audiences, his increasing truculence has put him on a collision course with Europe.

Despite still being an official candidate to join the European Union, Erdogan has made more political capital out of picking fights with Brussels than striving to push through the reforms necessary for membership.

In the run-up to yesterdays referendum Germany and the Netherlands banned top Turkish officials from addressing and soliciting votes from crowds of expatriate Turks in Europe, sending Erdogan into one of his characteristically unstatesmanlike fits of fury.

He vowed to shake up the world in retaliation, called the Dutch fascists - and threatened to scrap a deal brokered last summer with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the migrant crisis

Erdogan has urged the countrys youth to look to 2071, the millennium of the Battle of Manzikert, where Turks defeated the Christian Byzantine Empire. The President maintains a broad popular appeal

He vowed to shake up the world in retaliation, called the Dutch fascists - and threatened to scrap a deal brokered last summer with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to keep waves of Syrian, Kurdish and other migrants firmly inside Turkeys own borders and not allow them to reach the shores Europe.

Erdogan can turn the flow of migrants on and off at a whim - and therefore has Europe over a barrel, which is why the EU offered Turks visa-free travel to Europe in return for blocking the migrants from crossing the Aegean sea.

European leaders - even the usually forthright Merkel, who had no qualms about damaging Germanys economy by imposing sweeping economic sanctions on Putin in the wake of his annexation of Crimea in 2014 - have been shamefully silent over Erdogans human rights abuses.

The country faces an ongoing insurgency in the countrys largely Kurdish south-east, and moderate Kurds had been hoping for a peaceful settlement. But events will likely lead to further confrontation

The threat of a new influx of migrants is simply too politically toxic for them - and risks triggering a fresh wave of anti-European feeling across the continent, from France to Hungary, that could sink the entire Union itself.

But Turkey has its own issues to deal with too. And while this vote may have strengthened Erdogan, even his new powers will solve none of those problems and may yet exacerbate them.

The country faces an ongoing insurgency in the countrys largely Kurdish south-east, and moderate Kurds had been hoping for a peaceful settlement. But an empowered Erdogan will likely lead to more confrontation  especially as Kurds in neighbouring Syria carve out a semi-independent Kurdish state on Turkeys southern border.

Then there is the crisis caused by the overspill of the Syrian civil war that has sent over two million refugees into Turkey. On top of this is the growing ISIS-inspired terror threat.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), told a rally in Ankara that it was like putting the countrys 80 million people on a bus with no brakes'. Pictured, 'Yes' supporters celebrate in Istanbul

The trouble is that the more power Erdogan gathers to himself, the more blame he will attract too. Under the old system, the President was nominally aloof from party politics, leaving the Prime Minister to take the blame for economic and administrative failures.

Now with Erdogan in more or less sole charge, he will have to face the music for a sliding economy and disintegrating security situation that has seen over 500 people killed in terror attacks over the last nine months alone.

Opponents warn that giving the already-despotic Erdogan still more powers sounds the death knell for Turkish democracy. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), told a rally in Ankara that it was like putting the countrys 80 million people on a bus with no brakes.

In one of his final rallies, Erdogan said that a strong Yes vote would be a lesson to the West. It is indeed a lesson - a deeply shameful one of how the West collectively failed to prevent the Islamic worlds most prosperous, democratic and pluralistic countrys return to despotism.
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The US refused to rule out a pre-emptive strike on North Korea last night as Donald Trump's national security adviser warned the situation was 'coming to a head'.

After the rogue state ran a missile test that failed, Lieutenant General HR McMaster said 'all our options are on the table' to try to 'avoid the worst'.

Frantic talks were taking place with allies including China to 'develop a range of options' in an attempt to quell tensions and calm fears of thermo-nuclear war.

After the rogue state ran a missile test that failed, Lieutenant General HR McMaster (left with Mr Trump) said 'all our options are on the table' to try to 'avoid the worst'

But, with a strike group of US forces already posted to the Korean Peninsula, the US President added further fuel to the fire, saying he had been forced to beef up his military. On Twitter, Mr Trump wrote: 'Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice.'

Mr Trump and General McMaster said they hoped China would convince its neighbour, which depends on Beijing to prop up its trades and finances, to stop the crisis escalating.

On Saturday dictator Kim Jong-un's regime displayed its military muscle in a huge parade, before yesterday's missile test which exploded within seconds.

The medium-range missile  fired from a base in the Sinpo area  ended in farce because it 'blew up almost immediately', sources said. The US Pacific Command said it believed it to be a ballistic missile, which is initially powered and guided, but then uses gravity to fall to its target.

The US refused to rule out a pre-emptive strike on North Korea last night as Donald Trump's national security adviser warned the situation was 'coming to a head'

Experts said it was not an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which would be able to reach targets around the world. Kim's ultimate aim is to be able to put a nuclear warhead on an ICBM.

US Vice President Mike Pence, who had flown into South Korea yesterday, accused North Korea of 'provocation'.

He said the US was going to rebuild its military, 'restore the arsenal of democracy' and give troops the resources they needed to accomplish their mission. Evoking former president George W Bush's speeches on the eve of the Afghan and Iraq wars, Mr Pence said 'freedom will ever prevail'.

And Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson posted on Twitter: 'I strongly condemn the latest North Korean missile launch. They must stop these belligerent acts and comply with UN resolutions.'

General McMaster said the latest missile launch 'fits a pattern of provocative and destabilising and threatening behaviour on the part of the North Korean regime'.

In Afghan capital Kabul, he told ABC's This Week show: 'All our options are on the table, undergoing refinement and further development'. He said: 'The President has made clear that he will not accept the United States and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons.

'And so we're working together with our allies and partners, and with the Chinese leadership, to develop a range of options.'

He said the National Security Council was collaborating with the Pentagon, the State Department, and intelligence agencies to provide Mr Trump with options.

The General said it was the consensus of the US, along with allies in the region, that 'this problem is coming to a head'. He added: 'And so it's time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully. In the coming weeks, months, I think there's a great opportunity for all of us... to take action short of armed conflict so we can avoid the worst.'

Beijing, Pyongyang's biggest ally, has come under pressure from Washington to exert more influence on its neighbour.

Donald Trump said China was 'working with us' on the issue  the first confirmation the two nations were collaborating

Mr Trump said China was 'working with us' on the issue  the first confirmation the two nations were collaborating.

Tensions between North Korea and the US were already on a knife-edge over the posting of the strike group led by a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the region  a move that was denounced by North Korea.

Pyongyang then rolled out its deadly arsenal on Saturday.

Ballistic missiles and canisters capable of housing intercontinental ballistic missiles that could strike the US mainland were among those items on display.

But North Korea did not carry out its sixth nuclear bomb test, as previously feared. A White House official said that, had it been a nuclear test, 'other actions would have been taken by the US'. Mr Pence  on a ten-day trip to Asia  told US troops: 'This morning's provocation is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face every day in the defence of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defence of America in this part of the world.'

Thousands of US and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponry had been deployed last month in their biggest-ever jont military exercises. That led North Korea to issue routine threats of attacks on its rivals if they showed signs of aggression.
Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko last night attacked No 10 for raising tensions in Europe

Britain's relationship with Russia is the worst it has ever been, Moscows top diplomat in the UK has warned.

Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko last night attacked No 10 for raising tensions in Europe by deploying 800 troops to Estonia part of Natos eastern flank.

The Kremlins man in London said ministers were guilty of hostility, and that ties between the two countries had plummeted to an all-time low. In an escalation of Moscows rhetoric, he said there was no longer any bilateral relationship of substance.

He added that the UKs actions recently had been provocative and even outright ridiculous.

Mr Yakovenkos remarks, which strike a more pessimistic tone than he has before, will deeply concern British officials.

But a diplomatic source said: Russia must show it wants to work towards international goals and peace in Syria if there is to be any substantial improvement in our relations.

The comments came amid fears the world is on the brink of a nuclear conflict as Donald Trump, with UK backing, adopts a tougher stance towards adversaries.

Britains relationship with Russia has deteriorated since the US Presidents revenge bombing on a Syrian regime air base, following a gas attack on civilians.

The comments came amid fears the world is on the brink of a nuclear conflict as Donald Trump, with UK backing, adopts a tougher stance towards adversaries

Boris Johnson cancelled his trip to Russia then said on Sunday that Vladimir Putin was in a league of supervillains because of his support for President Bashar al-Assad.

Last week Theresa May accused Moscow of being on the wrong side of this argument by failing to condemn a chemical attack in Syria. And Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said Russia was responsible by proxy for the deaths of more than 80 civilians gassed by the regime.

Then on Saturday the Royal Navy escorted two Russian warships as they passed through the English Channel.

Last month hundreds of British troops, tanks and armour were sent to Estonia as part of the biggest show of force against Moscow since the Cold War.

Speaking for the first time since the recent heightened tensions, Mr Yakovenko, a 62-year-old career diplomat who was handed the London role in 2011, said: We deplore that deployment for it raises tensions in Europe along the border between Nato and Russia.

Russia doesnt pose any threat to Estonia nor any other Nato member-state. Thats why all the talk of territorial defence sounds provocative, and with [the] changing nature of war, outright ridiculous.

Last week Theresa May accused Moscow of being on the wrong side of this argument by failing to condemn a chemical attack in Syria

Boris Johnson cancelled his trip to Russia then said on Sunday that Vladimir Putin (pictured) was in a league of supervillains because of his support for President Bashar al-Assad

Asked if this is the worst that relations between the UK and Russia have ever been, he said: Yes, it is. Previously officials have gone only as far as saying relations are the worst since the Cold War. Mr Yakovenko said he had respect for the Prime Minister, but when it came to her view that Russia was on the wrong side, the opposite is true.

There is no moderate opposition alternative to the present government in Syria, he said, adding that Syrians must decide for themselves who should run the country.

The UK Government has taken an unwavering stance on President Assad. Sir Michael has repeatedly said the dictator, who has killed his own people, must go.

Responding to comments that Russia was responsible for the deaths of Syrians by proxy, Mr Yakovenko said we deplore such hostile rhetoric.

He denied claims the regime was responsible for the chemical attack earlier this month, saying it looked like President Assad had been framed by terrorists.

The diplomat compared this to an attack in Damascus in 2013. At the time David Cameron said it was beyond doubt the Syrian regime was to blame, and called for MPs to back a military response.

Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson was accused of being a poodle for cancelling a diplomatic trip to Moscow

Mr Yakovenko said: Now the same stagecraft with the same purpose in mind. It is suspicious that the West wouldnt even discuss the issue of chemical weapons use by opposition terrorists.

Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson was accused of being a poodle for cancelling a diplomatic trip to Moscow following the Syrian strikes, leaving talks to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Mr Tillerson was said to have issued an ultimatum, telling Moscow to side with America or stand alongside Assad and militants.

But Mr Yakovenko said: Fortunately, it turned out to be a mere suggestion  But in history the very word ultimatum is closely associated with a declaration of war. He said Mr Johnsons decision to cancel was unfortunate but another indication that there is no bilateral relationship of substance between our two nations beyond mere diplomatic ones.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday, Mr Johnson said: They [Russia] still have time to be on the right side of the argument.
Kendall Sylvester was arrested on Friday in connection with the death of 19-year-old Trevon Dickens (pictured)

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with the murder of a Brooklyn man whose body was found buried in a snowbank last month.

Kendall Sylvester was arrested on Friday in connection with the death of 19-year-old Trevon Dickens.

Police said Sylvester lives on E 91st near Avenue B in East Flatbush, the same block where Dickens' body was found on March 15, according to the New York Daily News.

Witnesses told police that Sylvester was the shooter.

However, a man who identified himself as a relative of Sylvester, said his family member is not a killer, according to the newspaper.

Dickens, whose body was found by a Sanitation Department snowplow, had suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities told the Daily News that the murder appeared to be gang-related.

Dickens, who was a high school student, was reportedly a member of the Cypress Backside Crew, a gang that controls part of the Cypress Hills Houses.

His foster mother, Son-ja Wilson, told the Daily News that she was 'happy' police have arrested a suspect in the case. But she said: 'That's two young lives that's lost.'

Sylvester is being held without bail.

About seven inches of snow was recorded in Brooklyn and the New York City area around the time Dickens' body was discovered.
A woman who paid a hitman $25,000 to 'get rid of' her estranged husband's 14-year-old sexual abuse victim has been jailed for a minimum of four years.

The 64-year-old left her husband in 2014 after years of alleged domestic abuse, but decided to help him a year later after finding out he was in Sydney's Long Bay jail.

She hired a hitman to take out his sex abuse victim and another teenage witness, telling him she wanted the pair 'completely disappeared' without even 'a bone' left, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A woman who paid a hitman $25,000 to 'get rid of' her estranged husband's 14-year-old sexual abuse victim has been jailed for a minimum of four years (stock picture of Wollongong Courthouse)

The hitman turned out to be an undercover police officer and she and her estranged husband pleaded guilty to solicit to murder.

The woman was jailed for a minimum for four years in the Wollongong District Court on April 10.

Her husband will be sentenced in June for his involvement in the murder plot and the sexual abuse.

After he was refused bail and jailed, the husband allegedly told another inmate the teenager had 'climbed on top of him' when he was drunk at a party.

He also said he was 'shopping' for a hitman and the inmate later informed police.

The 64-year-old left her husband in 2014 after years of alleged domestic abuse, but decided to help him a year later after finding out he was in Sydney 's Long Bay jail (stock pics of the jail)

'That was horrific, I mean,' the inmate told police after hearing of his plan to 'get rid of' the teenage witness.

The couple started a relationship in 2000, but she left her husband in 2014 after years of alleged abuse at their home in regional NSW.

From behind bars, he reportedly sends his wife love letters and poems, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.




United Airlines will no longer allow employees to take seats from passengers on overbooked flights, it was learned on Sunday.

The company is instituting the change in response to the public relations disaster that was ignited last week when a passenger was filmed being violently removed from a United flight by Chicago aviation officers, The New York Times reported.

Footage of the incident went viral on social media and sparked widespread calls for a boycott of United.

The passenger who was roughed up, Dr. David Dao, is weighing legal action against United, his attorney said this week.

United Airlines will no longer allow employees to take seats from passengers on overbooked flights, it was learned on Sunday. The above stock image shows United Airlines passenger jets lined up at the gates at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado

'We issued an updated policy to make sure crews traveling on our aircraft are booked at least 60 minutes prior to departure,' a United spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Times on Sunday.

'This is one of our initial steps in a review of our policies.'

United says that the change is designed so that the Dao incident will 'never happen again.'

The airline is emphasizing that it will also no longer ask law enforcement to evict passengers that do not pose a security threat.

The company is instituting the change in response to the public relations disaster that was ignited last week when a passenger was filmed (above) being violently removed from a United flight by Chicago aviation officers

The passenger who was roughed up, Dr. David Dao, is weighing legal action against United, his attorney said this week

On Saturday, a bride and groom were removed from a United flight after moving to an empty row to allow another passenger to stay asleep in their seats.

Michael Hohl and his fiancee Amber Maxwell were flying to Costa Rica for their wedding on Saturday afternoon when they were told to disembark at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The couple from Salt Lake City, Utah, say they boarded the plane to find another passenger asleep in their seats.

On Saturday, a bride and groom were removed from a United flight after moving to an empty row to allow another passenger to stay asleep in their seats

Rather than wake them up, they went to sit in an empty row which they claim was in the same class.

When a United Airlines flight attendant approached them to ask if they were in their ticketed seats, they explained that they weren't and asked for an upgrade but were turned down.

The couple claims they returned to their original seats calmly but that a US Marshal appeared moments later to escort them off.

They were able to board another flight the following day and make it to Costa Rica in time for their wedding on Thursday.

The couple said they were left bemused by the airline's treatment of them.

'We thought not a big deal, it's not like we are trying to jump up into a first-class seat.

'We were simply in an economy row a few rows above our economy seat,' Hohl told NBC about their attempt to move.
GPs are being paid millions by the NHS to ration referrals for operations, scans and even cancer tests, an investigation reveals today.

Family doctors are being offered the financial incentives in a bid to slash the number of patients they send to hospital for a variety of procedures.

The incentives mostly cover non-urgent referrals for hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, hearing tests and abdomen scans. But two health trusts have included urgent cancer scans in their schemes, and another two covered heart tests.

GPs are being paid millions to not refer patients for a variety of important tests including some urgent cancer scans, abdomen scans as well as knee and hip replacement surgeries

Patient groups said the payments were profoundly wrong, while one MP likened them to bribes. Doctors leaders are also deeply opposed to the schemes, branding them an offensive slur on GPs medical judgement.

Details of the payments came after figures showed the NHS endured the worst winter crisis in its history, with bed-blocking and waiting times at, or near, record highs. The service is also facing a funding crisis as it struggles to meet the demands of the ageing population and migration.

Reducing the number of patients sent to hospital is one way of cutting costs. Only last month Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, warned patients to expect longer waits for routine operations so the health service could prioritise cancer care and A&E.

But many Clinical Commissioning Groups have independently drawn up their own cost-saving plans. The Daily Mail found that at one in eight health trusts in England, family doctors are being offered financial incentives to reduce or review their referrals.

Freedom of Information requests were made to all 209 CCGs in England, to find out whether they offer incentives to GPs for cutting referrals. Of the 182 that replied, 15 have schemes which pay doctors money directly for slashing numbers by a certain target.

Another seven offer incentives to doctors who promise to review referrals and ensure they only send patients to hospital where appropriate. This means 22 CCGs pay GPs extra cash for reducing or reviewing the numbers of patients sent to hospital.

The incentives mostly cover non-urgent referrals for hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, hearing tests and abdomen scans. But two health trusts have included urgent cancer scans in their schemes, and another two covered heart tests

Last year they paid out at least 5.74million  although the true amount is likely to be higher, as a third of CCGs were unable to supply figures. The majority of schemes cover less urgent procedures including hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, hearing tests and blood tests.

But two CCGs, Cumbria and Greater Huddersfield, specifically target heart operations or scans among the procedures they want GPs to curb.

Another two, North East Lincolnshire and North Hampshire, included urgent cancer tests in their incentive schemes last year. North Hampshire has not continued the incentives for this year, while North East Lincolnshire insisted cancer referrals had risen.

Patient groups said the payments were profoundly wrong, while one MP likened them to bribes. Doctors leaders are also deeply opposed to the schemes, branding them an offensive slur on GPs medical judgement

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: So we knew that the NHS was critically underfunded but now we learn that doctors are deliberately not referring people, and denying them the treatment they need, simply to save money. It looks like a bribe.

The money is allocated to practices on an annual basis, and it is then up to doctors and managers to decide how to spend it.

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: GPs should always be able to act in the best interests of patients in front of them  and we must not be put in a position where we are asked to prioritise cost over the health and wellbeing of our patients. Suggesting that we should behave otherwise is not only an offensive slur on our professionalism, but undermines the high levels of trust that exist between GPs and our patients.

An NHS England spokesman said: There are big variations in the extent to which different GP practices are able to provide services for their own patients at the local surgery without having to send patients to hospital, so it is often right to support these more convenient alternatives using the funding then not needed for unnecessary hospital outpatient visits.
He's currently filming Justice League spin-off Aquaman in Australia.

And recently, Game Of Thrones star Jason Momoa teamed up with Byron Bay's very own justice squad.

The Hawaiian hunk was spotted posing with Queensland Police, before joining the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky and Matt Damon at the coastal town's Bluesfest music festival.

Justice League: Game Of Thrones and Justice League star Jason Momoa posed with police officers in Byron Bay this week, as he joined Chris Hemsworth, Matt Damon and more at Bluesfest

Exposing the buff biceps that fans have been missing since his run ended as Khal Drago on Game Of Thrones, the 37-year-old wore a tank top as he posed next to a starstruck police officer.

While playing an intimidating figure on the series, the Hawaiian was in full beach mode, pushing his long wet hair behind his head.

With his arm around the man in blue, the actor offered a beaming grin and thumbs up.

Welcome return: The 37-year-old Hawaiian actor exposed the buff biceps that fans have been missing since his run ended as Khal Drago on Game Of Thrones

Selfies! Later, the Aquaman star descended on Byron Bay's star-studded Bluesfest and was greeted by a sea of adoring fans

Man bun: In one snap, the hunk tied his hair-back into a man bun to pose with fans

Trying their hand at humour, the Queensland Police media unit captioned the snap: 'How about this Justice League? Jason said he liked the uniform but it could be a little more aqua, man.'

Later, the Aquaman star descended on Byron Bay's star-studded Bluesfest, tying his hair back to pose with fans.

Featuring performances from the likes of Patti Smith, Jimmy Buffett, Mary J Blige, and Santana, the 4-day festival's star-studded lineup has been met by an equally celeb-filled presence off the stage.

Star-studded! Matt Damon was also seen pictured at the festival, happily posing with surprised fans at the four-day music festival

This year, Byron Bay local Chris Hemsworth and his stunning wife Elsa Pataky was also spotted at the festival.

The Thor star has been entertaining Hollywood megastar Matt Damon at the idyllic coastal town, who was also snapped in attendance on Friday.

Looking relaxed in a trucker cap and black t-shirt, the star posed with the thrilled punters.

Two-for-one: The Hollywood icon is visiting Australian actor and Byron Bay local Chris Hemsworth, who treated fans to a two-for-one selfie backstage at the festival

Later, fans backstage were treated for a two-for-one, as both Chris and Matt huddled in for a selfie snapped by the Australian actor.

In a charming act of wishful thinking, the poster captioned the snap 'My mum says he looks like me.'

Sadly, the resemblance was not close enough to determine which of the Hollywood hunks he was referring to.
He's meant to be smitten with model Vogue Williams after they started a romance while taking part on Channel 4's The Jump.

But sources have claimed Spencer Matthews 'has some explaining to do' after he was witnessed enjoying an all-day drinking session with a mysterious blonde, after which they went back to his home in London in the early hours.

Vogue was no-where to be seen, as she has been back home in Ireland, without her boyfriend Spencer.

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While the cat's away...! Former Made In Chelsea lothario Spencer Matthews allegedly spent an entire afternoon and night with a mystery blonde while girlfriend Vogue Williams was celebrating Easter in Ireland

Surely, he wouldn't! Spencer's meant to be smitten with model Vogue Williams after they started a romance while taking part on Channel 4's The Jump

But the ex-Made In Chelsea star still was sure to have a fun weekend in London as he enjoyed being the centre of attention on an all-day social.

Spending the day and evening in West London, Spencer, 27, was snapped looking lovingly at the unknown blonde, sure to share a laugh with her and pose for selfies at the table they drank at.

They weren't alone, but the pair ended up back at his flat at 2am, according to reports - only for her to creep out the next morning.

The group reportedly spent 10 hours drinking together - with a source telling The Sun that 'he will have some explaining to do'.

All a-titter: Spending the day and evening in West London, Spencer, 27, was snapped looking lovingly at the unknown blonde, sure to share a laugh with her and pose for selfies at the table they drank at

Cheers: The group reportedly spent 10 hours drinking together - with a source telling The Sun that 'he will have some explaining to do'

Lapping it up: The ex-Made In Chelsea star was sure to have a fun weekend in London as he enjoyed being the centre of attention on an all-day social

An onlooker claimed: 'The blonde clearly dominated Spencers attention. They seemed very flirty and tactile with each other. And as the night went on they struck up their own private conversation away from the others.

The eagle-eyed sleuth added: 'When she briefly broke off from their chat to look at her mobile phone, he carried on gazing at her and grinning. He seemed pretty smitten with her.'

This aspiring Miss Marple didn't stop there. They seemingly made a day out of tracking Spencer's exact movements, claiming that he spent six hours enjoying drinks outside in the sun, joined briefly by fellow ex-MIC star Millie Mackintosh at one point.

Fixated: An onlooker claimed - 'The blonde clearly dominated Spencers attention. They seemed very flirty and tactile with each other. And as the night went on they struck up their own private conversation away from the others'

Goodness: The eagle-eyed sleuth added - 'When she briefly broke off from their chat to look at her mobile phone, he carried on gazing at her and grinning. He seemed pretty smitten with her'

Here comes the bride: This will surely rock the boat with Vogue - but also with Spencer's family, who are thought to already be on tenterhooks about Spencer's brother James' upcoming wedding to Pippa Middleton next month

Ring master: Spencer was seen having a right old time of it with a revolving string of pals; however, the blonde remained glued to the same seat throughout

The group grabbed a cab to a pal's flat, stopping to buy some more drinks en route, where they stayed until past 1AM.

Spencer and the blonde taxied back to his flat where The Sun's amateur sleuth evidently made a night of it and waited for the lights to go out - which apparently happened at 4.30AM.

This will surely rock the boat with Vogue - but also with Spencer's family, who are thought to already be on tenterhooks about Spencer's brother James' upcoming wedding to Pippa Middleton next month.

It transpires that tensions are high amoungst the Matthews clan, as Spencer is to be the best man, royals will be in attendance, and James and his parents are thought to be worried about the notorious Chelsea party boy going a little too wild at the classy shin dig.

Commanding the crowd: The identity-less blonde seemed to be loving Spenny's rogue banter

Big day approaching: It transpires that tensions are high amoungst the Matthews clan, as Spencer is to be the best man, royals will be in attendance, and James and his parents are thought to be worried about the notorious Chelsea party boy going a little too wild at the classy shin dig

In good company: Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge will be there, along with their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, Pippa's nephew and neice (and James' future nephew and niece)

Especially since the reception is being held at the Middletons house.

Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge will be there, along with their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, Pippa's nephew and neice (and James' future nephew and niece).

Given the regal links, it's thought Spencer has been asked to keep out of the limelight over the coming weeks, leading up to the wedding.

There are also reports that Spencer's other half Vogue is 'banned' from Pippa's wedding amid fears she could 'outshine' the beautiful bride.

The socialite has imposed a 'no ring, no bring' policy to her wedding to her hedge fund manager beau, making it unlikely that Prince Harry can bring girlfriend Meghan Markle, 35, to the big day either.

'No ring, no bring': There are also reports that Spencer's other half Vogue is 'banned' from Pippa's wedding amid fears she could 'outshine' the beautiful bride

A wedding insider told The Sun: 'Pippas view is that Vogues relationship with Spencer is still very new. It wouldnt be appropriate for her to be there after just a few months of dating.

'But some people in the circle are pretty shocked because this is her future brother-in-law whos going to end up attending on his own. Its certainly raised eyebrows.'

The source also added: 'Its clear Pippa doesnt want to be outshone by any TV babes on her big day.'

Even if Vogue had an invitation to the big day, the source explained that the Irish beauty wouldn't have been able to attend because she's 'working on a job that's been booked in for ages.'

Vogue and Spencer first laid eyes on each other while competing for Channel 4's The Jump in January - and she sang his praises after he supported her following her knee injury which forced her to pull out of the show.

Model behaviour: Even if Vogue had an invitation to the big day, the source explained that the Irish beauty wouldn't have been able to attend because she's 'working on a job that's been booked in for ages.'
He's a familiar face in the Australian television industry, thanks to co-hosting Today Extra.

And David Campbell is leading Elizabeth Bay residents in objecting to the marina upgrade, due to the fear of three-story boats being able to dock there.

David, 43, - who lives with his family in the area - shared his views with The Daily Telegraph, saying: 'Not everything in Sydney needs to be blown out of proportion.'

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Standing his ground: Today Extra's David Campbell leads locals objecting to the upgrade of Elizabeth Bay marina due to a fear of 'three-story party boats' heading to the area

'If they bring three-storey party boats in here it will be very hard for people in the area,' David added.

'This is just one of the few smaller, cute parks by the water.'

The publication reports that 60 residents are protesting the proposed upgrade, which includes the widening of berths for bigger yachts.

The publication reports that 60 residents are protesting the proposed upgrade (pictured), which includes the widening of berths for bigger yachts

Fan favourite: He's a familiar face in the Australian television industry, thanks to co-hosting Today Extra alongside Sonia Kruger

The marina is being redeveloped by the Roads and Maritime Services, with residents saying the size of boats in artist impressions have been made smaller, which was denied by the RMS.

A spokesperson told the publication that residents will be informed if the plan gets the go-ahead, while issues are being addressed.

The publication reports that a Facebook page against the upgrade has been established and is being presented as residents going up against the wealthy.

Fight: The publication reports that a Facebook page against the upgrade has been established and is being presented as residents going up against the wealthy

David is the son of rocker Jimmy Barnes, and shares three young children with wife Lisa.

Recently on Today Extra, he agreed to take part in a DNA test, and joked on air on Friday that he doesn't want to be related to 'too many serial killers or mass murderers.'

Sharing his desire of what he wanted the results to reveal, David joked to Ancestry's Brad Argent: 'But you want it to be related to royalty or a pharaoh or something.'

David learnt of his ancestry to be 49% from Ireland, 48% from Great Britain, 2% from Iberian Peninsula (consisting of Spain and Portugal) and 1% from North-West Russia.
The finale of HBO drama-comedy series Girls airs this Sunday.

But Allison Williams, who plays Marnie Michaels, is looking to avoid her character's traits following her to future roles in Hollywood.

The actress, 29, revealed to Stellar on Sunday: 'I used to be worried about being typecast, but one of the beautiful things about being on Girls is that it gave me the ability to wait for the right thing to come along.'

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'I used to be worried about being typecast': Actress Allison Williams makes film debut in horror flick Get Out following Girls' finale as Marnie, as she reveals she's not afraid of being typecast to Stellar magazine on Sunday

The divisive sitcom about four young women coming of age in New York has had a successful run, with six seasons over the past five years.

Allison describes Marnie, who has the most on-screen sex scenes, as the most unpopular character of the series.

While working on the show, the star didn't take up any film roles unlike some of her co-stars as she was waiting for the 'right thing'.

End of an era: Allison describes Marnie(left) as the most unpopular character of the divisive sitcom, which is based around four young women coming of age in New York

'If I dont see the right thing, Ill just hang tight': Allison also revealed she's in no rush to take roles that she doesn't see as the right fit for her

'Ive proven that waiting doesnt bother me, so if I dont see the right thing, Ill just hang tight until something comes along that is really compelling,' she said.

And now Allison has now debuted in her first feature film, Get Out.

In the horror, she plays a naive Caucasion girl who introduces her African-American boyfriend to her sinister family's estate.

Debut film! Allison's debut film Get Out sees her play a naive Caucasion girl who introduces her African-American boyfriend to her sinister family's estate

The brunette beauty believes the film will give audiences a way to facilitate a conversation about race and diversity.

'I think Id be bored if they were just pretty white girls...Whats appealing to me is taking the trope of pretty white girl and showing how messed up it can be,' Allison said.

Get Out will appear in Australian cinemas from May 4.
Candice Swanepoel was no angel as she showed off a slightly naughtier side to herself for a sexy photo shoot on Saturday.

The Victoria's Secret model, 28, flashed ample amounts of cleavage as she swam about in a pool soaked with flowers while posing for a Biotherm photo shoot.

Candice looked incredible with her face full made up and her hair perfectly slicked back into a sleek 'do.

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No angel! Candice Swanepoel showed off a naughtier side to her nature as she posed seductively for a photo shoot

With music playing in the background, Candice looked a pro as she posed and swam in circles for the camera before flashing a flirty grin.

'Thank you @biotherm for a great shoot! And @aaronlippman for braving the cold with me,' she captioned the image.

Candice was made a brand ambassador for skincare company Biotherm in July 2015.

But fans of the model may best known her as an Angel for Victoria's Secret.

Picture perfect! Candice looked incredible with her face full made up and her hair perfectly slicked back into a sleek 'do

Bra-vo! Candice's gold top clung to her ample cleavage

Flower power: The model floated in a pool soaked with flowers

Meanwhile, Candice is also a mom to six-month-old son Anaca.

She shares him with her partner of 12 years, Brazilian-born model Hermann Nicoli, 34.

On April 5, Candice took to Instagram to celebrate her son's six-month birthday.

'6 months ago this treasure came into my life, and brings me so much joy everyday I could just pop!' she wrote.

'So grateful to be his mommy.'

Hot mama! Meanwhile, Candice is also a mom to six-month-old son Anaca
Cameron Diaz enjoyed a family outing with her older sister Chimene Cain and her niece in Seal Beach, California on Saturday.

The 44-year-old beauty was beaming as she enjoyed the sunny spring day in the posh beach community, which borders her hometown of Long Beach.

The Theres Something About Mary star was casually dressed in a sage button-up shirt over a white top with blue jeans cuffed up at the bottom.

Family day: Cameron Diaz, 44, (R) was snapped with her sister Chimene Cain and her niece on Saturday in Seal Beach, California

She rounded out her get-up with fire orange shoes, a black tote bag and sunglasses, with her blonde locks pulled back.

Chimene wore a blue top with black jeans and white sandals, carrying a fringed black purse with her blonde locks pulled back in a ponytail.

The Sex Tape actress, who's married to Good Charlotte's Benji Madden, was seen enjoying lunch with her relatives before stopping off for gas on the weekend day.

The Charlie's Angels star told the New York Daily News, 'Sisters have an incredibly strong bond ... theres nothing in the world like it.'

Happy time: Diaz looked carefree as she enjoyed the idyllic day with her relatives

Diaz said that her older sister used to play with her peers as Charlies Angels in the 1970s, according to People, but the older girls wouldn't let her in on the fun.

'I dont think they even let me be Bosley,' she joked.

The Other Woman beauty talked to George Lopez in 2011 about attending Long Beach Polytechnic High School with another student who went onto fame and celebrity: Snoop Dogg.

Close ties: Cameron, seen here with Chimene in NYC in 1998, said that 'theres nothing in the world like' the bond between sisters

'He was a year older than me ... I remember him, he was very tall and skinny. He wore lots of ponytails,' she said. 'I'm pretty sure I bought weed from him. Yeah. I had to have.'

In the appearance on the since-cancelled Lopez Tonight, Diaz said that when she was younger, she 'used to get in fights with boys more than girls,' as 'for some reason, boys liked to fight' her.

'But one time in junior high I had this girl come up to me in the locker room from behind and pull my hair back. I had to shut her down!'

Stunner: The A-list beauty looked refreshed at an event in Woodland Hills, California last June
Sofia Vergara appeared to be fully recovered from her recent illness while leaving Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills on Saturday.

The 44-year-old Modern Family diva toted a purse appropriately labeled 'modern' with her white tank top, cuffed skinny blue jeans, and tan heels.

The four-time Golden Globe nominee - who relies on stylist duo Jill Lincoln & Jordan Johnson - finished off her ensemble with a chic white trenchcoat.

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Out and about! Sofia Vergara appeared to be fully recovered from her recent illness while leaving Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills on Saturday

Recovered? The 44-year-old Modern Family diva toted a purse appropriately labeled 'modern' with her white tank top, cuffed skinny blue jeans, and tan heels

Clean-cut: The four-time Golden Globe nominee - who relies on stylist duo Jill Lincoln & Jordan Johnson - finished off her ensemble with a chic white trenchcoat

CoverGirl ambassador: Sofia flashed her mega-watt smile with her signature minimal make-up and blown-out brunette locks

Sofia flashed her mega-watt smile with her signature minimal make-up and blown-out brunette locks.

Vergara gave her 31M social media followers her last health update on Thursday, admitting: 'Still feeling [sick].'

The Colombian bombshell suffered a 102-degree fever after shooting a rain sequence on the chilly Rome set of Robert Moresco's film noir Bent alongside Karl Urban.

In the movie - due out this year - the Simpsons guest star plays a ruthless and seductive government agent called Rebecca.

Looking better! Vergara gave her 31M social media followers her last health update on Thursday (L), admitting, 'Still feeling [sick]'

Wrapped her role as Rebecca: The Colombian bombshell suffered a 102-degree fever after shooting a rain sequence on the chilly Rome set of Robert Moresco's (R) film noir Bent alongside Karl Urban (L)

But first, fans can catch Sofia as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on the eighth season of mockumentary sitcom Modern Family, which resumes May 3 on ABC.

Noticeably missing from Vergara's side was her second husband, Smurfs: The Lost Village star Joe Manganiello.

It's hard to believe the lovely Latina is old enough to have a 24-year-old son, attorney Manolo, from her first marriage to Joe Gonzalez.

In the kitchen: Fans can catch Sofia as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on the eighth season of mockumentary sitcom Modern Family, which resumes May 3 on ABC

17 months strong! Noticeably missing from Vergara's side was her second husband, Smurfs: The Lost Village star Joe Manganiello
Of the whopping twenty-four couples to have given it their best shot on Married At First Sight over the years, they're one of only three that remain together.

And after Zoe Hendrix and Alex Garner welcomed an adorable daughter late last year, they've never been stronger.

On Sunday, the three amigos celebrated their first Easter together with an adorable family camping trip at Sandy Point in Gippsland, Victoria.

First Easter: Married At First Sight's Zoe Hendrix and Alex Garner took their adorable 5-month-old Harper camping at Sandy Point in Gippsland, Victoria to celebrate Easter on Sunday

Taking to Instagram to document the experience, Zoe, 27, snuggled charming Harper into a comfortable blanket, before she herself cuddled up to her reality star hubby.

While the couple looked like the definition of true happiness, Harper seemed confused by the presence of a photographer spoiling her moment with mum and dad.

In spite of her raised-eyebrows, the 5-month-old looked comfortable, well taken care of, and very warm indeed.

It seemed the blanket was a two-person-only deal, as Alex instead chose to keep warm in a grey linen hoodie.

Rugged-up! In spite of her raised-eyebrows, the 5-month-old looked comfortable, well taken care of, and very warm indeed at the

'CAMPING at Sandy Point with some friends and our little Easter bunny,' Zoe began the caption.

'So far so good! Harper loves the fresh air.'

Later, the personality shared a close-up snap of Harper looking confused and yet undoubtedly comfortable once again.

5 months! Zoe and Alex welcomed adorable Harper-Rose in November 2016

In response to her daughter's charismatic reaction, Zoe was seen flashing a proud smile in the snap.

'5 MONTHS of this gorgeous girl,' she wrote in the caption.

'Harper-Rose you were worth the wait and we love you beyond words.'

Zoe and Alex have been together since the first season of the show and in addition to sharing a daughter have gone into property development together.

'Worth the wait': Harper-Rose you were worth the wait and we love you beyond words,' Zoe wrote in Sunday's caption

Happy family: Having been together since Married At First Sight's first season, Zoe and Alex are one of only three couples to find love on the show
This year the glamorous WAG celebrated Easter as a family of six, after welcoming twins Tom and Darcy last September.

And Rebecca Judd appeared in high-spirits as she treated her kids to an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday with AFL-playing husband Chris Judd.

The 34-year-old took to social media from a holiday at Perth's Crown Towers to document the joyous holiday.

Bunny Mummy! Rebecca Judd treats kids to Easter egg hunt as family enjoy Easter long weekend away in Perth on Sunday, taking to Instagram to document the holiday and wish her followers a 'Happy Easter'

The model and media personality blew a kiss to her 624k fans as she wished them all a 'Happy Easter' with the use of a bunny filter to give her chocolate ears.

Appearing to wake up bright and early for the Easter egg hunt, she captured a picture of her twins dressed in bunny-printed jumpsuits just before 6am.

Within the hour she made the trip to a local park, where daughter Billie, 3, and son Oscar, 5, excitedly searched high and low for their chocolate treats.

Baby bunnies! Appearing to wake up bright and early for the Easter egg hunt, she captured a picture of her twins, Tom and Darcy, dressed in bunny-printed jumpsuits just before 6am

Family fun day: Rebecca appeared in high-spirits as she treated her kids to an Easter egg hunt with AFL-playing husband Chris Judd at a park nearby their Perth hotel

Bec appeared to wear a long-sleeve scoop neck activewear top, while husband Chris wore a long-sleeve sweatshirt and shorts.

For the carefree Sunday with her family, the model sported a neutral makeup application with her hair up in a low ponytail.

She accesorised her look with a pair of aviator sunglasses

On the lookout for eggs! In the short clips her two eldest children could be seen carrying colourful buckets as they approached the location of the hunt

'She's cleaning up!' Bec could be heard telling daughter Billie to look inside the window for more treats, as she continued to find a horde of treats on the playgrounds top floor and slide

Yum! Oscar posed with his bucket full of goodies during the outdoor Easter egg hunt

In the short clips her two eldest children could be seen carrying colourful buckets as they approached the location of the hunt.

Billie was wearing an adorable bunny jumper with rainbow striped leggings.

Both Billie and Oscar ran around the park while in search of Easter eggs, dropping each new treat into their bucket as they went.

She's cleaning up!' Bec said of daughter Billie finding a bunch on the playground's slide, while she later posted a picture of Oscar posing with his bucket full of goodies.

New traditions: This year the glamorous WAG celebrated Easter as a family of six, after welcoming twins Tom and Darcy last September

Twinning! In a recent snap, Rebecca joked about the twins similarities by dressing them in matching outfits embellished with the words 'Copy' and 'Paste'

Bec and Chris married on New Year's Eve in 2010 and welcomed their first child, Oscar, in July 2011.

The Postcards host often stated Chris couldn't tell the twins apart in the first few weeks after they were born.

In a recent snap, she joked about their similarities by dressing them in matching outfits embellished with the words 'Copy' and 'Paste'.
As Goldie Hawn's daughter, she part of Hollywood royalty.

And Kate Hudson made sure she stayed head and shoulders above the rest, wearing towering wedges as she stepped out in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The 37-year-old actress defied gravity in the tan heels, as she headed out for some retail therapy in the upscale Brentwood area of the city.

Gravity defying: Kate Hudson wore towering wedges as she stepped out in Los Angeles on Saturday

She put on a leggy display with a perilously high split denim skirt.

She showcased her slim middle in the high-waisted garb.

The beauty added a spaghetti-striped tank top, under which she appeared to be bra-free.

Relaxed: The beauty added a spaghetti-striped tank top, under which she appeared to be bra-free

She piled her blonde tresses into a ponytail, leaving bangs to frame her face.

The Almost Famous actress has recently returned from a break in Hawaii with her two boys.

She shares Ryder, 13, with Black Crows frontman Chris Robinson. The couple married on New Year's Eve in 2000, and divorced in 2007.

Happy shopper: The 37-year-old actress defied gravity in the tan heels, as she headed out for some retail therapy in the upscale Brentwood area of the city

Pretty: She piled her blonde tresses into a ponytail, leaving bangs to frame her face

Revealing: She put on a leggy display with a perilously high split denim skirt

Trim: She showcased her slim middle in the high-waisted garb

Pert: The star flaunted her posterior as she got back behind the wheel of her vehicle

His brother, five-year-old Bingham, is the son of her former fiance, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy.

Meanwhile, Kate has been concentrating on her fitness apparel brand Fabletics of late but she hasn't given up her screen career.

She will next be seen in Marshall co-starring Chadwick Boseman as a young Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice, as he battles through one of his career-defining cases.

Kate has also been cast as the late comedian's wife in biopic Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said, starring Eddie Murphy, which has yet to set a release date.

Kate just became the latest in a long line of the A-list Hollywood stars whose nude photos have allegedly been leaked online by hackers - who earlier this week posted images of a topless Miley Cyrus.

The images of Hudson show the actress sitting down and exposing her bare breasts while completely nude in two photos, along with three photos of her in a thong shot from behind.
They're the genetically blessed couple who found love with each other on the first season of The Bachelor.

And after spending an intimate weekend with Tim Robards on a yacht in Sydney Harbour, Anna Heinrich has shared a cute snap of herself on board their love boat.

The 34-year-old took to Instagram to share a picture of herself holding up bunny ears close to her head in a white tank top with a star, bunny and cloud emoji, and stripy pants.

Check out my bunny ears! After spending a romantic long weekend with long time beau Tim Robards, Anna Heinrich has shared a cute snap of herself on board their love boat wishing her fans a Happy Easter

In the caption, she wished her 269, 000 legions of fans a 'Happy Easter', with many of them wishing her the same right back.

On Friday, her long-time boyfriend Tim Robards captured a selfie of the two at sea.

They both took to Instagram on Friday to share that snap and document their Easter long weekend.

The love boat! On Friday, Tim Robards and Anna Heinrich proved it's still smooth sailing in their relationship as they enjoyed a Sydney Harbour cruise

In one photo, shirtless Tim flaunts his muscular physique as Anna affectionately kisses him on the cheek.

Anna captioned the snap: 'The Love Boat'.

Meanwhile, Tim wrote on his Instagram page: 'I'm either trying to look like or a pirate or the sun's in my eyes.'

Good times! The Bachelor couple, who are approaching their fourth anniversary in September, took to Instagram on Friday to document their Easter long weekend

Later in the day, Anna shared a photo of herself standing on deck in a sheer polka dot jumpsuit.

The criminal lawyer styled her long blonde hair loosely, as she smiled in the afternoon sun.

Wedding bells? The romantic snaps will no doubt fuel rumours the couple are getting ready to announce an engagement

Tim spoke exclusively to Daily Mail Australia about wedding rumours last month at the Myer Autumn fashion collection launch.

When asked if 2017 would be the year they would take their relationship to the next level, he sounded optimistic.

'We're definitely committed and headed in that direction,' Tim said.
He's currently enjoying life in LA, moving into a lavish $80,000 beach-front pad in October.

And James Corden took a break from his busy schedule to enjoy a family day out with wife Julia Carey and their two children on Saturday.

The 38-year-old was seen carrying daughter Carey, two, while son Max, six, held tightly onto Julia's hand as they took a stroll in the sun.

Family day out: James Corden took a break from his busy schedule to enjoy a family day out with wife Julia Carey and their two children on Saturday

James looked relaxed as he stepped out in a casual navy polo shirt, which he teamed with blue shorts and trainers.

Television producer Julia meanwhile looked stylish in a camel-coloured knit, teamed with jeans and white sandals.

The couple both sported matching shades as they shielded their eyes from the Californian sun.

Doting dad: James was seen carefully attending to daughter Carey, two, as she clutched a rabbit toy during the Easter outing

Ever the doting dad, James was seen carefully attending to daughter Carey as she clutched a rabbit toy during the Easter outing.

Their appearance comes as The Late Late Show host was seen viewing a house under construction with Julia on Friday.

The visit soon became more dramatic than planned, as he was almost run over by a nearby truck when he left the property.

Relaxed: James opted for a casual ensemble, teaming a navy polo shirt with blue shorts

James and Julia, who married in a lavish ceremony in September 2012, appear to be house-hunting again, after swapping their five-bedroom villa in Brentwood for a five-storey beachfront home worth $24million in October.

The pad boasts six bedrooms and seven bathrooms as well as its own infinity pool, private gym and outdoor fireplace - proving that James has hit the big-time since relocating to the States.

The former Gavin And Stacey star took over as host of The Late Late Show from Craig Ferguson last March, and has found huge success with the series.

He recently confirmed he is bringing the chat show to the UK for three special episodes, which will air exclusively on Sky 1 and NOW TV in June.
He was pictured comforting his six-year-old daughter Stella, after she was stung by a jellyfish in Byron Bay this week.

And now it's been revealed that Matt Damon, 46, 'panicked' after seeing his little girl covered with welts 'all over her body' after the painful sting, according to The Daily Telegraph on Monday.

Stella, who is the Hollywood actor's youngest child, was 'crying and screaming' after the incident which prompted Matt to call paramedics.

Panic: Matt Damon 'panicked' after seeing his little girl covered with welts 'all over her body' after the painful sting, according to The Daily Telegraph on Monday. The actor is pictured with his three daughters in Byron Bay on Sunday

'(She) came up to the showers crying and screaming due to a painful jellyfish sting which was all over her body,' eyewitness Margot Peterson told the publication.

'Her parents looked stressed but were very comforting to their little one. They asked me to call an ambulance and she was checked out and recovered.'

Days after the beach incident, Matt appeared to be in high spirits during an outing with his three daughters on Easter Sunday.

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Beach outing: The Hollywood actor looked like quite the doting father as he enjoyed quality time with Isabella, 10, Gia, eight, and six-year-old Stella on Easter Sunday

Doing much better: Matt's daughter Stella appeared to be on the mend after the painful sting

The Hollywood actor looked like quite the doting father as he enjoyed quality time with Isabella, 10, Gia, eight, and Stella, who appeared to be on the mend after the painful sting.

Sporting black shorts and a matching T-shirt, the 46-year-old hunk kept a low profile in a trendy cap and dark shades.

He was seen chatting to his precious girls, who he shares with wife Luciana Barroso, as they made their way to a Byron Bay beach.

Famous faces: Matt and his family were also joined by Byron Bay locals Chris Hemsworth , his wife Elsa Pataky and their three children

Matt's stunning wife of 12 years Luciana travelled to Australia with her family last week, although she was not pictured with the, at the beach.

Sunday's happy family outing was quite a contrast to their beach day, which ended in tears on Tuesday.

Matt was pictured rushing to Stella's aide after she was stung by a jellyfish at Byron Bay's famous beach The Pass.

Holiday mode: The Ocean's Eleven star and his family have been holidaying with the Hemsworths in northern New South Wales for roughly one week

The Bourne Identity actor rushed to a local cafe to get ice before paramedics were called to the scene to treat her injury.

Stella reportedly screamed as she dashed from the water to the sand after the sting.

Paramedics attended to the girl's injury as she was comforted by Matt and her mother Luciana Barroso.

Daily Mail Australia previously contacted Matt Damon's representatives for comment.

Family holiday: Matt's stunning wife Luciana Barroso travelled to Australia with her family last week

Matt and his family were also joined by Byron Bay locals Chris Hemsworth, his wife Elsa Pataky and their three children.

The Ocean's Eleven star and his family have been holidaying with the Hemsworths in northern New South Wales for roughly one week.

They've been staying at the Hemsworth's home, spending their time horse riding along the beach, and enjoying helicopter flights, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The Hollywood stars have been friends for years. Matt previously told radio show Fitzy And Wippa: 'I'm really tight with him and his wife and the kids.'

Chris also spoke highly of Matt in an interview with GQ in 2014, claiming the Oscar-winning screenwriter is a role model.

'We became friends around the time I started to work, and I've really benefited from watching how he handles himself,' the 33-year-old said.

'Matt's just a normal guy who has the movie star thing figured out.'
They've been enemies since the start of The Real Housewives of Sydney.

And on Sunday's episode of the controversial reality series, things came to a head between AthenaX Levendi and Victoria Rees - with the pair getting physical during a screaming match in Singapore.

During a dinner at the swanky Spago restaurant, the middle-aged socialites hurled napkins and drinks at each other as they screamed insults in front of their castmates and fellow diners.

Brawl in Singapore! AthenaX Levendi and Victoria Rees hurled drinks and insults at each other on Sunday's episode of The Real Housewives of Sydney

The brawl started when Athena confronted Victoria about dis-inviting her to her charity function, which Levendi jewelers had kindly donated to.

After going over their issues, Athena started to cross the line as she began making nasty insults towards Victoria.

'You're the most ungrateful piece of work I've ever come across,' she snarled, before adding: 'You need to do some more charity because your soul is in the gutter.'

'You're the most ungrateful piece of work I've ever come across,' Athena snarled, before adding: 'You need to do some more charity because your soul is in the gutter.'

Victoria lost her cool, snapping: 'You don't even work. You're at home mopping. Get a cleaner and go to work!'

A furious Athena responded: 'I take care of my family. I'm not running around trying to find a rich husband.'

Victoria shot back: 'I don't need a rich husband. I've got my own money.'

'You don't even work. You're at home mopping. Get a cleaner and go to work!' snapped Victoria

A furious Athena responded: 'I take care of my family. I'm not running around trying to find a rich husband'

The Bondi-based blonde eventually became fed up with the back and forth, swearing at the spiritual Athena.

'I'm leaving because I'm not gonna listen to this f**king bitch anymore,' she said, before hurling a napkin at Athena's face.

'I'm leaving because I'm not gonna listen to this f**king bitch anymore,' said Victoria, before hurling a napkin at Athena's face.

Bam! The spiritual AthenaX recoiled as the napkin slammed her in the face

Athena then stood up and threw a drink in Victoria's direction.

'You can f**k off!' responded Victoria. 'You're a delusional moron. Go to work, get a job!'

The blonde then grabbed another drink and hurled it at Athena, before snatching up her handbag and storming off.

Pay back! Athena upped Victoria's napkin by throwing a drink across the table
Melanie Griffith was spotted on Saturday night stepping out for dinner at the celebrity-magnet restaurant Craig's in West Hollywood.

She headed over to the Design District establishment in a black cocktail dress hemmed high enough for her to showcase her slender legs.

The 59-year-old's blonde hair tumbled over her shoulders, and she'd flung on a fashionable cropped cardigan and gripped a black clutch.

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The place to be: Melanie Griffith was spotted on Saturday night stepping out for dinner at the celebrity-magnet restaurant Craig's in West Hollywood

Floral patterning snaked across part of her otherwise sheer hose, and she'd completed the look by way of a pair of black high heeled shoes.

The daughter of Tippi Hedren recently gave an interview to PORTER, confiding that her string of failed marriages has left her 'shy with men now, very reticent.'

She's had two tries at being married to Don Johnson, between which she'd squeezed in an eight-year-long marriage to Scarface actor Stephen Bauer.

Strolling along: She headed over to the Design District establishment in a black cocktail dress hemmed high enough for her to showcase her slender legs

Her longest marriage was her most recent, which was to Antonio Banderas in 1996, but they ultimately split in 2014 and finalized the divorce the following year.

Melanie's got one child by each husband: 31-year-old Alexander Bauer by Stephen, 27-year-old Dakota Johnson by Don and 20-year-old Stella Banderas by Antonio.

'Part of the reason' for her latest divorce was that 'personally got stuck and I won't let that happen again, I want to enjoy life, I want to do whatever I want to do,' said she.

Keeping warm: The 59-year-old's blonde hair tumbled over her shoulders and she gripped a black clutch

Though 'I haven't met anyone in the almost two years we have been divorced,' despite her friend Kris Jenner's efforts to set her up, she looks fondly on her past.

Revealing she'd had flings in the 1970s with notorious Hollywood playboys Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Ryan O'Neal, she called the trio of men 'awesome.'

A couple of decades ago, she got herself a botched face lift, and has admitted to since having more surgery to countervail the original's effects.

Though she was 'hurt' by fan criticism of her looks, she seemed sanguine about the process of undoing the damage, saying: 'Hopefully I look better!'
Sally Obermeder welcomed her second child, daughter Elyssa Rose, in December, via an American surrogate.

The 43-year-old, her husband Marcus, daughter, Annabelle Grace, five, and baby daughter Elyssa Rose all had a family day out at Sydney's Rushcutters Bay Park this week.

The new mum looked relaxed and casual in a comfy outfit consisting of black tights and a grey T-shirt.

Settling in: Sally Obermeder welcomed her second child, daughter Elyssa Rose, in December, via an American surrogate

After wheeling Elyssa around in a pram with Annabelle in tow, the mother of two sat down on a bench for some cuddles and bonding with her five-month-old baby.

The family of four also stopped into a cafe, with a very happy looking Annabelle brandishing an ice cream as she walked along afterwards.

The tot looked adorable in a red and black checked dress, tights and pink and white sneakers.

At the park the foursome spent some time sitting on the grass with their baby daughter before Annabelle had a go on the swings.

Day out: The 43-year-old, her husband Marcus, daughter, Annabelle Grace, five and baby daughter Elyssa Rose all had a family day out at Sydney's Rushcutters Bay Park

Chill: The new mum looked relaxed and casual in a comfy outfit consisting of black tights and a grey T-shirt

Winner! The family of four also stopped into a cafe, with a very happy looking Annabelle brandishing an ice cream as she walked along afterwards

Swing high! At the park the foursome spent some time sitting on the grass with their baby daughter before Annabelle had a go on the swings

Annabelle won some of mum's attention as dad took over pram duty, with Sally was beaming as she pushed her daughter in a swing.

Marcus then stepped in and took over, with the five-year-old clearly having a ball as she flew high in the air.

Sally recently admitted it took some time for Annabelle to settle in with her new sister.

Strong mama: Annabelle won some of mum's attention as dad took over pram duty, with Sally was beaming as she pushed her daughter in a swing

Dad duty: Marcus then stepped in and took over, with the five-year-old clearly having a ball as she flew high in the air

Close: After wheeling Elyssa around in a pram with Annabelle in tow, the mother of two sat down on a bench for some cuddles and bonding with her five-month-old baby

Changes: Sally recently admitted it took some time for Annabelle to settle in with her new sister

Jealous? 'The adjustment has been slow, I'm not going to lie!,' Sally said with a chuckle, as Elyssa sat on her lap during the TV appearance on The Daily Edition

Siblings: 'In the beginning it was great, she was like, 'oh she's really cute.' And then I think in week two, she went, 'she's still here, what's happening?'

Nicer: 'She's getting used to it. Definitely in the last week or so, she's like, 'oh what's happening cutie?' and is being a lot nicer to her,' Sally added

'The adjustment has been slow, I'm not going to lie!,' Sally said with a chuckle, as Elyssa sat on her lap during the TV appearance on The Daily Edition.

'In the beginning it was great, she was like, 'oh she's really cute.' And then I think in week two, she went, 'she's still here, what's happening?'

'She's getting used to it. Definitely in the last week or so, she's like, 'oh what's happening cutie?' and is being a lot nicer to her,' Sally added.
She's an AACTA award winner, who has starred in various Hollywood blockbusters.

But Rose Byrne says she hasn't quite 'made it' as an actress and in fact, still has the mindset of a budding actor.

The Bridesmaids star told Foxtel magazine on Monday that despite her many feats, which include working alongside media tycoon Oprah Winfrey and winning various acting awards, she tries not to get too caught up in her own achievements.

Opening up: Rose Byrne says she hasn't quite 'made it' as an actress in Hollywood and in fact, still has the mindset of a budding actor

'I think it's such a bad trap to fall into,' she said.

'I think most actors always retain that sense of auditioning and waiting to hear back and the rejection - you sort of remember all the bad stuff more than the good stuff.

She added: 'So I think I've got a healthy dose of that still in my brain.'

The 37-year-old stars in the forthcoming TV film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is produced by Oprah.

Success all around: The Balmain-native has been in a relationship with Emmy award-winning actor Bobby Cannavale since 2012 and the couple share a one-year-old son Rocco

In addition to landing notable movie roles in the likes of X-Men and neighbours, Rose has also acheived success in her private life.

The Balmain-native has been in a relationship with Emmy award-winning actor Bobby Cannavale since 2012 and the couple share a one-year-old son Rocco.

Last month, fans of Rose wee left stunned after Oroton announced that brand ambassador Rose would be dumped in favour of 'younger influencers.'

Younger and cheaper? Oroton found itself in hot water last month when a spokesperson for the brand announced that Rose would be dumped in favour of 'younger influencers'

The fashion accessories brand issued a second statement in response to the backlash across a wide variety of media outlets.

In a previous statement received by Daily Mail Australia, Oroton confirmed that it will continue it's contract with Rose as brand ambassador until August this year.

'No new brand ambassadors have been appointed nor are there any under consideration.

Breaking its silence: In a statement received by Daily Mail Australia this Thursday, Oroton confirmed that it will continue it's contract with Rose Byrne as brand ambassador until August this year

'Oroton is proud of its association with Rose Byrne and has nothing but respect for her as a colleague, and an inspiring individual,' the statement continued.

'Recent comments by the business regarding influencers refer exclusively to its social media strategy as this becomes an ongoing focus for the brand.'

Earlier this week, an Oroton spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Telegraph that the company would not be renewing the actress' contract, confirming that the brand would be seeking to align itself with 'younger influencers'.

Glowing reviews: 'Oroton is proud of its association with Rose Byrne and has nothing but respect for her as a colleague, and an inspiring individual,' the statement continued

'Typically, an influencer will not cost as much as a major globally known actor,' she said.

The representative did not clarify which particular influencers would be representing the brand in future, however.

On Tuesday, Sky News reported OrotonGroup - which encompasses Oroton and GAP - revealed their half-year profit had nosedived by 52 per cent.

When questioned further by Daily Mail Australia as to the future of the partnership at the end of Ms Byrne's contract, the company declined to provide additional comment.

Rose has been the face of Oroton since 2014, and was described by the brand as epitomising 'the essence of what Oroton is about: relaxed glamour and effortless style'.
She professed her love for on/off beau Jeremy McConnell just hours before.

And Stephanie Davis was continuing her adoring assault on social media on Easter Sunday as she shared a snap of her son Caben-Albi while thanking his rehab-dwelling father for his nautical-style ensemble.

The 24-year-old actress took to Instagram to share the sweet image while wishing her 771,000 followers a Happy Easter on her four-month-old son's behalf.

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Adorable: Stephanie Davis was continuing her adoring assault on social media on Easter Sunday as she shared a snap of her son Caben-Albi while thanking his rehab-dwelling father for his adorable nautical-style ensemble

Stephanie and Jeremy's love story began when they starred together on Celebrity Big Brother in January 2016 before becoming embroiled in a toxic romance which ended in April a month before she announced she was expecting.

After persistently denying the paternity, Jeremy vowed to step up when he discovered he was the father although last month's arrest left fans aghast although kind-hearted Stephanie vowed to stand by the star.

On Saturday, the stunning star sent a gushing message to Jeremy, shortly before delighting her fans with her sweet snaps of Caben in which she thanked Jeremy for buying an outfit for their son.

She added a caption reading: 'Happy Easter Everyone... This is my first Easter! I got lots of eggs which my mummy is helping to eat.. hehe. I love my outfit off my daddy, it makes my eyes look extra blue! Thanks daddy! Hope you all have a great day'.

'He's a nightmare, but he's my nightmare': The 24-year-old Celebrity Big Brother star took to Instagram to share the sweet image with her 771,000 followers while wishing everyone a Happy Easter on her four-month-old son's behalf

In her sweet snap the day before, Stephanie insisted she will 'stand by' her on/off boyfriend no matter what while publicly declaring her love for the Irish model in an emotional Instagram post.

The former Hollyoaks star branded Jeremy a 'nightmare' in her tribute, but claimed he was 'her nightmare' as she brushed off their tumultuous past and looked ahead to their future as a couple.

Taking to the photosharing site, Stephanie uploaded two photos of herself and Jeremy that had been taking during their time together in the CBB house in January last year.

'He is my soul mate and I love him': The former Hollyoaks star appeared to let go of their turbulent history and told fans she was excited for her future with Jeremy as a family

The duo are cuddling in one shot and looking adoringly at each other in the second.

Captioning her photo, Stephanie threw her support behind Jeremy - who is currently seeking treatment in rehab - and professed her undying love for the father of her child, Caben-Albi.

She penned: 'No matter what people say, no matter what people feel.. we have been though the most major ups and downs. He's been wrong, I've been wrong.. but I LOVE him.

'I met him un expectedly on cbb, but what you seen was TRUE LOVE!! When you go though that, with money and media, anyone in the industry would understand... ours was just played out in front of the nation.

'I will stand by him always and love him unconditionally': Stephanie is supporting Jeremy through his rehab stay after he voluntarily checked himself in to receive help for his issues

'He is my soul mate and I love him, you never give up on the one you love do you.... Jezz got a little lost, but who hasn't f**ked up in life?? I know I have.... Just so happens ours is played through the media. And no we haven't been adults about it a lot, and it's been wild, but when your so in love with someone, passion gets the best of you! (sic)'

Stephanie continued: 'He's my rock my soul mate and I love him with ALL my heart!! Do you think we would put each other through this for fun?????? No... its because we match. And u seen us fall in love.

'And forever I will always love him. I'm proud [of] him! [It's] this change to get better, no matter what anyone says. I will stand by him always and love him unconditionally, he may seem a nightmare but [he's] my nightmare.

Family unit: The couple are parents to their three-month-old son Caben-Albi who was born in January earlier this year

'My best friend, my everything. Words couldn't describe the love I have for him! I love u baby and so proud of you. U will make Caben proud and can't wait for us to be a family again. I LOVE you!!!! Your baby, stephanie @jeremymcconnellcooke.'

Stephanie's tribute to Jeremy comes after the pair recently reunited following their bitter split last year.

He had confessed to cheating on Stephanie while they were together and shortly after their split, the starlet announced she was expecting Jeremy's baby.

At first, Jeremy contested Steph's paternity claims, but following Caben's birth in January earlier this year, he undertook a DNA test that proved he is the dad of Stephanie's little boy.

Supportive: Stephanie has insisted she is 'proud' of Jeremy for seeking treatment - his rehab stay came after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting her

Keen to form a relationship with his son and re-connect with Stephanie, Jeremy had reunited with his ex-girlfriend and later shared a photo of little Caben to his Instagram page, along with the caption: 'Happiest man alive, my new focus.'

However, his reunion with Stephanie was rocked by allegations that he assaulted her and Jeremy had been arrested.

Following his release, he sought help to battle his demons by checking himself into rehab.

Stephanie had told fans she was 'proud' of Jeremy for making the step to address his issues, while he posted a statement to social media explaining his reasons for seeking treatment.

'I just never handled fame': Jeremy shared a lengthy statement addressing his decision to check into rehab

Jeremy explained that he 'hasn't handled fame very well' and acknowledged he had 'let his family, friends and management down' with his behaviour.

The reality star insisted he is a 'good guy with a good heart' and claimed he is hoping to 'fix' his issues by taking the 'appropriate action'.

Stephanie, meanwhile, has recounted her heartbreak over her relationship with Jeremy in a new song.

Turning her attentions back to her music, the mum-of-one has penned a track to release the emotions she has of the last year.

Penning her heartbreak: Stephanie has recalled her tumultuous history with Jeremy in a new song that includes the lyrics: 'Drowning out the pain cos you're not mine anymore, I was a chore but I adored you'

The lyrics give a raw account of her feelings and include the lines: 'I've been missing spending time with your drinking and let me hear what you wanna say.. sipping on my liqueur cos it tastes so fine drowning out the pain cos you're not mine anymore, I was a chore but I adored you.'

Making reference to her latest music material on Twitter, Stephanie wrote: 'Started a new sound cloud. Songs to upload soon. Copyright enjoy :)'

She also had to deny rumours she and Jeremy are engaged, as fans began to speculate after she was pictured wearing a diamond ring on her finger.

Steph responded: 'I am not engaged guys. One day' (heart emoji) This weather is amazingggg but there's too many wasps and bees about #anxietycentral'

'I am not engaged': She was recently forced to deny rumours she and Jeremy are set to wed on Twitter
Their brief relationship has left fans both baffled and infuriated.

And Chris Clark and Jesy Nelson's doomed romance has been thrown into the spotlight once more after the TOWIE hunk began liking snaps of his co-star ex Amber Dowding, which were posted during his Little Mix love affair.

The shocking revelation comes after sources claimed to The Sun that the 22-year-old reality hunk used his relationship, which he reportedly ended over the phone, as 'a publicity stunt' and a bid to look 'hurt' before reuniting with Amber.

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Happy couple: Chris Clark and Jesy Nelson's doomed romance has been thrown into the spotlight once more after the TOWIE hunk began liking snaps of his co-star ex-girlfriend Amber Dowding, which were posted during his Little Mix love affair

Jesy and Chris confirmed their brief romance in mid-March with a snap of the pair kissing taken while the hunk jetted to the US to visit the songstress during their supporting slot on Ariana Grande's Dangerous Woman tour.

While all initially seemed rosy, he later stunned fans when it was claimed last week that he dumped the stunner over the phone, although insiders later report he was 'pretty down in the dumps at the moment' regarding the split.

As the convoluted break-up plays out, it has now been claimed that Chris is set to get back with Amber in a TOWIE storyline with all talk of his post break-up depression being a ruse for a publicity stunt.

On 7 April, Amber posted a stunning selfie - an image which Chris went on to like, while on the same day Jesy liked a snap of Chris posing alongside his co-star brother Jon. There is nothing to suggest he liked the image during his relationship.

Other girl: The shocking revelation comes after sources claimed to The Sun that the 22-year-old reality hunk used his relationship, which he reportedly ended over the phone, as 'a publicity stunt' and a bid to look 'hurt' before reuniting with Amber

Way back when: Jesy and Chris confirmed their brief romance in mid-March with a snap of the pair kissing taken while the hunky jetted to the US to visit the songstress during their supporting slot on Ariana Grande's Dangerous Woman tour

Sources told The Sun: 'Jesy has obviously been upset this week by the break up, especially with it happening whilst she is away from him on tour. She really believed it was going somewhere.

'The next day Chris followed his ex-girlfriend on Instagram again and they started interacting online... The theory is that this was all done for publicity, and that Chris and his ex will be getting back together as a storyline for Towie.

'There are stories doing the rounds on line that Chris is upset and hopeful that him and Jesy can get back together, but thats not true at all  he has made it clear to Jesy they wont be getting back together.'

Chris' representative told MailOnline: 'The suggestion that Chris would use a relationship as a publicity stunt is absurd, it didn't work out due to distance and differences in their lifestyles.'

Homeward bound: Atop the social media activity from the TOWIE stars, Jesy took to Instagram on Sunday to share a snap with her bandmates and dancers while adding the caption: What an experience! Until next time US', as she prepared to come home'

Publicity? As the convoluted break-up plays out, it has now been claimed that Chris is set to get back with Amber in a TOWIE storyline with all talk of his post break-up depression being a ruse for a publicity stunt

Confused: During his relationship with Jesy, Amber send a number of cryptic Tweets as she said: 'Cos, you know I don't chase em I replace em... Your relationship should be private not a secret. Massive difference between privacy and secrecy. Certain boys need to take note'

During his relationship with Jesy, Amber send a number of cryptic Tweets as she said: 'Cos, you know I don't chase em I replace em... Your relationship should be private not a secret. Massive difference between privacy and secrecy. Certain boys need to take note'.

Days after the split, Chris penned: 'All I want to do is go on road trips and travel the world... When you get older yeah, you start to understand to appreciate the little things in life'.

Atop the social media activity from the TOWIE stars, Jesy took to Instagram on Sunday to share a snap with her bandmates and dancers while adding the caption: 'What an experience! Until next time US', as she prepared to come home.

Last week Little Mix fans went into overdrive on social media following rumours he had dumped her over the phone after a one month whirlwind romance.

On the phone? Last week Little Mix fans went into overdrive on social media following rumours he had dumped her over the phone after a one month whirlwind romance

But new sources have come forward claiming Chris has taken the split pretty hard, and hopes they can give romance another go.

Jesy and her bandmates are currently supporting Ariana Grande on a US tour, a factor which apparently contributed to the break-up.

But a pal close to the Chris told The Sun he hopes to rekindle things when she is back in the UK, adding: 'Chris is pretty down in the dumps at the moment.

'He's told friends that he doesn't want to throw away what he had with Jesy. If the timing was right he would definitely give their romance another chance but he's unsure if Jesy feels the same. '
She was seen cosying up to Lewis Hamilton in 2015 - and Naomi Campbell was in Bahrain on Sunday for the Grand Prix, to show her support for the Formula 1 legend.

The 46-year-old headed to the Sakhir circuit in Manama, where she was pictured wearing a white form-fitting mini dress which was embellished with studs.

She wore a series of VIP lanyards around her neck as she hid her eyes behind designer shades.

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Ahead of the race: Supermodel Naomi Campbell looked incredible in a tight white studded dress as she attended the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday

Heard about Lewis? Naomi grimaced but was it when Hamilton got his five second penalty or came second?

With her raven locks worn in a sleek and straight style, the globally famous beauty carried a white jacket over her arm.

She carried a black leather bag on her arm and wore a variety of pieces of jewellery as she put on a very glamorous display.

Her nails were painted a contrasting red which helped her stand out from the crowd.

She can't keep off it: Naomi, who was loosely linked to Lewis in 2015 was glued to her phone

Loving life: She waved to fans as she giggled with a friend in tow

Stunner: She carried a black leather bag on her arm and wore a variety of pieces of jewellery as she put on a very glamorous display

Cute: Naomi shared this picture of herself on Instagram later on, writing: '#sisterlylove #ferrari Bahrain @afefjnifen @ferrari #easterday'

She seemed to grimace as she walked by the track.

Perhaps she was nervous about Lewis Hamilton's five second penalty, which he incurred for deliberately slowing down Daniel Ricciardo.

It cost him dearly as well, as the controversial race was won by Sebastian Vettel  by 6.6seconds.

He did it! Sebastian Vettel celebrated taking his second victory of the season for Ferrari at the Bahrain Grand Prix

Upsetting for him: Lewis Hamilton looks on after being pipped to victory by Vettel at the Bahrain Grand Prix at the Sakhir Circuit

An icon: Now there's a familiar face: David Coulthard was also pictured with his wife Karen and son Dayton

Mercedes did everything they could to help Hamilton, even asking their other driver Valtteri Bottas to let their star man through. Bottas, who started on pole, followed the instruction obligingly.

Regardless, Vettel now takes a seven-point lead into the next round in Russia as Hamilton finished second, a place ahead of Bottas.

Also watching from the crowd was David Coulthard and his wife Karen Minier, as well as their son, Dayton.
She arrived on the cobbles over Christmas, and hinted to fans she had a connection to the late Kylie Platt when she visited her grave soon after.

However things are set to get even more dramatic for new girl Shona Ramsey on Coronation Street, as she discovers David Platt was responsible for Anna Windass' severe burns.

On Monday's episode, Shona (Julia Goulding) finds herself nosying around the Platt household - but ends up eavesdropping on a conversation between Gail Rodwell and Sarah Platt about the fateful car crash back in November.

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Disbelief: Things are set to get even more dramatic for new girl Shona Ramsey on Coronation Street (above), as she discovers David Platt was responsible for Anna Windass' severe burns

In the exciting scenes, Shona finds herself alone in the Platt household, and can't resist having a snoop round.

However Gail (Helen Worth) and Sarah (Tina O'Brien) soon return home from a shopping trip, causing Shona to hide upstairs - where she overhears more than she bargained for.

The pair begin to discuss David's guilt over Anna's injuries - referring to the fact he paid her 19,000 as compensation for her severe burns - and begin to speculate whether people will become suspicious of him.

Drama: The clip sees Shona nosying around the Platt household - before Gail (L) and Sarah (R) soon arrive home, forcing her to hide upstairs

Discovery: The pair begin to discuss David's guilt over Anna's injuries, and reveal his plan to kill Clayton - to Shona's shock

Back in November, David had plotted to kill Clayton Higgs by blowing up his prison van and him inside, as an act of revenge for murdering his wife Kylie.

However his plan had soon gone very wrong when he crashed en route, causing his car to explode into a ball of flames and consume Anna, who was walking by.

Upon hearing the explosive information, Shona decides to uncover her presence by flushing the toilet upstairs - to the alarm of Gail and Sarah.

What have we done: Upon hearing the explosive information, Shona decides to uncover her presence by flushing the toilet upstairs - to the alarm of Gail and Sarah

Asking whether she had heard what the pair were discussing, she answered coldly: 'Yes. I heard every word.'

Gail and Sarah go on to beg the brunette not to spread his plan, and insisted that David had never meant to hurt anyone - but it is not clear whether Shona agrees.

Shona has made her interest in David and Kylie known since she first arrived on the scene at Christmas - first stealing his wallet in a bar, before visiting Kylie's grave under the cover of darkness.

Furious: Back in November, David had plotted to kill Clayton Higgs by blowing up his prison van and him inside, as an act of revenge for murdering his wife Kylie

Uh oh: However his plan had soon gone very wrong when he crashed en route, causing his car to explode into a ball of flames and consume Anna, who was walking by

Fans had speculated whether Shona was to be David's new romantic interest on the show, after Jack P. Shepherd, who plays the grief-stricken character, hinted he may re-marry.

Speaking to the Radio Times earlier this year, he said: 'Whenever I say that David could go off with other people, journalists have always said that he has to be sad forever because what happened with Kyle was so traumatic.

'But things do move quickly in soap. Before you know it, he'll be shacked up with somebody else or getting married again.

'It's one of the reasons I like playing the character so much.'
She chose a very public place to make her exciting announcement.

On Friday evening, Sutton Foster revealed that she and husband Tom Griffin have adopted a baby girl.

And the Younger star shared the news on stage at the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York during her American Songbook performance.

Proud parents: Sutton Foster, pictured with husband Ted Griffin at a Broadway event on April 2, revealed on Friday that they have adopted a baby girl, Emily, born on March 5

'Our lives are forever changed, and our hearts are exploding,' the 42-year-old gushed, according to People.

The couple's rep confirmed: 'They are delighted to announce the healthy arrival of their daughter Emily Dale Griffin.'

'An amazing night': The 42-year-old, who made the announcement on stage at the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York during her American Songbook gig, shared this Instagram

Baby Emily was born on March 5, meaning the proud parents have kept their secret for over a month.

This is the couple's first child.

The Tony winner, who also appeared on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, married her screenwriter beau in October 2014 in Santa Barbara, California, after getting engaged in August 2013.

Happy couple: Screenwriter Ted and the Younger star, seen at an event in New York in December, kept the new addition to their family secret for more than a month

Last March, Foster told People that having children was 'definitely on the table' after playing a mom to teen daughter Caitlin (Tessa Albertson) on her hit TV Land show.

'Its almost like the opposite of my character,' she explained.

'Ive really focused on career most of my life and so now Im transitioning into where my priorities and my ambitions are more personal.'
She has been spending most of her time with her son Sailor, 2, and daughter Lula Rose, nine months, in recent weeks.

But Liv Tyler appeared to get back to business on Sunday, as she landed in Tokyo, Japan for a solo work trip.

The actress, 39, proved her natural beauty and style in a simple black coat and trendy pair of cat-eye glasses, as she landed at Haneda Airport for her visit with British brand Belstaff.

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Flying solo: Liv Tyler appeared to get back to business on Sunday, as she landed in Tokyo, Japan for a solo business trip

The Lord of The Rings star looked truly radiant as she landed in the Japanese capital - showing no signs of fatigue from her long flight from London.

The brunette kept comfortable but chic in a simple black fleece coat, which cut into traditional lapels and shrouded her slim post-baby figure.

Stealing the limelight however was her clear and glowing complexion - accentuated with hardly a scrap of cosmetics to highlight her striking natural beauty to all.

Stunning: The Lord of The Rings star looked truly radiant as she landed in the Japanese capital - showing no signs of fatigue from her long flight from London

Keeping her look trendy however, the mother-of-three accessorised with a pair of retro oversized glasses as she made her way through the terminal.

Beaming widely for cameras, Liv showed no signs of tiredness from her long journey as she headed out in the city for another jam-packed day.

Liv appears to be visiting the city with British clothing brand Belstaff - having taken to Instagram earlier on Sunday to share a video of her boarding her plane.

Low-key: Sporting all black, it was her clear and glowing complexion that stole the show - accentuated with hardly a scrap of cosmetics to highlight her striking natural beauty to all

Popping out from behind her seat, the Heavy star could not contain her excitement as she flashed a huge grin to the camera, beneath a black and white filter.

Clearly excited for the week ahead, she captioned the clip: 'Tokyo here we come  @belstaff @jamesbrowncreatives'

Liv appears to have headed to Japan alone - leaving her fiance Dave Gardner as well as their two children, Sailor, 2, and nine-month-old daughter Lula Rose, behind.

Let's go! Liv appears to be visiting the city with British clothing brand Belstaff - having taken to Instagram earlier on Sunday to share a video of her excitedly boarding her plane (above)

Liv recently gushed to Hello! that she was thrilled to have welcomed her first girl after two boys, admitting: 'It is so sweet.

'Every time I've gone into a children's store for the last 11 years I have to turn away from the girls stuff and go straight to the boys, I always think: "oh I want that so bad!"'

Despite only giving birth nine months ago however, the star has already returned to her acting duties - as she is currently filming new period drama Gunpowder.

Starring alongside Kit Harrington, the brunette will play Ann Vaux in the drama following Guy Fawkes' plan to blow up the House of Lords and kill King James I in the early 17th century.
She gave birth to her second child, son Montague George Hector Horner, just three months ago.

But former Spice Girl Geri Horner looked sensational as she flaunted her lithe post-baby body poolside on Saturday in a retro chic one-piece, which she posted to social media.

The 44-year-old auburn-haired stunner posed during a pool break ahead of Sunday's Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain with her husband Christian Horner and their children.

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Enviable frame: Former Spice Girl Geri Horner, 44, looked sensational as she flaunted her lithe post-baby body poolside in Bahrain on Saturday in a retro chic one-piece

Her husband is the Team Principal of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, a position he has held since 2005.

Geri, who is also mum to daughter Bluebell Madonna, ten, from her previous relationship with screenwriter Sacha Gervasi, exuded glamour in the snap.

She opted for a swimsuit which sculpted her trim figure and flared out at her waist - giving her a fun and flirty look.

The new mum looked confident and relaxed and shunned even a slick of make-up as she shielded her features with a large straw hat.

Geri captioned the enviable getaway photo: 'COME ON IT'S SATURDAY!

Stunning: It is not the first time this week that the flame haired beauty, who brought Monty into the world on January 21, has showed off her yoga-honed figure

And it it not the first time this week that the flame haired beauty, who brought Monty into the world on January 21, has showed off her yoga-honed figure.

The star, who shot to international superstardom while known as Ginger Spice in the iconic nineties girl band, took to Instagram in a blue one-piece on Thursday.

Beaming for the snap, which saw baby Monty in a swimming baby suit and a matching hat, she wrote in the caption: 'Monty's first dip!'

Dressing her little one in a complementary baby grow, both mum and son posed in the Middle Eastern sunshine against clear sea and a clean, sandy beach.

The former Spice Girl said yoga helped her, both mentally and to keep physically fit during her pregnancy.

Geri told The Times last year that she was grateful to be having Monty and was not going to be 'fanatic' about losing weight after giving birth- despite gaining weight during pregnancy.

She said: 'Trust me, I can still moan like the rest of them, but equally, I remind myself every day that this is an absolute gift.'

Realistic: Geri told The Times last year that she was grateful to be having Monty and was not going to be 'fanatic' about losing weight after giving birth- despite gaining weight during pregnancy

'This time I gained more weight physically, but this time the baby was bigger, I think. During pregnancy you never know if it's cake or baby!'

In January, Geri took to Twitter to announce the exciting news of her new arrival to her fans.

'Christian and I are delighted to announce our baby boy was born this morning weighing 7lbs 8oz', she tweeted.
Jennifer Garner filed for divorce from Ben Affleck this week after 12 years of marriage.

Despite just making their split official, the parents-of-three still teamed up to celebrate Easter with their kids.

On Sunday, the 44-year-old actor and his former spouse were seen arriving at the same Los Angeles church separately but spotted leaving together as one happy family.

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Cooperative co-parents: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner celebrated Easter Sunday together, both attending church with their kids after arriving separately. The family outing comes just days after the estranged couple filed divorce papers

Ben and Jen both donned big smiles as they arrived at the religious service.

Jennifer was dressed in her Sunday finest, looking lovely in a blue polka dot frock and nude heels while delicately pinning her hair behind her ears.

The Dallas Buyer's Club actress waved to greet fellow parishioners while carrying a handsome grey purse and personal copy of the Bible.

Sunday best: Jen looked darling in a spotted blue frock and nude heels, greeting fellow church goers as she helped her son Samuel from their car

Holidays as a family: The Academy Award winning actor and soon-to-be ex wife celebrated Easter as a family. In addition to attending church together, the family also gathered for dinner at their Pacific Palisades home

She ushered she and Ben's youngest child Sam, five, from the car before heading into the service.

Ben arrived on his own, looking significantly more casual than his former spouse.

The Academy Award winner sported a thick layer of salt and pepper stubble and hid behind aviator glasses.

Low-key: Ben was significantly more casual than the family, sporting a tee shirt and jeans to mass

Making it work: The former couple appeared to be getting along great, leaving church together while smiling and chatting

The Gone Girl actor went casual in jeans while throwing on a grey jacket to dress up his outfit just enough for church.

After the service, the whole family headed out together.

It looked like the Hollywood co-parents were getting along great, chatting happily as they left the church with their kids in tow.

Chit chat: The duo made pleasant conversation while chaperoning their kids

Personal touch: The 44-year-old actress carried a chic quilted purse and her personal copy of the Bible into the Easter church service

'Business as usual': A source close to the Texas-born beauty said she 'seems fine' following the split and that it's 'business as usual' around the Garner-Affleck household

In addition to attending church together, the family is reportedly enjoying 'an Easter celebration as a family' at their Pacific Palisades mansion later on Sunday.

A source close to the star said that Jen is dealing with the split well, telling People that the star 'seems fine' and that 'its been business as usual' for the actress.

Thursday People confirmed the actors filed divorce documents and that the duo are both seeking joint custody of their kids Violet, 11, Seraphina, eight, and Samuel.

Child's play: Jennifer and Ben share three kids, daughters Violet and Seraphina, 11 and eight, in addition to their son Sam, who is five (pictured above)

Finalizing things: The Daredevil actress and former co-star filed for divorce on Thursday, almost two years after separating

The couple's legal split comes nearly two years after the pair announced they were separating in 2015.

Even following their separation, the duo continued to share their Los Angeles abode, with Ben staying at the guest house on the same property.

'For now, they are all living together. One thing they agree on  the kids will stay at the family house,' explained a source.

'Jen and Ben will focus on making things as smoothly as possible for the kids. Its all about whats best for them.'

Plenty to smile about: Later on Sunday, Jennifer headed to Soho House in Malibu to celebrate her 46th birthday with a group of girlfriends

Happy go lucky: The mother-of-three was beaming from ear-to-ear as she made her way home from the private members' club with a group of gal pals

Birthday girl: Jennifer was grinning as one of her friends embraced her outside
Maigret's Night At The Crossroads

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Colombia

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On the face of it, Inspector Maigret is not a natural hero for our politically correct times.

In his all-male police station, with his implacable belief that a good womans place is in the home, he is the most anachronistic figure on television today.

Add the fact that he exists in a miasma of tobacco smoke, and its a surprise that the Corbynistas havent tried to get Maigret banned for hate crimes.

Rowan Atkinson (pictured) is growing into the role of Maigret, and the third outing is easily his best yet

The fact that hes still sleuthing, nearly 70 years since his first TV appearance, is proof that great characters and gripping stories transcend the right-on fads changing from one decade to the next.

This years fashions for unisex loos and gender-neutral gibberish like mx and ze will soon fade away, but Maigret will still be on screen, puffing his pipe and catching criminals.

Maigrets Night At The Crossroads (ITV) is Rowan Atkinsons third outing as the Parisian policeman, and easily his best yet. He is growing into the role  though not physically, because the actor is too slight to fill the gabardine raincoat of previous Maigrets such as Michael Gambon or Rupert Davies.

Atkinson conveys a different sort of weight, as if he is loaded down with sadness. He moves with a stolid sway, unhurried and obdurate like a man who has seen it all many times as he tramps the city streets.

DIRTY TALK OF THE WEEKEND Tardis traveller Bill (Pearl Mackie) boasted about perving on other girls in Doctor Who (BBC1), now screened at 7.20pm. What revolting language for a Saturday teatime. How does any parent explain that to young viewers? Advertisement

This was one of the earliest stories featuring novelist Georges Simenons detective, and the first to be filmed, for French cinemas in 1932. All the classic ingredients of a Maigret tale are in place, especially his understanding of the human mind, so deep that it sometimes seems like intuition.

Theres a cynical prostitute, too, something Simenon was very keen on. Mia Jexen played her as a cunning vixen who liked men to think she was simple.

Tricking the clients into doing what she wanted was easy, she told Maigret, as she confessed her secret: All men want to be significant  its what unites you.

Whats a chap supposed to say to that? Theres no way to answer without pleading guilty to galloping egomania. Wisely, Maigret remained silent.

With Maigret's implacable belief that a good womans place is in the home, he is the most anachronistic figure on television today

The original novel is bafflingly convoluted, and this version did an excellent job of untangling it, though that did involve a lot of rapid phone conversations as the policemen explained plot twists to each other.

The real pleasure was not the whodunnit but the faded architecture and grimy decor that perfectly conveyed post-war Paris and its seedy criminal underworld. Lucy Cohu was especially good as Madame Maigret, who is too often seen as a saintly drudge at the kitchen sink: here, she was her husbands intellectual equal and the source of his strength.

Atkinson is notorious for walking away from his best-loved roles, including Mr Bean and Blackadder, before tiring of them. Lets hope he sticks with Maigret for a few years, because hes really getting inside his skin.

Simon Reeve tried to take us deeper into Latin America than most tourist guides permit, in Colombia (BBC2).

But the country has been ravaged by decades of violence and he couldnt resist playing the war reporter.

In the BBC's Colombia Simon Reeve (pictured) can't resist playing the war reporter

When paramilitary police raided an illegal gold mine and blew up a JCB, Simon was shouting, Incoming! Incoming! as lumps of metal shot up into the air. The cops just looked at him wearily.

When he wasnt being a drama llama, there was lots to see, from the picturesque Caribbean coastline to the cable car riding above the Medellin slums.

Less showing off, please, and more sightseeing.
She rose to fame as a glamour model, but is now a devoted mother to five children.

However Katie Price proved she's still as fierce as ever on Sunday, as she stripped to just her lingerie for a sizzling selfie during her Easter celebrations at home.

The 38-year-old showed off her tanned and toned pins in nothing but a slouchy jumper and playful briefs - but it was the mess in her kitchen that instead caught the attention of fans.

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Model material: Katie Price proved she's still 'got it' on Sunday, as she stripped to just her lingerie for a sizzling selfie during her Easter celebrations at home

The TV personality displayed her enviably svelte legs and bronzed skin from recent trip to the Maldives as she posed in nothing but a pair of girl boxers - printed with vibrant pink cupcakes.

Keeping all attention on her leggy figure, Katie added a slouchy slogan jumper on top, which reflected her relaxed mood by reading: 'Coffee Sunday afternoon'.

Pulling her hair into a messy up-do and flashing a killer pout, the star displayed her clear skin and sun-kissed complexion as she stretched for the camera - clearly enjoying a low-key Easter weekend at home.

Stealing the spotlight: However, despite putting on a titillating display in her skimpy ensemble, it was the photo's background which caught attention

Happy to be spending a relaxed day with her children, she captioned the sexy snap: 'Sunday vibes top'

However, despite putting on a titillating display in her skimpy ensemble, it was the photo's background which caught attention.

Fans immediately took to the comments section to note the 'mess' in her kitchen - with a bucket, water bottle, book and slipper seen strewn across the floor.

One wrote: 'That mess would drive me nuts!' while another added: 'How many of you zoomed in?'

Divided: Fans immediately took to the comments section to note the 'mess' in her kitchen - but others defended her, stating the paraphernalia simply made her 'normal'

However other loyal followers were quick to defend her as a working mother - noting the paraphernalia in the background simply meant she was 'normal'.

One commented: 'I love that her house is always a tip! Katie keepin' it real as always' as another agreed: 'Love this! She's so normal a slipper on the floor toys scattered about!'

A further passionate follower went on to defend her in light of her critics, stating: 'For everyone commenting about her house... wow. She has kids. What's a bit of mess? Doesn't really matter doe sit! Her kids are happy and looked after.'

Standing her ground: Katie's sexy knicker selfie comes after she defended Instagram snaps posted of her daughter Princess, nine, during their holiday to the Maldives

Katie's sexy knicker selfie comes after she defended Instagram snaps posted of her daughter Princess, nine, during their holiday to the Maldives.

The photographs caused controversy after her followers suggested the youngster was posing 'provocatively'.

However Katie hit back at the claims last week, explaining on Loose Women: 'People say theyre too sexy.

'[I]f I said "Dont pose like that, its too sexy," she wouldnt know what I meant, because she doesnt know what sexy is.'

Mixed opinions: The photographs caused controversy after her followers suggested the youngster was posing 'provocatively'

Poking fun, she added: 'She's just learnt from the best. The people saying she looks sexy, they should think about themselves.'

After sharing snaps of Princess in bikinis and later a kaftan, Katie had been accused of over-sexualising her daughter.

However, some fans took to social media to defend Katie, with one writing: 'Omg young girls copy off their mam's, big sisters , aunties and celebrities. [sic]

'I constantly see my friends children pose and pout for pictures it's what little girls do...'
USA's Steve Johnson (pictured) rallied for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over top-seeded compatriot Jack Sock to set up a title clash with Thomaz Bellucci, at the ATP clay court tournament in Houston, Texas, on April 15, 2017

Steve Johnson rallied for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over top-seeded Jack Sock on Saturday to set up a title clash with Thomaz Bellucci in the ATP clay court tournament in Houston, Texas.

Johnson, the fourth seed, came back from a break down in the third set to claim a second career win against Sock.

"Any time you can play on a Sunday in a tournament, it's a good week," Johnson said. "It's my first final on US soil ... It's fun to get a chance to try to win something on home soil."

Johnson will be seeking a second career ATP title when he takes on eighth-seeded Brazilian Bellucci.

Bellucci downed American Ernesto Escobedo 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, winning his fourth straight three-set match.

"It's tough to play three sets every day. I didn't have one day off," said Bellucci, who is in his first final of 2017 and the eighth of his career.

He admitted he was a bit surprised to find himself challenging for a fifth career ATP title.

"I didn't expect to play this well because I came Sunday night," said Bellucci, who didn't face a break point in the third set. "I just practised once before the first round."
North Korea has reiterated its constant refrain that it is ready for "war" with the US and its army vowed a "merciless" response to any US provocation

The US Defense Department confirmed on Saturday that North Korea appeared to have fired a missile, and said the launch failed "almost immediately."

"US Pacific Command detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at 11:21 am Hawaii time (2121 GMT) April 15," said Dave Benham, a spokesman with the US Pacific command.

"The launch of the ballistic missile occurred near Sinpo. The missile blew up almost immediately," Benham said.

"US Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security," he said.

President Donald Trump was briefed on the development, amid sky-high US-North Korean tensions.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said in a statement: "The president and his military team are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."

Meanwhile, aides to Vice President Mike Pence, who was en route to South Korea and due to arrive in Seoul early Sunday, said he also had been briefed about the missile launch and was in contact with the president.

The launch came the same day that North Korea's weapons of war rolled through Pyongyang streets as leader Kim Jong-Un mounted a spectacular show of strength on the 105th anniversary of the country's founder, after threats by Trump warning the reclusive nation against a missile launch.

The nuclear-armed state is under United Nations sanctions over its weapons program.

It nevertheless has carried out five nuclear tests -- two of them last year -- and multiple missile launches, one of which saw several rockets land in waters provocatively close to Japan last month.

As tensions worsened between Washington and Pyongyang in recent days, Trump ordered a strike group headed by the USS Carl Vinson supercarrier to the Korean peninsula in a show of force against Kim.
Iraqi forces have been clashing with Islamic State group fighters in the old city of Mosul

Iraqi forces made major gains in the six months since launching the operation to retake Mosul, but the battle for Iraq's second city and the war against the Islamic State group are far from over.

Tough close-quarters fighting in heavily-populated areas of Mosul is still ahead, and IS also holds territory in other parts of Iraq, as well as in neighbouring Syria.

The jihadists will still be able to carry out attacks in Iraq even if they no longer control significant territory, while the impact of the war -- widespread displacement of civilians, cities and towns devastated by the fighting, countless lives disrupted -- will last long after the fighting ends.

Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition supporting them "are nearing the end of the operation to recapture Mosul," said Patrick Martin, Iraq analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.

But "the final neighbourhoods will be the most difficult to recapture, especially the Old City and the remaining neighbourhoods in northwestern Mosul," Martin said.

Progress in the Old City -- a warren of closely-spaced buildings and narrow streets where hundreds of thousands of civilians are thought to reside -- has been difficult and slow.

"You cannot get vehicles in there, so it's gotta be a dismounted operation," Brigadier General Rick Uribe, a senior coalition commander, said of the Old City.

Iraqi forces launched the Mosul operation in October

That "makes it very difficult for any offensive manoeuvre in there, but it makes it very easy to defend," Uribe said.

"Sometimes, 50 metres (yards) is a great day," he said of the Iraqi advance.

Iraqi forces launched the Mosul operation in October, moving toward the city from the south, west and north before assaulting its eastern side, which was recaptured earlier this year.

Two special forces units -- the Counter-Terrorism Service and the Rapid Response Division -- have spearheaded the fighting inside Mosul, while soldiers and police have also taken part.

- Lasting IS threat -

Iraqi Kurdish forces were involved in the initial days of the operation but stopped short of the city, while pro-government paramilitary forces were tasked with moving on the IS-held town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul.

After retaking east Mosul, Iraqi forces set their sights on the far side of the Tigris River, which divides the city.

The impact of the war will last long after the fighting ends

The battle for west Mosul -- which was launched in mid-February -- has taken a heavy toll on civilians, with hundreds killed or wounded in the fighting, and more than 200,000 displaced.

The coalition has said it "probably" played a role in civilian casualties in Mosul, while residents have been caught up in fighting between Iraqi forces and IS, and the jihadists are intentionally attacking civilians in the city.

Losing Mosul would be a major blow to IS, but would not mark the end of the war against the jihadists.

"Just because we're done in Mosul doesn't mean that Daesh is done in Iraq," Uribe said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"There's still another significant number of areas within Iraq that will... need to be cleared of Daesh, and... the Iraqi security forces are getting themselves ready for that eventuality -- they know that it's coming," he said.

"We will not leave any area under the control of the terrorist organisation," Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command, said at a recent news conference.

- Thousands displaced -

IS holds territory in Iraq's Kirkuk province, as well as areas west of Mosul, and in western Anbar province, and also controls territory including the city of Raqa in Syria.

Losing these areas would still not eliminate the threat of bombings and hit-and-run attacks by the jihadists.

Iraqi "successes in Mosul obscure how (IS) has successfully been resurging in other provinces in Iraq," Martin said.

The jihadists have "reconstituted attack capabilities in Diyala and central Salaheddin," he said, referring to provinces where Iraqi forces had largely reasserted control after heavy fighting earlier in the war against IS.

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced because of the war

The end of the battle for Mosul will also leave Iraq struggling with thorny political issues including control of recaptured territory in the north that is claimed by both the country's autonomous Kurdish region and its federal government.

And Iraq will still be contending with the effects of the war -- citizens killed, wounded or missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, houses, shops and infrastructure wrecked, children years behind in school -- for years to come.
Salt miners in Ethiopia's Danakil Depression say investors and tourists could soon end their traditional way of life

Every morning, hundreds of men converge on a dry lakebed in a remote corner of Ethiopia, where they cleave the ground open with handaxes to extract salt, just as their fathers and grandfathers once did.

They toil under the gaze of a caravan of camels who will carry their salt bricks to market, in a trek that historians estimate has gone on since the 6th century.

But with the Ethiopian government opening the isolated northern region to investors and tourists by cutting new roads through surrounding mountains, the labourers, traders and caravan drivers that make up the industry say their traditional way of life could soon be lost.

"If it continues like this, it will stop our work," miner Musa Idris said as he stood on the cracked earth that fringes Lake Asale, where the miners work amid temperatures that can reach 50 degrees C (122 degrees F), making it one of the world's hottest places.

Salt mining was once so vital to the economy of the depression that the seven-kilogramme chunks of salt Idris and his colleagues hack from the ground were used as currency.

While the trade is still important, it is no longer the only game in town.

- Tourism moves in -

Camel caravans have carried blocks of salt mined by hand from Ethiopia's Danakil Depression to markets since the sixth century

Restaurants and hotels have sprung up in the area, also known as the Danakil depression, to cater to tourists who come from across the globe to visit the uniquely desolate landscape formed by the intersection of three tectonic plates.

The region has also attracted foreign firms that want to mine potash and send it to Asia.

The presence of salt in the area has not escaped the attention of mining companies.

A handful of kilometres away from where Idris and his colleagues gather, an Ethiopian company has built a plant that sucks water from the lake into evaporation ponds, creating salt the miners say is of a better quality but costs more than the square blocks they mine from the lakebed.

"The traditional way is quite different from ours. That one takes more toil and time," evaporation plant manger Maheri Asgedew said of the manual way of mining.

Asgedew predicts that his plant, which only recently went into operation, would one day be the main supplier of salt in the area.

- From camels to trucks -

Salt mining was once so vital to the economy of Ethiopia's Danakil Depression area the seven-kilogramme chunks of salt hacked from the ground were used as currency

Perhaps no development has impacted the traditional salt industry like the new roads.

Ethiopia is Africa's second most populous country and one of the continent's best-performing economies, with growth reaching nearly 10 percent in 2015.

The government has made projects such as dams and road-building a priority as part of its strategy to end the poverty that afflicts around one in three of its citizens.

Getting the salt-laden camels from Lake Asale to the nearest city Mekele used to be a four-day trek down rock-strewn gullies.

Now, the caravans terminate in Berhale, the region's main salt trading outpost which road builders connected to Mekele by tarmac about five years ago.

The journey takes only three days, an improvement that some of the camel drivers and labourers who help offload the salt bricks have welcomed, but which others worry is a sign that technology will soon put them all out of business.

Getting salt-laden camels from Lake Asale to the nearest city Mekele used to take four days, but now caravans end at Berhale, connected to Mekele by tarmac five years ago

About 5,000 blocks of salt arrive each day at a trading post situated on a dry riverbed at the edge of Berhale, from which they are loaded onto trucks that take them as far away as neighbouring Kenya, said Ahmed Ali Ahmed, the deputy of an association of salt miners.

"The road has brought a lot of change, because we can easily transport salt to Mekele," Ahmed told AFP.

Ahmed is hopeful that, some day, they won't need to use camels at all.

"We hope there will be something like cars," he said.

- 'We don't have anything else' -

The Lake Asale miners like Idris have also grown tired of the industry's backbreaking labour and low wages, despite its long history in the area.

"We have no water and sometimes we eat bad food," said Musa, whose daily pay of 500 birr ($22, 21 euros) affords him a house in Hamed Ela, a ramshackle settlement of huts near the salt fields.

"If technology comes and changes it, it would be better."

But others embrace the traditional way. For them, it's simply the family business.

"We see this as our farmland, so we don't have anything else but this," miner Indris Ibrahim said. "My children and grandchildren will hopefully mine in this area."
Smoke billows from the site of a suicide car bombing in Rashidin, west of Aleppo, that targeted buses carrying Syrian evacuees on April 15, 2017

Nearly 70 children were among those killed when a suicide car bombing tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, a monitor said on Sunday.

Saturday's blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.

At least 68 children were among the 126 people killed in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead.

At least 109 of the dead were evacuees, the Britain-based monitoring group said, while the rest were aid workers and rebels guarding the convoy.

The evacuations were taking place under a deal between Syria's regime and rebels that is also seeing residents and rebels transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus that are surrounded by pro-government forces.

The agreement is the latest in a string of evacuation deals, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad says are the best way to end the violence after more than six years of civil war.

More than 30,000 people are set for evacuation under the deal brokered by rebel backer Qatar and regime ally Iran

Rebels say they amount to forced relocations after years of bombardment and crippling sieges.

Body parts and the belongings of evacuees -- including clothes, dishes and even televisions -- were still strewn at the scene of the attack Sunday, an AFP correspondent said.

The shattered buses were nearby as was the shell of a pick-up truck -- with little left but its engine block -- that was apparently used to carry out the bombing.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, though the key Ahrar al-Sham rebel group denied any involvement. The government blamed "terrorists" -- a catch-all term for its opponents.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to monitor the conflict, said hundreds of people were also wounded in the blast.

- 'People crying and shouting' -

It said a petrol station at the transit point was caught up in the explosion, adding to the number of victims.

The Syrian Red Crescent said three of its workers were among the wounded.

Syrians, evacuated from the besieged government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya, arrive in Jibrin on the eastern outskirts of Aleppo late on April 15, 2017

Maysa al-Aswad, a 30-year-old evacuee from Kafraya, said she was sitting on one bus with her six-month-old son Hadi and 10-year-old daughter Narjis when the blast shook the parked convoy.

"Hadi was on my lap and Narjis on a chair next to me. When the explosion happened I hugged them both and we fell to the floor," she told AFP by telephone from near Aleppo.

"I didn't know what was happening, all I could hear was people crying and shouting," she said.

"All I can think about is how we survived all the death during the last few years and then could have died just after we finally escaped."

More than 5,000 people left Fuaa and Kafraya and about 2,200 left Madaya and Zabadani on Friday, the latest in a series of evacuations from the four towns under the agreement.

The evacuation process resumed after the bombing, the Observatory said, with the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya eventually arriving in Aleppo, Syria's second city which the government gained full control of last year.

Wounded survivors, including many children, were taken for treatment at an Aleppo hospital.

- 'Monstrous, cowardly attack' -

Syrians, evacuated from the besieged government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya, arrive in Jibrin on April 15, 2017

UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien condemned the bombing, saying: "The perpetrators of such a monstrous and cowardly attack displayed a shameless disregard for human life."

Pope Francis also urged an end to the war in Syria as he presided over the traditional Easter mass in Rome.

He said he hoped that Jesus Christ's sacrifice might help bring "comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death".

The residents and rebels from Madaya and Zabadani arrived late Saturday in rebel-held territory in Idlib province, where they were greeted with embraces and shots fired into the air.

It was not immediately clear whether further evacuations were taking place on Sunday.

The evacuation deal was brokered by Qatar, a longtime supporter of Syrian opposition forces, and Iran, a key regime ally.

Another 3,000 civilians and fighters should be evacuated from Fuaa and Kafraya, and 150 rebels from Zabadani, to complete a first wave of evacuations under the deal, the Observatory said.

A second phase of evacuations from the government-held towns is expected in a few months' time, it said.

Syria's war has killed more than 320,000 people since erupting in 2011, with more than half the population forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands trapped under siege.
Easter Day is when Christians remember the resurrection of Jesus just days after he was crucified

Pope Francis urged an end to "horror and death" in Syria and implored God to bring peace to the Middle East as he delivered the traditional Easter Day mass in Rome on Sunday.

The Easter mass, the highlight of the Christian calendar began under a cloudy sky where worshippers had gathered since the early hours to gain access amid tight security.

After a short bout of heavy rain, the pontiff gave his traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing, to the city and the world, in which he prayed for those suffering from war, famine and political unrest, highlighting Syria, but also Ukraine and conflict zones in Africa.

He expressed hope that Jesus' own sacrifice might "sustain the efforts of all those actively engaged in bringing comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death."

And he prayed for peace "beginning with the Holy Land, as well as in Iraq and Yemen."

He also spoke out against the hostilities and famine in Africa, notably in South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo "who endure continuing hostilities, aggravated by the grave famine affecting" parts of Africa.

The pope prayed for those suffering in Syria and across the Middle East, recalling Jesus' suffering on the cross

He further urged world leaders to hear the message of peace as they contend with "the complex and often dramatic situations of todays world," and to work "to prevent the spread of conflicts and to put a halt to the arms trade."

Without mentioning Venezuela by name, Pope Francis also alluded to political and social tensions in Latin America, expressing the hope that the "common good of societies" would prevail.

"May it be possible for bridges of dialogue to be built, by continuing to fight the scourge of corruption and to seek viable and peaceful solutions to disputes, for progress and the strengthening of democratic institutions in complete respect for the rule of law," he said.

- Bloody start to Holy Week -

Turning his attention to eastern Europe, he asked that "the Good Shepherd come to the aid of Ukraine, still beset by conflict and bloodshed."

Of the social and political upheaval in Europe, Francis prayed for God's blessing on "those experiencing moments of crisis and difficulty, especially due to high unemployment, particularly among young people."

The mass followed his Good Friday prayer in which he deplored the suffering of migrants, the victims of racism and the persecution of Christians around the world.

Easter week got off to a bloody start last Sunday when 45 people were killed in attacks on two Coptic churches in Egypt which were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Many worshippers had gathered outside since the early hours to ensure a place at the mass

The entire area around St Peter's Basilica was blocked off, with only several access points for those admitted after having their bags inspected.

Access to St Peter's Square itself was only possible after security checks similar to those at airports. Hundreds of police and security forces stood guard.

Sunday also saw Francis' retired predecessor Pope Benedict XVI turn 90, marked by a quiet celebration at the restored convent where he lives within the Vatican grounds.

"There will doubtless be something on the menu to mark his birthday," former Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters last week.

Benedict's brother will join a small group of old friends on Monday for a birthday party at which they will celebrate with a few "Bavarian songs," Benedict's personal secretary Georg Gaenswein told Italian media.

"He will see his brother Georg, which will be the best present for him," he said.

To mark the occasion, the Vatican stamp and coin office has released a series of stamps marking important events in the two millennia history of the church.

Benedict stepped down in 2013 citing his increased frailty. He was the first pontiff to do so in 600 years.
Philippines Marines take part in a beach landing as part of the 11-day "Balikatan" (shoulder-to-shoulder) annual joint US and Philippine military exercises at San Jose airport in Antique province, central Philippines on April 11, 2016

The Philippine military said Sunday it would hold annual exercises with US troops next month, reaffirming its commitment to the alliance despite cooling relations under President Rodrigo Duterte.

The 10-day exercises will be the first held under Duterte, who has suggested cancelling the drills and called for the withdrawal of American troops, putting into question Manila's 70-year-old alliance with Washington as he looks instead to court China.

The outspoken Filipino leader, who has earned international censure for a war on drugs that has seen thousands killed, has since softened his stance on working with the US military.

The annual military exercises, known as Balikatan (Shoulder-to-Shoulder), will now go ahead in May, focusing on counter-terrorism and disaster response as the Philippines battles Islamic militants in their lawless southern strongholds.

"It will be scenario-based like (preparing for) a big storm hitting the Philippines or the possibility of terrorism," Balikatan spokesman Major Celeste Frank Sayson told AFP.

"We are safe to say there will be no more live-fire exercises. We (will) focus on humanitarian and civil assistance."

In previous years Balikatan had evolved from counter-terrorism manoeuvres against Islamic militants to simulations of protecting or retaking territory, as a dispute with Beijing over islands in the South China Sea escalated.

But Duterte, who took office last year, has sought improved relations with China and has set aside the maritime row in favour of economic concessions.

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had said the exercises would refocus on fighting terrorism, which he described as the Philippines' top security problem.

The Philippines is battling Islamic militants and pirates in the conflict-torn south, where several groups have pledged allegiance to Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.

Security forces in the past week clashed with the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group on a popular resort island, the first attack on a key Philippine tourist destination in recent years.
US-Egyptian charity worker Aya Hejazi looks on the from the defendent's cage during her trial in Cairo on April 16, 2017

A court in Cairo on Sunday acquitted a US-Egyptian charity worker imprisoned for nearly three years in a case that drew alarm from Washington and international rights groups.

Supporters broke into applause as the judge announced that Aya Hejazi, her husband Mohamed Hassanein and six others were found not guilty on charges including human trafficking, sexually exploiting children and failure to properly register a non-governmental organisation.

Hejazi, who co-founded a charity which helps Cairo street children, was arrested in May 2014 and has been in jail pending the outcome of the trial.

She and her co-defendants denied the charges and rights groups raised concerns they were not being allowed a fair trial.

Hejazi's supporters say she was targeted at a time when authorities were cracking down on civil society groups and protests, trying to paint protesters as paid agents of foreign entities.

Reunited in the courtroom's cage shortly before the verdict was read, Hejazi and Hassanein embraced and he kissed her forehead, both of them smiling as they chatted while waiting for the judge.

When the verdict was read, supporters jumped up and cheered. The defendants sang as they left the courthouse for a prison vehicle that was to take them back for their final days in detention.

Taher Aboelnasr, Hejazi's lawyer, said the prosecution could appeal the verdict but that would not prevent the defendants' release, which he said should happen this week.

The verdict "must be implemented," Aboelnasr told reporters, adding that the defendants would be released "probably on Tuesday or Wednesday".

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom after the verdict, Hejazi's mother Naglaa Hosny said she was thrilled for her daughter and son-in-law.

"We want to give them another wedding," she said.

Hejazi's mother said the couple was considering starting another charity but that she hoped they would instead go back to school.

"Right before she got arrested, she had applied for the American University in Cairo and was accepted" into a community psychology programme, Hosny said.

"She really wanted to work with street kids and the communities which produce the street kids," said Hosny.

The mother of US-Egyptian charity worker Aya Hejazi celebrates outside the court after her daughter, who was accused of human trafficking and exploitation of children, was aquitted on April 16, 2017

The case caused widespread concern, with Human Rights Watch last month calling the trial "nothing less than a travesty of justice".

"Defendants have been unable to meet privately with lawyers, hearings have been repeatedly adjourned for long periods, while the court has routinely rejected, without explanation, numerous requests for release on bail, resulting in what appears to amount to arbitrary detention," HRW deputy Middle East and North Africa Joe Stork said at the time.

A senior White House official told reporters ahead of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's Washington visit last month that administration officials would raise Hejazi's case during the trip.

The prosecution alleged that children were sexually abused at the offices of the Belady Foundation, which Hejazi co-founded with her husband in 2013.

The defence argued that evidence may have been tampered with and several prosecution witnesses later recanted their testimonies.
US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster arrives at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on March 16, 2017

An international consensus that includes China has now emerged that North Korea's "threatening behavior" cannot go on, the US national security adviser said Sunday.

Speaking after North Korea's latest -- and apparently failed -- missile test, H.R. McMaster said, "I think there's an international consensus now, including -- including the Chinese and the Chinese leadership -- that this is a situation that just can't continue."

Speaking from Afghanistan on ABC, he made a point of stating several times that China -- North Korea's key ally -- is now concerned about the reclusive communist state's behavior.

McMaster said President Donald Trump has made clear he will not allow the nuclear-armed Pyongyang regime to put the US and its regional allies under threat.

The consensus including China is "that this problem is coming to a head. And so its time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully," McMaster said.

Trump turned to Twitter over the weekend to underscore the key importance of cooperation with China on the Korean problem.

Having blasted Beijing throughout his presidential campaign for unfairly manipulating its currency, he tweeted Sunday: "Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!"

In his ABC interview, McMaster said that Trump had directed US military, diplomatic and intelligence officials to provide him with options -- in concertation with regional allies including China -- that could be used "if the North Korea regime refuses to denuclearize."

He called North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un "a threat to all people in the region, and globally as well," but cautioned that Trump "is clearly comfortable making tough decisions."

A White House foreign policy adviser, briefing reporters on the plane carrying US Vice President Mike Pence to Seoul, was asked what steps China had committed to when President Xi Jinping met recently with Trump in Florida. The briefer noted that China had already turned back ships bearing coal from the North.

"There were a number of steps that were discussed down in Mar-a-Lago between President Xi and President Trump," the briefer said, referring to Trump's Florida resort, adding that the rejection of Pyongyang's coal was a "good first step."
Protestors take part in the "Tax March" to call on US President Donald Trump to release his tax records on April 15, 2017 in Washington, DC

US President Donald Trump on Sunday hit back at nationwide protests calling for him to release his tax returns, questioning "who paid for" the "small" rallies.

"Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!" the president tweeted Sunday morning.

That message came about an hour after an earlier tweet when he appeared to suggest the matter was a non-issue.

Trump has previously said Americans don't care about his returns.

Protestors take part in the "Tax March" to call on US President Donald Trump to release his tax records on April 15, 2017 in Washington, DC

"I did what was almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?" Trump tweeted.

His messages came after thousands of protesters gathered Saturday in cities across America to pressure Trump to release his tax returns, a move of transparency he has repeatedly rejected.

The demonstrations were timed to coincide with the traditional April 15 deadline for annual tax filings, a key date on the calendar for US households, and resulted in dozens of arrests.

For decades, US presidents and presidential candidates have released their returns voluntarily, although there is no legal obligation to do so.

US law requires only the publication of a financial statement that estimates assets, including debt and revenue, but does not give details on the amount of taxes paid.

Mike Stutz dressed as a Russian general stands beside a giant Trump chicken as he joins protestors taking part in the "Tax March" to call on US President Donald Trump to release his tax records in Los Angeles, California on April 15, 2017

Trump, a billionaire property tycoon, released a financial statement but has kept his tax returns private, both during the election campaign and since taking office in January.

He argues that he cannot release them because he is being audited. But tax officials have said he can in fact release them if he so wishes.

Trump has on at least two previous occasions accused demonstrators of being paid to protest against him.

"Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" he wrote on February 3 during protests against his executive order on immigration.
A picture taken on April 16, 2017, shows the damage a day after a suicide car bombing in Rashidin targeted buses carrying Syrians evacuated from the besieged government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya

Nearly 70 children were among those killed when a suicide car bombing tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, a monitor said on Sunday.

Saturday's blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.

At least 68 children were among the 126 people killed in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead.

At least 109 of the dead were evacuees, the Britain-based monitoring group said, while the rest were aid workers and rebels guarding the convoy.

The evacuations were taking place under a deal between Syria's regime and rebels that is also seeing residents and rebels transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus that are surrounded by pro-government forces.

The agreement is the latest in a string of evacuation deals, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad says are the best way to end the violence after more than six years of civil war.

Rebels say they amount to forced relocations after years of bombardment and crippling sieges.

Body parts and the belongings of evacuees -- including clothes, dishes and even televisions -- were still strewn at the scene of the attack Sunday, an AFP correspondent said.

The shattered buses were nearby as was the shell of a pick-up truck -- with little left but its engine block -- that was apparently used to carry out the bombing.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, though the key Ahrar al-Sham rebel group denied any involvement. The government blamed "terrorists" -- a catch-all term for its opponents.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to monitor the conflict, said hundreds of people were also wounded in the blast.

- 'People crying and shouting' -

It said a petrol station at the transit point was caught up in the explosion, adding to the number of victims.

The Syrian Red Crescent said three of its workers were among the wounded.

Maysa al-Aswad, a 30-year-old evacuee from Kafraya, said she was sitting on one bus with her six-month-old son Hadi and 10-year-old daughter Narjis when the blast shook the parked convoy.

"Hadi was on my lap and Narjis on a chair next to me. When the explosion happened I hugged them both and we fell to the floor," she told AFP by telephone from near Aleppo.

"I didn't know what was happening, all I could hear was people crying and shouting," she said.

"All I can think about is how we survived all the death during the last few years and then could have died just after we finally escaped."

More than 5,000 people left Fuaa and Kafraya and about 2,200 left Madaya and Zabadani on Friday.

The evacuation process resumed after the bombing, the Observatory said, with the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya eventually arriving in Aleppo, Syria's second city which the government gained full control of last year.

Wounded survivors, including many children, were taken for treatment at an Aleppo hospital.

- 'Monstrous, cowardly attack' -

UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien condemned the bombing, saying: "The perpetrators of such a monstrous and cowardly attack displayed a shameless disregard for human life."

Pope Francis also urged an end to the war in Syria as he presided over the traditional Easter mass in Rome.

The residents and rebels from Madaya and Zabadani arrived late Saturday in rebel-held territory in Idlib province, where they were greeted with embraces and shots fired into the air.

It was not immediately clear whether further evacuations were taking place on Sunday.

The evacuation deal was brokered by Qatar, a longtime supporter of Syrian opposition forces, and Iran, a key regime ally.

Another 3,000 civilians and fighters should be evacuated from Fuaa and Kafraya, and 150 rebels from Zabadani, to complete a first wave of evacuations under the deal, the Observatory said.

A second phase of evacuations from the government-held towns is expected in a few months' time, it said.

Syria's war has killed more than 320,000 people since erupting in 2011, with more than half the population forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands trapped under siege.

On Sunday, regime troops retook the town of Suran in central Syria, thus regaining all territory they had lost to rebels and their jihadist allies in Hama province in an assault on March 21.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) speaking next to his wife Asma in the capital Damascus on March 21, 2016

UK lawmakers are calling on the government to strip Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's wife of her British citizenship, for supporting her husband's regime during the country's ongoing war.

The Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, MP Tom Brake, on Sunday accused Assad of using her international profile to defend "a barbarous regime".

"(Foreign Secretary) Boris Johnson has urged other countries to do more about Syria, but the British government could say to Asma Al-Assad -- either stop using your position to defend barbaric acts, or be stripped of your citizenship," Brake said.

His remarks follow Johnson branding the Syrian president an "arch-terrorist", in a Sunday Telegraph newspaper article calling on Syria ally Russia to end its support for Bashar al-Assad.

Brake's comments echoed those of MP Nadhim Zahawi, from the ruling Conservative Party.

"The time has come where we go after (Bashar) Assad in every which way, including people like Mrs Assad, who is very much part of the propaganda machine that is committing war crimes," he was quoted in the Sunday Times newspaper as saying.

Once hailed as a progressive rights advocate, Assad has fallen from international grace during Syria's ongoing war which has killed more than 320,000 people since erupting in 2011.

The 41-year-old, who is believed to hold joint British-Syrian nationality, has stood by her husband's side in his rare public appearances, posing for selfies with supporters in photos posted to the presidency's Instagram account.

The couple's marriage was announced six months after he assumed the country's leadership in July 2000. They had met at a party hosted by the British Syrian community in London.

Assad's ongoing support for her husband allows Britain to deprive her of her UK citizenship, according to the Liberal Democrats, which served in an uneasy five-year coalition government with the Conservative Party until 2015.

"If Asma continues defending the Assad regime's murderous actions, the onus will be on the UK Government to deprive her of her citizenship or demonstrate that her actions are not seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the United Kingdom," said Brake.

He is due to write to Home Secretary Amber Rudd outlining the view of the Liberal Democrats, which holds nine seats in British parliament.

The home office would not comment on whether the government would take action against Assad, who previously worked as an analyst for Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan.

"The Government takes its duty to protect the British public exceptionally seriously.

"We cannot discuss individual cases but the Home Secretary can deprive individuals of their citizenship where it is conducive to the public good to do so," a spokesman told AFP.
Nationwide manhunt for suspected "Facebook killer"

US authorities launched a nationwide manhunt Monday for a gunman who shot and killed an elderly man, and then posted a video of the seemingly random attack on Facebook.

Police in Cleveland, Ohio working on the case with help from investigators at the FBI and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), have offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Steve Stephens, the accused shooter.

Stephens, 37, of Cleveland, Ohio, who was described as armed and dangerous, was also placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list, a designation officials hope will help raise public awareness about the case.

The manhunt spread across the region within a few hours after the homicide, with authorities on the alert for Stephens in Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana and Michigan. By midday Monday, the search for the accused murderer had spread nationwide.

"Our reach now is basically all over this country," Cleveland police chief Calvin Williams said at a news conference.

"This is what we would consider a national search."

Stephens is accused of fatally shooting Robert Godwin Sr, 74, who was walking home from Easter dinner on Sunday afternoon, when he was apparently picked out at random.

According to a timeline of events created by police and Facebook, Stephens posted a video on Sunday afternoon saying he intended to kill, and followed up two minutes later with video of the shooting.

- Facebook to undergo review -

In that second video, Godwin is shown with a gun to his head and then falling to the ground after Stephens fires a shot.

In a third video 11 minutes later, streamed live from Stephens's car, he says he intends to kill others.

"I killed 13, so I'm working on 14 as we speak," Stephens said. "I'm just driving around hitting motherfuckers, man. I just snapped man, fuck."

So far, however, police say they are aware of only one shooting victim.

Cleveland police have issued an arrest warrant for Steve Stephens

The incident was the latest disturbing crime captured on Facebook video, including the alleged gang rape of a 15-year-old girl, two fatal shootings, and the kidnapping and torture of a disabled 18-year-old man.

In this instance, Facebook took down Stephens's videos and disabled his account about two hours after he first started uploading.

Justin Osofsky, vice president of global operations for the social media giant, acknowledged in a company blog post, that the delay was too long.

"We know we need to do better," Osofsky said.

"As a result of this terrible series of events, we are reviewing our reporting flows to be sure people can report videos and other material that violates our standards as easily and quickly as possible," he said.

Osofsky said Facebook received the first report about the video depicting the murder more than an hour and 45 minutes after it was posted.

"We received reports about the third video, containing the man's live confession, only after it had ended," he added.

- Police search 'dozens' of locations -

Police issued an arrest warrant for Stephens, described as a six-foot one-inch, 244-pound (1.85 m, 110-kilo) black man with a full beard, who was last seen in a white Ford Fusion with temporary license plates.

Police in Cleveland, Ohio said they believe the suspect, 37-year-old Steve Stephens, is armed and dangerous, and have alerted authorities in four neighboring states to be on the lookout for him

Authorities were assuming he was still with his vehicle more than 24 hours later, and discounted reports that he might be on the run in Pennsylvania.

Stephens's mother told CNN she called him on Sunday after learning about the video, and he told her he was shooting people because he was "mad with his girlfriend."

Police said the woman he referred to was in a safe place.

Cleveland detectives also made contact with Stephens by phone early in the investigation, Williams said.

"They tried to, of course, convince him to turn himself in and, of course, that hasn't happened to date," he said, adding that officers had searched dozens of locations to find the suspect.

"If there's somebody who is helping Steve or think you're helping Steve, you're really not. You're going to get yourself in trouble, along with him," Williams warned.

Stephens worked for Beech Brook, a behavioral health agency serving children through mental health services, foster care and adoption, at-risk youth and other programs.

In his video, Stephens displayed his Beech Brook badge.

"We are shocked and horrified like everyone else," Nancy Kortemeyer, a spokeswoman for the facility told CNN.

"To think that one of our employees could do this is awful."
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Javier Duarte, the former governor of Mexico's Veracruz state who is accused of running a corruption ring to pilfer from state coffers, was detained in Guatemala after six months as a fugitive and high-profile symbol of government corruption in his country.

A statement from Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office said Duarte was detained Saturday with the cooperation of Guatemalan police and the country's Interpol office in the municipality of Panajachel, which is a picturesque tourist town on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala's highlands.

It said he is wanted on suspicion of money laundering and organized crime, and prosecutors directed the Foreign Relations Department to request Duarte's extradition via its Guatemalan counterpart.

In this photo released by the Guatemala National Civil Police (PNC), Mexico's former Veracruz state Gov. Javier Duarte poses for photos escorted by an agent of the Interpol office in Guatemala, left, and a Mexico federal agent at a court room in Panajachel, Guatemala, Saturday, April 15, 2017. Duarte, who is accused of running a corruption ring to pilfer from state coffers, was detained in Guatemala on Saturday. A statement from Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office said Duarte was detained in the municipality of Panajachel, in coordination with Guatemalan police and the local Interpol office. (Guatemala National Civil Police via AP)

A photo released by Guatemalan police showed a bespectacled Duarte, clad in a gray shirt and black jacket-vest, being escorted by Interpol agents.

Manuel Noriega, deputy director of Interpol in Guatemala, said Duarte was located at a hotel where he was staying with his wife. He was asked to leave his room, did so voluntarily and then was arrested without incident in the lobby.

Noriega said Duarte would be presented before a judge to consider his possible extradition.

Duarte, 43, was governor of Veracruz from 2010 until he left office Oct. 12, 2016, two months before the scheduled end of his term, saying he was doing so in order to face the allegations against him.

At the time he denied having links to phantom businesses that allegedly won state contracts, and said he had not stolen a single peso of state money or diverted government funds overseas.

"I don't have foreign accounts," he said last year. "I don't have properties anywhere."

Duarte promptly disappeared and had been sought by Mexican authorities ever since. Earlier this year Interpol issued a notice for his capture.

The Mexican government has found millions of dollars purportedly linked to Duarte, frozen more than 100 bank accounts and also seized property and businesses tied to the former governor. A reward of 15 million pesos ($730,000) had been offered for his capture.

The detention comes a week after Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Mexico's Tamaulipas state, was arrested in Italy, also on allegations of organized crime and money laundering.

Another ex-governor, Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state, is also wanted on suspicion of corruption and is believed to have fled to El Paso, Texas. He is not related to Javier Duarte.

All three ex-governors were members of the ruling Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI, of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The party, which expelled Javier Duarte on Oct. 25, 2016, applauded the arrest and called for punishment for anyone found to have been complicit in the alleged corruption ring.

"The PRI calls for all the relevant investigations to be carried out and, respecting due process, for the ex-governor of Veracruz to be punished in an exemplary fashion, as well as anyone who is confirmed to have taken part in his criminal ring," the party said in a statement.

Duarte became a powerful symbol of alleged corruption during mid-term elections last year in which the PRI lost several governorships, including Veracruz, that it had held uninterrupted since its founding in 1929.

Duarte has also been widely criticized for rampant violence in the state during his administration, as drug cartels warred for territory and thousands of people were killed or disappeared into clandestine graves in cases that mostly remain unsolved. The dead include at least 16 journalists slain in Veracruz during his six years in office.

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Associated Press writer Sonia Perez D. reported from Guatemala City and Peter Orsi reported from Mexico City.

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2016, file photo, the former Governor of Veracruz state, Javier Duarte speaks to reporters as he leaves the Attorney General's headquarters in Mexico City. Mexican authorities say fugitive former Veracruz Gov. Duarte has been detained in Guatemala. A statement from the federal Attorney General's Office late Saturday, April 15, 2017, says Duarte was detained in the Guatemalan municipality of Panajachel, in Solola department. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)
CHICAGO (AP) - Thousands of sign-waving, chanting protesters marched through streets across America demanding that President Donald Trump release his tax returns so the public can examine his business ties and determine whether he has links to foreign powers.

The tax day protests in more than a dozen cities Saturday were largely peaceful, though occasionally demonstrators and some pro-Trump groups taunted each other in face-to-face exchanges.

In Berkeley, California, police arrested at least 20 people after fist fighting erupted at separate unrelated rallies at a park where about 200 people for or against Trump gathered. Officers confiscated knives and makeshift weapons.

Demonstrators hold signs at the during a Tax Day protest in Florence, Ala. Members of Indivisible NW Alabama gathered to voice their request that President Donald Trump release his tax returns. (Allison Carter/The TimesDaily via AP)

The demonstrations came just days before Tuesday's deadline for taxpayers to file their returns. Trump was the first major-party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his tax returns, saying it was because he was under audit. He later said that voters don't care.

But 71-year-old Ilene Singh said he's wrong. She rode a bus from New Jersey to New York City with her friend Geraldine Markowitz, 83, to take part in protests. "We're here to say we care," said Singh.

Pushing her walker, Karin Arlin, 85, a Holocaust survivor who came to the U.S. from Germany when she was 9, said she's also worried about the direction of the country.

"You don't know which way the country goes," said Arlin next to her 89-year-old husband who fled Czechoslovakia during World War II. "I hope Republicans see it."

Protesters in Raleigh, North Carolina, said they suspect that Trump's returns might show he has paid little or nothing to the government he now heads, or that he was indebted to Russian, Chinese or other foreign interests.

"His reputation ... as a businessman and, more importantly, as a true American, a person who is concerned with American values, would be totally destroyed if all his financial information was made public," said Mike Mannshardt, a retired teacher.

One of Trump's sharpest critics in the House spoke to protesters at the U.S. Capitol just before they set off on a march to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, of California, said there's nothing to prevent Trump from releasing his income taxes and that "the simple truth is he's got a lot to hide."

"If he thinks he can get away with playing king, he's got another thought coming," Waters said.

Nancy Traver, of Silver Spring, Maryland, who was at the Washington march said, "Every president, Democratic and Republican for years has showed, has revealed his tax returns, so why shouldn't Trump?"

For four decades, presidents and major party nominees have released some of their tax returns, with the exception of Gerald Ford. Trump's break with precedent has raised questions about possible conflicts of interest.

Democrats are pushing for a vote on a bill from Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat from California, which would require the president and all major-party nominees to publicly disclose their previous three years of tax returns with the Office of Government Ethics or the Federal Election Commission.

Republicans also have rebuffed Democrats' efforts to get the House Ways and Means Committee to act. It has legal authority to obtain confidential tax records, and could vote to make them public.

Many demonstrators said they hoped Saturday's marches would convince Trump to voluntarily release them.

"We do care. We want to see his taxes," said Ann Demerlis, who was among hundreds who marched in Philadelphia from City Hall to an area in front of historic Independence Hall, carrying signs and chanting "We want your taxes now!"

A man in Seattle holds a sign during a rally that calls for President Donald Trump to release his tax returns, so Americans can scrutinize his business ties and potential conflicts of interest, Saturday, April 15, 2017. Trump was the first major-party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his tax returns, saying it was because he was under audit. Similar rallies were held in other U.S. cities as the deadline approaches for 2016 tax returns to be filed. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

A protester holds on to a different version of the American flag during a rally and march in downtown Denver Saturday, April 15, 2017. The rally in Denver was one of dozens in cities nationwide to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns, saying Americans deserve to know about his business ties and potential conflicts of interest. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Protesters carry placards during a rally and march in downtown Denver Saturday, April 15, 2017. The rally in Denver was one of dozens in cities nationwide to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns, saying Americans deserve to know about his business ties and potential conflicts of interest. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

As a speaker talks in the foreground, Rachel Gonzalez, back left, of Boulder, Colo., joins Becky Benedict of Erie, Colo., in waving placards during a rally and march in downtown Denver Saturday, April 15, 2017. The rally in Denver was one of dozens in cities nationwide to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns, saying Americans deserve to know about his business ties and potential conflicts of interest. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Dressed as Uncle Sam, Lawrence Herrera of Los Angeles joins demonstrators protesting President Donald Trump's failure to release his tax returns and a host of other issues during a march and rally in downtown Los Angeles Saturday, April 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Demonstrators protest President Donald Trump's failure to release his tax returns and a host of other issues during a march and rally in downtown Los Angeles Saturday, April 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

A giant inflatable "Chicken Don" is set up by demonstrators protesting President Donald Trump's failure to release his tax returns and a host of other issues during a march and rally in downtown Los Angeles Saturday, April 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Anti and pro-Donald Trump supporters clash during competing demonstrations at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley, Calif., Saturday, April 15, 2017. Protesters took to the streets in dozens of cities nationwide, many calling on Trump to release his tax returns. (Anda Chu/San Jose Mercury News via AP)

Pepper spray is used as anti and pro-Donald Trump protesters clash during competing demonstrations at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley, Calif., Saturday, April 15, 2017. Protesters took to the streets in dozens of cities nationwide, many calling on Trump to release his tax returns. (Anda Chu/San Jose Mercury News via AP)

Demonstrators chant "shame" as they march past Trump Tower during rally to demand President Donald Trump release his tax returns, Saturday, April 15, 2017, in New York. Protesters took to the streets in dozens of cities nationwide Saturday to call on Trump to release his tax returns, saying Americans deserve to know about his business ties and potential conflicts of interest. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Demonstrators carrying rainbow flags participate in a rally to demand President Donald Trump release his tax returns, Saturday, April 15, 2017, in New York. Protesters took to the streets in dozens of cities nationwide Saturday to call on Trump to release his tax returns, saying Americans deserve to know about his business ties and potential conflicts of interest. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Demonstrators participate in a march and rally to demand President Donald Trump release his tax returns, Saturday, April 15, 2017, in New York. Protesters took to the streets in dozens of cities nationwide Saturday to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns, saying Americans deserve to know about his business ties and potential conflicts of interest. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is embarking on a 10-day, four-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific this weekend, arriving in South Korea after a failed missile launch by the North. His visit comes amid tensions over North Korea's aggressive flaunting of its nuclear and missile program.

Pence will visit South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Australia during his trip, meeting with leaders in the region, military troops and business groups. It will be Pence's second foreign trip as vice president - he traveled to Germany and Belgium in February to meet with NATO and European Union officials.

Five things to know about President Donald Trump's No. 2 at the start of his visit:

FILE- In this April 4, 2017, file photo, Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a town hall with business leaders in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington. Pence is set to arrive Sunday, April 16, in South Korea as President Donald Trump vows that North Korea Kim Jong Un's government is a "problem" that will be "taken care of." (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

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ON MESSAGE

If Trump is known for his unpredictability and blunt talk, Pence projects a polite Midwestern humility and is more measured in his speeches, rarely going off-script. Pence's first foreign trip to Europe included steady assurances that the U.S. would honor its commitment to NATO even after Trump said the military alliance was "obsolete." The Republican has doggedly pursued an agreement in Congress to repeal and replace the so-called "Obamacare" health care law, but lawmakers have failed to cut a deal. The vice president was initially out of the loop when former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russia emerged at the start of the administration, even though Flynn had denied those conversations to Pence and others. Pence said he was "disappointed" in Flynn and supported Trump's decision to fire him.

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INDIANA ROOTS

Pence is a former Indiana governor and congressman. He was a prominent conservative member of Congress during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, frequently championing anti-abortion causes and reducing federal spending. He opposed Bush's White House on education and prescription drug plans, arguing that the administration had veered from its conservative principles. He unsuccessfully challenged future House Speaker John Boehner in a leadership election but joined the House Republicans' leadership team two years later. Elected Indiana's governor in 2012, Pence signed a controversial "religious freedom" bill in 2015 that critics said allowed businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians by allowing them to cite religious beliefs as a reason for denying services. After a backlash from corporations, Pence softened the law following criticism that it was discriminatory.

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FAITH AND FAMILY

Pence often describes himself as "a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order." Pence and his wife, Karen, a former elementary school teacher, have been married since 1985 and have three adult children. The couple's son, Michael, is serving as an officer in the U.S. Marines, and their two daughters, Charlotte, a recent college graduate and filmmaker, and Audrey, a college senior, are traveling to Asia with their parents. Pence often speaks of his Christian faith and participated in Bible study groups in Congress. One of the first stops on his itinerary in South Korea will be attending Easter services with U.S. and South Korean troops and their families.

___

ASIA TIES

Pence's late father, Edward, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star on April 15, 1953 - 64 years to the day of Pence's departure for Asia. The vice president displays in his office his father's Bronze Star, commendation letter and a photograph of his father receiving his pin. Indiana has a significant Japanese manufacturing hub and Pence conducted two trade missions to Japan while serving as governor. Toyota, Subaru and Honda all have manufacturing plants in Indiana and Japanese companies employ tens of thousands of workers in the state. Honda's plant in Greensburg, Indiana, is near Pence's hometown of Columbus, Indiana, near Indianapolis. Pence will be making his first visits to South Korea, Indonesia and Australia.

___

TALK RADIO, ART THERAPY

Before serving in Congress, Pence was a conservative radio and television talk show host in Indiana during the 1990s. His shows were not known for a combative style that marked conservative talk radio during the era - Pence liked to call himself "Rush Limbaugh on decaf." Karen Pence is a longtime advocate of art therapy, the use of art in mental health treatment and forms of rehabilitation, and will be attending art therapy events throughout the trip.

___

Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Millions of Orthodox Christians around the world have celebrated Easter in overnight services and with "holy fire" from Jerusalem, commemorating the day followers believe that Jesus was resurrected nearly 2,000 years ago.

This year the Orthodox churches celebrate Easter on the same Sunday that Roman Catholics and Protestants mark the holy festival. The Western Christian church follows the Gregorian calendar, while the Eastern Orthodox uses the older Julian calendar and the two Easters are often weeks apart.

In predominantly Orthodox Romania, Patriarch Daniel urged Christians to bring joy to "orphans, the sick, the elderly the poor ... and the lonely."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko attends an Orthodox Easter service in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, April 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Late Saturday, Orthodox clerics transported the holy flame from Jerusalem by plane and it was then flown to other churches around the country. According to tradition the flame appears each year at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and is taken to other Orthodox countries.

In Russia, where Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion, President Vladimir Putin along with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana attended midnight Mass at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.

The cathedral is a potent symbol of the revival of observant Christianity in Russia after the fall of the officially atheist Soviet Union. It is a reconstruction of the cathedral that was destroyed by explosion under dictator Josef Stalin.

In Serbia, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, held a liturgy in Belgrade's St. Sava Temple which outgoing president Tomislav Nikolic attended.

Irinej said in his Easter message that "with great sadness and pain in our hearts, we must note that today's world is not following the path of resurrection but the road of death and hopelessness." He also lamented the falling birth rate in Serbia as "a reason to cry and weep, but also an alarm."

Irinej evoked Kosovo, Serbia's former province which declared independence in 2008. Hundreds of medieval Orthodox churches and monasteries are located there.

Orthodoxy also is predominant in Greece, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova.

___

AP writers Jovana Gec in Belgade, Serbia, and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

Ukrainian Orthodox faithful light candles from the Holy Fire brought from Jerusalem in St. Volodymyr Cathedral during the ceremony of the Holy Fire in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, April 15, 2017. The Holy Fire ceremony is part of Orthodox Easter rituals and the flame symbolizes the resurrection of Christ in a ceremony dating back to the 12th century. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Ukrainian Orthodox believers attend an Orthodox Easter service in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra church, also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, in the capital city of Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, April 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Ukrainian Orthodox believers attend an Orthodox Easter service in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra church, also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, in the capital city of Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, April 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Ukrainian Orthodox faithful light candles from the Holy Fire brought from Jerusalem in St. Volodymyr Cathedral during the ceremony of the Holy Fire in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, April 15, 2017. The Holy Fire ceremony is part of Orthodox Easter rituals and the flame symbolizes the resurrection of Christ in a ceremony dating back to the 12th century. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Ukrainian Orthodox faithful light candles from the Holy Fire brought from Jerusalem in St. Volodymyr Cathedral during the ceremony of the Holy Fire in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, April 15, 2017. The Holy Fire ceremony is part of Orthodox Easter rituals and the flame symbolizes the resurrection of Christ in a ceremony dating back to the 12th century. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

An Orthodox priest blesses traditional Easter cakes and painted eggs prepared for Easter celebrations in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra church, also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, April 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Ukrainian Orthodox believers attend the Orthodox Easter service in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, April 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, second right, and his wife Maryna Poroshenko, right, attend an Orthodox Easter service in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, April 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Kosovo Serb Orthodox woman holds her baby as other believers hold candles during an Easter vigil mass in the monastery of Gracanica during an Easter service, Kosovo on Sunday, April 16, 2017. Across the world, Orthodox Christians are celebrating Easter, commemorating the day followers believe that Jesus was resurrected more than 2,000 years ago. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

An altar boy holding candles walks with Kosovo Serb Orthodox Bishop Teodosije, right, a nun and pilgrims during an Easter vigil mass in the monastery of Gracanica during an Easter service, Kosovo on Sunday, April 16, 2017. Across the world, Orthodox Christians are celebrating Easter, commemorating the day followers believe that Jesus was resurrected more than 2,000 years ago. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Kosovo Serb rthodox believers attend Easter mass in the monastery of Gracanica during an Easter service, Kosovo Sunday, April 16, 2017. Across the world, Orthodox Christians are celebrating Easter, commemorating the day followers believe that Jesus was resurrected more than 2,000 years ago. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Kosovo Serb Orthodox woman holds her baby during an Easter vigil mass in the monastery of Gracanica during an Easter service, Kosovo Sunday, April 16, 2017. Across the world, Orthodox Christians are celebrating Easter, commemorating the day followers believe that Jesus was resurrected more than 2,000 years ago. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the Easter service in Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, early Sunday, April 16, 2017. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana attend the Easter service in Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, early Sunday, April 16, 2017. (Alexander Astafyev, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, second right, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, left, his wife Svetlana and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin attend the Easter service in Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, early Sunday, April 16, 2017. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
LONDON (AP) - A group of British legislators is urging the government to remove the citizenship of Syrian President Bashar Assad's British-born wife.

Some Liberal Democrats in Parliament sent a letter to Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Sunday, saying Asma Assad should not be able to represent her husband and retain British nationality.

Lawmaker Tom Brake said: "The first lady of Syria has acted not as a private citizen but as a spokesperson for the Syrian presidency."

He said Asma Assad should either stop defending Syria's "barbaric acts" or lose her citizenship.

Britain has called for her husband to leave the presidency and condemned his use of chemical weapons.

Asma Assad was educated in Britain and worked as an investment banker before she married in 2000.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Police in Ohio's capital city appealed Sunday for witnesses to come forward to help them identify suspects in an early morning club shooting that wounded nine people.

An argument erupted into gunfire shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday in the J&R Party Hall, an after-hours venue, Columbus police said. Five females and four males were shot, their ages ranging from 20 to 33. Investigators weren't sure how many people fired shots.

Two people were initially hospitalized in critical condition, but police said Sunday afternoon that none of the wounded had life-threatening injuries.

Police have interviewed victims and other witnesses, but they say they haven't been helpful and some have refused to cooperate.

"This happens too often," a police statement said of the lack of cooperation.

"Dozens were at this gathering," Columbus police said in a Twitter post. "We need people to come forward."

Police said the most seriously injured person was a woman whose condition was improving Sunday. They said they hadn't yet interviewed her.

In another early Sunday morning shooting three weeks ago, Cincinnati police said a dispute escalated into a gun battle inside the Cameo nightclub. Two people died, and 15 others were injured. A man has pleaded not guilty to charges including murder.
BIEL, Switzerland (AP) - Aged just 17, Marketa Vondrousova won her first WTA Tour title on Sunday, beating Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the Biel Ladies Open final.

Vondrousova won her first tour title hours after the 36-year-old Francesca Schiavone was the other WTA tournament winner in Bogota, Colombia.

Schiavone played in WTA events in her native Italy before Vondrousova was born in June 1999.

Marketa Vondrousova of Czech Republic poses with the trophy after winning the final match against Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, at the WTA Ladies Open tennis tournament in Biel, Switzerland, Sunday, April 16, 2017. (Peter Klaunzer/Keystone via AP)

The 233rd-ranked Czech clinched the first edition of the Swiss indoor hard-court tournament when Kontaveit netted a forehand under pressure from another powerful ground stroke.

Vondrousova did not drop a set in the main draw after advancing through three rounds of qualifying. She beat top-seeded fellow Czech Barbora Strykova in the semifinals to reach her first final on tour.

On Sunday, the left-handed Vondrousova overcame double-fault problems on her serve to save 13 of the 14 break-point chances that 99th-ranked Kontaveit had. Vondrousova also saved the two set points she faced in the second-set tiebreaker.

Vondrousova now moves on to play in the United States next weekend. She is in the Czech squad for the defending champion's Fed Cup semifinal against the U.S. at the Saddlebrook Resort, Florida.

Marketa Vondrousova of Czech Republic returns a shot during the final match against Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, at the WTA Ladies Open tennis tournament in Biel, Switzerland, Sunday, April 16, 2017. (Peter Klaunzer/Keystone via AP)

Winner Marketa Vondrousova of Czech Republic, right, and second placed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia pose after the final match, at the WTA Ladies Open tennis tournament in Biel, Switzerland, Sunday, April 16, 2017. (Peter Klaunzer/Keystone via AP)
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - Thousands of Hungarians have taken part in a march remembering the 550,000 Hungarian Jews who died during the Holocaust.

The March of the Living on Sunday was held on Hungary's national Holocaust Memorial Day, which marks the mass detention and deportation of Hungary's Jews in 1944.

Speakers called for tolerance and facing up to the truth.

Participants of the March of the Living, which commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, cross the River Danube on Chain Bridge in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 16, 2017. The annual event marks the 73rd anniversary of the beginning of the Hungarian holocaust, during which some 600 thousand Jewish Hungarians were deported to Nazi death camps. (Bea Kallos/MTI via AP)

Hungarian Jewish writer Gabor Szanto said: "No nation bears collective guilt for the past, but we all have a personal responsibility for the present and the future."

This was the 15th year the march has been held.

Near the end of the event, amateur runner Peter Hajdu began an eight-day run covering 420 kilometers (260 miles) to Auschwitz, Poland. Many of Hungary's Jews who died during the Holocaust perished at the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico's most populous city has plans to install more than $25 million in solar panels on city buildings over the next two years.

The installations in Albuquerque will mark the first phase in fulfilling a recently set goal of generating more of the city's energy from solar power.

Albuquerque City Councilors Pat Davis and Isaac Benton made the announcement Saturday.

They say the project's first phase of the project is expected to save taxpayers about $20 million over 30 years.

City councilors last September passed a resolution calling Albuquerque to generate one quarter of its energy from solar power by 2025.

The first phase of the project will begin later this year.

The project will be financed through the energy savings and federal bond credits.
ISTANBUL (AP) - Rising from humble origins to take the helm of Turkey's government in 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan quickly attracted a fervent following. But Erdogan, who served as prime minister and then president, also became feared and hated by many who saw him as an increasingly autocratic leader seeking to erode the country's secular traditions by imposing his conservative, religious views.

Constitutional changes that would change the country's system of government from parliamentary to presidential - and grant Erdogan even more authority - were narrowly approved by Turkey's voters on Sunday, according to unofficial results from the country's election commission.

The changes, one of the most radical political reforms since the Turkish republic was established in 1923, could see the 63-year-old president remain in power until 2029.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes statements in Istanbul, on Sunday, April 16, 2017. Erdogan declared victory in Sunday's historic referendum that will grant sweeping powers to the presidency, hailing the result as a "historic decision." (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

The vote's outcome reinforced Erdogan's image as a figure both popular and polarizing. While thousands of flag-waving supporters cheered the referendum's approval, political opponents immediately questioned the legitimacy of the balloting and said they intended to challenge a sizeable share of the count.

Erdogan served three consecutive terms as prime minister as head of his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party, before becoming Turkey's first directly elected president in 2014.

Supporters found in him a man who gave a voice to the working- and middle-class religious Turks who long had felt marginalized by the country's Western-leaning elite.

He was seen to have ushered in a period of stability and economic prosperity, building roads, schools, hospitals and airports in previously neglected areas, transforming hitherto backwaters.

"He's a real leadership figure because he is not a politician that comes from the outside. He comes from the street," Birol Akgun, an international relations expert at Ankara's Yildirim Beyazit University, said. "He has 40 years of political experience and is very strong in practical terms."

But with each election win, Erdogan grew more powerful, and, his critics say, more authoritarian.

His election campaigns have been forceful and bitter, with Erdogan lashing out at his opponents, accusing them of endangering the country and even supporting terrorism. After surviving an attempted coup last July, Erdogan launched a wide-ranging crackdown on followers of his former ally, Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Erdogan blames Gulen, who lives in the United States, and his supporters for plotting the coup, an allegation Gulen has denied.

The crackdown saw roughly 100,000 people lose their jobs, including judges, lawyers, teachers, journalists, military officers and police. More than 40,000 people have been arrested and jailed, including pro-Kurdish lawmakers.

Hundreds of non-governmental organizations and news outlets have been shut down, as have many businesses, from schools to fertility clinics.

Erdogan has also blasted European countries, accusing authorities in the Netherlands and Germany of being Nazis for refusing to allow Turkish ministers to campaign for Sunday's referendum among expatriate voters.

His critics fear that if the "yes" vote prevails in the referendum, Erdogan will cement his grip on power within a system that has practically no room for checks and balances, opposition or dissent.

"One person will determine national security policies, according to the constitutional changes. Why one person? What if he makes a mistake? What if he is deceived? What if he is bought?" said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party, during a "no" rally in Ankara Saturday.

"Surrendering the Republic of Turkey to one person is a heavy sin. It's very heavy," Kilicdaroglu continued. "Can there be a state without rights and justice?"

As prime minister, Erdogan garnered support from Turkey's Kurdish minority, which is estimated to make up about one-fifth of the country's population of 80 million people. He eased restrictions on the right to be educated in Kurdish and to give children Kurdish names.

He also oversaw a fragile cease-fire in the fight between the state and Kurdish rebels in the country's southeast, a conflict that has claimed an estimated 40,000 lives since 1984.

But the cease-fire collapsed in 2015, and about 2,000 people have died since then, including nearly 800 members of the security forces. With renewed fighting in the southeastern predominantly Kurdish areas, it is unclear whether Erdogan still would have much support from the Kurdish community.

Erdogan has promised the new presidential system will herald a period of stability and prosperity for Turkey, a country that has suffered several coups in the past few decades.

"He is a harsh leader in character," said Ankara academic Akgun, who used to head a pro-government NGO. "But in Turkey, a country that has so many problems, in societies like ours, the image of strong leadership is necessary to command both fear and respect and trust in society."

FILE - In this Saturday, April 15, 2017 photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves to supporters during the last rally ahead of Sunday's referendum, in Istanbul. Few men can claim to have dominated politics in Turkey - or polarized his people - as much as Erdogan, the 63-year-old president who has urged his nation to approve reforms that will greatly expand his powers. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, file)

FILE - In this Saturday, April 15, 2017 photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves to supporters as he poses with children during the last rally ahead of Sunday's referendum, in Istanbul. Few men can claim to have dominated politics in Turkey - or polarized his people - as much as Erdogan, the 63-year-old president who has urged his nation to approve reforms that will greatly expand his powers. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, file)

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes statements in Istanbul, on Sunday, April 16, 2017. Erdogan declared victory in Sunday's historic referendum that will grant sweeping powers to the presidency, hailing the result as a "historic decision." (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

FILE - In this Saturday, April 15, 2017 photo, supporters of "YES'' campaign stand in front of a giant picture of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they wait his arrival for the last rally ahead of Sunday's referendum, in Istanbu. On Sunday, voters decide whether to approve sweeping constitutional changes that will change the country's system of government from parliamentary to presidential, and grant their president the authority to appoint ministers and government officials, appoint half the members of the country's highest judicial body, issue decrees and declare states of emergency. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

FILE - In this Saturday, April 15, 2017 photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talks to supporters during the last rally ahead of Sunday's referendum, in Istanbul. Few men can claim to have dominated politics in Turkey - or polarized his people - as much as Erdogan, the 63-year-old president who has urged his nation to approve reforms that will greatly expand his powers. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, file)
PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) - President Donald Trump will travel to Wisconsin this week to speak at a local factory.

The White House confirms the president will pay a visit to Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan's home state on Tuesday.

State Rep. Tod Ohnstad told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Trump will visit the Kenosha headquarters of a tool manufacturer named Snap-on.

FILE - In this April 12, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump pauses during a news conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington. Once soft on Russia and hard on China, President Donald Trump rapidly reversed course in the last weeks, concluding there's more business to be done with Beijing than with Moscow. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

It will be the president's first visit to the state since taking office.

The president is also expected to travel to Atlanta on April 28 to speak at the National Rifle Association's annual leadership forum. That's according to the organization.

He pledged during the campaign to fight to protect the Second Amendment and was endorsed by the NRA.
Celebrities have joined thousands of protesters across America to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

This is just the beginning. Today, we marched. Tomorrow, the real fight begins. Say you're in: https://t.co/zUQjYn6laD#TaxMarch pic.twitter.com/eF5OQdmpfU  Unrig Our Economy (@UnrigOurEconomy) April 15, 2017

Organisers said marches took place in about 150 US cities on Saturday, while violent clashes with Trump supporters were reported in Berkeley, California.

What happened at #Berkeley was not a riot or protest. It was an organized alt-right terrorist attack. Sad!. pic.twitter.com/O8GrQOev4m  CAMAN (@subzerov690) April 16, 2017

Mr Trump broke a long-held tradition during his presidential campaign by not revealing his tax history, and later claimed that the public were not interested after he was elected.

A protester holds a sign during a rally that reads "Show us your tax returns, Comrade"

Comedienne Sarah Silverman and Will And Grace actress Debra Messing were among the demonstrators in New York City.

Messing told MSNBC: We know for a fact our current administration has deep links to Russia.

The only way we can know what kind of business ties our president has with businesses all over the world is by looking at his tax returns.

Actress @DebraMessing at Trump #TaxMarchNYC: Mr. Trump, if you have nothing to hide, then please release them. Why not? via @MorganRadford pic.twitter.com/lje11qhcpc  Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) April 15, 2017

I would just say: Mr Trump, if you have nothing to hide then please release them. Why not?

If you release them and youre not hiding anything, the American people can feel rest assured that at least our democracy is protected.

If you care about the American people, you will release your taxes.'

200+ marches



25K people in DC alone



Countless giant chickens



1 @POTUS who now knows: People care about his tax returns!#TaxMarch pic.twitter.com/Ss2UyIDmb3  Unrig Our Economy (@UnrigOurEconomy) April 15, 2017

Two And A Half Men star Jon Cryer and comedian Andy Richter joined thousands of people at a march in Los Angeles.

Cryer tweeted a photo of a placard showing Star Wars villain Darth Vader next to a picture of Mr Trump with the caption Taxi Vader.

Hollywood stars Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo voiced their support for the marchers on social media.

Looks like it's more than just reporters who wanna see your taxes, @realDonaldTrump. Bad news pal, we're not going away. https://t.co/USXNIOB02I  Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) April 15, 2017

Show us the g-damn tax returns! https://t.co/FX14Qw8rUy  Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) April 15, 2017

The rallies were organised to coincide with the time of year that Americans have to submit their annual tax returns.

Police said 13 people were arrested following the violence in Berkeley.
The former governor of the Mexican state of Veracruz who is accused of running a corruption ring has been detained in Guatemala after six months on the run.

Javier Duarte was seen as a high-profile symbol of government corruption in his country.

Mexicos Attorney Generals Office said Duarte was detained on Saturday with the co-operation of Guatemalan police and the countrys Interpol office.

Javier Duarte (Guatemala National Civil Police via AP)

He was in the municipality of Panajachel, which is a picturesque tourist town on Lake Atitlan in Guatemalas highlands.

Duarte was wanted on suspicion of money laundering and organised crime, and prosecutors directed the foreign relations department to request his extradition.

A photo released by Guatemalan police showed a bespectacled Duarte being escorted by Interpol agents.

(Guatemala National Civil Police via AP)

Manuel Noriega, deputy director of Interpol in Guatemala, said Duarte was found at a hotel where he was staying with his wife.

He was asked to leave his room, did so voluntarily and then was arrested without incident in the lobby.

Mr Noriega said Duarte would be taken before a judge to consider his possible extradition.

Duarte, 43, was governor of Veracruz from 2010 until he left office on October 12 2016, two months before the scheduled end of his term.

Javier Duarte

He said he was doing so in order to face the allegations against him.

At the time he denied having links to phantom businesses that allegedly won state contracts, and said he had not stolen a single peso of state money or diverted government funds overseas.

I dont have foreign accounts, he said last year. I dont have properties anywhere.

Duarte promptly disappeared and had been sought by Mexican authorities ever since. Earlier this year Interpol issued a notice for his capture.

The Mexican government has found millions of dollars purportedly linked to Duarte, frozen more than 100 bank accounts and also seized property and businesses tied to the former governor.

A reward of 15 million pesos (583,000) had been offered for his capture.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has called on people to use the principles at the heart of Christianity to overcome societys problems.

In his Easter message, Mr Corbyn said the religions emphasis on peace could not have more urgency around the world than it does today.

The Labour leader has in the past insisted that belief was a private matter, as he denied being an atheist.

As millions mark Easter around the world, its a time to reflect on the challenges we face and what our response should be. pic.twitter.com/zIoeekgnMh  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 16, 2017

Mr Corbyn urged people not to become overwhelmed by domestic and international situations this Easter.

We hear painful stories every day, of homelessness, poverty or crisis in our health service  or across the world, of the devastating consequences of war and conflict, including millions forced to become refugees.

It would be easy to retreat into our private lives because the challenges seem overwhelming, or allow ourselves to be divided and blame others.

Jeremy Corbyn

But we need to respond to these problems head on, through action and support for social justice, peace and reconciliation.

Those principles are at the heart of Christianity. And Christians throughout the world will this weekend be remembering Jesuss example of love and sacrifice, and the Easter message of redemption and peace.

At a time of growing conflict, that message of peace could not have more urgency throughout the world.

Jeremy Corbyn

I meet Christians, and others of all faiths and none, on a daily basis, who share and live those ideals: people who give their time for others, to run food banks, protect the vulnerable, look after the sick, the elderly and our young people.

That spirit of respect for each other, peace and equality is one we can all share. So to all Christians and those of all faiths and none, have a happy and peaceful Easter.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

In an interview with The Huffington Post UK in 2015, Mr Corbyn said: I respect all faiths, I probably spend more time going to religious services than most people, of all types.

I go to synagogues, I go to mosques, I go to temples, I go to churches, and I have many humanistic friends and I have many atheist friends. I respect them all.

Pressed on whether it was inaccurate to describe him as an atheist, the Labour leader said: There are so many things about me written that are unfair, unjust and ill-searched that it would be wrong. Im not going any further than that, belief is a private thing.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said people must bring restoration and hope to a world where evil still exists.

The Most Rev Justin Welby told his Easter Sunday congregation at Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, that in the face of pain and despair, grief and death people should remember the words Do not be afraid.

He referred to the attacks in Egypt which killed more than 40 people in churches in Alexandria and Tanta last week.

The Archbishop of Canterbury said people must bring "restoration and hope" to a world where "evil" still exists in his sermon on Easter Sunday

He said in his sermon: Everything we are and own and see is to be lived, and held and understood through the resurrection.

But be under no illusion, this is utterly counter to how the world runs itself, and so we live in the now of a world in which the resurrection has happened, and the not yet of a world where there is still evil.

Christians in Egypt live surrounded by bombs and terror. We and those we love know the grim, grey moments of illness, suffering, arguments, poverty, ill health mental and physical, prison, guilt and failure.

We experience a world of pain and despair, grief and death. But the words Jesus says on that first Easter day he says to you and me now; Do not be afraid.

Hope has beaten despair.

Light has beaten darkness.

Life has beaten death forever.

All because Christ is Risen! #Easter #EasterDay pic.twitter.com/JzhpKixQYl  Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) April 16, 2017

These things overshadow our lives because we fear they may have the last word. These things lie, they deceive, they pretend to have power that they do not have, when they say they are final.

There is only one finality, Jesus the crucified one is alive. In the hard journeys we all face, in every moment of loss, the community of witnesses to the resurrection must come alongside and, with love and gentleness, bring restoration and hope.

The Archbishop also said: We are used to facts being contested. We are even used to facts being reduced to the level of opinion. So individualised are our news cycles that our opinions are in themselves the only facts that seem to count.

However, what brings the faithful out to worship in Tanta and Alexandria is truth. It happened. The resurrection is an event which - although never experienced before or since - changes everything because it happened.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has branded Russia a super villain in Syria as he told Moscow it still has time to be on the right side of the argument in the conflict.

Mr Johnson, who was widely attacked for failing to get the G7 to back his bid for new sanctions against senior Russian and Syrian figures in the aftermath of the chemical weapons attack on civilians in Idlib province, continued to criticise Vladimir Putins stance.

The Foreign Secretary called on Russia to change course in Syria, asking if the country wanted to be part of a league of super villains.

Boris Johnson said Bashar Assad is is 'literally and metaphorically toxic'

We need to show the Russians the horrific nature of the regime they are backing in terms they cannot fail to understand. This is in fact an opportunity for Russia.

Moscow has reached the high point of its influence in Syria. They still have innumerable rebel groups to subdue, and they find themselves in a league of super villains with Hizbollah and Assad. Is that what they want? he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Johnson also branded Syrian president Bashar Assad an arch terrorist.

Boris Johnson

Assad uses chemical weapons because they are not only horrible and indiscriminate. They are also terrifying.

In that sense he is himself an arch-terrorist, who has caused such an unquenchable thirst for revenge that he can never hope to govern his population again.

He is literally and metaphorically toxic, and it is time Russia awoke to that fact. They still have time to be on the right side of the argument.

A Syrian woman rests in a hospital in Reyhanli, Turkey

The Foreign Secretary insisted it was highly likely Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons atrocity as Mr Johnson insisted America could of course strike again.

British scientists have analysed samples from the victims of the attack. These have tested positive for Sarin or a Sarin-like substance.

The UK, the US and all our key allies are of one mind: we believe that this was highly likely to be an attack by Assad, on his own people, using poison gas weapons that were banned almost 100 years ago, under the 1925 Geneva protocol.
Teenage qualifier Marketa Vondrousova completed a dream week by winning her first WTA Tour title at the Ladies Open Biel Bienne in Switzerland.

The 17-year-old Czech, playing in just her second main tour event, did not drop a set in five main-draw matches and clinched the title with a 6-4 7-6 (8/6) victory over Anett Kontaveit.

SHE'S DONE IT!



17 year-old Qualifier Marketa Vondrousova captures her FIRST #WTA Title at @WTABielBienne!



Edges Kontaveit 6-4, 7-6(6)! pic.twitter.com/ABNuafCoOV  wta (@WTA) April 16, 2017

Both were surprise finalists in a season of huge unpredictability on the WTA Tour, with Vondrousova ranked down at 233 and Estonian Kontaveit 99.

Marketa Vondrousova poses with the trophy

Vondrousova, who knocked out top seed Barbora Strycova in the semi-finals, did not have things all her own way, with her serve often under pressure. But she saved 13 of the 14 break points she faced before proving just the stronger in the second-set tie-break.
Teachers are on the verge of voting to boycott key primary school tests amid concerns over the pressure it puts on pupils.

Delegates at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference in Cardiff will on Monday look to pass a resolution to support and promote a parent boycott of the 2017 national curriculum tests for primary school children, known as Sats.

They will also vote to ballot members over a protest against all primary school tests for the 2017/18 school year.

The motion was listed for consideration on Sunday, but conference delegates  all of whom spoke in favour of action  ran out of time.

Tantric stuff at #NUT17. Spent all morning waiting for the boycott SATs vote, only to have it postponed to tomorrow at last moment.  Ryan Hooper (@RyanJHooper) April 16, 2017

It forced the rest of the debate  and the crucial vote  to be postponed by a day, although delegates did have time to vote in favour of an internal ballot of NUT primary members over a boycott.

Speaking for the resolution, teacher Benjamin Guy, from Nottinghamshire, said: We have been here before, time and time again.

We must show the Government and parents that we are willing to take actual, tangible action to oppose destructive, fundamentally broken testing. The time for consideration is over.

The NUT will vote to ballot members over a protest against all primary school tests for the 2017/18 school year

We have to stand tall and actually produce something to protect the mental health of our students from the excessive pressure of these demoralising and destructive Sats tests.

It comes just weeks after the Government announced plans to scrap national curriculum tests for seven-year-olds.

Any vote in favour of the boycott would mirror that of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, where members at its annual conference in Liverpool this month voted for similar action.

The unions are to merge later this year.

Kevin Courtney, NUT general secretary, said: What I heard this morning was teachers giving you their professional assessment of what the assessment system is doing in schools. They want a change.

Many of them also said teachers arent against testing  they were speaking in favour of a positive alternative.

They were saying a boycott would be a completely defensible, moral position to take to stop this happening to our children  and theyre right to think that.

Last year 47% of primary school pupils in England failed to meet the new required standard in reading, writing and maths, Sats data showed.

Last spring, there was a parent-led campaign to keep children off school during Sats week, with organisers arguing that there is more focus on testing, results and league tables than childrens happiness.

A Department for Education statement said: We want a long-term, stable and proportionate system for primary assessment that measures the progress that children make throughout their time at primary school fairly and accurately, one that recognises teachers professionalism in assessing their pupils, and which does not impose a disproportionate burden.

We have worked with the teaching profession on how best to establish this and we are currently consulting on a number of proposals.
WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - White House national security adviser H. R. McMaster said on Sunday it was time for tough talks with Russia over its support for Syria's government and its "subversive" actions in Europe.

Speaking on ABC News' "This Week" program, McMaster said Russia's backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government has perpetuated a civil war and created a crisis that has bled over into Iraq, neighboring countries and Europe.

"So Russia's support for that kind of horrible regime, that is a party to that kind of a conflict, is something that has to be drawn into question as well as Russia's subversive actions in Europe," McMaster said. "And so I think it's time though, now, to have those tough discussions Russia."

The United States early this month bombed a Syrian air base in reaction to what Washington said was a nerve gas attack by the Assad government that killed at least 70 people in rebel-held territory.

Syria denies it carried out the attack and Russia has warned that the cruise missile strikes could have "extremely serious" consequences. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Moscow last week as tensions grew.

"Well, when relations are at the lowest point, there's nowhere to go but up. So I think the secretary's visit to Russia was perfectly timed," McMaster said.

A January U.S. intelligence report on Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election said that Russia also has sought to influence elections across Europe.

Current and former U.S. official and analysts say Moscow has targeted elections in France, Germany and elsewhere through a combination of propaganda, cyber hacking, funding of candidates and other means with the overall goal of weakening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the trans-Atlantic alliance. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani and Warren Strobel; Editing by Richard Chang)
By Sofia Menchu

GUATEMALA CITY, April 16 (Reuters) - A former Mexican state governor on the run from police for more than five months who has come to symbolize corruption within the country's ruling party was arrested on Saturday night in Guatemala and now awaits extradition.

Javier Duarte, wanted on charges of graft and organized crime, was detained in a hotel lobby in the picturesque lakeside town of Panajachel, 80 miles (130 km) west of Guatemala's capital, the national police said in a statement.

Local television footage showed a calm Duarte, formerly governor of Veracruz state, being led by police outside the hotel on Saturday night, his hands cuffed behind his back.

Duarte, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, was at the hotel for a couple of days using an assumed identity along with his wife; she has not been charged with any crimes.

"He wanted to pass as a Mexican tourist," said Stu Velasco, deputy director of Guatemala's national police.

Duarte likely entered Guatemala by land sometime in early November, and used private planes within Guatemala while on the run, said Omar Garcia, chief of criminal investigations within Mexico's attorney general's office, at a Sunday news conference at the Mexican embassy in Guatemala.

He declined to detail Duarte's travels in the Central American country, or who was helping him, but said he had kept a low profile in Panajachel.

"He didn't leave his hotel room," said Garcia.

Duarte, 43, was transferred early on Sunday to the Matamoros prison in downtown Guatemala City, a facility known for holding drug traffickers and former Guatemalan government officials charged with corruption.

Rodrigo Sandoval, a Guatemalan lawyer representing Duarte, visited him at the prison later on Sunday morning.

"I had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Duarte, and he says he's waiting for his extradition and for his lawyers in Mexico. My understanding is that he will accept extradition," said Sandoval.

Agriculture and oil-rich Veracruz, on Mexico's Gulf coast, is one of Mexico's largest states, and it has historically been a stronghold of President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Elected governor in 2010, Duarte presided over a sharp deterioration in security in the state punctuated by the discovery of mass graves and a spate of killings of journalists during his watch.

He has been accused of carrying out massive personal enrichment schemes with illicit resources, potentially totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars and involving assets in Mexico and abroad.

Duarte is charged with using ghost companies to transfer and hide public funds.

Once seen as a rising young star within the PRI, Duarte was expelled from its ranks in October as accusations of graft mounted.

He resigned as governor that same month, a few weeks before his six-year term was due to end.

In June, Miguel Angel Yunes of the opposition National Action Party won a hotly contested race to succeed Duarte in a stinging defeat for the PRI, long the political party of the state's governors.

"He plundered our state, and left us in a financial disaster," said Yunes at a news conference in Boca del Rio near Veracruz city, celebrating the arrest.

Yunes said 1.2 billion pesos ($65 million) had been recovered from Duarte's illicit diversion of public funds and added that "billions of pesos" still remain in the possession of Duarte family members, former officials and criminals who posed as businessmen.

Several of Duarte's top cabinet officials have been arrested on corruption charges, while others are being investigated. ($1 = 18.4977 Mexican pesos) (Additional reporting by Dave Graham, Anahi Rama and David Alire Garcia; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Bill Rigby)
A cigar-manufacturing plant in Co Roscommon, Ireland will close in May and move its operations to Sri Lanka with a loss of 38 jobs for the town of Ballaghaderreen in Co Roscommon, The Irish Times reported on Friday.

It was reported that the company is moving its operations to an existing plant in Sri Lanka in order to rationalise the business and save on wage costs.

Exclusive Cigar Manufacturers Ireland (ECMI) opened in 1978 under the name Villager and has been a large local employer since.

The business was sold to a large Belgian tobacco company called J Cortes in January of this year.

A statement on the J Cortes website published on January 18th says: ECMI has shown considerable volume growth and will benefit from the expertise and size of J. Cortes.

However, in a press release issued on Thursday, the company said it was beginning a consultation process with employee representatives before issuing redundancy notifications on May 15.

The purpose of the consultation process is to explore any alternatives to the proposed closure of the factory potentially resulting in a redundancy of all 38 employees of ECMI Ltd, the statement said.
A mobile store on Dien Bien Phu Street, Hanoi,

removed the half-eaten apple logo on its banner. (Photo: VNA)



A manager of a mobile store on Thai Ha Street, Hanoi told Viet Nam News that even though signs with the logo were attractive, they would change and remove the logo as it belonged to Apple and was protected.

A store owner on Xa Dan Street also said that his store respected the rights of Apple. Even though the logo makes it easy for buyers to recognise that our store is selling Apple products, we will repair our shop banners soon because it is the trademark of Apple.

However, he said that there would be other ways to make buyers realise the store sold Apple products such as writing iPhone or iPad in Vietnamese like ai phon, ai pat or using photos.

Apple Incs legal representative in Vietnam, VOTRA Co Ltd, recently sent documents to Vietnamese phone stores on their illegal use of the brands trademark without Apples permission.

The Apple legal representatives mentioned stores using the half-eaten apple logo, trademarks Apple, iPhone or other names such as Apple Store, App Store, iPad, iPod and MacBook, which are protected in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese representative of the US technology company requested the stores stop using Apples trademark within seven days of receiving the letter. VOTRA also asked the stores to stop selling fake products under the Apple brand name.

Apple has increased its presence in Vietnam since the end of 2015 when it opened an office in HCM City. In 2016, Apple hired VOTRA as its legal representative.

Nguyen Ngoc Duy My from attorney office TriLaw in HCM City told news website ndh.vn that under Article 123 of Vietnams Law on Intellectual Property 2005, trademark owners had the right to use, allow or prevent others from using their trademark.

"Because of these rights, if Apple does not give written permission to allow others (in this case Vietnamese stores) to use its trademark, these stores do not have the right to use them, said My.

My also noted that just because a store sold Apple products did not mean they could use Apples trademark without written consent.

In term of fines, the lawyer said shops could be fined from VND500,000 (USD22) to VND250 million (USD11,000) depending on the level of their violation, business scale and commodity value.

Violators could also receive other punishments such as business suspension from one to three months, material confiscation, or be forced to destroy the infringing goods, she added./.
As Sri Lankans enjoyed the festive season last week, from policy makers to media personalities voicing thoughts of optimism, about reconciling, peace, communal harmony the week saw a major shakeup in the global security situation. The aftermath of Trumps tomahawk strikes on Syria shook the already fragile global security kaleidoscope, leaving pieces in a flux.



How they settle down seems to be a puzzle no one is capable of responding. The North Korean Leader in his New Year address of 2017 promised to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) to hit American targets by the end of the year. The recent escalation of tensions between the United States and North Korea is unfolding as a fast developing threat concern for all Asians and Pacific states.

The American military has suddenly started flexing its muscles in ways that many did not anticipate in a Trump era. President Trump seems to be shedding his pre election promises and positions at light speed. Many were of the view; his transformation is unprecedented for any president. Analysts called it the death of America first policy and a rebirth of neo conservative interventionism which operates at a global level but with no real consultation with any global partner or forum.

With a US carrier group heading closer to North Korea, and its leader threatening a nuclear attack on any adversary, Asias security concerns seem to be intensifying. America helmed by a leadership that is leaving a scorched earth policy in dealing with enemies and North Korea with a leader displaying clear signs of power consolidation from using assassins to take out political rivals to executions of family members who threaten his authority.

Trump did a U turn on his fiscal allegations on China, which were also a key campaign promise and a key feature in his very concisely articulated foreign policy. He earlier called China a currency manipulator and last week decided to ditch that line of thinking. He also did a complete u turn on his statements on NATO during the presidential campaign calling the post world war II alliance as obsolete; again last week he debunked this view of the alliance. Sri Lankans are used to politicians flip-flopping, it has been a mainstay of policy statements and promises that has become common sense knowledge of being not followed up but we had not witnessed advanced democracies with leaders in such manifestations

North Korean under Kim Jung Un, the grandson bearing Kim il Sungs legacy seems to be unleashing all sorts of aggressions from ordering a sequence of nuclear missile tests, unveiling new rocket engines and even unveiling planned cities and keeping up with the rhetoric of challenging his adversaries saying that he will use nuclear warfare as a deterrent.

"During Chinese President Xi Jingpins visit to the United States, the Americans have managed to get his consent on possible use of force against North Korea, as the Chinese leader himself had felt all other efforts seem to have not worked"



There was a key underreported fact during the transition period in the United States following Trumps electoral win. By late November 2016 President Obama highlighted his administrations concern about the fledging nuclear program of North Korea and its increasing capabilities to hit United States and many other states across the Asia pacific. Obama was clear when he told Trump that by late 2016 the North Korean nuclear threat constituted the top national security priority of the United States. This revelation also marks the failure of the Obama administrations non-military efforts such as sanctions against North Korea and its own coming to terms about the need for a military response.

President Trump has also been upping the rhetoric on North Korean since becoming President along with his key cabinet members. Trumps recent tweet North Korea is looking for trouble could have been ignored till two weeks ago. But since his cruise missile strike on Syria and then last week when Trump authorized what international media reported as the mother of all bombs to be dropped in Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar in Afghanistan targeting a tunnel network used by Islamic State militants stunned security analysts.The bomb is the second largest non-nuclear bomb in the US military inventory called GB 43B which packs 11 tons of explosives and is what the military calls a thermobaric incendiary weapon.

"Trump did a U turn on his fiscal allegations on China, which were also a key campaign promise and a key feature in his very concisely articulated foreign policy"



Meanwhile, Kim unveiled an ultra modern housing development project in Pyongyang along the Ryo Myong street, a lane apart from where the mausoleum for Kims grandfather Kim Il-Sung and father Kim Jong-Il lie. This was a build up to April 15th the 105th death anniversary of Kims grandfather the founder of modern North Korea. Kim staged a massive military display, where he promised to respond to any military aggression in kind. The news reaching from the American side is that during Chinese President Xi Jingpins visit to the United States, the Americans have managed to get his consent on possible use of force against North Korea, as the Chinese leader himself had felt all other efforts seem to have not worked. It is still hard to accept that China would be a part of any military strike on North Korea given the fall out it would have on China and the region.

The immediate effect will be on South Korea, any military engagement that North Korea is involved in will have a significant impact on South Korea which is going through a lengthy internal political crisis of its own. Ever since the impeached president Park Geun Hyes suspension last year, and following political and economic turmoil in South Korea with the arrests of Jay Y. Lee the vice president of Korean electronics giant Samsung and its apparent heir, analysts claim that the North Koreans managed to use this instability to their own advantage.

"The bomb is the second largest non-nuclear bomb in the US military inventory called GB 43B which packs 11 tons of explosives and is what the military calls a thermobaric incendiary weapon"



Sri Lankas strategic security posture did consider the nuclear armed rivalry between India and Pakistan, yet the nuclear weapons themselves played a similar role like in the cold war to keep the peace between the two rivals. Thus our concerns of fallout from a nuclear conflict have been minimal. The current tensions between Korea and the United States fall outside of the strategic calculus of military nuclear deterrence. Both countries are endowed with political leadership that seems to give less regard to global norms, governance procedures of international security strategies. Sri Lanka strategic policies, forums and security interests have been around the Indian Ocean region security concerns.

Whilst the Indian Pacific ocean systems are now considered by India, United States and China as a strategic zone the fallout from military especially nuclear tensions needs to be addressed by our own policy makers, think tanks and the highest political leadership. Our basic nontraditional security consensus is still in a flux with dengue outbreaks, viral flu, drought management which are in essence national security concerns managed with a lack of strategic insight.

One can ask what if there is a nuclear war, or even a non nuclear military conflict in Asia Pacific how will Sri Lanka react? How we will deal with the aftershocks with the security or strategic calculus that we have? To end a column with a question mark may not be prudent but these are real issues to ponder after a heavy and lengthy festive break.



The writer is the Director, Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS)
he National New Years day and Good Friday Meethotamulla mayhem or massacre reminds us of callous disregard or irresponsibility regarding the peoples lives by political authorities and other decision making bodies in Sri Lanka. It was not once or twice that alarm bells in Meethotamulla rang for those in power but repeatedly from the day garbage dumping was started there. Once the residents pleaded for the protection of their childrens education as the school near the garbage dump was filled with flies and skin diseases were spreading. It was reported that bad odour and health hazards made it difficult if not impossible for the children to study there. Then again they cried out as the health of the residents was being badly affected. Little or nothing was done, despite the availability of modern digital technology, until the death bell rang for 26 innocent people including children with about 20 more still feared dead and about 60 still missing and feared to be stuck in the rubble.

Now that the deadly man-made catastrophe has taken place, various public institutions are trying to pass the responsibility to the other. The authorities also claim that the people had been warned to leave the area and some were given Rs.15,000 a month as compensation. However this is contradicted by many residents.



Yet given the previous experiences of natural disasters in the past and how the government responded to them, it is not a surprise that people did not take seriously the promises of those in power. We know how the then government behaved after the countrys worst ever natural disaster, the Tsunami in 2004. There were people who were homeless even after ten years and even today there are those affected but were not properly compensated. The same story was repeated in 2014, when a tragic landslide took place at Koslanda in Meeriyabedda. The disaster claimed the lives of more than 30 people. The tragic landslide followed three consecutive days of rain, pushing houses about 300 meters from their original positions. Today, many of those victims are still displaced.

Immediately after this natural disaster, the whole nation grieved with the victims, who had to wait for days to see if their loved ones would be the next to be recovered by rescue teams. The political authorities promised the poverty-stricken survivors who lost the little they had, that they would be helped by providing them with new houses. But this was also a broken promise.

Then came the devastating landslide at Aranayake hill in Kegalle in May last year. The tragedy killed 127 people and many of those displaced still continue to languish in temporary camps in different degrees of degradation and destitution.

Adding to the list was the Salawa armoury blast that took place just one month after the Aranayaka tragedy. Most of the displaced and otherwise affected people are yet to receive compensation as promised by the government.



In such an unpredictable and untrustworthy backdrop, it is natural that the Meethotamulla people would not trust the promises of any government and leave their homes with their lifes savings and belongings. It was not that these people built their houses close to a garbage dumb but thousands of tons of garbage was dumped around them.

The worst is that politicians from major political parties protested with these people over the past few years and some were even elected to Parliament or Provincial councils. But they continue to betray their voters. News reports indicate that some politicians who tried to go to the scene after the disaster were hooted and people have openly warned that no politicians should visit the area.

Overall in the court of the sovereign people, most people would return the verdict that the former government and the present government were directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of about 20 people and those missing or feared dead. President Maithripala Sirisena is reported to have decided to intervene personally and the dumping of garbage at Meethotamulla has been stopped with immediate effect. The President reportedly has plans to destroy about 500 tons of this garbage daily. But the President, as the Minister of Environmental Affairs should have been fully aware of the possible catastrophe and we hope at least now the government will realise that care and concern for the peoples urgent needs should be given priority.
Security at three major international airports in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai has been stepped up after agencies were informed about a possible hijack attempt of an aircraft from these facilities.

Officials said a high alert warning has been issued to the three facilities after the Mumbai police received an e-mail on Saturday night from a woman living there.

The e-mail mentions that the woman overheard six boys talking about a possible aircraft hijack attempt at these facilities, they said.

The Mumbai police shared the e-mail with all security and intelligence agencies.

A meeting of all stakeholders at these airports was convened and the input was declared specific and actionable, they said.

CISF director general OP Singh confirmed to PTI that the security apparatus at these airports has been put on an enhanced alert and protocols have been stepped up.

Special anti-sabotage sweeps are being undertaken at these airports since Sunday morning and security agencies, including the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), have enhanced frisking of passengers, baggage scanning, pre-embarkation checks and patrols in the vicinity of the airports, they said.

The CISF has called in its sniffer dog squads and quick reaction teams for undertaking sanitisation drills at the airports, they said, adding airlines have been asked to remain extra vigilant.

However, there is no reason to panic and all the operations at these airports will be normal and without any hassle to passengers, a senior officer who is part of airports security team said.

The police are probing the contents of the e-mail and trying to get in touch with the sender. (Hindustan Times)
What does Patali know about politics that Harini doesnt know?

Sri Lanka is going through great pains to get its economy in order after the
Punjab's chief minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, has done no favour to Punjab in general, and democracy in particular, by announcing his boycott of visiting Canadian defence minister Harjit Singh Sajjan.

The liberal leader is one of the four Sikh cabinet members of prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Born in Bombeli village in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district, he was five when he came to Vancouver with his older sister and mother. Sajjan was elected as an MP from Vancouver South in British Columbia in October, 2015.

Captain Singh, who holds the highest office in Punjab, has branded a Punjabi heading Canada's defence as a "Khalistani sympathiser".

The CM has not only stunned a large number of Sikhs in Punjab and overseas worldwide, he appears to have dealt a blow to the highest standards of democracy.

The Sikh identity, glaringly visible in Trudeau's cabinet, is disproportionate to the size of the Sikh population in Canada, ranked as one of the most developed democracies of the world.

I don't care what our chief minister said disparagingly about a guest of India's government. Photo: PTI

The community makes up less than two percent in numbers there.

Still, Sajjan ascended to the position where he is through what is reasonably expected to be a free and fair election in a country that's home to multiple nationalities, let alone Indian-origin Sikhs.

Capt Singh's boycott aside, I'd like to meet Sajjan during his India visit to understand how he reached out to the last mile to win support of the tiniest of minorities and dominant Canadians alike in his election.

Inclusiveness is what completes a democracy.

In that sense, Sajjan wouldn't have reached where he has if he had been backed only by voters from his community.

I'd like to know from him how a democratic leader should convincingly strike a chord with diverse groups of cultures, ethnicities and races  not just a handful of castes and a couple of religions that Capt Singh has to cater to in the Majha, Doaba and Malwa regions of Punjab.

When I read up on Sajjan, I reckon he has a rich experience in combatting crime as a decorated police officer in Vancouver.

As a reserved Lieutenant-Colonel in Canada's armed forces, he was deployed in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Afghanistan.

Since he's a recipient of top Canadian military honours for reducing Taliban influence in Kandahar, I'd like to hear from him how he fought off international terror in some of the world's most dangerous zones.

Canada's High Commission in Delhi has described Capt Singh's remarks about Sajjan as "disappointing" and "inaccurate".

Like innumerable Punjabis, I too was repulsed by the chief minister's comments about someone who has risen through the ranks in one of the most modern democracies, about someone who has battled global terror.

Has Capt Singh coined a new definition of terrorism? I wonder.

Isn't it intriguing to float the Khalistani narrative over and over again in Punjab  before and after elections  when the issue doesn't exist in the state any longer?

If the highest elected official of Punjab can label a man of Sajjan's status a separatist, isn't he discouraging various investment projects that many diasporic Punjabis would have envisioned for the state?

The defence minister grew in stature with his cultural identity intact in a country like Canada.

He didn't shed his roots. In fact, he's coming back to his childhood village, which is likely to give him an overwhelming reception.

I don't really now care what our chief minister said disparagingly about a guest of India's government.
Imperialism today has new exemplars. The old bully boy attitude of the Trumps and the Americans is not necessary. Todays bullies act as if it is they who have rights. The bully boys of todays world will not allow any dissent, any thought pattern which differs from their official view of the world.

The earlier adage went Joseph Stalin coughed and the entire communist world caught cold. Today China throws a tantrum, mutters a threat and it expects all of Asia to fall in line. Today China is a world power but it has none of the idealism, the humanism, the little crisis of conscience the West had.

The West, at least, tried to practise hegemony with a heart. China promises a heartless hegemony.

China is a country that refuses to tolerate even the rumour of dissent.

Intolerant

China is a country that refuses to tolerate even the rumour of dissent. It often treats the countries around the way the Chinese empire treated its vassals.

I am emphasising this bully boy attitude because many of our elite wish that India would be like China. We want to be as assertive, decisive, display the arrogance and machismo of China. I always feel that the love the middle class feels for Narendra Modi is partly because of his promise to turn India into a power with a similar behavioural syndrome.

The recent controversy around the Dalai Lamas visit to Tawang has to be seen with this context. The Dalai Lama is one of the worlds truly global figures. Along with Pope Francis, he is one of the few ethical figures left. Their ethics is based on care and compassion; a sense of conviction that right has to battle might.

One is reminded of Stalins cynical question. How many battalions does the Pope have? But the power and example of some of the Popes might outlast Stalin.

The Dalai Lama is a critical ethical figure who has made Tibet as a refugee nation, a symbol of refuge for many dissenting ideas. The work he has done on a critical idea of science should be an eye opener to the Indian elite which is almost slavish about science.

The Dalai Lama has added to Indias moral imagination.

His translator and associate, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, has produced a substantial critique of economics. But more powerfully, the Dalai Lama is the ethical litmus test for both India and China. One of the great acts of hospitality that Jawaharlal Nehrus India performed was to give his holiness refuge.

In reciprocity, the Dalai Lama has added to Indias moral imagination. He has played the long staying refugee with grace, gratitude and creative dignity.

Hysterical

China is today waxing hysterical over the 81-year-old monks visit to Tawang, legendary home of the sixth Dalai Lama. The population is excited and almost euphoric. The very symbolic presence of the Dalai Lama threatens the regime. It has physical power but lacks the moral imagination of the monk. As he moves around Arunachal Pradesh, one realises how popular he is and all the Chinese dragon does is huff and puff.

Usually it should be enough, even to an India which quakes before China. But something of the magic of the monk has crept into Delhi and even India shrugs of the Chinese tantrums. The Chinese outrage and its language are worth witnessing. Its contempt for India and its unease about the mystique of the Dalai Lama are obvious.

The official China Daily replied that Beijing would not hesitate to answer blows with blows. The New York Times quotes another state-sponsored mouthpiece as asking Can India afford the consequences?...With a GDP several times higher than India, with military capabilities reaching into the Indian Ocean, will Beijing lose to Delhi?

The Dalai Lama visit is portrayed as subversive.

Retaliation

Meanwhile the laughing monk renews his compact with his people. The Chinese retaliate by promising to appoint the next Dalai Lama as if he is another Chinese vassal. The monk retains his composure saying that India has never misused him and also that it is up to the people to elect the next Dalai Lama.

It is a moment of simple ethics shrewdly finessing power. The chief minister of Arunachal pugnaciously adds that an independent Tibet, not China, is Indias true neighbour. Even the mandarins of Delhi must be a bit nervous. There is a truth in it. The Dalai Lama stands happy as an elf delighted to be a few metres from Chinese territory, as the Chinese watch helplessly and futilely.

True, they will not forgive the Dalai Lama or India. Yet, it is equally true that the monk, his teachings, his example, his presence remind China of its conscience outside, unafraid of the empire. A beautiful moment.

India, usually gross or crass in its foreign policy, for once is showing a maturity  a Chinese dragon playing a slapstick imperial power and Indian democracy seeing in the drama, the beauty of a free society.

No nonsense about security, boundary, realist politics. A fable fit for our time.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)
India may be used to tech czars regularly courting its 800 million and growing cellphone users, among them about 600 million happen to be smartphone users, but that doesnt stop a privileged bigot from stepping on our digital toes.

While Indians are warming up to Snapchats weird flowery video messages  part fantasy, part technology-driven crazed interaction, it has come to light that the companys young CEO, Evan Spiegel, had betrayed grave ignorance and racism with a passing comment on the country.

In a 2015 meeting, Spiegel had, while discussing the apps user base and strategies for expansion, said that he wouldnt be interested in India and Spain, because he thought the countries were too poor to afford Snapchat, which according to him is an app for the rich. This, despite an employees concern that Snapchat wasnt doing enough to woo Indians, which has one of the largest user base of smartphones and was growing by leaps and bounds.

Snapchat is in a soup.

According to the magazine Variety, Spiegel said: This app is only for the rich people. I dont want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.

According to this report: An ex-employee of Snapchat  Anthony Pompliano  who is currently engaged in a lawsuit against SNAP after he accused the company of misleading investors by providing inflated statistics about user data, said that Spiegel stormed out of the meeting after making this comment.

Gaiz.CEO of Snapchat: Rich. Mukesh Ambani: really really really rich. You/Me/India: Tweeting about two rich dudes.  Vir Das (@thevirdas) April 16, 2017

Now thats both misplaced hubris and some rotten ignorance.

At a time when Facebook honcho Mark Zuckerberg went out of his way to push free internet via Facebook to Indias 1.3 billion people, and Bill Gates makes it very clear that Microsoft is part of Narendra Modis Digital India project, how is it that Spiegel talks like a disconnected frat-boy that global tech can ill-afford to entertain.

#Snapchat's target revenue in 2016: $300MWorth of crackers India burnt on Diwali in 2016: $620Mstill india is poor#boycottsnapchat pic.twitter.com/DkuBEqB2gm   FARHAN  (@imfarhan_chisty) April 16, 2017

There is a two-pronged misunderstanding in Spiegels unbelievably daft comment. Firstly, smartphone penetration and being a rich country by conservative estimates are not mutually exclusive. Hence, even a country that has low per capita income but a high GDP (seventh in the world), such as India, is a tech powerhouse and literally the worlds IT department.

Secondly, poverty, in the way Spiegel understands it, is obsolete. Nowadays, a smartphone isnt a luxury; its a necessity. In fact, internet connectivity is now a human right. Even though traditional indicators such as health, education, nutrition are not top-notch in a developing country such as India, we happen to be one of the biggest markets of smartphones worldwide, because we have a huge population of young, connected individuals  exactly the demographic that Snapchat wishes to elicit into downloading its quirky app.

No wonder Snapchat is in a soup now because Spiegel has managed to miff one of most overwrought and easy-to-outrage people in the world  us Indians, but this time justifiably so.

Snapchat has about four million users in India, and clearly is much behind say WhatsApp, which has 200 million and growing. Snapchat is way behind Twitter, Facebook and other apps that are popular among Indians, because of their appeal in marked ways to woo the volatile Indian crowd. Can Spiegel really afford to be rude to a people who alone can downgrade the app by messing with ratings or simply uninstalling it en masse?

No, actually. And thats precisely what happened. As #BoycottSnapchat trended on Twitter, the apps rating came crashing to one star and thousands have already uninstalled it from their phones.

Feeling bored this Sunday? Go ahead and read reviews of @Snapchat in Google Play Store.#boycottsnapchat@evanspiegel pic.twitter.com/u1LKYMbNFc  Republic Of India (@RepubIicofIndia) April 16, 2017

Twitter reactions to this digital humiliation are noteworthy:

While we Indians are only outraging online over Snapchat CEO's comments, Spain has lost it completely pic.twitter.com/A1uYKFUlxa  Anurag Verma (@kitAnurag) April 16, 2017

#Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel calls India pooe. Teach him a lesson:- 1) Uninstall2) Rate it 1star on Google play store3) RT and spread it...  Sanket Dhongade (@shanku98) April 16, 2017

Dear CEO of @Snapchat Kejriwal sir spent 1 crore rupees for chai and samosa and you think that india is poor country ????????#boycottsnapchat    (@HaraME_Tweets) April 16, 2017

Dear Snapchat CEO, You jst triggrd the country wid 1.25 billion population! Enjoy the hatrd! :) With loveWe Indians.???????? #boycottsnapchat  Abdul Wahid Khan (@iamwahid1998) April 16, 2017

Snapchat CEO is just jealous of India coz they don't have Taj Mahal that doesn't need any filters????  Qween of Snapchat (@QweenOfHells) April 16, 2017

Snapchat CEO says 'we don't want expansion in poor country like India...,' Inko nahi Pata ki James Bond se ghutka bikwate hai hum????????  ruchika chaubey (@ruchika_2710) April 16, 2017
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (first, right)

presents the Labour Order, first class, to BIDV (Photo: VNA)

Speaking at a ceremony in Hanoi on April 15th to mark the banks 60th founding anniversary, the PM said that BIDV must consider the assistance as an international mission, helping speed up Vietnams global integration and enhance the countrys prestige in the region and the world, initially in Laos, Cambodia and Russia.

The ceremony was attended by former Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu, former National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung, and Lao National Assembly Chairwoman Pany Yathotou, among others.

He urged the bank to actively and effectively engage in the reform of credit institutions, whose focus is settling bad debts and banks with poor performance, in the role as the largest joint stock commercial bank in the country.

At the same time, the bank should continue renovating and improving its financial management, operational effectiveness and competitiveness, thus entering the list of top 25 largest commercial banks in ASEAN.

Learning that BIDVs current charter capital of about USD1.5 billion is lower than that of many regional banks, he asked the bank to increase its financial capacity and take it as a priority task.

Along with making the best use of information technology to take advantage of the fourth industrial revolution, BIDV should improve its management and governance capacity towards international standards, while simplifying procedures to enable capital access for lenders, he asked.

BIDV was also requested to ensure a capital source for socio-economic development programmes as well as major national projects and prioritized sectors such as agriculture, high tech industries, export, support industry, while supporting startups and small and medium-sized enterprises.

As one of the oldest credit institutions of Vietnam, BIDVs initial missions include providing capital to national projects serving the national recovery and construction.

The banks asset has mounted to VND1 quadrillion, with over 1,000 branches and transaction offices with over 25,000 employees. Annually, the bank contributes VND5 trillion to the State budget. It has become the first bank to invest abroad in six countries, including Laos and Cambodia.

At the ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc presented the Labour Order, first class, to the bank.

On the occasion, BIDV was honoured with Laoss Independence Order, first class, and Cambodias Monisaraphon Medal, Moha Seruivanth class./.
Illustrative image (Source: vilacaed.org.vn)



The discussion brought together authorities, State agencies and businesses from 13 Mekong Delta provinces and cities.

Speakers of the conference, including economic experts and policy-makers, talked various topics related to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including the fourth scientific revolution, global market fluctuations in 2017, and new generation free trade agreements.

They fielded questions from participants on preparations for global integration, which could help them reduce risks and consolidate their foothold.

Nguyen Hoang Dung, Research & Development Director at the Ho Chi Minh institute of economics and management, said to seize opportunities and overcome challenges created by the implementation of free trade agreements, Vietnam should strive to reach the average level of national competitiveness of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore by 2020 and to be among top 30 global competitive economies by 2030.

He listed a number of solutions to realise these goals, including boosting the implementation of the Governments Resolution No 19 and No. 35 on supporting business development, completing the legal framework for trade and business competition, and enhancing the enforcement of business law.

Participants focused their discussion on SMEs-related State policies, capital sources, human resources, and technology, among others./.




Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Umeda Kunio at

Linh's home in Vietnam (Photo: hanoimoi.com.vn)

At the meeting at Linhs Vietnamese home in Tan Dan commune, Khoai Chau district in the northern province of Hung Yen, the Japanese diplomat informed Le Anh Hao, Linhs father, that the police of Japan arrested a man who allegedly killed Linh.

He added that the Japanese side is working to clarify the case and will handle the culprit stringently in accordance with the law.

Le Anh Hao said that on the early morning of April 14th, he received a phone call from Japanese police reporting that they arrested Yasumasa Shibuya, head of the parents association at Linhs school. Shibuya is also a street volunteer to watch pupils along their walking road to school.

According to Japanese police, Yasumasa Shibuya, 46, is engaging in property business and his DNA matched a sample police collected at the crime scene of Linh.

Hao said that he will fly to Japan on April 16th to coordinate with the Japanese police during the investigation of his daughters case.

On March 24th this year, Linh, a third-year grader in the elementary school in Matsudo, went missing after she left home in Matsudo to go to school as usual.

Two days later, she was found dead without clothes at a site near a drainage ditch which is about 10-12km from the school.

The police believed Linh was kidnapped right after leaving home at 8 am on March 24th.

Besides an injury on her head and garrote marks on her necks, Linh also had an injury on her wrist and scratches on her body./.
NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan

and Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary Kover Laszlo (Source: VNA)

On this occasion, head of the NA Committee for External Relations Nguyen Van Giau talked with the media about the outcomes of the visits, stating that this was the first Europe tour made by the top legislator with the aim to further deepen Vietnams relations with its traditional partners.

In each country, Chairwoman Ngan and the Vietnamese delegation discussed various issues of mutual concern with its leaders and officials.

According to Giau, during their talks, both Vietnamese and Swedish top legislators agreed that the two countries have yet to fully tap economic potential.

Speaker of the Swedish parliament Urban Ahlin affirmed that he will work to urge the European Union to early ratify the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) so as to open up new cooperation opportunities in the economic field for all related parties.

Giau noted that the highlight of Ngans official visit to Hungary was a symposium on law perfection during the international integration, which was held for the first time by the two parliaments following their cooperation agreement signed in 2008.

At the meetings, Hungarian leaders informed the Vietnamese top lawmaker that they have selected Vietnam as a beneficiary of a framework agreement on a EUR440 million credit.

Giau also told reporters that during the meetings between Ngan and Czech leaders, they shared that their country had set forth a strategy towards its traditional friends, with Vietnam being one of the 12 priority nations.

The Czech side proposed the opening of a direct air route linking Hanoi to Prague, he said, adding that he will work with the Ministry of Transport on this issue.

After the visits, the legislative body needs to map out plans to supervise the implementation of cooperation agreements signed during the visits, he stated.

Vietnam must ensure its prestige and maintain political trust of these countries in order to boost mutually-beneficial collaboration and development, he added.

The Czech Republic was the final leg of the NA Chairwomans Europe tour. Several newspapers in the country ran articles about her activities./.
Associated Banc-Corp, a bank holding company, provides various banking and nonbanking products to individuals and businesses in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota. The company operates through three segments: Corporate and Commercial Specialty; Community, Consumer, and Business; and Risk Management and Shared Services. Its Corporate and Commercial Specialty segment offers lending solutions, including commercial loans and lines of credit, commercial real estate financing, construction loans, letters of credit, leasing, asset based lending, and loan syndications; deposit and cash management solutions, such as commercial checking and interest-bearing deposit products, cash vault and night depository services, liquidity solutions, payables and receivables solutions, and information services; specialized financial services such as interest rate risk management, foreign exchange solutions, and commodity hedging; fiduciary services such as administration of pension, profit-sharing and other employee benefit plans, fiduciary and corporate agency services, and institutional asset management; and investable funds solutions such as savings, money market deposit accounts, IRA accounts, CDs, fixed and variable annuities, full-service, discount and online investment brokerage; investment advisory services; and trust and investment management accounts. The company's Community, Consumer, and Business segment offers lending solutions, such as residential mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, personal and installment loans, auto loans, business loans, and business lines of credit; and deposit and transactional solutions such as checking, credit, debit and pre-paid cards, online banking and bill pay; and money transfer services. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 215 banking branches. Associated Banc-Corp was founded in 1861 and is headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. It offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; and Jardiance, Trajenta, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes. The company provides Alimta for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and malignant pleural mesothelioma; Cyramza for metastatic gastric cancer, gastro-esophageal junction adenocarcinoma, metastatic NSCLC, metastatic colorectal cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma; Erbitux for colorectal cancers, and various head and neck cancers; Retevmo for metastatic NSCLC, medullary thyroid cancer, and thyroid cancer; Tyvyt for relapsed or refractory classic Hodgkin's lymph and non-squamous NSCLC; and Verzenio for HR+, HER2- metastatic breast cancer, node positive, and early breast cancer. It offers Olumiant for rheumatoid arthritis; and Taltz for plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and non-radiographic axial spondylarthritis. The company offers Cymbalta for depressive disorder, diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain, generalized anxiety disorder, fibromyalgia, and chronic musculoskeletal pain; Emgality for migraine prevention and episodic cluster headache; and Zyprexa for schizophrenia, bipolar I disorder, and bipolar maintenance. Its Bamlanivimab and etesevimab, and Bebtelovimab for COVID-19; Cialis for erectile dysfunction and benign prostatic hyperplasia; and Forteo for osteoporosis. The company has collaborations with Incyte Corporation; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; AbCellera Biologics Inc.; Junshi Biosciences; Regor Therapeutics Group; Lycia Therapeutics, Inc.; Kumquat Biosciences Inc.; Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc.; and Foghorn Therapeutics Inc. Eli Lilly and Company was founded in 1876 and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.
GoDaddy Inc. engages in the design and development of cloud-based technology products in the United States and internationally. The company provides domain name registration product that enables to engage customers at the initial stage of establishing a digital identity. It also offers shared Website hosting products that provide various applications and products, such as web analytics, Secure Sockets Layer certificates, and WordPress; Website hosting on virtual private servers and virtual dedicated servers products, which allows customers to select the server configuration suited for their applications, requirements, and growth; managed hosting products to set up, monitor, maintain, secure, and patch software and servers for customers; and security products, a suite of tools designed to help secure customers' online presence. In addition, the company provides presence products, such as Websites + Marketing, a do-it-yourself mobile-optimized online tool that enables customers to build websites and e-commerce enabled online stores; a range of marketing tools and services designed to help businesses acquire and engage customers, and create content, as well as search engine optimization that helps customers get their websites found on search sites; and social media management services. Further, it offers business application products, such as Microsoft Office 365, email accounts, email marketing, and Internet-based telephony services; online store capabilities that allows customers to transact business directly on their websites; GoDaddy Payments, a payment facilitator; and point-of-sale (POS) devices, as well as software for POS. The company serves small businesses, individuals, organizations, developers, designers, and domain investors. GoDaddy Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.
Carlos Sainz has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the next Grand Prix in Russia in two weeks' time.

Sainz crashed into the side of Lance Stroll's Williams while exiting the pit lane on lap 11. The collision put both drivers out of the race and triggered a safety car.

"I knew it would be very tight at the end of the pits with Lance," the Toro Rosso driver explained. "I tried to take the corner around the inside, and I didn't lock up the tyres.

"He must have not seen me and turned it straight into me and we crashed," he continued. "You are allowed to turn in. But when you have someone inside, you have to leave at least one car's margin in case there's someone there.

"He simply didn't see me, and wasn't expecting me to be there," Sainz insisted. "He chose to take the risk and assume no one was there."

Naturally, Stroll entirely disagreed with Sainz' account of the incident.

"I saw Sainz coming out of the pitlane," he revealed. "I was 50 or 60 metres in front of him in the braking zone, and was already turning in. He drove into my side. There is not much else to say. I have just seen the video and it was ridiculous."

The race stewards reviewed the video evidence and heard from both drivers before agreeing with Stroll and penalising Sainz. They also reviewed the video evidence which confirmed that Stroll was on the normal racing line as Sainz exited the pit lane.

The stewards determined that Stroll had been on the normal racing line and that Sainz "made a very optimistic attempt to pass". They concluded that the Spaniard "was predominately to blame for causing the collision in violation of Article 27.4 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations."

As well as the Sochi grid drop, Sainz was also handed two penalty points whcih makes a total of seven over the past 12 months. The penalty is not subject to an appeal by either Sainz or his team.

GALLERY: All the action from the Bahrain Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
In another truncated conclusion to his race weekend, McLaren's Fernando Alonso didn't hold anything back when it came to voicing his persisting frustrations.

The Spanish driver gave it his best early on when the lights went green in Bahrain, and spent most of the race just outside the top ten, but lamented his Honda engine's power deficit before its ultimate demise a few laps from the checkered flag.

As he saw his work in the corners regularly undone on the straights, Alonso expressed his annoyance over the radio

"How they can overtake me? 300 metres behind me, and they overtake me on the straight, Ive never raced with less power in my life," he quipped.

Told by his engineer that they were considering a 'Plan B', the two-time world champion offered a resigned response.

"Do whatever you want, mate."

When all was said and done, the calmed-down McLaren stalwart assessed his day at the office.

"We didnt enjoy that fight because we were losing too much ground on the straight, Alonso said.

"I think we were close to the points at some parts of the race, but we never had the pace we did in China or Australia, we were a little bit slower today, so we need to keep improving.

"Its frustrating. When the red lights go off youre motivated and you start fighting, but youre so behind on the straights that theres no way you can defend your position. You fight in a fair way with everyone, but you dont enjoy the battle.

Everyone in the team has been working very hard over this weekend, day and night, and Im sorry for Stoffel who has had so much bad luck all weekend and then didnt even start todays race.

"But well keep working hard, and we hope to improve in due course."

GALLERY: All the action from the Bahrain Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Final part of three-part series.

Charles Loring Brace said his faith in God helped him deal with uglier aspects of life.

There was no shortage of deeply troubling sights to be seen on the streets of New York City during the 19th century. In March 1853, Brace founded the Childrens Aid Society in an effort to help the thousands of homeless children he encountered while administering to the poorest people of the city.

Ultimately, the man from Connecticut came up with the idea to basically give homeless children to farmers, merchants and families living far from the large, industrial cities of the East. When all but eight of the initial 45 children sent westward found homes, the stage was set to send many more.

Because the waifs did much of their traveling by rail, the name Orphan Train became synonymous with the dissemination program. During the ensuing decades, an estimated 1,500 other organizations, such as the New York Juvenile Asylum and the New England Home for Little Wanderers in Boston, orchestrated similar programs.

In 2001, Stephen OConnor came out with the nonfiction book Orphan Trains. It provides an in-depth history of the program, which lasted until 1929.

The author made the point that, because of poor record keeping, its difficult to discern how well the program served the children it was intended to help. He also cautioned that the program should not be judged by the social standards of modern times.

During the 19th century, child labor was a fact of life, and children living on farms often started working as soon as they were able. So its not surprising that many of the orphans ended up on farms in the Midwest.

Although the children were sent as far away as California, the greatest number of them didnt travel nearly that far. The states that took in the most orphans were New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

Its likely that the majority of the 1,634 orphans brought to Virginia were taken in by farm families. By the time the program ended, more than 200,000 children had been relocated.

Although some of the children were basically used as unpaid laborers, it appears that the vast majority of them were placed in loving homes.

Two orphans who benefited from the program were John Green Brady and Andrew Burke. Brady became the governor of Alaska, and Burke became the governor of North Dakota. There also was a congressman who came from the ranks of the orphans, as well as two district attorneys, a sheriff and many doctors, lawyers and successful businessmen.

The two main reasons given when the Orphan Trains ground to a halt were the Great Depression and changing laws. As unemployment soared in 1930, struggling families were in no position to take in additional children.

Changing laws and attitudes made it more difficult to ship orphans across state lines. And the advent of foster care homes was changing the dynamics of how society dealt with homeless children.

The social experiment, which lasted 75 years, resulted in the largest resettlement of children in the nations history. In a report drawn up by members of the Childrens Aid Society in 1910, it was estimated that nearly 90 percent of the orphans it had placed had fared well.

When Brace died in 1890 from Brights disease, he was revered for his compassionate work. Today, he is considered the father of the foster care movement.

But even the mastermind of the Orphan Train solution was bedeviled by doubts. He certainly wasnt ignorant of what could befall children who were placed in the wrong hands.

Nonetheless, seeing starving children begging for food and sorting through garbage in order to survive was too much for Brace to accept. He reasoned that just about any situation would be better than what the orphans were experiencing while living on the streets.

Still, watching thousands of children, some as young as 6, heading toward uncertain futures caused Brace to do a lot of soul searching.

When a child of the streets stands before you in rags, with a tear-stained face, you cannot easily forget him, Brace wrote. And yet, you are perplexed what to do.

The human soul is difficult to interfere with. You hesitate how far you should go.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Registers For May 19 Presidential Election; Critics Say Hes Not Qualified

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered for the May 19 presidential election on Wednesday despite a previous announcement of not running. The former president was advised by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei not to run for his own country's good. However, Ahmadinejad believes that this advice should not mean he is banned from running.

Ahmadinejad Responds To The Leader's Advice

Ahmadinejad revealed that he has no plans to run for president. According to the former Iran leader, he is only expressing his full support to the candidacy of his protege, Hamid Baghaei, five months later. Incidentally, Ahmadinejad's two consecutive terms - which was called "Ahmadinejad era - were known for bad governance, heavy market intervention, data rigging, and suspected financial irregularities.

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Meantime, Ahmadinejad denied the allegations that his government was not the "cleanest in Iran's history". It is important to note that during his administration, the country's ties were taken to an unprecedented low point, while Iran's nuclear dossier rose into a drawn-out diplomatic impasse that was resolved peacefully in 2015 during the Rouhani administration, Payvand reported.

Ahmadinejad' Registration Move Challenges Other Presidential Hopefuls

The registration move by Ahmadinejad is expected to begin a confrontation with other presidential aspirants, especially cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who is expected to become the main challenger to the pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani. Incidentally, the constitution allows Rouhani to seek a second term.

Ahmadinejad is also believed to challenge Rouhani, which Raisi fails to do given his weak grassroots support. Meantime, presidential newbies are set to be screened for their political and Islamic capabilities by a vetting body called the Guardians Council.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad's critics who are also familiar with the issue are doubtful is he is qualified by the 12-member overseeing body. A political analyst from Tehran believes that the former leader will not be qualified, Tehran Times reported.

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Assocham would like a seamless and flawless roll out of the GST to infuse a sense of confidence among the consumers

New Delhi: The government must clearly outline the scope of 'e-commerce' under the GST, as the current definition can include even commodity derivatives exchanges where there is no actual delivery of goods, an industry body has said.

The term 'e-commerce' may get misinterpreted in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law, industry chamber Assocham said.

"E-commerce definition, as given in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) dispensation, has been left so wide that it could go well beyond Amazon or Flipkart marketplace platforms and may even cover the commodity exchanges," it said.

The chamber has sought clarity from government to remove uncertainty among businesses as the law is set for a rollout either in July or September.

"The scope of the term 'electronic commerce' is very wide and does not restrict itself to cover electronic marketplace service providers like Amazon, Flipkart.

"It covers all businesses where the supply of goods /services is through a digital or electronic network," Assocham said in a communication to concerned ministries.

There are possibilities of unwarranted interpretations as futures and commodity exchanges may get treated as electronic marketplaces even though derivatives trading means no delivery of actual goods, it said.

"In our opinion such an interpretation will not be in consonance with the object and intent of special provisions for the electronic commerce business. There are distinguishing legal and operational factors between e-commerce operators and commodity exchanges," the industry body said.

"The commodities exchanges cannot be treated as electronic commerce operator in their legal capacity as well as in common parlance."

It has also sought clarity on treatment of goods and services under GST for exports, gems and jewellery, MSME sector, banking and telecom.

"The Assocham would like a seamless and flawless roll out of the GST to infuse a sense of confidence among the consumers, trade and industry. Eventually, the GST should become a showpiece of our reforms, its Secretary General D S Rawat said in the statement.

The Central GST, one of the components of the law, is silent on exemptions provided on interest on loans.

"The exemption under services tax, which exempts interest, should be replicated under GST," it said.

GST is unification of multiple indirect taxes into a single law, hence, it is presumed current exemption would be continued for banking and other financial institution including non-banking financial company as these exemptions creates the basic foundation for taxing services provided by them, it added.
The Union government, in December 2016, had created the email ID and asked the common public to inform it about black money hoarders.

Mumbai: The email ID that was set up to inform the authorities about black money-related activities has seen an overwhelming response, but only 20 per cent of the cases are being investigated, an Right To Information (RTI) query by a Mumbai-based activist has revealed.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which functions under the aegis of the ministry of finance, has so far received 38,068 emails on the ID blackmoneyinfo@incometax.gov.in. However, no action was taken in the case of over 80 per cent  32,018  of these emails, the RTI reply revealed.

The Union government, in December 2016, had created the email ID and asked the common public to inform it about black money hoarders. The government also claimed that around 16 per cent of such emails, which is 6,050, were forwarded to the officials concerned for investigation.

On the number of false emails received, the CBDT in the RTI reply said this information was subject to completion of investigation.

Over 84 per cent tip-offs have been closed without any inquiry. This shows that either most emails were frivolous, or the authorities did not take them seriously, or there may have been a shortage of staff, which forced them to do so, RTI activist Jeetendra Ghadge said, slamming the CBDT.

Mr Ghadge had also filed another RTI query seeking the number of demonetised notes deposited with the Reserve Bank of India after January 1, 2017.

In November 2016, the CBDT had admitted that the real estate, manufacturing, trading and educational sectors were hotbeds for activities involving black money.

It had also revealed that from 2013 to 2016, the income tax department searched 1,559 groups, who collectively declared undisclosed income of Rs 32,000 crore approximately, and seized assets worth Rs 2,228 crore.
Mumbai: Amitabh Bachchan is all set to make a cameo in Akshay Kumar-starrer 'Padman'.

There were reports that R Balki-directed movie would feature Bachchan in a small appearance.

In a late night blog post, the 74-year-old actor confirmed the news, saying he is shooting in the capital for his part in the film.

"I work tomorrow... a shoot for R Balki... for the film he does with Akshay Kumar... A special appearance for a few minutes...

"Balki does carry his sincerity at every step of his creativity, and must have my presence in some form or another, and so here I am more of which shall come by when the act of the morrow is done," Bachchan wrote.

Akshay has been shooting here along with Sonam Kapoor for the film, based on life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, who invented first low-cost sanitary napkins in the country.
Amitabh Bachchan shooting in New Delhi for his cameo in 'Padman'. (Source: Twitter)

Mumbai: Wed informed you all about Amitabh Bachchan playing a cameo in Akshay Kumar and Sonam Kapoor starrer 'Padman'.

The millennial Amitabh Bachchan is currently in New Delhi busy shooting his portions for the film.

Here are the pictures straight from the sets of 'Padman' from the capital:









The actor is seen sharing some light moments with Akshay and Sonam individually.

In a late night blog post on Friday, the veteran actor had written: "I work tomorrow... A shoot for R. Balki for the film he does with Akshay Kumar. A special appearance for a few minutes."

Also, talking about the director, Amitabh wrote: "Balki does carry his sincerity at every step of his creativity and must have my presence in some form or another, and so here I am."

Amitabh and Balki have worked together in films like 'Cheeni Kum', 'Paa', 'Shamitabh' and he also featured in cameos for the directors other projects 'English Vinglish' and 'Ki & Ka'.

'Padman', which is produced by Akshays wife Twinkle Khanna, is a film based on a real-life man who made sanitary pads accessible to women of his village.

Apart from Akshay and Sonam, we will also see the talented Radhika Apte in the film.
Mumbai: Salman Khan has reached the first-stop of his Da-bang tour, Hong Kong, with his group, which comprises of Sonakshi Sinha, rapper Badshah, host Maniesh Paul, Daisy Shah and the monkey-couple Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover.

The actor is very well averse with maintaining the connection between him and his fans.

He avidly posts updates about his every professional move.

Ever since the news of Da-bang tour emerged, the star kept on posting their schedule and preparations for it.

Salman recently posted a video of himself rehearsing with Bipasha for this spectacular show in Hong Kong.

They were seen grooving on Salmans popular number Hangover, which has been crooned by the star himself.

Salman captioned the video on Twitter yesterday saying, "Rehearsals for the 1st show in Hongkong tomo ! #DaBangHK"

Take a look:

Rehearsals for the 1st show in Hongkong tomo ! #DaBangHK pic.twitter.com/hqe5NRn2lI  Salman Khan (@BeingSalmanKhan) April 15, 2017

He also shared a black and white picture of his, which might make you fall in love with his intensity and aura.

Here is the picture which he tweeted:

The group will later travel to Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia for other events.
Mumbai: When news of Shah Rukh Khan attending the San Francisco Film Festival broke, we were most certain about one thing- the Badshah of Bollywood would woo them all with his wit and boyish charm- and we were absolutely right. The actor was cheered by the crowd throughout his interactive session with Hollywood director and producer Brett Ratner that was live streamed on Twitter.

The charmer that SRK is, he told the attendants that they were not aware of the fact that the tickets included hugs from him. His iconic movie My Name is Khan was screened after completion of his session.

Brett Ratner, who was visibly in awe of Shah Rukh, offered him the sequel of Rush Hour and promised not to give him a cameo or a 5-minute role. The celebrated director went on to call SRK a perfect combination of Tom Cruise and Jackie Chan.

Now Shah Rukh had no idea that Brett had planned a surprise for him. So when he was connected to Chan on video call, fan Khan could not contain his happiness. The actor said, I don't think I have said this before but when my first son was born [Aryan], he looked like Jackie Chan. Thats quite a statement!

From tonight, I am going to change my name to Shah Rukh ChanI am a huge fan (of Jackie Chan). This is the greatest moments of my life," he further added.

Imagine someone as famous as Shah Rukh Khan having his fan boy moment. That must have been a sight to behold, super lucky guy!
The actor passed away just blocks afar from his childhood home.

Mumbai: Actor Clifton James, who was famous for his role as Sheriff J W Pepper in James Bond films, has died at the age of 96.

The actor passed away just blocks afar from his childhood home, surrounded by friends and family, loved ones told Variety in a statement.

James was born as the eldest child of Grace and Harry James in the year 1920.

He grew up just outside Portland, Oregon during the heart of the Great Depression. According to his kin, he fought for five years on the front lines of the South Pacific, thereby earning two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star for his service during the World War II.

James' acting career spread out around six decades, where he showcased his talent in theatre, film and television.

He appeared on stage in the plays The Time of Your Life and went on to perform in many Broadway shows which included names such as All The Way Home.

But he gained major recognition when he starred as he crowing Louisiana sheriff, J W Pepper in two Bond films, Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

He played similar roles with Southern background in films like Silver Streak and Superman II.

James is survived by his sisters, Cicely and Beverley; his five children, Cory, Winkie, Hardy, Lynn, and Mary; fourteen grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.
South Korea on Sunday denounced the failed test-launch of an unidentified missile by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that came amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the DPRK's ballistic missile firing was in a clear violation again of UN Security Council resolutions, expressing its strong denunciation against the provocation.

The DPRK fired an unidentified missile at about 6:20 a.m. local time (2120 GMT Saturday) from its eastern coastal city of Sinpo, but it was believed to have exploded on launch, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The South Korean military said it was still analyzing what kind of missile was launched.

On April 5, the DPRK test-fired a ballistic missile at a nearby region on its east coast, but it plunged into the sea off the east coast after abnormally flying about 60 km.

At the time, the South Korean military identified it as Pukguksong-2, an intermediate-range ballistic missile known to be newly developed based on a technology of submarine-launched ballistic missile. The U.S. military estimated it to be an extended-range Scud missile that is known to be capable of traveling as far as 1,000 km.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry depicted the botched missile launch as a grave threat to peace and security in the peninsula and the international community, saying the DPRK regime would face hard-to-endure punitive actions if it conducts strategic provocations such as another nuclear test or the launch of intercontinental ballistic missile.

To mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of DPRK founder Kim Il Sung, a massive military parade was held in the center of Pyongyang on Saturday.

The DPRK paraded a series of military arsenal, including what were believed to be three types of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Tensions tended to escalate on the peninsula this spring when combined forces of the United States and South Korea staged their joint war games, codenamed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle that were scheduled to continue till the end of this month.

Pyongyang has denounced the U.S.-South Korea military exercises as a dress rehearsal for northward invasions.

The U.S. nuclear-powered Carl Vinson aircraft carrier was approaching the peninsula after participating in the joint war games last month.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is set to arrive in South Korea later Sunday for his trip to Asia.

Pence is scheduled to meet with South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is serving as acting president, on Monday.

South Korea's top presidential advisor for security affairs, Kim Kwan-jin, convened a meeting of national security council at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Sunday morning.

The security council meeting was attended by ministers of foreign affairs, unification and defense as well as intelligence agency chief and senior presidential secretary for security and foreign affairs.
Hordes of women join the film industry in various departments, but art direction will be the last thing on their mind. Dundhu Renjeev, however, did not have any second thoughts when she walked right into this mens club and won herself a spot there as art director.

Recalling her journey, Dundhu says, It is a long story. Movies were always my subject of interest. But then, most families consider it a risk to send their daughters into the film industry. My family is full of doctors and it wanted me to join the medical field. I did courses in animation and then took up BSc Visual Communication at St. Josephs College, Bengaluru. During the initial years, I did not know which part of the film industry to join. By the time I reached my final year, my professors directed me towards art direction as I was interested in art and painting. I was always into paint and craft and I am a self-taught artist.

She forayed into art direction as an intern with Dulquer Salmaans 100 Days of Love. I joined as an intern during the movies second schedule at Bengaluru and assisted Ajay Mangad.

Dundhu then became an assistant art director for various TV commercials, V.K.Prakashs Rockstar and donned the hat of an art director for the popular web series The other love story. The web series was my first independent work after which I met Uma (Kumarapuram) and was roped in as the Art Director for her film Across the Ocean.

Asked what stops women from taking up art direction, she says, The common perception associated with this department is that it is a physically taxing job. It involves everything from painting to carpentry and I have done all those. We will have to do it. Most people in the art department are there out of their love for art or because they are artists. It might be the physical labour that might be keeping them off.

Dundhu talks about how the industry has treated her so far. I did not know a single thing when I walked into the sets of 100 Days of Love. The people in the art section had no clue what I was going to do there or what they could make me do. After interacting with them, they slowly accepted me and soon enough, I was a part of the team. For me, it was a challenge when they gave me tasks. There were times when I used to think that I will not be part of another project. If we talk to anyone in the industry, they would say how tired they are by the time they get home. But after each project, we somehow have that positive energy to be part of another project.

Dundhu is currently working on Umas Across the Ocean.
Cast: Nivin Pauly, Aishwarya Rajesh, Aparna Gopinath, Gayathri Suresh, Sreenivasan

Director: Sidhartha Siva

Rating: 3 stars

The word revolution was once so powerful: it represented the efforts for the uplift, rights and living of the downtrodden. Sakhavu Krishnan belongs to that glorious era of communism where a comrade always stood for the well-being of his fellow beings and earned a heartful of gratitude and little else. The movie brilliantly introspects a political ideology that cuts across two generations of politicians. The journey begins with a budding, new-gen leader, courses through the life and time of a peoples leader and culminates in the discovery of what it takes to be a politician now.

In the beginning we see a young, self-serving leader of a left-wing political party  Nivin Pauly as Krishna Kumar-who is always (and only) bothered about taking himself to top. Now holding a pivotal post at the district level, he dreams of scaling more heights by hook or crook. A party-assigned life-saver act soon befalls on him. The mission connects him to comrade Krishnan (its Nivin again), who, in a government hospitals intensive care unit, battles a tough ordeal in his life. Krishna Kumar at first tries to cash in on the ailing mans family and flee the scene at the next available opportunity but he is in a life-altering path as he gets to know more about the elderly comrade.

There is a flashback where everything is set minimal and rides the movie to a thrilling second half. There is room for romance that consumes very little screen time. Nivin Pauly as a veteran left ideologue in the Sidhartha Siva directorial political thriller never goes out-of-bounds. The first half lagging a bit in a bid to establish Sakhavu Krishnan being the only drawback, the movie shows it is possible to effectively portray revolution without less wordly pyrotechnics, sloganeering, blood and gore. After all, its raining politico movies in Mollywood. Hail revolution!
The stress on the spine increases by degree, and at 60 degrees, it is 27 kgs (Photo: AFP)

London: Dear parents, ask your kids to spend less time on their cell phones as a study finds increase in number of patients with neck, disk hernias and alignment problems mainly due to prolonged use of smartphones.

According to researchers, some patients, particularly youngsters who should not yet have back and neck issues, are reporting disk hernias and alignment problems.

The findings, published in The Spine Journal, indicated that in a neutral position looking forward, the head weighs about 4.5 to 5.4 Kg and at a 15-degree flex, it feels like 12 kgs. The stress on the spine increases by degree, and at 60 degrees, it is 27 kgs.

"In an X-ray, the neck typically curves backward and what we're seeing is that the curve is being reversed as people look down at their phones for hours each day,' said study co-author Dr. Todd Lanman, a spinal neurosurgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Lanman and co-author Dr. Jason Cuellar, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Cedars-Sinai, write that people often look down when using their smartphones, particularly when texting as compared to browsing online or watching videos. The impact on the spine increases at higher flexed postures, they added, reports Mail online.

The researchers suggested simple lifestyle changes to relieve the stress from the 'text neck' posture. They recommend holding cell phones in front of the face, or near eye level, while texting. They also suggest using two hands and two thumbs to create a more symmetrical and comfortable position for the spine.

Beyond smartphone use, the spinal surgeons recommend that people who work at computers or on tablets use an elevated monitor stand so it sits at a natural horizontal eye level.

While sitting, he recommends aligning the neck and spine by checking that the ears are over the shoulders and the shoulders are over the hips.
In an unprecedented move in the country, HarperCollins India is granting five paid leaves for their employees, who are adopting dogs, cats or any other pets as part of their family. The paid holidays, called Pawternity leave, are provided for a person to bond with his/her pet during the initial days after the adoption.

Though, many companies in the west grant such leaves, HarperCollins is the first one to come up with the idea in India. This new initiative has been lauded by many animal activists and pet lovers across the country.

Sruti Nakul, actor Nakuls wife and a pet lover, says this is a welcome move by the publishing house. The initial days of moving into a new home is very crucial for the pet. They enter a new environment and need some time to get accustomed to it. House training and potty training are required in these early stages. So, it is important for the provider to be around it. It is heartening to see corporates coming forward to take up social issues like this.

Echoing similar views, Deepika P, who works with a motor company in Chennai, says, When we brought our dog home, it fell sick initially, and didnt eat properly for a week. It had to be monitored by someone for the entire period, and something like a pawternity leave will indeed be of great help for full-time employees who do not have a family at home to look after their pets.

Shravan Krishnan, an animal rights activist from Chennai, says this move will encourage more people to adopt dogs. The reason most of the people dont want to have a pet is because they are unable to make time for it. Though, just a five-day leave is not going to make a huge impact, it is a way forward.

Shravan also wishes to see companies coming up with other such initiatives. Industries can provide space for employees pets. This will enable them to check on them frequently. Studies also prove that bringing any kinds of pets to workplaces reduce stress. Also, on the lines of sick leaves, it would be good if companies start giving leaves for the employees if their pets fall ill.

On the other hand, writer Charu Nivedita, who owns two dogs himself, says, It is a good initiative, no doubt. But there are some fundamental changes that need to be made first  the attitude of humans towards animals. Things like pelting stones at dogs, throwing them from the third floor, etc., should stop.

The aversion to dogs and cats is so strong in the society that people who have pets are not given houses for rent. Apartments have strict rules against having pets. Even if you are ready to shell out more money, house owners turn you down. These are the first things that have to be addressed. Empathy towards animals should be natural, Charu adds, signing off.
Hyderabad: BJP on Sunday staged protests in Hyderabad and elsewhere in Telangana against the passage of a bill by the state legislature increasing reservations for backward sections of Muslim community.

All five BJP MLAs -- G Kishan Reddy, K Laxman, NVSS Prabhakar, Ch Ramachandra Reddy and T Raja Singh -- were suspended from the Assembly during the special session Sunday.

BJP had opposed the bill, calling it anti-Constitutional as it sought to increase a religion-based quota.

Wearing black scarves, the MLAs walked to the Assembly from the Ambedkar statue near Hussain Sagar lake before the House proceedings began Sunday.

They shouted slogans in support of increasing quotas for Scheduled Tribes (also provided in the bill) but opposing reservations for Muslims.

After their suspension from the House, the BJP MLAs tried to stage a protest at the Gandhi statue on the Assembly premises, but police removed them from there, said BJP spokesperson Prakash Reddy.

BJP workers who had planned to march to the Assembly were detained in various parts of the city, he claimed.

In Karimnagar, about a hundred BJP protesters were detained by the police.

Under the bill, passed by both houses of the state legislature, quota for STs will be increased to 10 per cent from the existing 6 per cent, while that for BC-E category (backward sections of Muslims) will go up to 12 per cent from the existing 4 per cent.
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader DigvijayaSingh today urged the Election Commission to allow political parties to supervise the coding software of electronic voting machines (EVMs).

His demand comes in the wake of the poll body throwing an open challenge to hack its EVMs following a chorus by Opposition parties on alleged tampering of the machines in the recent state Assembly elections, especially in Uttar Pradesh where BJP staged a stunning victory.

Singh said the Commission, instead of limiting its objections to EVM hacking, should also allow examination of its software at the stage of writing it from the server.

"EC limiting objections to EVMs. It must allow examination of possibility of software tampering at stage of writing it from server. There is a strong possibility of tampering coding at the stage of writing software i.e. EVMs can be pre-tampered. So no need for hacking..., he said.

"EC must devise a way of supervision by political parties of the coding software of EVMs, like it does at subsequent stages. Would they agree?" he tweeted.

The Election Commission had announced that from first week of May, experts, scientists and technocrats can try for a week or 10 days to hack the machines.

The move comes after opposition parties urged the poll panel to revert to paper ballot system, raising doubts over infallibility of the voting machines.
Prime Minister called on the BJP to not get too excited over the recent state assembly elections victory and ensure they keep the momentum going. (Photo: PTI)

Bhubaneswar (Odisha): Pitching the formula of a 'pro-active and pro-people' governance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday exuded confidence about the NDA Government coming to power yet again, adding that his party will in 2022 bring about a social economic change which will make India number one economically.

Briefing the media about the Prime Minister's address in the BJP National Executive meeting today, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "The Prime Minister pitched a new India political thought his speech with the main focus on 'Janadhan, Vandhan and Jaldhan'."

"Under Janadhan, 28 crore have opened bank accounts under the government's policy. But for the remaining two policies, the Prime Minister said that we need to work honestly, as our policies have given faith to the people," he added.

Talking about the all round development of the country in terms of economy and social equality, the Prime Minister emphasized on envisaging an India sans discrimination of any kind.

"Making the poor man as a central point and to make his life sustainable, the thought of 'new India' is to free the poor man from unemployment and hunger. This was pitched by the Prime Minister," Gadkari said.

Elaborating on the Prime Minister's P2 and G2 formula, the Union Minister further said that they stand for pro active-pro people and Good Governance respectively.

"These will not be achieved through talks alone only. In 2022, when we will be in power we will bring that social economic change which will make our nation number one economically," Gadkari added.

Asserting that triple talaq was a menace crippling the lives of Muslim women in India, Prime Minister Modi today called on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to attack the issue on a grass-root level.

"Our Muslim sisters deserve justice. We should try to solve this issue at the district level. We should also proceed on the formula of a new India. We can't simply move forward on a slow pace, but charge ahead with full speed," the Prime Minister said.

Making an intervention during the discussion on the motion for granting constitutional status to the national commission for backward classes, the Prime Minister highlighted there are sections among the Muslims, who are backwards, adding that they should be included in the discussion over backward classes.

Prime Minister Modi also launched an attack on the Opposition over the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) matter, saying they are trying to churn up rows particularly ahead of the MCD polls.

"Opposition is concoction new issues in a factory of some kind. During the Delhi elections, Church attacks were the highlights and during the Bihar polls 'Award Wapasi' was the issue. And right now it is the EVM," the Prime Minister said during the meeting.

However, Prime Minister Modi also called on the BJP leaders to maintain caution while making statements and not get carried away with emotions and make untoward remarks.

"If there are any complaints then the matter should be passed on to the party leaders, who will convey it to me," he said.

The Prime Minister also called on the BJP to not get too excited over the recent state assembly elections victory and ensure they keep the momentum going.

"The BJP will launch a special campaign for those 120 Lok Sabha seats which have been out of our reach," he added.

The Prime Minister also hailed the efforts of BJP president Amit Shah, saying that he was the ideal model of an able strategist.
Chennai: Parts of North Chennai including high profile RK Nagar are witnessing a drinking water shortage. Residents complained that their locality has lost the attention of civic authorities after the election commission announced the cancellation of bypoll last week. Every year during summer sewage enters drinking water pipelines due to low water pressure and this year, thanks to the RK Nagar bypoll, this problem was not there till last week. After the withdrawal of model code of conduct the perennial problem is back to haunt resident of VOC and Sivaji Nagar, said civic activist E. Ramadosan of R K Nagar. In the past one year at least 15 complaints were given by residents and civic activists seeking better amenities, but during the bypoll campaign civic woes like garbage stagnation, mosquito menace and water shortage were addressed. Now, sanitary workers are missing from the constituency. The frequency of metro water tankers supplying drinking water to RK Nagar has also visibly decreased, Ramadosan alleged.

However, metro water engineers refuted the allegation by local residents. "We continue the daily trips to RK Nagar and nothing has changed post bypoll cancellation," said a metro water official. Meanwhile the case of other localities in north Chennai is even worse in Kosapet, Otteri and Choolai. "Kosapet residents are upset with the callous attitude of Chennai metro water and sewerage board department for delaying the new drinking water pipeline works. Despite being the regular payers of water tax, residents are forced to shell out extra amounts on water tankers", fumed M. Sekar, a state government staff residing in Venkatesa Naicken street of Kosapet. Metro officials promised to complete the water supply scheme by January 2017, but there are no signs of project progress. At least 500 families are aggravated by the poor supply of drinking water. The families without borewells have no choice but to rely on the water tankers, he added.

Attributing the delay to multiple reasons, a metro water official said, "Initially, there was a lack of funds. Funds havd been disbursed and we will start the works as soon as the Chennai corporation completes the road laying work here." However the metro water authorities remained non-committal on project deadline.
The Act serves to provide mental health care and services for persons with mental illness and to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of such persons during delivery of mental health care and services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Chennai: Ensuring that those distressed or mentally unstable, understand what the Mental Health Care Act, 2017, is all about is the need of the hour and it is also necessary that all psychiatrists, doctors, counsellors and the like understand that these patients have rights too, said Keshav Desiraju, former health secretary, Government of India. At an event to commemorate the 31st anniversary of Sneha  a suicide prevention centre  on Saturday, Desiraju, the architect behind the bill, said, The Act does not decriminalise suicide  which will not be done until the IPC Act 309 is scrapped  but it recognises that an individual who has attempted suicide is someone who is under immense stress and requires special care, and not imprisonment.

The Act serves to provide mental health care and services for persons with mental illness and to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of such persons during delivery of mental health care and services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. Recalling the incident, which sparked an interest to stand up for the decriminalisation of suicides, founder of SNEHA, Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, said, I came across a case of a young girl who had eloped. Her parents managed to bring her back home and chastised her. She attempted suicide and was immediately hospitalised. She recovered and was brought back home. However, policemen approached the village in search of her and registered her under IPC 309. Filled with shame, the young girl hung herself and died.

Dismissing the various myths tagged to the need for such an Act, Dr Lakshmi said, Based on various researches, we found that the distress in those who had attempted suicide only increases when registered under the Act. A large number of lives would be saved if suicides are decriminalised. Kanimozhi, MP, Rajya Sabha, stressed on the need for the government to invest its efforts in checking suicides as the country is already lacking in the number of psychiatrists, counsellors and mental health care givers.
Chennai: The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has convened an all-party meeting to deliberate the woes of the farmers of drought-hit Tamil Nadu agitating for a crop loan waiver.

Earlier on Tuesday, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien asked the Centre to hold talks with the agitating farmers.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu farmers continue to protest for drought relief at the Jantar Mantar in the national capital.

The farmers have been resorting to different ways of protesting, right from bringing skulls of dead farmers to standing nude in front of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to male farmers wearing sarees.

Earlier, Congress leader Manishankar Aiyar and DMK MP Kanimozhi had joined the protesting farmers at the Jantar Mantar.

DMK working president MK Stalin had also met the farmers on April 1 and lashed out at the Centre, saying it seemed to be "unperturbed" by their issues.

The farmers have been demanding that their loans from nationalised banks be forgiven, fair and just prices be set for their produce besides realistic solutions to address water scarcity in Tamil Nadu.

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) member and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai had earlier this week visited the agitating farmers at the Jantar Mantar and assured them that their grievances would be placed before Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the earliest.
(Xinhua) 09:18, April 16, 2017

Shanghai border control authorities will blacklist people who intentionally bring in non-native plants and animals multiple times.

Officials with Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau said ports have reported more instances of people bringing in invasive speices as exchanges between Shanghai and the world have increased.

Shanghai borders screened 20 million inbound tourists and 12 million parcels last year and blocked more than 7,000 entries involving 124 dangerous non-native species.

They included the Mediterranean fruit fly, which attacks fruit crops and the pine wilt nematode that threatens forests.

Officials say existing regulations stipulate a fine up to 5,000 yuan (about 730 U.S. dollars) for offenders, but this is not enough of a deterrent, so they will blacklist repeat offenders.

Being blacklisted may be recorded on people's credit and police records, the officials said.

Repeat offenders could face criminal charges once an amendment submitted to the legislature is passed, they added.

The officials did say they would be lenient on those who did not know the species were controlled.
Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday cautioned Bharatiya Janata Party leaders to 'practice the art of silence' and not get carried away while making statements.

According to an NDTV report, the party's national executive conclave ended with a stern warning from the prime minister, asking leaders to not be complacent after victory.

"There is no room for complacency after victory. From the soil of Odisha, the party should pledge to build a New India, where good governance and power to the poor should be the mantra," he said.

"When in power, they should practice the art of silence. The microphone is not a machine that forces people to speak," he exhorted.

Tearing into the Opposition for raking up a slew of issues particularly the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) matter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asserted that the former was trying to churn up rows particularly ahead of the MCD polls.

Speaking at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar, the Prime Minister expressed his frustration at the Opposition.

"Opposition is concoction new issues in a factory of some kind. During Delhi Elections, Church attacks were the highlights and during the Bihar Polls 'Award Wapasi' was the issue. And right now it is the EVM," the Prime Minister said during the meeting.

However, Prime Minister Modi also called on the BJP leaders to maintain caution while making statements and not get carried away with emotions and make untoward remarks.

"If there are any complaints, then the matter should be passed on to the party leaders who will convey it to me," he said.

The Prime Minister also called on the BJP to not get too excited over the recent State Assembly Elections victory and ensure they keep the momentum going.

"The BJP will launch a special campaign for those 120 Lok Sabha seats which have been out of our reach," he added.

The Prime Minister also hailed the efforts of party President Amit Shah saying that he was the ideal model of an able strategist.
Imphal: Manipur Health and Family Welfare Minister L Jayantakumar Singh, has resigned citing interference with his authority.

On Saturday, L Jayantkumar Singh said that the issue of his resignation would be finalised after Chief Minister N Biren Singh's return to the state on Tuesday.

"My resignation from the ministry will be finalised when the Chief Minister returns to Manipur on April 18," Jayantakumar Singh told reporters after attending a programme.

"Please wait till Tuesday as the CM will take the final decision," he said.

The Chief Minister has gone to Bhubhaneswar to attend the National Executive meeting of BJP.

To a question on the reason for his resignation, he said, "The matter is confidential.

NPP MLA Jayantakumar Singh resigned as minister, a month after taking oath along with the chief minister on March 15.

In his resignation letter dated April 13, he said, "I may not be able to get (the) vision materialised as expected since there have been so many interference in my authority."

Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh, however, told PTI on Friday that he neither received the health minister's resignation letter nor has any information about it.
Lucknow: Addressing her party members on the 126th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar on Friday, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said that she was open to enter into alliance with any political party to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"The BSP now has no reservations in taking the help of anti-BJP parties in its fight against EVM tampering and the BJP as it is the democracy which comes first...we have to keep democracy alive," she said.

Delighted over Mayawati's proposal for a 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) of anti-BJP parties for 2019 general elections, the Congress on Sunday said that the grand old party would also join in the race to oust the saffron party from national politics.

"I am delighted that in her own accord Mayawati has agreed to join this alliance. I think even without the Congress it is already strong enough to take on the BJP. But if the Congress comes into it and I hope it will, then there is no hope for Prime Minister Narendra Modi , except to see him consigned to the books of history," Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar told ANI.

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday also backed the idea of a coalition in 2019 to defeat BJP.
Surat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Surat on Saturday for a two-day visit and charmed the crowd here in a grand affair, holding a 11km road show in the city.

Chants of Modi, Modi rented the air as crowds thronged as Modi travelled between Airport and Circuit House. He was flanked by a 10,000 bike cavalcade, with the roads lined with flashy lights, massive television screens, and flags.

At Circuit House, the PM will meet BJP leaders and stay there for the night.

On Monday, the PM will inaugurate Rs 400-crore Kiran Multi Super Specialty Hospital and Research Centre, built by a trust, Patel said.

He is also scheduled to address a gathering at Sumul Dairy, officials said.

Modi will then visit Silvassa in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli where also he will address a gathering apart from inaugurating new projects and distributing assistance to beneficiaries.

Around 21,000 beneficiaries of different schemes of the Centre will get help kits there.

Modi will then head to Botad in Saurashtra to inaugurate phase-1 of Sauni project for Botad and surrounding districts.

He will also lay the foundation stone for phase-2 of the project.

In August 2016, Modi had inaugurated the first phase of ambitious Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (Sauni) Project from Jamnagar.

Under this project, which is divided in four phases, the Gujarat government plans to fill 115 dams of Saurashtra region with excess overflowing water of Sardar Sarovar Dam across river Narmada through a web of pipeline network.

This is Modi's second visit to his home state this year. He had earlier visited Gandhinagar on March 8 to address women sarpanchs from across the country on International Women's Day.
Bhubaneshwar: Two resolutions have been passed in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive meet in Bhubaneswar on Sunday, the second day of the conclave.

A resolution was passed thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the commission of the OBC Bill and it was seconded by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier made an intervention on a discussion about the backward commission, saying that more inclusiveness is necessary for backward Muslims.

He made the comment at the Bharatiya Janata Partys national executive meet during a strategy session regarding the new bill which sought to give constitutional recognition to the backward commission. The centre had planned to replace the National Commission for Backward Classes with a constitutional entity. The commission for backward classes was set up by a 1993 law.

The new bill allows the Parliament to include any community as a backward community. While the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, it has been stuck at the Rajya Sabha.

Another resolution also condemned the manner in which Congress and other parties are playing politics in this connection and stalling the bill.

The national executive meeting focused on the government schemes for poor and party should only be working towards the poor.

The two-day BJP national executive meeting is expected to underline strategy for a big saffron push in states like Odisha, Kerala, West Bengal where it has traditionally been weak.

Party president Amit Shah on Saturday said the BJP's golden era will begin only when it had chief ministers in every state and held power from the Panchayats to the parliament.
Bhubaneswar: Raising the 'triple talaq' issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said justice should be done to Muslim women, at the partys national executive conclave here.

The Prime Minister said if there are social evils, the society should be woken up and efforts made to provide justice to the victims.

In his address to the BJP national executive here, he said there should not be any "conflict" in the Muslim community over this issue.

"He (Modi) talked about social justice. He said our Muslim sisters should also get justice. Injustice should not be done with them. Nobody should be exploited.

"We do not want conflict within the Muslim community over this issue. What we have to do is that if there are any social evils, we have to wake up the society and make efforts to provide justice to them (Muslim women). That was the Prime Minister's spirit," Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said while briefing reporters about Modis speech.

Earlier, Modi had also intervened on a discussion about the backward commission, saying that society should be more inclusive of backward Muslims.

A resolution was passed thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the commission of the OBC Bill and it was seconded by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das.

He made the comment at the Bharatiya Janata Partys national executive meet during a strategy session regarding the new bill which sought to give constitutional recognition to the backward commission. The centre had planned to replace the National Commission for Backward Classes with a constitutional entity. The commission for backward classes was set up by a 1993 law.

The new bill allows the Parliament to include any community as a backward community. While the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, it has been stuck at the Rajya Sabha.
New Delhi: Security at three major international airports in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai has been stepped up after agencies were informed about a possible hijack attempt of an aircraft from these facilities.

Officials said an high alert has been issued to the three facilities after Mumbai Police received an e-mail last night from a woman living there.

The e-mail mentions that the woman overheard six boys talking about a possible aircraft hijack attempt at these facilities, they said.

The Mumbai Police shared the e-mail with all security and intelligence agencies.

A meeting of all stakeholders at these airports was subsequently convened and the input was declared specific and actionable, they said.

CISF Director General O P Singh confirmed to PTI that the security apparatus at these airports has been put on "an enhanced alert and protocols have been stepped up".

Special anti-sabotage sweeps are being undertaken at these airports since morning and security agencies, includingthe Central Industrial Security Force, have enhanced frisking of passengers, baggage scanning, pre-emabarkation checks and patrols in the vicinity of the airports, they said.

The CISF has called in its sniffer dog squads and quick reaction teams for undertaking sanitisation drills at the airports, they said, adding airlines have been asked to remain extra vigilant.

"However, there is no reason to panic and all the operations at these airports will be normal and without any hassle to passengers," a senior officer who is part of airports security team said.

The police are probing the contents of the e-mail and trying to get in touch with the sender.
Bengaluru: The city is reeling under a severe water shortage, and private water tanker operators are raking in the moolah. Though the BWSSB claimed that it has not begun rationing of water, eastern and south-eastern parts of the city, which fall at the tail end of the supply chain, are running dry. Some parts of the core area are also witnessing water shortages and are at the mercy of water tankers.

For the residents of older TMC and CMC areas, water supply is only through private tankers. A single tanker which used to supply 5-7 loads of water a day has now almost doubled their trips. They are charging anywhere between `600 and `800 for a mini-load of water. They refuse water supply to independent houses and concentrate only on bulk consumers like apartments. They are minting money and officials of BWSSB and BBMP are turning a blind eye to this exploitation of groundwater, said Mr Kumar of Bhattarahalli.

The number of private water tankers in core parts of the city and outskirts will cross 1,000. With no regulation in place, they are exploiting the citizens, said Mr D S Rajashekar, president, Citizens' Action Forum. Even pockets of core Bengaluru are running short of water and depend on private tankers. They are doing brisk business because of the nexus between water tanker operators and officials of BWSSB and corporators, he said. The BWSSB should bring private water tankers into its ambit and issue licences as they are running without any regulations, and are exploiting groundwater.
East zone police has booked a case against the attackers, who vandalised two RTC buses near Afzalgunj in the city. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: Hundreds of BJP activists were arrested by Hyderabad police from different parts of the city while protesting against the passage of a Bill by the Telangana Legislature increasing employment reservations for some backward sections of the states Muslim community. The protesters allegedly vandalised RTC buses at Afzalgunj.

All five BJP MLAs  G Kishan Reddy, K. Laxman, N.V.S.S. Prabhakar, Ch Ramachandra Reddy and T. Raja Singh  were arrested while they were protesting at the Gandhi statue on the Assembly premises. Earlier, five of them were suspended from the Assembly during the session.

Meanwhile, around 1,000 BJP workers, who were trying to take out a march towards the Assembly were detained by the police from various parts of the city and outskirts.

The protesters shouted slogans against Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and the TRS government and demanded their resignation. Besides BJP activists, several ABVP workers were also arretsed by the cops.

East zone police has booked a case against the attackers, who vandalised two RTC buses near Afzalgunj in the city. Many other BJP workers were detained under preventive measures and were let off later.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao could not have asked for more on a day when the Telangana state Legislature passed the Act enhancing reservations for Muslims and STs, on Sunday. The entire Opposition raised their doubt in the house over the BJP-led government at the Centre approving the TS Muslim quota hike. Luckily for the Chief Minister, he got an unexpected shot in the arm from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mr Modi talked about backwardness among Muslims at the BJPs national executive meeting in Odisha, saying that more inclusiveness is needed for those who are backward among the Muslim community. The news broke out when Mr Rao left for the Legislative Council from the Assembly to introduce the Muslim quota Bill.

An elated Mr Rao read out the Prime Ministers remarks in the council, and hailed it, saying, This is a good sign for us. This has given me confidence that the Centre will approve our Act.

Said the Prime Minister in Bhubaneswar, In many regions, there are Muslims who are backward. The party and governments should ensure that they benefit from the new-look backward commission which has been given a Constitutional status.

Mr Rao said he will meet Mr Modi on April 23 in New Delhi during a meeting convened by Niti Aayog, and request him to support the Telangana state Muslim quota Act and its inclusion in the IX Schedule of Constitution to give it legal protection.

KCR for state power to implement quotas

The Telangana state Legislature on Sunday passed a Bill which raises substantially the reservation for backward Muslims and scheduled tribes, taking the total quotas in government jobs and educational institutions much beyond the 50 per cent limit set by the Supreme Court.

Barring the BJP, all the parties supported the Bill. BJP MLAs were suspended from the House after they protested against communal reservations.

Tamil Nadu has been giving 69 per cent reservations for over two decades. A few North-Eastern States are giving up to 80 per cent reservations. Even the BJP-ruled states like Rajasthan and Gujarat are seeking more than 50 per cent quota. Maharashtra is implementing 52 per cent quota. We, too, want similar exemption because 90 per cent of the TS population comprises BCs, SCs, STs and minorities. There cannot be different rules for different states, Mr Rao said.

The Chief Minister appealed to the Centre to give power to states to implement reservations. He said he will mobilise the support of CMs of other states to achieve this. He said the party MPs will fight in Parliament to secure the Centres approval for the TS quota Act. Each state has its own social composition. A flat 50 per cent quota for all states is not practical. The Centre should let the states decide on reservations, Mr Rao said.
(Xinhua) 09:20, April 16, 2017

A senior Chinese lawmaker on Saturday called on the government to better regulate the price and quality of medicine.

Li Jianguo, vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, made the remarks after leading a five-day legislative inspection of pharmaceutical companies, wholesalers, retailers, and medical institutes in Shandong Province.

He said fake, inferior, and over-priced drugs are a huge public concern. Despite laws to address the situation, problems remain due to certain departments turning a blind eye to illegal activity by pharmaceutical businesses.

Li said there should be "zero tolerance" for irregularities and a serious crackdown was needed to get the public back on side.

He stressed that changes must start from strengthening the administration capacity, particularly at the grassroots levels, to ensure drug supervision is improved.
Amaravati: Critical or negative remarks on social media against the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) or the Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh may soon land netizens in trouble, or even behind the bars.

Taking a serious view of the "growing criticism" of the party and the government, TDP general secretary and state Information Technology Minister Nara Lokesh has asked his fellow leaders to initiate criminal action against those "tarnishing our image".

"The (mainstream) media is favourable to us but we have no control over the social media and there is a lot of negative propaganda against us. We have to curb this," he is said to have told party leaders in a PowerPoint presentation

during the coordination meeting recently.

"If we start taking criminal action against those making critical posts, it will be a deterrent to others," Lokesh, the son of chief minister Naidu, said.

What ostensibly angered Lokesh, who only days ago became an MLC and a minister, was the way he was increasingly targeted on social media platforms over his public utterances.

Video clips of his communication skills went viral on social media in recent days and apparently showed him in a "very poor light".

Two days ago, for example, he extended "greetings" to people at a public meeting on the occasion of 126th "vardhanti" (death anniversary) of Dr B R Ambedkar, whereas it was the birth anniversary.

The way he fumbled, unable to clearly recite certain words in Telugu, while taking oath as an MLC or his speech at an election meeting wherein he said voting on "cycle" (TDP's poll symbol) was akin to "hanging yourself" and another instance where he said the TDP was the only party that was "casteist, communal, corrupt and money-minded" all exposed Lokesh, as the videos were circulated widely on the social media.

His presentation to the party on "media feedback" came against this backdrop, party insiders said. And hence, Lokesh's call for criminal action against those who are circulating such posts, they said.

While Lokesh could not be reached for his version over the developments, Information and Public Relations Minister Kalva Srinivasulu said, "It's not Lokesh Babu's idea as such but there had been some discussion during the recent Budget Session (of Legislature) that there should be some restriction on social media as people have been posting stuff without any restraint."

"Our legislators and leaders feel we need to curb this trend and so we are studying the cyber laws on how to go about it," he said.

Asked if it not exposed the intolerance of the TDP, Kalva, a former journalist, remarked that nobody would have any objection if the posts were "democratic and within the rules".

Everyone has a right to express his or her opinion but they should not infringe on others' rights, he said, adding when there is undue criticism in unrestrained language, there should be some restriction.

"We wanted to discuss this in the Assembly and take a decision but somehow couldn't," the Minister, who is also a politburo member of TDP, said.
The Sino-India frontier force has undertaken a first-time initiative to make aware the wives of its troops about their "rights and duties".(Photo: Representational/Pixabay)

New Delhi: Do not allow your husband to tie the nuptial knot again while he is still married to you; be updated with the regimental number and rank of your husband.

These are some of the instructions that border guarding force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has compiled in a unique booklet and distributed among the wives of its troops deployed in far-flung frontier areas and in the hinterlands.

The Sino-India frontier force has undertaken a first-time initiative to make aware the wives of its troops about their "rights and duties".

The booklet has been attached in another book that the paramilitary has prepared to educate its jawans and their families about issues of health and personal hygiene.

Over 85,000 copies of these two booklets have already been printed and dispatched to the field formations of the force.

ITBP Director General Krishna Chaudhary, who has also written a foreword in the book, said that strict directions have been issued to all the formations to ensure

that these books are handed over by the troops to their families when they visit them on leave.

"We got these booklets prepared by talking to experts and doctors of the force. The aim is to keep the troops and their families healthy and happy given the fact that they are deployed in hard areas where communication with the world is

minimal," the DG said.

The booklet for wives tells them that they should be updated and informed about the regimental number (force ID), rank, current pay, location of battalion or unit and even the number of official leaves their husbands are entitled to.

"Ensure that your name is included in his service book, your name has been entered as the next of kin in the service record and all bank accounts and life insurance policies," the instructions state.

ITBP spokesperson Deputy Commandant Vivek K Pandey explains the rationale behind the initiative: "The duty charter of the force is such that troops are on

duty and away from home for long and visit their homes only during the leave period and it is the wives who run the household in their absence.

"It was found that many jawans and their families were totally ignorant about their rights and their entitlements and hence the books were prepared to make them aware," he said.

The booklet, prepared by the wives welfare association of the force, is an attempt to make sure that wives can make an informed choice and no one is able to mislead them in case of any eventuality, Pandey said.

The booklet for wives also speaks about the legal rights they have: "Do not give your husband the right to marry again while he is still married to you. If any force personnel remarries while his first wife is still alive and without her written consent, then according to ITBP rules he can be terminated from service."

It also tells them in detail that a government servant demanding dowry is illegal and is a punishable offence and also about the grounds a wife can seek divorce.

However, divorce is the last resort, it states. Woman can take help of family, friends and the commanding officer and the stress counsellor of her husband's battalion.

The wives are also suggested to "understand" the service conditions of their husbands which are quite tough and that they should "cooperate" with them in this regard.

"Inform your husband's seniors officers about any doubtful activities of your husband. Try to be self reliant and mentally strong to face any situation," it said.

The health awareness guide book informs the jawans about various lifestyle diseases and ways to live healthy without indulging into alcohol or drugs abuse.

It also makes them understand various aspects of healthy living and the correct procedure for undertaking daily ablutions like brushing teeth and the benefits of doing regular exercises.

The health book also warns them about the drawbacks of having junk food and not adopting a healthy lifestyle and undertaking excessive stress.

A special mention has been made on health challenges faced on high-altitudes and mountains as the force is largely deployed in the Himalayan region along the China border.

The about 86,000 personnel strong force is tasked with securing the 3,488-km-long frontier apart from rendering a variety of duties in the internal security domain of the country including undertaking anti-Naxal operations.
The jawan had hanged himself after a video on the "abuse" of buddy system surfaced which showed soldiers, working as 'sahayaks', walking dogs of senior officials or taking their children to school. (Photo: File)

Nashik (Maharashtra): A court here has rejected the anticipatory bail applications of a New Delhi-based woman journalist and a retired army official charged with abetting suicide of Lance Naik D S Roy Mathew.

Mathew had committed suicide after he purportedly figured in an expose by a news portal over alleged abuse of the "buddy" (orderly) system in the army.

District and Sessions Judge M S Pathan rejected the applications of Poonam Agrawal, a journalist with a news portal, and retired army officer Deepchand Kashmirsing Saturday after the court was informed that they needed to be

arrested to get more information in connection with the case.

Both Agrawal and Kashmirsing had moved their bail plea in the court on April 9.

The prosecution told the court that it was necessary to impound the camera and the memory card used by Agarwal in carrying out the sting operation by entering an army area illegally.

The jawan had hanged himself after a video on the "abuse" of buddy system surfaced which showed soldiers, working as 'sahayaks', walking dogs of senior officials or taking their children to school.

Mathew had gone missing on February 25 soon after the video became public and his body was found in a decomposed state in a barrack at Deolali's Heig Line on March 2.

Deolali police had on March 27 registered a case against Agrawal and Kashmirsing for offences under the stringent sections 3 (spying) and 7 (interfering with officers of the police or members?of the armed forces of the Union) of the Official Secrets Act.

Agrawal was also booked for violating army rules by entering prohibited areas and conducting a shoot there without permission.

She was also charged under sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 451 (criminal trespass), 500 (defamation) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
Hyderabad: The site on which the Osmania University campus is situated did not meet with the approval of Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan, Nizam VII, founder of the university. He agreed to it very reluctantly. The Nizam wanted the university to be situated in the heart of the city, on the banks of River Musa (Musi) and near the High Court, according to documents in Urdu preserved in the state archives, Mohammed Abdul Raqeeb, assistant director, Telangana State Archives and Research Institute, told Deccan Chronicle.

The search committee could not find the required land and zeroed in on Adikmet, which was then on the citys outskirts. The Nizam was not impressed and asked them to continue the search but when it became obvious that 1,400 acres in the vicinity of the High Court was simply not to be had, the Nizam reluctantly settled for the Adikmet land.

The State Archives houses many such interesting documents including firmans in Urdu/Persian, pertaining to the building designs, selection of land, construction of the university and allocation of funds. It also has a collection of rare photographs, says Zareena Praveen, director of the institute. Farmans are royal orders, and those issued in the Asaf Jahi period, including those of the sixth Nizam, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, and Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam, from 1901 to 1950, have been preserved in the State Archives. They are in Persian and Urdu.

There is a hukm dated April 26, 1917, which established the university in Hyderabad and named it Osmania University, with Urdu as the main language and English as a compulsory subject. Another hukm dated July 17, 1919, granted approval for the monogram with Ain, an Arabic alphabet, in the centre, and the state colour of yellow. A letter written by Rabindranath Tagore, dated January 9, 1918, is among the documents in the archives.

There is a firman to academicians who were preparing the syllabus the university was to follow that insisted that nothing should be published which hurts religious sentiment of people and creates a rift in society.
Bhubaneswar: Life-size cutouts of BJP president Amit Shah, who is here to attend the party's national executive meeting, were found torn and defaced at Power House Chhak area.

Cutouts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi were, however, left untouched.

"It is an unfortunate incident. We condemn it as such an act is against the culture and tradition of Odisha," Senior BJP leader Suresh Pujari said.

Pujari accused ruling BJD activists as being behind the incident and said that the party's leaders were worried over BJP's surge in Odisha.

Some other BJP leaders too claimed that the incident is the work of their political rivals.

Police are, however, yet to find the culprits.

Rejecting the allegations, BJD Spokesperson Dibya Shankar Mishra said "BJD does not believe in such vandalism."

Some senior BJP workers have expressed disappointment over the absence of cutouts of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and party veteran L K Advani.

BJP's two-day national executive meeting will begin here on Saturday with all party bigwigs including Prime Minister Narendra Modi joining the deliberations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi being welcomed by party leaders upon his arrival at Biju Patnaik Airport, in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday said he had no plans to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his two-day stay in the state capital.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Mr Patnaik said since the Prime Minister was on a political mission, there was no need to meet him.

Asked about the massive congregation of BJP national leaders in Bhubaneswar and almost all of them calling for overthrowing his government in 2019 Odisha Assembly polls, the Chief Minister as usual appeared defiant and said, I dont see any threat from the BJP to my party and government.
New Delhi: U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday attacked the recent calls demanding the release of his individual tax returns, saying it should be investigated that who "paid for" the marches held nationwide.

Trump took to his Twitter to say, "Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!"

The tweet came after thousands of organized protests, by lawmakers and Americans citizens, urged him to release his returns on the Tax Day, on April 15.

Over a dozen people were arrested in Berkeley, California, over the weekend, after violent clashes erupted on the streets between pro-Trump and anti-Trump groups.

In another tweet he wrote, "I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?"
Taking a veiled swipe at BJP state president B.S. yeddyurappa, KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao on Sunday quipped that BJP leaders who could not win two seats in the just concluded by-elections were dreaming of making Bharat Congress Mukt and dreaming of 150 plus seats in 2018.

Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Mr Rao said, "Merely issuing rhetorical statements and indulging in sloganeering like Congress Mukt Bharat will only hurt their throats, at the ground level it may not have the desired impact." In response to a question, Mr Rao contended that party central leaders had taken serious note of those issuing anti-party statements or indulging in anti-party activities in the state. "I think they will be dealt with an iron hand shortly," he added.

Indirectly referring to statements of Congress veteran leaders, B. Janardhan Poojary, Mr Rao said that a Mangaluru-based senior leader of the Congress party had stated that the party will not win a single seat in the by-elections but the party proved him wrong though his statements had an adverse impact during the campaign.

Earlier, Congress MLC, Rizwan Arshad set the tone demanding action against party senior leaders making anti-party statements. "We had one leader called S.M. Krishna, who was given every possible post one could have dreamt of. But his hollowness is so legendary that he went to the United Nations only to read someone's speech copy. Now that he has chosen to be with BJP, I humbly request BJP leaders to take the honour of rehabilitating our party leaders as there are still four or five leaders like Mr Krishna left with us," he said without naming former railway minister and veteran Congress leader, C.K. Jaffer Sharief with whom he shares a love-hate relationship.
Bengaluru: Buoyed over the victory in the two assembly seats in just concluded by-polls, Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah on Sunday declared that there was no need to hire the services of poll managers like Prashant Kishor in the state to retain power in 2018.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with AICC general secretary, Digvijay Singh in New Delhi, Mr Siddaramaiah in his typical laid-back attitude asserted that the victory in recent by-elections only proves the fact that there is no anti-incumbency against the Congress government in the state. "Our local leaders are capable of both planning and executing a poll victory, hence what is the point in hiring a person like Mr Kishor?," he countered in response to a question.

He further analysed that former chief minister late S. Bangarappa joining the BJP in 2004 and the BJP being denied their share of power during the tenure of the BJP-JDS coalition in 2007 were the two main reasons for the rise of the party and its leader, B.S. Yeddyruappa. "But for these two crucial incidents, BJP would not have reached its status in Karnataka which is traditionally a Congress bastion, It will remain a Congress stronghold in 2018 too," he argued.

In response to a question, Mr Siddaramaiah stated that the state government has not yet decided to waive farmer loans adding that even if the Congress government does for the sake of political mileage, it will not have much of an impact. "Farmer loans taken from co-operative banks are already way cheaper in the state and it amounts to only a minor fraction of the entire farming loans in the state. If at all the state needs to be benefit in the true sense, the Union government has to waive farmer loans taken from nationalized banks as well completely," he reiterated.

Training his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders, the CM quipped that state BJP leaders were acting like lame ducks before PM Narendra Modi and did not open up even for the sake of protecting the state's interests though they do talk a lot in public.
Bengaluru: After the debacle in the Nanjangud and Gundlupet bypolls, the Bharatiya Janata Party has begun an introspection to find the reasons for losing both seats by a huge margin.

Sources close to State BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa told Deccan Chronicle that as first step towards this, the party had collected the booth-wise voting pattern in two assembly segments to understand where their strategy failed. The results have come as a shocker for Mr Yeddyurappa who had high hopes of winning Nanjangud easily due to the popularity of its candidate, V Srinivasaprasad. The party even felt it had a 50:50 chance in Gundlupet since Congress candidate Ms Geeta Mahadevprasad was heavily banking on sympathy following the sudden demise of her husband and Co-Operation Minister H.S. Mahadevprasad.

But all calculations of the party went awry as Srinivasaprasad lost to Congress candidate, Kalale Keshavamurthy by over 20,000 votes. The only solace for the BJP was a rise in voting percentage compared to the previous polls.

The sources said Mr Yeddyurappa is expected to visit Mysuru on April 17 to thank the party cadre for working hard in by elections, and also ask them to gear up for the 2018 Assembly polls.

He is likely to visit Nanjangud and Gundlupet to boost the morale of workers. Soon after the results were announced, he had a meeting with leaders like Mr R. Ashok and Mr Somanna to know the reasons for losing both the seats despite deploying workers at the grassroot level to campaign for the candidates.

Chinthan manthan: The Chinthan-manthan baitak is scheduled to take place sometime next week for a detailed discussion on the debacle in which senior state leaders will participate. Mr Yeddyurappa is likely to meet and brief BJP National President Amit Shah at the ongoing two-day national executive committee meeting being held in Odisha on why the party lost both seats.

Sources said Mr Yeddyurappa would gather the polling details and discuss the revised strategy to be adopted to win the next assembly polls. Leaders will ponder over the voting pattern in both constituencies and find where they faltered.

The sources said after the results, Yeddyurappa went to Mr Srinivasprasad's house and extended moral support to him. For the BJP, he has been a big leader whose services will be utlilised in the coming general election. "We have learnt many lessons in the bypolls, it will not be repeated in 2018. It's only a temporary setback, the party will bounce back by bagging both seats next year, BJP sources said.
(Xinhua) 09:23, April 16, 2017

A central bank official on Saturday said green financing must be improved as the country seeks greener and more sustainable growth.

In a speech delivered at a meeting on green financing, vice governor of the central bank Chen Yulu said China's green financing is still at an early stage and it has the potential to be more effective.

The investment returns on some green projects are not attractive enough, and some fields still face financing difficulties and high financing costs, Chen noted, calling for a coordinated role between the government and the market to promote green financing.

China should encourage local governments to set up green funds and work together with social capital to bring down financing costs, Chen suggested.

Innovation for financing products and services should be boosted to speed up development of green bonds, green asset-backed securitization, green indices and green insurance to offer diverse products to investors.

China should also enhance transparency in the green financing market and deepen international cooperation in the area, according to Chen.

China is pushing the development of green finance to support its industrial upgrading and anti-pollution campaign.

According to credit rating agency Moody's, green bond issues worldwide hit a record high of 93.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, rising 120 percent from a year earlier, bolstered by China-based issuers.

China accounted for nearly 40 percent of new green bonds last year, followed by the United States, France and Germany, according to Moody's.
Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam may not get an additional berth in the proposed reshuffle of the Union Cabinet this month, as it is expected to be an affair confined to the BJP.

Though the matter of the Cabinet reshuffle came up during TD president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidus meeting with BJP president Amit Shah as well as Prime Minister Modi in Delhi recently, it was indicated to him that the reshuffle will be confined to the BJP.

Currently, the TD has one Cabinet minister  civil aviation minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju  and one minister of state  Y.S. Chowdary  in the Union Council of Ministers.

Currently, there are three senior MPs in the party  Hindupur MP Nimmala Kishtappa (BC), Chittoor MP Dr N. Siva Prasad (SC), Narasaraopet MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao (OC).

According to sources in the Telugu Desam, Mr Naidu was not keen to push for the inclusion of any new names for the inclusion in the council of ministers due to several local factors such as seniority, caste and region.

For example, if Mr Kishtappa was considered for the post, it may annoy Dr Siva Prasad and it is not possible to push for ministerial posts.

Though Anantapur MP J.C. Diwakara Reddy is senior in politics, he is a first time MP. However, Mr Sambasiva Rao who is six-time MP and is eligible in all respects. However, he belongs to the same caste as of Mr Chowdary, who is already made minister,

The TD chief was of the view it would be politically prudent to not recommend anyones name for Cabinet berths and trigger dissatisfaction among the senior MPs.
School education in Karnataka makes more noise than all the professional education combined! School education is a concurrent subject under our Constitution. Therefore, both the Centre and the States have the authority to make laws concerning it; the Karnataka Legislature possesses the authority to make laws to regulate all schools in Karnataka. Period.

In 1983, the Karnataka Education Bill was introduced but remained mired in controvery over how much Governmental regulation was appropriate or desirable over private schools. Finally, it was passed in the year 1995. Very soon, it became bloated after confusing regulations were added to it.

In 1998, this Karnataka Education Act was amended to exclude schools affiliated to the 1) Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and 2) Council of Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE but popularly known as ICSE), a private Board. This exclusion did two things it created massive resentment among schools governed by the State Board and freed CBSE and ICSE schools from the confusing and bewildering State regulations while allowing them to regulate themselves.

Fees are rigidly regulated for schools governed by State Board. In fact, the levels are rigid to the point of being frivolous and ridiculous. For instance, do you know that State Board schools are told to not collect more than `600 per year per student towards Development Fees? You may not, simply because nobody adheres to these ridiculous rules. And, as the legal counsel representing the largest number of private unaided schools in Karnataka, I can tell you that most of these rules play little part in the provision of quality education but instead, force parents to shell out bribes. Therefore, the CBSE and ICSE schools have been fortunate in that they have remained outside the purview of these bizarre rules - until now. A recent amendment to the Karnataka Education Act brings both the CBSE and ICSE schools under its umbrella. However, the only practical impact of it will be that they will also be harassed by the terribly corrupt State Education Officers and just to be free of this, they will have to bribe

them regularly. Coming to the law, an eleven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court held in 2002 that the Government should not fix a rigid fee structure in private unaided schools  schools that should only survive on the fees they charge. This is the law in this country. Therefore, the effort of the Karnataka Government to set a rigid fee structure upon CBSE and ICSE schools will simply be ignored, again.

More than 75% of all schools in Karnataka are government schools where education is altogether free. Another 3% are private aided schools where the Government puts firm controls. Private unaided schools are the balance 17%. The majority of these 17% are schools governed by the State Board; schools affiliated to the CBSE and ICSE are a small number in the State.

The parents who choose private unaided schools are those who do not prefer to avail of free education in government schools. The thing that makes a fee-charging private unaided school attractive to a parent that already has the option of free education in government schools is the autonomy that a private unaided school has over a government school. The ability to fix ones own fee structure is a major part of this autonomy.

As a matter of law, all private schools have an obligation to be run as charitable organisations. Thereby, all monies that are received in fees should only be spent towards the school and nobody is allowed pocket it privately. In other words, every rupee collected by a school should be compulsorily receipted and all of such money should only be spent towards the school. Therefore, a rigid fee structure in private unaided schools neither makes sense nor is it lawful. Unlike professional education where seats are very limited such as in Engineering or Medicine, seats for school education is plentiful; most government schools are running dry.

I am surprised that the government does not wish to take more meaningful steps such as to find out if a school that attracts many complaints is spending all of its fees only towards the school. Those establishments set up merely to make fill the managements pockets have no place in our society and we will benefit collectively when they are identified and shut down. Adding mindlessly to education laws does nothing to check errant schools. Honesty in government is what it takes to stop such schools and we rarely find enough of this in our Education Department.
Two veteran NASA missions are providing new details about icy, ocean-bearing moons of Jupiter and Saturn, further heightening the scientific interest of these and other "ocean worlds" in our solar system and beyond. The findings are presented in papers published Thursday by researchers with NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn and Hubble Space Telescope.

In the papers, Cassini scientists announce that a form of chemical energy that life can feed on appears to exist on Saturn's moon Enceladus, and Hubble researchers report additional evidence of plumes erupting from Jupiter's moon Europa.

"This is the closest we've come, so far, to identifying a place with some of the ingredients needed for a habitable environment," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters in Washington. "These results demonstrate the interconnected nature of NASA's science missions that are getting us closer to answering whether we are indeed alone or not."

The paper from researchers with the Cassini mission, published in the journal Science, indicates hydrogen gas, which could potentially provide a chemical energy source for life, is pouring into the subsurface ocean of Enceladus from hydrothermal activity on the seafloor.

The presence of ample hydrogen in the moon's ocean means that microbes - if any exist there - could use it to obtain energy by combining the hydrogen with carbon dioxide dissolved in the water. This chemical reaction, known as "methanogenesis" because it produces methane as a byproduct, is at the root of the tree of life on Earth, and could even have been critical to the origin of life on our planet.

Life as we know it requires three primary ingredients: liquid water; a source of energy for metabolism; and the right chemical ingredients, primarily carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. With this finding, Cassini has shown that Enceladus - a small, icy moon a billion miles farther from the sun than Earth - has nearly all of these ingredients for habitability. Cassini has not yet shown phosphorus and sulfur are present in the ocean, but scientists suspect them to be, since the rocky core of Enceladus is thought to be chemically similar to meteorites that contain the two elements.

"Confirmation that the chemical energy for life exists within the ocean of a small moon of Saturn is an important milestone in our search for habitable worlds beyond Earth," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The Cassini spacecraft detected the hydrogen in the plume of gas and icy material spraying from Enceladus during its last, and deepest, dive through the plume on Oct. 28, 2015. Cassini also sampled the plume's composition during flybys earlier in the mission. From these observations scientists have determined that nearly 98 percent of the gas in the plume is water, about 1 percent is hydrogen and the rest is a mixture of other molecules including carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia.

The measurement was made using Cassini's Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) instrument, which sniffs gases to determine their composition. INMS was designed to sample the upper atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. After Cassini's surprising discovery of a towering plume of icy spray in 2005, emanating from hot cracks near the south pole, scientists turned its detectors toward the small moon.

Cassini wasn't designed to detect signs of life in the Enceladus plume - indeed, scientists didn't know the plume existed until after the spacecraft arrived at Saturn.

"Although we can't detect life, we've found that there's a food source there for it. It would be like a candy store for microbes," said Hunter Waite, lead author of the Cassini study.

The new findings are an independent line of evidence that hydrothermal activity is taking place in the Enceladus ocean. Previous results, published in March 2015, suggested hot water is interacting with rock beneath the sea; the new findings support that conclusion and add that the rock appears to be reacting chemically to produce the hydrogen.

The paper detailing new Hubble Space Telescope findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, reports on observations of Europa from 2016 in which a probable plume of material was seen erupting from the moon's surface at the same location where Hubble saw evidence of a plume in 2014. These images bolster evidence that the Europa plumes could be a real phenomenon, flaring up intermittently in the same region on the moon's surface.

The newly imaged plume rises about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Europa's surface, while the one observed in 2014 was estimated to be about 30 miles (50 kilometers) high. Both correspond to the location of an unusually warm region that contains features that appear to be cracks in the moon's icy crust, seen in the late 1990s by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Researchers speculate that, like Enceladus, this could be evidence of water erupting from the moon's interior.

"The plumes on Enceladus are associated with hotter regions, so after Hubble imaged this new plume-like feature on Europa, we looked at that location on the Galileo thermal map. We discovered that Europa's plume candidate is sitting right on the thermal anomaly," said William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Sparks led the Hubble plume studies in both 2014 and 2016.

The researchers say if the plumes and the warm spot are linked, it could mean water being vented from beneath the moon's icy crust is warming the surrounding surface. Another idea is that water ejected by the plume falls onto the surface as a fine mist, changing the structure of the surface grains and allowing them to retain heat longer than the surrounding landscape.

For both the 2014 and 2016 observations, the team used Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) to spot the plumes in ultraviolet light. As Europa passes in front of Jupiter, any atmospheric features around the edge of the moon block some of Jupiter's light, allowing STIS to see the features in silhouette. Sparks and his team are continuing to use Hubble to monitor Europa for additional examples of plume candidates and hope to determine the frequency with which they appear.

NASA's future exploration of ocean worlds is enabled by Hubble's monitoring of Europa's putative plume activity and Cassini's long-term investigation of the Enceladus plume. In particular, both investigations are laying the groundwork for NASA's Europa Clipper mission, which is planned for launch in the 2020s.

"If there are plumes on Europa, as we now strongly suspect, with the Europa Clipper we will be ready for them," said Jim Green, Director of Planetary Science, at NASA Headquarters.

Hubble's identification of a site which appears to have persistent, intermittent plume activity provides a tempting target for the Europa mission to investigate with its powerful suite of science instruments. In addition, some of Sparks' co-authors on the Hubble Europa studies are preparing a powerful ultraviolet camera to fly on Europa Clipper that will make similar measurements to Hubble's, but from thousands of times closer. And several members of the Cassini INMS team are developing an exquisitely sensitive, next-generation version of their instrument for flight on Europa Clipper.

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New York City police officers detain a passenger from a disabled New Jersey Transit train who became belligerent and sparked a stampede among passengers leaving the overcrowded station once the train finally arrived at New York's Penn Station, Friday, April 14, 2017. (Photo: AP)

New York (United States): At least 16 people were injured in a stampede at New York's Penn Station over false reports of gunfire. People pushed each other to escape the underground station following false reports of gunfire.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio clarified that no shots were fired at Penn Station.

"No shots were fired at Penn Station this evening. FDNY is on scene treating injuries that were sustained during panic," Blasio tweeted.

New York City Police Department Chief, William Morris, said that no gun shots were fired and the sound was of police using a stun gun on someone.

"About 6:30 tonight, we received numerous calls for shots fired in and around Penn Station," CNN quoted Morris as saying.
Chrystia Freeland adds the move is a part of international pressure on the Assad regime to end indiscriminate violence against their own people. (Photo: AP)

Ottawa (Canada): Canada has sanctioned 27 high-ranking officials in the Syrian Government to put pressure on President Bashar al- Assad to end 'indiscriminate' violence in the war-torn country.

According to the Toronto Star, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement that those people are now subject to an asset freeze and dealings prohibition. Calling for meaningful negotiations, Freeland added the move is a part of international pressure on the Assad regime to end indiscriminate violence against their own people like this month's chemical weapons attack.

Earlier, Freeland urged Russia, a longtime Assad ally, to break with the Syrian President and help broker his departure in order to establish a lasting peace. Freeland further said the new sanctions against key officials are part of Canada's continued efforts to pressure the Assad regime to stop the violence against innocent children, women and men.

The statement issued on Friday said Canada is contributing to investigations on the use of chemical weapons and the collection of evidence to support the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.

"Last week's chemical weapons attack in southern Idlib is a war crime and is unacceptable. Canada is working with its allies to end the war in Syria and hold those responsible to account," she said. The Syrian regime faced global ire over an alleged chemical attack in rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun which killed 87 people including many children.

The Syrian Government has, however, denied involvement in the toxic attack and blamed rebel groups. Russia has also backed Syrian claims. Denouncing the chemical attack, US President Donald Trump ordered a strike that saw 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles destroy the airbase in central Syria.

It was the first direct US military action against Assad's forces since the start of Syria's civil war six years ago and led to a quick downward spiral in ties between Washington and Moscow. Russia accused the United States of breaking international law with the strike against Syria.
Fatimah Farooq is shown, Tuesday, March 14, 2017 in Ann Arbor, Mich. Farooq counsels refugees who have been victims of trauma, torture or sex trafficking. In between, she is trying to navigate being black, Muslim and a daughter of immigrants. (Photo: AP)

Dearborn (Michigan): In her job as a refugee case manager, Fatimah Farooq would come to work in a hijab and speak with her clients in Arabic. Nonetheless, she found herself being asked whether she was Muslim.

Its not easy, Farooq says, navigating her dual identities as black and Muslim.

Im constantly trying to prove that I belong, said Farooq, who now works in public health. Its really hard not to be an outsider in a community especially today, in the current times.

Many Muslims are reeling from a US presidential administration thats cracked down on immigrants, including the introduction of a travel ban that suspends new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries and is now tied up in court.

But black American-born Muslims say they have been pushed to the edges of the conversations, even by those who share the same religion.

They say they often feel discrimination on multiple fronts: for being black, for being Muslim and for being black and Muslim among a population of immigrant Muslims.

Farooq, whose Sudanese parents came to the US before she was born, said her own family used to attend a largely African-American mosque but then moved to a predominantly Arab one yet in both cases still felt like outsiders.

The identity issues have rippled into social media with Twitters #BeingBlackAndMuslim and @BlkMuslimWisdom formed in recent weeks to amplify stories of black Muslims, whether its to praise Mahershala Ali, who is black and became the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar, or to express concern over the lack of black speakers at a recent Islamic conference.

Tensions are also being aired at community town halls, with panelists questioning why there hasnt been more involvement from Arab and South Asian Muslims in Black Lives Matter events.

In response, activists say theyre seizing the opportunity to unite Muslims of all backgrounds.

Kashif Syed, who lives in the Washington, DC area, grew up in a family of South Asian Muslim immigrants around Detroit that was insulated from black Muslims. Now that hes part of a young professional Muslim community, hes trying to honor the experiences of others.

Were seeing increasingly visible threats to Muslims across the country now, its an important reminder of what black communities have endured for generations in this country, said Syed, who volunteers at Townhall Dialogue, a nonprofit fostering discussions about US Muslim identity.

I cant really think of a better time for non-black Muslims to start examining how we got here, and what lessons we can learn from the hard-won victories of black communities from the civil rights movement.
The Norths test firing can be seen as a message of defiance to the Trump administration in Washington, coming as it does on the day US Vice President Mike Pence is set to arrive in Seoul for talks on North Korea. (Photo: AP)

Seoul: A North Korean missile exploded during launch on Sunday, US and South Korean officials said, a high-profile failure that comes as a powerful US aircraft super-carrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

It wasnt immediately clear what kind of missile was test-fired from the east coast city of Sinpo. But the failure will sting in Pyongyang because it comes a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leaders grandfather.

The Norths test firing can be seen as a message of defiance to the Trump administration in Washington, coming as it does on the day US Vice President Mike Pence is set to arrive in Seoul for talks on North Korea.

President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the failed launch. In a statement, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump and his military team are aware of North Koreas most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment.

Washington and Seoul will try hard to figure out what exactly North Korea fired. This matters because while North Korea regularly launches short-range missiles, it is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target US troops in Asia and, eventually, the US mainland.

The ultimate goal is to have a full array of nuclear-tipped missiles in response to what Pyongyang says is hostility by Washington and Seoul meant to topple its government. North Korea is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles.

Many outside analysts believe that North Korea has not yet mastered the technology to build warheads small enough to place on long-range missiles, though some civilian experts say North Korea can already build nuclear-tipped shorter range missiles that have South Korea and Japan within its striking range.

The US Pacific Command said in a statement that Sundays missile exploded on launch. South Koreas Defense Ministry said it was analysing exactly how the North Korean launch failed. Neither military knew what kind of missile was fired.

In Seoul, South Koreas presidential office convened a national security council meeting to examine security postures.

Always high animosity has risen on the Korean Peninsula in recent months, as the United States and South Korea conduct annual war games that North Korea claims are invasion preparation and the North prepared for Saturdays anniversary celebrations. A US aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, is heading to waters off Korea in a show of force.

Analysts warn that even failed missile launches provide valuable knowledge to North Korea as it tries to build its weapons program. The country launched a long-range rocket and conducted two nuclear tests last year, including its most powerful to date.

Aside from improving the technology, North Korean missile and nuclear tests are seen by outside analysts partly as efforts to bolster the domestic image of leader Kim Jong Un and apply political pressure on Seoul and Washington.

Kim Jong Un has overseen three nuclear tests and a string of missile and rocket launches since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.

Another missile test from Sinpo failed earlier this month, when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean. That launch came shortly before Trumps first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China is North Koreas only major ally.

The extended-range Scud missile in that earlier launch suffered an in-flight failure and fell into the sea off North Koreas east coast, according to US imagery and assessments.

Despite Sundays failure, the Norths previous claim to have used standardized warheads has led to worries that it was making headway in its push to develop small and sophisticated warheads to be topped on long-range missiles.

Washington sees North Koreas pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to world security and to its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea. The United States, South Korea and other countries have vowed to apply more pressure on the North, but so far nothing has worked to stop Pyongyangs nuclear program.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Koreas nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.
Seoul: US Vice President Mike Pence has arrived in South Korea at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia that comes amid turmoil along the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's threats to advance its growing nuclear and defence capabilities. His visit comes just after a failed missile launch by the North.

President Donald Trump's vice president arrived in the region after North Korea celebrated the birth anniversary of the country's late founder with a military parade.

Pence is joined by his wife and two adult daughters and will lay a wreath at the Seoul National Cemetery and join US and South Korean troops for Easter Sunday church services and a dinner.

Pence is the son of a Korean War veteran and displays his late father's Bronze Star in his office.
London: As many as 6,000 pupils may be faced with the threat of extremism at illegally operating schools in the United Kingdom, according to latest figures released by British schools watchdog on Sunday.

In the past 15 months, Ofsted inspectors have identified 241 suspected illegal schools in England, 'The Sunday Times' reported. Around 99 of these schools have been inspected, 33 of which were confirmed to have been operating illegally. Of those, 25 have either been closed or have been registered as legal schools.

These include Islamic, Jewish and Christian faith schools as well as secular centres set up to teach pupils with behavioural difficulties who have been excluded from mainstream education. The sites used by such schools include warehouses and old factory buildings.

More than 140 of the suspected illegal schools have not been inspected and no criminal cases have reached court, though two were considered for prosecution, the report said. Most of the schools remain open and more than half have not yet been visited by inspectors, prompting fears that some children are at risk of radicalisation.

There are also fears that children are being taught by adults whose backgrounds have not been vetted. When an unregistered school is identified in Britain, local councils are supposed to write to parents with children there but Ofsted fears some councils are failing to do that.

"We continue to investigate the remaining and will take all necessary action to close these down," said an Ofsted spokesperson.
North Korea has carried out five nuclear tests and multiple missile launches. (Photo: AP)

London: British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Saturday urged North Korea to abide by UN resolutions and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons, as the reclusive state brandished its military might.

"We have been here before but continue to monitor the situation carefully," Johnson said in a statement.

"We stand alongside our international partners in making clear that North Korea must adhere to UN resolutions designed to secure peace and stability in the region and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons."

The nuclear-armed state is under United Nations sanctions over its weapons programmes.

It has carried out five nuclear tests -- two of them last year -- and multiple missile launches, one of which saw several rockets come down in waters provocatively close to Japan last month.

North Korea's weapons of war rolled through Pyongyang on Saturday and a senior figure in the regime said it could "beat down enemies with the power of nuclear justice", as leader Kim Jong-Un mounted a spectacular show of strength.

Ostensibly Saturday's event was to mark the 105th anniversary of the North's founder Kim Il-Sung's birth -- a date known as the "Day of the Sun".

But it was also intended to send an unmistakable message to Washington about the isolated country's military might.

Tensions over North Korea's nuclear ambitions are stretched to the limit, with US President Donald Trump deploying an aircraft carrier battle group to the region.

Speculation that Pyongyang could conduct a sixth blast in the coming days to coincide with the anniversary has reached fever pitch, with specialist US website 38North describing its Punggye-ri test site as "primed and ready" and White House officials saying military options were "already being assessed".
The accused admitted to prosecutors that when he refused to listen to the victim discussing his family problems, the latter swore at him and assaulted him with the wooden rod. (Photo: Representational/File)

Dubai: A 26-year-old Indian worker in Dubai has been jailed for five years for beating another Indian to death with a wooden rod while he was inebriated, according to a media report.

The victim and his 30-year-old countryman were drinking liquor when the accused joined them in December last year. The victim, who seemed to be troubled, started talking about his family disputes, when his 26-year-old countryman asked him to stop discussing his family problems as he was not interested in listening it, Gulf news reported.

This irritated the victim who beat the accused with a wooden rod. The defendant snatched the rod away and hit back at the victim, who fell down unconscious, the paper said.

The victim died before the arrival of police. The Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday convicted the accused of beating the victim to death and drinking liquor.

Presiding judge Urfan Omar said the accused, who had pleaded innocent, will be deported after serving jail term. Prosecutors said the accused battered the victim on the back of his head and caused his death without intending to do so.

The accused admitted to prosecutors that when he refused to listen to the victim discussing his family problems, the latter swore at him and assaulted him with the wooden rod.

"We had a heated argument and fought because I had told him that we were not interested in listening to his problems. Then he swore at me and assaulted me. I hit him back," he accused said.

The 30-year-old worker was fined Dh 2,000 for failing to report the crime to the police and drinking. He admitted to prosecutors that following the assault, he tried to help the victim but had run away once he realised his friend had died.
An officer with the anti-terrorism forces said seven soldiers suffered breathing problems and were treated in a nearby field clinic. (Photo: AFP)

Baghdad: An Iraqi military officer says Islamic State militants have launched a gas attack in a newly-liberated area in western Mosul.

The officer with the anti-terrorism forces said on Saturday that the attack occurred the night before in the al-Abar neighbourhood, when IS fired a rocked loaded with chlorine. He said seven soldiers suffered breathing problems and were treated in a nearby field clinic.

The officer spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to release information.

US-backed Iraqi forces are currently battling IS militants in the more densely-populated western half of Mosul. Iraqi officials say more than half of western Mosul has been retaken. The extremists were driven out of the eastern half of Mosul, Iraqs second-largest city, in January.
Bollywood celebrities like Karan Johar and Tusshar Kapoor became proud fathers via surrogacy but other aspiring singles may face roadblocks as a proposed law restricts this method by allowing only legally wedded couples. Several experts including lawyers and doctors, barring a few, were of the view that the window of surrogacy should not be closed for single parents and the couples should have the option to choose anyone who is not a close relative as a surrogate mother.



However, senior advocate Shekhar Naphade had a different and mixed take on the entire issue. While maintaining that it has become a "fashion" among celebrities to become a single parent, he advocated doing away with the provision to allow only a couple's close relative to become a surrogate mother.



The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016, introduced in Lok Sabha last year, also faced criticism from practitioners of family law like Priya Hingorani and Anil Malhotra, who assailed the provisions which take away the rights of gays and lesbians from attaining parenthood with a clause that only legally wedded persons can go for surrogacy. The proposed law virtually bars all others like unmarried couples, single parents, live-in partners and homosexuals from opting children through surrogacy.



Dr Bikas Kumar Singh, Chief Medical Officer at a major private hospital here who preferred not to comment on the aspect of single parents, expressed reservation on the point of restriction that mandates a surrogate mother to be a close relative. "The last hope for a childless couple should not be curtailed but extended with due filtering," Singh said. Giving a broader perspective, Hingorani said it was not correct to only allow a close relative to be a surrogate mother as her confidentiality has to be maintained and anyone else should be permitted to do so.



Malhotra said the bar on unmarried couples and others from opting for surrogacy was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution which provides equality before the law and equal protection. As per the bill, the intending couples should be legally married for at least five years and should be Indian citizens to undertake surrogacy which would be allowed only for altruistic reasons. It also specifies the age limit for an infertile couple, where the woman should be aged between 23-50 years and the man between 26-55 years.



Naphade, who has filed a petition in the Supreme Court opposing commercialisation of surrogacy, said he does not subscribe to the concept of single parent and there should be a time frame after which a married couple can go for surrogacy. "It should not be a substitute for having a child through an unnatural process. The child should have both a father and a mother. When he goes out in the society, he will have a problem if he does not have a father or a mother. It is in the larger interest of the child," he contended.



However, these experts were united on their view that the clause of close relatives becoming surrogates was "objectionable" and would create family problems as it could reveal the identity of the surrogate mother, which needs to be kept secret. Hingorani, who was of the opinion that this clause would be challenged in court, said "when a single parent can adopt a child, why can't they go for surrogacy? It is contradictory. The intention of the bill is not to make surrogacy commercial. But you cannot single out gay and lesbian couples. When single mothers and live-in partners are recognised by law, how can you exclude them from surrogacy?"



While Naphade said the provision will be a "little problematic" and it needs to be debated, Dr Singh said the identity of the surrogate mother must be kept secret and if she is their close relative, there are chances that the child would come to know about it at a later stage. Malhotra was of the view that commercial surrogacy will still flourish and unethical practices continue. So, the better method would be to provide a regulatory authority with statutory powers like CARA is for adoptions.



"This clause of close relatives being surrogates will create family problems and conflicts with relatives in the family fold, as current societal practices in India may not find such a practice acceptable in traditional homes," he said. They, however, differed in their opinion on the provision of disallowing foreigners from opting surrogacy in India. While Dr Singh agreed with the government in disallowing foreigners saying it would ensure that women from the middle or lower middle classes are not exploited, Hingorani said there should be uniformity on the issue across the world and in many nations, they do not allow surrogacy. So why do people from there come here for it, she asked.



The woman lawyer said surrogacy should be legalised and open to others as well and proper norms should be evolved. People should be allowed only after they fulfill all criteria. She said the bill should include that the surrogate mother's health is properly taken care of, both pre- and post- delivery. And, instead of compensating her with hefty money, her health should be given priority. Dr Singh said that all medical aspects are covered in the bill and added that health of the woman should be considered but it should not be made the only criteria.



Malhotra said the ban on Non-Resident Indians, Persons of Indian Origin and Overseas Citizens of India per se does not appear to be satisfying any test of a valid bar. Such a discrimination clearly violates Article 14 of the Constitution when brought in parity with adoptions permissible to the NRIs, PIOs and the OCIs, he said. In January this year, the Rajya Sabha Chairman had referred the legislation, as introduced in the Lok Sabha in November last year, to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare for in-depth examination. The parliamentary panel has invited suggestions on the legislation from all stakeholders.


An email about a possible aircraft hijack has prompted the government to put international airports in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai on high alert on Sunday.



The email, purportedly sent by a Hyderabad-based woman, claimed she overheard six men talking about sending 23 men to three cities to board flights and hijack them. According to the email, the men said all 23 people have to split from here and board flights in three cities and hijack planes.



The Mumbai Police, which received the mail on Saturday night, shared the contents with central security and intelligence agencies. The security at these airports and others was increased with more personnel from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and state police deployed at the facilities.



CISF Director General O P Singh said the security apparatus at the airports has been put on an enhanced alert and protocols have been stepped up.



Officials said that the threat may turn out to be a hoax. However, they are not taking any chances.



The woman who sent the email herself had written that what she heard may turn false but she decided to inform police as she thought it was her duty to do so.



The CISF carried out special anti-sabotage sweeps at the three airports and passengers had to go through a more rigorous checking, while baggage screening was stepped up.



The intensity of the pre-embarkation checks and secondary ladder point checking was also increased. More sniffer dogs were pressed into service.



The airports are already under heavy security following threat perception.



According to a parliamentary panel, the latest threat inputs on airports include use of surgically implanted explosives for interference in civil aviation operations, IEDs hidden in printer ink and toner cartridges, hijacks using trained pilots and forcible intrusion at smaller airports.



Though the terror threat perception is high here, the panel was told, India has been rated highly in terms of aviation security in the last International Civil Aviation Organisation audit in 2011. The parameter, Lack of Effective Implementation for India, stood at 10.75% against the global average of 34.01%.
India has not received the certified copies of the charge sheet and the orders of a Pakistan military court, awarding death sentence to former Navy officer Kulbhusan Jadhav, almost 48 hours after making the official request.



The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Bagley on Sunday said that the government was yet to receive those documents, which are essential to prepare Jadhav legal defence in Pakistan's Supreme Court.



The request was made by Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad, Gautam Bambawale on Friday afternoon when he met Pakistan foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua. He also sought consular access to Jadhav for the 14th time even though Pakistan denied every Indian requests so far.



Indian officials said the top brass of the government was in touch with Jadhav's family, but copies of the charge sheet and the court ruling were required to file an appeal in the higher judiciary in Pakistan.



Last week, Islamabad announced that a military court had convicted Jadhav of working for India's external intelligence unit, Research and Analytical Wing, and being involved with espionage and sabotage attempts to destabilise Pakistan. The death sentence was later confirmed by Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa. Paksitan Army had released a confessional video of Jadhav.



After Bambawala's meeting with Tehmina, Pakistan Prime Minister's advisor Sartaj Aziz issued a statement detailing some of the charges against the Indian veteran. Aziz said the conviction was based on specific and credible evidence.



The former Pakistan's diplomat, however, took an opposite stand in Pakistan senate in December when he said that evidence against Jadhav was not conclusive.



Meanwhile, the two neighbours have pressed the pause button on their bilateral engagement with the cancellation of a pre-scheduled meeting between Indian Coast Guard and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency. A technical meeting between the two commissioners on Indus Water Treaty too was shelved.



Neither the Indian Coast Guard not the Ministry of External Affairs said anything on record on the dialogue between the two coast guarding forces. The meeting that was to start from Monday would have come in the backdrop of Indian Coast Guard rescuing two PMSA personnel off Gujarat coast after their boat met with an accident.



The technical meeting on Indus Water Treaty in Washington was an idea from the World Bank, which is mediating between the two nations to sort out the crisis. Both appears to have been cancelled at the moment, even though there is no official word on them.
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat today apprised National Security Advisor Ajit Doval of the security situation in Kashmir, amidst growing outrage in the Valley over the controversial "human shield" video.



Rawat's meeting with Doval comes a day after he had separate deliberations with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Governor N N Vohra over the law and order situation in Kashmir during his visit to the state.



Government sources said the Army chief called on Doval at his residence and briefed him about the overall state of security in the Kashmir Valley.



The video, showing a man tied to an army vehicle purportedly as a shield against stone pelters during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election, has triggered a public outcry prompting civil and army authorities to launch separate investigations.



In her meeting with Gen Rawat, the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister had raised the issue of the video that has now gone viral on social media.



Gen Rawat has assured the J&K CM of timely action against the personnel who were responsible for the act of tying the man to the vehicle at Budgam.



According to the sources, the army officials told a probe team that they had received a call from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the local police guarding a polling station to save them from a mob that was out to lynch them.



The army convoy rushed in from Kandipura and tied 36- year-old Farooq Dar to a jeep, they said. This incident, which took place on April 9, was shot by unidentified persons on their mobiles and the video showing Dar being used as a shield against stone-pelting protesters was circulated on social media.



The video surfaced days after another clip, showing a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel walking down a street being beaten up by some youths, triggered nationwide outrage.
A Chinese frigate helped Panamanian ship ALHEERA who was attacked by pirates. [Photo: CGTN]

A convoy sent by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy rescued a Panamanian ship that was being attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday.

The PLA Daily reported Sunday that Frigate Hengyang of China's 25th convoy fleet received a report around 9:30 p.m. Saturday Beijing Time from the Mercury system saying that the ship ALHEERA was under attack by five pirates and was requesting help.

Hengyang set out immediately and dispatched its shipboard helicopter to the area. The helicopter arrived at the oil tanker at around 10:30 p.m. and drove away the suspected pirates.

The ALHEERA was deemed safe and continued its passage, said the newspaper.

Since 2008, Chinese fleet have escorted more than 6,000 ships through this vital sea route and have successfully rescued or aided more than 60 Chinese and foreign ships.
The Supreme Court has asked Karnataka government to identify encroachers from Maskali reserve forests in Chikkamagalur district and ensure their removal and rehabilitation within four months.



It is submitted that the survey of the individual encroachments inside the re-surveyed block is being carried out and eviction will be taken up soon after the completion of survey of encroachments inside the re-surveyed block. However, no time frame has been mentioned for the re-survey and eviction. We grant four months' time to the state of Karnataka for completing the re-survey and identification of encroachers as well as a plan for their rehabilitation, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.



The court passed its order after being told that the state government's survey department along with the forest department has carried out and completed the re-survey of the area, demarcated the boundary and fixed the stones as mark and prepared the map of the Maskali reserve forests. The court was hearing a 1995 petition pertaining to encroachment in reserve forests.



The court-appointed Central Empowered Committee and the state government filed their reports before the bench also with regard to Sargodu and Thatkola reserve forests of the district.



On Thatkola forests, the court was informed that there were 148 encroachments over an area of 611.25 acres and all the dwelling houses have been fully demolished and cash crops existing on the forest lands have been removed.



In Sargodu forests, the court was told that there were 156 encroachers occupying 550.04 acres. Out of this, 115 encroachments existing on 402.04 acres have been cleared by evicting the encroachers. All the dwelling houses were fully demolished and cash crops also removed. Boundary consolidation has also been done by providing a Cattle Proof Trench (CPT) to the accessible segments of the boundary. Planting has also been done in the entire evicted forest area, the state government stated.



The state government also informed the court since 33 encroachments were made before 1978, those were eligible for regularisation as per approval by the central as well as state governments. However, seven persons belonging to Scheduled Tribes were granted rights as enjoined under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. As one person had filed a writ petition in the HC, the top court requested for its disposal within four months, otherwise the matter would stand automatically transferred to the apex court.
India is set to roll out a red carpet for Nepal's first woman President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, who would be arriving here on Monday on her first state visit.



This would be the fourth top-level engagement between the two South Asian neighbours in the last six months, signifying India's keenness to improve its ties with the Himalayan nation in the wake of last year's economic blockade that crippled the land locked country.



Nepal's Prime Minister visited India in September and October (for the BRICS summit) after which President Pranab Mukherjee traveled to Kathmandu.



Since November 2016, we have 30 official engagements with Nepal, Sudhakar Dalela, joint secretary (north) in the Ministry of External Affairs said here on Sunday.



President Bhandari would be in Delhi till Tuesday (April 18) after which she would be travelling to Gujarat for visiting Dwarka and Somnath temple. She would end her official tour with a visit to Puri Jagannath temple.



Her visit coincides with Nepal first military engagement with China as the two armies would hold their first military drill focusing on anti-terror operations and disaster response. Named Sagarmatha Friendship 2017, the ten-day long military exercise would end on April 26.



While Dalela didn't comment on the significance of the military drill between Kathmandu and Beijing, he insisted that Narendra Modi government was going all out to establish the bridges of cooperation with the Himalayan state, which often turns to China seeking assistance.



In February, the Union Cabinet approved Rs 5720 crore Arun-3 hydroelectric power project in the Sankhuwasabha district of Nepal. Five cross-country railway links are being built, out of which construction had begun on two. Two integrated check posts at Raxaul and Jogbani are under construction to link these Indian border towns with Birganj and Biratnagar respectively.



The centre has also agreed to construct 16 roads in Nepal, costing $ 300 million besides carrying out a separate Rs 500 crore project on Terai roads.



The upswing in bilateral engagement comes after the traditional links between the two nations nosedived last year with Kathmandu alleging Indian hands in a prolonged economic blockade, few months after the devastating earthquake of 2015 .



On the face of it, the blockade was caused by the Madhesis, a Nepali community that opposed the new constitution. The agitators blocked the trading points on the border for almost four months restricting supply of petroleum products, medicines and other commodities by India.



India has an abiding interest in peace and stability in Nepal, Dalela said, refusing to answer queries on Nepal's new constitution.




The mercury in most parts of northern India hovered above the 40 degree mark and severe heat wave conditions disrupted normal life in Rajasthan even as the IMD has forecast thunderstorm in eastern parts of the country.



It was another hot day in the national capital with the mercury hovering slightly below the 40 degree mark.



The maximum temperature was recorded at 39.8 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal, while the minimum was 21.4 degrees Celsius.



Normal life was thrown out of gear in Rajasthan as a severe heatwave swept through the desert with minimum temperatures seeing a increase of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius from yesterday.



Sriganganagar was the hottest place in the state with maximum temperature of 46 degrees Celsius, followed by Barmer 45.8 degrees Celsius, Churu 45.5 degrees Celsius, Bikaner 45.4 degrees Celsius, Jaisalmer 45.1 degrees Celsius, Kota 44.3 degrees Celsius.



Pilani recorded a high of 43.5 degrees Celsius, Ajmer and Dabok 43 degrees Celsius each and Jaipur 42.8 degrees Celsius.



The searing heat intensified in Odisha today with Balangir being the hottest place in the state at 44 degrees Celsius, where two sunstroke deaths have been reported so far.



The mercury breached the 40-degree mark in at least 10 places in the state.



Titlagarh recorded maximum temperature of 43.6 degrees Celsius, followed by 43 degrees Celsius in Bhawanipatna and 42.4 degrees Celsius in Malkangiri.



Sonepur recorded 40.8 degrees Celsius, while the maximum temperature in Hirakud was 40.5 degrees Celsius, in Phulbani it was 40.2 degrees Celsius and 40 degrees Celsius at both Sundargarh and Talcher.



Adilabad district in Telangana recorded the highest maximum temperature of 44.4 degrees Celsius. Nizamabad and Mahabubnagar both recorded maximum temperature of 44 degrees Celsius, followed by Ramagundam 43.4 degrees Celsius and Medak 43.2 degrees Celsius.

The mercury soared to 42.4 degrees Celsius in Hyderabad.



The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a heatwave alert over Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana for the next three to four days.



Intense heat waves swept many parts of Haryana and Punjab, with Narnaul turning out to be the hottest at 44.3 degrees Celsius.



Besides Narnaul in Haryana, Hisar recorded maximum temperature of 43.6 degrees Celsius, six notches above normal while Ambala recorded a high of 39 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal, the MeT department here said.



In Punjab, Amritsar experienced a hot day at 42 degrees Celsius, seven notches above normal, while Ludhiana and Patiala recorded 42 degrees Celsius and 40.8 degrees Celsius respectively.



In Uttar Pradesh, weather remained dry with maximum temperatures hovering above normal limits at many places with Banda being the hottest in the state, recording a high of 45 degrees Celsius.



Maximum temperatures were appreciably above normal in Kanpur, Bareilly, Jhansi and Meerut divisions.



The IMD has also issued a thunderstorm warning over Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya. Cyclonic storm, Maarutha, which lay centred over east central Bay of Bengal, about 735 km East-Southeast of Paradip, may trigger rains or thundershowers at few places in Odisha.



The weather in Bihar remained dry since yesterday with Dehri in Rohtas district being the hottest place recording a high of 41 degrees Celsius for the second consecutive day.



Gaya recorded maximum temperature of 35.8 degrees Celsius, while in Patna it was 33.2 degrees Celsius. Bhagalpur recorded the maximum temperature of 33 degrees Celsius and Purnea 30.4 degrees Celsius.



One or two places in the north east and the north central parts of the state witnessed light to moderate rainfall, while the rest remained dry.



Severe heatwave conditions are likely at Rajasthan, West Madhya Pradesh, Saurashtra, Kutch, Vidarbha and East Madhya Pradesh during next three to four days. Heatwave conditions are likely in Punjab, Haryana, south Uttar Pradesh and central Maharashtra at the same time, the IMD said.



"Heatwave conditions at isolated places are very likely over the lower reaches of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during next 3-4 days," it said.



The lower hills of Himachal Pradesh reeled under scorching heat and Una in Shivalik hills recorded a high of 41.2 degrees Celsius while the mercury rose to 27 degrees Celsius in Shimla. Kalpa in tribal Kinnaur district also recorded a high of 23.8 degrees Celsius, five notches above normal.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory today in a historic referendum that will tighten his grip on power, but the knife-edge result left the country bitterly divided, with the opposition crying foul.



Opponents fear the sweeping constitutional changes, which would grant Erdogan more power than any leader since modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his successor Ismet Inonu, would lead the country to one-man rule.



The result could also have even wider implications for Turkey which joined NATO in 1952 and for the last half-century has set its sights on joining the European Union.



The 'Yes' campaign won 51.3 percent of the vote against 48.7 percent for 'No', the election commission said in figures quoted by state news agency Anadolu, in a count based on 99 percent of the ballot boxes.



As huge crowds of flag-waving supporters celebrated, Erdogan praised Turkey for taking a "historic decision".



"With the people, we have realised the most important reform in our history," he added.



The referendum was held under a state of emergency that has seen 47,000 people arrested in an unprecedented crackdown after the failed military putsch against Erdogan in July last year.



In a nail-biting end to a frenetic campaign, the 'No' share of the vote climbed as more ballots were counted, after lagging well behind in the early count, but failed to overtake the 'Yes'.

"The presidential system, according to unofficial results, has been confirmed with a 'Yes' vote," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told jubilant supporters from the balcony of the headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara.



"This is a decision made by the people. In our democracy's history, a new page has opened," said Yildirim, whose job will disappear under the constitutional changes.



The victory margin was less than predicted by the authorities and in an interview with state television on Friday, Erdogan had predicted a far clearer victory saying polls showed a 55-60 percent share of the vote.



But voting patterns showed Turkey deeply divided over the changes, with the 'No' vote victorious in the country's three biggest cities.



The 'Yes' vote held up strongly in Erdogan's Anatolian heartland but the Aegean and Mediterranean coastal regions and Kurdish-dominated southeast had backed the 'No' camp.



In a major disappointment for the president, the 'No' vote was just ahead in his hometown of Istanbul and in the capital Ankara and clearly ahead in the third city of Izmir.



But Turkey's two main opposition parties said they would challenge the results after alleged violations.



The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said it would challenge two-thirds of the votes, saying: "There is an indication of a 3-4 percentage point manipulation of the vote."

The deputy head of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Erdal Aksunger, also said it could appeal up to 60 percent of the vote.



"Believe me, this election is not over," he told CNN Turk, quoted by the Dogan news agency. "This is totally invalid. We are declaring this here."



The opposition had already complained that the referendum has been conducted on unfair terms, with 'Yes' posters ubiquitous on the streets and opposition voices squeezed from the media.



Closely watched on Monday will be the initial assessment of the international observer mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).



Erdogan again warned Brussels the he would sign any bill agreed by parliament to reinstate capital punishment, a move that would automatically end Turkey's EU bid.



If the opposition failed to support the bill, Erdogan said another referendum could be held on reinstating the death penalty.



Western reactions to the referendum outcome will be crucial after Erdogan accused Turkey's allies of failing to show sufficient solidarity in the wake of the July 15 failed coup.



Erdogan said: "We would like other countries and institutions to show respect to the decision of the nation."



The new presidential system would dispense with the office of prime minister and centralise the entire executive bureaucracy under the president, giving Erdogan the direct power to appoint ministers.



The system would come into force after the elections in November 2019. Erdogan, who became president in 2014 after serving as premier from 2003, could then seek two more five- year terms.



Supporters see the new system as an essential modernisation step for Turkey that will remove the risk of the political chaos that blighted the 1990s and is blamed for the 2000-2001 financial crisis.



Opponents fear it risks granting Erdogan authoritarian powers and allow him to ride roughshod over key institutions like the judiciary and parliament.



"I don't think he (Erdogan) will reverse course. I don't think Erdogan will change the robust and muscular approach to politics that he has adopted so far," said Fadi Hakura, Turkey expert at London-based Chatham House think tank.
Buoyed by the victories in the recent byelections to the Assembly from Nanjangud and Gundlupet seats, the state Congress has decided to initiate disciplinary action against its members including seniors who shoot their mouth off about party affairs.



Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president Dinesh Gundu Rao, who on Saturday met the party high command in New Delhi, told reporters in Bengaluru on Sunday that the state unit will have no option but to take action against seniors who continued to publicly speak against the party.



Rao said the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, with who whom he, KPCC president G Parameshwara and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had an interaction in New Delhi on Saturday, had indicated that the time had come to take action.



One senior leader from Mangaluru went to the extent of holding press conferences almost on a daily basis to say that the Congress will not win the bypolls in Gundlupet and Nanjangud constituencies. This severely embarrassed the party, Rao said without naming anybody. It was apparent that he was referring to former Union minister B Janardhan Poojary.



There are three to four such leaders. We will have to take action if they continue to speak against the party in public, Rao said. Former union minister C K Jaffer Sharief had recently embarrassed the party by writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi backing RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for the post of the President of India. Another former Union Minister M V Rajasekharan had showered praise on Modi and congratulated him for the BJPs success in the recent Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and other states. Former Mysore MP A H Vishwanth has publicly criticised Siddaramaiah several times.


Gandhinagar, the hub of the movie business in Karnataka, has lost its appeal to the industry.



For decades, Kannada films vied for cinema halls in the bustling business district in the heart of the city. But with the advent of multiplexes and the razing of single-screen halls, Gandhinagar's prestige is sliding into history. In recent years, the number of theatres in the area has come down from 20 to 7.



The area is just across the city bus and railway stations, and it was easy for the thousands visiting the city to hop across, catch a film, eat at one of the many famous eateries, and take the last bus or train home. Those glory days are gone. Sagar, Prabhat, Alankar, Tribhuvan, Majestic, Kailash, States, Geetha, Sapna, Menaka, Mayura, Kempegowda, Prashanthi and Aparna have shut down. It was easy to carry reels from one theatre to another. That is one of the reasons a cluster of halls came up in Gandhinagar, said Sa Ra Govindu, president, KFCC.



Another reason was that the distributors and exhibitors had their offices in Gandhinagar, and co-ordinating was a breeze. D Rajendra Singh Babu, direcor and chairman of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, recalled, There were 16 theatres on Kempegowda Road alone. Every producer dreamed of a release at Alankar cinema.



Every producer believed his film would be a hit if only he could get Alankar. It boasted of high quality sound and projection, Babu told DH.



Cinemas were controlled by non-Kannada business interests, and even blockbuster Kannada films featuring Rajkumar used to find it difficult to find a theatre in Gandhinagar. Thanks to concerted efforts, besides protests and demonstrations, Kannada films began to get their due.



Newer directors aren't too worried about getting halls in Gandhinagar. In fact, they prefer multiplexes, which offer them a better deal, says S D Aravind, director of Last Bus (2016). As the city grew through the second half of the 20th century, cinema halls came up in many neighbourhoods. That brought down the pressure on cinemas in Gandhingar, but the celebratory nature of an outing to the area, which also offered shopping on the footpaths, continued.



Distributors who control theatres in Gandhinagar are businessmen with little sympathy for experimental cinema, and that is another reason producers of non-mainstream films are more comfortable with multiplexes, Aravind added.



K M Chaitanya, who shot into the limelight with the gangster drama Aa Dinagalu (2007), said Gandhingar held sway over the industry for many decades.



It lost its relevance about five years ago. There used to a tough competition to get a major theatre in Gandhinagar before the multiplexes came up, but now it doesn't matter so much, he told DH.



Real estate is a factor, too. Many fourth and fifth generation owners of the cinema halls feel no sentimental affinity to the movie business.



They want to build shopping complexes... that is how many theatre spaces are now shopping areas, Govindu said. Music composer Hamsalekha blames film makers for the decline. Theatres have lost their charm as owners aren't upgrading and changing with the times. The same can be said about the films, too, he said.



Remember them?

Gandhinagar housed cinema halls that were household names: Sagar, Prabhat, Alankar, Triveni, Tribhuvan, Kapali, Majestic, Kailash, States, Geetha, Abhinay, Santosh, Nartaki, Bhumika, Movieland, Sapna, Menaka, Mayura, Kempegowda, Prashanthi and Aparna.

60 theatres shut down in a decade

The city once had over 150 theatres. At one time, Gandhinagar had 20 theatres, showing films in a babble of languages, in just 2 sq km. In the last decade, 60 single screen halls were shut down. Now, the city has about 90 single screen theatres and 29 multiplexes.
Another Bengaluru-based businessman has alleged that Lakshmiprasad Vajpai (42), the arrested CEO of Kannada news channel Janasri, had blackmailed him into paying up Rs 10 crore and one kg of gold jewellery in the third week of March.



In a complaint to the Koramangala police on Friday, Mohammed Mansoor Khan, the managing director and CEO of I Monetary Advisory, said Vajpai extorted the money and jewellery from him a day after the channel aired a fictitious story about his company on March 16.



The channels staff had telephoned me on March 16 at 9.24 pm and sought some details. I went to the channels office in Koramangala along with my staff and gave the details, he stated in the complaint. I received a call the next day around 9 am by a staffer who asked me to meet Vajpai. I met him in his cabin, and the channels managing director Murthy was also present. They demanded Rs 15 crore for not airing false stories about my company. I needed to protect the reputation of the company as any damage to it would affect the business. I deposited Rs 10 crore in seven bank accounts given by him and also gave him a kilo of gold ornaments.



The same day (March 17) at 7 pm, the channel broadcast a clarification about the IMA, he added.



But Vajpai wanted more. He demanded an additional Rs 25 crore and a white Toyota, Khan said. According to him, he again met Vajpai in his Koramangala office where the latter demanded a white Toyota. He said he sought time to fulfil the demand. Vajpai contacted Khan again after a few days and demanded Rs 25 crore, with the instruction that the payment be made to him in Delhi in person. Vajpai gave him a veiled threat saying there would be danger to his life if he didnt pay up, Khan said.



Khan told the police he mustered the courage to file a complaint against Vajpai following his arrest on the basis of a complaint filed by another city-based businessman. Police said Vajpai was a repeat offender and had blackmailed several businessmen.


(Xinhua) 13:12, April 16, 2017

Chinese drone manufacturer DJI-Innovations is poised to expand in Latin America over the next few years.[Photo: dji.com]

Chinese drone manufacturer DJI-Innovations, a world leader with a 70-percent share of the global market, is poised to expand in Latin America over the next few years, as it proves to be multi-functional in various fields.

Based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, DJI, already well known for its Phantom drone, expects its new range of models designed for the corporate sector to help boost sales growth in the region.

"We have seen notable growth of clients in the market segment for inspections of electrical and telephone lines, and also in agriculture," said DJI's regional director Manuel Martinez.

Online sales of DJI drones in Latin America began in 2014, but the company had no physical presence in the region until January 2016, so its sales share is still "quite below other markets such as China and the United States, which are constantly vying for the first place, followed by Europe," Martinez said.

China and the United States currently constitute 60 percent of the company's sales, with Europe accounting for 30 percent, and the remaining 10 percent are shared by the rest of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America -- but not for long. The company expects Latin American sales to catch up with those of Europe.

"We know that the business sector will be the market segment with the largest growth in Latin America. Compared with China, the United States and Asia, where sales are driven more by the recreational segment, the corporate sector accounts for some 97 percent of drone sales in Latin America," said Martinez.

The region's "very high tax burden" discourages average citizens from purchasing drones, he said.

"Here, drones are a corporate thing. The only markets where you see more recreational drones are Chile and Mexico, because Chile has free-trade agreements and Mexico borders on the United States. In the rest of the Latin American countries, drones are for business, inspections, the agricultural segment and for recordings," said Martinez.

DJI is catering to that market, "launching products that are in great demand for expeditions and for agriculture," he said, referring to products including drone-equipped cameras used in mining and inspection of buildings for damage.

"The drone detects problems, providing companies with greater security and saving their money," he said.

For the agricultural sector, DJI has its "Agras line of spraying machines, which can't replace planes, but can do high precision tasks," said Martinez.

After planes finish spraying, drones can be sent in to detect problems, missed spots and concentrations of blight, and deliver the extra spraying needed.

"Uruguay is the first country in the region to fully develop a government policy that will allow it to become the first to develop a drone-based services industry," said Martinez. "It is the first country in the world with an official state policy (regarding drones)."

In Brazil, firefighters are putting DJI's drones "to very nice use," said Martinez.

DJI has formed a "strategic partnership with firefighters" in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, training them to use drones in search and rescue operations, and to detect mosquito breeding grounds that can spread diseases like dengue, he said.

In business for 11 years, DJI "launched drones designed for recreation, fun, photographs," and by 2015, its drones, all made in China, have generated 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, according to Martinez.
A three-year-old boy said to be kidnapped by an employee of his father has been rescued by the Bengaluru police at Malakpur village of Uttar Pradeshs Baghpat district. The boys parents, originally from Moradabad in UP, live in Bengaluru. The suspect hails from the same city.



Ibaad Rehmat, a painting contractor, had moved to Bengaluru 10 years ago and lives with his wife, daughter and son in Thanisandra.



Around 10 months ago, he employed Shamshad, also from Moradabad, as a painter in Bengaluru. Rehmat deployed him to paint the house of one of his customers, Ayub.



Shamshad did the job and took Rs 20,000 from Ayub, but gave only Rs 10,000 to Rehmat.



Rehmat grew suspicious and called up Ayub, asking him why he made the half payment. Ayub told him the truth. Rehmat confronted Shamshad and demanded an explanation. Shamshad got offended and decided to avenge the humiliation.



He didnt go to work on April 11, saying he had taken ill. But he showed up at Rehmats house in the afternoon and took the latters two children out for buying them chocolate. He returned after sometime, dropped off the girl at the house but took the boy along. He then headed to the Yeshwantpur railway station and got on a Delhi-bound train.



Meanwhile, Rehmat realised that his son was missing. He went to the jurisdictional Hennur police and filed a complaint. Police found out that Shamshad had boarded a train that reaches Delhi via Davangere and Hubballi. They alerted the Railway Protection Force (RPF) but Shamshad could not be traced.



On April 13, Shamshad called up Rehmat and demanded a ransom of Rs 50,000 for his sons release. Police traced his location, flew to Delhi and then drove to Malakpur. As part of a police ploy, Rehmat telephoned Shamshad to tell him that he would meet him in person in Malakpur and hand over the ransom.



With the help of the local police, Bengaluru cops hailed an auto to reach Shamshads place. But he grew suspicious at the sight of policemen in plain clothes, abandoned the child and fled the spot. The boy was later handed over to his parents. The UP police are searching for Shamshad.


The Congress has launched a website dedicated to the life and works of Babasaheb Ambedkar, even as the BJP made a bid to endear itself to the oppressed classes.On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid obeisance at the Deekshabhoomi where Ambedkar embraced Buddhism, the Congress quietly launched the website www.questforequity.org . The website contains more than 300 archival picture of the author of the Constitution, 97 scans of his correspondence and full transcripts of the Constituent Assembly debate.The website points out how Ambedkar saw his own principles mirrored in the All India Congress Committee resolution adopted at Karachi in 1931.At a time when the BJP is identifying itself with Ambedkar and his ideology, the Congress initiative does not fail to highlight how the RSS was opposed to Ambedkars appointment as the first law minister of the country.The website also noted the vehement protests by the RSS to the Hindu Code Bill, piloted by Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly. in fact, the RSS organised 79 rallies in a single year in Delhi where effigies of Pt Nehru and Dr Ambedkar were publicly burnt, it said in the biography of the Dalit icon.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said the state government will release the caste census data soon.



Siddaramaiah, who was here to meet senior Congress leaders to apprise them of the Assembly bypolls results, told journalists that he has already held a discussion with Karnataka Backward Classes Commission officials and they have agreed to finalise the data at the earliest.



The commission is compiling the data of Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts. Once the Commission submits its report, the state government will make the details public, he said.



With the Assembly polls due early next year, Siddaramaiah had earlier said that his government was contemplating providing reservation commensurate with the population, based on the outcome of the caste census.



There is a demand to increase the reservation in proportion to the population and he too is keen on this, he said.


Amid hints that arch rivals BSP and Samajwadi Party (SP) may agree to join hands to take on the BJP, the Congress on Sunday sent mixed signals on the formation of an anti-BJP front with its leaders taking contradictory stands on the issue.



While senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad supported the idea, UP unit chief of the party Raj Babbar said that the issue needed a discussion and that the feelings of the workers must get preference over any talk of alliance.



The two leaders were here to review the partys dismal performance in the recent Assembly polls in the state. The Congress, which had contested 105 seats, could win only seven.



The presidents of various district units of the party, who also attended the review meeting, said that the partys alliance with SP cost them dear in the polls.



Babbar had expressed reservations about the tie-up with SP even before UP Assembly polls, but his views were ignored by the central leadership.



Babbar also said that there was a difference between the SP and the Congress. We also take into account the national political scene, he remarked.




Rejecting demands from various quarters to abolish the practice of triple talaq, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday came out with a code of conduct.



The code on the contentious issue of talaq to be followed by the community called for social boycott of those who divorced their wives through tripe talaq in one go, so that the community members desisted from using it.



The AIMPLB, however, said that the practice was in accordance with the shariat.



The board also made it clear that it was not for an out of court settlement of the Ram Temple-Babri Mosque case and that it would accept the verdict of the Supreme Court, where the matter was currently pending, in this regard.



The two-day executive committee meeting of the board, which concluded here on Sunday, also slammed opposition to triple talaq by a section of Muslim women and termed it a cultural attack even as it pledged to encourage its Womens Wing and use of helpline.



The board, while stating that it would provide all possible help to those who had been divorced against the principles of the shariat, asked parents to give the women a right in the property at the time of their marriage, rather than giving dowry.



We will look at the issue of talaq from the point of view of shariat... Islam gives equal rights to men and women, said boards general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani.



He also claimed that the boards signature campaign to protest interference in personal laws had evoked a good response.



We received over five crore signatures from across the country... over one crore Muslim women supported triple talaq, he said.



Rehmani said that the board has appealed to Muslims to follow the shariat while giving divorce. A book containing a code of conduct in this regard was also distributed at the meeting.



The issue of cow slaughter was also discussed at the meeting and it was decided that Muslims should avoid slaughtering cows.
During a strike called by separatists to protest the killing of a civilian by the BSF on Saturday, a youth was injured when security forces opened fire to disperse the crowd.



The incident took place on Sunday in Kashmirs Pulwama district, even as normal life was affected by the strike across the Valley.



Reports said that clashes had erupted in the Heff village of Pulwama after forces launched an operation following inputs about the presence of militants.



After the forces left the village, stones were hurled at them near the village of Achan. In retaliation, they opened fire, injuring a protester, a resident of the area said.



The police said that a petrol bomb was hurled at a CRPF party in the Rainawari area of old city Srinagar, but no one was hurt in the incident.



No public transport

Due to the strike, shops, fuel stations and other business establishments remained shut, and there were no public transportation services.



However, private vehicles were seen plying in Srinagar and other district headquarters.

The authorities had deployed the police and CRPF to prevent demonstrations.



Sensitive areas covered

Reports said that hundreds of policemen in riot gear were deployed in the sensitive areas of Srinagar and other towns to thwart any possible protests.



The separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik had called for a shutdown to protest the killing of Sajjad Ahmed, who was killed when Border Security Force (BSF) personnel opened fire on a group of people hurling stones at them at Reka chowk in Batamaloo area on Saturday evening.


Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday registered a murder case against Border Security Force (BSF) personnel for killing a youth at the Batamaloo area of Srinagar on Saturday evening.



The FIR was registered against the BSF men involved in the killing of 23-year-old Sajad Hussain Sheikh.



The police approached BSF authorities and urged them to hand over the accused to them, sources said.



Sheikh was killed on Sunday evening after BSF men from the 38 Battalion opened fire on a group of youngsters near Reck Chowk in the congested Batamaloo area.



The BSF spokesman in Srinagar said that an internal inquiry into the allegations of the firing which led to Sheikhs death has prima facie revealed that the firing by the paramilitary personnel was responsible for his death.



He said the incident occurred when a small convoy of the BSF was passing through the area and came under stone-pelting.



Some youths attempted to snatch a service rifle from one of our jawans which prompted his colleagues to fire a few aerial shots. Unfortunately, one of the bullets hit the youth who died, the spokesman said.



Regretting the incident, the BSF said it was ready to cooperate with the police investigation.



A police officer said BSF Sub Inspector Rajinder Baghde of the 38 Battalion, who was heading the small convoy consisting of three vehicles, submitted a report of the incident to the police.



The BSF officer insisted that the security forces opened fire when they came under heavy stone-pelting and there was a bid by the youth to snatch rifle from one of the personnel who was part of the convoy.


India has not received the certified copies of the charge sheet and orders of a Pakistan military court which awarded death sentence to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, almost 48 hours after making the official request.



Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Bagley said on Sunday that the government was yet to receive the documents, which are essential to prepare Jadhavs legal defence in Pakistans supreme court.



The request was made by the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad Gautam Bambawale on Friday afternoon when he met Pakistans Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua.



He also sought consular access to Jadhav for the 14th time, even though Pakistan had denied every request made so far.



Indian officials said the top brass of the government was in touch with Jadhavs family, but that copies of the charge sheet and court order are required to file an appeal in the higher judiciary in Pakistan.



After Bambawalas meeting with Tehmina, Pakistan prime ministers advisor Sartaj Aziz issued a statement detailing some of the charges against the Indian veteran. Aziz said the conviction was based on specific and credible evidence.



The former diplomat, however, had taken an opposite stand in the Pakistan senate in December, saying the evidence against Jadhav was not conclusive.



Meanwhile, the two neighbours have pressed the pause button on their bilateral engagements  a pre-scheduled meeting between the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) has been cancelled.



The meeting, that was to start on Monday, would have come against a backdrop of the ICG rescuing two PMSA personnel off the coast of Gujarat, after their boat met with an accident.



Neither the ICG nor the Ministry of External Affairs said anything on record about the meeting that stands cancelled.



A technical meeting, on the Indus Water Treaty, between commissioners from both countries was shelved as well. The meeting, which was to take place in Washington, was a proposal from the World Bank which is mediating between the two nations.



Pak to submit new dossier to UN

Pakistan has prepared a new dossier about the alleged militant activities of Indian prisoner on death row Kulbhushan Jadhav and will share it with the UN and foreign envoys stationed in Islamabad, media reports have said, reports PTI.
Unicorns in Del Mar?

Kudos to the City of Del Mar and the City Council for their transparency in posting the newly released feasibility study for a private police department on the Citys web site. Here is the link:

https://www.delmar.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/2837

I am neither supporting nor opposing the idea of a private police force, only pointing out the rare instance when our elected officials do something right. Now that Ive seen good corporate governance Ill return to my search for Bigfoot.

Craig A. Nelson

Solana Beach

Just another after-school program?

In Spanish, casa means home, but Im sure many of you know that. What you probably dont know, is what Casa de Amistad provides for children and families in our community. It is a second home built by mentors who help students reach their potential.

Casa de Amistad (Casa) was formed in 1997 to improve the literacy skills and academic achievement of at risk children and teens in coastal North County San Diego. Since then, Casas mentoring program has grown from serving three students on the first night to over 230 children, teens and their parents annually. Through my involvement with the Del Sol Lions Club, I have been fortunate enough to volunteer for Casa on multiple occasions and saw firsthand what a substantial difference they make in students lives, both academically and personally.

I am a public relations and advertising student at Chapman University and last semester I was assigned a project in my statistics class that required me to collect and analyze data. Math has never been my best subject, so I figured if I was going to be invested in this project, I would have to report on something I cared about: Casa. With the help of Nicole Mione-Green, Casas director, I digitized and analyzed 185 parent and 143 student surveys from the 2014-2015 academic year.

The goal of my research was to quantify Casas effects on its members to definitively determine if it was actually helping at risk students. After eight weeks of recoding and analyzing the survey results, I had my answer.

I found that Casa truly was helping underserved students. In fact, 70 percent of Casas parents do not have higher than a middle school education and 59 percent of them live below the national poverty line. For the parents of Casas students, education is one of the most important things in life and they do all they can to help their children succeed.

Casa recently implemented a Parents in Action program which gives parents the opportunity to learn positive parenting strategies, attend programs addressing community needs and leadership training. Because of this, I looked into parents effects on students academic outcomes. The data showed that in addition to Casas tutors, getting parents involved in their childrens education through this program yielded an immense increase in students academic performance.

Overall, my research proved that Casas mentoring program has a significant positive influence on students academic success, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Moving forward, I hope to do more research to determine how to improve the program so Casa has the means to help as many students as possible.

To be a part of this incredible nonprofit organization, you can attend their annual fundraiser to benefit Casas students on Saturday, April 8, at the Fairbanks Country Club. You can also donate or apply to volunteer to be a mentor by going to their website: https://www.casadeamistad.org/.

Katie Page
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 16

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of the newly reconstructed Varvara Hydroelectric Power Station as part of his visit to Yevlakh.

President of Azerenerji OJSC Etibar Pirverdiyev informed the head of state of reconstruction work at the station. He said the power station will generate annual 100 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. Reconstruction work involved more than 150 local specialists.

President Ilham Aliyev launched Varvara Hydroelectric Power Station.
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Find out where your Secret Service spy has been snooping  and if the standards came up to scratch.

Just over 18 months ago, after being lavished with a 1.3m refurbishment, the Kedleston Hotel reopened as a gastro pub.

Secret Service decided it was high time to see the transformation of the 250-year-old, grade-two-listed property - now named the Kedleston Country House Hotel  and booked a table for an early evening, mid-week supper for two.

There is an impressive entrance at the rear of the Kedleston Road restaurant, with a flight of steps  guarded by a stone dog - leading into the light and airy bar area where we were given a friendly greeting by the chap behind the bar.

When it re-opened in 2015 it became the fourth pub to be unveiled by the family-run and highly-regarded Derby Brewery Company so your spy's companion, after quizzing the barman about the various ales on offer, ordered a pint of Business as Usual. We took our drinks into a fabulous little snug where candles were burning on the mantelpiece and the walls, complete with painted wooden panelling, are adorned with horse and hound-style pictures.

Mid-week the place offers an All Set for Supper menu of two courses for 15.95 or three for 19.95. The hotel, which has five luxury bedrooms, also offers a breakfast menu, a bar menu, brunch, a champagne menu as well as dinner and afternoon tea.

The property itself is stunning with high ceilings, mis-matched and elegant, comfy furniture (although my dining room chair was really wobbly), a great colour scheme and wooden floors - it's little wonder it's popular as a wedding venue. It also boasts an Orangery and a study.

After taking our order we were shown into the beautiful dining room with just one other family alongside us, although it started to get busier later.

Your spy ordered the creamy stilton mushrooms to start while my guest went for the Kedleston fishcake. While we waited the friendly Romanian waitress brought out a basket of bread and we admired the charming copper-lidded butter dish on the well laid-out table. When they arrived the fishcakes tasted good but the mushroom dish, which had the most sublime stilton sauce, was amazing. In fact your spy could have happily eaten it as a main course with a pile of bread! It was a great start to our meal.

For mains my guest chose the Beef Wellington (there's a small surcharge for this) and your spy asked for the slow cooked belly pork although the lamb shank and sea bass sounded equally tempting.

What happened next was unfortunate. My guest sunk his knife into the Beef Wellington but couldn't find any beef inside the pastrythat was because the woman on the neighbouring table had been served it and instead we had her wild mushroom and walnut roast, which was also covered in pastry and looked remarkably like the Beef Wellington.

The error was handled quickly and professionally by the likeable general manager who promised the dish wouldn't appear on our bill. While we waited for a second Beef Wellington to arrive your spy tucked into the pork dish. Again, it was faultless. The pork was succulent while the crackling was super-crunchy. It was served with Pommes Anna, braised savoy cabbage and cider apple gravy.

When my guest's main came, accompanied by honey roasted vegetables, puree potatoes and Madeira jus, they said it was certainly worth the wait.

With the plates cleared we asked the waitress for two puddings to complete our meal. Once again the manager came by to apologise and thanked us for being so understanding.

But there was one more minor hiccup to come. We'd ordered a toffee apple crumble and a cheesecake. However the waitress hadn't heard us ask for the crumble so again your spy sat and ate alone while my guest waited for his dessert. The chocolate and cherry cheesecake with cherry coulis and white chocolate tasted every bit as good as it looked. Likewise the crumble, when we got it, was piping hot and delicious.

By way of an apology both main courses and a dessert were wiped off the bill.

Despite the mishaps, your spy and companion had enjoyed every mouthful of food sent from the kitchen at the Kedleston Country House Hotel. We also loved the setting and the friendly, attentive staff. We certainly won't let the Case of the Missing Beef Wellington put us off going again.

THE BILL

Kedleston Country House Hotel, Kedleston Road, Derby. 01332 477222.

What: 2 x pint of Business as Usual 6.70; 1 x med and 1 x small sauvignon blanc 9.55; 2 x three-course All Set for Supper menu 39.90

TOTAL: 56.15

(Due to the problems with the Beef Wellington and the dessert, the bill was reduced to 32.50)
If you're small, smells are a good way to stand out. A team of researchers led by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) has demonstrated for the first time that two different types of micro-organisms - bacteria and fungi - use fragrances, known as terpenes, to hold conversations. And that's not all. "We actually believe that terpenes are the most popular chemical medium on our planet to communicate through." The most used language in the world? Think again, it's probably 'Terpene'! Research by microbial ecologists from NIOO and their colleagues has demonstrated that two very different groups of micro-organisms use fragrances to communicate with each other, the most common type being terpenes. In only one gram of soil billions of micro-organisms are thriving, so that makes many 'speakers'. On top of that: this 'chemical communication' will probably work for a whole bunch of other life forms as well. This is what the research team discovers in Scientific Reports, a relatively new journal from the Nature family. A firm conversation

The researchers have demonstrated that bacteria and fungi do in fact respond to each other. In other words: they can hold conversations. Group leader Paolina Garbeva explains: "Serratia, a soil bacterium, can 'smell' the fragrant terpenes produced by Fusarium, a plant pathogenic fungus. It responds by becoming motile and producing a terpene of its own." The researchers established this by studying which genes were switched 'on' by the bacterium, which proteins it began to produce and which fragrance. Or, in more fancy terms: by using transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic techniques. "Such fragrances -- or volatile organic compounds -- are not just some waste product, they are instruments targeted specifically at long-distance communication between these minute fungi and bacteria." But how widespread is this 'language of smells'? Pathogenic soil fungi such as Fusarium also have an effect aboveground, where they make plants sick. Can they communicate with those plants? Garbeva: "We have known for some time that plants and insects use terpenes to communicate with each other. But we've only just begun to realise that it's actually much wider. There is a much larger group of 'Terpene-speakers': micro-organisms." Fungi, protists, bacteria, and even higher animals. Terpenes act as pheromones -- chemical signals used by animals -- which makes them a regular ingredient of perfumes. So it's likely that the language of terpenes forms a vast chemical communications network indeed. Multilingual

Terpenes are by no means the only volatile organic compounds that are in for a good chat. The researchers found others as well: in the soil, for instance. Garbeva's PhD student Ruth Schmidt, the first author of the article, adds: "Organisms are multilingual, but 'Terpene' is the one that's used most often." Who knows, maybe without realising it we are native speakers too?








The Roman Catholic population of Donegal has dropped by over 7,000 in the last six years according to the latest census figures.

The figures show the catholic population fell by 7,322 between 2011 and 2016. The drop of 5.3 per cent compared to an overall population drop in the county of 1.2 per cent.

The Church of Irelands population fell by 3 per cent to 6,816 while the Presbyterian population fell by 3.9 per cent to 5,877. The Methodist/Wesleyan population increased by 5.4 per cent to 584.

The Jewish population increased by 19 per cent to 25. Other stated religions increased by 23 per cent to 4,020.

The no religion category increased by 58 per cent to 8,172 and those who did not state a relation increased by 151 per cent to 3,381.

Donegals population in April 2016 was comprised of 79,022 males and 80,170 females. There were 53,009 more females than males in the State, 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 Donegals population in April 2016 was 38.5 years, compared to 36.7 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 over increased by 22 per cent to 296,837, while the number of females aged 65 and over increased by 16.7 cent to 340,730.

The numbers divorced and separated people continues to increase in the county with 7,341 people divorced or separated in Donegal, a rate of 4.6 per cent, compared to the national rate of 4.7 per cent.

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.

The number of people in the county who can speak Irish has also declined with 56,738 people stating that they could speak Irish in Donegal, compared to 58,998 in April 2011.

Within this figure, 7,931 spoke Irish daily outside the education system, while 4,453 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.

The number of Irish Travellers has also dropped, according to the census figures, with 586 Irish Travellers resided in Donegal in April 2016, a decline of 19.3% since 2011. Nationally, the number of people enumerated as Irish Travellers increased by 5.1% to 30,987.

In terms of broadband broadband 36,127 dwellings in Donegal had broadband access in April 2016, an increase of 11.9 % since April 2011.

A total of 5,873 dwellings had non-broadband internet access, an increase of 25.8%, while the number of dwellings with no internet access fell by 25.9% to 14,561. Nationally, 312,982 dwellings (18.4%) had no internet connection, down from more than 1 in 4 (25.8%) in 2011.

Broadband use in private households increased to 70.7% (from 63.8% in 2011) and 148,125 more households had a broadband connection.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 16

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made a phone call to President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan on April 16.

President Ilham Aliyev congratulated the President and people of Turkey on the successful conduct of a referendum on amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey and on the majority of the population`s voting for these amendments.

The President described the results of the referendum as the Turkish people`s great support for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan`s policy.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan thanked President Aliyev for attention and congratulations. The heads of state expressed their confidence that friendly and brotherly relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey will continue to successfully develop in all areas.
The Donegal Education and Training Board has expressed their concerns over the cuts to the assessment of spoken Irish in the new Junior Cycle exams.

In a letter to the acting chief executive officer of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, Anne McHugh, chief executive of the Donegal ETB, said, The fact that the oral language should be included in the 10 per cent of a school-based assessment indicates to many that there is little or no value on the spoken language.

Ms. McHugh wrote to the national council on behalf of the Donegal ETB board following the March ETB meeting, where board members expressed disappointment that there was no specified oral aspect as part of the assessment by the State Examinations Commission.

The new specification does not allow for an oral aspect in the final exam, but the council claimed it would be covered in a school-based assessment that would contribute to 10 per cent of exam marks. At present, the oral component of Junior Cert Irish exams can be 40 per cent of the marks.

The ETB revisited the issue at Mondays ETB board meeting, when the letter Ms. McHugh sent to the national council on the boards behalf was on the agenda.

Patsy McVicar, ETB board member and former principal of Pobalscoil Chloich Cheannfhaola in Falcarragh, said later that dropping assessment of spoken Irish in the Junior Cycle, seems to go against the understanding that the most important element of any language is the spoken component.

And if you are to do justice to that, you have to incentivize people to use it, and youre not doing that by reducing potential marks available" for spoken Irish, he said.

Cllr. Albert Doherty, board member, said he believed the changes were not giving full respect to the language, or to heritage and identity.

In her letter to the national council, Ms. McHugh said the ETB board also believed the new Junior Cycle specifications for Irish was not consistent with the Policy for Gaeltacht Education, or with obligations on teachers in Gaeltacht areas regarding the preservation and promotion of Irish in the school and the local area.

The board was adamant that the current specification for Gaeilge will have a detrimental effect on the spoken language in the country and, in particular, the Gaeltacht areas, Ms. McHugh wrote.

ETB board member Philip McGlynn said the ETB tradition of promoting Irish adds weight to their concerns. Three of the ETBs Irish-medium schools are outside the Donegal Gaeltacht, in Ballyshannon, Letterkenny, and Buncrana.

Cllr. Doherty also said he believed the ETB had the expertise to analyse the state of Irish in the county as part of its motion of the language.

The onus is on us as the board of the ETB to be leaders of this and take it to the forefront, Mr. McGlynn said.
By now you have heard all the media hype regarding the huge "Mother of All Bombs" dropped in Afghanistan last week. Virtually all major media are hawking this story verbatim from script out of the UK.

According to the news, this is the first time this weapon has ever been used and they imply it is an all-new weapon developed at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama. Wrong on several accounts.

I spent 13 months in the war zone during the Vietnam conflict. We used the same type weapon we called a "Daisy Cutter." It was seven tons of explosives and was, in fact, delivered by a C-130. It was initially developed to clear LZs for choppers in jungle. It instantly cleared a one mile wide area of underbrush, all enemy and weapon threats. It was also later used as an anti-personnel device in Laos and Cambodia. It was also employed extensively in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan going back to 1991.

This is another classic example of where there are just truth fragments in major media reports and as always, must be taken with a bit of healthy skepticism.

James W. Anderson

Talladega
Concerning health care, why is it that no one talks about the senior citizens? Everyone seems to want Obamacare to subsidize health insurance for illegals and welfare people who haven't paid a dime toward Medicare taxes. Seniors who have worked and paid all their lives still have to pay a fourth or more of their Social Security income for health insurance.
On April 19 and 20, we will observe the anniversaries of three of the worst domestic terrorist attacks on America. Ever hear the current administration talk about domestic terrorists? Will Trump's wall stop them? Will a ban on Muslims prevent them?

David Koresh was a Seventh Day Adventist and Timothy McVeigh was a Catholic. Maybe we should ban these denominations from America? How about the travel ban? How many of these thugs came from another country?

Maybe we should work on deterrence. How about making the stupid and costly death penalty mandatory in case of terrorist attacks? The thugs at Waco and Columbine elected to die at their own hands at the scene of the carnage and McVeigh ordered a stop to appeals, in effect volunteering for his own execution.

Many experts agree that we are in as much (or more) danger from domestic terrorists than from those of foreign nations. So why the silence from the administration?

I think it is fair to say that most potential domestic terrorists are supporters of Trump and his supporters who promote hate and bigotry inspire these terrorists. After the Waco and Oklahoma City attacks, the NRA attacked law enforcement officers, calling them "jack-booted thugs" and "Nazis."

Of course, the Trump Administration and most other pro-death Republicans toady to these merchants of death and hate.

Carl Hess

Ozark
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 16

By Anakhanum Hidayatova  Trend:

Israel plans to build a company for production of vegetable and fruit crops seeds in Azerbaijan, Alex Kaplun, the president of the Israel-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IACCI), told Trend.

The construction project of the seed production company was initiated a year ago by Azerbaijans Agriculture Ministry and the IACCI, he said.

"At the end of 2016, in anticipation of the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Baku, a contract was signed between Azerbaijans Agriculture Ministry and the Israeli Plain Sciences (IPS) company to create a state enterprise for seed breeding and production," Kaplun noted.

IPS will be the contractor of the project from the Israeli side, he said.

The IPS company will act in partnership with several leading Israeli companies and will be headed by Oded Sagi, Ph.D. in agricultural science, who is one of the best Israeli specialists in the field of breeding new seeds and their production, he added.

Kaplun noted that the quality seeds of own production are the basis for successful farming, and using quality seeds well adapted to weather conditions enables farmers to get fruitful harvest.

"Azerbaijan has excellent conditions for the development of farms," Kaplun said. "Establishment of local seed production will make it possible to abandon the import of seeds, save the state budget funds and create new jobs."

He added that at the moment Azerbaijans agriculture completely depends on the imported seeds. Many seeds are produced by European companies, and these seeds are not adapted to local weather conditions, he noted.

"The establishment of the enterprise will open new opportunities for the economy of Azerbaijan, and the country will be able to export seeds in the future, and this will become a positive and significant step in the development of the entire agro-industrial complex," he said.

"Teaching Azerbaijani specialists the technologies for breeding new varieties of seeds ideally adapted to the Azerbaijani climate and consumer priorities will become an integral part of the project," Kaplun added.

"For this purpose, laboratories for the research and breeding of new varieties of seeds will be built within the framework of the project," he said.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, April 16

By Demir Azizov Trend:

Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov and French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development Jean-Marc Ayrault, who was on an official visit to Tashkent, exchanged views on the regional and international issues, the Uzbek foreign ministry said.

"The ministers also discussed the current aspects of the Uzbekistan-France relations in the political, trade, economic, investment, cultural, humanitarian and other fields," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, Kamilov and Ayrault stressed that it is possible to systematically develop and strengthen the Uzbekistan-France multifaceted cooperation due to the interministerial cooperation program signed for 2017-2018.

The ministers also discussed the expansion of cooperation between Uzbekistan and France in the context of implementing the tasks set by the strategy on five priority directions of development of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2017-2021.

A delegation of French businessmen under the aegis of MEDEF International will visit Uzbekistan in early June 2017.

MEDEF International is the international department of the Movement of the Enterprises of France, which unites more than 750,000 companies and firms.

The ministers confirmed the interest in the successful outcome of the delegations visit and considered other issues of mutual interest.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 16

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

Irans President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated phases 17 and 18 of the South Pars gas field in a ceremony on Apr. 16.

During the ceremony Rouhani was briefed about the development projects of the gas field, Irans state-run IRINN TV reported.

Iran invested $8.1 billion in the mentioned phases, which became semi-operational in 2014. The final annual capacity of these phases is 18.2 bcm of natural gas and 29 million barrels of gas condensate. It also pursues yearly production of one million tons of ethane and 1.02 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Two phases will bring about $5 billion revenues for the country on a yearly basis.

Rouhani will also officially inaugurate the phases 19, 20 and 21 of the gas field, as well as a development project of the South Pars gas fields oil layer.

Senior Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, and Industry Minister Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh are accompanying Rouhani during the one-day visit to Assalouyeh in southern Iranian province of Bushehr.

Phases 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 of South Pars gas field were mostly developed during the Rouhani administration.

Irans section of South Pars, jointly owned with Qatar, contains 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensate.

Iran has divided the field into 24 phases. Currently, the fields nominal production capacity stands at 500 mcm/d, but Iran plans to increase this volume to 800 mcm/d by 2021.
Take advantage of a new home in the best place to live

Home buyers can now enjoy a new home at The Hedgerows in Clayton-le-Woods, near Leyland  for less.

Redrows Advantage incentive means qualifying buyers can move into a beautiful brand new home for only 80% of the market value  and enjoy living in an area recently named the best location for families in the whole of the UK.

The South Ribble area recently came top in a one-off Channel 4 programme hosted by Sarah Beeny to find the best place for people to live. It was based on a host of factors including average house prices, job opportunities, health and well-being, and everything from culture to transport and family life.

It concluded what we at Redrow already know, said Claire Jarvis, sales director for Redrow Homes (Lancashire), that the area has everything going for it for those searching for a quality of life, and aiming to get the balance just right for every member of the family.

Our development of two, three and four-bedroom homes is within easy reach of both the popular market town of Leyland and the more extensive shopping and leisure facilities of Preston, while enjoying excellent commuter connections with the M6 close by and easy access to the West Coast Mainline rail services.

Perhaps best of all, The Hedgerows enjoys all of this while still being close to open Lancashire countryside and beauty spots including Cuerden Valley Park, between Clayton le Woods and Bamber Bridge, and Worden Park, in Leyland.

And all of this is now available to people on more modest incomes who might not otherwise be able to afford a brand new home at The Hedgerows.

Homes offered under the Advantage umbrella include two-bedroom Evesham style properties from only 111,960, and three-bedroom Evesham 3 and Broadway style houses, priced from 126,000 to 137,593. Each is from Redrows Arts & Crafts inspired Heritage Collection, which blends traditional looking architecture and period style features with bright, modern, family friendly interiors and must-have features such as fully fitted kitchens, top brand name appliances, en-suites and ground floor cloakrooms.

Under the Advantage scheme buyers can secure the keys to one of these properties at 80% of full market value providing they fulfil a specific criteria: that they are first-time buyers or not currently owning their own home; have a combined household income of less than 50,000 pa; are able to demonstrate a need for the type of home they wish to purchase and can assure Redrow that, for themselves and their dependants, it will be their sole residence. The discount must also remain with the house if it is re-sold in the future.

The idea is to ensure that these homes remain affordable, so the Advantage discount is attached to each property in perpetuity, Claire explained. If and when the owner sells up and moves on they must pass on the same discount to a new buyer who similarly qualifies.

The Advantage properties are a great addition to a development that already features a range of popular three and four-bedroom family homes from 239,995 to 321,995.



To find out more about The Hedgerows and the Advantage scheme, visit the fully furnished show homes at The Hedgerows, off Wigan Road, usually open Thursday to Monday from 10am to 5.30pm. Alternatively, log onto redrow.co.uk/thehedgerows.
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Tehran, Iran, April 16

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

The new markets that Irans petrochemical industry found in the post-sanctions era in Europe and elsewhere are the pioneer of a new era in Irans economic cooperation with the world, said Majid Baten, international relations director at Irans Petrochemical Industry Employers Association.

"As statistics show, after sanctions were lifted, Irans petrochemicals started going to new international markets, including Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa and exports are expected to increase 30 percent," Baten told Trend April 15.

Under sanctions, he noted, it was difficult to carry out the money transfers, but now after the nuclear deal has been put to force, Iran is going to regain its traditional markets.

According to Baten, over the past months famous international companies such as Siemens, Linde, BASF, Shell, etc. visited Tehran to start new rounds of cooperation with Tehran.

They have met many officials from upstream and downstream sectors and the talks point to a bright future in the petrochemical industry, he asserted.

Iran also exported $14.34 billion of petrochemicals, indicating a rise by 9 percent compared to the preceding year during the last Iranian fiscal year (ended March 20, 2017).

Iran produced 50 million tons of petrochemical products during the last Iranian fiscal year, setting a new record with 8 percent improvement year-on-year.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 16

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

Irans Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan called for peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

He made the remarks during a meeting with Azerbaijani defense minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov who is on a visit to Tehran, the Iranian defense ministry reported Apr. 16.

He expressed hope that Azerbaijan and Armenia would not permit the third parties and foreigners to interfere in the conflict which only escalates the tension.

Dehghan further said that there is no capacity for a new crisis in the region, which is already plagued with insecurity and terrorism.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

The Iranian minister also stressed the need for closer military cooperation between Iran and Azerbaijan and for efforts to block the third parties seeking to undermine Tehran-Baku ties.

Intensive meetings between the leaders and senior officials of the two countries indicate that the mutual political, economic and cultural ties are escalating, Dehghan added.

Heading a high-ranking military delegation, Hasanov arrived in Tehran on Apr. 15 at the invitation of his Iranian counterpart.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 16

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani has termed the US move on dropping unconventional and massive bombs in Afghanistan illegitimate.



Bombarding people and countries will never be capable of providing national security, IRNA news agency quoted Ali Shamkhani as saying at a meeting with Azerbaijani Minister of Defense Colonel General Zakir Hasanov in Tehran.

The US military April 13 dropped its largest bomb which is non-nuclear, mother of all bombs, on Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar to target the so-called Islamic State (IS aka ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group.

He further touched upon the issue of terrorism saying some measures taken by the US and its regional allies have caused the creation of terrorist groups.

Colonel General Zakir Hasanov heading a high-ranking defense delegation is in Iran to discuss bilateral ties.
Written by ACM



*Strasbourg/CoE/Angelo Marcopolo/- "I have NEVER seen a SO BAD Situation as Now" in "Turkey", during 18 Years that I've been CoE's Rapporteur on Local Democracy for that Country, "since 1999" : - "We are BACK TO the Situation of 1990ies !", Denounced Today, widely applauded, Anders Knape, Experienced Long-Time MEP from Sweden, President of the PanEuropean Organisation's Chamber of Local Authorities, in Conclusion of a Long Debate and Votes, which practicaly found that "Democracy" was "Suspended" at Local level particularly "in South-East" Turkey, with a predominantly Kurdish Culture Population, (See Infra).



I.e., Significantly, he referred Back to an Era of the Past, Before Turkey's controversial and unpopular EU bid, during which, Ankara's regime was not only clearly considered by All the EU not only as Incompatible with any "Accession" Candidacy, but Even Inadequate for normal EU Funding, because of particularly Serious Problems of Mass Human Rights' Violations, grave Anti-Democratic Discrepancies, Contempt and Disregard of the Rule of Law, etc, as things stood for a Long Period of Time, Before the December 1999 Helsinki EU Summit.



He was Speaking also on Behalf of the Socialist Co-Rapporteur of the CoE, Leendert Verbeek, Head of the Dutch Delegation, and President of the powerful "Monitoring" Committee in CoE's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (CLRAE).



Knape and Verbeek had made Together a Fact-Finding Mission in Turkey on October and December 2016, before Presenting for Vote the Results in a Report with a Resolution and concrete Recommendations for Action Today, after a Largely Attended, Long Debate at CLRAE's Spring 2017 Plenary Session in Strasbourg, this Thursday, Exceptionaly Full with a lot of People until this Late Afternoon/Evening Hour, (despite a Shuttle Bus vainly waiting to bring them to the Annual Reception given by the City's Mayor/Senator for the CoE, downtown)...





--------------------------------------



- It's "Long Before the Attempted Coup of July 2016", that "a Wave of Dismissals of Elected Representatives, in particular in South-Eastern Turkey (mainly inhabited by Kurds), had "Started" a "Trend" which had Already been a cause of Concern" for CoE's Rapporteurs. That's why, CLRAE's Bureau's "Decision to conduct a Fact-Finding Mission" on those Incidents had been "Taken on 8 February 2016", the adopted Report reminds.



- "However", the subsequent "Declaration of the State of Emergency", on July 2016, made that "Still More Relevant", they observe, while, nevertheless, having clearly Distinguished between the Mass Oppression of Dissidents even at the Local/Regional level, which had already Started Long Before, and the State of Emergency Measures, which obviously Aggravated that situation. So that, f.ex., an eventual Future LIft of the State of Emergency, (f.ex. after the April 2017 Referendum to Change the Constitution, i.e. if Mr. Erdogan gets what he wanted), would Not be sufficient at all in order to settle All those Serious Problems.



----------------------------------



+ But, in Addition, "Today ... there have been Many Accounts of Individuals being Arrested and Detained withOut there being Sufficient Charges against them". And "Given their Suddenness alone, the Mass "Purges" of National and Local Administrative Bodies, and even Judicial Bodies (some 3.000 Judges and Prosecutors) could Not have been carried out in accordance with the Fundamental Principles", (such as, f.ex., the "Presumption of Innocence", the "Individual" character of any prosecution, etc.), CoE's Report Concludes.



---------------------------------------------



=> Therefore, CLRAE's Spring 2017 Plenary Session largely Debated and Adopted, with a very Big Majority of Votes, a Strong Resolution and Recommendation on several 2015-2017 Massive Attacks against Local Democracy by Ankara's Central Government, slaming the Dire "Situation of Local Elected Representatives in Turkey", during which a 3/4 Majority of Voters Rejected All Amendmends lodged by Turkish MEPs Vainly Attempting to "Delete" or Alter the most "Hot" Points of the Draft Texts, after a Long and Complex Procedure, calmly and clearly Chaired by CLRAE's New President Gudrun Mosler-Toenstroem from Austria, hershelf :



-----------------------------------------------

For the RELEASE of Jailed Mayors :

------------------------------------------------------------



>>> In the Most Important Point, an adopted CLRAE's Official Recommendation "Asks the Committee of Ministers" (CoE's Highest Political body, currently Chaired by Cyprus), "to Invite the Turkish Authorities to ... Proceed with ... the Immediate Release" of "Local Elected Representatives currently in Pre-Trial Detention", "where appropriate", and, at any case, "to Examine" the "Situation" of All of them, "in order to Ensure that it is in Conformity with the European Convention of Human Rights", "with a View to their Release".



A Turkish Attempt to "Delete" that Appeal, was Strongly Rejected by a Majority of 117 Votes against Only 20.



---------------------------------

On TORTURE/INHUMAN-DEGRADING TREATMENTS + :

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

=> Moreover, CLRAE's Plenary Strongly Supported, with a very strong Majority of 118 Votes against Only 21, an Official Demand for CoE's competent "European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman Treatment or punishment (CPT) to Examine Reports of Inhumane Treatment of Detained Local Elected Representatives in Turkey".



CoE's body pointed, in this regard, "Notably" to the Victims' "Solitary Confinement", in Addition to their "Systematic Transfert to Prisons Far from their Homes", clearly Rejecting a Turkish Ammendment which Failed to "Erase" all those mentions on such a Core Human Rights Issue as Torture/Inhuman-Degrading Treatments.



+ In Addition, CLRAE also "proposes that the (CoE's) Human Rights Commissioner ... pays Particular Attention to the Situation of Elected Mayors, notably in South-East Turkey", (notoriously with a predominant Kurdish Population), "including those Former Mayors who are Now in Prison". And, in Parallel, CLRAE's Plenary "suggests that (CoE's Democracy through Law body of Top Legal Experts, known as) the Venice Commission" checks "the Constitutionality of the Measures ... which Concern the exercice of Local Democracy in Turkey", that Ankara's Central Government took with some infamous "Decree Laws", seriously Restricting not only Liberties but also Democracy. Turkish Attempts to "Delete" such Moves were Rejected with a Majority of 111 Votres against Only 24.



---------------------------------------

On Pseudo- "TERRORISM" Turkish Pretexts against Political Dissidents :

-----------------------------------------------------------------------



>>> Meanwhile, a particularly "Hot" InFight took place on Turkey's notoriously Excessive, and often False Claims of Pseudo-"Terrorism", with which Ankara's Authorities often Accuse Political Dissidents and/or Critics in order to Search a Hollow Pretext to Oppress even their most Elementary Human Rights :



- Indeed, CLRAE's Plenary clearly "Observed that Most of the Arrests of Local Elected Representatives" in Turkey "have been made on the Basis of Accusations of Terrorism" by Ankara's Central Authorities using a "Definition... which has been Criticized by CoE's Bodies, the EU, and other International Organisations", and "is Not in Conformity with the Practice of Most CoE Member States".



Turkish Attempts to "Delete" that Critical, Last Sentence, were Strongly Rejected by a Majority of 118 Votes against only 24.



=> Moreover, in order to Make things Clear, also for the foreseeable Future, CLRAE also "Asks" CoE's Foreign Ministers to make Ankara "Revise the Turkish Legislation" in order "to Align its Definition of Terrorism with European Standards", and, "notably the ECHR's case-law".



This is a Serious Point that has been also Made by the EU Commission in Brussels, supported by an EU Parliament's Resolution in Strasbourg on 2016, even on the occasion of a Series of Conditions for Ankara's controversial and unpopular Demand to Give to 80 Millions of Turks a "Free Visa" Status in order to Enter and Stay in Europe for at least 6 Months each Year, but the Turkish Government has Refused to abide.



- Today, the Head of the Turkish Delegation to the CLRAE, Gaye Doganoglou, appeared instructed to go as Far as to repeatedly Claim even that Strasbourg's PanEuropean Organisation for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law, the CoE, would "Not have Any Mandate to Define the term "Terrorism" !" (sic)...



However, also that provocative Turkish Claim was Strongly Rejected by CLRAE's Plenary, which Droped a controversial Amendment asking to "Delete" the above-mentioned sentence in CoE's Draft, with a 4/5 Super-Majority of 118 Votes against Only 22.



-------------------



+ CLRAE's Plenary also strongly Refused, with almost a 3/4 Majority, a Turkish Amendment which had Claimed to practicaly Assimilate the Kurdish "PKK" with "ISIS" Islamist Terrorists and atrocious BeHeaders, who Target innocent Civilian People, (and with whom, Ankara's Deep State has notoriously been Accused by many for various Scandalous and Dangerous Complicities, including on transferts of "Jihadists", Money Laundering, Trafficking of Stolen Oil/Gas, Weapons deliveries, etc).



- The Criticism exerted on Turkey by the 47 Member States strong (including Russia, etc) CoE's Local/Regional Democracy Watchdog against Ankara's Oppressive Measures was so Deep, that a 2/3 Majority Refused even an Amendment suggested by CLRAE's co-Rapporteurs to speak, in this regard, about "Threats against the Life of the Nation", that CLRAE's Plenary obviously did Not found to be an Excuse, but rather a Pretext for so Serious Violations of Human Rights, (as several Key MEPs later Confirmed to "Eurofora").



>>> In Fact, CLRAE's Adopted Resolution stressed, on the Contrary, that "the Detentions and Arrests of Local Elected Representatives, and the Extensive resort to Lengthy Remand Detention, ... are Counter-Productive, and are Weakening the capacity of Turkey to Deal with the Terrorist threats that it is facing". A Turkish MEPs' attempt to "Delete" that Paragraph, was Rejected by a Majority of 109 Votes against Only 32.



Naturaly, COE "is Aware of the Threats that Turkey is Facing, including an Increase in Terror Attacks, the Attempted Coup of 15 July 2016, several Millioj Refugees ... and War at its Borders", while it also "categorically Condemns all Forms of Terrorism and Violent Extremism", admitting that "Nobody can Deny that Turkey Needs to Take ... Measures to Protect itself and its Institutions", But on the Condition that these will be "Adequate and Proportionate".



>>> In particular, it's "the use of the Turkish Anti-Terror Law, ... principaly with regard to Declarations and Opinions Expressed", which "is having a Negative Impact on Political Pluralism, and" on "Local Democracy in Turkey", CLRAE observed.



- Moreover, "the Healthy Functioning of Local Democracy is an Essential Tool to Combating these Threats", CLRAE's Recommendation pointed out. That's why, CLRAE "Believes that the Detentions and Arrests of Local Representatives, and the Extensive resort to Lenthy Remand Detention, ... are CounterProductive and are Weakening the capacity of Turkey to Deal with the Terrorist Threats that it is facing".



=> Therefore, in Addition, CLRAE "is Concerned that the Arrest and Removal from Office of Many Elected Representatives, Seriously Risk Damaging Pluralist Democracy at the Local level, and Gravely Weakening Political Parties and Civil Society".



+ And a "Decree ... introduced ...withing the Framework of the State of Emergency", "to enable the Central Authorities to Appoint UnElected Mayors, ... is Incompatible with Turkey's Commitments" vis a vis the CoE, "notably" as a "Party to the Charter (for Local Democracy), ... according to which, Local Government should be carried out under the authority of Councils or Assemblies Elected Freely, by Secret Ballot", CLRAE's Text notes.



- Thus, "the Detentions of Elected Mayors, and their Replacement by "Mayors Appointed by the Central Authorities" in over 50 Cities, in South-East Turkey, has effectively Suspended ... Local Democracy in that Region, with Most Municipal Councils of those Cities Ceasing to Function, and with almost 6 Million Turkish Citizens Deprived of Political Representation at the Local level", CoE's competent body found.



Because "the Transfert of Power ... of these Municipal Councils, to "Mayors Appointed by the Central Authorities", Amounts to a DisProportionate form of Administrative Supervision", which has practicaly "Abrogated" the relevant Articles of COE's "Charter" for Local Democracy.



-----------------------------------------------------

+ PUBLIC SERVICES + CLRAE Members

----------------------------------------------------------------------

+ CLRAE also Denounced the Fact that "the Replacementr of Elected Mayors, by "Mayors Appointed by the Central Authorities" (i.e. Ankara's Turkish Government) is being accompagnied by a Reduction in Local Public Services, and, in particular, the Closure of Women's Refuges and Other Services for Women, Children and Families at Risk", expressing its "Concern". A Turkish Amendment asking to "Delete" all that, was Strontgly Rejected by a Majority of 113 Votes against Only 24.

- Last, but not least, Concerning the sort of Individual Members of the CLRAE from Turkey, the Adopted Resolution Decided to "put the Review of the Situation of Nurhayat Altun, Member of the Turkish Delegation of the Congress, on the Agenda of its Bureau Meetings, until the End of Legal Proceedings", (concerning that Jailed Representative to the CoE), while CLRAE's Recommendation to CoE's Foreign Ministers asks Turkey "to Ensure that Congress' Members and Turkish Members of the Group of Independent Experts of the CLRAE, are Free to carry out their Work, and can Circulate Freely, for this purpose".



Once Completed, this CoE Local/Regional Democracy Watchdog's Recommendation to its Committee of Ministers on Turkey was Finaly Adopted with an even Bigger Majority : 125 Votes in favor, against Only 23.




The Syrian Armed Forces attacked the positions of the Jabhat Fatah al Sham terrorist organization in the city of Daraa, killing 10 militants, Sputnik reported citing the state media.

According to the Syrian television, the army hit terrorist targets in the al-Balad residential area, destroying militants' command post, a vehicle and a mortar carrier vehicle.

On Friday, the Syrian troops thwarted an attack on western districts of Damascus by the Jabhat Fatah al Sham militants, and carried out operations against the terrorists north of the western city of Hama, killing and injuring many terrorists as well as destroying armored vehicles equipped with machine guns.
On Tuesday 18th April, the Bitcoin price is seen sharply higher on the week's open at $1,214.36 in US dollars and 966.41 in British Pound Sterling.

The Japanese decision to accept bitcoin as a legal tender boosted bitcoin prices from the lows of $900 to about $1200. Now, the focus shifts to the other two giants, India and China who can be game changers with their vast population and growing use of the internet. However, both seem to be keen to have their own version of digital currency.

China planning its own digital currency

Bitcoin is hugely popular in China. A while back, before the restrictions on withdrawals, the Chinese exchanges generated most of the daily trading volume. The PBOC did not have any control on bitcoins. Hence, the PBOC wants to launch a digital currency of its own to wrestle back control.

Such a move by a major central bank will revolutionize the cryptocurrency universe and skyrocket its popularity and acceptability worldwide. China is a major importer and exporter of goods and services. A digital Renminbi can be a gateway for China to internationalize its currency, and offer it as a substitute to the US dollar.

After all, the number of people using mobile payments is expected to surge further by 2020, reports Bloomberg.

A Chinese digital currency will also make it more transparent, hence acceptable. Currently, the opacity of the Chinese government has been a major roadblock in the acceptance and use of the Renminbi outside of China.

India forms a committee to study cryptocurrencies

India, the second most populous nation in the world is waging a war on black money. Its central bank has also been seriously studying the blockchain technology towards a digital rupee, which will help in its fight against money laundering.

Nonetheless, what happens to the existing cryptocurrencies if these governments introduce their own digital currencies is to be seen.
Remember the old Lays potato chips slogan Betcha cant eat just one? Readers of an April 2 column about the Facs Co. and its potato and corn chips had more to say about it and the Frito Co. (later Frito-Lay), from which it descended.

Former Fritos route man Fred A. Cunningham started making his own lines of corn and potato chips while still selling Fritos products, which led to a break with Elmer Doolin of the Fritos founding family. Facs  named for Cunninghams initials  flourished from the mid-1940s until it was sold in 1969 to Pet Inc., which merged it with Houston brand Dentler Maid to form Dentler-Facs, which continued into the 1970s.

There are many competing origin tales for corn chips  the kind best known as Fritos  with or without Doolin. One version is described by Alexandra Villalobos in Fritos in the Hands of the Doolin Family in the Journal of the Life and Culture of San Antonio on the website of the University of the Incarnate Word, www.uiw.edu. Doolin, then manager of the Highland Park Confectionery, an ice cream shop, wanted to diversify in 1932, when he ordered a sandwich and a bag of chips at a small San Antonio cafe and learned that the producer of the chips, eager to return to Mexico, wanted to sell the business. For $100, Doolin is said to have purchased the recipe, 39 retail accounts and the only equipment, an adapted potato ricer.

But wait: The producer of the (corn) chips might not have been an innovator. Reader George Farias sent The Story of the Corn Chip, written by his cousin Roy G. Martinez for a family history book. According to this account, The first commercial corn chips were (named) Tostadas, produced by the B. Martinez and Sons Co. using a process patented in 1909. Martinezs grandfather Jose Bartolome Martinez, aka the Corn King, founded his business in 1896, with his first mill at 615 Dolorosa St.

His company made tamalina (dehydrated corn flour), masa, tortillas and corn chips  (as well as) cracked corn, regular corn, spices and tortilla presses. Martinez, his grandson says, experimented with the mass production of masa, to make such byproducts as taco and chalupa shells, tamal meal, champurrado (chocolate drink) mix, gorditas and red and green enchilada tortillas.

During the early 1900s, Martinez found himself with large masa overruns in daily production, Roy Martinez writes. Being an astute businessman, he developed new products to reduce waste, including a corn chip. Martinez tried many different shapes  circles, squares, strips and triangles. Martinez went with a triangle and tested the chips marketability by giving out samples.

Packaged in 8-ounce bags, his chips sold for 5 cents. Martinez also pitched them to restaurants to be served with dips as appetizers; fittingly, the Original Mexican Restaurant was his first such customer. B. Martinez and Sons sold chips as Tostadas from the early 1900s to the 1930s, says his grandson: As the company grew, the managers decided to discontinue the making of corn chips, because tamalina had become the real moneymaker. That was about the same time the Fritos Co. took off  coincidence or cause-and-effect?

A former employee of both Facs and Frito-Lay also offered more tidbits. Richard Mentzler of New Braunfels goes way back in the world of regional chip-making. As a teen, he was friends with the Kelly brothers, whose father, Ralph Fritz Kelly, was one of the Frito Co.s first employees. When I was a teenager in the 1950s, Mike Kelly and his brother Gerald and I would go out driving around  we called it cruising  and theyd go in their house and come back with a grocery bag filled with chips, says Mentzler, whose father, Archie Mentzler, an aircraft mechanic at Kelly AFB, had turned down a chance to work for Doolin because he thought corn chips were a fad that wouldnt last.

The younger Mentzler bet on chips, working for Facs from 1962 to 1973, starting as a route man: Just out of the Navy, I was making $25 or $30 more a week than my father. He later moved up to head Facs private-label business, with customers such as Houstons Weingartens grocery chain and Gibsons discount stores.

Mentzler weathered a few years under Pet, which dropped the private-label business, then jumped to Frito-Lay, where he worked for 28 years. During his years with Facs, he remembers that corn chips were where the money was at. And yes, the similarity to Fritos packaging in Facs semiscript font and slightly lighter orange color probably was intentional: A housewife who wanted a bag of Fritos maybe picked up one of our bags instead.

While some regional chip makers had residential routes and delivered their products in metal cans, now prized as antiques, Facs didnt sell its cans in stores. They were only for the restaurant trade, nothing fancy, Mentzler says, plain vanilla (design)  a silver can with our name on it in black or blue. The returnable cans were dropped because the empty ones took up a lot of room (on the truck), and they got dented and bent. For every 20 youd pick up, youd have to throw two or three of them away.

Meanwhile, before Fritos became Frito-Lay, he recalls, its Ta-Tos potato chips werent its best product: Lays gave them a quality potato chip to go with their quality corn chip. Facs made a better potato chip but the companys biggest mistake, as Mentzler remembers, was the launch of a dipping chip: We went whole hog on (promoting) it, and it wasnt worth a durn. Another change, raising small-bag prices from a nickel to a dime, was more successful. Salesmen thought that would ruin it, that people would quit buying it, he remembers.

Even back when grocery snack aisles were sparer  four shelves for Fritos and four for Facs  sales reps schemed for the best placement. Say the store manager was having a shindig at his house, Mentzler says. He might get a few samples under the table. It was all about fighting for that front placement.

historycolumn@yahoo.com

Twitter: @sahistorycolumn

Facebook: SanAntoniohistorycolumn
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A gray Nissan Xterra, its hazard lights blinking, stopped Saturday morning on a far Northwest Side neighborhood street, where a 16-year-old Boy Scout and his buddy jumped out, trotted to a front porch and quickly returned, toting a paper grocery sack packed with nonperishable food.

They stacked the bag in the back of the vehicle, next to several others theyd already collected, as they made their rounds in the neighborhood as part of an annual service project aimed at helping people who are hungry.

That scene played out time and time again, not only in Bandera Crossing, but across the greater San Antonio area, as countless Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts spent the morning collecting groceries for Scouting for Food, a drive for the San Antonio Food Bank.

Youre a part of something that will affect a lot of other people, said Franz Cangco, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout. Its seeing people come together, working for a common cause.

A week before, Scout troops delivered thousands of grocery sacks to doorsteps across the city. That was the hard part, said Ben Pena, one of the leaders of Troop 228, based out of Northwest Hills United Methodist Church. Hes been involved with Boy Scouts since his sons were active in the 1990s. Now, he has grandchildren in the Dallas area but remains active with the troop on the Northwest Side.

His troop has been doing food drives for more than a decade.

Last year, we filled up the trailer, double-stacked high, he said.

This years haul yielded similar results.

One quarter of the children in the San Antonio area are food insecure and a third of the people helped by the San Antonio Food Bank are children, Eric Cooper, president and CEO of the agency, said in a news release.

Angie Salinas, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas, said in the same release that service is part and parcel to the organization.

This is what Girl Scouts do: We make the world a better place, she said. Girl Scouts has a long-standing tradition of helping our communities. Service projects like food drives teach our Girl Scouts that they can make a difference and in turn help girls just like them.

On Saturday, boys from BSA Troop 228 gathered at their community swimming pool about 8:30 a.m., where they messed around in the parking lot, snacking on doughnuts and bottled water before setting out on the methodical mission of retracing their steps from the weekend prior, when they delivered more than 800 grocery bags in their neighborhoods.

Jacob Hampton, a 16-year-old sophomore at Warren High School, explained how he kept a watchful eye for bags left on doorsteps.

Often, the donations were set behind columns and werent easy to see.

But he and his friend worked in unison to spot them, and Jacobs stepfather, Gilbert Lopez, would stop the Xterra so the boys could retrieve the food.

I enjoy it. Its what service is all about, Jacob said. Do a good turn daily.

jbaugh@express-news.net

Twitter: @jbaugh
The young commander of the Alamo who penned an inspiring Victory or Death letter and died fighting on the north wall is one of the most celebrated, yet mysterious, figures from the epic 1836 siege and battle  the subject of books, songs and movies about the most famous event in San Antonios history.

Lt. Col. William Barret Travis died at age 26 in the early morning battle of March 6, 1836. Although his fame among Alamo defenders has often been overshadowed by knife fighter Jim Bowie, 39, and 49-year-old frontiersman and former congressman David Crockett, few can doubt the significance of his role as the garrison commander whose letters chronicled the convictions of his troops.

Bob Sanders, a Travis biographer in Dallas, is on his own mission to learn more about the young cavalry officers life, relationships and even his appearance.

Theres so much information out there about Bowie and Crockett. Now we are learning more about Travis, Sanders said. Somehow, he kept the men inside those walls together.

Travis initially protested orders to travel to the Alamo, complaining to provisional Gov. Henry Smith that he should not have to command a site with such little means. He and 30 other men reached the Alamo from East Texas on Feb. 3. After Alamo volunteers elected Bowie as their leader, Travis and Bowie agreed on a shared command.

During the 13-day siege, with Mexican troops under Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna surrounding the Alamo compound, delegates met to the east and declared independence from Mexico, citing grievances related to political and social issues. Travis, a South Carolina native who had been a lawyer and newspaper editor before leaving Alabama to come to Texas, sent numerous letters out with couriers on horseback, pleading for help.

On Feb. 23, 1836, the day Santa Annas army reached San Antonio to begin the siege, Travis wrote to people of Gonzales, asking for assistance. That same day, he and Bowie signed a letter to Goliad, asking for all the men you can spare promptly.

It was on Feb. 24, the day Bowie fell ill, that Travis wrote his most famous letter, sounding a call for help to the people of Texas and all Americans in the world.

Then, I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch, he wrote.

If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due his own honor and that of his country, he added, closing with Victory or Death underlined three times.

In a Feb. 25 message to Maj. Gen. Sam Houston, Travis repeated his plea for help, saying his men had conducted themselves with firmness and bravery, amid heavy bombardment.

Not knowing that delegates had declared independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos a day earlier, Travis wrote at least two letters to delegates on March 3. One urged for help defending the Alamo, to keep Santa Anna from waging a war of desolation to rage our settlements. The other pleaded with delegates to make a declaration of independence, and we will then understand, and the world will understand, what we are fighting for.

In perhaps his final letter, also dated March 3, Travis told his sons guardian, take care of my little boy.

All 189 known Alamo defenders were killed in the battle or executed afterward. Some 300-500 Mexican troops are said to have been killed or wounded. The rebels would suffer another blow with the March 27 execution of 342 Texans at Goliad, but would defeat Santa Annas army on April 21, 1836, at San Jacinto, and capture the generalissimo himself to secure independence for Texas.

Today, the 164 words in Travis most famous letter are memorialized with a plaque at the Alamo. But questions have been raised about his life and Alamo command. One of the most cherished Alamo legends, sometimes depicted in movies, credits Travis with drawing a line in the ground with his saber, beckoning his men to cross if they would stay and fight, once he learned reinforcements would not arrive from Goliad. Historians have questioned the tale, which was based largely on a third-hand account that emerged more than 35 years later.

Some have said Travis, struck with a shot to the head in battle, killed a Mexican soldier right before he died. Others have suggested he committed suicide to avoid being captured and tortured. There also have been rumors that he had killed a man in Alabama, possibly in retaliation for an affair with Travis wife.

Sanders, who has a background in geology, law enforcement and writing, and a lifelong interest in the Alamo, favors a more positive view of Travis. In response to critics who have said the Alamo commander failed to adequately equip the compound for battle, and ignored reports of Santa Annas army marching up from Laredo, Sanders said Travis had little time to adjust to his command. Even if he did not draw a line in the ground with his sword, Sanders believes Travis gave his men a choice to stay or leave.

It seems that would be part of his character, he said. The letters he wrote reflect what he might have said to his men to keep them all together.

In recent years, more about Travis and people in his life have surfaced. In research for their 2015 book, Joe: The Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend, authors Ron L. Jackson Jr. and Lee Spencer White found that the 21-year-old slave Travis brought with him to the Alamo was the younger brother of writer and abolitionist William Wells Brown. Last year, Duel Image Publishing released a paperback booklet by Sanders, titled Determined Valor, Desperate Courage: The Search for William Barret Travis, exploring the theory that a little-known pencil or charcoal sketch by an unknown artist that was donated in 1926 to a museum in Waco by a Travis descendant is the most accurate likeness of him.

There also is new work being done that may debunk the rumor that Travis killed a man in Alabama, said Sanders, who is pursuing a potential new line of Travis descendants. Sanders said he also believes new evidence may exist to establish a relationship between Travis and James Butler Bonham, the Alamo defender, also from South Carolina, that Travis called his special messenger.

I think they were closer than we realize, Sanders said.

shuddleston@express-news

.net

Twitter: @shuddlestonSA

COMING MONDAY: Artifacts of the citys oldest structure.
Some 3,000 refugees and asylum seekers have reportedly been rescued from unseaworthy boats off the Libyan coast during a second day of operations in the Mediterranean Sea, PressTV reported.

The Italian coastguard made the announcement on Saturday, saying that the refugees had been pulled to safety during 35 rescue operations launched in the day. It said another 15 operations would be underway before nightfall.

An official with the German NGO Jugend Rettet, which participated in the operations, said a further 1,000 people remained to be rescued from inflatable dinghies as rescue ships had reached capacity. She added that the number of incoming refugees was expected to rise owing to the fine spring weather.

Reports said most of the refugees were from sub-Saharan Africa, fleeing poverty and starvation there.

A day earlier, the Italian coastguard had carried out 19 rescue operations aided by NGOs, including the medical charity Doctors without Borders. A total of 2,074 refugees aboard 16 rubber rafts and three small wooden boats were taken to safety in those operations.

Libya remains a major gateway for asylum seekers attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, with more than 450,000 people having made the crossing over the past three years.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), over 32,000 refugees have arrived in Europe so far this year. However, over 650 people have died or gone missing since January 1.

Last week, the United Nations raised concerns about the increasing number of the African refugees passing through Libya and being traded in slave markets.
Team Summary: The opening eighteen minute period in qualifying for the 2017 Bahrain GP would see Lance out first for Williams. The early quickest time was Wehrlein with a 1m:33.502. Mercedes and Ferrari were on the soft tyre with Bottas setting a 1m:31.041 to be quickest. Verstappen was now quickest with a 1m:30.904 on the supersoft tyre. But Hamilton would go quicker with a 1m:30.814 on the soft tyre. After their first runs the Williams drivers were fifth and sixteenth, similar to their practice pace. After their stops only the top six would not return for a second run. On the super soft tyre Raikkonen would go third behind Verstappen. Hulkenberg and Palmer were now sixth and eighth. For Williams with the final runs Felipe and Lance were seventh and twelfth. Top ten was Hamilton, Verstappen, Raikkonen, Vettel, Bottas, Hulkenberg, Felipe, Palmer, Kvyat, and Ricciardo. The second period would see everyone out on the super soft tyre. A 1m:29.555 from Bottas only to be beaten by Hamilton with a 1m:29.535. Verstappen was now third but Vettel and Raikkonen would move ahead. After his first run Felipe was eighth for Williams. Lance's first run would see him tenth but he dropped to twelfth. Hulkenberg was now fifth and team-mate Palmer was tenth. The top ten was Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Felipe, Grosjean, and Palmer. The final period would see both Mercedes and Red Bull cars come out early. Felipe would come out early for Williams making it seven cars on the track. After their first runs it would be Hamilton quickest with a 1m:28.792 followed by Bottas, Vettel, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Ricciardo, and Felipe seventh. With Grosjean on the track by himself more drivers would start to come back out. Grosjean would go eighth as the two Renault's took to the track. Now all ten cars were out all on new super soft tyres. Grosjean would pit as we saw Bottas go quickest with a 1m:28.769 with Hamilton failing to improve. This would see Bottas on pole. For Williams Felipe would finish in eighth behind Hulkenberg. Vettel was third followed by Ricciardo, Raikkonen, and Verstappen sixth. So the Williams drivers will start Sunday's race from eighth and twelfth a position that should allow to challenge for points.

Felipe Massa:

Felipe would join his team-mate out for his first run also on the super soft tyre. Felipe would finish his first flying lap with a 1m:31.373 to be second but it would become third. He would drop to fifth still behind Bottas. Felipe would pit after three laps. Felipe would remain in his pit currently seventh. With the end of the period he would remain in this position. The second period would see Felipe come out with a new set of super soft tyres. Felipe's lap was a 1m:30.677 to be fifth but he would drop to seventh behind Ricciardo. He would pit after a single run. This would become eighth as Hulkenberg moved up into fifth. Felipe would come out early in the final period running on a new set of super soft tyres. He would complete his flying laps to be fifth fastest with a 1m:30.350 but he would drop to seventh then eighth. Lance Stroll:

The opening period would see Lance take to the track very early running on the medium tyre. He would pit taking on the super soft tyre and he would set a 1m:32.891 to go quickest. He would drop to second behind Perez. As others went quicker he would drop to fifth. Quickly he would drop to thirteenth behind Palmer also pitting. This would become sixteenth putting him into the drop off zone. This would require Lance to go again to see if he can make it into the second period. Lance would come out on a new set of super soft tyres and would set off on his flying lap. He would finish with a 1m:31.748 to be twelfth.



Lance would be one of the last to come out for the second period. His mechanics were seen working on the front of his car. With under five minutes remaining lance had yet to come out. But finally he would come out on a new set of super soft tyres. He was currently fourteenth as he started his flying lap. He would finish with a 1m:31.168 to be tenth but he would drop to eleventh courtesy of Grosjean. This would become twelfth as Kvyat went quicker. This would see Lance's qualifying come to an end but it was still a respectable result.
The planned attack near Russian embassy in Berlin was prevented in the nick of time, Sputnik reported citing German media.

On Tuesday, the Dresden prosecutor's office spokesman told Sputnik that a citizen of Morocco was detained on suspicion of planning an attack near the embassy.

According to Bild am Sonntag newspaper, the suspected organizer of the attack, was discussing his plan on social networks,

The suspect was reportedly planning to blend into the crowd of protesters in front of the embassy and then carry out the attack.

German security forces detained the suspect a week ago, on Saturday night, in a camp for refugees near the city of Leipzig.

Denis Mikerin, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Berlin, has told Sputnik that the embassy was following the situation closely.
Mark Hamill says part of him "fell in love" with Carrie Fisher.

Mark Hamill

The 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' actor admitted he had fallen for the late actress and his co-star - who passed away in December 2016 after suffering a heart attack - at one point in his life and says he was "under her spell".

Speaking at the Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Florida, he said: "As attracted as I was to her, I thought I couldn't handle her as a girlfriend. She's too much.

"Part of me did fall in love with her. I think every guy [did] ... She had you under her spell."

Meanwhile, Mark previously paid tribute to Carrie, who he said was like "family" to him.

He shared: "I'm grateful that we stayed friends and got to have this second act with the new movies. I think it was reassuring to her that I was there, the same person, that she could trust me, as critical as we could sometimes be with each other.

"We ran the gamut over the years, where we were in love with each other, where we hated each other's guts. 'I'm not speaking to you, you're such a judgmental, royal brat!' We went through it all. It's like we were a family."

And the 65-year-old actor went on to praise the legendary actress for being "so committed to joy and fun".

He added: "She was so committed to joy and fun and embracing life. She had an Auntie Mame quality to her. I would do crazy things to amuse her on the set. Making her laugh was always a badge of honour.

"I remember during Empire we were split up storywise; it was a difficult film to shoot and there was a lot of tension on the set. I was off in the swampland with the puppets and robots, but at least Carrie and Harrison got to work with human beings."
The Fate of the Furious director F. Gary Gray's feels that the character of Deckard Shaw played by Jason Statham has been put up as the surprise element in the film, and it his character which will bring people to the theatre says the director.

"Well, first of all, I've worked with Jason before on The Italian Job. So I know what his range is. He's capable of doing a lot. And you see him stretch himself a little bit in this movie, a little bit of humor, a whole lot of action." Said Gray.

"You know, if you were to interview Jason, he would say, "Well, I wouldn't necessarily say I was a villain. I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a part of the family either." Gray added.

"He just has a very specific mission in mind. You have to see the movie to see what it is, but I thought it was very interesting that he could team up with the family and work for a common goal." Explained the director.

"That's something that I don't think people would expect and, again, that's part of the reason why you go see the movie, to see why." The director added.

"Yeah, he's awesome, and I'm glad he was up for it, he was game. Like you said, without giving up too much, it's such a fun part of the movie, especially given that there's pockets of drama throughout." Gary Gray stated further.
The car bomb was detonated by armed militants, after they were spotted by security guards, Sputnik reported citing Xinhua news agency.

Several people are feared dead as a result of the incident.

The militants reportedly fired three mortar shells that hit residential areas near the airport and a military base of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
Celebrities must do due diligence and ensure that the claims made in their endorsements are not misleading, advertising watchdog Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) said.

Releasing the guidelines for celebrity endorsement, ASCI said that the advertiser company and the agency should make the concerned celebrity aware about the advertising codes.

"Celebrity should do due diligence to ensure that all description, claims and comparisons made in the advertisements they appear in or endorse are capable of being objectively ascertained and capable of substantiation and should not mislead or appear deceptive," the ad regulator said.

Besides celebrities, the ASCI has also covered well-known personalities like doctors, authors, activists, educationists, who get compensated for appearing in advertising in the celebrities guidelines. "It is the duty of the advertiser and the agency to make sure that the celebrity they wish to engage with is made aware of them (ASCI codes)," it said.

Moreover, the regulator has also banned the celebrities from endorsing "any advertisement of a product or treatment or remedy that is prohibited for advertising" under the Drugs & Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act and the Drugs & Cosmetic Act.

It also prohibits celebrities from appearing in any ad in which "a product which by law requires a health warning is injurious to health" on its packaging or advertisement.

However, it also said that if a celebrity seeks advice directly or through the agency from ASCI on whether the advertisement potentially violates any provisions of the ASCI code or not, then the he would be "considered as having completed due diligence". "However, ASCI's Advertising Advice will not be construed as pre-clearance of the Advertisement," it added.

Commenting on the development ASCI Chairman Srinivasan K Swamy said, "It's important that both celebrities and advertisers are cognizant of the impact and power of advertising and therefore make responsible claims to promote products or services."

He further added, "It is in the interest of advertisers/ad agencies as well as celebrities to be aware of these guidelines and be sensitized to this issue to avoid violations."
Traditionally, women in Indian cinema have served decorative and/or ancillary functions. Roles written for women are either as relatives or love interests of male protagonists, or require actresses to gyrate to item songs. The recent spurt in women-centric cinema brings hope to view women as diverse, multifaceted, and as humanly flawed as men.

There is some ambivalence regarding what women-centric means. Academic literature discerns between movies which feature women protagonists (like that in Kahaani, Gulaab Gang, Piku, Tanu Weds Manu Returns, or Finding Fanny) and movies that explore feminist concerns, female lead notwithstanding (such as Dangal, Badrinath Ki Dulhania, Pink). Yet more definitions of women-centric Bollywood could be from the perspective of womens representation in the process of film production, if we count movies directed and written by women, or otherwise had substantial numbers of female crewmembers.

To evaluate womens representation in media, a popular media test called the Bechdel test is often used. Also called the Bechdel-Wallace Test, it was created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel based on inputs from Liz Wallace and the writings of Virginia Woolf. To pass the test, a film must have 1) at least two female characters, 2) who have names and speak to one another, 3) about anything other than a man. Despite the bar being set so low, so very few movies pass this test. For instance, even though they were marketed as women-centric movies, Tanu Weds Manu Returns, Highway, Revolver Rani, and Bobby Jasoos do not pass the Bechdel test.

It would help to remember that the Bechdel Test wasnt formulated to discern between feminist and non-feminist films, but only as a litmus test to demonstrate the lack of screen-space allotted to female characters in movies. It doesnt elaborate the nature of female interaction beyond its independence from male-centric topics. Its purpose was not to provide a solution to the lack of meaningful representation in movies, but to better illustrate the problem. Hence, there are movies (for instance, this one, or even this one) that pass the Bechdel test, but cannot in any way be said to portray or market female characters and bodies realistically. The issue of tokenism comes into play as well. Movies that barely pass the test generally do so on a technicality, such as female-female conversations not being specifically about men, but might still be centred around gender-stereotypical topics (such as about mothering, care-work, fashion and appearance).

The corollary of this is also true. A film that otherwise depicts strong female protagonists with robust and well-rounded character development might fail the test, simply due to a lack of additional named female characters. For instance, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), did not pass the Bechdel test for lack of named female characters other than Lara Croft. A critique of Tomb Raider (2001) that could well apply to Dangal is that such films portray strong female heroes that are bereft of any sort of femininity, as if to proxy the absence of a male hero with that of a badass (read: masculine) heroine. As pointed out here, Dangal in particular unambiguously portrayed a trade-off between femininity and ability when Geetas character loses matches seemingly as a consequence of growing her hair out and painting her nails, but starts winning as soon as she reverts to the masculine, disciplined version of herself. This, despite the fact that the real Geeta Phogat dominated her opponents in pony-tails. In the movie, Geetas success is attributed to her obedience and subservience to her father, and she is punished the first and only time she exhibits agency of her own. Such criticisms are well outside the scope of the Bechdel test.

In studying gender stereotypical portrayals in Hindi cinema, Kapoor, Bhuptani, and Agneswaran (2015) analysed dialogic content of male and female characters within three categories  top grossing, women centric, and parallel cinema. For this, they tweaked the existing Bechdel to increase its relevance to Hindi cinema, and formulated a reverse Indian Bechdel to assess male character depictions in these three genres. To qualify a reverse Bechdel, a movie would need to have at least two men, who talk to each other, about something other than a woman, and other than stereotypical topics such as their profession, recreation such as sports, games, sex, cars, and world news such as politics or talks related to technology. Same sex conversations were coded as typical, stereotypical and non-stereotypical for males and females. On analysing male representation using the reverse Bechdel test, men enjoyed a fairly balanced representation in all three genres of films, where the content of their conversations were not dictated by gender.

On the other hand, it was interesting that there were no non-stereotypical female conversations in top-grossing movies, because there wasnt a second female character to have the conversation with! Good ol Smurfette principle. Women centric and parallel cinema fared relatively better, depicting men and womens same sex conversations more non-stereotypically of their genders. However, overall men were clearly given a better deal across the genres, at least dialogically, with male-male conversations occurring almost thrice as many times than female-female conversations, and non-stereotypically to a greater degree than womens conversations.

Hollywood doesnt seem have it together either. Based on 3 year old data sourced from a data and statistics subreddit, 45.8 percent of Hollywood movies failed the Bechdel-Wallace test while only 9 percent failed the reverse Bechdel. However, the math on this hasnt been independently verified. Readers can check more details here.

While the Bechdel test does provide a baseline to assess frequencies of gendered representations in media, it does not tell us anything about the heterogeneity of women represented therein. While the West has evolved to creating more tests that examine diversity and inclusion from an intersectional and nuanced perspective, no such test exists for us to dissect stereotypical class, caste, religion, sexuality and gender identity, and other minority representations specific to Indian society. With commercial Hindi cinema increasingly churning out more diverse plots and complex characters, and audiences rewarding women centric and parallel cinema with their patronage, perhaps its a good time to refine the metrics we use to classify good cinema, and how they represent people.

Saloni Diwakar is Research Assistant at the Department of Psychology, Monk Prayogshala. Monk Prayogshala is a not-for-profit academic research organisation based in Mumbai that works in the social sciences.
Retired Bombay High Court Justice Abhay Thipsay said on Thursday, in an interview to Mumbai Mirror, that he used to receive many persuasive letters from people, asking him to act like a Hindu during the Best Bakery case.

Thipsay, who was suddenly transferred to Allahabad from Mumbai a few months before retirement, said that in the letters he was assured that the entire Hindu society would back him if he acquitted the accused and told him this was an opportunity to take revenge. Thipsay in the interview claimed to have received even threatening letters, however, he said that the persuasive letters outnumbered the threatening ones.

Thipsay has been involved in many high-profile cases, the one involving Jignesh Shah being one of them. The Economic Times reported thati in the historic Best Bakery case retrial, his judgment led to the conviction of nine and reinforced faith in the judicial system, many said.

In March 2002, a mob attacked the Best Bakery in Vadodara during the post-Godhra riots and burnt it down, killing 14 people. After the Vadodara Court acquitted a few of the accused, the Supreme Court had ordered a retrial in Mumbai.

Thipsay, while claiming that he'll never know the reasons for his Allahabad transfer, refuted rumours alleging his judgement granting bail to Salman Khan in the hit-and-run case as the motive behind it.

According to The Wire, the justification of bail to actor Salman Khan then was that normally when an appeal against conviction is admitted and the sentence is under seven years, it is suspended and bail has to be granted pending hearing of the appeal which will otherwise be rendered pointless.

The Wire further reported that the popular perception in the high court was that Justice Thipsay was transferred because some of his judgements in high-profile cases went against the government.

Thipsay said that the transfer caused him great grief, which had apparently come for no good reason at the fag-end of his career.

Thipsay who had acquired a reputation for being an uncompromisingly independent judge, also shared his views on Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), stating that it was a badly drafted law and that its provisions are ambiguous.

It has a draconian provision: making confessions to the police admissible as evidence. Thats why it is often wrongly applied even to crimes under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Such laws are not necessary if the prosecution and the judiciary do their job professionally.

Speaking about Muslims being framed for terror, Thipsay said that the prejudice against them existed across police and judiciary.

"Ive seen some prejudice even among my colleagues sometimes, while working in the subordinate judiciary.

Further elaborating on many instances of Muslims being framed for serious offences with no satisfactory evidence, Thipsay said the trouble lies with agencies like the ATS or the Special

Branch.

They work in too centralised a manner. Investigation is carried out by top officers, and sanction is also needed from a very senior officer. Often, they cannot get hold of the real culprits, or, cannot find evidence against them. But the State cannot accept that no one is arrested for such serious crimes. It then becomes much easier to keep a record of petty criminals and arrest a few of them.

Thipsay concluding the interview said that while the judicial system is flawed and marred with drawbacks, he believed that it still remains the last resort for justice. But he advised that there must be more transparency in the process of appointments for getting better people as judges at all levels.

With inputs from agencies
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel is in hot water, not just due to a lawsuit against him, which you can see below, but also due to the allegations made in the lawsuit, especially related to India.

Snapchat unredacted lawsuit by gmaddaus on Scribd

A lawsuit by a Snapchat ex-employee Anthony Pompliano alleges that Spiegel had some insulting things to say about India when he addressed that the app was not taking off overseas. Pompliano claims that Spiegel said that, This app is only for rich people, adding that, I dont want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.

This obviously did not sit well with the Indian audience. They decided to show their indignation by not just giving Spiegel a piece of their mind on Twitter through the hashtag #BoycottSnapchat, but by also uninstalling the app and leaving a one-star rating on the app before doing the same. Considering how India is the top country to download apps from Google Play Store and has significant clout on the Apple store market too, Snapchat has some serious damage control to undertake. In fact, the app is already has a 1-star rating on the Apple Store!

From outrage to some classic internet jokes, here are some tweets that emerged from the Boycott Snapchat protest.

#Snapchat #EvanSpiegel says India is poor...Sir read this n rethink...Till then We're gonna #boycottsnapchat  Too poor to be an animal pic.twitter.com/pmTsybx7rS  Rishika Tiwari (@DearRishu) April 15, 2017

Kids Uses Snapchat.

Men's Are Uninstalling Snapchat.

Legends Never Installed Snapchat #Snapchat #boycottsnapchat  Ajeet Singh Raizada (@RaizadaAjeet) April 15, 2017

#Snapchat #boycottsnapchat Interviewer : Do you use whatsapp? Me : yes Facebook? Me : Yes Twitter? Me : Yes Ok. Nd Snapchat? Me : pic.twitter.com/teaWob2b4m  Dhiren Kinkhabwala (@dhirenk420) April 15, 2017

I don't use Twitter very often but today i'l.Your vision is Poor Mr CEO @evanspiegel and your mentality is poor #Snapchat #boycottsnapchat  Aniruddha Kalbande (@Aniruddha1995) April 15, 2017

Snapchat CEO called India a poor country. Now a Indian should work hard, become rich, buy Snapchat, and marry his daughter Bollywood style  Pakchikpak Raja Babu (@HaramiParindey) April 15, 2017

Now poor country will show the power of uninstall button. Be more with your real friends rather than reel friends. #boycottsnapchat  Paras Sapra (@parassapra4) April 16, 2017

#Snapchat #boycottsnapchat power of 1.21 billion people We have 2.42 billion middle finger  Munesh Kumar (@MuneshK72086681) April 16, 2017

At least 1,53,804 one stars in the matter of 24 hours.... #boycottsnapchat pic.twitter.com/4UZYhb4O77  Juliet (@twiish_) April 16, 2017

This might be an era of snaps/clicks/pics but words still have the power to change the tide. Use dem wisely. @Snap#boycottsnapchat  Monic Bhanushali (@monicbhanushali) April 16, 2017

Evan Spiegel is the CEO of Sna ....!#boycottsnapchat  Khushamtweet! (@XitijNanavaty) April 16, 2017

#Snapchat's target revenue in 2016: $300M Worth of crackers India burnt on Diwali in 2016: $620M still india is poor#boycottsnapchat  Chandu (@chandu_twitz) April 16, 2017

Your great companies work because of Indian's brains And yet we're poor. What according to you defines "POOR" #boycottsnapchat  Kaveri (@spartan8188) April 16, 2017

I was addicted to @Snapchat but I love my country more than this app. Let's see how you earn without Indians. @evanspiegel #boycottsnapchat  Shreya Tewari (@SarcasticSheeya) April 16, 2017

Kids Uses Snapchat.

Men's Are Uninstalling Snapchat.

Legends Never Installed Snapchat #Snapchat #boycottsnapchat  Ajeet Singh Raizada (@RaizadaAjeet) April 15, 2017

NASA releases pic of Indians using Snapchat for the last time last night before they uninstall it. See this Mr CEO!!#boycottsnapchat pic.twitter.com/UqXSA2hmbj  Atul Khatri (@one_by_two) April 16, 2017

So CEO @evanspiegel thinks India is too poor. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be an Indian buying off your company. Real soon. #boycottSnapchat  Pradyut Shukla (@pradzzy) April 15, 2017

Some other disturbing aspects of the lawsuit include that Snap Inc was exaggerating its user data and that Spiegel and co had also badmouthed him to prospective employers, making it tough for him to find work. What makes it worse is now that Pompliano has found work with Facebook, he was also asked for a Facebook org chart, which is a clear violation of his confidentiality agreement with Facebook. Variety reported the response that the Snap Inc attorneys released. They said that, "The simple fact is that he knows exactly nothing about Snaps current metrics, adding that, He and his lawyers are  not to put too fine a point on matters  just making things up. They also reported that Snap described Pompliano as a disgruntled employee fired for poor performance. We went to the Snapchat app on the Google Play store to see whether the negative reviews and installations were actually pouring in. We found out that there were, in fact, a barrage of negative 1-star ratings from India. If you are waiting with bated breath for Spiegel to give an explanation on Twitter, don't. As the 26-year-old billionaire hasn't shared a single tweet yet. Share your opinion about Boycott Snapchat on the Twitter poll below:
Thiruvananthapuram: As the Passion Week with prayers, penance and vegetarian food came to an end, most of the Christian households in Kerala started festivity with an early visit to the church to attend the Easter Sunday service and then to prepare scrumptious meals.

Soon after sunrise, the church priests gave out pieces of cake and in some places a glass of wine to signal the end of the 50-day Lent. After exchanging the customary Easter pleasantry, people rushed back to their home to have the most important meal of the day  the Easter breakfast.

The Easter breakfast includes 'appam' (rice flour mixed with toddy), chicken stew, beef roast, at some places duck is the important non-vegetarian dish, besides steamed bananas, egg roast and a piece of cake.

Once the breakfast is over, the women folk after are back in action as the kitchen comes alive yet again.

Generally, the traditional Easter lunch is rice accompanied by non-vegetarian dishes with various varieties of meat and fish.

While the Catholic community lays special emphasis on pork, the others rely on beef and chicken and in some places mutton, but a fish fry and the traditional fish curry is everywhere.

Kerala: Midnight mass being held in Trivandrum on the occasion of #Easter pic.twitter.com/jo0WqtfgHb  ANI (@ANI_news) April 15, 2017

Nowadays, in certain households, there is a departure from tradition and people opting convenient steaming hot biryani from restaurants, as many wish to make the best of the few days' holidays by catching up on rest, preferring to spend less time in the kitchen.

To make it even more easier, which has become very common, families prefer to have the Easter lunch in restaurants and big hotels, where for around Rs 700 upwards, one can have a full feast accompanied with lots of Easter delicacies with varieties of meat and fish dishes.

Also, liquor in various forms, wine, beer, hard liquor and not to mention the traditional toddy either from coconut or palm is another must in most households. As Catholics who lead from the front, this is not particularly taboo as compared to other denominations.

"I am a regular tippler and these 50 days is the only time during the year when I forego liquor. I find it difficult every year to abstain from liquor but, as this time too, I came out successful and did not touch it. So I decided to start my session soon after breakfast and now waiting for my relatives to turn up. The session along with a game of cards will go on until late evening," said Jacob Punnen, an agriculturist in Kottayam.

Generally, with a heavy breakfast and a sumptuous lunch, there is no concept as Easter dinner and hence in most households, the day comes to a close early with dinner, mostly with the leftover from lunch and with it, the year's Easter festivities gets over.

According to the latest revised Census report of the 33.4 million Kerala population, Christians number 61.41 lakh.

Of this, the Catholics account for over 50 percent followed by various other denominations.
New Delhi: Citing "prevailing environment", Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has urged the government to speed up release of funds for timely procurement of paper trail machines so that these can be deployed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In a fresh letter to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad which sounds like an SoS call, he has also said that the Supreme Court, while hearing a contempt petition, has directed the poll panel to bring on record the approximate time within which the entire system of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) can be introduced.

Though the CEC did not elaborate what he meant by "prevailing environment", he was apparently referring to Opposition parties questioning the reliability of the EVMs and pressing for the deployment of more VVPATs, which dispel doubts about votes cast using EVMs.

The BSP, the AAP and the Congress had attacked the EC for allegedly using "tampered" EVMs. Sixteen parties, not including the AAP, had recently petitioned the EC to revert to paper ballot system for greater transparency.

In his letter, Zaidi recalled that he had already informed the government that if the order for supply of VVPAT was not placed by February, 2017, "it would be difficult for manufacturers to supply the VVPATs by September, 2018" to meet the requirements of the next general elections.

The Election Commission would need over 16 lakh paper trail machines to cover all polling stations in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The cost is estimated at Rs 3,174 crore.

VVPAT is a machine which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted for. The slip drops in a box but the voter cannot take it home.

The voters see voter-verifiable paper audit trail slip for seven seconds, which would be an acknowledgement receipt for the party they voted for in the election.

In his 22 March letter to the law minister, Zaidi pointed out that the Commission had informed the apex court that "required number of VVPATS can be manufactured from the date of release of funds in 30 months as per current capacity of the two manufacturers  Bharat Electronics Ltd and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd".

The CEC said, "The process of procurement of VVPATs cannot be delayed any longer given the prevailing environment... the Commission stands fully committed to deploy VVPATs along with EVMs in all future elections "so that transparency of electoral process is enhanced, integrity of the voting preserved and the voters' confidence in the process is further strengthened".

Since June, 2014, the Commission has given at least 11 reminders to the government seeking funds for VVPAT machines. Last year, Zaidi had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi drawing his attention to the funds needed for the machines.

On 7 April, Minister of State for Law PP Chaudhury had told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that "the proposal of the Election Commission (to buy VVPATs) is under consideration of the government."

Legislative department of the law ministry is the nodal unit for the poll panel and financial demands and proposals to change laws and rules are referred to it by the EC.
Security has been beefed up at international airports in Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad on Sunday after security agencies received a specific tip-off of a plan to simultaneously hijack aircrafts from these airports, The Times of India reported.

Security tightened at Chennai airport following a hijack threat call, police investigation underway.  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

Security also tightened at Mumbai & Hyderabad airports following a hijack threat  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

According to the report, the plan to hijack three planes would be carried out by 23 people.

The alert has been sounded after a woman sent an email last night informing the Mumbai Police of overhearing six men talking about a plan to simultaneously hijack planes. The Mumbai Police then shared the e-mail with all security and intelligence agencies.

According to PTI, the mail was sent by a Hyderabad-based woman. She claimed she overheard six men telling each other that "all 23 people have to split from here and board flights in three cities and hijack planes".

Meanwhile, an India Today report also added that the Mumbai Police had received a letter informing of a threat to bomb the airport.

A meeting of the Airport Security Coordination Committee was subsequently convened and the input was declared specific and actionable.

"A number of security measures have been put in place. We have increased and strengthened the patrolling, access control. The number of security personnel deployed has been increased," OP Singh, Director General of CISF was quoted by The Times of India as saying.

The CISF has called in its sniffer dog squads and quick reaction teams for undertaking sanitisation drills at the airports, they said, adding airlines have been asked to remain extra vigilant.

"However, there is no reason to panic and all the operations at these airports will be normal and without any hassle to passengers," a senior officer who is part of airports' security team said.

Singh further added, "Special anti-sabotage sweeps are being undertaken at these airports since morning and security agencies, including the Central Industrial Security Force, have enhanced frisking of passengers, baggage scanning, pre-embarkation checks and patrols in the vicinity of the airports."

Singh told PTI that "The e-mail could eventually turn out be a hoax but till investigations conclude all security drills to thwart a hijack like scenario are being carried out at the three airports," he

said.

"The unidentified woman wrote in the e-mail that what she heard could be 'true or not' but she chose to inform the authorities as she felt it was her duty to do so as a citizen," a senior officer said.

At the Chennai airport, security has been strengthened at the domestic and international airports. However, flight traffic is unaffected by the enhanced security measures, officials said in Chennai.

Other airports in the country have also been sanitised

Other airports in the country have also been sanitised and officials asked to remain vigilant, the CISF DG said.

The police are probing the contents of the e-mail and trying to get in touch with the sender.

With inputs from agencies
There is plenty of commotion about the alleged stone-pelter Farooq Ahmad Dar tied atop the bonnet of an army quick reaction team (QRT) jeep. Of course, he claims he is innocent, and that he is not a ringleader of stone-pelters. He even claims that he was beaten up at an army camp without any reason and that he saw women being beaten up. It is surprising that his allegation of women being dragged and beaten is without photographic evidence  how did the ISI slip on this one?

Incidentally, such unconventional methods have also been used by the Israel army in the past. One should also read this article in The Telegraph and see how Israeli army deals with stone-pelters. Do the so-called pro stone-pelters want Indian Army to adopt these methods? Israel also has a law of two-20 year imprisonment for stone-pelters. And here we have the media hollering that "The army is caught in a tight spot" because of this? Actually, it is the ISI and terrorists who find themselves in a tight spot, for should this becomes standard procedure, how would they progress the stone pelting campaign?

Surprisingly, many who objected to how Dar was treated have absolutely nothing to say about the security personnel getting mobbed, kicked and slapped by droves of terrorist-supporters-cum-stone-pelters. They also have little to say about the death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistani military court.

There is no doubt the ISI would try to reap maximum benefit from the Dar episode. What is appalling is the way some military veterans are treating this whole incident with one former soldier even going to the extent of recommending the officer responsible be made to face a court martial.

These guys through their military service have preached to fight a guerilla, one must become a guerilla, but when it comes to dealing with terrorists, they want ethics of Mahabharata? The question for them is between certificates of sainthood for the army and saving lives on both sides (army and civil), what is their choice? If it is the former, then there is nothing more to discuss. But what actually has been done to Dar? Was he crucified, aimed or disabled for life? The fact is that the officer responsible used this unconventional method to save a very ugly situation without loss of lives and property, which needs to be commended at the highest level.

The incident relates to the police booth at Budgam which was attacked on 9 April, by a mob of stone-pelters, chucking rocks at the ITBP and Jammu and Kashmir Police to prevent voters from casting their votes. The ITBP personnel on duty realised that they would not be able to get out alive and called for army help. When the 17-strong army QRT arrived, they too realised they were outnumbered. The commander of the QRT decided it would be bad to open fire and escalate tensions, despite the fact that rescuing the men inside was important. He caught the alleged stone-pelter Dar, tied him on to the jeep and drove past the mob of 900, saving the ITBP and J&K Police personnel and his own boys.

What we fail to acknowledge is that the turmoil in the Kashmir Valley is no ordinary Pakistan assisted insurgency. It has transformed into a vicious hybrid war backed by the China-Pakistan unholy anti-India nexus. While we were fixated with Burhan Wani, we failed to notice that the level of violence has gone up exponentially since Chinas strategic lodgment in Gilgit-Baltistan. It is not a coincidence that Chinese flags surfaced in Kashmir Valley. Connect the dots of Chinese support to Naga and ULFA insurgencies and you can realise what is systematically creeping upon us. China remains in the background with China-Pakistan together exploiting our fault-lines assisted by the enemy within India. Chinas concept of 'unrestricted warfare' includes means of biochemical, guerilla, terrorism, psychological, smuggling, drugs, virtual, media, ideological, besides others. Pakistan abides by the Quranic Concept of War scripted by Brig SK Malik in 1979, which explicitly justifies the use of terrorism. That there are no rules and no regulations in hybrid warfare needs no emphasis.

In 1986, Islamist terrorists kidnapped four Soviet diplomats in Beirut and demanded Moscows support for pro-Syrian fighters in Lebanon. With no Soviet response, terrorists killed one of the kidnapped diplomats. So the KGB kidnapped a family member of the Hezbollah leader, castrated and killed him, and sent his body parts in a package to the Hezbollah leader with a note saying that his other family members will meet the same fate. The three remaining diplomats were released immediately. Then there is a narrative of General John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing who captured 50 terrorists in the Philippines, had 49 shot with bullets dipped in pig blood and freed the 50th to narrate the horror, resulting in no terrorist attacks for next 25 years. Why President Donald Trump mentioned and denied this incident in a pre-election rally was perhaps for vote-banks.

In early 2000s Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani, passing close to a divisional headquarters in Kashmir Valley requested to meet the divisional commander (name withheld). Since it was lunchtime the General asked him to join him for lunch. After lunch, Geelani was explained the jurisdiction of the division with the General quietly telling him that if during his tenure there were any IED blasts or terrorist attacks in his area, what would happen to Geelani or his family members could hardly be predicted. Needless to mention the General enjoyed his quiet command. It is a different story that later this ISI stooge was buttressed by both India and Pakistan and given a free hand to radicalise the youth, adverse results of which we see today. Finally, how we treat the alleged stone-pelter Dar episode could well be a turning point for Indias response to hybrid warfare. Hope better sense will prevail.

The author is veteran Lt Gen of Indian Army.
The Odisha Assembly elections are two years away, but the BJP has began its preparations to bloom the lotus in the state in right earnest.

Replete with photo-ops and crowd wooing measures, the BJP big shots descended in Odisha on Saturday, fixing the spotlight on the eastern coast of the country.

The latest in series of such attempts to reach out to the people in Odisha was the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the famous 11th century Lingaraj Temple in Odisha. Adhering to the previously planned schedule, the prime minister reached the temple sharp at 9 am to offer his prayers and participate in a special Puja Arati. He offered flowers, bel leaves, milk, coconut water and water to the deity.

The Prime Minister spent around 25 minutes in the temple premises.

Modi also visited the temple of Goddess Bhubaneswari and Parbati, said Manoranjan Panigrahy, CEO of the Lingaraj Temple Administration.

"The Prime Minister was so enthusiastic to know about Lingaraj temple. He prayed for the welfare of the nation and 'Swachh Bharat'," said chief priest of the temple.

The 'seveyats' or temple priests did not miss a chance to take selfies with the Prime Minister.

The 54-metre high temple is spread over a 25,000 sq.ft area and has over 150 small and big subsidiary temples in its premises.

According to the ground reports by CNN-News 18 Modi's visit to the temple pleasantly surprised scores of devotees, as they fished out their mobile phones to click a picture of Modi. The prime minister also waved and smiled at his supporters.

According to The Times of India, special arrangements had been made at the temple for Modi's visit but special instructions were given not to close the temple to general public at any time because of the VVIP's visit.

"Of course security has been tightened in and around the temple premises but we have not been instructed to stop or prevent any devotee from entering the temple during the PM's visit. Modi will offer flowers, bel leaves, milk, coconut water and water to Lord Lingaraj on the occasion," the news article quoted temple administration as saying.

Before he headed to the temple, the prime minister also met the families of freeodom fighters who were part of the Paika rebellion against the British East India Company in 1817, according to News18. He felicitated them at the Raj Bhawan.

Modi arrived here on Saturday to attend the two-day BJP National Executive meeting that began later in the day. He also held a roadshow ahead of the meet.

The prime minister will address the concluding session on Sunday.

Later in the day, Modi will head to Surat and hold a road show in the BJP bastion and his native state, Gujarat. The prime minister will also interact with people during his two-day visit to his home state.

With inputs from IANS
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 16

By Orkhan Quluzade  Trend:

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim voted in a referendum in the countrys city of Izmir to amend the Constitution, which, among other changes, envisages the introduction of the presidential form of government.

In the eastern provinces of Turkey, the voting began at 07:00 (UTC/GMT+3), while in the remaining provinces it starts at 08:00, and will end at 16:00 and 17:00, respectively.

Over 55 million Turkish voters are to cast their ballots to say Yes or No to the proposed amendments to the countrys Constitution.

There are 2,929,389 Turkish voters abroad who can use their right to vote in the Constitutional referendum. Some part of them has already cast votes at 119 diplomatic missions of Turkey in 57 countries.

The voting at the diplomatic missions took place from March 27 to April 9, while at the checkpoints it started on March 27 and will end April 16.

Earlier, amendments to Turkeys Constitution got more than 330 votes in the Parliament, which allows putting the Constitutional changes to a public voting.

According to the amendments, the number of seats in the Turkish Parliament will increase from 550 to 600.

The amendments also suggest allowing Turkish citizens to run for the MP seats from the age of 18 (currently, the lowest age limit is 25), and holding parliamentary elections every 5 years (currently, the parliamentary elections are held every 4 years).

Under the amendments, a Turkish citizen, no younger than 40, will be allowed to run for president.

Furthermore, the amendments stipulate that the Turkish president will head the government and will be granted the power to appoint ministers or replace them.

Also, presidential hopefuls wont be required to be non-party nominees any more.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met the descendants of historical Paika Rebellion martyrs, who undertook an armed rebellion against the British rulers in Odisha in 1817.

He felicitated the families of freedom fighters at Raj Bhawan in Bhubaneshwar in presence of Governor SC Jamir.

"Today, the history was recalled with pride. It is my honour to see the descendants of martyrs. Unfortunately, the long years of freedom movement was confined in few persons and specific period. We should recall the events and contribution of everyone who participated in the freedom struggle," said the Prime Minister.

He said Odisha secured the top position for its immense contribution for freedom movement.

During his Budget speech this year, finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced the Centre's plan to commemorate the rebellion.

"Two-hundred years ago in 1817, a valiant uprising of soldiers led by Buxi Jagabandhu (Bidyadhar Mohapatra) took place in Khurda of Odisha. We will commemorate the same appropriately," Jaitley was quoted by The Times of India.

The Paikas were land-owning community which revolted against the British for taking over their rent-free land in 1803. The revolt led by Bakshi Jagabandhu, raged for over one and a half years before it was crushed by the British.

The decision to celebrate the 200th anniversary was lauded by politicians across party lines in Odisha.

"On behalf of the people of Odisha, I welcome the decision to commemorate the bi-centenary led by Buxi Jagabandhu," The Times of India quoted Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as saying.

The Odisha Congress too had welcomed the move to recognise the rebellion.

A month later, the state government inaugurated a new gallery on the 1817 Paika Rebellion in the State Museum, The New Indian Express reported. Along with an interesting collection of arms and other articles used by Paikas, the government also conceptualised a 40-minute light and sound show depicting the event.

With inputs from IANS
Islamabad: Pakistan has prepared a new dossier about alleged militant activities of Indian prisoner on death row Kulbhushan Jadhav and will share it with the UN and foreign envoys stationed here, media reports have said.

The new dossier is based on Jadhav's early testimonial and statements given in front of the Field General Court Martial about his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan, reports said.

The document contains the attested report of Court Martial General, as well as the court proceedings timeline, The Nation reported.

Jadhav, 46, was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and was awarded the death sentence. Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed the death sentence last week.

The documents will also contain details of arrests and raids done by Pakistan security agencies on Jadhav's tip-offs. "The dossier will be handed over to different ambassadors in Islamabad. The Pakistani envoys across the world will also present it to their host states," the paper said.

The document will also be shared with the United Nations and other global organisations, it added. On Friday, Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale said they would appeal against the death sentence to Jadhav and demanded from Pakistan a certified copy of the charge-sheet as well as the army court order in the case, besides seeking consular access to the retired Indian navy officer.

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.

The Jadhav episode could further strain the India-Pakistan ties which were hit after attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan-based terrorists last year.
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday moved a bill in the State legislative assembly to hike reservation quota for backward Muslims and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) to 12 and 10 percent respectively.

As soon as the day-long special session began, the Chief Minister moved the Backward Class, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Reservation Bill, 2017, to increase the quota for socially and economically backward among Muslims under the Backward Classes (E) category from the existing four percent to 12 percent.

The reservations for STs in education and jobs has been increased from 6 percent to 10 percent.

The bill will be passed by both houses of the legislature after a debate and it will be sent to the Centre for President's assent and with a request to include it in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution as it was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.

The Chief Minister clarified that the reservations were being provided purely on the basis of socio-economic backwardness and not on the basis of religion or caste as some parties were trying to mislead people.

Terming it as a historic day, Rao said Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had during the elections promised that quota for the BC (E) and the STs will be increased in proportion to their population in the state.

He pointed out that STs are currently enjoying 6 percent quota though their population as per 2011 Census is 9.8 percent.

He assured Backward Classes that there will be no injustice to them because of increase in quota for the BC (E) and announced that the quota for the BCs will be increased. The state government has directed the BC Commission to submit a report within six months.

Rao also said that the reservation for the SCs, who constitute 16.3 per cent of the state's population, will be increased by one per cent. He said the government would soon constitute an SC Commission.

The SCs are currently enjoying 15 per cent reservations while the BCs have a total quota of 25 per cent.

The legislation will increase the total reservations in the state to 62 percent.

The Chief Minister argued that there is no constitutional bar on providing more than 50 per cent reservation.

Rao said with 90 per cent of Telangana's population comprising the BCs, SCs, STs and minorities, the state definitely needed more than 50 per cent reservation, and pointed out that states like Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand were already providing more than 50 percent quota.
A five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court is to hear petitions challenging Muslim practices of triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy from 11 May 2017. This is a great opportunity for much-needed reforms in Muslim Personal Laws that previous governments beholden to mullahs have not been able to bring about. But fundamentalist mullahs are prepared to go to any extent to preserve their turf. While they hold conference after conference to show their muscle, they are unable to hide their theological infirmities.

In an affidavit, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has taken what can only be called a bizarre doctrinal stand. It has told the Supreme Court that if the triple talaq mode of divorce was declared illegal, it would amount to disregarding Allah's directions and rewriting of the Holy Quran to force Muslims into committing sin. As almost the entire Muslim world, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Bangladesh have declared instant triple talaq illegal, clearly in view of the AIMPLB, they have all gone beyond the pale of Islam. Now Islam is a religion being practiced only by some Indian Mullahs. This even amounts to declaring Shias as well as Sunni Wahhabi sects like Ahl-e-Hadith apostate because they consider triple talaq in one session as equal to only one reversible talaq.

Even stranger is the fact that AIMPLB consists of Ulema from Shia, Ahl-e-Hadith and other Salafi-Wahhabi sects as well. Why are they not protesting at being virtually called apostate groups which have re-written Quran and forced Muslims to commit sin, altering the very essence of the religion of Islam by a group of which they are members?

The most astounding fact in the AIMPLB affidavit is the justification it seeks for instant triple talaq from the Holy Quran. This has never been done before. Everyone knows there is no justification for instant triple talaq in the holy Quran. All protagonists of the triple talaq in one sitting have so far only quoted Ahadith (so-called sayings of the Prophet, many of them clearly weak and inauthentic, collected hundreds of years after His demise) and juristic rulings of companions of the prophet, or later jurists and theologians.

In fact, there is a hadith narrated by Ibn Abbas (ra) that in the case of brother of Mutlab, Rukanah bin Abd Yazeed who had divorced his wife three times in one session, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said then it has the effect of only one divorce, if you want to take her back you can. Thus, Rukahnah took her back.

The AIMPLB quotes the following verses of the Quran as a proof for its contention that triple talaq in one session is to be treated as 'three and irreversible divorce': Divorce can be pronounced twice: then, either honourable retention or kind release should follow. .... Then, if he divorces her, she shall not be lawful to him unless she first takes another for a husband. (Quran Al- Baqarah 2:229 and 230)

The trick here lies in concealing the verses that come before and after these verses.

Let us study the Qurans position on divorce and expose the AIMPLBs game.

The Quran starts with suggesting a cooling off period. Those who intend to divorce their wives shall wait four months; if they change their minds and reconcile, then God is Forgiver, Merciful. If they go through with the divorce, then God is Hearer, Knower. (Quran Al- Baqarah 2: 226-227)

The following verse shows why AIMPLB is seeking to hide it from the Supreme Court.

"And the divorced women (after the pronouncement of the divorce) must wait for three monthly courses... and their husbands are fully entitled to take them back (as their wives) during this waiting period, if they desire reconciliation." (Al-Baqarah: 228)

AIMPLB is also hiding from the court the last verses of the series: And so, when you divorce women and they reach the end of their waiting term, then either retain them in a fair manner or let them go in a fair manner. And do not retain them to their hurt or by way of transgression; whosoever will do that will indeed wrong himself. (Al-Baqarah (2:231)

Not content with this, God further encourages reconciliation, calling it better and purer: And when you divorce women and they have fulfilled their term, do not prevent them from remarrying their [former] husbands if they agree among themselves on an acceptable basis. That is instructed to whoever of you believes in Allah and the Last Day. That is better for you and purer, and Allah knows and you know not. (Al-Baqarah (2:232)

Has the AIMPLB not read the following verse either? If a couple fears separation, you shall appoint an arbitrator from his family and an arbitrator from her family; if they decide to reconcile, God will help them get together. God is Omniscient, Cognizant. [Quran 4:35]

Where is the opportunity for reconciliation that God demands in the Anglo-Mohammedan law that goes in the name of Muslim Personal Law in India? Why is AIMPLB seeking to hide these verses of Quran from the Supreme Court? Cant the Muslims and the court see the immoral, fraudulent nature of the AIMPLBs position?

Clearly, unlike the un-Quranic view of AIMPLB, God gives Muslims full opportunity to consider divorce patiently before engaging in the third and final divorce as a last resort, when every attempt at reconciliation has failed. Quran stands for a well thought out decision made only as a last option for what the Prophet (pbuh) called the most undesirable act before God among those permitted. (Sunan Abu Dawud, Bab Karahiya al- Talaq, 1, 526. Hadith no: 2179).

No Muslim would stand for a hasty decision in regard to something like marriage that the Quran refers to as a strong covenant (4:22). How can the Quran itself allow this strong covenant to be broken in a matter of seconds?

In India, many a time Muslims pronounce talaqs three times in a huff, either in a state of anger, depression or drunkenness, and then regret it later. Shia ulema or those from Sunni Salafi sects like Ahl-e-Hadith that follow Quran will tell them not to worry, just keep living with your wife as talaqs pronounced in one session thrice or hundred times will have the effect of only one talaq which is easily reversible. But mullahs from AIMPLB, which surprisingly contains Shia and Ahl-e-Hadith ulema as well, will say that now the person concerned has no option but to take recourse to nikah-e-halala, an absolutely vile and obscene practice prevalent only among Indian Muslims now. This means that the divorced woman (actually not divorced from the viewpoint of Quran) will be forced to marry again, sleep with a stranger  often a local mullah for a few nights and then get divorced again and marry her husband again to get back to her previous life. All this for no fault of hers.

It is well known that when someone dared to pronounce three talaqs in a row during Prophets time, he flew into a rage and said: How dare you turn my religion into a joke while I am still alive. He allowed him to take his wife back as he was already penitent, treating the three talaqs in one sitting as one reversible talaq. The second rightly guided caliph Hazrat Umar instituted a system of punishing with 40 lashes anyone who pronounced three talaqs in one sitting.

Though a supporter of instant triple talaq, Mufti Taqi Usmani, a Deobandi scholar of Pakistan admits in his well-regarded book Dars-e-Tirmidhi: According to Imam Abu Hanifa ([702--772 CE] to whose school of thought most Indian Muslims belong and so call themselves Hanafi) and Imam Malik ibn Anas (711-795 CE), this (triple talaq in one sitting) is haram (forbidden) and bidat (innovation). A narration of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855 (CE) also supports this opinion. It is also quoted that the holy companions (of the Prophet) like Hazrat Umar Faruq, Hazrat Ali, Hazrat Ibn Masuood, Hazrat Ibn Abbas and Hazrat Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with all of them) also adopted the same view.

Quoting Muhammad bin Muqatil al-Razi, Deobandi scholar Waris Mazhari points out that Imam Abu Hanifa too supported the view that three talaqs in a row are to be considered one reversible talaq. And so did the teacher and mentor of Hammad bin Abu Sulaiman, Imam Nakhaee, who was the teacher and mentor of Imam Abu Hanifa.

These were the opinions of the first few generations of Muslims in 7th, 8th, and 9th century CE. But even 13th, 14th century jurists of the stature of Ibn Taimiyah, Ibn al-Qiyam, and the Shia Imamiyah, consider three pronouncements of the word talaq in one session equal to only one reversible talaq. The same is true of several well-known modern scholars like Rashid Rida, Muhammad Shaltut, and Yusuf al-Qaradawi, etc.

There have also been jurists in this period who were prepared to take three talaqs in one session as final. There were a variety of socio-political reasons informing their decisions.

But today an overwhelming majority of scholars in more than 25 Muslim states such as Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Sudan, Morocco, Kuwait, Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, are following Ibn Taimiyahs and Ibn al-Qiyams stand on this issue, considering triple talaq as amounting to only one reversible talaq. So did Pakistan half a century ago. Bangladesh has improved its laws further after independence. Recently Sri Lanka has done the same.

Its only Indian Muslims led by AIMPLB who are still refusing to bring their Personal Law in line with the Quran. AIMPLB itself calls this practice bidat (innovation) and mamnoo (prohibited) in its law book Majmooa-e-Qawaneen Islam (Article 267). If it is bidat (innovation that started after the demise of Prophet Mohammad), in its own view, how can it tell the Supreme Court that it is a practice supported by the Quran, and that declaring it illegal would amount to rewriting the Quran?

Its time Indian Muslims rescued themselves from the un-Islamic and self-contradictory ways of their ill-informed, ill-intentioned, male chauvinist mullahs. And its time Supreme Court helped them do that.

Sultan Shahin is the founding editor of a progressive Islamic website NewAgeIslam.com. He can be reached at sultan.shahin@gmail.com
A Muslim woman who refused to accept triple talaq from her husband over the phone was attacked with acid on Saturday allegedly by her in-laws in Neuria area of Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh.

According to a report in The Times of India, the victim Rehana Hussain, who is in her 40s, married her husband Matlub 18 years ago. Rehana and Matlub moved to the United States, but the marriage soon soured.

In 2011, Matlub and Rehana returned to India, but Matlub soon decided to take up a job abroad. Later, Rehana received a phone call from her husband who told her he was divorcing her, but she refused to accept it, The Times of India reported.

DNA reported that Rehana's in-laws allegedly assaulted her and threw acid on her to make her leave their home. Rehana filed a complaint with the Uttar Pradesh police, who began investing the matter and registered an FIR against five people.

"They should be punished for what they did. I want them to be in jail," Rehana said. "She has received burn injuries on her back. We are waiting for the medical report," a police officer said, DNA reported.

Last week, a married woman staged a dharna in Aligarh after her husband pronounced triple talaq and threw her out of their home.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a strong pitch against triple talaq, insisting the exploitation of Muslim women should end and justice be done to them. He, however, deprecated any attempts at creating a "conflict" within the Muslim community on the issue and suggested tackling it through social awareness.

Striking a defiant posture on the contentious issue of triple talaq, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday asserted that Muslims have the "constitutional" right to follow their personal law. On the Babri Masjid issue, AIMPLB General Secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani said the board would accept the Supreme Court's decision on the matter while stressing that "no outside settlement was acceptable".

On the talaq issue, he said that the board has decided to issue a code of conduct and warned that those who give talaq (divorce) without 'Sharia' (Islamic law) reasons will face social boycott.

With inputs from agencies
The idea of "newness" is inherent in Easter festivities. After all, Easter, the spring festival of reverence and symbolism, which celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, after the austere period of fasting, has a close association with food.

It is believed that one must bake something on Easter, as the comforting smell of fresh baking at Easter heralds the arrival of newness and lifts the spirits after Lent.

The small, lightly sweet yeast buns popularly known as hot cross buns, made of flour, milk, sugar, butter, eggs, currants and spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, are traditionally eaten on Good Friday and are marked on top with a cross. Before baking, a cross is slashed in the top of the bun. After baking, a confectioners' sugar icing is used to fill the cross. The cross symbolises Christs passion and death.

Every year, one unmindfully bites into the hot cross bun on Good Friday and relishes a simnel cake on Easter Sunday as one breaks the Lenten fast, perhaps out of habit. Although it is commonly believed that people have lost the traditional reason behind celebrating Easter due to massive amounts of candy and egg hunts, these rituals are steeped in tradition.

The bunny is a symbol of fertility and spring renewal. Small wonder then, that chocolate bunnies are distributed on Easter and patisseries offer many variations in marzipan and chocolate.

Christians consider eggs to be "the seed of life" and so they are symbolic of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Children wake up to find that the Easter Bunny has left them baskets of candy and also hunt for eggs all around the house. Exchanging and eating Easter eggs is a popular custom. Earlier, real ones were used, in most cases, chicken eggs. The eggs were hard-boiled and dyed in various colours and patterns, mostly red to signify the blood of Christ. The traditionally bright colours represented spring and light. Nowadays, these have been replaced by chocolate versions.

Yet another Easter tradition is the simnel cake, which derives its name from the Latin word simila, meaning fine wheat flour. It is a light fruit cake made with flour, milk, almond paste, lemon zest, spices, topped with marzipan. It is the perfect celebratory Easter bake. The cake has a layer of marzipan or almond paste baked into the middle while on the top it is usually decorated with eleven marzipan balls placed around the edge, representing the apostles, except Judas.

Since ancient times, lamb has been regarded as a religious symbol. Lamb symbolises Christ, who is known as "the Lamb of God". But before the Christians, lamb was already used by the Jews to celebrate Passover, which roughly coincides with Easter.

This began more than 3,000 years ago, when the Jews were slaves in Egypt and Moses wanted to free them. The Pharaoh refused to let them go, so God sent a series of plagues, the last one of which was the death of the firstborn sons. To spare the Jewish children, God told them to sacrifice a lamb and paint the lintels of their doors with its blood, so that the angel of death would pass over their houses and leave their offspring unhurt. That's why the Jews call this festivity "Pesach", or "Passover". When Jesus entered Jerusalem he told his Apostles to prepare the Passover meal, and they probably ate lamb at the Last Supper.

While traditionally, a lamb considered to be a lucky omen, and is a must for an Easter meal, the forms and presentation have evolved. Roast lamb, which is the main dish at Jewish Passover, is the traditional meat on Easter Day. It is served with mint sauce and vegetables. The dishes today, differ from home to home, depending upon personal preferences. Typically, people opt for rack of lamb and all the traditional trimmings or lamb with peas. However, loin lamb chops, roasted leg of lamb, whole roasted lamb, are some other delicacies that have gained popularity in India.

In India, Easter traditions are followed, but not as strictly adhered to as in the West, especially when it comes to food. Easter eggs, bunnies, simnel cakes and hot cross buns are generally bought from patisseries and confectioners and not made at home. Easter is more about celebrating the feast with special home-made dishes with the family.

In Kerala, the Christian community, may look forward to meat and pork, but sea food dishes are equally an attraction on Easter. No Goan household can do without pork on this special occasion. Pork sorpotel is one of the most traditional preparations from the Portuguese times and is prepared several days in advance to savour on Easter with sannas or steamed rice cakes fermented with toddy. The word sorpotel is derived from the Konkani word soro' which means alcohol. A labour-intensive dish, all Goans have grown up eating this and now painstakingly prepare it for their family on Easter or order it from a caterer.

Mangaloreans believe that although the lamb may be the most significant symbol of Easter, the pig has always been a symbol of good luck. They also think of it as a symbol of peace  after prayers to bless the home are completed, 'dukra maas' is savoured and hunger satiated, and peace engulfs the house as everyone retires for a well-deserved siesta on Easter.

East Indians, the original inhabitants of Mumbai, who are Roman Catholics, relish fugias or soft and spongy balls, made of flour, yeast, milk, sugar and eggs along with duck moile on Easter. The Anglo-Indian community in Kolkata begins their Easter morning with chicken buffarth, a delicious stew paired with bread, apart from meat dishes during meals that day.

Wine is an integral part of Easter celebrations and many households still prefer to make their own.

So while food may signify only merriment and celebration on Easter after 40 days of Lent, in reality, it is ancient traditions that lie behind the inclusion of each dish of the feast.

Happy Easter!

Mini Ribeiro is a food writer and critic. Follow her blog here.
A compelling story in the New York Times titled In India, A Small Band of Women Risk It all For A Chance to Work in January 2016, highlighted the struggle of Indian women to access the labour market, and work and earn a living with respect. The narrative wove in stories of two friends  Geeta and Premwati  of Peepli Khera village, even as it laid bare the disturbing gender inequality in Indias work force.

The author  Ellen Barry, NYT's South Asia Bureau chief  says the story was among the most challenging ones she pursued during her four-year stint in India, which comes to an end this August.

This is a subject I care about passionately: If more Indian women are able to earn for their families, I think that will have an enormous impact on the treatment and education of girls, age at first marriage and first childbirth, and problems like dowry-related violence and female feticide, said Barry via an e-mail. It is a problem that she believes has gotten far too little attention from the government and the research community. It is a challenging subject because it is complex and not as shocking or attention-grabbing as problems like rape or honour killing. It was important to me to shift the focus.

This story is also an absolute favourite of Barrys friend and colleague Geeta Anand, who also liked her second piece about young women (working) in manufacturing in Bengaluru, on the same subject. She (Ellen) spent months with these women, finding those telltale anecdotes and descriptions that elevated the pieces into great literature. They are fresh stories and they are among the best narrative nonfiction I have ever read, says Anand, via an e-mail.

Barrys quick turn-around time and great writing skills makes the mother of two daughters one of the most sought after journalists in the field. I loved her story about the injuries to protestors eyes in Kashmir, says Anand. Read it. I was amazed that she could turn around a news feature in just two or three days and that it could be so compellingly written and deeply reported. She begins by describing the eye surgery to repair a damaged eye. Read it, she repeats.

Barry though is never satisfied with her work and is always striving to be better. I think Ellens great strength, besides her great talent, is her self-criticism. Its hard to give her a compliment, because she doesnt quite believe it, says Anand. Every story of hers that you tell her was great, shell point out the things that werent quite up to her standard, where she should have done more. This tortures her. But it makes her a better and better journalist with every passing year.

In 2011, while posted in Russia, Barry was part of a team which won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for highlighting instances of impunity in the countrys justice system and also covered the resurgence of Russias Cossacks; a meteor that slammed into the atmosphere there and a scandal at the Bolshoi Ballet, which started with a dancer throwing acid into the face of creative director.

In August 2013, after five years in the former Soviet space, Barry was exhilarated to be India, which she says is a wonderful place to report as people are not afraid to speak their mind in public, including to reporters. It is a free society in that sense. More frustrating is that top officials rarely feel compelled to answer challenging questions about policy and performance, which makes it difficult for journalists to hold them accountable, says Barry. This country is full of excellent, courageous journalists. They need institutional support from outlets and their owners in order to hold leaders' feet to the fire.

As a bureau chief who shapes coverage of South Asia, Barrys extremely ambitious, stays well informed and is constantly looking for how to tell the most important stories of the region is the most compelling way, says Anand.

Of Barry's understanding and coverage of India, Anand says Ellen is among a handful of westerners she has met who have amazed her with how rapidly they can understand a country, its history, its politics and its people. And so she wrote knowledgeably and with subtlety and compassion and curiosity about India.

Anand also goes on to say that Barrys are almost always the best stories on whatever topics she tackles. Her strengths are her speed and her intelligence and her writing talent. Shes also extremely hard working. Many people who are as talented writers might try to cut corners on the reporting. But Ellen makes twice as many calls as most reporters I know, and then begins writing. That means her stories are not only accurate but incredibly in-depth.

Not everyone is as pleased with Barry's work. Avirook Sen, author of the book Aarushi, based on the double murder in Noida, picked on Barry at an event for her critical review of his book. I wrote a critical review of Avirook Sens book on the murder investigation. He did not like my review, puts Barry simply.

Come August, at the end of the stipulated four-year posting in any country by NYT, she will head to London to take on new responsibilities as Chief International Correspondent and is free to write on any region where she finds compelling stories, including India. But she plans to focus on Europe. I am interested in the rise of right-wing populism and nationalism in the west. This is a process I observed in Russia, where I was posted between 2008 and 2013. It also reflects political changes going on in the United States and the decline in the US's global influence, says Barry.

Anand thinks that Barry has elevated the standard of journalism in India. When you read an Ellen Barry story, you knew it would be deeply reported and accurate and you knew it would be written more compellingly than anything else on the subject," says Anand. "Her project on working women in India is the best feature writing Ive read since Ive been here."
'We are on the threshold of both heaven and hell, moving nervously between the gateway of the one and the anteroom of the other. History has not decided where will end up, and a string of coincidences might yet send us rolling in either direction.  Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind

Millennials are a unique generation. We live in an era that would be considered magical by those preceding us. The technological advancements we have made in the last few decades are astounding, especially when you wrap your head around the fact that humans have been walking the planet for millions of years.

We have overcome a majority of problems that plagued those before us, but have created new ones  social anxiety, depression, loneliness and existential ennui, to name just a few.

One of the main reasons modern society faces these problems is because of the lifestyles we have chosen. The good-looking ones, the ones with more money and the ones with more 'talent' are winners, while the rest are left fighting for the scraps. Or at least that's what society has trained us to believe.

We have modeled our own definition of success and failure based on these extremely superficial factors, which leads us down a road of helplessness and despair, even though we have more comforts and opportunities than any generation in history. And it doesn't look like the trend is going to end any time soon.

But as it turns out, we're all living in an imagined reality. A reality that has been created by circumstance, history and a few people who were in the right time, at the right place. To put it succinctly, it's a reality created out of sheer randomness. It's this randomness that chooses the haves and the have-nots.

This isnt the plot of a sci-fi movie, but the gist of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. The book, originally published in Hebrew in 2011, was released in English in 2014. It is written by Professor Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli historian and author. The book has made a resurgence as Harari recently released the follow up  Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow only a few months ago.

The book has received high praise from international leaders and titans of industry, including Bill Gates and Barack Obama. On the surface, this meticulously researched book is simply an analysis of the journey of humankind since we came into being, to where we could be in the near future. Its the transition of humans from insignificant hunter-gatherers to, possibly and not-so-implausibly, the Gods of the future.

But once you dig deeper, though, there's a larger, more powerful narrative that every millennial needs to experience. Our generation is going to produce the next batch of leaders, and this narrative has the potential to shake our core beliefs and give us a brand new perspective on our own existence and our role in the world.

While the book covers a myriad of philosophical themes, it isn't philosophical in nature. It has been written by an academic and presents its arguments in a very matter-of-fact way, with a dash of wry humour. At 443 pages, it's a fairly long read, but worth every minute of your time.

Harari covers hotly-debated topics like religion, gender equality, human rights, racism, nationalism, capitalism, homosexuality and the human condition with a level of disarming objectivity, explaining how all of these are merely figments of our collective imagination. According to him, these fictions have helped human beings separate themselves from the rest of the planet.

Harari boils down the progress of mankind to external circumstances, needs of human beings at a particular time in history, and plain old dumb luck.

Another topic Harari discusses is particularly relevant  happiness. What is happiness? Is it a bunch of chemical reactions in our brain, the people we surround ourselves with, our attitude towards life, or just an abstract term medieval philosophers and writers came up with in their free time? He admits that he no amount of research or analysis can produce the right answer. Happiness is truly an individual, subjective pursuit.

That brings me to the present. Here we are, in a world brimming with potential. Were staring into our screens, searching for validation and dreaming of greatness. We want success, we want riches, we want pretty things, and we want them now. And today, we have every opportunity to achieve our dreams. Yet, were miserable.

We have feminists, misogynists and everyone in the middle, conservatives and liberals, religious zealots and hardcore atheists, all existing together, insisting that their imagined reality is more real than the others. Were all fighting for beliefs that are nothing more than constructs of the mind. And were angry at anyone who disagrees with us.

Weve been told that we are the ones who will shape the future, that we can do whatever we want, and that our opinion matters. But most of us are slowly realising that this simply isnt true. Despite what we would like to believe, most of us are insignificant drops in the ocean of humanity. And we feel helpless and lost.

Most of us will never be rockstars, or supermodels, or billionaires. But you know what? That's okay. Because if you look closely enough, none of it matters. Success is truly in the mind of the beholder. This isnt a pep talk, its simply behaviourial science.

So if everything is a fiction, shouldnt that make you more cynical? I disagree. When you see that the world is, in fact, stitched together by a bunch of invented truths, this observation gives you more perspective than most others things. It gives you the opportunity to find your own truth, the narrative that gives your life purpose. Yes, we all need creature comforts, but now, we can decide to not make the material world the center of our existence. We may not attain nirvana, but we can learn to live more positively.

Theres a greater truth out there that we dont know, and it will set us free. We scoff at holy men and religious heads when they say this; but when it comes from a scientist, backed by facts and analysis, we cant help but accept our delusion. Maybe thats exactly what we need today to build a better tomorrow.
The last few years have witnessed a deluge of mass market writers in India: Ravinder Singh, Durjoy Datta, Sudeep Nagarkar and more recently, Savi Sharma and Ajay K Pandey. While many people attribute this trend to the unprecedented success of Chetan Bhagats debut novel Five Point Someone, others say that it is because of the countrys ever expanding young, aspiring reader base, which has an insatiable appetite for these light, undemanding reads.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that this brand of writing has completely changed the different aspects of publishing, be it commissioning, retail or marketing. Editors no longer acquire books in isolation or on the basis of their individual tastes, but in close consultation with a sales team.

"Until Neilsen arrived in India, very few people were aware of the mass market phenomenon that was going on. The communication channels between sales and editorial were also not that great," Sachin Garg, a bestselling writer and publisher of Grapevine books told me. In fact, distributors only started taking Grapevine seriously once their author Durjoy Dattas book debuted at number 3 on the Neilsen Charts. The sales figure of a book started being used as a metric for acquisitions and books were acquired for reasons other than the traditional reason of it being a well told story from the editors POV, says Anish Chandy of Juggernaut Books.

Editors approaching authors with ideas developed in-house is a common practice across the world, but now they even started approaching bestselling fiction writers with contracts. A well-known publisher of mass-market books who has lost many of his big authors to multinationals, told me how his authors would get an email/message from a rival publisher the moment their book achieved a high ranking on Amazon or Nielsen: "At times, some of them didnt even know about the genre of their earlier books, yet they were interested in acquiring their future works." According to him, this happened primarily because the mainstream publishers couldnt create and sustain any big writers on their own. The next best thing was to poach writers from other publishing houses," he says. A commercial publisher at an MNC, however, hotly contested this claim saying that such authors left smaller publishers because of a desire for better advances, branding and transparency.

Once a publisher struck gold with a particular formula, they kept replicating it for all future books. In the West, writers writing in genres such a horror, fantasy, sci-fi, thrillers and so on have attained mass market success but that hasnt really happened in India. It was only when an already bestselling author experimented with a lesser known genre, such as Vikrant Khanna with his paranormal romance, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, published by Penguin Random House India, that the book went on to sell very well. We have to give the readers what they want and most of them want cheesy romances," an editor says.

Online stores have never been the ideal platform for discovering new writers, but now these mass market writers have begun cornering a lions share of the retail space too. "Since the print runs are so large (anywhere from 100,000-200,000 copies for the biggest names), a chunk of the retails cash flow and store space goes into buying these books," says Chandy. This was not so in the heydays of mass market fiction, when retail stores were reluctant to stock these books because of their low pricing and consequently, low profit margins. "But at some point they realised that it made more sense to sell 1000 copies of a commercial novel priced at Rs 175 than 10 copies of a literary one priced at Rs 399. The margins were less per square foot of space but the turnover went up enormously," Arup Bose of Srishti publishers says. As a result, a handful of mass market writers started getting bigger and bigger,while new writers came and went without a trace.

An interesting thing to note is that even within the commercial space, the success rate is very low and for every big seller, there are thousands of books that didnt even sell out their first print run. Many of these commercial writers spend lavishly on PR and promotions but even then their books just dont break through. It is ultimately about a writers USP and level of reader engagement that makes a book a bestseller. For instance, Savi Sharmas marketing campaign for her debut novel Everyone Has A Love Story was centred on posting inspirational quotes on the books Facebook page. She cleverly packaged her book as an inspirational romance  a genre no one has ventured into in India.

Unlike literary writers, who prefer to let their works do the talking, mass market writers engage with their audiences on a daily basis. They make an effort to remember every single fan letter they get (and they get hundreds every day), and ensure that they respond to most. Ajay K Pandey, author of bestselling You are My Best Wife, gets around seven to eight messages on Facebook every day. "If I am busy or in the office, I just tell my fans to talk to me at night but I always respond immediately," he says.

"Mass market writing is all about packaging, marketing, sales and even the appearance of these authors. Tell me one bad-looking mass market writer who is a bestseller," a marketing manager told me.

However, here's a note of caution. "The bestsellers are bigger now, and one or two commercial categories have exploded," says Thomas Abraham, MD of Hacehtte India. "But if we dont have a rounded midlist selling to its own category potential, the industry is in real danger of becoming irrelevant and losing all biblio-diversity."
Criminality and Indian politics are so synonymous these days, that third generation Indians would probably smirk suspiciously at the sight of a 'clean politician': the breed is not believed to exist. And even if they do, itd be a fairy tale, a too-good-to-be-true story that would simply come across as inconceivable.

It has come to a point that a scandal here, a scam there, simply doesnt surprise. In fact, it is like the stale air of our cities  the slightest whiff of something more wholesome might actually become a cause for anxiety. So when a book, seeks to write, inform and study, something beyond this constant negative derivation of our politicians, you wonder what really can be done differently. If a book is about to tell us that Indias political system is corrupt and criminals are flourishing under the roof of its porous democracy, wed probably say yeah, so?

However, Milan Vaishnavs When Crime Pays simply doesnt allow this to be your reaction.

Divided into three parts, Milans book studies the rise of criminals in Indias political circles, their sustenance and worrying popularity, and how (if at all) this crime-politics nexus can be defeated.

The first thing that sets the book apart is its accessible prose, its grip on human narratives and its reluctance to inundate the reader with facts and figures.

Milan spoke with us over the phone from the US and confirmed that it was a conscious choice on his part to write the book as it is. This was of course a work meant for the academia. And it was written according to that format. Which means it was also pretty boring. When I decided on writing the book, I basically began from scratch. I knew I wanted to make the book accessible to everyone who read it. And therefore, you see these very human, accessible narratives in between chapters, these vignettes that hold the research and the details together," he says.

An outright take-away from the book is Milans wonderful analytical arc. He seldom misses a factor or an angle that has to be checked. And while he persuasively argues, he argues not with a point to prove his findings as essentially correct, but simply as indicative of something that requires our attention. Along a similar line, he points, throughout the book at the bureaucracy, as something that is there is actually too much of. I think I was just surprised how inept the bureaucracy was at performing very basic functions. There were instances where district offices or police stations did not even know how or where to locate papers related to cases or issues. It automatically presents the goonda, or a criminal as an alternative to a fraught and hopeless system, he says.

A crucial aspect of Milans book, which perhaps anchors the question behind criminality in Indias politics, is the source of the money that drives its parties, something  perhaps the only thing  they unanimously agree upon. Milan believes that that particular problem doesnt seem like it will be addressed anytime soon. It all comes down to the money, doesnt it? The recent Financial Bill now makes it almost impossible to decode the anonymity of the donor and the receiver in case of funds given to a political party. That just tells you where the priorities are of the current government, even though the election rhetoric was significantly different.

Milan takes the reader through first-hand experiences and interactions he has had while working on his research. Criminals not only abound  they are actually in demand. And a phenomenon of such nature can simply not be interpreted through numbers and data. In one particular conversation in Bihars Mokamma, a Rajput tells Milan that they regularly elect a criminal politician because he stands for their people against the oppression of the richer and powerful Bhumihars of the region. It is a clear indication of franchise, where the question of identity simply supersedes concerns that are otherwise important. It is well in line with the way elections are always fought, where communal lines are drawn and voters reduced to choosing bad politicians, simply because they are the antidote to a system and a kind of suppression that the voter wants liberation from. The years during the Emergency, Milan believes, is when most of these criminals seeped into the system, and were in the following years co-opted. Now they wield power that is almost inescapable.

In the third part of the book, Milan attempts to look at possible solutions. And if it were given to him, what would he address first? If it was left to me, I would simply address the bureaucracy. The system is in place and so is the process. But there is simply too much of it. If an Indian can place his faith in the police, or the courts, and can believe he will be delivered justice, or will be heard, in a timely manner, a lot of the criminality which exists because of the systems inner corruption will simply disappear. We use a smartphone for everything. Why cant one be used to access some form of justice or law? The rule of law, is what upholds democracy, he says.

Though there are clear signs as to where the Indian system ails, there are no clear signs of it being treated. Criminality has simply become too entrenched. And therefore it takes a book like When Crime Pays, and a hovering gaze to make sense, and question with renewed intensity, the state of our countrys politics. When Crime Pays is perhaps even more important for those who wish to ignore it, than those who will readily devour its uneasy findings.
A trio of U.S. senators are urging President Donald Trump to act on Canadian dairy rules they say are "restrictive."

New York's U.S. senators, Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, sent a letter urging the Trump administration to "exhaust all potential avenues to bring Canada into compliance with its trade commitments and establish dependable trading conditions for U.S. companies exporting to Canada."

The letter was sent to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, acting U.S. Trade Representative Stephen Vaughn and acting Agriculture Secretary Michael Young.

The senators raised concerns they have with two policies  Canada's Class 7 National Ingredients Strategy and the province of Ontario's Class 6 pricing programs. Schumer, D-N.Y., first brought attention to the challenges of the Canadian regulations during a visit last year to Cayuga Milk Ingredients in Aurelius.

The Canadian government's national ingredients strategy and Ontario's pricing program, the senators say, intentionally target U.S. dairy imports and affect global milk powder markets. They believe the policies may violate Canada's trade commitments to the U.S. and the Canadians' role in the North American Free Trade Agreement and World Trade Organization.

According to the senators, U.S. ultra-filtered milk exports have already been cut due to Ontario's pricing program. There are reports of more contracts being lost this year.

"The loss of these, and likely other exports, as a result of the Class 6 and 7 programs will harm dairy manufacturers and their supplying farms in areas of our states that rely on the jobs the dairy industry provides," Baldwin, Gillibrand and Schumer wrote.

"In addition to these revised pricing policies, Canada has also reportedly been considering additional avenues that press reports indicate would be pursued strictly to curtail U.S. dairy exports."

Schumer repeatedly urged President Barack Obama's administration to address the trade barriers imposed by Canada. He labeled Canada's trade rules as "protectionist."

Other members of New York's congressional delegation got involved. Gov. Andrew Cuomo also intervened and spoke out against the policies.

No action was taken before Obama left office.

With Trump now in the White House, New York's elected leaders and others who represent major dairy producing states are renewing their calls for the U.S. government to act.

"Dairy farmers should not have their businesses ruined and lives upended as a result of this unfair trade practice," the senators wrote. "Canada must be clearly and swiftly reminded in a concrete way that dependable trading conditions between our two countries is critically important to their country as well."
(L-R) Actors Morena Baccarin and Ben McKenzie attend the 'Gotham' press line during Comic-Con International 2016 at Hilton Bayfront on July 23, 2016 in San Diego, California. (Photo : (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images))

Are the City Sirens making their debut on "Gotham" Season 4? It appears likely, especially as the final arc of "Gotham" Season 3 shows some shift in alliances and more chaos begins to unfold.



The villains are beginning to take full form on the show-the Riddler will soon get his costume, the Court of Owls become an even bigger presence in the city and Al Ghul will arrive in Gotham. The growing number of villains pushes the show's young Bruce Wayne further into living his destiny of becoming Batman; however, there are several key villains which the show is still missing out on.



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The City Sirens are a prominent figure in the comics. Although Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Catwoman are already confirmed to appear in the movie adaptation of "Gotham City Sirens," there are questions as to whether these femme fatales are going to pop up on TV, considering that Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman, is already a known fixture on "Gotham."



When asked if the City Sirens will appear in "Gotham" Season 4 somehow, Camren Bicondova told Heroic Hollywood that they have not discussed it yet but it is a possibility in the future.



"I think that eventually it will happen. Selina has been for the past however many months or years not consciously doing it, she has been kind of depending on Bruce in certain aspects," Bicondova said.



Bicondova added that things will change with Selina, however, as she soon realizes that no one else can fill Bruce's spot in her life and that she will need to learn to rely on herself more. "Gotham" already has its TV version of Poison Ivy, and Screen Rant reported that the show is also set to introduce its own version of Harley Quinn by the end of "Gotham" Season 3.



If ever City Sirens pushes through in "Gotham" Season 4, actress Jessica Lucas said there's a chance Barbara Gordon and Tabitha Galvan might take part in the group, although the characters weren't members in the comics. "I think it would be great to have some sort of girl gang going on next season," Lucas teased.



"Gotham" Season 3 returns to FOX on April 24.






Bhubaneswar: Setting a new target for party leaders and workers, Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah said on Saturday that despite being in power at the centre and in 13 states, the party is yet to achieve its peak and urged them to devote themselves to the cause.

Shah also hit out at opposition parties for questioning EVMs and said that blaming EVMs is disrespecting the Election Commission.

Shah's remarks came here at the inaugural address of the two-day National Executive of BJP, being held at Bhubaneswar after a gap of 20 years.

"Many (people) declared after the 2014 general elections that the BJP reached its peak, but it was not so. They then said in 2017 (after elections to the five states, including Uttar Pradesh) that the BJP has now attained it peak, but it is not the case," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted Amit Shah as saying at the inaugural session .

"But the BJP is yet to be at its peak. The BJP will attain its peak when BJP will have Chief Ministers in all the states and it has members everywhere  from panchayats to Parliament," Shah added, according to Prasad.

"Let's resolve to make BJP a pan-India party from panchayats to Parliament. BJP's golden period should be associated with country's golden period," Shah said.

Noting that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will complete three years in office on May 26 and had worked hard during this period, he said: "We have done work which other governments would do in two-three terms."

The BJP chief also said that earlier there was a perception that BJP was doing well only where there was Congress and not against the regional parties, but the recent election results of Uttar Pradesh has proved this perception wrong.

Targeting the opposition for questioning EVMs, Shah said despite making excuses these parties should have honestly introspected the reasons.

"It was expected from the defeated parties that after their defeat, these parties should have honestly accepted it but they began making excuses. Among the excuses EVMs are being discussed.

"Such talks are not only about accepting defeat honestly but to dishonour the Election Commission," he said.

In a sarcastic attack, Shah said that when United Progressive Alliance won the 2004 and 2009 general elections or the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party won the Uttar Pradesh elections in 2007 and 2012, then there was no problem, but now all of sudden questions are being raised about EVMs.

The BJP also challenged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to accept the open challenege of Election Commission to hack EVMs.

"The EC has publicly asked to hack EVMs. Why don't he (Kejriwal) and hack it. He is an IIT graduate. An experienced hacker is Chief Minister of a state," Prasad told reporters in response to a query.

Urging party workers "not to be lethargic" after stunning victories in recently-concluded assembly polls, Prasad also said that the BJP chief would tour, for 95 days, different parts of the country till September.

"Shah will extensively tour the country till September. During this tour Shah will spend three days in Kerala also," he said.

Enthused by its resounding victory in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP seems quite confident that it would come to power in Odisha, where it has never been in a commanding position despite being an ally of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for nine years.

The BJP hoped that it would be able to build its prospects in the state in the wake of the anti-incumbency tide against the Naveen Patnaik government, which has been in power since the last 17 years.

Shah has given a clear signal in the executive meeting that the party would work relentlessly to grab the eastern state in the 2019 elections.

"The people in Odisha want change from the incumbent government, which is in power since 2000. The Naveen Patnaik government has failed to provide basic amenities to the people in the state," he said.

The party has been encouraged by its performance in the recently-concluded panchayat polls, where it emerged second, relegating the Congress to the third position.

The first day of the two-day meet was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 13 Chief Ministers including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was given a grand welcome.

The prime minister, earlier, held a roadshow in the state capital ahead of the meeting.

A huge crowd gathered on both sides of the road to catch a glimpse of Modi. BJP supporters raised slogans of 'Modi-Modi' and 'Vande Mataram' and some showered flowers on the prime minister.
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
Each time a repugnant and distressing news surfaces from the conflict ridden Jammu and Kashmir, much is said and written about the India-Pakistan relationship and the said debate around nationalism. This time around, when a debate raged out over an Indian Army officer using an alleged stone-pelter as a human shield to rescue policemen and Election Commission officials cornered by an angry mob, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas took to YouTube to send across an apolitical message. He was seen questioning the take of politicos, including his own party leader Arvind Kejriwal.

In a 13-minute-long video message, Vishwas touches upon a range of issues that usually miss prominence in the nationalism debate.

From the disillusioned Kashmiri youth to the need to alienate Pakistan, Vishwas airs his views on a range of topics. At the onset, he states that the viewers must view him neither as an AAP worker nor as a poet nor a social activist.

He claims that the trend today is of cult politics, where leaders take prominence over the cause of politics. In a list that include top leaders that includes Arvind Kejriwal, Vishwas states that the lesser mortals will pass away but the nation will stand on.

Mostly our leaders take the centrestage in our politics. Modi-Modi, Arvind-Arvind, Rahul-Rahul, yeh saare bas kuch saal rahenge, par desh 5,000 saal ka hai.

He says that India is sending a confusing message to the world by not taking a firm stand against Pakistan.

"On one hand we are propagating a message that world must brand Pakistan a rogue state. Could we bring ourselves together to do that just yet? Have we suspended trade ties with a state that has repeatedly conspired against us," Vishwas states in the message.

The leader bats for tougher posturing against Islamabad while he talks of mainstreaming the woes of Kashmiri youths and increasing efforts to reach out to them.

In his message, Vishwas takes on both the BJP and AAP for a second time as he mentions the much touted India's surgical strike. He says, "The surgical strikes were a matter of great pride for the nation but politicians could not transcend party lines in their dealing with it... Some tried to put on posters claiming credit for it, while others tried to snatch away the government's credit... both are wrong"

He is also seen praising former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi for their tough posturing against Pakistan. Invoking the Pokhran nuclear test Vishwas says that even at the time, the entire world put stringent sanctions against India but Vajpayee maintaned that Indians would die of hunger but not surrender their self-respect. He then asks why can't Modi tread a similar path.

Vishwas also takes a dig on politicians, including those from his own party, for neglecting their core ideology and poll promises. He points fingers in a veiled attack at AAP as well. He says, "If you ride to power talking about corruption, and your own people indulge in bribery, you will be asked questions." "If you win elections on the plank of nationalism and you can't defend it, people will hold you answerable," Vishwas says in an apparent reference to the BJP.

Earlier, there were rumours that the poet-turned-politician is about to join the BJP, which the AAP leader was forced to dismiss. His current take on Kejriwal and AAP and his views on Pakistan that eerily sound similar to that of the BJP may again raise a few eyebrows.
Praising Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah for the election victories in Uttar Pradesh and three other states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged party leaders not to be complacent after emphatic victory and work towards strengthening the party ahead of key elections in the next two years.

Modi was addressing the concluding session of the two-day national executive meeting of the BJP in Odisha's capital, Bhubaneshwar.

The prime minister's statement assumes importance as the saffron party prepares itself to fight the municipal elections in Delhi, before embarking on the crucial elections in prime minister's home state of Gujarat later this year.

In a bid to strengthen the party's grassroots level politics in east and south of India, Modi was quoted by ANI as saying, "The BJP will launch a special campaign for those 120 Lok Sabha seats which have been out of our reach."

Addressing party officials, Modi also took a dig at the Opposition parties for raking up the issue of EVM tampering. The prime minister is reported to have said that the Congress-led Opposition is hiding its failures behind the veil of EVM tampering.

Modi's comment comes just a day after party chief Amit Shah urged the opposition parties to "honestly" accept their defeat.

Slamming the Opposition for disruptive politics, Modi claimed that the Opposition parties have no issues to corner the government, so are churning out new issues ahead of the MCD elections. Modi reportedly said that even he does not know from which "factory" does the Opposition create new issues.

Modi also spoke on the sensitive issue of triple talaq and urged the party to reach out to grassroots levels to find a solution to the issue.

"Muslim women are facing difficulties on the issue of triple talaq. We should work for a solution at the district level," Modi said.

Speaking to media after the meeting, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that the prime minister wanted no conflcit in the Muslim community over the issue of triple talaq.

Unhonne (PM) kaha ki hum ye nahi chahte ki Muslim samaaj mein is bahane sangharsh ho: Nitin Gadkari #TripleTalaq pic.twitter.com/gK8b8BJo0S  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

Gadkari continued that Modi has urged the government to fight every kind of superstitious beliefs and deliver justice. NDTV reported that the prime minister said that party leaders must learn the "art of silence" while working hard.

The Union minister added that prime minsiter's speech revolved around "jan dhan", "jal dhan" and van dhan".

PM Modi's speech at National Executive Meet was also about Jan Dhan, Jal Dhan and Van Dhan: Nitin Gadkari, BJP pic.twitter.com/kB8ECAZcpy  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

This is closely related to the government's new motto: "pro-people", "pro-active" and "good governance," News18 reported.

Demonetisation also found a mention in Modi's speech with the prime minister calling the decision to invalidate old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 as a bigger success than the victory in Uttar Pradesh, where the saffron party won 312 out of 403 seats.

Invoking the mantra of "New India", Gadkari added that the prime minister wanted to boost India's socio-economic growth.

Gadkari said that Modi urged the government to work for the poor and ensure economic and social justice in the country.

The National Executive meeting in Odisha is significant as the saffron party is reportedly making a major push to come to power in the state after the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, buoyed by the good performance in the recently-concluded local body polls. In the current Assembly, the party has just 10 MLAs, while tribal affairs minister Jual Oram is the lone MP from the state.

Speaking at the meeting, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said on Saturday, "The trend available from the recent polls indicate that Modi will get more support of the people in the coming days. Therefore, the prime minister has decided to make Odisha a laboratory of welfare schemes for the poor."

After Odisha, Modi is scheduled to be in his home state Gujarat on a two-day visit. He will take party in a roadshow in Surat on Sunday evening before heading to Dadra Nagar and Haveli and parts of southern Gujarat on Monday.

With inputs from agencies
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting his home state of Gujarat as part of a two-day tour. This will be his eight visit to the state in the last nine months. The visit is significant as the state goes to vote in November.

While the magnitude of his roadshow in Bhuneshwar is not comparable to what was seen in Varanasi but then the two situations and two cities are different. What must have been very heartening for Modi and BJP is the fact that not just thousands of people cheered for him in the scorching afternoon heat on both sides of the road but several of them were also seen running behind Modis motorcade to get a better glimpse of the leader.

Setting a target of 150 Assembly seats for the Gujarat unit of BJP, party president Amit Shah may have set the pitch for the forthcoming Assembly elections. But how the BJP will achieve this target amidst conditions that are not too favourable for them remains to be seen.

The BJP on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to make Odisha the laboratory of welfare schemes for the poor.The BJP-led NDA government has already allocated Rs 5,200 crore for railway development in Odisha during the last three years, while the amount was dismal during the Congress-led UPA government. During the UPA's tenure, maximum allocation was Rs 1,000 crore in one rail budget, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

Claiming that Modi's popularity has increased manifold across the country and abroad, the Union Minister said the people of Odisha have accepted the Prime Minister's plans and programmes. This is evident from the results of the recently concluded Zilla Parishad elections. The party bagged 297 ZP seats in 2017 from just 36 seats in the previous rural polls held in 2012, Pradhan pointed out.

The Prime Minister spent around 25 minutes in the temple premises. Modi also visited the temple of Goddess Bhubaneswari and Parbati, said Manoranjan Panigrahy, CEO of the Lingaraj Temple Administration.

The prime minister reached the Lingaraj temple sharp at 9 am on Sunday to offer his prayers and participate in a special Puja Arati. He offered flowers, bel leaves, milk, coconut water and water to the deity.

Modi's Gujarat visit is crucial to the fortunes of the saffron party ahead of the assembly elections due later this year. The visit is especially important in the backdrop of the two-year-long Patidar agitation for reservations in education and jobs, which many believe may have dampened the BJP's prospects to win 150 seats in the Assembly  a target set by party chief Amit Shah.

There are total 600 cutouts of Narendra Modi and five gates have been put up for the road show, NDTV said. The 11-kilometre roadshow will also have a 30 feet statue of the prime minister, the news channel added.

There are over 10,000 bikers said to be taking part in the roadshow alongside Narendra Modi, News18.com said.

According to India Today, nearly 40,000 bikers are taking part in the Surat roadshow. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be traveling nearly 11-kilometres between the Surat airport to Circuit House.

With the growing rise in popularity of Narendra Modi, questions are once again being raised about Congress' leadership. Without a strong face to match-up with the popularity of Modi, it will be seen how Congress will perform in Gujarat elections.

Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela alleged on Sunday that the BJP-led Gujarat government has locked up nearly 2,000 pepole who were likely to protest Modi's visit in Surat. Vaghela said while speaking with News18 India on Sunday.

Pandya, however, rejected the allegations made by Congress' Shankersinh Vaghela, where he stated that the BJP government has locked up members of the Patidar community ahead of Modi's visit. He, however, said that some people were restrained for safety reasons.

"This is a historical roadshow. The entire road has been lit. It's like Diwali. We have made a banner of sari, which highlights all the campaigns of the Modi government," BJP leader Bharat Pandya told News18,

After the 11-kilometre roadshow from Surat airport to Circuit House, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party. The roadshow has been delayed by nearly half an hour.

BJP has never lost a election in the state since 2001 but many percieve that the long-standing unadressed Patel agitation over caste based reservations could dampen the saffron party's winning streak.

Keeping its thrust on development agenda, the BJP has embarked on a mission to retain power in 2019, fine-tuning its strategy to woo the poor and a section of Muslims to expand its base. The Prime Minister's Gujarat visit, although is officially to inaugurate a range of projects, it is seen against the backdrop of the assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year.

PM to go to Icchapur area to inaugurate a diamond polishing unit of Hari Krishna Export Private Limited

Lauding the 500 Crore project, the Gujarat chief minister said that the whole state was set up by a chamber of diamond merchants in the state. He said that the BJP government will take healthcare services to each and every village and fulfil the prime minister's dream of a healthy and prosperous Gujarat.

The prime minister, addressing a gathering after inaugurating a multi-speciality hospital in his home state said that he was unsure whether he should address his people in his mother tongue or Hindi. However, he said that he then chose to speak in Hindi because he felt that they have done a big thing and the entire should know about it.

Was confused whether I should speak in Hindi or Gujarat: Modi

Lauding the diamond merchants of Surat for undertaking the 500 crore project for people's welfare, Modi said that he was not surprised by what they did. He said that these people have known poverty and the pain of paucity. Therefore they won't sleep at night until they are satisfied that they have done as much as they could for the society.

PM lauds diamond merchants for building hospital, says these are traits of givers

He said he was proud that his Surat has adopted the habit of cleanliness in such a way that they can be an example to other cities.

While the health surveys across world have reinstated the importance of hygiene, no one has paid much attention to preventive healthcare measures in India. He said that his government's Swachh Bharat mission is a part of promoting preventive healthcare habits.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a hospital in Surat, Modi said, "We have fixed the prices for around 700 medicines to ensure affordability for poor." He said that the government will ensure that the doctors prescribes only generic medicines so that monopoly of big medicine outlets can be broken.

"I value hardwork over money... And it doesn't matter whether this project cost Rs 500 crore or 5000 crore, it was built through the hardwork of the people here and it inculcates family values. I wish that no one should need it's services, but in case you do, I will pray that no one has to come here again," Modi said.

Addressing a gathering in Surat after inaugurating a philanthropic multi speciality hospital, Modi said that his government values the importance of a healthy society, which is why they are tirelessly working towards it. Modi said that it was his government that has brought in a healthcare policy after a gap of 15 years.

Recalling one of his earlier statements, wherein he had said that he will also inaugurate the project he was laying the foundation of, Modi said that people thought he was arrogant. He said that this was not the case but he merely likes to see whatever job he takes up is finished to the end.

I had said that I will also inaugurate projects, of which I lay the foundation stones: Modi

After leaving the venue of the multi speciality hospital in Surat, the prime minister would then head to Hira Bourse SEZ at Icchapur in the district to inaugurate a diamond polishing unit of Hari Krishna Export Private Limited.

The Prime Minister also said that India always had a culture of service which started fading away after Independence.

"Our nation was neither built, nor can it be run by governments, kings and politicians, but only by the service and hard work of its people," Modi said while addressing a public meeting here in Gujarat.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged all citizens to serve the nation with their hard work and said that India cannot be run by the government without the support of its people.

Addressing a gathering of diamond merchants at Icchapur, Modi said that Indian diamonds are popular across the world. But the traders in India should now aspire to excel in the gems and jeweler market as well.

Modi urges diamond traders to excel in field of gems and jewels as well

The Prime Minister is headed to Bajipura village in Tapi district to inaugurate a cattle feed plant and ice-cream plant of Sumul Dairy. He will also lay foundation stone for dairy products plant at Nava Pardi.

The prime minister inaugurated a 25000 litres capacity dairy processing plant that is envisioned to improve cattle rearing prospects for the tribal population in the area.

This is PM Modi's eighth visit to the state in past 9 months

Highlighting the BJP government's work in the Centtre, Modi said, "When we assumed office, I sought details on impact of development schemes in Dadra & Nagar Haveli & we worked on areas needing attention"

This nation belongs to each and every Indian. There is no question of discrimination against anyone: PM Narendra Modi

PM Modi urges people to use BHIM app to claim benefit of various government schemes like gas subsidy

PM Narendra Modi will be inaugurating phase-I of the Link-II pipeline canal of the ambitious (SAUNI) Yojna in Botad. The Link-II will release water from the Narmada into 9 dams.

Modi calls out to farmers and speaks of the importance of irrigation. Recalling the days of the freedom movement, he also asks the nation to be more grateful.

PM Modi tells farmers,"We will need to make drip irrigation a key part of our lives"

PM Modi assures farmers that soon technology will help change their lives for the better

This is not a Congress govt but Modi's govt. Here you've to work for public: PM Modi at an event to inaugurate govt projects in Silvassa pic.twitter.com/FlsDc2z76K

. @narendramodi Our Government will never allow the poor and the middle class to be looted: PM @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/Hp2EOMyZ52

PM praises BHIM app, Ujjwala yojna says our government will never allow poor to be looted

#WATCH PM Narendra Modi breaks security protocol to meet a 4-year old girl on his way to inaugurate Kiran Multispeciality Hospital in Surat. pic.twitter.com/vtLuleRMYV

Watch: PM Narendra Modi breaks security protocol, stops entourage to meet a 4-year old girl on his way

PM Narendra Modi will be inaugurating phase-I of the Link-II pipeline canal of the ambitious (SAUNI) Yojna in Botad. The Link-II will release water from the Narmada into 9 dams.

PM Modi begins speaking at the inauguration of phase I of SAUNI project in Botad

We did not have the privilege to die for the nation's freedom. But we have the opportunity to live for the nation & serve our people: PM

Modi calls out to farmers and speaks of the importance of irrigation. Recalling the days of the freedom movement, he also asks the nation to be more grateful.

PM Modi tells farmers,"We will need to make drip irrigation a key part of our lives"

We are working on the agriculture sector, invigorating it with new technology so that the income of farmers can be doubled by 2022: PM pic.twitter.com/bWgDi3MHfx

PM Modi assures farmers that soon technology will help change their lives for the better

With the chants of Narmade, Sarvade we welcomed water from the Narmada to Botad. pic.twitter.com/xYHyv1cpJE

We can see the good work done by @ChouhanShivraj on river water conservation and the Narmada: PM @narendramodi @CMMadhyaPradesh

Water has come here to Saurashtra with the blessings of Maa Narmada. This makes the occasion very special: PM @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/hnHRPIBYzC

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit his home state of Gujarat on Sunday. The two-day visit assumes significance as the state goes to elections in November this year.

The main highlight of his visit will be a roadshow in Surat. Interestingly, the part of the road from where the prime minister's convoy will pass has been decorated with an 11-kilometre-long sari which depicts the various schemes launched by the government.

Surat (Guj): 11-Km long saree depicting schemes launched by Central Govt displayed on road from Airport to Circuit House ahead of PM's visit pic.twitter.com/6tM1g22cec  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

Modi, who is expected to reach Gujarat at 7 pm on Sunday, and will stay overnight in the city before embarking on a tour across southern Gujarat. "He is visiting Surat for the first time after the BJP's landslide victory in the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. We are very excited to receive him," NDTV quoted state BJP chief Jitu Vaghani as saying.

Later this evening, I will begin my visit to Gujarat as well as Dadra & Nagar Haveli, where I will take part in various programmes tomorrow.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 16, 2017

The prime minister also tweeted about his itinerary on his official Twitter account. He is expected to inaugurate various welfare schemes and development projects in the BJP-ruled state including inaugurating a multi-speciality hospital.

Tomorrow in Surat, will inaugurate a multi-speciality hospital at Katargam and a diamond manufacturing unit at Ichhapore.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 16, 2017

At another programme in Bajipura tomorrow, will inaugurate SUMUL cattle field plant & lay foundation stone for other projects at SUMUL Dairy  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 16, 2017

Will lay the foundation of various irrigation schemes & inaugurate a drinking water scheme that will benefit people living in Tapi district.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 16, 2017

Tomorrow in Botad, will also witness the historic welcoming of the waters of the Narmada into the Krishna Sagar Lake.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 16, 2017

According to News18, Modi is also expected to go to Hira Bourse SEZ at Icchapur village in Surat district to inaugurate a diamond polishing unit of Hari Krishna Export Private Limited.

Modi's Gujarat visit is crucial to the fortunes of the saffron party ahead of the assembly elections due later this year. The visit is especially important in the backdrop of the two-year-long Patidar agitation for reservations in education and jobs, which many believe may have dampened the BJP's prospects to win 150 seats in the Assembly  a target set by party chief Amit Shah.

The Gujarat visit comes close on the heels of the prime minister's trip to Odisha. Although the visit was organised to participate in the party's national executive meet, the trip was doubled up as a chance to reach out to the people of Odisha, after the state gave the party a surprise win in recently conducted Panchayat polls.

Earlier in the day, the prime minister reached the Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar sharp at 9 am to offer his prayers and participate in a special Puja Arati. He offered flowers, bel leaves, milk, coconut water and water to the deity.

The prime minister spent around 25 minutes in the temple premises.

Modi also visited the temple of Goddess Bhubaneswari and Parbati, said Manoranjan Panigrahy, CEO of the Lingaraj Temple Administration.

"The prime minister was so enthusiastic to know about Lingaraj temple. He prayed for the welfare of the nation and 'Swachh Bharat'," said chief priest of the temple.

The BJP is holding its National Executive meeting in Odisha's Bhubaneshwar. The prime minister is also expected to make his concluding remarks during the meeting on Sunday. In the meeting, BJP is said to have decided to make the state "a lab for the Centre's various welfare schemes", with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state.

The new resolution assumes significance as the party has made "Look East" its new component in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state as well as neighbouring West Bengal, where Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress is in power.

With inputs from agencies
Just about a month remains for the Left government in Kerala to complete a year in power. But already the wheels of governance seem to be coming off as one issue after the other rocks the state.It is not corruption but the disconnect the government has developed with the common man that is hurting the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) the most.

The inability to solve small issues before they become big enough to give fodder to Opposition parties is reflective of the misrule and lack of governance that has taken over this government.

And at the centre of this storm is Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister who had come to power, riding on a huge mandate by the people. Perhaps the expectations were bigger.

The seeming apathy of the chief minister towards some of the public agitations that took place in the state in the last few months is what has left the majority of political analysts in Kerala scratching their head.

The hunger strike by Jishnu Prannoys mother and sister that grabbed headlines recently had to end with the intervention of the party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury. Yechurys intervention is not only a body blow to the self respect of a man like Vijayan who has built his entire political career around a much hallowed iron man status in the party, but also an ominous sign that the central leadership of the party is terribly vexed at the events in Kerala. It was a similar malaise, entrenched in arrogance which took the party down in West Bengal a decade ago.

Though the central leadership does not have the gumption to speak up against Vijayan, who still holds sway within the party in Kerala, it certainly hopes to rein him in to prevent the party in Kerala going the Bengal way.

Normally, the central leadership never intervenes in such trivial matters of governance. It actually points to the concern the CPM leadership has about sustenance of the whole political formation in Kerala. Surely the leadership realises the gravity of the disconnect that has set in," said C Gouridasan, Bureau Chief of The Hindu who has been covering the Left for decades now.

No doubt the police action on Mahija (Jishnus mother) and her family in front of the DGPs office in Thiruvananthapuram was a black spot on the state police who indulged in needless highhandedness. But what makes matters worse is Vijayans open support for the police and ridicule of the strike a mother had taken out.

At a press meeting a day after the family had called off the strike, Vijayan questioned the very purpose of the strike Mahija had undertaken. Mahijas words when she declined the CMs invitation to meet him after the entire fiasco was over, summed up the huge gap the Kerala chief minister had managed to develop between himself and the people of the state.

It was very painful to hear what the CM said about our agitation. Even after all this that we went through, it was not fair on his part to say so," a teary-eyed Mahija told mediapersons in Thiruvananthapuram before boarding a train back to her home in Kozhikode.

A Year Of Monumental Errors

Vijayan was no doubt voted in for change. This was partly because the former UDF (Congress-led United Democratic Front) government was in shambles, accused of corruption and misrule and partly because Vijayan was always seen as the uncompromising no-nonsense Communist waiting in the wings to give the people maximum governance.

It is this image that has now taken a huge dent and Vijayan has only himself to blame. It was with the call zero tolerance on corruption that Vijayan brought in his Man Friday Jacob Thomas to head the states Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), the first appointment after he took over. But the same CM was perceived to be going back on his policy when he shunted out Thomas in March this year.

Vijayan did the firefighting for Thomas inside the state Assembly when the Opposition turned the heat on the officer and even took the powerful IAS lobby in the state by its horns. But when the same Thomas turned the heat on Vijayans own ministers including EP Jayarajan and others, Vijayan decided to dump Thomas.

In retrospect, Vijayan has not only made enemies out of an entire top brass of the civil service in the state, which even threatened to strike at one point, but by sacking Thomas has also sent out the perception that he was going a step back in the fight against corruption.

What did Vijayan achieve from the Jacob Thomas episode? He has only succeeded in raising a huge question mark over his own credibility as the chief minister. This has eroded the trust among the officers in the state who now find it difficult to connect with him as their CM," said NM Pearson, a well-known political analyst in the state.

In this, the state saw an inept chief minister who changes policies to suit his own and his partys vested interests. The fallout of this fiasco was much more. With the IAS machinery going on dormant mode, governance has literally taken a back seat in the state.

There seems to be an absolute standstill in terms of governance. This is because disenchanted staff at the government secretariat are sitting on crucial files. Nothing has moved in the last few months. You cant find a single department where a policy has taken wings," added Roy Mathew, a veteran journalist based in Thiruvananthapuram.

From the Law Academy College strike where students protested for a month with the support of both the BJP and the Congress, to the media lawyers standoff which saw media persons getting heckled and lawyers boycotting courts, to the molestation of an actor in Kochi to Mahijas protest, the list of issues that struck the Left government is rather huge in such a short period.

But what has made it worse for the chief minister is the stand he adopted in most of these cases - look the other way and refuse to intervene. For instance, in the actors molestation case, the chief minister at a public function ruled out any chance of a conspiracy even before the police had completed an investigation.

Vijayan, A reluctant chief minister?

To top it all for Vijayan, the last 11 months has seen 13 high-profile political murders taking place in the state with the chief ministers native Kannur district topping the list. More than 200 cases of political violence have also been reported from across the state.

If Vijayans inability as the chief minister to rein in his own party cadre had surprised many, others are shocked at the mans words that went on to justify violence.

See the RSS has an agenda in Kerala which they are trying hard to implement. They have the blessings of the central leadership too. If there is any violence then it is only retaliation to what they are doing," Pinarayi had told mediapersons during the height of Kannur violence. The BJP which had approached the central Home Ministry to intervene after the escalation of political violence, says Vijayan is still behaving like the party secretary of the CPM and not an all as the inclusive chief minister of the state.

Vijayan is a complete failure as the chief minister. He has not been able to travel the distance from a party chief to someone who represents everyones interest. That is where the problem lies. It is his mindset that has failed him. He is still a revolutionary, not a statesman," said BJPs state spokesperson MS Kumar.

The Congress-led UDF too is meanwhile on the offensive as the party feels that Oommen Chandys value as a Chief Minister has risen following Pinarayis dismal show. The Malappuram byelection which the UDF is likely to retain will further galvanise the Opposition.

There are many who feel that it is Pinarayi Vijayans inability to realise that he has moved from the AKG Centre, the CPM headquarters in Kerala to the Chief Ministers chamber at the government secretariat, that is behind his lacklustre performance. Senior journalists say that his lack of administrative abilities has been exposed by perhaps an incompetent bunch of advisors around him.

I just do not understand who is advising Vijayan. Either they are giving him the wrong feedback or it is the case of too many people around him. Or is he making all the decisions by himself as he seldom trusts anyone and is a master of his own mind? Whatever it is, he is playing his cards horribly wrong and the disconnect is so evident," added Gouridasan.

Many activists say that Vijayans actions, mannerisms and words over the last one year portray him more as the authoritarian party chieftain, that he was for more than a decade in the state than an all inclusive chief minister.

There is a sense of arrogance to everything the man says and does. Look at how he speaks and conducts himself at the Assembly. He goes on to tell the opposition to mind their business whenever they raise a serious issue. He then bullies young and inexperienced MLAs in the opposition, makes fun of them and gives an I dont give a damn attitude which is not what you expect from a chief minister," said advocate Jayashanker, a prominent political analyst in the state.

On 17 April, the Mallapuram byelection results would be the first test for the Pinarayi Vijayan government. In all likelihood, the Muslim League would retain the seat at its stronghold.

But if their vote share goes dramatically high and the BJP comes anywhere close to catching the CPI(M), it is then that Vijayans headache inside the party will truly start.
The Srinagar Lok Sabha election result, at the first glance, seems to be a travesty of the core principle of democracy that stands for the majority (50 percent) rule. We have conveniently adopted a first-past-the-post mechanism in our electoral system that casts the 50 percent rule aside and certifies any percentage of votes justified to win an election or a seat.

Farooq Abdullah won the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat on Saturday by securing just 48,544 votes which is even less than the number of votes an average candidate has to secure to win an assembly seat in any of the mainstream state elections. This is not surprising given the fact that on 9 April, the day of the election, just about 7 percent voters had cast their vote. What is worse, in the re-polling done in the 38 booths on 13 April, only 2 percent voters turned up to vote (702 out of 35,169 people voted that day).

The dismal turnout could be because of the tense environment persisting in Srinagar and surrounding areas on account of the pitched battle between stone-pelting Kashmiri youth and gun-toting security forces for last several months. The militant separatists election boycott call clearly played a role in the poor turnout.

As a matter of fact, the re-poll was ordered in several areas of Budgam district after the protesters barged into several polling stations there, took away electronic voting machines (EVMs) and indulged in large-scale vandalism. The security forces fired upon the protesters killing 8 and injuring several others.

Despite the protests and deaths, 9 April recorded over 7 percent turnout which was in itself dismal, but Srinagar had seen worse. During the April 13 re-poll, election process went off smoothly without any untoward incident, however very few voters turned up at the fortress-like polling booths (just about 2 percent).

This is a new low in the voting percentage in Kashmir valley where the electoral turnout has been traditionally less than the national average, both in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections. It is also true that Kashmiris have generally shown a relatively lukewarm response to the Lok Sabha elections compared to the Assembly elections (in 2014 more than 65 per cent voters had turned out for assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, though the Lok Sabha election of 2014 registered about 50 percent vote in the state)

However, there are several assembly constituencies which have been traditionally showing a poor turnout. For example, in the 2002 assembly election, the average polling percentage in the state of Jammu and Kashmir was 43.7 per cent  which was the second worst in the history of Jammu and Kashmir, the poorest turnout was in 1962 with its 40.3 percent polling  but six constituencies had recorded the voting percentage of less than 5 percent.

In Amira Kadal constituency, in the heart of the Srinagar city, for example, out of the 74,442 voters registered there, only 2280 cast their vote and Congress won the seat that year by securing 1163 votes, just about 1.5 percent of total eligible voters. In the same election, the NC leader, who later went on to become the Speaker of the assembly, Mubarak Gul, won the Idgah seat by securing 2,026 votes. Even Mehbooba Mufti, current president of the PDP and chief minister, had won the Anantnag seat in 2002 assembly elections with just 3513 votes.

In 2008, senior NC leader, who went on to become the home minister in the Omar Abdullah government, won his seat by securing 3912 votes. Farooq Abdullah had then managed a respectable 7018 votes in Sonwar constituency in Srinagar that year.

Overall, the Lok Sabha elections have been a lesser draw for the Jammu and Kashmir voters. In the worst ever voter turnout in 1989 Lok Sabha elections, the Sringar and Anantnag seats had registered just about 5 percent of polling. So the current turnout level is not something unprecedented. But it comes as a terrible letdown that such dismal polling comes just about three years after the general elections when Anantnag had recorded a respectable (by Kashmir standards) 28.84 percent and Srinagar 25.56 percent.

Many would attribute it to the vitiated environment in the Kashmir valley. A similar scenario had played out two years after the 1987 assembly elections which, for the record, registered almost 75 per cent votes (the biggest ever tally in Jammu and Kashmir) but in popular perception, the election was largely rigged with the collusion of the Congress and National conference pitted against the Muslim United Front (MUF), protagonists of Kashmir autonomy. The NC-Congress coalition won 66 out of the 76 seats and the BJP two seats. Independents, some of whom contested under the MUF platform, won just 8 seats.

Jayaprakash Narayan, the socialist leader, had even questioned the fairness of the 1957 and 1962 elections, held after the imprisonment of Sheikh Abdullah, the founder of the National Conference. But the 1987 elections had clearly destroyed the credibility of the democratic process in the Kashmir valley.

The Congress-NC coalition then won and Farooq Abdullah became the chief minister, but the disenchantment of the Kashmiri voter with the brazen manipulation of the democratic process gave birth to the Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant movement for Kashmirs independence. Kashmir valley went so much out of control that Farooq Abdullah subsequently resigned and the state was brought under the governors rule. The 1989 Lok Sabha election showed this disillusionment with the worst ever electoral turnout.

A similar situation seems to be prevailing today. Kashmir valley has erupted into a vicious cycle of militant insurgency and counter-attack by the security forces since the killing of Burhan Wani, the young commander of the separatist Hizbul Mujahideen in July last year. The disenchantment has gone so deep that the vast majority of the voters are either afraid of, or disinclined to, take part in the democratic process.

Will this situation lead to Mehbooba Muftis resignation and the imposition of the governors rule? That would, to a large extent, depend as to how long the PDP leaders and supporters are ready to suffer the opprobrium of aligning with the BJP, which is largely perceived as a Hindu nationalist party in the Kashmir valley.

What is interesting is that mainstream political parties of the Kashmir valley have been swapping their positions vis-a-vis the militants. When National Conference ruled, in alliance with the Congress, Mehboobas PDP took a political position strikingly similar to the separatists. When the tables have turned and the PDP is in power, the National Conference is taking a stance largely indistinguishable from the militants.

The political opportunism of the PDP and NC has added to the complex web of events that have contributed to Kashmir to be in the news for all the wrong reasons.
London: A 30-year-old British Muslim Islamic State fighter has been allegedly using an encrypted messaging service Telegram to call on his supporters to launch bomb attacks in London. Omar Hussain, a former supermarket worker from Buckinghamshire who had fled to Syria in 2013, has also posted bomb-making guidelines using the same service. Hussain has called on his followers to carry out a nail bomb assault similar to the attack in St Petersburg which killed 15 people earlier this month, the 'Mirror' reported.

He reportedly posted a picture of a finished explosive device with a caption that said: "Looks like creme brulee." Hussain had left his UK home to join the al Qaeda-affiliated group Jabhat al-Nusra before switching allegiance to the ISIS terror network.

In December last year, he had delivered a Christmas message urging followers to rob party-goers in order to get money for knives and bombs. "At Christmas, the kafir (non-Muslims) are loaded with money so it's the best time. Wait around the corner from a pub for a drunk kafir (non-Muslim) to exit and go down an alleyway," he wrote on a secure message service. "Once in the alleyway it only takes a few punches for a drunk kafir to fall unconscious.

Take a few ikhwa (brothers) and u can rob him. They could stab a kafir or slit his throat. I had friends in the UK who would do this in London and they never once got caught," he wrote. Hussain, who had completed a university course in IT in Britain, has now reportedly taught graphic design to students in the the war zone. He first came in news when he appeared in an ISIS propaganda video, urging then Prime Minister David Cameron to send troops to fight the terror group, vowing "we'll send them back one by one in coffins".
Beijing: China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi on Sunday held telephonic talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, even as Beijing remained silent over North Korea's 'failed' missile test. China, which warned two days ago that conflict could break out "any moment" in the Korean peninsula, did not comment on North Korea's missile test but stepped up the dialogue with the Trump administration, state-run CCTV reported.

However, no details about the telephone conversation between Chinese State Councillor Yang and Tillerson were released to the media. China has also cautioned North Korea against going for sixth nuclear test defying US warnings. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week said the conflict over North Korea could break out "at any moment" and warned there would be "no winner" in any war. The North Korean missile, which was fired from the Sinpo area, exploded almost immediately, according to military officials in South Korea and the US.

Intelligence agencies in South Korea and the US were attempting to extract more details about the missile, including its exact type. Lu Chao, director of the Border Studies Institute at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, said the latest test, despite its failure, could be another defiant message from Pyongyang that it will not change its tough stance in the face of US pressure even amid a growing threat of military action.

However, he said the failure showed that Pyongyang missile technology was flawed. Such a defiant move was likely to draw even more pressure from the US which ordered its nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group to the region, Lu told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. China would also face greater pressure from the US to take further action, including ratcheting up its sanctions against Pyongyang, he added.

Liu Ming, from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing was unlikely to take further action at this stage unless Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test or long-term ballistic missile test as Beijing insisted that talks, not military action, were the only solution to the North Korean issues. "China needs to create conditions and the right atmosphere to draw different parties back to the talks table," Liu said.
BAGHDAD An Islamic State militant linked to the deadly 2015 attack on French weekly Charlie Hebdo could be still be alive, the Iraqi military said on Saturday.Boubaker el-Hakim was reported by American defence officials to have been killed in November, in a U.S. drone strike in Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria. Iraqi intelligence supplied information to the Syrian airforce to carry out a series of strikes on Islamic State headquarters and hideouts in Syria, including one believed to belong to el-Hakim, an Iraqi military statement said.Aircraft from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's airforce targeted several locations in Raqqa and Albu Kamal, near the Iraqi border, said the statement, without indicating the location of el-Hakim's headquarters or the date of the raids.

An Iraqi military spokesman told Reuters el-Hakim's headquarters were destroyed but it wasn't clear if he was killed.In 2015 Iraq and Syria established a joint committee with Russia and Iran, Assad's main foreign backers, to share intelligence about Islamic State.

El-Hakim was believed to have been involved in planning the January 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for its satirical covers ridiculing political and religious leaders.Two Islamist militants broke into an editorial meeting of the weekly, raking it with bullets, killing 17 people. Another militant later killed a policewoman and took hostages at a supermarket, killing four before police shot him dead.

Islamic State declared a "caliphate" spanning parts of Iraq and Syria after it captured the Iraqi city of Mosul in mid-2014. The hardline Sunni group has since lost most cities it captured in Iraq and its fighters are now surrounded in parts of Mosul by U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces. A U.S.-backed offensive is also under way to capture Raqqa, involving a Syrian Kurdish-Arab militia alliance. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Andrew Bolton)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Director Matt Reeves smiles for the camera alongside a photo of Ben Affleck as Batman. (Photo : YouTube/Wochit Entertainment)

Is Warner Bros. pushing to release four "Batman" movies in 2019? It is believed so, as rumors suggest that Warner Bros. are planning to release four separate movies based on characters in the "Batman" comics in 2019.



A post on the "DCEU Leaks" thread on Reddit suggests that Warner Bros. is planning to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Batman character by releasing four separate feature films that will revolve around the "Batman" movie franchise.



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All four movies are not centered on Batman alone, but instead will involve characters that originally appeared in the "Batman" comics. The planned releases for 2019 include "Gotham City Sirens," which is said to drop around Valentine's Day; a solo "Nightwing" movie, with a Memorial Day release date; "Batgirl" in August; and finally Ben Affleck's return in "The Batman" in November.



Joe Manganiello will still appear as Deathstroke in "Tha Batman," but he will not be the main villain. "Matt Reeves wants to do a larger scale Batman film that will include the Bat family as well as most of Batman's rogues," the Reddit leak said (via Screen Rant).



Aside from the four live-action films, two "Batman" animated movies are also included in the plan. One of the releases will be based on "The Long Halloween" arc from the comics.



The leak not only discusses Warner Bros. plans for Batman, but also plans for the other characters in the DCEU stable. Mel Gibson is no longer the top choice to direct the "Suicide Squad 2." The new frontrunners are Jaume Collet-Serra and Ruben Fleischer. Whoever gets to direct the sequel will likely work with a script that's currently being written by David Ayer.



Shortly after getting recognition for his work on the Oscar-nominated film "Hacksaw Ridge," Warner Bros. was reportedly courting Gibson to direct "Suicide Squad 2." According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources said Gibson was familiarizing himself with the material at the time.



The leak also dropped information about the highly talked-about "Nightwing" movie. Although no casting news has been confirmed yet, it is said that the movie's plot will have Grant Wilson be the main villain.


New Delhi: India is yet to receive copies of the Pakistani chargesheet against alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and the copy of the judgment sentencing him to death, informed sources said on Sunday.

"We are yet to receive the chargesheet and the copy of the judgment on Jadhav's sentence," said a source in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua in Islamabad with a request for consular access to Jadhav and also sought a copy of the chargesheet against him.

The request for meeting Jadhav was turned down. "We demanded a meeting (with Jadhav), but they denied," Bambawale told reporters after meeting Janjua.

India said it has sought consular access to Jadhav 13 times earlier, but the permission was refused each time.

Jadhav, sentenced to death by Pakistan's military court on April 10, faced seven charges, including sponsoring IED attacks on important installations and attacks on Shias in Pakistan: According to the list read out by the country's foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz on Friday.

As a fallout of the case, India on Saturday called off bilateral maritime security talks with Pakistan scheduled for 17 April.
New Delhi: Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari will arrive here tomorrow on a five-day visit during which she will meet the senior leadership here besides visiting temples in Gujarat and Odisha.

This is her first state visit abroad after assuming the office in October 2015. She is visiting at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee.

"A high-level delegation comprising minister, MPs and senior officials will be accompanying her.

"Her visit will reflect the priority that India attaches to further strengthening the age-old and unique partnership with Nepal, shared cultural and historical linkages and strong people-and-people relationship," Joint Secretary (North) in the external affairs ministry Sudhakar Dalela said on Sunday.

She will meet President Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and other leaders, he said at an MEA briefing.

"The president will host a banquet in her honour on 18 April. She will also visit Gujarat and Odisha and pay obeisance at temples of Dwarka, Somnath and Puri," Dalela said.

Bhandari was scheduled to visit India in May last year, but it was cancelled after the then cabinet in Nepal did not endorse the programme citing lack of preparations on the part of the government.

The bilateral ties had faced turbulence last year due to the Madhesi agitation and subsequent blockade which halted the supply of essential goods to landlocked Nepal from India.
By Hamid Shalizi

| KABUL

KABUL U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser met Afghan officials in Kabul on Sunday, amid questions over the new administration's plans for the military mission in Afghanistan after American forces unleashed a huge bomb there on militants.The visit by H.R. McMaster, the first high-level visit by a Trump official, came just days after the U.S. military sparked controversy by dropping a GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, one of the largest conventional weapons ever used in combat, during an operation on Thursday against Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan.While military officials said the strike was based solely on tactical needs, it led to speculation that Trump's defence advisers are planning to escalate the war against militants in Afghanistan.The strike was estimated to have killed nearly 100 militants and no civilians, according to Afghan officials, although this has not been independently verified.

McMaster met President Ashraf Ghani and other senior Afghan officials to discuss bilateral ties, security, counter- terrorism, reforms, and development, according to a statement from the palace.McMaster praised anti-corruption efforts and assured Ghani that the United States would continue to support and cooperate with Afghanistan on a number of issues, according to the palace.Ghani told McMaster that "terrorism is a serious issue for the security of the world and the region" and if serious steps are not taken it would affect "generations" of people, according to the statement.

Illicit drugs and corruption also top the list of threats to Afghanistan's security, Ghani told the visiting officials.The Afghan government refers to both the Taliban and Islamic State as terrorists. Afghan forces have struggled to contain Taliban insurgents since most international troops were withdrawn in 2014, leaving them to fight largely alone.

At the peak in 2011, the United States had more than 100,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan.Nearly 9,000 U.S. troops remain there to train and advise Afghan forces, provide close air support to soldiers on the ground and form a separate counter-terrorism unit that targets Islamic State, al Qaeda and other militant networks.The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has said he needs "several thousand" more troops to help the Afghans take on a resurgent Taliban and battle other insurgents, but no official plan has been announced. (Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Adrian Croft)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
AMMAN The Syrian army regained the strategic town of Soran near the city of Hama in the central part of western Syria on Sunday with an assault backed by heavy Russian air strikes, rebels and residents said.Most of the rebels had retreated from the town after troops stormed it following dozens of strikes by jets believed to be Russian since dawn, including so-called parachute bombs that also targeted other towns in the area, including Latamneh and Kafr Zeita."There was hysterical bombing that targeted the town and the whole area and rebels fought fierce battles until they were forced to pull out," said one rebel, a member of the Jaish al Izza group, which has a strong presence in Hama province who requested anonymity.

The army was aided by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias who had supported the over-stretched government forces, rebels say.The stronghold of Soran is the army's northern gateway to the city of Hama, the provincial capital. It had been captured by the army last year, then lost in the latest rebel offensive.

The army's advance into Soran rolls back most of the territorial gains made by rebels, who include jihadist groups, after a major offensive last month in northern Hama province in the center of the populated west of the country.

The rebels in retaliation had fired scores of rockets on the nearby Hama military airport. Videos downloaded on social media showed plumes of smoke rising from a distance.Jaish al Nasr, a Free Syrian Army rebel group, said it had hit the airport with forty rockets, leading to several fires in the compound of the air base. The rebels still hold the strategic town of Morek, north of Hama city. It lies on a major north-south highway crucial to control of western Syria. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi, editing by Larry King)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Humeyra Pamuk

| ANKARA/ISTANBUL

ANKARA/ISTANBUL Votes for constitutional change to hand President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping powers held a narrow lead with almost all ballot boxes opened on Sunday, but Turkey's three largest cities and the mainly Kurdish southeast looked set to vote "No".The "Yes" votes stood at 51.7 percent after 95 percent of ballots had been opened, state-run Anadolu news agency said, with the lead narrowing in the final stages of an increasingly tight count.A "Yes" vote would replace Turkey's parliamentary democracy with an all-powerful presidency and may see Erdogan in office until at least 2029, in the most radical change to the country's political system in its modern history.The outcome will also shape Turkey's strained relations with the European Union. The NATO member state has curbed the flow of migrants - mainly refugees from wars in Syria and Iraq - into the bloc but Erdogan says he may review the deal after the vote.In Turkey's three biggest cities - Istanbul, Izmir and the capital Ankara - the "No" camp appeared set to prevail narrowly, according to Turkish television stations.Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said that the "Yes" camp had not won as many votes as expected, but was still ahead nationwide.Earlier in the day a crowd chanted "Recep Tayyip Erdogan" and applauded as the president shook hands and greeted people after voting in a school near his home in Istanbul. His staff handed out toys for children in the crowd."God willing I believe our people will decide to open the path to much more rapid development," Erdogan said in the polling station after casting his vote."I believe in my people's democratic common sense."The "Yes" percentage of the vote - which stood at 63 percent after around one quarter had been opened - eased as the count came further west towards Istanbul and the Aegean coast. Broadcaster Haberturk said turnout was 86 percent.

The opposition People's Republican Party (CHP) said a last-minute decision by the electoral board to accept unstamped ballots as valid votes put the vote in question."We will pursue a legal battle. If the irregularities are not fixed, there will be a serious legitimacy discussion," CHP deputy chairman Bulent Tezcan said. DIVISIVE VOTE

The referendum has bitterly divided the nation. Erdogan and his supporters say the changes are needed to amend the current constitution, written by generals following a 1980 military coup, confront the security and political challenges Turkey faces, and avoid the fragile coalition governments of the past."This is our opportunity to take back control of our country," said self-employed Bayram Seker, 42, after voting "Yes" in Istanbul.

"I don't think one-man rule is such a scary thing. Turkey has been ruled in the past by one man," he said, referring to modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.Opponents say it is a step towards greater authoritarianism in a country where some 47,000 people have been jailed pending trial and 120,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs in a crackdown following a failed coup last July, drawing criticism from Turkey's Western allies and rights groups."I voted 'No' because I don't want this whole country and its legislative, executive and judiciary ruled by one man. This would not make Turkey stronger or better as they claim. This would weaken our democracy," said Hamit Yaz, 34, a ship's captain, after voting in Istanbul.Relations between Turkey and Europe hit a low during the referendum campaign when EU countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, barred Turkish ministers from holding rallies in support of the changes. Erdogan called the moves "Nazi acts" and said Turkey could reconsider ties with the European Union after many years of seeking EU membership.GUARD KILLED

Kurdish militants overnight killed a guard in an attack on a vehicle carrying a district official from Yildirim's ruling AK Party in southeast Turkey's Van province, security sources said.They said Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants staged the attack in Van's Muradiye district. A second of the AKP official's guards was wounded and 17 people were detained over the attack, they added.In the southeastern Diyarbakir province, two people were killed and one wounded in a gunfight in a village schoolyard which was being used as a polling station, other security sources said. The cause of the clash was not immediately clear.On Saturday, Erdogan held four rallies in Istanbul, urging supporters to turn out in large numbers and saying it "will be a turning point for Turkey's political history".Erdogan and the AK Party enjoyed a disproportionate share of media coverage in the buildup to the vote, overshadowing the secular main opposition CHP and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has accused Erdogan of seeking a "one-man regime", and said the proposed changes would put the country in danger.Proponents of the reform argue that it would end the current "two-headed system" in which both the president and parliament are directly elected, a situation they argue could lead to deadlock. Until 2014, presidents were chosen by parliament.The government says Turkey, faced with conflict to the south in Syria and Iraq, and a security threat from Islamic State and PKK militants, needs strong and clear leadership to combat terrorism.The package of 18 amendments would abolish the office of prime minister and give the president the authority to draft the budget, declare a state of emergency and issue decrees overseeing ministries without parliamentary approval. (Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara and David Dolan in Istanbul; Writing by Dominic Evans and Daren Butler; Editing by Keith Weir, Adrian Croft and David Dolan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Seoul: US vice-president Mike Pence on Sunday arrived on a three-day visit to South Korea to reaffirm the robust security alliance and warn against North Korea's possible provocation, officials said.

After landing at a US airbase in Pyeongtaek, Pence headed to a Seoul national cemetery in a gesture to highlight the alliance forged during the 1950-53 Korean War, Yonhap news agency reported.

This is Pence's first trip to Asia after taking office in January. The visit came amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Pyongyang on Sunday made an unsuccessful attempt to launch a ballistic missile and has been seen preparing for another nuclear test while Washington has sent an aircraft carrier strike group to waters off the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against the Kim Jong-un regime.

Pyongyang on Saturday displayed three intercontinental ballistic missiles during a military parade.

Pence will on Monday meet South Korea's acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun.

The two sides will discuss bilateral cooperation in pressuring Pyongyang into changing track toward denuclearisation through sanctions and diplomacy, observers said.

Pence is also likely to explain to Hwang the Trump administration's North Korea policy.

Other issues likely to be discussed include the ongoing installation of an advanced US missile defence system on the peninsula.

The two sides may reaffirm the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system and call on Beijing to stop its economic retaliation against South Korea, observers said.

Hwang and Pence will release a joint statement after talks to warn North Korea against provocations and highlight the unwavering alliance.

Pence will on Tuesday deliver a speech at a meeting hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

In recent months, a series of top US officials have visited South Korea amid concerns that security cooperation between the allies could slacken in the wake of the March 10 ouster of former President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal.

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Seoul in February and March respectively to highlight that the US commitment to the defence of South Korea will remain "ironclad".

Pence will depart for Japan on Tuesday. His trip will also take him to Indonesia and Australia.
John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, J.J. Abrams and Adam Driver pose for their selfie with South Korean boy band EXO during the event for fans ahead of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' South Korea premiere. (Photo : Getty Images/Chung Sung-Jun)

It looks like the "Star Wars" saga is going to run longer than expected. Disney CEO Bob Iger recently revealed that the studio is developing at least 12 films that are slated to come out within 2017 to 2030. That's a lot of movies, considering "Star Wars" already has around eight movies in their repertoire so far.



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This year, fans are getting "Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi." As reported by Den of Geek, it will be followed by a "Han Solo" standalone film, which is currently in production. "Episode IX" and another standalone movie will hit theaters sometime 2020. The standalone movie scheduled for 2020 is said to focus on Boba Fett.



The success of "Rogue One" definitely proves that there's a lot of good material outside of the main "Star Wars" storyline. The sci-fi saga's universe is filled with rich stories and subplots that can stand as a successful standalone film if developed.



Meanwhile, all eyes are on now for "The Last Jedi." Carrie Fisher's death in December 2016 left a lot of questions as to her role as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" franchise. The actress had completed filming her role in the film and there had been talks as to whether Lucasfilm would let the character go or have her appear in future movies with the help of CGI.



The actress' brother, Todd Fisher, recently confirmed that the she will still appear as Princess Leia in the 2019 "Star Wars: Episode IX." Todd and Carrie Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd, gave Disney the approval to use a "recent footage" of her in the ninth movie.



"Both of us were like, 'Yes, how do you take her out of it?' And the answer is you don't," Todd told the New York Daily News. "She's as much a part of it as anything and I think her presence now is even more powerful than it was, like Obi Wan--when the saber cuts him down he becomes more powerful. I feel like that's what's happened with Carrie. I think the legacy should continue."



"Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi" is expected to hit theaters on Dec. 15.






You may not associate April with deals, but theyre out there. You just need to know where to look.

Some suggestions:

Spring Apparel

Retailers stock items in February and after two months, they start discounting to make room for summer inventory, said Sara Skirboll, Shopping and Trends Expert at RetailMeNot.com. Were seeing discounts of up to 40% off.

Jewelry

Falling between Valentines Day and Mothers Day, April is a slow month for jewelry sales.

Shop jewelry now because prices will start rising again in May as we approach Mothers Day, said Kerry Sherin, savings expert with www.Offers.com. Current savings: 30%.

Auto Maintenance

Did you know that April is National Car Care Month?

Not only is this the perfect time to get your car ready for spring driving and summer road trips (Properly maintaining a car is paramount to keeping operating costs like gasoline consumption down, says Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy), but there are also various car care events, specials, promotions and giveaways nationwide.

Many auto parts shops provide free inspections and care maintenance clinics, alongside solid deals on tires and accessories. Look to auto retailers like Discount Tire and Pep Boys for steals on wheels, said Sherin.

Spa Services

Spring cleaning is not just for closets anymoreits also for your skin, and most importantly, your mind, body and spirit, said Lynne McNees, president, The International Spa Association (ISPA).

Not only are spas offering discounted services (especially during Spa Week, which starts on April 17th), but also special treatments.

How does a "Goddess of the Sea" treatmentan experience that includes exfoliation, a detoxifying wrap, and a 25-minute massageat Hotel del Coronado sound?

Looking for something sweeter? Sundaras Sweet Spring treatments feature honey and cream!

Travel

Can you leave now? Or right after Easter? Travel expert John DiScala says go for it.

Things pick up and get busy againand more expensivefor Memorial Day travel, so the window of opportunity is now, he explained.

Where to? DiScala suggests Europe, and while WOW Air and Norwegian Air are getting lots of attention for their low fares, DiScala recommends flying business class on French airline La Compagnie (At press time, a RT ticket from New York City to Paris, April 22-29, was under $1,000).

Dont want to go that far? Canada is another great option, says DiScala.

Montreal feels like Europe, and no long flight!

Its also the prime time of year for a repositioning cruise, which is a cruise that departs from one port and ends in a different one.

Cruise lines sell these one-way routes at a significant discount because theyd rather sail with passengers than without. As an additional benefit to you: no lines!

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Vera Gibbons is a financial journalist and Senior Consumer Analyst with GasBuddy.com and founding editor of nonpoliticalnews.com, a daily newsletter.

A former analyst with MSNBC who appeared regularly on the Today Show, Gibbons was previously a Financial Contributor with CBS News.
Sandra Bullock is lending a helping hand.

Svend Petersen, long-time Pool Manager of the Beverly Hills Hotel, is going through some tough times. In an interview with CBS-2, Petersen explained his heart wrenching situation.

WATCH: 'Ocean's 8' First Look! See Sandra Bullock, Rihanna and the Rest of the Crew in Action

"Sometimes I go three or four days without food," Petersen, 89, said. "As long as I have something to drink, I'm happy."

Aware of Petersen's dire situations, a friend started a GoFundMe campaign to help him get back on his feet. The original goal was to raise approximately $5,900, enough money to help him find an apartment in Los Angeles and to help him with groceries. But, thanks to the generosity of many, the campaign has raised over $33,000 in just 11 days.

After hearing about Petersen's story, Sandra Bullock took it upon herself to donate $5,000 to the campaign. And, wrote the following message on his GoFundMe page, "Everything is going to be ok!" Louis Bullock (My son)." The 52-year-old actress is one of over 400 people who have donated so far.

According to an updated posted on the GoFundMe page, Petersen now has an appointment to get new glasses, and really appreciates that people care about him.

WATCH: Sandra Bullock's Son Louis Has No Idea His Mom Is an Actress
On Easter, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That much is clear. What is not clear to many people, however, is what the resurrection means to Christians and why we would make such a big deal of it.

The resurrection only makes sense if we first understand what the Christian gospel is. In the ancient world, the word gospel was a media term referring to the announcement of an important or happy event. Christians adapted the word to refer to a world event they consider the most important and joyful.

What is the Christian gospel? It is the good news that, at a certain point in this worlds history, God became present to us in the man named Jesus, who we can know, love, and serve.

Through Jesus incarnation (God taking on flesh), life and ministry, death and resurrection, he defeated the worldly powers that oppress us, and made a way for we who are sinners to live in unbroken fellowship with God who is holy.

The Christian gospel is a factual statement. You can believe it or not believe it. But as Christians, we believe that it is not merely true; it is the most important truth in the world.

It is one that we cannot relegate to the private dimensions of life; it radiates outward into our public speech and actions.

It cannot be hidden within the four walls of our churches; we must make it known to the world.

In fact, immediately after he rose from the grave, Jesus appeared to his followers and gave them a command that Christians call the Great Commission. In this commission, he reveals three powerful truths about the resurrection:

1. The resurrection reveals Jesus as the final authority in this world.

When Jesus appeared to his followers immediately after his resurrection, the first words out of his mouth were All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). The resurrection was decisive proof of his divinity, of the fact that he was in fact present when heaven and earth were created, and that he retains sovereign authority over them.

This reality is important because all of us need to know who is finally in charge of this world.

A great many people think the final authority is the free market.

Others think the final authority is the United States, NATO, or the United Nations.

Still others think the authority is some sort of deep state.

But none of these entities are final authorities. Jesus is the sovereign authority and greatest power in public life; he is the authority against which even the largest governments and coalitions are ultimately powerless.

2. The resurrection compels us to tell the world about Jesus.

The second thing Jesus told his disciples is that they should tell the whole world about his crucifixion and resurrection, and invite them to follow him, too (Matthew 28:19-20a).

If it is true that Jesus is the worlds final authority, and that through the cross and resurrection he has overcome the evil powers that seek to control us, then for us to refrain from telling the world about Him would not only be a crime toward humanity but a collusion with the evil powers.

We must not collude. We must be witnesses of his resurrection. Our witness must be prophetic: a declaring to the world that Jesus is Lord and the worlds reigning powers are not.

Our witness often will need to be sacrificial: just as Jesus ministered as a homeless itinerant teacher, we must be willing to witness from a position of cultural weakness rather than power, and in the face of disapproval instead of applause.

Our witness should be humbly confident: we should be confident because we work in the service of the worlds final authority, and we should be humble because we are only servants.

3. The resurrection reminds us that world history will end on a joyful note. (Matthew 28:20b)

The third and final thing Jesus told his followers is I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20b).

In effect he was saying, I will walk alongside of you as you bear witness, and, always remember that at the end of the age, I will return to set the world aright. I will establish a world-wide kingdom in which justice will roll down like the waters, in which my authority will be recognized, and in which people from all nations, ethnic groups, and social classes will live together in peace, love, and unity.

J. R. R. Tolkien, author of "Lord of the Rings," was captivated by the Bibles teaching about the resurrection, and wished to reflect it in his writing.

He knew that Westerners tend to be disillusioned with fairy tale endings and prefer endings that are more realistic, but he wanted them to understand that, because of the resurrection, a deeply joyful ending is the most realistic. To borrow a phrase from "Lord of the Rings," Tolkien wrote, Everything sad becomes untrue.

And immediately following this phrase, a pressing question arises from Sam Gamgee as he speaks to Gandalf: Whats happened to the world? To which Gandalf responds, A great Shadow has departed.

Christians celebrate the bodily resurrection of Jesus, because we are happy that, in the future, the great Shadow of death and sin will finally depart (Romans 8:18-25).

Something momentous and good has happened to the world, which is why we invite the world to celebrate with us by embracing Jesus as the resurrected Savior.
Easter is the most important day of the year for Christians.

On Easter, Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Christians believe that Jesus Christ was crucified, died, and was buried; and that Christ rose from the dead  that all may have eternal life with God the Father in heaven.

At the heart of Christianity is this act of Gods love for humanity. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

As we commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we should remember the many threats facing Christians today.

Christianity is under siege on two fronts. On one front, it faces a growing secularism, which seeks to place human desires ahead of God and His will.

On the other front, radical Islamism seeks to destroy Christianity across the globe.

We were reminded of this just days ago on Palm Sunday as Coptic Christian churches in Egypt were attacked and Christians were killed. This Easter we should remember and pray for those who lost their lives in these heinous attacks.

It is horrifying to watch the spread of ISIS around the world. It is equally horrifying to see Boko Harams treatment of Christians, especially young Christian women, in Nigeria, and to witness the countless atrocities committed by radical Islamist groups.

But in the face of this evil, we remember the words of Saint John Paul II, who throughout his papacy urged us to, Be not afraid.

In his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, John Paul II reminds us that we have been redeemed. The power of Christs Cross and Resurrection is greater than any evil which man could or should fear, he wrote.

Easter Sunday is a good day to reflect on the words of Saint John Paul II and remember that the Son of God overcame death so that we may be saved through faith in Him.

No enemy can threaten this gift from Jesus.

We wish you and your family a blessed Easter.
President Trump discussed his recent missile strike against Syria with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who expressed his support for the move, the White House announced on Sunday.

The two leaders also dicussed "threat posed by North Korea," just hours after a U.S. Navy strike group sailed unexpectedly into waters near North Korea.

Trump and Abe "agreed that [Syrian President] 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 noted.

The president ordered a targeted missile strike against a Syrian air base on Thursday after Assad attacked civilians with chemical weapons earlier in the week. The move has drawn bipartisan praise domestically and almost universal accolades internationally, but has ratcheted up tensions with Pyongyang and Moscow.

Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made clear Sunday that President Trump is unwavering in his commitments to close U.S. borders to illegal immigrants and remove those already in the county illegally but refuted the idea that the administration is assembling a so-called deportation force.

Kelly acknowledged the possibility of hiring as many as 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and thousands more border patrol agents but said the bolstered effort is a law enforcement force.

There are a huge number, as you know, of illegal aliens or undocumented individuals that have to be dealt with in one way or another, Kelly told NBCs Meet the Press.

Most estimates show the countrys illegal immigrant population at about 11 million.

From the first day of his successful White House campaign, Trump has vowed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country, particularly criminals crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. In addition, Trump vowed to build a security wall along that border and has remained steadfast on the point amid criticism that hes flip-flopping on other key campaign issues such as supporting NATO and whether removing Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime is a top priority.

Kellys comments followed Attorney General Jeff Sessions' visit to the southern border last week. Sessions told Fox News again Saturday that the border is closed to illegal immigrants.

This border is not open, he said on Foxs Justice with Jeanine show. If you come to America, come lawfully. Dont come unlawfully.

Like Kelly, Sessions also made clear that stopping illegal immigration is only part of the solution and that removing people here unlawfully -- including those protected from deportation by so-called sanctuary cities -- is also a priority.

Sessions said hes hiring 125 new immigration judges, which could improve delays in the legal process for deportation.

The former Alabama senator also said removing immigrants connected to gangs such as MS-13 remain a priority.

We are going after them, said Sessions, who also attributed record lows in illegal border crossings to Trumps election victory and his stern commitment to keeping campaign promises on immigration.

Kelly on Sunday also argued the countrys illegal immigration problem goes beyond enforcement and called on Congress for legislative solutions.

We have to straighten this out, he said. And I place that squarely on the United States Congress. It's a hugely complex series of laws, and I engage the Hill quite a bit and get an earful about what I should do and what I shouldn't do. But it all comes down to the law.  I would hope that the Congress fixes a lot of these problems.
Alien: Covenant poster gives first look at Michael Fassbenders Walter  More details hinted about the character

Michael Fassbender attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House on February 14, 2016 in London, England. (Photo : Gareth Cattermole | Getty Images News)

Michael Fassbender played the smart antagonist David in the 2012 "Prometheus." He will be back in "Alien: Covenant," but this time, he's playing two androids. Aside from David, Fassbender will introduce Walter, a next-generation android that doesn't have the same human qualities that David has.



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A newly released "Alien: Covenant" poster shows Fassbender as Walter, who still pretty much looks like David but more emotionless. Unlike David, Walter is expected to be stripped of human qualities and his sole purpose is to serve the Covenant ship and assist its crew members.



In an interview with Collider, Fassbender described Walter as "very straightforward, logical synthetic." The reason why Walter does not have the same human qualities as David is because it is exactly those qualities that made David a dangerous entity.



"I think he's a very efficient butler/bodyguard/technician. He's just there solely for the ship and the crew, so there's no complications in his programming," Fassbender said about Walter, as quoted by Den of Geek.



But even with Walter in the mix, David will still be a key a player in "Alien: Covenant." In the sophomore film, the movie will show David as having more developed human tendencies and an even greater desire for creation. Fassbender hinted that David will have changed so much since "Prometheus," and that change only leads to more chaotic results.



David and Walter will bump into each other in "Alien: Covenant," and it is presumed that David corrupts Walter's system, presenting a whole new problem to the crew.



Interestingly, a highly debated theory circulates on David and how it is likely he will be revealed as the creator of the Xenomorphs. In the sequel, David will be busy in lab at The Hall of Heads where he's working on genetically-engineered creatures.



In the "Alien: Covenant" trailer, David takes Christopher (Billy Crudup) to a chamber where there are four familiar looking eggs, similar to those in the original "Alien" movie. David then states that in order to complete his experiment, he will need a host-Christopher being the obvious unwilling subject. It is speculated that this very event gave birth to the Neomorphs and later Xenomorphs.



"Alien: Covenant" premieres on May 19.






Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland on Sunday declined to say whether the U.S. cyber-sabotaged North Koreas failed missile launch, saying only that it was a fizzle.

You know we cant talk about secret intelligence and things that might have been done, covert operations, McFarland told Fox News Sunday. I really have no comment.

Still, McFarland, a former Fox News contributor, said the failed non-nuclear missile test Sunday by the rogue nation was one of about 30 failed attempts and that cyberwar is now a big part of the geo-political landscape.

I do think we are entering a whole new era, not just with North Korea but with everybody, she said, amid speculation the U.S. foiled the launch with a cyber-attack.

With any country, major country, we are entering a cyber platform, a cyber battlefield. That is where a lot of the wars of the future are going to be fought.

Pence says N Korea's latest 'provocation' shows risk to military

President Trump and other world leaders are concerned about North Koreas nuclear tests and efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.

And Trump has recently tried to improve his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and solicit his help in reining in North Koreas nuclear pursuits.

U.S. officials think Sunday's test involved a medium-range ballistic missile that failed within 4-5 seconds after launch and that it did not involve an intercontinental ballistic missile.

And officials said other actions would have been taken by the U.S., had the failed launch been a nuclear test.

The high-profile failure came hours before Vice President Pence arrived in South Korea and as an American aircraft supercarrier approached the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

McFarland and other U.S. officials say they had good intelligence about the launch, in part because North Korea this weekend was holding one of its biggest propaganda events of the year -- celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the country's current leader, Kim Jong Un.

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

We all understand that the Korean peninsula should be denuclearized, McFarland said Sunday.

She also declined to say whether she is being pushed out of the White House and its National Security Council now that Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has been replaced as National Security Adviser by Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster.

President Trump hired me, said McFarland, who reportedly is being asked to become ambassador to Singapore. There are changes coming. But I am not going to tell you what they are.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that North Korea's latest "provocation" underscored the risks faced by American and South Korean service members just hours after the country conducted a failed missile launch shortly before his arrival.

While Pence was flying over the Bering Sea, a North Korean missile exploded during launch on Sunday, U.S. and South Korean officials said.

The latest failed missile test represents a high-profile failure that came as a powerful U.S. aircraft supercarrier approaches the Korean Peninsula.

Pence landed in South Korea at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia and was quickly confronted with the stakes facing the U.S. as Pyongyang seeks to flex its muscles around the birth anniversary of the country's late founder and advance the regime's nuclear and missile capabilities.

After arriving in Seoul, Pence placed a wreath at Seoul National Cemetery and then worshipped with military personnel at an Easter church service at the U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan. During a fellowship meal after the services, he said the tensions on the Korean peninsula had put into sharp focus the importance of the joint U.S.-South Korean mission.

"This morning's provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world," said Pence, who was introduced by Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. Forces Korea. "Your willingness to step forward, to serve, to stand firm without fear, inspires the nation and inspires the world."

Pence told the military members that he had spoken twice with President Donald Trump during the day.

Pence said that under Trump's leadership, "our resolve has never been stronger, our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger and with your help and God's help, freedom will ever prevail on this peninsula."

Trump has suggested that the U.S. will take a tougher stance against North Korea, telling reporters last week: "North Korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of." He has repeatedly said if China, North Korea's dominant trading partner, is unwilling to do more to pressure the North, the U.S. might take the matter into its own hands.

Along with the deployment of the Naval aircraft carrier and other vessels into waters off the Korean Peninsula, thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponry were also deployed last month in their biggest-ever joint military exercises. That led North Korea to issue routine threats of attacks on its rivals if they show signs of aggression.

A White House foreign policy adviser told reporters aboard Air Force Two that the type of missile that North Korea tried to fire on Sunday was medium-range, and that it exploded about 4 to 5 seconds after it was launched.

According to the adviser, the test had been expected and the U.S. had good intelligence both before and after the launch. The adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's initial understanding of the launch, said there was no expected response from the Trump administration because there was no need for the U.S. to reinforce the failure.

The official said that had it been a nuclear test, "other actions would have been taken by the U.S."

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

Despite North Korea's provocations, U.S. officials have said that the U.S. doesn't intend to use military force against North Korea in response to either a nuclear test or a missile launch.

After a two-month policy review, officials settled on a policy dubbed "maximum pressure and engagement," U.S. officials said Friday. The administration's immediate emphasis, the officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.

The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly on the results of the policy review and requested anonymity.

Pence will be tasked with explaining the policy in meetings with leaders in South Korea and Japan at the start of his trip, which will also include stops in Indonesia and Australia. He will also aim to reassure allies in South Korea and Japan that the U.S. will take appropriate steps to defend them against North Korean aggression.

Pence's first trip to South Korea carries personal meaning as well. He noted to the soldiers that his late father, Edward, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star on April 15, 1953 -- 64 years to the day of the vice president's departure for South Korea. Pence displays in his office his father's Bronze Star and a photograph of his father receiving the honor.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
At least 20 arrests were reported in California after violence broke out during a rally on Saturday demanding President Donald Trump release his full IRS returns.

About 200 people were at a park in Berkeley when several fights broke out. Dozens of police officers in riot gear standing nearby quickly arrested one man. Others were arrested after several skirmishes.

Trump supporters announced earlier in the week that they were holding a "Patriot Day" at the Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park at noon that would feature speeches by members of the alt-right. Counter-demonstrators then said they would hold a rally at the same place at 10 a.m.

Officials put up a makeshift barrier of plastic orange poles and orange fence mesh to separate the sides, but that came down after demonstrators began punching and kicking each other, while pepper spray and firecrackers were thrown into the crowd.

Demonstrators shouted at each other from a distance after the barrier was put back, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The groups then left the park and walked on Berkeley streets with police closely following them.

Officers on Saturday confiscated sticks, knives, flagpoles and helmets and sticks with signs on them.

The charges for the 20 arrested include arrests for assault with a deadly weapon and several other felony assaults, the Berkeley police said in a statement.

Police also said in a statement that more arrests will be pursued after officials investigate social media and video footage.

The rally followed March 4 demonstrations at the same park planned by some of the same groups and that ended in violent clashes. Several people were injured and police arrested 10 demonstrators.

In February, protesters threw rocks, broke windows and set fires outside the University of California, Berkeley's student union building, where then-Breitbart News editor and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was set to speak. His presentation was cancelled.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


A federal official said crews in Alaska are trying to shut down an oil well that is leaking explosive natural gas on the frozen North Slope.

The Environmental Protection Agency said a crack in a BP wellhead near Deadhorse sent up mist of crude oil on Friday before it froze over and an initial leak stopped.

BP spokesman Brett Clanton said that based on an overflight with infrared cameras, the release appears to be contained to the gravel pad surrounding the wellhead and has not reached the tundra.

Clanton said BP is focused on safely securing the well.

However, agency spokeswoman Suzanne Skadowski said a second crack was discovered thats releasing flammable, explosive gas.

Its unclear how much has vented, but nearby workers have been evacuated and native Alaskan villages dozens of miles away have been notified.

No injuries have been reported.

There were no reports of damage to wildlife.

The agency said the initial oil release may have affected an area of about one-and-a-half acres.

Skadowski said the EPA, state and BP hoped to shut down the well on Saturday.
The U.S. Navy will allow nearly 200 T-45C aircraft to resume flights Monday under modified conditions while it determines what is causing a lack of oxygen in some cockpits.

Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker said Saturday instructor pilots will conduct warm-up flights and then will report back to the remaining pilots and students in their squadrons about the use of the modified equipment. All instructor pilots will complete warmup flights and student pilots will conduct training flights as the week goes on.

Navy officials grounded all 197 training jets indefinitely, following an exclusive Fox News report that pilots were refusing to fly the T-45 training jet because they say there is poison in the oxygen system.

Fox News interviewed multiple Navy flight instructors who say incidents of oxygen poisoning in the 30-year old T-45 Goshawk have skyrocketed.

Instructors and students will now wear modified masks in the two-seat trainers. They will also fly below 10,000 feet to avoid use of on-board oxygen generating systems.

The planes train future Navy and Marine fighter pilots. Shoemaker said students will be able to complete 75 percent of their training flights as teams of experts, including people from NASA, "identify the root cause of the problem."

Two T-45s are now at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland where the teams are taking them apart to figure out what's gone wrong.

"This will remain our top safety priority until we fully understand all causal factors and have identified a solution that will further reduce the risks to our aircrew," Shoemaker said.

The Navy operates the training planes at three naval air stations in the Southern U.S. They are NAS Meridian in Mississippi, NAS Kingsville in Texas and NAS Pensacola in Florida.

In the last five years, physiological episodes, caused in part by problems with the oxygen system, nearly have quadrupled on the T-45 training jet, according to Capitol Hill testimony by senior naval aviators.

Symptoms of low oxygen can range from tingling fingers to cloudy judgment and even passing out, although Navy officials said conditions in the trainer jets haven't been very severe.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Four people, including an infant, were shot Saturday night at an Alabama church's Spring carnival, officials said.

The shooting happened around 9:30 p.m. at Cathedral of the Cross in Center Point, Ala., located northeast of Birmingham.

Authorities told FOX 6 News none of the shooting victims suffered serious injuries.

Around 900 people were at the carnival at the time of the shooting, which began Wednesday and was set to run through Easter Sunday, AL.com reported.

A pregnant woman was also hospitalized for minor injuries. Deputies told FOX 6 she was knocked to the ground by people running away from gunfire.

"This could happen anywhere, this is not just focused in on Center Point. There was security on the site, its just when you have someone that comes into these types of events, there's the potential, unfortunately, of these things happening," Center Point Fire Chief Donnie West said.

Officials believe a fight broke out inside the carnival, and gunfire followed, AL.com reported.

Authorities have so far taken five people into custody for questioning.

Felicia Stubb, who was at the carnival with her four children when the shooting began, told AL.com a man knocked down a portion of a fence which allowed people to escape the scene.

"We were all running," she said. "I could have lost my kids and my life."

Stubb told the news outlet she's attended the festival before, and there have never been any major problems.

"I'm trying to see how they got a gun in there. Who shoots on church grounds?" she told AL.com. "It's so sad. And it's ridiculous."

Read more from FOX 6 News.

Read more from AL.com.
Police in Florida are investigating a one-car crash on an interstate highway that that injured two adults, three young children, and two teens, including the 14-year-old driver, according to a report Sunday.

The crash Saturday evening closed a portion of the westbound lanes of I-4 in Tampa for several hours, Fox 13 Tampa reports.

Florida Highway Patrol blamed the crash on the teen driver, Armani Santi De Jesus, of Tampa. He was charged with careless driving and driving without a license.

The boy was trying to switch lanes in a 2000 Ford Explorer and lost control.

TWO DEAD IN KANSAS AFTER CAR CARRYING 9 TEENS HITS TREE

The SUV veered off the highway and crashed into a barrier wall, the station reported.

The injured were taken to Tampa General Hospital.

The station reported that six people were seriously hurt. They included De Jesus, his mother, a 34-year-old man and the mans three young children, a three-year-old and two six-year-olds.

The station reported that 32-year-old Amanda Teresa Rossiter was sitting next to her son and let him drive.

The other teen, a 16-year-old boy, suffered only minor injuries.
A motorist suffered minor injuries last week when a large wild turkey crashed into the windshield of an SUV on an Indiana highway.

It was the fourth time a turkey had flown into the windshield of a moving vehicle on an Indiana road in recent weeks, according to local media reports. The fowl encounters have frayed nerves, but resulted in no serious injuries.

The SUV was going about 55 mph when it was struck by the turkey in Danville Friday.

The turkey was killed on impact, and it ended up dead in the rear hatch of the vehicle, Fox 59 Indianapolis reports. The driver was injured after being hit by flying glass and debris.

The station reported that it is currently turkey mating season in Indiana. Turkeys are more active, especially during the daytime. They roost in trees at night.

Danville police released photos of the damaged SUV.

We'd like to give you some tips on how to avoid something like this, but we've got nothing, Danville police said on Facebook.
Texas police say a toddler has died after being left in a hot car for up to five hours.

Fox 4 Dallas reported Saturday that by the time help arrived Kingston Jackson, who was about to turn 2, was unresponsive. Police believe the boys death Friday in Burleson may have been just a terrible accident.

One family member thought the other family member was taking the child out of the vehicle, Burleson Police Sgt. Jae Berg told the station. When they got back in the vehicle and went home, they discovered the child was still in the vehicle.

CHILD DIES AFTER BEING LEFT IN HOT CAR IN FLORIDA FOR MORE THAN 5 HOURS

The station reports that temperatures reached 82 degrees in Burleson Friday.

Even if it's 60, 70, 80 degrees outside, doesn't mean the interior of the vehicle can't get into well over 100 degrees, Berg said.

He told the station the parents were quite hysterical as you can imagine.

Residents who live at the Crestmoor Park South Apartments watched emergency crews try to revive the boy.

He was just a normal little boy, resident Britany Ernst told the station. He was so tiny and cute, and adorable.

Click for more from Fox 4 Dallas.
The Egyptian armed forces held Easter prayer services on Saturday for those injured in the Palm Sunday bombings and their families, according to armed forces spokesman Tamer El-Refai.

The spokesman posted a six-minute video of one of the prayer services, which were held in Al-Galaa Military Hospital and Maadi Military Hospital.

The services were attended those injured in the blasts and now receiving treatment in the two military facilities, along with their families.

Coptic Orthodox Christians began their Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, which fell this year on 15 April. The Vigil was broken as dawn on Easter Sunday, when worshippers celebrated the Resurrection.

This year, the Coptic Orthodox Church announced the cancellation of Easter celebrations across the country, limiting Saturday night masses to prayer services, with a reception for mourners on Sunday.

This comes nearly a week after twin suicide bombings hit St George's Cathedral in Tanta and St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria on Palm Sunday, killing at least 46 people and injuring dozens.

On Saturday, Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II led the prayers at Cairo's St Mark's Cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope, with tight security measures nationwide as Easter began.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi extended his felicitations to the Pope, delegating several presidential secretaries to attend the mass.

Last Thursday, El-Sisi told Pope Tawadros II during a meeting that Egypt will exert maximum efforts to catch those involved in the Palm Sunday bombings, saying that he is confident that Egyptians are aware of who is behind terrorism in the country and their intention of dividing the nation and undermining its development.

Egyptian authorities have identified the two suicide bombers and the terrorist cells responsible for the deadly attacks.

Cairo imposed a nationwise three-month state of emergency after the attacks, with the option of extending it for a further three months on a vote from parliament.

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Survivors and family members of those gunned down at Virginia Tech by a mentally ill student returned to campus Sunday to honor the lives of the 32 people that were lost ten years ago.

The school held a series of events to mark the anniversary of the deadly campus shooting on April 16, 2007. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine will be among the 10,000 to 20,000 people expected at the Blacksburg campus for the solemn occasion.

Other leaders are set to speak at a University Commemoration at 2:30 p.m. to honor the 32 students and faculty, WFXR News reported.

Kaine, who was governor at the time of the shooting, said he still vividly remembers the horrors of that day, but has also grown close to many of the survivors and the victims' families.

"We're going with a lot of different emotions, but we wouldn't be anywhere else," said Kaine, who is attending the service with his wife, Anne Holton.

The shooting at Virginia Tech was, at the time, the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history. The massacre last year that claimed 49 lives at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub. The shooting forced schools across the country to rethink campus security and reignited the debate over gun control that rages to this day.

Sunday's events include a wreath-laying ceremony around 9:43 a.m.  the time when Seung-Hui Cho's rampage in Norris Hall began. It will be followed by a commemoration event featuring remarks from Kaine and a reading of the names and biographies of the 32 slain students and faculty members.

Later, students, faculty and visitors will gather for a candlelight vigil. At 11:59 p.m., a candle at the April 16 memorial that was lit at midnight will be extinguished and carried into Burruss Hall. The events were planned by current students over the last 18 months, said Mark Owczarski, a Virginia Tech spokesman.

Leading up the anniversary, the atmosphere on campus has been one of reflection and remembrance, Owczarski said. Most of the current students were in elementary school when the shooting occurred, but understand that the "tragedy is part of Virginia Tech," he said. Counselors have been stationed at commemoration events throughout the weekend to provide support.

"It is together - as a community - that we endure difficult times," Tech President Tim Sands said in a recent email to students and staff.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Utah police are searching for a woman in pajama bottoms who tried to rob five banks in a 90-minute period Saturday.

The woman struck the banks in Salt Lake County between 9:21 a.m. and 11:55 a.m., Fox 13 Utah reports. Her bank robbery spree also includes a robbery Friday afternoon at a sixth Salt Lake County bank.

Police say the woman netted cash in five of the heists, according to the station. She ran out of a bank Saturday empty handed apparently after becoming spooked.

Its very brazen; she feels like she can get away with it, Unified Police Lt. Brian Lohrke told the station.

The woman handed a teller at each bank a note demanding money, but never displayed a weapon.

Maybe she is from out of town because she is not covering her face and hopefully somebody would have recognized her by now, Lohrke told the station.

Salk Lake City Police posted images of the woman obtained from surveillance cameras.

She is described as a white 5-foot-5 female in her 30s with dark hair in a ponytail. She was wearing prescription glasses and a had a noticeable mole under her right eye.

The suspect also had a blue bandana wrapped around her head.

Click for more from Fox 13 Utah.
A North Korean missile fired from the east coast of the country Sunday blew up almost immediately, officials said.

The U.S. Pacific Command said the missile, which came near the city of Sinpo, blew up almost immediately, but the type of missile was still being assessed.

The failure came one day after Pyongyang celebrated one of the biggest propaganda events of the year  the 105th birthday of the late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Uns grandfather.

The failed launch also comes ahead of Vice President Pences arrival in Seoul, South Korea for talks about how to handle Kims regime. Pence had been in contact with President Trump about the test.

Trump did not release a statement on the launch. Defense Secretary Mattis said Trump and his military team "are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."

Washington and Seoul were trying to determine what North Korea exactly launched. North Korea regularly fires short-range missiles, but it is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target U.S. troops in Asia and, eventually, the U.S. mainland. North Korea is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have quickly risen over the last week as the U.S. and South Korean conduct it is largest-ever war games and while the USS Carl Vinson steams toward waters off the coast.

Another missile test from Sinpo failed earlier this month, when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean. That launch came shortly before Trump's first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China is North Korea's only major ally.

The extended-range Scud missile in that earlier launch suffered an in-flight failure and fell into the sea off North Korea's east coast, according to U.S. imagery and assessments.

Despite Sunday's failure, the North's previous claim to have used "standardized" warheads has led to worries that it was making headway in its push to develop small and sophisticated warheads to be topped on long-range missiles.

Washington sees North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to world security and to its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea. The United States, South Korea and other countries have vowed to apply more pressure on the North, but so far nothing has worked to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

Fox News Lucas Tomlinson and Jen Bowman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
An Egyptian court Sunday cleared an American woman of child abuse charges related to a non-governmental organization she founded to aid street children.

Aya Hijazi, who has dual U.S.-Egyptian citizenship, had been arrested in May 2014 along with her husband and six others. The arrests came as part of a wider clampdown on civil society especially following the military overthrow of an elected Islamist president in 2013.

Prosecutors provided little if any evidence to support the allegations, and human rights groups and U.S. officials alike had decried the charges as bogus.

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., voiced his joy and relief for Hijazi's release in a statement.



"This wonderful news was a long time coming," he said.



Beyer was among several members of Congress who have called on Egypt to release Hijazi. Hillary Clinton reiterated the demand as well in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last September, when she was the Democratic presidential candidate.



President Donald Trump did not publicly mention the case when he welcomed el-Sissi to the White House earlier this month, but a senior White House official had said ahead of the meeting that the case would be addressed.



Wake McMullen, an attorney who handles human rights cases before international tribunals, said administration officials had prioritized Hijazi's case. He also said the case was brought up during el-Sissi's meeting with lawmakers in Washington.



McMullen said he believes that international pressure helped call attention to the case, especially that there was "zero evidence" condemning Hijazi and her co-defendants.



"There was no reason the case should have been brought in the first place," he said.



The court's decision to acquit surprised Hijazi's mother, Naglaa Hosny, who told The Associated Press "we were expecting the worst and hoping for the best."



Hijazi's Egyptian lawyer, Taher Abol Nasr, said Hijazi would likely remain in detention another two to three days while her acquittal is processed. He expects all the defendants to walk free by the end of the week. It was not immediately clear if Hijazi would remain in Egypt.



Hijazi, 30, grew up in Falls Church, Va. She received a degree in conflict resolution from George Mason University in 2009, and then returned to her native Egypt.



Along with her husband, Hijazi established a foundation by the name Belady, Arabic for "our nation," in 2013 with the aim of providing shelter for street children.



A few months later, authorities raided the foundation's office after a man alleged that his son was missing and blamed it on Belady.



Egyptian authorities have clamped down on civil society, particularly human rights groups and other organizations that receive foreign funding. Such groups played a central role in the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and pro-government media often present them as part of a conspiracy to undermine the state.



The authorities also arrested thousands of people in the months following the 2013 overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, mainly his Islamist supporters but also a number of secular and liberal activists.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Javier Duarte, the fugitive former governor of Mexico's Veracruz state who is accused of running a corruption ring to pilfer from state coffers, was detained in Guatemala on Saturday.

A statement from Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office said Duarte was detained with the cooperation of Guatemalan police and the country's Interpol office in the municipality of Panajachel, which is a picturesque tourist town on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala's highlands.

It said he is wanted on suspicion of money laundering and organized crime, and prosecutors directed the Foreign Relations Department to request Duarte's extradition via its Guatemalan counterpart.

Photos published in Mexican media showed a bespectacled Duarte, clad in a gray shirt and black jacket-vest, being escorted by Interpol agents.

Manuel Noriega, deputy director of Interpol in Guatemala, said Duarte was located at a hotel where he was staying with his wife. He was asked to leave his room, did so voluntarily and then was arrested without incident in the lobby.

Noriega said Duarte would be presented before a judge to consider his possible extradition.

Duarte was governor of Veracruz from 2010 until he left office Oct. 12, 2016, two months before the scheduled end of his term, saying he was doing so in order to face the allegations against him.

At the time he denied having links to phantom businesses that allegedly won state contracts, and said he had not stolen a single peso of state money or diverted government funds overseas.

"I don't have foreign accounts," he said last year. "I don't have properties anywhere."

Duarte promptly disappeared and had been sought by Mexican authorities ever since. Earlier this year Interpol issued a notice for his capture.

The Mexican government has found millions of dollars purportedly linked to Duarte, frozen more than 100 bank accounts and also seized property and businesses tied to the former governor. A reward of $730,000 had been offered for his capture.

The detention comes a week after Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Mexico's Tamaulipas state, was arrested in Italy, also on allegations of organized crime and money laundering.

Another ex-governor, Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state, is also wanted on suspicion of corruption and is believed to have fled to El Paso, Texas. He is not related to Javier Duarte.

All three ex-governors were members of the ruling Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI, of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Javier Duarte became a powerful symbol of alleged corruption during mid-term elections last year in which the PRI lost several governorships, including Veracruz, that it had held uninterrupted since its founding in 1929.

Duarte has also been widely criticized for rampant violence in the state as drug cartels war for territory, and for the killings of at least 16 journalists in Veracruz during his six years in office.
Turkish voters appeared Sunday to have approved constitutional changes that would greatly expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, though the country's main opposition party said it would call for a recount in up to 60 percent of the votes.

State-run Anadolu news agency said votes in favor of allowing 18 constitutional changes stood at 51.3 percent with 98 percent of ballots counted.

The changes would replace Turkey's parliamentary system of government with a presidential one and could see Erdogan remain in office until at least 2029.

Erdogan told reporters late Sunday that the "yes" side was ahead by approximately 1.3 million votes. The president initially struck a conciliatory tone, calling the referendum a "historic decision." However, Erdogan later warned critics against "belittling" the result, saying they "shouldn't try, it will be in vain."

"April 16 is the victory of all who said yes or no, of the whole 80 million, of the whole of Turkey of 780,000-square kilometers," Erdogan said.

Opinion polls had shown a narrow lead for a "yes" vote before Sunday's ballot, but the country's three largest cities - Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir - and the mainly Kurdish southeast looked set to vote "no".

The referendum has bitterly divided Turkey, and will affect the country's strained relations with the European Union.

Erdogan has insisted the changes are needed to amend the current constitution, which was written by generals following a military coup in 1980, to confront security and political challenges in Turkey and avoid fragile coalition governments of the past.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, whose position will be eliminated under the presidential system of government called for in the referendum, also welcomed the results and extended a hand to the opposition.



"We are all equal citizens of the Republic of Turkey," he said.

"Both the ones who said `no' and the ones who said `yes' are one and are equally valuable."



"There are no losers of this referendum. Turkey won, the beloved people won," Yildirim said, adding that "a new page has opened in our democratic history with this vote. Be sure that we will use this result for our people's welfare and peace in the best way."

But critics say the move grants sweeping powers to Erdogan following a failed coup last July.

A statement on the High Electoral Board's website hours before polls closed said it would count ballots that had not been stamped by officials as valid unless they could be proved fraudulent.

That triggered strong criticism from the main opposition People's Republican Party, which said the decision caused a serious legitimacy problem in the referendum.

Erdal Aksunger, deputy chairman of the party, claimed "illegal acts" had been carried out in favour of the government in the referendum.

He said: "Since this morning, we have determined some 2.5 million problematic votes."

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Action Party, declared victory for the "yes" campaign, and said Turkish voters had chosen of their own free will.

He added the result was "a very important success; a win that makes neglect and denial impossible".

After casting his vote in a school near his home in Istanbul, Erdogan said: "God willing I believe our people will decide to open the path to much more rapid development.

"I believe in my people's democratic common sense."

Around 55 million people were eligible to vote in the referendum.

Under the proposals, the office of prime minister would be abolished, allowing the president to draft the budget, declare a state of emergency and issue decrees overseeing ministries without parliamentary approval.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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Coldwell Banker Commercial Elite announced that Brian Cunningham, senior associate broker, has achieved his Certified Commercial Investment Membership (CCIM) distinction.

The Northern Neck Planning District Commission and Northern Neck Chesapeake Bay Region Partnership will sponsor a Broadband Panel Discussion today at 3 p.m. at the Rappahannock Community CollegeWarsaw in Lecture Hall W122. The panel will focus on how broadband service can be provided to the underserved and unserved areas of the Northern Neck region. For more information email jdavis@nnpdc17.state.va.us.

David Johnson was recently promoted to key accounts executive/energy services coordinator for Rappahannock Electric Cooperative. Johnson is the primary contact for designated key accounts and large power activities for members in the southern portion the cooperatives service area. He will work primarily from the Bowling Green office.

A Women in Business Leadership networking luncheon will be held April 25 at 11:30 a.m. at Fujiya House in Fredericksburg. Contact Shambi McGill at smcgill@fandr.com for registration details. This month the topic is The $1,000 Question about savings, investment and retirement.

The monthly ACES luncheon, which is open to the public, will be titled Megaproject Spotlight: Replacement of the 301 Nice Bridge and held with the MDTA Project Director. The event will be held on April 26 at 11:30 at Renatos in downtown Fredericksburg. Contact Shambi McGill at smcgill@fandr.com for registration details.

The Radiology Business Management Association has recognized Medical Imaging of Fredericksburg for best national use of digital media to promote their health scan program, featuring the power of early detection. The 2017 Quest Award is a national award that recognizes the importance of using digital media to inform patients and health care practitioners about medical imaging. The campaign was developed with local business Story Collaborative.

The Northern Neck Consortium for Environmental Stewardship, in partnership with the Northern Neck Planning District Commission, has launched NNKgreen.org, a website designed to be the go-to place for environmental topics relevant to the Chesapeake Bay. The project was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

Lindley Estes
What would improve the health and quality of life in the city of Fredericksburg?

More affordable housing or more places people could walk and ride their bikes? Safer neighborhoods or better services for the disabled? More support for seniors, more activities for young people or more options for child care?

The Fredericksburg City Community Health Assessment Team wants to knowand is asking city residents to fill out an anonymous survey that takes 5 to 10 minutes to answer. The survey is available at vdh.virginia.gov/rappahannock/cha-survey/.

We want as many people as possible to share their views and thoughts about health issues, concerns and needs in the community. This will help us develop a plan to help improve health and enhance quality of life in the city, said Brooke Rossheim, health director of the Rappahannock Area Health District.

The local health district and Virginia Department of Health are assisting the assessment team, which consists of local organizations, Fredericksburg officials and other community groups interested in improving the health of city residents.

The assessment will identify key assets and issues from the survey. It asks participants to list strengths of their community, changes that would improve the quality of life, and what health-related issues affect the city. Each category has a number of possible answers offered, and participants are asked to select up to three or five answers for each question. Theres also space for them to write in their own suggestions.

With the information, the team will develop a Community Health Improvement Plan to address health needs and gaps with resources available in the community.

The survey is open until May 31.
An Egyptian criminal court ordered the acquittal on Sunday of Egyptian-American activist Aya Hegazi after nearly three years of detention on charges related to the exploitation and abuse of children.



The court also acquitted six other defendants, including Hegazi's husband, after finding them not guilty of charges of human trafficking, kidnapping, and the sexual exploitation and torture of children.



Hegazi, 29, and her husband Mohamed Hassanein, were arrested in May 2014 after allegations that her NGO Belady Initiative, which works with street children in Cairo, was involved in child abuse and was operating without a licence.



Local and international rights groups have criticized the case, alleging a lack of evidence and complaining about the prolonged pre-trial detention.



During his April visit to the United States, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said that he might be willing to give Hegazi a presidential pardon if she were convicted.

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A Washington man was charged with six felonies after a Friday incident that involved drugs and a shooting inside a home in Spotsylvania County.

Antonio Pierre Jones, 35, was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin, sheriffs Lt. C.A. Carey said in a statement Saturday.

Jones also was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and having ammunition while possessing various narcotics, Carey said.

On Friday, Deputy J. Durbin responded to the 11200 block of Sandusky Court for a call about a suspicious male in the area. The deputy found and detained Jones because of his irrational state, Carey said.

Deputies noticed the front door of a nearby residence was open and saw signs of a struggle.

Deputies entered the home and found spent cartridge casings and several holes in the wall.

Jones told deputies he was visiting a female friend at the residence and that a disturbance had occurred and shots were fired.

He admitted firing the shots, Carey said, but didnt know what the disturbance was about.

During the incident, the female friend ran away from the residence.

She returned when deputies arrived and told them Jones became paranoid after consuming an unspecified narcotic, Carey said. She was not harmed.

from staff reports
Bill Botts believes the nation is at a crossroads in terms of American health careand that its time for an educational forum to explain whats at stake.

Thats why Botts, who retired from Rappahannock Legal Services in 2011, then helped people navigate the Affordable Care Act, has organized a panel discussion on Wednesday night. Called Community Forum on the Affordable Care Act and the Future of Health Care in Virginia, the event starts at 7 p.m. at the John Fick III Conference Center, 1301 Sam Perry Blvd., Fredericksburg. Thats on the campus of Mary Washington Hospital.

Botts has assembled a panel of community representatives, and he hopes their remarks will focus on functionality rather than ideology, what works and what doesnt work and how to best fix what doesnt work.

From 7 to 8 p.m., each panel member will make a brief presentation, then there will be a panel discussion on health insurance, including the ACA, Medicaid expansion in Virginia and the current administrations suggested plan, the American Health Care Act.

Panelists include Jill Hanken, attorney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center; Dr. Michael McDermott, president and CEO of Mary Washington Hospital; Dr. Timothy Powell, medical director of the Fredericksburg Christian Health Center; Susan Spears, president and CEO of Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce; and Dr. Jay Brock, retired family physician.

From 89 p.m., the panel will field questions from the audience. The forum will be moderated by Susan Larson, publisher of Fredericksburg.

Mary Washington HealthCare and the Lloyd Moss Free Clinic are hosting the forum. Sponsors are Legal Aid Works (formerly Rappahannock Legal Services), Virginia Poverty Law Center, Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, We Are For America and a number of local groups.
Fredericksburg resident and James Monroe High School sophomore Brenton Corsano was recently awarded the Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizenship Award for displaying outstanding leadership, honor, service, courage and patriotism. The award was presented by Carol Nelson and Karyn Moore of the National Defense Committee of Leedstown Resolutions Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Corsano is a cadet with the Naval Sea Cadet Corps located in Dahlgren.
The public is invited to a Monday morning ceremony in Spotsylvania County to remember the victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy and other crimes.

On the 10th anniversary of the shootings on the Tech campus in Blacksburg, participants will gather at 10 a.m. in front of the Spotsylvania Sheriffs Office.

Commonwealths Attorney Travis D. Bird will make opening remarks, followed by a prayer by Chaplain Ron Owens of the Sheriffs Office

Virginia Coscia, retired director of the victimwitness program in Fredericksburg, will discuss changes in victims rights.

Virginia Tech student Charlie West (Class of 2010) will offer a perspective on the Virginia Tech tragedy. The names of the Virginia Tech victims and local crime victims will be read aloud.

Spotsylvania VictimWitness Director Kathy Settle and Sheriff Roger Harris will also speak.
On Palm Sunday, two suicide bombings hit St George's Cathedral in Tanta and St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, killing 46 and injuring dozens

Egypts prosecution detained three alleged members of a terrorist cell on Sunday as part of investigations into the bombing of two churches on Palm Sunday that left dozens killed and injured.

The three suspects will be detained for 15 days pending investigations into their involvement in the terrorist attacks.

On 9 April, two suicide bombings hit St George's Cathedral in Tanta and St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, killing 46 people and injuring dozens in the deadliest attack on Copts in the country's recent history. The attacks were timed to take place on Palm Sunday, at the start of Holy Week, in the run up to Easter, thereby ensuring large-scale casualties.

The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attacks, naming the Alexandria suicide bomber as Abu Isaac Al-Masry and the Tanta suicide bomber as Abu Al-Baraa Al-Masry.

One day following the attacks, the interior ministry said that police had killed seven members of a terrorist cell in a shootout in Upper Egypt's Assiut governorate.

The three men detained on Sunday are being investigated on suspicion of joining an illegal group that calls for disobeying authority and overthrowing the state, as well as attacking Christian citizens and their places of worship.

The three suspects are also accused of conducting a terrorist attack in January on a security checkpoint in New Valley governorate, leaving eight policemen dead.

The interior ministry said at the time that the checkpoint attack was executed by 12 militants, two of whom were killed by the police during the attack.

A three-month state of emergency was declared by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on the day of the churches attacks.

The cabinet approved the state of emergency on Monday, and parliament approved the decision unanimously on Tuesday.

Copts, who make up about one tenth of Egypt's population of more than 92 million, have been targeted by several terrorist attacks in recent months.

In December, a suicide bombing claimed by IS killed 29 worshippers at a Cairo church.

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ARRINGTON  On a hidden hilltop in Nelson County, four female eastern bongos may soon give birth.

While Arrington seems an unlikely place to raise critically-endangered species, the survival of several African antelope depends on work being done in the U.S.

There are only about 90 bongos left in their native Kenya, where they were hunted to near extinction for food. Because there are so few left in the wild, breeding programs outside the country are providing the only long-term hope for the species.

Some of that work is being done at the Wildlife Conservation Center in Arrington by Dave and Karen Holm.

There are many, many endangered species, Dave said.

He and his wife are hoping to save some of the less well-known antelope.

They currently have eight bongos, including a calf born on their farm last fall. It is illegal to buy these animals from Africa so the Holms buy them from zoos and conservation centers in the U.S.

Once they have 20 females, they will have enough genetic diversity to maintain their herd and start sending offspring back to Kenya.

Despite their somewhat daunting long, curved horns, the white-striped caramel-colored bongos are gentle.

Theyre a lot like cattle personality-wise, Dave said.

The Holms are concentrating on three antelope species initially. They also have three addax, smaller white antelope originally from the Sahara Desert, and will soon add scimitar-horned oryx to their herd.

The scimitar-horned oryx has gone extinct in the wild, and just this year some animals have been reintroduced into Chad, Dave said.

Few people know that many African species are more numerous in this country, particularly in Texas, than they are on their native continent.

That is true, thanks in part, to the American Species Survival Plan, or SSP program, that was developed in 1981 by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to help ensure the survival of selected species.

There are about 300 bongos in the U.S. registered under an SSP, Dave said, but getting good census numbers is difficult. Many African species are being raised on ranches in Texas, often funded by trophy hunting.

According to a 2012 story on CBSs 60 Minutes, the iconic Texas longhorn now shares its range with more than a quarter of a million animals from Asia, Africa and Europe. Today, Texas has more exotic wildlife than any other place on Earth.

The Texas phenomenon began more than half a century ago with surplus animals from zoos. What started as exotic hunting has evolved, somewhat paradoxically, into a major achievement in wildlife conservation.

Texans have helped bring back the scimitar horned oryx, the addax and the dama gazelle.

If all goes well, two of those three species will soon be breeding in Nelson County.

Karen Holm is a veterinarian who got interested in conservation medicine soon after finishing vet school in 2000.

She and Dave opened a veterinary clinic in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. At the same time, Karen was doing volunteer work at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, and at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.

After five years, the couple was looking for a slower pace and saw that a practice in Lovingston had come open after the death of the veterinarian. That mans daughter was also in vet school and hoped to inherit the clinic so the Holms agreed to operate the clinic for five years.

They werent sure what would come next, but as Dave said, We liked it so much here in Nelson County, we bought a tract of land.

Their dream of helping ensure the survival of African species took root, and while Dave started putting in fencing and barns, Karen did volunteer work with cheetahs in Namibia, rhinoceroses in South Africa and tigers and elephants in India.

The Holms hope to bring endangered Masai giraffe and white rhino to their farm in the next five years.

A year ago, their first animals arrived. Buying and caring for these animals is tremendously expensive, and the Holms depend on grants, fundraisers and donations.

At some point, they may be able to make some money selling excess males back to zoos, but in the short-term, there is no profit.

Its a labor of love, Dave said. Its a lot of tears and sweat.
GOOGLE could lose as much as $750 million because of a boycott by advertisers, according to Nomura Research. Companies are protesting against the placement of their ads next to extremist and hateful content.

An even worse offender is Facebook, which had enabled the propagation of fake news that may have influenced the outcome of the U.S. elections. The two companies have reaped massive profits from the spread of misinformation; yet they have claimed both ignorance of how their technology is misused and an inability to control it.

It wasnt supposed to be this way. Social media was developed with the promise of spreading democracy, community and freedom, not ignorance, bigotry and hatred. Connecting billions of people together and allowing them to share knowledge and ideas, it could have enabled them to achieve equality and justice; to expose what is wrong and crowd-solve global problems.

Instead, it has become a tool enabling technology companies to mine data to sell to marketers, politicians and special-interest groups, enabling them to spread disinformation. It has created echo chambers in which people with similar views reinforce their ignorance and bias. And the loss of control over user data has now affected not just the economic lives of Americans but also the political messages they receive on platforms such as Facebook.

Part of the problem is that a handful of large technology companies have become small oligopolies in information; they are reaping incredible profits but forsaking the responsibilities that come with the power they have gained. Facebook, for example, has become a media company with more power and influence than The Washington Post and the New York Times. More than 65 percent of its users44 percent of U.S. adultsget their news through its platform. Yet it claims not to be a publisher and to not have responsibility for what appears on its platform or done with its marketing data.

In light of the backlash, Facebook and Google have pledged to do something about it. In a blog post, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg detailed plans to build a safe, informed, engaged and inclusive community that fulfills the benevolent promise of social media. But he says that Facebook cant possibly review the billions of billions of posts that are made on its platform every day and solving the problem will require artificial intelligencewhich is technically difficult and will take years of research and development.

We cant wait years. And it isnt that this industry is powerless when it comes to controlling the misuse of its platforms; there is insufficient motivation. Go back a few years, for example, to when our mailboxes were getting flooded with spam. Tech companies created filters and blacklists and virtually eliminated it. When marketers learned how to game Googles page-ranking system by creating multitudes of websites with links to one another, it updated its algorithms to penalize the offenders. Whenever it comes to making money, the tech industry always seems to be able to find a wayand it doesnt take years.

Trolling is also a common problem on Twitter, with millions of automated bots being available for hire. You can openly purchase fake accounts and fake followers, and have other accounts spread marketing content as well as misinformation and hate. The company has the technology to disable these accounts, but it doesnt, possibly because doing so would hurt its stock price.

There is no way of turning back technology; what we need is for their owners to steer them in a more positive direction. The problems of fake news and the spread of disinformation can be remedied by opening up social networks and vetting news in a more effective manner; by using technology and imagination to solve the problems that technology has created through lack of imagination.

In his book, Whose Global Village? Ramesh Srinivasan explains that digital technologies are not neutral but are socially constructed: created by people within organizations, who in turn approach the design process on the basis of a set of values and presumptions. The platforms that have come to dominate our experience of the internet, Google and Facebook, are for-profit companies, not democratic institutions. As they become the face of journalism and public information, they must be held accountable for their effects.

Srinivasan points out that invisible algorithms determine the content that social-media networks curate and present to us; they decide what is important. These algorithms take input from the people we associate with on social media and this leads to the echo chambersbut a lot more is done in secret. What we do know is that they tend to confirm our existing biases, and those of our existing networks. Yet as users we know almost nothing about the choices that went into these personalization algorithms, and we are not given much of an alternative.

Srinivasan argues for a few important choices:

First, we can ask for social media companies to make transparent and comprehensible the filters and choices that go into the most important algorithms that shape interactivity. This does not mean having to publish proprietary software code, but rather giving users an explanation of how the content they view is selected. Facebook can explain whether content is chosen because of location, number of common friends, or similarity in posts. Google can tell us what factors lead to the results we see in a search and provide a method to change their order.

Second, we must provide users with the opportunity to choose between types of information, whether it be the news shared by people beyond their social networks or options on the filters on their feeds. Such filters would allow users to determine what parts of the world theyd like to see information from and the range of political opinions they choose to be exposed to.

Third, we can return to a practice that long characterized the Web: open-ended browsing and surfing. Social-media companies can develop tools that allow news credibility to be visualized, enabling users to browse content within and beyond their immediate social network.

The bigger issue is that we need to develop political literacy in our educational and social systems. This entails viewing no piece of informationwhether presented on social media or through a traditional news outletas infallible, but instead learning to scrutinize that storys framing, the agenda it serves, and the integrity and transparency of its sources. In other words, as a society, we need to up our own game.

Vivek Wadhwa is distinguished fellow and professor at Carnegie Mellon University Engineering in Silicon Valley and a director of research at Duke Universitys Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization.
THE EASTER story has been called The Greatest Story Ever Told, first as a radio series in the late 1940s and then in George Stevens epic feature film released in 1965 with a star-studded cast.

Dozens of other versions have been produced over the generations. No matter what critics may say about modern-day attempts to recount the life of Jesus Christ on the big screen, radio, television or YouTube video, it is truly an amazing story. Thats why directors, producers, authors and theologians keep telling it more than 2,000 years later.

Consider the elements:

His story opens with a miraculous birth that requires Jesus family to flee for their lives from a cruel Roman governor who fears this infant, a descendant of King David, will topple his rule.

The child grows into a man who becomes a carpenter. He leaves his trade and home to travel about with a rough lot of followers, including fishermen and a tax collector, to spread the word that the kingdom of God has drawn near.

Jesus gets peoples attention by healing the sick, blind and lame, and turning water into wine.

He feeds thousands who gather to hear him teach by multiplying a few fish and some bread into a feast.

These astounding events and the authoritative teaching by this itinerant rabbi raise eyebrows. Could he be the long-awaited savior and son of God?

His triumphant ride into Jerusalem aboard a donkey as a crowd of people waved palms and placed their cloaks in his path demonstrated his mass appeal to a people hungry for mercy and hope.

Such scenes upset the status quo of earthly religious leaders and politicians of the day. This Jesus was hardly the type of leader, messiah, they had long awaited.

He winds up caught between Jewish law and the refined Roman system of justice, is convicted and sentenced to death.

The adoring crowds are quickly gone; and even his closest followers desert him. Fully human, he dreads his coming sacrifice, and yet he proceeds.

Then, three days after suffering an agonizing death on the cross, Jesus is recognized for what He isthe atoning sacrifice for sin, once and for all.

Through Resurrection, Jesus rises to become what he was all along, but what the world could not seeGod with us.

What an amazing turnabout! Hes the fulfillment of prophecy, and lived a life worthy of following. Hes the gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

A local pastor once pointed out in worship that Jesus ran afoul of the most powerful, best-educated people of his day and the finest institutions the world had mustered, and was rejected. Thats something for all of us proud, busy and self-important people to consider.

Still, He rises from victim to victor.

This greatest of stories is something to ponder amid the Easter egg hunts, chocolate bunnies and family suppers.

He is risen, indeed.

Through Resurrection, Jesus rises to become what he was all along, but what the world could not seeGod with us. What an amazing turnabout!
Supreme displeasure with Va. senators

While I appreciate your reasoned editorial on the Supreme Court vacancy vote, the odds of either Virginia senator acting as an adult are nearly nonexistent [Supreme drama over Supreme Court pick, April 6].

If you visited their websites to leave messages on the topic, the responses are informative. Granted, the senators have staff members who actually handle such trivia, but ultimately, theyre responsible for the results.

If you indicated your interest in the Supreme Court nomination on the website for Sen. Tim Kaine, you got a Yes/No choice. The followup message was a boilerplate item that, between the lines, read as Ill vote as Im told.

The website for Sen. Mark Warner was much more hopeful, allowing a message to be left. I dont recall any reply.

I did get a canned reply to another message I left that caused much deep thought to try to relate the reply to anything I may have written. It took maybe 15 minutes to remember what it was. The reply had no relation to my message.

Unfortunately, party discipline seems to mean more to our senators than seeking resolutions to the problems the country faces.

William Moore

Ladysmith
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The Egyptian State Councils legislative department has issued a formal report to parliament rejecting proposed amendments to the judicial authority law that would give the president more powers in picking the heads of the countrys top judicial councils, a judicial source told Arabic Ahram website on Sunday.

The source said that the legislative department revised the draft law over several sessions, and concluded that the amendments would undermine the independence of the judiciary, which is guaranteed by the constitution.

The source added that the opinions of judicial bodies have not been taken into consideration regarding this draft law, which the source says represents a violation of the constitutional guarantee of a free judiciary.

On 27 March, parliament's constitutional and legislative affairs committee voted in favour of the draft law, which gives the president the right to appoint the heads of four of the country's top judicial councils.

The draft law, presented in December 2016, mandates that the president of the republic is to pick from three candidates nominated by each judicial council.

Most of the country's judicial councils say the law completely ignores seniority among judges, on the basis of which the heads of judicial councils are currently appointed.

The judicial councils mentioned in the law are the State Lawsuits Authority, the administrative prosecution, the Court of Cassation and the State Council.

Egypt's Judges Club has called for a meeting with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to discuss the amendments.

The Judges Club, which represents judges across the country, said it has authorised its head to ask the presidency to act as a mediator to prevent a crisis between the judicial and legislative branches.

Some MPs have argued that an approval of the law by judicial bodies to the law is not mandatory under the constitution.

The MPs cite Article 185 of the constitution, which states that each judicial body or organisation shall merely be "consulted" when drafting bills regulating its affairs, but that their approval is not required.

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The death toll from a bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy outside Aleppo has reached at least 126 in the deadliest such incident in Syria in almost a year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Sunday.

Syrian rescue workers of the Civil Defence said that they had taken away at least 100 bodies from the site of Saturday's blast, which hit buses carrying Shi'ite residents as they waited to cross from rebel into government territory in an evacuation deal between the warring sides.

The British-based Observatory said the number was expected to rise.

Those killed were mostly residents of the villages of al-Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province, but included rebel fighters guarding the convoy, the Observatory said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which pro-Damascus media said was carried out by a suicide car bomber.

Syria's main armed opposition condemned the bombing, with groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army describing it as a "treacherous terrorist attack".

Pope Francis, in an Easter message, also condemned the attack, describing it as "ignoble", and asking God to bring healing and comfort to what he called the "beloved and martyred Syria".

The convoy was carrying at least 5,000 people including civilians and several hundred pro-government fighters, who were granted safe passage out of the two Shi'ite villages which are besieged by rebels.

Under the evacuation deal, more than 2,000 people, including rebel fighters, were granted safe passage out of Madaya, a town near Damascus besieged by government forces and their allies.

That convoy was waiting at a bus garage in a government-held area on Aleppo's outskirts, a few miles from where the attack took place. Madaya evacuees said they heard the blast.

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Farmers just starting out, as well as those who are more experienced, will have the opportunity to push their careers forward with the launch of two new courses.

The Worshipful Company of Farmers will offer a one-week Leadership and Management Programme in October to about eight to 10 young people to equip them with the basic management skills to run their own business.

The course, which will be run through Duchy College Rural Business School, will be for people in their early 20s just starting out in farming and who have aspirations to manage a small or medium-sized business. The Livery will offer financial support, which will be assessed at interview.



See also: What the new Countryside Stewardship Scheme can offer farms

In addition, one person a year, who is further on in their farming career, will be chosen for the Cranfield Business Growth Programme.

The Bedfordshire-based university is one of the UKs top five commercial research-intensive universities, alongside Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College London and University College London.

The 11-week course will offer an in-depth, one-on-one programme with a dedicated course leader from Cranfield University. It will challenge the student and help them innovate and push their business to the next level.

Again, the Livery will offer financial support for the course.

Philip Wynn, master of the Company, said that with Brexit on the horizon, the Livery had a role to play in helping farmers deal with the challenges and opportunities ahead.

It is clear is that we will need to prepare more and more people to lead our industry into a vibrant, positive and profitable future, he said.

Now it is the right time to widen our educational reach and in October this year we are to initiate a one-week entry-level management and development programme to be held at Keele University.

The purpose is to prepare young managers for leadership and management responsibilities and it will contribute to the growth of the wider rural sector.

Mr Wynn added: Farming and food businesses are becoming increasingly complex and carry enormous risk. We have recognised that we need to provide support beyond our existing business management delivery and we are now committed to sponsoring a delegate every year on the Cranfield Business Growth Programme.

This course is very much about individual development and seeks to answer the critical questions of: Where am I now, where am I going and how do I get there.

Find out more

To apply to the Leadership and Management Programme, contact Richard Soffe, the course director at Duchy College on 07768 055430.

For the Cranfield course, contact the Liverys clerk with an expression of interest via clerk@farmerslivery.org.uk.

Alumni of the Companys existing courses include Mr Wynn, who is a non-executive director of Beeswax Dyson Farms (the farming estate owned by Sir James Dyson) and NFU president Meurig Raymond.

Find out more about the existing courses, or contact the Worshipful Company of Farmers
Pope Francis urged an end to "horror and death" in Syria on Sunday as he presided over the traditional Easter mass in Rome.

The Argentine pontiff expressed the hope that Christ's own sacrifice might help bring "comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death".

A suicide car bomb attack on buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns has left at least 112 killed, a monitoring group said Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 98 evacuees from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya were killed when an explosives-laden vehicle hit their buses at a transit point west of Aleppo on Saturday.

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My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

On Tuesday of Holy Week, April 11 at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, the solemn Chrism Mass was celebrated. At this annual Mass, the sacred oil of the sick and the sacred oil of Catechumens are blessed, and the oil of holy chrism is consecrated by the diocesan bishop. The oil of the sick, used in the sacrament of the anointing of the sick, is blessed to be a remedy for all who are anointed with it; (to) heal them in body, in soul, and in spirit, and deliver them in every affliction.

The oil of Catechumens is blessed to give wisdom and strength to all who are anointed with it in preparation for their baptism and to bring them to a deeper understanding of the Gospel and to help them to accept the challenge of Christian living and lead them to the joy of new birth in the family of the church.

The oil for the holy chrism is consecrated to become a sign of life and salvation for those who are to be born again in the waters of baptism and sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confirmation. Those called to the order of priesthood, whose fullness is recognized in the episcopacy, shall be anointed with this chrism, granting to them royal, priestly and prophetic honor for service in humility to Gods people in imitation of the eternal high priest, Jesus Christ, from whom chrism takes its name.

As we prepare for the glorious feast of Christs resurrection, let us contemplate his greeting to his disciples on that first Easter Sunday: Peace be with you. How much this peace is so needed as divisions among peoples have fractured our country, the world and even caused disquiet within the church. Violence, inhumane actions of one person against another, the loss of lives because of war and terrorist acts are so very contrary to the peace intended by Christ for Gods people redeemed by the blood of the lamb.

But to receive the peace of Christ, one needs to be united with him. From this union, we become Pauline; that is, in the words of St. Paul, "the life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me (Galatians 2:20). We become instruments of peace, beginning in our own homes and then reaching out into the community through union with the Lord.

In his 2016 World Day of Peace Message, Pope Francis wrote: The first kind of indifference in human society is indifference to God, which then leads to indifference to ones neighbor  This is one of the grave consequences of a false humanism and practical materialism allied to relativism and nihilism. We have come to think that we are the source and creator of ourselves, our lives and society. We feel self-sufficient, prepared not only to find a substitute for God but to do completely without Him. As a consequence, we feel that we owe nothing to anyone but ourselves 

On Easter, we renew our baptismal promises and recommit our lives to the Lord. May this renewal rise from deep within our hearts, united to the will and the intellect, and be given with joy, a joy that brings peace! When we make these promises, let us be conscious that we have committed ourselves not to a moment, a day, or a year but to a life lived in the risen Christ and according to his commands.

My brothers and sisters in the risen lord Jesus, I wish you a joyous Easter and a blessed Easter season, especially those among us who suffer the weight of personal crosses. May you invite the Lord to lighten your burden! May we all hear and experience Christs Easter greeting, Peace be with you!

Devotedly yours in Christ.
A young Saudi woman's plea for help after she was stopped in an airport in the Philippines en route to Australia where she planned to seek asylum has triggered a firestorm on social media and drawn attention to the plight of female runaways.

For runaway Saudi women, fleeing can be a matter of life and death, and they are almost always doing so to escape male relatives.

Under Saudi Arabia's Islamic law, a male guardianship system bars women from traveling abroad, obtaining a passport, marrying or even leaving prison without the consent of a male relative.

The mystery around what triggered Dina Ali Lasloom's cry for help has only added to concerns for her safety. In an online video, the 24-year-old says her passport was taken from her at an airport in the Philippines on her way to Australia last week.

"If my family come, they will kill me. If I go back to Saudi Arabia, I will be dead. Please help me," she pleads.

Wearing a beige coat, the woman does not show her face in the video. "I am kept here as a criminal. I can't do anything," Lasloom says in the video. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video's authenticity.

Women's rights advocates in Saudi Arabia say Lasloom was ultimately forced to board a plane to the kingdom with two of her uncles, who flew from Riyadh to stop her. They said authorities then took her to a women's shelter because of the attention around her case.

She cannot leave, however, without a male guardian's permission. Activists say only officials and relatives can contact her there.

Although there are no public statistics on how many Saudi women attempt to flee abroad, the issue has gained attention through a number of publicized cases. This despite gains made in recent years for Saudi women, including the right to run in, and vote in, local elections in 2015, and a government effort to increase women's participation in the workforce.

Women who have managed to flee abroad say they were barred from marrying or forced into marriages. Others have told rights groups that male relatives were abusive and confiscated their salaries.

"Many of them, they just want to be free," said Moudi Aljohani, who fled last year and is seeking asylum in the U.S.

Aljohani, 26, says her family felt she'd become "too Americanized" after a year of study in Miami. What was supposed to be a weeklong visit home turned into months of confinement, she says.

"The eight months of being locked in Saudi Arabia has created an angry, rebellious person inside of me that I don't want to be silent anymore," she said. "What happened to me in Saudi Arabia created a person who just wants to speak out."

Saudi courts have heard numerous cases of women asking for a transfer of their guardianship to more sympathetic male relatives  in some cases to their own sons.

A Saudi women's rights activist reached by phone in Riyadh said Lasloom was apparently trying to flee relatives in Kuwait who threatened to send her to live in Saudi Arabia.

"There have been a lot of Saudi girls who sought asylum abroad, but now it's a trend. A lot of younger girls in their 20s are seeking asylum," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

"When they say honor killings do not exist, it's not true. It's just invisible," she said, referring to the killing of daughters in the name of family honor.

Sara Leah Whitson, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, says Saudi women fleeing their family can face so-called "honor" violence if returned against their will. She called on Saudi authorities to protect Lasloom from her family.

According to the Philippines' Inquirer news website, Lasloom was barred from her Australian-bound flight by Saudi Embassy officials in Manila who asked airport officials to stop her.

The Saudi Embassy in the Philippines wrote on Twitter that what occurred was "a family matter in which a girl was returned with her family to the homeland."

When asked by The Associated Press whether Saudi diplomats in the Philippines had requested that authorities in Manila stop Lasloom from boarding a flight to Australia, Foreign Ministry official Osama Nugali said: "Saudi embassies abroad respect the institutions and laws of host countries and do not interfere in their affairs."

Manila Airport General Manager Eddie Monreal told the AP he had no knowledge about the case.

An immigration official reached by the AP said the airport's immigration officers neither detained nor held any passenger under that name.

In Saudi Arabia, activists tracking her plea for help attempted to meet Lasloom at Riyadh airport overnight Wednesday. They say instead, another activist, Alaa al-Anazi was detained by security officials at the airport and transferred to a girl's detention center in the capital.

A Human Rights Watch report released last year on guardianship laws in Saudi Arabia found that even with greater opportunities for women in the kingdom, a woman's life rests largely on "the good will" of her male guardian.

The story has been edited by Ahram Online

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NSA breached money-transfer system in Middle East and Latin America

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 15, 2017 1:33AM

The US National Security Agency has compromised users of a major international money-transfer system used by some financial institutions and banks in the Middle East and Latin America, a group of hackers says.

The Shadow Brokers hacking group claimed in a blog post on Friday that it had obtained files and data that show the agency accessed the SWIFT messaging system.

There is evidence "of the largest infection of a SWIFT Service Bureau to date," researcher Matt Suiche, founder of UAE-based cyber security firm Comae and the Dubai cybersecurity conference OPCDE, wrote in a Medium post.

In addition, the group said it had breached the NSA's databases, obtaining highly confidential tools used by the agency to steal people's data.

The group directed its visitors to download a cache of codes that revealed previously undisclosed computer exploitsknown as zero-day exploitsthat experts said were capable of causing chaos on an international scale.

There was also a piece of code that could be used to hack into computers using a fully-patched Windows operating system.

"It is very significant as it effectively puts cyber weapons in the hands of anyone who downloads it," Matthew Hickey, a researcher at the UK's Hacker House security firm, told cyber security website Ars Technica.

Calling the package "by far the most powerful cache of exploits ever released," Hickey said the leaked weapons allowed him to easily hack into several computers.

"It's an absolute disaster," he told the Associated Press. "I have been able to hack pretty much every Windows version here in my lab using this leak."

Another hacker, who once worked with the Pentagon, said, "It's not safe to run an internet-facing Windows box right now."

Microsoft acknowledged the breach in a statement, saying it was "reviewing the report and will take the necessary actions to protect our customers."

"Maybe if all surviving WWIII, The Shadow Brokers be seeing you next week. Who knows what we having next time?" the hackers teased at the end of their post.

Snowden: Not a drill

The hacked tools alarmed famous US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who first uncovered the extent of NSA's illegal spying in 2013.

"This is not a drill: NSA exploits affecting many fully-patched Windows systems have been released to the wild. NSA did not warn Microsoft," he said in a tweet.

The former NSA contractor, who has fled to Russia to avoid prosecution, said the NSA knew about the breach but refused to inform software companies.

"The NSA knew their hacking methods were stolen last year, but refused to tell software makers how to lock the thieves out. Are they liable?" he wrote in another tweet.

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Nearly 70 children were among those killed when a suicide car bombing tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, a monitor said on Sunday.

Saturday's blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.

At least 68 children were among the 126 people killed in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead.

At least 109 of the dead were evacuees, the Britain-based monitoring group said, while the rest were aid workers and rebels guarding the convoy.

The evacuations were taking place under a deal between Syria's regime and rebels that is also seeing residents and rebels transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus which are surrounded by pro-government forces.

The agreement is the latest in a string of evacuation deals, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad says are the best way to end the violence after more than six years of civil war.

Rebels say they amount to forced relocations after years of bombardment and crippling sieges.

Body parts and the belongings of evacuees -- including clothes, dishes and even televisions -- were still strewn at the scene of the attack on Sunday, an AFP correspondent said.

The shattered buses were nearby as was the shell of a pick-up truck -- with little left but its engine block -- that was apparently used to carry out the bombing.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, though the key Ahrar al-Sham rebel group denied any involvement. The government blamed "terrorists" -- a catch-all term for its opponents.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to monitor the conflict, said hundreds of people were also wounded in the blast.

It said a petrol station at the transit point was caught up in the explosion, adding to the number of victims.

The Syrian Red Crescent said three of its workers were among the wounded.

Maysa al-Aswad, a 30-year-old evacuee from Kafraya, said she was sitting on one of the buses with her six-month-old son Hadi and 10-year-old daughter Narjis when the blast shook the parked convoy.

"Hadi was on my lap and Narjis on a chair next to me. When the explosion happened I hugged them both and we fell to the floor," she told AFP by telephone from near Aleppo.

"I didn't know what was happening, all I could hear was people crying and shouting," she said.

"All I can think about is how we survived all the death during the last few years and then could have died just after we finally escaped."

More than 5,000 people left Fuaa and Kafraya and about 2,200 left Madaya and Zabadani on Friday, the latest in a series of evacuations from the four towns under the agreement.

The evacuation process resumed after the bombing, the Observatory said, with the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya eventually arriving in Aleppo, Syria's second city which the government gained full control of last year.

Wounded survivors, including many children, were taken for treatment at an Aleppo hospital.

UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien condemned the bombing, saying in a statement: "The perpetrators of such a monstrous and cowardly attack displayed a shameless disregard for human life."

Pope Francis on Sunday also urged an end to the war in Syria as he presided over the traditional Easter mass in Rome.

The pontiff said he hoped that Jesus Christ's sacrifice might help bring "comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death".

The residents and rebels from Madaya and Zabadani arrived late Saturday in rebel-held territory in Idlib province, where they were greeted with embraces and shots fired into the air.

It was not immediately clear whether further evacuations were taking place on Sunday.

The evacuation deal was brokered by Qatar, a longtime supporter of Syrian opposition forces, and Iran, a key regime ally.

Shiite-dominated Iran has repeatedly raised concerns for the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya, who are mainly Shiites and were besieged by Sunni rebels.

Syria's war has left more than 320,000 people dead since erupting in 2011, with more than half the population forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands trapped under siege.

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Officials Release Details of Latest Strikes Against ISIS Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 15, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, conducting 12 strikes consisting of 55 engagements against ISIS targets yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of 10 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike damaged an ISIS fuel facility.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike damaged an ISIS fuel facility.

-- Near Raqqa, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed three fighting positions and a weapons cache.

-- Near Shadaddi, a strike destroyed an ISIS-held building

-- Near Tabqa, a strike suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted five strikes consisting of 46 engagements against ISIS targets, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Mosul, five strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit, destroyed two rocket-propelled grenade systems and two fighting positions, damaged four supply routes and a fighting position, and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect. For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

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F-35A Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft Arrive in Europe

From a U.S. European Command News Release

STUTTGART, Germany, April 15, 2017  Combat-ready F-35A Lightning II multi-role fighter aircraft arrived today at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, demonstrating U.S. commitment to NATO allies and European territorial integrity.

"The forward presence of F-35s support my priority of having ready and postured forces here in Europe," said Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, the commander of U.S. European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe. "These aircraft, plus more importantly, the men and women who operate them, fortifies the capacity and capability of our NATO Alliance."

The aircraft are deployed from the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and will train with European-based allies.

This long-planned deployment continues to galvanize the U.S. commitment to security and stability throughout Europe. The aircraft and personnel will remain in Europe for several weeks. The F-35A will also forward deploy to maximize training opportunities, strengthen the NATO alliance and gain a broad familiarity of Europe's diverse operating conditions.

Fifth-Generation Fighter

"This is an incredible opportunity for [U.S. Air Forces in Europe] airmen and our NATO allies to host this first overseas training deployment of the F-35A aircraft," said Air Force Gen. Tod D. Wolters, commander of USAFE and Air Forces Africa. "As we and our joint F-35 partners bring this aircraft into our inventories, it's important that we train together to integrate into a seamless team capable of defending the sovereignty of allied nations.

The introduction of the premier fifth-generation fighter to Europe brings state-of-the-art sensors, interoperability and a vast array of advanced air-to-air and air-to-surface munitions that will help maintain the fundamental territorial and air sovereignty rights of all nations. The fighter provides unprecedented precision-attack capability against current and emerging threats with unmatched lethality, survivability and interoperability.

The deployment was supported by the U.S. Air Force's Air Mobility Command. Multiple refueling aircraft from four different bases provided more than 400,000 pounds of fuel during the "tanker bridge" from the United States to Europe. Additionally, C-17 Globemaster III and C-5 Galaxy aircraft transported maintenance equipment and personnel to England.

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Afghanistan government accused of 'national treason' over US bomb

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 15, 2017 3:57PM

Afghanistan's former President Hamid Karzai has slammed the government in Kabul over a recent US bombardment of suspected Daesh terrorists, saying allowing the US military to use its largest conventional bomb in the country was tantamount to treason.

"If the government has permitted them to do this, that was wrong and it has committed a national treason," Karzai said on Saturday during a speech, adding, "How could you permit Americans to bomb your country with a device equal to an atom bomb?"

Karzai, the most popular politician in the Afghan Pashtun community, questioned his successor, President Ashraf Ghani, for a decision to allow the controversial bombing. Ghani, also a Pashtun, is heavily reliant on foreign support for running Afghanistan. However, he has failed to garner the public support that Karzai used to enjoy during his presidency.

Ghani's office said the strike had been closely coordinated between Afghan and US forces. "Every Afghan has the right to speak their mind. This is a country of free speech," the office stated, in reaction to Karzai's comments.

Defense officials in Kabul have estimated that at least 100 militants of Daesh were killed after US jets dropped the 21,600-pound (9,797-kg) GBU-43 in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

US military commanders have sought to justify the use of the bomb, saying it was necessary to target Daesh militants entrenched in booby-trapped tunnels in a remote mountain region.

US commander in Afghanistan General John Nicholson said on Friday that military needs, and not political reasons, were considered in using the bomb.

Karzai, known for years of opposing the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, said in his speech on Saturday that the use of the bomb by the US made him plan to "stand against America."

"This bomb wasn't only a violation of our sovereignty and a disrespect to our soil and environment, but will have bad effects for years," he said, adding, "I decided to get America off my soil."

During his tenure as president, Karzai repeatedly opposed airstrikes by foreign military forces. Many Western governments, including the US, were at odds with him over the issue.

The Thursday bombing marked the first time ever the US used GBU-43 in combat. The move was interpreted by many as a major shift of US policy toward Daesh in Afghanistan as officials in Washington earlier downplayed a threat, saying international efforts in Afghanistan should still concentrate on battling the Taliban rather than Daesh.

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United States snubs Russian initiative on Afghanistan conference

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 15, 2017 2:50PM

The United Sates has ignored an invitation by Russia to be part of a multi-party initiative on strengthening security in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Washington did not send its representative to the major conference held in Russian capital, Moscow, on Friday, much to the dismay of 11 countries attending the meeting to find a solution to the tense security situation in Afghanistan.

Russian officials said an invitation had been sent to Washington for its presence in the highly important meeting. Countries such as China, Iran and Pakistan were represented in the Friday conference.

US officials had earlier justified their failure to attend the conference, saying the Russia-sponsored initiative was meant to assert Moscow's influence in Afghanistan.

"... it was unclear to us what the purpose was ... It seemed to be a unilateral Russian attempt to assert influence in the region that we felt wasn't constructive at this time," US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Tuesday. Russians said Washington's reasons were incomprehensible.

The United States is Afghanistan's main ally in the alleged fight against the Taliban and other militant groups.

However, there is a widening gap between the US and other stakeholders in Afghanistan on how they should assess the threat imposed by Daesh, a Takfiri group based in Iraq and Syria that has gained influence in Afghanistan. There are also differences on how Kabul and allies should deal with the Taliban, which ruled the country before the US-led invasion in 2001.

Washington says its joint efforts with Kabul have significantly lowered the threat of Daesh. It estimates that the number of Daesh terrorists in Afghanistan is well below 1,000. Russia and other countries say at least 3,500 Daesh terrorists are operating in Afghanistan and the number is on the rise. Russia and China have been trying to negotiate with the Taliban and persuade the group to be more focused on Daesh rather than targeting the Afghan government and the military.

"A call has been sent to the Taliban movement to abandon its line for a military solution of the Afghan conflict in favor of direct talks with the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on the issue of national reconciliation," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the talks concluded in Moscow.

The US military said on Thursday that it had dropped its most powerful conventional bomb on suspected hideouts of Daesh. Russia said the military action, the first of its kind in history, could mark a major shift in Washington's view of Daesh in Afghanistan.

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Germany sells more arms to UAE amid Yemen war

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 15, 2017 9:54AM

The German government has approved more arms sales to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is assisting Saudi Arabia in its deadly military campaign against Yemen.

German media reported that Berlin had approved the sale of 203,448 detonators for 40-mm mortar shells to the Arab kingdom as well as 134 million dollars worth of armor-plating for military vehicles.

The move indicated that Germany was continuing its policy of supplying arms to countries directly involved in the Middle East conflicts and disregarding the vetting process of the deal for potential humanitarian impact.

"Once again, the government is waving through the delivery of military equipment to a war participant in the [Persian] Gulf region," said Agnieszka Brugger, the opposition Green Party spokeswoman.

"Instead of finally stopping all arms dealing with the states participating in the bloody war in Yemen, the CDU and SPD [Germany's governing coalition parties] are ignoring Germany's arms export guidelines once again," she added.

Abu Dhabi is a member of the Saudi-led military coalition that has been engaged in a brutal offensive against in Yemen since March 2015 with the aim of reinstalling the former Riyadh-allied government.

The deal comes as some seven million Yemenis are facing starvation as a result of the two-year conflict in the country, which has already claimed over 12,000 civilian lives and taken a heavy toll on the impoverished country's facilities and infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories.

Germany is one of the world's main arms exporters to the European Union states and NATO countries. The United States and the United Kingdom have also been major suppliers of arms and weapons to countries that wreak havoc in the Middle East.

The US and its allies have been under pressure to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia which faces massive criticism from the international community for launching a violent war against the poorest Arabian Peninsula state.

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Mega-bomb dropped by US on east Afghanistan kills 94: Official

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 15, 2017 9:6AM

Afghanistan says the death toll from an attack, which saw the US military dropping the 'mother of all bombs' on eastern Nangarhar Province, has jumped to 94, with the figure expected to rise due to the devastating strength of the bomb.

Spokesman for the provincial governor, Ataullah Khogyani, stated on Saturday that the number of suspected Daesh terrorists killed in the massive bomb attack had nearly tripled from the 36 reported a day earlier.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb  the US military's largest non-nuclear bomb -- was first used against suspected Daesh positions on Thursday.

An Afghan Defense Ministry official has said the number of fatalities could increase as authorities were still assessing the site of the bombing in Nangarhar's Achin district.

Khogyani further said the US attack on a tunnel complex in the remote province near the Pakistan border had killed at least four Daesh commanders, adding that clearance operations were continuing. He did not, however, elaborate on how the terror chiefs were identified.

Moreover, Achin district governor Esmail Shinwari put the militant death toll at 92 while insisting that there were "no military and civilian casualties at all."

The massive bombing, however, sent shock waves in Afghanistan, with some censuring the US attack as a bid to use the war-torn country as a testing ground for the mega-bomb.

The opponents argue that Daesh does not pose as great a threat to Afghanistan as the local Taliban militant group, which remains much more active across the country.

Hours after the incident, Hamed Karzai, the former Afghan president, took to Twitter to condemn the assault "in strongest words," saying Washington is using Afghanistan "as testing ground for new and dangerous weapons."

Residents of Kabul also reacted with suspicion to the US deployment of one of the largest conventional bombs ever used in combat.

"The truth is something else we all know, that Daesh, the Taliban or other enemies are implementing a proxy war for others. The fact is that America uses their big bomb here to test its effectiveness, if America wants to eliminate Daesh it is very easy because they have created this group," said Asadullah Khaksar.

Another Kabul resident, Mohammad Aman also expressed doubts about the reports that there had been no civilian casualties in the attack.

"Daesh is the enemy of Afghanistan, I wish that America in reality targeted Daesh in that area, but there are children there and they had casualties from this bombing. Not only do I condemn this, the whole world condemns this action," he added.

However, President Ashraf Ghani threw his support behind the bombing, saying it was "designed to support the efforts of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and US forces conducting clearance operations in the region."

Despite the presence of thousands of foreign boots on the ground, Afghanistan has been rocked by a surge in terrorist attacks, some of them carried out by Daesh mainly active in Nangarhar Province.

This is while the country has already been torn apart by decades of Taliban-led militancy and the 2001 invasion of the US and its allies.

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F-35 on first operational deployment to Europe: Pentagon

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 15, 2017 1:56AM

The US Air Force is about to deploy its F-35 fighter jets to Europe on their first operational mission, where they would partake in joint exercises with NATO forces.

The Pentagon made the announcement on Friday, noting that a "small number" of F-35A stealth aircraft from an airbase in Utah would be sent to an undisclosed location in Europe.

After the drills, the fighter jets would stick around for a few more weeks in order to help deter what Washington and its allies refer to as "Russian aggression."

The deployment was arranged during the administration of former US President Barack Obama.

According to the Pentagon, the deployment was aimed at facilitating the expensive warplane's mass deployment in the upcoming years.

"This training deployment signifies an important milestone and natural progression of the F-35 program, allowing the Air Force to further demonstrate the operational capabilities of the fifth generation fighter aircraft," a statement by the Pentagon read.

"It also assists in refining requirements for eventually basing the F-35A in Europe, which is scheduled to receive the aircraft in the early 2020s," the statement added.

The F-35 has three variants: the A-model with conventional takeoff and landing which is the export version; the F-35B variant, which can handle short takeoffs and vertical landings for the Marine Corps and the British navy; and the F-35C, designed exclusively for the US Navy.

Although the US refuses to disclose the aircraft's destination during their stay in Europe, it has been a well-known fact that the UK's RAF Lakenheath airbase would house at least 54 F-35As. The timeline for the deployments remains unclear.

The announcement comes days after the Pentagon's newly retired chief weapons tester described F-35 as "scarcely fit to fly."

Michael Gilmore, who was the Director of Test and Evaluation for the US military until recently, laid out in his parting report a long list of problems plaguing the $400 billion program in all departments from combat-readiness to the wing design.

According to Gilmore, the aircraft's stealthiness is undermined by a poorly designed Electro-Optical Targeting System. The system's low resolution and range forces the pilot to blow his cover by making a close overflight before return to the safety zone, where they can launch their attack.

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Afghan Officials: Massive U.S. Bomb Death Toll Rises To 94

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan April 15, 2017

Afghan officials say the number of Islamic State (IS) group fighters killed in an attack by the most powerful nonnuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military has risen to 94.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb -- dubbed the Mother Of All Bombs -- was deployed in combat for the first time on April 13, hitting IS positions in eastern Nangarhar Province.

Provincial Governor Muhammad Ismail Shinwari said on April 15 that four key commanders were among the militants killed. Shinwari said no civilian casualties were inflicted as civilians living in the area of the bombing had been evacuated by the Afghan military.

Shinwari's spokesman, Ataullah Khogyani, said that a clearance operation in the area was continuing.

Afghanistan's Defense Ministry reported on April 14 that 36 IS fighters had been killed in the bombing in Achin district, which targeted a tunnel complex used a as a command center and ammuntions depot by the IS which had been mined against conventional ground attacks.

The massive bomb was deployed after fighting intensified over the past week and U.S.-backed ground forces struggled to advance on the area, where a U.S. special forces soldier was killed on April 8.

The blast triggered shock waves in Afghanistan, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and against a militant group that is not considered a threat as big as the resurgent Taliban.

President Ashraf Ghani voiced his support for the bombing, saying it was executed in coordination with Afghanistan's government and was "designed to support the efforts of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and U.S. forces conducting clearance operations in the region."

But some critics called the action "disproportionate."

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the use of the bomb on Afghan soil. "This is not the war on terror, but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and dangerous weapons," he said on Twitter.

IS has made inroads into Afghanistan in recent years, attracting disaffected members of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban as well as Uzbek Islamists.

But the militant group has been steadily losing ground in the face of heavy pressure both from U.S. air strikes and a ground offensive conducted by the Afghan military.

With additional reporting by AP, dpa, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/afghan-officials- moab-death-toll-94/28432068.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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US Air Force's Fifth-Generation F-35A Fighter Jets Arrive in Britain

Sputnik News

21:00 15.04.2017

Several F-35A Lightning II multirole fighter jets of the US Air Force have arrived in the United Kingdom to carry out joint drills with the NATO forces, the US Defense Department said in a statement Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Friday, the Pentagon announced the deployment of fifth-generation F-35A fighter jets to Europe this weekend.

"The forward presence of F-35s support my priority of having ready and postured forces here in Europe  These aircraft, plus more importantly, the men and women who operate them, fortifies the capacity and capability of our NATO Alliance," US Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, the commander of US European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe said, as quoted in the statement.

The US fighter aircraft have arrived for deployment at UK Royal Air Force's Lakenheath military base in the UK eastern Suffolk county, according to the statement.

The US Department of Defense said Friday that the F-35A Lightning II fighters are sent to Europe to conduct training for several weeks as part of the European Reassurance Initiative. The Pentagon said the deployment represents "natural progression" of the F-35 program and would allow to demonstrate operational capabilities of the jets.

The F-35 Lightning II is a fifth generation fighter jet, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information and network-enabled operations.

Three variants of the F-35 jet are being introduced into the Air Force (F-35 A), Navy (F-35C), Marines (F-35B).

F-35 jets are set to be deployed to Europe on a permanent basis in the beginning of 2020s.

The creation of the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) was announced by US President Barack Obama in 2014 as an alleged response to the "Russian threat." The ERI was established in the 2015 budget as a one-year, $1 billion emergency response.

 Sputnik

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UN Mission calls for restraint as violence erupts in a number of places across South Sudan

15 April 2017  A senior United Nations official in South Sudan has called for restraint and underlined the need to ensure the protection of civilians as fresh fighting has erupted between Government and opposition forces in a number of locations across the country.

According to a news release issued by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), clashes between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and opposition groups have taken place in Raga (western South Sudan), Waat (Jonglei state, eastern South Sudan), and in Wunkur and Tonga towns (northern, Upper Nile state).

"[The warring parties] must once and for all silence the guns, return to dialogue, reconcile their differences and bring the peace the South Sudanese people want and deserve," said Moustapha Soumare, the acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the country.

"During this holy celebration of Easter, which for many symbolises reconciliation and the rebirth of hope, I call on all parties to prove their commitment to peace," he added.

The escalation of violence follows recent fighting in Pajok (near the border with Uganda) that caused some 6,000 to flee across the border as well as in Wau that displaced many civilians and also claimed the lives of three workers contracted by the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

According to UNMISS, the Protection of Civilians site adjacent to its base in Wau has received some 13,500 newly displaced persons, taking the total number of the displaced sheltering there to 38,746. Around 3,000 others are also reportedly seeking refuge at other non-UN compounds.

The Mission also noted that it continues to push for access to areas affected by the conflict and that, despite challenges in reaching some parts of the country, it has successfully deployed a number of peacekeeping patrols to deter violence and protect civilians.

It also continues to monitor the human rights situation in line with its mandate.

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Germany's foreign minister said on Sunday it was good that the Turkish referendum was over and urged people to remain calm with the 'Yes' vote for constitutional change to expand President Tayyip Erdogan's power narrowly ahead.

"It looks like it will be a close result, as expected. However the vote of the Turkish people turns out in the end, we'd be well advised to keep calm and to proceed in a level-headed way," Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in a statement.

"It's good that election campaign, which was fought so bitterly, including here in Germany, is now over," said Gabriel, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) - the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition.

Peter Altmaier, Merkel's chief of staff, said on German broadcaster ARD that the result showed there was a "very lively political debate" in Turkey but said it was necessary to wait for official results before commenting further.

He said there were election observers in Turkey and the German government "would of course respect a result that came about in a free and democratic vote".

Asked if the vote was free and democratic, Altmaier said the German government would discuss the result once it was official and election observers would look at whether it was fairly conducted.

Senior SPD member Axel Schaefer said majorities reached in democratic votes could turn against democracy itself, pointing to the 1933 elections in Germany, when support for Adolf Hitler's Nazis surged.

"The Brexit vote is pushing Britain into the sidelines, the presidential election of (U.S. President Donald) Trump is taking the USA on an adventure, the Erdogan referendum is leading Turkey into absolutism and the 1933 German parliamentary election led Germany into the abyss," he said.

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Death Toll From Massive US Bomb in Afghanistan Passes 90

By Ayesha Tanzeem April 15, 2017

Afghan officials say the number of militants known to have been killed by a huge U.S. bomb Thursday has nearly tripled.

Officials say at least 92 militants died in the blast - up from 36 reported Friday. The area is still being cleared, so the death toll may increase.

There is no indication any civilians or military personnel were among the dead.

President Ashraf Ghani said Afghan and U.S. forces closely coordinated on the bombing, however his predecessor has strongly denounced the strike and the United States.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday he is unleashing a campaign to force U.S. forces out of his country for dropping the so-called "mother of all bombs" on Afghan soil, calling it a "barbaric" act that was more aimed at testing "a new weapon of mass destruction" than targeting Islamic State fighters.

"I have decided as an individual to force America out of Afghanistan. Whether someone joins me or not, I have decided to prevent the American cruelty (against Afghans). They are not only killing our people but destroying the environment and disrespecting our honor," Karzai told a gathering in Kabul.

Karzai's criticism has been echoed by Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan, who Tweeted, "I find the use of the largest non-nuclear bomb, the so-called "mother of all bombs," on our soil reprehensible & counterproductive. If big bombs were the solution we would be the most secure place on earth today."

The Afghan presidential palace responded to the criticism Saturday on it's official Twitter account. "Every Afghan has the right to speak their mind. This is a country of free speech."

And the country's Minister for Security Reforms Amrullah Saleh defended Thursday's strike.

"Destroying few notorious cave networks along with dozens of terrorists to save ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) personnel by dropping a MOAB (mother of all bombs) was a wise tactical decision," Saleh, a former Afghan spy chief, said in aTwitter post.

U.S. forces dropped the GBU-43 Massive Ordinance Air Blast, a nine-meter giant weighing about 10 tons, on the Achin district of Nangarhar province Thursday night. The strike was described as part of a campaign to destroy the Islamic State Khorasan Province group, the local chapter of IS.

General John Nicholson, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, said Friday his forces had coordinated the attack with the Afghan government, "just as we have since we started these operations in early March."

Nicholson said circumstances on the ground justified the use of the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever used by the U.S. military.

"This munition, this weapon, was the right weapon against this target," he said. "The enemy had created bunkers, tunnels, and extensive minefields and this weapon was used to reduce those obstacles so that we could continue our offensive into southern Nangarhar."

U.S. President Donald Trump was asked Thursday whether the attack was intended to send a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is reportedly poised to conduct a new nuclear weapons test as early as this weekend. But Nicholson insisted the decision was based solely on the analysis of conditions in Nangarhar.

"It was the right time to use it tactically, against the right target on the battlefield," he said.

Nicholson said the operation against IS in Nangahar has liberated more than 400 square kilometers since its inception.

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New North Korean Missile Test Fails, Explodes, U.S. Says

RFE/RL April 15, 2017

U.S. military says North Korea has failed in an attempt to test-fire a missile early on April 16, saying the launch "blew up almost immediately."

The U.S. military, which has troops stationed in South Korea, said it detected the failed missile launch at 2121 GMT, hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to land in Seoul.

The U.S. Pacific Command said the U.S. military "is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security."

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said President Donald Trump "and his military team are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."

The U.S. announcement confirmed earlier reports by the South Korean officials of the failed missile test.

"North Korea attempted to test an unidentified type of missile from Sinpo area in the South Hamkyong Province this morning, but we suspect the launch has failed," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean intelligence source, said the missile did not appear to have flown far from its launch site before exploding.

The attempted launch comes a day after the North rolled out intercontinental ballistic missiles and other military hardware at a massive parade and vowed that it was "ready to hit back with nuclear attacks" against its enemies.

It took place amid concerns that North Korea was possibly preparing for its sixth nuclear test or a significant rocket launch, such as its first flight test of an ICBM.

It also comes as Vice President Pence is set to arrive in South Korea later in the day as part of a 10-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. His aides said the visit was a sign of the U.S. commitment to South Korea in the face of rising tension with the North.

The White House said Pence has been made aware of the "failed missile launch" and is in contact with the U.S. president.

Amid the elevated tensions, the United States dispatched what Trump called an "armada" of ships, including an aircraft carrier, into waters off the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un launched a long-range rocket and conducted two nuclear tests in 2016. Its goal is to develop a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental United States.

A previous missile test from Sinpo failed earlier this month, with the projectile spinning out of control and plunging into the sea.

Analysts say North Korean missile and nuclear tests have three main goals -- develop the technologies, bolster the domestic image Kim, and apply political pressure on Seoul and Washington.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended without an official peace treaty. The U.S. military has about 28,500 troops stationed in the South.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/north-korea-missile-test- us-japan-south-korea/28432989.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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North Korea Rolls Out Missiles, Says Ready For 'Nuclear War'

RFE/RL April 15, 2017

North Korea rolled out intercontinental ballistic missiles and other military hardware at a massive parade on April 15 and vowed that it was "ready to hit back with nuclear attacks" against its enemies.

The parade, celebrating the 105th birthday of Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, took place amid concerns that North Korea is possibly preparing for its sixth nuclear test or a significant rocket launch, such as its first flight test of an ICBM.

State television showed Kim, wearing a black suit and white shirt, clapping in delight along with senior government officials to acknowledge the thousands of soldiers and civilians taking part in the parade at Kim Il Sung Square in the capital, Pyongyang.

State television showed what appeared to be several KN-08 intercontinental missiles rolled out on trucks at the parade. Experts say the missiles would theoretically be capable in a remote future of hitting targets as far as the continental United States, but the North has yet to flight test them.

Military planes flew in formation, creating the number "105" above Kim Il Sung Square.

Kim didn't speak before North Korean television ended the live broadcast.

But Choe Ryong Hae, reportedly the second-most powerful official in the country, said in a speech that Pyongyang is prepared for any threat posed by the United States.

He criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's administration for "creating a war situation" on the Korean Peninsula by dispatching strategic military assets to the region.

"We will respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and a nuclear war with our style of a nuclear attack," Choe said.

Kim, who took power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in late 2011, has been aggressively pursuing a goal of putting a nuclear warhead on an ICBM capable of reaching the continental United States.

Amid the elevated tensions, the United States a few days ago dispatched what Trump called an "armada" of ships, including an aircraft carrier, into waters off the Korean Peninsula.

The move, coupled with the U.S. retaliatory strikes last week against Syria over a chemical weapons attack on civilians, and the depoyment of a huge bomb against IS positions in Afghanistan earlier this week, touched off fear in South Korea that the United States was preparing for military action against the North.

However, U.S. officials said on April 14 that the Trump administration intends to step up pressure on Pyongyang with the help of China, North Korea's only major ally, instead of military options or trying to overthrow Kim's leadership.

A U.S. military official, who requested anonymity to discuss planning, said Washington has no intention of using military force against Pyongyang in response to either a nuclear test or a missile launch.

With additional reporting by AP, Reuters, dpa, and BBC

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/north-korea-missiles -ready-for-nuclear-war/28432093.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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North Korea's Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles Displayed at Military Parade

Sputnik News

05:32 15.04.2017(updated 09:14 15.04.2017)

The North Korean authorities reportedly displayed on Saturday submarine-launched ballistic missiles at the military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of founder and former leader Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang.

Submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) were displayed at the North Korean military parade for the first time ever, according to the Japan Times reporter Jesse Johnson, who alleged that three of the missiles that were rolled on trucks during the event were KN-15s or KN-11s.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that the parade on the occasion of the Day of the Sun national holiday could become the largest such event ever held and that Pyongyang was planning to showcase its latest missile technology at the Saturday parade.

US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, surrounded by a fleet of US warships, was sent toward the Korean Peninsula in advance of this weekend's festivities in Pyongyang.

Friday media reports pointed to satellite observations suggesting that North Korea could be preparing for yet another nuclear test in the coming days. US media claimed that President Donald Trump may order a strike against North Korea in case Pyongyang decides to carry out another nuclear weapon test.

North Korea's vice foreign minister said the country's rumored next nuclear test would take place any time the leadership decides. The minister said there was a "vicious cycle" happening on the Korean Peninsula, and that Pyongyang wouldn't countenance a preemptive strike from Washington.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump told reporters at the White House that the North Korean "problem" "will be taken care of."

In response, the general staff of the North Korean armed forces threatened to launch a strike against US military bases in Japan and South Korea, as well as the presidential residence in Seoul in case of US aggression.

 Sputnik

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North Korean Missile Launch Failed, Seoul's Military Says

By VOA News April 15, 2017

South Korea's military said a missile launch by North Korea early Sunday from the port city of Sinpo "is presumed to have failed."

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff did not provide details of the launch, and it was not immediately clear what type of missile was fired.

The launch came less than a day after a massive military parade in the North Korean capital that was widely viewed in world capitals as a show of force by the government of Kim Jong Un.

South Korea's official Yonhap News Agency said Seoul's national security chief would convene the National Security Council later Sunday to assess the situation.

There was no immediate comment from Washington, which is engaged in a sharp, multinational diplomatic offensive aimed at persuading North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to end his push to develop nuclear weaponry.

Quick failure

A short while after the launch, a statement from the U.S. Pacific Command said the missile blew up almost immediately and that its type was still being assessed.

The statement also reiterated Washington's full commitment "to working closely with our allies," particularly South Korea and Japan, to maintain security.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, en route to South Korea late Saturday (Washington time), was briefed on the failed launch and conferred with President Donald Trump, according to a statement from his office.

Earlier this week, as tensions worsened between Washington and Pyongyang, Trump ordered a U.S. naval strike group headed by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier to the Korean Peninsula in show of force.

Pyongyang conducted two unauthorized nuclear test explosions last year and nearly two dozen rocket launches in a years-long push to expand its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

North Korean leader Kim declared in a speech on New Year's Day that his country's program to build intercontinental ballistic missiles had "reached its final stage."

Years of sanctions

Pyongyang has been under United Nations sanctions since 2006, along with an international arms embargo aimed at slowing its development of its banned nuclear and missile programs.

Since then, Washington and a vast majority of world governments have repeatedly demanded that the North denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. However, Western leaders have yet to devise a plan that would either compel the North to cooperate or create incentives for it to do so.

Trump has in recent weeks pressed China to persuade its North Korean ally to curb its nuclear ambitions, but results of those efforts are not yet clear.

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North Korea Postpones Nuclear Showdown With US

By Brian Padden April 15, 2017

North Korea did not go through with a possible nuclear test Saturday, after the United States demonstrated a credible threat of military force in the region and China increased economic restrictions against its economically dependent ally, but Pyongyang did later conduct a missile test that failed.

The missile was launched early Sunday from the Sinpo area on the North's east coast, where the country has a submarine base. The U.S. Pacific Command said the missile blew up almost immediately and that its type was still being assessed.

Earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a military parade to celebrate the April 15 birthday of his country's founding leader the late Kim Il Sung, the country's most important holiday known as the Day of the Sun.

"Kim Jong Un had planned a fight with the U.S., but decided to give up the plan," said North Korea defector and analyst Ahn Chan-il with the World Institute for North Korean Studies.

Military pressure

Expectations of an imminent North Korean nuclear test grew this week based on reports of recent activity at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site and Pyongyang's pattern of conducting provocative military tests to coincide with the birthday of the nation's founding leader.

Since January 2016, Pyongyang has acted with little restraint, conducting two nuclear tests and attempting numerous medium- and long-range ballistic missile launches. This year Kim Jong Un indicated that his nation is in the final testing phase of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could potentially hit the U.S. mainland.

U.S. President Donald Trump, however, 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.

The U.S. Pacific Command this week sent the USS Carl Vinson nuclear-powered aircraft carrier naval formation that includes guided missile destroyers and aircraft squadrons to the region.

And last week's U.S. airstrikes against Syria for using chemical weapons added credibility to statements made by the Trump administration that it is prepared to take military action against North Korea as well. Following the Syrian strike, North Korea's KCNA news agency said the Trump administration, "has entered the path of open threat and blackmail."

A temporary pause

While Pyongyang seems to have backed down to U.S. military pressure for now, it is likely only a temporary pause.

The North's military parade Saturday prominently displayed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) for the first time, demonstrating its own increasingly advanced and diverse military capabilities.

Choe Ryong Hae, a close aide to Kim, addressed the packed square and reiterated the warning to the United States.

"If the United States wages reckless provocation against us, our revolutionary power will instantly counter with annihilating strike, and we will respond to full-out war with full-out war and to nuclear war with our style of nuclear strike warfare," he said.

North Korean state media earlier warned the United States to end its "military hysteria" or, "Our toughest counteraction against the U.S. and its vassal forces will be taken in such a merciless manner as not to allow the aggressors to survive."

Economic pressure

Trump has also been pressing China to do more to rein in North Korea, and has held out the offer of better trade terms for halting Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Trump this week praised Chinese President Xi Jinping after Beijing sent back a fleet of North Korean ships carrying coal in accordance with United Nations sanctions. In February China banned all imports of North Korean coal, which is a lucrative source of income for the country. North Korea relies on China for 90 percent of its trade.

On Friday, China's national airline, Air China, also canceled some flights to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, citing poor demand.

Trump and Xi discussed the North Korean nuclear threat during a recent summit at the U.S. president's Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida. They spoke again over the phone Thursday. Afterward Trump said he believed Xi would "work very hard" to help resolve the tense situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Friday urged all parties to "refrain from provoking and threatening each other, whether in words or actions, and not let the situation get to an irreversible and unmanageable stage."

While China opposes the North's nuclear program it is reluctant to take harsh measures that would cause instability at its border and that would increase U.S. power in the region.

Youmi Kim contributed to this report.

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North Korea Displays New ICBM, Other Missiles

By VOA News April 15, 2017

North Korea rolled out its military hardware Saturday at its annual Day of the Sun celebration commemorating the 105th birth anniversary of the country's founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader, Kim Jong Un.

Goose-stepping soldiers and marching bands filled the square Saturday where North Korea's young leader reviewed tanks, multiple-launch rocket systems and other weapons that rolled by.

New missiles

Weapons analysts said they believe some of the missiles on display were new types of intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, including a solid-fuel missile designed to be fired from a submarine, which would make it hard to detect.

Also on display, analysts said, were a midrange missile powerful enough to reach U.S. air bases in Guam, and a new solid-fuel midrange missile that could be fired from land mobile launchers, which would also make it hard to detect before it's launched.

Military airplanes flew in formation above Kim Il Sung Square where the day's festivities were held.

Verbal sparing

Pyongyang has been engaged recently in a game of back-and-forth threats with Washington.

The North has said it has developed a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland, but officials say that ability may take more time for development. That, however, did not stop a North Korean army official from warning the United States that any provocation would be met with retaliation.

"Our toughest counteraction against the U.S. and its vassal forces will be taken in such a merciless manner as not to allow the aggressors to survive," the official said, according to North Korea's state news agency.



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South Koreans, Japanese Remain Calm as US, North Korea Posture

Sputnik News

01:00 16.04.2017(updated 04:13 16.04.2017)

As media and lawmakers in Washington ratchet up the threat of war with Pyongyang, those who live in areas close to North Korea shrug their shoulders, unconcerned by what they consider to be business as usual on the peninsula.

Amid increasingly strident war rhetoric from the US, residents in regions near to North Korea offer that the recent moves are more of the same, noting that warnings of a nuclear attack are a threat commonly wielded by those who seek to destabilize regions.

After remarks by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the US policy of strategic patience is over, and comments from US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that negotiations with North Korea were no longer being considered as "all options" were now on the table, many observe that a new threat policy, months in the making, is now in full-scale use by the West.

But many in South Korea and Japan do not appear to share what they consider to be Washington's manufactured anxiety.

Asked by a reporter, one unnamed Seoul National University student simply commented, "It'll never happen."

"It's ridiculous," he added, according to the South China Morning Post.

In Japan, the dire warnings by from Washington were welcomed publicly, but privately the reaction was muted, according to the Japan Times, as no one at the executive level in Tokyo seriously believes that the United States will launch an invasion of North Korea.

When asked if Japan should begin evacuating its estimated 60,000 residents from South Korea, one senior Japanese government official said on Friday, "It's not like that."

"We know the situation is tense," the official added. "But you need to calmly watch and analyze the situation at a time like this."

In South Korea, residents are not worried about the West's increased war rhetoric for several reasons, according to Seoul National University professor of sociology Myoung-kyu.

"South Koreans have lived more than five decades with these kind of conflict situations," he pointed out, adding that residents "have experienced several situations of military confrontation between the South and North. So maybe that is one reason why South Koreans are not so worried."

Facing upcoming presidential elections in Seoul that are polling as favoring a candidate seen to be less amenable to US influence, many observe that Washington is doing its best to increase the fear of an attack from Pyongyang, and is offering itself as a guardian to reduce the danger.

The leading candidate in South Korea's upcoming elections, liberal Moon Jae-in, is known to favor a more hands-off approach with the US than the preceding administration.

"The timing is curious," according to Seoul native Joanne Lee, who added, "The US definitely doesn't want to see another liberal president in South Korea after Roh moo-hyun who would be less likely to follow their policies," as reported by Scmp.com.

But the prevailing thinking in the West continues to beat the drums of war.

US President Donald Trump has tweeted that he would be willing to "go it alone" if China does not step in to end ballistic missile and nuclear weapon tests by North Korea, and the US Navy's SEAL Team 6, notoriously responsible for the assassination of Osama bin Laden, has been deployed nearby in the event that the same move is ordered against DPRK leader Kim Jong-un.

Additionally, a US Navy carrier strike group has been redirected to the region, following sudden orders to cut short an ongoing mission in the waters around Australia.

To hear Phill Hynes, a political and risk analysis expert from Intelligent Security Solutions, tell it, "The prospect for a misstep has not been higher in 20 years."

 Sputnik

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Manufacturing training jets prelude to production of heavy planes: Min.

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 15, IRNA -- Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said manufacturing Qaher-313 and Kosar-88 training jets in Iran is a prelude to production of heavy planes.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of an exhibition displaying the achievements of the Defense Ministry.

Iranian experts have been involved in all phases of production of the equipment unveiled in the exhibition including the design and manufacturing of the aircraft, the official noted.

He said that the training jets will join the armed forces after their flight tests.

"We can enter the phase of production of heavier planes in the future."

Completing all phases of test of new heavy planes will take at least 5 to 10 years and they can be used in operations afterwards, Dehqan added.

He noted that Iran produces all jet parts inside the country except for the heavy jet engines which is on agenda to be produced domestically.

Dehqan referred to production of Saba-248 indigenous helicopters and Karrar tanks and called them Iranian defense industry's precious achievements.

President Hassan Rouhani participated Saturday in an exhibition displaying the achievements of the Defense Ministry gained during the past two years.

President Rouhani unveiled the domestic training jet named Kosar, the tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called Mohajer-6, the anti-ship cruise missile dubbed Nasir and the air-to-air missile named Fakour.

Also, the president attended a ceremony on preparation of the flight of the Qaher-313 fighter.

Kosar, the indigenous training jet, which has been designed, built, tested and standardized inside the country, has put Iran on the list of the few world states which enjoy such a capability.

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New defense achievements unveiled in Rouhani's presence

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sat / 15 April 2017 / 13:59

Tehran (ISNA) - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani participated Saturday in an exhibition displaying the achievements of the Defense Ministry gained during the past two years.

Rouhani unveiled the domestic training jet Kosar, the tactical unmanned aerial vehicle Mohajer-6, the anti-ship cruise missile Nasir and the air-to-air missile Fakour.

Iranian president attended a ceremony on the preparation of the flight of the Qaher-313 fighter. He also issued an order to commence of taxiing and preparation of test flights of stealth fighter aircraft Qaher-313 and the delivery of 20 overhauled helicopters to the Armed Forces.

Kosar is an indigenous training jet, which has been designed, built, tested and standardized inside Iran.

End Item

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North Korea Sunday staged a fresh missile test, a day after staging a defiant giant military parade and hours before US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea for talks on curbing Pyongyang's weapons programmes.

The South Korean and US military said the latest launch -- conducted as tensions rose over the North's nuclear ambitions -- was a failure.

"The missile blew up almost immediately," the US Defense Department said of the early-morning launch from near Sinpo on the North's east coast.

The type of missile was not clear.

The test came after North Korea displayed nearly 60 missiles -- including what is suspected to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile -- at a parade on Saturday to mark the 105th birthday of its founder Kim Il-Sung.

It was also staged hours before Pence arrived in South Korea on a tour which will also include Japan, Indonesia and Australia.

North Korea has a habit of firing off missiles to mark major political anniversaries, or as gestures of defiance to top US officials visiting the region.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the latest test but had "no further comment".

"It is likely that this launch is a test for a new type of missile or an upgrade so the possibility is high for further provocation in the near future," said Kim Dong-Yub, of Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

South Korea's foreign ministry said that by conducting the latest test just a day after showcasing a series of missiles, "North Korea has threatened the whole world".

Last August a submarine-launched ballistic missile tested from Sinpo flew 500 kilometres (300 miles) towards Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hailed that test as the "greatest success" and said it brought the US mainland within range of a mobile delivery system.

Pyongyang's rogue atomic ambitions have come into sharp focus in recent weeks, with Trump vowing a tough stance against the North and threatening unilateral action if China failed to help curb its neighbour's nuclear programme.

Trump has repeatedly said he will prevent Pyongyang from developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

With speculation mounting that the North is preparing to conduct a sixth nuclear test, he sent an aircraft carrier-led strike group to the Korean peninsula.

But a White House foreign policy adviser travelling with Pence played down Sunday's test, saying the missile -- probably a medium-range one -- failed after about four to five seconds.

While Washington had a "wide array of tools" at the president's disposal, "for this particular case, if they (North Korea) took the time and energy to launch a missile that failed, we don't need to expend any resources against that."

Asked if a nuclear test was still expected, the adviser said Kim Jong-Un had stated he wanted to do both a nuclear test and a missile launch.

"We've seen one -- it doesn't prevent him from doing the other."

The North has reiterated its constant refrain that it is ready for war with the US, and its army vowed Friday a "merciless" response to any US provocation.

Recent satellite images suggest its main nuclear site is "primed and ready," according to specialist US website 38North, and White House officials say military options are already being assessed.

China, the North's sole major ally, and Russia have both urged restraint, with Beijing's Foreign Minister Wang Yi warning that "conflict could break out at any moment".

The UN Security Council has imposed six sets of sanctions against the North since its first nuclear test in 2006 -- all of which have failed to halt its drive for what it insists are defensive weapons.

Pyongyang has carried out five nuclear tests -- two of them last year -- and multiple missile launches.

It has yet to formally announce it has an operational ICBM, but experts and intelligence officials have warned it could be less than two years away from achieving an inter-continental strike capability.

Operational submarine-launched devices could give the North the ability to strike without warning from a vessel somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

They could also reduce the effectiveness of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD), which Washington and Seoul are deploying in the South to counter missile threats, to the fury of Beijing.

On Monday Pence is scheduled to meet Acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn for talks on the North's weapons programmes and on THAAD.

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Iran Defense Ministry showcases achievements, including some making first appearances

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 15, 2017 10:22AM

The Iranian Defense Ministry has showcased its recent technological achievements, including a jet designed indigenously for training purposes and other items that were being made public for the first time.

The achievements were displayed during an exhibition at the Iranian Helicopter Support and Renewal Company (IHSRC) in Tehran on Saturday.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani paid a visit to the exhibition. During his visit, a number of defense achievements were unveiled, among them Iran's first domestically-made training jet, named Kowsar.

A tactical drone dubbed Mohajer-6, the Nasir anti-ship cruise missile, and the Fakur air-to-air missile were also put on display.

Additionally, the Qaher F-313 fighter jet was tested for taxiing.

Twenty helicopters heavily retrofitted were also unveiled and handed over to the Armed Forces during the ceremony.

During the event, Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said the production of the Qaher F-313 and Kowsar jets was "a prelude to the production of heavy aircraft."

He further announced plans to domestically manufacture heavy jet engines.

Iran has recently made major breakthroughs in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing important military equipment and hardware.

The Islamic Republic says its military power poses no threat to other countries and is merely based on the doctrine of deterrence.

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More Than 1,600 Iranians File To Run For President As Registration Deadline Passes

RFE/RL April 15, 2017

More than 1,600 candidates have filed to run in the Iranian presidential election as the official registration period ended on April 15.

Among the last-minute entrants for the May 19 election was 55-year-old Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who arrived at the Interior Ministry just before the deadline.

First Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri, 60, also was a late entrant. He is a close ally of moderate cleric President Hassan Rohani, who registered on April 14.

Experts said the reformist Jahangiri could be running as a potential alternative should Rouhani be disqualified by the Guardian Council, which vets candidates before they can appear on the ballot.

"Rouhani and I are side-by-side," Jahangiri told reporters.

The council routinely disqualifies those it regards as a threat to the clerical establishment. In 2013, it prevented ex-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from running.

Officials said a total of 1,636 people registered for the election, including 137 women. The council has not allowed women to run in the past.

Traditionally, about six candidates are finally approved to run. The campaign officially opens April 28 and the vote is on May 19.

Ebrahim Raisi, 56, a hard-line cleric close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on April 14 filed to run and is considered by many to be the 68-year-old Rohani's main challenger.

Raisi is expected to draw support from Iran's hard-line factions, including the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Rohani negotiated the Iranian nuclear deal with world powers last year, but some disappointment that the accord has not spurred economic growth has boosted the opposition against him.

Former hard-line President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, 60, made a surprise move to register for the election against Khamenei's advice.

Khamenei has said Ahmadinejad candidacy would create a "polarized situation" that would be "harmful for the county."

With reporting by AFP and AP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/iran-election-ghalibaf-jahangiri -khamenei-rohani-president/28432605.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Hard-Line Cleric, Seen As Main Rohani Rival, Files To Run For President

RFE/RL April 15, 2017

Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line cleric close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on April 14 filed to run in the May presidential election.

Raisi, 56, a professor of Islamic law, is viewed as incumbent President Hassan Rohani's main rival for the presidency. Rohani, a politically moderate cleric, also filed for reelection earlier on April 14.

While Rohani has won praise for his groundbreaking nuclear deal with world powers last year, the pact's failure so far to stimulate strong economic growth and discontent due to high unemployment has created an opening for his opponents.

Raisi is expected to draw support from Iran's hard-line factions, including the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

On April 14, he made it clear he would try to exploit economic discontent.

"Despite all the efforts of previous governments, the situation of the country is such that people ask why is there so much unemployment?" he said. Unemployment in Iran is around 12 percent.

Raisi reached out to moderates as well as hard-liners.

"I will be the candidate for the whole of Iran. I don't limit myself to a certain group, party, or faction," he said.

Raisi said he would announce detailed economic plans soon.

A potential spoiler for Raisi arose on April 12, when former hard-line president Mahmud Ahmadinejad made a surprise move to register for the election against Khamenei's advice.

A clearer picture will emerge next week when the conservative-controlled Guardians Council announces which of the nearly 1,000 registered candidates are allowed to run in the May 19 election.

Raisi has solid conservative credentials. Born into a religious family in the holy city of Mashhad, he is a "seyed" whose genealogy is said to lead back to the Prophet Muhammad.

Raisi has served in the country's judiciary for decades. He is also a member of the Assembly of Experts, an all-cleric body that will rule on Khamenei's succession.

Last year, Khamenei made Raisi head of the powerful Imam Reza charity foundation, which oversees the Imam Reza Shrine and owns a large business conglomerate.

With reporting by AP and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/hard-line- cleric-raisi-seen-as-main-rohani-rival-files- run-for-president-iran/28431900.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Russia, West Moving Towards New Cold War, Gorbachev Warns

RFE/RL April 15, 2017

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, called on the West to "restore trust" with Russia and warned that the two old adversaries are moving toward a renewed state of Cold War.

"All the indications of a Cold War are there," he said in an interview with German newspaper Bild on April 14. "The language of politicians and the top-level military personnel is becoming increasingly militant. Military doctrines are formulated increasingly harshly. The media picks up on all of this and adds fuel to the fire. The relationship between the big powers continues to worsen."

A new arms race between Russia and the West is already under way, Gorbachev said.

"It is not merely imminent. In some places, it is already in full swing. Troops are being moved into Europe, including heavy equipment such as tanks and armored cars. It was not so long ago that NATO troops and Russian troops were stationed quite far away from each other. They now stand nose-to-nose."

Gorbachev said the new Cold War could turn into a hot one if both sides do nothing to prevent it. "Anything is possible" if the current deterioration of relations continues, he said.

Gorbachev cautioned the West against trying to force change in Russia through economic sanctions, saying the sanctions only galvanize public opinion against the West in Russia and bolster support for the Kremlin.

"Don't have any false hope in this respect! We are a people willing to make whatever sacrifices we need to," he said, noting that nearly 30 million Soviet soldiers and civilians died in World War II.

Instead, Gorbachev said Russia and the West need to find a way to restore trust, respect, and the willingness to working together. He said both sides can draw from a reservoir of good will that remains toward each other among ordinary citizens.

Russia and Germany, in particular "must reestablish contact, solidify, and develop our relationship, and find a way to trust each other again," he said.

To repair the damage and renew understanding, the West "must take Russia seriously as a nation that deserves respect," he said.

Instead of constantly criticizing Russia for not meeting Western standards of democracy, he said.the West should recognize that "Russia is on the path to democracy. It's half way between. There are approximately 30 emerging nations that are in transition and we are one of them."

Gorbachev traces the deterioration of relations to the West's loss of respect for Russia and exploitation of its weakness after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.

That led the West -- and particularly the United States -- to break promises that were made to Russia at the end of the Cold War that NATO forces would "not move one centimeter further East," he said.

Based on reporting by Bild.de

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-west-moving-toward-new- cold-war-gorbachev-warns/28431864.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Biden Says White House Should Prod Kremlin Over Abuse Of Chechen Gays

RFE/RL April 15, 2017

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on April 14 called on the White House to raise concerns about the persecution of gay men in Chechnya "directly with Russia's leaders."

The respected Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that police in the predominantly Muslim republic rounded up more than 100 men believed to be homosexuals and held them in camps, torturing many and killing at least three.

Chechen authorities have dismissed the reports, saying that there are no homosexuals in the republic.

Biden said he was "disgusted and appalled" by the reports of gay men being tortured and killed. "When faced with such crimes of hate and inhumanity, it is the responsibility of every person of conscience to speak out," he said.

"The human rights abuses perpetrated by Chechen authorities and the culture of impunity that surrounds them means that these hate crimes are unlikely to ever be properly investigated or that the perpetrators will see justice," Biden said.

The Trump administration, which on April 7 expressed concern about the reports of gay persecution in Chechnya and urged Russian authorities to investigate, should "advance human rights for everyone by raising this issue directly with Russia's leaders," Biden said.

Earlier on April 14, the Kremlin appeared to take a hands-off stance toward the Chechen matter, saying it does not have "reliable information about any problems in this area."

Novaya Gazeta had called on the Kremlin for protection on April 14, saying it fears for the safety of its journalists after they exposed the persecution of gay men in Chechnya.

Novaya Gazeta in an open letter said that a large gathering in Chechnya's main mosque earlier this week threatened those reporting the story with "reprisals," and authorities should investigate the threats.

The newspaper said the Chechen leaders referred to reporters as "the enemies of our faith and our homeland," and promised that "retribution" will be taken "without a statute of limitations."

"This resolution is encouraging religious fanatics to retaliate against our journalists," Novaya editor in chief Dmitry Muratov said.

Two of Novaya's reporters specializing in Chechnya -- Anna Politkovskaya and Natalya Estemirova -- have been murdered in the last decade. Neither case has been fully solved.

Set up with financial help from ex-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993, Novaya Gazeta is well-known in Russia for its investigations into official corruption, its reporting on Chechnya, criticism of the authorities, and coverage of the opposition at a time when most media are loyal to the Kremlin.

The Russian office of Amnesty International on April 14 backed the newspaper's concerns, saying it considers the resolution by Chechen clergymen and elders to be "a threat of violence against journalists."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had been informed of the threats against Novaya Gazeta reporters and suggested that Chechen elders take any grievances they have to the courts.

"If in someone's opinion there were slanderous materials, there are legal methods of challenging prescribed by the law. Obviously, we are strongly opposed to any other methods of influence. Especially against actions that could pose a threat to the security and life of journalists," Peskov said.

Novaya Gazeta's stories featured Chechen men who reported being arrested and subsequently tortured with beatings and electric shocks, as well as being forced to supply authorities with the names and phone numbers of other gay and bisexual people.

A St. Petersburg advocacy group, Russian LGBT Network, set up an emergency hotline to take calls from Chechnya.

NBC News reported on April 14 that the group has received about 50 calls from people who were targeted or are trying to escape the region.

Russian LGBT Network told NBC News it believes around 20 men have been killed by authorities in Chechnya.

"People are very intimidated and not eager to talk. They are hesitant to even talk to us," Natalia Poplevskaia, the network's International Advocacy Officer and Monitoring Program Coordinator, told NBC News on April 11.

The Russian LGBT Network said it is helping to evacuate Chechens who have been tortured or are in danger.

On April 14, the group's website briefly stopped functioning. The group told NBC News the website was targeted by hackers trying to crash the site by overwhelming it with traffic.

The website of Novaya Gazeta was hit by a similar attack on April 13.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and NBC News

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/us-former-vice-president -biden-says-white-house-prod-kremlin-over- abuse-chechen-gays/28431863.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Militants Not Letting Terror Act Victims Near Aleppo Go to Gov't Controlled Area

Sputnik News

20:37 15.04.2017(updated 00:05 16.04.2017)

Militants are not allowing to transport the victims of the attack on a convoy of evacuees near the Syrian city of Aleppo to the territory under control of government forces, a source told Sputnik on Saturday.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, a source told Sputnik that a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in the Rashidin neighborhood of Aleppo near a convoy of buses carrying civilians evacuated from the Syrian Shiite towns of Fua and Kefraya. At least 70 people were reportedly killed, with many women and children among them.

"Terrorists are not letting people flee from the territory toward Aleppo and are preventing evacuation of Fua and Kefraya residents [from militants-held Rashidin neighborhood near Aleppo]," the source said.

On Friday, evacuation from four besieged Syrian towns, namely, Fua, Kefraya, Madaya and Zabadani started as part of population swap deal between Damascus and opposition forces agreed in March in the framework of national reconciliation program. According to Syria's government data, 2,350 people were evacuated from Zabadani, while some 5,000 people were transported from Shiite populated Fua and Kefraya.

The settlements of Fua and Kefraya have been besieged by militants for three years, with thousands people still staying there. The humanitarian situation has been worsening given that the aid convoys had been prevented by terror groups operating in Syria from reaching the towns.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Military Calls on Militants in Damascus Suburbs to Lay Down Arms

Sputnik News

20:50 15.04.2017(updated 20:51 15.04.2017)

Syrian government troops spread agitation leaflets calling on militants in Qaboun, a north-eastern neighborhood of the country's capital of Damascus, to lay down arms and receive amnesty, preventing, thus, bloodshed, a source familiar with the situation told Sputnik on Saturday.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  According to the source, Syrian armed forces' command hopes that militants will agree with the conditions of July 2016 decree issued by Syrian President Bashar Assad, officially confirming amnesty for rebels who lay down arms, in bid to promote national reconciliation in Syria. Thus, there will be no need for launching an operation in Qaboun, which would only lead to unnecessary casualties.

"The leaflets were delivered to the militants in Qaboun with the help of ten 122-mm special shells. They differ from the operational combat shells by having a very small detonating charge, designated for dispersing leaflets. Each shell contained 1,000 leaflets of A6 size," the source said.

On Friday, evacuation from four besieged Syrian towns, namely, Fua, Kefraya, Madaya and Zabadani started as part of population swap deal between Damascus and opposition forces agreed in March in the framework of national reconciliation program.

According to Syria's government data, 2,350 people were evacuated from Zabadani, while some 5,000 people were transported from Shiite populated Fua and Kefraya. After the swap, Madaya went under control of government forces.

 Sputnik

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Bomber Hits Bus Convoy of Syrian Evacuees; Scores Dead

By VOA News April 15, 2017

Scores of people set for evacuation from two besieged towns in northern Syria were killed and many others were wounded Saturday in an apparent car bombing that targeted a bus convoy carrying them to safety.

Details were sketchy late in the day, as rescue workers combed through the wreckage near the northern city of Aleppo. The opposition website Enab Baladi, citing preliminary information, said at least 80 people were killed, while the rescue organization known as the White Helmets reported at least 100 dead.

Most of the victims were believed to be residents of two Shi'ite villages that had been surrounded by Islamists for months.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But Sunni jihadist groups, including the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida, operate in the area and routinely attack Shi'ites, whom they consider apostates.

A deal between the Damascus government and opposition fighters guaranteeing the safety of the villagers stalled Friday, stranding thousands of evacuees for hours before the attack unfolded on the outskirts of Aleppo.

Video on state television later showed charred bodies and mangled buses, which had been carrying pro-government Shi'ite fighters and civilians from the besieged villages toward the government-controlled city. Other footage showed ambulances ferrying the wounded to area hospitals.

Far to the south, the deal  brokered by Iran and Qatar  simultaneously granted hundreds of Sunni insurgents and their families near Damascus safe passage to Idlib province near the Turkish border.

By late Saturday, monitors from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the convoy near Aleppo was again under way, while official Syrian media said the first buses carrying Shi'ite evacuees had reached government safety in Aleppo.

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Turkey's Referendum Could Create 'One-Man Rule,' Threaten EU Ties

RFE/RL April 15, 2017

Turkish voters are going to the polls on April 16 for a referendum that will decide whether the country changes its constitution to create a presidential system of government  a move that would give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers and allow him to stay in office for up to 10 more years.

The future of already strained relations between the European Union and Turkey also are at stake with analysts predicting that a victory for Erdogan could lead to an outright break in relations between Ankara and Brussels.

The 18 constitutional amendments being voted upon in a simple "yes" or "no" vote also would weaken Turkey's parliament, eliminate the post of prime minister, and give the president more control over the judiciary.

A simple majority of votes is needed for the referendum to pass.

Opinion polls published just days ahead of the vote suggested a narrow majority of Turks would vote in favor of the amendments  which would lead to the biggest change in Turkey's system of governance since the modern republic was founded in 1923.

Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have argued that an ongoing insurgency by Kurdish separatists, an attempted military coup last July, repeated terrorist attacks in the country, and the influx of more than 2 million refugees fleeing the war in neighboring Syria have created the need for a strong presidency that can streamline its decisions and better steer the country through its challenges.

Erdogan made a last-minute appeal for support on the eve of the referndum, telling an April 15 rally in Istanbul that a "Yes" vote would "finish the work we initiated on July 15th" -- a referrence to the failed coup attempt.

The leadership of the opposition National Movement Party (MHP) also has called for a "yes" vote after reaching an undisclosed deal with the ruling AKP.

However, five lawmakers in the MHP have campaigned against the proposed amendments and polls have shown that as many as two-thirds of the party's support base were opposed to the measures.

Turkey's second largest party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), has campaigned against the amendments, which would take effect in 2019 if approved.

CHP lawmaker Silina Dogan has charged that the authoritarian nature of the amendments would bring an end to Turkey's hopes of ever joining the European Union.

A pro-Kurdish opposition group, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) also has campaigned against the proposed amendments, saying they are undemocratic and violate the principle of judicial independence.

Critics in Turkey have gone as far as to say the new system of government would be a kind of "elected dictatorship" without any separation of powers, leaving the parliament without legislative authority and unable to hold the president accountable for misdeeds.

Western critics also have said the amendments would concentrate too much power in the hands of the president.

Human Rights Watch has said the proposals pose a huge threat to human rights, the rule of law, and Turkey's democratic future because, if passed, they would "concentrate unchecked power" in Erdogan's hands.

The Council of Europe has said it is deeply concerned about whether the amendments would guarantee the separation of powers in Turkey, proper checks and balances between the different branches of government, or the independence of the judiciary  adding that all are a "prerequisite for democratic societies."

European Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks issued a report on April 12 expressing "grave concern" that the constitutional revisions would reduce the autonomy of Turkey's already week judiciary.

Muiznieks said the proposed amendments also do not address "serious shortcomings" in Turkey's constitution on human rights and freedom of expression.

Earlier in April, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a visit to Ankara that the proposed amendments would amount to a "profound political transformation."

Merkel also urged that "everything should be done to ensure that separation of powers and plurality of opinion are guaranteed in Turkey."

The campaign ahead of the April 16 vote also has been marred by controversy.

The OSCE's election monitoring group, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, noted on April 7 that the campaign and vote itself are taking place under a declared state of emergency following the failed coup attempt of July 2016.

The OSCE monitors also noted that fundamental freedoms have been curtailed under that state of emergency with thousands of citizens detained or dismissed from their jobs  including civil servants, judges, journalists, and opposition party members.

Opponents of the amendments allege they have faced state suppression while supporters of the "yes" campaign have been able to use state media, facilities, and funds to organize campaign events.

Attempts by Erdogan and his allies to stage campaign rallies targeted Turkish voters who live in the EU faced restrictions or cancellations in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland  leading to diplomatic disputes with Ankara.

On April 13, Erdogan described Europe as a "rotting continent" that was "no longer a center of democracy, human rights, and liberty but of repression, violence, and Nazism."

Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Ankara who is now an analyst with Carnegie Europe, says Erdogan's Nazi jibes have outraged EU leaders to the point that he may have "burned his bridges" with Brussels "when it comes to personal relations."

Pierini told RFE/RL that if the constitutional amendments are approved by Turkish voters, a complete break in relations between Ankara and Brussels would seem inevitable.

"We will have a system that has no equivalent in the Western world," Pierini said. "It is more power concentrated in one man than anywhere" in the West, "a hyper-presidential system without much checks and balances. This will be really the one-man rule system and clearly in contradiction with EU norms."

Other European experts say the optimistic scenario in terms of relations between Turkey and Brussels is that the rejection of the amendments by voters, or a narrow victory for the "yes" vote, might lead Erdogan to temper his combative attitude toward the EU and try to improve relations.

With reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz in Prague, Reuters, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/turkey-referendum- president-erdogan-vote/28432987.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Turkey Detains 49 Daesh Suspects in Showcase Operation Ahead of Sunday Vote

Sputnik News

23:54 15.04.2017

Turkish police have detained 49 alleged Daesh members who reportedly were planning a "sensational" terror attack ahead of Sunday's referendum on governance model.

A total of 49 people have been detained in Turkey after a large-scale police operation, according a report by Turkey's Anadolu news agency.

According to the report, simultaneous operations have been conducted in several districts of Istanbul. The police seized three handguns, two of them reportedly capable of only firing blanks, plus three cartridges, 16 rounds of ammunition, a radio, a machete, six electronic point-of-sale terminals, a large number of bank cards, military camouflage gear and around $341,000-worth in cash in three different currencies.

Forty-one of the 49 detained are reported to be foreigners.

The police says the detained suspects planned to conduct "sensational attacks" during the Sunday referendum on ammending the country's constitution and system of government and "create chaos" in the country, according to the report by Gulf News.

More than 55 million Turkish citizens will vote Sunday on proposed constitutional amendments, including a major increase in the powers of the presidency, currently held by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, effectively turning the republic from parliamentary to presidential.

Earlier this month, the Daesh terror group called for attacks against the Turkish referendum in its Arabic and Turkish publications, claiming that voting is opposing God and branding voters of Muslim faith as "disbelievers," according to the Arab News.

Ironically, the opponents of the referendum fear that a more powerful Erdogan will impose a heavier religious influence on Turkish life, and endanger the secular foundation laid by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk early in 20th century.

 Sputnik

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U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his reversal on whether to call China a currency manipulator, saying on Twitter that China was helping with the North Korean problem.

"Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!"Trump said on Twitter.

U.S. security adviser Mcmaster said North Korea's Kim is unpredictable and has demonstrated his brutality

North Korea Sunday staged a fresh missile test, a day after staging a defiant giant military parade and hours before US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea for talks on curbing Pyongyang's weapons programmes.

The South Korean and US military said the latest launch -- conducted as tensions rose over the North's nuclear ambitions -- was a failure.

"The missile blew up almost immediately," the US Defense Department said of the early-morning launch from near Sinpo on the North's east coast.

The type of missile was not clear.

The test came after North Korea displayed nearly 60 missiles -- including what is suspected to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile -- at a parade on Saturday to mark the 105th birthday of its founder Kim Il-Sung.

It was also staged hours before Pence arrived in South Korea on a tour which will also include Japan, Indonesia and Australia.

North Korea has a habit of firing off missiles to mark major political anniversaries, or as gestures of defiance to top US officials visiting the region.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the latest test but had "no further comment".

"It is likely that this launch is a test for a new type of missile or an upgrade so the possibility is high for further provocation in the near future," said Kim Dong-Yub, of Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

South Korea's foreign ministry said that by conducting the latest test just a day after showcasing a series of missiles, "North Korea has threatened the whole world".

Last August a submarine-launched ballistic missile tested from Sinpo flew 500 kilometres (300 miles) towards Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hailed that test as the "greatest success" and said it brought the US mainland within range of a mobile delivery system.

Pyongyang's rogue atomic ambitions have come into sharp focus in recent weeks, with Trump vowing a tough stance against the North and threatening unilateral action if China failed to help curb its neighbour's nuclear programme.

Trump has repeatedly said he will prevent Pyongyang from developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

With speculation mounting that the North is preparing to conduct a sixth nuclear test, he sent an aircraft carrier-led strike group to the Korean peninsula.

But a White House foreign policy adviser travelling with Pence played down Sunday's test, saying the missile -- probably a medium-range one -- failed after about four to five seconds.

While Washington had a "wide array of tools" at the president's disposal, "for this particular case, if they (North Korea) took the time and energy to launch a missile that failed, we don't need to expend any resources against that."

Asked if a nuclear test was still expected, the adviser said Kim Jong-Un had stated he wanted to do both a nuclear test and a missile launch.

"We've seen one -- it doesn't prevent him from doing the other."

The North has reiterated its constant refrain that it is ready for war with the US, and its army vowed Friday a "merciless" response to any US provocation.

Recent satellite images suggest its main nuclear site is "primed and ready," according to specialist US website 38North, and White House officials say military options are already being assessed.

China, the North's sole major ally, and Russia have both urged restraint, with Beijing's Foreign Minister Wang Yi warning that "conflict could break out at any moment".

The UN Security Council has imposed six sets of sanctions against the North since its first nuclear test in 2006 -- all of which have failed to halt its drive for what it insists are defensive weapons.

Pyongyang has carried out five nuclear tests -- two of them last year -- and multiple missile launches.

It has yet to formally announce it has an operational ICBM, but experts and intelligence officials have warned it could be less than two years away from achieving an inter-continental strike capability.

Operational submarine-launched devices could give the North the ability to strike without warning from a vessel somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

They could also reduce the effectiveness of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD), which Washington and Seoul are deploying in the South to counter missile threats, to the fury of Beijing.

On Monday Pence is scheduled to meet Acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn for talks on the North's weapons programmes and on THAAD.

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Turkey Launches Roundup of Islamic State Suspects Ahead of Vote

By Kasim Cindemir April 15, 2017

Responding to threats by the Islamic State group to disrupt Turkey's constitutional referendum on Sunday, Turkish authorities have detained scores of people nationwide suspected of links to the outlawed terror group.

IS called on its followers to attack polling places during the referendum, in which voters will make a yes-or-no choice on whether Turkey should shift from its current parliamentary system of government to an executive presidency. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration has been campaigning hard and marshaling media resources to press for a "yes" vote, which would greatly expand the president's powers.

In a directive to its followers, IS said, "Choosing a lawmaker other than God is a curse." The admonition was published in the latest issue of Rumiyah, an online magazine the extremists use for propaganda and recruitment.

IS issued a similar call earlier this month in its Arabic newsletter El-Naba, asking its supporters in Turkey  including "lone wolves," those who are not part of any organized cell or group of fighters  to sabotage the referendum in any way possible. The goal is to prevent Turks from voting, Islamic State said, adding: "Use whatever means you have at hand to create ultimate chaos."

All who take part in the referendum, whatever their political sympathies, are heretics and infidels, IS said in a rallying call to its sympathizers: "We are asking all our brothers to target all polling places. Strike those places, burn them, destroy and demolish them. Kill all those heretics and polytheists who go to vote."

Since the IS threats were issued, Turkish police and security forces have begun operations in provinces throughout the country, rounding up those suspected of ties to IS.

Security forces detained five people in Istanbul. Turkish media reports detailed more than 20 arrests linked to Islamic State in the provinces of Istanbul, Adana, Gaziantep, Kirikkale and Mersin.

There were no official reports on the total number of those detained nationwide, but it was believed that scores of suspects were arrested. The government-funded Anatolian news agency reported that those in custody were preparing "sensational attacks" in connection with the referendum.

Prosecutors in Mersin province, on the Mediterranean coast in southern Turkey, said they had received intelligence reports warning of possible attacks on Sunday. and that a number of suspects with links to IS had been arrested. A prosecutors' statement added: "Turkish police are still looking for three more suspects. During searches at the suspects' homes, police also found various printed IS publications, digital materials, a hunting rifle and some ammunition."

Since Turkey took on a larger role in the coalition campaign against Islamic State in neighboring Syria and Iraq in mid-2015, the country has been targeted by IS militants several times.

Turkey recently concluded its Operation Euphrates Shield, an eight-month campaign in Syrian border areas aimed at crushing IS operations there.

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Analysis: Turkey Faces Lose-Lose Choice in Referendum

By Paul Alexander April 15, 2017

Regardless of whether Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan succeeds in bolstering his increasingly authoritarian clout in Sunday's constitutional referendum, one thing is clear: despite a crackdown on his critics and the media, the country is deeply divided, with signs that the gap is growing.

That is bad, not only for Turkey, but for just about everyone with interests in the region, given the country's economic power and historically strategic location as a bridge between East and West  particularly with Syria's civil war and the fight against so-called Islamic State raging on its border.

Despite the government's efforts to severely limit campaigning against the changes that could extend Erdogan's rule for a decade or more, polls show the election too close to call. That raises the possibility of violence no matter what the final results are, particularly with last July's military coup attempt fresh in the public's memory.

Only a few years ago, Turkey seemed well-entrenched as a flourishing democracy and well on the way to joining the European Union. It has huge potential with Europe's youngest population: 19 million of the 75 million people are ages 15 to 29.

Today, it stands accused of human rights abuses that have included imprisoning more than 45,000 people, among them the leaders and nine other legislators from the second-largest opposition party in parliament, for alleged links to Kurdish terrorists.

Rallies for the "No" camp are banned due to possible terrorism; coverage of its arguments is severely limited. In fact, almost any opposition to the changes proposed in the referendum carries the risk of being labeled as terrorism.

The once-vibrant media have seen their freedoms severely curtailed, with many of journalists jailed. The judiciary's power has been eroded. Unemployment is at 10.7 percent and up to 25 percent among the young who embody the future.

A shift from America's sphere of influence to Russia's seems possible, and the prospects of joining the EU are stalled, if not dead.

Still, Erdogan stands poised to further enforce his will with the proposed reforms, which would change the government from a parliamentary system to what opponents describe as a dictator-like executive presidency, extend presidential power over the judiciary, allow rule by decree and create a loophole in the limit of two five-year terms for the president.

The checks-and-balances system would essentially be gone.

"Erdogan has pursued this greater responsibility despite an increasingly disastrous record of governance," Freedom House wrote in an analysis of the election.

"For nearly four years, Turkey has been trapped in a cascade of crises - protests, terrorist attacks, crackdowns, a coup attempt, purges and war. The only blow the country hasn't suffered is an economic crash, but that too seems imminent, as tourism and foreign investment have cratered and Erdogan has subordinated fiscal and macroeconomic management to his short-term political agenda."

Analyst Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy was equally harsh.

"The country's deep social chasm gives even the most ardent optimist grave cause for concern," he said.

Others say they have never seen the country more unstable despite the president's growing authoritarianism.

After serving as prime minister for 11 years, Erdogan was elected president in August 2014. Despite having no clear mandate  opponents received 48 percent of the vote  he began changing the political landscape quickly, leading to the coup attempt. Since quashing it, he has further consolidated power with those who would choose a near-dictatorship over uncertainty and the rise of terrorism, which has hit Turkey hard.

Crises, including an estimated 3 million refugees from Syria's civil war, have not undercut his position as Turkey's most popular politician, based on the early successes of his party and bolstered by his argument that only a strong leader can deal with the country's problems.

"I have been voting for Tayyip Erdogan for 17-18 years, and he never failed me," says retiree Ibrahim Yazka, explaining why he will vote "yes."

"If he wants, he can just sit in the presidential mansion and sign papers; but, this man loves this country so much that he can't stop. He believes he should do more. That's why I believe in him."

The European Union and Council of Europe have voiced concern over the fairness of the campaign, highlighting the fact that it is being carried out under emergency rule introduced after July's failed coup. Armed troops are prominent in opposition strongholds, creating an air of intimidation.

"Legitimate dissent and criticism of government policy are vilified and repressed," Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, warned about the impact of emergency rule ahead of the campaign.

The friction with Europe has led to open animosity from Erdogan, who said German and Dutch leaders were using "Nazi practices" by resisting his efforts to have his deputies campaign for "yes" votes among the sizable expatriate communities living in neighboring countries.

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NNSA, Air Force complete first B61-12 Life Extension Program qualification flight test at Tonopah Test Range

April 13, 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) and the U.S Air Force completed the first qualification flight test of the B61-12 gravity bomb March 14 at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada.

The non-nuclear test assembly was dropped from an F-16 based at Nellis Air Force Base. The test evaluated both the weapon's non-nuclear functions as well as the aircraft's capability to deliver the weapon.

This event is the first of a series that will be conducted over the next three years to qualify the B61-12 for service. Three successful development flight tests were conducted in 2015.

"This demonstration of effective end-to-end system performance in a realistic ballistic flight environment marks another on-time achievement for the B61-12 Life Extension Program," said Brig. Gen. Michael Lutton, NNSA's principal assistant deputy administrator for military application. "The successful test provides critical qualification data to validate that the baseline design meets military requirements. It reflects the nation's continued commitment to our national security and that of our allies and partners."

The flight test included hardware designed by Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories, manufactured by the Nuclear Security Enterprise plants, and mated to the tail-kit assembly section, designed by the Boeing Company under contract with the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center.

The B61-12 consolidates and replaces four B61 bomb variants in the nation's nuclear arsenal. The first production unit is scheduled to be completed by March 2020.

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Hundreds of people in Gloucestershire are living with long term lung problems, now those who suffer from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder have a new lifeline - thanks to adventurer Kev Brady.

Kev who swam the Severn and canoed across America, was inspired to set up a support group.

The 33-year-old's father suffered from the condition and inspired him to help others.

Kev said: "I started thinking about all the other people that were having that first lot of rehab. Afterwards there does not seem to be any groups out there that can help these individuals to carry on their level of exercise.

"Psychologically it helps them as a group to support each other and they are less isolated as before it could be hard to get out."

The British Lung Foundation website states: "Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, describes a group of lung conditions that make it difficult to empty air out of the lungs because your airways have been narrowed.

"These processes narrow the airways. This makes it harder to move air in and out as you breathe, and your lungs are less able to take in oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide."

The personal trainers that run the sessions have had the right training so they are able to work with people that have respiratory conditions.

Now the group after its first year of success has increased the number of sessions to two per week. However it is required that a referral from a healthcare professional is made before anyone can join.

The group started with two and has grown to 20 in just over a year. Those that go to help control their breathing and get some exercise quite clearly enjoy the social side of the group.

Pauline Master, 68 from Churchdown has COPD. She said: "The pulmonary rehabilitation helps you understand the condition. I used to live in the Forest of Dean and they had a post rehab group but I moved here and they didn't have one to begin with.

"I am really pleased that this is running. It helps you to improve muscle tone which helps the oxygen move better around your body.

"I was quite poorly last year and my fitness levels went down, but now I am back to this now and now I am delighted to try and be able to get as fit as I can."

Pauline has lung disease as a result of smoking from an early teen age. The retired nurse said: "For anyone out there that is smoking they should just stop it.

"It's no good for you and it does not just affect your lungs, but your heart and brain. Nothing good can come of it."

The group after the exercise sessions often sit and talk to each other about how they have been. They help and support each other by lending an ear and talk about their week and if anything has developed for them with the COPD and exchange coping strategies.

Former HGV truck driver Ken Stokes, 71 from Barnwood was diagnosed with emphysema in 2008. He said: "I was getting continually breathless running up and down the stairs.

"I went to see my GP who referred me to the practise nurse. I had an x-ray that showed a shadow on my lung and since I have been diagnosed.

"I am on three inhalers and we have had to all learn to live with it.

"My son and grandson do an awful lot for me, but I feel a little embarrassed as it should be me helping them.

"I am quite sure that the exercise program helps to open the chest. I do enjoy the social side and our instructor is a laugh and a pleasure to be around.

Sessions are held on Mondays and Wednesday at the Abbeydale community centre.

For more information visit the Facebook page Gloucester Respiratory Exercise.
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Mosquitoes that can bite throughout the day and capable of carrying deadly diseases could land in Gloucestershire this summer, experts have warned.

Eggs of the aggressive Asian Tiger, which can transmit infections including the feared Chikungunya virus, were found for the first time in the UK last year.

And a leading entomologist believes the species could re-emerge in the next few months.

Clive Boase, a consultant for the British Pest Control Association, said: "The discovery of the mosquito in Britain last year is extremely unlikely to have been a one-off event.

"It has already spread across mainland Europe, so it's probably only a matter of time before it establishes a colony over here.

"It could happen this summer or next summer, but it's a case of when, rather than if.

"And it's a problem waiting to happen because a major infestation in an urban area would be very difficult to eliminate."

What does it look like?

The Tiger, which has black and white stripes on its abdomen and legs, has earned a fearsome reputation as it bites throughout the day, rather than just in the evening as with other species.

It can carry a number of human diseases, including Dengue Fever, and has already been responsible for outbreaks of Chikungunya in France and Italy.

Native to South East Asia, the insect has spread through the transport of goods and evidence of its arrival in the UK was discovered at a service station in Kent in September.

Pest controllers were called in and there was later found to be no risk to public health.

But Mr Boase has warned the eradication programme might not have been entirely successful and suggests the mosquito could be re-introduced before long anyway.

He added: "The breeding sites in Kent were treated thoroughly, but because the process took place at the end of the summer, no one will know if the work was completely effective until this season.

"If some of the mosquitoes escaped treatment, survived and dispersed - and I'd say there's a 50-50 chance  they could breed before they're spotted and we could then have a bigger problem on our hands.

"But even if that issue has been resolved, there are bound to be other introductions sooner or later."

What is Public Health England doing about it?

Public Health England has set up special mosquito traps near ferry ports and the Eurotunnel, but it's feared the insect will soon find a way into the country  if it hasn't already.

Dee Ward-Thompson, BPCA technical manager, said: "The Asian Tiger is believed to have first arrived in southern Europe in shipments of used tyres.

"Now it has established strong colonies in Italy, parts of France and Holland and seems to be spreading all the time.

"It can easily survive short journeys in freight lorries, caravans, camping trailers and motorhomes, so I don't think it will be long before we see them back here."

What can we, the public, do?

Homeowners are urged to empty buckets and paddling pools, cover water butts and turn plant pots and other containers upside down to prevent water from collecting.

Small ponds should be emptied regularly or can be covered with a mosquito net fabric and any other holes in the ground, for example by tree trunks, should be filled in if possible.

Anyone who thinks they've spotted a Tiger mosquito is advised to call in the experts.

Ms Ward-Thompson added: "Identifying a Tiger is tricky unless you know what you're doing, particularly as there are a number of similar-looking but naturally occurring species.

"Most years there are false alarms from people who wrongly claim to have found them.

"The best bet is to contact the BPCA, who'll arrange positive identification by professionals and will report the matter to the authorities."

Who do we call?

Call the BPCA on (01332) 294288, email enquiry@bpca.org.uk
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The Government is cracking down on the black market in baby eels which are being smuggled to the Asian market and sold for up to 40 times their legal value.

The endangered elvers, which live in the River Severn, are a delicacy in China and Korea where they are believed to have strength-giving properties.

International crime syndicates are tapping into the market which is as lucrative as the drugs trade but with less severe penalties.

The elvers are more valuable than caviar  in Asia a kilogramme can sell for 1,000-6,000 compared to 150 in this country.

In one case a man was arrested trying to board a flight from Heathrow to Hong Kong with 600kg of live eels from Spain with a street value of 1.3 million hidden in a shipment of fish.

Government agencies are now stepping up patrols at Britain's main breeding grounds as the fishing season for the elvers is about to begin.

Their biggest habitat in the UK is the River Severn where extra patrols are now out on the riverbanks at night.

They are checking that fishermen, known as elvermen, are correctly licensed and hefty fines can be imposed on the illegal ones.

Chris Bainger, Environment Agency fisheries technical specialist, said: "It is as lucrative as drugs but the penalties are not so severe.

"You are not likely to get locked up for life or even worse. It is a bit like the UK's rhino horn.

"There have been a lot of people trying to smuggle small amounts of eels in ice, in suitcases. They sell in Asia for between 1,000 and 6,000 per kilo.

"Korean and Chinese people are buying them as they believe they have strength-giving properties. When it becomes an endangered species, it becomes valuable.

"At this time of the year, the elvers are running in UK rivers."

Strict regulations say that 60 per cent of elvers caught in the UK must be used for restocking and remain within Europe.

Numbers of the species  European glass eels  have plummeted by 95 per cent across Europe in the past 25 years.

Smoked eels were once a common dish in Gloucestershire thanks to the River Severn but are now becoming a rarity.

They remain popular and in high demand in Germany, Holland and Ireland.

Mr Bainger added: "We used to have eel-eating competitions in the South West but that doesn't happen anymore. Bar the smoked eels in the West Country or jellied eels in London, we don't consume many eels."

The post-Second World War building boom, with new floodgates and weirs built in waterways across the UK, reduced the habitat of elvers.

In response, eels became a protected species and the Environment Agency polices the fisheries, ensuring the restrictions are adhered to.

Home Office staff have been brought in from the Border Force to keep an eye on the elvers and to catch the criminals. The patrols have been trained over the past year to identify and tackle the illegal trade.

Andrew Kerr, chairman of the Sustainable Eel Group, said: "There has been a lot more effort made in the past 12 months to catch smugglers.

"The amounts of money are so huge they can afford to lose a lot of consignments and they will still make money."

He said a century ago eels accounted for half of freshwater fish in Europe but they have suffered a drastic decline in the past 40 years.

Fact file

Young eels use a magnetic 'GPS' to navigate thousands of miles from mid-Atlantic spawning grounds to Europe by hitching a ride on the Gulf Stream, according to new research.

The new study helps solve a centuries old mystery of how elvers manage to swim from the Sargasso Sea  an area of floating seaweed in the Atlantic  to breed in European waterways.

The elvers join a growing list of animals, including salmon and sea turtles, with the ability to navigate based on the Earth's magnetic fields.

The European eel needs to make its way from breeding grounds in the Sargasso Sea to coastal and freshwater habitats from North Africa to Scandinavia.

After a decade or more, maturing adults migrate back to the Sargasso Sea, spawn, and die, beginning the cycle again.

However, the migratory mechanisms that bring juvenile eels to Europe and return adults to the Sargasso Sea have remained a mystery.

Now scientists have found out just how elvers make such a remarkable journey with minimal effort.

And it's all thanks to a built-in ability to detect slight differences in the earth's magnetic field.

This "map sense" helps them swim in the direction of the Gulf Stream, the ocean current that transports them to Europe.

Marine biologist Lewis Naisbett-Jones, at Aberystwyth University and the University of North Carolina, said: "While eels are known to be sensitive to electromagnetic fields, our results provide the first evidence that they derive positional information from the Earth's magnetic field.

"We show that juvenile European eels possess a magnetic map that allows them to modify their orientation to take advantage of consistent ocean circulation features along their marine migration route.

"We were not surprised to find that eels have a magnetic map, but we were surprised to discover how well they can detect subtle differences in magnetic fields.

"We were even more surprised when our ocean simulation models revealed that the little eels use their map not so much to locate Europe, but to target a big conveyor belt  the Gulf Stream  that will take them there."

"Presumably, a little bit of work i.e. swimming helps increase their chances of catching a mostly free ride to their destination."

The study published in Current Biology used a "magnetic displacement" experiment to show how juvenile eels detect magnetic fields and modify their behaviour accordingly.

It used an experimental apparatus that allowed marine biologists to create magnetic fields that exist at different locations along the eel's oceanic migratory route.

They then placed young eels inside the apparatus and recorded which direction they moved in each magnetic field.

Eels exposed to magnetic fields that exist at two locations along the migratory pathway oriented in different directions,.

To investigate how this movement might affect their migration, the researchers relied on computer simulations of ocean currents.

Those simulations showed that if young eels swim even weakly in the directions the researchers observed under their experimental conditions, many more of them would successfully enter the Gulf Stream, and therefore reach Europe.

The findings could better predict shifts in the eels' migratory routes and whether fishing limits should be imposed., which represent one of Europe's most important fisheries.
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Everyone knows much of Gloucester is undergoing a major transformation to bring the city into the 21 century and make it a much better place to live, work and enjoy.

Restaurants, bars, hotels as well as homes for families and several hundred students are planned. We may even have a new justice centre.

It is all very exciting but as is the nature of construction, nothing is certain.

With so much going on, chief city reporter Daniel Chipperfield looks at the big developments taking place right now and rates them on how exciting they are and the difference they will make to Gloucester.

Bakers Quay

What: Rokeby Merchants has just started construction on a 104-bed Premier Inn Hotel, Costa Drive Thru, Brewer's Fayre restaurant as well as 42 upmarket flats.

Later on they will build 73 flats at Downings Malthouse, as well as install a basement car park there. They will also transform the derelict Transit Shed and Engine Shed to canal-side restaurants.

Four three-storey cottages in High Orchard Street would also be restored to their former glory.

Verdict: It's been a long old wait for Bakers Quay to get going as ever since the land was bought by the consortium a few years ago they have had to strike a fine balance to make the scheme 'viable'.

Work has started on the first phase but it is likely they will need to sign up restaurants before even considering the 2 phase.

Bakers Quay has stood derelict for over a decade and frankly it's been an embarrassment so close to the city centre.

So it is a relief that something is getting done. Brands such as Costa and Brewer's Fayre will not have got anybody's pulses racing but the upmarket flats look amazing and could, as they claim, up 'Gloucester's game.'

Excitement rating: 4/7

Ladybellegate Quay restaurants

What: Two empty buildings off of Commercial Road are to be transformed into four impressive looking restaurants after Gloucester City Council handed over the properties to a development firm.

Known as Ladybellegate Quay, the development will comprise four new restaurants and cafes ranging in size between 2,000 sq ft to 6,500 sq ft.

Verdict: Since the working docks were renovated into what we have now this has been a sleepy part of town so it will be great to have more happening there.

In terms of excitement it will all depend on who they finally get signed up to the site, with people keen to see more independent or unusual eateries rather than chains, something developer Ladybellegate estates say they are keen to do themselves.

The directors behind this are those responsible for the impressive Milsom Place in bath so hopes are high they can bring that level of design here.

BUT it's been nine months with no-one signed up as yet. What the stumbling block maybe is unclear but we've been told to expect news later this month.

Excitement rating: 5/7

Kings Quarter

What: Gloucester City Council is leading on proposals for a new gateway into the city.

This includes a new indoor market, hotel, replacement car park, as well as room for flats and offices. They also hope to include space for a 'limited' amount of retail and restaurant use.

Additionally the hope is the adjacent Kings Walk Shopping Centre will be sold, meaning further investment in the area.

It comes as Gloucester Bus Station is being rebuilt and completed last year.

Verdict: Much has been made about the increasing disparity of investment between the docks and the city centre. If the city centre is to stand a chance, redevelopment of the tired looking Kings Square is vital.

But this has been a slow and frustrating process, with developer Stanhope pulling out of the plans forcing the council to go back to the drawing board for 'plan b'.

And it has been further hampered after a group of investors pulled out of buying the shopping centre after Brexit, which was hoped to inject 5m into the redevelopment plans.

However there are rumours a new deal for the centre is coming together and leader of the city council Paul James assures us there is 'strong interest' in spots in the new gateway scheme.

He said: "Public response to the plans last year was positive. We have since appointed LDA Design and Jones Lang LaSalle to work up a detailed scheme and planning application.

"There is already considerable occupier and investor interest, which gives us confidence the scheme will be delivered."

But have we not heard this all before? Hopefully the completion of the bus station and an eventual sale of the shopping centre will spur on more action.

Excitement rating: 4/7

Black Dog Way

What: The demolition of a number of empty buildings including the former Kwik Save supermarket and the construction of 95 affordable flats and a cafe.

Verdict: This will help transform a grotty area of the city seen by many as they enter Gloucester including those walking in on Northgate Street, arguably the city's most tired looking high street.

With 95 people or families moving into the city centre that could provide a further boost to city centre business.

Work was delayed briefly to change the plans slightly but deconstruction has now continued and Rooftop Housing seem fully confident it will get done.

The build is reliant on a Government grant so arguably more dependable than private build dependant on market forces.

A spokesman said: ""Our contractors have just started the final demolition work, and there's a lot to do before they can start laying bricks. It'll be cleared and prepared ready for the build to start in the Summer."

Excitement rating: 3/7

Allstone

What: Aggregate firm Allstone will look to relocate from its Elmbridge site by the rail line and build 400 homes in its place after being granted planning permission.

Verdict: The redevelopment of railway line corridor is a big focus for the local authorities and its rare to see residents close by so in favour of what will be a large estate.

But it is no surprise when you look at the state the land is in at the moment, only natural for land used for that purpose.

Kingsholm residents will also be pleased to not have a fleet of trucks whipping up dust every five minutes.

Allstone told me they are confident to get a developer in place soon but with contaminated land, flooding and the proximity to the rail line to consider it could be a tough sell with house builders always keeping a close eye on their profit margins.

Excitement rating: 2/7

Blackfriars

What: A masterplan for a 135million regeneration of land across Quayside and Blackfriars has been drawn up by the county council and the city council.

It is hoped to be a big economic driver, welcoming 2,000 new residents.

It includes scope for 500 homes, including student accommodation and also aims for a new civic centre, magistrates and crown courts, improved traffic flow around the city centre and pedestrian links from the Cathedral to the Quays along the waterfront.

Gloucester Prison is also earmarked for redevelopment.

Verdict: It is clear interest has been limited since the big announcement for the masterplan was made in 2015.

It forced the council's to put through a development order, essentially taking a lot of the hassle out of a planning application for prospective developers.

Soon afterwards plans for student accommodation were submitted and have since been approved.

It will likely need Government backing for anything non-residential so it remains to be seen whether anything will be added to this grand plan.

And developers City and Country are clearly struggling to make a viable plan for the prison, having leased it out to a tourism company for at least the summer recently.

But if the student flats are built this could spur on more development in a much-needed area. If it all goes to plan this will truly transform the city culturally, socially and economically.

Neil Corbett, head of property services said: "Permission to develop the site has been granted and we are now finalising plans for the buildings on site to be empty by the end of the year.

"A planning application to demolish the buildings has been submitted and further investigation works are taking place.

"We are working on proposals for the development that will follow on but have yet to agree the details."

Excitement rating: 6/7

Peel Centre

What: Permission was granted for a 14million renovation of the dated shopping centre which includes proposals to bring in a Next superstore selling homeware and clothes.

Developer Peel Holdings are building new units which will replace the old cinema, Angel Chef and Pizza Hut building.

Plans include two mezzanine floors covering 28,000sqft and a cafe with a balcony overlooking the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.

The building will have stone and glass cladding as well as a welcoming atrium and overhanging balcony for visitors.

It will also existing stores currently occupied by firms such as Hobbycraft and Toys R Us will also get a makeover.

Verdict: It was a hard fought battle with many city centre stakeholders against more investment outside the gate streets. But the Peel Centre is looking very haggard and needs a makeover, especially when compared to Gloucester Quays and what Bakers Quay promsies to be.

The Next superstore designs look fantastic and it is their arrival that will be game changer for shopping in the city.

Peel Holdings always keep their cards close to their chest and little news has been heard since the permission was granted in September 2016.

Nor has there been any sign of work starting on the plans.

But Next themselves have already invested a lot to get to this stage and, with huge support from Gloucester shoppers, will be keen to be open by their target of Spring 2018.

Also there is always the tantalising prospect of what will join them at the rejuvenated centre.

Excitement rating: 5/7
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A London man has pleaded guilty at Gloucester Crown Court to two counts of possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply, and two counts of possessing criminal property.

The court heard that Joshua Lewis-Davis, 25, of no fixed address, "came down from London, and was found in a known drug users' address in Cheltenham."

Prosecutor Janine Wood said he was in possession of "multiple wraps of both cocaine and heroin with an estimated street value of 1,130."

She explained that the charges of possessing criminal property related to 1,825 of cash raised from the sale of drugs.

"The money was made from drug dealing," she said. "He paid it into bank accounts, we say he had control of the money for others."

Earl Pinnock, representing Lewis-Davis, submitted a "basis of plea" to the court on behalf of his client, which set out that Lewis-Davis was "a custodian of the drugs and money to pay off a drug debt."

Requesting an adjournment for the preparation of a pre-sentence report, Mr Pinnock said: "He is very lightly convicted, but he has something of a drug habit."

Considering the basis of plea, the judge observed: "This is not just holding a bag of drugs for a short while. I will allow an adjournment for a report, but it will be a custodial sentence of some length."

The sentencing hearing was fixed for May 12 and Lewis-Davis was remanded in custody until that date.

The judge told him "You will get credit for your guilty plea, but I am quite clear that there will be a custodial sentence at the end of the day."
An international consensus that includes China has now emerged that North Korea's "threatening behavior" cannot go on, the US national security adviser said Sunday.

Speaking after North Korea's latest missile test, which US officials called a failure, H.R. McMaster said, "I think there's an international consensus now, including -- including the Chinese and the Chinese leadership -- that this is a situation that just can't continue."

Amid sharply heightened tension over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, McMaster said the US and allies were studying all actions "short of a military option," though the Trump administration has taken pains never to completely rule that out.

Vice President Mike Pence, who arrived in Seoul on Sunday, assailed the missile test as a "provocation" and assured South Korea of Washington's full support against the threat from its volatile neighbor. Pence is in Seoul for talks on curbing the North's weapons programs amid fears that it is planning another nuclear test.

"This morning's provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face each and every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world," Pence told US military families at an Easter dinner, at the start of a 10-day Asia tour.

Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in the South.

Trump has ordered a naval strike group, led by aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, to the region as a deterrent against threatening North Korean behavior.

McMaster, speaking to ABC from the Afghan capital of Kabul, repeatedly stated that China -- North Korea's key ally -- is increasingly concerned about the reclusive communist state's behavior.

The new consensus is "that this problem is coming to a head. And so it's time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully," McMaster said.

McMaster said President Donald Trump has made clear he will not allow the nuclear-armed Pyongyang regime to put the US and its regional allies, led by South Korea and Japan, under threat.

Trump turned to Twitter over the weekend to underscore the importance of cooperation with China on the Korean problem.

Having blasted Beijing throughout his presidential campaign for unfairly manipulating its currency, he tweeted Sunday: "Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!"

McMaster told ABC that Trump had directed US military, diplomatic and intelligence officials to provide him with options -- in concertation with regional allies including China -- that could be used "if the North Korea regime refuses to denuclearize."

He called North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un "a threat to all people in the region, and globally as well," but cautioned that Trump "is clearly comfortable making tough decisions."

A White House foreign policy adviser, briefing reporters on the plane that carried Pence to Seoul, was asked what steps China had committed to when President Xi Jinping met recently with Trump in Florida.

"There were a number of steps that were discussed," the briefer said, adding that when China recently turned back ships bringing North Korean coal, it was a "good first step."

"China is the key," Senator John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday on NBC. "They can stop this if they want to because of their control over the North Korean economy."

But he cautioned that the risks in dealing with a deeply unpredictable North Korean regime were high. "This could be the first real test of the Trump presidency," McCain said.

The latest missile launch came a day after a defiant North Korea staged a massive military parade in Pyongyang, showcasing nearly 60 missiles -- including a suspected new intercontinental ballistic missile.

But the missile involved in the failed test evidently was smaller. The briefer on Pence's plane called it "a medium-range missile."

"The missile blew up almost immediately," the US Defense Department said of the early-morning launch from the North's east coast.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump was aware of the failed test but had "no further comment."

North Korea has often test-fired missiles to mark major dates such as Saturday's 105th anniversary of the birth of the nation's founder Kim Il-Sung, or as gestures of defiance when top US officials visit the region.

South Korea's foreign ministry said that by conducting the latest test just a day after displaying a series of missiles, "North Korea has threatened the whole world."

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West tourism bosses are hoping to see an increase in visitors thanks to a major new film about King Arthur.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword  starring Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law  has been shot at various picturesque sites in the region.

Locations include Seven Sisters in the Forest of Dean, and a prehistoric cave standing in the shadow of Great Doward, in the Wye Valley, commonly referred to as 'King Arthur's Cave'.

Visits to the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean's 'film locations' website have already increased massively over the past year, as a growing number of blockbusters have been filmed in the area.

And in a bid to capitalise on the latest movie, VisitBritain has launched a six-week online campaign encouraging people to take a 'King Arthur-themed holiday'.

A spokeswoman for VisitBritain said: "Our collaboration is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the legendary experiences only available in Britain, inspiring people to book a trip right now to discover their own epic stories."

The West Country is not short of locations alleged to be part of the Arthurian legend. Glastonbury Abbey is rumoured to be where King Arthur and his wife were buried, and perhaps most famously, Tintagel Castle in Cornwall is believed by some to be Camelot, the home of King Arthur's court. However these sites have not been used for the filming of the new movie.

Hunnam, star of American drama show Sons of Anarchy, is taking on the title role of King Arthur in the upcoming movie, while Law is starring as Arthur's callous uncle, Vortigern.

Spanish-French actress, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, is playing the king's wife, Guinevere. David Beckham will also be taking on a small part as 'the Blackleg leader'.

The movie is a said to be a "bold new take" on the classic Excalibur myth, but this time, the focus is on Arthur's difficult journey from the streets to the throne after being robbed of his birthright. Acclaimed filmmaker Guy Ritchie is in the director's chair for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which will hit cinemas in May.

Other UK sites used for filming include Windsor Great Park, Snowdonia, and the Scottish Highlands.

Research by national tourism agency, VisitBritain, shows TV and film can be a powerful motivator for travel, as a third of those surveyed wanted to visit places they had previously seen on screen.

In recent years nearby Puzzlewood has lent itself to filming for Star Wars: Episode VII  The Force Awakens, while Coppett Hill in South Herefordshire can be seen in Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part One.

According to a 2014 study by Creative England, screen tourism was worth 140 million annually in England excluding London, with the best-performing site, Alnwick Castle, raking in 4.3 million through screen tourism alone that year.
On March 18, more than 300 cadets and their guests from Chatham, Dan River, Gretna, Tunstall and George Washington high schools attended the annual JROTC Military Ball that was held at the Olde Dominion Agricultural Center.

Distinguished guests included school board members, superintendants and administrators from each high school.

After all of the cadets went through the receiving line, the ceremony of the Missing Man Table was held. This ritual recognizes those that could not be present for the events of the evening.

After a buffet dinner from Gentlemens Ridge Caterers, seniors from the five schools were honored with the ceremonial Sword Bridge. The highest ranking cadets from each of the five schools symbolically cut the senior cake and presented a slice to the school board members and central office personnel present. The cadets enjoyed the music of DJ Jay Rojas.

Colors were presented and posted. The Missing Man Table was provided by cadets of the George Washington High School Navy Junior ROTC program.
Driven by Egypt's renowned sculptor Adam Henein, an annual prize carrying his name wil be given to one member of the younger generation of Egyptian artists. In its inaugural year, a selection of sculptures that caught the jury's attention were on display at the gallery of Hanager Arts Centre. The winners were announced during a special ceremony that took place 31 March.

Some 50 works in total were submitted from Egypt and the Arab world at large, exemplifying a strong and positive resurgence of interest in sculpture amongst new generations of artists in the region.

Renowned sculptor Essam Darwish, who had served on the jury panel, commented to Ahram Online that the display is a testimony to the noticeable shift in sculpture art as evidenced by this expanded participation and interest that had not been prevalent since the mid-1970s to 1980s."

Darwish cited the Aswan International Sculpture Symposium, that was also founded by Adam Henein, as the instigator and catalyst behind this newfound movement, achieved through enabling contemporary artists to broaden their experiential sculpture work as well as widening the scope of their exposure to work done by international contemporaries.

He expressed his belief that the sculpture prize will parallel the achievements accomplished by the Symposium and even build on them on a wider scale of development, ensuring increased participation in next years edition, perhaps even garnering 150 submissions.



The exhibition at Hanager also showcased the 20 works that made it into the final selection stage, including the first and second prize winning pieces.

Darwish described the rigorous selection process that involved an extensive narrowing down of submissions undergone by the jury panel in order to arrive at the winning works.

He specified the criteria that ultimately determined the winning works; namely, that the artist holds personal work experience with the intention to continue creating and building on said experience, as well as employed real durable materials such as granite, bronze and wood, which fulfill longevity, one of sculpture's most important qualities.

The artist Adam Henein gave himself an introductory welcoming speech that marked the commencement of the event in which he thanked the various entities involved in organisational efforts. After which the winners were announced by Henein and Minister of Culture Helmy Al-Namnam.

The winners

The first prize of EGP50,000 went to Ahmed Magdy Abdo and the second prize to Moawya Helal, who received a two week apprenticeship opportunity under Henein.



The final 20 works included in the exhibition featured an array of diverse materials, including bronze, clay, stone, iron, slate, granite, wood and plaster, as well as blends of two or more of these in some instances. For the most part, the color palette consisted of both cool and warm greys, chestnut and mahogany woods, along with terracotta clay browns.

In the midst of these earthy tones were five stark white sculptures which, in their minimalism, provided a visual palate cleanser. Two particular works stood out quite emphatically due to their vibrant colours.

A true green in one and an amalgamation of intense blues in the other, the latter of which resembled a lapis lazuli stone with its composite of inward colors. Textures varied between smooth wood and granite, rough grainy plaster, jagged stone and polished stone sculptures.



The 20 works exhibited covered the entire spectrum of representational forms, between abstract and figurative sculpture. On the illustrative front was a sculpture of a cat caught mid-playful stretch; this work by Alshaimaa Darwish brought a cheerful and whimsical addition to the selection shown.

Rowaa El-Degwys green two-legged figure also exhibited movement thereby presenting to the spectator a sense of action and by extension a lifelike quality to the sculpture. Mahmoud Hassans square man holding a banner in protest presented the artists socio-political engagement.



Mohamed Artouf and Mohamed El Sheikhawy each displayed two-legged metal figures devoid of any facial features, thus provoking thoughts about their nature. Likewise, Ahmed Kamals two legged decapitated bird-like plaster figure, second prize winner Moawya Helals wooden sculpture, which abstracted the head and neck of a flamingo mounted on a miniature chair, as well as AlaaYehias three-legged humanoid-like figurine, all evoked a similar reaction.



On the opposite end of the spectrum lay numerous abstract works of mostly granite and stone in which solid blocks with smooth textures were offset by sharp edges. A commonality emerged with regards to the form of these sculptures, few of which displayed two parts of a whole connected together.

Eman Barakats piece was the exception featuring two granite halves positioned side by side with a space left in-between creating the impression of a break within the sculpture.



When speaking to Ahram Online, Ahmed Magdy Abdo allowed for further insight into his process, starting from the inspiration behind the piece through multiple trials resulting with the final winning piece.



"My experience with sculpture centres around the modern interpretation of Egyptian heritage work. The piece I submitted named Taraqob (Anticipation) represents a woman sitting down. It was inspired by a long term favorite of mine, the seated block statue found in Egyptian heritage which is exhibited at the Egyptian Museum.

The process started with multiple sketches of the statue and witnessed an evolution through various versions resulting with this fifth final piece shown today," Abdo explained.

He went on to elaborate on how most of his work is made with granite in its different colours, whether it be pink, grey or black granite. "I find that, for me, most of my ideas in their conceptual stages naturally originate in the form of granite."

Concluding, Abdo expressed his satisfaction with the fine art movement in Egypt, saying it is "very active" and "has been gaining a lot of momentum. There has been a significant number of young contemporary artists as well involved in this movement. That all 50 submissions to this prize were made by artists under the age of 35 is a positive indicator towards this growing participation."



The foundation has already issued a detailed timeframe for the selection process, starting next September, for the second edition of the prize.

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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The spotlight was on Sebastian Vettel for a full 22 minutes in the pre-Bahrain grand prix drivers' briefing.

That is the news from Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, after a barrage of fellow drivers complained about how the German positioned his Ferrari on the Shanghai grid a week ago.

Stewards did not penalise Vettel in China, because there is not a specific rule about how a driver can position his car to avoid damp and slippery white lines.

"Theoretically, as long as you have one wheel in the starting box, you can be where you want," Force India team manager Andy Stevenson said.

But Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa reportedly all brought up at length the issue of Vettel's controversial starting position.

Massa called for a clear rule.

"I think this was the only briefing in which he (Vettel) was quiet," Massa laughed.

"If a driver is forbidden to cross the line at the exit of the pitlane, he cannot do that. We need to have rules that must be adhered to," said the Brazilian.

However, Whiting responded that a 'common sense' approach should instead be taken to the issue of grid start positions.

"In the last 22 years, there were maybe three notable cases like this," the F1 race director said. "If we had a strict rule to the centimetre, then 10 drivers would have been penalised in China."

But Massa insisted: "In formula one, there are some things that we are asked to use common sense with, but as we know, common sense is not always in formula one."

(GMM)
A controversy about the legality of Ferrari's competitive 2017 car is continuing in Bahrain.

Earlier, Red Bull official Dr Helmut Marko said "incriminating" video footage of flexible aerodynamic features of the red car is doing the rounds.

But Niki Lauda, the team chairman at Mercedes, played down the rumours as "nonsense".

"If someone believes it is illegal, all cars go through technical inspections," the F1 legend told German television RTL.

The flexible parts of the Ferrari most under scrutiny are the front wing flaps, the rear wing and the 'monkey seat'.

But some believe the biggest advantage is being achieved through the floor.

Former F1 driver turned pundit Marc Surer, however, told Germany's Sky: "It is legal.

"Ferrari has cleverly used a gap in the rules."

And so for now, while Marko is among the naysayers, there is no sign of an official protest.

"Nothing is coming from us," he said. "The FIA are the police."

(GMM)
Honda Silicon Valley Lab, the global open innovation hub within Honda R&D Americas, Inc., will expand its areas of focus beyond vehicles and broaden its responsibility to develop partnerships as a new company, Honda R&D Innovations, Inc., to be known as Honda Innovations. The new company will seek transformative collaborations within all areas of Honda's activities.

Honda Innovations will remain located in Mountain View, CA, and will operate globally as it seeks to partner with innovators ranging from startup and global brands to design and development communities.

Nick Sugimoto, who has served as the senior program director of Honda Silicon Valley Lab, has been named as the CEO of Honda Innovations.

Honda Innovations focus areas include Connected Vehicle/Internet of Things (IoT) services, Human Machine Interface, Machine Intelligence/Robotics, Connected Services, Personal Mobility, Sharing Economy, and Industrial Innovation. Additionally, Honda Innovations will facilitate discussions on technical collaboration with Waymo to integrate Waymos self-driving technology with vehicles from Honda. A memorandum of understanding between Honda R&D Co., Ltd. and Waymo was signed in late 2016.

Honda Developer Studio and Honda Xcelerator, two open innovation programs established as part of Hondas operations in Silicon Valley, will continue to serve as catalysts within the newly established Honda Innovations to discover and experiment with new technologies and business concepts.

Honda Xcelerator supports tech innovators across all funding stages who seek to transform the mobility experience in a collaborative environment. The program offers funding for rapid prototyping, a collaborative workspace, and pairing with Honda mentors. Honda Developer Studio enables developers to work directly with Honda engineers to create apps that are road-ready more quickly.
Now, researchers in China have developed a rechargeable lithium-nitrogen (Li-N) battery with the proposed reversible reaction of 6Li + N  2LiN. The assembled N fixation battery system, consisting of a Li anode, ether-based electrolyte, and a carbon cloth cathode, shows a promising electrochemical faradic efficiency (59%).

As the most abundant gas in Earths atmosphere, nitrogen has been an attractive option as a source of renewable energy. But nitrogen gaswhich consists of two nitrogen atoms held together by a strong, triple covalent bonddoesnt break apart under normal conditions, presenting a challenge to scientists who want to transfer the chemical energy of the bond into electricity.

The proof-of-concept design, described in an open-access paper in the journal Chem, works by reversing the chemical reaction that powers existing lithium-nitrogen batteries. Instead of generating energy from the breakdown of lithium nitride (2Li 3 N) into lithium and nitrogen gas, the researchers battery prototype runs on atmospheric nitrogen in ambient conditions and reacts with lithium to form lithium nitride. Its energy output is brief but comparable to that of other lithium-metal batteries.



Structure and rechargeability of a room-temperature Li-N 2 battery. (A) Structure of a Li-N 2 battery with a Li-foil anode, ether-based electrolyte, and CC cathode. (B) N 2 fixation (blue) and N 2 evolution (red) curves of a Li-N 2 battery with a CC cathode at a current density of 0.05 mA cm2 (C) CV curves of a Li-N 2 battery at a scan rate of 0.05 mV s1 in N 2 -saturated (black) and Ar-saturated (red) atmospheres. (D) Cyclic performance of a Li-N 2 battery at a current density of 0.05 mA cm2. Ma et al. Click to enlarge.

Although it constitutes about 78% of Earths atmosphere, N 2 in its molecular form is unusable in most organisms because of its strong nonpolar NN covalent triple-bond energy, negative electron affinity, high ionization energy, and so on. In terms of energy efficiency, the honorable Haber-Bosch process, which was put forward more than 100 years ago, is the most efficient process for producing the needed N 2 fertilizers from atmospheric N 2 in industrial processes. However, the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process is inevitably associated with major environmental concerns under high temperature and pressure, leaving almost no room for further improvement by industry optimization.

 Inspired by rechargeable metal-gas batteries such as Li-O 2 , Li-CO 2 , Li-SO 2 , Al-CO 2 , and Na-CO 2 (which have attracted much attention because of their high specific energy density and ability to reduce gas constituent), research on Li-N 2 batteries has not seen any major breakthroughs yet. Although Li-N 2 batteries have never been demonstrated in rechargeable conditions, the chemical process is similar to that of the previously mentioned Li-gas systems. During discharging reactions, the injected N 2 molecules accept electrons from the cathode surface, and the activated N 2 molecules subsequently combine with Li ions to form Li-containing solid discharge products. From the results of theoretical calculations, the proposed Li-N 2 batteries show an energy density of 1,248 Wh kg 1 , which is comparable to that of rechargeable Li-SO 2 and Li-CO 2 batteries. Ma et al.

The research team demonstrated that a rechargeable Li-N 2 battery is possible under room temperature and atmospheric pressure with the following reversible battery reactions:

(Equation 1) anode: 6Li  6Li+ + 6e

(Equation 2) cathode: 6Li+ + N 2 + 6e  2Li 3 N

(Equation 3) overall: 6Li+ + N 2  2Li 3 N

The team investigated the use of Ru-CC and ZrO2-CC composite cathodes to improved the N 2 fixation efficiency. Li-N2 batteries with catalyst cathodes showed higher fixation efficiency than pristine CC cathodes.

This promising research on a nitrogen fixation battery system not only provides fundamental and technological progress in the energy storage system but also creates an advanced N 2 /Li 3 N (nitrogen gas/lithium nitride) cycle for a reversible nitrogen fixation process. The work is still at the initial stage. More intensive efforts should be devoted to developing the battery systems. senior author Xin-Bo Zhang, of the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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Guilford Technical Community College will host its 2017 Stellar Society Lecture at 7 p.m. April 21 in the Joseph S. Koury Hospitality Careers Center auditorium on GTCCs Jamestown campus, 601 E. Main St.

The lecture will be given by N.C. State physics professor Stephen P. Reynolds, one of the recipients of the 2012 UNC Board of Governors Awards for Excellence in Teaching.

Reynolds talk, Supernovae and You: Tracking Stellar Explosions Through Their Remnants, will discuss his research findings on the remnants of recent Galactic supernovae.

The Cline Observatory will be open after the talk, weather permitting.

For more information, visit http://observatory.gtcc.edu/stellar-society-lecture.

Rose photography topic

of societys program

The Greensboro Rose Society will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Deep River Friends Meeting, 5300 W. Wendover Ave. in High Point.

Club member Diane Brady will present the program, titled Photographing Roses, which will appeal to both experienced and beginner rose growers.

For information, call (336) 382-5936.
After finishing college, I bounced around a bit. I found a job in park management, which is what I studied at school. But as I soon found out  again and again  the work was seasonal. Every four to six months, I was out of work and looking for something else.

And so it went for another five years, until I went to graduate school with the intention of changing careers. I did earn my masters degree  and then went back to seasonal jobs in park management.

By then I was 30 and hadnt really started a career. Most of my friends were well into theirs. Some had houses, some had families. Me? I was overeducated and underemployed, nowhere close to the American Dream.

I eventually found my professional calling. But my experiences as a 20-something led me to question our deeply ingrained belief that young adults ought to start their careers right after finishing school.

That is not to say everyone should wait until they are 30 to begin their professional journey. Few young adults can afford not to work that late into their lives, and our country is not exactly in a position right now to expand the welfare state.

But there are some very concrete realities in America today, and an honest look should cause us to reconsider what we expect of  and owe  not only our young adults, but also those in the twilight of their careers.

To a great extent, full adulthood is already being postponed in practice. Nearly one-third of millennials still live at home. And by federal law, young adults are allowed to stay on their parents health insurance until the age of 26.

At the same time, the symbols of the American dream  owning a home, getting a new car, going on a vacation  have become less and less attainable. It takes more than a high school diploma to make it today, and even college graduates are finding it challenging. On the other end, Medicare, Social Security and the broader social support system are buckling under the weight of largesse and poor fiscal management, taking with them a good chunk of the federal government.

Given all that, perhaps we ought to consider whether the postponement of full adulthood is a societal goal worth pursuing. There are compelling reasons to believe it is.

Generally speaking, 20-somethings have fewer needs and greater resiliency. Multiple young adults living together under one roof is both normal and common. Young adults also require less medical attention. Their idea of what it takes to be happy is less clouded than that of older generations bogged down by consumerism and the materialistic symbols of success.

At a time of life when they cost less to society, young adults ought to be learning how to live life without shouldering all of its burdens, so that when they embark on their careers, they have already figured out how to apply their education to the real world.

Today, those who are underemployed or not committed to a career are usually viewed as underperforming, less-than-productive members of society. We ought to start viewing underemployment as perhaps just the right amount of employment. Just as we dont rush a toddler out of a car booster and into the front seat, we shouldnt rush a 20-something into a career theyre unsure of at a time when theyre still unsure of themselves.

Likewise, we ought to take the stigma away from low-end jobs. Sometimes a job is just something a 20-something does to make money while trying to figure out all the rest of life. And it may be time to consider extending basic education beyond 12th grade, to bring the skill sets being taught to students more in line with the realities of todays job market. We should give some real thought toward expanding our idea of the minimum amount of education required to compete in todays world  a model that hasnt changed in roughly 75 years.

Obviously, postponing full adulthood comes at a price, and one segment of society that would be affected is older workers. Todays workforce, which has been trending older for years, would inevitably have to work past the current recommended retirement age of 65.

Yet among older workers there are also some concrete realities, and it is likewise worth taking an honest look at them.

Health issues aside, many of todays older workers could  and want to  work until they are 80. Studies conducted by the Brookings Institution and Boston College, among others, have found growing evidence of this trend.

Lets consider that for a moment: If a seasoned veteran can stay on the job until 80, rather than 65, that is 15 more years of stability and streamlined productivity for the company. That is 15 more years of income for the worker. And that is a far lighter burden on our over-burdened social support systems, not just in financial numbers, but also in helping to head off the physical and mental conditions that all too often develop from idle bodies and minds.

Of course, postponing full adulthood for 20-somethings and extending it for those above 65 means that the burdens of society would be shifted, in some measure, from one generation to another.

But if the pursuit of happiness is still one of the guiding principles of our republic, then it is worth considering whether such a seismic shift in our priorities might benefit all, young and old alike.
The media claim there is no election fraud, that conservatives claims of such are an offense looking for somewhere to happen. And I remember a huge article announcing the results of an extensive investigation proving there is no voter fraud in North Carolina, an obvious attempt to justify the lefts objection to the proposed voter ID requirement.

Well, the State Board of Elections has just discovered that Joy Yvette Wilkerson has been charged with three counts  two of them felonies, for attempting to change voter registrations of about 250 convicted felons in Granville County so they could vote in last years election  250 in little Granville County.

My point? Wheres the front-page article covering this offense, refuting the previous assumptions by the left that there is no voter fraud in North Carolina?

This revelation deserves more than four paragraphs under a tiny headline in the lower left corner of page 2.

Relative sidebar: The High Point University survey reports the media rank near the bottom when it comes to the confidence people have ...

No big surprise, actually.

Clyde L. Hunt Jr.

Greensboro
REIDSVILLE  The week-long hunt for an Eden man wanted in connection to the murder of 61-year-old Terry Wayne Hagwood of Reidsville on April 4, came to a close late Wednesday night.

Michael Ray Hutson, 38, was arrested by Rockingham County sheriffs deputies at approximately 11 p.m. on April 12.

Deputies received information that Hutson was at a home on Barnes Street, near Eden. When they responded to the residence, they found the wanted fugitive fleeing from the back door of the home.

Hutson was taken into custody and, according to a Facebook post by Sheriff Sam Page, the arrest was made without incident.

Deputies took Hutson to the Reidsville Police Department, where investigators took over the case. He was charged with first-degree murder and placed without bond in the Rockingham County Jail.

The Reidsville Police Department, which is handling the investigation, hasnt released many details in the incident.

The investigation into the murder of Hagwood began when the Reidsville police responded to a medical call in the 500 block of Thomas Street last Tuesday afternoon. Hagwood was found dead inside his home, but the timetable of his death is still unclear.

So is the cause of death, which was described by Reidsville Police in a statement as some type of trauma. An autopsy was scheduled by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh, prior to funeral services on Sunday, April 9.

Rockingham Now has requested an autopsy report from the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, but has yet to receive documentation as of Friday afternoon.

Following the initial investigation, Reidsville Police announced to media outlets two days later that the case was being handled as a homicide.

The following day, Hutson was identified as a suspect, and was being sought in connection to the crime.

Heading into the weekend, officers continued to work diligently to locate the fugitive that was reported to be seen near the Virginia border.

The car Hutson was believed to be driving, a black GMC Envoy, was located by Danville Police officers late Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

The RPD, which recovered the vehicle, received a call from the Danville Police Department at approximately 7:30 a.m. Sunday.

Less than two hours later, the Rockingham County Sheriffs Office received a tip about a potential sighting of a man matching the description of Hutson, walking north on railroad tracks in the Ruffin area.

At 8:40 a.m. Wednesday, the Rockingham County Office of Emergency Management released an advisory to the public that Hutson had been possibly spotted on Mullins Road near U.S. 158, heading towards Caswell County.

The area, also close in proximity to the residence of his mother, was cleared by 3 p.m. that afternoon by the Rockingham County Sheriffs Office.

Hutson was not located, but was potentially spotted a second time, wearing a black hat, black hooded sweatshirt and jeans.

The search came to a close late Wednesday evening.

According to the North Carolina Court System online calendar, Hutson will first make his first court appearance on Wednesday, April 20.
GREENWICH  The Bruce Museum is still recruiting anyone who has seen or wants to find a wild turtle.

The museum began its turtle watch two years ago and through citizen observations is crafting a comprehensive atlas of the Connecticut turtle population  aided by Tim Walsh, the citizen science coordinator behind the Connecticut Turtle Atlas.

It allows everyday people to participate in scientific research, Walsh said of the study, one of several on-going citizen science projects.

This has a dual purpose. It provides an outlet for scientists such as myself to reach out to the people, and to talk with them about our projects and also conservation issues with the species or scientific aspects we are working on," he said. And if  I have thousands of eyes looking for me, people doing what they normally do, those are observational records that would be completely hidden to researchers.

The job is fairly simple, he said. If a resident on a walk spots a turtle nesting site in a local pond, or a boxwood turtle in the woods, they are asked to take a photo and pass it on, either singly or as a regular participant in the citizen science program.

Walsh said that any turtle photo taken from a smart phone or digital camera can be added to the www.inaturalist.org platform hosting the Connecticut Turtle Atlas.

If location services are turned on the smartphone, the site geolocator will automatically map where the turtle is. With any other camera, photos can be uploaded and volunteers can log where the photo was taken.

And although there may be easier platforms to use, he said that this one, designed by the California Academy of Sciences, is programmed for conservation.

Anything that the International Union for the Conservation of Nature deems vulnerable, threatened or endangered, it obscures its location, he said. So even though you give the exact GPS location, it will obscure the public location by about 10 kilometers ... for that to be obscured was very important to me.

So far there are 70 registered identifiers, 42 observers and 271 observations logged on the site. The sightings include nine different turtle species. The state has 12 different species of turtles, including transients  species that visit just during the summer.

The most common turtles are the eastern painted turtle and the common snapping turtle, said Walsh. Those can be found in virtually every waterway from a little urban pond to the large rivers. In fact ...on the pond here in Greenwich, Binney Park, theres a large population of painted turtles and an even larger population of snapping turtles.

Its a fabulous place. I go there often to turtle-watch, he said, but I listen and see how people are reacting to the turtles  and you can definitely tell theyve been fed because they come right up to the bridge  and the people and the kids get so excited because you have this 30-pound turtle bobbing around in the water.

Ive seen young kids standing right on the edge of the pond on a rock, said Walsh, with a snapping turtle eight inches away, just kind of looking up at them out of the water. Its a really fantastic experience.

Anyone interested in volunteering as a citizen scientist to map the turtles in Greenwich and in the State of Connecticut can contact Tim Walsh at twalsh@brucemuseum.org or 203-413-6767.

E: jturiano@greenwichtime.com; T: @jturianoGT; IG: @greenwichgreen
Amazon will be launching the Fire TV Stick in India soon, according to a report by TechPP. The streaming device was supposed to launch late last year when Amazon launched the Prime service in India but got delayed for some reason.

According to the report, the Fire TV Stick is expected to be priced at INR 1999 ($31) for Prime customers. The price for non-Prime customers is said to be INR 3,999.

This means it's cheaper to get a Prime membership in India than the price difference between the Prime and non-Prime variants.

The Fire TV Stick runs a customized version of Android and has support for Android apps and games. It is capable of 1080p video output and comes with the Alexa Voice Remote allowing you to search for content using voice commands. The Fire TV Stick also has support for streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, YouTube, ESPN, Spotify, Pandora, and Vevo.

Source
Another week passed, and the Galaxy S8 is still the most popular smartphone in our database. It is three weeks in a row now, but the lead over the second-placed Redmi 4a is still pretty big.

Galaxy S8+ fell to 5th after two weeks in the Top 3, and now its place on the podium is taken by a former crowd favorite - Galaxy J7 Prime.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 retains fourth, while 6th and 7th are still occupied by the Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy S7 edge.

Another couple that goes hand in hand is the Moto G5 Plus and the Galaxy C9 Pro. The Samsung handset overtook its Moto rival this time around and climbed to 8th, while the LG G6 took the final position in the prestigious chart.
Aside from the Xiaomi Mi 6 (which launches next week), all flagships for the first half of 2017 have been announced. Which one has you excited?

The Mi 6 is promising Snapdragon 835 on a budget, not to mention dual cameras, plenty of memory and more. Its not clear if there will be a Plus model (the Mi 6 will have a 5.1 screen) or if that will be reserved for the 6s generation.

Still, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is the fastest route to S835 (unless you live in the Exynos zone). It stuck to only a single camera, but the Infinity Display is spectacular. And it does have a plus model, which is essentially the same phone but with a larger screen - 6.2 instead of 5.8. And keep in mind those are extra wide screens, 18.5:9 aspect ratio.

The LG G6 was announced ahead of its rival neighbor and also features minimal bezels on its flat 18:9 screen and it does have dual-cameras. The modular experiment is over, replaced by practical waterproofing. Still, the early announcement means the phone uses the older Snapdragon 821.

The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus focused more on developing their Leica-branded cameras than shrinking the bezels. Huawei side-stepped the chipset issue by making its own and this is the first Kirin to truly give Snapdragon and Exynos a run for their money.

Sony has the XZs, but were all looking forward to the Xperia XZ Premium. We certainly had a lot of fun with the 960fps slow motion video mode and the image quality has gone up overall. Speaking of image quality, the 4K HDR screen is unique and you do get Snapdragon 835 (unlike the LG G6 and Xperia XZs).

HTC runs on a different schedule than the rest. The U Ultra was unveiled well ahead of the MWC, so it went on sale before the competition (the lead on the XZ Premium and Mi 6 is especially pronounced). HTC tried its hand at a secondary screen with the U Ultra, but other than that it is a continuation of the HTC 10, including the awesome camera (singular). Launching early again meant that the next-gen chipset was not available.
Published on 2017/04/16 | Source

/Newsis

Hundreds of tourists from Thailand will visit a ski resort in Yongpyeong, Gangwon Province this week to enjoy the last bit of snow.

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The Korea Tourism Organization said Tuesday that it has created a tour program using the remaining snow of the ski resort targeting Thai visitors who plan to overseas trips during their New Year holiday, which this year takes place amid an unprecedented heat wave.

The program runs from Thursday through Saturday.

The organizers set up a 160-m-long sledge tube to lure tourists from Southeast Asia who do not have the opportunity to experience snow in their country and usually visit Korea in winter.

Activities and events include sledding race, Korean traditional performance, and Korean cooking.

"Last year 470,000 Thai tourists visited Korea, up by more than 50 percent in the last five years. Thailand is a very important market for Korea's tourism industry to curb dependence on China", said Jung Jin-soo of the KTO.
The union minister has hailed the former prime minister for giving India a new direction.
Election Day 2022 live updates: Routine issues reported; stocks rally on GOP expectations

Election watchdogs reported routine issues in key battleground states Tuesday but no major problems as ballots were cast across the U.S. Live updates.
HICKORY  Three stores on and around Catawba Valley Boulevard SE will be closing soon as a result of financial struggles or strategic plans at the corporate level.

Family Christian, OfficeMax and HHGregg will soon be shutting down their Hickory locations.

Family Christian, a non-profit Christian gift shop chain, has been struggling for some time after filing for bankruptcy in 2015, Family Christian Manager Amanda Rudisill said.

Around Christmas last year, it seemed as though things might be looking up, but the company continued to struggle into 2017.

And we really thought we were going to be able to pull through, but we were losing probably 50 percent of our clientele; so that really hurt bad, Rudisill said.

One factor in the closure of the stores is the online market.

Online is just crushing everybody, Rudisill said. I mean, its hard to tell people please stop ordering stuff online, but you cant tell them that.

While online shopping is cheaper, it means sacrificing person-to-person contact" and the experience of holding a product prior to purchase, Rudisill said.

Since the news of the stores closing has begun to spread, Rudisill has seen an outpouring of support from people who love the store.

Ive got a huge following that has been coming in here every day and blessing us every day, Rudisill said. And its really hard, and theyre like we hate to see you go, and then theyll cry and theyll have moments with us because we get close to so many.

Rudisill plans to keep the store open under a new name.

I dont want to leave; my people dont want me to leave, Rudisill said.

In addition to being a Christian gift shop, the new store also would be a community resource, providing support for people with addiction, marital problems and would host bible studies, Rudisill said.

Talking with customers, Rudisill said she has heard interest in the new store idea. Ministers from as a far as Gastonia have said they would like to teach a bible study class in a new store, Rudisill said.

Rudisill said it looks like she should be able to open the new store but is waiting on the bank at this point.

Several people at the store Thursday afternoon expressed disbelief and sadness at the stores closing.

Crystal Richardson has been coming to the store for more than 12 years and said she was disappointed when she heard that it was closing.

They always have something new that you cant find anywhere else, Richardson said. Nobody knows why its closing. They always seem to have business.

The Family Christian store will be closed by May 15, Rudisill said.

The OfficeMax in Hickory is one of 300 stores in the United States that will be closing as part of the companys strategic plan to optimize its store footprint in North America, OfficeMax media representative Juilianne Embry said via email.

The company will provide severance packages to eligible associates and will help associates re-locate to other store locations and within the company to the extent possible, Embry said.

Embry also referred customers of the OfficeMax to the Office Depot at 1858 Catawba Valley Boulevard, which is part of the same company as OfficeMax.

OfficeMax would not disclose the number of people employed at the Hickory store.

HHGregg filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy March 6, according to a company press release.

After unsuccessfully seeking a buyer for the company, HHGregg CEO Bob Riesbeck said in a statement the company would begin liquidating its assets April 8.

A store manager at the HHGregg in Hickory said the date for the store closing was unknown and would depend on how quickly the store could sell its inventory.

The HHGregg in Hickory has roughly 13 employees, HHGregg Communications Manager Chantal Kowalski said via email.
How does one judge Make in India? Recent news that foreign direct investment (FDI) flowing to defence in 2016-17 was an absurd trickle of Rs. 61,000 (or perhaps $61,000, the Ministry of Defence didnt specify) seems to have not caused much of a ripple. Nor has the fact that FDI in defence in the past three years has been  this isnt a typo either  $174,000, notwithstanding several liberalisation announcements.

Defence is just one, albeit telling, sector, with its own peculiarities such as the much-delayed strategic partners policy and a single buyer  the Ministry of Defence. But it is an exaggerated version of the story playing out across the high-profile Make in India campaign, which promises to generate millions of jobs in India by increasing the share of manufacturing to 25% of gross domestic product (GDP).

India has seen strong FDI flows in the last couple of years, but most of this is going to ride-sharing services like Uber and Ola and e-commerce providers like Amazon and Flipkart. FDI in manufacturing hit a high of US$9.6 billion in 2014-15 (slightly better than the previous 2011-12 record), but actually fell the next year to US$8.4 billion. A major pickup in 2016-17 seems unlikely.

Despite rising costs in China, India has made little headway into becoming a global manufacturing alternative, particularly at the low end that generates the most jobs. Textiles and clothing jobs from China are moving to Myanmar, Cambodia and, yes, Bangladesh, while Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia are gaining in electronics production. India has become a global small-car hub over the last couple of decades, but this relatively high-end segment is not a massive job-creator.

Things are slowly changing. India has a large domestic market to leverage, and the two dedicated freight rail corridors it is now building (connecting Delhi with Mumbai and Kolkata) should contribute to a major reduction in logistics costs in a few years. But, for now, southeast Asia is eating Indias lunch.

There are limits to what a government can do. Indias cant, and arguably shouldnt, try to emulate Chinas labour suppression that kept manufacturing costs down, which Myanmar, for instance, could. This government isnt even pushing the smaller measures forcefully enough. The focus on ease of doing business reforms is commendable, but only four of 31 states have implemented meaningful labour reform in the last three years. Even if the opposition doesnt want to cooperate, the BJP could certainly prod its 12 other states to follow suit.

And lets not forget the self-goals. Demonetisation might have contributed to the BJPs political victory in Uttar Pradesh, but it has shredded the informal sector. Large companies in sectors from automobiles to consumer goods have laid off thousands of workers, as have their suppliers. Demonetisation may have delayed the goals of Make in India by months, if not years.

Its not a bad thing for Indias aspirations to exceed its political grasp, but a trending social media hashtag wont generate jobs. India has always done its bit of manufacturing, and the true test of Make in India lies in whether its GDP share meaningfully rises, not in photo-ops.

Amitabh Dubey is an analyst of politics and economic policy.

The views expressed are personal.
Easter also called Resurrection Sunday, is a festival which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is celebrated all over the world in different ways, according to the traditions and ethnicities of different countries.

We tell you about the different customs observed by countries around the world on Easter:

Italy

The people of Florence celebrate a 350-year-old custom called scoppio del carro, meaning explosion of the cart. On the morning of Easter Sunday, an antique cart is transported from the Porta al Prato to the Piazza del Duomo. It is carried by white oxen, which are adorned with garlands, and the cart is accompanied by 150 soldiers, musicians, and people dressed in 15th century attire. The cart has is laden with fireworks, and when ignited the entire show lasts for around 20 minutes. A successful explosion of the cart is considered to be auspicious for the people of the region.

Poland

A Polish Easter blessing basket. (Shutterstock)

A day before Easter, a blessing basket is prepared by families which is stuffed with bread, sausages, decorated eggs and other food items which are then taken to the church to be blessed. According to Polish culture, Lent doesnt end until this basket is blessed by a priest. On the day after Easter, the Polish celebrate with Smigus Dyngus. Young boys and girls play around with water guns and throw buckets of water at each other. According to a fable, girls who get drenched will get married within the year.

Australia

In Australia, instead of Easter bunnies, Bilby-related goods are sold in various stores. Bilbies are local Australian marsupials which are in danger of extinction, which is one reason why Bilbies are used so that awareness is created regarding them.

Bilbies are local Australian marsupials which are in danger of extinction. (Shutterstock)

Australia also has the Sydney Royal Easter Show, where over a period of two weeks farming communities display their crops and livestock, and city folks get to experience rural life.

France

Children in France get their treats from Easter bells and not the Easter bunny. According to Catholic traditions, church bells cannot ring between Holy Thursday and the Easter Vigil, due to the somberness observed during these days surrounding Jesus death.

The golden statue of Madonna blesses the world from the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral in France. (Shutterstock)

Over time there was a myth which said that the church bells grew wings and went to Rome so they could be blessed by the Pope. They would then return on Easter day with chocolate and gifts for the children.

India

Hand-painted wooden Easter eggs in India. (Shutterstock)

People gift each other with Easter eggs and Easter bunnies along with flowers and chocolate cakes. In Goa, various carnivals are held, include plays and dances.

UK

Various communities in England have Morris dancing, a customary dance which dates back to the Middle Ages. Men wear hats along with bells around their ankles, and dance through the streets waving ribbons all the way. This practice is believed to drive away the Winter spirits.

Morris dancing on Easter in England is believed to drive away the Winter spirits. (Shutterstock)

Greece

The practice of Pot Throwing in Greece signifies that new crops shall come in new pots. (Shutterstock)

On Holy Saturday locals take part in the yearly Pot Throwing, where pots, pans and other items are thrown out of the house. This practice signifies that new crops shall come in new pots.

Latin America

In many Latin American countries, locals burn effigies of Judas. (Shutterstock)

Many Latin American countries, take part in The Burning of Judas. Locals make effigies of Judas and burn them.

Spain

Verges celebrate Holy Thursday with the Dansa de la Mort (Death Dance). This procession takes place at night where those taking part dress up as skeletons and recreate reenact the life and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

A Death Dance taking place in Spain on Easter. (Shutterstock)

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The morning of April 7 seemed like a pleasant one to Guneshwari Singh, because she was aboard a train that was taking her to her husband in New Delhi. Little did she know that tragedy would strike near Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh, in the form of a robber intent upon snatching her bag.

Guneshwari was just as gutsy as her husband, CRPF constable Rai Singh, and she wouldnt give in without a fight. A scuffle ensued, and the 27-year-old woman was thrown out of the train.

He attempt at holding her own against the robber came at a great price. Doctors attending to Guneshwari concluded that amputating a leg was the only way to save her life.

Owing to the government railway polices reluctance to share any information in this regard, the incident was not reported to the media until over a week later. Even the victims husband was advised against speaking to reporters.

Sources said the woman, a resident of Amor village in Chhattisgarhs Bastar district, had boarded the Samta Express with her brother and 13-month-old daughter to visit Rai Singh in Delhi. She was asleep on her berth in her compartment that fateful morning, when she felt somebody tugging at her bag.

A livid Guneshwari pursued the robber to the door of the moving train, where the two grappled in a desperate struggle. Moments later, she lay critically injured by the side of the railway track.

A co-passenger informed the railway police, after which Guneshwari was taken to a government hospital in Itarsi. Taking the critical nature of her injuries into consideration, doctors referred her to the Hamidia hospital in Bhopal.

Doctors were forced to amputate one of her legs to prevent the infection from spreading to other parts of her body. She is said to be in a stable condition now, said a hospital official.

While Rai Singh refused to speak to the media, railway superintendent of police TK Vidyarthi said a case has been registered at Itarsi.

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Actor Ali Fazal, who has been in Los Angeles since the past two weeks, met comedian Lilly Singh, better known as superwoman on YouTube. The two met at the launch of Lillys book How To Be A Bawse and hit it off like a house on fire and took selfies with each other. Shes one hell of a soul is all that I can say. We had a nice little chat, about her book and how lovely the event was. We also spoke of her popping over to Bollywood to have a little go at movies...My moment of truth was our selfie booth stint creating Gifs together, says Ali, who has now flown to London where he would be wrapping up the final schedule of Victoria and Abdul before its release this September.

In fact, Ali and Lilly enjoyed each others company so much, that they hung out later as well. They spent time talking about Bollywood and films. After the event, Lilly and Ali decided to hang out for some more time and went out with some friends too, says a source, close to Ali.

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Success has ruined more people than failure, believes actress Sonakshi Sinha, who says she neither shouts from the rooftop when her films do well, nor does she sit in the dark and cry over her movie debacles.

Purab Kohli and Sonakshi Sinha in a still from Noor.

I have been brought up in a way that I treat success and failure in the same way, the actor said while promoting her forthcoming film Noor.

Somebody once said, success has ruined more people than failure. So its very important to learn from mistakes and not dwell on them. When I had my huge successes, I never got on to a rooftop and shouted that my films are a hit; and in the case of failures, I dont sit in a corner and cry about them.

You move on and do your next film, added Sonakshi.

The 29-year-old, who is the daughter of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha and Poonam Sinha, made her debut with Dabangg, a film that starred Salman Khan.

Subsequently, she delivered hits like Rowdy Rathore and Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty and a female-driven film like Akira. She also tried her hand at a different genre with Lootera, which gave her a chance to show her range as an actor.

She will next be seen playing a journalist in Noor, scheduled for a worldwide release on April 21.I feel my journey in Bollywood has been great. Some of the initial roles I did have put me in a position today where I shoulder a film like Akira by myself. I have played two title roles and it is really exciting to be able to do that.Honestly, the films that I have done in the past have put me in a position that I can do roles like Noor today, she said.

She is also glad that the industry is changing in a way thats favourable for women. We are moving in a direction where films are being made with female protagonists, and its really exciting because, finally, good and amazing roles are being written keeping women in mind. I am very happy to be part of this change and to be able to do those kind of roles, she added.

Directed by Sunhil Sippy, Noor is a crime thriller-comedy adapted from Pakistani novel Karachi, Youre Killing Me!.

The novel centres on a 20-year-old reporter, Ayesha Khan, living in Karachi, her misadventures and finding a nice lover. However, the film is set in Mumbai.

Asked about how this cross-cultural exchange between India and Pakistan can help, she said: We are just here to entertain people and thats our purpose. Its an entertaining film taken from the book with the only purpose to entertain and nothing else.

The message she wants the audience to take is: Your voices are important. Youth has the power to make a difference.

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Gauahar Khan is on cloud nine after the great response shes received for her role as Rubina in the recently released Begum Jaan. She says, Its more than what I expected. All of us worked hard for this film, and to get critical acclaim, to read my name in every review, and be appreciated as an actor is something any actor would be amazed about. I am on top of the world.

Gauahar, who has been part of movies such as Game (2011), Ishaqzaade (2012), Fever (2016) and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (BKD), says she doesnt look at the length of a role while signing a film. She says, When I am asked why I dont do lead roles, I say that as an actor, I dont want to just star in a film opposite someone resulting in everyone forgetting me [and my role] once the film is over. I would rather do a four-scene role in a BKD and have people remember me as the cop. I have met so many people who have said that [they know me as the cop]. I want to leave an impact with my roles. Nevertheless, I am hungry and Im dying to work in all possible spaces, including the hard-core commercial roles.

Gauahar says she knew the role was meaty when she accepted Begum Jaan, so she wasnt concerned about being part of an ensemble cast. I am an ensemble cast pro by now (laughs). When I worked in Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year (2009), I knew the role was meaty enough for me to stand out. I knew this role also had a graph and potential. Rubina goes through extreme sorrow and loss, and I knew it would finally give me recognition as an actor, as the role had so much potential. I didnt want to let my director Srijit Mukherji down, as he is a National Award-winning director, and for him to see me as Rubina was a pat on my back.

People have taken note of Gauahars bold scene in Begum Jaan, which proved to be the highlight for her character. Gauahar says she felt a lot of pressure to deliver while doing that scene. Now, finally I can breathe, as in the original Bengali film, Rajkahini, the scene was praised a lot. It left a huge impact on not only women but men as well. For me, that is a greater victory and the most important one, she says.

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Tension simmered in Ranchis MG Road for the second time in less than a week after one of the parties in a road rage incident late Saturday night sought to give a communal colour to it.

A Muslim e-rickshaw driver allegedly cooked up a story of how he was taken to an isolated area by a group of youths, asked to chant religious slogans and beaten up for refusing to oblige.

His story sparked major unrest in the Muslim-dominated Ekra Masjid locality and brought thousands of protestors out on the street in his support.

However, police said they later found out that the e-rickshaw driver was assaulted by the owner of a Santro car after a minor accident on MG Road. The car owner had also lodged a complaint against the rickshaw driver Iliaz Khan with the local police station.

Police personnel were rushed to MG Road and protestors were chased away to avoid the situation from snowballing into a conflagration. Armed police personnel were deployed on the streets through the entire night and on Sunday to prevent any further tension.

Read More: Objectionable song sparks communal tension in Ranchi

The rickshaw driver cooked up the entire story only to gather a mob and scare the car owner with whom he had a scuffle, said Ranchi superintendent of police Kishore Kaushal.

He added that the police will examine the CCTV footage of the area and take necessary actions against whoever is found guilty.

The forces are still deployed in the area as a precautionary measure. The rickshaw-wala alleged that he was beaten up by five men, but there wasnt even a scratch on his body, said Kaushal, adding that Iliaz would be interrogated further.

Rumours about communal clashes have become a major concern for the administration in the BJP-ruled Jharkhand, with random messages on WhatsApp and hearsay proving enough fuel to spark tension.

On April 11, a devotional song with alleged objectionable lyrics played at MG Road in Ranchi led to communal tension, with groups of Hindus and Muslims pelting stones at each other before the police restored peace in the area.

Meanwhile, Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Pravin Togadia on Sunday said in Ranchi that objectionable songs were played only in stray incidents and shouldnt be the parameter to judge the enthusiasm in Hindus.

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It was a welcome development. Used to feuding with each other on the smallest pretext, our parliamentarians were speaking in one voice for a change. The reason? A military court in Pakistan has awarded a death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav on allegations of spying and this brought our MPs close to boiling point. Their anger was justified and their solidarity commendable.

Will the collective rage of our parliamentarians and ministers be enough to save Jadhavs life? Will he manage to return unscathed to his family in Mumbai?

These questions need to be raised because even before the parliaments proceedings could end, Nawaz Sharifs reply had come with an underlying threat: Our army is prepared. He was responding to a statement by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj that Jadhav was Indias son and all efforts will be made to bring him back whatever it took. That if anything happened to Jadhav, Pakistan should be ready to face serious consequences for our bilateral relationship.

We should not forget that before this, in the Sarabjit Singh case, India has been a victim of Pakistans treachery. At a time when the Indian government was building pressure on Islamabad saying that Sarabjit was an ordinary citizen who had strayed into Pakistan by mistake, a few prisoners were carrying out a life-threatening assault on him in Lahores Kot Lakhpat jail. Were the prison officials so stupid as to not realise the significance of this prisoner for India-Pakistan ties? Clearly these killers had the governments backing. A day after the incident, an Indian prisoner assaulted Sanaullah Haq in Jammu jail. After slipping into a coma for a few days, Haq died. Now it was the turn of Pakistan to make a counter-allegation since Haq was a Pakistani citizen who had been arrested on charges of involvement in terror acts.

Who says international diplomacy is a subject that is discussed only behind closed doors? At times, we see it taking place in prisons as well.

Here I must make it clear that the Kulbhushan Jadhav issue is much complicated than Sarabjit Singhs. Jadhav was in Iran on a business trip. He was kidnapped from there and brought to Pakistan. After his arrest Pakistani agencies put out a video where he was seen confessing he was a RAW agent. But his swollen face and the jumps in the video gave away the flimsy nature of this confession. It was said that an Indian passport with an Iranian visa was recovered from Jadhav. Since when did spies begin travelling on valid travel documents such as passports and visas?

Everybody is aware that Pakistani politicians like to atone for their sins by getting their hands dirty with the blood of innocent Indian citizens. Here you should carefully consider the timing of Jadhavs death sentence. Elections to Pakistans national assembly are just one year away and Nawaz Sharif wants to retain power to keep his misdeeds away from the public eye. His tenure as Prime Minister has been infamous. He has failed to act on his electoral promises and his loved ones have been named in the Panama papers. If this wasnt enough, the surgical strike by India brought him even more criticism.

Pakistans new army commander Qamar Javed Bajwa has no option but to go with Sharif. A few weeks before he took over, the Indian army conducted a surgical strike in Pakistani territory. He wants retribution for that. Not just this, every Pakistani general wants to avenge the humiliation that Pakistan faced in 1971 when 90,000 Pakistani soldiers led by General Niazi surrendered before the Indian army. Thats why Bajwa didnt think twice before giving the go-ahead to Jadhavs sentence, even when he knew Jadhav was innocent.

What will Indias next step be? I recollect an informal chat with a senior minister in the Modi government in August 2016 when he said that Pakistan doesnt really know Narendra Modi. I dont know what exactly he will do, but make no mistake, if they meddle too much with our borders, he will do something that will bring the Pakistanis back to their senses. Who knew that a few weeks later, our soldiers would cross the border and destroy the launch pads of terrorists who were flourishing with Pakistans support?

Clearly, Indian citizens are now hoping for Jadhavs release. Can a strong nation like India allow Pakistani intelligence agencies to kidnap one of their citizens from Iran and hang him?

It is a test of Indias intent and resolve.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan

letters@hindustantimes.com
Should the government, directly or indirectly, hold a stake in tobacco companies? Thats the substance of a case filed by a group of individuals, some of whom run the Tata Trusts, in the Bombay High Court. The case  the court is yet to decide whether to admit it or not  specifically names ITC Ltd, which it refers to as primarily a tobacco company. Thats true, although the Kolkata-based company has diversified successfully into other businesses, including confectionery and packaged consumer goods. Indeed, one of the companys executives was once affronted that Mint referred to ITC as a tobacco company. Still, the tobacco business contributed over 60% of its revenue from operations and 75% of net profit in the three months ending December 31, 2016, so the petitioners description of ITC as a tobacco company is justified.

Theres also no debating the ill-effects of tobacco. ITC, Indias largest cigarette company, has always been aggrieved that the government doesnt tax beedis and other forms of tobacco, but thats an entirely different issue, as is smuggling of cigarettes from across the border. The simple answer to whether cigarettes are harmful would be yes.

Directly and indirectly, the government holds a substantial stake in ITC. Through five insurance companies and the so-called Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI), it owns 32% stake in the company. The petitioners in the case in Bombay are asking whether it should.

Like Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Ltd, another private company in which the government directly and indirectly holds a significant stake, ITC is a board-managed company with no promoters, Indian or foreign (as defined by Indian rules). It is run by professional managers whose only stake in the company comes from stock options (and ITC is generous with them). Some of the governments stake in the two companies can be traced back to US-64, the guaranteed return mutual fund run by the Unit Trust of India that went belly up in the early 2000s. The value of the units was below the guaranteed return, so the government made good the difference and took over the shares. And some of the stake is historical (as in, the government insurance companies have held them forever, or so it seems).

The governments holding in the two companies has protected them from corporate raiders, domestic and foreign. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, for instance, it was this holding that eventually prevented Reliance Industries Ltd from taking over L&T, although the late Dhirubhai Ambani did have control for some time and even served as the companys chairman (Ive cut a really long and interesting story short). And in ITCs case, it is this holding that has kept at bay British American Tobacco, which has around 30% stake in ITC through subsidiaries.

Every now and then, there is talk of the government selling the stake it holds in the two companies through SUUTI, but, in ITCs case, such proposals are always accompanied by a caveat that BAT will not be allowed to bid for the shares. Which is as it should be  we need more professionally-managed, board-run companies such as ITC and L&T.

Interestingly, ITC also gets another form of protection from the government. Indian rules do not allow foreign direct investment in the manufacture of tobacco products and media reports last year suggested that the commerce ministry is considering not even allowing franchising, management contracts, and technical collaboration in any tobacco business. The governments stated rationale in both cases isnt the protection of the domestic industry (of which ITC is the biggest representative), but the harmful effects of tobacco. This is laudable.

The petition in Mumbai needs to be seen in this context. Legally, there may not be anything to prevent state-owned insurance companies and other government agencies from holding a stake in any company for financial and investment reasons, but the court may choose to look beyond  at the same logical and moral argument (safeguarding the health of people) that the government used to rationalise its ban on foreign investment in tobacco.

The government may just have to put that in its pipe and smoke it.

R Sukumar is editor, Mint

letters@hindustantimes.com
Although the deadline was blown and the process was as secretive as ever, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his cabinet did their yearly victory lap around the state last week (and it could very well continue this week) to tout the new state budget.

These presentations basically have mimicked the talking points of the statewide budget agreement announcement from the previous weekend, while tossing in some grant announcements for the community where a speech is taking place. They are campaign-style events aimed at framing the 2017 legislative session as a rousing success.

Voters should not be fooled.

And they should demand more.

Two of the biggest issues that scream for legislative attention are this state's pathetic records on elections and ethics. And so far, we've seen little evidence of progress.

Despite lumping a fair amount of non-fiscal policy into the state budget bills, Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeff Klein decided fixing flaws in how we vote and how we deal with corruption were not worthy of inclusion in the 2017-18 fiscal plan.

To be honest, that's fine with us ... as long as they make dealing with these issues a priority in the finals weeks of the 2017 session.

At the heart of election reform is the need for improved ballot access. From the convoluted schedule of primaries in this state to the obstacles to get registered to vote and then cast a ballot, New York's abysmal turnout rates should be an embarrassment to our leaders in Albany.

Ethics reform has also been woefully lacking, despite the rash of corruption cases that have surfaced in the Capitol in recent years. Limits on outside income and a more fair and transparent campaign finance system are badly needed.

Will major change in either area happen this year? The leaders probably would like the answer to be no. They're hoping the budget celebrations will fade into a period of low public attention that would allow them to quietly wind down their work for the year.

It's vital, then, for New York residents and advocacy groups ramp up their efforts to demand election and ethics reform. Take the fight to all of the state senators and Assembly members who must face the voters every two years. If the public can make them understand that results will be the key to their re-elections, something may finally get done.
Its a busy morning at the Indian side in Uttarakhands Banbasa close to the IndoNepal border. Vehicles ply across both sides of the border.

But, things were not the same in March. Tension had spread after the alleged firing by Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) on some Nepalese nationals, who were constructing a culvert at a border pillar at Basai in Uttar Pradeshs Lakhimpur Khiri on March10, resulted in the death of one Nepalese national. The SSB had stopped vehicles from Indian side to enter Nepal. Two motorcycles bearing Indian registration numbers were burnt in nepals Mahendranagar.

The calm has a peaceful yet an eerie feel as it hangs by a thin thread glued by maitri (friendship) between the two countries that share ties of roti and beti (livelihood and marital ties).

The Nepalese often taken offence to Indias big brother attitude. The memories of an economic blockade during the Rajiv Gandhi era in 1989 and later in 2015 are not forgotten. Incidents like the one at Lakhimpur Khiri strain the maitri between the two countries.

No issue, claims SSB

Sashastra Seema (SSB) commandant KC Rana said the Indo-Nepal border in Uttarakhand is totally peaceful and there is no tension. (Some) border pillars have been damaged at few spots due to erosion by waters of Sharda river and human activity. It is not clear whether they have been destroyed on purpose, he tells HT.

A joint survey was held by the Surveys of India and Nepal which will reach reach Champwat in a few months after which the eaxct situation about the pillars will become clear, he says.

India and Nepal share an open border that is not fenced unlike the border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Passport is not required to cross over to either side. People can just walk on foot, or two-wheelers. A fee is taken from vehicles for entering Nepal from India. As the border is porous, it is patrolled by the SSB personnel on the Indian side and the Nepal Praharis on the other side. A no-mans land across the border acts like a buffer zone. It is used for grazing cattle. At few places, farmers have sown crops.

The land is demarcated by pillars set up by the two countries. Local residents allege some pillars are damaged on the Nepalese side for advancing territory limits. They cite the example of the pillar at Brahmdev, which is removed, and the market shifted on the side of the Indian border. The Nepalese chowki in-charge Gokul Balayar refutes the allegations.

Roti-Beti ties

The Tanakpur border in Uttarakhands Champawat district just lies by the picturesque Sharda barrage that irrigates parts of Nepal. The Brahmdev market, which is situated in Kanchanpur disitrict of Nepal, starts barely 10-15 metres from the edge of the barrage. The market gets a heavy influx of pilgrims returning from the Purnagiri mela in Champawat.

Uttarakhand shares 263 km of the 1,751 km-long Indo-Nepal border. There are 20 main pillars and36 sub-pillars in this stretch.

Nanda Dhami, who is from Darchula in Nepal and runs a restaurant at Brahmdev, says the shopkeepers depend on Indian pilgrims for business for three months of the Purnagiri mela. After 3 months, this market is removed. We move to Indian cities for work in restaurants.

Another shop owner Dileep Singh says tension is detrimental to trade and hits the livelihood of people on both sides. We are dependent on India for food, education... My son studies in Tanakpur and we get ration from the Indian city just across the border. The people here have one slogan on their lips: Nepal Aama and Bharat mata ki jai, he asserts.

Gokul Balayar, a sub-inspector of Nepal Civilian Police who is posted at the Brahmdev international check post, Nepal, says the talks of tension were over stretched though he admits such incidents curb vehicles movement across the border. There has been some dispute on pillar No 1 or Khalla at 22 acre area on international border near Tanakpur, but it has not lead to any tension. The matter is being discussed by higher authorities, he says.

Several kilometers south of Tanakpur lies Banbasa city which falls in Champwat district and shares border with Nepal across the Sharda barrage. The area has an immigration check post and vehicles can cross over to Nepal and vice-versa four times during the day. Calm prevails but some locals allege that farming of Nepalese farmers have reached upto the no mans land. Across the the bridge lies the Gadda Chowki of Nepal where a pillar proclaims that the territory of India and Nepal ends.

Tensions in the past

Dharmendra Chand, a veteran journalist of Tanakpur, says the Indo-Nepal border in Tanakpur has seen tension in the past.

He points out that the Tanakpur region has five border pillars out of which one has vanished. Meetings were held by officials of both the counties but no action has been taken.

In 2011, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) raised anti-India slogans at the border. On March 16, the CPN (UML) took out a Mahakali rally to protest against the recent incident at Lakhimpur Khiri. Chands recollects that in the past, the Nepalese Young Communist League members had reached the Brahmdev market across Tanakpur and demonstrated against Indian hegemony leading to tensions. After this, the Hindutwa outfits such as Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal had taken out a march to the border but a confrontation was averted by security forces.
DEHRADUN: A division in the Uttarakhand bureaucracy was apparent after the government revoked its order to appoint two Provisional Civil Services (PCS) officials as additional secretaries in the chief ministers office.

The 2005 batch PCS officers  Lalit Mohan Rayal and Meharban Singh Bisht - were on Friday evening appointed as additional secretaries.

But in a separate order on Saturday, both were demoted to the post of joint secretaries. No reason was given for the revised order but sources say a section of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers was instrumental behind the second order. Citing the pay grade of Rayal and Bisht, the sources said the two PCS officials were not found suitable for the job.

Understandably, the PCS faction is unhappy with the order. The officials allege that a section of their IAS counterparts and some people with vested interested played tricks to work embarrass Rayal and Bisht.

The file of the two officials moved across offices and they got appointment only after the chief secretary and the chief minister gave a nod. Was the entire system sleeping (while issuing appointment order as additional secretary)? a PCS official asserted.

It is learnt as per established norms a PCS official after completing 13 years of service can be promoted as in-charge secretary at par with a IAS officer. Besides, a few PCS officials are officiating as district magistrates and chief development officers.

Rayal and Bisht are among a few PCS officials who were promoted in 2016, given a pay grade hike since 2013 but the order was challenged. And as a result, they could not get the due benefit. An official questioned whether the fault is on their part if they were deprived of dues.

The Secretariat Services Union, however, backed the decision to demote the two officials at the CMO. Deepak Joshi, president of the union, told Hindustan Times that they have no objection with anyone but asked how they are supposed to close eyes.

Besides IAS and PCS, the officials of the secretariat services work hard. The most they can reach is up to the level of an additional secretary. How can we digest if an official, who is not entitled, gets an appointment (in CM office)? he said.

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Three men on a bike allegedly stole R 26.17 lakh from a cash van parked near an ATM in Rajender Nagar on Saturday evening.

According to police, the van had come to replenish cash in the ATM and the gunman were waiting outside, leaving the door of the vehicle ajar.

The driver had got outside the van for a stretch while the trunk in which the box with cash was kept was left unlocked. Three men on a bike came, took the box and left.

After the cash custodian, Jitender Singh, realised that the box had been stolen, he called the police. He said the cash box went missing while he was filing the cash in a nearby ATM. He said he had also gone to fill two other ATMs in Karol Bagh and were heading to Connaught Place.

Singh had gone to the ATM with a guard and two colleagues, Mohammad Nadeem and Gaurav, who were waiting outside near the cash van. When he went inside, Sanjay too stepped out. It was then when the three men on a bike, stopped behind the van, entered the rear compartment and stole the cash box without anyone noticing, a senior police officer said.

The police are scanning the CCTV footage they accessed from outside the bank to get clues on the men. We have registered a case of theft on the basis of the complaint by the cash custodian and are probing into all possible angles, DCP Central, Mandeep Singh Randhawa said.

It appears the men were aware of the CCTV cameras and kept their face on the other side to avoid getting detected. One of them was wearing a cap, while the other two kept their faces away from the camera, a police officer said.

Police suspect the role of an insider. We will be questioning the staff, employees. We found out that the bikers had been following the van from Karol Bagh, where it stopped last, an investigator said.

The police have asked the company to give them details of their present and former employees.
Senior Congress leader and former Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday promised that his party will shut all sanitary landfills in the city if voted to power in the April 23 municipal elections.

Ramesh, while speaking at an event organised at the foothills of the Ghazipur landfill on Sunday, said the move will benefit the residents of the city at large.

Ramesh, along with other Congress workers, also raised a flag bearing mission zero landfill Delhi on the giant waste mountain at Ghazipur, and said that the party will achieve the target within two years if given a chance.

The presence of sanitary landfills is a risk to the health of local residents and a disgrace for the incumbent government and the society at large, Ramesh said.

The national capital generates approximately 9,000 metric tonnes of garbage on a daily basis, out of which more than 40% goes untreated, the party said.

We will develop a system for efficient waste management, including proper segregation and composting. Also, households will be given free blue and green bins for waste segregation and biodegradable waste will be transported to the local compost machine, which then will be converted into fertiliser, said Ramesh.

He emphasised that the Congress-run Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will strictly comply to the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. We will focus on reduce, reuse, recover, recycle and remanufacturing of garbage collected from the city, said Ramesh.

According to him, during his tenure as a Union environment minister, all attempts were made for closing the landfills located in Narela-Bawana, Bhalaswa, Okhla and Ghazipur areas. But all the directives sent by his ministry were met with deaf ears in the BJP-ruled MCD, he added.
The Delhi Police special cell has arrested an alleged kingpin of an interstate drug cartel who was carrying a reward of R 50,000 against his name.

The accused has been identified as 45-year-old Nazir Hussain alias Nizamuddin from Assam. Police said they got to know about Nizamuddin when they were investigating a case after five drug traffickers were arrested and 69 kgs of high grade opium worth crores of rupees was recovered from their possession.

Nizamuddin would collect opium and heroin from various small cultivators in the northeast and supply them to middlemen across Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-NCR through his carriers, using trucks and other heavy vehicles to avoid detection by law enforcing agencies, said Sanjeev Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (Special Cell).

Hussain was declared a proclaimed offender (PO) by a Delhi court as he had evaded arrest when the police team went to Assam and neighbouring states in search for him.

After months of efforts, information was received that he would be reaching Delhi by a train from Guwahati on April 14 and would alight at Anand Vihar railway station in east Delhi.

Special cell sleuths reached Ghaziabad railway station and boarded the train in which the accused was seated. They arrested him after interrogating him at the spot.

He allegedly disclosed during interrogation that illegal farming of opium is rampant in states like Manipur, Assam and Nagaland and they have become a major source of opium and heroin to Punjab via UP and Delhi-NCR.

After a crackdown by Border Security Force on the Pakistan border, illegal smuggling of drugs in Punjab had taken a nosedive and drug traffickers chose the northeast route, he told police.

He said northeast states were now the biggest hub for supply of these drugs to the rest of north India. The drugs are manufactured locally as well as smuggled from Myanmar, Yadav said.

Hussains middlemen were regular customers who used to place orders on phone and the money used to be transferred both through banks and cash.

The suspect said he had earlier made several trips to UP and Delhi-NCR to supply opium to various middlemen. This time he had come to contact his associates, who has been arrested and lodged in Delhi jails.

Police said Hussain is a school dropout. He started as a mechanic and ran a garage in Dimapur (Nagaland) for several years. After earning a reasonable amount from his garage, he bought a second-hand truck to transport goods from Dimapur to Western UP and Delhi and adjoining areas. He came in contact with criminals in 2014.
Sixty-six years ago when the first general election was held and a large number of voters were illiterate, poll symbols were introduced. Symbols, which looked straight out of a kindergarten book  a bat, a ball, house, window, shoes, a pair of scissors. They were meant to be simple. Voters, who could barely read or write their names, would identify their candidates through these symbols.

In 2017, as Delhi goes to vote again, election symbols have increased and come in varied shapes and sizes  a coconut to a coconut farm, a peanut to a cauliflower, and dumbbells to diamonds.

The EC has allotted over 80 free symbols to 1,174 independent candidates  not registered with any recognised political party.

While one independent candidate chose a batsman, another went for a bat. Yet another candidate opted for a palanquin. Items including an air-conditioner and an air-cooler have also been allotted to individuals.

There are eatables too on the list. Dont be surprised if you see pictures of a green chilli, peanut, grapes or a biscuit on the EVM buttons next to the candidates name.

On the Election Commissions website, the symbols, along with their hand-drawn sketches are attached for reference to be used by candidates while campaigning.

Looking at some symbols, it appears that the commission ran out of ideas and added just a streak or two to the already existing symbols. There is a plate, a plate containing food and plates stand  allotted to different candidates. There is a fruit and a basket containing fruits. To avoid confusion, some similar looking symbols such as a diesel pump, a hand pump, and a petrol pump have not been assigned in the same area.

There are also symbols, difficult to sketch such as the hurricane lamp, plastering towel or a coconut farm. A slate, once used in schools, may be a thing of the past but still exists as a notified symbol. A candidate in north Delhi has been allotted one. Internet and email may have made hand-written letters and post boxes outdated but the post box still remains a registered symbol and in use, every election.

Retired IAS officer Rakesh Mehta, who served as state chief election commissioner, explains the story of symbols. The first election commissioner Sukumar Sen adopted the idea of using symbols because half the voters could not read names on ballot papers. The symbols are approved by the Election Commission and have been of a certain size.

Symbols have also caused a rift among parties when they insist on using the same one. In 2012 Delhi MCD election, a similar problem arose before Mehta. The Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party and the Samajwadi Party were contesting in Delhi. In their respective states, they use bicycle as their symbols. It was a problem when they chose to contest in the same election and approached the commission. I told them to sort it themselves.

In the run-up to the municipal elections, former AAP member and psephologist Yogendra Yadav approached Delhi high court challenging Election Commissions refusal to allow a common symbol for his party  Swaraj India. The high court denied Swaraj India a common poll symbol saying it was a registered but unrecognised party. The EC, however, later allowed the party contestants to use whistle as their symbol.

Former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav reached EC staking claim over use of the bicycle as the party symbol after a family feud.

At least 17 political parties, which have registered symbols, such as the lotus for BJP, palm for Congress and broom for AAP among others, are contesting across the 272 wards in Delhi. Over the years, newer symbols have been added to the list. In January, symbols such as dumbbells, headphones, walnut, room were among the 27 symbols added to the list. There are 164 free symbols today

In 2012, when None of the Above (NOTA) was made an option for voters, the EC approached National Institute of Design to prepare a symbol for NOTA.

The free symbol booklet is assigned to returning officers in each ward. Independent candidates cannot use the symbol after the election. Because independent candidates outnumber the registered candidates, free symbols are shared. Around 40% contesting elections in Delhi are independents, said an election official.

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A notorious gang whose members had their roots in Iran and used their well-built personalities to look convincing as policemen and cheat people across Delhi and NCR has been busted in South Delhis Bhogal area.

Four members of the gang has been arrested.

Since January 2015, the Irani gang as it is known cheated at least 100 people in Delhi and NCR, said Vijay Kumar, DCP (West). Since their arrest on Friday, the police have already linked them to 38 cases registered in west Delhi.

Several such gangs whose members have their origin in Iran operate across India are wanted by police of multiple states. They allegedly live on fake identities and despite their biggest bastion in Mumbai, the gangs have spread their wings across the country, police said.

Members of this gang carry fake identity cards of police officers, CBI officials and crime reporters. Though they have multiple tricks up their sleeve, the most common modus operandi is to pose as policemen and look out for aged women decked in jewellery.

In Delhi, their team would comprise fraudsters posing as an SHO, a sub-inspector, a constable and one man as a vulnerable commoner. Those impersonating as police would don either safari suits or police uniforms.

The men posing as sub-inspector and constable stop their victim and weave a story about a major robbery having taken place in the area. They advise their target to wrap all their jewellery in a handkerchief to keep it safe, said the DCP.

To come across as genuine policemen, the cheats would allegedly take their target to another member of the gang standing some distance away and posing as an SHO.

The SHO would help the victim wrap the jewellery but would actually use the opportunity to swap the original jewellery with fake ones. When the victim returned home and unwrapped the handkerchief, she would realise that she was duped.

Police said they had been working to nab this gang for weeks and had deployed sources in Bhogal where its members were suspected to be living.

On Friday afternoon, a police team raided the locality and surrounded the suspects. But the commotion and the narrow lanes allowed a few suspects to flee even as police caught four others.

Elaborating on their origin, the DCP said the ancestors of the accused were brought to India from Persia by Golconda kings who appointed them as their personal bodyguards.

Back then, their physique and valour made them the most sought after warriors, but over the last decade, many of them have begun using their physique to impersonate as policemen and dupe people.
Nation-states have permanent interests and, among great powers, not even presidential friendships can get in the way. This geopolitical truism is evident from President Donald Trumps abortive attempts to move the United States governments policy towards Russia to a less confrontational path. In no other foreign policy area was the gap between candidate Trump and the Washington establishment greater than his professed admiration for Vladimir Putin, scepticism about the Western alliance and opposition to economic sanctions against Russia. Trump now admits that US-Russia relations are at an all-time low and the Kremlin speaks of bilateral ties having worsened with the new administration.

The Trump administration was initially seen as a godsend by Moscow. The Ukraine crisis and Russias military intervention in Syria had led to a consensus across much of the West that a tough stance was needed to counter Putin. A Russophilic US administration would have put paid to this policy. While the economic sanctions were only pinpricks, they exaggerated much deeper Russian economic problems brought about by the slump in global oil and gas prices, a near halving of the private sectors contribution to Russias GDP in the past 15 years and a stagnant investment-to-GDP ratio. While Moscow has been able to sustain growth by dipping into reserves it built up during the commodity boom, it needs advanced technology and foreign investment to ensure growth in the years to come. The hope Trump would be the key to all this is now almost gone.

An individuals whimsies, even a president, can ultimately never prevail in a polity with strong institutions. Trumps desire for closer ties with Russia faced opposition from almost every element of the US bureaucracy, security apparatus, legislature and his own Republican Party. Evidence the Kremlin may have sought to interfere in the US presidential elections in Trumps favour only added legitimacy to the systems efforts to maintain the traditional run of the USs Russia policy. The US is now almost deliberately bearding the Russian bear in his lair. The barrage of cruise missiles against a Syrian regime backed by Moscow has been followed by the use of a fuel-air explosive in Afghanistan on the eve of a Russian-hosted multinational Afghan peace conference. India would have preferred some sort of US-Russia rapprochement, not least because a return to quasi-Cold War days seems to benefit Chinas global standing the most. New Delhi must now assume that there will be no Trump healing touch to one of the worlds oldest geopolitical faultlines and adjust its policies accordingly in places like the western Pacific and Afghanistan.
Girls in Telangana outperformed boys in the first and second year intermediate examinations, held in March, the results for which were declared on Sunday.

A total of 8,900,87 students, including 4,14,213 in second year and 4,75,874 in first year appeared for the intermediate examinations.

Of them 2,70,738 students, accounting for 57%, passed the first-year exam which is six per cent higher than previous year results.

A total of 275,273 students, accounting for 66.45%, passed the second-year examination which is three per cent higher than 2016 results,

Deputy chief minister Kadiyam Srihari, who also holds the portfolio of higher education, released the digital version of the results.

Medchal district stood at the top in both the first and second year results, followed by Ranga Reddy in the second position. Mahbubabad district figured in the last position in the first and second year results, and Nirmal and Gadwal shared the last position in the second year results.

Srihari said the government colleges performed much better than the private colleges this year, which indicated the importance given by the Telangana government to the government institutions.

The Intermediate examinations were held from March 1 to 17. This year, the results were released a week ahead of usual schedule.

Supplementary examinations would be held from May 15, the minister said.

You can check the results here

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The ruling AIADMK (Amma) is battling twin troubles in Tamil Nadu, with a group of senior leaders rising in revolt against party deputy secretary TTV Dinakaran and an aggressive DMK piling pressure on the government.

Sources said calls were getting louder for Dinakaran to step down after the election commission cancelled the RK Nagar assembly byelection following the cash-for-vote scandal.

Dinakaran, a nephew of general secretary VK Sasikala who is serving time in a corruption case, is the partys RK Nagar candidate.

The seat fell vacant after the death of chief minister J Jayalalithaa on December 5 and the bypoll has turned into a battle for her legacy between Sasikala, her aide of almost 30 years, and O Panneerselvam, a loyalist.

With health minister C Vijayabaskar, who is close to Sasikala, in trouble with tax authorities and three other ministers booked for intimidating income-tax officials, many in the party want the ministers to be dropped.

It were the IT raids against Vijayabaskar that sealed the fate of the byelection. Documents seized during raids showed the Sasikala faction gave Rs 4,000 to every voter in the north Chennai locality, sources said. Around Rs 89 crore were distributed among the voters of the constituency, twice represented by Jayalalithaa.

Dinakaran has denied the talk of rift or action against Vijayabaskar, who was among the ministers who kept the flock together and help the Sasikala group take over the party and the government after Jayalalithaas death, crushing the Panneerselvam factions power bid.

The Sasikala familys control, however, could face a challenge in the coming days. Back channel talks were on between senior leaders of the two factions to save the party, sources said.

There was a growing resentment against Sasikala and her familys stranglehold of the party. Dinakaran spent so much money in RK Nagar that it attracted I-T raids and focus on Vijayabaskar, who was already on I-T radar, said a leader unwilling to be named.

The AIADMK (Amma) has 122 MLAs in the 234-member assembly and the Panneerselvam faction AIADMK Puratchi Thalavi Amma has 11.

But none want the government to fall, as it would strengthen the opposition DMK, which is trying to rope in smaller parties in case of a snap election.

DMK working president MK Stalin also has 2019 Lok Sabha election on mind. He is on Sunday hosting an all-party meeting to discuss the prevailing farm crisis that has brought protesting farmers to Delhi.

The DMK is holding the Centre and the states Palaniswami government responsible for the farmer distress. The OPS faction, too, cannot escape the blame, Stalin has said.

Poor rains have left Tamil Nadu battling a severe drought. The government had in January declared all the states 32 districts drought-hit and sought help from the Centre. The situation is similar in the neighbouring states of Kerala and Karnataka.

The Madras high court recently asked the state government to expand its farm loan waiver scheme to include farmers who own more than five acres, a move expected to help thousands of people.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address 300 top BJP leaders in Bhubaneswar on Sunday, the second day of partys national executive meeting.

Modi received a warm reception from party workers as he arrived in Bhubaneswar a day before. The Prime Minister conducted a 40-minute road show in his Range Rover car.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who is also attending the meet, has generated interest among workers as BJP members flocked the airport to receive him. While many leaders were there, workers rushed towards Adityanath, a party leader present at the airport told HT.

Workers were chanting Yogi-Yogi, he said.

Adityanath is expected to speak at the meeting before it is concluded after Prime Ministers address around 3pm on Sunday.

BJP delegates also welcomed the chief minister, wearing his saffron attire, at the meeting venue with enthusiasm.

The BJP executive meeting in Bhubaneswar coincides with the partys effort to make inroads in Odisha, where chief minister Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal has been in power for the last 17 years.

BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday told delegates that the party has not attained its peak yet and virtually asked for a one party rule from panchayat to Parliament, suggesting it would only then be called the golden era for the party.

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The winds of change are blowing, but will they be enough to tame the Modi wave?

When Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati faced a humiliating defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections earlier this year, her initial reaction was to blame electronic voting machines for the development. But now, in order to protect whats left of her vote bank and put an end to the saffron partys advance through her strongholds, the Dalit leader has decided to adopt a time-honoured strategy that has brought down many a giant in the annals of history.

She has called for unity among secular parties, which currently lie splintered across the country, and indicated that she is willing to be part of a larger anti-BJP front.

Mayawati made the announcement while addressing BSP cadre during BR Ambedkars birth anniversary function at Lucknows Ambedkar Memorial on Friday. To keep democracy alive, I am ready to be part of anti-BJP front. We have to cut poison with poison. Due to tampering of EVMs, the voters wont be able to elect their favourite leaders. The anti-BJP front is necessary to make sure that popular candidates, who enjoy mass support, win the elections, she said, amid a deafening applause from party workers.

This development assumed significance because it indicated that the formation of a larger front to stop the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was very much in the offing.

Mayawati, incidentally, is no stranger to alliances. Though her mentor, Kanshi Ram, often described the BJP as saanpnath, Mayawati had no qualms in allying with the saffron party on three occasions to grab power. In 1993, she had joined hands with the Samajwadi Party, but the experiment failed primarily due to the social and political incompatibility of the Yadav and Jatav castes they represent. The result was the infamous guesthouse incident in 1995, when Mayawati was allegedly attacked by Mulayam loyalists.

The BSP supremo, however, is now willing to let bygones be bygones for the sake of political survival. The Samajwadi Party and the Congress were quick to respond to her call for unity.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said his party was willing to play an important role in the proposed anti-BJP alliance. (Subhankar Chakraborty/HT Photo)

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who had already visited Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee a few days ago to discuss the formation of an anti-BJP front, spoke in favour of Mayawatis proposal. We will play an important role in the formation of such an alliance. I have met all the party nominees who contested the UP assembly elections. My assessment is that the BJP managed to polarise voters on religious and caste lines and won the election by making false promises, he said.

Indias grand old party also expressed delight over Mayawatis proposal for a mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) of anti-BJP parties for the 2019 general elections. I am delighted that Mayawati has agreed to join this alliance on her own accord. I think that even without the Congress, it is strong enough to take on the BJP. But if the Congress comes into it  and I hope it will  there will be no hope for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, except to see him consigned to history books, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar told ANI.

While reactions from other regional parties  including the JD(U) and the RJD  are yet to emerge, they are mostly expected to be in favour of the alliance. Efforts would also be taken up to tie-up with hitherto unfettered regional parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.

The BJP, however, seemed unperturbed by the new challenge thrown up by its political rivals. Union home minister Rajnath Singh told HT in an interview that even a united opposition wouldnt be able to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Opposition parties have been left with nothing. Their coming together wont make any difference. It is also because of the fact that the credibility of opposition leaders is low. As long as Modis credibility is intact, the BJP has no reason to worry. It will keep winning elections, he added.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh believes even a united opposition will not be able to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (PTI photo)

The minister said the rival parties calculations in terms of social equations were flawed because India has moved beyond them. Mayawati won with a majority in 2007, but see where she stands today? Today, the BSP has just 19 MLAs in the state assembly. What value does she add to any alliance against Modi? The same goes with many opposition parties, he added.

Party spokesperson Nalin Kohli told ANI that it was still too early in the day to start worrying about the upcoming polls.

2019 is still far away, he said. We will keep working on the Prime Ministers agenda of sab ka saath, sab kaa vikas. We are working to achieve development for all... thats our agenda. Whether the political parties get together or not, it is for them to decide.
On his first visit to his home state Gujarat after a stunning victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, a grand welcome for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Surat by the BJP set the tone for the crucial assembly elections to be held later this year.

Through the 12km long roadshow  also seen as a show of strength  in the city that has emerged as the nerve centre for the Patidar agitation for OBC quota, the BJP tried to assert its position in the state. For the BJP, which has already set its eyes on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, holding on to its bastion for the sixth consecutive term will be another stepping stone after conquering Uttar Pradesh.

With the Congress making hardly any visible effort to resurrect after winning countryside in the 2015 local body elections, the Hardik Patel-led disgruntled Patidars, a crucial vote bank for the BJP, have emerged as the biggest challenge for the BJP in its 22nd year of rule.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in his homestate after attending the two-day BJP national executive meet in Odishas Bhubaneswar. (PTI)

Picking Surat for the roadshow is significant in more way than one for BJP. While it is the main centre of south Gujarat, reaching out to a large number of diamond polishers who have migrated from Saurashtra will also have ripple effects in this politically most important region of the state.

Opting to inaugurate the Kiran Multispeciality Hospital  built by the Surat Municipal Corporation with help from a trust financed by Patidar businessmen  will send out a loud and clear message that the community is with the BJP. Besides, Modi will also inaugurate a diamond factory where Patidars from Saurashtra form a major chunk of the workforce.

In a way, the roadshow was also seen as an answer to the embarrassment that the party faced after BJP president Amit Shah was forced to cut short his speech in September 2016 when Hardiks supporters created ruckus at his rally venue.

The stretch from the city airport to the Circuit House witnessed a Diwali-like atmosphere, with a sea of people queuing up on either side of illuminated streets to catch a glimpse of the PM who kept waving at the crowd through the sunroof of his SUV. The lighting arrangement along the route was done to project the Tricolur.

Earlier, chief minister Vijay Rupani welcomed Modi at the airport. Muslim women in significant numbers were seen outside the airport, also waiting to welcome him. A kit held by them in their hands read, Bandh ho ye anyay, PM hai hamari aas. It was seen as a reference to the issue of triple talaq against which the NDA government has taken a firm stand.

Known as the textile city that produces sarees, the route near the airport was decorated with sarees with development schemes and projects printed on it. A 20-foot statue and cutouts of Modi dotted the route.

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Twenty office-bearers of a right wing organisation were arrested here on Sunday for unlawfully taking out a religious procession and brandishing deadly weapons allegedly with intent to breach the peace, police said.

An FIR has been filed against over 100 workers of the fringe group for rioting and attacking public servants to deter them from discharging duty as they unlawfully assembled on Loni road near Bhopura in vehicles, a senior official said.

The workers of Hindu Raksha Dal (HRD) were intercepted by a police team while carrying out a procession for Hanuman Chhati (after six days of Hanuman jayanti) without permission from the administration, Superintendent of Police Salman Taj Patil said.

When the police foiled their bid to continue the procession, the workers of HRD attacked the police party and damaged their vehicles by pelting stones, Patil said.

Upon instigation of HRD president Bhupendra Chowdhary the workers, some of them brandishing swords and pistol, attacked the police team and pelted stones, injuring some policemen, he added.

The SP said police soon baton-charged the crowd to control the violent situation.

FIR has been registered against more than 100 workers under IPC sections for rioting, attempt to murder, causing hindrance in official work and other related offences under criminal law amendment act.

20 office-bearers of HRD along with their president have been arrested and sent to jail, the police officer said, adding a loaded pistol with licence, two swords and several lathis have been seized.

Police are identifying other workers who were involved in the episode and nab them, he added.
A 100 years after Mahatma Gandhis visit to Motihari to meet indigo farmers, the house where he stayed there would now be turned into a museum.

The erstwhile house of advocate Gorakh Prasad at Mathiazirat locality, where Gandhi had spent a few days during his Motihari visit, has since been sold thrice. Unperturbed by this fact, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday announced to convert the house into a museum. He also said that the Gandhi Sangrahalaya in Patna would have an independent auditorium, dedicated to Bapu.

The announcements came as a befitting tribute to the father of the nation from the Bihar government, which is celebrating 100 years of the Champaran satyagraha.

READ: Remembering the first Satyagraha: 100 years of Champaran

I have come to know the house has been sold several times. But the government will still try to develop it into a vibrant museum. I am eager to see the house during my next trip to Motihari, the CM said.

Smita Chandramani Kumar, great granddaughter of advocate Gorakh Prasad, said: The house has been altered, but a portion of it, where Gandhiji stayed, has still not been changed. It will be an honour for my family if the house is converted into Gandhis museum.

Though the house remained unnoticed for decades, the Bihar governments centenary celebration of Champaran Satyagraha has brought it back into focus.

In Motihari, authorities recreated the century old scene, when a man, fashioned as Gandhi, alighted from a special train from Muzaffarpur at the Bapudham railway station. Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh and granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi,Tara Gandhi, along with 100 other Gandhian followers, received him amidst slogans like Mahatma Gandhi amar rahe (Mahatma Gandhi is immortal).

Scenes were also recreated of how Gandhi had delivered his historical statement before a British officer on April 18, 1917.

Gandhi had visited Champaran on April 15, 1917 on an invitation of a farmer, Rajkumar Shukla, for a first hand account of indigo planters.
The centre has decided to revisit its policy of adoption of industrial training institutes (ITIs) by the private sector industrial units.

Following the footsteps of Maharashtra state government that has withdrawn the policy of handing over of ITIs to industrial units for running these institutions and training the students, the union skill development ministry is seriously studying the loopholes in the policy.

Most of Indias major manufacturing giants have adopted and been running about 1200 ITIs in the country since 2007.

The centre government in 2007 had rolled out a scheme allowing industrial units of repute to adopt ITIs to get the trainees exposed to the latest technological knowhow and better their employment prospects.

These companies not only add infrastructure and equipment to the ITI they adopt but also tweak the curriculum according to the industry needs. Even instructors who are deputed by the government are exposed to the latest technological advancements prevalent in the industry. It works in the larger interest of the industry also as its gets the talent pool of its choice which otherwise ITIs cannot generate on its own.

As many as 1396 ITIs were earmarked for the scheme under which the industrial unit would get Rs. 2.5 crore interest-free loan for sprucing up the ITI infrastructure. India has a total of about 13,000 ITIs.

Industry too had welcomed the scheme as it could produce the workforce according to their needs by tweaking the curriculum to meet their requirements. The ITIs infrastructure including equipment is not up to the mark to keep pace with technological advancements in the industry.

Ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship Secretary, KP Krishnan told HT, We are revisiting the policy of handing over of it is to private players. Maharashtra government that had done it earlier but it had withdrawn this policy formally. My team is studying the loopholes in the policy.

Krishnan said that though private sector connect with ITIs was an absolute necessity as it helped in finding what industry needs and produce the workforce it will employ without which the whole purpose of training the youth is a waste.

But tax payers may raise the issue and ask why government set up ITIs with huge capital investment but hand these over to private players. We definitely want industry connect but do not want to abdicate too. If they (industry) want to produce their own people, they can have their own set up, the secretary said.

Krishnan said that the methods were being explored to how to maintain industry connect with ITIs without handing over infrastructure to it. He said, We would soon reach out to industry to get their feedback in terms of what it wants.

However, apex industry body the confederation of Indian industries (CII) the member companies of which have adopted 398 ITIs, is not amused with the idea of revisit of the handing over policy.

CII has expressed its concern on the potential effect on the job prospects of the trainees if adoption policy is withdrawn by the government.

The industrial units that adopt the ITIs help the trainees not only with training on advanced technological advancements but also add up to the infrastructure of these institutions. The trainees of such ITIs stand better change of being absorbed in these companies and at better remunerations. In fact, we had conducted an impact study of select 100 ITIs in 2013 and found that this was a very good idea to handover ITIs to industrial units for running the same, said a senior CII functionary who preferred not to be identified.

This CII official said that the impact study was also handed over to the central government and many of the recommendations of this study were implemented also.
Militants on Sunday opened fire on security forces who were out to nab them in Jammu and Kashmirs Shopian district, police said.

After the firing, the militants managed to give security forces a slip taking advantage of mob violence, a police spokesman said.

A civilian was hit by a bullet in the incident, though it was not known whether he was injured in firing by militants or the security forces.

Acting on a specific input about the presence of militants in Heff village of Shopian, a cordon and search operation was launched by security forces, the spokesman said.

The militants fired upon the security forces and later escaped taking advantage of the mob which had assembled there, he said.

Later, it was learnt that one person has received a bullet injury in his shoulder and was admitted to Pulwama district hospital, the spokesman said.

His condition is stated to be stable, he said, adding the police are investigating the matter.
Two late night killings on Sunday disrupted the uneasy calm in Kashmir on a day the Valley remained shut in protest against the death of a civilian during clashes with security forces.

Suspected militants shot dead Imtiyaz Ahmad Khan, a public prosecutor of Pinjoora, in southern Kashmirs Shopian in his residence at around 9:30pm.

According to reports, three gunmen barged into the house and shot him dead.

Imtiyaz, who was 36, was a relative of Shabir Kullay of the National Conference and accompanied him during the election campaigns in 2014 when the latter contested from Shopian as an independent candidate.

In another incident in north Kashmir, suspected militants shot dead a former counter-insurgent gunman (Ikhwani), Rashid Billa, a senior police official said.

The shooting happened at around 10pm in Hajin town in Bandipora district.

Read | J-K: Militants open fire on security forces in Shopian

Both incidents occur barely a day after a worker of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was killed and two others were injured in Pulwama district. Police said militants stormed into the house of 45-year-old Bashir Ahmad Dar in Rajpora area of Pulwama district late in the evening.
BJP leaders need to watch their words, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is watching. The ruling partys supreme leader on Sunday gave fellow party men a lecture on how and when to keep quiet.

The growing habit among ruling party leaders to speak out of turn, sometimes even creating a controversy, has not gone down well with Modi.

Every time I switch on television, I see a BJP leader making one or the other statement. You need lessons on keeping quiet, a senior party functionary quoted Modi as saying during his concluding remarks at the BJPs national executive meeting here.

Modi pointed to a party spokesman and said he needed to give BJP leaders lessons on how to keep their lips sealed, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

There is no need to speak every time someone puts a TV mike before you, Modi was quoted as saying.

Modi has been repeatedly warning the BJP motormouths against speaking out of turn and leave that job to official party spokesmen.

He asked the party to be cautious of those trying to manufacture controversy, on issues such as intolerance.

Modis repeated advice, though, has not cut much ice with several BJP leaders who put the party and the government in a tight spot with their off-the-cuff remarks.

The BJP found itself in an indefensible position when its former Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay triggered a controversy with a remark on the skin colour of south Indians.

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Almost a fortnight after Pehlu Khan, the 55-year-old dairy farmer from Nuh in Haryana, was murdered in Alwar, the Rajasthan police say they will not arrest the six named in the FIR before interrogating them to make sure they were involved in the crime.

Alwar superintendent of police Rahul Prakash said they were raiding various places to nab the six people named in Khans FIR because they are absconding since April 5 but added that they would only be detained for interrogation.

We will arrest them only after we are sure that they were involved in the crime, he told HT.

Earlier, on April 5, Prakash announced a reward of Rs 5,000 each on the six accused for information leading to their arrests.

The FIR in the murderous attack on Khan and four others was registered against six named and 200 unidentified people on the basis of Khans statement to police around 11pm on April 1 when the farmer was in the intensive care unit of Kailash Hospital in Behror in Alwar.

In his statement, Khan named Om Yadav (45), Hukum Chand Yadav (44), Sudhir Yadav (45), Jagmal Yadav (73), Naveen Sharma (48) and Rahul Saini (24) for carrying the attack on him and four others with him carrying cattle from a weekly market in Jaipur to their village in Nuh.

On the basis of Khans statement, police registered a case against these six and 200 others under sections 147 (rioting), 143 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 308 (culpable homicide), 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code. On April 3, section 308 was changed to that of murder (section 302) after Khan died in hospital around 7.30pm.

On April 5, police arrested three people  Vipin Yadav, Ravindra Yadav and Kalu Ram Yadav  on the basis of video footage circulating on social media. Two more people  Dayanand Yadav and Neeraj Yadav  were arrested on April 9.

These five were not named in the FIR.

Saddam Hussain, president of Mewat Yuva Sanghtan, alleged that police were soft on the named accused because of their affiliations with right-wing Hindu organizations. Either there is pressure from the government to not arrest them or police are not trying hard enough, he said.

The sangthan took out a silent march in Alwar on April 10 to protest the lynching and demand immediate arrest of the culprits.

According to local sources in Behror, Naveen Sharma is associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Hukum Yadav with Hindu Dharma Jagran and Rahul Saini with the student wing of RSS, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

A Behror local said Sudhir Yadav is often in the news for his action against cow smugglers in and around the town. Jagmal Yadav is patron of the gau shala (cow shelter) where Pehlu Khans cattle were taken after they were booked for cow smuggling. Yadav has been involved in the gau shala for about eight years after he retired as a government schoolteacher in Haryana, the local added.
The owners of the star category hotels and restaurants in Kolkata on Sunday hailed union minister of consumer affairs Ram Vilas Paswans suggestion to fix the quantity of food items served so that they were not wasted.

They have begun advising customers to carry with leftovers with them, if any.

A spokesman for Park Plaza hotel told PTI, We guide guests at the time of taking orders on the size of the items to be consumed in order to avoid wastage.

He says it needs to be noted that 70% of the time, the orders are placed keeping in mind the fact that food items are consumed by more than one guest.

While the PMs vision is futuristic, we hoteliers need to think, strategize and innovate further to stop wastage of food. May be in the future we need to sell food by weight and charge penalty on wastage, the spokesman said.

Popular upscale food joint The Bikers Cafe India Director, Sanjay Yadav, also hailed the decision as a positive one, saying that limiting food quantity would definitely check wastage which in turn would make food available to the deprived sections.

The owner of prime dining restaurants Oudh 1590, Chapter 2 and Chowman, Siladitya Choudhury said, We support the cause and we already ask our guests to take away leftover food.

Food minister Ram Vilas Paswan had asked restaurants and hotels to consider specifying the portion of food items to customers so that they order the right amount.

The minister had said the hospitality industry would be asked whether it can do it voluntarily or needed the government to put in place legal provisions for it.

Paswans remarks came nearly a fortnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern over large-scale wastage of food in the country in his Mann Ki Baat programme.
Former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav is not the only Indian in Pakistans custody on charges of spying. There are 13 others lodged in Pakistan jails, facing similar charges.

More than 30 Pakistanis too were found to be lodged in Indian prisons  either convicted on charges of spying or facing trial  as per a 2015 list.

Jadhav is also not the only Indian to whom Pakistan has denied consular access.

The neighbouring country earlier refused consular access to Hamid Nehal Ansari, a 27-year-old management teacher from Mumbai, who went to Pakistan in search of a woman he fell in love on Facebook.

He disappeared after reaching Kohat near Peshawar. Later, during a court hearing in Pakistan, it transpired Ansari is in the custody of Pakistani intelligence agencies.

In all there are 208 Indians in Pakistani jail. Among them 174 are fishermen.

Among the civilian prisoners, 13 are facing espionage charges, said a government source.

India and Pakistan started exchanging list of nationals of each country lodged in other countrys jails following an agreement on consular access signed in 2008.

Under the agreement, twice every year -- on January 1 and July 1 -- both the countries exchange the lists of prisoners (civil as well as fishermen) through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad.

Despite a chill in relations between the two countries, the last exchange of lists took place on January 1 this year.

At the time of last such exchange, the ministry of external affairs had said India remained committed to addressing with Pakistan on priority the humanitarian matters, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen in each others country.

(From left) Sunil, David and Daniel Mashi -- three men who were jailed in Pakistan for espionage.

In this context, we await from Pakistan confirmation of nationality of those in Indias custody who are otherwise eligible for release and repatriation. We also await consular access to those Indian nationals in Pakistans custody for whom it has so far not been provided including Hamid Nehal Ansari and Kulbhushan Jadhav, said an Indian external affairs ministrys statement during the exchange of list.

Of the Pakistani nationals facing trial or undergoing sentence on the charges of spying in India, many have served their sentence but cant be deported as Pakistan refuses to accept them as its citizens.

Sajeed Muneer, for instance, spent about 12 years in Indian jail for espionage before being released on June 5 last year. Pakistan does not acknowledge him as its national and hasnt responded to Indias request to take him back. For the past 10 months, Bhopal police are taking care of his daily needs at a safe location.

Masood Akhtar, another Pakistani national accused of being an ISI agent, was sentenced to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment in 2003. He was due for release but is still lodged in Ambala central jail. Jail officials say till the time they dont get communication for his deportation from the ministry of foreign affairs, he will not be released.

The district magistrate issues orders every month for the extension of his imprisonment.

Activists of an Indo-Pak peace initiative, Aaghaz-e-Dosti had accessed both the lists that were exchanged on July 1, 2015 through Right to Information Act in India.

The list had names of 251 Pak prisoners lodged in Indian jails. HT reviewed the charges against them and found that 31 among them were lodged either on the charges of collecting secret information or violation of Official Secrets Act.

Professor Bhim Singh, a patron of the National Panthers Party, has been fighting for release of those Pakistani prisoners who have completed their sentence and eligible for release.

I filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2005 and hearing is still on in the matter. Following the litigation, on the directions of the top court, more than 500 Pakistani prisoners have been released, Singh told HT.

Singh is approaching the Pakistani Supreme Court for providing legal aide to Jadhav.

India was about to release around a dozen Pakistani prisoners but following the announcement of death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistani military court, it has decided to put on hold the release.

(With inputs from Vivek Gupta from Ambala and Ranjan from Bhopal)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers on Sunday as the party meets for the second day for its national executive convention in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha.

Aiming to grab power in Odisha where the Biju Janata Dal is in its forth consecutive term and setting his sights on 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Modi reached Bhubaneshwar on Saturday for the two-day meet.

The Prime Minister held a 9-km roadshow in Bhubaneswar soon after arriving at the city airport.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is expected to speak the meeting before Modis address around 3pm.

Party president Amit Shah on Saturday said the BJPs golden era will begin only when it had chief ministers in every state and held power from the panchayats to the parliament. Dont be complacent. Lets become a true pan-India party to showcase not only the BJPs success, but make India great in the committee of nations, he told party leaders.

Watch this space for Live updates:

5.30 pm: PM Narendra Modi leaves for Gujarat from Bhubaneshwar after the two-day national executive meet.

PM @narendramodi being seen off on his departure from Bhubaneswar, Odisha. pic.twitter.com/0st1Yiqqpo  PIB India (@PIB_India) April 16, 2017

4.40 pm: BJP leader Nitin Gadkari addresses a press conference after a closed door meeting at the national executive meet. PM Modi said in his speech that he sought to make India free from social and economic inequalities, Gadkari says.

PM Modis speech at national executive meet was also about Jan Dhan, Jal Dhan and Van Dhan.

4.45 pm: Modi also accused the Opposition of concocting new issues, with regards to the EVM tampering.

Opposition is concocting new issues in a factory of some kind. During Delhi Elections, church attacks was highlighted and during the Bihar polls Award Wapasi was the issue. And right now it is the EVM, the Prime Minister said during the meeting.

Modi also called on the BJP leaders to maintain caution while making statements and to not get carried away with emotions and make untoward remarks.

4.40 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the BJP to reach out to poor Muslims, who have not benefitted much in all these years.

Making an intervention during the BJP national executive meeting here, Modi said there even Muslim communities have backwards, who are the most marginalised, and it was a duty for the BJP to take the fruits of development to them.

Modis outreach to backward Muslims come amidst the backdrop of a move to accord constitutional status to the OBC commission. The Lok Sabha has passed a related bill, but it got blocked in the Rajya Sabha.

4.30 pm: Muslim women are facing difficulties on the issue of triple talaq, we should work for a solution at the district level: ANI quotes Prime Minister Modi as saying. He also stressed on the need to move forward with the formula of New India. We will not move slowly but fast.

Read | OBC bill: BJP flays Opposition parties for being anti-backward castes at Odisha meet

4.00 pm: BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi responds to Congress leader Digvijaya Singhs remarks on EVM tampering. His views should not be taken seriously. He is the same person who said RSS is behind Mumbai attacks, Trivedi told ANI.

Earlier today, Digvijaya alleged the Election Commission is limiting objections to the EVMs to hacking.

The Election Commission is limiting objections to the EVMs to hacking. It must allow the examination of possibility of software tampering at a stage of writing it from server, he had tweeted.

2.45 pm: PM Modi tweets on the families of freedom fighters he met. The string of tweets talks about the individual contributions of the freedom fighters, including Samant Madhab Chandra Routray, Dama Subudgi Mangaraj and Laxmi Indira Panda.

India will never forget these courageous freedom fighters, who lost their lives so that fellow Indians can breathe the air of freedom.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 16, 2017

1:30 pm: People were cheated in West Bengal, Odisha and many other states in the name of chit funds, the minister says.

Union minister Prakash Javedkar addresses press meet in Bhubaneshwar on Sunday . (HT Photo)

1:10 pm: BJP won Uttar Pradesh on the issue of development and we will stick to this issue, he says.

1:00 pm: This is the first government after Independence which has taken meaningful steps, Javadekar tells reporters. The Modi government has fought the most against corruption, he adds.

12:50 pm: The Opposition did not support our fight against black money and the decision on demonetisation but people showed their support, Javadekar says while addressing a press conference following the meet.

12:45 pm: The poor poll plank that the Congress had during Indira Gandhis time has shifted to the BJP, says Union minister of human resource development Prakash Javadekar.

Opposition did not support fight against black money and demonetisation, but people showed their support : Shri @PrakashJavdekar  BJP (@BJP4India) April 16, 2017

12:40 pm: Political resolution at the meet says people are voting for progress and not on the basis of caste and religion.

12:35 pm: The national executive meet criticises the Opposition for preaching social justice and practising vote back politics.

12:30 pm: The next national executive meeting will be held on July 15 and 16 in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, says cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh.

11:45 am: Modi says government will create 50 virtual museums across the country to recall various rebellions and struggles of tribal communities against colonialism.

9:00 am: Lingaraj Temple administration welcomes the prime minister to the 11th century Shiv shrine as locals throng the area to get a glimpse of Modi. The Lingaraja temple is the largest and one of the oldest temples in Bhubaneswar.

Crowd not barred from entering the temple to offer prayers.

8:20am:

#WATCH : PM meets families of freedom fighters who took part in Paika Rebellion against British East India Company https://t.co/8gHqDKeC7r  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

8: 15 am: Modi meets families of freedom fighters who took part in Paika Rebellion against British East India Company, says the massive struggle of independence in our country was restricted to only a few families and incidents.

In 1817, 50 years before the first war of independence in 1857, the Oriyas were rising up against the East India Company and demanding the right to rule themselves. The Paikas, a landed militia under Bakshi Jagabandhu, projected Lord Jagannath of Puri as the great symbol of unity and fought the Company raj.

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The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has called for social boycott of whoever divorces his wife by pronouncing triple talaq in one sitting in a strongest ever censure against the social practice amid a raging debate over the issue.

The board, which deals with the Muslim personal laws in India, issued an eight-point code of conduct to prevent misuse of the practice and other Islamic laws (Sharia) on Sunday.

The board, however, made it clear that it would not tolerate any outside interference in matters of Muslim personal laws.

On Ayodhya dispute, the AIMPLB made it clear that it is not in favour of any out-of-court settlement as was suggested recently by the apex court on the issue.

The Supreme Court (SC) is currently hearing a case on the constitutional validity of the practice some Muslims follow to annul their marriage pronouncing talaq, the Arabic word for divorce, thrice.

The Union government on October 7 last year opposed in the SC the triple talaq and other Islamic practices such as nikah halala and polygamy and favoured a relook in their continuation on grounds such as gender equality and secularism.

The top court will start day-to-day hearing over the issue from May 13, on a PIL filed by some Muslim women challenging the practice.

No roadblocks should be put in the implementation of the personal laws, said boards general secretary Maulana Wali Rahmani.

A booklet, titled Instructions for Talaq, containing the guidelines will be circulated in all the mosques so that Imams can read them out after Friday prayer to create awareness.

Imams and clergies have also been asked to follow the code of conducts in letter and spirit, Rahmani said.

The board says a woman who does not want to live with her husband has the right to seek separation (khula).

Clarifying the process of divorce, the board said a man needs to pronounce talaq once every month for three consecutive months.

But it stopped short of abolishing the utterance of talaq thrice in one sitting.

The powerful religious body of all Muslim sects also announced setting up of a helpline for victims of triple talaq.

We have conducted a countrywide survey on triple talaq. The findings reveal that the rate of divorce is lowest among the Muslims. The issue has been blown out of proportion by the media and by people who are cut off from the ground realities, the board said.

The signature campaign has revealed that majority of the Muslims in the country are against any change in their personal law, Rehmani said.

He said the organisation would provide all possible help to Muslim woman divorcees as provided under Shariah and urged parents to give women a share in their properties instead of dowry at the time of marriage.

To counter, what it said, false propaganda on electronic and social media over the Islamic practice, the AIMPLB has set up a special womens wing to present its point of view.

We are carrying out counseling sessions in which we try to settle issues related to marriage/divorce through reconciliation and arbitration, said in-charge of the womens wing Asma Zehra.

The organization, she said, has already received 15,500 calls on its Muslim women helpline number 18001028426 so far.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday sought to expand his OBC outreach by asking party colleagues to attend to weaker segments within the Muslim community and push for resolution of such issues as triple talaq through dialogue, and not conflict.

He spoke on triple talaq in his concluding address at the BJPs national executive meeting while his remarks on backward Muslims were made in an intervention during the discussion on a resolution that hailed him for providing constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes.

Last week, the lower house of parliament passed a legislation making the NCBC a constitutional body, making its decisions on inclusion or exclusion of a caste in the OBC list binding on governments and all government-run entities. So far, the NCBC has worked in an advisory role. An empowered OBC commission will benefit backward community, including Muslims. We must reach out to backward Muslims, Modi said.

However, the NDA governments proposal has yet to take shape because opposition parties have stalled its passage in parliaments upper house, the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling coalition lacks majority.

Sundays resolution at the national executive of BJP also reaffirmed Modis commitment towards building a society of equal opportunities where nobody would be treated as inferior.

Justice needs to be delivered to every citizen without any bias or prejudice, it read. Party workers should... make efforts towards making backwards aware about their constitutional and legal rights.

On triple talaq, Modi told BJP leaders: Sangharsh nahi samjaha kar samajik parivartan lana hai (We have to bring social change through dialogue not conflict). Modi asked workers to stand by Muslim women who want to fight the practice of triple talaq, saying dignity is guaranteed to all under the constitution.

The Modi government has, through an affidavit in the Supreme Court, supported a ban on triple talaq, much to the displeasure of the All Indian Muslim Personal Law Board. The government position on triple talaq has been that it denies Muslim women the basic fundamental rights and leads to their exploitation.

The two-day executive meeting didnt delve much into economic issues and challenges facing the country, although the PM reiterated his vision of a new India and asked BJP leaders to prepare for a long jump to achieve socio-economic development on the pillars of social justice to change the tide of history.

Social justice is the new mantra of the BJP, which helped it win Uttar Pradesh with a two-thirds majority. The BJPs concept of social justice includes its effort to shed a pro-upper caste tag, build a new constituency among the most backward communities through their political empowerment, and a series of pro-poor policies under its government. Poor was the main plank for the Congress under Indira Gandhi. Today, that plank has shifted to the BJP, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.

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Having worked non-stop for 12 hours and with no signs of duty ending soon, inspector Arvind Jain of Jabalpur headed to the superintendent of police (SP) office earlier this week, but not to call on his boss.

Jain entered a room, took a chair, flicked on a music system, reclined a bit and closed his eyes as Kishore Kumars voice belted out the evergreen Zindagi ek safar hai suhana, yahan kal kya ho kisne jaana. A few instrumental hits followed.

After 15 minutes, Jain left the room that is now popular as the music chamber for Jabalpur police staff to beat stress.

Drawing inspiration from the concept of Anandam (spreading happiness) under the newly introduced happiness department of Madhya Pradesh government, Jabalpur police personnel have earmarked the room at the SP office as a brief musical getaway when time permits.

Popular Hindi songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore, Asha Bhosle, Mukesh and bhajans are the norm. There is, however, no place for raunchy or loud music.

State DGP Rishi Kumar Shukla lauded the Jabalpur initiative. Such centres should be opened in every district, he said.

KK Singh, principal secretary, home department, said, Seeing the poor health scenario of police personnel, this is a very good initiative. After analysing the success of this initiative, it will be implemented across the state.

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Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad has promised a dowry-less wedding for his elder son  Bihar health minister Tej Pratap Yadav. But there is just one rider: the ceremonies wont be over till at least one cow has come home!

I want the wedding function to be simple, unostentatious and without any dowry. But I wont mind if the brides family gives a cow or a calf as a symbolic gift to my son, as a part of wedding custom, said Prasad, with a twinkle in his eyes.

The RJD chiefs love for all creature bovine is legendary. Scores of cows were reared at his official 1, Aney Marg, residence when Prasad was CM of Bihar (1990-1997) and thereafter, when his wife, Rabri Devi ruled the state (1997-2005).

However, the occasion for the immediate cow banter, on Sunday, was Tej Prataps 28th birthday, an occasion that Prasad and Tejs mother, former chief minister Rabri Devi, chose to announce the wedding of their minister son, next year.

We are looking for a homely and cultured girl for Tej. A large number of proposals have come and we will take a call soon, said the doting parents, after they had blessed their son on his big day, at their 10, Circular road, residence, in a VIP enclave of western Patna.

A blushing Yadav scion said he would marry any girl chosen by his parents.

I have married off my seven daughters without giving any dowry. I will follow the same practice in my sons marriage, said Rabri, mother to a total of nine children, the eldest among them being Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharati.

The RJDs first couple is blessed with seven daughters and two sons, Tej Pratap and his younger brother, Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. The latter, going by social media reports, also commands a high billing in the marriage market.

A few months back, Tej had raised eyebrows when he reportedly stated he would not mind if his younger brother got married first, as he was more popular among girls.

Both Prasad and Rabri Devi were evasive when asked whether they would prefer a girl from a political family based in Bihar, for their elder son. Marriages are made in heaven. Besides, a marriage proposal can come from anywhere in the country. We have no reservations about geographies, said Prasad.

Four of Prasads children - fourth daughter Ragini, fifth daughter Hema, sixth daughter Anushka and youngest daughter Raj Lakshmi, are married in top political families.

Asked whether Tejs wife would ever enter politics, Rabri Devi quipped: Why not?

When asked about the charges levelled against Tej by BJP leader Sushil Modi, of not disclosing in his 2015 Bihar assembly poll affidavit property worth crores of rupees, Prasad said his son was masoom (innocent like a child).

Modi had promised he would resign from politics if his allegation of supply of soil to Patna zoo from a mall site (allegedly owned by Tej) was found wrong. It is now open there was no wrong doing. Why hasnt Modi resigned?, asked Prasad.

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A man was killed in south Kashmirs Pulwama district when suspected militants barged into his house and opened fire on Saturday night, police said.

A senior police officer said that Bashir Ahmad Dar, a pharmacist, was killed when suspected militants entered his home in Qasbayar Rajpora area of the district.

His relative Altaf Dar was injured in the shooting and is under treatment. Investigation is on and further details are awaited.

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted on the death: More blood shed and more families in mourning tonight. Terror and violence only take #Kashmir further down the path of destruction.

More blood shed & more families in mourning tonight. Terror & violence only take #Kashmir further down the path of distruction. https://t.co/VIljred8Jd  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) April 15, 2017

According to IANS, the pharmacist was a worker of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked fellow BJP members and supporters on Sunday to reach out to poor Muslims and marginalised sections of society, and accused the Opposition of finding fault with the electronic voting machine (EVM) ahead of municipal polls in New Delhi. (Highlights)

The Prime Minister was speaking at the BJP national executive meeting in the Odisha capital.

Modi said that Muslim communities have backward classes, who are the most marginalised, and it was the BJPs duty to take the fruits of development to them.

His outreach to backward Muslims follows a move to accord constitutional status to the other backwards class (OBC) commission. The Lok Sabha has passed a related bill, but it got blocked in the Rajya Sabha.

He said Muslim women have been facing difficulties on triple talaq, an Islamic practice that allows the husband to divorce his wife by uttering talaq thrice.

We should work for a solution at the district level, new agency ANI quotes Modi as saying.

He stressed the need to move forward with the formula of New India. We will not move slowly but fast.

Besides, the Prime Minister took the opportunity on the second day of the party meeting to hit out at the Opposition.

The Opposition is concocting new issues in a factory of some kind. During the Delhi elections, Church attacks were the highlights and during the Bihar polls Award wapsi was the issue. And right now it is the EVM, he said.

Modi asked BJP leaders to maintain caution with their public remarks and not get carried away with emotion to make untoward remarks. If there are any complaints, then the matter should be passed on to the party leaders who will convey it to me, he said.

Become a true pan-India party

The Prime Minister asked them to not get excited over victories in the recent state assembly elections  especially in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand  and ensure they keep the momentum going.

The BJP will launch a special campaign for those 120 Lok Sabha seats which have been out of our reach, he said.

The Prime Minister praised party president Amit Shah as the ideal model of an able strategist.

For his part, Shah said the BJPs golden era will begin only when it has chief ministers in every state and held power from panchayats to Parliament.

Dont be complacent. Lets become a true pan-India party to showcase not only the BJPs success, but make India great in the committee of nations, he told party leaders.

The BJP meeting in Odisha is significant as the party seeks to wrest power from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which has been ruling the eastern state for the fourth consecutive term.

The Prime Minister held a 9km road show in Bhubaneswar soon after arriving at the city airport.

(with inputs from ANI)
Its barely over a month since Prime Minister Narendra Modi last dropped by Gujarat, but he is all set to visit his home state again on Sunday evening as part of a two-day tour.

Modi will begin by holding a roadshow at Surat immediately after coming down from the BJPs two-day National Executive meet in the Odisha capital. He will then preside over a series of events in Gujarat, which will go to the polls later this year.

BJP workers are expected to throng the public event in large numbers because it is seen as a show of strength for the BJP at Varaccha in Surat, a Patidar hub. It was here that party president Amit Shah was forced to wind up his speech in four minutes, after supporters of quota leader Hardik Patel created a ruckus.

As the Prime Minister is arriving here for the first time after the Uttar Pradesh win, he will be given a grand welcome. People from different communities and groups will felicitate him after every 200 metres on the 11-km stretch from Surat airport to Circuit House, where the PM will stay the night, said BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya.

As Surat is known for its textile products, the route has been decorated with sarees imprinted with the titles of various development schemes and projects. Over a hundred cutouts and a 20-foot statue of Modi, besides a 1,008-metre-long banner with welcome greetings penned by lakhs of people, have also been placed along the route.

After the roadshow, expected to be attended by 50,000 men on 25,000 motorcycles, Modi will meet BJP leaders at the Circuit House.

In an attempt to woo farmers and businessmen alike, the Prime Minister will inaugurate a Rs 400-crore hospital, a major irrigation project and a diamond factory on Monday. The hospital opening is particularly significant because it has been built by a trust funded by Patidars, a community that has been up in arms against the BJP government for two years over provision of OBC status.

The inauguration of the diamond-polishing unit will happen at the Hira Bourse SEZ in Icchapur village.

The Prime Minister will later travel to Bijapur village in Tapi district to inaugurate a cattle feed plant and an ice-cream factory belonging to the Surat District Cooperative Milk Producers Union. He is expected to address a gathering there.

Modi will then leave for Silvassa in the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, where he will address a gathering and distribute aid among beneficiaries of various schemes. His last stop is likely to be at Botad in Saurashtra to inaugurate the first phase of the Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (Sauni) project, after which he will lay the foundation stone for its second phase.

Modi had inaugurated the first phase of the ambitious Sauni project at Jamnagar in August last year.
PATNA President Pranab Mukherjee is slated to arrive in the state capital on Monday to honour freedom fighters at a grand felicitation function, being organised by the Bihar government at SK Memorial Hall, located north of Gandhi Maidan in central Patna.

Over 800 freedom fighters - drawn from different parts of the country and various districts of the state - will be present during the function. Out of these, the President will honour a selected number of the invitees. Others will be felicitated by other dignitaries attending the function.

The state government has made all arrangements for the travel and accommodation of 254 freedom fighters from 19 states and 561 from different parts of Bihar, to felicitate them as part of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagrah centenary celebrations.

The year-long celebrations to mark the 100th year of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagraha, began on April 10 with a national convocation on his life principles. The non-violent agitation was launched in protest against the forced cultivation of indigo by the British planters in Champaran district in Bihar, on April 10, 1917.

Governor Ramnath Kovind, chief minister Nitish Kumar, home minister Rajnath Singh, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, education minister Ashok Choudhary and state presidents of all major political parties, along with RJD national president Lalu Prasad and national president of HAM-S Jitan Ram Manjhi, will also share the dais with the President.

Many of the invited freedom fighters have already arrived in the state capital and have been put up at different posh hotels. Those belonging to the state have also been accommodated in different guest houses, community halls and gurudwaras. Patna DM Sanjay Agrawal has been entrusted the charge to co-ordinate their stay.

While Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi are also expected to felicitate some of the freedom fighters, Nitish Kumar will be honouring 15 of them by going to their seats at the venue for handing over welcome kit and memento prepared for the occasion.

The government has also identified 2,154 freedom fighters who are unable to make it to the function owing to age related problems. It has instructed district magistrates of respective areas to ensure that the welcome kits, comprising of khadi jhola (bag), Gandhi memento, shawl, charkha, sticker, a white Gandhi topi (cap) and a souvenir, are handed over to them before 12 oclock on Monday.

In the state capital, all invitees have been asked to take their seats at the venue latest by 10.30 am, where the President will arrive at 12.05 pm. After the welcome address by CM Nitish Kumar, heads of major political parties will address the audience for four minutes each. The event is likely to be over by 2.20 pm.

Traffic movement will be restricted from the Patna airport to the S K Memorial Hall via Bailey Road and Fraser Road from 11.30 am to 12.30 pm and again from 2 pm onwards, till the departure of the dignitaries.

This will be the third visit of the President to the state, within a span of 30 days, after his visits to Rajgir in Nalanda district of south central Bihar, for a Buddhist meet and Vikramshila university ruins in Bhagalpur district of south eastern Bihar.

PROGRAMME Traffic movement to be restricted from Patna airport to programme venue from 11.30am to 12.30pm and again from 2pm onwards till departure of dignitaries

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One is Canadas defence minister and the other is the chief minister of a state (Punjab) that has strong connections with the North American country.

Both are politicians of standing and share a military background too. One has been a frontline trooper in war-ravaged Afghanistan as a Lt Colonel in the Canadian Army; the other has seen war from close quarters as a Captain in the Indian Army.

But the forthcoming visit of Canadian defence minister Harjit Sajjan to Punjab, the land of his birth, has led to a political war of sorts with Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh.

Amarinder has gone on record to say that Sajjan is a Khalistani sympathiser and that they will not meet during the latters visit to Punjab starting next week. Even though there is no direct proof of Sajjans links to Khalistani elements, Amarinder has stuck to his guns.

Amarinders stand, besides the protocol issues involved with the visiting Canadian defence minister, has stirred up a political storm in Punjab - a state which has such strong connections with Canada through its non-resident Indians (NRIs) settled there that the country is, in a lighter vein, referred to as Punjabs 23rd district.

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh. (HT File)

The background of Amarinders rather hard stand on Sajjan dates to as recently as April last year when his visit to that country was scuttled at the last minute after the Canadian authorities denied him permission to visit. Amarinder was to address rallies and meet with Punjabi NRIs in Canada, who are an influential and cash-rich group, in the run-up to the Punjab assembly elections.

A hurt Amarinder had shot off a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, protesting the move. Amarinder had later even refused to meet the Canadian High Commissioner in India.

Amarinder, who became chief minister of Punjab for a second time last month, feels that pro-Khalistan political leaders of Punjabi origin, including Sajjan, secretly backed the move by radical elements to deny him entry into Canada.

While the Canadian authorities did not let Amarinder in on the ground that political activity was not allowed, leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) openly campaigned within the NRI community in Canada.

The Punjab Chief Minister has, however, said that Sajjan will get all the security and protocol in the state that has to be provided to a dignitary of his stature.

Sajjan, 46, otherwise has strong credentials for visiting Punjab. His parents and family lived in Punjabs Hoshiarpur district before migrating to Canada in 1976. He is the first Sikh to become the Defence Minister of another country.

During his visit to Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Chandigarh, Sajjan wont essentially miss meeting Amarinder as political and religious leaders in Punjab will welcome him with open arms.

The controversy over his visit to Punjab was quite avoidable had Amarinder not taken a stand. After all, political leaders do hobnob with all kinds of elements in public life.
A Rohtak woman allegedly cheated by her NRI husband is fighting a case against him over phone in a Canadian court.

The woman (name withheld on her request) got married to the man, hailing from Rohtak, in January 2015 here. A few days after the marriage, the man left for Canada promising to take her along the next time he visits India.

However, the man filed for divorce from her in a court at Ontario in May 2015 and gave his parents address of India as the contact of his wife.The woman has alleged that her in-laws concealed the court notice from her for one year, making it easy for her husband to get an order in his favour on the ground of no reply from the spouse within one-year period specified by the court.

We received the Canadian courts notice on our address in a mail sent from Rohtak post office in May 2016, more than a year after it was issued. It was shocking since my daughter was staying with her in-laws on weekends when she came to Rohtak from Noida where she was working, said the womans father, a city based doctor, who too requested anonymity.

The woman said by engaging a local lawyer, they wrote to the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario explaining the course of events in which they received the notice, following which the court allowed them to file their reply and contest the petition over phone from India.

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The DMK and six other parties on Sunday called for a one-day Tamil Nadu bandh on April 25 to highlight the plight of the states farmers who are reeling under a devastating drought.

The meeting was called by DMK working president MK Stalin who is rallying all opposition parties behind him to appropriate the anti-Centre stance that AIADMK general secretary and chief minister Jayalalithaa occupied over a host of issues.

Stalin chaired the all-party the meet at the DMK headquarters sans the two warring factions of AIADMK and the BJP whom he holds responsible for the agrarian crisis afflicting Tamil Nadu farmers. Stalin had recently visited Delhi to express solidarity with a group of Tamil farmers who have been protesting for a few weeks.

On Sunday he got the smaller parties and the Left to come on a single platform, to articulate the peoples anger and resentment over the Centres alleged step motherly treatment to Tamil Nadu.

For the present, nothing highlights this aspect more than the images of Tamil farmers protesting with skulls of fellow farmers who committed suicide while there is no acknowledgement from the Central government to their plight.

The two Left parties  CPM and CPI, Congress, Indian Union Muslim League, and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leaders participated in the meeting while another regional party, Pattali Makkal Katchi stayed away despite invitation.

The meeting resolved to seek full loan waiver of all farmers, setting up of the Cauvery River Water Management Board and an audience with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Incidentally, Nallakannu, the leader of farmers protesting in New Delhi questioned as to why the Prime Minister had all the time to meet captains of corporate sector and industry leaders did not have even a few minutes to spare for the poor farmers now under the grip of the states worst ever drought.

What mistake we have done. What is our fault, why does not the PM meet us? questioned Nallakannu whose wails were beamed into Tamil Nadu homes on regional television channel news programmes on Sunday.

In his turf war with the AIADMK, Stalin has wrested the initiative in the state, which has of late been at the receiving end as far as the perception of the people is concerned. Jayalalithaa had managed to keep aspiring medical students in Tamil Nadu out of NEET (medical entrance examination), forcefully articulated against some of the provisions under GST that she thought would diluting the powers of the state government and attempts to impose Hindi

However, with the ruling AIADMK preoccupied with its own survival given the developing political crisis for its leadership, the BJP sees a chance to squeeze in. Sensing such a move, Stalin has quickly pounced on these issues and taken a strong anti-BJP and anti-Centre stand to articulate the sentiments of the Tamil people on emotive issues.

One such is the subtle move to replace English with Hindi on milestones on national highways in Tamil Nadu. Stalin was among the first to flag this issue the moment the incident was reported in media here.

On Sunday, he read out the 15 resolutions at the all party meeting. Stalin said there was nothing political about the all-party meeting. It is called to discuss the farmers distress and try to find ways to resolve their problems, Stalin said.

Among the resolutions is the one that wanted the state government to follow orders of the Madras high court and the Supreme Court on the farmers issue. Another resolution demanded that Cauvery delta area be declared a disaster prone area which would make it eligible for special relief packages.

The all-party meet also asked the state government to convene a special assembly to pass a resolution on the farmers demands. We have also adopted a resolution that sought to prevent neighboring states from constructing check dams, Stalin told media persons after the meeting.

VCK leader Thirumavalanan said that it was also resolved to hold a massive rally in Chennai on April 22 on the need to hold Tamil Nadu bandh on April 25.

CPM Tamil Nadu state secretary G Ramakrishnan said that it was for the first time since 2008, when CPM walked out of UPA alliance on the nuclear deal that the CPM was participating in a joint action with the DMK. The DMK is in alliance with the Congress in the state.

TNCC chief S Tirunavukkarassar said that farmers were suffering but the Central government was oblivious to their agony.

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The Telangana government passed a bill on Sunday to increase reservation in jobs and education for backward Muslims to 12%, exceeding the Supreme Courts 50% ceiling for such benefits.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government bulldozed its way, convening a special assembly session on Sunday, a holiday, to pass the bill through a voice vote after hours of intense debate and suspension of five BJP legislators who opposed religion-based reservations.

Backward Muslims in the new state  carved out of Andhra Pradesh in June 2014  are already entitled to 4% reservation in educational institutions and government jobs.

Chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao introduced the proposed law: the Telangana backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes (reservation of seats in educational institutions and of appointments or posts in services under the state) bill, 2017.

History of Muslim quota *In August 1994, then AP chief minister Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy issued a government order (GO) including a few categories of Muslims such as washerman and weavers into OBC list. Also constituted an OBC Commission chaired by Justice Puttu Swamy to look into the issue of inclusion of Muslims into the OBC list. *In 2003, Puttuswamy Commission submitted its report to the Chandrababu Naidu government, but it was pushed under the carpet *In July, 2004, then YS Rajasekhar Reddy government issued a GO providing 5% quota to Muslims by treating them as OBC by creating fifth category (Category-E) *In September 2004, High Court struck down the GO on the ground that it was against the Supreme Courts ceiling on reservations. At that time, there was already a quota of 25% for OBCs, 15% for SCs and 6% for STs in Andhra Pradesh. So, giving 5% quota to Muslims would take the total quota percentage to 51. *In November 2004, the YSR government re-constituted the OBC Commission headed by justice Dalva Subrahmanyam *In October 2005, the YSR government issued an ordinance providing five percent quota to Muslims in educational institutions and state government jobs. The ordinance was replaced by an Act later *In November 2005, a five-member bench of the AP high court struck down the Act. *In July 2007, the YSR government promulgated another ordinance providing four percent reservations to 14 categories of poor Muslims well within 50% limit *In January 2008, the state government filed an SLP in the Supreme Court seeking implementation of the quota. SC allowed the quota pending the final verdict *In February 2010, the seven-member Constitution Bench, in a 5-2 majority ruling, held that the law providing 4% reservation to backward class Muslims in the state was invalid. *The state government files review petition in the SC, which referred the issue to a separate Constitutional bench. The hearings are now going on.

After the bifurcation of the combined Andhra Pradesh state, the percentage of Muslims in Telangana has gone up and 90% of them are poor and socially backward. Hence, we have decided to increase the quota for Muslims, treating them as OBC (other backward class), he said.

He dismissed allegations that his government was providing more reservation in the name of religion.

The BJP members opposed the bill, saying reservation for Muslims goes against the Constitution.

In the neighbouring southern state, 69% of the seats are reserved for SC, ST and OBC communities.

Party lawmakers trooped into the well of the House and shouted slogans, forcing legislative affairs minister T Harish Rao to move a motion to suspend them. Marshals escorted out the BJP members later.

Also, the bill sought to increase reservation for scheduled tribes from 6% to 10%. The combined increase takes the states total reservations to 62%, way higher than cap prescribed by the Supreme Court in a landmark 1992 ruling.

The chief minister, called KCR by his supporters, was confident of getting the enhanced quotas legalised by incorporating them in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution through a constitutional amendment.

It was done before for Tamil Nadu in 1994, where the overall quota for various groups in 69%, he argued.

The proposed law will require the state legislative councils nod, before it could be sent for the Presidents approval for inclusion in the Constitutions Ninth Schedule.

Rao said his party promised to provide 12% reservations to Muslims in its election manifesto. The hike compliments the promise.

Other opposition parties backed the bill. T Jeevan Reddy of the Congress welcomed it and said: Its better late than never.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), a pro-Muslim party, suggested that the existing 4% reservation under the BC (E) category should be retained too.

A separate BC(F) category should be created to extend the benefits, the party said.
In a bid to break the stereotypes about tribal culture , an independent tribal filmmaking body organised Indias first indigenous beauty pageant, which portrayed tribal women as progressive yet inclined towards their tribal roots.

The Adivasi Moolvasi Janjatiya Miss India (Miss India indigenous) was organised in Jharkhands Jamshedpur by the All India Santhali Film Association (AISFA) to showcase tribal culture through its women.

Around 20 tribal women from all around the country participated in the contest.

President of AISFA, Ramesh Hansda said that tribal people are infamous for witch hunting and outdated approach towards women in the family.

Through the beauty contest, he said, the AISFA was trying to portray a tribal woman as a new-age, educated and empowered member of the society.

The contest is meant for women empowerment and winners were given opportunity to prove their talent in Bollywood . Through training in acting, dialogue delivery and other aspects of the Hindi film industry, the Miss India Indigenous winner will get an opportunity to change the orthodox mindset about tribal women, Hansda added.

Film director Vinod Kumar said tribal youth were highly talented and with proper training they could get due space in the glamour and fashion world.

AISFA members are hopeful that youth from tribal background will prove their mantle in the glamour world if they get an opportunity.
Two youngsters were arrested on Sunday from Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh for their alleged involvement in secessionist and anti-national activities.

The youth, both residents of Janjgir Chapa district, had multiple bank accounts with several suspicious transactions, said Bilaspur superintendent of police Mayank Shrivastav.

They have been booked under IPC section 121 (waging war against the country), he said.

The two had connections with members of a terror module busted by the Madhya Pradesh ATS recently, the police added.

They were also suspected to have links with Satvinder Singh, who was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir last year on charges of espionage, they said.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Saturday expressed concern over the way Sharia laws are now being openly questioned by people who had little or no knowledge of Islam.

This is a matter of grave concern for us, said Maulana Wali Rahmani, secretary of the AIMPLB adding that it was the duty of the board to correct this misconception about Muslim laws related to marriage, divorce, inheritance.

We do not want any interference in our Sharia laws. The Constitution allows each person to profess and practise his own religion. Muslims do not want any change in their existing personal laws, said Maulana Rahmani.

To support his claim, the board secretary said an AIMPLB delegation recently submitted a memorandum signed by over four crore Muslims to law commission chairman justice (retired) Balbir Singh Chauhan reiterating their position.

The apex body, which represents all Muslims sects, had come into existence almost 45 years ago when a pitch was made for a common civil code by the then Congress regime at the Centre.

The case in the Supreme Court and the subsequent spotlight and campaign to get triple talaq abolished by a section is not merely an infringement of fundamental rights of Muslims to follow their personal laws, but a step towards common code, the board fears

Finding an out-of-court settlement to the Ayodhya dispute was another item on the agenda of the two-day session of the boards executive committee at Nadwatul-Ulema in Lucknow.

Senior AIMPLB vice-president Maulana Kalbe Sadiq had already gone on record saying that efforts were being made to educate Muslims and get triple divorce abolished, but the board has distanced itself from the statement saying that this was Sadiqs personal views.
Bhim Bahadur Tamang is a diminutive man who has been a postman for more than 25 years, an increasingly thankless job in a world of digital communication.

But for three minutes every Thursday morning, the 61-year-old acts as the bridge between India and China as he trudges through metres of snow at 14,000 feet to deliver mail across the mountainous border pass of Nathu La in Sikkim.

Dressed usually in a windcheater jacket with a cap protecting his ears and head in temperatures that drop to -20 degrees in winter, Tamang crosses the barbed wire fence marking the Indian border at 8:30am, and enters a shed on the Chinese side, not illegally, but with the official sanction of both nations.

As Indian and Chinese troops and their artillery are stationed eyeball-to-eyeball outside, inside the shed mailbags are exchanged between Tamang and his Chinese counterpart without a word being spoken.

It is a very short process, Tamang, a postal departmental employee, tells Hindustan Times sitting at the Sherethang border post office ringed by snow-capped mountains on all sides.

We just exchange bags, sign the mail manifest and leave the shed. There is no conversation whatsoever  I speak Nepali and Hindi, my Chinese friend follows neither.

An Indo-Chinese agreement in 1992 formally recognised the exchange of mail through the famous Nathu La Pass border post, about 55 km from Sikkims capital Gangtok.

The mail exchange is never postponed or stopped, even at the height of tensions between the two Asian neighbours over festering border disputes, says Tamang who took over in 1991 from a predecessor who once carried the mail for Sikkims erstwhile monarchs, the Chogyal.

Tough to replace

Nathu La grabbed national headlines after a skirmish between the Indian and Chinese troops during the Chinese aggression on the border state in 1967. Even today, the post is zealously guarded by the army.

Tamang lives in east Sikkims Sherathang village, about 7 km from the border. The weather here is fickle, and even in summer a thin film of freezing mist descends across the peaks, making it hard to see anything. Tamangs village is one of the few that dot the areas craggy landscape, a terrain so tough that not many people would like to take Tamangs job.

Every week, Tamang treks the distance to the border and back.For his efforts, Tamang makes just Rs 13,000 a month, another reason why the postal department has struggled to find a successor for the ageing man.

But who does the unique mail exchange benefit? Mostly Tibetan refugees and people in the border villages write to their families across the border, says an official at the armys 77 Field Post Office at Tadong in Gangtok.

Mails for Tibet are directed to the India Posts Siliguri office, from where the letters are sent to the armys 77 Field post office at Tadong, he says.

The mail, mostly letters are vetted and then sealed in a bag and a manifest issued for the Chinese post office at Yathung in Tibets Chumbi Valley is sent to the India Posts Gangtok head office, from where the sealed bag is collected by the Sherathang postman.

While the mail exchange on the Indian side of the border takes place every Sunday, the exchange on the Chinese side takes place every Thursday.

An army officer says the volume of mail has decreased over the years and at times, only an empty bag is exchanged. But the process is never stopped, adds the officer.

In the age of e-mails, had it not been for the mail exchange, letters would take months to reach their destination on both sides, says Laga Tamang, Sherathang post office in-charge who also fills in for Bhim Bahadur when he is indisposed.

Come hail or snow, Bhim Bahadur trudges up the 7km stretch from the Sherathang to Nathula to exchange the mailbag, he says.

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Karni Sena and Hindu Jagran Manch activists lodged three police complaints against Congress leader Govind Ram Meghwal for his allegedly insulting remarks on Hindu deities.

At a public meeting on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Bhim Rao Ambedkar in Bikaner, Meghwal made the remarks that broke the hearts of Hindus, complainants alleged.

The former legislator was accused of using derogatory words about lord Krishna, Hanuman and Karni Mata.

Meghwal not only made derogatory comments on Hindu lords and deities but also insulted Baba Saheb and the Indian constitution by calling it the constitution of Ambedkar, Hindu Jagran Manch convener Jethanand Vyas told HT on Sunday.

The complainants said they watched the speech on social media and news channels. Three cases were registered against Meghwal at Jainarayan Vyas Colony, Sadar and Deshnok police stations in Bikaner.

As the controversy erupted, Meghwal tried to do a damage control through a press conference. The Congress leader said his remarks had been distorted and that he had no intention of hurting religious sentiments.

Police launched a probe.
Phulera town has become the first open defecation- free (ODF) municipality in Jaipur district under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban).

All the wards under Hawa Mahal (west) zone in the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) have also got ODF tag. Till date, 71 of 91 wards in JMC, and 146 of 235 wards of municipalities have been declared ODF.

The Swachh Bharat Mission is receiving positive results from city and rural areas because of effective participation of elected representatives and citizens and constant monitoring, Jaipur collector Siddharth Mahajan said.

Of the 10 municipalities in the district, all wards of Phulera and all the six wards of Hawa Mahal zone are now ODF, he said.

Mahajan said the 71 ODF wards under JMC include all the six of Hawa Mahal (west), 9 of 11 in Mansarover zone, 4 of 9 in Moti Dungari, 8 of 12 in Sanganer, 9 of 11 in Hawa Mahal (east), 15 of 16 in Civil Lines, 17 of 21 in Vidhyadhar Nagar, and 3 of 5 in Amer.

Of the 235 wards in 10 municipalities, 146 are ODF -- 20 of Phulera, 13 of 25 (Shahpura), 13 of 20 (Virat Nagar), 8 of 30 (Kotputli), 21 of 25 (Bagru), 15 of 20 (Sambhar), 21 of 25 (Kishangarh Renwal), 10 of 15 (Jobner), 13 of 30 (Chomu), and 12 of 25 (Chaksu).

Rajasthan has emerged as the leading state in building toilets in rural areas, but it aims to completely stop open defecation by 2019 under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).

Rajasthan built 26.87 lakh individual toilets in rural areas under the SBM in 2016-17, reveals the union ministry of drinking water and sanitation data. West Bengal, which added 23.08 lakh individual toilets in 2016-17, was at the second spot.

The number of individual toilets in the state has gone up to 54.83 lakh since the SBM was launched in October 2014.

Six districts -- Pali, Jhunjhunu, Churu, Chittorgarh, Hanumangarh, and Ajmer -- have been declared ODF, but the state governments target was to end open defecation in 10 districts by March-end.

Swachh drive in Rajasthan

Toilets built since Oct 2014: 54.83 lakh

Toilets built in 2016-17: 26.88 lakh

No. of ODF districts: 5

No. of ODF gram panchayats: 4,914

No. of ODF villages: 19,629
Twenty-two-year-old Bhalaram Dudi uses Paytm, an online payment app, on his mobile phone to pay for his haircut. The barber, Prabhu Lal, also uses the app for buying his stuff from Matwal General Store.

In a remote desert village in north Rajasthan, cashless transactions are quite a revolution. Sardarpura Khalsa, a village of 600 houses, people flaunt that they are digital and cashless with posters pasted outside their houses; women peep through their veils to scan bar codes of shops on their mobile phones to make payments.

The village, 290 km from Bikaner, in Rawatsar block of Hanumangarh district has gone cashless with all 28 shops accepting digital payments.

The Rajasthan governments department of information and technology (DoIT) adopted the village in January to train people in digital technology. People were trained for using BHIM and Paytm apps, and the *99# facility for those who dont have smartphones.

Four months down the line, Sardarpura Khalsa is neighbours envy.

Ashish Sihag, nodal officer of DoIT e-governance cell, said volunteers first motivated people to link their bank accounts with Aadhaar and mobile numbers, and then told them about cashless transactions.

There are 4,100 accounts in the villages only bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce; 2,590 of them are linked with Aadhaar and 1,942 with their mobile numbers.

Some of them also use the UPI facility of the bank for transactions, Sihag added.

When we had cash in hand, we often spent irrationally, said Balram Chapola, a villager. Now I use my mobile phone for payments all shops in the village and end up saving some money.

The IT department provided plastic banners to all the shops to be hanged outside with their codes that will be used by villagers for digital transactions.

The village has internet connectivity provided by private service providers, and theres RAJNET, the government facility, at Atal Sewa Kendra.

Even vegetable vendors have swipe machines for cashless transactions, said Sihag.

Sardarpura Khalsa is emerging as the pivot of digital revolution in Rajasthan, said Yogendra Kumar, DoIT deputy director.
The Yogi Adityanath government, which has announced loan waiver up to Rs 1 lakh each for small and marginal farmers, faces the major challenge of providing funds in the annual budget for 2017-2018 to implement the BJPs poll promises. The state assemblys budget session is expected to be convened soon.

The BJPs 23-page Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra-2017 contains over 200 promises. The Yogi Adityanath government has already circulated the document to all the officers  additional chief secretaries/principal secretaries and secretaries  to identify promises with respect to their departments.

Keeping in view governments priorities for the annual budget for 2017-2018, send your proposals duly approved by departmental minister/chief minister proposals by April 30, 2017, said secretary, finance, Mukesh Mittal in a letter dated April 10, 2017. The letter was sent to all the senior officers heading different departments.

The chief minister has already given indications about priorities of his government and some of the schemes of previous Samajwadi Party-led regime are either being tweaked or scrapped to pave way for the new ones. Besides deleting Samajwadi from the names of schemes launched during the SP regime, the Yogi Adityanath government will like to launch many new schemes to implement the BJPs poll promises.

The major challenge will be to provide funds not only for the nearly Rs 36,359 crore loan waiver, but also for new schemes and other committed expenditure.

The state cabinet has already decided to float Kisan Rahat Bonds to mobilise additional funds for the loan waiver. Another major challenge will be to provide an additional sum of about Rs 28,000 crore to meet the expenditure on implementing the seventh pay commission recommendations. This includes Rs 18,000 crore needed to meet expenditure on increased salaries and pension and Rs 10,000 crore to clear arrears to be paid to employees in 2017-18.

With the Yogi Adityanath government working in coordination with the Narendra Modi government, there are hopes of the state getting sufficient central funds to implement the centrally sponsored schemes. Officers have been asked to find out the allocations that the centre may make and arrange a matching state government share in the annual budget.

As the union government has already presented its annual budget for 2017-18, the respective administrative departments should know the central share to be given to the state for centrally sponsored schemes, said additional chief secretary Anoop Chandra Pandey in his letter on March 23, 2017.

Pandey has also informed officers that proposals to be incorporated in the annual budget should be made in lakhs of rupees instead of thousand rupees in 2017-2018. This will be the first annual budget in which the state government will make proposals in lakhs of rupees. A senior officer said the state government had prepared the vote on account (first five months of 2017-2018) presented before 2017 assembly elections in lakhs of rupees. This will be the first full-fledged budget with the estimates being made in lakhs, said the officer.

Read more: Bureaucrats on toes, takeclues from BJP manifesto

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Amidst the Yogi Adityanath governments preparations to provide round the clock power in the state by November next year, Uttar Pradesh has again emerged as the countrys most electricity-deficit state after Jammu & Kashmir though there is an improvement over previous year.

The Central Electricity Authoritys (CEA) latest report on the state-wise power supply position in the country between April 2016 and March 2017 reveals the peak demand-supply gap in UP during the period was 9.8%. This gap is much bigger than the national average of 1.6% and the second highest after J&Ks 20%.

The situation as far as the peak demand-supply gap is concerned has been found far better in Bihar where the peak shortage was only 3.2% during the same period.

UP, it is found, experienced average peak demand of 17,183 MW during the last financial year ending March 31 but the peak availability of electricity averaged at 15,501 MW, leaving a shortage of 2,608 MW.

Around a dozen and a half states, including Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand in the Northern region, had zero shortage while most remaining states were found to have only marginal demand-supply gap during the same period. In Delhi and Rajasthan in the northern region, the peak shortage during 2016-17 was 1.3 % and 2.5%, respectively.

However, UPs power scene was found to be better this year compared to the last financial year. The peak demand-supply gap in the state between April 2015 and April 2016 averaged at 2,485MW or 14.6%.

The credit to the improvement is being given to the Akhilesh Yadav governments enhancing the power supply hours significantly from October 2016 as a matter of policy obviously with an eye on the assembly elections in 2017. There has been no power shortage between October 2016 and March 2017 and this is why the overall peak-demand supply position has shown improvement during 2016-2017, a senior UPPCL official pointed out.

Sources said power availability as such would not be a big problem for the BJP government to be able to start providing 24X7 electricity to people by November 2018, a goal which the chef minister announced on Friday. The state has sufficient generation at present while some other new power generating units are scheduled to be functional in the coming months, said the official warning, But there may come other challenges in terms of transmission and distribution bottlenecks.

During a meeting on states preparedness to meet the summer load in New Delhi last month, UP was advised by the power ministry to augment the intra-state transmission systems expeditiously as the necessary shortages reported in the state, according to experts, were primarily on account of lack of necessary transmission and distribution infrastructure within the state.

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The Yogi Adityanath government is planning to celebrate the birth anniversaries of saints and luminaries who have been the icons of peace and communal harmony in Uttar Pradesh.

It has sanctioned a total of Rs 10.93 lakh at the rate of Rs 14,583 per district of the state for 2017-18 for such celebrations. The government has instructed district magistrates to hold the celebrations at the district headquarters and other places in their respective areas.

Bharatiya Janata Party sources say its a well-planned step to counter accusations of political rivals like the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) who have routinely blamed the BJP for polarising voters on communal lines, especially during elections. The chief minister himself holds the national integration portfolio.

A government order dated April 12, 2017 has asked all the DMs to identify such people who played an important role in spreading communal harmony but whose birth anniversaries were not celebrated owing to lack of funds. The DMs were asked to ensure proper celebrations. Secretary (national integration), UP, Ashok Kumar has issued the order which also directs the DMs to take the help of local non-government organisations in these proposed celebrations.

The step will play a key role in not only changing the general perception of the BJP being a party of certain castes or just the Hindus but will also reiterate the partys stand of Sab Ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas while allaying fears of the minority communities at a time when the BJPs rivals are openly exploring a unified front to counter the Modi wave for the 2019 Lok Sabha, said political analyst MP Dube, vice-chancellor of Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandion Open University (UPRTOU).

He said that having realised the importance of votes from across the social and religious divide for a sweeping win in the UP assembly election, this step, as well recent comments by the CM and BJP leaders, point towards a possible attempt by the BJP to make people look at it as a party of all.

Badri Narayan, another political commentator and a professor at Allahabad Universitys GB Pant Social Science Institute, believes the step is an effort by Yogi government to ensure peace in the state by recognising the icons of communal harmony.

This will help mitigate any possibilities of a communal flare-up akin to when the SP was in power and that the BJP had vehemently criticised in the run-up to the assembly polls, he added.

Read more: CM Yogi Adityanath opposed to school holidays in memory of eminent people

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From the next academic year, college students in the state will get money under various fee reimbursement schemes directly deposited in their bank accounts.

The government has decided to disburse the money through direct transfer benefit (DBT) mechanism by depositing it into Aadhar-linked bank accounts of beneficiaries in the form of scholarships, instead of reimbursing their respective institutes. The DBT mechanism, initiated in accordance with the Maharashtra Aadhar Act 2016, aims at timely disbursement of the money and putting a curb on malpractices in the implementation of government schemes.

On Saturday, the state issued a government resolution (GR) introducing DBT for two schemes run by its higher and technical education department - Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Shikshan Shulk Shishyavrutti Yojana, under which 50% fees of economically backward class (EBC) students pursuing professional courses is reimbursed, and Dr Punjabrao Deshmukh Vastigruh Nirvah Bhatta Yojna, under which children of small farmers and labours receive a hostel allowance. The government will soon include other schemes for disadvantaged students in this list.

"These are the first in the series of schemes which will be brought under the ambit of direct transfers. Other state government departments running fee benefit schemes such as social justice and special assistance, tribal development and medical education and research departments, will come with their own GRs within a week," said Sitaram Kunte, principal secretary, higher and technical education department.

Currently, only a few schemes for students, such as the central government's pre-matric and post-matric scholarship schemes, are implemented through DBT.

According to the GR, the EBC students are required to maintain a minimum of 50% , to be eligible for scholarship. The colleges will have to keep a track of students attendance through an Aadhar-linked biotmetric system.

The students will receive their annual scholarship in two instalments, one in each of the two semesters of an academic year. It mandates that the first instalment comes before August 31, while the second is deposited by January 31. The institutes cannot ask the beneficiaries to pay the fees before money is deposited in their accounts.

The state government, however, is notorious for delaying the payments to beneficiaries. Last year, HT had reported that the three government departments owed over Rs 2000 crore to technical colleges. "We have told the finance department that success of this scheme will depend on the continuous flow of money," said a state government official.

The colleges fear that they will continue bearing the brunt of delay in money disbursement. The students wont pay us until they get scholarship from the government. And if a student decides to drop-out of the college after receiving the money, we will be at loss. The government is duplicating the work by directly transferring money to students, said Kalim Khan, director, Rizvi Institute of Management Studies and Research in Bandra.

The activists are also not sure if DBT will improve scholarship delivery in the state. The government is unable to provide the benefits under existing schemes such as Deendayal Upadhay Swayam Yojana, which provides hostel and food facilities to tribal students, on time, and post-matric scholarship scheme on time. As a result, the students have to suffer, said Priyadarshi Telang, convenor, Dalit Adivasi Adhikar Andolan, a Pune-based organisation.

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A 25-year-old man was arrested by Bandra police on Saturday for allegedly setting a woman on fire for reprimanding him in public for sexual harassment. The incident occurred in Bandra (West) on Friday.

Moreover, another woman and her daughter, who were standing near the victim, also sustained burn injuries in the attack.

An officer form Bandra police station said that the incident took place in a slum pocket near Bandra Reclamation.

The arrested accused, Deepak Jat, is notorious for sexually harassing women in the area by passing lewd remarks and making obscene gestures. Locals also said that he has an aggressive nature and picks up fights over petty issues. He had misbehaved with the victim, Amravati Harijan,46, in the past, the officer said.

He added that while Harijan suffered 95% burns, the other woman, Kanta Ikka, 30, sustained 35% burns. Ikkas two-and-a-half-year-old daughter burnt her hand and legs in the attack.

The officer said that Jat was holding a grudge against Harijan for reprimanding him in public and had decided to avenge his insult.

On Friday, he stalked the woman and poured kerosene on her and set her on fire. Soon after the incident, locals rushed all the three victims to Sion hospital.

Though Jat fled from the spot, he was later arrested from Mira Road by Bandra police. A first information report (FIR) was registered against Jat and he was booked under section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

The Bandra police also recovered the clothes he was wearing at the time of the crime. Jat was produced in the magistrates court on Sunday and remanded in police custody till Monday.

Also read: Mumbais streets were more unsafe for women in 2016
A 28-year-old woman, who had been fighting for her life at a Kandivli hospital after her husband poured hot oil over her nearly a month ago, died on Saturday night.

The deceased, Mariyam, had sustained more than 50% burns and was being treated in Oscar hospital in Kandivli (west). After the incident, Mariyams husband, Shabad Ali Irshad Shaikh, 31, surrendered before the Malwani police station and confessed to the crime.

The Malwani police had registered a case of attempt to murder against Shaikh and arrested him. Shaikh is in judicial custody and now after Mariyams death we have charged him for murder, said senior inspector Deepak Phatangare of Malwani police station.

According to the police, Mariyam and Shaikh got married around eight years ago, they have two children and were staying in Malwani area. However, for the past few months, the couple had constantly been fighting over small issues, said the police. Two months ago, Mariyam to separate from her husband and started living in Azmi Nagar in Malad (west) along with her children, said a police officer.

Mariyam worked in a mall at Malad. When she was at work on March 22, her estranged husband called to say that he wanted to cook chicken for her and was planning to have dinner with her one last time as the couple was planning to get a divorce, said the officer.

Mariyam reluctantly agreed and asked the children to go to at their grandparents home. After she returned home, Shaikh went into the kitchen saying he wants to heat up the chicken he had cooked. Instead, he removed the chicken from the vessel and poured the entire hot oil over his wife, added the officer.

While Mariyam was admitted into the hospital after the neighbours heard her scream, Shaikh went to Malwani police station and surrendered himself.

Also read: Man with two wives locks one in room, beats, tortures, beheads other

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Two Sri Lanka nationals were arrested at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport for allegedly smuggling 25 gold bars worth Rs87.45 lakh in their rectum on Saturday night.

According to the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU), both the arrested accused  Jameer Abdul Wahid, 42, and Althaf Sahul Hameed, 48  are frequent fliers.

Wahid, who flew in from Dubai, was intercepted at the arrival hall and then 13 gold bars weighing 1,516 grams and valued at Rs 45.48 lakh were recovered from his rectum.

Similarly, another passenger Althaf Sahul Hameed, 48, who was in the same flight, was intercepted and when checked, 12 gold bars weighing 1,399 grams valued at Rs 41.97 lakh were recovered. Both the passengers belong to the Puthalam district in Sri Lanka. They frequently fly to India and trade in textile material, readymade garments and cosmetics, said a senior AIU officer.

The AIU said at the international airport, cases of foreign body concealed within the rectum are being frequently reported. Such passengers are convinced for prompt self-removal. Delayed removal of rectal foreign bodies can lead to severe complications including abdominal, rectal pains associated with bleeding and infections.

On Friday, one Sayed Noorulameen, 26, a resident of Bhatkal in Karnataka who had arrived from Dubai, was stopped on suspicion that he was smuggling gold. Upon interception, he was found carrying one hand operated juicer. We broke open the juicer and found two pieces of cylindrical gold rods weighing 567 grams valued at Rs 17lakh which were concealed in the hollow portion of the vertical column fixed to the base of the hand-operated juicer machine, said the officer. He has not been arrested.

Also read: Gold smuggling cases up at Mumbai airport as demonetisation effect wears thin

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The state governments decision to allow conversion of lease hold properties of Bihar state housing board (BSHB) into freehold asset on payment of one-time fee, has opened up the doors for redevelopment of prime land in several important localities of the state capital.

While a majority of the 19,000 BSHB allottees, including over 3,000 in the state capital, find the fixation of the charge at 10% of prevailing minimum value register (MVR) as stiff, there are builders waiting on the sidelines to seal the deal by willingly paying up for conversion of private land and middle income group housing plots on owners behalf.

With every inch of land having been gobbled up by city builders for vertical development in land scarce Patna, it is the developers who are happier at the turn of events than the allottees. For, they see unlocking of vast expanse of land, either by individuals or contiguous owners, to rebuild newer skyscapes and change the skyline in the city for the better.

It is a very good decision. Elsewhere, people agitate to get their leased property converted into free-hold. Here it has happened on its own. It is a win-win situation for the government, besides existing owners and prospective buyers, said Manikant, vice president, Builders Association of India (BAI).

READ: Bihar housing board leased property to become freehold

But those already having signed lease-agreement with BSHB for 90-99 years (also known as perpetual lease at very nominal charge), are not enthused. Majority of those in this category are those who have already developed their premises to suit the demands of expanding families, or dont have the wherewithal to shell out the hefty sum for conversion, which could run into crores, in one go.

Perpetual lease serves me fine, said Kumar Nishant, son of an allottee, who got MIG property at an agreement value of Rs 58,000 only. The amount paid for signing a perpetual lease was less than Rs 4,000. Had it been offered even at the same rate, but on the hire-purchase agreement value, I would have considered it. Ten per cent of prevalent MVR is too high. There is no concession for those who dared to shift to areas like Kankarbagh way back in late 1960s, when none were willing, he argued.

The decision, initiated on the pattern of Uttar Pradesh, will also be available for allottees who decide to own properties being developed by the BSHB in the future, said cabinet secretary Brijesh Mehrotra last Wednesday.

Realtors are eyeing the significant development, after 35 years, with a lot of interest.

Today or tomorrow, the next generation of the original allottees will start considering the prospect of having their asset redeveloped. For those not economically well off, the idea of converting their asset into revenue generating resource in addition to better living alternative, will be a compelling proposition, said Alok Kumar Singh of Vaibhav Green Pvt Ltd.

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The 245-km Delhi-Chandigarh corridor is slated to see Indias fastest train service running on its tracks, covering the distance between the two cities in less than two hours.

After successfully launching a 160-kmph train service between Delhi and Agra, the Railways now aims to scale up travel speed on the busy Delhi-Chandigarh corridor to 200 kmph. Once the countrys first semi-high speed train service has been launched in collaboration with the French, passengers will be able to travel the distance in 1.50 hours  making a single stop at Ambala.

At present, the Shatabdi Express covers the distance in 3.30 hours, running at a speed of 110 kmph.

Indian Railways officials discussed the possibility of running the semi-high speed trains in the Delhi-Chandigarh sector at a recent meeting with a high-level French delegation. The SNCF, a railway agency from the European country, will soon submit the execution strategy and implementation model with a detailed break-up of the funds required. The final report will be presented by October, said a senior Railway ministry official.

FACTS 110 kmph: The present speed of the Shatabdi Express on the 245 km track 200 kmph: Proposed speed at which there will be only one stop at Ambala; travel time less than 2 hours French team to submit proposal by October Rs 10,000 crore expected project cost at Rs 46 crore per km.

Sources say the project will cost roughly over Rs 10,000 crore, at Rs 46 crore per kilometre. This includes the rolling stock as well as signal and track upgrades on the corridor.

In the years to come, the Railways will reportedly upgrade nine high-priority passenger corridors  totaling up to 6,400 km  to run semi-high speed trains.

However, even as the Centre draws up plans to overhaul the track infrastructure, the local railway division is looking at other ways to reduce travel time on the Delhi-Chandigarh corridor in the interim period. We have sent a proposal to the commission of railway safety, asking it to reduce the travel time of Shatabdis running between Chandigarh and Delhi. As per our proposal, the train will run at 130 kmph between Ambala and Delhi, reducing travel time by 20-25 minutes to just three hours, said Ambala divisional railways manager Dinesh Kumar, adding that they are still awaiting a response.

The proposed semi high-speed train service had found mention in the 2014 Railway budget, divisional railway officials said.
The death sentence awarded by a Pakistani military court to former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav has the family of a captured BSF soldier in Faridkot worried.

Surjit Singh, who was captured by the Pakistani army in Jammus Samba sector during the 1971 war, has been languishing in a prison in the neighbouring country since then. His son, Amrik, has now asked external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to ensure that he is released at the earliest.

They will hang my father too. The death sentence awarded to Jadhav has shaken us, Amrik said in a letter to Swaraj. I have never seen my father, but I have been running from pillar to post to get him freed. I want to hug him at least once in my lifetime, he said.

Amrik said he would meet Swaraj on Monday.

Surjits wife, Angrej Kaur, was only 19 when he went missing. She had been blessed with a son days before her world turned upside down. I still remember Surjits love for his country. I have lost all hope of seeing my husband again, she said.

After repeated attempts by the Indian Army to trace the BSF soldier went in vain, the family was given his death certificate and extended all benefits in 1974. However, it was by a twist of fate that they came to know that Surjit was still alive as a prisoner of war.

We had accepted our fate. However, in 2004  when Pakistan released 36 Indian prisoners  we came to know that my father was still alive and lodged at Kot Lakhpat Jail. In 2005, BJP leaders Navjot Singh Sidhu (who has now joined Congress) and Smriti Irani accompanied me in protesting at Jantar Mantar. I even met the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but to no avail, Amrik said.

In 2013, another prisoner released by Pakistan disclosed that Surjit was languishing in a Quetta jail.

However, bleak as things may look now, Amrik is in no mood to quit his struggle. I wont give up till my father is released, he said.

A Pakistani army court had sentenced former Kulbhushan Jadhav to death for espionage and anti-state activities a few days ago. Diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan plunged following Jadhavs conviction, with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj warning Islamabad of consequences if Jadhavs death sentence was carried out.

Jadhav was reportedly captured in Balochistan in March last year. He was tried by a field general court martial under provisions of the Pakistan Army Act and the Official Secrets Act.

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Expressing serious concern over the protest held by National Students Union of India (NSUI) on Saturday outside the office of MP, Chandigarh Kirron Kher in Sector-8, national executive member of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha and co-incharge of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha, Himachal Pradesh Sahdev Salaria said that instead of protesting outside the office of MP, NSUI activists should have protested outside the residence of Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

Punjab government is not giving its share of grants to Panjab University and NSUI is student body of Congress. Now when there is Congress government in Punjab, it would be better if they make efforts in bringing grants from Punjab government rather than holding such type of protest outside the residence of MP and that too when she is not in cit, he said.

He also said that Kirron Kher is already taking up the issue of grants to PU in Delhi and she is making serious efforts to bring PU out of this financial crisis.

Student bodies like NSUI and left-leaning Students for Society (SFS) are politicising this issue and trying to turn Panjab University into Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU), he added.

The officials stated that Kher is attending national executive meeting of BJP in Odisha.
The fate of many students accused of creating violence on the Panjab University( PU) campus while protesting against fee hike, appears to be grim. With students as young as 20-year olds being alleged of having injured cops, causing damage to public property and having no fear of law, their friends and families are a worried lot.

Family of Shubham, hailing from Sangrur, a hosteller at PU and one of the accused, said their son who had cleared the preliminary to the judiciary exam, was too sincere with his studies to have caused such violence. His father said, Now he will have to get a letter so as to appear for the next level that he wasnt engaged in any of this.

Shubhams cousin, Kunal Khurana, also from Sangrur is also an accused in the case. Kunal has been shortlisted for the post of a corporate inspector. His father, Yograj Singh, who is the deputy director, sports, Punjab, is upset that his son has been falsely implicated in the case.

Also read | Violence at Panjab University: 48 of 68 accused granted bail

Two of the other 68 accused are PhD scholars and hence various family members were seen discussing as to how their childrens future had been impacted. Meanwhile, a group of 20 students from Government College for Arts, Chandigarh, had come to show solidarity for their friends, four of whom are accused- Samanpreet Singh of Bathinda, Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, Ranjit Singh of Bathinda and Gurpreet Singh of Moga. One of the students, Sahil Seth, present in court, told HT, We were a bunch of students who were painting graffiti to mark silent protest near the arts block when we heard sounds of the lathi charge. Students started running. Unfortunately four of our friends were arrested.

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To get away from the scorching heat and make the most of the school holidays of kids, many have already planned exquisite travels and booked their holidays in advance to avoid last minute chaos. Though hill stations in India and abroad remain a preferred holiday destinations of travellers, places with moderate climate and beautiful locals, too, are attracting tourists in wide numbers. We list a few popular destinations in India and abroad that are expecting maximum vacationers this season.

Top international destinations

UK: The heritage of England can be witnessed in its various cities. London, York, Edinburgh, Scottish Highlands, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol, Cardiff and Manchester are the key attractions for travellers. Karan Anand, head -relationships, Cox & Kings, says, This year, low airfare and hotel rates, and the weak pound, have led UK to become the most favourite European destination among Indians. The airfares to most of the European destinations including UK have dropped considerably, which makes many European destinations much cheaper than last year.

Seychelles offers innumerable water activities such as sailing, diving, snorkelling and fishing. (Istock)

Seychelles:Seychelles has some incredibly beautiful resorts and the weather is pleasant throughout the year. Neelu Singh, CEO and director, Ezeego1, says, Those who are in the mood to splurge can hire an entire island with helicopter transfers and expansive villas on a private beach with a personal chef. Seychelles offers innumerable water activities such as sailing, diving, snorkelling, fishing, and opportunities to discover the multiple islands unique ecosystems through mountain hikes and nature trails.

New Zealand: New Zealand enthrals travellers with its outlandish scenery, fabulous festivals, superb food and wine, and magical outdoor experiences. Christchurch, Queenstown, Auckland and Rotorua  each place in this country has its own charm. Christchurch is a beautiful city where you can indulge in fine dining. Just 15 minutes from the main city, you can scramble up mountain bike tracks or ride a wave at a surf beach. Queenstown sits on the shore of crystal clear Lake Wakatipu. Aucklands blend of harbour, islands, Polynesian culture and modern city environment has created a lifestyle ranked amongst the best in the world. Rotorua, the city on the volcanic plateau, has one of the worlds most lively fields of geothermal activity.

Israel is famous for its ancient cities. (Istock)

Israel: Israel is famous for its ancient cities and natural rustic destinations such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Galilee. The capital city of Jerusalem offers the contrast between old world historical charm and modern city living. Along the eastern Mediterranean coastline is the vibrant, modern, fashionable and cosmopolitan Tel Aviv with entertaining nightlife, shopping and unique architectural attractions. The amusement of floating on the Dead Sea is a once in a lifetime experience.

Greece: Greece, known for its 18 UNESCO world heritage sites, has been one of the most popular tourist attractions in Europe. Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, Corfu, Crete and Chalcidice are some of the most popular tourist destinations in Greece.

Top domestic destinations

White stupas and monasteries in Nubra Valley, Ladakh. ( Istock)

Ladakh: The unplugged landscapes, wildlife, culture and sparkling blue lakes is what makes Ladakh a land of endless discoveries. The place offers an element of thrill, adventure and tranquillity at the same time.

Ranikhet: Nature lovers flock to the picturesque Ranikhet in Uttarakhand throughout the year. The concept of homestays and luxury cottages is what draws many to this quiet hill station. Nature walks, trekking and birdwatching are main attractions here for travellers looking to connect with nature.

Bhagsu Waterfall near McLeod Ganj, the residence town of Dalai Lama in Dharamshala. (Istock)

McLeod Ganj:McLeod Ganj, a suburb in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, is a mini Tibet in itself. One can take courses in Buddhism, meditation or yoga, trek in the lofty and beautiful Dhauladhar mountains, and go shopping in the local Tibetan market. McLeod Ganj is popular with adventure enthusiasts. Its pleasant climate during summers and easy accessibility is what brings travellers to this place. Triund is a popular trek, about nine kms away from McLeod Ganj. It provides a mesmerising view of the Moon Peak-Indrahar Pass.

Sikkim: Sikkim offers delicious local food, exotic Himalayan wildlife, breathtaking landscapes and some great hikes in the mountains. The Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary and the Khangchendzonga National Park are some of the attractions here. Singh says, Sikkim has opened up as a destination for travellers. It offers sightseeing as well as all kinds of adventure activities such as river rafting, trekking and mountaineering. The rivers Teesta and Rangeet also attract a lot of white-water rafting enthusiasts.

A group of Himalayan bulbul at water stream in Jim Corbett National Park. (Istock)

Jim Corbett National Park: It is among the few tiger reserves in India that allows overnight stays within the national park. Anand shares, Nature and wildlife viewing in the park is done in an open jeep and on elephant back. One of the most sought-after destinations for the wildlife buffs, it is well-known for the sheer abundance of wildlife present.

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President Donald Trump asserted on Sunday that China was working with the United States on the North Korea problem, and his vice president told American and South Korea service members that the Norths latest provocation, a failed missile launch shortly before his arrival in Seoul, laid bare the risks they face.

While the North did not conduct a nuclear test, the specter of a potential escalated U.S. response trailed Pence as he began a 10-day trip to Asia amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric. Trumps national security adviser cited Trumps recent decision to order missile strikes in Syria after a chemical attack blamed on the Assad government as a sign that the president is clearly comfortable making tough decisions.

But at the same time, H.R. McMaster said, its time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully.

In a broadcast interview that aired on Sunday, McMaster said the U.S. would rely on its allies as well as on Chinese leadership to resolve the issues with North Korea. I mean, North Korea is very vulnerable to pressure from the Chinese, McMaster said on ABCs This Week.

The bottom line, McMaster said, is to stop the Norths weapons development and make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free: Its clear that the president is determined not to allow this kind of capability to threaten the United States. And our president will take action that is in the best interest of the American people.

After a two-month policy review, officials settled on a policy dubbed maximum pressure and engagement, U.S. officials said Friday. The administrations immediate emphasis, the officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.

The officials werent authorized to speak publicly on the results of the policy review and requested anonymity.

Pence will be tasked with explaining the policy in meetings with leaders in South Korea and Japan at the start of his trip, which will also include stops in Indonesia and Australia. He will also aim to reassure allies in South Korea and Japan that the U.S. will take appropriate steps to defend them against North Korean aggression.

Pence was aboard Air Force Two flying over the Bering Sea when a North Korean missile exploded during launch on Sunday, U.S. and South Korean officials said. The high-profile failure came as the North tried to showcase its nuclear and missile capabilities around the birth anniversary of the Norths late founder and as a U.S. aircraft carrier neared the Korean Peninsula.

A White House foreign policy adviser traveling with Pence said no U.S. response to the missile launch was expected because there was no need for the U.S. to reinforce the failure. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administrations initial understanding of the launch.

Trump, spending the Easter weekend at his Florida resort, reinforced his commitment to the armed forces under his control. Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before, he tweeted.

More directly on North Korea, the president returned to a theme of placing much onus on China for reining in the North. Last week, he said he would not declare China a currency manipulator, pulling back from a campaign promise, as he looks for help from Beijing, which is the Norths dominant trade partner.

Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens! Trump tweeted on Sunday.

Deputy national adviser K.T. McFarland briefed the president on the failed missile launch. She advised patience with China on the issue.

North Korea is a liability to everybody and its a threat not just to the United States, not just to South Korea, not just to Japan, not just to Russia, but its actually a threat to China as well, McFarland said Sunday on Fox News Sunday.

Into this tense environment, Pence made his first trip to the region since taking office in January. After arriving in the South Korean capital, he placed a wreath at Seoul National Cemetery and then worshipped with military personnel at an Easter church service at the U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan.

During a fellowship meal after the services, he said the tensions on the Korean peninsula had put into sharp focus the importance of the joint U.S.-South Korean mission.

This mornings provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world, said Pence. Your willingness to step forward, to serve, to stand firm without fear, inspires the nation and inspires the world.

Along with the deployment of the U.S. aircraft carrier and other vessels into waters off the Korean Peninsula, thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponry were deployed last month in their biggest joint military exercises. That led North Korea to issue routine threats of attacks on its rivals if they show signs of aggression.

The White House foreign policy adviser traveling with Pence told reporters that the type of missile that North Korea tried to fire on Sunday was medium-range, and that it exploded about 4 to 5 seconds after it was launched.

The North regularly launches short-range missiles, but is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target U.S. troops in Asia and, eventually, the U.S. mainland.

The failed launch will sting in Pyongyang because it came a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leaders grandfather.

According to the White House adviser, the test had been expected and the U.S. had good intelligence both before and after the launch. The official said, without elaborating, that had it been a nuclear test, other actions would have been taken by the U.S.

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.
Thousands of sign-waving, chanting protesters marched through streets across America demanding that President Donald Trump release his tax returns so the public can examine his business ties and determine whether he has links to foreign powers.

The tax day protests in more than a dozen cities Saturday were largely peaceful, though occasionally demonstrators and some pro-Trump groups taunted each other in face-to-face exchanges.

In Berkeley, California, police arrested at least 20 people after fist fighting erupted at separate unrelated rallies at a park where about 200 people for or against Trump gathered. Officers confiscated knives and makeshift weapons.

Bloodied demonstrator is seen after a brawl broke out between conservatives and demonstrators in opposition to US President Donald Trump at a Patriots Day Free Speech Rally in Berkeley, California, US, on Saturday. (Reuters)

The demonstrations came just days before Tuesdays deadline for taxpayers to file their returns. Trump was the first major-party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his tax returns, saying it was because he was under audit. He later said that voters dont care.

But 71-year-old Ilene Singh said hes wrong. She rode a bus from New Jersey to New York City with her friend Geraldine Markowitz, 83, to take part in protests. Were here to say we care, said Singh.

Pushing her walker, Karin Arlin, 85, a Holocaust survivor who came to the U.S. from Germany when she was 9, said shes also worried about the direction of the country.

You dont know which way the country goes, said Arlin next to her 89-year-old husband who fled Czechoslovakia during World War II. I hope Republicans see it.

Protesters in Raleigh, North Carolina, said they suspect that Trumps returns might show he has paid little or nothing to the government he now heads, or that he was indebted to Russian, Chinese or other foreign interests.

His reputation ... as a businessman and, more importantly, as a true American, a person who is concerned with American values, would be totally destroyed if all his financial information was made public, said Mike Mannshardt, a retired teacher.

Trump supporters face off with protesters at a "Patriots Day" free speech rally on Saturday in Berkeley, California. (AFP)

One of Trumps sharpest critics in the House spoke to protesters at the U.S. Capitol just before they set off on a march to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, of California, said theres nothing to prevent Trump from releasing his income taxes and that the simple truth is hes got a lot to hide.

If he thinks he can get away with playing king, hes got another thought coming, Waters said.

Nancy Traver, of Silver Spring, Maryland, who was at the Washington march said, Every president, Democratic and Republican for years has showed, has revealed his tax returns, so why shouldnt Trump?

A man gets sprayed with a chemical irritant as multiple fights break out between Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters in Berkeley, on Saturday. (AFP)

For four decades, presidents and major party nominees have released some of their tax returns, with the exception of Gerald Ford. Trumps break with precedent has raised questions about possible conflicts of interest.

Democrats are pushing for a vote on a bill from Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat from California, which would require the president and all major-party nominees to publicly disclose their previous three years of tax returns with the Office of Government Ethics or the Federal Election Commission.

A Trump supporter wrapped in a Trump flag looks on as multiple fights break out between Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters in Berkeley, California on Saturday. (AFP)

Republicans also have rebuffed Democrats efforts to get the House Ways and Means Committee to act. It has legal authority to obtain confidential tax records, and could vote to make them public.

Many demonstrators said they hoped Saturdays marches would convince Trump to voluntarily release them.

We do care. We want to see his taxes, said Ann Demerlis, who was among hundreds who marched in Philadelphia from City Hall to an area in front of historic Independence Hall, carrying signs and chanting We want your taxes now!
The Italian coastguard and other boats rescued some 3,000 migrants from unseaworthy boats off the Libyan coast on Saturday, as the good weather pushes the numbers up, a participating NGO said.

In all 35 rescue operations were launched during the day, with 15 of them still underway as night fell, the coastguard said.

German NGO Jugend Rettet, which took part in the rescue operations on Saturday, said 3,000 people had been plucked to safety during a particularly busy day due to the fine Spring weather in the Mediterranean.

Migrants on a wooden boat are rescued by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) in the central Mediterranean in international waters off the coast of Sabratha in Libya on April 15. (REUTERS)

Jugend Rettet spokeswoman Pauline Schmidt told AFP that a further 1,000 people remained to be rescued from inflatable dinghies and other craft, with the rescue ships reaching capacity.

Other, mainly non-governmental, boats were expected to arrive in the area to help the rescue operations, she said. We have never had to deal with so many people at the same time.

On Friday rescue vessels worked flat out to rescue over 2,000 people from flimsy dinghies.

A migrant carries her baby on board a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) of the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) during a rescue operation from a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean in international waters off the coast of Sabratha in Libya, April 15. (REUTERS)

The Italian coast guard and five privately-run rescue boats plucked migrants from 16 overcrowded dinghies and three wooden vessels packed with people hoping to make a new life for themselves in Europe.

EUs border control agency Frontex has accused donor-funded vessels of doing more harm than good by sailing off Libya and acting like taxis, and Italian prosecutors have suggested they may have links with traffickers -- a charge they have fiercely denied.

Migrants on a rubber dinghy await rescue by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) in the central Mediterranean in international waters off the coast of Sabratha in Libya, April 15. (REUTERS)

Distressing images of African migrants being plucked from heaving seas or the coffin-strewn aftermath of major sinkings have become a regular feature of television news bulletins since the crisis began spiralling out of control four years ago.

So far this year 666 people have been logged as dead or missing off the Libyan coast.

Migrants rest on the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship Phoenix after being rescued from a rubber dinghy in the central Mediterranean in international waters off the coast of Sabratha in Libya, April 15. (REUTERS)

However that figure is well down on the death rate seen last year when more than 5,000 people perished, according to the International Organization of Migration
Hundreds of Iraqi Christians gathered on Sunday in a church damaged by Islamic State north of Mosul, celebrating Easter there for the first time since 2014.

God willing, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ will also mark the return and rising-up of the Christians in Iraq, said Kyriacos Isho, 75, who was accompanied by his 12 children and grandchildren at Mar Gewargis (St George) Chaldean Catholic church in Tel Esqof.

Tel Esqof, or Bishops Hill in Arabic, did not sustain the same amount of damage as other Christian towns overrun by the militants three years ago in the plain of Nineveh.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters dislodged the hardline Sunni militants from Tel Esqof just a week after it had fallen, in August 2014. On Sunday, they stood guard around the church.

The militants had smashed the churchs windows, though a new cross has now been put up in place of the one the militants took down.

A fresh breeze on Sunday cooled the white chapel as the choir sang hymns in Chaldean, a language close to the Amaraic spoken by Jesus.

The mass ended with a festive distribution of soft drinks and coloured eggs in the inner courtyard by a French group, SOS Chretiens dOrient.

Islamic State targeted all non-Sunni Muslims living under its rule, and inflicted harsh punishment on Sunnis who refused to abide by its extreme interpretation of Islam.

The regions Christians were given an ultimatum: pay a tax, convert to Islam, or die by the sword. Most of them fled to the autonomous Kurdish region, across the Zab river to the east.

NOT REALLY HOME

More than 350 families returned to Tel Esqof which has been more secure since October, when U.S.-backed Kurdish and Iraqi forces launched an offensive to dislodge the militants from Mosul, taking back dozens of villages and towns along the way.

For many, though, Tel Esqof is not really home, but simply a place where they feel safe in the company of relatives or friends.

Madeleine Roufael, a 70 year-old widow, is still waiting to return to Mosul, about 20 km (12 miles) to the south.

Thank God, she repeats, grateful to be celebrating Easter once again. God willing, we will return home.

Six months into the Mosul offensive, the front line in the battle has moved well into the city, with Islamic State fighters surrounded in a few districts on the western side of the Tigris river.

The militants there are dug in among civilians.

Several hundred thousand people are estimated to remain in areas of the city that are still under militant control, complicating the battle plans of the Iraqi army and the U.S.-led coalition providing air and ground support.

It was from a Mosul mosque three years ago that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate also spanning a part of Syria.

I wish peace for Iraq, for Syria, for Lebanon, said Aws Hermez, the churchs deacon, referring to countries with substantial Christian communities.

Peace for the whole world.
Madhes-based parties and groups opposed to the new constitution of Nepal will hold protests across the country from Tuesday targeting local elections scheduled for May 14.

The Federal Alliance (Sanghiya Gathabandhan), an alliance of Madhesi and indigenous parties, made it clear on Sunday they would not take part in the elections if the government does not amend the statute, addressing their various demands.

Nepal is on the verge of deciding whether to hold or postpone the elections. The alliances move further complicated the possibility of the three-tier polls--local, provincial and central-- taking place in the next 10 months.

The government had tabled in Parliament a new amendment aimed at addressing the grievances of the agitating parties, but they rejected it.

Other political parties are divided as to whether to take on board the Madhesi parties for the polls or to go ahead without them. The main opposition CPN-UML is vehemently opposed to bringing them on board if they do not agree to join.

Two ruling parties, Nepali Congress and CPN(Maoist Center) are opting a middle path, saying that Madhesi participation in elections is a must and they should be included.

The federal alliance and Madhes-based parties have been demanding changes in various provisions of the constitution, such as citizenship, language, proportional representation of various marginalised communities in various state entities and change in federal boundaries.

At a press conference on Sunday, the alliance said it will continue the protests all the way up to the May 14 election.

The alliance called an indefinite general strike across the country from May 10, and will organise a torch rally, mass assemblies and demonstrations in the days up to the general strike.

A statement issued by the alliance said its protest was to ensure the rights of the people and safeguard democracy.

The Madhesi Morcha and Federal Alliance leaders reiterated their position of going for polls only after amending the constitution to address the demands of the Madhesis, indigenous people, the Tharus, Muslims, Dalits and other marginalised communities.

We are forced to go for agitation in order to protect the achievements of the past including federalism, national identity, democracy, republic and proportional representation and inclusion," said Upendra Yadav, the coordinator of the alliance.

Yadav also said elections to the federal parliament and the provincial assembly should be held first after addressing the issues of restructuring.

And the local-level elections should be held under the provincial government.

The Morcha and Alliance will join hands to organise processions, mass meetings and nationwide shutdown in the run-up to the local elections.
The first ever Nepal-China joint military drill began on Sunday at Nepal Armys Para Training School Maharajgunj in Kathmandu.

The Peoples Liberation Armys squad is taking part in Sagarmatha Friendship-2017, which will focus on counter-terrorism and disaster response. The 10-day exercise will conclude on April 25.

Gen Binod Kumar Shrestha, Nepal Armys director general of military operations, inaugurated the joint exercise.

Though Nepal and China were planning a large-scale military exercise, the strong opposition from India, given its special diplomatic and military ties with Nepal, forced Kathmandu to limit the scope of the exercise, sources said. We hope such joint military exercise would help Nepal and Chinese Armies to boost their professional capabilities, the Nepal Army said.

While highlighting the historic ties between Nepal and Chinese armies, Colonel Yang Shumeng who is leading the PLA in the exercise, said such exercises would help understanding on counter-terrorism and strengthen military-to-military relations.

The joint training with China marks Nepali Armys extension of military diplomacy. It has in the past conducted similar drills with Indian and US armies.

The army said the drill is a step towards preparing for possible terror threats.

The national defence forces from the two countries has increased their engagement of late. On February 19, Major General Zhao Jinsong of the western command of the PLA was in Nepal on a three-day visit. That was followed by a visit by defence minister Chang Wanquan in the third week of March. Chang had announced 300 million Yuan (Rs4.5 billion) of military aid to the Nepal Army.
Nepal government has declared two public holidays- Monday and Friday- during the departure and return of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari who embarks on a state visit to India.

Also, Tribhuvan International Airport has declared no-fly zones for 35 minutes from 10:30am to 11:05am on Monday to ensure security of the president.

The trend of announcing the public holiday was nixed by Madha Kumar Nepal-led government when the former President Ram Baran Yadav visited India in 2010.

Law Minister Ajay Shankar Nayak informed that as per the custom , public holidays are given whenever a head of state embarks on an official visit to any nation.

President Bhandari, who assumed the post following the promulgation of the new constitution in Nepal, is visiting India at the official invitation of her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.

President Bhandari will be accompanied by her daughter and a delegation that includes women parliament members representing various political parties, two former MPs and senior officials .

No memorandum of understating wll be signed, said the Nepal government a day ahead of the trip, as this is a goodwill visit mainly focused on consolidating and strengthening bilateral ties.
Pakistan has prepared a new dossier on Indian national Kulbhushan Yadav that will be shared with the United Nations and foreign ambassadors stationed in Islamabad, a report in Pakistani daily The News said on Sunday

The new dossier is based on the early video confessional statement and also statements given in front of the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) by Jadhav in which he admitted his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan.

The FGCM earlier this week found Jadhav guilty on two counts of espionage and sentenced him to death.

The dossier will also include an attested report of the FGCM, the timeline of Jadhavs alleged militant activities and also the court proceedings.

Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale on Friday asked Pakistan to provide a copy of the charge-sheet filed and the judgment given against Jadhav.

The Indian side also said it will appeal the order and was studying the Pakistan Army Act to do so.

In a meeting with the Pakistans foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua, the Indian envoy sought consular access to Yadav for the fourteenth time. However, Janjua said since it was a case of espionage, consular access couldnt be granted.
The death toll from a bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy outside Aleppo has reached at least 126 in the deadliest such incident in Syria in almost a year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Sunday.

Syrian rescue workers of the Civil Defence said that they had taken away at least 100 bodies from the site of Saturdays blast, which hit buses carrying Shia residents. 68 children were among dead.

The blast ripped through a bus depot in the al-Rashideen area where thousands of government loyalists evacuated the day before waited restlessly for hours, as opposition fighters guarded the area while negotiators bickered over the completion of the transfer deal. Only meters away, hundreds of evacuees from pro-rebels areas also loitered in a walled-off parking lot, guarded by government troops.

Footage from the scene showed bodies, including those of fighters, lying alongside buses, some of which were charred and others gutted from the blast. Personal belongings could be seen dangling out of the windows. Fires raged from a number of vehicles as rescuers struggled to put them out.

The scenes were the last in the unyielding bloodshed Syrians are living through. Earlier this month, at least 89 people were killed in a chemical attack as children foaming at the mouth and adults gasping for last breath were also caught on camera.

A Syrian child, wounded in a suicide car bombing that targeted their buses in Rashidin, west of Aleppo on April 15. (AFP Photo)

The bloody mayhem that followed the Saturday attack only deepened the resentment of the transfer criticized as population engineering. It also reflected the chaos surrounding negotiations between the warring parties. The United Nations did not oversee the transfer deal of the villages of Foua and Kfraya, besieged by the rebels, and Madaya and Zabadani, encircled by the government.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack but pro-government media and the opposition exchanged accusations, each pointing to foreign interference or conspiracies undermining the deal.

State TV al-Ikhbariya said the attack was the result of a car bomb carrying food aid to be delivered to the evacuees in the rebel-held area  ostensibly crisps for the children  and accused rebel groups of carrying it out. A TV broadcaster from the area said: There can be no life with the terrorist groups.

Syrian children, wounded in a suicide car bombing that targeted their buses in Rashidin, west of Aleppo on April 15. (AFP Photo)

I know nothing of my family. I cant find them, said a woman who appeared on al-Ikhbariya, weeping outside the state hospital in Aleppo where the wounded were transported.

Ahrar al-Sham, the rebel group that negotiated the deal, denounced the cowardly attack, saying a number of opposition fighters as well as government supporters were killed in the attack. The group said the attack only serves to deflect the attention from government crimes and said it was ready to cooperate with an international probe to determine who did it.

Yasser Abdelatif, a media official for Ahrar al-Sham, said about 30 rebel gunmen were killed in the blast. He accused the government or extremist rebel groups of orchestrating the attack to discredit the opposition.

The Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo province, also known as the White Helmets, said their volunteers pulled at least 100 bodies from the site of the explosion. White Helmets member Ibrahim Alhaj said the 100 fatalities documented by the rescuers included many children and women, as well as fighters.

Buses gather at Aleppo's Ramousseh crossing, before driving to Rashidin, west of Aleppo, to pick up the civilians stranded following a suicide car bombing on April 15. (AFP Photo)

Syrian state media said at least 39 were killed, including children. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 43, adding that it would likely rise because of the extensive damage. A Facebook page belonging to the pro-government Foua and Kfraya villages said all those in three buses were killed or are still missing while a rebel official said at least 30 opposition fighters who were guarding the evacuees were killed in the blast.

According to Abdul Hakim Baghdadi, an interlocutor who helped the government negotiate the evacuations, 140 were killed in the attack. He added it was not clear how many rebels were killed because they were evacuated to their areas.

Hours after the explosion, the transfer resumed  as dozens of buses, starting with the wounded, left to their respective destinations. Before midnight Saturday, 100 of some 120 buses from both sides had already arrived.

Syrians, evacuated from two besieged government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya, flee into a field near the site of a suicide car bombing that targeted their buses in Rashidin, west of Aleppo, on April 15. (AFP Photo)

The explosion hit the al-Rashideen area, a rebel-controlled district outside Aleppo city where evacuation buses carrying nearly 5,000 people from the northern rebel-besieged villages of Foua and Kfraya were stuck. Residents from the two villages had been evacuated Friday, along with more than 2,000 from Madaya, an opposition-held town outside of Damascus besieged by government forces.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack Saturday in a statement from his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, and called on all parties to ensure the safety and security of those waiting to be evacuated.

Those responsible for todays attack must be brought to justice, the statement added.

The coordinated evacuations delivered war-weary fighters and residents from two years of siege and hunger, but moved Syria closer to a division of its national population by loyalty and sect.

Syrians, evacuated from two besieged government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya, flee into a field near the site of a suicide car bombing that targeted their buses in Rashidin, west of Aleppo, on April 15. (AFP Photo)

Madaya and Zabadani, once summer resorts to Damascus, have been shattered under the cruelty of a government siege. The two towns rebelled against Damascus authority in 2011 when demonstrations swept through the country demanding the end of President Bashar Assads rule.

Residents were reduced to hunting rodents and eating tree leaves. Photos of children gaunt with hunger shocked the world and gave new urgency to U.N. relief operations in Syria.

Foua and Kfraya, besieged by the rebels, lived under a steady hail of rockets and mortars. They were supplied with food and medical supplies through military airdrops.

Critics say the string of evacuations, which could see some 30,000 people moved across battle lines over the next 60 days, amounts to forced displacement along political and sectarian lines.

Syrians who arrived a day earlier from government-held vilages of Fuaa and Kafraya wait in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo city, following delays in evacuating them as the hard-won deal ran into trouble on April 15, 2017. (AFP Photo)

The explosion came as frustration was already mounting over the stalling evacuation process.

The situation is disastrous, said Ahmed Afandar, a resident evacuated from the opposition area near Madaya. All these thousands of people are stuck in less than half a kilometer (500 yards). He said the area was walled off from all sides and there were no restrooms.

Afandar said people were not allowed to leave the buses for a while before they were let out. Food was distributed after several hours and by early afternoon the evacuees from rebel-held areas were pressured to sit back on their buses, Afandar said.

The evacuees from Madaya headed to rebel-held Idlib, west of Aleppo. After the blast, evacuees from opposition areas pleaded for protection fearing revenge attacks.

Syrian state TV blamed the rebels for obstructing the deal.

An opposition representative, Ali Diab, accused the government side of violating the terms of the agreement, by evacuating fewer armed men than agreed to from the pro-government areas.

Shia-dominated Iran has repeatedly raised concerns for the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya, who are mainly Shias and were besieged by Sunni rebels.

Syrias war has left more than 320,000 people dead since erupting in 2011, with more than half the population forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands trapped under siege.
US National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster arrived in Kabul on Sunday days after the American military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on Islamic State group hideouts in eastern Afghanistan, killing nearly a hundred militants.

On his first visit to the country as President Donald Trumps envoy, McMaster said on Twitter he was set to hold very important talks on mutual cooperation with President Ashraf Ghani and other top officials.

In Kabul for very important talks on mutual cooperation.  Lt. Gen.HR McMaster (@SecAdviserUSA) April 15, 2017

A statement from Ghanis office later said McMaster discussed security issues and counter-terrorism efforts as well as reforms aimed at tackling corruption.

As a result of joint Afghan and international forces efforts, no safe havens will be left for terrorists in Afghanistan, McMaster was quoted as saying in a readout that gave few clues to the Trump administrations future course of action in the country.

US-led NATO troops have been at war in Afghanistan since 2001, after the ousting of the Taliban regime for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

The US has around 8,400 troops in the country with about another 5,000 from NATO allies, as efforts to negotiate a lasting peace settlement between Kabul and the Taliban have repeatedly fallen through.

On Thursday the US military in Afghanistan dropped its GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, dubbed the Mother of All Bombs in combat for the first time. The target was IS hideouts in the Achin district of Nangarhar province.

Afghanistans defence ministry on Sunday put the death toll at 95 militants and no civilians.

The attack triggered global shockwaves, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and against a militant group that is not considered as big a threat as the resurgent Taliban.

It came a week after US President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack, and as China warned of the potential for conflict amid rising US tensions with North Korea.
US President Donald Trump is already in the hunt for a second term having raised more money for his re-election than any White House incumbent before him at this stage of their respective terms, with not even 100 days in office.

His campaigns took in $7.1 million in the first three months of 2017, with $23 million raised with the Republican party, according to regulatory filings.

President Barack Obama had totaled $15 million over the same period in 2009.

But there is a problem. A professor who has correctly called eight presidential elections  Allan Lichtman of American University in Washington DC  is forecasting Trump may not even last his first term, and may be impeached.

And the president tends to believe the professor, and had thanked him in a personal note for getting his election chances right even when the rest of the pundits, and the country, were either leery of his prospects or downright dismissive.

Professor  Congrats  good call, Lichtman writes in an upcoming book cited by POLITICO. What Trump overlooked, however, was my next big prediction: that, after winning the presidency, he would be impeached.

But with most of the first term ahead of him, Trump might not care much about the professor, specially not now when he is out-raising Obamas collections for the same period in the afterglow of his epic victory in 2009 when his popularity was soaring.
Turks began voting in a hotly contested referendum on Sunday that could place sweeping new powers in the hands of President Tayyip Erdogan and herald the most radical change to the countrys political system in its modern history.

Opinion polls have given a narrow lead for a Yes vote, which would replace Turkeys parliamentary democracy with an all-powerful presidency and may see Erdogan in office until at least 2029.

The outcome will also shape Turkeys strained relations with the European Union. The NATO member state has curbed the flow of migrants - mainly refugees from wars in Syria and Iraq - into the bloc but Erdogan says he may review the deal after the vote.

Some 55 million people are eligible to vote at 167,140 polling stations across the nation, which open at 7.00 am (0400 GMT) in the east of the country and close at 5 pm (1400 GMT). Turkish voters abroad have already cast their ballots.

The referendum has bitterly divided the nation. Erdogan and his supporters say the changes are needed to amend the current constitution, written by generals following a 1980 military coup, confront the security and political challenges Turkey faces, and avoid the fragile coalition governments of the past.

Opponents say it is a step towards greater authoritarianism in a country where around 40,000 people have been arrested and 120,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs in a crackdown following a failed coup last July, drawing criticism from Turkeys Western allies and rights groups.

Relations between Turkey and Europe hit a low during the referendum campaign when EU countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, barred Turkish ministers from holding rallies in support of the changes. Erdogan called the moves Nazi acts and said Turkey could reconsider ties with the European Union after many years of seeking EU membership.

Flag-waving supporters

On the eve of the vote, Erdogan held four separate rallies in Istanbul, urging supporters to turn out in large numbers.

April 16 will be a turning point for Turkeys political history... Every vote you cast tomorrow will be a cornerstone of our revival, he told a crowd of flag-waving supporters.

There are only hours left now. Call all your friends, family members, acquaintances, and head to the polls, he said.

Erdogan and the ruling AK Party, led by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, have enjoyed a disproportionate share of media coverage in the buildup to the vote, overshadowing the secular main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) and pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP).

Erdogan has sought to ridicule CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, playing videos of his gaffes during rallies, and has associated the No vote with support for terrorism.

Kilicdaroglu has accused Erdogan of seeking a one-man regime, and said the proposed changes would put the country in danger. This is not about right or left... this is a national issue... We will make our choices with our children and future in mind, he said during his final rally in the capital Ankara.

Proponents of the reform argue that it would end the current two-headed system in which both the president and parliament are directly elected, a situation they argue could lead to deadlock. Until 2014, presidents were chosen by parliament.

The government says Turkey, faced with conflict to the south in Syria and Iraq, and a security threat from Islamic State and Kurdish PKK militants, needs strong and clear leadership to combat terrorism.

The package of 18 amendments would abolish the office of prime minister and give the president the authority to draft the budget, declare a state of emergency and issue decrees overseeing ministries without parliamentary approval.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in Sundays referendum that will grant sweeping powers to the presidency, hailing the result as a historic decision.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Erdogan said unofficial results showed the yes side had won by a margin of 1.3 million votes.

The president struck a conciliatory tone, thanking all voters regardless of how they cast their ballots and describing the referendum as a historic decision.

April 16 is the victory of all who said yes or no, of the whole 80 million, of the whole of Turkey of 780,000-square kilometers, Erdogan said.

Returns carried by the state-run Anadolu news agency showed that with nearly 99 percent of the vote counted, the yes vote had about 51.3 percent compared to 48.7 percent for the no vote.

Read | Turkey referendum: Opposition slams poll board over last minute changes, demands recount

Opponents argued the plan concentrate too much power in the hands of a man they allege has shown increasingly autocratic tendencies.

The outcome is expected to have a huge effect on Turkeys long-term political future and its international relations. Although the result, if officially confirmed, would fall short of the sweeping victory Erdogan had sought, but nevertheless cements his hold on the countrys governance.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, whose position will be eliminated under the presidential system of government called for in the referendum, also welcomed the results and extended a hand to the opposition.

We are all equal citizens of the Republic of Turkey, he said. Both the ones who said no and the ones who said yes are one and are equally valuable.

There are no losers of this referendum. Turkey won, the beloved people won, Yildirim said, adding that a new page has opened in our democratic history with this vote. Be sure that we will use this result for our peoples welfare and peace in the best way.

Erdogan supporters gathered outside the AK Party headquarters in Istanbul to celebrate, sending fireworks into the night sky.

But the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, or CHP, cast doubt on the results. CHP vice chairman Erdal Aksunger said they would challenge 37 percent of the ballot boxes.

Our data indicates a manipulation in the range of 3 to 4 percent, the party said on its Twitter account.

The countrys pro-Kurdish opposition party, which also opposed the constitutional changes, said it plans to object to two-thirds of the ballots.

An unprecedented decision by Turkeys Supreme Election board to accept as valid ballot papers that dont have the official stamp also drew the ire of the CHP, with the partys deputy chairman, Bulent Tezcan, saying the decision had left the referendum with a serious legitimacy problem.

The board made the announcement after many voters complained about being given ballot papers without the official stamp, saying ballots would be considered invalid only if proven to have been fraudulently cast.

Sundays vote approved 18 constitutional changes that will replace Turkeys parliamentary system of government with a presidential one, abolishing the office of the prime minister and granting sweeping executive powers to the president. The changes will come into effect with the next general election, scheduled for 2019.

The reforms allow the president to appoint ministers, senior government officials and half the members of Turkeys highest judicial body, as well as to issue decrees and declare states of emergency. They set a limit of two five-year terms for presidents and also allow the president to remain at the helm of a political party.

Erdogan and his supporters had argued the Turkish-style presidential system would bring stability and prosperity in a country rattled by a failed coup last year that left more than 200 people dead, and a series of devastating attacks by the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants.

But opponents fear the changes will lead to autocratic one-man rule, ensuring that the 63-year-old Erdogan, who has been accused of repressing rights and freedoms, could govern until 2029 with few checks and balances.

The ballots themselves did not include the referendum question  it was assumed to be understood. Voters used an official stamp to select between yes and no.

At one Istanbul polling station, eager voters lined up outside before it opened at 8 a.m.

I dont want to get on a bus with no brake system. A one-man system is like that, said Istanbul resident Husnu Yahsi, 61, who said he was voting no.

In another Istanbul neighborhood, a yes voter expressed full support for Erdogan.

Yes, yes, yes! Our leader is the gift of God to us, said Mualla Sengul. We will always support him. Hes governing so well.

Erdogan first came to power in 2003 as prime minister and served in that role until becoming Turkeys first directly elected president in 2014.

The referendum campaign was divisive and heavily one-sided, with the yes side dominating the airwaves and billboards across the country. Supporters of the no vote have complained of intimidation, including beatings, detentions and threats.

The vote comes as Turkey has been buffeted by problems. Erdogan survived a coup attempt last July, which he has blamed on his former ally and current nemesis Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric living in the United States. Gulen has denied knowledge of the coup attempt.

Still, a widespread government crackdown has targeted followers of Gulen and other government opponents, branding them terrorists and a state of emergency has been imposed.

Roughly 100,000 people  including judges, teachers, academics, doctors, journalists, military officials and police  have lost their jobs in the government crackdown, and more than 40,000 have been arrested. Hundreds of media outlets and non-governmental organizations have been shut down.

Turkey has also suffered renewed violence between Kurdish militants and security forces in the countrys volatile southeast, as well as a string of bombings, some attributed to the Islamic State group, which is active across the border in Syria.

The war in Syria has led to some 3 million refugees crossing the border into Turkey. Turkey has sent troops into Syria to help opposition Syrian forces clear a border area from the threat posed by Islamic State militants.

Meanwhile, Turkeys relations with Europe have been increasingly tense, particularly after Erdogan branded Germany and the Netherlands as Nazis for not allowing Turkish ministers to campaign for the yes vote among expatriate Turks.
US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea on Sunday to begin a 10-day trip to Asia that comes amid turmoil on the Korean Peninsula over North Koreas threats to advance its nuclear and defense capabilities, and just after a failed missile launch by the North.

Pence arrived in the region a day after North Korea celebrated the birth anniversary of the countrys late founder with a military parade showing off missiles and military hardware.

A North Korean missile exploded during launch Sunday, US and South Korean officials said, a high-profile failure that comes as a powerful US aircraft supercarrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

Pence, joined by his wife, Karen, placed a wreath at Seoul National Cemetery during a brief ceremony. He was expected to join US and South Korean troops for Easter Sunday church services and a dinner later in the day.

President Donald Trump has suggested that the US will take a tougher stance against North Korea, telling reporters last week: North Korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of. He has repeatedly said if China, North Koreas dominant trading partner, is unwilling to do more to pressure the North, the US might take the matter into its own hands.

Along with the deployment of the Naval aircraft carrier and other vessels into waters off the Korean Peninsula, thousands of US and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponry were also deployed last month in their biggest-ever joint military exercises. That led North Korea to issue routine threats of attacks on its rivals if they show signs of aggression.

Despite North Koreas provocations, US officials have said that the US doesnt intend to use military force against North Korea in response to either a nuclear test or a missile launch.

After a two-month policy review, officials settled on a policy dubbed maximum pressure and engagement, US officials said Friday. The administrations immediate emphasis, the officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.

The officials werent authorized to speak publicly on the results of the policy review and requested anonymity.

Pence will be tasked with explaining the policy in meetings with leaders in South Korea and Japan at the start of his trip, which will also include stops in Indonesia and Australia. He will also aim to reassure allies in South Korea and Japan that the US will take appropriate steps to defend them against North Korean aggression.

Pences first trip to South Korea will carry personal meaning as well. His late father, Edward, served in the US Army during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star on April 15, 1953  64 years to the day of the vice presidents departure for South Korea. Pence displays in his office his fathers Bronze Star and a photograph of his father receiving the honour.
Pepsi hasnt had it this bad since it burned Michael Jackson. But when the company hurriedly pulled a poor-taste advert it turned out to be only the start of a nightmare few days for public relations that ended at the White House.

In the fallout, marketing and crisis communications experts have thronged the public gallery to offer stern critiques of the unwise Pepsi Kendall Jenner protester video, the United Airlines responses to a passenger being dragged from his seat and White House press secretary Sean Spicer ignoring six million Jews killed when he said even the Nazis had not used chemical weapons, when talking about Syria.

The astonishing gaffes were followed, especially from United and Spicer , by botched responses, from stumbling justification to awkward apologies.

What a week of perfectly avoidable gaffes, Courtney Lukitsch, who runs Gotham PR in New York, told the Guardian. They all broke the rules of PR for beginners: always be 10 steps ahead, dont say anything you dont want broadcast, make sure you have the emotional intelligence to understand how your audience feels and, when in crisis, take responsibility.

Memes and jokes blossomed on social media and late night chat shows and Saturday Night Live , which had already scored a hit with Melissa McCarthy lampooning Spicer.

Pepsi admitted it had missed the mark after outrage erupted online over images in which celebrity Kendall Jenner depicted a model-turned-protester who miraculously calms tensions at a racially-diverse peace demonstration by handing a police officer a can of Pepsi. The ad went viral for all the wrong reasons, pilloried as tone deaf and scorching the Pepsi brand on a scale reminiscent of the 1984 debacle when Jacksons hair burst into flames during filming of another of its commercials.

Ed Zitron, owner of EZPR and author of This is How You Pitch: How to Kick Ass in Your First years of PR, said Pepsi handled the aftermath of the mistake better than the other two parties, because it quickly pulled the ad and took responsibility. But its astonishing that the ad was made at all. How many layers of authority did this idea go through? he asked.

Ted Birkhahn, president of Peppercomm, a PR and crisis communications firm with offices in New York, London and San Francisco, said wryly that recovering from the episode redefines the Pepsi challenge for the company  a reference to a successful Pepsi campaign of the past. They misunderstood the young audience they are trying to target, he said.

Lukitsch blamed the glaring error on the company trying to jump on the band wagon of contemporary protest movements such as Black Lives Matter and resistance to President Donald Trump -- and misjudging badly.

She blamed the company for failing to understand fully whats going on in the real world outside office hours and choosing celebrity Jenner to play the protagonist who hands the policeman a soda. Shes not someone whos out there being an activist, shes in this rarified, Kardashian world, so there was no authenticity there, she said.

Birkhahn said many companies still dont respond nimbly to events going viral via social media. They need to monitor all channels 24/7 and be able to respond effectively within an hour or two, he said.

While Pepsi was still reeling, United Airlines knocked it from the headlines when it emerged that a paying passenger had been dragged bloodied and screaming off a flight, in an overbooking fiasco caught on video that quickly consumed social media.

Zitron called the treatment of Dr David Dao, who was picked to be bumped from a flight leaving Chicago and then violently hauled off the plane when he refused to leave, obscene and the companys response robotic, inhuman.

Dao suffered concussion and lost two teeth in the assault, his lawyer said on Friday.

Just two weeks earlier, United had faced another PR test when two 10-year-old girls were barred from wearing leggings on a flight. That time after Twitter lit up with protests and even celebrities weighed in, United tweeted back defiant, technical language about its procedures.

When Dao was roughed up, United initially blamed him for being belligerent. It was law enforcement officers who dragged Dao off, not United employees  but the damage to the airline was done, said Zitron. If you came to this story blank you would think that United gate agents had beaten this man senseless.

I dont even care if the guy was belligerent, what the public saw was him dripping blood, trapped in an enclosed space mumbling that he wanted to go home. Flying has become increasingly unpleasant and this is more than a PR crisis, this amounts to anti-branding, he said.

Zitron said airline bosses should have immediately expressed genuine concern for the man and promised to investigate. Instead, United chief executive Oscar Munoz first blamed Dao then made several grudging statements before, as the share price fell, fully saying sorry.

Sean Spicer raises eyebrows with Hitler/Assad comparison: Hitler "didn't even sink to using chemical weapons." https://t.co/GpeWraGX2T pic.twitter.com/rzBNr9KWJ6  ABC News (@ABC) April 12, 2017

You really only get one shot at apologising. If you get it badly wrong, everything after that doesnt matter, said Mo Hedaya, a spokesman at brand management company Bluestar Alliance.

Just days earlier, Munoz had been named US communicator of the year by PRWeek, a title previously held by Malala and Edie Windsor .

Within hours of the United Airlines PR disaster electrifying the news cycle, the presidents press secretary, Sean Spicer, arguably trumped both this and Pepsi by, during Passover, somehow forgetting the Holocaust and the horrors of Zyklon B, and declaring that Hitler never stooped to chemical weapons.

After Spicer stood at his podium addressing the White House press corps and claimed that Syrias Bashar al-Assad is worse than Hitler because at least the Nazi leader never gassed his own people, Lukitsch said this was by far his worst performance in a young tenure already marked by aggression and missteps .

Lukitsch said: People who know Sean say its as if hes had a personality transplant since he began working for President Trump. I think hes been instructed to be pugilistic and also that, with intense pressure and lack of sleep, people are working too fast and its getting sloppy.

Before this job he was a measured, low-key guy, always smiling and laughing.

But now, with the public tuning into his live briefings as a form of daytime TV spectacle and then Spicer last week appearing on news shows to apologize for ignoring six million murdered Jews, he has become the story.

Lukitsch said that in general that makes their role impossible for a PR.

But I think hell survive because no-one else wants the job.

For Zitron, sometimes the PR solution is to very simple. He said Spicer should have quickly issued an unconditional apology and then just shut up.
Mixing religion and politics has had a long history in India and elsewhere, but in the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Theresa Mays message on Easter has raised hackles after some saw it as hinting that God would have voted to leave the European Union.

May mentioned the ongoing process of leaving the EU in last weeks message on Vaisakhi too, but the widely publicised Easter message has not gone down too well. Leaders of other parties have also delivered their Eastern messages, but without mentioning Brexit.

Daughter of a vicar, May said her video message: This year, after a period of intense debate over the right future for our country, there is a sense that people are coming together and uniting behind the opportunities that lie ahead. For at heart, this country is one great union of people and nations with a proud history and a bright future.

And as we face the opportunities ahead  the opportunities that stem from our decision to leave the EU, and embrace the world  our shared interests, our shared ambitions and, above all, our shared values can and must bring us together, May, who often highlights her Christian faith inside and outside parliament, added.

Alistair Campbell, better known as a spin doctor and ally of former prime minister Tony Blair, responded to Mays message: I think even vicars daughters should be a little wary of allying their politics to their faith. She does not exactly say if God had a vote he would have voted Leave, but she gets closer to it than she should.

If she really thinks she is leading a united country full of hope ... I suggest she gets out more...I dont think I have ever known Britain more divided. As for her talk of compassion, community, citizenship and obligations to one another, she has taken an axe to those with regard to Britains relations to the rest of the world, and plenty of her domestic agenda points in the opposite direction, he added.

In her Vaisakhi message hailing Sikhism, May said: Your values - of equality and respect, of fairness and helping those less fortunate than yourselves  are values we need more than ever, as we forge a new, ambitious, role for Britain in the world.

I am determined to build a country that works for everyone; a country where no matter who you are, you can achieve your goals - and the Sikh community is a vital part of that mission.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in his message: We hear painful stories every day, of homelessness, poverty or crisis in our health service  or across the world, of the devastating consequences of war and conflict  It would be easy to retreat into our private lives because the challenges seem overwhelming, or allow ourselves to be divided and blame others.

But we need to respond to these problems head on, through action and support for social justice, peace and reconciliation. Those principles are at the heart of Christianity, he added.

Liberal Democrats leader Tim Farron said: I dont want the Christian message to be stolen by the nostalgic nationalists, just as no Liberal should seek to appropriate Jesus for their own purposes either. But the Easter message is one of internationalism, if you like  Jesus died for you no matter who you are or where you are from.

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Jim Collura, a longtime partner in Houston law firm Coats Rose, wasn't looking for another job. But after working on a case with lawyers from Bradley, the Alabama law firm asked him to help open its office in Houston, offering him more money, greater opportunities to move into top management and a work culture that felt right.

Collura persuaded another partner, Ian Faria, to join him, and within 48 hours, six more Coats Rose lawyers, three secretaries and two paralegals tendered their resignation and took jobs with Bradley. When the Houston office opened in October, it was the ninth in the United States for the Birmingham-based firm, which has about 550 lawyers nationwide.

"We were very happy where we were," said Collura. "But we're happier now."

Local lawyers are doing a lot of job hopping these days, as out-of-state firms like Bradley flock to establish footholds in the nation's fourth largest city and recognize that Houston, with its global energy hub, 25 Fortune 500 companies and the world's largest medical center, is a place they need to be if they want to grow in the increasingly competitive market for legal services. Law firms today are facing the same challenge as cellphone providers: the market is saturated and the only way to grow is to take business from competitors.

As a result, Houston and its lucrative market - mergers and acquisitions handled by local lawyers last year topped $100 billion - have become a particular target for national and international firms. About two dozen firms from around the globe have opened Houston offices in the past five years, according to data collected by the legal industry recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa. Newcomers include Polsinelli of Kansas City, Holland & Knight, which got its start in Florida, and Eversheds of London, which gained a Houston office when it merged with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan.

Booming economy

The out-of-state firms are siphoning work - from mergers and acquisitions to bankruptcy restructuring - largely by recruiting partners, like Collura, who have strong books of business and loyal clients who will follow them, industry analysts said. Texas-based firms reported that billable hours fell 7 percent last year, according to Citi Private Bank, a unit of the New York financial services company Citigroup.

"When one firm grows, it's at the expense of another," said Gretta Rusanow, head of advisory services for Citi Private Bank's law firm group. "They're taking talent from some of those (Texas) firms and building out their offices."

The parade of out-of-state law firms to Houston began in earnest about a decade ago as the Texas economy established itself as one of the nation's fastest growing, expanding about twice the rate of the national economy over that period. George Hittner, a managing director at Major, Lindsey & Africa, noted the companies almost daily announce that they are relocating or expanding in Texas and all those need lawyers.

"The Texas economy is just booming," he said.

One of the most recent arrivals is Gibson Dunn, a 1,300-lawyer firm that started in Los Angeles and announced in February it was opening an office here to expand its energy practice. Last month, Gibson Dunn poached two top lawyers from local firms, Michael P. Darden, the former global head of Latham & Watkins' oil and gas transactions practice and Justin T. Stolte of Apache Corp. Five more partners are expected to join soon but haven't yet finished winding down their practices at other firms.

Rob Walters, managing partner for the Dallas office of Gibson Dunn, said the firm had its eye on Houston for years. But it was willing to wait until it could attract a "truly elite group" with expertise in energy-related capital markets, mergers and acquisitions and master limited partnerships - and long lists of good-paying clients.

"Over the last six months, the stars lined up," he said.

Another is Orrick, a global firm that started in San Francisco. Orrick last year entered the Houston market with a bang, hiring away 20 partners from local firms to expand its energy, technology and finance practices.

"If you are focused on energy, technology or finance," said Mitch Zuklie, chairman of Orrick, " I don't see how you can't be in Houston."

'A game of thrones'

While the competition for talent has meant healthy paydays for partner-level attorneys, it hasn't translated into more jobs for law school graduates.

The top students at the top schools continue to be recruited heavily, but overall hiring remains flat. At the University of Texas School of Law, for example, about 80 percent of the class of 2016 landed full-time jobs that require passage of the bar exam, slightly better than the placement rate a year earlier.

"Top firms, such as the ones expanding into Houston, have particular, if unspoken, hiring criteria about how deep into a graduating class of any law school they will go," said Christopher Roberts, spokesman for the University of Texas School of Law.

Many Texas-based firms are holding their own against the onslaught from out of state. Vinson & Elkins, a Houston firm that traces its local roots back a century ago was the No. 1 deal-maker in Texas last year with 109 merger and acquisition deals valued at $91.8 billion, according to The Texas Lawbook. Vinson & Elkins is also doing its own poaching, hiring 18 partners away from eight firms last year, including Akin Gump and Bracewell. Part of Vinson & Elkins pitch: Profits per partner exceeded $2 million last year.

"It's soothing to someone looking to move," said the firm's chairman Mark Kelly.

Brad Chambers, managing shareholder of the Houston office of Baker Donelson, a firm that got its start in Tennessee, said he gets a call or email at least once a week from an out-of-state firm interested in opening an office in Houston and having him come aboard. Chambers, who said he plans to stay put, said he takes the calls for competitive insight into which firms may enter the Houston market.

As the influx of national and international firms to Houston spurs lawyers to jump from firm to firm, legal specialists have compared the constant movement to a game of musical chairs. Chambers suggested another analogy from a television series about competing clans battling to rule a kingdom: "A game of thrones."
Jose Guerra is ready to start his afternoon shift at a fancy wine bar downtown, shirt pressed, hair carefully combed, a shiny name tag on his standard-issue vest. There's just one problem: His 1997 Mercury Grand Marquis broke down, and there's no public transportation from the friend's house where he's staying, a fair shot east of Beltway 8.

"I'm very responsible, not the type to call and say I have car trouble," said Guerra, who has been getting rides from sympathetic busboys when he needs to go home late at night.

Still, it's a precarious situation, since living closer to his job and buying a better car are financial impossibilities right now. Rents in and around downtown, which average $1,750 for a one-bedroom, would seriously stretch his income of about $3,500 a month. And, Guerra says, he has it relatively easy: Housekeepers make less than half his earnings and those who find something close put up with crowded and unsafe conditions in boardinghouses. "They're constantly worried about how to pay their rent," Guerra says.

While Houston has worked to revitalize downtown by encouraging the development of luxury housing and other amenities to attract higher-income residents to the center city, it has largely overlooked the people who serve them meals, pour their drinks and clean their parks. With little affordable housing nearby, that is forcing service workers like Guerra to live farther and farther away.

That, in turn, is making it harder for restaurants, bars, hotels, retailers and other service businesses to grow just as downtown is beginning to thrive again. Increasingly, they say, bad weather or car trouble can leave employees with no viable route to work.

"It's getting tougher for candidates to live in the downtown area on lower salaries," says Amber Watts, the Houston Branch manager for the staffing firm Robert Half. "I've spoken with several candidates that can't afford a car and housing in the area."

That separation between service jobs and affordable housing has become a crisis in high-rent places like San Francisco, where workers sometimes commute as far as the Central Valley more than 100 miles away. That means parents spend less time with kids, young adults have less time for education, and roads become more congested.

Houston's not there yet. But if current trends continue, it's the kind of problem that could sneak up on the city, leaving downtown establishments without the workforce they need to stay open.

And it's one Guerra, who lived in Montrose and other inner Loop neighborhoods in the 1980s and 1990s, was surprised to encounter upon moving back to Houston last year after two decades in New York  which at least has an extensive transit system that lets people skip the expense of a car altogether.

"Living in downtown, or anywhere in Houston, is like living in New York," Guerra says. "Everybody's being priced out."

Revitalization, its discontents

Affordable housing is a citywide problem. About 435,000 Harris County residents make less than 80 percent of the area median income and spend more than 30 percent of it on housing, according to the Kinder Institute, a think tank at Rice University. But it's becoming a particular challenge for the new service workers needed for the burgeoning number of hotels and restaurants around downtown.

The shale boom brought both an influx of new transplants and a spurt of development inside Loop 610, demolishing older, but affordable dwellings and replacing them with blocky townhouses that sell for a pretty penny. The trend is starting to erode Texas' long-standing advantage of lower housing costs, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

The union that represents workers at the biggest workplaces downtown, including the George R. Brown Convention Center and the Marriott Marquis Houston, where Guerra works, also has noticed a change. Willy Gonzalez, chapter president of UNITE HERE Local 23, says many of his members have been migrating south, past Gulfgate Mall, even past Hobby Airport, in search of housing they can afford.

"That affects the turnover in the jobs," Gonzalez says. "Because of the distance, it's harder to get to work. The farther away people live, the more likely they'll end up quitting."

That trend is starting to worry Houston First, the city's tourism promotion arm, which operates the convention center, the Hilton Americas-Houston, and most of the city's downtown arts facilities. Peter McStravick, Houston First's chief development officer, says his managers started to notice it becoming harder for employees to get to work.

Hoping to ameliorate the problem, he recently convened a group of developers and housing advocates to think through potential solutions, from subsidizing developments to offer below-market rents to building better bus lines - which he views as good for businesses, as well as for workers.

"If we have happy employees that can get to work easily, and they know their children are going to good schools, and they can pick them up right afterwards," said McStravick, "then you're creating a quality of life for your employees that we believe will help them love the job they have, and really provide the service that others strive to have."

McStravick hopes to present recommendations to City Hall by the end of the year.

A tricky fix

So, what might those solutions involve?

The most obvious is building more affordable housing downtown. To Guerra, it only makes sense for employers to keep workers close by, so they can enrich the neighborhood. He loves restaurants - there aren't many out where he lives - and would eat downtown more often if he lived closer.

"We're all working hard to make our money, but we all spend our money somewhere else," Guerra says. "Keep us here, we'll spend our money here."

Instead, the city has done the opposite in recent years, subsidizing market-rate apartment buildings for high-income professionals. Bob Eury, director of the Downtown Management District, argues the incentives were necessary in 2012 to attract residential development.

Any subsidies for affordable housing, he said, would get the most bang for their buck in neighborhoods next to downtown, such as the Northside and Third Ward, where land is cheaper and being rapidly snapped up by developers.

"Really, I think it's the only way," says Eury. "If you were doing any kind of incentive, you'd really be climbing uphill."

Still, the city has limited funding for subsidies, about $40 million in the coming year, according to the city's Housing and Community Development Department. Most of that is from the federal government  an amount that would decline if the housing cuts outlined in President Donald Trump's federal budget become reality. In addition, Trump's proposed corporate tax cuts would reduce tax credits that help finance low-income housing construction.

Making things more difficult, the state's system for allocating tax credit financing prioritizes projects near schools that score well on state tests. That's intended to make sure that poor children have access to good education, but it has constrained housing opportunities where their parents work since places like downtown don't usually have top-scoring schools.

"It all sounds great, putting people in better schools, but there's only 600 to 800 units a year that qualify in this region," says Barry Kahn, a Houston developer who specializes in affordable projects and is working to get that rule relaxed.

Integrating priorities

Another part of the equation is transportation. It would be easier to live farther afield if people had better access to buses and trains. Guerra, who lived without a car for 18 years in New York, says he'd love to have the option. "If there were trains, I would definitely take them," he says.

Houston First and other advocates emphasize an approach that integrates schools, transportation, and housing. Austin has undertaken something like that with its strategic housing plan, which aims to create 35,000 affordable units over 10 years, prioritizing proximity to good jobs and good schools.

In a similar spirit, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner plans to unveil an initiative to improve the quality of life of five low-income neighborhoods by bolstering transportation, schools, grocery stores and other amenities.

In the meantime, Guerra is still living in his friend's spare room, looking for a new place to rent. It's tough because he's still trying to get back on his feet after losing his job in New York during the 2008 financial crisis and falling behind on his bills.

"I never did recover from it," Guerra says. "Everything was ruined."

But Guerra is still hopeful for the city in which he lived comfortably for so long. He checked out a new loft building right behind the convention center. It's $1,350 for a one bedroom  out of his price range. Not what he expected in his old stomping grounds.

"What I'm surprised about the most is all the high-rise apartments downtown, which is really great to see," Guerra says, wistfully. "But I just wish I could afford it."
An industry is emerging out of the fight to stop gas leaks in the nation's oil wells, pipelines and storage tanks.

At least 75 companies across the country now work to detect and prevent methane leaks, according to a new study. More than one-third of them in Texas, more than in any other state. Ten have opened here since 2010.

"These are good, well-paying, boots-on-the-ground jobs," said Ben Ratner, director of the business division at the Environmental Defense Fund, which commissioned the study. "This is one of those moments of convergence where doing the right thing for the environment also does something good for job creation."

The oil and gas industry is the largest single industrial source of U.S. methane emissions, according to the study by North Carolina consultants Datu Research. Methane, the principal component of natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas - 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide - and a contributor to global warming.

The administration of President Barack Obama adopted rules last year to regularly inspect new wells, pipelines and refineries using infrared cameras and other technology, hoping to cut down on leaks.

At the same time, oil and gas companies began to see the leaks as a serious financial problem. Such emissions, whether accidental or intended, represent lost product. A 2015 study found that the industry loses $30 billion globally each year from leaked or vented methane at oil and gas facilities. Such leaks also undercut the argument that natural gas is a cleaner fuel. Investors are getting more concerned about both.

Such factors together have led more oil and gas companies to hire firms that find and repair leaks, according to the Datu study. And the sector, as it grows, is providing "well-paying employment opportunities across the country that cannot be offshored," the study said. Employees in the field earn between $39,000 and $113,000 a year.

Chicago Bridge & Iron Co, based in The Woodlands, said it has 190 leak detection and repair employees at 118 sites across the country and expects to expand 10 to 15 percent annually. Dexter ATC Field Services, based in Beaumont, has 150 workers in the sector and expects to add 75 and double revenues over five years.

The study warns, however, that the growth depends some on continuing regulation. The future of federal methane regulation is unclear now, as President Donald Trump looks to roll back Obama's Clean Power Plan. Trump has already tried, unsuccessfully so far, to cut methane rules.

"It is baffling to me that the Trump administration, that is so focused on job creation, would attack regulation like this," said Ratner, the EDF director. "This is a real opportunity for state leaders to step up, put protections on the books, and put more high school graduates to work."
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Jason and Pam Klein were two left-brained people looking for a couple of right-brainers to bring style to their home.

The Kleins, both native Houstonians, had bought a spec house in West U, and they knew they wanted to turn their vanilla traditional home into a more updated and sophisticated place.

Jana Erwin and Audrey Tehauno of Nest Design Group came to help. They started work on the home and then Jason Klein, an executive at Shell, was asked to move to the U.K. for a while. Other assignments have taken the couple to Oman and Brisbane, Australia.

The temporary stay in the U.K. put work on their Houston home on hold until the day Pam Klein called Tehauno to say they were returning.

"When we moved back, the first call was to Audrey," said Klein, who had worked as a flight controller in Mission Control at NASA. "We said, 'We need our son's room done; take care of it. We don't have to worry about anything else right now. He just needs a place to sleep.' "

Erwin and Tehauno got busy. With Klein's approval, they approached her son's room with an airplane theme. Vintage-style clocks showing different time zones around the world accent one wall, and a grid of colorful, framed airplane prints looms over his bed. A wire basket for toys and built-in bookshelves with a window seat keep everything organized.

Then they started on the rest of the house. The Kleins didn't want any remodeling, and they wanted to keep the hard surfaces such as flooring and granite counters.

But Pam Klein thought her 5,200-square-foot home was too plain. So they purchased nearly all new furniture and added new paint or wallpaper throughout; they picked out more artwork and bought all new light fixtures. All of that required a good deal of shopping - ordering custom-made pieces and checking out stores, antiques shops and websites.

"When you paint and change light fixtures, those things are the fastest and easiest, most effective ways to update a space," said Tehauno, who used her fallback Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore in the Kleins' downstairs.

Form and function

At the front of the home sits the formal living room, which the Kleins used to call their "Christmas tree room." It came into play once a year when they put up their holiday tree and opened gifts.

"The house had a good layout, but we didn't like this room. What do you even do with this room?" Pam asked. "But these two turned it into a room you want to sit in."

Everything in that room came out, on the recommendation of Erwin and Tehauno, then the space was reimagined as a mix of old and new.

Bold wallpaper - black and white in abstract strokes - set the tone. Then came a blue-gray mohair sofa, a leather armchair with a white ceramic side table. Against another wall is an antique-style chair.

A two-tone blue wool rug covers much of the hardwood floor; it's topped by a white cowhide rug. Side tables and a mirrored coffee table hold accessories. The real finish to the room, though, is its artwork. A cluster of nine dome-shaped mirrors complement the wallpaper, and an Austin Allen James abstract painting on wood is so sleek that it looks like art glass.

Klein said she and her husband may have needed help with home decor, but they both appreciated the work when it was finished.

When Erwin and Tejauno fed ideas to the Kleins, they often got definitive answers. But sometimes a "no" was turned into a "yes" as the designers pushed them out of their comfort zone.

"This wallpaper took some trust," Erwin said.

"We can't go into a warehouse and pick things out, but we can choose from three things," Pam Klein said.

There were times that she stood in a room and wondered how it could ever work. When the living-room rugs were placed on the floor, she didn't get it. As other pieces arrived, the jigsaw puzzle looked better and better.

Erwin and Tehauno smile at the story, reminding each other that clients often think decorating projects will come together as easily as a 30-minute show on HGTV.

Focal point

The dining room may be the most dramatic room in the Kleins' home, with a dark-gray curvy tray ceiling and a dark-blue-gray Phillip Jeffries grasscloth wallcovering above white paneling.

On top of a multicolored Persian rug sits a substantial dining table with blue velvet chairs and larger ivory host chairs at each end. The formal look is finished with a custom-made chandelier from Boxwood Interiors, a combination of hand-picked crystals mixed with labradorite stones.

Cushy tan sofas from Restoration Hardware, along with a tan rug and a wooden coffee table topped with a small deerskin rug, make the family room pure comfort, and its art and accessories are a nod to the Kleins' travels.

Entering the room, you see a dragon-covered cloisonne vase, an Indian rug framed as art and a wooden mask from Tanzania. Closer to home, there's a huge map of Houston as it was in 1891, purchased from Mecox.

The big open space of the family room blends into the kitchen. Just one fix changed the look of the whole room: The cabinets were painted charcoal gray and glazed, a faux finish by Imago Dei. New table and chairs by Hickory Chair finish the breakfast nook.

New window treatments serve two purposes: shades for functionality and draperies for a pretty touch.

Upstairs are the bedrooms and a TV room, in calm grays, seaglass and muted blue.

Though the master bedroom has hardwood floors with a big geometric rug, the guest rooms are carpeted. The master suite - with walls a darker shade of gray than the downstairs - is filled with a four-poster bed, a black leather footboard sofa covered with decorative pillows, a silver bedside table and a black lacquered writing desk.

Pieces by artist Paige Moore lend a soft, interesting touch.

In the end, the Kleins' uber-traditional home got a top-to-bottom reinvention in a combination of new and old, form and function. And they learned a number of things, including how to use a formal room that seems like a thing of the past.

"We use the living room when adult friends are over," Klein said as she smiled and gazed around. "We just sit and talk and have a glass of wine. It's lovely."
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Across Houston, citizens try for, but are denied, access to the decision-making processes of super-secret government boards that will spend more than $1 billion in the next ten years. These groups are neighborhood boards, yet the people they are designed to serve aren't allowed a voice of their choice at the table.

When tax increment reinvestment zones (TIRZes) were first formed, they were supposed to help blighted areas raise money for improvements. As property values rose over time, the incremental gains were put into a special fund slated to be used for important neighborhood improvements. But somehow, the original mission has gotten lost. Now "blighted" areas like the Galleria and Memorial City are sitting on pots of gold.

Developers tend to control the TIRZ boards, whose members are appointed by elected officials such as the mayor and city council. On the seven-member Memorial City TIRZ board, three developers either have appointees directly employed by their company or have approved developer-friendly appointees whose vote in lockstep with the developers' interests. The current tax increment of that single TIRZ is approaching $2.5 billion, and its annual budget is more $72 million  money that's largely spent to enhance or protect developer investments.

While it is ordinary taxpayers' money that is being spent, the ordinary taxpayer has no say in how it should be spent. No one is watching the cat that's hungrily eyeing the canary.

Just last month, the Memorial City TIRZ 17 board voted to contribute thousands of dollars toward the demolition of a developer's parking lot in his own shopping center. This is in a neighborhood cursed with preventable flooding and desperate for storm water detention. Some homeowners have flooded multiple times. Would you vote to spend your hard-earned taxes on a developer's parking garage if your home was being destroyed?

While the city struggles to pay for pensions and has precious little funds for flood prevention, TIRZ boards have plenty of money. It's just not being used for neighborhood priorities.

For more than nine years, we at Residents Against Flooding have appealed to various Houston mayors and city councils for fair representation, yet the situation has continued to deteriorate. We believe flooding has been made worse by the "development on steroids" that a TIRZ district facilitates.

Environmental studies expert and Galveston A&M professor Sam Brody agrees: He says urban flooding is caused by human development. This is made evident by the increasing, and frightening, numbers of homes flooding in areas that have never flooded before and are not in floodplains.

To help fix this mess, Texas state representative Dwayne Bohac has filed House Bill 4046, which would require board members to be democratically elected by the people who live within two miles of their zone. Unfortunately, the bill has been largely under the radar, and is currently held up in the House Urban Affairs Committee.

Houstonians are encouraged to call the chair of that committee, Rep. Carol Alvarado, and ask her support of HB 4046 which would allow homeowners in a TIRZ district to vote for whomever they believe will best represent them on a TIRZ board.

Rep. Alvarado's office can be reached at (512) 463-0732. An aide will take your message.

Cynthia H. Neely is a board member of Residents Against Flooding and a homeowner in Memorial City TIRZ 17.

Bookmark Gray Matters. It's more exciting than access to the decision-making processes of super-secret government boards.


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Ted Cruz is still missing.

The U.S. senator from Texas didn't appear at a town hall meeting Saturday, much to the dismay of several organizations that have for months tried to corner him during his trips to Houston. Hundreds of constituents appeared in the hope of peppering him with questions before he returns to Washington, D.C., but they were forced instead to address a panel of speakers assembled in his absence.

Cruz isn't really missing, of course. His spokesman noted that the senator took questions from 200 employees at a NASA subcontractor in Stafford last week.

But he has for months declined requests from left-leaning groups including Indivisible Houston, Pantsuit Republic Houston and others to attend town hall meetings with local voters concerned about education, health care, immigration and other issues that became particularly contentious when President Donald Trump took office. With Congress in recess until Friday, the groups raised $5,000 to host the event in a Texas Southern University auditorium regardless of whether Cruz showed up.

"We are legitimately concerned about things happening in Texas," said Lauren Summerville, an organizer with Pantsuit Republic. "The people have a lot of questions."

The effort to "find" the senator began in earnest in February with another Cruz-less town hall held in downtown Houston outside his office. There, he met with several of the demonstrators but stopped short of joining the crowd assembled outside.

Since then, the groups have plastered telephone poles and signposts throughout the city with mock "missing" posters bearing the Cruz's face and a slew of sardonic descriptions. "Very anxious and argumentative around non-Republican constituents," one sign read.

The demonstrators are among hundreds throughout the country launching social media-fueled crusades to engage their representatives during their trips home from Washington, D.C. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican, and Rep. Paul Cook, a California Republican, have also found their faces on "missing" posters.

Locally, the same groups chasing Cruz hosted a town hall for House Ways and Means chairman Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, in late February. He did not appear.

Local experts attend

Seeing that Cruz had also declined his invitation Saturday, the crowd unleashed their frustration with calls to "vote him out." Late last month, U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, announced his bid for Cruz's seat, a deeply challenging prospect for a Democratic contender.

Organizers had for weeks bombarded Cruz's office with phone calls and emails and tweeted at his official account. The senator's Twitter photo shows his face framed by the Snapchat ghost, that ethereal figure known for being there one minute, gone the next.

Interpreting his silence as a sign of disinterest, the organizers instead assembled a group of local experts on health care, immigration, education and environmental policy to take questions and discuss Cruz's past statements on certain issues. One by one, the questioners took the microphone, clearly frustrated by what they saw as deep flaws in the system.

"This is a step toward accountability in government," said Phillip Weimer, an organizer with Indivisible Houston.

Lisa Wartenberg, a Houston resident, attended Saturday's event to vent her frustration at the senator's habit of attending fundraisers and other Republican events more often than gatherings held for the general public.

"It's ridiculous that he doesn't seem interested in hearing from all of his constituents," she said.

'Search' will continue

Ken Roberts, a Houston resident, said that if Cruz showed up, he'd ask a number of critical questions about health care reform and the government's view on terrorism. He'd first start with a compliment, though, on Cruz's efforts to reform the way the military handles sexual assault cases.

"I care about America and having a responsible government," Roberts said.

Summerville said the organizers will continue their search for Cruz. They plan to hold another event in June.

"For us, this isn't the end," she said. "It's simply the beginning."
It had the makings of an uneventful traffic stop.

A traffic light violation.

A broken taillight.

But case file No. 141999815 shows how far from routine the police stop was of 56-year-old John Allen Sr., on Nov. 4, 2015. Allen had just left his home with a female companion before he was pulled over by police in the Greater Third Ward.

Police officers said they asked Allen to lower his window, but he refused. Allen then reached for a pistol in his pocket, officers said, and fearing for their safety one of them fired through the window. Allen was killed.

"He wasn't violent," said his son, John Allen Jr. "He was going out that night to have fun with his woman. He wasn't looking for any trouble."

HPD ruled the shooting justified, but it is not documented in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, or UCR, database of justified police shootings.

Cases like Allen's inspired state Rep. Eric Johnson, D-Dallas, to author House Bill 1036 to force Texas law enforcement agencies to report all police shootings into a new state database maintained by the Office of the Attorney General.

The bill became law in 2015, and unlike the FBI database that collects only justified shootings, the state requires agencies to report all cases, fatal and nonfatal.

States, including Texas, still submit justified homicides to the FBI, but there's one important caveat - all submissions are voluntary, a Texas Commission on Law Enforcement spokeswoman said.

In less than two years, the state database of fatal police force illustrates the holes in FBI's records: Texas officers in 2016 killed people at a rate at least double of what has been reported annually in the federal database for more than a decade, a Houston Chronicle analysis shows.

It also shows Texas police officers killed 83 people in 2016. That's 53 more homicides than what's found in FBI data for the same year.

Furthermore, it's double the state's annual average of justified homicides reported from 2010 to 2016, based on data obtained from DPS and FBI.

In Harris County, the records show in 2016 the county led the state in fatal and non-fatal shooting incidents in which police officers fired at 46 suspects.

That's a little more than incidents in Dallas, Bexar and Travis counties combined.

African Americans were involved in 65 percent of those shootings, at least 30 percentage points higher than the state's average.

"For the first time we have more than one year's worth of (reliable) data," said Amanda Woog, a University of Texas researcher and criminology expert. "That's something we've never had before."

'Public trust'

Even the more responsive agencies have cases that still fail to make into the UCR database. HPD (which reports more than most counties) has at least 26 missing cases since 2010, by the Houston Chronicle's count.

Texas Department of Public Safety collects the submissions for the FBI, but even DPS does not know how many people are shot and killed each year beyond the UCR database nor does it attempt to estimate, a DPS spokesman said.

For years, communities have protested and argued they've been unfairly targeted by police officers and undercounted in federal stats. But without a system of accountability state officials have long said they did not have the means or the facts to react.

Federal reports have been challenged many times before. Researchers and other advocacy groups, like the Texas Justice Initiative led by Woog, for years have presented findings that sought to challenge the federal data.

Woog said that if state and local governments want to regain public trust they will have to take additional steps to increase transparency.

"Watchdogs can only do so much, and that work does nothing to engender public trust," Woog said. "If anything, it may further erode it."

Now it's up to state leaders to figure out what to do with their data.

'Under wraps'

Accountability is what John Allen Jr. wants, often criticizing the handling of his father's case on social media. He acknowledges his father had a firearm in the car, but he said he would have never used it on a police officer.

"It seems like they want to keep the real stories under wraps and a secret," he said. "They don't want to show anything that makes them look bad."

He doesn't quite remember why he called his father on that early November day.

He remembered that his dad, Allen Sr., asked him to call later because he was in the middle of another conversation.

"We hung up the phone and after that, I didn't get another chance to call him," Allen said.

Woog and Johnson agree the state law is still weak in many areas, making it impossible to enforce reporting requirements and to gauge how often mental illness impacts officer-involved shootings.

For now, the state's reporting requirements only mandates agencies submit one sheet with the most basic information, such as race, ethnicity, date, gender and if a suspect was armed.

Still, the law added the missing layer of authoritative transparency that had been missing for decades and fueled civil unrest in Houston and across the state, Johnson said.

He said once more data is collected, more meaningful analyses can take place and the state will determine ways to move forward.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced it would strengthen national reporting requirements this year. Experts say it probably won't be enough.

If change is going to happen, it will need to occur at the state level, Woog said.

"States are better situated to collect these data and could have programs with better tracking and teeth than the fed's," Woog said.

When mandates are left up to the federal government, accountability falls through the cracks, she said.

Blood spatter

HONS

Take for instance a shooting from 2012: Case file No. 120646512-Z.

It's another example of a case that failed to make it into UCR despite its vivid details and widespread news coverage.

The last few moments of Brian Claunch's life that September are replayed over and over on about 300 pages of documents of Houston police testimony and interviews.

It ends with Claunch's shirtless, motionless body humped over in a wheelchair while beneath blood splatter thickened into a bright red pool on the wood-tiled floor.

Civil rights lawyer Amin Alehashem, who followed the case for the Texas Civil Rights Project, remembers the shooting well.

"As soon as it happened, it made national headlines," Alehashem said. "I remember it seemed very egregious that the officers lost control of the situation ... given Brian's physical and mental challenges."

Claunch, 45, was a diagnosed schizophrenic and also a double amputee. He lost his limbs after lying on a railroad track - an attempt to rid himself of the "devil residing in his left side," according to records.

'No room to debate'

HPD officers were called to Greater Eastwood to calm Claunch, but before they could, police said Claunch attacked with what they thought was a screwdriver or knife.

One officer pulled his gun, pointed it at Claunch's head and pulled the trigger to protect his partner. Claunch died cupping only a metal-tipped ballpoint pen.

The shooting was deemed justified, but like Allen's case Claunch is missing in the UCR database.

Johnson has been lauded for his House bill, but knows there's more work ahead.

He said his law doesn't have an enforcement measure, but his newest bill, House Bill 245, would be used to fix that, if passed this session.

"It's still too early to say what's going to happen, but creating a pot of money for the departments might be effective," he said.

He said the bill would be used to give grants to agencies that comply. This isn't an anti-police movement, Johnson said.

"I support law enforcement, and this is by no means a way to second guess what's going on," he said. "But we need the data and statistics, which leave no room for debate."
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An interesting thing happened last week while we were all fixated on the saga of a United Airlines passenger who was dragged - bloodied, bare-bellied and limp - from an overbooked flight after he refused to surrender his seat.

You see, a federal judge in Corpus Christi ruled that Texas lawmakers had intentionally discriminated against Hispanic and black voters in hastily passing a "draconian" voter identification law, an effort "unexplainable on grounds other than race."

The more I thought about Dr. David Dao being booted from an aircraft he had every right to board in order to make room for airline personnel, I saw a metaphor.

For a long time in this state, we've found ways to deprive minority voters of their rightful seats in our democracy. And now that their numbers, especially among Hispanics, amount to a ticket to power that threatens the overwhelmingly white, conservative status quo, the old guard in Austin is attempting to remove them by the force of a discriminatory law.

These aren't consumer rights being violated; they're sacred Constitutional rights.

In both stories, somebody is being humiliated, dragged down the center aisle, to make way for somebody else deemed more important.

If you think I'm shamelessly piggy-backing off a viral news story to get your attention, you're right.

Intentionally depriving people of any color of their right to vote, to have a say in the government that represents them, is every bit as ugly - and infinitely more profound.

And it's not just one extreme instance, as it was with Dao. It's a pattern.

Last week's ruling came only a month after a separate federal panel of judges in San Antonio decided that Texas congressional districts were twisted, carved up and stretched beyond recognition in 2011 with racially motivated precision. The judges found the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature's gerrymandering had violated the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.

'Backwoods hayseed bigots'

One judge who dissented, Jerry E. Smith, argued that lawmakers were motivated only by partisanship, not by race. He criticized the Department of Justice attorneys handling the case for appearing to view Texas officials and staff "as a bunch of backwoods hayseed bigots who bemoan the abolition of the poll tax and pine for the days of literacy tests and lynchings."

Clearly, there's some hyperbole there. And I don't know if the uppity federal lawyers really held negative stereotypes.

But how far beyond our racist past can Texas be if we're still electing people who approve racist policies?

Consider this sobering fact cited by the very conservative Fifth Circuit in the voter ID case: as late as 1975, Texas attempted to suppress minority voting through purging the voter rolls, after its former poll tax and re-registration requirements were ruled unconstitutional.

Indeed: in "every redistricting cycle since 1970, Texas has been found to have violated" the Voting Rights Act "with racially gerrymandered districts."

And this: Texas "is the only state with this consistent record of objections to such statewide plans."

In last week's ruling, which reaffirmed a previous decision, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos considered Texas history, but weighed more heavily the specific actions of Texas lawmakers in crafting, with haste and disregard to typical protocol, the strictest voter ID law in the nation: they rejected changes to the bill that would have made it less discriminatory, such as allowing more types of identification and some leniency on expired documents.

And once again, she pointed out that the whole reason given for the law, to stamp out voter fraud, didn't add up. Last summer, she said, the Fifth Circuit panel noted that out of more than 20 million votes cast in Texas over the past decade, there had been only four instances of possible fraud of the type the voter ID law was written to address. The bill didn't even tackle mail-in balloting, which is far more vulnerable to fraud.

Even with no epidemic of voter fraud urgently needing attention, it wouldn't have been hard for lawmakers to pass a less-harsh law that could have squeaked by federal courts.

Instead, they opted for full-blown discrimination. And after six years, Texas finally got called out in a way that's hard for officials, try as they may, to explain away.

These recent findings could earn Texas its old spot back on the list of states that need pre-approval from the Justice Department to change election laws. In 2013, Texas and other mostly southern states essentially got the benefit of the doubt when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled they shouldn't have to go through preclearance anymore.

"Our country has changed," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote at the time. "While any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions."

Well, here you go. Current conditions.

'We will fix this'

Our state leaders now have to answer for what they've done. No appeals or recent legislative tweaks to the law can change the facts.

Our elected leaders are desperately clinging to their seats on that electoral runway by the lowest means: blunt, racist policies.

We can't hope to hear the words from Republican leadership that we eventually heard from United CEO Oscar Munoz: "I'm sorry. We will fix this."

It's in the courts' hands now. And in ours. We should share stories about Texas leaders assaulting voter rights with the same indignation as we do viral videos of other kinds of injustice. Lawmakers will get the message. There's room for every American. None of us should be cheated out of our spot at the voting booth.
One has an office down the hall from the president in the White House; the other just moved into an office a floor up. One recently visited war-torn Iraq as the president's emissary; the other will soon head to Berlin at the invitation of Germany's chancellor.

Both have seats at the table at any meeting they choose to attend, join lunches with foreign leaders and enjoy "walk-in privileges" to the Oval Office. And with the marginalization of Stephen K. Bannon, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have emerged as President Donald Trump's most important advisers, at least for now.

More openly than any president before him, Trump is running his West Wing like a family business, and as he has soured on Bannon, his combative chief strategist, he has turned to his daughter and son-in-law. Their ascendance has some conservative supporters fretting about the rising influence of the urbane young New Yorkers, as some moderates and liberals swallow concerns about nepotism in the hope that the couple will temper the temperamental president.

"If you think of it as a classic business model, Trump likes to invest in winners because they make more money, and Jared has been pretty consistently winning," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an ally of Donald Trump. "You're always on a what's-your-quarterly-report kind of relationship with Trump."

Pet projects

Neither Kushner nor Ivanka Trump has government experience. Kushner, 36, managed the real estate empire he inherited from his family and bought the New York Observer as a side project. Ivanka Trump, 35, ran a fashion brand that appealed to young, urban female consumers likely to align themselves with her father's opponents.

But the quarterly report on Kushner shows he has been in merger-and-acquisition mode. One after another, he has expanded his portfolio into a far-ranging set of issues, including Middle East peace, the opioid epidemic, relations with China and Mexico and reorganizing the federal government from top to bottom. "Everything runs through me," he told corporate executives during the transition.

Lately, he has pushed to overhaul the criminal justice system. But Kushner is running into opposition from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who favors toughening, not relaxing, mandatory minimum sentences.

Some colleagues, including Bannon and Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, regard Kushner's breathtaking list of assignments with comic contempt, according to a dozen Trump associates who insisted on anonymity to discuss Kushner and Ivanka Trump. After Kushner's trip to Iraq, White House aides referred to him as the "secretary of state."

Family reputation

But they are warier of Ivanka Trump, who only recently arrived in the West Wing and until now has been a more sporadic player than her ambitious husband. Initially resistant to a formal role in the administration, Trump took an office and a government position - albeit, like her husband, without accepting a salary - out of concern over the troubles of her father's first couple of months in office.

According to associates, she views her role partly as guardian of the family reputation and has fretted during and since the campaign about the long-term damage to the family business' image that her father's political career could cause.

The White House had no comment Friday.

But the supposed backstage liberal counterrevolution that critics fear has yielded modest results. Last week, the president signed legislation allowing states to deny federal funding to women's health care providers offering abortion services, like Planned Parenthood. Ivanka Trump and Kushner were skiing in Canada, just as they were on the slopes in Aspen during the collapse of the health care effort.

The tempest

At the center of the Trump presidency is a paradox: Even allies acknowledge Trump is impulsive, indifferent to preparation and prone to embracing the last advice offered. He needs a strong hand to guide him, but insists on appearing in firm command. It was Trump, not his children, who pushed Bannon to the margins, motivated less by ideology than by dissatisfaction with recent failures and his perception that his chief strategist was running an off-the-books operation to aggrandize himself at Trump's expense.

Neither Ivanka Trump nor her husband has so far plunged into day-to-day government operations or logged the 18-hour days the indefatigable Bannon routinely works.

The expectation that Ivanka Trump will push her father to the left on social issues has been unhelpful, people close to her said. She shares his economically conservative view and did not enter the White House to be a social issues warrior, they said.

For his part, Kushner has succeeded in part because he has served as the president's eyes and ears. "Jared is constantly reaching outside the Trump inner circle to get feedback," said Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, on whose board he served.

Kushner stays calm when others are frayed by Trump's explosive temper. During the campaign, when the candidate was incensed by the performance of his aides, he reminded his father-in-law that four people could not be fired - himself and the three Trump siblings.
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BIDI BIDI CAMP, Uganda - As President Donald Trump seeks to cut foreign aid under the slogan of "America First," two U.S. senators are proposing making American food assistance more efficient after meeting with victims of South Sudan's famine and civil war.

Following a visit to the world's largest refugee settlement in northern Uganda with the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware told the Associated Press on Saturday that the U.S. "can deliver more food aid at less cost" through foreign food aid reform.

The United States spent roughly $2.8 billon in foreign food aid last year and is the world's largest provider of humanitarian assistance.

But current regulations require most food aid to be grown in the U.S. and shipped under an American flag.

Famine imminent

"It's taken in some cases six months for those products to actually get here," Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee told the AP. "We have people coming over the border (from South Sudan). They need food. We can actually buy the food cheaper, use our taxpayer dollars cheaper."

The two senators on Friday toured a food distribution site at the refugee settlement, which holds more than 270,000 South Sudanese who recently fled the three-year civil war in the East African nation.

The U.N. says South Sudan is part of the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, with roughly 20 million people there and in Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen facing possible famine. Two counties in South Sudan were declared famine areas in February.

The senators watched as South Sudanese divided sacks of corn and cereals during a food distribution. Behind them, snaking lines of refugees waited for their rations of food that last for 40 days.

The Bidi Bidi settlement is a sprawling complex of mud-brick houses that hold some of the world's most desperate people. With little respite from the fierce sun, arguments broke out at the food distribution site.

"We don't have enough food," said Madra Dominic, one of the waiting refugees. "Right now they are reducing (food)." Uganda's government has said it is near "breaking point" and that there could be serious food shortages if more outside aid doesn't arrive.

In March, Trump proposed a budget that would cut 28 percent of funding for diplomacy and foreign aid, singling out the Food for Peace program that funds a majority of U.S. foreign food assistance.

The budget plan still requires approval by Congress.

Both Coons and Corker defended humanitarian aid and argued that lifting restrictions on where foreign food aid is grown and how it is shipped would feed more people.

"Americans have real questions about whether their money is making an impact (abroad)," Coons told the AP.

American opposition

Last year, Coons and Corker co-sponsored a law which allows flexibility in how a portion of foreign food aid is grown and delivered. About $900 million of food aid now can be grown near the site of a crisis overseas and shipped under any flag.

Roughly $1.2 billion of the U.S. food assistance still carries the restrictions of being grown in the United States and shipped under a U.S. flag. The U.S. Agency for International Development has estimated that the Coons-Corker plan to lift those restrictions would reach 2 to 4 million more people with equivalent funding.

On Wednesday, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway of Texas, a Republican, said in a statement that "demands for even more flexibility are premature" when it comes to foreign food aid. Farm-state lawmakers and shipping companies have long opposed the additional flexibility.
WASHINGTON - A decade ago, he was a young Army soldier training Iraqi troops when he noticed their primitive filing system: handwritten notes threaded with different colors of yarn, stacked in piles. For organization's sake, he built them a simple computer database.

Now an Army reservist, the major is taking a break from his civilian high-tech job to help America's technological fight against Islamic State group. He's part of a growing force of experts the Pentagon has assembled to defeat the extremists.

"The ability to participate in some way in a real mission, that is actually something that's rare, that you can't find in private sector," said the 38-year-old Nebraska native who is working at U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Md. "You're part of a larger team putting your skills to use, not just optimizing clicks for a digital ad, but optimizing the ability to counter ISIS or contribute to the security of our nation."

'Analytic focus'

Last year, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter expressed frustration that the United States was losing the cyberwar against the militants. He pushed the Cyber Command to be more aggressive. In response, the Pentagon undertook an effort to incorporate cyber technology into its daily military fight, including new ways to disrupt the enemy's communications, recruiting, fundraising and propaganda.

To speak with someone at the front lines of this campaign, The Associated Press agreed to withhold the major's name. The military says he could be threatened or targeted by the militants if he is identified publicly. The major and other officials wouldn't provide precise details on the highly classified work he is doing.

But Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander of U.S. Army Cyber Command, said the major is bringing new expertise for identifying enemy networks, pinpointing system administrators or developers and potentially monitoring how ISIS' online traffic moves.

He "has the ability to bring an analytic focus of what the threat is doing, coupled with a really deep understanding of how networks run," Nakasone said, describing such contributions as "really helpful for us." He outlined a key question for the military: "How do you impact an adversary that's using cyberspace against us?"

'Tangible Results'

The military is looking for new ways to bring in more civilians with high-tech skills who can help against ISIS and prepare for the new range of technological threats the nation will face. Nakasone said that means getting Guard and Reserve members with technical expertise in digital forensics, math crypto-analysis and writing computer code. The challenge is how to find them.

"I would like to say it's this great database that we have, that we've been able to plug in and say, 'Show me the best tool developers and analysts that you have out there,'" Nakasone said. "We don't have that yet. We are going to have one, though, by June."

The Army Reserve is starting a pilot program cataloging soldiers' talents. Among 190,000 Army reservists, Nakasone said there might be up to 15,000 with some type of cyber-related skills. But there are legal and privacy hurdles, and any database hinges on reservists voluntarily and accurately providing information on their capabilities.

The Army major said others in the civilian high-tech industry are interested in helping.

The major said he has signed up for a second one-year tour in his cyber job. He is looking at options for staying longer.

"I find what I'm doing very satisfying, because I have an opportunity to implement things, to get things done and see them work and see tangible results," he said. "I'm not making as much as I was on the civilian side. But the satisfaction is that strong, and is that valuable, that it's worth it."
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WASHINGTON  The next casualty of the perennial budget wars in Congress could be the first installment on President Donald Trump's border wall.

The initial down payment on the wall, the centerpiece of Trump's 2016 campaign, was supposed to be tucked into a stopgap funding measure to avoid a potential government shutdown on April 28, five days after lawmakers return from Easter recess.

But even as lawmakers look for new ways to fortify the border and speed up deportations, skepticism has been spreading in Congress about the billions of dollars Trump wants to build a wall.

Congressional leaders in both parties are signaling that decisions about big new border expenditures likely will be put off until later, to overcome both Democratic resistance and Republican jitters about spending on a massive wall.

The closer to the border, the sharper the questions get.

"In Texas, we have a river. We have property owners. I think Texans see it differently," said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a Republican whose district extends from Houston to Austin. "We have 1,200 miles out of a 2,000-mile border, and I don't think a 30-foot concrete wall is going to be the answer."

McCaul's comment, in an appearance Wednesday at Lone Star College in Tomball, underscored his view that any physical border upgrades need to be integrated into more efficient investments in lights, sensors, planes and other modern technologies.

"We're not going to write a blank check," McCaul said. "And me working with the appropriators, we're basically going to put conditions on it that better define how this thing is accomplished."

Whatever comes out of the continuing scrutiny on Capitol Hill, it is becoming increasingly clear that Congress is not on the same timetable as the president.

That could push back Trump's schedule for awarding contracts, which the administration hopes to do by the end of the year. More than 230 companies - including 10 in Houston - have sought design or construction contracts for a physical barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border, according to government records.

Added to the GOP's stalled Obamacare repeal, another top campaign promise, the funding snag for Trump's controversial border wall threatens to cap a first 100 days in office that has seen frustration on health care, refugees, border security, and continuing FBI and congressional probes into his campaign's Russian connections.

Complicating matters is that any deal to keep the lights on in Washington after the current funding expires at the end of the month will need the help of Senate Democrats, who have stood steadfast against Trump's wall.

Before the Easter recess, Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, told Texas reporters that the negotiations were "still a work in progress" and that any spending deal would need the backing of both Democrats and Trump.

Republicans, though a majority in both houses of Congress, hold just 52 Senate seats, not enough to block a Democratic filibuster. "There's a lot of leverage for Democrats," said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo.

Whether Trump would sign a spending bill for the remainder of 2017 without money for the wall remains to be seen. A White House spokeswoman, speaking on background, would say only that "discussions are ongoing."

The fine-print details

Some top Republicans, including Cornyn, sound resigned to cutting a short-term deal to avert a shutdown and push the issue off into the next round of budget negotiations later in the spring or summer.

In part, that reflects a more nuanced GOP vision of border security than the one put forward by Trump during his campaign, when he also promised that Mexico would pay for a wall.

"When I hear the president talk about the wall," Cornyn said, "I think he's speaking metaphorically."

Two other Republicans in Congress, Reps. Will Hurd of Texas and Martha McSally of Arizona, pointedly have asked the administration for specifics on a $1 billion request to plan, design and construct the first installment of the wall, which would cover an estimated 62 miles of new or existing barriers in the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso and around San Diego.

About two-thirds of that first tranche - $644 million - would pay for 34 miles of new levee and border wall in the Rio Grande Valley, a top priority for the Customs and Border Protection agency.

"As representatives of the communities that make up the southern border, we recognize the need for robust border security," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. "We also have an obligation to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and as such have a number of questions."

Hurd and McSally, whose districts comprise 880 miles - nearly half - of the border, are pressing for fine-print details about costs, infrastructure and hiring standards for the coming border patrol surge. "While we have both publicly stated in the past that we believe physical barriers to be one of many tools required to gain operational control of the border," they wrote, "we also believe that an expenditure this large, and submitted with limited details, deserves additional scrutiny."

Credibility on the line

Altogether, Trump is asking Congress for $1.5 billion this year to begin work on the wall, part of a $30 billion "supplemental" spending request for defense and border security. The plan was brought to Congress last month, immediately triggering warnings about a potential government shutdown standoff with Democrats, who called the wall spending a "poison pill."

"We believe it would be inappropriate to insist on the inclusion of such funding in a must-pass appropriations bill that is needed for the Republican majority  to avert a government shutdown so early in President Trump's administration," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats wrote in a letter to their GOP counterparts.

The shutdown threat does not come only from Democrats. As GOP leaders saw in the health care debate, hard-liners on the right present a potential for further party in-fighting, raising the prospect of a shutdown over federal spending cuts.

For some, the GOP's credibility is on the line.

"They will not have the threat of an Obama veto to explain away any aspect of the budget," said Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government. "Failure to fund, for example, the wall, out of concern that it might offend Senate Democrats would be a slap in the face to voters who elected President Trump and gave Republicans majorities in both houses of Congress."

Nevertheless, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, intent on averting a government shutdown, has said he will need Democratic help to get new spending measures through Congress, both for this month's stopgap budget measure, which would run through September, and then for a longer-term 2018 appropriations bill.

"All of that will have to be done on a bipartisan basis," McConnell said as lawmakers adjourned for Easter.

As far as Democrats are concerned, that means no wall funding, at least not anytime soon. Said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat who represents part of the Rio Grande Valley sector, "There are far more cost-effective and diplomatic methods of securing our border."

Trump has asked for another $2.6 billion for the wall in 2018, another installment on a multi-year construction project that has been estimated to cost between $10 billion and $25 billion or more. Trump's campaign initially used a figure of $12 billion, though a Homeland Security report obtained by Reuters listed a price tag of $21.6 billion.

Nearly 700 miles of the border already are fortified, leaving another 1,250 miles to cover, though some of that is on rugged terrain like Texas' Big Bend National Park, where massive cliffs line the Rio Grande in some places.

Government estimates take into account the costs of acquiring private land, including substantial court costs for expected eminent domain challenges from owners of border property. Trump's initial funding request includes more than $2 million for legal help in acquiring land and fending off condemnation challenges.

The administration also is seeking funds for new immigration courts along the border and as many as 34,000 bed spaces for immigration detainees, according to a leaked Department of Homeland Security memo.

The memo outlines plans to expand cooperative agreements with local law enforcement and expedite the addition of 5,000 new border patrol agents by downgrading polygraph, physical fitness and Spanish language tests for new hires.

Estimates 'premature'

Despite the mounting costs, the Border Protection agency has called any final estimates for the wall "premature" until prototypes are evaluated and designs selected by July. The agency issued two requests for proposals: one for a "solid concrete wall," and another for alternative designs.

Not counted in the official list of "interested vendors" is a proposal by New York architect Vijay Duggal for a barrier constructed of solar panels and wind turbines, an idea that he says would turn the wall into a renewable energy project that would pay for itself, removing the need to press Mexico for the money.

An array of Mexican officials repeatedly have said that their government will not pay, despite continuing assurances by the White House that it will - sooner or later.

Until then, House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he is willing to work with Trump to "front" the money for the project, even if the funding mechanism is to be decided later.

Lydia DePillis contributed to this story.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's repugnant bathroom bill has drawn most of the heat and media light this legislative session, but that doesn't mean the gun enthusiasts haven't been busy. Dozens of bills aimed at keeping Texas the most gun-obsessed state in the nation are making their way through the legislative process. Among more than 75 gun-related bills filed in the House and nearly 30 in the Senate are a few, a very few, designed to safeguard Texans without infringing on their Second Amendment rights.

The most egregious pro-gun bill is House Bill 375 sponsored by state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford. It would allow Texans to carry firearms either concealed or openly without a permit and without any kind of safety training. Called Constitutional Carry, the bill is the Lone Star version of a state-by-state National Rifle Association crusade to strip away any restrictions whatsoever on gun ownership and usage.

Stickland and more than a dozen co-sponsors of his bill seem to envision a modern-day "Gunsmoke," unaware, perhaps, that real-life Dodge City and most other frontier settlements required visitors - particularly roistering Texas cattle punchers - to check their guns at the city limits. There's no checking, no training, no permitting process in Stickland's Texas, where guns will be ubiquitous. Walmart shoppers will be carrying Glock-19s on their hips as they stroll the toy aisle. Hungry Whataburger customers will be standing in line for their lunchtime triple-meat cheeseburger with an AK-47 slung across their shoulders. Preachers in the pulpit will be keeping a Baretta Px4 handy as they proclaim the Word. (They'll turn the other cheek only to adjust their view along the sight.)

"This is a big day for many Texans," the Metroplex lawmaker proclaimed a couple of weeks ago as he introduced his bill. "Texans are sick of big government. They are sick of wondering if their rights are always disappearing."

It was something other than a big day for police officers and sheriff's deputies and constables and security guards, men and women whose job is difficult and dangerous enough without having to worry about felons and stalkers and Texans with mental issues having easy access to guns. It wasn't a big day for most sensible Texans, who would just as soon not live in a place where fealty to lethal weapons is paramount.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Stickland warned supporters of his bill to look out for "anti-gun special-interest groups" and even "weak-kneed Republicans who are afraid of freedom." Presumably one or both those labels include the Houston Police Department and the Dallas County Sheriff's Office, among other peace officers around the state who oppose his bill, now pending in the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee.

Among gun-related legislation that ought to pass is a measure co-sponsored by state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, that would improve state efforts to educate the public and license-holders about the risk of suicide and the need to safely secure firearms. Another we support would strengthen background checks so that criminals, domestic abusers and those at risk of harming themselves do not have easy access to guns.

Texans for Gun Sense, one of those "... special-interest groups" that Stickland denigrates, points out that 3,200 Texans died by gunfire in 2015 and many more were seriously injured. Those numbers include nearly 600 Texas children killed or injured every year, as well as 1,900 suicides annually. The number of gun deaths in the state has increased every year since 2011.

Gun-obsessed lawmakers pay little attention to such numbers, although they do seem exercised about designation of the official state gun. Should it be the 1847 Colt Walker pistol - "the most powerful black powder pistol in existence" - or the "Come and Take It" cannon used in the 1835 Battle of Gonzales?

State Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, insists there's room for both - as well as the Bowie knife as the official state knife - but we modestly propose settling the matter more decisively. In keeping with the gunsters' prideful independence and their sacerdotal fealty to the Second Amendment, we propose a duel on the Capitol grounds, preferably with black powder pistols. The spectacle of lawmakers leveling down on each other is hardly more absurd than their knee-jerk opposition to even the most modest gun-safety measures.
Don't interfere

Regarding "HPD joins state anti-gang effort" (Page A3, Thursday), on Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he will establish a tactical center in Houston to curb violent gangs in Houston. Gov. Abbott apparently formed this new tactical center without consulting with the Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo or Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. How can he expect the new tactical center to understand the problems if they are not even talking to our police? And how arrogant to proclaim a solution without giving our mayor or police chief the courtesy of letting them know?

On the other hand, he has threatened to withhold funds from so-called sanctuary cities in order to force local police to spend more time on immigration issues (and less time on real crimes). Houston police have worked hard to develop a rapport with immigrant neighborhoods on which they rely for information about criminal activity. Who will report MS-13 gang activity if the police are required to act as immigration officers?

This is an alarming continuation of efforts by Abbott and the state Legislature to interfere with our local government. Under the bathroom bill the Legislature wants to tell transsexuals which bathrooms to use; it would like to prohibit local governments from banning or reducing the use of plastic bags, just to name a few of the pending bills in Austin that would undo the will of local elected officials or voters. The needs of Houston and Dallas are different from the needs of Lufkin or Brownsville. We have our own elected officials who understand our problems. We neither want nor need the politicians in Austin to tell us how to run our city.

Mary Grace Greenwood, Houston
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Prepare for sticker shock

Regarding "Higher gas bills ahead for CenterPoint customers" (Page B1, April 8), CenterPoint's customers are in for sticker shock, as a business friendly State Public Utility Commission will soon approve CenterPoint's requested gas and electric rate increases, over the objections of the city of Houston and its customers.

Worse still is that CenterPoint is a minimally regulated private monopoly, which is also a publicly traded stock company, more beholden to its stockholders than to efficient service to its customers. This is aggravated by CenterPoint's high marketing and lobbying costs. Rates in Houston will spike even higher than in San Antonio and Austin, where those cities actually own and operate, at cost, their own utility companies.

Maybe City Hall should consider establishing its own public utility cooperative to give the CenterPoint monopoly some real competition?

Peter H. Brown, Houston

Thinking of future teachers

Regarding "Slap to teachers" (Page A31, April 9), the impact on current public school retirees will be severe, but the worse impact is on those considering a career as a public school educator.

Who is willing to spend thousands for a college degree in a profession with a future retirement that has an average annuity qualifying you for low-income housing in most Texas cities?

Glenna Santo, Houston

Bad behavior unbecoming

Regarding "Bitter consumers giving United Airlines a bumpy ride" (Page B1, Thursday), United Airlines and the Chicago airport police certainly have lots of room for improvement in their handling of situations such as the recent incident with Dr. David Dao. They deserve much of the criticism they are receiving.

However, why is Dao being portrayed as a victim? Three other passengers were bumped off that flight and managed to get off the plane without being violated. I'm certain they didn't want to get off any more than Dao did. Rather than acting like an adult, Dao chose to create the confrontation. He chose to continually escalate the situation. He chose to subject everyone on the plane to his misbehavior.

Not reporting this behavior for what it is only encourages more of this type of behavior and further strains the fibers of our society.

Douglas Stallard, Lake Jackson

Assad hardly dissuaded

Regarding "Trump lauds military, defends attack" (Page A1, April 9), the United States has no vital national interest in the on-going civil war in Syria. Whether Assad remains or goes will not impact the security of the United States. It is Europe and Russia that have a very real stake in Syria.

The air attack on an air base in Syria did not change the dynamics on the ground. Assad is still fighting with support from Hezbollah, Iran and Russia.

All the air strike did was show the world that President Trump will take unilateral action on the spur of the moment, as the moment takes him. Planned, reasoned, studied responses are not in his character.

Gonzalo Martinez, La Porte
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The rampant inequality that pervades British society is often defended on the basis of absurd myths about how our economy actually functions. This week, Jeremy Corbyn opened up a full frontal attack on three of these myths by unveiling common-sense, yet also radical policies to modernise and rebalance Britain's economy in favour of the majority.

One of the biggest myths is the idea that the private sector is the number one wealth creator, and the public sector just extracts wealth through taxation. Nowhere is this myth revealed at its most absurd than the massive contribution the government makes to the wealth of the private sector through its public procurement. The government spends some 200billion in the private sector each year despite the failure of many companies to provide decent, secure jobs or to provide adequate training. Many of these companies do not pay their fair share in tax or pay their suppliers on time, often putting small firms out of business. Given that the government such a huge contribution, it is truly astounding that the current government has made no effort to use this power for the benefit of the majority.

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This is why Jeremy Corbyn has declared that a future Labour government would use this basic, but powerful instrument to ensure that all companies benefiting from government procurement comply with the highest environmental standards and workers' rights, and pay their fair share of tax. Like most of Corbyn's policies, this isn't a complicated policy requiring a PhD in economics or social policy to understand - it's just common sense.

A second key myth which is popular amongst Britain's elite is the idea that the private sector is necessarily efficient, and that open competition leads to a socially useful distribution of goods and services. By declaring war on late payments by large companies to their suppliers, Jeremy Corbyn obliterated this myth, drawing attention to the scandal of large corporations causing thousands of small businesses to go bust each year, effectively allowing larger firms to acquire interest free loans by refusing to pay on time. In doing so, he challenged the assumption that small companies necessarily have shared interests with larger ones, opening up a new line of attack on the Conservative Party by challenging their claim to represent the interests of small businesses.

The third key myth challenged by Corbyn was the belief that markets deliver outcomes which are fair, and which reward people for their contributions to society. In reality, most of the richest people in our society owe their wealth less to their talent and effort and more to unearned wealth gained through inheritance, asset accumulation, speculative activities and rent-seeking. Put simply, most rich people get paid a lot because they can. Do CEOs really deserve to earn more in the first 2 and a half days of the year, by 3rd January, than the average UK worker will earn in that entire year?

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Not even the guru of free markets, FA Hayek, actually believed that markets would reward people according to their actual talents or efforts. Unfortunately, Britain's political elite from the 1980s onwards didn't get the memo, leading to a generation of politicians willing to tolerate an economic model which has allowed the wealthiest individuals to double their wealth in the last decade, while at the same time Britain's workforce have faced the biggest drop in wages of all OECD countries, apart from Greece.

Last year it was estimated that 22% of British workers are paid below the Living Wage, a number which has been rising since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. To address this, Jeremy Corbyn has pledged Labour to supporting a real Living Wage for all at 10 per hour. This is not just a socially just policy, it is also one that would drive the modernisation of Britain's economy: as Winston Churchill understood but most contemporary analysts have forgotten, low wages end up subsidising unproductive firms. Not only that, forcing wages up would increase the purchasing power of the losers from Britain's economic model, driving up demand in the real economy, rather than maintaining its unhealthy dependence on speculative activities in the financial sector.
Somewhere there is a bibliophile who is looking to purchase a bookstore, and Evan Midling has the perfect one

Starrlight Books on North Leroux Street in Flagstaff is staple for many local and visiting book lovers. After around 20 years of operating the store and searching for rare books, Midling is hoping to retire and sell the shop.

Nearly every inch of wall space in the tiny store is covered with shelves loaded with books of all sizes, shapes, genres and ages -- new and used. The floor is covered with comfortably worn rugs and what wall space isnt covered with shelves has artwork from local artists and vintage finds that Midling has found in his book-buying travels.

Its the perfect building for a new and used bookstore, he said.

The shop was originally owned by a couple who had an antique furniture shop next door, Midling said. He theorized that they probably started the store in 1984 after they got a box of books or two in their search for antiques. The couple kept it for a while and then sold it to a man who lived and had a bookshop in Phoenix. The store was named Starrlight after the Starr Book Shop in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass., and the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.

Midling purchased the store from this gentleman. He said he worked for the man for a couple of years, but the man didnt really have an interest in the Flagstaff store. He would make the trip every few weeks with a box of books to restock the shelves. But Midling knew these werent the right books for the Flagstaff area.

Midling has been in the book buying and selling business for about 40 years. He managed a bookstore in California for 15 to 16 years before coming to Flagstaff to attend Northern Arizona University. His first job in Flagstaff was in 1978 at McGaughs Newsstand.

Midling started searching for books to fill the shelves. After a couple of years of doing this, he convinced the owner to sell him the shop in the late 1990s. Hes been here ever since.

Some books come in off the street, like a book about the adventures of Alexander Selkirk, a pirate who was marooned on an island in the South Pacific. The book was supposedly the genesis of Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe. Or a beautiful red leather bound volume that contains hand-drawn and written illuminations and writing in Arabic and Farsi. The leaves of the book are colored with ink made from ochre and lapis-lazuli and gold.

He also has a signed edition of Profiles in Courage. The book was supposedly authored by President Jack Kennedy, although some say that Kennedy only wrote part of the book and it was his speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, who wrote most of it.

Midling sets his prices and finds a lot of his books by researching the internet and checking with other booksellers. The most expensive item hes sold out of the shop wasnt actually a book -- it was a painting by Edith Hamlin, a Southwest landscape and portrait painter and muralist. Her husband was Maynard Dixon. The painting sold for thousands of dollars.

So what does a bookseller do after they retire? Read. Most people imagine that being a bookseller gives you time to read all kinds of books, but in order to keep the store stocked and customers happy, Midling spends a lot of time traveling, researching, trading and selling. Hes ready to settle down with a good book on one of his favorite topics: Incan/Aztec hieroglyphs.
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The chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians and the retaliatory military strike carried out by the United States in Syria on Friday has unnecessarily escalated the violence and tensions in the region at the expense of achieving a viable diplomatic solution. Since the Syrian Civil War started, various organisations have estimated that upwards of 400,000 people have been killed and more than half of the population have been displaced from their homes. Five million Syrian refugees have fled to other countries around the world to seek refuge from a brutal and totalitarian regime as well as a rebel opposition that continues to be funded by western powers.

Both sides seem to only be concerned with the total annihilation of the other and are apathetic about the damage, violence, and displacement that the civil war has caused. The people of Syria, those who are still living in the warlike conditions in the country, as well as the millions that have fled the conflict deserve a swift and peaceful settlement so that they can return home and start to rebuild their lives. No peace settlement can be decided upon until the major powers involved can come to the table and agree to a settlement that puts partisan and national bickering and great power game playing aside and focuses on the people who struggle everyday to live their lives in fear of the horrors that living in a theatre of war entails. Several regional and global powers have already intervened in Syria. At least four states have conducted bombing campaigns while others have supported or sponsored proxies and militias. And what is there to show? The violence and infighting must come to an end so that diplomatic channels can be used to calm the situation.

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President Trump's unexpected reaction achieved nothing. It may have been intended to send a message that the United States and the western world will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons. Or it may have been another vicious move in the infighting in the Washington administration. Whichever way, it only exacerbated the situation. Now Russia has reverted to old Cold War tactics dispatching one of its naval ships to the Mediterranean and has stated that it intends to bolster the air defence capabilities of the Syrian armed forces. Violence will never achieve a permanent peaceful settlement and both the United States and Russia must stop playing their old Cold War era games and work together to solve the crisis not intensify it.

In the short term, the UK and governments around the world must increase humanitarian aid to Syria to help those who are currently suffering tremendous hardships until a deal can be agreed upon. The fact that regime forces and rebel groups are fighting throughout the country does not change the fact that there is a plethora of people who are in desperate need of aid in Syria. The Prime Minister must not lose focus and sight of this priority.

While the UK Government continues to criticise Assad's regime in public, its failure to accept the UK's fair share of Syrian refugees, particularly children - as enshrined in the Dubs amendment, betrays the Conservatives' callous attitude. The Conservative Government, at a time when it needs unity, is showing signs of disunity just days after the strike. In its response to the chemical weapons attack and the airstrike by the US, the United Kingdom has continued to show its increased reliance on the United States in the post-Brexit world order and will continue to agree to Trump's unpredictable and inconsistent policies in return for a trade deal.

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While all parties in the cabinet supported the US strike, the Prime Minister is left bickering with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon over whether the UK should get militarily involved. Instead of working together as a united government to press for a solution to this crisis the infighting leaves the Government disunited and UK foreign policy in disarray. Boris Johnson's call for swift sanctions against Syria and Russia collapsed at the meeting of the G7 on April 11th suggesting again that the UK post-Brexit will be side-lined rather than empowered.
What to know before you vote today
The top 15 readers at Cheshire Elementary School got to throw pie in the face of their principal. The top 15 readers at Cheshire Elementary School got to throw pie in the face of their principal. The top 15 readers at Cheshire Elementary School got to throw pie in the face of their principal. The top 15 readers at Cheshire Elementary School got to throw pie in the face of their principal. Principal Peter Bachli was covered in pie. Artistic pies. PreviousNext

Cheshire Students Earn Right to Throw Pies at Principal

CHESHIRE, Mass.  "Pie day" came a month after "Pi Day" this year in Cheshire.



Principal Peter Bachli issued his third annual Reading Challenge to the 255 students of Cheshire Elementary School. The students had to read 1,500 books from March 20 through April 13. A reading log had to be kept and turned in to earn a "slice" of pie.



If the challenge of 1,500 books was met, the top 15 students would be able to throw a pie in Bachli's face at the school's "Book Blast Ceremony."


Bishop Mitchell Rozanski: Easter Homily

Bishop Mitchell Rozanski

Acts: 34a, 37-43

Psalm 118

Colossians 3: 1-4

John 20: 1-9

We greet this Easter Day with the bright promise of new life.

Where just a few weeks ago a snow storm reminded us that winter does not give up easily, we now can behold buds on the trees, daffodils and forsythia blooming and enjoy the warmth that permeates the air. Spring does beckon us to new life! And indeed, we can have faith in this new life because of what we celebrate in our lives: Our Savior's promise to us has been fulfilled. When all seemed lost, disciples scattered, hopes were dashed and mourning dominated the scene, that first Easter morning changed everything.

Last month, with a group of pilgrims, I visited the Holy Land for the first time in my life. Those who had been there told me:

"Bishop, you will never read the Scriptures the same again; seeing the places where Jesus walked, was crucified, died and rose will give a whole new meaning to the Scriptures."

Toward the end of the pilgrimage, we were to have Mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Arriving early, we waited in line to descend to the shrine of the empty tomb; a place sacred to Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians. Everyone stood in line with reverence, knowing that we were about to visit one of the holiest places on earth. I must admit that it was a great privilege to be there, to say a prayer at that site and to ponder on the world-changing event of the Resurrection. But merely visiting and praying at the tomb is not enough, I had to take the time to meditate on how that Resurrection event changed my life; how it affects my life each and every day.

For Mary Magdalene, Peter and John, entering that empty tomb left them mystified. Had the tomb been desecrated by the Romans? Was the body of Jesus taken away a cruel prank? And yet, for them, the words of Jesus had to have been on their minds.

He promised that He would overcome all the evil in the world; could He have overcome our worst fear  death itself? Our celebration of Easter is the affirmation of the same Faith that Mary Magdalene, Peter, John and the other disciples affirmed when they realized the tomb was empty not for some human reason, but that God had vindicated Jesus, who gave over His entire will to the Father, even until death, but was raised to new life.

Each one of us approaches Calvary in our lives, whether through illness, disappointments,feeling betrayed by promises broken and yet, Jesus has shown us that even in facing the most dire of situations, His Life can help us overcome all the fears and failings that we face. The news of the empty tomb spread quickly, from Mary Magdalen to Peter and John, to the other disciples. They received the good news with great joy. Others were mystified and perplexed and obstinate in their unbelief. But God's promise was fulfilled; even the finality of the tomb could not restrain the beauty of divine love. This is the message we celebrate this Easter Day!

Truly, we can raise our voices singing "Alleluias" because Jesus has given us cause to rejoice. Nothing, not even death itself,can prevent the love of God from illuminating the darkest places of our world, the darkest places of our own lives. One may be able to physically visit the site of the sepulcher in Jerusalem, but our faith tells us that its light touches every corner of our world because the Resurrection is the event to save us all.

The empty tomb is not seen merely with physical eyes; it has to be viewed with the eyes of Faith. A Faith that matters each and every day; a faith that is living and breathing and as fresh as this Easter morning.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, may we welcome the light that has overtaken the darkness, may we live the life that our Risen Savior calls us to live and may we take the message of the Resurrection, as Mary Magdalene, Peter and John did, to all those whom we meet. This is the good news of Easter! Amen! Alleluia!

Easter homily by Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield Diocese, as given on Easter Sunday Mass at St. Michael's Cathedral in Springfield.
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Thanks to Donald Trumps controversial Presidency, the writers at Saturday Night Live have produced some of their best work in years.

One of the shows best ongoing gags is Alec Baldwins orange-faced impersonation of Trump, which has opened the majority of this seasons shows.

Last night was no different as Jimmy Fallon joined Baldwin to mock the current America administration, The Tonight Show host playing Jared Kushner.

Its hard to believe Ive been President for almost 100 days, Baldwins Trump says from the Oval Office before listing off the numerous things hes done there.

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

So many memories in this room. This is where I met with the Chinese President.

That was at Mar-a-Lago, Sir, interrupts Beck Bennetts Mike Pence.

Well, this is where I ordered the Syrian strike.

That was also at Mar-a-Lago.

Well, this is where I showed a bunch of classified information to the Japanese President.

That was in front of a bunch of waiters at the Mar-a-Lago, sir.

Well, I know one thing that was here for sure. Remember that time I refused to shake the hand of that little German boy?

You mean Angela Merkel.

Well, Im so glad these 100 days were such a success and Im so sad my Presidency is coming to an end.

Later on in the sketch, Fallons Kushner walks in, alongside Steve Bannon, who has been portrayed as the Grim Reaper throughout the series.

The show then becomes The Apprentice as Trump must choose which advisor to keep on, and which will go. Watch the full clip below.

Last week, Baldwin debuted his impersonation of Bill OReilly, mocking the Fox presenters sexual harassment allegations. Meanwhile, during the Fallon-hosted show, the cast of SNL ripped into both United Airlines and Pepsi in one brilliant sketch. Watch here.
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Its Moosewoods world. Were just eating in it.

Consider granola: The word used to be a derogatory term. Now its a supermarket category worth nearly $2bn a year. Kombucha was something your art teacher might have made in her basement. The company GTs Kombucha brews more than a million bottles annually and sells many of them at Walmart and Safeway.

And almond milk? You can add it to your drink at any of 15,000 Starbucks locations for 60 cents.

Just as yoga and meditation have gone mainstream (and lets not get started on designer Birkenstocks), so have ideas and products surrounding health, wellness and eating that play like a flashback to the early 1970s.

Co-op staples of that time  the miso, tahini, dates, seeds, turmeric and ginger that were absorbed from other cultures and populated the Moosewood restaurant cookbooks  now make appearances at some of the most innovative restaurants in the country, where menus are built around vegetables and heritage grains. Vegetarianism and veganism are on the rise and kale, the bacon of the clean-eating moment, is now routinely heaped on salad plates across the land.

Recommended Food inflation hits highest rate in three years in March

The hippies may not have won the election, but they are winning the plate. (Or rather, the bowl).

The counterculture is always ahead of whats happening in mainstream culture, said Peter Meehan, the editorial director of Lucky Peach magazine. Its as true in any creative field as it is in food.

Fermenting and pickling are back in vogue (Oriana Koren/NYT) (Oriana Koren/New York Times)

Deborah Madison, the author and chef who made vegetarian cooking sophisticated with her 1987 cookbook Greens,has seen this food before: She cooked it in the 1960s as one of a growing number of people who were trying to cook differently from our parents, she says.

Our intentions were good, Madison continues. We were using wholesome foods in contrast to our mothers new reliance on cake mixes, white flour, TV dinners and that sort of thing.

The problem, she said, was that her generation didnt know much about cooking.

What we cooked was very much on the stodgy side, she said. Today the same foods are now seen as interesting and delicious and worth eating. We can appreciate their flavours, textures and general possibilities because we  that is, the big collective we  know so much more about cooking foods of all kinds.

The current food mood may also be a reaction to the more exhausting aspects of life in the digital era.

Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation, at work in the kitchen (Kyle Dean Reinford/NYT) (Kyle Dean Reinford/New York Times)

Its a weird mixture of technology and palo santo  iPhones and incense  says the chef Gerardo Gonzalez, suggesting that people who live online may be moved to seek out the restorative properties of natural foods. Youre constantly in this thing thats not reality, and eating food can be the most real act you can partake in.

At Lalito, his restaurant in Manhattan, Gonzalez serves food he describes as hippie Chicano like vegan chicharrones and the brown goddess cucumber salad with brown mole vinaigrette, mint and candied pepitas, as well as dishes like eggplant topped with tahini, lemon juice and Japanese gomasio seasoning. (The restaurant opened in late 2016 as Lalo. It was recently renamed to avoid conflict with a similarly named restaurant).

Growing up with chain restaurants and living with the mental fog that comes from regularly eating meat, dairy and starch led him and his peers to seek an alternative.

I think people are now more likely to turn to acai bowls than a bacon cheeseburger for their hangover, he says. For a lot of people who gravitate toward this lifestyle, its not hypocritical.

As one of the owners of Dimes, a restaurant that opened three years ago in Manhattan, Alissa Wagner is partly responsible for bringing those acai bowls to the Instagram set. Wagner believes that diners are a lot more knowledgeable about where and how to eat better than they were when she graduated from the Natural Gourmet Institute, a mostly vegetarian cooking school in Manhattan, in 2010.

Quinoa still rules the roost at Dimes (Cole Wilson/New York Times)

There was a huge awakening that happened in the last couple of years with the way that New Yorkers approach food, she says. The meat-heavy, super-masculine-style restaurants that were ever-present became outdated and were overtaken by a much more vibrant and produce-driven menu.

Some of the most anticipated restaurant openings of the past year have had a crunchy vibe. Tartine Manufactory in San Francisco is never without a line for its rustic sourdough bread, whole-grain pastries and turmeric kefir. At Destroyer in Culver City, Calif., the chef Jordan Kahn incorporates elements like puffed rice and pickled mushrooms into his precise and visually arresting cooking. For his avocado toast  a dish that is the spiritual descendant of the 1970s avocado sandwich, smashed on health bread and topped with a handful of alfalfa sprouts  the avocado is confited. Brunch at the veg-forward Bad Hunter in Chicago includes miso-apple sticky buns and sourdough porridge with walnut butter.

In New York, Jean-Georges Vongerichten recently opened abcV, an organic, all-vegetable restaurant that serves dishes like stems and sprouts with sunflower seeds, and traffics in ayurvedic tonics, which have captivated millennials hunting for the next thing after juice. At Lestudio, the rough-hewed pottery is fired in the cafes adjoining ceramics studio.

And while the landmark vegan restaurant Angelica Kitchen in Manhattan is closing this week, its legacy is vast  veggie burgers and grain bowls, once a menu rarity, can be had at chains like Hillstone and Sweetgreen. (The chef Camille Becerra, who just opened De Maria, which is heavy on bowls, cooked at Angelica Kitchen  a formative experience). Even the elegant French restaurant Le Coucou serves avocado toast at breakfast and brunch, charging $18 for the winkingly named Le Californien.

Despite the often extragavant price tag attached to many haute-hippie staples and the Vitamix required to prepare them, this is food that is easy to make at home, with plenty of cookbooks for guidance.

The last several months have seen the release of many vegetable-rich and raw-food cookbooks, including ones from Lucky Peach; Martha Stewart; Wolfgang Puck; the vegan website Thug Kitchen; Sarah Britton, of the website My New Roots, whose Instagram feed of bowls and sprouts has over 330,000 followers; and Amanda Chantal Bacon of Moon Juice, a small chain of juice shops that started in Venice, in Los Angeles.

Aubergine topped with mojama (salt-cured tuna) at Lalito, LA (Cole Wilson/NYT) (Cole Wilson/New York Times)

In her book and at her shops, Bacon, a former line cook at Lucques in Los Angeles  and the subject of a Twitter storm last summer, after a crystal was stolen from her Silver Lake location  spreads the gospel of coconut yogurt, reishi mushroom powder and meditation, while selling $10 Moon Dusted Milks made with brown rice protein, chia seeds and blue spirulina. Her plans for Moon Dust expansion are global.

Last week, Madison released In My Kitchen: A Collection of New Vegetarian Recipes. Her elegant earth-motherhood has given rise to a generation of chefs, cookbook authors and bloggers focused on vegetables and whole foods, like Anna Jones, who wrote the vegetarian cookbook A Modern Way to Cook. (Madison, like a baby boomer who is both tickled and horrified to see bell-bottoms come back in style, says she always found it amusing that foods like the once-abhorrent brown rice have come around to being seen as good to eat, and preferable even to white rice.)

For amateur picklers and kimchi-makers there is a new edition of Wild Fermentation, the 2003 manual that helped its author, Sandor Katz, become a heroic figure among cooks who ferment their own foods.

Like the back-to-the landers and Whole Earth catalogue readers before them, a new generation is once again becoming interested in fermentation, especially do-it-yourself projects, a shift that Katz attributes to people becoming more critical of the industrial food system and seeking alternatives.

Once you start asking questions about how this food was produced, then fermentation is just part of the answer, he says.

Food and drink news Show all 35 1 /35 Food and drink news Food and drink news Healthy living makes us more inclined to binge, research suggests Gluten-free breads, dairy-free milks and other plant-based products have been some of the most favoured foods in British supermarkets this year. However, while were busy filling our shopping trolleys with gluten-free goodness, were also jamming it with junk food and alcohol, new research suggests Getty/iStock Food and drink news Growing list of Vegan celebs Making the switch to veganism is a major lifestyle choice, one that many claim can improve energy levels, lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and clear up any skin issues. Beyonce, Natalie Portman and Jessica Chastain are among the growing list of Hollywood stars who have eschewed animal products from their diets in recent years. Theres also been an increasing number of professional athletes who have gone vegan, such as boxing champions Mike Tyson and David Haye, thus debunking the myth that following a plant-based diet will leave you feeling weak and malnourished. AFP/Getty/NARAS/iHeartMedia Food and drink news McDonald's has announced the launch of a new vegan burger on its menu in Germany This will mark the first time the German franchise of the fast food chain has offered a vegan burger to its customers. The Big Vegan TS burger consists of a patty made from soy and wheat. It is served in a classic sesame seed bun, and contains salad, tomato, pickles and red onion. McDonald's Germany Food and drink news Drinking too many protein shakes could lead to an increased risk of obesity and a reduced lifespan, a new study has claimed Researchers from the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre carried out an investigation to determine the impact excessive consumption of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) has on the body. BCAA supplements are often consumed in the form of powder, which is then added to water to make a shake. Published in journal Nature Metabolism, the study found that while BCAAs help to build muscle, they can also negatively impact an individual's temperament, cause weight gain and lead to a shortened lifespan Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Britain consumes more chocolate than any other country Most people love chocolate but it turns out no one does more than the Brits  with the average Brit found to have consumed 8.4 kg of chocolate in 2017, according to new data. Chocolate consumption around the world is on the rise, according to Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD), which found that in the past year alone, Easter chocolate production has risen by 23 per cent Food and drink news 'Easter eggs should be banned for children under four' Dr Becky Spelman, chief psychologist at Harley Streets Private Therapy Clinic, is calling for Easter eggs to be banned for consumption for children under the age of four, claiming that giving them the opportunity to binge on chocolate so young will give them an unhealthy relationship with food later on. "This is a nightmare situation for parents of this generation as they have no idea how to teach their children to delay their response to cravings, she said, explaining that too many young kids binge on these chocolates because their parents dont know how to stop them. "Once a child starts overeating behaviour at a young age its very hard to turn things around for them in terms of food and their eating habits moving forward, leading to obesity from at very young age," she added PA Food and drink news Pineapple overtakes avocado as the UK's fastest-selling fruit According to Tesco, pineapple has overtaken avocado as the UKs fastest-selling fruit, with sales increasing by 15 per cent in 2017. In comparison, avocado sales rose by just under 10 per cent last year. The popular supermarket says the surge in popularity comes as shoppers buying the versatile fruit are beginning to use it as a main ingredient in everything from curries and barbecues, to juices and cocktails Getty Food and drink news Marks & Spencers launches stoneless avocados Rather than the result of genetic modification, the avocados are formed by an unpollinated avocado blossom. The fruit develops without a seed which in turns stops the growth, creating a small, seedless fruit. Whats more, the skin is actually edible, unlike a regular avocado. The flesh is much like that of a normal avocado - smooth and creamy, pale in colour and rich in flavour M&S Food and drink news Office teabags contain 17 times more germs than a toilet seat, reveals study The average bacterial reading of an office teabag was 3,785, in comparison to only 220 for a toilet seat. Other pieces of kitchen equipment also stacked up highly in their findings, with the bacterial readings averaging at 2,483 on kettle handles, 1,746 on the rim of a used mug and 1,592 on a fridge door handle Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news New study shows drinking more coffee leads to a longer life There is good news and a final hope for coffee addicts and lovers. You will now be able to drink coffee for longer as new study shows its can lead to a prolonged life. Scientists showed that those who drank between two and four cups of coffee a day had 18% lower risk of death compared to non-coffee drinkers. PA Food and drink news Coke Zero is replaced with Coke Zero Sugar Coca-Cola is pulling the plug on its Coke Zero. The much loved drink will be replaced with a new improved taste. The move, backed with a 10 million campaign, is said to come from Coca-Cola supporting people to reduce their sugar intake. Coca-Cola want people make this move while not sacrificing sugary taste of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Food and drink news Starbucks introduce new avocado spread The avocado craze has grown from hipster brunch restaurants to Starbucks. Starbucks have introduced their new avocado spread earlier this year and it has the internet in debate. Some argue that it not a spread but guacamole while others question if there is any avocado in there at all. When buying the new spread you can also buy an optional toasted bagel. It is a must try for all avocado connoisseurs. Starbucks Food and drink news New Mars chocolate bar The iconic British chocolate bar is about to get its partner in crime. The new bar, named Goodness Knows, will replace the gooey caramel goodness of the mars bar with oats. It is said to be more like a Florentine biscuit with a thin dark chocolate bottom. While being moderately healthy Mars says that is has good intentions. One pack has 154 calories and will sell for about 90p. Mars Food and drink news Wine prices could increase because of Brexit Wine lovers across the UK might soon have to shell out close to a quarter more for their favourite tipple after Brexit, as a weaker pound and sluggish economy takes its toll, a new study shows Rex Food and drink news Chocolate may be good for the heart A new study, published in the British Medical Journal: Heart, found that moderate chocolate intake can be positively associated with lessening the risk of the heart arrhythmia condition Atrial Fibrillation Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Brits throw away 1.4 million bananas each year British families are throwing away 1.4 million bananas that are perfectly good to eat every day at cost of 80m a year, new figures have shown PA/Armin Weigel Food and drink news Rosemary sales spike over exam time There has been a surge a surge in sales of the herb rosemary after a recent study found it helps improve memory. According to high street health food chain Holland & Barrett, sales of the herb have increased by 187 per cent compared to the same time last year Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Gluten-free diets 'not recommended' for people without coeliac disease Avoiding wheat, barley and rye in the belief that a gluten-free diet brings health benefits may do more harm than good, according to a team of US nutrition and medicine experts Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Starbucks launches two new coffee-based drinks Starbucks is launching two new coffee-based drinks in the UK, as it strives to tap into consumers growing appetite for healthy beverages. The Cold Brew Vanilla sweet cream and the Cappuccino Freddo, will both be available in stores throughout the UK from the start of May Twitter/@SbuxCountyHall Food and drink news Cadburys Dairy Milk Tiffin is making a permanent comeback after 80 years The Cadbury Dairy Milk Tiffin, first produced in 1937, is making a permanent comeback to the UK. The raisin and biscuit-filled chocolate bar is being launched after a successful trial last summer saw 3 million chocolate treats  at the cost of 1.49 for each 95g bar- purchased by nostalgic customers Cadburys Food and drink news Pizza restaurant makes worlds cheesiest 'Scottie's Pizza Parlor' in Portland Oregon has created the worlds cheesiest pizza using a total of 101 different cheese varieties. Facebook/Scottie's Pizza Parlor Food and drink news A pizza joint in Portland Oregon has created the worlds cheesiest pizza using a total of 101 different cheese varieties. Why not eating before a workout could be better for your health A study published in the American Journal of Physiology by researchers at the University of Bath found you might be likely to burn more fat if you have not eaten first Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news New York restaurant named best in the world A New York restaurant where an average meal for two will cost $700 has been named the best in the world. Eleven Madison Park won the accolade for the first time after debuting on the list at number 50 in 2010. The restaurant was praised for a fun sense of fine-dining, blurring the line between the kitchen and the dining room Getty Images Food and drink news Why you crave bad food when youre tired Researchers at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University in Chicago recently presented their results of a study looking into the effects of sleep deprivation upon high-calorific food consumption. Researchers found that those who were sleep-deprived had specifically enhanced brain activity to the food smells compared to when they had a good nights sleep Shutterstock Food and drink news Drinking wine engages more of your brain than solving maths problems Drinking wine is the ideal workout for your brain, engaging more parts of our grey matter than any other human behaviour, according to a leading neuroscientist. Dr Gordon Shepherd, from the Yale School of Medicine, said sniffing and analysing a wine before drinking it requires exquisite control of one of the biggest muscles in the body Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news British dessert eating surges after people ditch healthy eating in February : In heartening news for anyone feeling guilty about quitting their New Year diet, it seems lots of us have given in to our sweet tooths once again. New data from nationwide food-delivery service Deliveroo reveals there was a surge in Brits ordering desserts in February compared to the first month of 2017 Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news US congress debates definition of milk alternatives A new bill has been created that seeks to ban dairy alternatives from using the term milk. Titled the DAIRY PRIDE Act, the name is a tenuous acronym for defending against imitations and replacements of yogurt, milk, and cheese to promote regular intake of dairy every day. It argues that the dairy industry is struggling as a result of all the dairy-free alternatives on the market and the public are being duped too Getty Images Food and drink news Cadburys launches two new chocolate bars UK confectionary giant Cadbury has launched two new chocolate bars, hoping to lure those with a sweet tooth and perhaps help combat some of the challenges it faces from rising commodity prices and a post-Brexit slump in the value of the pound.The companys new products will be peanut butter and mint flavoured. They will be available in most major super markets as 120g bars, priced at 1.49, according to the company Cadburys Food and drink news You can now get a job as a professional chocolate eater The company responsible for some of your favourite chocolate brands  think Cadbury, Milks, Prince and Oreo  have officially announced an opening to join their team as a professional chocolate taster. The successful candidate will help them to test, perfect and launch new products all over the world. Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news MSG additive used in Chinese food is actually good for you, scientist claims For years, weve been told MSG (the sodium salt of glutamic acid) - often associated with cheap Chinese takeaways - is awful for our health and to be avoided at all costs. But one scientist argues it should be used as a supersalt and encourages adding it to food. Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Lettuce prices are rising Not only are lettuces becoming an increasingly rare commodity in supermarkets, but prices for the leafy vegetables seem to be rising too. According to the weekly report from the Governments Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a pair of Little Gem lettuces had an average market price of 0.86 in the week that ended on Friday, up from an average of 0.56 in the previous week  thats an almost 54 per cent increase. Getty Images Food and drink news Do-It-Yourself restaurant To encourage more people to cook and eat together, IKEA has launched The Dining Club in Shoreditch  a fully immersive Do-It-Yourself restaurant . Members of the public can book to host a brunch, lunch or dinner party for up to 20 friends and family. Supported by their very own sous chef and maitre de, the host and their guests will orchestrate an intimate dining experience where cooking together is celebrated and eating together is inspirational Mikael Buck / IKEA Food and drink news Ping Pong menu with a twist Gatwick Airport has teamed up with London dim sum restaurant Ping Pong to create a limited edition menu with a distinctly British twist; including a Full English Bao and Beef Wellington Puff, to celebrate the launch of the airports new route to Hong Kong Food and drink news Zizzi unveil the Maamgharita Unique pizza art has been created by Zizzi in celebration of the Queens 90th birthday. The pizza features the queen in an iconic pose illustrated with fresh and tasty Italian ingredients on a backdrop of the Union Jack Food and drink news Blue potatoes make a comeback Blue potatoes, once a staple part of British potato crops, are back on the menu thanks to a Cambridge scientist turned-organic farmer and Farmdrop, an online marketplace that lets people buy direct from local farms. Cambridge PhD graduate-turned farmer, Adrian Izzard has used traditional growing techniques at Wild Country Organics to produce the colourful spuds, packed with healthy cell-protecting anthocyanin, which had previously disappeared from UK plates when post-war farmers were pushed towards higher-yielding varieties

He also cites recent scientific findings on the microbiome and the notion that health may be affected by bacteria and other microbes living in your intestinal tract, which are in turn influenced by what you eat.

People are recognising that this important biodiversity inside of us has been diminished and are seeking strategies to restore it for immune function, digestion, mental health and everything else, he says. So people are seeking out bacteria-rich foods.

In fact, a kombucha- and tempeh-making business just opened near Katzs home in Cannon County, Tennessee, population 16,000. Its not just happening in New York, San Francisco and Portland, he says.

(For the record, Mr. Katz bristles at the association of fermentation with hippiedom. In terms of countercultural movements, I feel like punk is much more resonant, he says. The punk movement was all about DIY and publishing your own zine, and figuring out how to make things yourself and improvise.)

Gonzalez has noticed a change in diners palates toward flavours that are brighter and more acidic, like those produced by fermentation, as well as earthier and umami-rich flavours, like nutritional yeast. People are starting to realise that these ingredients are a whole new colour palette, he says.

This group of Americans has also developed a less-sweet tooth and an appreciation of the textures imparted by grains like buckwheat and rye. I was in a meeting last night where one person suggested making a chocolate cake recipe with fermented cabbage in it, Madison says.

As with anything counterculture edging toward the mainstream, the threat of co-option looms.

Alice Waters, the Berkeley queen of local and seasonal cooking, applauds the movement away from fast and processed food, but said she was wary of how its language had been appropriated by mainstream brands.

Theres a lot of hijacking going on right now that is very disturbing, Waters says. I mean, they cant quite take organic, but theyre taking everything else.

At the restaurant level, though, hippie fare has long been a lifestyle and a brand, Gonzalez concedes.

Youre not just selling food, he says. Youre giving the promise of a healthier life, or a more enlightened meal.

Pan-griddled sweet potatoes with miso-ginger sauce

Time: About 1 hour

Makes 4 to 6 servings

(NYT)

4 sweet potatoes (about six ounces each), scrubbed

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 (1-inch) knob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

A few pinches of sugar or 2 teaspoons mirin

1 heaping tablespoon white miso

1 tablespoon unseasoned rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon light sesame oil or other neutral oil, plus more for the pan

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

2 teaspoons toasted black sesame seeds, for garnish

Add about an inch of water to a stovetop steamer or a pot fitted with a steaming basket. Add sweet potatoes and steam until tender, 30 to 40 minutes, depending on their size.

While sweet potatoes are cooking, make the sauce. Pound garlic and ginger in a mortar until very smooth and then stir in the sugar, miso, vinegar, sesame oils and a tablespoon of water.

Halve steamed sweet potatoes lengthwise and score the cut sides in a crisscross pattern with a small knife. Heat a large skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add a swirl of light sesame oil (about a tablespoon), then add sweet potatoes in a single layer, cut side down, and cook for three minutes, or until their natural sugars caramelize and turn an appetising golden brown. (Depending on the shape of your potatoes, you may have to work in batches).

Arrange sweet potatoes on plates or a platter and spoon sauce over them. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve alone or with any accompaniment you like.

 New York Times
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Government plans to introduce a specialist unit in attempt to curb the use of drones to transport drugs and mobile phones into prisons have been dismissed as twaddle and a "mere distraction by prison experts and former inmates.

The Ministry of Justice has today announced plans for prison and police officers to work with law enforcement agencies to inspect drones recovered from jails, in a bid to identify and track down those involved in attempts to smuggle in contraband and ensure that they are brought to justice.

Prisons minister Sam Gyimah said that following an increase in drones entering prisons last year, the initiative will see investigators draw together intelligence from across prisons and the police to identify lines of inquiry, which will then be passed to local forces and organised crime officers.

But prison experts and specialists have told The Independent that drones are a minor problem in the context of the wider issues facing the prison system at present, and accused the Government of using the plans as a public relations exercise that glosses over the real problems in the penal system.

Alex Cavendish, former prisoner and prison affairs academic, said: The drone issue has become something of a distraction from the real problem. Prisons are awash with drugs, but this is not because of drones. This is because of corrupt staff. Thats the reality.

Nobody who is serious about being in the drugs trade is going to take a risk of putting product worth 1,000 on the outside  worth 6,000 on the inside  on a drone and then losing it, because someone has to pay that bill.

Clearly its a new way of getting things over prison walls, as opposed to throwing them over. But the vast majority of big consignments of drugs, large quantities, are being smuggled in by staff and contractors. If you look at some of the big drug and mobile phone seizures theyve made it recent years, its been members of staff or contractors who have been caught red-handed.

When drones are found within prison walls they normally contain things like prepaid SIM cards, which are very light, and bags of psychoactive substances [such as spice], which of course have a much lower street value than real drugs.

Criminologist and former prison watchdog chairman Faith Spear described the plan as a silly initiative, saying it failed to deal with the root case of problems in prisons, such as overcrowding and under-staffing.

When you think of the relatively small amount of drones that get into prisons, they couldnt bring the amount of mobile phones and drugs in that you find within a prison. Its just not possible, Ms Spear told The Independent.

A lot of it comes through corrupt staff, and these kinds of things are hidden. Even if other officers or governors are aware, a lot of these things are dealt with in house  not out in the media. So we only hear about a small number of cases, but its widespread.

They say theyve got this new initiative they want the public to grab hold of, but if youre not dealing with the root causes, all this is a facade. Its not dealing with the problems of drugs and phones within prisons. It's not dealing with the real issues, like overcrowding and under-staffing.

I dont know whether the public will take it on board, but I think anyone who knows about the business and have worked in prisons will know that its just a silly initiative that probably wont do a lot of good.

Announcing the plans, the Ministry of Justice referred to one recent case of drone-facilitated drug smuggling, which saw a joint operation between police and prison officers lead to the arrest of two men who had attempted to flood prisons with contraband worth around 48,000.

The men, one of whom was subsequently jailed for six years and six months and the other for four years and four months, used drones to try and fly packages containing cannabis, spice and heroin, as well as phones into three different prisons.

The Governments plans to tackle drones in prisons also come following a sharp increase in incidents involving drones in recent years, with figures showing there were 33 incidents of the gadgets being detected in or around jails in England and Wales in 2015, up from just two the year before and none in 2013.

The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons Show all 6 1 /6 The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons GETTY IMAGES The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons GETTY IMAGES The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons PA The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons PA

But a former prisoner, named only as the Tartan Con, who served four years before his release in 2016, told The Independent that in reality, of the total amount of drugs that find their way into prisons, drones facilitated a mere handful.

For every one drone, there are probably 100 other packages that get in through staff, visits, governor, or over the wall. I never saw one during my time in prison. The first time I even heard about them was when I got out, he said.

The problem is the drones are what everybody talks about because its a funky new thing. But its a mere handful. Its not as if you walk outside the prison and just see a sky of drones trying to get in.

This is the Government doing a public relations exercise. Its just something it puts out to say were tackling the issue. Theyre thinking they need to say something about prisons, so they say theyre tackling drones.

Ben Gunn, former prisoner and criminal justice consultant, said drones accounted for just a few percentage points of drugs in prisons, and accused ministers of shirking the issue of staff corruption.

Drones are a minor problem. They generate a small source of the drugs that get into prisons  just a few percentage points compared to staff corruption and stuff being thrown over walls. Yet staff corruption is something ministers wont touch, Mr Gunn said.

They are not adding or subtracting to anything really. Theyre just an interesting new, but tiny, addition to the drug and phone issues.

Recommended Justice Secretary says barking dogs could stop drones delivering drugs

In November, the prisons minister Sam Gyimah suggested that eagles could be used to stop the proliferation of drone usage, while in December Justice Secretary Liz Truss raised eyebrows in the House of Commons when she claimed barking dogs could be a solution to the problem.

Mr Cavendish accused ministers of failing to understand the intricacies of how drug supply works in prisons, and said the plans announced today targeted an aspect that is in vogue but while failing to deal with the deeper and more ingrained issues with the UK penal system.

Politicians really dont understand the intricacies of how drug supply works in prisons. They havent got a clue. Im not saying they shouldnt target them, but this is one small piece of a much bigger puzzle, and until they get to grips with the issue of corrupt prison staff and contractors, this problem will never be solved.

Liz Truss made a complete fool of herself in the House Of Commons by saying they were deploying dogs to discourage drones by barking. I think what shes trying to do now is row back and correct the foolish statement that she made in Parliament, by saying were actually doing something about drones.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA 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 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during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty

Its twaddle. Its pretending. The mantra is that something must be done, and the easiest way is to set up a small task force and focus on a very public issue that is in vogue at the moment, rather than deal with whats happened over the last seven years in prisons, which is too few staff and a massive reduction in security, with the result that its very easy to smuggle in contraband.

The prisons minister said of the plans: We are absolutely determined to tackle the illegal flow of drugs and mobile phones into our prisons and turn them into places of safety and reform.

The threat posed by drones is clear, but our dedicated staff are committed to winning the fight against those who are attempting to thwart progress by wreaking havoc in establishments all over the country. My message to those who involve themselves in this type of criminal activity is clear; we will find you and put you behind bars.
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Britain is to invest almost half a billion pounds of international aid funding in efforts to tackle some of the worlds worst infectious diseases.

The money will help protect more than 200 million people in developing countries like Ethiopia, Sudan, Bangladesh and India, as well as funding research into new cures for illnesses otherwise neglected by Western pharmaceutical companies.

The funding was announced on Sunday by Priti Patel, the International Development Secretary, ahead of a three-day summit on so-called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

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NTDs affect 1.4 billion people in the poorest parts of the world. From Guinea worm to elephantiasis, they cause debilitating pain, disfigurement and death  but are all avoidable.

These diseases belong to the last century, Ms Patel said. They cause unimaginable suffering and pain to some of the worlds poorest people, forcing them into a deeper cycle of poverty with no way out. Yet they are treatable.

Ms Patel said the new commitment to fighting NTDs, more than doubling the UKs annual spending pledged in the London Declaration of 2012, showed global Britain would continue to play its part despite the Brexit vote.

The Department for International Development said the new funding would pay for one billion treatments for people at risk of tropical diseases in the developing world. The UK is already one of the biggest partners, alongside the US and the Gates Foundation founded by Bill and Melinda Gates, in a global coalition pushing to eliminate NTDs.

The UK says the most immediate impact of the new funding will be to wipe out Guinea Worm altogether, the first such success story among the 17 tropical diseases on the NTDs list. When NGOs and government representatives meet for the summit in Geneva on Wednesday, a major announcement on the progress against Guinea worm is expected.

Guinea worm disease is caused by a parasite of the same name, which enters its human host through dirty drinking water infected with larvae.

Sufferers dont show symptoms until about a year after infection, when the worm reaches maturity. It then causes the flesh to blister and burst, leaving the body and releasing a milky-white liquid containing millions of larvae  continuing the cycle of infection.

Elephantiasis  also known as Lymphatic filariasis  is transmitted by mosquitoes. It causes microscopic, thread-like worms to enter the human lymph system, damaging the bodys ability to maintain fluid balance. The characteristic, painful swelling which follows can make a persons limb weigh as much as the rest of their entire body.

The UK said its new funding could help prevent tens of thousands of elephantiasis cases.

The funding announced on Sunday includes 205m of new support for affected communities around the world, to be spent over the next five years.

An additional 88m will go towards programmes for the development of drugs and diagnostics for NTDs, and research into how such treatments can be better delivered to hard-to-reach places.

Responding to the announcement, Bill Gates said: UK aid and Britains world-leading research institutions are playing a major role in protecting the worlds poorest people from NTDs and enabling them to live healthier, more prosperous lives.

With our foundation, I am proud to partner with the UK on global health and look forward to sharing more specifics about how we will further our commitment in the fight against NTDs this week at the summit in Geneva.
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A pilot who turned back a plane preparing to take off at Manchester Airport so a couple could say goodbye to their dying grandson has been praised as truly amazing.

Becky Stephenson, a travel agent from Bradford, said two of her customers were preparing to set off for Australia via Abu Dhabi when they received the news that the boy was seriously ill.

She told The Independent they had already boarded the Etihad Airways flight and were switching off their mobile phone when they noticed a missed call from their son-in-law.

The plane was turned around as it headed towards the runway at Manchester Airport (Getty Images)

They were taxiing on the runway when they got the text message saying their grandson was in intensive care and they needed to get there, Mrs Stephenson said.

They passed the message to the crew, who spoke to the captain and he turned the plane back.

The pilot returned the aircraft to the boarding gate while staff arranged to get the couples baggage and assist them back through the airport and collect their car so they could drive straight home.

Their grandson died the following day, 31 March, when the passengers were scheduled to be arriving in Australia.

Mrs Stephenson said the couple, who did not wish to be named, were grateful to have had the chance to say goodbye to their grandson.

Heartwarming news stories from around the world Show all 30 1 /30 Heartwarming news stories from around the world Heartwarming news stories from around the world A boy who saved the life of a suicidal man by simply asking him "Are you okay? has said he did it because he likes to help people who need help. Jamie Harrington, from Ballymun, Dublin, told the Humans of Dublin project about a meeting with a man in his 30s sitting on the edge of a bridge and about to jump off it. After sitting down and speaking to the stranger for 45 minutes, 16-year-old Jamie persuaded the man to go to hospital and seek treatment Heartwarming news stories from around the world This little boy loves books so much that he cries when his mother stops reading to him A good book can keep a child entertained for hours, but there aren't many that can actually make babies cry when they end. 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Thomas suffered from Cockayne Syndrome  a rare premature ageing disease  which is known to affect just 100 youngsters in the UK. Mr Gordon, a civil servant, ran about 26 miles each day (42km)  the equivalent of a marathon a day  for 42 days, from John OGroats to Lands End. He said he was inspired to adopt the quirky persona following a bet when a friend said he would sponsor Mr Gordon more money for his charity run if he did @OxLightBlues/Twitter Heartwarming news stories from around the world Charity shop thanks 'true gent' who donated late wife's wedding dress with heartfelt message A charity shop in Leeds has tracked down the elderly man who donated his late wifes stunning 1950s wedding dress with a heartfelt note. St Gemmas Hospice, which runs a speciality bridal shop in Garforth, described the man as a true gent while appealing for help finding him on social media. The stunning vintage gown has a lace bodice and sleeves and full embroidered skirt. A note attached to it read: I wish any lady who takes this dress to have a life with her loved one 56 years like I did. Happy years. I was a lucky man to marry a lady like mine" St Gemma's Hospice Heartwarming news stories from around the world Blood donors in Sweden get a text message whenever their blood saves someone's life With blood donation rates in decline all over the developed world, Swedens blood service is enlisting new technology to help push back against shortages. One new initiative, where donors are sent automatic text messages telling them when their blood has actually been used, has caught the public eye. People who donate initially receive a 'thank you' text when they give blood, but they get another message when their blood makes it into somebody elses veins Getty Heartwarming news stories from around the world Guide dog jumps in front of oncoming bus to save blind owner When Figo the service dog saw an oncoming mini school bus heading for Audrey Stone, the blind woman he was trained to guide, the golden retriever's protective instincts kicked in: He threw himself at the closest part of the vehicle he could. Police photos show the result: fur stuck to the front driver's side wheel and in the middle of Michael Neuner Avenue in New York, where the bus came to a stop after striking the pair. The driver of the Brewster school bus, carrying two kindergartners to St. Lawrence O'Toole Childhood Learning Center, told police he didn't see the pair crossing the road as they made their way home at about 8:15 Monday morning. But Figo saw the bus coming and leapt into action AP Heartwarming news stories from around the world Florida boy grew his hair for two years and endured bullying to donate it to charity After more than two years growing his hair, a boy from Florida has donated his locks to charity, despite being bullied along the way. Christian McPhilamy, an eight-year-old from Florida, began growing his hair after seeing an advert about paediatric cancer and has now donated four locks, each measuring over 10 inches, to charity Facebook Heartwarming news stories from around the world A police officer who told a student his parents were killed surprised him at his graduation ceremony Kazzie Porties parents, Riley and Emily, were killed by a drunk driver. Eric Ellison, an officer at the Orange Police Department in Texas, broke the news to the couples five children and told the youngest hed be by his side during graduation Heartwarming news stories from around the world Cafe asks customer to leave after he tells breastfeeding mother to cover up An Australian cafe has been praised for sticking up for a breastfeeding mother after a customer told her to cover up. Jessica-Anne Allen, owner of Cheese and Biscuits Cafe in Queensland, Australia, has described how she was approached by a male customer in the cafe on Thursday to complain that he was upset by a woman in the coffee shop breastfeeding her child nearby. The customer asked the cafe owner, 29, to tell the mother to cover up. When Mrs Allen refused to do so, he took matters into his own hands and challenged the woman himself. Staff at the cafe then asked the man to leave Heartwarming news stories from around the world Dog with cancer completes bucket list When their dog was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Cocos owners put together a bucket list and made sure their hound experienced an exciting few weeks before she died. Before she was put down on 5 May, Coco: visited a beach; took a ride in a helicopter; went in a fire engine; ate a steak at the pub; and also had a Big Mac from a McDonalds Drive Thru, amongst other activities https://www.facebook.com/symon.spencer.9 Heartwarming news stories from around the world Elderly cancer patient who rang 911 because he had no food is inundated with donations from well-wishers An elderly cancer patient who called 911 because he was hungry and had no food is receiving donations from hundreds of people across America who were moved by his story. Clarence Blackmon was discharged from a private hospital in Fayetteville, in North Carolina, on Tuesday after spending months there for cancer treatment. The 81-year-old returned to his house without any supplies and anyone close by to call for help, leading him to call 911 in desperation and ask for food. An hour-and-a-half later, Marilyn Hinson, the operator who answered that call, arrived at his front door with police carrying bags full of food and made him some ham sandwiches Heartwarming news stories from around the world Son receives touching 30th birthday card from father who died in 1999 A son has revealed how he only just received a birthday card from his dad who died from cancer over a decade ago, with the father having the foresight to mark his children's milestone birthdays before passing away. It was inscribed with a simple 'Love ya - Dad', and was written such a long time ago that even the corny joke on the inside feels quite charmingly dated ChrisBenRoy Heartwarming news stories from around the world Chinese student carries disabled friend to school every day for three years so he doesn't miss class A teenager has been hailed as the most beautiful student in China after spending three years giving piggy-backs to his disabled friend so that he doesnt have to miss a class. The story of 18-year-old Xie Xu, who volunteered to look after his 19-year-old classmate Zhang Chi, has been shared widely on Chinese social media and received widespread local media coverage Heartwarming news stories from around the world Teenage Aldi worker Christian Trouesdale walkes an old man home A young man from Horwich in Greater Manchester has become an unexpected internet sensation after he was photographed walking a frail old man home from the supermarket. Aldi worker Christian Trouesdale, 18, said he had received a crazy reaction with messages of support flooding in from as far afield as Dubai, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand. The image of Mr Trouesdale hand-in-hand with a 96-year-old customer on the street outside the shop was first shared by nearby worker and Horwich resident Samantha-Jayne Brady, 23, who said it was a lovely thing to witness Samantha-Jayne Brady Heartwarming news stories from around the world 8-year-old survivor of abuse writes inspirational 'thank you' letter to social workers An eight-year-old girl who was abused as an infant has written a thank-you letter to social workers and detectives who helped to rescue her from a home where she had been left paralysed as a result of beatings. Marie Suprenant is not able to walk as a result of the injuries that she sustained before she was taken under the care of a foster parent. I want to thank you for making me happy by giving me a new warm and safe environment, she writes. Now I have a home that is nice and I have three nice meals a day Heartwarming news stories from around the world Woman praised for defending Muslim woman 'harassed on train for wearing a hijab' An Australian woman has been described as a hero for challenging a train passenger who was allegedly being abusive towards a Muslim woman sat in the same carriage. Stacey Eden claimed an older woman was accusing the unidentified Muslim woman and the man sat next to her of being an Isis supporter because she was wearing a hijab. Ms Eden, from Sydney, said the alleged tirade began "a good ten minutes" before she started filming the woman, later uploading the video on to her Facebook page. Footage from the alleged incident began as the unnamed passenger asked the woman, who was also sat with a pram on the opposite side of the train, "why do you wear it [a hijab] for a man that marries a six year-old girl?" The woman and the man remained silent, but Ms Eden responded: "She wears it for herself, OK? She wears it because she wants to be modest with her body, not because of people like you who are going to sit there and disrespect her" Heartwarming news stories from around the world Loving parents have got matching tattoos of their daughters huge red birthmark Honey-Rae Phillips was born with the large strawberry mark covering half her body. The Daily Mirror reports that Mum Tanya Phillips and dad Adam Philips, who are both from Grimsby, got the tattoos after people starting making comments about it in public. 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It must be kind of lonely being a mailman, all this correspondence running through your hands every day but none of it addressed to you absofaluminium Heartwarming news stories from around the world Student raises thousands of pounds for homeless man who offered her 3 for a taxi Christmas is a traditionally a time for giving, particularly to the less fortunate members of society, but one homeless man was prepared to hand over everything he had. The man, named Robbie, offered a 22-year-old student 3 to help her get home safely after a night out - and now she is hoping to raise enough money to help him off the streets Rex

They are so happy, she added. They never in a million years expected to the crew to go so far for them.

You shudder to think what would have happened if they hadnt been able to get off the plane.

The travel agent wrote a post thanking the airline in a Facebook group, where the pilot was praised by commenters as truly amazing according to the Travel Mole website.

 Passenger gives birth on plane

Etihad are reportedly allowing the couple to re-use the tickets for a future trip to Australia, where they have relatives.

The airline has not yet responded to The Independents request for a comment.
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Two thirds of prisons in England and Wales are overcrowded, Government figures have revealed, prompting warnings from campaigners that growing overpopulation and severe staff shortages have created a "toxic cocktail" within the penal system.

Statistics published by the Ministry of Justice on Friday show 68 per cent of prisons were housing more inmates than their usable "certified normal accommodation" (CNA)  the limit for ensuring a good, decent standard of accommodation.

Eighty out of 117 jails breached the limit, with some holding more than 50 per cent over the recommended population levels. HMP Leeds revealed to have the worst record, with 75 per cent  or 501  more inmates than the threshold states.

Two jails, Ashfield in Gloucestershire and Lancaster Farms in Lancashire, held a number of prisons over their operational capacity  the maximum number of inmates a jail can handle safely  while 39 prisons would hit this higher cap if they had just 10 more inmates.

The figures come as an alarming indication that the problem of overcrowding in prisons has worsened in recent years, despite stark warnings to successive governments that it was a growing problem. In 2012, 59 per cent  or 77 out 131  establishments were operating above their CNA, indicating an increase of nine per cent in the past five years. According to the Council of Europe, Britain has the largest prison population in Western Europe at 95,248.

Campaigners have warned the levels of overcrowding in prisons, along with severe staff shortages, has created a toxic situation in the current prison system, and warned that the Government response of building large new prisons is not the correct approach.

Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns for the Howard League for Penal Reform, told The Independent: Many prisoners are sharing cells were designed for one person  maybe six foot by 10 foot  on a bunk bed with an unscreened toilet by the foot of the bed. The practical impact of this overcrowding, alongside the shortages of staff that the prisons are currently experiencing, creates a toxic cocktail.

They lead to all the problems that have been well publicised in recent months: that suicides in custody in England and Wales were than in any other on record in 2016, the disturbances, the dramatic increase in violence, the fact that drugs have raged out of control.

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We have a system that is not running remotely in an optimal way. Prisoners are often sharing cells with people they dont know, people are getting moved around the prisons a lot with no real planning behind it. Decisions are being made because of overcrowding, and not in the best interest of the prisoners and their rehabilitation.

Mr Neilson said the approach of the current and successive governments of constantly building new prisons would never be successful, and that ministers should shift the focus to bringing down sentences and enabling people to earn their release once in prison.

This Governments approach to dealing with overcrowding has been to close older prisons to save money and then build much larger prisons, and theyre not able to build quickly enough to meet the capacity, he said.

Its a supply and demand situation  and all the focus is on the supply side at the moment, in terms of attempting to provide cells and build prison places, rather than trying to manage the demand.

To beat prison overcrowding you need to say were jailing too many people. We need to look at sentencing; we need to look at how people can earn their release once they are in prison; we need to manage the population. Its a plan successive justice secretaries have constantly ducked.

Justice Secretary Liz Truss unveiled plans for 5,000 new prisoner places and four new prisons in England and Wales last month, as part of the Governments intention to create 10,000 modern prison places by the end of this Parliament.

Last year, in an effort to tackle the growing prison populations, senior cross-party politicians wrote to Ms Truss calling for the number of inmates to be reduced by 40,000  almost a half to levels seen under Margaret Thatchers premiership.

But in February the Justice Secretary said that while she wanted to see the numbers of people in prisons go down, it had to be for the right reasons, saying: The wrong approach would be reducing sentences for serious crimes or letting people out early. Reductions by cap or quota, or by sweeping sentencing cuts are not a magic bullet, they are a dangerous attempt at a quick fix."

Alex Cavendish, former prisoner and prison affairs academic, warned the growing overpopulation and staff shortages in UK prisons poses a "real risk" of further mass riots breaking out, such as that seen at HMP Birmingham at the end of last year, and said there were potentially fatal consequences.

Overcrowding and under-staffing are a toxic - and sadly sometimes lethal - combination in our prisons, he told The Independent. Imprisonment in overcrowded jails can be a very degrading experience. Having to defecate in the presence of complete strangers, as well as eating meals actually sitting on the WC because there just isn't space for two or three men to have chairs, is both unhygienic and humiliating.

Cramming two or even three adult men in a tiny cell originally designed to house just one person fuels tensions and can lead to violent incidents. It can provide many opportunities for the bullying and even sexual assault of weaker, more vulnerable inmates, including teenagers of 18 or 19 who are being held on wings with much older prisoners. It certainly does nothing to rehabilitate.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in 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royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. 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Unless the Ministry of Justice gets to grip with this crisis, there is the very real risk of further major prison riots occurring in the near future. Current staff shortages could also mean that control of whole prisons could be lost, with potential of serious injuries and even loss of life, he added.

Responding to the figures, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: It is totally misleading to suggest that the prison population has increased significantly. It has remained relatively stable over the past 12 months.

We are investing 1.3bn to modernise the estate with 10,000 new places, and have recently opened HMP Berwyn which can hold 2,000 prisoners.
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Russian warships are expected to pass through the English channel on Saturday night.

The Royal Navy has dispatched a vessel to monitor the Steregushchiy-class corvettes, named Soobrazitelny and Boiky.

The ships were detected in the North Sea in the early hours of Friday and were later joined by a support tanker and tug boat.

 Spanish navy illegally sail into British waters near Gibraltar

The Russian fleet will be monitored by the Royal Navy as they pass the south coast of England.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: HMS Sutherland is carefully marking these Russian ships as they pass close to UK waters. The Royal Navy maintains a vigilant watch and is always ready to keep Britain safe.

The Plymouth-based HMS Sutherland, a high readiness vessel, will escort the ships and track their movement using radar.

The ships commanding officer, Commander Andrew Canale, said: As one of the Royal Navys high readiness units, HMS Sutherland is required to escort warships that approach the UK and this task is considered routine business for us.

It is vitally important the Royal Navy demonstrates its presence and commitment to the integrity of UK territorial waters as we work around the clock to secure the seas of our island nation.

Russian vessels and aircrafts have come close to British territory on a number of occasions in the last year, as tensions between the two countries have worsened.

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. 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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. 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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. 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The relationship between between the UK and Russia has been particularly strained in recent weeks.

Russian recently vetoed a UN security resolution on Syria, where Moscow-backed Syrian ruler, Bashar al-Assad, is alleged to have used chemical weapons. The UK has called on Assad to step down.
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Short staffed hospitals are reportedly so desperate to cover rota gaps they are offering to pay doctors up to 95 an hour.

Several strained hospitals have been "begging" doctors to work in order to meet the necessary minimum staffing levels.

Opposition politicians called the revelations "alarming".

 Theresa May challenged whether 350m NHS funding promise from Leave campaigners will exist

In an attempt to coax doctors into working shifts in an extremely busy A&E, Peterborough City hospital advertised 95 an hour for a 10-hour shift last Tuesday, the Guardian reported.

The North West Anglia NHS foundation trust described the decision to advertise the maximum incentivised rate for senior doctors as exceptional but necessary to ensure safe medical staffing levels.

Last week, the Dudley Group NHS foundation trust increased fees for senior doctors from 60 to 70 an hour to staff A&E, the newspaper reported.

The Guardian also published extracts of numerous desperate emails pleading with staff to volunteer to work and help fill gaps in the rota.

An email sent in March from the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford said: I am sorry to be sending so many messages but I am in real need here. I am practically begging at this point. I really need some help.

Can ANYONE help out for any length of the shifts needed this weekend? It really is a matter of keeping the department safe.

Many doctors often work 70 hours a week or more, and there were several reports of medics being forced to go on-call immediately after 12 hour shifts.

Doctors described the staffing situation as rather dangerous, bad for morale and worrying.

The Government defended its health policy and said it was investing in NHS staff.

But opposition parties said the Government was not spending enough on the NHS. Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: The public will rightly be alarmed to hear that hospitals are struggling to recruit enough doctors. Patient safety is being put at risk because of this Governments abject failure to recognise the importance of safe staffing levels, alongside imposing on the NHS the biggest financial squeeze in its history.

Theresa May's approach to the NHS crisis has been one of utter incompetence. Now she must take urgent action to tackle the rising problem of rota gaps in our hospitals.

"Only by properly investing in our medical workforce and primary care services will she finally be putting patient welfare at the heart of her Governments approach to the NHS.

Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Show all 6 1 /6 Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves The elderly We acknowledge that there are pressures on the health service, there are always extra pressures on the NHS in the winter, but we have the added pressures of the ageing population and the growing complex needs of the population, Theresa May has said. Waits of over 12 hours in A&E among elderly people have more than doubled in two years, according to figures from NHS Digital. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Patients going to A&E instead of seeing their GPs Jeremy Hunt has called for a honest discussion with the public about the purpose of A&E departments, saying that around a third of A&E patients were in hospital unnecessarily. Mr Hunt told Radio 4s Today programme the NHS now had more doctors, nurses and funding than ever, but explained what he called very serious problems at some hospitals by suggesting pressures were increasing in part because people are going to A&Es when they should not. He urged patients to visit their GP for non-emergency illnesses, outlined plans to release time for family doctors to support urgent care work, and said the NHS will soon be able to deliver seven-day access to a GP from 8am to 8pm. But doctors struggling amid a GP recruitment crisis said Mr Hunts plans were unrealistic and demanded the Government commit to investing in all areas of the overstretched health service. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Simon Stevens, head of NHS England Reports that key members of Ms Mays team used internal meetings to accuse Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, of being unenthusiastic and unresponsive have been rejected by Downing Street. Mr Stevens had allegedly rejected claims made by Ms May that the NHS had been given more funding than required. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Previous health policy, not funding In an interview with Sky Newss Sophy Ridge, Ms May acknowledged the NHS faced pressures but said it was a problem that had been ducked by government over the years. She refuted the claim that hospitals were tackling a humanitarian crisis and said health funding was at record levels. We asked the NHS a while back to set out what it needed over the next five years in terms of its plan for the future and the funding that it would need, said the Prime Minister. They did that, we gave them that funding, in fact we gave them more funding than they required Funding is now at record levels for the NHS, more money has been going in. But doctors accused Ms May of being in denial about how the lack of additional funding provided for health and social care were behind a spiralling crisis in NHS hospitals. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Target to treat all A&E patients within four hours Mr Hunt was accused of watering down the flagship target to treat all A&E patients within four hours. The Health Secretary told MPs the promise  introduced by Tony Blairs government in 2000  should only be for those who actually need it. Amid jeers in the Commons, Mr Hunt said only four other countries pledged to treat all patients within a similar timeframe and all had less stringent rules. But Ms May has now said the Government will stand by the four-hour target for A&E, which says 95 per cent of patients must be dealt with within that time frame. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves No one Mr Hunt was accused of hiding from the public eye following news of the Red Crosss comments and didnt make an official statement for two days. He was also filmed refusing to answer questions from journalists who pursued him down the street yesterday to ask whether he planned to scrap the four-hour A&E waiting time target. Sky News reporter Beth Rigby pressed the Health Secretary on his position on the matter, saying the public will want to know, Mr Hunt. Sorry Beth, Ive answered questions about this already, replied Mr Hunt. But you didnt answer questions on this. You said it was over-interpreted in the House of Commons and you didnt want to water it down. Is that what youre saying? said Ms Rigby. Its very difficult, because how are we going to explain to the public what your intention is, when you change your position and then wont answer the question, Mr Hunt. But the Health Secretary maintained his silence until he reached his car and got in. Getty

And Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Norman Lamb said: "Hospitals are struggling to recruit staff because of the public pay freeze and underfunding in the NHS which leaves working conditions ever less attractive.

"Yet the government is making it even harder for hospitals to recruit by its muddled hard Brexit, rejecting Liberal Democrat demands to give an NHS passport guaranteeing the right to remain for all EU citizens working in the health and social care system.

"The staffing crisis in the NHS is only going to grow worse unless the government accepts cross-party calls to give the health service the decent, long-term funding it needs."
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A baby was interviewed by officials for a US visa after his grandfather mistakenly described him as a terrorist on a visa form.

Three-month-old Harvey Kenyon-Cairns was about to fly to Florida for his first overseas trip with his family when he was summoned to the US embassy in London.

His grandfather, Paul Kenyon, realised he had made a mistake on the visa waiver form.

In the section on the Esta form where it says: Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide? Mr Kenyon had accidentally ticked yes instead of no.

I couldnt believe that they couldnt see it was a genuine mistake and that a three-month-old baby would be no harm to anyone, he said.

Harvey was ferried on a 10-hour round trip from his home in Poynton, Cheshire, to Grosvenor Square in London for his official interview.

The flight from Manchester to Orlando would have only taken nine and a half hours by comparison.

Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures 1) Angela Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor Axel Schmidt/Getty Images Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures 2) Beverley Actress and singer Beverly Knight Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures 3) Carol Former 'Countdown' presenter Carol Vorderman Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures 4) Debra Former 'Will & Grace' actress Debra Messing Jason Merritt/Getty Images Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures 5) Diane Fashion designer and inventor of the wrap dress Diane Von Furstenberg Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Diane Von Furstenberg Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures 1) Bertrand The late philosopher Bertrand Russell Hulton Archive/Getty Images Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures 2) Cecil The late artist Cecil Beaton Hulton Archive/Getty Images Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures 3) Clarence American actor Henry Fonda pictured in 1975 rehearsing at the Piccadilly Theatre in London for his one man play about the famous trial lawyer Clarence Darrow Getty Images Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures 4) Clive Actor Clive Owen Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images Baby names 'at risk of dying out' - In pictures 5) Cyril Cyril Rioli, an Australian rules footballer Matt King/Getty Images

Baby Harvey was good as gold for the interview and never cried once. I thought about taking him along in an orange jumpsuit, but thought better of it, said Kenyon. They didnt appear to have a sense of humour over it at all and couldnt see the funny side.

Hes obviously never engaged in genocide, or espionage, but he has sabotaged quite a few nappies in his time, though I didnt tell them that at the US embassy.

Although Harvey was no longer considered a threat to national security, his new visa took long enough for some of the family to miss their flights.

Mr Kenyon said they paid another 3,000 to re-book the travel for the baby, his mother, Faye Kenyon-Cairns, and her partner.

Mr Kenyon, his granddaughter Ava and his wife Cathy flew to their holiday villa on the scheduled date.

He described the visa form incident as a very expensive mistake.

The 62-year-old also questioned why someone would admit on a form that they were a terrorist.
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Brexit Secretary David Davis has been accused of being taken hostage by the hard Right after it emerged he once sang the praises of the single market and the EU customs union.

The MP, who campaigned for Leave during the referendum, has been attacked for pursing a hard Brexit  meaning sacrificing access to the single market to end freedom of movement  without a clear plan for an alternative deal in place.

In a January speech which partially laid out the Governments plan for Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May said it would pursue hard Brexit to get a clean break from the EU and will instead focus on pursuing international trade deals outside Europe.

The UK has just two years to negotiate a trade deal with the EU, which then has to be ratified by the other 27 member states, before it crashes out of the union and is forced to resort to WTO (World Trade Organisation) tariff arrangements.

Currently 44 per cent of the UKs exports  220bn out of 510bn  go to the EU which are currently tariff-free.

Analysis done by The Independent suggests that using WTO standard tariffs could cost British exporters roughly 4.5bn per year.

But it has since emerged that Mr Davis was once in favour of the EU single market which he hailed as a success and said remaining in the customs union would help British businesses, the Mail on Sunday reported.

During a broadly Eurosceptic speech in November 2012, Mr Davis the EU has enjoyed some successes, namely the single market and of course the enlargement which has brought a number of countries with troubled histories into the modern, democratic world.

My preference would be that we should remain within the customs union of the EU [even though we would] give up some freedoms in terms of negotiating our trading arrangements with third countries, he said.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA 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 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty

The advantage would be that our manufacturers would not face complex and punitive rules-of-origin tariffs.

But since the referendum, EU leaders have warned that they will not allow the UK to cherry-pick the elements of the deal they want.

Both freedom of movement and the single market are two of the four freedoms that the EU considers the founding principles of the union  and you cannot have one without the other.

Labour backbencher and former shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna, who currently chairs Vote Leave Watch, said the Brexit secretary must explain why he appears to have changed his mind.

Recommended The Government has no strategy to replace the single market

He said: The 2012 version of David Davis recognised the real problems that could emerge if we leave the customs union. Businesses will be hit by punitive rules of origin, which vastly increase tariffs and red tape on companies trying to export to the EU.

The Brexit Secretary needs to explain why he has changed his mind, why we should be leaving the single market and customs union when he admits they have been successes, and what evidence his department has that doing so will not damage our economy.

David Daviss U-turn suggests that  he, like the Prime Minister, has been taken hostage by the hard Right of the Tory Party.

A source close to Mr Davis told the newspaper Mr Umunna should not rake over speeches made in 2012 and that he had set a number of different ways the UK might thrive if it chose to leave the EU.

He is now a member of a Government that is determined to respect the referendum result, build a new partnership with the EU and forge new trading links with the rest of the world rather than spend its time having the same old arguments, they added.
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EU leaders are set to strip Britain of major European agencies regarded as the blocs crown jewels in the early stages of the Brexit negotiations, reports say.

According to The Observer, diplomats on the continent agreed at a gathering last week that the European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency are to be relocated from London to another city in the bloc.

It comes as the British Government prepares to enter Brexit negotiations next month after Theresa May invoked Article 50 of the Libson treaty  triggering the divorce process  in late March.

But one EU source told the newspaper that initial sympathy with Britains decision to leave the bloc had eroded due to the UK Governments aggressive approach to talks  including the threat of leaving the negotiations without a deal and becoming a low-tax haven.

The European Banking Authority, established in 2011, is an independent EU authority that regulates and supervises the continents banking sector and, combined with the European Medicines Agency, employs around 1,000 people.

In March Adam Farkas, the EBAs executive director, said Brexit was a major talking point among the staff stationed at its London headquarters. The outcome of the referendum, which will likely lead to a removal of the EBA from London, is having a major impact, he added.

The European Medicines Agency began operating in 1995 and is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines developed by pharmaceutical companies for use in the EU.

It boasts 900 highly skilled staff and will undoubtedly create a bidding war between the EUs member states over where its headquarters are relocated.

 SNP pressure Theresa May for 'compromise UK-wide approach' to Brexit negotiations

Of course, we want to protect trade with Britain, but maintaining the single market, keeping trade flowing there, is the priority, and so we will work through [the EUs chief negotiator] Michel Barnier, a source said. Britain used to be pragmatic. That doesnt seem to be the case any more, and we need to protect our interests.

It is also expected the EU will formally reject Ms Mays plea for early trade talks, running parallel with the divorce settlement. This comes after Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, dealt an instant blow to the Prime Ministers Brexit plans by rejecting such a plan. Britain will now be put into the slow lane for discussions about any future trade deal.

Ms May had called for negotiations on a future comprehensive trade deal between the EU and UK to take place at the same time as talks on how Britain will exit the bloc.

In her letter triggering Article 50 Ms May said she believed it "is necessary to agree the terms of our future partnership alongside those of our withdrawal from the European Union". She repeated similar sentiments four times in the documents.

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer told the newspaper it was deeply concerning that Ms May is now isolated from our EU partners as the Brexit negotiations get under way. I have emphasised in Parliament on a number of occasions that the tone adopted so far by the Government is unlikely to get the talks off to a good start, he said.

The Prime Minister should have spent the last nine months building alliances across Europe, not pandering to those in her Cabinet and her party who want to sever all links with the EU and retreat from closest allies and most important trading partners.
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Diesel car owners are to be offered cash to scrap their polluting vehicles in a Government drive to tackle emissions, according to reports.

It follows speculation that plans for a scrappage scheme, aimed at taking older, more polluting diesel cars off the roads and replacing them with cleaner vehicles could earn motorists about 1,000.

The Sunday Times claims that Theresa May overruled two Cabinet ministers  Andrea Leadsom, the Environment Secretary, and Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary  who had both opposed such a scheme.

While the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs refused to be drawn on the reports, a spokesperson told The Independent that proposals would be brought forward in due course.

It is expected that the department will publish its updated clean air plans later this month, after courts ruled existing plans to meet EU air quality limits are not sufficient.

In March, a poll for AA, a breakdown cover provider, found that 68 per cent of drivers would support a scrappage scheme, with just 10 per cent of motorists opposed to it.

It also comes as Neil Parish, the Conservative chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, is to tell ministers owners of diesel cars should be able to scrap their vehicles for cash in pollution hotspots.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Parish will use a House of Commons debate on Wednesday to urge the Government to commit to a targeted scheme to tackle emissions.

He will say that households should not just be able to trade in multiple diesels for a cash subsidy, and instead the Government should particularly consider targeting a scrappage scheme at poorer households or those earning less than 60 per cent of the median UK household income.

The Telegraph says Mr Parish will suggest families could swap their polluting cars for low emission-producing vehicles, public transport tickets, bicycles or a car club membership.

Concerns over the impact of diesel cars on nitrogen dioxide levels were raised by the Volkswagen emissions scandal in September 2015.

A subsequent Department for Transport investigation found that 37 top-selling diesel cars exceeded the legal limit required for laboratory pollution tests when driven for 90 minutes on normal roads.

Drivers were encouraged to switch away from petrol under Tony Blair's Government and Prime Minister Theresa May has said that would be taken into account in future plans.

During a recent trip to the Middle East, Ms May said: In relation to the issue of diesel cars, obviously we will be producing a new air quality plan, we've been required to do that by the courts.

Decisions will be taken when we produce that plan  obviously we will take final decisions as to what we do.

But I'm very conscious of the fact that past governments have encouraged people to buy diesel cars and we need to take that into account when we're looking at what we do in the future.

Additional reporting by Press Association
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Theresa May has used her Easter message to suggest there is a sense people in Britain are coming together and uniting after a period of intense debate and divisions over the EU referendum last year.

Stressing the opportunities that stem from the UKs decision to leave the bloc, the Prime Minister said our shared values can  and must  bring us together.

She added: "For at heart, this country is one great union of people and nations with a proud history and a bright future.

Ms May, the daughter of a vicar, who has often spoke about her religion, said we should be confident about the role that Christianity has to play in the lives of people in our country.

We must continue to ensure that people feel able to speak about their faith, and that absolutely includes their faith in Christ, she added.

We must be mindful of Christians and religious minorities around the world who do not enjoy these same freedoms, but who practise their religion in secret and often in fear.

And we must do more to stand up for the freedom of people of all religions to practice their beliefs openly and in peace and safety.

Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, used his Easter message to call on people to use the principles at the heart of Christianity to overcome societys problems. He said the religion's emphasis on peace could not have more urgency around the world than it does today.

We hear painful stories every day, of homelessness, poverty or crisis in our health service  or across the world, of the devastating consequences of war and conflict, including millions forced to become refugees, he said.

It would be easy to retreat into our private lives because the challenges seem overwhelming, or allow ourselves to be divided and blame others.

But we need to respond to these problems head on, through action and support for social justice, peace and reconciliation.

Those principles are at the heart of Christianity. And Christians throughout the world will this weekend be remembering Jesus's example of love and sacrifice, and the Easter message of redemption and peace.

At a time of growing conflict, that message of peace could not have more urgency throughout the world.

I meet Christians, and others of all faiths and none, on a daily basis, who share and live those ideals: people who give their time for others, to run food banks, protect the vulnerable, look after the sick, the elderly and our young people.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron highlighted Mrs Mays intervention in the row over the National Trust and Cadbury Easter egg hunt in his message, while hitting out at nostalgia and nationalism.

He said: I fear that what the Prime Minster and others were actually getting wound up about was the thought that the National Trust might have been airbrushing out something comfortable and traditional.

And given that we are turning the clock back to the early 1970s with Brexit (or indeed the 1580s if we do end up declaring war on Spain), then nostalgia is most definitely the mood of the moment.

He added: Nostalgia and nationalism have become the fuel for an aggressive and irrational brand of politics that is the opposite of what liberals stand for.

I dont want the Christian message to be stolen by the nostalgic nationalists, just as no Liberal should seek to appropriate Jesus for their own purposes either.

But the Easter message is one of internationalism, if you like  Jesus died for you no matter who you are or where you are from.

And the Easter message is most definitely not about comfortable nostalgia, it is radical and disturbing.
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A woman who worked with street children in Cairo has been acquitted by Egyptian authorities of kidnapping and human trafficking.

US-Egyptian dual citizen Aya Hijazi was arrested alongside her husband, Mohammed Hassanein, and six others in May 2014 on charges of abusing children in her care, as well as participating in human trafficking, sexual exploitation and torture. Human rights activists said the charges were invented, and part of a government crackdown on civil society, which sought to portray aid groups with foreign funding as unpatriotic.

Ms Hijazi faced five years hard labour or life behind bars. There were cheers in the courtroom as she and seven others were acquitted after 1,079 days of illegal pre-trial detention.

Recommended Fears of unrest in Cairo after arrests of activists and journalists

Campaigners, including Hillary Clinton, having long called for the 30-year-olds release.

The trial was delayed several times for what the human rights groups called absurd pretexts, such as the inability to turn on a computer at a court hearing. On 24 March, the verdict was delayed again, prompting Human Rights Watch to call the case a travesty of justice.

Egypt's leaders struggle to regain control Show all 2 1 /2 Egypt's leaders struggle to regain control Egypt's leaders struggle to regain control 548021.bin Reuters Egypt's leaders struggle to regain control 547641.bin

Following her arrest, it took days for Ms Hijazis family to track her down in the prison system and she waited four months to be charged.

They have spent more than 1,000 days in pre-trial detention, despite a forensic science report by Egypts public prosecutor which found no evidence that the children in her care had been sexually assaulted. Some of the children did show signs of sexual trauma but the abuse was alleged to have happened before 2014.

A report from the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales found that her case had violated both international laws and Egypts constitution.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who has forged close links with US President Donald Trump in the past two weeks, has presided over the widest crackdown in the country in its history, targeting journalists, NGOs and political opponents.

Ms Hijazis case became a high-profile symbol of an oppressive regime.

Mr Hassanein said he and his wife wanted to return to work with the street children, but were unsure whether the government would allow them to do so.
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A recruitment agency is being investigated by authorities after it advertised a competition to win a domestic worker.

Offiicals in Bahrain suspended the company's licence temporarily after spotting the competition from the housemaid recruitment agency, Al Hazeem Manpower.

The agency's social media campaign called for people to participate in the contest organised during the month of Ramadan. There was only one condition for the prize winner  he or she must have a work permit to employ the housemaid.

Recommended Men who supplied workers to agency linked to Sports Direct convicted

Bahrain's Labour Market Regulatory Authority said in a statement it had suspended the licence of the agency until it has concluded its investigation.

LMRA's Chief Executive Ausamah Al Absi said the advert amounted to a suspected case of human trafficking.

We have already suspended the licence of the agency, pending investigations, he said.

As part of social media scanning, our team found the agency was running a promotional advertisement online titled Win a Domestic Worker.

Al Hazeem Manpower said it had used the wrong wording and immediately made the required changes, as reported by local news. It could not be reached for comment by The Independent.

Mr Al Absi said the company treated workers as commodities and their advertising campaigns were disrespectful and extremely offensive.

On its Facebook page, the company advertises domestic services for as low as BD499, equivalent to around 1,000, and the price includes two-year runaway insurance  to protect against the workers escape  an air ticket and transfer.

Some packages also offer to return the maid if she becomes ill.

Workers are most commonly flown in from Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya. Their profiles and pictures are posted on Instagram.

Human rights campaigners have long called for stricter laws around domestic workers in Bahrain, following allegations from workers of modern slavery.

One instance was Ethiopian woman Seble Abebe Tessm, who worked in Bahrain for 15 years from the age of 20 and only got 18 months' salary.

She said she was too afraid to leave her employer, who forced her to sign receipts of payment she had never been given.
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A five-year-old boy died after getting caught in the mechanism of a revolving restaurant which is one of Atlantas most popular tourist attractions.

The child was having lunch with his family at the Sun Dial restaurant, which is on the 72nd storey of the Westin Peachtree Plaza skyscraper.

Firefighters were called to the restaurant on Friday afternoon when the boy got his head stuck in a five-inch gap between the stationary floor and the restaurants rotating wall.

Rescuers took 30 minutes to free the child from the gap, by which point he had sustained serious head injuries.

The boy, who was visiting the city with family from North Carolina, was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died.

The child was in the restaurant having lunch with his family and doing what small children do, said a spokesperson for Atlanta Police Department.

We simply think he lost sight of his parents and panicked and found himself in that situation.

A small child doesnt know what to do in those moments, and it crushed his small body.

The restaurant will remain closed for the rest of the Easter weekend.

The manager of the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel said in a statement that he would make every effort to assist the police in their investigation.

Words cannot express the depths of our sorrow, the statement said. Our thoughts remain with the family.

The boy's death comes just a year after a 61-year-old employee died at the same hotel after she was accidentally locked in a freezer overnight.
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A former governor of Veracruz in Mexico has been arrested in Guatemala after six months on the run.

Mexicos Attorney Generals Office said Javier Duarte was arrested in Panajachel, a picturesque tourist town on Lake Atitlan in the Guatemalan highlands, with the co-operation of the local police and Interpol.

The 43-year-old was located in a hotel where he was staying with his wife. He voluntarily agreed to leave his room when police arrived and was arrested without incident in the lobby

He looked pale and visibly tired when he was brought to a prison at a military base in the capital Guatemala City on Sunday where he is under heavy guard ahead of an extradition hearing.

His half a year as a fugitive has made him a high-profile symbol of government corruption in Mexico after he was accused of having links to a series of phantom businesses which allegedly won state contracts worth millions of pesos.

Duarte has denied stealing any money from the state and of diverting government funds overseas.

He said: I dont have foreign accounts. I dont have properties anywhere.

Mexican journalists protesting in Veracruz at the killing of their colleagues in 2012. At least 17 have died since Duarte came to power in 2010 (AFP/Getty Images)

Despite this the Mexican government has allegedly found millions of dollars linked to the politician  frozen from more than 100 bank accounts and has also seized property and businesses tied to him.

A reward of 15 million pesos (637,110) was offered for his capture.

Duarte was governor from 2010 until he resigned to fight the charges in October 2016 and disappeared a few days later. His temporary successor, Flavino Rios Alvarado, was arrested on suspicion of helping him flee last month.

The governors tenure was marked by allegations of corruption from the very beginning along with allegations that he has attempted to silence his critics.

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

During his tenure Veracruz was dubbed one of the most deadly places to be a journalist in Latin America after 17 reporters were murdered.

The detention comes a week after Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Mexico's Tamaulipas state, was arrested in Italy, also on allegations of organised crime and money laundering.

Another ex-governor, Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state, is also wanted on suspicion of corruption and is said to have fled to El Paso, Texas. He is not related to Javier Duarte.

Recommended Fear spreads as Mexican journalists mourned

All three ex-governors were members of the ruling Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI, of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The high-profile cases have caused a major embarrassment for the unpopular central government which has vowed to clamp down on corruption.

The party, which expelled Duarte when he first disappeared in October, has sought to distance itself from him and applauded the arrest.

Duarte became a powerful symbol of alleged corruption during midterm elections last year in which the PRI lost several governorships, including Veracruz, that it had held uninterrupted since its founding in 1929.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Police have made an arrest in connection with the murder of Vanessa Marcotte, a Google executive who was found dead after going jogging in Massachusetts last year.

Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 31, of Worcester, has reportedly been charged with aggravated assault and battery and assault with intent to rape, but is expected to receive a murder charge shortly, according to the Boston Globe.

Ms Marcotte, 27, was found dead in woodland late at night in August last year. She had been staying with her mother for the weekend, and was last seen during the afternoon when she left for a jog in the centre of town.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph D Early reportedly said on Saturday authorities had arrested Mr Colon-Ortiz, after a police officer recognised him from the physical profile and took down his number plate.

Investigators are said to have used the DNA sample found on her body, combined with witness statements from people who might have seen the killer, to create a physical description of a person of interest, which they announced in February.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Mr Early said: We got him. There is also one other person Id like to thank in this case, and that would be Vanessa Marcotte.

It was through her determined fight and her efforts that we obtained the DNA of her killer.

Ms Marcottes family released a statement late Saturday night, thanking investigators and the entire community for their help in identifying and finding the suspect.

After eight long months, were able to take the first step toward justice for Vanessa, they wrote.

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

She was a beautiful, intelligent, and generous young woman whose passion for giving back to the community will always be remembered.

Ms Marcotte's Instagram feed depicted someone who loved the New England Patriots, Boston and the beach.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she graduated from Boston University in 2011, stayed in the Boston area for several years and worked at WordStream, an online advertising company, and Vistaprint.

In January 2015, she started a new job as a healthcare account manager at Google in New York City.
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Three people are suing Donald Trump after being assaulted at his campaign rallies. Kashiya Nwanguma, Molly Shah, and Henry Brousseau have all filed lawsuits against Trump supporters they claim assaulted them at a rally  and Mr Trump, who they claim incited the attack.

They claim they were assaulted at a Trump campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky, where Mr Trump drew attention to their peaceful protests and directed the crowd to get them the hell out.

A video which clocked up thousands of views online shows one of the plaintiffs, Ms Nwanguma, being shoved repeatedly by attendee Alvin Bamberger. Ms Shah and Mr Brousseau say they were shoved and punched by attendee Matthew Heimbach, an alleged white supremacist from the area.

They are now seeking unspecified damages for physical injuries, emotional distress, humiliation and mental anguish.

Violence at Mr Trump's rallies has generated national headlines both before and after his inauguration. Activists erupted when attendees chanted Sieg Heil! at a black protester in December 2015. Police arrested a man for punching and kicking a protester at a rally in March 2016, and anti-Trump protesters braced for confrontation at a pro-Trump rally in Berkeley this week.

Ms Nwanguma, Ms Shah, and Mr Brousseau are the first to take legal action on the issue.

Trumps lawyers attempted to dismiss the suit earlier this month, arguing his words were protected as free speech. But a federal judge let the case go forward on 2 April, noting that speech inciting violence is not protected by the First Amendment.

Now, Mr Trumps lawyers are trying a new tack: arguing that Mr Trump did not give his orders to the crowd specifically. In a federal court filing on 14 April, Mr Trumps lawyers acknowledge that he spoke the words get them out of here," but deny that Mr. Trumps statement was directed at the crowd.

Speaking on Saturday, attorney Gregory L Belzley  one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs  was incredulous.

If he wasnt directing it to the crowd, who was he directing it to? Mr Belzley asked.

Mr Brousseau, the plaintiff who claims to have been punched at the rally, was similarly unpersuaded.

You cant say, Get em out of here and just magically hope or think that people arent going to take it literally, Mr Brousseau told The Independent.

Both Mr Belzley and Mr Brousseau highlighted the importance of law suit recently filed by Mr Bamberger, the Trump supporter captured on video shoving Ms Nwanguma. In the filing, Mr Bambergers lawyers claim his actions at the rally were directly motivated by Mr Trumps words.

While Mr Bamberger admits only to touching a woman in the crowd, his lawyers write that to the extent that Bamberger acted, he did so in response to  and inspired by  Trump and/or the Trump Campaigns urging to remove the protesters.

Mr Belzley called the cross claim extraordinarily significant.

Now it is no longer just the plaintiffs saying that what [Mr Trump] said was wrong, he told The Independent. Now one of the people that actually engaged in it has pointed his finger at Mr Trump as being what motivated to act in the way he did.

The third defendant, Mr Heimbach, has yet to respond to the suit. When he does, Mr Belzely said the plaintiffs are prepared to move very, very aggressively with discovery.

He is confident that he will be able to overcome Mr Trump's legal teams second defence: that he is immune from suit because he is President of the United States.

The concept of presidential immunity stems from 1982 Supreme Court ruling, which states that presidents cannot be liable for damages in civil suits over their actions as President. But subsequent courts have found presidents are not immune from federal litigation concerning their non-official acts.

Since Mr Trump was still a candidate at the time of the rally, Mr Belzely says his actions are not considered official presidential acts.

That battles been fought and lost, Mr Belzely said. And if there's any attempt to postpone this litigation, to stay it, to dismiss it, [Mr Trump] is going to to be reading that authority.
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Donald Trump is very upset that Amanda Knox voted for Hillary Clinton in the US election, his advisor George Lombardi has said.

The US President publicly stated his support of Ms Knox, who spent nearly four years in an Italian jail before she was acquitted of the murder of fellow exchange student Meredith Kercher.

Everyone should boycott Italy if Amanda Knox is not freed  she is totally innocent, he wrote on Twitter in September 2011, after her trial had been reopened following an appeal.

He also told Komo 4 News at the time: I think Im good at judging people. I study people and I become rich because I understand what people are about.

I watched the Amanda Knox case unfolding in news reports. After watching it for a little while, I said: This is not a guilty person.

But the 29-year-old from Seattle, who returned to the US from Italy when she was definitively found innocent in 2015, said she had chosen to support Ms Clinton in the presidential elections due to her views on abortion.

In a column for the West Seattle Herald in November, Ms Knox called Mr Trump inexperienced, uninformed and irresponsible (to say the very least).

If Obamas song was a rousing anthem, Clintons is a subtle symphony. And Trump, a broken trumpet, she wrote. [Clintons] impending victory represents the triumph of nuance and poise over prejudice and childishness.

Now Mr Lombardi, an Italian real estate investor who lives in Trump Tower and set up Facebook campaign groups for the President, has told the New York Times Mr Trump is very upset at Ms Knoxs ingratitude.

Recommended Amanda Knox writes essay on why women make false confessions

Ms Knox was accused of the murder of Ms Kercher, from Coulsdon in Surrey, who was found dead in 2007 at the flat she shared with Ms Knox in the university town of Perugia in central Italy.

She and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty and handed a 26-year sentence, but following a lengthy and complex court process, were exonerated.

Mr Lombardi, 66, has been described as Mr Trumps go-between with European populist, far-right political figures such as Marine Le Pen and members of Austrias Freedom Party.

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In January, he met Ms Le Pen for coffee in Trump Tower in Manhattan, which he told the newspaper was kind of innocent.

Ms Knox recently shared a tweet by Kristen Schaal, in which she wrote: Retweet if you want [Donald Trump] to release his tax returns.
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Donald Trump has questioned why he should label China a "currency manipulator" despite a vow to do so on his first day in office.

US manufacturers and Trump supporters who wanted tough talk on US trading partners could be disappointed that the President declined to use the label following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem?" he wrote on Twitter. "We will see what happens!"

Supporters may view Mr Trump as having fallen into the same trap as his predecessors, some of whom vowed on the campaign trail to take strong action on China but watered down their positions when in office.

The recent semi-annual report from the Treasury Department on the US major trading partners has instead placed China on a "watch list"  along with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland  to monitor their currency practices. It also stated that none of the major US trading partners "met the standards...for currency manipulation" in the second half of 2016.

Democrats condemned the President's apparent U-turn.

Unfortunately the Presidents failure to name China a currency manipulator is symptomatic of a lack of real, tough action on trade against China, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said.

 Donald Trump's closest advisor Steve Bannon thinks there will be war with China in the next few years

Mr Trump's closest adviser, Stephen Bannon, said there would be "war" with China in the near future, and his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson condemned China for its "illegal" artificial island-building in the disputed territory of the South China Sea, but Mr Trump appears to have watered down his stance to ensure China is on the same side as the US when it comes to tackling North Korea.

The recent Treasury report noted that while China had spent a decade deliberately buying and selling large amounts of its own currency on global markets to depreciate its value and make its exports more competitive, the country had turned around in recent months to make its currency appreciate in value.

When our trading partners engage in currency manipulation, they impose significant, and often long-lasting hardship on American workers and businesses, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Last year Mr Trump told his supporters in October that he would force China into negotiations, breaking tradition of past Presidents over the last two decades.

We must stand up to Chinas blackmail and reject corporate Americas manipulation of our politicians, the Trump campaign wrote on its website. The page which has since been taken down.

It added: The US Treasurys designation of China as a currency manipulator will force China to the negotiating table and open the door to a fair  and far better  trading relationship.

The 2017 Treasury report struck a more mild tone, however.

It acknowledged that China had recently been propping up the value of its renminbi currency, which benefited American exporters, and hoped it would be a long-term move.

China will need to demonstrate that its lack of intervention to resist appreciation over the last three years represents a durable policy shift by letting the RMB rise with market forces once appreciation pressures resume, the report says.

It added it will be scrutinizing Chinas trade and currency practices very closely.

US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach Show all 10 1 /10 US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach US Marine soldiers patrol during the US-South Korea joint Exercise Operation Pacific Reach in Pohang, South Korea. North Korea is vowing tough counteraction to any military moves that might follow the US move to send the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its battle group to waters off the Korean Peninsula AP US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach South Korean soldiers take part in the Operation Pacific Reach joint logistic exercise in Pohang, South Korea Reuters US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach North Korea is vowing tough counteraction to any military moves that might follow the US move to send the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its battle group to waters off the Korean Peninsula AP US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach South Korean marine soldiers stand guard during the US-South Korea joint Exercise Operation Pacific Reach in Pohang, South Korea AP US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach A US Marine takes part in Operation Pacific Reach joint logistic exercise in Pohang, South Korea Reuters US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach A US Marine takes a position during a Combined Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (CJLOTS) exercise as part of a joint defence exercise at a beach in Pohang Getty Images US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach South Korea and the United States kicked off a combined distribution exercise focused on integrating the two sides alliance logistics capabilities, in Pohang, 260 kms southeast of Seoul Getty Images US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach South Korea and the United States kicked off a combined distribution exercise focused on integrating the two sides alliance logistics capabilities Getty Images US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach A US Marine walks past a military vehicle during a Combined Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (CJLOTS) exercise as part of a joint defence exercise in Pohang Getty Images US/South Korea joint exercise Operation Pacific Reach US Marines gather at a beach during a Combined Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (CJLOTS) exercise as part of a joint defence exercise in Pohang, 260 kms southeast of Seoul, South Korea Getty Images

Mr Trump vowed for months to take strong actions against its major trading partners, including China and Mexico. Once in the White House, he withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an Obama-era trade deal, and he signed two executive orders directing officials to investigate practises of trading partners.

He has failed so far, however, to re-negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he labelled a "disaster" under Bill Clinton. Congress has not yet approved the appointment of United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a top administration negotiator.

Mr Trumps softer stance on China comes after he met with the Chinese leader at his Mar-a-Lago resort on 6 and 7 April.

He anticipated that the meeting would be a very difficult one because of Chinas large trade deficit and its impact on US jobs.

After the meeting, he said the meeting had been one of tremendous goodwill and friendship, and the two leaders had discussed a 100-day plan to boost US exports to China.

China also said it would offer US companies wider access to its financial services and beef markets.
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Donald Trump has accused protesters who took to the streets of cities across the US to demand he publish his tax returns of being part of an organised conspiracy paid for by persons unknown.

The billionaire said his election as President had made the release of his tax details irrelevant, writing on Twitter: Someone should look into who paid for the small organised rallies yesterday. The election is over!

"I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican  easily won the Electoral College! Now tax returns are brought up again?" he added, highlighting the issue to his 28 million followers.

Recent polls show 74 per cent of Americans want Mr Trump to release his tax returns. Every president since Richard Nixon has made theirs publicly available, but Mr Trump has repeatedly refused to do so.

Dozens of demonstrations took place yesterday, including in Washington DC, New York and south Florida, where protesters marched to the President's Mar-a-Lago resort  where he is currently staying.

Many featured oversized inflatable chickens with the President's features, suggesting Mr Trump is too afraid to make details of his tax affairs public.

In the US, 15 April is colloquially known as Tax Day, as it's usually the day on which individual tax returns are due.

"We're like your taxes. Unpaid," wrote one Twitter user in response to the President's comments, while another wrote: "'Small' was your pathetic inauguration crowd"

As a candidate and as president, Mr Trump has steadfastly refused to release his tax returns, citing an ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Mike Stutz dressed as a Russian general stands beside a giant Trump chicken as he joins protesters taking part in the 'Tax March' in Los Angeles, California (Getty) (Getty Images)

In September, he told ABC News: I don't think anybody cares, except some members of the press.

However, the IRS has said that the President can release his tax returns even while under audit, with critics raising questions about what his tax returns say about his net worth and various business ties.

Mr Trump has previously claimed protesters at his rallies, and at Republican town hall meetings, were paid.

Last month, two pages of the President's 2005 tax return were obtained by investigative reporter David Cay Johnston and published by the site DCReport.org.

They appeared to show that Mr Trump paid $38m (30m) on an income of more than $150m (120m).
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Mike Pence has called North Korea's failed missile launch a "provocation" after landing in South Korea for a 10-day tour of Asia.

The US Vice President arrived in the region a day after North Korea paraded missiles and military hardware, warning America of advancements in its nuclear and defence capabilities.

"This morning's provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face every day in the defence of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defence of America in this part of the world," he told troops at a military base in Seoul.

Mr Pence said America's resolve to help South Korea "has never been stronger", adding: "Under President Trump's leadership, we're going to rebuild our military."

North Korea attempted to fire a missile which exploded during its launch, US and South Korean officials said  a high-profile failure that comes as a powerful US aircraft supercarrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

Donald Trump described the carrier group as an "armada" as he indicated the US will toughen its stance towards North Korea, tweeting last week: "If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them!"

The failed missile launch followed a huge military display in Pyongyang, the hermit kingdom's capital, to mark the birth anniversary of the nation's founding president Kim Il-sung.

What appeared to be new inter-continental ballistic missiles were unveiled at the parade, as a close aide to dictator Kim Jong-un warned that Mr Trump's actions could unleash nuclear war.

If the United States wages reckless provocation against us, our revolutionary power will instantly counter with annihilating strike, and we will respond to full-out war with full-out war and to nuclear war with our style of nuclear strike warfare, Choe Ryong-hae told crowds.

In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Show all 16 1 /16 In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean women soldiers take part in a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April AFP/Getty Images In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun A huge military parade in Pyongyang marks the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung, the country's late founder and grandfather of current ruler Kim Jong Un AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves during a military parade on 15 April 2017 AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean soldiers carry flags and a photo of Kim Il-sung during a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Soldiers march across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun What military experts say appears to be a North Korean KN-08 inter-continental ballistic missile is paraded across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Women wearing traditional Korean dress wave flowers and shout slogans as they pass Kim Jong-Un during a parade in Pyongyang on 15 April AFP/Getty Images In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean female soldiers march during a parade for the 'Day of the Sun' festival on Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on 15 April EPA In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Military vehicles carry missiles with characters reading 'Pukkuksong' during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang on 15 April 2017 EPA In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Attendees carry sheets in the colours of North Korea's national flag during a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun A soldier salutes from atop an armoured vehicle during a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun A North Korean woman cries as she looks towards Kim Jong-un during a parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun University students carry the national flag and two bronze statues of the late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il during a military parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Missiles are driven past Kim Jong-un and other high ranking officials during a military parade marking the Day of the Sun in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves from a balcony during a parade for the 'Day of the Sun' festival in Pyongyang on 15 April 2017 EPA In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Missiles are driven past Kim Jong-un and other high ranking officials during a military parade marking the Day of the Sun in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

The White House said it believed the latest test involved a medium-range ballistic missile that failed within four to five seconds after launch, and that it did not involve an inter-continental ballistic missile.

The missile blew up "almost immediately" after it was attempted at 11.21 Hawaii time  9.21pm UK time  from the east coast city of Sinpo, said US Navy Commander Dave Benham.

The North regularly launches short-range missiles, but is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target US troops in Asia and, eventually, the US mainland.

After his arrival in Seoul, Mr Pence placed a wreath at Seoul National Cemetery and then worshipped with military personnel at an Easter church service at the US Army Garrison Yongsan.

During a meal after the services, he said the tensions on the Korean peninsula had put into sharp focus the importance of the joint US-South Korean mission.

Our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger," said the Vice President.

With your help, and with God's help, freedom will ever prevail on this peninsula.

Mr Pence told the military members that he had spoken twice with Mr Trump during the day.

Chinas foreign minister urged both the US and North Korea to de-escalate the situation before it gets to an irreversible and unmanageable stage on Friday, calling on both sides to refrain from provoking and threatening each other.

If a war occurs, the result is a situation in which everybody loses and there can be no winner, Wang Yi warned.

Shannon Kile, a nuclear specialist at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said North Korea had previously deployed mock-ups of missiles at its parades and it was difficult to verify the weapons on show.

He told The Independent what appeared to be the KN-08 ICBM was rolled out, although it has not yet been flight tested, as well as large canisters indicating the possible development of a cold launch long-range missile.

Additional reporting from agencies
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US National Security Adviser HR McMaster has claimed that all options are on the table when it comes to dealing with the threat of North Korea.

Responding to what is believed to be a failed ballistic missile test by the Asian nation in the early hours of Sunday, Lt General McMaster said that the latest test "fits into a pattern of provocative and destabilising and threatening behaviour on the part of the North Korean regime".

With US Vice President Mike Pence also touching down in Seoul in South Korea, it is clear that US officials are making a concerted diplomatic push to try and get the situation in North Korea under control and reassure allies in the region.

General McMaster was speaking from Afghanistan, where he was due to meet with Afghan officials in Kabul. That visit follows the use by the US military of the largest non-nuclear weapon they have ever dropped in combat, the so-called "mother of all bombs," which destroyed a network of tunnels used by Isis in Afghanistan.

US Vice President Mike Pence speaks during an Easter fellowship dinner at a military base in Seoul on Sunday (Reuters)

Destroying Isis was the main foreign policy aim of US President Donald Trump when he came into office earlier this year, but his administration now finds itself at the centre of a number of international crises, including the conflict in Syria, and new aggression from North Korea. This is seemingly at odds with Mr Trump's isolationist rhetoric on the campaign trail where he espoused a policy framework based on the slogan 'America First'.

The chain of events that led to such frantic diplomatic efforts began in Syria almost two weeks ago, when an apparent chemical gas attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun killed dozens of civilians and prompted the US to launch 59 missiles at a Syrian airbase. The US, along with the majority of the international community, blamed the gas attack on the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, although the regime - and their main supporters Russia - have denied it. Mr Trump said that the attack "crossed many lines" and he could not stand by, a U-turn on the previous policy reiterated just days previously that Mr Assad was not the priority in Syria, the jihadis of Isis were.

In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Show all 16 1 /16 In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean women soldiers take part in a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April AFP/Getty Images In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun A huge military parade in Pyongyang marks the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung, the country's late founder and grandfather of current ruler Kim Jong Un AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves during a military parade on 15 April 2017 AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean soldiers carry flags and a photo of Kim Il-sung during a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Soldiers march across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun What military experts say appears to be a North Korean KN-08 inter-continental ballistic missile is paraded across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Women wearing traditional Korean dress wave flowers and shout slogans as they pass Kim Jong-Un during a parade in Pyongyang on 15 April AFP/Getty Images In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean female soldiers march during a parade for the 'Day of the Sun' festival on Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on 15 April EPA In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Military vehicles carry missiles with characters reading 'Pukkuksong' during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang on 15 April 2017 EPA In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Attendees carry sheets in the colours of North Korea's national flag during a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun A soldier salutes from atop an armoured vehicle during a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun A North Korean woman cries as she looks towards Kim Jong-un during a parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun University students carry the national flag and two bronze statues of the late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il during a military parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Missiles are driven past Kim Jong-un and other high ranking officials during a military parade marking the Day of the Sun in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves from a balcony during a parade for the 'Day of the Sun' festival in Pyongyang on 15 April 2017 EPA In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Missiles are driven past Kim Jong-un and other high ranking officials during a military parade marking the Day of the Sun in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters

The US missile strike, which was labelled a "warning shot" against further use of chemical attacks by Mr Assad, signalled Mr Trump may be willing to shed his isolationist policies when the need arose, despite it threatening to alienate his core support. The strike on Syria was followed by the use of the GBU-42 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb on Isis positions in Afghanistan, with the dropping of the weapon also likely a signal to North Korea - whose rhetoric over the threat of war in the Asia-Pacific region had itself been escalating.

In light of all these moves, a strong US response to North Korea had been expected - particularly as a military test, potentially a nuclear one, had been expected on the weekend of North Korea staging a massive military parade celebrating the birth of its state founder. General McMaster made clear that it was working with China - who provides the majority of supplies to North Korea and try and resolve the aggression by North Korea.

There is an international consensus now, including the Chinese leadership, that this is a situation that just cannot continue, he said

In the UK, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tweeted: I strongly condemn the latest North Korean missile launch. They must stop these belligerent acts and comply with UN resolutions.

Such US cooperation with China makes a softening of the Trump administration's stance on China - with the US President having previously used China as one of his main scapegoats over changes to US trade practices that Mr Trump would oversee once in office.

Mr Trump has previously accused the country of apparent currency manipulation that leaves the leaves the US at a disadvantage on trade.

However, Mr Trump acknowledged China's help with the North Korean issue on Sunday, linking it to a softer line taken on China's management of its currency. Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens! he said on Twitter - reversing his campaign rhetoric.

China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also exchanged views on the situation on the Korean peninsula by phone, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. Mr Yang said the two sides should maintain dialogue.

 Mike Pence: South Korea's willingness to step forward over North Korea is an inspiration

General McMaster, in remarks in ABC's This Week news programme, made clear that the US would be looking to resolve the Issue peacefully. Former Conservative foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind suggested that action from the US may have already taken place without the need for a direct military confrontation [The missile] could have failed because the system is not competent enough to make it work, but there is a very strong belief that the US - through cyber methods - has been successful on several occasions in interrupting these sorts of tests and making them fail, Sir Malcolm told the BBC on Sunday.

But in a further tweet, Mr Trump referenced the military might of the US, following the line of officials in recent days that the country may not be afraid to use more direct methods in the face of further provocation - as in Syria and Afghanistan.

"Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!" Mr Trump said.

South Korea said the North's latest show of force threatened the whole world but a US foreign policy adviser travelling with Mr Pence on Air Force Two sought to defuse some of the tension, saying the test of what was believed to be a medium-range missile had come as no surprise.

We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch, the adviser told reporters on condition of anonymity.

It's a failed test. It follows another failed test. So really no need to reinforce their failure. We don't need to expend any resources against that.

"It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when. The good news is that after five seconds it fizzled out.

Mr Pence, addressing an Easter service with American troops in South Korea, said the US commitment to South Korea was unwavering.

Let me assure you under President Trump's leadership, our resolve has never been stronger. Our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger.

Mr Pence was beginning a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of US commitment to its ally in the face of rising tension. The US nuclear-powered Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group is also heading to the region.

South Korea, which hosts 28,500 US troops and holds a presidential election on 9 May, warned of punitive action if the Sunday launch led to further provocation.

North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterday's military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturising a nuclear warhead.

Earlier this month, the North launched a ballistic missile from the same region as the latest test, ahead of a summit between the United States and China in Florida to discuss the North's arms programme.

But that missile, which US officials said appeared to be a liquid-fuelled, extended-range Scud, only flew about 40 miles (60km), a fraction of its range before spinning out of control.

As for China, the nation has appeared increasingly frustrated with the North. It banned imports of North Korean coal in February, cutting off its most important export. China's customs department issued an order last week telling traders to return North Korean coal cargoes.

Agencies contributed to this report
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As North Korea ramps up its ballistic missile and nuclear testing programs, the world is watching the isolated peninsula with trepidation.

Days after the US deployed a naval strike group to the region, China reportedly sent 150,000 troops to the border in the face of increasing aggression from North Korea.

China has long been the sole major ally and trading partner of the reclusive nation, but heightened tension has resulted in an economic slowdown in relations.

Nowhere is this slowdown more apparent than on the 880-mile long border between the two countries. Although trade continues, half-finished buildings and an eerie sense of abandonment showcase the strained ties.

Reuters photographers visited the Chinese city of Dandong on the border to see how the area has been affected, and the photos are fascinating.

The border between China and North Korea has been described as the nation's "lifeline to the outside world."

The contrast between the two nations is stark. While much of the landscape along the North Korean side of the border is barren, punctuated with small towns...

The border between China and North Korea has been described as the nation's "lifeline to the outside world."

Picture: Reuters/Damir Sagolj (Reuters)

The contrast between the two nations is stark. While much of the landscape along the North Korean side of the border is barren, punctuated with small towns...

Picture: Reuters/Damir Sagolj (Reuters)

... the Chinese side is dominated by the city of Dandong.

Picture: Reuters/Damir Sagolj (Reuters)

Since the oppressive regime has made it illegal for citizens to leave the country without its permission, the Chinese city of Dandong is the most many North Koreans will see of the outside world.

Picture: Reuters/Damir Sagolj (Reuters)

At night, the only constant light from the North Korean side of the border is the illuminated statue of Kim Il-sung, the country's founding father, according to The Guardian's Matthew Poulter.

Picture: Reuters/Damir Sagolj (Reuters)

The Friendship Bridge, seen in this photo, is one of the few ways to leave North Korea, and is also the most heavily used trade route.

Picture: Reuters/Damir Sagolj (Reuters)

The reclusive peninsula's ongoing nuclear development has strained ties between the two nations, which, combined with UN sanctions, has resulted in slowed trade. The border is littered with run-down buildings and incomplete construction projects. Picture: Reuters/ Damir Sagolj

The sanctions limit the export of commodities such as iron ore and coal from North Korea, meaning the majority of goods passing through the border are now household items, food, and textiles. Picture: Reuters/Damir Sagolj



Picture: Reuters/ Damir Sagolj (Reuters)

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Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
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North Korea has been secretly training special forces to kidnap Westerners in South Korea and hold them hostage in the event of a US attack, a defector has claimed.

Ung-gil Lee, who defected to South Korea in 2006, said Kim Jong-un had highly armed snatch squads designed to grab foreign diplomats and tourists from across the South Korean border, according to the Mail on Sunday.

He added that Donald Trump should be wary of launching action against North Korea, calling the country part of the "Axis of Evil", and saying Mr Kim was "worse than all the evil dictators of Libya, Iraq and Syria combined.

Mr Lee, who defected to South Korea after serving for six years in one of these clandestine units, told the newspaper: The best case [for his old unit] would be to round them up and take them north, but if not they will take the foreigners hostage in South Korea.

But they will all be killed, come what may  this goes hand-in-hand with assassination.

The 37-year-old, who now works as a financial adviser in Seoul, said Mr Kims rule was worse than all the prominent dictators in the Middle East and Africa combined, and warned that Mr Trump should only carry out an attack if he thinks he can remove Mr Kim from power.

[Mr Kim] is going to fight back and use all retaliatory measures. Unless Trump thinks he can get rid of him, he must not carry out an attack, Mr Lee said.

It is right to call North Korea part of the Axis of Evil. Its leader is worse than all the evil dictators of Libya, Iraq and Syria combined.

It comes amid growing tensions over North Koreas growing nuclear strength, with Mr Trump vowing to take care of the situation following his unexpected cruise missile attack on Syria over its use of chemical weapons.

Mr Lee was recruited to join North Koreas infamous special forces aged 17, an after a year of brainwashing and re-education, he spent five years training as a communications officer.

He said he was part of a 100-strong land and air group selected for raids on the South to destroy infrastructure, disrupt roads and ports, and kidnap foreigners. His group was also taught to memorise details about mobile phone systems, and were armed with nerve agents, with which they were in some cases required to carry out "suicide missions".

 North Korea shows new missiles in huge parade amid nuclear fears

We would sneak into the South, change our clothing, go into areas where there are lots of foreigners and capture some of them. We memorised locations, phone numbers and the car number plates of major embassies," he said.

I carried neostigmine bromide and potassium cyanide. Those exposed to these drugs die of heart attacks. These were carried for attacks or else for us to commit suicide. These were suicide missions. Obviously we were supposed to go back but, if not, we were told we must kill ourselves.

Mr Lee admitted that during his military years he believed it was his duty to protect the dynastic dictatorship that has ruled North Korea for seven decades, saying it used supposed threat of attack by South Korea and the US to retain power and excuse its poverty and repression.

But he lost his faith after seeing smuggled foreign films that shattered the propaganda pumped out behind the Bamboo Curtain, saying he was amazed when he watched his first ever American film, Saving Private Ryan.

Inside the daily life in North Korea Show all 19 1 /19 Inside the daily life in North Korea Inside the daily life in North Korea People reading a newspaper at the metro station Inside the daily life in North Korea Thoughts of the leaders on the tram. They have about a dozen of these on every tram, all with different thoughts Inside the daily life in North Korea Young people training for a big upcoming festival Inside the daily life in North Korea People at the Pyongyang's annual marathon Inside the daily life in North Korea Many stars on one of the trolleys in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea An intimidating poster in a primary school in North Korea. Inside the daily life in North Korea Solar panels installed on a street lamp. Inside the daily life in North Korea A poster on the window next to one of the venues we visited in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea Kids playing football next to the Arch of Triumph. After a while tourists were allowed to join, so some of us did Inside the daily life in North Korea Class in an educational center in Pyongyang (where people over 17 years old can attend any classes they choose after school, for free) Inside the daily life in North Korea People waving at me during the Pyongyang marathon Inside the daily life in North Korea People having a great time dancing at a public park Inside the daily life in North Korea A metro driver in a metro station in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea Fireworks to mark the birthday of the Eternal President Kim Il Sung on our last night in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea My wonderful tour guide at a public park Inside the daily life in North Korea One of the parks in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea A person rowing some boats for the day at a river in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea The National War Museum Inside the daily life in North Korea Public park in Pyongyang

Mr Trump sent a naval strike group, including an aircraft carrier and submarines, to North Korea after the country launched a missile test last week  to which Mr Kim responded by warning he was ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US.

An attempt by North Korea to launch an unidentified missile on Sunday failed, according to South Koreas military. Mike Pence called the failed missile launch a provocation after landing in South Korea for a 10-day tour of Asia on Sunday.

It came a day after a military parade in Pyongyang unveiled what are thought to be new intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as new submarine-launched missiles.
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North Korea attempted to launch an "unidentified" missile on Sunday, but it is believed to have failed, South Koreas military has said.

A US military spokesman said the missile blew up almost immediately.

US Navy Commander Dave Benham, a spokesman for US Pacific Command, said it detected and tracked what it assessed to be a North Korean ballistic missile launch at 11:21 a.m. Hawaii time (2121 GMT).

 North Korea shows new missiles in huge parade amid nuclear fears

The missile blew up almost immediately, Commander Benham said. The type of missile is still being assessed.

The attempt, which was said to be near Sinpo on the countrys east coast, is the site of a North Korean submarine base, and is where the country has previously tested submarine-launched ballistic missiles it is developing.

The launch comes one day after a military parade in Pyongyang unveiled what are thought to be new inter-continental ballistic missiles as well as new submarine-launched missiles.

The parade marked the 105th anniversary of the birth of the states founder, and came as tensions between North Korea and the US sparked fears of nuclear war.

Analysts had already predicted that a major new missile launch could be imminent, after US President Donald Trump vowed to properly deal with North Korea, if the Chinese was unable to rein in its ally.

US Vice President Mike Pence, who is en route to Seoul, in South Korea, has been briefed on the attempted missile launch and has been in touch with President Trump, Reuters reports.

Mr Trump described the US nuclear-powered warships heading towards the region as an armada last week, while Mr Pence warned that a policy of strategic patience with North Korea is over.

The country has warned of a nuclear attack on the US if provoked, however, there is no evidence the country has succeeded in creating a nuclear warhead that could be fired on a long-range missile.

A senior North Korean official addressing crowds at the military parade on Saturday vowed that Mr Trumps reckless provocation could be met with an annihilating strike using nuclear weapons.

In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Show all 16 1 /16 In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean women soldiers take part in a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April AFP/Getty Images In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun A huge military parade in Pyongyang marks the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung, the country's late founder and grandfather of current ruler Kim Jong Un AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves during a military parade on 15 April 2017 AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean soldiers carry flags and a photo of Kim Il-sung during a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Soldiers march across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun What military experts say appears to be a North Korean KN-08 inter-continental ballistic missile is paraded across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Women wearing traditional Korean dress wave flowers and shout slogans as they pass Kim Jong-Un during a parade in Pyongyang on 15 April AFP/Getty Images In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean female soldiers march during a parade for the 'Day of the Sun' festival on Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on 15 April EPA In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Military vehicles carry missiles with characters reading 'Pukkuksong' during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang on 15 April 2017 EPA In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Attendees carry sheets in the colours of North Korea's national flag during a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun A soldier salutes from atop an armoured vehicle during a military parade in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun A North Korean woman cries as she looks towards Kim Jong-un during a parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun University students carry the national flag and two bronze statues of the late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il during a military parade on 15 April AP In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Missiles are driven past Kim Jong-un and other high ranking officials during a military parade marking the Day of the Sun in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves from a balcony during a parade for the 'Day of the Sun' festival in Pyongyang on 15 April 2017 EPA In pictures: North Korea marks the Day of the Sun Missiles are driven past Kim Jong-un and other high ranking officials during a military parade marking the Day of the Sun in Pyongyang on 15 April Reuters

Chinas foreign minister urged both the US and North Korea to de-escalate the situation before it gets to an irreversible and unmanageable stage on Friday, calling on both sides to refrain from provoking and threatening each other.

If a war occurs, the result is a situation in which everybody loses and there can be no winner, Wang Yi warned.
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Turkish citizens voted on Sunday in a referendum which would give sweeping new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

If the electorate votes yes, the role of prime minister would be abolished and executive power would be transferred to Mr Erdogan. Under the proposed changes, the President could in theory hold office until 2029.

He would also be able to appoint judges, pass decrees and have greater influence over the civil service.

The Yes campaign say the proposed changes would streamline Turkeys political system, and point out the both the US and France have an executive presidency.

However, opponents fear the concentration of the power in the office of the Presidency will hasten the countrys drift towards authoritarianism.

Polls published earlier this week predicted a narrow majority for yes - between 51 and 52 per cent.

However, the referendum is clearly on a knife edge - with one poll stating that 8 per cent of Turks were still undecided.

In the run-up to the election, many Turkish commentators and activists have said the Presidents crackdown on journalists has stifled debate around the referendum.

In the aftermath of the attempted coup against President Erdogan last year, at least 130 media organisations have been shut down.

There are currently around a hundred journalists in prison in Turkey, according to the international press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Erol Onderoglu, RSF's representative in Turkey, told The Independent the government had been "intimidating Turkish civil society" in the lead-up to the referendum.

"Many journalists are behind bars, so the referendum will have been achieved, unfortunately, without any criticism of the government from a major TV station, for example.

"It goes without saying that state-owned TV channels and all the pro-government stations have, in a systematic manner, covered only the governments perspective.

Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border Show all 13 1 /13 Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border Turkey-AFP.jpg AFP/Getty Images Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border turkey-rt.jpg Reuters Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border 24-turkey3-rt.jpg Reuters Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border turkey-1.jpg Reuters Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border turkey-9.jpg Getty Images Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border turkey-2.jpg Reuters Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border turkey-7.jpg Reuters Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border turkey-4.jpg Getty Images Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border turkey-6.jpg EPA Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border turkey-5.jpg EPA Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border AN22156086An-anti-governmen.jpg GETTY IMAGES Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border Turkey-REUTERS.jpg Reuters Turkey riots latest: Erdogan blames 'extremists' for nationwide riots as protester, 22, is killed near Syrian border turkey-8.jpg Reuters

"In a referendum process... people should have access to different points of view and be informed properly. This is the opposite of what has happened in Turkey."

The government is also fighting a military campaign against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the south-east and is restricting press coverage of the campaign.

Thousands of Kurdish people displaced by conflict in Turkey may not be able to vote because of their lack of an address, according to Turkeys Independent Election Monitoring Network.

Mr Erdogan became Turkish president in 2014, after more than a decade as prime minister. He has transformed the role, which was largely ceremonial before he took office.

The last polls in Turkeys eastern provinces will close at 5pm (2pm GMT). Unofficial results are expected later on Sunday.
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Jean-Luc Melenchon and Francois Fillon have closed the gap on the two leading candidates in the French Presidential election, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, according to the latest polling.

The poll by Ipsos-Sopra Sterna predicts that the centrist Macron would receive 22 per cent in the first round, as would Front National leader Marine Le Pen.

The left-wing candidate Melenchon is on 20 per cent, while Mr Fillon trails just one point behind on 19 per cent.

In a previous poll published by Ipsos France, Ms Le Pen and Mr Macron were on 25 per cent in the first round, comfortably ahead of of Mr Fillon, in third place, who was expected to receive 17.5 per cent.

Mr Melenchon, a hard-left candidate who supports a Universal Basic Income and has promised to withdraw France from Nato and the World Bank, has been enjoying a surge in popularity in recent weeks.

He has overtaken the Socialist Partys Benoit Hamon to become the leading left-wing candidate.

Meanwhile, Ms Le Pens support has nosedived after the European Parliament accused the Front National of defrauding it to the tune of 340,000 (290,000).

French voters will go the polls on 23 April. Under the French system, if no presidential candidate gains more than half the vote, they are pitted against each other in a second round of voting 14 days later.

This year, 11 candidates are standing for election, so a second round is virtually a certainty.

Taking into account undecided voters and allowing for a margin of error in polling results, it is impossible to say with certainty who of the front four will go head-to-head in the second round.
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A pilot has been showered in praise after he helped a woman passenger to look after her children during a flight.

Captain Tom Nystrom, of Finnair, gave a helping hand after he saw that an overwhelmed mother had four young boys, two of which were babies needing a feed.

He offered to hold one of the babies on his lap and feed him the bottle.

Recommended Pilot turns plane around for elderly couple to visit dying grandson

I have children of my own... so it came natural to me to help this customer with her babies, Mr Nystrom told Inside Edition.

When one child became fussy, he would hand the boy back to his mother and take another child instead.

A flight attendant on the plane, Ami Niemela, explained on Instagram how the rest of the crew also offered to pitch in.

"Naturally, one cannot travel with two babies on one's lap," she wrote on Instagram.

"So we had to solve the dilemma of [a] missing lap, otherwise it would have been a no-go for mom and the kids.

"Luckily we had our positioning crew on board and wonderful Tom took the task of being the extra lap."

The world's safest low-cost airlines Show all 8 1 /8 The world's safest low-cost airlines The world's safest low-cost airlines WestJet, a low cost Canadian carrier, was voted one of the safest low-cost airlines Alasdair McLellan/Creative Commons The world's safest low-cost airlines Virgin America was named as a low cost carrier by airlineratings.com Virginamerica.com The world's safest low-cost airlines Thomas Cook airlines were ranked highly on the world's best low cost carriers by airlineratings.com The world's safest low-cost airlines Boeing 737 Boeing 737 is part of TUI Fly, a German based subsidiary of Thomas Cook Tuifly.com The world's safest low-cost airlines Volaris, a low-cost Mexican carrier, has been rated one of the safest airlines to fly Volaris/Carribeanairlinenews The world's safest low-cost airlines HK Express was rated highly in the rankings HKExpress The world's safest low-cost airlines Aer Lingus was rated as one of the safest low-cost airlines in the world. The world's safest low-cost airlines America's low-cost carrier has been rated as super safe.

When she was at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, she shared a photo on the social media site of the baby and the smiling pilot.

The photo has been liked more than 1,000 times.

Having strangers show you this kind of kindness during this stressful time means more than anyone can know, said one Instagram user.

Acts of kindness, priceless, said another.

The airline was quick to jump on the positive publicity, tweeting the photo and an accompanying news story.

Kudos to our purser @finami & pilot Tom! Story about a pilot looking after a baby is simply adorable, Finnair tweeted from its official account.

Ms Niemela also gained attention when she posted a video of her colleagues singing to passengers and handing out chocolates aboard another flight.

The airline was awarded Best European Airline at the TTG China Travel Awards for the second consecutive year last month.


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Turkey's state-run news agency has said Yes votes are leading in Turkey's referendum on whether to grant the President sweeping new powers.

But the main opposition party, CHP, have said they will demand a recount of 37 per cent of the vote, claiming that 1.5 million "illegal" ballots were counted. The pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) also said they had information there was between three and four per cent voter fraud during the vote.

The Yes side took an early lead during vote counting and stood at more than 51 per cent with 98 percent of ballots tallied, The Anadolu Agency said.

However, there was also confusion over the number of votes that had been counted, with the Supreme Election Commission reporting that only 65 to 70 per cent of ballots had been opened.

 Turkey Referendum: Votes are cast in Ankara

Data cited by Anadolu showed a high percentage of "Yes" votes in central Anatolia, while "No" votes led in coastal regions near the Aegean Sea and Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.

If the electorate votes Yes, the role of prime minister would be abolished and executive power would be transferred to Mr Erdogan. Under the proposed changes, the President could hold office until 2029.

He would also be able to appoint judges, pass decrees and have greater influence over the civil service.

The Yes campaign say the proposed changes would streamline Turkeys political system, and point out the both the US and France have an executive presidency.

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. 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But opponents fear the concentration of the power in the office of the Presidency will cause the country to lurch further towards authoritarianism.

The deputy chairman of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said "illegal acts" were being carried out in favour of the government during the vote.

"Many illegal acts are being carried out in favour of the government right now, but 'No' will win in the end," Erdal Aksunger told reporters at his party headquarters, referring to an election board decision to accept unstamped ballots.

A statement on the High Electoral Board's (YSK) website hours before polls closed said it would count ballots that had not been stamped by its officials as valid unless they could be proved fraudulent, citing a high number of complaints that YSK officials at polling stations had failed to stamp them.
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Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed victory in a referendum granting him sweeping new powers, hailing the result as an "historic decision".

The leader called on the international community to respect the result and discouraged his critics from "belittling" the outcome, saying they "shouldn't try, it will be in vain".

The state-run Anadolu news agency claimed that 51 per cent per cent of voters had sided with the "Yes" campaign, ushering in the most radical change to the country's political system in modern times.

 Turkey Referendum: Votes are cast in Ankara

But the main opposition the Republican People's Party (CHP) said they would demand a recount of up to 40 per cent of the vote, saying that "illegal acts" occurred during the vote and that there were up to 2.5m "problematic ballots". The pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) also claimed they had information that voter fraud was implicated in up to four per cent of the ballots. Both parties said they would appeal the results.

The Supreme Election Commission said it would make the unprecedented decision to count ballots that had not been stamped by its officials as valid unless they could be proved fraudulent, citing a high number of complaints that its officials at polling stations had failed to stamp them.

Anadolu reported that Mr Erdogan had called allied political leaders to congratulate them over the yes win, with the words: May this result be fortunate for our nation. Meanwhile, Mr Erdogan was said to have told Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that the results were clear, according to presidential sources.

As Mr Erdogan's supporters celebrated on the streets of Istanbul with fireworks, the CHP said that illegal acts were carried out in favour of the government in the referendum.

Referring to the decision to count ballots without validation stamps, CHP Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu said: You cannot change the rules of the game in the middle of the game," adding that the board had cast a shadow on the results.

Yet the head of Turkeys high electoral board Sadi Guven refuted the claims, saying the decision to count votes without stamps was taken before the results were entered into the system and that members of the AKP and the main opposition were present at almost all polling stations and signed off on reports.

He also confirmed that the Yes campaign had won based on unofficial results. With only about 600,000 votes still to be counted, 1.25m Turkish voters had opted to expand the Presidents powers, Mr Guven told reporters in Ankara. He added that official results were expected in 11-12 days

The leader of Turkey's nationalist MHP opposition party, Devlet Bahceli  who supported the "Yes" campaign  said that the outcome of a referendum on boosting the powers of Mr Erdogan was an undeniably successful achievement and should be respected.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Mr Erdogan said unofficial results showed the yes side had won by a margin of 1.3 million votes.

The President struck a conciliatory tone, thanking all voters regardless of how they cast their ballots and describing the referendum as an historic decision.

April 16 is the victory of all who said yes or no, of the whole 80 million, of the whole of Turkey of 780,000-square kilometers, he said.

Turkey's foreign minister said the win brought about the birth of a new Turkey. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a group of supporters in his hometown of Antalya on Sunday: As of now, there is a truly new Turkey. There will be stability and trust in the new Turkey.

Recommended Three die as Turkey votes on making President supremely powerful

But, with the opposition parties stating that a re-count was required, it may be some time before a definitive result is reached. The HDP claimed that results would not be final until their appeal had been heard.

The referendum result is a clear sign that a societal agreement could not be reach," HDP spokesman Osman Baydemir said. "Our co-chairs being jailed, the referendum being held under a state of emergency, and other oppressive measures cast a shadow and legitimacy problem over the vote,

The vote introduces a raft of constitutional changes that mean Turkey's parliamentary democracy can be replaced with an executive presidency. Mr Erdogan said Turks could expect the process to be complete by November 2019.

After the constitutional changes come into effect, Mr Erdogan will have the ability to stay in power until at least 2029  since he will gain the chance to run for re-election in 2019 and potentially serve two five-year terms.

The referendum result also allows him to re-take control of the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) that he helped to found. Mr Erdogan spent 11 years as Turkey's Prime Minister, and head of the AKP, before becoming the country's first directly-elected President in August 2014  a supposedly ceremonial role.

The vote has opened bitter political divides in Turkey. Before voting closed, Anadolu reported that two people died in a fight outside a polling station in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.

Although the exact reason for the dispute was not known, Dogan news agency reported it as caused by "differences in political opinion".

Anadolu news agency said a quarrel between two families turned deadly Sunday in a village school's garden where people were casting their votes on Turkey's referendum.

The Yes campaign says the changes would streamline Turkeys political system, and pointed out that both the US and France have an executive presidency.

But opponents fear the concentration of the power in the office of the Presidency would cause the country to lurch further towards authoritarianism and one-man rule.

Shortly after state media announced the result, Mr Erdogan said he would "take up" the issue of reinstating the death penalty in Turkey, a long-sought objective of his.

The outcome will also shape the republic's strained relations with the European Union. Turkey, a Nato member state, has curbed the flow of refugees and migrants  mainly refugees from wars in Syria and Iraq  using a route from Turkey to enter the bloc, but Mr Erdogan says he may review the deal after the vote.

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

Turnout for the vote was 86 per cent, the President claimed. According to vote-tracking by Anadolu, the "Yes" campaign took a strong lead early in the early stages of counting, holding nearly 60 per cent of the vote after 38 per cent of ballots had been tallied.

Yet that lead narrowed when results came in from outside areas where there was strong support for Mr Erdogan.

The news agency showed a high percentage of "Yes" votes in central Anatolia, a traditional stronghold for the AKP politician, while "No" votes led in coastal regions near the Aegean Sea and Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.

In Turkey's three biggest cities  Istanbul, Izmir and the capital Ankara  the No camp appeared set to prevail narrowly, according to Turkish television stations.

After he cast his vote near his home in Istanbul, Mr Erdogan was greeted by a crowd chanting his name. His staff handed out toys for children in the crowd.

"God willing I believe our people will decide to open the path to much more rapid development," Mr Erdogan said."I believe in my people's democratic common sense."
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Donald Trump has at last been won over to the consensus that grips the Washington foreign policy establishment: Bashar al-Assad must go.

Sounds good, doesnt it? As far as morality and international law are concerned, of course Assad must go. Hes repeatedly gassed the children Trump mourned as beautiful babies, and is killing far more Syrians than Isis.

The most enthusiastic Western advocates of removing Assad are from a liberal tendency and have been arguing for some form of intervention in Syria ever since the war began in earnest. They are opposed by more realist voices, who exhort them to remember the lessons of Iraq before getting militarily involved. Those on this side point to Syrias fractured and often radical opposition, the regimes formidable and battle-hardened forces, and the risks of starting a proxy conflict between the worlds great powers.

In combination, these two tendencies have landed US and UK foreign policy in an awkward gap between ends and means: Assad must go, but the military means required to remove him are off limits. This contradictory approach helps no one, least of all the Syrian people. The UN Security Council remains divided, and a deadly stalemate persists on the ground.

And now, after his unexpected strikes, Trump faces the same problem. His Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was dispatched to Moscow to reiterate that the US considers Assads ousting a non-negotiable condition. Russia is hardly expected to change its pro-Assad stance in response.

And so the impasse persists. The West has indeed learnt important lessons from the quagmire it created in Iraq, but those same lessons have all but immobilised its foreign policy at a critical moment. It feels good to demand that a brutal dictator should no longer be allowed to rule, but insisting on it while failing to back it up with action has helped to prolong unimaginable suffering.

Even in these dark times, its just about possible to recall the intoxicating optimism of the 2011 Arab uprisings. Many Syrian protesters and their Western supporters imagined that Assad would inevitably fall. But he clung to power, and any sense of optimism ebbed away. Instead, the West and everyday Syrians alike worried that Syrias moderate opposition forces were being overtaken and even replaced by Islamist rebel fighters.

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

Things reached a new low in August 2013, when Assad used sarin gas in an attack near Damascus that killed as many as 1,300 Syrians. Barack Obama had previously named mass chemical weapons use as a red line that might trigger some sort of Western intervention  but it wasnt to be.

Soon after the Ghouta attack, Parliament narrowly voted down David Camerons call for a military response, and Obama subsequently opted not to enforce the now notorious red line he himself had drawn. The US and Russia struck a deal with Assad to dismantle his chemical weapons  a deal now rendered moot in the most appalling way.

Assad is clearly despicable, but the only atrocities worse than those his government has already committed are those yet to come (Shutterstock)

In themselves, Trumps air strikes will make little difference to the conflict. As of the start of 2016, 11.5 per cent of Syrians had been killed or injured since 2011. But chemical weapons are responsible for a mere fraction of this damage  and by so dramatically changing tack in the face of a chemical attack, the Trump administration is falling into the same trap as the Obama administration.

If it implicitly frames the conflict as somehow tolerable so long as chemical weapons arent used, the US risks enabling and legitimising the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by other weapons. If Trump is genuinely interested in solving the crisis, it is time to finally confront the contradiction that has hamstrung Syria policy in the West for close to six years.

Assad is clearly despicable, but the only atrocities worse than those his government has already committed are those yet to come. There are two ways to avert them: either Assad is deposed, probably via US-led military intervention, or some political accord is struck to allow him to stay in exchange for a permanent ceasefire.

Its crucial not to lose sight of the central priority here: ending one of the worlds most intractable crises and civil wars. If Assad really has to go, the US and its allies must do whats necessary to get rid of him themselves; if they dont have the will to do it, they must accept that for the time being at least, hes here to stay.

Jack Holland is an associate professor of international security at the University of Leeds. This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com)
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Less than 24 hours after Dr David Dao was manhandled from a United flight in Chicago, two Londoners on board an easyJet plane at Luton airport were ordered to leave the flight after the airline sold more tickets than there were seats available.

Britain's biggest budget carrier then broke the rules on overbooking by failing to tell the couple about their rights to compensation and alternative flights.

Manoj, aged 38, and Viddha, 35, who have asked for their last names to be withheld, had paid 678 for tickets to Catania in Sicily. They planned a six-day Easter break and had booked 1,500 (1,270)-worth of non-refundable accommodation and transfers on the Italian island.

 United Airlines passenger is dragged off plane because airline overbooked

But after they boarded flight EZY2383 on 10 April, it became clear there were insufficient seats. The couple were ordered to go back to the terminal and collect their baggage.

This was an incredibly humiliating situation, said Manoj, an IT consultant. The airline had overbooked and we were involuntarily off-boarded from the aircraft by two airport staff in front of a packed plane.

"The only difference between us and the chap involved with United Airlines is that we weren't physically dragged off.

Like many other airlines, easyJet predicts the number of "no-shows" and overbooks some flights, selling seats that do not exist. When more passengers turn up than seats available, they may legally offload anyone they wish. But to minimise the distress and inconvenience to the selected victims, European regulations stipulate what the overbooking airline is required to do.

First, staff must seek volunteers prepared to travel on a later flight in return for a financial inducement.

If insufficient volunteers are forthcoming, the passengers chosen to be offloaded must immediately be given hundreds of pounds in compensation and provided with written details of their rights.

Finally, the airline must find alternative flights to get them to their destination as swiftly as possible.

The couple say easyJet broke all these rules.

They say they witnessed no attempt to find volunteers either at the gate or on board the plane.

After they were led back to the terminal, the couple asked about their rights. One easyJet representative at the airport and five customer-service staff at the airline's call centre in South Africa failed to tell them that they were each due 400 in compensation. The couple found out about their entitlement only when they contacted The Independent.

The couple should have been flown out to Italy the same day on another airline and taken on to Catania early the next morning. But even though they say they repeatedly asked for alternative flights, they were told their only option was a flight four days later  which rendered the trip pointless.

 United Airlines CEO gives first interview since passenger was dragged off plane

A leading aviation executive, who agreed to speak anonymously, said: This episode bears all the hallmarks of the United Airlines deplaning, bar the assault. To be on the aircraft, then hauled off in front of 180 other passengers, and then apparently not to be offered any of the assistance to which they were entitled, does not look good for the airline.

To be fair to easyJet, this was their handling agent's error. But if you have an overbooking policy it is absolutely the airlines responsibility to have clear and robust procedures in place to minimise the inconvenience to passengers and compensate them as the law requires.

Six days after the couple were offloaded, the airline told The Independent: We are very sorry about the situation that the couple have experienced. Their flight from Luton to Catania was overbooked by one person and this has neither been handled well enough to meet our standards or our policy which is compliant with EU261 regulations.

Unfortunately, due to an issue with the boarding process, the customers were cleared to board as the gate staff incorrectly believed two seats were available when there was only one.

Whilst our approach to compensation for overbooked passengers is clearly outlined on our website, through which claims can be submitted in minutes, it is clear that our agents did not follow the guidelines or provide the correct advice.

Whilst we did explain that we would refund flights and expenses against receipts, the agent failed to mention they were entitled to EU261 compensation.

From the call transcripts we can confirm that neither the customer nor the agent talked about alternative travel on the calls which is another failure on our part.

We want to reassure customers that we will be providing additional training to every contact centre agent now to make sure that future customers are not put through a similar experience.

We are genuinely sorry for what has happened.

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

Finding a substitute holiday at short notice during the Easter period is incredibly expensive and difficult.

Our holiday was completely and utterly ruined by easyJets greed.
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The black flags of Isis have become the latest symbols of Islamic extremism. Their savagery has come to represent what we believe to be a vulgar distortion of an Abrahamic faith. Weve grown exhausted in our infuriation at the commitment of these people to sadistic interpretations of scripture, supposedly leading them through beheadings and slaughter, all the way to paradise. But what if I told you that their fury has nothing to do with faith?

Terror is very big business. And I mean that in the literal sense.

Groups such as Isis and al-Qaeda succeeded in gaining a degree of legitimacy for their cause, by dressing it as a twisted heavenly mission. They are now viewed globally as Muslim fanatics rather than the hardened criminals, money launderers and drug lords that they are.

In his 2009 book How to Win a Cosmic War Reza Aslan describes what must be done in the context of this supposedly heavenly mission: Strip this ideological conflict of its religious connotations, reject the religiously polarising rhetoric of our leaders and theirs, focus on the material matters at stake, and address the earthly issues that always lie behind the cosmic impulse.

 Isis shoots down Iraqi Army Helicopter above Mosul

In this instance, the earthly issue lying behind the cosmic impulse is illegal drugs.

Over the past 30 years significant links have been made between terrorism and the drugs trade. In 2008 Michael Braun, the US Drug Enforcement Agencys then chief of operations, compared the organisational sophistication of the Taliban in its trafficking of opium, used to produced half the worlds heroin, to that of Colombias Farc guerillas who have long been linked to drugs such as cocaine.

Such hybrids of global drug trafficking cartels and terrorist organisations use ideological motivations to mask financial ones. It is estimated that the majority of terrorist organisations have direct links to trade of illegal drugs, and the figure has grown in the past decade.

Approximately 40 per cent of the cocaine reaching Europe each year arrives through Africa but is grown in Colombia and Peru. It is transported across the Atlantic via Highway 10  a route along the 10th parallel  generating an estimated 640m annually on reaching the Sahara. Political instability in Mali and Niger correlates with increased cocaine seizures over the last decade as factions of Africas branch of al-Qaeda battle for power and business.

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

Boko Haram has control of ancient trading routes through Niger towards Europe and it is widely suspected that much of their funding for recruits to rape and kidnap civilians is from drug smuggling. Hezbollah and al-Shabaab are known to benefit from global drug routes, with Afghan opium reaching Kenya and Ethiopia.

Isis has seized control of much of the Middle Eastern and Asian drug profits, and just as the Nazis in Germany and US soldiers in Vietnam were given drugs to facilitate cold blooded atrocities, more than 11 million of the amphetamine pills that Isis fighters are given have been seized at Syrian borders last year.

Islam is a convenient label hiding the joining of two bloodied hands: trafficking and terrorism. Global gang violence has been Islamised.

Traffickers and terrorists have the same enemies and common interests, so no wonder that lands growing opium and cocaine are unstable. Both require territory, which requires control of populations, through fear and exploiting the most vulnerable.

The similarities between South American cartel tactics and those of Islamists are extensive, from the harnessing of social media and the internet for propaganda to spread beheading videos, to projecting themselves as powerful and in pursuit of a greater cause, attracting the disaffected, despairing people at the edge of society, to whom an early death seems acceptable. Criminals, addicts, or simply broken, vulnerable people are recruited into a hellish global network of brutality and greed. This is reflected in the entirely un-Islamic, recurring backstory of the recent terrorist attackers, from Orlando to London.

Replace ideology with big bucks and a sense of belonging, Godly devotion with a disturbed, thuggish lack of morality and the conquered caliphate territory with a narcotic-fuelled gangland, and your picture of todays Islamism is a whole lot more accurate.
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It was never going to be simple.

Turkey faces a complicated web of problems  a rekindled war between the state and Kurdish militants, repeated attacks claimed by Isis stemming from the countrys role in the Syria conflict, and the state of emergency that is still in place following the failed coup against the government last year.

However, for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the unstable nature of his country has enabled him to project the strongman image that may just allow him to extend his powers.

Those sweeping new powers will turn the largely ceremonial presidential role he now holds into a nearly all-powerful position as head of government, head of state and head of the ruling party.

The presidential position was created to be neutral, with the holder of the post expected to cut all ties with their party. In appearance at least, Mr Erdogan did that in 2014, when he became the first person directly elected into the position instead of being chosen by parliament. That ended 11 years as Prime Minister and head of the Justice and Development party (AKP) he helped found.

However, the former prime minister said he wanted to be an active president, something that has been on his mind for a while, and as for giving up on the leadership of the AKP, he pulls too many strings for that to be anything more than window dressing.

The constitutional change for an executive presidency had been mooted by his ruling AKP back in 2011, with Prime Minister Erdogan being unable to run for a fourth term  and its adoption now would open the door for Mr Erdogan to rule possibly until 2029.

To his supporters Mr Erdogan is a man who has given a voice to the working and middle-class religious Turks who had felt marginalised by the country's Western-leaning elite. He was seen to have ushered in a period of stability and economic prosperity, building roads, schools, hospitals and airports in previously neglected areas.

Others see him as pushing too much of a religious line in a nation that was built on the secular aspirations of Turkeys modern founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The constitutional amendments would give the president the power to appoint ministers and government officials, to name half the members of the country's highest judicial body, to issue decrees and to declare states of emergency.

That raises the alarm for many. Mr Erdogan has long-faced accusations by critics of using the judiciary to silence opponents, and journalists groups have often spoken out of the stifling of their freedom to report  with many more civilians worried about the implications of a move to one-man rule. Hence the close result in the referendum.

Despite what many citizens see as Mr Erdogans commitment to the safety of his countrys citizens from the multitude of threats they currently face, as he has become more powerful, his critics say he has become increasingly authoritarian.

His election campaigns have been forceful and bitter, with Mr Erdogan lashing out at his opponents, accusing them of endangering the country and even supporting terrorism  either in Syria or the insurgency of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

After surviving the attempted coup in July he launched a wide-ranging crackdown on followers of his former ally, Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Mr Erdogan and his government blame Mr Gulen, who lives in the United States, and his supporters for plotting the coup, an allegation the cleric has denied.

The crackdown saw roughly 100,000 people lose their jobs, including judges, lawyers, teachers, journalists, military officers and police. More than 40,000 people have been arrested and jailed, including pro-Kurdish MPs.

Hundreds of non-governmental organisations and news outlets have been shut down, as have many businesses, from schools to fertility clinics.

It is fears over Mr Erdogan having free rein to push further with such purges that may be one of the reasons opposition parties are appealing the result  the will of the people is fine, but there must be no hint of any foul play.

Outside of Turkey, the EU will likely be worried, with several nations, including Germany and the Netherlands having clashed with Mr Erdogan over campaigning for Sundays referendum. There is also the small case of potential talks over Turkeys ascension to the EU, stopped over Mr Erdogans apparent support for the return of the death penalty in the wake of the attempted coup. A theme that Mr Erdogan has returned to in remarks following the referendum vote results.

The EU also needs Turkeys help in dealing with the refugee crisis in the bloc, and stemming the flow of new arrivals  a thorny issue that will not disappear. The potential new reality in Turkey will certainly create difficulties, with decisions potentially based on the whim on the President.

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

But as supporters of Mr Erdogan pour onto the streets of Istanbul and other cities, in a similar way to the night of the attempted coup which helped to stifle the insurrection  it appears Turkeys President will emerge the victor, not matter how many appeals come in over the result of the referendum vote  just as he has many times before.
Alan Shatter claimed Enda Kenny was placing self-preservation above the needs of the country

Alan Shatter claimed Enda Kenny was placing self-preservation above the needs of the country

Former justice minister Alan Shatter has heavily criticised Taoiseach Enda Kenny, accusing him of losing his moral compass in a desire to cling to power.

In a scathing attack on his Fine Gael leader, Mr Shatter claimed Mr Kenny was placing self-preservation above the needs of the country.

"Enda Kenny has only one strategy - continuing political survival and to remain Taoiseach and in government for as long as possible. Retention of power is the only game in town," said Mr Shatter.

"Principle, values, fiscal and economic objectives, social priorities, concepts of public service and of the public good or the long-term political health of the Fine Gael party, have long ceased to be his primary focus when determining how issues should be addressed.

"For the Taoiseach, doing what is right for the country has come to mean doing what is required to politically survive and remain Taoiseach for as long as he can string it out."

Mr Shatter resigned from Mr Kenny's government in 2014 amid criticism of his handling of allegations made by Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe.

Last year he successfully challenged in the Court of Appeal how some adverse findings made against him in an official report by Senior Counsel Sean Guerin were reached, but not before he lost his Dail seat in the 2016 election.

He denied his hard-hitting opinion piece in the Sunday Independent was motivated by a "chip on the shoulder".

In February, the Taoiseach told members of Fine Gael he would address his future "effectively and conclusively" upon his return from his annual St Patrick's trip to the United States in March.

Mr Kenny, who has been Taoiseach since 2011, had been under pressure to set a timetable for his departure following a poor showing in last year's election and subsequent criticism of his handling of a number of recent political controversies, including the McCabe affair.

He has yet to make a public statement on his plans, claiming in the US that his retirement would take a back seat until political instability in Northern Ireland was resolved and the European Union's negotiating position on Brexit was established.

There is expectation he could set out a timetable when he addresses Fine Gael members after the next EU Council meeting at the end of the month.

Next week, Mr Kenny will become the longest serving Fine Gael taoiseach, eclipsing the record held by John A Costello.

Mr Shatter said the chain of events was "comical" - claiming every time a potential departure date approached, something new was identified to prolong the Taoiseach's tenure in office.

"There is no moral compass by which the actions or pronouncements of the Taoiseach are presently guided," he added.

The one-time close colleague of Mr Kenny accused him of running Fine Gael like a "semi-secret society" and claimed there was "something rotten at the heart of the party".

He said the party was facing the prospect of a return to the opposition benches after the next general election unless things changed.

A spokesman for Mr Kenny declined to comment on Mr Shatter's remarks.
President Michael D Higgins has laid a wreath at the focal point of the Easter Rising as the nation marked the 101st anniversary of the rebellion.

Mr Higgins was joined by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the event outside the General Post Office on Dublin's O'Connell Street, the landmark building that served as the headquarters of the 1916 rebels.

Members of the Defence Forces took part in the state ceremony.

The event began with the lowering of the tricolour.

A prayer was read and a piper played a lament before the Proclamation of Independence was read by a Defence Forces officer.

On Easter Monday 1916, rebel leader Patrick Pearse stood outside the GPO and read out the proclamation to herald the start of the insurrection against British rule.

After Mr Higgins laid the laurel wreath, a minute's silence was held and the Last Post played.

The official ceremony concluded with the raising of the tricolour, the playing of the national anthem, Amhran na bhFiann, and a fly-past by four planes from the Irish Air Corps.

The event was lower key than last year, when hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of the capital for a huge military parade to mark the 100th anniversary.

The Easter Rising was a military failure for the revolutionaries, who included poets, journalists and teachers, but it sparked a chain of events that ultimately led to the partition of Ireland and the creation of an independent republic as well as Northern Ireland.

Earlier on Sunday, Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys and deputy UK ambassador to Ireland Neil Holland attended a series of commemorative events in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin.

The programme included the raising of the tricolour over the monument to celebrated poet Dora Sigerson and the laying of wreaths at the graves of Edward Hollywood, the man who delivered the first tricolour flag to Ireland from France, and Peadar Kearney, the composer of Amhran na bhFiann.

Ms Humphreys said: "These moments of commemoration provide us with an opportunity to recognise the legacy of those who went before us and their enduring influence on the Ireland of today."

The great-grandson of Kearney, Dualta O' Broin, sang the anthem at the event.

John Green, chairman of Glasnevin Trust, said: "In remembering Dora Sigerson, Edward Hollywood and Peadar Kearney each Easter Sunday morning we hope to encourage today's generations to explore the complex and intricate period in our history a century ago."

A granite memorial incorporating the names of all those who died in the Rising, including rebellion leaders and British soldiers, was unveiled in Glasnevin as part of the centenary commemorations last year.

Almost 500 people were killed in the uprising, and the majority of them - 268 - were civilians caught up in the violence. A total of 119 British soldiers died.
With over 1.2m sq km of land, South Africa comprises Mediterranean, subtropical and semi-desert regions, producing everything from deciduous, citrus and subtropical fruit to grain, wool, cut flowers, livestock and game.

Its farm holdings range in size from the vast fields of the Eastern Cape to subsistence-based production in deep, rural parts.

When things become quiet around the Irish countryside, South Africa's counter-seasonality offers agritech and farm-machinery producers an additional southern hemisphere market to provide a counterbalance to the end of a busy period back at home.

While some agricultural markets 'down under' have a strong indigenous farm machinery heritage, South Africa has a preference for imported European and North American equipment.

The good news is that, despite the weak value of the South African rand, European exports can compete on price. Irish companies active in the market include farm-machinery producers Keenan and McHale and food-processing software provider Emydex.

Other potential opportunities offered by South Africa's large agricultural sector include animal nutrition and veterinary products, dairy and meat-processing equipment, alternative-energy solutions and water-saving technologies.

South Africa is the largest animal-feed producer on the continent, and there's an ongoing opportunity to supply supplements to feed manufacturers, although this will mean taking market share from existing players.

Meat processing remains a large sector, particularly as the consumption of protein is increasing with a growing middle class. With the introduction of minimum-wage legislation there is a heavy focus on efficiency, with many South African farmers and processors looking to new technologies to increase productivity.

In selecting a South African market representative, companies should look for an agent or distributor that can provide an after-sales service and offer market reach right into the whole of the southern Africa continent. They may also be best advised to consider some of the smaller equipment suppliers, as larger distributors typically already have a full complement of partnerships in place and are less likely to take on new products.

In November, we will be taking a group of Irish farm equipment and agtech specialists on a market study tour to South Africa, providing an ideal opportunity to get a feel for the market, meet potential partners and showcase their products.

The visit will also take in Kenya, where agriculture accounts for 20pc of GDP, and tea and horticultural products are the country's largest exports.

The Kenyan market represents yet a different opportunity again. The sector is characterised by small-scale farming, with family businesses typically operating on one-to-three hectare farms. However, the country is well capable of handling productivity gains thanks to a variety of climatic conditions, allowing for good grain, sugar cane, coffee and tea production.

Young Kenyans, who are leaving office jobs to venture into farming, are receptive to modernisation, and agriculture is central to the government's economic development strategy. In 2010, Kenya signed a comprehensive Africa agriculture development programme to address constraints such as low investment and limited access to technology.

Irish animal-health company Cross Vetpharm has operations in Kenya, and those active elsewhere in East Africa include MagGrow, a start-up commercialising eco-efficient spraying technology; Hermitage Genetics, which specialises in pig breeding, and milking parlour specialist DairyMaster. There's no doubt that other Irish firms selling to the agricultural sector could also look to Africa.

We here in Enterprise Ireland's Johannesburg office can help with information, introductions and itinerary planning for market visits.

Natasha Siniscalchi-Donmez is a Enterprise Ireland senior market adviser for Sub-Saharan Africa
THIS springs mart trade has been dominated on the positive side by Turkish contracts, while among the negatives have been the slow rise in factory beef prices and concern about our trading future with the UK.

I can now tell you that last week saw all concerns cast aside as the trade shot into overdrive, like Red Rum on steroids. Firstly numbers jumped at many marts to the point where week on week they doubled in some places, secondly some of the prices paid were truly exceptional.

At Mountrath, heifer weanlings hit 3.70/kg, a price driven not by shippers but by farmers. At Ballinakill both heifers and bullocks in the 400kg bracket regularly hit 3.00/kg.

Moving south, a batch of 15 660kg Aberdeen Angus at Gortatlea in Kerry made 1,560/ hd - I tried doing the maths on them but lost money every time.

Expand Close Catlerea Mart Weight 800k DOB 14/2/14 . 17/3/17. Bull calf. Breed LMX. Price 1590. Photo Brian Farrell. / Facebook

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Then there was the part-time suckler man, also at Gortatlea, who turned up with 31 weanlings, a combination of barely eight month old continental bulls and heifers and went home with 32,000. Not a bad return.

Yes indeed, we have truly arrived at that time of year when anything is possible in the minds of farmers, feeders and factory agents.

Expand Close Catlerea Mart. Weight 240K. DOB 16/2/16. Sex Weanling Bull. Breed LMX. Price 1270. Photo Brian Farrell / Facebook

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While the above are all obviously at the top end of what could be achieved last week, the point is they are just a few examples that illustrate the cattle business for what it is, a money eating machine.

The Ringside tables below largely concur with the analysis that the trade last week moved further into positive territory but because Ringside is composed of averages it offers a possibly less dramatic and more balanced overall analysis.

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That said spring fever sees the favourite bullock for summer grazing, the 400-600kg animal, rise by 4c/kg or 16-20/ hd in the 400-499kg section. Meanwhile, the heavier forward store in the 500-599kg section went up 5c/kg on average last week.

That equates to 25-30/hd. Premium We also saw a premium being paid to those with quality to sell, with 7c/kg or 28-42/hd of an increase in both sections for the top-end bullock.

The 350-499kg heifer also had a good week ringside, with her average price rising by 3-5c/ kg or by 10-25/hd - although it is noticeable that the biggest move in price here was for the poorer animal as she gained from 6-7c/kg which is 21-35/ hd. Above these weights, however, the Ringside averages show the 500-599kg heifer as falling by 5-6/hd.

North of 600kg mark, heifer prices fell back by 3c/kg or 18/ hd on average. This is not as bad as you might think when you allow even with that 18 wiped off her value she is still 4c/kg or a minimum of 24/hd ahead of where she was two weeks ago.

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The figures for the weanling trade continue to show the positive effect of those Turkish contracts, with the 100-299kg bull rising by 6c/kg to an average of 2.46/kg or from 246-735/hd.

The top of the market in this section, while falling 2c/kg last week, still sees your Charolais king of the ring at an average of 3.45/kg, with both the Belgian blue and Limousin tied for second place on an average of 3.16/kg.

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Marts RoundUp

1 MOUNTRATH

The story of Mountraths various sales last week was one of strong competition as farmers and shippers squared up on Thursday. Prices for 200-300kg section saw a top of 3.71/kg given for a Belgian Blue heifer, while in the 300-400kg section prices moved from 1.80-3.22/kg. The 400-500kg stock saw a top of 3.20/ kg paid. Glen Cooper made the following observation: Even if you took the shippers out of it, it would still have been very strong. Farmers were very fit. This had already been shown on Wednesday when farmer buyers bid a 570kg Charolais into 2.52/kg with heavier 650-750kg bullocks making from 2.00-2.41/kg.

2 ROSCREA

We had a lot of farmer customers and while the top of the trade wasnt any dearer, the trade overall was very firm, said Michael Harty on Roscreas Friday sale. Numbers were very strong, and the strongest demand was possibly in the 400-550kg bullock section, with prices for quality hitting 800/hd with the 1/kg. The top price was for a 535kg Limousin at 1,400. The best of the heifer prices came at the lighter end, with five 275kg red Limousins making 825 a piece or 3/kg.

3 GORTATLEA

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Maurice Brosnan also reported huge numbers at his two sales in Gortatlea last week. Wednesdays weanling sale saw a great advert for what the well-organised suckler man can on occasion achieve. Shipper and farmer buyers bid his 30 eightmonth- old continental heifer and bull weanlings into a grand total of 32,000. Fridays general cattle sale was no less dramatic, with one lot of 15 Aberdeen Angus bullocks (660kgs) making 1,560/ hd. Allow that they are half and half, O grades and Rs, would they make it in the factory?

4 BALLINAKILL

The good yard of cattle at Ballinakill last week saw prices head upwards as spring fever took hold to the point where heifers and bullocks around 400kgs were both making 3.00/kg. The general run of prices were as follows: heavy bullocks, 2.00-2.45/kg; forward stores, 2.10-2.70/kg; while beef heifers made 2.05-2.55/kg. Among the lighter stock light continental bullocks and store heifers made from 2.30-3.30/kg, while bull weanling made from 2.20-3.15/kg, with weanling heifers a shade stronger at 2.30-3.35/kg.

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5 BALLINROBE

It was the similar story at Ballinrobe where your money could have been spent as follows. You could splash 1,100 or 3.49/kg on a 315kg Limousin heifer and maybe regret it. You see the next lot of Limousins in also make 1,100/hd but are 40kgs heavier at 355kgs which leaves them at 3.13/kg. Undaunted, you head for the bullocks where 3.00/kg brings you a 335kg Aberdeen Angus , next you bag a 455kg Limousin at 2.71/kg and finish off the day with two 605kg Aberdeen Angus for 2.31/ kg.

6 ENNIS

Expand Close Catlerea Mart. Weight 425K. DOB 5/4/16. Sex M. Breed CHX. Price 1045. Photo Brian Farrell. / Facebook

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Trade at Ennis on Thursday was described as exceptional from start to finish. It was a big sale with heavy cattle over 600kgs in greatest demand at prices from 2.24-2.72/kg or a week-on-week rise of 30/hd. Trade for the nice continental store bullock saw 3.00/kg achieved and a shake more on occasion - two 410kg Limousins at 3.11 for example. However, the general run of bullocks from 550- 650/kg was in the 2.60/kg region. The 550kg heifer was no slouch either making from 2.25-2.88/kg, while the best of the continental cull cows made from 2.00- 2.39/kg. Friesian sold up to 1.74/kg.
The future of the suckler sector was the big topic in farming this week 30 years ago with the Farming Independent reporting that experts were casting big doubts on the viability of suckling on many Irish farms.

Professor Seamus Sheehy from UCD told the BEEF 87 conference that two major hurdles must be overcome  firstly the achievement of high levels of technical performance and, secondly, the resolution of funding bottlenecks.
CRH boss Albert Manifold has topped the Sunday Independent's survey of top Irish bosses' pay for the second year in a row. The leader of Ireland's biggest company earned more than 11m in 2016, a year in which he continued to drive forward an ambitious, acquisition-heavy growth strategy.

Manifold is the best-paid boss in our list, which is compiled from a survey of annual reports of ISEQ 20 companies. Remuneration packages as broken down by the company were added to shares that became, to use the corporate jargon, "vested" in 2016 based on past performance (meaning they become an unconditional entitlement of the chief executive). We also include paper profits made from turning share options from incentive plans into actual shares.

This year's results show substantial rises at many companies at a time of growing shareholder revolt against executive pay. Credit Suisse, BP, and closer to home Kingspan and Greencore have experienced some dissatisfaction with their remuneration offerings. CRH too - some 40pc of shareholder votes went against the company's plans for Manifold's pay at the last CRH AGM.

The figures are calculated before tax and are based on each company's 2016 financial year - which is not the calendar year of 2016 in all cases. Rounding occurs to two decimal places.

Green REIT and Hibernia REIT do not break out chief executives' full pay separately in annual reports, so were not included. Total Produce had not published its 2016 annual report at the time of going to press.

CRH

Pre-tax profit was up 69pc to 1.7bn in the year that saw the first annual set of results from the assets bought on foot of the merger of Lafarge and Holcim, two European rivals of CRH who were forced to sell to appease the competition regulators. Also included for the first time in a full-year was Los Angeles-based CR Laurence, which has long been a target for the Irish cement maker.

This year all eyes are on the US, where the election of Donald Trump has sparked expectations of a splurge on infrastructure - including the infamous border wall with Mexico.

Manifold's 2016 package of 11.57m contained, among other things, a salary of 1.4m and a cash bonus of 2.1m. CRH put his 2016 package at 9.98m, and we've added in incentive-plan shares that vested in 2016 on foot of the company's performance in previous years, to which the company attributes a value of 1.59m. It's a big sum in total, but based on the results Manifold has delivered it's hard to argue he isn't worth a decent chunk.

Paddy Power Betfair

Breon Corcoran has come full circle. The Mullingar man rose to the rank of chief operating officer at Paddy Power - essentially number two to erstwhile boss Patrick Kennedy. Together the pair were seen as one of Ireland's hottest young executive combos.

Corcoran left Paddy Power in 2011 to take over Betfair and he was an instrumental figure in the mega merger that saw the online betting exchange combine itself with the Irish bookie.

And it's thanks to his days at Betfair that Corcoran finds himself at number two on our list.

Paddy Power Betfair's inaugural annual report puts his compensation at 1.557m. But carried over from his Betfair days was a huge chunk of share options that became vested in July 2016, which the company said were worth 6.997m.

Combine those figures and apply the sterling-euro exchange rate as of the end of 2016, and you get the 10.01m figure which we attribute to Corcoran here.

Irish Continental

Long-serving Irish Continental Group (ICG) boss Eamonn Rothwell made most of his 6.76m package from exercising options over a million of the company's shares in June of last year.

The transaction netted him a paper profit of 4.43m and combined with his basic package of 2.33m that was enough to earn him the bronze medal on our list. ICG - the parent company of Irish Ferries - was feared by some to be vulnerable to Brexit but its results for 2016 were creditable, with revenue up 1.5pc and operating profit up 9.4pc.

Announcing the results last month, the company said it was as yet "too difficult" to evaluate what the effect of Brexit would be on the business. Rothwell's years of experience should help cushion any blow that comes.

Kerry Group

Fourth on our list is outgoing Kerry Group chief executive Stan McCarthy.

The Illinois-based Kerryman is stepping down in October in favour of Edmond Scanlon, promoted from chief executive of Kerry's Asia-Pacific business, who will take over the food giant at the beginning of October.

Kerry is a long way from its roots in the Irish dairy sector and has become a serious global player in the area of foodtech. Its taste and nutrition division - the science-oriented one - far outstrips its consumer foods division (responsible for well-known brands like Denny and Cheestrings).

McCarthy has been looking to do more business in developing markets and with Scanlon coming from Asia-Pacific, it looks like that strategy will continue. McCarthy's been a fine servant to the company and we put his 2016 package at 5.53m.

That reflects a basic package of 3.73m at end-year exchange rates, plus share awards under two different long-term incentive plans that vested during the year, assigned the value of the Kerry share at year-end.

Smurfit Kappa

Tony Smurfit is now well bedded in atop the company that bears his family name.

He took the reins from Gary McGann, previously a table topper in this exercise, but has not been able to claim the crown. Perhaps the most notable move that's been made in his time is switching the cardboard box company's primary listing to London, and last December the company made it into the FTSE 100.

Financial performance has been solid with EBITDA reaching a record in 2016. The company has been seeing positive momentum in prices and has been looking towards the Americas for growth. We put Smurfit's package for 2016 at 4.64m, comprising a basic remuneration package of 2.41m, with share awards that vested in February 2016 accounting for the balance.

Kingspan

The Cavan-based insulation firm had its shares absolutely pummelled after the Brexit referendum, but its performance in 2016 was nothing short of extraordinary.

Revenue was up 12pc, trading profit up by a third to 340.9m, and margin rose by 1.8 percentage points.

Tesla-driving chief executive Gene Murtagh Jr is the man behind what was a record year for the company. He took sixth place on our list with a package of 4.63m, with 1.92m of that in his basic package and the rest from a variety of share options awards, some of which were vested and some were exercised during the year.

Ryanair

Another year, another strong performance from the carrier led by Michael O'Leary. Despite having locked in its fuel costs at well above the market rate, the airline posted 43pc growth in profits. Passenger numbers were up 18pc, with the airline citing its 'Always Getting Better' strategy - "being nice to customers" as O'Leary calls it - as a key factor behind that.

The Mullingar man is excellent value for money when you consider that Ryanair's market cap outstrips that of many of the companies that rank above Ryanair on this list.

Glanbia

Siobhan Talbot is the only woman on this list and one of only two female chief executives on the ISEQ 20 (Fiona Muldoon at FBD being the other). Like its peer Kerry, Glanbia has been moving away from its roots in the dairy sector and is now focusing heavily on what it calls performance nutrition - protein shakes and the like.

We put Talbot's package at 2.77m. On top of a basic package of 2.03m, we include vested share options valued by the company at almost 730,000, and a further 700 shares that date back to an incentive scheme from 2002.

Origin Enterprises

In ninth place on our list is Tom O'Mahony of Origin Enterprises, one of the surprise performers of last year. This year saw over 180,000 shares vest to O'Mahony, which we calculate as worth just over 980,000 as of the end of Origin's financial year. Add that to his basic package of 701,000 and you get his figure of 1.68m. It wasn't a great year for Origin, which according to O'Mahony was due in part to "highly adverse and unseasonal weather conditions, combined with weak farm sentiment". Operating profits were down 14.7pc.

The company's financial year ends in July and so it had half-year results for 2017 last month, which showed an improvement in profits. Will O'Mahony's pay show an improvement next year?

Dalata

Pat McCann rounds out the top 10 in this year's pay table, on foot of the first long-term incentive payment deemed paid by the recently-listed hotels group. The hospitality industry veteran has done a canny job in assembling a large portfolio of hotels - it's focused on adding to its UK presence now.

Tourism has been booming over the last few years but Dalata could be vulnerable to a hit from all the recent geopolitical turmoil. McCann has said the company is seeing increased corporate business due to a 'Google effect' - increasing employment in tech and financial services.
'The IGB, Bord na gCon, is in negotations with AIB over the planned disposal of Harold's Cross stadium to pay down some 20m in outstanding debts arising from the construction of a new greyhound racing track in Limerick in 2011.' (Stock image)

Almost 10m in profits could be generated within three years if the Irish Greyhound Board embraced digital technology, owners and breeders have argued in a eleventh-hour bid to prevent the sale of Dublin's Harold's Cross stadium.

Last Tuesday, 50 TDs and Senators were presented with an economic analysis commissioned by the Greyhound Owners and Breeders Association (GOBA), along with their Dublin counterparts (DGOBA), on the future of the sector which employs up to 8,000.

The IGB, Bord na gCon, is in negotations with AIB over the planned disposal of Harold's Cross stadium to pay down some 20m in outstanding debts arising from the construction of a new greyhound racing track in Limerick in 2011.

The 2009 AIB loan involved granting security to the bank over assets held at Waterford, Limerick and Shelbourne Park in Dublin.

Bord na gCon has proposed doubling the number of meetings at Shelbourne Park instead of holding race meetings at Harold's Cross.

However, this idea has been opposed by owners and breeders.

The GOBA rescue plan, filed by marketing consultancy Pietas, says the industry could do more to generate additional revenues, adding that the future of the greyhound racing sector is dependent on having two Dublin tracks.

The report also advocated setting up live feeds from greyhound tracks into certain pubs.

The proposal would see the pubs linked to a phone application where punters could bet on the live feed.
The water charges "dead cat" has been lifted off the road, but there is still a sizeable mess left behind to be cleaned up. Abolishing water charges, for everybody except those who use 1.7 times the average, will leave Irish Water with a 250m funding hole that will have to be plugged by additional contributions from the exchequer.

That means 250m a year less to fund tax cuts, other spending, etc, unless of course the Government scales back on Irish Water's ambitious, but very necessary capital investment plan.

What it really means is Irish Water will no longer serve as a commercial entity but will be a non-commercial centrally-funded State body. It will borrow money and already has borrowings of close to 1bn. It will continue to charge commercial customers for water and the rest will come from central funds. It will have to find around 9bn to invest in fixing our appalling water infrastructure.

Irish Water believes it will take 25 years to get our creaking system to an acceptable level of leaks. And that was when it had the water charges revenue built into its budget.

It has been estimated that the levy would only kick in for around 8pc of households based on current usage patterns, so 8pc might have to pay.

This is where the problems and the maths are just starting to get complicated. The state has spent around 500m installing water meters to around 58pc of households.

Without a meter, Irish Water cannot determine who is using above the acceptable level.

So if 8pc of households are 1.7 times above the limit, the authorities can only charge 58pc of those because they need a water meter. This works out at 4.6pc of households. Take into account the expected level of non-payment, which in 2015 was around 36pc of households who didn't pay their water bill. This would reduce the number of households from whom payment would likely be collected to around 1.6pc of households.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe said that populism would have triumphed had Irish Water and all forms of water charges been abolished, which was not the case. So populism has been avoided by collecting something from about 1.6pc of households!

Under the new regime we have spent 500m on water meters, which will help monitor water usage and to help Irish Water collect charges from a small percentage of households. Bear in mind the cost of collection and Irish Water could end up losing money trying to collect levies or charges. Quite extraordinary.

But the situation is even worse than that, because the European Commission will see through this political puff of smoke in a second.

Will the new legislation be acceptable to the EC and meet its European Water Framework Directive? This states that we must have a water-pricing policy that provides adequate incentives for curbing excess water use. It also states that we must have an adequate contribution from households in the recovery of water costs.

The new framework doesn't seem to comply with that. That isn't just my inexpert view, but a similar fear has been raised by the head of UCD's Sutherland School of Law, Gavin Barrett. He said last weekend that the Oireachtas committee solution as proposed might not be good enough to pass the EC. He said he had difficulty with the proposals, which put us in a position where we could face millions in fines from the European Commission.

So were the political discussions and U-turns simply an elaborate way of postponing the inevitable - namely the re-introduction of water charges further down the road?

It would take the EC quite a while to come up with a ruling on our new legislation. Everything moves slowly in Brussels. Then it would be contested and challenged by the Irish Government, and eventually it would have to be altered in a few years' time.

Who knows, the next government might try and throw Brexit turmoil into the mix as a way of trying to convince the EC to lay off and let our ridiculous "water charges" regime go through. I doubt that would wash.

When that day arrives, the next government, which may be led by Fianna Fail, can tell the public that it did its best and the next dramatic U-turn, namely introducing water charges, is all the EC's fault.

Blame non-execs for fat cat pay

As the executive pay survey in today's Sunday Independent shows, our top corporate leaders are doing very nicely when it comes to remuneration. By and large Irish plc executives have been very well paid. They benefit from our proximity to the UK, which is a bigger market with bigger companies, and it allows them to point to how their earnings compare with London.

In fact, some of the best-paid executives of Irish-listed companies benefit from having the company's primary listing in London, where they are surrounded by some very fat cats indeed.

But the shareholder backlash against enormous pay continues. During the week BP said it had cut the pay packet of its chief executive Bob Dudley by 40pc to $11.6m (10.87m).

Irish executives like Albert Manifold at CRH and Greencore's Patrick Coveney have seen various levels of criticism of their remuneration packages in recent years.

Top executive pay has even become an election issue in Germany, where the Social Democrats are proposing new rules including limiting tax deductibility of the pay of management board members to 500,000; letting shareholders agree a maximum multiple for executive pay in relation to the average salary in a company; and giving the supervisory board the right to reduce some payments in the case of misconduct or poor performance.

I'll believe it when it I see it, but it does show executive pay is becoming a very hot topic.

The blame here ultimately lies with non-executive directors and institutional shareholders themselves. Fund managers want big pay because it reflects well on their own chances of sizeable remuneration. Once their fund's performance begins to suffer, they suddenly want to jump up and down about executive remuneration.

Non-executives jump on bonus models copied from other plcs and follow each other's guidelines like sheep. Share-based incentive plans are quite discredited, because it all depends on where the performance parameters are set.

There is no point voting in non-executive directors who approve remuneration packages and then trying to vote down the remuneration packages. A radical culture change is needed.

One-way Brexit traffic for North

It seems that jobs could be moving in all directions if a hard Brexit emerges. This week Dairygold chief executive Jim Woulfe talked of a crisis for the dairy and beef sectors with "gigantic repercussions" if there is a hard Brexit. Cheese exports in particular will be hit.

But Northern Ireland meat processor Dunbia is considering moving some of its processing to plants to Britain and out of Northern Ireland. The fear here is delays at ports caused by bureaucracy and red tape. No tariffs would apply on beef going from the North to England, but delays might still occur anyway.

Separately, electrical goods manufacturer Glen Dimplex Group is shifting some of its operations from Portadown to south of the Border. The move will affect around 20 jobs but it reflects another Brexit shift from North to the Republic, along with that of pharmaceutical group Almac which is moving jobs to Dundalk. It seems jobs are moving in several directions but so far, worryingly, there aren't many signs of jobs moving from the Republic to the North or from Britain to Northern Ireland.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Taoiseach Enda Kenny have overseen a partial economic recovery  but there are still dangers to be wary of

Higher growth forecasts were unveiled last week but, with first-quarter tax revenues coming in below target and the UK having pressed the Brexit button, are these forecasts 'Leprechaun Economics'?

On Monday, Finance Minister Michael Noonan announced that the Department of Finance was increasing its 2017 GDP growth forecast to 4.3pc and its 2018 forecast to 3.7pc.

The Department hasn't been alone in increasing its economic-growth forecasts. The Central Bank recently upped its 2017 GDP growth forecast from 3.3pc to 3.5pc and its 2018 forecast from 3.0pc to 3.2pc while the ESRI raised its forecasts for 2017 GDP growth from 3.5pc to 3.8pc and its 2018 forecast to 3.6pc.

While most of the other forecasters have also raised their economic-growth predictions, the Department of Finance is still by far the most optimistic about the Irish economy's prospects in 2017. How justified is this optimism?

These higher economic-growth forecasts come despite the lower-than-expected tax revenues for the first quarter of 2017, with the total take coming in 2.4pc lower than the budget day forecast. March was particularly disappointing, with monthly tax revenues a massive 7.6pc behind target.

While revenues from all of the main taxes were below target in March, it was the 4.2pc under-performance in income tax and USC revenues - apparently completely at odds with continuing strong job creation - that was of most concern.

The poor March exchequer returns came less than a week after UK Prime Minister Theresa May invoked Article 50, starting the two-year countdown to Brexit.

The UK's decision to leave the EU and the subsequent sharp fall in the value of sterling against the euro has hit Irish exports to the UK and consumer confidence in this country.

The value of Irish goods exports to the UK fell by 3.4pc in 2016.

The weakness of the UK market is acting as a severe drag on overall Irish exports which, when booming IT and pharmaceutical exports are excluded, actually fell by 4.6pc last year. Even when these two categories are included, the total value of Irish exports grew by just 2.4pc in 2016.

Domestically, last June's Brexit referendum result has had an impact on consumer confidence. While consumer confidence levels have since recovered slightly, they are still way lower than the post-crash peak recorded in January 2016.

Just for good measure, with the proportion of our exports going to the US having risen from 16pc in 2002 to 24pc in 2015, Ireland is uniquely vulnerable if US President Donald Trump delivers on his promise of a border adjustment tax.

This proposed tax would encourage US-based companies to use American-sourced inputs by removing the tax-deductibility of imported inputs (eg those from Ireland) while at the same time making US exports tax-exempt.

So are the latest batch of improved Irish economic growth forecasts for real or are we dealing with, to quote Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, the latest manifestation of the "Leprechaun Economics" phenomenon? In other words, will this growth prove to be merely a statistical chimera or will it translate into higher earnings, consumer spending and tax revenues?

"There are two core fundamentals when looking at the Irish economy; the pace of job creation and the amount that consumers are spending," says Fergal O'Brien, director of policy at employers' body Ibec. "Job creation has continued very strongly into 2017. We are confident that the job creation numbers will feed through into consumer spending."

The latest CSO numbers certainly point to continuing strong job creation. The unemployment rate fell to just 6.4pc last month, down from 8.3pc in March 2016. If sustained, this means that we will come close to matching the 65,000 new jobs created in 2016 - the Department of Finance reckons that the Irish economy is currently creating 1,000 new jobs a week.

Which, of course, begs the question: If new job creation is so strong then why are income tax and USC revenues coming in so far below target?

A Department of Finance spokesperson points out that while the first-quarter exchequer returns and the March monthly figures were below target, tax revenue was still above the figure collected for the same period in 2016, with the total tax take up by 3.5pc in the first quarter.

In other words, tax revenues are still rising, but not by as much as the Department of Finance had previously predicted.

The spokesperson says that the Department's economic growth forecasts and tax-revenue projections are "prudent", despite the first-quarter hiccup.

However, the Department concedes that there has been an "anomaly" in first-quarter income tax and USC revenues. So what's going on?

"PAYE and PRSI revenues are tracking the increase in employment. Other income taxes, mainly related to pensions, are not. USC seems to be the main factor," says a Department spokesperson.

Matters are complicated by the fact that USC is a relatively new tax. This means that the Department of Finance has less experience than it does with more established taxes in tracking USC revenues and determining the factors that influence them. It is conducting an investigation to see what has caused the wobble in USC revenues and expects to have the result within a few weeks.

"We are not overly concerned just yet," he says.

However, even if the dip in tax revenues turns out to be no more than short-term blip, it might be a good idea to heed the warning. With the UK economy now slowing rapidly following the once-off boost it received from the post-referendum collapse in sterling, the going is going to get even tougher for indigenous exporters and retailers.

O'Brien expects the Irish economy to begin to feel the impact of this UK slowdown in the second half of the year.

So is the recovery in the Irish economy about to be snuffed out by a combination of Brexit and Trumponomics? While O'Brien predicts greater volatility as a result of these two factors he remains broadly optimistic about our prospects.

"The first-quarter returns came as a surprise. From everything we can see wage growth is pretty strong. These tax receipts, particularly income tax, should bounce back in the second quarter."
There are two phrases I have to avoid uttering when talking about smart technology on radio or TV. One is 'hey Siri' and the other is 'okay Google'. Each sets off the iPhones or Android phones of listeners.

But Burger King went one better last week. It created a TV ad deliberately designed to set off voice-activation gadgets.

The ad showed a young Burger King employee talking directly into the camera. "Okay Google, what is the Whopper burger?" he said.

It was designed to trigger off devices such as the Google Home gadget, which 'listen' for voice commands continuously.

Triggered devices in living rooms would then read out Wikipedia's entry page for the Whopper which - coincidentally -would be edited to consist of a suspiciously commercial-sounding definition.

("The Whopper is a burger, consisting of a flame-grilled patty made with 100pc beef with no preservatives or fillers...")

It was a sneaky, clever advertising stunt. Unfortunately for Burger King, it backfired when Google, fearing a backlash from its own customers, disabled the phrase from triggering its devices.

But the episode is a reminder of how powerful and potentially invasive voice-activation technology is becoming. We're only about two or three years away from natural language becoming a mainstream way of running our phones and computers. And we're no more than five or six years - 10 at the outer limit - from home appliances being controlled by our voices.

"Lights on."

"Lock the front door."

"Turn the heating up two degrees."

"Turn the kettle on."

You may think that this sounds like a scene from Star Trek with Captain Picard. But it's almost already here. Soon, natural language commands that can be picked up from across a room will advance the process even further.

With it, cultural ideas around privacy may evolve even further than they have in the last 10 years.

Measurable and identifiable, our voices will become a commodity. It will start with advertising but will escalate pretty quickly after that.

While most of us would be pretty annoyed if our phone or smart home device started routinely spewing ads at us, we might compromise quite quickly. What if it was part of a cut-price subscription? Or even a free one, like Facebook or online news?

This could happen. The US has just rolled back laws that prevent internet service providers selling customer data to advertisers.

While the EU has taken a harder stance on issues such as net neutrality, Ireland and the UK are often closer in consumer sensibilities to the US than to France or Germany. And with the UK now to leave the EU (and its privacy laws), we could be surrounded by overwhelming commercial interests.

Even within a strict European regulatory environment, companies are allowed to get underneath our skin.

I mean this literally. In Ireland, companies are now allowed to require biometric information - such as fingerprints or eye retina scans - from people entering their premises.

Our Data Protection Commissioner, Helen Dixon, ruled as much last week. In a case involving a contractor working for a tech company, a fingerprint was required for the contractor to gain entry to work. The company also requested, and held, the worker's passport. While the company got a slap on the wrist for not informing the worker in advance, asking for the fingerprint was deemed okay.

Even if the conditions of this biometric registration for workers are that the data isn't transferred to third parties or stored for other purposes, we know how easily hacked many companies are. (The DPC's own 2016 annual report said there were over 2,000 data breaches last year, of which almost 200 were security-related or theft.)

It can only be a matter of time before our fingerprints, voice waves and retina scans are stolen and traded on the Dark Web, exactly the way credit card details and IP addresses are now.

I can already see the groundwork being laid for this in some tech multinational companies around Dublin. Many now have the kind of security identification checks normally reserved for border controls and customs.

Several require official identification documents - such as a passport or driver's licence - to be presented to proceed past reception. Security personnel routinely stare at visitors.

One of the largest social media companies, which has a growing office in Dublin, has burly security guards that come over to warn you if you do not keep your temporary visitor's badge on. (I've tested this, taking it on and off, just to see what the henchmen would do. I didn't get kicked out, but was told several times it would be a "problem" if I didn't keep it on.)

The point about this is that it's becoming a normal experience. American tech companies want more and more control of our lives. And we're giving it over to them, not even slowly.

I once looked at the Joaquin Phoenix movie Her and thought that people walking around talking to their devices would never happen. We would be too self-conscious. I was dead wrong.

Walk down any city street and you'll see people talking at devices. While it's mostly to other people right now, soon it will be to robots and artificial intelligence systems, which are currently taking over customer call centre operations.

Facebook knows all of this. So does Google, which is why its voice technology is being pulled irresistibly towards building up profiles on us to support its advertising business.

So we probably can't blame Burger King for trying to game our Android phones. Over the next year, I'll be expecting a lot more of it.
Katherine Lynch is ready for her close-up. Quite a few close-ups, in fact. Looking around her makeshift dressing room I count 21 outfits and a dozen pairs of shoes, most of which she has been busy trying on for the last three-and- a-half hours.

Rain is pelting against the windows of an elegant Dun Laoghaire seafront hotel, but Lynch's natural warmth and vivacity makes the dull day feel considerably more cheerful.

"I do feel fantastic about myself these days," she says later, after changing into her "civvies" (in reality, a red halterneck dress as glamorous as anything taken away by the stylist). "In the past I've done photoshoots where they say to me, 'Oh, Katherine, just do something funny.' Now I can actually wear these clothes and feel like a sexy b***h."

Lynch's new physique is not exactly a State secret. It has happened in full public view, as appearances on RTE's Celebrity Operation Transformation and Dancing with the Stars helped her to drop three dress sizes in six months. Even more importantly, the comic actress best known for bawdy creations such as Sheila Sheikh ("the scumbag with the bumbag") feels that her audience now has a much better idea of who she really is.

Expand Close Katherine Lynch with partner Kai Widdrington on Dancing with the Stars. Photo: Kieran O'Brien / Facebook

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Whatsapp Katherine Lynch with partner Kai Widdrington on Dancing with the Stars. Photo: Kieran O'Brien

"Before those shows, I was always pigeonholed as the 'rude, lewd and crude' comedian. Today I think people are able to see me as an all-round person. Sometimes the cameras would film me being really emotional and I'd ask them not to use it, but the public reaction afterwards was so positive that I realised there was no need to hide anything.

"I don't see any contradiction between the two sides of myself - I just see the full humanity. I like that girl who has the balls to gatecrash The Rose of Tralee or chase after Cristiano Ronaldo. I also like the one who writes poetry in private and can be a bit fragile. Basically, I'm a very open person and I roll it out like dice."

In case this all sounds a bit self-centred, it should be noted that Katherine Lynch is anything but a diva. The Leitrim woman greets everyone with a hearty "Howya", insists on buying her own refreshments and tries in vain to find a shared relation when she hears my surname. ("You definitely have the same colouring as my father," she insists.)

Lynch is primarily here today to promote Rock Against Homelessness, a charity event organised by Independent News & Media - owners of the Irish Independent - taking place at Dublin's Olympia Theatre next Friday. She will be sharing MC duties with Al Porter on a bill that includes The Boomtown Rats, Ham Sandwich, Finbar Furey, The Blizzards, Delorentos, Paul Cleary and many others. Proceeds from the gig go to Focus Ireland.

Celebrities who promote good causes can sometimes sound phoney, but Lynch's spirited comments on rough sleepers leave no doubt that this is a subject genuinely close to her own heart. "I live in Temple Bar, smack bang beside the underbelly of Dublin," she points out. "So I see the problem every day. I know a lot of homeless people by name and sometimes I would even give out to them, saying, 'Why are you back on the drink?' or 'Why are you shooting up again?'

"When I first moved there, I would always give the homeless a few euro and every spare blanket I had. But recently I think we've all become a bit apathetic because there are just so many of them. In 20 years' time, we'll feel really ashamed of how we ignored these people - we'll ask why we didn't bang down the Government's doors and ask them to do something. I mean, if you saw a little dog that couldn't look after itself, you'd find it a kennel."

Expand Close Colourful: Katherine in character as Bernie Walsh / Facebook

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Not surprisingly, Lynch was a big supporter of the Home Sweet Home campaign which occupied Apollo House for four weeks over the Christmas season. She describes it as "like a piece of public theatre, exactly what you need to highlight what's going on". She also speaks enthusiastically about her support for the legalisation of drugs and the provision of injection centres around Dublin. "We need to stop treating the homeless like vermin," she declares.

This instinctive sympathy for the under- dog, Lynch points out, is also reflected in her work. She loves to portray women who have been marginalised by Irish society due to their class, lifestyle or sexuality. As a grandniece of the much-loved but famously contrary poet Patrick Kavanagh, she suggests that her rebellious spirit may be partly genetic.

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"Kavanagh's book of collected poems is like my bible. He died before I was born but he's my connection to a bigger thing, whatever that might be. Even though he could be cranky like myself, because he couldn't stand mediocrity, he had an amazing empathy for the human spirit. But Kavanagh also felt like an outsider. John Montague [a fellow Irish poet who died last December] was a good friend of mine and he told me about travelling with him in France. Kavanagh had been invited to make a public speech but looked so dishevelled when he arrived that they asked him to leave. He went away in tears. That's why I believe you can never judge someone on the street, because you have no idea where they've come from or what they've gone through."

This time last year, Lynch was in less than perfect shape herself. She recalls the "incredible stress" of making her television sketch shows, walking around in uncomfortable costumes and high heels for 10 hours in order to get five minutes of usable footage. "I'd be living off crisps and Coke during the day and then going for a burger late at night. I really hate fat-shaming and if you'd asked me, I would have said I didn't care about being overweight. But then, I could have been watching a black and white television all my life and thought I didn't care - until I saw a colour one."

Lynch signed up for Celebrity Operation Transformation because she wanted to live longer for the people she loves. "I also thought I was more likely to succeed if there was an audience looking at me. But to be quite honest, I couldn't have done it if I wasn't getting paid."

In the end she was one of COT's biggest success stories, losing 13-and-a-half pounds from her starting weight of 13-and-a-half stone. Along the way, there were tears on camera, community runs at home in Leitrim and a bizarre episode which saw her strutting into a swimming pool while wearing red high heels. "That was my little act of defiance - I was determined to keep a little bit of glam."

Her new healthy eating regime seems to be fully intact. She spends this interview tucking into a beetroot salad and drinking sparkling water, politely refusing the waiter's suggestion that she might like a glass of wine as well. "I'm having one later, you see," she explains. Without this initial boost to her confidence, Lynch says, she would never have gone on Dancing with the Stars. "I refused five times because I literally don't know my left foot from my right. But in the end, it turned out to be the most enjoyable three months of my entire life."

When it came to choosing a professional dancing partner, she had just one rule. "I said, 'Please don't give me a gay man, because we'll only end up in The George bar knocking back red vino.' So they paired me with Kai Widdrington - straight-as-a-die Kai. He was really kind to me and we genuinely became great pals."

Lynch made it to week nine of the contest, turning in highly entertaining performances of the foxtrot, cha-cha and quickstep along the way. She also shed another stone, for good measure.

"By the end, though, I wanted to leave because it was getting too competitive backstage. I was just there for the craic, really - there was a glitterball to be won but what can you actually do with that? For me, the memories and the friendships are far more important."

As the proud daughter of a Kerryman and regular visitor to that county, Lynch is happy to see GAA star Aidan O'Mahony win the DWTS final a few days after our conversation. "That's just how we are, tribal up the Kingdom!" she emails me.

As for the widespread criticism that DWTS' public votes may have been influenced by factors other than dancing ability, Lynch can only agree. "Thalia Heffernan and Des Bishop shouldn't have gone out so early, but then they don't have parishes behind them. I do."

The parish in question is Mohill, official population: 928. Some creative spirits might feel stifled by life in such a close-knit community, but Lynch speaks of it in almost rapturous terms. "Whenever I go back, they say, 'Oh, you never forget us, Katherine.' How could I forget a place that brought me up so lovingly? Like Hillary Clinton said, it takes a village to raise a child, and everyone dies famous in a small town. Mohill also feels like an underdog and it's surviving really well. But it's heartbreaking to see the death of our other small towns. What are we going to do without them? I'd love to see more non-nationals going there; I think we'd be kinder to them - a few African hurlers would be mighty to see."

As a child, Lynch was encouraged to act by her father, who wrote comic dramas that she rehearsed in their kitchen and then performed at the GAA festival Scor na nOg. "I remember I had one line, 'Come out with your hands up', that I delivered as, 'Come up with your hands out.' When the place erupted in laughter, I realised just how exciting that could be."

At school she was a punk who "bullied the bullies" and had no interest in academia. "I got on with all the teachers; I just hated school itself. I've always responded to individuals, not institutions - for example, I love Mary Lou McDonald but don't particularly like Sinn Fein. On the day I got my Leaving Cert, I stood outside on the steps of my school and tore it up, saying, 'I will never use this in my life.' And I never have."

Despite Lynch's childhood thespian experiences, she spent her early 20s working as a hairdresser, a reflexologist and an antiques shop manager. Her breakthrough came when she won the Alternative Miss Ireland competition in 1998 as the tampon-strewn Miss Tampy Lilette, which led to a regular show in Panti Bliss's bar GUBU. "The gay community really took me to their heart and I had a brilliant, decadent time. There was a big division in those days: we really thought, 'We're cooler than you'. A lot of people assumed I was lesbian myself, which just showed how feckin' ignorant they were. But that was fine - I've picked up more straight men in gay bars than anywhere else."

Television made Lynch a household name, showcasing her naughty-but-nice alter egos in programmes such as Working Girls, Single Ladies and the spoof chat show Wagon's Den. Despite selling out national tours and topping the DVD charts in Christmas 2009, however, her scatological humour divided opinion and she became a critical punching bag. "I got famous just as Twitter was starting up and people were suddenly able to talk directly to celebrities. Some of them thought I could take a few digs, but I couldn't. They really upset me.

"In my opinion, that kind of trolling has been the downfall of comedy. It's the reason why people are so politically correct now, to the point of inverted racism or homophobia. A brilliant sitcom like Only Fools and Horses would never be allowed on television today because it's just not PC enough."

Lynch is speaking from bitter personal experience, since her favourite role of all is Traveller woman Singin' Bernie Walsh (above right; sample hit: Friends in Hiaces). She was particularly irked by claims that the character might be offensive to a community she has regularly socialised with since her childhood. "I never got any flak from Travellers themselves, only settled people. I've been on the cover of Travellers' Voice magazine and I recently did a gig in Limerick with the Traveller comedian Martin Beanz. Bernie Walsh is not a stereo- type; she's a proud, independent woman and the critics who can't see that must have seriously boring lives." As these comments suggest, behind Lynch's extroverted image, there is a sensitive soul who detests snobbery and can be easily hurt. The death of her father in 2010 left her in "awful grief" and resulted in a lengthy career break. "I had got up on stage two days after the funeral and felt like a liar, completely lost. I used to believe in that old showbiz saying 'The show must go on' but now I think it's a load of crap. I'm no good at pretending to be fine when I'm really not."

She eventually channelled those emotions into Settling Dust, a non-comedy album of her own original songs and trad covers (including Patrick Kavanagh's Raglan Road) that she describes as "the greatest therapy you can imagine".

Now that Lynch's profile is higher than ever, she plans to become extremely busy again. She will soon walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route to raise money for the Irish Hospice Foundation; she's been offered a leading role in a stage musical (she asks me not to reveal the title yet) and is writing a new one-woman show that will bring her different talents together.

"I don't want to be known as just a comedian anymore," she says. "My role model would be Bette Midler, somebody who can act, sing, tell jokes - do a bit of everything."

Time is getting on and Lynch has an appointment to see Beauty and the Beast in town. With a new boyfriend in her life, she is looking to the future with excitement and confidence. To quote another great Irish poet, however, "How can we know the dancer from the dance?" Lynch laughs and points out at the Irish Sea.

"If I was to get on a ferry now and travel a few hours in that direction, nobody would have a clue who I am. I don't give a damn about being famous. I have a small place in the South of France and I'd happily go there to work in a coffee shop if I had to.

"I don't live with fear anymore; I live with courage. It's a nice place to be. But it took me a long time to get here."

Rock Against Homelessness takes place at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin on April 7 at 8pm. Tickets are priced at 30 from ticketmaster.ie

Photography: Naomi Gaffey, naomigaffey.ie

Styling: Brian Conway, briconstyle.com

Hair: Aisling Hamill, hairbyaislinghamill.com

Make-up: Yvonne Maher, yvonnemaher.com

Shot on location at Haddington House, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, (01) 280 1810, haddingtonhouse.ie
TV presenter Cassie Stokes has received vile homophobic hate mail since joining the Xpose team.

The Dundrum native joined the TV3 line-up in April, filling in for long-time star Karen Koster while she is on maternity leave.

But she was left shocked after she received some offensive post from one hate-filled viewer.

"I recently got some homophobic hate mail into TV3. I have no idea who it was from, it was on a postcard," Cassie told the Herald.

"They didn't sign their name. They definitely had strong feelings towards gay people."

The anonymous viewer told the 28-year-old she would have to wear the label of being gay forever, but Stokes explained she does not let homophobic comments bother her.

Hurt

"There were a few things about, 'you will have this label on your back forever' and I was like, 'really? Because I feel like I am wearing that label very proudly on my front'," she said.

Although the TV star was not hurt by the comments, she worried about the impact that person might have on any gay people they might know.

"It didn't hurt me as much as it would hurt your family or something like that.

"This person is irrelevant to me, but they could be quite relevant to someone that is in their neighbourhood who is gay."

Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer said nobody should have to put up with the abuse that the TV host received.

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"She should not have to be subjected to that type of vitriol," he said.

"The reason why we have events like Pride is because the work is not finished. It's unacceptable that anybody should be subjected to abuse like that."

Brian Sheehan, director of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, slammed the abuse as "shocking" and unacceptable.

"The abuse that Cassie received is shocking, and yet it's a daily reality for many LGBT people.

"All right-thinking people in Ireland will be horrified that someone would be targeted for who they are. Nobody would condone this kind of abuse."

Grand Marshal of Dublin Pride and former spokesperson for LGBT Noise, Max Krzyzanowski, pointed out that discrimination against gay people in Ireland is still all too common.

"Something that has been revealed in study after study is that people who are the most homophobic, 85pc of the time they are wrestling with same-sex attraction because they have internalised the negative opinions of LGBT people in society," he said.

"They very often turn it outward into aggression on other LGBT people who have had the courage to come out.

"I think there's every possibility that the author of that postcard fits that bill.

"I worked in Panti Bar before and I have seen homophobic violence up close. Most straight people are surprised to learn how frequent these incidents are," he added.

Despite the abuse, Stokes said she was focused on how far societal attitudes towards LGBT people have come.

"I guess there's still a little bit of hate out there but we are doing amazing things and again it comes back to one day it won't be such a big deal," she said.

Terrible

Stokes also had her say on the recent shooting in Orlando, Florida, where a crazed gunman opened fire in gay nightclub Pulse.

The incident, taking place on June 12, left 50 dead and a further 53 injured.

"I think everyone was affected by it in some way," she said.

"It was terrible, really upsetting. No matter who it happens to, it's so upsetting. It was a hate crime."

Stokes was speaking at the Dare To Be Different Style Awards at Bulmer's Live at Leopardstown.

Other judges at the event include Lisa Fitzpatrick and Lorraine Keane.
16/04/2017 Proclamation reader Captain Michael Barry from DFHQ during a 1916 commemoration ceremony at the GPO on O' Connell Street, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

THE PRESIDENT has laid a wreath at the focal point of the Easter Rising as the nation marked the 101st anniversary of the rebellion.

Michael D Higgins was joined by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the event outside the General Post Office on O'Connell Street, the landmark building that served as the headquarters of the 1916 rebels.

Members of the Irish Defence Forces personnel took part in the state ceremony.

The event began with the lowering of the Irish tricolour. A prayer was read and a piper played a lament before the Proclamation of Independence was read by a Defence Forces officer.

On Easter Monday 1916, rebel leader Patrick Pearse stood outside the GPO and read out the proclamation to herald the start of the insurrection against British rule.

After Mr Higgins laid the laurel wreath, a minute's silence was held and the Last Post played. The official ceremony concluded with the raising of the tricolour, the playing of the Irish national anthem - Amhran na bhFiann - and a fly-past by four planes from the Irish Air Corps.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close 16/04/2017 President of Ireland Michael D Higgins during a 1916 commemoration ceremony at the GPO on O' Connell Street, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins 16/04/2017 The Air Corp fly past the Spire during a 1916 commemoration ceremony at the GPO on O' Connell Street, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook

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Whatsapp 16/04/2017 President of Ireland Michael D Higgins during a 1916 commemoration ceremony at the GPO on O' Connell Street, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

The event was lower key than last year, when hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of the Irish capital for a huge military parade to mark the 100th anniversary.

The Easter Rising was a military failure for the revolutionaries, who included poets, journalists and teachers, but it sparked a chain of events that ultimately led to the partition of Ireland and the creation of an independent Republic as well as Northern Ireland.

Earlier on Sunday, Heritage minister Heather Humphreys and deputy UK ambassador to Ireland Neil Holland attended a series of commemorative events in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin.

The programme included the raising of the tricolour over the monument to celebrated poet Dora Sigerson and the laying of wreaths at the graves of Edward Hollywood, the man who delivered the first tricolour flag to Ireland from France, and Peadar Kearney, the composer of Amhran na bhFiann.

Expand Close 16/04/2017 President of Ireland Michael D Higgins inspects the Tri Service Guard of Honour during a 1916 commemoration ceremony at the GPO on O' Connell Street, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook

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Whatsapp 16/04/2017 President of Ireland Michael D Higgins inspects the Tri Service Guard of Honour during a 1916 commemoration ceremony at the GPO on O' Connell Street, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Minister Humphreys said: "These moments of commemoration provide us with an opportunity to recognise the legacy of those who went before us and their enduring influence on the Ireland of today."

The great grandson of Peader Kearney, Dualta O' Broin, sang the anthem at the event.

John Green, chairman of Glasnevin Trust, said: "In remembering Dora Sigerson, Edward Hollywood and Peadar Kearney each Easter Sunday morning we hope to encourage today's generations to explore the complex and intricate period in our history a century ago."

A granite memorial incorporating the names of all those who died in the Rising, including rebellion leaders and British soldiers, was unveiled in Glasnevin as part of the centenary commemorations last year.

Almost 500 people were killed in the uprising, the majority of them - 268 - were civilians caught up in the violence. A total of 119 British soldiers died.

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Despite the recent amendment to Flagstaffs minimum wage law, reducing the wage hike to $10.50 in July instead of $12, the leader of one nonprofit service provider in the city said he is still bleeding, just bleeding more slowly.

Armando Bernasconi, the CEO of Quality Connections, which provides job training and other services for people with disabilities, said the change to Prop. 414 was a huge relief but that the further increase to $11 in on Jan. 1, 2018, will leave his organizations budget short.

The feedback weve been getting from the Legislature is, Flagstaff, youre on your own, Bernasconi said. All of the organizations plans are contingent on state support, which Bernasconi said has been underfunded historically. With a higher minimum wage in Flagstaff, the gap between costs and revenues will be even wider.

Quality Connections does have some of its own commercial operations that help sustain the organization, so it is not solely dependent on Medicaid funding, he said.

However, Bernasconi said, if the organization does not see a significant increase in funding before 2022, when the citys minimum wage is scheduled to reach $15.50, services and jobs could be cut.

At $15.50, without any (extra) state money or any city money, we would not have a residential program and possibly a day program, he said.

Closing the programs would mean about 65 staff members would lose their jobs and about 50 clients would be left without residential or day programs, he said.

The amendment, which was approved March 21, will allow us to limp along for the next nine months, he said.

The services Quality Connections provides are still in jeopardy, and he and other local providers are looking at different options, he said.

Bernasconi said he still believes Proposition 414 is broken, but he does not know of a clean way to fix the ordinance. He said it is up to the state to fund nonprofit organizations for the states minimum wage, but 414 is a Flagstaff problem, so $15.50 is as much a Flagstaff problem as it is a state problem.

The organization continues to talk to the city council, minimum wage groups in Flagstaff as well as Gov. Doug Ducey and the Legislature, Bernasconi said.

This is not great legislation, like some say it is, Bernasconi said. Great legislation does not ostracize the people it is trying to help.

BREATHING ROOM

Donald Harrington, the assistant director for Community Provider of Enrichment Services (CPES), said the amendment gave the organization breathing room, and enough stability to sign a lease on a group home that had expired. The company would not allow for another Flagstaff lease until after the amendment to 414 had passed the council, he said.

If the council had decided not to amend the law after declining to hold a special election in May, Harrington said the organization would have left the city.

We would probably have stayed a month to try to relocate clients, but we would have looked at moving to Phoenix or Winslow, he said.

However, Harrington said the additional increases and the uncertainty that comes with the November 2018 election regarding the minimum wage leave nonprofit organizations with lingering questions and an inability to plan more than one year in advance.

CPES serves about 11 clients in Flagstaff and employs between 40 and 45 people at any given time and operates three group homes and a day center, Harrington said. Clients in the homes require around-the-clock support.

The people who are suffering the most are the ones who cant care for themselves, Harrington said, adding that moving the clients to Phoenix or another city would remove them from family, which can be very detrimental.

Harrington said there is not a definitive minimum wage that would force CPES out of Flagstaff, but when the citys minimum wage is greater than 50 cents above the states, the organization will be in trouble.

The breaking point is when we separate beyond 50 cents, he said.

The organization has already implemented cost-saving measures, including buying food and other household items in bulk instead of buying from local stores.

If CPES does not expect Prop. 414 to be either negated or permanently amended in the November 2018 election, when at least one initiative will be on the ballot to change the law, Harrington said the group will look at leaving the city.

We will develop our options long before the election, he said.

Harrington said caregiving is a calling for people, and people who love it do not do it for the money.

Im married to this kind of work, he said. If you do it for the money, youre not going to last a week.
Bishop Duffy said there are currently no seminarians getting ready to be ordained in the diocese, which covers most of Longford, much of Leitrim and parts of Westmeath, Offaly and Cavan. (Stock image)

The numbers of working Catholic priests in Ireland will halve in the next 10 years, a bishop has warned.

Bishop Francis Duffy has issued a letter on the severity of the vocations crisis to all 41 churches in his diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise. He has told how a priest in each parish will be a thing of the past.

Bishop Duffy says a big factor in the decline is how a changing faith in Ireland is down to people becoming more private about their religion.

He told the Sunday Independent that the lack of those choosing to enter the priesthood did not mean that people were turning their backs on their religion.

"Faith is changing," he said as he prepared for Easter in this diocese.

"There is still a lot of faith in people, and they tend to use the word 'spiritual'. It is more private than public, and it is not always reflected in practice. It is a very personal issue, and I think that is important, and I say that when I am preaching. The more private dimension of faith is a strong thing.

"But I think the community is important, because it is where we live and work and interact and support each other. Community worship is vital."

The bishop's pastoral letter detailed how the numbers of priests will drop from 52 to 25 by the year 2030.

Bishop Duffy said there are currently no seminarians getting ready to be ordained in the diocese, which covers most of Longford, much of Leitrim and parts of Westmeath, Offaly and Cavan.

He said it means that by the time children born now are making their confirmation "the diocese will be a very different place".

He wrote: "Many of you will fondly remember when there were two or three priests working in your parish, where now there is only one.

"Three of our parishes do not have a resident priest. The trend of a declining number of clergy is set to continue. By 2030, over the next 13 years, 28 of our diocesan priests will reach the retirement age of 75. At the moment, we have 52 very dedicated diocesan priests in our parishes, but sadly no seminarians preparing for ordination."

Bishop Duffy said the decline is such that we needed to prepare for a future without parish priests.

Instead, the church will rely heavily on parishioners to help, he said in the letter entitled Sustaining Our Faith Community.

"From both a pastoral and a duty of care perspective, it is important that responsibilities our clergy now carry are shared with parishioners even more so than at present. This is not about closing churches but about reimagining how we worship and pass on our Christian faith," he said.

Vatican statistics show that the numbers of priests in Ireland dropped from 5,362 in 2002 to 4,688 in 2012.

With less and less seminarians, the maths show a major crisis on the cards.

This year, there were just three seminarians in Ardagh and Clonmacnois, and all three left, which he described as "unfortunate and disappointing".

There are many reasons for the decline, he said.

"There is a hesitancy to answer a calling. Some feel it is too demanding, some feel the celibacy is too big a demand and it will be a lonely life. Others aren't ready to take the risk.

"The horrendous and heinous crime of the abuse of children by clergy and how it was so badly managed, was also a big issue and had a huge impact on the view of the clergy and the church. A general mistrust of all institutions has left a lot of people questioning them." He believes parishioners can be instrumental in encouraging those who have a calling to take the jump.

"Some of my parishes took the initiative of parishioners talking at Mass about vocations and this helps. It is a different voice, a different angle.''

He said that both the issue of celibacy and of women priests are talked about a lot. But he does not believe Pope Francis has any plans to change either of those rules.

The Association of Catholic Priests has previously requested of the bishops to welcome women into the priesthood and to scrap the celibacy ban. Fr Brendan Hoban, of the ACP, said: "Doing nothing is not just irresponsible but a counsel of despair. We know who to blame if they do not bite the bullet on this one."

Bishop Duffy said parishioners already play a key role in church activities, and he is enormously grateful for their assistance, which he believes will save the faith.

He said: "We have an extensive list of men and women involved in all sorts of ways, directly in the parish, and that is a good thing. There is a strong sense of identity and belonging in parishes in rural Ireland. That is a strength that will help us re-imagine the future."

In the last census, some 3.7 million people identified as Catholic (78pc), 132,220 fewer than in 2011 when the percentage stood at 84pc.

One in 10 Irish people say they have no religion (468,421 people), a 73.6pc increase since 2011.

This makes 'no religion' the second largest group in this category behind Roman Catholics.

In his Good Friday prayer, Pope Francis deplored the suffering of migrants. "Shame for all the images of devastation, destruction and shipwrecks which have become ordinary in our lives," he said in an apparent reference to Mediterranean migrant disasters.
The relationship between the ISPCA and vets in border counties, a region dubbed the puppy farm capital of Europe, is at breaking point after a row about dog breeding practices.

County Veterinary Officers in Leitrim and Cavan wrote to government officials asking for the ISPCA's public funding to be revoked if it continued to criticise Cavan County Council after a BBC documentary last year highlighted the mistreatment of dogs on puppy farms.

A letter by Cavan veterinary officer Michael O'Sullivan and Leitrim veterinary officer James Madden told government officials that local authority cooperation with the ISPCA needed to be reviewed urgently. They said the behaviour of the ISPCA was "disgraceful" after the organisation questioned puppy farm inspections in Cavan.

"The ISPCA are [sic] in receipt of substantial government funding through the department of agriculture ex-gratia payment system. We believe that in light of recent developments (the) department should review the funding available to the ISPCA and that a particular condition of such funding is that ISPCA refrain from direct criticism of local authority and department of agriculture veterinary officers."

However, the ISPCA said any criticism levelled at local authorities was warranted, citing footage aired last year showing breeding bitches in Co Cavan being kept in illegal conditions and wooden crates.

The letter to the Department of Agriculture by Mr O'Sullivan and Mr Madden said both men carried out joint inspections of two large puppy farms in Cavan just days after the BBC documentary was aired. They later carried out further inspections with the ISPCA. The lobby pulled its support after Cavan County Council agreed to a one-month court adjournment after a farm appealed seven improvement notices on the grounds it needed time to carry out structural work. In a reply the ISPCA said the councils acted inappropriately.

"Any criticism that is being levelled at Cavan County Council is a direct result of Cavan County Council's failure to effectively enforce the Dog Breeding Establishment Act and to effectively apply the existing guidelines," wrote ISPCA chief Andrew Kelly.

"Issuing a licence to a breeder for 300 breeding bitches despite him not having appropriate facilities or planning permission is simply unjustifiable."

Attempts to reach the ISPCA last week for further clarification were unsuccessful.
Bishop Francis Duffy is appealing for thieves to return the tabernacle

A break-in and theft at a church is "disrespectful to religion and to the local community", a Bishop said today.

It was discovered at around 7am this morning that someone broke into St Michael's Church in Shroid, Co Longford.

it's understood that the altar was damaged and several items were robbed, including the tabernacle.

Bishop Francis Duffy said he visited he church this morning and finds the incident "extremely upsetting."

He told The Longford Leader: "This act of desecration is disrespectful to religion and to the local community.

"It is extremely upsetting for the parishioners and the clergy here in Longford that something like this could happen, but especially during Holy Week.

"The tabernacle is the centre piece of every Mass as it holds the sacred Communion hosts. It holds the bread that we believe has been transformed into the body of Christ.

"That is what we believe and that is why this act of desecration is so distressing. The tabernacle is of great significance to the local parish here."

Gardai confirmed they are probing the incident.

They said in a statement: "Gardai in Longford are investigating a robbery at St Michael's Church in Shroid, Co Longford.

"The incident was discovered shortly after 7am this morning.

"A number of items were stolen.

"A technical examination is taking place and investigations are ongoing."

Anyone with any information is urged to contact Longford Garda Station on 043 335 0570.
A YOUNG woman who moved to Ireland in pursuit of a "better life" has claimed that she was sexually assaulted and told: "That's how things work here."

Originally from India, where she says men frown upon educated women and where her parents tried to arrange her marriage since she came of age, she thought moving here would be a step in a better direction.

However, she said her Irish experience has been severely tainted.

"If you get pregnant, the Government will give you a visa and you will get more money from them - that's how it works here," she was told by the man she claimed sexually assaulted her.

"He told me that in Europe foreigners get a passport if they live together for five or six years and they benefit if they get pregnant. But they take money for all this, it is a scam they run," she said.

She became housemates with this person after moving out of a home where the landlady would ask her: "Why are Indians so smelly?"

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The 30-year-old has lived in four different houses since she moved here late last year.

"I was ready to start my new life with lots of dreams. I wanted to be self-dependent, but I have faced many bad experiences in Dublin; all which affected and ruined my studies and life. In India, I faced a lot of problems too. My family believed in arranged marriages. The qualities of a person does not matter, so I came here."

After distressing experiences in her first two homes, she moved into a city centre apartment, where she became housemates with the man who she claims sexually assaulted her.

Her new roommates, both male and female, were from India and Pakistan, but their views on Ireland's culture differed from hers, she said.

Sex before marriage is against her beliefs, but she was told that's "not how things work" in Ireland.

When she rejected the sexual advances of a man, she claims he forced himself on her, resulting in her having to go to the Mater Hospital.

"He molested me 4-5 times and attempted penetration twice," she claimed.

"Every time it was painful. There were cramps in my arms and legs. He gave me pain physically, mentally and emotionally."

He would tell her: "This is the culture of this country. You've to adapt, otherwise you can't survive".

The claims of sexual assault are currently being investigated by gardai, but that is not the only thing she says they should be investigating.

After again having to find somewhere new to live, and having lost her deposits of 350 and 212.50 in the second and third places she lived, she was provided with another disturbing insight into the rental market here.

When house-hunting on Daft.ie, she contacted people from India who had adverts up.

It turned out that some of the adverts weren't for a room share, but a bed share.

"That's normal [sharing a bed] in Ireland, they would say," when she contacted them.

She has since found a home in north Dublin where she says she is "much happier".

During her terrible ordeal, she felt she couldn't talk to her family as they would say: "We told you so, you shouldn't have moved away".

While choosing to remain anonymous, she wanted to highlight how she has been mistreated.

"When I was small, I was told to stop speaking out loud. I wondered what was the purpose of my life. I feel so down and sad," she said.

"Now, I want justice for the people who bullied me, who assaulted me and abused me."

The Rape Crisis Helpline can be reached on 1800 778888
The author and photographer Jacqueline O'Brien, wife of Vincent, the late founder of Ballydoyle Stud in Co Tipperary, left almost 6m in her will.

Mrs O'Brien, of Dalkeith, Western Australia and the K Club, Co Kildare, died on March 15, 2016. She was the daughter of a flamboyant Australian politician Charles Wittenoom, whose father Sir Edward had founded the town named after the family. She came to Ireland after leaving college and was introduced to Vincent O'Brien at the races and they married in 1951.

During their long marriage, she saw her husband become, firstly, one of the great National Hunt trainers, before graduating to the flat racing 'sport of kings' and training many legendary thoroughbreds.

Ballydoyle Stud at Rosegreen near Cashel, Co Tipperary, became a world-class training establishment with Vincent O'Brien becoming known in the racing world as the 'Master.' The couple were also instrumental in the creation of the Coolmore Stud.

"Another piece of great fortune in Vincent's life was marrying Jacqueline," said the late racing commentator Sir Peter O'Sullevan.

Although she was best known as Vincent O'Brien's wife and mother of their children, Mrs O'Brien also carved out a career for herself, firstly as a photographer and later as an author.

Her sumptuous photographs illustrated Great Irish Houses and Castles which she also wrote, and Dublin: A Grand Tour, which she co-wrote with Desmond Guinness.

She also wrote and illustrated Ancient Ireland, wrote a biography of her husband Master, and her last book, On We Go: The Wittenoom Way, was hailed as a social and cultural history of where she came from in Western Australia.

Although she became an accomplished photographer, Mrs O'Brien said she got into it accidentally when she began photographing horses for sales brochures and later began doing portraits of trainers and their families. "I really loved it and I got to know everybody," she said.
A bereaved mother, who learned that the remains of her premature son were left in a hospital ward for weeks, says parents must be informed of all aspects of their childrens burial in the future.

The woman identified only as Lisa told RTE Radio One's This Week programme that she was blatantly lied to by officials at Letterkenny University Hospital in order not to cause stress to her after her premature baby Eoin died in the womb in the second trimester of her pregnancy in October 2016.

He suffered from a rare chromosomal disorder known as Turners Syndrome in which 99pc of babies are stillborn.

But instead of Eoin's remains being kept at the hospitals mortuary and buried a week after his birth - as Lisa was told by hospital officials she was devastated to learn that he was in fact left in a forgotten coffin in a gynaecology ward at the hospital for four weeks.

She was also forbidden from attending his actual burial in an unmarked grave at the Little Angels plot at the hospital - for what she was told were private and confidential reasons and still has no way of knowing where his remains are buried.

The hospital has apologised for having failed the Donegal woman.

However Lisa said no parent should ever have to endure the ordeal she went through again.

I knew Eoin will always be with me but I just wanted him to be laid to rest that day and I really did think that he would be laid to rest of the 19th of October, she told RTE.

But after returning to the hospital weeks later due to an infection following the difficult pregnancy, Lisa said she learned by chance from one of the staff members that Eoin had never been buried.

I said why not? and she said Ill find out for you. Hes in the mortuary, Lisa said, noting that the staff person told her he would be buried the following morning.

I said that was fine but we were going to the burial because my trust was gone with them as far as I was concerned. We were devastated that he wasnt buried because I wanted him laid to rest. That was a big thing to me," she said.

I just left. I was infuriated, she said, adding she then wrote a formal letter of complaint to the hospitals general manager.

But more horror was in store for her when she met with the hospital management in January to find out why Eoin was left in the mortuary for weeks and why she couldnt attend the burial when she learned that he was left in a coffin in the gynaecology ward where she gave birth.

I asked one of the ladies do you mean to tell me that our child was forgot about?' She turned around and said 'yes and we are very sorry'.

There was no explanation for it, she said.

I was told straight out that I was lied to and they were very sorry about it. That they were trying to relieve me of stress that I didnt need at that time, she added.

A letter from the hospital seen by RTE acknowledges that Lisa and her partner were misled by a member of staff as to where the body was stored and apologises for the "deep hurt and distress which had been caused to both of you when [staff member] told you that your baby had not been buried and led you to believe your baby was in the mortuary when this was not the case".

"We are sorry that you were failed by Letterkenny University Hospital in relation to the burial of your son, Eoin, and that this was not carried out in the timescale and manner agreed with you. Unfortunately and sadly we cannot change that. We can and will, however, ensure that baby Eoin's legacy will be that this does not ever happen again."

However, Lisa said the letter of apology just added insult to injury.

"My child had to lie for four weeks for them to open their eyes to this. I don't understand how anyone could leave a human being, a baby, lying in a room for four weeks".

"I don't want anybody else to suffer the way we've suffered and continue to suffer. I don't think anybody should have to go through that and I just pray and hope to God that this never happens again."

"Every hospital has to put a protocol in place so that people know when they're going in, if they lose their baby that they know what's going to happen, that you can or can't go to the burial. They need to know all this before they make the decision."

Meanwhile, the Saolta Hospital Group, of which Letterkenny University Hospital is a member, said it could not discuss individual patients with the media but issued the following statement.

"We would like to take this opportunity to apologise again to the patient and her family for any distress caused. We have already revised our systems and are currently reviewing our policies for patient information and consent so as to ensure that we are in line with best international practice."

The HSE, meanwhile, said it has published the National Standards for Bereavement Care following Pregnancy Loss and Perinatal Death in August 2016 and appointed a consultant obstetrician to implement the standards.

However, Lisa said there was nothing in the protocol that addressed the issues she raised.
A German tourist has been airlifted to hospital after breaking an ankle while hiking in a beauty spot in West Cork this afternoon.

The 61-year-old woman sustained the injury while hiking near Gougane Barra.

But due to the remote location where she was injured, the Shannon Rescue helicopter 115 was dispatched to the scene to aid members of the Kerry Mountain Rescue team.

The woman was then airlifted to Kerry University Hospital in Tralee.
A man has been taken to hospital after he was stabbed in the stomach just yards from Dublin's O'Connell Street.

Emergency services were called to the scene, near a taxi rank, on Sackville Place at approximately 9.45pm.

The victim, a 51-year-old man, suffered an apparent knife injury to the left side of his abdomen.

Sources said he contacted emergency services himself by dialing 999.

A spokesman for Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) said an ambulance, fire engine and advanced paramedic attended the scene.

The victim was taken by ambulance to the Mater Hospital where he is being treated tonight.

Gardai in Store Street have launched an investigation into the attack.

Dublin Fire Brigade have dealt with a number of serious incidents this evening.

Shortly before 8pm a young girl was taken to Temple Street Hospital after she was struck by a car in the Ballintree Estate in Tryrellstown, West Dublin.

A spokesman said she was in a serious condition.

Units have also dealt with blazes in Rush, Ballymun, Blackrock. Separately, DFB were called to deal with a fire near the popular Finnstown House Hotel.

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There have been no reports of injuries.
Glen has to comply with the Regulator's direction by the end of the month. (Stock picture)

The Charities Regulator has directed the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen) to provide it with specific information on certain issues including providing a number of financial reports.

It has also requested details of staff credit cards and the report of an independent auditor. It is understood the direction covers the three-year period dating from 2014.

The Charities Regulator is looking for details of all credit cards used by board members, staff and volunteers. It wants details of spending for 2014, 2015 and 2016, and details of authorisations for the cards.

It has also requested details of financial reports as well as reports by named accountants.

In a statement to the Sunday Independent, the HSE confirmed that it is currently in communication with Glen regarding the provision of finance for 2017.

Glen has to comply with the Regulator's direction by the end of the month.

In September, Aine Duggan was announced as the new executive director of Glen. She took up her post at the end of October, replacing Brian Sheehan who had held the position since 2007. She previously served as president and CEO of Re:Gender, a US gender equality organisation that operates at national level.

It is understood the charity was in line to receive 200,000 from the HSE last month, but the money is being withheld until the issues have been fully examined.

The organisation's mental health programme - which aims to prevent LGBT suicide and promote mental health - is funded by the HSE.

Founded in 1988, the group works on a broad range of issues including sexual health, mental health, physical health and education.

It says its aim is to create an Ireland where "LGBT people can feel equal and included in all aspects of their lives..
Fishermen in counties Mayo and Donegal are being asked to remain vigilant after the search for the missing Rescue 116 crew members was scaled back last week.

Searches remain ongoing, with Coast Guard and Civil Defence volunteers still actively checking the Mayo coastline this weekend where debris has previously washed up.

A garda aqua unit remains on-site in Blacksod and will be carrying out dives around Black Rock island, where the rescue helicopter went down a month ago, when weather and tidal conditions allow.

The Coast Guard has said it will continue looking for the bodies of the missing crewmen.

Operations manager Gerard O'Flynn told the Sunday Independent he was not willing to put a timeline on the ongoing operation to locate missing men. "Obviously the high intensity work at sea was scaled back last week and resources have been scaled back somewhat," he said.

"Shoreline searches will remain ongoing with teams from the Coast Guard and the Civil Defence combing shorelines and targeting areas where debris has been found recently. You cannot put a timeline on something like this and we will keep going. Searches will continue and are ongoing."

The Irish Lights vessel the Granuaile and its remotely operated vehicle departed Blacksod last week after almost a month of helping in the search for the downed helicopter and the crewmen.

Targeted searches will continue in the area but fishermen are being reminded they remain important to the future search efforts.

Trawlers have already played a key role in the month since the helicopter went missing on March 14.

A boat from Killybegs, Co Donegal, was successful in locating a flare box and equipment from the helicopter which is usually stored under the winchman's seat.

Its crew was unaware of the discovery until they had landed back at port and discovered the equipment tangled in its fishing nets.

More than 100 boats also took part in an extensive search off the coast last week and Mr O'Flynn has asked them to remain aware of debris as they go about their work.

"We are asking all boats in the area to remain vigilant," he said. "A garda team of divers remains in the area too and they are available to assist."
Busted: 400m worth of cocaine was seized from the 'Dances With Waves' yacht off Mizen Head in Cork in 2008.

A leading criminologist believes efforts to make a serious dent in drug-trafficking into Ireland can only succeed if the use of some drugs is decriminalised and there's less of a focus on smaller seizures.

Dr Johnny Connolly, of the University of Limerick's School of Law and Irish Research Council, says drug law enforcement here should be more strategic and that 'harm reduction' should play a greater role in developing drug-enforcement and detection policy.

"Despite the good work of the Gardai's Drug and Organised Crime Bureau, the Revenue and Customs and other arms of the State we're seizing a tiny fraction of the drugs coming into the country. Its tip of the iceberg stuff," he tells Review.

"Part of the problem is that Customs officers have such a wide area to cover in terms of the amount of illegal substances they're looking out for. There's too much emphasis on the small player or the person with some cannabis for personal use.

"We should prioritise the major players, those importing crack cocaine and other very dangerous drugs. Those destroying lives and entire communities."

While the Revenue and Customs drug enforcement arm seized 15.4m worth of cannabis (herbal and resin) in 2016, the seizures for cocaine and heroin came in at just 12m. While there were 1,222 seizures of cannabis, the number of cocaine and heroin-related seizures came to 134.

"In Portugal because they decriminalised the use of drugs in 2001 they have more time to focus on the main players and hit them," says Connolly.

"They don't waste time, and resources, on people caught with a joint or a stash for personal use. We should be looking at applying a similar strategy here in Ireland. It would just make more practical sense.

"Fighting the drug trade is expensive and we must make sure we are using all of our resources cleverly - not going after small fish."

Each year the state spends a combined 200m to 300m on drug enforcement. The amount pales in significance when you consider that in 2008, the value of just one cocaine seizure off Mizen Head in Cork came to 400m.

And he said while annual drug seizure figures in Ireland frequently exceed the benchmark as set out in the National Drugs Strategy, it is unclear if that's because of improved performance by drug enforcement or because the Irish drugs market is growing.

"Generally, the level of drug seizures is reflective of law enforcement activity rather than the scale of the market. It's an incredibly difficult area to police. We have limited resources and the drug gangs spend millions on the latest technology and have highly-developed methods of concealment."

While he doesn't foresee too much change to the flow of illegal drugs into Ireland following Brexit, Dr Connolly says this is a specific area of concern the government must address.

Liam Peakin, Head of the Customs Drug Law Enforcement Unit, tells Review: "If there is a hard Border, then of course we'd need Customs officials there. If that is the case some resources may need to be moved from elsewhere (from the ports, airports etc to the Border). Obviously, that could have a knock-on effect in terms of drug enforcement."
The Audi passengers are interviewed by Customs officials, but the scan proves to be clear. Picture: Patrick Browne

A silver Audi is hoisted on to one of the Rosslare Europort Customs XRay Scanners. Picture: Patrick Browne

Something just doesn't seem right. It's early morning at Rosslare Europort and a ferry has arrived from Cherbourg. Bleary-eyed motorists guide their vehicles off the vessel through the twilight, past Gardai, and towards the customs officials, but one car has raised some concerns.

In 2016 Irish customs officials seized just over 30m worth of prohibited drugs. In 2015 the figure was 23m and 91m a year earlier. Any activity out of the ordinary is picked up on immediately.

This brown, unremarkable, vehicle with French registration plates has already been marked as a 'target' by customs personnel working in conjunction with Revenue's National Profiling Centre.

Inside two men look nervous and fidgety.

By the time they are waved to the side by customs officials, it's clear something is up.

Defor, an English springer spaniel who works as a drug detector dog for Revenue and Customs, leaps into the vacated vehicle. His handler Geraldine Ward watches closely. He will sit and give passive scent detection signals if he finds something.

It's only when he jumps into the back seat that he gives a reaction.

But it's not a stash of prohibited drugs - but instead a rather startled and undeclared ginger cat in a bag. Her back rises in fright - it's almost a seizure of a different kind.

"We see all sorts here," says Maria Meyler, the local Revenue and Customs district officer in Wexford. And the vigilance isn't only about drugs - earlier this month Garda immigration officers at Rosslare discovered 14 people hidden in the back of a truck that arrived from France.

"You have to watch people's behaviour. Are they twitchy, does something not add up. After we pull them over and interview them we make a decision whether or not we'll search, and possibly scan, their vehicle. Sometimes they are concealing an animal like in this case but sometimes it can be so much more. And drug smugglers come in all shapes and sizes. We've even had young families who've come in here with concealed drugs. We have to be consistently vigilant."

Like in July of last year when Revenue officials in Rosslare discovered bags containing 17kg of cocaine in the side panels of a lorry. The estimated street-value of the find was 1.9m.

And last June when an unaccompanied freight container packed with frozen pork was selected for scanning, the results set the alarm bells blaring.

Customs official Gerry McGrath shows me a hard copy of the X-ray scans. "Here, see, the change in colour. You can just spot something's a shade lighter. We felt we had to investigate."

Because of the strong smell of meat in the container, which had arrived from France, the sniffer dogs couldn't pick up on the drug scent, but when Customs officers clambered over the frozen meat pallets they eventually spotted the concealed goods - 215kgs of herbal cannabis worth 4.2m.

"That was a successful interception for us and showed that our systems work," explains Maureen Dalton, the Revenue's Enforcement Manager at Rosslare Port.

"We use a broad range of data, intelligence and analytical technologies to identify risk moving in and out of Rosslare Port. Insights and intelligence play an important role in directing our attention to new or emerging risks," she tells me.

The port has to keep moving

During the four-year period, from 2013 to 2017, there were 78 drug seizures at Rosslare Port with a combined street-value of 12m.

But inevitably there is only so much this highly-skilled and experienced team of customs officials can do, only so many vehicles they can stop and only so many scans and checks they can carry out. Over 400 vehicles, including freight, cars, buses and campervans, arrive on one ferry from France on the morning I spend in Rosslare - but of those no more than ten can be stopped and searched.

The port has to keep moving, it's a vital entry point for both trade and tourist traffic - this is especially true at Dublin Port, which in 2016 saw 1.8 million passengers pass through it with 104,185 trade vehicles and 505,482 tourist vehicles.

It is estimated that Ireland's interception rate, the approximate percentage of prohibited drugs which are seized here each year, is in the region of 4.8 per cent.

It's a loose figure, an approximation and one that depends on our ability to estimate the total levels of demand and narcotics through-flow, but most agree it's in the right ball park, if not slightly generous.

Last year the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that just 3 per cent of heroin imported into Ireland is seized. It put the heroin market in Ireland at a value of 600m - a much disputed figure.

'We have to be realistic'

But most would agree that around 95 per cent of drugs smuggled into Ireland finds its way into the drugs market. This actually compares favourably with some other European countries and Ireland, as an exposed island nation, has much more coastline to monitor than most.

"We have to be realistic, it's very hard to man our extensive coastline," says Liam Peakin, head of the Customs Drug Law Enforcement Unit.

"We work very closely with the Garda National Drug Unit, the Criminal Assets Bureau, Europol, the Coast Guard, Irish Navy and the European Maritime and Aviation Centre, to try and identify shipments of drugs heading for Ireland and intercept them before they even reach our shores - but of course it's not easy. You're dealing with sophisticated drug gangs which spend huge amounts of money to make sure they're doing everything possible to throw us off the scent," he added.

Ireland's long coastline is considered vulnerable to traffickers seeking less guarded routes to bring drugs to the United Kingdom and Europe from South America, North Africa and other drug-producing regions.

But there have been some notable drugs busts in recent months and years.

In January, a joint Revenue and Garda operation at Dublin Port resulted in the seizure of 37.5m worth of cannabis resin. The consignment had entered Dublin Port in three crates disguised as machinery parts.

And in 2014 a luxury yacht, called the SV Makayabella, was intercepted off the Cork coast by the Irish Navy after crossing the Atlantic from the Caribbean with around a tonne of cocaine on board with a street value of 290m.

The Makayabella was just one in a long line of private vessels caught off the southern coast smuggling prohibited drug hauls. And the fear is such activities are a more regular occurrence.

"Every form of access is problematic whether that's small private boats or planes, trawlers or those using the more conventional transport routes," says Liam Peakin. "That's why our Drugs Watch programme is so important where we ask the general public to be our 'eyes and ears' and to contact us if they notice something suspicious. And we have designated 'Drugs Watch Officers' around the country who speak with those involved in, perhaps, the fishing industry or some other maritime-related work to find out if they've seen anything which doesn't look right."

By air, post and sea

Last October, a member of the public rang the Drugs Watch number (Freephone 1800 295 295) when they came across an unusual object washed up on a beach at Liscannor in Clare. The torpedo-shaped device contained cocaine valued at 5m.

Importation by air is of major concern also. In 2016, more than 1.5m worth of cocaine was seized at Dublin Airport alone. Drugs were found stuffed into children's toys, empty fizzy drink and hairspray cans, cavities in shoes and the hollowed-out pages of a book.

In one case, customs officials stopped a man who was dressed in a designer suit and expensive shoes but after being questioned, it transpired he had swallowed 49 pellets of cocaine.

And there have been seizures of designer drugs at postal sorting offices around the country also as the internet adds another layer of difficulty for those involved in drug detection.

Back in Rosslare selected passengers are questioned, sniffer dogs dart between vehicles and eagle-eyed Customs officials keep an eye out for any activity out of the ordinary.

A silver Audi, recently arrived from France, is scanned after its passengers, who say they are in Ireland on holidays, are found to be carrying items such as a television and coffee-maker in their boot. They struggle to provide an address for their destination. The car is hoisted onto the X-ray scanner, one of three now in the possession of Revenue and Customs, but the scan is clear.

Off they drive, but soon another ferry will dock. Customs officials will run the rule over the manifest and add value to its contents and the searches will resume again.

"We're on call 24/7," explains Maureen Dalton, "the drug smuggling efforts don't stop and neither do we."

Drug seizures - The Major Hauls

2008

 Smugglers overload a small boat with cocaine and fill a spare tank of fuel with diesel instead of petrol. The boat capsizes and cocaine with a value of 440m is seized at Dunlough Bay in Cork.

 400m worth of cocaine seized from yacht 'Dances With Waves' in the middle of gale force seven storm by Irish Navy off Mizen Head, Cork.

2014

 The luxury yacht 'the Makayabella' is seized off West Cork en route from the Caribbean with 290m worth of Cocaine on board (pictured above).

January 2017

 A massive cannabis haul worth 37.5m at Dublin Port after drugs disguised as machinery.
There are still plenty of stereotypes about Protestants in Ireland. Many of them grew up being told that they were not Irish enough.

There is an assumption that they must be rich and live in big houses, and there is even a belief in certain quarters that southern Protestants pay homage to the Queen of England.

They are also said to be accomplished at home baking and jam-making, and skilled at growing daffodils and making meals from meagre leftovers.

The Rev Patrick Comerford, Church of Ireland parish priest in Rathkeale, Co Limerick says: "I don't think the stereotypes are as strong as they once were, but sometimes they are perpetuated by RTE.

"When they cast a Church of Ireland figure in a TV programme they always have a plummy Anglo-Irish accent, like George or the rector's wife in Glenroe."

The priest says that in reality most of his parishioners have accents and jobs no different to those of their Catholic or non-religious neighbours. The backbone of the community in rural parishes is typically made up of small farmers, shopkeepers and people with a wide variety of backgrounds.

Dublin once had a strong working class Protestant tradition, but in popular culture Protestant invariably means posh.

The latest census shows a slight drop in the number of people declaring themselves as Church of Ireland. Numbers have fallen by 2 per cent to 126,000 over the past five years, but leaders of the biggest Protestant denomination are hardly likely to panic.

The Church of Ireland has suffered calamitous falls in its population before. In the 26 counties in the late 19th century, there were 340,000 members of the church, but by the early 1980s the population had fallen to 95,000. It then started to recover.

Since the 1950s there have been hundreds of closures of Protestant churches across the country. But a number of influences have helped to steady a ship that was in grave danger of sinking.

An increase in the number of Protestant immigrants, particularly from Africa and India, has helped to re-energise some parishes, and there has also been an influx of worshippers who grew up as Catholics.

One parishioner from Lucan estimates his local church-going population as 50pc traditional Church of Ireland, 25pc African or Indian, and 25pc people who were baptised as Catholics.

"There are a number of people from a Catholic background who feel more comfortable in the Church of Ireland at the moment, but I would not see this as a form of competition," says Patrick Comerford.

The Church of Ireland is facing some similar challenges to the Catholic church. There is an enormous legacy of buildings that have been handed down through generations. The clergy have to try to maintain them, and more importantly, fill the pews.

Priests, many of whom have second jobs, have to cover sprawling groups of parishes over large areas, and in some of the churches the attendance is tiny.

As a priest on the Iveragh peninsula in Kerry, the Rev Michael Cavanagh covers an area from Kenmare to Waterville and Valentia Island. He says at some services in the winter, only four people might show up at some of the services.

"I still think it is very important that we do those services, because it means so much to the parishioners," says the priest, who grew up as a Catholic before becoming an Anglican in his early twenties.

Like the other well-established churches, the Church of Ireland could have been accused of a certain complacency in the past.

It was unwilling to go out there and compete aggressively in the marketplace for the souls of the faithful.

But Canon Ian Ellis, editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette, says the traditional churches are less complacent now.

"As they see themselves less at the centre of things, the more aware they are becoming of the need to reach out."

Overall, attendance figures in the Church of Ireland are estimated at 15pc. Just as there are 'a la carte Catholics', there are also 'a la carte Protestants'.

Like the Catholic church, the church has a huge contingent who only attend for big family events, having been educated at Protestant schools.

Ronan Scanlan, an IT consultant who organises scripture readings at the church in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow says: "For christenings, weddings and funerals, and at Christmas and Easter, the church is bursting at the seams. But for the rest of the year these people are nowhere to be seen."

Numbers at church on a Sunday may be small in many parishes, but the Bishop of Limerick Kenneth Kearon believes the flock that does turn up regularly is perhaps stronger in its faith.

"People are less likely to go to church purely for social reasons, as they often did in the past," says the Rt Rev Kearon.

"There may be fewer going but they are more committed. That commitment shows itself in Sunday worship, but also increasingly in daily bible study and regular prayer."

Patrick Comerford says there are still parishioners who grew up with the idea that you should pray at the start and the end of the day.

He says prayer is less formal than it used to be, and the saying of Grace before meals is not as common as it once was. But there is still a strong faith. He says groups of worshippers have turned out every night in small parishes in his area during Holy Week.

"You would get a dozen people in these parishes who would rather come to church in Holy Week than sit at home watching Coronation Street or Eastenders."

As the country has become more secular, Christian churches have discovered that they have more in common.

Kenmare priest Michael Cavanagh says there is now a superb ecumenical relationship between the churches. In his area, Christians of all denominations get together for bible study.

The main Protestant church, the Church of Ireland has tended to identify with the other main reformed churches, the Presbyterians and Methodists.

The Presbyterian population, which has also fallen in the census, is clustered along the border in Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.

Patrick Comerford likes to emphasise the close similarities between the Church of Ireland and the Catholic church.

The Rathkeale priest says: "In the Church of Ireland, we see ourselves as Catholic too.

"We are both Catholic and Protestant, we confess the same Creeds - the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed. We are not a different faith, and we do not see ourselves as having broken away from Catholicism."

In the decades after independence, there was a perception that Protestants kept their heads down and quietly got on with business.

But in recent decades, the community has been much more assertive in public life. In politics, prominent Protestants have included David Norris, Ivan Yates, Jan O'Sullivan and Heather Humphreys, who is a Presbyterian.

U2 was conceived in a Protestant school, Mount Temple. Two band members, Adam Clayton and the Edge, are from a Church of Ireland background, while Bono's mother was also Protestant.

Fifty years ago Protestants may have led separate lives, but that is no longer the case. Patrick Comerford says: "There is now an acceptance that this is our State and we are responsible for it just as everybody else is. We play our part."

I'd do 60 hours a week quite easily, but in the past it used to be up to 100 hours

Maria Jansson (61), Dean of Waterford Church of Ireland Cathedral

In 1957, the marriage of a Catholic and Protestant in Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexford, caused social unrest - and a priest-led boycott of local Protestant business. It's a notorious sectarian incident that is still talked of today, but not all of those in 'mixed marriages' experienced such problems.

Maria Jansson's Swedish Lutheran father and Donegal Catholic mother married that very decade and theirs was a union that attracted no animosity. The family moved to Cork when she was eight and she remembers going to Mass every Sunday while being acutely aware of her father's staunch Protestantism. "There was no alcohol in the house, card games," she says. "We kept our heads down."

Since her school days she was intrigued by both philosophy and religion and her becoming a religion teacher was a perfectly natural career move. She taught at schools in Cork and Dublin.

Although she had been raised Catholic, she found herself drawn more to the Protestant tradition, especially when she started attending Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in the 1980s. "But the prospect of being a priest wasn't in my head at all," she says, recalling how her father, though devout, had little time for clergy.

A life of academia beckoned, but the sudden deaths of two close family members within six months of each other caused her to reassess her life. Ministering in the Church of Ireland would give her true purpose, she believed, and with women priests part of the Church since 1990, there was no longer a gender impediment.

"It has been a great joy," she says. "You meet so many people who inspire you, especially older people who have great wisdom. It's almost as though they are ministering to me."

But the hours are punishing. "I'd do 60 hours a week quite easily," she says, "but in the past it used to be up to 100 hours. You have to cut back on that because it's so detrimental to your health" - she suffered a stroke a few years ago - "and you need the head space too. You really have to look out for yourself."

John Meagher
Originally from Cameroon, Pastor Emmanuel Might has lived in Ireland with his wife and children for the past 14 years. He ministers at one of the pentecostal churches that mushroomed in Dublin in the 2000s and although the Solid Rock church is off the beaten track - it's based in a nondescript building in an industrial estate in Inchicore - it pulls in large attendances twice a week.

"There are up to 20 nationalities in our congregation," he says, "a lot of African people but also those from Brazil and some Irish too. No matter who you are, or what reason you may have for coming here, you are welcomed."

He says churches like this are often the first port of call for new immigrants. "People can arrive in Ireland and know nobody, but through a belief in God, they can meet other people quite easily. Like any church, there is a social dimension, too, and for many people new to Ireland they soon find that this becomes their family."

Although part of the Protestant community, services at pentecostal churches such as this feel very different to the 'established' churches. There's a heavy emphasis on using audio-visual materials and services can be impassioned affairs, running to two-and-a-half hours long.

While Census figure show a slight decline in the numbers calling themselves 'Pentecostal', Pastor Might has seen little sign of this in his own Church.

"It feels as though we are busier than ever," he says. "A lot of people are seeking God's message. And we really reach out to people - a lot of it is word of mouth. People start coming because one of their friends has told them about us."
Actress, novelist, scriptwriter, jewellery collaborator, shoe designer, beauty salon investor, style icon and mum-of-two. That's a lot of titles - and responsibility - to have on your shoulders, but Amy Huberman carries it all off with a serenely confident demeanour.

When we meet, Amy has been up early with her children, Sadie (four) and Billy (two), and, as she leans into the mirror to check her lipstick before posing for our photo- grapher, I casually enquire who did her hair and make-up this morning - only to discover that she did it herself. Yes, there's a refreshing, no-nonsense, independent streak coursing though the veins of this Dubliner, who turned 38 last month, and who wears her crown of Ireland's favourite girl-next-door with an easy charm.

Life is busy at the moment - there's an acting project in England, for which she has filmed a few episodes, and in Dublin Amy has a new office space where she goes to write the script for a comedy series, which has received funding from the Broadcasting Corporation of Ireland (BCI) and which she is developing with Treasure Films.

"I'm only at the writing stage so far but loving the process, so fingers crossed," she says. "These things can take a long time and I'm learning as I go. But it feels good to be writing again."

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After getting the office, Amy went straight to Ikea and bought fluffy rugs and fairy lights for her writing space. Her growing enthusiasm for interiors has been sparked by the Victorian period house that she and her husband, rugby hero Brian O'Driscoll, bought in the Dublin 6 suburb of Rathmines. It's led to new areas of interest - "I've a kitchen obsession," laughs Amy.

"I'm definitely more into interiors than before; I think you evolve to what your life circumstances are," she continues. "In my 20s, I was renting in different places and interiors weren't really on my radar, or I didn't have the disposable income to be worried about painting walls.

"We did a little bit of work to our own house a couple of years ago and I learned a lot through that. I've learned to make a decision and to move on. Just go with the gut and say: 'Those are the tiles - we're going for it.'

"I've got a thing for kitchens and that's new. I'm looking forward to the house but I'm sure it's going to be a long enough process, because it's an old house and it needs a lot of love. I want to stay true to the charm of the old house, but it needs to feel like it's a functional family home for the age we are living in, because everyone lived differently in Victorian times."

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Exploring moodboards and Pinterest, Amy is leaning towards fab tiling. "I love subway tiles but with rich wood and rugs. I love vintage rugs, so even if it's a clean look with an old, faded rug, that's what I'm thinking of in my head," she says.

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Moodboards and going through magazines are also part of the "homework" Amy enjoys for her designer endeavours - our coffee date today marks the roll-out of the latest Amy Huberman Collection by Bourbon Footwear. Made by Carrickmacross-based Budda Brand, the collection includes shoes and sandals in various heel heights, as well as wedges and glammed-up trainers and slip-ons.

Amy has been designing for the brand since 2013, naming many of the styles after her favourite movies. Her shoes sell internationally since she came to the attention of an appreciative British audience on Comedy Central's TV series Threesome.

"Doing the Bourbon shoe collection has been great. With all these things, when you start the journey, it's an adventure and you don't know where it's going to go, but it's been really lovely and real teamwork. When I started, I was like: 'Who is the predictor?' How do you know what's going to happen in a year's time fashion-wise, and how do I stay on top of that?'

"I think there are two strands to it: the fashion and trends side, and then the stuff that you instinctively love. That can change over time with the way fashions change."

At 5ft 2in, Amy doesn't hide her quest for height in her designs. "I get really hung up on high heels and I could be torturing Barry McArdle [one of the Monaghan brothers behind the brand] with the exact dimensions of the width of a heel. Because I'm little, I'm like, 'Go higher, go higher,' when I talk heels with the Bourbon team, but then there are loads of people who don't want to wear high heels. I know from feedback that people want comfort - it's about compromise and we always need to have one in there for me. Next season, I will push higher on one of the styles."

A firm favourite which will never be thrown out of her personal size-three shoe collection are her Days of Thunder ankle boots from two seasons ago - and she ordered two pairs, just to be sure.

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"Little ankle boots with a pointy toe and block heels are my everyday boot. They are my 'go to London for the day' boot that I know that I can survive in."

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Date nights with Brian, when they like to go out locally for something to eat and a chat, might call for open-toe sandals, but her all-time favourites are her Love court shoes, which she wears in our photographs (left). "I love this style with jeans because I feel dressed up but it's not too dressy. We are doing it in a burnt orange, which looks great with jeans."

Amy's wardrobe has long been a source of fascination to the wider public. It's seven years in July since Brian and she tied the knot at Lough Rynn Castle. Acres of print were written about the couple's big day, and especially her fairy-tale gown by designer Stephanie Allin. A flood of brides wanted to replicate her look - it was one of the first clues of the 'Amy factor', which has seen pieces like a Mint Velvet grey suede biker jacket and a Lennon Courtney jumpsuit sell out after Ms Huberman was spotted wearing them.

Was Amy surprised by the reaction to her wedding dress at the time? "Yeah, I would have been. I didn't really think about my dress as being anything other than a dress that I really wanted. With all things, you have to chose for yourself and be true to yourself. If everybody hated my dress, I really wouldn't have cared because I loved it - I absolutely loved it."

What I find most revealing about Amy's take on fashion and her personal style is how prepared she is to think outside the box and take a punt. She floors me a little when she declares that the wedding dress had taken her by surprise. "It wasn't at all what I thought I was going to go for," she reveals. "I thought I was going to go lacy and I thought I was going to go streamlined - and I went for the complete opposite. People say, 'Will you love it in 20 years?' but you can't think like that. You have to choose for what's right now, what you love now, or else you would never make a decision And I would never make a decision!"

There are times when she loves finding clothes and other times when, like the rest of us, she can be a bit allergic to the process. "I love fashion but I don't kind of live and die by it. I do still love choosing my own outfits and I will sometimes plan in advance. I will choose something, buy it and keep it for an event."

Ticking style boxes ahead of time is a good game plan for someone as busy as Amy, who can also call on the assistance of her good friend, the top stylist Ingrid Hoey, to fall back on if she doesn't have the time or the inclination to shop. "I love fashion and, most of the time, I enjoy it," Amy says. "But there are times when you are busy running around and I'm like, 'I don't know if I've got the mental energy to be trying on a zillion different things.'"

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For last weekend's Irish Film & Television Academy awards ceremony (IFTAs), Amy looked the part in a 1940s tulle gown with bodice top and crumb-catcher detailing, paired with a Jenny Vander vintage neckpiece. "For the IFTAs, I chose a vintage dress from Dirty Fabulous, and I don't think I've ever worn vintage to the IFTAs before. I love the dress and, again, you could think beyond that and 'Oh, will people like it?' but you have to go, 'I just think it's really fun - I love it; I don't have to think about it; it doesn't have to be altered; it's done.'"

As Amy collected a Leading Actress award for her role of lawyer Tara Rafferty in RTE's Striking Out, her outfit was well received by her impressive army of fans on social media (including 382,000 followers on Twitter and 195,000 on Instagram).

Another source for her handsome, quirky pieces is Folkster in Temple Bar and Kilkenny, owned by another pal, Blanaid Hennessy. The friendship means Amy can sometimes borrow pieces - like the sage-green lace dress with cream slip that she wore to the State dinner at Windsor Castle, marking President Higgins' visit to England.

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"Blanaid is a friend of mine and she said, 'Keep that one for your daughter when she's older.' I've a few pieces that I've kept back - and Sadie may hate them, and they will probably be taken out of the attic and will be full of moth holes - but it's kind of nice. I would be a little sentimental like that. In my huge wardrobe clear-outs, I'd go to [designer exchange resale store] Siopaella, and then I'd ring Ella [de Guzman, the owner] two weeks later and say, 'Will you hold back those two because they were kind of sentimental, and I wore that to that...' I have kept a couple of things but, at the moment, I'm on the vibe of getting rid of things I don't wear."

After taking a full month off, Amy, Brian and the kids will grab a week in Spain and chill out before she gets back to work again. So, what has Amy discovered about herself since becoming a mum? "I think I've got more patience and more understanding of people's different life choices.

"I feel very grateful for two gorgeous little kiddies that I love spending time with - simple things like going to the playground. It's the simple things that are the best things."
Ashley Olsen and Richard Sachs attend New York Knicks vs Brooklyn Nets game at Madison Square Garden on November 9, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images)

Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen pose on the winners walk at the 2015 CFDA Fashion Awards at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center on June 1, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

Olivier Sarkozy and Mary Kate Olsen attend day 8 of the 2014 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 1, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Uri Schanker/GC Images)

Ashley Olsen (L) and Mary-Kate Olsen attend the "Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology" Costume Institute Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

Ashley Olsen and Richard Sachs attend New York Knicks vs Brooklyn Nets game at Madison Square Garden on November 9, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images)

Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen attend Youth America Grand Prix's 2017 Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow Gala at David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center on April 13, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen attend Youth America Grand Prix's 2017 Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow Gala at David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center on April 13, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

They are of two of the most recognisable women on the planet, but Mary Kate & Ashley don't court the spotlight.

The former child stars turned fashion designers (30) are worth an estimated $100m and since they moved on from Hollywood, preferring to keep their head down in New York City and only attend red carpets on select occasions.

The stylish identical twins, who are behind designer label The Row, made an increasingly rare red carpet appearance to support the ballet at an event for Youth America Grand Prix, also joined by Mary Kate's husband Olivier Sarkozy (46).

It marks Ashley's first public appearance since splitting with her banker boyfriend Richard Sachs (58) in March after five months of dating.

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Last months, the fashion moguls said they find balance with their personal lives by prioritising what's important to them and avoiding social media.

"We don't dive into that whole world [of social media] and we dont have Facebook, we've never been connected to our fans in that way. We've stayed quite sheltered in that sense," Ashley told The Edit.

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Mary-Kate echoed her sentiments, saying: "I think we're lucky [working hard] comes quite naturally for us. We dont need so much time to sit and think and ponder. But then I have a husband, two step-kids and a life; I have to go home and cook dinner."

"I ride horses on the weekends. You find the thing that helps you relax and if you don't have it, you have to look for it. Or you get burned out and then youre not productive."
Britain's Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, arrive at the Easter Sunday service in Windsor Castle, in Windsor, Britain, April 16, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Britain's Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, arrive at the Easter Sunday service in Windsor castle, in Windsor, Britain, April 16, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive for the Easter Sunday service at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive for the Easter Sunday service at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive for the Easter Sunday service at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (centre) and Princesses Eugenie (second left) and Beatrice (third left) along with other members of the Royal family, arrive for the Easter Sunday service at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive to attend the Easter Sunday service at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Princesses Eugenie (left) and Beatrice, arrive for the Easter Sunday service at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire

The Duchess of Cambridge arrives for the Easter Sunday service at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire

Britain's Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie arrive at the Easter Sunday service in Windsor Castle, in Windsor, Britain, April 16, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Britain's Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, arrive at the Easter Sunday service in Windsor Castle, in Windsor, Britain, April 16, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Kate Middleton went for a striking off-white outfit as she joined the British royal family for Easter service.

The Duchess of Cambridge (35) looked demure in a muted cream coat, a white pleated skirt and her signature nude heels and pearl and diamond drop earrings for the service at St George's Chapel at Berkshire's Windsor Castle.

As usual, all eyes were on her and this time, not because of her famously lustrous hair, but rather the bizarre off-white silk pillbox hat she chose to finish off an otherwise elegant look.

While the British royals traditionally don headpieces for church services, her low bun adds years to her and is jarring with the rest of her impossibly polished ensemble.

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Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, wearing a belted trend coat, also opted for muted tones amid a sea of bright colours and even brighter fascinators.

There was no sign of Kate's children with husband Prince William, Prince George (three) and Princess Charlotte (one), who joined their parents and the Middleton family for Christmas service.

Last year, the young royals spent Easter with the Middletons are believed to be doing what many married couples do - dividing holidays between families.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry is currently in Toronto to visit his girlfriend Meghan Markle, who is believed to be preparing for an engagement after closing her lifestyle blog The Tig after three years and reportedly ending her role as a brand ambassador with a clothing company that specialises in leather.

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"Despite the distance, the media attention and everything else, theres a real ease to their relationship. It just works. They are deeply happy," a source told People.
Twitter found the whole thing quite amusing.

Roberto Firmino has become known during his two years in England as a player with poise on the ball and great movement off it.

But, hes also become known for other things too: teeth whiter than a snow storm are one of those things, and a penchant for getting shirtless is another.

Squawka pointed out following the Brazilians goal against Stoke, when he promptly took his shirt off, that no player in Europes top five leagues had been booked for excessive celebration more times than Firmino since 2012/13  and he almost fell victim again during the 1-0 victory over West Brom.

Firmino stole in at the back post on the stroke of half-time to give Liverpool the lead

And, because apparently hes never seen another celebration, proceeded to get his kit off

But then, presumably after remembering his last ticking off for picking up a needless yellow, Bobby thought better of it

And met Emre Can for a bear hug instead

The quick correction wasnt missed by anybody on Twitter, who seemed to find the whole thing quite amusing.

His resolve was pretty inspiring.

And now people are hoping for its inclusion on Fifa 18.

We will say one thing that was sadly lacking due to Firmino keeping his shirt on though: this level of witchcraft.
Organisers said marches took place in about 150 US cities on Saturday.

Celebrities have joined thousands of protesters across America to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

Organisers said marches took place in about 150 US cities on Saturday, while violent clashes with Trump supporters were reported in Berkeley, California.

Trump broke a long-held tradition during his presidential campaign by not revealing his tax history, and later claimed that the public were not interested after he was elected.

Comedienne Sarah Silverman and Will And Grace actress Debra Messing were among the demonstrators in New York City.

Debra told MSNBC: We know for a fact our current administration has deep links to Russia.

The only way we can know what kind of business ties our president has with businesses all over the world is by looking at his tax returns.

I would just say; Mr Trump, if you have nothing to hide then please release them. Why not?

If you release them and youre not hiding anything, the American people can feel rest assured that at least our democracy is protected.

If you care about the American people, you will release your taxes.

Two And A Half Men star Jon Cryer and comedian Andy Richter joined thousands of people at a march in Los Angeles.

Jon tweeted a photo of a placard showing Star Wars villain Darth Vader next to a picture of Trump with the caption Taxi Vader.

Hollywood stars Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo voiced their support for the marchers on social media.

Captain America actor Chris wrote on Twitter: Looks like its more than just reporters who wanna see your taxes, @realDonaldTrump. Bad news pal, were not going away.

The Hulk star Mark tweeted: Show us the g-damn tax returns!

The rallies were organised to coincide with the time of year that Americans have to submit their annual tax returns.

Police said 13 people were arrested following the violence in Berkeley.
That is one brave crocodile.

Visitors to the Liwonde National Park in Malawi got more than they were bargaining for when they witnessed a crocodile and an elephant face off.

In a video recorded by Alexander Makanga and shared on YouTube, a herd of elephants is seen drinking from the water when a crocodile approaches and clamps on to an elephants trunk.

The observers on a boat tour of the area gasp as the elephant lets out an almighty roar, attempting to wrench its trunk from the crocs mouth.

Makanga told us the incident happened just a few metres from the boat, calling it absolutely insane.

After a few seconds of struggling, a larger elephant storms in and chases off the pesky crocodile, whose eyes were evidently bigger than its stomach.

Its safe to say this is a trip these tourists wont forget.
MILITARY MIGHT: North Korean soldiers march and shout slogans during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of the countrys founding father, Kim Il-sung, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

'Long live," they chanted, some of them in tears. As the world held its breath amid growing nuclear tension, thousands of North Korean soldiers, sailors and airmen put on an intimidating display of military might.

"Long live," they chanted, as dozens of rockets and missiles capable of inflicting terrifying devastation for hundreds of miles around rumbled through the North Korean capital Pyongyang - an armoury of death accompanied by a chant for the well-being of their leader Kim Jong-un.

And at the heart of the parade across Kim Il-sung Square was what was feared to be a new long-range intercontinental ballistic missile, for the first time giving a capability of striking the United States.

Goose-stepping in precise ranks, their pristine uniforms glinting in the sun, the men and women of North Korea's armed forces put on their annual Cold War-era display to commemorate the eldest Kim, the nation's founder.

One unit of uniformed women engaged in a synchronised sword dance, while regimented bands of loyal "citizens" waved flowers in unison.

Other detachments carried rocket-propelled grenades, their eyes turned towards the balcony from where Kim watched, flanked by officers and officials, bestowing the occasional benign wave.

But it was what came next that was meant to truly terrify the watching world; 56 missiles of 10 different models, culminating in a series of enormous rockets on articulated trailers.

The weaponry included what appeared to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile, or a prototype of one, covered by canisters - although there were questions as to whether there was anything inside.

Addressing the packed square next to the Taedong River flowing through Pyongyang, Choe Ryong-Hae - regarded as North Korea's number two official - said Donald Trump was guilty of "creating a war situation" on the Korean Peninsula by dispatching American forces to the region.

"If the United States wages reckless provocation against us, our revolutionary power will instantly counter with an annihilating strike, and we will respond to full-out war with full-out war and to nuclear war with our style of nuclear strike warfare," he said.

The country's state news agency, KCNA, said the Trump administration's "serious military hysteria" had reached a "dangerous phase which can no longer be overlooked".

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The occasion for yesterday's parade was the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong-un's grandfather Kim Il-sung. His anniversary is known as the 'Day of the Sun' and a squadron of warplanes flying in a '105' formation roared overhead. But it was also intended to send a message to Mr Trump, who has deployed an aircraft carrier battle group to the region.

Alongside Kim, who succeeded his father Kim Jong-il as supreme commander, were the military leaders who are said to be the real power behind the family throne. Kim did not speak during the annual parade, but he made a point of greeting the commander of the Strategic Forces, the branch responsible for the missile arsenal.

In Dandong, China's main border post with North Korea, hundreds of North Koreans gathered at a cultural centre carrying floral displays and bowing to portraits of their nation's founder. The men wore pins adorned with photos of Kim Il-sung, while the women were dressed in brightly coloured traditional outfits.

Several analysts watching the parade said it was a "highly visible way of showing off capabilities", though there were also suggestions the missile canisters might be empty mock-ups designed to impress.

Cristina Varriale, an analyst on nuclear proliferation at the Royal United Services Institute, said: "We are not sure how far down that path they have got, but now we know they have got the shell capacity.

"It could be a mock-up - they could just be at the design stage, or they could have gone further."

Ms Varriale said it was particularly significant that a number of the launching vehicles appeared to be more manoeuvrable than in previous parades, with tracks instead of wheels, suggesting North Korea is not just posing symbolically but thinking practically about how to use them.

She warned: "The US is goading them but they are playing with the wrong country. The North Koreans are not going to back down."

Prof Malcolm Chalmers, of the Royal United Services Institute, said: "The North Koreans are trying to give the impression that they are close to having the capability to launch an ICBM, but whether they actually can is another matter. They are trying to increase their deterrent potential.

"I think it's clear that if they were able to launch an ICBM they would have tested it as a deterrent to deter the Americans. The Americans will want to take any action before."

Prof Chalmers went on: "The driving force of the whole programme is regime survival. North Koreans would hope an ability to launch a nuclear warhead on the United States would deter the Americans from intervening in a local nuclear war."

Evans Revere, of the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the parade was intended to send "a tough message to the US in response to the Trump administration's recent rhetoric and the military steps taken".

Mr Revere said another missile launch or nuclear test - the country's sixth - "can't be ruled out", but added that the recent US strike on Syria "may give Pyongyang some pause for thought".

It could all be a giant bluff - suggest you may be about to stage another nuclear test only to limit your sabre-rattling to an overblown parade. But with nuclear annihilation on the agenda, nobody was in the mood to take yesterday's show of strength lightly.

Despite this, and even with such high stakes to play for, there is visible support for hardline tactics on the Korean peninsula. Yesterday, demonstrators gathered in Seoul to demand the South Korean government take a hard-line approach to North Korean provocation, and support US action against Pyongyang.

"Mr President Trump. We wish you pre-emptive strikes against N Korea," read one prominent banner in the centre of the capital. Cooler heads may yet prevail.

Telegraph

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Tension between North Korea and the United States rose to new levels yesterday after the Pyongyang regime unveiled what could be a missile capable of striking the American mainland.

The new long-range weapon - the KN14 - was the centrepiece of an array of weaponry put on show at a military parade in the North Korean capital.

But if the parade signalled a readiness for war, North Korea has long insisted that its goal is peace - and survival - with the growing arsenal a way to ensure that the government in Pyongyang is not easily overthrown.

Kim Jong-un was greeted with thunderous - and extensively practised - applause as he stepped into view on a large podium on Saturday, clapping to acknowledge the thousands of soldiers and civilians taking part in the parade at Kim Il-sung Square.

The elaborate display of the state's immense power involves tens of thousands of participants, from goose-stepping soldiers to crowds of civilians who have spent weeks perfecting their ability to wave plastic flowers in unison.

For outside military analysts, though, the highlight is the weaponry that the North puts on display. A series of what appeared to be KN-08 missiles were among the weapons rolled out on trucks. Analysts say the missiles could one day be capable of hitting targets as far as the US, although North Korea has yet to flight-test them.

The parade also included large rockets covered by canisters in two different types of transporter erector launcher trucks, or TELs. An official from South Korea's Defence Ministry could not immediately confirm whether any of them represented a new type of ICBM.

Kim Dong-yub, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the canisters and trucks suggested the North was developing technology to "cold launch" ICBMs, ejecting them from the canisters before they ignite.

This would allow North Korea to prevent its limited number of ICBM-capable launcher trucks from being damaged during launches and also make the missiles harder to detect after they are fired, he said. Cold launches would also allow the missiles to be fired from silos.

The analyst added that North Korea is also likely to be developing solid-fuel ICBMs, and that some of the rockets inside the canisters on Saturday might have been prototypes.

Other military hardware at the parade included tanks, multiple rocket launchers and artillery, as well as a solid-fuel missile designed to be fired from submarines.

Other senior officials joining Kim on the parade podium included Kim Won-hong, who the South Korean government had said earlier this year was fired from his job as state security minister, presumably over corruption.

South Korea has a patchy record of tracking developments in North Korea, as information about the secretive, authoritarian state is often impossible to confirm.
Clifton James is best known for his portrayal of a southern sheriff in two James Bond films but was most proud of his work on the stage (Lynn James via AP)

Clifton James, best known for his portrayal of a southern sheriff in two James Bond films, but who was most proud of his work on the stage, has died aged 96.

His daughter, Lynn James, said he died Saturday at another daughter's home in Gladstone, Oregon, due to complications from diabetes.

James grew up in Washington state and Oregon. He fought with the US Army in the South Pacific in the Second World War and received two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star.

After the war he started acting in plays in college at the University of Oregon then moved to New York to launch his career.

One of his first significant roles was as a prison floor-walker in the 1967 classic Cool Hand Luke.

His long list of roles includes the swaggering, tobacco-spitting Louisiana Sheriff J.W. Pepper in the James Bond films.

His daughter said he was surprised that people remembered him most for that role.

AP
Javier Duarte, pictured in Mexico City last August, has been detained in Guatemala (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

Mexican former state governor Javier Duarte poses for photos at a court room in Panajachel, Guatemala (Guatemala National Civil Police via AP)

The former governor of the Mexican state of Veracruz who is accused of running a corruption ring has been detained in Guatemala after six months on the run.

Javier Duarte was seen as a high-profile symbol of government corruption in his country.

Mexico's Attorney General's Office said Duarte was detained on Saturday with the co-operation of Guatemalan police and the country's Interpol office.

He was in the municipality of Panajachel, which is a picturesque tourist town on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala's highlands.

Duarte was wanted on suspicion of money laundering and organised crime, and prosecutors directed the foreign relations department to request his extradition.

A photo released by Guatemalan police showed a bespectacled Duarte being escorted by Interpol agents.

Manuel Noriega, deputy director of Interpol in Guatemala, said Duarte was found at a hotel where he was staying with his wife.

He was asked to leave his room, did so voluntarily and then was arrested without incident in the lobby.

Mr Noriega said Duarte would be taken before a judge to consider his possible extradition.

Duarte, 43, was governor of Veracruz from 2010 until he left office on October 12 2016, two months before the scheduled end of his term.

He said he was doing so in order to face the allegations against him.

At the time he denied having links to phantom businesses that allegedly won state contracts, and said he had not stolen a single peso of state money or diverted government funds overseas.

"I don't have foreign accounts," he said last year. "I don't have properties anywhere."

Duarte promptly disappeared and had been sought by Mexican authorities ever since. Earlier this year Interpol issued a notice for his capture.

The Mexican government has found millions of dollars purportedly linked to Duarte, frozen more than 100 bank accounts and also seized property and businesses tied to the former governor.

A reward of 15 million pesos (583,000) had been offered for his capture.

The detention comes a week after Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Mexico's Tamaulipas state, was arrested in Italy, also on allegations of organised crime and money laundering.

Another ex-governor, Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state, is also wanted on suspicion of corruption and is said to have fled to El Paso, Texas. He is not related to Javier Duarte.

All three ex-governors were members of the ruling Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI, of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The party, which expelled Javier Duarte on October 25 last year, and has sought to distance itself from him, applauded the arrest.

"The PRI calls for all the relevant investigations to be carried out and, respecting due process, for the ex-governor of Veracruz to be punished in an exemplary fashion, as well as anyone who is confirmed to have taken part in his criminal ring," the party said.

Duarte became a powerful symbol of alleged corruption during mid-term elections last year in which the PRI lost several governorships, including Veracruz, that it had held uninterrupted since its founding in 1929.

He has also been widely criticised for rampant violence in the state during his administration, as drug cartels fought for territory and thousands of people were killed or disappeared.

The dead include at least 16 journalists killed in Veracruz during his six years in office.

AP
Participants of the March of the Living, which commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, walk along the Pest embankment of the River Danube in Budapest, Hungary (Bea Kallos/MTI via AP)

Thousands of Hungarians have taken part in a march in remembrance of the 550,000 Hungarian Jews who died during the Holocaust.

Sunday's March of the Living was held on Hungary's national Holocaust Memorial Day, which commemorates the mass detention and deportation of Hungary's Jews in 1944, during the Second World War.

Speakers called for tolerance and facing up to the truth during this year's event, in the 15th year in which the march has been held.

Hungarian Jewish writer Gabor Szanto said: "No nation bears collective guilt for the past, but we all have a personal responsibility for the present and the future."

Near the end of the event, amateur runner Peter Hajdu began an eight-day run covering 260 miles to the site of the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Poland.

Many of Hungary's Jews who died during the Holocaust perished at Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland.

AP
This frame grab from video provided by the Thiqa News Agency, shows rebel gunmen at the site of a blast that damaged several buses and vans at the Rashideen area, a rebel-controlled district outside Aleppo city, Syria (Thiqa News via AP)

Scattered shoes lie on the ground near damaged buses after an explosion yesterday at insurgent-held al-Rashideen, Aleppo province, Syria April 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah

At least 68 children died in a blast that hit buses carry evacuees from besieged towns in Syria, according to a monitoring group.

The death toll from the bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy outside Aleppo has reached at least 126 - including the dozens of children - in the deadliest such incident in Syria in almost a year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

Syrian rescue workers of the Civil Defence said that they had taken away at least 100 bodies from the site of Saturday's blast, which hit buses carrying Shia residents as they waited to cross from rebel into government territory in an evacuation deal between the warring sides.

The British-based Observatory said the number was expected to rise.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close This image released by the Thiqa News Agency, shows buses at the evacuation point where an explosion hit at the Rashideen area, a rebel-controlled district outside Aleppo city, Syria (Thiqa News via AP) Damaged buses are seen after an explosion yesterday at insurgent-held al-Rashideen, Aleppo province, Syria April 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah / Facebook

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Whatsapp This image released by the Thiqa News Agency, shows buses at the evacuation point where an explosion hit at the Rashideen area, a rebel-controlled district outside Aleppo city, Syria (Thiqa News via AP)

The United Nations is not overseeing the transfer deal, which involves residents of al-Foua and Kfarya, as well as the opposition-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani. All four have been under siege for years, their fate linked through a series of reciprocal agreements that the UN says have hindered aid deliveries.

Those killed in the blast were mostly residents of the villages of al-Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province, but included rebel fighters guarding the convoy, the SOHR said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which pro-Damascus media said was carried out by a suicide car bomber.

Syria's main armed opposition condemned the bombing, with groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army describing it as a treacherous terrorist attack.

Pope Francis condemned the bomb blast as an "ignoble" attack, asking God to bring healing and healing and comfort to civilian population in what he called the "beloved and martyred Syria".

Speaking on the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, he called for peace in South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine.

Expand Close Still image shows a cloud of black smoke rising from vehicles in the distance in what is said to be Aleppo's outskirts, Syria April 15, 2017. Social Media Website via Reuters TV / Facebook

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Whatsapp Still image shows a cloud of black smoke rising from vehicles in the distance in what is said to be Aleppo's outskirts, Syria April 15, 2017. Social Media Website via Reuters TV

A surprise downpour hit Rome as the Mass was held but it passed quickly, allowing Francis to ride around in an open popemobile so people at the back of the crowd could see him.

Repeatedly during Holy Week services, Francis has drawn attention to the plight of war victims, refugees and migrants.

On Good Friday, he spoke of the "shame" of humanity becoming inured to daily scenes of bombed cities and drowning migrants.

The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan has condemned the bomb attack.

Expand Close This frame grab from video provided by the Thiqa News Agency, shows a gunman passes by the buses that were damaged in a blast at the Rashideen area, a rebel-controlled district outside Aleppo city, Syria (Thiqa News via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp This frame grab from video provided by the Thiqa News Agency, shows a gunman passes by the buses that were damaged in a blast at the Rashideen area, a rebel-controlled district outside Aleppo city, Syria (Thiqa News via AP)

The bomb attack on evacuees in Rashidin in Syria is a heinous crime," he said.

It seems like an attack designed to provoke and to undo even limited local progress.

It is an attack on people at their most vulnerable. I condemn it and call for those responsible to be brought to justice.
A burned-out church in northern Iraq will celebrate Easter mass for the first time in three years today.

The Syriac Catholic Church of Qaraqosh, 20 miles from the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, is still seared by attempts to blow it up.

Its walls and stone columns are scorched by fire, its windows shattered and bullet-holes pierce its doors.

Fighters from Isil decapitated statues and demolished every crucifix; surfaces not charred by smoke have been scrawled with derogatory Isil graffiti and the terror group's infamous black flag.

Isil fighters used the courtyard outside as a shooting range. Metal mannequins lay on the ground riddled with bullets and there are empty bullet casings, as well as other debris, everywhere.

A sizeable pile of ash in the centre of the yard, where Isil burned every textbook they could find, is beginning to sprout weeds. The church's bell tower, from which the bell has been cut, looks set to topple at the slightest motion. Overhead, large stone blocks protrude precariously from the church's facade.

Natural light has been choked from the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Iraq's largest, which would have rivalled Ireland's grandest in its day. Consecrated in 1947, it was the third church to have been built by Syriac Catholics on this site over the centuries. Isil burned all three.

"What was our fault that they did this against us?" asked Syriac Catholic Archbishop of the Mosul area, Yohanna Petros Mouche. Archbishop Mouche was visiting the church when he spoke to the Sunday Independent.

"When I came back first I was happy. But when I saw the church was burned it filled my heart with sadness."

"God willing, we are going to rebuild the church, but the people's houses need to be rebuilt first. If there are no people living here, what use is a church?"

The terror group advanced on Qaraqosh in the summer of 2014, forcing the town's inhabitants to run for their lives in the middle of the night.

None of the town's 44,000 inhabitants, predominantly Syriac Catholics, have returned to Qaraqosh since it was liberated in October. There is still no electricity or water in the town and most infrastructure is in ruins.

The roads have been ripped up by explosions and buildings destroyed. Several multi-story buildings have been pancaked by airstrikes.

Christian homes are marked by blackened exteriors - evidence of the systematic burning out of their houses by Isil - as well as derogatory graffiti and defaced crucifixes.

Qaraqosh native Salam Daniel, a fighter with the exclusively Christian Ninevah Plains Protection Unit, recalls the night Isil advanced on his home town.

Late in the evening, word had gone out that Isil was approaching. For some, a local priest delivered timely life-saving news. Some families escaped within minutes - around midnight - while in the centre of the town, Salam says, Isil were wary to enter, cautious of an ambush. That's what saved his life.

He said he and his friends, along with one family member, didn't leave until dawn. "Thank God, we were lucky they didn't come in. We would have been killed."

The 27-year-old, who made his First Communion in the now burned-out church, has an AK-47 on his shoulder and a crucifix tucked into his shirt.

"For me, the most difficult thing was the moment I came back and saw Hamdaniya (another name for Qaraqosh) like this because it had been the most beautiful town in all of Iraq."

Salam said the town had been pillaged with "rights" to take items from whole blocks of houses sold to second-hand dealers from Mosul. After capturing the city, Isil invited the dealers, who are everywhere in Iraq, to come to Qaraqosh to view the town's abandoned houses and negotiate a price for the items inside.

The number of houses on one street could range from five to 20, and the "rights" to loot entire streets were sold for between $2,000 and $5,000 (1,900-4,700).

The items, such as furniture, electronics, TVs, and air-conditioners, were taken back to Mosul and sold in second-hand shops.

There were around 50 to 70 Isil militants living in the abandoned town, who only needed a few houses for themselves. Salam said his own family's home was used by Isil fighters as a "little base" before they eventually tried to burn it. "Thankfully they didn't succeed."

He said all the money and gold in his house was taken. They left a computer ahead of their retreat but made sure to take the hard drive - thereby removing crucial intelligence.

"Some of my family have gone to Australia but I didn't go. I live in Hamdaniya, I die in Hamdaniya."

Founder and leader of the Ninevah Plain Protection Unit - a force of 5,000 exclusively Christian fighters - Commander Benham Aboosh, a former Iraqi Army General, told the Sunday Independent that his aim was "to bring my people back to Qaraqosh. I swore to them: I will go back with you to Qaraqosh."

His hope this Easter is that all denominations living locally now accepted peace: "I want to see my son and his family to be safe in the future," he said.
The bombing took place at Rashideen, a rebel area near its former bastion Aleppo, a city taken by the regime last December. The massive blast destroyed at least four buses and several nearby cars. (Thiqa News via AP)

At least 100 people were killed yesterday when a suicide bomber struck a convoy of buses carrying civilians out of two Syrian towns where they had been besieged for more than two years.

The Syrian Civil Defence in Aleppo province, also known as the White Helmets, says its volunteers were able to remove at least 100 bodies from the scene of the blast.

Residents of Fuaa and Kafrya had been surrounded by rebel forces since March 2015 and were finally being evacuated to regime-controlled areas under a deal reached between the Syrian government and opposition.

But as they were leaving rebel-held territory a van supposedly carrying medical supplies pulled level with their buses and exploded.

Footage from the scene showed bodies piled on the side of the road next to the burnt-out vehicles. Their suitcases and belongings could still be seen inside the buses that were meant to carry them to safety.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack. Syrian state television blamed the opposition, pointing out that the civilians of Fuaa and Kafrya had remained loyal to the regime during the siege and that rebel groups regularly use suicide bombers.

Opposition activists countered that the regime itself might have carried out the attack on its own civilians to deflect attention from the chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun last week. They said rebel fighters had also been killed in the attack.

The bombing took place at Rashideen, a rebel area near its former bastion Aleppo, a city taken by the regime last December. The massive blast destroyed at least four buses and several nearby cars.

The attack threatened to unravel the delicate deal struck between the warring sides to evacuate 30,000 people from four towns that have been under siege for years.

Under the terms of the deal, people from the regime-controlled towns of Fuaa and Kafrya would be evacuated at the same time as residents in the rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani.

Residents from Madaya, which has been racked by starvation during the siege, said they feared regime forces might attack them in retribution. "We're worried about the reaction of the regime army," Dr Mohammad Darwish told reporters from a bus where he was waiting in a regime-controlled area. "We're asking all humanitarian organisations to protect us."

The evacuations had stalled recently with thousands of civilians left to sleep on buses parked in an Aleppo depot as they waited anxiously for news.

Telegraph

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
There was a time when North Korea was the great mystery in foreign relations - now the US seems opaque, too.

Donald Trump campaigned on a non-interventionist platform of America First. But in two weeks he has tomahawked Syria, dropped his biggest non-nuclear bomb on Afghanistan and gone toe-to-toe with North Korea. It all smacks of an about-turn dictated by events. But there's method in the madness. Trump is redefining his presidency with a new foreign policy.

The White House is a corporation where individuals vie for the boss's approval. Two groups seem prominent: the Nationalists and the Globalists. The Nationalists, headed by chief strategist Steve Bannon, shaped the early weeks of the administration. They also took the blame for its mistakes, including an attempt to ban refugees from several Muslim countries. A failed shake-up of healthcare illustrated the dangers of radical domestic reform.

Trump wants results. If you fail to deliver, you get demoted. Bannon has been sidelined, dropped from the National Security Council, and Trump has turned his attention to foreign policy instead - where the Globalists enjoy the upper hand.

Trump is said to be heavily influenced by his daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner. Both are Globalists. According to Eric Trump, Trump's second son, Ivanka may have been critical to the decision to bomb Syria after it was accused of using chemical weapons.

Eric Trump said: "Ivanka is a mother of three kids and she has influence. I'm sure she said, 'Listen, this is horrible stuff'. My father will act in times like that."

Indeed, the personal is very important in politics. Trump is probably acting on instinct.

One instinct is to defer to the military. Barack Obama's military policy was stop-go - sometimes aggressive, sometimes defensive, and always wary of long-term commitments. He withdrew troops from Iraq and resented being sucked into Libya. He dodged a chance to confront the Syrian government. Most importantly, Obama kept his generals on a tight leash.

Trump has let slip the dogs of war. His defence secretary, Jim Mattis, enjoys considerable power, the generals operate at their discretion.

Under Trump, the US has operated drone strikes at about five times the rate of Obama. After months of Trump attacking the Republican foreign policy establishment, it looks like the right-wing Globalists are back in charge.

In February, I spoke with a former Bush official who laid out the things he'd like done by Trump but didn't expect to see happen. Top of the list was confronting North Korea.

I thought this was unlikely in part because Trump's focus appeared to be on domestic politics and one of his key pledges was to label China a currency manipulator.

America cannot deal with North Korea without China's help - and if protectionist Trump was going to attack China for its trade policy, he wasn't going to get any assistance.

Last week it was announced that America would not be labelling China a currency manipulator after all. The foreign agenda has clearly triumphed over the domestic. The missile attack on Syria showed that America is prepared to act and act fast - the days of prevarication under Obama are over. And the dropping of a massive bomb on Afghanistan was a display of how powerful the US military is.

This means that the world enters its latest round of brinkmanship with North Korea on different terms to the past. By sending the US fleet to the peninsular, Trump implied: "We are not just about pacification. The US is willing to risk confrontation."

Showing some steel might just work. America cannot tame North Korea alone. The best way to do it is to push Beijing to discipline Pyongyang, and it's believed that the Chinese were rather impressed by the quick display of force in Syria - which Trump casually informed President Xi of over a slice of chocolate cake.

China has cautioned against war but not yet explicitly warned that it would go to North Korea's defence. They are bound by a mutual defence treaty, true, but some observers argue that it is invalidated if North Korea adopts an aggressive nuclear posture.

Having realised that making America great again through domestic legislation will be difficult, Trump has shown he is willing to sacrifice his populist agenda if he can do it through military action. The goal remains the same: boost the country, boost Trump and boost votes. The latter, he desperately needs. The context to all of Trump's actions is an abysmal approval rating. The President faces being a one-term wonder.

For that very reason, we must brace ourselves for a U-turn if this sabre-rattling doesn't work out. Trumpism is characterised by a lack of patience, an unwillingness to do hard and unpopular work. If Syria and North Korea prove intractable - or, worse, deadly - the smart money says Trump will back away.

Telegraph

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Missiles are paraded across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

A North Korean medium-range missile exploded seconds after it was launched on Sunday, US officials said.

The high-profile failure came hours before US vice president Mike Pence arrived in South Korea, and as an American aircraft supercarrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

The US had good intelligence both before and after the launch, said a White House foreign policy adviser travelling with Mr Pence, who arrived in Seoul to start a 10-day trip to Asia.

No planned response is expected from the Trump administration because the official said there was no need for the US to reinforce the failure.

The official said that had it been a nuclear test "other actions would have been taken by the US".

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

The White House believes the latest test involved a medium-range ballistic missile that failed within 4-5 seconds after launch, and that it did not involve an intercontinental ballistic missile, the adviser said.

The North regularly launches short-range missiles, but is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target US troops in Asia and, eventually, the US mainland.

The failed launch will sting in Pyongyang because it came a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year - celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather.

President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the failed launch, which was attempted from the east coast city of Sinpo.

In a statement, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Mr Trump and his military team "are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment".

North Korea's ultimate goal is to have a full array of nuclear-tipped missiles in response to what Pyongyang says is hostility by Washington and Seoul meant to topple its government. North Korea is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles.

Many outside analysts believe that North Korea has not yet mastered the technology to build warheads small enough to place on long-range missiles, though some civilian experts say it can already build nuclear-tipped shorter range missiles that have South Korea and Japan within its striking range.

The US Pacific Command said the missile exploded on launch. South Korea's Defence Ministry said it was analysing exactly how the North Korean launch failed.

In Seoul, South Korea's presidential office convened a national security council meeting to examine security postures.

Kim has overseen three nuclear tests and a string of missile and rocket launches since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.

Another missile test from Sinpo failed earlier this month, when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean. That launch came shortly before Mr Trump's first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China is North Korea's only major ally.

Washington sees North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to world security and to its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea.

The US, South Korea and other countries have vowed to apply more pressure on the North, but so far nothing has worked to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

AP
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, casts a ballot with his grandson, as wife Emine Erdogan, left, looks on

Supporters of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu cheer as they listen to him during a referendum rally in Ankara (AP Photo)

A woman casts a ballot at an Istanbul polling station in the referendum on whether to approve reforms that would concentrate power in the hands of the president (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Supporters of the "Yes" vote celebrate in Istanbul (AP)

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in Sunday's referendum that will grant sweeping powers to the presidency, hailing the result as a "historic decision".

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Mr Erdogan said unofficial results showed the "yes" side had won by a margin of 1.3 million votes.

The president struck a conciliatory tone, thanking all voters regardless of how they cast their ballots and describing the referendum as a "historic decision".

"April 16 is the victory of all who said yes or no, of the whole 80 million, of the whole of Turkey of 780,000-square kilometres," Mr Erdogan said.

Returns carried by the state-run Anadolu news agency showed that with nearly 99% of the vote counted, the "yes" vote had about 51.3% compared to 48.7% for the "no" vote.

Turkey's main opposition party vowed to challenge the results reported by Anadolu agency, saying they were skewed.

Mr Erdogan has long sought to broaden his powers, but a previous attempt failed after the governing party that he co-founded fell short of enough votes to pass the reforms without holding a referendum.

Opponents argued the plan concentrate too much power in the hands of a man they allege has shown increasingly autocratic tendencies.

The outcome is expected to have a huge effect on Turkey's long-term political future and its international relations.

Although the result, if officially confirmed, would fall short of the sweeping victory Mr Erdogan had sought, but nevertheless cements his hold on the country's governance.

Turkey's prime minister Binali Yildirim, whose position will be eliminated under the presidential system of government called for in the referendum, also welcomed the results and extended a hand to the opposition.

"We are all equal citizens of the Republic of Turkey," he said. "Both the ones who said 'no' and the ones who said 'yes' are one and are equally valuable.

"There are no losers of this referendum. Turkey won, the beloved people won," Mr Yildirim said, adding that "a new page has opened in our democratic history with this vote. Be sure that we will use this result for our people's welfare and peace in the best way."

Erdogan supporters gathered outside the AK Party headquarters in Istanbul to celebrate, sending fireworks into the night sky.

But the main opposition People's Democratic Party, or CHP, cast doubt on the results.

CHP vice chairman Erdal Aksunger said they would challenge 37% of the ballot boxes.

"Our data indicates a manipulation in the range of 3 to 4%," the party said on its Twitter account.

The country's pro-Kurdish opposition party, which also opposed the constitutional changes, said it plans to object to two-thirds of the ballots.

An unprecedented decision by Turkey's supreme election board to accept as valid ballot papers that don't have the official stamp also drew the ire of the CHP, with the party's deputy chairman, Bulent Tezcan, saying the decision had left the referendum "with a serious legitimacy problem."

The board made the announcement after many voters complained about being given ballot papers without the official stamp, saying ballots would be considered invalid only if proven to have been fraudulently cast.

Sunday's vote approved 18 constitutional changes that will replace Turkey's parliamentary system of government with a presidential one, abolishing the office of the prime minister and granting sweeping executive powers to the president.

The changes will come into effect with the next general election, scheduled for 2019.

The reforms allow the president to appoint ministers, senior government officials and half the members of Turkey's highest judicial body, as well as to issue decrees and declare states of emergency.

They set a limit of two five-year terms for presidents and also allow the president to remain at the helm of a political party.

Erdogan and his supporters had argued the "Turkish-style" presidential system would bring stability and prosperity in a country rattled by a failed coup last year that left more than 200 people dead, and a series of devastating attacks by the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants.

But opponents fear the changes will lead to autocratic one-man rule, ensuring the 63-year-old Mr Erdogan, who has been accused of repressing rights and freedoms, could govern until 2029 with few checks and balances.

The ballots themselves did not include the referendum question, it was assumed to be understood. Voters used an official stamp to select between "yes" and "no."

At one Istanbul polling station, eager voters lined up outside before it opened at 8am.

"I don't want to get on a bus with no brake system. A one-man system is like that," said Istanbul resident Husnu Yahsi, 61, who said he was voting "no".

In another Istanbul neighborhood, a "yes" voter expressed full support for Mr Erdogan.

"Yes, yes, yes! Our leader is the gift of God to us," said Mualla Sengul. "We will always support him. He's governing so well."

Mr Erdogan first came to power in 2003 as prime minister and served in that role until becoming Turkey's first directly elected president in 2014.

The referendum campaign was divisive and heavily one-sided, with the "yes" side dominating the airwaves and billboards across the country.

Supporters of the "no" vote have complained of intimidation, including beatings, detentions and threats.

The vote comes as Turkey has been buffeted by problems.

Mr Erdogan survived a coup attempt last July, which he has blamed on his former ally and current nemesis Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric living in the United States.

Mr Gulen has denied knowledge of the coup attempt.

Still, a widespread government crackdown has targeted followers of Mr Gulen and other government opponents, branding them terrorists and a state of emergency has been imposed.

Roughly 100,000 people, including judges, teachers, academics, doctors, journalists, military officials and police, have lost their jobs in the government crackdown, and more than 40,000 have been arrested. Hundreds of media outlets and non-governmental organisations have been shut down.

Turkey has also suffered renewed violence between Kurdish militants and security forces in the country's volatile south east, as well as a string of bombings, some attributed to the Islamic State group, which is active across the border in Syria.

The war in Syria has led to some three million refugees crossing the border into Turkey.

Turkey has sent troops into Syria to help opposition Syrian forces clear a border area from the threat posed by Islamic State militants.

Meanwhile, Turkey's relations with Europe have been increasingly tense, particularly after Mr Erdogan branded Germany and the Netherlands as Nazis for not allowing Turkish ministers to campaign for the "yes" vote among expatriate Turks.

AP
Lider al ISIS ucis intr-un raid aerian, in orasul Mosul 15.04.2017

15.04.2017 Lider al ISIS ucis intr-un raid aerian, in orasul Mosul Unul dintre liderii organizatiei teroriste Stat Islamic a fost ucis intr-un raid aerian efectuat de Statele Unite in vestul orasului irakian Mosul, anunta serviciile de securitate irakiene, citate de BBC News online. Citeste



Lider al ISIS ucis intr-un raid aerian, in orasul Mosul

Unul dintre liderii organizatiei teroriste Stat Islamic a fost ucis intr-un raid aerian efectuat de Statele Unite in vestul orasului irakian Mosul, anunta serviciile de securitate irakiene, citate de BBC News online. Citeste mai departe...

Lider al ISIS ucis intr-un raid aerian, in orasul Mosul

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From Akshay Kumar to Priyanka Chopra, several Bollywood actors have tried their hands at portraying dramatic roles with makeup and prosthetics. While some performances became iconic, the others surprised us completely. Here is a list of the actors who looked totally different donning these looks for their respective films and shocked us by adapting a different persona and mannerisms to portray unique roles. Take a look:

1. Akshay Kumar  2.0

Akshay Kumar had shocked the movie buffs when his first look from Rajinikanth starrer 2.0 was released last year. While people knew that he has been roped in to play a villain in the sequel of Robot, nobody expected such a major transformation for the role. Now, rumours are buzzing that the actor will sport 12 different looks in the movie.

2. Rishi Kapoor  Kapoor and Sons

The cute Daadu from Kapoor and Sons had won our hearts with his wit and humour in the movie, but admit it that for a few seconds, you couldnt recognise that it was Rishi Kapoor. The veteran actor surprised his fans with the new avatar, which was immensely loved after the movie released. However, not many people don't know that he would spend five hours every day to get ready for his part, and Karan Johar spent Rs. 2 crore for his make-up. Oscar-winning make-up artist Greg Cannom, the man behind Brad Pitts amazing transformation in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, did Rishi Kapoors make-up in the film.

3. Randeep Hooda  Sarabjit

kanigas.com

Not only were the fans taken by surprise to see Randeep Hooda almost malnourished in the movie, but even director Omung Kumar was shocked. When Kumar had roped in Hooda for the movie, he told him that he wanted to see his bones. Randeep took the challenge quite seriously and decided to surprise him. When he showed up on the sets after losing 18 kg in 28 days by surviving on just coffee and water, the director didnt even notice him for he was that unrecognisable.

4. Chunky Pandey  Begum Jaan

Twitter

Known for his role as Aakhri Pasta in Housefull, Chunky Pandey went bald for his role in the forthcoming movie Begum Jaan. If you have watched the trailer of the movie and were shocked to see him in a sporting a bald and mean look, then let us tell you, Chunky himself feels he was unrecognisable in the movie. And if in case, you couldnt spot him, watch the trailer again to solve the mystery. Here's what Chunky Pandey has to say about his look:





5. Kangana - Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Youtube/Eros Now Movies Preview

One film that gave Kangana Ranaut the much-deserved acclaim was Tanu Weds Manu. The actress shocked us all in the movie with her brilliant performance. And what added to the fans' excitement level was her double role in the second instalment. The actress aced the Hariyanvi accent along with a bob haircut. Indeed, Kanganas look in the movie was strikingly different from what we had seen in the past.

6. Shah Rukh khan  Fan





The king of romance, after a very long time, played a different role of a crazy fan Gaurav in the movie, and for that he donned an entirely different look. He looked younger sporting a different skin colour, and his hair being parted in a different way. It is said that the actor underwent digital 3D face scanning for the look.

7. Hrithik Roshan  Dhoom 2

Hrithik Roshan had completely transformed himself to play a negative role in Dhoom 2. Hrithik donned different looks in the movie, for which London-based company called Hybrid helped him. Remember his look in which he dressed up like a queen to steal the crown? It had stunned us too.

8. Priyanka Chopra  7 Khoon Maaf

In the Vishal Bhardwaj directorial, Priyanka Chopra donned seven different looks, as she played the wife of seven different men in the movie. Hollywood special make-up effects artist Greg Cannom, who also transformed Rishi Kapoor in Kapoor and Sons, was the man behind Priyankas looks ranging from age 20 to 65.

9. Amitabh Bachchan  Paa

For Paa, Amitabh Bachchan, a 67-year-old man, had to transform himself into a 13-year-old Auro, the character who suffered rare disorder called progeria. Big B would spend about four to five years to get ready for his bit in the movie. His look cost about 10 percent of the total budget of the movie. While applying makeup, he could neither drink, nor eat or talk.

Do you think we have missed out on some other major transformations? Tell us in the comments below.
1. Sunil Grover's Latest Post Isn't A Sly Dig At Kapil Sharma But A Hint About New Beginnings

Recently, Sunil again posted a cryptic message along with a photo and it has left us all wondering yet again.

He shared an image in which he is opening a door and he captioned it by saying, No caption for this picture this time. Take out the meaning you want.

Well, looks like its another dig at Kapil Sharma, dont you think? On the other hand, it could be a hint at new beginnings as well.

2. Ex Bigg Boss Inmate Ajaz Khan Asks PM Modi To Not Divide Hindus & Muslims In This Viral Video

You want to divide citizens of the country. You want to create riots amongst Hindu and Muslims. You cant do anything. You can just get one man beaten by 20, he said in the video.

3. Sofia Hayat Claims She Was Molested In Mecca, Posts A Video Narrating Her Horrifying Experience

Hayat is taking the social world by a storm with yet another revelation. She claims that she was sexually assaulted at Mecca, while she was visiting the Holy city with her fiance.

She took to her Instagram to share a video narrating her harrowing experience.

She said "Islam respects women. A man must not touch a woman that is not his wife, or be violent to her. That is why I love islam. These rules however do not apply in Mecca. Men forget the rules when they go there. Today on my 2nd umra as I attempted again to touch the black stone, I was being pushed by men. One man was pushing his genitals into me from behind..the women's queue is non existent because men have used their physical strength to push women out of the way. As I was about a metre from the black stone, I was pushed so hard against my ribs I could not breath. I was scared, so I decided to turn back, as I did, men kept pushing, and my hijab came off and got caught between the pushing men, I was being dragged back by it and was started to be strangled by it. I screamed. Suddenly a few good men saw what was happening and came to my rescue. I am so shaken up and sad that at the house of God; men do not care about the words in the Quran. Allah is in me and she says to me that if a man thinks he will go to Jannat by touching the black stone yet disregards the respect Islam has for women, then your hajj or umrah is useless. In the house of Allah women are being disrespected. Allah is the greatest she is the most high ... I am so sad this happens in her house in Makkah. The man who lifts a women to the stone and does not touch it himself will surely see Jannat. I appeal to the King to set up 1 day for only women so that they may with deepest respect, be able to touch the Kabba, without this non islamic behaviour from men. I know women desire as much as men to touch the kabba and stone...so why should they have to suffer? A woman cannot match a mans physical strength. Even in the Cave where the prophet pbuh received the Quran, people are throwing rubbish and even urinating around it as their are no toilets. Again..do you think by touching the walls of the cave your prayers will be answered if you do not look after her home? I was there 2 days and will try again..I saw women trampled on and squashed by men..the basic foundations of Islam .. peace love and respect for each other..have been forgotten in the very place they should be remembered. Namaste..Salaam. #makkah"

4. Watch: SRK Slays San Francisco, Makes 'Hercules' Director Brett Ratner Dance On Lungi Dance

Amid all the discussions, SRK did something that he is renowned for. He made Ratner dance on his tunes. SRK and Brett Ratner grooved to popular song Lungi Dance much to the excitement of the present audience.

To lighten up the room after a powerful discussion, the duo shook a leg. Ratner posted a video on Instagram. He captioned it,"With #KingKhan @iamsrk doing the #LungiDance during the @sffilm Inspiring, humble, a great dancer, and smells great too!".

5. More Legal Woes For Sanjay Dutt! Warrant Issued Against Him For Threatening A Filmmaker

khama press

Looks like Sanjay Dutts legal troubles are far from ending. A warrant has been issued against the actor for non-appearance before the court in connection with a case filed by filmmaker Shakeel Noorani.

In April 2002, Noorani had alleged that Dutt had promised a film with him but he cancelled it at the last minute. He further claimed that he received death threats from underworld goons on behalf of the actor.
The government has decided to ban BBC from all National Parks and Sanctuaries for portraying a negative, malicious and sensational image of Indias conservation success story.

Reuters

The documentary called dark secrets talks about the menace of poaching for the wildlife and has shown a flooded grassland of Kaziranga National Park in Assam. The ban has been imposed with immediate effect where BBC cannot make documentaries and film news reports in the country. The order was given by the ministry on April 10 and has extended this ban from tiger reserves to all the national parks and sanctuaries across the nation.

The documentary was aired in February, explored what it called the dark secrets of Kaziranga and asked if the war on poaching has gone too far. It claimed that forest guards were given powers to shoot and kill.

Reuters

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had earlier criticised the BBC for grossly erroneous reporting and recommended the blacklisting of the BBCs South Asia correspondent Justin Rowlatt. The documentary reportedly highlights governments ruthless anti-poaching strategy for the Kaziranga tiger reserve in Assam.

On February 27, the NTCA issued a memorandum that asked the wardens of chief wildlife sanctuaries in all tiger-range states and field directors of tiger reserves not to grant filming permission to the BBC for five years.

The governments most recent order refers to the NTCAs memorandum and addresses the violation of terms and conditions of filming documentary by the BBC News, South Asia Bureau, New Delhi. The government has reportedly examined the memorandum and stated that the script has been deviated from the original version submitted to Ministry of External Affairs and NTCA.

The government has claimed that this has done an irreparable damage to Indias reputation and has projected a negative, malicious and sensational portrayal of Indias conservation success story at Kaziranga Tiger Reserve.

Reuters

BBC spokesperson told The Indian Express that The authorities reaction to this report on an important global issue like the appropriate way to combat poaching is extremely disappointing. The programme was balanced, impartial and accurately reported what we found on arrival. It covered both the successes achieved through Indias conservation policies and the challenges, which includes the impact on communities living next to the parks. We approached the relevant government authorities to ensure their position was fully reflected but they declined to take part.

The spokesperson said that Rowlatts original online story is still available on the BBC website as is the radio version of the documentary.

The film has claimed that more people are killed by forest guards than rhinos. In a BBC article introducing the film, it was shown that 23 people lost their lives compared to just 17 rhinos last year and only two intruders were prosecuted while 50 were shot dead since 2014.

Between 2000 and 2017, 17 poachers were shot dead inside Kaziranga while 68 rhinoceros were killed. Since the notification, the number of poachers who were shot became 59 while 103 rhinos poached between 2011 and 2016.
434 children and counting - that's the number of kids RPF officer, Rekha Mishra saved over a span of one year.

Out of 1150 children that the Railway Police saved, Mishra's contribution came as a monumental achievement. Posted at the CST, Mumbai, Mishra believes that it has something to do with the station that she was able to rescue so many children. "Those who are lost, or dont know their way around, or are troubled, they all get down at the last stop," reports Mumbai Mirror.

the hindu

Mishra, who hails from Ahmedabad, says that her basic teachings have been to always look out for kids and the elderly.

Mishra comes to duty early in the mornings and covers up to 12 hours of shifts. Whenever she is on the job, she looks for children "who are vulnerable, and looking for people to assist them."

While following up on leads from other RPF officers stationed across the country works wonders, Mishra says that equally important is to show sensitivity towards the kids because they learn to trust her.

mumbai mirror

Mishra says that these children are not criminals, rather they are victims who need someone to protect them. She is the one who gives them that protection and makes them feel safe.

An athlete who participates in state level events for the RPF, Mishra has also worked on other cases where she has busted ticket scams. Her bosses think she is the best they have and would soon recommend her name for awards to the head office.
India seems to have been on a bit of a banning spree lately. From universities to governments at the Centre and State level, banning has become the top priority of authorities.

Banning booze, late night parties, entry of Goan locals in Casinos, imposing a particular kind of dress code and hostel timing for girls are among some of the bans. Additionally, the beef ban is active in most Indian states, punishment for cow slaughter is now as intense as life imprisonment in Gujarat and the anti-Romeo squads are wandering in UP and Haryana. With the policy makers now toying with the idea of a blanket ban on liquor in a state like Delhi, the very fundamental rights of the countrys citizens are being stealthily taken away by the government.

Why are authorities devoting so much time and attention to restricting the life of people, instead of uplifting their live through social and economic development programs?

BCCL

In an attempt to decrease the number of road accident deaths, on April 1, the Supreme Court used Article 141 to put a ban on liquor sales in hotels, shops, and restaurants that fall in the 500-meter perimeter of national and state highways. All states and Union Territories were ordered to follow these directions. This was done in order to bring down the number of road accidents. However, there is no convincing study to prove that the results of alcohol ban would bring down the number of accidents.

Ironing the moral fabric of society

If we look around the world, we will get to know that such bans have never been effective, because people find different ways to get their share of booze from different sources. The US was engaged in a temperance movement and in its validation, the manufacturing, transportation and sale of liquor of were completely banned in the early 1900s. The movement gained momentum under the influence of the church and wanted to create a morally stable society. However, soon after, an illegal market erupted, defeating the entire purpose of prohibition and so it was done away with in early 1933.

AFP

Many states, ruled by the BJP - devoting more time in moral policing than governance - are also nurturing the idea that morality stems from abstinence. Perhaps this is their attempt to promote the idea that good sanskari boys and girls do not indulge in intoxicants, and doing so will take them away from God.

Social reform movements in the past have hailed abstinence from all evil, which includes alcohol, as a way to reform society and instil good values in people.

Getting more votes from women

Women were at the forefront of prohibition in America since alcohol was viewed as a cause for discontentment in families and marriages. Similarly, in the state of Bihar, women have been the primary voices for banning alcohol. Drunk husbands, they say, would become violent, and drunken men on the streets would harass women. The consensus among women in Bihar is that prohibition has given them more security and certainly more rights.

They are now the key vote bank of the current government in Bihar led by Nitish Kumar. In other states too, politicians with the orietation to ban liquor are targetting women as potential voters promising them liquor ban.

Did the judiciary oversimplify the problem?

AFP

India record some of the highest numbers of road accidents in the world every year. The intent behind putting ban on pubs and bars in the close vicinity of national highways is good, but a blanket ban on alcohol sales will not act as a deterrent.

Perhaps the court even overlooked the need to amplify the presence and authority of security forces. There should be regular check-posts after a certain hour and those who are caught drunk should not be able to bribe their way away and secondly be fined heavily.

Also, banning alcohol near highways does not erase the possibility of getting alcohol at the start of ones journey or intoxicating themselves with another substance, and then driving.

Job losses

While India is looking for more international investors to come and work in India, putting bans on these things is not going to help the cause. The states that are trying to ban alcohol must keep in mind that any reckless ban may result in repelling the investors. Moreover, a lot of Indians are earning their livelihoods from these businesses. This culture of ban is going to affect them directly as well.

The Chief Financial Officer of Pincon Spirit, an alcohol manufacturer, says the liquor ban will be a blow for the entire GDP.

There are hundreds of pubs, breweries and restaurants along the national and state highway that face the risk of closure. Alcohol is one of the main ways for restaurants to earn profits, and banning liquor will sincerely impede their profits.

Eat right ontario

A liquor ban might also deter tourism and foreign investment, which would lead to financial losses that could have otherwise been used for the social development of the country. A black market is sure to erupt that might criminalise the sale of alcohol.

What we need is a better governance

According to 2015 statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau, drunk driving was responsible for only 1.5% of all road accidents or 7,061 of 4,64,674. In order to reduce the number of deaths caused by drunk driving, the central and state governments should improve governance structures and must begin crackdown on law-breakers. Banning liquor, beef, dresses, films and other things for political agenda is not going to solve the problem. The idea of India celebrates freedom and pluralism of ideas, not a particular kind of sanskar that certify the morality of an individual.

If we ban everything, India will be known for its bans, not freedom.
Crossing all the barriers of religion, a Madrasa in Sambhal has started a postcard campaign requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in banning cow slaughter and declare the animal as the national animal.

Uttar Pradesh: Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Madrasa in Sambhal has been running a cow safety campaign for last 6 years pic.twitter.com/CAg0TWdFui  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 14, 2017

Apart from cows, the Madrasa has also requested a ban on the slaughter of all milk-bearing animals as well. The campaign initiated by Alijaan Jameeyat ul Musalmaan Educational Society operated Madrasa, has been named as the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Postcard campaign.

We have started a postcard campaign requesting Modi ji to ban cow slaughter all over India and declare cow the national animal:Feroz Khan pic.twitter.com/RRsKkLN8jn  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 14, 2017

The members of the Madrasa also met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on April 8th, putting forward the same demand of ban on cow slaughter and declaring the holy animal as the national animal.

siasat

Campaigning for the same for the past five to six years, the Madrasa, via a postcard, has conveyed the following requests to the Prime Minister - a complete ban on meat export, ban on cow slaughter all across the nation and to declare it as the national animal, to form a law on the same.

(Also read: Man Of The Moo-Ment! Here's How RSS Supporter Tries To Defend The Agenda Of 'Cow Vigilantes')

Manager of the Madrasa Feroz Khan, raising his concern over the issue said that if the slaughter is not stopped then the coming generations would not get any milk to drink.

india

"The coming generations will not get milk to drink if the slaughter continues. We will get to see cows, buffaloes in books only," Khan told ANI.

While Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has put a ban on illegal slaughterhouses across the state, others are trying to do their bit towards the same.
When asked in court how many women had he raped and murdered, former police office Mikhail Popkov shrugged.

"I can't say exactly," he said nonchalantly. "I did not keep a record."

Twitter

The answer was revealed this week and the figure stands at 82, with the number expected to go up.

Popkov, a 52-year-old serial killer was jailed for life in 2015 after he was found guilty of killing 22 women around Angarsk, a quiet town in Siberian Russia.

Now, the prosecutors have charged him with 60 more murders, which were carried out by Popkov while he was leading a model life being a doting dad, a loving husband and a dedicated police officer.

Many victims were found beheaded after being killed.

thesiberianTimes

Others had their hearts cut out. Almost all were raped, both before and after death. Many were so mutilated, one detective nicknamed Popkov "The Werewolf". In one macabre case, the brute killed a teacher at his own daughter's school - and then donated to the funeral collection. In another, he slaughtered two students after picking them up in his police car following a concert, reveals report by Daily Mirror.

If he is found guilty of these murders, he would become of the worst serial killers in history.

Twitter

Detectives believe that Popkov has not carried out any murder since 2000 because he told them that he stopped killing after becoming sexually impotent.

However, the new charges are related to murders between then and 2010.

Detective have still not ruled out the possibility of Popkov killing during his travels, and if it is proved, the number of 82 will significantly rise.
In what looks like a star on humanity's shoulders, Etihad Airways is now being massively praised for its above and beyond customer service, owing to which, they turned their aeroplane around for an elderly couple.

travelnoire

On board, a flight at Manchester Airport, to set off for Australia via Abu Dhabi on March 30, the couple found out about their grandson's ill condition only after they boarded the plane.

Etihad Airways turns plane around for elderly couple to visit dying grandson......Etihad in Arabic means UNITED. The irony!#respect !  KUSHAL TANDON (@KushalT2803) April 16, 2017

Just when they were about to turn their net off, they saw a missed call from their son-in-law. "They were taxiing on the runway when they got the text message saying their grandson was in intensive care and they needed to get there," said Stephenson, couple's travel agent.

airbus

The couple informed to the crew, who spoke to the pilots, and they then decided to turn the airplane back to the boarding gate. At the same time, staff then arranged for their luggage and car so the couple could leave the airport as soon as possible.

Sadly, their grandson died the following day on March 31.

Apart from this, the couple has been offered the choice to use their ticket whenever they want to, but they haven't decided when they will fly. Anyway, Etihad Airways has done a marvellous job here, something a lot of us can remember for decades to come!
In the deep jagged red mountains of Oman, geologists are searching for an efficient and cheap way to remove carbon dioxide from the air and oceans in an attempt to reverse climate change.

AP

Why in Oman?

Because it has one of the world's only exposed sections of the Earth's mantle to uncover how a spontaneous natural process millions of years ago transformed carbon dioxide into limestone and marble.

As the world mobilises to confront climate change, the main focus has been on reducing emissions through fuel efficient cars and cleaner power plants. But some researchers are also testing ways to remove or recycle carbon already in the seas and sky.

The Hellisheidi geothermal plant in Iceland injects carbon into volcanic rock. At the massive Sinopec fertiliser plant in China, carbon is filtered and reused as fuel.

In all, 16 industrial projects currently capture and store around 27 million tons of carbon, according to the International Energy Agency.

Thats less than 0.1% of global emissions human activity is estimated to pump about 40 billion tons a year into the atmosphere but the technology has shown promise. Any one technique is not guaranteed to succeed, said Stuart Haszeldine, a geology professor at the University of Edinburgh who serves on a UN climate body studying how to reduce atmospheric carbon.

If were interested as a species, weve got to try a lot harder and do a lot more and a lot of different actions, he said.

One such action is under way in the al-Hajjar Mountains of Oman, in a quiet corner of the Arabian Peninsula, where a unique rock formation pulls carbon out of thin air.

Into the earth

AP

Peter Kelemen, a 61-year-old geochemist at Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has been exploring Omans hills for nearly three decades.

"You can walk down these beautiful canyons and basically descend 20 km into the earths interior, he said.

The sultanate boasts the largest exposed sections of the Earths mantle, thrust up by plate tectonics millions of years ago. The mantle contains peridotite, a rock that reacts with the carbon in air and water to form marble and limestone.

Every single magnesium atom in these rocks has made friends with the carbon dioxide to form solid limestone, magnesium carbonate, plus quartz, he said as he patted a rust-colored boulder in the Wadi Mansah valley. Theres about a billion tons of CO2 in this mountain, he said, pointing off to the east.

Rain and springs pull carbon from the exposed mantle to form stalactites and stalagmites in mountain caves.

Supersonic find

AP

Natural pools develop surface scum of white carbonate. Scratch off this thin white film, Prof. Kelemen said, and itll grow back in a day. For a geologist this is supersonic, he said.

Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas driving climate change, which threatens political instability, severe weather and food insecurity worldwide, according to the United Nations climate body.

Natural carbon levels have risen from 280 to 405 parts per million since the Industrial Revolution, and current estimates hold that the world will be 6C hotter by 2100.

In 2015, 196 nations signed the Paris climate accords, agreeing to curb greenhouse gas emissions to levels that would keep the rise in the Earths temperature to under 2C.

That has injected new urgency into the work underway in Oman, where Prof. Kelemans team recently spent four months extracting dozens of core samples, which they hope to use to construct a geological history of the process that turns carbon dioxide into carbonate.

Its like a jigsaw puzzle, said Nehal Warsi, 33, who oversees the drilling process.

Around 13 tons of core samples from four different sites will be sent to the Chikyu, a state-of-the-art research vessel off the coast of Japan, where Prof. Keleman and other geologists will analyse them in round-the-clock shifts.

They hope to answer the question of how the rocks managed to capture so much carbon over the course of 90 million years and to see if theres a way to speed up the timetable.

Prof. Kelemen thinks a drilling operation could cycle carbon-rich water into the newly formed seabed on oceanic ridges far below the surface.

Just like in Omans mountains, the submerged rock would chemically absorb carbon from the water. The water could then be cycled back to the surface to absorb more carbon from the atmosphere, in a sort of conveyor belt.

Such a project would require years more of testing, but Prof. Kelemen hopes the energy industry, with its offshore drilling expertise and deep pockets, will take interest.
Minister of Transportation and former governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has debunked the claims by, Nyesom Wike, that the $43 million found in a luxury apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos belonged to him or to Rivers State.

Amaechi, in a statement released by his media office, described the claims as malicious, frivolous and another failed attempt by Wike to divert attention from the mess he has created in Rivers State.

Wike has stolen Rivers State dry. Wike and his gang have frittered billions and billions of Naira of Rivers people money away. Rivers State is perpetually in crisis. The state is in a mess as Wike has made a total mess of governance in the State. That child who sits there as governor is confused, he doesnt know what to do. Wikes only solution is to attack Amaechi.

Since he became governor, Wike sleeps and wakes up everyday, with a sole, one-point agenda to attack and denigrate Rotimi Amaechi, no matter how ridiculous and silly he sounds. Everyday in Rivers State, there is one frivolous, false story of what Amaechi did or didnt do. Same pattern, the same blatant lies with no proof, same old concocted stories of corruption allegations against Amaechi told with different flavours. At this rate, if Wike is unable to perform his spousal duties, he will blame it on Amaechi. Yes, thats how despicably low he can go in his consuming fixation to throw mud at Amaechi.

This latest outburst by Wike is typical of him. We are aware that Wike first tried to float the fake news of Amaechis ownership of the recovered $43million and the Ikoyi house in the social media using his minions and lackeys, spending huge sums of Rivers money on the failed project. His minions and lackeys were calling journalists, bloggers and media organizations to run the fake story with promises of almost irresistible mouth-watering compensation for using the fake story. When that failed and the story didnt gain traction that was when Wike decided to hurriedly hold the press conference Friday night, to rant and spew his outright lies, yet again without providing any proof of Amaechis ownership of both the property and the money.

For clarity and emphasis, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is not the owner of the $43million and the Ikoyi apartment in which the money was recovered from. Amaechi has no business, link or connection to the money or property. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi does not know who owns the money or Ikoyi apartment.

Wikes malicious allegation of corruption against Amaechi in the sale of the Gas Turbines is not new. This false claim has been punctured repeatedly with facts and evidence of the transfer payments for the power plants into Rivers State government accounts by Sahara Energy. The records of how the funds were spent and what it was spent on are in the records of the State government. Amaechi has absolutely no business or any interest whatsoever in Sahara Energy. The company was already a thriving business concern before Amaechis emergence as governor of Rivers State in 2007.

We urge all right-thinking members of the public to completely disregard all the false, politically motivated no-proof claims by Nyesom Wike and his minions as it concerns Amaechi and the $43million and Ikoyi property.

The false accusations by Wike is purely diversionary, a political smear campaign against Amaechi by Wike, while he steals Rivers State blind. The fake claims is a figment of the imagination of Nyesom Wike.

Wike is a rabble-rouser and should not be taken seriously. He has made several false claims like this in the recent past and never went the whole length to prove it because he had no proof. Many would recall how Wike was screaming all over national television stations just before the Rivers State legislative Rerun elections that he had an explosive video, containing earth-shaking revelations and he would show the video on national TV. Till date, no video, just talk talk and talk, telling more and more lies.

Yet again, we challenge Wike to charge Amaechi to court if he has any shred of evidence that the money belongs to Rivers State and was kept in the Ikoyi apartment by Amaechi. But like his numerous frivolous accusations in the past, we know he wont go to court. He has nothing to substantiate his blatant lies. This Wikes recent tale like his previous ones is a big sham, a disgraceful political drama, and a campaign of calumny to defame and destroy the sterling reputation of Rotimi Amaechi. This is now Wikes sole life ambition.

The Statement concluded, Finally, we want Nigerians to note that Wikes reckless, irresponsible and fictitious tirade against the President Buhari administration at his media briefing of Friday is a declaration of war against the Federal Government. This has been his regular past time in recent times, making false allegations against the Federal government and threatening the President Buhari administration with fire and brimstone.

Source : ( PM News )
Few hours after North Korea introduced a missle to its military, the missile was launched but it did not end up been successful as the weapon failed and blew up almost immediately. The missile which is supposed to be one of the countrys new game-changer intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) which was revealed to the world in a display of military might during the countrys parade and celebration of the countrys creation yesterday.

The South Korean defence ministry said it had detected a failed launch from Sinpo  where North Koreas biggest submarine base is located.

According to a military official the weapon is presumed to be a new ICBM as it is longer than the existing KN-08 or KN-14 missiles.

North Korea launched this missile for the first time earlier this month, firing it from a land base near Sinpo, home to a known North Korean submarine base. The missile did not appear to go very far, but still, analysts described the development as scary because of the solid-fuel component.

The information of the failed missile launch didnt come from North Korean Govt, it came from the South Korean defence ministry which released a statement.

The statement read:

North Korea attempted to test an unidentified type of missile from Sinpo area in the South Hamkyong Province this morning, but we suspect the launch has failed.

North Korea has launched 5 missile launches that are mobile ICBMs that can reach as far as the United States and yesterdays failed launch would have been the 6th one.
Abu Ibrahim, the senator representing Katsina South, and Amiru Tukur, the member representing Bakori/Danja Federal constituency in the House of Representatives narrowly escaped mob action at a political event organised by the Katsina State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday in Funtua.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that it took a combined teams of security personnel to rescue notable politicians, including the governors entourage, as they came under attack from protesters.

Stones and shoes were used in attacking the dignitaries.

Some vehicles in the entourage of the governor were smashed by irate youths while security personnel had to use tear-gas to disperse the crowds and free the dignitaries.

The event, according to NAN, was an APC rally where the ruling party was accepting defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) and other parties into its fold.

The event however ended abruptly.

Reports say trouble started when some youths started chanting Bamaso Abu Ibrahim (We dont want Senator Abu Ibrahim) and then started throwing stones and shoes at dignitaries and entertainers invited to perform at the event.

Amiru Tukur, the Representative from the area, suffered injury while Abu Ibrahim, along with some of his aides and supporters, who were trying to rescue the senator, were also assaulted.

Before proceedings descended into chaos, Governor Aminu Masari had urged party members to promote the partys manifesto.

The governor reiterated his administrations commitment to giving proactive leadership that would turn around things for the better in the state.

He said the government would ensure increased investments in education, health, water supply, agriculture among other areas.

In his remark, the Katsina state chairman of the APC, Shitu Shitu, said thousands of people were trooping to the party based on its achievements, adding that similar rally was organised in Dutsi local government for Katsina North senatorial zone recently.

He assured the new members of fair treatment in the party affairs.

Speaking on behalf of those who defected, a former chairman of Malumfashi Local Government Area, Mansur Banki, said he led more than 5,000 persons to join the APC from the PDP because of the good programmes of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Masari.

(NAN)
The 82 Division of Nigerian Army, Enugu, has assured officers and their families of best medical care, with emphasis on awareness campaign against meningitis.

Col. Sagir Musa, Deputy Director, Army Public Relations gave the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Sunday.

He said that a day sensitisation and awareness lecture on meningitis, sickle cell anemia and gastroenteritis was held in Enugu recently for army personnel and their families.

He said that about 4,000 cases of the disease had been reported in Jigawa, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kano, and Katsina states with about 156 deaths recorded so far.

Musa said that the disease had also been detected in Calabar and Ebonyi states.

This should push the Division and the Nigerian Army for proper medical and hygienic introspection, he said.

The Commander of the 82 Division Hospital, Lt.-Col. Ijoma Ijomanta, delivered a lecture at the sensitisation campaign, Musa said.

Musa also said that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, directed that medical care should be made available to interested civilians from the host communities of the Division.

He commended Maj.-Gen. Adamu Abubakar, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 82 Division for his numerous supports.

Musa said that Abubakar had directed that sensitisation lecture be conducted for the officers, soldiers and their families as well as the civilian personnel of the Division.

It is in line with his order that the lecture was organised and successfully executed.

This is with the view to cementing the existing good civil-military relationship between the Division and its various publics, he said.

He said that sickle cell disorder was one of the topics discussed at the event.

Musa encouraged army personnel and residents of Abakpa  Nike to patronise the 82 Division Hospital in Abakpa Barracks for their medical needs.

Source : ( NAN )
Easter turned horrible for some passengers enroute Benin as they lost their lives in an motor accident. Th horrific situation was passed by a social media user identified as Nnamani Malachy shared the message of the accident, that involved a Big Joe Bus and a trailer enroute Benin of which all lives were lost.

See post:

This accident occurred immediately after Okene..A Big Joe Bus and a trailer..It was the First Big Joe that loaded from Abuja to BeninPlease if your relative left Abuja this morning to BeninPlease call to confirm His/Her whereaboutNon of the passengers survived the accident..May their souls rest in perfect peace (RIP)

Source: ( PM News )
Controversial Nigerian OAP, Daddy Freeze has been lambasted by a Port-Harcourt-based man of God who said he is possessed by 52 demons.

A man of God, Pastor Humble Okoro, Senior Pastor of Joy Christian Church, Port Harcourt has during an interview revealed that Cool FM OAP, Daddy Freeze is possessed by 52 demons and needs immediate deliverance.

This young man use to insult pastors- they call him Daddy Freeze. That fair boy! That boy is not normal! I saw about 52 demons inside him, the pastor spat, visibly upset. I can help him!

Daddy Freeze is notorious for bashing men of God on Instagram.

Daddy Freeze had in the past mocked Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, on his Instagram page, insisting that the popular Christian cleric made elusive prophesies at the beginning of the year.

Freeze, while mocking the man of God, said that Adeboyes 2016 prophesies are yet-to-be fulfilled. He however claimed that he is still awaiting fulfillment of the prophesies.

Watch video below:
Popular Cool FM On Air Personalty, Ifedayo Olarinde better known as Daddy Freeze has lambasted Humble Okoro, a Senior Pastor with Joy Christian Church, Port Harcourt, Rivers State for accusing him of having 52 demons.

Okoro had said in an interview published by Street TV, that the OAP needs spiritual help and he is willing to offer such help.

He had claimed that Freeze insult pastors.

Okoro had said: This young man use to insult pastors- they call him Daddy Freeze. That fair boy! That boy is not normal! I saw about 52 demons inside him. I can help him!

But in a swift response, the OAP described the pastor as an alpine dialect crestin, that was anointed with engine oil

Freeze also told the pastor via his Instagram page to beg for forgiveness from him and he would be forgiven for the insult he heaped on him.

See the full post below.

Source: Punch
Police in Guinea have arrested an army colonel on suspicion of animal trafficking and seized a menagerie of animals from two properties he owns that they described as private zoos, a senior officer said.

Chimpanzees, a baboon, ostriches from Mali and turtles that inhabit the edge of the Sahara were among the 33 animals and 12 species found during police raids, said Charlotte Houpline of the WARA Conservation Project which worked on the investigation.

He was the owner of the animals and planned to sell them. He will be charged with animal trafficking, Gadiri Conde, a divisional police commissioner, told media.

A senior police source named the man, arrested in the capital Conakry on Wednesday, as Colonel Ibrahima Bangoura.

WARA, a French charity based in Guinea and Senegal, began investigating Mr. Bangoura in 2013, suspecting him of being part of a network that trades protected species on the international market, Ms. Houpline said.

This is a victory in the fight against corruption and impunity, she said, adding that Interpol has collaborated on the case.

Media was unable to contact Bangoura for comment.

After one of the raids, chimpanzees peered from cages as security officials in army fatigues carried them through the woods and loaded them onto pick-up trucks, media pictures showe

A crocodile snapped at its rescuers as it was dragged from a shallow pool.

Source: Reuters/NAN
A journalist identified as Mr Famous Giobaro, a staff of Glory FM 97.1 was killed by some unidentified gunmen on Sunday in Bayelsa State.

Giobaro was killed by the gunmen in his residence at INEC Road, Kpasia in Yenagoa, the state capital.

According to the State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Asinim Butswat, he the command was yet to get the full detail about the murder.

A witness said the gunmen stormed Giobaros apartment within a bungalow at about 5am on Sunday and shot him poinon the stomach.

The attackers had gained access into the compound after scaling the fence with a ladder.

They went straight to Giobaros kitchen door, shot at it and pulled it down to enter the journalists bedroom.

Two unidentified men who slept in the apartment with Giobaro were said to have hidden in the wardrobe and toilet when the gunmen entered.

The attackers did not steal anything and they did not attack other occupants of the bungalow, triggering speculations they could be assassins.

Bayelsa Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) described the attack as shocking.

NUJ Chairman, Mr John Angese and Secretary, Mr Stanley Imgbi said Giobaros death was a huge loss to the union.

The union asked the Police to investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators of the dastardly act to book.

NAN
There was disagreement among members of the House of Representatives as the Peoples Democratic Party members have decided to disagree the proposed plan by an ad-hoc committee to invite former President Goodluck Jonathan for interrogation with his connection with the controversial sale of Oil Prospecting Licence 245, better known as the Malabu oil deal.

Some of the lawmakers in the Ahmed Makarfi faction vehemently opposed the idea, while others in the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the party, said Jonathan could be summoned over the alleged $1.3bn deal.

The committee, which is chaired by a member of the All Progressives Congress from Kwara State, Mr. Razak Atunwa, has the mandate of the House to investigate the multi-billion naira oil deal.

The committee had stated on Thursday last week that it might invite the former President to testify in the light of recent revelations, including the former President and some of his former ministers being mentioned in a series of suits filed in Italian courts.

But, the matter left the two factions of the party taking opposing stances.

For instance, the Minority Leader of the House, Leo Ogor, who controls the majority of PDP members in the green chamber, dismissed it as a waste of legislative time.

Most of the PDP House members are in the Makarfi-led faction, including Ogor.

Ogor, who is from Delta State, told SUNDAY PUNCH that he did not see how Jonathan was connected with the oil deal, since there was no proof that money was paid to him by anybody.

He said, Inviting Jonathan will not serve any useful purpose to the committee. What is he coming to do?

What questions are they going to be asking him? Do they have any evidence to suggest that Jonathan was implicated in the oil block sale?

We have to be careful. The fact that there are some trials going in Italy and elsewhere, where certain ministers were mentioned, does not automatically implicate Jonathan.

It (Jonathans invitation) will serve no purpose but would end up as a waste of legislative effort.

But a member from Edo State, Mr. Johnson Agbonayinma, thought otherwise.

Agbonayinma, who is a foremost member of the Sheriff faction in the House, argued that Jonathans appearance would further justify the former presidents position on the rule of law.

The lawmaker added, Jonathan is a man known for the rule of law. After the 2015 election, in line with the rule of law, he handed over power to his successor.

Besides, he is a Nigerian citizen, why it is now that people are beginning to whip up all manner of sentiments?

Atunwa had stated last week that the committee had Jonathan on its radar and could invite him if a decision was taken to do so.
It was joint celebration in Kaduna State as Muslims and Christians gathered together to celebrate Easter, as part of efforts to promote unity, tolerance and understanding among members of different faiths in the state.

The event, organised by a pastor, Yohanna Buru, attracted a huge crowd including clerics, traditional and community leaders.

Buru, the General Overseer of Christ Evangelical Intercessory Fellowship, Sabon Tasha, said Nigerians must team up irrespective of differences to overcome social and economic challenges retarding growth and development.

We must unite in order to find means of ending all forms of ethno-religious and political crisis that is setting us backward.

We dont want relative peace but lasting peace that will come to stay in Northern Nigeria, Nigeria and in Africa.

We are not asking anyone to compromise his or her faith, but if we can understand one another, we will live in peace and harmony with every citizen, so as to make Nigeria great again.

Mr. Buru stressed that the basis for any progress is peace, as such Nigerians must strive to pursue the path of peace, dialogue and understanding at all times.

The District Head of Ungwan Muazu, Ahmed Aliyu, commended Mr. Buru for his unrelenting pursuit of peace in the state.

Mr. Aliyu urged Muslims and Christians to key into the initiative to end hatred, and collectively tackle any form of insecurity in various communities.

The district head urged people of the state to support ongoing efforts of the state and federal government to ensure peace in all communities.

Similarly, Gambo Abdullahi, an Islamic scholar, appealed to government to address the problems of cattle rustling, armed robbery, banditry, kidnapping and rape.

He also urged government to address problems of cultism and ritual activities in tertiary institutions.

Mr. Abdullahi called on all Nigerians to support government in the fight against corruption and in punishing looters of national treasury.

We expect you to extend this gospel of peace to people in your communities when you get back home and we must teach our children peace from the grassroots, he said.

(NAN)
The National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA) has confirmed two persons dead by hit and run vehicles along Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

A statement by Spokesman for the agency, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, in Lagos on Saturday quoted NEMA South-West Zonal Coordinator, Alhaji Suleiman Yakubu, as saying that the victims may have been knocked down in the morning.

A motorcyclist was found in front of Majun City Estate, while the other mangled body was found about three kilometres to Mowe from the Ibadan end of the expressway.

We have contacted the Federal Road Safety Commission for the evacuation of the bodies, he said.

The coordinator called on those whose relations may be missing to contact the Sagamu Interchange Unit and the Mowe FRSC Unit for identification.

He advised motorcyclists to desist from using the expressway, saying that it was risky to do so.

(NAN)
The Oniyani of Iyani Akoko in Akoko North-West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Oba Joel Daodu was kidnapped on Saturday night.

According to a source, the traditional ruler, after being kidnapped was taken to an unknown destination by his abductors.

As at the time of this report, the family of the victim was yet to know his whereabouts while the abductors were yet to get in touch with the family.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Femi Joseph, confirmed the incident and said the police was on the move to rescue the traditional ruler.

Source: (Punch Newspaper )
Dr Dakuku Peterside, Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), says the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers is united under the leadership of Chibuike Amaechi.

Peterside told a news conference in Port Harcourt on Sunday that there was no disagreement in the APC in the state.

 There is absolutely no disagreement in the APC. APC in Rivers state is united under the leadership of Mr Chibuike Amaechi.

 All of us in the party subscribe to his leadership and we have all agreed to subject ourselves to his leadership, he said.

Peterside, the party`s governorship candidate in the 2015 election in Rivers, said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) used propaganda to create an impression that there was disagreement in the APC.

 What is going on is that the PDP has been churning out cheap, stale propaganda to paint a picture that there is division in the APC.

 It is easy to sell the story that Magnus Abe, the Senator representing my Senatorial district has formed his own camp of the APC. I am in regular touch with Abe and I can say there is no such thing.

APC is one, united big family driven by the passion to offer Rivers people good governance, he said.

Peterside said that the party was not talking about the governorship candidate for the 2019 election.

He said that at the right time, the party would choose a candidate, respecting internal democracy.

Source: (NAN)
Wonders is the work of science and we might be heading for another wonder as some scientists are actually trying to track down the DNA of Jesus Christ of Nazareth? It sounds like something out of science fiction.

But several scientists are pursuing research which could lead to the DNA of Jesus.

George Busby of the University of Oxford worked on a History Channel documentary called The Jesus Strand, which premiered today (Sunday, April 16).

Writing for The Conversation, Busby said, In 2010, Kasimir Popkonstantinov discovered what he believes are the bones of one of the most famous of all saints: John the Baptist. I was interested in what DNA analysis could tell us about these bones, and other ones.

When Kasimir later opened the reliquary, he found five bone fragments. The epitaph on the smaller box, probably used to carry the bones when travelling, was the key piece of evidence that led him to believe that the bones could perhaps be those of John the Baptist.

The finding is hugely important, partly because John the Baptist was both a disciple of Jesus and his cousin  meaning they would share DNA.

Busby says that its still not clear that the DNA is from John the Baptist  but he spoke with other scientists who have extracted several different DNA samples from the Turin Shroud.

Another team is working to extract DNA from the James Ossuary, a first century chalk box which may have held the bones of Jesus brother.

Busby says, Lets assume for a moment that contamination could be completely ruled out and that DNA analysis demonstrated that DNA from the Shroud was a familial match to DNA from the James Ossuary  and that they are both related to the Bulgarian bones.

Could this then have been the DNA of Jesus and his family?

Yahoo News
There have been reports that the members of the Senate are angry with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo over his recent comment that the appointment of Mr. Ibrahim Magu as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission did not the approval of the Senate members.

Osinbajos comment, going by the reactions gathered from senators on Saturday, may frustrate the reconciliatory move by the Presidency on the recent crisis between the executive and the legislature.

The lawmakers also hinted that the Senate may seek the help of the judiciary on the enforcement of its rejection of Magu.

According to them, the upper chamber of the National Assembly may need to approach the judiciary for the correct interpretation of the rejection of Magus nomination.

Some of those who spoke to pressmen said they were already studying the provisions of the constitution to prove that the acting EFCC chairman should be removed.

They specifically said they wanted to determine who was right on Magu between the executive and the legislature.

The Senate had twice rejected Magus nomination by President Muhammadu, citing a security report by the Department of State Services, which indicted the nominee.

The lawmakers had said the rejection of Magu meant that he could not continue to act in the capacity.

But Osinbajo, last week, ruled out the possibility of President Buhari replacing Magu with another nominee. He said the President did not find the DSS report, which is the basis for Magus rejection, a strong reason to replace him.

According to the Vice President, despite being rejected twice, the government was still at liberty to renominate Magu.

Senator Shehu Sani (APC/Kaduna Central) berated Osinbajo for his comment, when he was leading a peace committee seeking to manage the crisis between the two arms of government.

He said, As far as I am concerned, given his position as the chairman of the reconciliation committee, he should have concentrated on ensuring harmony and mobilising support from the Senate, other than making further statements that may further worsen the situation.

Similarly, Senator Chukwuka Utazi (PDP/Enugu North) faulted Osinbajo, saying, Any lawyer who says that what the Senate did or its stand is unconstitutional is not telling the whole truth; it is half-truth, he said.

Utazi, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, which has the oversight of the EFCC, stated that Section 60 of the Constitution empowered the Senate to take its action on Magu.

Also, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa (PDP/Abia North) said he was studying what the provisions of the EFCC Act on nomination and confirmation of the agencys chairman.

He said, I want to clarify the fact about whether we have the powers to say he shouldnt act (as chairman of EFCC) because acting appointment is within the powers of the executive. Ours is to confirm the nominee and make the appointment substantive. And I dont think there is anything in the Act that talks about acting. That is their business.

In his submission, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim (APC/Kwara South) said Osinbajo spoke as the Vice President and not the President. He said the Senate would take a step when Buhari himself speaks on Magu.

The Vice President is not the President. We are waiting for the President, he said.

Also speaking, Senator Isiaka Adeleke (APC/Osun West) said it was the prerogative of Buhari to appoint Magu and that of the Senate to confirm or reject the appointment.

The Chairman, Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, could not be reached for the position of the Senate on the Presidencys insistence on Magu. The spokesman was said to be on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
SAO PAULO (AP)  Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht helped finance the campaign of Peru's former President Ollanta Humala, company's former CEO has said.

In testimony this week to prosecutors, Marcelo Odebrecht said the company contributed $3 million to Humala, who was elected in 2011.The Odebrecht construction company is at the center the biggest corruption probe in Brazil's history. The investigation, known as Operation Car Wash, has already unveiled billions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes paid to politicians by Brazilian companies.

A former Odebrecht executive also testified this week that the company donated $1.5 million to the campaign of El Salvador's Mauricio Funes, who was president of that Central American country from 2009 to 2014.

Also this week, another former Odebrecht executive told prosecutors that between 2006 and 2014 the company paid $3.4 billion in bribes.
The Chairman, Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Southern Kaduna Crisis and Other Parts of the Country, Senator Kabiru Gaya, has called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to redeploy policemen who are indigenes of Kaduna State out of the troubled southern part of the state.

Gaya urged Idris to ensure that Kaduna indigenes in the force were not posted to southern part of the state, as doing so would weaken the resolve by the police to restore peace in the area.

He argued that indigenous policemen might be weak to handle such situation.

Gaya, while briefing journalists in Abuja on Friday, said the committee would present separate reports for the other eight states recording similar clashes in the country.

The Senate had last Tuesday rejected the report presented by committee, asking the panel to carry out a thorough probe into the killings and come back with a better report.

According to the lawmakers, the report did not show the seriousness of the killings across the country.

Gaya also stated that until the Constitution was reviewed to give traditional rulers roles to play in the security of their respective communities, the lingering crisis in Southern Kaduna might persist.

He further called for the immediate implementation of the Kaduna State Governments white paper on Southern Kaduna killings.

The lawmaker, who is representing Kano South, urged the state government to implement the recommendations of the white paper to restore peace to the area.

Gaya also urged religious leaders to preach peace, saying these were some of the resolutions contained in the interim report by the panel.

He said, Traditional rulers should be given a role to play. Unfortunately, they dont have any role in the Constitution. Therefore, their roles are limited. There is the serious need to review the Constitution to give traditional rulers a role to play. All the religious leaders should preach peace for no religion preaches violence. It was one of our resolutions.

On the issue of police, the Inspector General, in posting to any part of the country, should not put more of the indigenes of the state because when you have indigenes and there is a crisis, they cant quench it.

Also, we said the Kaduna State Government must implement the recommendations of the white paper. Governments of those states refused to implement the white paper because of political fear. If they are sincere to the people, whatever the recommendation, it is fair that they implement the recommendations.

Gaya disclosed that there were more killings the clash in Zamfara State than in Kaduna.

There were more killings, as over 1000 were killed between 2012 and 2016 because there was no much publicity from that area, he said.
Days after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) discovered N13bn ($43.4m, N23m and 27,000) at the Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to speak up on the issue.

SERAP urged Buhari to urgently address the country on the matter so as to clarify the issue, and resolve lingering doubts among Nigerians regarding the real owner(s) of the cash.

The organization also called on the president to ensure legal backing for his governments whistle-blowing policy by vigorously pursuing the passing by the National Assembly of the Whistle-blower Bill.

In a statement today by SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni, the organization said that,

The governments increasing reliance on whistle-blowers tips to fight corruption has to be backed by some level of transparency and accountability in the real identities of those claiming recovered cash. Clearing the doubts surrounding the real identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul would demonstrate that the president values transparency over secrecy, provide further encouragement to blow the whistle on governmental corruption, and enhance the public right to know.

According to the organization, Democracy abhors secrecy, and for Nigerians to be able to hold elected leaders accountable, they must have access to information such as on the real identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul. This transparency is fundamental to the operation of the governments whistle-blower policy, and inextricably rooted in the notions of good governance and the rule of law under the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended).

The statement read in part: No good comes from secrecy in governance, as officials who have become accustomed to operating without accountability are loath to relinquish the power that comes from conducting their business without public scrutiny. When public authorities resist efforts to shine a light on their activities, it gives the impression that there is something to hide. Its counter-productive to overstate national security based secrecy needs, as secrecy encourages poorly informed and under-vetted decision-making.

Public scrutiny is a prerequisite for changing harmful, entrenched practices. Rather than operating the whistle-blowers policy as hidden, mysterious mechanism at the far edge of democracy, this government should make the operation of policy more transparent and accessible to the public. Both transparency and accountability are necessary to uphold the rights of victims of corruption and ensure that suspected perpetrators are held to account. The sky will not fall if the true identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul are revealed.

Its clear that as the EFCC continues to uncover more suspected looted or ill-gotten cash, those blowing the whistle will need greater level of protection. But without outlawing retaliation and attacks against whistle-blowers, and taking a firm stance on protecting them, the incentive of bounty rewards would be negated, as potential whistle-blowers may be discouraged from performing invaluable public interest service.

It shouldnt be the case that the government knows the risks of whistle-blowing and yet fails to provide the needed legal protection against retaliation and attacks, regardless of whether whistle-blowers are entitled to bounties.

The policy of giving whistle-blowers some percentage of recovered loot would seem to be a game changer in the fight against corruption but this government now has to squarely address the significant risks that those who blow the whistle face by urgently working with the National Assembly to ensure the necessary legal backing that would ensure protection against reprisals and attacks.

The government should ensure that the National Assembly expedites the process of passing the Whistle-Blower Bill, as ensuring that the bill is passed without further delay would recognize the necessity of whistleblowers and the value they add to the anti-corruption fight by reporting otherwise unknown corruption-related information. It would also ensure that whistle-blowers are fully protected from any retaliation and attacks they may experience, and that the government fully appreciates the information they provide.

Continuing delay in the passing of the Whistle-Blower Bill would have a chilling effect on potential whistleblowers and hinder the publics ability to learn about the kind of cash haul found in Ikoyi and elsewhere across the country. Its also contrary to Article 33 of the UN Convention on Corruption, which Nigeria has ratified. The convention obligates the government to put in place appropriate measures to provide protection against any unjustified treatment for any person who reports in good faith and on reasonable grounds to the competent authorities any facts concerning offences established in accordance with the convention.

Source: ( PM News )
A one-year old boy was killed and his five year old brother hospitalized after their aunt attacked them with a machete in Nyamonema village, Kisii County, Kenya on Wednesday, April 12th.

The woman attacked the two siblings as they played outside their grandmothers house. She allegedly slashed the minors several times, killing the younger one on the spot and seriously injuring the older sibling.

Ms Elizabeth Bosire, the childrens grandmother, told Nation that she had gone to pick tea at her farm when she was disturbed by the distress calls of her grandchildren.

I heard my grandchildren crying while calling for me and immediately dropped my basket to run home and find out what the problem was. I was just on time to find my daughter-in-law hacking my grandson on the head with a machete, a tearful Ms Bosire said.
In a short chat with Sunday Scoop, African known Yemi Alade has expressed how being from the Yoruba tribe and at the same time from an Igbo tribe has helped her. Speaking to the reporter she says it has being a plus and has helped her connect easily.

You cannot underestimate the importance and role of tribes in Nigeria as it is taken very seriously. I am very proud of my heritage as an African and I try to portray in every way that I can and everywhere I go. Being partly Yoruba and Igbo is a big plus for me as it has helped me to connect with both cultures. However, I believe that both cultures are inextricably intertwined because they share a lot of similarities, she said.

Yemi also stated that her first hit, Johnny was released by mistake. She said, I was in the studio with Selebobo and we were just goofing around trying to come up with a nice sound. The first line for the song just came out playfully and I continued. I never thought that it would become a hit and if not that the song was leaked, I may never have released it.

Source: Sunday Scoop
Update 6.02pm: President Michael D Higgins today laid a wreath at the focal point of the Easter Rising as the nation marked the 101st anniversary of the rebellion.

Michael D Higgins was joined by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the event outside the General Post Office on O'Connell Street, the landmark building that served as the headquarters of the 1916 rebels.

Who doesn't love a bit of pomp and ceremony on an Easter Sunday? Michael D certainly does #1916 pic.twitter.com/OXeAzKEL1H  Kevin Doyle (@KevDoyle_Indo) April 16, 2017

Members of the Irish Defence Forces personnel took part in the state ceremony.

The event began with the lowering of the Irish tricolour. A prayer was read and a piper played a lament before the Proclamation of Independence was read by a Defence Forces officer.

On Easter Monday 1916, leader Patrick Pearse stood outside the GPO and read out the proclamation to herald the start of the insurrection against British rule.

After Mr Higgins laid the laurel wreath, a minute's silence was held and the Last Post played.

The official ceremony concluded with the raising of the tricolour, the playing of Amhran na bhFiann and a fly-past by four planes from the Irish Air Corps.

And a fly past from the Air Corp to finish off #EasterSunday #1916 pic.twitter.com/idzyJBfgth  Kevin Doyle (@KevDoyle_Indo) April 16, 2017

The event was lower key than last year, when hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Dublin for a huge military parade to mark the 100th anniversary.

Earlie, Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys and deputy UK ambassador to Ireland Neil Holland attended a series of commemorative events in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin.

The programme included the raising of the tricolour over the monument to celebrated poet Dora Sigerson and the laying of wreaths at the graves of Edward Hollywood, the man who delivered the first tricolour flag to Ireland from France, and Peadar Kearney, the composer of Amhran na bhFiann.

Minister Humphreys said: "These moments of commemoration provide us with an opportunity to recognise the legacy of those who went before us and their enduring influence on the Ireland of today."

The great grandson of Peader Kearney, Dualta O' Broin, sang the anthem at the event.

John Green, chairman of Glasnevin Trust, said: "In remembering Dora Sigerson, Edward Hollywood and Peadar Kearney each Easter Sunday morning we hope to encourage today's generations to explore the complex and intricate period in our history a century ago."

A granite memorial incorporating the names of all those who died in the Rising, including rebellion leaders and British soldiers, was unveiled in Glasnevin as part of the centenary commemorations last year.

Almost 500 people were killed in the 1916 Rising, the majority of them - 268 - were civilians caught up in the violence.

A total of 119 British soldiers died.

Earlier: Events are currently taking place across the country to mark the 101st Anniversary of the 1916 Rising.

The biggest one is being held at the GPO in Dublin.

Family and friends of those who passed away, along with the Taoiseach and Presidnet have gathered outside the GPO.

Members of the defence forces and other organisations like the the Air Corp and the Millitary band are remembering those who died during the 1916 Rising.

Enda Kenny, the President Michael D Higgins and the Minister for defence are in attendance and will watch the national flag being lowered and the Proclamation on Independence being read out.

Dublins OConnell street will stay closed until 3pm with smaller events also taking place across the country.
Tens of thousands endured heavy security checks to hear Pope Francis celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at St Peters Square at which he prayed the risen Lord would walk beside those who are marginalised and who are victimised by old and new forms of slavery.

Many tourists, pilgrims and Romans flocked to the cobblestone square, decorated with colourful spring flowers, to hear Francis deliver the "Urbi et Orbi" - his Easter message "to the city and to the world" - from the central balcony of St Peters Basilica.

The address marks what is the most important day in the Christian calendar as it represents the fulfilment of Gods promises to mankind represents the fulfillment of Gods promises to mankind and proof that those who trust in God and accept Christ will be raised from the dead.

Security for the event included armed police positioned on rooftops and the use of metal detectors.

In his address Pope Francis prayed that the "Risen Lord would walk beside those who are marginalised who are victimised by old and new forms of slavery ... and bring peace to the Middle East, come to the aid of Ukraine, shed his blessing upon the continent of Europe and build bridges of dialogue in Latin America."

In his address the Pope also condemned the latest bombing in Syria, which led to the death of more than 100 people fleeing war, as "ignoble".

Read the full address below:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy Easter!

Today, throughout the world, the Church echoes once more the astonishing message of the first disciples: Jesus is risen!  He is truly risen, as he said!

The ancient feast of Passover, the commemoration of the liberation of the Hebrew people from slavery, here finds fulfilment. By his resurrection, Jesus Christ has set us free from the slavery of sin and death, and has opened before us the way to eternal life.

All of us, when we let ourselves be mastered by sin, lose the right way and end up straying like lost sheep.

But God himself, our shepherd, has come in search of us. To save us, he lowered himself even to accepting death on the cross.

Today we can proclaim: The Good Shepherd has risen, who laid down his life for his sheep, and willingly died for his flock, alleluia (Roman Missal, IV Sunday of Easter, Communion antiphon).

In every age, the Risen Shepherd tirelessly seeks us, his brothers and sisters, wandering in the deserts of this world. With the marks of the passion  the wounds of his merciful love  he draws us to follow him on his way, the way of life. Today too, he places upon his shoulders so many of our brothers and sisters crushed by evil in all its varied forms.

The Risen Shepherd goes in search of all those lost in the labyrinths of loneliness and marginalization. He comes to meet them through our brothers and sisters who treat them with respect and kindness, and help them to hear his voice, an unforgettable voice, a voice calling them back to friendship with God.

He takes upon himself all those victimized by old and new forms of slavery, inhuman labour, illegal trafficking, exploitation and discrimination, and grave forms of addiction. He takes upon himself children and adolescents deprived of their carefree innocence and exploited, and those deeply hurt by acts of violence that take place within the walls of their own home.

The Risen Shepherd walks beside all those forced to leave their homelands as a result of armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, famine and oppressive regimes. Everywhere he helps these forced migrants to encounter brothers and sisters, with whom they can share bread and hope on their journey.

In the complex and often dramatic situations of todays world, may the Risen Lord guide the steps of all those who work for justice and peace. May he grant the leaders of nations the courage they need to prevent the spread of conflicts and to put a halt to the arms trade.

Especially in these days, may he sustain the efforts of all those actively engaged in bringing comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death. May he grant peace to the entire Middle East, beginning with the Holy Land, as well as in Iraq and Yemen.

May the Good Shepherd remain close to the people of South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic

Republic of Congo, who endure continuing hostilities, aggravated by the grave famine affecting certain parts of Africa.

May the Risen Jesus sustain the efforts of all those who, especially in Latin America, are committed to ensuring the common good of societies marked at times by political and social tensions that in some cases have resulted in violence.

May it be possible for bridges of dialogue to be built, by continuing to fight the scourge of corruption and to seek viable and peaceful solutions to disputes, for progress and the strengthening of democratic institutions in complete respect for the rule of law.

May the Good Shepherd come to the aid of Ukraine, still beset by conflict and bloodshed, to regain social harmony.

May he accompany every effort to alleviate the tragic sufferings of those affected by the conflict.

The Risen Lord continues to shed his blessing upon the continent of Europe. May he grant hope to those experiencing moments of crisis and difficulty, especially due to high unemployment, particularly among young people.

Dear brothers and sisters, this year Christians of every confession celebrate Easter together. With one voice, in every part of the world, we proclaim the great message: The Lord is truly risen, as he said! May Jesus, who vanquished the darkness of sin and death, grant peace to our days.

Happy Easter!

- PA and Vatican Radio
The Flagstaff Photography Club held its Photo of the Year Competition in February. The winners of the Photo of the Month competitions for 2016 competed. First place went to Don Hutter for "Secret Canyon". Hutter also won second place with his "Mount Whitney Sunrise." Barry Lutz's "Anshun Bridge" won third place.




tax march

President Donald Trump launched into an early morning tweetstorm Sunday, the day after national protests demanding he release his tax returns.

In a series of tweets, Trump first responded to critics who have highlighted that following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he has reversed on his promise to declare China a currency manipulator.

During the 2016 campaign, the then-Republican presidential nominee often said that China was manipulating its currency to boost exports, a policy that cost American manufacturing jobs.





Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!

 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

After wishing America a happy Easter, he blasted organizers of Saturday's Tax March. The nationwide protest urged Trump to release his tax returns, a presidential tradition he has declined to uphold.





I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?

 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017





Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!

 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

Saturday's Tax March protest was organized by a network of left-leaning groups whose support and sponsorship was public on the march's website. Organizers reported that a total of 100,000 protesters participated in Tax March events across the US.

Story continues

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.

The march came as Democratic lawmakers renewed their calls for the president to release his tax returns.

In a video released Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren questioned whether Trump was attempting to hide mob ties or unsavory foreign business connections.

"Who really calls the shots over the man who now sits in the White House?" Warren asked. "He could clear this up just like that if he would make his taxes public."

Confronted repeatedly by his refusal to release his tax returns, Trump has claimed that he will release them when he is no longer under audit from the IRS, though there are no rules stipulating that he cannot release his tax returns while he is under audit.

NOW WATCH: Watch a Trump surrogate get shut down after calling Trump the 'Martin Luther King of healthcare'





More From Business Insider
By Koh Gui Qing and Greg Roumeliotis (Reuters) - China's Anbang Insurance Group will let its agreement to acquire U.S. annuities and life insurer Fidelity & Guaranty Life (FGL) for $1.6 billion lapse, after failing to secure all the necessary regulatory approvals, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. The development casts new doubt on Anbang's commitment to U.S. deals, following its abandoned attempt last year to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc for $14 billion. Marriott International Inc ended up buying Starwood. While Anbang's FGL acquisition had received clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a U.S. government panel that scrutinizes deals for potential national security concerns, it could not get past some U.S. state regulators. FGL had extended its merger agreement with Anbang, which was signed in November 2015, to April 17 after it was set to expire on Feb. 8. Had Anbang secured a public hearing with Iowa's financial regulator by April 17, it could have extended the expiration date to May 31. However, Anbang has failed to meet the conditions for any further extension, the sources said. Anbang also needed approval from New York financial regulators, but it has abandoned efforts to secure it, the sources added. The sources asked not to be identified because the recent developments are confidential. The sources did not say why Anbang could not secure approvals from U.S. state regulators after clearing CFIUS, but noted that the Beijing-based group had pushed back against making some of the disclosures required. FGL said in February it would solicit other acquisition offers as part of its merger agreement extension with Anbang. Negotiations between FGL and other suitors, including Bermuda-based reinsurance company Athene Holding Ltd , are continuing, the sources said. FGL declined to comment, while Anbang and Athene did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Established in 2004, Anbang burst onto the global scene from near obscurity by signing more than $30 billion worth of corporate deals in the last 2-1/2 years. Its high-profile investments included a $1.95 billion purchase of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Little is known about Anbang's funding and shareholding structure, partly because it is a private company. Corporate records in China show Anbang is owned by 39 privately held and little-known companies scattered across China. Last month, Kushner Companies, the real estate firm headed by U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law until recently, said it ended talks to redevelop its flagship New York office tower with Anbang. (Reporting by Koh Gui Qing and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld and Suzanne Barlyn in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)
Today

A mix of clouds and sun with gusty winds. High 79F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 59F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph.

Tomorrow

Sun and a few passing clouds. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 69F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.
As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles.

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(Adds details on U.S. options)

* McMaster stresses non-military options

* Failed launch comes day after parade of new missiles

* Vice President Pence in South Korea for talks

By Lucia Mutikani and Sue-Lin Wong

WASHINGTON/PYONGYANG, April 16 (Reuters) - The United States, its allies and China are working together on a range of responses to North Korea's latest failed ballistic missile test, U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser said on Sunday, citing what he called an international consensus to act.

H.R. McMaster indicated that Trump was not considering military action for now.

"It's time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully," he said on ABC's "This Week" program. "We are working together with our allies and partners and with the Chinese leadership to develop a range of options."

McMaster added: "There is an international consensus now, including the Chinese leadership, that this is a situation that just cannot continue."

The Trump administration is focusing its North Korea strategy on tougher economic sanctions, possibly including an oil embargo, a global ban on its airline, intercepting cargo ships and punishing Chinese banks doing business with Pyongyang, Reuters reported last week, citing U.S. officials.

While Trump has employed tough rhetoric in response to North Korea's recent missile tests, the new U.S. president's options appear limited in dealing with a challenge that has vexed his Oval Office predecessors.

Most options fall into four categories: economic sanctions, covert action, diplomatic negotiations and military force.

The North Korean missile blew up almost immediately after its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said.

Hours later, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence landed in South Korea for talks on the North's increasingly defiant arms program. His visit came a day after North Korea held a military parade in its capital, Pyongyang, marking the 105th anniversary of the birth of founding father Kim Il Sung. What appeared to be new long-range ballistic missiles were on display in the parade.

Story continues

RISING TENSIONS

Tensions have risen as Trump takes a hard rhetorical line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from China and proceeded with nuclear and missile programs seen by Washington as a direct threat.

Trump acknowledged on Sunday that the softer line he had taken on China's management of its currency was linked to China's help on the North Korea issue.

"Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!" Trump said on Twitter. Trump has backed away from a campaign promise to label China in that way.

South Korea said the North's latest show of force "threatened the whole world."

But a U.S. foreign policy adviser traveling with Pence on Air Force Two sought to defuse some of the tension, saying the test of what was believed to be a medium-range missile had come as no surprise.

"We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch," the adviser told reporters on condition of anonymity.

"It's a failed test. It follows another failed test. So really no need to reinforce their failure. We don't need to expend any resources against that."

The adviser said the missile's flight lasted four or five seconds.

Pence, addressing an Easter service with American troops in South Korea, said the U.S. commitment to South Korea was unwavering.

"Let me assure you under President Trump's leadership, our resolve has never been stronger. Our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger."

Pence was beginning a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of U.S. commitment to its ally in the face of mounting tension.

The U.S. nuclear-powered Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group is also heading to the region. (http://tmsnrt.rs/2p1yGTQ)

China, which Trump has urged to do more to rein in North Korea, has spoken out against its weapons tests and has supported U.N. sanctions. It has repeatedly called for talks while appearing increasingly frustrated with the North.

Beijing banned imports of North Korean coal on Feb. 26, cutting off its most important export. China's customs department issued an order on April 7 telling traders to return North Korean coal cargoes, said trading sources with knowledge of the order.

'HOSTILE REGIME'

Trump's decision to order a cruise missile strike on a Syrian airfield this month, in response to what he said was Syria's use of chemical weapons, raised questions about his plans for reclusive North Korea.

Pyongyang has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions, and regularly threatens to destroy South Korea and the United States.

"The president has made clear that he will not accept the United States and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons," McMaster told ABC.

But McMaster, who was speaking from Kabul, Afghanistan, acknowledged the likelihood of North Korean retaliation if Washington uses military force in an attempt to stop its weapons programs.

"What (is) particularly difficult about - about dealing with this regime, is that it is unpredictable," he said.

South Korea, which hosts 28,500 U.S. troops and holds a presidential election on May 9, warned of punitive action if the Sunday launch led to further provocation.

Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-1953 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States, but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturising a nuclear warhead.

North Korea launched a ballistic missile from the same region this month, ahead of a summit between the United States and China in Florida to discuss the North's arms program.

That missile, which U.S. officials said appeared to be a liquid-fuelled, extended-range Scud, only flew about 60 km (40 miles), a fraction of its range, before spinning out of control.

Tension had escalated sharply amid concern the North may conduct a sixth nuclear test or a ballistic missile test around Saturday's celebration of Kim Il Sung's birthday, which it calls the "Day of the Sun."

In Pyongyang, there was a festive atmosphere at a flower show, with families out, taking pictures with North Korean-made smartphones. There was no mention of the test failure by the KCNA state news agency.

Company worker Rim Chung Ryol, 30, said he had not heard of the test.

"If it is a failure, then failure is the mother of success," he told Reuters.

Factory worker Ri Gul Chol, 37, also had not heard about the missile test.

"But whatever Kim Jong Un decides and instructs will succeed and all the citizens will support him," he said.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Ju-min Park in SEOUL, Joseph Campbell and Philip Wen in DANDONG, Christian Shepherd in BEIJING, Daniel Trotta in NEW YORK and Caren Bohan in WASHINGTON; Writing by Nick Macfie and Warren Strobel; Editing by Diane Craft and Peter Cooney)
Grant McAllister  professor McAllister to his students at Wake Forest University  laughed when he heard the question. Then he repeated it.

How do I read these? he said. I have to wear my glasses, thats for sure.

These would be a few 200-year-old pages of the official Home Moravian church diaries, handwritten in an old German script on paper produced at a mill that stood on Peters Creek near Academy Street.

The pages McAllister was holding detailed Holy Week in 1817 and the preparations for that years Easter sunrise service, which would go off almost exactly like the one this morning that will likely draw thousands to Gods Acre.

Its just fascinating to me, McAllister said. Look. Heres a discussion about the number of foreigners  thats what they called non-Moravians  coming to take part in the sunrise service.

Some things never seem to change.

Small stories, large tradition

McAllister is a professor in the German and Russian department at Wake Forest. Hes long been aware of the rich recorded local history available in the Moravian archives overlooking Gods Acre and used it occasionally for academic reasons.

He knew, for example, that the Moravians came to Forsyth County in 1753 and formally established the town of Bethania six years later. Salem, and the Home Church, followed in 1766.

Moravians were prodigious record keepers, and McAllister also knew that church diaries were written in Deutsche schrift  an ornate style of writing peculiar to German  until 1857 when English elbowed it aside a mere century after the Moravians arrived.

A small handful of people in the Triad can read Deutsche schrift. McAllister being one of them, he decided in the fall that itd be instructive to have for his classes. He went to the Home Church archives, and with the help of archivist Richard Starbuck started looking through religious poems.

The original goal was to find something for the students to read a little in schrift, he said.

Once McAllister started reading, the elegant writing on the delicate old parchment began to draw him in.

While the big events and traditions that we all know something of today  Holy Week and the Sunrise Service in particular  were interesting, the daily lives of people toiling in familiar places brought him back again and again.

A small, one-time exercise in translation morphed into something akin to a 200-year-old soap opera.

You find all these stories, he said. Theres one about a 16-year-old who just died one day while working in a field. You learn about the loss and burial. Then you see all these names  Spainhour, Beroth, Pfaff  that you see all over the place now.

There are also cultural subtexts and the hints about the slow but sure changes going on in the larger society.

English words started showing up, previewing the growing influence of foreigners and the eventual switch to English by local congregations. Some sermons were given in English by 1817.

Then there was the incorporation and eventual welcoming of black families into the Moravian faith, words that show at the same time how far weve come in terms of race relations and how far weve yet to go.

There are entries about the large numbers of African-Americans  slaves  who gathered in Bethania and additional services being added for them, McAllister said.

Underpinnings

of tradition

Because hes an academic at heart, McAllister is also interested in some of the more technical history of the writing itself.

There are some older Germans who can still read it, he said. The Nazis outlawed it.

The records themselves are copious and detailed. Births, deaths, weather conditions and issues within the larger congregation were all liable to turn up.

A diary entry could be one page or 10, McAllister said. They picked out the most interesting aspects of the day for the diary.

The daily record keeping continued after local congregations officially switched to English about 1857 and remained part of official Moravian church for another 50 years.

The practice of a daily church diary began fading in the early 1900s, Starbuck wrote in an email. The last Home Church (Salem) Diary was 1963.

Other traditions remained, and continue to this day. In between answering questions Friday about record-keeping, Starbuck stayed busy helping people locate gravestones of their ancestor so that they might wash and tend to them the same way as earlier generations.

Binding it all and flagging such traditions as important for future generations are the diaries housed lovingly in the official archives above the cemetery. The daily lives of a people have been recorded there for scholars and other interested parties to rediscover in their own time.

Its a fascinating and important trove, and were lucky to have it here.

I dont know where to stop, McAllister said last week. I had to keep coming back because I wanted to know what was going to happen to Brother Jacob.
Winston-Salem State Universitys masters degree program in occupational therapy has again placed among the top in the nation, WSSU said in a statement.

The program had a 100 percent passage rate on the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy certification examination for its 26 graduates in 2016, WSSU said. This is the third consecutive year all WSSU graduates have passed the exam, which is required for state licensure.

This achievement demonstrates the excellence of our students as well as the quality of the academic program, said Peggy Valentine, dean of the WSSU School of Health Sciences. Our faculty go above and beyond to prepare our graduates.

Occupational therapists serve patients with physical, mental and cognitive disorders and help them participate in everyday activities through personalized evaluation and intervention to improve their ability to perform activities.

Wake MBA team

takes top honors

For the second consecutive year, a Wake Forest University School of Business MBA team recently won first place in the Marketing Analytics Summit hosted by the Schools Center for Retail Innovation.

Eight graduate and six undergraduate teams from around the globe competed in a case competition for total prizes of $56,000, WFU said in a statement.

The longest-running student-led event at the School of Business, the Summit is in its 27th year.

Every year the competition helps students attack a real-world problem that our sponsors face. This year the students themselves were the target of the case, said Roger Beahm, WestRock executive director of the Schools Center for Retail Innovation. Our sponsors were really interested in what millennials are thinking and perceiving about the discipline of marketing and digital analytics careers in marketing.

Wake Forest second-year MBA students Matteo Blanc, Kate Blevins, Ross Hartman, Samantha Lewis, Marie Miller and Si Wong received first place and $20,000 for their ideas around attracting, retaining and growing digital analytics talent for CVS Health.

McCloskey to speak

at Wake Forest

Dierdre McCloskey, a distinguished professor emerita of economics, history, English and communication at University of Illinois at Chicago, will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday in Wake Forest Universitys Broyhill Auditorium.

Her speech, titled Eudaimonia is not Measurable Pleasure, But the Fruit of a Liberal Life, will be the keynote address at the Eudaimonia Conference.

This event is free and open to the public.

McCloskey has written 17 books and approximately 400 scholarly pieces on topics ranging from technical economics and statistical theory to transgender advocacy and the ethics of the bourgeois virtues.

The conference is sponsored by Wake Forest Universitys Eudaimonia Institute, BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism; Center for Bioethics, Health, and Society; Thrive, the Office of Wellbeing; and Wake Forest School of Business.

WFU honors entrepreneurs

Wake Forests Center for Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship recently honored the Universitys outstanding entrepreneurs.

Provost Rogan Kersh presented Lindsay Chambers, a 2000 WFU graduate, an award-winning interior designer and founder of Lindsay Chambers Design, with the 2017 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award.

The award recognizes a Wake Forest alumnus, parent or friend who has demonstrated outstanding entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, achievement and social responsibility.

Wake Forest also recognized one faculty member, nine students and one recent graduate for their achievements.

Greg Pool received the Hobbs Faculty Award for Exceptional Support of Entrepreneurship Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

Senior Lauren Miller and 2016 graduate, Olivia Wolff, received the Hobbs Student Award for Entrepreneurial Achievement (Commercial Venture).

Senior Jake Teitelbaum received the Hobbs Student Award for Concept Development.

Senior Brooke Einbender, senior Zanny Dow and junior Hana Polizzotto received the Farr Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship.

Seniors Jackson Griffin, Clancy Waugh and Alec White received the Chambers Family Fund Student Award for Entrepreneurial Achievement.

Senior Tommy Vater received the Center for Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship Senior Leadership Award.

Forsyth Tech to hold logistics roundtable

Forsyth Technical Community College will host a panel of Triad-area logistics experts at 9 a.m. Wednesday in a forum on campus designed to engage industry professionals and students pursuing a degree in logistics and supply chain at the college.

Leaders with MercuryGate International, a leading manufacturer of transportation management software, will also participate in the event, which is designed to provide students with the opportunity to understand the significance of technology through a series of demonstrations and panel discussions.
Like blooming azaleas, open windows and, OK, an abundance of pollen, the teal flamingos are a spring rite of passage. Covering the front lawn of the Historic Broyhill Center in Clemmons, the blue-hued birds are the signature hallmark of the annual Flock the Yard fundraiser for No to O, an organization with a mission of finding a cure for ovarian cancer, and on April 7, the flock welcomed hundreds of guests for the evenings festivities.

This is the fifth year for Flock the Yard, and officials said the event has raised more than $200,000 for research, awareness and support. Some of the organizations that have received funds from the local No to O chapter include: Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance, Wake Forest Baptist Health (nurse navigator), 1 in 9 organization that administers grants to ovarian cancer patients, Cancer Services, Wind River Retreats, Cornucopia, Athenas Run and Teal Diva as well as small individual grants to specific organizational requests.

This is our new nurse navigator, Faye Martin, said Pat Capps, introducing Martin to guests attending the fundraiser. We are thrilled to have her on board.

Capps joined Dee Clark and Joyce Troyer for a photo for Martin. The trio of friends are continuing the efforts of their late friend, Jean Ebert, who organized the local benefit after receiving her own ovarian cancer diagnosis. Eberts daughter, Louisa Rauschenberg, comes out for the event every year and joined her friends, Erica Robertson, Aysia Stewart and Nina Ellis.

Its wonderful to see this event continue, she said, smiling. Her legacy lives on.

Presenting sponsors for the 2017 event included Wake Forest Baptist Health, LPS Tag and Label and Craige Jenkins Liipfert & Walker LLP. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Reigel were gold sponsors, and Ed Broyhill, K and W Cafeterias and Clark Powell Associates were silver sponsors.

Laurie Lail and Mitch Young took care of bartending duties for the night. Lails talents were also on display with Lillian Brouillette, an adorable 8-year-old who wore one of Lails custom teal fascinators as part of her Flock the Yard attire. As Brouillette graciously accommodated photo requests from several attendees, the Perfect Pair events team of Jennie Hess, Kristen Johnson and Lynn Auringer directed guests to the food and drink.

Chris and Julia Hedgecook and Tim and Katy Russo enjoyed the fare and looking over the auction items on display, as did Victoria Hileman and Randi Eaton. Joan and Gene Lewis joined board member Jan Shepherd nearby.

Its very important to help people learn more about this disease, Shepherd said.

One of the challenges of ovarian cancer is that the symptoms can mimic other common conditions and include bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and urinary urgency or frequency. No to O officials said that anyone suddenly experiencing these symptoms more than 12 times during the course of one month should see a gynecologist for testing. Additional symptoms can include fatigue, indigestion and back pain, among others.

Haley Mellert is an 11-year survivor and was 25 years old when she was diagnosed. Like many ovarian cancer patients, Mellert had no idea anything was wrong.

One day, I left work with stomach and lower back pain, and it didnt go away, she said. I told my boyfriend that something was wrong and we went to the ER. They did some tests and found a mass on my left ovary.

Mellerts family and friends came out to celebrate her survivorship and support the fundraiser. Tamara and Madison Sealey were happy to attend for their friend, and Mellerts sister, Katie Prevette, brought her little ones, Lynlee, 6, Ayla, 4, and Cohen, 16 months.

The young sisters joined Mellert for a photo, and the survivor, who wore teal lips in the spirit of the occasion, noted that women diagnosed with the disease have many options.

Im originally from West Virginia and had just moved here when I was diagnosed, she said. I didnt even have a gynecologist yet. The doctors suggested that I see a surgical oncologist, so I did and then had surgery and six rounds of chemo. That was 11 years ago and things are great now.
Biotech is booming in Winston-Salem thanks in large part to the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and its director, Dr. Anthony Atala. Some recent developments stand to benefit the public, the military and Winston-Salem.

The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and a nonprofit it founded, the RegenMed Development Organization, will undertake a five-year, $20 million project to apply advanced manufacturing to regenerative medicine, a process that will speed up the availability of replacement tissues and organs to patients, the Journals John Hinton reported recently.

Some portions of the project will be conducted by the Wake Forest institute, to the tune of $10 million, and some by the nonprofit, with an equal $10 million investment.

A public-private partnership that involves the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command awarded the project to the institute and its nonprofit, the Journal reported.

We have been spending many years now working on technologies that we re-create tissues and organs in laboratories, and weve been putting these tissues into our patients, Atala said during a presentation Friday at Biotech Place. Now, the next step is how we can manufacture these tissues on a large scale and provide these tissues to patients all over the country and all over the world.

The goal is to stop making these systems by hand one at a time, but to automate the process, so we can scale it up and make the process more affordable so we can get it to patients faster, Atala said.

This has been Atalas specialty for some time. It sounds like science fiction, but his work may one day make it possible to order a new organ cultivated from ones own cells and printed with advanced technology. This would be of great benefit to victims of disease, injury and combat.

Its painstaking work that calls for sheer brilliance and extensive resources.

During the program, retired Army Maj. Gen. Lester Martinez-Lopez told the audience that developing regenerative medicine with advanced manufacturing will help injured U.S. military personnel.

We are going to speed up the production process, Martinez-Lopez said at the presentation. Its about delivering (tissues and organs) to that soldier, sailor, airman and Marine. Thats a big deal.

The project will add to the economic base of the Triad and North Carolina, Doug Edgeton, the president and chief executive of the N.C. Biotechnology Center, said at the presentation, the Journal reported. The states life science industry represents $86 billion yearly in economic activity in North Carolina and $2.2 billion in state and local tax revenue, he said.

I can see companies coming in and creating jobs and creating jobs within the institute itself, Mayor Allen Joines told the Journal. It will be a huge impact.

The implications of Atalas work are grand. Atala continues to put himself, his colleagues and his institute on the map. Our citys involvement and support will be noteworthy.
Envy the reader of Before the War who has never read anything by Fay Weldon. That reader is about to be changed by Weldons trademark voice. But that voice, which many first heard in The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, The Hearts and Lives of Men or even in her 2002 autobiography, Auto da Fay, has not changed. Its still trenchant and barbed.

Before the War takes up, in a way, where Long Live the King left off. In that 2013 novel, second in an Edwardian trilogy called Habits of the House, a teenager named Adela is sent to a convent  and mysteriously disappears. Here she is again, in a novel more befitting her creators ability to take down everyone from royals to roustabouts. Adela is now the mother of Vivvie, single, large, ungainly, five foot eleven inches tall and twenty years old. But Vivvie has a secret: She is about to propose marriage to one of her fathers employees, Sherwyn Sexton, who is a decent publishing executive but a hack writer.

The story is divided by day, time and place, with many sub-headings from the omniscient narrator (Woman Proposes, Man Disposes, The Unwelcome Package, A Woman of Alpine Property) to lead us from London across the Continent to the tiny hamlet of Barscherau, Germany, which Vivvie happens to own.

Once Vivvie and Sherwyn and then Adela and an odd English doctor converge on Barscherau, its clear that a game is afoot  several, in fact, and keeping up with the various characters and time periods is a game unto itself. One of Weldons great themes returns, too: The difference between plain women (such as Vivvie) and pretty ones (such as Adela), a subject that proceeds into a new generation with just as much vigor as it has through the authors previous books.

The novel concludes, At last the real war could begin, which seems to signal not just a sequel, but a call to arms. Old and new readers of Fay Weldon should heed her call because this is a feminist continuing to engage with her cultures shortcomings and having an awful lot of fun along the way.
supermoon full moon reuters 3

Donald Trump's transition team asked NASA for details on its for-profit partnerships, and sought information about the potential to mine resources on the moon, according to a trove of internal documents obtained by Motherboard.

According to the documents, the questions from Trump's Agency Review Team (ART) largely focused on the interests of commercial space companies and NASA's potential help them turn profits.

Here's the topline request on one document:

The ART has requested the following information:

Provide data and examples of how NASA does technology development (perhaps even in the form of products) when working with industryfor example, types of contracts/partnerships and IP [intellectual property] arrangements. The interest is in how the results of government-funded development get disseminated (or not).

In documents sent back to the ART, NASA repeatedly pointed out that its role is scientific, with the agency primarily focused on extending research and exploration into parts of space private industry can't reach.

However, NASA's responses also emphasized the ways the agency works to support industry, and mentioned projects it has developed with commercial partners.

"NASA envisions a future in which low Earth orbit is largely the domain of commercial activity while NASA leads its international and commercial partners in the human exploration of deep space," the agency wrote.

The documents also included a slideshow with details about the potential for mining operations on the moon. One of the challenges of lunar mining, NASA pointed out, is that it's difficult to locate deposits of useful minerals from space. A ground-based prospecting mission would likely be necessary.

NASA explained that the US, along with Taiwan, is developing a concept for a lunar "prospector" mission.

Capture.PNG

capture two.PNG

The prospector mission would focus on investigating resources on the moon that would be necessary for human habitation, including oxygen, hydrogen, and other valuable compounds.

Story continues

There are a number of other resources on the moon, including rare earth metals, that could be of interest to commercial companies. But, as Motherboard points out, strip-mining the moon for profit could put the US at risk of violating the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which forbids unilateral private use of space resources.

Whether Trump will actually push for mining on the moon remains to be seen, of course. But the arm of NASA that deals with human spaceflight is one of the few scientific sectors of the non-military government that isn't facing major cuts in the White House's budget proposal.

NOW WATCH: Watch SpaceX change the game for spaceflight by launching and landing its first used rocket in history





More From Business Insider


An Egyptian criminal court in Cairo sentenced Habib el-Adly, the former interior minister under former president Hosni Mubarak, to seven years in jail on Saturday, for embezzling more than $100m of public funds. Adly was the head of Egypts feared international security forces until the uprising that overthrew the Government in 2011. Adly has faced several criminal charges [Al Jazeera report] in connection with his time in office, but had been acquitted of killing protesters in 2012 and of money laundering and profiteering charges in 2015. In 2015 Adly was released from prison [Jerusalem Post report] after serving three years for using police officers as free labor on his properties. Along with Adly, 100 other ministry officials [Daily News report] were accused of accepting bribes. The court dismissed charges against 80 defendants in January 2016, due to a lack of evidence. On Friday two other officials were also sentenced to seven years in prison and the court ordered them all three to pay back $108m and fined them the same amount. The decision can still be appealed to the highest court of Egypt.

Mubarak, Adly and other members of his administration have been consistently involved in some form of judicial proceeding since the Egyptian Revolution [JURIST backgrounder]. In 2015 an Egyptian court acquitted [JURIST report] Habib el-Adly of charges alleging he used his political influence to acquire approximate $23 million. Also in 2015 Habib el-Adly was cleared of all charges [JURIST report] for squandering public funds and profiteering after allegedly making an illegal deal with German Company UTSCH to sell license plates for higher than market value. In 2017, Mubarak was cleared of all charges [JURIST report] in a retrial of charges that he killed protesters during the civil uprising in 2011.
[JURIST] The Third Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] on Friday ruled [opinion] that the family of a man who committed suicide while in solitary confinement can argue that he faced cruel and unusual punishment, even if they dont argue that the treatment lead to his suicide. In July 2012, Brandon Palakovic committed suicide [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report] while in solitary confinement at SCI Cresson serving a sentence for robbery. Palakovics family brought an Eighth Amendment [LII, text] cruel and unusual punishment claim [complaint] against the prison and prison officials for failure to treat Brandon Palakovics documented mental health issues. The Western District of Pennsylvania [official website] granted the States motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, finding that the vulnerability to suicide standard applied and that the Palakovics failed to so plead. The Palakovics filed an amended complaint seeking to meet this standard, which was also dismissed. The Third Circuit clarified here that an Eighth Amendment claim need not fit into the vulnerability to suicide framework, and that the Palakovics sufficient pled constitutional violations. Moreover, the Third Circuit found that the Palakovics amended complaint sufficiently pled a strong likelihood of self-harm. The Court urged that the strong likelihood requirement does not demand a heightened showing at the pleading stage by demonstrating  as the District Court seemed to require here  that the plaintiffs suicide was temporally imminent or somehow clinically inevitable.

Prisoner issues have been prominent across the world. In January, the UK Ministry of Justice released figures [JURIST report] demonstrating a record number of suicides and other deaths in prisons in England and Wales in 2016. Many experts and politicians have attributed the findings to overcrowding and a cut in funding and staffing. Following a clemency order issued by President Pierre Nkurunziza, Burundis government began releasing [JURIST report] scores of prisoner earlier in January. The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii filed a complaint [JURIST report] with the US Department of Justice in January, stating that overcrowding in the state correctional facilities is resulting in violations of the prisoners Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
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Ya mero llegamos?

Are we almost there? These become one of the most dreaded words I have to hear every weekend, when I pick you up from the long commute that is from Sacramento to the bay area to spend time with you. Oftentimes I am just as inpatient as you my love. This has been our sacrifice these last few years, being physically away from one another. I take a deep breath, look down at the speedometer unchanged at 20 mph, the red tail lights gleaming back at us, and your favorite Michael Jackson song playing in the background. Paciencia Elias, paciencia, I reply. I too need to hear this from time to time.

Ya mero llegamos. Sometimes we get caught up focusing on the destination, or going from point A to B, that we forget to really appreciate the moments we have had in between. I wanted to share with you three things this journey has taught me.

1. Having Ganas! or grit. Even when you were in my womb, you were there studying with me; reading those darn exam books in preparation for the MCAT. Im sorry for that extra cup of coffee I had to have, I think you turned out OK.

Then when your father and I parted ways, you continued to bare with me as we both moved back into your Abuelitos house in a town ironically named Salida or exit just 85 miles east of San Francisco. To be honest, I felt embarrassed coming back home. A failure. A UC Berkeley grad who had worked hard to reach her goal and let the dream of medical school slowly slip away. I had recently taken the MCAT, and applications were due soon. Unemployed and struggling to find a job, I decided to take a gamble. With no knowledge of my MCAT score, I proceeded to submit my medical school application. I refused to be another statistic, for both of us Elias. I wanted to do better for you. After getting that call from UC Davis, as they say, the rest is history.

2. Resilience. As much as I enjoy medicine, medical school just had a way of pushing the boundaries and questioning my capabilities. It is easy to lose sight of your purpose when you are stuck in a classroom all day, in front of books all night, and no patient in sight. I remember the many sleepless nights. After putting you to bed, I would quickly run back to the books sometimes until 3 or 4 a.m. And even as prepared as I thought I was, there were moments when those exams just did not reflect the time and effort I invested. I became frustrated and disillusioned, struggling through the first of many board exams, while being away from you.

When one of my school deans asked, It seems that parenting and medical school are just too stressful right now, had you ever considered nursing or PA school? I was immediately offended. I quickly responding with a firm no. The last time I remember wanting to quit, I was a freshman in college. Your Tito (Abuelito) would have none of it. He said, This is exactly what you wanted. The only way you can come back to this house, is with a graduation diploma.

I thank your Tito for that early lesson, it reminds me to keep being peskily persistent. I push forward to set an example for you, to let you know that you can dream big and make it, you just got to put in the work. I am happy to say, that same dean hoping to raise doubt, will be hooding me in May. Ill make sure to send a huge smile his way.

3. Strength in your vulnerability. I would not be here today without a colleague helping me get back on track, a friend pulling me aside to chat, or a mentor simply telling me Si Se Puede, Karina! Yes, you can! I was reminded Elias, about the power that lies in our struggle when I mustered up the courage to share our story at a prehealth conference. A young premed approached me after the workshop, and she began to cry. I learned that she was in community college, also raising a son, wanting to go to medical school, but that she had not come across anyone like her.

This experience taught me that my story is not necessarily unique. Rather, these are stories that are often left untold. There is strength in sharing your vulnerability with others, and that you might just have a profound impact on someone without even knowing it. Having the courage to tell your story often leads you to find that in those feelings of inadequacy, disappointment, and letdowns, you are not alone. Throughout the years I have met many variations of Karinas, either a premed student or a colleague in medical school, and just as someone reached out to me, Ive always made a point to pay it forward.

Our journey Elias has not been quite the linear one. It has had its fair share of ups and downs, setbacks and delays. Yet I am extremely grateful for getting this far in life, and I would not have it any other way, because each and every experience has shaped us into who we are now.

So next time I pick you up, glance over at the unchanged speedometer, the red tail lights beaming back at us, while your favorite Michael Jackson song is heard in the background, and you ask, Ya mero llegamos I will smile back at you through the rear-view mirror and say, Si mijo, WE made it!

Karina Chavez is a medical student.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Walk or run for Pieta House on Saturday, May 6 in Kilkenny as part of Darkness into Light.

Join the global movement against suicide which helps many local families touched by tragedy.

Now in its ninth year, Darkness Into Light (DIL)  supported by Electric Ireland  will start on Saturday, May 6 at 4.15am at James Stephens' Military Barracks in the city.

Support the great work bring done by Pieta House while walking or running the 5km route.

DIL is changing the perception of suicide, self-harm and mental health.

The walk brings families of bereaved by suicide together and also lets anyone at risk of suicide know there is support.

Despite such a sombre cause the event itself is hopeful, uplifting and inspiring.

Kilkenny will host its fourth event and last year 5,000 participants joined to share the message of hope.

James Stephens Barracks play a vital role in hosting DIL. This year Captain. Alan Rockett is enthusiastic about providing a well run event while the OPW have kindly agreed to Light up Kilkenny Castle yellow for DIL. The Kilkenny Gospel Choir will provide the dawn chorus. This years 5km route incorporates the new bridge.

Warren McCreery Auctioneers will have a pop up shop in No. 8 Market Cross shopping Centre (formerly Kosmos Acupuncture).

So for this year, do come in and register in person and/or collect your T Shirt on the below dates from 11am - 5.30pm; Friday, April 21; Saturday, April 22; Thursday, April 27; Friday, April 28; Saturday, April 28; Thursday, may 4 and Friday, May 5 (closing 5pm)

Children up to the age of 12 go free but must register. If they want a T Shirt it will cost E3.50. Adults(18+) cost E25, Seniors/students & Unemployed cost E15.

DIL supported by Electric Ireland, takes place Sat May 6th. To Register visit www.darknessintolight.ie
The university has had an honors program for several years, but had to get approval from ABOR before moving into an honors college.

According to NAUs newsletter, the college will be housed in a new 204,656-square-foot building at the corner of University and Knoles drives. The building will cost approximately $58.6 million to build, said NAU spokesperson Kim Ott. American Campus Community, the same company building the SkyView dorm, is building the new honors college. American Campus will run the residential part of the building and NAU will reimburse the company for the upgrades to the infrastructure and the academic portion of the building, once it is finished. The university hopes to open the new building in the fall of 2018.
By Yoon Ja-young



Ahn Cheol-soo, presidential candidate of the People's Party, appointed Byeon Yang-ho, a former ranking official at the finance ministry, as a special economic adviser. Byeon had been helping South Chungcheong Province Governor An Hee-jung, who was defeated in the primary elections of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea.



The People's Party noted in a media release, "Byeon has had key roles in economic and financial policymaking, serving with the government until 2005. He led the development of Korea's finance sector."



"During the Asian financial crisis, he worked as director of the international finance bureau, contributing to restructuring the financial industry and helping the country overcome the crisis," it added.



After passing the exam to become a high-level government official in 1975, Byeon built a career as an elite official. He served as an economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and headed the financial policy bureau at the finance ministry. He also headed the Financial Intelligence Unit.



When the country was hit by the Asian financial crisis in 1997, he led many privatization projects of state-owned businesses, including the troubled Korea Exchange Bank (KEB). The bank was sold to the U.S. buyout fund Lone Star Funds in 2003, but the deal later put him in legal trouble.



He spent 292 days in prison on charges of selling the bank at a lower than market value, until an appeals court ruled that he was not guilty.



The case gave birth to so-called "Byeon Yang-ho syndrome," where mid-and high level government officials shun working on controversial projects. They avoid taking the initiative over fears that they could later be involved in lawsuits.



Byeon established Vogo Fund in 2005, the country's first private equity fund, where he currently serves as an adviser. The party also noted his contribution there.



According to a media report, Ahn recently visited Byeon in person to ask him to be his economic adviser. Ahn is especially seeking advice for problems such as surging household debt, restructuring of the shipbuilding sector and concerns over a trade conflict with the United States.



According to the People's Party, Ahn hopes that including Byeon in his camp will give a positive signal to government officials so that they will be able to overcome the "syndrome" and take the lead in their work.



"Ahn has been setting up concrete plans for fair growth, a social safety net, and economic revitalization led by the private sector. For this, he reached a consensus with Byeon," the party said.




By Park Si-soo



A North Korean attempt to launch a missile on Sunday morning has failed, South Korea's defense ministry said.

"North Korea attempted to test an unidentified type of missile from the Sinpo area in South Hamkyong Province at 6:20 a.m., but we suspect the missile blew up almost immediately upon its launch," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it was analyzing the test for further details. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the botched launch.

In a statement, U.S. Pacific Command's spokesman Cmdr. Dave Benham said it "detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch."

He added, "U.S. Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security."




By Park Si-soo



Tensions surrounding the Korean Peninsula are extreme, with no immediate sign of easing. North Korea has made it clear it will respond tit-for-tat to aggressive U.S. moves by firing a missile on Sunday morning, although the launch failed dismally.

The geopolitical crisis is expected to face a critical juncture this week as U.S. Vice President Mike Pence makes a three-day visit to Seoul from Sunday afternoon, during which he will discuss a possible breakthrough with his South Korean counterpart, Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn.

Against this backdrop, a senior journalist here has raised startling claims that secret talks had begun between the U.S. and North Korea in New York to end the crisis.












Won Ok-kum was named an honorary mayor of Seoul in October 2016. / Courtesy of Won Ok-kum



By Kim Ji-soo

Nguyen Ngoc Cam smiled broadly as she pulled out three name cards from her purse on meeting this reporter _ one for her role as an honorary mayor of Seoul, one for her role as president of the translation and interpretation company Dong Hanh, and the third for her role as a representative of Vietnam Community in Seoul. The latter is a group representing the interests of Vietnamese people in the greater Seoul area.

Nguyen also has a Korean name, Won Ok-kum.

At her office in Mangwon-dong, northwestern Seoul, April 5, the vivacious mother of two children was in the midst of a meeting with fellow Vietnamese Trieu Van Manh. Trieu had just been released from a detention center at Incheon International Airport, 20 days after the Korean company he worked for, a construction firm, had illegally cancelled his work contract.

With interpretation and translation help from Won, Trieu was released from detention and will start work with the same employer.

This is what Won does a lot these days _ helping Vietnamese people in Korea who are caught in a legal conundrum for one reason or another.

As head of Vietnam Community, Won has been tapped to help Moon Jae-in, the presidential candidate of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea, work with a group of female advisers on policies for women. This is not the first time she has worked with Moon; she participated in his first presidential bid in 2012. Moon is currently enjoying the lead over the four other candidates for the May 9 presidential election. They are Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor liberal People's Party; Yoo Seong-min of the Bareun Party, Hong Joon-pyo of Liberty Korea Party and Sim Sang-jung of the opposition Justice Party.

All candidates have a group of advisers, but Moon has several that focus on specific issues. And having an advisory group on women's issues seems fitting. Even though Korea has seen significant progress in women's rights in recent years, women here, who comprise half the voters, still face more challenges regarding housework, marriage and other social norms.

"I would like to propose a fairer distribution of welfare benefits across a range of foreign residents in Korea," Won said. There are an estimated 2.1 million foreign residents in Seoul, about 1.1 million of whom are women. But welfare benefits are currently given to only 280,000 people mainly in multicultural families, she said.

"But there is a far larger number of people who come to Korea to study, live and work, and we should build counseling centers for these people too," she said. She also recommended providing other benefits to foreign residents and their families, such as expanding government subsidies for their children.

She joined the group that includes a wide range of women experts in various fields including Choi Gyeong-sook, the former chief of an anti-nuclear group; Pi Woo-jin, the nation's first female military helicopter pilot; and Choi Hyeong-sook, chief of Intree, a group that supports single mothers and others.

The advisory group met on April 2 at a cafe in Mapo, Seoul, during which each member presented her policy recommendations. Moon did not come, but Won hopes to meet him in person.

As a Vietnamese married to a Korean, Won sees similarities between Moon's work as a human rights lawyer and the causes she promotes for Vietnamese residents in Korea.

Won is originally from Dong Nai in Vietnam. She met her Korean husband while he was working on a construction site in Vietnam where she was serving as an interpreter. They got married, and she came to Korea in 1997.

"Twenty years, I have been living in Korea," she said, smiling broadly. Asked on the top challenges she faced adjusting to a new life in Korea, she paused for a while before saying cautiously, "I experienced prejudice. It was prejudice either in the form of people ignoring me because I was a foreigner, or by speaking to me in banmal,'" Won said, referring the casual form of speech in Korean that is in contrast to the polite form people usually use when meeting someone for the first time or speaking to someone older.

She said she didn't mention this experience at the Sunday meeting of female advisers. However, she has been working with foreign residents' groups to have an anti-prejudice law legislated.

"(The anti-prejudice law) won't just be about the foreign residents in Seoul, but any group that is in the minority, including gender minority groups and others," she said.

Won said she has always been an active even back in Vietnam. After arriving in Seoul, she majored in law at Korea National Open University, where she graduated in February 2011. She then pursued graduate studies in judicial affairs at the Graduate School of Public Administration at Konkuk University in Seoul, where she graduated in August 2013. She has done a lot of interpretation work in courts. For instance, the week of the interview, she was at the Labor Court, and on Thursday, she headed to Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, where she will interpret for victims in sexual assault cases.

She had experienced hardship and insecurity for much of her first 15 years in Korea, and she said money, though important, was not the main factor in her decision to do interpretation work. "Now, people see me as a role model, and I like being involved," she said. The Vietnam Community in Seoul was launched in 2014, and while there are other such community groups, this one is considered to have been set up "early" among the foreign residents in Korea, she said.

Can we expect to see her become the next foreign-born National Assembly lawmaker, following former ruling party lawmaker Jasmine Lee, who is from the Philippines?

"No, I think I am too under-qualified," she said.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea on Sunday for a high-stakes three-day visit to reaffirm the robust security alliance and warn against North Korea's possible provocations, Seoul officials said.



Right after touching down at a U.S. air base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, Pence visited South Korea's national cemetery in Seoul, a symbolic gesture to highlight the alliance forged during the 1950-53 Korean War.



"Pence laid a wreath for veterans at Seoul National Cemetery and honored those who sacrificed their lives for our two countries," the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said in a tweet.



The visit to South Korea, his first Asian trip since his inauguration in January, came amid rising tensions here. Pyongyang has been seen preparing for another nuclear test while Washington has sent an aircraft carrier strike group to waters off the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against the wayward regime.



Before his arrival, the communist state further ramped up its saber-rattling by displaying three intercontinental ballistic missiles during a military parade Saturday and launching a missile early Sunday, which ended in failure.



After his visit to the cemetery, Pence met with U.S. troops in Seoul to celebrate Easter Day.



"Pence enjoyed an Easter service and fellowship meal with his family, U.S.-ROK servicemen, and their family members," the embassy said in a tweet. ROK is the acronym for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.



On Monday, the vice president, the highest-ranking official of the Trump administration to visit Seoul, was scheduled to meet South Korea's Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun.



During his meeting with Hwang, the two sides are expected to discuss bilateral cooperation in pressuring Pyongyang into changing tack toward denuclearization through sanctions and diplomacy, observers said.



Pence is also likely to explain to Hwang the Trump administration's North Korea policy. The Associated Press has reported, citing unidentified U.S. officials, that Washington would focus on "maximum pressure and engagement" to induce the North to denuclearize.



The U.S. has indicated it could take a more aggressive approach to the North, as it has recently flexed its military muscle in Syria and Afghanistan. On April 7, the U.S. struck a Syrian air base to punish the Bashar al-Assad regime for a suspected chemical attack. Less than a week later, it dropped a massive bomb on an Islamic State complex in Afghanistan.



During their talks, Hwang and Pence are also expected to discuss the ongoing installation of a U.S. missile defense system on the peninsula. They may reaffirm the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system and call on Beijing to stop its economic retaliation against South Korea, observers said.



After their meeting, the two will release a statement, which is expected to warn the North against provocations and highlight the unwavering alliance.



Pence's schedule here includes a visit to the Demilitarized Zone bisecting the peninsula and a speech at a meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.



In recent months, a series of top U.S. officials have visited South Korea amid concerns that security cooperation between the allies could slacken in the wake of the March 10 ouster of former President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal.



U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson traveled to Seoul in February and March, respectively, to highlight that Washington's commitment to the defense of South Korea will remain "ironclad."



Pence will depart for Japan on Tuesday. His trip will also take him to Indonesia and Australia. (Yonhap)




Former President Park Geun-hye is seen in a vehicle taking her to the Seoul Detention Center, after the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for her on charges including bribery, March 31. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



By Kim Rahn

Former President Park Geun-hye spent her first two nights in prison not in an inmate cell but in the correctional officers' night-duty room, because her cell was being "remodeled."

People have criticized the fact that she still enjoys privileges even though she was removed from office because of a massive corruption scandal, with critics saying the correctional authority's special treatment is a clear violation of the law.

According to legal sources, Friday, Park arrived at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, at 4:45 a.m. on March 31 after a local court issued an arrest warrant.

After a simple health check and changing into a prison uniform, she was supposed to be put in the 10-square-meter simple cell, but she slept in the night-duty room for two days while her cell was being "upgraded."

According to the law, inmates at the detention center stay in simple cells, but they be put with other inmates in a larger room when no single cells are available, or in other special circumstances.

"There can't be an exception even for Park or her confidant Choi Soon-sil," a local daily quoted a former detention center head as saying. "All inmates should sleep in cells, and staying in the night-duty room is a serious violation of the rules."

He said that if there was a problem with an inmate's cell, they should be moved to another single cell or to a larger room for multiple inmates.

While it was reported initially that Park refused to enter the cell saying the room was dirty and demanding new wallpaper, detention center officials said they needed to remodel the cell to prevent her from meeting other inmates and to set up necessary security systems.

"We needed to keep her separately from other inmates due to security for the former president," an official said. "We thought it was improper to put her in a large room with other inmates, so we temporarily provided the night-duty room."

He added that Park did not demand new wallpaper, but officials decided to hang it because the cell had not undergone maintenance work since 2013.

Critics say it is wrong to provide special conditions for Park, who caused considerable trouble through unprecedented large-scale corruption and who still denies all allegations even after her impeachment.

"It is ridiculous that this person, who has received privileges her whole life, enjoys privileges even in prison," said an internet user, named wan****. "The correctional authority officials should be punished as well for providing favors that are illegal."
By Jun Ji-hye



Presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo of the liberal People's Party is recruiting figures who used to be close to centrist or even conservative politicians, in an effort to attract voters from across the political spectrum.



He announced a set of people who will help his campaign for the May 9 election, Friday.



They include former lawmakers Lee Sang-il and Park Sang-gyu who are close to former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who dropped out of the presidential race in early February. Lee served as a special adviser on political affairs for Ban's campaign team, while Park is a native of the Chungcheong provinces, Ban's home turf.



In the lead-up to the 2012 presidential race, Lee also served as a spokesman for former President Park Geun-hye, who was then the presidential candidate of the Saenuri Party, the predecessor of the Liberty Korea Party.



Lee and Park will serve as advisers, according to party Chairman Rep. Park Jie-won.



The recruitment is expected to help Ahn further absorb centrist and center-right supporters previously headed to Ban. On April 9, members of Ban's fan club, called "Firefly," announced their support for Ahn.



Ahn also said earlier that if he is elected, he would appoint Ban as a special envoy for foreign affairs for talks with the U.S. and China over the North Korea nuclear weapons issue.



Ahn's camp is also trying to recruit Kim Deog-ryong, a senior conservative figure who used to be one of the closest aides to former President Kim Young-sam. He also served as a special adviser for national integration to former President Lee Myung-bak.



Kim Deog-ryong was excluded from Friday's final list, though the name was initially included in the draft.



Rep. Park said, "Conversations between Kim and Ahn are ongoing. Kim said he needed some time to clean up his surroundings. He will make a decision very soon."



In the 2012 race, Kim Deog-ryong declared his support for Moon Jae-in, presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and Ahn's formidable rival.



Moon's camp is also attempting to recruit him, along with former President Kim's son Hyun-chul.



Ahn's recruitment also included Kim Choong-jo, a former five-term lawmaker who is from the Honam region which refers to Gwangju and North and South Jeolla provinces. In the liberal forces' traditional home turf, both Ahn and Moon have gained support, and the recruitment of Kim Choong-jo may help increase support for Ahn there.



Byeon Yang-ho, a former finance ministry official who helped the DPK's former contender An Hee-jung set up economic policy, also joined Ahn's camp.



Other figures include Kim Dang, a former chief editor of the liberal online media, Ohmynews; Lim Hong-jae, a former Korean ambassador to Vietnam; and Lee Bong-won, a former chief of Korea Military Academy.




By Na Jeong-ju



Former Kia Tigers manager Kim Sung-han joined the campaign team of leading presidential candidate Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea, Sunday.



The former slugger, 59, said he would help Moon's campaign in North Jeolla Province as co-chairman of Moon's regional campaign office.



"I want to become a voice of hope for Moon, who has represented ordinary citizens," Kim said in a statement. "I will help Moon make the province wealthier."



Kim was Kia Tigers manager from 2000 to 2004 after a successful 14-year career as first baseman and designated hitter.



He hit the most home runs in the Korean professional league three times.




By Jhoo Dong-chan



The Chinese government's trade retaliation against Korea over the planned deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here has dealt a severe blow to domestic duty free stores' sales.



China's travel ban to Korea started affecting the nation's duty free stores last month as their sales have depended heavily on Chinese tourists.



According to the Korea Customs Service, Sunday, sales at domestic duty free stores recorded 1.05 trillion won ($927 million) last month, down 245.7 billion won, or 18.8 percent, from the previous month.



Duty free stores here had been seeing a sales boom in the first two months of the year, posting 1.14 trillion in January and 1.35 trillion in February.



The decline in domestic duty free stores' sales was attributed to the Chinese government's decision to prohibit selling group tour packages to Korea, which was implemented March 15. Market observers say sales of domestic duty free stores are expected to further worsen this month.



The nation's major duty free stores including Lotte Duty Free say they suffered a nosedive in sales since the de facto travel ban to Korea was implemented.



Lotte Duty Free, the nation's largest and the world's third-largest duty free retailer, says its sales declined by more than 30 percent following the ban.



Company officials say they expected to see its largest sales decline since it suffered its first drop in 2003 when the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) broke out in China.



The government then prevented Chinese tourists from traveling to Korea, and sales of Lotte Duty Free fell 16.6 percent in that year from a year ago.



About 60 to 80 percent of local duty free sales come from purchases by Chinese tourists.



Other tourists from Japan and Southeast Asian contribute to about 5 percent of sales, local duty free stores say.



Retail giants Shinsegae and Hyundai Department Store won licenses to operate duty free stores from the government last December.



But they are considering plans to push back their openings.



"We were set to open our duty free store in December," said a Shinsegae official.



"However, given that the government is allowing us to put off the opening to next year, we are considering all options."








Since its so fashionable these days to question whether government can do anything right  whether its regulating banks, bolstering the economy or overseeing healthcare  its worth noting that were about to celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of the most important federal initiatives of our time.

The event was the launch of the Internet, which we date from Oct. 29, 1969, when a refrigerator-sized special-purpose computer in Leonard Kleinrocks engineering lab at UCLA transmitted its first message to a twin machine in Menlo Park, Calif. (The message was the first two letters of the command Login.)

That was the first exchange over what was then known as the ARPAnet, which evolved, after many intermediate steps, into what we know today as the Internet.

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The ARPAnet had been hatched many years earlier in the mind of a Pentagon research official named Robert W. Taylor. We should begin the story with him, because his role reminds us that sometimes private enterprise isnt always up to the task of advancing technological progress, and sometimes even gets in the way. Then its crucial for the government to step in.

Taylor, now 77, isnt known to the public. But his name is a byword in computer science and networking, where hes regarded as one of the most important figures in the fields history.

Thats not only because of his role in creating the Internet but because of what he did after leaving the Pentagon: He moved to Xeroxs Palo Alto Research Center, the legendary PARC, where he oversaw the engineering team responsible for such inventions as the personal computer, Ethernet (a local networking system, for you non-geeks out there), and the visual computer display.

I first met Taylor 10 years ago, when he became the central figure in a book I was writing about PARC. He was outspoken, uncompromising and visionary then, and he still is, as he showed an audience honoring him last week at the University of Texas, his alma mater.

As the chief of the information technology office at the Defense Departments Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in 1966, Taylor demanded that the computer research projects he was funding around the country learn to talk to one another.

Taylor was deeply frustrated that while his researchers were in constant communication with one another coast to coast, their computers labored in mutual unintelligibility. Terminals cluttered his own office  one to interact with his government-funded computer project at Berkeley, another to speak to MIT, and so on. By the end of the year, he had secured a $1-million appropriation for the design and construction of a network that would seamlessly interconnect MIT, Berkeley and other university research computers nationwide.

Taylor foresaw that the network he ordered up would evolve beyond an administrative convenience. In a 1968 paper entitled The Computer as a Communication Device, co-written with his ARPA mentor, a transplanted MIT scientist named J.C.R. Licklider, he foresaw its development into a public utility.

Forty years on, that remarkable paper reads like a work of clairvoyance. In a few years, it began, men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face. It forecast that the network would provide some services for which youd subscribe on a regular basis, like investment advice, and others that you would call for when you need them, like dictionaries and encyclopedias. Communicating online, it concluded, will be as natural an extension of individual work as face-to-face communication is now. Sound familiar?

Taylor tried to interest private industry in his project, but the companies he approached dismissed the idea. IBM told him its computers already talked to one another, completely missing his point that their computers should talk to everyone elses.

AT&T, then the monopoly proprietor of the phone system over which the network would operate, fought Taylors project tooth and nail, contending that the networks packet switching technology (a method of transmitting data in discrete blocks) wouldnt work on its phone lines and might even damage them. Packet switching remains the Internets governing technology to this day.

His experience underscores the importance of a government role in fields like basic research, which profit-seeking enterprises tend to shun.

Industry generally avoids long-term research because it entails risk, the veteran computer scientist Ed Lazowska told Congress a few years ago. Why? Because its hard to predict the results of such research, and since it has to be published and publicly validated, corporations cant capitalize on their investments in isolation.

Yet once the research reaches a certain point, private industry piles in  Lazowska cited a National Research Council list of 19 multibillion-dollar industries that had been incubated with federal funding, generally via university grants  including the Internet, Web browsers and cellphones  before becoming commercially viable. Taylors ARPAnet was eventually turned over to the National Science Foundation, which in 1991 opened what was then known as NSFnet to commercial exploitation. Four years later, the dot-com boom was underway.

The real world brims with other examples. No private company would have made the investment to build a toll-free interstate highway system, yet who can deny that the cheap large-scale movement of goods coast-to-coast on capacious roadways is a crucial lubricant of our economy?

Healthcare? Private insurance companies have demonstrated over the last decade that they cant be expected to cover the entire community at an affordable price  the realities of the free market mandate that each one cherry-pick the healthiest (read most profitable) risks, and hope its rivals get stuck with the higher-priced clientele. Take the government out of the equation, whether as regulator or competitor, and they will continue to pursue their own interests, not yours and mine.

Taylor also believes that, despite the Webs successful commercialization, it may be time for the government to play a stronger role. The corporations making billions of dollars from the Web havent done their part to build up its capacity, so a shortage looms as customers increasingly use the network for bandwidth-hogging tasks like downloading movies. Instead, service providers are plotting to profiteer from the bandwidth scarcity by hiking user fees.

The telecommunications industry has promised us for years that if we only let them raise prices and do mergers, theyd increase bandwidth, Taylor said this week. They havent kept their promise.

He thinks the proper model for the Internet, given its critical role in our lives today, is as a taxpayer-supported service available to everybody, rich or poor, at no charge.

Both notions spring from his experience witnessing the interaction of government and private enterprise. What he learned then he still believes.

The idea that private industry can always do something better than the government is false and sad and divisive, Taylor observed at the University of Texas event. People should know better.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

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One of the countrys biggest apartment developers is working on plans for a grand residential complex in downtown Los Angeles that includes what appears to be an ordinary garage.

There will be row upon row of lined stalls at street level and two floors underground to store nearly 1,000 cars of tenants and visitors to the trendy Arts District, where parking is relentlessly hard to find.

But when its completed in about four years, the ample garage will be one of the first of its kind in Los Angeles: Its designed to eventually serve other uses.

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AvalonBay Communities Inc. has planned the garage for a time when ride-sharing services such as Uber and self-driving taxis whittle down car ownership until parking places become expendable.

That might mean its level rather than inclined floors common to many garages could someday be converted into shops, a gym and a theater.

Our world is going to change radically and we are going to be alive to see it. Its not a generation away, its 10 years away, said Los Angeles architect Andy Cohen, who is not involved with the project but has created a presentation he gives to clients about the architectural implications of the transportation revolution.

AvalonBay is not the only real estate developer that has bought into the idea. Rick Caruso, the owner of the Grove and other upscale shopping centers, is working with Google to prepare for the arrival of self-driving cars and is looking forward to eventually swapping mall parking spaces for apartments, restaurants and stores.

The strategy reflects a consensus among some developers and planners that Californias vaunted car culture is inevitably going to run out of gas  as inconceivable as that might be for many adults who have spent decades controlling their own destiny behind the wheel.

Cohen, co-chief executive of architecture firm Gensler, predicts car ownership will peak around 2020 and then start to decline, with more Americans relying on some form of ride-sharing than their own vehicles by 2025.

That means cars gradually would disappear from home garages, curbs and parking structures, freeing up acre upon acre of real estate for new uses.

One of the great changes in the next 20 years is going to be redevelopment of parking garages, said Christopher Leinberger, chairman of the Center for Real estate & Urban Analysis at George Washington University.

There is a lot to work with: About 500 million parking spaces serve this nation of nearly 326 million people, according to Gensler. Parking infrastructure covers an estimated 3,590 square miles, an area larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

The public is already fascinated with the race to perfect self-driving cars, which would free up garage space even if most Americans were to own one of the new high-tech vehicles.

A car could drop off a couple at the front door of their apartment building and then disappear into a garage untrammeled by wandering humans where vehicles delicately park themselves inches apart. The total amount of garage space needed to maneuver and park a car would be more than cut in half, Leinberger said

But he expects self-driving cars to become commodities, not possessions. People will summon them only when they need them, so the rate of car ownership should drop drastically, he predicts.

Cars will be wandering the city 24-7, so you dont need to own one, Leinberger said. You just rent it as you need it.

How cities would look and function if far fewer people owned cars is impossible to say, however, so the best real estate developers can do now is start hedging their bets.

Residential landlord AvalonBay has been expanding the number of electric-car charging stations in apartment complexes it is building in West Hollywood and Hollywood and making prominent drop-off points for ride sharing.

But it has far more dramatic car-related ideas for the 475-unit apartment complex it is planning for downtown L.A.

The Virginia-based company, which operates nearly 84,000 apartments in 10 states, is beginning to plan for a future with fewer  and autonomous  cars.

Were just starting to do this as a company on a nationwide level, said Mark Janda, senior vice president of development.

Preliminary concepts for the Arts District project set to start construction in 2019 presume that demand for parking will fall in years ahead.

Garage floors are typically slanted to eliminate the need for ramps, but AvalonBay will make these floors flat so that they can more easily be repurposed when parking demand dips.

Janda envisions portions of the two levels of underground parking being converted to a gym, a theater and perhaps other recreational uses when cars can park themselves two or three deep in tighter spaces.

The first floor could be reconfigured to plug in more shops and restaurants and enable smooth and constant pick-ups and drop-offs.

We are designing it so in the future, if demand for parking decreases dramatically, we have the flexibility to go back to the city and ask for additional entitlements to change uses from parking to whatever, Janda said.

Cohen, the L.A. architect, advised that garages on the drawing board also have higher-than-normal ceilings  up to 13 feet  to accommodate future uses such as offices. He also would place elevators and stairs in the middle the way they are in offices. And he would put what he calls knock-out panels in the ceiling and floors to create future light wells.

The exterior design cannot be an afterthought too, he said. If the garage is above ground with offices above, it has to look like the rest of the building so windows can be added after the conversion.

But dont expect that developers today will start constructing projects without a garage, Janda said.

People in California still rely on their cars and expect to be able to park them, he said.

For that matter, despite what some believe is the inevitability of a transportation revolution, many builders are reluctant to pay for flexibility until changes in driving habits are more pronounced, said Los Angeles real estate attorney Justin Thompson of Nixon Peabody.

A lot of developers may think, Well, thats going to be on the back burner for a while, Thompson said, but the progressive developers are going to factor this in.

Shoppers at the Grove wait for Uber and Lyft rides in a designated zone on the east side of the property. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Shopping center magnate Caruso counts himself among the more progressive. He said he is committed to spending millions of dollars preparing for autonomous cars, and hes already working with a division of Google called Intersection to improve the arrival and departure experience at his high-end developments.

Intersection is developing technology that integrates beams, sensors, license-plate recognition and phone apps that can radically improve the experience, he said.

When the concierge knows you are about to arrive, he might mix a cup of coffee the way you like it to hand to you as you alight. The goal, Caruso said, is to make coming and going to the shopping center as frictionless as possible.

Hes already experienced the changes wrought by Silicon Valley.

The Grove, in L.A.s Fairfax district, is one of the citys busiest Uber destinations, Caruso said, with thousands of people arriving and departing every day at the malls designated ride-sharing point.

This popularity of ride sharing has convinced him that more big changes in driving habits are coming as autonomous cars gain a share of the auto market.

He expects that between ride sharing and autonomous cars he might have to start converting his parking garages to other uses as soon as 2025 or 2030.

Surface parking lots at his suburban malls such as the Promenade at Westlake and the Commons at Calabasas could turn from asphalt into verdant mixed-use complexes with apartments, offices and more stores and restaurants.

The big garages at the Grove and Americana at Brand in Glendale could see the addition of grocery stores and other retail outlets on the ground floors.

As you go above that, it gets more complicated, he acknowledged. The towering garages may become obsolete and have to come down and be replaced.

While the prospect of dramatic changes in the way people get around stirs the blood of developers like Caruso, the anticipated years-long transition period to widespread autonomous vehicle use holds some dread for the general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, Seleta Reynolds.

I think its going be very chaotic, she said.

This isnt a fleeting moment, some interesting blip that will come and go. This will change traffic in L.A. in a very positive way.  Rick Caruso, owner of the Grove

Falling parking fees and fines could take a big bite out of public budgets and landlords income, Reynolds said. And the time period when a vehicle drives itself until a human intervenes is probably going to be the worst, but that is a place we are going to have to muddle through.

Other challenges and technical improvements loom to be worked out, Reynolds said. If cars know where they are going, do streets still need curbs? Perhaps some streets could be electronically closed after rush hour and used for recreation.

We should be focusing on strong neighborhoods and social cohesion, Reynolds said. Thats the promise of autonomy if were really able to get it right.

Caruso dismisses skeptics who say Angelenos will never quit driving their own vehicles  and that ride sharing and autonomous cars are just a passing fancy.

This isnt a fleeting moment, some interesting blip that will come and go, he said. This will change traffic in L.A. in a very positive way.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

roger.vincent@latimes.com

Twitter: @rogervincent

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A door dominates the backdrop of Lucas Hnaths A Dolls House, Part 2, which picks up the story 15 years after Henrik Ibsens landmark drama ends. This is the door that Nora slammed (famously now, infamously in the 19th century), leaving behind her husband and three young children in a quest to forge an identity as a human being apart from her role as wife and mother.

No door slam in the history of the theater has been so consequential. Noras momentous exit startled audiences and critics with its defiance of respectable societal and theatrical conventions. The prevailing laws of melodrama permitted the character two options: death or reconciliation. The iconoclastic Norwegian playwright, a founding father of modern realism, tested out a more radical truth.

Ibsens daring, enraging to conservative detractors, galvanized those on the forefront of the battle for gender equality. Ibsen denied that he was writing a feminist tract (to me it has been a question of human rights), but the play marks a watershed in the way women were represented onstage. Sexist stereotypes didnt end after the 1879 premiere, but a consciousness was awakened in the theater as the drama was debated all across Europe and eventually throughout much of the world.

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Hnath isnt the first to try his hand at a sequel. (A Dolls Life, a misguided 1982 musical imagining what happened to Nora after she left her cozy domestic prison, quickly died on Broadway.) But he is the only one to my knowledge who has had any success.

A Dolls House, Part 2, which is receiving its world premiere at South Coast Repertory in a quietly gripping production directed by Shelley Butler, is smart, compact and stirring. The play, which opens next week on Broadway in a different production, seems destined to have a life as a puissant postscript to Ibsens masterwork.

Hnath, a rising playwriting talent, has arranged his work as a series of duologues. Those who saw his play The Christians (at the Mark Taper Forum in 2015) will recognize certain stylistic continuities in the intellectualized treatment  the way the drama unfolds as an evolving argument, kaleidoscopically shifting as new information and points of view are added.

As a character enters for a tete-a-tete, his or her name is projected onto Takeshi Kata and Se Hyun Ohs elegantly abstract set, which consists mostly of a few chairs that are rearranged for each new encounter. Nothing is permitted to obstruct our view of perspectives that are still violently in collision. Age may bring humility, but ingrained patterns of thought are difficult to change.

Plays of ideas can sometimes lack heart, but A Dolls House, Part 2 has an emotional generosity. Bad productions of Ibsens play portray Nora as the victimized heroine and her husband, Torvald, as a chauvinistic monster, but Hnath sees them as Ibsen did  as a woman and a man stunted by a system that deprives them of a partnership based on love and mutuality.

Torvald (Bill Geisslinger), listening to Nora (Shannon Cochran) in A Dolls House, Part 2. (Debora Robinson / South Coast Repertory)

Nora necessarily occupies the center of this new drama. But it is to the credit of Hnaths playwriting that some of the most moving moments are focused on those family members still reeling from Noras fateful decision  Torvald (played with aching complexity by Bill Geisslinger) and the couples super controlled, quietly shattered daughter Emmy (sensitively brought to life by Virginia Vale).

Theres a quality of defiant grandeur to Shannon Cochrans Nora, who returns not with her tail between her legs but in an expensive red dress announcing that she has done just fine for herself, thank you very much. There were difficult years in the beginning, she tells Anne Marie (a delectably tart Lynn Milgrim), the old nanny who was not only a mother to her but also to the children she left behind.

But eventually, this notorious wife, who many assumed fell ill and died (an assumption not corrected by Torvald), found success as an author by writing a version of her own story under a pseudonym. The heroine of her tale meets a less happy ending  the only way Nora could get her book published  but her anti-marriage views have sparked a growing movement and made her independent and prosperous.

Contrivances are hard to avoid in a play of this sort, but the crisis that has brought Nora back (and any play inspired by Ibsen needs a good crisis) is effectively pulled off. A judge, angry at the anti-marriage message of Noras book, has discovered not only her real name but also a facet of her identity that she herself didnt know: Shes still married to Torvald, who never filed the divorce papers. The judge has threatened to expose her as a fraud if she doesnt renounce her views. She needs her husband to save her from possible jail time by properly divorcing her, but is Torvald, who hasnt remarried, ready to grant her this reprieve?

Hnath handles the melodramatic aspects of Noras return more convincingly than he does some of the behavioral details. But its the mind of the protagonist that interests the playwright most. Nora is defined here by her convictions, and as portrayed by Cochran, shes more public figure than private woman.

Cochran is capable of searing realism. (Her Obie-winning performance in Tracy Letts Bug was a master class in gritty stage acting.) But I occasionally longed for a more personalized interpretation of the character. The outline she has created is majestic, and there are moments of poignant reflection, as when Nora talks about that period after leaving Torvald when she needed to immerse herself in silence to finally hear the sound of her own voice. But insight is narrated rather than embodied.

Im curious to see what Laurie Metcalf does with the role in New York (Ill be reviewing her performance next week), but some of this distance seems written into the play. In picking up the argument of Ibsens drama, Hnath keeps the emotion tightly tethered to the intellectual journey. The result is never dryly abstract, however. Minds stretched to the breaking point can powerfully move us.

Theres something deeply affecting about the way Geisslingers Torvald listens to Nora  he wants to know her story, but he keeps getting lost in his own painful thoughts. His silences communicate brokenness as eloquently as the smiling restraint of Vales Emmy. The hushed desperation of these characters makes the sudden bursts of resentment from Milgrims Anne Marie, who swears like a character on HBO, all the more invigorating.

A central perception driving Hnaths play is that epiphanies of the kind that Nora had at the end of A Dolls House are just the starting point for revolutions. Nora sounds like a dreamy Chekhov character when she holds forth on how the patriarchal institution of marriage will be obsolete in the next 20 to 30 years. But her circumstances keep teaching her variations of the same lessons  that societal change is slow and never finished, that freedom entails loss and that relationships are imperfect because human beings are flawed even when theyre trying their hardest.

The world didnt change as much as I thought it would, Nora admits to Torvald. But shes not prepared to concede defeat. Hnath brings her noble fight to a new generation.

         

A Dolls House, Part 2

Where: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 7:45 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays; ends April 30

Cost: $33-$79

Info: (714) 708-5555, www.scr.org

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

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charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

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State legislative panels approve major funding boost for Cal State By Teresa Watanabe After months of intensive lobbying, Cal State University has convinced two key legislative panels to approve funding to enroll nearly 11,000 more students, hire more faculty and expand housing aid to those without shelter this fall. An Assembly budget panel on Tuesday approved $215.7 million more for Cal State, adding to Gov. Jerry Browns proposed $92.1 million general fund increase. A Senate budget panel approved a similar increase last week. The extra funding  which went beyond Cal States own request to the Legislature of $171 million  is still subject to final budget negotiations with Brown. But the actions by the Senate and Assembly panels amount to a demand from Democrats that the governor hike higher education spending. Cal State University is the workhorse undergraduate university serving hundreds of thousands of Californians, said Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), who heads the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance. We need more graduates for the California workforce and higher education is the ticket to the middle class. Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White hailed the actions, but said it was too soon to celebrate. The CSU has a singular focus on helping students earn high-quality degrees sooner, and the entire university community has rallied to reinforce that message to our states lawmakers, he said in a statement. The actions taken thus far by the Assembly and Senate are promising and show that our message is being received, but there is still work to be done. Funding for the University of California was not taken up Tuesday as originally scheduled. McCarty would not comment on sticking points but said he was confident that a resolution would be reached this week. Were looking to provide resources above whats in the governors budget, but negotiations are ongoing, he said in an interview. State per-student funding is not what it once was, leaving both Cal State and the UC in a tough financial squeeze. Both systems raised tuition last year after a six-year freeze on higher costs. For this year, Cal State had asked for funding to enroll an additional 3,621 students, but both the Senate and Assembly panels approved three times that amount. Cal State, the largest public university system in the nation, turned away 32,000 eligible students last year because its campuses werent able to accommodate them. The panels asked that at least $50 million of the extra funding be used to hire more tenure-track faculty to help boost graduation rates. The Assembly panel also approved one-time funding of $5 million to ease hunger on campuses and $14 million for rapid rehousing pilot projects at three campuses, offering needy students rental support and short-term case management. Other items approved include $5 million to support the CSU Long Beach Shark Labs research on sharks and beach safety and $2 million for equal employment opportunity practices. This post has been updated to include comments from Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White. Facebook

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Faculty members call for USC president to step down: He has lost the moral authority to lead By Matt Hamilton Two hundred USC professors on Tuesday demanded the resignation of university President C. L. Max Nikias, saying he had lost the moral authority to lead in the wake of revelations that a campus gynecologist was kept on staff for decades despite repeated complaints of misconduct. Read More Facebook

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Gun battle, negotiations lasted 15 minutes before Texas school shooter was apprehended, sheriff says By Molly Hennessy-Fiske Minutes after a school shooter opened fire in an art class last week, killing 10 people and wounding 13, including a local police officer, fellow officers returned fire in a protracted gun battle before isolating the suspect, the local sheriff said Monday. Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset praised first responders as well as Santa Fe Police Officer John Barnes, who was working as a resource officer at the school the day of the shooting. Their actions, he said, prevented the attack from spreading to other classrooms and potentially claiming additional victims. As officials continue to probe last Fridays shooting at Santa Fe High School, students are worried about returning to the scene of the attack when classes resume next week. Read More Facebook

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6 women sue USC, alleging they were victimized by campus gynecologist By Richard Winton Six women filed civil lawsuits Monday alleging that a longtime gynecologist at the University of Southern California sexually victimized them under the pretext of medical care and that USC failed to address complaints from clinic staff about the doctors behavior. One woman alleged Dr. George Tyndall forced his entire ungloved hand into her vagina during an appointment in 2003 while making vulgar remarks about her genitalia, according to one of the lawsuits. Another woman alleged that Tyndall groped her breasts in a 2008 visit and that later he falsely told her she likely had AIDS. A third woman accused the doctor of grazing his ungloved fingers over her nude body and leering at her during a purported skin exam, the lawsuit states. The wave of litigation comes as USC continues to grapple with the scandal, which legal experts said could prove costly to the university as scores of former patients come forward about their experiences with the gynecologist. Read More Facebook

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Fatalities reported in Texas high school shooting; suspect arrested, officials say By Associated Press Houston-area media citing unnamed law enforcement officials are reporting that there are fatalities following a shooting at a local high school Friday morning. Television station KHOU and the Houston Chronicle are citing unnamed federal, county and police officials following the shooting at Santa Fe High School, which went on lockdown around 8 a.m. The Associated Press has not been able to confirm the reports. The school district has confirmed an unspecified number of injuries but said it wouldnt immediately release further details. Assistant Principal Cris Richardson said a suspect has been arrested and secured. Read More Facebook

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This student followed the new L.A. schools chief on his first-day tour Melissa Barales-Lopez, a senior at Garfield High School followed Supt. Austin Beutner on his first day on the job, as he toured a variety of programs around the Los Angeles Unified School District. Heres what she took from the experience. LAUSD students and staff alike are looking for a personal champion, someone who will address and improve the difficulties afflicting their education.  What LAUSD students need is someone whos willing to listen and learn, someone who can understand the current issues affecting their schools and act to efficiently amend them, someone who can unlock the full potential of LAUSD students and enable them to reach their goals. During the entirety of his first day, superintendent Austin Beutner did indeed demonstrate a willingness to learn. Posing questions to teachers and students, Beutner engaged with the student communities he encountered to gain a better comprehension of the minutiae and nuances that distinguish each school inside an overwhelmingly large district. From inquiries about Grand View Boulevard Elementary Schools dual language program to questions regarding the services of LAUSDs after-school program, Beyond the Bell, Beutner revealed he has a lot to learn about the system. But, Beutner also showcased a willingness to tackle challenges head-on on his first day. Read More Facebook

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USC let a gynecologist continue treating students despite years of misconduct allegations By Matt Hamilton For nearly 30 years, the University of Southern Californias student health clinic had one full-time gynecologist: Dr. George Tyndall. Tall and garrulous with distinctive jet black hair, he treated tens of thousands of female students, many of them teenagers seeing a gynecologist for the first time. Few who lay down on Tyndalls exam table at the Engemann Student Health Center knew that he had been accused repeatedly of misconduct toward young patients. The complaints began in the 1990s, when co-workers alleged he was improperly photographing students genitals. In the years that followed, patients and nursing staff accused him again and again of creepy behavior, including touching women inappropriately during pelvic exams and making sexually suggestive remarks about their bodies. Read More Facebook

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Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

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On his first day as L.A. schools chief, Beutner plans a day of visits across the district By Howard Blume L.A. Unifieds new superintendent, Austin Beutner, will kick off his first day of work on Tuesday with a choreographed tour of the nations second-largest school district, from the San Fernando Valley to Carson. His day is scheduled to begin at 5:15 a.m. at a school bus depot and end more than 12 hours later at a parent meeting at Garfield High School. Along the way, Beutner is expected to be joined by school district administrators, L.A. Unified board members and the vice president of the union that represents school bus drivers. Though he will be covering a lot of ground, Beutners tour has him skipping Tuesdays school board meeting, when board members are expected to discuss labor negotiations in closed session. Read More Facebook

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Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

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Why a handful of rich charter school supporters are spending millions to elect Antonio Villaraigosa as governor By Ryan Menezes California voters have seen a barrage of sunny television ads in recent weeks touting former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosas record on finances, crime and education, aired by Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018. But the group is, in fact, largely funded by a handful of wealthy charter-school supporters. Together they have spent more than $13 million in less than a month to boost Villaraigosas chances in the June 5 primary  at a time when his fundraising and poll numbers are lagging. Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, jump-started the group with a $7-million check, by far the largest donation to support any candidate in the election. Their efforts are part of a broader proxy war among Democrats between teachers unions  longtime stalwarts of the party  and those who argue that the groups have failed low-income and minority schoolchildren. Read More Facebook

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Talking schools with L.A. Unifieds new superintendent By Anna M. Phillips Austin Beutner, who officially starts Tuesday as the new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is taking on a famously difficult job at a particularly difficult time. The school board is divided and did not back him unanimously. The nations second-largest school district has deep-seated problems, including declining enrollment, lagging academic achievement and rising pension and healthcare costs that eat away at its budget. The 58-year-old former investment banker and former L.A. Times publisher has years of experience in the financial world but none as an educator. Earlier this week, he sat down with the Times education team to discuss the challenges facing the district, which has about 60,000 employees and 500,000 students in traditional public schools. He did not talk about his plans  saying repeatedly, stay tuned  but he spoke in broad terms about his mindset in approaching the tough decisions ahead. Read More Facebook

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Suspect detained, authorities search campus after reports of armed man at Palmdale high school By James Queally One person has been detained after a report of an armed man at a Palmdale high school sparked a massive law enforcement response Friday morning. The suspect was spotted at 7:05 a.m. on the campus of Highland High School in Palmdale, according to Sheriffs Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida. The person was detained in a nearby parking lot, according to Nishida, who did not know whether that person was an adult or juvenile. Deputies at the scene are clearing the school methodically, and students will be transported home via school buses once the campus is deemed safe, Nishida said. Read More Facebook

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The education of Bertha Perez: How a UC Merced custodians disenchantment led to a political awakening By Robin Abcarian Its the third day of a three-day strike, and UC Merced custodian Bertha Perez is taking a break from a picket line at the universitys unremarkable entrance, an intersection with stop lights. Photos from other UC campuses this week have shown big crowds of striking service workers  members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees  marching and chanting pro-labor slogans as they try to force the University of California back to the negotiating table. But here, at UC Merced, whose handful of big buildings rise from a flat expanse of farmland, the picket line is tiny, maybe two dozen workers and a few students. Its not a big-city-style show of force. Then again, a union sympathizer is banging relentlessly on a snare drum, so its noisier than youd expect. Read More Facebook

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Ref Rodriguez resigns from teacher credentialing commission By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez appears during a court appearance. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez has resigned from the states Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which oversees the integrity and quality of Californias teachers. Rodriguez faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. Separately, his former employer, a charter school organization, has accused him of improperly authorizing checks to a nonprofit under his control. Rodriguez has denied wrongdoing. Rodriguezs resignation from the state body was effective May 4, days after he cast a crucial vote as part of a narrow majority that voted to authorize contract negotiations with Austin Beutner to become superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District. Beutners first official day on the job is Tuesday. Rodriguez remains in his $125,000-a-year position on the Los Angeles Board of Education. The mission of the state body is to ensure integrity, relevance, and high quality in the preparation, certification, and discipline of Californias teachers. Critics had questioned Rodriguezs continued service on the commission, given that teachers can be suspended from work if they face criminal charges. They also can lose their jobs for lapses in personal behavior, such as excessive drinking, with the potential to affect their performance. Police in Pasadena arrested Rodriguez on a Friday afternoon in March for public drunkenness. He was not charged in the incident and has apologized. The state commission reviews teacher discipline cases and can take action to remove a teachers credential to work in a California classroom. The commission has 15 members. Rodriguezs departure was disclosed in a one-sentence announcement on the agencys website. Facebook

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School board members request for restraining order against blogger is rejected By Priscella Vega An Orange County Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a school board members petition for a permanent restraining order against a Huntington Beach blogger. Attorney Jeffrey W. Shields filed the petition on behalf of Ocean View School District trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin, 46, who alleged in court documents that Charles Keeler Johnson, 56, has threatened her on social media and at school board meetings, causing her to fear for my own safety and for that of my immediate family members. Johnson, who goes by Chuck and publishes HBSledgehammer.com, said the trustee tried to stifle his freedom of speech. He also contended that Clayton-Tarvin took his blog posts and Facebook comments too seriously and out of context, saying anyone who is afraid of metaphors has serious issues. Read More Facebook

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Deal with workers averts one-day strike that could have shut down L.A. schools By Howard Blume Los Angeles school district and union officials announced a contract agreement Tuesday night that averted a one-day strike planned for next week. The pact, which runs through June 2020, removes one labor problem from the desk of incoming Supt. Austin Beutner  whose first day on the job would have coincided with the strike. Plenty of other challenges remain. Read More Facebook

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UC labor strike expands with show of support from more unions By Teresa Watanabe Fong Chuu is a registered nurse who has assisted with countless liver transplants, kidney surgeries and gastric bypasses during 34 years at UCLA. Working with her are scrub technicians who sterilize equipment, hand medical instruments to the surgeon and dress patient wounds. They are a team, Chuu says, which is why she walked off her job Tuesday in support of those technicians and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299. The 25,000 member AFSCME local, the University of Californias largest employee union, launched a three-day strike Monday. Read More Facebook

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We are humans too: Voices of UCLAs striking custodians, hospital aides and imaging technicians By Joy Resmovits Demonstrators parade in front of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) This week, thousands of UC employees are staging a three-day strike for better pay and working conditions. On Monday, more than 20,000 custodians, cooks, lab technicians, nurse aides and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 walked off their jobs. By Tuesday, two more unions joined in sympathy strikes. The union and UC reached a bargaining impasse last year. The university has said it wont meet the workers demands. The strikers said they wanted better pay, more equity in the allocation of work, stable healthcare premiums and an end to the universitys use of contract workers. These are their stories. Read More Facebook

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Massive UC workers strike disrupts dining, classes and medical services By Joy Resmovits A massive labor strike across the University of California on Monday forced medical centers to reschedule more than 12,000 surgeries, cancer treatments and appointments, and campuses to cancel some classes and limit dining services. More than 20,000 members of UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, walked off their jobs on the first day of a three-day strike. They include custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Two altercations involving protesters and people driving near the rallies were reported at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz. At UCLA, police took a man into custody Monday after he drove his vehicle into a crowd, hitting three staff members. They were treated for minor injuries at the scene and released, said Lt. Kevin Kilgore of the UCLA Police Department. Read More Facebook

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Sen. Kamala Harris to skip UC Berkeley commencement in support of striking workers By Teresa Watanabe California Sen. Kamala Harris has canceled plans to deliver UC Berkeleys commencement address this weekend in support of UC workers who are on strike over wages and health benefits. Due to the ongoing labor dispute, Sen. Harris regretfully cannot attend and speak at this years commencement ceremony at UC Berkeley, said a statement from Harris office issued Monday. She wishes the graduates and their families a joyous commencement weekend and success for the future. They are bright young leaders and our country is counting on them. UCs largest employee union, the 25,000-member American Federation of County, State and Municipal Employees Local 3299, launched a three-day strike Monday and had earlier called for a speakers boycott. The union and university reached a bargaining impasse last year and subsequent mediation efforts have failed to produce an agreement. The union is asking for a multiyear contract with a 6% annual pay increase while the university is offering 3% annual increases over four years. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ will deliver the keynote address instead, the university announced. About 5,800 students are expected to participate in the ceremony Saturday. Facebook

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School mural depicting Trumps bloody, severed head sparks controversy By Gary Warth A Chula Vista school mural that depicts the bloody, severed head of President Trump on a spear sparked a controversy that prompted officials to cover it and issue a response distancing themselves from the work. The statement also said the artist will alter the painting. We understand that there was a mural painted at the event this past weekend that does not align with our schools philosophy of non-violence, read the statement from MAAC Community Charter School director Tommy Ramirez. We have been in communication with the artist  who has agreed to modify the artwork  to better align with the schools philosophy. Read More Facebook

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New blackface incident at Cal Poly prompts calls for state investigation By Kim Christensen Cal Poly San Luis Obispo officials have asked the state attorney generals office to investigate after a new photo of a white student in blackface surfaced on a fraternity groups private Snapchat. I am outraged, Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong said in a video address Friday to the campus. These vile and absolutely unacceptable acts cannot continue. We must not allow these acts to define us as an institution. Armstrong said the latest photo was intended to imitate an incident last month in which a white member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity was photographed at a party wearing blackface. Read More Facebook

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More than 50,000 UC workers set to strike this week but campuses will remain open By Teresa Watanabe More than 50,000 workers across the University of California are set to strike this week, causing potential disruptions to surgery schedules, food preparation and campus maintenance. The systems 10 campuses and five medical centers are to remain open, with classes scheduled as planned. UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, plans to begin a three-day strike Monday involving 25,000 workers, including custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Read More Facebook

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New L.A. schools chief Beutner pledges to listen, learn and take action By Howard Blume New Los Angeles schools Supt. Austin Beutner proved Wednesday that hes a quick learner even without an education background. Like countless public officials before him, he appeared at an important event  his first speech and news conference  with a photogenic background of students. His message  that he would put those students first  seemed heartfelt if hardly original. Nor was it a huge surprise that he pledged to push cooperatively but unflinchingly to improve the districts academic performance and stabilize its finances. As an introduction, Beutner, a former investment banker who made a fortune on Wall Street, offered little flash, but that was partly the point. Read More Facebook

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In a school lockdown, one student takes stock of the stressful scene At the beginning of lunch one day late last month, Duarte High School, Northview Middle School, and California School of the Arts-San Gabriel Valley were advised by the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department to go into lockdown mode due to police activity in the immediate area. Phalaen Chang, a junior at the California School of the Arts, wrote a series of notes on her iPhone while she sat in a room with her classmates. By the time the lockdown ended an hour later, she wrote, she knew which of her friends would hold open the door for others, be the ones calming others down, be the ones barricading the doors. She knew that all of them have the potential to be such strong people. Read More Facebook

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Tale as old as time: L.A. Unified superintendent pick follows a historical pattern of outside-the-box choices By Joy Resmovits L.A. Unified has long gone back and forth between picking insiders and outsiders to run the nations second largest school district. The choice of Austin Beutner, announced Tuesday, places the district squarely back in the outsider camp  months after a consummate insider, Supt. Michelle King, announced that she had cancer and would not return to the job. Check out this timeline of former L.A. superintendents to see how the school board members have changed their minds, sometimes favoring leaders who come from the world of education and sometimes executives from elsewhere, recruited to shock the system into change. At one point, the district hired someone from the military  retired Navy Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, who served as superintendent from 2006-2008. In hiring Brewer, board members had opted for a non-educator  largely because they sought a fresh thinker, unwedded to the bureaucracy, unafraid to make bold, even unorthodox moves, reads a 2008 Times story. Facebook

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Austin Beutner named superintendent of Los Angeles schools By Howard Blume Austin Beutner, a philanthropist and former investment banker, on Tuesday was named superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nations second-largest school system. His selection was the biggest move yet by a Los Angeles school board majority elected with major support from charter school advocates. The decision came after lengthy public testimony, most of it in support of the other remaining finalist, interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian, who is well known within the school system. Beutner, 58, has no background leading a school or school district. Less than 2 years ago, a school board with a very different balance of power named Michelle King, a former teacher who rose through the district throughout her career, to L.A. Unifieds top job. Read More Facebook

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Hearing delay gives both sides more time in Ref Rodriguezs potential trial By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez and his attorneys will have more time to prepare their defense against charges of political money laundering, a judge ruled Monday. The preliminary hearing in the case had been scheduled to begin May 9, but that date will now be pushed back to July 23 per the ruling from L.A. Superior Court Judge Deborah S. Brazil. Rodriguez, 46, faces three felony charges of conspiracy, perjury and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school board poised to name Beutner as superintendent By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education is poised to select philanthropist and former investment banker Austin Beutner to be the next superintendent of the nations second-largest school system. Barring a last-minute development, the only mystery is whether Beutner emerges with four or five votes from the boards seven members. Terms of his contract already have been under discussion, according to sources close to the process who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak. The selection of Beutner, 58, who has no experience managing a school or a school district, would be a signal that the board majority that took control nearly a year ago wants to rely on business management skills instead of insider educational expertise. Read More Facebook

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Teacher walkouts in Arizona and Colorado continue national debate on money for schools By Michael Livingston Following the lead of teachers who walked off the job in other states in recent weeks, thousands of teachers and their supporters took to the streets in Arizona and Colorado for the second day in a row to demand better pay and more funding for education. Read More Facebook

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Three decades before the #MeToo movement, UC San Diego led the way against sexual assault By Teresa Watanabe When Nancy Wahlig first started her fight against sexual assault, one company was marketing a capsule for women to stash in their bras and then smash to release a vile odor. Because of the very nature of society, the only person who can prevent rape is the woman herself, read a 1981 advertisement for the Repulse rape deterrent. Ideas about how to prevent sexual violence have come a long way since then, and Wahlig has helped lead that evolution on college campuses. In 1988, she started UC San Diegos Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC), the first stand-alone program at the University of California. Today, she remains the systems most senior specialist. Read More Facebook

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Andres Alonso withdraws from consideration for L.A. schools job By Howard Blume Andres Alonso, believed to be one of three remaining finalists to lead the Los Angeles school system, has withdrawn from consideration. The remaining known candidates in the confidential search are former investment banker Austin Beutner and interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian. Alonso, 60, announced his decision on Twitter on Thursday night, saying he had notified the L.A. Unified School District on Monday. The exit of Alonso, the former Baltimore schools chief, seems to solidify the front-runner status of Beutner, who also was a former L.A. Times publisher and a Los Angeles deputy mayor. He held each of those positions for about a year. Read More Facebook

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Heres why the apparent increase in autism spectrum disorders may be good for U.S. children By Karen Kaplan The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among American children continues to rise, new government data suggest. And that may be a good thing. Among 11 sites across the U.S. where records of 8-year-olds are scrutinized in detail, 1 in 59 kids was deemed to have ASD in 2014. Thats up from 1 in 68 in 2012. Normally, health officials would prefer to see less of a disease, not more of it. But in this case, the higher number is probably a sign that more children of color who are on the autism spectrum are being recognized as such and getting services to help them, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read More Facebook

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UC shelves tuition increase for now, in hopes of getting more state funding By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents will not vote on a tuition increase next month, shelving the plan for now in hopes that state lawmakers will come through with more funding. Raising tuition is always a last resort and one we take very seriously, UC President Janet Napolitano said Thursday in a statement. We will continue to advocate with our students who are doing a tremendous job of educating legislators about the necessity of adequately funding the university to ensure UC remains a world-class institution and engine of economic growth for our state. Last week, Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White said the 23-campus system no longer would consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year. But unlike Cal State, UC officials have not taken a tuition increase off the table entirely. Read More Facebook

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A chemical spill, unchecked eyewash stations, poor training: Audit details Cal States lax lab safety By Joy Resmovits In May 2016, two bottles tumbled off a poorly supported shelf and broke, leading to a chemical spill in a Sacramento State University lab. The liquid got onto one students legs and soaked anothers feet. Five employees cleaned up the mess, even though no one knew for sure what it was and whether it was dangerous. They called fellow employee Kim Harrington, their union representative, to let her know what happened. Read More Facebook

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After blackface incident, minority students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo say they dont feel welcome By Hailey Branson-Potts Aaliyah Ramos was walking through the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus last year when a prospective student approached her. Ramos was the only black person, the young woman said, that she and her mother had seen that day. They asked about the quality of education and the diversity of the student body. Ramos, a mechanical engineering student, didnt want to sugarcoat the truth: Cal Poly long has been predominantly white. But she told the young woman  who also was black  that she didnt want to discourage her from applying, because that wouldnt help with diversity at a school where only 0.7% of students are African American  the lowest percentage of any university in the California State system. Read More Facebook

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El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills wins the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon By Carlos Lozano El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills has won the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon, officials said. The winner was announced early Saturday at a ceremony in Frisco, Texas. More than 600 students from the U.S., Canada, China and the United Kingdom gathered there over the last three days to compete in the 37th annual U.S. Academic Decathlon. Congratulations to El Camino Real Charter High School for another impressive victory, said Vivian Ekchian, interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Your academic stamina and competitive spirit to win is remarkable. The entire L.A. Unified family is so proud of you. Read More Facebook

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Anticipation mounts as L.A. school board meets over superintendent selection By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education is reconvening in closed session Friday at noon as anticipation mounts about the choice of the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. The presumed front-runner is former investment banker and philanthropist Austin Beutner, but interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian and former Baltimore Supt. Andres Alonso also are in the running. Most district insiders appear to be rooting for Ekchian, who has spent her entire career in education within the school system. After her 10 years as a teacher, her roles have included head of human resources, chief labor negotiator and regional administrator for campuses in the west San Fernando Valley. Shes managed the district since September, when then-Supt. Michelle King went on medical leave and chose Ekchian to fill in for her. King, who is battling cancer, never returned and announced her retirement in January. Numerous influential civic leaders have urged  and pressured  the board to select Beutner. Also lending their weight have been advocates for charter schools, which are independently operated, growing in number and competing for students with district-operated campuses. Four of the seven board members  enough to control the outcome  were elected with major financial support from charter supporters. Beutner has two ongoing connections with the L.A. Unified School District. The first is his leadership of an outside task force that is making recommendations on how to improve the school system. The second is his charity, Vision to Learn, which supplies glasses to low-income students. The charity and the school system are in a dispute at the moment over who is responsible for delays in providing services to students as part of a $6 million contract, half of which is paid for by L.A. Unified. Unlike Ekchian and Buetner, Alonso, who currently teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has no deep-seated local constituency, but the prospect of his selection has generated some excitement. While in Baltimore, Alonso was recognized for pushing for progress at low-performing schools, and for being willing to take strong action. While in Baltimore, he also weathered a test-score cheating scandal and occasionally rocky relations with the teachers union. But by the time he resigned, after six years, he and union leaders seemed to be working together without rancor. Leaders of some community groups have split from the pro-Beutner camp. They worry that Beutners approach to confronting the districts financial problems could shut out their voices or involve severe economic cutbacks that would undermine programs that are helping students. Some prefer Ekchian; some Alonso. Theyve been reluctant to speak out publicly because theyll have to work with whoever is selected, but they have tried to get the ear of board members. On Friday morning, one leader of a community group decided to come out in favor of Alonso. L.A. Unified has the opportunity to bring in an instructional leader of color with a history of success, said Alberto Retana, president and chief executive of Community Coalition, which works on behalf of low-income students and families in South Los Angeles. If we have a shot at that, we should go for it  because its in the best interests of our kids and of our community. Retana said his statement was not meant to criticize Beutner or Ekchian but to alert board members that there also is community support for Alonso. Facebook

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Cal State leader shelves proposed tuition hike: Its the right thing to do, but its not without risk By Joy Resmovits Cal State, the nations largest public university system, will no longer consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year, Chancellor Timothy P. White announced Friday. The decision is a bet that Sacramento will come through in the end. If Cal State loses that bet, it could mean cuts to campus programs. White said in an interview that Californias economy is strong enough that families should not be shouldering the burden of higher college costs. Read More Facebook

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L.A. students to participate in national walkout activities on Friday By Joy Resmovits Students are taking to the streets again Friday to protest gun violence on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. Starting at 10 a.m., students at many schools will spend 13 seconds honoring the 13 people  12 students and one teacher  killed on that day in Littleton, Colo. After that, theyll participate in a host of different activities. Within L.A. Unified, one school is having an open-mic event for students to talk about school violence, and lawmakers are visiting campuses to hear students thoughts. According to a central hub for organizing the protests  written by the students of Ridgefield High School in Connecticut  the walkouts are intended to drive the political change necessary to curb school violence. The day is also a time for students to interact on an elevated platform they have never had before, the site states. It is a day of discourse and thoughtful sharing. Bringing together communities and students to get a national discussion rolling. Organizers have suggested using the event to convey the importance of curbing gun violence to legislators. They are encouraging students to push legislation that would ban assault weapons and tighten up rules around who can buy guns and how. Over 2,500 schools nationwide are expected to participate. In L.A., some students  at campuses including Eagle Rock High School, the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts and Bravo Medical Magnet  plan to walk out. Students from various schools expect to join area marches, including those in Santa Monica and Huntington Park. Other schools are hosting career days and voter registration drives. At 1 p.m., students plan to start a rally in front of L.A. Unified headquarters. For the record: An earlier version of this article stated that 12 teachers and one student were killed in the Columbine shooting. The opposite is true: twelve students and one teacher died. Facebook

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Stabbing of popular student devastates South El Monte High School; teen friend suspected in slaying By Sonali Kohli When administrators at South El Monte High School called Jeremy Sanchezs parents to say he never showed up for class Wednesday, his father began to worry. It was unusual for the 17-year-old junior to miss school, so his father filed a missing persons report and assembled two of Jeremys close friends to look for the popular student-athlete. Their search took them to a scenic stretch of the San Gabriel River Trail, where one of the friends  a 16-year-old boy  made a tragic discovery. Among the bushes in the riverbed near Thienes Avenue and Parkway Drive was Jeremys body, punctured with stab wounds, according to Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Read More Facebook

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Racist fliers spark outrage at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo By Alene Tchekmedyian Soon after Neal MacDougall arrived on the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus Tuesday, the professor noticed university police standing outside a restroom near his office. A racial slur against African Americans had been scrawled in red marker on a stall wall. Later, he discovered a series of racist fliers pinned up next to his door. Someone had also slashed posters hed hung outside his office supporting students in the country illegally. The discovery was the latest controversy on the prestigious campus  which the president said is less than 55% white  that MacDougall said demonstrates a culture of racism at the university. Last week, photographs emerged of white fraternity members, including one in blackface, flashing gang signs. Read More Facebook

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The superintendent waiting game, paying for L.A.'s College Promise, Princetons slave history: Whats new in education By Joy Resmovits Acting LAUSD superintendent Vivian Ekchian is a finalist for the permanent job. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) In and around Los Angeles: The L.A. Unified school board spent 10 hours interviewing and discussing candidates for superintendent. When they adjourned after 10 p.m., they said they would reconvene on Friday. Who is paying for Mayor Eric Garcettis much-touted College Promise, a program that promises two years of community college for LAUSD grads? In California: The Legislature is considering a proposal that would boost K-12 education funding for black students. When the cost of living is taken into account, California has the highest rate of child poverty. Nationwide: The families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School are suing Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never occurred. Princeton will name two spaces  an arch and a garden  after slaves who lived or worked on the campus. Facebook

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L.A. school board meets privately with finalists and debates choice for school district leader By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education adjourned late Tuesday after spending more than 10 hours interviewing candidates and trying to reach a decision on who would be the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. When the meeting finally recessed at 10:11 p.m., a spokesman announced only that the school board would reconvene Friday at noon. Going into the days meetings, there were apparently four finalists, according to sources who could not be named because they were unauthorized to speak. Read More Facebook

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Two Sandy Hook families sue Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never happened By David Altimari Families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School have filed lawsuits in Texas against controversial radio host Alex Jones for continually claiming the massacre never happened. Neil Heslin, the father of Jesse Lewis, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose son Noah Pozner died in the massacre, filed separate lawsuits late Monday in Travis County, Texas. The lawsuits allege that Jones defamed the parents by constantly calling them crisis actors and insisting the shooting was a false flag operation; they also claim Jones accusations have led to death threats against the Sandy Hook families by Jones followers. Read More Facebook

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Beutner emerges as a top pick for L.A. schools superintendent amid last-minute jockeying By Howard Blume Austin Beutner has emerged as a leading contender to run the Los Angeles school district, with backers saying he is smart enough and tough enough to confront its financial and academic struggles. Though he does not have a background in education, the former investment banker has in the last year examined some of the districts intractable problems, serving as co-chair of an outside task force with the support of then-Supt. Michelle King. Sources inside and outside the school district said Beutner appears to have more support on the seven-member board than other finalists, and his name could come up for a vote as early as Tuesday. Read More Facebook

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Challenge at Chicago school construction site: Watch for 38,000 unmarked graves By Nereida Moreno A 15-year effort to build a school in Chicagos Dunning neighborhood is underway with an unusual complication: Construction workers are taking careful steps to avoid disturbing human remains that may lie beneath the soil. The $70-million school is to be built on the grounds of a former Cook County Poor House, where an estimated 38,000 people were buried in unmarked graves. Among the dead are residents who were too poor to afford funeral costs, unclaimed bodies and patients from the countys insane asylum. There can be and there have been bodies found all over the place, said Barry Fleig, a genealogist and cemetery researcher who began investigating the site in 1989. Its a spooky, scary place. Read More Facebook

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Oklahoma teacher walkout winds down despite lawmakers failure to meet demands By Washington Post Oklahomas largest teachers union has announced an end to a walkout that has drawn thousands of educators out of classrooms and to the state Capitol demanding greater investment in the states schools, which have endured the nations steepest funding cuts. The announcement Thursday from the Oklahoma Education Assn. does not necessarily end the protests at the Capitol, as teachers not affiliated with the union vowed to stay longer. Instead of a walkout, the union and school districts across the state have said they plan to send delegations of teachers to Oklahoma City to keep the pressure on lawmakers. Teachers and their supporters have also promised to push education issues to the forefront of November elections, when the state chooses a new governor. As school districts begin to reopen, the protests may lose steam. The Legislature is not in session Friday, and observers are waiting to see what happens Monday, when lawmakers return. Read More Facebook

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Most Californians are worried about school shooting threats and oppose arming teachers, survey finds By Joy Resmovits Hamilton High School student Aiyana Dabriel holds a sign during a March 14 walkout in support of the Parkland shooting victims. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Most Californians are worried that a school shooting like the one that occurred in Parkland, Fla., in February could shed blood closer to home, a new survey found. Some 73% percent of adults and 82% of public school parents said they were very concerned or somewhat concerned about school shootings. The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 1,704 adults in the state by phone just after the March for Our Lives protest against gun violence. Latino and black respondents were significantly more likely to be concerned about school violence than white or Asian respondents, the institute found. Two-thirds of adults and public school parents said they opposed letting more educators carry weapons in school. The response differed across party lines, with 86% of Democrats and 69% of independents voicing their opposition, while 60% percent of Republicans said they would support a measure to arm educators. The poll, which had a margin of error of 3.2% in either direction, also asked Californians about school funding, educational issues in the governors race and the impact of immigration enforcement on students. You can find the full results here. Facebook

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Californias largest virtual charter school network agrees to contract with its teachers By Anna M. Phillips Nearly four years after teachers at Californias largest online charter school voted to unionize, they have reached a deal to increase pay and create job protections, according to a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn. The contract, which is still tentative and subject to ratification, is a victory for the teachers union. Although charter schools are publicly funded, most are privately managed and their employees arent protected by labor contracts. Under the terms of the contract  the result of years of negotiation and legal wrangling  approximately 500 teachers working for California Virtual Academies will no longer be at-will employees who can be dismissed for almost any reason. Their average salary will rise to just over $45,000, according to union estimates, a figure that remains far below the norm for traditional public school teachers. Still, it is an improvement over the previous average of $38,000. The accord also places a limit on the number of students each teacher is responsible for monitoring in online homeroom classes. Were very satisfied with the gains we made, said teacher Brianna Carroll, president of California Virtual Educators United. I think were going to see some extraordinary changes in our schools. According to Carroll, teachers at California Virtual Academies  better known as CAVA  had grown frustrated with the organizations foot-dragging and were making preparations to go on strike when CAVAs leadership agreed to the deal. CAVA and K12, the Virginia-based for-profit company linked to its schools, did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday asking for comment. The network currently operates nine virtual charter schools across California. In 2016, the charter network agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle claims of false advertising, misleading parents and inadequate instruction. The state attorney generals office had also accused K12 of controlling the charters for its own financial benefit. Neither CAVA nor K12 admitted to wrongdoing in the settlement. A year later, the state imposed a $2-million fine on CAVA after an audit found that it had misspent public funds. The network disputed the findings. Facebook

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School board approves a new formula for funding high-need schools By Sonali Kohli L.A. schools will soon get more money if they are located in neighborhoods with such problems as high levels of gun violence and asthma. The Los Angeles Unified school board voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a new formula to determine how to dole out some funding to schools, based not only on the characteristics of the student populations but on the traumas that affect the communities around campuses. The new formula will be applied to $25 million in funding next fiscal year and about $263 million annually in future years  a small part of the districts $7.5 billion annual budget. Read More Facebook

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Protesters demand Ref Rodriguez resignation outside school board meeting By Sonali Kohli Students, parents, teachers and UTLA marching outside the board meeting chanting "Ref resign" pic.twitter.com/W0LRWZSIXY  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 A few dozen parents, students and teachers marched outside the Los Angeles Unified School Board meeting Tuesday, some calling for board member Ref Rodriguez to resign the week after news broke that he was taken into custody on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena bar and restaurant. Rodriguez was not cited or charged in that incident, but was held for more than five and a half hours before being released. The school board member faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. He is accused of getting more than two dozen people people to donate to his campaign for his school board seat with the understanding that he would reimburse them. He stepped down from his post as school board president after he was charged last fall, but he did not give up his seat on the board. He has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of conspiracy, perjury, and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May. He cant give his full focus to our students, said Rebecca LaFond, a Highland Park parent whose three children marched with her as she chanted, Ref resign. One daughter marched in front of her, using a drum stick to hit the bottom of a gallon-size empty water jug. Our kids deserve someone who has the utmost ethical standards representing them, LaFond said. The protests continued into the board meeting, where some addressed Rodriguez directly, calling on him to step down during public comment portions of the meeting. Rodriguez, through his chief of staff, declined to comment. Some parents outside the board meeting did not know about the charges against Rodriguez but came out to protest the possibility of sharing their school campuses with charter schools. Protesters also oppose colocation  not all of the parents are here to ask Ref Rodriguez to step down pic.twitter.com/1Co8zQ9zSi  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 Cynthia Martinez said her son, who goes to Christopher Dena Elementary School in Boyle Heights, has been bullied in the past by students from a charter school sharing the campus. She said she didnt know who Rodriguez was. Some parents and teachers are worried about losing computer labs, robotics rooms and fitness centers if they are required to share their campus with charter schools, said Ilse Escobar, a parent community organizer for United Teachers Los Angeles. The issues of Rodriguez and colocation are related, Escobar said. Rodriguez is part of a majority on the school board elected with financial backing from charter school supporters, and many parents, she said, feel that the school board is compromised if he is a part of it. Staff reporter Howard Blume contributed to this post. Facebook

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Delaine Eastin tries to gain momentum in the California governors race, one voter at a time By Seema Mehta Delaine Eastin was a sophomore in high school when a drama teacher urged her to try out for a part in The Man Who Came to Dinner. She hesitated until he told her: This is a metaphor for your whole life. If you never try out, you will never get the part. Eastin auditioned and won the role. Decades later, the advice sticks with the former state schools chief, this time in her unlikely run for governor. Despite calls for more women in leadership roles in state politics following sexual misconduct allegations in Sacramento, Eastin has been largely overlooked in the race, lagging far behind her Democratic rivals in fundraising and the polls. Read More Facebook

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Arizona high court rejects in-state tuition for DACA recipients By Associated Press Young immigrants granted deferred deportation status under a program started by President Obama are not eligible for lower in-state college tuition, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday. The unanimous ruling will affect at least 2,000 students attending the states largest community college district and hundreds more at other colleges and the states three public universities. The Maricopa County Community Colleges District and state universities said they would begin raising tuition immediately for the coming school year. Read More Facebook

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New York high school students injured when bus strikes overpass By Associated Press A charter bus carrying teenagers returning from a spring break trip Sunday night struck a bridge overpass on Long Island, seriously injuring six passengers and mangling the entire length of the top of the bus. The crash happened shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview, according to New York State Police. One of the six injured passengers had very serious injuries, said State Police Maj. David Candelaria. Thirty-seven other passengers suffered minor injuries. Read More Facebook

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Some good news for California in national student test scores By Joy Resmovits Every two years, the nations fourth- and eighth-graders are tested in math and reading  and newly released results from last years tests give California at least a little reason to be pleased. The 2017 results  out Monday night  were mostly flat nationwide compared with 2015, though the average score in eighth-grade reading went up. But while that improvement largely came from the increased scores of the highest-performing students, California eighth-graders showed some reading progress from the lowest levels to the highest. Read More Facebook

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Under state control, Inglewood school districts financial picture worsened By Anna M. Phillips When Eugenio Villa agreed to return to the Inglewood schools for a second tour last summer, he knew the district remained one of Californias most troubled. Inglewood Unified had been nearly insolvent when it was taken over by the state Department of Education in 2012. Six years later, its enrollment was still declining. Its school buildings were tired  some edging into decrepitude. Its test scores and graduation rates were still below the state average. And the public was out of patience. Still, Villa, who had signed back on as the districts chief business official, was shocked at what he found when he arrived in June 2017. Two years earlier, he had left the school system on what he thought was firm ground. Read More Facebook

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Charter school group drops two lawsuits against L.A. Unified By Howard Blume A charter schools advocacy group last week announced that it would end two long-running lawsuits in which it was seeking more classroom space and construction money from the Los Angeles school district. The decision, the California Charter Schools Assn. said, reflects better relations between charter schools and the L.A. Unified School District. But the move also suggests that the litigation, which already contributed to significant gains for area charters, was unlikely to produce much more. It takes time, money and effort to litigate, said Ricardo Soto, general counsel for the charter group. Maybe its better to see if we can find the time and opportunity for collaboration. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez is arrested on suspicion of public intoxication By Richard Winton Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez was arrested recently on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena restaurant, the latest trouble for an elected official who faces political money-laundering charges. Pasadena police took Rodriguez into custody on March 16, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian. Officers arrested Rodriguez at about 4:30 p.m. at the Yard House restaurant and bar at the Paseo Mall and held him in jail for more than five-and-a-half hours. Rodriguez was ultimately released without being cited or charged, Derderian told The Times. Other details about the arrest were not available, she said. Read More Facebook

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Kentucky teachers rally at Capitol over state budget By Associated Press Thousands of Kentucky teachers filled the streets near the state Capitol in Frankfort on a cold, overcast Monday to rally for education funding. Teachers and other school employees gathered outside the Kentucky Education Assn. a couple of blocks from the Capitol chanting, Stop the war on public education and holding or posting signs that say, Weve Had Enough. Were madder than hornets, and the hornets are swarming today, said Claudette Green, a retired teacher and principal. Read More Facebook

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Berkeley, long a hotbed of political protest, has emerged as a flashpoint in the Trump era.

The latest example of this came Saturday, when clashes between backers and critics of the president resulted in 21 arrests.

Berkeley is one of Americas most liberal cities, with a long history of left-wing activism. Trump supporters used the city as a setting for a Patriots Day rally Saturday.

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But it goes beyond protests and counter-protests.

A February scheduled appearance by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled amid a violent protest on the UC Berkeley campus. That sparked a national debate  in which Trump himself took part  about the line between the right to demonstrate and protecting free speech that some find objectionable.

Why Berkeley?

For one thing, the city, along with Oakland and San Francisco, has a long-established protest culture. The UC Berkeley campus is famously known as the home of the Free Speech Movement. So when pro-Trump forces decided to rally there, plenty of counter-protesters were at the ready to respond.

Saturdays event brought out a small but robust crowd of Trump supporters.

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers, said he came from Montana with about 50 others to protect Trump supporters. They were joined by bikers and others who vowed to fight members of an anti-fascist group if they crossed police barricades.

I dont mind hitting the counter-demonstrators, Rhodes said. In fact, I would kind of enjoy it.

Having said that, there were violent clashes in Huntington Beach, a decidedly less liberal place, a few weeks ago.

Berkeley is also a potent symbol because of its role as the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement in 1964:

Before fall 1964, students politicking had been limited to a small sidewalk strip thought to be off-campus and immune from university restrictions. Students such as Mario Savio returned from searing experiences as civil rights workers in the South and sought to expand campaigns in California, upsetting some state legislators.

After learning that the property was owned by UC, school authorities moved to shut down the area and ban the tables and pamphleting there. Activists challenged the rules by resuming their activities. Three months of confrontations, demonstrations and negotiations followed and became international news. Eventually, the restrictions were lifted with some limitations  a victory that paved the way for later protests supporting womens rights and environmentalism and opposing the Vietnam War.

Who are these counter-demonstrators?

Many were simply Trump critics who felt a need to respond.

But officials have expressed concerns about a more militant, so-called black bloc of demonstrators.

The self-described anarchists or anti-fascists have left school and law enforcement officials struggling to cope with their tactics.

The term black bloc was used to describe the tight wedges of black-clad protesters in helmets and masks who appeared in street demonstrations in Germany in the 1970s, confounding efforts to single out, identify and prosecute individuals.

In February, UC Berkeley officials criticized what they described as a paramilitary force armed with bats, steel rods, fireworks and Molotov cocktails. They set a fire on campus and prevented Yiannopoulos from speaking.

They didnt come to lock arms and sing Kumbaya, said Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor and spokesman for UC Berkeley, said at the time. They came to [mess stuff] up, he said, using stronger language.

The Times interviewed some of these people earlier this year.

They hailed their actions as a big success.

It wasnt just people dressed in black who were acting militantly and everyone else is peace-loving Berkeley hippies, said Yvette Felarca, a political organizer of By Any Means Necessary, an immigration and affirmative action coalition that seeks to build a mass militant movement. Everyone cheered when those barricades were dismantled. ... Everyone was there with us in political agreement of the necessity of shutting it down, whatever it was going to take. It shows we have the power.

A protester kicks trash removed from a can and set on fire during a pro-Trump rally Saturday in Berkeley. (David Butow/for the Times)

What happened on Saturday?

Fistfights broke out near Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, where Trump supporters had scheduled a rally. Fireworks and smoke bombs were thrown into the crowd, and a few demonstrators were doused with pepper spray.

Both groups threw rocks and sticks at each other and used a large trash bin as a battering ram as the crowd moved around the perimeter of the park. One bank boarded up its ATMs before the rally as a precaution.

About 250 police officers were deployed to the scene by mid-afternoon after officials sought assistance from the neighboring Oakland Police Department.

Twenty-one people were arrested, including some on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, according to Officer Byron White of the Berkeley Police Department. Eleven people were injured with at least six taken to a hospital for treatment, including one stabbing victim.

Police confiscated knives, stun guns and poles, White said.

Supporters of President Trump clash with protesters during a Saturday rally in Berkeley. (David Butow/for the Times)

So whats next?

Another conservative figure, author Ann Coulter, is expected to speak at U.C. Berkeley later this month. And more protests are expected.

ALSO

21 arrested as hundreds of Trump supporters and counter-protesters clash at Berkeley rally

Thousands march in Los Angeles to demand release of Trump tax returns

Break away from the USA? The effort to cleave California faces its own split

UPDATES:

12 p.m.: This post was updated with background on the Free Speech Movement.

The post was originally published at 11 a.m.
A letter from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to law enforcement agencies across Southern California warning about an emerging problem of officers engaging in unlicensed firearms sales came just weeks after a Pasadena police officers home was searched and guns seized.

The March 31 letter from Eric Harden, special agent in charge at the ATFs Los Angeles Field Division, said the agency has discovered officers buying and then reselling handguns without a federal firearms license. That violates federal gun laws.

The ATF letter, first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, came after a Feb. 16 search of the home of a high-ranking Pasadena police officer. News reports at the time said several large gun cases were removed from the officers Sierra Madre home and loaded into ATF vehicles.

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No arrests were made, but the Pasadena Star-News reported that an officer was placed on administrative leave after the search.

A city spokesman said the ATF search did not have anything to do with the officers work with the department. Pasadena city offices were closed Friday. Authorities did not release the officers name, and a spokeswoman for the ATF declined to comment on ongoing investigations.

Hardens letter said the agency recently has discovered officers who had purchased more than 100 off-roster guns. Those are guns that are not on a California list of approved handguns that can be purchased by the public. Some have been recovered at crime scenes.

The law, however, carves out a specific exemption that allows police officers to purchase such weapons.

The letter from Harden, which was distributed to sheriffs and police chiefs, talked about the growing trend of law enforcement officials engaging in the business of unlicensed firearms dealings.

It is an issue that the ATF has focused on before. In 2011, the agency served search warrants in an investigation into deputies in the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department and officers in the cities of Roseville and Sacramento for selling weapons that the vast majority of California residents cant purchase.

That investigation prompted bills by a state legislator to close the loophole that allows law enforcement to buy and sell such weapons. Both attempts in 2012 and 2013 were vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown. At the center of the issue is a list, or roster, of handguns the state has designated as safe and that can be legally purchased by residents.

The roster is a result of Californias 2001 Unsafe Handgun Act, which requires the state to make a list of guns deemed safe enough to sell. New micro-stamping requirements on bullets fired from semiautomatic pistols took effect in 2013, shortening the roster. In 2014, for example, 1,152 handguns were on the list. Currently, the number is down to 755.

There are exceptions to the law. Firearms that arent on the roster that were purchased before they fell off the list can legally be kept, and off-roster guns passed on to family members.

Some law enforcement members can also purchase off-roster weapons. They can also legally resell them, including to Californians who would not ordinarily be allowed to buy them.

Officers primarily sell off-roster weapons through a transaction called a private-party transfer. After law enforcement officers acquire off-roster guns, there are a variety of reasons they may want to get rid of them.

The officers might not like the way they handle or decide to upgrade to a new model. At that point, California law allows them to transfer the weapon to another person who can legally possess a gun  law enforcement or otherwise  through a licensed firearms dealer.

Greg.Moran@sduniontribune.com

Lyndsay.Winkley@sduniontribune.com

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An Ohio man claimed to be angry at a woman when he shot and killed an elderly passerby Sunday afternoon and posted video of the killing on Facebook. Police urged the suspect to turn himself in, but he remained on the loose into the night.

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Steve Stephens, and Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said officers were searching for him in the Cleveland area and beyond.

The victim was identified as Robert Godwin Sr., 74.

In a statement Sunday night, Facebook said Stephens posted a live stream on the social media site at one point during the day, but not during the killing. Police earlier had said that Stephens had broadcast it on Facebook Live.

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In the video, which appears shaky, Stephens gets out of his car and appears to randomly target Godwin, who was holding a shopping bag. Stephens says the name of a woman, whom Godwin does not seem to recognize.

Shes the reason that this is about to happen to you, Stephens tells Godwin before pointing a gun at him. Godwin can be seen shielding his face with the shopping bag.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson publicly urged Stephens to turn himself in to police and not to do any more harm to anybody.

Any problems he is having, we can have a conversation, Jackson said.

In a separate video, Stephens claimed to have killed more than a dozen other people. Williams said police have not verified any other shootings or deaths.

There are no more victims that we know are tied to him, he said.

The chief also said authorities have been talking with family and friends of Stephens, who is employed at Beech Brook, a behavioral health agency headquartered in Pepper Pike, near Cleveland.

We are shocked and horrified and we dont know anything more about it, agency spokeswoman Nancy Kortemeyer told WOIO-TV. We hope and pray that he is arrested as soon as possible and we hope and pray for a resolution quickly.

It was not immediately known what Stephens does for the agency, which said it will serve more than 18,000 children and families this year, according to its website.

The video of the killing was on Facebook for about three hours before it was removed. Stephens Facebook page also has been removed.

This is a horrific crime and we do not allow this kind of content on Facebook, a company spokesperson said. We work hard to keep a safe environment on Facebook, and are in touch with law enforcement in emergencies when there are direct threats to physical safety.

Police said Stephens should be considered armed and dangerous. Late Sunday, police issued an aggravated murder warrant for him and in a statement said that he may have traveled out of state.

The FBI is assisting in the investigation.

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UPDATES:

9:55 p.m.: This article was updated with information on the Facebook video that showed the killing.

6:35 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from Facebook.

5:05 p.m.: This article was updated with the identity of the victim and other details.

This article was originally published at 4:05 p.m.
Not yet 100 days into Donald Trumps presidency, the populist revolution he seemed to promise is already over  at least for now. Two weeks of head-spinning policy reversals have put Trump squarely inside the chalk lines of conventional Republican conservatism on both economics and foreign affairs.

His impulsive management style and his fact-challenged rhetoric are still intact. But most of his policy positions are now remarkably similar to those espoused by the GOPs last establishment nominee, Mitt Romney, in 2012.

Consider:

In foreign policy, Trump once derided traditional alliances like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said hed seek an alliance with Russias Vladimir Putin, and promised to avoid entanglement in Syrias civil war. In the last 10 days, Trump praised NATO, confronted Russia and ordered a missile strike against Syria in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack.

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Trump has abruptly discovered that being a successful president is more complicated than winning an election.

On trade, Trump promised to declare China a currency manipulator, threatened to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement and suggested hed abolish the Export-Import Bank; hes walked away from all three positions.

On economics, Trump promised to cut middle-class taxes and protect Social Security and Medicare. But the first drafts of his tax plan awarded the biggest cuts to top-end earners  and last week, Trumps budget director said he hopes to persuade the president to back changes to Social Security and Medicare too.

Trump is still pursuing at least one populist priority, his crackdown on immigrants who are in the country illegally  but even there, his policy isnt much harsher than the self-deportation plan Romney proposed.

Trump has adopted  the very policy positions that he railed against during the 2016 campaign, Lanhee Chen, Romneys policy director in 2012, told me. Trumps new stances, he said are in line with those put forth by Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie, generally speaking, in 2016.

Some of Trumps supporters arent happy with the change. No one elected the president so Gary Cohn could go to Washington, Trump campaign strategist Sam Nunberg complained to the New York Times, referring to the Goldman Sachs banker who now heads the National Economic Council.

What happened? One answer is that Trump has been mugged by reality. Hes abruptly discovered that being a successful president is more complicated than winning an election.

It was clear during the campaign that Trump was never strongly tethered to most of his positions, which he revised or abandoned depending on the needs of the moment. It has become clear that he had only a tenuous grasp of the complexity of many of the policies he proposed to change.

Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated, he said after his first brush with actual policy choices.

In foreign policy, after a campaign filled with breezy assertions of America First, Trump was confronted by real world dilemmas with real world consequences. He wisely took the advice of the advisors he calls my generals, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and National Security advisor H.R. McMaster.

In economic policy, he has surrounded himself with business moguls, mostly from New York  several, like Cohn, from Goldman Sachs. They brought corporate leaders into the White House to plead the case for keeping the Ex-Im Bank, which finances export sales mostly for big corporations, and another populist promise quickly disappeared.

A more basic explanation for his flip-flops is his ego: Trump wants to win. He has been furious, aides say, that the chaos of his first weeks in office  especially the botched roll-out of his immigration ban and the failure of the House healthcare bill  made his poll numbers tank.

Stephen K. Bannon, the most populist of Trumps top advisors, was tagged as an author of both of those fiascos. Bannon insisted on rushing the immigrant ban into place, and on healthcare, he alienated members of Congress whose support Trump needed.

It didnt help Bannons cause when he argued against the airstrike in Syria, which rewarded Trump with a few days of bipartisan praise. It helped even less that Bannon tangled openly with Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law.

The result: Bannons revolutionary populism is out. Conventional conservatism is in.

So does this mean Trump is now a predictable, conventional conservative president and that the rest of his tenure will be the equivalent of a Romney administration?

Hardly. Trump is still an experimental politician. His positions will depend on the needs of the moment.

His immediate need is for success in Congress, where hes trying to revive the healthcare bill as a prelude to the centerpiece of his economic strategy, a tax reform plan.

This month, those priorities are pulling him toward the demands of the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-line conservatives who blocked the first attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Next month, if a Freedom Caucus Trumpcare bill gets through the House and lands in the less conservative Senate, the same need for success may pull him back toward the center.

This week, he sounds like President Mitt Romney. Next week: Who knows?

doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com

Twitter: @DoyleMcManus

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook
I am standing before a small audience in Columbus, Ohio, apologizing for what Im going to read. Its about motherhood, I say, then quickly qualify, but you know, more than that! Its about stories, and self, and the meaning of home.

I have been doing this for months, explaining the book Ive written as something along the lines of about motherhood but not really, until finally, in front of this audience, the absurdity of my intellectual scrambling strikes me. What male writer feels the need to atone for essays about, say, war? I imagine him hurrying to clarify: But really theyre about the human struggle, triumph over adversity, and the meaning of self.

My worry is that readers will tune out the second they hear motherhood. Their brains will be flooded with the beatific white light of diaper commercials, numbed by a singsong voice saying eat-your-peas! My husband once mentioned my book to one of his colleagues, whose response was, Oh, is it a book of lullabies? Patriarchal culture has reduced motherhood to an exercise no serious artist would tackle as a subject. The result is not only the marginalization of motherhood as a literary topic but the real-life marginalization of mothers, obscuring the difficulties of childcare, the intensity of birth, the complexities of working and writing as a mother, and the profound ways having a baby changes a womans life, body and mind.

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I once listened to a podcast with Taffy Brodesser-Akner, a writer I admire who wrote a powerful, popular story about her birth experience. She told the interviewer: I dont want to be the person who writes about birth. If youre the sad birth lady with your pastel-colored book cover, and youre going around and youre speaking about it, no one ever says, like, you should write a Shouts and Murmurs. 

Birth is a matter of blood and sweat and gore and suffering, of life and death...except: Only women can give birth.

Birth is only, after all, the single most important experience in our lives. Like war, sports, medicine, epic travel, its a matter of blood and sweat and gore and suffering, of life and death, of triumphing over the limits of body and mind, except: Only women can give birth. So birth is imagined as an ingenuous, icky realm for the dull-minded.

Years after her sad birth story, Brodesser-Akner works for a major mens magazine, often writing profiles of celebrated white men. She is famous. Her flight from the realm of childbirth has arguably made her career. For the reverse example, take Elizabeth Gilbert, who went from genius tomboy to loathed emblem of chick lit. Gilbert worked at the same mens magazine. Her first two books have man or men in the title and won critical acclaim. Then she wrote Eat, Pray, Love, a memoir of loss and redemption that found an enormous female audience.

I sort of came out of the closet as a woman, Gilbert once said. Whatever acclaim I had in the world, or however I was known, I was not known as a woman who would write a book like that.  Then, of course, I did get typecast.  Like all of a sudden, my whole history disappeared.

Gilberts experience highlights the danger women writers face in exploring female lives, and indicates the larger cultural positioning of personal writing as less serious, important and difficult than journalism.

For a long time, I too evaded the personal as if it were pastel. Reporting was real, thorny, complicated and intellectual, where the first-person essay was touchy-feely, thinky, oozing with female revelations. To write literary journalism was to enter the elite male world of Gay Talese, who made explicit its maleness last year when he was unable to name a single woman writer whod inspired him. It went without saying that women who wrote nonfiction about themselves, their lives or, God forbid, motherhood, were not within a thousand miles of Taleses radar.

I watched as one after another of my woman writer friends gave up the essay and ventured into the terrain of literary journalism. We followed falconers, we hiked to base camps of intimidating mountains, we traveled with rodeo riders in remote Mexican villages. This led to some fascinating stories, it taught us the rudiments of reporting, and it made us stronger writers. Yet I cant help but think that in our determination to turn our talents away from personal writing, and to be taken seriously by men, we strengthened an existing paradigm that elevates the characteristically male, diminishes the characteristically female, and emphasizes the distinction.

Years later, when Id returned to personal writing after a long stretch of literary journalism, I remembered a grad school nonfiction workshop. We read The Love of My Life, an essay of Cheryl Strayeds that would go on to form part of her book Wild. The workshop destroyed it in the haughty, frightened, eager way of MFA students. When we left the class my best friend turned to me and said, baffled, I used to really love that type of writing.

If we wanted to be serious we learned to get over that love. It was childish, amateur. Another time, in an English department hiring meeting, a dean held up a CV and said, Well, shes got a memoir, but everybodys got a memoir. He tossed the CV aside. The room full of female graduate students internalized this. I internalized this. It comes out now when I say, My book is not really about motherhood.

Yes, my book is about motherhood. Its all about motherhood, and home, and family, and birth. Its about breastfeeding. Its about pregnancy. Its about my grandma. My grandma! I am resisting an overwhelming urge here to let loose with a breathless series of qualifiers: but really its about the existential nature of waiting and the revolutionary nature of boredom and... But I will own it. Its a personal book about personal experience and much of that personal experience is traditionally female.

So far, I have managed to juggle what often seem like the oppositional identities of essayist and journalist. Yet I still feel strangely guilty about the former. In the future, I would love to write a deeply researched and reported book of nonfiction about Mexican immigrants. It is depressing, however, to think that a prestigious literary man might one day glance at my CV and say, Yeah, she wrote that thing about being a mom, but then she went on to do real work.

In 1976, Adrienne Rich wrote in Of Woman Born, As soon as a woman knows that a child is growing in her body, she falls under the power of theories, ideals, archetypes, descriptions of her new existence, almost none of which have come from other women. This is beginning to change. I feel immensely indebted to Louise Erdrich and Anne Enright and Beth Ann Fennelly, whose writing about motherhood yanked me out of despair in early pregnancy and showed me the complexity, beauty and nuance inherent in the experience. To do that for other women, I have realized, means not only writing my book but standing up for it.

Im on the birth beat, I imagine saying, to a male professor or interviewer or audience member, as if Id just been awarded a coveted literary prize. It took me years of work to get here, and what an honor it is to have arrived.

Sarah Menkedicks first book, Homing Instincts: Early Motherhood on a Midwestern Farm, will be published in May.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook
Its been one of President Trumps favorite boasts since he took office: By his order, new oil and gas pipelines built in the U.S. will be made from American steel.

As is often the case, Trump has wrapped the claim into an anecdote he often repeats. Referring to his orders to revive the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects, Trump recalled last month that he interrupted the signing to ask, Who makes those beautiful pipes for the pipeline?

Sir, theyre made outside of this country, came the response.

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I said, No more, no more. So we added a little clause  didnt take much  that [if] you want to build pipelines in this country, youre going to buy your steel, and youre going to have it fabricated, here. Makes sense, right?

The story has proved effective with Trumps audiences, but its not an accurate description of what he did. It took the White House only a couple of weeks after the signing to acknowledge that the Buy America rule would not apply to Keystone. That would be unfair, officials said, because TransCanada, the company building the line, had long ago bought its pipe, some of it made in the U.S., and the rest in Canada, Italy and India.

Even so, White House officials have insisted that all future pipelines will be covered.

Thats not true, either, according to government documents and interviews with officials in the affected industries.

The actual number of pipelines covered by Trumps Buy America rule could well be zero.

Rushing things through is risky. You can end up looking like youre not competent.  John Hudak, Center for Effective Public Management, Brookings Institution

Therein lies a tale about the gap between the presidents sometimes extravagant promises and the reality of his governing. White House officials, when asked about the discrepancy, sought to explain it away by redefining Trumps words  a practice theyve often followed over the last three months.

Trump revels in executive orders. With his legislative program either stymied  as in the case of healthcare  or far behind schedule, Trump has used orders he can sign in front of TV cameras to provide images of decisive action.

But a review by The Times of the 39 orders and presidential memorandums signed by Trump found that fewer than half actually made a substantive change in federal policy. Sixteen of the directives simply told Cabinet agencies to study a problem and come up with recommendations  something that in many cases the agencies had the authority to do even without a formal order.

Of the executive orders that actually did change policy, two  the original and revised versions of Trumps ban on travel to the U.S. by residents of several majority-Muslim countries  have been blocked by courts. Another was a freeze on hiring by federal departments, which the White House rescinded last week after it was blamed for worsening backlogs at Veterans hospitals and Social Security offices. And an order from January, reorganizing the National Security Council to add Trump advisor Stephen K. Bannon, was negated by another earlier this month that took Bannon off the panel.

That leaves about a dozen orders that have truly succeeded in changing policy. Most involve rolling back Obama administration environmental policies or toughening immigration enforcement  two priorities on which the administration has focused sustained attention.

A number of Trumps early executive actions were not well thought-through, said John Hudak, deputy director at the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. Many of them were quite rushed. The president was trying to achieve fairly dramatic public policy change too quickly  as with the travel ban. Rushing things through is risky, he added. You can end up looking like youre not competent.

The directive on using American steel in pipelines illustrates a second risk  actions that dont match the claims that surround them. Although Trump likes to say that he inserted a little clause that put the Buy America requirement into force, the Jan. 24 presidential memorandum does not do that. Instead, it set a broad policy of favoring domestic steel and told the Commerce Department to take six months to come up with a plan to put the requirement into effect to the extent permitted by law.

That language largely negates what Trump claims: Current law almost certainly does not allow the government to impose a domestic-content rule on private companies.

The government lacks statutory authority to tell a private-sector company, building a project financed by private funds, where to buy from, Jeffrey Shoaf, director of government affairs at Associated General Contractors, wrote to Commerce officials in response to their request for public comment on Trumps plan. The association represents companies that build major projects.

Pipelines in the U.S. are almost all funded by private-sector money, not tax funds. They do need federal and state permits before they can be built, but those cover specific purposes, such as guarding U.S. waterways from pollution or protecting endangered species. Grafting a Buy America rule onto permits would be a very dangerous, slippery slope that opens the door to all sorts of federal requirements that have never before been conditions on privately funded construction work, Shoaf wrote.

In interviews, lawyers for pipeline companies took the same position, declining to speak on the record because their clients want to maintain friendly relations with a White House that is actively supporting most of the oil and gas industrys agenda.

At the Commerce Department, officials declined to comment when asked whether they had identified any legal basis for the requirement.

The departments public comment period ended earlier this month, and none of the 81 submissions filed by companies, trade associations and individuals suggested a legal way to enforce Trumps rule.

White House officials, asked about the issue, offered a now-familiar explanation: The presidents words shouldnt be given their literal meaning. While Trump has repeatedly talked about the Buy America policy as a mandatory rule, the officials cast it as an exhortation.

Why wouldnt the president of the United States suggest  and again, I stress the word suggest  that companies who want to do business in America should also use American products? said a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Trump was using the bully pulpit to show companies what the American president would prefer that they do, the official said.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that of course the president is fully aware of the specific language of his own memorandum.

The interpretation that Trump was just offering a suggestion clearly was not what the countrys business leaders heard.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for example, in its submission to the Commerce Department, warned against an unprecedented effort to impose a Buy America requirement on private-sector projects. A core feature of the U.S. free enterprise system  is that private businesses should be free to make purchasing decisions on their own, the Chamber wrote.

Foreign governments didnt see it as a voluntary suggestion, either. Australia, Canada and the European Union all submitted comments warning that a ban on using imported steel would violate U.S. obligations under trade treaties, some of which have been in effect for decades.

Theres also a question about whether domestic steel producers would invest the money to build or upgrade facilities to produce the specialized, hardened steel, up to an inch thick, that is required for big interstate pipelines. Until recently, few domestic producers were in the business, in part because the U.S., which already has more than half a million miles of natural gas transmission pipelines, wasnt building a lot of new capacity.

Some steel companies said they could expand and hire new workers; others, which use foreign steel for part of their supply, said Trumps stringent rule would drive them out of the business and cause layoffs. Companies that build or own pipelines were skeptical that Trumps plan could work.

In a lengthy submission to the Commerce Department, trade associations representing the natural gas industry pointed to recent projects that sought to use more American-made steel. In one case, the groups said, only one domestic mill even bid on the project. Its price was almost double the cost of the other two bids from international suppliers.

Pipeline companies, like other manufacturers, value shorter supply chains over longer ones, the groups wrote. If it were possible to source all materials and equipment within the borders of the U.S. at a competitive cost, companies already would have done so, they said.

The better approach, the gas industry said, would be for the administration to provide incentives to steel companies to produce more  an approach that some administration officials suggested may be what the Commerce Department ultimately will propose when it submits its plan, which is due in late July. Already, the administration says it is helping the steel industry through efforts to roll back environmental rules, cut taxes and stringently enforce rules against foreign companies dumping below-cost steel into the U.S. market.

Incentives could boost domestic steel production somewhat, but would be a far cry from the simple rule Trump repeatedly has proclaimed. Whether voters would hold him accountable for the difference is unclear, said Hudak. If new pipelines come online, few voters are likely to know where the steel came from, he noted, but they may remember Trumps oft-repeated claim that its made in America.

Its actually a pretty meaningless memorandum, he said, but its a communications masterpiece.

Staff writer Brian Bennett contributed to this report.

david.lauter@latimes.com

For more on politics and policy, follow me @DavidLauter.

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Georgia voters in this reliably Republican district may be preparing to stick it to Trump

President Trump has backed off many of his provocative foreign policy promises
The next national census is still three years away, but national advocacy groups say the government is running out of time and money to do it right.

Despite sweeping plans to change how citizens are counted in the constitutionally required census, observers say the U.S. Census Bureau wont be able to fully make the switch if Congress doesnt act soon to increase the bureaus budget.

How important is the decennial census? Among other things, the count of the nations population is used to draw congressional districts. And in 2010, California nearly lost in Congress because the census found the states population didnt grow as quickly as other states. NALEO Educational Fund, a Latino advocacy group among those raising census funding concerns, estimated last year that thousands of Latino children in the Los Angeles area werent counted in the 2010 census.

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In 2020, the Census Bureau plans to count people through online and phone surveys, rather than just using mailed surveys or workers knocking on doors. It would be a tectonic shift in the way the government counts the estimated 330 million people in the country.

The Census Bureau hopes using more technology would make the count more accurate and could help shave $5 billion from what was otherwise expected to be a more than $17-billion price tag for the prep work and the census itself.

But to do that, the bureau has to build new systems and test them extensively. The Census Bureau has already canceled a handful of tests of the new methods, including one in Puerto Rico to examine its ability to collect data only in Spanish, citing uncertainty over the census budget. A test of collecting data digitally in several Asian languages held in Los Angeles last summer went forward.

In 2018, the Census Bureau is supposed to hold the final, large-scale test that serves as a dress rehearsal for the 2020 census.

If Congress really wants the bureau to save those $5 billion in 2020, they need to spend the money now to get it right. Theres no do-overs come 2020, said the NALEO Educational Funds executive director, Arturo Vargas, who lives in Los Angeles.

The Census Bureau has scuttled plans to do things differently before: Just before the 2010 census, the bureau dropped plans to collect information door to door on hand-held computers and sent people out with paper forms instead. The abrupt change cost billions.

Congress didnt pass a budget last year. Instead, it kept most government agency funding at the same amount through what is called a continuing resolution. And it is widely expected to pass another one before the end of this month. The problem is the costs of planning the census are expected to surge soon as the bureau makes final preparations.

If Congress doesnt fund the ramp-up now, the bureau may not be in the position where it will have sufficiently tested all of its innovations so it can pull off the 2020 census as it has been planning, Vargas said.

That concern was echoed by the Government Accountability Office in February, when it added the 2020 census to its list of most at-risk government programs.

These innovations show promise for a more cost-effective head count, the February report states. However, they also introduce new risks, in part, because they include new procedures and technology that have not been used extensively in earlier decennials, if at all.

The new counting methods, which would include using digital maps to determine if a home is occupied and should be sent a census form rather than sending a person to check, have concerned some Republican members of Congress. Because the count dictates so much, Congress has for years been reluctant to allow changes, and some senators and representatives have questioned whether the bureau can get the technology in place by 2020.

Census Bureau staff said they are keeping an eye out for the presidents full budget, which should be released in mid-May, but said they were heartened his preliminary budget indicated he wanted Congress to appropriate $1.5 billion for the bureau, about $100 million more than it got last last year.

Still, that is about $135 million less than it requested for this fiscal year. In anticipation of the ramp-up before the census, the bureau asked for a 21% increase in funding.

The White House budget office told Politico it considers its proposed increase enough for the Census Bureau to make the upgrades now.

But Congress can and often does craft a budget separate from what the president proposes, so worried advocacy groups have begun sounding the alarm on Capitol Hill.

Los Angeles is keeping a close watch as well, Mayor Eric Garcettis spokesman said.

Everyone who lives in Los Angeles should be counted in the census. The mayor is concerned about any funding cuts that might jeopardize the integrity of the count  especially at a time when some in our communities may feel uneasy about interacting with the federal government, said spokesman George Kivork.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

sarah.wire@latimes.com

Twitter: @sarahdwire

Read more about the 55 members of Californias delegation at latimes.com/politics.

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Updates on California politics
If theres one thing Jed Wheeler and Marcus Ruiz Evans agree on, its that things in California need to change.

The state sends too much money to Washington, they say, and is both politically and culturally out of step with a country that lacks its openness and vitality.

We can solve our own problems and dont need to wait on a government 3,000 miles away, said Wheeler, echoing Evans suggestion that Democratic-leaning California would be far better off going it alone as a separate country.

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They sharply disagree, though, on the matter of how and precisely when California should seek a divorce from the other 49 states.

Evans is pushing a ballot measure that would put the question of secession before voters in 2018, believing the time has never been so ripe to form a breakaway nation. Wheeler is working to create a pro-secession political party, looking a dozen or more years down the road when its candidates hold office, and fears that a premature vote would undermine the effort.

In short, the effort to cleave California faces a crackup of its own.

At least four proposals are floating about to reshape the state in some fashion, including two that would split up California along different axes. All work at cross-purposes, and the result is varied degrees of hostility among proponents; none of the plans seems likely to reach fruition anytime soon, if ever.

That is something they have in common.

Since 1849, when the state was remade in a rush of greed and ambition, there have been more than 200 efforts to split apart, pull away or otherwise reimagine the vast empire known as California. Not one has succeeded.

The latest, most conspicuous attempt, a proposed ballot initiative fueled by anti-Trump sentiments and titillated national media coverage (those wacky Californians!) seems destined to fall short of qualifying for the ballot, barring a sudden change in fortune.

Supporters of the measure, led by Evans, have until July 25 to collect nearly 600,000 valid signatures to place an independence measure before voters in November 2018. The group, which received the go-ahead to collect signatures at the end of January, has yet to reach a quarter of that number, according to the California secretary of states office.

The group has also not reported raising any campaign contributions, according to the secretarys office, which oversees elections.

Evans, 40, a former government affairs consultant now working full-time on the Calexit campaign, insisted a robust signature-gathering process was underway, engaging thousands of volunteers in 82 chapters across the state. However, the precise number collected was unknown, he said, because of the loose structure of his pro-secession group, Yes California.

Some are mailing them in. Some are holding them. Some are taking them directly to their county registrar of voters, he said. Asked to assess the odds of making the ballot, Evans responded, Good. I wont say great.

The effort, uphill from the start, has not been helped, he said, by reports linking the Calexit movement to Russia, which Evans called preposterous and unfair. The co-leader of Yes California is Louis Marinelli, a former San Diego-area Assembly candidate now teaching English in Russia, where, among promotional activities, he appeared last fall at a Kremlin-backed pro-secession conference in Moscow.

It has definitely been damaging to us getting big donors and hurting our ability to bring on new members because of clouding the issue without accurately reporting all the facts, Evans said, citing the organizations 44,000 likes on Facebook as just one example.

Nor, he said, was it beneficial when Nigel Farage, a leading proponent of Britains exit from the European Union and prominent Trump supporter, recently flitted into California to talk up a vague plan to split the state down the middle, creating a coastal West California and interior East California.

Theyre trying to confuse people, Evans huffed. Classic Trump.

It seems Evans and his pro-secession movement might have found an ally in Wheeler and others working to form a political party dedicated to achieving state independence. Many tenets of the left-leaning California National Party  the state needs to keep more of the money it sends to Washington and establish home-grown policies on issues such as immigration and healthcare  echo those propounded by Yes California.

The nascent party has taken no official position on the 2018 secession drive. But Wheeler, the partys vice chairman, believes the initiative would lose, damaging the independence movement. Better, he said, to elect sympathetic lawmakers under the National Party banner who could then work to bring about Californias eventual departure.

Were trying to be very pragmatic and realistic where we are as a movement, said Wheeler, 36, who works for a digital media company in San Francisco.

While the idea of having a ballot initiative is seductive and appeals to a lot of people, he said, you cant harvest the crop without the work of planting the seeds, then tilling the soil and all that stuff first.

In Californias far north, a determined group of dissenters have done that labor for decades  so far to no avail.

Efforts have been underway since before World War II to break off more than a dozen rural counties and combine them with a chunk of southern Oregon to form Jefferson, the nations 51st state.

The impetus is the same that drives backers of secession: the notion of a far-off government (in this case, Sacramento) ignoring local sentiments and a sense of being outnumbered and outvoted by a population whose social and political views are at odds with the prevailing (in this instance, conservative) culture. The proposed flag  a pair of Xs, or double cross  captures the animating sentiment.

We really dont have fair representation, said Terry Rapoza, 67, a leader of the Jefferson movement in Shasta County, where he sells T-shirts and other souvenir clothing in Redding.

He cited recent passage of a 10-year, $52-billion road repair and transportation bill; the hike in gas taxes, he said, will have much less impact in urban California than in rural stretches, where people might drive 20 miles to the grocery store, or a dozen miles to pick up their mail.

But he has little use for secession, which strikes him as bizarre  would the new California nation have its own nuclear arsenal and U.N. representative, he wonders  and fruitless in ending the urban-rural divide he blames for persistently short-changing his part of the state.

Theres something wrong and even vaguely un-American, he suggested, about trying to break the country apart. We want to add a star to the flag, Rapoza said. Not take one off.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

@markzbarabak on Twitter

ALSO

The cost of Californias public pensions is rising fast. But efforts to fix the problem by ballot measure have fizzled

What Californians need to know about the states $52-billion transportation plan

California is sick of being a presidential campaign afterthought. Heres one lawmakers fix
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.
We bend our knees to humble oneself, my kumu, or hula teacher, said as the eight women swayed their hips.

I had been taking hula classes in Northern California for months, and as a dancer I had expected to easily pick up the eight traditional steps of this ancient dance.

Yet as I swayed side to side, I couldnt embrace fully what my dance teachers called the soul of the movement. Hula, it seemed, was as foreign to me as the culture that gave birth to this sacred dance.

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Stories vary, but the most popular tale says Hawaiian goddesses introduced this complex art at Lohiaus Temple on the north shore of Kauai. Hula blended simple footwork with hand gestures to illustrate the myths and histories of each family group. These stories could be passed down only from the kings, or alii, and kumu hula.

Fast forward a few centuries, and here I was learning the koholo (a side step that appears in most every hula) in a chilly studio on the California coast.

As I watched my kumu shake her head at my attempts, I decided to head to Oahu to learn more about this ancient dance so I could fully connect with its movements.

Retracing the steps

Theres no better showcase for the history of hula than Honolulus Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. Its 125-year-old Hawaiian hall is filled with artifacts from Tahitians who settled on the islands from the ninth to 13th centuries and were thought to be the first to use hula as a cultural glue.

In the hall, I found on display hula instruments such as handmade drums made of sharkskin and ipu (gourds). The pahu, a large drum made from the breadfruit tree, is used only for the hula kahiko, a chant-led dance typically performed for special events such as the Merrie Monarch festival, an annual hula competition that begins today and continues through Saturday in Hilo on Hawaii Island. I had never seen the instrument, considered the heartbeat of the dance, in my classes at home.

That night I attended the Diamond Head Luau on the grounds of the Waikiki Aquarium overlooking the Pacific. Before the show, hula performer Taina Malu explained to me that the missionaries considered hula dirty (all those women without tops), and so they abolished the dance.

With no written language, dancers gathered in private to memorize not only chants but also to remember their ancestors, histories and legends.

King Kalakaua returned hula to the mainstream in 1880, calling the dance the heartbeat of Hawaii. Hollywood then embraced the hula in the 1950s, which Malu said caused the dance to change.

The stories told for tourists now are tales of Pacific Islander dance rather than tales of Hawaiis history. As I watched the hula performers rapid musical changes and upbeat choreography, I understood what Malu meant about modern audiences expecting a faster, more vigorous form of dance and not the traditional gentle storytelling.

Learning the dance

The next day I tried to find a hula class open to the public, but the concierge at my hotel explained that other than at luaus, hula is not a tourist experience.

Hula schools pride themselves in creating long-lasting communities, calling themselves hula sisters and brothers, and usually do not offer drop-in hula classes to outsiders.

The kumus undergo decades of training, and many of their schools practice all year for the Merrie Monarch Festival. Kumus and schools secure bragging rights and boost enrollment with a Merrie Monarch win, often practicing one dance all year.

The concierge said that if I wanted to experience traditional hula outside a hula school, I should attend the free class at the Royal Hawaiian Center taught by kumu Puakeala Mann. Later that morning I joined about 50 students under a banyan tree in the Royal Grove to study the choreography for that week.

Like my teacher on the mainland, Mann used lyrics to help dancers remember the hand gestures, explaining how the movements corresponded to the story.

When we talked about aloha (the Hawaiian concept of love), we embraced our own bodies and then swooped our arms open as if embracing the entire island with that love. I swayed with the warm breeze, stepping side to side, the sound of songbirds high in the trees.

At last I was expressing emotion, as if the language of hula was coming from within, but something still wasnt quite right.

Later that evening, before she took the stage, I asked hula performer Kanoe Miller at the Halekulanis House Without a Key what was missing from my understanding of this sacred dance.

She said, Go sit on the sand and be quiet. Watch how the waves move; theyre just like our hands, feet and hips. She raised her hands to greet the sea, moving her body in sync with the lapping water.

Before flying home, I visited to Kauais Kee Beach, which many people consider the birthplace of hula, at the end of the road on the north shore.

Locals had preserved the foundation of Lohiaus Temple, creating a heiau, or sacred space, where hula enthusiasts can pay their respects to the goddesses who first brought dance to the ancients.

I placed a lei on the lava rock, giving thanks for the history of this sacred dance. Then I slipped into the water, my hips swaying with the momentum of the sea. I felt nature take over, and I suddenly understood that hula dancers must embody the elements in order to share the stories of Hawaii.

If you go

THE BEST WAY TO HONOLULU

From LAX: United, Delta, Hawaiian and American offer nonstop service to Honolulu, and American, United, Hawaiian, Delta and Alaska offer connecting service (change of planes). Restricted round-trip fares from $536, including taxes and fees.

WHAT TO DO

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice St., Honolulu; (808) 847-3511, www.bishopmuseum.org. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas. $22.95 for adults; $19.95 for 65 and older; $14.95 for children 4-12.

Diamond Head Luau, 2777 Kalakaua Ave., Honolulu (888) 589-5006, www.diamondheadbeachluau.com. Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. $99 for adults, $69 for children ages 4 to 12.

Royal Hawaiian Center, 2201 Kalakaua Ave., Honolulu; (808) 922-2299, www.royalhawaiiancenter.com. Free hula, ukulele, massage and craft classes in the heart of Waikiki. Hour-long hula instruction Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

House Without a Key, 2199 Kalia Road, Honolulu; (808) 923-2311, www.halekulani.com. Dinner entrees from $28.

travel@latimes.com
I read the recent article about Puerto Escondido with great interest [Good Life on the Cheap, by Nick Hilden, April 2].

My wife and I first visited there in 1978. At that time, they had just gotten electricity and there were no paved roads in town except the coast highway.

We stayed in a campground near the beach for $1 U.S. per night. We bought sandwiches for a few pesos from a friendly local who had a small restaurant on the beach.

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Even at that time, the town was famous among the surfers of the world.

We went back many years later, only to discover that our little restaurant on the beach now had white-jacketed waiters and that there was a Golds Gym near the beach with an adjacent bar where nobody spoke Spanish.

My wifes reaction was to turn to me and say, Get me out of here!

Jack Rogers

Long Beach

Indian visas

Regarding For This Visa, Consider a Pro, On the Spot by Catharine Hamm, April 2: In February, I applied for an Indian visa online and did not receive an email confirmation of approval. I had noticed that there was an option for checking on the status, which I did and found it marked as granted and printed it out. No problem.

The best website is indianvisaonline.gov.in, then click on the E-visa tab on the right-hand side.

Lonnie Horn

Irvine

I must disagree with the advice given in On the Spot. We left for India on Feb.14, and I had little trouble filling out the online visa application. You need not complete it in one sitting  you get a code that enables you to return to your application  and after you pay online you receive the authorization by email. You may apply for a visa 30 days before departure. I would certainly try the online method before using a much more expensive visa service. I am not an IT person, but a 73-year-old retiree.

Betsy Handler

Pacific Palisades

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel
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North Korea attempted a new missile launch from an eastern city on the Sea of Japan early Sunday, but the operation ended in failure shortly after launch, U.S. and South Korean officials said.

It was not clear whether it was a long-range ballistic missile, but the attempted launch in South Hamgyong province, near a major submarine base at Sinpo, was a sign of the secretive countrys continuing attempts to develop an aggressive weapons program.

U.S. Pacific Command said it detected a missile about 6:20 a.m. Korean time. The device apparently blew up almost instantly, Cmdr. Dave Benham, a command spokesman, said in a statement. The type of missile is still unknown, he said.

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As of Sunday morning, North Korean state media hasnt reported on the test failure. Even government minders chaperoning foreign journalists on a tour of Pyongyang did not know that it had happened.

On Pyongyangs streets, the mood was calm. Residents  on a three-day vacation for the 105th birthday of the countrys founder-president Kim Il Sung  relaxed in rowboats on the Taedong River, which runs through the city, and roller-skated in a small park.

They lined up by the hundreds to file through a flower exhibition where models of intercontinental ballistic missiles were flanked by displays of flowers named for Kim and his son, Kim Jong Il, who ruled the country until his death in 2011.

This is to demonstrate the might of our national defense, said a guide in a traditional Korean dress. The scientists and technicians working in national defense, they show their respectful feelings for our president Kim Il Sung.

The missile launched Sunday was never a threat to the United States mainland, though North Koreas increasingly sophisticated weapons are considered a threat to its neighbors, including South Korea and Japan.

U.S. Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security, Benham said.

The test missile launch fell short of international fears that the secretive state would attempt its sixth test of a nuclear weapon.

In Washington, the reaction was muted.

The president and his military team are aware of North Koreas most recent unsuccessful missile launch, U.S. Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said in a statement. The president has no further comment.

The launch came as Vice President Mike Pence flew to Seoul for a 10-day Asia trip intended to discuss North Koreas nuclear ambitions and assure allies in the region.

North Korea has been conducting frequent tests of ballistic missiles as part of its program to develop a missile capable of reaching the continental United States  a goal many analysts say is at least a decade away.

The attempted launch on Sunday came a day after a massive military parade in Pyongyang, hosted in celebration of the 105th birthday of Kim Il Sung.

On April 15, 2016, North Korea also attempted the test launch of a medium-range ballistic missile, apparently to mark the founders birthday. That test also failed, but the effort nonetheless drew condemnation from the United Nations Security Council.

The attempted launch, failed or not, is a pointed rebuke at strengthened warnings from China and the U.S., and raises concerns that North Korea is attempting to continue its advance toward becoming a nuclear state despite years of effort by the international community to curb the countrys atomic program.

North Korea conducted the test at the same time that it invited dozens of foreign journalists for a rare glimpse inside the reclusive state  and as the worlds attention is focused on the region.

The isolated nation has conducted at least 50 missile tests since the dynastic young ruler Kim Jong Un took power after his fathers death in 2011, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan research group in Washington that maintains a database of the nations activities.

That includes two dozen since the beginning of 2016, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The North successfully launched a medium-range missile, called the KN-15, on the morning of April 5 from a land-based site near the eastern port city of Sinpo, according to U.S. Pacific Command headquarters.

It traveled for nine minutes before landing in the East Sea, as have other recent missiles. That missile test prompted a quick response from U.S. military officials who monitor the Norths airspace for provocations; they said it never posed a threat to the American mainland.

North Korea launched the first ballistic missile under President Trump a month after he took office.

The rogue state is still technically at war with South Korea, a U.S. ally that has about 28,000 American forces stationed on bases that are largely within a few hundred miles of the shared Korean border.

North Koreas military, in a statement released Friday through the official Korean Central News Agency, warned it would ruthlessly ravage the U.S. if it came under attack.

The country has handed a lengthy prison sentence to an American tourist, and been accused by South Korea of sneaking across the border in 2015 and planting land mines that severely injured two soldiers.

Malaysian authorities have also accused North Korea of helping carry out the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of Kim Jong Un. That attack  during the day at a crowded Kuala Lumpur international airport  allegedly involved VX nerve agent, a banned chemical weapon.

The North, which security experts say could have more than a dozen nuclear devices, first conducted an underground test in 2006. The tests power has increased over time, and last year state media reported advancements in the miniaturization and manufacturing of nuclear warheads in addition to its strongest experiment to date in September.

The standardization of the nuclear warhead will enable the DPRK to produce at will and as many as it wants a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power, the government said in September, using a preferred acronym to identify the country.

This has definitely put on a higher level the DPRKs technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles.

Security experts in recent years have begun to shift their focus away from disarming the country to studying methods for deterring the countrys desire to use them  and also thinking about limiting its ability to deliver them.

At the same time, the North has made steady progress in its land- and sea-based missile programs, which already have the ability to strike regional American allies in Seoul or Tokyo. In a televised New Years Day message this year, Kim boasted that the country was also making significant progress in its effort to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking American targets in the Pacific Ocean, or perhaps even the U.S. mainland.

We see the North Korean weapons programs as increasingly destabilizing, both for Northeast Asia and for the globe, said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton.

A looming concern for American officials is the extent to which China can  or is willing to  apply additional economic pressure to persuade the North to denuclearize, or perhaps to talk about it. Trump said recently that the United States would tackle the problem alone, if needed, a posture questioned by experts who note the issues regional complexity.

We want to see even better cooperation to try to bring about a solution to the North Korea threat, but well certainly be talking to them about what more they can do, and we are looking to them to be doing more in the future, Thornton said.

China, which has supported international sanctions efforts, also fears destabilizing the Kim government. If the country were to fall, the Chinese face the prospect of a refugee crisis on their shared border or, perhaps more troubling to them, a united Korea backed by the United States.

Wang Yi, Chinas foreign minister, on Friday warned that conflict could break out at any moment and cautioned both sides to stay calm.

Once a war really happens, the result will be nothing but multiple loss, he said. No one can become a winner.

jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com

Special correspondents Stiles reported from Seoul and Meyers from Beijing, and Times staff writer Kaiman reported from Pyongyang, North Korea. Times staff writer W.J. Hennigan contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

ALSO

Timeline: How North Korea has pushed to become a nuclear power

North Korea: A potential train wreck in motion

North Korea puts its long-range missiles on parade in massive military show

UPDATES:

7:45 p.m.: This story was updated with details from Pyongyang, North Korea.

5:30 p.m.: The story was updated with a statement from the U.S. defense secretary.

4:35 p.m.: The story was updated with a statement from U.S. Pacific Command.

This story was originally published at 4:25 p.m.
Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday described Norths Koreas latest missile launch as the type of provocation that the Trump administration is resolved to confront. But the White House said it did not see a need for a U.S. response because the test was a failure.

This mornings provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face each and every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world, Pence told U.S. troops at a dinner in Seoul at the start of a long-planned visit aimed in part at reassuring a nervous ally.

Our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger, and with your help and Gods help, freedom will ever prevail on this peninsula.

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Pences first official trip to Asia as vice president, part of a 10-day regional tour, gained new significance over the weekend as North Korea attempted to project its military might.

Tension between North Korea and the United States had already reached levels not seen in years. Both countries exchanged heated rhetoric in recent days about Pyongyangs advancing nuclear and missile programs, and an American aircraft supercarrier group was diverted to waters off the peninsula in a show of force.

The vice president landed in Seoul on Sunday just hours after North Korea launched what security officials believe was a medium-range ballistic missile near the seaside city of Sinpo  a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The missile test apparently failed, but the intent still prompted concern among American officials and the South Korean government.

The previous day, North Korea paraded dozens of missiles and other military hardware through the streets of its capital in a massive, choreographed display of its advancing military capability  and its defiance of other nations desire to contain it.

The vice president, his aides said, learned about the missile test en route to South Korea, about an hour after taking off from Anchorage. Pence then discussed the issue with President Trump, who in recent days has made several tough statements about North Korea on social media.

Speaking on ABCs This Week, Trumps national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, said the president will take action if North Korea continues to threaten the U.S. But he did not offer specifics about what kind of action the administration is contemplating.

McMaster reiterated the administrations contention that China, North Koreas only big ally, should take a greater role in exerting economic pressure on Pyongyang to cease its nuclear ambitions.

On the plane, a White House foreign policy advisor who briefed a pool of reporters suggested that the U.S. knew about the launch before it happened, and said that it appeared to be a test of a medium-range missile, not an intercontinental ballistic missile.

We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch, the advisor said, speaking on condition of anonymity. It failed after about four to five seconds.

He said there was no point in the U.S. taking any action in response to the launch. Its a failed test, it follows another failed test, so [theres] really no need to reinforce their failure.

However, he added: Weve got options; weve got a range of options both militarily, diplomatic and others, so we have a wide array of tools at [our] disposal for the president should he choose to use them.

Other Trump administration officials also downplayed the significance of the test, one of two dozen since the beginning of 2016. Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said officials were aware of the incident but that the president has no further comment.

Trump did tweet about North Korea on Sunday, suggesting that China was working with his administration on a solution to the problem.

Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

Some analysts who study North Korea have been anticipating a more provocative act: an underground nuclear test, which would be the rogue states sixth in the last decade.

Such an action would be more alarming because it could signal continued advancement in the countrys goal to arm missiles with powerful warheads that can be deployed by land or sea.

North Korea has carried out roughly 50 ballistic missile launches since Kim Jong Un took office.

Such launches violate United Nations Security Council resolutions calling on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and refrain from ballistic missile tests.

Many such tests have been successful, with the devices traveling hundreds of miles before landing safely in adjacent seas. None has threatened the U.S. mainland, though Kim has said that remains a national goal.

Submarine missiles are taken across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Saturday. (Wong Maye-E / Associated Press)

Many of the nations missiles are, however, capable of striking targets in Seoul and Tokyo  strong American allies.

North Koreas last unsuccessful test was believed to have been in late March, when another missile failed at launch, preventing analysts from studying imagery that might have provided clues about the devices provenance and capability.

Regardless of the outcome, each attempt probably helps Pyongyang refine its capabilities.

You can still learn things from failures, said David Schmerler, a research associate with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif., who focuses on North Koreas missile and nuclear programs.

The next time they launch, he said after the last attempt, they might have a better chance of successfully doing so.

Despite this latest failure, concern from the South Korean military  still technically at war with the North and always on alert  was swift.

The government condemns this clear threat to the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the international community, the Defense Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

In Seoul, Pence spent Easter Sunday at a church service with some of the 28,000 U.S. forces stationed in South Korea. He also visited Seoul National Cemetery, placing a wreath at a memorial wall.

On Monday, he made an unannounced visit by helicopter to the demilitarized zone, a buffer area along the North-South border that he called the frontier of freedom.

He also had meetings scheduled with South Koreas acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, Chung Sye-kyun, speaker of the national legislature, and business leaders here.

He next travels to Japan, Indonesia and Australia before returning to the United States.

Stiles is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.

Twitter: @stiles

ALSO

Trump administration faces few good military options in North Korea

Former Defense Secretary William Perry on why we didnt go to war with North Korea

Why a North Korean leader called a gleaming new neighborhood more powerful than 100 nuclear warheads

UPDATES:

8:10 p.m.: This article was updated with Pence making an unannounced visit to the demilitarized zone.

4:43 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from President Trumps national security advisor, H.R. McMaster.

11:10 a.m.: This article was updated with further comment from a White House foreign policy advisor.

This article was originally posted at 9:30 a.m.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed victory Sunday in his bid to replace Turkeys parliamentary democracy with an all-powerful presidential system, and hinted that he may reinstitute the death penalty, a move that would all but end Turkeys bid for membership in the European Union.

But the result of the national referendum itself was under challenge as the main opposition party charged that a last-minute change in the counting rules opened the way to massive fraud.

The package of 18 constitutional amendments will eliminate the post of prime minister and give the president the power to name his government, without requiring approval from the parliament. It will also expand his control over the judiciary, which is already largely subservient to Erdogan.

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The changes, which would take effect in 2019, also would allow Erdogan to run for two additional five-year terms, and possibly a third. Opponents say the referendum could be the end of democracy in Turkey.

The vote was close. With all ballots counted, Erdogan had racked up 24.9 million yes votes to 23.6 million no votes, a margin of 51.3% to 48.6%, according to the state Anadolu news agency.

The southeast of Turkey voted decisively against the changes, as did Aegean coastal districts. Also voting no, although by slimmer margins, were Istanbul, Ankara and other major cities.

But Erdogans Justice and Democracy Party swept nearly all of the Anatolian heartland, as it had in the last national parliamentary elections in November 2016.

According to the opposition Republican Peoples Party, or CHP, 2.5 million votes were suspect because they lacked the stamp of the Supreme Election Board, which oversees the elections, or were subject to other irregularities.

The board, whose membership is dominated by members of Erdogans party, announced halfway through the voting that it had received complaints that envelopes containing the ballot papers were missing that stamp. But it ruled that the ballots would be declared invalid only if it could be proven that they were cast fraudulently.

The Supreme Election Board has changed the rules of the vote, said Bulent Tezcan, a CHP deputy chairman. This amounts to  allowing fraud in this vote.

Erdal Aksunger, another deputy CHP leader, said 2.5 million votes are in dispute, and in some areas, such as the predominantly Kurdish southeast, almost half the votes could be challenged.

He estimated that 1.5 million unstamped envelopes and voting papers were given to voters, and there were also many incidents in which envelopes and voting papers were stamped after the ballots were opened.

There are 2.5 million suspicious votes. Altogether, it seems this was a well-organized operation, he told The Times.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the CHP chairman, promised to challenge the boards contradictory decision in the courts. Election law stipulates that envelopes will be invalid without stamps, he told supporters at the partys Ankara headquarters.

Erdogan declared victory before the election board had announced the result. Speaking of a historic decision, he said critics shouldnt try to belittle the results. It will be in vain, he said.

And in remarks portending tense times ahead in Turkeys relations with Europe, he responded to chants from the crowd calling for a reinstatement of the death penalty, which Turkey dropped in 2004 as part of its bid to join the EU. Erdogan said he was ready for that issue and might even put it to a referendum.

If he proceeds, Turkeys EU bid is effectively over. The EU insists that its members abolish the death penalty.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, sounding a more conciliatory note, declared there were no losers in the referendum but that the Turkish nation had won.

We are brothers, we are one body, we are one nation, he said, appearing at the balcony of his official residence.

Kilicdaroglu charged that the referendum had been staged under unequal conditions and the outcome would do nothing to reconcile the countrys divisions.

This referendum showed that at least 50% of the society says no to that constitution, he said.

The opposition leader himself is under fire for tepid leadership in comparison with the charismatic Erdogan, and when he arrived at CHP headquarters, a group awaiting him chanted that he should resign. But another faction quickly assembled and chanted: Kilicdaroglu, the hope of the people.

A colleague said that Kilicdaroglu deliberately kept his remarks low-key, fearing that if supporters emotions ran free, it could lead to clashes with Erdogan backers, causing deaths and even civil war.

Erdogan, who took the leading role in the campaign for a yes vote, claimed a presidential system will be more efficient in addressing Turkeys myriad security challenges. These include a Kurdish insurgency in the southeast, threats from Islamic State extremists based in neighboring Syria and the aftermath of a failed coup last July, which he has blamed on a Muslim preacher living in U.S. exile.

His opponents say the changes will lead to one-man rule and possibly a dictatorship.

Gutman is a special correspondent.

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UPDATES:

5:10 p.m.: This article has been updated throughout with quotes, analysis, background and latest vote totals.

11:35 a.m.: This article has been updated with Erdogan declaring victory.

This article was originally posted at 10:25 a.m.
Italian rescue ships have plucked some 2,000 migrants from unseaworthy smugglers boats off the coast of Libya, with hundreds of them arriving Saturday in southern Italian ports.

One rescue ship brought 504 migrants and one corpse to Pozzallo, Sicily, and another boat brought about 500 other migrants to Augusta, Sicily.

In all, Italys coast guard coordinated about 20 separate rescues on Friday. The rest of the migrants were due to reach Calabria on the Italian mainland on Sunday.

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Separately, authorities said Saturday that 40 Algerians in three small boats had reached Sardinias coast.

So far this year, some 29,000 migrants, most of them fleeing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, have arrived in Italy after being rescued by European military ships or private charity organizations. Their numbers are expected to rise with springs good weather.

In Spain, the countrys maritime rescue said Saturday that it had rescued 125 migrants in three small boats trying to make nighttime crossings from Africa in three smuggling boats.

The first boat, carrying 41 men and 11 women of sub-Saharan origin, was found by rescue teams shortly after midnight in the Alboran Sea east of the Strait of Gibraltar.

A second group of 62 North African males, including 11 minors, was packed into a wooden boat when rescued just west of the Strait in the Atlantic Ocean.

Eleven more migrants were pulled from a small vessel in the Mediterranean Sea after a NATO aircraft alerted the rescue service.

Meanwhile in northern France, officials say an operation to shelter more than 1,000 migrants has ended, five days after the camp they were staying in outside the port city of Dunkirk burned down.

The prefecture for the Nord said a total of 1,061 migrants were given new shelter as of Saturday, most sent to migrant centers around France. About 30 others were arrested by border police for alleged links to people smugglers or for disturbing public order.

The migrants, most looking to cross the English Channel to Britain, were without shelter after a fire ravaged the wooden shelters of the Grande-Synthe camp, opened last year by Doctors Without Borders.
A former Mexican governor who fled the country to avoid facing corruption charges has been arrested in Guatemala, authorities said.

Former Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte had been on the run since October, shortly after he resigned his post amid a series of allegations that included money laundering, involvement with organized crime and various acts of fraud.

Duarte was arrested Saturday in Guatemala and will be extradited to face charges in Mexico, according to a statement released Saturday night by Mexican prosecutors.

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Once seen as a promising young member of Mexicos long-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party, Duarte instead became a symbol of the corruption engrained deep in Mexicos institutions. He is one of several former governors who are currently facing charges of corruption.

Prosecutors have accused him of setting up shell companies to divert public funds for his private use and of having connections to the criminal groups that have made Veracruz one of Mexicos most violent states.

After his resignation Oct. 12, Duarte disappeared, leading Mexican authorities to launch a global manhunt.

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UPDATES:

12:45 a.m.: This story was updated throughout with staff reporting.

This story was originally published at 9:15 p.m.
Another journalist has been killed in Mexico  the fourth in just six weeks.

Authorities said reporter Maximino Rodriguez Palacios was shot dead outside of a shopping center Friday in La Paz, a coastal city in the state of Baja California Sur.

Rodriguez, 72, wrote about politics and crime for a news organization called the Pericu Collective. He had previously worked as a spokesman for the state attorney generals office.

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Fridays shooting is the latest in a string of violent attacks on journalists in Mexico that has claimed four lives since March 2 and has left several others wounded. The attacks have drawn condemnation from human rights advocates, with the Committee to Protect Journalists calling the situation in Mexico a crisis of freedom of expression.

Mexicos human rights commission, which on Saturday said it was sending investigators to La Paz to monitor the police investigation into the killing, has convened emergency talks with law enforcement officials from around the country to discuss how to better protect journalists.

Mexico is the worlds third-most dangerous country for journalists, after Syria and Afghanistan, according to Reporters Without Borders. Since 2000, 124 journalists have been killed, according to Mexicos human rights commission.

But recent weeks have been especially bad.

On March 23, a well-known investigative reporter for the national La Jornada was gunned down in the northern state of Chihuahua while driving with one of her children. On March 19, columnist Ricardo Monlui was shot twice as he left a restaurant with his wife and son in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz. And on March 2, Cecilio Pineda Birto, a freelancer and the founder of La Voz de Tierra Caliente, was shot and killed at a car wash in Guerrero state.

The situation has gotten so bad that one newspaper, in the border city of Juarez, decided this month to shut down because violence against journalists was preventing us from continuing freely with our work, its editor said.

The recent uptick in deaths corresponds with a broader increase in violence across Mexico, where more people were killed in January of this year than in any previous January on record.

Baja California Sur, an international tourist destination that was long untouched by drug war violence in other parts of the country, has become increasingly dangerous as cartels vie for its strategic drug smuggling routes.

The state had a murder rate of 71 per 100,000 people in January. By comparison, the homicide rate in the United States last year was just 5 per 100,000 people.

Rodriguez had covered the increase in crime in his home state for the Pericu Collective. He documented killings on a regular basis, and also wrote a column that touched on controversial topics. He recently wrote about a local union whose boss Rodriguez alleged was corrupt.

According to a statement about the shooting on the Pericu Collectives website, Rodriguez was helping his wife out of their car in a parking lot when assailants in a white truck opened fire. Rodriguez wife, also a journalist, survived the attack.

Cuauhtemoc Morgan, the director of the Pericu Collective, said that authorities must solve this and many other crimes that remain unpunished and have left families shattered by pain.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

Twitter: @katelinthicum
On the eve of Christianitys holiest day, Coptic Christian families filed past armed guards and a metal detector to the chapel beside St. Marks Cathedral, where 29 of their loved ones were killed by an Islamic State suicide bomb attack before Christmas. The marble columns still bear large pockmarks gouged out by the explosion.

A week earlier, Islamic State bombers killed 45 people gathered for Palm Sunday at churches to the north in Alexandria and Tanta.

Death is not far from us, said Sandra Joseph, 22, a student at local Ain Shams University who helped usher several hundred people in for the service at the Chapel of St. Peter and Paul. We got used to explosions.

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As they had waited to enter the cathedrals walled church complex  on edge after the attacks and fatigued by 55 days of fasting for Lent  some worshipers worried aloud about a possible drive-by shooting. Once inside, they felt a bit safer.

Holy Week, which culminates with the celebration of Easter Sunday, recalls Jesus Christs rejection and journey down the via dolorosa, the sorrowful road, on the way to crucifixion. Across the Middle East this Easter season, Christians are traversing their own difficult path, gathering to worship even as they are attacked and displaced by Muslim extremists.

In Iraq, Christian villages outside Mosul freed from militants remain abandoned, residents unwilling to return for fear they will be killed. In Syria and Jordan, armed guards patrol outside churches where pews sit empty as fearful worshipers stay home. And in Egypt, Coptic Christians face a campaign by Islamic State to attack and displace them on the eve of a visit by Pope Francis on April 28-29 to mend ties with Muslim leaders.

Peter Emad, 21, left, lost his mother and sister in the December 2016 attack. (Jonathan Rashad / For The Times)

Christians have long been a beleaguered minority in Egypt, 10% of the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population of more than 92 million. Last Monday, militants fired a rocket at an Israeli border crossing in the northern Sinai region, where they have been battling both security forces and Christian civilians. Seven Christians were killed in February and hundreds displaced.

But the attacks have spread beyond Sinai. There were reports of Christians attacked by a mob during Maundy, or Holy, Thursday prayers in the southern city of Minya, home to the largest Christian population in the country and a tinderbox of sectarian violence.

Explosions in churches here are a fresh horror. A week before the Tanta church was bombed, authorities had found and diffused another explosive at the church. On Wednesday, St. Michaels Church in Cairo was evacuated after three bombs were discovered inside. The same day, Egyptian authorities claimed to have foiled an attack on a Coptic monastery to the south in Assiut.

But the attacks seem to have galvanized, rather than scared off, many of Egypts Christians. About 3,000 people filled St. Marks Cathedral and the adjoining chapel on Saturday for the service known as the Great Vigil. Church regulars said the crowd at the chapel appeared even larger than usual, with people spilling out into the stone courtyard. They pointed out all the repairs since the December blast: New carved wooden doors, windows and shimmering lights.

In the chapel courtyard, a blood stain on a wall has been preserved under glass, and a memorial erected in honor of the victims.

A man sits in the courtyard outside the chape of the Cairo Cathedral during easter mass. The bloodstain existed since the bombing in December 2016 that left 29 dead. (Jonathan Rashad / For The Times)

Priests processed into the chapel with a coterie of deacons in white vestments, chanting in the ancient Coptic language and holding golden crosses aloft, including one still scarred by the explosion.

Holding the damaged cross and leading the procession was Emad Tawil, 53, who survived the Dec. 11 bombing but lost his wife and 19-year-old daughter. His wife had grown up attending the Tanta church, which Tawils grandfather helped build.

So the day of the Palm Sunday bombing, he and his son traveled north from Cairo, unafraid, to meet and support fellow victims in Tanta. A massive funeral at the church that night drew thousands, as did the funeral the next day in Alexandria.

Everyone was asking what we should do. We have to have faith, said son Peter Tawil, 21, who joined his father at the front of the chapel for Easter prayers.

In the wake of the Palm Sunday bombings, President Abdel Fattah Sisi, a Muslim longtime ally of the Coptic community, declared a three-month state of emergency. Among the provisions: Legislation designed to speed trials in terrorism-related cases and the formation of a Supreme Council to Combat Terrorism and Fanaticism, which gave some Egyptians hope of added security.

Sisi also visited Coptic Pope Tawadros II in Cairo on Thursday to offer condolences, and added security outside churches across the country, including a tank and soldiers outside St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in downtown Cairo.

Days before the bombings, Sisi had met with President Trump in Washington and promised to battle Islamic extremists. Some still worried Saturday.

Everyone thought the bomb attacks would stop. Its happening here and in Sinai and Minya and the police dont do anything, said Shanuda Roshdy, 34, who brought his 4-year-old daughter, Candy, to Holy Week services, scanning the crowd outside the chapel for possible terrorists. We dont trust Egypt.

Roshdys mother-in-law was killed in the December attack, and his daughter still asks for her daily. He plans to immigrate to Australia or Canada to protect her.

Every moment we are at risk, he said.

It was a sentiment shared by many Assyrian Christians in northern Iraq, forced from their towns two years ago by Islamic State and unwilling to return now that they have been freed by Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition. Tens of thousands of the displaced have moved overseas, or to temporary camps like a trailer park about 50 miles east of Mosul in Irbil.

1 / 7 Christian refugees arrive for Holy Saturday church services, on the eve of Easter at Al-Bashara Church at a Christian refugee camp in Irbil, Iraq, on April 15, 2017. There are more than 100,000 Christian refugees in the Christian township of Ainkawa who have been driven out of their homes in Qaraqosh, Karemlash and Bartella since Islamic State attacked Christian communities northern Iraq in 2014. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 7 A mother comforts her child as people stand in prayer during Holy Saturday church services on the eve of Easter at Al-Bashara Church at a Christian refugee camp in Irbil, Iraq. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 7 Taufik Abosh Sakar wanders through his home destroyed by Islamic State in Qaraqosh, Iraq. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 7 Ziad Halid and his wife, Afaf Naffi, make a home out of trailer in a Christian refugee camp in Irbil, Iraq. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 7 Afaf Naffi prays at Al-Bashara church inside the Christian refugee camp in Irbil, Iraq. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 7 Ahmed Hashim stands in prayer in front of a cross erected by residents after Islamic State was ousted from Qaraqosh by Iraqi forces. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 7 Christian refugees arrive for Holy Saturday church services on the eve of Easter at Al-Bashara Church at a Christian refugee camp in Irbil, Iraq. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

There, Suad Rahim was making klecha holiday cookies last week with her three daughters, stuffing them with dried coconut and chopped walnuts. Chased from their Christian town of Qaraqosh two years ago by militants who burned their home and church, they were unwilling to return. Electricity and water have yet to be restored. Shops remain gutted. Only a handful of families have moved back, and the city is policed by militias. She recognized some of the officers as former Islamic State militants.

Its not safe, said Rahim, 50. We dont know who is who.

In the city of Homs in Syria, Christians who dared to return marched on Good Friday past bullet-riddled storefronts and bombed-out apartments. Clergymen carried a small coffin of flowers, a symbol of the death of Christ, past a coterie of soldiers and militiamen toting AK-47s, guards against suicide bombers and other attacks. Only about 50,000 of the 300,000 Christians who once filled Homs Old City have returned.

In Jordan, the countrys 2% Christian minority marked Holy Week with subdued celebrations. Like Egypt, Jordan is overwhelmingly Sunni, and is thought to have no lack of Islamic State supporters.

Today the church attendance was less than usual, two-thirds of what we expected, said Revered Canon Faeq Haddad at Ammans Arab Evangelical church, where congregation members called to say they were too afraid to attend Good Friday services.

Haddad gestured to the outside of the church, where a gaggle of officers was stationed beside a police SUV.

Fear is part of life, but our job is not to reinforce this feeling. You go to an airport and theres security. Do you stop flying because of it? No. Do you stop going to church because of security posted outside? No, he said.

He insisted that Christians were staying put, no matter the threat.

These nations without the Christians will be ruined, because we are not just the salt of the earth that flavors, but were also the candle that provides light, he said.

In Christian theology, Easter celebrates Christs resurrection and the promise of salvation. It is a joyous holiday, but some worshipers in Cairo wore black out of respect to those recently killed, and planned to stay home Sunday to honor them.

One worshiper at the chapel service, Vivian Aziz Shehata Shenoudah, 58, said she had prayed for those who have targeted Christians.

We dont need them to love us, to like us, just to leave us in peace, she said.

She left the Mass wearing her matching gold cross necklaces but also a head scarf. Its a habit she developed during the last year, after being harassed on the street for being Christian. She wasnt hopeful about the state of emergency.

We have more security now, but who knows what it will be in the future, she said. Terrorists are not stupid. They will find a way.

The Great Vigil ended without incident, and though the priest did not mention the recent attacks during Mass, when it was over he urged people to leave quickly, for their own safety.

Times staff writer Patrick McDonnell contributed from Homs, Syria, and special correspondent Nabih Bulos from Amman, Jordan.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Twitter: @mollyhf

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St. Conleths Community College in Newbridge celebrated disability awareness day on April 4, in conjunction with the Irish Wheelchair Association Athy.

The Social Care Level 5, Nursing Level 5 and Childcare Level 6 students took on a disability for the day, to bring awareness to themselves and the citizens of Newbridge.

We each were given a disability and a task to complete, to gain an insight as to what it is like to live with a disability. The disabilities included people in wheelchairs, visually impaired, people on crutches and living with a speech impairment, said Aoife McNamara, a Social Care student.

With each disability, we were given a task to complete to see if we encountered any challenges.

These tasks included attempting to take a bus, to use a bathroom in a retail outlet, and to buy a coffee, all of which are tasks we find easy on a daily basis.

During this experiment, it became evident that some areas did not cater to those disabilities. We found that many places were not wheelchair accessible, such as no ramps or lifts to places. Surprisingly, it was not the lack of wheelchair facilities that was most challenging to overcome, but peoples negative attitude towards those with disabilities, particularly the younger generation, she added.

The students said it was a great revelation as to what living a disabilities is like, and made them more grateful for their capabilities.

They thanked the Irish Wheelchair Association and the public who facilitated them. The Irish Wheelchair Association in Athy said the annual disability awareness day has been a great success.

Our aim is to highlight everyday access issues to the students and the larger community, said Gillian Goulding, Service Coordinator, Irish Wheelchair Association, Athy.

Students Caitlin Delaney-Quinn and Stacy Fitzpatrick experience first-hand accessibility issues for people with disabilites
The Irish National Stud is renewing plans for its horse museum and looking for local antiques which could be considered for inclusion in the museum.

There will be an antiques roadshow-styled event for people to bring their antiques for consideration at the Irish National Stud.

The horse museum is described as a legacy to not only the horses in Ireland but also the greatest and most famous of all Irish horses.

According to the Stud, visitors to the museum can see memorabilia connected to horses that made the headlines over the years including Kildares champion Arkle.

READ MORE: Kildare horse industry's Brexit plea to Taoiseach

Forty years after his death, he reigns supreme in the studs museum, where his skeleton holds pride of place.

One of Flat racings modern day legends, Sea The Stars, was bred and raised at the Irish National Stud. Those visiting the museum can see memorabilia connected to County Kildares champion, while also on display are the silks carried to success in Australias signature race, the Melbourne Cup, by another Kildare superstar, Vintage Crop.

The museum also offers an interactive experience for the visitor interested in horse racing.

Elsewhere in the Sun Chariot Yard,visitors are told the history of the horse in Ireland through artifacts, illustrations and texts while the start of an equine life is presented in a video showing the birth of a foal.

Although there is no date yet for the roadshow event, staff at the Irish National Stud are eager to hear from interested members of the public. Email pdiamond@irishnationalstud.ie.
Martin Kenny TD, Sinn Feins representative on the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, was part of a delegation, this week, which travelled to Paris to consult on the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) which will be in force from 2020.

Martin Kenny said that the discussions were a valuable attempt to ensure that the new arrangement would take Irelands unique situation into account, particularly after Brexit.

He said: The visit was valuable, in that we could put forward Irelands case in the EU. The main purpose was to sign a joint declaration between Ireland and France, Italy and Poland on shared principles, relating to CAP.

Other countries, including Spain , Portugal, the Czech Republic and other Eastern European states are expected to sign up to the broad principles soon. The main thrust of the declaration is that there would be no reduction in the budget and that support for farmers will remain in place and to generate income stabilisation tools as a protection against price volatility.

Basic principles included working towards greater recognition of the social value of maintaining traditional agricultural methods in the EU. While the principles were broad, it meant that agreement could be reached and it was noted that this was the first step in agreed support in a number of countries on CAP reform.

It was a learning experience in that the delegation from the Dail met with the French agriculture advisory service, similar to Teagasc, and discussed production methods and difficulties arising from Brexit, particularly for the Irish agri-food sector.

It was interesting to note that French farmers are most particularly concerned with conditions arising from climate change and the impact of severe weather events on crops and income and they are seeking an EU-wide insurance scheme to alleviate this problem.

The Irish delegation was dubious of an insurance scheme as insurance in Ireland has been so expensive and badly controlled.

The delegation also met with representatives of French farming organisations to discuss Brexit and CAP reform. Protection against price volatility was their main concern along with basic payments for farmers.

It was interesting to note that the price farmers receive for a litre of fresh milk in France was much the same as the Irish price. The price of beef cattle is similar per kilo to Irish beef, but the quality of the grass-fed produce in Ireland is far superior to the French grain-fed product.

 I came away with the knowledge that there is now a strong commitment from the agriculture sector across Europe to maintaining the CAP budget and protecting farm incomes, Deputy Kenny said.
One of the salutary experiences of the last few months has been door-knocking in several areas which Liberal Democrats have not worked for a while and where there is significant support for Brexit. Responses have been varying. Alongside those promising to vote Lib Dem there have been angry responses  people who see the Lib Dem clipboard and slam the door and even someone who rushed out of their house to shout at me for putting a Lib Dem leaflet through their letterbox.

This leaves me wondering about the antipathy.

A slammed door says that someone is angry, but not why. Where conversations have been possible  though they are sometimes rather short  they have been illuminating.

Its easy to dismiss the Leave campaign for its lies. The sense I have been getting on the doorsteps is of something deeper than that, as if we are wrecking the bright image of a wonderful Brexit. The situation was brilliantly summed up by a UKIP leaflet celebrating the wonderful [sic] prospect of Brexit and suggesting that people depressed or upset about it should join the Lib Dems.

Talking of the left behind doesnt quite catch the sense. Its more raw than that. These are people trapped by rising house prices, who know that others are finding the money for better homes. Some are people who have sought good work opportunities and found them beyond their grasp. Others see their children and grandchildren struggling. There are also people for whom the conviction that life will get better is what keeps hope alive. The Brexit vision seems to offer that hope, but there is a niggling doubt that it may prove another false dawn. A Lib Dem saying Brexit is not what its cracked up to be is unwelcome because they might be right. The sense is caught by the person who said: I voted Leave. We were alright before we went in and will be alright when we come out. I feel sorry for my children and grandchildren. She seemed to hold both the optimism and the worry.

A few times I have found myself thinking of the phrase Basildon Man, coined in the 1980s to explain why people in Basildon were voting for Thatcherite Tories rather than Labour. The suggestion is that they were hard-working and determined (or at least, hoping) to get ahead. The optimistic language of independence and trade deals catches that sense. Its caught by another comment: I voted Leave because of all the scaremongering. It cant be as bad as that. Im an optimistic sort of person. I fear I heard a fragility in that a whistling-in-the-dark that whistles all the more loudly as it knows it is defying reality.

The sense of recurring betrayal and loss matches others saying I dont vote. Theyre all liars. These are people for whom the broken promises of the Brexiteers join a long list of broken promises: voting Leave was a good way to kick the system, with no expectation of change, and no surprise when it doesnt happen.

There is a problem. From the perspective of a Remainer, David Davis promise of Brexit bringing exact same benefits as we now have sounds laughable: in this interview he clearly wriggled. But although his words are utterly implausible, they offer the bright optimistic future and sense that things are now different that seduced many who voted Leave. Whats lacking is the statecraft and the wisdom to admit that this is fantasy.

What can Lib Dems do?

Its not enough to bemoan this. Liberal Democrats need to offer a real alternative vision. Instead of we won the war, why give in now? (and silly comments from Michael Howard on invading Gibraltar) we need the vision of an EU that makes ware obsolete. Instead of an independent free-trading nation (actually squeezed between the US and China), we need the vision of the possibilities of the single market. Instead of the fear of being ruled by Europe we need name the influence we have through the EU. Instead of undemocratic EU, we need to talk of this as the only free-trade area in the world with a democratically-elected parliament.

Theres a close alignment between these and Liberal Democrat values: theres an urgency in offering those to the people who slam doors in our faces. Although I can argue forcefully for a referendum on the terms, thats the mechanism for rejecting a bad Brexit. On the way to that place we need vision thats both inspiring and aligned with reality.

* Mark Argent was the Liberal Democrat candidate in Huntingdon Constituency in 2019 and blogs at markargent.com/blog.
When Ive heard strong disagreements about Brexit, whether the coalition was a good idea or not, or who should be welcome in the party, Ive often thought of this video from Christians in Politics.

It features our very own Sarah Dickson, Director of the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum.

It has a simple message. The importance of disagreeing well.

Its an important message, not just for Christians or just for Easter. And its important for everyone involved in politics.

If we want to change the country in a democracy, we need to change minds. And you dont change minds by insulting people.

So if we want to persuade people who voted for Brexit, but are open to changing their minds, lets disagree well.

If we want to persuade former Lib Dem supporters, who left us over the coalition to support us again, lets disagree well.

And if we meet people who currently support other parties, and we want them to support the Liberal Democrats, lets disagree well.

* George Kendall is the acting chair of the Social Democrat Group. He writes in a personal capacity.
Editor's note: This is the third in a series of profiles tapping the pulse of outlying communities to Flagstaff.

Just 60 years ago, the city of Page wasnt much more than a smattering of temporary homes and trailers at the edge of Glen Canyon. Called Government Camp, the structures were built at this sandy, rocky outcropping of high desert to support a labor force of thousands that were at work on the massive concrete wedge of Glen Canyon Dam.

Over the next two decades, the landscape around Page as well as the city itself began to transform as Lake Powell filled up behind the dam and the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station was constructed four miles away to feed power to the Central Arizona Projects ambitious canal system.

Six decades later, this city that has staked its success on both the power plant's operations and outdoor tourism is confronting a potential turning point.

Two months ago, the city learned that four of the Navajo Generating Stations owners will abandon their stake in the power plant at the end of 2019 because low natural gas prices have made burning coal a money-losing venture.

The fifth owner, the federal Bureau of Reclamation, has agreed to work with the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Peabody Coal, and others with an economic stake in the power plant on plans to keep the facility operating.

So far, no official plan or finding has come out of those discussions.

Among those who live in Page and the surrounding area, the potential closure of the power plant has revealed divergent visions of the community's future  one that sees a wealth of potential for the city to fully embrace the boon of tourism and another that sees the power plant as a valuable asset that is far from the end of its useful life.

RID OF AN 'EYESORE'

Clint Spahn has lived in Page his entire life. He was in diapers the first time he floated Lake Powell on his grandparents houseboat and he first ran Grand Canyon at age 8. Now, the 29-year-old is the co-owner of Hidden Canyon Kayaks, where he leads kayak tours through the myriad of slot canyons around the lake. Spahn said he doesnt see any benefit to his business from the power plant continuing to operate  far from it.

Its a 750-foot eyesore, he said. Its about time we focused on the 3.5 million people coming through Page.

He doesnt buy predictions that the plants closure would be a major blow to the city.

People are scared the whole community will drown, he said. Its not true, though. Were a boom town right now. Were Moab (Utah) but better and no one knows it yet.

Its impossible to deny that tourism is surging in Page.

Last year, visitation to nearby Glen Canyon National Recreation Area jumped 30 percent over the year before, to a total of 3.3 million people. Two new hotels opened their doors last year and four more are under construction, while the citys sales tax collections over the past 12 months are up 10 percent over the same period last year. In February alone, the most recent month of data, collections were up 17 percent a big deal considering Page doesnt have a municipal property tax.

Owners of restaurants and tour companies say theres hardly a winter off-season anymore and they have seen their business increase year-over-year as well.

The shoulder season this year was a month or less even -- were already as busy as we were in the summer, said Olin Smith, the head chef at State 48, a restaurant downtown.

Twist Thompson, the owner of State 48 and two other Page restaurants, said the last two years have been his busiest by far, with business in 2016 up 25 percent over the previous year. For his part, Spahn has seen his kayak business expand every year since 1999 and has grown from one employee to five.

Many, including Spahn, say a closure of Navajo Generating Station would provide the impetus the city needs to get serious about making itself more attractive to visitors.

Page is ready for a change and I think that we are slated to become a really beautiful tourist destination, Thompson said. We really have the ability here to capitalize on how beautiful the area is, and the only black eye on this beauty for a long, long time has been that power plant.

In Dennis Warners words, Page has long existed in the shadows of the power plant and still hangs onto its identity as a service community to Glen Canyon Dam.

We need to rewrite the next chapter, said Warner, a member of the Page City Council who moved to the area in 1958 because his father had a concession to provide the rubber tires for equipment used in constructing Glen Canyon Dam.

I think the transition to what the next chapter is going to look like for Page (is) ... going to evolve around the growing tourist economy we see today. Were seeing it happening, Warner said.

He looks at other communities like Moab that have sustained their economies on the merits of their location and amenities without a coal-fired power plant next door. With Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and Glen Canyon all close by, Page has a wealth of attractions it can market, he said.

MORE AMENITIES NEEDED

But turning Page into a Moab or other outdoor tourism mecca will require it to take a hard look in the mirror, Thompson said. The city has neglected to invest in amenities like parks, trails, a bus system and recreation centers, he said. In short, there isnt anything to convince visitors to stay the night in Page instead of passing through for a day, he said.

The citys core also needs work, Warner said. A far cry from a quintessential historic downtown, the citys central commercial district is anchored by a strip mall full of restaurants, a hardware store and an outlet store. Much could be done to improve walkability, shopability and attractiveness of the business district that hugs the main artery of Lake Powell Boulevard, Warner said.

The councilor said his priority is a downtown revitalization master plan the city is just beginning. He emphasized that several other community beautification projects, including a major parks project, are among the councils top priorities.

At least one of his fellow councilmembers agreed.

Its a new city and its a city that is 30 years overdue for a makeover, said Korey Seyler, a member of Pages city council who is also general manager at Colorado River Discovery.

Page Mayor Bill Diak said he also wants to see the city hire a tourism director, instead of leaving the task of promoting the city and interacting with visitors to the Chamber of Commerce and the mostly volunteer-run Powell Museum.

The focus on the citys appearance is a distinct shift from past city councils that were mired in figuring out how to pay off millions in bond debt dating back to the 1990s, Warner said. The current council reduced the size of city government and restructured the repayment plan, allowing it to take on other priorities, he said.

At the same time, nearby Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is making its own improvements to help expand capacity and improve access for visitors. After seeing a surge in people looking for more land-based activities, the recreation area is analyzing options for opening more areas to off-road vehicles and looking to create more trails that are accessible from the Page area, spokesperson Brandon Honig said. The Park Service also is working with the city of Page on a plan to expand parking and put in bathrooms, interpretive signage and trail improvements at the Horseshoe Bend Overlook, an always-crowded viewpoint just a few miles outside of town.

While efforts are ongoing to explore a variety of economic development strategies for the Page area, Seyler said hed like to see the city develop its technology industry.

Its no longer Silicon Valley anymore. It could be anywhere with an internet connection, he said.

At the same time, Warner said the city has aspired to diversify its economy for the last 50 years, and the reality is, its geographic isolation doesnt make it suited for many industries.

I think that as a community we have to work on what our strengths are now, not what we wish they were, he said.
According to the Times today () the Liberal Democrats are putting up a serious challenge to Labour in the Manchester Gorton seat. We know thats true, of course, because we are running a pretty vigorous campaign. Key people in the party are making it known that they are clearing their diaries and heading there as much as they possibly can. However, its good to hear serious journalists taking serious note of what they are being told:

With the vote less than three weeks away, party sources said that the Lib Dems were stronger than they had been in the Witney by-election, when Tim Farrons party lost but achieved a 19.3 per cent swing from the Tories. Losing would be a disaster for Labour and would rank as one of the great by-election shocks. The 31 per cent swing required for a Lib Dem victory would be the eighth largest since the war, according to Matt Singh, an election analyst.

The Guardian quotes a campaign briefing written by the Partys Deputy Campaigns Director Dave McCobb:

But a briefing for senior Lib Dem officials and campaigners  written by deputy director of campaigns Dave McCobb  says the partys messages on Brexit, including calls for a second referendum on the outcome of negotiations, are winning over voters in a seat where more than 60% voted remain in last Junes Brexit referendum. McCobb says the Lib Dems are making up ground fast and are on 31%, with Labour on 51%  a level of support that is, he says, running well ahead of where we were in the Witney byelection [where the party leapfrogged Labour and Ukip to come second in October last year in David Camerons former seat] and approaching Richmond Park levels of support at this stage.

But someone doesnt seem to have noticed this:

Labour sources remain relaxed about the seat

Lets show them.

If you want to help pull off an historic Lib Dem result, heres how to help.

All the talk about this by-election seems to be about the race being firmly between us and Labour. With 19 days left to polling day, we can turn this from a solid to a sensational result. Whos up for it?

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 476th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere  Featuring the five most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator together with a hand-picked seven you might otherwise have missed. This weeks covers the two weeks from 2 April as we had our Easter holidays last week. Or at least, I couldnt drag myself off the beach in time to do it.

Dont forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox  just click here  ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, lets start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

1. Labour is fighting only 35 out of 74 seats in Shropshire by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.

Further evidence of the demise of Labour in rural England.

2. Council by-elections: Its time again for the headline that readers dont like by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.

Two by-elections and we didnt stand a candidate in either. Mark isnt happy.

3. A week in the life of Labour demonstrates exactly why they are on course to lose hundreds of Council seats next month by Nick Tyrone on nicktyrone.com.

Nick looks at Labours policy pronouncements and doesnt see anything sensible.

4. UKIP may be dying but could a viable opposition party emerge from the right of the Tories by Nick Tyrone on micktyrone.com.

Nick sees an unresolvable conflict between two right wing schools of thought.

5. Taking children out of school and the death of fabianism by David Boyle on The Real Blog.

Flexibility is required in this age.

And now to the seven blog-posts that come highly recommended, regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. To nominate a Lib Dem blog article published in the past seven days  your own, or someone elses, all you have to do is drop a line to [email protected] You can also contact us via Twitter, where were @libdemvoice

6. FCC Report from the 11th April meeting by Jennie Rigg on Thats not what you said in the Jeffries tube.

Jennies report from the FCC meeting with all the feedback from York and sad news for those of us who love it as a Conference venue.

7. Political reform may be dull, but its vital for a fair, successful society by Dave Gorman on Liberalism5.

Its not geekery  its relevant to everyone.

8. Shropshire Tories scrap election leaflet and apologise to Oz mental health charity by Andy Boddington on Andy Boddington

Embarrassment for the Tories in Shropshire.

9. Today I am going to Manchester by Jennie Rigg on Thats not what you said in the Jeffries tube .

Jennies take on what Jackie Pearcey could bring to Parliament

10. Brexit  free movement of people extended  BINO by Louise Ankers on From one of the jilted generation.

Could there be some light at the end of the Brexit Tunnel?.

11. Day 5932: The Firebird and the Dragon by Richard Flowers on The very fluffy diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant.

A story of hope after rArticle 50 was triggered.

12. Trans politicians, part 3, 2010-2016 by Zoe OConnell on Complicity.

Bringing the series up to date.

And thats it for another week. Happy blogging n reading n nominating.

Featured? Add this to your blog post!



<a href="https://www.libdemvoice.org/top-of-the-blogs-the-lib-dem-golden-dozen-476-53934.html"><img src="https://www.libdemvoice.org/images/golden-dozen.png" width="200" height="57" alt="Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice" title="Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice" /></a>

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
IT HAS been suggested that a purpose-built track for sulky carts in Limerick could help to nurture the sport and save money on horse control.

The topic of sulky racing was up for debate at this months Adare Rathkeale municipal district meeting, after a draft set of bye-laws, relating to the control of racing on public roads, were presented ahead of their publication for public consultation.

Independent Cllr Richard ODonoghue suggested that a track to facilitate racing and training for the sport commonly known abroad as trotting would be an investment by Limerick City and County Council.

I enjoy watching the sport, its popular in the States. Maybe rather than the route we are going down, if a track was provided in the county or in the country, where they could go up and use their sulkies and nurture it as a sport, it would do a lot in the way of the amount its going to cost the council, he said, referring to the horse control costs which were earlier raised by Cllr Ciara McMahon, Sinn Fein.

If you look at the amount of horse problems we have in Limerick at the moment and the amount its costing the council to date with horses that theyre bringing in... Wouldnt it be a lot easier to actually invest it in something and try to promote the sport here? added Ballingarry-based Cllr ODonoghue.

I believe they have a track in the UK now for it too, he mused.

The idea was floated as the councillors decided to support the new proposed bye-law, which will control sulky racing on public roads and give gardai increased powers in prosecuting racers.

Fine Gaels Cllr Stephen Keary also noted the popularity of the sport in other countries as a national sport.

As a sport, its a joy to watch if its properly regulated and controlled, and its done throughout other countries, like America and Australia as a national sport as such.

Theres some of the best equine bred in the world in Ireland. If the sport was regulated I think it would clean it up to some degree, added Cllr Keary.

Cllr Ciara McMahon raised concerns that the tighter regulation as a result of the new bye-laws could increase the number of horses being destroyed under the councils control of horses programme.

Earlier this year, Limerick City and County Council estimated that it would spend 475,000 on horse control in 2017.

This figure would mean a total of 1.65m will have been spent on horse control since 2015. In 2015, the council spent 600,000, and 550,000 in 2016.

Council executive Kieran Lehane said that 80% of horses seized are in the city.

Other suggestions to further regulate sulkies mentioned during the recent Adare Rathkeale meeting included the use of registration plates.

I would suggest as part of the new bye-laws, to give more support to the gardai, that there would be some form of a number plate as an essential part of using the road, said Cllr Keary, while Cllr Kevin Sheahan suggested reflectors on the vehicle.
TO MARK 20 years since Frank McCourt won the Pulitzer Prize for literature hundreds of people have contributed to a large montage portrait of the famous Limerick writer.

Renowned artist John Shinnors, of the RHA, is among some 700 people to have added his own brushstroke to the canvas in a homage to the Angelas Ashes author.

Una Heaton, artist and curator of the Frank McCourt museum on Hartstonge Street, undertook the portrait which is made up of hundreds of individual canvases to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of McCourt receiving the world-renowned prize.

Acclaimed Limerick artist Bryan MacMahon also painted one of the canvases, while one special canvas remains to be painted  by Franks widow, and his beloved third wife, Ellen McCourt.

Ms Heaton, who started the museum nine years ago, said tourists continue to visit the centre, situated in McCourts former school, Leamys, from as far afield as Japan, New Zealand, and Australia.

Last Sunday, April 9 last, marked 20 years to the day when the late writer received the Pulitzer for literature for his seminal work, which shot him to literary stardom when he was in his 60s, and led to two further memoirs, Tis and Teacher Man.

When he won the Pulitzer Prize, we were all amazed and kind of incredulous. I think we always knew that he was inordinately talented, but I didn't expect it, said Maggie McCourt, Franks only daughter.

When Angela's Ashes came out, it changed his life because it was healing for him, she told the Limerick Leader in the only interview she has given about her famous father.

There were so many things that he had not reconciled in himself, or healed himself from the darkness of his past.

I dont think he expected that people would have that kind of reaction to the book.

This July, Angela's Ashes - the Musical under the acclaimed producer Pat Moylan, of I Keano fame, will be staged in Limericks Lime Tree theatre for 11 performances, before moving to the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in Dublin, and then to the Grand Opera House in Belfast.

It is expected to tour to the West End and Broadway following its Irish debut.

It will run in Limerick from Thursday, July 6, to Saturday, July 15, including matinees. Tickets from 061-953400
A FATHER-of-five agreed to store around 10,000 worth of cannabis in order to reduce a drug debt he owed, a court had heard.

Michael Dawson, aged 36, of Elton Court, Meelick, has pleaded guilty to possession of the drugs for sale or supply on October 22, 2013.

Detective Garda Padraic Quirke of the divisional traffic corps told Limerick Circuit Court gardai witnessed the hand-over of the drugs in the car park of a fast-food restaurant.

The drugs were found in the boot of the defendants car when it was searched at a filling station on the Ennis Road a short time later.

The detective told John OSullivan BL, prosecuting, the cannabis, which weighed around 500g was wrapped in plastic when it was found.

Mr Dawson made immediate admissions telling gardai he had received the drugs just a few minutes earlier.

Judge Tom ODonnell was told a small quantity of cannabis and a weighing scales were found during a follow-up search of the defendants home.

During interview, Mr Dawson told gardai he had received a phone call earlier in the day and was told where to retrieve the package.

He admitted that he had intended bringing the drugs home to await further instructions as to where to bring them.

He knew it was cannabis, he was to bring it home for safe-keeping, said Detective Garda Quirke.

Pat Barriscale said his client  a qualified chef  had lost his job a number of months earlier which caused severe financial strain.

He said Mr Dawson travelled to the UK following the seizure as his life was under threat.

He said his car was taken as part payment by the owners of the drugs and that he has not come to the attention of gardai since returning.

He said prison will have a devastating effect on his client and his family submitting he has already paid the price for his actions.
MARY Immaculate College has received the go-ahead to construct a new 21m library and learning res-ource centre, which is hoped to be delivered in 2018.

The planning authority granted permission to the college, on April 4, to build a 5,000 square metre building which will be situated in the heart of the campus replacing the existing outdated library.

MICs acting president, Prof Eugene Wall said that the new facility will deliver a long overdue replacement of the current library.

When the library was constructed in 1976, it had 250 seats for 750 students. Now, there are 3,400 students with 40 fewer seats.

The college is expecting 5,000 students to be enrolled at the South Circular Road institution by 2020.

One of the 17 conditions as part of the councils permission states that the developer is to pay a financial contribution of 495,500 to Limerick City and County Council for public infrastructure and facilities.

Prof Wall described the decision as truly transformative in terms of the impact that the new facility will have on the learning environment for future generations of students. He added that MIC will now redouble its efforts to secure confirmation of Higher Education Authority funding, enabling the project to proceed.

In 2016, Mary Immaculate Students Union president James Deegan wrote to 158 TDs and 60 senators, seeking support in securing funding for the project.

In the letter, he stated that the library continues to be the most urgent capital priority project at MIC and despite a lack of funding, the college has proceeded with this project using its own funds.

Mr Deegan said that the current situation with the library is unacceptable for students.

MISU received a response from the Minister for Education Richard Brutons office, stating: The needs of the College will be considered in the context of the budgetary resources and having regard to competing demands.

The new facility will have more than 550 study places, a 288-seat lecture theatre, media editing suites, a media studio, seminar rooms, staff offices and silent study areas.
RURAL isolation is becoming a growing concern in Limerick as fewer people are available to deliver vital social services in small communities, West Limerick Resources boss has said.

Speaking after a recent economic development meeting at City Hall, WLR manager Shay Riordan said that the local enterprise organisation could face a two-year challenge to ensure that important services continue.

And because the labour market is improving and people are securing jobs, the availability of people availing of social enterprise schemes is decreasing, he said.

So, there are less and less people available to provide the necessary supports and services at a local level. And this is a challenge that is increasingly going to be faced over the next 12-18 months or two years.

There are a large number of existing groups who are providing valuable work and resources to benefit of their local communities, across everything from meals and wheels, to maintenance of town parks, and they are increasingly coming under pressure to keep that going, and to provide those services. So, the challenge is how do you continue that? he said.

These are the strains, he added, where communities find it extremely difficult to sustain themselves. During the special policy meeting, presentations on social enterprises were delivered by West Limerick Resources, Paul Partnership, and Ballyhoura Development.

During the meeting, it was mentioned there is no dedicated funding stream for such enterprises. While community groups can avail of capital funding, adequate manpower resourcing is not available, it was argued.

In the context of rural isolation, he said that the decline of social enterprise manpower is very much becoming a worrying factor.

You have a large number of communities that have done trojan work in the past to continue to support local people, in very many different guises, but are finding it a real struggle, now, to try and continue that.

Representing the farmers at the meeting, former Ballyhoura Development chairperson John Walsh, proposed for the setup of a taskforce to address the manpower deficits, which he said is contributing to rural isolation.

While Cllr Lisa Marie Sheehy seconded the proposal, council executive Dr Pat Daly suggested that the idea be revisited at the next SPC meeting in June.

I am a bit frustrated with the social enterprise. Where I am frustrated is that there are still too many people falling through the cracks; people that are not getting picked up; people in rural areas who are in isolation; people who lack education, who left school early. But where I am living in the rural area, people are very nervous and very afraid at night, Mr Walsh told the Limerick Leader.

The former chairman of Dairygold, 74, called for the establishment of a nightcare facility for elderly.

This follows the attempted burglary of a 93-year-olds home in Kilfinane/Ballylanders and the death of 90-year-old Paddy Lyons in Waterford, earlier this year.

In an interview with the Limerick Leader last month, he said that fear has been rampant amongst the elderly living in County Limerick.

I know a person  he is dead now  he went into a B&B, he was so afraid of being by himself, to live on his own. He didnt want to go into a nursing home, but he could go to his B&B.

And thats why I suggested the idea of night care, so that he could have come home, then, to his own house, his own yard, feed the dog and have a friend call into him, and could go somewhere at night where he would be safe, to get his breakfast in the morning. He could then go back home then.

Older people in rural areas have their houses locked at four in the evening, especially in the winter when it is dark, and they are not open until 10am the following morning, he explained.

Catherine Smyth, of Ballyhoura Development, said that it will be undergoing a census of social enterprises in the region in order to prepare a policy brief on these organisations. It then hopes to submit a strategy to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

Elaine McGrath, of Paul Partnership which works with city groups, said that its clients have an average income of 1.1m per year, and that, on average, 30% of this income is earned.

And the significant thing about each one of those organisations, is that they are all based in areas of disadvantage, she said.

Councillors commended the three organisations for the tremendous work being done in their districts.
There are three kinds of lies - lies, damned lies and statistics - Benjamin Disraeli declared.

But he forgot about the white lie, an art at which the Irish generally, despite all the tribunal purging of recent years, are past masters.

But then Disraeli was never properly acquainted with the genius of the Irish imagination, was he?

We all tell white lies from time to time - either to advance our own interests, to save face or to save someone elses face  but theres no malice in it really. Sometimes we cant even help it because our imaginations are primed to run riot, especially when we are trying to take ourselves seriously. The white lie, or fib, as it was known in more polite circles, was only a venial sin in my young days, when the country was overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. I dont know how it is graded now in the new secular catechism, but if the media interpretations of the recently-released preliminary results of Census 2016 are to be believed, we wont be unburdening ourselves in the confessional anyway.

The trouble is I have a problem with the Census, mainly because it makes no provision whatsoever for our propensity to tell a white lie, to project a more appealing image and to embellish our life stories if we can  especially when we have an eye to posterity. The Central Statistics people are too trusting. Thats all I can say.

If they really want to find out how many of us can speak the Irish language for instance, then Im afraid theyre going to have to insist that all of the 1,761,420 people who replied yes must take an oral test to prove it.

Some people I know, who only have a few words of the language, ticked the box out of sheer patriotism, which is very praiseworthy in itself, but it distorts the picture. At least a test might explain why only 73,803 of the almost two million Irish speakers speak it daily outside the education system. Otherwise, I dont see why they should bother asking the question at all.

The test could be done very simply. The enumerators who collect the completed forms and who check if they are filled in properly, could hold a short conversation in Irish with those who have ticked yes. There should be no waivers, not even for the tongue-tied, and certainly not for those who profess to be in a mad rush out the door after saying Dias Muire dhuit  or whatever Gaelic salutation applies in secular Ireland.

Thats another thing that annoys me about the Census  the way the preliminary results are being interpreted by some media analysts, who are hell bent on completing the secularisation of the country, all by themselves. Ignoring the fact that 3.7 million people out of a population of 4.76 million, declared themselves to be members of the Roman Catholic Church and thousands of others professed themselves Church of Ireland, Muslim, Hindu and Christian Orthodox, the secularists have declared a non-believers republic with just 10 per cent support. Now they want to dictate our education system and before we know it, well be paying a believers levy, instead of the water tax.

Judging by the headlines, youd think that the whole purpose of the Census was to gauge how close we had come in 2016 to Ruairi Quinns vision of a post-Catholic Ireland. Some commentators couldnt hide their glee when the Census returned a drop in the numbers describing themselves as Roman Catholics, but when they saw that the size of the drop was unlikely to prove much of a boost to their secular agenda, they decided that some of us had indulged in a careless ticking of boxes. We had claimed to be Roman Catholics even though many of us no longer went to Mass every week. They got that from some poll on Mass attendances taken a couple of years ago. Now, whatever faith I have in the Census, I have none at all in newspaper polls, and while Mass attendances are certainly not what they were in the past, I cant see why fair-weather Catholics should be excluded if cupla-focal Irish speakers are accepted as legitimate.

Maybe the Census takers should have asked those who ticked yes to Roman Catholicism, how often they went to Mass, and if they could remember the theme of last Sundays Gospel.

There is also a suggestion that some heads of households returned all their children as Catholics, ignoring - or unaware of - the fact that some of them had already lost the faith.

This, with all due respects to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin who apparently agrees, is ridiculous. If the children were old enough to have abandoned the faith, the likelihood that they were still members of the household on the night of the Census was remote.

Finally on a personal level, Im mad as hell over the fact that the Census people put my family in the wrong townland again for the third census in a row, after promising to correct the form each time I kicked up moonshine in the past. Whatever about my steadfast faith or my inability to speak the Irish language after all those years, Id hate if any of our descendants came looking for their roots in a hundred years time, only to find that they had been transplanted. Theyd be withered, for sure.
Brought-up in Knocknacarra, a western suburb of Galway, I continue to live and work in the city today.

I went to school at Colaiste Einde, before graduating from NUI Galway with a BA degree and a HDip in Education. I later returned there for a year to study for an MA in Writing. As well as writing and playing music, I teach English at the former and creative writing, part-time, on the BA Connect course, in the latter. There were no great literary figures in my family although education was very important. My father had a great love for books, music and sport, so these things caught on with me from a young age.

Writing began for me as a teenager, with song lyrics and other bits and pieces, which I didnt recognize as early attempts at poetry at the time.

While at NUIG I began playing with a young student/garage band and we opened for some top bands at that time. We were only starting out and not very good but it was fun. I continue to sing and play guitar to this day, mostly solo gigs and shows/talks based on my book, but sometimes with a band. It was only in my thirties that I began to take my writing more seriously, slowly learning the craft of poetry writing and eventually having pieces published. I was, then, shortlisted for a Hennessy Award and won a number of other prestigious competitions. My first poetry collection, Rough Night (2002), was published by a small house based in Wales, named Stonebridge Publications. Today, however, I am with Salmon Poetry Publishers in Ireland and currently working on my fifth full collection of poems following on from; What Our Shoes Say About Us (2014) and At Grattan Road (2009).

Non-fiction and journalism fascinated me and I wrote a weekly arts column for The Galway Observer in the 1980s and 1990s before writing reviews and articles, as a freelancer.

A short story I wrote won the Originals Short Story Award at Listowel Writers Week (2000). Today, I would describe myself as a poet, biographer, non-fiction writer, and musician. My latest book, On Raglan Road  Great Irish Love Songs and the Women Who Inspired Them (2016,) is published by The Collins Press. In it, I explore fifteen famous Irish love songs and tell the story of the fascinating women who inspired them. Included are such favourites as Grace  which tells the macabre story of Grace Giffords doomed marriage to Joseph Plunkett (hours before his execution for his role in the 1916 Rising), Percy Frenchs Gortnamona, and After All , by The Frank and Walters. The book reveals the identities of the real Galway Girl and the real Nancy Spain, Thin Lizzys Sarah and so on. Indeed, Patrick Kavanaghs infatuation with a young woman inspired On Raglan Road and Mick Hanly reveals who inspired him to write; Past the Point of Rescue, as does Johnny Duhan who wrote The Voyage. Complete with full lyrics to the songs and photos the book is proving to be very popular. I will be doing a live show based on the book in The Granary Library on Thursday, April 13.

One of the poems from my forthcoming collection has been etched on a stone plaque on Galways Quay Street.

I am, also, researching a follow-up book to On Raglan Road with a similar combination of songs and stories but with a different theme. My first non-fiction book was a biography of the family of Oscar Wilde called More Lives Than OneThe Remarkable Wilde Family Through the Generations, The Collins Press, (2012). It traces Oscars family back to their eighteenth century roots in Roscommon, and right down the years to the present day. The family changed their name from Wilde to Holland after Oscars fall from grace and so Merlin Holland, Oscars grandson, now lives mostly in France, with his son Lucian, Oscars great-grandson, living in the UK. I am currently researching new information about Oscar Wildes great-grandfather Ralph Wilde, a dealer and farmer, in Castlerea, who married a local woman called Margaret OFlynn in 1740s.

Galway poet, Rita Ann Higgins, published her first collection of poetry; Goddess on the Mervue Bus, in the mid-1980s which was very influential.

Indeed, it gave me confidence to write my own poems. Knowing the places and people she was writing about, I felt that I too, could maybe do it, perhaps not in her style, of course, but in my own. As a result, I wrote a lot about Galway, relationships and lifes twists and unexpected turns. I have only come across a few born writers in my time (not many mind you). Nothing would stop them. A lot of writing is just hard work, getting your bum on the seat at your desk, and pounding out the words. It is a solitary activity and also physically demanding .Editing, re-writing and polishing the work, is a big part of it. Today, I am always delighted to see an ex-student of mine having something published and a few to date have published books and collections. That gives me great satisfaction as well. Personally, I have reached a nice balance between teaching and creativity, but teaching can eat into your creative time. This is something that I have managed to juggle in the past but I intend to have less teaching time soon and more creative time at my desk!

Gerry Hanberry appears at The Granary Library on Thursday, April 13 at 7.30pm For more information please call Dominic Taylor, Community Literature Officer of The Limerick Writers Centre on 087 2996409 or email: limerickwriterscentre@gmail.com Access Gerrys own website at: www.gerardhanberry.com
Nearly two months after April the pregnant giraffe made her YouTube debut on Feb. 11, she has finally delivered a healthy calf  a male.

April gave birth to the baby at Animal Adventure Park (AAP) in Harpursville, New York, yesterday (April 15) at 9:53 a.m. local time, attended by AAP caregivers and watched on YouTube and Facebook by a rapt audience that numbered over 1.2 million, according to a statement released by AAP representatives.

The viewers who so avidly followed the birth  not to mention the last weeks of April's pregnancy online  can now delight in the presence of the spindly youngster alongside her in the pen. Barely reaching her shoulder, the young giraffe traipses after his mother, frequently nurses, and peers at the world around him. [Finally! April the Giraffe Delivers Her Newborn]

The first signs of April's active labor appeared around 7:20 a.m. on April 15. "It's happening!" AAP owner Jordan Patch exuberantly announced at 7:29 a.m. in a live video streaming on Facebook. At 7:46 a.m., AAP shared photos showing the baby's hooves emerging. Nearly two hours later, the muzzle was visible, and once the head and neck appeared, the rest of the baby quickly followed, dropping nearly 6 feet to land on the straw-covered floor of the pen.

The baby received a clean bill of health during his first checkup, and is getting plenty of attention from mama April. (Image credit: Animal Adventure Park)

"His entrance into the world was unnerving to even those of us who have witnessed animal births previously," Patch said in the statement. "Giraffes give birth standing up, which means when the calf is ready to be born, it exits its mother hooves first from 6 feet off the floor, making for a very exciting event!" he added.

To a human, a 6-foot drop may sound like a terrifying ordeal for a newborn. But it is a normal part of the birth process in giraffes, and it helps the little one break out of the enclosing amniotic sac and begin breathing on its own, Laurie Holloway, a spokesperson for the Dallas Zoo, told Live Science in 2011, following the delivery of a giraffe calf at that zoo.

Still a little unsteady on his feet, April's newborn calf takes his first steps. (Image credit: Animal Adventure Park)

The baby stands 5 feet 9 inches (nearly 2 meters) tall and weighs 129 pounds (58.5 kilograms). He had a full checkup this morning (April 16) and is nursing well, his caregivers reported. April's appetite is also healthy; she is "eating everything in sight" and has made a full recovery, AAP representatives said on Facebook.

Now that the baby giraffe has finally arrived, many of his ardent new fans are asking, "What's his name?" That remains to be seen, as AAP is holding a contest to decide what they're going to call the new baby. Details on submitting name suggestions are available here.

Original article on Live Science.
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A Florida fugitive probably thought he had a cool hiding place.

Then the cold quarters got to him.

Deputies in Tampa say they couldn't find 47-year-old Larry G. Puleo when they want to serve probation violation warrants at his house on Thursday.

Puleo was there, though. But, he squirreled away into what he thought was a novel hiding place - the air conditioning vents of the house. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies scoured the house before hearing something in the attic.

The deputies told the Miami Herald that they didn't see anyone there, so they started looking around for escape routes.

INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION: Houston man wanted for murder now in Interpol database

Then, the deputies saw the key to the whole thing - an AC vent leading down from the attic and through a bedroom closet. They cut a hole in the vent and saw Puleo hiding inside.

Puleo, though, initially refused to come out. Then his cool idea nearly turned him into a character from Frozen.

Puleo begged deputies to pull him out and, after cutting a hole in the AC duct, the fugitive was in custody. He was taken to a local hospital and treated for hypothermia.

It's a good bet he's warmer now in the Hillsborough County Jail on probation and drug possession charges.

Scroll through the gallery to see notable Texas prison escapes
On this date in ...

1917: As German torpedoes attacked an American warship about 40 miles off Long Island, missing the ship and disappearing into the ocean, and Germany suffered the loss of 100,000 men on the western front in France, Albany's police chief James Hyatt said that his department would begin searching the homes of aliens from enemy countries and confiscating their arms if they did not comply with his earlier order to voluntarily surrender them.

1967: The Colonie Recreation Department planned to construct a $100,000 building in the new town park to replace its present headquarters near the Latham traffic circle. The new 100,000-square-foot building would be used for administrative offices and equipment storage in the park near Schermerhorn Road. The old 25,000-square-foot building would likely be used for storage of voting machines and other town department items.

1992: For the second consecutive day, workers in Building 4 at the Saratoga County office complex were sent home early because gaseous fumes made some of them ill. Operations in the district attorney's office were shut down about 3:30 p.m. after some workers complained of dizziness and nausea, county District Attorney David Wait said. "It's obvious that several of the workers here are experiencing considerable discomfort, and I believe we have a situation where we need not be here until we find out what's going on," said Wait, who made the decision to close the office early.

Want to read more about the Capital Region's past? Have any memories or thoughts about how our history relates to today's events? See http://blog.timesunion.com/history/
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Not long after last call at a nearby watering hole early Saturday morning, two San Antonio Police Department patrol officers critically wounded an armed suspect in a four-plex north of downtown.

The officers were sent to the 400 block of West Magnolia near San Pedro Avenue at about 2:15 a.m., in answer to a call about a disturbance. At the house, which has been divided into four units, officers confronted a white male believed to be in his 50s, wielding a combat-style knife.

"We're not quite sure exactly what happened," Police Chief William McManus said in an overnight news conference a the scene. "We have not pieced it all together yet. But what we do know is we got a call for a disturbance with a knife. Officers arrived on the scene; two officers entered the apartment.

RELATED: Man shot by family member hospitalized following incident on far Northeast Side Saturday

"There was an individual inside the apartment that had a combat knife and refused to drop it  again, this is preliminary information  the one officer pulled a Taser, and at some point, fired that Taser at the suspect. Shortly thereafter, the second officer fired his service weapon, struck the suspect multiple times in the upper torso."

The man with the knife, whose name had not been released as of Saturday night, was taken to University Hospital where he remained in critical condition late Saturday.

There was another man in the apartment at the time, who police said is the son of the woman who lives in the unit. McManus said the son, whose name was not released, may have been the one who called 911 to report the disturbance. A neighbor who talked with the son Saturday morning said the son told him the man was a stranger who had broken into the apartment and was ransacking it.

The officer who shot the suspect is a recent graduate of the police academy, the chief said, and he has been placed on administrative duty, per policy in an officer-involved shooting. The officer's name had not been released as of Saturday night.

At lunch time Saturday, there was little evidence of the confrontation save a 10-foot stretch of yellow tape across the apartment's driveway of the immense police presence from overnight, which blocked off the entire block and included several police cruisers and a command truck. One man, who'd been at the Wax Lounge around the corner until closing, was walking down the street to retrieve his truck that had been stuck behind the crime-scene tape.

Officers prevented him from entering the block, he said, while the investigation was going on. He and a friend walked away, in search of a late-night meal, and returned around 4 a.m. but still couldn't get to the truck.

The neighborhood is a diverse mixture of preserved and restored bungalows and crumbling mansions that have been subdivided into apartments. The four-plex where the shooting occurred lists a bit to the side and is pocked by white paint chipping from its clapboard siding.

Cyclone fencing wraps around a yard with overgrown grass and weeds. Mail could be seen protruding from three of the four mailboxes tacked to the front of the house while brown and blue bins stood sentry by the driveway.

Residents milling along the street Saturday afternoon said they didn't hear any commotion leading up to the shooting.

"I heard what I thought was knocking at the door, which turned out to be the gunshots," said a Navy veteran who lives across the street. "It woke up both myself and my wife."

RELATED: Austin man convicted of I-35 rock-throwing that left one person brain dead says it 'became a sport'

It's not uncommon, the veteran said, to see "inebriated folks" returning to their cars late at night, and it's not the first time cops have been in the neighborhood. He said he looked out the window and saw a police cruiser, its lights flashing, and then several others arrive shortly after. Then an ambulance came.

"It didn't seem like anybody was in a hurry," he said. "My wife and I are both nurses, and we assumed that someone had been killed."

Will Kelly, a man in his 40s who lives next door, said he was in his bathroom when he heard the "tat-tat" of two rapid-fire gunshots, "that unmistakable sound."

Smoking a cigarette on his porch, Kelly said he turned out the light and looked out the window and saw officers "swarming around" the four-plex.

Kelly, who said he's lived there for about 15 years, recalled an incident involving a man with a high-powered rifle about a decade ago.

In that case, the suspect apparently called an out-of-state police department to warn that "all hell was going to break loose," Kelly said. Police stayed on both ends of the block and called in the U.S.

Army, apparently, because the suspect had also stockpiled grenades, Kelly said.

Eventually, the man shot his dog and torched his house, Kelly said.

"You can check your archives," he said. "It's there."

Staff writer Chris Quinn contributed to this report.

jbaugh@express-news.net

Twitter: @jbaugh
All roads lead to the picturesque village of Abbeylara this Easter Sunday (April 16) for the first ever Country Jamboree.

An array of top country artists and musicians within the Irish country music scene will descend upon the newly built state of the art Parish Centre to entertain all ages.

With Irish country music and jiving becoming increasingly popular, the committee are very excited about this upcoming event in Abbeylara and look forward to welcoming everyone from near and far to dance, jive and sing the evening away.

The committee are delighted to announce and welcome our headliner Gerry Guthrie on stage to perform in Abbeylara for the very first time.

Gerry is certainly making his mark within the country music scene playing and entertaining audiences nationwide.

Hailing from Ballina in Co Mayo, many of Gerrys top hits include A New Moon Over My Shoulder, You Are Still On My Mind, and The Boxer. Gerry has won many awards in the last number of years including The Sunday World Best Vocal Performance, The Radio Single Award, and The Best Country Musician Award to name but a few.

Come along and join in an evening of non  stop music and dancing. We look forward to welcoming all to the first ever country jamboree in the Midlands. Commencing at 4pm, the jamboree will continue until 8pm. Tickets cost 20. For further details log onto www.abbeylaraparish.com
An exhibition showcasing the finalists of the Longford International Expressions Art Photography Competition was recently hosted in Gifts of Artemis, a new business in Dublin, run by Diana Valen and her daughter Ana, who is a former Scoil Mhuire student.

Gifts of Artemis, which is based on Blessington Street, in a Georgian-style unit, and is a craft gallery, featuring a wide range of sculptures, pottery, accessories made from wool, silk and all kinds of precious and semi-precious stones.

It was always a dream of Diana's to open a gallery. When she lived in Lithuania, she was always involved with the arts and, once her children, Ana and Patrick had grown up, she started to make her dream a reality.

With the help of her daughter, who had also developed a love of the arts, and accepted a place in the National College of Art and Design, Gifts of Artemis finally opened its doors to the public.

Our gallery is meant to be a celebration of all kinds of craft, Diana explained.

Ana herself was one of the finalists of the competition whose art was on display in the gallery last week.

I was lucky enough to be one of the finalists, but really I was just happy we had the opportunity to host such a wonderful and diverse exhibition for the next two weeks and for the people of Dublin to see the photographs, she said.

The turnout was really great and I'm excited that our craft gallery is beginning to branch out into all these new areas.

We hope to have lots of events in the near future. It's always fun bringing creative people together, she concluded.

Gifts of Artemis continues to grow every day, with new works of art and craft finding their way onto the wooden shelves.

Diana and Ana make sure to praise the community, emphasising how their support has made the journey much brighter.

They speak highly of the local business owners, especially the cafes, and say that their help has been invaluable.

There are exciting days ahead for gifts of Artemis.

To keep up to date with events at Gifts of Artemis, find the store on Facebook.
Story of the week from February 24th, 1984

There was uproar at Monday's meeting of Longford County Council when Fianna Fail and Fine Gael members clashed in a head on confrontation over the recent refusal by Environment Minister, Mr Liam Kavanagh, to meet council chairman Cllr Michael Nevin of Sinn Fein as leader of a council deputation.

In an acrimonious debate which was devoid of any decorum and marked by references to IRA murderers and Maggie Thatcher's puppets, members hurled verbal abuse across the table with near reckless abandon and frequently banged fists on table tops to illustrate the vehemence of their argument.

The first member to refer to the Minister's snub was Cllr Noel McGeeney, who described it as a desperate insult to the council. The Labour Party with the backing of Fine Gael was ignoring democracy, he charged.

In an attack on the Labour Party, Cllr McGeeney slammed the practice of sending non-elected people into Europe. Brendan Halligan went to Brussels and voted for abortion despite the fact that only a few months ago this country rejected abortion in a referendum.

Cllr Michael Doherty said if anybody had come out of the affair with honour it was the chairman. The chairman had to swallow a little bit of pride to withdraw from the deputation but he was a man of principles.
As we marked the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising of 1916, it is appropriate that we also honour the men and women who, 70 years ago, were engaged in further gallant attempt to end British rule in Ireland and make effective the Proclamation of the all-Ireland Republic of 1916 and Declaration of Independence and Democratic Programme of the first (32 county) Dail Eireann in 1919.

One of the outstanding men of the 1940s who gave his life so that the Irish people might control their own destiny was Bernard Casey, a Longford man.

Commandant Bernard Casey was shot dead in December 1940 while he was an unarmed prisoner in the Curragh Internment Camp.

At that time, he was one of 640 republican prisoners held behind barbed wire without charge or trial.

Co. Longford Easter Commemoration Committee erected a fine memorial over Bernards grave in 1976, with the help of Longford people at home and in New York.

The oration on that occasion was delivered by the President of Republican Sinn Fein, Ruairi OBradaigh, a native of Longford and longtime associate of the Casey family.

Co. Longford Easter Commemoration Committee donated a handsome silver trophy for Irish step dancing. It is named Corn Brian OCathasaigh - the Bernard Casey Memorial Cup.

This years Easter Commemoration will be held at the graveside of Commandant Bernard Casey at Killoe Old Cemetery on Easter Sunday at 3pm.

A decade of the rosary will be said. The 1916 proclamation will be read. Co Longford Roll of Honour will be read. Wreaths will be laid. Pauric Pearses graveside oration at ODonovan Rossas grave will be read:

The fools, the fools, the fools. They have left us our fenian dead. And while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.

Wear an Easter lily and honour all those who made the supreme sacrifice for complete freedom of Ireland in every generation.
Tecumsehsbones said: Then there's the "wrinkle" of let's say we stomp NK flat. Certainly no big trick if we want to do it. What then? Click to expand...

There is a difference between wanting to stomp them flat and needing to. (As much fun fun as a good, old fashioned ass whoopin' would be.)In the past, NK has made a fuss and countries, including the US, have tossed aid at them. China really doesn't seem to do that much to keep them well behaved - at least, that the world can see. Perhaps they do their best work behind the scenes.What the rest of the world thinks aside, if China decided to go into NK and toss out the current regime, I seriously doubt that they would have much opposition from the Little Dictator. I expect that there would be secret meetings before this would occur, so that the US wouldn't be taken off guard.Who knows what would happen after the dust settles? Maybe re-join North and South Korea. Have another source of cheap electronics.
forcibly removed from her flight and returned to Saudi Arabia because she didn't have permission from her male guardian to travel.

Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, intended to flee to Australia to escape a forced marriage, Human Rights Watch cited a Canadian witness as saying.The witness said Lasloom approached her while in transit at the airport in Manila, saying "airport officials had confiscated her passport and boarding pass" for a Sydney-bound flight.The Canadian said she helped Lasloom film social media videos about her plight. In one of them she said: "If my family comes they will kill me," HRW said..."Lasloom's whereabouts are currently unknown," HRW said in a statement from Manila.The Canadian witness, who spent several hours with Lasloom at the airport in Manila, reported that two of Lasloom's uncles arrived, the New York-based watchdog said.It also quoted an airline security official as saying he heard Lasloom "screaming and begging for help" on Tuesday before security personnel and men who appeared to be Middle Eastern carried her "with duct tape on her mouth, feet and hands" at the airport...Asked about the HRW statement by AFP on Friday, the Philippine immigration department said it had held no one of Lasloom's name and no Saudi national."There was no Saudi national by that name who presented herself," spokeswoman Antonette Mangrobang...The spokeswoman said that if Lasloom was a transiting passenger, then she would not have passed through immigration and it would have been up to the airline to decide what happened to her.video
MARTINSVILLE  Sharon Shepherd, deputy director of the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce, got to relive the excitement she remembers as a girl getting her picture taken with the Easter Bunny.

But on Saturday, she was inside an at least eight-foot-tall, big-eared, white-furry Easter bunny costume as adoring children attending Uptown Martinsville Easter egg hunts had their pictures taken with her.

I didnt have to draw the short straw to get the Easter bunny duty, Shepherd said. She eagerly volunteered for it.

Whats an Easter egg hunt without the Easter bunny? Shepherd said as she looked through the large mouth hole of the approximately three-foot tall Easter bunny head.

Asked if the Easter bunny costume was hot and itchy, Shepherd said not itchy but if she stood still too long in one spot, it got hot.

At the time, Shepherd was doing her hippity hopping at the first of the three Easter egg hunts: the one at the Pocket Park at 41 Fayette Street.

Brothers Alexay, 5, and Jordan Hairston, 1, of Martinsville, are two of the children who had their pictures taken with the Easter bunny at the Pocket Park. Holding the stash of eggs he collected, Alexay hugged the Easter bunny as Jordan petted the bunnys head.

I love it. Its really great, Michelle Hairston, Alexay and Jordans mom, said of the Easter egg hunt. They were really excited. They were up at 6:30.

The first egg hunt started at 10 a.m.

Liz Secrest, executive director of Martinsville Uptown (MURA), held Shepherd by the arm to help guide and assist her as the Easter bunny walked from the Pocket Park to the site of the second Easter egg hunt: the Historic Henry County Courthouse lawn.

After Secrest and the Easter bunny arrived there, Secrest gave the crowd awaiting a report periodically about how many minutes until the egg hunt would begin. Secrest then had the dozens of children line up for the final-seconds countdown.

When Secrest gave the word, they were off.

Some of the children ran with their baskets.

After the egg hunt was over, Cheyenne Young, 7, of Martinsville, said the Easter bunny and the eggs she collected were her favorite parts of the event.

Her family was taking photos of her, next to a display of the approximately 20 Easter eggs she collected and the yellow Tweety-bird basket she collected them in.

Its great. Its wonderful. It brings the community together, Cheyennes dad, Roger Young, said of the event.

The third Easter egg hunt was on the Martinsville Municipal Building lawn.

In all, more than 2,000 eggs, containing candy or treats, were distributed.

Secrest was pleased with Saturdays sunny weather for the second annual event. Last year, it was rainy and the crowds were smaller. She said she was excited to invite the community to the uptown district for the event.
MARTINSVILLE  Memorial Hospital and Patrick Henry Community College will be minus a friendly face from now on, one students and colleagues have come to know and love over the past several decades.

Bishop Joe Gravely, a nursing instructor at PHCC since 1988, is retiring. However, his legacy will continue for years to come.

In 1975, Gravely received a groundbreaking job at Memorial Hospital as the first African American male nurse - and his personal accolades didnt stop there. When he started his career at PHCC, Gravely was the first male nursing instructor in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Since then, hes touched the lives of many people  students, colleagues and patients alike.

On Thursday, Gravelys last day at the hospital, his final group of clinical students threw him a surprise party. People throughout the years came to support the beloved teacher, nurse and role model.

The number of individuals who came to the retirement party touched Memorial Hospital Employee Educator Toni Geter-Wade, who worked alongside Gravely for many years.

I cant even name how many hundreds of nurses and students hes been exposed to, Geter-Wade said. Thats a lot of students.

Geter-Wade supposed that nearly half of the nursing staff at Memorial Hospital took classes under Gravely.

While classmates alleged that Gravely had been talking about retirement for years, a heart attack in November prompted him to more strongly consider the option.

When he announced that he would, indeed, retire at the end of the school year, student Coralia Argyrakis started talking with her classmates about throwing Gravely a surprise party.

This class wanted to do something, Geter-Wade said.

Were his last class, Alisha Poteat said. There are 28 of us.

The nursing students approached Geter-Wade with their idea. Together, the group pulled it off.

Ktesha Penn felt that learning from Gravely was an invaluable experience.

Im happy to say Ill be graduating under Joe Gravely, Penn said. I need that name on my diploma.

While many students spoke about Gravelys strict teaching style, they ultimately felt the no-nonsense method worked in their favor.

You either do it right or you go home, Mia Medrano said. All of us have definitely grown under him.

Being under him, its been tough, Courtney Hernandez said. But he doesnt just teach us nursing. He teaches us compassion and little everyday thing to make our patients lives better.

Baylee Millard also felt that patient care was Gravelys main focus.

Im really thankful I got to have him and I feel really sorry for the nurses coming up because they wont have him, Millard said.

Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry also attended the gathering.

He cares about the community and students and its something that shows in here, Perry said. Weve been blessed to have him.

With a room full of respect and admiration for Gravely, the group patiently awaited his arrival to the party, which was definitely a surprise  as 2:00 P.M. came and passed, the crowd started to murmur amongst themselves about where the teacher could be.

Ever-helping, the group erupted in knowing laughter when a nursing student received a text from an individual accompanying the minister that hed be a few minutes late because hes preaching.

When Gravely made his way into the cafeteria  where everyone was stationed  the students and colleges burst into applause. He stood in the entrance for a moment before making his way toward the group assembled just for him.

Ive never had a speechless day in my life, Gravely said. I dont know how to say it because I dont cry  and Im not going to cry  but my legs got weak, honestly.

The minister took off his hat as he spoke to those that threw the party in his honor.

I went through life thinking people didnt like me that much, Gravely said. I thought I was more rejected than accepted. I dont look for good things to come my way.

Gravely didnt let his perceived image get in the way of his career or his love of people.

People come first. Thats the reason I got into this profession, Gravely said. People are the most precious thing thats ever been placed on this Earth.

Gravely addressed his nursing students, both past and present.

We are special people who have been set aside to make a difference, Gravely said.

The minister also spoke about how people treat one another and expressed the importance of kindness.

They might say youre fat, no good, ugly, not going to amount to anything, Gravely said, but urged the audience to not believe the negative words. Look in the mirror and see the special person God has made you to be. No human can make you feel less than what God has made us to be.

Overwhelmed by the outpouring of love hed just received, Gravely challenged those present.

Spread what you just made me feel, Gravely said. Martinsville-Henry County would be profoundly changed.
The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, April 11:



Even as the smoke clears from last weeks U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base, the future is shrouded in fog. Its not clear what President Donald Trumps ultimate goal will turn out to be. Its not clear what military methods he may use to achieve his purpose. Its not clear whether he will have public support for the course he chooses. Its 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 harms way in Syria.

The experience under Trumps 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 didnt let that keep him from proceeding as before.

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 wasnt 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 peoples 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.


Boston Celtics star Isaiah Thomas' sister passed away in a one-car accident early Saturday morning, according to the Tacoma News Tribune.

The Boston Globe's Adam Himmelsbach confirmed the tragic news:

Isaiah Thomas's younger sister Chyna was killed in a car accident today in Washington state, a source close to the family confirmed.  Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) April 15, 2017

The News Tribune reported Saturday night that Thomas' sister, Chyna J. Thomas, died after a crash at approximately 5 a.m. the same day. According to the newspaper's story, her car drifted off the side of a highway, struck a Jersey barrier, and slammed into a sign pole.

Police told the News Tribune that Chyna Thomas, 22, died at the scene of the accident.

Isaiah Thomas and the Celtics open the playoffs Sunday against the Chicago Bulls.
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'Michael was loved by many,' Kelleher family says after body pulled from Charles River

The body of Michael Kelleher, the 23-year-old who disappeared after attending a Boston Celtics game last month, has been found.

Massachusetts State Police Marine Unit announced Sunday morning that they found the body of a man in the eastern end of the Charles River. The body was spotted by a passerby Sunday morning who reported it to law enforcement.

The family of Kelleher confirmed the identification to FOX25.

Kelleher, a Southborough resident, had been missing since March 29.
Lee Paulino.jpg

Lee Viloria-Paulino was found dead on the backs of the Merrimack River in Lawrence two weeks after he was reported missing. One teen has been charged with the murder, and now a second teen was arraigned on charges he made false statements to police.

LAWRENCE A second teenager has been charged in connection with the November 2016 death of a Lawrence High School sophomore, New England Cable News reported. The headless body of 16-year-old Lee Viloria-Paulino was found on the banks of the Merrimack River two weeks after he was reported missing.

A spokesman for the Essex County District Attorney's office announced Friday that the unidentified juvenile was arraigned in juvenile court on several charges including making a false statement to police and intimidating a witness.

A classmate of Paulino's then 15-year-old Matthew Borges was arrested about two weeks after Paulino went missing. He was charged with murder in beheading death. Both Borges and Paulino were sophomores at Lawrence High School.
AMHERST -- Jeffrey Stauder, Amherst-Pelham Regional High School art department head, says the school is lucky to have just one student win a national medal in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition every few years.

The school's luck overflowed this year -- Amherst has three national winners.

Three Amherst seniors were awarded national gold or silver medals in the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the nation's longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7-12.

Stauder in a press release said that 330,000 works of art and writing were submitted at the state level this year. "It's hard to get (a national award)," he said. Students compete with schools of all sizes from all over the state.

"We're thrilled to have three in one year," he said.

None of the three plan to study art, but all plan to continue with it in in some way.

Ava Blum-Carr, a 17-year-old from Hadley, received a gold medal for her oil painting "Detainees."

She said she had been thinking a lot about immigration and saw a photo of Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle, who were kidnapped by the Taliban in 2012 in Afghanistan. Coleman is American and Boyle is Canadian.

Using a photo to paint from, Blum-Carr juxtaposed that image with that of detention centers in the United States. She said when Americans are taken hostage, there is all kinds of attention given them, but immigrants in detention centers here become invisible.

Maya Durham, 17, of Shutesbury won gold in the comic art category for her drawings titled "The Last City." She said she wanted to tell a refugee story because "it was on my mind at the moment."

Ling Li, 18, of Amherst won a silver medal for her drawing "Amalia" in the drawing & illustration category. Li, who loves the horror genre, said she was inspired to create an image that captures "the same type of atmosphere." She took a photo of a friend and then drew the image from that.

Blum-Carr said she will study political science, likely at Mount Holyoke. Durham said she will take a gap year, and Li plans to study biomedical engineering at Northeastern University. They said they will continue with art in some way.

The three created their work in the art portfolio class led by teacher Ben Sears, who will be honored as a gold medal educator.

Blum-Carr and Durham's gold medal-winning works will be on display in New York, at either Parsons / The New School or the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, according to a press release.

On June 8, the pair will be among those honored during a special awards ceremony that will be webcast live from Carnegie Hall with a reception at The Edison Ballroom.

Following the New York exhibition, their work will go on a national tour before being exhibited twice in Washington at the Department of Education and at the President's Committee on the Arts & Humanities.
olver transit center greenfield.jpg

The John W. Olver transit center in Greenfield is a zero-net-energy facility built with federal stimulus funds. Climate activists gathered there Friday and said they would push all municipalities in Massachusetts to adopt "100 percent renewable energy."

(Mary Serreze photo)

GREENFIELD -- Climate activists gathered at the John. W. Olver Transit Center said Friday they would push all cities and towns in Western Massachusetts to commit to 100 percent renewable energy.

Municipalities should dump all fossil fuel use and "implement concrete projects" recommended by Mass Power Forward, members of the coalition said at their campaign kickoff.

"With the fears of what's happening at the federal level, it feels like the local level, which has always been important, is even more important now," said Carol Oldham, director of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network.

Volunteers with "Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution" will hold a series of workshops this spring to educate local officials, said Bob Armstrong, a member of the group.

Greenfield Mayor Bill Martin was the only apparent municipal leader at the event, which was well-attended by local members of Mothers Out Front, Climate Action Now, 350 Massachusetts, and other organizations.

04/14/17 - Greenfield Mayor Bill Martin speaking at a Mass Power Forward event at the John W. Olver Transit Center. The coalition will push localities to commit to 100 percent renewable energy.

Martin described Greenfield's energy initiatives, and praised the state's "Green Communities" program with its grants, incentives, and technical assistance. He said Greenfield was the first community statewide to install solar panels on a capped landfill and as such pioneered the process.

"In Franklin County, local is our mantra," said Martin.

Nancy Hazard of Greening Greenfield said a 100-percent renewable policy is not only possible, but "the roadmap to a vibrant economy."

In 2008, Greenfield conducted an audit and found that residents, businesses and government spent $86 million on energy, with 80 percent leaving the community, Hazard said. She said the solution is to "electrify everything," reduce energy use by 40 percent, deploy new technologies, and produce more power locally.

Hazard said each person in the United States uses twice as much energy as a person in Europe, and that Massachusetts can meet its needs with wind, solar, and hydro.

Rep. Paul Mark (D-Peru) said he supports the effort. He said states and localities must lead on issues of climate change, despite who is sitting in the Oval Office.

"I thought we had gotten to the point, finally, where people realize there is science to back this up," he told the crowd. "Then we had a really interesting election, and suddenly the debate (on climate change) has been revived."

Mark said local action not only complements state action, but pushes state action.

Adele Franks of Northampton said members of Climate Action Now and Mothers Out Front are helping local officials "figure out how to green the grid," how to incorporate energy efficiency into new buildings, and how to finance clean energy projects.

Franks praised Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz for his commitment to clean energy, but opined that "it's not nearly enough."

Under Northampton sustainability officer Chris Mason, municipal energy use has been cut by 25 percent, according to the city. A full megawatt of solar capacity is scheduled for residential rooftops, and a 3.3-megawatt municipal solar array is being developed. Northampton, which committed to a clean energy future in 2008, has retrofitted government buildings, converted streetlights to LED fixtures, installed electric car chargers, and more.

Franks said two dozen "energetic volunteers" will help Northampton take the next steps, and are also working with Amherst.

Joel Wool of the Boston-based Clean Water Action said his group works on Beacon Hill to push for environmental legislation, and also maintains and builds a local network.

The campaign, which seeks "100 percent renewable energy" commitments from mayors, city councils and town governments, "is a direct response and a direct challenge to the Trump agenda," said Wool.

Wool said when communities and states model clean energy policies and practices, it can have a national impact.

The coalition has compiled a lengthy checklist for towns and cities.

Local governments are advised to complete energy audits, implement energy efficiency in municipal buildings, convert streetlights to LED fixtures, complete a greenhouse gas inventory, create a climate action plan, hire a sustainability manager, install solar panels, build bike lanes, purchase electric vehicles, plant trees, pass "no idling" bylaws, adopt "community choice aggregation," and more.

Renewable energy projects have faced opposition in some Franklin County towns.

In Shutesbury, neighbors relentlessly battled a proposed solar facility on Pratt Corner Road, and plaintiffs sued the town in federal court. In Wendell, a solar array on Wendell Depot Road -- first proposed in late 2015 -- only gained Conservation Commission approval on April 4.

Some at Friday's meeting distributed flyers claiming state officials have devised a secret plan to "subsidize dirty biomass energy" through a bill that would support the regional forest economy. They decried efforts by cash-strapped rural school districts to replace old oil burners with wood-pellet furnaces.

Yet despite targeted opposition to energy projects, more and more solar arrays are being built in Massachusetts by municipalities, government agencies, universities, utilities, and private industry, simply because it makes sense from a business standpoint.

An Obama-era federal tax credit meant to encourage solar projects remains valid through 2022. The state's energy department recently extended its Solar Renewable Energy Credit program until it finalizes a replacement program. Also, the actual cost of building solar facilities has been going down.

Some solar plans remain on hold, stuck on waiting lists for "net metering" allocations. Solar advocates have asked Gov. Charlie Baker and the Legislature to further lift the net metering cap that they raised in a 2016 energy bill.
We believe everyone has the capacity to be creative. The Stanford d.school is a place where people use design to develop their own creative potential.

https://dschool.stanford.edu/

"Extreme by Design," that aired on PBS.

At a time of unprecedented global challenges, the under-30 "millennial" generation has every reason to be fatalistic and disengaged. Yet in fields ranging from public health to education, plenty of millennials are engaged. Call it the empathy revolution. Extreme By Design brings this revolution vividly to life by capturing the experience of 40 students from Stanford Universitys Institute of Design (aka the d.school) as they create products that may save thousands of lives in Bangladesh, Indonesia and other developing countries they visit as part of a class called Design for Extreme Affordability.

The students apply the freewheeling "Design Thinking" approach, tapping previously undiscovered creativity and draw on methods from engineering and industrial design, and combine them with ideas from the arts, tools from the social sciences, and insights from the business world. Believing that they can and will make a difference, the students open their hearts and brains and remarkably, almost magically, their products take shape and work.

The film follows one principal student from each of three teams. The physical, mental and emotional challenges each participant faces create a compelling narrative and teach them important lessons along the way.

http://www.pbs.org/program/extreme-design/
Have you noticed an uptick in those super annoying robocalls, telemarketers, and scams hitting up your smartphone all hours of the day and night? I have, and its driving me nuts.

Jennifer Jolly, Special for USA Today

Full Story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2017/04/16/how-to-stop-robocalls-on-iphone-smartphone-android/100474848/
Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based newspaper chain that dominates the Montana media landscape, probably dealt that tradition a crippling blow last week when it announced it had bought the Independent for an undisclosed sum.

Even if you live in Eastern Montana and have never heard of, much less read, the Missoula Independent http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/ , you ought to be worried about the fate of that alternative weekly newspaper.

The Indy, which has been around for more than 25 years, has had its ups and downs, but generally speaking it was a worthy successor to the underground and alternative newspapers that came before it, and which made Missoula the only city in Montana with a real tradition of that sort of journalism.

Ed

By: Ed Kemmick

Full Story: http://lastbestnews.com/site/2017/04/prairie-lights-a-big-loss-for-independent-news-in-montana/
Yesterday, the entire Indian clan was very worked up after a news item about Evan Spiegel, the young Snapchat CEO, was doing the rounds. There is no confirmation about it, but the item reported that Spiegel was in no mood to expand in poor countries like India and Spain. The comment is under the scanner right now and while the company has got major backlash, Twiterrati jumped on the bandwagon pretty soon.

Kids Uses Snapchat.

Men's Are Uninstalling Snapchat.

Legends Never Installed Snapchat ????#Snapchat #boycottsnapchat pic.twitter.com/7LI9N3qtbp  K A M A L ? V F C (@Kamal_Vijay007) April 16, 2017

#boycottsnapchat started trending today and some of the tweets were beyond hilarious, to say the least.

Dear Snapchat, fix the Bug in your CEO! ? #BoycottSnapChat  KSHITIJ RAJ SINGH (@kshitij_raj) April 16, 2017

Someone dragged Kejriwal also.

Evan Spiegel is "other world's" kejriwal. #boycottsnapchat  Harit Dholakia (@imharit) April 16, 2017

I think #CEOSnapChat perception is due to kejriwal's sandal and Ranveer Singh's Fashion clothes bt that is even too costly. #boycottsnapchat  Aarti Agarwal (@aartiengg) April 16, 2017

The power of Indians united is unparalleled, guys!

#boycottsnapchat

After watching Snapchat's CEO statement, Mukesh Ambani is planning to launch JIOChat  Kunal C Panchal (@kp2356) April 16, 2017

So, in conclusion, its too late to apologise and while the company is yet to file an official response whether the CEO said all of this or not, there is one takeaway from this whole scenarionever underestimate the power of an angry Indian, please.
New York City is home to several amazing places like Central Park, Empire State Building, and Statue of Liberty, to name a few. But of all the places, its the Times Square that draws major attention for its glitter, glamour and places like Carnegie Hall and Broadway. However, yesterday this iconic Times Square was lit in traditional colours of India and the whole world got a glimpse of how remarkable our Sikh culture is, when the The Sikhs of New York  a non-profit organization  gathered to celebrate Turban Day. This event was aimed at spreading awareness about the Sikh community, in the wake of the growing crimes against them in the country.

 Twitter

It was an extraordinary sight where as many as 8000 Americans and tourist from different countries and ethnicities were seen flaunting colourful turbans. This event was celebrated to mark Vaisakhi. During this event, a proclamation by Congressman Gregory Meeks of the 5th Congressional District of New York declared April 15th as Turban Day and commended the efforts of The Sikhs of New York, for educating other communities about the Sikh culture. Reportedly, the organisations founder Chanpreet Singh said that Turban Day was introduced in the year 2013 at Baruch College. He further added, We are spreading awareness about the Sikh turban and culture. The turban is the crown of each Sikh and represents pride and valor. Turban Day provides an opportunity for those that do not wear a turban to experience a turban and learn about its significance first hand.

 Twitter

The volunteers helped tie colourful turbans on New Yorkers heads while explaining the significance of the Sikh faith and also explained the reasons why Sikhs wear turbans. This isnt the first time when the world saw the glimpse of how astonishing the Sikh community is. Last year, President Donald Trumps nomination ceremony was initiated with a Sikh ardas performed by Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican committee woman and lawyer. She offered the prayer in Punjabi and also explained its beautiful meaning.

Further, not just President Trump, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau too seems to be mesmerized and in awe of this community and his actions echo the sentiments of every proud Punjabi across the world.

Source: Hindustan Times
ANN ARBOR, MI - A motorcyclist was struck by a falling tree on the University of Michigan campus on the afternoon of Sunday, April 16.

Authorities were called about 4:30 p.m. to the incident in the area of 2300 Hayward Avenue on the University of Michigan's North Campus, a university police official confirmed. The location is on the crosswalk in front of the Herbert H. Dow building.

The motorcyclist, a 22-year-old student, was hospitalized in serious condition, said Diane Brown, spokeswoman for the University of Michigan Division of Public Safety and Security.

Though the matter remains under investigation, Brown said it's believed wind and the saturation of the ground may have caused the tree to fall.

The motorcycle remained standing underneath branches of the tree about 5:15 p.m. Sunday.

Further details on the incident were not immediately available.
DETROIT, MI - Detroit police are working to identify and find two armed men suspected in the Saturday morning homicide of a limousine driver.

The two approached the driver, 44, while he was in the back of his limo at a gas station in the 2900 block of W. Warren Avenue on the city's west side. They robbed him at gunpoint and then shot him several times, Detroit police reported.

Emergency personnel were summoned about 3:10 a.m. April 15 to the area.

Passengers were in the limousine, owned by the driver, but they were not hurt, according to Detroit police. It was not clear what the driver was doing at the time of the shooting.

Police did not know the direction the men fled.

Surveillance video caught images of the men suspected in the shooting. They look to be walking about the station. Police also released a video of one of the men inside the convenience store.

One of them is in his late 20s. The other man, 40, was wearing a distinctive black Chicago Bears Starter jacket and blue jeans, according to Detroit police.

Both are considered armed and dangerous, Detroit police reported.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact homicide detectives at 313-596-2260 or anonymously using the department app, DPD Connect, or by calling CrimeStoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.
Jake May | jmay2@mlive.com

Honoring veterans' service

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters presents commemorative lapel pins to Flint-area Vietnam Veterans in honor of their service in the Vietnam War on Thursday, April 13, 2017 at American Legion Post #294 in Swartz Creek. Peters is a member of the Senate Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees and a former Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

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The commemorative pins

A group of 47 local veterans from the Flint area to receive a commemorative lapel pin from Michigan Sen. Gary Peters as part of a national effort to honor the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War from Memorial Day 2012 through Veterans Day 2025.

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As you scroll, take time to take in the faces of these Vietnam War veterans.

This is Flint resident Victor Adams, who served during the war with the U.S. Army.

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Ron Hill, Army, 1972

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Dennis Sturgis, Army, 1968-69

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Bruce Badgley, Army

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Roger Sting, Navy, 1961-65

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William Morgan, Army

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Jack Cook, Army, 1955-62

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Donald L. Gaby, U.S. Coast Guard, 1966-70

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David Arceo, Army

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Philip D. LaGuire, Army, 1960-2001

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Marcos Salazar, U.S. Marine Corps, 1968-70

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David Feetham, U.S. Marine Corps, 1967-69

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Richard Bush, Air Force, 1972-79

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Chuck Loader, Air Force, 1972-73

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Edward Huckabee, Army, 1968-69

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Robert J. Anderson, 173rd in U.S. Army

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Paul Dieterle, Army, 1966-69

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Michael Vozar, Army, 1965-67

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John Gilbert, Army, 1966-68

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Guenther Stahl, Navy

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Elek Szilagyi, Army, 1967-68

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Roger Appel, Army, 1967-68

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Ronald Horn, Air Force, 1969

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Tom Wozniak, Air Force, 1972-73

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Gary Goodall, 1965

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Tim Fleming, Army, 1974

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Nick Nicholson, Army, 1958-61

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Dale Rose, Army, 1970-71

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David McGillen, Navy

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Dennis J. Nichols, Army, 1966-68

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Fred Bell, U.S. Marine Corps

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Charles Brunette, Army, 1963-65

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David Prevost, Army, 1970-71

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Larry Ludenbill, Army, 1971-73

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Larry Jean, Army, 1966-68

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Keith Wolfgram, 1968-69, Army

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Mark Miltich, 1967-71, Navy

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Doyle Martin, U.S. Marine Corps, 1968-72

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Leslie Smith, whose first day of duty began on June 20, 1965 in the Navy

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Maurice McLeod, Navy, 1962-66

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Melville Mick, Air Force, 1957-60

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Dennis Butler, 1961-67, Navy

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David Sanders, 1971-77, Navy

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Chet Kobylas, U.S. Marine Corps, 1967-68

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Reynold "Dean" Meisegeier, Army, 1956-64

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Philip M. Barette, Army, a member of the AMVETS VFW 3720 in Swartz Creek who recently died, was also given a commemorative lapel pin in honor of his service. The pin will be delivered to his wife.

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Thank you for your service

Thank you Michigan veterans for your service.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Jenison High School students arrived at the Goei Center Saturday, April 15, in fancy dresses and dapper tuxedos and suits ready for a memorable prom night.

The more than 500 juniors and seniors stepped into a world fantasy and delight inspired by the "Enchanted Forest" theme.

The Grand Rapids Press and MLive.com was there to capture all the amazing moments as students celebrated the special night.

Prom season officially is underway in West Michigan through the end of May and MLive will cover as many as possible to highlight the annual rite of passage.
1000w_q95 (1).jpg

A 76-foot pleasure craft rests in 3-feet of water near Ludington, Mich., after it was grounded when the operator discovered it was taking on water, April 15, 2017. A boat crew from Coast Guard Station Ludington recovered the operator off the vessel. (U.S. Coast Guard photo | Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Castonia)

LUDINGTON, MI -- A U.S. Coast Guard crew from a station in Ludington assisted in the rescue of a man who grounded his vessel off Big Sable Point Saturday.

Today, a commercial salvage company is planning to place boom around the vessel and position a barge with a vacuum pump to remove the fuel and oil from the vessel. According to a release from the Coast Guard, there were no injuries and no indication of pollution from the incident.

On April 15, an unnamed man was on his way from Pentwater to Traverse City aboard a 76-foot pleasure craft when he noticed the vessel was taking on water. The man decided to ground the vessel in about 3 feet of water.

A 76-foot pleasure craft rests in 3-feet of water near Ludington, Mich. after it was grounded when the operator discovered it was taking on water, April 15, 2017. (U.S. Coast Guard photo | Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Castonia)

The Ludington Coast Guard crew was on patrol when it was ordered to assist by the Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan command center, and arrived on scene in about 20 minutes.

The man was removed from the vessel, which had begun to list 15 degrees from the weight of flooded water.
By Sara Garfinkle

HILLSDALE, MI - Adopt A Grandparent, a student-volunteer program at Hillsdale College, brings together college students and local seniors.

Each week, more than 34 students visit with their "adopted grandparents," who are residents of the Hillsdale Medical Care Facility.

"Our mission is to encourage friendships between college students and the seniors at the Medical Care Facility," Sophomore Rachel Lozowski, student leader of Adopt A Grandparent, said.

"Students and seniors are at a point in their lives when they might feel removed from family life. By bringing them together, both seniors and students get to create a friendship."

Each semester the students volunteer numerous hours. Since January, Adopt A Grandparent volunteers have spent more than 200 hours with their senior friends in the community.

For freshman Madeleine Miller of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, each visit builds upon a growing friendship.

"Spending time with and getting to know my 'adopted grandparent,' Ms. Erma, has been a privilege and a joy," Miller said. "She is a lovely woman, and I always look forward to visiting with her.

"Sharing stories, experiences, and dreams has led us to become good friends. Our relationship has helped me feel connected with the Hillsdale community off-campus."

This student-driven organization brings a sense of family to college-age students and local senior citizens, Lozowski said.

"The students and residents often develop relationships similar to grandchildren and grandparents," she said. "The residents have so much wisdom and experience that they share with the students. The joy that this relationship brings to both the students' and residents' lives is the true accomplishment of this program."

In addition to the personal, weekly visits, Adopt A Grandparent coordinates special events for all the Medical Care Facility residents.

In the fall, students hosted a "Young-at-Heart" movie night with the residents, where they watched a classic Disney movie. During the holidays, the students decorated and delivered Christmas cards while caroling at the facility.

In February, Adopt A Grandparent volunteers celebrated Valentine's Day with handmade cards, personally delivered to their "adopted grandparent."

"On campus, college students helped to decorate cards. Our Adopt A Grandparent volunteers passed out the cards and told all the residents that they are loved by the students of Hillsdale College," said Lozowski.

"It was heartwarming to see how appreciative the residents were of our homemade creations. They were so kind to our students. You could see the friendships growing."

Adopt A Grandparent is part of Hillsdale College's Great Opportunities for Assistance and Leadership programs. GOAL programs form a student-organized volunteer network and connect college students with a variety opportunities to serve the surrounding Hillsdale community.

More than 35 percent of Hillsdale's student body volunteers through the GOAL Program.

- Sara Garfinkle is a Hillsdale College freshman studying politics, journalism, and classical education. As a public relations intern, Garfinkle writes on community relations and volunteerism.
LAWTON, MI -- Lawton High School students celebrated their 2017 prom on Saturday, April 15.

The school's spring formal was held at the Lawton Community Center.

The Kalamazoo Gazette was there to photograph the prom-goers Saturday evening.

If you have your own photos you'd like to have included in our photo gallery, email them to kznews@mlive.com. Include your name, names of the students pictured and the school.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Portage Northern High School students celebrated prom 2017 in downtown Kalamazoo on Saturday, April 15.

The school's spring formal was held at the Kalamazoo State Theatre.

The Kalamazoo Gazette was there to photograph the prom-goers on their way in to the dance.

If you have your own photos you'd like to have included in our photo gallery of the prom, email them to kznews@mlive.com. Include your name, names of the students pictured and the school.

See MLive prom coverage from around Michigan
SAGINAW, MI -- Yunikkia Green hasn't used her legs to get around since she was run over by a vehicle multiple times in December.

She has been confined to a bed at a rehabilitation facility since the incident, being transported by wheelchair to daily therapy sessions.

She took her first steps assisted by a walker last month.

"Someone is always behind me helping me," she said. "One of my legs is still weak."

About 2 a.m. on Dec. 2, police found Green lying in the road near the intersection of Clark and Schaefer on the city's West Side.

Witnesses said she had been run over 5-7 times by Larry Houston, 35, after a dispute between Houston and another man.

She has missed holidays such as Christmas and her grandchildren's birthdays.

"My kids went out for their birthdays and I couldn't," Green said. "I hated it. I had to wait for them to come back."

The rods in her pelvis and back were removed in mid-March as was a catheter.

"It feels weird, but it feels better," Green said. "But it's still hard to sleep because my bones are still hurting a little bit."

Green has been allowed home visits and enjoys being able to spend more time with family outside of the facility.

"I get to go outside now," she said. "It feels good. As long as I have my therapy first, and then I can leave."

Green said the one place she plans to go, now that some restrictions have been lifted, is to Houston's next court date.

Houston is scheduled to start trial on May 16.

"I want to be there so he can see what he did to me," Green said, though she also said she has not been contacted by any officials handling the case.

He is being held in the Saginaw County Jail on a $400,000 bond on several charges of assault with intent to commit murder and felonious assault.

A witness testified that Green was not involved in the conflict between Houston and at least one more person when she was run over by a vehicle driven by him.

Green was walking home with a friend and two men after the bar they were at closed for the night.

Houston had been knocked out twice before getting in the vehicle and hitting Green, Anthony King, the man who fought Houston, testified.

Green said she expects to be released from care in a few more months.

"They don't want me leaving until I am fully walking," she said. "I'm getting there, but I still need therapy. I haven't got an out date yet."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Justice Neil Gorsuch's first week on the Supreme Court bench features an important case about the separation of church and state that has its roots on a Midwestern church playground. The outcome could make it easier to use state money to pay for private, religious schooling in many states.

The justices on Wednesday will hear a Missouri church's challenge to its exclusion from a state program that provides money to use ground-up tires to cushion playgrounds. Missouri is among roughly three dozen states with constitutions that explicitly prohibit using public money to aid a religious institution, an even higher wall separating government and religion than the U.S. Constitution erects.

Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, says its exclusion is discrimination that violates its religious freedoms under the U.S. Constitution.

If the justices agree, "the decision could have implications far beyond scrap tires and playgrounds," said Michael Bindas of the Institute for Justice, which is backing the church. "It has the potential to remove one of the last legal clouds hanging over school choice."

That prospect worries groups of public school teachers and others who oppose vouchers and other forms of public aid for private schooling.

Adding to the intrigue is the long delay between when the Supreme Court agreed to hear Trinity Lutheran's appeal, a month before Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, and the argument. The span of more than 15 months suggests the justices were concerned they might divide 4-4. Indeed, the case wasn't scheduled for argument until after President Donald Trump nominated Gorsuch for the seat.

The timing of the argument "heightened our concern that the court has held this case for so long," said Alice O'Brien, general counsel of the National Education Association, which opposes state aid to private schools.

Missouri's new governor, Republican Eric Greitens, injected some uncertainty into the high court case on Thursday, when he directed state agencies to allow religious groups and schools to receive taxpayer money for playgrounds and other purposes. The court on Friday asked both the church and the state to tell it whether the governor's announcement affects the case.

A lawyer for the church said in an interview with The Associated Press that the case would be unaffected because Greitens' policy change does not resolve the legal issue. But a top aide to state Attorney General Josh Hawley told the AP that state lawyers were evaluating whether the new policy would affect the case.

Should the court decide to go forward, Gorsuch's votes and opinions in religious liberty cases as a judge on the federal appeals court in Denver would seem to make him more inclined to side with the church, and potentially provide the decisive, tie-breaking vote if the rest of the court is divided between liberals and conservatives, Bindas said.
Trump tweeted Sunday: "I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?"

Trump was the first major-party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his returns and he reneged on a campaign commitment to release them. He said they were being audited.

"Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over," he tweeted.

Thousands of sign-waving, chanting protesters marched Saturday through streets across America, demanding that the president release his tax returns so the public can examine his business ties and determine whether he has links to foreign powers.

The demonstrations came on the date taxpayers traditionally have to file their returns by and just days before this year's filing deadline Tuesday. The tax day protests in more than a dozen cities were largely peaceful, though occasionally demonstrators and some pro-Trump groups taunted each other in face-to-face exchanges.

1,300 Trump protesters join in Tax March in Ann Arbor

In Berkeley, California, police arrested at least 20 people at unrelated gatherings of about 200 pro- and anti-Trump people in a park after fist fighting erupted. Officers confiscated knives and makeshift weapons.

Trump has said that voters don't care about his tax returns.

But many demonstrators said they hoped Saturday's marches would convince Trump otherwise.

"We do care. We want to see his taxes," said Ann Demerlis, who was among hundreds who marched in Philadelphia from City Hall to an area in front of historic Independence Hall, carrying signs and chanting "We want your taxes now!"

Seventy-one-year-old Ilene Singh said he's wrong. She rode a bus from New Jersey to New York City with her friend Geraldine Markowitz, 83, to take part in the protests. "We're here to say we care," said Singh.

Pushing her walker, Karin Arlin, 85, a Holocaust survivor who came to the U.S. from Germany when she was 9, said she's also worried about the direction of the country.

"You don't know which way the country goes," said Arlin next to her 89-year-old husband who fled Czechoslovakia during World War II. "I hope Republicans see it."

As April 18 tax deadline nears, what are chances of an audit?
Aarusha Homes, PG for Mens (Baximage)

In 2008, when Satyanarayana Vejella started his first hostel in Chennai under the brand name Aarusha Homes, he was wading into an untapped segment of the Indian realty market. Real estate funds and investors were keen on buying office space, residential housing and warehousing, but branded hostels for working professionals and student housing was a neglected asset class.

Professionals and students in India have, for the most part, adjusted with rented houses, paying guest (PG) accommodations or hostels run by their educational institutions where the host provides some basic services like internet, food and laundry.

These arrangements tend to be temporary. Security is a problem and landlords are lax about providing quality service as they are serving a market where demand exceeds supply. This [market] is tricky as it is two businesseshospitality and real estaterolled into one, says Bharat Parmar, partner at Eduvisors, a consulting firm on education.

Read more stories from Forbes India here

Globally, student housing and hostels for working professionals is a $200-billion asset class, according to a report by Eduvisors. The segment has attracted capital from pension funds, private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds, who are on the lookout for long-term steady returns.

In India, however, it is a nascent segment with just a few players and demand is largely met by unorganised players (think individual landlords who rent out their houses to say two or three students).

This is a market that is crying to be organised, says Shobhit Maleta, co-founder of the New Delhi-based Indecampus, which plans to set up its first student hostel in Dehradun this year and is also scouting for land for a hostel in Himachal Pradeshs Solan.

Entrepreneurs Forbes India spoke to see more ventures like Indecampus springing up. They expect at least a dozen chains of hostels for students and working professionals coming up in India over the next five years. This would mainly be in clusters near educational institutions, like Kota in Rajasthan, or in places where there is a large population of entry-level working professionalsGurugram, Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

Ashish Joshi, managing director and CEO of private equity firm Landmark Capital Advisors, for instance, is setting up a Rs 500-crore fund to invest equally in student housing and warehousing. While studying the market, he says he was surprised by the tailwinds the business has going for it. The occupancy rate through the year is a high 95 percent. And even though there are two months of vacation a year for students, the fee for the entire year is mostly charged upfront, he says.

In addition to setting up its own hostels to get a head start, Landmark Capital Advisors also plans to take over the operation of existing hostels at educational institutions. For this, Joshi plans to tie up with educational institutions and integrate the hostel fees with the course fees, while retaining the hostel under the institutions brand. According to Joshi, many educational institutions are looking to outsource the managing of their hostels, since it is not core to the educational business, as long as they get a minimum rent.

Maleta of Indecampus has arrived at what he says is the thumb rule of what a student hostel can charge. A hostel can charge only as much as the annual education fees of the institution, he says. That is the sweet spot and parents are not comfortable paying beyond that. So, if it is an expensive private university, the hostel can charge accordingly and offer facilities like air conditioning. For cheaper government colleges, hostels have to cater to a more price-sensitive market. Still, facilities like Wi-Fi, food, housekeeping and security are the bare minimum that one expects. Indecampuss basic pack for its Dehradun hostel will be Rs 110,000 per student per year, including food.

Despite this being an unorganised market, superior returns of this asset class has attracted investor interest.

The need for housing doesnt stop after education. Young professionals typically end up renting a house with two to four co-workers and face similar problems as paying guests.

Aarusha, which has provided hostels to students, also has a product for working professionals in the cities that it operates. Vejella says while the business model works for young IT professionals or BPO employees, for blue-collar workers, some subsidy is required. The hostel chain has had to shut down one hostel for blue-collar workers in Chakan, an industrial cluster north of Pune, due to layoffs in the auto component companies located there. He is waiting for the fine print of the central governments proposal of issuing rent vouchers to the urban poor to see if this becomes a viable business proposition again.

For now, Aarusha has around 4,300 beds across 20 hostels in Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad, where it is headquartered. It has raised money from several investors, including the non-profit global venture fund Acumen as well as debt from Caspian Advisors and HDFC Ltd. Indecampus, on the other hand, is bootstrapped.

Nikhil Sikri, co-founder of Zolo Stays, that provides 3,000 beds on rent in Bengaluru, Pune and Kota to working professionals and students, describes this as a panic market and explains why the aggregator model doesnt work here. Zolo Stays, founded in 2016, charges Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 a month from its clients, the same as Aarusha homes, which is around 30 percent more than the rent rates in the area since it also provides housekeeping and other services. A new worker panics if he cannot find a house in a new city. So he signs with us for say two months and then thinks, Why should I pay 30 percent extra? Therefore, search and discovery cannot be our only selling proposition. We have to manage residences and that is the real value addition that operators like us bring, he says.

To work around this problem, Zolo Stays, backed by Nexus Venture Partners, has taken buildings on lease in Pune and Bengaluru. Here, the customer has to sign an 11-month lease which includes the price of services like food (optional), Wi-Fi and housekeeping. It is in effect like renting a house except that the customer does not have to find other tenants to fill the house.

Zolo Stays and Aarusha both take entire buildings or blocks of buildings on rent before they set up hostels as it helps them amortise costs better. The model doesnt work when you take just a few rooms on rent.

Ultimately, it is the superior returns of this asset class that has attracted investor interest. Most players agree that returns average 14-15 percent after all costs are taken care of. This compares favourably with office space where the rental yields in India are just 7-9 percent. Also, since this is as much a hospitality business, as it is a real estate business, investors need not put in high costs in acquiring property. We are touching 20 percent margin after all costs, says Vejella.

With these returns, its not hard to see why this is a market waiting to be tapped.
Playing the OBC card, the BJP today hit out at opposition parties, including the Congress, for stalling a "historic" bill granting constitutional status to the OBC Commission and asserted that the Modi government is firm on its resolve to ensure justice to backward castes. Seeking to consolidate its support among the other backward classes (OBC), it passed a separate resolution at its national executive meeting hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who comes from an OBC caste, for the legislation and condemning rivals for blocking it in the Rajya Sabha.

It accused the Congress and other rival parties of being "anti-backward castes".

The OBCs, comprising over 52 per cent of population, are vital to BJP's fortunes and a large chunk of them had remained indifferent to it before its concerted bid to woo them bore fruits under Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and then in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

"It is a must to grant the OBC Commission constitutional status. It will give them justice and help create an equal society. The Congress and other parties have proved that they may preach social justice but practise only vote bank politics. The Congress did not do justice to them when it was in power and continues to do so now," Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters.

He was briefing them on the resolution passed by the national executive.

The present commission is "powerless" and cannot do justice to the OBCs, he said, asserting that the central government is firm on the bill's passage. It will give the commission powers similar to the SCs and the STs commissions.

He said the OBC MPs belonging to all parties, including the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, had met Modi recently to press for such a bill but opposition parties stalled it when it was brought.

The Lok Sabha, where the government enjoys a big majority, passed the constitutional amendment bill during the recent Budget Session but the Rajya Sabha, where it is short of a simple majority, stalled it and sent to a parliamentary committee for review and recommendations.

Slamming the Congress, the resolution said opposing a decision aimed at improving the living conditions of backward people cannot be termed right and the people sidelined for long should now get their due in the society.

It is not right to oppose such decision only for politics, it said.

It is yet another pro-poor move by the government, the minister said, adding that various bodies, including the Mandal commission, had made such a suggestion.

The resolution moved by Hukumdev Narayan Yadav and seconded by the party's senior OBC leaders, including Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raghubar Das, said it is after 70 years of Independence, a government has taken this "historic" decision.

"This is fulfillment of the long-pending demand of providing social justice to the backward classes of our society... This step reflects the strong resolve of Modi to bring equality in the society where nobody is treated badly because of their caste or educational backwardness. Justice needs to be delivered to every citizen without any bias or prejudice," it said.

Javadekar said the OBC commission will help people irrespective of religions as socially and educationally backward groups of minorities also fall in the OBC category. PTI KR .
The government will start monitoring the usage of funds meant for implementation of schemes for scheduled castes in view of complaints that budgetary allocations are being diverted to other programmes by states.

The move follows the PMO's decision to entrust the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry with the responsibility of monitoring the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP), which earlier was under the NITI Aayog's mandate.

Under SCSP, states are required to formulate schemes for the welfare of scheduled castes and also allocate funds for their implementation.

Also, every central ministry or department is required to allocate funds for the welfare of Dalits.

"We have developed monitoring based on the framework designed by NITI Aayog to ensure funds meant for SCs are not being diverted to other programmes," Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot said today.

As per last year's annual report by National Commission for Scheduled Caste, funds spent on schemes meant for SCs were only a tiny fraction of the total allotted under the SCSP.

According to a senior official in the ministry, letters are being written to all state governments to ensure proper usage of funds allocated for the welfare of SCs.

While addressing a press conference on the 'Major Social Welfare Initiatives' to mark the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar here, Gehlot informed that 14 scholarship schemes covering 3.54 crore SCs, OBCs, denotified, nomadic and semi- nomadic tribes (DNTs) students are under digital payment.

He emphasised that the government is committed for the social, economic and educational uplift of SCs and has enunciated policies and schemes across different ministries.

He informed that a new scheme 'Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana' has been launched recently for distribution of aids and assisted living devices to senior citizens free of cost to help them overcome their age-related physical impairment and lead a dignified and productive life with minimal dependence on caregivers or other members of the family.

The scheme is expected to benefit 5.2 lakh citizens over a period of three years.

Referring to Ambedkar scheme for social integration through inter-caste marriages, the minister said that the objective is to extend financial incentive to couples to enable them to settle down in the initial phase of their married life.

He further said that places related to Dr Ambedkar such as Janam Bhoomi, Mhow, Shiksha Bhoomi 10, King Henry Road, London, Deeksha Bhoomi, Nagpur, Parinirvan Bhoomi, 26, Alipur Road in New Delhi and Chaitya Bhoomi, Dadar, Mumbai were declared 'Panchtirth' and are being developed by the government.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he addresses an election campaign rally in Allahabad, India, February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jitendra Prakash - RTSZHO9

6:00 pm: With that, we bring the blog to a close. Thanks for tuning it.

5:16 pm: Gadkari also remarked upon PM's comments regarding triple talaq where Modi had said that Muslim women should get justice and that they should not suffer.

5:11 pm: At a press briefing Nitin Gadkari said that PM Modi appreciated party president Amit Shah for his great work in Uttar Pradesh and other states, helping the party win.

He also said they should move forward with the formula of New India.

PM gave the vision of P2 - G2 - pro people, proactive, and good governance, he said.

4:38 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to touch down in Surat, Gujarat on Sunday evening. PM Modi will also hold an 11-KM long roadshow in the city.

4.23 pm: The BJP national executive meeting has just got over.

3:48 pm: Modi said that the Opposition doesn't have any issue to challenge BJP.

The success of demonetisation is a bigger achievement than the UP victory.

PM praises BJP president, says Amit Shah is case study for political pundits who want to understand word STRATEGY, What he did in Uttar Pradesh with hard work has never been seen before.

3:09 pm: The PM had intervened the executive meet to speak about commission to backward class.

2:55 pm: At the strategic meet, BJP is learnt to have turned its focus on schemes for the poor. The party's recent show in assembly elections, most particularly emerging victorious in UP, was mentioned. Next up, Odisha and Bengal is on the agenda.

2.21 pm: Stay tuned for PM Narendra Modi's concluding speech in Odisha. He will be addressing a rally most likely at around 4.30 pm.

Even as the two-day Odisha meet is underway, it is believed FM Arun Jaitley has briefed party members about the GST Bill. Further, PM Narendra Modi is learnt to have spoken about demonetisation and GST at the strategic meet held to chart out plans for the future.

Modi is expected to address a rally at about 4.30 p.m today. His Odisha trip will come to an end this evening after which he will be flying out to Gujarat for another 2-day road trip.

What happened in 5 assembly polls last year.there will be a discussion on thye second resolution economic resolution where there will be amention of demonetization and GSTalso lkely to be a detailed presentatatin by Arun Jaitley on GSTthe one main important address will be at 3.00apart from setting the roadmapfor the lok sabha

On Saturday BJP president Amit Shah cautioned party leaders against complacency, saying it is yet to reach the peak as he rolled out plans for its expansion in states where it has been traditionally weak.

In his inaugural address at the BJP's two-day national executive in Bhubaneswar, he also asserted that the party's "golden era" would arrive when it rules across the country, from panchayats to Parliament.

Top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were in attendance as he asked the organisation to resolve for victory in the next round of assembly elections due in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, noting that a similar resolve was made last year during the national executive meeting in Allahabad for five state elections, including in UP.
PNC Menon | Net Worth: INR 99,278.4 crore| How much are they donating: INR 49,639.2 crore. (Image Source: Reuters)

Forbes India

Seated on a plush sofa in suite number 1663 at The Oberoi, Mumbaihis favourite suite which provides a sweeping view of the Arabian SeaPuthan Naduvakkatt Chenthamaraksha (PNC) Menon proclaims: I will retire only in two waysone is if Im not alive, and, second, if Im not able to move.

The 68-year-old, self-admittedly, is addicted to success. If youre successful, you want to succeed more and more. Its an endless journey. Its an addiction which Im enjoying, says the NRI billionaire (Forbes estimates his personal net worth at $1.64 billion).

This addiction has taken him places, both in terms of geography and business. The founder and chairman of Sobha Group, a construction and real estate player in the UAE, and chairman emeritus of India-listed real estate developer Sobha Limited, is diversifying into newer sectors: Hospitality, with the launch of his own hotel brand Strada; branded furniture and lighting, for which he is setting up a factory in Abu Dhabi; real estate consultancy services; and a multi-billion dollar real estate fund, Menon Capital, which would invest in rent-yielding commercial assets across Europe, the UAE and India.

For the last one, Menon intends to draw on his decades-long experience. I have been in the building industry for 47 years. I thought it is time for me to leverage the knowledge that I have got over this period to launch a fund which would drive investments into real estate, says Menon. We are ready and should be getting into the market any time now.

Read more Forbes stories here

Menons privately-held Sobha Group, which is headquartered in Dubai, currently has three real estate projects in various stages of development in the UAE, which together would deliver revenues in excess of $10 billion over the next 10 years. His construction work in the region includes the Dubai Marina Yacht Club and the Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates in Dubai and the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat.

Contemporary Mansion, District One project by Meydan Sobha, Dubai.

Menons real estate play in the UAE is a fairly recent development (it started in 2011) compared to his construction business, which has been going on since the mid-90s. Among the premier properties being developed of late is the $10 billion Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum City-District One project in Dubai, which is an ultra-luxury residential joint venture between the Meydan Group, backed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, and the Sobha Group. The project consists of villas and mansions that sport price tags of $4 million and $20 million, respectively.

In April last year, Sobha Group partnered with the government of Umm Al Quwain in the UAE to develop a $6.8 billion real estate project, Firdous Sobha, located on an island off the emirates coast. Besides these, the company is also involved in an upcoming real estate project (of over 1,200 acres) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

That should be enough for most people. Not for Menon, who is spearheading 55 million square feet of real estate development in the UAE. Says JC Sharma, vice chairman and managing director of Sobha Limited, Menons listed India entity, Menon has this extraordinary capability of being able to create an organisation and set high standards. And he enjoys doing that morning to evening as he has no other hobbies.

To get a better sense of how far hes come, look at where he started. He went as an ordinary person to the Gulf and has since established himself as more than just a successful entrepreneur, says Bengaluru-based Shriram Properties managing director, M Murali. Irfan Razack, chairman and managing director of the Prestige Group, who heads the flagship Prestige Estates Projects, believes that passion and pride have taken Menon to where he is now. Because none of what he has achieved so far has been handed to him on a platter, nor did he set out to become a billionaire. As Menon puts it, Its not that you plan to become a billionaire. A first-generation entrepreneur turned billionaire is nothing but an accident. If somebody claims to know that they would become a billionaire, sorry, I dont believe that.

The Start of a Journey

Born and brought up in Keralas Palakkad district, Menon was in the second year of his bachelors programme in commerce when he had a chance meeting with Brigadier General (Retired) Sulaiman Al Adawi, then a captain in the army of the Sultanate of Oman, at a hotel lobby in Kochi. Al Adawi, who was looking to buy a fishing boat, struck up a conversation with Menon and soon they began to discuss work opportunities in Oman. Like many of his fellow Keralites working in the Gulf, Menon, too, was taken in by the prospect. (According to Menon, close to 60 percent of Indian migrants there are from Kerala.)

In my imagination, he [Al Adawi] was an oil sheikh with half a dozen wells in his backyard, and I could go and pump a few of them, recalls Menon, who set out for Muscat in September 1976, with just $7 (about Rs 50 at the time; the maximum amount anyone was permitted to carry outside the country then). I landed there and found that all the oil wells were owned by the government and not by individuals.

He was undeterred, though. Menon, who claims a long-time passion for interior designs, somehow (the details of this fortuitous transition are a little foggy) found himself in business with Al Adawi, co-founding in early 1977 a furniture, interior, and fit-outs firm in Muscat (now known as S&T Interiors and Contracting) with a loan of 3,000 Omani riyals (equivalent to Rs 75,000 then). At that time, the seaside city was seeing frenzied industrial development due to the petrodollars that were pouring in since the late-60s, and Menon and Al Adawi were riding on the back of a new rich class. They were designing the interiors of homes for the rich, and even undertook work at the palaces of the Sultans of Oman and Brunei.

At present, Menon holds only 10 percent of the company. I used to own 50 percent but I transferred 40 percent of the shareholding back to him (Al Adawi) for free. He didnt allow me to transfer the remaining 10 percent, hence on paper I still have that stake, says Menon. But even though this business was gaining traction in the Gulf region, Menon had his eyes on India.

In 1995, he set up the real estate company Sobha Developers Limited (now Sobha Limited) in Bengaluru; it was listed on the domestic bourses in 2006. Named after Menons wife Sobha, the firm has developed 84.96 million square feet of real estate space, largely in south India.

Menon would go on to use the Sobha brand, from 1995 onwards, to expand his business interests in the UAE. If youre scared of your wife, you put her name, he quips. On a serious note, he adds, his wife has a beautiful Indian nameSobha in Sanskrit means brilliant, illustrious which is why he decided to use it to brand his business.

Its been over five years since he handed the chairmanship of Sobha Limited to his son Ravi PNC Menon and entrusted the vice chairmans post to Sharma. We read of promoters who are still clinging to what they have established, but he is a man who left [running] the company to his son and me and has never interfered since, says Sharma. That said, Menon does keep a tab on the Indian real estate market. He believes that there is a huge housing demand opportunity to be catered to due to the growing population and a lack of high-quality housing.

Farook Mahmood, chairman and managing director of Silverline Group, a leading real estate brokerage firm in Bengaluru, remembers the time when, 20 years ago, Menon drove him to one of Sobha Limiteds first residential projects in the city. What struck Mahmood was Menons eye for detailbe it the bathroom fittings or the car park. He is among the few builders who are obsessed with quality and finish. And that has paid off, says Mahmood.

Recently, Mahmood was in Dubai and got a chance to visit Menons flagship 8-million square feet under-construction mixed-use project, Sobha Hartland, located just three kilometres from the Burj Khalifa hotel. Its a testimony of the work that he has done and that he is really a man of quality. Otherwise, on an international platform, you will not be able to survive, says Mahmood.

Adds Vinod Menon, founder and CEO of real estate firm Citrus Ventures, PNC Menon has set a benchmark for quality. He even compares Sobhas quality to a German-made car. You know exactly what you are getting and there are no compromises.

About 14 years ago, Menon moved base from Muscat when his youngest daughter Revathi got into an American university in Dubai. This was meant to be a temporary shift until her graduation, but he stayed on and built himself a lavish home in Dubai. However, he never forgets from where his journey began. Oman gave me a spine, says Menon, who has an Omani passport, adding that close to 10 percent of his personal wealth is being ploughed back into the country for philanthropic activities.

In India, a large portion of his personal wealth is spent on providing free education to over 1,000 girls from below-poverty-line families in his home district, Palakkad. His vision is to educate 12,500 girls per year by opening more schools and universities under his Sobha Academy brand of philanthropic educational centres across India. He also runs a clinic and an old-age home in Palakkad.

Menon is a man of faith. In addition to wearing a thin gold chain that bears a few pendants of Hindu gods, he also carries a rosary in his pocket. Apart from the divine, his work is worship too. Even on weekends (in Dubai, that means Friday and Saturday), Menon is itching to get to office. I try to travel on a Thursday evening, so that on Friday Im in a country thats working, he smiles. These are high levels of motivation and manifest in his diversification into newer businesses, all of which would come under PNC Investments, the holding entity of Menons ventures outside India.

On the anvil is Menon Capital, a real estate fund that will be launched sometime this year. Menon plans to personally invest about 10 percent of the initial fund corpus of about $500 million, while looking at sovereign wealth funds as primary investors. My target is to make it a $10 billion fund over a period of ten years, he says.

Then, there is the planned rollout of a hospitality chain. Sobha Hartland has three hospitality projects, one of which would be a Strada hotel. Besides, he owns a prized land parcel along Dubais Sheikh Zayed Road, which is also being planned as a Strada hotel-cum-corporate office for the group. Dubais hospitality market has seen a sharp spike in the demand for hotel rooms over the last three to four years. Hotels in Dubai enjoyed an average room occupancy of 80 percent last year, says Menon. And by 2020 estimates are that the number of tourists visiting Dubai would increase by 40 percent. But some industry insiders in India are sceptical of Menons move into the hospitality space. It will not be easy to take on players like a Marriott, who have such strong loyalty programmes, says a property consultant.

Menon also has plans for a real estate consultancy company under the name Latinem, which will provide advisory, valuation, broking, and transaction services.

Meanwhile, Menon has had second thoughts about his plans to expand the real estate business to Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Frankly, I dont want to go to a country where you have to pay money [alluding to corruption]. We dont pay any money in Dubai. Its a very clean country and we have enough opportunities to do business here, he says.

Then, of course, there is the business of interior designing. Safnon, Menons branded furniture and lighting business, resonates with what he had started out with in Muscat four decades ago. In Kizad, Abu Dhabi, Menon is setting up a furniture factory at about 450 million dirham (approximately $123 million). The factory, which will be operational by next year, will supply to retailers across the world. As of now, Menon is betting on the business-to-business (B2B) play, but he has plans of getting into business-to-consumer retail as well. (Menon has a furniture factory in India, which caters to the needs of Sobha Limiteds real estate customers.)

With great diversification and multiple businesses come the addition responsibility of ensuring smooth succession. For that, Menon has a plan in place.

His three childrenBindu (37), Ravi (35), and Revathi (31)are being given new business verticals to grow on their own. Bindu is in education, Revathi will head the health care forays and Ravi will lead the other retail furniture businesses being planned, besides looking after the India operations, he says.

Perhaps the words of Dinesh Shah, a close friend of Menon who hails from the once well-known family-run construction company Shah Constructions (which built some of Mumbais iconic buildings such as the Air India building and Express Towers), sum up the builders achievements. I dont know anything comparable [to Menons success], says Shah. I come from a construction background and I couldnt do what he has done. And to think that he doesnt even have a construction background... I havent seen anything like this.

(This story was first published in Forbes India
Voting, polling, polling booth, evm, vvpat, election, polls, bypolls, by-election

In the backdrop of prevailing heatwave, the Election Commission has decided to extend the polling time for the April 19 election to Parbhani, Latur and Chandrapur civic bodies in Maharashtra by one hour.

The polling for all the three municipal corporations shall be held between 7.30 AM and 6.30 PM on April 19, a notification issued by the State Election Commission sid today.

Also, the campaigning for the civic elections that was to end at 5.30 PM on April 17 has been extended by an hour and the same would now end at 6.30 PM on that day, it said.Earlier, as per the schedule given by the Election Commission voting was to be held between 7.30 AM and 5:30 PM.

Many political parties had urged the Election Commission to extend the voting time on the ground that the percentage of polling might be affected due to excessive heat during afternoon hours.

State Election Commission, PRO, Jagdish More, said the voting hours have been extended for the three municipal corporations.

"There will be no change in voting hours for other municipal corporations like Mira Bhayandar, Bhiwandi and Panvel," the state election commission confirmed.

The counting will take place on April 21 for all the local bodies.
BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday cautioned party leaders against complacency, saying it is yet to reach the peak as he rolled out plans for its expansion in states where it has been traditionally weak.

In his inaugural address at the BJP's two-day national executive in Bhubaneswar, he also asserted that the party's "golden era" would arrive when it rules across the country, from panchayats to Parliament.

Laying down his ambitious growth plan for the party in south and eastern India, Shah rejected the contention that the saffron surge had reached its peak with its domination of central and west India and maiden wins in states like Assam and Manipur.

Top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were in attendance as he asked the organisation to resolve for victory in the next round of assembly elections due in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, noting that a similar resolve was made last year during the national executive meeting in Allahabad for five state elections, including in UP.

13 chief ministers of the party, the most BJP has ever had, were also in the audience.

Shah said he will spend 95 days touring the country to meet party leaders and workers and asked senior leaders and union ministers to give 15 days to strengthen the organisation while speaking about its growth prospects in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Odisha.

"The BJP is yet to reach its peak. Its golden era will arrive when it rules from panchayat to assemblies across the country and Parliament," he said.

Shah said the BJP should have governments in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and other North-Eastern states.

He said when the party has chief ministers in all states, that would mark its golden era.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad briefed reporters on his speech in a closed-door meeting of the party leaders.

He, however, steered clear of recent controversial issues like killing of a man in BJP-ruled Rajasthan by cow vigilantes and deepening impasse in Kashmir, where his party is in power in partnership with PDP.

Prasad suggested that a reference to Kashmir may be made during the national executive.

The party's gold era, he said, will coincide with India's golden era and it will emerge as a great nation in the world.

The BJP's massive wins in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have changed the experts' definition of big victories, usually associated with two-thirds majority, as it won more than 75 percent of seats as people have embraced "our politics of performance" and rejected opposition parties' politics of brazen appeasement, rank family promotion and casteism, Shah said.

The BJP has also disproved the claims that it can defeat the Congress but not strong regional parties by routing the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party in UT, he said.

Shah said when the BJP won 71 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP in 2014, it was said that it was a "sudden" development but by sweeping the state in the assembly polls the party has proved that people have embraced it "decisively and whole- heartedly".

Its win in the state polls was due to the Modi government's pro-poor and welfare policies, Shah said, reaffirming that the prime minister was the most popular leader since Independence.

Hitting out at the Left government in Kerala over the killing of the BJP and RSS workers allegedly by communist cadres, he said his party will continue to oppose it peacefully and ensure that the 'lotus blooms' there as well as Tripura, another Left-ruled state.

The BJP national president said he would spend three days in Kerala as part of the organisational expansion drive.

The Modi government, he said, has done more work in three years than other governments had done in two-three terms as he hailed its policies.
Law professionals | Corporate lawyer- Rs 6,10,000 | Senior attorney- Rs 9,50,000 | Interpreting and using the rule of the law to win arguments in favour of the client is a lucrative profession. The best lawyers earn several lakhs, even crores for a case. So much so that lawyers give up offers to become a judge so that they can maintain their incomes as lawyers! Being a lawyer requires a high level of patience, education and communication skills.

In a special sitting on Sunday, the Telangana Assembly passed a bill that to increase reservation to Scheduled Tribes and backward sections among Muslims.

During the special sitting, all five MLAs of the BJP, which has opposed the move, were suspended for disrupting the proceedings. The suspended MLAs include G. Kishan Reddy, K. Laxman, Raja Singh, NVSS Prabhakar and Chintala Ramachandra Reddy. The BJP members raised slogans against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government and tried to disrupt the debate on the draft legislation.

The opposition BJP has termed the move as against the spirit of Constitution and "communal". Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu had on Friday said the implementation of reservations on the basis of religion may result in social unrest in the country and "lead to creation of another Pakistan".

"We are not opposing (reservation on religion basis) because KCR (Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao) wants to implement it," he had said, adding, "The BJP opposed such a move even when Rajasekhara Reddy (late CM of united Andhra Pradesh) and Chandrababu Naidu (present CM) also tried to do that."
Ex-choir director in Bucks County pleads no contest to molesting two students, secretly filming another
Rabbis installation at Keneseth Israel will get a boost of student creativity
April 16, 2017

Al-Qaeda Suicide Attack Kills 100+ Children, Women - Whodunit?

Updated below, April 17, 3:00am

---

Max Abrahms @MaxAbrahms - 2:07 PM - 16 Apr 2017

After reading dozens of stories about the Shia massacre yesterday in Syria I've come to the conclusion it was perpetrator-less.

The War Nerd @TheWarNerd - 11:53 AM - 16 Apr 2017

We find that "at least 112" Shia refugees were killed. By whom? Oh, it's a real whodunit according to Reuters... link

Two smaller cities in the northern "rebel"-controlled Idleb governate, Al Foa and Kafriya, have been under "rebel" siege for over two years. Local government aligned forces are defending them. The civilian inhabitants are of Shia believe and seen by the sectarian Sunni "rebels" as unbelievers only worthy of death. The cities are supplied by airdrops from government helicopters. Meanwhile two "rebel" controlled cities near Damascus, Zabadani and Madaya, in the south are held under siege by government forces. They are sparsely supplied by UN and Red Cross convoys. Over the years a tit-for-tat of revenge acts bound the fate of the four cities. In total some 20-30,000 people are effected. A wide ranging agreement was needed to solve the unsustainable situation.

In December an agreement had allowed for the exchange of wounded civilians. When buses were on their way to evacuated elderly and wounded from the two northern cities they were torched by some rebel group. New buses had to be send but in the end the exchange worked out.

Last week a new agreement had been reached about a complete population exchange of the cities. All inhabitants of the northern cities were to be brought to government held areas. All inhabitants of the southern cities to the "rebel" held areas. Iran, speaking for the Syrian government, and Qatar, a financer of the radical "rebels", negotiated the deal. There are many other issues involved in the deal including Qatari hostages held by Shia groups in Iraq, very large payment from Qatar to "rebel" groups (al-Qaeda) and some non-disclosed items.

"Rebel" groups in Idelb government are either aligned with al-Qaeda in Syria or with the Qatari sponsored Ahrar al Sham. Ahrar al-Sahm is the group responsible for the execution of the negotiated population exchange. Parts of al-Qaeda have publicly disagreed with the deal.

Yesterday some 5,000 inhabitants of the northern cities, mainly women and children, were brought by bus convoy to the government held city of Aleppo but were stopped while still in the "rebel" controlled area. Inhabitants from the southern city had been brought up to Aleppo and were kept under government guard. Some additional negotiations about a minor issue were going on.

The civilians in their buses, mostly elderly, women and children, were guarded by "rebels" of Ahrar al Sham. They were hungry. Someone appeared on the scene and distributed crisps. When children flocked around the food distribution a blue car drove up and a very large explosion occurred. Four buses full of people and a number of cars were totally destroyed (Pics: 1, 2, 3)

127 of the civilians, only a mile or two from the safe government area, were killed in the suicide attack including 95 children. Many more were wounded. An unknown number of Ahrar al Sham "rebel" guards were also killed. There is no serious disagreement about what happened.

It is obvious that the suicide attack was committed by al-Qaeda in Syria. No government aligned element could have crossed into rebel held territory. The government aligned forces have not committed any suicide attacks while al-Qaeda as well as Ahrar al Sham have committed hundreds. This was a "rebel" suicide attack, likely by al-Qaeda, against government aligned civilian refugees.

But the BBC, CNN and other western media will not tell you that. CNN called the massacre "a hiccup". The first Washington report was illustrated with a pastoral scene of "Shias" walking in a green field. The write-ups disguise to the average reader on which side that vast numbers of casualties of the incident were. They will not say who the likely culprits are. Some insinuate, against all logic, that the government did it.

The most recent BBC report on the massacre is one of the worst of this propaganda genre. Assume for a moment you have not read the above, only the following:

Syria war: 'At least 68 children among 126 killed' in bus bombing At least 68 children were among 126 people killed in Saturday's bomb attack on buses carrying evacuees from besieged Syrian towns, activists say. A vehicle filled with explosives hit the convoy near Aleppo.

80% of the readers will only read the headline and maybe the first graphs. Who will they assume killed whom?

Those who actually read further will learn that some of the victims were Shia and that "evacuees from government-held towns were killed, along with aid workers and rebel soldiers." (Since when are Ahrar's marauding beheaders "soldiers"? Was this dude also a "soldier"?) The BBC story goes on to insinuates that the government did this because "rebels" could and would not do such:

It happened when a vehicle loaded with food arrived and started distributing crisps, attracting many children, before exploding, the BBC's Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab said. She said it was not clear how the vehicle could have reached the area without government permission. But there is also no evidence that rebels were involved in the attack, as the government claims. It would not be in the rebels' interest, our correspondent says, as they were waiting for their own supporters to be evacuated from the other towns.

I have read a lot of anti-Syrian propaganda but never such a vile smear. "It was not clear how the vehicle could have reached the area without [Syrian] government permission." Well - a vehicle from that area could drive right up to the BBC's head-office in London, explode and kill many people without "Syrian government permission." (Maybe one should - just for demonstration purpose.) It is "rebel" held territory with open borders to Turkey from where they are supplied. Any of the "rebel" groups that committed suicide attacks over the last years has free access to it. The BBC correspondent and her editors know this well. They also know that "rebels" are not united at all and that their interests diverge. It is completely clear who committed this massacre. But the BBC insinuates "the government did it."

More people died in this attack than in the Khan Sheikhun chemical incident which killed some people in a rebel held area. The incident was likely a false flag attack staged by the "rebels" without involvement of the government side. A Trump NSC report falsely claimed evidence that the Syrian government was the guilty party in that incident and the U.S. then bombed one of the Syrian airports.

95 children were burned and smashed to death in yesterday's suicide attack. They will not be honored as "beautiful children", as Trump called two blond babies in a Khan Sheikhun photo. The babies killed yesterday were "pro-regime" evacuees (CNN speak) who do not deserve such honor.

The victims of yesterday's massacre will get much less media coverage than the few actually documented victims of the Khan Sheikhun incident. That bit they will get will abuse the dead, as BBC does, to incite against the vast majority of the Syrian people who are with their government.

Damascus decided that the deal and the evacuation should continue despite the massacre. The two cities in Idleb are too exposed and indefensible against a large scale attack. No bigger government operation towards Idleb can take place while they are held hostage.

UPDATE - April 17, 3:00am

Eliah J. Magnier reports (Arabic) further details of the "4 cities" exchange deal.

He tweeted the main steps:

Elijah J. Magnier @EjmAlrai

The"four cities deal"includes Qatari hostages, money, prisoners of war, prisoners and corps

The 1st step (evacuating civilians under the age of 15) was concluded.

The 2d step will evacuate all militants

The 3d step will include the exchange of prisoners held by Damascus, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda corps and prisoners

The 4th step will incl the release of Qatari hostages held in Iraq (not yet released) & the payment of ransom to AQ.

Posted by b on April 16, 2017 at 18:12 UTC | Permalink

Comments
SIPES April Program Announcement

Members of the Midland chapter, Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists, will meet April 19 in the upstairs ballroom at Midland Country Club beginning with a reception at 11:15 a.m.

Aaron Mueller, vice president Health, Safety and Environmental with Independence Contract Drilling will speak on The Impact of Industry Organizations on Government Regulations.

There is no charge for members, $20 for guests.

Ex-well operators to be sentenced in North Dakota dumping

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  Sentencing is set this summer for men from Texas and Montana who pleaded guilty in a North Dakota case of illegal oil field wastewater dumping.

Authorities say 43-year-old Jason Halek, of Southlake, Texas, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Bismarck to three counts of violating the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

His co-defendant, Nathan Garber, of Kalispell, Montana, pleaded guilty in September 2014 to multiple charges related to the illegal operation of a saltwater disposal well near Dickinson.

The criminal charges against Halek are connected to a state case against Halek Operating ND LLC, which was fined a state-record $1.5 million in 2013.

March drilling permits up, but well completions still remain low

By Ryan Handy, Houston Chronicle

The state of Texas issued more than 1,300 drilling permits in March, more than double the number of permits issued a year ago, when the price of oil had plunged to $26.

The Railroad Commission of Texas, the states oil and gas regulator, issued 1,310 permits, more than 1,100 of which were oil and gas wells, according to monthly statistics released last week. Fifty one of those drilling permits were for injection wells, which are used to dispose of wastewater or for enhanced oil recovery, a process that injects water or carbon dioxide underground to force oil to the surface.

The commission approve 511 drilling permits in March of last year.

But overall well completions were still down as compared to last year. Last month, the commission counted 663 oil and gas well completions, as compared to 1,141 well completions in March 2016. Total well completions for the year to date are 1,925, down nearly 50 percent from the 3,452 well completions in the first three months of 2016.

Linn Energy OKd for trading on over-the-counter market

By Collin Eaton, Houston Chronicle

Linn Energy, the largest company to file for bankruptcy during the oil bust, has been approved to trade shares on an over-the-counter market that requires stocks to trade above a penny, the company said Monday.

Shares of the once high-flying oil company traded on the OTCQB, operated by the Over-The-Counter Markets Group. Linn now trades under the symbol LNGG.

Linn emerged from bankruptcy in February after clearing away $5 billion in debt, parting ways with Berry Petroleum, the Denver-based oil company it had bought for $4.3 billion.

All told, the company lost $2.2 billion in 2016 and $4.8 billion the year after oil prices collapsed. This year, it plans to turn its focus to its 185,000 net acres in western Oklahomas Scoop and Stack plays.

Exco Resources to sell off Eagle Ford assets for $300 million

By Collin Eaton, Houston Chronicle

Exco Resources plans to sell off its oil and gas properties in the Eagle Ford Shale for $300 million as it ramps up drilling elsewhere.

Thats less than half the $685 million the Dallas oil producer paid for the assets in Zavala, Frio and Dimmit counties in South Texas four years ago, when oil prices were near $100 a barrel.

The company said it will use proceeds from the transaction, expected to close in June, to boost drilling in the Haynseville and Bossier Shale in East Texas and western Louisiana.

Its selling the Eagle Ford assets to Venado Oil & Gas, a private equity-backed company based in Austin. Those properties produced some 4,100 barrels of oil equivalent a day in December.






Baby boomers are retiring at a fast clip, and that might have the once-dominant workforce a bit worried as theyre replaced by younger folks. There are certainly a lot of questions. Are they capable? Are they interested? Is the burst of technology once only thinkable in the world of Star Trek really beneficial? Are they even paying attention?

A panel discussion at the Permian Basin Oil & Gas Conference & Expo on Wednesday featured panelists who are all students at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. They shared their expectations about work life, how they view the culture of employment in the Permian Basin and how they view other generations.

Kathleen McNeil is a 37-year-old in Generation X, defined at the panel as those born from 1965 to 1984. Natalia Ponce, 28, represents the Millennials, less commonly referred to as Generation Y, who were born between 1984 and 2000. Joseph Gabaldon, 22, is the on-the-cusp representative of Generation Z. Social scientists are still trying to figure out the date range for Gen Z, though its roughly the mid-1990s through the early 2000s.

The panelists had a lot in common, particularly about challenges in the work world here in the Permian. Mostly everything here is oilfield-related, Ponce said.

Added Gabaldon: Theres no diversification. That includes how interconnected employers are. Everyone knows everyone, and Gabaldon said that could hinder future work prospects if times at a job go awry. If youre working for an employer, that employer knows other employers, so you have a lower chance of getting employed.

He likened the situation to a burn notice, a practice used by intelligence agencies to alert each other that certain assets or sources are unreliable. It just burns your chances of getting a job. Whereas in bigger cities, Ive seen its easier to get jobs because you have diversification.

When times are good in the Permian, theres a sense that everyone is hiring and employees can quit one day and work for someone else the next. Ponce challenged that idea.

I think thats more for the laborers. They have the option to switch from company to company, she said. For people who work in the office, its more difficult. Sometimes you have the older person that has an established job, more credibility and more work experience compared to a younger person who is trying to get their foot in the door. Its a lot harder to try and get a good position.

The three generations represented shared a lot in common about employment.

Social responsibility is important. Ponce said she wants to know her employer is working to help the community. Gabaldon agreed. You can make money, but are you actually giving back the community? Are you practicing social responsibility  and demonstrating that to the community?

They also want frequent evaluations. McNeil said she has experienced both yearly and monthly employee evaluations. More frequent is more helpful, she said, adding that it makes her feel more comfortable with her boss. Ponce and Gabaldon also said frequent evaluations help them grow in their positions. No one wanted to be stagnant.

Terrible management would lead them to quit their jobs. It boils down to respect.  Am I working for someone I have respect for and they have respect for me?

One challenge shared was retaining kids from Midland and Odessa. A lot of kids younger than me, once they graduate, they dont want to be here. They were taught get out of here, he said. It comes back to limited opportunities. The evolvement here is only oil and gas.

Gen Xer McNeil is not concerned about the younger generations. Were different, but the nice part is we can work together. From what Ive experienced in my life is were able to work together. Their strengths help teach me, and my strengths help teach them.

For Millennial Ponce, shes a bit concerned about behavior  and her own evolution. Sometimes I feel theyre overconfident.  I want to give them advice. Sometimes they dont listen. I guess Im turning into my dad. Dang it.

For Gen Zer Gabaldon, he tells kids coming up to think hard about the perils of student debt. Look at all your options and look at the bigger picture instead of just thinking you need to get out of here.

As for their perception of boomers, its nothing but respect. They were hard workers. I enjoy their work ethic, McNeil said.

Like Trevor on Facebook and follow him on Twitter at @HowdyHawes.
When I was a child, Easter Sunday was a day for receiving a basket full of candy from the Easter Bunny, dressing up extra special for Mass, and enjoying a good meal with my family. From my young perspective, the best part was the hollow chocolate rabbit. I especially enjoyed biting off the ears.

As the years went by, I came to learn that the real meaning of Easter is not about Peter Cottontail, chocolate bunnies or marshmallow Peeps.

The meaning of Easter is that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. He was abandoned by most of his followers, publicly humiliated, tortured, killed on the cross and placed in the tomb. From all appearances, it seemed like everything was lost. Everybody thought that the Christian experience was finished -- lifeless tomb; story over.

But God is a God of surprises. Jesus Christ was resurrected to new life on Easter morning.

Mary Magdalene was one of the very few followers of Jesus who had remained faithful to him until the bitter end. She never ran away, denied him, or betrayed him.

She had the courage to remain faithful to Jesus during his suffering and death, even if it would cost her tremendous sacrifice. And she had the privilege of being the very first disciple to encounter the risen Lord Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday morning. So Mary Magdalene is the first witness of the Resurrection.

One of the most important forms of Christian art is the icon. Icons are typically flat boards that have been prayerfully painted with sacred images of Christ or the saints. Its very curious that, when Mary Magdalene is depicted in icons, she is traditionally shown holding an egg. Why an egg?

The egg comes from a pious tradition concerning Mary Magdalene. According to the story, in the days of the early Christian church in the first century, Mary Magdalene somehow managed to attend a banquet given by the Emperor Tiberius Caesar.

One of the things being served at the banquet was eggs. At a certain point, the emperor happened to come near Mary Magdalene while she was holding a plain white egg in her hand. When she met the emperor, she boldly proclaimed, Christ is risen!

The emperor laughed and said that Christ rising from the dead was just about as likely as that egg in her hand turning red while she held it. Before he finished speaking, the egg in her hand turned a bright red, and she continued to proclaim the Christian faith to everybody at the party.

Our custom of coloring Easter eggs finds its origin in that ancient story. As it turns out, the egg is actually an excellent symbol of the true meaning of Easter -- much better than a bunny or plastic grass or chocolate.

Think about it. If you look at the outside of the egg, it looks pretty dead.

It has a hard, lifeless shell, like a rock. From the outside you cant tell, but theres actually life in there. Eventually, the little chick pecks its way through, and emerges full of life.

Thus, the hard shell of an egg symbolizes the tomb of Christ, and the cracking of the shell and emergence of new life symbolizes his resurrection from the dead on Easter morning.

As we experience the Easter season this year, I propose that we learn to look at reality with Easter eyes. What I call Easter eyes is the ability to view any situation, no matter how seemingly problematic, through the perspective of the Resurrection, and see that there is life hidden in that situation. Here are some examples:

In West Texas we have many prisons. From the outside, you can drive by a prison and see the walls, the fences and the barbed wire, and it looks like a pretty dead, lifeless place. Of course, things are not easy in a prison. There is loneliness, abandonment, despair and even abuse. However, my experience of ministering in prisons has shown me that, within the confines of those walls, there is also much life inside.

Those in prison are human beings with hearts and souls and minds. Gods grace is at work in their lives, especially through the dedicated service of the chaplains and volunteers who go to pray with them there. Conversion happens, God touches hearts, friendships are made, and lives are changed. Many prisoners put their time to good use through spiritual reading and Bible study. Some serve as mentors for fellow inmates who are searching for meaning. I have met plenty whose lifetime of actively practicing the Christian faith began while they were incarcerated.

Because of this experience of the positive fruits of prison ministry, when I see a prison, I can say, Theres life in there, behind those lifeless walls. Thats looking through Easter eyes.

Here is another example. Throughout our region there are nursing homes and assisted living centers. There are many faithful volunteers and clergy who regularly visit the residents there. This work of mercy calls for much love and patience, but I highly recommend giving it a try.

In my experience of visiting the residents of nursing homes, I have found that, even though they are carrying many burdens of aging and illness, we can look into their eyes and honestly say, Theres life in there! Beautiful, unique and precious. Thats looking with Easter eyes.

Id like to offer one more example. One evening I was attending a charitable fundraising banquet in a luxury hotel. At the table next to me was a middle-aged couple with their adult daughter. She had a serious medical condition, and she was unable to speak or smile or even feed herself. Her parents lovingly spoon-fed her, wiping off her face after each bite.

In the midst of that crowded banquet, it appeared that, for their daughter, just being there was a tremendous struggle. Her mom and dad patiently, attentively, peacefully fed her in a high-society event full of lots of people decked out in tuxedoes and evening gowns.

Why would they go to all that trouble? Because they could look at her with the Easter eyes of a Christian, and know that, deep inside her palsied body, hidden behind her expressionless face, silent yet real, was their wonderful, beloved daughter.

Theres life in there.

Because of the victory of Jesus Christ on Easter morning, you can look at the situations of your life with a new perspective -- your family, your marriage, your teenagers absorbed in their smart phone, the homeless guy on the corner and your own pain.

If you look long and hard enough, still and quiet, patient, with enough faith, hope, and love, God will allow you to discover that there is a spark of life even in seemingly dire circumstances. Thats a very Christian way of understanding things, and thats looking with Easter eyes.
While working on cars and motorcycles, Gilbert Salgado always kept safety in mind. So it came as a surprise when a fire ignited recently in his home workshop.

The flash fire started when Salgado was transferring gasoline between a gas tank and a motorcycle. A 100-watt drop light bulb caused the fumes to ignite, he said.

I dont want it to happen to [anybody] else, Salgado said. I was aware, but I wasnt thinking.

The fire on Salgados property hasnt been the only one locally. The Midland Fire Department has been dispatched to other incidents at home workspaces, according to Fire Marshal David Hickman.

Fires in homes and shops are not uncommon, Hickman said. People miss steps.

Hickman said gasoline has a high vapor release, so people should be aware of their surroundings while working with it at home.

If youre removing a fuel tank or working on a fuel system, constantly be looking around that theres no [ignition] source, Hickman said. You dont want to be smoking or have an open flame, or in the winter a heater. If youre working on a motorcycle, remove fuel from the tank and drain the system prior to working on it.

Statewide, 3 percent of residential structure fires start in garages or carports, according to a 2015 report published by the State Fire Marshals Office. In 2016, the most common known cause of garage or carport fires was electrical distribution, which cost more than $3.8 million in losses, according to Texas Fire Incident Reporting System data.

State Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said people shouldnt be deterred from using garages as work or storage spaces. But he advised them to use caution around the materials that may be inside.

People need that space, Connealy said in a phone interview. You want to keep the ignition source away from combustibles.

Locally, Hickman suggests Midlanders take a step further by moving items out of their workspaces to reduce the risk of fire.

Keep the shop orderly and clean, Hickman said. Remove combustible materials.

For other safety measures, Hickman and Connealy encourage people with in-garage water heaters to elevate them a few inches from the floor. They said water heaters and other ignition sources close to the ground could cause vapors to ignite. The fire marshals also urged residents to maintain adequate ventilation.

After Salgados incident, he has taken measures to avoid future fires in his workshop.

All the liquids I had in there are not in there anymore, Salgado said. They got stored outside the workshop with the fire extinguisher. Transferring gas inside the shop, Im not doing it anymore. You read in the newspaper and see it on TV, but youre never aware it can happen to you. It can in the moment if youre not thinking.

The fire injured Salgados hand and damaged his motorcycle and other items stored in the workshop. He said the incident made him more conscious of the hazards in the space.

For all the people whove got a man cave or a shop in the back, they need to be aware of flammable liquids, Salgado said. Keep them outside.

After the fire started, another person on Salgados property soon called for help. Hickman said people should reach out immediately to first responders when they notice fires.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is they try to fight the fire before calling 911, Hickman said. It further delays stopping the fire, especially if theyre working in the garage and other combustibles are there.

Homeowners can exercise precaution by installing smoke alarms and fire extinguishers in their garages, Connealy said.

Though some Midland home fires originate in workspaces, Hickman said many start when residents cook with oils or fats. Statewide, the kitchen is the most common area of origin for residential structure fires, according to the State Fire Marshals Office report.

Hickman said his office tries to inform people about fire avoidance throughout the home.

We try to educate the public, Hickman said. People get complacent.
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Sunday marked day two of the search for an 8-year-old boy who beach officials said disappeared into the ocean at New Smyrna Beach.

Boy, 8, disappears in ocean off New Smyrna Beach

He was with his family when he was swept under the water

Officials have been searching since Saturday



Bridget Senfield, who is visiting from New York, is still shaken up after watching the search for the Orange County. Senfield said she and her children witnessed the incident.

"I came back in because the waves  you couldn't even catch a wave. It was just dangerous I could feel it and I told my kids today's not a good day," Senfield said.

Volusia Beach Safety said the boy was with his family, swimming at the beach. However, shortly after 3 p.m., he was swept under the fast-moving water.

"So many people on the beach, wanted to know what happened, what could we do," said Senfield.

The boy's 11-year-old sister was later rushed to the hospital after trying to save him.

Helicopters, coast guards, and lifeguards have been searching ever since.

Crews returned to the beach at sunrise after they couldn't find the boy Saturday night.

"We saw the mom there and just look like she was in shock it was just very upsetting, just an all around upsetting situation," Senfield said.

"It's a rip current issue right now. We've got really bad surf, the surf is bad it gives you a lot of foam, a lot of white water where it's not easy to swim through that stuff," said Liz Driskell, Deputy Chief, Beach Safety.

Driskell said the current also makes it hard to search.

She said the kids weren't near a lifeguard station when the boy disappeared.

"We stress that, please swim in front of a lifeguard tower," she said.

Senfield is keeping an even closer eye on her three children and looking for the boy as well.

"It's scary out there, she said. It's fun, it's a lot of fun, but it's unbelievable how quickly that ocean can turn. My middle guy was up worried half the night kept saying I'm so worried about that little boy. He saw the sister get pulled in, he saw the mom, these kids they get it, prayers for the sister for the family and for everybody."



Beach Safety Officials said the water is still rough and recommend swimmers stay within waist deep water and children stay with an adult.

The boy's sister is doing fine.

Officials said if you're in a rip current, let the water pull you out of the rip, relax, float and let the current drift you then swim to shore and yell for help.

If you'd like to assist the missing swimmer's family, please contact Volusia County Beach Ocean Safety Rescue, (386) 547-6812 or edriskell@volusia.org.
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How much do you love your workplace?

To the depth and breadth and height your soul can reach? OK, probably not that much, with apologies to poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. But you can count the ways you love  or strongly like  your employer by nominating your company as a Top Workplace.

For the ninth year running, the San Antonio Express-News is teaming up with WorkplaceDynamics to find San Antonios best employers, and the final deadline for entry is being extended to May 19.

Last year, nearly 30,000 employees from 138 companies and organizations were surveyed on their benefits, the importance of ethics and values within the company, and other topics.

NuStar Energy was the 2016 winner in the large employer category. Health Texas Medical Group of San Antonio took top honors among midsize workplaces, while South Texas Renal Care Group won the small employer category.

The Top Workplaces survey is open to any organization in the San Antonio area with 35 or more workers, at no cost to the employer. But it requires that a minimum of 35 percent of the employees fill out an anonymous 24-question survey.

Bob Helbig of Workplace Dynamics said the Top Workplaces awards can be a morale booster for employees and a branding tool for the companies that win. To be a well-run, highly functioning and highly productive company does not happen by accident, Helbig said.

When people find out a company has been designated a Top Workplace, they often see an increase in job applications, both in terms of the number of applications and in terms of the quality of the job applicants. Its good for business, whether its for recruiting or new business. Who wouldnt want to work for a Top Workplace or do business with a top workplace?

Last years contest found that some San Antonio businesses pumped up perks to attract and retain top talent  offering everything from on-site fitness centers and lactation rooms for new working moms to health insurance for four-legged family members  and everything in between.

Commercial real estate company Transwestern, which provides medical coverage and membership in professional organizations for employees, also counts its in-house March Madness pool and a fully stocked wine fridge among its employee benefits.

This years winners will be announced in the San Antonio Express-News in October. Southwest Research Institute President Adam Hamilton was the keynote speaker at last years luncheon, which drew a crowd of 715 local business leaders and executives.

Each participating company will receive a free overview of its results from WorkplaceDynamics, the research partner for the project, which conducts Top Workplaces surveys for more than 40 major metro newspapers. The company surveyed 2.8 million employees at nearly 7,000 organizations in 2016.

You can nominate your employer online at mysanantonio.topworkplaces.com or by calling (210) 348-3758.

jhiller@express-news.net

Twitter: @Jennifer_Hiller
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Litchfield County has long been known for its green hills, horse farms and quaint small towns, but it is losing population at a rate that threatens to make it a region of virtual ghost towns by midcentury.

The county has lost nearly 4 percent of its residents over the past six years, according to recently released U.S. Census estimates. Thats more people  7,355  than any other county in Connecticut and four neighboring states, and more than all but 14 counties in the entire country.

At the rate its going, Litchfield will likely shrink to a third or even a fifth of its current size over the next half-century, said John Glascock, Director of UCONNs Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics.

With deaths far outrunning births, and with fewer and fewer jobs available to keep young people from leaving, Litchfield is on a trajectory to become a region of economically struggling communities and of public school systems so small theyre no longer viable, experts say.

This decline will keep happening, Glascock said. Young people need to leave to get work.

The future Litchfield, experts add, will be a land of gentry, populated mostly by well-heeled part-time residents lured by the rural atmosphere and restrictive large-lot zoning that promises exclusivity.

More Information Noteworthy population changes from April 2010 to July 2016 NATION Winners: 1. Harris County, Texas: + 496,686 2. Maricopa County, Arizona: + 425,640 3. Los Angeles County, California: + 319,215 4. San Diego County, California: + 222,407 5. King County, Washington: + 218,689 Losers: 1.Wayne County, Michigan: -71,275 2. Cuyahoga County, Ohio: -30,757 3. Genesee County, Michigan: -17,175 4. San Juan County, New Mexico: -14,966 5. Lake County, Indiana: -10,204 ^15: Litchfield County, Connecticut: -7,355 FIVE-STATE Winners: 1. Kings County, New York: + 124,444 2. Queens County, New York: + 102,509 3. Middlesex County, Massachusetts: + 86,717 4. Bronx County, New York : + 70,613 5. Suffolk County, Massachusetts: + 62,151 ^10. Fairfield County, Connecticut: + 27,331 Losers: 1. Litchfield County, Connecticut: -7,355 2. Sussex County, New Jersey: -6,364 3. New Haven County, Connecticut : -5,587 4. Chautauqua County, New York: -5,400 5. Broome County, New York: -5,355 See More Collapse

Litchfield is evolving into kind of an estate county, said Steven Ward, a sociology professor at Western Connecticut State University.

Two main factors contribute to Litchfields steep population decline, according to census data released last month.

First, annual deaths regularly exceed births. In fact, Litchfield is the only county in Connecticut where that has been the case for six years running. As a result, the median age is climbing, which is having a dramatic effect on demand for schools and social services.

In New Milford, for example, an elementary school and the hospital birthing center closed, while the senior center is being expanded.

Second, far more people are moving out of the county than are moving in. Thats because jobs are migrating to cities and suburban areas as employers, seeking efficiencies and economies of scale, shed jobs in remoter locales.

Midsized cities like Waterbury, the biggest economic draw for Litchfield residents, are themselves hurting, Glascock said, because when communication and transportation costs go down, little cities between big cities die.

Waterbury isnt creating the jobs, Glascock said. [Litchfield towns] could work if Waterbury was a thriving city with real economic power, but Waterbury isnt there.

As people leave for jobs elsewhere, the demand for services declines in the communities they leave behind, and a downward cycle takes hold.

Rick Lynn, executive director of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments, comprising 21 municipalities in Connecticuts northwest corner, said some local officials think its not a matter of if all the elementary schools will consolidate, but when.

Theres precedent for this type of demographic shift, Glascock said: At one time, every small town had a miller to grind grain into flour. But then came the railroads, and flour could be ground in Chicago at night and baked into bread in Cleveland the next day, and the miller was out of a job.

Also playing a role in Litchfields population downturn, experts say, are zoning ning requirements created in part to protect the countys rural atmosphere, its environment and water resources.

The average minimum lot size in the county is two acres, Lynn said, and in some places its as high as three or even five acres. Some towns also ban subdivisions.

The cumulative effect is to raise property prices, often well beyond what young families can afford, experts say.

Generally, where zoning is restrictive, property values tend to rise, said Sara Bronin, a property law professor at UCONNs law school.

Moreover, a push to conserve green space over the past few decades, by decreasing the supply of open land, also helped inflate property prices.

The median home value in Litchfield County is $226,500, according to real estate website Zillow. Median values range from $172,800 in Torrington to $586,200 in Roxbury, NHCOG says.

Constraints on the land market are not likely to be the largest factor in the population decrease, but they may pose affordability challenges for those seeking to move to Litchfield County, Bronin added.

WCSUs Ward agreed.

Preservation goes two ways, he said. Its nice for dog-walkers, but makes it hard on young families.

Barring a drastic change, Glascock said, Litchfield faces the fate of many rural and semi-rural counties across the U.S.

Ive seen this in Louisiana. Ive seen this in Pennsylvania, and even seen it in England, Glascock said. There are whole fishing towns in England that have 15, maybe 20 percent of the population they had in 1920.

But town officials across Litchfield arent giving up on a countywide comeback, Lynn said

Torrington, Litchfield County's largest city, with 36,000 residents in 2010, was recently awarded a $15,000 design grant from the Boston Federal Reserve Bank to find ways of attracting young people as part of the Feds Working Cities Challenge.

The challenge asked municipalities to come up with a plan to improve the lives of low-income people in small and mid-size cities in New England through business and government collaboration.

If city officials make a convincing case over the next six months, they stand to get $300,000 to $500,000 to put the plan in operation.

Weve never been a booming regional area, but the age breakout is a concern, Lynn said. We now have a couple of initiatives going on and we need to work a little bit harder to promote this region.

blytton@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3411; @bglytton
Albany

Former state Sen. Greg Ball was the subject of a March 2016 police incident report in which a Texas woman accused him of banging her head against a gatepost before attempting to force her to perform oral sex on him.

The woman, whose name is being withheld by the Times Union, waited 5 1/2 months to talk to law enforcement because of fear of Ball and embarrassment over the encounter, according to a three-page report prepared by a deputy with the Gillespie County, Texas, sheriff's office.

Soon after making the report, she told the deputy she did not wish to press charges, and the case was closed.

Ball, who denies the woman's account and calls it politically motivated, served two terms apiece in the New York Assembly and Senate. The Putnam County Republican chose not to seek re-election to the Senate in 2014, announcing in a farewell video that he would enter the private sector and "hopefully ... find some time to raise a family."

Later that year, Ball launched a consulting, event marketing and design firm called Black Stone, which has worked on political campaigns, polo exhibitions and other projects in New York and Texas, where the former lawmaker spends most of his time.

The alleged incident described in the March 2016 sheriff's report bubbled up recently in Fredericksburg, a county seat in the Hill Country west of Austin, where Black Stone is based.

In February, Ball's high-profile attorney, Joseph Tacopina of Manhattan, sent a letter to Erin Carter, a friend of the alleged victim, that claimed Carter had harassed Ball and "brazenly and maliciously" spread details about the episode on Facebook. Tacopina said in the letter that Carter's action could constitute slander and defamation. (In an interview, Carter said she has never posted anything about Ball on Facebook, though she had communicated with friends about him through Facebook Messenger.)

"If you fail to heed this one and only warning, be assured that we intend to pursue all legal remedies ... including substantial punitive damages based on the malicious nature of your misconduct," wrote Tacopina, whose client list has included former Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and ex-state Sen. Hiram Monserrate, a former New York state senator who was expelled from the chamber in 2010 after attacking his girlfriend. (Monserrate was later sentenced to two years in prison for misusing about $100,000 in government funds while serving as a New York City councilman.)

The alleged victim told the sheriff's deputy that on the night of Sept. 12, 2015, she and a group of friends encountered Ball and Joe Bachmeier, Ball's former legislative spokesman and a principal in Black Stone, at a local bar. After making plans to get something to eat and then head back to Ball's house, the group separated, with the woman ending up in Ball's truck with the former lawmaker and Bachmeier.

She told the deputy that on the way to Ball's house, she developed "a bad feeling about the situation." Finding that her cellphone was dead, she asked Ball several times if she could use his phone, but he refused.

She said that as she stood by the passenger door of Ball's truck, he "picked her up, threw her over his shoulder and started carrying her towards the house," according to the report.

As they passed through a gate, "Ball slammed her head on one of the posts, striking her in the right eye," the report states.

Bachmeier, who had been walking ahead of Ball, said "Man, you just  " only to be cut off by the former lawmaker, who said, "I know, shut up!," according to the report.

Ball deposited her in a chair on his front porch and then went into the house, returning shirtless with a beer. The woman said he became more sexually aggressive as well as angered by her continued requests to use his phone. She finally acceded to his invitation to stay the night, but said she would need to use his phone to advise her friends. Ball gave her the phone and walked into the house again.

She called her friends and told them to pick her up immediately. As she was trying to give them directions, Ball came back out on the porch, became upset and took the phone from her.

"After he hung the phone up, he pulled his pants and underwear down to his ankles and sat down next to her," the report states. She said he grabbed the back of her head and tried to force her to perform oral sex, though he was not successful.

At that point, she heard one of her friends yelling her name as they drove down Ball's street. The report says that Ball pulled up his pants as she ran to the street and jumped in the car.

As they were driving away, "Ball was standing on his front porch with his hands up in the air yelling," the report states.

When the deputy asked the woman why she had waited so long to report the incident, she "advised me that she is fearful of Ball, due to his position of being a former New York state senator and further was extremely embarrassed about the situation."

Tacopina, Ball's attorney, said the Fredericksburg incident "unequivocally didn't happen the way she's claiming in that police report."

He said Ball and Bachmeier told him the woman came into the house of her own accord and asked to use Ball's phone to call her friends. After she did so, she and Ball waited on the porch.

"She was sitting on his lap and ... there was horseplay going on, and then when the friend's car came up she got up and left," Tacopina said.

In a statement, Ball called the report "an absolute lie" and suggested it was "a political weapon" related to his consulting work for Kyle Biedermann, who last year won election to the Texas Legislature from the district that includes Fredericksburg.

" ... I will aggressively use every avenue to unearth and expose this outright lie," he said.

Asked why the supposedly politically motivated report never came to light at any point during the election, Ball said in an email "she must have had second thoughts."

This is not the first time Ball's behavior around women has been the subject of allegations.

In 2003, a CNN producer who had dated Ball obtained a temporary order of protection against him after she accused him of stalking her. Several days later, Ball responded by seeking a restraining order against her. The matter was dropped by both parties several months later. When the episode surfaced during the 2008 legislative election cycle, Ball denied he had stalked the woman and told the Daily News the episode came during "a heartfelt breakup." At the time, the lawmaker blamed his Republican primary opponent for dredging up the issue.

In 2010, a waitress at a North Pearl Street bar filed a report with her employer saying that Ball had groped her as he drank with friends. No formal charges were brought. Then seeking to move from the Assembly to the Senate, Ball called those allegations politically motivated "garbage."

Bachmeier, in an emailed statement, echoed Ball in calling the contents of the Gillespie County report "politically driven" and "a lie from beginning to end. ... It just did not happen."

Bachmeier  who incorrectly asserted the woman's account had been "withdrawn"  implied the report was somehow orchestrated by the campaign of now-former state Rep. Doug Miller, Biedermann's opponent in last year's Republican primary. Both Ball and Bachmeier pointed to the fact that the initial report was dated March 1, the same day as the primary.

"Unfortunately, this only scratches the surface of the horrible lies the campaign told during this time, and evidently was part of their disgusting strategy," Bachmeier wrote.

As evidence, he pointed to an Instagram post in which the alleged victim is shown with one of Miller's lawn signs. "Know who you are voting for and know their advisors," she wrote in the April 7, 2016, post. "Know the team behind the candidate."

In a phone interview with the Times Union last month, the alleged victim stood by her account of the incident.

The woman did meet with Miller, who runs an insurance firm in the nearby city of New Braunfels, and his wife to tell them her story. The alleged victim recalls the meeting as taking place in early April, while Miller said in an interview that he estimated it took place in April or May  after the Republican primary and the filing of the report, but before the May 24 runoff election that knocked Miller out of the race.

The woman told the Times Union she wanted Miller to know about the incident, but made it clear to him she didn't want the matter coming to light.

"In no way was she involved with my campaign," said Miller, a former police officer who said he and his wife were "floored" by the account.

In response to Ball and Bachmeier's accusations, Miller said he never used the report against either Ball or his client Biedermann.

"Show me where I used something against Greg Ball other than (pointing out) he's from New York," he said.

Thomas Austin, who along with his wife is a friend of the alleged victim, told the Times Union he saw her bruised eye the day after the alleged incident. Though she did not go into detail about what happened on the porch, Austin said nothing she related that day contradicted what ended up in the sheriff's report, which he recently read.

Austin, who lives in Dallas but regularly visits Fredericksburg, encouraged her to go to law enforcement and put the account on the record, but she expressed trepidation.

The woman also consulted Chris Barnett, a Fredericksburg attorney, who had provided legal services to her business.

"While I can't comment on the particulars of the matter, I can state that the contents of the (report) ... accurately reflect the facts as they were communicated to me within 48 hours after the incident," Barnett said in a statement.

After the sheriff's office refused initial public requests for a copy of the report, the alleged victim inquired about its status. A brief Feb. 28, 2017, supplementary submission from the deputy noted that she had contacted him soon after making her March 2016 statement to say that she did not wish to press charges. The filing of that supplement formally closed the case and made the report available for public release.

Erin Carter, who received the February letter from Tacopina, told the Times Union the alleged events of September 2015 re-emerged in recent months as Ball and Black Stone have begun to take part in more social and cultural events in and around Fredericksburg, a town with a significant tourism industry built in part around its German heritage.

Carter emailed Ball in late January after receiving an email release about an upcoming event, and told him to take her off the Black Stone mailing list and never come into her family's jewelry store "because of your reputation."

He sent back a polite response explaining how she could unsubscribe from Black Stone's email list, and included a postscript quote from Benjamin Franklin: "Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us."

Carter  who showed the Times Union digital copies of the exchange  angrily wrote back that Ball's reference was "hypocrisy in its highest form. ... I have seen your 'hand-y' work on my friend's face."

"Absolute lie," Ball wrote back. "God bless."

"Did some of my friends email some of his (event) sponsors? Absolutely," Carter said in an interview. " ... Word has gotten out about him."

cseiler@timesunion.com  518-454-5619  @CaseySeiler
1 Gas leak: Crews in Alaska were trying Saturday to shut down an oil well that is leaking explosive natural gas on the frozen North Slope. The Environmental Protection Agency said a crack in a BP wellhead near Deadhorse sent up a mist of crude oil Friday before it froze over and an initial leak stopped. But agency spokeswoman Suzanne Skadowski said a second crack was discovered thats releasing flammable, explosive gas. Its unclear how much has vented, but nearby workers have been evacuated and native Alaskan villages dozens of miles away have been notified. No injuries have been reported.

2 Police conduct: An attorney called Saturday for the two Georgia police officers who were fired after being caught on camera having a violent confrontation with a motorist to face criminal charges. Justin Miller said the firing of Sgt. Michael Bongiovanni and Master Police Officer Robert McDonald was not enough. They were fired Thursday by the Gwinnett County Police Department after being videotaped beating 21-year-old Demetrius Hollins in Lawrenceville, just outside Atlanta. The department has opened a criminal investigation into the officers behavior. We want both of these officers criminally charged, Miller said.
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Before the Conroe-based Maids and Moore cleaning company walked into the life of Willis resident and grandmother Brenda Yuengel, 65, she woke up every day and cooked breakfast. She'd work at Willis ISD as a substitute teacher and tutor at Abundant Life Church. She'd run errands, come home and clean.

While she and her husband Bob, 63, were building their house in April 2016, Brenda began to not feel well. She continued until September 2016 when her symptoms forced her to make an appointment with a doctor.

Yuengel had a tumor removed in October and began chemotherapy treatment in January for colon cancer, which progressed between Stages 2 and 3. Now, she's unable to teach, sometimes unable to move, and Bob cooks her breakfast.

"It was really frustrating for me," said Yuengel, who is no longer allowed to walk to the mailbox after a fall left her alone in a ditch unable to get up. "I couldn't do anything. I would just sit in my recliner. The house was the last thing on my mind."

Yuengel's daughter connected her with Maids and Moore in Conroe, which is a cleaning service. The business has paying customers, but it offers to clean the homes of women fighting cancer at no charge. The company cleans two homes per month in each of the three areas they serve for four consecutive months.

With Yuengel unable to lift a mop, the maids stepped in and cleaned beyond her belief.

"I was really stressed out (about the house before)," Yuengel said. "It was a relief (to receive the assistance)."

Bob recently switched from working full-time to part-time driving a bus for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

"When they came in it was like a breath of fresh air," he said. "It's so easy to say we're thinking of you and praying on Facebook. But to come to the house and clean is beyond words. They stepped and helped much more than you can ever imagine."

Since 2015, General Manager Katelyn Langley said, about 15 women have been helped in Montgomery County. The company wants that service, offered free of charge to cancer patients, to grown.

"I didn't realize what they (cancer patients) went through," Langley said. "It makes them feel good and us feel great to help someone through the tough time. It's a small thing we can do for them."

Langley's relative Holly Moore is the owner of the 25-year-old, family owned and operated company. Moore teamed up with international nonprofit Cleaning For A Reason in 2008 because the family and employees all knew someone who had been affected by cancer and wanted to help, Langley said.

Cleaning For A Reason is an international nonprofit; and through the nine-year partnership with Maids and Moore, the two have donated house cleaning to 50 women in need throughout Travis, Montgomery, Bell and Coryell counties. Since 2006, Cleaning For A Reason has donated more than $6.3 million in free services, helping more than 24,000 women with cancer through partnerships with maid services throughout the United States.

Yuengel said the effort provides much-needed support for women like her.

"I wake up happier," she said. "I feel like I am getting stronger. If I didn't have them, the depression would have been worse. They helped me stay positive."

Conroe Mayor Toby Powell declared National Cleaning For A Reason week April 18-24.

Maids and Moore accepts application through the Cleaning For A Reason website at http://portal.cleaningforareason.org/patients/account/register.

For more information about Maids and Moore, visit www.maidsandmoore.com.
The GEO Group's announcement that it will build a 1,000-bed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Conroe not only was a surprise to city officials, but Mayor Toby Powell said the city does not need to house any more federal immigration detainees.

The GEO Group already owns and operates the 1,500-bed Joe Corley Detention Facility, which it purchased from Montgomery County in 2013. Federal prisoners from the U.S. Marshal and Immigration and Custom Enforcement detainees are housed at the Corley Center. On Thursday, GEO was awarded a $110 million contract from ICE for the additional detention center, meaning Conroe could be home to more than 2,000 ICE detainees and federal prisoners combined by December 2018, when the construction could be completed.That was news to Powell and other city officials, who had no idea the new detention facility was even in the works.

Powell only learned about the facility after reading about it in Friday's edition of The Courier.

"I don't know why this hasn't been brought up to us before this announcement was made," Powell said. "We're going to have to permit this thing within the city.  We have plenty of rooms (at the Joe Corley Detention Facility) for our illegal aliens who are breaking the law. I don't think that we need any more detention centers here in Conroe."

The detention facility is slated to be located on 24 acres in the 800 block of Hilbig Road in north Conroe, which is on the same stretch of road as the Montgomery County Jail, Joe Corley Detention Facility and Montgomery County Mental Health Treatment Facility. GEO purchased the land in 2010, records show and The Courier previously reported.

GEO Group anticipates the facility will create almost 340 full-time jobs, with salaries ranging from about $25,000 to $50,000 annually, depending on experience and title. The facility will hold both men and women, although a representative with ICE said no families or juveniles will be at the new facility.

GEO Group plans on spending $110 million on building the center, which GEO Vice President for Corporate Relations Pablo Paez thinks contributes to the company's good standing in the community. He said GEO Group hopes to work with local leaders and residents in maintaining an open dialogue.

"We have a presence in the community going back several years," Paez said. "I think we strive to be a good community and corporate partner to the community. It's an important project that will create a significant number of jobs and continued economic stimulus for the area."

The GEO Group originally contracted with Montgomery County to run the Joe Corley Detention Center after it was completed in 2008. Then, county commissioners approved the sale of the facility to GEO for $65 million in 2013.

The realization of the new facility likely comes as no surprise county government. Commissioners passed a resolution in May 2013 in support of a second GEO Group detention facility, The Courier previously reported. The resolution came moments after commissioners sold the Joe Corley Detention Facility to GEO Group.

Paez said GEO anticipated there would be a need for a new facility when it brought the resolution to commissioners in 2013.

Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal, then-Precinct 2 Commissioner, seconded the motion for the resolution to be taken up by vote. He said he respects Powell's objections as an elected official but believes there's going to be more good coming out of the new facility than bad.

"Most people don't even realize it's there," said Doyal, noting the secluded part of Conroe where the facilities are located. "These are immigration detainees. It's not like it's a prison where you have hardened criminals there. There are immigration detainees, and then they're moved on out. To me, at that location, it's a positive for the county and for the city. It'll bring more jobs to the city with very little impact to the city. I don't see a negative impact at all."

GEO Group's Joe Corley Detention Facility brings in about $250,000 in property tax revenue each year, Doyal said, which is placed into a special escrow account holed away for future Montgomery County Jail growth. The existing facility specifically brought in $254,665 for the county in 2016, according to Montgomery Central Appraisal District records.

That estimated $250,000 over the last three years, coupled with an additional $500,000 administrative fee GEO Group pays the county each year, brings the total of the jail escrow account to an estimated $15.25 million, which was initially bolstered with $13 million from the sale of the facility in 2013. While the county made approximately $22 million the sale, commissioenrs spent at least $9 million on road projects shortly after.

For Conroe, the Joe Corley Detention Facility brought in $227,818 in property tax revenue in 2016, according to MCAD records. Powell contended GEO Group still will have to apply for the proper permits to build the facility and hopes the company will still consider public input.
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Seoul, South Korea

North Korea launched a ballistic missile Sunday morning from near its submarine base in Sinpo on its east coast, but the launch was the latest in a series of failures just after liftoff, according to U.S. and South Korean military officials.

The timing was a deep embarrassment for the North's leader, Kim Jong Un, because the missile appeared to have been launched to show off his daring as a fleet of U.S. warships approached his country to deter provocations.

Cmdr. Dave Benham, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command, said the military had "detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at 11:21 a.m. Hawaii time April 15."

The missile blew up almost immediately, and the type of missile involved was still being assessed, he said.

Over the past three years, a covert war over the missile program has broken out between North Korea and the United States. As the North's skills grew, President Barack Obama ordered a surge in strikes against the missile launches, The New York Times reported last month, including through electronic-warfare techniques.

It is unclear how successful the program has been, because it is almost impossible to tell whether any individual launch failed because of sabotage, faulty engineering or bad luck. But the North's launch-failure rate has been extraordinarily high since Obama first accelerated the program.

Hours before the unsuccessful test, three types of intercontinental ballistic missiles rolled through Pyongyang, the North's capital, in an annual parade as the country tried to demonstrate that its military reach was expanding at a time of heightened tensions with the United States. During the parade, Kim watched from a platform surrounded by elderly military officers as long columns of goose-stepping soldiers marched through a large plaza, accompanied by tanks, missiles and rocket tubes.

Saturday was the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country's founder, Kim Jong Un's grandfather and the man the younger Kim tries to emulate, in looks and action.
A Texas sheriff is looking to turn back the clock as part of an effort to solve cold cases.

Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody has asked retired law enforcement officers from around the state for an assist in handling long-unsolved disappearances and murders.
President Donald Trump has promised to increase defense spending. But rather than increasing spending, we should first spend smarter.

President Trump fixed wasteful spending in building the famous Wollman ice rink in Manhattan. The rink was closed in 1980 for two years of renovations that were to cost $9 million. After the city of New York spent $13 million over six years, Donald Trump volunteered to do the job. He built a new rink to world-class standards for just over $2 million, and in only two months, by using simple business principles.

Some people believe we are spending too much on defense; others, not enough. Well, they are both right. We are spending too much for too little in return, lots of bureaucracy and red tape, but not much defense.

My wife and I own a San Antonio-based engineering design company supporting the defense and commercial sectors. For a fraction of the cost of what our government normally pays, our company is often able to reverse engineer critical military parts, utilize new technologies such as 3-D printing, drop the cost of manufacturing and get products to the Department of Defense weapon systems much faster and certainly much less expensively than the large defense contractors.

But government red tape often prevents us from doing so.

An example is our 3-D-printed fan blade that cools the radar systems on more than 20 B-52 Stratofortresses today. The Air Force did not have any technical data for the part. Using traditional manufacturing processes, this part would normally cost in excess of $10,000 to produce. By reverse engineering and utilizing newer technologies  3-D printing  we were able to drop the cost of manufacturing to just over $300 per fan blade.

Many of the large defense contractors are also the original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs. Their original contracts with the U.S. government, some dating 60 years, did not provide for the transfer of design specifications and drawings to the government for replacement parts. As a result, such parts are enormously expensive. We are in discussions with one branch of the military to reverse engineer and have manufactured a small plastic switch that is connected to a firing grip on military helicopters. The OEM requires that the entire grip be replaced at a cost of $18,000 each. We can provide the design and have production parts in large quantities made for about $8 each.

However, more often than not, the bureaucracy spends so much time double- and triple-checking our costs, pricing, profits and capabilities that the military unit runs out of time and ends up ordering the parts on an emergency basis, paying 100 or 1,000 times more.

We just received a part from the DOD for evaluation for reverse engineering that is part of an Air Force weapon system. We did some research and discovered that a very large OEM has been selling the same asset for approximately $697 each. This part is a screw-on cap called an electrical connector cover. We have located a commercial source for the asset and can purchase it today for less than $100. This might not sound like much, but imagine this same issue over and over in extremely large quantities.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, came by our offices a few months ago to learn of situations like this. He confirmed this is a problem and vowed to help change the process, make the DOD more accountable, and to try to assist getting the DOD to utilize the existing law and contract directly with small, minority-owned firms, like ours, that can save taxpayers money.

Common-sense business practices would help us spend existing defense funds more wisely, grow small business jobs in San Antonio, and make our country safer.

Maricela and Scott Gray are CEO and president, respectively, of Elevate Systems, an engineering design firm in San Antonio.
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

The post title is taken from the lyrics to the Beatles Back in the USSR, which sadly I cannot include for copyright reasons. For those who came in late, USSR stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a federal, multinational, and multilingual empire of continental scope, ruled by a police state and administered by a sclerotic party apparatus using an unworkable economic theory[1]. For those of you who are saying Wait a minute. That reminds me of something This post is for you.

Now, we have actual Soviet and Russian experts as contributors to Naked Capitalism, and I couldnt compete with them analytically on the causes and consequences of the fall of the Soviet Union, even if I wanted to. The thrust of this post is a little different: I want to open your minds to the idea that the United States shows serious signs of dissolution, just as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics could be seen to show when looked at through the eyes of the New Soviet Man or, as we say in this country, the consumer. So, Ill present some classic images of Soviet decay, and then present American parallels.

Exteme Queuing for Basic Services

The USSR was famous for its queues (via):

We have our queues, too, though theyre not necessarily so visible as in the USSR. Take ObamaCare  please!

Yves frames many useless, but rental extraction-enabling, mechanisms as a tax on time. For example, you can take a day to figure out which policy you should purchase, and you can be additional hours on the phone straightening out the policy with the insurer, and many hours straightening out any billing errors. So who do you invoice for all those hours you spent, that you would rather have spent doing some more pleasant task, like getting your teeth pulled, or cleaning your refrigerator? Nobody. Thats why its a tax on your time, levied on you by neoliberals because markets.

Michael Olenick describes this queue in Conversation with the Receptionists  An Obamacare Skit:

Receptionist: Beegbaux Medical Clinic, can I help you? Newly Insured: Hi. I have a new Obamacare policy and Id like to schedule a visit. Receptionist: Who is your insurance with? Newly Insured: A company called Corporate Welfare Assurance Company. Youve seen their ads on TV, The Presidents giving you CWAP so sign up! Receptionist: Duh: dont you read the news? This is a respectable medical clinic: we dont take CWAP here. Newly Insured: I pay 18% of my gross salary for quality affordable healthcare. Ive had a strange looking growth for ten months but after scheduling an appointment under my old plan my last insurance company dropped me before I could show up. Receptionist: All that is very interesting and I can relate  despite working in a medical office I have ACA CWAP insurance myself  but theres nothing I can do. Bye. [Click sound] [Cut to a montage of various receptionists for each line]

The queue may not be out in the street, but its still a queue!

Prices That Do Not Send Signals

Many economists (for example, those at the St Louis Fed) believe that a command economy like that of the Soviet Union cannot match supply to demand absent a price system:

A shortage is a situation in which the quantity demanded of a product is greater than the quantity supplied. In a government-run economic system, the government would most likely attempt to increase the quantity supplied by dictating that firms produce more gasoline. The government would also likely restrict the quantity that consumers could buy. This would take an extensive bureaucracy of people to provide a massive amount of information, to plan and direct resources, and enforce the new rules. Even then, the amount of gasoline produced might not match what consumers really wanted or what firms could produce efficiently. This kind of mismatch was an ongoing problem in command or centrally planned economies, such as the former Soviet Union, where government planning agencies tried, and failed, to effectively manage the economy.

Hence these ladies selling their own vegetables to supplement what the USSRs centrally planned collective farms could not produce (via):

But we have our own dysfunctional pricing systems. Im happy to hoist this comment from reader LaSherri, who tried to challenge a medical bill. Her comment reads in relevant part:

I have been with United Healthcare since 6/2016 (previously was with BC/BS Anthem). I recently wrote to United Healthcare, my state medical board and providers (all within 1 group). I detailed my treatment experiences with the providers from 2013. In particular, I went to an ER for dizziness for a week (3 days I had to move around on my hands and knees hugging the wall). I was there for 3 hours, and the bill was over $2,000 even tho there wasnt any treatment rendered except some Zofran for nausea (and this was after markdown of costs in accordance with the insurance company). They did an EKG and a CAT scan since I have migraines. I was released with a prescription for meclizine and told I had benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and nothing could be done. I requested 3 times an explanation for the high bill (wanted the codes) as there were 2 ER charges, 5 chemistry charges, 2 med/surgical supply charges, 2 hospital services, among others. I was never supplied with anything. There were numerous similar instances listed in my 4-page complaint to the state medical board, etc. I was contacted via CM, RRR letter a month later by the physician conglomerate and informed they were requesting all reports from all departments and would schedule a meeting with me after receipt (and they gave a deadline for the reports). Over a month past the deadline, I received another CM, RRR letter from the physician conglomerate to inform me that the deadline was extended, and they still wanted a meeting. That deadline has also since passed. About 2 weeks after my complaint, I received notice from the state medical board that they were investigating. I think this is why I received the first CM, RRR letter to cover their butts. I also believe the extended deadline is to provide the physician conglomerate time to see who the state medical board finds in favor of.

LaSherris experience is by no means unique, as other readers have testified. Does this sound like a functioning price system to you?

A Corrupt Nomenklatura

Finally, the Soviet Union was famous for its bureaucrats (nomenklatura), not all of whom got to ride in limosines, but well use the Zil as a symbol anyhow, since its never easy to hold somebody accountable if they go to and fro in a limo (via):

This last year has seen a constant drip-drip-drip of stories about unaccountable bureaucrats in this country, not all of them from the national security state:

The IRS: The IRS took millions from innocent people because of how they managed their bank accounts, inspector general finds. The IRS pursued hundreds of cases from 2012 to 2015 on suspicion of structuring, but with no indications of connections to any criminal activity. Simply depositing cash in sums of less than $10,000 was all that it took to arouse agents suspicions, leading to the eventual seizure and forfeiture of millions of dollars in cash from people not otherwise suspected of criminal activity. The IG took a random sample of 278 IRS forfeiture actions in cases where structuring was the primary basis for seizure. The report found that in 91 percent of those cases, the individuals and business had obtained their money legally. They just reach right into your pocket and take your money! The Police: Civil asset forfeiture: Tracking the cash seized by police in a Deep South state where transparency is not required: Each year, law enforcement agencies seize billions of dollars in cash and other property from potential suspects  some of whom are never convicted or even charged with a crime  through a process called civil asset forfeiture. Civil asset forfeiture laws originated and grew during the 1970s and 1980s as a way to fight drug trafficking. They have created a lucrative revenue stream for law enforcement agencies, one that grew from $94 million in 1986 to $4.5 billion by 2014, according to the Institute for Justice. But drug traffickers are hardly the only people targeted. Often, the targets are simply people carrying cash who are stopped and searched by suspicious police. Many times, the individual cash amounts taken are so low that it isnt worth hiring a lawyer or taking time off work to go to court to get the money back. And sometimes, people are intimidated and unwilling to even ask about getting their money back. Again, they just reach right into your pocket! And lest we think its only the organs of State security that can do this: The Banks: Wells Fargo Gets An Additional $110 Million Wrist Slap Over Fake Accounts Scandal: On the one hand, its frustrating to see Wells Fargo, which engaged in a remarkably large-scale, brazen fraud by opening as many as 2 million fake accounts to keep its stock-boosting cross-selling story going, get away with penny-ante costs. The initial joint regulatory fines of $185 million, combined now with an additional $110 million settlement of some private suits, seems skimpy. But even though Wells opened tons of bogus accounts, it levied bogus fees in a smaller number of cases. Those charges didnt add up to big bucks. While customers suffered all sorts of other harm, like possible damage to credit ratings (opening more accounts, or even just pulling more credit reports, are a demerit) and the hassle of fighting Wells to close phony accounts and get rid of fraudulent charges, regulators and courts see those costs as too intangible to be worthy of compensation.

Its the same thing! They reach into your pocket and take your money! Because they can! As if the United States were some Third World country!

Conclusion

Of course, theres also the drop in life expectancy in post-Soviet Russia, mirrored by the drop in life expectancy in this country two decades later, as shown by the Case-Deaton studies. One more from the USSR (via):

From bottles and cigarettes to needles and white powders. Never let it be said that the arc of history does not bend toward justice!

NOTES

[1] The USSR dissolved itself in 1991; cf. How It Could Happen from The Archdruid. The unworkable economic theory was not neoliberalism.
WIT is running an information evening on dementia-related conditions on Thursday, April 27, on WITs main campus to mark The Alzheimer Society of Irelands national fundraising campaign Tea Day.

One of the main speakers will be Kathy Ryan from Cashel. Kathy was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers at the age of 53. She has two sons, Andrew and Matt.

In July 2016 and during a six month Dementia Care Begins at Home campaign, over one million people watched a powerful video featuring Kathy, Vice-Chair of the Irish Dementia Working Group, and her sons.

In this video she and her sons highlighted the need for more home care supports that will allow people with dementia to remain living at home with their families.

The fundraising information event will take place from 5pm with talks starting at 6-8.30pm. These include: Kathy Ryan 'Living with Dementia', Prof Riona Mulachy 'Challenges in Dementia', Jemma Kehoe 'Therapeutic Foods for Dementia', Dr Sinead Conneely 'Legal Planning and Decision Making: Changes in Irish Law and Policy'. Booking is not required. Details available at www.wit.ie/events.

Fiona Whelan-Ryan, a marketing lecturer at WIT is behind the initiative which will involve a fundraising Tea Day for staff and students on the morning of Thursday, 27 April.

WIT runs its Tea Day earlier than the national event to help maximize funds raised before students break for exams. Staff and students at Waterford Institute of Technology raised more than 3,000 for The Alzheimer Society of Ireland last year.

Fiona says: 1 in 2 people in Ireland know someone who has been diagnosed with dementia. But only 1 in 4 say they have a good understanding of dementia. We want to raise awareness about dementia and support services that are there and as a college community to understand together.

WIT Information Evening for WIT Tea Day, April 27 - Auditorium, Cork Road Campus:

6pm Info evening begins (Welcome from Fiona Whelan-Ryan)

6.10 - 6.40 - Kathy Ryan 'Living with Dementia'

6.45 - 7.15 - Prof Riona Mulachy 'Challenges in Dementia'

7.20 - 7.50 - Jemma Kehoe 'Therapeutic Foods for Dementia'

7.55 - 8.25 - Dr Sinead Conneely 'Legal Planning and Decision Making: Changes in Irish Law and Policy'

8.30 Closing the info evening with any other questions re follow up and support.

Booking not required.
(Natural News) Results from a recent Swiss study suggest that fluctuations in the suns activity may provide insight to the apparent changes in the planet Earths climate. The study revealed that the Suns current activity is expected to diminish over time, which in turn may lead to slight reductions in global warming over the next few decades. According to researchers, these changes may result in a small decrease in the planet Earths temperature. The research was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

A team of researchers have created a calculation model to determine the impact of the Suns activity on the potential temperature changes in the planet over the next century. The team included scientists from the Physical Meteorological Observatory Davos, ETH Zurich, University of Bern and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology.

The calculation model showed that while high solar activity was recorded in the 1950s, the planets temperature is still projected to drop by up to 0.5 decrees Celsius once the Suns activity tapers off to its minimum. Solar activity, in other words, could actually cause global cooling.

However, PMOD director and project lead Werner Schmutz said that while such decline in planetary temperature would be significant, it will not fully counteract human-induced global warming, in his view. We could win valuable time if solar activity declines and slows the pace of global warming a little. This will be no more than borrowed time since the next minimum will inevitably be followed by a maximum, Schmutz stated, as reported in AlphaGalileo.org.

Solar fluctuations influence Earths climate, experts say

The research team looked at the impact of solar activity on the planets past climate in order to develop an efficient climate effect model. PMOD scientists have calculated the Suns radiative forcing. Factors such as electromagnetic and particle radiation were accounted for in the calculation process. ETH Zurich researchers then examined the impact of radioactive forcing on the Earths atmosphere. Scientists form the University of Bern then studied how the atmosphere and the oceans interacted.

The team then assumed a more prominent radiation fluctuation striking the Earth. Compared with previous models, the new assumption was more intense in nature, the researchers noted. Evaluating the effects of other phenomena such as volcanic eruptions prove to be less conducive, according to Schmutz. Using the current model is the only way that we can understand the natural fluctuations in our climate over the last few millennia, Schmutz said.

However, the project lead pointed that useful data on solar fluctuations have been made available only recently, and that the Suns activities over the following years are yet to be examined. To that extent, our latest results are still a hypothesis. But since we have been observing a consistently strong phase since 1950, it is highly likely that we will experience another low point in 50 to 100 years time. It could be every bit as intense as the Maunder Minimum, which brought particularly cold weather during the 17th century, Schmutz added, adding further credence to the global cooling hypothesis.

Additional data on solar activity and links to planetary climate

A research team of more than 100 experts in solar physics, geomagnetism, climate modeling and atmospheric chemistry worked together in 2011 to determine the effects of solar activity on the planets climate. The researchers examined current climate models and found certain mechanisms that demonstrated how variations in the Suns activity impact climate variability per region. The scientists did not identify mechanisms that link solar activity to the onset of global warming. (Related: Read more about solar activity, solar weather, and other space events at Space.news).

However, the research team was able to evaluate the effects of solar activities on certain regions in the planet. According to the study, variations in ultraviolet radiation may trigger stratospheric changes near the equator and across the polar regions. Data also revealed that solar winds impact the planets global electric field. This in turn affects aerosol formation and rainfall, researchers said.

Read more news about climate science at ClimateScienceNews.com.

Sources:

AlphaGalileo.com

LAHT.com

Phys.org
In just eight months, 10 infants confined at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of University of California, Irvine Medical Center were infected with a superbug that can be fatal to premature infants.

The 10 infants tested positive for the same strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) between August 2016 and March 2017. None of the infants died due to the MRSA infection. UC Irvine Medical Center is now working closely with Orange County health officials and California Department of Public Health to investigate the MRSA outbreak.

"UC Irvine health has escalated infection prevention measures to minimize the likelihood of transmission within the healthcare environment and among patients, healthcare workers and visitors such as family members," hospital officials at Irvine Medical Center said in a statement, as per ABC 7.

Hospital officials were baffled with the latest MRSA infection that occurred in March. The infection occurred even when the hospital required 220 of their staff to use antiseptic soap and ointments to pre-emptively kill potential MRSA bacteria in their skin and nose.

In mid-December last year, the hospital detected the same strain of MRSA on five infants. Later that month, two more babies were sickened in the hospital, while another one tested positive for MRSA in late February. Two additional cases were detected last month. Additionally, four hospital employees tested positive for the same strain of MRSA last January.

Despite having previous cases of MRSA, UC Irvine and the Orange County Health Department tried to quietly handle the outbreak internally.

"Our rapid response came the minute we saw the strains were the same," said Susan Huang, director of epidemiology and infection prevention at the medical center, in a report from SF Gate.

MRSA was declared by the World Health Organization as one of the 12 families of bacteria that "pose the greatest threat to human health." MRSA is a naturally occurring bacteria that lives in the skin and nose of approximately two out of 10 people.
A United Airlines flight Sunday morning turned back to San Francisco International Airport because of a mechanical problem, an airport official said.

United Airlines Flight 1721 was on its way to Kona International Airport in Hawaii when it turned around and made an emergency landing.

Airlines spokeswoman Maggie Schmerin said the problem was a maintenance issue.

The plane landed safely at about 10:30 a.m. and another plane was going to be used to take the passengers on their trip.

That plane was expected to depart at 1 p.m. Pacific time, according to Schmerin.
A North Korean medium-range missile exploded seconds after it was launched on Sunday, U.S. officials said, a high-profile failure that came hours before the American vice president arrived in South Korea, and as an American aircraft supercarrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

The U.S. had good intelligence both before and after the launch, said a White House foreign policy adviser traveling with Vice President Mike Pence, who arrived in Seoul in the afternoon to start a 10-day trip to Asia.

No response is expected from the Trump administration because the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's initial understanding of the launch, said there was no need for the U.S. to reinforce the failure.

The official said that had it been a nuclear test, "other actions would have been taken by the U.S."

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

The White House believes that Sunday's test involved a medium-range ballistic missile that failed within 4-5 seconds after launch, and that it did not involve an intercontinental ballistic missile, the adviser said.

The North regularly launches short-range missiles, but is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target U.S. troops in Asia and, eventually, the U.S. mainland.

The failed launch will sting in Pyongyang because it came a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather.

President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the failed launch, which was attempted from the east coast city of Sinpo. In a statement, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump and his military team "are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."

North Korea's ultimate goal is to have a full array of nuclear-tipped missiles in response to what Pyongyang says is hostility by Washington and Seoul meant to topple its government. North Korea is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles.

Many outside analysts believe that North Korea has not yet mastered the technology to build warheads small enough to place on long-range missiles, though some civilian experts say it can already build nuclear-tipped shorter range missiles that have South Korea and Japan within its striking range.

The U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement that Sunday's missile exploded on launch. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it was analyzing exactly how the North Korean launch failed.

In Seoul, South Korea's presidential office convened a national security council meeting to examine security postures.

Always high animosity has risen on the Korean Peninsula in recent months, as the United States and South Korea conduct annual war games that North Korea claims are invasion preparation and the North prepared for Saturday's anniversary celebrations. A U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, is heading to waters off Korea in a show of force.

Analysts warn that even failed missile launches provide valuable knowledge to North Korea as it tries to build its weapons program. The country launched a long-range rocket and conducted the two nuclear tests last year, including its most powerful to date.

Aside from improving the technology, North Korean missile and nuclear tests are seen by outside analysts partly as efforts to bolster the domestic image of leader Kim Jong Un and apply political pressure on Seoul and Washington.

Kim has overseen three nuclear tests and a string of missile and rocket launches since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.

Another missile test from Sinpo failed earlier this month, when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean. That launch came shortly before Trump's first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China is North Korea's only major ally.

The extended-range Scud missile in that earlier launch suffered an in-flight failure and fell into the sea off North Korea's east coast, according to U.S. imagery and assessments.

Despite Sunday's failure, the North's previous claim to have used "standardized" warheads has led to worries that it was making headway in its push to develop small and sophisticated warheads to be topped on long-range missiles.

Washington sees North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to world security and to its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea. The United States, South Korea and other countries have vowed to apply more pressure on the North, but so far nothing has worked to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea on Sunday to begin a 10-day trip to Asia that comes amid turmoil on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's threats to advance its nuclear and defense capabilities, and just after a failed missile launch by the North.

Pence arrived in the region a day after North Korea celebrated the birth anniversary of the country's late founder with a military parade showing off missiles and military hardware.

A North Korean missile exploded during launch Sunday, U.S. and South Korean officials said, a high-profile failure that comes as a powerful U.S. aircraft supercarrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

Pence, joined by his wife, Karen, placed a wreath at Seoul National Cemetery during a brief ceremony. He was expected to join U.S. and South Korean troops for Easter Sunday church services and a dinner later in the day.

President Donald Trump has suggested that the U.S. will take a tougher stance against North Korea, telling reporters last week: "North Korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of." He has repeatedly said if China, North Korea's dominant trading partner, is unwilling to do more to pressure the North, the U.S. might take the matter into its own hands.

Along with the deployment of the Naval aircraft carrier and other vessels into waters off the Korean Peninsula, thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponry were also deployed last month in their biggest-ever joint military exercises. That led North Korea to issue routine threats of attacks on its rivals if they show signs of aggression.

Despite North Korea's provocations, U.S. officials have said that the U.S. doesn't intend to use military force against North Korea in response to either a nuclear test or a missile launch.

After a two-month policy review, officials settled on a policy dubbed "maximum pressure and engagement," U.S. officials said Friday. The administration's immediate emphasis, the officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.

The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly on the results of the policy review and requested anonymity.

Pence will be tasked with explaining the policy in meetings with leaders in South Korea and Japan at the start of his trip, which will also include stops in Indonesia and Australia. He will also aim to reassure allies in South Korea and Japan that the U.S. will take appropriate steps to defend them against North Korean aggression.

Pence's first trip to South Korea will carry personal meaning as well. His late father, Edward, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star on April 15, 1953  64 years to the day of the vice president's departure for South Korea. Pence displays in his office his father's Bronze Star and a photograph of his father receiving the honor.
A 33-year-old Connecticut woman is dead after a valet accidentally accelerated a car, pinning the victim between two vehicles outside an Atlanta restaurant Saturday.

Fulton County police said that the valet at Einstein's restaurant got out of the vehicle without shutting the engine off. The car started rolling, so the valet jumped back in and tried to stop it, but hit the gas instead of the brake.

Police said that six other people were also hurt but have been released from the hospital.

The victim has not been publicly identified, but friends on scene said she will always be remembered.

"She was a beautiful person. Laughing. Smiling," said Shawn Williams, who was also injured in the accident.

A partner at the restaurant said the independent valet company has been working with them for almost a year.

The victims exact cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner.
Connecticut State Police arrested a man caught riding a stolen dirt bike after first spotting him as he rode by troopers while doing wheelies on the highway, according to police.

Police said that around 3 p.m. Saturday troopers were parked on Interstate 84 west near exit 4 helping a driver with a disabled vehicle when two dirt bike riders drove by doing wheelies.

One trooper attempted to stop the dirt bikes but they drove off, exiting off exit 4. police said.

The trooper later caught up with one of the suspects off Mill Plain Road in Danbury. The rider, Jose Javier Garcia-Polanco, 20, of Bethel, was arrested when police discovered the bike he was riding had been reported stolen out of New Milford in 2016.

Garcia-Polanco was charged with third-degree larceny and several motor vehicle charges. He was released on $1,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on May 5.

The second dirt bike rider was later found and issued an infraction for motor vehicle violations, police said.
Connecticut State Police said they've arrested a man after finding illegal weapons in his motorcycle during a traffic stop.

According to police, troopers were driving on Route 7 north Saturday around 11 a.m. when they spotted a motorcycle speeding in the left lane. When the motorcycle rider spotted troopers, he slowed down and did not pass the troopers.

Police pulled the rider over near exit 12 in Brookfield. During the traffic stop, troopers found a small bat with spike strips at the end of it, and a knife, according to police.

The rider, identified as 49-year-old Domingos Reis, of Danbury, was arrested and charged with weapons in a motor vehicle and motor vehicle infractions. He was released on a $1,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on May 5.
Amid evidence of a failed missile test in North Korea, Sen. John McCain said Sunday morning that "this could be the first test, real test, of the Trump presidency," NBC News reported.

McCain, R-Ariz., said on "Meet the Press" that China's "control over the North Korean economy" will be key in how the world addresses rising tensions with the dictatorship.

"It may be part of the overall new relationship, but China is the key," McCain told Chuck Todd.

North Korea's attempted missile launch failed "almost immediately, U.S military officials told NBC News, but McCain said tensions with the country are nevertheless "very serious."
NBC 5 is kicking off our latest week-long series, "Beyond Belief: Faith in Texas." We're exploring religion and the many different ways Texans express their faith.

In our first piece, we talk to nine north Texans and ask them the exact same questions to learn how their faith affects their lives and what they believe in.

A special thank you to all of the people in our story who took time to share their personal beliefs with NBC 5.

The NBC 5 team also wants to know what you believe. If youd like to be a part of Beyond Belief: Faith in Texas, record a brief message about your faith and email it to us at isee@nbcdfw.com.
The number of Texas foster children staying in agency offices or alternate sites due to lack of placement more than doubled from February to March, according to a new report.

The Texas Department of Family Protective Services said Friday that 65 foster children slept at least two consecutive nights in a state office, motel or shelter last month, up from 29 the month before.

Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican legislative leaders have said increasing foster care capacity and improving Child Protective Services investigations are a top priority in this year's session, which ends May 29. Texas is under federal court order to improve its foster care system.

"The numbers are disappointing, as Gov. Abbott has given clear direction to us that it is unacceptable for foster children to live in CPS offices," agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said Friday.

A 15-year-old foster girl living at a state office in Houston was killed on April 2 after running away from the building and being hit by a vehicle.

CPS officials are working to expand capacity, including appeals for volunteers from faith-based groups. Residential treatment providers in Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico are being invited to build facilities in Texas.

"We are continuing to work closely with providers, practically on a daily basis, to come up with additional strategies to open up placements for high-need children," Crimmins said. "Our work with faith-based providers is also a key component to the drive to build capacity. These partnerships are crucial, because CPS cannot increase capacity on its own."
Neighbors in one southeast Dallas community are taking a stand against an increase in violent crime.



Saturday, dozens of concerned residents and community leaders marched down Elsie Faye Heggins Street. The anti-violence march was in the Rosemont neighborhood which has seen several shootings and murders in recent weeks and months.



One of the most recent shootings happened Friday morning outside a grocery store at the intersection of Malcolm X Boulevard.



Police said two groups of people exchanged gunfire. Two victims who were not targets were injured while sitting in their vehicles, police said.



On March 4, Jerrell Dilworth-Sessions was murdered.



His father, Freddie Sessions, spoke during Saturdays mile-long march.

Stop the killing because see Im hurt because my son was a good kid, he told the crowd.



Gangs, police say, are to blame for recent acts of violence. As a result, the department says it's increased staff in its gang patrol unit.

Neighbors say the violence has become so bad they feel like hostages in their own homes.

My yard is fenced in. My house is barred. I have bars. You have to live like that, said Willie Mae Coleman whos lived in southeast Dallas for 82 years.

Unity was the theme of the march organized by Urban Specialist, an organization focused on stopping the violence, unifying the community, instilling pride, and promoting economic growth in the South Dallas neighborhood.

The march ended with a balloon release and a pledge from participants to make a positive impact on the community.
Easter Masses and services will be celebrated Sunday at churches throughout Los Angeles County while sunrise services will be held aboard the battleship Iowa, near the Manhattan Beach Pier and in Palisades Park in Santa Monica.

Easter will also be marked by an Easter/Passover Brunch at The Midnight Mission for homeless and near-homeless individuals and the ninth annual EasterFest at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles where children will hunt for approximately 15,000 Easter eggs.

A nondenominational service on the fantail of the battleship Iowa, docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, will begin at 6 a.m. Guests can board beginning at 5:30 a.m. Those planning on attending the service are reminded to dress warmly and wear appropriate footwear for being on the battleship.

A sunrise service will be held north of the Manhattan Beach Pier beginning at 6:30 a.m., conducted by the Manhattan Beach Community Church, which is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

The sunrise service at Palisades Park will begin at 6:30 a.m. Those attending the service conducted by the First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica are asked to bring blankets, chairs and fresh flowers for the cross.

The Easter Sunday Mass, the Mass of the Resurrection of Our Lord, will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 7:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. and in Spanish at 1 p.m. A bilingual Mass will be celebrated at 3 p.m.

Those unable to attend could view a livestream on the church's Facebook page.

During the Mass, after all the faithful have renewed their baptismal promises, they will receive a blessing with Easter holy water as a reminder that in and through Christ, they have died and been born again through the waters of baptism.

The feast of the Resurrection of Christ is the oldest and most important Christian celebration. Christians believe that, by rising from the dead, Jesus demonstrated his power over sin and death, manifesting his divinity as the Son of God.

"Easter is a great day filled with hope and joy for us,'' said Archbishop Jose H. Gomez. "Christ is risen and we know we will rise with him.

"Easter tells us that God's love is stronger than death and that Jesus is on our side, that he will lead us through all the dark valleys of our lives, through all our disappointments and sufferings. He will lead us to glory, to the light of his love and peace.''

The Midnight Mission expects to serve 4,500 pounds of chicken legs, 1,000 pounds of sliced ham, 800 pounds of mashed potatoes, 700 pounds of sweet yams and 600 pounds of vegetables for its Easter/Passover Brunch, according to Georgia Berkovich, its director of public affairs.

Entertainer Dick Van Dyke, former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and recently eliminated "Dancing with the Stars'' contestant Mr. T are expected to be among the volunteers serving.

There will also be an Easter Village where homeless and near-homeless children will be able to meet the Easter Bunny and receive baskets full of candy and other treats.

The ninth annual EasterFest at Grand Park will be held from 2-5 p.m. and include Easter Egg hunts, bounce houses, face painting, arts and crafts and games. Admission is $5 per person or $20 per family to a maximum of seven people. Children 2 and under are admitted free.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit ministries on Skid Row helping homeless families and children, according to Kevin K. Haah, the lead pastor of the New City Church of Los Angeles, which is organizing the event.

In his weekly address, President Donald Trump described Easter as "a holy day of reverence and worship. It is a sacred time that fills the spirit of our nation with the faith of our people.''
Donald Trump's characterization of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists during his presidential campaign angered Heidi Sainz, whose family is from Mexico and who has close friends who are immigrants. She was also upset that she couldn't do anything about it at the ballot box because she was a year shy of being able to vote.

Sainz favors a bill in the California Legislature that would lower the voting age to 17, which she thinks would give a voice to more people affected by the outcome of elections.

"Looking at all the protests throughout this year throughout all the high schools across the nation, we could see a lot of the minors were protesting because they felt as if they didn't have a voice," said Sainz, a senior at Inderkum High School in Sacramento.

Lawmakers in more than a dozen states are trying to increase voter participation by targeting young people. Their bills are among nearly 500 pieces of legislation introduced around the country this year to make voting easier, according to a March analysis by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice.

While Republican-leaning states have moved to tighten voting rules  nearly 90 such bills have been introduced  those efforts have been outstripped by the number of bills seeking to expand access to the polls.

"A lot of young people last year wanted to make their voices heard but were unable to do so because the rules prohibited them," said Jonathan Brater, counsel with the nonpartisan Brennan Center Democracy Program.

"That has certainly renewed interest in making the system more accessible," Brater said.

Democrats and Republicans have supported efforts to expand access, particularly online registration. But it's mostly Republicans who are pushing restrictions such as requiring photo identification at the polls.

Roughly 20 states are considering voter ID laws this year that supporters say prevent fraud and boost public confidence in elections. Critics say such laws target minorities and the poor, who might not have driver's licenses and find it difficult to obtain them.

Recent voting expansion efforts include automatic registration and extending absentee voting opportunities.

Republicans control the governorship and legislature in 25 states and so far have been relatively successful in pushing through the more restrictive laws. Democrats control just a half-dozen states.

In California, where Democrats command a supermajority in the Legislature and control the governor's mansion, lawmakers say they want to take the lead in expanding voting access as other states move to restrict it.

The bill to lower the voting age to 17 proposes an amendment to the state Constitution. Passage would require a two-thirds vote in the Legislature and approval by voters.

Assemblyman Evan Low, the bill's author, believes now is a good time to lower the voting age. Britain's vote to leave the European Union and the ouster of South Korea's president have shown people the importance of voting and holding public servants accountable, Low said.

The Silicon Valley Democrat also pointed to the election of Trump, whom Low and his Democratic colleagues routinely censure.

"We've realized that democracy is relatively fragile," Low said.

Lowering the voting age could help foster a sense of civic duty before teens move away from home to attend college or start a job and become less motivated to vote, he added.

Tyler Christensen, one of Sainz's classmates at Inderkum High School, said he's torn on the issue.

"I liked the idea when I was 17," said Christensen, who turned 18 in February. "But now that it doesn't matter for me anymore, I feel like a lot of people are still too immature."

Sen. Joel Anderson, a Republican from the San Diego area, said he supports encouraging young people to vote but opposes some approaches pushed by Democrats.

He voted against a 2014 bill that legalized preregistration of 16- and 17-year-olds because he worried it would make voter rolls less accurate and lead to voter fraud. He thinks Low's proposed amendment to lower the voting age is simply an effort to get more Democratic votes.

"Every poll that I've seen says that young people tend toward voting for Democrats, so I believe that it's self-serving," he said. "It can't just be about gaming elections for your own support."

In Iowa, two Republicans introduced bills this year to expand teen voting. One bill would have allowed 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they turned 18 by the general election. The other would have allowed Iowans to preregister to vote when they turn 16. Both bills stalled, but the primary voting provision has since been added to a voter ID bill advancing through the Legislature.

The same reforms were proposed by Democrats in Minnesota, but they have since stalled in the Republican-controlled state Senate. Jack Joa, a high school student who suggested letting 17-year-olds vote in primaries, said he was preregistered but was turned away at his polling place during Minnesota's August primary because he was not yet 18.

Joa said he spent hours a day for months researching policies in other states and studies on teen voter participation before he took his proposal to lawmakers. Joa is a Democrat but has worked on multiple campaigns for Republicans and Democrats in the state Legislature, as well as the Democratic presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

"I felt that the people that turned 18 by the general but weren't able to vote in the primary would feel disenfranchised," he said.

The Nevada Legislature is also considering letting 17-year-olds preregister to vote.

"Early pre-registration is one way of getting youth and teens more engaged in the civics process early on," said state Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford, a Las Vegas Democrat who proposed the bill.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, declined to comment on the measure.

He has previously vetoed proposals to establish same-day voting registration and automatic registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Associated Press writers Christina A. Cassidy, Alison Noon, Steve Karnowski, Linley Sanders and Barbara Rodriguez contributed to this report.
The much-awaited fourth Edition of Pandoras pop-up concert style Noche de Musica (Night of Music) returns to Miami next April 25th at the Ice Palace Film Studios in Miami.

Headlining this years Noche de Musica will be none other than Puerto Rican Reggaeton superstar Nicky Jam and straight from Colombia the revolutionary alternative hip-hop group, ChocQuibTown.

These two electrifying performances by two of Billboard Latin Music Awards finalists is free for fans 21 and over who must RSVP by visiting the Pandora Noche de Musica website. (Note: RSVP doesnt guarantee entry, as space is limited in a first come first served basis.)

Pandoras unique ability to determine which artists will resonate best with local listeners by analyzing musical preferences, stations created and thumbed-up songs allows them to extend invitations to listeners who have demonstrated an affinity for their identified artist.

Past Noche de Musica concerts have included Yandel, JBalvin, Plan B, Leslie Grace, Frarruko, Tony Dize, Sofia Reyes and Justin Quiles to name a few.

The Ice Palace Films Studios is located at 1400 N Miami Avenue, Miami, FL 33136.
A South Florida man and his family were jolted from their bed and ran for their lives as flames erupted at a home in Miami early Easter morning.

Sadly, the blaze claimed the lives of eight cockatiels, according to owner David Rodriguez.

The massive fire engulfed part of the home on Southwest 19th Street and 18th Avenue around 2 in the morning. He said he and his family were sleeping when they heard noises and saw the flames.

"We was [sic] running for our lives," said Rodriguez.

The family and their dogs escaped the inferno without injury, but their exotic birds did not make it out alive.

Rodriguez told NBC 6 in Spanish that the fire department took 20 minutes to arrive and that when they did, firefighters did not have water. He said can be heard on video yelling at firefighters as they scrambled to pump water through their hoses. Fire officials said the position of the fire made the process difficult and access to water a challenge.

"We had a difficult time getting access to the property, so that delayed our ability to get water on to the fire at that time. But, we eventually did and we were able to save approximately three or four structures from expanding and getting a lot worse," said Erik Pace, Miami Fire Department. Pace also said several propane tanks near the fire may have exploded during the blaze.

The homeowner said their was a fight outside of his neighbor's home right before the flames engulfed the area.

"They was [sic] smoking weed and doing barbecue and screaming. And, apparently, getting in a fight. At some point, everything started on fire," said Rodriguez.

Fire officials said at least one unit was heavily damaged. The case of the fire is under investigation.
President Donald Trump is attending Easter service at the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea near his estate in Palm Beach.

The president is attending with his wife, Melania, as well as his two younger children, Barron and Tiffany, and the first lady's parents. Spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham says Trump is expected to return to Mar-a-Lago after the service to join the rest of his family for annual Easter festivities, including a brunch and an Easter egg hunt.

Trump has been attending the Episcopal church for years and he and the first lady were married there.
Police in Cleveland are searching for a man they said posted a video of a killing on Facebook and who claims to have killed other people, authorities said Sunday.

Police have issued an aggravated murder warrant for Steve Stephens, identified by officials as the suspect. Stephens is considered armed and dangerous, according to a Cleveland Police Department statement.

The suspect has been described as a black male with medium complexion, 6-foot-1, 240 lbs and bald with a beard. He was last seen wearing a dark, striped polo shirt.

Stephens is believed to be driving a recently purchased white Ford Fusion with Ohio temporary tag E363630, which may have been switched out, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. Residents of New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Michigan have been asked to be on alert for the suspect.

Williams is urging Stephens to turn himself in and not to "do anymore harm to anybody."

A video was posted Sunday to a Facebook account apparently belonging to Stephens  the user's name is listed as Stevie Steve, and a city representative confirmed it belongs to him. In the video, the man filming walks up to an older man and, after asking him a question, shoots him. The video, which was posted about 2 p.m. ET and was later taken down, was captioned, in part, "Easter day slaughter."

The homicide that's been confirmed took place at 635 E. 93, police said.

The victim has been identified as 74-year-old Robert Godwin Sr., but police say they don't know the suspect's motive in choosing the victim.

Several GoFundMe pages have been created to support Godwin's family, but police asked on their behalf that people refrain from contributing to such crowdfunding accounts until an official means of support can be set up.

In other videos posted to the same Facebook page, the man filming discusses the killings.

"I'm at the point where I snapped," the man says in one video. He added that he's killed 13 people.

"And I'm about to keep killing until they catch me," he says.

He says in comments that he's killed 15 people in the area of 105 freeway. The account was last active about 3:30 p.m. ET.

Police have had not confirmed more than one homicide as of Monday morning.

The FBI has joined Cleveland police in search for Stephens, NBC News reported.

Facebook issued a statement stating: This is a horrific crime and we do not allow this kind of content on Facebook. We work hard to keep a safe environment on Facebook, and are in touch with law enforcement in emergencies when there are direct threats to physical safety.

A Facebook representative said that the killing was not broadcast live on Facebook, as previously reported. The video was later uploaded, "although, the suspect did go live at one point during the day," the representative said in a statement.

Chief Williams said anyone with information is asked to call 911.
President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Easter Sunday to suggest the nationwide rallies from the day before calling for the release of his tax returns were paid operations, and questioned why it's still an issue when he won the election.

After tweeting his best wishes for Easter, Trump sent two tweets suggesting that the election was a referendum on his tax returns, one that he won.

"I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?" he said.

But recent national polls haven shown quite the opposite. Trump releasing his taxes was important to about 50 percent of respondants to a Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll released last week, and 53 percent said he should be required to release his federal tax returns.

Other recent polls have put the number of people who think he needs to release his taxes at 61 percent (PPP, March 15) and 56 percent (CBS News, Feb. 23). The Quinnipiac University national poll has consistently found support for Trump releasing his tax returns at about 67 percent since February.

And dozens of cities saw tax-themed marches on Saturday, April 15  Tax Day, when it falls on a week day  where demonstrators held up signs like "Surrender Your Returns" and "Show me the money!" Clashes broke out at one of the rallies, in Berkeley.

Though some of the rallies brought together thousands of people, Trump commented Sunday that rallies were small, and wondered if the demonstraters were paid, which has been a common response to rallies about Trump policies.

"Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!" Trump said in his second tweet on the issue.

Trump has maintained that voters don't care that he was the first major-party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his tax returns. He's explained that he wouldn't release the returns because he was under audit.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, has said Trump's refusal to release his returns could hinder Republicans' prospects for a rewrite of the tax code.
Delaware police have arrested 40 people following a three-month drug investigation.

WDEL-FM reported that members of the Kent County Drug Unit served eight search warrants to shut down an open-air drug market. Authorities recovered crack cocaine, heroin and marijuana, as well as guns and more than $2,300.

The ringleader of the drug organization has been identified as Frank Lovett. He, Mark Boyd, Joseph Palmer, Shanun Handy and three dozen others were taken into custody and charged with racketeering, drug dealing, conspiracy and gun charges, among others.
A woman died in a series of shootings around Philadelphia overnight.

A gunman shot the yet-to-be-identified 24-year-old woman in the chest along the 3200 block of F Street in Kensington around 1:20 a.m. Easter Sunday. She died a short time later at Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia Police said.

Detectives searched for clues in her death as well as other overnight shootings in the city.

Around 2 a.m., gunfire rang out at the Roxxy Nightclub along N Delaware Avenue leaving a 26-year-old man shot in the leg, police said. He was treated at Hahnemann Hospital and released.

Late Saturday night, bullets flew along the 3800 block of Mount Vernon Street in Mantua, police said. Officers found shell casings around a car but found no shooting victim, investigators said.

Around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, a 37-year-old man was shot in the thigh along the 100 block of Hansburry Street in Germantown leaving a blood trail along the sidewalk, police said. A driver took him to Einstein Medical Center where doctors listed him in stable condition.

Police didnt immediately reveal any information on the shooters in any of the incidents.
A thumbs-up and a high-five from Nolan Brandy are small gestures that hold so much meaning for the parents of the 9-year-old boy shot this week at his Southern California elementary school.

After a painful and difficult week, Rachel and Leon Brandy said their only son  the youngest of their three children  is doing better than expected but still not talking about the shooting that killed his teacher, 53-year-old Karen Smith, and his classmate and friend, Jonathan Martinez, at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino.

"He just kind of ignored questions about what happened," Leon Brandy told NBC4. "I don't think it's sunk in yet."

Nolan suffered a gunshot wound to the upper body that left him with a broken rib and injuries to his abdomen, liver and kidney.

He left the hospital Friday and is home recovering. Doctors said he could be ready to return to school later this month.

His mother Rachel, a parent volunteer at the school, said she was friends with Smith and Martinez. She's still struggling with her emotions surrounding their death and her relief at her son's recovery.

Rachel vividly recalls the terror and anxiety she and other parents felt waiting for news of their children: "I'm in the gym with all the other parents and they call his name and I thought, 'OK, my son is right outside the gym doors, we're going to be reunited and go home.' And that's when they said it to me, 'Your son's been shot we're going to Loma Linda.'"

The Brandys said they are grateful for all the support and well wishes they have received from around the world. Rachel hopes time and prayers will help with emotional healing.

"All those parents out there, we can do this," she said. "North Park is strong and we will continue to be strong."

Nolan added a "thank you" of his own.
A U.S. military veteran deported to his home country of Mexico 13 years ago after serving time for a conviction received a full pardon Saturday from California Gov. Jerry Brown.

Hector Barajas was born in Mexicos Zacatecas state and crossed the border illegally into the United States at age 7. After growing up in the U.S., he served in the U.S. Army from 1995 to 2001 in the 82nd Airborne Division.

After an honorable discharge from the Army, Barajas had a difficult time adapting to civilian life. He developed a substance abuse problem. He was in a car when a firearm was discharged and was convicted for the crime of shooting at an inhabited vehicle.

In early July 2002, Barajas was sentenced in the Superior Court of the State of California, in the County of Los Angeles, for the crime. Barajas served just over one year in prison and the same amount of time on parole. He was released on Sept. 2, 2004, after completing his sentence.

Upon his release, Barajas was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported to Nogales, in the Mexican state of Sonora.

In an interview with the Associated Press last month, Barajas described feeling lost that moment he found himself back in Mexico. Unsure of how to make a living, the military veteran crossed back into the U.S. six months later.

He was deported again in 2010.

At that point, he moved to Tijuana and founded a place called the Deported Veterans Support House  or The Bunker  a place where many deported veterans just like Barajas can get a little bit of help adjusting to their new life as deportees. There, Barajas puts veterans in touch with lawyers, psychologist and job counseling programs.

"I think the hardest part is being separated from their families and their kids," Barajas tells NBC7.

Once settled in Tijuana, Barajas went on to apply for executive clemency in the form of a gubernatorial pardon from the California governors office.

Brown granted that pardon on April 15.

Since his release from custody, [Barajas] has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character and conducted himself as a law abiding citizen, the governors pardon states. Indeed, Mr. Barajas served in the United States Army and received the Humanitarian Service Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, among other awards.

The pardon also mentions the veterans work with the Support House and adds that by completion of his sentence and good conduct, Barajas has paid his debt to society and earned a full and unconditional pardon.

With the pardon, Barajas could now apply for re-entry in to the U.S.

"I'm not perfect, you know, and I will never be perfect," Barajas told NBC 7 in an interview Saturday. "But I can sure try to prove to the people back home that I'm a better person."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California has served as an advocate for deported U.S. veterans like Barajas. In addition to requesting pardons for deportees, the ACLU is also supporting legislation at the state and federal level aimed at addressing the problems faced by deported veterans.

The group formed the Honorably Discharged, Dishonorably Deported (HDDD) Coalition in September 2016 to advocate for an end to deportations of U.S. veterans and a pathway home for already deported veterans.

Via the ACLU, Barajas released this statement Saturday, following his pardon.

There are no words to describe the joy I feel today. I thank God for the grace of Governor Jerry Brown and am eternally grateful to all of those who advocated on my behalf. I have dreamed everyday of returning to the country I love. We have taken a big step forward for deported veterans and their families.

Barajas also posted a short video on his Facebook page in which he thanked Brown and everyone who has advocated for his pardon:

"This is huge," he says in the video, smiling and tearing up. "The process will be easier for me to go home to my family. I'm very thankful. I'm still at a loss for words."

San Diego-based politician Nathan Fletcher appeared alongside Barajas in the video and also praised the pardon.

This is a significant step forward in our efforts and has the potential to make a life-changing difference for these veterans, he said in a press release from the ACLU. However, the sad reality is there are hundreds, possibly thousands of others waiting for help. We are renewing our call on Congress and the President to honor its commitment and ensure every soldier comes home.

Fletcher took to Twitter Saturday to post a photo of him hugging a smiling Barajas as the deported vet looked at his pardon from the governor:

That moment when @Banishedveteran sees his pardon and realizes due to compassion of @JerryBrownGov he is on the path to come home! #NoWords pic.twitter.com/WeDwmCtGd7  Nathan Fletcher (@nathanfletcher) April 15, 2017

In the past, Fletchers wife  San Diego-based California State Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D  80th District) has proposed a legal fund to help deported vets apply for readmission in the U.S.

Gonzalez Fletcher also expressed joy on social media Saturday on the news of Barajas' pardon:

Along with the pardon of Barajas, the HDDD also praised Brown for granting full pardons to two other deported California veterans: former U.S. Marines Erasmo Apodaca and Marco Antonio Chavez Medina.

Browns action is historic and represents the first time that a governor has recognized and taken action to address the injustice of deported veterans of the United States armed forces, said the HDDD. These pardons help pave the way for the veterans eventual return to the country they took an oath to defend.

According to this March report by the Associated Press, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it does not have figures on how many deported veterans have requested naturalization and that it considers each petition individually.

Editor's Note: This story previously erroneously reported that Barajas fought in Operation Desert Storm.
Alec Baldwin's President Trump opened this week's "Saturday Night Live" by reflecting on his first 100 days in office to Vice President Mike Pence (Beck Bennett), and thinking they were his final 100 days as well.

"These 100 days have been such a success. I'm so sad my presidency is coming to an end," Trump says.

Pence explains that, actually, Trump's got more than a thousand days left in his term, prompting the president to retort: "I don't know, have you seen my tweets about North Korea?" Trump's aggressive tweets toward the isolated nation appear to have contributed to escalating tensions. And just before "SNL"'s broadcast, U.S. military officials reported that North Korea had test-fired a missile, which exploded and failed to launch.

Moving on, Bennett's Pence encourages Baldwin's Trump to resolve the ongoing reported infighting between advisers Stephen Bannon and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Rumors of discord between the two have been making headlines for the past few weeks, particularly since once-top Trump adviser Bannon was booted from the National Security Council. Word has been that Bannon's nationalism wasn't jibing with the idealogies of others close to Trump, like Kushner.

So Baldwin's Trump calls both Bannon and Kushner into the Oval Office to sort things out. Jimmy Fallon replicated Kushner's now-infamous outfit from his visit to troops in Iraq  and enters the room to EMF's "Unbelievable," while Bannon appears as a silent skeleton from hell.

"There's been a lot of drama in the house," Trump tells the two men. "But one of you has to go. It's elimination night."

Fallon, host of "The Tonight Show" on NBC and former "SNL" cast member, returned to host Saturday on the show's first-ever truly live-from-New-York broadcast  viewers from coast to coast in the U.S. and Canada were able to tune in simultaneously to watch the program as a shared television experience. Fallon opened by leading a massive lip-synch flash mob to David Bowie's "Let's Dance."

It made sense for Melissa McCarthy to return this week to play Sean Spicer: The real-life White House press secretary made a serious gaffe during his daily briefing Tuesday in saying that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who used chemical weapons in systematically killing millions of people as part of the Holocaust and his "Final Solution" of ethnic cleansing, "did not sink to the level of using chemical weapons."

Spicer's remark, which came on the first day of Passover, immediately generated outrage on social media and drew harsh criticism from officials on both sides of the aisle. And as the press secretary tried throughout that day to clarify his remarks, he only seemed to make things worse, incorrectly referring to Nazi concentration camps as "Holocaust centers," for example.

Finally, by the day's end, Spicer appeared contrite, publicly apologizing via various news outlets. "We all make mistakes," he told NBC News, and he said he hoped that he could be forgiven.

So McCarthy's clearly unhappy Spicer takes the podium  wearing an Easter bunny suit.

"Spicey finally made a mistake," he says, frustrated and sweaty from the costume.

The bunny suit is a good fit  not only because the show aired the night before Easter Sunday, but because, during the George W. Bush administration, the real Spicer actually played Easter Bunny at the White House's Annual Easter Egg Roll.

"Happy Easter, everybody," McCarthy's Spicer says, wrapping up the briefing and climbing into an Easter egg car. "Oh, and by the way," he adds, "the president is probably going to bomb North Korea tonight"  a reference both to hostile U.S.-North Korea relations and to Trump's recent use of force in Afghanistan and Syria.

"So eat as much candy as you want," Spicer says, "because this is probably our last Easter on earth." Then he drives the egg car into the podium.

On mainstay sketch "Family Feud," hosted by Kenan Thompson's Steve Harvey, Fallon takes on the role of two separate John Travoltas while musical guest Harry Styles impersonates the distinctive moves of a rock icon.

Former "SNL"er Rachel Dratch returned to join Fallon for a revival of their characters, Sully and Denise from Boston.

In a short sketch near the top of the program, a young woman (Cecily Strong) rejects the advances of an ex-boyfriend (Fallon). Eventually, we find out why she won't have him back: "You dragged someone off a plane this week!" she yells, referring to the United Airlines passenger who was forcefullly dragged off a plane because he'd refused to relinquish his seat to make room for airline employees on a sold-out flight. Shocking video and images of the man taken by other passengers provoked public outcry and forced the airline's CEO to make a series of increasingly apologetic public statements.

Ahead of the May release of his self-titled debut solo album, Harry Styles of 1 Direction performed two songs: "Sign of the Times" and "Ever Since New York."
An Egyptian court on Sunday acquitted Aya Hijazi, a dual U.S.-Egyptian citizen who has been held in detention for nearly three years over accusations related to a non-governmental organization she founded to aid street children.

Authorities arrested Hijazi, her husband and six others in May 2014 on charges of abusing children that were widely dismissed as bogus by human rights groups and senior U.S. officials, who called for her release.

The arrests came as part of a wider clampdown on civil society especially following the military overthrow of an elected Islamist president in 2013. Prosecutors provided little if any evidence to support the allegations.

Several U.S. congressmen have called on Egypt to release Hijazi, and Hillary Clinton reiterated the demand in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last September, when she was the Democratic presidential candidate.

This wonderful news was a long time coming, said U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Virginia). I feel a deep sense of joy and relief for Aya, her husband, their colleagues at Belady who were imprisoned, Ayas mother Naglaa, and her sister Alaa and brother Basel. I offer my humble thanks and congratulations today to them and to her many friends who worked so hard to raise the profile of this case and pressure the Egyptian government to gain her freedom."

U.S. President Donald Trump did not publicly mention the case when he welcomed el-Sissi to the White House earlier this month, but a senior White House official had said ahead of the meeting that the case would be addressed.

The court's decision to acquit surprised Hijazi's mother, Naglaa Hosny, who told The Associated Press "we were expecting the worst and hoping for the best."

Hijazi's lawyer, Taher Abol Nasr, said she would likely remain in detention another two to three days while her acquittal is processed. He expects all the defendants to walk free by the end of the week. It was not immediately clear if Hijazi would remain in Egypt.

Hijazi, 30, grew up in Falls Church, Virginia. She received a degree in conflict resolution from George Mason University in 2009, and then returned to her native Egypt.

Along with her husband, Hijazi established a foundation by the name Belady, Arabic for "our nation,'' in 2013 with the aim of providing shelter for street children.

A few months later, authorities raided the foundation's office after a man alleged that his son was missing and blamed it on Belady.

Egyptian authorities have clamped down on civil society, particularly human rights groups and other organizations that receive foreign funding. Such groups played a central role in the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and pro-government media often present them as part of a conspiracy to undermine the state.

The authorities also arrested thousands of people in the months following the 2013 overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, mainly his Islamist supporters but also a number of secular and liberal activists.
A man who robbed multiple stores and restaurants in Northern Virginia has received a life sentence for his crimes.

The Washington Post reports that 35-year-old Larry Pyos was given a 115-year sentence in Alexandria federal court on Friday stemming from an armed robbery conviction last year.

But Pyos didn't commit just one robbery. He first robbed a supermarket in Falls Church with a gun in December of 2015, and over the next several months robbed two restaurants in the area. He twice fired at employees who tried to follow him. During one robbery a restaurant worker was hit in the foot by a bullet fragment.
Tens of thousands of people demanded President Donald Trump release his tax returns in Tax Day protests across the country on Saturday -- including thousands of protesters who marched in Washington, D.C.

Protesters chanted, "Shame! Shame!" over and over again as they walked along Pennsylvania Avenue. Demonstrators stopped in front of the Trump International Hotel for a time, where they booed, shouted and some raised their middle fingers.

Others played drums, shook maracas and played the saxaphone in front of the hotel in an effort to make noise and bring attention to their march.

Protesters held signs that read "Chicken in Chief," "I Care," "Show Taxes Now!," and "Tax Time You Too!!"

NBC Washington

"I think the American people have the right to see Donald Trump's tax returns. I think it's a question of transparency," said Deirdra Donahue, a Bethesda, Maryland, woman participating in the protests.

One of Trump's sharpest critics in the House spoke to protesters at the U.S. Capitol just before they set off on their march to the National Mall. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, of California, said there's nothing to prevent Trump from releasing his income taxes and that "the simple truth is he's got a lot to hide."

"We feel it's important because we don't know Donald Trump's ties to foreign governments or foreign business interests or even domestic business interests," said protester Matt Wahila. "We don't know what's in his taxes. We don't know who he owes money to, but we do know that his policies and his proclamations so far have been against the working class, the American people and we just want him to be held accountable."
Two people were killed and three others injured in a two-vehicle crash in Charles County, Maryland, late Saturday night.

The Maryland State Police said the vehicles collided on Leonardown Road at Cracklingtown Road in the Hughesville area before 11 p.m. Troopers said after the collision, one vehicle went off the road, hit a telephone pole, overturned, and caught fire.

Two people were pronounced dead at the scene. The victims are identified as Lashawnia Inez hagain, 49, of Waldorf, and Michael Lee Simms, 49, of Linden, Virginia.

Two adults, a 19-year-old woman and a 27 year old woman, were taken to the hospital. A child was also transported from the scene.

Troopers from the La Plata Barrack were assisted on scene by the Maryland State Police Crash Team and deputies from the Charles County Sheriff's Office. Investigators said speed, driver error and alcohol are believed to be contributing factors to the collision.
What to Know Vanessa Marcotte was killed on Aug. 7 when she went for a jog while visiting her family in Princeton, Mass.

Her body, which investigators say was naked and partially burned, was found in a remote and wooded area about a half mile away.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early said the DNA profile shows the person of interest is an athletic, light-skinned male and about 30.

Residents of a Massachusetts community shocked by the grisly murder of a woman while she was jogging, are breathing a sigh of relief after investigators announced an arrest in connection with the case.

At the Mountainside Market, a staple in the quiet town of Princeton, people said they were relieved to hear about an arrest in the murder of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte, but also curious to learn more about the suspect, identified by sources as 31-year-old Angelo Colon Ortiz.

"It will be interesting to see his story, where he came from, and what his motivations were," Ryan Gibbons said while stopping during a bike ride Saturday morning. "I'm sure there's, you know, all kinds of things you can speculate about him, but until they dig, we're not going to know for a fact."

Kelly Tuttle who lives in nearby town Sterling says even though a suspect has been caught, shes not sure if she would along the paths in Princeton alone.

I feel like Ive known Vanessa and I dont even know her, but its really touched all of us, she said.

Emily Truax said she's paid close attention to the "nerve-wracking" case because her best friend lives in the area.

"I'm hoping that it brings the family some closure," she said about the arrest. "It's the best we can really hope for."

Another woman who lives in the area said the community will feel relieved that "justice is about to start."

"I think everyone just wants justice for her, so maybe that can start and a little bit of healing can start" as well, she said.

Marcotte, a former Google employee who lived in New York City, was visiting her mother in Princeton in August 2016 when she left for a jog one morning. She never returned.

Investigators found her body later that evening in a remote, wooded-area naked and partially burned. There were also signs that she had struggled with her attacker.

Marcotte's family has no comment on the investigation at this time.

State police are expected to speak with the Worcester district attorney Saturday afternoon.
A legislative effort is underway to name stretches of two Massachusetts highways in honor of a police officer killed in the line of duty.

Three state lawmakers are co-sponsoring the bill to name a section of Route 20 in Auburn and a portion of Route 9 in Leicester after Auburn Police Officer Ronald Tarentino Jr.

Tarentino was shot in the back last May by a man he had pulled over.

Tarentino and his family lived in Leicester and he had served with the town's police department before joining Auburn's force.

The bill was discussed at a recent meeting of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation.

One sponsor, Republican state Rep. Paul Frost, says renaming the highways would be a fitting and lasting tribute to Tarentino's sacrifice.
Police are searching for a man who they say may be involved in a home invasion Saturday night in Worcester, Massachusetts, where two people were shot.

Officers were called to a home on Dawson Road just after 10 p.m. for a report of an intruder.

When officers arrived, a man was lying on the ground by the side entrance of the home suffering from a gunshot wound to his lower extremity. Police said the man was semi-conscious.

Upon investigation, police found two residents in the basement of the home. Police said a 21-year-old woman was suffering from a minor injury to her ankle and a 24-year-old man was suffering from a serious gunshot wound.

Authorities further learned that the man found outside was allegedly one of two suspects in the home invasion.

The second suspect, Marc Aldana of Holden, Mass., allegedly ran off after an exchange of gunfire between the first suspect and the man who was shot inside the home.

Both the victim and suspect were taken to an area hospital for treatment. Their conditions are unknown.

Police conducted a search of the neighborhood but could not locate the suspect.

The incident remains under investigation. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at 508-799-8651.
Apple's iPhone design has pretty much remained unchanged since the company introduced its larger-screened iPhone 6 lineup in 2014. Sure, there have been slight aesthetic changessuch as the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jackbut the overall look and feel of the iPhone is arguably outdated.

Not to fear: The release of Apple's iPhone 8 is poised to change all that. Based on a number of leaks from reputable sources that have solid track records, it's widely believed that the iPhone 8 will feature an edge-to-edge 5.8-in. OLED display. Of course, this begs the question: What happens to the home button, Touch ID and the iPhone's front-facing camera?

Well, Apple has reportedly been working on methods for embedding all of the above into the display itself. Far more than conjecture, Apple has filed a number of patents detailing technologies and manufacturing processes to allow for embedding items like a Touch ID sensor into a display. Of course, the road a patented technology must take before it appears in a shipping product is often fraught with hurdles, something Apple is dealing with right now.

According to a new analyst report from Timothy Arcuri, an analyst at Cowen and Company, early production on iPhone 8 prototypes has resulted in low yields for the display. Originally reported by AppleInsider, Arcuri's note reads in part: "For the 5.8-in. OLED version, the biggest bottleneck remains integrating an under-glass fingerprint sensor into the displaythe current yield rate of Apple's in-house AuthenTec solution remains low, and AAPL seems unwilling to use other vendors' products."

Consequently, Apple is left with a few options. It can push back the iPhone 8 release date, something Apple presumably wants to avoid at all costs. Notably, we've already seen rumors that the iPhone 8 release date may be pushed back as far as November so that Apple can handle what will likely be unprecedented demand. If Apple is dead-set on following its historical timetable and releasing the iPhone 8 in September, it might opt to place the Touch ID sensor on the back of the device. While this admittedly sounds unlikelyand decidedly at odds with Apple's design sensibilitiesa recently leaked schematic of the iPhone 8 demonstrates that Apple has at the very least contemplated such a design.

Without question, placing the Touch ID sensor on the back would negate the ease of use and efficiency that makes the feature so compelling in the first place.

Having said that, the schematic above is reportedly just one design Apple was experimenting with, and we can only hope Apple will be able to surmount any difficulties it currently faces with respect to embedding the sensor into the device's OLED display. That said, note the EVT designation on the table to the right of the render. This stands for Engineering Validation Test and signals that the render above was created early on in the iPhone development process, further giving us hope that the final iPhone 8 design will be much sleeker than what is illustrated above.

In short, we can't imagine Apple releasing a sub-par iPhone 8 design or getting rid of Touch ID and replacing it with facial recognition technology.

It's also interesting that the orientation of the camera module on the back is positioned vertically as opposed to horizontally. While a departure from previous iPhone designs, this is in line with several other leaks that relay the change is being made to accompany new 3D camera sensors, which will reportedly be used for augmented reality purposes.

As to the final iPhone 8 design, a more recent report claims Apple's next-gen iPhone will feature a 4mm bezel all around the display. As for iPhone 8 specs and pricing, we've recently seen reports that the iPhone 8 price won't be as high as the $1,000 price point we saw being floated around earlier in the year. Additionally, Apple's iPhone 8, as a flagship device, will reportedly come with 3GB of RAM and will be sold in only two storage configurations: 64GB and 256GB. Other features to look forward to include a next-gen Ax processor, improved water resistance and perhaps the best battery life we've ever seen on an iPhone to date.

All in all, the impending iPhone 8 release is the primary reason why shares of Apple have skyrocketed in recent months. At the close of the bell on Friday, shares of Apple were trading at $141.05, marking an impressive 56 percent gain from the stock's 52-week low of $90 last May.
Sunitha natti By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: Im a Nabardian first and I thought itll be fun going back to the institution from where I started, recalls Harsh Kumar Bhanwala as he settles down in his chair. Seated comfortably in his 1,000-sft corner office at the idyllic Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, he elaborates, Mujhe laga ki, mein ne jo seekha hai, woh kuch kaam laga sakthe hai kya? (I thought I could put whatever I had learnt to good use). A farmer himself, it was a logical step for Bhanwala, who was working with State-run IIFC, to grab the opportunity to take a shot at history.

The man from a small town in Haryana didnt think twice. It was a chance to head Nabard and apply his academic knowledge for a meaningful rural transformation. After all, it was what the 55-year-old had been preoccupied with for most of his life.

He studied dairy technology before taking a management course at the prestigious IIM-Ahmedabad. He didnt stop there. He did his PhD in Philosophy, driven by his passion for social and moral well-being and search for a meaningful life. His first job was at Nabard, a public-sector re-financier, with agriculture and rural development as its DNA.

Typically, companies with welfare objectives are rarely profitable, but Nabard is an exception. It raises its own funds, lends them to banks and financial institutions implementing development initiatives and nets a tidy profit every year. But profit-making isnt its core objective. We dont talk in terms of NIM (net interest margin), return on assets etc, Bhanwala explains. Our goals and objectives are defined around social sustainability and thats non-negotiable, he adds after a pause.

Starting as a one-branch office 35 years ago, Nabards business grew multi-fold to Rs 3.4 lakh crore today, debunking the myth that social goals and profitability cant go together. In the last 35 years, we have grown 70 times! Bhanwala points out.

What has worked for Nabard is its different approach. It financed self-help groups, even when the RBI exercised extreme caution. We took the risk doing a pilot in 1992, and soon, were convinced that it works, he says. Nabard was also one of the few state-run organisations with out-of-the-box ideas for demanding situations. For instance, when banks complained of bleak credit flow owing to slackening infrastructure, Nabard wasted no time getting into the drivers seat. It floated a Rural Infrastructure Development Fund to build infrastructure (like roads, houses and rural schools) and revived credit absorption. Success was instant with independent studies by IIM and IIT showing an increase in investment flow by 1.6 times.

Though Nabards interventions have been in agriculture and rural development, the former became its public identity, but moving forward, the latter will find an equally aggressive push. First in line is a Rs 10,000 crore fund for rural housing in tandem with the PM Awas Yojana to build 2 crore rural houses by 2022. We are focusing on non-farm based activities like developing clusters and generating rural employment, explains Bhanwala.

It means areas like food processing, handicrafts and handlooms  the largest employer after agriculture  will get a booster shot. Why? Look at my village. When I was a child, there were just 2 shops, now there are 150 selling mobiles, doing truck repairs, tent houses etc. These activities create jobs, reasons the pragmatic philosopher. He believes re-skilling people in alternate skills like electricians and plumbers is important.

This is not to say that agriculture is on the back burner. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Thinking a step ahead, Nabards setting up two incubation centres in collaboration with agricultural universities in Haryana and Tamil Nadu. They will provide infrastructure for agri-entrepreneurs, and if need be, venture funding. We are already funding 7-8 agri venture funds, where if a fund invests Rs 2, well put Rs 1. We want to promote innovation in agri sector, Bhanwala clarifies.

He has enough reasons for that. Erratic

climatic conditions are already affecting seed sowing, lowering output and pushing up prices. We need effective production systems to improve output. Precision agriculture with controlled-conditions like right temperature, pesticides is required to grow essentials.

We are working on some of these, he says.

But this requires skilled manpower in areas like technology, which is hard to find given public sectors unattractive compensation structure. Nabard pays better than state-run banks and on par with RBI payscale. More than pay, what counts is team building, work satisfaction, flexibility (like transfers), Dr Bhanwala, who focused on these soon after taking charge in 2013, points out. The results speak for themselves: employee productivity doubled in three years, indicating that compensation is not THE criteria. On this front, Dr Bhanwala leads by example. Prior to IIFCL, he had a brief corporate stint with IL&FS Water Ltd. I was getting a much better salary, but I came here (Nabard) for something else.

MUMBAI: Im a Nabardian first and I thought itll be fun going back to the institution from where I started, recalls Harsh Kumar Bhanwala as he settles down in his chair. Seated comfortably in his 1,000-sft corner office at the idyllic Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, he elaborates, Mujhe laga ki, mein ne jo seekha hai, woh kuch kaam laga sakthe hai kya? (I thought I could put whatever I had learnt to good use). A farmer himself, it was a logical step for Bhanwala, who was working with State-run IIFC, to grab the opportunity to take a shot at history. The man from a small town in Haryana didnt think twice. It was a chance to head Nabard and apply his academic knowledge for a meaningful rural transformation. After all, it was what the 55-year-old had been preoccupied with for most of his life.He studied dairy technology before taking a management course at the prestigious IIM-Ahmedabad. He didnt stop there. He did his PhD in Philosophy, driven by his passion for social and moral well-being and search for a meaningful life. His first job was at Nabard, a public-sector re-financier, with agriculture and rural development as its DNA. Typically, companies with welfare objectives are rarely profitable, but Nabard is an exception. It raises its own funds, lends them to banks and financial institutions implementing development initiatives and nets a tidy profit every year. But profit-making isnt its core objective. We dont talk in terms of NIM (net interest margin), return on assets etc, Bhanwala explains. Our goals and objectives are defined around social sustainability and thats non-negotiable, he adds after a pause. Starting as a one-branch office 35 years ago, Nabards business grew multi-fold to Rs 3.4 lakh crore today, debunking the myth that social goals and profitability cant go together. In the last 35 years, we have grown 70 times! Bhanwala points out. What has worked for Nabard is its different approach. It financed self-help groups, even when the RBI exercised extreme caution. We took the risk doing a pilot in 1992, and soon, were convinced that it works, he says. Nabard was also one of the few state-run organisations with out-of-the-box ideas for demanding situations. For instance, when banks complained of bleak credit flow owing to slackening infrastructure, Nabard wasted no time getting into the drivers seat. It floated a Rural Infrastructure Development Fund to build infrastructure (like roads, houses and rural schools) and revived credit absorption. Success was instant with independent studies by IIM and IIT showing an increase in investment flow by 1.6 times. Though Nabards interventions have been in agriculture and rural development, the former became its public identity, but moving forward, the latter will find an equally aggressive push. First in line is a Rs 10,000 crore fund for rural housing in tandem with the PM Awas Yojana to build 2 crore rural houses by 2022. We are focusing on non-farm based activities like developing clusters and generating rural employment, explains Bhanwala. It means areas like food processing, handicrafts and handlooms  the largest employer after agriculture  will get a booster shot. Why? Look at my village. When I was a child, there were just 2 shops, now there are 150 selling mobiles, doing truck repairs, tent houses etc. These activities create jobs, reasons the pragmatic philosopher. He believes re-skilling people in alternate skills like electricians and plumbers is important. This is not to say that agriculture is on the back burner. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Thinking a step ahead, Nabards setting up two incubation centres in collaboration with agricultural universities in Haryana and Tamil Nadu. They will provide infrastructure for agri-entrepreneurs, and if need be, venture funding. We are already funding 7-8 agri venture funds, where if a fund invests Rs 2, well put Rs 1. We want to promote innovation in agri sector, Bhanwala clarifies. He has enough reasons for that. Erratic climatic conditions are already affecting seed sowing, lowering output and pushing up prices. We need effective production systems to improve output. Precision agriculture with controlled-conditions like right temperature, pesticides is required to grow essentials. We are working on some of these, he says. But this requires skilled manpower in areas like technology, which is hard to find given public sectors unattractive compensation structure. Nabard pays better than state-run banks and on par with RBI payscale. More than pay, what counts is team building, work satisfaction, flexibility (like transfers), Dr Bhanwala, who focused on these soon after taking charge in 2013, points out. The results speak for themselves: employee productivity doubled in three years, indicating that compensation is not THE criteria. On this front, Dr Bhanwala leads by example. Prior to IIFCL, he had a brief corporate stint with IL&FS Water Ltd. I was getting a much better salary, but I came here (Nabard) for something else.
Sudarshan Purohit By

Express News Service

A life by itself can mean anything. But through a fiction filter, it acquires this and that meaning. Harilal & Sons, by Sujit Saraf, is the chronicle of a Rajasthani businessman in the beginning of the 20th century.

Among other things, Sarafs version of the story is about retaining your identity in the face of the changing society and economic imperatives. It is also about the differences between communities and regions within India, as also about caring for your family.

But most importantly, this is a memorial to Sarafs grandfather, who is the original model for the protagonist, Harilal Tibrewal.

The story begins in a small town in Shekhawati. In 1899, the area is ravaged by drought. Harilal, then 11, decides he wants to join a famous Shekhawati-owned business firm in Calcutta. After a long, harrowing journey, he finds himself the youngest clerk in the company.

From this beginning, he painstakingly builds a businessno, businessesas his family continues to grow. He moves to a small town in Bengal, now part of Bangladesh, and sets up a shop. All through, he remains true to the dharma of a baniyato raise a family, to buy low and sell high, and to see all events as opportunities to grow his business. The arid fields of Shekhawati remain in his memory, though he feels himself unable to go there.

As time passes, Harilals family growssons and daughters get married, grandchildren are born, and his businesses grow alongside. But no life can remain unaffected by the currents of political upheaval. The freedom movement, partition, communal riots, and the 1962 war all affect his family.

Saraf has researched and written this book over the years, and the effort shows on every page. The sprawling canvas captures the roots of the Marwari community, their work ethic, and their rise against the backdrop of a country in evolution.

The train ride, for example, is set in around 1900, Harilals first time in a train, and Saraf captures it over a dozen plus pages, evoking the long benches for seats, the coal blowing into passengers eyes, and the constant wonder of a new industrialised world.

The book maintains the focus on Harilal, showing the world from his viewpoint alone, and yet manages to convey its sweep. Saraf introduces typically Marwari words through context, making them easy to understand.

He doesnt justify or explain the mindsethaving children and growing business are Harilals priorities, and they become ours as we read. In the hands of a less experienced writer, this might become claustrophobic, but here it works well.

For quite some time, historical Indian fiction in English has relied on the accounts written by Englishmen of their time in India, leading to a limited perspective. Harilal & Sons is part of a newer wave which uses alternate sourcesfamily oral tradition, in this caseto construct a more Indian narrative. May there be many more.

A life by itself can mean anything. But through a fiction filter, it acquires this and that meaning. Harilal & Sons, by Sujit Saraf, is the chronicle of a Rajasthani businessman in the beginning of the 20th century. Among other things, Sarafs version of the story is about retaining your identity in the face of the changing society and economic imperatives. It is also about the differences between communities and regions within India, as also about caring for your family. But most importantly, this is a memorial to Sarafs grandfather, who is the original model for the protagonist, Harilal Tibrewal. The story begins in a small town in Shekhawati. In 1899, the area is ravaged by drought. Harilal, then 11, decides he wants to join a famous Shekhawati-owned business firm in Calcutta. After a long, harrowing journey, he finds himself the youngest clerk in the company. From this beginning, he painstakingly builds a businessno, businessesas his family continues to grow. He moves to a small town in Bengal, now part of Bangladesh, and sets up a shop. All through, he remains true to the dharma of a baniyato raise a family, to buy low and sell high, and to see all events as opportunities to grow his business. The arid fields of Shekhawati remain in his memory, though he feels himself unable to go there. As time passes, Harilals family growssons and daughters get married, grandchildren are born, and his businesses grow alongside. But no life can remain unaffected by the currents of political upheaval. The freedom movement, partition, communal riots, and the 1962 war all affect his family. Saraf has researched and written this book over the years, and the effort shows on every page. The sprawling canvas captures the roots of the Marwari community, their work ethic, and their rise against the backdrop of a country in evolution. The train ride, for example, is set in around 1900, Harilals first time in a train, and Saraf captures it over a dozen plus pages, evoking the long benches for seats, the coal blowing into passengers eyes, and the constant wonder of a new industrialised world. The book maintains the focus on Harilal, showing the world from his viewpoint alone, and yet manages to convey its sweep. Saraf introduces typically Marwari words through context, making them easy to understand. He doesnt justify or explain the mindsethaving children and growing business are Harilals priorities, and they become ours as we read. In the hands of a less experienced writer, this might become claustrophobic, but here it works well. For quite some time, historical Indian fiction in English has relied on the accounts written by Englishmen of their time in India, leading to a limited perspective. Harilal & Sons is part of a newer wave which uses alternate sourcesfamily oral tradition, in this caseto construct a more Indian narrative. May there be many more.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Facing uproar over the issue of triple talaq, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday brought out an eight-point code of conduct for minority community while pronouncing talaq.

In a deterring measure against the 'misuse the provisions of triple talaq', the Board decided to ostracise those who do it in one sitting. The committee sought social boycott of those choosing such an improper way of triple talaq to dissolve the marriage.

Refusing to accept any outside interference to curb the practice of triple talaq, the Board maintained that it was its constitutional right to get the Muslim personal law implemented. However, in a shift from its earlier stand when it was not ready to listen to anything on triple talaq, the Board did agree that doing it in one go was unfair and improper.

The right way to annul a marriage, says the Board's new code of conduct, is to do it in three sittings with a gap of at least a month between two sittings as once pronounced, the practice led to annulment of Nikaah (marriage).

The AIMPLB, which is an umbrella organisation of various Muslim bodies in India and is considered a representative of the community, appealed to all Muslim clerics, particularly, the Imams who lead Friday prayers in mosques, to educate

the Muslim men about the demerits of triple talaq and its implications in the society. They should be dissuaded from indulging in practice which is not the correct way of reaching a divorce, resolved the AIMPLB working committee.

Coming out strongly in support of triple talaq till recently, the Board has been calling it an internal issue of community and that any outside interference would be deemed as an infringement in the religious rights of the community guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

Moreover, a number of Muslim women, victim of the practice, have approached courts and dispensation both at the Centre and State seeking institutional intervention to put a leash on triple talaq as they feel it against the fundamental right to gender equality and a life to be lived with pride and dignity.

The Constitutional Bench of Supreme Court is set to start the hearing in triple talaq related petitions from May 11. It may be recalled that Centre has already made the submission of its stand in the court through an affidavit in October last year while AIMPLB had been harping over the point that it would accept no judicial ruling over the issue.

The Board feels that if the judicial order would be accepted in triple talaq issue, it would pave the way for the courts to spell out ruling in other issues also of the minority community which is regulated by the Muslim Personal Laws (Shariya) in the country. They also fear that in large run it may result in promulgation of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country.

In fact, AIMPLB came into being over four decades ago to counter any move to have UCC in the country.

However, the AIMPLB sought to downplay the agony of the Muslim women who become victim of triple talaq. Board general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani expressed dismay over the alleged perception, which according to him, was being created in the society that triple talaq was the commonest way of divorce among Muslims. It is a false propaganda. The divorce rate among Muslims is just 0.5 per cent which is negligible as compared to the corresponding figures of other communities in India, Rehmani said while talking to media after the conclusion of two-day working committee meeting of the Board. Meanwhile he sought to justify talaq over phone or social media on the plea that if wedding invitation and other information can be conveyed through social media then why should talaq be an exception.

The other major outcome of the working committee meeting which was presided over AIMPLB chairman by Rabey Hasan Nadvi  the rector of Nadwa-um-Islam  was in context with Temple issue. The Board, in fact, decided not to go for an out of court, mutually negotiated settlement of the issue by the stakeholders in accordance to the Supreme Courts suggestion. All the prior efforts in this direction have proved futile, said AIMPLB working committee adding that the community would accept the SC decision and decided to press for an early disposal of the case.

LUCKNOW: Facing uproar over the issue of triple talaq, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday brought out an eight-point code of conduct for minority community while pronouncing talaq. In a deterring measure against the 'misuse the provisions of triple talaq', the Board decided to ostracise those who do it in one sitting. The committee sought social boycott of those choosing such an improper way of triple talaq to dissolve the marriage. Refusing to accept any outside interference to curb the practice of triple talaq, the Board maintained that it was its constitutional right to get the Muslim personal law implemented. However, in a shift from its earlier stand when it was not ready to listen to anything on triple talaq, the Board did agree that doing it in one go was unfair and improper. The right way to annul a marriage, says the Board's new code of conduct, is to do it in three sittings with a gap of at least a month between two sittings as once pronounced, the practice led to annulment of Nikaah (marriage). The AIMPLB, which is an umbrella organisation of various Muslim bodies in India and is considered a representative of the community, appealed to all Muslim clerics, particularly, the Imams who lead Friday prayers in mosques, to educate the Muslim men about the demerits of triple talaq and its implications in the society. They should be dissuaded from indulging in practice which is not the correct way of reaching a divorce, resolved the AIMPLB working committee. Coming out strongly in support of triple talaq till recently, the Board has been calling it an internal issue of community and that any outside interference would be deemed as an infringement in the religious rights of the community guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Moreover, a number of Muslim women, victim of the practice, have approached courts and dispensation both at the Centre and State seeking institutional intervention to put a leash on triple talaq as they feel it against the fundamental right to gender equality and a life to be lived with pride and dignity. The Constitutional Bench of Supreme Court is set to start the hearing in triple talaq related petitions from May 11. It may be recalled that Centre has already made the submission of its stand in the court through an affidavit in October last year while AIMPLB had been harping over the point that it would accept no judicial ruling over the issue. The Board feels that if the judicial order would be accepted in triple talaq issue, it would pave the way for the courts to spell out ruling in other issues also of the minority community which is regulated by the Muslim Personal Laws (Shariya) in the country. They also fear that in large run it may result in promulgation of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country. In fact, AIMPLB came into being over four decades ago to counter any move to have UCC in the country. However, the AIMPLB sought to downplay the agony of the Muslim women who become victim of triple talaq. Board general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani expressed dismay over the alleged perception, which according to him, was being created in the society that triple talaq was the commonest way of divorce among Muslims. It is a false propaganda. The divorce rate among Muslims is just 0.5 per cent which is negligible as compared to the corresponding figures of other communities in India, Rehmani said while talking to media after the conclusion of two-day working committee meeting of the Board. Meanwhile he sought to justify talaq over phone or social media on the plea that if wedding invitation and other information can be conveyed through social media then why should talaq be an exception. The other major outcome of the working committee meeting which was presided over AIMPLB chairman by Rabey Hasan Nadvi  the rector of Nadwa-um-Islam  was in context with Temple issue. The Board, in fact, decided not to go for an out of court, mutually negotiated settlement of the issue by the stakeholders in accordance to the Supreme Courts suggestion. All the prior efforts in this direction have proved futile, said AIMPLB working committee adding that the community would accept the SC decision and decided to press for an early disposal of the case.
Manish Anand By

Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Buoyed over by the successful social engineering in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP national executive meeting on Sunday sought to play the OBC card, as a separate resolution was passed by the conclave condemning the Congress and other Opposition parties for stalling the legislative proposal to give Constitutional status to the Commission for Other Backward Castes (OBCs).

"The national executive hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving the Cabinet nod to the legislative proposal to accord Constitutional status to the OBC Commission on the lines of a similar body for SCs/STs. Lok Sabha MP Hukum Dev Narayan Yadav moved the resolution on new OBC commission, which was seconded by Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Raghubar Das and Shivraj Singh Chouhan respectively," Union Minister Prakash Javdekar told reporters, while adding that the Modi government's initiative was in response to the demands of all the OBC MPs belonging to several political parties for granting Constitutional status to the Commission.

Javdekar added that even while the Lok Sabha passed the bill with overwhelming support, the Opposition parties, including Congress, sought to delay the passage in the Rajya Sabha by getting the bill referred to the select committee of the House.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra claimed that the passage of the bill would allow OBCs in the state lists to also get into the Centre list. Incidentally, Jats have been agitating in Haryana for inclusion in the Central OBC list.

The National Executive of the BJP also passed a political resolution in which the pro-poor agenda of the Modi government was hailed by the party.

"The pro-poor political plank has shifted to the BJP from the Congress on account of the trust of the people in the leadership of the Prime Minister, besides the achievements of the government in delivering the benefits of the Central schemes," said Javdekar.

BHUBANESWAR: Buoyed over by the successful social engineering in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP national executive meeting on Sunday sought to play the OBC card, as a separate resolution was passed by the conclave condemning the Congress and other Opposition parties for stalling the legislative proposal to give Constitutional status to the Commission for Other Backward Castes (OBCs). "The national executive hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving the Cabinet nod to the legislative proposal to accord Constitutional status to the OBC Commission on the lines of a similar body for SCs/STs. Lok Sabha MP Hukum Dev Narayan Yadav moved the resolution on new OBC commission, which was seconded by Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Raghubar Das and Shivraj Singh Chouhan respectively," Union Minister Prakash Javdekar told reporters, while adding that the Modi government's initiative was in response to the demands of all the OBC MPs belonging to several political parties for granting Constitutional status to the Commission. Javdekar added that even while the Lok Sabha passed the bill with overwhelming support, the Opposition parties, including Congress, sought to delay the passage in the Rajya Sabha by getting the bill referred to the select committee of the House. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra claimed that the passage of the bill would allow OBCs in the state lists to also get into the Centre list. Incidentally, Jats have been agitating in Haryana for inclusion in the Central OBC list. The National Executive of the BJP also passed a political resolution in which the pro-poor agenda of the Modi government was hailed by the party. "The pro-poor political plank has shifted to the BJP from the Congress on account of the trust of the people in the leadership of the Prime Minister, besides the achievements of the government in delivering the benefits of the Central schemes," said Javdekar.
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: Dalbir Kaur, the sister of slain Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh has now taken up the issue of ex-naval officer Kulbhusan Jadhavs release from a Pakistani jail, as she is trying to get in touch with his family and plans to protest along with families whose kin are lodged in different jails in Pakistan.

Four years ago, the body of Sarabjit Singh draped in the tricolour reached his native village Bhikiwind near Amritsar from Lahore where he was lodged in Kot Lakhpat Jail and was given the death sentence. At that time hundreds of people including political leaders attended his funeral.

Talking with New Indian Express, Dalbir Kaur says, I am not surprised that the army court of Pakistan has given death sentence to Jadhav. What happened to Sarabjit is happening to Jadhav. Jadhav was illegally kidnapped from Iran and Pakistani authorities termed him a spy.

The courts there do not see any proof. Everything is fabricated and faked as per their convenience, she alleged.

Indians are not treated nicely by Pakistan as a fire is burning in their hearts against us. We talk about peace and good relations with them but they do not reciprocate or talk in the same tone and manner. We hand over those who stray over to our side across the borders, but they dont do the same, she said.

Kaur said that she is planning to stage a dharna in her native village Bhikiwind in the coming days for Jadhavs cause. She is presently in Delhi to meet joint secretary level officers in the Prime Ministers Office regarding his release.

Now I am planning to leave messages for all those families whose kin are lodged in different jails in Pakistan so that we all can raise our voices on a united platform, she said.

She added, I will also organise a protest in Delhi. I am trying to get in touch with Jadhavs family and express support to them, she added.

CHANDIGARH: Dalbir Kaur, the sister of slain Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh has now taken up the issue of ex-naval officer Kulbhusan Jadhavs release from a Pakistani jail, as she is trying to get in touch with his family and plans to protest along with families whose kin are lodged in different jails in Pakistan. Four years ago, the body of Sarabjit Singh draped in the tricolour reached his native village Bhikiwind near Amritsar from Lahore where he was lodged in Kot Lakhpat Jail and was given the death sentence. At that time hundreds of people including political leaders attended his funeral. Talking with New Indian Express, Dalbir Kaur says, I am not surprised that the army court of Pakistan has given death sentence to Jadhav. What happened to Sarabjit is happening to Jadhav. Jadhav was illegally kidnapped from Iran and Pakistani authorities termed him a spy. The courts there do not see any proof. Everything is fabricated and faked as per their convenience, she alleged. Indians are not treated nicely by Pakistan as a fire is burning in their hearts against us. We talk about peace and good relations with them but they do not reciprocate or talk in the same tone and manner. We hand over those who stray over to our side across the borders, but they dont do the same, she said. Kaur said that she is planning to stage a dharna in her native village Bhikiwind in the coming days for Jadhavs cause. She is presently in Delhi to meet joint secretary level officers in the Prime Ministers Office regarding his release. Now I am planning to leave messages for all those families whose kin are lodged in different jails in Pakistan so that we all can raise our voices on a united platform, she said. She added, I will also organise a protest in Delhi. I am trying to get in touch with Jadhavs family and express support to them, she added.
May 5, 1947-April 12, 2017

Broadcaster and college lecturer David Jewett Tracy, 69, passed away surrounded by loving family members on Wednesday, April 12, 2017, from complications related to prostate cancer and polymyositis.

He was born May 5, 1947, in Mason City, Iowa, the third child of Eugene and Lois Tracy. As a Boy Scout, Dave earned the rank of Eagle Scout and was a member of the Order of the Arrow. He was a letterman on the wrestling team at Mason City High School, where he graduated in 1965.

In 1967, he joined the U.S. Navy in San Diego, California. Dave served as a radar man on the USS Tripoli during the Vietnam War. Upon his return to San Diego in 1971, he got his first broadcasting experience working the night shift at KYXY-FM. He pursued an education in media at San Diego City College, where he met Christina Elaine Nelson. They married in 1973 and celebrated the birth of Anne Marie Tracy in 1975.

In 1976, Dave earned his bachelors in broadcast journalism from San Diego State University, followed shortly by his first job as a reporter at WMBD-TV in Peoria, Illinois. In 1978, his son, Robert Eugene Tracy, was born. That same year, he became a reporter at KDFW-TV in Dallas, Texas, where he covered local and regional stories through 1984.

His five-decade broadcast career also included working as a producer for American Airlines, Westcott Communications, VHA, and as the owner of Dave Tracy Productions from 1993-2006. His accolades include five Dallas Press Club Katies for Excellence in Journalism, and a Cable Ace Award.

Dave retired from broadcasting in 2006 to become a teacher. He taught as a substitute at Tyler ISD, and student-taught at Lindale ISD while he earned his teaching certificate from Tyler (Texas) Junior College. He then taught broadcast journalism at Carthage (Texas) High School from 2008-12.

At the age of 65, Dave earned his masters in communication in 2013 from the University of Texas at Tyler, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Also in 2013, he joined the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas as a lecturer of broadcast news. A member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, he served as the director of the Mayborn Multimedia High School Journalism Workshop from 2014-16 and founded NT Daily Radio.

Dave also wrote two books  "Tales Out of School: Lessons Learned," and "Gene: A Life Fulfilled," a memoir of his father.

A loving father himself, Dave encouraged his children to pursue their passions just as he had. His role as father figure expanded as an educator. He took pride in sharing his knowledge with his students and imparting career and life wisdom to the next generation of journalists. He loved what he did, and countless friends, colleagues and students loved him for his sincerity, creativity, enthusiasm and love for life.

He is survived by his immediate family: daughter Anne Tracy of Dallas, Texas; son Robert Tracy and his wife, Amy Tracy, of Richardson, Texas; older siblings Jeanie Samis of Cranbrook, British Columbia, and Al Tracy of Mason City, Iowa; a dear sister-in-law, Jan Hegenbarth of Mason City, Iowa; loving nieces and nephews; and his ex-wife, Chris Tracy of Sun City, Arizona. He is preceded in death by his parents, Eugene and Lois Tracy. A memorial service is pending.

In lieu of flowers, online donations may be made to the Dave Tracy Memorial Scholarship Fund  one.unt.edu/dave-tracy-memorial-scholarship  or by mail: University of North Texas, Division of Advancement, 1155 Union Circle No. 311250, Denton, TX 76203-5017.
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: In a shocking incident, a 32-year-old man from Sonepat in Haryana committed suicide and live streamed it on Facebook on Saturday, after getting death threats from his neighbour and her paramour, both officials of the Delhi police, after he discovered their alleged illicit affair.

Police sources said that Deepak hanged himself and wrote that his neighbour, a woman assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and her alleged lover, an inspector had threatened to kill him after he shed light on their affair.

Sources said that the accused had been harassing Deepak for the last six months, all of which he wrote in his diary but never mustered the courage to approach the police.

Superintendent of Sonepat police, Ashwin Shenvi said, Before committing suicide by hanging himself and live streaming his action on his Facebook page, the deceased wrote the reason for the extreme step on the wall of his room. He wrote that he was facing a threat to his life from a married woman in his neighbourhood, and her alleged lover after he told her husband about their illicit relationship. He wrote that the woman was an ASI and had an affair with an inspector of her force.

The woman who is an ASI and her paramour, an inspector, are both with Delhi police while the womans husband works with the Haryana Police, said Ashwin Shenvi.

He said that the family of the deceased has filed a complaint and registered a case with Sonepat police against the accused on charges of abetting the suicide.



A team of Sonepat police is already in Delhi to arrest both accused whose mobiles phones are switched off, Shenvi said.

Before taking the extreme step, he telephoned his sister and asked her to take care of their father, and sent his wife and son to a relatives place as his parents had already gone to Mathura. Then he switched off his mobile and live streamed his death.

CHANDIGARH: In a shocking incident, a 32-year-old man from Sonepat in Haryana committed suicide and live streamed it on Facebook on Saturday, after getting death threats from his neighbour and her paramour, both officials of the Delhi police, after he discovered their alleged illicit affair. Police sources said that Deepak hanged himself and wrote that his neighbour, a woman assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and her alleged lover, an inspector had threatened to kill him after he shed light on their affair. Sources said that the accused had been harassing Deepak for the last six months, all of which he wrote in his diary but never mustered the courage to approach the police. Superintendent of Sonepat police, Ashwin Shenvi said, Before committing suicide by hanging himself and live streaming his action on his Facebook page, the deceased wrote the reason for the extreme step on the wall of his room. He wrote that he was facing a threat to his life from a married woman in his neighbourhood, and her alleged lover after he told her husband about their illicit relationship. He wrote that the woman was an ASI and had an affair with an inspector of her force. The woman who is an ASI and her paramour, an inspector, are both with Delhi police while the womans husband works with the Haryana Police, said Ashwin Shenvi. He said that the family of the deceased has filed a complaint and registered a case with Sonepat police against the accused on charges of abetting the suicide. A team of Sonepat police is already in Delhi to arrest both accused whose mobiles phones are switched off, Shenvi said. Before taking the extreme step, he telephoned his sister and asked her to take care of their father, and sent his wife and son to a relatives place as his parents had already gone to Mathura. Then he switched off his mobile and live streamed his death.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Incidents of passengers being denied boarding by Indian airlines have doubled in the past one year, according to the government's air traffic data.

However, the procedure laid down by the country's aviation watchdog ensures that people are unlikely to be bumped off like David Dao, a passenger on a United Airlines flight, was dragged from his seat because of overbooking, according to the carrier's initial claims.

A total of 18,242 passengers were not allowed to board aircraft between April 2016 and February 2017. This is up from 10,561 passengers not allowed onboard aircraft during the same time period in the preceding year.

As per the data for 2016-2017, more than 80 per cent of the passengers affected were those who flew Jet Airways and 14 per cent were Air India fliers, according to the air traffic data.

"A passenger could be denied boarding primarily for three reasons. If he/she turned up late at either the check-in counter or the boarding gate, for security reasons and due to overbooking of a flight," former Director General of Civil Aviation Kanu Gohain said.

While most airlines officially maintain that they don't overbook their flights, industry insiders admit that selling "5-10 per cent" seats over and above the actual seating capacity of an aircraft is a norm across the world as they don't want planes to take off with empty seats in case of noshows.

"Optimal inventory allocation is broadly governed by two factors--accurately forecasting passenger demand and maximising revenue by accounting for cancellations and noshows," explained an Air India official who oversees revenue management at the airline.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), too, approves the practice.

"To reduce the possibility of a flight departing with empty seats, airlines generally overbook flights to a limited extent. In case of overbooking, an airline may deny boarding to you even if you hold a confirmed booking for travel on the flight and reported for the flight well within the specified time," according to information on DGCA's website.

The DGCA, in its Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), lays down a two-step procedure that airlines must follow in such circumstances.

"An airline must first ask for volunteers to give up their seats so as to make seats available for other booked passengers to travel on the flight, in exchange for such benefits/facilities as the airline, at its own discretion, may wish to offer," according to DGCA.

However, if no one comes forward, an airline can take a decision on who to deny boarding but is liable to provide a monetary compensation as per rules.

"If the boarding is denied to passengers against their will, the airline shall as soon as practicable compensate them in accordance with the provisions," the DGCA rule adds.

As per norms effective from August 1, 2016, the compensation for not allowing a passenger to board the flight was raised from Rs 4,000 to Rs 20,000.

The compensation amount is higher if the alternate flight is scheduled for departure after a gap of 24 hours.

A passenger who rejects an alternate flight is also eligible for the same remuneration.

Fortunately for Indian passengers, the decision by an airline to deny a seat because of overbooking is taken at the boarding gate before they enter the aircraft.

"A passenger is barred from taking a flight after he has boarded the aircraft either due to security reasons or because of customs evasion. Otherwise, in case of overbooking, the matter is settled at the boarding gate itself," Gohain said.

Earlier this week, Dao was aboard a Kentucky-bound flight out of Chicago when aviation security officers forcefully pulled him from his seat and dragged him down the aisle of United Airlines flight 3411.

The American carrier conceded that the flight was not overbooked or oversold, despite its initial claim. It had no empty seats and four crew members needed to get on the plane to meet another flight in Louisville.

NEW DELHI: Incidents of passengers being denied boarding by Indian airlines have doubled in the past one year, according to the government's air traffic data. However, the procedure laid down by the country's aviation watchdog ensures that people are unlikely to be bumped off like David Dao, a passenger on a United Airlines flight, was dragged from his seat because of overbooking, according to the carrier's initial claims. A total of 18,242 passengers were not allowed to board aircraft between April 2016 and February 2017. This is up from 10,561 passengers not allowed onboard aircraft during the same time period in the preceding year. As per the data for 2016-2017, more than 80 per cent of the passengers affected were those who flew Jet Airways and 14 per cent were Air India fliers, according to the air traffic data. "A passenger could be denied boarding primarily for three reasons. If he/she turned up late at either the check-in counter or the boarding gate, for security reasons and due to overbooking of a flight," former Director General of Civil Aviation Kanu Gohain said. While most airlines officially maintain that they don't overbook their flights, industry insiders admit that selling "5-10 per cent" seats over and above the actual seating capacity of an aircraft is a norm across the world as they don't want planes to take off with empty seats in case of noshows. "Optimal inventory allocation is broadly governed by two factors--accurately forecasting passenger demand and maximising revenue by accounting for cancellations and noshows," explained an Air India official who oversees revenue management at the airline. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), too, approves the practice. "To reduce the possibility of a flight departing with empty seats, airlines generally overbook flights to a limited extent. In case of overbooking, an airline may deny boarding to you even if you hold a confirmed booking for travel on the flight and reported for the flight well within the specified time," according to information on DGCA's website. The DGCA, in its Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), lays down a two-step procedure that airlines must follow in such circumstances. "An airline must first ask for volunteers to give up their seats so as to make seats available for other booked passengers to travel on the flight, in exchange for such benefits/facilities as the airline, at its own discretion, may wish to offer," according to DGCA. However, if no one comes forward, an airline can take a decision on who to deny boarding but is liable to provide a monetary compensation as per rules. "If the boarding is denied to passengers against their will, the airline shall as soon as practicable compensate them in accordance with the provisions," the DGCA rule adds. As per norms effective from August 1, 2016, the compensation for not allowing a passenger to board the flight was raised from Rs 4,000 to Rs 20,000. The compensation amount is higher if the alternate flight is scheduled for departure after a gap of 24 hours. A passenger who rejects an alternate flight is also eligible for the same remuneration. Fortunately for Indian passengers, the decision by an airline to deny a seat because of overbooking is taken at the boarding gate before they enter the aircraft. "A passenger is barred from taking a flight after he has boarded the aircraft either due to security reasons or because of customs evasion. Otherwise, in case of overbooking, the matter is settled at the boarding gate itself," Gohain said. Earlier this week, Dao was aboard a Kentucky-bound flight out of Chicago when aviation security officers forcefully pulled him from his seat and dragged him down the aisle of United Airlines flight 3411. The American carrier conceded that the flight was not overbooked or oversold, despite its initial claim. It had no empty seats and four crew members needed to get on the plane to meet another flight in Louisville.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Time and geography separate the late actress Meena Kumari and Zaib-un-Nisa of Gorakhpur. However, they are united by the instrument of their torment: Triple Talaq.

It is said that Meena Kumari was divorced by her husband Kamal Amrohi by uttering the word talaq three times. He regretted it later and wanted her back. But religious leaders decreed that the couple go through the process of halala  the divorced woman marrying another man first, consummating the marriage, securing a divorce by mutual consent from the second man and then reuniting with the first. She did the halala by marrying actress Zeenat Amans father Aman Ullah Khan before she could remarry Amrohi.

For Zaib-un-Nisa there was no such option. She was 80 years old. In a fit of anger, her husband Habib Shah, 90, uttered talaq three times. He is alone now left with nothing in this last phase of his life. His wife was his only support as the children had settled in their own lives. Habib Shah regrets his impulsive decision. He went to a cleric to make amends but the Maulana said he could not help. For Zaib-un-Nisa was too old for halala.

Zaib-un-Nisas case is just one of the many triple talaq cases that have started flooding the media. Triple talaq has suddenly become a burning issue with scores of women seeking legal action to address their plight. Back in August last year, the Supreme Court sought the Centres response to the issue and after several twists and turns, the matter is slated to be heard by the Constitution Bench from May 11.



AIMPLBs stance

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) contests the many PILs filed by victims. It claims that any court order on triple talaq would be an infringement of Muslim communitys right to follow and profess its religion and the court has no right to interfere in the religious matter of a community.

AIMPLB also contends that the petitions are based on an incorrect understanding of the Muslim personal law and any legislative reform should be sensitive to the cultural context of India irrespective of the fact that other Muslim nations have stopped the practice.



Union governments stance

The Union Law ministry filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on October 7, 2016 stating that triple talaq is essentially not a religious practice. It said the practice denies a woman access to her fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

The Centre has also stated that triple talaq and polygamy are violative of the fundamental right of gender equality and also take away women's right to live with dignity. In 22 Muslim countries including Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, reforms are taking place and laws related to divorce are being codified, it argued.

The AIMPLB is a divided house, however. Its vice-president Kalbe Sadiq claimed recently that the AIMPLB was itself contemplating to end the practice in the next 18 months. However, another prominent member of the board, Zafaryab Jilani ruled out any such move, calling Kalbe Sadiqs statement as his personal opinion.



Muslim womens stance

Many Muslim women organisations, including the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board, have registered a strong protest against practice time and again, saying that it does not find any mention in Holy Quran and that it is a practice that validates male chauvinism in Muslim society.

AIMPLB is not at all serious about the issue of triple talaq which is affecting the lives of many women. It is in no way compassionate about the women issues, says Shaista Amber, president of ALMWPLB.

Some Muslim women leaders like the MP Tazeem Fatima feels that the law can be modified but not changed. But Salma Ansari, vice-president Hamid Ansaris wife, rejects the practice outright, saying that the Quran doesnt even mention anything about talaq.

It is being practised whimsically for ages victimising Muslim women, she said.

DIVORCE IN ISLAM

Divorce in Islam can take a variety of forms, some initiated by husband and some by the wife. The main traditional legal categories are talaq (repudiation), khul (mutual divorce), judicial divorce and oaths.

Triple talaq is an age-old practice that is in vogue mostly in the Sunni community.

The mere utterance of the word talaq thrice by a man to his wife dissolves marriage. The Quran however, does explain in verses contained in Chapter 2 (Surah Al-Baqarah) and Chapter 65 (Surah-At-Talaq) about the procedure of divorce.

However, Prophet Mohammad made it abundantly clear that "of all the things permitted by the Law, the most hateful in the sight of Allah is the divorce."

The Quran says: "A divorce is only permissible twice: after that, the parties should either hold together on equitable terms, or separate with kindness."

Nowhere in the Quran is there a mention of triple talaq in one sitting. Instead it insists on a waiting period (iddat) before any divorce is finalised. The Quran talks about divorce being permissible twice and then the couple should decide if they have to live together. If they decide to separate, it orders them to separate amicably and not allow the husband to usurp the lawful rights a woman has in such circumstances.

The Quran also asks the family to arbiter if differences between husband and wife have become irreconcilable.



What is AIMPLB?

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is a non-governmental organisation. It was set up in 1973 with the purpose of overseeing the applicability of Muslim Personal Law in India. The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937 provides for the application of the Islamic Law Code to Muslims personal affairs. The Act applies to all matters of personal law except such succession.

The AIMPLB is an umbrella organisation with most of the Muslim sects represented in it. The board has a working committee of 41 ulema representing various schools of thought. In addition, it has a general body of 201 members, ulema as well as laymen, including about 25 women. The members include prominent Muslims from a cross-section of Muslim society such as religious leaders, scholars, lawyers, politicians and professionals.

The members are elected for three years. The working committee has a president, four vice-presidents and one general secretary.

AIMPLB drafted a model nikahnama in 2003 laying down specific guidelines and conditions under which a marriage can be annulled by both husband and wife.



Triple talaq: Nine developments

1. Triple talaq is an age-old practice that determines divorce among Muslims.

2. The utterance of talaq thrice by a man to his wife dissolves the marriage.

3. Early in June 2016, over 50,000 Muslim men and women signed a petition seeking a ban on triple talaq. The petition was initiated by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA). It sought the assistance of the National Commission for Women.

4. BMMA said triple talaq violates the rights of women and the tenets of Islam.

5. In August 2016 Supreme Court petitioner Ishrat Jahan pleaded that Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law Application Act be declared unconstitutional.

6. Supreme Court issued notice to the central government demanding its clarification on the triple talaq issue.

7. AIMPLB objects to the move to scrap triple talaq. It says the apex court cannot interfere in the religious freedom of citizens. Personal laws cannot be challenged as it would amount to violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

9. The Union government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in October 7, 2016 saying that triple talaq is not an essential religious practice in Islam and that it violates the fundamental rights of women.



Triple talaq cases

Atiya Sabri, Saharanpur

Atiya Sabri married Wajid Ali in 2012 and became a mother of two. When she gave birth to her second daughter, Ali pronounced triple talaq without taking her consent. He proceeded to secure a validation of the divorce from the Darul Uloom Deoband. However, police intervened and registered a dowry case under against him and his family for harassing Atiya. Atiya filed a petition against the Darul Uloom Deoband.

Rehana of Aligarh

Rehanas husband uttered talaq thrice and threw her out of the house. Clad in a burqa, she and their four-year-old daughter beat the doors of her house with all her might to no response from inside. She then sat on a dharna in front of the house. Rehana said she was divorced as she had not agreed to her husbands second marriage to another woman.

Moreover, her father could not arrange Rs 10 lakh sought by her in-laws. No cleric or religious leader helped her get justice.

Shagufta Shah

The Saharanpur woman is a mother of two girls and was married for five years. She was divorced by her husband when she got pregnant a third time and refused to abort the child as demanded by her husband and her in-laws who feared that it would be a girl again. My husband thrashed me and uttered talaq. I went unconscious. On regaining consciousness, I contacted my parents, she said in a petition to PM Narendra Modi. I have petitioned Modiji seeking justice and help for me and also urging him to get this practice abolished so that no other girl suffers like me.

Hina Fatima and Mehreen Noor

The two Hyderabad women received WhatsApp messages one fine day from their US-based husbands , Sayed Faiyazuddin Hussain and Mohammad Abdul (both siblings) respectively, saying talaq thrice. Later both girls received divorce documents by post.

LUCKNOW: Time and geography separate the late actress Meena Kumari and Zaib-un-Nisa of Gorakhpur. However, they are united by the instrument of their torment: Triple Talaq. It is said that Meena Kumari was divorced by her husband Kamal Amrohi by uttering the word talaq three times. He regretted it later and wanted her back. But religious leaders decreed that the couple go through the process of halala  the divorced woman marrying another man first, consummating the marriage, securing a divorce by mutual consent from the second man and then reuniting with the first. She did the halala by marrying actress Zeenat Amans father Aman Ullah Khan before she could remarry Amrohi. For Zaib-un-Nisa there was no such option. She was 80 years old. In a fit of anger, her husband Habib Shah, 90, uttered talaq three times. He is alone now left with nothing in this last phase of his life. His wife was his only support as the children had settled in their own lives. Habib Shah regrets his impulsive decision. He went to a cleric to make amends but the Maulana said he could not help. For Zaib-un-Nisa was too old for halala. Zaib-un-Nisas case is just one of the many triple talaq cases that have started flooding the media. Triple talaq has suddenly become a burning issue with scores of women seeking legal action to address their plight. Back in August last year, the Supreme Court sought the Centres response to the issue and after several twists and turns, the matter is slated to be heard by the Constitution Bench from May 11.AIMPLBs stance The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) contests the many PILs filed by victims. It claims that any court order on triple talaq would be an infringement of Muslim communitys right to follow and profess its religion and the court has no right to interfere in the religious matter of a community. AIMPLB also contends that the petitions are based on an incorrect understanding of the Muslim personal law and any legislative reform should be sensitive to the cultural context of India irrespective of the fact that other Muslim nations have stopped the practice.Union governments stance The Union Law ministry filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on October 7, 2016 stating that triple talaq is essentially not a religious practice. It said the practice denies a woman access to her fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India. The Centre has also stated that triple talaq and polygamy are violative of the fundamental right of gender equality and also take away women's right to live with dignity. In 22 Muslim countries including Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, reforms are taking place and laws related to divorce are being codified, it argued. The AIMPLB is a divided house, however. Its vice-president Kalbe Sadiq claimed recently that the AIMPLB was itself contemplating to end the practice in the next 18 months. However, another prominent member of the board, Zafaryab Jilani ruled out any such move, calling Kalbe Sadiqs statement as his personal opinion.Muslim womens stance Many Muslim women organisations, including the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board, have registered a strong protest against practice time and again, saying that it does not find any mention in Holy Quran and that it is a practice that validates male chauvinism in Muslim society. AIMPLB is not at all serious about the issue of triple talaq which is affecting the lives of many women. It is in no way compassionate about the women issues, says Shaista Amber, president of ALMWPLB. Some Muslim women leaders like the MP Tazeem Fatima feels that the law can be modified but not changed. But Salma Ansari, vice-president Hamid Ansaris wife, rejects the practice outright, saying that the Quran doesnt even mention anything about talaq. It is being practised whimsically for ages victimising Muslim women, she said. DIVORCE IN ISLAM Divorce in Islam can take a variety of forms, some initiated by husband and some by the wife. The main traditional legal categories are talaq (repudiation), khul (mutual divorce), judicial divorce and oaths. Triple talaq is an age-old practice that is in vogue mostly in the Sunni community. The mere utterance of the word talaq thrice by a man to his wife dissolves marriage. The Quran however, does explain in verses contained in Chapter 2 (Surah Al-Baqarah) and Chapter 65 (Surah-At-Talaq) about the procedure of divorce. However, Prophet Mohammad made it abundantly clear that "of all the things permitted by the Law, the most hateful in the sight of Allah is the divorce." The Quran says: "A divorce is only permissible twice: after that, the parties should either hold together on equitable terms, or separate with kindness." Nowhere in the Quran is there a mention of triple talaq in one sitting. Instead it insists on a waiting period (iddat) before any divorce is finalised. The Quran talks about divorce being permissible twice and then the couple should decide if they have to live together. If they decide to separate, it orders them to separate amicably and not allow the husband to usurp the lawful rights a woman has in such circumstances. The Quran also asks the family to arbiter if differences between husband and wife have become irreconcilable.What is AIMPLB? The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is a non-governmental organisation. It was set up in 1973 with the purpose of overseeing the applicability of Muslim Personal Law in India. The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937 provides for the application of the Islamic Law Code to Muslims personal affairs. The Act applies to all matters of personal law except such succession. The AIMPLB is an umbrella organisation with most of the Muslim sects represented in it. The board has a working committee of 41 ulema representing various schools of thought. In addition, it has a general body of 201 members, ulema as well as laymen, including about 25 women. The members include prominent Muslims from a cross-section of Muslim society such as religious leaders, scholars, lawyers, politicians and professionals. The members are elected for three years. The working committee has a president, four vice-presidents and one general secretary. AIMPLB drafted a model nikahnama in 2003 laying down specific guidelines and conditions under which a marriage can be annulled by both husband and wife.Triple talaq: Nine developments 1. Triple talaq is an age-old practice that determines divorce among Muslims. 2. The utterance of talaq thrice by a man to his wife dissolves the marriage. 3. Early in June 2016, over 50,000 Muslim men and women signed a petition seeking a ban on triple talaq. The petition was initiated by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA). It sought the assistance of the National Commission for Women. 4. BMMA said triple talaq violates the rights of women and the tenets of Islam. 5. In August 2016 Supreme Court petitioner Ishrat Jahan pleaded that Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law Application Act be declared unconstitutional. 6. Supreme Court issued notice to the central government demanding its clarification on the triple talaq issue. 7. AIMPLB objects to the move to scrap triple talaq. It says the apex court cannot interfere in the religious freedom of citizens. Personal laws cannot be challenged as it would amount to violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India. 9. The Union government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in October 7, 2016 saying that triple talaq is not an essential religious practice in Islam and that it violates the fundamental rights of women.Triple talaq cases Atiya Sabri, Saharanpur Atiya Sabri married Wajid Ali in 2012 and became a mother of two. When she gave birth to her second daughter, Ali pronounced triple talaq without taking her consent. He proceeded to secure a validation of the divorce from the Darul Uloom Deoband. However, police intervened and registered a dowry case under against him and his family for harassing Atiya. Atiya filed a petition against the Darul Uloom Deoband. Rehana of Aligarh Rehanas husband uttered talaq thrice and threw her out of the house. Clad in a burqa, she and their four-year-old daughter beat the doors of her house with all her might to no response from inside. She then sat on a dharna in front of the house. Rehana said she was divorced as she had not agreed to her husbands second marriage to another woman. Moreover, her father could not arrange Rs 10 lakh sought by her in-laws. No cleric or religious leader helped her get justice. Shagufta Shah The Saharanpur woman is a mother of two girls and was married for five years. She was divorced by her husband when she got pregnant a third time and refused to abort the child as demanded by her husband and her in-laws who feared that it would be a girl again. My husband thrashed me and uttered talaq. I went unconscious. On regaining consciousness, I contacted my parents, she said in a petition to PM Narendra Modi. I have petitioned Modiji seeking justice and help for me and also urging him to get this practice abolished so that no other girl suffers like me. Hina Fatima and Mehreen Noor The two Hyderabad women received WhatsApp messages one fine day from their US-based husbands , Sayed Faiyazuddin Hussain and Mohammad Abdul (both siblings) respectively, saying talaq thrice. Later both girls received divorce documents by post.
By PTI

PILIBHIT (UTTAR PRADESH): After having refused to accept triple talaq over phone, a woman in her 40s was attacked with acid allegedly by her in-laws in Neuria area of Pilibhit.

On the complaint filed by the victim Rehana, the Uttar Pradesh Police has begun its investigation into the matter. So far, the cops have registered FIR against five people.

She has received burn injuries on her back. We are waiting for the medical report, a police officer said.

Rehana married Matlub 18 years ago, following which she went to the United States with her husband.

Their relations turned sour in 2011 after which they came to India for some time. Matlub went back to the US and assured Rehana that he would call her there after a few days.

Matlub did not call Rehana back to the United States and told her that he had got a new job in New York.

However, Matlub called Rehana few years back and divorced her over the phone. Rehana refused to accept the same.

Rehanas in-laws later assaulted her to ensure that she leaves the house and also threw acid on her.

They should be punished for what they did. I want them to be in jail, Rehana told ANI.

PILIBHIT (UTTAR PRADESH): After having refused to accept triple talaq over phone, a woman in her 40s was attacked with acid allegedly by her in-laws in Neuria area of Pilibhit. On the complaint filed by the victim Rehana, the Uttar Pradesh Police has begun its investigation into the matter. So far, the cops have registered FIR against five people. She has received burn injuries on her back. We are waiting for the medical report, a police officer said. Rehana married Matlub 18 years ago, following which she went to the United States with her husband. Their relations turned sour in 2011 after which they came to India for some time. Matlub went back to the US and assured Rehana that he would call her there after a few days. Matlub did not call Rehana back to the United States and told her that he had got a new job in New York. However, Matlub called Rehana few years back and divorced her over the phone. Rehana refused to accept the same. Rehanas in-laws later assaulted her to ensure that she leaves the house and also threw acid on her. They should be punished for what they did. I want them to be in jail, Rehana told ANI.
Shankkar Aiyar By

American artist Andy Warhol once remarked that in the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. It would seem there is a race on for 15 minutes of fame. This has triggered a stampede of Mad Hatter notions, that intent equals outcomes.



There is no denying that social apathy has perpetuated moral hazards. There is also no disputing the right of an elected government to incentivise behavioural change. The seductive option is to redefine personal liberties, thou shalt not The validated approach is initiation of holistic action. Thanks to political expediency, the process has been reduced to an end in itself.



It is no secret that waste is both a class and cultural issue in India. Apparently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged this on his radio talk. And it is an issue that needs to be addressed in a country where millions cannot afford two-square meals.



Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has suggested that eateries specify the amount of food served per portionostensibly, the subsidised canteen serving the Members of Parliament will be a starting point. It is an idea stakeholders will debate. The moot point is how this will curb wastage? Where does one startat the brazen waste or?



Pertinently, is there a plan to curb wastage in other areas under the charge of government? What about stemming post-harvest losses of over `92,000 crore? What about over 55,000 tonne of wheat and rice damaged in the FCI storage between 2013 and 2016? Does intent to address one aspect bequeath political immunity from other failings?



Earlier this month, bars and liquor shops near highways were shut down following a Supreme Court order. There is no denying that drunken driving has and does lead to accidents, injuries and fatalities. It is equally true traffic accidents are caused by a multiplicity of causes.

In 2015, out of 5,01,423 accidents, 16,298 were caused by drunken driving leading to 6,755 out of 1,46,133 deaths. Be that as it may, the order has put thousands of businesses and jobs at risk. Worried about the fallout, typically, the state governments swiftly engineered a bypassmany have de-notified highways within the municipal limits to enable circumvention.



And the necessary debate too was circumvented. The issue is not whether governments are right or wrong. The question is not whether the outlets should or should not be closed.

The question is whether closure will deliver the objectives and if the bypass emboldens lawbreakers. What about regulation? What are the states doing about policing highways and can the courts enforce induction of personnel and technology? Incidentally, Gujarat, which is under prohibition, reported 23,183 accidents and 8,119 fatalitiesone per hourin 2015.



Intriguingly, even as the state governments are busy notifying highways as municipal roads, to enable businesses, many political parties are actively considering imposing prohibition in their states. On Tuesday, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh observed that the state would like to follow the Bihar example and impose prohibition. And he is not alone. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan has similar ideasand both have deployed the phrase, in a phased manner.



The notion of prohibition is an old chestnutthe nanny state premise that the government can cure the society. Yet the lure of prohibition persiststhanks to the promise of votes. Fact is, most statesTamil Nadu, Haryana, and Andhra Pradeshwhich imposed prohibition have had to roll back the decision within a few years. States, cumulatively, generate over `1.25 lakh crore in taxes from alcoholand most states are facing higher levels of debt and deficit.



A modern democracy demands that institutions signal confidence. Due response is best illustrated by the challenge to prove issued by the Election Commission to all those who claim EVMs are open to tampering. However, frequently, departments fail to even respond to events.

Last week, a two-judge bench of the apex court ordered BSNL to shut down a tower. A petitioner approached the highest court of the land and argued that he was afflicted with Hodgkins Lymphoma, caused by continued exposure to radiation due to the presence of a cellular tower in the neighbourhood.



So how must the populace interpret thisdoes this mean proximity to cellular towers makes you vulnerable to cancer? What is known is that a scientific group studying this issuefollowing a parliamentary committee recommendation is yet to submit its report. What must those living near cell towers believe inor not believe in? The government is yet to speak up. The notion, perhaps, is what is unknown will not harm the residents.



There is no statute of limitations on where notions can emanate from. Often, the stampede converts solutions into problems.

A few weeks back, the government announced that schoolchildren receiving mid-day meals will be required to enroll for Aadhaar. The law on transfer of benefits (Aadhaar Act of 2016) does call for recipients of welfare to be enrolled. Equally, the Supreme Court order says Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory.



Unsurprisingly, outrage followed that children will be denied food. The question is why the insistence on Aadhaar enrolment.

The explanation is that the contractors are showing inflated numbers. Obviously, no school is going to authenticate every child before s/he is served. So the explanation begs for an explanation. Would not the school and district records show the number of students? How difficult is it to cross-refer contractors claims with the records? Also, wouldnt it be smarter to insist on Aadhaar enrolment at the beginning of academic year for records, instead of demanding it for mid-day meals?



The stampede of notions is partly driven by political considerations. It is also systemic. The crux is non-application of mind stemming from the lack of capacity and inadequacy of processes to deal with exigencies as they arise.

The super structure of the government is trapped somewhere between the 19th and 20th Century. It needs an overhaul to demonitise Mad Hatter notions and deliver governance in the 21st Century.

shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com

American artist Andy Warhol once remarked that in the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. It would seem there is a race on for 15 minutes of fame. This has triggered a stampede of Mad Hatter notions, that intent equals outcomes. There is no denying that social apathy has perpetuated moral hazards. There is also no disputing the right of an elected government to incentivise behavioural change. The seductive option is to redefine personal liberties, thou shalt not The validated approach is initiation of holistic action. Thanks to political expediency, the process has been reduced to an end in itself. It is no secret that waste is both a class and cultural issue in India. Apparently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged this on his radio talk. And it is an issue that needs to be addressed in a country where millions cannot afford two-square meals. Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has suggested that eateries specify the amount of food served per portionostensibly, the subsidised canteen serving the Members of Parliament will be a starting point. It is an idea stakeholders will debate. The moot point is how this will curb wastage? Where does one startat the brazen waste or? Pertinently, is there a plan to curb wastage in other areas under the charge of government? What about stemming post-harvest losses of over `92,000 crore? What about over 55,000 tonne of wheat and rice damaged in the FCI storage between 2013 and 2016? Does intent to address one aspect bequeath political immunity from other failings? Earlier this month, bars and liquor shops near highways were shut down following a Supreme Court order. There is no denying that drunken driving has and does lead to accidents, injuries and fatalities. It is equally true traffic accidents are caused by a multiplicity of causes. In 2015, out of 5,01,423 accidents, 16,298 were caused by drunken driving leading to 6,755 out of 1,46,133 deaths. Be that as it may, the order has put thousands of businesses and jobs at risk. Worried about the fallout, typically, the state governments swiftly engineered a bypassmany have de-notified highways within the municipal limits to enable circumvention. And the necessary debate too was circumvented. The issue is not whether governments are right or wrong. The question is not whether the outlets should or should not be closed. The question is whether closure will deliver the objectives and if the bypass emboldens lawbreakers. What about regulation? What are the states doing about policing highways and can the courts enforce induction of personnel and technology? Incidentally, Gujarat, which is under prohibition, reported 23,183 accidents and 8,119 fatalitiesone per hourin 2015. Intriguingly, even as the state governments are busy notifying highways as municipal roads, to enable businesses, many political parties are actively considering imposing prohibition in their states. On Tuesday, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh observed that the state would like to follow the Bihar example and impose prohibition. And he is not alone. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan has similar ideasand both have deployed the phrase, in a phased manner. The notion of prohibition is an old chestnutthe nanny state premise that the government can cure the society. Yet the lure of prohibition persiststhanks to the promise of votes. Fact is, most statesTamil Nadu, Haryana, and Andhra Pradeshwhich imposed prohibition have had to roll back the decision within a few years. States, cumulatively, generate over `1.25 lakh crore in taxes from alcoholand most states are facing higher levels of debt and deficit. A modern democracy demands that institutions signal confidence. Due response is best illustrated by the challenge to prove issued by the Election Commission to all those who claim EVMs are open to tampering. However, frequently, departments fail to even respond to events. Last week, a two-judge bench of the apex court ordered BSNL to shut down a tower. A petitioner approached the highest court of the land and argued that he was afflicted with Hodgkins Lymphoma, caused by continued exposure to radiation due to the presence of a cellular tower in the neighbourhood. So how must the populace interpret thisdoes this mean proximity to cellular towers makes you vulnerable to cancer? What is known is that a scientific group studying this issuefollowing a parliamentary committee recommendation is yet to submit its report. What must those living near cell towers believe inor not believe in? The government is yet to speak up. The notion, perhaps, is what is unknown will not harm the residents. There is no statute of limitations on where notions can emanate from. Often, the stampede converts solutions into problems. A few weeks back, the government announced that schoolchildren receiving mid-day meals will be required to enroll for Aadhaar. The law on transfer of benefits (Aadhaar Act of 2016) does call for recipients of welfare to be enrolled. Equally, the Supreme Court order says Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory. Unsurprisingly, outrage followed that children will be denied food. The question is why the insistence on Aadhaar enrolment. The explanation is that the contractors are showing inflated numbers. Obviously, no school is going to authenticate every child before s/he is served. So the explanation begs for an explanation. Would not the school and district records show the number of students? How difficult is it to cross-refer contractors claims with the records? Also, wouldnt it be smarter to insist on Aadhaar enrolment at the beginning of academic year for records, instead of demanding it for mid-day meals? The stampede of notions is partly driven by political considerations. It is also systemic. The crux is non-application of mind stemming from the lack of capacity and inadequacy of processes to deal with exigencies as they arise. The super structure of the government is trapped somewhere between the 19th and 20th Century. It needs an overhaul to demonitise Mad Hatter notions and deliver governance in the 21st Century. shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com
Prabhu Chawla By

Money multipliers survive by promoting the belief that good economics is bad politics. Now Lobbyists for Cuckoo Liberalism are hawking the slogan that good religion is bad economics and worse politics. They conveniently shy away from mentioning the negative aspects of those religions, which are pushing numerous countries back to the Stone Age and into the maw of terror. Stunned by the mass acceptability of nationalism and welfarism, status quoist illiberals are projecting the rise of Hindutva as a major threat to development. During the past three years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proved beyond doubt that the symbols, songs and syntax of faith make real Vikas Mantras. Saffron is no longer the colour of communalism.

Ever since Modi anointed Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the Cassandras of communal connivance are on hyperdrive to eviscerate social and ideological concepts and configurations that remotely resemble Hindutva. They have chosen to be selectively vocal against religion. They prefer not to acknowledge that Yogi, during his three weeks in office, has taken many decisions empowering the minorities and women, enforced law and order, tamed corruption, improved infrastructure and ensured continuity rather than embarking on actions to embolden hard core communal outfits.

The distortion of the ban on illegal abattoirs and brutal attacks on meat shops by fringe elements did spread fear among the minorities. However, course correction by the unflappable Yogi has made it clear that inclusive administration and not political Hindutva is his raj dharma. It shows the sanguine sanyasi hasnt deviated an inch from the Modi Model of governance and development. All the 13 BJP Chief Ministers, too, have tried to keep their distance from fringe elements.

Taking a dvaitik cue from Modi methodology, they wear religion on their sleeves while ensuring good governance. Most BJP-run states perform better on numerous economic parameters than their adversaries.

Despite the stressed international economic environment, Indias economic performance in many sectors has been better than the worlds best. Motivated by Moditva, many neo-believers are inspired by the epiphany that a nationalist makes a better ruler than a leader who follows radical religion or La-La Liberalism. Today, three heads of statesXi Jinping, President of China, Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, and Modihave placed their flag and country above all. Donald Trump won the presidency seeking a mandate for America.

In Europe, nationalism is the new liberalism. Many mass leaders have come to the conclusion that nationalism subtly tempered with religion ensures peace and prosperity, empowered by self-belief. This is a slap in the ugly face of Islamic fundamentalism in West Asia, which is infecting the civilized world through senseless lone wolf attacks and bombings.

Modis successful nationalism appears to be a heady mix of religion and economics. He feels Ram rajya represents the best model of economic growth where accountability, transparency and equality decide the contours and culture of governance. Modi has rescued many castaway icons of nationalism, social reforms and the Independence movement from abandoned islands of political partiality.

His mission is to explode the myth that the Congress in the 1800s and Nehruvian thoutology in the 1900s fathered the idea of inclusive and tolerant India. There were others before Nehru and Gandhi who projected India as a nation of unity in diversity. It is the only country outside the Islamic world, which has the highest number of Muslims and other minoritiesall living as equal citizens and enjoying the same democratic rights as the rest. Yet Muslims are poorer and less educated everywhere.

Modi rarely speaks about them, even as they are poorly represented in the political and administrative superstructure. Modis admirers believe he is perhaps more concerned with raising their economic status than doling out ornamental offices without power.

The Prime Minsters realpolitik does not spare surprises either. Last week he chose to take the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on a half-hour Metro ride to Akshardham templea symbol of Hindu heritagerather than filling his schedule with ritual visits to Humayun Tomb or the Taj Mahal. This time Turnbulls take-home photo will be of a popular temple instead of the mandatory monument to a Mughal emperors elegiac sorrow. On Modis foreign tours, he unfailingly visits Indian places of worship and historical importance, which his predecessors have avoided...err, religiously.

Modis advisors have counselled him to leverage his international standing to prove to watchers that his nationalist agenda will make Muslims equal stakeholders in wealth creation. Their conviction is based on research, which concludes that Islamic governance is fundamentally anti-growth, a source of social inequality and promotes violence. However, not enough data is available on the equation between religion and economic growth. Research done by USAID in the early 2000s makes it amply clear that the Islamic World is living in an age of economic darkness. In a paper titled Economic Growth in the Muslim World, Peter Timmer and Donald McClelland write, Why do Muslims tend to be relatively poor? The facts are undisputed: Muslims make up 19 per cent of the worlds population but earn only 6 per cent of its income. The issue is whether there are any causal relationships between religion and economic development.

They calculated that the average per capita income in 37 Muslims countries stood at $3,375about half of $5,987 in 70 non-Muslim countries. They also found that GDP during the decade 19902000 grew more slowly, on average, in Muslim countries (2.02 per cent) than in non-Muslim countries (2.22 per cent). Nearly two decades later, the scenario has hardly improved. Instead, it has become worse since Muslim majority countries like Pakistan and Palestine have been launching terrorists instead of economists, administrators or academics.

Eleven per cent of their labour force is unemployedtwice the global averageforcing youth to pick up the gun. As the Prime Minister of the worlds largest democracy and the third largest economy, Modi is determined to assert his identity as a Nationalist Hindu whose war cry is Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas

(development of all with support of all). Half a year into his premiership, The Economist magazine wrote in its January 15, 2015, edition: Economic reform is the means to a nationalist end; and, for Mr Modi, nationalism is of the Hindu variety. The lofty editors of the magazine must be disappointed now that he has proved that the Hindu variety of nationalism could be the panacea for what ails economies driven by radical religion and narrow beliefs.

Prabhu Chawla

prabhuchawla@ newindianexpress.com

Follow him on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

Money multipliers survive by promoting the belief that good economics is bad politics. Now Lobbyists for Cuckoo Liberalism are hawking the slogan that good religion is bad economics and worse politics. They conveniently shy away from mentioning the negative aspects of those religions, which are pushing numerous countries back to the Stone Age and into the maw of terror. Stunned by the mass acceptability of nationalism and welfarism, status quoist illiberals are projecting the rise of Hindutva as a major threat to development. During the past three years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proved beyond doubt that the symbols, songs and syntax of faith make real Vikas Mantras. Saffron is no longer the colour of communalism. Ever since Modi anointed Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the Cassandras of communal connivance are on hyperdrive to eviscerate social and ideological concepts and configurations that remotely resemble Hindutva. They have chosen to be selectively vocal against religion. They prefer not to acknowledge that Yogi, during his three weeks in office, has taken many decisions empowering the minorities and women, enforced law and order, tamed corruption, improved infrastructure and ensured continuity rather than embarking on actions to embolden hard core communal outfits. The distortion of the ban on illegal abattoirs and brutal attacks on meat shops by fringe elements did spread fear among the minorities. However, course correction by the unflappable Yogi has made it clear that inclusive administration and not political Hindutva is his raj dharma. It shows the sanguine sanyasi hasnt deviated an inch from the Modi Model of governance and development. All the 13 BJP Chief Ministers, too, have tried to keep their distance from fringe elements. Taking a dvaitik cue from Modi methodology, they wear religion on their sleeves while ensuring good governance. Most BJP-run states perform better on numerous economic parameters than their adversaries. Despite the stressed international economic environment, Indias economic performance in many sectors has been better than the worlds best. Motivated by Moditva, many neo-believers are inspired by the epiphany that a nationalist makes a better ruler than a leader who follows radical religion or La-La Liberalism. Today, three heads of statesXi Jinping, President of China, Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, and Modihave placed their flag and country above all. Donald Trump won the presidency seeking a mandate for America. In Europe, nationalism is the new liberalism. Many mass leaders have come to the conclusion that nationalism subtly tempered with religion ensures peace and prosperity, empowered by self-belief. This is a slap in the ugly face of Islamic fundamentalism in West Asia, which is infecting the civilized world through senseless lone wolf attacks and bombings. Modis successful nationalism appears to be a heady mix of religion and economics. He feels Ram rajya represents the best model of economic growth where accountability, transparency and equality decide the contours and culture of governance. Modi has rescued many castaway icons of nationalism, social reforms and the Independence movement from abandoned islands of political partiality. His mission is to explode the myth that the Congress in the 1800s and Nehruvian thoutology in the 1900s fathered the idea of inclusive and tolerant India. There were others before Nehru and Gandhi who projected India as a nation of unity in diversity. It is the only country outside the Islamic world, which has the highest number of Muslims and other minoritiesall living as equal citizens and enjoying the same democratic rights as the rest. Yet Muslims are poorer and less educated everywhere. Modi rarely speaks about them, even as they are poorly represented in the political and administrative superstructure. Modis admirers believe he is perhaps more concerned with raising their economic status than doling out ornamental offices without power. The Prime Minsters realpolitik does not spare surprises either. Last week he chose to take the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on a half-hour Metro ride to Akshardham templea symbol of Hindu heritagerather than filling his schedule with ritual visits to Humayun Tomb or the Taj Mahal. This time Turnbulls take-home photo will be of a popular temple instead of the mandatory monument to a Mughal emperors elegiac sorrow. On Modis foreign tours, he unfailingly visits Indian places of worship and historical importance, which his predecessors have avoided...err, religiously. Modis advisors have counselled him to leverage his international standing to prove to watchers that his nationalist agenda will make Muslims equal stakeholders in wealth creation. Their conviction is based on research, which concludes that Islamic governance is fundamentally anti-growth, a source of social inequality and promotes violence. However, not enough data is available on the equation between religion and economic growth. Research done by USAID in the early 2000s makes it amply clear that the Islamic World is living in an age of economic darkness. In a paper titled Economic Growth in the Muslim World, Peter Timmer and Donald McClelland write, Why do Muslims tend to be relatively poor? The facts are undisputed: Muslims make up 19 per cent of the worlds population but earn only 6 per cent of its income. The issue is whether there are any causal relationships between religion and economic development. They calculated that the average per capita income in 37 Muslims countries stood at $3,375about half of $5,987 in 70 non-Muslim countries. They also found that GDP during the decade 19902000 grew more slowly, on average, in Muslim countries (2.02 per cent) than in non-Muslim countries (2.22 per cent). Nearly two decades later, the scenario has hardly improved. Instead, it has become worse since Muslim majority countries like Pakistan and Palestine have been launching terrorists instead of economists, administrators or academics. Eleven per cent of their labour force is unemployedtwice the global averageforcing youth to pick up the gun. As the Prime Minister of the worlds largest democracy and the third largest economy, Modi is determined to assert his identity as a Nationalist Hindu whose war cry is Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (development of all with support of all). Half a year into his premiership, The Economist magazine wrote in its January 15, 2015, edition: Economic reform is the means to a nationalist end; and, for Mr Modi, nationalism is of the Hindu variety. The lofty editors of the magazine must be disappointed now that he has proved that the Hindu variety of nationalism could be the panacea for what ails economies driven by radical religion and narrow beliefs. Prabhu Chawla prabhuchawla@ newindianexpress.com Follow him on Twitter @PrabhuChawla
By Express News Service

KANNUR/KOCHI : In a soft but calculated retort to CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Saturday said no LDF ally should give ammunition to the Opposition to attack the CPM and the Left.

In a 60-minute meeting with reporters on his home turf Kannur, Kodiyeri categorically responded to all major issues raised by his counterpart recently.

Taking a dig at the CPI for its alliance with the Congress in the past, Kodiyeri said the party was free to point out the lapses in governance as they have a better experience being part of both the LDF and UDF-led governments.



Stating open criticism would weaken the government, Kodiyeri mentioned the Chavara Sarasan episode in the early 80s when the CPI joined hands with the CPM detractors against the then LDF Government.

Kodiyeri said differences of opinion should be discussed within the LDF.

IN a calculated retort to CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Saturday said the CPM, LDF and the state government are on the same page on the Munnar issue.

Unnecessary controversies have been kicked up regarding the action against encroachments without checking the facts. In Munnar, the encroachments are being removed with the support of the CPM district leadership. But, distorted reports said the party tried to stop evictions.

It became an issue after the Sub-Collector reached the place without informing the police.

The LDF is against illegal encroachments in Munnar.

All encroachments should be evicted. There are efforts from certain quarters to show the government in poor light.

However, the government will not take any steps that will disappoint the people.

Affidavit on Naxal Varghese

It was the affidavit prepared during the UDF regime - submitted without any checking - which led to such an issue.

The CPM was the first to point out the affidavit was wrong. (The affidavit filed in the Kerala High Court had termed Varghese as a notorious criminal who tried to attack the police. In the affidavit, he was mentioned as the leader of a Naxalite gang involved in several murder and dacoity cases)

The CPM is against UAPA from the beginning and all allegations being raised against the party in this regard are baseless.



Right To Information Act

The government is for effectively using the RTI Act. However, there is an ambiguity over providing information regarding Cabinet decisions. The orders of the Supreme Court and the High Court in this regard, too, are not clear. We have moved court to bring clarity to the issue.

Social media and party members

If someone says something on social media, it cannot be termed as the partys stance. The party members should express only the party stance on social media, too.

KANNUR/KOCHI : In a soft but calculated retort to CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Saturday said no LDF ally should give ammunition to the Opposition to attack the CPM and the Left. In a 60-minute meeting with reporters on his home turf Kannur, Kodiyeri categorically responded to all major issues raised by his counterpart recently. Taking a dig at the CPI for its alliance with the Congress in the past, Kodiyeri said the party was free to point out the lapses in governance as they have a better experience being part of both the LDF and UDF-led governments. Stating open criticism would weaken the government, Kodiyeri mentioned the Chavara Sarasan episode in the early 80s when the CPI joined hands with the CPM detractors against the then LDF Government. Kodiyeri said differences of opinion should be discussed within the LDF. IN a calculated retort to CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Saturday said the CPM, LDF and the state government are on the same page on the Munnar issue. Unnecessary controversies have been kicked up regarding the action against encroachments without checking the facts. In Munnar, the encroachments are being removed with the support of the CPM district leadership. But, distorted reports said the party tried to stop evictions. It became an issue after the Sub-Collector reached the place without informing the police. The LDF is against illegal encroachments in Munnar. All encroachments should be evicted. There are efforts from certain quarters to show the government in poor light. However, the government will not take any steps that will disappoint the people. Affidavit on Naxal Varghese It was the affidavit prepared during the UDF regime - submitted without any checking - which led to such an issue. The CPM was the first to point out the affidavit was wrong. (The affidavit filed in the Kerala High Court had termed Varghese as a notorious criminal who tried to attack the police. In the affidavit, he was mentioned as the leader of a Naxalite gang involved in several murder and dacoity cases) The CPM is against UAPA from the beginning and all allegations being raised against the party in this regard are baseless. Right To Information Act The government is for effectively using the RTI Act. However, there is an ambiguity over providing information regarding Cabinet decisions. The orders of the Supreme Court and the High Court in this regard, too, are not clear. We have moved court to bring clarity to the issue. Social media and party members If someone says something on social media, it cannot be termed as the partys stance. The party members should express only the party stance on social media, too.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Navratna PSU Nalco is planning to set up wind and solar power plants of 150 MW in the State for which it has sought early allocation of land from Odisha Government, said Minister of State for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal here on Saturday.

Addressing the gathering at the unveiling ceremony of Nalco's wind power plants, he said while the nation is transforming into a global leader under the Prime Ministers Swadeshi movement, it is heartening that Nalco is taking an active part in this endeavour by setting up new energy plants and increasing the capacity of its brownfield smelter at Angul from 4.6 lakh tonne to 10 lakh tonne.

He expressed satisfaction that under Make-in-India initiative, Nalco has taken steps to enhance its capacity through expansion mostly in Odisha, rather than exporting its alumina outside.

"Nalco's plans for expansion shall not only boost the development of the State but also help the country achieve new milestones in the field of aluminium industry across the globe," Goyal said.

On the NDA Government's focus on development of eastern region of the country, Goyal said India will now lead the world instead of following other countries. "NTPC is also planning for expansion to provide interrupted power supply to all villages," he said.

The Power Minister, however, rued that the attempt of MCL to increase its production is halted due to protests from locals on political reasons.

Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram dedicated the wind power plants set up at Gandikota (50.4 MW) in AP, Ludarwa (47.6 MW) and Devikot (50 MW) in Rajasthan and Jath (50.4 MW) in Maharashtra.

Striking a kindred spirit with Nalco, where he started his career before joining politics, Oram lauded the PSU for its continuous efforts towards the industrial development of the State. Oram also inaugurated an exhibition on centenary celebration of Champaran Satyagraha.

Nalco signed an MoU with IIT-Bhubaneswar on R&D under its industry-institution interaction programme and another MoU with MIDHANI, a central PSU under Ministry of Defence, for high-end aluminium products to reduce imports of such items.

Nalco CMD Tapan Kumar Chand said apart from the expansion at Angul, Nalco is also adding one million tonne to the 2.275 million tonne alumina refinery at Damanjodi for which environment clearance has been obtained. "The investment for the green energy project in Odisha will be more than `900 crore," he informed.

Later, the ministers handed over cheques to 10 BPL girl students from Angul and Damanjodi under the 'Nalco ki Ladli' scheme. The company, as part of the scheme designed on line with the Centre's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' programme, has given support to 181 meritorious girl students so far.

BHUBANESWAR: Navratna PSU Nalco is planning to set up wind and solar power plants of 150 MW in the State for which it has sought early allocation of land from Odisha Government, said Minister of State for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal here on Saturday. Addressing the gathering at the unveiling ceremony of Nalco's wind power plants, he said while the nation is transforming into a global leader under the Prime Ministers Swadeshi movement, it is heartening that Nalco is taking an active part in this endeavour by setting up new energy plants and increasing the capacity of its brownfield smelter at Angul from 4.6 lakh tonne to 10 lakh tonne. He expressed satisfaction that under Make-in-India initiative, Nalco has taken steps to enhance its capacity through expansion mostly in Odisha, rather than exporting its alumina outside. "Nalco's plans for expansion shall not only boost the development of the State but also help the country achieve new milestones in the field of aluminium industry across the globe," Goyal said. On the NDA Government's focus on development of eastern region of the country, Goyal said India will now lead the world instead of following other countries. "NTPC is also planning for expansion to provide interrupted power supply to all villages," he said. The Power Minister, however, rued that the attempt of MCL to increase its production is halted due to protests from locals on political reasons. Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram dedicated the wind power plants set up at Gandikota (50.4 MW) in AP, Ludarwa (47.6 MW) and Devikot (50 MW) in Rajasthan and Jath (50.4 MW) in Maharashtra. Striking a kindred spirit with Nalco, where he started his career before joining politics, Oram lauded the PSU for its continuous efforts towards the industrial development of the State. Oram also inaugurated an exhibition on centenary celebration of Champaran Satyagraha. Nalco signed an MoU with IIT-Bhubaneswar on R&D under its industry-institution interaction programme and another MoU with MIDHANI, a central PSU under Ministry of Defence, for high-end aluminium products to reduce imports of such items. Nalco CMD Tapan Kumar Chand said apart from the expansion at Angul, Nalco is also adding one million tonne to the 2.275 million tonne alumina refinery at Damanjodi for which environment clearance has been obtained. "The investment for the green energy project in Odisha will be more than `900 crore," he informed. Later, the ministers handed over cheques to 10 BPL girl students from Angul and Damanjodi under the 'Nalco ki Ladli' scheme. The company, as part of the scheme designed on line with the Centre's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' programme, has given support to 181 meritorious girl students so far.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Opposition parties Congress and TDP, which have been cornering the state government over Muslim reservations issue, on Saturday upped the ante by getting more vocal on the issue of by increasing the quota to Muslims such that it doesnt affect the BC reservations.

The two parties, which not directly opposing the increase in Muslim reservations, openly began falling back on the BC reservations quota to create troubles for the government.

Both the parties on Saturday asked the government to take steps to pass the bill relating to providing 12 per cent reservations to Muslims, without disturbing the present quota of reservations being enjoyed by BCs. Interestingly, the two parties further demanded that the government increase the reservations to BCs from the present 25 per cent to 52 per cent as per their population ratio in the state.

If KCR is committed to the well-being of weaker sections in the society, he should bring in a bill providing 52 per cent reservations to BCs and 12 per cent reservations to Muslims. That means a total of 64 per cent reservations should be given to BCs including Muslims, TDP TS unit working president A Revanth Reddy, party MLAs R Krishnaiah and Sandra Venkata Veeraiah demanded.

Despite Centre making it clear that it will not give its assent for reservations based on religion, the CM is trying to provide 12 per cent reservations to Muslims, who Constitute 12 per cent population in the state. Such step amounts to providing reservations to a community based on their religion as reservations are being provided to them as per their population ratio.

Thus, KCR is carefully implementing a strategy to put the blame on Centre and courts for possible rejection of 12 per cent reservations to Muslims in order to gain sympathy of Muslims, Revanth Reddy alleged.

TDP MLA R Krishnaiah, founder of BC Welfare Association, made it clear that BCs in the State will not allow the governments steps to provide reservations to Muslims by adding them in BC (E) quota. This will eat into the 25 per cent reservations being enjoyed by the BCs in the state at present, he said.

Congress too asked TRS to provide reservations to Muslims without affecting the quota of reservations to BCs.

Joining chorus with TDP and BJP, TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that the government provide reservations to BCs as per their population ratio. The principal opposition party further put a rider, saying that reservations to SCs should also be increased as per their population percentage.



BJP wants separate bill for ST reservation

While continuing its opposition to the Muslim reservations bill, BJP said the government proposal to include both Muslim and ST reservations in a single bill will do grave injustice to the STs.

The bill will be struck down by courts as implementing reservations to Muslims is against the Constitution. Then, hike in reservations to STs will also become null and void, BJP MLA G Kishan Reddy said. Hence, he demanded that the government introduce a separate bill for enhancement of reservations to STs.

HYDERABAD: Opposition parties Congress and TDP, which have been cornering the state government over Muslim reservations issue, on Saturday upped the ante by getting more vocal on the issue of by increasing the quota to Muslims such that it doesnt affect the BC reservations. The two parties, which not directly opposing the increase in Muslim reservations, openly began falling back on the BC reservations quota to create troubles for the government. Both the parties on Saturday asked the government to take steps to pass the bill relating to providing 12 per cent reservations to Muslims, without disturbing the present quota of reservations being enjoyed by BCs. Interestingly, the two parties further demanded that the government increase the reservations to BCs from the present 25 per cent to 52 per cent as per their population ratio in the state. If KCR is committed to the well-being of weaker sections in the society, he should bring in a bill providing 52 per cent reservations to BCs and 12 per cent reservations to Muslims. That means a total of 64 per cent reservations should be given to BCs including Muslims, TDP TS unit working president A Revanth Reddy, party MLAs R Krishnaiah and Sandra Venkata Veeraiah demanded. Despite Centre making it clear that it will not give its assent for reservations based on religion, the CM is trying to provide 12 per cent reservations to Muslims, who Constitute 12 per cent population in the state. Such step amounts to providing reservations to a community based on their religion as reservations are being provided to them as per their population ratio. Thus, KCR is carefully implementing a strategy to put the blame on Centre and courts for possible rejection of 12 per cent reservations to Muslims in order to gain sympathy of Muslims, Revanth Reddy alleged. TDP MLA R Krishnaiah, founder of BC Welfare Association, made it clear that BCs in the State will not allow the governments steps to provide reservations to Muslims by adding them in BC (E) quota. This will eat into the 25 per cent reservations being enjoyed by the BCs in the state at present, he said. Congress too asked TRS to provide reservations to Muslims without affecting the quota of reservations to BCs. Joining chorus with TDP and BJP, TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that the government provide reservations to BCs as per their population ratio. The principal opposition party further put a rider, saying that reservations to SCs should also be increased as per their population percentage. BJP wants separate bill for ST reservation While continuing its opposition to the Muslim reservations bill, BJP said the government proposal to include both Muslim and ST reservations in a single bill will do grave injustice to the STs. The bill will be struck down by courts as implementing reservations to Muslims is against the Constitution. Then, hike in reservations to STs will also become null and void, BJP MLA G Kishan Reddy said. Hence, he demanded that the government introduce a separate bill for enhancement of reservations to STs.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: The state government is all set to pass a bill in the state Assembly on Sunday, providing 12 per cent reservations to Muslims, besides enhancing quota for STs from the existing 6 to 10 per cent.

A special session of the state Legislature would be held here on Sunday for adopting the Telangana State Reservation Bill in this regard.

Both the Houses of the Legislature will adopt two other bills. The state Cabinet, which met on Saturday, approved the proposal for providing more reservations to Muslims and STs.

According to sources, the Cabinet has resolved to increase total reservations to Muslims by listing them in BC category. With this, the total reservations in the state will be 62 per cent from the present 50 per cent. However, the hike would come into effect only if the Centre accepts the same and amends the Constitution accordingly.

As this will take the overall reservations in the state beyond the prescribed limit of 50 per cent, the Legislature will pass Telangana Reservation Bill and send it to the Centre, urging it to include a provision in the IX Schedule of the Constitution as was done in Tamil Nadu, wherein the overall quota of reservations is 69 per cent, sources said.

According to sources, the Cabinet has also ratified the Telangana State Heritage Bill. So far, the heritage bill was limited to Hyderabad.

Protection of heritage structures in the state should not be limited to Hyderabad. All the heritage structures in the state should be brought under the ambit of Heritage Act, chief minister Rao said in the meeting.

GST bill of the Central government would also be ratified by the Legislature to fulfil Constitutional obligations. The Cabinet has also finalised tender process for Kaleshwaram and Mid Maniar irrigation projects. It also approved the construction of Tummilla lift irrigation project at a cost of Rs 783 crore to provide water to 87,500 acres in Alampur in Jogulamba-Gadwal district.

HYDERABAD: The state government is all set to pass a bill in the state Assembly on Sunday, providing 12 per cent reservations to Muslims, besides enhancing quota for STs from the existing 6 to 10 per cent. A special session of the state Legislature would be held here on Sunday for adopting the Telangana State Reservation Bill in this regard. Both the Houses of the Legislature will adopt two other bills. The state Cabinet, which met on Saturday, approved the proposal for providing more reservations to Muslims and STs. According to sources, the Cabinet has resolved to increase total reservations to Muslims by listing them in BC category. With this, the total reservations in the state will be 62 per cent from the present 50 per cent. However, the hike would come into effect only if the Centre accepts the same and amends the Constitution accordingly. As this will take the overall reservations in the state beyond the prescribed limit of 50 per cent, the Legislature will pass Telangana Reservation Bill and send it to the Centre, urging it to include a provision in the IX Schedule of the Constitution as was done in Tamil Nadu, wherein the overall quota of reservations is 69 per cent, sources said. According to sources, the Cabinet has also ratified the Telangana State Heritage Bill. So far, the heritage bill was limited to Hyderabad. Protection of heritage structures in the state should not be limited to Hyderabad. All the heritage structures in the state should be brought under the ambit of Heritage Act, chief minister Rao said in the meeting. GST bill of the Central government would also be ratified by the Legislature to fulfil Constitutional obligations. The Cabinet has also finalised tender process for Kaleshwaram and Mid Maniar irrigation projects. It also approved the construction of Tummilla lift irrigation project at a cost of Rs 783 crore to provide water to 87,500 acres in Alampur in Jogulamba-Gadwal district.
Mithun MK By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: The chula at Bhagyammas 300 yards asbestos sheet home held only a small steel pot with a day old rice gruel.



We havent eaten properly in four days, said K Bhagyamma. Her husband, K Ravindar, has not been able to find work at Kistaipally village, Jinnaram mandal despite after moving there three months ago.

The couple, in their late 40s, hail from Dacharam village, Sangareddy district, formerly under Medak. They, along with 12 other families, live in homes built using asbestos sheets foraged from their homes razed to the ground by the Defence ministry and state administration.



In 2015, close to 300 homes at Dacharam village were destroyed leaving 275 families homeless. All members of the 275 families took refuge at nearby villages. The land belonged to Dundigal Air Force Academy (AFA) of the Union Defence ministry.



Missing Compensation

Dacharam and its neighbouring Dharugulla village were located within the 6,400 acres acquired by the Defence ministry in 1962. The lands were used for setting up the AFA. The ministry had paid compensation to 13 villages for the agricultural lands that the government acquired.



But they did not pay compensation for the 109 acres of land where both the villages stood. As compensation package did not factor in the structural cost of the two villages, they decided to not accept the compensation.



The villagers thus did not collect the cheques that were issued to them and the defence ministry agreed to further discuss the matter. But in 1963 the Indo-China war broke out and the whole issue was forgotten by the defence ministry, said Sudhakar Reddy, a resident of Dharugulla village. Dacharam and Dharugulla remained the only two villages that did not accept compensation and for a while all was good, he added.



The villagers continued to farm at their ancestral lands that was now owned by the central government. We knew the land did not belong to us but awaited compensation that was promised to us, says Sudhakar. The AFA did not lay claim to the lands nor the villages, so we continued farming at our ancestral lands. Both the villages fell outside AFA fences, he added.

Ravindar and Bhagyamma, a couple, struggling to live in

Kishepally village in Sangareddy district | Sayantan Ghosh



In 2008, the AFA gave the excess land of 1,400 acres out of the 6,000 acers to the Research Centre Imarat (RCI) of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO). They were to build a top secret facility for a project code named ORANGE. The outer wall construction of the new project thus boxed in both the villages.



In 2012, the Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) package for both the villages were discussed at a meeting. The meeting was held between the state government officials, defence ministry and representatives from both the villages.

At the meeting, the monetary entitlement and benefits entitled were discussed and agreed upon. Under the R&R package, each family was supposed to get `1,52,500 and 300 square yards each for a new home. The package was also to contain the payment towards structures that had not yet been released by the DRDO.



Two conditions were set before the villagers, one was not to obstruct the project work of DRDO and the other was to stop farming. The villagers agreed to both the demands. The land allotted at Kistaipally village for the displaced families was part of the rehabilitation package. It was to be developed into a modern colony with funds from the defence ministry and be executed by the district collector. Of the `14.4 crore sanctioned in 2014, `7.2 crore was released to the then Medak collector and `5.5 crore was utilised.



The Eviction

In 2014, four members from Dacharam approached the AP High Court. They were from the Schedule Caste community and the few acres of land they had were patta lands gifted to them by the N T Rama Rao government but the land belonged the defence ministry, said Sudhakar.They fought the case badly, he added.



This was when things started going out of hand for Dacharam villagers, said a state government official with the revenue department. The court did not rule in favour of Dacharam. The farmers who filed the case could not prove they were residents of the village. The court verdict unofficially declared the entire village as encroachers, he added.



The R&R package entitled to both the villages was withdrawn by the High Court. Thus the `7.2 crore spent on the development work undertaken at Kistaipally village also came to a standstill. The villagers who went to court were fined `1,500 for wasting the time of the High Court.



They now live in different villages but not everyone stays in touch with them. Their decision to go the court affected everyone, said Sudhakar.



We had no problem paying compensation and money for the R&R, but with a standing High Court order, we cannot do anything, said a senior official with the RCI, DRDO.



These people shot themselves on their foot, said a revenue department officer. There is nothing that can be done for them as there is a standing court order that prevents them from getting even the rehabilitation package. They went to the court but could not prove they were residents of Dacharam and thus lost the case. Maybe the promise of a two bedroom home can be made possible, but that decision rests with the state government, he added.



In August 2015, DRDO completed the construction of their security walls. This brought movement restrictions for anyone entering the two villages. The same year Dharugulla villagers decided to go to the court but fought the case better and was thus able to obtain a stay order from the High Court. Witnessing the small victory, Dacharam villagers too decided to approach the court but in a more united fashion.



But on September 14, 2015, officials from both state and central government started the demolition work at Dacharam. By evening, 275 families were destitute. The DRDO officials were kind enough to grant three days allowing the villagers to collect their belongings from the demolished village.



The residents of Dharagulla village watched the demolition work at Dacharam in horror. Some of the villagers stayed even longer in the village, with no water supply or electricity. They just did not have anywhere else to go. The officials did not inform or give them any time, said Sudhakar.



The tale of two villages

The only sign of the resettlement money spent by the local administration in 2014 in developing Kistaipally village are the unused sewage drain pipes.



There exists no proper roads that connect this part of the Kistaipally village to the main road. For Ravinder to find work, he either has to travel on foot for 11 kilometres to the main road for commute or wait for an RTC bus that makes three trips a day.



Kistaipally is a fully electrified village but come night the new residents are left in the dark. The electric poles and a transformer has remained idle for the last four years.

I sent my two children to live with my relatives in Karimnagar, they dont find this place safe, there is nothing for them here, said Radha. Her family had taken a loan of `35,000 from a local money lender to build their new asbestos home. We moved here because we couldnt pay the rent for our previous home, she added.



The joint collector had visited us and promised to set up electricity, water and sewage connections, said T Ravi, who moved to the location eight months ago and now works as a driver. The local MLA Mahipal Reddy also promised that the state government will construct two bedroom houses for us. I hope that the promise will be kept, Ravi added.



Sangareddy district Joint Collector Venkateshwarlu refused to comment of the matter while Patanchery MLA Mahipal Reddy was unavailable for comment. The women in the village travel two kilometres, three times a day to access the nearest water source. The local villagers helped us build the borewell, but they treat us like outsiders, said Ravi. They do not even let us cremate our dead, he added.



A few metres behind their new settlement is the Bollaram industrial lake. The water is not fit for drinking, the industries release their chemicals into that lake, said Ravi. Taking pity on the plight of the new residents of the village, a water tanker provides them with a few tubs of drinking water, but for a token charge.



All the twelve families could no longer afford to pay rent for the houses they moved to after being evicted from their homes. The rest of the 275 families are scattered across 35 kilometre radius of Dacharam, all of them live in rented spaces. More are expected to join their brethren at Kistaipally in the coming months.



The main cause of worry for new residents is the lack of employment prospects,There was a time when I would make `15,000 in a year as profit just by farming, now I am able to earn just `6000, travelling expense alone would cost me `2,000. My wife is a heart patient I cant even afford the medicines anymore, said Ravindar as he nudged his wife to cover the torn part of her blouse.



If Dacharam villagers are struggling to put their lives back together, the residents of Daragulla are trying to not let it fall apart. Out of the 50 families that previously resided in the village, only 12 remain.



We dont have anywhere else to go, says Sudhakar whose only house has its walls and roof falling apart. We still stay here with the hope that the compensation money will arrive someday, he added.

A few of the houses that fell outside the village boundary were destroyed by the DRDO, some houses fell apart due to neglect. The state government machinery does not exist for the village anymore. Owing to its smaller size, the village is now a hamlet of a much larger Gummadidala village.



People are not repairing the houses anymore, what is the point? We will be evicted sooner or later, says Prashant Reddy a businessman. I live in Hyderabad but I visit here everyday to have lunch with my parents. They are attached to this place and chose to still live here, he added.



With agricultural options not available, the men of the village now make a living selling milk. Few of the women have found work at nearby pharmaceutical companies working for `140 a day packing tablets.



If the security guards find our cattle, they will lock them outside the gate 10 km away from the village, said Anand Reddy, the 41-year-old used to farm 40 acres of land but is now a cattle rearer. We dont want to stay here anymore. But what choice do we have? We will move out of here when we get our compensation,Anand added.



The pathway that leads to Dacharam are now filled with thorny bushes and from among the bushes the village emerges with the sight of rubble. Recalling the day Dacharam was destroyed, Prashant said, If we tried to stop the officials from razing a building at this part, they would start razing the buildings at another end of the village. We had no choice but to cry out to them to stop.



The only structures left standing at Dacharam today are the village school and community hall, a crumbling water tank, a Hanuman temple and a watchtower built during the time of the Nizams. No one comes here anymore, it is painful to watch. Dacharam now exists only in government records, said Prashant.

HYDERABAD: The chula at Bhagyammas 300 yards asbestos sheet home held only a small steel pot with a day old rice gruel. We havent eaten properly in four days, said K Bhagyamma. Her husband, K Ravindar, has not been able to find work at Kistaipally village, Jinnaram mandal despite after moving there three months ago. The couple, in their late 40s, hail from Dacharam village, Sangareddy district, formerly under Medak. They, along with 12 other families, live in homes built using asbestos sheets foraged from their homes razed to the ground by the Defence ministry and state administration. In 2015, close to 300 homes at Dacharam village were destroyed leaving 275 families homeless. All members of the 275 families took refuge at nearby villages. The land belonged to Dundigal Air Force Academy (AFA) of the Union Defence ministry. Missing Compensation Dacharam and its neighbouring Dharugulla village were located within the 6,400 acres acquired by the Defence ministry in 1962. The lands were used for setting up the AFA. The ministry had paid compensation to 13 villages for the agricultural lands that the government acquired. But they did not pay compensation for the 109 acres of land where both the villages stood. As compensation package did not factor in the structural cost of the two villages, they decided to not accept the compensation. The villagers thus did not collect the cheques that were issued to them and the defence ministry agreed to further discuss the matter. But in 1963 the Indo-China war broke out and the whole issue was forgotten by the defence ministry, said Sudhakar Reddy, a resident of Dharugulla village. Dacharam and Dharugulla remained the only two villages that did not accept compensation and for a while all was good, he added. The villagers continued to farm at their ancestral lands that was now owned by the central government. We knew the land did not belong to us but awaited compensation that was promised to us, says Sudhakar. The AFA did not lay claim to the lands nor the villages, so we continued farming at our ancestral lands. Both the villages fell outside AFA fences, he added. Ravindar and Bhagyamma, a couple, struggling to live in Kishepally village in Sangareddy district | Sayantan Ghosh In 2008, the AFA gave the excess land of 1,400 acres out of the 6,000 acers to the Research Centre Imarat (RCI) of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO). They were to build a top secret facility for a project code named ORANGE. The outer wall construction of the new project thus boxed in both the villages. In 2012, the Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) package for both the villages were discussed at a meeting. The meeting was held between the state government officials, defence ministry and representatives from both the villages. At the meeting, the monetary entitlement and benefits entitled were discussed and agreed upon. Under the R&R package, each family was supposed to get `1,52,500 and 300 square yards each for a new home. The package was also to contain the payment towards structures that had not yet been released by the DRDO. Two conditions were set before the villagers, one was not to obstruct the project work of DRDO and the other was to stop farming. The villagers agreed to both the demands. The land allotted at Kistaipally village for the displaced families was part of the rehabilitation package. It was to be developed into a modern colony with funds from the defence ministry and be executed by the district collector. Of the `14.4 crore sanctioned in 2014, `7.2 crore was released to the then Medak collector and `5.5 crore was utilised. The Eviction In 2014, four members from Dacharam approached the AP High Court. They were from the Schedule Caste community and the few acres of land they had were patta lands gifted to them by the N T Rama Rao government but the land belonged the defence ministry, said Sudhakar.They fought the case badly, he added. This was when things started going out of hand for Dacharam villagers, said a state government official with the revenue department. The court did not rule in favour of Dacharam. The farmers who filed the case could not prove they were residents of the village. The court verdict unofficially declared the entire village as encroachers, he added. The R&R package entitled to both the villages was withdrawn by the High Court. Thus the `7.2 crore spent on the development work undertaken at Kistaipally village also came to a standstill. The villagers who went to court were fined `1,500 for wasting the time of the High Court. They now live in different villages but not everyone stays in touch with them. Their decision to go the court affected everyone, said Sudhakar. We had no problem paying compensation and money for the R&R, but with a standing High Court order, we cannot do anything, said a senior official with the RCI, DRDO. These people shot themselves on their foot, said a revenue department officer. There is nothing that can be done for them as there is a standing court order that prevents them from getting even the rehabilitation package. They went to the court but could not prove they were residents of Dacharam and thus lost the case. Maybe the promise of a two bedroom home can be made possible, but that decision rests with the state government, he added. In August 2015, DRDO completed the construction of their security walls. This brought movement restrictions for anyone entering the two villages. The same year Dharugulla villagers decided to go to the court but fought the case better and was thus able to obtain a stay order from the High Court. Witnessing the small victory, Dacharam villagers too decided to approach the court but in a more united fashion. But on September 14, 2015, officials from both state and central government started the demolition work at Dacharam. By evening, 275 families were destitute. The DRDO officials were kind enough to grant three days allowing the villagers to collect their belongings from the demolished village. The residents of Dharagulla village watched the demolition work at Dacharam in horror. Some of the villagers stayed even longer in the village, with no water supply or electricity. They just did not have anywhere else to go. The officials did not inform or give them any time, said Sudhakar. The tale of two villages The only sign of the resettlement money spent by the local administration in 2014 in developing Kistaipally village are the unused sewage drain pipes. There exists no proper roads that connect this part of the Kistaipally village to the main road. For Ravinder to find work, he either has to travel on foot for 11 kilometres to the main road for commute or wait for an RTC bus that makes three trips a day. Kistaipally is a fully electrified village but come night the new residents are left in the dark. The electric poles and a transformer has remained idle for the last four years. I sent my two children to live with my relatives in Karimnagar, they dont find this place safe, there is nothing for them here, said Radha. Her family had taken a loan of `35,000 from a local money lender to build their new asbestos home. We moved here because we couldnt pay the rent for our previous home, she added. The joint collector had visited us and promised to set up electricity, water and sewage connections, said T Ravi, who moved to the location eight months ago and now works as a driver. The local MLA Mahipal Reddy also promised that the state government will construct two bedroom houses for us. I hope that the promise will be kept, Ravi added. Sangareddy district Joint Collector Venkateshwarlu refused to comment of the matter while Patanchery MLA Mahipal Reddy was unavailable for comment. The women in the village travel two kilometres, three times a day to access the nearest water source. The local villagers helped us build the borewell, but they treat us like outsiders, said Ravi. They do not even let us cremate our dead, he added. A few metres behind their new settlement is the Bollaram industrial lake. The water is not fit for drinking, the industries release their chemicals into that lake, said Ravi. Taking pity on the plight of the new residents of the village, a water tanker provides them with a few tubs of drinking water, but for a token charge. All the twelve families could no longer afford to pay rent for the houses they moved to after being evicted from their homes. The rest of the 275 families are scattered across 35 kilometre radius of Dacharam, all of them live in rented spaces. More are expected to join their brethren at Kistaipally in the coming months. The main cause of worry for new residents is the lack of employment prospects,There was a time when I would make `15,000 in a year as profit just by farming, now I am able to earn just `6000, travelling expense alone would cost me `2,000. My wife is a heart patient I cant even afford the medicines anymore, said Ravindar as he nudged his wife to cover the torn part of her blouse. If Dacharam villagers are struggling to put their lives back together, the residents of Daragulla are trying to not let it fall apart. Out of the 50 families that previously resided in the village, only 12 remain. We dont have anywhere else to go, says Sudhakar whose only house has its walls and roof falling apart. We still stay here with the hope that the compensation money will arrive someday, he added. A few of the houses that fell outside the village boundary were destroyed by the DRDO, some houses fell apart due to neglect. The state government machinery does not exist for the village anymore. Owing to its smaller size, the village is now a hamlet of a much larger Gummadidala village. People are not repairing the houses anymore, what is the point? We will be evicted sooner or later, says Prashant Reddy a businessman. I live in Hyderabad but I visit here everyday to have lunch with my parents. They are attached to this place and chose to still live here, he added. With agricultural options not available, the men of the village now make a living selling milk. Few of the women have found work at nearby pharmaceutical companies working for `140 a day packing tablets. If the security guards find our cattle, they will lock them outside the gate 10 km away from the village, said Anand Reddy, the 41-year-old used to farm 40 acres of land but is now a cattle rearer. We dont want to stay here anymore. But what choice do we have? We will move out of here when we get our compensation,Anand added. The pathway that leads to Dacharam are now filled with thorny bushes and from among the bushes the village emerges with the sight of rubble. Recalling the day Dacharam was destroyed, Prashant said, If we tried to stop the officials from razing a building at this part, they would start razing the buildings at another end of the village. We had no choice but to cry out to them to stop. The only structures left standing at Dacharam today are the village school and community hall, a crumbling water tank, a Hanuman temple and a watchtower built during the time of the Nizams. No one comes here anymore, it is painful to watch. Dacharam now exists only in government records, said Prashant.
By AFP

COLOMBO: Hopes of finding anyone alive under a collapsed mountain of garbage in Sri Lanka's capital faded Sunday as the death toll reached 23 with another six reported missing, police said.

Hundreds of soldiers, backed by heavy earth moving equipment were digging through the rubbish and the wreckage of some 145 homes that were destroyed when a side of the 300-foot (90-metre) high dump crashed on Friday.

"The rescue is fast becoming a recovery operation," a senior police official at the site said. "It is difficult to imagine anyone could survive under these toxic conditions."

He said six people were reported missing after Friday's disaster at Kolonnawa on the northeastern edge of the capital.

The Colombo National hospital said four children aged between 11 and 15 were among the 23 people killed. Hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa said a man and a woman pulled out of the dump on Friday were in intensive care while another 11 were also still in hospital.

Police have stepped up security in the area following reports of looting and said they arrested 18 men suspected of stealing victims' belongings.

President Maithripala Sirisena ordered hundreds of troops to search for survivors and bolster rescue efforts of the fire department.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is visiting Japan, said arrangements had been made to remove the garbage dump, but it came crashing down before relocation work could begin.

Wickremesinghe said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered help with the recovery effort and a technical team would be sent to Sri Lanka to evaluate the situation.

About 800 tonnes of solid waste is added per day to the open dump.

Police said a total of 145 homes, mostly shacks, were destroyed when the garbage mountain came crashing down following heavy rain the previous day and a fire hours earlier.

More than 600 people have been given temporary shelter at a government-run school in the area as authorities looked for alternative accommodation for those living near the dump.

Many residents had evacuated their homes before the disaster because of the heavy rain.

Sri Lanka's parliament was warned recently that the 23 million tonnes of garbage rotting at Kolonnawa was a serious health hazard.

Efforts are under way to generate electricity using solid waste as fuel

COLOMBO: Hopes of finding anyone alive under a collapsed mountain of garbage in Sri Lanka's capital faded Sunday as the death toll reached 23 with another six reported missing, police said. Hundreds of soldiers, backed by heavy earth moving equipment were digging through the rubbish and the wreckage of some 145 homes that were destroyed when a side of the 300-foot (90-metre) high dump crashed on Friday. "The rescue is fast becoming a recovery operation," a senior police official at the site said. "It is difficult to imagine anyone could survive under these toxic conditions." He said six people were reported missing after Friday's disaster at Kolonnawa on the northeastern edge of the capital. The Colombo National hospital said four children aged between 11 and 15 were among the 23 people killed. Hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa said a man and a woman pulled out of the dump on Friday were in intensive care while another 11 were also still in hospital. Police have stepped up security in the area following reports of looting and said they arrested 18 men suspected of stealing victims' belongings. President Maithripala Sirisena ordered hundreds of troops to search for survivors and bolster rescue efforts of the fire department. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is visiting Japan, said arrangements had been made to remove the garbage dump, but it came crashing down before relocation work could begin. Wickremesinghe said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered help with the recovery effort and a technical team would be sent to Sri Lanka to evaluate the situation. About 800 tonnes of solid waste is added per day to the open dump. Police said a total of 145 homes, mostly shacks, were destroyed when the garbage mountain came crashing down following heavy rain the previous day and a fire hours earlier. More than 600 people have been given temporary shelter at a government-run school in the area as authorities looked for alternative accommodation for those living near the dump. Many residents had evacuated their homes before the disaster because of the heavy rain. Sri Lanka's parliament was warned recently that the 23 million tonnes of garbage rotting at Kolonnawa was a serious health hazard. Efforts are under way to generate electricity using solid waste as fuel
By AFP

HANOI: At least a dozen Vietnamese police have been held hostage over a land dispute with residents near Hanoi, activists and state media said today, in a rare show of defiance of communist authorities. The incident began on Saturday in the suburban My Duc district when authorities clashed with villagers who alleged their land was illegally seized for sale by a military-owned telecoms firm.

The exact number of policemen and officials being held by residents could not immediately be confirmed, but images on social media showed at least 12 uniformed men under guard. "Local residents said they have no intention of releasing the hostages unless the central government intervenes," said La Viet Dung, a social activist who visited the site Sunday morning.

"People have closed off their villages. No one can come in or out. The police are surrounding the area also, preventing media access. The situation is tense," Dung told AFP. A My Duc resident told AFP today police had fired in the air during yesterday's clashes. "Some residents were also taken into custody by police for unknown reasons," he said, requesting anonymity.

Local police and authorities refused to comment. But state media said four residents were taken into custody while some police were also being held by villagers. "Some citizens... have committed acts of obstruction and illegally held Hanoi police officers," the Vietnam News Agency said, quoting a police announcement.

Land disputes are common in Vietnam, where powerful individuals and companies often make claims on property. The government strictly controls freedom of expression and the right to protest but flashpoints occur.

In 2012 a Vietnamese fish farmer used homemade weapons to resist a forced eviction and injured seven policemen. The farmer was jailed for five years, but his case became a symbol of growing public dissatisfaction over land rights.

In 2013 a gunman killed a provincial official before committing suicide in an apparent dispute over land in northern Vietnam.

HANOI: At least a dozen Vietnamese police have been held hostage over a land dispute with residents near Hanoi, activists and state media said today, in a rare show of defiance of communist authorities. The incident began on Saturday in the suburban My Duc district when authorities clashed with villagers who alleged their land was illegally seized for sale by a military-owned telecoms firm. The exact number of policemen and officials being held by residents could not immediately be confirmed, but images on social media showed at least 12 uniformed men under guard. "Local residents said they have no intention of releasing the hostages unless the central government intervenes," said La Viet Dung, a social activist who visited the site Sunday morning. "People have closed off their villages. No one can come in or out. The police are surrounding the area also, preventing media access. The situation is tense," Dung told AFP. A My Duc resident told AFP today police had fired in the air during yesterday's clashes. "Some residents were also taken into custody by police for unknown reasons," he said, requesting anonymity. Local police and authorities refused to comment. But state media said four residents were taken into custody while some police were also being held by villagers. "Some citizens... have committed acts of obstruction and illegally held Hanoi police officers," the Vietnam News Agency said, quoting a police announcement. Land disputes are common in Vietnam, where powerful individuals and companies often make claims on property. The government strictly controls freedom of expression and the right to protest but flashpoints occur. In 2012 a Vietnamese fish farmer used homemade weapons to resist a forced eviction and injured seven policemen. The farmer was jailed for five years, but his case became a symbol of growing public dissatisfaction over land rights. In 2013 a gunman killed a provincial official before committing suicide in an apparent dispute over land in northern Vietnam.
By AFP

ROME: The bodies of seven migrants, including a small boy, were found during the latest rescue operations off Libya, a Maltese NGO and the Italian coastguard said today. "Imagine to carry an eight-year-old boy's lifeless body into your house on Easter Sunday. I will never forget this day," tweeted Chris Catrambone, founder of Maltese NGO Moas.

Dozens of Mediterranean rescue operations throughout the day spotted around 2,000 would-be migrants, according to an Italian coastguard estimate. As weather conditions deteriorated, NGOs urged more vessels to head to the region, with their own already crammed with around 4,500 people picked up from unseaworthy vessels the previous day in 35 operations.

The fine weather going into the weekend had evidently sparked a spike in the number of people attempting the perilous crossing to Europe. Friday had already seen some 2,000 people rescued while the body of one young man was found, presumed asphyxiated, aboard one vessel bursting with people.

With arrivals showing no sign of abating, EU's border control agency Frontex has accused donor-funded vessels of doing more harm than good by acting "like taxis" off Libya. Italian prosecutors have suggested they may have links with traffickers -- a charge fiercely rejected.

Distressing images of African migrants being plucked from heaving seas or the coffin-strewn aftermath of major sinkings have become a regular feature of television news bulletins since the crisis began spiralling out of control four years ago.

The International Organization of Migration says 666 people have been logged as dead or missing off the Libyan coast so far this year out of an estimated 27,000 who have tried to reach Italy from Libya. Last year saw around 5,000 deaths.

ROME: The bodies of seven migrants, including a small boy, were found during the latest rescue operations off Libya, a Maltese NGO and the Italian coastguard said today. "Imagine to carry an eight-year-old boy's lifeless body into your house on Easter Sunday. I will never forget this day," tweeted Chris Catrambone, founder of Maltese NGO Moas. Dozens of Mediterranean rescue operations throughout the day spotted around 2,000 would-be migrants, according to an Italian coastguard estimate. As weather conditions deteriorated, NGOs urged more vessels to head to the region, with their own already crammed with around 4,500 people picked up from unseaworthy vessels the previous day in 35 operations. The fine weather going into the weekend had evidently sparked a spike in the number of people attempting the perilous crossing to Europe. Friday had already seen some 2,000 people rescued while the body of one young man was found, presumed asphyxiated, aboard one vessel bursting with people. With arrivals showing no sign of abating, EU's border control agency Frontex has accused donor-funded vessels of doing more harm than good by acting "like taxis" off Libya. Italian prosecutors have suggested they may have links with traffickers -- a charge fiercely rejected. Distressing images of African migrants being plucked from heaving seas or the coffin-strewn aftermath of major sinkings have become a regular feature of television news bulletins since the crisis began spiralling out of control four years ago. The International Organization of Migration says 666 people have been logged as dead or missing off the Libyan coast so far this year out of an estimated 27,000 who have tried to reach Italy from Libya. Last year saw around 5,000 deaths.
By PTI

BEIJING: China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi today held telephonic talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, even as Beijing remained silent over North Korea's 'failed' missile test. China, which warned two days ago that conflict could break out "any moment" in the Korean peninsula, did not comment on North Korea's missile test but stepped up dialogue with the Trump administration, state-run CCTV reported.

However, no details about the telephone conversation between Chinese State Councillor Yang and Tillerson were released to the media. China has also cautioned North Korea against going for sixth nuclear test defying US warnings.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week said the conflict over North Korea could break out "at any moment" and warned there would be "no winner" in any war. The North Korean missile, which was fired from the Sinpo area, exploded almost immediately, according to military officials in South Korea and the US.

Intelligence agencies in South Korea and the US were attempting to extract more details about the missile, including its exact type. Lu Chao, director of the Border Studies Institute at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, said the latest test, despite its failure, could be another defiant message from Pyongyang that it will not change its tough stance in the face of US pressure even amid a growing threat of military action.

However, he said the failure showed that Pyongyang missile technology was flawed. Such a defiant move was likely to draw even more pressure from the US which ordered its nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group to the region, Lu told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

China would also face greater pressure from the US to take further action, including ratcheting up its sanctions against Pyongyang, he added.

Liu Ming, from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing was unlikely to take further action at this stage unless Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test or long- term ballistic missile test as Beijing insisted that talks, not military action, were the only solution to the North Korean issues. "China needs to create conditions and the right atmosphere to draw different parties back to the talks table," Liu said

BEIJING: China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi today held telephonic talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, even as Beijing remained silent over North Korea's 'failed' missile test. China, which warned two days ago that conflict could break out "any moment" in the Korean peninsula, did not comment on North Korea's missile test but stepped up dialogue with the Trump administration, state-run CCTV reported. However, no details about the telephone conversation between Chinese State Councillor Yang and Tillerson were released to the media. China has also cautioned North Korea against going for sixth nuclear test defying US warnings. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week said the conflict over North Korea could break out "at any moment" and warned there would be "no winner" in any war. The North Korean missile, which was fired from the Sinpo area, exploded almost immediately, according to military officials in South Korea and the US. Intelligence agencies in South Korea and the US were attempting to extract more details about the missile, including its exact type. Lu Chao, director of the Border Studies Institute at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, said the latest test, despite its failure, could be another defiant message from Pyongyang that it will not change its tough stance in the face of US pressure even amid a growing threat of military action. However, he said the failure showed that Pyongyang missile technology was flawed. Such a defiant move was likely to draw even more pressure from the US which ordered its nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group to the region, Lu told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. China would also face greater pressure from the US to take further action, including ratcheting up its sanctions against Pyongyang, he added. Liu Ming, from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing was unlikely to take further action at this stage unless Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test or long- term ballistic missile test as Beijing insisted that talks, not military action, were the only solution to the North Korean issues. "China needs to create conditions and the right atmosphere to draw different parties back to the talks table," Liu said
By AFP

BEIRUT: The death toll in a suicide car bomb attack on buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns has risen to at least 112, a monitoring group said Sunday. At least 68 children were among those killed in the attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 98 evacuees from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya were killed when an explosives-laden vehicle hit their buses at a transit point west of Aleppo on Saturday.



Saturday's attack in Rashidin west of Aleppo killed at least 126 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead.

It said the remainder of the dead were aid workers and rebels tasked with guarding the buses.

It warned the death toll may rise further as "hundreds" more were wounded in the blast.

Dozens of buses carrying several thousand refugees had been stuck by the roadside in the rebel-held town of Rashidin after leaving Fuaa and Kafraya on Friday under a deal reached between the government and opposition groups.

Fuaa and Kafraya have been under rebel siege for more than two years. As part of the deal, several hundred people including armed rebels will be transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus, which are surrounded by pro-government forces.

Syria's six-year civil war has seen several similar deals, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad says are the best way to end the violence. Rebels say they are being forced to relocate through bombardment and seige.

The government blamed Saturday's attack on "terrorists" -- its catch-all term for opposition groups.

The influential rebel Ahrar al-Sham force denied involvement, with a senior official tweeting: "Our role was to secure civilians not kill them."

The blast puts the four-town evacuation deal, brokered partly by rebel backer Qatar and government ally Iran, in doubt.

The Observatory said after the bombing that the evacuation process had resumed, but it was not immediately clear on Sunday if convoys had restarted their journeys.

BEIRUT: The death toll in a suicide car bomb attack on buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns has risen to at least 112, a monitoring group said Sunday. At least 68 children were among those killed in the attack. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 98 evacuees from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya were killed when an explosives-laden vehicle hit their buses at a transit point west of Aleppo on Saturday. Saturday's attack in Rashidin west of Aleppo killed at least 126 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead. It said the remainder of the dead were aid workers and rebels tasked with guarding the buses. It warned the death toll may rise further as "hundreds" more were wounded in the blast. Dozens of buses carrying several thousand refugees had been stuck by the roadside in the rebel-held town of Rashidin after leaving Fuaa and Kafraya on Friday under a deal reached between the government and opposition groups. Fuaa and Kafraya have been under rebel siege for more than two years. As part of the deal, several hundred people including armed rebels will be transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus, which are surrounded by pro-government forces. Syria's six-year civil war has seen several similar deals, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad says are the best way to end the violence. Rebels say they are being forced to relocate through bombardment and seige. The government blamed Saturday's attack on "terrorists" -- its catch-all term for opposition groups. The influential rebel Ahrar al-Sham force denied involvement, with a senior official tweeting: "Our role was to secure civilians not kill them." The blast puts the four-town evacuation deal, brokered partly by rebel backer Qatar and government ally Iran, in doubt. The Observatory said after the bombing that the evacuation process had resumed, but it was not immediately clear on Sunday if convoys had restarted their journeys.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has prepared a new dossier about alleged militant activities of Indian prisoner on death row Kulbhushan Jadhav and will share it with the UN and foreign envoys stationed here, media reports have said.

The new dossier is based on Jadhav's early testimonial and statements given in front of the Field General Court Martial about his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan, reports said.

The document contains the attested report of Court Martial General, as well as the court proceedings timeline, The Nation reported.

Jadhav, 46, was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and was awarded the death sentence. Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed the death sentence last week.

The documents will also contain details of arrests and raids done by Pakistan security agencies on Jadhav's tip-offs.

"The dossier will be handed over to different ambassadors in Islamabad. The Pakistani envoys across the world will also present it to their host states," the paper said.

The document will also be shared with the United Nations and other global organisations, it added.

On Friday, Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale said they would appeal against the death sentence to Jadhav and demanded from Pakistan a certified copy of the charge-sheet as well as the army court order in the case, besides seeking consular access to the retired Indian navy officer.

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.

The Jadhav episode could further strain the India- Pakistan ties which were hit after attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan-based terrorists last year.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has prepared a new dossier about alleged militant activities of Indian prisoner on death row Kulbhushan Jadhav and will share it with the UN and foreign envoys stationed here, media reports have said. The new dossier is based on Jadhav's early testimonial and statements given in front of the Field General Court Martial about his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan, reports said. The document contains the attested report of Court Martial General, as well as the court proceedings timeline, The Nation reported. Jadhav, 46, was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and was awarded the death sentence. Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed the death sentence last week. The documents will also contain details of arrests and raids done by Pakistan security agencies on Jadhav's tip-offs. "The dossier will be handed over to different ambassadors in Islamabad. The Pakistani envoys across the world will also present it to their host states," the paper said. The document will also be shared with the United Nations and other global organisations, it added. On Friday, Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale said they would appeal against the death sentence to Jadhav and demanded from Pakistan a certified copy of the charge-sheet as well as the army court order in the case, besides seeking consular access to the retired Indian navy officer. 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. The Jadhav episode could further strain the India- Pakistan ties which were hit after attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan-based terrorists last year.
By AFP

NIAMEY: Nigerien authorities said Sunday three police officers have been arrested after allegedly assaulting a demonstrator at a violent student protest this week that left one person dead and forced the closure of Niger's top university.

Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey was reopened on Saturday after President Mahamadou Issoufou held talks with student leaders in a bid to defuse the crisis.

The campus had been closed since hundreds of unhappy students joined a demonstration Monday demanding better living and studying conditions.

The protest paralysed traffic as demonstrators set up barricades of tree trunks, blocks of stone and burning tyres, mainly on the right bank of the River Niger where the campus is located.

Security forces used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who responded by throwing stones, according to images shown on local television.

One protester died after a fall which was not linked to police action, the authorities said, but the students' union insisted the death was a result of the student having been hit by a police tear gas cannister.

An inquiry has been opened.

National police spokesman Adily Toro told reporters that the three officers were arrested over another incident involving a protester.

They have "broken the laws and the rules of the republic" and "will answer for their acts before competent courts", Toro said.

A video posted on social media and broadcast on private television stations shows police officers hitting a protester while forcing him to chant: "Long live the police."

According to official figures, 313 people were arrested, but 140 have since been released. A total of 109 people were injured, including 88 protesters and 21 police.

The government also reopened another university in the central city of Maradi, Niger's third largest, which had also been shut down because of student protests.

NIAMEY: Nigerien authorities said Sunday three police officers have been arrested after allegedly assaulting a demonstrator at a violent student protest this week that left one person dead and forced the closure of Niger's top university. Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey was reopened on Saturday after President Mahamadou Issoufou held talks with student leaders in a bid to defuse the crisis. The campus had been closed since hundreds of unhappy students joined a demonstration Monday demanding better living and studying conditions. The protest paralysed traffic as demonstrators set up barricades of tree trunks, blocks of stone and burning tyres, mainly on the right bank of the River Niger where the campus is located. Security forces used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who responded by throwing stones, according to images shown on local television. One protester died after a fall which was not linked to police action, the authorities said, but the students' union insisted the death was a result of the student having been hit by a police tear gas cannister. An inquiry has been opened. National police spokesman Adily Toro told reporters that the three officers were arrested over another incident involving a protester. They have "broken the laws and the rules of the republic" and "will answer for their acts before competent courts", Toro said. A video posted on social media and broadcast on private television stations shows police officers hitting a protester while forcing him to chant: "Long live the police." According to official figures, 313 people were arrested, but 140 have since been released. A total of 109 people were injured, including 88 protesters and 21 police. The government also reopened another university in the central city of Maradi, Niger's third largest, which had also been shut down because of student protests.
By PTI

WASHINTON: US National Security Adviser Lt Gen H R McMaster appeared hopeful today of a turnaround in ties with Russia as he said the relations will go up from here, but blamed Moscow for the "cycle of violence" in Syria.

"When relations are at the lowest point, there's nowhere to go but up," McMaster told ABC News. His comments came at a time when US President Donald Trump has abandoned his soft line on Russia in recent weeks and said US relations with Russia "may be at an all-time low."

Soon after his coming into office on January 20, Trump, who praised Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout his election campaign, had appeared to go ahead for a potentially historic rapprochement with Russia. But that hope quickly died over the ongoing investigation by the US into alleged Russian meddling into the presidential election in November that brought Trump into White House, and due to the worsening crisis in Syria - an ally of Russia.

"Russia has given support to a murderous regime in Syria, that has perpetuated a civil war and as cycle of violence that, along with obviously the brutal... actions of ISIS, has brought suffering to so many people, has created a crisis within Syria that has bled over into Iraq, has bled over into neighbouring countries and into Europe and so forth," he said.

"So Russia's support for that kind of horrible regime, that is a party to that kind of a conflict, is something that has to be drawn into question," the official said.

Trump last week ordered air strikes on a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack in which more than 80 people died. The US has described the use of chemical agent as a nerve gas attack that Syrian President Bashar al- Assad ordered. Assad denied and Russia said rebels were responsible for the attack.

WASHINTON: US National Security Adviser Lt Gen H R McMaster appeared hopeful today of a turnaround in ties with Russia as he said the relations will go up from here, but blamed Moscow for the "cycle of violence" in Syria. "When relations are at the lowest point, there's nowhere to go but up," McMaster told ABC News. His comments came at a time when US President Donald Trump has abandoned his soft line on Russia in recent weeks and said US relations with Russia "may be at an all-time low." Soon after his coming into office on January 20, Trump, who praised Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout his election campaign, had appeared to go ahead for a potentially historic rapprochement with Russia. But that hope quickly died over the ongoing investigation by the US into alleged Russian meddling into the presidential election in November that brought Trump into White House, and due to the worsening crisis in Syria - an ally of Russia. "Russia has given support to a murderous regime in Syria, that has perpetuated a civil war and as cycle of violence that, along with obviously the brutal... actions of ISIS, has brought suffering to so many people, has created a crisis within Syria that has bled over into Iraq, has bled over into neighbouring countries and into Europe and so forth," he said. "So Russia's support for that kind of horrible regime, that is a party to that kind of a conflict, is something that has to be drawn into question," the official said. Trump last week ordered air strikes on a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack in which more than 80 people died. The US has described the use of chemical agent as a nerve gas attack that Syrian President Bashar al- Assad ordered. Assad denied and Russia said rebels were responsible for the attack.
In December 2014, about 300 people gathered in Marshall for what was called a "pheasant summit." Among those present was longtime pheasant hunter Gov. Mark Dayton, who convened the meeting.

At the conclusion of that gathering, a 10-part "pheasant action plan" was announced, with all of the ideas meant to help pheasants and/or pheasant hunters. Item No. 6 in that plan read as follows: "Develop and implement a comprehensive riparian buffer program."

At the time, few people could have predicted the uproar that would be caused by that one short statement.

It turned out that Minnesota already had laws on its books requiring farmers to maintain buffer strips along rivers, creeks and drainage ditches, but the rules were confusing, and enforcement was spotty at best and non-existent in many parts of the state. Still, with the focus on pheasant habitat, the issue didn't gain much traction.

But then Dayton made a critical pivot, making pheasant habitat merely an extra benefit of buffer strips that would serve primarily to prevent erosion and farm chemical runoff into Minnesota's streams, rivers and lakes. With our state's water quality at stake, mandating buffer strips became one of Dayton's top legislative priorities, and in May 2015 he signed the Minnesota Statewide Buffer Program into law.

Dayton sees this law  and the cleaner water that could and should result from it  as a big part of his legacy. We do, too. With more and more of our lakes and rivers in this Land of 10,000 Lakes being declared impaired, unfit for swimming and their fish unfit for eating, it is time to take direct action to protect our water.

But the Legislature, at the urging of farmers across the state, is attempting to loosen the rules that were set in 2015, and to delay implementation of these rules by one year, to Nov. 1, 2018.

Many farmers say that the drainage ditches that flow through their property were improperly classified as public waterways when the buffer zone map was created. That matters because a private waterway requires just a 16.5-foot buffer, while public waterways require a 50-foot buffer. Republican lawmakers are pushing for changes that, according to the Minnesota DNR, would reclassify 48,000 miles of public waterways as private. This in turn would mean a lot less grass and a lot more corn and soybeans.

The other issue is cost  and on that count, we understand the farmers' plight. It's bad enough to have to take cropland permanently out of production, but having to pay for the cost of creating buffer strips is a double-whammy.

Financial assistance for creating the buffers and keeping land permanently out of production is available through more than a dozen federal, state and local sources, including the federal Conservation Reserve Program, the state Reinvest in Minnesota program, and through local Soil and Conservation Districts. This week, the Legislature approved $22 million in Legacy funding that will be distributed by local districts to help farmers create and maintain buffers.

Of all the proposals being pushed by the Legislature, the one-year delay seems least objectionable. Buffer strips aren't created overnight, and we can understand why farmers would want to explore all their options in terms of getting financial aid from county, state and federal governments.

For evidence that this process is complicated, look no further than the Minnesota DNR's "Buffer Mapping Project" webpage. It lists 21 "common buffer questions," and many of the answers to these questions are extremely long and complex.

Giving farmers an extra year to get things squared away would be fine with us. At the very least, farmers should have the right to apply for an extension if they can prove they are making a good-faith effort to comply.

But we urge Dayton to hold a hard line on other changes to the buffer law. Those waterways that farmers see as "private" eventually flow into public waters, and with more and more of Minnesota's farmland being tiled for better drainage, the volume of water that races through these waterways is increasing every year.

The 2015 Legislature gave bipartisan support to Dayton's buffer law. We see no reason for him to allow the 2017 Legislature to lessen the law's impact and benefits.

This editorial appeared in the April 6 edition of the Post-Bulletin of Rochester, Minnesota.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: A 13-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed himself live on Instagram as his friends watched in horror. Malachi Hemphill of Forest Park, Georgia, was found unconscious by his mother Shaniqua Stephens and her daughter after they heard a loud bang from his bedroom.

"I heard a big boom. I couldn't tell if it was a gunshot or what. I just knew that it was something that was wrong," the boy's mother Shaniqua Stephens told WXIA-TV. She and her daughter ran upstairs and found him. "We kicked in the door. We found him just laying there in a pool of blood," Stephens recounted.

"My daughter screamed and said, 'Mom turn his phone off!' As I proceeded to look at his phone he was on Instagram Live," she said. Hemphill was live on the social media site Instagram handling the gun when it went off. He was rushed to Grady Hospital where he died. "This is just a pain that will never go away. He was my only son. He was just 13. Just the thought of me seeing him on the floor will never leave my brain," she said.

Stephens said it was an accident and not an intentional suicide. Several of his friends were watching when the shooting happened last Monday. Stephens said they rushed to her house afterward. "There was about 40 to 50 kids outside. I guess these were the kids that were watching on live in the area. I guess when it happened they just ran over here," she said.

She has been told that someone asked why he did not have a clip in the gun and told him to put a clip in the gun. "As he put the clip in the gun, that is when the gun went off," Stephens said. Stephens, however, was not completely sure how Malachi got the gun. She was told he got the gun from a friend who got it from someone else. She said it was hard to keep track of his activities on social media even though she and her husband Ernest monitored his profiles often. She said she hopes parents get the message to keep a vigilant eye on what children are doing and who they are doing it with.

WASHINGTON: A 13-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed himself live on Instagram as his friends watched in horror. Malachi Hemphill of Forest Park, Georgia, was found unconscious by his mother Shaniqua Stephens and her daughter after they heard a loud bang from his bedroom. "I heard a big boom. I couldn't tell if it was a gunshot or what. I just knew that it was something that was wrong," the boy's mother Shaniqua Stephens told WXIA-TV. She and her daughter ran upstairs and found him. "We kicked in the door. We found him just laying there in a pool of blood," Stephens recounted. "My daughter screamed and said, 'Mom turn his phone off!' As I proceeded to look at his phone he was on Instagram Live," she said. Hemphill was live on the social media site Instagram handling the gun when it went off. He was rushed to Grady Hospital where he died. "This is just a pain that will never go away. He was my only son. He was just 13. Just the thought of me seeing him on the floor will never leave my brain," she said. Stephens said it was an accident and not an intentional suicide. Several of his friends were watching when the shooting happened last Monday. Stephens said they rushed to her house afterward. "There was about 40 to 50 kids outside. I guess these were the kids that were watching on live in the area. I guess when it happened they just ran over here," she said. She has been told that someone asked why he did not have a clip in the gun and told him to put a clip in the gun. "As he put the clip in the gun, that is when the gun went off," Stephens said. Stephens, however, was not completely sure how Malachi got the gun. She was told he got the gun from a friend who got it from someone else. She said it was hard to keep track of his activities on social media even though she and her husband Ernest monitored his profiles often. She said she hopes parents get the message to keep a vigilant eye on what children are doing and who they are doing it with.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. High 61F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low around 45F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.
Dear President Donald Trump,

Letting the public see your recent tax returns would be not only in the best interest of the country, but also is in your own interest. With millions of us filing our own tax returns this month, there is no better time for release of your returns than now.

We understand you want to allow an audit by the Internal Revenue Service to be completed before you release your tax information. Your business sense  probably along with your attorneys and accountants  is telling you to avoid subjecting your tax information to double-jeopardy scrutiny by the public and IRS.

But you are no longer primarily Donald Trump, business executive. You are Donald Trump, president of the United States. You remain the only president to withhold his tax returns from public review since Richard Nixon opened his returns in 1973. Furthermore, other presidents have made their tax returns public despite undergoing annual audits required of all presidents while in office.

It is important for us, as a nation, to have your tax information so we can evaluate what  if any  business relationships you may have had that pose potential conflicts of interest, especially connections with Russia, accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential election. We also deserve to know what sorts of tax breaks you have received so that we can better evaluate the tax reform legislation you are developing and what  if any  personal gain or loss you might suffer from that reform.

It is important for you to reveal your tax information because a president needs the public's confidence and support. Because of serious questions about your associates' links to Russian businesses and to Russian officials as well as concerns about your personal stake in tax reform, you are facing skepticism that threatens your ability to get things done. You lost your first attempt to repeal ObamaCare. Your tax reform is already under attack. Your public approval ratings are low. A contributing factor is the cloud of suspicion around you from continuing to withhold your tax information.

We have your 2005 tax return, leaked to a reporter. There were no red flags. But your 2005 return, perhaps deliberately leaked for a political purpose, is not enough to put concerns to rest.

We need more recent returns to properly answer our questions. You do not need to reveal your entire return. Your 1040 form will offer access to your sources of income to help us discover any suspicious business relationships. Your Schedule A will show us your itemized deductions so we can understand which tax breaks affect you personally.

Your opponents are sure to use information from your returns for political grandstanding. But most of us are capable of sifting through the partisan sensationalism to find the issues of national interest.

Release your returns, Mr. President.

This editorial appeared in the April 9 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal, another Lee Enterprises publication.
Kathmandu/ New Delhi: With Nepal's President Bidya Devi Bhandari beginning her state visit on Monday, India said its relations with Nepal are people-centric and are focused on improving connectivity between the neighbours as well as energy infrastructure.



"We have maintained our focus on implementation of ongoing connectivity and development projects such as Terai roads, cross-border rail lines linkages, development of integrated check posts on the border, cross-border oil pipeline -- the first in South Asia -- and cross-border transmission lines," said Joint Secretary, Nepal and Bhutan, in the Indian External Affairs Ministry Sudhakar Dalela while briefing media on the upcoming visit in New Delhi.



In her first foreign tour, Bhandari is paying a state visit to India from April 17 to 21 at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee. Besides meeting top Indian leaders, Bhandari, who will be accompanied by a high-level 33-member delegation, will also visit Gujarat and Odisha.



The visit reflects "the priority India attaches to further strengthening the age-old unique partnership with Nepal and our shared historical and cultural linkages and strong people to people connection", Dalela said.



On the cooperation between the two neighbours in the area of energy infrastructure, he said this is witnessing a new high with the Indian cabinet last month approving investment of Rs 5,723 crore for Arun 3 power project in Nepal and operationalisation of the Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar high capacity transmission line, which has taken India's electricity supply to Nepal to about 380 MW.



The project, located on Arun River in Sankhuwasabha district of eastern Nepal, will provides 21.9 per cent free power to Nepal for the entire concession period of 25 years while the surplus will go to India.



About the power transmission lines, Dalela said: "We have almost finished work on two more transmission line projects from Raxaul to Parwanipur(Nepal) and Kushaha (Nepal)-Kataiya and we believe with the conclusion of these two projects, we will be able to supply more power to Nepal."



India is supplying 80 MW more through the Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar (Nepal) transmission line from this year.



Dalela also said that India had also agreed to Nepal's proposed 16 road projects and bridges of amount for approximately $300 million under the $550 million line of credit India had extended.



On the trade imbalance, he said that bilateral trade is about $5 billion and Nepal's exports to India about $600 million and both governments are trying to improve the condition of trade including issues related to non-tariff barriers.



He also said that the bilateral oversight mechanism, which was established in last October, has met three times in last six months and has been extremely helpful in addressing implementation challenges of both sides.



On the border Integrated Check Post, he said the one at Birganj is 85 per cent done and will be completed this year while the contract for Birganj has been awarded, while the work on two rail links - Jogbani-Biratnagar and Jayanagar-Bartibas is on.



On the ongoing consultation for exchange of demonetised Indian currency notes held by Nepalis, he said: "Nepal's Rashtra Bank and the Reserve Bank of India have been in consultation in process of dialogue. Very recently a delegation of RBI visited Nepal to hold discussions. Progress so far has been very good... This issue is in focus of both sides."



To a query on the constitution making process in Nepal, he said: "India has an abiding interest peace stability and development in Nepal" and is supportive of Nepal's "efforts to address all constitutional implementation issues by taking all section of the society on board".



Meanwhile in Kathmandu, the Nepal government said that no MoU will be signed during the visit, which is just a goodwill visit mainly focusing on consolidating and strengthening the bilateral ties.



Bhandari's 33-member delegation includes Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat and Peace and Reconstruction Minister Sita Devi Yadav, five women parliament members representing various political parties, two former MPs, senior officials at the President's Office and the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs, security personnel and three media persons.



The Nepal government has decided to have two public holidays - on Monday and Friday - during the departure and return of the President. Law Minister Ajay Shankar Nayak said that as per custom, public holidays are given whenever the head of state embarks on an official visit to any nation.



Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport has declared no-fly zones for 35 minutes from 10.30 a.m. when the President is due to leave.
: A day after Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel's purported disinterest in expanding business to "poor countries" like India created controversy in social media, parent company Snap Inc denied the allegation, saying no such remark was made, reports said on Sunday.US-based news website Variety on Saturday quoted Snapchat's ex-employee Anthony Pompliano as saying that Spiegel in September 2015 told him that "the app is only for rich people. I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain".But the company denied the remarks reports of which had resulted in the rating of the popular app dropping to a "single star" from an apparent "five star" on the App Store."The simple fact is that he (Pompliano) knows exactly nothing about Snap's current metrics. He and his lawyers are -- not to put too fine a point on matters -- just making things up," Variety reported Snap's attorneys as saying.Denying the claims of Snapchat being termed as a 'rich people's app', the attorneys termed Pompliano a "disgruntled employee fired for poor performance".The portal YourStory published an official statement from Snap that said: "This is ridiculous. Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! It's available worldwide to download for free."Meanwhile, the rating of the popular app dropped to a "single star" from "five star" on the App Store.According to the app info on App Store, the "Customer Ratings" of the current version of the app was "single star" (based on 6,099 ratings) and all versions' rating was "one and half star" (based on 9,527 ratings) as on Sunday morning.The rating for the app on Android Play Store was "four star" (based on 11,932,996 ratings).Indians did not take the comment lightly and took to social media to lash out at the statement from the CEO. As the ratings of the app dropped, the criticism of the CEO and the app increased."First of all, I didn't even want to give any freakin' star to this app. Evan (CEO of Snapchat) shows how stupid he is by saying this. I bet 3/4th of his company is run by Indian employees. If he didn't want to expand it to poor countries, then why is this app free? Why didn't he put any charges on it?" a user wrote on App Store, condemning the CEO.Some users wrote, "Poor India & Spain need better than Snapchat", "Good bye, My Snapchat Account and Snap Inc. You'll be product of gone by era and derision", and "Poor Evan Spiegel".The app was also trolled on Twitter. #boycottsnapchat became the most trending hashtag on Twitter overnight."I haven't seen any Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc Tweets yet. Thanks @Snapchat for Uniting us," a user tweeted."I was addicted to @Snapchat but I love my country more than this app. Let's see how you earn without Indians. @evanspiegel #boycottsnapchat," another user wrote on twitter.Some users even flagged the app for hateful content and left a message, "Dear @snapchatsupport, flagged you for hateful content. #boycottsnapchat".According to a report in Forbes on Thursday, Facebook's photo-sharing app Instagram surpassed Snapchat in daily active users of "Stories" feature, though the format was first launched by Snapchat in 2013.Instagram's "Stories" feature was now used by more than 200 million people every day -- an increase of 50 million since January.On the other hand, Snapchat which launched the "Stories" format in October 2013, had 161 million daily active users in February."Stories" feature is an ephemeral chain of photo and video clips with filters and special effects. More recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also introduced the feature, imitating Snapchat.Snapchat has more than four million users in India.
Surat (Guj): 11-Km long saree depicting schemes launched by Central Govt displayed on road from Airport to Circuit House ahead of PM's visit pic.twitter.com/6tM1g22cec  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

Later this evening, I will begin my visit to Gujarat as well as Dadra & Nagar Haveli, where I will take part in various programmes tomorrow.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 16, 2017

When Narendra Modi begins his two-day Gujarat visit with Surat on Sunday, his first sight will be a recap of his nearly three-year prime ministership.Part of the grand welcome for Modi is a 11-km-long sari depicting the welfare schemes his government has launched till now. The sari runs along the road from the airport to the Circuit House in Surat, ANI reported.Modis visit will begin with a roadshow in Surat in the evening. He will stay at the circuit house overnight.On Monday, the PM will inaugurate Rs 400-crore Kiran Multi Super Specialty Hospital and Research Centre, built by a trust.Modi will then go to Hira Bourse SEZ at Icchapur village in the district to inaugurate a diamond polishing unit of Hari Krishna Export Private Limited.From there, the Prime Minister will go to Bijapur village of Tapi district to inaugurate a cattle feed plant and ice-cream plant of Surat District Cooperative Milk Producers Union, popularly known as Sumul Dairy, and remotely lay foundation stones for dairy products plant at Nava Pardi. He will also address a gathering there, Sumul Dairy officials said.Modi will then visit Silvassa in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli where also he will address a gathering apart from inaugurating new projects and distributing assistance to beneficiaries.
"Since all remittances were of less than USD 100,000, same was not reported to the RBI via BEF statement. While effecting the outward remittance, the base branch or Forex Branch did not obtain credit reports of the beneficiary," Sunil Kumar Srivastava, Deputy General Manager of the bank told the CBI in his complaint.

A Mumbai-based company has been booked by the CBI for transferring around Rs 11.92 crore to a Hong Kong-based firm "illegitimately" by evading reporting mechanisms at the Bank of Baroda.The company's modus operandi to send money in tranches of less than USD 100,000 was also adopted by several entry operators at the banks Ashok Vihar branch in New Delhi in 2015.In 2015, it was found that over Rs 6,000 crore was transferred to several entities based in Hong Kong and Dubai by entry operators in tranches of less than USD 100,000 to evade detection by automated reporting software deployed at the bank.Entry operators are agents who launder and route black money using normal banking channels without coming under the scanner of banking regulators.The new case has been registered by the CBI against Purvi Traders based in Girgaon, Mumbai, its owner Pradeep Rao and others on charges of criminal conspiracy and cheating.It is alleged that between March 3 and March 26, 2015, the company, having an account at Morland branch of the bank in Mumbai, made 21 outward remittances totalling USD 1.912 million (Rs 11.96 crore) to Hong Kong-based Global Shine Inc Ltd in amounts of less than USD 100,000.The bank started asking Rao and his company to provide evidence of imports and bills of entry but it did not furnish documents required for justification of outward remittances, the bank alleged.Sensing the fraud, the bank officials visited the companys registered office and tried to meet Rao who remained elusive, it claimed.Unable to find the owner and having suffered in a similar case in Delhi, the bank started scrutinising the account statements of the company which showed that Purvi Traders was not involved in any genuine business and account balance was "nil", according to the banks complaint.The bank suspected that account was being utilised for transferring funds to overseas parties in Hong Kong, it said.It found that 39 companies had allegedly transferred funds to Purvi Traders account over a period through different transactions using Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS).The money was sent to the beneficiaries abroad by Purvi Traders from its accounts, the bank alleged."Purvi Traders and others caused losses to the government exchequer by illegitimately remitting foreign exchange amounting to USD 1.912 million," Srivastava has alleged in his complaint which is now part of the CBI FIR.In the 2015 case, the agency had arrested AGMs S K Garg and Jainish Dubey of the banks Ashok Vihar branch who headed the foreign exchange division under various provisions of the IPC and on the charge of corruption.The CBI had found that an estimated Rs 6,000 crore was transferred through nearly 8,000 transactions carried out between July, 2014 and July, 2015 at the Ashok Vihar branch of the bank.
Thiruvananthapuram: Forensic test conducted on the clothes seized by National Investigation Agency (NIA) from the house of Subhani Haja Moideen, the main accused arrested in connection with an ISIS-inspired terror module in Kerala, revealed the presence of explosive residue.



Subhani had joined ISIS in Iraq and had undergone training before coming back to India. He was arrested, along with seven other suspects.



According to NIA, six of these suspects were arrested when they were conducting a secret meeting of Ansarul Khalifa Kerala, the group formed in 2016.



They were charged with criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country, and also under sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).


MEDINA, Minn., April 16, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Complete Eye Care of Medina is pleased and honored to announce that they have been named as one of the CooperVision Best Practices Honorees for 2017. These awards are given based on merit, leadership, and success in the field of optometry.



Each year after a nationwide search, CooperVision, Inc. chooses 10 honorees for this award among all of the optometry practices in the country. The assessment is made in terms of innovation and the clinics ability to stand out in the optometry field through inspirational and exceptional client care.



Complete Eye Care of Medina was founded in 2008 by Gina Wesley, O.D. Both she and optometrist Joelle Holland, O.D. have a mission of assisting each and every client with respect and excellent customer service while improving ocular health and performance. They accomplish this by staying on the cutting edge of new optometry processes and technologies. The Medina optometrists also take pride in attention to detail in all areas to help ensure a superior patient experience at the clinic.



Complete Eye Care of Medina is a full-service optometry clinic offering exams, vision tests, diagnostics, vision therapy, orthokeratology and screenings for progressive eye diseases. They also do contact lens exams and glasses exams and fittings. They offer treatments and solutions for eye conditions such as dry eye, glaucoma, pink eye, and keratitis. Treatment and special lenses can also be prescribed including bifocal, multifocal, toric, and gas-permeable. The Medina optometrist can also provide LASIK surgery evaluations, referrals, and after-care.



CooperVision, Inc. is a division of The Cooper Companies, Inc. and a leading manufacturer of optometry products including soft contact lenses. They strive to bring innovative products and support to optometry practitioners and consumers as well as a fresh perspective to the marketplace.



Dr. Gina Wesley, OD, MS, FAAO says, We are honored to have been named a CooperVision Best Practices Honoree for 2017. We have worked hard to be innovators in our field, and this award will inspire us to achieve even greater heights of success.



Complete Eye Care of Medina also serves the Twin Cities suburbs and communities of Plymouth and Maple Grove. Those in the public who would like to learn more about the practice or book an appointment may do so by calling (763) 225-3859. More information about their optometrists, staff, and services offered by the practice can be accessed on their website at http://completeeyecareofmedina.com/.
Thousands of tourists from within Rajasthan, the neighbouring state of Gujarat and other parts of the country visit Mount Abu during summers.

"The fire was not very far from sunset point and honeymoon point yesterday (Friday) so both the places were evacuated. Besides these two, there are other tourist points in Mount and they are unaffected," Circle Officer Abu Parvat Vijay Pal Singh said.

"Reason of the fire is not clear but bamboo trees in the forest sometimes cause wildfire while some locals fetch honey and for they ignite fire for this process which can also lead to the fire in the forest," Singh said.

In a massive operation, the Indian Air Force (IAF) poured more than 2,60,000 litres of water in 100 sorties to control a wildfire in Rajasthan's Mount Abu.Two MI-17V5 helicopters resumed the operation on Sunday morning amid reports of fresh fires. By afternoon, the aircraft had already undertaken 19 shuttles, delivering over 53,000 litres of water since morning. The fire around Arna village was reported to be dangerously close to inhabited area.The fire broke out on Friday morning in Mount Abu close to the famous sunset and honeymoon point prompting the district administration to rope in suitably modified IAF MI-17VS helicopter."Wing Commander Thiagaraman and Squadron Leader Praveen Tiwari had flown 73 sorties since morning today dropping over 1,82,000 liters over the areas in the immediate vicinity of the town," Defence Spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha had said on Saturday night.He said that the places under fire close to inhabited areas were given the priority in the fire-fighting operation.Tourists have been asked to avoid going to sunset point and honeymoon point till the flames are doused fully.Besides, boating activity in Nakki lake has been restricted as the helicopters are fetching water from the lake. The lake is located in the middle of the town, nestled between the hills.The Circle Officer said that the fire in forests is a reccurring phenomenon but it was a massive fire this time.Located 1,722 meters above the sea level and situated amidst the lush green hills on the highest point of the Aravali range, Mount Abu is the home to lakes, waterfalls and green forests and many religious monuments.(With PTI inputs)
In his hour-long speech at the Gandhi Maidan, the Prime Minister also accused opposition of "manufacturing issues" against the government.

Seeking to link triple talaq with the larger issue of social justice for Muslim women, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked party workers to make it happen through dialogue and not discord.In his valedictory address at the conclusion of the two-day BJP National Executive in Bhubaneswar, Prime Minister addressed the issue in the context of giving social justice to all, including Muslim women."He (Modi) talked about social justice. He said our Muslim sisters should also get justice. Injustice should not be done with them. Nobody should be exploited," Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said, quoting the Prime Minister."We do not want conflict within the Muslim community over this issue. What we have to do is that if there are any social evils, we have to wake the society up and make efforts to provide justice to them (Muslim women). That was the Prime Minister's spirit," Gadkari added.ALSO READ | UP Shocker: Woman Attacked With Acid For Refusing Triple Talaq Over Phone The issue relating to Muslim personal law on divorce is being heard by the Supreme Court, and the Centre has already filed an affidavit opposing the practice. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has opposed the move, calling it a direct interference in the personal laws of the minorities.In a terse message to the motormouths among his ranks, Modi asked partymen to practice the "art of silence" when in power."Earlier there was medal waapasi, or attacks on churches, and now it is EVM tampering. PM told party workers not to get distracted by such issues," said Gadkari.Exhorting the party to prepare "for a long jump to take the country forward through socio-economic development to change the tide of history," Modi asked partymen to work on a mission mode.The new mantra for development for the government should be P-2 and G-2 that is pro-people, proactive, and good governance."The target is to take the country forward as a leading nation in the world by 2022 when we celebrate 75 years of our Independence," he said.Encapsulating his government's policy for equitable development on the three pillars of Jan Dhan, Jal Dhan, and Van Dhan, Prime Minister underscored government's priorities in the days ahead.Prime Minister also gave full credit to BJP's recent victory in Assembly polls, especially UP, to party president Amit Shah.
New Delhi: India on Sunday said it was yet to get a response from Pakistan on its demand for a certified copy of the charge-sheet as well as the military court order awarding death sentence to the retired Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.



"We have sought from the Foreign Ministry (of Pakistan) a certified copy of the charge-sheet as well as the judgement in the death sentence of Jadhav, but there is no response yet from Pakistan's side," MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay told reporters.



India had already announced that it would appeal against the death sentence to Jadhav. Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad, Gautam Bambawale, had met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua on Friday in connection with the case and demanded a certified copy of the charge-sheet and the judgement, besides consular access to Jadhav.



"India made the demand for the two documents on Friday when the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad met the Pakistan Foreign Secretary," said Baglay, replying to a question on the issue.



The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial found him guilty of "espionage and sabotage activities" in Pakistan.



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. However, India denied Pakistan's contention and maintained that Jadhav was kidnapped by the Pakistan authorities.



External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had warned that Jadhav's execution would be taken by India as a "pre-meditated murder" and Pakistan should "consider its consequences" on bilateral relations, if it proceeds on this matter.
The national security clause, which gave veto power to the government to reject a name recommended by the collegium, and the issue of setting up of secretariats in the apex court and all the high courts, were among the two key clauses in the MoP on which the Centre and the judiciary had differences for more than a year.

In a record of sorts, a collegium headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar has cleared the names of 51 judges for appointment to 10 high courts across the country.According to a report in the Times of India , 14 names were recommended for the Bombay High Court, while nine were cleared for the Punjab and Haryana High Court.Six names each were cleared for Patna and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh high courts, and four each for Delhi and Chhattisgarh high courts.The report said three names were recommended for appointment to the Jammu & Kashmir HC. Jharkhand and Gauhati high courts are likely to get two judges.Besides the CJI, the Supreme Court collegium includes four senior-most judges  Justices Dipak Misra, J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and M B Lokur.In March, the collegium had finalised the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for appointment of judges in the higher judiciary resolving a year-long impasse with the executive by agreeing to include the contentious clause of national security in selection of judges.In October 2015, a Constitution bench headed by Justice JS Khehar had struck down the NJAC Act passed by Parliament and had directed the Centre to frame a new MoP in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.After holding the Constitution (Ninety-ninth Amendment) Act, 2014 and the NJAC Act, 2014, as unconstitutional and void, the apex court in its separate order had decided to consider the incorporation of additional appropriate measures, if any, for an improved working of the collegium system.Striking a dissent note, Justice J Chelameswar who was part of the five-judge Constitution bench which heard the NJAC case, had said that the collegium system for the appointment of judges is "opaque" and needs "transparency".(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday said that those misusing triple talaq will face social boycott.



It has been decided in the national executive meeting that those misusing triple talaq will face social boycott, said Maulana Khalid R Firangi, member of AIMPLB.



An AIMPLB statement said triple talaq issue has been misunderstood and a code of conduct will be issued soon.



The body also said that it would create a larger awareness to let Muslim women know their rights and deter men from using triple talaq.



On April 11, vice-president of the AIMPLB, Dr Sayeed Sadiq had said the board will do away with the practice of triple talaq in a year-and-a-half. He added that there was no need for government interference.



On the Ayodhya issue, the board has rejected an out of court settlement but has agreed to abide by a court issued judgement.



The Supreme Court had on March 21, suggested for an amicable settlement to the Ram Janmabhoomi - Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya.
: A Muslim woman in Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit district was allegedly attacked by her in-laws with acid on Sunday for refusing to accept triple talaq over the phone.Rehana, 40, was attacked with acid allegedly by her in-laws in Neuria area of Pilibhit, a source told CNN-News18. "She has burn injuries on her back. We are waiting for the medical report," a police officer said.Rehana married Matlub 18 years ago, following which she went to the United States with her husband. Their relations soured in 2011 after which they came to India for some time. Matlub went back to the US, assuring Rehana that he would call her there after a few days.Matlub did not call Rehana back to the United States and told her that he had got a new job in New York. However, a few years ago Matlub called Rehana and divorced her over the phone. Rehana refused to accept the same.Rehana's in-laws later assaulted her to ensure that she leaves the house and also threw acid on her. "They should be punished for what they did. I want them to be in jail," Rehana told ANI.On the basis of the complaint filed by the victim, the Uttar Pradesh Police have begun its investigation into the matter. So far, the UP police have registered an FIR against five suspects.The incident took place a day after the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali claimed the hype created on the triple talaq issue is part of a conspiracy and the divorce rate among Muslims is very low (0.5%) compared to other religions.However, on Sunday, the AIMPLB said that those misusing triple talaq will face social boycott. It has been decided in the national executive meeting that those misusing triple talaq will face social boycott, said Firangi.In another incident, a married woman staged a dharna outside her home in Aligarh on Wednesday after her husband pronounced Triple Talaq and refused to let her enter the house.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged members of the BJP Mahila Morcha to empathise with the Muslim women who have been victims of triple talaq.According to sources, the PM said that they should be cautious during their interactions and make sure that they don't hurt the religious sentiment of the helpless women.
Tokyo: If you are a gambling addict, chances are that you may develop poor ability to assess and adapt to high-risk situations in real life, says a study.



Gambling addiction is a mental disorder characterized by excessive risk-taking despite negative results.



"We noticed that gambling addicts also have higher levels of mood and anxiety disorders," said lead author Hidehiko Takahashi from Kyoto University, Japan.



"Hence pleasure may not be the main goal, but rather an inability to properly recognise risk and adapt accordingly," Takahashi said.



Through a series of gambling tasks which required participants to earn a certain amount of credits, the researchers determined their flexibility in risk-taking between addicts and non-addicts.



Addicts were found to go with a risky strategy even if that choice was sub-optimal.



"We observed diminished activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain involved in cognitive flexibility," Takahashi noted.



"This indicates that these subjects lack an ability to adapt their behaviour to the risk level of the situation," he added.



Adults tend to make decisions by evaluating the likelihood of success based on the level of tolerable risk. Adjustments are then made based on prevailing circumstances.



On the other hand, addicts get inclined toward unnecessarily risky action, demonstrating a defect in risk assessment and adaptation, said the study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.



Previous studies have shown that addicts have altered activity in brain regions related to risk and reward, making them prone to prefer risky choices.
New Delhi: He broke into the scene with his stand-up acts and YouTube show, and Kanan Gill is now

venturing into acting but he says making a film is what drives him.



Kanan, best known for his popular show Pretentious Movie Reviews, says he wants to make a comedy film as unfortunately good comedies are not getting made in Bollywood.



"The idea was always to make movies. India deserves good comedies which people are not making and that is the real

drive here," Kanan said.



The actor says while trying to get close to his dream of directing a film, he chanced upon the role in Noor and took it as he found it appealing.



"I always thought I would be making a film at some point. But before I got to do that, I got a chance to be in one. When the role came about, I found it very appealing. I thought it was right up my attic, something that I can do."



Kanan says during the shooting period of Noor, he used all the free time to write his film.



"As soon as I get time after release, I am going to get that ball rolling."



Noor, directed by Sunhil Sippy, stars Sonakshi Sinha in the titular role. The film is based on Pakistani author Saba Imtiaz's novel 'Karachi, You're Killing Me!' and is about a journalist trying to navigate her way through Mumbai.



Kanan says he is not under any pressure about his debut in Bollywood and does not understand the whole fuss about it.



"I don't think like that and I don't care. I really wish people will stop thinking about things like that. I think we should be just working towards being part of good movies."



The newcomer says he has received a lot of warmth and support from the current crop of Bollywood actors.



"Surprisingly, the new crop of actors knew me. They have seen my work and also other current stand-up acts. They were all very supportive."



When asked if he will go back to doing funny reviews in his programme Pretentious Movie Reviews which he used to host along with Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanan says, "We might. But we will not review any current film. We always take more obscure ones."


Mumbai: Reacting to Pakistan military court's decision awarding death sentence to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, actress Richa Chadha today said it is the person and his family, who are the "biggest casualty" in such circumstances.



"A person gets trapped in the politics between two governments. In such times, it's that person and his family who are the biggest casualty," Richa told reporters here in a response to a question on Kulbhushan Jadhav.



The actress, who had played the role of Sarabjit's wife in the biopic Sarbjit, was speaking on the sidelines of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Voting Weekend press meet here.



Sarbjit was based on the life of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian, who was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1991 and who consequently spent 22 years in prison for alleged terrorism and spying. While in prison at Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore in April 2013, he was attacked by fellow inmates and died six days later at the Jinnah Hospital.



A Pakistan military court recently awarded death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav after he was convicted of "espionage and sabotage activities".



Meanwhile, on the allegations of molestation against Queen director Vikas Bahl, Richa said action should be taken based on the probe.



"I am aware that there are no allegations against Phantom Films, but against Vikas Bahl. I have done a movie for

Phantom Films. I am sure the other three partners will follow the due course. And the investigation will be carried out and action will be taken in a legal way," she said.



Earlier this month, a woman employee of Phantom Films - co-owned by Vikas Bahl - had accused him of molestation.

Bahl has denied the charges against him.



IIFA Voting Weekend, being held in Mumbai from April 14 to 16, will see members of the Indian film industry showing

their support to IIFA as they come forward to vote for their peers. The 18th edition will be hosted in New York this July at the MetLife Stadium.




What is this nonsense with fairness creams. If fairness creams are racist then so is hair color. Its a personal choice! #NotRacist  Uday Chopra (@udaychopra) April 14, 2017

On fairness creams. If you need to use it, do it. Its not a race issue, its a self esteem issue. Dont do it if you think you are fine!  Uday Chopra (@udaychopra) April 14, 2017

@udaychopra Mr. Chopra fairness creams say people who have white skin are only beautiful or handsom. So is it not racist ??  Sunil Singh (@s200sunil) April 14, 2017

@udaychopra Oh yeah, show me one ad that promotes skin darkening products  dhara (@Winkerbell_) April 14, 2017

@Winkerbell_ @udaychopra But you're the Dumbest if you think Cream lagane se racist ban jaate  Shikhar Chaman (@DhawanOfficial) April 14, 2017

@udaychopra Of course wanting to look fair is a choice & that's not the problem. Problem is fairness cream advert reinforcing that fair is better +  Neelendra Nath (@Ithrahim) April 14, 2017

@udaychopra Hair colour brands don't say red hair is better than black/brown - fairness cream try to set beauty standards, hair colours don't.  Neelendra Nath (@Ithrahim) April 14, 2017

@udaychopra You clearly missed the point what @AbhayDeol had to convey.  Vishal Maheshwari (@breezingwinds) April 14, 2017

@udaychopra @babumoshaaye There is no nonsense with fairness creams. It's about the 'portrayal' in the advertisements. Can't deny their effect on mindset at large  Saurabh Mishra (@SaurabhM16) April 14, 2017

The thing people need to understand about me, is that I dont mind if you hate me, Im used to it. Ill still say what I think.  Uday Chopra (@udaychopra) April 14, 2017

Bollywood actor Uday Chopra jumped into the fairness debate on Friday when he took to Twitter to express his opinion."What is this nonsense with fairness creams. If fairness creams are racist then so is hair color. Its a personal choice! #NotRacist," he wrote as a response to Abhay Deol's series of Facebook posts wherein he lashed out at racism in India and Bollywood's obsession with fair skin.He explained to his followers that when one uses a fairness cream, it's not a "race issue, its a self esteem issue."He also conducted a Q&A session on Facebook where some users agreed to his ideology and others mocked him for it. Soon, his tweet attracted users from all walks of life and Twitterati had a field day mocking the actor for his confusing tweets.Many of them questioned his definition of racism and took jibes at his comparison of fairness cream and hair colour.The actor, who raked up a debate on Twitter, signed off by saying that no matter how much people hate him, he'll continue to say what he feels. "The thing people need to understand about me, is that I dont mind if you hate me, Im used to it. Ill still say what I think," he wrote.Abhay Deol, on Wednesday, chose campaigns that featured celebrities and endorsed fairness creams and other such products. He ribbed the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and John Abraham for promoting the idea that a particular skin shade is better than the rest.
When US President Donald Trump took office on January 20, the new administration's policy on North Korea was unclear.

Here's how events have unfolded.

January

The day before Trump recited the oath of office on the Washington Mall, the North Korean leadership already had prepared its own unique welcome for the incoming President. On January 19, US intelligence satellites picked up signs of activity at North Korea's Chamjin missile factory southwest of Pyongyang, in an apparent readying of a test of two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

Ten days later -- January 29 -- as Defense Secretary James Mattis prepared for his first visit to Asia, it was reported that the country was preparing to restart a plutonium reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear facility, according to analysis of new satellite imagery from 38 North, a North Korea tracking project.

February

The Trump administration kicked off the month with Mattis' East Asian jaunt, landing February 2 at the Osan Air Base outside Seoul. Top of the agenda was a key component of South Korea's defenses against its northern neighbors' aggression -- the THAAD missile interception system.

Three days later, February 5, the US and its East Asian ally Japan successfully downed a test medium-range ballistic missile with a new interceptor launched from a guided-missile destroyer.

North Korea didn't take long to respond. On February 11, it reported it had successfully completed the launch of a new ballistic missile, the previously unknown Pukguksong-2, according to state media. It was the North's first missile test of the Trump era.

Things took a twist worthy of a movie plot later that month. On February 14, alleged North Korean agents reportedly murdered Kim Jong Un's half brother, Kim Jong Nam, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) with VX nerve agent.

Shortly after, in the wake of the DPRK's missile test and the resultant growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, China banned imports of Chinese coal for the remainder of the year. China's Ministry of Commerce said the decision was made to comply with a UN Security Council resolution that China helped draft and pass last November.

March

March was an even busier month for the Korean Peninsula. It kicked off, on March 6, with North Korea's firing of four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan (also known as the East Sea) in what Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described as "an extremely dangerous action."

The missiles, three of which landed within 200 miles of Japan's coastline in its exclusive economic zone, were fired as part of a drill targeting American military assets in Japan by North Korea's Hwasong artillery units, North Korean state media KCNA said.

On the heels of the multiple launch, South Korea's US-built THAAD missile defense system -- which China vigorously opposes -- arrives on the peninsula. As it was delivered, China's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, warns that the US and North Korea are set for a "head-on collision" with neither side willing to give way.

On March 14, the US, along with allies South Korea and Japan, responded to the North's earlier missile tests, dispatching high-tech missile defense ships to the same area where Pyongyang had previously fired the four missiles. The Aegis warships began exercises to improve their capability to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles, the US Navy said in a statement.

The maneuvers came as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson embarked upon his first Asian trip, landing in Japan on March 15.

Five days later, Pyongyang again ratcheted tensions by testing a rocket engine, one which showed "meaningful" signs of progress, according to South Korean officials. Meanwhile, in the face of the looming threat from North Korea, Japan begins to hold evacuation drills to prepare for any potential North Korean missile launched aimed at the country.

The North Koreans launched another missile just days after the engine test, but it exploded "within seconds of launch," according to US Pacific Command. As March wound down, Pyongyang once again went back to its engine tests -- technology could possibly be used in an eventual ICBM.

In a separate move, the US announced that the US Marines deployed F-35B aircraft to South Korea for the first time as part of an exercise.

April

Trump began the month by declaring, on April 2, that the US would be willing to go it alone to restrain North Korea's nuclear weapons program should China fail to change the situation.

Two days later, as Trump prepared to meet his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, North Korea fired another ballistic missile off the coast of the Korean Peninsula, US and South Korean officials said. As the two leaders sat down to steak and pan-seared sole at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump made the decision to pull the trigger on a missile strike in Syria -- the biggest military action of his presidency and a declaration of intent for Pyongyang.

Shortly after, North Korea issued a forceful response to the deployment of a US naval strike group, including the 97,000-ton carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, to the region April 10, saying it would counter "reckless acts of aggression" with "whatever methods the US wants to take."

Days later, monitoring group 38 North said its analysis had concluded that North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear site is "primed and ready" for a sixth nuclear test. Also on April 13, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the country may already have the capability to deliver missiles equipped with sarin nerve agent.

Meanwhile, the US waded again into military action, dropping a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), the US military's largest non-nuclear weapon, on an ISIS hideout in Afghanistan, the first time this type of weapon has been used in battle, according to US officials.

Two days later, at an annual military parade in Pyongyang, the North Korean regime showed off a bevy of new missiles and launchers at its annual military parade.

Part of the display were two new ICBM-sized canisters as well as North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missile, and a land-based version of the same for the first time, according to analysts.

The following day, April 16, another attempted missile launch by the Kim regime failed, US and South Korean defense officials told CNN.

After the attempted test, US Vice President Mike Pence, visiting the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on April 17, warned North Korea not to test the resolve of the US "or the strength of our military forces."

North Korea's UN deputy representative, Kim In Ryong, responded, warning that the US actions and rhetoric have "created a dangerous situation in which thermonuclear war may break out at any moment on the peninsula and poses a serious threat to world peace and security."

After boasting that the USS Carl Vinson strike group was being dispatched to the Korean Peninsula in a "show of force," the US was forced to walk back the claims after it emerged that the ships in question were actually on their way to participate in military exercises in the Indian Ocean, some 3,500 miles in the opposite direction.

Instead, the strike group will arrive off the Korean Peninsula by the end of April, multiple US defense officials told CNN.

The Pentagon announced on April 18 that it will conduct two major tests of its ability to shoot down missiles launched out of North Korea in May.

On April 19, the UN Security Council tried to address North Korea's latest missile launch with a proposed statement that would have condemned the test, but Russia used its veto to torpedo the motion.

The same day, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Beijing was "gravely concerned" about North Korea's recent nuclear and missile activities. Lu also praised recent US statements on the North Korean issue.

CNN's James Griffiths, Paula Hancocks, Joshua Berlinger, Ben Westcott, Ivan Watson, Yoko Wakatsuki, Hidetaka Sato, Eli Watkins, Dana Bash, Barbara Starr, Richard Roth, Tim Schwarz, Zachary Cohen, Jeremy Diamond and Steve Almasy, and journalist Taehoon Lee, contributed to this report.
TORONTO, Ontario, April 16, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Brian Dower announced that 2017 will mark his 15th year in practice. Through those 15 years, he and his clinic have reached many major milestones. These include bringing on new chiropractors, adding additional services, winning awards, and several more exciting events. His clinic is still going strong and accepting more patients.



Dr. Brian Dower didn't begin his professional life as a chiropractor. Instead, he started out with a degree in commerce and worked as a manager at an advertising agency in Newfoundland. Despite enjoying his interactions there, he still felt that it wasn't the right home for him. Instead, he was drawn to work with people who sought a path to better health.

After becoming a chiropractic patient, Dr. Dower realized that this discipline offered just what he was looking for: a way to provide people with "healthful days and restful nights." He also saw how chiropractic is a discipline dedicated to treating the actual cause of symptoms and not just the symptoms themselves, allowing it to bring patients true relief. With that in mind, he earned a degree from Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College and became a chiropractor himself. Soon after, he opened a clinic in Toronto and began seeing patients. His clinic has also won several awards in the last few years, including making the Top 20 Chiropractors in Toronto list.

"Since then, my clinic has passed through many milestones. We've provided care to thousands of patients, still see our very first patient every few months for checkups, added cold laser therapy and medical acupuncture to our list of offerings, brought other chiropractors into the practice at various times, and more. I still love being a chiropractor and look forward to many more milestones in the future!" Dr. Dower said enthusiastically.

About Dr. Brian Dower, Chiropractor

Dr. Dower opened his practice in 2002, and since then, has served the residents of Toronto with a variety of chiropractic and related services. He looks forward to many more years of helping people get better by treating the actual causes of their symptoms.

Their office is located near the intersection of Yonge Street and Bloor Street E. Visit the Dr. Brian Dower website at http://www.drdower.ca/ for more information.
Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh's refusal to meet Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan is part of a "political conspiracy" hatched by the Congress high command under a "tit for tat" policy, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged on Sunday.



"As we are aware, the Ontario state assembly of Canada had recently passed a resolution terming the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as Sikh genocide and state sponsored annihilation of the Sikhs," Punjab AAP Chief Whip Sukhpal Singh Khaira said.



He said this is something which is completely unacceptable to the Congress high command, as it puts the party in an "untenable position".



"It is common knowledge that the Congress has been on the back foot for the last more than 32 years for its nefarious role in the killings of thousands of Sikhs in Delhi and across India in the aftermath of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984," Khaira said.



"The denial of justice to the families of 1984 victims for the last more than three decades is not only a blot on the Indian democracy and its judiciary but it continuously haunts the Congress party and its tainted leaders responsible for the genocide," he said.



Therefore, in order to settle scores with the Canadian government for passing the Sikh genocide resolution, the Congress high command has "directed" Amarinder to oppose Sajjan on "flimsy grounds" by calling him a Khalistani sympathiser, the AAP leader said.



He claimed that the Congress apprehends if it does not oppose Sajjan now by whipping up sentiments over Khalistan, a similar resolution might be introduced in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in the ensuing budget session, creating "more embarrassment" to it.



"Secondly, Amarinder is also settling personal scores with Canada for not granting him permission to visit its soil for politicking and collecting funds. Hence, he is creating a false euphoria of Khalistan to oppose Sajjan," he claimed.



The AAP leader urged Amarinder to reconsider his "unjustified statement borne out of petty considerations" and welcome Sajjan to Punjab as a state guest.



"This will not only send a positive message to over 50 lakh NRI's settled across the globe but also improve bilateral ties between India (Punjab) and Canada," he said. "By meaninglessly opposing Sajjan, he is not only humiliating the Punjabis and Sikh diaspora abroad but also back home," he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi touched down in Surat on Sunday evening on a two-day visit to his home state Gujarat. The Prime Minister led a 12-km-long roadshow from the airport to circuit house. Gujarat goes to polls later this year.

He had arrived straight from Bhubaneswar where the Bhartiya Janata Party concluded its two-day National Executive Meeting.

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Chennai: The O Panneerselvam-led AIADMK faction on Sunday rejected the call by the rival group's deputy chief TTV Dinakaran to the rebels to return to the "parent party", saying he was "persona non-grata" (person not appreciated) for them.



Leaders in the Puratchi Thalaivi Amma camp said such a possibility does not exist as long as Dinakaran, deputy general secretary of AIADMK Amma, continued to helm the faction.



"He (Dinakaran) is a person who is not in the party and that is the truth," a top leader, close to former chief minister Panneerselvam, said.



Dinakaran was readmitted into the party and appointed deputy general secretary by its general secretary and his aunt VK Sasikala on February 15, hours before she left for surrendering in a Bengaluru court to serve the jail term in the disproportionate assets case.



The Panneerselvam camp, which has been questioning Dinakaran's locus standi to helm the party, also made it one of the highlights of its campaign in the April 12 RK Nagar bypoll, which was cancelled by the Election Commission over alleged use of money power.



Dinakaran was the candidate of AIADMK Amma in the bypoll, which was necessitated by the demise of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.



The rebel camp has refused to accept his leadership, saying he was expelled from the party in 2011 by Jayalalithaa for "anti-party" activities and the expulsion remained in force till her death.



On the possibility of both the factions coming together, a leader of the Panneerselvam camp said, "What can I say about something that is not going to happen."



He ruled out any talk or exchange of feelers between the camps.



Another senior leader too ruled out any patch-up formula with Dinakaran being a part of it. "Good things should happen with our leader Panneerselvam at the helm," he said.



Replying to a question, he said the "good thing" will be the "unification" of the party "without that family (Sasikala and her extended family, including Dinakaran)".



For the past two days, Dinakaran has been inviting the rebel camp members to come back to the parent party. "We are prepared to welcome back those who left the parent party if they realise their mistake," he had said in an obvious reference to Panneerselvam and his followers.



On April 14, Dinakran had also rubbished claims that some ministers had revolted against him.



Meanwhile, former MLA and Coimbatore Mayor T Malaravan on Sunday joined the Panneerselvam camp, quitting the Peravai led by Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa.


Surat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday received a rousing reception as he embarked on an 11- kilometre-long roadshow in Gujarat's Surat, a stronghold of the Patel community.



The roadshow turned out to be a mega outreach for Modi in the election year as the BJP has decided to project him as its face during the state Assembly polls, slated later this year.



Modi began his two-day Gujarat visit with the roadshow after arriving Sunday evening. This is his first visit to the city after becoming the Prime Minister in 2014.



People, waving the tricolour and chanting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai", stood along his route as Modi greeted them, standing through the sunroof of his vehicle.





Upon his arrival at the Surat airport, he was greeted by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and other state leaders before Modi started on 11-km-long journey to the Government Circuit House in Athwalines area where he would stay for the night.



Surat has a sizable population of the Patel community and had witnessed a large-scale violence during the quota agitation in 2015.



The Prime Minister was welcomed by various community organisations, youth and women at 'Swagat Points' set up every 200 metres.



An 11-km-long 'saree', with the names of government schemes printed on it, was tied along the route.



Modi's convoy was led by 50,000 young men and women on 25,000 bikes. A 22-feet-high cutout of Modi stood near the airport where people could take selfies.





Along the route, sand sculptures on some of the themes of the Modi government like "Save Girl Child", "Girl Child Education", "Digital India", were also put up.



Modi is slated to inaugurate Kiran Multi Super Speciality Hospital and Research Centre, built by a private trust, in the city on Monday morning. He would then go to Hira Bourse SEZ at Icchapur in the district to inaugurate a diamond polishing unit of Hari Krishna Export Private Limited.



The PM would also go to Bajipura village in Tapi district to inaugurate a cattle feed plant and ice-cream plant of Sumul Dairy, and lay foundation stone for dairy products plant at Nava Pardi.



He will also address a large gathering there. The state BJP unit claims that more than four lakh persons, including three lakh women from tribal-dominated areas, would attend the gathering.



Modi will then visit Silvassa town in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, where he will address a gathering apart from inaugurating a few projects.



From there, he will head to Botad in Saurashtra to inaugurate phase-1 of Sauni project for Botad and surrounding districts as well as to lay foundation stone for the phase-2.



In August last year, Modi inaugurated the first phase of ambitious Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (Sauni) Project from Jamnagar.



This is Modi's second visit to his home state this year.
Lucknow: A month after Yogi Adityanath came to power with historic mandate in Uttar Pradesh, most people seem to support his decisions, including those which were considered controversial, even as they would want a long-term focus on issues like unemployment and lawfulness.



According a survey conducted by Gaon Connection, a media platform focused on rural issues and audiences, as many as 38% participants found the UP governments drive against illegal slaughterhouses to be most impactful, followed by 25% who were impressed with the Anti-Romeo Squads, which have often been in headlines for moral policing in the name of curbing eve teasing.



A good 24% participants said the Yogi governments campaign against VIP culture and corruption has been most impactful, while 13% said banning of pan masala and tobacco in government offices was their favourite decision.



Clearly, the Yogi government has been able to impress the people in its first month as a clear majority, 55% participants, said they there was a visible change in the last one month.



But voters seem to be far more complex than the simplistic debates around political issues in media. The same participants who are happy with the drive against slaughterhouses and Anti-Romeo Squads would want the state government to have totally different set of priorities, going forward: While 30% want unemployment to be the focus area, 24% said law and order should be the priority. About 18% participants said they want focus on women security, followed by 15% who said agriculture sector needs immediate attention, and 13% who asked for more work on infrastructure like electricity, roads and water.



Unlike the fears around Yogi Adityanath being a divisive figure because of his pre-poll speeches, which were often seen as anti-Muslim, a whopping 66% participants said as a chief minister he would focus on inclusive development Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas. While 31% said one month was too early to believe that the Yogi government will treat everyone equally, just 3% said they feared discrimination from the state government.



About 84% participants said BJP did the right thing by making Yogi Adityanath the CM as he is the partys tallest leader in the state. Similarly, about 72% participants said the UP government was working in the right direction, while 25% would want to wait and watch before forming an opinion.





Among the benefits of having the same partys government in the state and at the Centre, 58% participants expressed hope that villages in UP will now benefit more from Prime Minister Narendra Modis initiatives.



A unique thing about this survey was participation of rural voters across UP. Among the 2000 participants, 22% are students, 21% housewives, 19% private sector employees, 15% businessmen and 13% farmers. Majority of participants are in the age group of 25 to 50.
London: Britain said it was "concerned" by reports that North Korea conducted a missile test on Saturday, which the US Defence Department said blew up almost immediately.



The Foreign Office in London said it was "concerned by reports of a missile test by North Korea" and was "monitoring the situation closely".



The failed missile came the day after Pyongyang publicly showcased its ballistic arsenal at a giant military parade. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson earlier urged North Korea to abide by UN resolutions and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons.



"We have been here before but continue to monitor the situation carefully," Johnson said in a statement. "We stand alongside our international partners in making clear that North Korea must adhere to UN resolutions designed to secure peace and stability in the region and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons."



The nuclear-armed state is under United Nations sanctions over its weapons programmes. North Korea's weapons of war rolled through Pyongyang on yesterday and a senior figure in the regime said it could

"beat down enemies with the power of nuclear justice", as leader Kim Jong-Un mounted a spectacular show of strength.



Ostensibly yesterday's event was to mark the 105th anniversary of the North's founder Kim Il-Sung's birth. But it was also intended to send an unmistakable message to Washington about the isolated country's military might.



Tensions over North Korea's nuclear ambitions are stretched to the limit, with US President Donald Trump deploying an aircraft carrier battle group to the region.
The document will also be shared with the United Nations and other global organisations, it added.

Trying to justify their stand in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, Pakistan is set to prepare a new dossier about the alleged 'Indian spy' to submit to the UN. Officials from the country would be sharing the document with the UN as well as foreign envoys stationed at Islamabad, said a PTI report.The dossier is said to be based on Jadhav's early testimonial and statements given in front of the Field General Court Martial about his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan.Attested reports of the Court Martial General as well as the timeline for the court proceedings are set to be part of the dossier.The documents will also contain details of arrests and raids done by Pakistan security agencies based on Jadhav's tip-offs.Jadhav, 46, was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and was awarded the death sentence . Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed the death sentence last week."The dossier will be handed over to different ambassadors in Islamabad. The Pakistani envoys across the world will also present it to their host states," the paper said.On Friday, Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale said they would appeal against the death sentence to Jadhav and demanded from Pakistan a certified copy of the charge-sheet as well as the army court order in the case, besides seeking consular access to the retired Indian navy officer.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.The Jadhav episode could further strain the India-Pakistan ties which were hit after attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan-based terrorists last year.(With inputs from PTI)
Beirut: Nearly 70 children were among those killed when a suicide car bombing tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, a monitor said on Sunday.



Saturday's blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.



At least 68 children were among the 126 people killed in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead.



At least 109 of the dead were evacuees, the Britain-based monitoring group said, while the rest were aid workers and rebels guarding the convoy.



The evacuations were taking place under a deal between Syria's regime and rebels that is also seeing residents and rebels transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus which are surrounded by pro-government forces.



The agreement is the latest in a string of evacuation deals, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad says are the best way to end the violence after more than six years of civil war.



Rebels say they amount to forced relocations after years of bombardment and crippling sieges.



Body parts and the belongings of evacuees -- including clothes, dishes and even televisions -- were still strewn at the scene of the attack on Sunday, an AFP correspondent said.



The shattered buses were nearby as was the shell of a pick-up truck -- with little left but its engine block -- that was apparently used to carry out the bombing.



There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, though the key Ahrar al-Sham rebel group denied any involvement. The government blamed "terrorists" -- a catch-all term for its opponents.



The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to monitor the conflict, said hundreds of people were also wounded in the blast.



'People crying and shouting'



It said a petrol station at the transit point was caught up in the explosion, adding to the number of victims.



The Syrian Red Crescent said three of its workers were among the wounded.



Maysa al-Aswad, a 30-year-old evacuee from Kafraya, said she was sitting on one of the buses with her six-month-old son Hadi and 10-year-old daughter Narjis when the blast shook the parked convoy.



"Hadi was on my lap and Narjis on a chair next to me. When the explosion happened I hugged them both and we fell to the floor," she told AFP by telephone from near Aleppo.



"I didn't know what was happening, all I could hear was people crying and shouting," she said.



"All I can think about is how we survived all the death during the last few years and then could have died just after we finally escaped."



More than 5,000 people left Fuaa and Kafraya and about 2,200 left Madaya and Zabadani on Friday, the latest in a series of evacuations from the four towns under the agreement.



The evacuation process resumed after the bombing, the Observatory said, with the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya eventually arriving in Aleppo, Syria's second city which the government gained full control of last year.



Wounded survivors, including many children, were taken for treatment at an Aleppo hospital.



'Monstrous, cowardly attack'



UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien condemned the bombing, saying in a statement: "The perpetrators of such a monstrous and cowardly attack displayed a shameless disregard for human life."



Pope Francis on Sunday also urged an end to the war in Syria as he presided over the traditional Easter mass in Rome.



The pontiff said he hoped that Jesus Christ's sacrifice might help bring "comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death".



The residents and rebels from Madaya and Zabadani arrived late Saturday in rebel-held territory in Idlib province, where they were greeted with embraces and shots fired into the air.



It was not immediately clear whether further evacuations were taking place on Sunday.



The evacuation deal was brokered by Qatar, a longtime supporter of Syrian opposition forces, and Iran, a key regime ally.



Shiite-dominated Iran has repeatedly raised concerns for the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya, who are mainly Shiites and were besieged by Sunni rebels.



Syria's war has left more than 320,000 people dead since erupting in 2011, with more than half the population forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands trapped under siege.
A North Korean missile exploded during launch Sunday, US and South Korean officials said, a high-profile failure that comes as a powerful US aircraft super carrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.It wasn't immediately clear what kind of missile was test-fired from the east coast city of Sinpo. But the failure will sting in Pyongyang because it comes a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather.The North's test firing can be seen as a message of defiance to the Trump administration in Washington, coming as it does on the day U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is set to arrive in Seoul for talks on North Korea.President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the failed launch. In a statement, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump and his military team "are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."Washington and Seoul will try hard to figure out what exactly North Korea fired. This matters because while North Korea regularly launches short-range missiles, it is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target U.S. troops in Asia and, eventually, the U.S. mainland.The ultimate goal is to have a full array of nuclear-tipped missiles in response to what Pyongyang says is hostility by Washington and Seoul meant to topple its government. North Korea is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles.Many outside analysts believe that North Korea has not yet mastered the technology to build warheads small enough to place on long-range missiles, though some civilian experts say North Korea can already build nuclear-tipped shorter range missiles that have South Korea and Japan within its striking range.The U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement that Sunday's missile exploded on launch. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it was analyzing exactly how the North Korean launch failed. Neither military knew what kind of missile was fired.In Seoul, South Korea's presidential office convened a national security council meeting to examine security postures.Always high animosity has risen on the Korean Peninsula in recent months, as the United States and South Korea conduct annual war games that North Korea claims are invasion preparation and the North prepared for Saturday's anniversary celebrations. A
Kathmandu: The first ever joint military drill between Nepal and China -- Sagarmatha Friendship-2017 -- kicked off at Nepal Army's Para Training School in Maharajgunj in Kathmandu on Sunday.



The Chinese Army's squad is participating in the military exercise that will focus on counter terrorism and disaster response. The 10-day exercise will conclude on April 25.



DGMO of Nepal Army General Binod Kumar Shrestha inaugurated the exercise.



Though Nepal and China were planning a big-scale military exercise, the strong opposition from New Delhi given its special diplomatic and military ties with Kathmandu has forced Kathmandu to limit the size and nature of the drill, sources said.



"We hope that such joint military exercise would help the Nepali and Chinese armies to boost their professional capabilities," Gen. Shrestha said.



Highlighting the historic ties between Nepali and Chinese armies, Colonel Yang Shumeng, leading the Chinese side, said such exercise would help understanding on counter terrorism and strengthening military ties.



The joint training with China marks the Nepali Army's extension of military diplomacy.



The army has long been conducting joint military drills with the Indian and US armies.



A small Chinese troop contingent will be participating in the first ever drill with an equal number of Nepal Army personnel whereas it was earlier planned at battalion-level.



The exercise is taking place at the Maharajgunj-based training school where Yuddha Bhairab, Mahabir and Bhairabnath Battalions are located.



Initially it was planned outside Kathmandu.



The country's army said the military exercise with China was a step towards preparations against the possible threat from terrorism.



The Nepal Army maintained that the drill was part of its regular bilateral and multilateral military exercises aimed at sharing experiences, skills and professional knowledge which it has been doing regularly with the nations that Nepal shares diplomatic ties with.



The national defence forces from the two countries have increased their engagement of late.



On February 19, Major General Zhao Jinsong of the western command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was in Nepal on a three-day visit.



This was followed by a visit by Defence Minister and State Councillor Chang Wanquan in March. Chang had announced 300 million Yuan (Rs 4.5 billion) in military aid to Nepal.
Form and function  10 local students spent spring break balancing those concepts as they built a pair of giant flip books in a collaborative project between Riverviews Art Space and Vector Space.

By building the giant flip books, organizers aim to boost the middle and high school students STEAM skills  an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

Adam Spontarelli, director of education for Vector Space, hopes students picked up on the maker mindset, the idea that they can build and create with their imagination and their own two hands.

Things arent just bought from the store. You can use tools and your imagination to come up with something novel and new, and you can make it, Spontarelli said. You really can do this.

Kim Soerensen, executive director of Riverviews Art Space, said the collaboration teaches problem-solving and creative thinking skills by challenging students to balance arts and engineering concepts.

I hope that children who in the past have been really focused on math and engineering have experienced art for the first time and realize how much fun it is, and enjoyed it, hopefully, she said.

Over the course of the weeklong project, students have spent time drawing, painting and creating storyboards at Riverviews and then measuring, drilling, sawing and welding at Vector Space, a nonprofit community workshop on Fifth Street that provides tools and work space.

The class had seven boys and three girls, all of whom shared equal duties in the projects work.

This is how the next generation will be, and thats a good thing, Soerensen said.

While Spontarelli led students through the technical side of the project, Jawansa and Michelline Hall, owners of Blackwater Branding, helped students develop the artistic direction of the flip books.

Students developed one flip book that shows the life cycle of a tree going through the various seasons, and another where an alien spaceship crash lands and the crew is welcomed to Earth.

Michelline Hall said she worked with students to help them create 45 panels for each flipbook. As the panels flip, driven by a chain or lever depending on the flip book, it creates an animation effect.

Hopefully theyll take away a sense of learning how to work well with others, she said.

Along the way, Hall said the students were forced to compromise on ideas, which she hopes makes them understand they can create something bigger and better by working together.

Students interviewed said they enjoyed the project and learned new skills along the way.

It beats sitting at home on the couch playing video games, said Gabe Rosado, age 12.

He added his favorite part of the project was welding, because it was a challenge.

I would like to do more activities like this, Rosado said. This is cool.

Welding was a common favorite among students in the project.

Camden Levinson, age 18, said the project was a boost to his creative side. A student at Jefferson Forest High School who also attends the Central Virginia Governors School, Levinson said he is no stranger to the technical aspects or the math needed for the project, but is less familiar with aesthetics.

I think these skills will probably help me later in life, maybe on a project at school, to draw something or paint something, Levinson said. I think Ill still be able to put these skills to use.

Though the flip books werent entirely finished Friday, the final product will become a mobile public art installation, displayed in sponsors work spaces and in downtown Lynchburg.

The program was sponsored by Appalachian Power, Areva and the City of Lynchburg.

Spontarelli said he hopes students take away the realization they can continue to create.

When they leave this project they can make something at home next week. You dont need all the fancy tools to make something fun, Spontarelli said.

Soerensen said Riverviews Art Space and Vector Space already are planning their next STEAM student program for the summer, which will continue to combine engineering and the arts.
We hear quite a bit about the costs of environmental projects and regulations such as Lynchburgs Combined Sewer Overflow project to help clean up the James River or the ongoing, decades-long cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay. Indeed, some people contend regulations designed to protect the environment are anti-business and hamper economic growth.

Wed beg to differ: Protecting the environment provides some of the greatest returns on investment you can imagine, both from actual dollars spent and regulations put in place to protect the world in which we live.

But try telling that to budget drafters in the Trump administration, especially those who came up with the idea to eliminate all federal funding for the cleanup of the Bay  a paltry $73 million per year.

The Bay has played a key economic role in the Mid-Atlantic region ever since Jamestown was settled in 1607, as well as for thousands of years prior to that in sustaining the populations of Americas First Peoples. But by the middle of the 20th century, the Bay was on the brink of becoming a giant dead zone because of pollution and over-fishing. A way of life for Bay watermen was threatened with extinction and, with it, a seafood industry worth billions of dollars.

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, politicians and policymakers finally heeded the warnings of environmentalists that this unique natural asset was on the verge of dying and that something needed to be done. Thus began the decades-long effort to clean up the Bay and restore it, as much as possible, to health.

Its been an effort marked by fits and starts, successes and failures.

Initially, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia were governmental entities involved in the cleanup, with assistance from the Environmental Protection Agency. The states-led cleanup process, while slowing the degradation of the Bay, was problematic in its approach, dependent as it was on legislative and regulatory action by the various governments which were often in conflict with each other. What positive steps taken, say, by Virginia, could be undone by steps taken or not taken by Maryland or the District.

Thats why, in 2010, former President Barack Obama, based on an expansive reading of the Clean Waters Act, designated the EPA as the lead in coordinating the Bays cleanup and restoration. The number of states brought into the process increased, too, as the federal government moved to protect the Bays entire watershed, which reaches deep into Pennsylvania and New York.

Most of the $73 million the federal government directs toward Bay cleanup and restoration annually goes to efforts by the states in the watershed for pollution mitigation efforts and monitoring of the Bays health. Its the EPAs standing as the lead in those efforts that has proven to be central to making progress in the cleanup process. As of 2015, groups that monitor the Bays health reported improvement in key metrics in three of the four years since the nationalization of the cleanup in 2010.

Earlier this year, scientists with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science rated the Bays overall health at a C, the highest grade since 1992. The Bays grade is based, in part, on a number of benchmark numbers that include levels of nitrogen, chlorophyll, phosphorus and oxygen  all the result of human activity.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which was founded in the 1960s, began sounding the alarm bell over the state of the Bay decades before the politicians took notice and long before most people realized it made good business policy to protect Americas natural resources and the environmental.

The foundation and economists calculate the fishing, tourism and real estate industries  which are dependent on a clean, healthy Bay  generate $33 billion worth of economic activity annually. Thats jobs and livelihoods for thousands of fishermen and oystermen who keep alive a centuries-old Bay industry. Jobs for tens of thousands of people working in the tourism and real estate industries  after all, who wants to vacation or buy a home near a large, dead and putrid body of water? All in all, a pretty impressive ROI for the states and the EPA, wed say.
Protecting the environment makes 'cents'

With the advent of spring, its clear that Virginia is for lovers of the outdoors. Whether enjoying a walk or bike ride in Blackwater Creek Park, a camping trip to one of the nearby state or national parks, or boating and fishing on the James River or the Chesapeake Bay, we know the power of nature to improve our physical, mental and spiritual health.

Outdoor recreation improves our financial health as well. Did you know that outdoor recreation in Virginia creates 138,000 jobs and $973 million in tax revenue? It generates $13.6 billion dollars in consumer spending as a major force in Virginias economy. This money is in danger with the proposed $2 billion dollar to the National Park service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in President Trumps budget. This cut eliminates funding for the National Heritage Area program, a $19 million program supporting historic and cultural resource preservation. It eliminates the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Program and stops implementation of the bipartisan Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint.

Over time, Trump budget cuts will degrade the environment on which outdoor recreation depends leading to a loss of state income and of Virginias rich natural environment.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Sixth District, is in favor of the EPA cuts. If you want Virginias great outdoors to be enjoyed by generations to come, contact him with your concerns and protect Virginias natural beauty. Request that he hold a town hall in our district to share your opinion.

HEIDI KORING

Lynchburg

Harrison for prosecutor

I want to encourage my fellow residents to be engaged in the upcoming vote for Lynchburgs commonwealths attorney position. I will be voting for Bethany Harrison to become our top prosecutor.

Harrison has faithfully served Lynchburg since 2006, by helping prosecute some of the most violent cases in our community. She currently supervises nine other attorneys and 19 support staffers as our deputy commonwealths attorney. Daily she uses her leadership, communication, and presentation skills to advise and assist those in her office. Her work has ensured that the guilty have been held accountable, that victims have received justice and that the city has been made safer.

She has also demonstrated care for her fellow citizens through her work with CASA, the YWCA and our local schools and colleges. Her body of work, both as an attorney and a community advocate, makes her specifically qualified to become our next Lynchburg commonwealths attorney. I am excited to have a candidate with such a breadth of experience.

I have also had the pleasure of attending church with her for the past several years and have gotten to know her, her husband Eric and their young boys. As a mother, she has a vested interest in keeping our city safe for her own children and mine. Join me June 13 to make sure the position of commonwealths attorney is filled by a specifically qualified prosecutor, because experience really does matter.

CARRIE PIERCE

Lynchburg
Two days after a woman was sexually assaulted and then shoved into the train tracks at a Manhattan subway station, police have arrested a suspect. Kimani Stephenson, 24, was charged with attempted murder, assault and sexual abuse.

The attack occurred at the 14th Street F/M station at Sixth Avenue early Friday morning around 4:20 a.m.: Bonnie Currie, 22, said in an interview that she had just walked down the stairs to the platform when a man approached her from behind "wrapped both of his arms around me, and then pulled me into his body, and he put one hand on my boob, and the other hand in my crotch. He basically pushed me."

The suspect fled while some Good Samaritans helped Currie out of the tracks. By Friday night, police released surveillance footage of a person of interest.

An NYPD spokesman said that a tipster contacted the police, directing them to Stephenson. The Daily News reports, "Cops took Kimani Stephenson into custody at his home in the Lillian Wald Houses in the East Village late Saturday, sources said. About 3 a.m. Sunday, they charged him with attempted murder, assault and sex abuse."

"They found the clothes he was wearing during the attack, police sources said," according to the Post.

Currie said she suffered a broken left wrist and a torn ligament in her left shoulder; to her rescuers, she wants to say "thank you for literally saving my life."
Stella scores 102

Months after undergoing potentially life-threatening surgery at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, to replace the batteries in her pacemaker, Bouville defied the odds to the point where she recently celebrated her 102nd birthday with a reception at her home on Church Road, Mayaro.

She now holds the record of being the oldest person in the country to have pacemaker surgery, Bouvilles only surviving daughter, Jean Charles, told Sunday Newsday.

Charles, a retired teacher, also thanked the workers at the Heartbeat Foundation for the professional manner in which they cared for her mother, before and after the procedure.

But having a new lease on life is not something the feisty centenarian takes for granted. Bouville thanked God for sparing her life for yet another year __ sentiments which were also expressed by her relatives and friends.

Despite her condition, Bouville has shown little signs of slowing down. In fact, her wit and vivid recollection of pivotal events in her life remain sharper than ever.

At the reception, she elicited raucous laughter from the gathering when she sang a song with the hook line, Never make a pretty woman yuh wife. One of Bouvilles grandchildren also recited a poem which she wrote especially for the occasion.

Unlike her 100th birthday reception, which was held at the Mayaro Resource Centre, Bouvilles celebration this time around was scaled down significantly, in keeping with her wishes. In terms of activities, she still attends the nearby Mayaro RC Church and prays the Rosary regularly.

However, her mobility has been compromised by a broken ankle and fractured hip - the result of an injury she sustained while coming out of a taxi in front of her home some years ago.

Bouville also enjoys looking at specific television shows, including Crime Watch and the Bold and the Beautiful.

Having borne eight children, three of whom she has outlived, Bouvilles life has been underpinned by sacrifice, hard work and a sense of duty.

An unofficial authority on the effects of World War II on Trinidad and Tobago in the years before Independence, Bouville has led an exceptional life in the face of unspeakable odds.

Her pet peeves, she said, are lazy people, unruly children and gossipy women.

Bouville was born in Caparo, central Trinidad, to a Martiniquean father and Tobagonian mother on March 11, 1915.

I am a real callalloo, she told Sunday Newsday.

As a young woman, her family lived in several rural communities, including Flanagin Town, Brasso, Longdenville and Sangre Grande before eventually settling in Mayaro.

Apart from working on the construction of the main roadway between Carapo and Mundo Nuevo, Bouville also recalled toiling on cocoa, coffee and coconut estates to feed her young family.

Her longest working stint was at the JN Harriman Estate, Grand Lagoon, Guayaguayare, where she spent 20 consecutive years.

But life was not all hard work for this outspoken matriarch.

Bouville said she also found time to relax, over the years, listening to calypso, dancing and singing competitively at wakes.

Now is only nonsense they singing, she said, lamenting the calibre of calypso that exists today.

As a mother, Bouville said her childrens upbringing was her primary focus, going to great lengths to ensure they were well-mannered, disciplined and ambitious.

She said there were no designated roles in her home.It didnt have no boy work and girl work. The boys have to make up bed and do everything, Bouville told Sunday Newsday.

Bouville said she intends to live for as long as her Maker would have her.

Everybody have they number. God give life and God take life. He have everybody name written down but my name eh call yet, she said.

Bouville also urged young people to respect their parents, teachers and the elderly.
MEGS Creation

Megs Jewellery Creations was registered by Smith, with a St James address, in November 2014 and blossomed out of her passion for jewellery.

At a young age, I started making jewellery as I am obsessed with beads and charms, said Smith.

Her venture into jewellery design began in 2010, at age14, when she returned from Canada with Starlift Junior Steel Orchestra which won one of the Caribana titles.

I had bought a beautiful green beaded necklace in Canada and it burst when I returned to Trinidad. So, I decided to go buy some beads and fix it and when I went to pan practice everyone loved it and right there I made my first sale by selling the same necklace I fixed, Smith explained.

While attending St Francois Girls College, Smith continued to experiment with designs using semi-precious stones, nylon stretch and fabric stretch cord.

She attended Maurice Academy for Design and Craft in Curepe where she learned the techniques of jewellery-making, unlocking her potential to hand-crafted earrings, chains, anklets, charm bracelets, bookmarks, key chains and statement pieces.

Smith has been to various markets and community events including the Santa Cruz Green Market, Eastern Market, Things TT, South Market, Up Market and church harvests, all of which showcase local talent.

I also support local businesses as I purchase a lot of my material from Bead Cafe and Craft E Z. Unfortunately, some precious stones and charms are not available in Trinidad, so I purchase them online. Smith said she has achieved her goal of creating customized jewellery for young people and those young at heart.

My business attracts a lot of teenagers and young adults, male and female, because they love the flamboyant yet rootsy jewellery, and the fact that clients can come with an idea of how they would like the jewellery to look, and I would gladly create it for them, as no two pieces are ever the same. With a growing clientele, Smith displays her jewellery for sale, on a long concrete bench outside the cafeteria of the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine where she is a thirdyear chemistry student.

Her business is a stress-reliever helping her manage the hectic university life.

Jewellery is something we all can identify with and the pieces my clients choose matches their personality, so I love the feeling of awe and good vibes I convey and receive here at UWI. Smith sells a minimum of 15 bracelets, almost every day, among other handcrafted jewellery.

She is well known on campus, and people fondly call her Megs before inquiring about her new designs. How does she finance her business? Initially my stepfather bought me the tool kits and beads necessary to begin.

However, right now I am at the stage where I am financially stable to fund my business and support myself. Although her business address is St James, Smith creates jewellery at her apartment in St Augustine, and can always be seen with her tools whenever she is selling in UWI.

It takes her around five minutes to customize a bracelet as she has perfected the craft over the years.

Smith aspires to sell her jewellery internationally.

However, her aim after graduating would be to open her first store at UWI because of her customer base on campus.

I want to see how far I can reach with this. The logo for Megs Jewellery Creations is a dream-catcher, which Smith said symbolizes her pursuit of her craft.

I always believe that we should live our dreams, and not fall into doing what everyone else wants us to do. I am supposed to be studying medicine in Jamaica.

I really didnt want to do that and I decided to stick to what I love, which is jewellery designing. The dreamcatcher is a message to my customers, to live their dreams, go out there and catch them. Smith thanks her mother for giving her a reality check that being an entrepreneur would not be easy, as well as her step-father for his tireless support.

Her advice to those interested in jewellery design as a business? Do not enter this field for the money because you will not make it. In the initial stages of jewellery design I made huge losses before I really understood how to market and sell my products.

This applies to creating any business and with jewellery design you need to invest constantly. This is not a cheap field, so set realistic goals and work towards achieving them. Megs Jewellery Creations can be contacted via Facebook: Megs Jewellery Creations and Instagram: MEGSJEWELLERYCREATIONS
Looks Like Wimbledon

Rules on Underwear

Are About to Shift
Age may be nothing but a number, but one octogenarian in Tokyo is still defying the odds with her energy. Sumiko Iwamuro has spent six decades making dumplings in the restaurant she and her brother inherited from their family, but when her husband died in her 70s she decided to pursue her passion for music and took a year-long course on DJing at a local music school, reports Mashable. Now 82, she continues to work in her restaurant by day but now also hits the turntables at DecaBarZ, a nightclub in the heart of Tokyo's Shinjuku district, as a monthly fixture, reports Reuters.

In Japan, more than one in four people are 65 and older, but Iwamurowho goes by the name DJ Sumirock or, as news outlets like to call her, DJ Dumpling, reports DJ Magplays to a crowd 60 years her junior. She is "shattering stereotypes," as China Global Television Network puts it. "She's got this energy that is beyond her age," one 25-year-old clubber says. Iwamuro describes her music as techno, which she thinks would be boring on its own, mixed with jazz (her father was a jazz drummer), French chanson, and classical music. She likens DJing to cooking, describing the result of her efforts as being immediately visible in the faces of those eating her food or dancing to her beats. "The best thing is for my audience to enjoy themselves," she adds. (We may be happiest in our 80s.)
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai is mincing no words in assessing the United States' bombing of an ISIS stronghold with its second-largest non-nuclear device, reports the New York Times: "Shame, shame," he says of current President Ashraf Ghani's admission that his government coordinated the bombing with the Trump administration. "No Afghan with self-respect would do that. He is a traitor, a traitor." Karzai further said he will work toward "ousting the US," and the Times notes that he has grown more vocal in his anti-American sentiment since leaving officedespite having largely come to power on the back of the American military. Karzai is denouncing the bomb to anyone who will listen, telling al Jazeera that "This was an inhuman act, a brutal act against an innocent country, against innocent people, against our land, against our sovereignty, against our soil and against our future."

Ghani's office wouldn't respond directly, but said only in a statement that "Every Afghan has the right to speak their mind. This is a country of free speech." The Times finds dissent on the bombing within Afghanistan, with one conservative Islamist party rep dismissing the use of the so-called "Mother of all Bombs" as nothing more than a show of American power for the benefit of the likes of North Korea. A powerful governor, meanwhile, said he was in favor of the MOAB, as well as any "crackdown on insurgents and fundamentalists." But most Afghans will consider the messenger in evaluating Karzai's anti-American comments, a journalist tells al Jazeera: "At least for a decade, he was using US bodyguards to protect himself. Now he is talking about pushing the US to leave Afghanistan. This is something people will not believe." (Read more Hamid Karzai stories.)
An Egyptian court has acquitted Aya Hijazi, a dual US-Egyptian citizen, after nearly three years of detention over accusations related to running a foundation dedicated to helping street children, reports the AP. Egyptian authorities arrested the 30-year-old Hijazi, her husband Mohamed Hassanein, and six others in May 2014 on charges of abusing children in her care and engaging in human trafficking, kidnapping, sexual exploitation, and torture. Local human rights groups have said the charges are fabricated and part of a crackdown by Egypt's government on civil society. Senior US officials say they pressed Hijazi's case with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi during his visit to the US last month, reports the New York Times. But, "to be honest, we are just happy that she is out," says Hijazi's brother. "Everything that is going on internationally is irrelevant."

The trial has been delayed multiple times on what human rights groups say are absurd pretexts, like the inability to turn on a computer at a court hearing. Hillary Clinton, along with several congressmen and international rights groups, had called for Hijazi's release. "We promised them that we could come back," Hassanein told the Times after the verdict, speaking of the children their organization was dedicated to helping. "Children are wealth, and they were strong while we have been in prison. We want to go back to the streets." (Read more Egypt stories.)
The former governor of Mexico's Veracruz state who is accused of running a corruption ring that allegedly pilfered millions of dollars from state coffers was detained in Guatemala after six months as a fugitive and high-profile symbol of government graft in his country. Javier Duarte, pale and visibly tired, was brought Sunday to a prison at a military base in the Guatemalan capital, reports the AP. A statement from Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office said Duarte was detained Saturday with the cooperation of Guatemalan police and the country's Interpol office in Panajachel, a picturesque tourist town. He is wanted on suspicion of money laundering and organized crime, and prosecutors directed the Foreign Relations Department to request Duarte's extradition via its Guatemalan counterpart.

Manuel Noriega, deputy director of Interpol in Guatemala, said Duarte was located at a hotel with his wife. He was asked to leave his room, did so voluntarily, and then was arrested without incident in the lobby. Noriega said Duarte would be presented before a judge to consider his extradition. "I have no comment, thank you," Duarte told the AP. Duarte, 43, was governor of Veracruz from 2010 until he left office Oct. 12, 2016, two months before the end of his term, saying he was doing so in order to face the allegations against him. Duarte promptly disappeared and had been sought by Mexican authorities since. Earlier this year, Interpol issued a notice for his capture. The Mexican government has found millions of dollars purportedly linked to Duarte, frozen more than 100 bank accounts and also seized property and businesses tied to him. A reward of $730,000 had been offered for his capture. (Read more Mexico stories.)
A Montana State University professor is suing Walmart for libel after he says an employee at the Bozeman store listed his occupation on a fishing license as a "toilet cleaner." Gilbert Kalonde, assistant professor of technology education at MSU, filed the suit this past week in Gallatin County District Court. Kalonde is seeking unspecified damages. Walmart spokesman Ragan Dickens told the AP: "To our knowledge an administrative process to resolve this with Dr. Kalonde is ongoing. We've not been served with the lawsuit, but we take the claims seriously and will respond appropriately with the court."

According to the complaint, Kalonde bought a state fishing license in April 2015, showing the Walmart employee identification of his employment at MSU. But the Walmart employee entered "clean toilets" into the state database as Kalonde's occupation. The suit contends Walmart exposed Kalonde to "hatred, contempt, ridicule" through the incident. "In (Kalondes) home country of Zambia, the people that do this work are the lowest social class, and are shunned and avoided by society," the suit says, per the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. (Read more Walmart stories.)
Seven-month-old baby who was born with EIGHT LIMBS has successfully surgery Near Delhi

Noida : A team of doctors here has successfully operated upon a seven-month-old baby from Iraq who was suffering from polymelia -- a birth defect involving limbs -- to give him a new lease of life.

Polymelia is a birth defect in which the affected individual has more than the usual number of limbs and, in this case, the boy, named Karam who was brought to the hospital in a very critical condition, had eight limbs.

"Both the legs of the baby which were protruding out of the stomach were connected through his sternum (the breastbone) and there was no abdominal wall defect. His blood veins were also adjoined to his liver veins," Ashish Rai, Senior Consultant, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Jaypee Hospital, told reporters here.

With the help of complex microscopic technique, these veins were separated and then his legs protruding out of his stomach were removed from his body.

When Karam was brought to the hospital he was just two-weeks-old. His limbs and the intestines were distorted along with situs inversus of the intestine with an extremely rare condition where a conjoined twin did not fully form and was partially absorbed.

The team of doctors observed the baby and considering the risk factors, decided to perform the critical surgery in three stages. In the first stage, Karam's clubfeet was treated and the two limbs which were protruding out of his stomach were removed.

In the second stage, the doctors performed "PA Band" surgery so that his left ventricle can control his entire body's blood circulation after the treatment and he can undergo a 'Double Switch Surgery' in future.

In the third stage of the surgery, the other two limbs were also removed from his body.

"The level of the surgery was complicated as it took almost eight hours but we did not face any major issues. We had planned the surgery thoroughly. We had done all the investigation earlier regarding the case," Gaurav Rathore, Senior Consultant, Orthopaedics & Joint Replacement Department, Jaypee Hospital, told IANS.

"There are just five or six known cases worldwide of this condition," Rathore added.
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Seven Montana brewers and distillers, including Lewis and Clark Brewing and Gulch Distillers in Helena, are considering exporting their products to Japan after attending a trade show in Tokyo last week.

While no Montana businesses have exported alcohol to Japan yet, the Montana Department of Commerce said an existing trade relationship and Japans growing affinity for craft beer and spirits creates an opportunity for the state. Japan was Montanas sixth largest trading partner in 2016, Daniel Iverson, DOC communications manager, said.

Iverson said Montana already has a trade office in Japan with one full-time contractor. Montana also has a sister-state relationship with Kumamoto.

The Office of Trade and International Relations at the DOC used funds from a federal trade assistance program to pay for the trade show and provide a travel stipend. Iverson said they invited every business in the sector to attend the trade show, and seven businesses were interested and could realistically export their product in the near future.

The trade show lasted from April 12-14. All seven businesses had separate booths, but were grouped together with branded imagery to promote Montana. Iverson said the trade show has a secondary goal of attracting tourists to Montana.

Lewis and Clark Brewing was the only brewery from Montana to attend the trade show. Owner Max Pigman said he already has his own connection to Japan after living there in the late 80s while in the U.S. Air Force. He learned a bit of the language and appreciates the culture, he said.

In addition to a personal connection, he said Japan has an appreciation for craft beer and distilled spirits.

With a major expansion underway, the brewery is already prepared to increase its capacity and export to Japan. Lewis and Clark was founded in 2002 by Pigman and has grown rapidly since then. Pigman said theres a chance he could be exporting out of the country before he distributes out of state.

Our number one goal is to become the number one Montana craft beer, but we will have additional capacity, he said. Craft beer is really on a high growth mode in Japan as well.

Pigman said Lewis and Clark would have to alter its label requirements to export in Japan and adhere to different regulations.

We kind of planned that when we built the new setup to have some flexibility in that regard, he said. We could ramp this up and do this fairly quickly if we decided it makes good business sense.

Lewis and Clark could realistically start exporting late this summer or early fall, Pigman said. The brewery has plans to build a loading dock right near the railroad. Refrigerated rail cars would carry beer to Seattle, which would be transferred onto a ship for a 12 to 14 day trip to Japan.

Gulch Distillers also attended the trade show in Tokyo and is also considering exporting to New York and Colorado. Co-owner Tyrrell Hibbard said his partner Steffen Rasile was already planning a trip to visit his wife's sister in Japan. He decided to attend the trade show to see if Japan has a good market for expansion.

"We dont know if its going to work out. Ill find out more once they get back," Hibbard said. "But were just exploring opportunities."

He said the potential to export outside of Montana could be limited by space.

"We have the ability to grow where we are, but we will be limited by our space before we are limited by the license," he said.

Gulch Distillers recently won a silver medal at the American Distilling Institute's Judging of Craft Spirits competition for its Burrone Fernet, an herbal liqueur. It's distilled from a base of Montana grains and herbs and spices including chamomile, myrrh, rhubarb, saffron and mint. Burrone comes from the Italian word for gulch.

Hibbard said the award-winning Fernet is one of the most unique products they distill and would likely have the most interest in Japan.

Other Montana businesses that attended include Headframe Spirits in Butte, Bozeman Spirits and Montana Malting and Wildrye Distilling in Bozeman and Whistling Andy Distilling in Bigfork.
The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574.
Maharashtra:

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) at Palghar in Maharashtra arrested an IAS officer and his deputy for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 12 lakh.

The ACB said Milind B Gawade (54), an IAS officer currently working as Additional Tribal Commissioner, had demanded bribe from 12 employees of state-run ashram shalas (residential schools for tribal children).

The employees had been recently promoted as superintendents, and Gawade allegedly threatened to demote them if they did not pay him Rs one lakh each, the ACB said.

ALSO READ | India ranks 9th among 41 countries in corruption in business: Survey

After receiving a complaint, the investigative body laid a trap and caught deputy tribal commissioner Kiran Sukhlal Mali (39) red-handed on Saturday while he was accepting money on Gawades behalf. Both Mali and Gawade were later arrested.
Mumbai:

Kriti Sanon is all praises for her rumoured beau Sushant Singh Rajput with whom she will sharing the screen space in their upcoming movie 'Raabta'.

The actress not just cited Sushant as an amazing actor but also lauded him for his dedication towards his work.

He (Sushant) is fabulous. He is an amazing actor so he keeps you on your toes. He gets into the skin of the character and does a lot of homework in detail. If you have a good co-actor your performance also enhances, Kriti told reporters.

Sanon was talking on the sidelines of International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) voting weekend press meet here today. Ever since Sushant and Kriti began shooting for their upcoming romantic drama, reports of their growing closeness started doing the rounds.

When asked about the same, Kriti said, Its better to ignore them.The 26-year-old actress will be seen doing some action sequences in Raabta and she enjoyed every bit of it.

There is a section in the film that requires action. I always wanted to do it. So I am excited about it. It makes you feel little stronger when you doing and learning it. It is very difficult to do it. I have had a lot of cuts and bruises but it was a great experience, she said.



Directed by Dinesh Vijan and produced by Homi Adajania and T-Series, the film is set to release on June 9. Kriti was last seen in 2015 Dilwale and had no release last year, but the actress said absence from big screen did not bother her.

I was working constantly. If I am not working and sitting at home then I get very restless. But I was constantly working. I have finished Raabta and Bareilly Ki Barfi. I will have back-to-back releases. The release of a film is unfortunately not in my hands, she said.





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Los Angeles:

Renowned Hollywood actor Clifton James, who was famous for his role as Sheriff J W Pepper in "James Bond" films, breathed his last at the age of 96.

The actor passed away just blocks afar from his childhood home, surrounded by friends and family, loved ones told Variety in a statement.

James was born as the eldest child of Grace and Harry James in the year 1920.

He grew up just outside Portland, Oregon during the heart of the Great Depression. According to his kin, he fought for five years on the front lines of the South Pacific, thereby earning two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star for his service during the World War II.

James acting career spread out around six decades, where he showcased his talent in theatre, film and television.

He appeared on stage in the plays "The Time of Your Life" and went on to perform in many Broadway shows which included names such as "All The Way Home".

But he gained major recognition when he starred as he crowing Louisiana sheriff, J W Pepper in two Bond films, "Live and Let Die" (1973) and "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974).

He played similar roles with Southern background in films like "Silver Streak" and "Superman II".

James is survived by his sisters, Cicely and Beverley; his five children, Cory, Winkie, Hardy, Lynn, and Mary; fourteen grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.

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Chandigarh:

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday alleged that Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's refusal to meet Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan is part of a "political conspiracy" hatched by the Congress high command under a "tit for tat" policy.



"As we are aware, the Ontario state assembly of Canada had recently passed a resolution terming the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as Sikh genocide and state sponsored annihilation of the Sikhs," Punjab AAP Chief Whip Sukhpal Singh Khaira said.



He said this is something which is completely unacceptable to the Congress high command, as it puts the party in an "untenable position".



"It is common knowledge that the Congress has been on the back foot for the last more than 32 years for its nefarious role in the killings of thousands of Sikhs in Delhi and across India in the aftermath of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984," Khaira said.

ALSO READ: Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is a Khalistani sympathizer, says Punjab CM Amarinder Singh



"The denial of justice to the families of 1984 victims for the last more than three decades is not only a blot on the Indian democracy and its judiciary but it continuously haunts the Congress party and its tainted leaders responsible for the genocide," he said.



Therefore, in order to settle scores with the Canadian government for passing the Sikh genocide resolution, the Congress high command has "directed" Amarinder to oppose Sajjan on "flimsy grounds" by calling him a Khalistani sympathiser, the AAP leader said.



He claimed that the Congress apprehends if it does not oppose Sajjan now by whipping up sentiments over Khalistan, a similar resolution might be introduced in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in the ensuing budget session, creating "more embarrassment" to it.



"Secondly, Amarinder is also settling personal scores with Canada for not granting him permission to visit its soil for politicking and collecting funds. Hence, he is creating a false euphoria of Khalistan to oppose Sajjan," he claimed.



The AAP leader urged Amarinder to reconsider his "unjustified statement borne out of petty considerations" and welcome Sajjan to Punjab as a state guest.



"This will not only send a positive message to over 50 lakh NRI's settled across the globe but also improve bilateral ties between India (Punjab) and Canada," he said.



"By meaninglessly opposing Sajjan, he is not only humiliating the Punjabis and Sikh diaspora abroad but also back home," he added.

ALSO READ: EVM tampered? Had machines been fixed, I wouldnt be sitting here: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh

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Bhubaneswar:

With "popular" Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the way party would strive to bring about a positive change in India's political landscape, the BJP said on Sunday.

"Today, our responsibility is not just winning elections and strengthening our party, but also bring about a positive change in the country's politics", BJP president Amit Shah said in his concluding speech at the party's National Executive meet in Bhubaneswar.

Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is popular not only in the country but abroad too, is BJP's main asset. Modi has been working day-in and day-out for the last three years, he said.

"In the last three years Modi ji attended programmes in atleast 300 district headquarters across the country", the BJP president pointed out.

Read more: MCD elections: Aam Aadmi Party calls BJP manifesto document of 'lies'

He said the BJP needed to bring about changes in the party system and the government "so that other political parties will be forced to adopt such policies which will lead to positive changes in India's political landscape."

The BJP chief told the party members that time had come to tell the world that a political party with a specific ideology could meet aspirations of the people and serve the nation.

Shah said the National Executive of the party took place in Bhubaneswar at a time when political analysts and critics were being forced to acknowledge the BJP's meteoric rise in Indian politics.

He asked partymen not to be complacent due to back to back successes and take a pledge to make effort to ensure "lotus bloom in each and every booth in the country".

"Now show your strength to serve the people and the down trodden", Shah said.

Read more: Telangana assembly passes bill to hike Muslim quota to 12% despite BJP's protest

He called upon party's rank and file to make BJP's win sustainable. "The win should not be short-lived, but should be made a permanent feature for the party. India should again get the status of the world leader."

Shah asserted the "party's acceptance has increased manifold and more parties are now interested to be its allies."

He said the NDA meeting in Delhi on April 10 had reposed full confidence on the Prime Minister and partners had set a target to win the 2019 general elections with a two-thirds majority.

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Chandigarh:

Punjab minister Rana Gurjit Singh on Sunday lashed out at the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for its accusations against Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and the Gandhi family over the row involving Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan.

The Power and Irrigation Minister in the Amarinder-led Congress government in the state claimed that the wild allegations levelled by the SAD had exposed its pro-Khalistani leanings, considering that many Canadian liberals had criticised Sajjan for expressing such views.

The SAD, by siding with a Khalistani sympathiser like Sajjan, had proved that it did not have the welfare of Punjab or its people at heart but was only keen on promoting its political interests even if it meant communalising the states environment, alleged Gurjit.

By choosing to deny a fact acknowledged and accepted by many in Canada and India, the SAD was once again trying to polarise the state on communal lines, as it has been doing over the past several years, he added.

The state government has been tracking the activities of the pro-Khalistani elements and had enough information to show that Sajjan was siding with such forces, which were perpetually trying to raise their heads in Punjab again, the Congress leader said.

Claiming that the Badal family-led SADs nefarious designs to communalise the states fabric had failed, with the voters rejecting their efforts outright in the recent Assembly polls, Gurjit said the people of Punjab would not allow their peace and harmony to be disrupted again at any cost.

We have suffered enough at the hands of extremists and will do everything in our power to prevent the revival of militancy in any form in the state, he added.

Gurjit also flayed the Akalis for unnecessarily dragging the Gandhi family into the Sajjan controversy.

Amarinder had never shied away from taking a principled stand on any issue, even if it meant breaking away from the party as he had done in the wake of Operation Blue Star, the Congress leader pointed out, adding that the chief minister believed in standing by his values and principles, irrespective of the impact it might have on his political career.

He claimed that Amarinders stand on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots was more than clear and he had publicly articulated the same on several occasions.

The chief minister was not answerable to the Akalis, but was only accountable to the people of Punjab, who had given him a resounding mandate in the recent Assembly polls, said Gurjit.

Describing the Canadian Defence Minister as pro-Khalistani, Amarinder had recently said he would not meet Sajjan during the latters visit to Punjab.

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Name: Erin Turner

Age: 43

Address: 930 North Warren Street, Helena 59601

Phone: 406-443-2496

Education: BA in History from Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa

Occupation: Editorial Director, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing

Years lived in Helena School District: 22

Do you have or have you had kids in the school district? If so, which schools?

Yes, a 4th grader at Central School and a 7th grader at Helena Middle School

Why are you running for school board?

Public education has amazing potential to help every studentregardless of ability, family background, or economic statusachieve his or her goals and reach his or her potential. In order for that to work, however, the public has to contribute. I feel that I can make a positive impact on our schools and our students by bringing my passion for educations potential to serving my community as a member of the board.

What makes you a good choice for this position?

My passion for public education, my specific experience with Helena Public Schools, and my experience as a board member for other organizations make me a good choice to fill the role of trustee. Ive been a volunteer in public school classrooms and an active participant on parent councils. Additionally, Ive been a member of the board of Helena Public Montessori Parents and Child Care Partnerships, and Ive been a representative on the Superintendents parent advisory council, a representative on numerous committees around facilities issues, a volunteer for levy and bond campaigns, and a regular attendee and participant at school board meetings. Im well informed about Helenas schools, and Ive made a point of becoming educated on trends and issues in education here in Montana and nationwide. Im not an expert in education, but I am an eager learner and someone who is always willing to ask questions of those who are experts.

What are the three key issues you believe are facing the school district?

 Our aging infrastructure and the need to update all of our K-12 facilities to reflect our community values and to support 21st century educational needs.

 Providing equitable access to programming and services that provide necessary interventions for all students at the times when they need them.

 Maximizing the effectiveness of our operations budgets through the best possible appropriation of resources.

Do you support the Helena Public Schools May 2 building bond to build three new K-5 schools at Bryant, Central and Jim Darcy schools, which are slated to be demolished? Why or why not?

I support the May 2 building bond because it fixes the most pressing of our numerous facilities issues of health, safety, functionality, and student displacement by replacing those three buildings. Additionally, the improvements in technology also provided through the bond will affect all students nowand the overall bond will give our community something to be proud of and to build on for the future. The bond is both fiscally responsible and forward-thinking, and as a taxpayer Im proud to have the opportunity to vote to support that kind of public investment.

What is the district doing well?

Helena Schools do many things very well. In particular, our district makes every effort to hire the best administrators, teachers, and other professionals and to give them the support and tools they need to be successful. Many remarkable things happen every day in our schools through innovation and collaborationand through the thoughtfully applied experience of our faculty and staff. Additionally, though we do have a crisis in our facilities, the district does a remarkable job of keeping up the existing infrastructure of our buildings overall with limited time and resourcesthey have served the taxpayers well as stewards of those assets, its just time for a new kind of investment.

What could the district do better?

As is the case with almost any large, complex organization, our district could do a better job of communicating with parents and community members about district priorities and how they affect student needs.

How will you come up to speed on school board issues?

I currently stay apprised of school board issues by reading agendas and minutes from meetings, reviewing policies as they relate to those agendas, attending meetings, and talking to school board members, district administrators, faculty, and staff. As a trustee, I will embark on further study and will provide stewardship and direction by looking out for the needs of all students while representing my community. I will listen to and weigh the advice of the experts in administration and on the faculty in our district, considering the opinions of parents and taxpayers, and asking important questions. I will contribute to the discussion about equity between our schools and the availability of and access to resources and programs and will work to improve communication between the district, the board, the administration and staffs of our schools, and the community at large.
Panaji:

Right wing group Vishwa Hindu Paishad on Sunday said it along with other associate groups will ban cow slaughter and consumption of beef in tourism state Goa in next two years even without governments help.

A senior VHP functionary Radha Krishna Manori said, the organisation will impose the ban in the state with the help of the Bajrang Dal and the Durga Vahini activists.

Like elsewhere in the country, in Goa, too, we are awakening people against the cow slaughter and eating beef. You will have to wait for another one or two years and our Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini workers will stop cow slaughter in the state, he told reporters in Vasco town near here.

Also Read: Congress has become 'Indian version of Muslim League': Vishwa Hindu Parishad

Manori was in Vasco to address an event on the issue of construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

The VHP will not require the help of any government to stop cow slaughter or beef eating, as our wings Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini are capable enough to do it, he said.

He said that the Hindus worship cow as a mother and his organisation strongly professes dharma raksha, which also includes gau raksha.

VHP is stopping cow slaughter through Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini. We are not demanding anything from the government, he added.

VHP is strong enough to get done the things which it wants. Why wont it (cow slaughter) stop It has to stop, he commented referring to the beef ban.

We will do what the Hindu society wants. We will not allow cow slaughter or allow anyone to eat beef in Goa, he added.

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New Delhi:

Delhi-NCRs air quality is once again set to witness drastic fall and the region may witness re-occurrence of a thick blanket of smog by the next week. Air pollution has been a major problem shrouding the region and burning of crop-stubble in northern India after cutting the Rabi crops enhances the problem.

Experts too have decried the practice of burning crop stubble in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh which lead to Delhi-NCR transforming into a gas chamber. The Delhi High court too had expressed concern over the health hazards posed by this practice and sought a response in 2016 by governments of UP, Haryana and Punjab about their action plan to stop the practice.

As far as the state governments were concerned, they claimed that although they were trying their best to address the issue, some farmers are not ready to leave the practice.

ALSO READ: Delhi air pollution kills eight people on average per day: Supreme Court

The bench had further cautioned the chief secretaries of the four states that they will be held responsible if the practice was not put to a stop. The National Green Tribunal and the Delhi high court have repeatedly directed authorities to prevent burning of crop stubble.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, too has blamed the burning of stubble in agricultural fields for being responsible for the citys deteriorating air quality. Although this practice is illegal, state governments have been unable to stop it and thus Delhi is set to resemble a gas chamber once again. However, if this problem is not adhered to, severe health repercussions will follow it.

READ: Year ender 2016: NGT cracks whips on Delhi's air pollution, AOL, Ganga

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Panaji:

Former Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat has been summoned by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Goa crime branch to appear before it in connection with an illegal mining case of 2013.



"Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat has been summoned to appear before the SIT on April 18," Superintendent of Police, Goa crime branch, Priyanka Kashyap told PTI on Sunday.



This is the second summon issued to Kamat in connection with the illegal mining case. He was first questioned by the SIT in February 2014.



According to a senior crime branch official, Goa Mines and Geology Department's former director Arvind Lolienkar has also been summoned along with Kamat.

ALSO READ: Lokayukta police to probe illegal mining cases in Karnataka



Lolienkar was arrested by the SIT in connection with the case in March 2014. He is currently out on bail. A report of Justice (retd) M B Shah Commission had earlier stated that illegal mining to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore took place in Goa from 2005 to 2012, when the Supreme Court banned iron ore extraction in the state.



A complaint was filed by the Mines and Geology Department in July 2013 seeking to fix criminal liability on those involved in the illegal mining as pointed out by various committees, including the Centre-appointed Shah Commission.



The crime branch then registered an FIR in August 2013 against those named in various reports (Shah Commission and other committees) including Kamat, Lolienkar, and some other officials of the department, mining firms and others.



The FIR was registered under various IPC sections, including 120 (b) (conspiracy), 166 (public servant disobeying law), relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act, Mines and Minerals Development Act, Mineral Conservation and Development Rules and Goa Prevention of Illegal Mining Transportation, Storage of Minerals Rules 2004.



Based on the complaint, the SIT was formed by the then BJP government to probe the case. An apex court-appointed Central Empowered Committee and state Legislative Assembly's Public Accounts Committee had also confirmed illegal mining in the state.

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New Delhi:

After the massive win in recent assembly elections in UP and Uttarakhand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on his first Gujarat visit. The two day visit kick starts with a road show in Surat where Modi receives a grand welcome in his home state which will go to the polls later this year.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Bhai Patel and other dignitaries welcomed PM Modi to Gujarat.

The road show begins from Surat Airport to reach Circuit House and people from different communities and groups felicitate him after every 200 metres on the 11-km stretch decorated with sarees imprinted with the titles of various development schemes and projects.

Triple talaq issue | Our Muslim sisters deserve justice: PM Modi at BJP national executive meet

Earlier, BJP president Amit Shah, while addressing a gathering in Surats Varaccha was forced to stop as supporters of Hardik Patel created ruckus.

Over the next two days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a rally in Katargam, a Patidar majority area. Besides attending several functions and inaugurating hospitals, irrigation projects.

Here are the Highlights:

#9:25 PM Gujarat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow concludes as he reaches Circuit House in Surat

Gujarat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow concludes as he reaches Circuit House in Surat pic.twitter.com/LnPYf63VhG  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

#8:50 PM: Crowd chants "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" and "Modi-Modi" slogans as Modi continues his 11 km roadshow.

#8:40 PM: Live Pictures from PM Modi's Roadshow in Surat.

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In PM @narendramodi's road show with disco lights & 10000 bikers,crowd goes out of control#GujaratWelcomesPMModi pic.twitter.com/lhluZ1k9Ip  Ankit Pandit (@Ankit_sihani) April 16, 2017

#8:15 PM: People switch on their mobile flashlights as Prime Minister Narendra Modi proceeds with his roadshow in Surat, Gujarat.

People switch on their mobile flashlights as Prime Minister Narendra Modi proceeds with his roadshow in Surat, Gujarat. pic.twitter.com/nppQfKPVzQ  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

#8:04 PM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's road show continues in Surat, Gujarat; a bikers rally escorting him to the circuit house.

#8:00 PM: 600 cutouts, 5 gate structures put across the city. A 30-feet tall statue of PM Modi has also been erected.

#7:50 PM: People rains flowers on PM Modi as his open SUV crosses them.

#7:33 PM: Prime Minister Modi on an open-top SUV, waves at crowd

#7:27 PM: BJP worker on motorcycles along the way on the 11-kilometer stretch.

#7:20 PM: Crowd chants "Modi-Modi" as PM shows up in his open car.

#7:10 PM: Massive crowd gathers outside Surat airport.

#7:01 PM: Surat: People gather on Surat roads ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow in the city.

Gujarat: People gather on Surat roads ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow in the city. pic.twitter.com/EvxQrZUJQ8  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

#7:00 PM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow in Surat, Gujarat: A sand art for Swachh Bharat at Parle Point.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow in Surat, Gujarat: A sand art for Swachh Bharat at Parle Point. pic.twitter.com/7IWefxR60s  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

#6:55 PM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Surat.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Surat, Gujarat for a roadshow in the city. pic.twitter.com/9IfTFtx6Lv  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

Gujarat: Flower petals showered at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statue in Surat ahead of his arrival. pic.twitter.com/joYS9VevF4  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

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New Delhi:

Just before the commencement of MCD elections 2017, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari released the party manifesto named as Sankalp on Sunday.

Tiwari announced that people of Delhi will be given out food for just Rs 10 under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana.

No new tax shall be introduced, said Tiwari. BJPs MCD manifesto attempts to woo voters from all sections of society.

The manifesto mentions that the religious and other social institutions shall have to pay Re 1 as wealth tax. The manifesto also stresses on water harvesting in order to ease out the water scarcity problem in the city. BJP also promises to bring in fresh planning to deal with the ubiquitous traffic snarls.

Cleanliness drive has also been kept under one of the major focuses for the city in BJPs MCD manifesto. For smooth monitoring and functioning of work related to MCD, BJP aims to appoint a nodal officer.

ALSO READ: MCD polls: Over 1.10 lakh people eligible to exercise their franchise for first time

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Surat:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will commence his two-day Gujarat visit by holding a massive 11-kilometre roadshow in Surat on Sunday evening.

The roadshow will begin from the Surat airport and conclude at the Circuit House. After the roadshow, there will be a series of events of the Prime Minister.

It is expected that people will come in large number to welcome the Prime Minister as it will be seen as BJPas show of strength. It is to be noted that BJP president Amit Shah who was addressing public here at Varaccha, Surat was forcefully stopped after supporters of Hardik Patel created ruckus.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi also expressed his gratitude to the people participating in the events related to his Gujarat visit.

My gratitude to all those who are participating in the various programmes. Visiting the vibrant city of Surat is a matter of great joy. a Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 16, 2017



aAs the Prime Minister is arriving here for the first time after the Uttar Pradesh win, he will be given a grand welcome. People from different communities and groups will felicitate him after every 200 metres on the 11-km stretch from Surat airport to Circuit House, where the PM will stay the night,a BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said.

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Lucknow:

The Supreme Court should decide the issue of triple talaq as per the Constitution to ensure justice for Muslim women, said BSP supremo Mayawati on Friday.

Our party wants the Supreme Court to take a decision on the issue of triple talaq as per the Indian Constitution, keeping the state and central governments out, she said while speaking at Ambedkar Jayanti function of the party here.

From media reports, it does not seem that senior persons associated with the Muslim personal law boards are serious about Muslim women getting justice on the issue of triple talaq...we do not feel that the board will be able to ensure justice for Muslim women soon...the apex court should ensure justice for them, she said.

In October last year, Mayawati had criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his stance on the issue, saying such matters should be left to the Muslim community and not be raked up, specially on election eve, for political gains.

Also read: Board will end triple talaq practice in one-and-a-half years: AIMPLB

The prime minister and the central government instead of interfering in the issue of triple talaq should better leave it to the Muslim community to form a common opinion, she had said.

Raising a question mark on the functioning of the Yogi Adityanath government, Mayawati said its policies are hollow. The closure of slaughterhouses has forced those involved in its trade to knock the doors of the court, she said.

On demands to close down liquor shops in populated areas, she said her party supported it but termed as unfortunate the BJP governments silence on the issue for its economic gains and capitalist mentality.

Also read: Practice of triple talaq, polygamy impacts dignity of Muslim women: Centre to SC

They have maintained silence as they know that the areas where there are liquor shops are inhabited by Dalits, backwards and the poor among the upper castes whom this government wants to harm though liquor shops, she said.

On farmers loan waiver, she said that loans up to only Rs one lakh have been waived off and this is a betrayal for people who were promised full loan waiver by Modi while campaigning for the recent Assembly polls.

Farmers are sitting on dharna also in the national capital but the BJP government is not concerned about them, she said.

On the law and order issue, she said there was no improvement visible under the Yogi government and crime in the state is going on as before.

(But) for diverting attention (from such issues) this government is using media to focus on probes into the works of the earlier governments, she said.

Our party is not against probe in scams like the one relating to memorial construction but it should not be conducted with a casteist, religious mindset or for political vendetta, she said.

On the massive departmental reviews being undertaken by the chief minister, she said merely enacting laws, holding reviews or its publicity in media will not improve the lot of people.

She also lamented a lack of upkeep of the memorials and statues set up by her government in honour of great ideologues of her party. She also formed a five member committee of her partymen to inspect them and meet the Chief Minister in this connection besides making their report public through the media.

She also cautioned her party leaders not to meet BJP or other party MPs, MLAs or ministers for redressal of problems faced by their people or partymen and instead meet officials for the purpose.

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Lucknow:

The idea of forming a 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) along with the SP and the BSP in Uttar Pradesh to counter the surge of the BJP, was supported by Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday.

"The idea of 'mahagathbandhan' is good", the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said in Lucknow.

However, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar, while commenting on the issue, said, "It is too early to say. If we do not honour the feeling of the people and workers, it will be wrong. We will also talk about 'mahagathbandhan' with our senior leaders."

He also claimed the Congress does not practice votebank politics as done by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Read more: MCD polls 2017: Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari releases manifesto, promises to give food for Rs 10

The party's Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari, when asked about the idea of formation of a grand alliance with the SP and the BSP, said, "My best wishes are with them."

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday had backed the idea of forming a coalition of political parties against the BJP, saying, "There should be a coalition, which can pave the way forward. We are ready to welcome it. We had welcomed such a move earlier too."

BSP chief Mayawati too had asserted that she would join hands with other parties to take on the BJP.

The Congress' district unit presidents, who had gathered here to deliberate upon the strategy for the upcoming civic body elections in the state, alleged that the pre-poll tie-up with the SP was a "major road block" for the party's prospect in the Assembly elections.

The SP and the Congress had contested Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls together in which the alliance managed to get only 54 of the 403 Assembly seats.

The SP had contested on 298 seats and the Congress on 105 seats. The Congress managed to win only seven seats. "Most of the district presidents are of the view that the SP-Congress pre-poll alliance proved to be a major road block for the party's poll prospect in the 2017 UP Assembly elections", a party office bearer who attended the meeting said on condition of anonymity.

Read more: Amarinder's refusal to meet Canadian Defence Minister Sajjan Congress conspiracy, says AAP

According to party sources, nearly 30-40 district chiefs of the Congress, from eastern and central Uttar Pradesh, attended the meeting at the party's state unit headquarters here.

Speaking to media persons, Tiwari said, "The party workers are sad over the poll outcome in Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, but their morale is high and we will resurrect the Congress with the help of this spirit."

On any possible change in party leadership at the state level, he said, "There is no question of any hint being given in any organisation. Whenever changes take place, it will be visible to all."

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New Delhi/Hyderabad:

A bill seeking to increase the reservation to Scheduled Tribes and backward sections among Muslims has been tabled in the Telangana Legislative Assembly in a special sitting being held on Sunday.

During the debate, 5 BJP MLAs have bene suspended from Telangana Assembly for protesting in the well of the house.



The state cabinet, which met in Hyderabad on Saturday, gave its nod to the bill, sources said. However, there was no official briefing on the cabinet meeting in view of the session on Sunday.



The bill has been introduced in the assembly as per the TRS election promise to make efforts to provide 12 per cent quota each for backward sections among Muslims and STs.



The state government is making efforts to realise the promise, though it required Centres nod, as it was part of TRS election manifesto, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had said earlier this week.



The state government would urge the Centre to take up the issue as the percentage of quotas would go beyond the 50 per cent cap, he had said.The Centre would have to give its assent as 69 per cent quota is already under implementation in Tamil Nadu, he had said.



As the TRS government is exactly following the Tamil Nadu model, the increased reservations should be incorporated in the 9th Schedule of Constitution so that it cannot be questioned in court, he had said.The opposition BJP has been strident in its opposition to the proposal, alleging that it is against the spirit of Constitution as it is communal.



The Chief Minister, however, had asserted that the reservation is proposed to be given not on the basis of religion, but on the basis of backwardness.



Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu had on Friday said the implementation of reservations on the basis of religion may result in social unrest in the country and lead to creation of another Pakistan.



Speaking at a BJP meeting organised on the occasion of the Ambedkar Jayanti yesterday, Naidu had also hinted that Telanganas proposal to hike reservations for certain sections may not be constitutionally valid.



We are not opposing (reservation on religion basis) because KCR (Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao) wants to implement it, he said, adding, The BJP opposed such a move even when Rajasekhara Reddy (late CM of united Andhra Pradesh) and Chandrababu Naidu (present CM) also tried to do that.



We will oppose any such move because it will lead to creation of another Pakistan. It is an all India policy of the BJP. It is not the policy of Telangana unit of the BJP, he had said.



Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohd Ali Shabbir today slammed the BJP for categorising the minorities quota as a religious reservation.



The BJP has given ten per cent quota to Patels in Gujarat. Is it not a religious reservation ? he asked.



BJP floor leader in assembly, G Kishan Reddy, alleged that the TRS government is acting unilaterally as it gave no information about the issue to opposition.



Criticising the state government for allegedly clubbing reservation for STs and backward sections among Muslims, he said such a move would hurt STs in the event of courts striking down the bill.

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New Delhi:

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday staged protests in Hyderabad and elsewhere in Telangana against the passage of a bill by the state legislature increasing reservations for backward sections of Muslim community.



All five BJP MLAs  G Kishan Reddy, K Laxman, NVSS Prabhakar, Ch Ramachandra Reddy and T Raja Singh, were suspended from the Assembly during the special session on Sunday.



BJP had opposed the bill, calling it anti-Constitutional as it sought to increase a religion-based quota. Wearing black scarves, the MLAs walked to the Assembly from the Ambedkar statue near Hussain Sagar Lake before the House proceedings began on Sunday.

Also Read | BJP vows to fight Telangana govt's Muslim quota move



They shouted slogans in support of increasing quotas for Scheduled Tribes (also provided in the bill) but opposing reservations for Muslims. After their suspension from the House, the BJP MLAs tried to stage a protest at the Gandhi statue on the Assembly premises, but police removed them from there, said BJP spokesperson Prakash Reddy.



BJP workers who had planned to march to the Assembly were detained in various parts of the city, he claimed. In Karimnagar, about a hundred BJP protesters were detained by the police.



Under the bill, passed by both houses of the state legislature, quota for STs will be increased to 10 per cent from the existing 6 per cent, while that for BC-E category (backward sections of Muslims) will go up to 12 per cent from the existing 4 per cent.

Also Read | Telangana to come up with Most Backward Classes Commission

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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:

#10:30 PM

Jammu and Kashmir: Former Public prosecutor Imtiyaz Ahmad Khan shot dead by gunmen in Pinjura (Shopian) - ANI

#9:25 PM

Gujarat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow concludes as he reaches Circuit House in Surat - ANI

#8:59 PM

Come what may, Muslim men will only follow Shariat laws: Azam Khan - ANI

#7:38 PM

Mt. Everest to face 'traffic jam' this climbing season - ANI

#7:37 PM

PM Shri Narendra Modi greets people during his road show in Surat, Gujarat - BJP

#7:05 PM

The PM will join programmes in Surat, Silvassa and Botad. These development works will provide a major impetus to Gujarat's growth - PMO India

#7:02 PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Surat, Gujarat for a roadshow in the city - ANI

#6:40 PM

Congress for reservation based on economic status - ANI

#6:25 PM

Gujarat: A car caught fire in Ahmedabad's Nikol today, later doused. No casualties/injuries - ANI

#6:18 PM

Gujarat: Flower petals showered at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statue in Surat ahead of his arrival - ANI

#6:06 PM

IAF helicopters continue fire fighting operations with underslung Bambi Bucket in Mount Abu (Rajasthan), dousing forest fire - ANI

#6:00 PM

Ex CM Digambar Kamat summoned to appear before the SIT on April 18, in 2013 illegal mining case: Goa crime branch SP Priyanka Kashyap - ANI

#5:55 PM

Mount Abu: IAF helicopters continue with their fire fighting ops with underslung Bambi Bucket, dousing forest fire close to inhabited zone - ANI

#5:38 PM

Triple Talaq: PM Modi pushes 'new India' mantra, bats for 'Muslim sisters' - ANI

#5:15 PM

#UPDATE Pope urges end to Syria 'horror' in Easter Day address in Rome - AFP



#5:07 PM

Unhone (PM) kaha humari satta humara sadhya nahin hai, saadhan hai: Nitin Gadkari,BJP after BJP National Executive Meet #Odisha - ANI

#5:06 PM

Maharashtra: Nagpur records maximum temperature of 45 degrees Celsius - ANI

#5:02 PM

EVM row: PM Modi tears into Opposition for concocting new issues - ANI

#4:58 PM

Unhonne (PM) kaha ki hum ye nahi chahte ki Muslim samaaj mein is bahane sangharsh ho: Nitin Gadkari #TripleTalaq - ANI

#4:58 PM

Unhone(PM modi) kaha ki aisa desh banana hai jahan social aur economic equality hogi,jahan koi unch-nichta ka bhed nahi hoga: Nitin Gadkari - ANI

#4:58 PM

Samaaj mein agar kisi bhi prakaar ki kupratha hai toh samaaj ko jaga ke unko nyay dene ki koshish krni chahiye: Nitin Gadkari #TripleTalaq - ANI

#4:49 PM

PM Modi's speech at National Executive Meet was also about Jan Dhan, Jal Dhan and Van Dhan: Nitin Gadkari, BJP - ANI

#4:41 PM

Should move forward with the formula of New India,now we will not move slowly but fast: PM Modi during speech at BJP National Executive Meet - ANI

#4:38 PM

Senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari addresses a press conference after BJP National Executive Meet in Bhubaneswar - ANI



#4:27 PM

Muslim women are facing difficulties on the issue of #TripleTalaq, we should work for solution at district level: PM Modi in Bhubaneswar - ANI

#4:21 PM

J&K: A Petrol bomb was hurled at CRPF vehicle in Rainawari area of Srinagar. No injuries or casualties reported - ANI

#4:13 PM

Singer Zubeen Garg left a Rongali Bihu function midway in Assam's Guwahati when asked to stick to non-Hindi songs. (April 14) - ANI

#3:57 PM

Chhattisgarh: Fire breaks out in a building in Raipur's Gole Bazaar, 6 fire tenders at spot. (earlier visuals) - ANI

#3:54 PM

Samajwadi saksham hain akele: Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri on alliance with BSP, Congress - ANI

#3:51 PM

Backward Class,SC&ST Reservation Bill, 2017, increasing quota for socially&economically backward among Muslims, passed in Telangana assembly - ANI

#3:25 PM

It has been decided in executive body meeting that those misusing #TripleTalaq will face social boycott: Maulana Khalid R Firangi, AIMPLB - ANI

#3:16 PM

Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh): Police busts ISI sleeper cell arrests two people Manindra Yadav and Sanjay Devangan - ANI

#3:09 PM

West Bengal: Border Security Force seized fake notes worth Rs 7,00,000 of Rs 2000 denomination in Malda district's Churiantpur -ANI

#3:04 PM

There has been misunderstanding on this issue, we will issue a code of conduct on it: All India Muslim Personal Law Board #TripleTalaq - ANI

#3:00 PM

We will go by Supreme Court's order on Babri-Ayodhya matter: All India Muslim Personal Law Board -ANI

#2:58 PM

Chhattisgarh: Fire breaks out in a building in Raipur's Gole Bazaar, 6 fire tenders at spot - ANI

#2:15 PM

Sai Praneeth beats Kidambi Srikanth 17-21, 21-17, 21-12 to win the Singapore Open Super Series title - ANI

#2:12 PM

BJP releases manifesto for upcoming municipal polls in Delhi - ANI

#2:11 PM

Prima facie there is no evidence of any mischief: Daljeet Singh Choudhary (ADG Law & Order) on Rajya Rani Express derailment: ANI

#2:01 PM

Muslim and ST reservation bill: Police detains BJP workers protesting against Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao in Hyderabad: ANI

#2:00 PM

Digvijaya Singh's views should not be taken seriously. He is same person who said RSS is behind Mumbai attacks: Sudhanshu Trivedi, BJP, EVM

#1:49 PM

All parties should try & evolve broad consensus considering Dr Ambedkar's view that reservation should not last forever: Ashwani Kumar, Cong

#1:45 PM

Telangana Govt is playing vote bank politics, CM is feeling insecure after the big BJP win in UP: G Kishen Reddy, BJP MLA: ANI

#1:42 PM

Death toll from bomb attack on Syria evacuees rises to 112: monitoring group: ANI

#1:37 PM

Mayurbhanj (Odisha): A man and a woman thrashed and tied by villagers after they were blamed of being in an #illicitrelationship: ANI

#1:36 PM

Security forces should be given free hand to deal with such elements,otherwise, it won't stop: Yogeshwar Dutt on CRPF jawan attacked in J&K: ANI

#1:24 PM

Muslim and ST reservation bill: 5 BJP MLAs suspended from Telangana Assembly for protesting in the well of the house: ANI



#1:14 PM

Mumbai: AIU arrested 2 passengers at CSI Airport & recovered total 25 gold bars valued at Rs. 87,45,000, concealed inside their rectums: ANI

#1:10 PM

BJP has made Triple Talaq political issue to divide Muslims, they don't have any sympathy for Muslim women: Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress: ANI

#1:01 PM

Delhi: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat met NSA Ajit Doval over current situation in Jammu and Kashmir: ANI

#12:57 PM

People have risen above caste and religious lines to support PM Modi and BJP: Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister: ANI

#12:55 PM

Opposition did not support fight against black money & demonetisation. But people showed their support: Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister

#12:50 PM

Gaya (Bihar): Six country-made pistols recovered from Gaya-Kiul passenger train. Case registered: ANI

#12:48 PM

Tamil Nadu: On April 25 opposition parties will observe bandh across state demanding relief for farmers including fair price for produce: ANI



#12:37 PM

Next National Executive will be held on July 15th & 16th in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh: Sidharth Nath Singh, BJP: ANI

#12:27 PM

Chhattisgarh: Crockett, the CRPF sniffer dog who was bitten by snake during IED detection operation in Sukma is recovering steadily: ANI

#12:17 PM

Fire at Court Complex in Hardoi, situation is under control and police investigation underway: ANI

#11:56 AM

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar announces ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh for the family of each killed policeman: PTI

#11:55 AM

Security stepped up at Mumbai, Chennai & Hyderabad airports following hijack threats: PTI

#11:54 AM

Normal life hit in Kashmir due to separatist-sponsored strike to protest youth's killing in BSF firing in Srinagar's Batamaloo: PTI

#11:53 AM

UP govt favours shifting of British-era tanneries releasing toxic waste into Ganga river at Kanpur, new site to be identified soon: PTI

#11:52 AM

Man killed, cousin injured after unidentified gunmen barge into house, open fire in south Kashmir's Pulwama district: PTI

#11:51 AM

Over 1 cr households in urban India without bathrooms, according to data by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation: PTI

#11:50 AM

Govt to set up 31 new seismological observatories by year-end to boost information gathering capability on earthquakes: PTI

#11:50 AM

Moradabad (UP): Husband allegedly runs away from hospital, abandons wife after she gave birth to third daughter. Police complaint filed: ANI

#11:41 AM

Dehradun: Foreign national detained with a satellite phone at Jolly Grant airport. Investigation underway: ANI



#11:30 AM

Govt to create 50 virtual museums across country to recall various rebellions & struggles of tribal communities against colonialism: PM Modi

#11:20 AM

Security tightened at Chennai airport following a hijack threat call, police investigation underway: ANI

#10:58 AM

They should be punished for what they did, I want them to be in Jail: #Rehana, Pilibhit resident. #TripleTalaq: ANI

#10:51 AM

UP: Rehana, a resident of Pilibhit says husband gave her #TripleTalaq on phone from New Zealand, later in-laws attacked her with acid: ANI

#10:13 AM

Sea condition would be rough to very rough along & off Andaman Islands during next 24 hrs.Fishermen r advised not to venture into sea: NDMA



#10:07 AM

Chennai (Tamil Nadu): Leaders from opposition parties meet at DMK HQ for all party meet convened by DMK to discuss issues of farmers: ANI

#10:05 AM

Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh): 2 ISI sleeper cells arrested, police got hold of them after tapping phone conversations

#9:42 AM

Polls open in tightly contested Turkey referendum on Erdogan powers: AP

#9:41 AM

Railways to set up dog breeding & training centre to deal with increased requirement of #Pedigreedogs fr detecting explosives & drugs: PTI

#9:35 AM

Meerut Lucknow Rajya Rani Express derailment: GRP registers FIR in Rampur against unknown railway officials for negligence of duty: ANI

#9:31 AM

CBI to get new online system to assist it in probing cases of Black Money: PTI



#8:47 AM

Gujarat: Fire broke out at a textile factory in Valsad, situation under control: ANI

#8:38 AM

Unfortunately the massive struggle of independence in our country was restricted to few families & incidents: PM Modi in Odisha - ANI

#8:22 AM

PM Modi met families of freedom fighters who took part in Paika Rebellion against British East India Company: ANI



#8:02 AM

Surat: 11-Km long saree depicting schemes launched by Central Govt displayed on road from Airport to Circuit House ahead of PM's visit: ANI

#7:31 AM

Telangana State Legislature to discuss Muslim & ST reservation bill & other issues in special seating on Sunday: ANI

#7:15 AM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, Odisha: ANI

#7:00 AM

North Korean missile test failed when it exploded after launch, USmilitary says: AFP

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Bhubaneswar:

Addressing the Bharatiya Janata Partys national executive meet in Bhubaneswar on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that triple talaq is a menace crippling lives of Muslim women in the country.



"Our Muslim sisters deserve justice. We should try to solve this issue at the district level. We should also proceed on the formula of a new India. We can't simply move forward on a slow pace, but charge ahead with full speed," the Prime Minister said.



The party should hold conferences for backward Muslims, Prime Minister Modi suggested this during a discussion on the National Commission for Backward Classes.



Prime Minister Modi said there are sections in Muslims who are backward and they should also be included in the discussion over backward classes.



Meanwhile, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMLPB) on Sunday issued a statement that if anyone found guilty of giving triple talaq without the reasons prescribed by the Sharia law will face social boycott.

Not only this, Prime Minister also discussed and attacked the Opposition over the EVM issue at the meet. Opposition is concoction new issues in a factory of some kind. During Delhi Elections, Church attacks were the highlights and during the Bihar Polls Award Wapasi was the issue. And right now it is the EVM, the Prime Minister said.

ALSO READ: PM Modi announces 50 virtual museums to honour tribal culture

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Bhubaneswar:

Currently on his 2-day visit to Odisha for BJPs national executive meet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is felicitating family members of great freedom fighters who participated in the first mutiny against British rule known as Paika Rebellion at Raj Bhawan in Bhubaneswar.

PM Modi will also visit the Lingjaraj temple in Bhubaneswar to pay his obeisance at the 11th century Shiva shrine.

On his second day of the Odisha tour, PM Modi is scheduled to visit the temple between 8.30 am and 9.30 am for a period of 15 minutes.

Built by Somavanshi king Yayati, Lingaraja Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Harihara, a form of Shiva and Vishnu and is one of the oldest temples in Bhubaneswar. The temple is the most prominent landmark of the Bhubaneswar city and one of the major tourist attractions of the state too.

Read | BJP National Executive meet: Party underlines commitment to build Ram Temple

UPDATES:

#11:35 AM: Govt to create 50 virtual museums across country to recall various rebellions & struggles of tribal communities against colonialism: PM Modi

#8:45 AM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, Odisha

#8:30 AM: Unfortunately the massive struggle of independence in our country was restricted to few families & incidents: PM Modi in Odisha

#8:15 AM: PM meets families of freedom fighters who took part in Paika Rebellion against British East India Company

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New Delhi:

Its been more than three month since 66 year-old Bollywood actor Om Puri died. His sudden death had then shocked not just his fans but the entire film fraternity.

Now after three months, Pakistani media hitting a new low claimed to see his ghost roaming in front of his flat.

In CCTV footage a man, wearing white kurta is seen coming out and he was claimed by Pak media to be the ghost of Om Puri who is searching for NSA Ajit Doval to avenge his killing.

Watch the video here:

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Syria:

Nearly 70 children were among those killed when a suicide car bombing tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, activists said Sunday.

Saturday's blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.

At least 68 children were among the 126 people killed in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead.

At least 109 of the dead were evacuees, the Britain-based monitoring group said, while the rest were aid workers and rebels guarding the convoy.

The evacuations were taking place under a deal between Syria's regime and rebels that is also seeing residents and rebels transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus which are surrounded by pro-government forces.

The agreement is the latest in a string of evacuation deals, which the government of President Bashar Assad says are the best way to end the violence after more than six years of civil war.

Rebels say they amount to forced relocations after years of bombardment and crippling sieges.

Body parts and the belongings of evacuees -- including clothes, dishes and even televisions -- were still strewn at the scene of the attack Sunday, an AFP correspondent said.

The shattered buses were nearby as was the shell of a pick-up truck -- with little left but its engine block -- that was apparently used to carry out the bombing.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, though the key Ahrar al-Sham rebel group denied any involvement. The government blamed "terrorists" -- a catch-all term for its opponents.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to monitor the conflict, said hundreds of people were also wounded in the blast.

- 'People crying and shouting' -

It said a petrol station at the transit point was caught up in the explosion, adding to the number of victims.

The Syrian Red Crescent said three of its workers were among the wounded.

Maysa al-Aswad, a 30-year-old evacuee from Kafraya, said she was sitting on one of the buses with her six-month-old son Hadi and 10-year-old daughter Narjis when the blast shook the parked convoy.

"Hadi was on my lap and Narjis on a chair next to me. When the explosion happened I hugged them both and we fell to the floor," she told AFP by telephone from near Aleppo.

"I didn't know what was happening, all I could hear was people crying and shouting," she said.

"All I can think about is how we survived all the death during the last few years and then could have died just after we finally escaped."

More than 5,000 people left Fuaa and Kafraya and about 2,200 left Madaya and Zabadani Friday, the latest in a series of evacuations from the four towns under the agreement.

The evacuation process resumed after the bombing, the Observatory said, with the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya eventually arriving in Aleppo, Syria's second city which the government gained full control of last year.

Wounded survivors, including many children, were taken for treatment at an Aleppo hospital.

- 'Monstrous, cowardly attack' -

U.N. aid chief Stephen O'Brien condemned the bombing, saying in a statement: "The perpetrators of such a monstrous and cowardly attack displayed a shameless disregard for human life."

Pope Francis Sunday also urged an end to the war in Syria as he presided over the traditional Easter mass in Rome.

The pontiff said he hoped that Jesus Christ's sacrifice might help bring "comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death".

The residents and rebels from Madaya and Zabadani arrived late Saturday in rebel-held territory in Idlib province, where they were greeted with embraces and shots fired into the air.

It was not immediately clear whether further evacuations were taking place Sunday.

The evacuation deal was brokered by Qatar, a longtime supporter of Syrian opposition forces, and Iran, a key regime ally.

Shiite-dominated Iran has repeatedly raised concerns for the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya, who are mainly Shiites and were besieged by Sunni rebels.

Syria's war has left more than 320,000 people dead since erupting in 2011, with more than half the population forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands trapped under siege

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London:

Encrypted messaging service Telegram has been allegedly used by a 30-year-old British Muslim Islamic State fighter to call on his supporters to launch bomb attacks in London.



Omar Hussain, a former supermarket worker from Buckinghamshire who had fled to Syria in 2013, has also posted bomb-making guidelines using the same service.



Hussain has called on his followers to carry out a nail bomb assault similar to the attack in St Petersburg which killed 15 people earlier this month, the 'Mirror' reported.



He reportedly posted a picture of a finished explosive device with a caption that said: "Looks like creme brulee." Hussain had left his UK home to join the al Qaeda affiliated group Jabhat al-Nusra before switching allegiance to the ISIS terror network.

ALSO READ: Missing Indian youth who 'joined' IS killed in Afghanistan



In December last year, he had delivered a Christmas message urging followers to rob party-goers in order to get money for knives and bombs.



"At Christmas, the kuffaar (non-Muslims) are loaded with money so it's the best time. Wait around the corner from a pub for a drunk kafir (non-Muslim) to exit and go down an alleyway," he wrote on a secure message service.



"Once in the alleyway it only takes a few punches for a drunk kafir to fall unconscious. Take a few ikhwa (brothers) and u can rob him. They could stab a kafir or slit his throat. I had friends in the UK who would do this in London and they never once got caught," he wrote.



Hussain, who had completed a university course in IT in Britain, has now reportedly taught graphic design to students in the ISIS terror group in the war zone.



He first came in news when he appeared in an ISIS propaganda video, urging then Prime Minister David Cameron to send troops to fight the terror group, vowing "we'll send them back one by one in coffins".

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Beijing:

Even as Beijing remained silent over North Korea's 'failed' missile test, China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi held telephonic talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday.

China, which warned two days ago that conflict could break out "any moment" in the Korean peninsula, did not comment on North Korea's missile test but stepped up dialogue with the Trump administration, state-run CCTV reported.

However, no details about the telephone conversation between Chinese State Councillor Yang and Tillerson were released to the media.

China has also cautioned North Korea against going for sixth nuclear test defying US warnings.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week said the conflict over North Korea could break out "at any moment" and warned there would be "no winner" in any war.

Read more: CPEC: Pakistan receives third maritime patrol ship from China

The North Korean missile, which was fired from the Sinpoarea, exploded almost immediately, according to military officials in South Korea and the US.

Intelligence agencies in South Korea and the US were attempting to extract more details about the missile, including its exact type.

Lu Chao, director of the Border Studies Institute at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, said the latest test, despite its failure, could be another defiant message from Pyongyang that it will not change its tough stance in the face of US pressure even amid a growing threat of military action.

However, he said the failure showed that Pyongyang missile technology was flawed.

Such a defiant move was likely to draw even more pressure from the US which ordered its nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group to the region, Lu told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

China would also face greater pressure from the US to take further action, including ratcheting up its sanctions against Pyongyang, he added.

Read more: China hands over a 600-tonne patrol ship to Pakistan

Liu Ming, from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing was unlikely to take further action at this stage unless Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test or long-term ballistic missile test as Beijing insisted that talks, not military action, were the only solution to the North Korean issues.

"China needs to create conditions and the right atmosphere to draw different parties back to the talks table", Liu said.

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Beijing:

China delivered a 600-tonne patrol ship to Pakistan to protect the country's maritime interests at a time when both nations are pushing forward with the CPEC project.

The ship which was handed over to Pakistan's maritime safety authority in Guangzhou, Guangdong province is the third of its kind, was built by China Shipbuilding Trading Company Ltd (CSTC) and China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) Xijiang Shipbuilding Co Ltd. Previous two ships have already demonstrated their reliability and excellent performance during visits and exchanges, joint drills, maritime rescue and other missions in Pakistan, state-run People?s Daily reported.

Pakistan's maritime safety authority expressed great appreciation for the quality of the ships and for sound cooperation with Chinese ship manufactures, who have promised to provide after-sale services, it said.

The ships are key to consolidating close relations between China-Pakistan, protecting Pakistan's sea transportation and pushing forward the China-Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC) and Belt and Road Initiative, it said.

The CPEC project will link the Pakistani city of Gwadar to China's Xinjiang via a vast network of highways and railways. The project was launched in 2015 with USD 46 billion but later the investment increased to USD 55 billion.

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Washington:

A missile launched by North Korea on Sunday blew up almost immediately after its launch, the US military said, a day after Pyongyang warned Washington that it is "prepared to respond to an all-out war with an all-out war".



The attempted launch occurred a day after the regime of Kim Jong Un showed off a bevy of new missiles and launchers at a large-scale military parade.



"The missile blew up almost immediately. The type of missile is still being assessed," the US Pacific Command (USPACOM) said in a statement. The US Pacific Command detected and tracked what it assessed was a North Korean missile, the statement said.

ALSO READ: North Korea nuclear missile test failed, confirms US



"The launch of the ballistic missile occurred near Sinpo," US Pacific Command spokesman CDR Dave Benham said. Sinpo, a port city in eastern North Korea, was also the site of a ballistic missile test earlier this month in which the projectile fell into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.



"USPACOM is fully committed to working closely with its allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security," Benham said. Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said that President Donald Trump and his military team are aware of the missile launch.



"The President and his military team are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The President has no further comment," said Mattis. South Korean and US intelligence officials are trying to determine what type of missile was used on Sunday, but it was described as a land-based missile.



The launch came just hours before Mike Pence, the US vice president, arrived in Seoul for talks with the South Korean government over how to deal with Pyongyang's nuclear ambition. North Korean state media has made no comment on the launch.



Choe Ryong Hae, who is believed to be the second-most powerful official in North Korea, said in a speech yesterday that the country is ready to stand up to any threat posed by the United States.



He criticised the new US administration under President Donald Trump for "creating a war situation" on the Korean Peninsula by dispatching strategic military assets to the region.



"We will respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and a nuclear war with our style of a nuclear attack," Choe said. Speaking after North Korea's "failed" missile test, US national security adviser H R McMaster said Trump will not allow Kim Jong Un's regime to have the capacity to threaten the US.



"While it's unclear and we do not want to telegraph in any way how we'll respond to certain incidents, it's clear that the president is determined not to allow this kind of capability to threaten the United States," McMaster told ABC News.



"Our president will take action that is in the best interest of the American people," he said. McMaster said the launch "fits a pattern of provocative and destabilising and threatening behaviour on the part of the North Korean regime."



"I think there's an international consensus now, including the Chinese and the Chinese leadership, that this is a situation that just can't continue. And the president has made clear that he will not accept the United States and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons," said McMaster, speaking to ABC from Afghanistan.

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Lahore:

Pakistans security forces said on Saturday that they foiled a major terror attack on the minority Christian community in Lahore before Easter after killing a militant and arresting his two aides, including a woman.

Security forces (Pakistan Rangers and police) today conducted a special IBO (intelligence based operation) near Punjab Housing Society, Lahore. A terrorist was killed during the operation while four soldiers and two officers received injuries, the militarys media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said in a statement.

The terrorists were planning to launch a major terrorist attack during Easter celebrations in Lahore, it said. Two suicide jackets, weapons and explosives have been recovered from the possession of the terrorists.According to officials, a joint team of security forces conducted todays raid on a tip-off.

The team asked the terrorists to surrender, but they opened fire on it. In an exchange of fire, a terrorist was killed.The team managed to arrest two terror suspects, including a woman.

In 2016, at least 72 people were killed and hundreds wounded after a bomb ripped through a children's play area in Lahores Iqbal Park where Christian families were celebrating Easter.Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, had claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Vatican City:

Pope Francis on Saturday condemned how the poor, migrants and marginalized witness their human dignity crucified every day through corruption and injustices apart from urging the faithful in an Easter Vigil message to keep hope alive for a better future.

Francis presided over the solemn late-night ceremony in St. Peters Basilica at a time of heightened security fears following a spate of Islamic-inspired attacks and tensions over Europes migrant influx.

Security was particularly tight, part of the heavier-than-usual safety measures that have been deployed around the world for Holy Week activities, particularly following the twin Palm Sunday attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt that killed at least 45 people.

Holding a single candle, Francis processed down the basilicas center aisle, symbolizing the darkness that fell after Jesus crucifixion on Good Friday. When Francis reached the altar, the basilicas floodlights turned on, symbolizing the light of Christs resurrection.

In his homily, Francis recalled the biblical scene of two women approaching Jesus tomb and said their desolation over his death can be seen every day in the faces of women whose children have been victims of poverty, exploitation and injustice.

We can also see the faces of those who are greeted with contempt because they are immigrants, deprived of country, house and family, he said. Others are victims of paralyzed bureaucracies and corruption that strips them of their rights and shatters their dreams, the pope said, echoing two themes he has emphasized in his four-year papacy: caring for migrants and denouncing corruption.

In their grief, these two women reflect the faces of all those who, walking the streets of our cities, behold human dignity crucified.But rather than remain resigned to such a fate, Francis urged the faithful to have hope, as symbolized by Christs resurrection.

He called for Catholics to break down all the walls that keep us locked in our sterile pessimism, in our carefully constructed ivory towers that isolate us from life, in our compulsive need for security and in boundless ambition that can make us compromise the dignity of others.

Saturdays late-night service came just hours after Francis presided over the evocative torch-lit Good Friday procession at Romes Colosseum, where he repeatedly denounced the shame of the blood spilled by innocent children, women and migrants in the worlds conflicts, shipwrecks and other tragedies.

On Sunday, Francis will celebrate the joyful Easter Mass in a flower-filled St. Peters Square. Thousands of people are expected to brave street closures, metal detectors and other security measures to reach the square for the Mass.

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urged an end to 'horror and death' inA on Sunday as he celebrated the traditionalA Day mass inA



TheA mass, the highlight of theA began under a cloudy sky where worshippers had gathered since the early hours to gain access amid tight security.

He expressed hope that Jesus' own sacrifice might "sustain the efforts of all those actively engaged in bringing comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death."And he prayed for peace for the entire Middle East "beginning with the Holy Land, as well as in Iraq and Yemen."He also spoke out against the hostilities and famine in Africa, notably in South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.He further urged world leaders to hear the message of peace as they contend with "the complex and often dramatic situations of today's world," and to work "to prevent the spread of conflicts and to put a halt to the arms trade."Without mentioning Venezuela by name,A also alluded to political and social tensions in Latin America, expressing the hope that the "common good of societies" would prevail."May it be possible for bridges of dialogue to be built, by continuing to fight the scourge of corruption and to seek viable and peaceful solutions to disputes, for progress and the strengthening of democratic institutions in complete respect for the rule of law," he said.Turning his attention to eastern Europe, he asked that "the Good Shepherd come to the aid of Ukraine, still beset by conflict and bloodshed."Focusing on social and political upheaval in Europe,A prayed for God's blessing on "those experiencing moments of crisis and difficulty, especially due to high unemployment, particularly among young people."The mass followed hisA prayer in which he deplored the suffering of migrants, the victims of racism and the persecution of Christians around the world.week got off to a bloody start last Sunday when 45 people were killed in attacks on two Coptic churches in Egypt which were claimed by theA group.The entire area around St Peter's Basilica was blocked off, with only several access points for those admitted after having their bags inspected.
Colombo:

After a mountain of garbage collapsed on dozens of homes following a fire near the Sri Lankan capital two days ago, the death toll in the tragedy climbed to 24.



Several heavy earth-moving equipment were digging through the dump in Meetotamulla area in Kolonnawa to find survivors. Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed for rescue operation.



The army said troops of the Sri Lanka Light Infantry, Commandos, Gemunu Watch and Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment were carrying out operations at the location, the Colombo Gazette reported.



Security Forces Headquarters (West) commander Major Gen Sudantha Ranasinghe is leading the rescue operation. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harsha De Silva said the military is looking for those who might be still trapped under the dump.



He said nearly hundred people have been shifted to temporarily locations and the government will soon begin moving more people who could be under threat. Schools and others facilities will be moved as well.



De Silva said the dumping of garbage at the site has been banned. Ironically, the government had signed agreements a few weeks ago to convert the waste into energy, he said in a post on Facebook.



Police were investigating whether the collapse of the 91 -metre open garbage pile was a natural calamity or a sabotage. A 10-member team of geologists has been sent to the spot. Officials of mining and excavation divisions along with judicial medical officials have been called for investigation.



More than 600 people had to flee in the aftermath of the fire and the collapse. Twenty-four people, including four children, were killed and 11 others injured in the incident, officials said, adding that six persons were still missing.



Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has apologised to the victims on behalf of the Sri Lankan government. "We had all plans in place to relocate the garbage dump at Meetotamulla. But the tragedy struck before we could put them into action. We apologise for the government's inability to complete the task before the disaster," he said.



The residents near the dump had been protesting for months, demanding that the garbage dump be relocated. The authorities, however, claim that they had given enough warning to the slum dwellers to relocate themselves.



"We had even paid compensation to them to relocate," De Silva said. He said the state will bear the funeral expenses of the dead. The massive garbage caught fire and collapsed on dozens of homes as the residents celebrated the traditional New Year. Police said the true scale of the damage remained unclear.



Sri Lanka's Parliament was recently warned that 23 million tonnes of garbage at Kolonnawa dump was a serious hazard. About 800 tonnes of garbage were added to the dump daily.



"This is not a natural disaster but man made due to the sheer negligence by the authorities concerned," M S Marikkar, the ruling party local member of parliament, said.

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Beirut:

A stalled population transfer resumed on Sunday after a deadly explosion killed at least 100, including children, government supporters and opposition fighters, at an evacuation point, adding new urgency to the widely criticised operation.



The blast ripped through a bus depot in the al-Rashideen area where thousands of government loyalists evacuated the day before waited restlessly for hours, as opposition fighters guarded the area while negotiators bickered over the completion of the transfer deal.



Only meters away, hundreds of evacuees from pro-rebels areas also loitered in a walled-off parking lot, guarded by government troops.



Footage from the scene showed bodies, including those of fighters, lying alongside buses, some of which were charred and others gutted from the blast. Personal belongings could be seen dangling out of the windows. Fires raged from a number of vehicles as rescuers struggled to put them out.

Read | At least 24 evacuees killed in Syria suicide car bombing



The scenes were the last in the unyielding bloodshed Syrians are living through. Earlier this month, at least 89 people were killed in a chemical attack as children foaming at the mouth and adults gasping for last breath were also caught on camera.



The bloody mayhem that followed the Saturday attack only deepened the resentment of the transfer criticized as population engineering. It also reflected the chaos surrounding negotiations between the warring parties.



The United Nations did not oversee the transfer deal of the villages of Foua and Kfraya, besieged by the rebels, and Madaya and Zabadani, encircled by the government.



No one claimed responsibility for the attack but pro-government media and the opposition exchanged accusations, each pointing to foreign interference or conspiracies undermining the deal.

Read | Russia, Iran and Syria warn US against new strikes

State TV al-Ikhbariya said the attack was the result of a car bomb carrying food aid to be delivered to the evacuees in the rebel-held area  ostensibly crisps for the children and accused rebel groups of carrying it out. A TV broadcaster from the area said: There can be no life with the terrorist groups.



I know nothing of my family. I cant find them, said a woman who appeared on al-Ikhbariya, weeping outside the state hospital in Aleppo where the wounded were transported.



A rebel spokesman said the car with the bomb had been parked in the area and abandoned. Another spokesman for one of the rebel groups that negotiated the deal said it is scarcely believable that the rebels would target their own fighters in such an attack.



Yasser Abdelatif, a media official for Ahrar al-Sham, said about 30 rebel gunmen were killed in the blast. He accused the government or extremist rebel groups of orchestrating the attack to discredit the opposition.



The Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo province, also known as the White Helmets, said their volunteers pulled at least 100 bodies from the site of the explosion. White Helmets member Ibrahim Alhaj said the 100 fatalities documented by the rescuers included many children and women, as well as fighters.



Syrian state media said at least 39 were killed, including children. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 43, adding that it would likely rise because of the extensive damage.



A Facebook page belonging to the pro-government Foua and Kfraya villages said all those in three buses were killed or are still missing while a rebel official said at least 30 opposition fighters who were guarding the evacuees were killed in the blast.



According to Abdul Hakim Baghdadi, an interlocutor who helped the government negotiate the evacuations, said 140 were killed in the attack. He added it was not clear how many rebels were killed because they were evacuated to their areas.



Hours after the explosion, the transfer resumed as dozens of buses, starting with the wounded, left to their respective destinations. Before midnight Saturday, 100 of some 120 buses from both sides had already arrived.



The explosion hit the al-Rashideen area, a rebel-controlled district outside Aleppo city where evacuation buses carrying nearly 5,000 people from the northern rebel-besieged villages of Foua and Kfraya were stuck.



Residents from the two villages had been evacuated Friday, along with more than 2,000 from Madaya, an opposition-held town outside of Damascus besieged by government forces.



The coordinated evacuations delivered war-weary fighters and residents from two years of siege and hunger, but moved Syria closer to a division of its national population by loyalty and sect.



Madaya and Zabadani, once summer resorts to Damascus, have been shattered under the cruelty of a government siege. The two towns rebelled against Damascus authority in 2011 when demonstrations swept through the country demanding the end of President Bashar Assads rule.

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Washington:

A 13-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed himself live on Instagram as his friends watched in horror. Malachi Hemphill of Forest Park, Georgia, was found unconscious by his mother Shaniqua Stephens and her daughter after they heard a loud bang from his bedroom.

I heard a big boom. I couldnt tell if it was a gunshot or what. I just knew that it was something that was wrong, the boys mother Shaniqua Stephens told WXIA-TV. She and her daughter ran upstairs and found him.

We kicked in the door. We found him just laying there in a pool of blood, Stephens recounted. My daughter screamed and said, Mom turn his phone off! As I proceeded to look at his phone he was on Instagram Live, she said.

Hemphill was live on the social media site Instagram handling the gun when it went off. He was rushed to Grady Hospital where he died.

This is just a pain that will never go away. He was my only son. He was just 13. Just the thought of me seeing him on the floor will never leave my brain, she said. Stephens said it was an accident and not an intentional suicide.

ALSO READ | IIT Delhi first year student attempts suicide, jumps from hostel building

Several of his friends were watching when the shooting happened last Monday. Stephens said they rushed to her house afterward.

There was about 40 to 50 kids outside. I guess these were the kids that were watching on live in the area. I guess when it happened they just ran over here, she said.

She has been told that someone asked why he did not have a clip in the gun and told him to put a clip in the gun.

As he put the clip in the gun, that is when the gun went off, Stephens said.

Stephens, however, was not completely sure how Malachi got the gun. She was told he got the gun from a friend who got it from someone else.

She said it was hard to keep track of his activities on social media even though she and her husband Ernest monitored his profiles often. She said she hopes parents get the message to keep a vigilant eye on what children are doing and who they are doing it with.

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New York:

The iconic Times Square was drenched in colours and tradition of the Sikh culture. The members of the sikh community tied turbans to thousands of New Yorkers and tourists to spread awareness about the Sikh identity and to end the hate crimes against them in the country.

Non-profit group 'The Sikhs of New York' organised the'Turban Day' at Times Square on Saturday, with its volunteers tying colorful turbans to close to 8000 Americans and tourists hailing from different nationalities and ethnicities.

The four-hour event, held as part of Vaisakhi celebrations, was aimed at spreading awareness among Americans and other nationalities about the Sikh religion and its articles of faith, especially the turban, which has often been misconceived and misidentified as being associated with terrorism particularly in the years since the 9/11 terror attacks.

During the event, a proclamation by Congressman Gregory Meeks of the 5th Congressional District of New York declared April 15, 2017 as 'Turban Day', lauding The Sikhs of New York for its dedication in educating other communities about the Sikh faith.

The organisation's founder Chanpreet Singh told PTI Turban Day was started in 2013 at Baruch College to promote and educate people about the Sikh religion and identity.

"We are spreading awareness about the Sikh turban and culture. The turban is the crown of each Sikh and represents pride and valour. Turban Day provides an opportunity for those that do not wear a turban to experience a turban and learn about its significance first hand," he said.

Singh added that he had personally experienced hate during his school years and wanted to take the initiative to educate Americans that "Sikh values are American Values".

Also Read: US ambassador to UN Nikki Haley gets heckled at global women summit

He said by inviting people from other nationalities to wear the turban, the event also aims to encourage them to avoid discrimination and speak out against hate crimes targeting Sikhs in America going forward.

As Sikhs of New York volunteers tied colourful turbans to excited New Yorkers and tourists, they explained the significance of the Sikh article of faith and informed them of the reasons why Sikhs wear the turban.

They also shared information about the Sikh culture and traditions. Those who got the turbans tied, including young children, around with were seen excitedly taking pictures and proud around with their new head gear. Fallon Mendz, a young student, said she got the turban tied on her head as she liked exploring different cultures.

"Its nice to see a different culture. I am not a Sikh soits nice to learn about different cultures," she said, proudly wearing her pink turban. She added that the message of the organisation that Sikhs should not be targeted in hate crimes because of their identity is "amazing".

"Everyone should be treated equally, everyone should be welcome no matter what religion you believe in," she said. Eva John said with so many people sporting the turbans, it seems that there is an Amritsar in New York.

"It is a great event, especially at Times Square where people from all over the world converge. And particularly with the election of President Donald Trump, such an event and its message of harmony and equality is very important."

Sporting a bright green turban, Nikita Madden said "it's nice to embrace a culture that is different from one's own."?

The organisation, which has about 600 members, also unveiled a new video featuring Sikh physicians and businesspeople sending a message that while Sikh people have different backgrounds, they are not terrorists.

The event also featured cultural performances and prayers.

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Kabul:

US National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster arrived in Kabul on Sunday days after the American military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on Islamic State group hideouts in eastern Afghanistan, killing nearly a hundred militants.

On his first visit to the country as President Donald Trumps envoy, McMaster said on Twitter he was set to hold very important talks on mutual cooperation with President Ashraf Ghani and other top officials.

A statement from Ghanis office later said McMaster discussed security issues and counter-terrorism efforts as well as reforms aimed at tackling corruption.

As a result of joint Afghan and international forces efforts, no safe havens will be left for terrorists in Afghanistan, McMaster was quoted as saying in a readout that gave few clues to the Trump administrations future course of action in the country.

US-led NATO troops have been at war in Afghanistan since 2001, after the ousting of the Taliban regime for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

The US has around 8,400 troops in the country with about another 5,000 from NATO allies, as efforts to negotiate a lasting peace settlement between Kabul and the Taliban have repeatedly fallen through.

On Thursday the US military in Afghanistan dropped its GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, dubbed the Mother of All Bombs in combat for the first time. The target was IS hideouts in the Achin district of Nangarhar province.

Afghanistans defence ministry on Sunday put the death toll at 95 militants and no civilians.

The attack triggered global shockwaves, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and against a militant group that is not considered as big a threat as the resurgent Taliban.

It came a week after US President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack, and as China warned of the potential for conflict amid rising US tensions with North Korea.

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CHICAGO

United evidence

The lawyer for a man dragged off a United flight says the airline and Chicago officials have agreed to preserve evidence of the incident.

Attorney Thomas Demetrio said Saturday that the agreement means a court hearing scheduled next week isn't taking place.

A lawsuit has not been filed, but Demetrio has indicated one is forthcoming.

He represents Dr. David Dao, a 69-year-old passenger who didn't want to give up his seat last week on a flight from O'Hare International Airport. Demetrio has said Dao lost teeth, suffered a concussion and a broken nose as airport police employed by Chicago removed him.

DEKALB

Lawsuit filed

A Washington state man wrongly convicted in the 1957 kidnapping and killing of a 7-year-old girl has filed a federal lawsuit in Illinois.

The complaint accuses authorities in both states of fabricating evidence and conspiring to frame Jack McCullough in the death of Maria Ridulph of Illinois.

The lawsuit comes days after an Illinois judge granted the 77-year-old a certificate of innocence. The lawsuit names 15 defendants, including Illinois State Police and Seattle police.

CHICAGO

Bridges lifted

It's a sign of spring in Chicago.

The city began lifting bridges along the Chicago River Saturday morning to allow recreational boat traffic to move from winter storage to harbors across Lake Michigan.

Each bridge lift takes from 8 to 12 minutes. A total of 27 bridges are lifted during the day.
DECATUR  Dee Franz, a businesswoman who co-owned convenience stores in Decatur for 33 years, was looking for a deeper form of service when she heard that her church was starting a chaplain program.

I was looking more to be the hands and feet of Jesus, said Franz, 58, a long-time member of First Christian Church.

Her husband, Larry, gave her a push in the direction of her new calling, when he dropped a note with her name on it in the collection plate about three years ago. Franz underwent a year of intensive training, including service in a Springfield hospital, before she began working as one of First Christian's chaplains at Decatur Memorial Hospital.

When Crossing Healthcare opened at its present location in September 2015, she was asked to serve as one of the chaplain corps at the new facility in the Wabash Crossing neighborhood. The clinic was designed to provide high-quality medical care to people with financial challenges or medical needs that were not being met elsewhere.

Franz said she especially enjoys serving at Crossing because the people are so open about their problems, which include poverty, depression and domestic troubles.

The biggest thing we do is listen, Franz said, adding that she was touched deeply by what one middle-aged man told her. He said, 'You are the only one who actually ever listened to me.'

In order to celebrate the holiday with the patients, their families and the Crossing extended family, chaplains and members of Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) organized an Easter egg hunt on Thursday, which neatly fit in with the mission of the facility's ministers.

We build relationships with young moms who are waiting for their appointments at Crossing, said chaplain Tara Ulis. We pray, we do arts and crafts with the kids. We provide snacks for the kids and adults.

The chaplain program at Crossing is the outgrowth of a unique relationship developed between First Christian and Decatur Memorial after the hospital's longtime chaplain resigned. The church contracted with the hospital to provide chaplains around the clock.

Crossing Healthcare is funded by a federal grant to provide primary health care to under-served people. Funding for the chaplains is provided by First Christian Church and the healthcare facility.

When Crossing Healthcare opened in September 2015, an office was provided for chaplains near the patient waiting room.

We had begun a partnership with the First Christian Church chaplain program before moving into the facility, said Tanya Andricks, Crossing's executive director. It was one of the services I wanted to provide.

Many of the patients who visit Crossing take advantage of the ministry.

Having the chaplains here to provide spiritual support is an immense benefit. It has been very well-received, said Andricks, who previously served as a nurse at DMH since the 1990s.

During the planning stage for the Crossroads facility, Andricks and Dr. Dana Ray, chief medical officer, identified a chaplaincy as something desirable for the facility, in order to address the patients' spiritual needs.

At the same time, (First Christian Pastor) Wayne Kent approached us, the board and me, about this partnership, Andricks recalled. It's been a wonderful collaboration.

Crossing's primary chaplains  Franz, Mary Leonard and Jeffrey Ruffin  serve five days each week, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Ruffin and Franz each serve two of the weekdays, and Leonard is on duty one day each week.

They interact with the patients in the waiting room. They also leave prayer requests, because they know they will be prayed for, Andricks said, adding that the prayer cards are hung on a tree in the waiting room area. It is touching to read the prayer requests, because they know they will be prayed for.

For example, recent prayer requests include one from a young lady that reads, Surgery on her face. Lord help to heal, she is my grandmother.

One of the goals of Crossing is to address all the needs of the patients, Andricks said.

When you're poor, everything is hard, the Crossing director said. The chaplaincy program is one of the most successful programs we have. Chaplains are part of the team. They are full members of our staff.

Kent said the mission to help the poor is an essential part of the Christian life.

Scripture is very clear that Jesus expected his followers to visit the sick, to provide healing and comfort to them, Kent said. We are very honored to join with other partners from the community to provide that care.

As he considered initiating a chaplain program in relation to health care facilities, Kent's research turned up no similar partnerships.

We know of no model anywhere in the country where an individual congregation is doing this sort of work, having a contractual relationship with a hospital or a clinic, Kent said. The situation at DMH went so well that Crossing looked to expand our services.

Kent said all chaplain services are provided on a voluntary basis. They are not there as representatives of one specific church, but rather as chaplains dedicated to serve the patients.

We are there to serve the community and we are able to meet the needs at Crossing, Kent said.

Mary Leonard, who serves as a chaplain on Fridays, learned about unselfish service as she spent most of her childhood in Africa, the daughter of missionaries.

It's such a blessing to be here, Leonard said during an interview, after helping out at the Easter egg hunt that attracted a horde of excited young children. It's an honor.

A stay-at-home mother of three young children and wife of a pastor, Leonard's previous life experiences included working at a Springfield homeless shelter and as an aide in a classroom for children with special needs.

Leonard said despite her own upbringing, which gave her some understanding of hardships, it is difficult to understand the depth of how challenging the patients' lives are. She also believes listening is one of the keys to effective ministry.

Sometimes people need someone to vent to, Leonard said. They just need you to listen and validate that it is hard. Then they feel better. You can just let it out with the chaplains.

Ray said the chaplains have been an asset to the facility.

People have a lot of barriers and issues, the medical director said. Dealing with the spiritual issues is key to the patients getting a better quality of life. Having someone to pray with them, to keep them calm is integral.

Ray said the chaplains are there to help patients regardless of their faith or lack of faith.

The chaplains meet people where they're at, Ray said. They won't preach to them. They meet them where their level of need is at. If they need positive affirmation they give it to them. That's why it is important to have people trained in chaplaincy.

The Rev. Robert Henderson, the director of the chaplaincy program, said he believes it has been effective because it meshes with the goals of the facility, to address all the needs of the patients.

There is a spiritual element to nutrition, education and emotional health, Henderson said. Crossing is a community of faith in many ways. It's not a church, but its people are living out some deep spiritual beliefs.


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DANBURY  Making decisions in a democratic manner has allowed the Nejame family to remain in business for 96 years and four generations.

The business, located on the same block of South Street since 1921, started as a grocery store founded by Thomas and Lillian Nejame. Thomas was born in Lebanon and came to the U.S. to avoid a war in his birth country.

Their son, Edward, helped in the grocery store before falling ill with a lung infection in his late 30s. Unable to continue working in the store, Ed partnered with another family member and started a home improvement and swimming pool business.

Now run by Eds sons  Ed Jr., Thomas and Gregory  Nejame & Sons continues to thrive as a development, home improvement and swimming pool business. The three brothers took over the business in the 1980s; Ed Sr. remained working with his sons until he died in 2014.

The fourth generation  Thomas son Tom Jr. and daughter Brittany, and Ed Jr.s son Anthony  have now joined the business.

My job now is to give our offspring opportunities to grow in our business. We are 100 percent debt-free and we are very fanatical about keeping things stable for the next generation, said Thomas Nejame, the companys president. That includes all our businesses, which is more than just pools. We develop and build homes and apartments, as well as commercial properties.

When a fire destroyed the original building that housed the grocery store in the 1980s, the Nejames constructed the mixed-used building at 91 South St. that is now home to the pool business as well as other retail stores.

We built this corner, Thomas Nejame said.

Thomas Nejame said he draws inspiration from other longtime Danbury businesses such as Mitchell fuel and Rizzo construction when it comes to growing his own business. No decisions are made, however, without the input of each of the brothers.

We fight here and there but we run our business like a democracy, he said. When there is a difference we sit down, analyze it, vote on it and go forward. Thats how we do it.

They are trying to set a good example for the fourth generation as it represents the future of the company. Tom Jr. is doing sales work in the pool division, Brittany is working the service department and Anthony is being mentored in sales and service.

Were excited to keep the name strong and our reputation strong in the area, Tom Jr. said. But I also want to grow and this is a tremendous opportunity.

The wall that holds the pool design recognition plaques from the Northeast Spa & Pool Association is completely full. In 2016, Nejame & Sons was chosen as one of the top 50 pool builders by Pool & Spa news, a notable award in the industry. Thomas Nejame said the company builds pools specifically for New England weather.

The Nejames are known as one of the best pool companies, bar none, Stephen Bull, president of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce said. They get a lot of repeat business, and when you get repeat business, that says a lot. Retention of customers is so important in any business.

The company is also growing outside the Danbury area. It recently opened a new spa and pool location in Carmel, N.Y.

Much of the companys success goes back to Sitto, which is Lebanese for grandmother and the name given to Lillian Nejame. Thomas and Lillian operated the grocery store together, along with Ed Nejame. Thomas, Lillians husband, died at a relatively young age, leaving Lillian as the matriarch of the family and business.

Eds son Thomas remembers sorting bottles at the store when he was around 7 years old. The chores grew from there.

Grandmother was very influential in instilling the work ethic needed to run a business like this, Thomas Nejame said. She was an absolute dynamo and way ahead of her time.

A plaque dedicated to Sitto is displayed at the entrance to Nejame & Sons. The inscription reads:  for her hard work and going without to assure her familys future.

While the business bears the Nejame name and the company leaders have the same last name, Thomas Nejame knows the success of the business goes beyond the family. Like many other successful, local family-owned businesses, Nejame & Sons has several employees who have been working them for several decades.

The company employs about 50 people in the summer when the pool side of the business is busy, and 35 in winter, when the building and development side is busier.

The reality is many people have worked here for 20, 30 years, Thomas Nejame said. They are family, too.

cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338
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NEW FAIRFIELDFor 18 days, instead of heading to his classroom at New Fairfield High School, Chris Tait would wake up on a 208-foot-long boat somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

The first thing he would do each morning, Tait said, was head to the front deck to see which part of his 100-mile journey the Reuben Lasker ship had taken him to overnight. He would then spend a 12-hour shift each day assisting the ships research team in its species survey of the California coastline, searching the waters for anchovies, sardines and mackerel.

Tait was one of 30 teachers selected this year from nearly 300 applicants to join National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research cruises as part of the administrations Teacher at Sea Program. The program places and funds kindergarten through college-level teachers so they can work side by side with scientists at sea around the country.

Now that hes returned home, Tait hopes to use his experience to better teach his environmental science students at New Fairfield High School and his biology classes at Western Connecticut State University.

Working with them for three weeks was very enlightening, he said. I hope to give the students a better understanding of the technology that they use. Its going to inform how I approach topics of fishery resources.

Throughout their course from San Diego to San Francisco, Tait and the team used sonar, water sampling for fish eggs and plankton tows to identify where schools of fish might be. They then spent the night trawling for pelagic, or surface-level, fish to analyze the populations and monitor the coasts ecosystem.

Tait said after presenting his experience to his students he will likely use some of the methods during class trips to the Long Island Sound and Candlewood Lake.

Jennifer Hammond, director of NOAAs Teacher at Sea Program, said this kind of hands-on learning was one of the reasons NOAA selected Tait for the program.

He constantly was making a connection between teaching science and moving his students to action, she said. It wasnt just about what was happening in the classroomit resonated with us because we use science to move industry and citizens to action.

Before applying, Tait said he became interested in fisheries through his work with Project CLEAR, an education program that lets high school students participate in research projects on Candlewood Lake. He learned about the Teacher at Sea Program when using resources on the NOAA website for his own research, he said.

The 280 applications NOAA received this year were reviewed three times to determine which teachers would be chosen for the program, Hammond said. Tait was the only teacher selected from Connecticut, joining 30 teachers from 21 states who would travel aboard one of NOAA research vessels in either fisheries, hydrographic charting or oceanographic research.

Since its creation in 1990, the program has allowed over 750 teachers to join research cruises. Each teacher is required to publish an online blog throughout the trip and bring back what they learned to their students and the community.

We are looking for someone who is creative about how theyre going to bring this back to the classroom but also realistic, Hammond said.

Tait said he still checks in with the Reuben Laskers findings since hes been home. The team found more anchovies than expected, but no sardines while he was aboard, he added.

The crew will survey the coast for another 10 days since he left April 7.

He added that each report has more meaning now that he knows what goes into the research, and what its like living on a boat for that long, which he had never done before.

It gives you this feeling of how vast the ocean is, he said. I feel like it was such a tremendous amount of work but such a small part of the ocean. You really see how vast it is and how much work there is to be done.
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The path from science fiction to Mars and beyond is paved with wild ideas wrapped in cold hard cash. Sort of like ravioli or inklings incubating under a blanket of gravy.

And, every year NASA cooks up a batch of space ravioli by funding wild-eyed, futuristic, "visionary aerospace" concepts selected by the agency's Innovative Advanced Concepts program.

"NASA is preparing for a future that could include soft robotic spacecraft with flexible surfaces that can anchor to an asteroid, and an artificial gravity device for long-duration, deep space missions, along with other technologies that so far has been limited to the realm of science fiction," the agency said announcing this year's 22 selected projects.

The program bakes projects in two phases. The first phase of finding for 15 projects comes in at about $125,000 for nine months of building up the "initial definition and analysis" of the concepts. Phase two funding for seven projects comes with about $500,000 each to "allow awardees time to refine their designs and explore aspects of implementing the new technology."

All told, the funding cycle will spend about $5.4 million. And that's peanuts compared to the agencies current $19.5 billion annual budget.

Check out this year's funded projects in the gallery above.

Jake Ellison can be reached at jakeellisonjournalism@gmail.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook. If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.
By GMM 16 April 2017 - 13:05





A controversy about the legality of Ferraris competitive 2017 car is continuing in Bahrain.

Earlier, Red Bull official Dr Helmut Marko said "incriminating" video footage of flexible aerodynamic features of the red car is doing the rounds.

But Niki Lauda, the team chairman at Mercedes, played down the rumours as "nonsense".

"If someone believes it is illegal, all cars go through technical inspections," the F1 legend told German television RTL.

The flexible parts of the Ferrari most under scrutiny are the front wing flaps, the rear wing and the monkey seat.

But some believe the biggest advantage is being achieved through the floor.

Former F1 driver turned pundit Marc Surer, however, told Germanys Sky: "It is legal.

"Ferrari has cleverly used a gap in the rules."

And so for now, while Marko is among the naysayers, there is no sign of an official protest.

"Nothing is coming from us," he said. "The FIA are the police."
SPRINGFIELD (AP)  Some Illinois doctors are traveling to Springfield to help residents enroll in the state's medical marijuana program.

Dr. David Footerman of Rockford began seeing patients seeking medical marijuana last month at an office complex in Springfield, and Chicago-based internist Dr. Mauricio Consalter has been seeing such patients in Bloomington.

Medical marijuana advocates in Illinois said doctors' willingness to help patients remains the biggest hurdle to long-term success for the pilot program. The program's enrollment since fall 2014 stands at 18,300, and the number of potential enrollees is believed to be two to five times higher.

HSHS Medical Group CEO Dr. Loren Hughes said he believes the number of doctors willing to fill out paperwork required by the state for patients with one of 40 qualifying chronic medical conditions will continue to grow.

"The longer that something's around, the more likely attitudes will change," he said.

Amanda Davis, a 31-year-old resident of rural Coles County, drove nearly two hours to visit with Footerman in Springfield.

"He's very knowledgeable," Davis said of Footerman, who previously specialized in anesthesiology. "He's doing it from his heart."

Dan Linn, executive director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, said Springfield isn't the only community where doctors are traveling to help patients obtain medical marijuana.

"I think it's meeting a demand that's out there," Linn said.

A statement by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation in 2013 says state law doesn't permit "'medical cannabis clinics' or practices that exist solely to offer cannabis certifications."

Medical marijuana advocates said the department's rules on this issue are vague, and decisions on whether to seek disciplinary action have been unpredictable.

Chris Stone, chief executive officer of Health Central Illinois Alternatives, which operates Illinois-regulated dispensaries for medical marijuana in Collinsville and Springfield, said he generally doesn't approve of out-of-town doctors certifying local patients.

"It's bad for our industry. It's bad for doctors in general," Stone said. "I hope they are spending some time to know the community so it's not just a fly-by-night operation."

Stone said he'd prefer that local doctors meet the area's demand. He said his organization is working to educate the medical community about medical marijuana.

"There are definitely some doctors who are fully resistant to it," Stone said. "There are some doctors who are being educated and realize the benefit to patients."
Deeply worried and concerned by a litany of discoveries of mysterious billions of naira worth of hard currencies including British Pounds, Euros, US Dollars and Naira Notes in Nigeria, the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) have resolved to raise a 34-Point critical questions before the Federal Government of Nigeria and its agents.

We have also been bombarded with calls and text messages for our informed comments by a section of the print media in Nigeria concerning the above named issues particularly the 12th April 2017 discovery of naira equivalent of over N13.3 billion domiciled in foreign currencies including US dollars, British pounds and Naira notes at a high rising building in Ikoyi area of Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria. The criminally dumped currency notes include $43.4 million dollars, 28,800 British Pounds and N23.2 million; totaling over N13.3billion.

Photo shared by EFCC purportedly of cash recovered in an Ikoyi apartment

Not long ago, on 3rd February 2017, officials of EFCC claimed that they discovered and recovered another mysterious sum of $9.8million domiciled in US dollars ($9.77million) and British pounds (74,000 British Pounds). The discovery and recovery, according to EFCC were made in a house located in Kaduna State belonging to a former Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu. Critics also alleged that the said former NNPC Managing Director is presently having some political differences with the incumbent governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasiru el-Rufai; possibly over next governorship poll in the State.

The authorities of State Security Services (SSS) had in their press briefing following the Services late night raids of the sleeping and dwelling houses of some serving judges on 8th October 2016, claimed that they discovered $2million cash in the house of Hon Justice Adeniyi Adeomola; a serving judge of the Federal High Court. Hon Justice Ademola, alongside others was spuriously accused of corruption by the SSS leading to the blue or evil hour of the night invasion of their private residences. Hon Justice Ademola Adeniyi and his wife-Olubowale (current Head of Service of Lagos State) were on 6th April 2017 discharged and acquitted by a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja on spurious allegation of corruption leveled against them.

As if these are not enough, the EFCC has illicitly embarked on further mysterious cash discovery jamboree by invading markets and other private business outlets, confiscating cash sums belonging to some innocent business operators. These include N49 million it claimed to have discovered and recovered at the Kaduna airport on March 14, 2017; N448 million confiscated at a Lagos Bureau de Change plaza on 7th April 2017 and another N250 million confiscated inside a shop located at Balogun Market in Lagos State.

The legal basis and intents of these operations as well as their genuineness have remained sketchy, shoddy, blatant, brazen and condemnable. In crime, guilty act (actus reus) can never secure competent investigation, prosecution, conviction and sentencing except it is combined with guilty mind (mens rea). The main thrust of criminal investigation is rested on ascertainment of guilty mind (mens rea) or otherwise, and where mens rea fails to establish itself in criminal investigation, actus reus or guilty act which has been found cannot secure proper prosecution, conviction and sentencing; with the exception being in cases of strict and statutory liability offenses such as traffic and sanitary offenses.

Till date and as we write, the generality of Nigerians do not know the whereabouts of all the monies that the SSS, EFCC and the Federal Government claimed falsely or otherwise to have recovered since the mysterious cash discovery and recovery jamboree was started by the SSS in October 2016. Whether such mysterious cash sums actually and genuinely exist or were arranged and periodically planted to frame up regime enemies and falsely shore up the so called Federal Governments anti corruption crusade; have totally remained outside the collective or public knowledge of the generality of Nigerians till date.

We have severally observed and still observe that a lot of things are irremediably wrong in Nigeria particularly under the present dispensation. The sanctity of public governance in the country particularly under the present dispensation is so tainted that it looks as if the country is perpetually gripped and cloaked in leadership gangsterism and mafiocracy

We understand the sentiments shared by most Nigerians including conscientious citizens in the media who always want our informed and unbiased positions to be aired regarding burning national issues particularly in matters of this nature. We are deeply pained and concerned because facts of the issues as they concern our collective interests including governance, security, moral conducts of our leaders and our general welfare are constantly desolated, corrupted and bastardized by those steering the ship of public governance in trust for the generality of Nigerians particularly under the present dispensation at the Federal level. In other words, burning national issues such as that under discussion are never presented to the generality of Nigerians as they truly happened.

We hereby present the following 34-Point Questions before the Federal Government and its agents concerning the mysterious cash sums discovery and recovery jamboree in Nigeria:

Does it mean that commercial banks are no longer functioning in Nigeria to warrant storage of such huge cash in someones office or apartment?

In common sense, what will be the intention of keeper(s) of such huge cash in such high profile place that plays host to the countrys secret services and well known persons in the corridors of power?

Is there no longer common sense in art of criminality especially such involving white-collar crime or intellectual crime (i.e. fraud, laundering and embezzlement)?

Is it not possible that the huge cash was planted as a set up by powers that be targeting certain opponents or regime enemies?

Is it not correct to say that the discovered cash was planted to frame up someone or some hated persons but got misfired?

Which bank will lend withdrawal approval of such cash?

Are there no longer limitations to amount of cash to be withdrawn per day and per person/institution in Nigeria?

Where are Buhari Administrations monetary policies on hard currencies and cash carriage or do we now have two-side monetary policies in Nigeria: one for the rich and the other for the poor?

Which individual or institution or company will sanely withdraw such cash and with what intents?

Has Nigeria abandoned cash and electronic banking and resorted to trade by batter?

Are payments for contract projects or private sector and public remunerations now paid cash at hand in present day Nigeria?

Is Nigeria holding general elections or a State gubernatorial election requiring cash bribery and cash logistics of such huge amount under discussion?

Which bank in Nigeria has the authority of warehousing such huge hard currencies?

Does CBN have anything illicit to do with this and has it been engaging in such criminal practices under this dispensation?

Has Nigeria entered the inglorious era of late Idi Amin and his infamous Central Bank in Uganda?

If not CBN, what about the cabal that controls the sales of forex in Nigeria?

Does it have any link with Nigerias presidency?

Is there possibility that the forex cabal can be used deviously and dubiously for the purpose of lending such cash to set up hated citizens or regime enemies and get such cash back after the possible completion of evil deeds?

Why are the so called discovered and recovered huge cash sums always in mint/neat and unused forms?

Where are all the discovered and recovered cash sums including the $2million Judges loot, $9.8million ex NNPCs MD loot and the latest N13.3billion Ikoyi mysterious billions, etc?

Have these huge cash sums been deposited to the Federation Account manned by the CBN or the Consolidated Revenue Account of the Federal Government?

Are the huge cash sums in the custody of EFCC or SSS presently?

Does the law allow them to keep money for the Federation of Nigeria?

Is it not correct to say that the huge cash sums are lent from their dubious private owners or custodians (i.e. CBN or cabalistic forex dealers) for the referenced dirty jobs and returned to them being used in setting up regime enemies including some judges and other opponents of the present central government in Nigeria?

Is there really anti corruption crusade going on in Nigeria under this dispensation?

Is it correct to say that decampment to APC is the beginning of issuance of clean slates to decampees in matters of graft or corruption?

Has it not become a pattern that whenever there is a national controversy surrounding the so called anti corruption crusade, such as the present ordeal of COMPOL Ibrahim Magu; strange huge sums of cash will be discovered with their discoveries credited to doubtfully existing whistleblowers?

Is it not correct to say that there is a raging fraud in the activities of some CSOs which have now become the government mouthpiece on anti corruption?

Is it also not correct to say that these government mouth-pieced CSOs are complicit in the present central governments hyper corruption of the anti corruption crusade in Nigeria?

Is there not something strange about the exclusive reports of the two Southwest owned online news media in the country bordering on the governments so called anti corruption crusade?

Is it also not correct to say the strangeness of their exclusive reports particularly on periodic discovery of huge cash sums by agents of the present government such as EFCC and SSS is a clear indication that they are far from being independent and are controlled by the said government?

Is it not correct to say that the events that are periodically reported as exclusive by them are brazenly arranged or stage-managed?

Is it not correct to say that these two online news media are the whistleblowers the present government noisily talked about, used and funded by in its so called anti corruption crusade?

Is it not correct to say that such exclusive reports are well known to the two online news media as stage-managed and false?

Signed:

Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman

Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esq.

Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program

Chinwe Umeche, Esq.

Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program

Florence C. Akubilo, Esq.

Head, Campaign & Publicity Department

Contact: International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law

Phone Lines: +2348182411462, +2349063500218

Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
Lawyers have disagreed with Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on the appropriate constitutional steps for the appointment of a chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), insisting that the presidency must seek the input of the Senate.Prof. Osinbajo had escalated the submission of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana, that the president should not have sent Ibrahim Magus nomination as acting chairman of EFCC to the Senate for confirmation.He quoted Section 171 of the Constitution and argued that although the EFCC Act requires that EFCC chairman should be confirmed by the Senate, that part of Section 171 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which is superior to the Act, does not order such confirmation.The position of the Vice President therefore raised a fresh puzzle to the battle between the Executive and the Legislature over the appointment and confirmation of Magu as chairman, particularly whether the EFCC Act is not inferior to the Constitution. Lawyers who spoke to The Guardian independently, held that before the acting chairman of the commission, Ibrahim Magu can assume office, he must get the approval of the Senate as provided in the EFCC Act.Stressing that it would be legally wrong for an EFCC chairman to be appointed without clearance, Human Rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome said: Section 171 of the 1999 dubiously touted by these intellectual revisionists, merely gives the President power to appoint persons to the offices therein specified.They include, SGF, Head of Service, Ambassadors/High Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries, Heads of MDAS and, personal staff of the President. The Executive Chairman of EFCC, created long after the promulgation of the 1999 Constitution, was never one of such offices.We therefore have to resort to Section 2(3) of the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004, which deals with this issue. It provides that: the Chairman and members of the Commission, other than ex-officio members shall be appointed by the President subject to the confirmation of the Senate.Ozekhome maintained, The above section is too clear to admit of any ambiguity, insisting that the President cannot validly appoint the EFCC Executive Chairman without the express confirmation of the Senate.If the Senate refuses, as it has done, that ends Magus tenure. Heavens will not fall. He ceases to be in office in any capacity. Acting is not prescribed by, nor, envisaged by section 2(3) EFCC Act. Acting is not forever, Osekhome declared.Former executive secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Nimi Walson-Jack, argued that the Act setting up the EFCC specifies anyone nominated as chairman of the commission is subject to Senate confirmation.He said: The National Assembly has powers to make laws and in making those laws, it determines what is the structure of the organisation it is setting up. In some of these organisations, the National Assembly allows the executive to make nomination without confirmation, and in some instances considered weighty, they say the people should come for confirmationNow you have a made a law and you have said the people should come for confirmation. If you follow some argument that EFCC is not listed in the constitution as an organisation that should go for conformation, then EFCC will not exist. That means that the National Assembly cannot establish a commission or agency not mentioned in the constitution.On his part, Lucius Nwosu (SAN) said the President is administratively bound to send the name of an EFCC chairmanship nominee to the Senate for confirmation, noting that though the rejection of the nominee might be seen as at act of bad faith, this does not behoove on the presidency to say so, as the lawmakers are representatives of the people and performing their constitutional function. In administrative law, where a man has a discretion to say either yes or no, if he exercises that discretion and says no, he has exercised it. You cannot say he has not exercised his dissection. Rightly or wrongly, his answer is no, said Nwosu.Constitutional lawyer and former Chairman of the Kaduna State branch of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Festus Okoye, said Magu must get the confirmation of the Senate for his nomination by the Presidency, in order to function in the Office according to law.Okoye added: If the EFCC Act contravenes the constitution as is being speculated, it is only a court of law that can make that determination. The law as it stands today is that the Chairman of EFCC must go through the confirmatory process of the Senate. The Presidency is in order in appointing an individual in an acting capacity, but the moment such an individual is rejected by the Senate such an individual can no longer be active in an acting capacity.A Lagos lawyer, Ms Uju Okeke argued that the EFCC is not one of the Federal Executive bodies specifically mentioned and created in sections 153-169 (listed in third schedule) which appointment and removal is provided for in section 171 of the Constitution.Her words: It is worthy of note that these bodies are not exhaustive, giving room for creation of others as the need arises. Of course, the newly created ones will be in accordance with the establishing Act.EFCC came into being, pursuant to an Act of National Assembly in line with section 4 of the constitution. This amended Act of 2004 established the Commission. Section 1(1) of the Act provides that EFCC shall be constituted and function in accordance with the Act. Section 2 lists members of the Commission. Section 2(2) provides that only the chairman and secretary are in full time position. Section 2(3) provides that chairman and members are to be appointed by the President subject to Senates confirmation. Section 3(1) provides that the chairman and members shall hold office for 4 years, maybe reappointed for another 4 years and no more.While stating that the position of acting chairman is unknown to the EFCC Act, she said by refusing to abide by section 2(3) of EFCC Act tantamounts to the executive questioning the legitimacy of NASS to enact EFCC Act, which is indirectly questioning section 4 of the Constitution that gave the National Assembly its powers.Similarly, Michael Ogunjobi, said the concept of separation of powers is the fulcrum of the Constitution of Nigeria and is indispensable in any discourse of the critical constitutional issue raised by Section 2(3) of the EFCC Act on whether the subjection of the Presidents appointment of Magu to Senate confirmation is consistent with or is a derogation from Section 5(1)(a) of the Constitution vesting the executive power of the Federation in the President. However, on a different note, Mr. Kunle Odufayo thinks that the issue of appointment of executive officers of government agencies has been well stated in the constitution about those that need to be referred to the Senate and those that need not.Therefore, the argument has been raised to rather seek confirmation of the EFCC Chairman by the President since he has the power under the constitution, he said.Also an Abuja based lawyer, Abubakar Sani, concurring with Odufayo, argued that he has decided to test the legality of such provision in EFCC Act at the courts, by filing an originating summons before a Federal High Court, Abuja seeking to invalidate section 2(3) of the EFCC Act 2004, which subjects the power of the President to appoint the Chairman of EFCC to confirmation by the Senate.
In a statement released by his media aide, Yari kicked against the monarch new found stance against the practice of Islam in Nigeria. He says the Emir's reaction to his comment doesn't change the fact that everything must be linked to good whether fair or foul. Read his statement below

For those who consider the emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II to be anything but a first class intellectual, a consummate banker and a bona fide member of Nigerias royalty, the last couple of weeks were a dizzying spectacle of mixed messages on integrity, royalty and wisdom.

Within a perimeter of weeks, HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II, whose royal tentacles and social networks traverse the length and breadth of this country, lambasted the nations economic framework, the northern elite, sub-national leadership especially the governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar and the traditional institution of marriage.

All frontiers that we hold so dear

With due respect to our highly revered traditional institutions and royal fathers, as a blue-blooded family member himself, Hon Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar holds the emir in very high esteem. He believes that the emir as a brother and co-occupant of elite positions in Nigeria, he could advice governors and those in positions of authority in several chains of communication that are richly available to him. But he preferred the public platform, for reasons best known to him.

Governor Yari firmly believes that a country that goes to its pastors and Imams who recommend prayer and fasting as the solution to every social misfortune, from matrimonial disagreements, to social and economic complications needs to be wary of the wrath of God in the event of an epidemic of unquantifiable proportion such as Type C meningitis. And as a country that succumbs to the supremacy of Allah, we must continue to link Him with all things, fair or foul.

Those who want to equate science with God, like HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II can denounce Yaris statement from the rooftops but that will not change Governor Yaris beliefs in the omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence of Allah.

By a certain bizarre coincidence too, like a prophesy foretold, Sheikh Mahmood Jaafar had before he was assassinated named Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as one of those whose hypocrisy would bring an epidemic of monumental proportions to this country. The tapes are very much in circulation long after Sheikh Jaafar death,

He had argued in that sermon that Sanusi Lamido is one of the enemies of Islam who would assume all traits of a good Muslim but deep inside them is a hatred of Islam, and the people far beyond human imagination. Could this be a prophecy foretold?

However, the emir should be aware that Allah who gives power to whoever He wills at His own time, also takes it away at the most inauspicious time. As elected officials, we are obliged to serve people just as we serve God. Within this precinct Governor Yari has done his best. As representatives of the best of our traditions, our Emirs, chiefs, kings and queens are also obliged to lead by example, show empathy, adjudicate with compassion, display wisdom and embrace the fear of God, in all they do. In this HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II is struggling.

Recently, our erudite emir has been mired in several controversies, which rather than enhance his profile and the integrity of royalty, has put him very much on the spot. And the emir has put up a spirited defence of all the allegations against him. But he was not transparent enough, as he always accused officials, especially governors, to tell the public what he found in the Kano Emirate palace coffers when he ascended the exalted throne. This is the least of his peoples expectations of him. It was the first that our finest royalty would offer.

Sacrifice is another attribute known to our royal fathers. But when an emir pledges to commit his hard earned resources for the face-lifting of the palace where he alone would reside and eventually transfers the burden to his impoverished subjects, there is a breach, or a problem.

Late Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki, of blessed memory, used his money to rebuild the Sultans palace in Sokoto to his taste, but until his demise, he never tendered the bill to his subjects for reimbursement.

Over time, we know our traditional fathers for their compassion. When their friends from far and near offer to assist them, they would rather the assistance was given to alleviate the sufferings of their people in cash or kind. But for a traditional ruler who identifies the problems of his people and utters these words: We are in denial. The north-west and the north-east, demographically, constitute the bulk of Nigerias population, but look at human development indices, look at the number of children out of school, look at adult literacy, look at maternal mortality, look at infant mortality, look at girl-child completion rate, look at income per capita The north-east and the north-west Nigeria are among the poorest parts of the world, and yet when his friends offered help, he asks for a Rolls Royce.

There is more than a fundamental problem. There is a big disconnect. Like Governor Yari has always said, his respect for our creator will never waver. He will also rue joining issues with royalty, in Nigeria or anywhere in the world. He maintains that his reverence of the institution that HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II represents is also unshaken. Hon Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar is only asking HRH to either practice what he preaches or forever keep his peace, because in a situation where epidemics are taking our children, maternal mortality, uneducated youth, social vices and incompetent leaders are the national scourge, to borrow the words of the emir, and all he wants to do is ride a Rolls Royce in the face of palpable poverty, he shouldnt engage in throwing accusations at others.

Kano kingdom is an important kingdom amongst the kingdoms in Africa. It is also an important and strategic institution in the history of Nigeria. The occupants of the seat before HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II played a significant and dignified role in making Nigeria what it is today. They respected themselves. HRH should emulate his predecessors and not play to the gallery in a manner that ridicules his own heritage.

On April 5th, Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II took a swipe at the Zamfara state governor, Abdulaziz Yari, over his recent controversial statement that the current meningitis epidemic is as a result of the prevalence of immorality in the country. The Emir of Kano in a post shared on his IG page, said Yari's statement had no basis in Islam. In recent times, the monarch has been canvassing for a change in the thought process of Muslims in Nigeria, particularly towards embracing science and modern day techniques.
Senate President Bukola Saraki urged Nigerians to have confidence in the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government in the country.

Senate President Bukola Saraki urged Nigerians to have confidence in the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government in the country.He assured that government was working hard to overcome the current challenged bedevilling the nation.Saraki also called on the citizens to be optimistic and stay focused.He enjoined Nigerians to continue to live in peace and uphold the unity of the country.Senator Saraki spoke with reporters in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital after his turbaning as Baba Adini of Ansarul Islam Society of Nigeria.On his Easter message he said: My message is for us to live in peace and unity. I know that we will continue to make sacrifice, and we should be hopeful that the country will get better. We should be hopeful that we will attain our promises with time. We just have to stay focused and determined and should not get distracted. Im sure at the end of the day, we will get there.But the most important thing is that there must be unity and peace, and we must be able to come together and support government to be able to do our best. People should not give up. They should be rest assured that all is going to be well.Dr Saraki also made a case for the provision of funds in the constitution for the execution of constituency projects by lawmakers across the country.He said such provision would allow the lawmakers to impact on the lives of their constituents.
Abu Ibrahim, the senator representing Katsina South, and Amiru Tukur, the member representing Bakori/Danja Federal constituency in the H...

Abu Ibrahim, the senator representing Katsina South, and Amiru Tukur, the member representing Bakori/Danja Federal constituency in the House of Representatives narrowly escaped mob action at a political event organised by the Katsina State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday in Funtua.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that it took a combined teams of security personnel to rescue notable politicians, including the governors entourage, as they came under attack from protesters.Stones and shoes were used in attacking the dignitaries.Some vehicles in the entourage of the governor were smashed by irate youths while security personnel had to use tear-gas to disperse the crowds and free the dignitaries.The event, according to NAN, was an APC rally where the ruling party was accepting defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) and other parties into its fold.The event however ended abruptly.Reports say trouble started when some youths started chanting Bamaso Abu Ibrahim (We dont want Senator Abu Ibrahim) and then started throwing stones and shoes at dignitaries and entertainers invited to perform at the event.Amiru Tukur, the Representative from the area, suffered injury while Abu Ibrahim, along with some of his aides and supporters, who were trying to rescue the senator, were also assaulted.Before proceedings descended into chaos, Governor Aminu Masari had urged party members to promote the partys manifesto.The governor reiterated his administrations commitment to giving proactive leadership that would turn around things for the better in the state.He said the government would ensure increased investments in education, health, water supply, agriculture among other areas.In his remark, the Katsina state chairman of the APC, Shitu Shitu, said thousands of people were trooping to the party based on its achievements, adding that similar rally was organised in Dutsi local government for Katsina North senatorial zone recently.He assured the new members of fair treatment in the party affairs.Speaking on behalf of those who defected, a former chairman of Malumfashi Local Government Area, Mansur Banki, said he led more than 5,000 persons to join the APC from the PDP because of the good programmes of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Masari.(NAN)
Despite just getting out of jail for stealing at least $250 million from the coffers of his oil-rich Delta State, former Governor James ...

Despite just getting out of jail for stealing at least $250 million from the coffers of his oil-rich Delta State, former Governor James Ibori has described himself as a man who believed in justice, equity and fairness.Speaking Saturday when he received a delegation from a socio-cultural group, Ndi Anioma, Mr. Ibori said his support for a governor from the Delta North senatorial district, which saw the emergence of Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa, was based on his believe for justice, equity and fairness.The delegation to the former governors Oghara hometown was led by Emmanuel Efeizomor, the Obi of Owa, and Chairman, Delta Council of Traditional Rulers.Mr. Ibori commended the Delta North (Anioma) people for the visit and for their prayers which made his freedom from jail possible.He said the massive support he received from the Aniomas in his quest for governorship in 1998 prompted his choice of an Anioma indigene as his deputy.My believe in justice, equity and fairness informed my firm support for an Anioma governor which has come to pass with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on the saddle, he said.He promised to continue to identify with Anioma people and urged them to remain united and support Mr. Okowa to succeed.Earlier, the Owa monarch commended Mr. Ibori for his disposition to advancing the political course of Anioma people.He said that the five years absence of the former governor was greatly felt by Deltans, particularly the political class and members of the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP).The monarch added that Mr. Iboris return would change the political landscape of the state ahead of 2019 elections.He said Mr. Ibori had closely related with the Anioma nation, having chosen Benjamin Elue as his deputy in his eight years in office as governor.He recalled the role played by the former governor in the emergence of Mr. Okowa as governor of Delta and particularly thanked him for endorsing the governor for a second term.Mr. Efeizomor thanked God for the safe return of Mr. Ibori, describing him as an invaluable asset to the state and country.He urged him to see his travails in London as a sacrifice towards deepening democracy in Nigeria and assured him of the continued support of Anioma people.The delegates included Benjamin Elue, Nkem Okwuofu, Chris Agbobu, Theodora Giwa-Amu, traditional rulers, legislators and members of the State Executive Council from Delta North.After almost five years of playing cat and mouse with Nigerian and British authorities, the former governor capitulated on February 27, 2012, pleading guilty in a London court to 10 counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud.Before Judge Anthony Pitts, Mr. Ibori admitted stealing $250million as alleged by the prosecution.The Metropolitan Police had accused the former governor of spending some of the stolen money to purchase six houses in London  paying 2.2m in cash for one Hampstead mansion  and putting his children in expensive British private schools.Revelations from Panama Papers later showed in vivid details how Mr. Ibori carefully organised his looting scheme.To hide his loot, Mr. Ibori, working through a Swiss asset management firm, Clamorgan S.A. in Geneva, established several offshore companies, including Stanhope Investments Limited,a foundation, Julex Foundation, and a trust, The Hopes Trust, enlisting himself, his wife and daughters as beneficiaries.
Professor of Christian theology in University of Ilorin, Pius Oyeniran Abioje, has dismissed the agelong Biblical claim that Jesus Ch...

Professor of Christian theology in University of Ilorin, Pius Oyeniran Abioje, has dismissed the agelong Biblical claim that Jesus Christ died to save the world.Speaking while delivering the 167th Inaugural Lecture of the university, entitled, Christian Prophets and Other Prophets in Nigeria, the professor said Jesus Christ was killed by haters of truth. Abioje, who noted that critical prophets should anticipate opposition and conspiracy from unexpected quarters, said: The conspiracy that killed Jesus Christ came from the millieu of the chief priest and the political elite.Regrettably,the interpretations by many Christians is that God wanted Jesus to die so as to save the world. Yet the world continues to persecute innocent critical prophets. Why cannot Christians emphasise that Jesus was killed by haters of truth,the religio-political powers that be,particularly since the world is still seeking redemption? Nigerians should learn to see critical prophets as friends of the society,and pardon them whenever they happen to err,since no human being is infallible.The professor asked the people in positions of authority to learn to see critical prophets as partners in progress towards human edification,not as adversaries. The university don also admonished: Divinatory/esoteric prophets should avoid fraudulence. They should see their divinatory knowledge as divine endowment to be used altruistically and not for exploitation.People who consult esoteric prophets should be discerning and not gullible.  They should avoid frequent recourse to divinatory prophecy to avoid mediumistic psychosis Abioje also urged Nigerians to strive to become critical prophets to speak against evil on behalf of God and try to live holy lives.He however advised: Academic p rogrammes generally should include introduction to critical prophecy,which makes a person to be committed to advocacy in godly words and actions,even as medical doctors,engineers,architects,lawyers and so on and not only as clergy men and women, Virtues for which critical prophets strive is unarguably the key to individual and social progress,even when truth can be very bitter.
CHARLESTON -- Two residential properties on Seventh Street have been nominated to become city designated landmarks.

The Charleston Historic Preservation Commission nominated the addresses, 838 Seventh St. and 1002 Seventh St., both of which are located in the Sixth and Seventh Streets Historic District.

1002 Seventh St.

According to a city press release, the residence at 1002 Seventh St. was designed and built by noted local architect and builder, Charles Mitchell (1863-1929).

The release notes Mitchell designed and built many structures in Charleston, including the McFarland-Dudley house. He built the 1002 Seventh St. home around the turn of the 19th century, where he and his family lived until approximately 1919 or 1921.

Notable Charleston stonemason, Alexander Briggs, who is known for work on the Coles County jail and Eastern Illinois University's Old Main, constructed the stonework of 1002 Seventh St. In 1904, a photograph of the house was featured in an exhibition for a local quarry, where the stone originated, at the St. Louis Worlds Fair, the release states.

This home bears many Queen Anne style features including an asymmetrical facade, steeply pitched roof with a dominant front-facing gable, decorative brackets under the eaves, wrap-around front porch, bay windows, and a turret, the release reads.

David Bell, the current residence owner, is in support of the nomination, according to the release.

838 Seventh St.

The other residence nominated at 838 Seventh St. was the home of Livingston C. Lord, Eastern Illinois Universitys first president, and is often called the Livingston Lord house.

Another Queen Anne-styled home, the residences characteristics include a hip roof with cross gables; spindle-work details in the gables, porch frieze and balustrade; asymmetrical front porch; a second story porch over the front entry; and projecting bay windows, among other features, the release reads.

The lawn was frequently the site of receptions for the colleges graduating classes; and Lord also entertained faculty, lecturers, educators and homecoming celebrities in the home. Lord often walked from his home to his office in EIUs Old Main building, according to the release.

For many years, the house was used as a college rental property. Then it sat empty and neglected for many years. By the early 2000s, the house had fallen into disrepair and was on the brink of demolition before it was saved in 2007.

After a change of hands, it was sold in 2010 to Blair Lord, Eastern Illinois University provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.

Lord and his wife, Jeanne, are in support of their homes nomination as a landmark, the release states.

A final decision regarding the two properties' potential landmark status will be made by the Charleston City Council.

A public hearing regarding both properties will take place at 7 p.m. April 24 in the council chambers of Charleston City Hall, 520 Jackson Ave., after which the Historic Preservation Commission recommendation will be made.

Charlestons existing landmark designations include locations like the Will Rogers Theater and the commercial block on Monroe Avenue.

For more information, those interested should contact the Charleston Historic Preservation Commission through the city clerks office at 217-345-5650.
Perhaps stung by the low number of Kebbi children competing for places in Federal Government colleges, Gov Atiku Bagudu , said he would d...

Perhaps stung by the low number of Kebbi children competing for places in Federal Government colleges, Gov Atiku Bagudu , said he would declare a state of emergency in the education sector.He said the policy would improve teaching and learning in the state.The governor made the statement while addressing members of Kebbi Development Forum (KDF), an NGO in Birnin Kebbi on Sunday.He said education is the bedrock of development hence the resolve of his administration to rejuvenate the sector.Out of the 78,378 pupils that participated in the recent 2017 National Common Entrance Examination, to book places in unity colleges, Kebbi had the least number of candidates. It had 63, a sharp contrast with Lagos which had 24,816 candidates.Bagudu,who decried the low standard of education in the state, said his administration would work with stakeholders to transform the sector,adding, We would improve upon the human capacity problems in all levels of education.He said he would constitute a stakeholders consensus committee on education stressing that his administration would recruit more teachers, provide equipment to schools and improve teachers welfare.The chairman board of trustees of the forum,Alhaji Bala Sakaba said the forum was a non-partisan organisation formed to foster unity,generate ideals ,and programmes for acceleration socio economic development.He said the forum is involved in sensitisation and mobilisation of traditional rulers,religious leaders and the elite to act as agents of changes towards value reorientation. it is our belief that for any society to develop, its citizens must be sensitised, to enable informed and enlightened decisions such as demand for services and accountability from their elected representatives.Sakaba,called on public institutions to be dedicated and transparent in rendering services to the people and urged people to support efforts by leaders to bring development.Justice Usman Muhammad, formerly of the Supreme Court, who chaired the occasion lamented the backwardness of the state in education and tasked stakeholders to assist resolve the problemThe knowledge attained through education creates opportunities for better prospects in career growth,he said.A committee member, Dr Aisha Adamu called on the state government to be more committed towards promoting girl child education,adding, if you educate a woman you educate the nation.NAN
The Federal Government said in Abuja on Sunday, that there were indications that looters have more money in their possession than all ti...

The Federal Government said in Abuja on Sunday, that there were indications that looters have more money in their possession than all tiers of government.It however hailed its whistle-blower policy, which has led to the recovery of looted funds in many currencies that he said might otherwise not have been discovered, describing it as an effective tool of fighting corruption in Nigeria.In a statement issued on Sunday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the policy had also shown the depth of support among Nigerians for the fight against corruption.He therefore thanked Nigerians for the enthusiasm and commitment that he said they had shown in helping the government to tackle what he described as the hydra-headed monster of corruption  through the useful leads they had been providing to appropriate government agencies.According to him, Since we launched the whistle-blower policy, we have received immeasurable support from Nigerians.Yes, there is monetary reward for any information that leads to recovery of looted funds, but from what we have seen, most of the Nigerians who have come forward with useful leads were driven by patriotism rather than reward.Nigerians, fired by a fervid resolve to help banish corruption from their country, have daily inundated the offices of the appropriate government agencies with valuable information.We have been told how looters have resorted to burying stolen funds in their backyards, in deep forests and even in burial grounds.Thanks to whistle-blowers, it is now clear that a rapacious few have pillaged the nations wealth through a vicious orgy of corrupt practices.Mohammed expressed appreciation to Nigerians for providing formation.He said, Thanks to the useful information provided by Nigerians, it is now obvious that more funds are in the possession of looters than are available to government at all levels to meets its obligations, including paying workers salaries, providing social amenities, upgrading infrastructure and ensuring the security of lives and property.As the looters continue to run helter-skelter, many of them are even abandoning their booty at unusual places, including airports.We want to assure Nigerians that we will not abandon this policy for whatever reason. Instead, we will continue to rejig it to make it more effective as a tool for fighting corruption.He said the recovered looted funds are safe, adding that as soon as the necessary reconciliation process and the litigation in some of the cases are concluded, the government will give a full account of the funds to Nigerians.Mohammed re-assured Nigerians who have useful information on looted funds that the government will protect their identities and also ensure that they get the stipulated reward for their efforts.
In the aftermath of the controversy surrounding the ownership of the N13bn ($43.4m, N23m and 27,000) found by the Economic and Financial...

In the aftermath of the controversy surrounding the ownership of the N13bn ($43.4m, N23m and 27,000) found by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently address country on the matter so as to clarify the issue, and resolve lingering doubts among Nigerians regarding the real owner(s) of the cash.The organization also called on the president to ensure legal backing for his governments whistle-blowing policy by vigorously pursuing the passing by the National Assembly of the Whistle-blower Bills. Both Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and the National Intelligence Agency last week reportedly claimed ownership of the cash, casting doubts on the real claimants. In a statement today by SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni the organization said that, The governments increasing reliance on whistle-blowers tips to fight corruption has to be backed by some level of transparency and accountability in the real identities of those claiming recovered cash.Clearing the doubts surrounding the real identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul would demonstrate that the president values transparency over secrecy, provide further encouragement to blow the whistle on governmental corruption, and enhance the public right to know. According to the organization, Democracy abhors secrecy, and for Nigerians to be able to hold elected leaders accountable, they must have access to information such as on the real identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul.This transparency is fundamental to the operation of the governments whistle-blower policy, and inextricably rooted in the notions of good governance and the rule of law under the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended). The statement read in part: No good comes from secrecy in governance, as officials who have become accustomed to operating without accountability are loath to relinquish the power that comes from conducting their business without public scrutiny. When public authorities resist efforts to shine a light on their activities, it gives the impression that there is something to hide. Its counter-productive to overstate national security based secrecy needs, as secrecy encourages poorly informed and under-vetted decision-making.Public scrutiny is a prerequisite for changing harmful, entrenched practices. Rather than operating the whistle-blowers policy as hidden, mysterious mechanism at the far edge of democracy, this government should make the operation of policy more transparent and accessible to the public. Both transparency and accountability are necessary to uphold the rights of victims of corruption and ensure that suspected perpetrators are held to account. The sky will not fall if the true identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul are revealed.Its clear that as the EFCC continues to uncover more suspected looted or ill-gotten cash, those blowing the whistle will need greater level of protection. But without outlawing retaliation and attacks against whistle-blowers, and taking a firm stance on protecting them, the incentive of bounty rewards would be negated, as potential whistle-blowers may be discouraged from performing invaluable public interest service.''It shouldnt be the case that the government knows the risks of whistle-blowing and yet fails to provide the needed legal protection against retaliation and attacks, regardless of whether whistle-blowers are entitled to bounties. The policy of giving whistle-blowers some percentage of recovered loot would seem to be a game changer in the fight against corruption but this government now has to squarely address the significant risks that those who blow the whistle face by urgently working with the National Assembly to ensure the necessary legal backing that would ensure protection against reprisals and attacks.The government should ensure that the National Assembly expedites the process of passing the Whistle-Blower Bill, as ensuring that the bill is passed without further delay would recognize the necessity of whistleblowers and the value they add to the anti-corruption fight by reporting otherwise unknown corruption-related information. It would also ensure that whistle-blowers are fully protected from any retaliation and attacks they may experience, and that the government fully appreciates the information they provide.Continuing delay in the passing of the Whistle-Blower Bill would have a chilling effect on potential whistleblowers and hinder the publics ability to learn about the kind of cash haul found in Ikoyi and elsewhere across the country. Its also contrary to Article 33 of the UN Convention on Corruption, which Nigeria has ratified.The convention obligates the government to put in place appropriate measures to provide protection against any unjustified treatment for any person who reports in good faith and on reasonable grounds to the competent authorities any facts concerning offences established in accordance with the convention.
TRENTON-- A decorated U.S. Marine facing years in prison for a weapons offense had his sentence commuted to time served by Gov. Chris Christie Friday, the governor's office said.

Hisashi Pompey's request for a full pardon remained under review, the governor's office also said.

In 2011, Pompey, a sergeant still on active duty, traveled from Virginia to New Jersey to visit family. While at a Fort Lee nightclub, a friend removed Pompey's gun from its holster and had it in his possession when he confronted police following a fight. No shots were fired.

The weapon was registered in Virginia, but not in New Jersey, which has some of the nation's toughest gun laws. Pompey was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon and was sentenced to three years in prison, a term the married father and veteran of three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan was to begin serving next week.

After losing an appeal, Pompey sought clemency from Christie.

"Only help I am asking for is from the governor, that's the only one, everyone from judges to lawyers say the only person who will help me now is the governor," Sgt. Pompey said in a recent interview with WABC 7.

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK-- Two men and a teenager were arrested for various offenses committed in the last few weeks, including a city resident wanted in connection with a shooting last month, Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said in a statement.

Sharif Winters (left) and Haneef Austin (Newark police)

Around 3:15 p.m. March 26, police were called to the 100 block of Morton Street on a report of shots fired. There were no victims but police discovered property damage as a result of gunfire, Ambrose said.

Police identified Sharif Winters, 20, as a suspect. He was arrested Friday by officers from the Community Focus Division at 14th Avenue and Jones Street and charged with aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

Also Friday, Haneef Austin, 37, was arrested after police were called to a home in the 100 block of Court Street on a domestic violence complaint. A 35-year-old man said he was assaulted by a relative and that his vehicle was damaged, Ambrose said.

After receiving permission to carry out a search, police found a loaded rifle and 121 rounds of ammunition, Ambrose said. Austin was charged with simple assault, criminal mischief, terroristic threats and possession of a weapon while prohibited.

On Thursday, a 16-year-old city youth was arrested at Quitman and Westy Kinney streets after police received a report of a person with a gun in the area. The teen, who matched a description, was taken into custody after police found him in possession of a loaded .40-caliber handgun, Ambrose said.

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Newark airport arrest.jpg

Brandon Beverly, left, and Jessica Stokes.

(Port Authority Police)

NEWARK -- Port Authority police on Friday seized more than 60 pills of ecstasy and marijuana in a drug arrest outside of Newark Liberty International Airport, officials announced Sunday.

A police officer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey around 6 p.m. pulled over a blue Mercury Villager with a temporary New Jersey license plate and a cracked front windshield near Terminal A, Port Authority spokesman Joe Pentangelo said in an email.

As the officer spoke to the driver, he smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car, Pentangelo said.

The driver, identified as Brandon Beverly, 30, of Westville, had a suspended license and a computer check showed he had 13 warrants out of Camden, Haddon Township and Mickleton, Pentangelo said.

Beverly was charged with bail jumping and driving with a suspended license.

The passenger, Jessica Stokes, 27, of Woodbury, had 63 ecstasy pills and 14 plastic containers filled with marijuana, Pentangelo said.

She was charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- Four adults and two children were forced out of their home early Easter morning when a fire ripped through a building on Union Street, city officials said.

The two alarm fire began at about 4 a.m. at 230 Union St., city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said.

Firefighters found heavy smoke and flames coming from the attic space of the two family home. The fire was contained mostly to the attic, Morrill said.

The fire was brought under control in about an hour. Investigators believe the fire was accidental but the cause of the blaze has not yet been determined, she said.

Photos from the scene by Jersey Journal freelance photographer Joe Shine show smoke billowing out from the home and more than a dozen emergency responders at the scene.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- A group of local Girl Scouts teamed up with St. Matthew's Lutheran church to make Easter care packages for people in need.

This is the second year Troop 12912 worked with the Downtown church to provide soap, socks, and holiday treats for the Breakfast Plus program at Grace Church.

More than 100 bags were distributed to people in need early Sunday morning.

The Breakfast Plus, organized through Grace Community Serves, provides meals for Jersey City residents who are either homeless of food insecure.

Check out photos from the distribution at Sunday's breakfast in the gallery above.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
LEBANON TWP. - A BMW 528i crashed into a utility pole, rolling over, on Route 31 near Cregar Road at 1:33 a.m. on Sunday.

The BMW was travelling northbound on Route 31 before the accident, according to those at the scene. The car struck a utility pole and rolled over, landing back on its wheels. The utility pole was broken into three sections.

The driver was reportedly not hurt and refused medical treatment at the scene.

Route 31 was closed in both directions until 2:45 a.m.

Responding to the crash were Lebanon Township police, High Bridge police, High Bridge Rescue Squad, High Bridge Fire Department, Lebanon Township Fire and EMS and JCP&L.
Firefighters responded to a reported 2-alarm fire that struck Morrisville in Bucks County, Pa., on Sunday afternoon, according to 6abc Action News in Philadelphia.

The fire struck the 100 block of Park Avenue around 3:30 p.m. Fire companies were having difficulty with fire hydrants that pull from the Delaware River, 6abc reported. The respondents were also having difficulty with strong winds.

Smoke billows towards Trenton from Morrisville fire @6abc pic.twitter.com/Be6yfGLFcF  Annie McCormick (@6abcAnnie) April 16, 2017

Fire companies fighting Morrisville fire having issues with hydrants pulling water from Delaware River @6abc pic.twitter.com/U34yDoEUH2  Annie McCormick (@6abcAnnie) April 16, 2017

It is not known how many buildings or people have been affected by the fire.

Erin Petenko may be reached at epetenko@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @EPetenko. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
DECATUR -- Scovill Zoos 50th Anniversary Celebration and Critter Egg Hunt got a little heated on Saturday.

On an 80-degree day in mid-April, hundreds of kids and their parents surrounded several roped-off patches of grass at Scovill Park, then unleashed them to collect the 10,000 or so orange, green, pink, yellow and blue eggs dotting the green grass.

The eggs in the 10-and-older fields were quickly gathered and the big kids sat on the ground, counting their eggs. But as the smaller kids became more interested in dandelions than eggs, parents and grandparents began to intervene.

I got elbowed in the mouth by a mom trying to get eggs for her 1-year-old, 32-year-old Lacey Teter from Atwood said, laughing. It was competitive out there.

Still, Teter, her fiance Marc Thompson and their kids -- 9-year-old DusteeRose Gregory, 7-year-old Macy Thompson, 7-year-old Remington Gregory and 16-month-old Tobias Thompson -- enjoyed the egg hunt and free day at the zoo.

Its Macys birthday tomorrow, so this was kind of like an awesome party for her, Teter said. We read about this on Facebook, so we thought wed come check it out.

Theresa Marlett and her 5-year-old grandson Jayvonte Marlett arrived early to the egg hunt and grabbed a prime hunting spot.

My grandma said for me to get the silver egg, so Im going to get the silver egg because she wants it, Jayvonte said. Im going to get a lot of eggs.

As they waited for the 2 p.m. start, Jayvonte put the Avengers bucket he brought to collect eggs on his head, and his grandma snapped some pictures of him.

Madeline Andrews, who came to Decatur from Martinsville after she heard about the event while in Decatur last week, poured a capful of water over her 3-year-old sons Brets head to keep him cool on an unseasonably hot day.

The heat had Teters and Thompsons kids thinking about the pool.

We have an in-ground pool. I wish I was in it right now, DusteeRose said. Daddy, after this can we go home and swim?

Two-year-old Kendra Grant and 1-year-old Corin Grant were making their egg hunt debuts. Theyd just come from the Childrens Museum of Illinois next door, which was offering reduced admission for the day.

We went to the Childrens Museum for Kendras second birthday, but this was the first time Corin could really do anything there because she can walk now, so that was fun to see, said Kendra and Corins mom, Nicole Reed.

When it was time for the egg hunt, Jayvonte rushed toward the silver egg but in a pink and purple flash, another kid snatched it up first.

At the end, though, the eggs were collected and each kid received an Easter egg gift basket -- eggs that jingled earned special baskets with plush toys and chocolate. Then, in honor of the zoos 50th anniversary, NowDecatur and Soy Capital Bank gave away five $100 Visa gift cards.

This is a step above what weve normally done because of the 50th anniversary celebration, Scovill Zoo Director Ken Frye said.

After the egg hunt, families headed to the zoo. The zoo park was packed, and large crowds were taking advantage of 50-cent carousel and train rides. Near the concession area, 4-year-old Elaina Williams jumped up and pointed while her 20-month-old brother Elijah bent over to get a closer look at a peacock.

For a second, Elaina became frightened: Can you put him back?, she said to her mom. But then she watched as it walked by.

Look how he moves his legs, she said to her mom, Megan. So pretty.

Then Elaina grabbed Megans hand.

Come on, I want to go see the colorful peacock, Elaina said.
If youre looking for hot political discourse, keep clicking. This isnt about politics; its about our intimate relationships and how they shade every other aspect of our lives.

POTUS just happens to be an easy case study.

Arent you just a little freaked out that POTUS and FLOTUS dont even pretend they are a team, much less committed marriage partners? Hes in Washington. She remains sequestered in a New York penthouse. Gone from the media feed are the First Family moments we were raised on; the meeting of the eyes, the knowing smiles, the holding of hands.

Sure, prior first couples have run the spectrum from those who are soul mates to those whose marriages seem bound together more by duty and obligation than affection. The common thread among them has been that theyve at least played their part, giving us those images of marital solvency we need to see. Yes, I said, need.

Remember when you were a kid and believing that your parents loved one another made you feel that there was order in the world and that you were safe?

We call the occupants of our White House the First Family for a reason. In some strange way, theyve become our national mom and dad, modeling the domestic tranquility, whether real or fabricated, that makes us feel safe. Yes, even in this cynical age, we expect the man at the top to be a family man.

But why?

Because we know relationships matter. No marriage is inert. A marriage trends up or down, fueling or depleting our reserves of psychic energy. In 30 years of family law practice, Ive seen both the vacant eyes of clients who have clung to dead marriages as well as the radiance in the eyes of those who discovered relationships that feed their souls. When I ask my clients about some of the worst decisions theyve made, they explain that they were in a fog, lonely or depressed.

Sure, we all compartmentalize, in one way or another, just to get through life. But, such a coping mechanism is only somewhat effective and sustains us for a limited duration. Sooner or later, the angst of the personal bleeds into the stoicism of the professional. And, all hell breaks loose.

Mr. President, forgive me if I have speculated. Indeed, I hope you are buoyed and sustained by a relationship where you are truly loved and loving, in return. From such a relationship comes peace, clarity and creativity  the things youll need along the way.

Sir, just let us know how things are going at home so we can try to relax.
Efforts in Congress to protect gay men and lesbians from discrimination in the workplace have languished for years. But earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled that Congress already has made such discrimination illegal. That may sound like an audacious conclusion, but its the correct one.

In an 8-3 ruling, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago held that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans job discrimination on the basis of sex, must also be read to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The court ruled that Kimberly Hively, a part-time community college professor in Indiana, could pursue her claim that she was denied a full-time job because she was a lesbian.

In 1964, when Congress enacted Title VII, few if any members of Congress were thinking about discrimination against gay men and lesbians. The modern gay rights movement was in its infancy. But Chief Judge Diane Wood, writing for the majority, made a persuasive case that sex discrimination includes not just discrimination based on gender, but also discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Her legal analysis should be endorsed by the Supreme Court, which likely will have the final say on this issue.

First, Wood noted, that in the years since 1964, Title VII has been understood to cover far more than the simple decision of an employer not to hire a woman for Job A, or a man for Job B. The Supreme Court has held that the prohibition against sex discrimination covers sexual harassment in the workplace, including same-sex workplace harassment; it covers discrimination based on actuarial assumptions about a persons longevity; and it covers discrimination based on a persons failure to conform to a certain set of gender stereotypes.

It is quite possible that these interpretations may also have surprised some who served in the 88th Congress.

Among the Supreme Court decisions Wood cited, one stands out: a 1998 case called Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a male oil-rig worker who alleged that he had been the target of sexually oriented touching and rape threats from male co-workers.

The majority opinion in that case acknowledged that when Congress enacted Title VII, male-on-male sexual harassment in the workplace was assuredly not the principal evil Congress was concerned with. Thats an understatement. But the court added that statutory prohibitions often go beyond the principal evil to cover reasonably comparable evils, and it is ultimately the provisions of our laws rather than the principal concerns of our legislators by which we are governed.

The author of that majority opinion, some will be surprised to learn, was the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia was renowned for subscribing to the notion that legal documents should be construed based on their text and original meaning  a philosophy also attributed to the justice who was sworn in to replace Scalia this week, Neil Gorsuch. Yet Scalia had no difficulty recognizing that a law against sex discrimination could cover situations not anticipated by the members of Congress who enacted it.

The dissenters in the decision argued that extending Title VIIs ban on sex discrimination to discrimination against gay men and lesbians took flexible interpretation too far.

Judge Diane S. Sykes (who, like Gorsuch, appeared on a list of potential Supreme Court nominees released by the Donald Trump campaign last year), noted that when Congress wanted to target discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation it knew how to do so. For example, she observed, the Violence Against Women Act prohibits funded programs and activities from discriminating on the basis of both sex and sexual orientation.

But Wood convincingly countered that the law often protects the same interests in several different ways, what lawyers call a belt and suspenders approach. She also noted that some members of Congress may have been influenced by the fact that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing Title VII, announced in 2015 that it regarded discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as a violation of Title VII.

Los Angeles Times
An inmate housing pod during a media tour of the Orleans Parish Prison facility in New Orleans Sept. 12, 2015. (BRETT DUKE)
TEMPLETON  Something has happened in Templeton that should raise the spirits of long dead bootleggers across the village in Sacred Heart Cemetery.

The distillation of the communitys notorious rye whiskey will soon return to Templeton, where it was produced in the shadows during and after Prohibition. But now its legal.

Templeton Rye Spirits kicked off a $26 million expansion project with a ceremonial groundbreaking on April 5 for a distillery and a warehouse for aging the rye.

Mayor Ken Behrens said the new facility is greater than anything people in the community of 362 could have dreamed when the idea of making the whiskey locally and legally surfaced a decade ago.

Its hard to imagine what the original bootleggers would say if they were here today, he said.

Templeton Ryes upgraded home will consist of a 34,500-square-foot distillery at its current 20-acre facility on the edge of the town. The new complex, including a museum and a 55,000-square-foot barrel aging warehouse, is expected to be completed within 18 months.

The new distillery will be able to produce 500,000 proof gallons of rye whiskey annually, but initial production will be 250,000 gallons. The aging warehouse will be able to store 40,000 barrels.

The first Iowa-distilled Templeton  aged four years  would appear on store shelves in about 2022.

Templeton Rye produced its 1 millionth bottle in 2013. The company doesnt disclose detailed figures, but it has never had a down sales year, said Keith Kerkhoff of Manilla, a co-founder of Templeton Rye Spirits and a grandson of an area bootlegger.

The expansion is expected to add 27 workers, many of them salaried, to the current roster of about six full-time and 12 to 15 part-time employees.

Templeton Rye, introduced legally in 2006, dates to the early 1900s, when residents of Templeton distilled a much sought-after rye whiskey produced in basements and barns.

Although forced underground during the Prohibition era, the bootlegging enterprise flourished. Chicago gangster Al Capone reportedly served Templeton Rye to his friends and family.

The distillery will make Templeton Rye wholly produced in Iowa for the first time since the Prohibition era.

The company settled lawsuits in 2015 over labeling that implied that the whiskey was made in Iowa. The company is using a mash made up of 95 percent rye from MGP Ingredients in Indiana as the whiskeys foundation. The Templeton plant currently combines distilled rye whiskey with the companys proprietary formula and local purified water in batches of 900 gallons for bottling in Templeton.

The distillerys two new stills are being manufactured in Scotland and will produce the highest quality spirits, said Alex Alexandrov, president of ICC Turnkey of St. Louis, an engineering company that designed the distillery.

The oak does the rest, he said.

Kerkhoff said he was proud to share The Good Stuff with whiskey lovers from around Iowa and across the country.

Were moving full-steam ahead, he said. Our company is laser-focused on bringing the history and spirit of the community of Templeton to life through Templeton Rye whiskey.

Upward of 300 people attended the ground-breaking ceremony at the base of a towering stack of whiskey barrels outside the companys current office and bottling building.

The project will not only create good, long-term jobs, but it will also increase tourism, said Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

The company has invested more than $1 million locally since it started aging its first four-year whiskey in 2002. It has hosted more than 25,000 visitors at the facility since opening to the public.

State Rep. Brian Best, who lives in Glidden and represents the Templeton area in the State Legislature, said the expansion is good for all of Iowa.

Pat Engelen of Templeton, who lives across the street from the production facility, said the companys economic development and tourism impact are already significant and will grow.

We sure get a lot of traffic with people coming in to check this place out, she said. People stop to get their picture taken in front of the building or by the barrel tree. Theyll be motorcycle groups of 40 or more at a time.

Vern Underwood, chairman of Infinium Spirits in Aliso Viejo, California, and a lead investor in Templeton Rye Spirits, thanked the community for making it possible to build a successful whiskey operation.

There are many, many rye whiskeys, but there is only one rye whiskey that has the town Templeton behind it, he said. It separates us from the other rye whiskey. You are the story. You are whats going to make this possible. Its a dream come true for everybody. We want to be part of the dream.
Each black and white photo in the gallery shows a different person and tells a different story.

Sometimes their faces are obscured  others smile or let their pain show through  all while holding a sign.

We are not alone. I am a survivor. We are not powerless, reads one sign.

Others quoted their abusers, or told of a silent, inner pain theyve lived with since being sexually assaulted.

The Survivor Statement Project is a collection of more than 30 photos currently on display at the RNG Gallery at Dixie Quicks. Each photo is of a survivor with a sign speaking about their own experiences. The collection is presented as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month through the Catholic Charities Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault program, previously known as the Phoenix House.

The rules for the project were simple: no boundary was set for each survivors statement, and they were allowed to write anything they wished.

Sarah Miller, sexual assault advocate, took the photos. This is the second year the project has been displayed, she said, which took the entire team  along with the survivors  to create.

Its a collaborative effort. Were so blessed everyone involved wanted to do this, as sexual violence is so difficult to talk about, Miller said.

Those pictured are not strangers, but neighbors, she explained. The misconception that sexual assault occurs elsewhere and not within this community is one they are trying to combat.

Each photo also has something symbolic about each survivors story in it, like a headstone or a playground, Miller added.

Each has had a different experience. It was heartbreaking to hear, she said.

Carrie Potter, sexual assault coordinator, said those who volunteered found the project incredibly emotional when it came time to write down the words on the sign they would hold.

But afterward, they grew proud, she said.

They wanted to see the photo on display. They wanted to show people what they did, Potter said.

Stone Printing and Office Supplies of Carroll donated a third of the canvases for the collection. The images are displayed as a group at various locations in the Council Bluffs area  CHI Mercy and Jennie Edmundson hospitals, the Council Bluffs Library and Iowa Western Community Colleges student center.

The project can also be viewed in Harrison County at CHI Health Missouri Valley and at the Cass County Courthouse in Atlantic.

Caleb Byers, of Omaha, is the subject of one photo. His sign, about being a survivor and not being powerless alludes to his website, wearenotpowerless.com.

The 25-year-old gained the attention of the internet in 2014 after he posted a video of detailing his sex abuse when he was 20. Now, Byers does what he can as an advocate for those who have suffered like he has, and volunteered to be part of the project.

He said awareness campaigns like this help dispel myths in society, especially a certain stigma geared towards males who have suffered sexual abuse.

Words hold a lot of power on a persons psyche, he said. I never realized it until I was assigned a label with a negative connotation. It distorts your thoughts, perceptions and daily interactions.

After his abuse, a feeling of isolation consumed him, Byers said. Finding out there were others who understand how he felt and that he wasnt alone was crucial towards his healing.

I know it sounds cliche, but the night is darkest before dawn. Its awful, but theres always hope, he said.

Brenna Wilhite, 19, of Council Bluffs, was also featured in the project. She said she was initially shocked when asked to participate.

I thought, Im just me. What can I do? Why do it? she said. But later she realized people were going to see what she did and that she could make an impact.

Writing down what she felt was liberating in its own way, she explained. She finally had her own moment to speak without the filter of someone else handling her words.

If I could talk to myself from a year ago, after my assault happened, I would have said there are people out there you can count on, she said. Youre not alone.

To view the photos online, go to the IowaCASA Facebook page under videos.
Unless leadership decides differently, the 2017 Iowa Legislature should conclude this week.

Thats the plan, said Rep. Charles McConkey, a Democrat who represents Carter Lake and western Council Bluffs.

Fellow Council Bluffs representative Mary Ann Hanusa, a Republican, agreed.

We anticipate well adjourn this week, she said.

As is always the case when the schedule reaches this point, lawmakers are at last voting on the individual pieces of the fiscal year 2018 budget.

The final figures may not look pretty as the lawmakers must grapple with a $130 million shortfall next year  based on unexpected low numbers from the states Revenue Estimating Commission  at least partially the result of a sluggish farm economy.

Its not all agriculture, McConkey said. Stagnant wages have a lot to do with it.

People arent spending, which reduces tax revenues for the state, he said.

Republican State Sen. Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs added, There are some difficult choices to be made, but we are committed to being fiscally responsible and providing agencies with the flexibility and creativity in their spending to assist them in adapting during these tight fiscal times.

A House panel recently approved a 7.1 percent cut to Iowas economic development programs, reducing its budget next year to $38.4 million from the states general fund under a budget plan approved Thursday night by an Iowa House panel.

Hanusa, who chairs the House Economic Growth Committee, said her members sought input for reductions from economic development officials, instead of across-the-board cuts.

They know where cuts can be absorbed better than we do, she said. The states economic development authority will continue to work with businesses (for growth).

One agency that got a second chance was the Iowa Flood Center, which monitors river and stream levels. Lawmakers originally eliminated its total annual funding of $1.5 million but eventually put back $1.2 million.

Iowa State Universitys Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture would be closed under a House-Senate agriculture bill unveiled on Wednesday.

The bill would cut the states general fund budget for state agriculture and natural resources programs by 5.6 percent compared to the current fiscal year.

Dawson said education has been a priority among Senate members who have approved an additional $40 million next year.

For most departments, youre looking at a status quo budget, he said.
Iowa lawmakers hope a law that provides expanded access to an opioid antidote will help save lives.

The Legislature passed a bill during its 2016 session that allows eligible individuals to obtain naloxone (sold under the brand name Narcan) without a prescription, according to Iowa Board of Pharmacy information on the Iowa Department of Public Health website.

The law was implemented in November 2016 after administrative rules for the measure were finalized.

Under the new law, Iowa Code authorizes a pharmacy to dispense the drug, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, under a standing order or collaborative practice agreement to a person in a position to assist someone at risk of an opioid overdose, the website stated.

The recipient can be the person at risk of such an overdose, a family member or friend of a person at risk, a person in a position to assist a person at risk of an overdose or a first responder.

... naloxone is intended to be prescribed to family/friends who are concerned about the potential overdose of a loved one, Polly Carver-Kimm, IDPH communications director, wrote in an email. Its intended to be prescribed before the overdose occurs so that, if it does, it can be administered immediately, giving them time to call 911 for medical care.

The pharmacy must perform an eligibility assessment before dispensing the medication and before giving any refills, the IDPH website stated. However, up to five units or kits can be dispensed at a time.

Before pharmacists can participate, they must complete a one-hour continuing education class.

Pharmacists are to provide educational materials to individuals that receive naloxone, including instructions on the administration of naloxone and information about substance abuse or behavioral health treatment programs in the area.

Naloxone is available as an injectable liquid, an auto-injector or a nasal spray. Pharmacies are not required to provide all three products.

All CVS Pharmacy stores in Iowa have naloxone available without a prescription, the drug store chain announced on March 29 at one of its Des Moines stores with Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, IDPH Director Gerd Clabaugh and Office of Drug Control Policy Director Steve Lukan, a press release from CVS stated.

Naloxone is a safe and effective antidote to opioid overdoses and, by expanding access to this medication in our Iowa pharmacies by the use of a physicians standing order for patients without a prescription, we can help save lives, said Tom Davis, pharmacist and vice president of pharmacy professional practices at CVS Pharmacy. We support expanding naloxone availability to give more people a chance to get the help they need for recovery, and we applaud the State of Iowa for their leadership in the fight against drug abuse and addiction.

With the addition of Iowa, CVS Pharmacy now dispenses naloxone to patients without an individual prescription in 41 states, including Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin, the press release stated.

Erin Britt, CVS spokeswoman, said she could not disclose how much naloxone the chain has sold in Iowa since the new law went into effect.

JoLynn Ahmann, director of the pharmacy at All Care Health Center, said the clinic currently does not have the training to dispense it to individuals.

At this time, we dont have it because of the cost of the drug, she said. Its very expensive. We get a pretty quick response from EMS. I think we always get them over here in two or three minutes.

Carver-Kimm said there is currently no online list of participating pharmacies.

Emergency medical services crews have been administering the drug for decades, said Rick Benson, EMS operations officer at the Council Bluffs Fire Department. All the local squads carry it.

We give it about 50 times a year, he said. We mostly use it for patients who have an altered mental state and are unresponsive, if an opioid and/or paraphernalia are nearby. Probably the most common would be a suicide attempt.

EMS crews also keep an opioid pain reliever handy in case they need it, Benson said.

Increasing access to naloxone makes more sense in big cities, where it might take an ambulance longer to reach someone who has overdosed, Benson said.

He doesnt see as much of a need in Iowa.

But we do have more people taking opioids  not necessarily abusing them, he said.
WASHINGTON  The University of Nebraska Medical Center is looking to expand its cooperation with the Defense Department when it comes to tackling highly infectious diseases.

While UNMC has made a name for itself in the area, it largely has come from working with civilian federal health agencies and the U.S. State Department.

That is the next frontier of this, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey Gold told BH News Service last week.

While Gold did not cite this as part of his thinking, a focus on collaboration with the Pentagon could track well with coming federal funding shifts.

President Donald Trump is pushing for significant cuts to domestic agencies and the State Department in favor of bolstering defense budgets.

Nebraska already has been on the map for years when it comes to Ebola and other highly infectious diseases.

UNMC and two partner institutions have been awarded $24 million in federal grants to support training efforts. And another $19.8 million in federal funds has been tabbed to develop the National Center for Health Security and Biopreparedness on the ground floor of a planned $118.9 million Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning. Doors are expected to open in September 2018, with the national center training federal workers on the treatment of Ebola and other diseases.

Gold said UNMC soon will be asking the University of Nebraska Board of Regents to give the health security training facility a global scope so that it can serve people from around the world.

We know that in accepting this funding and accepting these programs, we take with it a tremendous amount of responsibility for the health and for the security of our country, our citizens, military and civilian, and that we wont let them down, Gold said.

An example of the continuing collaboration between UNMC and federal agencies was Wednesdays patient transport drill, the second such exercise with the State Department.

Operation Tranquil Shift started Monday morning and included 11 Americans serving as mock patients either exposed to or suspected of being exposed to a highly infectious disease.

Two 747s and three Gulf-stream aircraft flew from Atlanta to Freetown, Sierra Leone, and back to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. Two of the smaller aircraft then flew on to Omaha, where the mock patients were taken to UNMC.

A previous drill in November transported three mock patients on one 747 to the Nebraska biocontainment unit.

UNMC officials said the latest drill represents a way to put them and everyone else involved through their paces.

Dr. Chris Kratochvil, UNMCs associate vice chancellor for clinical research, said officials are looking to expand the capacity for transferring patients to biocontainment units in the United States.

Its critically important to do exercises like that to really identify Are we doing all that we can be doing?  Kratochvil said.

Kratochvil said officials will be looking to the federal government to find ways to sustain the training supported by the $24 million beyond the life of the current grants.

They also will seek more opportunities to work with the Defense Department, in conjunction with the National Strategic Research Institute that is sponsored by U.S. Strategic Command and has been integral to the recent drills.

There are 13 of those DOD-affiliated university research centers.

Retired Lt. Gen. Bob Hinson, the research institutes executive director, noted that during the Ebola crisis, thousands of U.S. military personnel were working in Africa. There was a lot of concern about what would happen in the event of multiple patients coming to the United States with Ebola.

Hinson noted that the United States still has troops serving around the world in areas where they face the potential threat of infectious diseases.

You certainly wouldnt want to find yourself ill-prepared and affecting overall mission readiness of the troops that are forward-deployed in a lot of these locations, Hinson said.

Clearly, the threat of infectious diseases isnt going anywhere.

When you think youve conquered one, Hinson said, theres always another one that seems to pop up.
The Iowa Legislature has put a center for sustainable agriculture on the chopping block as lawmakers work to finalize a budget. A key in lawmakers reasoning is their feeling that the centers work is complete.

A Republican-led budget committee voted Tuesday for an education bill that includes cutting all state funding from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. The Legislature decided against cutting funding to the Iowa Flood Center, which is housed at the University of Iowa and monitors river and stream levels. Lawmakers originally eliminated its total annual funding of $1.5 million, but eventually reinstated $1.2 million.

The Leopold Center wasnt as lucky.

Iowa is an agriculture state, and efforts to make farm practices more sustainable and better for the environment are more important now than ever.

GOP Rep. Cecil Dolecheck said the Leopold Center has educated farmers on best practices regarding sustainable agriculture, and any future research should be conducted through Iowa State. The university has had its funding reduced by millions in the current budget year, according to the Associated Press.

A lot of people felt that the mission for sustainable agriculture that they undertook, that they have completed that mission, its pretty well done, Dolecheck said.

The cut of nearly $400,000 for the Leopold Center would effectively end their work, according to staff.

Mark Rasmussen, director of the Leopold Center, told the AP that cutting state funding could jeopardize federal funding.

A combination of a stagnant agriculture economy, a high amount of tax incentives and other factors have left the state in a budget crunch. We understand that. But in a state dependent on agriculture and often at the mercy of flooding, cuts to research in both fields is not the right move.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 79F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 67F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Reducing the potential for serious injury and fatality crashes involving teen drivers is the goal of an ongoing educational effort by the Nebraska State Patrol, with a focus on seat belts and young drivers.

With funding support from the Nebraska Department of Roads Highway Safety Office and other sources, troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol conducted more than 70 safety presentations from January through March, reaching nearly 24,000 people across the state. The NSP uses interactive equipment including its Rollover Simulator, Seat Belt Convincer, and Driving Simulator to spread the message that seat belts save lives, and to buckle up every time you drive or ride.

From April through June, troopers will continue their educational efforts utilizing grant funding from the Nebraska Department of Roads, Highway Safety Office.

According to the Nebraska Strategic Highway Safety Plan, drivers between 16-20 years of age represent the highest number of unbelted fatalities. More than half of young drivers involved in fatal crashes were not wearing seat belts.

We are entering a busy and potentially dangerous time of year for our teen drivers, said Colonel Brad Rice, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol. Proms, graduations and summer celebrations are coming up, and we hope to reach as many groups as possible in an effort to drive home the important role seat belts play in saving lives.

Those interested in hosting a safety presentation can visit the Community Policing/Safety Programs page of the Nebraska State Patrol website for information on scheduling a safety demonstration.
North Platte development officials hope to build on the growing excitement about revitalizing downtown to create an atmosphere where businesses can grow.

Its worth pointing out the momentum is up, McGown said. People are really excited about revitalizing the downtown. Now is the time to do something.

The City Council has scheduled a public hearing for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on the downtown facade project and what to do with the canopies.

The canopies, which have been in place for years, will become a liability if they arent repaired or removed, city officials say.

I think its important for us to give the public the opportunity to let their elected representatives know what their thoughts are, said City Administrator Jim Hawks.

Megan McGown, vice president of economic development and marketing at the North Platte Area Chamber of Commerce, said the city will be prepared to address the cost estimates of repairing or removing the canopies.

Last month, City Administrator Jim Hawks said repairing the structures would cost at least $250,000. Removing them would be about $93,000 plus costs to reroute electricity and gas lines, he said.

In an earlier interview, McGown spoke about the visual impact of the canopies.

Have you ever just gone to the middle of the street and looked up at the building where the Discount Vac & Store is located? she said. The upper level of that building is amazing, but you dont see it. I just think some of the architecture is being missed because the canopy keeps you from looking up.

McGown said other cities across the country are dealing with the same issues facing downtown North Platte.

In Nebraska, Fremont  similar in size to North Platte  is in the second phase of a downtown revitalization program.

Fremont has received Community Development Block Grant funds from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development for its project.

The people who have been awarded those funds have through the end of this season to complete their facades, improvements and things like that, said Shannon Mullen, executive director of MainStreet of Fremont. Its amazing how just the smaller things can make large improvements.

The MainStreet of Fremont Facebook page shows before-and-after photos of several businesses that have taken advantage of the project funds.

People start to take great pride in the way that downtown and their building looks, Mullen said. When I show up at the office at 7:45 every morning, its amazing to see the pride that people have.

She said the business and property owners have taken charge of their town.

You see people sweeping their walks and just taking really good care and picking up cigarette butts out in front of their building, Mullen said. People who come into our downtown make comments like Wow, these buildings are stunning.

Along with the visual improvements, she said, property values are going up.

Mullen said MainStreet also looks at bringing in new businesses to create a destination for locals and out-of-town visitors.

When we try to attract new business, we really take into consideration how does this business fit the mold in downtown Fremont? she said. We want them to be successful because that is going to hinge on our success as a whole in the community.

Mullen said mixed-use buildings and retail and service-based businesses are important.

We have a really great mix of restaurants, everything from sandwich shops to some really authentic Salvadorian food, down here, she said.
BEIJING  China's export growth accelerated in March in a positive sign for global demand, though import growth cooled.

Exports rose 16.4 percent from a year earlier to $180.6 billion, up from 4 percent growth in the first two months of the year, according to customs data released Thursday. Imports rose 20.3 percent to $156.6 billion, down from growth in January-February of 26.4 percent.

The unexpectedly strong exports are a positive sign for Chinese leaders who want to avert job losses in trade-related industries while they try to nurture consumer-driven economic growth.

"External demand appears to have strengthened further," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, of Capital Economics, in a report.

"On the other hand, however, there are signs that the jump in imports on the back of China's recent economic recovery may now be starting to lose steam."

China's politically sensitive global trade surplus contracted 20 percent from a year earlier to $23.9 billion.

The trade surplus with the United States was $17.7 billion and the gap with Europe was $7.7 billion.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump removed a potential threat to Chinese export performance when he said he won't label Beijing a currency manipulator. The announcement represented a reverse from Trump's campaign promise to issue such a declaration, which would open the way to possible sanctions.

"They're not currency manipulators," Trump told The Wall Street Journal. He said a U.S. declaration that China manipulated the exchange rate of its yuan to gain a trade advantage could jeopardize talks with China on North Korea.

It is rare for American leaders to link trade or currency disputes to broader international security efforts against countries such as North Korea.

Asked whether his currency decision was part of an agreement over North Korea, Trump responded: "We're going to see. We're going to see about that."
HAMMOND  Piles of donated egg cartons, oatmeal containers and wallpaper, among other items, can get a little messy, Racine Kovach concedes, but it's all stuff that finds a new purpose at the ReUZ Room at the Lake County Solid Waste Management District offices.

A lot of people say: 'Thankfully there's a place like this,' said Kovach, the district's environmental education center coordinator and a 2008 graduate of Purdue University, West Lafayette.

The room at 2405 Calumet Ave. offers teachers, vacation Bible school instructors, Scout leaders and others a unique place to gather up reusable items (clean and dry, please) for youngster projects. It is open from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

Kovach, 31, of Hessville, has been operating the room for the past six years and while everything is free, she stipulates whatever is taken for the new 3 R's (reduce, reuse recycle) be weighed so the LCSWMD can keep track of what has been carried out by weight.

The 15 to 20 visitors a week have diverted as much as 8 tons of repurposed materials in the course of a year.

There's no consistency with the numbers, Kovach notes. We're at the whim of who is donating supplies, what they bring in and what people are looking for.

Nonetheless, Kovach's tally shows the room recirculates 5 to 6 tons of material annually on average with as much as 2,000 pounds and as low as 300 to 400 pounds a month since she started keeping records.

People like to come in and pick through what is an oddball piece, said Angela Goodson, the district's environmental education and outreach coordinator.

In addition to Lake and Porter County residents, the district welcomes South Chicago patrons, too.

Kovach will be represent the LCSWMD at the Northwest Indiana Earth Day Celebration from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Porter County Expo Center.
First and foremost in my mind today, Happy Easter to all my Christian friends.

On this Easter Sunday, Id like to reflect on the little church that could in our city. Im referring to Holy Cross Lutheran Church that was located on U.S. 6, a church that was led by Pastor Tim Engel, who I became friends with and was a charter member of the Portage Kiwanis Club. A few years ago, this congregation was a small but vital part of our city known for their comfort dogs, community dinners and their caring for all our residents.

In January 2016, Pastor Tim left Holy Cross for a new position as the pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church to share Gods love with people in the area of Houston, Texas. In May 2016, Holy Crosss members voted to close their doors and sell the building.

While that church no longer exists, the former members have continued their legacy of love for the community and beyond. St. Peter Lutheran Church continued the community dinners, works with the kids at Central Elementary School and partners with Portage High School and Portage Food Pantry to put on the Empty Bowls Project. Trinity Lutheran Church is the new home of the comfort dogs Prince, Barnabas and Isaiah, and they have some new handlers to take the dogs to places and events that have expanded between the two communities. Isaiah is still at the Portage High School, and Barnabas is busier than ever.

Members of this little church that could decided the proceeds from the sale of their building would go to help other organizations to reach out into the community. The beneficiaries of the funds are the Portage Food Pantry and the eight Portage elementary schools. Special gifts were given to Central Elementary School because members had worked with the kids there. More special gifts were given to neighboring ministries in Gary  Rebuilding the Breach, Ascension Lutheran School and a Gary missionary at large, Delwyn Campbell, who is working with St. John Lutheran Church. Finally, a portion of the funds was earmarked for outreach training for other churches. Bravo, Holy Cross Lutheran Church members, for a job well done!

Community and Business Night

Speaking of community, this Thursday is the Portage Chamber of Commerces Annual Portage Community and Business Night from 4 to 7 p.m in Oakwood Hall, Woodland Park, 2100 Willowcreek Road. Admission is $2 per person, except ages 5 and under are admitted free. This entitles you to peruse many of the great businesses and organizations in our community. Many times youll get all the freebies reminding you to remember their business, or they may have a raffle to win a great prize at the end of the night. The admission entitles you to one ticket for each food vendor there so you can taste all of their local culinary delights.

Another great thing is that this night brings out many of your neighbors and you can catch up on everything you missed with them during the winter months or you can meet new friends. A small price to pay for a great evening.
INDIANAPOLIS  Hoosier lawmakers are planning to end the four-month annual meeting of the Indiana General Assembly on Friday  eight days ahead of the April 29 mandatory adjournment deadline.

It's not that there isn't legislative work still to be done, but next week, representatives and senators would have nowhere to sleep in Indianapolis as an international firefighters convention is set to take over all the hotel rooms in the state's capital city.

That means the usual end-of-session pressure and deal-making at the Statehouse will be taken to the next level, as lawmakers try to hash out compromise versions of proposals that already have passed the Republican-controlled House and Senate with varying provisions.

Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said he's expecting "a very, very busy final week that will require a lot of patience, diligence and long hours  and that's the way it should be.

"The pressure to get things done is one of the things that makes Indiana's Legislature unique, and I think it makes us work better," Long said.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, is advising his members not to let perfect be the enemy of the good, as they strive to blend conflicting provisions in their legislative proposals.

"I've encouraged members of conference committees to get their work done, and get it done as quickly as possible, because once we get an agreement on roads, the budget and liquor, we're getting out of here," Bosma said.

Of course, talking about an agreement on those issues always is easier than actually coming to an agreement.

The House and Senate appear closest to compromise on House Bill 1001, the two-year state spending plan that will take effect July 1.

Both chambers approved budgets totaling around $31 billion that spend less than the state is expected to take in, and maintain a reserve of about $1.8 billion.

There are differences in prioritizing a roughly $300 million increase in education spending, no agreement yet on how much money to spend for pre-kindergarten and separate lists of state projects that need to be merged, such as the House-approved $35 million Bioscience Innovation Building at Purdue University Northwest that was deleted by the Senate.

"I feel very comfortable where we are," Bosma said. "We're dealing with similarly centered, conservative, responsible leaders who want to keep an 'AAA' bond rating and don't want to engage in the gimmicks of the past."

Road funding is a different story

The outcome of a philosophical debate between the House and Senate over whether all road-related tax revenue should be spent only for roads will determine whether Indiana has about $700 million a year in new money to improve its infrastructure, or $1 billion.

Long said the Senate remains unconvinced that all gasoline sales tax collections should be dedicated to roads, especially since there isn't a plan  other than a $1 per pack cigarette tax hike that's also unacceptable to the Senate  for replacing the $300 million that would be shifted from the state's main spending account.

He said finding a road funding solution "continues to be a work in progress. ... We're not there, yet."

Bosma said he's willing to accept in House Bill 1002 a gasoline sales tax shift over a longer term, so long as the House can "at least get a commitment to complete the process."

Both chambers do agree that Hoosiers should pay higher fuel taxes, vehicle registration fees and possibly tolls in the future to ensure the "Crossroads of America" no longer is riddled with potholes from border to border.

Other pending issues include what to do about a pair of "restaurants" inside central Indiana gas stations that legally are selling cold beer for carryout, even on Sundays, in an apparent workaround of the state's restrictive alcohol laws.

Lawmakers also still are figuring out how to replace the ISTEP standardized test, deciding whether a state-appointed emergency manager should take over the Gary Community School Corp., considering a revision to the distribution of gaming taxes, and finalizing plans for transit development districts near South Shore Line stations.

"There's a lot of moving parts right now," Bosma said.
VALPARAISO  The housing market in Porter County continues to heat up, with existing home prices rebounding to levels not seen since the crash a decade ago.

Property assessments also continue to rise across county.

"It's a seller's market," said Peter Novak, chief executive officer with the Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors.

The median selling price of existing homes rose to $179,899 last year from $163,125 in 2012. That includes a 5.2 percent jump from 2015 alone, he said. The median price now exceeds the $169,900 high from a decade ago.

The numbers of existing homes sales also rose to 2,460 last year from 1,806 in 2012.

The numbers of single-family residential home permits held steady at 163 in 2015 and 2016, and is already exceeding that rate at 42 so far this year, according to Robert Thompson, director of Development & Storm Water Management for Porter County.

"We have met with developers proposing subdivisions this year, which is something we have not seen for quite some time," he said.

Porter County Assessor Jon Snyder said there are not enough available homes to meet the demand of buyers.

"When homes go on the market, they're gone," he said.

These conditions are helping to fuel a continued rise in the assessed values of properties across the county.

Each of the county's townships experienced an increase this year, with Washington and Morgan townships far out in the lead, according to the county's ratio study that was approved recently by the state Department of Local Government Finance. The ratio study is a comparison within neighborhoods of assessed values and property sales, Snyder said.

The individual figures, which will be mailed out in early July to property owners, are significant because they are used to determine tax bills, he said. So while higher assessments mean properties could be worth more, they could also result in higher taxes depending on whether the local units of government put a hold on spending or seek more money, he said.

The assessor's office was lauded by the state for submitting the ratio study 34 days sooner than last year. The study involves between 80,000 and 81,000 properties, 55,000 of which are residential.

New home construction is helping to fuel the higher assessments in Morgan Township, with both residential and business growth very strong in Washington Township. The Washington Township growth is spilling over from neighboring Center Township, which also experienced a big increase in assessed values.

While the strong assessed values may be good news for those selling homes, there are always some property owners unhappy enough with the increases to pursue appeals. That 45-day appeal period will begin once the individual assessments are mailed out this summer, Snyder said.

In the meantime, Snyder said his office will forward the ratio study to the county auditor, who will prepare it to go back downstate for the local tax rates to be determined.

This year's assessments is a continuation of the increases experienced last year.
Jumping for hearts

CHESTERTON  Students at Newton Yost Elementary jumped at the chance to fight heart disease and stroke, our nations No. 1 and No. 4 killers. Students hosted their annual Jump Rope for Heart event to raise money for the American Heart Association, which funds lifesaving heart and stroke research and community and educational programs.

This is my favorite time of the school year, said Yost physical education teacher Tana Bamber. My students love jumping rope and learning about how physical fitness can keep their hearts healthy. This year, we had many families come in and participate and be active in the Jump Rope event. It was fun to see parents and grandparents jumping rope with the students.

Zumba keeps students active

CHESTERTON  Jackson Elementary School offers a Zumba program for its kindergarten to fourth-grade students after school during January to March. Once a week, 92 students learn dances from their instructor/teachers Amanda Fronczak and Samantha Bailey. Students paid a membership fee of $5 with the proceeds going to the school's PTO. On the last session of the month, parents could come and dance with their children. "It is a super fun program," Fronczak said. "We wanted to help keep the students active during the winter months."

Citizenship honored

CHESTERTON  The Duneland Exchange Club presented Yost Elementary fourth-grade student Dylan Glines with its Young Citizenship Award. This award is given to a fourth-grade student who is an all around good citizen. The club presents this award to one student at each of the five Duneland elementary schools, at the sixth grade level at the each of the intermediate schools and at the eighth grade level at Chesterton Middle School.

Students aid community

CEDAR LAKE  Hanover Central Middle School National Junior Honor Society worked for a week collecting canned goods, paper products, personal care needs and household items to be donated to the Project Love Food Pantry in Cedar Lake. More than 34 boxes of donations including everything from cereal to soup to household cleaning products were brought to school by members of the student body, collected and sorted by National Junior Honor Society members. In addition to the boxes of food, nearly $400 in cash was also received. The food donations and cash collected were delivered to Project Love in Cedar Lake. Project Love Food Pantry serves the entire southern portion of Lake County including many members of the Hanover community.

Studying the solar system

CEDAR LAKE  Teachers at Jane Ball Elementary School in Cedar Lake offered students the entire solar system for a week by putting a planetarium inside the Jane Ball Media Center. Kindergarten teachers Linda Novitiski and Danielle Peceny brought The Digitalis Digital Portable Planetarium to Jane Ball through a program offered by the Northwest Indiana Education Service Center. The portable planetarium excited and engaged students at every grade level.

Unique lessons and concepts were presented at each grade level. Upper grade levels learned about the North Star and why it appears to be on the side of our sky because the Earth is tilted on its axis. The bigger concept, that stars appear to be moving, but actually its the Earth that is moving was readily apparent in the planetarium. The younger grades were able to learn that the stars are always out, but they are not always visible because the sun is too bright.

Percussion Ensemble earns state runner-up

MUNSTER The Munster High School Winter Percussion Ensemble competed in the Indiana Association State Finals in Concert Open Class competition and scored Indiana state runner-up status. Members of the Winter Percussion Ensemble are Mihail Babus, John Banaszak, Gavin Clark, Jack Foster, Miguel Gambetta, Catie Gilhooly, Jonathan Herrera, Shane Hoogewerf, Bradley Jimenez, Matthew Levin, Kortlynd Lukowski, Riley McKeever, Luciano Medina, Chloe Moffett, Arlee OShaughnessy, Annie Phelps, Jenai Richards, Oliver Segvich, Henry Sklar, Noah Sohacki, Mara Trivunovic, Milena Trivunovic, Jake Whitaker and Nicole Lu.

University student inducted

VALPARAISO  Margaret Nagai, of Valparaiso, was inducted into the University of Tennessee at Martin chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society during a ceremony April 6. Phi Kappa Phi chapter 127, founded at UT Martin in 1971, honors students, faculty and staff who have reached high levels of academic success. Phi Kappa Phi is the nations oldest, largest and most selective collegiate honors society for all academic disciplines. UT Martin, part of the University of Tennessee System, is a public, four-year university located in northwest Tennessee.
More than a year before the U.S. EPA found dangerous lead levels in drinking water at 18 East Chicago homes, the city began using a chemical to control corrosion of lead pipes approved by IDEM but not recommended by experts, because it actually can increase lead release.

In a city where up to 90 percent of water lines could contain lead, using sodium hexametaphosphate might have been worse than conducting no corrosion control at all, said Marc Edwards, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech.

Edwards, who co-wrote a 2002 study concluding hexametaphosphate tends to increase the release of soluble and particulate lead in drinking water, said he would never recommend the chemical for corrosion control in a city with lead pipes.

Exposure to lead poses serious health risks, particularly to young children and fetuses. Even at low doses, it can cause irreversible learning disabilities and health problems.

Edwards said the city's corrosion control plan before the switch to sodium hexametaphosphate also was inadequate. And a new chemical introduced after use of sodium hexametaphosphate and recent increases in its dose still may not be enough to protect East Chicago residents, particularly children, from high levels of lead in their water, he said.

Since last summer, 18 out of 431 children tested have been confirmed to have blood lead levels above the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 5 parts per million action level, according to data provided this month by the Indiana State Department of Health.

Up to 20 percent of children in zone 1 of the East Chicago USS Lead Superfund site, where the most heavily contaminated soil across three residential cleanup areas was found, had preliminary or confirmed elevated blood lead levels between 2005 and 2015.* Lead in the soil and lead in water are not related, but residents exposed to both face cumulative health risks.

A contractor for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management began installing water filters last week in zones 2 and 3 of the Superfund site and is expected to complete the work by April 30.

City: We were abiding by permit

IDEM, which has primary regulatory authority over East Chicagos drinking water, approved the change in chemicals in May 2009, when it issued a permit for construction of the citys new water filtration plant, records show.

A spokesman for IDEM said he could not comment on whether the department was aware of Edwards' 2002 study regarding sodium hexametaphosphate when the department in 2009 approved the chemical for use in East Chicago.

It is important to note that East Chicagos drinking water is in full compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act and has been in compliance with EPAs Lead and Copper Rule since 1993, he said. IDEM has committed to conduct additional testing of the drinking water to further verify compliance.

East Chicago Utilities Director Greg Crowley said he wasn't aware of research by Edwards and others about sodium hexametaphosphate when the city started using the chemical in 2015. The decision to use the chemical was made before he worked for the city. At that time, the city was working to get its new-but-idled water filtration plant up and running, and the city did what was required under the May 2009 permit, Crowley said.

"It's important to recognize it's an important health issue today," he said. "Certainly people have more recognition of the potential health hazards of having these old (lead) lines," he said.

East Chicago wants to be proactive and has initiated outreach with residents to further test water, he said. An engineering firm is preparing a plan to use $3.1 million in state grant money to replace lead lines, starting in the Superfund site, he said.

Rule creates false sense of security

East Chicago officials also have stressed the city is in compliance with regulations and said water leaving the city's filtration plants does not have elevated lead levels. The city, like many others across the country, is dealing with the legacy of lead pipes, they said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said lead enters drinking water for two reasons: insufficient orthophosphate levels in the system, or corrosion of plumbing equipment, including brass or chrome-plated brass faucets, fixtures with lead solder, and lead or galvanized steel pipes.

Edwards, the professor who has been instrumental in exposing elevated lead levels in drinking water in Flint, Michigan, and Washington, D.C., said both of those cities were in compliance with the Lead and Copper Rule before elevated lead levels in their water were discovered.

When someone comes out and says, Well, weve been meeting the Lead and Copper Rule, my heart skips a couple of beats, he said.

Edwards said the Lead and Copper Rule has been used to create a false sense of security. The EPA published the Lead and Copper Rule in 1991, and said it plans to propose revisions to the rule this year.

East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland announced Dec. 8 that EPA found elevated lead levels in drinking water. Since then, EPA has said all of East Chicagos water customers should assume they have lead lines  and use a certified water filter.

Emails released by EPA in response to The Times Freedom of Information Act request show IDEM, as recently as January, did not agree with EPAs conclusion the problem likely was systemwide.

IDEM officials characterized the problem as isolated in the USS Lead Superfund site, where EPA plans to resume a cleanup of lead- and arsenic-contaminated soil in May.

Emails show EPA raised alarm

In its 2009 permit, IDEM approved East Chicagos plan to build a new, $52 million filtration plant to replace an outdated filtration plant built in 1929 and last updated in 1964, records show.

The new plant failed shortly after startup in 2011 and remained idle for nearly two years, according to a city engineering report. The city and Siemens Industry Inc. sued each other in August 2013 and eventually reached a settlement in mid-2015, court records show. The city conducted testing at the new plant in 2015 and 2016, and it recently began processing most of the city's water, Crowley said.

East Chicago started using sodium hexametaphosphate at its old plant on Aldis Avenue in spring 2015 and at its new plant on Pennsylvania Avenue in spring 2016, the report said. IDEM said it approved the chemicals use at both plants.

Virginia Tech's Edwards said sodium hexametaphosphate, which has little orthophosphate in it, is considered a bad corrosion control. Orthophosphate is considered a good corrosion control, he said.

The chemicals can create a scale inside pipes to prevent lead and copper, and other metals, from leaching into water.

IDEM said it asked East Chicago to conduct Lead and Copper Rule testing in July 2016, about a year earlier than scheduled, because of changes at the filtration plants. All 30 samples were below the EPA's action level of 15 parts per billion, records show.

Emails showed EPA employees began asking in mid-August what chemical East Chicago used to control corrosion in water lines.

The federal agency had arrived in East Chicago months earlier to begin a cleanup at the Superfund site, which includes the West Calumet, Calumet and East Calumet neighborhoods. The EPA tested drinking water as part of a pilot study to determine whether excavation work can cause lead scale inside pipes to flake off and enter the water supply; elevated lead levels were found before digging started.

When IDEM notified EPA Aug. 16 that the city was using sodium hexametaphosphate, EPA Region 5 Groundwater and Drinking Water Branch employees shared a link to a 2005 American Water Works Association report about lead and copper corrosion control.

The email included a quote from the report: Polyphosphates and sodium hexametaphophate are sequestering agents and may be effective for the control of iron and manganese, but are not recommended for the control of lead and copper. Edwards 2002 study was cited as a source.

On Aug. 19, IDEM notified EPA that the city would start using a chemical called Carus 8600. Carus 8600 includes 30 percent polyphosphate as hexametaphosphate and 70 percent orthophosphate, EPA said.

An EPA employee replied, We are glad they are using a blend," emails show.

City: No reason given for change

East Chicago's Crowley said the city made the change in chemicals from sodium hexametaphosphate to Carus 8600 in September after receiving guidance from IDEM.

My understanding was that EPA had approached IDEM to make the switch, but there was not direct communication from EPA to the city, he said.

The state and federal agencies did not give East Chicago a specific reason for the change, he said.

East Chicago began using Carus 8600 on Sept. 6, records show. EPA said it took its first water sample Sept. 28, less than a month after the change.

On Oct. 24, the EPA notified IDEM results from the first samples showed low or no orthophosphate levels at two homes. IDEM on Oct. 26 recommended East Chicago increase the amount of the corrosion inhibitor it was using, emails show. The EPA ultimately found elevated lead levels at 18 of 43, or about 41 percent, of homes tested.

It would have been helpful if they (EPA) had been more hands-on in helping to optimize this feed that they basically directed the city to switch to, Crowley said.

The EPA recently said it stands ready to provide technical assistance to agencies like IDEM, which have primary authority over public water systems.

"IDEM and the city of East Chicago are running an effective drinking water program that has been  and remains  in full compliance with EPAs Lead and Copper Rule," EPA said.

Seventeen organizations  including the Natural Resources Defense Council, attorneys working pro bono on behalf of residents, the NAACP and community groups  on March 2 petitioned the EPA to use its emergency powers to address possible high lead levels throughout the city. The groups said East Chicago and IDEM have failed to act to protect residents health, and EPA has authority to step in.

The EPA said in March the petition was under review. Newly confirmed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is scheduled to visit the city Wednesday. Crowley declined to comment on the petition.

Edwards supports EPA on water work

Edwards criticized a 2011 public health assessment prepared by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ahead of EPA's work at the Superfund site. The ATSDR report concluded: Breathing the air, drinking tap water or playing in the soil in neighborhoods near the USS Lead site is not expected to harm peoples health.

If they talked about the lack of dangers from lead in water, why on earth didnt they collect some samples using standardized protocols? This is the very definition of providing false assurances, Edwards said.

If ATSDR had sampled water in 2011, it probably would have found high lead levels because the city for years was not adequately treating its water to prevent lead release from plumbing equipment, he said.

EPAs recent sampling, which was more robust than the testing required under the Lead and Copper Rule, showed some of the highest lead levels found in individual samples were 130, 87 and 81.2 ppb.

Any result of 15 ppb is a major cause for concern," Edwards said. "Exposure to water at 15 ppb can certainly increase blood lead in children above CDC levels of concern, without any other source of lead exposure in a childs environment.

EPA said no level of lead in water is safe. The federal agency also has pointed to the flawed ATSDR report as one of the reasons it took so long to begin cleaning up contaminated soil in the Superfund site  which has been on EPA's radar since at least 1985.

Edwards said he makes no excuses for EPA Region 5s actions in East Chicago in the decades since it first learned of lead in the soil. But, he said, the agency deserves credit for discovering lead in the citys water. Theres been a culture change at EPA Region 5 since its former administrator resigned in the wake of the Flint disaster, he said.

I am not shy about criticizing EPA, but I have to call out good work when I see it, he said.

ATSDR said its currently preparing a new public health report based on historical, environmental and health data collected since 2011. The new assessment will give a more comprehensive evaluation of health impacts from exposure to industrial contaminants in the entire Calumet neighborhood, the agency said.

The ATSDR is in the process of defining the scope of the assessment, but it likely will be broken into separate reports.

We anticipate that our first report will be a summary of blood lead levels in children in the impacted neighborhoods from 2005 to 2015, the agency said.

The focus of the remaining portions of the assessment will be developed in consultation with other agency partners.

* Editor's note: This story has been updated from a previous version.
Legacy Foundation launched its youth philanthropy initiative, Lake County Teen Action Group (TAG), as a way to promote youth experiences in philanthropy. In addition to volunteer opportunities, TAG members learn about various aspects of grant-making such as understanding budgets, asking quality question, and measuring impact.

TAG gives teens a unique way to give back to Lake County. Students get to look into their communities, establish the need, and discuss with fellow members what they can do to help, said Maranda Fishback, coordinator of the Lake County TAG program at Legacy Foundation.

TAG is currently accepting applications for grants. The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. Friday. Grant awards range from $500 to $2,500. Visit legacyfdn.org/grants.php to apply.

All grant requests must include a volunteer portion at which TAG members can participate. This part of the grant is designed to instill nonprofit organization awareness and volunteerism within Lake County youth. TAG members will volunteer at all awarded projects. The volunteer portion of the application must be suitable for high school students between the ages of 14-18 years old.

Lake County TAG provides funding for nonprofit organizations serving Lake County, Indiana, and Lake County park districts and public schools. TAG grants support funding requests in the areas of arts and culture, animal welfare, education, environment, health and human services.

The teen group brings youth into the decision-making process about the kinds of projects they want to participate in and the types of programs they want to support. I believe the Teen Action Group helps Lake County teens realize what they are capable of doing  in terms of both philanthropy and personal development, Fishback said.

Members of Lake County TAG meet at Legacy Foundation twice a month to strategize how they can better support good work happening in the community. Current members include students from Lake Central High School, Hobart High School, Highland High School and Andrean High School. Membership is open to all Lake County high school students.

For more information on becoming a Lake Count Teen Action Group member, contact Maranda Fishback at 219-736-1880 or mfishback@legacyfdn.org.
This is an all-you-can-eat blueberry, chocolate chip or buttermilk pancakes and sausage with coffee, milk and orange juice. Cost is $7 for adults and $4 for ages 6 to 11. Tickets purchased in advance will be offered at $1 off regular price.

Lakeshore Paws will be joining the breakfast for an adoption event. In addition, you will be able to meet members of Porter Countys Bomb Squad and Search and Rescue Team and learn more about what they do for the community. Lutheran Air will be making a fly-in and will be available to answer any questions about their careers and their medical helicopter. Our local Civil Air Patrol will be assisting us with parking, and Cub Scout Pack 995 will be walking around to offer assistance and clear your plates.
Massachusetts police make an arrest in last summer's death of a woman who lived here in the city.

State police say they've arrested 31-year-old Angelo Colon-Ortiz in connection with the murder of Vanessa Marcotte.

He faces aggravated assault and battery charges, but more charges against him are expected.

The 27-year-old Google employee was visiting family in the town of Princeton when she went missing during a run last August.

Police say they found her body hours later in the woods near her mother's home.

The district attorney says a state trooper spotted Colon-Ortiz, who matched a description determined through DNA and interviews.

He's set to be arraigned in court on Tuesday.
The family of a missing Middleton man is offering a $3,000 reward for information that leads to locating him, his son said.

Mark Hoover, 74, left his residence the night of April 7 and has not been seen since, Middleton police said.

Hoover is 5 feet 11 inches tall and about 180 pounds. He has gray hair and green eyes.

Hoover was driving a gray Dodge Durango with Wisconsin license plate 155-SWZ.

Police do not know where Hoover was headed, but said he likes to go to Starbucks coffee shops.

Dan Hoover said his father suffers from depression.

Anyone with information is asked to call Middleton police at 608-824-7300.
In a quaint storefront on Washington Street in downtown Papillion hangs a large Asian screen with ornate details and designs.

Though the art is beautiful, said Julie Ricceri, co-owner of the Papillion Tea Shop, the story behind it means even more than the piece itself.

The screen was found by former shop owner Diana Connolly, who died April 8. Connolly purchased the nearly 50-pound screen at a market in Japan and dragged it to her apartment.

Nothing was ever too big for her to take on. There were no limits, Ricceri said. Thats just how Diana operated.

Connolly, 48, died after a years-long battle with breast cancer.

She was raised in Virginia and studied business at Virginia Tech. In 2000 she and her daughter, Erica Murphy, found themselves in Montgomery, Alabama, where Connolly was working for Raycom Media.

It was then that she met Desmond Des Connolly. Less than a year after the two met they married and moved to Virginia Beach and then to Japan for Des Connollys work in the Navy.

In 2005 the family, then with two young children, made its way to Papillion.

Diana Connolly opened a shop in 2011 in Shadow Lake Towne Center called Morning, Noon & Night, which specialized in coffee, tea and wine.

The shop hosted jam sessions with local musicians. Connolly loved music, singing and bringing people together, her husband said.

As Connollys cancer became more aggressive, she sold the shop (which is now Wine Cellar 510) and opened a smaller store that focused on tea sales. When cancer spread to her bones she started looking for someone who could help run the Papillion Tea Shop when she no longer could.

Last October she found that person when Ricceri, who had recently retired, stopped in to pick up her winnings from a Facebook contest. The two instantly clicked over their passion for tea and appreciation for the customers. Ricceri said Connollys legacy will live on at the shop.

To know her was to love her, Ricceri said. She was really just an amazing person.

In addition to her husband and daughter Erica, Connolly is survived by children Kathleen and Aidan Connolly; father Frederick Zehrer III and stepmother Janice Zehrer of Lakeway, Texas; sister Carolyn Zehrer of Chicago; brother Frederick Zehrer IV of Chesterfield, Virginia; and stepsisters Kristin Burnette and Lauren Kaiser, both of Raleigh, North Carolina.

The funeral will be 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Columbkille Catholic Church, 200 E. Sixth St. in Papillion.
BROOKFIELD  The daily commute is no longer strictly a north-south affair for Jen and Don Van Wart.

Their daily drive for the past 16 years has been from their home in Janesville to Madison, where they have owned and operated Twigs, a fashionable womens clothing store, first on Monroe Street and, since 2012, at the Hilldale Shopping Center.

But the couples Jeep Grand Cherokee has been driven in a more triangular route recently after they opened a second store this month at The Corners of Brookfield, a $200 million, 750,000-square-foot open-air shopping center and apartment development at the intersection of Interstate 94 and Bluemound Road.

The addition of a second Twigs contrasts with moves by national retailers who are scaling back their brick-and-mortar stores.

In a world where everything pretty much is accessible 24/7 around the world, I think what really is still needed and what people still appreciate is a boutique, a specialty store that delivers really good content and service. Jen Van Wart said. And when youre an independent, youre nimble. You can see changes coming down the pipeline in the retail world and you can adjust accordingly. You can react.

High-visibility home

For the Van Warts, who have been working on the deal for the past three years, the extra mileage and highway time is well worth the investment as the Twigs brand and its curated collection of designer clothing has expanded beyond Dane County and into one of the most populated and economically thriving regions of the state.

The Corners of Brookfield, located west of Brookfield Square and about an hour east of Madison, includes 450,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space with 244 apartments above. Below it all are 1,900 parking spaces in a garage with 20-foot ceilings and with direct access to a Sendiks grocery store and the 140,000 square-foot, two-level Von Maur, an upscale department store thats the anchor tenant of the development.

It also doesnt hurt that the Van Warts sleek 2,700-square-foot store is sandwiched between an Anthropologie clothing store and a Kendra Scott jewelry store. Across the street is a BelAir Cantina, a Mexican fusion restaurant; a public plaza and the Von Maur store that drew an estimated 15,000 shoppers in its first two days of business last weekend.

We must have had over 1,000 people walk through our door, said Don Van Wart. It was just nonstop traffic. It didnt necessarily punch through with sales. It was all about awareness.

That awareness has been bolstered by a 30-foot wide, 50-foot high electronic billboard along the interstate and a slew of media from the states largest market writing, broadcasting and blogging about the Waukesha County shopping center.

Eight stores are open, with another 13 expected by the end of the summer. Ultimately, there could be more than 40 stores and restaurants in the development, said Chelsea Roessler, marketing manager for The Corners.

The 34,700-square-foot Sendiks is scheduled to open April 23  the chains 15th location in metro Milwaukee  while the L.L. Bean store above it will open by the end of June. Other retailers announced include Arhaus, a furniture and home decor shop; Cafe Hollander; Lululemon, a yoga-inspired clothing store; and multiple clothing stores like Free People, Scout & Mollys Boutique, J.Jill, Evereve and Francescas. Scheduled to open Monday is BelAir, which already had four existing restaurants in the Milwaukee area and has another on tap for Downtown Madison. The developments 244 apartments are slated to be ready for tenants by July.

A strong roster of Wisconsin-based companies coupled with Von Maur, headquartered in Davenport, Iowa, is seen as crucial to standing out in the highly competitive market, Roessler said.

Its the foundation this place is built on, Roessler said. I know Twigs really feels at home here.

An important step

The Van Warts founded their company in late 2001 on Monroe Street after the couple moved from New York, where Jen was a trader on Wall Street but had also worked for a jewelry designer and at Saks Fifth Avenue. They moved back to her hometown to be closer to family and have been immersed in their own retail adventure ever since.

Last year, they expanded their Hilldale store from 1,600 to 2,200 square feet. The Van Warts signed a 10-year lease for the Brookfield store, where they spent $450,000 on the build-out and furnishings and another $250,000 on inventory.

The store includes shelving made in Janesville, custom chandeliers made of twigs, four 5-by-8-foot dressing rooms and a lounge area with a refrigerator stocked with complimentary beer and soda.

Twigs has customers from the Milwaukee area who drive to Madison, and the Van Warts expect that some of their customers from Madison will now make the trip east.

The challenge for a small business that aspires to grow is doing it in baby steps and not doing it too fast, Don Van Wart said. But (Brookfield) was an important step for us to take.

The Twigs at Hilldale is located across from a major renovation scheduled to be completed later this summer. The 55,000-square-foot project will move University Bookstore, create a courtyard and provide more visibility and access to stores from the outside between Macys and Sundance Cinemas. The Van Warts believe there will be at least one new major retailer that could draw considerable traffic to the south end of the shopping center and to their store.

Jen Van Wart said expanding the business at Hilldale and Brookfield required a financial partner willing to extend credit to a small business.

We felt really fortunate. Our concept is strong and weve been growing, she said. And, its amazing in todays retail climate to say that youre expanding and have a bank believe in you and help you make that expansion happen. Thats not something that a lot of people can do and its really unfortunate because I think thats whats really holding back a lot of the important job growth in the country.
Storms hit areas north and south of the metro area Saturday afternoon and night.

Hail drilled the West Point, Nebraska, area north of Omaha and the Falls City area in southeast Nebraska, according to reports by AccuWeather and the National Weather Service.

A tornado touched down late Saturday afternoon near Otoe in southeastern Nebraska.

National Weather Service meteorologist Van DeWald said he was aware of no injuries or property damage from the tornado.

AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Koochel said wind gusts of 70 mph and hail of 1.75 inches in diameter Saturday night hit West Point, moved east toward Oakland and Tekamah, and then carried into Iowa.

The storm in the Nebraska City-Falls City area moved Saturday night into northwest Missouri, Koochel said.

Koochel said weather will be mild Sunday in the Omaha area. The National Weather Service forecasts across a broad range of Nebraska and western Iowa anticipate a pleasant, storm-free Easter.
CDS chopper crash: What is CFIT that is pronounced as see-fit

India set to get new CDS: The importance of a military theatre command

NSA Ajit Doval, late CDS Gen Rawat among others to be awarded Uttarakhand Gaurav Samman

Army Chief Bipin Rawat meets NSA Ajit Doval to discuss J-K situation

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Apr 16: Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat on Sunday met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and apprised him of the situation in Kashmir valley.

The meeting comes in the midst of a raging controversy following surfacing of a video showing a man being tied to an army jeep as a shield against stone-pelters during polling for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Sources said the Army Chief, during the 30-minute-long meeting, apprised Doval of the situation in the Kashmir valley besides briefing him about overall security scenario in the state.

The video triggered a public outcry in the valley, prompting the civil and army authorities to launch separate investigations.

PTI
Cong targets BJP, says no one apologised or resigned for Morbi tragedy

BJP MLAs suspended from Telangana assembly over Muslim quota bill

India

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Hyderabad, April 16: All five members of the BJP on Sunday were suspended from the Telangana legislative assembly as they tried to stall the proceedings to protest the bill for raising the reservation quota for Muslims in the state.

Telangana Govt is playing vote bank politics, CM is feeling insecure after the big BJP win in UP: G Kishen Reddy,BJP MLA pic.twitter.com/ZhRixSlZcO  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

Speaker Madhusudhana Chary announced the suspension of all the Bharatiya Janata Party members for the one-day special session of the house after Legislative Affairs Minister Harish Rao moved a resolution to this effect.

BJP floor leader G. Kishan Reddy and the party's state President K. Laxman were among the lawmakers suspended from the house.

The BJP members raised slogans against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government and tried to disrupt the debate on the draft legislation that seeks to increase quota for the Muslims and the Scheduled Tribes to 12 and 10 per cent respectively.

Earlier, participating in the debate Kishan Reddy termed the bill unconstitutional and said it would not stand judicial scrutiny.

He said the BJP was strongly opposed to reservations on the basis of religion, and alleged that injustice was done to the Backward Classes by including Muslims in the BC (E) category.

Kishan Reddy said the four per cent quota provided to the Muslims by the previous government in undivided Andhra Pradesh was struck down by various courts and the case was still pending in the Supreme Court. He found fault with the TRS government for clubbing the Scheduled Tribes reservation with the Muslim quota in a single bill.

IANS
A 22-year-old inmate did not return to the Dane County Jail on Saturday and was declared AWOL, the Dane County Sheriff's Office said.

Sorrell A. Gilmore left the jail to go to his approved employer around 6:45 a.m. Saturday, the sheriff's office said. Gilmore did not return at his scheduled time of 5:45 p.m., and his location is unknown, the sheriff's office said.

Gilmore has associates on Madison's North Side and was last seen in the Williamson Street area, the sheriff's office said.

He is a 5-foot-7 black male weighing 160 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Gilmore was last wearing a white t-shirt, white hooded sweatshirt, black and white jeans, and black and red Air Jordan shoes, the sheriff's office said.

Gilmore was in the jail on charges of fleeing, theft and resisting arrest, the sheriff's office said.
Ghulam Nabi Azad welcomes the idea of mahagathbandhan in UP

India

pti-PTI

Lucknow, Apr 16: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday supported the idea of forming a 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) along with the SP and the BSP in Uttar Pradesh to counter the surge of the BJP.

"The idea of 'mahagathbandhan' is good," the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said in Lucknow.

However, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar, while commenting on the issue, said, "It is too early to say. If we do not honour the feeling of the people and workers, it will be wrong. We will also talk about 'mahagathbandhan' with our senior leaders."

He also claimed the Congress does not practice votebank politics as done by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. The party's Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari, when asked about the idea of formation of a grand alliance with the SP and the BSP, said, "My best wishes are with them."

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday supported the idea of forming a coalition of political parties against the BJP, saying, "There should be a coalition, which can pave the way forward. We are ready to welcome it. We had welcomed such a move earlier too."

BSP chief Mayawati too had asserted that she would join hands with other parties to take on the BJP. The Congress' district unit presidents, who had gathered here to deliberate upon the strategy for the upcoming civic body elections in the state, alleged that the pre-poll tie-up with the SP was a major roadblock for the party's prospect in the assembly elections.

"Most of the district presidents are of the view that the SP-Congress pre-poll alliance proved to be a major roadblock for the party's poll prospect in the 2017 UP Assembly elections," a party office bearer who attended the meeting said.

According to party sources, nearly 30-40 district chief of the Congress, from eastern and central Uttar Pradesh, attended the meeting at the party's state unit headquarters.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Tiwari said, "The party workers are sad over the poll outcome in Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, but their morale is high and we will resurrect the Congress with the help of this spirit."

On any possible changes in party leadership at the state level, the Rajya Sabha MP said, "There is no question of any hints being given in any organisation. Whenever, changes take place, it would be visible to all."

PTI
Goa: Digambar Kamat summoned in connection with illegal mining case

India

pti-PTI

Panaji, Apr 16: A Special Investigation Team of Goa crime branch has summoned former chief minister Digambar Kamat to appear before it in connection with an illegal mining case of 2013.

"Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat has been summoned to appear before the SIT on April 18," Superintendent of Police, Goa crime branch, Priyanka Kashyap told PTI on Sunday.

This is the second summon issued to Kamat in connection with the illegal mining case. He was first questioned by the SIT in February 2014. According to a senior crime branch official, Goa Mines and Geology Department's former director Arvind Lolienkar has also been summoned along with Kamat.

Lolienkar was arrested by the SIT in connection with the case in March 2014. He is currently out on bail. A report of Justice (retd) M B Shah Commission had earlier stated that illegal mining to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore took place in Goa from 2005 to 2012, when the Supreme Court banned iron ore extraction in the state.

A complaint was filed by the Mines and Geology Department in July 2013 seeking to fix criminal liability on those involved in the illegal mining as pointed out by various committees, including the Centre-appointed Shah Commission.

The crime branch then registered an FIR in August 2013 against those named in various reports (Shah Commission and other committees) including Kamat, Lolienkar, and some other officials of the department, mining firms and others. The FIR was registered under various IPC sections, including 120 (b) (conspiracy), 166 (public servant disobeying law), relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act, Mines and Minerals Development Act, Mineral Conservation and Development Rules and Goa Prevention of Illegal Mining Transportation, Storage of Minerals Rules 2004.

Based on the complaint, the SIT was formed by the then BJP government to probe the case. An apex court appointed Central Empowered Committee and state Legislative Assembly's Public Accounts Committee had also confirmed illegal mining in the state.

PTI
Notices issued to civic officials after Ravana effigy remains half-burnt during Dussehra

ISI sleeper cell busted in Chhattisgarh, two arrested

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Chhattisgarh Police has busted an ISI sleeper cell and arrested two people for their alleged involvement in anti-national activities from Bilaspur, said reports.

The two accused have been identified as Maninder Yadav and Sanjay Devangan. The duo had links with one Satwinder Singh, who was arrested in February by the ATS in Jammu and Kashmir.

Satwinder was allegedly collecting sensitive information pertaining to the Indian Army.

A case of sedition has been registered against the duo.

According to reports, they also had links with Rajjan Tiwari and Balram, who were earlier nabbed by the Anti-Terrorism Squad in Madhya Pradesh's Satna.

[And this is how India treats a Pakistan spy]

Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir had in 2016 said in Parliament that 24 ISI agents were arrested on charges of spying till November last year.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, April 16, 2017, 16:24 [IST]
2 non-local labourers shot at by terrorist in J&K's Anantnag

FM Nirmala Sitharaman hints at possibility of Centre considering restoration of state status to J&K

J&K: Former public prosecutor shot dead

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Unknown gunmen shot dead former public prosecutor and National Conference worker Imtiyaz Ahmad Khan in Pinjoora area of Shopian on Sunday evening, said reports.

The gunmen, suspected to be militants, shot Khan from a close range at his residence before fleeing.

He was then rushed to district hospital Shopian where he succumbed to his injuries.

In another incident, Rashid Billa, said to be close aide of former state assembly speaker Akbar Lone, was killed by suspected terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir's Bandipora area.

It is yet to be ascertained if the two incidents are linked.

On Saturday, a PDP worker was killed in state's Pulwama region.

The law and order situation in Kashmir has deteriorated significantly in the last couple of months. National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, who won Srinagar by poll on Saturday, had called for governor's rule to be imposed in the state.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, April 16, 2017, 23:29 [IST]
Bihar's Gopalganj by-poll to see a tough fight between BJP and RJD

Lalu accuses Modi of misusing power

India

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Patna, April 16: RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for misusing his official power to campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Modi has been misusing his power as the Prime Minister to campaign and propagate for his party BJP," Lalu told the media in reference to Modi's road show in Odisha during the BJP's national executive meeting.

Lalu said it was wrong to misuse facilities provided through public exchequer.

"Modi is free to campaign for his party but not by misusing official position," Lalu added.

He reiterated that the BJP led by Modi would be countered by a united opposition.

"It is a need of the hour to unite to counter the BJP. If we will be united BJP will be nowhere," he said.

The two-day BJP national executive meeting began in Bhubaneswar on Saturday with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp by Prime Minister Modi and party president Amit Shah.

Modi, who landed at the state capital on Saturday afternoon, also held a roadshow from the airport to the Raj Bhavan, covering a distance of around 8 km.

IANS
Lucknow probable venue to host International Yoga Day

India

oi-PTI

Lucknow, April 16: Lucknow - the City of Nawabs - is likely to host the main event of the International Day of Yoga, IDY celebrations, which falls on June 21.

"Lucknow is likely to hold the main event of the International Day of Yoga, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi may take park. However, a final decision in this regard is yet to be taken," a senior state BJP leader said.

He said that the Ayush Ministry has proposed Lucknow as the venue for the main function for Yoga day celebrations this year and is waiting for final nod from the Prime Minister's Office.

The Union Ayush Ministry is also planning to organise a major yoga event in at least one city in each district across the country. The ministry zeroed in on Lucknow as the possible venue at a review meeting on the preparations for the IDY.

The official website of the Ayush ministry on its web page pertaining to International Day of Yoga also requests the people visiting the page to make the following pledge- "I pledge to make Yoga an integral part of my daily life." So far, 2.6 lakh visitors have pledged to make Yoga an integral part of their daily life.

The main programme would be the mass yoga demonstration from 7.00 am to 8.00 am, which will adhere to Common Yoga Protocol, CYP. Other events would include seminars, workshops, musical and cultural programmes.

PTI

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Story first published: Sunday, April 16, 2017, 16:30 [IST]
Muslim women suffering due to triple talaq: Modi

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Taking forward Union Government's stand that triple talaq violated the rights of Muslim women, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the women of minority community were facing a lot of problems because of the draconian practice.

Speaking at the second day of BJP National Executive meet in Bhubaneswar, Modi said that the 'new India' would move forward on the path of development rapidly.

"Muslim women are facing difficulties on the issue of Triple Talaq, we should work for solution at district level," news agency ANI quoted Modi as saying.

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said that Modi wanted social and economic equality in the country where there can be no scope for any kind of discrimination.

On the issue of triple talaaq, Modi reportedly said that all kinds of ill-practices must be shunned.

A two-day BJP National Executive meeting began in Bhubaneswar on Saturday with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp by Prime Minister Modi and party president Amit Shah.

BJP National Executive members, party office-bearers and state unit chief discussed the future strategy of the party at the meet, which at Sant Kavi Bheem Bhoi Sabhagar at the Janata Maidan on Saturday.

Modi, who landed at the state capital on Saturday afternoon, also held a roadshow from the airport to the Raj Bhavan, covering a distance of around 8 km.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, April 16, 2017, 17:19 [IST]
Sibal who filed nomination with SP backing was lawyer who secured Azam Khan bail

For his 2019 hate speech, Azam Khan gets 3 years in jail; may lose power too!

Azam Khan disqualified as UP MLA after conviction in hate speech

No matter what the verdict is, Muslims will follow only Shariat: Azam Khan on triple talaq

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

With a group of Muslim women approaching the Supreme Court over the practice of triple talaq, Samajwadi Party leader and former UP minister Azam Khan on Sunday said no matter what the verdict is 'Muslim men will follow the Shariat'.

Khan told news agency ANI that those who go against the Shariat will be socially boycotted. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board had earlier said that those who give triple talaq without prescribed laws would face social boycott.

Khan said that even if a law is made against the Shariat then Muslims would follow only Shariat.

The Supreme Court is currently hearing a case on the constitutional validity of triple talaq.

[Misusing triple talaq is sin, says Zafaryab Jilani]

The Centre last week told the Supreme Court that the practices of 'triple talaq', 'nikahhalala' and polygamy impact the social status and dignity of Muslim women and deny them fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

In a fresh written submission filed before the apex court, the government has reiterated its earlier stand and said these practices render Muslim women 'unequal and vulnerable' as compared to men of their community as well as women belonging to other communities.

The Supreme Court has set May 11-19 as the timeline to conclude hearings on the legality of triple talaq.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, April 16, 2017, 21:59 [IST]
Varanasi lights up with 8 lakh lamps on Dev Deepawali; PM shares pics too

PM Modi calls on Advani on his 95th birthday | Watch

India's intellectuals are anti-India, says Australian sociologist who is all praise for PM Modi

PM Modi unveils G20 logo: Significance of the lotus and its seven petals

Odisha: Modi meets Paika Rebellion freedom fighters' kin

India

oi-Madhuri

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met the family members of the freedom fighters at Raj Bhawan, who undertook an armed rebellion against the British East India Company in 1817.

#WATCH : PM meets families of freedom fighters who took part in Paika Rebellion against British East India Company https://t.co/8gHqDKeC7r  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

While addressing a gathering, Modi said, ''Unfortunately the massive struggle of Independence in our country was restricted to few families & incidents.''

After meeting freedom fighters, Modi visited the famous Lingaraj Temple.

Modi arrived in Odisha on Saturday amid massive fanfare for the Bharatiya Janata Party's two-day national executive meeting.

Senior party leader M.M. Joshi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and other party leaders are also expected to be present at the meeting.

OneIndia News
No comment on Pranab Mukherjee book before reading it: Former Union Minister

Pranab Mukherjee to inaugurate 3rd Global Exhibition on Services

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, April 16: President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate Global Exhibition and Services, GES on Monday which will highlight India's potential to boost its services exports across sectors.

The four-day event, to be held from 17-20 April at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, will see participation from over 70 countries and focus on 20 services sectors including information technology, tourism and hospitality, logistics, education and financial services, among others. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will also address the inaugural session to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The exhibition is being organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, together with the Confederation of Indian Industry and Services Export Promotion Council.

"GES 2017 brings together 550 exhibitors from 70 plus countries. More than 20,000 visitors are expected to attend the exhibition. The exhibition will see over 5,000 business meetings and deliberations at more than 30 seminars," CII said.

The Indian Space Research Organisation, which recently won laurels for placing 104 satellites on a single launch, will also showcase its offerings regarding application of space technology for implementing and monitoring of public programmes on real time basis at the GES.

Besides, the Ministry of Tourism is hosting the Incredible India Haat a cuisine, culture and handicrafts show at the GES.

PTI

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Story first published: Sunday, April 16, 2017, 15:46 [IST]
Waupan Correctional Institution inmate Cesar DeLeon said he has punched the wall until his fist was bloody during 15 years in prison in which he has rotated in and out of solitary confinement.

I cant understand why I have to do it, said DeLeon, 34, but the pain somehow gives me a sense of reality.

DeLeon is in prison for armed robbery and kidnapping. He also is facing trial for attempted homicide for stabbing a Columbia Correctional Institution staff member in 2014 with a scissors after he was denied a promotion at the prison library where he worked.

Brandon Christian said he fantasizes about the violence he will commit if he ever leaves solitary, where he has been for more than seven years. One time, allowed additional time out of his cell for good behavior, Christian attacked another inmate.

Someone was talking crap about me and I didnt know who so I just picked someone and stabbed him, Christian, who is serving time at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel, wrote in response to a survey by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

After two and a half years in isolation  spending at least 22 hours a day alone in a tiny, solid-walled cell  fellow Boscobel prisoner Ernesto Cervantes wrote in response to the survey that he is no longer capable of normal human interaction.

I have not been able to function properly in a social setting, Cervantes said of his experience after release from administrative confinement, a status with no specified end date. I think others are talking about me and feel watched. I also feel like I have lost proper comprehension as when people are speaking to me it sounds like gibberish noise.

These are some of the voices of Wisconsin prisoners kept in administrative confinement  a little-known category of solitary the state Department of Corrections describes as an involuntary nonpunitive status for inmates who pose a serious threat to life, property, self, staff or other inmates, or to the security of the facility.

The agency says these inmates are so dangerous they must be confined for months, years  even decades  in a cell the size of a parking space with no human contact at least 22 hours a day.

Survey results stark

State Department of Corrections officials denied reporters requests to interview inmates in person about their experiences in administrative confinement, so the center mailed surveys to more than 100 who had been held in 2016.

The centers survey  conducted in the wake of an inmate hunger strike launched in June aimed at ending long-term solitary confinement in Wisconsin  asked about prisoners living conditions, mental health status, whether they received regular meals and whether they had committed or been a victim of violence while in administrative confinement. Several, including DeLeon, 34, participated in the hunger strike; some of them were force-fed.

Sixty-five inmates, many of whom have committed horrific crimes including multiple murders, violent attacks and sexual assault, responded to the surveys.

One respondent to the centers survey was in solitary for about 28 years.

The results of the survey were stark:

Ten inmates reported attempting suicide while in administrative confinement. One said administrative confinement makes you numb, violent, hateful, loud, disrespectful (and) suicidal. Most described feelings of isolation, hopelessness, anxiety or paranoia.

Of the 65 respondents, 26 claimed security staff who distribute prescriptions have withheld or threatened to withhold medications or medical devices, or that they had overheard it happening to other inmates in solitary.

More than a third of the respondents  28 inmates  said they had been treated violently by other inmates or prison staff; 13 acknowledged harming or threatening to harm staff members or other inmates.

Several described sleep deprivation from screaming and banging from other inmates and perpetual lighting.

Declines in use of solitary

How to manage such violent or noncompliant inmates  without worsening their behavior or mental health problems  is a big challenge for prison systems. Because of the negative effects of long-term indefinite solitary confinement, Colorado has largely ended this practice, which a top United Nations expert has said is equivalent to torture after 15 days.

In 2015, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections implemented policies  although not all inmates were aware of the changes  to reduce the amount of time inmates spend in solitary for disciplinary reasons and narrowed the types of offenses that can land them there. It also has made moves to remove prisoners with serious mental illnesses from solitary and to require psychological staff provide input when such inmates are facing placement in solitary, spokesman Tristan Cook said.

The result is a large drop in inmates in all forms of solitary confinement, from a high of 1,362 in March 2014 to 1,073 as of Feb. 28, Cook said. Of those, 93 were in administrative confinement.

DOC has made significant reforms to the restrictive housing process with the goal of minimizing  (its) usage for all inmates and eliminating the use of restrictive housing for inmates with serious mental illnesses, he wrote in an email.

As of Oct. 1, 2015, Wisconsin held about 3.7 percent of its inmates in solitary confinement for at least 22 hours a day 15 continuous days or more, compared to a national average of about 4.9 percent, according to a study released in November by the Association of State Correctional Officials and Yale Law School. The practice has gone from central to prisoner management to one used only when absolutely necessary and for only as long as absolutely required, the report found.

There are signs Wisconsin is trying to improve conditions for inmates held in solitary. Gov. Scott Walkers 2017-19 Department of Corrections budget request includes changes to solitary to boost mental health care and to allow some inmates with serious mental illnesses to spend up to 20 hours a week out of their cells for programming and recreation.

Prison within a prison

Former Waupun prison psychologist Bradley Boivin said the lack of an end date while in administrative confinement can be especially damaging to inmates mental health, creating a prison within a prison. The center approached Boivin last year after inmates raised questions about why he had left DOC.

Imagine being told youre going to prison for five years or youre going to prison for as long as we want to keep you there, Boivin said. The ambiguity of it creates additional levels of psychological distress for the inmates.

Boivin said he resigned after trying unsuccessfully to make changes from within at Waupun.

In solitary units, Boivin said, individuals with the highest mental health classifications are required to be seen by a psychologist once a week. Inmates with a classification of less severe mental illness are seen every two weeks. The brief sessions take place through the inmates cell door, allowing others to hear. Inmates call them drive-bys.

Theres nothing clinical or therapeutic about (weekly check-ins) whatsoever. Its really just a quick check-in, Boivin said. Thats it, theyll say, Im fine, and you walk away.

In the center survey, inmates were asked to describe a typical day in administrative confinement. Many wrote of repetitiveness, spending the entire day in bed or that the days blur into one another. Reading, watching TV, working out in their cells or the rec cage, and writing letters are some of the ways inmates keep busy.

Ive tried many times to hang myself with a sheet, overdose on medication. I start to see things or people who isnt there; I talk to myself, wrote Quenton Thompson, 35, who is serving a life sentence at the Boscobel prison for killing his pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child.

Shirell Watkins, 37, said he has tried twice to hang himself. Watkins, who is serving a 25-year sentence for reckless homicide, said he has spent years in various forms of solitary at three institutions.

He described severe mental anguishment, depression, sleeplessness, high level of stress, constant self-communication, headaches, weight fluctuation, eye aches, hyper-reaction to situations/incidents, isolation/loneliness, short attention span, poor concentration and at times poor memory and difficulty concentrating.

Christian, 29, said he has been in solitary confinement for more than seven years  including three and a half years in administrative confinement  while serving a 29-year sentence for first-degree sexual assault with a dangerous weapon and armed burglary.

I pace my cell for hours thinking about all the horrible things Ive done and the horrible things I will do, Christian wrote, adding he would have no problem assaulting an officer if given the chance.

Student Carley Waits, an intern with the UW-Madison PEOPLE program, contributed to this report. The centers reporting on criminal justice issues is supported by a grant from Vital Projects at Proteus.
India's first road constructed from steel slag inaugurated in Surat

Surat Model of natural farming can become a model for entire country: PM Modi

7 arrested for lynching ragpicker on suspicion of being thief

Over 50,000 locals throng routes as PM Modi holds roadshows in Surat, Bhavnagar

National Games: Boxer Nikhil Dubey wins gold for the coach who lost life

Thousands gather for PM Modi's grand roadshow in Surat

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Thousands of people gathered streets of Surat where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold a grand roadshow on Sunday evening.

The Prime Minister arrived in Surat for a two-day Gujarat visit after attending BJP's national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar. This is Modi's first visit to Surat after the BJP's landslide victory in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The buildings along the road from airport to circuit house were illuminated and decorated. Following the roadshow, Modi will meet BJP leaders at the Circuit House.

Modi has a packed schedule for Monday, including inauguration of a Rs. 400-crore hospital in Surat and an ice-cream facility of Surat District Co-operative Milk Producers Union at Bajipura village.

Modi 20-feet statue Over a hundred cutouts and a 20-foot statue of Modi, besides a 1,008-metre-long banner with welcome greetings penned by lakhs of people, have also been placed along the route. Sand art to welcome Modi in Surat Sand art with a message of Swacch Bharat was seen in Surat to welcome Modi. PM's arrival The Prime Minister arrived in Surat at around 7 pm on Saturday after attending BJP's national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar. PM waving at people during roadshow Thousands thronged to get a glimpse of the Prime Minister.

OneIndia News
UP government favours shifting of Kanpur tanneries

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Apr 16: The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has favoured the shifting of British-era tanneries releasing toxic wastes into the river Ganga at Kanpur. The UP government has told the National Green Tribunal that hunt for a new site for setting up of these leather units, which are the "major source of pollution" in Ganga, is under consideration and would be identified soon.

Last year, the then Akhilesh Yadav government had opposed the idea of shifting of over 400 tanneries giving employment to over two million people, saying the moving the tannery hubs to some other place was almost "next to impossible" due to paucity of land.

The Yogi government's decision favouring shifting them was conveyed at a high-level meeting held in the NGT which was chaired by the green panel's Chairman Justice Swatanter Kumar. The NGT chief was apprised by the state's Additional Chief Secretary of Environment & Forest that a call in principle has been taken to shift out the tanneries from the Jajmau cluster of Kanpur.

In the meeting, also attended by other stakeholders including officials from National Mission for Clean Ganga, the senior official told the green panel that the UP government has taken a policy decision that all the sources which pollute Ganga should be treated on the basis of definite data and information.

The decision got support from advocate M C Mehta who said that "the only viable option" was to shift the tanneries if we want to rejuvenate Ganga. 70-year-old Mehta, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee, had filed a PIL for cleaning of river Ganga before the Supreme Court in 1985. The apex court in 2014 transferred the case to NGT.

"There is no other alternative except shifting of these tanneries. Shifting of the leather units requires a strong will. The residents living near tanneries have to face the foul smell emanating from these units which is injurious to their health.

"Thousands of devotees visit Allahabad to take dip at Sangam but the water is not clean even there. The cleaning of Ganga which was undertaken earlier should be enquired into and the erring officials punished," Mehta said.

However, environmentalist Himanshu Thakkar preferred not to rush to any conclusion and said that tanneries comprise only one aspect of many critically polluting industries identified by the Central Pollution Control Board and discharge from other industries like distilleries, sugar, paper and pulp units also need to be looked into.

"We will have to look into the UP government's shifting proposal and what are the areas they have worked upon. If the tanneries are even shifted 100-150 km away even then it would be within the Ganga basin.

"So the state government needs to make proper arrangements before shifting these units and provide them with all facilities.Oherwise the condition will be the same," Thakkar, river expert with the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, said.

The green panel, however, said the decision to shift tannery cluster rests entirely with the state government. However, the existing industrial clusters at Jajmau and Unnao required establishment of an entirely new Common Effluent Treatment Plant with a separate chromium recovery plant and separate pipelines.

In a detailed report covering various aspects of contamination in the river, CPCB had informed the NGT that the Ganga, spanning a distance of 543 km between Haridwar and Kanpur, was affected by 1,072 seriously polluting industries which were releasing heavy metals and pesticides.

At present, 823.1 million litres per day (MLD) of untreated sewage and 212.42 MLD of industrial effluent flows into the river while three of the four monitored Sewage Treatment Plants were non-compliant with the set standards, it said.

The green panel has divided the work of cleaning the river in different segments  Gomukh to Haridwar (Phase-I), Haridwar to Unnao (termed as segment B of Phase-I), Unnao to border of Uttar Pradesh, border of Uttar Pradesh to border of Jharkhand and border of Jharkhand to Bay of Bengal.

PTI
BJP's 'golden era' will arrive when it rules from 'Panchayat to Parliament': Shah

India

oi-PTI

Bhubaneswar, April 16: BJP President Amit Shah on Saturday cautioned party leaders against complacency, saying it is yet to reach the peak as he rolled out plans for its expansion in states where it has been traditionally weak.

In his inaugural address at the BJP's two-day national executive, he also asserted that the party's 'golden era' would arrive when it rules across the country, from panchayats to Parliament.

Top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were in attendance as he asked the organisation to resolve for victory in the next round of assembly elections due in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka.

Laying down his ambitious growth plan for the party in south and eastern India, Shah said that he will spend 95 days touring the country to meet party leaders and workers and asked senior leaders and union ministers to give 15 days to strengthen the organisation while speaking about its growth prospects in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Odisha.

"The BJP is yet to reach its peak. Its golden era will arrive when it rules from panchayat to assemblies across the country and Parliament. The BJP should have governments in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and other North-Eastern states," he said.

Hitting out at the Left government in Kerala over the killing of the BJP and RSS workers allegedly by communist cadres, he said "that his party will continue to oppose it peacefully and ensure that the 'lotus blooms' there as well as Tripura, another Left-ruled state."

PTI
A sense of satisfaction, my journey ends here says outgoing CJI U U Lalit

Big shoes to fill after CJI Lalit; hope to continue his good work: Justice Chandrachud

Justice DY Chandrachud to take oath as next Chief Justice today

Will go by SC's decision on Babri Masjid issue: Muslim personal law board

India

oi-Madhuri

The All India Muslim personal law board on Sunday said it would accept the Supreme Court's decision on the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir issue.

It has been decided in executive body meeting that those misusing #TripleTalaq will face social boycott: Maulana Khalid R Firangi, AIMPLB. pic.twitter.com/Uxlnbnpw6A  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

''We will go by Supreme Court's order on Babri-Ayodhya matter,'' it said.

Hearing a petition filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Subramanian Swamy, the Supreme Court on March 21 said the construction of a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya was an issue of sentiment and religion, and asked the disputing parties to sort the matter outside court.

Speaking about triple talaq, it said, there has been misunderstanding on this issue, we will issue a code of conduct on it.''

Meanwhile, the AIMLPB's Maulana Khalid R Firangi said,''It has been decided in executive body meeting that those misusing triple talaq will face social boycott.

The Supreme Court is currently hearing a case on the constitutional validity of triple talaq, the Islamic practice some Muslims follow of divorcing their wife by pronouncing the word 'talaq' three times.

OneIndia News
Are you awake?: EAM Jaishankar recalls when he got a call from PM Modi at midnight

Top US official visits Afghanistan after MOAB attack

International

pti-PTI

Kabul, Apr 16: US National Security Advisor Gen. H R McMaster arrived in Kabul on Sunday days after the American military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on Islamic State group hideouts in eastern Afghanistan, killing nearly a hundred militants.

On his first visit to the country as President Donald Trump's envoy, McMaster said on Twitter he was set to hold 'very important talks on mutual cooperation'.

"Welcome Lt. Gen. HR #McMaster to Kabul and thank you for your continuous support," Afghanistan's presidential palace tweeted.

On Thursday, the US military in Afghanistan dropped its GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, dubbed the "Mother of All Bombs", in combat for the first time on IS hideouts in the Achin district of Nangarhar province.

Afghanistan's defence ministry on Sunday put the death toll at 95 militants and no civilians. The attack triggered global shock waves, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and against a militant group that is not considered as big a threat as the resurgent Taliban.

It came a week after US President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack, and as China warned of the potential for conflict amid rising US tensions with North Korea.

PTI
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A woman robbed a PDQ station on the Far East Side shortly after midnight on Sunday, the Madison Police Department said.

The woman approached the clerk at PDQ, 4741 Lien Road, and demanded money, police said. She didn't display a weapon but implied she had one, police said. The clerk gave the robber cash, and she fled the scene on foot, according to police.

A police dog was brought in to track the robber, and the investigation is on-going, police said.

The 5-foot-tall robber is an approximately 50-year-old black female wearing black glasses, black jacket, red shirt and blue jeans, according to police.
If the "Wisconsin Resistance" achieves what past liberal opposition movements have not, activists such as Adam Wood could be among the reasons.

Wood, 34, is an organizer for Indivisible Madison. It's a local chapter of the national Indivisible movement, which launched after the November election as a "tea party of the left."

Wood said the Madison chapter has attracted many like himself: 20- and 30-somethings with little to no political background.

"It's just a lot of people that are completely new to political activism," Wood said. "The November election was a tipping point that brought a lot of people out, and a lot of people in."

In the rubble of the 2016 election, one of the most dispiriting in decades for Wisconsin Democrats and liberals, newly energized activists are pushing back against Republican control of federal and state government. Many embrace the "resistance" label, referring to a loose national coalition that sprung up, postelection, in opposition to President Donald Trump.

Some groups are in their infancy but show early signs of momentum. In many cases, they're more focused on electing like-minded candidates to city councils and school boards than to Congress or the White House.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin says it has gotten nearly 600 new members postelection, fueled by increases in Dane, Milwaukee, Waukesha and Outagamie counties.

A new political nonprofit, Our Wisconsin Revolution, is building what it hopes will be a permanent presence in the state on the message of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who won the state's 2016 Democratic presidential primary.

The activist groundswell has drawn comparisons to six years ago, when liberals and Democrats mobilized against Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to roll back public sector collective bargaining  what became known as Act 10.

That didn't unfold as organizers had hoped: The proposal became law and Walker survived a recall election and went on to win a second term.

For this to have a different ending, activists on the left are highlighting what they call the lessons of Act 10. Chief among them: avoid splintering, find a way to sustain the enthusiasm over time and don't just oppose someone or something  but offer appealing alternative candidates or platforms.

For now, Indivisible Madison is not endorsing candidates for office. Wood said that could change, and he thinks the group could see candidates emerge from its ranks in 2018 and beyond.

Our Wisconsin Revolution says recruiting and electing local and state candidates will be among its chief aims.

Time will tell if these developments yield progress or more frustration for Wisconsin's beleaguered Democrats. But Michael Basford, chairman of the Dane County Democrats, said a postelection bump of about 200 new members is lifting his group's spirits.

"We've had a significant youth movement," Basford said.

Election results a wake-up call

For Gina Walkington, the November election results were a wake-up call.

They spurred Walkington and three friends in the Kenosha area, all with left-of-center viewpoints, to discuss what to do next. "We were feeling like our fundamental values were in jeopardy," Walkington said.

The four women's social-media discussions blossomed into a new group, Forward Kenosha. Describing itself as nonpartisan and progressive, Forward Kenosha's Facebook group has enlisted more than 1,400 members.

The mission: spurring voter engagement in the Kenosha area and keeping an eye on Trump and the area's congressman, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville.

Forward Kenosha is having monthly in-person meetings with guest speakers, including state lawmakers. They're doing podcasts. They held rallies on health care, both in support of former President Barack Obama's health care law and in opposition to the American Health Care Act, the failed replacement offered by Trump and Ryan.

Walkington said she did phone calls for Obama's presidential campaigns and for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton last year. After the last election she decided to go all-in, and not just in an election year.

"I never fully actually understood how making phone calls was not enough," Walkington said. "Engagement needs to be all the time."

Spurring activists to near- constant involvement also is a goal of Indivisible Madison and other Indivisible chapters in Wisconsin, according to Wood.

The group is organizing town hall meetings and group visits to the offices of elected officials. On social media it sends out "calls to action" that include lawmakers' contact information, along with short blurbs about a particular issue or bill.

"It's not a script, but it says: 'Here's the issue and here's what we're asking for,'" Wood said.

Trump as a sustaining force for liberal activists

The January Women's March on Madison, which drew more than 75,000 marchers to State Street shortly after Trump's inauguration, foreshadowed the heightened interest among the party's rank and file, Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairwoman Martha Laning said.

"Without a doubt, we've felt the groundswell of grassroots energy throughout the state," Laning said.

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Black Earth, said his office received more than 7,300 constituent contacts  calls, emails and letters  about the American Health Care Act when it appeared it might receive a U.S. House vote. Virtually all opposed the measure. A typical hot topic triggers 2,000 contacts, Pocan said.

Pocan was in the state Assembly during the Act 10 protests. One of the enduring lessons he said the experience provided was the need to sustain activist enthusiasm all the way to Election Day. In the case of Act 10, more than a year passed between passage of the law and the 2012 recall election, Pocan noted.

Now Pocan predicts a different dynamic.

"Donald Trump has given us many things to sustain people," Pocan said. "There's always something new to be upset with and organize around."

Not all the energy is rooted in resistance. Bernie Sanders supporters hope to convert his popularity in Wisconsin, particularly among Democrats and liberals, into a lasting political movement.

Sanders launched a national organization, Our Revolution, last year after conceding the Democratic nomination to Clinton. Wisconsin is one of seven states where there's enough interest to form a state-level chapter, said Peter Rickman, an organizer and officer for Our Wisconsin Revolution.

The group has big ambitions: develop into a political nonprofit  funded with member dues, with chapters in every corner of the state  that recruits and elects state and local candidates.

Some would run as Democrats; others, as third-party candidates. Many of the local races are nonpartisan.

'Current administration has to be resisted'

Wresting control of state and local Democratic parties, as Sanders enthusiasts have done elsewhere, is not the group's plan here, Rickman said.

"Many of our activists call themselves Democrats. But we're by no means limited to that," Rickman said.

The group's foundation is what Rickman calls the "Sanders platform"  changing how campaigns are financed, health care for all, reducing the cost of college, retirement security and combating income inequality and climate change.

That message has drawn more than 1,000 attendees to the group's 27 regional organizing meetings held throughout the state in recent months, Rickman said.

Political parties also are feeling the impact.

After Nov. 8, Dane County Democrats say their dues- paying membership hit near 1,300, up from about 1,100 on Election Day.

One of the biggest proportional membership increases came in deep-red Waukesha County, which saw a 40 percent postelection increase swell its ranks to more than 400 members.

All figures were provided by the Democratic Party and could not be independently verified.

Alec Zimmerman, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said it measures success not by party membership but by voter contacts, of which state GOP activists made 4.7 million in 2016. Electoral victories, not party membership, are what count he said.

"Wisconsin Democrats can try to distract from their disarray with meaningless noise all they want, but apparently it's having no impact on fielding serious candidates for state Supreme Court or governor," Zimmerman said.

But it may be having an impact elsewhere. In deep-blue Dane County, Democrats saw results in local races in the April 4 spring election. The county's Democrats endorsed a slate of local candidates who cleaned up, winning in 35 of the 38 races in which the party made an endorsement.

Still, tensions among Democrats, some of which flared during and after the presidential campaign, have not evaporated. Much of it is between those who supported Sanders and those who backed Clinton in the presidential campaign.

But many also feel the urgency of opposing total GOP control in Washington, D.C., and Madison, Basford said.

"The time for squabbling is winding down," Basford said. "People are coming to the understanding that the current administration has to be resisted."
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NW Portland parking

The city of Portland allocates 51 percent of the revenue generated from parking meters installed on and near Northwest 21st and 23rd avenues for neighborhood transportation improvements.

(Gordon Oliver/Special to The Oregonian/OregonLive)

On-street parking in Northwest Portland serves many masters  residents, visitors, businesses, and Portland Timbers fans among them. Unfortunately, it serves none of them well.



Now, in the latest attempt to more closely align parking demand with supply, a city-sanctioned parking advisory committee is expected to recommend tripling the annual on-street parking permit fee from $60 to $180. It also is considering a cap on new parking permits, which are now available to residents, employees and visitors who meet eligibility requirements. Already, the number of neighborhood permits issued outpaces available spots 2 to 1.



The Northwest Parking District Stakeholder Advisory Committee will meet Wednesday afternoon to consider its recommendations to the Portland Bureau of Transportation. The agency, which has final say on the matter, is expected to endorse the recommendations, said spokesman Dylan Rivera.



The fee increase would have a low-income exemption and raise a projected $600,000, which the neighborhood could use on transportation improvements and incentives to reduce auto use, said Rick Michaelson, the advisory committee chairman. The city also allocates 51 percent of the revenue from parking meters installed last year on and near Northwest 21st and 23rd avenues for neighborhood transportation improvements.





If you go

What: The Northwest Parking District Stakeholder Advisory Committee is expected to recommend tripling the annual on-street parking permit fee from $60 to $180. It also is considering a cap on new parking permits.

When: 3:30-5:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 19

Where: Friendly House, 1737 N.W. 26th Ave.

But easing the shortage is by no means simple, and the search for solutions is entangled in competing viewpoints about the neighborhood's future. A central debate is whether the city should compel developers to include parking in new multifamily projects, or whether that requirement would increase housing costs.



Michaelson would like to see more parking, and he hopes to find a balance that eases parking congestion and keeps car ownership affordable to those who need one, even occasionally, for their daily lives.



"I'm concerned that if parking is not handled, only the upper middle class that can afford permits and the poor who don't work and don't need a car will be able to live here," said the longtime community activist.

But housing advocates contend that a parking mandate for new residential construction in the densely populated neighborhood would simply drive up costs at a time when affordable homes are in short supply. The Portland City Council agreed with that assessment last July, unanimously rejecting minimum parking requirements for new condo and apartment buildings.



A parking mandate for new residential buildings would raise rents by hundreds of dollars a month, whether tenants own cars or not, said Tony Jordan, founder of Portlanders for Parking Reform. Also, developers typically build fewer units when they're required to include parking, he said.



Jordan favors setting on-street rates closer to those of private parking lots, which charge as much as $150 a month in the Northwest district.



"At its core, parking is not free," Jordan said. When we consider on-street parking, its parking that is subsidized by the community as a whole."



More permits than spaces



Already the city has issued some 9,000 permits for 4,600 on-street parking spaces in Zone M, which encompasses a large portion of Northwest Portland. Some see the permits as little more than "hunting licenses" for scarce spaces. A parking consultant concluded last year that 2,000 permits would have to be eliminated to achieve the ideal balance of supply and demand.



The overbooking isn't as extreme as it might appear: Visitor permits have four-hour time limits, and some businesses use them infrequently.



But daytime and evening parking scarcity isn't the only problem. Overnight on-street parking has grown increasingly scarce with the apartment and condo housing boom. The permit system, created to prevent commuters from parking on the edges of the business district, doesn't have tools for managing nighttime parking.



Neighborhood leaders are in the early stages of working with businesses and churches willing to open unused nighttime spaces to residents.



Shortages spark anger



To some residents, the steady addition of new buildings with little or no parking has become an emotional tipping point in the neighborhood's parking conflict.



When talk circulated in the neighborhood that the annual fee could go as high as $300, nearly 100 people, many of them renters, showed up on short notice for an afternoon committee meeting. Many testified against the increase even after learning the panel was actually considering $180 a year.



The crowd broke into applause when one speaker blamed developers who built apartments without parking. Others disputed the argument that the lack of a parking mandate reduced housing costs, saying that rents in new buildings were high even without parking spaces.



Carrie Miller, an Oregon Health & Science University nursing student who rents in the neighborhood, learned of the possible fee increase from her landlord and attended the meeting.



Miller typically bikes and uses transit to get around, but says she still drives to visit her parents in Central Oregon and that she'll soon need a car for clinical placements. She's purchased a parking permit and a guest permit for visitors. If the fee had been $180 or more when she moved into the neighborhood, "it might have affected my decision to move here," she said.



"I do think the cost is going to disproportionately affect students like me," she said. "It will dictate the future ... makeup of the neighborhood because it will affect who will move in."



The fee increases, if endorsed by the committee and approved by PBOT, would take effect in August.



-- Gordon Oliver

Special to The Oregonian/OregonLive




Generation Z

Evon Lopez conducts research for her audio engineering class Thursday, March 30, 2017, at ITW David Speer Academy in Chicago. Lopez is a member of Generation Z, the post-millennial group that is just starting to graduate from high school and college and catch the interest of employers.

(Chicago Tribune )

CHICAGO  Many teens spend their summers lifeguarding or ice-cream scooping. Not .

Lopez, at 16, spent the summer between her sophomore and junior years of high school interning at Abbott Laboratories. At graduation from the eight-week program last August, she delivered a PowerPoint presentation detailing, among other things, corporate safety initiatives at the health care company headquartered outside Chicago.

Sound like a snooze? To the contrary, Lopez said the experience reinforced her interest in architectural engineering.

Asked to name the highlights of the program, the teen described a visit to Abbott's nutrition facility in Ohio where employees explained how they created formula to save infants' lives.

"It just shows that their goal is to help as many people as they can in any way possible," Lopez said of the company, "and that's a place that I would like to work in."

An interest in jobs with a greater social purpose is a hallmark of the millennial generation. But Lopez is a member of Generation Z, the post-millennial group that is just starting to graduate from high school and college and catch the interest of employers.

Gen Z is composed of the kids who were born, roughly, between 1995 and 2010 and came of age during the Great Recession.

Though it's too soon to say how Gen Z might shape the workplace, early surveys paint a portrait distinct from the wide-eyed, self-involved image of their millennial predecessors. Gen Zers, an emerging trove of research suggests, are entrepreneurial yet pragmatic, hardworking yet easily distracted, with a streak of realism running through their desire to make a social impact.

Some employers are trying to appeal to Gen Z early, with versions of internships normally reserved for college students now being extended to high schoolers to create a pipeline of talent.

At Abbott, which started its high school internship five years ago, starting younger also is meant to address the shortfall of women and minorities in the STEM  science, technology, engineering and math  workforce, which is important as it serves an increasingly diverse customer base.

"What we want to do is increase the possibility that they will enter STEM, be successful at it and be able to go on and have meaningful careers in these areas," said Corlis Murray, Abbott's top engineer and leader of the high school internship program. "The younger we reach them, the higher we increase that probability."

With the rise of early professional exposure, members of Gen Z are positioned for powerful careers, said Jeanne Meister, partner at Future Workplace, a human resources research firm in New York.

"They are definitely more serious and mature entering the workforce" than millennials, Meister said.

Assigning sweeping generalizations to a generation of 60 million people is, at best, an inexact exercise, but that doesn't stop a steady drip of research from offering varied takes on Gen Z.

"They are radically different from millennials," said David Stillman, co-author, with his 17-year-old son Jonah, of the book "Gen Z @ Work," released in March.

Hitting up members of Generation Z like Evon Lopez early can set both teens and employers up for success, experts say.

If everyone-gets-a-trophy millennials, reared by baby boomers during flush times, prioritized passion and teamwork, then Gen Z, raised by independent Generation Xers during times of financial distress, learned that you have to fight hard to win, Stillman said.

"We have a generation entering the workforce that is extremely competitive," said Stillman, who has written several books on how generations interact in the workplace.

Some Gen Z traits seem old-school.

Three-quarters of Gen Zers say they are willing to start at the bottom and work their way to the top, implying a respect for paying dues, Stillman's research found. More than 60 percent said they are willing to stay at a company for 10 years, suggesting a return to employer loyalty after the job-hopping tendencies of millennials. Only 8 percent said they want an open-office concept, despite workspace design trends that have been knocking down walls to emphasize collaboration.

But other traits are less traditional. For example, more than half of Gen Zers want to write their own job description, reflecting a desire for a hypercustomized career experience that could be driven by the personal branding that social media has pushed since they were kids, Stillman said.

That preference could draw them to small and medium-sized businesses, where employees can more easily wear multiple hats than at large companies, he said.

Indeed, a survey last year by Accenture of the 2016 graduating college class, by some measures the vanguard of Gen Z, found they are three times more likely to want to work at a small or medium company than a large one, presenting big companies with a recruiting challenge.

Some employers are being proactive by planting a seed early.

Southwest Airlines last summer hosted its third class of high school interns, who worked for eight weeks at the company's Dallas headquarters. This fall it plans to host its first "aviation day" for kids in third through eighth grade, a free event that will include guest speakers and a tour of an aircraft maintenance hangar.

Anticipating a massive skills shortage as baby boomers retire, Greg Muccio, a senior manager in Southwest's "people department," said the airline industry needs to drum up excitement among youth.

"We have consciously set down a path to start reaching a much younger audience to encourage them and make them aware of a career in aviation," he said. Some of the industry's biggest needs are in hourly entry-level jobs that don't require higher education, so Muccio wants to appeal to high schoolers who may not be interested in or ready for college.

Southwest this summer also will host its third summer camp for the high-school aged children of employees across the country. The three-day event of tours and games in Dallas, which last year drew 150 teens, aims to steer those already familiar with the company to careers there by showing what it takes to be a pilot or a mechanic.

The camp left an impression on Chicagoan Kyle Norbut, who participated just before starting his freshman year at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana last year. The 18-year-old acting major, who was impressed by the family atmosphere and the sense that employees were "having a ball," intends to pursue a career in theater  but now is considering a flexible side job at Southwest.

Hitting Gen Z early can set both teens and employers up for success.

At Abbott, about 97 percent of those who complete the high school internship go on to work or major in a STEM field, said Murray, the engineer who leads the program. She has found that kids who do the high school internship are more mature and able to take complex assignments when they start the company's college program, and she is studying whether the early work affects college academic performance.

The demands are sophisticated. High school interns get meaningful assignments  no making copies  and have to deliver results.

That can be terrifying.

"On my first day I was very freaked out," said Emily Voigt, who was among 35 interns in last summer's high school intern class, her second year in the program. Abbott recruits interns with at least a 3.0 GPA from 10 schools in seven markets, including two in Chicago.

Voigt, who is now a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studies civil and environmental engineering, said she avoided talking to her manager at first for fear that that she would be dismissed because of her age or wouldn't know the answers to technical questions.

But Voigt, who exuded confidence as she gave a presentation at the program graduation, said her interpersonal skills improved once she realized it was OK to ask questions and make mistakes.

"I think that creates an environment that allows the most growth, because you feel comfortable doing those things you might not do and asking the questions you might not ask," she said.

Murray said a consistent thread she sees among the interns is an interest in the company's sustainable and socioeconomic responsibilities.

But some surveys paint Gen Z as a practical, hardworking generation with money on the brain.

Monster.com, the job search site, found Gen Zers are motivated by pay more than other generations are, and are more willing to relocate for a good job and work nights and weekends for a better salary than their older counterparts.

They are also more entrepreneurial: Nearly half of Gen Zers want to own their own business, compared with a third across all generations, Monster's survey found.

Back at Abbott, the company is starting to see the fruits of its high school investment.

Nick Urh, who was in Abbott's first high school internship class, went back as a college intern and now is in its professional development program, rotating through various divisions at the company. He is currently in the diabetes division in Alameda, Calif., working on glucose meters that will no longer require finger pricks.

"It really opened my eyes to the potential we had to impact so many lives," he said.

Urh, 23, who grew up in Gurnee, Ill., and graduated last year from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is on the generational cusp. He says he identifies with both the millennial eagerness to make a social difference and the Gen Z appetite for job security  and, thanks to the internship, sees a path to achieve both.

Urh expects to be hired as a permanent employee at Abbott once the program finishes in June and hopes to pursue a career there in manufacturing operations.

"Why should I leave?" Urh said.

-- Chicago Tribune
Taxing carbon emissions has long been supported by environmentalists and the political left. More recently, though, the idea has found support among some establishment Republicans  and perhaps even President Donald Trump.

But those who think well stop climate change by making energy more expensive are ignoring several problems.

Most importantly, there is no viable alternative to carbon-based fuels.

In economics, when studying the elasticity of demand, students often discuss what might happen if the price of a product like coffee shot up significantly. Most likely, consumers would seek out substitutes like tea. Coffee, therefore, is elastic. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, are one of the most inelastic products around. There just arent any viable and scalable alternatives.

If gasoline prices went up because of a carbon tax, some people would carpool or take public transportation. Others might buy smaller, less-safe cars. But most would just pay the higher price. The price of everything, in fact, would rise.

Because we would still have to use fossil fuels for the vast majority of our manufacturing, transportation and power generation, companies would simply price the tax into every product and service they sell.

Though many power-generating plants are fueled by wind and solar power, those sources cover only 7 percent of the nations power needs  and thats after hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies.

In Norway, where a carbon tax was passed in 1991, researchers concluded that the tax  described as among the highest in the world  had a modest effect on emissions while significantly increasing the price of certain fuel types.

Meanwhile, in 2014, Australia became the first country to repeal its carbon tax, even though it had been considered model legislation. Prime Minister Tony Abbott called the tax a useless destructive tax which damaged jobs, which hurt families cost of living and which didnt actually help the environment.

What happened in those countries is a good reminder that we live in a global economy in which American companies must compete with those around the globe.

The good news is that the U.S. has been reducing energy-related carbon emissions in large part because fracking has made natural gas a cleaner and more affordable option than coal. The country needs policies that help it become more competitive, not less so. Lowering the tax burden, not raising it with a carbon tax, is the best way to achieve that goal.
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On-duty crews at Station 19 smelled smoke coming from the attic around 7:30 a.m. April 16, 2017 at 20100 S.E. Oregon 212 in Damascus, according to a Clackamas Fire District No. 1 news release. Crews quickly found smoke venting from areas above the station's garage.

(CFD No.1)

Firefighters extinguished a fire inside their own station Sunday morning, Clackamas Fire District No. 1 officials said.

On-duty crews at Station 19 smelled smoke around 7:30 a.m. at 20100 S.E. Oregon 212 in Damascus, according to a news release. Crews quickly found smoke venting from areas above the station's garage.

They quickly moved their fire trucks and got to work, extinguishing the fire inside the attic. Photos submitted by the fire department show damage to the garage ceiling and roof.

Investigators determined the fire sparked after a nearby blossoming cherry tree pushed a live electrical line with a neutral line, which caused an electrical short, officials said.

The fire could have been worse had there been no crews staffed at the fire station. Fire District leaders began staffing the building at all hours in late February, officials said.

The station will be closed to the public during repairs, but fire response and service will not be impacted, officials said in the news release.

-- Tony Hernandez

thernandez@oregonian.com

503-294-5928

@tonyhreports
In the last months of his life, Roman Scott spoke into a video camera about his artwork and career. The recordings were a small way to capture his brilliant mind, to hold on to a piece of him as he grew thinner and weaker. As the cancer spread.

In one video, Roman is propped up in bed, describing his largest painting, a mural of "Moby Dick" created in 1983 during his senior year at Sandy High School.

"It was the art teacher who gave me support with that," Roman said. "They gave me the go-ahead and the principal ordered a scaffold and some paint."

The life-like mural in the school's library shows Captain Ahab's final battle with the aging, barnacle-covered white whale. It covers the entire length of one library wall.

Roman, in the video, doesn't know if the mural is still around. They built a new high school, he says, and he's not sure what became of it.

"I hope it's still there," his wife, Heidi, tells him.

Roman died June 12, 2015, after a battle with intestinal cancer.

At the time of the video - and as of this writing - Moby Dick lives.

But the mural will soon be removed as the former high school is renovated to house Cedar Ridge Middle School.

Julia Monteith, Oregon Trail School District spokeswoman, said renovations include "reconfiguring the library space to reflect middle school learning needs," but she gave few details of the plans. Online diagrams of the renovation work don't appear to include knocking down the wall.

The district plans to hang a large photograph of the mural in the new space, Monteith said.

But that's not enough for Roman's family. They want future generations of students to see the full scope of the mural.

"When I first found out about it, I was shocked, I was dismayed," said Roman's brother David Scott. "Like any great artwork, the idea is for it to live on for a long, long time, especially a work like Moby Dick.

"There's so much about high school that is transient by nature," he said, "but the mural is something tangible, that you can go back and revisit."

Walter Scott, Roman's dad, was also devastated by the news, but more fatalistic about it. He taught at Cedar Ridge Middle School for 23 years.

"I wasn't surprised because I'm a 33-year teacher and you don't go to school board meetings and get logical conclusions very often," he said.

Walter learned about the mural's pending removal in a letter from a teacher friend, not from the district. I told him that it didn't appear the wall was being removed for the renovation.

"If they're going to paint over it, that's the stupidest thing of all," Walter said. "Since he has passed away, it would be nice to honor him by leaving the mural."

Roman was born in 1965 in Denver, Colorado, and he grew up in Sandy. His father was a science teacher; his mother was an editor for The Oregonian's MetroEast bureau.

Ever since he was a child, Roman loved to draw. His early cartoons were inspired by comics and H.P. Lovecraft tales. By 16, he was illustrating for Multnomah Monthly Magazine and winning awards for his work.

Todd Mecklem, a library assistant in Lake Oswego today, had been friends with Roman since junior high.

"I was just glad to meet someone who was a preteen but was into Monty Python and the weird stuff," Mecklem recalled. They bonded over model rockets, comics and classic literature.

Moby Dick was an unofficial senior project for Roman. The Oregonian wrote about it at the time, saying it would take the young artist more than three months and 50 hours to complete. "Moby-Dick" was one of his favorite books, Roman said in the article.

"I've always really enjoyed its allegories, its fascinating characters," he said. "It's really about all humans -- their battles against themselves, each other and nature."

There's an element of the grotesque in the crevassed skin, red eye and protruding tongue of the old whale in Roman's mural. Two men have been tossed into rough waters, about to drown; the harpooner Fedallah's body is lashed by ropes to the whale; storms clouds gather over the doomed ship, the Pequod.

"You can't get much more dramatic than a crazed sea captain battling to the death with an immense whale," Mecklem said of the mural. "It's kind of a spoiler, I suppose, for the book, but definitely if you're trying to get young people excited about literature, I can't think of a better scene than that."

Roman attended University of Denver on an art scholarship. In 1990 he moved to New York City "to seek my fortune as an artist," Roman tells his wife in another video.

The fortune would never come, but Roman made a living from his art. He first found a job with artist Mark Kostabi, and later had regular work as an illustrator for The Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

His paintings focused on the gritty cityscape around him. He developed a handful of loyal collectors.

When he met his future wife, Roman moved to her native Norway, where he continued to paint and teach art.

Even as his cancer progressed, Roman painted daily. His last project was a series of personalized tarot cards, drawn from inspiration and moments throughout his life.

"That's what a lot of these cards are, just traces of memories," he says in another video.

In an interview about his art from 2007, Roman says, "I like to consider the past, I think we forget things a little bit too much in this culture."

And in another, filmed by Mecklem in 1997, Roman shares an appreciation for the "slowness" of painting, in both the creation and appreciation of it.

"You can look at it hundreds of times over the years and you can eventually eke out something, some meaning out of it," he said. "That type of attitude is so different of the mega-visual culture that we have of just quick cuts... It would be good to bring back the activity of painting, of observing painting, and appreciating painting."

That's the thing about great art. It can take time for the world to fully appreciate a masterpiece.

When Herman Melville published "Moby-Dick; Or the Whale" in 1851, it was a commercial failure. It wasn't until some 30 years after Melville's death, in the 1920s, that it was recognized as one of the great American novels.

So David is holding out hope that Roman's prolific body of work and distinctive style will gain greater recognition after his death.

"I think we have to give it some time with Moby Dick," David said. "I think Sandy High School will live to regret that if they tear it down. He may not be well known today, but I think he will be."

Roman deserves to have his art seen for years to come.

And the future students of Cedar Ridge Middle School deserve the chance to appreciate a Roman Scott original.

-- Samantha Swindler

@editorswindler / 503-294-4031

sswindler@oregonian.com
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In this April 7, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk together after their meetings at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla. China says President Xi has stressed the need for an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program in a phone discussion with Trump that followed tweets from the U.S. president urging China to play a more active role.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

By Ruth Marcus

WASHINGTON -- The question of the moment is what to make of the normalization of President Trump. Not normalization in the way used by the Trump resistance -- to argue against becoming inured to unacceptable behavior. But normalization of Trump in the usual sense of the term: that Trump is, if not behaving normally, at least adopting normal positions.

NATO is "no longer obsolete." China was a currency manipulator and would be branded as such in the Trump administration; now, never mind. Syria was not an American problem; now its behavior is America's, and Trump's, "responsibility," and Bashar Assad is a "butcher." The Export-Import Bank, once bad, is now good; same, maybe, with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

These about-faces represent, in part, a Trump Tower-sized version of the realities that confront any new president. Campaign trail proclamations yield to Oval Office sobriety. That's not only to be expected -- it should, for the most part, be welcomed.

Bill Clinton vowed to revoke trade privileges with China because of its human rights abuses; in office, Clinton found himself renewing China's most favored nation status, proclaiming, "we have to see our relations with China within a broader context." George W. Bush promised to usher in an era of "humble" foreign policy and to "stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building." You remember what happened next.

Barack Obama criticized rival Hillary Clinton's health care proposal because "it forces everyone to buy insurance," then crafted a plan with, yes, an individual mandate. Health care turned out to be complicated -- perhaps not more than Obama knew, but more than he was willing to admit on the campaign trail. Indeed, Obama underwent the same transformation as Trump on the Export-Import Bank, which he derided as a candidate as "little more than a fund for corporate welfare."

Of course, Trump's dizzying string of policy pirouettes is different from the evolving positions of his predecessors. None of them flipped so much, so soon. That's not surprising. Trump's learning curve is steeper. His attachment to any particular position is especially flimsy because he lacks any coherent worldview; his guiding ideology involves only the promotion of Trump.

And the ever-shifting cast of Trump whisperers -- Jared Kushner is up, Steve Bannon is down -- means that what policy prevails in a given week could be upended with the next tweet. Even with a weathervane, you won't necessarily know which way the Trump wind blows.

So no one should count on the current spate of Trump's good judgment to continue. Indeed, to call this week one of good judgment is to ignore concurrent events. While our attention was focused on Mellow Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was busy reviving a misguided war on drugs, dismantling consent decrees with police departments and cruelly ramping up deportations.

Yet there are reasons to exhale, ever so slightly. The functioning of the federal courts and the dysfunctioning of the legislative branch have worked, so far, to stymie much of the Trump agenda.

A president's greatest powers, and therefore greatest threat, lies in the arena of foreign affairs. Here, the troika of Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster has emerged to present an effective brake on the mercurial president, especially comforting as the North Korean threat looms. A White House with Michael Flynn gone and Bannon neutered is a better place, and the country safer for it. Adults are in the (situation) room.

And Trump, notwithstanding the vastness of his policy ignorance and his evident distaste for remedying that embarrassment, is learning. He has moved from "I alone can fix it" to "Nobody knew health care could be so complicated." Neither statement is true, but the second at least evinces a dawning rationality.

Likewise, Trump's recounting of his conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who seems to have had more success than intelligence briefers at getting the attention-impaired president to sit through a lecture on the region.

"He then went into the history of China and Korea," Trump told The Wall Street Journal. "And Korea actually used to be part of China. And after listening for ten minutes I realized that not -- it's not so easy."

No, it isn't. Previous administrations weren't full of "stupid people making bad deals." They were staffed, for the most part, by smart people diligently navigating complex situations. If that is beginning to dawn on Trump, however belatedly, we should be relieved. It is possible both to resist the new normal and to give thanks that, for now anyway, it is not far worse.

Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.

(c) 2017, Washington Post Writers Group
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The author argues that in a 2015 case called Moro v. State (Everice Moro pictured above), the Oregon Supreme Court recognized the errors of an earlier court decision on PERS, but failed to grapple with the consequences of the initial error.

(LC- Oregon State Employees Association)

Scott Shepard

Everyone knows that PERS, Oregon's government-employee pension program, is in serious financial trouble. Word has filtered in from across the state in recent weeks of coming significant layoffs, tuition and fee increases, and potentially huge tax increases to pay for constitutionally inalterable pension benefits. There is, we are told, no other way.

This is wrong.

For decades, the Oregon Supreme Court has barred pension reform. Its interference began in 1996, when it blocked the implementation of three provisions that voters had added to the state constitution. These amendments, which appeared in 1994 as Ballot Measure 8, remain in the Oregon Constitution as Sections 10 through 12 of Article IX.

Ballot Measure 8 would have ended guaranteed-minimum pension increases and the use of accumulated sick days to pad pension benefits, while requiring public employees to contribute six percent of their salaries to help fund their benefits. It's a fair bargain that would have reduced costs for their government employers -- and taxpayers.

But the provisions never took effect. In a 1996 case known as OSPOA v. State, the court suppressed them. It reasoned that the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution forbade the people of Oregon from reducing any pension obligations to present government employees, even for work that had not yet been done -- and in some cases wouldn't be performed for decades -- and so for benefits not yet earned.

OSPOA completely misinterpreted very old and clear Contract Clause jurisprudence, as a dissenting judge then recognized. But it remained basically unchallenged for two decades, fueling the massive pension-funding crisis that the state suffers today.

In 2015, in a case called Moro v. State, the Oregon Supreme Court explicitly recognized the errors of its reasoning in OSPOA, and renounced its old conclusion. It failed, though, to grapple with the consequences of the initial error, leaving Measure 8 in the same position.

Improperly suppressing the will of Oregon voters for more than a generation has permitted huge, unconstitutional pension overpayments and credits that have drained state, municipality and school boards coffers of billions of dollars in much needed funds. These funds would have prevented the painful cuts we're experiencing today.

Share your opinion

Submit your essay of 500 words or less to commentary@oregonlive.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification.

This is a travesty, and much of it cannot be undone. No court would permit, and no legislature would undertake, to cut off pensions to retirees or to long-serving workers. We owe workers the money they have constitutionally been promised -- but we can't apply overly generous promises to every worker in perpetuity.

As soon as the court is presented with the issue, it must recognize that the logic of Moro extends to Measure 8's provisions and restore them as a valid part of the Oregon Constitution. From a legal standpoint, the legislature should then be able to recoup these overpayments -- a tricky proposition in practice, but one that should provide the necessary flexibility for further improvements to the pension system.

By following our constitution, without impoverishing any workers and retirees, Oregon can defuse much of its present pension nightmare.

Scott Shepard is a Salem lawyer and law professor, and author of an upcoming academic study on Oregon state pensions to be published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Wisconsin is facing a water crisis.

Clean sources for humans, agriculture, wildlife and manufacturing are becoming scarce and contaminated. Yet Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP-dominated Legislature are failing to address the crisis, and in some cases are making it worse.

In 1876, the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the American Medical Association unanimously adopted the following:

Uncontaminated water is the right of everyone.

Needless pollution of water is a crime against society.

Water in streams, lakes, etc., is common property, and no one has the right to destroy or injure its potable quality.

In 1878, our state board of health reported on the then widespread pollution of Wisconsin's water supplies. It called for anyone "who wantonly pollutes a stream of water be held 'guilty of a crime against society' and be adequately punished."

The need to protect our waters was well understood 140 years ago. It's a conservative concept that escapes our state's so-called conservative leaders. They are busy crippling Department of Natural Resources water quality enforcement and giving away our water rights to a select few. If our leaders will not act in our interests, then we citizens must.

Water is life. Water is sacred. Protect it.

Scott Meeker, Middleton
This May, the creativity of the popular LEGO building system will meet the out-of-this-world adventures and many beloved characters from a galaxy far, far away when the LEGO Star Wars Days event returns to the LEGOLAND Florida Resort. Authorized by Lucasfilm, this years event will double the fun on two separate weekends  from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 6 and Sunday, May 7, and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 13 and Sunday, May 14. Park Guests have a lot to look forward to.

In MINILAND USA, kids can explore some of the most famous scenes from the Star Wars saga made out of 1.5 million LEGO bricks, including detailed displays inspired by Star Wars  Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars  Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars  Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, plus giant LEGO models of Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and R2-D2.





During this special event, kids will also be able to enjoy the folowing activities:

Create a giant LEGO Star Wars mural, brick by brick

Build their own LEGO Star Wars model

Search for LEGO droids throughout MINILAND USA to unscramble a secret message

Learn tips and tricks from our LEGO Master Model Builders

Build the worlds largest LEGO Yoda model

Meet LEGO Darth Vader

Dress up as their favorite Star Wars character and participate in an intergalactic costume parade (ages 12 and under)

and much more, including giveaways, fun photo ops, opportunities to win prizes, and exclusive retail offers.







New this year: Are you more rookie or Wookiee? Test your familys Star Wars knowledge and LEGO building skills against other families during a just-for-fun competition!





here): All activities will take place both weekends and are included with all forms of park admission. No extra ticket or Jedi mind tricks required! Its the only LEGO Star Wars theme park event in Central Florida. Here is a scan of the official event guide (the PDF version of this guide can be found):






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A Midlander accused of inappropriately photographing a young girl, possession of child porn and sexual assault has pleaded guilty to two of the charges against him.

Daniel Arthur Swarthout, 36, is set to be sentenced on May 18 for one count each of child sexually abusive activity and possession of child sexually abusive material.

The charges are the result of investigations that began July 29 when Midland Police were called to a Dogwood Place apartment on July 29. There, the girls mother told police she was tucking her 5-year-old daughter into bed and could tell something was bothering the child. The girl told her mother it was a secret, and later said that a man who lived next door played doctor with her, touched her hips and photographed her in her nightgown while she was being cared for by a relative.

During an interview with police, Swarthout turned over his cell phone, which was taken to Michigan State Police investigators.

They found inappropriate images of the victims body, as well as photos of a relative of the suspect in vulnerable and exposing positions.

The Michigan State Police Internet Crimes Against Children unit recovered pornographic images of that girl, as well as another female. Some of the photos showed a hand touching one of the girls. The second female was identified as a relative of the suspect, and she has been removed from the home for other reasons.

Midland County Circuit Court Judge Stephen P. Carras accepted the guilty plea to each charge. An additional count of possession of child sexually abusive material, as well as second-degree criminal sexual conduct and child sexually abusive activity were dismissed.

Swarthout previously was found competent to stand trial.
On Earth Day, Saturday, April 22, the City of Modern Explorers will host a March for Science. Ours will be one of 429 satellite marches happening in 38 countries on six continents around the world, all in conjunction with the big one that day in Washington, DC.

We will gather at 3 p.m. at Carpenter Elementary School in Midland for a rally before marching with colorful signs and giant puppets through the downtown area and across the Tridge. The marchers have the support of well over a hundred scientific organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and groups representing geology to cell biology, neurologists to climatologists, physicians to farmers.

The mission is clear: The March for Science champions robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity. We unite as a diverse, nonpartisan group to call for science that upholds the common good, and for political leaders and policy makers to enact evidence based policies in the public interest.

That said, every marcher will have their own reason to march. But there can be little doubt about why, suddenly, so many people, not just scientists but every citizen who values the truth, feel it is critical to stand up for facts.

Facts have no political party; the laws of physics are not concerned with your beliefs  they just are. Dropped from a tall building, Republicans and Democrats fall at the same speed. When a pathologist looks at a prostate biopsy, he or she doesnt need to know who the patient voted for. Republican and Democratic cancers look the same under the microscope. Weather disasters made more likely by global warming dont wreak more or less havoc on your home based on your beliefs about free markets or same sex marriage. In the words of Neil deGrasse Tyson, Science doesnt care what you believe.

It is nearly impossible to find anything in the world that has not been studied or invented by science. If you are reading this on paper, the science in front of your eyes encompasses everything from forestry to paper-making, from ink to printing technology, to all the inventions that comprise our transportation systems. If you carry your paper into the forest and sit under a tree to read it, know that every species of plant, animal and fungus you find there has been classified and studied by scientists. The weather you experience on your outing was predicted days in advance using satellites and computers. Your clothing is likely the product of material scientists who invent ever better ways to insulate and protect your body. The natural gases and impurities in the air you breathe have been studied in detail. And, quite possibly, the science of lens-making made it possible for you to read the paper at all.

And if you read this on an electronic device  well, its hardly necessary to go on. We are surrounded by science, and it has made our lives longer, healthier and richer in almost uncountable ways.

And yet there seems to be a growing distrust of science. More and more Americans seem to have become anti-intellectuals. To have facts at your fingertips is regarded by many as suspect and elitist. We distrust experts and seem to think that all opinions are created equal. But, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.

Democracy is an experiment. To be a successful experiment, our policies must be made and adjusted based on rational analysis of objective evidence. There is no place in government for alternative facts. History is rife with examples of ideology trumping evidence, and it never ends well. In Russias Lysenko affair in the 1940s, Stalin backed an agrobiologist who rejected genetics in favor of Marxist ideology applied to plant breeding. Many people, perhaps more than a million, starved as a result.

The current U.S. administration is radically defunding science in the public interest, from disease research to climate science. And again, people will suffer and die unnecessarily because of the hubris of politicians who favor their ideological beliefs over verifiable scientific facts.

So whether your reason to march with us is a celebration of science or a protest against the decline of facts in public discourse, we hope you will join us. You may love science because a smart phone has given you mountains of knowledge at your fingertips, or because genetic engineering has us on the verge of conquering a number of terrible, previously incurable diseases. You may want to march because modern medicine saved your life, or because you hope policy makers will finally listen to climate scientists and save the planet. There is a world of facts to choose from; you are entitled to pick your reason.

James W. Crissman, DVM, PhD, is a toxicologic veterinary pathologist with a longstanding interest in the intersection of science and politics. He is leading Midlands satellite March for Science.
It was great to see the column published in last Sundays Midland Daily News calling for relief from high auto insurance premiums. We at the Insurance Alliance of Michigan agree its long overdue for lawmakers in Lansing to take decisive action to lower the outrageous costs created by Michigans failed auto no- fault system.

Michigans law is outdated, having seen no significant changes since it was introduced in 1973. And it clearly does not do what it was designed to do, which was to keep costs low. Failing miserably, the law has only caused insurance premiums to skyrocket.
BLOOMINGTON  The body cameras attached to the uniforms of local law enforcement officers create a visual record of how police do their job, but the release of those images is limited under state law to incidents flagged by police for review following an arrest, a shooting or citizen complaint.

The possibility that body cameras would open the flood gates of requests from citizens under the Freedom of Information Act was a point of negotiation between lawmakers and advocates for civil rights and the media.

"Someone can't just come in and ask for all the body camera footage for Officer A.," said Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner, whose department has been running a pilot program with six body cameras since September.

Normal police have received one FOIA request for body camera footage and provided the records because the person had a connection to the incident.

The requirement that police make video available to parties in an incident, their lawyers and the public in certain cases has forced agencies to perform redactions to protect the privacy of minors, bystanders or others who ask that their identities be protected.

In Bloomington, redaction equipment has been purchased that will be used on squad car footage as well as other video records held by the police department. Normal is testing existing software to see if it will handle necessary redactions, said City Manager Mark Peterson.

Bloomington Police Chief Brendan Heffner said the city spent about $24,000 on equipment and software to handle redactions. A new staff person was added to the records division to handle what the chief described as "this new territory."

Springfield media lawyer Don Craven said the Illinois Press Association was involved in talks with legislators on how the law would be crafted to protect an individual's privacy, but still give the public access to video footage.

"No system is perfect," said Craven, "but to date the law has worked really well."

The media and citizens can ask to see video that is flagged for review by police due to the filing of a complaint, discharge of a weapon, use of force or an arrest. Incidents that result in serious injury or death also are marked for review under the law.

Law enforcement agencies sometimes release video in high-profile cases in response to questions about police conduct.

Eight Bloomington officers have been wearing body cameras since the city's pilot program began in January. A decision will be made this summer on which company will provide about 100 cameras for city officers.

Bloomington Police Detective Clayton Arnold said the city's new internet server will handle the four to six hours of video expected to be downloaded daily from each officer.

State law requires police to retain video for 90 days unless it has been flagged for review, or is needed for a court case that requires the video to be kept for two years.

Arnold offered an example of the complex and dangerous calls where a picture can be worth a thousand words as evidence: a person stopped by police admits to having an illegal firearm and a search shows he also has a large stash of meth in his pocket.

"You really want everyone to see what happened there," said Arnold.

The images captured on body cameras will not be shared around the squad room, said Heffner, adding that a record is generated each time an officer logs onto the video.

McLean County State's Attorney Jason Chambers said his office has software capable of redacting information from body camera footage and other videos submitted as part of court cases. The storage capacity needed for the data and the time required to download the information are two issues for the county, he said.

Having the right people available to manage the data also is important, said Chambers, adding "technical skills are very key for new employees."

The county has used its redaction program to satisfy FOIA requests. A recent request from The Pantagraph for a video of a crime scene was redacted to remove images of a victim.

Feedback so far from officers and the public on the use of body cameras has been positive, according to the police chiefs.

The ability to have a recording of an incident "cuts down on the time officers are on scene for a call," said Bleichner, adding it's "relatively common" for officers to review their video when compiling a report.

Under the law, such reliance must be noted in an officer's report.

Bloomington officers have raised a few technical issues related to the cameras, but overall the test run has gone smoothly, said Heffner.

The public has recognized the potential value of having their interactions with police recorded, he said.

"We get calls from people who say they want someone out there with a body camera," said Heffner.
Have you seen Gov. Bruce Rauner lately?

Sure you have. He's been hard to miss in those TV ads in which the plaid-wearing executive chides lawmakers for their duct tape spending solutions.

And last week, with the Legislature on spring recess, the first-term GOP governor was crisscrossing the state on a two-day tour. He delivered stump speeches and had photo ops at restaurants and businesses in Chicago, Springfield, Quincy and Champaign. Two weeks ago, he was in Decatur.

So is Rauner campaigning for re-election?

He insists no, saying the tour, which was funded by his campaign, has nothing to do with the election in November 2018.

Were not that naive.

We think the whole thing highlights whats fundamentally backwards about how the state budget impasse is being handled by our elected officials. Rauner is on a PR blitz instead of what he should be doing full time  working with Democratic lawmakers to find common ground.

Weve been supportive of Rauner, especially in his ongong calls for property tax relief, term limits and workers' compensation reform, which are all needed to get this state back on track.

Hes a smart, fiscally responsible chief executive who made millions in the private sector, and does a good job connecting with local voters. He speaks their language.

But we fear the budget chaos thats been festering for almost two years continues to force the governor to wade into water thats contrary to his outsider image.

Hes taking his message to the people instead of working with lawmakers on the down and dirty details and hammering some mutual understanding with nemesis House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, who is the poster child for the need for term limits.

Consider those TV ads. They were purchased by the Republican Governors Association, a Washington group thats funded in part by billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch.

The spots are airing in the Chicago, Champaign-Springfield, Rockford, Quad-Cities and Peoria-Bloomington markets. Last week, The Pantagraph reported $95,115 was spent on ads in the Twin City area alone.

Thats a lot of money to convey the message that the governor is the one trying to help the state.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, one of several opponents the governor could face a year from November, said Rauner is "putting politics ahead of doing his job."

Were not sure its as black and white as that. But it is clear the fine line between governing and campaigning is getting less and less clear. Such sideline campaigning muddies the water when finding a budget solution should be goal number one.

Instead of talking with one another, our elected officials continue to talk past each other.

Somethings got to give.
Two teenagers who just became parents smuggled their newborn out of the hospital for fear they will lose her to social workers. Jayden Lavender, 14, and his girlfriend Jenifer Morrison, 15, ran away from the police for 16 hours before authorities learned they camped out in the woods with their three-day-old daughter.

The teenagers fled the Nepean Hospital in New South Wales, Australia after a staff worker told them they might not be able to take baby Aria Jayde Tanya home. They smuggled the tiny newborn after midnight and camped at Willmot just west of Sydney, Daily Telegraph reported.

After the police located them, Lavender and Morrison said they weren't planning on breaking the law. They, however, feared that someone will intervene and take their child away when they planned on raising Aria together as a family. So, they thought to hide out was the best choice.

The teenagers had plans to marry before Aria arrived. Tracy Lavender, the teenage boy's mom, took them under her care when Morrison got pregnant. The mother admitted she would have signed off on their marriage even as they were minors.

Neighbors said the teenagers resided in an unstable home environment at the Lavender residence with two other kids. Some attested police frequented the Lavender house in the past for domestic disturbance.

The teenage couple, however, said they will make great parents for Aria. "I don't know what I've done wrong and me and Jayden will be awesome for her," Morrison said, as per Yahoo Australia.

Morrison was, in fact, in tears when Aria had to be taken back to the hospital for tests and checks after spending a night in the woods. The young parents claimed they have not been able to see nor visit their newborn.

Jayden's mom, on the other hand, told authorities the baby was the best thing that happened to her son. She saw how committed Jayden was to take care of his daughter and girlfriend. "They made the mistake of being young," she said.
A mom from Florida blasted her son's school for his arrest and handcuffing. Her 10-year-old child has autism but he figured in an incident six months ago when he punched and scratched a teacher.

Mom Luanne Haygood said Okeechobee County School Resource wasn't equipped to handle children with special needs. She was able to video his son, John Benji Haygood, being handcuffed on her mobile phone. She was hoping to expose the authorities' treatment of her boy.

John Benji spent a night at a Florida juvenile facility. His mother said the arrest scared the boy who couldn't understand what was going on, WPEC Florida reported.

The sheriff's office, through Okeechobee County School, served John Benji a warrant of arrest for third-degree felony battery following his altercation with a teacher last November, as per WWLP. Since the incident, the Haygoods homeschooled their son but he had to go back to school that Wednesday for a mandatory test.

Luanne admitted John Benji did have behavioral issues but indicated these were related to autism. The sheriff's office said they were not aware the child has a disorder and law enforcement lawyers said they will take into consideration the mom's revelation in handling the case. They placed the 10-year-old boy under house arrest.

The altercation between John Benji and his teacher also stemmed from his autism, according to Luanne. The boy apparently didn't like how his teacher handled him and this triggered something in him, so he physically attacked the teacher.

"It's nationwide, and these children are not getting the services they are guaranteed under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act," Luanne said. "Now, maybe somebody will believe me and other parents when we say our kids are being mistreated."

The school, meanwhile, released a statement citing it won't be able to comment on the case per se based on education laws. The statement read, however, that the school provided routine assistance from behaviorists and other mental health professionals for its students. The school denied they invited the 10-year-old boy to take a test just so they could arrest him.
A teenager accidentally shot himself while his friends watch on Instagram Live. The 13-year-old boy from Georgia identified as Malachi Hemphill was found dead in his room while Instagram Live was still running.

Hemphill died via a gunshot wound to his head. The teen took to Instagram Live while he toggled with a gun. Reports said the boy was asked as to why the gun he's handling doesn't have a clip. USA Today added that he was then told to put one.

Unfortunately, the gun ticked when Hemphill was putting on the clip, taking his life. His mother, Shaniqua Stephens, and her daughter rushed upstairs where they saw Malachi on the ground with a pool of blood. His sister then realized that his phone was still on, which resulted in a majority of his friends seeing him shot himself live.

As he put the clip in the gun that is when the gun went off," Malachi's mom said. "I just knew that it was something that was wrong, We kicked in the door. We found him just laying there in a pool of blood. My daughter screamed and said, Mom turn his phone off!' As I proceeded to look at his phone he was on Instagram Live.

Authorities did not consider the incident as suicide as it was a clear case of accidental firing. The detectives were still on the lookout as to where the gun came from. As for the teen, he was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

More than 40 of Malachi's friends gathered in front of his house just a few minutes after his accident was streamed  a clear proof that they were able to witness the tragic accident. Due to the incident, Stephens urged parents to monitor their children's social activities to avoid such accidents.

Parents should bee keen when it comes to checking on their children's social media activities. Checking on the kids' social media activity from time to time can protect them from cyber bullying and other activities that can lead to their destruction, as advised by the Parenting website.
The San Bernardino school shooting led to three deaths, which included the death of an eight-year-old boy with a rare genetic disorder, and one injury. Due to the tragedy, they revamped the security measures in the area despite the former claim of authorities that safety of the children was not an issue.

The incident took place at North Park Elementary School. One of the new security measures included people undergoing a background check before they are allowed in the school. They added that they will not allow visitors to meet with school staff or students during schools hours, Los Angeles Times reported.

The school officials made the announcement before a crowd at Bob Holcomb Elementary earlier last week. They added that visitors who undergo background checks will be fingerprinted before they are allowed inside the campus and that they will not allow visitors from going beyond the main office.

Maria Garcia, a spokeswoman for San Bernardino City Unified School District, noted that visitors can only go to the school during school hours if there was any predetermined meeting. Visitors can meet staff or students only before and after school hours.

In cases of emergencies or the visitors have a valid reason to interrupt school hours, they have to provide a valid driver's license and it has to be scanned so that the image from the ID will be printed. Visitors have to wear the ID while they are inside the school premises.

Garcia also reveals they are still considering if they will implement the new measures across the district. For now, North Park Elementary is the only school in the whole San Bernardino District to adopt the revamp.

The new security measures came after Chief Jarrod Buruguan of the San Bernardino Police Department said they could not have done anything more and that the safety of the children was not an issue. San Bernardino City Unified Superintendent Dale Marsden also said the gunman followed the procedures that the school implemented as to entry into the area during school hours, CBS News revealed.

Meanwhile, the shooting took place inside a special needs classroom. Authorities identified the suspect as 53-year-old Cedric Anderson and his estranged wife, also 53, Karen Elaine Smith, while the dead student was identified as Jonathan Martinez.
An Indian baby's photo circulated online showing her weighing like an average four-year-old even if she is only eight-months-old. Many took to social media to voice out their concerns and doctors also expressed how worried they are over the child's condition.

Many people reacted on Facebook and other social media platforms when they saw the photo of the child identified as Chahat Kumar. Some said she's cute, while others said the baby was probably suffering a problem that caused her to gain so much wait. Many called out those who thought the baby is cute, noting that doctors should find a way to know more about the child's situation.

Kumar's parents said she did not have any kind of complication when they welcomed her to the world. When she turned a few months old, she started to gain weight and now she weighs 38 pounds. They noted that her appetite increased and cries whenever she is not fed, The Financial Express reported.

Kumar's father said it is not their fault their daughter grew to such a size and claimed God gave the condition to her. He added, "It's not in our hands. I feel bad when some people laugh at her for being fat." Because of her size and the thickness of her skin, doctors did not get a blood sample in order to test and see what the cause of the weight gain is.

The most common reasons for obesity in children include genetic-related factors, lack of physical activity and unhealthy eating habits, Web MD shared. The other possible case is related to a medical condition that has something to do with hormonal problems.

Her parents said she also has problems with her breathing and her sleeping patterns. She also does not want to exercise as her parents tried to let her shed some weight off. Her parents do not always take her outside because they cannot carry her due to her weight.

The girl has a family doctor named Vasudev Sharma. He told the baby's parents to take her to a hospital but the family said they have no financial capability.
Post-partum depression is normal in women who just gave birth but what people are not aware of is the fact that new dads also experience it. In a new report, fathers talk about how it was difficult for them to be first-time fathers.

Some of the most common symptoms that women feel after giving birth include being overwhelmed, feeling guilty, not feeling bonded to her baby, not comprehending what is happening and feeling irritated or angry, among many others, Postpartum Progress shared. Due to the new interviews with first-time fathers, it is believed these symptoms are not restricted to females.

Whenever first-time dads who suffer from post-partum depression feel overwhelmed, they feel like they cannot be a part of parenthood and they tend to think why they even became a father. As for guilt, first-time dads feel like the baby deserves a better dad, resulting to new fathers crying all the time, while the feeling of unhappiness at times can lead them to wonder if the baby is better without them around.

Just like one of the fathers interviewed by News.com.au, Jonathan Miles, who said that when he looked at his wife and their baby, he wanted to back out and just leave them alone. He pointed out that he was excited about having a baby but tried to take his own life. He added, "To actually turn to my wife when she's holding our newborn baby and say I was a burden, when obviously that was not the case, it was a low point."

The 31-year-old said he never thought post-partum depression happened to men and when he admitted he had a weakness per his mental health, it did not come easy. The day he told his wife they would be happier without him was the same day he went to his General Practitioner, who told him to work on his mental health. He said he cut back on his alcohol intake and started to accept help from family and friends so things got better for him.

Fortunately, Miles revealed that he did not feel the same depression when he had his second son. Miles shared he was better prepared and knew the warning signs so he will not undergo post-partum depression again.

Even though some of the symptoms in men and women suffering from post-partum depression are the same, there are some differences in terms of coping. Experts say men are more irritable and angry than women. Men also use alcohol and drugs as means to escape reality and as an avoidance mechanism.

Fireman Mike Simms, on the other hand, shared that when he and his wife welcomed their baby, he suffered post-natal depression for a few weeks. Simms said he also felt excited at first but when his wife delivered the baby, he felt traumatized due to the pain his wife underwent. He felt like it was his fault that his wife suffered from such.

Simms admitted he did not feel any connection with his daughter and felt jealous about the bond that his wife and daughter had. He eventually sought help from an expert, his family and friends, Daily Mirror revealed.

Another case related to post-natal depression involved a gay stay-at-home father who had a child via surrogacy. Thirty-four-year-old Simon Leyshan took to Instagram to open up about his situation and revealed he was not aware dads also get that kind of depression. He said he felt embarrassed because he always thought only women could have it and that he had so many good things happening in his life so he had no right to feel depressed.

Leyshan said everything went well but after six months of being a father, paternal post-partum depression started to kick in. He recounted that when his daughter had one of her immunizations, he broke down and that was when a doctor told him he had post-partum depression. He did not give too much thought about it. But when his daughter turned two and she opened her presents, he told his partner he did not feel anything and he got really depressed, Daily Mail reported.

He then went to another doctor and the medical practitioner told him the same thing  he had post-partum depression. The doctor gave him a prescription for antidepressants and went to a psychologist.

As of writing, Leyshan is no longer on any medication and continues to work on his mental health. For new dads out there, did you get to experience the paternal post-partum depression? Please feel free to share your own personal experiences below.
Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to attend the living stations of the cross at Saint Gregory the Great Parish in Bluffton, South Carolina. This is the neighboring parish to the north of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Savannah.

This is the eighth year that the Hispanic community at Saint Gregory organizes this beautiful and prayerful event for the entire parish community. I was impressed that though the stations were held in Spanish, over half of those in attendance were English speaking. Everyone knows the story, so there is no language barrier.

This rich tradition brings to life the Passion of Jesus Christ. Both children and adults enter into the narrative in an exceptional way. As I walked, Peter stood next to me as he rebuked one of the women who accused him of being a disciples of Jesus. As the faithful follow along, every one of them is inserted into the Gospel as it comes to life around you. It is impossible to keep tears from flowing down ones eyes. These profound expressions of popular religiosity serve as an evagelization tool, especially as children learn the story of Jesus by seeing it unfold before them.

What a unique and special way to meditate the Passion of Christ on Good Friday.

Jesus is met by his mother

Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross

Jesus falls the second time

The weeping women of Jerusalem

Jesus dies on the cross

Jesus is taken down from the cross
Photos: Easter celebration at Saint Sarkis Cathedral in Tehran

04/16/17

Photos by Mohammadreza Abbasi, Mehr News Agency

Iran's Armenian Christian community held a ceremony at Saint Sarkis Cathedral in Tehran on Sunday April 16, 2017 to celebrate Easter. During the event, special prayers were said and candles were lit.



























































































While Iran is officially designated the "Islamic Republic," among its more than 70 million people is a small but important Christian minority. Most of Iran's Christians are Armenians and Assyrians, who remain relatively free to follow their faith. The numbers of Protestants and evangelical Christians are said to be growing. For these people, life is often much more difficult. A number of Christian denominations still live in Iran today and include Assyrians, Armenians, Catholics, Protestants and Evangelical Christians. Although a minority religious group in Iran, Christians of Iran are free to practice their religion and perform their religious rituals (see related article).





Related Book: Religions of Iran: From Prehistory to the Present



Related Articles:
Sanctions impaired Iran's economic transparency: Iranian FM Zarif

04/16/17

Source: Tehran Times

TEHRAN - Sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program dealt a major blow to the country's economic transparency, an issue much neglected in assessing the outcomes of the 2015 international nuclear deal, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday.



Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

cartoon by Shahab Jafarnejad, Ghanoon daily



"Sanctions and the way they were addressed by the previous administration... ruined fiscal discipline and transparency in Iran's economy," Zarif was quoted as saying in an address to an international event on exchange, bank and insurance in Tehran.



Zarif's remarks were a reference to two consecutive administrations (2005-2013) of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when sanctions against the country over its nuclear program escalated.



In 2007, Ahmadinejad dismissed any new UN sanctions resolution as "a torn piece of paper" that would not stop Tehran's nuclear work.



Ahmadinejad's defiant rhetoric and bad governance pushed Iran towards international isolation and cost the country seven UN resolutions.



Mounting pressures on Tehran during the sanctions era created a black market for imports of basic goods and transfer of oil revenues into the country.



Zarif hinted at a rig going missing during the Ahmadinejad administration as an instance of irregularities at the sanctions time.



The oil rig thief

cartoon by Ghanoon daily







The missing oil rig

source: Seda magazine



In 2011, sanctions made it difficult for Tehran to rent oil drilling rigs, so the Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company spent $87 million to buy an oil drilling rig that was never delivered, called "the case of the missing rig" in newspaper headlines.



However, the situation has changed at the wake of the nuclear deal with global powers that removed sanctions against the country, paving the way for Tehran to re-engage with the global community.



Iran could attract $12 billion foreign investment in the past Iranian calendar year of 1395 (which ended on March 20) as the result of the positive environment created in post-sanctions era.
The deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Johnson Asiama, has urged financial institutions to see regulatory requirements key to improving the banking sector.



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, was speaking at the recent Risk Summit Africa 2017 held in Accra.



He 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.



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 promised to publish its sanctions for non-compliance.

Source: asempanews.com









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Former Vice-President of Sierra Leone, Chief Samuel Sam-Sumana has called on the international community to ensure that the political leadership in his country guarantees his safety in his bid to register as a voter during the ongoing voter registration process.



Chief Sam-Sumana says he has been unable to exercise his right to register as a voter for fear of his life and safety as well as that of his family.



The former Vice-President who was dismissed under controversial circumstances by President Bai Koroma in 2015 reiterated the call when he called on former President Jerry John Rawlings at his office in Accra on Wednesday.



Sam-Sumana informed the former President he had taken the matter of his dismissal to the ECOWAS Court of Justice seeking an enforcement of his fundamental human rights, describing his removal as unconstitutional. The court has set April 25, 2017 for the hearing of the matter.



A letter authored by Solicitor for Chief Sam-Sumana, Dr. Raymond Atuguba and addressed to President Ernest Bai Koroma requested the President to provide security for the safety of his client, his family, supporters and well-wishers as they take steps to participate in this all important political process.



The voter registration process opened on March 20, 2017 and closes on April 16, 2017. Presidential elections are scheduled in Sierra Leone for March 7, 2018.



President Koroma sacked Chief Sam-Sumana as Vice President in March 2015 for abandoning his duties but the former stated that he had been compelled to seek asylum in a foreign embassy because his life was in danger.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has urged Ghanaians to sacrifice towards national development as Christ sacrificed his life on the Cross to save mankind.



We cannot do things for ourselves if we dont sacrifice, he said, adding; as a nation, we shouldnt be importing things always from outside; we must trade instead of begging for aid, he said.



He said President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addos Administration would bring transformation that would involve everybody.



If we continue doing the same things then we dont expect different results, therefore, we should do things differently in order to bring the needed change to our nation, he said.



Vice President Bawumia was the Guest of Honour during the Annual Good Friday Miracle Service organised by the Lighthouse Chapel International at the Black Star Square to mark the Crucifixion of Christ.



He acknowledged the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to bring salvation to mankind which he described as true love, adding; there is no greater love than to die for someone. Vice President Bawumia, therefore, urged Ghanaians to learn lessons from Christs sacrifice for mankind and sacrifice for the development of the nation.



To pass your exams you need to sacrifice and burn the mid-night oil to learn because everything requires sacrifice and God will also reward you for your sacrifice, he said.



The Vice President assured Ghanaians that the Government would ensure peace and security for everybody irrespective of the persons political affiliation. Dr Bawumia described Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, the Founder and General Overseer of the Lighthouse Chapel International, as an amazing Man of God who had allowed himself to be used by God to deliver the people from spiritual bondage.



Bishop Heward-Mills, in his sermon, said mankind had become progressively evil after Adam and Eve sinned and separated themselves from God. Therefore, he said, God sent His son Jesus Christ to die as atonement for mans sins.



Without the sharing of the blood, your sins cannot be forgiven, therefore, Jesus Christ sacrificed His life to save mankind. He is the way, the truth and the light and whoever believes in Him would have eternal life. No one goes to the Father unless through Him, he said.



Bishop Heward-Mills said Jesus Christs crucifixion brought salvation to the world and those who believe and accept Him as their personal saviour would have eternal salvation.



He said Jesus demonstrated He is the true Son of God through various miracles including raising people from the dead, walking on the sea and opening the eyes of the blind. Bishop Heward-Mills led the congregation to pray for national unity, stability and peace and asked for Gods wisdom for the Government  the Judiciary, Legislature and the Executive.



Some members of the congregation received healing during the prayer and deliverance service and gave testimony to the glory of God.



The service attracted a large number of Christians to the Square who joyfully praised God and danced for His abundant mercies.

Source: GNA









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Host of Joy Fms weekend news analysis programme Newsfile, Samson Lardi Ayenini has revealed that some persons are wishing him dead.



The legal practitioner and journalist who has come under a barrage of attacks since Saturday April 15, 2017 from supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) following the non representation of a panelist on last Saturdays edition of Newsfile has also denied media reports his home was raided and he was attacked.



In response to enquiries by executive producer of Abusua Nkommo Akoto Mansa Attakora-Manu about the said attack Mr Ayenini said Eunice, I spent almost the entire night reading for the show. I returned to get some rest. I am just waking up to the false news of being attacked by whoever in my home.



My wife actually got a call inquiring and thats how I got to look at my phone and saw your message seeking to confirm same.



I am just seeing numerous similar enquiries by whatsapp and missed calls. Please ignore that so called breaking news. I am used to verbal attacks. Wify is worried a certain post wishing I had died in the recent accident though. Thats my only worry now. But these are occupational hazards. Thanks for your concern.



Samson Lardi Ayenini it would be recalled a fortnight ago was involved in a near fatal accident on the Accra-Tema Motorway when another vehicle heading to Tema believed to have skidded off its lane, somersaulted and tumbled on Lardy Anyeninis Nissan Pathfinder killing the driver of that car instantly.



He was said to have been rushed to the 37 Military Hospital where he was treated and later discharged but said his family members especially his wife are worried some persons wished he had died in that accident among other castigating posts on social media.

Source: mynewsgh.com









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National organizer of the National Democratic Congress, Kofi Adams, has described as a disaster, the first 100 days of the Akufo-Addo government. With few days with since assuming the governance of the country, Ghanaians are generally expectant of the Akufo-Addo-led government executing many of the promises given before during the electioneering.

Assessing the performance of the government, Mr Adam said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo must re-align his administration if he is to build on the good legacy of the Mahama-led government. The Akufo-Addo government has been a disaster; if this country must grow and continue the trajectory the NDC left, then President Akufo-Addo must change gear, change ways and ask himself about the effects of the foundation he is laying, he said on Thursday on Sunrise on 3FM.

He criticised the government of double standards, saying you cant say that the country has no resources yet form an over bloated, oversized and nuisance government with too many persons performing overlapping roles. You tell us that 84 ministers and deputies (in the previous administration) was too much a number but you have a hundred and ten of them. The government left you an almost completed international airport (in the capital), an upgraded airport in the Ashanti Region; efficient harbour and railway systems. Despite these, you claim a single ministry of Transport which had a minister and must have ministers and deputies for aviation, Harbours, rail, and road transportation thats unbelievable he added.

He further argued the current government has misplaced priorities and questioned the justification for what he described as needless appointees. In the security sector, there are so many persons; ministers for interior, defense, and national security; national security coordinator and advisor with their numerous deputies. There is also the IGP, Chief of Defense Staff yet they cant even contain the Delta Force, he claimed. According to Mr Adams, experts estimate an average of GHC100 to cater for a minister monthly therefore three months of a ministers salary can build a dormitory for a secondary school.

Source: 3news.com









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President Nana Akufo-Addo has condemned attacks on the Judiciary by pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) militant group, Delta Force in his first Easter message to Ghanaians.



In the message, the President among other things vowed to ensure the laws of the country are respected and applied 'without fear or favour'.



It is for this reason that I regret so much the unfortunate incidence that happened in Kumasi recently. Inasmuch as the law enforcement agencies and the Judiciary have moved to apply the laws of our land, let me reiterate that it will not be under my watch that people act with impunity. Neither will it be under my watch that the laws of our land will not be respected, he said.



watch Video below-

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The South Korean Defence Ministry and the US Pacific Command are both saying that they have detected a failed missile launch test from North Korea, a day after a large-scale military parade in the capital of Pyongyang.





Reports indicate that there was an attempt made to fire a ballistic missile of unknown type at 7.21 AEST, but that it exploded shortly after launch.

South Korean authorities were the first to comment, saying that North Korea attempted to test an unidentified type of missile from [its eastern port of] Sinpo, and adding that the test had failed.

A statement from American authorities later confirmed this, saying:

US Command detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at

11.21am Hawaii local time April 15. The launch of the ballistic missile occurred near Sinpo. The missile blew up almost immediately. The type of missile is still being assessed. US Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security.

Saturday marked the 105th anniversary of the birth of founding North Korean president Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.

A military display saw intercontinental ballistic missiles rolled through Pyongyang, and state officials promised to beat down the enemies of the country with nuclear justice.

With tensions running high in the region, top official Choe Ryong Hae told a crowd in Kim Il-sung Square:

If the United States wages reckless provocation against us, our revolutionary power will instantly counter with annihilating strike, and we will respond to full out war with full out war and to nuclear war with our style of nuclear strike warfare.



Source: BBC News.

Photo: The Washington Post / Getty.
Sam Frost has revealed that she very nearly hit breaking point after enduring a tough year that saw her mental health suffer from the near-relentless attacks of online trolls, and the ratings failure of her breakfast show with Rove McManus. In a recent interview with the Herald Sun, Frost spoke about the toll that all of this took on her, saying:

I reached breaking point last year. I was like oh my goodness I am really, really struggling with my mental health. The trolls and the criticism were relentless. I just thought I am a good person, I am a wonderful friend, I am a wonderful sister and I work hard and I am grounded, I dont understand why people are being so horrible to me.

She had previously spoken about the effects of her online trolling on the Rove & Sam show, saying:

Everyone was so critical, and the media was critical, and trolls were just horrendous and I was just getting so heavily trolled, and other elements to it that I dont even want to mention  It got to a point for about three or four months that I would come to work, and go home. I wouldnt even what to leave my house, I was so in an awful place, I was in a really really dark place. Id shut my friends out, Id shut my family out. Id come to work, and go home, and Id stay shut in that dark horrible place.

Frost split with her partner Sasha Mielczarek in December of last year, and revealed that he told her at one point all you do is cry and youre not talking to me. Before their breakup, she explained:



I said to him, I dont want to be here anymore. I dont want to wake up everyday anymore, she said. And it wasnt until I said that out loud, because Id just been bottling it all in, and I saw the helplessness in his face, and I realised its not fair for me to want to give up.

Frost told the Herald Sun that spending time in Melbourne and seeing a psychologist regularly have both proven to be vital parts of her recovery, saying:

As soon as I finished radio (in late November) I spent three months in Melbourne with my friends and family, no one knew where I was. To be honest that how I got through the break up (and) the work shift. I do love Melbourne, it is amazing  It has definitely made me have a different attitude towards 2017. I am like I need to own my space, keep moving forward and try and not let the little stuff bug me. Now I kind of think anyone who writes those things to me, it is actually a problem they have with themselves and not with me.

Frost says that she still finds herself being abused from strangers online if her weight happens to fluctuate (perish the thought), but that shes in a better place now, adding:

I dont have my public Facebook page or a public Twitter anymore, I got rid of them, because I find Instagram more manageable. People can think what they want about me but it is my personal page and I still want to be able to be me and be able to share parts of my life with people who support me and are interested without having to cop the hate.

Frost has signed up to be on the upcoming Hells Kitchen Australia, which will be hosted by former Masterchef mentor Marco Pierre White.

Source: Herald Sun.

Photo: Sam Tabone / Getty.
Update: Crash cleared.

A multi-vehicle crash is slowing southbound traffic on Interstate 81 in Cumberland County.

A multi-vehicle crash is slowing traffic on I-81.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of transportation, the crash occurred around 11:08 a.m. Sunday about 0.9 miles south of Exit 59 to Pennsylvania Route 581 East.

There is a lane restriction.

Traffic in that area is slow moving.

For more traffic information, follow live traffic updates, accident reports and road closures below from PennDOT, Total Traffic Network and other Twitter sources.

Get a look at conditions on local roads -- via PennDOT traffic cameras -- anytime here on PennLive. For Pennsylvania Turnpike updates and possible travel delays visit the Turnpike website here.

Tweet us at @pennlive with any incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com.
crime tape.jpg

This post was updated at 8:45 p.m. Saturday with additional information on the nature of the assault and the injuries suffered by the victims.

Two Palmyra residents were robbed at gunpoint Friday night in what police have described as a brazen, home invasion robbery.

Borough police said they were called at 10:43 p.m. to a residence in the 400 block of North Railroad Street, where a man and woman told them two robbers broke in, assaulted them and left with an undisclosed amount of cash.

No shots were fired, but Palmyra Police Chief Stanley Jasinski said "there was some pistol-whipping that took place."

The robbers were last seen fleeing to the south of the scene, toward a set of railroad tracks.

They were both men, one described to police as hispanic, the other black. Both were wearing black clothing and masks on their faces at the time of the crime. The victims also said the black man had a thin build; the hispanic man was heavier.

Police said the female victim was taken to Hershey Medical Center for treatment of injuries to her mouth. The male victim had some head injuries but was treated at the scene, according to police.

Anyone who may have information that could aid the investigation is asked to contact Palmyra Borough police at 717-838-8189.
Pennsylvania State Police are seeking a 19-year-old Hereford, Berks County man wanted for attempted homicide and related charges stemming from a Friday evening shooting that left a 13-year-old boy in critical condition.

According to police reports, Matthew Hale is the primary suspect in the April 14 incident near Boyertown.

Police said witnesses told them Hale arrived at the victim's single-story home in Washington Township about 7 p.m. He was a passenger in a vehicle described as a small black hatchback.

The witnesses, described as friends of the victim, said they were all in the victim's bedroom at the time and they saw Hale, yelling obscenities, approach an open window and punch in the screen.

As the two friends started to run from the room, they told police they heard loud bangs and gunshots, and then heard the victim screaming.

Hale was seen getting back into the car he arrived in, and it fled the scene, driven by an unknown female.

"We're actively looking for Mr. Hale as we speak," said Trooper David Beohm, public information officer for PSP's Reading-based Troop L.

The 13-year-old was shot several times in the neck and torso, according to The Reading Eagle.

Besides the attempted homicide charge, Beohm said Hale stands charged with aggravated assault, carrying firearms without a license and possessing instruments of crime.

Police are asking anyone who may have information that could assist with the investigation to contact state police in Reading at 610-378-4011, or Berks Crime Alert at 877-373-9913.
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Russian believers hold candles as they wait to take the part in a religion procession during the Easter service at the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana just next to the Kremlin Wall n Moscow, Russia, Saturday, April 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
AirAsiaX Indonesia To Fly to Narita Japan from Denpasar Bali

Everyone is talking and traveling to Japan right now. Since Japan starts to relax the visitor visa to South East Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, there is the double digit growth on tourists arrival on year to year basis. It is no surprise that AirAsiaX Indonesia takes this opportunity to fly to Japan from Indonesia.

Startng from May 24th 2017, AirAsiaX will commence their inaugural flight to Japan from Denpasar International Airport Bali to Narita International Airport Japan. The early bird promotion for this flight is IR 1.9 million for one way.

They will be flying on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays every week and there are still many seats available at IR 1.9 million.

Whats interesting is AirAsiaX stopped this route two years ago and restarted this flight with AirAsiaX Indonesia.

Narita International Airport might not be located in the heart of the city of Tokyo like Haneda International Airport and the airport serves as local hub to other cities in Japan (if you dont intend to use JR Pass to travel around).

This will indefinitely boost tourism for both countries especially from Narita International Airport to Bali. Japanese love to go to island getaways especially places like Guam, Hawaii and Bali. With this direct flight, we reckon there will be more Japanese visiting Bali. Like Narita International Airport, Denpasar International Airport also a hub to travel to other local destinations in Indonesia. Maybe this is the opportunity for the Japanese tourists to discover places like Lombok, Flores, Medan, Bandung, Yogyarkarta and more.

Congratulations AirAsiaX for their inaugural flight from Denpasar International Airport Bali to Narita International Airport Japan. Now everyone can fly to Japan.

Wilson Ng A Father and traveler who enjoys to eat, shop, travel and taking pictures with Samsung S22 Ultra and Sony ZV-1. Im a full time blogger, youtuber and father for two. I used to travel around 17 International trips per year but now staying at home. Remember to follow us at www.instagram.com/placesandfoods and www.youtube.com/placesandfoods. For advertisements or features, contact me at [email protected] See author's posts
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Kids in the U.S. used to want to be like Mike. Donald Trump has very different aspirations, as weve all noticed by now. He wants to be like Vladimir.

The Times of London says Donald Trump has insisted on a ride in Queen Elizabeths golden carriage when he visits the United Kingdom in October.

The White House has made clear it regards the carriage procession down the Mall as an essential element of the itinerary for the visit currently planned for the second week of October, according to officials.

It was a task the times says President Obama spared his hosts during his own visit, riding in an armored limousine instead. Some of us never leave childhood behind, it seems. Like Trumps hero, Vladimir Putin, who rode in the royal carriage when he visited in 2003.

With a big ole smile on his face.

The New York Daily News is characterizing the White House insistence as a demand. So the Donald is willing to stomp his little feet if he has to, apparently, to enjoy the same experience.

Well, like sugar daddy like son, I guess. If it helps to further understand Trumps motivation here, Chinese President Xi Jinping also used the golden carriage during his 2015 visit.

Things become much clearer indeed.

The ride would be from the Royal Mews down The Mall to Buckingham Palace. It would be a very slow, very exposed ride, in a flimsy cart pulled by horses. If someone starts shooting, it wont stop bullets, and horses dont make much of a getaway vehicle.

And Trump is not very popular in Great Britain. When Trump starts to realize the danger, perhaps he will change his mind?

Or perhaps the allure of the thing for a man with a golden potty but no access to a golden carriage will override caution. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Photo: Vladimir Putin and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II shared a carriage (the 1902 State Landau) from Horse Guards Parade to Buckingham Palace, in London. Wikimedia Commons
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By Peter Szekely

NEW YORK (Reuters)  Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets across the United States and beyond on Saturday to press President Donald Trump to release his tax returns and to dispute his claim that the public does not care about the issue.

The demonstrations, organized by a loose coalition of labor and left-leaning groups with various economic agendas, are intended to focus on Trumps refusal to disclose his tax-paying history, something his predecessors in the White House have done for more than 40 years.

When we check in with our members, this is something they care about deeply, said Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn.org, a progressive political group.

Critics have raised questions about what Trumps tax returns say about his net worth and about his various business ties.

Organizers of Tax March are planning events in more than 150 cities, including New York, Washington and Los Angeles, as well as cities in Europe, Japan and New Zealand.

As a candidate and as president, Trump has steadfastly refused to release his tax returns, citing an ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service. In September, he told ABC News, I dont think anybody cares, except some members of the press.

The IRS has said that Trump can release his tax returns even while under audit.

The demonstrations are taking place on the traditional April 15 Tax Day, the deadline for filing federal tax returns, although the IRS this year pushed back the deadline by three days.

The Trump tax marches were launched by a single tweet, organizers said.

A day after the massive Jan. 21 womens march in Washington and other cities, comedy writer Frank Lesser tapped out on Twitter, Trump claims no one cares about his taxes. The next mass protest should be on Tax Day to prove him wrong. It has been retweeted more than 21,000 times.

Organizers said they stuck with the traditional April 15 Tax Day for the marches because as a Saturday it would draw more attendance, even though this years income tax filing deadline was pushed back to Tuesday.

Joe Dinkin, spokesman for the Working Families Party, which is also planning the marches, said ongoing investigations into the Trump campaigns connections with Russia underscore the need to disclose his returns.

Without seeing his taxes well never really know who hes working for, said Dinkin, who expects the marches to draw at least 100,000 protesters.

There have been some glimpses into Trumps tax history. Last month, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow released two pages of Trumps 2005 return that were obtained by investigative reporter David Cay Johnston. They showed Trump paid $38 million in taxes on more than $150 million in income. And last October, The New York Times reported that Trump had declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 federal tax return, citing three pages of documents from the return.

In a Quinnipiac University poll released on April 4, more than two-thirds of the respondents said Trump should publicly release his tax returns. Other recent polls had similar results.

(Reporting by Peter Szekely; Editing by Frank McGurty and Leslie Adler)
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The following post, written by The Rev. Robert A. Franek, is a part of Politicus Policy Discussion, in which writers draw connections between real lives and public policy.

Last Monday another school shooting sent shockwaves across the country, but they didnt last long.

According to Police Chief Jarrod Burguan:

A Southern California man fatally shot his estranged wife inside an elementary school classroom attended by special needs children before killing himself. Two students were injured in the murder-suicide at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, and one of those children later died at a hospital.

Three people died: a teacher and wife of the perpetrator, an eight-year-old student, and the perpetrator himself. And another student was injured by the gunfire while standing with the other student behind their teacher.

This story was breaking news interrupting the live broadcast of Sean Spicers press conference on Monday afternoon. However, it seemed that as more details trickled in the more this story fizzled out of the medias attention and thus also the collective conscience of the country.

This act of terror was not perpetrated by someone from one of those countries Donald Trump wants the nation to fear for its national security. This school shooting was a tragic act of domestic violence in which two students were also shot and one of them died.

However, the script we have come to expect to play out following these tragedies with calls for increased gun control, mental health awareness, and a resolve to make sure it never happens again did not even get started this time.

The silence of even this familiar script shudders the soul.

There has been virtually nothing in the media regarding gun control or domestic violence or any other related factor. Is this because it was a domestic violence incident perpetrated by a white male and not by a terrorist? I cant help but think that it would be pandemonium all over again if this heinous act of violence were carried out by a person whose skin color was other than white and/or religion other than Christianity. More if the shooter happened to also be undocumented well there would be no end to the public outcry.

It is deeply disturbing that this act of domestic violence resulting in the death of a woman and a child and causing trauma to an entire elementary school did not merit more media attention along with calls to not only address the epidemic of school shootings in our country but the pervasiveness of domestic violence as well. Again, the soul shudders.

Addressing violence against women in all its forms must become an urgent priority. Passing the Violence Against Womens Act would be a great start. However, the Republicans in Congress seem more interested in regulating womens bodies than they are about how those same bodies are treated by anyone other than their doctor. Additionally, with this month dedicated to sexual assault awareness, it is imperative that this pervasive problem in our society especially its relationship to domestic violence and its prevalence in many workplaces be addressed substantively.

That this school shooting went by without any substantive cries to address our nations gun culture and safety laws, especially regarding domestic abusers, is another indictment against this impervious predicament.

It is long past time to end the NRA stranglehold on the GOP in Congress. If sensible reforms are to be passed this must happen. No amount of tragedies no matter how horrific will change this (see Sandy Hook). It will take the political will of the people calling, marching, and protest as we have seen with the fight to keep the Affordable Care Act. The Republicans in Congress must know that the people will no longer tolerate the National Rifle Association dictating our countrys gun policies.

Mental illness is tragically under-addressed in our society and treatment for it severely underfunded. These health care needs must be addressed on their own and not simply as a side conversation when it comes to addressing gun control. All too often the conversation around mental illness is tangent away from the more pressing gun control and safety discussion that needs to happen for the health and safety of our communities. Though it is worth noting that the Republicans in Congress made it easier for people who are mentally ill to get guns.

This latest school shooting has given us much to talk about, so how come no one is talking? Is it because this act of terror doesnt fit the terrorism talking points?
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President Trump claimed that the tens of thousands of protesters around the country that want his tax returns made public were paid, and he is demanding an investigation into who paid them.

Trump tweeted:

Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

By someone Trump has made it clear in the past that he means Republicans in Congress. When Trump wanted someone to investigate his voter fraud conspiracy, he wanted Congress. When Trump wanted someone to investigate leaks, he was talking about Congress. When Trump wanted someone to investigate his baseless claim that Obama spied on him, once again, he was talking about Congress.

It is safe to assume that Trump would also like Congress to investigate the protesters who want to see his tax returns made public.

The Tax Day protesters were not paid. The Presidents allegation was a clumsy way to attack the credibility of those who oppose him. Donald Trump cant fathom that a majority of the country believes he is corrupt and wants him removed from office.

These arent paid protesters. Americans from across the country came together because they want to know the truth about this president.

Free speech is protected in the US Constitution, so no matter how much Trump complains on Twitter, a congressional investigation isnt happening. The fact that Trump is demanding an investigation is proof that as president, he is a danger to the liberties of every American.
Charleston, SC (29403)

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A mix of clouds and sun. High 77F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph..

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Russell Laffitte, a former top executive for Palmetto State Bank, faces trial this week in Charleston's U.S. District Court. He stands accused of conspiring with Alex Murdaugh to defraud the disbarred Hampton attorney's former law clients. Read moreFormer Murdaugh banker Russell Laffitte battles fraud charges on 1st day of federal trial
I have an irrational fondness for loud engines. The distinctive potato-potato-potato growl of a Harley-Davidson, the thunderous takeoffs from the airport near my house, the angry rumble of a stock car  these sounds make me blissfully emotional, no idea why. Read moreRivenbark: My NASCAR experience lived up to the hype
Lee Smith is a Weekly Standard senior editor and Hudson Institute fellow. He also writes a weekly column for the online site Tablet. He is a sober and serious analyst of the foreign policy scene and related matters.

Smiths April 5 Tablet column hasnt gotten the attention it deserves. In it Smith asks: Did the Obama administrations abuse of foreign intelligence collection start before Trump? Smith argues that the Trump/Russia narrative replays Obamas abuse of FISA to smear political actors opposing the administration in the lead-up to the Iran deal.

The predicate for Smiths inquiry is derived from a December 29, 2015 Wall Street Journal article describing how the Obama administration had conducted surveillance on Israeli officials to understand the campaign that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials intended to wage against the Iran deal. The Journal reported that the targeting also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups.

Smith argued in another Tablet column at the time that the Obama administration had merely used the appearance of spying on American lawmakers to corner opponents of the Iran Deal. Spying on U.S. citizens would be a clear abuse of the foreign-intelligence surveillance system, Smith explains. It would be a felony offense to leak the names of U.S. citizens to the press.

Smith now confesses his belief that he erred in the previous column: I believe the spying was real and that it was done not in an effort to keep the country safe from threatsbut in order to help the White House fight their domestic political opponents.

Smith quotes a participant in the political battle over the Iran deal:

At some point, the administration weaponized the NSAs legitimate monitoring of communications of foreign officials to stay one step ahead of domestic political opponents, says a pro-Israel political operative who was deeply involved in the day-to-day fight over the Iran Deal. The NSAs collections of foreigners became a means of gathering real-time intelligence on Americans engaged in perfectly legitimate political activismactivism, due to the nature of the issue, that naturally involved conversations with foreigners. We began to notice the White House was responding immediately, sometimes within 24 hours, to specific conversations we were having. At first, we thought it was a coincidence being amplified by our own paranoia. After a while, it simply became our working assumption that we were being spied on.

Smith comments:

This is what systematic abuse of foreign-intelligence collection for domestic political purposes looks like: Intelligence collected on Americans, lawmakers, and figures in the pro-Israel community was fed back to the Obama White House as part of its political operations. The administration got the drop on its opponents by using classified information, which it then used to draw up its own game plan to block and freeze those on the other side. Andwith the help of certain journalists whose stories (and thus careers) depend on high-level accessterrorize them. Once you understand how this may have worked, it becomes easier to comprehend why and how we keep being fed daily treats of Trumps nefarious Russia ties. The issue this time isnt Israel, but Russia, yet the basic contours may very well be the same.

Smith has much more, all of it worth reading, in this troubling column.
North Korea put on quite a show Saturday, parading an impressive-looking array of nuclear missiles accompanied by the obligatory goose-stepping soldiers. According to the Washington Post, experts were stunned at the sheer number of new missiles on display during the parade  including, apparently, a new and previously unknown type of intercontinental ballistic missile.

However, the day ended badly for Kim Jong Un when North Koreas latest missile launch, touted as both an act of defiance of and a warning to the U.S., ended in total failure. The missile blew up almost immediately, according to South Korean and U.S. military officials.

The New York Times suggests that credit should go to former president Obama:

Over the past three years, a covert war over the missile program has broken out between North Korea and the United States. As the Norths skills grew, President Barack Obama ordered a surge in strikes against the missile launches, The New York Times reported last month, including through electronic-warfare techniques. It is unclear how successful the program has been, because it is almost impossible to tell whether any individual launch failed because of sabotage, faulty engineering or bad luck. But the Norths launch-failure rate has been extraordinarily high since Mr. Obama first accelerated the program.

Kim Jong Un almost surely will redouble his nuclear efforts in order to overcome the embarrassment of Saturdays failure. Thus, we should all hope that the U.S. has developed the ability to sabotage North Korean launches.

However, the Times suggestion that the U.S. sabotaged todays, or any other, launch is speculative. Neither the Washington Post nor the Los Angeles Times raises this possibility in its account of the failed launch.

The Trump administrations response to North Koreas failure was unusually matter of fact. Defense Secretary Mattis stated: The president and his military team are aware of North Koreas most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment.

The Times says this response left hanging the question of whether the United States played any role in the latest launchs failure. One might also view Mattis second sentence as wishful thinking.

My favorite part of the Times story is its concluding paragraphs:

One surprise from the parade was the re-emergence of Gen. Kim Won-hong, the former chief of the powerful secret police, the State Security Ministry. South Koreas National Intelligence Service had said that General Kim was dismissed and demoted in January on charges of corruption and abuse of power. In recent months, he has been absent from state functions, spurring speculation that he might have been purged and sent to a re-education camp. But on Saturday, he was among the generals on the reviewing stand. His uniform bore his four-star insignia, but he appeared to have lost weight.

The scientists held responsible for Saturdays failed launch should be so lucky.
Say what you will about the red-diaper babies of the old left decades ago: at least they wore diapers. Todays un-diapered left is dropping its s everywhere. I missed the latest riot in Berkeley yesterday (I was out of town), but I may well get another chance when Ann Coulter is scheduled to come to campus later this month for a speech sponsored by the Berkeley College Republicans. This will be a test of whether the Berkeley administration is in fact committed to free speech, or whether theyll just go through the motions before crumpling before a mob as they did with Milo in February.

Jillian Kay Melchior reports yesterday at Heat Street about anonymous flyers appearing at Berkeley calling for lynching Berkeley College Republicans. Melchiors story notes that This semester, the Berkeley College Republicans have hosted speeches for other controversial speakers, including Charles Murray and Heather Mac Donald. Theres more to this story, however. In both cases I was actually the person who invited Heather and Charles to campus, and I invited the Berkeley College Republicans to co-sponsor and publicize the eventsbut with a twist. Heather spoke on the subject of the future of free speech (not her book The War on Cops) in an event that was public, but not widely advertised. In the case of Charles Murray, after the Middlebury assault we decided that we needed to sneak him on campus and have him speak to my large class with no prior public announcement (even to my class, whom I told not to tweet out during class who was visiting), while the College Republicans quietly invited its members to attend since I have enough extra seats in my large lecture hall to accommodate 40 more people. It has come to this: conservative speakers have to be brought to campus clandestinely.

I can add some additional detail to Melchiors reporting. I frequently notice that when the Berkeley College Republicans set up their table on Sproul Plaza, sometimes a group of lefty hecklers will set up right across from them as the Berkeley Collage Republicans, and spend their time mocking the CRs. Here they are in actionyou can see their incoherent collages on the walkway:

Question: What do you think would happen if a group of students set up an LGBT table for Liquor, Guns, Bacon, and Trump across from one of the regular LGBT groups that also set up tables in Sproul Plaza, or mocked a Latino or Arab group table? Theyd probably shut down the campus for a week for sensitivity rallies and investigations into hate crimes. But if its only the College Republicans, then, well, no harm, no foul.

The Berkeley College Republicans take it all in strideno snowflakes in this groupas they attract all manner of hostile comment and live trolls shouting at them on a regular basis. I have no doubt it makes them tougher, and theyll be better suited for the real world after graduation.
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Police in Guinea have arrested an army colonel on suspicion of animal trafficking and seized a menagerie of animals from two properties he owns that they described as private zoos, a senior officer said.

Chimpanzees, a baboon, ostriches from Mali and turtles that inhabit the edge of the Sahara were among the 33 animals and 12 species found during police raids, said Charlotte Houpline of the WARA Conservation Project which worked on the investigation.

He was the owner of the animals and planned to sell them. He will be charged with animal trafficking, Gadiri Conde, a divisional police commissioner, told media.

A senior police source named the man, arrested in the capital Conakry on Wednesday, as Colonel Ibrahima Bangoura.

WARA, a French charity based in Guinea and Senegal, began investigating Mr. Bangoura in 2013, suspecting him of being part of a network that trades protected species on the international market, Ms. Houpline said.

This is a victory in the fight against corruption and impunity, she said, adding that Interpol has collaborated on the case.

Media was unable to contact Bangoura for comment.

After one of the raids, chimpanzees peered from cages as security officials in army fatigues carried them through the woods and loaded them onto pick-up trucks, media pictures showed.

A crocodile snapped at its rescuers as it was dragged from a shallow pool.

(Reuters/NAN)

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Seventeen-year-old Rakiya Rabiu, 17, sells groundnut at Bwari, a satellite community in Abuja where she and her her nine months old baby boy live with her aunt. Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES in Abuja, Rakiya said she got pregnant at the age of 15 for her water vendor boyfriend, who she started dating a year earlier.

I got pregnant for Shittu, the father of my son, in 2015. I started dating him when I was 14 years old.

I live with my aunt here in Bwari and I met Shittu when he came to sell water to my aunt, she said.

Rakiya said she has never been to school although she had considered enrolling in one. She got pregnant instead, out of ignorance, a factor that, she said, put a dent to her chances of going to school.

Rakiyas lack of formal education, and indeed of sex education may have contributed largely to her pregnancy. Her case typifies findings of the Nigerian government as it relates to teenage pregnancy.

The Nigerian Demographic and Health Surveys, NDHS, in its latest report in 2013 revealed that 23 per cent of Nigerian teenage girls were already mothers or pregnant with their first child.

The findings of the 2013 survey are similar to that of 2008, with the next survey due in 2018.

The 2013 report stated that one in six (17 per cent) Nigerian girls between the age of 15 and 19 already have a child with another five per cent pregnant with their first child.

THE LOCATION, EDUCATION FACTOR

One of the findings of the survey was that young girls in rural areas were more likely to get pregnant than their counterparts in urban areas.

The proportion of teenage girls who had begun child bearing in rural areas, according to the report, was 32 per cent as compared to 10 per cent in urban areas.

The report also showed variations across Nigerias six geopolitical zones. The north-west has 36 per cent prevalence of teenage pregnancy, while the south-east and south-west have the lowest prevalence rate with eight per cent each.

Education, including sex education, also plays a major role in preventing teenage pregnancy, the study found.

The survey found that teenagers with no education represent about half of those who had begun childbearing, while only two per cent of teenagers with more than a secondary education have begun childbearing.

Family income was also a major factor with the report finding that teenagers from poorer homes are more likely to be pregnant. Teenagers in the lowest wealth quintile are more than twice as likely to have started childbearing as those in the middle wealth quintile (43 percent and 21 percent, respectively), and almost 10 times as likely as those in the highest quintile.

Rakiyas ordeal typifies several of the factors identified in the survey.

Shittu had said he loved me and would marry me after making some money from his water business, so I allowed him to have sex with me and that was the first time, she told PREMIUM TIMES.

He lives in my area so we see each other every day and we had sex sometimes if my aunt is not at home. When I became pregnant, it was my aunt that first discovered that I was pregnant. Then I told Shittu that I was pregnant.

My aunt said he should marry me, he said we would get married after I gave birth.

However, since the birth of my child, he hasnt talked about the marriage. I have not even seen Shittu for four months now. People are saying he travelled and I dont know if he will come back.

I regret having sex with Shittu because I cannot take care of this child alone. Now he left, without telling me, she said.

When asked if she was ever taught sex education informally since she never went to school, Rakiyas response was negative.

I have never been educated or talked to about sex. I dont know what condom was or used for until Shittu brought it one day and used it when we were having sex.

I dont also know what sexually transmitted diseases are.

But I have heard my neighbours talk about HIV, that its a disease that kills. I regret my action but I pity my aunt most because she cannot chase me out of her house because I dont have mother again. So, she is taking care of me and the baby.

I started selling groundnut and sometimes pure water to take care of my son. I love my son and I will take care of him. He will soon start walking well now and he will keep growing, she said at an interview in March.

SEX EDUCATION HELPS

Like Rakiya, Roselyn Joseph, 16, said she has been in a sexual relationship.

The SS 3 student of a government school in Kubwa, another satellite town of Abuja, however said though she is sexually active, she has never engaged in unprotected sex.

Yes, I am sexually active. I know a lot about sex because we have a teacher for sex education. I started having sex at age 15 with my boyfriend and we use condom always.

My boyfriend loves me a lot and I love him too, that is why I agreed to allow him to have sex with me. He is older than me, so I believe anything he tells me. The only reason I feel bad now is because I realized most of my friends are still virgins.

Our sex education teacher has taught us a lot about the consequences of having sex before marriage. She said we can get pregnant or contact sexually transmitted diseases, which includes HIV, Roselyn said.

Another teenager, Bolutife Akindele, 15, said she has never engaged in sexual activity mainly because of her sexual education.

We have been taught a lot about sex in school, the SS2 student of a government school in Kurudu, an Abuja suburb, said.

Our teacher said if we have sex when we are not legally married, we can contact diseases like AIDS and also we can get pregnant. And I dont want to get pregnant because I dont want my mates to leave me behind.

I have a future and I am concentrating on that. We are also taught to dress well to avoid harassment from men because you are addressed the way you are dressed.

Also, apart from the knowledge I received from my teacher, my religion frowns against sex before marriage, so I wont engage in it.

Like Bolutife, Grace Onwukwe, a 15-year-old student of a government school in Dutse, also in Abuja, said she is not sexually active but has knowledge about it.

I know sex is the intimate relationship between a man and a woman. I was taught in school and even among my friends that sex is meant for only married couples.

So, I will wait till I get married before having sex with my husband. Another reason is because I dont want to contact HIV. My teacher said it can be contacted through sexual relationships.

AN AGENCYS DUTY

One agency responsible for ensuring sexual education among Nigerian youth and adults is the National Agency for the Control of Aids, NACA.

A senior programme officer for NACA, Hafsatu Aboki, said the agency was concerned by the reports on teenage pregnancy.

Mrs. Aboki, whose agency took part in the survey, said the reports are evidence that young people are still engaged in unprotected sex despite the agencys effort to stop the practice.

As it is widely known, HIV can be transmitted through unprotected sex where one partner is already infected. This is one of the issues we are trying to address in our programming. We have a programme that focuses on adolescents and young people.

The official said the agency has stepped up its efforts to educate teenagers about unprotected sex so as to reduce teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Exactly a year ago, we launched the National HIV Strategy for adolescent and young people, she said.

The strategy focuses on all adolescents and young people in Nigeria, both those in the rural and urban settings, whether they are in school or out of school, whether they are what we termed high-risk population or otherwise, they are all covered by this strategy.

We also have prevention interventions that are supposed to bring about positive behaviour change, like engagement in low risk sex, reduction of sexual partners, reducing early sex; that is, young people should abstain from sex till they are older. All these are part of the interventions that as a programme, we have designed for young people (with the involvement of young people).

Mrs. Aboki said her agency has a minimum prevention package that uses three approaches.

First, we are trying to address behaviour by giving information to young people, telling them about HIV and how it can be transmitted and how it can prevented.

Also, giving them biomedical interventions, such as HIV Testing Services (HTS), condoms and treating sexual transmitted infections which predispose a person to HIV infection. The third approach is to provide structural interventions meant to address vulnerability.

She said the intervention would address social and cultural norms in the society such as stigma, discrimination, as well as empower young people.

She also identified early marriage as a problem, making reference to a finding in the survey that about 40 per cent of young girls are married by the time they are 18 years of age.

The official acknowledged that in order to reduce the percentage of young people engaging in unprotected sex, information and education must improve.

She said the survey also found that while awareness about HIV is high, most young people dont have comprehensive knowledge about the virus.

It goes from HIV awareness at about 90 per cent to comprehensive knowledge at less than 30 per cent among young women. Risk perception is low. So if you ask adolescents age between 15-19 how they place their own HIV risk, most say that they are at either very low or no risk of acquiring HIV.

Surprisingly, even those that are engaging in high-risk behaviours consider themselves to be at low risk of HIV.

That is something that needs to be addressed by targeted communication to young people. It should be targeted in its content, so that what we are saying is something that is addressing the information needs of the population, she said.

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Abu Ibrahim, the senator representing Katsina South, and Amiru Tukur, the member representing Bakori/Danja Federal constituency in the House of Representatives narrowly escaped mob action at a political event organised by the Katsina State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday in Funtua.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that it took a combined teams of security personnel to rescue notable politicians, including the governors entourage, as they came under attack from protesters.

Stones and shoes were used in attacking the dignitaries.

Some vehicles in the entourage of the governor were smashed by irate youths while security personnel had to use tear-gas to disperse the crowds and free the dignitaries.

The event, according to NAN, was an APC rally where the ruling party was accepting defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) and other parties into its fold.

The event however ended abruptly.

Reports say trouble started when some youths started chanting Bamaso Abu Ibrahim (We dont want Senator Abu Ibrahim) and then started throwing stones and shoes at dignitaries and entertainers invited to perform at the event.

Amiru Tukur, the Representative from the area, suffered injury while Abu Ibrahim, along with some of his aides and supporters, who were trying to rescue the senator, were also assaulted.

Before proceedings descended into chaos, Governor Aminu Masari had urged party members to promote the partys manifesto.

The governor reiterated his administrations commitment to giving proactive leadership that would turn around things for the better in the state.

He said the government would ensure increased investments in education, health, water supply, agriculture among other areas.

In his remark, the Katsina state chairman of the APC, Shitu Shitu, said thousands of people were trooping to the party based on its achievements, adding that similar rally was organised in Dutsi local government for Katsina North senatorial zone recently.

He assured the new members of fair treatment in the party affairs.

Speaking on behalf of those who defected, a former chairman of Malumfashi Local Government Area, Mansur Banki, said he led more than 5,000 persons to join the APC from the PDP because of the good programmes of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Masari.

(NAN)

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Some opposition lawmakers in the House of Representatives have reacted to the plans by an ad-hoc committee investigating the $1.3 billion Malabu deal to summon former President Goodluck Jonathan over his role in the controversial award of OPL 245 licence.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Justice who also chairs the ad-hoc panel investigating the scandal, Razak Atunwa, had told PREMIUMTIMES that his committee would invite the former president for questioning.

Mr. Atunwa later released a statement to the media restating his position, with sources telling PREMIUM TIMES the committee has the approval of the Speaker to summon the former president.

Although Mr. Jonathan has denied receiving from the over $800 million transferred into the private account of ex-petroleum minister, Dan Etete, by his administration, from the money paid by oil giants Shell and ENI; investigations in Nigeria, U.S. and Italy indicate the former president may have benefitted from the scandal.

Apart from Mr. Jonathan, other officials believed to have benefitted from the Malabu funds include his justice minister, Mohammed Adoke, and then petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

It is based on recent revelations suggesting Mr. Jonathans involvement, that the House committee decided to invite the former president.

Some lawmakers from Mr. Jonathans Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have, however, expressed reservations with the decision.

Mr. Atunwa, like House Speaker Yakubu Dogara, is of the ruling All Progressives Congress, but his committee like the House of Reps, also has PDP members.

In a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, the House Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, said there are modalities in summoning an ex-president.

If it is the resolution of the house, well follow it logically, he said. This isnt the first time a former president will be summoned by the house

The PDP House leader said rather than summoning the former president, the two oil firms (Shell and ENI) who paid the money into the Nigerian government account should be investigated.

The ex-president said he doesnt have a foreign account, he said. I think the committee should rather investigate the oil firms, the Minister of petroleum and attorney general since they participated in signing the MoU.

He however expressed optimism that Mr. Jonathan will be exonerated at the end of the investigation.

I chaired that committee in the 7th assembly, we did our investigations and Im sure Mr. Jonathan will exonerated

Also commenting on the potential summon, Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, a PDP lawmaker from Edo State said he is not aware of such plans but believes the ex-president will appear if summoned.

I know Dr. Jonathan is a man who believes in the rule of law, he will definitely appear if he is invited

We shouldnt be talking about that now since he has not been invited Mr. Agbonayinma said.

He said the allegations against the former president, who is spearheading moves to unite a factionalised PDP, had not been proven in court.

Also speaking on the matter, Nicholas Ossai from Delta State said any plan to invite the former president must be discussed at plenary.

Former presidents, irrespective of their political parties are senior citizens, and there are certain levels of respect accorded to them

If there is any plan to summon him, it has to be deliberated on the floor of the house

The principal officers have to be consulted, Mr. Ossai said.

In his reaction, Solomon Maren, a lawmaker from Plateau State, said there is no need to invite the ex-president since he didnt partake in the signing of the agreement.

There were people in charge of the justice and petroleum ministries, they are the people who are to explain to us the terms of agreement, Mr. Maren said, referring to the 2011 agreements that saw the oil block given to Shell and ENI while they paid the $1.3 billion to the Nigerian government. It is from the money the oil firms paid that the Jonathan administration transferred $801 million to Malabu company accounts controlled by Mr. Etete.

Mr. Jonathan certainly did not draft the (2011) agreement and he cant peruse the entire agreement

It is expected that the ministers will do the entire agreement on his behalf and give him an executive summary, he said.

Another PDP lawmaker from Gombe State, Ali Isa, drew parallels between Mr. Jonathans planned invitation and that of former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

I remember in the past when the House was investigating power; a similar attempt was made to invite former president Olusegun Obasanjo. But because of the respect the House has for him, the committee didnt do that.

Mr. Isa suggested an alternative way the lawmakers could question the former president.

I know if the committee wants any information, they will pay a courtesy visit to the former president who is still respected within and outside the country

They wont summon him, he said.

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On February 28, some prominent Nigerians led by former Central Bank Governor, Charles Soludo, addressed a press conference where they demanded the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, who has been in detention for over one year on allegations of treason.

Mr. Soludos group, Uzuku Umunna, which also included former presidential candidate, Pat Utomi and former chairman of the electricity regulatory commission, Sam Amadi, gave reasons for their demand; one of which is the alleged illegality of holding Mr. Kanu in detention despite court orders.

A situation where the state refuses to obey clear and legitimate court orders for his release and holds him until it gets a favourable order; moves the goalposts endlessly through endless amendment of the charges against him; and now seeks to try him in secret clearly constitutes circumstances that would fall well short of the constitutional guarantees of due process, Mr. Soludo, who spoke on behalf of the group, said.

The call by the Uzuku Umunna is similar to that by other Nigerians who have challenged the federal government to seek better ways to resolve the Biafra agitation in the south-east; with many insisting Mr. Kanus detention is illegal as it allegedly violates court orders.

But, does his detention violate any court order?

FACT CHECK

Like Mr. Soludo, Mr. Kanus lawyer and indeed Mr. Kanu have reiterated that stance since an Abuja Division of the Federal High Court ordered his (Kanus) release on December 17, 2015.

Reacting to his continuous detention, Mr. Kanu and his lawyers accused several judges of refusing to toe the line of the December 17 judgement by Justice Adeniyi Ademola, in a bid to fulfil the aspiration of the current government.

After Kanu was granted bail on December 17, the president was heard saying at the presidential media chat that he (Mr. Kanu) will not leave the prison cell for any reason. That bail was made known to Federal Government on 18th December 2015 but they failed to grant the bail, said Mr. Kanus lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor.

The defendants also filed various requests, both at the Appeal Court and the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West Africa, ECOWAS, demanding that the judgements sanctioning the continued detention of Mr. Kanu be regarded as a flagrant abuse of the order made by a court of coordinate jurisdiction.

The argument by Mr. Kanus lawyer was that the defendant was granted bail by the court but was not allowed to enjoy the bail till the prosecution secured a contrary order from the same court.

A situation where the state refuses to obey clear and legitimate court orders for his release and holds him until it gets a favourable order

The above excerpts from Mr. Soludos remarks regarding Mr. Kanus detention echoes the point of view of Mr. Ejiofor, and indeed the IPOB leader on the matter.

REVIEWING COURT RULINGS

The first court ruling discharging Mr. Kanu was on December 16, 2015.

On December 16, 2015, a Magistrate Court in Abuja discharged Mr. Kanu, after he was first arraigned, following the withdrawal of the charges against him by the prosecution.

The Magistrate, Shuaibu Usman, struck out all criminal charges levelled against Mr. Kanu after counsel to the State Security Service, Moses Idakwo, filed for discontinuation of the matter on the instruction of his client.

Mr. Usman said since the SSS, through its lawyer, had filed for a discontinuation of the case, he had no option than to discharge the accused.

Mr. Idakwo had in that court hearing stated that further investigations by the SSS had shown that charges against Mr. Kanu could not be entertained by a Magistrate Court due to lack of jurisdiction.

A day later, a Federal High Court presided by Justice Adeniyi Ademola directed that Mr. Kanu be charged to court or set free in the absence of a valid charge against him before a court of law.

Delivering his judgement on December 17, Mr. Ademola hinged the grounds for his decision on the fact that the defendant had not been charged before a court of law.

The judge further said it was against the provisions of law for any party, including the state, to hold an accused captive for so long without a valid charge.

In other words, the judge said Mr. Kanu was to either be promptly released or charged to court.

A day after Mr. Ademolas ruling, the federal government filed fresh charges against Mr. Kanu at the Federal High Court, in what appears an obedience to the court order.

The Federal Government filed a formal charge against Mr. Kanu on December 18, 2015. The new case was filed at the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.

In that first charge at the Federal High Court, Mr. Kanu was accused of committing various offences bordering on alleged treason.

Reacting to the new charge, Mr. Kanu cast a vote of no confidence in the court, saying he preferred to remain in prison than to be subjected to a court hearing whose decision would not be respected.

Following Mr. Kanus remarks about the court, the judge, Ahmed Mohammed, recused himself from the matter, resulting in the transfer of the case file to the chief judge who then reassigned the matter to Justice John Tsoho, another judge of the Federal High Court, FHC, in Abuja.

REPEATED BAIL REFUSAL

On January 29, 2016 the court presided over by Mr. Tsoho refused Mr. Kanus application for bail, allowing his continued detention in prison.

On May 25, 2016, Mr. Kanus request to be granted bail at an appellate court in Abuja was also refused by a three-member panel of justices of the Appeal Court led by Abdul Aboki.

According to the judges, Mr. Kanus dual citizenship would increase the chances of him leaving the country, thereby jeopardising his case.

They also ruled that the allegation of terrorism earlier included in the charge against the defendants made it imperative that they should not be allowed bail.

On June 21, 2016, Mr. Kanu made another request for the replacement of Mr. Tsoho as judge in his trial. The case was adjourned till September 26, when the first defendant reiterated his request asking that the judge be investigated.

In a petition addressed to the National Judicial Council and made available to journalists, Mr. Kanu said the conduct of Mr. Tsoho amounted to judicial rascality.

He cited the revocation of a previous decision against secret trial by the judge, as well as failure of the court to promptly avail the defence of court proceedings as grounds for the alleged offences in Mr. Kanus petition.

Subsequently, on that day, Mr. Tsoho withdrew from participating in the matter.

On November 17, 2016 Mr. Kanu made another request for bail after his case was transferred to Justice Binta Nyakos court.

On December 1, 2016, the court refused Mr. Kanus application for bail yet again.

After his charge was amended to exclude terrorism allegation on March 1, Mr. Kanu again demanded to be granted bail.

The request, made at the FHC in Abuja, venue of his ongoing trial, will be decided on April 25. There will be hearing on April 27 on a similar application pending at the ECOWAS court.

Mr. Kanu was first arrested on October 14, 2015 upon his return to Nigeria.

He was detained in the custody of the SSS until January 20, 2016 when the Federal High Court ordered he be transferred to Kuje Prison where he has since remained.

While the continuous detention of Mr. Kanu may not be illegal and not in contravention of any court order, the calls by prominent Nigerians including the Uzuku Umunna, for a political solution to the Biafra agitation remains.

CONCLUSION: The Nigerian government is not violating any known Nigerian law by holding on to Mr. Kanu. His bail applications were refused, and the pending ones are yet to be decided.

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The suspended senator, Ali Ndume, has provided more insight into his suspension, saying he will not apologise to Senate President Bukola Saraki in order to get reinstated.

Mr. Ndume spoke on Saturday as a crowd of supporters turned out on to receive him when he visited his constituency, Borno South, for the first time since his suspension from the Senate.

He was placed on a 181-day suspension by his colleagues for demanding that the upper legislative house investigate newspaper publications that accused Mr. Saraki, and a fellow senator, Dino Melaye, of improper activities.

Mr. Saraki was accused of using fake Customs papers to import an official vehicle while Mr. Melaye was accused of lying that he graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University.

Following Mr. Ndumes request, the Senate conducted an investigation that cleared the lawmakers, while Mr. Ndume was subsequently punished for raising a false alarm.

On Saturday, Mr. Ndume embarked on a visiting tour of some parts of his constituency where he was welcomed by supporters who declared support for him.

The lawmaker during the visit addressed his constituents at various locations where he informed them that his plight at the National Assembly was because of his insistence on doing the right thing.

The former Senate majority leader said his suspension was not just because of his call for his colleagues investigation.

The Gwoza-born politician visited Shani, Biu, Bayo and Kwaya Kusar local government areas of Borno state where he was received by politicians and monarchs.

Mr. Ndume informed a gathering at the palace of the Emir of Biu that he does not regret the actions that led to his earlier removal as Senate leader and his recent suspension. He said if his suspension was based on corruption or abuse of office, he would not have been well received by his people.

Your Royal Highness, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it took us hours to squeeze through the crowd of supporters to get to this place. And this gives me the greatest joy because my people still appreciate me.

I will not remain a Senator for the rest of my life; but for the time I serve as the representative of my people, I shall continue to do and tell the truth. I know if I had erred, I would not have been received here. But I enjoy the support of my people because they know my suspension was because I spoke the truth.

I know those that suspended me are going now regretting their actions because of the massive protest that trailed my illegal suspension. After seeing the support that I enjoy from Nigerians, the same people that suspended me came to say I should tender an apology so that my suspension could be lifted. But I said no to that because I did not commit any offence in the first place.

They later came to say the Senate President, Senator Melaye and I should go and reconcile our difference; and I told them that I had no issue with either of them, so there is nothing to reconcile  as far as I am concerned we have a good working relationship.

But I thank the Governor of Borno State, and Your Royal Highness, the Emir of Biu, and all those that sent emissaries in seeking to ensure that this issue is resolved. We are still talking, but I know I had not committed any offence.

PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively reported the intervention of the Borno governor, Kashim Shettima, who met with Mr. Saraki in trying to ensure the reversal of Mr. Ndumes suspension.

My religion enjoins me to always stand on the path of truth even if I turn around and found that everyone has deserted me.

Firstly, I know my trouble with them started because of my support for the policies and ideals of President Muhammadu Buhari. Secondly, when Ibrahim Magus name was brought to the Senate as nominee for the Chairmanship of EFCC, some group in the senate insisted that he would not be cleared. And in my position as the then Senate Majority leader, it was incumbent upon me to support any nominee sent in by the Executive. Besides that, the same nominee is from my state, Borno; besides, he had committed no offence to be denied the senate clearance.

Above all, the majority of Nigerians loved him because he is doing the job well even as an acting chairman of EFCC.

Thirdly, when he was brought in for screening and it was not successful, I took courage to tell them that they were acting out of the Senate order.

And lastly, my position on the allegation levelled on the Senate President as well as the issue of Senator Dinos certificate by a news medium was the final straw they needed to break the camels back.

But Your Royal Highness, it is incumbent upon we the Senators, under Order 14-15 that if there is any issue or development or any action that tends to rubbish the integrity of the Senate, we stand up to ensure that we defend the name of the Senate. All I asked for was to investigate an allegation published in a news medium against two of our colleagues.

The President of the Senate has all the powers to rule me out of order if he felt that the issues I raised were not welcomed on the floor of the Senate. But because they had always wanted to crucify me, they seized the moment to unleash their built-up angst against me. So, they gave a dog to hang me. And they did that when majority of the senators were not on seat.

I thank God this turned out good to me, because it made me know how much love I enjoy from Nigerians, he said.

The Senator said though he is on suspension, he would continue to work for his constituents especially in the area of constituency projects execution.

While the Emir of Biu, Umar Aliyu, assured the senator of his fatherly support and good wishes, his counterpart, the Emir of Shani, Nasiru Mailafiya, who was visited earlier, called for the reversal of Mr. Ndumes suspension.

While welcoming the senator in his palace, Mr. Mailafiya, who sympathised with the lawmaker over his suspension, berated the leadership of the Senate for causing his constituents a setback by the six months suspension.

We the people of Shani local government are solidly behind you. We are indeed saddened by the injustice that was done to you simply because you stood for the truth.

The Senate might suspend you, but you still remain our serving senator. You have proven yourself as an illustrious son of Southern Borno. Youve always been the eyes of Borno especially in our troubled moments. So, we will stand by you now that Abuja chose to punish you.

The emir urged the lawmaker to carry on with his disposition and always speak the truth at all times.

You have to stand by the truth and always be a supporter of the President. We love you and will forever continue to stand on your side as long as you represent the truth, he said.

I call on the Senate President and all others who joined in this anti-people decision to immediately reverse the suspension of our senator if they are true friends of Borno, he said.

The senator who was accompanied by party chieftains distributed poverty alleviation items worth millions of naira to his constituents.

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The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has finally settled the lingering internal crises that started during the leadership transition of the association in June 2016.

Kwamkur Samuel, CAN Director of Legal and Public Affairs, said on Saturday that the crisis was resolved after interventions by the current leadership, top religious leaders and well-meaning Nigerians.

Mr. Samuel recalled that the election process that led to the emergence of the present President of CAN, Samson Ayokunle, was full of challenges.

He said the challenges led to one of the aggrieved aspirants, Jeremiah Gado, the President, Evangelical Church for Winning All, ECWA, to file a lawsuit against the former leadership led by Ayo Oritsajafor.

He said the matter, which was filed in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court since June 2016, had generated interest from Christian groups, governments and well-meaning Nigerians.

He affirmed that after rigorous battles in court, the parties involved in the case saw the need for an amicable resolution of the issues after several interventions.

According to him, the parties resolved, prepared and agreed terms built on the need for the unity of the church.

The agreement, which he said, finally put the matter to rest in April 2017, was filed in Kubwa High Court, Abuja.

He said that this new development had put CAN in a better position to speak for all Christians in the country.

CAN sincerely appreciates the individuals, Christian organisations and all those who created time to ensure that genuine reconciliation is attained.

With the ongoing efforts to ensure oneness in the body of Christ, it is better positioned to provide a stronger voice for the Christians and ensure the development of our nation, Samuel said.

The CAN chairman for the North Central, Israel Akanji, who also played prominent roles in the peaceful resolution, confirmed the amicable settlement.

We thank God for the peaceful settlement of the matter out of court.

We are the people of God and being the light of the world and the salt of the earth, it is our responsibilities to reconcile the world back to God.

It will not speak well of us if we are engaging the court to settle any internal disagreement, said Akanji.

(NAN)

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Some indigenes of Kano State have reacted to some statements by the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, with some describing them as critical and inflammatory comments on religious and family issues.

Mr. Sanusi, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, recently called for the regulation of marriage to second wives. He warned men who could not cater for their family not to marry more than one wife.

The foremost traditional ruler also criticised conservative northern leaders who discouraged attitudes and activities that, he said, would have developed the region.

He also criticised Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State for saying the outbreak of meningitis in his state was Gods punishment for peoples sins, insisting That is not an Islamically correct statement to make.

Mr. Sanusi had also called on governors of northern states to use mosques as primary schools, especially in the villages.

In separate interviews with PREMIUM TIMES, the Kano residents asked the traditional ruler to stop making statements, some of which they said were critical of Islamic teachings.

A former presidential aspirant on the ticket of the Labour Party, Isa Tijjani, asked Mr. Sanusi to moderate his public utterances so as not to send wrong signals to people.

I give it to you that you are educationally sound in both the western education and our religious (Islamic) education, he said.

Your Highness, I want to say that education must be accompanied with wisdom to achieve a desired goal which in this case I understand it to mean your genuine concern for the deplorable state of affairs in the north.

Responding to Mr. Sanusis claim that the northwest and northeast geo-political zones were the poorest in the country, Mr. Tijjani, an activist, said the emirs definition and understanding of poverty might be different from his own because he (emir) was an economist.

In this world where basic survival is the greatest challenge, if a society is able to feed itself without intervention from any donor organisation, it cannot be classified as poor.

In any case, 90 per cent of our people do not aspire to lead an elites life if that is the yardstick of measuring poverty.

On the Kano rail project, Mr. Tijjani cautioned Mr. Sanusi against condemning policies and programmes of the state government at public fora, saying it was dangerous no matter how the foremost traditional ruler felt about such policies.

Lawan Gamsuwa, a security officer, said Islam had a position on the issue of marriage and therefore by his comment, the emir was promoting divorce.

He said, Dont forget the same person was crying against rampant divorces but at the same time he is saying a wife should slap back her husband whenever he slaps her. What do you think this would cause? Indeed, rampant break of more marriages.

So, the family bond that allows for intervention whenever there is misunderstanding between couples has been clearly spelt out in the Holy Quran.

On Mr. Sanusis position on education and poverty, Mr. Gamsuwa claimed that the emir had merely supported the position of southern Nigerians against the north.

According to him, the south had always believed that the north was a parasite and the traditional rulers comments seemed to have supported that position.

He (Sanusi) exaggerated the situation by linking our Islamic religion to the whole problem as responsible of our predicaments, he told PREMIUM TIMES.

Remember the south was talking only on the poverty and probably education but had never attacked our religion because they know the sensitivity of that.

Mr. Gamsuwa argued that Mr. Sanusi had forgotten that Nigeria never witnessed the Type C meningitis before now and therefore no governor in the country could have prepared for the new disease.

A teacher, Umar Labu, described as unfair Mr. Sanusis critical stance on state governors over the outbreak of meningitis, saying they (governors) were not prepared for the type of disease that broke out.

He, however, said the governors should not be totally absolved of blame because they ought to have established laboratories that would frequently conduct tests on various diseases with a view to identifying the new ones.

Mr. Labu also said though the issue of Almajiri was a social problem that exposed the norths economic backwardness, the region had been a hub of commercial activities and produces some essential commodities for the country.

So, I think the emir should help provide the means of how the problems of Almajiri would be solved so that we will stop being portrayed as being beggarly, he said.

He also advised the emir to help reform Islamic teachings which for hundreds of years clearly gave a position on family issues. He called on Islamic faithful to stick to the teachings, warning that any move by the emir to change that will not be accepted.

However, a businessman, Sani Abdullahi, defended Mr. Sanusis positions on the various issues, saying he did not see anything wrong in what the traditional ruler said.

Mr. Abdullahi told this newspaper that the elected leaders had for a long time disappointed the electorate and therefore critics like Mr. Sanusi should speak up.

He wondered why a governor would allow over 300 people in his state, including children to be killed by a disease and went ahead to blame it on punishment from God.

I salute Emir Sanusi, our revered leader, for being bold in attacking these people, Mr. Abdullahi said.

On Mr. Sanusis comment on poverty and education in the north, Mr. Abdullahi said, What is the lie about the position of the Emir? Is it not true that the north is suffering from all angles of poverty, lack of education?

What have these elected persons done for all these years they ruled us? Where is the money they have been allocated? So why shouldnt a leader in Emir Sanusi stand up to say the truth?

He also backed the emirs position on some family issues, saying marriage should be a partnership.

I stand with the emir because there should be a deviation from the old barbaric way we live with our families, with the husband feeling he is all and all, while even the religion clearly stated that marriage is a partnership. So, why should a partner subject his other half to severe punishment?

Also speaking, the Chairman of the Northern Elders Council, NEC, Tanko Yakasai, challenged Mr. Sanusi and other traditional rulers in the north to contribute five per cent of any funds allocated to them to address the regions education backwardness.

The traditional rulers who are receiving substantial amount of money from the public coffers need to come in here to address the problems of backwardness in terms of western education, Mr. Yakasai, a former presidential aide, said.

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The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has said that the runway of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, would be ready by April 17, two days ahead of the deadline.

Saleh Dunoma gave the assurance in a statement signed by the media consultant to the Minister of State for Aviation, Ariyo Akinfenwa, on Sunday in Lagos.

We will be ready April 17 but we are leaving the remaining two days for Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

We have written to them and they will come by today (Sunday) to do the preliminary inspection.

They have to certify the airport that what we have done is in accordance with their standards.

They have to certify the airport that what we have done is in accordance with their standards.

 If there is any observation as a result of the inspection, we will now make sure we carry out corrections, the FAAN boss said after inspecting the progress of work at the airport.

He maintained that with the work done, the April 19 deadline for the reopening of the airport is no longer in doubt.

All the critical items of work are 100 per cent except may be two items; which of course are the markings and the cleaning.

Asphalt work is 100 per cent, markings have reached almost 70 per cent and the airfield lighting system has reached 80 per cent, Mr. Dunoma added.

According to him, the authority also used the opportunity provided by the closure of the airport to address other Airport Excellence in Safety (APEX) related items.

He said: We are now levelling all the airfield lightings locations, all the installations and flash with the ground surface.

In case of any skidding, there will not be concrete projection above the ground surface.

The FAAN boss further explained that the newly constructed runway does not need calibration because the previous Navigational Aids were not tampered with.

The runway does not need calibration. All we need to check is to make sure there is 100 per cent illumination.

Calibration is done periodically. When the time come for calibration, the appropriate authority will calibrate the Instrument Landing System (ILS), he said.

Mr. Dunoma also noted that the terminal building was also ready for flight operations.

The Abuja airport was shut on March 8 for six weeks to enable Julius Berger rebuild the 3.6-kilometre runway.

The runway, which was constructed in 1982 was meant to last for 20 years, but had been in use for 35 years without major repairs and maintenance.

(NAN)

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Despite just getting out of jail for stealing at least $250 million from the coffers of his oil-rich Delta State, former Governor James Ibori has described himself as a man who believed in justice, equity and fairness.

Speaking Saturday when he received a delegation from a socio-cultural group, Ndi Anioma, Mr. Ibori said his support for a governor from the Delta North senatorial district, which saw the emergence of Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa, was based on his believe for justice, equity and fairness.

The delegation to the former governors Oghara hometown was led by Emmanuel Efeizomor, the Obi of Owa, and Chairman, Delta Council of Traditional Rulers.

Mr. Ibori commended the Delta North (Anioma) people for the visit and for their prayers which made his freedom from jail possible.

He said the massive support he received from the Aniomas in his quest for governorship in 1998 prompted his choice of an Anioma indigene as his deputy.

My believe in justice, equity and fairness informed my firm support for an Anioma governor which has come to pass with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on the saddle, he said.

He promised to continue to identify with Anioma people and urged them to remain united and support Mr. Okowa to succeed.

Earlier, the Owa monarch commended Mr. Ibori for his disposition to advancing the political course of Anioma people.

He said that the five years absence of the former governor was greatly felt by Deltans, particularly the political class and members of the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP).

The monarch added that Mr. Iboris return would change the political landscape of the state ahead of 2019 elections.

He said Mr. Ibori had closely related with the Anioma nation, having chosen Benjamin Elue as his deputy in his eight years in office as governor.

He recalled the role played by the former governor in the emergence of Mr. Okowa as governor of Delta and particularly thanked him for endorsing the governor for a second term.

Mr. Efeizomor thanked God for the safe return of Mr. Ibori, describing him as an invaluable asset to the state and country.

He urged him to see his travails in London as a sacrifice towards deepening democracy in Nigeria and assured him of the continued support of Anioma people.

The delegates included Benjamin Elue, Nkem Okwuofu, Chris Agbobu, Theodora Giwa-Amu, traditional rulers, legislators and members of the State Executive Council from Delta North.

After almost five years of playing cat and mouse with Nigerian and British authorities, the former governor capitulated on February 27, 2012, pleading guilty in a London court to 10 counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud.

Before Judge Anthony Pitts, Mr. Ibori admitted stealing $250million as alleged by the prosecution.

The Metropolitan Police had accused the former governor of spending some of the stolen money to purchase six houses in London  paying 2.2m in cash for one Hampstead mansion  and putting his children in expensive British private schools.

Revelations from Panama Papers later showed in vivid details how Mr. Ibori carefully organised his looting scheme.

To hide his loot, Mr. Ibori, working through a Swiss asset management firm, Clamorgan S.A. in Geneva, established several offshore companies, including Stanhope Investments Limited,a foundation, Julex Foundation, and a trust, The Hopes Trust, enlisting himself, his wife and daughters as beneficiaries.

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The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI, has declared a Nigerian, Kelechi Declan James, wanted.

The FBI made this known on its Twitter handle and its website on Friday.

According to the FBI, the accused has federal criminal charges against him from an investigation by FBI New Yorks Cyber Crime Task Force.

As alleged in a complaint sworn out of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mr. James, along with four other co-conspirators, ran an e-mail compromise scheme that resulted in losses of more than $5 million for their victims.

As part of scheme, the suspect and his co-conspirators allegedly defrauded victims across the U.S. by tricking them into wiring money to bank accounts the victims believed were owned by friends or business associates. They did this in two ways: by overtaking an e-mail account of an individual trusted by the victim and then requesting money be wired to a bank account; or by developing a relationship of trust with victim like an Internet romance and then asking the victim to wire money, the American agency said.

As soon as the money was wired, it would be moved from one account to another, and the funds would be withdrawn. Mr. Jamess role in this scheme was to withdraw the money from bank accounts, the FBI said.

James is known to frequent the Brooklyn neighborhoods of East New York (Crescent Street and Loring Avenue; Vermont Street between Blake Avenue and Dumont Avenue), Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant (MacDougal and Hull Streets), Crown Heights (Park Place and Utica Avenue), Flatbush (E 29th and Avenue D), and East Flatbush (East 51st and Winthrop Street), the agency said.

The FBI offered a $1,000 reward for information that leads to his arrest.

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Some unidentified gunmen on Sunday killed a journalist, Famous Giobaro, the Bayelsa Police Command confirmed.

Mr. Giobaro, staff of state owned Glory FM 97.1 was killed by the armed persons in his residence at INEC Road, Kpasia in Yenagoa, the state capital.

The Bayelsa Police Public Relations Officer, Asinim Butswat, said the command was yet to get the full details of the incident.

A witness said the gunmen stormed Mr. Giobaros apartment within a bungalow at about 5a.m. on Sunday and shot him point blank on the stomach.

The attackers had gained access into the compound after scaling the fence with a ladder.

They went straight to Mr. Giobaros kitchen door, shot at it and pulled it down to enter the journalists bedroom.

Two unidentified men who slept in the apartment with Mr. Giobaro were said to have hidden in the wardrobe and toilet when the gunmen entered.

The attackers did not steal anything and they did not attack other occupants of the bungalow, triggering speculations they could be assassins.

The Bayelsa Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, described the attack as shocking.

The NUJ Chairman, John Angese, and Secretary, Stanley Imgbi, said Giobaros death was a huge loss to the union.

The union asked the Police to investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators of the dastardly act to book.

(NAN)

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An attack has occurred in Asso community, Jemaa Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The details of the attack are unclear, but the state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, condemned the attack in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES by his spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan.

The attack on Asso is believed to be part of the larger Southern Kaduna violence that has pitched Fulani herdsmen against largely local farming communities leading to the death of over 200 people in the past year.

The casualty from this weekends attack has not been confirmed but Mr. El-Rufai condoled with the victims and their families, while affirming that security operations are being ramped to rid the forest areas of the bandits.

The governor also launched Operation Harbin Kunama II that would help the Army deal with the armed persons responsible for the attacks in Southern Kaduna.

Read the Kaduna governors statement below:

Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai on Sunday said that the forthcoming Operation Harbin Kunama II is a necessary step towards ending the violence in parts of southern Kaduna. The governor spoke while condemning the weekend attack on Asso community in Gwong Chiefdom of Jemaa local government area of the state.

In a statement issued in Kaduna by his spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, the governor extended his condolence to the victims and their families, while affirming that security operations are being ramped to rid the forest areas of the bandits.

The Governor charged security agencies to redouble their efforts in fishing out those behind the killings, and to act promptly on carefully vetted intelligence.

The statement said that agencies responsible for emergency services have been directed to offer relief.

The governor requested support from communities to the security agencies as the Nigerian Army gets set to commence a major operation tagged Operation Harbin Kunama II, including assisting the Nigerian Army with vital information that could aid a successful clampdown on elements responsible for this terror attacks on our citizens.

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The Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar, said on Saturday that begging has no basis in Islam and challenged those engaging in the act to find legitimate means of earning a living.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sultan Abubakar made the remark in Sokoto at the graduation of 2000 women trained in various skills by the Wife of Sokoto State Governor, Mairo Tambuwal.

The training was conducted in collaboration with Sokoto State Zakkat and Endowment Commission to empower the women drawn from the 86 districts of the state.

The Sultan said, Our women should always desist from street begging, as it has no basis in Islam and it only generates more harm than good among the society.

Women have always been the pillars for any societal development, so we need to do more in encouraging and supporting their living standard in order to yield a better society.

Moreover empowering women is one of the positive base to a better, secured and productive society.

He commended Mrs Tambuwal for initiating the programme and admonished the beneficiaries to utilize the opportunity to enhace their livelihood.

The monarch is the President-General of the Nigerian Islamic Council for Islamic Affairs.

Earlier, the governors wife had expressed appreciation to the Sultanate Council, the state government and Zakkat commission for supporting the initiative.

She said the skills training initiative was principally to make women in the state self-reliant.

Mrs Tambuwal, who was represented by Hauwa Muhammad, called on the beneficiaries to apply the new skills they acquired to uplift their economic status and contribute to the overall development of the state.

The Overseer of the Zakat commission, Lawal Maidoki, said that the 2000 women were carefully selected and empowered to live above the poverty line.

(NAN)

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Muslims and Christians on Saturday met in Kaduna to mark the Easter, as part of efforts to promote unity, tolerance and understanding among members of different faiths in the state.

The event, organised by a pastor, Yohanna Buru, attracted a huge crowd including clerics, traditional and community leaders.

Buru, the General Overseer of Christ Evangelical Intercessory Fellowship, Sabon Tasha, said Nigerians must team up irrespective of differences to overcome social and economic challenges retarding growth and development.

We must unite in order to find means of ending all forms of ethno-religious and political crisis that is setting us backward.

We dont want relative peace but lasting peace that will come to stay in Northern Nigeria, Nigeria and in Africa.

We are not asking anyone to compromise his or her faith, but if we can understand one another, we will live in peace and harmony with every citizen, so as to make Nigeria great again.

Mr. Buru stressed that the basis for any progress is peace, as such Nigerians must strive to pursue the path of peace, dialogue and understanding at all times.

The District Head of Ungwan Muazu, Ahmed Aliyu, commended Mr. Buru for his unrelenting pursuit of peace in the state.

Mr. Aliyu urged Muslims and Christians to key into the initiative to end hatred, and collectively tackle any form of insecurity in various communities.

The district head urged people of the state to support ongoing efforts of the state and federal government to ensure peace in all communities.

Similarly, Gambo Abdullahi, an Islamic scholar, appealed to government to address the problems of cattle rustling, armed robbery, banditry, kidnapping and rape.

He also urged government to address problems of cultism and ritual activities in tertiary institutions.

Mr. Abdullahi called on all Nigerians to support government in the fight against corruption and in punishing looters of national treasury.

We expect you to extend this gospel of peace to people in your communities when you get back home and we must teach our children peace from the grassroots, he said.

(NAN)

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ISLA HOLBOX, Mexico  Several weeks before I found myself uncomfortably close to the worlds largest shark, I told a few folks I would be going to Holbox.

Whole what? asked more than one.

Holocene, corrected my smartphone.

Ohl-bosch, corrected the locals when I arrived.

Isla Holbox, a Mexican island with turquoise waters, unpaved streets and about 3,000 residents, lies about 120 miles northwest of Cancun, 500 miles south of New Orleans.

Its not an American household name, but it has fine sand, palm trees, wild flamingos and beachfront hotels charging less than $200 a night.

Moreover, if you take a boat out from mid-May through mid-September, you have a good chance of swimming with a whale shark. There is no bigger fish.

They grow to as much as 40 feet long and 30,000 pounds. Their gray flanks are peppered with white polka dots. Their mouths are up to 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Because theyre filter-feeders, consuming mostly plankton, they swim through life with their wide mouths open, no teeth in sight.

But first, the island.

Its about 26 miles long and a mile wide and is developed only at its eastern end. Youll want mosquito repellent.

Most visitors arrive after a three-hour ride by taxi, van or bus from Cancun, then a half-hour ferry from the coastal town of Chiquila.

The temperature is rarely cooler than 65 degrees or hotter than 90.

Before long, somebody will explain the word Holbox comes from a Mayan phrase for black hole, perhaps derived from freshwater springs.

So far there are no global hotel or restaurant brands  in fact, none has more than about 45 rooms. About a dozen beachfront lodgings are lined up along Holboxs north-facing shore, where the dock is.

The bohemian-chic, Italian-owned Hotelito Casa las Tortugas, where I was lucky enough to land, is more stylish than most of the islands lodgings. It has 26 rooms, a pool, a raked-sand beachfront and rates that start at about $186 a night.

Most islanders live in low-rise, no-frills homes constructed in the last 50 years on the flat, sandy island. Most of the buildings are boxy and modern, often splashed with murals.

There is nothing Spanish Colonial here.

Because the island is part of the Yum Balam Nature Reserve and a hefty distance from Cancun, growth has been limited. One major development proposal has been tied up in court for years.

Yet the place is getting busier as travelers rush in from the U.S., Europe and Mexico City. As tourism grows (and debate increases about whats sustainable and what isnt), a sophisticated crop of restaurants has arisen.
Something concrete at last  literally. The groundbreaking next month on the first building at the Stockton Aviation Research and Technology Park has been anticipated for so long that its tempting to celebrate.

Too soon. This is actually the beginning of the worthy effort to diversify the area economy by growing its aviation technology sector. This could or should have happened several years ago but was stalled by the missteps of the original project overseer, the economic slump locally and nationally, and the lack of progress by the Federal Aviation Administration on its NextGen air traffic system modernization.

Were glad to reach the phase in which industry interest in working alongside the William J. Hughes FAA Technical Center ceases to be hypothetical. The executive director of the aviation park has said four major companies have inquired about space in the building. Thats good, but were not uncorking the champagne at least until the first leases are signed.

The corporate interest is one good sign. Another is that the federal government appears intent on getting the NextGen project moving. One possibility is air traffic control operations might be moved from the FAA to a nonprofit corporation, as several other nations have done, for operation and modernization. An assistant administrator for NextGen told The Press editorial board last month discussions on that possibility have just begun.

Rep. Frank LoBiondo, who will participate in the aviation parks May 15 groundbreaking, as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation introduced an FAA reauthorization last year that included the air traffic upgrade plan. It failed due to opposition in the Senate, but prospects look better now, and the Trump administration has indicated its support for the plan.

LoBiondo already is holding hearings on this years FAA reauthorization. Whatever path the federal government decides for NextGen, it should greatly increase work on the satellite-based navigation system and generate corporate interest in working closely with the tech center.

The research park also deserves state support in the form of incentives typically given to encourage technology investment and to help economically struggling areas. The Atlantic County areas economy has been among the slowest in the nation for a few years.

The park was included in the state innovation zone act that passed the Legislature last year by a vote of 99 to 3. It would have provided significant employee-based tax breaks for companies locating in the aviation zone and its incubator facilities.

Unfortunately, Gov. Chris Christie pocket-vetoed the bill. Maybe he felt the state couldnt afford more tax-reducing incentives, or maybe that too many areas of New Jersey were included.

A new version of the bill is working its way through the Assembly. The Legislature should pass it again, and Christie should sign it this time  the perfect time to give the aviation research park a chance to compete fairly with economic development areas around the nation.

Celebrations are still on hold, but were getting pretty hopeful. Perhaps even the many delays will turn out to be fortunate, timing the launch of the countys aviation research development with the ramping up of NextGen. That might really get off the ground.
SEATTLE, April 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Global trade of wood chips has seen spectacular development the past 15 years with a steady increase of about four percent annually (volumes year-over-year were up 11 of the past 14 years), according to the Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ). In 2016, an estimated 35.6 million tons were shipped, predominantly to pulp mills in China and Japan, which can be compared to only 21 million tons 15 years ago. While trade of hardwood chips reached a record high in 2016, shipments of softwood chips have levelled out the past few years with 2016 volumes being slightly lower than the ten-year average.

Japan and China are by far the two dominant consumers of globally traded wood chips. Their dominance is particularly accentuated for hardwood chips, where they imported 84 percent of the world's total imports in 2016, up from 75 percent in 2007. China has surpassed Japan as the largest importer of chips in the world, and with expansion of pulp capacity on the horizon in China, it is likely that the country will be the number one destination for wood chips for many years to come (see further details in a special report in the latest issue of the WRQ).

The major sources of hardwood chips for the two dominant importers include (in ranking order in the 4Q/16); Vietnam, Australia, Chile and South Africa. The biggest change on the supply side the past three years has been the sharp increases in hardwood chip shipments from Australia, South Africa, Brazil and Chile, while exports have fallen from Indonesia, Uruguay and Thailand.

About 30% of global chip trade occurs outside of the Pacific Rim with Finland, Sweden and Turkey being the major destinations. The Finnish forest industry has long been reliant on both logs and wood chips from neighboring Russia and the Baltic States. In 2016, Finland imported almost 1.7 million tons of chips to its country's pulp industry, of which a majority was softwood chips from Russia. Current import volumes are down about 25% from five years ago, partly because of increased availability of domestic chips and higher usage of pulplogs.

The fifth country on the ranking list for chip importers in 2016 is Turkey, which has become a major chip destination in just the past five years. This is the only major country that is not importing wood fiber for the manufacturing of wood pulp. Instead, the imported wood chips are consumed by a large and expanding MDF industry.

Global lumber, sawlog and pulpwood market reporting is included in the 52-page quarterly publication Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ). The report, which was established in 1988 and has subscribers in over 30 countries, tracks sawlog, pulpwood, lumber and pellet prices, trade and market developments in most key regions around the world. To subscribe to the WRQ, please go to www.woodprices.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/wood-resources-international-llc/r/new-record-high-for-globally-traded-wood-chips-in-2016-with-the-pacific-rim-accounting-for-70--of-to,c2239988

The following files are available for download:

http://mb.cision.com/Main/1902/2239988/657985.pdf New record high for globally traded wood chips in 2016 with the Pacific Rim accounting for 70% of total imports followed by Finland, Sweden and Turkey

CONTACT:

Wood Resources International LLC

Hakan Ekstrom

[email protected]

www.woodprices.com

SOURCE Wood Resources International LLC

Related Links

http://www.woodprices.com


The Alaska LNG project is expected to create 9,000 to 12,000 jobs for design and construction, with approximately 700 to 1,000 jobs for long-term operations. Almost every labor craft will be required, including: boilermakers, carpenters, insulators, ironworkers, laborers, electricians, instrument technicians, operating engineers, pipe fitters, welders, and more. The project will monetize America's largest concentration of proven, conventional, but stranded, natural gas supply. It will provide low-cost, clean energy for Alaskans as well as LNG exports to the Asia-Pacific region for generations.

"Our meeting was a perfect precursor to the vice president's trip to Asia," said Meyer. Over the coming days, Vice President Pence will meet with leaders in South Korea as well as Japan  two primary markets for Alaska LNG. Trade partnerships will be a primary discussion topic.

Vice President Pence is the latest in a string of recent high-profile government officials to express interest in the Alaska LNG project. Last week, on April 7, Chinese President Xi Jinping, returning to Beijing after meeting with President Donald Trump, visited Anchorage where he met with Walker and Meyer. A significant point of discussion between the three leaders was the Alaska LNG project and how Alaska and China are well positioned for a long-term LNG trading relationship.

The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) is an independent, public corporation of the State of Alaska. Advancing the development and construction of a North Slope natural gas pipeline and LNG export terminal is its top priority. AGDC is charged with securing a long-term energy supply for Alaskans. Visit www.agdc.us for up to date information.

Rosetta Alcantra

Vice President, Communications

[email protected]

+1 (907) 330-6358

SOURCE Alaska Gasline Development Corporation

Related Links

http://www.agdc.us


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Fedora Update Notification

FEDORA-2017-3fb95ed01f

2017-04-15 18:25:31.200657

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Name : mediawiki

Product : Fedora 25

Version : 1.27.2

Release : 1.fc25

URL : http://www.mediawiki.org/

Summary : A wiki engine

Description :

MediaWiki is the software used for Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia

Foundation websites. Compared to other wikis, it has an excellent

range of features and support for high-traffic websites using multiple

servers



This package supports wiki farms. Read the instructions for creating wiki

instances under /usr/share/doc/mediawiki/README.RPM.

Remember to remove the config dir after completing the configuration.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Update Information:



* (T109140) (T122209) Special:UserLogin and Special:Search allow redirect to

interwiki links. (CVE-2017-0363, CVE-2017-0364) * (T144845) XSS in

SearchHighlighter::highlightText() when $wgAdvancedSearchHighlighting is

true.

(CVE-2017-0365) * (T125177) API parameters may now be marked as

"sensitive" to

keep their values out of the logs. (CVE-2017-0361) * (T150044) "Mark

all

pages visited" on the watchlist now requires a CSRF token.

(CVE-2017-0362) *

(T156184) Escape content model/format url parameter in message.

(CVE-2017-0368) * (T151735) SVG filter evasion using default attribute values

in

DTD declaration. (CVE-2017-0366) * (T48143) Spam blacklist ineffective on

encoded URLs inside file inclusion syntax's link parameter.

(CVE-2017-0370) *

(T108138) Sysops can undelete pages, although the page is protected against

it. (CVE-2017-0369) The following only affects 1.27 and above and is not

included in the 1.23 upgrade: * (T161453) LocalisationCache will no longer

use

the temporary directory in its fallback chain when trying to work out where

to

write the cache. (CVE-2017-0367) The following fix is for the

SyntaxHighlight

extension: * (T158689) Parameters injection in SyntaxHighlight results in

multiple vulnerabilities. (CVE-2017-0372)

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This update can be installed with the "dnf" update program. Use

su -c 'dnf upgrade mediawiki' at the command line.

For more information, refer to the dnf documentation available at

http://dnf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/command_ref.html#upgrade-command-label



All packages are signed with the Fedora Project GPG key. More details on the

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An Easter quiz for you today: which, if any, of the following statements are true?

1. German Lutherans invented the Easter Bunny.

2.The custom of Easter eggs dates back to early Christians in Mesopotamia (which is now part of Iraq and Syria.)

3. The Roman Ritual, published by Pope Paul V in 1614, includes a blessing of eggs.

4. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, cut off the United States from its supply of Easter lily bulbs.

5. Today, all Easter lily bulbs used in the United States and Canada are produced in a small area in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon.

6. Heavy use of pesticides in the production of Easter lily bulbs is polluting streams and rivers.

7. Some species of Easter lilies are toxic to cats.

Ready for the answers? All of these statements are true, though some might quibble about a few of the details.

The traditions related to the Easter Bunny are believed to have originated among German Lutherans in northern Germany. They instituted the tradition of the Easter Hare, who was sort of an Easter version of Santa Claus. The Easter Hare would determine whether children were good or ill-behaved and bring colored eggs, candy and sometimes toys to the homes of children who were good. The first printed reference to the custom was in a book about Easter eggs written by Georg Franck von Franckenau, published in 1684.

Some might argue that German Lutherans should not get the credit for inventing the Easter Bunny because there is a difference between a hare and a rabbit. Technically, that is true. The two animals belong to separate species, though both species are part of the Leporidae family. However, saying that a hare is not a rabbit and a rabbit is not a hare is splitting a hair that need not be split, so its just fine to give German Lutherans the credit for inventing the Easter Bunny.

The custom of Easter eggs does date back to early Christians in Mesopotamia, from whence it spread via Orthodox churches to Russia and later into Western Europe via Catholic and Protestant churches. And yes, the book of ritual issued by Pope Paul V in 1614 does include a blessing for eggs. It reads, Lord, let the grace of your blessing come upon these eggs, that they be healthful food for your faithful who eat them in thanksgiving for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever.

Prior to World War II, most Easter lily bulbs sold in the United States came from Japans Ryukya Islands. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which resulted in the United States declaring war on Japan, that supply was cut off.

Today, nearly all the lily bulbs used in the United States and Canada are grown on coastal bottom lands in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon. There is considerable controversy related to the use of pesticides in the production of these lily bulbs. Heavy use of pesticides is polluting streams which flow into the Smith River, the most important river in California for salmon and steelhead (a variety of trout that has adapted to living in saltwater.)

And yes, some species of lilies are toxic to cats, which is one of the reasons that it is not a particularly good idea to let your cat eat your Easter lily. You might want to give your cat a special healthy Easter treat so that she or he wont be tempted to dine on your Easter lily. Your cat will appreciate that. So will your Easter lily.
The main objective would be to create a much larger company with the financial resources to compete more effectively against CRRC Corporation, China, which is rapidly gaining market share around the world. It would also allow some rationalisation of manufacturing plants to take place to reduce costs and improve competitivity.

Siemens Mobility recorded a turnover of 7.825bn for its 2016 financial year and made a profit of 678m, which equates to an 8.7% profit margin. Bombardier Transportation had a turnover of $US 7.574bn last year, an Ebit of $US 396m and an Ebit margin of 5.2%. In February 2016, Bombardier sold a 30% equity stake in Bombardier Transportation to Canadian pension fund manager Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ) for $US 1.1bn.

Bloomberg says Societe Generale values Siemens Mobility at about 7.2bn, while Veritas Investment Research estimates the value of Bombardiers 70% stake in Bombardier Transportation at $US 5bn.

Any deal is likely to face strong opposition from competition regulatory authorities in Europe, and probably from politicians in Germany, Austria and France where both companies have a considerable presence, especially if the merger is likely to result in plant closures and redundancies. The French government recently stepped in to prevent Alstom from closing its Belfort plant.
Its springtime in Washington. The cherry blossoms have lost their premature bloom, but talk of financial regulatory reform is in full flower. Lets hope that these reform discussions are longer-lived than the cherry blossoms. There is reason to worry, however, that we will not succeed in more than superficially disentangling ourselves from Dodd-Franks seductive embrace.

On the promising side, we are hearing some calls for reform from people who were central in shaping Dodd-Frank implementation. For example, as Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo packed his bags, he made an important concession: The Volcker Rulewhich prevents banks from engaging in proprietary trading and operating investment funds such as hedge fundsis not working well. He admitted that a seemingly simple concept had contorted itself into a costly exercise for banks and their regulators. Moreover, he noted, the rule might be harming some markets in the process.

In a recent speech, William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, seconded Tarullos call for a reexamination of the Volcker Rule. He too raised the possible harmful effects on market liquidity and called for flexibility in its application.

A regulatory reform white paper released last month by academics at New York Universitys Stern School, whose past research served as support for Dodd-Frank, also called for the repeal or significant remaking of the Volcker Rule. In their estimation, Without an anchor to risk, the Volcker Rule makes artificial and superficial distinctions across credit markets that have already lead to confusion and regulatory arbitrage.

Calls for reforming the Volcker Rule are grounded in a recognition that having regulators micro-manage bank activity to determine whether it is prohibited proprietary trading is neither efficient nor effective regulation. As Tarullo explained, regulators have the time-consuming and difficult task of applying context-specific, data-heavy judgment to determine what banks can and cannot do under the rule.

But these Volcker critics continue to favor an intense, ongoing role for subjective regulatory judgment in other contexts. They reject simple, easily enforced rules in favor of complex regimes that rise and fall on regulators ability to make difficult decisions about bank risk-taking. For example, they embrace risk-weighted capital, through which regulators ex ante assessments of the relative riskiness of assets shape bank balance sheets. The argument goes that a simple leverage ratio, which could be based on liabilities or assets, does not afford regulators a sufficiently granular control mechanism. Thus, the NYU Stern School explains, a private investor would rarely make a decision based on a single ratio, and neither should a regulator. But regulators are not private investors; regulators have a different knowledge base and a different set of incentives than investors.

As another example, although the Volcker critics mentioned above also favor streamlined Fed stress testing, they continue to look to these stress tests to embed regulators judgments into bank decisions. President Dudley, for example, insists that appropriate capital and liquidity standards ... must be augmented by a supervisory regime that can assure the quality of a firms governance, controls, risk culture and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. An outside regulator is better able to set and enforce clear rules than to make a constant stream of necessarily subjective judgments about bankers activities and attitudes.

It is wonderful that people are beginning to recognize that asking bank regulators to make fact-specific judgments in the context of the Volcker Rule is consuming lots of regulator and bank resources. But the analysis cannot stop there. Dodd-Frank requires the same sorts of judgments and ad hoc regulatory interventions in other contexts, too. This approach has surface appeala financial system that is guided down to its minutiae by regulators allows the rest of us to sleep at night, at least until we are jolted awake by their inevitable failures.

Simpler approaches that impose clear standards and do not require continuous, nuanced regulatory judgment offer great promise for financial regulation. These reforms must be paired with elimination of government subsidies and other inducements for banks to engage in risky activity, a problem Professor Charles Calomiris discussed in a recent paper. This springs regulatory reform discussions will only succeed if they explore ways to effectively regulate the financial system without relying on regulatory micro-management as our current regulatory framework does.
Iran's hidden hand is everywhere. One UN official recounts how, after visiting a province near the Iranian border, she was surprised to be told that General Qassim Suleimani, the shadowy commander of the Quds Force, or foreign legion of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been there at the same time. The Americans are more powerful, says Hashim al-Hashemi, an Iraqi security analyst in Baghdad, but the Iranians are more dangerous. They have penetrated every organ of state.
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2,470 BJP workers from across the country would spend a year visiting polling booths, while another 1,441 workers would spend six months and 378,000 workers will spend 15 days to reach out to party cadres and ensure better polling management in areas outside their home districts.

The first day of the Bharatiya Janata Partys two-day national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar was reminiscent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shahs campaign during the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls last month. For the duo, there is no stop in their partys electoral preparedness.

The PMs road show and Shahs address to the national executive underlined how the success of the past three years has been to transform a staid party -- which would earlier rouse only around election time -- into a machine that is constantly in battle mode and its cadres perennially galvanised.

The PM drove from the Raj Bhavan to the meeting ground, a distance of a couple of kilometres through some of the major thoroughfares of the city, reminding observers of the road show in Varanasi a little more than a month ago.

Modi was welcomed at traffic intersections by dancers from tribal areas of the state. These communities comprise nearly a sixth of Odishas population and BJP is trying to reach out to them.

He got off his black SUV, walked a little distance to wave at boisterous crowds, which at one place broke police barricades to run after the convoy. In his address, Shah asked the party not to be complacent after the electoral victories in recent Assembly polls and prepare for electoral battles ahead in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The two states will go to polls later this year. Elections are also due in Karnataka in the first half of 2018.

Shah said according to several analysts, the BJP had peaked in 2014. After the landslide victory in UP, analysts were reiterating this.

But the BJPs golden period hasnt arrived yet, said Shah. That would happen only when all the states in the country had governments of the BJP or its allies, under the leadership of the PM, who has emerged the most popular political leader in post-Independence India.

Shah said he would lead by example. The party president would embark on a 95-day tour across the country to reach out to party workers at booth levels.

He said the party, along with its allies, needed to target Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha and some of the Northeastern states, where the National Democratic Alliance did not have governments.

He said the objective was to make BJP a pan-India party.

Shah said 2,470 party workers from across the country would spend a year visiting polling booths, another 1,441 workers would spend six months and 378,000 workers will spend 15 days to reach out to party cadres and ensure better polling management in areas outside their home districts.

Briefing the media after the speech, senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said Shahs India tour would end by September. He said the party chief implored national executive members, which consists of BJPs top 120 leaders, to not become lazy, and spend at least 15 days at polling booths across the country.

In his speech, Shah spoke at some length about the misgovernance of the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha, a state which he said BJP would win.

Prasad said Shah did not speak on the constructing a Ram temple in Ayodhya, but it was already a part of the partys 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 UP assembly poll manifestos.

Shah also raised the issue of attacks on Sangh Parivar cadres in Kerala and said the BJP would give a fitting response, but by peaceful means. He highlighted the achievements of the Modi government in three years at the Centre, and said other governments had taken two-three terms to accomplish so much.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, responding to a query, said he was not worried. Least bothered, said Patnaik, also the president of the ruling Biju Janata Dal.

Shah slammed rival parties for raking up the EVM issue, stating they have failed to digest their defeats and were now making excuses. Without referring to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by name, Shah said there was a CM who said he was an Indian Institute of Technology graduate and an expert at hacking.

Shah said the Modi government has provided employment to 73.2 million people through the Mudra Bank and gas connections to 20 million poor household under Ujjwala scheme.

He also detailed the economic achievements of the government, including the rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax soon.

He said the BJP, and its allies, have governments that covers 70 per cent of India's geographical area and 60 per cent of its population. Shah said BJP will make efforts to make India a 'vishva guru', or world leader, and the party should work towards achieving the goal where the lotus, the BJP's election symbol, blooms in all parts of India.

Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah at the BJP's national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar on April 15, 2017. Photograph: PTI Photo.

Additional inputs from Press Trust of India.
With an eye on victory in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls for the third consecutive time, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday released its Sankalp Patra (manifesto), promising not to levy any new municipal tax and work for a Delhi as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Taking a cue from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the manifesto, described by BJP leaders as the charter of commitment, promised to provide meals for Rs 10 through the civic bodies.

The elections for the 272 wards of the three municipal corporations in New Delhi are due on April 23. The BJP, which ruled the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi, had also won the three corporations after the trifurcation of MCD in 2012.

Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, who released the manifesto along with senior party leaders, including Union ministers Harsh Vardhan and Vijay Goel, said, The sankalp patra embodies Prime Minister Narendra Modis policies and the views of party president Amit Shah.

We are committed to work for a Delhi of Prime Minister Narendra Modis dreams after winning the corporation elections.

The party promised that no new tax will be levied or rates hiked if it is voted to power. This comes in the backdrop of the Aam Aadmi Partys allegation that power and water tariffs will go up if the BJP wins the MCD polls.

Kejriwal is trying to scare the people. We will neither levy any new tax or hike rates, nor allow anyone else to do it. We will strongly resist any such move, said Tiwari.

A scheme -- the Deendayal Antyodaya Rasoi Yojana  will be launched and the civic bodies will provide meals priced at Rs 10, he added.

The exemption from getting building plans approved for plots measuring up to 105 square metres will now be extended to plots measuring up to 500 square metres, Tiwari said.

He also said the BJP will work for direct transfer of funds from the Centre to the municipal corporations.

Over the last two years, the BJP-ruled civic bodies and the AAP government had been engaged in a war of words over transfer of funds amid strikes by sanitation workers in east Delhi.

The Delhi government has an annual budget of Rs 48,000 crore in which, the civic bodies have a share of Rs 9,000 crore. But, they received only Rs 2,800 crore. We will force the government to release the dues, said Tiwari.

Taking a dig at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his allegations of corruption and non-performance in the civic bodies, he said, He (Kejriwal) should sit in the parks of MCD and his cough, for which he goes to Bengaluru, will be cured.

The manifesto promised a transparent and corruption-free rule. It also promised to regularise the temporary sanitation workers, digitalisation of citizen services, putting pressure on the Delhi government for regularisation of unauthorised colonies.

It also promised a Rs-10 lakh insurance cover for the students in the MCD schools, health cards for citizens, open gymnasiums, scrapping factory licences, promoting enterprises run by women under the Centres Startup India scheme, special arrangements to address the problems faced by the people of north-east in the city.

It also promised auto rickshaw and taxi stands with restrooms for drivers and issuance of licences to hawkers and street vendors under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.

The 27-page Sankalp Patra devoted two pages to the partys allegations against the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party.

Image: Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari along with senior party leaders release the BJP Sankalp Patr manifesto for MCD elections in New Delhi. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo
The partys research centre, overseen by chief Sonia Gandhi, provides members with solid facts that can be used to target the Centre, reports Amit Agnihotri

The Congress may appear to be static post 2014 but Indias grand old party is quietly gearing up to face the future political challenges.

Playing a key role in the process of change is the partys research and coordination unit run by a group of young scholars who work under the supervision of Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Gowda.



Following the instructions of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who wants party members in Parliament to be well versed with various issues and corner the government with facts and figures, the research cell has been providing backgrounders on social, political and economic issues besides legislative primers that may be expected during a particular Parliament session.



Besides hard copy, e-mails and WhatsApp groups are also being used to disseminate information among the lawmakers.



Sometimes members seek info on specific issues. For instance, Renuka Chowdhury wanted a paper on droughts in southern India while Rajni Patil wanted a detailed note on electronic voting machines.



The cell also plans interactive sessions where experts brief the lawmakers on specific issues. For instance, economist Pronab Sen briefed the MPs on demonetisation and its impact on the economy. As the party took notes ban protests across the country, the cell provided a fact sheet for the use of spokespersons during TV debates. Though notes ban did not fetch sufficient electoral dividend in the recent five assembly polls, the state of the economy report prepared by the cell on the eve of economic survey 2016-17 was lapped up by the media.

Congress insiders said that moving beyond the usual rhetoric, they wanted to corner the government with solid facts. The cell plans to make such reports an annual affair and aims to up the ante by focusing more on political issues. It has also held lectures for MPs on the new education policy, the Arunachal Pradesh constitutional crisis- where the BJP made a backdoor entry to get power- and the flip flops on foreign policy.



Lawmakers, especially the veterans find the cells effort a welcome step. Rajya Sabha members Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, both top Supreme Court lawyers, have teams of young researchers in their offices.



The cell marks a shift in the way the Congress has been working. For decades, a party office operating from 15, GRG Road, often dubbed as the war room, acted as a hub of strategy sessions. But the place becomes active only during national or state polls unlike the research cell, which functions round the year.

In due course of time, the research activity would be expanded beyond Delhi with similar cells functioning in various state capitals in close coordination. The research cell, which provides info for shadow union ministry handles on Twitter and Facebook, closely works with the partys social media team, which too has been scaled-up over the past three years.



Interestingly, Sonia Gandhi deployed four party leaders, Sandeep Dikshit, Sanjay Nirupam, Randeep Surjewala and Rajeev Gowda, in 2014 to run the research cell, but three of them got busy with other responsibilities.



While Surjewala heads the AICC communication department, Nirupam is Mumbai unit chief and Sandeep, a former Delhi MP, is withdrawn with mother and former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshits diminished role in city politics. Gowda, who keeps shuttling between Delhi and hometown Bengaluru, does the needful. An ever-watchful Sonia, though she has withdrawn from an active role, reviews the work done by the research cell after each Parliament session.
Sophie is excited by the interest she perceived in the titles she and Frances were promoting, and says there were other reasons to be there too. I think its critical publishers get along to international fairs like Bologna, she says, so they get to see the current look and feel of childrens books around the world and stay current and relevant. And selling overseas rights to our titles makes publishing more profitable. I would love to see New Zealand attendance at Bologna supported the way attendance at other book fairs is supported.
North Koreas attempt to launch a missile on its east coast has apparently failed, United States and South Korean defence officials said.



The attempted launch occurred a day after the regime of Kim Jong Un showed off a bevy of new missiles and launchers at a large-scale military parade on its most important holiday.

CNN quoted a South Korean defence official as saying that the missile launch was carried out from North Koreas Sinpo region in South Hamgyong Province.

Earlier, a ballistic missile was also test fired by North Korea from the same site.



South Korean and US intelligence officials are trying to determine the type of missile used by North Korea for this launch.



US Pacific Command said it tracked a missile launch which blew up almost immediately.

South Korea described the launch as a threat to the entire world and warned that it would respond to any further provocations.

A spokesman for the United Kingdom Foreign Office said: We are concerned by reports of a missile test by North Korea and are monitoring the situation closely.

The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson urged North Korea to abide by UN resolutions and end its quest to develop nuclear weapons. We have been here before but continue to monitor the situation carefully, Johnson said in a statement.

We stand alongside our international partners in making clear that North Korea must adhere to UN resolutions designed to secure peace and stability in the region and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

-- With inputs from Agencies
Hundreds of rescuers raced against time on Sunday to find survivors after a mountain of garbage collapsed on dozens of homes following a fire near the Sri Lankan capital two days ago, as the death toll in the tragedy reached 24.

IMAGE: Members of the military work during a rescue mission after a garbage dump collapsed and buried dozens of houses in Colombo. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Several heavy earth-moving equipment were digging through the dump in Meetotamulla area in Kolonnawa near Colombo to find survivors as at least six were still reported missing.

The military said 1,000 security personnel, including police and special task forces, have been deployed for rescue operation. It said troops from the Sri Lanka Light Infantry, Commandos, Gemunu Watch and Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment were carrying out relief operations, the Colombo Gazette reported.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was to proceed to Vietnam from Japan on an official visit, is to cut short his trip following the tragedy, his office said.

Wickremesinghes office said that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzoi Abe, who was in a meeting with him in Tokyo on Sunday, has offered Japans assistance with the rescue efforts.

IMAGE: The military said 1,000 security personnel, including police and special task forces, have been deployed for rescue operation. It said troops from the Sri Lanka Light Infantry, Commandos, Gemunu Watch and Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment were carrying out relief operations. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

The National Building Research Organisation said the site of the accident be declared a danger zone and people living in over 130 houses in the area must be relocated for safety.

RMS Bandara, a top building research official, explained the incidents leading to the mishap. What happened was that the weight of the garbage dump had caused the nearby lands to pop up, causing the collapse of the houses. Later the garbage dump had fallen on the houses burying them.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harsha De Silva said nearly hundred people have been moved to temporarily shelters and the government will soon begin shifting more people.

Schools and others facilities will be moved as well.

IMAGE: Family members of victims react during a rescue mission after a garbage dump collapsed and buried dozens of houses in Colombo. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

De Silva said the dumping of garbage at the site has been banned. Ironically, the government had signed agreements a few weeks ago to convert the waste into energy, he said in a post on Facebook.

Police were investigating whether the collapse of the 91-metre open garbage pile could be a sabotage. A 10-member team of geologists, officials from mining and excavation divisions, have been sent to the spot.

More than 600 people had to flee in the aftermath of the mishap on Friday. Twenty-four people, including four children, were killed and 11 others injured, officials said.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe in a statement has apologised for the delay in relocating the garbage dump.

We had all plans in place to relocate the garbage dump at Meetotamulla. But the tragedy struck before we could put them into action. We apologise for the governments inability to complete the task before the disaster, he said.

IMAGE: A man opens a bag next to military officers during the rescue mission. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

The residents near the dump had been protesting for months, demanding that the garbage dump be relocated.

The authorities, however, claim that they had given enough warning to the slum dwellers to relocate themselves.

We had even paid compensation to them to relocate, De Silva said. He said the state will bear the funeral expenses of the dead.

The massive garbage caught fire and collapsed on dozens of homes as the residents celebrated the traditional New Year.

Police said the true scale of the damage remained unclear.

Sri Lankas Parliament was recently warned that 23 million tonnes of garbage at Kolonnawa dump was a serious hazard. About 800 tonnes of garbage were added to the dump daily.

This is not a natural disaster but man made due to the sheer negligence by the authorities concerned, M S Marikkar, the ruling party local member of parliament, said.
Huge television screens, flags, flashy lights and a 10,000-bike cavalcade.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis homecoming was nothing short of being spectacular.

IMAGE: PM Modi's roadshow was 11 kilometre long and the PM rode the stretch waving to the frenzied crowds. Photograph: narendramodi.in

The PM began his two-day visit to his home state of Gujarat in Surat with a 11-kilometre long roadshow.

Chants of Modi, Modi could be heard through the entire stretch as Modi rode a SUV, standing and waving through its sun-roof at the frenzied crowds.

IMAGE: Thousands and thousands of Modi's supporters turned up for the roadshow and chanted his name. Photograph: narendramodi.in

Modi arrived in Surat after the Bharatiya Janata Partys National Executive in Odisha. This is his eighth visit in nine months to his home state, which is going to polls in November.

IMAGE: The PM's supporters thronged the streets of Surat hoping to catch a glimpse of their hero. Photograph: narendramodi.in

He is visiting Surat for the first time after the BJPs landslide victory in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. We are very excited to receive him, state BJP chief Jitu Vaghani was quoted as saying by NDTV.

IMAGE: Modi being welcomed by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitinbhai Patel and other dignitaries, on his arrival, at Surat Airport. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

The buildings along the road from airport to Circuit House were illuminated and decorated. Following the roadshow, Modi will meet BJP leaders at the Circuit House.

IMAGE: A 40-feet tall cutout portrait of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his visit. Photograph: PTI Photo

Modi has a packed schedule for Monday, including inauguration of a Rs 400-crore hospital in Surat and an ice-cream facility of Surat District Co-operative Milk Producers Union at Bajipura village.

IMAGE: Rajhans Group put jhadu along a road in support of PM Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Mission. Photograph: PTI Photo

Modi will then visit Silvassa in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli where also he will address a gathering apart from inaugurating new projects and distributing assistance to beneficiaries.

IMAGE: A 12-km long saree with BJP slogans at Airport Road ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow. Photograph: PTI Photo
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On April 16, RFE/RL shot this video in Shadal Bazar, a village situated near the system of tunnels and caves used by the Islamic State (IS) militant group that was hit in a major U.S. air strike on April 13. The village itself was under IS control before the strike and now has been retaken by Afghan forces. Dead bodies of IS militants are spread across the impact area of the air strike in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province, in which the U.S. Air Force used the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), known as "the mother of all bombs." WARNING: Disturbing images. (RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan)
H.R. McMaster, U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser, has arrived in Kabul just days after the U.S. military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on Islamic State (IS) group targets in eastern Afghanistan, killing nearly a hundred militants.

McMaster arrived in the Afghan capital on April 16 for talks with Afghan leaders as the Trump administration reviews its policy in Afghanistan.

Trump has yet to shed light about a broader strategy for Afghanistan, where some 8,400 U.S. troops remain. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said recently that he needed several thousand more foreign troops in order to break a stalemate in the war with the Taliban.

McMaster said on Twitter that he was in Kabul for "very important talks on mutual cooperation."

Afghanistan's presidential palace tweeted that President Ashraf Ghani and McMaster "discussed bilateral ties, security, counterterrorism, reforms, [and] development" during the April 16 meeting.

On April 13, the U.S. military deployed the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb -- dubbed the Mother Of All Bombs -- in combat for the first time, hitting IS positions in eastern Nangarhar Province.

Afghan officials put the death toll to 94 militants and said there were no civilian casualties.

WATCH: Afghans React To 'Horrific Bomb' In Nangarhar Province

Ghani has voiced his support for the bombing, saying it was executed in coordination with Afghanistan's government. But some critics called the action "disproportionate."

Former President Hamid Karzai, a staunch critic of Washington and the Kabul government, called Ghani a "traitor" and declared that he would work toward "ousting the U.S." from Afghanistan.

"If the government has permitted them to do this, that was wrong and it has committed national treason," Karzai said during a public event on April 15.

Ghani's office replied to Karzai's charges with a statement saying: "Every Afghan has the right to speak their mind. This is a country of free speech."

IS has made inroads into Afghanistan in recent years, attracting disaffected members of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban as well as foreign militants.

But the militant group has been steadily losing ground in the face of heavy pressure both from U.S. air strikes and a ground offensive conducted by the Afghan military.

The U.S. bombing came a week after Trump ordered missile strikes in Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack, and as China warned of the potential for conflict amid rising U.S. tensions with North Korea.

With reporting by AFP
The Georgian Defense Ministry has drafted and submitted to parliament a "concept" for the creation of a strong reservist force capable of supporting and augmenting the regular army in the event of a full-scale armed conflict.

Although details remain unclear, several military analysts have judged the proposal realistic and effective. The same cannot be said of similar plans launched more than a decade ago under then-President Mikheil Saakashvili. Military journalist Irakli Aladashvili has calculated the cost of those attempts at 30 million laris (over $12 million).

Service in the planned reserve will be voluntary and is open to both men and women aged between 18-55. The reservist force will be divided into three categories. The first will comprise men demobilized from the regular army -- i.e., contract servicemen with the rank of corporal or sergeant who have served for five years and want to transfer to the reserve for a further five years.

The second will be a territorial reserve established on the basis of the existing National Guard. In the event of hostilities, its members would be deployed only in their home district. Young men liable for military service may, if they choose, serve for five years in the territorial reserve instead.

The third category will consist of civilian specialists, such as civil engineers, whose skills would be of value to the army. (A comment posted on the website Georgia Today in July 2016 made the point that "should Georgian infantrymen need support from combat engineers or artillery, they have to call for assistance from bases some distance away; not overly useful if the country is ever invaded.")

The optimum strength of the armed forces reserve was set at 1,500, and that of the territorial defense force at 10,000. The Defense Ministry reportedly hopes to launch a pilot scheme in 2018.

Defense Ministry official Giorgi Tavdgiridze explained the rationale for creating the reserve in terms of the need for "the minimum number of servicemen in barracks during peace time and the ability to mobilize the maximum manpower in time of war." The reservists will be mobilized for active service for 45 days a year. (Nika Chitadze, who heads the Center for Research on Security and International Relations, has questioned whether that period is long enough to provide adequate basic training for those volunteers who have not previously performed their military service.) They will receive a salary and unspecified benefits.

According to Irakli Sesiashvili, who heads the Georgian parliament's Defense and Security Committee, the Defense Ministry has been working on the plans for a reservist force for several years. But as military analyst Vakhtang Maisaya points out, Georgia still does not have an overarching comprehensive military strategy to replace the now "outdated" one adopted after the August 2008 Russian-Georgian War and that would define the role of the reservist force vis-a-vis the regular army.

As noted above, earlier efforts under President Saakashvili to train a huge reserve force (rather than create a fifth brigade that Western military advisers had said was unnecessary and not financially viable) were less than successful. Following the abortive Georgian incursion into the breakaway region of South Ossetia in the summer of 2004, a campaign was launched to train 15,000-20,000 reservists by the end of 2005, with the ultimate objective of increasing the force to 100,000.

In December 2006, parliament enacted legislation, which took effect in March 2007, requiring all men between the ages of 27-40 to perform 18 days of compulsory military training every second year.

Some military experts, however, derided those plans as unworkable and unnecessary. Kakha Katsitadze, a former head of the strategic-planning department of the armed forces' General Staff, predicted that it would prove impossible to train that many reservists; he also said the three-week training period they are required to undergo was painfully inadequate. The General Staff proved incapable of mobilizing reservists at the start of the ill-fated incursion in August 2008, which triggered a disproportionate reaction from Russia.

Even though the idea of creating the reserve force predates the appointment of Levan Izoria as defense minister, it clearly complements the reconfiguration of the armed forces he launched late last year, and thus represents a further mature and prudent step forward. That process encompassed the reversal of his predecessor's decree abolishing conscription, and a systematic optimization that entailed the dismissal of extraneous civilian personnel and a reduction in the officer corps.

Testifying on April 11 before the Georgian parliament's Defense and Security Committee, Izoria explained that the reforms will contribute to the more effective use of the defense budget, freeing up a larger percentage for equipment and enhancing combat readiness. At present some 70 percent of total funding is spent on salaries and social benefits, compared with the maximum for NATO member states of 55 percent.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL
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.
U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster says there is now an "international consensus," including "China and the Chinese leadership," that North Korea's missile tests cannot be allowed to continue.

McMaster made the remarks in Kabul after the U.S. military announced that North Korea had failed in another attempt to test a missile early on April 16.

The U.S. Pacific Command said it detected the failed missile launch just hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence landed in Seoul on an official visit to South Korea.

It said the missile "blew up almost immediately" after the attempted launch.

McMaster said North Korea's missile test fits a pattern of provocative, destabilizing, and threatening behavior, and that U.S. President Donald Trump will not allow North Korea to put the United States or its regional allies under threat.

He said the consensus, including China, is "that this problem is coming to a head. And so it's time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully."

McMaster called North Korea a "hostile regime," and said North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un was "unpredictable" and had "demonstrated his brutality."

He said that Washington was working together with its allies in the region and with China's leadership to develop a range of possible responses, adding that all options were on the table.

The U.S. announcement confirmed earlier reports by the South Korean officials of the failed missile test.

"North Korea attempted to test an unidentified type of missile from Sinpo area in the South Hamkyong Province this morning, but we suspect the launch has failed," South Korea's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean intelligence source, said the missile did not appear to have flown far from its launch site before exploding.

The attempted launch came a day after North Korea rolled out intercontinental ballistic missiles and other military hardware at a public parade and vowed that it was "ready to hit back with nuclear attacks" against its enemies.

WATCH: North Korea Demonstrates Power In Military Parade

It took place amid concerns that North Korea may be preparing for its sixth nuclear weapons test or a significant rocket launch, such as its first flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The failed launch occurred just before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Seoul at the start of a 10-day trip to the Asia-Pacific region amid increasing tensions in North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.

Pence told U.S. soldiers at an Easter dinner on April 16 that the "provocation from the North" was "just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face each and every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world."

Amid the elevated tensions, the United States has dispatched what Trump called an "armada" of ships -- including an aircraft carrier -- into waters off the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket and conducted two nuclear tests in 2016. Its stated goal is to develop a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental United States.

A previous missile test from Sinpo failed earlier in April, sending the projectile spinning out of control and plunging into the sea.

Analysts say North Korean missile and nuclear tests have three main goals -- develop the technologies, bolster the domestic image of Kim, and apply political pressure on Seoul and Washington.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended without an official peace treaty. The U.S. military has about 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
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The U.S. military says North Korea has failed in an attempt to test-fire a missile, saying the launch "blew up almost immediately."

The U.S. military, which has troops stationed in South Korea, said it detected the failed missile launch at 2121 GMT on April 15, hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to land in Seoul.

The U.S. Pacific Command said the U.S. military "is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security."

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said President Donald Trump "and his military team are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."

The U.S. announcement confirmed earlier reports by the South Korean officials of the failed missile test.

"North Korea attempted to test an unidentified type of missile from Sinpo area in the South Hamkyong Province this morning, but we suspect the launch has failed," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean intelligence source, said the missile did not appear to have flown far from its launch site before exploding.

The attempted launch comes a day after the North rolled out intercontinental ballistic missiles and other military hardware at a massive parade and vowed that it was "ready to hit back with nuclear attacks" against its enemies.

It took place amid concerns that North Korea was possibly preparing for its sixth nuclear test or a significant rocket launch, such as its first flight test of an ICBM.

It also comes as Vice President Pence is set to arrive in South Korea later in the day as part of a 10-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. His aides said the visit was a sign of the U.S. commitment to South Korea in the face of rising tension with the North.

The White House said Pence had been made aware of the "failed missile launch" and is in contact with the U.S. president.

Amid the elevated tensions, the United States dispatched what Trump called an "armada" of ships, including an aircraft carrier, into waters off the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un launched a long-range rocket and conducted two nuclear tests in 2016. Its goal is to develop a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental United States.

A previous missile test from Sinpo failed earlier this month, with the projectile spinning out of control and plunging into the sea.

Analysts say North Korean missile and nuclear tests have three main goals -- develop the technologies, bolster the domestic image of Kim, and apply political pressure on Seoul and Washington.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended without an official peace treaty. The U.S. military has about 28,500 troops stationed in the South.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan has confirmed that communication channels between the United States and Russia remain open despite the war in Ukraine, the BBC reports.

Sullivan, speaking in New York on November 7, said it was "in the interests" of Washington to maintain contact with the Kremlin.



Sullivan's comments came after a report in The Wall Street Journal on November 6 that he had held undisclosed talks with top Russian officials in the hope of reducing the risk the Russian invasion of Ukraine spills over or escalates into a nuclear conflict.

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.

A previous media report, in The Washington Post, said Washington was privately encouraging Ukraine to signal an openness to negotiate with Russia, as the State Department said Moscow was escalating the war and did not seriously wish to engage in peace talks.



The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, said the request by U.S. officials was not aimed at pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table, but a calculated attempt to ensure Kyiv maintains the support of other countries.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told RFE/RL it was absurd to suggest that Western countries that are supplying Ukraine with weapons would push Kyiv to negotiate on Moscow's terms.

"Ukraine receives from its partners, first of all from the United States, quite effective weapons," he said. "We are pushing the Russian Army out of territory. And against this background, forcing us to the negotiation process, and in fact to recognize the ultimatum of the Russian Federation, is nonsense! And no one will do that."

He said suggestions the West was pushing Ukraine to negotiate were part of Russia's "information program," though he did not directly rebut a report in The Washington Post.

Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on November 7 that he was open to talks with Russia, but only "genuine" negotiations that would restore Ukraine's borders, grant it compensation for Russian attacks, and punish those responsible for war crimes.



Zelenskiy signed a decree on October 4 formally declaring the prospect of any Ukrainian talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin "impossible" but leaving the door open to talks with Russia.



Sullivan told a public event in New York that the Biden administration had "an obligation to pursue accountability" and pledged to work with international partners to "hold the perpetrators of grave and grotesque war crimes in Ukraine responsible for what they have done."



Sullivan did not elaborate on the communication channels that Washington and Moscow maintained, but insisted that U.S. officials were "clear-eyed about who we are dealing with," the BBC reported.



Sullivan travelled to Kyiv on November 4 and pledged Washington's "unwavering and unflinching" support for Ukraine.



His unannounced visit coincided with an announcement the same day by the U.S. Defense Department of another shipment of weapons to Ukraine worth $400 million.



"I was just in Kyiv on Friday and I had the opportunity to meet with President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy and my counterpart Andriy Yermak, with the military leadership and also to get a briefing on just what level of death and devastation has been erupted by Putin's war on that country," Sullivan was quoted by the BBC as saying on November 7.



White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the U.S. media reports.



"I've seen those reportings. So, you know -- and, look, people claim a lot of things about conversations that we -- that the United States has or doesn't have," Jean-Pierre told a news briefing on November 7. "I don't have any specific conversations to read out to you."



The secretary of Ukraine's Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said on November 8 that the "main condition" for the resumption of negotiations with Russia would be the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity.



Danilov said on Twitter that Ukraine also needed the "guarantee" of modern air defenses, aircraft, tanks, and long-range missiles.



According to the report in The Wall Street Journal, Sullivan held confidential conversations in recent months with Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev that were not disclosed publicly.



Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on November 7 that while Russia remained "open" to talks, it was unable to negotiate with Kyiv due to its refusal to hold talks with Russia.

With reporting by Reuters
A delegation from Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federal Council, have met in Riyadh with Saudi Arabias King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud for talks about the war in Syria.



Federation Council Deputy Speaker Ilyas Umakhanov told Interfax after the April 16 meeting that the issue of Syrian President Bashar al-Assads future leadership had been discussed.



He said the Russian delegation, led by Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko, "differed in opinion" with Saudi Arabia's king about whether Assad should remain in power.



But Umakhanov said both sides reaffirmed their willingness to continue consultations, compare notes, and seek a settlement of the current situation in order to make their stances closer.



Saudi Arabia and Western powers have demanded that Assad should not be allowed to stay in power under a Syrian peace settlement.



Russia has supported Assads government diplomatically since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011  repeatedly vetoing Western-sponsored draft United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding Assads resignation and the imposition of UN sanctions against his government.



Russia also has directly supported Assads forces since September 2015 with military deployments and air strikes against opposition forces that were approved by the Federation Council.

Based on reporting by Interfax and Arabnews.com
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has begun to set post-referendum strategy for the country after declaring a "clear victory" in the April 16 vote that gave him sweeping new powers but was also challenged as illegitimate by the opposition.

Turkeys Central Election Committee (CEC) late on April 16 declared "yes" to be the winner with 51.3 percent of the vote in a controversial referendum that included 18 constitutional amendments and that will also allow Erdogan to remain in power until 2029.

The CEC said that with 99 percent of the ballots counted, the referendum was supported by 24.9 million voters against 23.6 million who voted against. Final results will be announced in 11 to 12 days, it said.

"I would like to thank all our citizens, regardless of how they voted, who went to the polling stations to protect their national will," Erdogan said late on April 16. "The entire country has triumphed."

He said his "first task" after the vote would be to take up the issue of bringing back the death penalty, something that would automatically block the heavily divided countrys bid to join the European Union. Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004 as part of its EU bid.

Western nations have expressed concerns about the referendum, saying it would put too much power into the hands of the president.

Erdogan supporters say the changes are needed to establish stability in the country, which is facing unrest by Kurdish groups in eastern Turkey and a flood of refugees from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

Turkeys main opposition, the Republican Peoples Party (CHP), is demanding a recount of up to 60 percent of the ballots and says it will challenge 37 percent of the ballots that were counted.

The CHP criticized election officials for a last-minute change to the rules about which ballots would be counted in the tightly contested referendum, saying the ruling opened the way for fraud.

Under the ruling, ballot papers that were not officially stamped were still counted as valid unless they were proven to have been brought into the counting process from outside.

CHP head Kemal Kilicdaroglu said his party would not accept the "yes" vote and that "this referendum brought a truth to light =- at least 50 percent of the people said 'no.'"

Meanwhile, Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said it would challenge two-thirds of the ballots. It claimed there was a vote "manipulation of 3 to 4 percentage points" in favor of expanding presidential powers.

The European Commission said it took note of the results and is awaiting an assessment from the OSCE/ODIHR International Observation Mission in regard to "alleged irregularities."

It said it will assess the implementation of the constitutional amendments in "in light of Turkey's obligations as a European Union candidate country and as a member of the Council of Europe."

"We also call on the Turkish authorities to seek the broadest possible national consensus in their implementation," the EU Commission said.

War Of Words

The amendments would abolish the office of prime minister and give the president the authority on many other matters, including the budget and the declaring of a state of emergency, without parliamentary approval.

Nils Muiznieks, the European Commissioner for Human Rights, on April 12 issued a report expressing "grave concern" that the constitutional revisions would reduce the autonomy of Turkeys already weak judiciary.

Erdogan has been involved in a brutal war of words with European leaders in the run-up to the referendum and has said Turkey would reassess its desire to join the EU.

Attempts by Erdogan and his allies to stage campaign rallies targeting Turkish voters who live in the EU faced restrictions or cancellations in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland -- leading to diplomatic disputes with Ankara.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ron Synovitz in Prague, Reuters, AFP, AFP, dpa, CNN, and Reuters
U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad an "arch-terrorist" and said Russia still has "time to be on the right side of the argument."

In an interview published on April 16 in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Johnson also warned that the United States could attack again after the April 7 cruise-missile strike made in retaliation for Assad's reported use of chemical weapons on his own people.

Johnson vowed that Britain and its allies would gather evidence for "war crimes prosecutions for those responsible" for the chemical attack.

Russia, along with Iran, is Assad's key supporter in the six-year Syrian civil war against rebels supported by the United States and Turkey.

Johnson recently canceled a visit to Russia over the alleged chemical attack and has pushed for increased sanctions against the Syrian and Russian militaries.

Syria has denied it carried out a chemical-weapons attack, but U.S. and other Western leaders have said there was no doubt Assad's government was responsible for the attack that killed at least 70 people.

Johnson said Assad used chemical weapons because they are "terrifying."

"In that sense, he is himself an arch-terrorist who has caused such an unquenchable thirst for revenge that he can never hope to govern his population again," he told the Telegraph.

"He is literally and metaphorically toxic, and it is time Russia awoke to that fact. They still have time to be on the right side of the argument," he added.

He said the Russians could join a coalition of more than 60 countries in the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants, which would allow them to maintain their strategic interests in Syria.

With reporting by The Sunday Telegraph
Updated numbers show a total of 487 Martins Food Markets workers will lose their jobs in June and July when four stores close.

Three of the four stores are being sold to Florida-based Publix Super Markets, which will renovate them before reopening. Publix is buying a total of 10 of 19 area Martins stores  seven of them have closed already and are undergoing renovations.

A fourth store is among the nine area Martins stores Publix is not buying.

The layoff numbers per store are:

138 employees at the Martins at 7035 Three Chopt Road in western Henrico County;

141 employees at the Martins at 9645 W. Broad St. in western Henrico County;

99 employees at the Martins at 3522 W. Cary St. in Richmond; and

109 employees at the Martins at 10001 Hull Street Road in Chesterfield County.

The Three Chopt Road, Broad Street and Cary Street stores have been sold to Publix and will close July 10.

The other seven stores that are part of the Publix deal closed in November and February, with 1,110 layoffs. Publix plans to begin opening stores in the Richmond area this summer.

The Hull Street Road store is one of the nine area Martins stores that Publix is not buying. A Giant/Martins spokeswoman said the stores lease was ending and it would close June 30.
McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, an influential public and government affairs firm based in Richmond, is making leadership changes as it approaches its 20th year in business.

Founded in Richmond in 1998 as a subsidiary of the McGuireWoods law firm, McGuireWoods Consulting has grown from just a handful of people working in a small office here into a consulting, lobbying and grass-roots advocacy powerhouse with 118 staff members working in seven state capitals, in Washington and in Europe.

It started with four people, but it grew rapidly, said Frank B. Atkinson, one of the co-founders of McGuireWoods Consulting who, like many of the firms leaders and staff members, has a background in politics and law. He joined the McGuireWoods law firm in 1984 and also served as legal counsel in the administration of Gov. George Allen, a Republican.

As part of the leadership transition, expected to become effective early in 2018, Atkinson will step down as chairman of McGuireWoods Consulting, though he will remain with the firm as a senior adviser and consultant.

Also stepping away from a leadership role but staying with the firm as a consultant is L.F. Payne, McGuireWoods Consultings president and CEO who leads the firms Washington office.

Before he joined McGuireWoods Consulting soon after it was founded, Payne, a businessman, represented Virginias 5th District in the U.S. House as a Democrat from 1988 to 1997.

Two veteran staff members are taking the top leadership roles.

Mark T. Bowles will become chairman of McGuireWoods Consulting.

Bowles, a consultant with three decades of experience, has worked for McGuireWoods Consulting since it was founded. He now serves as executive vice president and oversees all of the firms state capital offices and state practice groups. He also is a partner in the McGuireWoods law firm.

***

Taking over as president and CEO is James H. Hodges, who was governor of South Carolina as a Democrat from 1999 to 2003. He joined McGuireWoods in 2009 and works with large business clients through the firms national multistate practice.

Payne described the transition as a natural progression of leadership.

During the past two decades, we have built a tremendous cadre of very talented people in the firm, Payne said. It seems this was the right time for us to step back and let Jim and Mark take leadership roles.

Bowles said the firm recently completed a strategic planning process that provides a template for growth, which could include adding new offices in state capitals across the nation.

What drives our growth is really how we can best serve our clients, Bowles said. If you look at where we have offices, we generally are in states where the law firm also has an office. There are still a number of states where we dont have an office but the law firm does, so those are opportunities that we will look at in the years to come.

They (Payne and Atkinson) have left a strong legacy for us to build on, he said. Our mission going forward, and our watchword from the beginning, is to provide excellent client service as we grow nationally and internationally.

***

McGuireWoods Consultings clients include businesses, along with some nonprofits and advocacy organizations.

The services it provides include lobbying, strategic communications, and building grass-roots support around public policy issues  a service that increasingly has involved developing social media campaigns.

The firm has practice specialties ranging from state and federal government relations to economic development.

Over 20 years, it has built a significant national footprint and a significant amount of influence with lawmakers at the state and federal levels.

The strategy behind the creation of the McGuireWoods Consulting business in the late 1990s was to offer clients a wider range of services than the law firm could provide by itself, said Richard Cullen, chairman of the McGuireWoods law firm.

One of the things we used to say was, we wanted the law firm services never to stop, Cullen said. We would hope never to tell a client, Sorry, we cant help you with that.

So we looked for ways that we could provide more services to clients as they were trying to solve a problem, he said.

Those problems have included helping business clients such as pork producer Smithfield Foods battle regulations to prevent it from owning livestock, to McGuireWoods Consultings work last year to help a group of residents in Augusta County defeat a referendum to move the county seat and courthouse.

The firm has worked on grass-roots campaigns in many states on public referendums ranging from proposed tax increases to liquor by the drink, Bowles said.

In the early 2000s, the firm was instrumental in helping to develop Virginias public-private partnership laws, Atkinson said.

That has become something of a national model, he said. I think more than 30 states have some variant of a statute very similar to (Virginias) and have adopted it since ours.

That is positive because whether it is the construction of schools, colleges, roads or other public infrastructure, the opportunity to bring together an investing private sector and the public investment and do creative things that meet infrastructure needs has been significant.

When the consulting business was created, I dont think there was anything in the marketplace at that time that looked like McGuireWoods Consulting ... with the full range of advocacy services and communications services, Atkinson said.

Law firms did a little bit of government affairs work, but we chose to create a wholly owned subsidiary of the law firm and hire lawyers as well as nonlawyers, he said. So McGuireWoods Consulting does a lot of things, but the one thing it does not do is engage in the practice of law.

From the start, we intentionally put partisans at the table  partisan Republicans and Democrats  to solve a problem, said Betsy D. Beamer, a McGuireWoods Consulting senior adviser in Richmond who served as Virginias secretary of the commonwealth under Allen.

As part of the leadership transition, Beamer will take on additional duties as director of strategic planning and special projects for the firm.

***

The firm also has developed a significant practice in education policy. In Virginia, it has provided lobbying, communications and digital media management for the Virginia Business Higher Education Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan partnership between Virginias business community and higher education leadership.

I am the only full-time employee of the council, so I dont have the capability or experience to get a broad-based public relations campaign out there, said Don Finley, the councils president.

McGuire Woods Consulting is very good at it. They have been a huge help in helping us get our message out and at least stemming the tide in (college) tuition increases.

McGuireWoods Consulting does not release revenue numbers, but the National Law Journals most recent ranking in 2014 of more than 1,500 federal government relations firms placed McGuireWoods Consulting in the top 20 for the fifth year in a row. It was ranked No. 15, with revenue of $32 million.

Thousands of other law firms across the nation have developed consulting businesses, but there are not a lot of firms that do the significant amount of work that we do in Washington and are also present in multiple state capitals, Atkinson said.

The firm also is developing expertise in emerging issues such as autonomous vehicles and drones, Bowles said. I think there are a lot of interesting public policy challenges that are here now and will be emerging in the new economy, he said.

Health care and education remain major issues for most clients, Hodges said.

That remains a big piece of our business, he said. Education is always a big one for our clients. State governments spend most of their money on health care and education.

The key for us, and the reason we have been successful, is that whatever issue comes along, we have the team with the skills to be able to analyze a problem and help a client be able to navigate the problem in the state capitols and the U.S. Capitol, he said.
BLACKSBURG  Usha Loganathan keeps moving.

She had 15 days to pick up the pieces after her husband became the first person killed inside Norris Hall on April 16, 2007. By May 1, she said, she and her two daughters were off his health insurance. It would cost an impossible $1,200 a month to buy their own.

The widow was an Indian immigrant and a stay-at-home mom without a drivers license. She was content with the life she had built with her husband, civil engineering professor G.V. Loganathan.

But that life evaporated amid a spray of bullets that brisk Monday morning.

You have no choice but to keep going, right? Usha said, reflecting on the past 10 years.

She did press on, leaning on the Blacksburg community every step of the way.

She waited four months to return to the campus, this time as a student herself.

She earned a masters degree and today works as a laboratory technician for one of Techs microbial biochemistry labs.

Her oldest daughter, Uma Loganathan, 31, halted pursuit of her own biomedical engineering degree after her fathers death to devote herself to political activism and gun violence prevention.

And her younger daughter, Abhi Loganathan, 22, went on to join the Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad as early as she could, answering calls alongside the same first responders who rushed into Norris Hall the day her world was turned upside down.

The family says this is what happens when tragedy strikes. People find their own ways forward, devoting their energies to whatever calls them, whether thats keeping a family together, trying to prevent others from experiencing a similar loss or looking for some way to give back to the community that provided support through the darkest hour.

I try to focus on what needs to be done, what we need to do for the future. Thats what I tell my kids, too, Usha said. Just keep moving. The depression is always going to be there. It never leaves you. You just try to numb the pain that you have and just focus on something else  something positive.

Usha says her family is not unique.

Their pain was shared by people near and far, many of whom, she said, had loved ones torn away 10 years ago. She knows of another mother who went back to school after her child was killed inside her husbands classroom. One victims child went on to a life of service in the military. And a roommate of another of the 32 killed joined the rescue squad the same time as Abhi.

Usha hasnt kept up with all the victims families, but she knows their struggles.

***

The Loganathan familys story is one of tragedy, resilience and rebirth. It begins with G.V. Loganathans move to the U.S. in 1978.

He came from an Indian community without traditional surnames. So he turned his first name, Loganathan, into his last name and crafted his first name by taking the initials of his hometown and his fathers name.

He earned his doctorate from Purdue University before going to work at Virginia Tech in 1981. G.V. returned to India to marry his wife in 1983, and she joined him in Blacksburg a year later.

Usha said it was a large adjustment made harder by the fact that they didnt have any family in the U.S. But they managed to build a happy life together and decided to stay permanently when their second daughter was born here.

Abhi, who was 12 when her father was killed, remembers him as a devoted parent. He had an affinity for cheesy jokes and an impressive repertoire of funny voices.

She remembers his impressions of students. He stayed up late grading papers, only to awake just as early as everyone else the next day.

Abhi said G.V. lived the motto he instilled in his children: It doesnt matter what you do, but do it well.

He was up until 2:30 or 3 in the morning, and he expected his students also to work just as hard, Usha said.

Uma, the eldest daughter, laughed as she thought about G.V.s sometimes misguided English pronunciations, especially with the one simple word she said he never learned to say properly: corn. She tried to correct him, but he simply insisted he was the one who had it right.

Uma took after her father in college, studying biomedical engineering. Except she did it at the University of Virginia.

I think we both agreed that (Virginia Tech) was too small for the both of us, she said.

G.V. was Umas engineering partner through almost four years of college. They spoke on the phone every day  a ritual he initiated. G.V. took an active interest in her education, reading her textbooks, asking about the papers she was writing and the things she was learning in class.

Abhi said her father was a caregiver above all else.

He was always there, Usha said. Kids were his life, and not just his kids. Even the students he taught, that was his life.

Usha was the first to be informed of G.V.s death. She found out as she stood among the throngs of people gathered at the Inn at Virginia Tech, desperate for answers hours after the shooting.

She said she knew what was coming as soon as police approached her.

One of the police officers told me, Im so sorry   Thats all I wanted to hear; I didnt want to hear anything else, Usha said. All the time getting back home, I was just thinking how I am going to tell my kids, how Im going to tell his mom or his dad.

Uma already had found herself crying in a Charlottesville bathroom as she watched the casualty count grow on CNN between classes at U.Va.

She tried calling, but all lines in and out of Blacksburg were jammed with other frantic phone calls no matter whom she dialed.

Youre just waiting and trying to go about your day, Uma said. Youre watching the news and you think you know, but you dont want to be right. And then your mother calls you, and she says hes not coming home ever again. And its the worst thing to have this fear and then to have these fears realized.

***

Usha tried learning to drive years earlier, but she was terrified by the prospect. A trip to Walmart would end in headaches and shivering.

So G.V. became the family chauffeur, until that was no longer an option.

After her husbands death, the only thing stronger than the grief pulling Usha deeper into herself was her insistence on becoming a burden to no one.

So Leslie Roberson, owner of Blacksburgs Learn Right Driving School, volunteered to take her out for lessons each morning and evening. Roberson said she felt entirely helpless after the shooting, so it was a very small way she could contribute.

By June 2007, Usha had her drivers license.

It was the first in a series of practical steps she took to keep her family together and her life moving forward. At every stage, she said, it was the community that helped her limp along.

Asked if it was made more challenging without her extended family in the U.S., Usha said no. Thats because the people of Blacksburg became her family, she added.

Whatever I have done so far, its all because of all my friends, all my neighbors and all of the people around who have been so supportive and so helpful, she said. Im pretty sure I would have been sitting at home, depressed and not getting out of bed.

Employment was the most immediate need, as health insurance bills loomed, she said.

In India, Usha had earned a zoology bachelors degree, but it was an expertise she never planned to use.

I was not really looking for anything complex, she said. I was willing to take any job at that time. I thought it was going to be at Kroger or just an administrative job, anything.

A friend heard about an open position at Virginia Tech and helped her connect with the person who would become her first boss and mentor.

Tech biochemistry professor Biswarup Mukhopadhyay agreed to hire Usha for his lab that focused on manipulating DNA within micro-organisms. But he said she needed to study the field if she ever hoped to understand what she was doing.

So, just months after her husbands murder, Usha took her first classes at Virginia Tech.

In August of 2007, I started with freshman chemistry and freshman biology, she said. It was a terrible, terrible, terrible time. It was not easy at all. I just cried and cried. And I wondered what in the world am I doing?

But again, she said, the community was there to push her along.

She started work in the lab while learning the field, beginning with the basics of growing cultures and transferring DNA to bacteria samples.

In the evening, her boss became her tutor for classwork. Mukhopadhyay sat down with her almost every evening, giving personal lessons on chemistry and biology.

It was difficult for her to walk back on campus, a place that often feels to her like holy ground.

Sometimes I just walk around over there, praying for all those souls that were taken, Usha said.

When Norris Hall was reopened, she couldnt help but wander in one day.

I literally thought that I might faint. I was shaking and trembling, she said. But I needed to see the spot. I needed to see.

When Usha graduated with her biological sciences masters degree in 2014, Abhi said she was there in the audience, looking on through tear-filled eyes like a proud parent watching a childs crowning achievement.

I watched her work so hard for that, Abhi said. I got to watch my mom graduate from school. I cant tell you how incredible that feels.

Uma said the single-minded dedication she saw from her mother during those years in many ways define the kind of person Usha has become. Shes practical, determined and finishes whatever she sets her mind to.

She just really dug in there, Uma said. I have so much admiration for her and for what shes done. Its funny because shes here in my life and I dont tell her because  you know  its kind of a mushy thing to say.

***

Uma was working on her thesis just months before graduation at U.Va. when she got the call that changed everything.

She was in her early 20s at the time, which tends to mean family didnt rank at the top her list of priorities. But G.V. was more than that.

When you lose your partner, that person who has been with you every single step of your life, has been so involved and present, and then theyre not there anymore ...  Uma said, trailing off. I couldnt do engineering without him. It wasnt worth it.

Instead, she has spent the past 10 years living between Washington, D.C., and Blacksburg, the community she said shes still not ready to leave behind.

She has devoted herself to political activism and nonprofits, wading into issues surrounding gun violence prevention and gun control laws that have become far more controversial than she ever imagined.

Shes worked on grass-roots issue campaigns and with politicians, most recently helping with Hillary Clintons unsuccessful bid for the White House.

Shes told her story on national news networks, in newspaper columns and videos on YouTube.

I cannot stand in front of people and tell them this is what I have gone through and we need to do something about it, said Umas mother, Usha. Im very proud of her. Im very proud.

But Uma says it hasnt been easy.

Its the monkey that you never get rid of, she said. Its always on your back.

Some days, the monkey seems to fit nicely into a backpack. But other days, shell see someone who reminds her of her dad or shell realize another anniversary is approaching.

And then its not even a monkey anymore, she said. Now its this massive King Kong gorilla that youre trying to carry along with you while you go about your day.

Shes been left with the unsatisfying feeling of a conversation begun but never finished.

Uma said G.V. was a planner and had a pretty clear vision for his family members lives. She was just getting to the inevitable point where she would enter adulthood and throw a wrench in that plan.

Thats when most children, Uma said, learn to express themselves and have healthy disagreements with their parents.

Then they see my parents are flawed but theyre still cool people, she said. And they get to come out on the other side of that with a better understanding. Im not sure if I have that better understanding of my dad, or if I will ever have that better understanding.

But thats more than my sister has, Uma added.

***

Abhi was 12 when everything started to change.

Uma remembers how G.V. was particularly indulgent with the youngest in the family. He would call Abhi baby, Uma recalled. It wasnt the baby  just baby.

Theres just a lot of small things I never got to know about him, like what he thought of politics, Abhi said. We didnt talk about boys or what would happen when I went to college.

In an instant, her father was gone, her sister was preparing to graduate from college, and her mother was learning to drive and going back to school.

Abhi remembers one surreal moment when her mother came to pick her up after a summer camp in Blacksburg. It was the first time Usha drove her daughter, and they sat laughing together at the ridiculousness of the situation.

I was little, Abhi said. I kind of just saw a lot changing, and it wasnt something I liked.

She began volunteering with the rescue squad when she was 17 and still in high school.

She had seen the way the Blacksburg community lifted her family up in the wake of the tragedy, so she wanted to give back. It was a way of honoring both her fathers name, and the heroism inside Norris Hall she had heard so much about.

She volunteered countless hours through four years at Virginia Tech. Eventually, she said, she stopped going to parties on Friday nights, instead answering 911 calls.

Along the way, she formed an unusual bond with many of the emergency crews who were some of the first on the scene the morning G.V. and 31 others were killed on Techs campus.

Abhi talked to them about what they experienced that day. They understood her story better than most.

When Im having a bad day or when I really miss my dad and my mom isnt home, thats the place I want to go. Those are the people I want to be with, Abhi said of her fellow volunteers. Many of them didnt lose a specific person, but they lost a part of themselves. It truly breaks my heart to see that they had to suffer, too.

One day, Abhi said, she got a call from the former volunteer who had been tasked with transporting her fathers body.

Talking with her, it was this sense of closure and relief to know, even though there was never a chance for him, he was still cared for and still respected, Abhi said.

Abhi graduated from Virginia Tech with a biology degree in May. She pulled her last rescue squad shift Aug. 31 and then headed off to California for a little taste of adventure.

She now works as a medical assistant in an autism clinic in San Diego. One day, she hopes to attend medical school.

Shell be back in Blacksburg someday, too, Abhi promises. But for now, she just needs to do some exploring.

No one can ever fill (my dads) shoes, but I feel like we actually gained a whole lot over the past 10 years, Abhi said. Some of the most incredible friends weve made, theyve been with my family every step of the way.
Editors note: In light of the 10th anniversary of the shooting at Virginia Tech, we asked Sen. Tim Kaine to reflect on his experience as governor during the tragedy and in its aftermath.

April 16, 2007, was the worst day of my life.

Even 10 years later, I cannot fully describe what the commonwealth, the Virginia Tech community, the 32 families and so many survivors went through on that day and in the following weeks and years.

A year and six months into my term as governor, Anne and I had just arrived in Tokyo to lead a delegation of Virginia business leaders on an overseas trade mission. We ate dinner and turned in after a long flight only to be awakened around midnight with word that there was an active shooting underway back home. We turned on CNN and quickly decided to return on the next flight home.

Jet-lagged and grief-stricken, we arrived in Washington and then flew with President George W. Bush and the First Lady to Blacksburg to meet with families and address a community gathering the day after the shooting.

We shed tears with families of students and faculty members who had lost their lives. We gathered with thousands of Hokies  and we were all Hokies  to mourn and to celebrate the lives of the precious people who were killed.

Anne and I went to visit those recovering in nearby hospitals. We thanked brave first responders who had seen the unforgettable horror of classrooms filled with bullet-riddled bodies, many with ringing cell phones in their pockets as frantic family members tried to reach them.

I decided immediately to form a panel of experts to investigate everything that happened that day and issue a complete public report outlining what went wrong. I was warned it could bring a lawsuit down on the commonwealth to admit wrongdoing, but I didnt care. I wanted us to do anything we could do to reduce the chance of such a tragedy ever happening again.

The report was unsparing and comprehensive. It led Virginia to make some changes in mental health and privacy laws. It inspired changes in campus safety protocols around the nation that are still used today. We learned that a flaw in our background-records-check system had allowed the killer to purchase a weapon even though he was legally barred from doing so due to a court judgment that he was mentally ill and dangerous. I was able to make a partial fix to our system via executive order, but efforts to create a truly comprehensive background check system have failed in Virginia and Congress again and again.

***

The time created a bond with so many of the Virginia Tech families. I continue to be in awe of their strength and resilience, and I cherish their friendship all these years later. We worked together during my time as governor and one of my last meetings before I left office was to invite them to a reception at the governors mansion. I continue to visit with them on Capitol Hill, to help the young survivors and children of professors who were killed with references and career advice. I am proud of these young people.

The story I keep coming back to is that of Professor Liviu Librescu, a professor of engineering who blocked the door of his classroom and urged his students to jump out the window to safety. He was shot again and again as he protected his students and all, save graduate student Minal Panchal, were able to live because he chose to give up his life to protect them.

Professor Librescu was a 76-year-old Romanian-born Jew. He had survived the Holocaust, being imprisoned as a boy in a Nazi labor camp. Many of his family members were killed. He chose to stay in Romania and became a gifted academic, but his career stalled because he would not swear allegiance to the Communist Party. After years of trying to emigrate to Israel, and with the personal intervention of Prime Minister Menachem Begin, he was allowed to move to Israel in 1978 and became a professor at the Technion in Haifa.

In 1985, Professor Librescu accepted a one-year sabbatical position teaching at Virginia Tech, and he and his wife, also a Holocaust survivor, moved to Blacksburg. They loved the community and university so much that they stayed for 22 years. Liviu survived the Holocaust, the Soviet takeover of Romania and so much else. But he couldnt survive gun violence in the United States.

April 16, 2007, was a different day for Professor Librescu than any of the students in his class. It was Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. The day is an annual opportunity for mankind to reflect upon the unparalleled tragedy of the Holocaust, especially the death of 6 million Jews. The professor was aware  standing in the doorway  that the day was sacred.

***

Two years later, Anne and I were in Israel on Yom HaShoah and were invited by Prime Minister Netanyahu to be his guests at the commemorative worship service at Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial. During the service I came to see the day as a time to think about not just the Holocaust, but all the classes of people involved and affected. Some were victims, some survivors. Some were heroes, some perpetrators. Some were unaware but many were bystanders  people who knew what was going on but chose to do nothing. Bystanders play a part in most of the great tragedies in life.

As the years have gone by since the terrible tragedy, there have been other horrible massacres. The Newtown shooting in 2012 saw the slaughter of little schoolchildren and their teachers. Last June, 49 people were killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. I visited the site a few months ago and found myself overcome with emotion. Deep inside me was the unarticulated wish that never would there be a worse shooting than Virginia Tech. I clung to hope that we would learn something and mass shootings would stop.

We all have a choice. Not all of us can be heroes like Liviu Librescu. I dont think I have his courage. But we dont have to be heroes. We just have to decide that we will stop being bystanders.
BLACKSBURG  Usha Loganathan keeps moving.

She had 15 days to pick up the pieces after her husband became the first person killed inside Norris Hall on April 16, 2007. By May 1, she said, she and her two daughters were off his health insurance. It would cost an impossible $1,200 a month to buy their own.

The widow was an Indian immigrant and a stay-at-home mom without a drivers license. She was content with the life she had built with her husband, civil engineering professor G.V. Loganathan.

But that life evaporated amid a spray of bullets that brisk Monday morning.

You have no choice but to keep going, right? Usha said, reflecting on the past 10 years.

She did press on, leaning on the Blacksburg community every step of the way.

She waited just four months to return to the campus, this time as a student herself.

She earned a masters degree and today works as a laboratory technician for one of Techs microbial biochemistry labs.

Her oldest daughter, Uma Loganathan, 31, halted pursuit of her own biomedical engineering degree after her fathers death in order to devote herself to political activism and gun violence prevention.

And her younger daughter, Abhi Loganathan, 22, went on to join the Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad as early as she could, answering calls alongside the same first responders who rushed into Norris Hall the day her world was turned upside down.

The family says this is what happens when tragedy strikes. Everyone finds their own way forward, devoting their energies to whatever calls them, whether thats keeping a family together, trying to prevent others from experiencing a similar loss or looking for some way to give back to the community that provided support through the darkest hour.

I try to focus on what needs to be done, what we need to do for the future. Thats what I tell my kids, too, Usha said. Just keep moving. The depression is always going to be there, it never leaves you. You just try to numb the pain that you have and just focus on something else  something positive.

Usha says her family is not unique.

Their pain was shared by people near and far, many of whom, she said, had loved ones torn away 10 years ago. She knows of another mother who went back to school after her child was killed inside her husbands classroom. One victims child went on to a life of service in the military. And a roommate of another one of the 32 killed joined the rescue squad the same time as Abhi.

Usha hasnt kept up with all the victims families, but she knows their struggles.

Amazing people, she added.

G.V. Loganathan

The Loganathan familys story is one of tragedy, resilience and rebirth. It begins with G.V. Loganathans move to the U.S. in 1978.

He came from an Indian community without traditional surnames. So he turned his first name, Loganathan, into his last name and crafted his first name by taking the initials of his hometown and his fathers name, G.V.

He obtained his doctorate from Purdue University before going to work at Virginia Tech in 1981. G.V. returned to India to marry his wife in 1983, and she joined him in Blacksburg a year later.

Usha said it was a large adjustment made harder by the fact that they didnt have any family in the U.S. But they managed to build a happy life together and decided to stay permanently when their second daughter was born here.

Abhi, who was 12 when her father was killed, remembers him as a devoted parent. He had an affinity for cheesy jokes and an impressive repertoire of funny voices.

She remembers his impressions of students. He stayed up late grading papers, only to awake just as early as everyone else the next day.

Abhi said G.V. lived the motto he instilled in his children: It doesnt matter what you do, but do it well.

He was up until 2:30 or 3 in the morning and he expected his students also to work just as hard, Usha said.

Uma, the eldest daughter, laughed as she thought about G.V.s sometimes misguided English pronunciation, especially with the one simple word she said he never learned to properly say: corn. She tried to correct him, but he simply insisted he was the one who had it right.

Uma took after her father in college, studying biomedical engineering. Except she did it at the University of Virginia.

I think we both agreed that [Virginia Tech] was too small for the both of us, she said.

G.V. was Umas engineering partner through almost four years of college. They spoke on the phone every day  a ritual he initiated. G.V. took an active interest in her education, reading her textbooks, asking about the papers she was writing and the things she was learning in class.

Abhi said her father was a caregiver above all else.

He was always there, Usha said. Kids were his life, and not just his kids. Even the students he taught, that was his life.

Usha was the first to be informed of G.V.s death. She found out as she stood among the throngs of people gathered at the Inn at Virginia Tech desperate for answers hours after the shooting.

She said she knew what was coming as soon as police approached her.

One of the police officers told me, Im so sorry   Thats all I wanted to hear; I didnt want to hear anything else, Usha said. All the time getting back home, I was just thinking how I am going to tell my kids, how Im going to tell his mom or his dad.

Uma already had found herself crying in a Charlottesville bathroom as she watched the casualty count grow on CNN between classes at UVa.

She tried calling, but all lines in and out of Blacksburg where jammed with other frantic phone calls no matter whom she dialed.

Youre just waiting and trying to go about your day, Uma said. Youre watching the news and you think you know, but you dont want to be right. And then your mother calls you. And she says hes not coming home ever again. And its the worst thing to have this fear and then to have these fears realized. And then to have to make your way home and  deal.

I mean, what else do you do?, she went on. Theres stuff to be done. You just have to deal. So you do it. Nobody else is going to do it, so you do it.

Usha Loganathan

Usha tried learning to drive years earlier, but she was terrified by the prospect. A trip to Walmart would end in headaches and shivering.

So G.V. became the family chauffeur, until that was no longer an option.

After her husbands death, the only thing stronger than the grief pulling Usha deeper into herself was her insistence on becoming a burden to no one.

So Leslie Roberson, owner of Blacksburgs Learn Right Driving School, volunteered to take her out for lessons each morning and evening. Roberson said she felt entirely helpless after the shooting, so it was a very small way she could contribute.

By June 2007, Usha had her drivers license.

It was the first in a series of practical steps she took to keep her family together and her life moving forward. At every stage, she said, it was the community that helped her limp along.

Asked if it was made more challenging without her extended family in the U.S., Usha said no. Thats because the people of Blacksburg became her family, she added.

Whatever I have done so far, its all because of all my friends, all my neighbors and all of the people around who have been so supportive and so helpful, she said. Im pretty sure I would have been sitting at home, depressed and not getting out of bed.

Employment was the most immediate need, as health insurance bills loomed, she said.

In India, Usha had obtained a zoology bachelors degree, but it was an expertise she never planned to use.

I was not really looking for anything complex, she said. I was willing to take any job at that time. I thought it was going to be at Kroger or just an administrative job, anything.

A friend heard about an open position at Virginia Tech and helped her connect with the person who would become her first boss and mentor.

Tech biochemistry professor Biswarup Mukhopadhyay agreed to hire Usha for his lab that focused on manipulating DNA within microorganisms. But he said she needed to study the field if she ever hoped to understand what she was doing.

So, just months after her husbands murder, Usha took her first classes at Virginia Tech.

In August of 2007, I started with freshman chemistry and freshman biology, she said. It was a terrible, terrible, terrible time. It was not easy at all. I just cried and cried. And I wondered what in the world am I doing?

But again, she said, the community was there to push her along.

She started work in the lab while learning the field, beginning with the basics of growing cultures and transferring DNA to bacteria samples.

In the evening, her boss became her tutor for classwork. Mukhopadhyay sat down with her almost every evening, giving personal lessons on chemistry and biology.

It was difficult for her to walk back on campus, a place that often feels to her like holy ground.

Sometimes I just walk around over there, praying for all those souls that were taken, Usha said.

When Norris Hall was reopened, she couldnt help but wander in one day.

I literally thought that I might faint. I was shaking and trembling, she said. But I needed to see the spot. I needed to see.

When Usha graduated with her biological sciences masters degree in 2014, Abhi said she was there in the audience, looking on through tear-filled eyes like a proud parent watching their childs crowning achievement.

I watched her work so hard for that, Abhi said. I got to watch my mom graduate from school. I cant tell you how incredible that feels.

Uma said the single-minded dedication she saw from her mother during those years in many ways define the kind of person Usha has become. Shes practical, determined and finishes whatever she sets her mind to.

She just really dug in there, Uma said. I have so much admiration for her and for what shes done. Its funny because shes here in my life and I dont tell her because  you know  its kind of a mushy thing to say.

Uma Loganathan

Uma was working on her thesis just months before graduation at UVa when she got the call that changed everything.

She was in her early 20s at the time, which tends to mean family didnt rank at the top her list of priorities. But G.V. was more than that.

When you lose your partner, that person who has been with you every single step of your life, has been so involved and present, and then theyre not there anymore -- Uma said, trailing off. I couldnt do engineering without him. It wasnt worth it.

Instead, she has spent the past 10 years living between Washington, D.C., and Blacksburg, the community she says shes still not ready to leave behind entirely.

She has devoted herself to political activism and nonprofits, wading into issues surrounding gun violence prevention and gun control laws that have become far more controversial than she ever imagined.

Shes worked on grass-roots issue campaigns and with politicians, most recently helping with Hillary Clintons unsuccessful bid for the White House.

Shes told her story on national news networks, in newspaper columns and videos on YouTube.

I cannot stand in front of people and tell them this is what I have gone through and we need to do something about it, said Umas mother, Usha. Im very proud of her. Im very proud.

But Uma says it hasnt been easy.

Its the monkey that you never get rid of. Its always on your back, she said.

Some days, the monkey seems to fit nicely into a backpack. But other days, shell see someone who reminds her of her dad or shell realize another anniversary is approaching.

And then its not even a monkey anymore, she said. Now its this massive King Kong gorilla that youre trying to carry along with you while you go about your day.

Shes been left with the unsatisfying feeling of a conversation begun but never finished.

Uma said G.V. was a planner and had a pretty clear vision for his family members lives. She was just getting to the inevitable point where she would enter adulthood and throw a wrench in that plan.

Thats when most children, Uma said, learn to express themselves and have healthy disagreements with their parents.

Then they see my parents are flawed but theyre still cool people, she said. And they get to come out on the other side of that with a better understanding. Im not sure if I have that better understanding of my dad, or if I will ever have that better understanding.

But thats more than my sister has, Uma added.

Abhi Loganathan

Abhi was 12 when everything started to change.

Uma remembers how G.V. was particularly indulgent with the youngest in the family. He would call Abhi baby, Uma recalled. It wasnt the baby  just baby.

Theres just a lot of small things I never got to know about him, like what he thought of politics, Abhi said. We didnt talk about boys or what would happen when I went to college.

In an instant, her father was gone, her sister was preparing to graduate from college and her mother was learning to drive and going back to school.

Abhi remembers one surreal moment when her mother came to pick her up after a summer camp in Blacksburg. It was the first time Usha drove her daughter, and they sat laughing together at the ridiculousness of the situation.

I was little, Abhi said. I kind of just saw a lot changing and it wasnt something I liked.

She began volunteering with the rescue squad when she was 17 and still in high school.

She had seen the way the Blacksburg community lifted her family up in the wake of the tragedy, so she wanted to give back. It was a way of honoring both her fathers name, and the heroism inside Norris Hall she had heard so much about.

She volunteered countless hours through four years at Virginia Tech. Eventually, she said, she stopped going to parties on Friday nights, instead answering 911 calls.

Along the way, she formed an unusual bond with many of the emergency crews who were some of the first on the scene the morning G.V. and 31 others were killed on Techs campus.

Abhi talked to them about what they experienced that day. They understood her story better than most.

When Im having a bad day or when I really miss my dad and my mom isnt home, thats the place I want to go. Those are the people I want to be with, Abhi said of her fellow volunteers. Many of them didnt lose a specific person, but they lost a part of themselves. It truly breaks my heart to see that they had to suffer, too.

One day, Abhi said, she got a call from the former volunteer who had been tasked with transporting her fathers body.

Talking with her, it was this sense of closure and relief to know, even though there was never a chance for him, he was still cared for and still respected, Abhi said.

Abhi graduated from Virginia Tech with a biology degree in May. She pulled her last rescue squad shift Aug. 31 and then headed off to California for a little taste of adventure.

She now works as a medical assistant in an autism clinic in San Diego. One day, she hopes to attend medical school.

Shell be back in Blacksburg someday too, Abhi promises. But for now, she just needs to do some exploring.

No one can ever fill [my dads] shoes, but I feel like we actually gained a whole lot over the past 10 years, Abhi said. Some of the most incredible friends weve made, theyve been with my family every step of the way.

Those friends, theyre more than that, she added. Theyre part of the family now.
BLACKSBURG  Virginia Tech spent Easter mourning together for lives lost a decade ago.

Throughout the day alumni, community members and politicians joined the families of those killed and survivors wounded at events both public and private to continue the evolving healing process.

For the families, it was another sad reminder of the people theyve lost but also a reminder of their shared bonds in the wake of the mass shooting on campus that left 32 dead and 17 wounded.

What Ive realized is what we have here is a family reunion of an unintentional family, said Joe Samaha, whose daughter Reema Samaha was killed in the shooting.

The day offered the unintentional family time to get together, and it offered the community an opportunity for hearing from its leaders and showing unity.

Sunday morning, Gov. Terry McAuliffe with his daughter Dori McAuliffe laid wreaths at the campus memorial before a moment of silence. They were accompanied by Tech President Timothy Sands, his wife, Laura Sands, and former Tech President Charles Steger.

In the afternoon, the families and survivors as well as about 1,000 people from the community  mostly dressed in maroon  gathered for speeches from Sands and Sen. Tim Kaine, who was Virginia governor in 2007.

Those present also heard the biographies of the 32 people killed spoken by Scott Johnson, a former member of Techs office of recovery and support and Patricia Raun, a performance professor.

Sands talked briefly about the resiliency of the Tech community. That bond is something hes come to respect greatly since arriving at Tech in 2014, he said.

Sands then read a letter from former President George W. Bush, who came to campus in 2007 shortly after the shooting to take part in a convocation ceremony.

The letter offered prayers from Bush and the rest of the country. Bush expressed his sorrow and sympathy for the Tech community 10 years after the shooting.

A decade later, the pain is still fresh, Sands read from Bushs letter. It is impossible to understand why 32 lives were taken from this earth far too soon. I know that the families who lost a loved one miss them every day, especially today.

Kaine expressed his admiration for the resiliency of the campus community that came together on April 16, 2007, which he said was the worst day of my life.

In many ways the anniversary falling on Easter is an important representation on the political work to be done in the wake of the shooting, he said.

Its a day of new beginnings, new life and new hope, Kaine said.

Kaine said he hoped at the time there would be an impetus to work on gun purchase background checks and develop new measures of school security. In the time thats passed, he said, there have been some improvements, but not enough, especially in mental health laws.

He said the realization came flooding to him while visiting Orlando last year in the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting, which left 49 people and the shooter dead.

Deep inside me was the unarticulated hope that the Virginia Tech shooting would be the worst, Kaine said.

After the speeches and the reading of the biographies, Kaine and Sands walked down to talk to the families, survivors and local dignitaries who had gathered.

New policies to prevent future tragedies is exactly what Samaha, who is president of the Virginia Tech Victims Families Outreach Foundation, wants.

Samaha said he hopes that universities around the country will continue to take advantage of the organizations 32 National Campus Safety Initiative, which helps universities improve their safety protocols .

But beyond talking about policy, those gathered continued to heal together, as they have regularly since 2007.

Samaha doesnt like to say the healing process has been going on for ten years. That timeframe is too simple, he said.

Instead he  and others from the unintentional family who lost people like his daughter  think of this anniversary in a different unit of time.

Its been 3,653 days, he said. And Ive thought about her every one of them.
It was mid-November, and Tim Kaine was not going to be vice president of the United States after all, and some of his fellow senators had an invitation: They said, you got to come talk about being on the trail,  he remembers.

These were colleagues from his weekly prayer meeting, a private bipartisan breakfast Kaine attends, where senators tell stories of their lives and faiths. He declined.

I said, Ive got to collect my thoughts. I dont know what I would say. 

His colleagues asked him again in January. Was he ready to talk now? Nope, he said. He wanted to do it, he assured them, but still couldnt figure out what to offer.

In March, they asked a third time and Kaine considered it. If he waited until he knew what he wanted to say, he reasoned, he wasnt sure hed end up wanting to say it.

So he went to the prayer meeting. He found himself talking to his fellow senators not about the campaign, but about the effect that its first 72 hours had on his family. How it seemed to him like a combination of a microwave speeding things up, and a magnifying glass zooming in, and maybe also a pressure cooker, jostling everything around.

Sometimes it seems like a dream, like it didnt really happen, he said, talking about the prayer meeting while eating lunch in Waynesboro.

There is wood paneling on the cafes walls, and a lunch crowd of men in jeans and T-shirts. The proprietor had recommended the Big Jake burger, so Kaine, 59, has a half-finished one on his plate, and now he starts to laugh.

Sometimes I wake up and think, This isnt happening. 

This, of course, is this: Russia, hacking, leaking, tapping, Obamacare repeals that keep rising from the dead like fiscally conservative zombies. A new uproar every week.

The week after the Clinton-Kaine ticket fell, Hillary Clinton retreated to upstate New York, removing herself from public life.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence set about packing for Washington, planning the agenda for an administration few predicted would exist. But Kaine was back in the Senate, instead of a partner to the first woman president.

Im sorry youre not vice president, but senators still important, a fourth-grader wrote to Kaine recently. Can you please stop my classmates from being deported?

The Democrats in the Senate are the only emergency brake on the train, Kaine said. This might be the most important period. Maybe Ill be in the Senate for the next 30 years, and the next two to four years  God-willing, its more than two years for me  are the most important years Ill ever spend in the Senate.

He keeps track of the time, afraid of being late for meetings in Western Virginia. The White Houses recently proposed budget includes the elimination of the Appalachian Regional Commission, which provides funding to localities in the area. Many of those places voted overwhelmingly for Trump.

Im going to work my tail off to get money back to the Appalachian region, Kaine said, because thats what it is like to be Tim Kaine now: He could have won, but he didnt, and theres nothing to be done about it now, because the country that he tried to warn went and did the opposite thing anyway.

Two months before his trip to Waynesboro, Kaine gained as much viral fame as can be achieved via a Senate confirmation hearing for his operatic grilling of education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos. He used his allotted minutes to fire off 27 questions about her experience.

In order to clarify, you never attended a K-12 public school, did you? he asked. And your children did not, either? And youve never taught at a K-12 public school?

DeVos was confirmed anyway, via Vice President Mike Pences tiebreaking vote.

Later, Kaine decided that he would not support Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch because of the judges positions on birth control and abortion. He released a statement saying as much, and, while power-walking to a committee hearing, anxiously checked his phone to see how it was being received.

I could have worked on the verb tense for days, he said.

Republicans later enacted the nuclear option, changing Senate rules to allow Gorsuchs nomination to go through without any Democratic support.

He chastised Trump for bypassing Congress in his decision to launch a missile strike on Syria. He asked the president to veto legislation relating to internet privacy.

Ive been telling people, its shocking but not surprising, Kaine said of the deluge of recent political developments.

The initiatives that Trumps administration has been pushing were not, after all, secret initiatives. They were what Trump promised to do during the campaign: Overhaul health care. Curtail admission of refugees. Build a wall.

On another day, Kaine was in Norfolk, visiting a childrens hospital. The cost of treating many of the patients is covered in part by Medicaid reimbursements, which could have been affected by the proposed, but ultimately scuttled, American Health Care Act. House Republicans were scheduled to set a vote on the bill that day.

Kaine toured several floors, stopping to chat with families who had previously signed release forms. He passed through a chemotherapy ward, where small children sucked on popsicles as IVs dripped treatment into their veins.

Im Tim, he told the families, one after another, as they talked about their childrens diagnoses. Im Tim.

When Kaine was almost through the room, a mother hurried over. She looked tired, with bags under her eyes. She asked a person accompanying Kaine whether she was allowed to talk to the senator, even though she hadnt signed a release. She started to cry.

If that bill goes through, these children will be un-savable, she said. He leaned in close, listening for several minutes.

Just think about us? she asked him as they finished. Think about us, as a person in power.

As Kaine left, the mother told a hospital staffer that she was embarrassed about getting emotional, and she hoped it was OK for her to have approached the senator.

Oh, you did the right thing, the staffer told her. Thats your warrior, right there.

The book of Job is something thats really important to me, Kaine said at the diner. The Bible story tells of a man who is tested by the loss of his wealth, health and family.

It expresses a profound truth about humanity and causation, Kaine said. What humans tend to do is ask, why am I here now? Its clearly because of something that came before.

The point of the Job story is that hes not where he is because of the past. Hes where he is because of the future.

Kaine paused. I think I am here today, a senator in Waynesboro, more because of something that Im supposed to do tomorrow than something I did yesterday. And I think in this moment in time, what am I supposed to do tomorrow is assuming a lot of existential importance.

What-ifs are not a place that Kaine allows himself to go.

I assume hes got to have thoughts, when he sees Mike Pence presiding over the Senate, said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who considers Kaine his best friend in Congress. But hes never heard Kaine say anything out loud, and in general, King said, the only difference in his colleague, pre-election vs. post, is that I think his role is more urgent. Hes fully committed to the Senate.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., has known Kaine for 37 years. He called him the most relentlessly optimistic person Ive ever met.

Kaine said only that hes been proud of his emotional maturity in recent months.

Where I really was able to look in the mirror and say, you know, Im comfortable to be in the reality that Im in, was when I was at the inauguration. I was sitting on the platform, and I was watching the president take the oath of office, and I was watching Mike Pence take the oath of office, and I didnt think, I wish it would have been me. At that moment, I was very peaceful with the role I was playing.

He finishes his Big Jake burger.

Were living in a stress test of our constitutional democracy, he said. Its like we took it in for our 230-year checkup, and its up on the rack and were seeing how the systems work.

He believes the systems will work. He has that faith.

Kaine thanked the restaurants owner for her hospitality, wished happy birthday to a young man celebrating at a table nearby and headed out to begin his afternoon of meetings.

A few hours later, he went to a construction site and talked with a few people waiting for him.

Were not invited, one middle-aged woman called out. We just saw you were coming and wanted to see you. To tell you to keep up the good fight.

I will, Kaine said, stopping to shake her hand.

With health care, the woman said.

With Russia, the womans companion added.

All of it, the woman said. All of it.

I will, Kaine said as he went inside.
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Research, Research, Research India houses a diverse range of bustling destinations ... without extensive international travel under their belt. There's no denying India's great cities can be ... Read More If you are keen to set out on an international trip this winter, we have your back. Here, we bring to you our favourite destinations that you can consider ... of the best travel experiences. Read More Amnesty International ... Mattoos arbitrary travel ban by the immigration authorities at the New Delhi airport in India. On October 18, Mattoo was barred from traveling internationally despite ... Read More The top travel trends that emerged from the August 2022 study include that 8 in 10 urban Indian families ... to travel together. They can easily visit multiple destinations while unpacking just ... Read More Indian visa applications were already time-consuming before the pandemic, but the additional Covid-related checks are fairly standard for international travel these days. Visitors to India no ... Read More This destination can easily be claimed as one of the most stunning places in South India for a honeymoon. Offering you the utmost tranquility and peacefulness, here you wont be disturbed ... Read More alongside countless other travellers to India, facing the ashes of their travel plans. Having been told last week in no uncertain terms that I would not get a visa appointment until the end of ... Read More (Also read: Top 5 places in India where you can enjoy the houseboat experience) Here is the list of Indian destinations that ... which can be reached after a 10-kilometre hike, is home to more ... Read More UK Visa: In his update ... the British high commissioner to India also included an advice for applicants seeking to get approvals soon. You can help by applying early. You can apply three ... Read More The stars of the travel, tourism and hospitality aligned at the Kenyatta International Convention ... included Maldives winning Indian Oceans Leading Destination and Indian Ocean ... Read More The Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) announced that Mauritius has scooped three prestigious destination awards at the 2022 World Travel Awards (WTA)  Indian Ocean region ... Read More A travel plan would be incomplete without adding that extra ... Gold and Silver, which can be further divided according to the destinations one is traveling to worldwide. The TATA AIG Travel ... Read More
Travel News Jamaica Travel Time Warning Jutc Says Brace For Long Delays As Dedicated Lane On Mandela High Way Is Discontinued | RobinsPost News & Noticias

The best time to visit Jamaica is November to mid-December. That's when the island's already beautiful weather (ranging from mid-70s to the high 80s all ... is the peak travel season to the ... Read More But CEO Robert Isom says the results would have been even better if not for the long delays ... has blamed those delays on Covid-19 related challenges, including staffing and travel restrictions. Read More The new 2023 Air Travel Hacks Report ... some travelers' long-held suspicions: Flights that depart after 3 p.m. have a 50% higher chance of delays. It's even worse news for cancellations. Read More The price of plane tickets is expected to spike to a 5-year high during ... should try to buy travel insurance as soon as possible. Waiting could end up costing you in the long run. Read More By Elaine Glusac According to the travel industry, its time to get nervous about the holidays ... airlines continue to restrain capacity and high expected demand. Thanksgiving rates are ... Read More 12, 2022  About 1 in 20 people with long COVID ... gives them the time and finances to pursue specialty care with cardiology, pulmonary and neurocognitive testing, he says. Read More While much of the space is dedicated to high-energy dining ... the Worlds Leading Landmark Resort by voters at the World Travel Awards. Read More You can unsubscribe at any time. More info Most tourists know ... READ MORE: Stressful - Cruise guests issue passenger warning over port travel easyJet will allow passengers to bring small ... Read More IRISH holidaymakers have been warned to check the renewal date on their passport before December this year due to long delays ... with in good time. However, people hoping to travel over the ... Read More Google Maps has long ... says Gunnar Olson, flight deal analyst and travel reporter at Thrifty Traveler. Its most helpful in plotting out a trip weeks or months ahead of time than it is ... Read More After all, whenever you're investing time and money into ... medical emergencies, travel delays, and luggage," travel insurance company Squaremouth says. Here's a breakdown of the different ... Read More Editor's Note  Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel ... time, and bear 747 sailed to an honestly deserved win. To mark his victory, let's all celebrate with a salmon dinner and a nice ... Read More
Travel News Featured Countdown Bargain Book Travel Secrets By Anita Kaltenbaugh United States | RobinsPost News & Noticias

Consider Lisbon, Athens or Dublin for Thanksgiving, and stay home for Christmas, when travel costs will be ... than 1,000 vacation homes in the United States, Thanksgiving week bookings are ... Read More And he expects further recovery in corporate travel, which remains down approximately 20% at United from 2019. Another long-term upside for the industry, Kirby said, is what he describes as a ... Read More Editor's Note  Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations ... there's a fishing village with a secret: Many of its residents claim to carry ... Read More The Association Les 3 Vallees announces today the launch of a new online travel agency  Les 3 Vallees Travel - to provide consumers globally a simple and direct way to book vacations to the ... Read More United Airlines in 2023 will add transatlantic service to three cities and increase service to six more. The carrier will add service on May 27 between Newark and Stockholm and on May 31 between ... Read More United saw historic levels of demand for travel to Europe in the summer peak, up 20% compared to 2019, and is focused on developing its network to serve continued demand strength. Next summer ... Read More In anticipation of another crazy summer of travel, United Airlines announced Tuesday its 2023 summer trans-Atlantic schedule, which will total 37 cities in Europe, Africa, India and the Middle ... Read More The carriers third-quarter corporate travel recovery was about 80 percent of 2019 volume and stable over the quarter, United EVP and chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella said, adding that larger ... Read More He most recently was SVP of supplier relations for CTM North America with core responsibilities across air and ground. Previously, Veloso was VP of cruise and tour at Flight Centre Travel Group ... Read More With more people returning to air travel since the COVID-19 pandemic, United Airlines is betting on further growth, announcing nine new, non-stop international flights in its summer trans-Atlantic ... Read More A man was arrested on assault charges after authorities say he attacked two United Airlines flight attendants on a trip from Miami to Washington, D.C  because he had consumed magic mushrooms. Read More Travel expenses can be pricey, depending on where you're going and when. So, you may be inclined to deny or refuse travel insurance as a way to cut costs. But sometimes that decision can end up ... Read More
Travel News April Travel News Roundup More Delta 737s Last Night In Sweden Update Robbed Via Mobile Payments On Street Much More | RobinsPost News & Noticias

American Airlines pilots are also still in contract negotiations, putting the threat of work stoppages front and center before a crucial time of year. Read More In one of the new scenarios, the variant is 30 percent more transmissible than BA.5 and in the other 50 percent more transmissible. As theres so much ... Swedens new government has abolished a new ... Read More A Joby Aviation aircraft outside the New York Stock Exchange ahead of its initial public offering last August. Photo: Liao Pan/China News Service via Getty Images Delta ... more. It could cut ... Read More In a statement, Delta said it is deepening its commitment to transform the future of travel, embarking on ... The aircraft has flown more than 1,000 test flights, demonstrating its ... Read More Jobys aircraft, which look a bit like helicopters with multiple propellers, have flown more than 1,000 test flights, according to the company. We share Deltas unwavering commitment to ... Read More Seats in Delta's Premium Select cabin. Photo Credit: Delta Economy fares on flights within the U.S. and Canada are up 5% from 2019, but premium fares are up more. A lot more. Prices in premium ... Read More As millions of Americans get ready to head into holiday travel in the months ahead, etiquette on board planes is becoming even more ... It's just too much for some people, "Fox News @ Night ... Read More The prized bird may be much ... here More From GOBankingRates This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: GO in the Know: Stimulus Update, Holiday Travel Tips & Top Financial News ... Read More Editor's Note  Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations ... If you'd like to get even more micro, Time Out also shared a list of the world's ... Read More Delta SkyMiles members can earn miles when they spend money at Starbucks. Photo Credit: Sitthipong Pengjan/Shutterstock.com Delta SkyMiles members who are also members of the Starbucks Rewards ... Read More Thats one reason airlines such as American and Delta have teamed up with T-Mobile, which gives subscribers ... principle of business that its more important to keep a customer than to ... Read More Fallenkvist caused scandal on election night by declaring helg seger, which means weekend victory, but sounds very like the Nazi salute Hell seger (Sieg Heil) in an interview with the pro-SD news ... Read More
The Democrat leadership has made constant, profound and incredible 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.
Travel News Kenya Rises To Third Place In Sub Sahara Travel Ranking | RobinsPost News & Noticias

Kenyas national carrier, Kenya Airways (KQ) has reaffirmed its prestige as the Pride of Africa after clinching four awards at the prestigious 2022 World Travel Awards. The carrier was named ... Read More From megacities to remote islands, Asia's top travel spots offer a hearty ... along with traveler feedback, U.S. News ranked the best places to visit in Asia. Contribute to next year's list ... Read More Editor's Note  Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations ... are finally reopening, an annual ranking of the world's coolest neighborhoods ... 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 "With over one-third ... places are on your bucket list, this ranking will get you dreaming of places near and far. Read on for the top 50 bucket list destinations in the world and what Big 7 ... Read More Enter your travel details on the map below  passport-issuing country, departure and arrival countries and your vaccination status -- to get instant, detailed info on travel restrictions, quarantine ... Read More Boone is among several advisors who said demand for train travel has been on the rise since the pandemic ... is that the infrastructure is already in place, he said. Read More Sure, prices for airfare and hotels are causing sticker shock among those who are ready to explore, but having a travel policy in place will ensure ... trips? U.S. News editors compared more ... Read More Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. Theres never been a better time to add travel insurance to your trip plans. Whether youre spending money on a long-awaited ... Read More Travel expenses can be pricey, depending on where you're going and when. So, you may be inclined to deny or refuse travel insurance as a way to cut costs. But sometimes that decision can end up ... Read More Peter ODonovan, CarTrawler chief executive: People may be looking for better value or quality options, so they are being more discerning, but ultimately they still want to travel CarTrawler has ... Read More Travel experts are expecting a steep hike in airfares around that time. And prices are just going to go up. Airline ticket prices are increasing about 4% per week, CBS News recently reported. Read More
Travel News 15 Pakistani Movies That Will Make You Want To Pack Your Bags To Travel All Over Pakistan Like Right Now | RobinsPost News & Noticias

This power runs in Tims family, and while he cant change history, he tries to make a better life for himself by winning over ... Before you go, check out all the best time travel movies ... Read More I have a confession to make: I am, in fact, quite biased on the subject of bags ... Think of your posture! Hands-free? All the time, please and thank you. Totes and duffles have their time ... Read More Why we love it: Multiple layers make these bags more durable than most. What to consider: You may need more than one pack ... want to self-roll your bags, consider bag sets that come with a ... Read More Opening up your favorite carry-on travel backpackwith all your stuff in the right place and easy to reachshould feel like ... (say, over a mile or so) with your pack on, you might want ... Read More So, you want to go on vacation, right ... perks on trips? Let your Travel Advisor find all the hidden values that can be added on top of your trip to make it over the top in value! Read More When you're preparing for a big trip, you'll want to make sure you have all of ... of your own home when you use an online marketplace like Squaremouth, where you can compare travel insurance ... Read More STOP RECLINING YOUR SEAT:These are the 'rudest' airplane behaviors. DON'T MAKE THESE TRAVEL MISTAKES ... of Transportation Statistics, over 1.9 million bags were mishandled last year by U.S ... Read More Preparing for a trip always comes with a long to-do list and even though you may have thought of everything, from calling your bank to buying travelers insurance, taking a photo of your luggage ... Read More Powerful, I like, but I can do without ... of a Tough Workout These songs will make make you want to go all-out. 21 Hip-Hop Songs to Hype You Up During Your Next Workout Level up, level up ... Read More That's when travel insurance can come in handy. Fortunately, sites like SquareMouth make the process easy. Get started now ... You always want to make sure you're getting the proper coverage for ... Read More Whether you're traveling this winter to see family  or to get away from them ... trips." Travel woes:Booking through platforms like Expedia leaves some travelers stranded If your travel ... Read More
Travel News Yes The China Travel Channel Loves Saipan | RobinsPost News & Noticias

Im sitting in a small plane, peering down at stunning limestone cliffs, blue depths and the shadows of clouds on the ocean as we pass over Tinian on our way to Saipan. Its my first time ... Read More Editor's Note  Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations ... sign up in its metaphorical door: China. Here's what that means for the world's ... Read More The Shenzhen-based DidaTravel in August announced development of a multi-GDS portal through which it would provide content from more than 500 airlines to its business-to-business customers, which ... Read More This was reported by The Xinhua News Agency. Chu is known for her work in recreating ... a trend known as "guochao," or China Chic. "The new generation of designers shall aim high, not merely showing ... Read More There are plenty of reasons to buy travel insurance but saving money and potential headaches are top of mind. And inflation certainly doesn't help. The price of plane tickets is expected to spike ... Read More Travel expenses can be pricey, depending on where you're going and when. So, you may be inclined to deny or refuse travel insurance as a way to cut costs. But sometimes that decision can end up ... Read More Editor's Note  Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations ... That's the kind of love story many young Western women are hoping for when ... 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 This week in travel: some of the destinations in Asia ... region that still has a Closed sign up in its metaphorical door: China. Heres what that means for the worlds most populous country. Read More
Us News Georgia Officials Dismiss 89 Cases Linked To Fired Officers Shown Kicking Punching Motorist | RobinsPost News & Noticias

Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is reportedly facing an investigation from state officials who say the nonprofit group may not be properly registered to solicit donations in Georgia. The Ebenezer Building ... Read More Here is a look at what each question means: Should suspended Georgia officials continue to receive ... suspension of compensation of certain State officers and members of the General Assembly." ... Read More A Black mechanic is suing a Georgia county who said he was fired after refusing to "forgive ... in workplaces across the country." The US is seeking to "require the county to develop and implement ... Read More The United States Capitol Police arrested a Georgia man who had weapons in his vehicle parked outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Officials say that USCP officers noticed a small white van ... Read More Thirteen days after Georgia toddler Quinton Simon was reported missing from his Savannah home, police officials said ... child is no longer with us," Williams told Fox News Digital, "and that ... Read More WASHINGTON D.C., DC  An 80-year-old north Georgia man was arrested on Wednesday ... United States Capitol Police said. USCP officers noticed the van around 3:45 p.m., once they realized that ... Read More A Georgia college student was killed when he was struck by the propeller of the small aircraft he was on for a date-night flight, officials said Tuesday. The accident was reported shortly after 10 ... Read More When thousands of Georgia poll ... described to NBC News, in response to threats against state poll workers during and after the 2020 election. Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the secretary ... Read More Turnout from Georgia's first day of early voting set a new state record for a midterm election, state election officials said. More than 131,000 Georgia voters cast ballots since early voting ... Read More Police in Savannah, Georgia, believe missing toddler Quinton ... Chatham County police chief Jeff Hadley said at a news conference Tuesday, adding that Leilani Simon remains the only suspect. Read More
Us News Shale Not Stock Fuels The Wealthiest U S County | RobinsPost News & Noticias

(Reuters) - U.S. shale oil executive Matt Gallagher this week took a poll on Twitter to gauge sentiment toward President Joe Biden's offer to stock ... of U.S. News and have not been previously ... Read More Monroe County in the Florida Keys, of course, but two Treasure Coast counties aren't far behind, according to a Smart Asset study. Martin and Indian River, respectively, were ranked 4th and 5th ... Read More U.S. shale producers are not likely to ride to the rescue of a world that clamors for more oil, Energy Aspects said in a new report, as output from shale basins is at risk of peaking in just two ... Read More US shale growth is likely to remain slow ... PSC said the inversion of economics for the oil industry could not have come at a more inopportune time. The softness in commodity prices ... Read More The logo of U.S ... Fuels Analysis: As clock ticks on G7's Russia oil price cap, big questions remain, article with gallery November 4, 2022 Canada's proposal to tax corporate stock buybacks ... Read More US crude oil and gasoline inventories might be in short supply, but so are U.S. shale workers ... accusing the industry of price gouging and of not ramping up production quickly enough. Read More Analysis-Options Trades, Lockstep Moves Fuel U.S. Stock Swings ... fueling stock swings. "The recent volatility is ... a result of 'real money' sitting on their hands and not being there to ... Read More As a whole, U.S. shale producers reported record or close ... they should be ready for the possibility that US producers will again be jogging, rather than charging, to help them. ... Read More Image Credit: Gulf News archive US shale oil executive Matt Gallagher this week took a poll on Twitter to gauge sentiment toward President Joe Biden's offer to stock the U.S. emergency oil reserve ... Read More Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson said in a note to clients on Monday that the S&P 500 could surge this week in the event of a decisive Republican win. Read More Hamm and his family own 83% of Continental's common stock and the deal does not require a vote by shareholders ... to-energy facilities across the United States and BP aims to grow Archea's ... Read More REUTERS/Richard Carson Oct 21 (Reuters) - U.S. shale oil ... T Inc and T-Mobile US Inc . European Markets Wall Street Week Ahead: Megacap earnings to test fledgling U.S. stock rebound, article ... Read More
Us News Bp Struggles To Control Damaged Well In Alaskan Arctic | RobinsPost News & Noticias

which caused widespread damage in parts of western Alaska last month, were exceptionally strong for the areas that each impacted, he said. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events ... Read More In this June 1, 2001 file photo, caribou graze in the Arctic ... us. And you know my pitch: I think its better for the country long-term. Nathaniel Herz is a contributor and former reporter for the ... Read More JUNEAU, Alaska (AP ... in the far northern city of Utqiagvik, according to damage reports, with a new storm expected to hit the Arctic coast this week. Water levels dropped by midday Saturday ... Read More JUNEAU, Alaska (AP ... in the far northern city of Utqiagvik, according to damage reports, with a new storm expected to hit the Arctic coast this week. Water levels dropped by midday Saturday ... Read More
World News As Tensions Rise With North Korea Pence Embarks On Trip To Asia | RobinsPost News & Noticias

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North and South Korea exchanged warning shots Monday along their disputed western sea boundary  a scene of past bloodshed and naval battles  in a development that ... Read More Tensions between North and South Korea have risen this week, with both sides engaging in live-fire military drills while concerns swirl in Washington that North Koreas new war-fighting strategy ... Read More S.Korea Says Strongly Condemns Escalation of Tensions by N.Korea With Hostile ... Tags: South Korea, North Korea, United States, Asia, Japan Elections ... Read More world news and K-pop songs. Most of North Koreas 26 million people have no official access to foreign TV and radio programs. Pyongyangs politics of blaming external threats and projecting ... Read More North Korea fired a ballistic missile and ... established under a 2018 inter-Korean agreement on reducing tensions, South Koreas military said. On Friday afternoon, South Koreas military ... Read More South Korea's National Security Council (NSC) condemned the North for escalating tensions, calling its moves ... North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station ... Read More More info North and South Korea exchanged warning shots off the west coast today, with each sideaccusing the other of breaching their maritime borders amid heightened military tension. South Korea ... Read More SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korea warned Saturday the U.S. redeployment of an aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula is causing a considerably huge negative splash in regional ... Read More The two Koreas exchanged warning shots along their disputed western maritime boundary, their militaries said, amid heightened tensions ... News Agency/Korea News Service) Since September 25 ... Read More SEOUL, Oct 14 (Reuters) - South Korea's National Security Council (NSC) on Friday said it strongly condemns North ... Asia Pacific Japan hosts multilateral display of naval unity amid East Asia ... Read More SEOUL, South Korea (AP ... Korean agreement on reducing tensions, South Koreas military said. On Friday afternoon, South Koreas military said North Korea fired 80 additional shells ... Read More SEOUL, South Korea  North Korea ... Korean agreement on reducing tensions, South Koreas military said. On Friday afternoon, South Koreas military said North Korea fired 90 additional ... Read More
World News Attempted North Korean Missile Launch Fails U S Confirms | RobinsPost News & Noticias

The United States on Wednesday condemned North Korea's latest launch of a ballistic missile, which off South Korea's coast, the first time an apparent test had landed near the South's waters, a State ... Read More SEOUL, South Korea (AP ... full, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency said. KCNA said the missile tests were in response to recent naval drills between U.S. and South Korean ... Read More Kim Jun-rak, a spokesperson at South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that a missile launch from a reservoir was seen as a desperate attempt by North Korea to escape South Korean ... Read More North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters on Sunday, the latest in the country's barrage of weapons tests, and a day after it warned the redeployment of a U.S ... Read More This photo provided on Oct. 10, 2022, by the North ... Norths official Korean Central News Agency said. KCNA said the missile tests were in response to recent naval drills between U.S. and ... Read More WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and her South Korean counterpart condemned North Korea's latest missile launch on Tuesday after a meeting in Tokyo in which she ... Read More A TV screen showing a news program ... and ballistic missile programs. It said U.S. commitments to the defense of South Korea and Japan remain "ironclad." The launch, the North's seventh round ... Read More South Koreas military said Tuesday its capable of detecting and intercepting the variety of missiles North Korea launched in a barrage of recent simulated nuclear attacks on its rivals ... Read More SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Koreas military said Tuesday its capable of detecting and intercepting the variety of missiles North Korea launched in a barrage of recent simulated nuclear ... Read More
World News Turkey Votes In Key Constitutional Referendum | RobinsPost News & Noticias

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he may call for a referendum to protect womens right to wear headscarves and the conservative concept of the family in the constitution if MPs do not ... Read More ANKARA - Turkey's parliament approved key articles of a ... to pass in two more rounds of voting before the constitutional package as a whole is put to a referendum, expected in the spring. Read More Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday laid out his vision for Turkey in the next century, promising a new constitution that would guarantee the rights and freedoms of citizens. Read More Tensions between Greece and Turkey remain sky-high ... told Yahoo News. Kirisci similarly identified domestic political concerns as a key motivation for the spike in animosity between the two ... Read More By Nevzat Devranoglu and Ece Toksabay ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday his party could put to a referendum constitutional amendments which would protect women's ... Read More Turkey's parliament passed a contentious bill Thursday that amends press and social media laws with the stated aim of combatting fake news and disinformation ... with the votes of President ... Read More The new law means those found guilty of intentionally publishing disinformation or fake news ... MPs. Turkey currently ranks 149 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders world ... Read More Turkey houses the worlds largest refugee population, mostly 3.6 million Syrians who fled the decade-long war in their country. Human Rights Watch said deported Syrians told researchers that ... Read More A top Turkish official says Sweden has many steps to take before winning Turkey's approval for its NATO membership bid. The speaker of Turkey's parliament made the comment on Tuesday ... Read More By Ben Hubbard and Safak Timur ISTANBUL  Turkeys Parliament ... users suspected of spreading fake news, was approved on Thursday night with votes from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Read More Sweden's Top Diplomat: We'll Fulfil Deal With Turkey on NATO By KARL RITTER ... say that we wont be interested in the rest of the world, far from it, Billstrom said, noting that he had ... Read More Although Airbnb said it has seen promising trends in the first month of the fourth quarter, it warned a strong US dollar will cut into rental income. [Average daily rates] will face some pressure ... Read More
World News Protests Sweeping South America Show Rising Antigovernment Anger | RobinsPost News & Noticias

Meanwhile, witnesses said antigovernment protests ... sweeping debris from vandalized stores. Irans deputy interior minister for security, Majid Mirahmadi, told the state-run IRNA news agency ... Read More Observers across the world will be watching the twice ... where online photos posted Thursday appeared to show an exceptionally rare public protest against Xi. Say no to Covid test, yes to ... Read More Anger among civilians is rising in a majority Kurdish district ... Associated Press via Telegram messenger service. The anti-government protests in Sanandaj, 300 miles (500 kilometers) from ... Read More Sharo said that after three weeks of protests, triggered by the death of a young woman in the custody of the feared morality police, anger at the authorities is only rising, despite a bloody ... Read More
World News Saudi Woman S Plea For Help Exposes Risks Runaways Face | RobinsPost News & Noticias

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP)  When yoga instructor Nada took up pole dancing, the backlash in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia was both harsh and quick, and she has struggled to overcome the ... Read More A 23-year-old Iranian woman who refused to put on a headscarf was shot in the face by security forces with ... serious challenges to the countrys ruling clerics. Young women from across Iranian ... Read More However, the promotion of women's sports has recently featured as part of a broader push to open up Saudi society and project a softer image to the outside world, despite persistent repression of ... Read More Subsequent videos have shown security forces beating and shoving female protesters, including women ... news agency described the incident as a salary dispute. Iran is one of the worlds top ... Read More For instance, men and women face different dietary ... director of CGIAR, the worlds largest publicly funded agricultural research organization. For the latest news, weather, sports, and ... Read More However, the promotion of women's sports has recently featured as part of a broader push to open up Saudi society and project a softer image to the outside world, despite persistent repression of ... Read More Biden said that the Saudi government would face ... Israel's new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, congratulating him on winning a "free and fair" election last week. World News ... Read More The field for next summers Womens World Cup will be the ... which learned Saturday it would face the top-ranked U.S. in its World Cup debut in July. Talk about being careful what you wish ... Read More RIYADH - When yoga instructor Nada took up pole dancing, the backlash in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia was both harsh and quick, and she has been struggling to overcome the fallout ever since. Read More However, the promotion of women's sports has recently featured as part of a broader push to open up Saudi society and project a softer image to the outside world, despite persistent repression of ... Read More
World News Fugitive Mexican Ex Gov Javier Duarte Detained In Guatemala | RobinsPost News & Noticias

The mayor of the municipality of Guerrero, in the Mexican state of Coahuila ... been released after being missing since Friday night, held by an armed group from Tamaulipas. Read More Javier Duarte. This is one more piece of evidence on crimes against humanity in Mexico committed by organized crime, government authorities or both acting together, said Jimena Reyes ... Read More A major leak of Mexican government documents revealed that members ... was host to "the largest portion of GRU members in the world," Business Insider reported. VanHerck could not specify the ... Read More A fugitive who made off with $35 million by allegedly defrauding investors was caught trying to flee to Mexico with gold bars and $60,000 in cash. Justin Costello, 42 - who allegedly tricked ... Read More MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico's government on Saturday moved to discourage the formation of caravans by Venezuelan migrants, saying any who do will not be eligible to enter the United States under ... Read More An alleged fugitive from justice ... not the first person to make news for allegedly walking into her own arrest. In September, an alleged police impersonator was arrested after pulling over ... Read More According to a press release from the Allen County Sheriffs Office, Jaquaveius Harvey, 30, a fugitive of Allen County Common Pleas Court, was arrested without incident following hours of ... Read More ROME (AP)  Giorgia Meloni on Friday formed Italys new ruling coalition, assembling the countrys first far-right-led government since the end of World War ... when Italy held its previous ... Read More Mexico has reported a first case of the severe H5N1 strain of avian influenza, the Paris-based World Organization for ... on the biggest health and wellness news with our weekly recap. Read More MEXICO CITY, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday said his government was working ... States," he told a regular news conference, noting that in the ... Read More Damaging winds and storm surge impacted west-central Mexico ... government offered details about a new natural gas discovery made in its territorial waters of the North Sea. World News // 1 ... Read More Oct. 24 (UPI) --Mexico City broke a Guinness World Record when 3,935 people participated in a 45-minute trampoline fitness class. Claudia Sheinbaum, head of the Mexico City government, announced ... Read More
World News Mike Pence Says North Korea Provocation Reminder Of Risks To Military | RobinsPost News & Noticias

The South Korean military said Wednesday North Korea launched the highest number of short-range missiles in a day as Seoul retaliated to Pyongyang's latest barrage of weapons tests, further escalating ... Read More
World News The North Korea Problem Is Coming To A Head Mcmaster Says | RobinsPost News & Noticias

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog on Thursday said a seventh North Korea nuclear test would be further confirmation of a program which is moving full steam ahead in a way that is incredibly ... Read More North Korea Says It Will Not Overlook Any Kind of Military ... said in a statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency. "In the future, too, our army will never allow any provocation ... Read More North Korea has been consistently developing and advancing nuclear weapons capabilities and is now threatening not only (South Korea) but the entire world, but I think there is nothing North ... Read More SEOUL, South Korea  North Korea on Friday launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters and flew warplanes near the border with South Korea, the Souths military said, further ... Read More For all latest news ... a nuclear test in the coming weeks or months, escalating a pressure campaign aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power ... Read More Tokyo says North Koreas seventh round of weapons tests in two weeks may have been launched from submarine North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters ... Read More "North Korea has been consistently developing and advancing nuclear weapons capabilities and is now threatening not only (South Korea) but the entire world ... name in news delivered first ... Read More North Korea has been consistently developing and advancing nuclear weapons capabilities and is now threatening not only (South Korea) but the entire world, but I think there is nothing North ... Read More S. Korea Says It Has Ability to Intercept North's Missiles By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG, Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Korea's military said Tuesday its capable of ... Read More SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Korea's military said Tuesday its capable of detecting and intercepting the variety of missiles North Korea launched in a barrage of recent simulated nuclear ... Read More
World News Story Pence Says Us Commitment To South Korea Stronger Than Ever | RobinsPost News & Noticias

North Korea on Tuesday described its record-breaking blitz of missile launches last week as a "just counteraction" to the biggest-ever US-South Korea air exercises. Last week, many of North Korea's ... Read More Candidates from both parties have fought to win over voters by focusing on issues they believe matter most to the electorate. Read More
Diamond Producers Association (DPA) was established in May 2015 by seven of the world's leading diamond companies, including ALROSA and DE BEERS, to maintain and increase the demand for diamonds, as well as their credibility.

One of DPAs most important recent initiatives was the campaign "Real is rare" launched in October 2016, which is aimed at reviving the prestige of diamond jewelry.

In an interview to Rough&Polished, DPA Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marc Lieberherr tells about this campaign and speaks of his vision on the situation in the diamond industry.

The diamond market has stabilized, but remains cautious. Is it too early to say that the market has embarked on the path of recovery?

There are indeed some very positive signs from all key markets, including India and China which have been subdued over the past couple of years. Confidence seems to be stronger, which is benefitting diamond consumption. It is early days but there are some very positive signs.

What is your vision of prospects of the world diamond market in the medium and long term future?

The medium to long term prospects for the world diamond market are strong. The US market continues to demonstrate strong resilience and some pockets of strength, and we see opportunities to further grow demand from younger consumers. In China and India, the growth of the affluent middle class will be a fundamental driver of growth and levels of market penetration are still low in comparison with mature markets. The DPA of course will play a key role to play in driving demand in the US, India and China in particular.

What is the most disturbing for you at the moment, and what is encouraging?

There are still many misconceptions about the diamond industry, which do not take into consideration the very significant changes that have taken place in the diamond sector over the past decade. The media coverage unfortunately often reflects issues of the past as opposed to todays reality of an increasingly transparent and very responsible industry. It is a key role of the DPA to ensure our sector is represented accurately and fairly so consumers understand that diamonds make the world a better place.

I am encouraged to see that the industry is coming together to build a strong future for diamonds. The sector is increasingly collaborative and focused, and certainly the DPA has been receiving strong support from other industry organizations and diamond centers. It is also encouraging to see that younger generations are reacting very positively to the diamond narrative of naturalness, authenticity, sincerity and preciousness.

What measures are required to improve consumer demand?

To increase consumer demand in a sustainable and durable way, we need to ensure that diamonds continue to appeal to consumers  and especially younger consumers at an emotional level. Diamonds are billion-year old miracles of nature and unique symbols of durable love and genuine commitment. There is magic in diamonds and that magic has to be communicated. Many consumers today do not understand where diamonds come from and what a gift of nature they are.

It is also important to improve and continuously modernize the consumer experience through product innovation, designs, new on-line and in-store experience. Other categories have probably evolved faster and we need to catch up. This is work that involves all actors of the diamond jewelry value chain.

Can the stake on consumer confidence stimulate increased demand?

Ensuring consumer confidence in the product and the supply chain is very important, but it also needs to work hand in hand with building desirability for the product and favorability for the industry  which are key aspects of the DPAs work.

What are the objectives of the campaign Real is Rare?

Real is Rare is a new category marketing and communications platform. It reflects what we heard from millennials about how diamonds can continue to be an expression of love, adventure and commitment, however that looks to them.

A diamond stands for authenticity, strength and rarity. Like relationships, no two diamonds are the same and can represent a symbol of a real connection and commitment in all of its infinite variety guided by personal choice, not convention.

Our research suggests that Millennials are looking for something that feels real in a modern life that is fuelled by digital engagements. Real is Rare is a new narrative rooted in insights that reflects the emotion of todays relationships and speaks to the more than 83 MM millennials an influential group that will be fundamental to the industrys expansion.

The campaign invites millennials to think differently about diamonds with a compelling and relevant message of rarity and celebration based on what is most meaningful and personal to them. It asserts that like diamonds, authentic connections are rare and reinforces why they are an ideal symbol for the sincerity and authenticity of a modern relationship.

Do you see any threat from synthetic diamonds?

Diamonds are true miracles of nature. They are often more than three billion years old, as old as life on earth, and they are inherently precious and valuable because they are rare and finite. This is why diamonds communicate sincerity, love, and depth of emotion in a way that word often cannot.

Synthetics are not diamonds, they are industrial reproductions of a diamond made in a matter of weeks in factories. They are not comparable products and they compete more in the market of fashion accessories than in the fine jewelry market.

Issues arise if synthetics are not correctly identified and disclosed, which is why detection technology is such an important tool. The DPA will play a role in improving transparency on the functionality and performance of various screening devices available in the market so the trade can choose the right equipment for their needs and give their consumers the assurance they deserve.

What importance does your organization attach to issues of corporate social responsibility?

Corporate Social Responsibility is at the heart of how DPA members operate, it is their license to operate. To qualify for DPA membership, producers must apply very strict international guidelines to their sustainability reporting, which means that their CSR record is audited and verified. They furthermore sign a specific sustainability commitment as part of their membership application.

DPA members represent today 75% of world diamond production and operate by the worlds strictest standards when it comes to environmental management, community partnerships or health and safety programs. Beyond this, DPA members make significant contributions to the communities and regions in which they operate in the form of skills development, employment, community participation schemes, social programs, infrastructure development, tax or royalties.

Working together with governments and civil society  the diamond industry has helped transform extremely poor regions, such as in Botswana in Southern Africa, into prosperous communities.

From six miles of paved roads, Botswana now counts 7,000. Every child in Botswana receives free education until the age of 13 and the country now has 300 secondary schools compared to just three back in 1966, when the first significant diamond discovery was made.

There are many such examples of how diamonds have transformed mining regions and communities, but it is not only in diamond mining: over 600,000 workers are employed in the Indian diamond cutting sector in the state of Gujarat, and millions depend on diamonds for livelihood, health and education around the world.

Alex Shishlo, Editor of the Rough&Polished European Bureau in Brussels




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...
Hyderabad, April 15: The Telangana government on Saturday decided to hike the reservations for the socially and economically backward among Muslims to 12 per cent from the existing four per cent.



The decision was taken by the state cabinet at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.



The cabinet also decided to increase the quota for the Scheduled Tribes (STs) from the current seven per cent to 10 per cent, official sources said.



Both the Houses of the state legislature will be meeting on Sunday for a special session to pass a bill for increasing the quantum of reservation for Muslims and STs in education and jobs.



As this will take the overall reservations in the state beyond the prescribed limit of 50 per cent, the legislature will pass Telangana Reservation Bill and send it to the Centre with a request to include it in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution as was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.



Chandrasekhar Rao said Telangana was following the model of Tamil Nadu, where the overall quota for different groups is 69 per cent.
Security has been beefed up at Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai airports following an e-mail from a woman who warned of a possible hijack, a CISF official said on Sunday.

In the e-mail sent to Mumbai Police, the woman, who did not reveal her identity, said she heard six unidentified youths discuss hijacking three flights in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai on Sunday.



Mumbai Police got the e-mail on Saturday and forwarded it to Mumbai Airport Security Group to go on high alert, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) official told media on the condition of anonymity.



The woman, whose email was in broken English, said she overheard the young men at a restaurant in Hyderabad over lunch.



She claimed hearing the persons say that 23 people would split up from Hyderabad and board three flights in the three cities for hijacking.



Airport authorities, immigration and Mumbai Police held a meeting after getting the e-mail. The officials were briefed about anti-hijacking steps taken during Independence Day and Republic Day, said the CISF official.



Security was beefed up at the Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai airports and security agencies were put on alert.



Officials said while it could be a fake alarm, they were not taking any chances. The Mumbai Police is trying to get in touch with the woman who sent the email.



Police in the three cities beefed up security at the main entry points to the airports. All vehicles were thoroughly checked.



The CISF, responsible for security at 59 airports in the country, set up additional security measures and alerted its officials to be more vigilant in and around the terminals at Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad airports.



CISF Director General O.P. Singh said passengers need not panic.



"There is no reason to panic as security measures have been put in place. All operations at these airports will be normal and passengers will not face any problem," Singh told media.







The CISF has enhanced baggage scanning, pre-embarkation checks and frisking of passengers. Other airports in the country have been alerted too. The force has called in sniffer dog squads and quick reaction teams.



The airlines were also told to be more vigilant.



Airlines have advised passengers to report on time and avoid last-minute check-ins. Passengers have been told to cooperate with security personnel.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (the second day of his Odisha visit) met the descendants of historical Paika Rebellion martyrs, who undertook an armed rebellion against the British rulers in Odisha in 1817. He felicitated the families of freedom fighters at Raj Bhawan here in presence of Governor S.C. Jamir. "Today, the history was recalled with pride. It is my honour to see the descendants of martyrs. Unfortunately, the long years of freedom movement was confined in few persons and specific period. We should recall the events and contribution of everyone who participated in the freedom struggle," said the Prime Minister. He said Odisha secured the top position for its immense contribution for freedom movement. After felicitating the family members of the freedom fighters, Modi also paid a visit to the famous Lingaraj temple here. Aiming to grab power in Odisha where the Biju Janata Dal is in its forth consecutive term and setting his sights on 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Modi On Saturday, held a road show on his way from the airport to the meeting venue of Janata Maidan in the Odisha capital.
Hundreds of freedom fighters from across the country started arriving here on Sunday to be honoured by President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday to mark the ongoing year-long centenary celebrations of the Champaran Satyagraha, officials said.

"Hundreds of freedom fighters from different states have started arriving in Patna to be honoured by President Pranab Mukherjee on April 17 at the felicitation ceremony as part of centenary celebrations of Mahatama Gandhi's Champaran satyagraha," Vinodanand Jha, an official of the state education department, said.



Jha said that while some freedom fighters have arrived here on Saturday, others will arrive on Sunday. "Most of the freedom fighters would reach here by Sunday night."



According to Jha, freedom fighters from 19 states -- including Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi -- would be honoured by the President.



In all, 2,972 freedom fighters from across the country, including Bihar, would be honoured. "As per the plan, 264 freedom fighters from 19 states and 554 selected of 2,708 freedom fighters of Bihar will be honoured by the President," Jha said.







The year-long celebrations to mark the 100th year of Mahatma Gandhi's first major resistance against British rule, popularly known as the Champaran Satyagraha, began last week in Bihar.



Mahatma Gandhi launched his Satyagraha -- a non-violent agitation -- against the forced cultivation of indigo by the British rulers in Champaran district in Bihar on April 10, 1917.
Setting a new target for party leaders and workers, Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah said on Saturday that despite being in power at the centre and in 13 states, the party is yet to achieve its peak and urged them to devote themselves to the cause.

Shah also hit out at opposition parties for questioning EVMs and said that blaming EVMs is disrespecting the Election Commission.

Shah's remarks came here at the inaugural address of the two-day National Executive of BJP, being held at Bhubaneswar after a gap of 20 years.

"Many (people) declared after the 2014 general elections that the BJP reached its peak, but it was not so. They then said in 2017 (after elections to the five states, including Uttar Pradesh) that the BJP has now attained it peak, but it is not the case," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted Amit Shah as saying at the inaugural session .

"But the BJP is yet to be at its peak. The BJP will attain its peak when BJP will have Chief Ministers in all the states and it has members everywhere -- from panchayats to Parliament," Shah added, according to Prasad.

"Let's resolve to make BJP a pan-India party from panchayats to Parliament. BJP's golden period should be associated with country's golden period," Shah said.

Noting that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will complete three years in office on May 26 and had worked hard during this period, he said: "... we have done work which other governments would do in two-three terms."

The BJP Chief also said that earlier there was a perception that BJP was doing well only where there was Congress and not against the regional parties, but the recent election results of Uttar Pradesh has proved this perception wrong.

Targeting the opposition for questioning EVMs, Shah said despite making excuses these parties should have honestly introspected the reasons.

"It was expected from the defeated parties that after their defeat, these parties should have honestly accepted it but they began making excuses. Among the excuses EVMs are being discussed.

"Such talks are not only about accepting defeat honestly but to dishonour the Election Commission," he said.

In a sarcastic attack, Shah said that when United Progressive Alliance won the 2004 and 2009 general elections or the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party won the Uttar Pradesh elections in 2007 and 2012, then there was no problem, but now all of sudden questions are being raised about EVMs.

The BJP also challenged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to accept the open challenege of Election Commission to hack EVMs.

"The EC has publicly asked to hack EVMs. Why don't he (Kejriwal) and hack it. He is an IIT graduate. An experienced hacker is Chief Minister of a state," Prasad told reporters in response to a query.

Urging party workers "not to be lethargic" after stunning victories in recently-concluded assembly polls, Prasad also said that the BJP chief would tour, for 95 days, different parts of the country till September.

"Shah will extensively tour the country till September. During this tour Shah will spend three days in Kerala also," he said.

Enthused by its resounding victory in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP seems quite confident that it would come to power in Odisha, where it has never been in a commanding position despite being an ally of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for nine years.

The BJP hoped that it would be able to build its prospects in the state in the wake of the anti-incumbency tide against the Naveen Patnaik government, which has been in power since the last 17 years.

Shah has given a clear signal in the executive meeting that the party would work relentlessly to grab the eastern state in the 2019 elections.

"The people in Odisha want change from the incumbent government, which is in power since 2000. The Naveen Patnaik government has failed to provide basic amenities to the people in the state," he said.

The party has been encouraged by its performance in the recently-concluded panchayat polls, where it emerged second, relegating the Congress to the third position.

The first day of the two-day meet was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 13 Chief Ministers including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was given a grand welcome.

The Prime Minister, earlier, held a roadshow in the state capital ahead of the meeting.

A huge crowd gathered on both sides of the road to catch a glimpse of Modi. BJP supporters raised slogans of 'Modi-Modi' and 'Vande Mataram' and some showered flowers on the Prime Minister.
At least 15 people were arrested after thousands of protesters took to the streets across the US to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

The arrests took place on Saturday in Berkeley, California, when fistfights broke out between supporters and opponents of the President, Efe news reported.



Two people were also injured in the fights.



Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and quell the fights, reporting that they had found some people in possession of prohibited items including a knife, helmets, clubs and a fake pistol.



Local authorities knew that there would be two demonstrations on Saturday both for and against Trump, while protests elsewhere in the country, however, were reported to be generally peaceful.



The "Tax March" movement had called for protests to begin at noon, coinciding with the day by which Americans traditionally must have filed their tax returns, though this year because April 15 fell on the weekend and Monday is a local holiday in Washington, taxpayers have until Tuesday, April 18, to file their returns.



The largest march took place in Washington, where protesters marched from the Capitol to the White House, but sizable anti- Trump demonstrations were also staged in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Austin, Texas.





In New York, hundreds of people carrying anti- Trump signs and effigies of the President gathered in downtown Bryant Park, from where they marched to Trump Tower.



Activists in Florida held dozens of marches around the state, in front of the condominiums at Trump Plaza in West Palm Beach and the entrance of his Mar-a-Lago mansion, where he is spending the weekend with his family.



The movement calls for "transparency" and complains in a statement on its Web site that "despite intense public pressure, President Trump has not yet done so (published his tax returns) - breaking with 40 years of precedent in the process."



The statement rejects the Trump government's excuse that "people don't care," and recalls an ABC/Washington Post survey that showed 74 per cent of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, want to know the president's tax history.



During Trump's presidential campaign, he kept postponing the release of his tax returns with the excuse that they were under audit.



Two days after he entered the White House, Presidential Adviser Kellyanne Conway said Trump was not going to disclose his tax situation because it became obvious during the campaign that US citizens really did not care about the matter.
Salina native to present nature photography seminar

Nature photographers in the Great Plains area are gathering for a seminar and photography contest in McPherson this weekend.
Could the new Trump administration save the vaping industry from its fears of being regulated into oblivion by the Food and Drug Administration? Gregory Conley, a top vaping spokesman, says it might happen.

I interviewed Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, on April 15. He said the signs continue to point to favorable treatment for vaping by the administration. But nothing definite has been announced.

It may be too early to look for such an announcement, Conley said, because Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Trumps nominee to lead the FDA, hasnt yet been confirmed.

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Last year, the Obama Administration FDA announced it would deem all e-cigarettes to be tobacco products, thereby falling under its jurisdiction. The FDA says it wants to help people avoid becoming addicted to tobacco and the diseases tobacco consumption can cause.

However, e-cigarette juices do not contain tobacco, and many do not even contain nicotine. And the vaping industry says e-cigarettes are a good way to quit smoking  a hotly debated point among researchers and public health officials.

The FDA has announced retroactive regulation of all e-cigarette products introduced since Feb. 15, 2007, which includes virtually everything being sold today.

Smaller e-cigarette manufacturers and suppliers have said the cost of compliance, estimated at about $300,000 per product, would drive them out of business, leaving only the big tobacco companies, who can afford the expense. The regulations take final effect on Aug. 8, 2018, unless the Trump administration decides otherwise. Here is a timeline.

Both Tom Price, secretary of Health and Human Services; and Gottlieb, the FDA director nominee, have taken stands that appear sympathetic to the vaping industry, Conley said. So prospects look hopeful that the vaping restrictions will be stopped.

Even if the restrictions arent overturned, vaping products may not vanish entirely, since the big tobacco makers will be able to afford to comply with them.

But Conley said the smaller to medium-sized companies, who specialize in vaping and have driven innovation, will be gone.

Big tobacco companies probably will benefit from the FDA approval process, a tobacco industry analyst said in a research note last year.

In many cases, the associated costs with this application will likely cause many e-cigarette manufacturers to close shop over the next several years, boosting long-run market share for Altria, Reynolds, and other large organizations that have both the financial wherewithal and regulatory experience to navigate this process, wrote Adam Fleck of Morningstar.

Questions of safety

The vaping industry is opposed by a number of public health officials and medical researchers, who say vaping is not the best way to quit smoking.

Some studies have said that vaping can function as a gateway drug that gets nonsmokers interested in smoking; the vaping industry disputes this.

There is some evidence of potential cardivascular harm from vaping. Another study found that e-cigarette vapor could make superbugs like MRSA more harmful, although this was done with human tissue cultures and in mice, not in people.

The vaping industrys response is that vaping is less harmful than smoking, which most researchers appear to agree with. The question is whether vaping is truly effective in smoking cessation. Those who continue to smoke while vaping may not have reduced their risk at all, but merely added a new one.

What to make of this is difficult, because vaping simply hasnt been around long enough to see the effects over decades, as can be done with cigarettes.

And while a reporter can find ex-smokers at any vaping shop who swear by vaping as their means to quit, high-quality research on these claims is hard to come by.

Presidential politics

President Trump himself hasnt said anything about where he stands on electronic cigarettes, Conley said.

When youre dealing with presidential politics, you dont need to influence the man at the top, when that man has not taken a position on your issue, Conley said. You need to make other people in the administration know that it is important, and good things can result.

Price hasnt said anything on vaping, but he voted no on the Tobacco Control Act of 2009, Conley said. That is the law Congress passed giving the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products.

He had the foresight to see this was going to be bad news in some capacity, Conley said. His pick for FDA commissioner has brought some optimism. Scott Gottlieb worked for the FDA under George W. Bush, and has been a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, which has always taken a pro-vaping stance.

Mr. Gottlieb believes in some things in the drug world that have interesting parallels to the vaping world. There is reason for optimism, especially compared to what youve looked at over the past 7-8 years with the FDA.

Meanwhile, legislation has been introduced in Congress that, among other things, would move up the start date for the retroactive regulation, the predicate date, from 2007 to a more recent year. This is tied to the budget bill now under consideration.

With the final deadline for compliance looming next year, some vaping companies have already gone out of business.

There was a great company, ProVape, that was manufacturing devices in the state of Washington. Theyre gone now. They saw the writing on the wall in terms of American manufacturing of these products, and were not confident enough to stick around, Conley said.

Some mom and pop shops have shut down rather than take a chance on a lease that they might not be able to use, if the FDA regulations force them to go out of business.

This industry may be gone in 16 months, and the landlord wants a 3-year lease, Conley said. Is now the time to take what I made and go start something new? Thats happening across the country.

But for the most part, vaping companies, including manufacturers and distributors, are hanging on.

Theyre used to volatility in this market, theyre used to uncertainty. So for the most part they are chugging through and trying to keep operating.

For more information on the American Vaping Association, go to vaping.org.

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
CITY COUNCILS

CARLSBAD

The Carlsbad City Council will meet in closed session to discuss contracts for the city manager and city attorney at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in council chambers at 1200 Carlsbad Village Drive. In open session at 9 a.m., the council will discuss and provide direction on its 2017 goals of prioriting city projects; its growth management plan and municipal code updates; sustainability; and the Village and Barrio development moratoriums.

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DEL MAR

The Del Mar City Council will meet at 4 p.m. Monday in Suite 100 at 2010 Jimmy Durante Blvd. for a hearing on whether Tasting Room Del Mar can use shared parking at 1401 Camino Del Mar; and a hearing to consider permits for the temporary Barn at the Beach Breeders Cup event tent by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. At 5:30 p.m. the council will hold a hearing on whether short-term rentals are allowed in residential areas. The council will also discuss creating a Citizen Oversight Committee for the 1 percent Measure Q sales tax, and a proposal for a Del Mar monument sign in the roundabout planned at Jimmy Durante Boulevard and San Dieguito Drive.

ENCINITAS

The Encinitas City Council will meet in special session at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Council Chambers, 505 S. Vulcan Ave., to discuss whether to sell or lease property at 750 Leucadia Blvd. to Habitat for Humanity, and then will go into closed session to discuss property negotiation and litigation.

OCEANSIDE

The Oceanside City Council will meet in closed session to discuss labor and real estate negotiations at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in City Council Chambers at 300 N. Coast Highway. In open session at 5 p.m., the council will consider an ordinance amending city code prohibiting non-medical commercial cannabis businesses pending the consideration of additional municipal regulations. Appointments to the Citizen Investment Oversight Committee will be discussed. The council will also consider requests by council members to set a workshop on district elections, campaign contributions and term limits; to amend zoning for part of the downtown district allowing multi-family uses; to require council member items to be submitted with the written concurrence of at least one other council member; and to create a committee to explore medical marijuana regulations for the city.

POWAY

The Poway City Council will meet in special closed session to discuss labor negotiations and litigation at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Council Chambers, 13325 Civic Center Drive. In open session at 7 p.m., the council will hold a hearing to consider raising the Regional Transportation Congestion Improvement Program Traffic Mitigation Fee by 2 percent, from $2,357 to $2,404.14 per residential unit. The council will also receive a report on the Espola Road Safety Improvements Project, and hold a workshop on the use and maintenance of the Cafagna Community Center.

SAN MARCOS

The city of San Marcos will hold a public workshop at 6 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 1 Civic Center Drive, to get public input on a possible general plan amendment and rezoning for a proposed development by Brookfield Residential Properties at the southwest corner of South Twin Oaks Valley Road and South Village Drive. Contact Art Pinon in the Planning Division at (760) 744-1050, ext. 3234, or email apinon@san-marcos.net.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

CARLSBAD

The Carlsbad Unified School District board will meet in closed session at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the district office, 6225 El Camino Real. In open session at 6 p.m., the board will hear a report on the Facilities Master Plan, an update to the 2017-18 Goals and Success Indicator part of its Local Control and Accountability Plan, and a draft Actions and Services plan based on the update. The board will also discuss a contract for the new assistant superintendent for business services.

ENCINITAS

The Encinitas Union School District board is scheduled to meet in closed session at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the district office, 101 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road, and in open session at 6 p.m.

ESCONDIDO

The Escondido Union High School District board will meet in closed session to discuss labor negotiations and litigation at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the district office, 302 N. Midway Drive. In open session at 7 p.m., the board will approve new course proposals and materials for courses including biology, chemistry and AP computer science principles, and will review new course proposals and materials for courses including certified nurse assistant, American Sign Language, veterinary science and AP Statistics. The board will also consider a tentative agreement with the California School Employees Association, Chapter 219, and receive an initial negotiation proposal from the Escondido Secondary Teachers Association for 2017-2018.

FALLBROOK

The Fallbrook Union Elementary School District board will meet at 5 p.m. Monday in Room 106 of the district office, 321 N. Iowa St., to review updated job descriptions for its migrant community support services assistant and its database specialist, and to approve a three-year employment agreement with Julie Norby, assistant superintendent, educational services.

OCEANSIDE

The Oceanside Unified School District board will meet in closed session to discuss litigation, labor negotiations and personnel at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at the district office, 2111 Mission Ave. In open session at 6 p.m., the board will consider awarding a contract with Doherty Concrete for a stormwater biofiltration system at Ivey Ranch Elementary School. At 6:30 p.m., the board will hold a hearing on initial contract proposals to negotiate with the Oceanside Teachers Association, and with the California School Employees Association, Chapter 370 for 2017-2018.

RAMONA

The Ramona Unified School District board is scheduled to meet in closed session at 6 p.m. Thursday at the district office, 720 Ninth St., and in open session at 7 p.m.

SAN MARCOS

The San Marcos Unified School District board will meet in closed session to discuss labor negotiations and personnel at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Media Center of the North County Regional Education Center, 255 Pico Ave. In regular session at 6 p.m., the board will hear a report from the Citizens Oversight Committee about its Prop K bonds; hold a hearing on initial collective bargaining proposals of the district and the California School Employees Association, San Marcos Chapter 413; and approve bids and contracts for various services.

SOLANA BEACH

The Solana Beach School District board will meet in closed session at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the district office, 309 N. Rios Ave., to discuss negotiations. In regular session at 6:30 p.m., the board will consider raising the school lunch price from $3.75 to $4.50 per meal; and will review contracts and bids for various services, including $44,308.86 for asphalt repair and sealing at Solana Vista, Carmel Creek, and Solana Ranch schools to G. Scott Asphalt Inc., and for $61,610.97 for HVAC cleaning and mold remediation at Solana Vista School to Continental Environmental Solutions, Inc.

VISTA

The Vista Unified School District board is scheduled to meet in closed session at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Morris Vance Community Room, 200 Civic Center Drive, and in open session at 7 p.m.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.com
Jeff Guinn is a former journalist who writes books about particular eras in American history, told through the lives of key individuals. Bonnie and Clyde. Charles Manson. And now Jim Jones.

The Road to Jonestown details how Jones formed the Peoples Temple, moved it from Indiana to California and finally to Guyana, where in November 1978 he and more than 900 of his followers died in a mass murder-suicide. Guinn did some of his research in San Diego. A key Peoples Temple survivor lives here, and San Diego State University is a major repository of Jonestown documents.

The author lives in Fort Worth, Texas. He will be at Warwicks in La Jolla on April 25 at 7:30 p.m.

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Q: What were your impressions of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple before you started work on this?

A: All I knew was that this horrific event had occurred in Guyana. I was in my early 20s at the time and like everybody else I was stunned, couldnt believe it happened, and started to say every once in a while over the years, Dont drink the Kool-Aid, without knowing that it wasnt Kool-Aid and that a lot of the victims didnt even voluntarily take it.

Q: What were you surprised to learn?

A: It was amazing to me to learn some of the great works that Jim Jones and Peoples Temple accomplished. If he had been hit by a car and killed between establishing his church in Indianapolis and then moving it out to San Francisco  for what he accomplished in Indiana, he would still be remembered as one of the leading pioneers in the early civil-rights movement. I had not realized that he accomplished so many good works in Indiana and even later in California.

Another thing that surprised me was the quality of the people who chose to join Peoples Temple. This was not a freak show. It was not mindless zombies. Were talking about capable, intelligent, decent people whose motivation for being part of Peoples Temple was to try to bring about a more equitable world. They truly believed that if they could set a positive socialist example, everybody having equal opportunity and showing respect to the least in society, then by dint of what they did everyone else would want to follow that example.

Q: Your book shows Jim Jones as someone who could tailor his message to his audience. Where did he get that skill?

A: I think there are rare individuals among us who have a gift for discerning what the other person wants to hear and being able to make that person believe they share the same beliefs. Thats supposedly a trick that all great salespeople have. And in a sense, its a trait that ministers and politicians want to have.

The genius of Jones is that he could have thousands of followers collected together for varying reasons and could in the course of one of his four- or five-hour sermons  if you listened carefully, it wasnt rambling. He was making sure that everybody listening to him heard exactly what they wanted to hear at some point. Everybody was getting reinforced.

You used the word skill. The word gift might be more appropriate. It went beyond talent.

Q: What was the biggest challenge for you in doing the reporting for the book?

A: One was going back into Indiana to try to learn everything I could about Jones childhood and early life there. That meant finding people who hadnt ever talked before and who all these years had relevant information, insights that had never been shared. So I had to gain peoples trust. Most of what has been written about Jim Jones and Jonestown is pretty sensationalistic. We like as a culture our stories spiced up with lots of scandal. So first I had to convince people that I wanted an objective, non-sensational book here. I wanted to find out what happened and help people understand.

On the other end, going into Guyana, it was finding the same pilot who had flown into Port Kaituma the morning after the murders and suicides and learning that the jungles had overgrown Jonestown. We hired a couple of guides, figuring we were just going to take the four-wheeler and drive right in, and we were stopped by the jungle a couple of miles out. They got out and handed us machetes.

I now know from experience that having to cut your way through the jungle with machetes is not quite as much fun as it looks in those adventure movies.

Q: What was the biggest challenge in writing it?

A: When you write history, and this is my 19th book, you have to learn not only to be objective but also, as you are writing, to step back. What you want to do is help the readers make their own decisions. You dont want to say this means this and this means that. Everybodys interpretation can be different. My job is to tell the story as objectively and as factually as I can.

But in the process of writing this book, I met so many good and decent people whod been part of Peoples Temple, a couple who had survived Guyana, some who had left Peoples Temple before that but were still a big part of the story. And it was impossible not to be impressed by them and care about them. Then Im writing these horrible things that happened and its painful for me because I know them and I know the agony thats involved. So I think I can say I felt this book more deeply than any other Ive ever written.

Q: Your previous book was about Charles Manson. Is there a thread that connects him and Jim Jones?

A: People see one that doesnt exist. They seem to think that Manson and Jones, both being demagogues, both attracting followers, both at the center of horrible events, are equals. Theyre not. Comparing Charles Manson to Jim Jones is like comparing Mickey Mouse to Machiavelli. The best Manson could do is get a couple dozen drunk and stoned kids to follow him for a little while and do stupid things. Jim Jones is maybe the only real demagogue in American history who ended up so catastrophically and who attracted followers by appealing to their best instincts, not their worst ones.

Q: Whats the lasting impact of Jim Jones and Jonestown for the rest of us, some 40 years later?

A: We think we know but were wrong: Dont drink the Kool-Aid. Again, it wasnt Kool-Aid, but the expression means dont be a fool and follow some obviously crazy person who is going to lead you to a bad end. That wasnt applicable. The lesson we have here is that any time, even if you have a leader who is supposedly only bringing about good things, its important to remember that everyone is a human being, nobodys perfect, and put yourself in a position where you are free to question what you are hearing.

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, by Jeff Guinn, Simon & Schuster, 544 pages.

john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-2236
30th Easter Sunrise Service When: Today, 6:30 a.m. Where: Spreckels Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park

Balboa Parks Easter sunrise service is a model of consistency. For 30 years, its been organized by Cindy Peterson. For 30 years, worshippers have sung Christ the Lord is Risen Today. For 30 years, the collection has benefited homeless services in San Diego. And while a rotating band of churches have taken turns leading the nondenominational service, the theme remains constant.

Its always been a message of Christ rising and hope for peace in the world and for his love, Peterson said. People come to this service for the traditional Easter service.

Also part of this tradition: An eclectic congregation, a mixture of local residents, out-of-towners and homeless folks; rich and poor; black, brown and white; and a kennel or two of dogs. In this outdoor urban setting, there have been mornings when Easters message of hope and renewal, of faith triumphing over death, has had an immediate resonance.

Walking to the service in Balboa Parks pre-dawn darkness four years ago, Peterson was stopped by a police officer.

Maam, he said, you really shouldnt be here. Theres been a knifing in the park.

Scuffling over a blanket, one homeless man had stabbed another. The news shook Peterson, but when the 6:30 a.m. service started she had recovered her poise  and her focus. She told the congregation about the tragedy, then issued an appeal.

Two people were so desperate for warmth, she said, they fought over a blanket. Today, you are allowed to help these people.

Raise your joys 

A Tennessee native who grew up in Berkeley, Peterson moved here in 1957. Shes led a busy life  first grade teacher, reserve police officer, church deacon, mother of four sons  and this soprano is in her 51st year with La Jolla Presbyterian Churchs choir. She recently turned 82, but her schedule would tax most 28-year-olds.

She is remarkable, said the Rev. Paul Cunningham, La Jolla Presbyterians pastor. We have a committee for the sunrise service, but she carries the torch for it, organizes it, holds it all together.

She also has a large and varied circle of friends. In 1983, one of those friends asked her advice. Leon Drew, San Diego Civic Light Operas executive director, oversaw the musicals playing in Balboa Parks Starlight Bowl every summer. The rest of the year, though, the outdoor stage was rarely used. Couldnt other groups, with other missions, use this space?

The Starlight Bowl reminded Peterson of the Hollywood Bowl, and that Los Angeles venue hosts an Easter service. She mentioned this to Drew, who asked her to organize a similar event here.

The sunrise service enjoyed a five-year run at Starlight, concluding when Drew left his position there and new management had other plans for the venue. In 1988, the service moved to the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. Besides its central location in Balboa Park, this spot had an obvious advantage over the Starlight Bowl.

The organ, Peterson said, has been the big attraction.

The service may seem almost identical, year after year, but a lot of planning precedes each Easter morning. Participating churches  the current group includes Faith Presbyterian, La Jolla Presbyterian, Mount Sinai Baptist, St. Stephens Church of God in Christ and the Ecumenical Council of San Diego  send representatives to committee meetings chaired by Peterson. The lead church  this year, thats Mt. Sinai  maps out the program, including the music and the message.

The whole bottom line is to reach souls for Christ, said the Rev. Cedric J. Collins Sr., Mount Sinais pastor. This may be someones first time to hear the message of the Gospel, the resurrection of Jesus. We go with that in our minds and hearts.

They also check the weather forecast and dress accordingly.

Its going to be pretty cold from what I hear, Pastor Collins said, adding that hes not a fan of preaching in the rain. But God will prevail.

 and triumphs high, Alleluia!

As the organizer, Peterson usually arrives at the park around 4:30 Easter morning. She loves the pre-dawn stillness, lights tracing the organ pavilions outline as the eastern horizon brightens from black to violet to pink. At that hour she often sees the huddled shapes of slumbering men and women, the parks unofficial residents. While shes lived in tony La Jolla for decades, Peterson has always insisted that this services collection go to nonprofits helping the homeless.

I thought that God has been so good to all of us, she said. We needed to do something for people of San Diego, for the people I could see were homeless.

Last year, the service raised $10,050 for the San Diego Rescue Mission. That organization will receive this years collection, too.

Good works. Good message. And good music. This year the parks organ will be played by Jared Jacobsen, director of music at First Lutheran Church of San Diego and a regular performer on the Spreckels Organ. Hell be supported by Mount Sinais pianist Julian Thomas, percussionist Ernest Harrell and MarShell Rivers directing the churchs traveling praise team.

Thats about five people, Collins said, with the strongest voices.

You need strong pipes to rouse a congregation still rubbing the sleep from their eyes. Easter after Easter, one of the seats furthest from the organ is usually occupied by a man accompanied by a large black dog.

Its kind of funny about this service, he told Peterson last year. When the choir is singing, (the dog) is sitting there with his ears perked up. And then when the minister speaks, he falls asleep  just like in church!
Firing a broadside of tweets at North Korea, President Donald Trump has claimed in recent days that Pyongyang is looking for trouble and if China cant help the United States bottle the nuclear-armed regime, we will solve the problem without them!

North Korean leaders loyal to despot Kim Jong-un have shot back with their own rhetoric, vowing to unleash nuclear weapons if America is itching for war.

Heading into that hurricane of words is the Navys San Diego-based Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, which is slated to reach waters near North Korea any day now.

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The fleet  consisting of the flattop Vinson, the cruiser Lake Champlain and the destroyers Wayne E. Meyer and Michael Murphy  was diverted from a planned training mission off the coast of Australia. Commanded from the naval Third Fleets Maritime Operations Center in Point Loma, its expected to project military heft and act as a deterrent against North Korea by conducting joint exercises with Japanese warships in the western Pacific Ocean.

The strike group also might help monitor or respond to any missiles launched by the North Korean dictator, such as the one fired early Sunday (Saturday afternoon Pacific time) near the Yellow Sea port of Sinpo. The U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii confirmed the launch and said the missile blew up almost immediately.

Trump hasnt commented on the latest missile launch. White House officials said the president, who was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, has been regularly receiving updates about North Korea.

But Vice President Mike Pence, in his first official White House visit to Asia, did address the missile firing as he spent Easter Sunday meeting with U.S. troops and South Korean officials. Its the first leg of his broader 10-day trip, with planned talks to reassure leaders in Japan, Australia and Indonesia of Americas commitment to the region.

This mornings provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face each and every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world, Pence told troops during a meal at the Yongsan military base in Seoul.

Like his father, Kim has dreamed of developing nuclear warheads capable of traveling all the way to the United States. For decades, the regime has pressed on toward that ambition despite United Nations sanctions and other pressure from the U.S. and its allies.

On Saturday, to commemorate the countrys founding by his grandfather, Kim presided over a huge military parade that featured a processions of missiles wheeled through the capital. Analysts are poring over photographs showing those weapons, especially what appeared to be three types of intercontinental ballistic missiles that might eventually be able to reach North America.

Experts are divided over whether the parades missile tubes were simply mock-ups of future weapons or whether Pyongyangs recently stepped-up pace of missile testing reflects technological breakthroughs in that nations rocket and atomic programs.

Shorter-range North Korean missiles already can hit American allies Japan and South Korea, and Pyongyangs dense thicket of artillery is built to bombard South Koreas capital of Seoul and reduce it to rubble.

The escalating tensions come in the wake of an American cruise-missile barrage on a Syrian air field and Trumps summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, when the president sought to prod Beijing to take a tougher stance on North Korea to help create a nuclear-free peninsula.

Experts interviewed for this story said they believe the Vinson strike group and Japanese warships most likely wont attack North Korea to stunt its missile and nuclear programs. Instead, these analysts see the Vinsons imminent arrival as providing a show of force to remind Pyongyangs leaders that the U.S. stands ready to defend its allies. They perceive this strategy as the latest instance of America using coercive diplomacy to steer North Korea back to the bargaining table.

The risks of rapid escalation and harm to U.S. allies and interests in the region are too great to engage in military action unless absolutely necessary, as a last resort when all other options have been totally exhausted, said Lisa Collins, a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Collins rattled off a long list of American demonstrations of force during the six decades since the Korean War ended  from joint naval maneuvers in the Yellow Sea with South Koreas warships to American B-2 and B-52 bombers zooming near the communist nation to the north.

The Vinson strike groups looming presence is slightly different because it means Washington is sending more military resources to the region, she said, but the extra warships also might convince Kim to abandon his provocative policies of nuclear proliferation.

To Daryl Kimball  executive director of the nonprofit Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C.  the Vinsons diversion to the Korean peninsula is a sign to the South Korean and Japanese governments that we have their backs, that were prepared and that we have the personnel and the hardware to defend them against any and all scenarios.

And that ripples across the Pacific because the farther North Korea pushes its missiles ranges, the more skittish neighbors it creates, Kimball said.

He still holds out hope that theres a pathway to a nuclear-free peninsula. Our first priority is that there should be talks about talks, without conditions, Kimball said.

At the same time, he said, Pyongyang should halt ongoing missile testing and nuclear-weapons production. He thinks Kim might temporarily suspend these programs if the United States and South Korea agreed to scrap this years round of joint military exercises.

The nuclear horse is out of the barn, but it matters how far (Kim) wanders, Kimball said. It matters how capable the North Korean technical knowledge becomes. It matters how reliable their ballistic missiles are. It matters how much material they have for nuclear weapons. All that matters because itll guide how well guard against the North Korean threat in the years to come.

Although North Koreas longtime ally China has urged Pyongyang to stop testing nuclear weapons and missiles, Kimball believes Beijing is more worried about a conflict on the peninsula sparking a refugee crisis that spills across Chinas borders.

He said Beijing might be persuaded to stop shipping oil to North Korea or buying coal from Pyongyang, thereby exerting economic influence over Kims decision-making, but that China also wants Trumps delegates and Kims regime to directly negotiate with each other.

Kimball, Collins and defense analyst Reed Foster of the Australia-based company IHS Markit said there are some military options that could be pursued  short of attacking North Korea.

For example, South Korean, Japanese and American anti-missile batteries could try to shoot down a missile launched during one of Pyongyangs tests.

Even though the Carl Vinson itself possesses a substantial strike capability in the form of its carrier-based fighters, the primary reason for the dispatch of these forces are the Aegis missile defense systems upon the escorting destroyers and cruiser, Foster said.

The Aegis system is designed to counter threats posed by the types of ballistic missiles in Pyongyangs inventory and can plug in to the missile defense shield of Japan due to the commonality of US-supplied defense equipment  while also utilizing detection and monitoring systems based in South Korea, he added.

But Pentagon planners probably want to avoid that scenario as well, Foster said.

Chinese and Russian monitoring systems could snoop on the anti-missile batteries effectiveness, highlighting potential vulnerabilities they could exploit later, Foster said. And what if the missile interception failed?

The only thing more unfortunate than demonstrating the capabilities of your missile defense system is demonstrating its failings to ones adversaries and allies, Foster said.

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cprine@sduniontribune.com
Southern California residents are celebrating Easter Sunday at church services and community events throughout the region.

Father David Gallardo, pastor of Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels downtown, will conduct Easter Sunday Mass at 10 a.m. Archbishop Jose Gomez will preside over a Spanish-language service at 1 p.m.

Easter is a great day filled with hope and joy for us, the archbishop said in a statement. Christ is risen and we know we will rise with him! Easter tells us that Gods love is stronger than death.

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Also at 10 a.m., the Midnight Mission will hold its Easter/Passover Celebration for the homeless on Skid Row. A special Easter Village will be set up for children.

Volunteers will include actors Dick Van Dyke and Mr. T, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Hundreds of people are expected to attend EasterFest in Grand Hope Park downtown.

The family festival is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at the park near L.A. Live and will include an Easter egg hunt, face-painting, games and food.

The event is sponsored by New City Church.

Tickets are $5 per person and $20 for families, organizers said. All proceeds will be donated to organizations on Skid Row helping homeless families.

carlos.lozano@latimes.com
This is how it sometimes happens.

Little more than a year ago, 43-year-old Kim Gregory from Lake Elsinore arrived at a Sharp hospital, where she would probably die. Her life clock was nearing 11:59.

She had been sent there from Scripps Clinic to either get a heart transplant or for whatever desperate measures Sharp specialists could use to keep her alive.

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That job fell to 36-year-old Dr. Hirsch Mehta and the transplant team at Sharp Memorial Hospital.

He describes her crisis. She had a genetic cardiomyopathy, meaning she was born with a heart that never really worked well. It got her through young adulthood, but now its just not doing its job.

Tom Heywood (M.D.), my former mentor at Scripps, sent her over to me. He interrupts himself to say, I dont have enough great things to say about Tom.

Anyway  god! Shes a wreck. We put her in ICU, listed her for transplant and  tick-tock, tick-tock  every day shes getting worse.

One afternoon, when I went back and saw her, she looked absolutely horrible. I mean, she probably  if she didnt die that night, she certainly was going to die the next day, and I knew it. I didnt say it to her, but she knew something was dreadfully wrong.

I told the nurse, This is my cell number. You call me when something happens. I know somethings going to happen.

Weve put her on complete heart bypass. Shes waiting for a transplant and has been for a couple weeks. I dont even get to the parking lot when I get a phone call.

We have a heart! Fantastic! I walk back and let Kim know. Two hours later, shes in the operating room getting a new heart.

She was near death. Why wouldnt you tell her that?

You know, I dont know. I dont think she knew she was going to die.

(When later told that, Kim gasped and said, Oh, my god!)

Mehta says, I came to work the next day, she was asleep. The day after, she was awake, feeling fine. Four days later, she was out of the ICU. Twelve days later, she was home.

Kim is currently finalizing plans for her wedding. Mehta will be invited.

*

Kim was lucky, she got a heart. Others languish in hospital beds or wheelchairs hoping each faint heartbeat will be followed by another. They are victims of indifference.

Not indifference by the transplant team, which starts each day by checking the availability of donor hearts. No, the indifference is the publics that will take a perfectly usable heart from a deceased person that could keep another alive and either burn it or bury it.

Mehta and the team have to stand by empty operating rooms and see patients die because there are no hearts to give them.

As to why people are reluctant to cooperate on donations, he says, I mean, there may be some cultural or religious issues. There might be fear or lack of education. I dont know. Its a question that we struggle with, because there are great numbers of people who die every year waiting for a heart that never comes.

Heres what it comes down to: Last year, the Sharp team performed 13 transplants. Mehta estimates that, were sufficient hearts available, at least 25 transplants could have been done.

That translates to several humans who could be walking, loving and laughing today but arent.

*

Many former patients rest in Mehtas memory bank, but one in particular surfaces when donor availability is mentioned.

In a recent year, a San Diego man under 30 came to the emergency room with what seemed like a cold.

It wasnt. A virus had invaded his heart, Mehta says. His heart function was 20 percent. He was sent to us where we stabilized him and put him on medication. He was sent home with a return date, but came back in four days. He was in complete shock.

We put artificial pumps in his leg and monitoring devices through his neck. Then, 24 hours later he got even worse. We put him on full heart-lung support bypass. We listed him for transplant that day. He pauses for emphasis. That day! Hes in the ICU waiting for a donor heart, just waiting. We waited, and we waited, and we waited. Two and half weeks went by, and we kept waiting.

He explains that the heart-lung machine is meant only as a temporary fix. It will do the job for a short while, but as time accumulates, things are bound to happen, and they are not good things.

Waiting.

His organs are deteriorating. Kidney and liver function get worse, He goes on dialysis. He starts bleeding internally. The machine cant do everything.

Waiting.

Three and a half weeks later, he went into multi-organ failure. Kidneys dead. Liver not working. Lungs filled with fluid. Small clot in the brain  probably a small stroke.

Waiting.

Mehta says, We had to tell his family that their young brother and son, who a month ago felt fine, that there was nothing left to do for him.

No more waiting.

We turned the machine off and he died within five minutes.

With the sobbing family gathered bedside, a technician had to walk to the young mans bed and turn the dials, listen to the machine whirr to a stop and go silent. Then step back, fumble for something to say and quietly steal away, leaving the family to their grief.

That evening, Mehta went home to dinner with little appetite, then forced a happy face and asked his wife how her day went.

When I come home every day, at whatever time that may be, and the door opens, I hope my wife cant tell if Ive had a great day or a horrible day. I hope she doesnt see it on my face.

When we put our daughter to bed and we have our moments as a couple and not as parents, then I open up to her.

Mehta says, I cant for the life of me remember all the people weve saved. But I can distinctly remember every single person weve lost.

He derives a sense of mission from his religion. The Hinduism I practice is where I try to fulfill my responsibilities and give as much as I can. Serve my patients, serve those around me. Serve.

*

The physicians on the transplant team dont always treat each other like Rotarians at the social hour. These are experts at the top of the heap. In dealing with most people about medical matters, their opinions and statements are accepted with a snap-to Yes, doctor! But they dont say that to each other.

A patient-care conference can become a knowledge-ego clash at the summit. And Mehta is not a shy man.

He nods agreement. Absolutely, it can get heated. I mean, we have four members of our team who have practiced for 30 years, and Ill go at it with them. I will. They dont always like it.

You know how it goes: Ive been doing this since you were in diapers. And theyre right, they have been.

But you have the benefit of the latest, most advanced instruction.

Thats true, but these are some of the people who wrote the book of instruction.

We may have different views, but then well decide as a group whats better and whats not better. The culture is positive when I, a young cardiologist, can go toe to toe with a surgeon whos written books on how this should be done. No matter what we decide, theres great value in having open and frank discussion.

We will disagree, we will fight and we will argue, but we never lose respect for each other. Every time we disagree, later that day Im going to go to them for advice.

Our wives are friends. Our children play together. They are just as much a part of my extended family as my own extended family.

*

I have the impression the optimal heart would come from a healthy young person who died accidentally. But is there an age limit on getting or giving a heart?

Mehta answers, Well, to be a recipient, biologic age and physiologic age can be very different. Weve seen people 65 who have a medical age of 85. They wont get a heart. However, weve seen people 65 who, except for their heart, have a medical age of 55. Theyd probably be just fine for transplant.

Likewise, what age heart will you accept to be transplanted?

A healthy person 55 who died, say, in an auto accident, who has no artery disease and the pump is working fine, who doesnt need any blood-pressure support, that person is probably an adequate donor for a 30-year-old.

However, a 25-year-old who has abused methamphetamines and who has drugs in their system at the time of death, we wont take that heart for anybody.

*

Mehta talks about a case of about three years ago that comes to his mind, and I suspect isnt buried very deep.

There was a woman about 70 who came to us from the emergency room with chest pain. She needed to get her heart looked at. I talked to her and to her family. It started out routine, but the examination showed she had horrible disease. All of her arteries were loaded with plaque. She needed at least four or five bypasses. Her carotid arteries were blocked. Her leg arteries were blocked.

When Mehta and his team tried to put a large IV into her heart, the needle punctured the lung. Thats what is called a complication. Its a medical term that says stuff happens.

The risk of that occurring is dicey enough that patients are warned of it in advance. In what Mehta and his colleagues do, the adjective minor is a seldom used modifier.

Mehta says, We treated the lung puncture and the minute we got that under control, her arteries became compromised, which put stress on her heart. She ended up developing an infection and then she lost blood flow to a leg, and then she was having acid build-up. One thing just spiraled into another, into another, into another. She also had eight or 10 other undiagnosed medical problems.

The woman was placed in a medically induced coma, and family members were presented with options such as multiple bypass surgery, amputation of the leg and a permanent breathing tube.

The family declined on the basis of the womans known wishes. She was allowed to die.

It ended up a tragedy for the family and a grave disappointment for all of us who worked on her.

*

We love happy endings and dignified doctors with a touch of gray at the temples and a stethoscope draped around the collar of a white coat. Because were of that romantic image, it is easy to overlook the gut-wrenching tension and fear of failure that can create that gray hair.

Medicine at the rarified heights where transplant teams practice is performed without a net. Transferring a beating heart 2,000 miles and putting it in another person is not treating the common cold.

These doctors are not in the motor pool, theyre medical commandos, and they will suffer losses. And when they succeed, as they do to an amazing extent, any celebration is cut short because here comes another failing heart.

Mehtas reward? He gets invited to Kim Gregorys wedding, which is especially nice because he knows her heart.

Fred Dickeys home page is freddickey.net. He believes every life is an adventure and welcomes ideas at freddickey1@gmail.com.
North Korea attempted a new missile launch from an eastern city on the Sea of Japan early Sunday, but the operation ended in failure shortly after launch, U.S. and South Korean officials said.

It was not clear whether it was a long-range ballistic missile, but the attempted launch in South Hamgyong province, near a major submarine base at Sinpo, was a sign of the secretive countrys continuing attempts to develop an aggressive weapons program.

U.S. Pacific Command said it detected a missile about 6:20 a.m. Korean time. The device apparently blew up almost instantly, Cmdr. Dave Benham, a command spokesman, said in a statement. The type of missile is still unknown, he said.

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As of Sunday morning, North Korean state media hasnt reported on the test failure. Even government minders chaperoning foreign journalists on a tour of Pyongyang did not know that it had happened.

On Pyongyangs streets, the mood was calm. Residents  on a three-day vacation for the 105th birthday of the countrys founder-president Kim Il Sung  relaxed in rowboats on the Taedong River, which runs through the city, and roller-skated in a small park.

They lined up by the hundreds to file through a flower exhibition where models of intercontinental ballistic missiles were flanked by displays of flowers named for Kim and his son, Kim Jong Il, who ruled the country until his death in 2011.

This is to demonstrate the might of our national defense, said a guide in a traditional Korean dress. The scientists and technicians working in national defense, they show their respectful feelings for our president Kim Il Sung.

The missile launched Sunday was never a threat to the United States mainland, though North Koreas increasingly sophisticated weapons are considered a threat to its neighbors, including South Korea and Japan.

U.S. Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security, Benham said.

The test missile launch fell short of international fears that the secretive state would attempt its sixth test of a nuclear weapon.

In Washington, the reaction was muted.

The president and his military team are aware of North Koreas most recent unsuccessful missile launch, U.S. Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said in a statement. The president has no further comment.

The launch came as Vice President Mike Pence flew to Seoul for a 10-day Asia trip intended to discuss North Koreas nuclear ambitions and assure allies in the region.

North Korea has been conducting frequent tests of ballistic missiles as part of its program to develop a missile capable of reaching the continental United States  a goal many analysts say is at least a decade away.

The attempted launch on Sunday came a day after a massive military parade in Pyongyang, hosted in celebration of the 105th birthday of Kim Il Sung.

On April 15, 2016, North Korea also attempted the test launch of a medium-range ballistic missile, apparently to mark the founders birthday. That test also failed, but the effort nonetheless drew condemnation from the United Nations Security Council.

The attempted launch, failed or not, is a pointed rebuke at strengthened warnings from China and the U.S., and raises concerns that North Korea is attempting to continue its advance toward becoming a nuclear state despite years of effort by the international community to curb the countrys atomic program.

North Korea conducted the test at the same time that it invited dozens of foreign journalists for a rare glimpse inside the reclusive state  and as the worlds attention is focused on the region.

The isolated nation has conducted at least 50 missile tests since the dynastic young ruler Kim Jong Un took power after his fathers death in 2011, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan research group in Washington that maintains a database of the nations activities.

That includes two dozen since the beginning of 2016, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The North successfully launched a medium-range missile, called the KN-15, on the morning of April 5 from a land-based site near the eastern port city of Sinpo, according to U.S. Pacific Command headquarters.

It traveled for nine minutes before landing in the East Sea, as have other recent missiles. That missile test prompted a quick response from U.S. military officials who monitor the Norths airspace for provocations; they said it never posed a threat to the American mainland.

North Korea launched the first ballistic missile under President Trump a month after he took office.

The rogue state is still technically at war with South Korea, a U.S. ally that has about 28,000 American forces stationed on bases that are largely within a few hundred miles of the shared Korean border.

North Koreas military, in a statement released Friday through the official Korean Central News Agency, warned it would ruthlessly ravage the U.S. if it came under attack.

The country has handed a lengthy prison sentence to an American tourist, and been accused by South Korea of sneaking across the border in 2015 and planting land mines that severely injured two soldiers.

Malaysian authorities have also accused North Korea of helping carry out the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of Kim Jong Un. That attack  during the day at a crowded Kuala Lumpur international airport  allegedly involved VX nerve agent, a banned chemical weapon.

The North, which security experts say could have more than a dozen nuclear devices, first conducted an underground test in 2006. The tests power has increased over time, and last year state media reported advancements in the miniaturization and manufacturing of nuclear warheads in addition to its strongest experiment to date in September.

The standardization of the nuclear warhead will enable the DPRK to produce at will and as many as it wants a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power, the government said in September, using a preferred acronym to identify the country.

This has definitely put on a higher level the DPRKs technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles.

Security experts in recent years have begun to shift their focus away from disarming the country to studying methods for deterring the countrys desire to use them  and also thinking about limiting its ability to deliver them.

At the same time, the North has made steady progress in its land- and sea-based missile programs, which already have the ability to strike regional American allies in Seoul or Tokyo. In a televised New Years Day message this year, Kim boasted that the country was also making significant progress in its effort to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking American targets in the Pacific Ocean, or perhaps even the U.S. mainland.

We see the North Korean weapons programs as increasingly destabilizing, both for Northeast Asia and for the globe, said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton.

A looming concern for American officials is the extent to which China can  or is willing to  apply additional economic pressure to persuade the North to denuclearize, or perhaps to talk about it. Trump said recently that the United States would tackle the problem alone, if needed, a posture questioned by experts who note the issues regional complexity.

We want to see even better cooperation to try to bring about a solution to the North Korea threat, but well certainly be talking to them about what more they can do, and we are looking to them to be doing more in the future, Thornton said.

China, which has supported international sanctions efforts, also fears destabilizing the Kim government. If the country were to fall, the Chinese face the prospect of a refugee crisis on their shared border or, perhaps more troubling to them, a united Korea backed by the United States.

Wang Yi, Chinas foreign minister, on Friday warned that conflict could break out at any moment and cautioned both sides to stay calm.

Once a war really happens, the result will be nothing but multiple loss, he said. No one can become a winner.

jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com

Special correspondents Stiles reported from Seoul and Meyers from Beijing, and Times staff writer Kaiman reported from Pyongyang, North Korea. Times staff writer W.J. Hennigan contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
Its called the power of incumbency for a reason. Sitting lawmakers have a campaign fundraising advantage over their opponents. In the two contested congressional races in San Diego, incumbents have amassed substantial leads.

Reps. Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter had big financial advantages over their challengers campaigns, finance reports from the first quarter of this year show.

Issa received $320,830 in contributions, more than any of his challengers.

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Issa received $168,750 from political action committees, which raised money from a variety of sources including industries that had legislation before Congress. Among the contributors was the telecommunications industry, which won congressional approval that would allow companies to sell their customers internet usage data, and a car parts company that would benefit from a bill Issa recently introduced.

(The above paragraph was corrected on April 17 to accurately characterize the political action committees and the amount of money from them.)

This is a solid start to the year, and Im tremendously honored and encouraged by the support weve seen, Issa, R-Vista, said in a statement. Weve hit the ground running this Congress with common-sense solutions to the problems Southern Californians are facing every day -- and were not going to let up.

Issa, who narrowly won re-election last year in the closest race in the country, has $522,210 in his campaign account as of March 31, the end of the campaign finance period. Reports were due to the Federal Elections Commission on Friday.

While Issa raised more than his opponents, Democratic challenger Mike Levin received more from individual donors than anyone else. Reports showed that the entirety of the $283,457 he raised came from individual donors, and hes left with $264,221 cash on hand.

Levin, who is also facing another Democratic challenger, Doug Applegate, said that hes focused on Issa.

Were focused on him this quarter, we were focused on him last quarter, we need to be competitive with Darrell Issa to beat him in 18 months, Levin said. Levin announced his campaign three weeks before the reporting period ended.

Applegate, Issas opponent in the 2016 election, raised $116,348, all from individual donors. He has $92,475 cash on hand.

Hunter, R-Alpine, likewise leads his opponents. He raised $146,601, including $93,750 from PACs, and has $701,033 cash on hand.

But Hunter, who is under criminal investigation for using campaign funds on personal expenses, including school tuition for his children, jewelry and airfare for a pet rabbit, spent $69,393 in campaign money in legal services. He denies any intentional wrongdoing. He said that the payments were made in error, and he has reimbursed his campaign with personal funds.

Hunters legal service payments include $13,393 to Berke Farah, LLP., a firm that specializes in political law; $49,000 to Christopher Amolsch, a Virginia defense attorney who takes high profile cases; and $5,000 to San Diego-based Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo.

His opponents, all Democrats, have not raised nearly as much.

Ammar Campa-Najjar received $8,340 and has $8,010 cash on hand.

Gloria Chadwick, a Grossmont Healthcare District trustee, raised $3,255 and has $808 in cash, but $4,218 in debts.

Patrick Malloy, Hunters challenger in the 2016 election, raised $195, has $1,519 in his account, and $5,159 in debt.

The FEC did not show reports from Pierre Pete Beauregard.

Josh Butner, a retired Navy SEAL and a member of the Jamul-Dulzura Union school board, was not required to file a campaign finance report because he entered the race after the end of the reporting period.

Butner has been focusing on meeting with voters, said his campaign manager, Francis Nguyen.

As Butner listens to people all across the district seeking change in Washington, Congressman Hunter is under Justice Department investigation -- turning his campaign committee into a personal legal defense fund, Nguyen said.

Incumbents in San Diegos other three districts do not have any opponents.

Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, raised $109,549 and has $82,074 cash on hand.

Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, raised $404,807, including $179,840 from political action committees in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health care industries and others. He has $1.37 million cash on hand. The 52nd District is the only swing district in San Diego County.

Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, raised $39,673 and has $241,590 in her campaign account.

Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841
Some California lawmakers wanted to dissuade businesses from bidding to construct President Donald Trumps border wall. Or punish them if they do.

At first blush, it doesnt seem like anybodys been scared off. Some 450 businesses have submitted designs to be part of the controversial and potentially lucrative project. The price tag has been put at anywhere between $12 billion and $25 billion.

The Democratic-controlled California Legislature cant stop the wall directly, but will seek to put up roadblocks wherever they can. Lawsuits already have been filed by environmental groups, and it would be a surprise if California doesnt join in, or take legal action on its own.

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Then theres two pieces of legislation that would hit the potential contractors in the pocketbook. One would require the state pension systems to pull any funds invested with wall bidders. Another measure prohibits those companies from doing business with the state of California.

Given all that was out there before the bid deadline, it seems the potential business from the federal government carried more weight than the states likely disincentives.

One wall bidder takes local heat, but still gets contract.

The San Diego Unified Port District this past week awarded a $7 million contract to R.E. Staite Engineering Inc. to rebuild the busy Shelter Island boat ramp.

What would normally be a routine item was pulled off the consent calendar port by Commissioner Rafael Castellanos who, according to NBC 7s Wendy Fry, was very disappointed the company was selected because it is bidding on the border wall.

Castellanos said the wall flies in the face of everything San Diego is about.

Nevertheless, Castellanos said he would pinch my nose when we vote.

R.E. Staite owner Ray Carpenter later told Fry he didnt think his border wall bid would cost him any business.

When pension logic depends on winning or losing

When the San Diego Municipal Employees Union and other labor organizations were winning the city pension battle, they urged a halt to further legal action to save litigation costs.

Now that theyre losing, they say they will appeal to the California Supreme Court, continuing the court battle they argued was a waste of money. Perhaps to even things up, maybe the city that gamely appealed an earlier ruling will demand a halt to legal hostilities now that it won the latest round.

The unions had good reason  for their members interest  to want to freeze things after the Public Employment Relations Board in 2015 ruled in their favor and against Proposition B, the 2012 initiative that did away with pensions for new city employees (other than police officers) and replace them with 401(k)-style plans.

More than 3,000 newer employees would have been given defined pension benefits, much like their longer-serving colleagues. The cost to the city for that was estimated anywhere between $20 million and $100 million, but nobody really seemed to know.

Then-City Attorney Jan Goldsmith was confident that once the case got into a court of law, Proposition B would win the day. He and other San Diego officials insisted PERB is labor-leaning and then some.

Californias Fourth District Court of Appeal sided with the city this past week. The unions havent accused that court of bias, though two of the three members on the panel  Justices Richard Huffman and Gilbert Nares  were appointed by Republican Gov. George Deukmejian while the other, presiding Justice Judith McConnell, was appointed by Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

But given it was a 3-0 vote, a bias argument would be tough to make.

So what are the prospects at the California Supreme Court? No one can say, of course, though Michael Zucchet, general manager of the MEA, sounded optimistic.

There are some statewide interests that we would assume the Supreme Court would be interested in, he told the Union-Tribunes David Garrick after the appellate court ruling.

The state Supreme Court has long had a liberal reputation, which is interesting because a majority of its current seven-member lineup was appointed by Republicans.

Two were each were appointed by Republican Govs. Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger and three by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. (Now, you can argue that Wilson and Schwarzenegger arent conservatives by todays standards, or that the current Gov. Brown doesnt match up with his liberal image.)

Adding intrigue is that Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar, a Wilson appointee, is retiring this summer, giving Brown his fourth appointment in six years.

His pick may be seated by the time the Proposition B appeal actually gets before the court.

There were probably a lot things going into the unions calculus on whether to appeal the Proposition B ruling. It stands to reason that the coming change on the Supreme Court was one of them.

San Diegos Pat Bates, Senate GOP leader!

Okay, Pat Bates isnt really from San Diego, but unbeknownst to many her 36th state Senate District represents a sizable chunk of the county, including Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, Carlsbad, part of Vista, Encinitas and Cardiff.

Granted she hails from Laguna Niguel and southern Orange County seems the heart of her district. But, listen up, San Diego County: Shes now the GOP Senate leader. Time to claim her as one of your own!

She becomes the second woman to serve in the top GOP Senate leadership post and succeeds the first, Sen. Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield.

Senate Republicans last month voted to give Bates the job, which she officially assumed on Wednesday.

Tweet of the Week

Goes to Jason Martinez (@10NewsJason):

Hundreds of condoms clogging pipes leads to prostitution ring bust at massage parlor
Gov. Jerry Brown granted 72 pardons on Saturday, including three for veterans who have since been deported.

Former Marines Erasmo Apodaca Mendizabal and Marco Antonio Chavez, as well as former soldier Hector Barajas Varela, were honorably discharged from the military, but after their time in uniform were convicted of crimes and deported.

Former Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, also a Marine Corps veteran, worked on their cases, and said their pardons will make it easier for their green cards to be restored, and for them to apply for U.S. citizenship.

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The injustice we are solving is not the actual crime or conviction, the injustice is what the federal government did to them, Fletcher said.

Apodaca deployed in Operation Desert Storm in the Marine Corps, but after he was discharged he was convicted and sentenced in 1996 in Kern County for stealing $500 worth of things from his ex-girlfriend. He was incarcerated for 10 months and three years parole.

Chavez came to the U.S. with his parents when he was 1 year old, and served four years in the Marine Corps. He was sentenced in 1998 in Los Angeles County for cruelty to animals, served 10 months in prison and 13 months on parole, and was deported in 2002. He moved with his family to Mexico, and his wife, who does not speak Spanish, commuted across the border for work. Eventually his family moved to Iowa, leaving him in Mexico.

Barajas served in the Armys 82nd Airborne Division during Desert Storm. He was sentenced in summer 2002 in Los Angeles County for being in a car when a gun was fired, and served 13 months in prison and 13 months on parole. His pardon says that he established the Deported Veterans Support House in Tijuana to help deported veterans adjust to their new lives.

Fletcher had received an unofficial notice that Barajas would be pardoned, and was with him in Tijuana when he learned that the governor had completed the process.

We awkwardly hung out for a few hours as I stared at my phone, waiting for the text message, Fletcher said. He was stunned, he started crying, he was overwhelmed. He couldnt believe it. Hes had just years and years of bad news, yet every day he gets out there and tries to help.

Immigrants who serve in the U.S. military become eligible for citizenship.

The three mens green cards had been revoked because of their convictions. With their pardons and the reason for their dismissed green cards gone, their lawyers will argue that the crucial permit for living and working in the U.S. should be reinstated, Fletcher said.

All of the 72 people who were pardoned had received a Certificate of Rehabilitation, a declaration from a Superior Court. They have also led productive and law-abiding lives since completing their sentences.

Pardons are not granted unless they are earned, a news release from the Governors Office said.

Most of the people who were pardoned were convicted of drug-related or non-violent crimes.

Brown also issued commutations for seven more serious offenses, including a woman who as a teenager hid a pregnancy from her abusive boyfriend and devout Catholic parents before giving birth in a bathtub and killing her child. She was sentenced in Los Angeles County to 15 years to life for second-degree murder. Another commutation recipient killed a person as a teenager in a drug-related crime.

Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841
A black man was beaten in a hate crime attack in Logan Heights Saturday night by a Latino man who called him a racist name, police said.

The 56-year-old victim was taken to a hospital with injuries from being punched, kicked and beaten with a stick, San Diego police Officer Robert Heims said.

He said the victim was standing in an alley south of Imperial Avenue near 22nd Street shortly after 7:30 p.m. when the other man walked up and started punching him for no reason. He used a derogatory term, saying he didnt like the black mans race.

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The victim fell to the ground and was kicked. The attacker walked away, but came back while the victim was still trying to recover. He was assaulted again with a bamboo stick, then the attacker walked away south on 24th Street, Heims said.

Police said the victim is expected to survive.

His assailant was described as Latino, from 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall and clean-shaven. He wore blue shorts, a blue T-shirt, a blue hat and low-top shoes. He had a tattoo on the calf of each leg, possibly the letters S and D.
A binational effort is underway to find a migrant-rights activist with the local nonprofit Border Angels who went missing while traveling alone through central Mexico.

Hugo Castros family and a large network of supporters have asked for the assistance of Mexican law enforcement, the U.S. Consulate and other activist groups in the area to find him. Two prayer vigils were held Saturday in San Diego for his safe return and a third was planned for 3 p.m. Sunday in Chicano Park.

News of his disappearance has gone viral and been shared on social media throughout activist networks in both the U.S. and Mexico.

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Castro, a U.S. citizen, is a longtime Border Angels volunteer who heads up the nonprofits efforts in Baja California, primarily by delivering food and other donations to the dozens of migrant shelters in the Tijuana area, said the nonprofits founder, Enrique Morones. Many of the shelters house an influx of Haitians who have tried to enter the U.S. through Mexico.

Castro left his home in Tijuana April 9 to participate in the Refugee Caravan, with plans to join a large group of people from Central America who are traveling to the U.S. to seek asylum and draw attention to their plight.

Castros last contact came Thursday afternoon, when he went live on Facebook in a 20-minute video in which he pleaded for help and for someone to pick him up from the highway between Mexico City and Puebla.

He expressed fear about a group of people following him and said hed been unable to pay for services with U.S. dollars.

Castros partner, Gaba Cortes, was posting updates on the search on her Facebook page and told supporters that the information there is the most reliable source.

These are difficult times for everyone.  Hugo Castro is still missing and we dont have any substantiated information. We ask you stay tuned for the announcements of the family.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
Although a devout Christian, Eva Aboona missed the Palm Sunday church services that launched Holy Week last Sunday.

But she tried.

At St. Michaels, one of El Cajons two Chaldean Catholic churches, Aboona encountered bumper-to-bumper traffic, a jam-packed parking lot and an overflow crowd of worshippers.

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I couldnt get in, she said.

Her husband tried to take the children to Mass at the other Chaldean church, St. Peters. No luck.

There was no room to park, said Raied Aqrawi, 51, through an interpreter. We had to drive around and go home.

Lesson learned. For Sundays Easter Mass at St. Peters, these Iraqi immigrants plan to arrive hours early.

Since landing in the United States on Jan. 10, these Iraqi immigrants have made numerous adjustments. Aqrawi, a chemist and plumber, is seeking work inside and outside those trades. The entire household, including sons Yousif, 14, and Frank, 6, is learning English as fast as possible.

Despite financial worries and language barriers, they are grateful and relieved. Thats especially true as they safely celebrate Easters message of renewal and hope.

Four years ago, they celebrated Palm Sunday in their Iraqi village, Alqosh, under threat from nearby ISIS forces. The family fled to Turkey, where their faith was targeted by local officials and neighbors. Last years Easter Mass was halted by a bomb.

So while they face struggles in their new home, they cherish the freedom of worship they enjoy here, due to the efforts of local Christians and Jews.

Here we feel there is law, there is security, there is protection, Aqrawi said. Here we dont have the fear that someone will come to convert us to another religion.

Raied Aqrawi prays before Good Friday services at St. Peters Chaldean Catholic Church in El Cajon. He and his family are Iraqi refugees who recently arrived in the United States. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Powerful echoes

Among practicing Christians, no week is more significant than the one bookended by Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. This is true around the world, and certainly among the Chaldeans of El Cajon.

This is a rapidly growing group. There are now 60,000-plus local Chaldeans, double what this population was in 2010. Yet there are only two Chaldean churches, each with room for 700 worshippers.

The churches are always full, always full, said Besma Coda, chief operation officer at Chaldean & Middle Eastern Social Services in El Cajon. We need a new church in El Cajon. There are seven different Masses a day and they are all full.

Thats seven Masses during ordinary Sundays. For Easter services, there are 12 Masses at St. Peters and 10 at St. Michaels over two days.

This is the most important week of the year, said Bishop Bawai Soro, vicar general for the local Chaldean Catholic Diocese. The whole Christian faith is validated because of the resurrection of Christ.

For believers, Holy Week commemorates Jesus Christs journey from life to death and back again. Gospels describe his triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), last supper (Holy Thursday), crucifixion (Good Friday) and final victory over death (Easter). For immigrants escaping persecution, this narrative has powerful echoes.

It means that God is with us and is with us especially through our dark experiences, our difficult days, Soro said. This is what Jesus himself went through when he continued to obey the message of his Father  despite the pain, the suffering. Our faith tells us that whoever believes in the Bible, believes in Jesus and God the Father, will have the same resurrection experience.

The Holy Week experience, though, is different in San Diego County than in rural Iraq. Aboona was disappointed last Sunday when El Cajons streets were not filled with chanting, palm-waving residents as they were in Alqosh.

Because we dont live in villages, we live in urban communities, Soro said, and you cannot offend your neighbors. There are noise limitations, movement limitations.

The bishop chuckled. The reality is that the newcomers will take a few years to adjust themselves to the American lifestyle.

Already, these adjustments have been coming with staggering speed. Four Easters ago, Aqrawi, Aboona and their children marched past stone buildings to the pealing bells of Alqoshs ancient monastery. Palm Sunday was a noisy, village-wide affair in this settlement nestled by the mountains near Iraqs northern border.

On the Nineveh plains below Alqosh, though, Christian settlements had been leveled by ISIS fighters. Women had been raped, men killed, children abducted.

Seeking safety, the family journeyed to Ankara, Turkeys capital, where they registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. That office found temporary shelter for the family in Amasya.

In that northern Turkish city, they were safe from ISIS but not from religious persecution. Amasya had no Christian churches, and the mayor rejected Chaldean pleas to open one. Yousif quit a part-time job at a barber shop whose owner repeatedly pressured the boy to attend services at the local mosque.

On their first Easter in Turkey, the family conducted their own service behind the closed doors of their apartment.

On their second Easter, a Chaldean priest visited from Detroit, celebrating Mass in a rented hall. Black curtains covered the halls windows and police stood outside, ostensibly to protect the Christians within.

The following Easter, last year, was supposed to be a repeat celebration  same priest, same hall, same police cordon. This time, though, the police halted the service and ordered everyone to leave.

There was a bomb outside the hall. The family was almost home when the device detonated.

We heard it, Aboona said. Thats how we knew it was a real bomb.

A personal message

Like all refugees, this family went through interviews and background checks by the U.N. and the authorities of their new country  in this case, the U.S. State Department.

They were then routed to El Cajon, because of its existing Chaldean population, and assigned to one of San Diego Countys four resettlement agencies.

In this case, that was Jewish Family Service.

Its not unusual for Christian refugees to be referred to this Jewish group, explained Etleva Bejko, the agencys director of refugee and immigration services. We are federally funded for those programs, she said. If you participate, you have to serve all refugees regardless of religion.

Helping needy people of other faiths, Bejko said, is consistent with Jewish values. She quoted Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

He said, We dont serve refugees because they are Jewish. We serve refugees because we are Jewish.

In the current fiscal year, the local Jewish Family Service has helped resettle 232 refugees.

The majority are Iraqis, Bejko said.

Like most of those Iraqis, Aqrawi and Aboona and their children are initially overwhelmed by this new culture.

My personal message to them is, we are their brothers and sisters, said Bishop Soro, himself an Iraqi refugee who came to the U.S. in 1976. Every challenge they see here, we were once in their shoes.

Their life, he predicted, will improve. They are the luckiest people in the world, Soro said. Despite the fact they have seen difficult days in Iraq, God has rewarded them by bringing them to America, the most blessed country in the world.

Already, there are signs of assimilation. While there will be no Easter egg hunt for the kids, Yousif and Frank plan to enjoy a customary American activity after Easter Mass.

Theyve heard there is a Chuck E. Cheese, said Aqrawi. So I am taking them to Chuck E. Cheese.
Occasionally the readers.rep email basket will receive a request from someone wanting a story removed from the Union-Tribune website. But in the past few weeks, a slew have come in.

It made me think that over time take-down requests will occur more frequently for media organizations as databases of archived stories grow and the power of online search engines increase. Ive started wondering if reporting should take into account future archives, for the sake of those whose names could appear in stories and for the news staffs that would have to deal with the requests.

For instance, should names of some suspects not be included in stories? One of the most common reasons people will request a story be removed is their name is associated with a crime, and the case has been resolved one way or another. Typically theyll say, their name pops up in Google searches by possible employers, and its harming their opportunity for a job.

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I feel strongly that news organizations should only rarely remove an online story. Articles represent a record of events  some good, some bad. News organizations report the happenings of the times for readers; they are not in the business of removing news.

However, I believe some stories can be taken down or adjusted if they can be proven to be wildly inaccurate, or if a person is endangered. For instance, I once received a call from a reader who was at an apartment complex when a murder occurred. The reporter spoke to him and included him in the story by name even though he said he didnt see anything. The person was worried for his safety. I think he never should have been included in the article in the first place.

I believe stories in which a person is a suspect in a crime can be updated with the cases outcome, but should not be removed. I also think the person must provide evidence of a dismissal or acquittal. But, I think its better to not name a person from the start, unless the case will be covered to the end.

Kelly McBride, vice president of the journalism education organization the Poynter Institute and media ethicist, has worked with newsrooms in creating policies to handle take-down requests.

This is a distinct trend in the industry. Its one of the reasons why TV stations dont keep their archives up, McBride said.

Most newspapers have given in and created a process for taking stuff down that looks something like this: A story comes down if  person can prove its not true or if charges werent filed. (A lot of police blotter items fit this bill.); person claims that its so inaccurate or incomplete that its a distorted view of what happened and sources arent clearly cited in story; if its just a news of the weird story with no overarching public good.

Story gets updated: If charges or plea were substantially different; if outcome was never reported, McBride said.

She added this, which I think points to news organizations getting out in front: Whenever I have helped newsrooms create this process I get frustrated because all these problematic stories speak to a problematic news threshold. Many papers are publishing stories they have not properly reported, and they are failing to follow up most police stories. I always suggest that if you arent going to follow up on a story, you have no business publishing it. But most local newspapers disagree with me.

Id like to revisit this issue in another column, but Id also like to hear from readers on their opinions about requests for removal or updates of online stories. Email adrian.vore@sduniontribune.com or readers.rep@sduniontribune.com

Unauthorized immigrants

Enrique Morones, director of the nonprofit group Border Angels, noted that an A1 story that ran March 5 used the term illegal in describing people. The story was about restaurants that have hired unauthorized workers. It said an audit of employee records at a restaurant turned up illegal laborers.

In 2012, the U-T adopted the style of using the term unauthorized instead of illegal, as in unauthorized immigrant. Using the term illegal in describing people, the paper believed, was imprecise, incomplete and dehumanizing.

Although the March 5 story used unauthorized to describe workers, it also deviated from U-T style by using illegal.
A judge modified the prison sentence of a young woman who was a teenager when she plotted to kill her stepfather, a prominent San Diego attorney, changing it from life in prison without the possibility of parole to 26 years to life.

Judge Frederic Links decision, one he said he did not come to lightly, indicated a belief that now-25-year-old Brae Hansen was not beyond rehabilitation and should get a chance at parole  someday.

She is trying to change herself, the judge said, after going through a list of considerations the law required him to consider when choosing whether to change the prison term he had ordered six years ago.

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Among those considerations were her age at the time of the crime (she was 17), the circumstances of the killing and other pertinent information about her home environment.

The Superior Court judge appeared to be particularly moved by evidence that Hansen had been physically abused by her mother, who committed suicide in 2006, a point that was raised in her trial as well.

Ms. Hansen was brutalized during her childhood, Link said during the Monday hearing. The way her mother treated her was horrific.

How much that factored into the decisions Hansen and her brother made in order to kill their stepfather, Timothy MacNeil, is less clear. By many accounts, Hansen loved MacNeil, the man she called Daddy, and he treated her well.

The victims friends and family members said at the hearing Monday that Hansen was a sociopath who deserved to have her original prison sentence stand.

I understand how the family feels, Link said. I know I would feel the same way.

But the law has changed since 2009, when Hansen was convicted of first-degree murder and a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait, which made her eligible for life in prison without parole. Her brother Nathaniel Gann was tried in front of a separate jury that found him guilty of murder, but not the special-circumstance allegation.

He was sentenced to 25 years to life.

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court found that mandatory sentences of life without parole for people who were minors when they committed their crimes violated the Eighth Amendments ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The California Supreme Court has also weighed in, determining in 2014 that even though state law allows sentences of life without parole for 16- and 17-year-olds, it must be done on a discretionary basis, and trial judges have to consider the defendants youth.

The idea behind those changes, according to juvenile justice advocates, stems from a recognition that minors are different from adults in how they make choices, process information, respond to negative influences and evaluate risk.

MacNeil was shot four times in his Rolando home on July 19, 2007, the day after his 63rd birthday. The gun used in the killing had belonged to the siblings mother.

Although Gann, then 19, was the one who pulled the trigger, Hansen was the mastermind behind the murder plot, prosecutors said. She told police initially that she and her stepfather had been surprised by an intruder dressed in black. She slipped up later and referred to the intruder as Nathan.

Shes a consummate liar, said Kim Bieda, MacNeils girlfriend, who has said she believes Hansen and Gann killed their stepfather for money.

She and several members of MacNeils family were back in court Monday, again telling the judge how they felt about Hansen and that she deserved to spend the rest of her life in prison.

I believe Brae knew exactly what she was doing when they executed Tim, said Bonnie MacNeil, who is married to the victims brother, Rick. You killed the one person who truly loved you and shattered the lives of those who loved him.

Erin MacNeil Ellison, the victims daughter from his previous marriage, noted that Hansen was only a few weeks from her 18th birthday when MacNeil was murdered. She said Hansen was smart and calculating, and knew how to lure her own dad into an ambush.

Hansen said shes different now. She said she spent her first year in prison running from (her)self by consuming pills and alcohol. Later, she started taking part in workshops and therapy sessions.

Ive dedicated the first five years to becoming a human being, which I was not before, she said.

Her lawyer Troy Britt asked the judge to sentence Hansen to 25 years to life, indicating she is not irreparably damaged and is capable of rehabilitation.

Deputy District Attorney James Koerber, who was not the prosecutor in Hansens trial, conceded she had made progress, but he argued that the level of depravity in the killing justified the original prison sentence.

Shes the one who set this whole thing in motion, he said.

MacNeils family members did not speak to reporters after the hearing.
A 25-year-old Imperial Beach woman deliberately ran over over a motorcyclist on a South County freeway in a purposeful and intentional act, a prosecutor told a judge Tuesday.

Darla Renee Jackson pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder in the hearing.

Jackson was in her Nissan Altima Thursday when she and motorcyclist Zacharias Buob, a 39-year-old chief petty officer in the Navy, got into a dispute on north Interstate 5 near E Street about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, California Highway Patrol officers said.

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Deputy District Attorney Laura Evans described it in court as some sort of back-and-forth altercation between the two.

The dispute continued as the two vehicles transitioned from I-5 to state Route 54, where Jackson chased the victim, crossing into all lanes of traffic, and then hit the back of his Ducati, Evans said. Jackson is accused of pushing the bike some 300 feet until both Buob and the motorcycle went down. Her car then ran Buob over, the prosecutor said. He died at the hospital.

Evans told the judge witness accounts indicated this was a purposeful and intentional act.

She endangered the life of herself, other motorists and ultimately killed the victim in this case, Evans said.

The prosecutor argued for $3 million bail, citing the danger Jackson poses to the community, but Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Patricia Garcia said $1 million bail was sufficient.

Defense attorney Stephen Cline said Jacksons version of events differed from that of authorities, saying after the hearing that she told him Buob kicked her car and they later collided.

Jackson, her hands shackled at her waist, trembled and rocked in her chair as she cried during the short hearing.

Shes very sorry, shes very upset and shes very traumatized, Cline said outside the courthouse.

Jackson, who has a young daughter, works as an accountant at a home remodeling company, her attorney said. She has no criminal record and has lived in San Diego for 15 years, he said.

Her drivers license was suspended for two years, from January 2013 to 2015, for lack of knowledge or skill, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV has the ability to reexamine a driver based on information that suggests the driver no longer has the skill or knowledge to operate a vehicle safely. Such information can come from police, family members or physicians. No further details were available on Jacksons suspension.

The arraignment drew an overflow crowd of friends, family and supporters of both the suspect and victim, as well as numerous news reporters. The court used a lottery system to determine who would be allowed inside the small courtroom.

As many as 100 motorcyclists  many of them military, some of them friends of Buobs  rode to the courthouse in a loud procession.

He doesnt have a voice anymore, so we have to be that for him, said rider Brittany Morrow, who met Buob once.

Buobs mother, who could not attend Tuesday, said in a statement that he was known for his quick wit, great laugh and fun personality that made it hard not to be friends with him.

I was not aware of how many peoples lives our son had touched, she wrote.

Born in Nevada, he enlisted in the Navy in 1995. The military and biking were two of his loves, said his aunt, Maryanne Kutsch of Oceanside.

He worked as a chief special warfare boat operator and was part of the naval special warfare community, said Lt. Christine Gargan, a Navy spokeswoman. She said a Navy memorial service is being planned but has not yet been scheduled.

CHP investigators said the incident is still being investigated, but that witnesses have been asked to share what they saw during the altercation.

We dont know how far back or what happened between the two, said CHP Officer Jake Sanchez. At some point they were engaged in road rage. We are trying to see how far this progressed, if they started back at L (Street) or J or Palomar or whatever.

Jackson has been accused of aggressive behavior before, according to court records. Two ex-boyfriends requested temporary restraining orders against Jackson in 2012 citing similar harassing behavior, including threats to kill them.

One ex said Jackson threatened to run him over with her car during an argument and then proceeded to drive at him in a parking lot, according to his restraining order application. He said he had to push off her hood and jump over a fence to get away.

The other man accused Jackson of calling him at least 72 times in a single day, leaving threatening voice mails, and trying to climb through his bedroom window.

Erica Lopez, who called herself a former friend of Jacksons, said Tuesday she was not surprised by the incident. She said she has been on the receiving end of such behavior before, including threats to hurt her.

All she really does is terrorize the community, Lopez said after the arraignment.  Shes hurt a lot of people. It sucks someones life had to be taken because of this crazy girl. She needs help.

Jackson faces up to 15 years to life in prison if convicted.
Reports about asteroids closing on our planet have been prevailing for the past few months. Most who heard it were terrified and will ask is there a chance that it will hit the Earth? The latest news gives possible scenarios of what could happen if an asteroid struck Earth particularly in areas of New York, San Francisco, and Chicago.

Asteroids are space rocks that move around the solar system. They are usually called "minor planets" while the larger ones are called "planetoids". It is said that about 65 million years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth that made a massive explosion and killing almost all species that was living that time including the dinosaurs. And every year, scientist always warned people that Earth must prepare for it.

Many reports throughout the decade say that asteroid will collide with Earth at any given time but it never happened as of this time. Many say that if it will truly hit the planet it is already predicted in the Bible so why are people be afraid? Recent reports now detail circumstances that could take place if an asteroid does hit some areas on Earth.

Last month, DMail Online gives some terrifying scenarios that will happen if an asteroid will crash into some major US city today. According to NASA's data and studies, the deadliest scenario could occur in Chicago if an 1805-foot-wide near-Earth object (NEO) will strike the city. An estimated 9.5 million casualties will be recorded and a 'searing heat' will prevail over Cedar Rapids, Grand Rapids, and Milwaukee.

Another city that will suffer the same fate is San Francisco. If a 984-foot-wide space rock will impact the city, it could lead to more than seven million deaths and an eight-mile radius of fireball will take over. Lastly, New York will have around 2.5 million casualties if a 328-foot-wide NEO slams the city and a fireball of up to 1.84 miles will follow.

Forbes further added that thermal radiation could also be felt in majority areas in New York like Yonkers, Queens, and Newark. The terrible effect of radiation could make the skin burn or simply cook people alive due to heat discharged during the asteroid's impact.

Disaster can strike anytime and anywhere. The purpose of the studies is not to scare people but rather prepare scientist and other agencies to get ready for the worst case scenario if indeed an asteroid impact will happen on Earth.
Scientists are drilling the red mountains of Oman, in order to attempt reversing climate change. The effort is to find a way to reduce carbon dioxide in the air as well as the oceans.

Samples were taken from the world's sole exposed sections of the Earth's mantle at Oman Hills. Scientists tried to disclose how there was a phenomenon millions of years ago that changed carbon dioxide into limestone and marble, according to The Press Reader.

Currently, the world is trying to bring down global emissions through fuel efficient cars and clean power plants. The Paris Agreement did set the world on a road towards reducing carbon emissions as a road towards clean energy, according to The Guardian.

Researchers are trying to find out how they can eliminate or recycle carbon dioxide that is already present in water and air. An interesting experiment at the Hellisheidi geothermal plant in Iceland takes on a project of injecting carbon dioxide into volcanic rock. At the Sinopec fertilizer plant in China, the gas is filtered and used as fuel.

Hence, 16 industrial projects are at present storing 27 million tons of carbon dioxide, according to the International Energy Agency. The total works out to less than 0.1 percent of global emissions. Still, the technology is showing positive signs.

"Anyone technique is not guaranteed to succeed," said Stuart Haszeldine, a geology professor at the University of Edinburgh. He is part of a U.N. climate body that is currently examining how to bring down carbon dioxide. In the al-Hajjar Mountains of Oman, at a corner of the Arabian Peninsula, there is a unique rock formation that can just pull out carbon dioxide from the air.

Peter Kelemen, a 61-year-old geochemist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has been exploring Oman's hills for nearly three decades. There are large, exposed sections of the earth's mantle that has peridotite. It is a rock reacting with carbon dioxide in the air as well as water in order to form marble and limestone. "Every single magnesium atom in these rocks has made friends with the carbon dioxide to form solid limestone, magnesium carbonate, plus quartz," he said.

With a team of 40 scientists, Keleman heads the Oman Drilling Project to check how it can scrub off the carbon dioxide in the earth's environment. This is a $3.5 million project that is supported by all the organizations all over the world, including NASA.

YouTube/Patricial Blakeley


Symposium attendees Clifford Long and Kristie Hicks with nephrology fellow Dr. Sadeem Ali. (Photos by Gretchen Baugh)

Judges Dr. Paul Bolin, chair of the ECU Department of Internal Medicine, and Dr. Linda Hofler, senior vice president - nurse executive at Vidant Health, evaluate poster presentations.



Psychiatry resident Dr. Oliver Glass explains his project to symposium attendees.

A recent symposium jointly hosted by the East Carolina University Division of Health Sciences and Vidant Health gave educators and learners the opportunity to present their quality improvement projects to an audience of 130 peers and health system leaders.The first Unified Quality Improvement Symposium, held March 31 at the East Carolina Heart Institute at ECU, showcased 32 projects related to quality improvement, patient safety, population health and interprofessional practice.Also presented were 13 works-in-progress from faculty participating in ECU's Teachers of Quality Academy 2.0, a faculty development program designed to provide educators with the skills necessary to practice and teach new curriculum in patient safety, quality improvement and systems-based practice in an environment of interprofessional, team-based care.In addition, three students presented their responses to a pre-symposium innovation challenge focused on the question,The annual symposium, hosted solely by ECU health sciences the past two years, grew out of a $1 million grant that ECU's Brody School of Medicine received from the American Medical Association several years ago. The grant aims to help address the gap that currently exists between what physicians have been taught in the past and what they will need to know in order to provide safer, higher quality patient care in the future.The symposium's best oral presentation award went to Koren Way, transplant administrator, Vidant Medical Center, for her work entitledSecond place for oral presentations was awarded to Vidant's Amy McMahon and Dr. Joseph Pye for their presentation "Vidant Employee Clinic Redesign." And second-year internal medicine resident Dr. George Koromia took home the third place award for "Improving Post-Admission Medication Reconciliation among Inpatient Providers through Cognitive Feedback: the "Red Dot."The best poster award went to Timothy Barnes, clinical manager, Department of Radiation Oncology, for his project,Second place was awarded to Ciarra Dortche, social/clinical research assistant in the Department of Internal Medicine, for her workAnd third place recipient was LaShawn McDuffie of Vidant Radiation Oncology forFirst place in the student innovation challenge went to Doctor of Nursing Practice students Melissa Peeler, Rebecca Smith and Sarah Tapscott for their innovationSecond place was awarded to third-year medical students Zachary Williams, Anthony Mayen and Ryan Zeigler, and second-year dental student Christian Cook, for their proposalThird place was awarded to fourth-year medical student Alexandria Dixon and Master of Public Health student Kristie Hicks forOrganizers intend for the joint symposium to become an annual event.To view the day's presentations, or to learn more about Brody's AMA grant, visit www.ecu.edu/reach
Russia is prepared for a solo space mission in 2021. The country built its own humanoid robot for shooting in the space mission.

Independent reported the new Russia's humanoid robot, Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research or FEDOR. The robot is currently on a training for shooting in space using it's both hands. This is a clear fact that Russia's plans for a solo space mission in 2021 are being conceptualized.

According to the LAD Bible, the humanoid robot is incredibly cool and somehow terrifying. But then, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister insisted that the humanoid robot is for the space mission and not a terminator. It will not be a wreaking havoc on Earth for war against countries, but it will be sent off into space.

The Russia's humanoid robot is set for space travel and will be about to leave the Earth's atmosphere in 2021. Now, FEDOR is on a training for gaining further skills and tricks as preparation for its space mission. The humanoid robot can now put out a fire and drive as its first among its skills.

However, it's unclear whether the humanoid robot from Russia can defend itself from the aliens and the like. Meanwhile, a new video uploaded by the Russia Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin showed FEDOR in a shooting scene using dual-welding pistols with great accuracy.

Minister Rogozin clearly made his statement regarding some speculations that the Russia humanoid robot might cause harm. "We are not creating a Terminator, but artificial intelligence that will be of great practical significance in various fields," he assured.

Besides, the Android Technics and the Advanced Research Fund mentioned that the Russia humanoid robot was originally created to perform rescue works and not for the military. But, just like on everyone's concern, FEDOR some suggested using FEDOR for the military as it can be loaded with several weapons and is very powerful.
France and Japan are planning a very important mission for recovering pieces of Mars moon and bringing them back on Earth. This will be the first time samples, which will be collected from the satellite of a planet that would be brought back to Earth.

According to Phys.org, the head of France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) revealed the mission information in which both the countries will be recovering the Mars moon pieces for bringing them back on earth. This project is termed as Martian Moon Exploration Project. A probe will be launched in the year 2024 destined for Phobos. Phobos is the largest and closest moon of Mars, out of the two moons circling the red planet.

An initial agreement was signed by Paris and Tokyo on Monday. The final decision is yet to be made and it is expected to be made by the end of the year. "It's a very important mission because (besides the Mars Moon) it would be the first time samples from the satellite of a planet would be brought back to Earth," the president of Centre for Space Studies (CNES), Jean-Yves Le Gall said.

Mars Daily reported that Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is the Japanese partner for the Martian Moon Exploration Project. The mars moon Phobos is slightly egg shaped and is 27 kilometers in diameter if measured from end to end. The analyzing of the composition of Phobos will solve a long time question based on its origin.

There are various theories related to Phobos. One theory says that the mars moon Phobos is just an asteroid, which is being held by the planet's gravitational pull. Another theory states that it is the left over a matter of the planet Mars, which was left while the creation event. It is very much known that the answer to these theories will be solved by the Martian Moon Exploration Project. Landing on Phobos will help in having a clear view of Mars that will be only 6000 kilometers distance.
"Mr. J?" I call out into the waiting room. A short, gray-haired man in his 60s staggers toward me, bracing his back with his hands. Despite his pain, he gives me a warm smile, which I return.

As I help him onto the exam-room table, he winces, squeezing my hand.

"I'm a medical student," I begin. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to examine you before Dr. S sees you." (I am using their initials to protect the privacy of patient and doctors.)

He nods. "Go ahead, you can learn on me - just don't break my leg!"

We chuckle, and then I check his vitals, review his medications and ask him about his back pain.

"It's been getting worse for the past couple of months," he says. "I've been under a lot of stress with my business. And there's so much else going on - I've been feeling angry a lot lately . . . ."

"You've been feeling angry? Why?" I ask.

"It's the news," Mr. J says. "ISIS and those Muslims." His nostrils flare; his hands clench. "These Muslims think they can blow up our country!"

Heat crawls up my neck. I am a Muslim American. My parents emigrated from Pakistan nearly 30 years ago. I was born and raised in a small rural town in Western Maryland.

"I want to take care of them for good and send them all packing," Mr. J continues. "They aren't welcome here!"

He gives me an expectant look, waiting for me to nod in agreement. His sentiments are shared by many in the town my clinic serves. Outwardly, I don't "look" Muslim, as I don't wear a hijab. Because of my dark skin, I'm more often mistaken for an Indian Hindu.

Growing up in my predominantly white home town, I never really noticed any negativity from others about my race or religion - they were just a part of who I was.

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was in sixth grade. That day, instead of continuing our normal school schedule, my teacher turned on our classroom TV so that we could watch the news, live. My classmates and I stared, mesmerized, as the smoke rose from the twin towers. I was so naive, I didn't see that a small group of people had hijacked my religion, claiming it as a reason to kill thousands of innocent people. That day, my race and religion stopped being simply one part of my personal identity and became a part of my political reality as well.

The tensions born that day have only intensified. Hate crimes against Muslims have surged; each time I visit my Muslim community back home, I hear another story of someone's car or store being vandalized, or of death threats received in the mail. Similar stories are shared on Facebook by Muslim communities all over the United States. Some Muslims have decided to shave their beards or stop wearing a hijab, crucial parts of their identity, so that they won't be easy targets. My own mother, terrified for my safety, has made me promise to stop going on my daily morning runs alone. The fear is palpable.

Now, as I listen to Mr. J, my pen slips from my fingers and falls to the floor. He keeps talking, but I can't take in his words. I need to escape . . . to calm down and digest this shock.

"Excuse me a moment," I mutter, blinking back tears, and walk past him, my legs heavy.

Before, when confronted with this kind of prejudice, I've known exactly what to do: Speak up. I've revealed my religious identity and have tried to show that I'm "normal," in hopes of changing the person's mindset. I've done this countless times.

Most recently, while waiting for my car's oil change to be done, I watched an elderly woman struggling to help her grandson with his algebra homework.

"I should call my friend Ahmad to help me," he said.

"I told you to stop talking to him!" his grandmother snapped. "He's Arab - probably a terrorist!"

Calmly, I offered to help, and afterward the grandmother thanked me profusely. Heading out the door, I left a note in her hand: "Just so you know, I am a Muslim. I helped you because that's what I believe in . . . helping others. We aren't terrorists. Just Americans who believe in compassion and camaraderie."

But this situation is different, I tell myself. This man is my patient. He needs medical help.

Still, how can I deny the sting of his words? My mind races: As a medical student, where are my boundaries? Should I tell him that I'm Muslim? Should I tell my attending?

I decide not to share my feelings with my attending: I want to process this situation on my own.

All at once, I remember Dr. A, who worked in my college's alumni affairs department. We met at a time when I was being rejected for internships and getting threatening phone calls because of my Muslim identity. When I voiced my concerns to non-Muslim students and advisers, no one listened - except for Dr. A. Instead of staying safely on the sidelines, she became the Muslim students' strongest ally. She helped me to establish the college's Muslim Cultural Center, a safe haven where we could tackle the issues that we as Muslim Americans were facing in the post-9/11 world.

Few people knew what I knew: that Dr. A's husband had been killed in the 9/11 attacks. Despite this horrific loss, she never faltered in her support for the Muslim students. Time and again, she chose love and acceptance over hatred and revenge.

Recalling her support and generosity of spirit, I feel a surge of gratitude.

A thought arises: Maybe I can act as Dr. A did. As wounded as I feel by Mr. J's harsh words, I can respond to them - and him - with kindness and care.

In leaving the room, I reflect, I let my reactions to Mr. J's words override my duty to care for him. I don't have to let that happen - I can choose to transcend the barriers that divide us.

Can I do it? Well . . . let me try.

Minutes later, I head back with Dr. S to complete Mr. J's exam. I remain cordial with him: I make sure that he understands his treatment instructions, help him set up his next appointment and walk him out of the office.

"Good luck! See you at your next visit," I say, smiling and waving goodbye.

Later, sharing this experience with my trusted professors, colleagues and Muslim role models, I get conflicting responses. Some believe that I was right to remain quiet; others, that I should have spoken up.

I still have many questions: What if one day I encounter a patient who directly attacks me for my Muslim identity? When I'm a physician, how will I act if this happens?

If a colleague or an attending disrespects my beliefs and heritage, I have my response ready. I'll be respectful, but direct:

"I am Muslim. But I am also a doctor. I can offer you my skills to the best of my ability, regardless of how you feel about my identify. It's your decision if you're open to working with me."

I don't have all the answers - but I do know, now, that I can keep my emotions from derailing my patients' care.

I may not have changed Mr. J's perceptions of Muslims, but I fulfilled my duties as a physician-in-training. Perhaps someday he'll find out that I'm Muslim. Maybe I'll have a chance to change his opinion - and maybe I won't.

Either way, I don't regret my decision to respond not with wounded anger but with my best attempt at compassion.

Rahman is a medical student at the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. This article is adapted from an essay in Pulse: Voices from the heart of medicine, where it first appeared.
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A number of new laws on smoking and vaping are set to come into force this year.

Those who smoke cigarettes or vape are now being encouraged to become clued up on the changes in the law as they come in.

With that in mind, here's all you need to know about the new laws.

All cigarette packs must now be what the Government calls a "drab dark brown", dubbed the "world's ugliest colour" - with no logos, promotional images or indications of the cigarette's flavour.

They cannot have "non-standard noises or smells" and must be 65 per cent covered by health warnings, including graphic pictures such as tar-stained lungs.

The law was prompted by an EU directive and took force on May 20, 2016 for manufacturers and importers.

But there was a grace period for sellers and suppliers to get rid of old stock.

Even if they have some left, it will be illegal for shops to sell old-style branded cigarette packs from May 21, 2017.

No more packs of 10

The same rules say all packs must have a "minimum of 20 cigarettes".

The thinking behind this is it'll be more expensive to get hold of a pack in future, with the cheapest costing nearly 9.

That hit to the wallet might put off youngsters who want to give smoking a try.

This also takes full force on May 21, 2017.

And boy, did Big Tobacco try to stop it

Giants including Imperial and British American Tobacco fought a mammoth court case to try and stop plain packaging.

They complained the Government would have a "disproportionate control" over their lucrative trade marks without "compensating" them.

The Court of Appeal dismissed all 17 of their points in November after a week-long case involving 30 expert witnesses.

But the giants appealed to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.

But the Supreme Court has refused to hear that appeal, clearing the last hurdle to the rules.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was "delighted".

No more menthols

ALL flavoured cigarettes including menthols will be banned from sale in the UK from May 20, 2020.

That includes both pre-produced cigarettes and rolling tobacco.

Shops will also be banned from selling tobacco with any flavoured papers, filters, packages or capsules that give the smoke a flavour.

Experts say this is needed because menthols' lighter taste obscures how dangerous they are.

Amanda Sandford of the charity Action on Smoking and Heath (Ash) told the Liverpool Echo: "It is an absolute myth that menthol cigarettes are better for you. All cigarettes are harmful and menthol cigarettes are just as dangerous as normal cigarettes."

No more small pouches of rolling tobacco

Rolling tobacco can no longer be sold in any pouch smaller than 30 grams.

Just like the minimum pack size of 20 cigarettes, this is to discourage teenagers from buying small amounts then getting addicted.

This law came into force last year but had a grace period, so packs smaller than 30g are banned from sale from May 21, 2017.

Anyone breaching any of the laws above can be jailed for up to two years in the most serious cases.

New restrictions on vaping

Vaping is not being banned.

But a maze of new rules on e-cigarettes was brought in last year. They include:

New red tape for manufacturers and suppliers

Refill containers must be limited to 10ml

Disposable cartridges limited to 2ml

Vitamins, colourings and additives like caffeine and taurine banned

E-cigarettes must be 'child-resistant' in design

Health warnings must cover 30% of each pack surface

Packs cannot describe e-cig's "taste or smell" (they can describe flavouring though)

Once again there was a grace period, so it will be illegal for shops to sell products that don't comply from May 20, 2017.

Plus... don't smoke around your kid in the car

It has been illegal to smoke in a vehicle where there is anyone under 18 present since October 2015.

Both the driver and the smoker, if they are two different people, can be fined 50.

The law applies throughout England and Wales, including to 17-year-olds with a provisional driving licence.

It does not apply to vaping, 17-year-olds on their own or convertibles with the roof fully down
Press Release

April 15, 2017 Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Handwritten Note

Dispatch from Crame No. 65 4 / 13 / 17 I join the nation in expressing sympathies with the family and loved ones of the uniformed personnel--3 soldiers and 1 policeman--who perished during a firefight with Abu Sayyaf bandits in Bohol. I also laud the militiary for neutralizing a notorious leader of the ASG believed to be responsible for atrocities, including beheading of foreigners. Let the full force of the law be cast upon the rest of the these lawless and ruthless elements. I am in solidarity with, and give honor to, the Armed Forces of the Philippines in protecting our peace and preserving our freedom. Mabuhay ang ating mga sundalo! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
Press Release

April 15, 2017 GRACE POE'S EASTER MESSAGE Easter is a season of renewal and hope after mourning. It is an occasion of love's triumph over death. On this holy day in our Christian faith, may each one of us be blessed with the light of salvation and love for others and our nation.
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Andrea Trewinnard had been poring over satellite images of the Syrian city of Idlib for hours when she spotted a clue connecting an online video to a bombed marketplace: The shadow of a minaret, indistinguishable to the untrained eye.

When I see a mosque, Im happy, she said.

Trewinnard is engaged in the arduous task of trying to geo-locate and authenticate footage from war zones around the world, making sure videos were shot when and where the people who posted them online say they were. In her study of the Syrian city, the mosque she noticed proved to be a distinctive landmark  corroborating the footage shot at the 2013 marketplace fire caused by a suspected Russian air strike.

The 29-year-old Trewinnard, a first-year law student, is one of a group of UC Berkeley undergraduates, graduate and law students volunteering hours of their free time scrutinizing videos not of the latest viral phenomena, but of air strikes, bombings and craters filled with remnants of weapons.

Its all part of the Human Rights Investigations Lab, an effort to harness the research skills of the budding investigators by having them scrutinize hours of open-source material, looking for evidence that can help groups like Amnesty International raise awareness of global atrocities and prosecute war criminals.

Trewinnard lived in Egypt for three years, and her Arabic background helps her during her searches. In the video of the marketplace fire, a minaret is barely visible through the smoke, but it was enough to send her combing the Internet for mosques next to markets in Idlib and social media posts mentioning the fire.

Her work has paid off in the verification of a number of videos, many of which are part of the Syrian Archive, an effort to preserve media documenting the Syrian civil war so it can be used by future historians, journalists or prosecutors, she said.

The lab is a way to feel like youre having some existential contribution to the field, said Trewinnard. Its a way to feel a little less powerless.

The lab evolved from the Berkeley Human Rights Centers 2014 Human Rights and Technology program, in which an attempt was made to answer a question vexing advocates fighting for global justice for years: Why were prosecutors at the International Criminal Court  established as a venue to prosecute those who commit genocide and other crimes against humanity  having so little success putting away the masterminds behind high-profile, horrific crimes?

Amy Osborne/Special to The Chronicle

It took the ICC six years after opening its doors in 2003 to hear its first case, and fewer than two dozen cases have made it to the pretrial stage or been brought before the court since then.

Of those, at least five collapsed, like the cases against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, accused of fomenting a wave of violence after Kenyas 2007 election in which more than 1,000 people were killed and 900 women were raped, according to the nonprofit Human Rights Watch.

What our researchers found was that, basically, [prosecutors] were over-relying on witness testimony. While witnesses will always be at the heart of any international prosecution, theyre also extremely vulnerable, said Alexa Koenig, executive director of the Human Rights Center.

Cases also tend to fall apart because of difficulty in linking intellectual authors of the atrocities to those ordered to commit them, said Mayra Feddersen, a doctoral student who works in the Berkeley lab.

Feddersen came to Berkeley after practicing human rights law in her native Chile and growing frustrated with the limited impact she had.

I realized the law alone is not enough  that only bringing a case to court did not change the reality of many, only for that particular person, she said.

In comparison, she said, the future of open-source investigations seems full of possibility.

One goal of the lab is to mine social media for evidence of connections between on-the-ground killers and torturers and the higher-ups who direct them.

Alleged perpetrators are leaving more fingerprints in various places. Theyre leaving fingerprints behind the cyber curtain, meaning, theyre going on email, theyre sending messages to their subordinates, theyre filming things, said Eric Stover, faculty director of the Human Rights Center.

But for materials pulled from YouTube or Twitter to be useful to international prosecutors, they must be determined credible.

Were realizing, as theres a propagation of media and use of media for propagandistic purposes, we need to be really careful about what were relying on, said Koenig.

Human rights organizations rely on trust to do their work, and putting out questionable information can cause that trust to crumble, damaging the whole field, she added.

Thats where the students verification work comes in.

By partnering with the students at the Human Rights Investigations Lab, nonprofits like Amnesty International can plow through more material than they would be able to if they had to pay full-time staff to verify videos.

They also have more flexibility to shift from project to project, because the lab can easily assemble teams of students with expertise in a language or region related to a particular project, Koenig said.

Students in the current cohort speak 18 languages, including Burmese, Arabic, Urdu, Hebrew, Turkish, Korean, Bengali and Mandarin. That doesnt make the work easy, though.

Students scour the Internet for more footage or documentation of the event. They pick apart satellite images. They try to corroborate the videos using details most people wouldnt give a second thought  plants, clothing, weather, or the minarets of mosques.

The front-line people who capture images of whats happening, they tend to focus on the body or where the bomb hit  they dont realize thats actually the least helpful info for courts, said Koenig. What the courts need is the 360-degree pan shot of the surrounding area to place what happened in a particular location. Or they need information that might seem irrelevant, like the angle something came from, or a shot of a newspaper that establishes the date.

When Koenig and the Human Rights Centers communications manager, Andrea Lampros, launched the lab in 2016, they expected maybe five to 10 students to be interested in the work, which can be tedious and emotionally draining. The students surprised them.

There was so much demand, I had to cut it off at 42, said Koenig.

Amy Osborne/Special to The Chronicle

It grew in the next semester to about 60 students. And student interest is also pushing the project to grow in different directions  one group is working with the journalism nonprofit ProPublica to compile a verified national database of hate crimes.

The hope, said Stover, is that Berkeleys lab can serve as a blueprint for other schools to follow.

Some in the legal field are skeptical of the potential value of open-source evidence. The biggest drawbacks: It remains largely untested, can be attacked as unreliable, and has yet to play a key role in a major international criminal trial.

Stover is undeterred. He is not new to exploring untested methods in search of evidence of human rights abuses  like in 1980s Argentina, when he assembled a team of forensics experts to exhume mass graves of thousands of political dissidents, students and other civilians killed during a period of brutal government repression. Argentine archaeologists and scientists didnt want to participate; some were afraid, and others may have been complicit in the violence being investigated.

So we had to turn to students at the University of Buenos Aires, Stover said. These were 23-year-old students who volunteered, and when we did our second and third exhumations, I even learned one of the students had packed a pistol because he was so afraid. It certainly was new territory.

For the Berkeley students, knowing their work is of real-world importance helps to keep them going.

Whenever Im sitting in front of a computer for five or six hours trying to locate where particular components of a video might be, I try to stop and remind myself, why am I doing this? said Nisha Srinivasa, 20, a third-year French major at UC Berkeley. And whenever I stop and remind myself, I realize how exciting the work actually is.

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi
Silicon Valley Comic Con was a success in its first year in 2016  perhaps too much of a success.

The conventions CEO Trip Hunter remembers his panic on Saturday, the busiest of the three days last April, when costumed convention-goers were arriving faster than ticketing could process them. The events social media team tracked Hunter down, reporting, Its starting to go negative.

I ran outside and saw that line  it looked like there were 4- to 5,000 people there, Hunter said. I knew there was a Rite Aid a couple of blocks away, I just ran and bought cases of water. I came back, walked the line handing out water, and just let people vent.

The story captures a lot about SVCC, which returns to the San Jose Convention Center from Friday to Sunday, April 21-23. Even as it scales up for 2017  events this year will expand to nearby halls, and also a park  its a convention that plans to retain the personal local touches.

Part of that is the will of Steve Wozniak, the Apple co-founder who backed the convention, insisting on a science and technology mission.

Part of it is the decision not to court Hollywood studios. While Silicon Valley Comic Con will host stars including William Shatner, Star Treks original Captain Kirk; Grant Gustin of the hit series Flash; and 80s stars John Cusack and Robert Englund, best known as Freddy Krueger from The Nightmare on Elm Street horror films, as well as most of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it wont be focused on promoting future superhero movies like Comic-Con International in San Diego.

San Jose has embraced the Silicon Valley Comic Con and its mission to also highlight science and tech leaders as if real superheroes were descending on the San Jose Convention Center.

San Jose Councilwoman Dev Davis, a mother of preteen children, was tapped to lead a ceremony this week proclaiming Silicon Valley Comic Con Day. Officials agreed to raise the SVCC flag over San Jose City Hall. It was a far cry from San Francisco, which repeatedly evacuated WonderCon because of alleged fire code violations.

For San Jose, we love events like this. We love the opportunity for people to see our city, Davis said. I think its a fantastic way to merge technology and pop culture here.

Last years convention was already an opportunity to discover San Jose, a city that doesnt get its cultural due. With limited food options in the hall, costumed revelers walked several blocks to find sustenance. Davis said the annual convention rivaled Super Bowl 50 for impact on the local economy.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle

For 2017, the convention will spill into the city, fulfilling Wozniak and Hunters dream for a TED conference-meets-South by Southwest experience. The Civic Auditorium, which seats about 3,000 and is a block away from the convention center, will act as one of the main conference halls. Cesar Chavez Park will be fenced off for exhibits and movie screenings  including a 20th anniversary celebration of the movie Contact, with SETI Institute astronomer Jill Tarter (the inspiration for Jodie Fosters lead character) providing commentary.

This years theme is The Future of Humanity. Hunter thought finding and booking scientists would be his hardest job at Silicon Valley Comic Con, but he said astronomers, physicists and other science superstars have been enormously receptive to the question: Where will humanity be in 2075?

When you start asking a bunch of scientists and futurists and technologists that question, they love it, Hunter said. Theres no right or wrong. They get to expound on where they think things will be. I think the same thing happens when popular culture and popular media imagines the future. Its about imagination and creativity.

Chronicle archives

It also ties in nicely to Bay Area convention history. The second major science fiction convention in the Bay Area  the Star Trek Space and Science Convention at the Oakland Municipal Auditorium in 1976  combined Star Trek stars with NASA scientists and astronauts, including Al Worden.

The NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View is a sponsor of the 2017 Silicon Valley Comic Con, and Shatner, now 83, was the headliner for the 1976 convention and will appear at his second SVCC. And then theres astronaut Buzz Aldrin, second human to walk on the moon, who is slated to appear at this years convention.

Hunter, a longtime marketing executive who worked with Wozniak at Fusion-io computer hardware and software company, gets more than a little awestruck at the mention of Aldrin. He mentions a framed photo his mother took when Aldrin landed on the moon in 1969, of 7-year-old Hunter in a bathrobe watching the event on television.

The convention has grown quickly to one of the Bay Areas bigger cultural events, but he hopes it always remains personal.

I hope that exists on some level for everybody who goes there, Hunter said.

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicles pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub

Silicon Valley Comic Con

5-9 p.m. Friday, April 21

10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, April 22

10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, April 23

$10-$550

San Jose Convention Center, 150 W. San Carlos St., San Jose. www.svcomicon.com
Just about a year ago, the management of KFOG sacked most of its full-time DJs and updated its playlist, promising an evolution.

But a recent visit to the Cumulus stations website showed little evolving. Under Shows, only the morning host, Matt Pinfield, and holdover DJ Mike No Name Nelson, whod moved from mornings to afternoon drive, were listed, along with Rosalie Howarth, who was fired, then rehired as host of Acoustic Sunrise, and newcomer Alicia Tyler. There were no hours listed for her, but shes on mornings with Pinfield, along with program director Bryan Schock, then solos from 10 to noon. Schock was not mentioned on the site; neither was Steve Rockwell, longtime weekend and fill-in DJ. He is heard from noon to 3  but hes not live. He prerecords voice tracks. And there was no DJ listed for evenings.

It sounds like slow going. But behind the scenes, theres been plentiful drama, most of it surrounding Pinfield, whos been on MTV and on terrestrial, satellite and syndicated radio. He spent five years as a talent scout at Columbia Records. A rabid music and radio fan since early childhood, in Georgia and New Jersey, he tells his story in an enjoyable new book, All These Things That Ive Done: My Insane, Improbable Rock Life. (At age 3, in 1965, he recalls, Sitting on the floor with a record player, Id say Beatles! Beatles! Give me Beatles!)

Early in January, he announced on KFOG that he was going into rehab. I was dealing with A-fib (atrial fibrillation, or irregular heart rhythm), he told me, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure as well. Drinking on top of it wasnt a good idea. And it turns out I was overmedicated. Add the stress of a new job, and moving from one place to another in San Francisco, and he had a problem.

And not a new one. In his book, Pinfield wrote about previous battles with substance abuse, including a 2009 rehab stint which required a leave from his morning show on WRXP in New York. He wrote: I bounced in and out of rehab quite a few times over the years, trying to get a handle on my dependency. It didnt stick. Drugs were everywhere. If youre even the slightest bit tempted, being in the rock game is no way to abstain.

While he was in detox and rehab facilities in Southern California, Schock and Tyler took over the show, and they stayed on when Pinfield returned early in February. He declared himself a renewed man. I lost 17 pounds and Im 87 days sober, he told me on March 31. I have my meds straightened out, so I feel great.

Perhaps to lighten the load on Pinfield, Schock and Tyler are now co-hosting, and a producer, Arthur Ballesteros, lends additional support. Pinfields job is to talk about his musician friends and his adventures in the industry, provide music news, interview visiting artists, and anchor new features, including Pinfields Playlist in the 9 oclock hour. As Schock put it, Matt supplies a lot of the substance. Meantime, he and Tyler introduce other features, including film and restaurant reviews, health advice, and occasional raps by Ballesteros.

Pinfield has also taken on the evening shift with a voice-tracked show, including another special hour, a spotlight on new music. And he continues to host two syndicated shows, Flashback and the nightly Two Hours With Matt Pinfield, which also is a podcast.

It sounds like overwork. I thrive on it, he said. To be busy is my lifeblood.

A year ago, it was the Matt Pinfield Show. Now its Bryan, Alicia and Matt. Pinfields OK with the change in billing. I dont have a huge ego that way, he said. I still get as much enjoyment telling stories and turning people onto new music (as) when I was 13 and 14.

Sitting together in KFOGs Levis Lounge, a nicely outfitted performance space for visiting musicians, Pinfield and Schock talk about their friendship, which dates back to 2008. When Schock joined KFOG and reunited with Pinfield, he noted, Matt wasnt completely well the first several months he was here. I knew what he was capable of, and it was a little frustrating to see him not be at full speed. Forget all the business; I love the guy personally, and I was scared I was going to lose a friend. It took a toll on my health. When he went off to take care of himself, it gave me the opportunity to focus on KFOG. When he came back, I was ready to go, and we hit the ground running. Looking at Pinfield, Schock said, Youre here working so many hours a day; you couldnt have done half of that before.

But are they getting any love from the listeners? Pinfield said hes hearing from people whod resisted KFOGs evolution and him. Ive seen people warm to the station  especially the old Fogheads. What theyve embraced is the honest passion for music.

While the overall ratings for KFOG have been stagnant, Schock noted that in its target demo, listeners aged 25 to 49, We are reaching new heights with each ratings period since Pinfields return.

But, as he said (in spite of the fact that he works for Cumulus), forget all the business. My friends back, and its great.

Cherry cherry: Its the 50th anniversary of the Cherry Blossom Festival all around Japantown, and Ill be joining longtime parade commentator George Yamasaki on the PA system near parades end, at Post and Webster (it begins at 1 p.m., Sunday, April 16, at City Hall). Ill be the snarky one.

Ben Fong-Torres is a freelance writer.
Do the Democrats need their own Tea Party? If one intransigent movement in Congress can create so many problems from the right, imagine what life in Washington would be like if its mirror image emerges from the left. But that seems to be the direction were headed.

In last weeks column I discussed the possibility that President Trump, having been raked over the coals by the conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus during the recent health care debate, might now turn to the Democrats as potential partners on taxes, infrastructure and his other domestic policy goals. But even if Trump does extend his hand across the aisle, it appears likely that no one on the other side would be willing to accept it.

Since the election, grassroots Democrats have made it clear to their elected leaders that they are in no mood to try to find common ground with the president. When Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested after the election that it might be possible to work with Trump on certain issues, he was quickly slapped down by his followers. Democratic senators who voted for Trumps Cabinet nominees were called out as traitors and heretics, and a movement has already begun to deny party funding for the re-election campaigns of the three Democrats who supported Neil Gorsuchs nomination to the Supreme Court.

Most smart Democrats know that relying solely on the passion of progressives is a dangerous game, and that driving away the partys remaining moderate voices is a recipe for disaster. But most of them are reluctant to speak up and face the wrath of their partys base.

Enter Kamala Harris.

Californias new U.S. senator possesses the agenda, the biography and the attitude to make the hearts of most progressive activists skip a beat. Harris won her election last fall running hard from the left and much of her work since arriving in Washington is more likely to excite Democratic loyalists than it is to appeal to more centrist voters. But there she was last week arguing that her party could not afford to abandon its colleagues who had voted for Gorsuch.

We cant afford to be purists, Harris said. Can you understand that you may not agree with 50 percent of their policy positions, but I can guarantee you will disagree with 100 percent of their replacements policy positions. So that is part of the question. What do we have to do in this movement to be pragmatic?

Strong stuff, and almost certainly not what her supporters would like to hear from her. But even though pragmatism is not going to be a particularly effective rallying cry for Democratic loyalists anytime soon, Harris is giving them the right advice.

The grassroots activism among progressives is similar to the populist uprising that emerged among conservative resisters during the first months of Barack Obamas presidency eight years ago  right down to the combative nature of last weeks congressional town hall meetings. The unexpectedly narrow victory for the GOP candidate in an overwhelmingly Republican House district in Kansas last week further demonstrates that the fire and energy now is emanating from the left end of the political spectrum. All in all, 2017 is beginning to feel like 2009 in reverse, as a wave of angry opposition emerges against a newly-elected president still learning the ways of Washington.

Democrats understand that the Obama years were very beneficial for conservatives in many ways. An ultra-motivated insurgency brought Republican majorities in both houses of Congress as well as sizable gains in governors offices and statehouses across the country. There is no shortage of liberal activists and donors who believe they can achieve the same sweeping victories on the wings of equally passionate and uncompromising activists.

Impassioned Democrats believe that Trump will be such an ineffectual president and such a weak candidate by 2020 that simply turning out their base will be good enough to reclaim the presidency. (Which was precisely the attitude that equally impassioned Republicans held toward Obama before he was re-elected.) But a political party that consciously ignores the political center is not leaving itself much margin for error.

Ronald Reagan once warned his most impassioned allies of the dangers of jumping off the cliff with the flag flying. Harris is unlikely to quote the conservative Californian by name to her fans. But Reagan was right then, and so is Harris now.

Dan Schnur, who has worked on four presidential and three gubernatorial campaigns, teaches political communications at the University of Southern California and UC Berkeley. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at http://bit.ly/SFChronicleletters.com
As Americans face Tuesdays deadline to pay their taxes, the Trump administration is hinting that tax reform is up soon on its agenda, with the president predicting it will be an easier political lift than the botched GOP attempt to replace Obamacare.

He may be optimistic, because a key aspect of the tax overhaul would likely hurt some of the blue-collar voters who helped Trump win the presidency. Its known as a border adjustment tax.

The provision, which is used in many other nations, wouldnt tax goods that are exported but would tax imported products at about 20 percent. Its goal is to encourage companies to make their products in the United States, keeping jobs here. It would also raise up to $1 trillion in revenue over 10 years, an inflow that will be needed as most of the GOP tax plans being floated in Washington propose cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to at most 20 percent.

But critics, including big-box retailers like Costco and Walmart that would have to pay the tax because they import most of their products, predict the average American family would pay $1,700 more a year to cover the resulting increase in the price of clothes, phones and other items on their shelves.

That would make life even tougher for Kailey Norris, a single mother who makes a little less than the nations median annual household income of $55,775. Covering that spike would wipe out the $1,000 Norris is trying to save every year.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

I think things are pretty tight already. I would feel that, said Norris, a case manager at a San Francisco nonprofit who lives in Oakland with her 3-year-old daughter. Im paying for her school, and trying to pay for dance class, saving for her birthdays. And now Im looking at summer camps, and theyre really expensive.

I get what Trumps trying to do, Norris said. And it might not mean much to someone who makes a lot of money. But it would mean something to me.

People with a lot more money than Norris are concerned about its cost.

A new nationwide TV ad funded by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers organization rails against it: America voted for change, economic growth and to stop wasteful spending. But now, some members of Congress want a new, trillion-dollar ... consumer tax that could drive up your costs and hurt our economy. ... Tell Congress thats not the change were asking for.

Said Brent Gardner, chief government affairs officer for Americans for Prosperity, This is a tax aimed squarely at the Trump voter, and I hope this is one the administration will reject.

But Alan Auerbach, professor of economics and law at UC Berkeley who is known as the father of the border adjustment tax, dismissed the $1,700 increase as silly and outside the range of economic projections of what the tax might do. It also doesnt account for any tax cuts Americans may see under Trump or a stronger dollar as a result of the border tax change.

It would encourage companies to make their products in America, said Auerbach, who thinks it would also convince some Silicon Valley companies, such as Google and Apple, to stop basing operations in countries like Ireland, which have much lower corporate tax burdens.

If it sounds odd to hear somebody from Berkeley on the same political side as border tax supporter and Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, it is illustrative of how the tax has scrambled the usual partisan formations.

On one side are organizations backed by the free-trade-loving Kochs, standing shoulder to shoulder with progressive Democrats like Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, and retailers like Walmart.

On the other side backing the tax are major manufacturers like Boeing, linking arms with Ryan, Rep. Wayne Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and Trump strategist Steve Bannon.

Leaning toward the border adjustment tax, but not quite fully committed to it, is Trump. Though it would seem to fit squarely into his America First ethos, he doesnt like calling it a border adjustment tax. To him, thats bad branding, as he explained on the Fox Business Network this week.

I dont like the word adjustment, because our country gets taken advantage of, to use a nice term, by every other country in the world, Trump said. So when I hear border adjustment, adjustment means we lose. We lose. So I dont like the term border adjustment.

But when you say a reciprocal tax  and Im not saying thats what Im doing  but there has to be a certain reciprocal nature to it. But when you say reciprocal tax, nobody can get angry, Trump said. Which says more about semantics than tax policy.

In California, analysts say the tax would have a mixed effect on some of the states iconic industries. Even though the states agriculture sector is a net exporter, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau said the group is neutral on the tax.

Thats because while California farmers export around $25 billion worth of products annually, many also import equipment from overseas, said Dan Sumner, a professor of agriculture and economics who directs the University of California Agricultural Issues Center.

Sumner said farmers would be hurt if the tax triggers a trade war with some of Californias best export markets, like Mexico or the European Union.

Even though the United States has a loony corporate tax structure, we have to do this in a smart way, Sumner said. We dont want to create a system that takes away our big export destinations.

The tech industry is divided, too. As Hewlett-Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman told CNBC earlier this year: Everything that is in our products comes from overseas. That supply chain has taken 30 years to set up. So when all those components come in and are taxed, its not going to be good. This does not create jobs. It actually lowers the number of jobs for many, many companies.

But the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a public policy and trade organization that represents 400 top tech companies, hasnt taken a position, and wont until it sees a more fleshed-out version of Trumps tax plan.

The border adjustment tax would significantly change how the innovation economy operates, as it has the potential of choosing winners and losers among some of the largest contributors to our economy, said Carl Guardino, the groups president.

Khanna, who represents parts of Silicon Valley and went on trade missions when he worked at the Commerce Department, worried about a trade war threatening global economic stability.

We shouldnt be the ones throwing bombs at a financial global stability that we stand to benefit the most from as a country, Khanna said. We would pay more as consumers. More for our laptops. More for clothes. Its really a tax on the middle class.

Politically, Khanna didnt understand why Trump would support it.

Its going to hurt many of the folks who voted for him, Khanna said, And thats why its very, very surprising that hes pushing this.

If prices for imported toys and clothes would rise, Norris doesnt know whether she would buy from local stores. Shed like to, but theyre usually a lot more expensive.

My concern is that people who can afford it are still going to pay whatever the new price is, she said. But thats not going to work for the rest of us who are on a budget.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
John Hadeed sank into a cushiony theater seat at the Metreon. This would be his first chance to watch the new adventure film The Lost City of Z. Yet he is intimately acquainted with most of the wardrobe worn by Sienna Miller, playing the devoted stay-at-home wife of real-life British explorer Percy Fawcett, who at the dawn of the 20th century believed hed come upon the remains of an advanced civilization in the Amazon.

Hadeed is akin to a clothes whisperer  the fashion maven who becomes involved in a movie after a costume designer and wardrobe staff determines a look for a character. It is then left to Hadeed to find the actual pieces to fit their concept. He is known in Hollywood for his extensive collection  culled from 25 years of buying personal wardrobes and other peoples collections  all of it categorized and archived like a library. Much of it is stored in Hadeeds downtown San Francisco shop, Torso Vintages. And until May 14, a variety of 60s-era clothing, jewelry and accessories can also be purchased at the Love Boutique installation at Neiman Marcus Union Square.

So when he needed to compile an upper-class womans wardrobe worn between 1912-1935, the time span of the movie, he knew just where to look. Hadeed was charged with dressing just Miller. But to prepare, he read the script early in the process and all of the Fawcett biographies. The extensive mens clothes were done by Ralph Lauren.

Q: How did you come to work on The Lost City of Z?

A: It was through Wanda Morales, an assistant to the main costume person on a Woody Allen movie. She found me a unique source for period movies. Woody wanted a negligee from the 1920s for one scene. He wanted to rent it instead of buying it to save a little money. I really dont like to do rentals but then I thought, Why not? Ill have one of my pieces in a Woody Allen movie. So when Wanda was hired on Lost City, she got in touch with me. She knows I am very easy to work with and that I would give them options from my archival collections. Everything you see in the movie was all original. I know what looks good on camera. Just because a dress is gorgeous doesnt mean it will read on camera. It cant be camera-shy. I have a trained eye, and I know my period clothing very well.

Q: Did you meet with Sienna Miller to go through possible selections?

A: Are you kidding? She was just incredibly busy. I got her measurements and then the costume people did the fittings. They had like one day to fit her. The film was shot all over the place overseas, and I had to keep figuring out where to send the boxes of clothing.

Q: How did you know how many ensembles to send?

A: When I read the script, I saw her scenes were marked. You only see her six times. I guess the more screen time an actor has, the bigger the clothes budget.

Q: Describe some of the clothes you put her in.

A: When the Fawcetts are on the grass and he is telling her goodbye before he leaves for the Amazon, she has on an olive green and white checkered linen lawn skirt. When he returns from his trip at an event honoring him, Sienna wears a silver empire gown with a lace lame bodice that to my mind is the star of the whole thing. From the bust line all the way down to the floor it has an asymmetrical train of purple cut velvet matched by a large purple flower on her bosom. At the end she has on a beautifully molded wool cloche (a close-fitting womans hat almost like a helmet) with a side kind of bow and big rhinestone buckle.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Q: What else are you working on?

A: A couple of television shows. I found a red vintage Versace dress for Cookie on Empire to wear this month. And I have been working on Feud (a limited-run TV series about the bad blood between Hollywood divas Bette Davis and Joan Crawford). Part of the show is set in the 60s but then there are these flashbacks. I am trying to fill in the gaps with pieces that really have an impact onscreen. For Joan I found a turquoise silk turban and a matching turquoise purse. Things had to be matchy-matchy back then.

The Lost City of Z opened this weekend at Bay Area theaters.

Ruthe Stein is the San Francisco Chronicles movie correspondent. E-mail: style@sfchronicle.com.
Rallies and protest events are a part of political life in the Bay Area. Heres a roundup of whats happening.

Monday

Town hall: Hosted by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., from 11 a.m. to noon at the San Francisco Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 2850 19th Ave. Attendees must have a ticket. Tickets are free. For information: http://bit.ly/2nBgGTa.

Immigration protest: A demonstration calling for Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern to stop working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by notifying ICE on prisoner releases. The protest is from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Glenn Dyer Detention Facility, 550 Sixth St. in Oakland. For information: www.facebook.com/events/1679499972067091.

Conversation on land use: A discussion on how local communities can make the best decisions to meet regional and local needs on land use and housing. The event is at 6 p.m. at SPUR Urban Center, 654 Mission St., San Francisco. Tickets are $10 for non-SPUR members, free to members. For information: www.spur.org/events/2017-04-17/who-should-make-land-use-decisions.

Politics 101: A discussion hosted by the United Democratic Club on the political history of San Francisco, how local and state governments work, and what the future holds for political issues like housing and transportation. The event is free and begins at 6:30 p.m. at 524 Third St. in San Francisco. RSVP: http://bit.ly/pol101ap17.

Tuesday

Town hall: Hosted by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, at 6:30 p.m. at Napa Valley College Performing Arts Center, 2277 Napa Vallejo Highway in Napa.

Wednesday

Town hall: Hosted by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, at 3 p.m. at City Hall, 525 Henrietta St. in Martinez.

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, 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 moderated 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., San Francisco. Tickets are available at: https://info.sfchronicle.com/chroniclechats.

Thursday

Peace vigil: A weekly vigil for peace supporters. The event is from noon to 1 p.m. at the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Larkin Street in San Francisco.

Anti-Trump show: The Museum of International Propaganda is hosting a pop-up art and poetry show called Against Trumpism: The Art & Poetry of Resistance. Bay Area and national artists and poets will present their work from April 20 to 29. The opening reception is April 20 from 6 to 10 p.m. with a poetry reading at 7:30 p.m. at 1000 Fifth Ave., San Rafael. The event is free and wheelchair-accessible. For more information, contact artofresistingtrump@gmail.com.

Saturday

Town halls: Hosted by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, at 10 a.m. in the gymnasium of Canada College, 4200 Farm Hill Blvd., Woodside. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, will host a town hall at 4 p.m. at the Dublin High School student union, 8151 Village Parkway in Dublin.

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. A march in San Jose will be 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. A Hayward march from 10 a.m. to noon begins at the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center, 4901 Breakwater Ave. For information: http://bit.ly/2n7oonY.

Sunday

Town hall: Hosted by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, at 1 p.m. at Newark Memorial High School, 39375 Cedar Blvd. in Newark.

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., Oakland. Tickets are $10 at the door. For information, contact info@loosidity.com.

April 26

Environment discussion: Marin County Supervisor Kate Sears will discuss the recent findings of the BayWave Project, a study on sea levels and rising tides from Sausalito to Novato. Sears will discuss Marins vulnerability and list next steps for how to deal with issues associated with rising sea levels. The event, which begins at 7 p.m., is free and wheelchair-accessible. It will be held at Drivers Market, 200 Caledonia St. in Sausalito. RSVP: www.driversmarket.com.

April 27

Comedy night: Hosted by the International Institute of the Bay Area, a Comedy Night for Immigrant Rights will feature Bay Area comedians Irene Tu, Johan Miranda and Zahra Noorbaksh. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. at BATS Improv Theatre in Building B at Fort Mason in San Francisco. For tickets: www.iibayarea.org/comedy-night-event.
WASHINGTON  As Republicans struggle to craft a sweeping tax package  a process already rife with political land mines  they are preparing to add another volatile element to the mix: a provision that would end a six-decade-old ban on churches and other tax-exempt organizations supporting political candidates.

The repeal of the Johnson amendment is being written into tax legislation developed in the House of Representatives, according to aides. President Trump has vowed to totally destroy the provision at the behest of evangelical Christians who helped elect him.

Republicans are going to have enough problems getting tax reform done, said Jim Manley, a longtime aide to former Senate minority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. If they start loading it up with unrelated stuff like this one to score political points, it will just get bogged down and go nowhere.

The measure is named for Lyndon Johnson, who introduced it in the Senate in 1954, nine years before he became president. The provision prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including houses of worship, from endorsing or opposing political candidates.

Repeal of the amendment has been sought primarily by conservative Christian leaders, who argue that it is used selectively to keep them from speaking out freely in church.

During the campaign, Trump spoke out in favor of ending the prohibition and he strongly reiterated his support during the National Prayer Breakfast shortly after taking office.

White House spokeswoman Natalie Strom said Trump still supports repeal, but she would not comment on whether he backs the approach being advocated by Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, which counts repeal of the Johnson amendment as a top priority, said he is not as concerned with how the repeal happens as he is that Trump and other Republican leaders keep their promise.

The aim of repealing the Johnson amendment is not universally embraced by all religious groups. A coalition of 99 organizations, including many Jewish and Baptist groups, recently sent a letter to Congress, urging the ban stay in place.

Under current law, churches may engage in political activity; the restrictions under the Johnson amendment are triggered by their acceptance of tax-exempt status.

John Wagner is a Washington Post writer.
1 Nightclub shooting: An argument erupted into gunfire early Sunday in a Columbus, Ohio, nightclub, wounding nine people, police said. Five females and four males were shot at the J&R Party Hall. Two people were initially hospitalized in critical condition, but police said Sunday afternoon that none of the wounded had life-threatening injuries. Police said they interviewed the victims, but they either reported they didnt see anything or refused to cooperate. No arrests were reported.

2 Trump taxes: President Trump tweeted Sunday that someone should look into who paid for the rallies around the country the day before that urged him to release his tax returns. I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican  easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again? he tweeted. Trump was the first major-party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his returns, and he reneged on a campaign commitment to release them. Thousands of protesters marched Saturday in cities across the U.S., demanding he release his returns.
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It's been a turbulent week for United Airlines. It didn't get any better over the weekend.

United, trying to recover from video of a man being pulled off a plane, took it on the chin again Sunday when a Utah couple told their story of being removed from a flight in Houston.

Michael Hohl and Amber Maxwell were traveling to Costa Rica for their wedding on Sunday.

The couple, and a group of friends, were flying from Salt Lake City with a layover at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Hohl and Maxwell boarded the plane last and found a man spread across their row of seats, napping. Hohl said they didn't want to wake the man, so the couple moved three rows up in the half-empty flight and didn't think about it.

Hohl told KHOU-TV in Houston when they sat down, the crew informed them they were in the wrong seats and moved them to the correct seats.

In a statement, United Airlines said Hohl and Maxwell "repeatedly attempted to sit in upgraded seating" and wouldn't follow the crew's instructions about where their purchased seats were.

"Were disappointed anytime a customer has an experience that doesnt measure up to their expectations," airline spokeswoman Maggie Schmerin said in a written statement.

Then, Hohl said, things got weird. Shortly before Flight 1737 was scheduled to take off, the crew asked the pair to get off the plane. Then, a U.S. Marshal came onto the plane and asked them to get off.

The couple cooperated and left without incident. They rebooked for Sunday, but said this was their last flight on United Airlines.

The incident brought flashbacks to the video of Dr. David Dao being dragged off a Chicago-to-Louisville flight a week earlier.

Dao sustained injuries and plans to file a lawsuit against the airline. After the incident, United put in place a new rule stipulating that crew members will no longer be allowed to displace passengers already on board the plane.

Scroll through the gallery above to see how social media roasted United Airlines after a man was dragged off a plane in Chicago
Time Magazines Brilliant People & their Not so Brilliant Plan of Action

I have not bought a Time Magazine in decades. I'm not sure how long it was since I bought one but I think the price was somewhere around $.50. Based on what I paid for the one I just bought, it will probably be the last one I ever buy.



I paid $6.99. When the clerk told me the price I said, "No, I don't want a six-pack. I just want one".



I became curious about what would make those Brilliant People at Time Magazine think they could charge $6.99 for their magazine. You know what happens when I get curious.



You guessed it. I put on my Potted Plant Outfit and drove to Time's Headquarters in New York City and slithered my way into their board meeting. What I found out was these brilliant people who run Time Magazine are not too smart.



Here is their plan for the future...



 They are going to continue to raise the price of their magazine.

 They are planning to go after a smaller market of very rich people.

 I actually heard one of them say, "Once we get the price up to $1,000,000 an issue we will have it made".

 They have figured out they will only need to sell 10 issues per publication at $1,000,000 and they will be in able to make an excellent profit that will generate very nice bonuses into the foreseeable future.



------------------------

Actually, as illogical as this thinking is, I see another major problem on the horizon for Time Magazine.



In my $6.99 issue I read a story about the recent Presidential Election that contained this quote from a Hillary Clinton supporter, "I thought, when Hillary becomes President, girls will be treated better. Boys wouldn't boss them around anymore."



I will not get into any commentary about whether or not there is any basis in fact about why this would be true or not. I would like to make you aware that this quote came from a 10 Year Old Girl .



Does Time Magazine really think it can get us to spend somewhere between $6.99 to $1,000,000 an issue by interviewing 10 Year Old Children ?



Would I kid u?

Smartfella


GUATEMALA CITY  The former governor of Mexicos Veracruz state who is accused of running a corruption ring that allegedly pilfered millions of dollars from state coffers was detained in Guatemala after six months as a fugitive and high-profile symbol of government graft in his country.

Javier Duarte, pale and visibly tired, was brought Sunday to a prison at a military base in the Guatemalan capital.

A statement from Mexicos federal attorney generals office said Duarte was detained Saturday with the cooperation of Guatemalan police and the countrys Interpol office in Panajachel, a picturesque tourist town on Lake Atitlan in Guatemalas highlands.

It said he is wanted on suspicion of money laundering and organized crime, and prosecutors directed the Foreign Relations Department to request Duartes extradition.

Manuel Noriega, deputy director of Interpol in Guatemala, said Duarte was located at a hotel where he was staying with his wife. He was asked to leave his room, did so voluntarily and then was arrested without incident in the lobby.

At least two dozen policemen guarded Duarte as he arrived at Guatemala Citys Matamoros prison. I have no comment, thank you, he said to a question from a reporter.

Duarte, 43, was governor of Veracruz from 2010 until he left office Oct. 12, 2016, two months before the scheduled end of his term, saying he was doing so in order to face the allegations against him.

At the time he denied having links to phantom businesses that allegedly won state contracts, and said he had not stolen a single peso of state money or diverted government funds overseas.

Duarte promptly disappeared and had been sought by Mexican authorities ever since. Earlier this year, Interpol issued a notice for his capture.

The Mexican government has found millions of dollars purportedly linked to Duarte, frozen more than 100 bank accounts and also seized property and businesses tied to the former governor. A reward of 15 million pesos ($730,000) had been offered for his capture.

The detention comes a week after Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Mexicos Tamaulipas state, was arrested in Italy, also on allegations of organized crime and money laundering.

Another ex-governor, Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state, is also wanted on suspicion of corruption and is said to have fled to El Paso, Texas. He is not related to Javier Duarte.

All three ex-governors were members of the ruling Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI, of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Sonia Perez D. and Peter Orsi are Associated Press writers.
1 Iraq attack: An Iraqi military officer told the Associated Press on Saturday that Islamic State militants launched a gas attack in a newly-liberated area in western Mosul. The officer with the antiterrorism forces said the attack occurred late Thursday in the al-Abar neighborhood, when militants fired a rocket loaded with chlorine. The officer said seven soldiers suffered breathing problems and were treated at a field clinic. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are currently battling militants in the more densely-populated western half of Mosul. The extremists were driven out of the eastern half of Mosul in January.

2 Garbage collapse: A massive mound of garbage collapsed in Sri Lanka, killing 19 people, injuring 13 and forcing more than 600 others to flee their homes, officials said Saturday. Soldiers searched the site in Meetotamulla, a town near the capital of Colombo. Four people were rescued from underneath the mound, but it was unclear whether any others were buried, said military spokesman Roshan Seneviratne. Police are investigating whether the collapse Friday night was a natural disaster or a deliberate act of sabotage. The site has been used to dump Colombos garbage for the past few years as authorities sought to give the capital a facelift. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Saturday that the government would soon remove the garbage dump from the area.
VATICAN CITY  On Christianitys most joyful day, Pope Francis lamented the horrors generated by war and hatred, delivering an Easter Sunday message that also decried the latest vile attack on civilians in Syria.

Both in his impromptu homily during Mass in St. Peters Square and later in his formal Urbi et Orbi Easter message delivered from the balcony of St. Peters Basilica, Francis reflected on a litany of suffering in the world, including wars, oppressive regimes, human trafficking, corruption, famine and domestic violence.

He encouraged people to hold fast in their fearful hearts to faith, acknowledging that many people wonder where God is amid so much evil and suffering in the world.

About 60,000 people, including multinational throngs of pilgrims and tourists, endured tight antiterrorism security checks  and, later, a brief downpour  to hear Francis and receive his blessing.

In his balcony address, Francis prayed that God would sustain those working to comfort and help the civilian population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death.

He cited the explosion Saturday that ripped through a bus depot in the Aleppo area where evacuees were awaiting transfer, killing at least 100 people.

Yesterday saw the latest vile attack on fleeing refugees, the pope said, also praying for peace in the Holy Land, Iraq and Yemen.

Separately, in a letter he sent to the bishop of Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, whose name he chose for his papacy, the pope decried the scandalous reality of a world still marked by the divide between the endless number of indigent and the tiny portion of those who possess the majority of riches and presume to decide the fates of humanity.

Francis has repeatedly championed the dignity of migrants fleeing war, persecution or poverty. On Sunday he recalled all those forced to leave their homelands as a result of armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, famine and oppressive regimes.

The churchs first pontiff from Latin America voiced concern over the political and social tensions in the world as well as the scourge of corruption on his home continent. Francis also mentioned hostilities and famine plaguing parts of Africa. Speaking of Europes problems, he cited the continued conflict and bloodshed in Ukraine.

Traditionally, the pope gives no homily during the late-morning Easter Mass, saving his reflections for the Urbi et Orbi message at noon.

But Francis broke with that tradition, giving an off-the-cuff homily during Mass about what he described as a nagging question for many faithful: Why are there so many tragedies and wars if Jesus has risen from the dead, a belief that Christians celebrate each Easter?

He said having faith on Easter makes sense in the middle of so many calamities: the sense of looking beyond, the sense of saying, look, there isnt a wall, theres a horizon, theres life, theres joy.

Frances DEmilio is an Associated Press writer.
Washington, Apr 16 (IBNS): NASAas partnership in a future European Space Agency (ESA) mission to Jupiter and its moons has cleared a key milestone, moving from preliminary instrument design to implementation phase.



Designed to investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants, the JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is scheduled to launch in five years, arriving at Jupiter in October 2029, read a the NASA website.

JUICE will spend almost four years studying Jupiters giant magnetosphere, turbulent atmosphere, and its icy Galilean moonsCallisto, Ganymede and Europa.

The April 6 milestone, known as Key Decision Point C (KDP-C), is the agency-level approval for the project to enter building phase. It also provides a baseline for the missions schedule and budget. NASAs total cost for the project is $114.4 million.

The next milestone for the NASA contributions will be the Critical Design Review (CDR), which will take place in about one year. The CDR for the overall ESA JUICE mission is planned in spring 2019.

Were pleased with the overall design of the instruments and were ready to begin implementation, said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. In the very near future, JUICE will go from the drawing board to instrument building and then on to the launch pad in 2022.

JUICE is a large-class missionthe first in ESAs Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program carrying a suite of 10 science instruments. NASA will provide the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS), and also will provide subsystems and components for two additional instruments: the Particle Environment Package (PEP) and the Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME) experiment.

The UVS was selected to observe the dynamics and atmospheric chemistry of the Jovian system, including its icy satellites and volcanic moon Io. With the planet Jupiter itself, the instrument team hopes to learn more about the vertical structure of its stratosphere and determine the relationship between changing magnetospheric conditions to observed auroral structures. The instrument is provided by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), at a cost of $41.2 million.

The PEP is a suite of six sensors led by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), capable of providing a 3-D map of the plasma system that surrounds Jupiter. One of the six sensors, known as PEP-Hi, is provided by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, and is comprised of two separate components known as JoEE and JENI. While JoEE is focused primarily on studying the magnetosphere of Ganymede, JENI observations will reveal the structure and dynamics of the donut-shaped cloud of gas and plasma that surrounds Europa. The total cost of the NASA contribution to the PEP instrument package is $42.4 million.

The Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME) experiment, an ice penetrating radar, which is a key instrument for achieving groundbreaking science on the geology, is led by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, is providing key subsystems to the instrument, which is designed to penetrate the surface of Jupiter's icy moons to learn more about their subsurface structure. The instrument will focus on Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa, to determine the formation mechanisms and interior processes that occur to produce bodies of subsurface water. On Europa, the instrument also will search for thin areas of ice and locations with the most geological activity, such as plumes. The total cost of the NASA contribution is $30.8 million.

How will JUICE complement NASAs Europa Clipper multiple flyby mission, also scheduled to launch in the early 2020s?

The missions are like close members of the same family. Together they will explore the entire Jovian system, said Curt Niebur, program scientist at NASA Headquarters. Clipper is focused on Europa and determining its habitability. JUICE is looking for a broader understanding how the entire group of Galilean satellites formed and evolved.

Niebur says by examining the complexity of the Jupiter system, we will learn more about how habitable areas form in our solar system and beyond. Weve learned that habitable environments can arise in surprising places and in unexpected ways. Life may not be limited to the surface of Earth-like worlds orbiting at just the right distance from their suns.

Image: NASA website




YouTube

Guwahati, Apr 16 (IBNS): Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and his BJP-led coalition government is facing a tough time with state's Health Minister L Jayantakumar Singh resigning from his post, reports said.

Jayantakumar has alleged "interference" by "many" in his ministry.

"I have been trying to build a vision to the portfolios assigned to me. But there has been many interference to my authority and image as a minister," he wrote in his supposed resignation letter which has gone viral the media.

However, Chief Minister N Biren Singh has denied any information about his minister's resignation.

"I don't have any information as of now. May be a game of political rival," he said in a response to NDTV's WhatsApp message.


Surat, Apr 16 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday reached Surat as he commenced his two-day Gujarat visit .

He is participating in a road show in the Gujarat city.

"Live - PM Shri @narendramodi's road show in Surat, Gujarat," the BJP tweeted.

Modi is visiting Surat after his party registered massive victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

He is on a two-day visit to Gujarat.

He reached Gujarat after completing his two-day visit to Odisha to attend the BJP National Executive meeting.

Image: BJP Twitter page
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Tyehimba Jess, College of Staten Island associate professor of English, has won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Poetry in recognition of his work Olio, a volume of original verses published by Wave Books.

Olio, his second collection, was published in April 2016 and was selected as one of the top five poetry books of 2016 by Publisher's Weekly.

The Pulitzer organization called it 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."

A Detroit native, Jess has been working at College of Staten Island for seven years.

"Tyehimba is a great colleague and teacher, too, and we are absolutely thrilled for him," said Lee Papa, chairman of the English Department.

Jess is currently on sabbatical in Chicago, but will be returning to the classroom for the fall 2017 semester.

"As coordinator of the Schwerner Writer's Series, Professor Jess invited emerging and nationally-recognized poets to read to the college community and speak in classes," noted Nan M. Sussman, dean of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Want to discuss this report? Click the comment link near this story's headline to join in the conversation.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- An employee at Target in New Springville was arrested last week alongside a male suspect for allegedly stealing nearly $3,000 from the register over a period of two weeks.

Issa Felder, 34, of Jersey Street in New Brighton faces charges of grand larceny, petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property in connection with a series of alleged incidents, according to court records.

Police said Felder removed cash from the register and handed it to a male defendant on five separate occasions in December.

Terrence Colfield, 30, who has the same address as Felder, also faces charges of grand larceny, petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, police said.

Colfield was a stranger to Felder's employers, according to the criminal complaint.

The pair were caught on video surveillance stealing the cash, police said.

Court records show Felder was released on her own recognizance April 10 by a Richmond County Criminal Court judge. She's due back in court June 12.

Colfield posted the $2,500 bail issued last week by an arraignment judge and is due back in court April 17.

Want to discuss this report? Click the comment link near this story's headline to join in the conversation.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- At local churches across Staten Island, residents dressed in their best spring clothes for mass on Easter Sunday.

Church-goers donned sundresses, sunglasses and sandals, and enjoyed the warm temperatures at Our Lady of Pity R.C. Church in Bulls Head.

Adults would soon start preparing a family dinner while children were excited to talk about their visit and the basket of goodies from the Easter Bunny.

Paul Mormando of Bulls Head and his daughter Alexis, 9, attended mass Sunday morning and planned to go have a family dinner. The Easter Bunny came to the Mormando household this morning to bring her a basket of tasty treats and toys.

"I got a yo-yo, candy and a paddleball," Alexis said.

The Easter Bunny visited Nicholas Colella, Bulls Head, and his 8-year-old daughter Michaela. Colella said they plan to spend the holiday with family.

"I got candy and money," Michaela said. "I got some Starburst, Skittles and Reese's [Peanut Butter Cups]."

Sisters Sienna and Calee Montantine, were playing just outside of the church while waiting for mass to start. Their mother Kimberly Montantine of Bulls Head was keeping a close eye on them.

"We are going to an Easter egg hunt and then go for breakfast," Kimberly Montantine said. "It's a day to spend with the family."

A visit from the fluffy rabbit brought the young sisters a hang-glider toy, Shopkins, candy, bubbles and PJ Masks toys.

Amy Gallagher, Bulls Head, and her daughters, Katie, 13, and Ava, 9, were heading home to spend time with family after going to church.

Ava explained that she got a "jump rope, candy and bath bombs" from the Easter bunny.

Jeanne-Marie Johnson and Baindu Kn from Liberia attended their first Easter mass.

"Today is just a quiet family day for us," Kn said. "We are going to have food at home."

Want to discuss this story? Visit the comment section to join the conversation.


Weston Stewart-Tennes '17 gets the call. Weston Stewart-Tennes '17 gets the call.

Fries First, developed by Weston Stewart-Tennes 17, won the top award of $20,000 in cash and legal services with its forward-looking, sauced-up take on French fries. Halo Venus, conceived by Yuelin He 19 and Danning Ma 17, was second ($10,000 and legal services) for its line of Asian-inspired baked goods and other products. Music Match, run by Ian Carter 19 and Nicholas Henning 19, finished third ($5,000) for its comprehensive services in online private music lessons. The Global Exchange Project of Hadley Haselman 17 captured fourth prize ($2,500) as a social app to help world travelers immerse themselves in local, rural cultures.

The four additional finalists were AuxNation (Zack Jones 18, Noam Kahn 18, Themba Shongwe 18 and Dhruv Singh 18), an app to help DJs crowdsource their playlists in real time; Kind Cultures (Graham Gilmore 18), developing honey-based kombucha products; Melange (Nigel Smith 19 and a partner from Texas A&M), a cross-cultural, race-uniting clothing brand; Zs (Izaak Cohen 20), marketing luxury rolling papers.



Judges Mireya Manigault '09 and Thomas

Caulfield question a presenter. Judges Mireya Manigault '09 and ThomasCaulfield question a presenter.

The eight finalists were selected through a months-long competition that began with 210 business plans reflecting the work of more than 325 students, and included a semifinal round followed by assignment of mentors to help hone the plans.

The final-round judges heard and challenged the entrepreneurs to get a taste of their businessesin some cases, literally. The judges were competition founder Kenneth Freirich 90, president of Health Monitor Network; Sara Arnell 82, senior managing director at the Magrino Agency; Thomas Caulfield, senior VP and GM at Global Foundries Fab 8; Rich Laxer 83, senior VP of GE and chair and CEO of GE Capital; David Luks 96, founding CEO of Honeydrop Beverages; Mireya Manigault 09, co-founder and senior managing partner at Foundation LLC; Rich Wartel 91, founding president of Two Labs Marketing; and Ceci Zak 87, CEO for health care at Omnicom-DAS.



Contest founder Ken Freirich '90 applauds

all the finalists. Contest founder Ken Freirich '90 applaudsall the finalists.

This years competition was the best and most competitive since it began seven years ago, says Freirich. The student entrepreneurs were fantastic and the business plans compelling, and their presentations wowed all of the judges. He adds, Theres nothing more rewarding than watching these amazingly talented and creative students take on the biggest challenges of their lives and succeed. A number of students shared with me that the experience has changed their lives. I was very humbled by that, and I am extremely proud of all the students.



The Freirich contest has been key in helping Skidmore develop a national reputation as a startup incubator. A Forbes ranking of seventh on its 2016 Most Entrepreneurial College List puts Skidmore in the rarefied company of Cooper Union and regional standouts Middlebury and Bennington colleges.
Surat, Apr 16 (IBNS): Participating in a road show in Surat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called the experience 'memorable'.

"Thank you Surat! Your affection & blessings will remain etched in my memory," Modi tweeted.

She said: "Gratitude to all those who joined. Today was memorable!"

Modi commenced his Gujarat visit on Sunday.

Modi is visiting Surat after his party registered massive victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

He reached Gujarat after completing his two-day visit to Odisha to attend the BJP National Executive meeting.

Images: Narendra Modi Twitter page




Srinagar, Apr 16 (IBNS): Suspected militants on Sunday evening shot dead a former militant and pro-government worker in Hajin town of Bandipora north Kashmir.

"Heavily armed militants barged into the house of Rashid Bila in Hajin Village and fired indiscriminately on him resulting in the death of the man," said a police official.

Soon after his killing, police and army have launched massive search operation in the area to nab the suspects.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
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If you can't stand the heat, get out of the hotshop. Anyone who signs on for one of the Canberra Glassworks' Make Your Own sessions to create, with suitable supervision and assistance, a paperweight or tumbler, needs to be aware the temperature in the glass reheating chamber, or glory hole, is about 1200 degrees.

You will be protected by a panel to some extent while you're turning liquid glass at the end of a pipe, but make sure you're wearing long sleeves and as well as the thick gloves and protective eyewear provided (those of us who wear glasses will have to settle for that). It's still pretty warm, even so.

Make Your Own instructor Nick Adams, right, guides Canberra Times reporter Ron Cerabona through the process of making a glass tumbler at Canberra Glassworks. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

I'm not the most dextrous or artistic of individuals but instructor Nick Adams - an established artist in his own right who's sending two works off to a Made in Australia exhibition in Germany later in the year - was patient and calm throughout the process. He kept me from injury or from making a complete fool of myself in front of the observers in the public gallery. In effect, I was assisting Nick throughout the creation of the tumbler; I was hands on but secondary, which is as it should be for an absolute beginner.

It all began simply enough, choosing some crushed coloured glass, or frit, to melt into the surface of the tumbler. I selected light blue, but there are plenty of other possibilities, ranging from subtle to very bright. Nick stuck a rod into the fiery furnace to extract the glass, glowing orange, and we were off.
Vats of fermenting wine grapes actually smell like hot cross buns at one stage of the process, winemaker Frank van de Loo said.

Or perhaps, he admitted, it's just what's on his mind this weekend.

Mount Majura Vineyard winemaker Frank van de Loo. Credit:Jamila Toderas

The sweet, spiced smell of shiraz grapes wafts through the Mount Majura winery shed, as Mr van de Loo plunges the newly-picked deep purple product.

As the growing season draws to an end, he reflected on what he initially estimated to be a season of low-yield.
After years of objecting to Canberra being registered as a national heritage site, saying it would freeze the city in time, Chief Minister Andrew Barr has quietly put forward an alternative proposal.

Proponents of two initial bids to list the capital, made in 2009, have criticised Mr Barr's counter-proposal saying it's reduced scope failed to offer adequate protections.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr: Clubs ACT is a wreckage and a joke. Credit:Jamila Toderas

A decision is due to be made on whether or not National Heritage Listing goes ahead for Canberra by June 30, provided the council does not seek a further extension.

All submissions regarding the nomination are under consideration and will be put forward to the federal environment minister and will run to the same timeline.
Cody Smith is channelling negative emotions into positive change as part of the new leadership team of an advocacy group for trans, non-binary and intersex people.

Tranz Australia runs education sessions to inform the community and increase visibility around gender diversity.

Cody Smith is part of the new leadership team for Tranz Australia, taking over from founder Jenni Atkinson. Credit:Kimberley Le Lievre

The group began as a YouTube channel and then Facebook page, as a way to connect trans people across the country, particularly those who lived in rural or remote areas.

Founder Jenni Atkinson went on to provide education to groups across Canberra, including government departments, schools and community organisations.
Kathmandu, Apr 16 (IBNS): Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari will commence India visit on Monday.

She will continue her visit to the neighbouring nation till Apr 21.

"Rt. Honble Bidya Devi Bhandari, President of Nepal will be visiting India on a State Visit from April 17-21, 2017, at the invitation of President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee," read an MEA statement.

"This is the first State visit of the President of Nepal after assuming office of the President in October 2015. The upcoming visit reflects the priority that both India & Nepal attach to further strengthening of their age-old, unique, wide-ranging partnership, underpinned by shared historical and cultural linkages and strong people-to-people connections," it said.

The statement further said: "During the visit, President of Nepal will meet with the President of India, Vice President and the Prime Minister. The External Affairs Minister and other Ministers will call on the President of Nepal. Apart from official engagements in New Delhi, the President of Nepal will be visiting Gujarat and Odisha. The upcoming visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries, and will further deepen the cordial and cooperative ties that exist between India and Nepal."

Image: Wikimedia Commons


People fly for different reasons but airlines treat them the same, Thomas says. Credit:Peter Rae "It literally did save the industry," the 58-year-old says. After more than 20 years working with the world's biggest airlines, including seeing United through a post-bankruptcy restructure and negotiating a merger between Delta and Northwest, Thomas returned to Australia in September last year to run the day-to-day operations of Australia's No.2 airline  a move that has sparked strong speculation he will succeed John Borghetti at the top of the business. "What I saw here was a huge opportunity," says Thomas, who got his pilots licence at age 17 and still occasionally flys. "Virgin Australia is an incredible brand, it's got incredible assets, so how then do you take it to the next level of making it a much more profitable airline?"

Virgin Australia is an incredible brand, it's got incredible assets, so how then do you take it to the next level of making it a much more profitable airline? John Thomas Thomas' appointment as the group executive has freed up Borghetti to focus on Virgin's partnerships, especially with Chinese carriers HNA and Nanshan, which each own 20 per cent of the airline. The two Johns have known each other since 1991 when Borghetti worked for Qantas and Thomas was advising on its merger with Australian Airlines. "John has worked for me on a number of assignments over the years and I have always loved his energy and enthusiasm for the industry," says Borghetti of his new right-hand man. Virgin ran at a $244 million loss last financial year and posted a $21.5 million loss for the six months to December, dragged down by investment in a three-year restructure, soft demand and strong international competition.

This tough environment has dragged Virgin's share price to equal its lowest ever point at 19 cents a share. This has happened even as Qantas has kicked upwards. Over the past three years Qantas shares are up 10.3 per cent against a broadly flat performance from the ASX top 200. Virgin at the same time has declined 63.46 per cent. The soft half-year result prompted a dip in the price but beat some analysts' forecasts. Macquarie analysts cheered an unexpectedly good performance in Virgin's international operations, which swung to a small underlying profit. Thomas says he is applying to Virgin one the biggest lessons from his work in the US: that airlines can't turn a profit just selling tickets. They need to squeeze revenue out of customers in other ways. The "ancillary revenue" cash stream Thomas pried open now earns $12 billion for the US airline industry a year. But he's quick to paint it as a way to give passengers more choice, rather than for airlines to gouge customers.

About three-quarters of ancillary revenue in the US comes from "enhancements", such as extra leg room, priority security screening and lounge access, while only a quarter comes from "takeaways" such as bag charges, he says. Thomas has started making moves to "extract the right economics" from Virgin passengers, last month revealing a new class called Economy X, which will be rolled out on all 75 of its Boeing 737 workhorses. For $29, passengers will get more leg room, reserved overhead baggage storage and priority boarding. Thomas was behind a similar product on JetBlue, a US carrier about the same size as Virgin. Those seats generated $US228 million ($300 million) in revenue for JetBlue in 2015. "If you look at the economy cabin there's probably 15 different segments of people  young couples, honeymooners, retirees, families with kids, singles, corporates," he says.

"They're all flying for very different reasons but the airline industry historically has said, 'well, because you're flying in economy, we're going to treat you all the same'." Virgin will next month trial on-board Wi-Fi and recently surveyed customers on how much they would pay to use it. Thomas also wants to ramp-up other money makers, such as package holiday deals. "If you actually realise what people want and actually give it to them, they're actually willing to pay you more for it," he says. Facing external headwinds, Thomas says Virgin has moved sensibly by cutting underperforming routes domestically and shifting its international network away from Europe and the Middle East and towards North America and the lucrative China market, with flights starting to Hong Kong in July. Investment in a new business class product is winning premium fares, he says, somewhat off-setting softer yields in the back of the plane while a savings drive - including a 10 per cent cut to management jobs - is on track.
United Continental Holdings has changed its policy on employee travel and will now ensure crews riding on its aircraft as passengers are booked at least 60 minutes before departure, according to a statement from the company.

The change, issued on Friday, came after the backlash created by a video showing a United passenger being pulled from his seat and dragged down the aisle after refusing to leave an April 9 flight to make room for an airline employee.

The passenger, David Dao, suffered a concussion, a broken nose and two lost teeth, according to one of his lawyers on Thursday. Attorney Thomas Demetrio said Dr Dao would "probably" sue.

A hearing scheduled on Monday was cancelled after United and the city of Chicago agreed to Dr Dao's request to preserve and protect evidence, Mr Demetrio's office said on Saturday. A filing last week asked a judge to require the airline and city to preserve surveillance videos, crew lists and other information.
Gaming giant Ladbrokes Coral has painted a rosy view of the prospects for its Australian business brushing off concerns about looming new taxes.

In an earnings call with analysts late in March the company's chief executive James Mullen was extremely positive when reflecting on the performance of the Northern Territory-based Australian division.

"In Australia, we continue to knock it out of the park, staking up 68 per cent, with net revenue up 67 per cent," he said.

The company has hotly opposed a South Australia proposal to tax betting at the "point of consumption" rather than the location of the betting agency. Online bookies have based themselves in the Northern Territory to avoid state-based taxes.
Rio Tinto's Simandou mine nightmare has taken a colourful twist, with the mining giant dragged into a $10 billion court brawl between Israeli magnate Beny Steinmetz and fellow billionaire and hedge fund legend George Soros.

Companies associated with Mr Seinmetz, known as BSG Resources, lodged a lawsuit in America on Friday claiming that Mr Soros and his "minions" had caused the Guinea government to revoke valuable mining licences and then mounted a global reputation-damaging campaign.

The motivation, the claim says, was an antipathy between Mr Soros and Mr Steinmetz stretching back to a Russian deal that went wrong in the 1990s and Mr Soros' alleged hostility towards Israel.

In the court documents, BSG claims Rio Tinto was party to secret meetings with Mr Soros and the Guinea government, that its staff were part of a law firm's investigation that contributed to BSG being stripped of a valuable mining licence and that a former high-ranking Rio Tinto staffer was part of alleged global conspiracy to have Mr Steinmetz criminally investigated.
After being diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, former police officer Adam Watts applied for 250 jobs after his workers compensation insurer told him he could get a job as a librarian.

He is still unemployed five years after being medically discharged from the NSW Police Force and after his insurer assessed him as "employable".

"I applied for nearly 250 jobs and it is impossible to get a job," he said.

Metlife Insurance rejected his claim for total and permanent disablement. A psychiatrist for the insurance company considered Mr Watts was not fit to return to the police force, but could be suitable for clerical or librarian work.
Before the federal government, or anyone else for that matter, gets too excited about the prospects of an airport link to Tullamarine as part of an overdue $1 billion infrastructure refund to Victorians, there's a far more humble figure that we need to consider. Seven dollars and ninety-six cents, to be precise.

The significance of this relatively meagre sum hasn't featured in the long-winded debate over the airport link but it should, because it represents a key factor in whether a Melbourne link will ever be built and, if so, whether it will ever attract the anticipated patronage.

Sydney's airport rail line is held up as a template for Melbourne and although Kingsford Smith is much closer to the city centre it shares with Tullamarine a critical characteristic: both are operated under 99-year leases from the federal government and their operators have the final say on what gets built on the land they control.

That's why it costs train commuters almost $8 to travel the one extra stop  less than 90 seconds of train time  from Mascot station, located outside Sydney airport, to the domestic terminal station located on the airport site.
Whatever solution the government offers to Australia's housing affordability problem, the Coalition will make its task harder by searching for one without obvious losers.

With good reason, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull moved to end debate over an idea to open up superannuation for young home buyers, a proposal that has divided his senior ministers and drawn raised eyebrows from economists.

Treasurer Scott Morrison raised the idea as the government casts about with growing urgency for a coherent housing policy to rival Labor's promise to reform negative gearing.

It's a policy hole that needs filling. As investors surge back into the housing market, the government is at pains to offer voters a solution fast.
The iconic image of the Christian cross tends to feature a central vertical beam transected by a perpendicular beam about a third of the way down. This version of the cross is visible everywhere from emoji (which include both the two-beam Latin cross and the Orthodox cross, also known as the Suppedaneum cross, which has another bar near the bottom) to roadside memorials and, of course, church steeples.

The head of the Sydney Catholic diocese has told parents there will not be "a need for a massive increase in fees in the future", revising his earlier warnings of a potential $5000 hike. Credit:Fairfax Media

Christians worldwide are commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus in Good Friday worship services, followed by celebration of his resurrection on Easter Sunday. But as often as the cross appears in Christian artwork and Western culture at large, misunderstandings and myths persist as to its history, origins and image. Here are five of the most stubborn misconceptions about Christianity's most prominent symbol.

But the actual crosses Romans used for executions probably took a different shape. The Greek and Latin words for "cross" - "stauros" and "crux" - do not necessarily describe what most people imagine as a cross. They refer to an upright stake upon which the condemned could be bound with hands above their heads.Most historians surmise that Jesus' cross was more likely to have been T-shaped, with the vertical element notched to allow executioners to tie the victim to the crossbeam, then raise it and set it securely into the top. The Tau cross, named for its resemblance to the Greek letter tau, has been adopted over time by various Christian orders and sects, and probably bears a stronger resemblance to the object upon which Jesus died on than those crosses more commonly depicted in Christian art.

Myth No. 2

Jesus was fixed to the cross by nails in his hands and feet.

Nearly every depiction of Jesus' crucifixion - including masterpieces such as Sandro Botticelli's "Mystic Crucifixion" and Diego Velazquez' "Christ Crucified" - shows Him attached to the cross by nails through his palms and his feet.

The New Testament Gospels do not, however, directly say Jesus was nailed to the cross. In fact, the only reference to such nails in the Gospels comes from the book of John and the story of doubting Thomas, who asks to see the marks of the nails in Jesus' hands to confirm that he is really encountering the resurrected Christ (John 20:25). The tradition that Jesus was nailed to the cross may also derive from the passage in some translations of Psalm 21:16 that says, "They pierce my hands and feet".
Let me rise in defence of public broadcasting, not an unqualified defence to be sure but resistance to the idea that public service broadcasting represents a luxury the country can ill afford.

Let's also confront the misuse to which endless debate about public broadcasting's alleged bias has become a weapon in this country's culture wars to no one's benefit least of all consumers.

ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie. Credit:Andrew Meares

Bias exists, of course, but criticism tends more often than not to reside in the eye of the beholder. We'll return to this.

If it is any comfort to managers at our own public broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, they are far from alone among their counterparts worldwide in finding themselves under siege from the ideologically motivated or those with commercial interests at stake.
The debate about how so many Australians are missing out on home ownership assumes a century old definition of the home. A hundred years ago there were 5.3 people on average per home. Today the average Australian home size has doubled in size yet the average number of people per house has halved to 2.6 people per house. In effect, Australians are living in houses with four times the area of their predecessors. This is not sustainable as house prices escalate.



We need another model for how we live that can be afforded by most people and I believe this is a blended model of owning the core bits of a home and renting the extra amenities when you need them. Many people in Sydney, and other Australian cities, are already living the reality of the new version of home ownership. The new mode is apartment living where you own your piece of the total but pay a fee to access, or rent, the add ons. So instead of having your own swimming pool you can access a shared pool. The same applies to lifts and lobbies and stairs and gymnasiums or the local restaurant or coffee shop.



Sydney now has around 35 per cent of its population living in apartments in a shared ownership and rental model. We are moving to a 50:50 city with half the population in homes and half in apartments with smaller, cheaper living spaces but where they buy the extra services they need when required. At the One Central Park apartment complex on Broadway, for example, residents are able to choose their own type of car from a GoGet pool when they need one. They also have a shared park, shared health centre, shared supermarket, and universities just next door. Their home ownership is a relatively small apartment but all the other amenities are on hand when needed.



Collaborative economy expert Rachel Botsman has written about the swing from hyper-consumption where a family must own everything including three cars and a swimming pool to co-operative consumption where a family shares the park or the swimming pool. Botsman explains that the average amount of time an electric drill is used by a family in a year is nine minutes. Why own one? Surely it is better to hire one when you need it. The same model makes sense for car-sharing services like Uber when compared to car ownership with minimal use. Similarly, Airbnb shares housing more effectively. The number of empty bedrooms across Sydney must be enormous as proud home owners collect extra rooms.



The current discussion at all levels of politics about housing affordability needs to ask a serious question. Are we living beyond our means in aspiring to a mini castle for all families? The major cities of the world are dominated by apartment dwellers in smaller homes but they share amenities around them. Sydney is moving into the London, New York city scale of an 8 million-people city and what must come with this is a more co-operative way of living. We must move the debate in Sydney about falling home ownership away from old world thinking that we all need our own "castle" to a more co-operative way of living where we own a small home and share all the amenities we aspire to with our neighbours.

Chris Johnson is the chief executive of Urban Taskforce.
Kolkata, Apr 16 (IBNS): A local leader of Trinamool Congress (TMC) was shot dead by few unidentified miscreants at Bagula village under Hanskhali development block area in West Bengal's Nadia district on Sunday night, reports said.

According to reports, few men armed with guns entered a TMC party office, where TMC's Hanskhali block president and head of Bagula-I Gram Panchayat- Dulal Biswas- was holding meeting with his party activists, at around 9 pm. and fired at least nine bullets aiming at him.

Dulal Biswas was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead.

A heavy police force have been deployed in the area and Nadia district police have started investigation into the matter while none has been arrested in connection with the incident so far.

Local leaders of TMC claimed that BJP-sheltered miscreants committed the crime, while BJP state president Dilip Ghosh denied his party's involvement in the case.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
Donated blood from a man who ate pork in France has infected a six-year-old boy with a form of hepatitis that is rare in Australia.

It is the first confirmed case of the hepatitis E virus being transferred through blood donated in Australia.

A preliminary study has revealed HEV was present at a rate of about 1 in 14,799 Australian donations. Credit:Domino Postiglione

Hepatitis E, also known as HEV, has been known to cause cirrhosis, or permanent liver damage in liver transplant patients.

Most people recover within six weeks, and many won't have any symptoms, but HEV can be severe for pregnant women and people with pre-existing liver conditions or compromised immune systems.
Thousands of patients are being exposed to potentially fatal superbugs because their doctors and other hospital staff are not washing their hands, new data shows.



An audit of hand washing at 940 public and private hospitals in October found workers were not using alcohol-based hand rub on 16 per cent of the occasions they should be.



Doctors were one of the worst performing groups, along with cleaning and food staff and personal care attendants.

Of 7576 instances when doctors were meant to wash their hands before conducting a procedure, they did so on 6154 occasions or 81 per cent of the time.

They performed similarly after procedures. Despite being potentially exposed to body fluids, doctors washed their hands 80 per cent of the time, putting them at risk of carrying bacteria around the hospital. Their compliance rate taking in all types of occasion on which hands should be washed was 73 per cent.

The worst performing staff by area were in emergency departments.
Catacombs similar to ancient tombs beneath Paris or Rome may provide an additional 7000 burial spaces at the Eastern Suburbs cemetery in Matraville.

They would add burial spaces that could be used and reused for centuries to cater for NSW's growing population.

Catacombs in Paris. Credit:Arnaud Chicurel

Chief executive of the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park Graham Boyd confirmed last week that the cemetery had been investigating the feasibility of building Australia's first catacombs.

The early-stage concept proposes a structure resembling a multi-storey carpark, which would provide as many as 4000 graves providing double internments.
A man has been arrested and charged following a violent brawl in Sydney's CBD early on Sunday.

Two teenagers - a man and a woman - were also arrested.

Police were called to Pitt Street about 4am, following reports of two assaults, to find more than 20 men and women fighting outside a convenience store.

A fight reportedly began inside the Arthouse Hotel, which left a man unconscious with serious head injuries, Channel Nine reported.
Christian worshippers have turned out in droves to mark Easter Sunday in Brisbane, as religious leaders urge them to stave off fear and absorb the hopeful message of the resurrection.

Followers were forced to stand at the entrance and line the walls of St Stephen's cathedral for Sunday morning's solemn mass, as the sound of choral music echoed in the packed church.

Large crowds have turned out for Easter services in Brisbane including the midnight service at South Brisbane's St George Greek Orthodox Church. Credit:Rory O'Chee

A hoarse Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge apologised in advance for the less pleasant sound of "a few croaked hallelujahs" on his part.

"But nothing can quench the joy of this day ... Jesus Christ has risen from the dead," he told the congregation.
Celebrity chef Adrian Richardson has reimbursed several disgruntled staff at his Carlton North restaurant, La Luna Bistro, after failing to pay correct entitlements including weekend penalty rates.

The star of Ten's Good Chef Bad Chef is the latest high-profile restaurateur to run foul of Fair Work laws, after George Calombaris recently repaid $2.6 million to more than 160 staff, while Ronnie Di Stasio was forced to pay $35,000 to six foreign workers found to have been exploited at Cafe Di Stasio in St Kilda.

Adrian Richardson is at the centre of the penalties shortfall. Credit:Gary Medlicott

ACTU president Ged Kearney said underpayment was so pervasive in the hospitality and retail sectors that it had become a business model for many employers.

Fairfax Media has been told one La Luna employee was repaid up to $10,000, after she was routinely denied basic entitlements. But the reimbursement was conditional on the woman signing a non-disclosure contract in an apparent bid to avoid negative publicity.
St Patrick's Cathedral was a cultural melting pot of colour and diversity as hundreds of people poured through the wrought iron gates for its Easter Sunday morning service.

As the cathedral bells pealed, sunlight peaked through the more than 150-year-old stained-glass windows and a mother helped her young daughter light candles at the rear of the bluestone church.

The Easter service at St Eustathios Greek Orthodox Church in South Melbourne. Bishop Lakoros of Miletoupolis and Bishop Ezekiel of Dervis handing out red Easter eggs at the end of the service. Credit:Justin McManus

Frank McDonnell, 85, travelled more than 700 kilometres from Adelaide to attend the service with his family.

His faith has dwindled over the years but he has always returned to it.
An 18-year-old man has been flown to hospital after a suspected assault at a fast-food outlet in the state's south-east.

A friend of the Inverloch man found him unconscious in the bathroom of the South Gippsland Highway McDonald's in Leongatha in the early hours of Sunday.

Ambulance Victoria spokesman John Mullen said the man had sustained head and facial injuries.

He was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition, Mr Mullen said.
New York, Apr 16 (Just Earth News): Expressing ahorrora at the attack on civilians evacuating from the besieged Syrian towns of Foah and Kefraya, the United Nations humanitarian chief has called on all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligations under international law and protect civilians.

The perpetrators of such a monstrous and cowardly attack displayed a shameless disregard for human life, Stephen O'Brien, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said in a statement.

International humanitarian law is very clear: warring parties must protect civilians and distinguish between military and civilian targets, he underscored.

Some 5,000 people were travelling from the two towns to Government-controlled areas when an explosion occurred near their convoy as it passed Rasheedin, western Aleppo, yesterday. Scores of people have been killed and many injured.

In the aftermath of the attack, humanitarian organizations, including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and UN partners, are providing assistance to the injured, including transferring them to hospitals.

The evacuation from Foah and Kefraya was a part of an agreement, popularly referred to as the Four Towns Agreement meant to facilitate humanitarian access to the people in need in those besieged towns. In addition to these two places in Idlib, the Agreement also includes Madaya and Zabadani in rural Damascus.

In the statement, the UN humanitarian chief further noted that while the UN was not involved in the agreement or evacuation process, it stands ready to scale up its support to evacuees.

In that regard, I call on all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, and to facilitate safe and unimpeded access for the UN and its partners to bring life-saving help to those in need, he said.

Also in the statement, O'Brien, who is also the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, expressed his deepest sympathies to the families of those killed and injured.

UN Photo/Loey Felipe

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Police have mounted a search of Port Phillip Bay after an unmanned kayak was found in the water on Sunday night.

The kayak was located anchored and partially submerged approximately 150 metres off Sandridge Beach in Port Melbourne about 5.20pm on Easter Sunday.

Water police, the air wing, local police, SES personnel and the coast guard were involved in the search which failed to locate the owner of the kayak.

Police are now appealing for public assistance, releasing images of the camouflage-printed kayak in a bid to identify the missing owner.
Protesters climb a damaged tank in Ankara after the failed July 2016 coup. Credit:New York Times The economy is struggling. Nearly one in four young Turks is out of work - the highest percentage since the peak of the financial crisis in early 2009. And beyond Turkey's southern border, Erdogan has dwindling influence on shaping the outcome of the Syrian civil war, should it finally be settled. His favoured Syrian proxies have failed to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Kurdish militias - whom Erdogan sees as terrorists - have established autonomous statelets in two parts of northern Syria, with the implicit backing of the United States and Russia. A family hurries to board a truck bound for shelter for Syrian Kurdish refugees in Yumurtalik, Turkey, in September 2014. Turkey is refuge to more Syrian refugees than any other country. Credit:New York Times The Syrian war has also spilled over into Turkey, where more Syrian refugees - around 3 million - have sought shelter than in any other country.

Turkey has its own internal battles, too. Islamic State and Kurdish nationalists are waging separate terrorist campaigns on Turkish soil. The crushing of a recent Kurdish uprising in south-east Turkey left the centres of several majority-Kurdish cities in worse condition than some Syrian ones and displaced as many as a half million people. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: argues only greater powers for the presidency can solve Turkey's crises. Credit:New York Times Adding to this mess, Erdogan has a toxic relationship with Europe, accusing countries like the Netherlands and Germany of Nazism after they barred his surrogates from holding referendum rallies for expatriate Turks on their territory. "I don't remember an era in the recent decades and scores of years in which Turkey was isolated to this extent," said Yakis, 78. "I don't remember periods where Turkish public opinion was as divided." Residents listen to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speak at a rally in the provincial northern city of Kastamonu on March 22. To his admirers, Erdogan is still someone who provides more stability than division. Credit:New York Times

To Erdogan, the answer to all these challenges is the expansion of his mandate. For now, he is by law, although not in practice, an impartial head of state who lacks full executive authority. The new system would allow him both to lead his own party and to formally hold full executive power - power that he has informally exercised since moving from prime minister to president in 2014, despite not having the constitutional right to do so. Asli Erdogan, no relation to Turkey's president at her publisher's office in Istanbul in February, just after she was released from prison. She was jailed as part of the latest crackdown on dissidents. Credit:The New York Times If enough Turks vote for the constitutional changes - and some polls suggest they might, after prolonged intimidation of the "no" vote - whoever wins presidential elections in 2019 will gain expansive new powers. The post of prime minister would be scrapped, giving only the president the power to form a government while reducing the ability of other institutions to scrutinise his decisions. The president would be limited to two five-year terms, with the option of running for a third term if Parliament truncated the second one by calling for early elections.

The Turkish presidential complex, officially opened in 2014, has given concrete form to fears of an Erdogan power grab. Credit:New York Times "The referendum reorganises the fundamentals of the state," said Ertugrul Yalcinbayir, who served alongside Yakis as deputy prime minister in the AKP's first cabinet and who is campaigning against expansion of the president's powers. Under the new system, the president would have the power to issue decrees, appoint a vast array of top officials and set the national budget, all with limited oversight. Preet Bharara, the former US attorney for the Southern District of New York, is one of several prominent Americans being investigated by a Turkish prosecutor over his alleged role in the July 2016 coup attempt. Credit:New York Times Under the proposal, the president would appoint 12 of the 15 judges on the constitutional court, the body with the ultimate authority to scrutinise the legality of his decrees. He would appoint six of the 13 members of the country's higher judicial authority, which oversees the appointment of Turkey's 14,000 judges and prosecutors. Three of the rest would be selected by parliament, making it likely that he and his party would appoint most of the members of the two most important judicial bodies in the land.

"Checks and balances will be extraordinarily weak and difficult to apply," Yalcinbayir said. Supporters of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party watching television to monitor election results in June 2015. Credit:AP One amendment would even allow the president to order disciplinary inquiries into any of Turkey's 3.5 million civil servants, said Metin Feyzioglu, the head of the Turkish bar association. This means that the local branch of the president's political party "in a particular town would have de facto power over the public servants in that town", Feyzioglu said. "It leads to a total party state." Erdogan's supporters see things differently. They highlight how the new constitution would abolish army courts, further diminishing the influence of the military, which has ousted four elected governments in less than 60 years. The constitution would also give the opposition the power to override the president's decrees with its own legislation and to call for early presidential and parliamentary elections - as long as opposition parties managed to win a majority in parliament.

But even if they could not, the prospect of an all-powerful Erdogan presidency is still palatable to many Turks. "If it is going to give him more power," said Merve Kavakci, a political scientist who supports Erdogan, "and if it is what the Turkish people want, so be it." Under Erdogan, Turkey's economy was, for a time, one of the world's fastest-growing. He upgraded infrastructure, built roads and bridges and improved health care and social services. A stronger presidency might allow him to accelerate this progress, his supporters say. "He's a doer," said Kavakci, a former lawmaker who lectures at Uskudar University in Istanbul. "Things will get done in an easier way." Could a "yes" vote also calm a chaotic Turkey? Nasuhi Gungor, a confidant of the president and a former head of news at Turkish state broadcaster TRT, thinks so.

Once clear of the divisive referendum campaign, political discourse might become more measured, Gungor said. The president might seek a fresh rapprochement with the Kurds. "Turkey will relax after April 16," he said. Kavakci, a former MP who was shouted out of parliament in 1999 when she arrived wearing a headscarf, even asserts that an expanded Erdogan presidency would make Turkey "more pluralistic" and "more democratic". Erdogan has brought dignity to veiled Turkish women by gradually rescinding the laws that barred them from state university campuses and jobs in the civil service. For this section of society, Erdogan represents the protection rather than an erosion of democratic values. He provides a buffer for those previously sidelined by the Kemalist hierarchy, the nationalist, largely monocultural and staunchly secular elite, named after Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, that ruled Turkey for much of the 20th century. But in a sign of Turkey's deep divisions, some members of other marginalised groups fear that Erdogan and his party care only for their conservative base. "In 2002, AKP promised a change in Turkey," said Abdullah Demirbas, a former mayor of Sur, an ancient Kurdish district destroyed during Kurdish uprisings last year. "They said they're bringing democracy not only for themselves but for all the other aggrieved groups in Turkey, which gave hope to the masses: Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, democrats, liberals, intellectuals, writers, socialists - all the victims of the old regime."

In reality, Demirbas argued, "they just did all this to consolidate their own power. Kemalism has gone, and in its place has come Green Kemalism," a reference to the colour commonly associated with Islam. Nevertheless, few think Erdogan would use a referendum victory to establish a religious state. He has spoken in the past of seeking to create a new generation of pious youths, has already significantly increased the number of religious schools and, this week, questioned the piety of those who would vote "no" on Sunday. But despite the departure of figures like Yakis, the AKP still bears little resemblance to most Islamist parties in the region. Unlike the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing in Egypt, for example, its MPs include women who do not wear headscarves, politicians who have never called for sharia to be the law of the land and others who portray themselves as conservatives rather than Islamists. "There are, in the inner court of the AK Party, those who think that Turkey has to turn away from the West and embrace Middle Eastern countries," Yakis said. "But in the long run, I don't think that it's possible" because enough of the electorate would not stand for it, he added.
Washington: Robert Taylor, whose ideas for using computers as communication devices were considered visionary, and who fostered several major advances that contributed to the development of the internet and personal computers, died on April 13 at his home in Woodside, California. He was 85.

He had Parkinson's disease, said a son, Kurt Taylor.

Robert Taylor at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in California. Credit:Palo Alto Research Center

Taylor was not strictly an inventor, but as a research director at federal agencies and private research centres he had a knack for finding the right people and ideas to make the digital revolution possible. In the 1960s and 1970s, he had a direct effect on the invention of the computer mouse, the personal computer and the internet itself.

"We have this cult of the inventor," Marc Weber, an internet historian at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, said on Saturday. "We don't talk much about the people who make it happen. It's just as rare to have that talent."
Ethiopian Coptic Christian women pray at St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo on Easter Eve. Credit:AP A week before the Tanta church was bombed, authorities had found and defused another explosive at the church. On Wednesday, St Michael's Church in Cairo was evacuated after three bombs were discovered inside. The same day, Egyptian authorities claimed to have foiled an attack on a Coptic monastery to the south in Assiut. But the attacks seem to have galvanised, rather than scared off, many of Egypt's Christians. About 3000 people filled St Mark's Cathedral and the adjoining chapel Saturday for the service known as the Great Vigil. Church regulars said the crowd at the chapel appeared even larger than usual, with people spilling out into the stone courtyard. They pointed out all the repairs since the December blast: New carved wooden doors, windows and shimmering lights. A man sits on a bench outside a church after a bomb attack in the Nile Delta town of Tanta on Palm Sunday. Credit:AP In the chapel courtyard, a blood stain on a wall has been preserved under glass, and a memorial erected in honour of the victims.

Priests processed into the chapel with a coterie of deacons in white vestments, chanting in the ancient Coptic language and holding golden crosses aloft, including one still scarred by the explosion. A member of the Iraqi federal police lights a candle inside a church burned and destroyed by Islamic State during their occupation of the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh. Credit:Getty Images Holding the damaged cross and leading the procession was Emad Tawil, 53, who survived the December 11 bombing but lost his wife and 19-year-old daughter. His wife had grown up attending the Tanta church, which Tawil's grandfather helped build. So the day of the Palm Sunday bombing, he and his son travelled north from Cairo, unafraid, to meet and support fellow victims in Tanta. A massive funeral at the church that night drew thousands, as did the funeral the next day in Alexandria. The ransacked sanctuary at St George's church in Qaraqosh, Iraq. Credit:New York Times

"Everyone was asking what we should do. We have to have faith," said son Peter Tawil, 21, who joined his father at the front of the chapel for Easter prayers. In the wake of the Palm Sunday bombings, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency. An Egyptian Coptic Christian woman attends the Easter Eve service at St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo. Credit:AP Sisi styles himself as a staunch defender of Copts, who account for one-tenth of the country's 92 million people and who openly rejoiced when he came to power in 2013. Yet Copts have had little to celebrate under Sisi and find themselves still vulnerable to prejudice, violence and the vagaries of a system in which impunity is rife.

Joseph Malak, a lawyer representing families of victims in a bombing at another Alexandria church six years ago, said a court order he won in October required the Interior Ministry to provide an update on the investigation. He has received nothing. To people like William Frances, who lost his mother, his sister and a cousin in the 2011 bombing, the latest attack was a reminder of how little has changed. "Another president, another regime - it's all the same," he said. Many Coptic clerics are careful of engaging in public debate. Asked what was driving the IS attacks, a spokesman at the monastery of St Mina, an hour's drive from Alexandria, chuckled dryly. "I don't know," he said. "Ask them." "Everyone thought the bomb attacks would stop. It's happening here and in Sinai and Minya and the police don't do anything," said Shanuda Roshdy, 34, who brought his four-year-old daughter to Holy Week services, scanning the crowd outside the chapel for possible terrorists. "We don't trust Egypt." Roshdy's mother-in-law was killed in the December attack, and his daughter still asks for her daily. He plans to emigrate to Australia or Canada to protect her.

"Every moment we are at risk," he said. It was a sentiment shared by many Assyrian Christians in northern Iraq, forced from their towns two years ago by IS and unwilling to return now that they have been freed by Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition. Tens of thousands of the displaced have moved overseas, or to temporary camps like a trailer park about 80 kilometres east of Mosul in Erbil. There, Suad Rahim was making "klecha" holiday cookies last week with her three daughters, stuffing them with dried coconut and chopped walnuts. Chased from their Christian town of Qaraqosh two years ago by militants who burned their home and church, they were unwilling to return. Electricity and water have yet to be restored. Shops remain gutted. Only a handful of families have moved back, and the city is policed by militias. She recognised some of the officers as former IS militants. "It's not safe," said Rahim, 50. "We don't know who is who." In the city of Homs in Syria, Christians who dared to return marched on Good Friday past bullet-riddled shopfronts and bombed-out apartments. Clergymen carried a small coffin of flowers, a symbol of the death of Christ, past a coterie of soldiers and militiamen toting AK-47s, guards against suicide bombers and other attacks. Only about 50,000 of the 300,000 Christians who once filled Homs' Old City have returned.

In Jordan, the country's 2 per cent Christian minority marked Holy Week with subdued celebrations. Like Egypt, Jordan is overwhelmingly Sunni, and is thought to have significant numbers of IS supporters. "Today the church attendance was less than usual, two-thirds of what we expected," said Revered Canon Faeq Haddad at Amman's Arab Evangelical church, where congregation members called to say they were too afraid to attend Good Friday services. Haddad gestured to the outside of the church, where a gaggle of officers was stationed beside a police SUV. "Fear is part of life, but our job is not to reinforce this feeling. You go to an airport and there's security. Do you stop flying because of it? No. Do you stop going to church because of security posted outside? No," he said. He insisted that Christians were staying put, no matter the threat.

"These nations without the Christians will be ruined, because we are not just the salt of the earth that flavours, but we're also the candle that provides light," he said. Some worshippers in Cairo wore black out of respect to those recently killed, and planned to stay home Sunday to honour them. One worshipper at the chapel service, Vivian Aziz Shehata Shenoudah, 58, said she had prayed for those who have targeted Christians. "We don't need them to love us, to like us, just to leave us in peace," she said. She left the Mass wearing her matching gold cross necklaces but also a head scarf. It's a habit she developed during the last year, after being harassed on the street for being Christian. She wasn't hopeful about the state of emergency.
Powerpedia Forms Nonprofit and partners with Corazon De Vida

Powerpedia, a San Diego-based renewable energy consultancy has announced the formation of the nonprofit organization GetChargedUp to facilitate a multi-year commitment of providing free solar systems to orphanages throughout Baja Mexico and beyond, under its flagship program EmpowerOrphans.

"I recently had a chance to spend the day with children and volunteers at the Rancho de Los Ninos orphanage in Baja, Mexico and it was an extraordinary experience for me," said Faisal El Azzouzi, Principal at Powerpedia and founder of GetChargedUp. "It is truly humbling to see the hard work put forth by the staff and the passion of the volunteers at the orphanage. Nearly 70 children live there, and they deserve all the help we can give. We couldn't be happier to contribute with clean electricity and high-tech education to take care of some of their basic needs today, and help prepare them for a better tomorrow."

GetChargedUp maintains two goals as their core mission. The first goal is to provide clean electricity to orphanages through solar system installations, and the second is to teach coding and meditation by equipping computer labs and teaching innovative and skill building curriculums.

The first project donation by GetChargedUp is a 10 Kilowatt solar electric system that will provide the Rancho De Los Ninos Orphanage with much needed savings over the projected 25+ year lifetime of the system.

"Having solar power is a wonderful gift," says George Perez who is a Board Member of Corazon De Vida, which provides monthly financial support for its orphanages. "This means the directors of Rancho de Los Ninos can redeploy the money they are saving for food, medical help, water bills, and most importantly towards education so that the children can be prepared for their future."

GetChargedUp is also receiving free services from cThru Media to promote the support of the orphanages needing assistance as well as pointing donors to a crowd funding site via http://GetChargedUp.net. Companies and individuals looking to support children struggling in orphanages are encouraged to visit the website and make a donation.

"We are grateful to GET CHARGED UP for helping the children of Rancho de Los Ninos," added George Perez. "Taking care of basic needs is our most difficult challenge as we help more than 400 children in 10 different orphanages."

About Corazon De Vida

The Corazon De Vida Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) organization (http://corazondevida.org) providing life changing support for orphaned and abandoned children in Baja, Mexico. The foundation's mission is to end child abandonment by breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. Corazon De Vida is located in Irvine, California and currently provides support to nearly a dozen orphanages in Mexico.

About Organizations Helping

Get Charged Up is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (http://getchargedup.net) created to support disadvantage children by unlocking access to energy and education. Its first project is to support orphanages in Baja, Mexico through the donations of solar systems, technology, and education. GET CHARGED UP is located in San Diego, California.

San Diego, California-based Powerpedia (http://powerpedia.com) is a smart grid and renewable energy full service consultancy that serves leading businesses, investors, government, and not-for-profit organizations.
Up to $240,000 in scholarships to 24 rising college students of Thai ancestry

In an inspiring effort to provide financial assistance for Thai high schoolers in the greater Los Angeles area, the Angels Wings Foundation is awarding up to $240,000 in scholarships to 24 rising college students of Thai ancestry from Los Angeles County.

The new scholarship underscores Angels Wings Founder Porntip Bui Simon's unwavering belief in the power of education.

The Angels Wings Thai Scholarship is a new initiative intended to recognize and honor Thai-American students who have demonstrated academic excellence, concern for their Thai community, and connection and desire to continue their education.

Angels Wings Foundation (AWF) has a proud history of funding schools, orphanages, supplying healthcare, and supporting various social services to benefit underprivileged children in Thailand. With outreach efforts expanding to serve Thai youth outside of the country, AWF is launching the inaugural Angels Wings Thai Scholarship of Los Angeles.

The overarching vision for the scholarship initiative is to open doors for Thai students to experience higher education, and create a nationwide network of Thai youth scholars.

Founder, Porntip Bui Simon, believes the scholars will thrive when given the chance to further develop their relationships with their Thai community and hopes to instill a greater sense of pride and commitment to Thailand and its people. The Royal Thai Consul General of Los Angeles states, "One of the Consulate's continuing goals is to prepare for the future of the Thai-American community. Supporting of young Thai-Americans is a most effective way in fulfilling that commitment."

Porntip Bui Simon said "Having grown up in Southern California, I have personally been inspired by the enriching Thai community. Now that my children are becoming more independent, I am thrilled to have the privilege of time to invest in our local Thai youth, and encourage their Thai pride, while continuing to support my beloved country of Thailand."

The AWF Scholarship Committee will select a total of 24 undergraduate students to receive up to $240,000 in 2017 college scholarships. Awardees will receive $5,000 towards education expenses to attend trade school or city/community colleges or a $10,000 scholarship to students attending a university.

The AWF Scholarship Committee is comprised of representatives from the Angels Wings Foundation and the Royal Thai Consulate of Los Angeles. Applicants will be evaluated and selected based on a combination of their academic promise, high school performance, and essay response.

About Angels Wings Foundation: Angels Wings Foundation was founded in 2002 as a non-profit organization aimed at assisting the underprivileged children of Thailand. Shaped from under the wings of native Thai philanthropist, Porntip Bui Simon, Angels Wings has built schools, provided educational scholarships, healthcare, and many other critical services for the youth in Thailand.

About Royal Thai Consulate Los Angeles: The Royal Thai Consulate-General, Los Angeles, was established in 1971 as the representative of Thailand in California and 12 other states in western United States. The main function of the Consulate is to enhance the people-to-people relationship between Thailand and the United States by reaching out to all Thais and Thais American, to promote their welfare and encourage their more active role in the mainstream American society.
Fucking, Austria is a draw for English speaking tourists.

The Daily Mirror said it best: The village of Fucking, Austria, is especially popular with British tourists. As a local tour guide explained: "The Germans all want to see Mozart's house in Salzburg; the Americans want to see where The Sound of Music was filmed; the Japanese want Hitler's birthplace in Braunau; but for the British, it's all about Fucking."

Augustina Lindlbauer, the manager of an area guesthouse, noted that the area had lakes, forests, and vistas worth visiting, but there was an "obsession with Fucking". Lindlbauer recalled how she had to explain to a British female tourist "that there were no Fucking postcards."

All of this may change soon. Reportedly, residents who are tired of replacing stolen signs, are once again pushing to change the name from Fucking to something less controversial such as Fuking or Fugging.

Media reports said local residents in the town - whose name apparently derives from Adalpert von Vucckingen, who lived there in the 11th Century - had grown weary of tourists stealing town signs and striking indecent poses for photos.

"I don't know where this comes from in the international press," an annoyed-sounding Mayor Franz Meindl said by telephone in 2012 from Fucking, an Upper Austrian town near the German border. "This was discussed a few years ago but nothing came of it. It is certainly not under discussion now."

A resident of the village, Josef Winkler, attempted to cash in on the village's fame by setting up a website on which he sold T-shirts featuring the village road signs, with the slogan "I like Fucking in Austria" printed on them. According to Winkler, they were selling well, and he was in negotiations with Maxim regarding possible promotions, but was forced to stop his venture after being shouted at and threatened in the street. Winkler said, "It was a bit of fun that didn't hurt anyone, but I found out that in this region you just can't do something like that. The whole thing became a real trial for me and I had to stop. People are very traditional here."

"Fucking: Please, Not So Fast" warns the sign below a sign referring to Fucking, Austria. Like, so you don't hit the children. Well, what did you think it meant?

It is believed that the settlement was founded in the 6th century AD by Focko, a Bavarian nobleman. The Austrian region during this century was mostly under the domain of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, and was populated by a mix of Christians and Pagans, says Wikipedia.

The existence of the village was documented for the first time in 1070, and historical records show that some twenty years later, the lord was recorded in Latin as Adalpertus de Fucingin.

The spelling of the name has evolved over the years; it is first recorded in historical sources with the spelling as Vucchingen in 1070, Fukching in 1303, Fugkhing in 1532, and in the modern spelling Fucking in the 18th century, which is pronounced with the vowel oo as in book. The ending -ing is an old Germanic suffix indicating the people belonging to the root word to which it is attached, thus Fucking means "(place of) Focko's people." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucking,_Austria
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We've all experienced the annoyance of having someone park across our drive. That's difficult enough to sort out. But what about if they have the cheek to park ON it?

One homeowner in the South West this week found themselves facing this situation.

After they'd fought through the sheer disbelief of finding that a driver had the temerity to simply leave their car there, they set about trying to find out how to get it removed.

Their efforts caused a sensation on social media as they related just difficult it really is.

In fact - do you know what you can do?

Pretty much NOTHING!

The car was eventually moved from the drive in south Bristol  five days later  but the lack of action from the authorities surprised scores of residents who demanded the police, the council or the DVLA act.

The resident, who declined to be named, found that the police would not act, or even trace the owner and call them.

The local council said they were not responsible for doing anything, and the DVLA would not contact the owner or tell the frustrated resident who owned the car.

The car was legal, taxed, insured and had its MoT, and it was either left on the drive by mistake, or carelessly by someone who knew they should not.

'If it's not causing an obstruction there's nothing we can do'

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police declined to comment on the case, and Bristol City Council said that unless the vehicle is blocking a public highway, council officers have no powers to do anything.

"Bristol City Council will investigate abandoned vehicles parked on public land or highway, but not on private land," said a spokeswoman for the council.

"In order to be classified as abandoned the vehicle also needs to be untaxed for at least one month and left in the same location for a significant amount of time. There's more information on the reporting process on our website."

The lowdown

According to the police, technically in the eyes of the law, the moment the car crossed onto your property it is trespassing  but it's a civil offence and therefore, and you need to obtain an eviction notice from the courts.

A solicitor would be able to obtain the civil court's permission to discover the legal owner, and a judge would have to make its removal an order of the court, so court enforcers would be the ones to take the action  an action that could cost thousands in legal fees.

Faced with this situation, most people would park in front of the drive and block its exit  forcing the errant parker to at least come and ask to be freed. But even that could, bizarrely, land you in hot water  you could be ticketed for blocking the highway under certain circumstances, especially if your drive has a double yellow line in front of it.

To tow or not to tow?

One route to solve the problem quickly  is to fork out more than 100 and hire a tow truck to pick up the car and move it onto the road.

But that way lies danger too  YOU could be sent a bill by the owner if the car is damaged in that way!

One of the people sympathising with the resident left with an unwelcome guest since last Friday had an abandoned car left in his resident's parking space on private land for a year.

"The car parked in my parking space was so old, the owner didn't report it stolen as they didn't want it back. After over a year, I contacted my Bristol city councillor and it was gone within a week, via the police," he added.

The official line from the police is a sobering one for anyone who finds a car left on their drive.

A spokesman told our sister title the Bristol Post: "Getting a vehicle removed from private land can potentially be an involved matter," a national police spokesman said. "If the vehicle is in a dangerous condition, for example it's leaking petrol or contains dangerous items such as gas bottles, we would suggest you contact your local police via the non-emergency 101 number or 999 if an emergency response is required.

"If you think the vehicle is abandoned, we would suggest you contact your local council. Councils must remove abandoned vehicles from both land in the open air and roads (including private roads). "However, local council policies differ in relation to this so we would suggest you discuss the matter with them - it may help if you speak with a manager. If a vehicle is abandoned, you don't have to ask the council to move it.

"It may be the case that the vehicle does not meet the council's criteria for being abandoned, the council won't remove it for some reason or it may be that it is abandoned but you want to remove it yourself via a contractor."

"You may be able to obtain the cost of having the vehicle removed from the owner but you will need to speak to your legal advisor about this," he added.
By Press Trust of India: Mumbai, Apr 16 (PTI) Two Sri Lankan nationals were today arrested at the city international airport for allegedly trying to smuggle gold bars worth over Rs 87 lakh into the country, a Customs official said.

The action was taken when Jameer Wahid (42) and Althaf Hameed, both holding Sri Lankan passports, arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here from Dubai by an Emirates Airlines flight in the wee hours, the official said.

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"The duo was intercepted at the arrival hall of the airport. Wahids personal search resulted in the recovery of 13 gold bars weighing 1,516 grams valued at Rs 45,48,000. Similarly, 12 gold bars weighing 1399 grams valued at Rs 41,97,000 were recovered from Hameed," the official said.

"The duo had concealed the gold bars in their rectums," he said.

Both the passengers belong to Puttalam district in Sri Lanka. They are frequent fliers to India and were involved in trading of textile material, ready-made garments and cosmetics.

In another incident, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs intercepted one Sayed Noorulameen (26), who had arrived from Dubai yesterday.

"The youth was carrying cylindrical gold rods weighing 567 grams valued at Rs 17 lakh that were concealed in hand-operated juicer machine," the official added. PTI AVI NP RDS

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Election results: Check out results from various races across the state

Todd Young is up for reelection this year in Indiana. Get live election results across Indiana here.
By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Apr 15 (PTI) Police has arrested a 23-year-old man, who was carrying rewards for his arrest, and was wanted in cases of murder and attempt to murder.

Umesh was arrested from near Ghevra More, Rohtak Road here by a team of Special Cell last night, said Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, DCP (Special Cell).

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Umesh, along with his associates, allegedly shot dead one Amit in northwest Delhis Mukherjee Nagar area last year in July due to personal enmity, he said. A reward of Rs 50,000 had been declared by Delhi Police for his apprehension.

A day after killing Amit, Umesh and his associate Sombir fired on one Sudhir, Amits paternal uncle in Jhajjar, Haryana. A reward of Rs 25,000 had been declared by Haryana Police in the attempt to murder case.

The Special Cell team received information about Umesh and laid a trap for him near Ghevra More.

When Umesh realised he wouldnt be able to escape, he took out his pistol and fired one round on police team.

However, a constable from the police team snatched the pistol from his hand. The pistol was found loaded with four live cartridges.

One more country-made pistol with three live cartridges was also recovered from his possession, said the officer.

In 2011, Umeshs paternal uncle Chand Singh was murdered by his relatives Satyawan and his associates who are also residing in the same village.

He wanted to take revenge and got to know that Amit, Satyawans brother stays in Mukherjee Nagar and after making plans with his associates, shot him dead.

The next day he attempted to kill Amits uncle Sudhir but failed. On Saturday, he came to Ghevra More to meet his associate Sanjay and hatch a plan to eliminate one Anil, who is the brother-in-law of deceased Amit but ended up in police net, said Yadav.

Umesh disclosed during interrogation that he had made up his mind to become a contract killer.

He has been conveying his intention to different gangs of Haryana and Delhi, that he is available to commit any crime for money. PTI SLB KUN

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An artists impression of some of the thousands of exoplanets discovered by NASAs Kepler Space Telescope.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

You don't need to be a professional astronomer to find new worlds orbiting distant stars. Darwin mechanic and amateur astronomer Andrew Grey this week helped to discover a new exoplanet system with at least four orbiting planets.

But Andrew did have professional help and support.

The discovery was a highlight moment of this week's three-evening special ABC Stargazing Live, featuring British physicist Brian Cox, presenter Julia Zemiro and others.

Viewers were encouraged to join in the search for exoplanets  planets orbiting distant stars  using the Exoplanet Explorers website. After a quick tutorial they were then asked to trawl through data on thousands of stars recently observed with NASA's Kepler Space Telescope.

Grey checked out more than 1,000 stars on the website before discovering the characteristic dips in brightness of the star in the data that signify an exoplanet.

Together with other co-discoverers, Grey's name will appear on a scientific paper reporting the very significant discovery of a star with four planets, orbiting closer to the star than Mercury is to our Sun.

Grey told Stargazing Live:

See more

A breakthrough for citizen science

So just what does this discovery signify? First, lets be clear: this is no publicity stunt, or a bit of fake news dressed up to make a good story.

This is a real scientific discovery, to be reported in the scientific literature like other discoveries made by astronomers.

It will help us understand the formation of our own Earth. It's also a step towards establishing whether we are alone in the universe, or whether there are other planets populated by other civilisations.

On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that this discovery joins the list of more than 2,300 known exoplanets discovered by Kepler so far. There are thousands more candidate planets to be examined.

If Grey and his colleagues hadn't discovered this new planetary system, then somebody else would have eventually discovered it. But that can be said of all discoveries. The fact remains that this particular discovery was made by Grey and his fellow citizen scientists.

Amateurs and professionals working together

I think that the greatest significance of this discovery is that it heralds a change in the way we do science.

As I said earlier, Grey didn't make this discovery alone. He used data from the Kepler spacecraft with a mission cost of US$600 million.

Although we can build stunning telescopes that produce vast amounts of valuable data, we can't yet build an algorithm that approaches the extraordinary abilities of the human brain to examine that data.

A human brain can detect patterns in the data far more effectively than any machine-learning algorithm yet devised. Because of the large volume of data generated by Kepler and other scientific instruments, we need large teams of human brains  larger than any research lab.

But the brains don't need to be trained astrophysicists, they just need to have the amazing cognitive abilities of the human brain.

This results in a partnership where big science produces data, and citizen scientists inspect the data to help make discoveries. It means that anyone can be involved in cutting-edge science, accelerating the growth of human knowledge.

A gathering of brainpower

This is happening all over science and even the arts, from butterfly hunting to transcribing Shakespeare's handwriting.

Last year citizen scientists in the Australian-led Radio Galaxy Zoo project discovered the largest known cluster of galaxies.

None of these projects would be possible without widespread access to the internet, and readily-available tools to build citizen science projects, such as the Zooniverse project.

Will machines ever make citizen scientists redundant? I have argued before that we need to build algorithms called "machine scientists" to make future discoveries from the vast volumes of data we are generating.

But these algorithms still need to be trained by humans. The larger our human-generated training set, the better our machine scientists will work.

So rather than making citizen scientists redundant, the machine scientists multiply the power of citizen scientists, so that a discovery made by a future Andrew Grey may result in hundreds of discoveries by machines trained using his discovery.

I see the power of citizen scientists continuing to grow. I suspect this is only the start. We can do much more. We can increase the "fun" of doing citizen science by introducing "gaming" elements into citizen science programs, or by taking advantage of new technologies such as augmented reality and immersive virtual reality.

Perhaps we can tap into other human qualities such as imagination and creativity to achieve goals that still frustrate machines.

I look forward to the day when a Nobel prize is won by someone in a developing country without access to a traditional university education, but who uses the power of their mind, the wealth of information on the web and the tools of citizen science to transcend the dreams of traditional science.

Ray Norris, Professor, School of Computing, Engineering, & Maths, Western Sydney University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Space.com.
By Press Trust of India: Jaipur, Apr 16 (PTI) Around 242 kg of pod husk (Doda Chura) worth about Rs 10 lakh was seized from a vehicle in Chhoti Sadri area of Rajasthans Pratapgarh district, police said today.

The pod husk was seized from an SUV after it was abandoned by its occupants following a chase by the police, SHO Chhoti Sadri Pradeep Bittu told PTI.

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He said the vehicle upon approaching a police check-post, set up to keep an eye on smugglers, made a U-turn and sped away.

The occupants left the vehicle in a farm near Rajpura crossing and fled away, Bittu said.

During search of the vehicle, around 242 kg of pod husk was seized, he said.

A case under the NDPS Act has been registered against unidentified persons, police said. PTI AG AQS AQS

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STAMFORD  After a series of geopolitical storms in the past year, some economists think a new wave of finance jobs from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean could soon hit the tri-state area.

The United Kingdoms Brexit departure from the European Union  a process whose negotiations were formally initiated March 29 by the British government  portends potentially large losses for the U.K. financial sector. Connecticut Business & Industry Association economist Pete Gioia argues Connecticut is well-positioned to take advantage of the upheaval, but other economic experts are more skeptical that Brexit would bring much new business to New England.

If you want to be a global player, youre probably going to have move from London, Gioia said last week in a speech in Stamford. And if youre going to be a global player, there are two places you can go: Singapore and New York. My guess is New York is going to draw a bit more than Singapore.

From London to Connecticut?

London will not fully understand its financial fate until Brexit negotiations conclude. But a number of estimates have offered foreboding forecasts if the U.K. cannot hammer out a free-trade agreement with the EU and the U.K. has to grapple with new regulations on business in the EU conducted by London financial firms.

Brexit could inflict a loss of 70,000 to 100,000 British financial-services jobs by 2020, according to an analysis last year by accounting firm PwC.

In a report released last month, London School of Economics economist Simeon Djanko predicted Brexit would have negative effects on the London financial sector. Such a policy move may trigger a regulatory race with other major financial markets, to the detriment of the global financial system, Djanko wrote. In the meantime, uncertainty surrounding the transition from the European Union and the possible changes in the regulatory stance of the U.K. government will be deterrents to new business.

But the ominous economic skies over London foreshadow a sunnier outlook for southwestern Connecticut, according to Gioia. He argued in his Stamford speech the area would benefit from a migration of operations to New York that would extend to the Nutmeg State because of its lower overhead.

If New York grows, what happens with that? Gioia said. Well, if you want very reasonable prices for your real estate and still have great access to the New York market, you just go down the street here. And I think over the next five years, there will be a beneficial effect in Fairfield County from whats happening with Brexit.

Other economists foresee modest, but not dramatic, gains for the tri-state areas financial sector. Some U.S. firms might shift certain operations to New York in response to London losing its status as an EU hub. But Frankfurt would likely emerge as the prime beneficiary of Brexit because the German city comprises the leading European financial center after London, said Lawrence J. White, a professor of economics in the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Is there going to be an effect for New York and Connecticut  I would say yes, White said. Is it going to be large, probably not. Frankfurt would be the primary beneficiary because the major barrier is going to arise between Britain and the rest of Europe. There isnt going to be any new barrier between Britain and the U.S. or between Britain and Singapore.

Building the base

State legislative leaders said Connecticut should not bank on picking up many finance jobs from Brexit.

The geopolitical change happens on its own, and its not something we can control, said state Rep. William Tong, D-147, co-chairman of the states Commission on Economic Competitiveness. What we should focus on is creating an ecosystem that welcomes and fosters growth.

About 41,100 people were working in financial activities in the Bridgeport-Norwalk-Stamford labor market area, compared with a post-recession low of 40,200 in February 2014, according to data from the state Department of Labor. The total still lags the 45,600 who were working in that sector before the recession started in late 2007.

Among deals announced in recent months, Greenwich-based investment management firm AQR Capital Management announced last November it would maintain 540 jobs and add 600 positions in a project that could earn AQR up to $35 million in state loans and grants.

At the same time, the industry still faces vulnerability in southwestern Connecticut. RBS has laid off some 570 Stamford-based employees in the past two years, while the precipitous decline in UBS trading led to its departure last year from its one-time Stamford base at 677 Washington Blvd. UBS now leases space in RBS offices across the street at 600 Washington Blvd.

The long-term performance of financial services in the area will depend heavily on how cities such as Stamford adapt to technological transformations of the sector, according to a number of local executives. Stamford finance and technology firm G.A. Baird & Co. is sponsoring a new presentation series gathering financial-technology leaders that is scheduled to launch later this year.

For the likes of G.A. Baird founder and CEO Gordon Baird, Stamford should focus less on financial ruptures in London and more on the growth of places like Sunnyvale and Irvine in California  which both placed ahead in the top two ahead of No. 7 Stamford in small-city rankings released this week by a Financial Times unit.

I think the challenge is when we compare ourselves to the others on the small-city list such as Sunnyvale or Irvine, Baird said. We are way behind what they have been able to achieve. I would like to see Stamford on the top half of the list versus the bottom half  and I think it has the potential to get there.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236l twitter: @paulschott
The following headlines and articles appeared in The Advocate 25, 50 and 75 years ago on April 17.

25 years ago...

Partnership for F.D. Rich? Citys major developer may strike deal with Chicago firm

The F.D. Rich Co., Stamfords major real estate developer, may be selling a large piece of itself to a Chicago-based real estate investment company to generate cash.

In a one-page statement, F.D. Rich and the Chicago company, JMB Realty Corp., said they have entered into a preliminary, non-binding agreement concerning the recapitalization and reorganization of F.D. Rich Company.

1992

50 years ago...

Mayor Not Ready to Announce Complete Washington Ave. Plan

Mayor Thomas C. Meyers, who twice said recently that extending Washington Ave. to Bulls Head is a vital City project, said the second half of the route to Bulls Head is not yet ready to be announced.

Reporters for some time have been pressuring the mayor for the date of the public hearing to be held by the finance commissioner on what properties will be taken for the extension of Washington Avenue. An engineer is preparing the plans.

1967

75 years ago...

Springs Newest Hairdo: Easily-fixed Smoothie

Tired of piled-way-up pompadour or curls? Cannot quite make up your mind to cut your hair short, yet definitely want a new fix  especially now when a really smart coif may be the whole difference between Susan Smart and Mary Plain in their newly regulated frocks?

Then heres cheer. With your not-so-short locks, you can be different, and new. That seems to be the hair news of the moment on both sides of the continent. The outstanding point about both coasts new hair fashion is: Flatter on top, though not pancake-flat, and severe in front, and smooth all around  call it the smoothie coif, if you like.

1942
A police officer was injured after a mass armed brawl broke out in north London in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Weapons were found at the scene in Camden Lock where a large crowd of people began fighting in the street at around 3am.

Police were called and one officer was injured as they tried to break up the brawl, on Chalk Farm Road.

But officers believe another man was also injured during the fight and fled the scene before police arrived. It is thought he has not received medical treatment.

Detectives are now appealing for information and witnesses to trace the victim and have released a CCTV image of him.

Victim: Police believe this man may have been injured. / Met Police

He is described as black, aged in his late teens to early 20s, around 5ft 10ins tall and with a ponytail. He was wearing a black jacket and jeans.

The Met Police said a 17-year-old boy has been charged in connection with the incident. Enquiries are continuing.

The officer who was wounded suffered minor injuries, police said on Sunday.

Anyone with information is asked to contact DC Kerry Meacher at Islington police station on 020 8345 0158 or via 101. Alternatively, they can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
P olice have warned lovestruck school pupils to stop blocking pavements in north London.

Scores of boys and girls are reportedly clogging up pavements in Hampstead as they gather in groups to meet each other after school.

But the teenagers, thought to be in years seven to nine, are reportedly standing in the way of parents with pushchairs and elderly people with zimmer frames who struggle to get past.

PC Nick Dayton, who works in Hampstead, told the Ham and High that he wants the youngsters be more aware of the other people on the pavement and will be speaking to headteachers of two schools in the area.

Busy pavements: 'Boys like to meet girls, and girls like to meet boys' / Google

In his newsletter to residents, the police officer wrote: Hampstead Schools are on their Easter Holidays, which is a relief for some of the businesses in the High Street.

The team are well aware that Friday afternoons can be chaotic close to the junction with Oriel Place, with two groups of students in particular obstructing the thoroughfares and byways.

PC Dayton said: Its an issue that the police shouldnt have to deal with. The children should know that they are representing their schools and should really be conscious of their surroundings, however I can understand why they congregate.

Boys like to meet girls, and girls like to meet boys for the weekend...

Wed like to think the schools will say, look, when you finish on a Friday, youre still in school uniform, please consider the reputations of yourselves, and the schools.

Try to be a bit more understanding of the comings and goings and businesses of Hampstead High Street.
W ealthy residents living along Londons Southbank are suing the Tate Modern over its public balcony which allows gallery-goers to look straight into their luxury apartments.

People living in the multi-million pound Neo Bankside flats threatened legal action last September after complaining that tourists were taking photos of the insides of their homes.

Upset residents claimed visitors to the Tate Modern were breaching their privacy by standing on the art gallerys newly-built viewing platform and peering into their homes, taking photos and publishing the pictures online.

Five claimants are now suing the iconic Southbank gallery after claiming it is like living in a goldfish bowl, the Mail on Sunday reported.

A sign has been put up at the Tate viewing platform asking visitors to 'respect our neighbours' privacy' / Hatty Collier/Evening Standard

According to a High Court writ, the five claimants argue that the Tate has rendered the residents a public exhibit for the benefit of those using the viewing platform.

The five claimants claim it is a breach of their human rights and are demanding the Tate erect a screen blocking the view into the flats and pay the residents legal costs.

The Switch House extension at Tate Modern (left) which has a terrace overlooking nearby luxury apartments (right). / PA

The gallerys 10th floor public balcony extension, the top floor of the new Switch House, was opened in June last year and boasts views of Londons skyline including across the River Thames, St Pauls, Canary Wharf and the Wembley Stadium.

Neo Bankside, a four-storey glass-fronted block of flats, was built shortly before the Tates Switch House.

On review website TripAdvisor, web users reportedly described the viewing level as a voyeurs dream.

A Tate spokesman told the Mail: The design of the building has always included a high-level terrace for the benefit of the public but we cannot comment further given the conditions of the legal process.
A geography teacher at an all-girls school in London has warned men not to become teachers after a false allegation of rape shattered his career.

Kato Harris, 38, was a head of department at the school when he was accused of attacking a 14-year-old girl three times in a classroom during lunch breaks in autumn 2013.

He was cleared of the allegation by a jury after a trial last year.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday published today Mr Harris, from Richmond, said one of the biggest challenges he now faces is forgiving his accuser. He said he will forgive her one day but just not now.

He told the newspaper: "I would certainly advocate that no man qualify as a teacher. It is just not worth it. What is the lesson here? There is nothing to protect the male teacher."

Kato Harris, 38, said he would never have been a teacher if he 'knew what I know now' / David Parker/Daily Mail

"I had to give up my dream job because of a crime I didn't commit," he said.

"I am unemployed, living in a bedsit and will soon be on housing benefit. I am toxic."

He added: If I knew on the day I qualified what I know now, I would never have become a teacher.

"I will never work with children again - I will never put myself in that position of vulnerability."

The accusations emerged in December 2014, and Mr Harris said he was in "total shock" when police arrested him.

He told the newspaper he had made the decision to kill himself if he was charged, but that with the arrival of a baby daughter he wanted to carry on and prove his innocence.

Mr Harris added: "I've looked into the abyss. But every day I wake up and I'm a daddy and not in prison - and that's the best thing that I could have hoped for."


P rime Minister Theresa May has said people are coming together following the countrys split in the Brexit vote last June.

The PM used her Easter message to stress unity in Britain following the divisions created between leavers and remainers during the referendum.

Mrs May said the shared values of Brits can  and must  bring us together as she emphasised the role of Christianity in society.

She said: "This year, after a period of intense debate over the right future for our country, there is a sense that people are coming together and uniting behind the opportunities that lie ahead.

"For at heart, this country is one great union of people and nations with a proud history and a bright future.

"And as we face the opportunities ahead of us - the opportunities that stem from our decision to leave the European Union and embrace the world - our shared interests, our shared ambitions and above all our shared values can - and must - bring us together."

Turning to faith, she said: "We should be confident about the role that Christianity has to play in the lives of people in our country.

"And we should treasure the strong tradition that we have in this country of religious tolerance and freedom of speech.

"We must continue to ensure that people feel able to speak about their faith, and that absolutely includes their faith in Christ.

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron hit out at Theresa May's message. / PA

"We must be mindful of Christians and religious minorities around the world who do not enjoy these same freedoms, but who practise their religion in secret and often in fear.

"And we must do more to stand up for the freedom of people of all religions to practice their beliefs openly and in peace and safety."

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron hit out at sense of nostalgia and nationalism which came through the message.

He said: Given that we are turning the clock back to the early 1970s with Brexit (or indeed the 1580s if we do end up declaring war on Spain), then nostalgia is most definitely the mood of the moment."

"Nostalgia and nationalism have become the fuel for an aggressive and irrational brand of politics that is the opposite of what liberals stand for.

"I don't want the Christian message to be stolen by the nostalgic nationalists, just as no Liberal should seek to appropriate Jesus for their own purposes either.

"But the Easter message is one of internationalism, if you like - Jesus died for you no matter who you are or where you are from.

Reporting by Press Association.
By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Apr 16 (PTI) Army Chief General Bipin Rawat today apprised National Security Advisor Ajit Doval of the security situation in Kashmir, amidst growing outrage in the Valley over the controversial "human shield" video.

Rawats meeting with Doval comes a day after he had separate deliberations with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Governor N N Vohra over the law and order situation in Kashmir during his visit to the state.

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Government sources said the Army chief called on Doval at his residence and briefed him about the overall state of security in the Kashmir Valley

The video, showing a man tied to an army vehicle purportedly as a shield against stone pelters during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election, has triggered a public outcry prompting civil and army authorities to launch separate investigations.

In her meeting with Gen Rawat, the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister had raised the issue of the video that has now gone viral on social media.

Gen Rawat has assured the J&K CM of timely action against the personnel who were responsible for the act of tying the man to the vehicle at Budgam.

According to the sources, the army officials told a probe team that they had received a call from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the local police guarding a polling station to save them from a mob that was out to lynch them.

The army convoy rushed in from Kandipura and tied 36- year-old Farooq Dar to a jeep, they said.

This incident, which took place on April 9, was shot by unidentified persons on their mobiles and the video showing Dar being used as a shield against stone-pelting protesters was circulated on social media.

The video surfaced days after another clip, showing a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel walking down a street being beaten up by some youths, triggered nationwide outrage. PTI MPB BSA SC BSA

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A pilot let an elderly couple get off a plane moments before take-off so they could visit their dying grandson in hospital.

The pair received a text message telling them their grandchild was in intensive care while on board an Etihad Airways plane bound for Abu Dhabi.

At the time the plane was already taxiing towards a runway at Manchester Airport.

However when the couple told the crew, the pilot immediately turned the plane around and headed back to the gate.

Staff also arranged for their luggage to be picked up and for a car, so they could leave the airport as quickly as possible.

Their grandson died later that same night on March 31.

The couple's travel agent, Becky Stephenson, told the BBC: I've been in the travel business for 25 years and never heard of this happening.

She added: "My customers were so grateful that staff were very helpful and they were taken care of."

The airline said the couple can use the ticket again on a different date.
A t least 68 children were among those killed in a bomb blast on a crowded Syrian bus convoy outside Aleppo, activists say.

A vehicle filled with explosives hit the convoy on Saturday.

The death toll from a bomb blast has reached 126 people, while many more were injured in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Sunday.

The blast caused buses to shatter and set cars on fire, leaving a trail of bodies.

Bus attack: A cloud of black smoke rising from vehicles in the distance in what is said to be Aleppo's outskirts / REUTERS

Syrian rescue workers the Civil Defence said that they had carted away at least 100 bodies from the site of the blast, which hit buses carrying Shi'ite residents as they waited to cross from rebel into government territory in an evacuation deal between warring sides.

The UK-based Observatory said the number of deaths was expected to rise.

A damaged bus is seen after an explosion on Saturday / REUTERS

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, while the United Nations has demanded that those responsible be brought to justice.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the bombing and called on all parties "to ensure the safety and security of those waiting to be evacuated".

The interior of a damaged bus / REUTERS

Those killed were mostly residents of the villages of al-Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province, but included rebel fighters guarding the convoy, the Observatory added.

The convoy was carrying at least 5,000 people including civilians and several hundred pro-government fighters, who were granted safe passage out of the two Shi'ite villages which are besieged by rebels.
A five-year-old boy has died after being crushed between a table and a wall at a revolving restaurant.

Charles Holt suffered serious injuries after getting his head stuck at the rotating Sun Dial restaurant in Atlanta.

Police said he had wandered off from his parents on Friday night and became trapped between furniture fixed to the rotating floor and a stationary wall.

The restaurants safety system stopped the floor rotating and staff freed Charles, who was from North Carolina, but he suffered crushing injuries to his head and died in hospital.

Warren Pickard, a spokesman for the Atlanta police department, said: The kid was just wandering as kids will do.

Somehow he found himself in a critical situation where hes lodged in between the rotating floor and the wall.

A representative for The Sun Dial told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper it would be closed until further notice.


T ens of thousands of Catholics underwent massive security checks to gather in the Vatican for Pope Francis Easter Sunday Mass.

Armed police were stationed on rooftops, army vehicles were positioned at the Vatican entrance and metal detectors were used to check people over as they piled into St Peters Square to celebrate Easter, the biggest festival in the Christian calendar.

Tourists, pilgrims and people living in Rome flocked to the historic square to hear the religious leader deliver his Easter message, the Urbi et Orbi from the central balcony of St Peters Basilica.

The increased security measures follows a spate of vehicle ramming attacks including in London and Stockholm.

Security: Pope Francis protected by his bodyguards as he is driven through the crowd after celebrating Easter Sunday Mass. / AP

In an off-the-cuff speech to the crowds, the 80-year-old pontiff encouraged Catholics to hold on to their fearful hearts as the world is ravaged by wars, sickness and hatred.

Traditionally the pope gives no homily  or speech  during the mass and instead saves any non-religious utterings for the solemn Easter message at noon.

Pontiff: Pope Francis delivers his 'Urbi et Orbi' - the Easter message. / REUTERS

In his Easter message, Pope Francis appeared to reference the rising tensions between North Korea and the US as he urged world leaders to stop the spread of conflicts.

He said: "In the complex and often dramatic situations of today's world, may the Risen Lord guide the steps of all those who work for justice and peace.

Star: Pope Francis waving to excited crowds at the Easter Sunday Mass in Vatican City. / REUTERS

May he grant the leaders of nations the courage they need to prevent the spread of conflicts and to put a halt to the arms trade.

The Roman Catholic leader also slammed the bomb attack on a bus convoy in Syria, calling it ignoble. He also called for peace in countries including South Sudan, Somalia, Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo.



His Easter address today comes as news broke that a 90th birthday party is being planned for former pope, Benedict XV1, whose birthday is actually Easter Sunday but will instead be celebrated on Monday.
T he Government has said it is "concerned" after reports emerged that North Korea carried out a failed missile test.

The as yet unidentified missile exploded on launch from a base in Sinpo, a city on the country's east coast, on Sunday, US military officials said.

British officials are said to be closely monitoring the situation amid simmering tensions between the US and North Korea over the rogue state's nuclear weapons programme.

International concern has been ratcheting up over the deteriorating situation, with China expressing fears war could break out "at any moment".

Missile: Accordng to reports on North Korea conducted a failed missile launch from its east coast / EPA

On Saturday the regime gave a huge show of strength with a parade of military hardware feared to have featured a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Meanwhile the US has sent an aircraft carrier strike group to the Korean Peninsula, leading Pyongyang to accuse Donald Trump of "creating a war situation".

Celebration: A view of the parade marking the 105th "Day of the Sun", the birth anniversary of the state's founder Kim Il Sung / REUTERS

The President has not commented on the test, although US Defence Secretary James Mattis said Mr Trump and his military advisers were "aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch".

America's vice president, Mike Pence, is due to arrive in South Korea on Sunday to visit US troops, and the firing of a missile has been viewed as an attempt to send a message of defiance to Washington.

North Korea Celebrates Kim Il Sung's 105th birthday

It is not known what kind of weapon was tested on Sunday, although Pyongyang has repeatedly stated its aim of developing a rocket that could drop a nuclear payload on the US mainland.

Despite the test being a failure it may still provide the regime's scientists with valuable information for its weapons programme.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are concerned by reports of a missile test by North Korea and are monitoring the situation closely."

Donald Trump warns 'problem' of North Korea 'will be taken care of'

Earlier Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said of the situation that "we have been here before" and urged Pyongyang to adhere to UN resolutions in order to secure peace.

"We stand alongside our international partners in making clear that North Korea must adhere to UN resolutions designed to secure peace and stability in the region and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons," he said.

Despite UN sanctions North Korea launched a long-range rocket and carried out two nuclear tests in 2016, including its most powerful bomb to date.

Parade: A submarine-launched ballistic missile / AP

Mr Trump has accused North Korea of "looking for trouble" and recently ordered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and several war ships to the area to highlight American concern.

Fears that Pyongyang would carry out a sixth nuclear test rose before the celebrations for the 105th anniversary of the birth of the country's founder, Kim Il Sung, on Saturday.

As well as a vast display of missiles, military hardware and personnel, the event saw the regime intensify its rhetoric against the US.

Threat: The country said it is 'ready for war' / AP

Choe Ryong Hae, widely regarded as the secretive state's number two leading official, accused Mr Trump of "creating a war situation" on the Korean Peninsula by sending American forces to the region.

He said: "We will respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and a nuclear war with our style of a nuclear attack."

China, North Korea's only major ally, has called for calm, warning "conflict could break out at any moment" and that such a situation would bring no winners.

Leader: Kim Jong Un waves to people attending a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of country's founding father Kim Il Sung / REUTERS

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said Prime Minister Theresa May and Mr Johnson needed to use what influence they had with Mr Trump to tell him that "aircraft carrier diplomacy" was not the answer.

"If Theresa May and Boris Johnson really do have any influence with their great friend in the White House they need to make clear that aircraft carrier diplomacy is not what the world needs.

"Where is Britain's new global influence that Theresa May was boasting about? On Syria, Russia and now North Korea, the British Government has no influence, cut off from our partners in Europe thanks to their hard Brexit."

Additional reporting from Press Association.
P oliticians have joined calls for the First Lady of Syria to be stripped of her British citizenship after she accused the West of lying about chemical attacks on social media.

Asma al-Assad, who was born in Acton, west London, used what is believed to be official social media accounts to publish propaganda supporting her husband, President Basher al-Assad.

Many of the pictures posted depict her hugging Syrian women, helping elderly people, or playing with children and are accompanied by the hashtag #WeLoveYouAsma.

On the the day of the horrific chemical attack in the province of Idlib  which killed almost 90 people  the 41-year-old posted a picture of herself looking serene and smiling.

Serene: This picture was posted on the day of the attack in Idlib

And in response to Donald Trumps airstrike on an airbase she wrote: The presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic affirms that what America has done is an irresponsible act that only reflects a short-sightedness, a narrow horizon, a political and military blindness to reality and a naive pursuit of a frenzied false propaganda campaign.

The Sunday Times reported that, on Saturday night, MPs urged the Home Office to revoke her citizenship.

Torment: Almost 90 people died in the chemical gas attack in Khan Sheikhoun / AP

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi told the newspaper: The time has come where we go after [President] Assad in every which way, including people like Mrs Assad, who is very much part of the propaganda machine that is committing war crimes.

Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: Boris Johnson has urged other countries to do more about Syria, but the British government could say to Asma al-Assad, Either stop using your position to defend barbaric acts or be stripped of your citizenship.

Instagram: Many of the images show Mrs Assad with Syrian families / Instagram

And Dr Haytham Alhamwi, of Rethink Rebuild Society, an advocacy group for Syrians in the UK, added: She has assumed a direct role in promoting ideals contradictory to the British public good.

Mrs Assad was born to Syrian parents in Acton and met the president on a trip to Damascus in 2000 after she had graduated from Kings College London.

US airstrikes in Syria: How the world reacted

She was due to begin an MBA at Harvard University but instead moved to Syria and married Assad. The couple have three children.

Her father, a cardiologist at Cromwell Hospital, and her mother, a retired diplomat who worked at the Syrian Embassy in London, still live in west London.

Britain backs US strike on Syrian air base after 'barbaric' chemical attack

The Syrian government fiercely denied the existence of a chemical attack and questioned whether pictures of children who had been suffocated by chemicals were real or fake.

But on Sunday Boris Johnson said samples from the victims of the attack had been analysed by British scientists and were found to contain traces of Sarin or a similar substance.

He labelled President Assad a terrorist and warned that the attack had changed the Wests stance on Syria.
D onald Trumps security adviser has said the US has not ruled anything out in how to tackle North Koreas military threats and said it is working with China to develop a range of options.

Lt Gen H. R. McMaster said on Sunday that North Korea's missile test was provocative and that the US would be working with all its allies to come up with a solution to the threat.

The White House adviser said: "This latest missile test just fits into a pattern of provocative and destabilizing and threatening behaviour on the part of the North Korean regime.

"There is an international consensus now, including the Chinese leadership, that this is a situation that just cannot continue.

Security adviser: Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster / REUTERS

"And the president has made clear that he will not accept the United States and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons.

"And so we are working together with our allies and partners, and with the Chinese leadership, to develop a range of options."

Parade: A submarine-launched ballistic missile on show during North Korean celebrations on Saturday / AP

His comments came after North Korea failed in its attempts to launch a missile test which, according to the US, exploded immediately after take-off.

Tensions have been rising between North Korea and the US, with the former claiming it is ready for all-out war.

North Korea Celebrates Kim Il Sung's 105th birthday

There had been speculation as to what stance China  North Koreas closest ally  would take in response to the missile drill.

China has sought to cool tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile programs, repeatedly calling for dialogue.

Over the weekend Chinese news agencies reported that China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed the situation in a phone call Sunday.

And President Trump had earlier said China was "working with us" on the issue.

Meanwhile Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson warned North Korea to comply with the United Nations following the failed launch.

He said: "They must stop these belligerent acts and comply with UN resolutions."
A t least 21 people were arrested after violence broke out between supporters and opponents of Donald Trump in a California park.

Police used an explosive device in an effort to restore order after about 1,000 people from two rallies gathered in Martin Luther King Jr Civic Center Park in Berkeley on Saturday.

Fist fights broke out between the two sides and people threw bottles and cans over a barricade separating them.

Several people were seen with bloodied faces and minor injuries. Local media reported that at least 11 people were injured.

A man in support of US President Donald Trump is pepper sprayed by a counter-protester / REUTERS

The melee was sparked when hundreds of Trump opponents staged a counter-rally alongside an event billed as a "Patriots Day" free-speech rally and picnic, organised by mostly Trump supporters.

Among the Trump opponents were some counter-protesters dressed in black and wearing masks.

The other side included self-described "patriots" and "nationalists", Trump supporters, free speech advocates, and other groups.

Demonstrators protesting against US President Donald Trump / REUTERS

Daryl Tempesta, 52, who said he served in the US Air Force near the end of the Cold War, went to the rally to show his support for Trump.

He said: "As a veteran, I like the track America is on, and that Trump is willing to stand and say we are still America and we are not going to be globalist, we're not going to be a communist country.

"That's a message I can get behind."

A police officer detains a demonstrator / REUTERS

A weekly farmers market was cancelled ahead of the rally due to concerns about violence.

Even so, a stall selling fresh vegetables was open for business amid the fist fighting, explosions from firecrackers and smoke wafting through the air.

"We decided to show up anyway because this is our livelihood," said Tim Mueller, a farmer who owns the stall, surrounded by protesters on both sides.

A pro-Trump protester at the Patriots Day Free Speech Rally in Berkeley, California / REUTERS

At least 100 people from both camps eventually moved out of the park and into one of the city's main intersections, where they continued to fist fight, hurl insults and chant at each other.

The police presence was light there, and only two or three officers were seen near the crossroads.

Berkeley has a long history of liberal activism and the University of California, Berkeley, was a center of protests in the 1960s.
Four Aussie bikers who crisscrossed the length and breadth of India plan to produce a motion picture on child rights in the country.

By Arpan Rai: Call it Orientalism or an honest attempt at discovery, four Aussie bike enthusiasts have crisscrossed the hallowed land of India to find what it takes to make life click in rural hinterlands. The four also plan to soon convert their lived experience in India into a motion picture on child rights to capture every stroke of life.

Cameron Perry, Scott Grills, Taylor Hogan (all aged 25) and videographer Ben Butcher (21) have travelled across Delhi, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Ajmer, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Goa, Hampi, Devangere, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Adilabad, Varanasi, Lucknow, Nainital to present the way a child in India is receiving education despite all the hardships.

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It was a trip to India last year that triggered Cameron and his friends to come to India again but with cameras this time. That was when he approached Child Rights and You (CRY) for a helping hand.

"We know that the situation in our country is different from that in Indian villages. Children in India are so passionate about education and I realised it when I met a girl in Nainital who wanted to grow up to become a nurse. I was moved after I saw her dedication," said Cameron.

EXPERIENCES OF A FOREIGN LAND

Having no reservations about not knowing the language, the amateurs said, "We have survived well using hand gestures and basic knowledge of Hindi while travelling."

"We had a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere, when a local man rode with us to the mechanic. He spent hours of his time, took us to his home and offered us to stay for a night in the small house. He was willing to sleep on the porch with his family," said Scott, talking about the Indian hospitality the boys encountered on their trip near Hampi.

Calling them relentless, Soha Moitra, director, CRY said, "When they approached us with the idea of the ride, we immediately agreed and are glad to be a part of their incredible journey. Their passion to work for the cause of children is relentless."

"We wanted them to capture stories of change at our project interventions across India. Their journey is sure to inspire millions of people in India to do their bit for upholding children's rights," Moitra added.

ALSO READ | Aiming to improve Muslim education, NCPCR engages with madarsas

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Standardbred breeders Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld were named Equestrian Canada's 2016 Canadian Breeder of the Year at the annual Awards Reception, presented by Boehringer Ingelheim, on April 8 in Vancouver, B.C.

Equestrian Canada (EC) honoured some of Canadas outstanding equestrians, organizations and horses during its Awards Reception. Held in conjunction with the EC Annual Convention, April 7-9, the Reception celebrated the national award recipients for 2016, and their impressive achievements within the equestrian community.

We are proud to recognize the incredible accomplishments within the Canadian equestrian industry over the past year, said EC Chief Executive Officer, Eva Havaris. The quality and quantity of the nominations for 2016 were extremely high, which is a testament to the world-class athletes, owners, officials, organizations, volunteers and supporters found within the Canadian equestrian community. Congratulations to all the deserving winners.

The Canadian Breeder of the Year Award was created to recognize Canadian breeders who have displayed incredible dedication to the Canadian equestrian industry through efforts to improve the quality and enhance the reputation of Canadian bred horses.

This years recipients, Marvin Katz of Toronto and Al Libfeld of Pickering, Ont., are renowned for developing one of the most respected and successful breeding enterprises in the harness racing industry.

Katz and Libfeld entered into their breeding partnership with the goal and plan of becoming market breeders of trotters to fill the void in the North American market. Thanks to their many years of experience, along with careful selection of individuals and bloodlines, Katz and Libfeld soon began producing champions for their yearling buyers.

In 2016 alone, horses produced by the Libfeld/Katz breeding partnership won 29 races and earned purses in excess of $1.3 million. Their top horses were Ariana G, who won more than $800,000, and All The Time, the winner of the Hambletonian Oaks who racked up nearly $450,000. Katz and Libfeld also saw success in 2016 with Princess Aurora, a two-year-old trotting filly who won over $300,000, and O Narutac Perfetto, who brought in $100,000.

In light of their incredible success, Katz and Libfeld were named the 2015 and 2016 OBrien Award recipients for Armstrong Breeders of the Year, which is the highest honour awarded to Standardbred breeders in Canada. They also received the U.S. Dan Patch Award for top breeder in 2016. EC is pleased to add the 2016 Canadian Breeder of the Year Award to their list of accolades.

The following is a complete list of the 2016 award recipients recognized for their equestrian-related achievements.

NATIONAL AWARDS

Lifetime Achievement Award

Cara Whitham

Volunteer of the Year, Presented by Henry Equestrian

Anne Welch

Equestrian of the Year - The Dr. George Jacobson Trophy

Eric Lamaze

Junior Equestrian of the Year - The Gillian Wilson Trophy, Presented by Asmar Equestrian

Carmen Holmes-Smith

Horse of the Year  The Hickstead Trophy

Fine Lady 5

Owner of the Year

Artisan Farms

Canadian Bred Horse of the Year, Presented by Equinety XL

One Hot Krymsun

Breeder: Herb Best

Canadian Breeder of the Year, Presented by John Deere

Marvin Katz & Al Libfeld

Boehringer Ingelheim Equestrian Canada Health & Welfare Award

New Stride Thoroughbred Adoption Society

Equestrian Canada Media Award  The Susan Jane Anstey Trophy

Spruce Meadows Television

BREED SPORT AWARDS

Arabian Horse of the Year

PA Julius Caesar ++++/

Owner: Lorraine Prowse

Half-Arabian Horse of the Year

Qaracas CSF ++++/

Owner: Kristen MacGarva

Morgan Horse of the Year

Attn Postmaster

Owner: Mackenzie Collins

Saddle Seat Rider of the Year

Sara Sheppard

Welsh Pony of the Year

Beaverwoods Cinnamon

Owner: Kirsten Brunner

COACHING AWARDS

Coach Developer of the Year

Betty-Ann McPhedran

Community Coach of the Year

Gabriele Klotz

Competitive Coach of the Year

Sandra Donnelly

DISCIPLINE AWARDS

Dressage Athlete of the Year

Belinda Trussell

Dressage Horse of the Year

Laurencio

Dressage Owner of the Year

Robyn Eames & Mark Trussell

MH Lessard Dressage Volunteer of the Year

Renee DeGarie

Jumping Official of the Year

Michel Vaillancourt

Jumping Owner of the Year

Artisan Farms

Jumping Sponsor of the Year

Younger-Millar Family

Greenhawk Jumping Volunteer of the Year

Marjorie Dennis

(With files from Equestrian Canada)
B Sai Praneeth is now only the second player from India to win the men's singles final of a Super Series.

By Indo-Asian News Service: B Sai Praneeth clinched his maiden Super Series title by downing compatriot Kidambi Srikanth 17-21, 21-17, 21-12 in the Singapore Open final on Sunday. (Match Highlights)

This was Praneeth's first appearance in a Super Series final, the biggest events of the international badminton calendar.

Previously, Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and Srikanth have won the coveted crown.

Until Sunday, only three other countries -- China, Indonesia and Denmark -- had been represented on both sides of the court.

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After losing the first game 17-21, Praneeth showed tremendous grit to come back from being 1-6 in the dumps to level at 7-7.

Srikanth tied to assert his dominance with a superb smash down the line to take a 8-7 lead but Praneeth seemed determined to go into the break 11-10, winning 10 of the 14 points on the bounce.

Leading 18-16, Praneeth showed great awareness to outfox Srikanth who relied on his smashes and net play to dink the cork over his head when he was closer to the net for a sublime point.

Three game points to play for, Praneeth returned the favour this time with an identical 21-17 win to hang the final game perfectly in balance.

In the final game, Praneeth opened up a 10-4 lead and never looked back as Srikanth made an error.

Srikanth, who has a fair bit of experience having played in two finals and winning both - the 2015 India Open and 2014 China Open, never looked settled after the first game. It was Praneeth's all round play and array of strokes that pinned his rival down.

"It's a great feeling," an elated Praneeth said later. "I practice with him (Srikanth), so we know each other's game very well. It was a really tough match.

"I have been playing well in this tournament and the final win is very special. My hard work had paid off," the 24-year-old said.

--- ENDS ---
The world isnt the same as it was in 1952.

Gas and milk prices were cheaper, and rather than Face-Time or Skype, if you wanted to see someone you needed to do it in person. Northern Feed and Bean has changed too, but in late February the company was recognized for something it has done from day 1: export.

At the Governors Forum on Colorado Agriculture on Feb. 22, the company was honored with the Experienced Exporter Award.

Bob Brunner is the previous owner and current consultant for the company. His dad founded Northern Feed and Bean in 1952. And from day one, the company has always exported pinto beans to Mexico.

The company has grown exponentially in those years, and the changes in the company have continued to reflect that.

Northern Feed and Bean makes more than 30 times the amount of money during a decent year than it did early on.

The company has four properties, the main one in Lucerne, Colo., was added in 1991. Thats when general manager and owner Larry Lande entered the picture. He worked for AgLand at the time, but Brunner knew he wanted him with Northern Feed and Bean.

When we buiilt this -- I stil ran the Gill (Colo.) location until it closed in 96 -- we wanted Larry because he was the biggest competitor, Brunner said.

Lande decided to go to Northern Feed ane Bean because it brought on the potential for challenges and ownership.

It sounds like I was bought off, doest it? Lande said laughting.

In 1996 the Gill facility was converted to full-time storage, making the Lucerne facility the main headquarters. There are also facilities in Ault, Colo., and Torrington, Wyo.

Produces for Northern Bean hail from Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming, but even with such a large area, a big challenge is acreage and weather.

When the compay started, there were only farmers in Colorados Kersey and Gill areas, but now about 300 growers and landlords work wtih Northern Feed and Bean to grow the beans. Even though their producers have a lot of acres, that doesnt mean that they will grow beans on those acres. Farmers can change their crop rotation to other crops. And then there are years when farmers change the crops they grow as a reflection of the market. Or, like last year, large storms can wipe out thousands of acres of crops. Development also can take away crop acreage.

But with their expansions and relationships, they help keep the business chugging along.

Were four times the size today than we were when we started (in Lucerne), Lande said.

And that size is necessary. The beans are exported to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and the company is looking at the possibility of exporting to Cuba, too.

We had goals to increase the business because of our passion and our competitiveness to grow, but you get to a certain point, acres was a concern. We lost a lot of bean acres here because of the grain prices and a lot of dairies coming in, but we knew we were going to grow, Lande said.

When Brunners dad founded the company, he already had contacts in Mexico -- thats how the company was able to start exporting from year one.

Brunner said the companys brand is very important, and is widely recognized for its quality.

What weve done is weve built brand identity with the Frontier Brand, and thats what we sell. People know when they buy a bag of Frontier beans that its going to be premium quality, Brunner said.

Brunner was in the eighth grade when his dad started the company, and worked for Northern Feed and Bean throughout high school and college. After he graduated, he went into different lines of work -- management at JCPenney, co-owning a fabric store and eventually real estate.

When his dad wanted to retire, Brunner stepped in to take over the business. And in that time, the brand never changed.

I remember back in high school and college, it was imporant then. My father had established relationships with some of these businesses and then their sons took the business over, Brunner said.

Eventually, Brunner decided to retire himself. Well, almost.

Brunner sold the company to employees of Northern Feed and Bean. He said he knew they would continue on.

But Brunner stays on as a consultant. While, technically, retired, Brunner wasnt going to leave Northern Feed and Bean.

I like what Im doing, and when I get up in the morning Ive got to have a purpose. I dont look at this as work, he said.

Samantha Fox has been a reporter for The Fence Post since February 2016. She can be reached at sfox@thefencepost.com or 970-392-4410 or on Twitter @FoxonaFarm. Article reprinted with permission.
Pro-Kannada groups are protesting against the release of Baahubali: The Conclusion after actor Sathyaraj's controversial speech during the Cauvery issue.

By India Today Web Desk: India's highly anticipated Baahubali: The Conclusion is facing stiff protest from an activist Vatal Nagaraj, who demanded Sathyaraj to apologise for his insensitive remarks on Kannadigas during the Cauvery water issue.

Speaking about the issue, SS Rajamouli, in an exclusive interview with India Today, said, "It is a sad thing and we were shocked to see that on social media."

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Sathyaraj as the salve warlord Katappa, is one of the most important characters in The Conclusion.

"I worked with Sathyaraj for almost five years and I could have never ever imagined he is a person who could try to hurt someone. Some videos were posted on the internet. When we started inquiring, we learned that whatever comments Mr Sathyaraj made it was nine years back. And after that, about 30 films of his were released in Karnataka. Baahubali 1 released. No one had problems with that. And suddenly, raking up the issue at this point in time is not right," he said.

Rana Daggubati, who plays the mighty Bhallala Deva, also reacted to the issue. He said, "That's something he (Sathyaraj) said 10 years ago. Baahubali part 1 released in Karnataka and everybody loved it. It was huge in Karnataka. I mean, they're just trying to make news again."

Made on a lavish budget of Rs 250 crore, Baahubali is touted to have earned more than Rs 500 crore even before its release through its satellite and distribution rights.

Directed by SS Rajamouli, Baahubali 2 takes the story forward from where Baahubali: The Beginning ended. Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah, Sathyaraj and Ramya Krishnan star in pivotal roles in this instalment of Baahubali too. The film is slated to release on April 28 this year.

ALSO READ: SS Rajamouli discussed Mahabharata with Aamir before Baahubali 2

WATCH Baahubali vs Bhallala Deva: Prabhas and Rana Daggubati arm-wrestle it out

ALSO READ: Tamannaah on Baahubali 2- The franchise has changed the way people look at Indian Cinema

ALSO WATCH: SS Rajamouli, Rana react to Baahubali 2 Karnataka issue

--- ENDS ---
LINCOLN  The Nebraska Corn Board, in partnership with Nebraska FFA, recently recognized six high school FFA students as Ag Champions at the 2017 State FFA Convention in Lincoln. The purpose of the Ag Champions program is to help FFA students find their voices to help advocate for agriculture.

People are becoming increasingly removed from the farm and from ag production, said Kelly Brunkhorst, executive director of the Nebraska Corn Board. This disconnect can result in confusion or distrust of modern agriculture. Its reassuring to see the entries we received for the 2017 Ag Champions program. Nebraskas FFA students are tremendous advocates for agriculture and will no doubt become future leaders in our industry.

This years contest focused on using online tools, such as websites, blogs and social media platforms, to develop consistent, positive messages about Nebraska agriculture. Students were asked to create at least six different posts discussing a wide range of topics, such as current agricultural issues, family farming and modern production practices.

I learned that you really need to adjust your message for your audience, said Heidi Borg, FFA member at Wakefield Community High School. We know our industry, but [when talking to others] we really need to be able to communicate in words people understand.

Throughout the process, students had to think critically to ensure their messaging fit their audiences, while using appropriate media delivery tactics.

Using technology, Ive learned you can connect with people who are outside your community and work to bring them inside your community to create a dialogue, said Miranda Hornung, FFA member at Raymond Central High School.

This years Ag Champions award winners are (in alphabetical order):

Heidi Borg, senior at Wakefield Community High School; Miranda Hornung, junior at Raymond Central High School; Aubyrne McClintock, freshman at Wallace High School; Amanda Most, junior at Ogallala High School; Isabelle Stewart, senior at Lakeview High School; Rebekah Vote, freshman at Wallace High School.

The six winners each receive $500 scholarships to be used to further their agricultural advocacy efforts through FFA.

This is the third time the Nebraska Corn Board partnered with Nebraska FFA to host the Ag Champions program. The 2017 Nebraska State FFA Convention was held April 5-7 in Lincoln.
DENVER, Colo. -- February results for U.S. pork and beef exports were well above year-ago levels, with pork exports posting the strongest February volume on record, according to statistics released by USDA and compiled by USMEF.

Pork exports reached 197,025 metric tons (mt) in February, up 15 percent year-over-year, with value up 17 percent to $486.7 million. For the first two months of 2017, exports totaled 399,692 mt, up 18 percent, with value increasing 22 percent to $995.3 million.

February exports accounted for 27.6 percent of total pork production and 22.9 percent for muscle cuts only, up from 23.8 percent and 20 percent, respectively, last year. January-February ratios were also significantly higher at 26.8 percent and 22.2 percent, compared to 23 percent and 19.3 percent in the first two months of 2016. Export value per hog slaughtered averaged $51.94 in February, up 18 percent year-over-year, while the January-February average was up 20 percent to $51.05.

Beef exports totaled 90,417 mt in February, up 9 percent year-over-year, with value up 16 percent to $508.5 million. Through February, beef exports were up 13 percent in volume (186,905 mt) and 17 percent in value ($1.02 billion).

February exports accounted for 12.6 percent of total beef production and 10.1 percent for muscle cuts only, which was steady with last year. January-February ratios were also fairly steady at 12.4 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively. Export value per head of fed slaughter averaged $276.96 in February, up 13 percent from a year ago, while the January-February average was up 10 percent to $266.34 per head.

With trade deficits being a hot topic of conversation, especially with countries such as Mexico, China and Japan, its important to highlight the sectors in which U.S. products are competitive throughout the world and exports are thriving, said USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng. The red meat sector is certainly in that category, as exports have helped fuel growth in the U.S. industry and, in turn, larger U.S. production has opened further export opportunities and generated positive returns for the entire supply chain.

Pork exports strong to Western Hemisphere and North Asian markets

Mexico was once again the pacesetter for February pork exports, with volume up 22 percent to 64,990 mt and value increasing 28 percent to $116 million. This pushed the two-month totals for Mexico to 137,396 mt (up 27 percent) valued at $244.7 million (up 39 percent). Mexicos strong demand is reflected not only in increased buying from the U.S., but also in relatively high domestic hog prices, as per capita consumption of pork continues to grow. Strong demand from Mexico helped move prices for U.S. heavy bone-in hams higher in 2017  up an average of 4 percent year-over-year.

For Japan, the leading value market for U.S. pork, February exports increased 14 percent to 32,178 mt, valued at $130.4 million (up 18 percent). For January-February, exports to Japan were up 10 percent in volume (63,755 mt) and 14 percent in value ($256.1 million). Chilled pork exports to Japan increased 7 percent through February to 34,682 metric tons.
Chadron State Colleges Scholastic Contest tests students academic talent and gives students an idea of what they could do for a career.

This year, students from 43 regional high schools participated in 43 tests during the 57th annual Scholastic Contest.

Forty-one Scottsbluff High School students went to Chadron State College for the event which took place on April 7. The students took on diverse subject areas in the tests such as wildlife ecology, art and literature.

SHS, like many panhandle schools, participate in the event every year. Various students in ninth to 12th grade took tests in the Scholastic Contest.

There were three first place finishes and 16 students placed in the top 25 percent. Two students placed in the top 25 percent in two categories.

Andreana Fertig- Marlow, SHS counselor and one of the sponsors for the Scholastic Contest, said in addition to the students having a great day she thinks it validates the amount of work and effort put into the preparation of students for various career areas by the teachers.

Its reaffirming for them to see our students do so well, Fertig-Marlow said.

Fertig-Marlow said its an honor for the students to go and showcase what they know and learned over their experience at SHS.

Jatin Cranmore, sophomore at SHS, took the general biology test and received 11th place.

I thought it was an amazing experience. The overall environment was really just relaxed and everyone there was really supportive, Cranmore said.

Taylor York, junior at SHS, received third place in American government at the Scholastic Contest.

It was nice to place well. I was disappointed I didnt do better but Im also happy with how well I did, York said.

He is taking a college course in American government now and he took a class at the high school last semester.

Its something that I enjoy doing for sure, York said.

Cameron Harpold, junior at SHS, received first place in the health test in the Scholastic Contest.

I was really excited and I studied a lot for it, Harpold said.

In the future he would like to go to medical school.

Harpold said it was the first campus he has been on.

It was a lot more relaxed than I thought it would be, Harpold said.

Harpold said he is going to try to take a lot more health-oriented classes, as well as science and math courses to prepare for his future.

Students received first, second, and third on their test receive medals. If someone is a senior and first place in their test they receive a full in-state tuition scholarship to CSC.

There was one SHS senior this year who achieved this goal, Llicel Rodriguez.

Along with competing for medals and tuition another benefit to the day was that students are able to get onto CSCs campus and expereince the campus, the buildings, and a little bit of student life, according to Fertig-Marlow.

It gives them awareness when they are making post-secondary plans what Chadron State looks like and what programs they have to offer, Fertig-Marlow said.

Gering High School placed second in Division I of the 2017 Scholastic Day Contest at Chadron State College. Scottsbluff High School placed third.

Three students from GHS earned first place. Those students are: Rebekah Rawlings, Vocabulary; Brock Parker, Trigonometry; and Brianna Eckerberg, Simulated News Reporting.

Gering High School also had 37 students that placed in the top 25 percent of their individual tests.

Sidney High School placed second in Division II. Twenty-three students placed in the top 25 percent of their individual tests.

Bridgeport High School placed first in Division III. Eighteen students placed in the top 25 percent of their individual tests.
EDITORS NOTE: Charles L. Smith is the brother of Rita Stinner.

COUNCIL BLUFFS  Charles L. Smith, a Missouri Valley, Iowa, native and former chief judge of Iowas Fourth Judicial District, is one of 19 judges  and the only American  to be named international judges of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.

The Specialist Chambers, which meets at The Hague in the Netherlands, has jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under Kosovo law.

Im honored, Smith said of his selection. Even though the allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity may be disturbing, Im looking forward to being a part of the process of deciding these important cases.

Smith has worked previously with the judiciary in Kosovo: from 2010 through 2012, and again in 2013.

The appointment to this new role came in February and was made by the head of EULEX, the European Unions Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo. More than 3,000 people are part of this mission to bring trustworthy judicial and police practices to Kosovo following many years of war. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008.

The judges selected in February to serve alongside Smith represent the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Canada and Belgium.

Smith graduated from Missouri Valley High School in 1964. He enrolled at Creighton University, where he majored in political science and philosophy. After his junior year, and without an undergraduate degree, he was accepted into the Creighton School of Law. He graduated with a law degree in 1970.

Following graduation from law school, Smith returned to his hometown to practice law, eventually becoming a partner in the firm of Tamisiea, Tamisiea and Smith, a position he held until 1989. He also served as Harrison County attorney from 1972 to 1974.

In late 1989 Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad selected Smith to fill an opening on the bench of the Fourth Judicial District, and he assumed the judgeship in early 1990. In 1996 he was advanced by the Iowa Supreme Court to the position of chief judge of the Fourth Judicial District, a position he held until his retirement in 2010.

Within five days of that retirement, Smith left for Kosovo. That year he served as a trial judge in the District of Mitrovice and presided over many trials of criminal acts, including murder, rape, human and drug trafficking and war crimes.
Family and friends welcomed home one group of Nebraska National Guard members from a deployment and said goodbye to another on Saturday.

Thirty-five members from Company G of the 2-104th General Support Aviation Battalion were greeted with signs, balloons and cheers at their Lincoln headquarters Saturday afternoon.

The soldiers, who operate UH-60 Black Hawk medical helicopters, have been conducting medevac support missions in Afghanistan since shortly after they were mobilized in June 2016.

The welcome-home event in Lincoln followed a farewell ceremony in Omaha for more than 50 members of the 402nd Military Police Battalion who will be leaving shortly for a deployment of nearly a year to Guantanamo Naval Base, Cuba. The well-wishers included Gov. Pete Ricketts and Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse; each thanked the soldiers and their families for their sacrifice.

The Nebraska soldiers will manage the controversial detention facility first opened in January 2002 to hold detainees rounded up in the war on terror. Nearly 800 prisoners have passed through Camp Delta, but only 41 are living there now. The military and civilian staff at the facility currently numbers about 1,750, according to the Miami Herald  about 42 staff members for every prisoner.

The Nebraskans wont be guarding the detainees, said Lt. Col. Eric Hunsberger, the unit battalion commander, but will manage the military police who do. They will relieve a Tennessee National Guard unit.

Hunsberger said those deploying are mostly officers and senior noncommissioned officers.

Its more top-heavy than your traditional deployment, he said.

Hunsberger said about 60 percent of the Cuba-bound soldiers have deployed before. About 12 percent were part of the battalions last major deployment, which was to Afghanistan in 2010-11.

Its the first time a Nebraska National Guard unit will deploy to Guantanamo, which has been home to a U.S. Navy coaling and naval station under the terms of a lease signed with the Cuban government in 1903. That lease has been a source of friction with Cubas Communist government since the revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959.

The base gained a higher profile after the administration of President George W. Bush decided to place detainees there following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Because the camp was not on U.S. soil, the detainees lacked many rights and were left in a kind of legal limbo that began to be resolved by a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

President Barack Obama pledged at the beginning of his term in 2009 to close the detention facility, but that promise was thwarted because of bipartisan opposition in Congress to moving the remaining detainees to the United States.

Hunsberger said unit leaders have known about the pending deployment for about two years. They will spend four to five weeks completing their training at Fort Bliss, Texas, before proceeding to Guantanamo.

Were excited, he said. The soldiers are motivated to be mobilized and serve their communities.

Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Fellman, 33, said he is grateful for the opportunity to serve on such an important mission. But this deployment will be harder than his previous service in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Fellman, of Elkhorn, Nebraska.

Its the first time I have to leave her, he said, bouncing his 9-month-old daughter, Josephine, on his hip.

Missing some of her milestones isnt something Im looking forward to, but its something we understand.

Fellman and his wife, Sarah, said they appreciated the messages from Ricketts, Fischer and Sasse.

It really means a lot that they came to show us that they support us and our families, he said.

The mission in Guantanamo will be the first deployment for 21-year-old Sgt. Melissa Rahorst of Cortland, Nebraska.

Looking around the send-off ceremony Saturday morning, Rahorst realized how many of her fellow soldiers were leaving young children and spouses behind.

Its emotional for everyone, she said. But we all know that we are going there to do our job and to come home safe. Its really an honor.

Its been a busy week of comings and goings for the Nebraska National Guard. Seven soldiers from the 195th Forward Support Company were welcomed home Wednesday in Omaha from a six-month Middle East mission supporting special forces units, and four soldiers from Company A of the 641st Aviation Regiment, based in Lincoln, were sent off Friday on a deployment to U.S. Africa Command.

Between 100 and 200 troops out of a Nebraska National Guard force that numbers about 3,300 have been deployed at a time for the past couple of years, said Lt. Col. Kevin Hynes, a Guard spokesman. Thats down from a peak of about 1,000 deployed forces between 2010 and 2012.
The ashes of an Indiana man who documented the genealogy of the Omaha Tribe will be buried in a special ceremony Saturday in Macy, Nebraska.

Starting in 1961, Paul Brill conducted hundreds of interviews with tribal members, sometimes through a translator, to document the genealogy of the Omahas. He became a valued friend of the tribe and donated his research to Nebraska Indian Community College in Macy last year. Brill and his late wife, Marjorie, wished for their remains to be buried on the Omaha Reservation.

Brill died March 19 in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was 86.

Brills research is invaluable, said Pierre Merrick of Winnebago, Nebraska, an Omaha Indian whose parents adopted Brill into their family as a sign of respect and appreciation.

The work he did for us well be using forever, Merrick said. He documented our native names that were slowly being forgotten. Well be using his work to teach our people about who they are and where they came from.

Brill came to Macy as a former Indiana schoolteacher. His job with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs was to document who qualified, by the percentage of their blood that is American Indian, for a government payment.

He spent more than 25,000 hours tracing the Omaha lineage, learning the Omaha language along the way. He was made a member of the tribe by proclamation of the tribal council  a rare honor  in 1988 and given the Omaha name Esta mahza (Iron Eye). The community college nominated him for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his more than six decades of work with American Indians. The prize went to Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia.

Brill last visited the tribe in August to check on his donated records and to attend the tribes annual powwow.

When I came here, the work was for the benefit of the government, Brill told The World-Herald. Then it became a benefit for the Indian people themselves. It makes me feel good because they really appreciate their ancestors.

Mike Berger, the colleges development director, said he is pleased that Brill wanted his research to be housed in Macy.

Its a tremendous resource, he said. Theres nothing like it out there.

Brills thousands of handwritten documents meticulously catalog the families and clans of the Omaha people as far back as the time of the fur traders, Lewis and Clark and the first Spanish explorers. The work not only helped establish whether someone was a tribal member  a person must be at least 25 percent Omaha  and whether he qualified for tribal benefits, but also helped people connect with their roots.

Brill initially lived in Macy for a couple of years, but kept working on the genealogies during a career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs across the country. The work wasnt easy. American Indians rely on oral tradition to document their past, not paper records. Records that were kept were often inconsistent or incomplete, and because so many Omaha children were either sent to boarding schools or adopted to white families, some documents were confidential or hard to obtain.

The college is raising more than $1.3 million to establish a tribal archives named for the Brills as part of a new classroom addition and to digitize the records. Construction is expected to begin next month. About $900,000 remains to be raised, Berger said.

The Brills mixed ashes will be buried at 2 p.m. in the Merrick family plot in the Macy cemetery after ceremonies at the college. The facility opens at 10 a.m. A cedar-burning ceremony begins at 11 a.m., followed by a traditional Omaha meal at noon and honor songs at 1 p.m.

Paul worked with more than 50 different tribes across the country, and the Omahas were the closest to his heart, Berger said. He dedicated his life to their history and culture.
If reports are anything to go by, Tollywood star Prabhas's next with Sujeeth Reddy is likely to be titled Sahoo, say reports.

By India Today Web Desk: After essaying the eponymous character Amarendra Baahubali in SS Rajamouli's Baahubali: The Beginning Prabhas became a global star for all the right reasons.

While the actor is currently promoting his much-anticipated Baahubali 2, an interesting news has surfaced online.

Having dedicated more than four years for Baahubali, Prabhas has finally moved on with his upcoming film with Sujeeth Reddy of Run Raja Run fame. Now, according to reports, UV Creations, which is bankrolling the project has apparently registered the title Sahoo for the film. Interestingly, the film has a Baahubali connect to it. It must be noted that the title song of Baahubali 2 begins with 'Sahoore Baahubali'. However, we await an official confirmation regarding the same.

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To be produced by UV Creations, it is said that the film will be made on a lavish budget of Rs 150 crore. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy will compose the music for the film, which is expected to release in the second half of this year.

Meanwhile, the expectations for Baahubali: The Conclusion is huge among fans of the franchise. Also starring Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah, Sathyaraj and Ramya Krishnan, the film is slated to release on April 28.

ALSO READ: Pa Paandi Review

ALSO READ: Kadamban Review

ALSO READ: After Baahubali 2, Tamannaah to play a physically challenged person

ALSO WATCH | Baahubali 2- Prabhas, Rana Daggubati talk about the ultimate face-off

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With one hand holding a bottle of champagne and the other an oversized certificate declaring him the winner of $1 million from Publishers Clearing House, Bruce Saunders stood on the front porch of his western Davie County Monday and rattled off a list of things he plans spend his spend money on  medical bills, fixing his lawnmower and helping family members.
President Donald Trump has been flip-flopping right and left recently -- much of it for the good. He's abandoned his promises to label China a currency manipulator, withdraw from NAFTA, repeal Obamacare and stay out of Syria. But he seems to be digging in on his pledge to create a deportation force to rid the country of people who are illegally here. A decision memo leaked last week to The Washington Post outlines the administration's plans to hire new Customs and Border Protection officers quickly by abandoning the usual safeguards, such as polygraphs and physical fitness tests, in some instances and deploying local police to enforce immigration laws through agreements with dozens of cooperative police departments. The memo also says that the Department of Homeland Security has found some 33,000 beds to supplement its detention facilities.
Yes, you read that right! Filmmaker SS Rajamouli had apparently discussed the possibility of his gargantuan project Mahabharata with Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan.

By India Today Web Desk: Yes, you read that right! Filmmaker SS Rajamouli had apparently discussed the possibility of his gargantuan project on Mahabharata with Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan. Though the talks are still in nascent stage, Rajamouli went on the record saying that his dream has always been to direct Mahabharata.

Speaking about the mammoth project, Rajamouli was quoted by Bollywoodlife as saying, "I want to do Mahabharata and I have said that many times but definitely not immediately after Baahubali. Mahabharat is such an epic that I need to up my craftsmanship to handle such a subject. Yeah I met Aamir ji once quite sometime back and we spoke about Mahabharata. I know that he's very much interested in doing the film. But as I said, at present I am not thinking anything beyond Baahubali. Mahabharata is definitely not after this."

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Interestingly, Aamir Khan himself expressed his desire to work with Rajamouli during the promotion of Dangal. He said, "I am a huge fan of Rajamouli's work and if he ever plans to make Mahabharata, I'd love to play Krishna or Karna. I might actually go with Krishna."

If things fall into place, Mahabharata will be one of the biggest films in the history of Indian cinema.

Meanwhile, Rajamouli awaits the release of Baahubali: The Conclusion, which is slated to release on April 28.

Made on a lavish budget of Rs 200 crore, Baahubali: The Conclusion has already yielded profits for the producers even before its release and reportedly raked in Rs 500 crore.

The film has Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty and Tamannah in the lead, while Ramya Krishnan, Sathyaraj and Nasser play pivotal roles.

WATCH Baahubali vs Bhallala Deva: Prabhas and Rana Daggubati arm-wrestle it out

ALSO READ: Tamannaah on Baahubali 2- The franchise has changed the way people look at Indian Cinema

ALSO READ: More confident about Baahubali 2 than Baahubali, says SS Rajamouli

ALSO WATCH: Aamir Khan backs Dangal daughter Zaira Wasim

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Its that time of year when a piece of mail from the county assessor often carries good news and bad news.

The good news is the value of your home is going up.

The bad news is so are your taxes.

For most of us, the new assessment produces not much more than a sigh. Maybe an angry ripping of the paper before tossing it in the trash can and opening the next bill.

But for one Missouri company, rising assessments are worth more than a passing thought.

Since 2013, Ameren Missouri has been engaged in multiple legal battles with county assessors in 16 rural counties, arguing that the assessments for the monopoly utility companys natural gas distribution systems are too high. The result is that somewhere between $8 million and $10 million is being held in escrow, forcing school districts in places like Butler, Cape Girardeau, Cooper, Callaway and Warren counties to get by with less while the legal disputes go all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court.

So far, Ameren has lost at every step of the way, but the company keeps fighting.

Now, assessors are fighting back. Theyve joined forces to fight the St. Louis-based monopoly and theyre going public with their battle.

It is just an atrocity what they are doing, says Cape Girardeau County Assessor Bob Adams.

Adams and other assessors believe that Ameren is challenging the small, rural county assessments because the monopoly with deep pockets figures that eventually the counties will give up, tired of rising legal bills.

Those bills, shared among the 16 counties, are more than $1.2 million and counting.

On May 2, the first of the disputes, with all of the counties 2013 assessments rolled into one case, was scheduled to go to the Missouri Supreme Court. But on Tuesday the court sent the disputes back to various appeals courts. To get to this point, Ameren had to lose at the local Board of Equalization, the State Tax Commission and circuit court.

The assessors are sure theyll win again at the appeals level, and ultimately in front of the Missouri Supreme Court if it comes to that. But then come more legal fights over assessments in 2014, 2015 and 2016, all being disputed by Ameren.

The utility company says it is just looking out for consumers.

Higher taxes mean higher rates, says Warren Wood, Amerens vice president for external affairs and communications. Amerens position is that the assessors are not properly taking into account depreciation. The company says it is following an advisory from the State Tax Commission that in 2013 recommended that companies follow an Internal Revenue Service method of determining depreciation, rather than the market value process the assessors were using. That guidance, however, also said that the assessors were the final word on which method to use.

Several rural assessors told me that they are all following state law in determining market value. To date, the courts back their position.

The unrebutted evidence on the Record shows that a depreciation of over 50% had been applied by Respondent and the Board of Equalization, wrote Judge Stephen R. Mitchell in his September 2016 decision backing Cape Girardeaus assessment of Ameren.

Three others counties  St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve and Franklin  have similar disputes with Spire (formerly The Laclede Group). They, too, have joined with the 16 assessors from counties where Ameren is disputing taxes to fight the monopoly utility companies.

Until 2013, there were no problems, said Dan Ward, the St. Francois County assessor. The gas companies submitted their numbers and the assessors basically accepted them.

How could they agree with us all these years, and then want to depreciate by 50 percent all at once? Ward wonders.

About 70 percent of the tax money being held in escrow would go to schools in the rural counties. But fire districts and library districts are suffering, too, the assessors say. They put their money together and hired an attorney from Kalamazoo, Mich., and an expert appraiser from New Hampshire.

While Ameren says it is protecting consumers by trying to keep their tax rates low, the assessors suggest consumers also lose if Ameren wins. Thats because if the gas companys appraisal goes down, the overall tax burden in the county will simply get shifted to other businesses and residents. Gas bills might stay low but other taxes will rise.

So far, every legal ruling has come down in favor of the assessors.

The decisions are all the same, Adams says. All Ameren is doing is bleeding us for more money.

Tony Messenger  314-340-8518 @tonymess on Twitter tmessenger@post-dispatch.com
What has happened to our powers of discernment and our ability to see these people for what they are, which is that they care nothing for us?
Each Saturday and Sunday well post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief verdict on a single cigar of buy, hold, or sell.

Today I smoked a cigar you could consider a bit of a unicorn. Only 50 boxes of 30 cigars were ever made of the Robusto edition of the debut 2010 Summerfest cigar, which, according to Viaje brand owner Andre Farkas, was a factory mistake. (Other Viaje Summerfest vitolas, including the 2010 Torpedo, which was the non-mistake version of the 2010 release, are known for having a shaggy unfinished foot.) The Nicaraguan puro features sourdough bread notes along with cinnamon, light spice, and buttery notes. Its well-balanced and medium-bodied, though there is a peppery spice that builds in the final third. Well-constructed, this is an example of a well-made, well-executed smoke that was good when it debuted and has improved with age.

Verdict = Buy.

Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys
All India Muslim Personal Law Board today said that it would Supreme Court's decision on the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir issue.

By India Today Web Desk: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) today said it would accept the Supreme Court's decision on the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir issue, PTI reported.

Hearing a petition filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Subramanian Swamy, the Supreme Court on March 21 said the construction of a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya was an issue of sentiment and religion, and asked the disputing parties to sort the matter outside court.

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"An amicable settlement of the Ayodhya Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute was a better course than on insisting on judicial pronouncement," a bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.

Also read:

Babri Masjid demolition case is a drag? These 5 examples will tell you the list is long

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Christian community across the world including Pakistan is celebrating Easter on Sunday with religious devotion and fervor.

Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the occasion. It is typically the well-attended Sunday service of the year for Christian churches on Easter Sunday.

Strict security arrangements have been put in place at churches across Pakistan to ensure that no untoward incident takes place.

The death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion is marked on Good Friday, always the Friday just before Easter.

Christian community holds prayers and special ceremonies to mark Easter, the culmination of the 40-day Lent, a time of fasting, giving alms, repenting and spiritual renewal.

Service and prayers were also offered for progress and prosperity of the country.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday called for creating inter-faith harmony in the county.

Felicitating Christian community on the occasion of Easter, the chief minister said that all minorities in Pakistan were enjoying equal rights and the government had taken concrete measures for their welfare.

He said that Easter is the name of spending time with deserving people and sharing joys by thinking above ourselves.

The Chief Minister said Christian community is playing its due role for countrys progress.

The Chief Minister said the constitution of Pakistan has provided guarantee for the equal rights and complete protection to all minorities.
US Vice President Mike Pence has arrived in South Korea amid rising concerns that the simmering tensions on the Korean Peninsula would eventually turn into a full-scale military confrontation between the United States and North Korea.

Pence arrived in the country on Sunday at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia and hours after a North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately" on its test launch earlier in the day.

Pence will meet with leaders in South Korea and Japan to possibly discuss ways to counter Pyongyangs nuclear and missile programs as well as matters related to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to South Korea .

He is also planning to reassure South Korean and Japanese officials that Washington will defend them against North Korea.

Upon his arrival in South Korea, Pence attended a brief ceremony at Seoul National Cemetery. He was expected to go to church along with US and South Korean troops for Easter Sunday services followed by a dinner later in the day.

Washington has expressed profound concern over North Koreas nuclear program, which Pyongyang argues is a deterrent against a possible military invasion by Washington or its ally Seoul.

On Friday, the White House said during an official briefing, The Vice President is going to underscore intent  were going to continue to consult with the Republic of Korea on North Koreas efforts to advance its ballistic missile and its nuclear program.

Pence will also explain a US policy dubbed "maximum pressure and engagement," according to which Washington will increase pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.

China is a traditional ally of North Korea, but it has voted in favor of UN sanctions over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests.

US President Donald Trump has been seeking Beijing's help in denuclearizing Pyongyang, threatening to act alone if China is not willing to offer assistance in this regard.

Trump has warned of a tougher stance, saying "North Korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of."

The United States is moving an aircraft supercarrier toward the Korean Peninsula in a show of force, which the North sees as Washington's intention to declare war.

The US introduces into the Korean Peninsula, the worlds biggest hotspot, huge nuclear strategic assets, seriously threatening peace and security of the peninsula and pushing the situation there to the brink of a war, the North Koran Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

This is the third visit to South Korea by a top official from the Trump administration. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited the country in February and March respectively.

As part of his tour of Asia, Pence will also travel to Indonesia and Australia.
Bharatpur MLA Vijay Bansal said, "Bhim Rao Ambedkar was made the creator of the Constitution by political people to garner votes."

By Dev Ankur Wadhawan: After protests were carried out by Dalit organizations, Rajasthan BJP has disowned itself from the remark made by its Bharatpur MLA Vijay Bansal.

BJP state spokesperson and Jaipur Mayor Ashok Lahoty, in a statement, said, "This statement can be a personal statement by MLA Vijay Bansal. The party has nothing to do with this statement."

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Bansal, while speaking on the occasion of opening ceremony of a private school, on the 125th anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar, had said, "Bhim Rao Ambedkar was made the creator of the Constitution by political people to garner votes."

Members of the Dalit community had protested in Bharatpur demanding arrest of BJP MLA Vijay Bansal for his comment on Dr. B R Ambedkar. The protesting members also demanded his membership from the state Assembly be revoked. They shouted slogans against the BJP MLA and demanded Bansal's arrest for his statement.

However, clearly distancing itself from the remark made by its MLA, the statement issued by the Rajasthan BJP stated, "The BJP clearly believes Baba Bhimrao Ambedkar is the inspirational and creator of Constitution. Not only Bharatiya Janta Party but the entire world accepts his role. This will always be remembered."

Also Read:

Dalits protest against BJP MLA Vijay Bansal in Bharatpur for jibe at BR Ambedkar, demand his arrest

On Ambedkar Jayanti, this BJP leader does not believe what Narendra Modi said on Baba Saheb

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BPPL Holdings to commission new plant, expansion by 1Q17 View(s):

Brush manufacturer and exporter of sanitary maintenance tools, BPPL Holdings Ltd (BPPL) which started trading on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) recently will commission its synthetic yarn plant (to manufacture polyester yarn) within a few months, officials said.

The company is also set to expand its monofilament plant as well during the same time, they added.

BPPL Managing Director Dr. Anush Amarasinghe told the Business Times that they already placed orders for the machinery and that both will start happening by 1Q next year. He said that they will set up a Rs. 675 million expansion and also build their factory to make this polyester yarn which will be supplied to garment manufacturers. This will help save the country many dollars, he said noting that now the garment exporters import them.

This is just the beginning; our future prospects are extremely bright. We are engaged in an industry with tremendous potential and will continue to strive ahead in a way that will help create further potential. We will uphold the confidence placed in us, with each step, adding greater value and contributing to the benefits of all our stakeholders, Dr. Amarasinghe told the gathering at the recent trading launch. BPPLs IPO for 30.7 million shares at Rs.12 per share was oversubscribed on March 7.

He told the Business Times that they saw a 50 per cent growth in sales locally and Indonesia combined during the past 11 months.

BPPL is one of Sri Lankas largest brush manufacturers and exporters of sanitary maintenance tools customised for household, professional, commercial and industrial cleaning applications. With over 30 years of brush-ware manufacturing and marketing experience, the company is among the top brush makers in the world.

The global brush export market is worth US$6.5 billion and the Beira Group is the largest producer in the Southeast Asian region. BPPL will be accessing the South East Asian nations  Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines markets by next year. - DEC
EU team examines SLs labour laws ahead of GSP+ approval By Jayampathy Jayasinghe Govts one mln jobs: Already 700,000 vacancies in pvt sector View(s): View(s):

A 7-member delegation which includes two European Union (EU) parliamentarians visited Sri Lanka on Monday on a fact finding mission to examine the prevailing labour laws and submit a report to the EU regarding the impending GSP+ concessions.

The delegation was expected to meet President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the ministers of Labour, and Development Strategies and International Trade and all stakeholders of the industry including those of the garment industry during a 3-day visit. The MPs were from the Netherlands and Spain while the rest of the delegation was made up of representatives of global unions.

Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya General Secretary Leslie Devendra briefing reporters on Friday April 7 (ahead of the visit) said that five trade unions affiliated to the Industriall Sri Lanka Council have decided to make representation to the delegation.

He said when Sri Lanka enjoyed the benefits of the GSP+ concession in the past before it was suspended, employees of garment factories did not receive any benefits from this facility despite their sweat and toil in garment factories. Those who enjoyed the full benefits from GSP+ were only the owners of garment factories.

Although the GSP+ concessions focused attention on human rights issues it did not look at other issues such as labour rights violation in Sri Lanka, Mr. Devendra said.

He added that while trade unions were not opposed to granting GSP+ concessions to Sri Lanka, the benefits should go to workers as well apart from owners of garment factories.

Referring to formation of trade unions in garment factories, he said the owners often disrupt the formation of trade unions by resorting to arm twisting methods to discourage workers from engaging in trade union activity.

Unless these issues are not resolved the employees will not benefit from GSP+. We have submitted to the European Union the names of eight garment factories in Sri Lanka that suppressed and infringed the rights of its employees with regard to trade union action.

He said although state employees enjoyed the freedom to engage in trade union activity the majority of the employees in the private sector do not have any trade unions at their work places.

Anton Marcus, Joint Secretary of the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union, said while the governments intention is to create one million new jobs, already 20,000 jobs are vacant in the garment sector while 700,000 vacancies exist in the private sector.

Sri Lankans however are not attracted to these jobs due to unfavourable terms of employment in hiring people. He said while the minimum salary scale stipulated in the Wages Ordinance was Rs. 13,500, workers who sweat and toil in their work places can only earn up to Rs. 20,000 per month.

H said a survey conducted by them had found that US$235 was needed to upkeep and maintain a family of four persons but today employees draw only up to $90, adding that this was the main reason why people are not attracted to these jobs.

Mr. Marcus said GSP+ will facilitate in the export of 7200 items from Sri Lanka to 27 countries in the EU without any tax being imposed on them.

However EU citizens pay such taxes to help those in the Third World countries to uplift their living conditions. There wouldnt have been 20,000 vacancies in the garment sector and 700,000 vacancies in the private sector had the benefits of the earlier GSP+ concessions been given to its employees, he said.

He said although Sri Lanka had signed many International Labour Organisation conventions, the required laws have not been passed to implement them. Employees of the newly set up garment factories in the north and east have not been paid several allowances to its employees. Of the 8 million workforce in the country only 10 per cent today belong to trade unions, he said. Linus Jayatilake, President of Public Service Trade Union Federation and President of the United Federation of Labour, also spoke.
Lankan professionals initiate public hearing on national trade policies View(s):

The Professionals National Front, a new, high-powered group of academics, intellectuals and civil society activities, last week begun in Colombo what it terms as public hearings into Sri Lankas proposed National Trade Policy.

The group comprises representatives of many organisations which have expressed dismay over proposed trade pacts that allows an unrestricted flow of foreign labour. It has invited submissions from the public.

In a public announcement, the group said the Peoples Commission inquiring into key elements of the National Trade Policy was holding public sittings from April 6 onwards for Sri Lankans to make submissions on, (a) Ensuring competitiveness of local entrepreneurs (April 6); (b) Securing of local professional and tech careers (April 20); (c) Accommodating national interest when entering into international trade agreements (April 27); (d) Responsibility and accountability for trade agreements and analysis of their impact (May 5); (e) Sri Lankas commitments and undertakings for the World Trade Organisation (May 18); and (f) Evaluation of social, cultural and sustainable development impacts of trade agreements (May 25). The sittings are being held at the Organization of Professional Association (OPA) auditorium at Prof. Stanley Wijesundera Mawatha, Colombo 7. The commission is headed by Prof. W.D. Lakshman, a renowned economist and former Vice Chanceller of the University of Colombo while K. Thilakaratna is the commission secretary.

The organisations involved in the front are the OPA, Government Medical Officers Association, Inland Revenue Trade Unions Joint Committee, Society of IT Professionals, Progressive Bank Employees Front, Government Ayurveda Medical Officers Association, Telecommunication Engineers Union, Public Service United Nurses Union, Government Dental Surgeons Association, Customs Officers Union, CPC Engineers Union, National University Teachers Association and the Railway Professionals Trade Unions Alliance.
Market Research Society of Sri Lanka elects new committee View(s):

At the 4th Annual General Meeting of the Market Research Society of Sri Lanka (MRSSL) held recently, current President of MRSSL, Ms. Himalee Madurasinghe was re-elected for another term.

In her acceptance speech, Ms. Madurasinghe thanked the support of the society and the Executive Committee for the successful year that went by and outlined the plans for the coming year. She said it was heartening to see the spirit of togetherness demonstrated by the member agencies in order to take the Market Research industry of Sri Lanka to greater heights. Further, Ms. Madurasinghe also highlighted the need for increased awareness, and more involvement of the membership in the activities of the Society to enable the market research industry to deliver the best possible solutions of the highest quality to marketers.

The Executive Committee from the previous year continues with. Ravi Bamunusinghe as the Immediate Past President, Ms. Roshani Fernando as the Secretary and Waruna Kathriarachchi as the Treasurer.
Products and services changing rapidly to meet needs of consumers By Quintus Perera View(s): View(s):

Todays world is changing, economic conditions are changing and accordingly the products and services should also change to meet the aspirations and needs of consumers, is the view of a veteran industrialist in the country.

E.J. Gnanam, Managing Director, Supermet, speaking at the re-launch of the product  Supermet  a roofing solution, in Colombo last week, stressed that a good human resource team is the root for success.

He indicated that one could have innovative products with huge investments and newest technology but without a dedicated team nothing can be achieved.

Supermet is one company that has a member of the staff who has been with them for the last 40 years and in fact now comes to work with a walking stick. In their workplace anyone could continue as long as the person is possibly willing to, Mr. Gnanam said.

He said that while their original roofing solution has been Rhino Asbestos, manufacturing for the last 51 years, in 2004 they introduced to the market the newest roofing solution Supermet that had a moderate growth over the last decade and last year was separated into two manufacturing entities to continue their efforts to serve the customer with products of high quality standards.

In the manufacture of Supermet steel, AZ150 zinc aluminum coating is used to increase the durability of the product, enhancing overall strength to resist high pressures. The high quality steel is imported from South Korea. However to continue a steady supply the company is contemplating opening a new factory in the Kurunegala area.

Jude Fernando, Director, Supermet, said that Supermet is a benchmark for quality and excellence and they only use finest quality raw material and conduct strict quality checks to ensure premium quality in their final product.
Singapore expertise sought to expedite Household Transfer Management Project By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s):

Sri Lanka is seeking Singapore expertise in expediting the implementation of the Household Transfer Management Project (HTM) with the aim of introducing a National Digital Identity (NDI), which will ensure that all financial and non-financial digital transactions are conducted in a transparent but secure manner.

The Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Ministry Secretary has been directed by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) to discuss with the Sri Lankan High Commission in Singapore to get down two independent consultants from Singapore to study the specifications and assist in the evaluation of bids for the selection of suitable parties for the procurement of necessary inputs towards the implementation of the project.

The proposed project will be implemented by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA).

It is over one year since inviting for bids to select eligible and qualified bidders for various sections of the project. The Cabinet appointed Procurement Committee (CAPC) and Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) have been unable to arrive at a decision on suitable bidders, official sources revealed.

Seven international bidders have submitted bids last year for the procurement of designing, developing, supplying, delivery, installing and implementing the software hardware and infrastructure for generating digital identity for citizens of Sri Lanka and for the Household Transfer Management (HTM) system.

But the CAPC and TEC came to a conclusion that all those bidders have failed to fulfill the tender evaluation criteria and decided not to award the tender to any of them, a senior official of the ministry said. The NDI will have a unique number in all other relevant data bases namely  passports, tax file, customs documents, vehicle registration, voter registers, welfare registers, bank data bases, utility bills, etc, official sources said.

Apart from using it to enhance tax collections, it can also serve to regularise various other systems such as welfare payments which will help reduce corruption, delays, waste and enhance efficiency. Two committees were set up to formulate a national policy on collection, storage, sharing and use of citizens personal data and to ensure the proper governance process for the proper implementation of the HTM project.

The governments digital strategy includes the introduction of the National Payment Platform (NPP) enabling the public to transfer funds from any of their bank accounts through the mobile phone for the payment of goods and services using their NDI. The NPP will bring in savings for the government by increasing efficiency thereby reducing cash movement and the cash float in the market.
By India Today Web Desk: Former Bigg Boss contestant Sofia Hayat is in news again, this time because she recently claimed that she was molested in Mecca.

The reality star had visited the place for her second Umrah with her fiance Vlad.

Also read: Sofia Hayat in legal trouble over getting swastika tattoo on her feet

Sofia uploaded a video on her personal Instagram account where she spoke in detail about how while attempting to touch the black stone, she could feel a man deliberately pressing himself against her back.

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She wrote in the caption of the said video, "Islam respects women. A man must not touch a woman that is not his wife, or be violent to her. That is why I love Islam. These rules however do not apply in Mecca. Men forget the rules when they go there. Today on my 2nd Umrah as I attempted again to touch the black stone, I was being pushed by men. One man was pushing his genitals into me from behind, the women's queue is non existent because men have used their physical strength to push women out of the way. As I was about a metre from the black stone, I was pushed so hard against my ribs I could not breath. I was scared, so I decided to turn back, as I did, men kept pushing, and my hijab came off and got caught between the pushing men, I was being dragged back by it and was started to be strangled by it. I screamed. Suddenly a few good men saw what was happening and came to my rescue..."

Sofia's partner Vlad was also present in the video.

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Sky is the limit for Sri Lankan drones By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s):

In movies of recent times, weve seen drones of all shapes and sizes over our skies. Be it dishing out medicines for contestants in Hunger Games or tracking childrens trail in Logan, drones are now real, not only in reel life. Unmanned aerial vehicles have dominated both the imagination and nightmares of people around the world in recent years.

Also Sri Lanka is no stranger to building them either; just ask the folks at the University of Moratuwa who have built surveillance drones. Now a two-story house at Amarasekera Mawatha in the middle of Havelock Town will be a place to mark, for it belongs to Tilak Dissanayake and his team of three that have a solution of fast-paced delivery drones.

Clad in an orange coloured sarong, he insists we call him Tilak as hes not that old! The Business Times Team is advised to not remove their shoes when some of us resorted to do that after seeing a line of shoes near the staircase. Because you might step on some sharp aluminium scraps, Tilak warns.

Upstairs on the second floor is his living room, dining room and workshop all rolled into one, he acknowledges. As I enter the space something falls down and a young man in shorts hastens to pick it. Apparently my oversized handbag had knocked down a precariously positioned drill on a small table at the small space which incidentally houses six tables.

After apologies and no  that happens often, I am directed to a rather comfortable ergonomically designed chair and he takes the one opposite. When it comes to designing aircraft, Tilak brings a wealth of experience to the table.

This is how

An airplane enthusiast from childhood, Ray Wijewardena, aviation pioneer, the inventor of the hand tractor, the Father of Dendro Power, the architect of SALT (Sloping Agricultural Land Terracing) to name a few, was his hero.

After finishing his schooling at Royal College, Tilak attended the University of Hawaii  by sheer luck  as he calls it, where he obtained degrees in Mechanical Engineering and joined the Boeing 767 programme in Seattle in 1978 working in the propulsion technology systems group.

After about 12 years there, he moved to Xerox where he worked for seven years. Tilak then moved to Silicon Valley at the start of the Internet boom in 1996, and worked at various startup companies including Netscape for some 4-years (where he had witnessed the bust as well).

Inspiration

After 30 years in the US, Tilak returned to Sri Lanka in 2001 to look after his dad. After many disastrous projects that ate up his savings, the inspiration for the current start-up came at Ray Wijewardene passing away. He was my hero and as an homage to him, I wanted to combine his love for agriculture and aviation. So at the end point, itll pick up produce from a farm and land it near a market type of thing, he smiles.

Now Tilak and his teams mission is very different in that; they are the only ones doing this, he assures. Given that the end point vision has too many moving parts, Tilak and his team intend to initially build an air cargo network for middle mile courier package transport, complete with airports, segregated airways, air traffic management and airlines that use low-cost drones that can carry 20 kg initially at speeds of 200 kmph.

In October 2016, Akshayan Rajasingam (physics major with an MSc specialised in simulation development)  hes the chap who picked up the drill off the floor  joined the team and Mevan Pathberiya (an aeronautical engineer) joined soon after. Late last year, Kavindi De Silva (3 years in astronomy) joined the team. They all currently work for peanuts, Tilak says because they believe in this product and know it will get funded.

With this technically robust team in place, Tilak now had the start-up he always wanted. I am using my pension funds for this project, he says laughing. He began in 2013 to work full-time on the Robotic Air Cargo Network (RACN) using his pension from Xerox and Boeing. He estimates that it will take US$ 50 million to $100 million to design, test and certify the airplane and other parts of the RACN over 3-4 years.

Currently, there are operations that use drones to deliver goods. DHL pioneered commercial delivery with a 1 kg package to an island 12 km off the German coast almost three years ago. The more recent example is Zipline which delivers 150+ blood packs per day to 21 hospitals in Rwanda. Dubai just announced that they will have a one-person air taxi service by July this year. So Sri Lanka can be next in line. When the funds come in, that is.

Almost all (the authorities, courier companies, et al) are interested in his product, Tilak says. But the local business community will never fund this, he says adding that this is because theyll never understand it, and would rather build another hotel or casino. The main funding will be to pay the engineering team and for simulation software and equipment to get them through the design, concept demonstration and certification flight testing phases.

There is also a Chinese and an Australian party that are potentially interested in this. Tilak is only fond of venture capitalists (VC) who dont want to go public. Engineering firms should never be publicly traded, he says, and he actually prefers debt funding. The Government has allocated a small amount of funding in 2017 as the first step to setting up a long-term loan facility to potentially lend money to the kinds of projects like the RACN which can have a huge impact on the economy and drive high tech exports dramatically.

As most Sri Lankans are skeptical without a prototype, so they built some. He shows apparatuses that seem like lopsided drum sets (apparently thats their latest Mark 3 drone costing some Rs. 350,000) and goes to a larger cupboard near the door to the balcony pointing out the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regulations  about 700-80 neatly bound books. The Sri Lanka Civil Aviation Authoritys role is that of a certification authority to ensure that the robotic air cargo network is in compliance with all ICAO rules and regulations, he says noting that they are eager to see this project get funded and underway.

His drones can lift 20kg at once, he says and saunters to a desk to retrieve a rectangular box. This where all the packages go in, he says opening the box to reveal all sorts of empty boxes from named couriers. Robotic cargo drones will grow into an even larger industry in the coming years, simply because, unencumbered by the weight of human pilots and their life-support systems, they will fly more cheaply but be just as fast and safe, he adds.

Meanwhile noticing a yellow R2D2 (fictional robot character in the Star Wars franchise), I ask whether its a vacuum. To the mirth of all they laugh and say it is indeed a vacuum cleaner.

Saving lives

Tilak and his team envision an RACN that can be used for middle mile transport which is when couriers transport goods from one hub to another. Cargo drone networks can save lives in addition to driving the economy and creating jobs, he says citing the Rwandan example.

Tilak and teams goal is to create a low cost air cargo transportation network which has low cost VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) airplanes (which only need a 5m diameter pad to operate from) with narrow, segregated middle mile airways, low cost automated air traffic management system and low cost small airfields. Since the airplane itself is smart and does not need a pilot, the airline will also be low cost. We already identified about 40 airports based on the current towns that local couriers serve.

So he wants to create a product design engineering (PDE) firm and obtain a type certificate for the airplane, which in Essence is like an international patent. Then these flying bots can be licensed to various manufacturers around the world for production in exchange for royalties. Tilak estimates there will be a world-wide demand for about 2-4 million of the low-cost ($20,000) airplanes. The battery and spare part royalties along with transaction based revenue from the cargo handling and air traffic management system will result in a highly profitable PDE firm in return for the $50-100 million investment.

Government and industry leadership doesnt understand product design engineering, he says noting that Sri Lanka has very few PDE companies and thus has a dismal economy here and low high-tech exports. Theres only Lanka Transformers, Orange Electric, Neil Marine, Jinasena, etc as PDE firms, he says making his point. He shows a Forbes list of PDE companies such as Volkswagen, Honda, Boeing, etc emphasizing that economies are driven by PDE companies and not technology R&D centres. However, he is quick to point out that, us engineers need the output of basic and applied research to create the worlds that have never been, but Sri Lankas priority need of the hour is investment in PDE since the world has an amazing set of materials, components and processes like at no other time with which to design products.

He says: Theres no sensible funding source for PDE companies to drive the economy as banks are too conservative (short tenure, collateral based lending) to lend, the big company leadership is risk averse and would rather build another hotel/condo/casino and VC funding too impatient and inappropriate for engineering companies in most cases.

There are many experienced engineers with great product ideas to drive the economy, but theres brain drain (and loss of potential tax revenue) due to lack of job opportunities, he says noting that as a result theres no ROI on education investment. Therere many companies willing to invest in manufacturing of certified products but what we need is for a Long-Term Loan Facility (LTLF) to fund Product Design Engineering (PDE) companies, he stresses.

When we are about to leave, I ask him if he could build me a futuristic oven so that I dont have to fuss over it while it cooking my dinner; turns out he can. Thats because he is the son of a famous local culinary expert, Chandra Dissanayake. It wont be too difficult because I grew up in a culinary school, he says with a smile.
Cant deliver on all your goals View(s):

My dear doctors of the GMOA,

I thought I must write to you again, to congratulate you on your recent successes. Why, with the government bending over backwards to please you, you seem to be winning all your demands. So, we thought you must be really happy  although your remarks and statements suggest that you are not!

I must say I was most impressed by your clever tactics. It is no wonder you have the best brains in the country, as demonstrated by your Z scores that got you into government medical schools. That is why you staged a strike while the dengue and influenza epidemics were rampant. Ah, thats just brilliant!

There is no better time than this to go on strike, so that the government realises how powerful you are. The rich would get treated at private hospitals and a few unfortunate poor people who fall ill when you go on strike may suffer or even die, but if you didnt do that, no one would take any notice, would they?

We were equally impressed with your protest march  or pelapaaliya- that ended in Fort. How lovely it was to see our doctors, obviously the best brains in the country, getting off their comfortable swivel chairs in their channel centres and raising their fists and shouting slogans like our worker comrades!

Your boss, that Padeniya chap made a fiery speech that would have made Wimal blush, referring to Lucky and Rajitha as pisso. I didnt know that Padeniya was also a psychiatrist. Pardon me, but even if he was, would a doctor who talks of proper standards refer to the mentally ill in such a derogatory way?

Then, I am told he also asked what purpose the courts served, if they couldnt give proper decisions. He must have been referring to the decision by the Court of Appeal to recognise those SAITM chaps. And, being the bright spark that he is, I am sure he knows more law than the learned judges in that court.

He needs to be careful, though. Remember, one of your favourite ministers, old SB of Hanguranketha fame once called a courts verdict a balu theenduwa and spent nearly two years in jail before Mahinda maama pardoned him. Remember, Mahinda maama no longer has the power to issue those pardons.

Speaking of Mahinda maama, dear doctors of the GMOA, a question that has always baffled me is why you didnt raise such a hue and cry about SAITM during his time? Sure, you made a few noises, but we saw none of these protests, strikes and demands. Is it because you were scared of the white vans?

Now, doctors of the GMOA, all this fuss is about a new medical school and giving its graduates some kind of recognition, or so we are told. Pardon me if I am wrong, but it does seem as if your strike has struck terror into the heart of the government and they have now given into all of your demands.

They are taking over that hospital in Malabe, they have made those SAITM students train for some more months and sit more exams and they are also preparing to declare the minimum standards for any medical

school. You have actually compelled this yahapaalanaya government to do something.

We thought you would be overjoyed  but you are not! Instead, you are insisting that the government shuts down SAITM. During that protest last week we heard some of you shouting slogans demanding the

resignations of Lucky and Rajitha. Why, you dont even want those minimum standards they offered.

Heres my advice to you, dear doctors of the GMOA: why dont you form a political party since you are already behaving like one? That Padeniya chap can be the leader and the skull and cross bones can be your symbol  and honestly, I dont think you could possibly be worse than the parties we have already!

I am sure many will vote for you because, after all, you stand for nothing but free education and for protecting the lives of innocent patients, even if that is through strike action. And just imagine all the issues you can settle, if you are actually running the country  though even now, you think you are.

First you can get those duty free permits that you have to fight for now. Then, you could get your children to all the top schools- for which you had to stage a strike not so long ago. You can close down SAITM straight away whats more you can have the pleasure of sacking Lucky and Rajitha from the Cabinet!

Under your government, you can devise your method of employment. I am sure it will be based on the Z score  and not the usa nam security, miti nam kamkaru formula. Of course, under you, those with low Z scores will be doomed for life and banned from seeking higher education anywhere in the world.

Under a government run by you, you can also ensure that all doctors graduating from government medical schools have the SLS mark  such as the ones seen on toothpaste and s-lon pipes- branded on them somewhere that is easy to see. Then you can be sure the public will know who the good doctors are.

So, think about all this, my dear doctors of the GMOA. I am sure we will hear more about you in the weeks and months to come. However, I am not sure whether I should say suba aluth avuruddak weva to you because, if it is, I am not so sure whether it will be a suba aluth avuruddak for the rest of us!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: A few years ago, another organisation made demand after demand. Governments made generous offers, but they stuck to their original demand. Like you, they too used the lives of innocent people as a human shield. At one point, like you, they wanted to see Mahinda maama in power. Come to think of it, you seem so similar. And, by the way, the name of the leader of that outfit also began with P!
Ches Mahogany tree is JVPs sacred Bodhi View(s):

The atheist Janatha Vimukthi Party, which for years heaped scorn on Buddhist worship of the Bodhi and scoffed the practice as primitive tree worship, have now turned to pray before a tree of their very own: a giant mahogany tree growing in the middle of a private estate in Horana.

And this communist party, whose political ideology is based on Lenins maxim that religion is the opium of the masses, is now stoned on protecting it and according special status to it as the inspiring tree of political thought.

The root of this mahoganys importance lies in the legend that it was planted by Che Guevara  the iconic Argentinean born revolutionary who became the hero of the Cuban revolution  when he was sent by Castro in July, 1959 on a three month tour of 14 countries, including Lanka, and visited the island in August to spread the gospel of the Cuban revolution to the natives.

The existence of this JVP hallowed tree only became known to millions of Lankans last month, when police cracked down on a group of illicit timber fellers who were attempting to cut down the JVPs holy oak of a tree. The police had received a tip off from a mysterious source and was miraculously able save the tree on time and thus save it from the fate that, 2300 years ago, befell the sacred Bodhi under which Gautama the Buddha, a revolutionary of enlightened thought, attained Buddhahood. That sacred tree, according to the Mahawamsa, was first poisoned by Emperor Asokas Queen Tishya Rakshitha or Tissarakkha who, jealous of her king paying so much homage to the tree, caused poisonous mandu thorns to be thrust into it which resulted in its demise.

But if the Emperor of all India could not save the Buddhas Buddha Gaya Bodhi from wanton destruction, the JVP is determined to save Ches Horana Mahogany at all cost. And it has moved mountains to ensure it is saved. It has demanded the Government to take all the necessary steps to protect this mahogany tree which for the JVP has now become what the Bo tree has been for Buddhists for the last two thousand three hundred years.

The JVPs Kalutara District Parliamentarian Dr Nalinda Herath said last month that the JVP has asked the government to provide protection for this 58 year old tree. What? Does this mean police protection round the clock, inside a private Horana estate? Touching, isnt it? Especially when they have never expressed the slightest concern over the sacred Jayasiri Maha Bodhi at Anuradhapura, the sapling from the original Bo Tree at Buddha Gaya before it was destroyed, when it faced danger in the days of drought.

But then the JVP were never tree worshippers, now, were they? Or at least in public. For it now transpires they had been secretively asking for protection for this particular mahogany from the government even before. As Dr Nalinda Herath said, Previously too, the Party had requested protection for the tree.

The Buddhas Bodhi is not a wishing tree, though many misguided Buddhists seem to hold it so. As the Buddha declared when pressed by his disciple Ananda for an icon to worship in his absence, The great Bodhi Tree used by the Buddha, whether he is dead or alive, is an object of reverence. It is a symbol of enlightenment and thus is worthy of reverence.

And why is it worthy of reverence? Is it also not because of the Buddhas doctrine of ahimsa? Zero violence and total tolerance, which never condoned war in any form for any reason whatsoever but always, condemned the resort to arms as a means to an end? Isnt that the reason why the world has been enlightened of the folly of violence and blessed with Gautamas presence on earth 2500 years ago? Thats what the Buddha symbolises.

But what does Che symbolise? Blood, violence and mass murder.

For all the romantic notions that the misguided may hold him and paint him in a blood red hue as an iconic long haired, bearded, gun toting revolutionary, he is nothing more than a failed medical doctor who roamed from his birthplace Argentina, looking out for troubled spots to sate his blood lust until he finally found Cuba ripe and ready, like its plantains, to smoke his cigars of revolution.

But shortly after the 1959 triumph, Che Guevara became Havanas Doctor of Death, the Doctor of Vengeance. His death list soon saw kangaroo trials held against all whom he perceived as a threat after which they were all summarily executed on his orders. His excesses were such, that he even became an embarrassment to Fidel; and soon went a roving again to other hot spots in the South American region to foment revolution until he ended up in a small hut in the jungles of Bolivia where he was surrounded by Bolivian army troops and killed.

And it is in that blood soaked, gory sordid life of his, the JVP found profound inspiration to launch their insurrection in 1971 and repeat it again with a wave of terror in 1988 to topple democratically elected governments and establish their kangaroo courts and their dictatorship upon this thrice blessed land. With Che Guevara as their role model, his demonic icon as their inspirational god, thousands of Sinhala youths were killed at his altar as a result of their campaigns of terror.

And today, even 46 years after the JVPs leader Rohana Wijeweera launched his infantile insurrection to topple the one year old Sirima Bandaranaike government in 1971 and repeated it again in 1988 through the JVP militarized wing the DJV, while he remained incognito in some tea estate in Ulapane, posing as a planter and breeding like a rabbit, in relative safety, it is clear that the present JVP leadership  for so strong is their blind faith in blood and violence as the means to gain power  remains hooked on Che and secretly worships some long forgotten mahogany tree in Horana and asks for it to be given government protection for its dubious blood stained value.

But all trees  vital to the ecology of the land and to its human and animal inhabitants  must be protected. If the Bo tree, the Ficus religiosa, became indispensable to Siddhartha in his quest to attain enlightenment, perhaps this Horana Mahogany may too serve some useful purpose to deserve protection from the woodcutters axe if it helps the JVP see the light.

Perhaps special protection can be justified if JVP cadres seek its shelter and meditate upon the folly of violence; and soul search why, though they now profess to have entered mainstream politics, they are still haunted by old ghosts which they cannot exorcise and neither repent for harbouring; and why they have been repeatedly been rejected at the polls by peace loving Lankans?

Perhaps they will gain some sap of good from it, if they only achieved some sort of enlightenment as to why they are eternally condemned to Lankas political dustbin. At least then it would have earned for this tainted Mahogany the right to state protection as being the JVPs Tree of political enlightenment which led them from darkness to light.

Or else it should be left to face the vicissitudes of life on its own, and wither and die like Lenins Marxist philosophy which has gone out of style in the Kremlin, and is doomed to meet the same fate in Cuba, now that Castro has gone; rather than be an idolized tree to be worshipped by revolutionaries of the present and the future as the sacred tree Che planted, who lust to sip its sap of blood and, so imbibed, intend to unleash a new terror wave if they can.

Let it not be forgotten that Lankas descent to a brutish state where men took recourse to violence to achieve their political demands began not with the Tamil Tigers but with the JVP in 1971 with their leader long haired bearded Rohana Wijeweera trying to emulate the iconic Che.

Why should the government provide protection at public expense for some long forgotten tree planted by some foreign revolutionary, a mass murderer to boot, merely to satisfy a politically radical organization that has embraced his violent creed and scoffed, ridiculed and shunned the philosophy that has given this nation its dynamic impetus for over two thousand years?
On the deep state and an indecisive government View(s):

It has long been conventional wisdom that a government forced to maintain a fragile political balance for its survival is good for the democratic process in Sri Lanka because the tug and pull of critical public pressure will impact more on decision-making.

Is a Government under siege good for us?

This is in contrast to overwhelming political majorities where undemocratic policies and legislation are bulldosed through a complicit Parliament with no checks and balances. There are many such illustrations, most notably the Jayewardene Presidency and the Rajapaksa years, particularly from 2010 to 2014.

Of course, Sri Lanka has never had the bountiful luxury of both a strong and democratically motivated leadership. Strength, (whether of the Braemar, Ward Place elite kind or the far coarser Medamulana kind), always seems to be accompanied by a profound lack of respect for the Rule of Law. That is, however, a whole different lament altogether.

But I return to the assumption that a government under siege is good for us. Oftentimes, the examples cited in support thereto include the much praised 17th Amendment to the Constitution. This was agreed to by a brittle Kumaratunga Presidency just prior to its less than happy cohabitation arrangement with the Wickremesinghe Government, 2001 to 2004. Similarly, the far more compromised but still useful 19th Amendment which reversed some of the evils of the Rajapaksa engineered 18th Amendment emerged as a result of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition.

Questioning deeper and darker realities

Certainly there is something to be said for the merits of this argument. But the flip side of the coin is that these surface assumptions do not question deeper and darker realities. For example, why did these democratic transformations in 2001 and 2015 leave untouched the deep state of Sri Lankas political patronage system and a tamed public sector bureaucracy that thrives best when an insecure Government is in power? Important questions are left unanswered. Why for instance, did the 17th Amendment fail? Why also, is the 19th Amendment in the throes of succumbing likewise even as the idle minded are busily running around pontificating on constitutional reforms that needs a proverbial miracle to see the light of day?

There are discomfiting lessons of the 2001-2004 constitutional experimentation that may be pointed to. A selective reading of history would make us believe that the Rajapaksas were the only villains in dismantling the 17th Amendment. This is far from the case. The resistance to governance reforms initially came when the Kumaratunga Presidency (presumably dictated to by her advisors), refused to appoint the Constitutional Councils nominee, retired Supreme Court judge Ranjth Dheeraratne as Chairman of the Elections Commission.

This refusal persisted even though the CC, comprising a formidable majority of independent members, dismissed her objection. This was the first signal that the 17th Amendment could be defied head-on. From that point, the decline was swift. And to be clear, this was cheered on by all political parties. It only needed the reckless profligacy of the Rajapaksas to tear away even the facade wholesale.

Rude badgering of the Government

This reading is equally true of the undermining of the Sri Lankan judiciary. It is convenient to focus only on the impeachment of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake while ignoring the fact that the calamitous slide downwards was precipitated in many respects by the less than temperate actions of former Chief Justice Sarath Silva, the handpicked choice of Kumaratunga for that post (1999-2009).

Caught in an unwise boast of restoring the independence of the judiciary with one wave of the wand by ejecting a sitting Chief Justice through an executive letter, this Government is now struggling in a trap of its own making. The unnecessary Ramanathan Kannan fiasco may have been avoided by the Office of the President swiftly and sternly nipping the presumptuousness of those lobbing for a particular judicial appointment, in the bud. But that did not happen.

And fast on the heels of that fracas, we have rude badgering in motivated quarters to ensure that a forthcoming appointment of the President of the Court of Appeal is made strictly on seniority, regardless of other fit and proper criteria which rightfully must be applied.

The deep state and the CTA

But worse consequences may yet ensue as a result of tortuous wriggling by an uncertain and chaotic political coalition. The potential of a deep state security sector establishment to push for laws strengthening its heavy hand is now clear. One example is the draft Counter-Terror Act (CTA), analysed in previous columns. Some politicians are, meanwhile, proposing an Independent Council for News Media Standards Act. This is cheered on by those who remain blissfully ignorant of dangers therein for print, electronic and web media alike.

In terms of this draft, a High Court can compel disclosure of a journalists sources to enable effective prosecution or defence in regard to a serious crime, or prevent clear and imminent danger to the constitutional order or the security of the State. This is classically imprecise language that raises red flags. What exactly is meant by imminent danger to the constitutional order pray?

And sources can also be disclosed where there is no alternative means of obtaining the information needed to prosecute or defend a case. This raises hideous possibilities of abuse. Existing legal precedents which strictly protect disclosure of sources with tightly defined exceptions may be overridden by this clause, including through politically motivated prosecutions, which we are familiar with. Similar concerns arise in regard to a stipulation that sanctions cannot be imposed for providing information to journalists, except where the secrecy of the information is justified by a larger public interest.

Understanding why democratic reforms are sabotaged

Advocates of the 2015 so-called rainbow revolution, penning their signatures with much vim and vigour to Memoranda of Understanding with politicians are now resentfully berating their one-time saviors. But those who ignore history are ruefully bound to repeat much of those very same calamities.

We need to vigorously test proposed laws against the standard of constitutional propriety. Comfortable superficialities must meanwhile be probed. Is it better not to have an Election Commission or to have a body of which, at least one member unceasingly complains in regard to the Commissions lack of authority? This similar question applies to a National Police Commission which seems helpless in disciplining law enforcement officers.

Certainly if past lessons as to why democratic reforms were sabotaged had been properly understood in the first instance, greater caution may prevent us re-living those same failures, albeit clothed in a different style.
With such payments, we can build another Hilton View(s):

Local businessman Cornel Perera, who promoted the Colombo Hilton project years ago, has made a claim of US$ 25 million (more than Rs 3.8 billion or Rs 3,800 million) for his role, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) has been told.

The March 22 minutes of the CCEM meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, note, Mr Perera has been claiming about $ 25 million for all the expenditure he has made, all the losses he has incurred and all the efforts he made as a promoter.

However, the minutes observe that Mr Perera had paid the Urban Development Authority (UDA) Rs. 27 million only. There is no other evidence of any major expenditure by him, the minutes add.

The minutes conclude by saying Finally, Ms Bimba Tillekeratne, PC was instructed to obtain the Hon. AGs (Attorney General) advice on the legality of the claim and as to how this matter should be proceeded by the Government.

It was only at the last weekly ministerial meeting (April 4), President Maithripala Sirisena asked Premier Wickremesinghe to appoint a Committee to probe a claim made by Nihal Sri Amerasekera, a consultant. This was after Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake presented a cabinet memorandum seeking approval to pay a further Rs 300 million to him for Colombo Hilton.

Mr Karunanayake said in this memorandum that ..considering the fact that Mr Amerasekeras claims are on account of services rendered with regard to Hilton Hotel this matter was deliberated by me and Secretary to the Treasury with officials. Until a final decision was made to honour the undertaking of Rs 300 million given to Mr Amerasekera, an overdraft facility from Bank of Ceylon was made available amounting to Rs 100 million which was fully drawn by him and this facility was increased by a further Rs 125 million in June 2015. However, Mr Amerasekera has also borne the interest cost of Rs 52.5 million, on the amounts drawn by him, and this facility was increased by a further Rs 125 million, on the amounts drawn by him via the overdraft at Bank of Ceylon, which has to be re-imbursed by the Government..

A minister who is a member of the CCEM commented rather wryly; without prejudice to the parties involved, the funds claimed could all easily ad

Packet of tea free for tourists

Tourists arriving at the Bandaranaike International Airport will receive a free packet of tea, courtesy the Government of Sri Lanka.

The move follows a recommendation to the Cabinet of Ministers by Plantation Industries Minister Navin Dissanayake.

Ministers have decided that the Plantation Industries Ministry should also consult the Tourism Ministry in carrying out this task.

Some suggest it may be better to give the pack when they are leaving, otherwise they will have to carry it all over the country on their tour, or drink the blessed thing.

d up to the cost to build another Hilton.

CCEM directs FCID to probe only pre-2015 deals

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) has asked the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) not to probe procurements after 2015.

The move means that only procurements before 2015, which were under the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration, would be probed.

They have been told to direct all such investigation to the National Procurement Commission. At a recent discussion, it was noted that the FCID summoned public officers for investigations on procurement issues.

The CCEM has said it is of the view that procurement issues could be handled by the National Procurement Commission.

How come the CCEM is giving directions to the FCID? This is the multimillion-rupee question.

Ex-minister victim of doctors strike

A former Cabinet minister turned up at the Emergency Unit of the National Hospital on Friday April 7 for treatment but learnt to his dismay that the doctors were on strike.

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) was protesting over the Governments failure to take over the South Asian Institution of Technology and Medicine (SAITM).

Realising that the former minister is in distress, the doctors soon placed him on a bed, covered the curtains around and administered saline on him to show it was an emergency case. They could not find a room to move him to because doctors were on strike.

If we were in power, this would not have happened to me, the one time minister from the eastern side of the hill country said. He later moved out of the emergency room.

Pre-Davos economic forum in Lanka

Sri Lanka will host the Asia Economic Forum in October this year.

The event is a prelude to the World Economic Forum 2017 to be held in Davos, Switzerland.

Sri Lanka has been asked to make a presentation on the outcome of the Asia Economic Forum at the Davos event.

Renovated train carriages for backpacking tourists

Barely a week passes without a new hotel project being approved by the Government. Such hotels are not only in Colombo but also in a number of provincial towns and will cater to both free spending and other tourists coming to Sri Lanka on different tour packages.

But that has not prevented the Government from targeting the budget minded tourists who care for every dollar they spend. Two ministers think they could even scrape in those measly dollars and cents.

For this purpose, Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva and Tourism Minister John Ameratunga obtained approval of the Cabinet for a project that has evoked some laughter in the tourism sector.

They will use Railway lands to place condemned train carriages after they are repaired. As their cabinet memorandum notes, it is for backpacking tourist accommodation. The Ministers have decided that Tourism Minister Ameratunga should appoint a committee to ensure the smooth implementation of the proposed project.

Most railway land to be utilised for this purpose are those lying alongside the railway lines. Preparing such land and repairing clapped out railway carriages, there is little doubt, will require considerable financial investment.

There will of course be job opportunities which politicos will provide for their supporters. The move will come as a devastating blow for those who have converted their homes along the beachfront to provide tourists Bed-and- Breakfast accommodation at budget prices.

Some have made heavy investments with bank loans to construct swimming pools, additional buildings and employ a large number of youth. The growth of this sector has also seen the rapid increase of different dependent supplementary ventures  restaurants, vendors selling handicrafts, food items, thambili and even clothes.

Harrison to bring Basils 20,000 cows

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Governments Rural Economy Minister, P. Harrison, has chosen to revive a project initiated by the former Economic Development Minister, Basil Rajapaksa.

The reason, he says, is because the Government has given high priority to develop the dairy industry in Sri Lanka.

Mr. Rajapaksas proposal was approved by the then Cabinet of Ministers on June 5, 2014 and involved the import of 20,000 dairy heifers from Australia. For this purpose, his Ministry signed an agreement on October 14, 2014 with Wellard Rural Exports Pty Ltd of Australia.

Assistance for the import of these heifers is coming from the Co-operative Bank Rabo UA of Netherlands and the Export Finance Corporation, Australia. The loan extended is US$ 73 million.

The Cabinet of Ministers has given approval to go ahead with the project.

In 2013, 1,500 dairy cattle were imported from Australia.

Big buzz for Champikas bus lane

Megapolis and Western Province Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawakas brainchild  the Bus Priority Lane  is a success, according to a senior official who has monitored the operation. Prior to discussions on items on the agenda at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers a week ago, the Moratuwa Universitys transport specialist, Professor Amal Kumarage, was called upon to make a presentation.

He made some pertinent points:

Speed of bus movements has increased by over 100%

Speed of other vehicles has also improved. The Priority Lane transported 7,000 passengers in 150 buses per hour whilst other lanes transported only 1,500 passengers in 1,000 small vehicles.

Minister Ranawaka told the Cabinet, according to the minutes, that he would make further recommendations to the ministers to improve the system.
Build on linguistic links with Western India View(s):

The traditional New Year was celebrated in Sri Lanka linked as it is to a millennia-old common heritage in many parts of India and South East Asia around the rice harvesting season.

Age-old customs and rituals largely connected to auspicious times laid down by astrologers take centre-stage. In this backdrop of the countrys historical connectivity with this part of the world, renewed discussions have emerged of linguistic relations that exist among the same constituencies with regard to the Sinhala language.

Sri Lanka and, particularly, India have had a shared cultural heritage outside the Tamil Nadu sphere from the Mauryan Empire; the land of Magadha, Indias ancient seat of Buddhism which is now Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal and Jharkland, Chhatisgarh and Orissa. Similarities between the Sinhala language and the Sanskrit-based languages are many. In the states of Western India, Marathi and Gujarati share many Sanskrit words even in current usage like Akka and Archchi.

Pali books from Sri Lanka were the first to be transliterated in Devangiri for the Indians to gain an understanding of the Dhamma. Given the cultural sea-links between Lanka and the Indian state of Maharashtra, there was similarity in dress, food and even architecture. The Sinhala language must therefore be made to link with the larger family of Sanskrit- based languages in Western India which can also help spread the Dhamma.

After partaking in the New Year sweetmeats and performing the customary rituals, the Sri Lankan linguistic academia must buckle down to doing something substantial to promote and widen the horizons of the Sinhala language and establish links with Indian academics such as those in the Pali Department in the University of Mumbai  and it should be part of Government foreign policy as well.

Western India today has a GDP six times that of Sri Lanka and it makes sense for academics and governments of both Sri Lanka and India to look at that long neglected historical connectivity between Sri Lanka and Western India to bring the two countries closer together rather than to be bogged down in the political theatrics of the state of Tamil Nadu that has been the bane of Indo-Lanka relations now for decades.

For Christs sake, dismantle the arms industry

Easter Sunday, celebrated universally by Christians of all denominations today coming as it does following a dastardly attack on Coptic churches in Egypt is a grim reminder that the world is not at peace.

West Asia, where Christianity was born and took root continues to be in turmoil. Syria and Iraq  the cradle of human civilisation are torn asunder by superpower rivalries playing out in the midst of ferocious theological and ideological differences.

In Egypt, one week ago when Coptic Christians were marking Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Holy Week preceding Easter, a solemn day in the Christian calendar, two bombs killed scores of worshippers.

It was the Friday before that an aerial bombardment of chemical weapons allegedly on the orders of the Syrian President Bashar al Assad triggered a response from the United States: 59 Tomahawk missiles (ironically named after the weapon used by native American-Indians to scalp the white immigrant settlers) were fired into Syria without any United Nations by-your-leaves.

The US President who ordered the strike seemed confused as to what he had ordered. He told a TV station that he had ordered the Tomahawks be fired into Iraq only to be corrected by the interviewer that it was to Syria.

This came only days after the US President had said the Syrian President must stay to defeat ISIS. It is now said that US foreign policy depends on which side of the bed their President gets up from in the morning.

Suddenly, the G-7 countries of the West have also backed the US flip-flop stance and called for Assads ouster as President. This, of a sovereign country that is a UN member-state fighting terrorism.

The Russians have called this an obsession of the West to get rid of dictators they dont like and cited how much worse off the peoples of Iraq and Libya are since the Wests intervention in those countries.

Pope Francis has placed his finger on the right button. He sees the bigger picture in these superpower games exploiting sectarian differences in West Asia and parts of Africa.

On the same Palm Sunday, he spoke from St. Peters Square in the Vatican and condemning the attack in the Nile delta of Egypt said; May the Lord convert the hearts of the people who sow terror, violence and death and even the hearts of those who produce and traffic in weapons. He has said this before  in the heart of the American capital while addressing the US Congress but it all falls, alas, on deaf ears. The arms industry is too intrinsic to the Wests economies and foreign policy to listen even to the Pope.

Till then, West Asia where Christ was born, crucified and resurrected, continues to be a hotbed of violence and strife even as the world prays that Christs message to His disciples when He appeared to them in the Upper Room that first Easter; Peace be with you will prevail. This Easter, we should recall the prayer of another Francis  St. Francis of Assisi: Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy...
MLH felicitates Chef Publis Silva View(s):

Mount Lavinia Hotel recently held a felicitation ceremony to honour Dr. Chef Publis Silva who was conferred with a Deshabandu Award for distinguished services to the nation. The awards were presented by President Maithripala Sirisena for outstanding achievements of Sri Lankans or others, at the recently held National Honours 2017 ceremony, which was held after 12 years. Mount Lavinia Hotel recently held a felicitation ceremony to honour Dr. Chef Publis Silva who was conferred with a Deshabandu Award for distinguished services to the nation. The awards were presented by President Maithripala Sirisena for outstanding achievements of Sri Lankans or others, at the recently held National Honours 2017 ceremony, which was held after 12 years.

Deshabandu Chef Publis, who joined Mount Lavinia Hotel in 1956, recall of his humble beginnings.

It is with great pride that I would like to congratulate Chef Publis for being conferred with the Deshabandhu Award says Sanath Ukwatte, Chairman of the Mount Lavinia Hotel Group. We are indeed honoured that he is a part of Mount Lavinia Hotel Team, and for over 60 years he had been a great strength to us. He is an ambassador of Sri Lankan cuisine and has taken the name of Mount Lavinia Hotel as well as Sri Lanka to the world. His immense service to the hospitality industry through his research and teaching is invaluable. His persevering spirit and ambition is a great example to all of us he adds.

The Director, Culinary Affairs of Mont Lavinia Hotel, Deshabandhu Chef Publis has spearheaded numerous culinary projects, including the colossal task of popularising Sri Lankan cuisine around the world.

Commenting on the newly conferred title Deshabandu Publis Silva says I am proud to have received this honour. I always believe in doing a service to the Nation, the countrys culinary culture and the organisation, this award has further encouraged and expedited this journey.

Deshabandu Publis Silva is also the author of 16 books, and has entered the Guinness Book of Records for creating the largest and longest Kiribath as well as the worlds smallest recipe book titled Royal Meals of the Last Kings of Sri Lanka.

He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Open International University of Sri Lanka in 2004 and is the only Chef in the world to hold such a prestige in Culinary Art. His latest book, which will revolutionise the Sri Lankan culinary industry, will be launched at the end of April.

The below picture shows Deshabandhu Chef Publis Silva cutting the cake at the felicitation ceremony held in his honour at the Mount Lavinia Hotel. Also in the photograph are Sanath Ukwatte  Chairman, Bazeer Cassim  Group General Manager, C De Silva  Finance Director and Saakya Ukwatte.
Put your records on This week music lovers around the world will get ready for Record Store Day View(s): View(s):

There are among 500-plus artists supporting the tenth Record Store Day  the annual event celebrating independent record shops  with Prince, David Bowie and Madonna all joining the fun. There are among 500-plus artists supporting the tenth Record Store Day  the annual event celebrating independent record shops  with Prince, David Bowie and Madonna all joining the fun.

The 90s band Aqua are celebrating 20 years of Barbie Girl by re-issuing their global smash in a plastic sleeve. Why? Because life in plastic, its fantastic. Little Mix are releasing a special neon edition of Glory Days for Record Store Day 2017, in the hope it will tempt music lovers to indulge in the love of vinyl.

Here are some of the records music collectors might want to track down online on April 22.

Prince: 12 collection - Reissues of seven classic Prince singles, including Sign O The Times, Batdance and Pop Life, with the original B-sides and remixes. Little Red Corvette will also be re-released as a 7 picture disc.

David Bowie: Cracked Actor -A year after Bowies death, and the vaults are slowly being opened.Cracked Actor (Live in Los Angeles 1974) is a three-album set recorded on the so-called Philly Dogs leg of his Diamond Dogs tour  the same show that was captured in an infamous BBC documentary of the same name.

Madonna  Dance Mix EP -A worldwide release for a mid-80s Argentinean EP, featuring Into The Groove, Vacacion (Holiday) and extended mixes of Angel and Chica Material (Material Girl).The artwork will authentically replicate the original, which changes hands for about 200 in the second-hand market.

Bruce Springsteen: Hammersmith Odeon, London 75 -When Bruce Springsteen flew into London for his first-ever UK show, he was greeted by posters declaring FINALLY! London is ready for Bruce Springsteen. Enraged, he ran around the Hammersmith Odeon destroying them all. My business is SHOW business not TELLING. You show people and let them decide, he fumed in his autobiography, released last year.

Johnny Cash: The Johnny Cash Childrens Album-Available on vinyl for the first time since 1975, its worth a listen just for Cashs self-penned and scientifically-inaccurate Dinosaur Song, in which the country star imagines opening his very own Jurassic Park.

Fleetwood Mac: Alternate Mirage -A completely new version of the bands 13th album, featuring alternate versions of every song, including Hold Me and Gypsy. Available for the first time on vinyl.

Kate Nash: Agenda EP -Kate Nashs first new material since 2013; following her well-received appearance at the SXSW festival last week.

Iggy Pop: Post-Pop Depression Live -A full recording of the stars already-legendary 2016 shows at the Royal Albert Hall, backed by members of Arctic Monkeys and Queens Of The Stone Age

Pink Floyd: Interstellar Overdrive - A full, 15-minute version of the Pink Floyd instrumental, released for the first time on one-sided black vinyl with a fold-out poster.

Kate Tempest: Let Them Beat Chaos / Let Them Speak Chaos -A deconstructed version of the punk poets latest album, with just the beats on one vinyl and just the spoken word on the other.

Ramones: Ramones singles box -A box set of the bands first 10 singles, including Blitzkrieg Bop and Sheena Was A Punk Rocker.

Paul McCartney: Flowers In The Dirt (Demos) - A three-track cassette featuring early versions of the songs Sir Paul wrote with Elvis Costello in 1987.

Wiley: Godfather -One of the few grime releases for Record Store Day, this is a white label vinyl of Wileys current, and allegedly final, album.

See the full list

Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday every April to celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store.The day brings together fans, artists, and thousands of independent record stores across the world. A number of records are pressed specifically for Record Store Day, with a unique list of releases for each country, and are only distributed to shops participating in the event. The event began in the United States and remains headquartered there. Record Store Day has official international organizers in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Australia, and Spain.

- Courtesy BBC
Traditional gets a subtle twist By Shakya Wickramanayake Firmly rooted in the folds of the batik business of her well-known grandmother, the late Swanee Jayawardena, young designer Yathra who launched her own brand at the CFW talks of her take on batik View(s): View(s):

Batik demands the attention of those who behold it  it is free-spirited and yet still traditional. It can be sophisticated, demure and even subtle, as proven by Yathra Jayawardenas batik collection which hit the ramp at this years Colombo Fashion Weeks (CFW) Emerging Designer show on March 15.

The grand daughter of batik and tie and dye pioneer Swanee Jayawardena, Yathra is no stranger to the world of batik and fashion. A product of Bishops College and the British School, Yathra embarked on fashion designing, surprisingly without any formal training. Growing up she had seen that most artists focused on the creative elements of their work but were at times wholly impractical when it came to running a business, usually leaving it to others to manage. Striving to strike a balance while being fully involved in the family business, Yathra chose to follow a degree in economics and business studies at the University of Lancaster in Malaysia.

Selected for Colombo Fashion Weeks (CFW) Project SEVEN, a creative development programme aimed at strengthening designers ideation process and broadening their perspectives, in 2016, Yathra says the experience she gained through it was a turning point. The programme helped sharpen her creativity and taught her how to channel it into her designs. It was a journey of self-discovery, as she puts it. Describing it as an epiphany that hits you when you realize that your designs should stem from your own preferences in order to be unique, she emphasises that its not just about following trends.

Though still an integral part of her late grandmothers batik business, Yathra is seeking her own path with her brand YATHRA, which was launched this March. Her sense of style, though still rooted in batik, she says, differs very much from Swanees. Her art work was more abstract, and her silhouettes were simpler so that it showcased the artwork on the fabric, she says. Yathra chooses to focus more on silhouettes, fitted and well constructed firstly, from which point she incorporates the batik artwork.

Aside from CFW being a platform on which to launch her brand and receive publicity for her designs, she is immensely thankful to CFW Founder Ajai Vir Singh and the CFW team for the support they extend to designers both pre and post show.

Inspired by screen legends Audrey Hepburn and Edie Sedgwick, Yathras debut collection sought to emulate the romantic and sophisticated style of 1950s Hollywood. Created using delicate silk and refined cottons, her collection featured feminine structured and fitted silhouettes that yesteryear Hollywood was known for. These she modernised with deep cuts, plunging necklines and dramatic backs. But what really catches the eye is the subtle yet still very present batik. You cant conceal it. It has its own personality. Its loud in presentation and appearance, she says about batik, choosing to tone it down with colour and intricacy.

As children, Yathra and her siblings were always encouraged to be creative. From turning the walls in the house into their personal canvases to tearing up material and creating their own designs, very little was off limits. It was like living in wonderland, Yathra fondly recalls. But growing up with artists also meant that they held strong opinions on what was considered good art and music. I grew up listening to Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd. I wasnt allowed to bring Westlife CDs home, and perhaps this explains why shes so old school now. She believes that this background has made her an idealist. I love the music and the movies of that time, she says.

So it is all about the art and the creative process for her. She refuses to replicate a successful design that is in demand. That defeats the purpose which is to give people unique pieces and wouldnt push her to keep at being creative, she says.

A lover of all that is fusion, Yathra believes that while we stay true to our roots in art or culture we shouldnt be closed off to new ideas or other cultures. Nothing is built on its own, everything is built on the shoulders of giants, she says, adding that therefore we should be open to drawing inspirations and elements where-ever we can. Ive never been black, Ive never been white, I like the grey area. This outlook towards life can certainly be seen in her designs and will probably feature in her future collections where she hopes to fuse batik with elements such as the Kantha stitch, a traditional Indian embroidery style.

This young designer believes that that is what art is about, and who she is as an artist.
Bonanza for workers when GSP Plus facility is restored View(s):

A visiting European Union (EU) team has been assured that worker benefits would be enhanced in return for the restoration of GSP Plus tariff preferences to

Sri Lanka. One such move would be to double workmans compensation from the present Rs. 500,000 to one million rupees in the event of disability caused during work, Labour Ministry Secretary Gotabaya Jayaratna said. New laws will be introduced for this purpose, he said.

An EU fact finding mission was in Sri Lanka this week to further assess the eligibility of Sri Lanka to receive the GSP Plus facility. Another significant feature is an assurance by Labour Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne that 50 percent of the money received through the GSP Plus would be spent on the 2.4 million strong labour force. The visiting EU delegation also met representatives of 14 trade unions.

The delegation informed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that if Sri Lanka was to be given the GSP Plus facility again, the European Commission would strictly monitor the implementation of these assurances by Sri Lanka. A report on this would be submitted to the EU by December this year.

The EU has said it would encourage Sri Lanka down the path of reform, but at the same time it would watch closely developments and expect Sri Lanka to deliver on these assurances.Mr Jayaratna explained that other benefits to the work force would include increased salary in selected sectors, reasonable market prices for products and stable trade capacity. Sixty four amendments have been made to existing labour laws to make sure that the labour force is provided with financial and legal security. The EU delegation was satisfied with the initiatives we have taken and the progress so far, he said.

The Labour Secretary said that the National Minimum Wages Act already guaranteed minimum salary of any person in any industry or service will be Rs. 10,000. With the Budgetary Relief Allowance of Rs 3,500, the gross salary of Rs 13,500 was ensured as a basic salary for the first time. The ministry was authorised to take legal action against companies if they failed to comply with the regulations, he said.

A scholarship scheme for workers children also has been introduced and Rs. 50,000 would be given as financial assistance for the family, he said.

The government is also committed to initiate social dialogue, a theme defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), to include all types of negotiations or consultations between representatives of governments, employers and workers, on issues of common interest relating to economic and social policies. In a joint letter to the Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, the delegation expressed concerns over the pace of reforms currently underway in the country. These commitments must be translated into continuous action towards the effective implementation of the GSP Plus conventions so as to reassure that Sri Lanka is seriously addressing shortcomings.

It is with this aim in mind that we wish to express our concerns over the pace of reforms in Sri Lanka. As noted in the recent report by the UN Human Rights High Commissioner, while there is recognition of progress and of the Governments will to pursue reforms, efforts to address a number of important shortcomings have slowed down or have been stalling. We are concerned that, initiatives on introducing new counter-terrorism legislation and amending the Code of Criminal Procedure Act (CCPA) bringing them in line with international standards, launching a fully operational Office of Missing Persons, addressing torture and impunity, as well as decriminalising sexual orientation have unfortunately not yet come to fruition. Further action on sexual and gender-based violence should also be pursued, the joint letter says.

In view of the EUs legal requirements, the European Commissions decision is currently before the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union for review. The review is expected to begin on April 19 and objections could be raised. The European Council will take a final decision on May 11.

Free Trade Zone Employees Union Secretary Anton Marcus who took part in a meeting with the visiting EU delegation said the unions had urged the EU to closely monitor the reform process in keeping with a road map to ensure labour rights were protected.
The complaint has been filed by the BJP's Legal Committee at the Parliament Street police station. A separate complaint has also been filed with the State Election Commission in this regard, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said.

By India Today Web Desk, Press Trust of India: The Delhi BJP on Saturday lodged a complaint against AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for calling the Election Commission 'Dhirtrashtra' and over the 'misleading' hoardings put by AAP.

The complaint has been filed by the BJPs Legal Committee at the Parliament Street police station. A separate complaint has also been filed with the State Election Commission in this regard, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said.

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Earlier this week, Kejriwal had attacked the Election Commission over alleged tampering with the electronic voting machines (EVMs), accusing the poll body of acting like Dhritrashtra to help son Duryodhana (BJP) win the recent state assembly elections.

He alleged that the Commissions only intention was to bring the BJP to power in the poll-bound states and that is why it was not paying heed to his request to investigate the defective EVMs.

"In the complaint, objection has been raised to Kejriwals statement in which he had called the Election Commission as Dhritrashtra and the BJP as Duryodhan," Tiwari told reporters in a press conference.

He said in the complaints with police and State Election Commission, the party has also objected to the "misleading charge" against the BJP regarding hike in power and water tariffs by the Chief Minister and his deputy Manish Sisodia through the hoardings.

Also Read:

At national executive meet, BJP dares 'hacking CM' Arvind Kejriwal to hack EVM

Arrest warrant against Kejriwal over tweet against PM Narendra Modi

Also Watch:

Arvind Kejriwal to India Today: Can tamper EVMs in 10 ways; Here's one

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Garbage inferno leaves 19 dead; President intervenes View(s):

500 tons to be destroyed daily; little action so far because one institution thought the other would do it

A garbage inferno at Meethotamulla on National New Year day  that left 19 dead and more than 140 houses destroyed  has prompted President Maithripala Sirisena to intervene to resolve the festering issue.

As Minister of Environment, he will announce measures in the coming week on how to prevent the piling of garbage there. A source at the presidency said the measures were being worked out and the President would also make a statement once it was completed.

Politicians and civil society groups have urged in the past many months that the mountain of garbage be shifted for the safety and well being of residents of the area. However, President Sirisena has learnt that no action has been taken. The reason for this, he has been briefed, is the involvement of several bodies and the belief by one that the other would carry it out. They include the Western Provincial Council, the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development and the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government.

The source said yesterday that arrangements were being made to destroy some 500 tons of garbage daily. President Sirisena would in his statement explain how this would be done.

On Friday, after those responsible for the near sky high pile of garbage had been cutting a path using earth moving equipment to spread the garbage storage area. Residents had raised protests and set fire to an earth mover. Instead, the fire caught up with the garbage making an inferno of the shanties and triggering an avalanche, burying occupants below. Residents objected to the Police moving in on Friday. President Sirisena ordered the deployment of armed forces. Helicopters were used to douse the fire.

Military Spokesman Brigadier Roshan Seneviratne said troops were not sure how many more lay buried. Five of the dead were children. Rescue officers last night said many were still missing and the death toll could rise. The Government will bear the funeral expenses of the dead. Several politicians who visited the area were booed. This include State Minister A.H.M. Fowzie and Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake who arrived at the scene by helicopter.
Japan grants 45 billion yen aid for economic, social development View(s):

The Japanese Govt granted aid for Economic and Social Development Programmes, and signed loan agreements for the development of rural infrastructure and the Kalu Ganga Water Development project during Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghes official visit to Tokyo.

Notes were exchanged in the presence of both leaders for the yen loan Rural Infrastructure Development Project in Emerging Regions (12.957 billion yen), a yen loan for the Kalu Ganga Water Supply Expansion Project (I) (31.81 billion yen), and the grant aid for the Economic and Social Development Programme (1 billion yen).

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said it was important to ensure stability in the region on both eastern and westerns sides of the Indian Ocean and cooperation with Japan which shares this vision, a joint statement said.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Abe said that Japan wished to secure a free and open maritime order in the Indo-Pacific region and support stability and prosperity in the entire region, with emphasis on its relationship with Sri Lanka situated in a strategic point on the sea lanes.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said it was critically important for Sri Lankas further development in a free and open Indo-Pacific region and that, he visited Japan to strengthen their Comprehensive Partnership.

Mr Abe stated that Japan would like to further expand its maritime cooperation with Sri Lanka and strengthen Sri Lankas maritime safety capabilities by providing two patrol vessels and other supports, and advance defense exchanges, and dialogue through the Japan-Sri Lanka Defense Dialogue to be newly established.

He said Japan looked for Sri Lankas participation as an observer in the next Japan-India joint exercise between coastguards.

Both leaders reaffirmed the importance of open, transparent and commercial use of port facilities under full Sri Lanka Govt. control, in developing ports for the stable development of Sri Lanka, the statement said.

Prime Minister Abe said Japan would fully support Sri Lankas development as a hub in the Indian Ocean and that, Japan would promote the development of infrastructure in sectors such as ports, transportation and energy, through Japans Quality Infrastructure and support strengthening regional connectivity and national development.

He said Japan has decided to extend two yen loans totaling approximately 45 billion yen for water supply development and basic infrastructure development in the former conflict-affected areas, as well as grant aid of one billion yen for the enhancement of Trincomalee Port.

In response, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe stated that Sri Lanka hoped to advance cooperation with Japan under the Comprehensive Partnership, since the Quality Infrastructure, the principle that Japan presented at the G7 Iseshima-Summit, contributes to sustainable development in Sri Lanka.

He said Sri Lanka particularly looked forward to Japans cooperation for the development of infrastructure, including ports, as well as Japans engagement in the development of Trincomalee port and Colombo port.
New Year nightmare: Garbage dump turns into graveyard By Kasun Warakapitiya and Sandun Jayawardana * Meethotamulla catastrophe leaves at least 19 dead and many missing * Angry residents slam politicians for not heeding warnings View(s): View(s):

What should have been a joyous celebration of the National New Year became a nightmare on Friday for many families living near the Meethotamulla garbage dump  when mounds of garbage crashed down on their houses in a devastating landslide.

By last afternoon, at least 19 people had been confirmed dead due to the disaster. Five of the dead were children. Many still remain unaccounted for.

Residents said the collapse of the garbage mound started between 2.30 pm and 3.00pm on Friday. Since it was a holiday, most people were in their homes when the disaster hit. Many houses were also hosting guests, with relatives and friends visiting for the New Year.

The sheer force of the garbage landslide, said to have been caused by a fire, left a trail of destruction in its wake. Large trees were uprooted. Swept away and destroyed were sturdy houses, several storeys high.

Four rescue teams, comprising the police and tri-forces personnel, worked their way through the Nagahamulla, Neelagewatta, Daham Mawatha and 23 Watta areas from Friday evening looking for survivors. Rescuers, who worked through the night, managed to pull out 11 people alive from the rubble and rush them to the National Hospital. Last evening, seven of them were still warded.

Army Spokesman Roshan Seneviratne said 600 armed forces personnel were engaged in rescue operations at the site.

The Government said yesterday it would meet the funeral expenses of all those killed in the disaster.

According to police, 145 houses had been damaged or destroyed by the garbage landslide. This has resulted in the displacement of 625 people from 180 families.

The lack of clarity regarding how many people remained missing continued to hamper rescue efforts yesterday. Senior military officials overseeing rescue operations told the Sunday Times they still had no clear idea regarding the missing. An information center had been established at the nearby Rahula Vidyalaya where area residents could provide details of missing relatives. This, however, had not met with much success.

Even the local Grama Niladhari, who could have provided important details regarding area residents affected by the disaster, was himself among the missing, along with several members of his family.

A large number of families had been separated during the chaotic time of the disaster and its immediate aftermath. Some of those thought to be initially buried under the rubble were later found safe at other locations. As the day wore on, however, fears increased that those who remained unaccounted for may not have made it out in time.

Area resident Mohamed Ifthar told the Sunday Times he was still searching for his mother-in-law, daughter and two of his grandchildren, who were feared trapped under the rubble.

The landslide buried large swathes of Dahampuragama at Pansalhena in Kolonnawa. Tension prevailed in the area yesterday, with angry residents venting their fury at the authorities for their failure to resolve long-standing issues surrounding the controversial garbage dump before Fridays catastrophe. Area residents said a large drain was dug at the site several days before by workers, while a gas was also released in a bid to compress the garbage at the site by making it decay. This, coupled with heavy rains experienced over several days, may have contributed to the garbage landslide, they claimed.

Another resident, H.A. Dissanayake, said his house was situated some 200 feet from the garbage dump. Though he and his family members escaped, the force of the landslide had completely destroyed his house and everything in it, he added.

Fathima Fazlina told us that many houses in her lane had been buried in the landslide. We dont know what happened to people in those houses. We are still searching. No senior Government official has come here so far to help us, she said.

Advanced Level student Tharushi Navodya, due to sit for her exam this year, lamented that she had lost all her books and her property as she had to rush out of the house to escape. Her house too was buried under rubble.

Just after the disaster hit, area residents had tried to dig people out as best they could. Eranga Lankadeegoda, had been one such person. He said rescue efforts were hampered a great deal due to delay in getting vital earth moving equipment to the site. We felt helpless as many people were trapped and crying out for help. Some of the bodies were in pieces.

Feroze Khan said his house, which he had built at great cost over many years, was buried under mounds of garbage and earth. It was three storeys high. But now, houses which were situated on higher ground have been swept along with the landslide and are lying on top of my house.

Mr. Khan was furious over years of inaction by authorities. We have been warning them for years that this could happen. Yet, they paid no attention.

Much of the residents anger was also directed towards politicians, who they said had not taken concrete steps to stop the continued dumping of garbage at the site over many years. They claimed that both the former Government and the present one had all but ignored repeated warnings that the ever growing mountain of garbage was posing a severe threat to peoples lives.

Padma Dias, a housewife, claimed that she and her children had been among those who had been protesting continuously over the garbage dump. The Government would send the police to beat us when we protested and chase us away. They come now and act like they are sad, but they could have resolved this before so many people died.

He saw the tragedy coming, but could not save them For years, Keerthirathna Perera had been at the forefront of the protests against the continued dumping of garbage in Meethotamulla. On Friday evening, Mr. Perera had noticed that the earth at the garbage dump near his house was starting to move. We decided to start removing our belongings from the house as a precaution. I went to my three-wheeler which was parked outside. As soon as I went outside, the landslide began, he said. The garbage dump came crashing down on top of Mr. Pereras house. He found his wife half buried in the rubble. My granddaughter was buried next to her, but only one of her arms was visible. After frantic digging, Mr. Perera and others managed to take out his wife and take her to hospital. She is currently in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). However, a distraught Mr. Perera said he was unable to pull out his grandchild, who died at the scene. Several other members of his family, including his son-in-law and a grandson are still missing.

Dogs sensed the disaster

Many area residents claim that their pets, especially dogs, had sensed the impending disaster almost an hour before the landslide struck.

According to witnesses, dogs which were either locked inside houses or chained at various locations had become agitated and had tried hard to escape. Even stray dogs on the streets had behaved in an agitated manner and many had run away from the location, residents said.

Dogs which left the area before the landslide returned later and were now roaming freely around, they said.

The dump will be removed: PM

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in a response to Fridays tragedy said the Government had drafted plans and was taking measures to resolve the Meeethotamulla garbage dump issue.

Issuing a statement from Japan, where he is on an official visit, Mr. Wickremesinghe assured the area people that the Government would provide relief to the families of all those who lost their lives, those who were injured or lost their properties in the disaster. He said a committee had been set up and it would brief the people on the compensation payments.

The Prime Minister also assured the Government would fulfil the promise to remove the garbage dump from the area. Steps had already been taken in this regard and the process was moving forward rapidly, he said.

The Premier said the Government had also agreed to incorporate several proposals put forward by area Parliamentarian S.M. Marikkar in resolving the garbage issue. He said the steps being taken to remove the garbage dump were environmentally friendly and were within the law.

20 vultures arrested

Police last evening said they had arrested 20 people who were suspected of planning to rob properties damaged due to the collapse of the garbage dump.

In one instance, a gang of thieves, including women, had allegedly tried to rob Rs.100,000 from an individual near the location of the disaster. The attempt was thwarted but the alleged thieves escaped.

Police have urged people not to visit the area as it may hamper rescue and relief operations.

No more garbage at Meethotamulla

In the aftermath of Fridays garbage landslide, the Government has decided to halt further dumping of garbage at Meethotamulla.

Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha De Silva announced yesterday that two temporary locations had been identified to dump garbage from Colombo.

Colombos Municipal Commissioner V.K. Anura told the Sunday Times the new process would begin from tomorrow. He said the decision to stop dumping garbage in Meethotamulla did not mean that the people would see mounds of garbage lying uncollected on Colombos streets. We assure the people that this will not happen. Garbage will be collected as usual.

The Megapolis and Western Development Ministry, meanwhile, has been working on finding solutions to the citys garbage problem.

Ministry Secretary N. Rupasinghe said providing a short-term solution to the garbage issue was the responsibility of the Colombo Municipality. It will have to make this temporary solution work for about two-and-a-half years, during which time we will be able to find a permanent solution, he said.

Mr. Rupasinghe said the initial plan had been to transport garbage collected in Colombo to Aruvakkalu in the Puttalam district. However, due to protests by various environmental organisations, we had to push that back and it will take about four years for that to be completed,

Meanwhile, the Ministry has also entered into an agreement with a power company to set up a garbage treatment plant at Meethotamulla. This facility would be ready in two years.ax
On Good Friday, Pope speaks of shame for Church and humanity View(s):

ROME (Reuters)  Pope Francis, presiding at a Good Friday service, asked God for forgiveness for scandals in the Catholic Church and for the shame of humanity becoming inured to daily scenes of bombed cities and drowning migrants. The Pope presided at a traditional candlelight Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) service at Romes Colosseum attended by some 20,000 people and protected by heavy security following recent attacks in European cities.

Pope Francis sat while a large wooden cross was carried in procession, stopping 14 times to mark events in the last hours of Jesus life from being sentenced to death to his burial. At the end of the two-hour service, the Pope read a prayer he wrote that was woven around the theme of shame and hope. In what appeared to be a reference to the Churchs sexual abuse scandal, he spoke of shame for all the times that we bishops, priests, brothers and nuns scandalised and wounded your body, the Church.

The Catholic Church has been struggling for nearly two decades to put the scandal of sexual abuse of children by clergy behind it. Critics say more must be done to punish bishops who covered up abuse or were negligent in preventing it. Pope Francis also spoke of the shame he said should be felt over the daily spilling of the innocent blood of women, of children, of immigrants and for the fate of those who are persecuted because of their race, social status or religious beliefs.

At the end of this month, Pope Francis travels to Egypt, which has seen a spate of attacks by Islamists on minority Coptic Christians. Dozens were killed in two attacks last Sunday. He spoke of shame for all the scenes of devastation, destruction and drownings that have become ordinary in our lives. The Pope expressed the hope that good will triumph despite its apparent defeat.

Security was stepped up in the area around the Colosseum following recent truck attacks against pedestrians in London and Stockholm. Some 3,000 police guarded the area and checked people as they approached. The Colosseum subway stop was closed.

The Pope yesterday was due to say an Easter vigil Mass in St. Peters Basilica and on Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, he reads his twice-annual Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) message in St. Peters Square.
Rs. 1 billion worth jewellery and gold to be returned to owners soon View(s):

By S. Rubatheesan

The Defence Ministry has decided to fast-track the process of returning almost Rs one billion worth of gold and other valuable ornaments seized by the military from the custody of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and found in abandoned houses during the final phases of the conflict, a senior official said. The committee which was appointed to look into this forwarded its recommendations to the President recently. A high level meeting with all stakeholders has been fixed for next week to determine the next steps to be taken in this regard, Additional Defence Secretary R.M.S Sarath Kumara told the Sunday Times.

In a response to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by the Sunday Times, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) disclosed that it had 37.7 kilograms (37,708.472 grams) of gold in its custody. This had been received from the Army. The Central Bank said it accepted from the Army parcels said to contain gold jewellery on 28 occasions during the period between September 7, 2010 and January 26, 2012. The street value of the items totals Rs one billion.

All the items have been weighed and valued by the National Gem and Jewellery Authority before they were given to the CBSL. On each occasion, the CBSL had weighed each packet of jewellery in the presence of Army personnel and internal auditors of the CBSL and issued a letter to the Army as a proof of receipt of these parcels said to contain gold, the Central Bank said in its RTI response.

The CBSL also acknowledged that last year, the Army handed over another parcel said to contain gold items weighing 6003.132 grams and those items had not been weighed or valued by the National Gem and Jewellery Authority before handing them over to the CBSL. These parcels had not been checked by the CBSL prior to accepting them. These parcels said to contain gold still remain in CBSL custody,

Additional Secretary Kumara said the military still had a significant amount of gold and valuable ornaments in its custody.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Bank has informed the Defence Ministry that some of the jewellery belongs to the bank. In 2014, the previous government claimed it took steps to return the gold and other valuables to the owners after careful study of their legitimate ownership. The Government identified 2,377 people from the North as rightful owners of the gold jewellery which they pawned to LTTE-run banks during the conflict period. Among them only 25 people were given back their jewellery at a ceremony held at Temple Trees. There has been no further action taken to return the gold to those who claim to be the rightful owners.

Residents who lived inLTTE-held areas for decades claim they have documents to prove their legitimate ownership of their jewellery pawned at the Tamilleela Vaippakam or Bank of Tamileelam.
Thirikkal racing still raises hackles View(s):

By Chrishanthi Christopher

One year on and the battle to ban the thirikkal (hackery races), a sport held to celebrate National New Year, continues. While seasonal revellers make arrangements to have the thirikkal races, animal rights activists have once again raised their voices against the cruelty to the bull that pulls the cart during the races.

Opposition from animal rights activists against holding the races has prompted cattle owners to approach a popular politician to canvass their case to President Maithripala Sirisena.

Lanerole Perera, a member said they had requested Presidential Adviser and SLFP organiser for Avissawela, Prassana Solongarachchi to talk to President Sirisena regarding continuing to conduct the sport.

Those in favour of the sport concede, a ban will bring down the value of the animal drastically pushing them (the animals) into slaughter houses for meat. The bullocks are valued at Rs. 5-7 lakhs an animal but doing away with the sport will bring down the price to Rs. 50,000 to Rs.60,000. Also they argue, an aged old culture will be lost. The bullock cart is our traditional method of transport and we will have nothing to show our children. We will only have to show photographs, Mr. Perera said.

He said around 15 to 20 thirikkal races will be held this season including Homagama, Dompe, Hambantota, Kaduwela and Maradana. Meanwhile Prassana Solongarachchi said that he had presented the case to President Sirisena and had submitted a file containing pictures of the cattle, how well they are cared for and the thirikkal carts that would go extinct, if banned. I respect the views of the animal rights activists but I have to listen to the people also, he said.

Meanwhile animal protection activist Lalani Perera, a member of the Cattle Protection Trust (CPT) who is in the forefront of the ban said that they are campaigning for a blanket ban on the races citing the amount of torture the animal is subject to during the races. She maintains that the animals are beaten and bitten and their tails twisted to propel them forward, faster. While many enjoy the races for the excitement and the fun it can bring, some indulge in gambling and thousands, if not millions, exchange hands.

Last year the police on requests made by animal activists had issued a circular to all police stations to discourage the sport in their areas. The circular said that if despite the races are held, any persons reported of cruelty to the animals will be prosecuted under the Cruelty to Animals Ordinance. This included cattle, elephants and other animals. The ordinance said that any overriding, overdriving and unnecessary harm to the animals is an offence. Animal activists said there is plenty of overriding and overdriving in this sport.

Last year the circular to the police stations had been somewhat a deterrent to a few event organisers who struck-off the sport from their list. CPT members have met DIG Crimes (Colombo) Priyantha Jayakody recently to have the National New Year events monitored. The Colombo Crimes Division has issued circulars to all police stations this year too. However DIG Jayakody said the sport is legal and the only way this could be stopped is by discouraging the people to not go to/enjoy such events. There are two sides to the story and the owners of the animals claim that they give special care to the animals. We cannot ignore this, he said.

ALARM OVER ELEPHANT RACE

A billboard in Piliyandala has advertised avurudu celebrations this week. In the list of events is the avurudu kumaraya and an elephant race. Wildlife conservationist, Nadeeka Happuarachchi said that he had written to the wildlife minister regarding the practice of using elephants in cultural pageants.

He said the elephant permits only allows them to be used in peraheras.
Letters to the Editor View(s):

Speak out! Dont allow MPs to behave like unruly children in Parliament

The conduct of our MPs in the Parliament is appalling. Parliament is considered as the august assembly, where the government policies and other matters affecting the country and the people are meant to be discussed and debated peacefully, cordially and logically.

It is a privilege entrusted to the peoples representatives, by the people. Irrespective of whether you are in the government side or in the opposition, the members cannot absolve themselves from that noble and important duty; the people have elected them to do.

Our Parliament has a short but a proud history with rich traditions. It is regrettable that in this august assembly today instead of participating in the day`s business and making a meaningful contribution to the subjects being discussed some MPs engage in discussing matters of their personal interest inviting exchange of words and interruptions across the well of the house. Last week the situation turned so ugly that some members of the Opposition refused to accept the ruling given by the Speaker, defying his calling to order and attacking his neutrality and impartiality. The Speaker is entrusted to enforce Parliamentary rules and procedure and all members are bound to respect and uphold them and by tradition obey his ruling.

Any reasonable person following the proceedings that day would appreciate the Speakers willingness to accommodate the issues facing the joint opposition members within his authority and the existing standing orders, rules, and the precedents governing Parliament. Their frustration in their inability to get a ruling in their favour was understandable, but the Speaker was enforcing the rules of Parliament. Criticism of the Speaker in this scenario is thus akin to disrespecting the very institution of Parliament.

The behaviour of these members every day that Parliament was in session in the recent past caused disruption of Parliaments business, eating into valuable parliamentary time and question time. Indeed the purpose of question time is to make the government defend its decisions and to hold the government accountable to its action in public. Instead of using this time to bring, to public focus the lapses, weaknesses and shortcomings of the government, these members use the time to resolve their personal scores.

It seems a thorough overhaul of procedure is neededfor instance the Speaker should be able to reprimand members and failing which to take appropriate action against the members.

It is the culture of the institution of Parliament which has got worse. Why do we the people accept this kind of behaviour from those elected to represent us? A child who has been rude or offensive towards somebody is made to apologize to the offended person. Can we imagine an MP doing this in our Parliament?

We tell our children at school; dont be rude, respect each other and your teachers and do your work to the best of your ability and with maximum effort. Is this too much to ask the of our elected MPs?

If we continue to remain silent while our elected adults act like children we are forfeiting our rights as citizens and are failing in our responsibility by future generations. Complacency is no longer an option.

Raja Wickramasinghe

Via email

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One day a week not enough to collect recyclables

About a week back we the residents at the Anderson Flats Housing Scheme received hand bills from the Colombo Municipal Council stating that items such as plastic, polythene, paper, cardboard, glass bottles, metal items,coconut shells etc. will be collected only on Wednesdays of each week and on other days only kitchen waste would be collected.

Wednesday came and the garbage collectors were able to remove only one third of the total items piled up in their first trip in the one tractor they brought. Then they had to make a second trip to collect the balance, that too not completely, thus leaving the rest in the premises.

There are 800 houses in this housing scheme and one day is not sufficient for the CMC to collect all the recyclable articles especially given the shortage of vehicles. The poor collectors cannot be blamed for this lapse- they are doing a wonderful job. We feel that at least they should come on two days to remove these items and keep the flats free of mosquitoes, cockroaches and other insects.

With dengue raising its head again we hope the authorities will act fast.

Residents, Anderson Flats

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Bring back flying squads to catch errant docs

I am 66 years old and both my parents were doctors. I am really proud of them because during their time people looked up to them.

I remember they were allowed to do private practice in the morning till 8 a.m and during the lunch break and in the evenings.

When I was quite young, two people walked into our quarters, which was next to the hospital asking for my father. One person looked quite sick with a towel wrapped around his head. They said they wanted to be treated.

I informed my father about them . He said ask them to come to the hospital. When I told them this they replied they would like to receive private treatment.

I went back to my father and to my amazement he scolded me saying you are aware that I dont do private practice during office hours. I came back and passed on the message again. These two gentlemen then went to the hospital.

When my father came home to lunch he told me that the two had been from the Flying Squad of the Health Ministry.

I realized then what a principled doctor my father was.

My father was very keen that I too became a doctor. I failed to enter the Medical College but I am happy that I did not become a doctor as I too would have been categorized as a Doctor Mudalali (with apologies to Honourable Doctors).

My suggestion to the Government is to start the Flying Squad system again as some doctors do private practice during hours that they should be in hospital.

C. Peiris

Via email



Letters to the Editor should be brief and to the point.

Send them to:Letters to the Editor

The Sunday Times,

P.O. Box 1136, Colombo.or editor@sundaytimes.wnl.lk.

Please note that letters cannot be acknowledged or returned
EU-Turkey ties hang in referendum balance View(s):

The future of badly strained EU-Turkey relations hangs in the balance Sunday when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asks voters to give him increased powers that opponents say will lead to authoritarian rule. Ties with the European Union are a key issue for Turks long-promised membership of the bloc and Erdogan has rounded savagely on Brussels at the slightest criticism of his actions.

Analysts say Erdogans stinging rhetoric is meant to appeal to Turkish nationalists whose votes will be crucial in Sundays referendum which looks too close to call. The hopeful flip side is that he is at heart a pragmatist who will come to terms with the EU when the dust settles. For the moment however, things are about as bad as they get.

At the same time, analysts said, the EU and strategically-placed Turkey still had many shared interests as major trading and investment partners. If Ankara has opened a door to Moscow, it also remains a key NATO ally at a time when EU leaders are trying to come to terms with a more assertive Russia and the prospect of life without Britain, up to now the blocs most powerful military member state.

Turkey has also provided safe haven for nearly three million Syrian refugees and a key March 2016 accord has helped stem massive migrant inflows into the EU.

BRUSSELS, April13 (AFP)
Right time to use huge bomb in Afghanistan: US General By Ahmad Sultan and Hamid Shalizi View(s): View(s):

The top US military commander in Afghanistan said on Friday that the decision to deploy one of the largest conventional bombs ever used in combat was purely tactical, and made as part of the campaign against Islamic State-linked fighters. As many as 36 suspected Islamic State militants were killed in the strike on Thursday evening in the eastern province of Nangarhar, Afghan defense officials said, adding there were no civilian casualties.

Amaq, the news agency affiliated with Islamic State, carried a statement denying that the group had suffered casualties in the attack.

The statements could not be independently verified, and on Friday Afghan and foreign troops in the vicinity were not allowing reporters or locals to approach the scene of the blast.

The strike came as US President Donald Trump prepares to dispatch his first high-level delegation to Kabul, amid uncertainty about his plans for the American troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Nicknamed the mother of all bombs, the weapon was dropped from an MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district of Nangarhar, bordering Pakistan.

Nicholson said the decision to use the 9,797kg GBU-43 bomb was based on his assessment of military needs and not broader political considerations. This was the first time that we encountered an extensive obstacle to our progress, he said of a joint Afghan-US operation that has been targeting Islamic State since March. It was the right time to use it tactically against the right target on the battlefield.

Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said no civilians were harmed in the massive blast that targeted a network of caves and tunnels that had been heavily mined.

The GBU-43 is a GPS-guided munition that had never before been used in combat since its first test in 2003, when it produced a mushroom cloud visible from 32 km away. The bombs destructive power, equivalent to 11 tonnes of TNT, pales in comparison with the relatively small atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War Two, which had blasts equivalent to between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes of TNT.

In Achin village, about 5 km from the remote, mountainous area where the bomb was dropped, witnesses said the ground shook, but homes and shops appeared unaffected. Qari Mehrajuddin first saw lightning like a thunder storm followed by the roar of an explosion, an all-too-familiar sound for residents of the war-torn area.

Some locals welcomed the strike. If you want to destroy and eliminate Daesh, then even if you destroy my home we wont complain, because they are not human beings, they are savages, said Mir Alam Shinwari, using an Arabic term for Islamic State.

Away from Achin, reactions were mixed. The fact is that America used their big bomb here to test its effectiveness, said Kabul resident Asadullah Khaksar. If America wants to eliminate Daesh, it is very easy because they created this group.

The United Nations has raised concerns that the American air campaign is swelling civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Last year, air strikes by international forces caused at least 127 civilian deaths and 108 injuries, up from 103 deaths and 67 injuries in 2015, the United Nations said.

ACHIN, April 15 (Reuters)
The Dalai Lama factor in Sino-Indian relations View(s):

By Shashi Tharoor

NEW DELHI  Relations between India and China havent been particularly warm in recent months. But they have lately taken on an icy chill, with Chinese leaders furious over the Dalai Lamas visit to the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as its own. On April 8, over loud protests from Chinas government, the Dalai Lama addressed devotees from far and wide at the historic monastery in the border town of Tawang, where the sixth Dalai Lama was born more than three centuries ago.

India and China view both the Dalai Lama and Arunachal Pradesh very differently. From Indias perspective, the Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhist community, and so has the right to minister to his followers at the great Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Tawang. And, because Arunachal Pradesh is a state of the Indian union, what happens there is Indias decision alone. In Chinas view, however, Arunachal Pradesh is not really Indias. Yes, it officially belongs to India, but only because of the McMahon line, a boundary drawn by British imperialists in 1911, which China no longer accepts (though China did settle its boundary with Myanmar along the same line). The Chinese government refers to Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet.

In any case, says China, the Dalai Lama is not a spiritual leader, but a political one. And, given his support for Tibetan self-rule (Chinese officials angrily call him a splittist), his visit to a sensitive border area is being viewed as a deliberate provocation. According to Chinas spokesman, allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal Pradesh could harm bilateral relations, with India facing the consequences. China has also summoned Indian Ambassador Vijay Gokhale to register a formal protest.

India, for its part, has taken a conciliatory approach. The Ministry of External Affairs first attempted to assuage China, stating that no additional colour should be ascribed to the Dalai Lamas religious and spiritual activities. And, in the face of Chinas increasingly intemperate fulminations, Prime Minister Narendra Modis government reiterated its respect for the One China policy, urging Chinas government not to generate artificial controversies.

But China has not been mollified. Instead, when the Dalai Lama arrived in Arunachal Pradesh, Chinese official media declared that China might be forced to take tough measures. The Global Times, an English-language tabloid published by the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the Peoples Daily, took a particularly belligerent tone. Citing Chinas GDP, which is several times higher than that of India, and its military capabilities, which can reach the Indian Ocean  not to mention its proximity to troubled Kashmir  it asked, if China engages in a geopolitical game with India, who will win?

The same Global Times editorial stressed that this visit by the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh was different from his previous six  the last of which was in 2009  because he was received and accompanied by Indias junior home minister, Kiren Rijiju. India sees nothing unusual in Rijiju, an Arunachali politician, being present for a major spiritual occasion. In democracies, such public events involving popular religious figures are common, and politicians often enjoy the attention they attract by attending them.

But China prefers to use Rijijus attendance as evidence that the event is, in fact, political, suggesting that India is using the visit as a diplomatic tool to put pressure on China. The fundamental point, the Global Times stressed, is that the Dalai Lama is a highly politicized symbol in Chinas diplomacy, so much so that a countrys attitude toward him affects almost the entire relationship with China.

Yet surely China must recognize that it has not, in recent years, given Indias government much reason to accommodate its sensitivities. In fact, it has responded to Modis efforts at outreach with a series of insults.

For example, in 2014, Modi not only welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to his hometown, Ahmedabad, on his own birthday; on that same trip, he also lifted the previous governments restrictions on Chinese investments in sensitive sectors of the Indian economy, such as ports and telecoms. Chinese soldiers promptly crossed the disputed frontier with India in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, going so far as to pitch tents on land that India considers its sovereign territory.

That mini-crisis was followed by a series of policy setbacks that reflected Chinas scant regard for Indias sensitivities on various issues. China opposed Indias bid (strongly supported by the United States) for membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group. It blocked Indias request to name Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed (a Pakistani terrorist group), to a United Nations Security Council blacklist, despite support for the move from the councils 14 other members.

China has also built a China-Pakistan economic corridor through Pakistan-controlled parts of Kashmir. China itself recognises that the territory is disputed, yet its government completely ignored Indias objections to the violation of its sovereignty. Against this background, Chinas expectation that India will respect its sensitivities is a bit rich. Yet Chinas arrogant approach is not new. In fact, its reaction to the Dalai Lamas visit to Arunachal Pradesh is of a piece with its behaviour in the South China Sea, where China insists that sovereignty should be determined according to its nine-dash line.

China expects other countries to fall into line when it makes such a demand, as the Philippines has done under President Rodrigo Duterte. And China has proved willing to turn up the heat on those that dont, such as Japan and Vietnam.

But India is somewhat bigger than Chinas other regional neighbours, and is made of sterner stuff. Rather than escalate the conflict over the Dalai Lamas visit further, Chinas leaders should allow passions to subside and relegate the episode to yesterdays news. If they dont, and instead move to follow through on their threats, they may well discover that India, too, has cards to play.

(The writer is a former UN under-secretary-general and former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and Minister of State for Human Resource Development and is currently Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and an MP for the Indian National Congress.) Courtesy : Project Syndicate, 2017. Exclusive to the Sunday Times. www.project-syndicate.org
The party said it has always worked for the development of Delhi and will not impose any form of new tax.

By Ilma Hasan: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today released its manifesto for the upcoming Delhi municipal polls.

The party said it has always worked for the development of Delhi and will not impose any form of new tax. They also said they will fulfill Modi's vision for Delhi -- to help the poor, the deprived and improve the education system.

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The election for 272 seats of the three civic bodies is scheduled for April 23 and the results would be declared on April 26.

Following are some of the key points of BJP's vision statement: Pressure Delhi government to authorise unauthorised colonies. Bring similar amenities to JJ colonies as are available in other residential areas. For roadside vendors, we will introduce a registration process so they aren't asked to shut shop and can get loans. Increase pension amounts. Take back roads bigger than 60 feet form the Delhi government and improve them. Improve the drainage system to prevent water logging across Delhi. For potholes, we will introduce ready mix cement. Ensure rainwater harvesting. Plant more plants and trees across Delhi to curb pollution. Private schools will have adoption system of MCD schools. Night cleaning in all markets across Delhi.

Also read:

MCD polls: Delhi EC rejects Arvind Kejriwal's demand to defer election

Over 1.10 lakh first-time voters in MCD polls

--- ENDS ---
Calling it a historic decision of the Modi government, the HRD minister said that the OBC commission was completely powerless earlier.

By Brijesh Pandey: On the second day of the National Executive Meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Odisha, HRD Minster Prakash Javadekar said that a resolution was passed on Saturday thanking Modi government for giving constitutional status to National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes.

Hukum Dev Narayan presented the resolution and it was seconded by Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Dharmendra Pradhan and Raghubar Das.

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Hitting out at the Congress, Javadekar said that the demands of the OBC were never given any serious thoughts and the Congress strategy was to use them as a vote bank. "It was the same with minorities, to talk about them as a vote bank but not give them any justice and help. This government has given them constitutional status like the SC commission earlier."

Calling it a historic decision of the Modi government, the HRD minister said that the OBC commission was completely powerless earlier.

Javadekar also said that the resolution condemns the manner in which the Congress and the other parties are playing politics and stalling the bill. "They played vote bank politics and suffered badly. In Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakahnd, Manipur our vote share has increased. In states like Odisha, we got 36 percent of the vote share. People are voting for progress, not on the basis of caste and creed. The Prime Minister has earned the trust of the poor people of the country. Demonetisation and the fight against black money was something which people could relate to. The resolution also spoke about Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile phones being widely available to people now. Direct benefit transfers were made. This is a revolution for the poor."

Answering a specific query on the nature of OBC reservation, Prakash Javadekar said that they give justice to everyone and that they firmly believe in 'sabka saath sabka vikas'.

Javadekar also spoke about how the Deen Dayal Centenary pamphlet has been prepared to be sent to all households. Finance minister Arun Jaitley also gave a detailed presentation on GST and Power Minster Piyush Goel spoke about its benefits.

Also Read:

BJP national executive meet: Narendra Modi offers prayers at Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar

BJP national executive meet: 70,000 people wait for hours to catch glimpse of PM Modi

Also Watch:

BJP focuses on nationalism in National Executive meet

--- ENDS ---
Two Tauranga teenagers whove developed a prototype project that could change the way search and rescue operates in the future have been recognised at the 2017 New Zealand Youth Awards.

The Change Maker Award (Community Safety) recipients Abigail Chaytor and Alexandra Groos, both 17, received their awards during an official ceremony held at Parliament on Tuesday.

Abigail and Alexandra are Youth Search and Rescue Leaders who have developed the ESRI ArcGIS Pre Planning Mapping Project, which is designed to improve decision making in Search and Rescue and Emergency Management situations in New Zealand.

Attending the NZ Youth Awards was Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller who was particularly proud to see Abigail and Alexandra take home the Change Maker award for their prototype project.

These outstanding young women, along with all other winners and nominees, have shown enormous talent, dedication and potential.

With such bright young minds achieving incredible feats, I have every confidence that the future of the Bay, and New Zealand, is in safe hands.

Abigail and Alexandra will be presenting their prototype project at the Australian and New Zealand Disaster and Emergency Management Conference in Brisbane during May, as well as to NZ Police Search and Rescue.

Youth Minister Nikki Kaye says the NZ Youth Awards recognise young Kiwis whove achieved outstanding results and given back to their communities, as well as those whove made a significant contribution towards supporting young people.

When you look at the drive, skills, compassion and integrity evident in the winners across all the categories, its clear that our young people have enormous talent and potential, and the future of our country is in safe hands.

As Youth Minister, Im thrilled to be able to provide opportunities to inspire, encourage and celebrate the achievements of our young people and those who support them.

For more information about the 2017 New Zealand Youth Awards winners, visit www.myd.govt.nz
Young people across the Bay of Plenty are being urged to ensure they are protected from a common virus that can cause some cancers.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation is now available for both males and females, aged 16-26, in the Bay of Plenty.

Its free and helps to protect against HPV, a group of very common viruses that infect about four out of five people at some time in their lives. HPV causes cells to grow abnormally and over time can lead to cancer.

HPV causes almost all cervical cancer and several other cancers that affect both men and women.

The vaccine is safe, very good at preventing HPV infection, and at reducing the HPV-related cancer risks for young people into the future, says Toi Te Ora  Public Health Service medical officer Dr Jim Miller.

My advice is that you take this chance, and choose to reduce your cancer risk for the future. Make an appointment today with your doctor to get your free HPV immunisation.

While most HPV infections are benign, causing warts on areas of the body including the hands, feet and genitals, there are certain strains that put a person at a higher risk of developing certain types of cancers.

HPV is a common and highly contagious infection that can affect your skin, cervix, anus, mouth and throat.

The strains of HPV, which cause a person to develop warts, are not the same group of HPV strains that cause cancer. The strains of HPV known to cause genital warts are low-risk HPV 6 and 11, while the strains of HPV associated with cancer include high-risk HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58.

HPV is a virus which is passed skin-to-skin through sexual intercourse or other forms of skin-to-skin contact of the genitals.

HPV can infect anyone who is or has ever been sexually active, and sometimes the most infected individuals are asymptomatic, meaning they display no symptoms of the virus.

Find out more hereand here.
Indian e-commerce portal Snapdeal, which is already in a soup for various reasons, is now bearing the brunt of having "SNAP" in its name. Mistaking Snapdeal for Snapchat, Indians enraged by Snapchat CEO Evan Speigel's apparent comment that India is poor, are uninstalling the Snapdeal app and giving it poor ratings on app stores.

By India Today Web Desk: SNAPCHAT, for those who don't know about it, is primarily an image sharing application that allows users to send images, and make stories using those, with a guarantee that the image will self-destruct in some time. The app also notifies the sender if the recipient tries to act smart by taking a screenshot of the image received.

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SNAPDEAL, is an Indian e-commerce portal and has an app that is being used by millions of Indians. Many people in India, who did not really get what is going on in news about the outrage against Snapchat after its CEO Evan Spiegal was said to have made a statement that he does not want the company to grow in "poor countries" like India, mistook Snapdeal for Snapchat. They are now busy uninstalling Snapdeal from their phones in protest as they saw fellow social media users calling for boycott of the Snapchat app.

Ridiculously hilarious, eh?

HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED

A report in Variety said that a former Snapchat employee claimed that Evan Speigel, the CEO of Snapchat, once made a comment that "his" app is only for the rich and that he does not want it to expand it into "poor countries like India and Spain". Anthony Pompliano, the former employee, is said to have mentioned this in a lawsuit he filed against Snapchat in the United States of America.

The news spread like wildfire on the internet, and the way Chinese whisper works, by the time it reached the Indian social media circle, changed to "Snapchat CEO 'said' India is poor" and that was enough for many hyper-nationalists to call for a boycott of the app. The Indian Twitterati, enraged by the Snapchat CEO's remark, trended #BoycottSnapchat. Many people uninstalled the app from their smartphones and went to app stores to give it poor ratings. Some bright minds downloaded Snapchat only to uninstall it in protest.

That's how Indians roll if someone makes a nasty remark about India.

SNAPDEAL UNINSTALLED

Snapdeal, an Indian e-commerce portal that made headlines about a possible merger with e-commerce giant Flipkart, found itself in a soup after Indians, angered by its then brand ambassador actor Aamir Khan's statement that there is a rising despondency in India (which was later twisted and reported as "Aamir Khan says India is intolerant ") began uninstalling the app asking the company to drop Aamir Khan as its ambassador.

Snapdeal, fearing uninstallation in millions and poor ratings and boycott of the app, dissociated itself from whatever Aamir Khan said, and dropped him as the ambassador of the brand saying the contract had come to an end.

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Now, Snapdeal is in a soup again, as many Indians -- who have hearsay knowledge about the Snapchat CEO remark and the #BoycottSnapchat campaign -- are mistaking their app for Snapchat and uninstalling it from their devices. The number of people uninstalling Snapdeal, thinking its the Snapdeal CEO who said Indian is poor, is increasing and so are the poor ratings on the app in the app stores.

See the images below and have some good laughs:

Faking news has nothing on reality. (Pic from fb). pic.twitter.com/ZWT24W4qoR- Aswin (@aswinsam) April 16, 2017

Also Read: Snapdeal says bye bye to Aamir Khan

FYI|| #BoycottSnapchat: Twitter rages after Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegal's apparent 'India is too poor' comment

Also Read: Snapchat ratings drop from 'four stars' to 'one star' on App store after CEO remark row

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse police are looking for suspects for two separate stabbings that happened within an hour of each other last night near downtown.

Both incidents reportedly happened on the 200 block of West Fayette Street

Police were called to Upstate University Hospital at about 2:37 a.m. Sunday after a 19-year-old man arrived in a private vehicle with a stab wound, Sgt. Richard Helterline, a police spokesman, said in a news release.

The man was stabbed in the lower abdomen, but his injuries do not appear life-threatening, police said.

He told authorities he had been standing in a parking lot on the 200 block of West Fayette Street when an unknown person confronted him and stabbed him, according to officials. He did not give any further details.

About an hour later at 3:26 a.m., officers reported to St. Joseph's Hospital for another stabbing complaint.

A 24-year-old man had arrived there in a private vehicle after being stabbed in the back of his left shoulder, police said. The injury does not appear life-threatening.

The 24 year old told officers he was also in a parking lot on the 200 block of West Fayette Street when several fights broke out. He got caught up in the crowd and was stabbed, he said.

The man told police he did not see who stabbed him and could not provide a suspect description, according to officials.

Though the incidents happened in the same area at about the same time, police aren't sure if the cases are related or how many suspects they're looking for because of the lack of suspect description, Helterline said.

The Syracuse Police Department asks anyone with information on either incident to call authorities at (315) 442-5222, or provide a tip through the "SPD Tips" app.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Syracuse Police Department called a news conference Saturday night to discuss an arrest in homicide case.

Police provided no other details about the homicide before the news conference, which was scheduled for 9 p.m. at police headquarters, and did not say if Chief Frank Fowler would be in attendance.

It was not clear which homicide case would be discussed. There have been three homicides so far this year. The only one that has not been solved is the Naqual Bloodworth case. Bloodworth, 21, was fatally shot on Gifford Street on April 3.

Detectives, however, are still working to solve 13 homicides from 2016, which saw the most murders in the city's history.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A woman stepped into an argument between a man and his girlfriend early Saturday and then fatally stabbed the man multiple times, Syracuse police said.

Shanta D. Washington, 35, of 325 Richmond Ave., Syracuse, was charged with first-degree manslaughter and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Shanta D. Washington

At about 1:15 a.m. officers responded to 243 Palmer Ave. for a report of a man down after receiving a single 911 call. Officers found Misrain P. Perez, 39, of Syracuse, on the ground there. He was not conscious or breathing and was pronounced dead a short time later.

Perez had a visible head injury, but officers were not sure what had caused it, Sgt. Richard Helterline, a police spokesman, said at a news conference.

"We didn't know what we had at first," Helterline said.

The Onondaga County Medical Examiner's Office was called. They determined that Perez's head injury was from a stab wound.

An autopsy conducted Saturday found Perez had been stabbed at least four times including in the head, back, arm and thigh.

Detectives began investigating, talking to witnesses and reviewing evidence.

Helterline said that about 30 minutes before the police were called Perez got into an argument with his girlfriend outside 243 Palmer Ave. Washington was nearby with several people and got involved in the argument. It is during the argument that she is accused of stabbing Perez and fleeing the scene.

Detectives believe Washington and Perez may have known each other or were familiar with each other, Helterline said.

Washington was arrested Saturday afternoon. Police did not say how they identified her as a suspect or if she had given them a statement, though she did speak with detectives. Helterline said Washington was known to police, but declined to discuss her arrest history.

Helterline said detectives think they have found the knife used in the stabbing.

Washington was arraigned in Syracuse City Criminal Court and ordered held at the Onondaga County jail with no bail.

Detectives are continuing to investigate and are still interviewing witnesses. Police asked anyone with information about the homicide to contact 315-442-5222 or 315-442-5223. Tips can also be submitted using the "SPD Tips" app.

Do you know Misrain P. Perez? Syracuse.com would like to speak to family or friends willing to share insights into his life. Reach reporters Kira Maddox (315-470-2146, kmaddox@syracuse.com) or Chris Baker (315-766-8329, cbaker@syracuse.com).
Cultural diversity thriving at Syracuse University

Dancers perform. The inaugural "Thrive Together Fair" at Syracuse University, celebrating cultural diversity, Manley Field House, Saturday April 15, 2017. Michael Greenlar | mgreenlar@syracuse.com





The Syracuse University student organization, Thrive at SU, hosted the inaugural "Thrive Together Fair" on Saturday night at Manley Field House.



The event featured performances and speakers from across the University and the local community in a night celebrating the diversity of Syracuse. The fair is also a fundraiser for InterFaith Works of Central New York and its Center for New Americans, which resettles and integrates refugee families into the Syracuse community.

Following recent policy changes, the center has seen its funding for these efforts drastically reduced.
By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Apr 15 (PTI) The Congress today accused Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar of abdicating his duty and responsibility as Defence Minister as it latched on to his remark that pressure of key issues like Kashmir was one of the reasons he opted to quit and return to the coastal state.

"Truth is now out. Abdication of duty and responsibility by Defence Minister Parrikar made him go to head the cosy confines of a defectors government in Goa," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted.

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Congress leader Digvijaya Singh also hit out at Parrikar, saying the former Defence Minister has made an honest confession and asked if there was any "unfinished agenda" he had in the coastal state.

"Honest confession. Was it Kashmir pressure or unfinished Business deals in Goa which made Parrikar rob Peoples mandate in Goa and return?," tweeted Singh, who had failed to cobble a Congress government in Goa despite his party getting more seats than the BJP.

Singh is the Congress partys general secretary incharge of Goa and was entrusted the responsibility of forming the Congress government there after results on March 11 in which the party won 17 of the 40 assembly seats in the state.

The Congress party on its official Twitter handle also took a swipe at Parrikar wondering if he would quit Goa too when in need.

"Tomorrow, if Goa needs him in a crisis, what is the guarantee he will not quit from there too? #CowardsMindset," the AICC tweeted.

In a candid admission, Goa Chief Minister Parrikar yesterday said the pressure of some key issues, like Kashmir, was one of the reasons why he opted to quit as the Defence Minister and return to the coastal state.

"The pressure of the issues like Kashmir while working as defence minister in Delhi was one of the reasons why I chose to come back to Goa," Parrikar told a gathering in Panaji on the occasion of the 126th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar.

"I chose to come back to Goa when I got an opportunity to do so. When you are in the Centre, you have to tackle issues like Kashmir and others," he said.

"Delhi is not my area of operations (and) that is why I used to feel under pressure," Parrikar had added.

However, the office of Goa Chief Minister today sought to clarify Parrikars remarks, saying his return to Goa after quitting as Defence Minister was in no way linked to the pressure of some key issues like Kashmir.

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"The speech in local language of chief minister (Parrikar) regarding Kashmir issue was in no way connected to his becoming chief minister of Goa which was under the necessity of situation due to coalition partners demand," the chief ministers office (CMO) said in a statement. PTI SKC KIS

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Blog_EssexChainLynch-34.JPG

Fall foliage in the Essex Chain of Lakes area in Newcomb in the Adirondack Park. Power plant emissions drifting on prevailing winds from the Midwest caused many Adirondack lakes to become acidic and devoid of life. Many lakes rebounded after the pollution ceased.

(Mike Lynch for newyorkupstate.co)

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 led directly to the founding of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency later that year. This Earth Day finds the agency in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, with a leader in Scott Pruitt who is opposed to its mission and eager to make deep budget cuts.



The president has proposed slashing EPA's budget by a third, which would lead to elimination of one-fifth of its work force and cancel entire programs dealing with brownfields, radon, lead exposure, climate change, Great Lakes pollution and home appliance efficiency.



The administration is rolling back regulations on coal power plant emissions and automobile fuel mileage standards, seen as a great unshackling of the energy and auto sectors and a boon to jobs.



Echoes of 1980, when EPA came under fierce attack during the presidential campaign for regulatory overreach and bureaucratic bloat. Once in office, the Reagan administration appointed a critic, Anne Gorsuch Burford, to run the agency. (Does the name ring a bell? She is the mother of the newest Supreme Court justice.) EPA's budget was cut by 25 percent and career officials were targeted for dismissal. The public lost confidence that EPA was doing its job. Halfway into his term, Reagan reversed course and replaced Gorsuch with the EPA's founding administrator, William Ruckelshaus, to restore the agency's credibility.



Trump campaigned on the contradictory promises to cancel environmental regulations standing in the way of America becoming the world's leader in energy production, and to ensure Americans have "absolutely crystal clear and clean water" and "beautiful, immaculate air." One need only look at China or India to see what unbridled energy production and lack of environmental controls get you: air you cannot breathe and water you cannot drink.



And one need only look around Upstate New York to see the damage caused by industrial pollution - a disastrously polluted Onondaga Lake, Adirondack lakes scarred by acid rain and countless brownfields littering our cities. Federal oversight stopped industry from polluting them and led to the healing underway today. It would be a mistake to go backward.



Citizens also ought to look with skepticism at the administration's promise to bring back the nation's coal industry. Our desire to help hurting coal miners does not mean we should send them back into the pits to risk their lives and health, no more than we would return to 19th century farming or industrial practices. Market forces, automation and changing mining techniques make this impractical, anyway. Better to invest in new industries and technologies with potential to employ large number of workers - solar, for example, which already employs twice as many workers as coal.



Elections have consequences but, as Reagan discovered, there are limits. The Trump administration can achieve some of its environmental goals unilaterally. However, Congress has the final say on the budget. We're counting on our representatives in Washington to stand up for clean air and clean water.
Cambridges indoor play centre Funky Funhouse was destroyed by a fire on Friday, April 14. The fire is believed to have broken out at about 10.40 p.m., and to have caused damage of around 750,000.

While no one was inside the building at the time of the fire, Funky Funhouse, which is situated at Mercers Row, saw its soft play area, cafe and day nursery destroyed. Fire crews from Suffolk were called in to help the local Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service fight the blaze, with the firefighters employing hose reels and jets to stop the spread of the flames to neighbouring buildings.

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation, although Aaron Othman, a director at the company, speculated that the building had been broken into, and its safe and tills emptied.

Its the worst possible time, Mr Othman added. We had eight birthday parties booked today [Saturday] and were expecting about 700 people. Were working hard to make arrangements with other venues so we wont disappoint the children.

Source: Cambridge News
"[Just] one US Dollar can provide three days of life-saving medicine [for people living with HIV/AIDS]. Your contributions provide HIV counseling, education, and care services [...] in Ghana, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Kenya, and Zambia. Together, we can deliver an AIDS-free generation."

Supplementary Reading:

For every purchase of the, a portion of the profit will go to the Global Fund to fightin Africa.Think of it as one of Apple Community's ways of helping others - albeit not entirely non-commercial.According to Apple,If you're awho wants to contribute to the cause or if you simply love Red, I'm sure you'll be happy to know that this special color of the iPhone is now officially available in the Philippines.You can purchase your unit directly through Apple's official website in our country -- or by calling 1800-1651-0525. The Cupertino company offers nationwide delivery.The technical specifications and prices of the handsets are similar to the regular versions. However, you can't them with just 32GB of internal storage.128GB Red iPhone 7 sells for Php 43,990 while the 256GB variant goes for Php 49,990.On the other hand, you can grab the 128GB Red iPhone 7 Plus for Php 50,990 and the 256GB version for Php 56,990.For more than a decade now, Apple has been releasing limited edition Red versions of its iPods and accessories with the noble goal of donating a portion of the proceeds to worthwhile projects that benefit humanity. Thanks these Red iDevices and the people who bought them, Apple has become the biggest corporate contributor to the Global Fund with a total donated amount of $130 Million USD.
By Dev Ankur Wadhawan: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh today launched another tirade against the BJP Government. Casting grave doubts on the intention of the Modi dispensation, Singh mentioned there is an attempt to build an atmosphere in the direction of war with Pakistan.

"BJP government is not fulfilling the promises it made to the people. So, there is no alternative left in the country to win the election. So, in this situation, Modi government can fight a war with Pakistan. This kind of an atmosphere is being built to win the 2019 elections.", Digvijaya Singh stated.

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Singh, who arrived in Jodhpur for a private function, also contradicted the Election Commission, mentioning that EVMs can be hacked. "A person who does it had come to me and had asked for Rs 2 crore to rectify the result of one Assembly.", Singh mentioned.

DIGVIJAYA CALLS NDA GOVERNMENT 'THIEF'

In the aftermanth of the Assembly elections, Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh had spearheaded the attack against BJP led NDA government in Rajya Sabha on the formation of government in Goa.

Talking to India Today, Congress Rajya Sabha MP said, "Rahul Gandhi was right when he said that they have stolen ( mandate) like a thief.. They have committed dacoity. Theft and dacoity is always committed at night... They have committed dacoity and BJP will have to pay for it."

Accusing BJP of 'stealing' people's mandate in Goa, Digvijaya Singh had asked for a detailed discussion on the matter in the Upper House of Parliament.

Also Read:

BJP stole mandate like thief, they will now pay for it: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Goa government

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh just declared 'Rahul Gandhi cabinet' on Twitter

Also Watch:

Goa: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh to parade MLAs before Governor Mridula Sinha

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Microsoft is experimenting with tabs in File Explorer and other apps on Windows 10 If you're one of many Windows Insiders who have been constantly asking Microsoft to bring tabs to File Explorer, we may have some good news for you. According to sources familiar with the matter, Microsoft is currently experimenting internally with a new feature called "Tabbed Shell", which brings the familiar browser tabbing module to all app windows in Windows 10, including the File Explorer. Windows Central

1950's tax preparation: plugboard programming with an IBM 403 accounting machine Long before computers existed, businesses used electromechanical accounting machines for data processing. These one-ton accounting machines were "programmed" through wiring on a plugboard control panel, allowing them to generate complex business reports from records stored on punched cards. Even though they lacked electronics and used spinning mechanical wheels to add up data, these machines could process more than two cards a second. Ken Shirriff

Magic AI: These are the optical illusions that trick, fool, and flummox computers There's a scene in William Gibson's 2010 novel Zero History, in which a character embarking on a high-stakes raid dons what the narrator refers to as the "ugliest T-shirt" in existence --- a garment which renders him invisible to CCTV. In Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, a bitmap image is used to transmit a virus that scrambles the brains of hackers, leaping through computer-augmented optic nerves to rot the target's mind. The Verge

This new solar-powered device can pull water straight from the desert air You can't squeeze blood from a stone, but wringing water from the desert sky is now possible, thanks to a new spongelike device that uses sunlight to suck water vapor from air, even in low humidity. The device can produce nearly 3 liters of water per day for every kilogram of spongelike absorber it contains, and researchers say future versions will be even better. ScienceMag

Are Chromebooks responsible for PC market growth? Microsoft might have more reason to be scared of Chromebooks these days. While the software giant was spooked by Google's low-cost laptops three years ago, they've mostly only been selling well to schools. That appears to have changed over the past year. Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US last year, and now they appear to be contributing to overall PC market growth. The Verge

BioWare's new IP has elements from Destiny, The Division, to be revealed at E3 2017 The original Mass Effect team's next project is reportedly codenamed Dylan, and it'll represent EA's answer to other MMO-light games such as Destiny and The Division. BioWare Edmonton, developers of the Mass Effect trilogy, have been working on a new IP for over four years now. We were first introduced to it at E3 2014, but only the vaguest details were shared at the time. VG24/7

Researchers develop master fingerprints that can break into smartphones The story goes that no two fingerprints are exactly alike, which makes them an excellent method for authentication. However, as researchers at New York University and Michigan State University have recently found, they're hardly foolproof. The team has developed a set of fake fingerprints that are digital composites of common features found in many people's fingerprints. Digital Trends

Heat shrink tubing and the chemistry behind its magic There's a lot to be said in favor of getting kids involved in hacking as young as possible, but there is one thing about working in electronics that I believe is best left as a mystery until at least the teenage years --- hide the shrink tube. Teach them to breadboard, have them learn resistor color codes and Ohm's Law, and even teach them to solder. But don't you dare let them near the heat shrink tubing. Hackaday

Hybrid ink 'drawable' electronic circuits create radical possibilities for flexible gadgets Who said pen and paper was dead? German scientists have developed a new type of ink that allows fully-functioning electronic circuits to be 'written' directly onto a surface from a pen. The technology could provide an inexpensive means of manufacturing printed circuits suitable for flexible smartphones, tablets and other radical gadget designs. International Business Times

Star Trek's "tricorder" medical scanner just got closer to becoming a reality Throughout the myriad voyages of the crews of the Starship Enterprise, medical officers always carried with them a futuristic little device, about the size of a cellphone, that allowed them to diagnose any ailment---alien or otherwise. Just by waving the device, called a tricorder, over the patient's body, they could get a complete rundown of all vitals and diseases. Quartz

Robert Taylor, innovator who shaped modern computing, dies at 85 Like many inventions, the internet was the work of countless hands. But perhaps no one deserves more credit for that world-changing technological leap than Robert W. Taylor, who died on Thursday at 85 at his home in Woodside, Calif. Indeed, few people were as instrumental in shaping the modern computer-connected world as he. The NY Times

Explained: Neural networks In the past 10 years, the best-performing artificial-intelligence systems --- such as the speech recognizers on smartphones or Google's latest automatic translator --- have resulted from a technique called "deep learning." Deep learning is in fact a new name for an approach to artificial intelligence called neural networks, which have been going in and out of fashion for more than 70 years. MIT

Building an Xi 8088 PC This was a long, involved project. I started out by ordering a set of boards from Todd over at the retrobrew forums...The backplane was the first board I constructed. It has spots for eight edge card connectors, and BIOS POST logic. You get to choose which driver you want to use for the post display. Some drivers can display hex digits, some cannot, and some just display weird things instead of A-F. Dr. Scott M. Baker

Forgotten audio formats: The flexi disc The flexi disc has, for a physically flimsy format, an incredibly diverse background, and its story incorporates everyone from the Beatles, David Bowie, and ABBA, to Alice Cooper and heavy metal. In terms of retail it cropped up with National Geographic, in a million-dollar McDonalds campaign, and on the covers of numerous teenybopper magazines. Ars Technica
Google is apparently gearing up to give LinkedIn a run for its money, as the company is working on its own job platform called Google Hire.

It looks like a platform for tracking job applications and it launched quietly, without any official announcement from Google. In fact, Google Hire seems to be still in the beta state, available only to a few technology companies on an invite-only basis.

Google Hire Job Application Tracking Platform

By the looks of it, Google Hire is shaping up as a minimalistic, yet powerful recruitment platform for professionals looking to hire or get hired. As Axios reports, the platform is a job application tracking system that allows recruiters to post job listings and accept, track and manage applications.

Technology companies that already have access to the new Google Hire include Poynt, SingleHop, DramaFever (a subsidiary of Warner Bros.), Medisas, and CoreOS.

Google Hire itself is test driving the service as well, hosting its own job listings on the new platform. The listings are pretty varied, ranging from engineering jobs to marketing and more.

Google Hire Spawn From Bebop

Even more intriguingly, Google Hire seems to be a development of Bebop, which is a Google enterprise and cloud division run by Google Cloud senior vice president Diane Greene. Google acquired Bebop back in late 2015 for more than $380 million and integrated the Bebop team into its own enterprise cloud platform division.

Google Hire looks like a result of that merger, and clear clues support this theory. For instance, the Google Hire website currently yields an error message that prompts users to contact the Bebop team.

The Google Hire website is pretty sparse at this point, indicating that the platform is still in its early development. Nevertheless, it looks poised to rival other job application management services such as LinkedIn, Greenhouse or Indeed.

The timing makes sense as well, as Google Hire comes shortly after the debut of a Cloud Jobs API that enables companies to have job application and hiring tools baked into their platforms. The API delivers tools powered by machine learning to connect people looking for a job with suitable job postings to facilitate the whole employment process.

Google has yet to make an official announcement or provide a statement regarding the new Hire platform and its invite-only beta, but more information should come to light shortly since the website is already live.

The upcoming Google Hire job application management platform should neatly complement the company's G Suite enterprise services, allowing enterprises to find their next employee with Google's help.

It remains to be seen how Google Hire will stack up against existing services such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn and others such that are already established in the field, but it looks promising. Recruiting is a lucrative and growing business and it's not surprising to see more companies looking to grab a piece of the action, and the Google brand alone should lend Hire enough weight for a strong start.

We'll keep you up to date as soon as Google offers more information regarding its new Hire platform.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Fake accounts are plaguing the internet, but Facebook is now better equipped to deal with them, as it announced improved tools to fight spam accounts.

The social networking company has been stepping up its efforts to counter spam and increase security on its platform, and it now has some new changes in store to take things up a notch.

Improved Facebook Fake Account Detection

Facebook has now implemented some technical changes to its platform to more easily address one of the biggest banes of social media: spam accounts. As Facebook's Protect and Care Team manager Shabnam Shaik explains in a new company blog post, Facebook can now detect fake accounts in a more effective manner  even those that look genuine.

To achieve this, Facebook has upgraded its systems to detect fake profiles by looking for certain patterns, such as posting the same thing over and over again or registering a major increase in messaging activity all of a sudden. According to Shaik, Facebook can use these criteria to identify spam profiles without actually snooping on the contents of user posts.

"We've found that when people represent themselves on Facebook the same way they do in real life, they act responsibly," Facebook explains. "Fake accounts don't follow this pattern, and are closely related to the creation and spread of spam. That's why we're so focused on keeping these inauthentic accounts and their activity off our platform."

Countering Fake News And Spam Profiles

The company reckons that protecting authenticity is no easy task, and it's a continuous challenge, but it remains committed to counter misuse although it's aware that "this work will never be done."

It's a never-ending struggle, but that doesn't mean that Facebook is giving up  on the contrary. The company is constantly building new systems and upgrading its existing ones to better counter abuse, identify and remove spam, detect and delete fake accounts, and protect real accounts from being compromised. Facebook notes that its efforts are also designed to cut down on the distribution of improper content that goes against its policies, as well as other nasty content such as hoaxes, fake news, and other types of misinformation or abuse.

The company further highlights that it's made notable progress in recent years to deal with such matters. The social network made it harder for users to sell fake likes on Facebook and created complex systems to prevent bots from attempting to create fake accounts. In this on-going battle, Facebook says it's getting smarter and better.

Why This Matters

Spam profiles on Facebook are not only annoying, but they also facilitate the distribution of fake or misleading news on the social network, since fake accounts are generally used to share stories from questionable sources. That said, cracking down on fake accounts should also help reduce fake news on the platform.

Thanks to the latest upgrades, Facebook says it managed to kill a massive 30,000 fake accounts in France, just in time for the upcoming presidential elections in the country. Surely 30,000 accounts are just a fraction of Facebook's vast user base of 1.89 billion monthly active users, but it's still something. It remains to be seen whether the new changes will have a major positive impact in the long run.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Apple might be coming to Toshiba's rescue by bidding for its semiconductor business  which has been put up for sale  and it might collaborate with other companies to do so, NHK said on Friday, April 14.

Is Apple Interested In Toshiba's Chip Business?

It's purported that Apple is considering investing at least several billion dollars to stake out around 30 percent in a plan that would render Toshiba still maintaining a partial stake in its business to keep it tethered to U.S. and Japanese control, the report added, citing an unidentified source.

Apple might also be considering a range of options: it might partner with Foxconn or join Japanese investors on a bid, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. Furthermore, SoftBank Group is also reportedly contemplating on getting involved, possibly cooperating with either Foxconn or Apple for the chip division bidding.

Apple's potential decision to stake out Toshiba's chip business might just be the thing that'll rescue the Japan-based company, which has suffered a strained fiasco in its Westinghouse nuclear business that has propelled it to lose billions of dollars. Toshiba would need such investments to keep itself afloat, but the bidding process hasn't exactly been smooth sailing so far.

Toshiba is apprehensive of Foxconn's intent to wring total control of the chip unit on its own, since it predicts objection form U.S. and Japanese governments.

Toshiba's Troubles

Apple's reported consideration of bidding Toshiba's chip business caps a frenzied week for Toshiba. The conglomerate cautioned that it might not be able to continue its business due to suffering from Westinghouse losses. Then, as things were looking good in terms of its efforts to sell its semiconductor unit, Western Digital, its partner, warned Toshiba that doing so might violate their joint venture contract, urging Toshiba that it be given exclusive negotiating rights.

Memory chips from Toshiba are found in a number of products, from smartphones to PCs to data centers, which pivots them away from hard drives. The semiconductor unit reported healthy growth in the memory unit this week, and it has fetched reported prices of 2 to 3 trillion yen. Bidders actively pursuing Toshiba include Broadcom, Foxconn, and SK Hynix from Korea. Apple, however, wasn't part of these bids, another report suggests, and it's unclear whether the company participated in the first round of auction that sources have said drew around 10 offers.

Toshiba's shares fell over 5 percent on Friday, hit by a report from Bloomberg suggesting the sale of its chip unit has been halted temporarily to address concerns put forth by Western Digital. But Reuters reports that Toshiba has not put the chip sale on hold, citing a spokesman as the source.

Toshiba Corporation is a multinational conglomerate with diverse products and services particularly in information technology. It sells communication equipment systems, consumer electronics, power systems, household appliances, and a laundry list more of others. It was founded in 1938 under a different name, Tokyo Shibaura Electric K.K.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus aren't even commercially out yet, but reports of the Note 8, the direct sequel to the fiery Galaxy Note 7, which was recalled and ultimately killed last year, are already surfacing the web.

The Galaxy Note 8's design is expected to be culled from the design of the Galaxy S8, which means it'll also have an Infinity Display that's nearly bezel-less, tapering on both edges of the phone so as to give a picture window-like view. But the Galaxy Note 8 is also reported to improve upon such a design with a bigger screen and an increased screen-to-body ratio. Now, the handset has been rendered a concept image of its own right, giving us an early, albeit unofficial look at the forthcoming Galaxy Note 8.

Samsung Note 8 Specs

Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy Note 8 later this year, as is the case with its previous release windows for past Galaxy Note devices. Needless to say that it should stand as the best phone the company has ever built, since Galaxy Note handsets are regarded as for "power users" in contrast with its Galaxy S-series siblings.

The device, as always, is expected to sport a Super AMOLED display that occupies more space on the front panel than the Galaxy S8 does. The Galaxy Note 8 might also come with a dual camera setup akin to the iPhone 7 Plus.

Even with those slim details, the phone already sounds impressive. While under-the-hood specs are pretty much up for speculation as of now, that doesn't mean we can't take a gander at this concept image by graphic designer Benjamin Geskin, who took to Twitter to let everyone take a peek at his own prediction of what the Galaxy Note 8 will look like. It's gorgeous to say the least, although it doesn't look that drastically different from the Galaxy S8's design.

As you can see, the screen-to-body ratio has been improved slightly, and the sides of the phone are curved, both on the front and on the back. There's also the dual camera setup as mentioned, in a vertical orientation.

S Pen On The Cards?

Other rumors about specs are slim, of course, although they should be making their way to the web any time now, if Samsung plans to release it this fall. Perhaps the Galaxy Note 8 will come with an S Pen, as previous Galaxy Note handsets have. It's all guesswork for now, but to be clear, Samsung needs a winner this time, if to reorient its hurt consumer loyalty after the whole Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, though it seems it wasn't hurt that much. It's looking good on the battery safety front, anyway, so it shows that Samsung really stepped up its game so as not to duplicate its battery woes yet again.

Time, however, will tell. But Samsung has to hope it's off to great start with the Galaxy S8 handsets, so the Galaxy Note 8 can build on the success even further.

Thoughts about the Galaxy Note 8? What features do you expect on the forthcoming handset? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Fans are pumped for Microsoft's forthcoming May event, and for good reason: the company is expected to out new Windows 10 and Surface offerings largely to cater to the education sphere.

But that's not the only thing fueling excitement. Rumors about the latest Surface Pro iteration, the Surface Pro 5, has proliferated the web quite generously, with fans rapt in speculation about the device's specs, improvements over the Surface Pro 4, and its release date.

But fans might be heading straight into a trajectory of disappointment, since it's not certain whether Microsoft will indeed unveil the Surface Pro 5 during the said hardware event, although there are some rumors about a possible Surface Book that's cheaper, which rumors say Microsoft will release within the next few weeks.

Surface Pro 5 Specs

Despite seemingly slim chances of an imminent Surface Pro 5 unveiling, let's take a look at the rumors to have a sense of what the forthcoming iteration will offer. First, it's worth noting that the current-generation Surface Pro 4 comes with Skylake chips from Intel, and its successor might gain a spec bump in this regard. The Surface Pro 5 will likely be equipped with the newest chips after Skylake, named Kaby Lake.

The tablet is also rumored to sport a 4K display, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage, which will render it as one of the top tablets of 2017, if indeed released this year.

Surface Pro 5 Keyboard Cover

On a different note, a keyboard is almost half the whole Surface Pro equation, but such an accessory isn't bundled out of the box with the device, you have to purchase it separately. Perhaps Microsoft may finally decide to stash a keyboard cover in there with the Surface Pro 5, if to more aggressively drive home the point that the device is akin to a 2-in-1, which is what Apple is doing with its iPad Pro range of devices. This move, while unlikely, isn't totally impossible.

Rechargeable Surface Pen

In terms of the included stylus, the one bundled with the Surface Pro 5 could even be better, thanks to Microsoft reportedly patenting a rechargeable Surface Pen and dock. This will make the Pen more in line with the stylus of the iPad Pro, which can be recharged via the Lightning port.

Surface Pro 5 Dual Display

Rumors also suggest that the Surface Pro 5 will come with the dual display: on one side the regular high-resolution screen, on the other an e-ink display, which would purportedly turn into a virtual keyboard if necessary.

Surface Pro 5 Release Date

At least according to rumors, Microsoft could release the Surface Pro 5 in the latter half of the year, perhaps October, since that month is always the month of Surface. Specific details are slim as of now, but more will likely come into the fore as Microsoft inches closer to the unveiling. As always, expect due coverage when we learn more.

Thoughts about the Surface Pro 5 rumors? What features do you expect on the new tablet? Feel free to speculate on the comments section below!

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, also known as CRISPR, evokes a sense of unease in many people, especially since the term has become synonymous to gene editing technology.

Scientists, however, continue finding ways to use the technology to solve many medical concerns all over the world, and that is exactly what a team of researchers from Broad Institute did when they developed the Specific High-sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter unLOCKing (SHERLOCK).

The acronym may sound a little forced but the actual tool will be very helpful in case of health-related outbreaks, especially since it can be designed for paper-based tests.

CRISPR's Role

As mentioned earlier, CRISPR has already become synonymous to gene editing using the DNA-targeting Cas9 enzyme but this is not the case with SHERLOCK. First co-authors Omar Abudayyeh and Jonathan Gootenberg, graduate students from MIT and Harvard, respectively, focused on using the RNA-targeting Cas13a enzyme to develop a sensitive diagnostic tool that can detect small amounts of biological materials. SHERLOCK also releases diagnosis faster than conventional methods.

"One thing that's especially powerful about SHERLOCK is its ability to start testing without a lot of complicated and time-consuming upstream experimental work [...] This is just the beginning," study co-author Pardis Sabeti says.

What Is SHERLOCK?

SHERLOCK is an extremely sensitive CRISPR-based diagnostic tool that scientists and medical practitioners can use to detect even the faintest presence of virus and bacteria from a patient's blood or urine sample. To illustrate its potency, SHERLOCK can detect even a single molecule of DNA or RNA of the target particle, virus, or bacteria  up to 10-18  in an infected sample.

How Does SHERLOCK Work?

Abudayyeh and Gootenberg took advantage of the "collateral cleavage" in RNA that was described by Professor Feng Zhang's team in a previous CRISPR study. According to the previous study, the Cas13a enzyme can be programmed to target specific sequences in viral and bacterial cells and still remain active afterwards. In order to test this discovery, the study co-authors spiked Zika- or dengue-infested samples with fluorescent reporter RNAs. The reporter RNAs would then cut any molecule containing the target virus and then cut other fluorescent reporters, creating a signal that would allow the scientists to determine if a sample is infected.

SHERLOCK is, of course, smarter and more capable than just sending detectable signals. In fact, SHERLOCK can already be applied to diagnose several diseases.

SHERLOCK Applications

The proponents demonstrated a wide variety of uses for the diagnostic tool they created and, according to them, SHERLOCK can do the following things and more:

 Detect Zika virus in blood and urine samples within hours and distinguish between its African and American strains

 Distinguish between Zika and dengue

 Discriminate different types of bacteria, like E. coli

 Detect cancer cell mutations

 Detect antibiotic resistance genes

 Read human genetic information from saliva sample

"[If] SHERLOCK can be developed to its full potential it could fundamentally change the diagnosis of common and emerging infectious diseases," study co-author Deb Hung says. Hung is also the co-director of Broad Institute's Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program.

Watch the video below to know more about SHERLOCK.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Microsoft confirmed it would roll out the much-awaited Creators Update for Windows 10 from April 11, but the excitement for Windows Phone owners is short-lived.

Microsoft previously announced that the Creators Update for Windows 10 would head to the smartphones as well. However, the company has partly backtracked on its promise and revealed that the update will roll out to a select 13 Windows-powered handsets only.

Unfortunately, this means that users who own other Windows-powered smartphones will not be able to install the update.

Windows Phones Getting The Update

Here is a list of the devices which would support the full Creators Update as well as the Windows Insider program.

HP Elite x3

Microsoft Lumia 640

Lumia 640XL

Microsoft Lumia 550

Microsoft Lumia 650

Microsoft Lumia 950

Lumia 950XL

Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL

Alcatel IDOL 4S

SoftBank 503LV

VAIO Phone Biz

MouseComputer MADOSMA Q601

Trinity NuAns NEO

These are the only devices which will receive the latest update and all other devices running on the operating system will have to do without it. However, any user on the Windows Insider Program can use the Creators Update, and all subsequent updates, on other Windows devices but at their own risk.

What Prompted Microsoft's Decision?

Microsoft revealed that it took feedback from users on its Insider Program. This helped the company ascertain which devices would get the Creators Update.

"We looked at feedback from our Windows Insiders and realized that we were not providing the best possible experience for our customers on many older devices. That helped us determine which devices we support for the Windows 10 Creators Update," revealed Dona Sarkar, Chief of Windows Insider Program.

Sarkar also revealed that Microsoft was aware that its decision to exclude some phones from receiving the update will disappoint users. However, this decision was taken for the best interest of all Windows Phone users.

What The Creators Update Will Bring

The features of the update are highly anticipated by fans. Some of the things which it would add to the devices include the ability to use paint to create 3D shapes and diagrams.

The update is also touted to support what Microsoft is calling mixed reality technology. It basically means that after the update, the Windows 10 device users will be able to experience virtual reality and augmented reality. Companies like HP, Dell, and Lenovo are already planning to launch MR headsets to support this feature in the Creators Update.

Other features which would be introduced in the update include an improved gaming experience, by integrating the Xbox and the PC platforms. The update will also address security and privacy issues, which have plagued Windows 10 for some time.

The final version of the update will be rolled out on April 25 for the 13 smartphones, as well as for the PC.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Even as efforts are picking up to find life on Mars, there is encouraging evidence that life-supporting chemical energy is present at Saturn's moon Enceladus.

According to the findings shared by NASA, the current indications hold the prospect of life in Enceladus as bright.

The topography of Enceladus is interesting  a surface covered with solid ice layers at an average thickness of 13 miles over the vast liquid-water ocean beneath.

According to the evidence collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft and published by NASA in the journal Science, there is evidence that Enceladus harbors chemical energy enabling life.

"This is the closest we've come, so far, to identifying a place with some of the ingredients needed for a habitable environment," noted Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

The paper presents an exciting picture  the floor of Enceladus's ocean brimming with hot water vents similar to ecosystems in the deeper realms of Earth's oceans.

However, a costly mission to drill Enceladus may not be necessary as plumes are erupting from the icy surface of Enceladus with ample indications of the chemical signatures, noted Morgan Cable, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

NASA had the first information on Enceladus housing a liquid water ocean in 2005. Cassini scientist Linda Spilker described the information as "tremendously exciting" because the reigning belief was that Enceladus was a solidly frozen terrain.

Cassini Probe And Plumes From Enceladus

NASA spacecraft Cassini has been orbiting Saturn since 2004 and its mission is set to end in another four months. The probe has been sending good data about the watery moon and has made it the top place to scout for life beyond Earth.

According to scientists, the outgoing plumes from Enceladus carry vital chemical signatures emerging from the interaction between water and rocky core deep down.

The presence of life-supporting hydrogen was detected by the Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer onboard the Cassini spacecraft.

The detection of molecular hydrogen in the plume led to more analysis for broad identification of signals indigenous to Enceladus. The Cassini team traces the source of hydrogen to the hydrothermal reactions of rocks.

According to Cassini scientists, an abundance of hydrogen in the plume shows a thermodynamic disequilibrium favoring the formation of methane from carbon dioxide in Enceladus's ocean.

Signals Indicating Life Supporting Factors

It is surmised that the presence of hydrogen will obviously lead to a reaction with carbon dioxide for forming methane. In the deep seas of Earth, methane consumption by microbes is common and expecting a replay of the scenario in Enceladus is quite ideal.

Professor Hunter Waite, principal investigator for Cassini's Mass Spectrometer instrument, explained that water-rock interaction is happening between the ocean and the rocky core.

"It indicates there is chemical potential to support microbial systems," adds Waite, lead author of the paper.

When Cassini's findings of the disequilibrium of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane levels in the plume are extrapolated, it follows that an energy source that can be used by organisms is in sight.

Meanwhile, the final flyby of Cassini by Enceladus moon will happen on Saturday, April 22.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
April the giraffe's journey to the birth of her fourth calf hasn't been an easy one, even as she was oblivious to the fact that the rest of the world was cheering her on via a viral live feed of her pregnancy developments.

In fact, from humble beginnings, the owner of April's home had to defend the live streaming of her pregnancy and giving birth after complaints of the video as being sexually explicit led to its banning on YouTube.

Now, the controversies surrounding April and her home are set aside as she finally gave birth to a yet-to-be-named male calf on Saturday morning.

Here are some facts you may want to know about the giraffe family while waiting for news on April and her new baby:

Giraffe Pregnancies Take Over A Year

One of the controversies that surrounded April's pregnancy was that it could possibly be a hoax, as she seems to be taking a long time to give birth. The fact is that giraffes actually do take a long time to give birth because their pregnancies can last for up to 15 months. April was already in her 13th month of gestation when the live feeds began.

Giraffes Give Birth Standing Up

Quite unlike humans who have a number of options when giving birth, giraffes usually give birth standing up, hence having their calves fall from a height of about five feet. Within the hour of birth, calves can already stand, and about ten hours into their new lives, they can already go running with their mothers.

They Have Only Seven Neck Bones

Yes, even though their necks are very long, giraffes have only seven neck bones  just like humans and many other mammals.

Giraffes Aren't Mute

Perhaps you never really thought about what sounds giraffes make as they are mostly silent, gentle creatures. However, research in recent years has found that giraffes do make humming sounds that they produce only at night time.

They Get Hydration From Leaves

Though they rarely drink, giraffes do get the much-needed hydration from the leaves of the plants that they eat. Using their long, sticky tongues, giraffes can reach through even thorny branches in order to get the nutrition and hydration that they need.

Giraffes Are Endangered

Unfortunately, the past 15 years haven't been good to giraffes, as their numbers have fallen significantly, adding them to the list of endangered species. They are hunted for their meat, coat, and tails that are used for good luck bracelets.

The live videos that began when April was 13 months onto her pregnancy were made in part to educate people about giraffe conservation.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The symbolism of the Dalai Lama's week-long visit to Arunachal Pradesh, his seventh to the state including his arrival 58 years ago, wasn't lost on local residents. In the monastery town of Tawang, where the Tibetan spiritual leader first arrived in India in 1959, aged 23, after a perilous 15-day journey across the Tibetan plateau, thousands lined up on April 6 to receive him. "This is a very special visit for us," said local businessman Jambey Lobsang, 28, "because I don't think the Dalai Lama may come back given his age. He is energetic, but we mustn't forget he is 81."

Tawang is where the remarkable 58 year journey in exile began for Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. Tawang is also where the final chapter of his leadership of the Tibetan movement may begin. Although he is a very healthy 81 - and Tibetans understandably don't even want to contemplate life after the 14th Dalai Lama - the question of his succession looms ever larger. And Tawang, the birthplace of the 6th Dalai Lama, is for many the most likely location where a reincarnation could be chosen.

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This significance wasn't lost on China, which responded more angrily than it had done during the Dalai Lama's previous visits to Arunachal. Besides his 1959 arrival, the Tibetan spiritual leader has visited in 1983, 1997, twice in 2003 and in 2009. On April 5, Beijing summoned the Indian Ambassador in Beijing Vijay Gokhale - as it had done in earlier visits, and most recently when Prime Minister Modi visited Arunachal last year. But the Foreign Ministry also warned it would take "necessary measures" to defend its sovereignty, and accused India of "violating its solemn commitments on Tibet-related issues". In the eyes of some Chinese officials, statements by Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, who said the state bordered Tibet and not China, as well as remarks by the Dalai Lama criticising Chinese rule in Tibet, had "violated" India's commitments that Tibet is part of China and it wouldn't allow "anti-China" political activities.

"Definitely this time the stridency of their tone and the kind of language they have used and frequency of their comments is far more than we had seen earlier," said Ashok Kantha, India's envoy in Beijing until 2016 and director of the Institute of Chinese Studies, who was also handling relations with China at the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi at the time of the earlier visits in 1997 and 2003.

China's response

Both in Delhi and in Beijing, the Tawang visit has been seen as a shift in India's diplomacy. Supporters of the Modi government say India is finally standing up to China - ironically, a view echoed in Beijing, where State newspapers said India was "playing the Tibet card". Hu Shisheng, a scholar at the China Institutes for Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, said the visit was "part of a series policies the Indian government has been taking in playing the Tibet card," referring to the Dalai Lama being hosted in December for the first time at Rashtrapati Bhavan along with other Nobel laureates, and Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju accompanying him to Arunachal.

"It seems to me that this [the Modi] government's Tibet policy is Americanised," said Hu. "When nearly all the other countries are respecting China's Tibet policy and hold themselves aloof from the Dalai Lama and his group, only the Americans and Indians are still loving to play this card to embarrass or even to disgust China. Modi's government from the very beginning has been stirring up this issue once and again, from inviting Lobsang Sangay [the Sikyong, or "prime minister in exile"] to attend the inauguration of Prime Minister Modi, to the meeting between the Indian President and Dalai Lama, from the parliament member talking about awarding the Bharat Ratna to the Dalai Lama, to being accompanied by the minister to the disputed area between India and China. What is much worse is the so-called chief minister even saying that his state does not share a boundary with China. This is really too much."

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How is China likely to respond? Hu says "China has various resources to deal with such deliberate anti-China policies, like suspending some interaction mechanisms." Lin Minwang, a strategic affairs expert in Fudan University in Shanghai, adds, "China has many 'cards' which can be used to counter India, but it would be unwise to try to put economic costs to India or stop some exchanges. This is not the way China conducts its foreign policy." In the past, with respect to India, Beijing's strong statements didn't lead to specific actions, in contrast to steps China has taken with other countries that hosted the Dalai Lama, most recently Mongolia, which saw a brief suspension of diplomatic and trade ties.

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The sense is Beijing has one eye on the BRICS Summit it is hosting in September, which China hopes will be a grand success, without disruptions, and will showcase Xi Jinping as a global leader. BRICS will take place barely a month before the key once-in-five-year 19th Party Congress, where Xi will hope to consolidate his authority and promote his acolytes. It also remains unlikely China will disrupt a busy calendar of exchanges between both countries in the lead up to BRICS, with three Indian ministers - Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Power Minister Piyush Goyal -expected in June and July, and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval also due for the BRICS NSAs meeting. And for now, China is preoccupied with its major One Belt, One Road forum that Xi Jinping will host in May, with 20 heads of state likely to attend. Somewhat fortunately, there are no major engagements with India until then, yet Beijing could still choose to flex its muscles.

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The Tibet Card

Beyond the optics, has there been a change in India's approach? "If there is any change, it is actually on the Chinese side, not on the Indian side," said Kantha, the former envoy, suggesting India, in fact, had been very consistent in allowing the Dalai Lama to travel. Kantha makes a persuasive case to underline that the seventh visit, in many respects, reflected more continuity than change, and that perhaps the difference this time was more in Beijing's response. "Gradually, they have become more strident in their tone," he says. "All Indian leaders including the present Prime Minister have received the Dalai Lama. We didn't go out of the way to publicise these meetings. This is a perfectly routine practice we have pursued for 60 years. It is fairly routine for local chief ministers and dignitaries to receive him too."

As for China's argument that the presence of Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju in the first stop in Arunachal underlined that this visit was qualitatively different and "official", Kantha dismisses that notion, pointing out that "the minister comes from Arunachal so accompanying him is not being done by the Government of India to make a point. If the MoS Home wasn't from the state, it's very unlikely a central government minister would have travelled all the way." The visit, Kantha adds, did not violate any of India's commitments on Tibet. India's position on Tibet being a part of China still stands. "There is nothing we have done that runs counter to that and by no stretch of imagination can this visit be described as an anti-China activity," he adds. "The Dalai Lama travels extensively as you are aware, both within and outside India. Can we really tell him he cannot go to Arunachal? The Chinese should sit back and think. The visit to Arunachal for us was on par with him visiting Himachal Pradesh, or Tamil Nadu for that matter."

The idea that India can use the Dalai Lama as "a card" has been suggested by both Indian strategic experts, who see it as easy leverage, and more recently by the Chinese media, that has alleged the recent visit was proof of India "playing the Dalai Lama card". Kantha, however, describes it as "a figment of the imagination". "I don't see the Dalai Lama being used by the Government of India. The way the Government of India manages our relations, it's not in such a tactical way. What does the Government of India get out of it? Does it yield any tangible returns?" Nirupama Rao, former foreign secretary and former envoy to China, says the Tibet card "is a stereotyped cliche that if Tibet is not China's, it is ours to gain". "We have no ulterior motives in Tibet. Our brief is not Curzonian," says Rao. "India has held the line on Tibet with biblical patience all these years." Rao says, adding that "Beijing cannot claim even a modicum of moral ground on this issue".

Changing China

The challenge facing India is a greater Chinese assertiveness on its "core" interests, and Tibet and Taiwan are top of the list. When the new U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to review the 'One China policy' and had a telephone call with the Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, Beijing threatened to cut off all contact and did not arrange the first telephone call between Xi Jinping and Trump until the U.S. President agreed to publicly reaffirm the 'One China policy'. Xi called Trump only after he agreed to do an embarrassing u-turn on his campaign trail bluster. With Chinese sensitivities already unnerved by Trump, there is a sense that the Dalai Lama's visit, shortly after, perhaps triggered a greater than usual outburst.

Rao, the former foreign secretary, says India shouldn't cave in to Chinese assertiveness. "China sees Tawang as 'disputed territory' and is deeply suspicious and insecure about the Dalai Lama's aura and the weight of his global persona. With this latest development it is as if two atoms have collided. The Chinese have shown little sensitivity to India's well-justified grievances on Masood Azhar or their activities in PoK. Rolling over and playing dead cannot be an option for a self-respecting large country like India," she says. "The Chinese keep talking about the sentiments of the Chinese people and how their government cannot ignore them. The same thumb rule applies for the Indian people, too."

Succession Question

Another possible explanation for China's fiery response is its increasing anxiety on the succession question. If the 15th Dalai Lama were chosen from Tawang, Beijing is aware that she or he could emerge as a far more credible successor than the candidate that China will put forward. "The Chinese are laying down markers in terms of controlling the process," says Kantha, "and its likely to become a contentious issue." Hence, as the Dalai Lama visited Tawang, China's government, as well as its offiical Tibetologists, came out with strong statements reaffirming Beijing's stand on the succession question. "The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama must be conducted according to religious rituals and historical conventions including drawing of lots from the Golden Urn in front of the Buddha statue at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, which embodies the Buddhist spirit, and not by what the 14th Dalai Lama has said," the Foreign Ministry said.

Lian Xiangmin, Director of Institute of Contemporary Tibetan Studies at the official China Tibetology Research Centre that advises the government on Tibet policy, said his hope was that "the Dalai Lama's succession should be found in his homeland, that is China". "There are six million Tibetan people. Apart from religious followers who are Tibetan there are also people of other ethnic groups who follow Tibetan Buddhism. I believe they hope to see the 14th Dalai Lama produced in China. So far, there have been 14 Dalai Lamas produced in China."

Yet Beijing knows that if the Dalai Lama chooses a successor on his own terms, it will likely face a huge challenge in pushing the credibility of its candidate, as underlined by the difficulties China has faced in promoting its candidate for the 11th Panchen Lama, who hasn't been given a high public profile by Beijing. Nirupama Rao, the former foreign secretary, argues that this is an issue in which India has a stake. "We are stakeholders because we cannot abandon the interests of the Tibetans who live in India. The window is open during the lifetime of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Our position should be that the religious and cultural sanctity of the process of succession should be respected and upheld above all. We should be flag bearers on this aspect."

"The world, not just India, consciously abandoned Tibet to its fate in 1950," adds Rao. "Only His Holiness the Dalai Lama retains his sanctity in this sorry narrative. While Tibet cannot be a geopolitical pawn on the India-versus-China chessboard, given the Chinese stand on the McMahon Line, our signing on the dotted line of confirmation of Tibet as a part of China put us in a twist, condemned to strategic purgatory, neither in heaven nor hell. Hindsight is a hurtful thing."

Uncertain Future

With an increasingly assertive China, coupled with the growing prominence of the succession issue, the Tibet question is emerging again as a prominent factor in India's relations. China's claims on Tawang have grown louder since they were first voiced in 1985, and despite a border agreement signed between both countries in 2005 that both sides would take into account the interests of settled populations when arriving at a mutually acceptable solution for the boundary dispute.

In Tawang, many fear this may be the Dalai Lama's last visit, even though the Arunachal Pradesh state government has invited him back to conduct a Kalachakra initiation, which would, in all certainty, trigger another diplomatic row with China. For Tawang's residents, however, China is far from their minds. A greater concern is poor roads and bad infrastructure. A 20 km drive into Tawang takes one hour. Few in Tawang are willing to speak about the succession question, which is a highly emotive topic. No one, understandably, wants to contemplate life after the 14th Dalai Lama. Among younger residents, some are aware China will have its say on the reincarnation, given the Panchen Lama controversy.

Few in Tawang saw the Dalai Lama's visit as being any different from the his previous one in 2009. As then, the entire Tawang town was decked up in flowers, prayer flags, as well as Indian and Tibetan flags. Also as in 2009, there appeared to be some hesitation from the government, as the Tibetan flags vanished overnight in some places, although not at the famous Tawang monastery. Uncertainties notwithstanding, for Lama Lobsang, the caretaker of the Urgeyling Monastery in Tawang where the sixth Dalai Lama was born, the future couldn't be more clear. "China," he says simply, "should mind its own business."

--- ENDS ---
The rapid melting and breaking off of glaciers is one of the more significant evidence of climate change that could lead to devastating effects on other parts of Earth. In order to spot and avoid dangers, researchers have been monitoring changes in the massive sheets of ice both through expeditions and satellite images.

That is why, when a researcher noticed a growing crack along the middle of Petermann Glacier from satellite images on April 12, the scientific community grew concerned. Two days later, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Operation IceBridge flew over Greenland's glaciers to take a better look and snap clearer and more up-close images of the mysterious crack.

Rift Discovery

The mysterious new rift along Petermann Glacier was first discovered by Stef Lhermitte, a researcher and assistant professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Lhermitte, an expert on satellite remote sensing, tweeted on April 12 asking whether the crack he discovered along Petermann Glacier is a new rift. He also dug up old satellite images of the area where the crack was found and discovered that it only began to form in the late summer of 2016.

Take a look at his tweets below.

Is this recent internal crack in #Petermann glacier the prelude of a new @Petermann_ice island? 1/5 pic.twitter.com/V8qKF1MwmC  Stef Lhermitte (@StefLhermitte) April 12, 2017

.@Petermann_Ice @AndreasMuenchow @glacier_doc @CopernicusEU @ESA_EO Sentinel-2 satellite time series show this new crack for the first time in July 2016. It has been growing since then. 2/5 pic.twitter.com/5dIiLs8kX9  Stef Lhermitte (@StefLhermitte) April 12, 2017

Scientific Community Concerns

Not all experts on Greenland's glaciers were worried about the discovery; however, all of them agreed that the images Lhermitte pulled up seem to show a crack along the glacier. Researchers also suggest that whatever caused the rift in the middle of Petermann glacier came from below the ice since cracks usually form from the edge.

"Whether this new crack is significant or not is hard to tell as of now. It is unusual to see cracks forming from the center, they usually start from the sides. This could indicate that the ice shelf has gotten too thin in the middle," scientist Eric Rignot from NASA and the University of California, Irvine said.

NASA Close-Up Images

Regardless of expert opinion, everyone agrees that the satellite imagery is too far to confirm anything. This is why, when NASA's Operation IceBridge flew its aircraft on April 14, the crew made sure to take a closer look at the mysterious new ridge pointed out by Lhermitte.

NASA also discovered that the new rift seems to be making its way to an older massive rift and concluded that, should the two cracks ever intersect, it can cause a massive breakage. In fact, more than half of the ice shelf would break off.

Take a look at the photo of the two cracks below.

From today's #IceBridge flight: Portion of the newly identified rift on Petermann Glacier's ice shelf (straight feature near bottom center) pic.twitter.com/kmeQoik8ZO  NASA ICE (@NASA_ICE) April 14, 2017

It is difficult to predict anything from the photos alone but we can all probably expect that scientists will conduct more research on the recently formed rift now that NASA has provided a better look.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Billings police are investigating after a man with a knife wound to the abdomen sought medical attention at Billings Clinic early Sunday morning.

The man entered the hospital just before 1:30 a.m., according to a news release from Sgt. Shane Shelden, of Billings Police Department.

The victim said the stabbing occurred on the 2500 block of Montana Avenue. He described the suspect as a Native American or Hispanic man in his 30s. He is about six feet tall with a stocky build.

The injured man remained at the clinic to receive treatment but his condition appeared to be stable, the release said.

The incident remains under investigation by Billings Police Department.
Speaking to India Today's Kaushik Deka, Khandu reiterates that Arunachal Pradesh is and must remain a part of India.

The Chinese authorities made their displeasure over the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang, in Arunachal Pradesh, clear to India, only to receive a terse response from the state's chief minister, Pema Khandu. "China has no business telling us what to do," said Khandu, who at 38 is India's youngest CM and whose constituency is Tawang. Speaking to Kaushik Deka, Khandu reiterates that Arunachal Pradesh is and must remain a part of India.

Q. What do you mean when you say India shares a boundary with Tibet and not China?

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A. Traditionally, we always had a border with Tibet. China came into the picture only after it forcefully occupied Tibet. I was referring to our traditional border.

Q. But what is your view on the current status?

A. This is a subject for the Government of India. As a responsible citizen, I respect the decisions of the government. And China, too, must respect the fact that Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India.

Q. What is your position on China's claim to Arunachal Pradesh?

A. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. History says that neither Tibet nor Arunachal was traditionally part of China. If we recognise Tibet's assimilation with China, then they too must respect our territorial integrity.

Q. Did you invite the Dalai Lama knowing it would trigger a controversy?

A. This is not the first time the Dalai Lama has visited Arunachal. In fact, this is his sixth visit. He is more of a spiritual leader for us-as he is for his followers around the world-than a political leader. I have been inviting him since 2011 and we are privileged by His Holiness's visit.

Q. How should the border dispute between India and China be resolved?

A. This dispute must end now. It has been going on for over six decades. But whatever the solution, Arunachal Pradesh's geography must not be compromised in the bargain.

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The world's largest forest must be protected through a coordinated, efficient, and active process, President Nicolas Maduro stressed. | Read More
A group of miscreants inspired by the Akshay Kumar-starrer 'Special 26' were arrested by Delhi police on Saturday.

The gang members used to pose as officers of crime branch or the CBI like the Akshay Kumar-starrer 'Special 26'.

By Mail Today Bureau: Four members of an Irani gang, who used to rob elderly women of their jewellery by posing as crime branch or CBI officers, were arrested on Saturday.

"The miscreants were inspired by Akshay Kumar-starrer film 'Special 26'. While posing as cops, two of them even used to wear safari suits like police officers in ''mufti' (plain clothes)," said DCP (West) Vijay Kumar.

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Two of the accused are wanted in two separate Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) cases by Mumbai Police's Crime Branch, he added.

According to the police, the gang members used to target elderly people, mostly women. One of them used to approach the victim posing as a cop and narrate a story about a murderer or a notorious robber on the prowl in the area, police said.

Another member of the gang would then arrive wearing a gold chain and he too would be cautioned by the fake cop. The person cautioned would then hand over his gold chain and watch to the fake cop.

area, police said. Another member of the gang would then arrive wearing a gold chain and he too would be cautioned by the fake cop. The person cautioned would then hand over his gold chain and watch to the fake cop.

Police said they have solved 100 cases with the arrests.

ALSO READ | 'Guffa Gang' busted by Delhi Police; 6 notorious robbers arrested, 16 cases solved

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The farmers from Tamil Nadu wore sarees and were beating their chests, and crying on streets of the national capital to mark their protest.

By Shalini Lobo: On 34th day of the protest, Tamil Nadu farmers today broke bangles worn by them as an act of protest to attract the attention of the central government towards the plight of a widow when a farmer commits suicide.

The farmers wore sarees and were beating their chests, and crying on streets of the national capital to mark their protest.

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A group of musicians also reached Jantar Mantar on Sunday, who sat with the farmers and sang various folk songs and other songs of dissent to show their solidarity. Songs about farmer suicides, struggles, fight for Cauvery and anger against the hydrocarbon project were sung during the protest.

However, as a brief respite for the protesting farmers, a resolution in their favour was passed in the DMK convened all-party meet. April 25 has been declared as a state-wide bandh to highlight the plight of the farmers and an all-party delegation is also trying to seek appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Also read: Tamil Nadu farmers' plight: DMK calls for bandh on April 25

Also read: To get an audience from Narendra Modi, Tamil Nadu farmers dress as women

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One of the organizers of the Maringouin event was Katherine Jackson of New Orleans, who was named after the ship that brought the 272 slaves from Georgetown farms in Maryland to southeastern Louisiana planatations in 1838.
Send your questions to Ask The Advocate, 10705 Rieger Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70809; or fax to Ask The Advocate, (225) 388-0371; or email asktheadvocate@theadvocate.com.
Two $20 million contracts to maintain and eventually deactivate nearly 4,350 FEMA mobile homes set up in Louisiana after last year's floods are on hold for at least a month and possibly until mid-July after three companies protested the bid awards, federal online contracting records show.

The halt on the new mobile home maintenance contracts comes as congressional investigators have separately begun looking into the Federal Emergency Management Agency's mobile home program and work done by FEMAs contractors.

Among other things, congressional investigators are examining the costs of the mobile home program, how it has been managed and how it has handled maintenance issues.

In October, an 84-year-old blind U.S. Air Force veteran "baked to death" in his FEMA trailer near Scotlandville because of a malfunctioning heating and air conditioning system that allowed temperatures inside to reach triple digits. His caregiver has said the heater hadn't been fixed despite repeated complaints for weeks.

FEMA officials, citing federal confidentiality rules, would not discuss the bids on the maintenance contracts or why there were protests but said Thursday the contractor that has handled the mobile home program since the flood will continue to handle maintenance for the time being.

"The current contractor  CB&I  will continue service until this is resolved," FEMA spokesman Kurt Pickering said.

CB&I and two mobile home manufacturers for FEMA have been drawn into the crosshairs of an investigation led by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and its chairman, U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

The new maintenance contract, which is supposed to phase out CB&I, has important consequences in the Baton Rouge area, which was hit hard in the August flood and has seen a proliferation of mobile homes to serve as temporary housing for flood victims.

As of Wednesday, 3,595 FEMA mobile homes were set up in East Baton Rouge, Ascension and Livingston parishes, 83 percent of all FEMA mobile homes statewide, according to agency figures. East Baton Rouge alone has 1,893.

American Native Veterans of Louisiana and Danny's AC, Heating and Electrical, two of the three Louisiana companies whose bids were passed over, filed protests earlier this month. Representatives of the two St. Tammany Parish-based companies said their bids were $5 million to $6 million less than those of the companies with the winning bids.

Though price wasn't the only factor considered by FEMA in awarding the bids, combined the two companies say they were about $11 million cheaper than the winning bidders.

FEMA awarded the new maintenance bids March 29 to Timberline Homes of Louisiana, a Lafayette branch of a southern Alabama-based company, and Andries and Associates, a Carencro-based company. Calls to the companies in Lafayette and Carencro were not returned by deadline Friday.

The contract is set up as a small business set aside for local companies. The companies have a six-month contract with three six-month extensions, but bid prices were for the full two years.

Timberline Homes of Louisiana won a contract with a bid of $20.2 million while Andries and Associates won a contract with its bid of $21.8 million, according to federal records available online.

The bids were higher than those submitted by American Native Veterans of Louisiana, which was $15.36 million, and Dannys AC, $15.34 million.

Protests from American Native Veterans, Danny's AC and the third company, MLU Services Inc., were filed with the U.S. General Accounting Office in early April.

An Atlanta attorney for MLU Services declined comment. The Athens, Georgia-based company has a Louisiana office and touts on its website experience as a subcontractor that delivered and maintained FEMA trailers after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

It's not clear how many companies bid on the trailer contract or the range of their bids. FEMA said identifying companies and the amounts they bids would violate their proprietary rights and put them at a disadvantage if the contracts are re-bid.

Officials with American Native Veterans and Dannys AC said their bids were scored unfairly because of an experience requirement that was added two months after bids were due on Dec. 12. The companies, which claim they had plenty of experience, weren't allowed to respond to the new requirement after the change was made.

"We were substantially lower in price, and we're definitely experienced and staffed and qualified to do the job, but that was not taken into account," said Aaron Lott, a project manager with Danny's AC who handled the Pearl River-based company's bid.

The experience requirement change was one of several made to the trailer contract.

Michael Wisner, owner of American Native Veterans of Louisiana, said a FEMA contracting officer informed him of the change in the experience requirement in an email on Feb. 17 and told him it would take effect immediately.

Just a day before Wisner got the email, congressional investigators working for Chaffetz's oversight committee had finished a two-day visit to Louisiana to review the FEMA mobile home program when they met with local, state and federal officials and uncovered Wilson's death, congressional correspondence says.

Since that visit, his committee has demanded records from CB&I and two trailer manufacturers. They have denied any wrongdoing.

David Boone, president of CB&I's federal contracting arm, also took a bipartisan tongue-lashing April 5 before the House oversight committee over the mobile home program.

Boone told the committee the company had received only glowing reviews from FEMA about its work on the mobile home program, adding his company has no record of maintenance calls from Wilson and didn't find out until three days after Wilson's body was found Oct. 25.

But committee members cited FEMA emails that said CB&I got more than 1,900 maintenance calls in December and responded to 10 percent of them. They read an email from a FEMA official urging CB&I to "drop the hammer" on its subcontractors due to their poor performance. Other committee members pointed out that FEMA trailers had the wrong telephone numbers on them for maintenance.

CB&I has been handling the delivery, installation and maintenance of mobile homes since the August flood under a broader task order contract with FEMA was awarded in May 2009, according to Boone's written statement to Chaffetz's committee. Much of the actual field work has been done by subcontractors, including trailer maintenance.

Gentry Brann, CB&I's spokeswoman, said Friday the company works with FEMA to consistently meet the trailer maintenance contract's terms. The terms include making contact with trailer residents within 48 hours of receiving a call for routine maintenance and within two hours for emergencies.

During the past three months, Brann said, CB&I responded to routine calls within 60 minutes on average and emergency calls within 52 minutes, surpassing both contract requirements.

"Since inception of the FEMA contract, the program has received 12,865 total maintenance calls and conducted an additional 15,778 preventative maintenance visits," Brann said.

Ralph White, GAO's managing associate general counsel for procurement law, said his agency has 100 calendar days from the time a bid protest has been filed to make a decision on a contract.

White said about half the protests the GAO receives each year are dispatched within the first 30 days through settlements or corrective actions by agencies. Of the roughly 2,700 protests filed in a given year, only around 600 end up where the GAO must make a final decision.
Whether the rape trial in Livingston Parish of former Sons of Guns reality TV personality Will Hayden will move forward in July, now that he faces a mandatory life sentence for rape convictions in Baton Rouge, has not yet been decided.

Hayden was unanimously convicted April 7 of raping two preteen girls more than two decades apart in East Baton Rouge Parish. The 51-year-old, of Greenwell Springs, will be sentenced May 11 on two counts of aggravated rape and one count of forcible rape. Aggravated rape carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

In Livingston, Hayden is scheduled for trial July 10 on another aggravated rape count of the same 15-year-old girl who testified as one of his two accusers in the Baton Rouge case. He also is charged with aggravated incest of his oldest daughter and Sons of Guns co-star Stephanie Hayden.

District Attorney Scott Perrilloux, of the 21st Judicial District in Livingston, said he and his assistants are discussing their next move and expect to have made a decision within the next month or so.

Now that he does have the convictions and is facing life in prison, our next consideration would be the impact or effect another trial proceeding would have on the victims, Perrilloux said.

The 15-year-old girl, who no longer lives in Louisiana, got physically ill on the witness stand in Baton Rouge while telling a jury that Will Hayden had sexually abused her for a year and a half when she was 11 and 12. After Hayden took the stand and denied the allegations, the teen quickly left the courtroom and could be heard crying in the hallway.

Were going to discuss some possible resolutions, keeping our best interests in mind, and make sure Mr. Hayden stays in prison for the rest of his life, Perrilloux said. Some of it will have to involve discussions with his lawyer, but in the next month, I think well have a good idea of where we may end up.

The teen told jurors that Will Hayden had raped her at his home and also made her perform oral sex on him. She said he had ruined her life, causing her to turn to destructive behaviors like cutting herself, drinking and smoking.

Stephanie Hayden, who appeared on the Dr. Phil show in 2014, has said her father entered her bedroom one night about 20 years ago while drunk and pinched and kissed her while trying to undress her. She told the talk show host that she managed to escape her father and that he did not touch her inappropriately again.
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By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Apr 15 (PTI) Myanmar-smuggled gold worth about Rs 3.5 crore has been seized by the DRI officials.

Acting on specific tip off, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) effected seizure of 70 pieces of gold of foreign origin yesterday, collectively weighing 11.65 kgs, smuggled into India from Myanmar from the possession of two persons in Kolkata, a senior DRI official said here today.

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The value of seized gold is Rs 3.47 crore.

The duo, who hails from Mizoram, were intercepted while they were waiting in a hotel room for delivery of these gold biscuits, he said.

The accused had came from Champhai, Mizoram, where the gold was delivered to them by a person from Myanmar with direction to deliver those at Kolkata, the official said.

The DRI has been making regular seizures of gold in and around Kolkata.

The agencys officials have seized gold bars/biscuits smuggled from Myanmar weighing 93.35 kgs valued at Rs 26.89 crores this year and arrested 29 persons.

"It has been revealed from investigation that some of these intercepted individuals may actually be persons of Myanmarese origin," he said. PTI AKV KIS

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The Louisiana State Police troopers under investigation for taking a lavish detour to Las Vegas last year on their way to a conference in California apparently deleted every text message they sent or received during the 11-day road trip, but the agency has not determined whether they did so intentionally.

It is also possible, if unlikely, that the troopers went nearly two weeks without sending or receiving a single work-related text message as they drove across the country, billing taxpayers for thousands of dollars in overtime and pricey hotel rooms that were hundreds of miles out of their way.

A third possibility is that the messages were automatically purged from the troopers' cellphones under a customized retention setting that is neither spelled out nor forbidden by State Police policy.

The uncertainty about the messages  sought by The Advocate in a February public-records request  is one of many unknowns surrounding the controversial October trip, which spawned three separate state investigations and hastened the retirement of Col. Mike Edmonson, the longtime State Police superintendent.

A review of text messages, were they available, might have shed light on how much other officials knew about the troopers' side trip.

The troopers who visited Las Vegas aren't the only ones who didn't save any messages from during last year's conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Edmonson and his second-in-command at the time, Charles Dupuy, also told the State Police they didn't have any texts from that time.

But it doesn't appear that the agency has done any checking to see if such messages exist.

"They just said they didn't have them on their phones," Maj. Doug Cain, a State Police spokesman, said of the troopers.

The newspaper's public-records request sought text messages sent and received during the time of the 2016 road trip as well as a more recent eight-day period in mid-February, before and after news of the trip surfaced.

The State Police response to The Advocate's request is the agency's third bite at the apple. In an initial response, the agency's lawyers said the materials were being gathered and that it would take some time to collect them. Then, in an about-face, the agency sent a letter saying no texts were available because none of the six State Police officials in question "maintained state cellphones."

Edmonson disputed that statement in a phone call the same day that response was sent, telling a reporter he was talking to him on his state cellphone.

"That's completely mistaken," Edmonson said of the agency's claim.

More recently, the State Police told the newspaper that none of the officers retained any text messages from either of the two time periods.

One senior law enforcement official told The Advocate the troopers had sent photographs of the road trip to their colleagues, rejecting the suggestion that the group had not sent or received any text messages during the junket.

Even if the troopers intentionally erased messages that documented their visits to the Grand Canyon and a Las Vegas casino resort, they did not run afoul of State Police rules, according to officials. That's because the agency has no retention policy for state-related text messages, a lapse seen across state government that raises questions about Louisiana's adherence to its own public-records laws.

"The challenge that we're facing is that we never directed our troopers to save text messages," Cain said. "It was something that just never came up."

Cain said the agency, before receiving The Advocate's request, had never been asked for copies of text messages under Louisiana's public-records law.

"People delete them," he said. "Some people are on a 30-day (purge) setting. Some people delete them more regularly because they take up space."

Troopers routinely exchange text messages during the course of state business, though texting is regarded within the agency as an informal means of communicating. State law requires that public records, including emails and other written communications, be retained for at least three years.

Even if a phone were set to have texts deleted within 30 days, the messages from the more recent span of time included in The Advocate's request would still have existed when the request was made  though they would have been purged by now.

The State Police acknowledged that work-related text messages would be considered public records unless they involved a pending investigation or were deemed otherwise exempt from public release. But the agency said it currently has no means of tracking or archiving the messages, a shortfall officials now are seeking to remedy.

"We certainly recognize this is an issue and are taking steps to address it," Cain said.

When officials send or receive emails from a public account, they are generally treated as public records, although officials can seek to have materials that are purely personal in nature kept out of a response to a public-records request. Typically, the decision about whether an email should be considered public or private is left to a third party, such as a lawyer for the agency.

The newspaper's request stemmed from the Las Vegas "side trip," as it became known, an excursion that involved four troopers driving Dupuy's state SUV to the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in San Diego. The four were Maj. Derrell Williams, who was then the head of the State Police Internal Affairs Division; Lt. Rodney Hyatt; Senior Trooper Thurman Miller; and Trooper Alexandr Nezgodinsky.

They were among about 15 people the State Police sent to the California conference. Travel records show the agency spent more than $33,000 for airfare, lodging, meals, registration fees and other expenses for the conference.

Most of the State Police contingent flew to the conference, but Edmonson authorized the four troopers to drive there, citing a need to have a vehicle to attend events away from the main conference site. He said he did not sign off on the detour to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

The State Police launched an internal inquiry into the trip, which remains underway and which is expected to result in disciplinary action against some or all of the troopers involved. But the lack of clarity surrounding the troopers' text messages  and the state's seeming lack of interest in locating any such messages  raises questions about the thoroughness of the probe.

The agency appears to have taken the troopers at their word that they did not communicate via text during the journey. At any rate, it did not deem it necessary to subpoena their phone records, a step that could provide key evidence of whether any higher-ranking officials were aware of or authorized the trip.

Miller, who charged taxpayers 54 hours of overtime for the trip, told the State Police he used a personal phone on the trip and that he doesn't "retain texts on my phone for any length of time."

Some troopers who do not have state-issued cellphones receive a monthly stipend to use their personal phones for work, but work-related text messages sent from a personal phone still would be considered public records.

Edmonson, who frequently received text messages on his work phone, said he had not texted with any of the troopers while they were in Las Vegas, reiterating that he had been unaware the troopers intended to take a circuitous route to the conference. He said his state cellphone was set to delete text messages every 30 or 60 days.

"My phone did not keep messages," Edmonson said in a telephone interview last week. "It wasn't something anyone ever thought of."

Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, said the State Police's lack of policies concerning text message retention could leave critical questions regarding the Las Vegas trip unanswered.

"You're dealing with troopers that are under investigation right now, and if a paper trail of text messages existed on their phones, that could be inculpatory," meaning that it could be evidence of guilt, he said. "What you don't know  and what we'll probably never know  is when these messages were deleted."

The State Police are not the only state agency lacking policies for the storage and retrieval of text messages concerning state business. Spokespeople for the Division of Administration and Secretary of State's Office both said their agencies do not have specific retention schedules for text messages.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Jeff Landry did not respond to a request for comment.

"There's no retention schedule anywhere within state government," Cain said, adding that officials are now looking at policies "that need to be developed to address it."

"We're looking at technologies," he added. "How do you capture this so that it's usable and searchable for a three-year period, which we assume the retention would be based on?"

Goyeneche said the State Police have been slow to update retention policies to reflect texting, a form of communication that has become more and more common  eclipsing phone calls and emails, for many users.

It's far from the first time that a government agency has been asked to provide text messages, however. Nearly a decade ago, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted and forced to resign in part on the basis of a cache of incriminating texts that showed he had lied.

Further complicating matters in terms of setting out guidelines for State Police is that some agency employees are issued state cellphones, while others receive $50 monthly stipends to use their personal phones for state business.

"We're looking at what method we provide our troopers," Cain said. "Do we get away from the $50 stipends and provide everybody a phone? How far do you bring that down through the ranks?"
United Airlines has updated its policy to no longer allow crew members to displace passengers who are already seated on a plane.

Under the new policy, which is meant to avoid future public relations fiascos like the one the world witnessed earlier this week, airline crews are required to check in at least an hour before a flight leaves. The purpose is to avoid having to find a seat for a crew member after all passengers have already boarded.

The policy change comes a few days after a passenger of an overbooked flight was violently forced out of a plane so a crew member could take his seat. Now-viral videos of the incident show a man, his nose bloody and his glasses nearly knocked off his face, being dragged by the arm across the aisle.

United spokeswoman Maggie Schmerin said in an email that the new policy is meant to ensure that such incidents will "never happen again." Previously, crews could be booked up until the time of departure, Schmerin said.

"This is one of our initial steps in a review of our policies to deliver the best customer service," Schmerin said.

According to an internal email published by TMZ, crews who are not checked in within the 60-minute window will have to book the next available flight.

No crew member "can displace a customer who has boarded an aircraft," according to the email, which was sent out Friday. Schmerin confirmed the authenticity of the published email.

The incident that set off a public relations crisis for United happened at Chicago O'Hare International Airport Sunday, when passengers of the flight bound for Louisville were offered vouchers to rebook. But no one volunteered, so the airline chose the passengers. One of them, 69-year-old David Dao, refused to give up his seat.

Videos taken by other passengers show a now-suspended security officer with the Chicago Department of Aviation leaning over to grab Dao and pulling him up. At some point, he went limp, and the officer dragged him off the plane. Two other officers have been placed on leave, the Associated Press reported.

The following day, United Airlines chief executive Oscar Munoz issued a statement saying he apologizes "for having to re-accomodate" the customers. He also sent a reassuring letter to his employees, telling them that Dao "refused" to cooperate after he was "politely asked" to leave, prompting crews to call for help.

The disturbing videos have been uploaded multiple times on YouTube, with one viewed more than 3 million times as of Saturday. The incident - and Munoz's muted response to it - also prompted international outrage, particularly from China, where public anger was fueled by reports that the passenger was Asian.

By Tuesday, United's stock prices had plummeted. Munoz issued a more humbled apology the same day.

"I continue to be disturbed by what happened. I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard," Munoz said of the passenger he seemed to fault in his letter to employees. "No one should ever be mistreated this way . . . It's never too late to do the right thing. I have committed to our customers and our employees that we are going to fix what's broken so this never happens again."

Munoz also promised to review policies on how United handles overbooked flights, and to have a public report by April 30.

The United chief, who was awarded "Communicator of the Year" by PRWeek about a month ago, acknowledged Wednesday on ABC News's "Good Morning America" that his immediate response to the incident "fell short of truly expressing the shame" he felt after seeing the videos.

A United a spokeswoman also said Wednesday that the passengers who were on the flight would receive compensation equal to the cost of their tickets, according to the AP. The compensation can be in the form of cash, travel credits or airline miles.

In a statement issued Thursday, United said the company will no longer ask law enforcement officers to remove passengers from flights "unless it is a matter of safety and security," and will review its training programs for employees.

The company also repeated its apologies, saying Munoz had reached out to Dao "on numerous occasions."

Dao's attorney, Thomas Demetrio, said at a news conference Thursday that his client will "probably" file a lawsuit. Dao suffered a concussion and a broken nose, and will undergo reconstructive surgery after losing two front teeth, Demetrio said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Lori Aratani contributed to this report.
Is Tamzin Taylor the ultimate geek girl? The head of apps for Google Play, Western Europe, tall and slim with a shock of Nordic-white hair, is a picture of feminine power as she strides on stage at Myriad 2017 in Brisbane, plants her feet wide and tells an auditorium full of bearded hipsters in skinny black jeans how Europe is faring in the start-up stakes.

"One thing Europe is not doing well on is the female front," notes the London-based former Sydneysider whose job it is to know what everyone else in the audience desperately wants to: how to make money with apps or games on Android and Google Play. "Eighty per cent of businesses that went for funding last year were run by men."

Tamzin Taylor, the head of apps for Google Play, at Brisbane's Myriad 2017 festival.

Or is Ally Watson the ultimate geek girl? "I worked in an office with 40 people and I was the only girl and it sucked," says Watson, a developer, computer science graduate and co-founder of Code Like A Girl. In the kinds of places she's worked, she tells the packed conference room, female developers are often given the job of cleaning up code men have written. "That's the housework," she states, deadpan.

Or maybe Anouk Wipprecht is the ultimate geek girl. She's a "fashiontech" designer, combining electronics, science and couture to produce "dresses with brains", among other intriguing creations. Sensors in her robotic spider dress monitor the space around the wearer; it raises its arms to "attack" if people come too close. Her ethereal smoke dress monitors stress reactions with hidden sensors, and puffs out a warning like a squid squirting ink.
38,068 emails were received, and 6,050 or about 16 per cent of them were forwarded to the respective Director Generals Of Income Tax (Investigation) for further inquiry.

By Press Trust of India: The email address launched by the Ministry of Finance for getting tips about black money received over 38,000 emails, but only 16 per cent of them were forwarded for further inquiry, the CBDT said in a reply to an RTI query earlier this month.

Jitendra Ghadge, a city-based Right To Information activist, had asked for information about response to the email address `blackmoneyinfo@incometax.gov.in, launched last December. The Central Board of Direct Taxes said in its reply dated April 7 that 38,068 emails were received, and 6,050 or about 16 per cent of them were forwarded to the respective Director Generals Of Income Tax (Investigation) for further inquiry.

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The remaining 32,018 emails were closed without any action, it said.

To Ghadge's query about number of "false" emails received, the CBDT said this information was "subject to completion of investigation".

In December last year, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia announced launch of the email address blackmoneyinfo@incometax.gov.in for whistle blowers. "Over 84 per cent tip-offs have been closed without any inquiry. This shows that either most emails were frivolous, or the authorities did not take them seriously, or may be shortage of staff forced them to do so," Ghadge said.

Ghadge had also filed another RTI query seeking number of demonetised notes deposited with the RBI after January 1, 2017. However, the Central bank refused to furnish the information, citing exemption under the RTI Act.

Also read: In fresh crackdown on black money, Income Tax notice to 60,000 entities

Also read: Congress opposes amendments in RTI, says it's a bid to scuttle rights

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Christopher Cooper began smoking shortly after he enlisted in the Australian Navy.

"I was encouraged to smoke because of the 'stand easy' and mess activities on board when the bar was open," he said in 2014. "Taking a break meant having a smoke. I was 15 at the time I enlisted and wanted to be one of the 'men'."

Christopher Cooper spent much of his navy career on the HMAS Stalwart. Credit:Alan Gilbert Purcell

But that rite of manhood proved deadly to Mr Cooper, who died of tongue cancer in 2015.

His widow Bronwyn Cooper will now be entitled to compensation after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal decided her husband's smoking habit was caused by his military service.
Professor Stacy Loeb: "You only have a small window for cure. When it's closed, it's closed for good." Credit:Edwina Pickles For every 1000 men aged 55-65 who had annual PSA tests, 87 would have a false positive result after an invasive biopsy, and 28 would experience side-effects including impotence and incontinence. Just two men will be saved from death as a result of screening. But the blistering furore over the controversial test has pushed the pendulum too far in the other direction, US urologist Professor Stacy Loeb warned Sydney doctors last week. Ignoring test results or abandoning screening altogether was a dangerous error that risked younger men developing aggressive prostate cancer and death, Professor Stacy Loeb said. US projections suggested abandoning PSA screening would lead to twice the rate of metastatic prostate cancers and a 13-20 per cent rise in preventable prostate cancer deaths by 2025.

"We definitely made mistakes with PSA testing in the past, but we have made massive gains at every step of screening and treatment to preserve the benefits and reduce harms," she said. Prostate cancer has a 95 per cent survival rate, but it was still the second biggest cancer killer among Australian men. "You only have a small window for cure. When it's closed, it's closed for good," Professor Loeb said. Her warning came days before the US Preventive Service Task Force wound back its watershed 2012 guidelines that recommended against PSA screening. New draft guidelines now recommend doctors inform men aged 55-69 of the potential benefits and harms of PSA screening, and the decision should be an individual one.

The proposed guidelines were informed by new research showing small net reductions in mortality risk and metastatic disease linked ot screening. The significant shift brings the US largely in line with Australian guidelines, which suggest men between 50 and 69 should be offered the opportunity to discuss the harms and benefits of PSA testing. The Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand welcomed the draft guidelines, having long argued the old recommendations were flawed and harmful. Prostate cancer surgeon at the Sydney Adventist Hospital and Professor of Surgery at the University of Sydney, Henry Woo said the new guidelines remedied the erroneous "one size fits all" approach to testing. "We know PSA isn't a perfect test ... but the previous guidelines were a classic example of 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater'," Professor Woo said.

PSA should be used as a risk assessment tool, not a fast-track to surgery, he said. When PSA screening was first introduced it was applied indiscriminately with little regard for an individual's risk profile, Professor Loeb said. But testing for additional prostate cancer markers through blood, urine and tissue samples, and understanding patient risk profiles was helping doctors better identify which patients would likely benefit from treatment and who could forego it, she said. MRI can reduce the number of men over-diagnosed with prostate cancer and improve the precision of biopsy to detect aggressive cancers, recent research suggests. "Our precision in patient selection is getting better and better. We consider not only PSA, but the size of the prostate, are there nodules, family history of prostate cancer but and also other cancers" including the BRCA gene, Professor Loeb said.

There had also been an encouraging uptake of the watch-and-wait approach. "A few years ago all our conference sessions were about surgical technique. Now there are multiple sessions on active surveillance, how to monitor patients and what kind of support they need around living with cancer," Professor Loeb said. Associate Professor David Smith at the Cancer Council Australia said Australian doctors had been rigorously pursuing active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer. "Being told you've got cancer and not treating it is counter-intuitive for many people. It contradicts what we know about a lot of cancers, but for prostate cancer it can be a very rational treatment approach," Professor Smith said. "It often comes down to patient choice. Screening men who are well-informed and who need it is what our challenge is," he said.
A 64-year-old man has been allegedly beaten and burnt with a lighter and aerosol can during two hours of torture at a Highgate Hill unit on Saturday night.

Police said the victim was drinking with two men at the Gladstone Road address when the trio began arguing about 7.45pm.

Two men were charged with a string of offences including torture, assault and deprivation of liberty after an alleged attack at Highgate Hill.

It will be alleged the two men then started to torture the victim until he managed to escape and raise the alarm. He was taken to hospital with burns to his legs, arms, scalp and face.

A 42-year-old Collingwood Park man and 44-year-old Highgate Hill man were each charged with a string of offences including torture, assault and deprivation of liberty. They were expected to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday.
Google and Facebook are facing new competition to their online business models after President Donald Trump signed a bill putting internet service providers on a path to being able to monetise online users the same way these technology giants do. Next up is the threatened unwinding of the Obama administration's "net neutrality" rules, which could put these companies in a double bind, because they could soon have to pay internet service providers a metered rate to move their content to customers' screens.

Google and Facebook will argue  as they did during our fight on net neutrality in 2015  that ISPs should not be able to prioritise and price the flow of online content. The problem is that they make the exact opposite argument in their role as distributors of news content crucial to our democracy.

Facebook and Google pressure newsrooms' bottom lines by soaking up online ad revenue. Credit:Bloomberg

The two digital giants increase or reduce users' exposure to news content based on whether publishers  such as the Wall Street Journal or the Indianapolis Star  agree to play by their rules. Those rules are crafted to maximise the flow of advertising revenue, not quality content.

Proponents of net neutrality, including Google and Facebook, persuaded the Federal Communications Commission to treat ISPs as "common carriers", akin to traditional telephone companies. Under decades-old law, such entities are subject to high levels of government regulation on price, access and other consumer issues, all in the name of the public good. Because of the elevated levels of regulation, ISPs aren't permitted to favour any content, regardless of consumer demand.
Good morning and welcome to Melbourne's weather. Well, an article about it.

We are in for a veritable corker on this, the last day of the school holidays. After Easter Sunday brought all the sun its name promises, the next few days look set to deliver a return to the warmth of our not-so-distant summer.

There's a little cloud visible right now and certainly a chill in the air  glove up if you're on a bike  but we'll end up with a top of 22.

And for those who love to bask in the rays, there will be more! By Wednesday we'll be right up to 26. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Here's what the weather is doing right now
Anti-bikie Echo taskforce detectives have released an image of a man they wish to speak to over a drive-by shooting in Melbourne.

Police are still investigating the shooting outside an Airport West gym on February 23 which left one man in hospital with gunshot wounds.

The man injured in the Airport West shooting. Credit:Courtesy of Nine News

The victim, a 31-year-old Hillside man, parked his car on Louis Street about 5.30pm and was walking to the entrance of the Derrimut 24:7 gym when he was shot at.

It's believed a black Audi SUV pulled up and an occupant produced a firearm, shooting at the man before fleeing the scene, driving east along Rodd Road.
Vatican City: Pope Francis denounced "oppressive regimes" in his Easter message on Sunday but in an apparent call for restraint urged world leaders to prevent the spread of conflicts, as tensions rose in North Korea and Syria.

Francis, marking the fifth Easter season of his pontificate, said Mass before tens of thousands of people under exceptional security measures in St. Peter's Square following recent vehicle attacks against pedestrians in London and Stockholm.

Pope Francis delivers his Urbi et Orbi message from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. Credit:AP

More police vans and army vehicles than usual were positioned at the entrances to the Vatican area and the faithful were stopped at several check points leading into the square, which was decorated with 35,000 flowers and trees.

In his Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) message, delivered from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica, Francis spoke of a world lacerated by conflicts and laced with tensions.
Donald Trump with his then chief strategist, Steve Bannon. Credit:AP Politics is a tricky business, Washington is a treacherous place and Trumplandia is downright brutal. In all three realms, you have to strike the right balance of self-promotion and self-effacement. The media's no help. We love few archetypes better than that of the brilliant mastermind who's the real power behind the throne. But the savviest operators find ways to resist that assignment, deflecting as much credit as they claim. Time magazine cover with Steve Bannon, February 13, 2017. Credit:Time Magazine "It's important to remember that you're always a supporting actor, never the star," David Axelrod, one of Barack Obama's closest campaign and White House advisers, told me. "And depending on who the star is, it's even more important. Donald Trump's self-image doesn't really allow for co-stars." Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, with Chinese president Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. Credit:AP

George W. Bush's self-image had slightly more allowance but, even so, nothing made Karl Rove's stomach knot like the nickname "Bush's brain" that a few journalists used for him. It was both compliment and curse, and to interview him or any of Bush's other top aides back in the day was to be pummelled with sentences that all started with the same subject, adjusted for whichever title Bush held at that point. "The governor believes ... " Former US president George Bush with adviser Karl Rove. Credit:AP "The president-elect has decided ... " "The president feels strongly ... "

Ask them for their opinion, and they'd tell you what he thought. That was the pecking order, which was reinforced by Bush's own nickname for Rove: "Turd Blossom." Rove endured as one of Bush's two or three pre-eminent advisers for about a decade, and his eventual diminution was largely a function of Bush's waning popularity in the fifth year of his presidency, when Rove was moved from a corner suite in the West Wing to a windowless office across the hall. Donald Regan, Ronald Reagan's second chief-of-staff, was forced to resign after just two tumultuous years, partly because he'd lost sight of his place, infuriating the first lady. In her memoir, My Turn, Nancy Reagan complained that he "often acted as if he were the president". That behaviour reflected the ease with which senior advisers "get caught up in feeling smarter and more powerful than the principal", said one veteran Republican strategist, who added that the advisers who survive reject or mask that grandiose sense of self. Bannon is an amateur masker. While he didn't give Time any quotes for its "manipulator" story and the photograph of him on the cover had been shot for a different reason three months earlier, he has spent plenty of time talking off the record with political reporters, too little of it actively tamping down his legend.

He wasn't vigilant enough about patrolling the way his allies inside and outside the administration deified him in their own murmurings to the media, which included the nugget that colleagues awed by his knowledge called him "the encyclopaedia". He didn't see the traps that would have been obvious to a Washington insider. He didn't grasp that you can't be "the encyclopaedia" if your president is barely a pamphlet. He didn't grapple with who Trump really is. Trump's allegiances are fickle. His attention flits. His compass is popularity, not any fixed philosophy, certainly not the divisive brand of populism and nationalism that Bannon was trying to enforce. Bannon insisted on an ideology when Trump cares more about applause, and what generates it at a campaign rally isn't what sustains it when you're actually governing. Bannon stupidly picked a fight with Jared Kushner that he was all but certain to lose, and not only because Kushner is kin. Consider Trump's obsession with appearances, then tell me who has the advantage: the guy who looks like a flea market made flesh or the one who seems poised to pose for GQ? Bannon is still on the job, and Trump may keep him there, because while he has been disruptive inside the White House, he could be pure nitroglycerine outside. He commands acolytes on the alt-right. He has a mouthpiece in Breitbart News. He has means for revenge. He also has a history of it. But it's hard to imagine how he ever again rises to a perch as lofty as the one he occupied; others have rushed to fill it. SuperJared is in full flight. Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, is flapping his own wings.
By Press Trust of India: Srinagar, Apr 16 (PTI) A former law officer and an ex- militant were gunned down in separate incidents in the Kashmir valley this evening, police said. The first incident took place at Pinjoora village in Shopian in south Kashmir when militants fired at former public prosecutor and advocate Imtiyaz Ahmed Khan when he was stepping out of a local mosque after offering last prayers of the day, police said.

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Khan, who was associated with opposition National Conference, was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead, they said.

In the other incident, militants shot dead a former counter-insurgent Abdul Rashid Parray alias Rashid Billa in Hajjan in north Kashmirs Bandipora district, taking the number of such killings to three in the last 24 hours, police said.

They said Parray received four bullets and died on the spot. He was a commander of counter-insurgent force known as Ikhwan. PTI SSB MIJ SKL KUN

--- ENDS ---
Ankara: President Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in a referendum on Sunday to grant him sweeping powers in the biggest overhaul of modern Turkish politics, but opponents said the vote was marred by irregularities and they would challenge its result.

Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast and its three main cities, including the capital Ankara and the largest city Istanbul, looked set to vote "No" after a bitter and divisive campaign.

Erdogan said 25 million people had supported the proposal, which will replace Turkey's parliamentary system with an all-powerful presidency and abolish the office of prime minister, giving the "Yes" camp 51.5 per cent of the vote.

That appeared short of the decisive victory for which he and the ruling AK Party had aggressively campaigned. Nevertheless, thousands of flag-waving supporters rallied in Ankara and Istanbul in celebration.
Monday 05 September, 2016 Reliable information reaching Biafra writers desk has it that the life of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indi...
A massive hunger strike at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington, entered its fifth day on Friday, with more than 750 immigrants detained at the facility joining the effort.

The detainees are demanding an improvement in quality of food, clarity and speed in their immigration proceedings, improved access to medical care, and the lowering of commissary prices.

The strike began at noon on Monday, when one hundred prisoners refused to eat their lunches. Maru Mora Villalpando, a spokeswoman for the activist coalition NWDC Resistance, told The Daily Beast that the current climate is the worst since President Donald Trump was elected.

Trump has announced stringent deportation policies and actions since his inauguration, including one national raid at the end of March that detained 367 undocumented immigrants in five separate operations, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency in charge of border security.

The Tacoma facility currently holds more than 1,400 immigrant detaineesalmost at full capacityall held under varying charges. Although exact figures are unknown, one prisoner told The Daily Beast that the majority of inmates had no criminal record and were instead detained as a result of expired visas or illegally entering the country.

ICE would not confirm exact numbers regarding the NWDC's current population.

Detainees in the facility receive only $1 per day for cleaning, cooking, and operationally running the prison. Strikers called for more in a letter that was circulated throughout NWDC prior to the strike, as well as demands that included expedited hearings, improvements to food and medical care, and price cuts to the commissary, where the cost of some items recently doubled.

One detainee, only identified as Christian, spoke to NWDC activists in a recording for their blog on Monday.

"The food they serve, they serve beans and rice seven days a week, three times a day, Christian, who is about to turn 26, said in a conversation from inside the facility. Commissary is very expensive and my family always gives us a little bit of money, and sometimes spends hundreds of dollars.

The following day, Christian was one of several detainees who were transported from NWDC in a two-bus transport to be deported to Mexico, according to Villalpando.

Even as more immigrants are deported, the facility's population continues to grow, as indicated by a Facebook video posted by NWDC Resistance showing buses entering the prison grounds.

According to posts on the same Facebook page, another hunger striker, Johnathan Guzman, said I am doing the hunger strike not just for me but for everyone out there in the future.

Guzman also mentioned that he was one of the people who stripped and re-waxed the floor in the detention center. He said that he stayed up three or four nights doing this work and was only given a cup of soup and some chips as payment.

Prince Edwards, 42, is also participating in the hunger strike. In an interview with The Daily Beast from the prison, he said he and other strikers are hoping ICE officials will guarantee there will be no retaliation for prisoners' strike actions in writingand discuss their demands.

He described rough conditions for those who require medical treatment while detained.

"[Another detainee] told me he was getting his blood drawn and the nurse had just taken the urine sample of another detainee [who] didn't change his glove when drawing the blood.

Prince was picked up by ICE the day of his release after eight years in federal prison four months ago. He intends to continue the hunger strike for as long as it lasts.

The first eight hours was the hardest, but its about making a sacrifice for something you believe strongly in," he said. According to Prince, some other inmates had stopped performing cleaning duties, but he could not elaborate further because different units are kept separate, without much conversation and communication.

The detention center is the largest West Coast immigrant prison owned by private prison conglomerate GEO Group. GEO Group has 99,000 beds in its facilities, a third of whom live in prisons that are part of government partnerships, or prisons like the NWDC.

That third, according to CoStar, the commercial real estate information company, accounts for 45% of GEOs revenue. Some of that revenue found itself in the pocket of Trumps presidential campaign: according to financial documents filed by a Trump SuperPAC, "Rebuilding America," in August 2016, GEO Group donated $225,000 to the pro-Trump PAC.

The company maintained that the donation came from a subsidiary with no government contracts.

ICE protocol dictates that only individuals that have been observed to not eat at all are considered on a hunger strike. Then, they are counseled on medical risks. According to Edwards, ICE has not begun counseling yet in his portion of the prison.

Rose Richeson, a spokesperson for ICEs Seattle field office, told The Daily Beast that the so-called hunger strike should be correctly termed a meal refusal. She referred The Daily Beast to ICE's hunger strike protocol.

The number of detainees refusing prepared meals at the NWDC continues to decline and so far none of the detainees has missed a sufficient number of meals since noon on Monday, April 10, to be considered on a hunger strike, Richeson said. Those striking claim that the number has increased to more than a quarter of the prison.

Richeson also said inmates are eating from the commissary instead; GEO went so far as to report all packaged food purchases from the commissary on April 9 as evidence that detainees are merely refusing to eat prepared food, rather than going on a starvation strike.

Tomas Madrigal, a researcher for activist organization Community to Community Development, told The Daily Beast that this isn't the case. The hunger strike happened on April 10, 2017, he explained. Edwards, behind bars, backed up his statement.

Richeson claimed that inmates are still eating commissary items.

"All detainees continue to have access to purchase items from the commissary and as long as a detainee is eating commissary items they are not considered to be on a hunger strike," Richeson said.

From the prison, Edwards told The Daily Beast, "They give us boxes to put our commissary to lock them up. So we did this the other day in full view of the security cameras to prove we weren't eating.

NWDC Resistance claims cases of guards retaliating against detainees participating in the strike, with prisoners allegedly being threatened with cancelled court dates and lost privileges to activity that connects them with the outside world, like television.

Richeson denied that immigration court proceedings at the NWDC were in any way impacted by detainees refusing prepared meals.

In response to a request for an interview from The Daily Beast, GEO Group spokesperson Pablo Paez said "The Facility has always been focused on compliance with all mandated standards and ensuring the wellbeing of all residents in our care, and that remains our focus." He referred The Daily Beast to ICE for further questions.

Virginia Kice, a regional spokesperson, told The Daily Beast that detainees who formally declare their intention to undertake a hunger strike will be transferred to a dedicated housing unit so they can be closely monitored to ensure their welfare. For those individuals, ICE will implement the hunger strike protocols, which includes close medical supervision and suspension of commissary privileges.

Kice further stated that all detainees who are engaged in a hunger strike will continue to be offered three meals daily and provided an adequate supply of drinking water or other beverages.

ICE did not reply to how they would address demands from strikers.

Activists from NWDC Resistance have carried on an Occupy-style encampment outside of the facility and have daily rallies.

We want the hunger strikers to know that they are not alone," NWDC Resistance said in a media release.
The party went on into the early hours of Easter morning, before ending in tragedy.

At approximately 3:20 a.m. on Sunday, Columbus, Ohio police were called to the J&R Party Hall, an event space in the citys South Linden neighborhood. Inside, an argument had led to a mass-shooting that sent nine people to the hospital. Some of the victims are in critical condition, police said Sunday morning.

In a statement, Columbus police described the J&R Party Hall as an after-hours club. But in truth, the party hall has also played host to baby showers and birthdays, costume parties and cabaret nights. When police cars surrounded the building early Sunday morning, their blue and red emergency lights clashed with the party halls bright LED decorations, which seemed to announce a party inside.

But inside the hall, first responders encountered a gruesome scene. Following a dispute of an unknown nature, at least one person had pulled out a gun and opened fire on party-goers. Investigators told Columbuss NBC4 that they believed more than one person had fired shots inside the building. While searching the party hall, police found shell casings of multiple calibers, suggesting multiple guns exchanging fire, Columbuss 10TV reported.

The bullets struck nine people, who ranged in age from 20 to 33. Most victims were young, in their early twenties. Of these nine victims, two were critically injured and transported to the Ohio State University medical center. The seven others are in stable condition at Grant Medical Center, police reported.

Police have yet to announce any suspects or motives for the shooting. After the attack, investigators searched an adjacent house and back alleyways for evidence. But the J&R Party Hall is located in a largely residential neighborhood, through which the shooters may have disappeared. Victims claimed not to have seen their attackers before they opened fire, or declined to speak with investigators, police said.

The shooting is the latest for the South Linden neighborhood, which has endured a series of gun-related tragedies in recent years. In March 2016, a five-year-old South Linden boy was shot in the head while sleeping. The boy had been in bed with his mother, who woke to the sound of gunshots on the street outside. The mother rushed to her 11-year-old sons room to check on the older boy, who was unharmed. But when she returned to her five-year-old, his pillow was full of blood, she told the Columbus Dispatch. The boy was rushed to the hospital in extremely critical condition, but managed to survive. Months later in the same neighborhood, two students were shot outside their high school as class was letting out at the end of the day.

Now nine more young people are recovering from the latest incident of gun violence in South Linden. All nine people are expected to recover.
Five Maryland legislators could have ended a policy that forces women to share child custody with their rapists. Instead the five legislators, all men, buried the bill.

Maryland is one of seven states without a law allowing women to terminate parental rights for their rapists, if their child was conceived as a result of sexual assault, according to reproductive rights organization NARAL. The states current policy forces survivors to negotiate child custody and adoption issues with their attacker. In a bid to update the draconian policy, Maryland Delegate Kathleen Dumais introduced legislation that would allow a woman to cut her rapists parental rights.

But while the bill passed both Marylands House and Senate, the bills text varied between the two legislative bodies. On Monday, the last day of legislative session, a five-person negotiating group was set to decide on the bills final text, the Baltimore Sun reported. Instead, the five-man group let the bill fall by the wayside, running out the legislative sessions clock without finalizing the bills text.

The Maryland General Assemblys is not scheduled to reconvene until its 2018 session begins on January 10. But for Maryland women with children conceived by rape, the states current law can mean situations of urgent danger.

For those who choose to carry to term, a woman who becomes pregnant through rape runs the risk that the rapist will assert his parental rights, NARALs Maryland branch wrote in a statement of support for Dumaiss bill. If she chooses to raise the child herself, it could mean her rapist inserting himself into her life for the next 18 years. The perpetrator may also hinder efforts to place the child up for adoption. In some extreme cases, rapists have only agreed to allow an adoption to go forward if the victim promised not to testify against him at Trial.

Dumais has championed a number of bills advocating for sexual assault survivors rights, including a bill passed this session, which clarified that rape survivors do not need to prove they physically resisted an attack in order to prosecute their assailant. But Dumaiss parental rights bill has proved tougher to pass. The Maryland delegate has attempted to pass eight previous versions of the bill, all of which failed in the General Assembly. During the 2017 legislative session, the bill seemed closer to law than ever before, with versions passing both the House and the Senate, before a technicality sunk it for the ninth time.

The bills text, as approved by the House and Senate, varied significantly between the two legislative bodies, with differences including the conditions under which a parent could terminate the other parents parental rights, and the childs legal rights during court proceedings. In order to move on for approval by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, the bill would need its text finalized by a small negotiating committee comprised of six delegates and six senators.

But the negotiators, chosen by Democrats Del. Joseph Vallario Jr. and Sen. Robert Zirkin, had unusual demographics for a committee that would rule on a bill that primarily affected womens rights. The panel consisted entirely of men: Del. David Moon, Del. Brett Wilson, Del. Joseph Vallario Jr., Sen. William Smith, Sen. Robert Zirkin, and Sen. Michael Hough.

Moon, a Democrat, told The Daily Beast that he, Smith and Wilson supported and sponsored the bill and that they "were desperately trying to save it in the closing minutes of the session," but that the committee had run out of time.

Speaking to the Sun, Vallario defended his decision not to appoint any female legislators to the panel, saying the groups demographics were entirely coincidental, and that he did not appoint Dumais because the bills primary sponsor would be biased in its favor. Dumais told the Sun that she has previously sat on negotiating committees for bills on which she was the primary sponsors. Neither Dumaiss nor Vallarios office could be reached for comment by The Daily Beast. When the panel finally convened Monday evening, it was comprised of five men; Vallario, who had appointed himself, sat out on negotiations.

But rather than agree on a finalized version of the bill, the five men appeared to strike some kind of bargain, the Baltimore Sun previously reported. Republican Sen. Michael Hough announced were good, before the commission ran out the clock on the legislation. With no revised text with which to present the General Assembly, the bill failed, despite having passed both houses.

Dumais reportedly left the session close to tears as the bill she had worked nearly a decade to pass had been abandoned again, this year on a technicality that ran the urgent bill out of time.
A North Korean missile exploded seconds after blast-off early Sunday morning, and the failed test may make North Korean leader Kim Jong Un even more dangerous than he was before.

The launch of what looks like a short- or intermediate-range missile was meant to be an exclamation mark for the massive celebrations in Pyongyang Saturday to commemorate the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the North Korean state.

The two-hour-long military parade at the heart of those celebrations featured what appeared to have been three intercontinental ballistic missiles.

One of those ICBMs, as such missiles are called, was previously unknown to analysts. It was hidden from view, carried in a canister on a mobile launcher. If the missile indeed existssome believe the canister could have been emptyit clearly has a long range. According to Shin In-kyun of the Korea Defense Network, it could travel at least 3,700 miles.

Others, however, think it can go much further. The canister resembles the one used for Chinas DF-31 missile, which can travel at least 5,000 miles downrange. If this one has a similar capability, then if launched from North Korea, it could reach some of the lower 48 American states.

Yet Americans might laugh at this latest threat from the Kimster. The quick end to Sundays test undercuts the fearsome image of his ballistic missiles. The timing was a deep embarrassment for the Norths leader, Kim Jong Un, the New York Times wrote Saturday, referring to the explosion soon after the launch.

That is not, in fact, good news. What does a deeply embarrassed dictator do next? He tests another missile or detonates a nuclear device to end his countrys celebrations on what he considers a high note. Kim has plenty of missiles, and his technicians look like they have buried, in preparation for a detonation, a nuke at the Punggye-ri site in northeastern North Korea.

Or maybe he does something else provocative.

Kim may have to do something we consider horrible if he wants to remain in power. His rule looks increasingly unstablesince the end of January there have been various incidents suggesting trouble at the top of the regimeso a humiliating episode like the almost-immediate failure of the missile Sunday could tip him over the edge.

Theres nothing more dangerous than a weak dictator who commands the worlds most destructive weapons. Friday, David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security issued a report stating that Kim may have had up to 30 nukes at the end of 2016 and the industrial infrastructure to build more at a fast clip.

And Kim also looks defiant. Washington has been issuing warnings to the North Korean leader in the days leading up to the Day of the Sun celebration Saturday, and so has Beijing. The missile test suggests, among other things, that Kim feels he can ignore the stern Chinese lectures delivered through various means, including the Global Times. The nationalist tabloid, controlled by Peoples Daily, this week threatened restricting the flow of oil to Kim, among other measures.

If Kim in fact thinks he can safely defy Beijing, Kim may at this point be, as a practical matter, uncontrollable.

In any event, the next move is up to an insecure, defiant, embarrassed, and uncontrollable Mr. Kim. And he is unlikely to enhance peace and stability in what could be the worlds most volatile region.
Easter, as everyone knows, is a time that Christians reflect upon the death and resurrection of Jesus and its significance for everyone else. The empty tomb is the foundational event in which Christianity laid its foundations. But just as important, maybe more important than the historicity of this event, is what does Easter ask of you? Can you ever repay Jesus for dying on the cross? Do you have to?

Over the course of the last two thousand years important theologians like St. Augustine, Anselm, Abelard, Aulen, Moltmann, and others used different imagery and models to explain how the Atonement works. Does Jesus death pay a debt that is owed to God? Does he rescue us from the snares of Satan by triumphing over death? Does he model perfect self-sacrificial love? Does he suffer in solidarity with broken humanity? This isnt a theology class, and what I have to offer isnt intellectual or catechetical; its my own visceral gut response.

For most of my life I didnt really worry about these questions that much. When, at the age of seven, I took catechism classes, I told the nun that I didnt think the crucifixion was that big of a deal because it was just one day. When she told me that Jesus suffered and died for my sins I told her that it wasnt just my sins, it was everybodys sins. Stop making it my fault, I thought; Ill be obedient because common sense dictates that you shouldnt irritate an omnipotent deity.
Recently, I was hired by a major bank in Arkansas to provide cross-cultural competence training for forty of the companys highest level employees including its owners, presidents, and regional market CEOs. During one session in which we discussed the concept of white privilege, I suggested that those in positions of power and privilege should seek not only to give away fish or teach others to fish but help others own the pond. Later, during a break, one of the attendees approached me with a question couched in a concern. Thats tough for me to think about, he said. If I help others own the pond, then my pond will shrink. In response, I said, Maybe so, but consider this: you will then have two ponds in which to fish.

This weekend Christians throughout the world celebrate the life, death through crucifixion, burial and, most importantly, the resurrection of Jesus, whom we call Christ (which means Messiah or Savior), from the grave. The annual commemoration comes at a time when people in this country, and even world leaders, are at painful odds with one another, each in his or her own way striving or fighting either to attain or maintain power, position, and privilege; for their way to become the way things are done or understood. What we need to realize, however, and to learn from Jesus is counter-intuitive: if you want such things you must let them go.

In the apostle Pauls letter to the church at Philippi, he explains both why and how we should,

(In our) relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to deatheven death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8)

Did you catch it?

Jesus, although God, himself, prior to human existence (the incarnation) and, as such, divinely powerful, positioned, and privileged, did not regard such things as self-serving. Rather, he emptied Himself of such things (the Greek word is kenosis)  willingly gave them up, laid them down  and came to us, as one of us, so that we, too, could own the spiritual pond; that we, too, could have power, position, and privilege in heavenly places; that we, too, could be called the children of God (I John 3:1) and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, (Romans 8:17). In this way, Jesus created many more ponds in which to fish. Thus, he was honored with even more recognition and glorythat is, to the degree it is possible for someone that already has it all to have even more in terms of power, position, and privilege. Indeed, this is what the Apostle Paul next explains:

Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

Simply stated, to attain or maintain power, position, and privilege, we should learn from Jesus: to have such things, we must give them up; lay them down; leverage them  in whatever amount or measure you have been blessed  for the sake of others in need, especially those very different than us: our biblical neighbors (Luke 10:25-37).

But therein lies the challenge.

For many today identifying as Christians, and more specifically as evangelicals in the United States, Christianity is enmeshed with the American way, the American dream, American life itself. Contrary to the national myth, however, America is not a Christian nation. So, when winning or losing on one issue or another becomes more important than representing Christ well via social media, demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit in civil discourse, or remembering that we have been called to go and make disciples . . . Christ is not honored.

For example, both in private conversations and on social media, far too many of us are quick to speak, slow to listen, and slow to advance peace, in direct violation of James 1:19. Far too many of us want to impose theocratic rule and ways on an otherwise constitutionally limited, representative democratic republic in an effort, somehow, to attain or maintain power, position, and privilege. Beyond that, we are far too easily tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14), at times acting more like those without understanding, in the futility of their mind, with ignorance, callousness, or hardness of heart (4:1719). Thus, we are often seen or portrayed as purveyors of fear, not faith.

None of this is helpful for winning hearts and minds in what has been described as a post-Christian society.

The fact is, the apostle Paul expected much more of mature believers. In Ephesians 4:29 he wrote, Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Notice Paul did not say we should not speak about or act on what we believe. Rather, we should do so in a way that is winsome; in a way that plays to more than our affective base; in a way that represent Christ well.

But this is not what most of us do, particularly on social media. More typically, we speak or write as if to those who already believe as they do. By doing so, our posts will receive many more likes, hearts, and shares, but only from those holding similar viewswhile people who do not agree are only further entrenched in their opinions or otherwise alienated by a particularly strong statement.

Christians should learn, then, to speak to those beyond our affective base in language, tone, and tenor as to be heard and received. We should learn to ask good questions, shape the narrative, and influence conversations that move people toward one another, toward the church, and ultimately toward Christ, not drive them further away. At any given moment, we should be more interested in winning people to the faith than we are in winning an argument. At any given moment, we should be more interested in helping others own ponds, than concerned that our own ponds will shrink.

Clearly, Americans today are divided along the lines of race, class, and culture as well as religion and politics. Christians, too, are often at odds with one another over these very same things. In all such division, there is a jockeying for preeminence in thought, word, or respect. This is the time, then, to empty ourselves of any lingering pride and pursue paths of peace. Indeed, we should remember that the mission of the church is best fulfilled not through political reform but spiritual reform, not through legislation but transformation, not through coercion but through conversion in seeing others come to know Him as we do.

As a common prayer suggests, and in the spirit of the Easter season, let us seek more to serve than to be served in the days ahead; more to understand than to be understood; and not so much to be praised by others but to humble ourselves for the sake of others...that is, to help others own the pond.

Indeed, this is the way of Jesus.

This is the gospel of Christ.
What with the triggering of Article 50 by Prime Minister Theresa May, the poodle foreign policy of shaggy Boris Johnson vis-a-vis Russia, and the possible end of London, as per the New York Times, theres a full slate of troublesome issues weighing on England. She is a country in search of a hero. Last week, she found one.

After a BBC report catapulted him to fame, public adoration has fallen upon a man known only as the Grammar Vigilante, or as the BBC would have it, the Banksy of punctuation. Though his name is a mystery, his mission is not secret. The unidentified middle-age engineer from Bristol, a town on the River Avon in the southwest of England, has for the last 13 years inserted missing apostrophes into signs where needed and elided those aberrant ones.

It began in 2003 when he removed a pair of interloping apostrophes in a sign reading, Open Mondays to Fridays. Later, he erased the second (errant) apostrophe in Amys Nails on Gloucester Road. His most recent intervention was inserting an apostrophe on the sign of Tucks & Tails, a Gentlemans Tailor. On Monday, BBC Four Radio released a 30-minute documentary, The Apostrophiser, devoted to the man and his work. It unfolds like an extremely slow-paced mumblecore Serial.

Around the world, copyeditors and pedants have heralded the Grammar Vigilante, while tartly noting an apostrophe is more accurately punctuation than grammar. Regardless, many find him a bulwark against a certain moral torpidity for which lax punctuation is simply a canary in the mine. Others, the business owners whose signs he vandalizes, rather hed mind his own business.

Too much ink has already been spilled on various other forms of punctuation. Singled out for particular, vehement, deeply felt, and prodigious discussion is the serial comma. The use of the comma has had real and recent effects. In May, an appeals court in the first district of the United States found a dairy company owed its employees over $10 million in overtime wages, all because of the absence of a serial comma.

Commas deal with things in a series, offer clues to the importance of one bit of information to the whole, and indicate a nice place to pause for a rest. They are down to earth, solid, and embedded like flagstones in fields. But when the comma floats up, like Charlie and Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to become an apostrophe, its task becomes altogether more complicated.

Think of the multi-tasking apostrophe, the hardest working mark in punctuation. The apostrophe indicates possession as in Charlies Angels or Victorias Secret. It is also the pinch-hitter for a realm of awkward situations, as when numbers go plural and are at 6s and 7s or the dos and donts of etiquette must be conveyed. Add to that the zone coverage the apostrophe plays in contractions from dont and wont to syncopes like fo'csle and neer-do-well. Can you give an apostrophe a break if, for example, he doesnt want to grace every awning in Bristol on which someone is claiming possession of something else?

But, one feels, the depth of feeling occasioned by the Grammar Vigilantes long-term solitary pursuit of punctuative justice has less to do with the mark itself and everything to do with the world around it. As has been quite frequently noted, levels of global uncertainty are at all-time highs. For the first time since the Office of National Statistics survey began, Englands level of well-being has slowed. The English will soon no longer be European and the world they once saw as solid has proven dismayingly fleeting. A New World Order is in the offing, a new view ascendant, and it will no longer be Englands. Sometimes an apostrophe is all there is to hold on to.
By Press Trust of India: Kolkata, Apr 16 (PTI)Fake currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination with the face value of Rs 7 lakh have been seized by the BSF after an operation along the Indo-Bangladesh International Border (IB) in West Bengals Malda district.

The incident occurred around 8:30 PM last night when a Border Security Force (BSF) patrol laid an ambush in the Churiantpur border post area of Malda to nab Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) smugglers active along this border.

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Officials said the troops noticed a packet beingflung from across the IB fence gate even as some miscreants were also spotted on both the sides.

While the smugglers managed to escape when they were challenged by BSF personnel, they said the patrol party seized five packets which had 350 fake notes of Rs 2,000 denomination having a face value of Rs 7 lakh.

The seized FICN has been handed to the Kaliachak police, they added.

With this, the BSF has so far seized FICN having face value of Rs 21.98 lakh and apprehended two FICN smugglers this year from the border area here.

The Kaliachak and Malda areas of West Bengal along the border are notorious for FICN smuggling.

In 2016, BSFs South Bengal Frontier (comprising five border districts of West Bengal) had seized fake currency with face value of over Rs 1.47 crore and arrested 19 smugglers. PTI NES AAR

--- ENDS ---
As soon as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer expressed his very false belief that even Adolf Hitler didnt use chemical weapons in World War II, we knew that Melissa McCarthy would be back on Saturday Night Live this week.

We just didnt know that it would be as the Easter Bunny.

Taking on a role that Spicer once played in his pre-Trump days, McCarthy was just as furious as ever despite the bunny costume. Dont push me, Im sweating my Easter eggs off in this thing, he said.

Everybody shut up! he continued. Shut up so I can apologize. Yes, you all got your wish this week, didnt you? Spicey finally made a mistake. Once again struggling through the name of the Syrian dictatorIve got Bazooka Phylicia Ahmad RashadSpicer repeated his comments and acknowledged the backlash. Everybody was like, Boo hoo, what about the Holocaust centers? he said.

And I know theyre not really called Holocaust centers. Duh! he continued. I clearly meant to say concentration clubs, OK? Let it drop! He asked the nit-pickers to focus on the big picture instead of focusing on every slur and lie that comes out of his mouth. That would be nice!

And P.S., Id like you also to know I am sensitive to the fact that they were sent there on trains, but at least they didnt have to fly United, am I right? Spicer asked. I am particularly sorry this happened on Passover, aka Jewish Easter, he added, before using some dolls to act out the story of Pharaoh and the Jews.

Just to be super clear, Spicer gave a ranking of bad guys. Boom, right up top, Hitler, he said. Then Syrias Babar al-Ashad and three Im going to go Pharaoh. Before leaving the podium, Spicey added, By the way, the president is probably going to bomb North Korea tonight.
This is not a good look for Snapchat.

During a user growth meeting in 2015, former employee Anthony Pompliano reportedly brought up concern for the apps success overseas and proposed a way to fix the issue. According to Variety, Pompliano was allegedly brushed off by the companys CEO, Evan Spiegel.

Pompliano claims Spiegel responded, This app is only for rich people. I dont want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.

Since Variety published the explosive claims, Snap users in India have taken to the App Store and Twitter to show their outrage.

And they were quite successful. Since #boycottsnapchat began, the popular app is now down to a measly one and a half stars.

The allegations were originally in a redacted portion of a lawsuit against Snap Inc. filed by Pompliano. The records were unsealed on Monday, last week.

The suit alleges Snap had been inflating their daily active users and registration completion rate. Pompliano claims this misled advertisers.

When he realized this was a problem, Pompliano compiled a PowerPoint presentation for Spiegel and other Snap executives. According to Pompliano, Spiegel quickly went through the presentation and said, Yeah I read those, it doesnt matter.

The day after Pomplianos presentation, he was fired. Snap is now describing Pompliano as a disgruntled employee fired for poor performance, but the damage has been done.
I had the opportunity, several light years ago, to ask Johnny Carson what he thought of David Letterman, who at that point, early in his career, was widely expected to succeed Carson as host of The Tonight Show on NBC. Johnny looked irked for an instant, then made the gesture for loonyone finger doing circles near his headand said, worriedly yet admiringly, Lots of stuff going on up there, sounding as if he were Daves anxious parent.

Thats an oversimplification but a fairly accurate distillation of what author Jason Zinoman takes more than 300 pages to say in Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night, just published by HarperCollins. Impressively, the book seems not one word too long and is probably the finest profile ever written of a TV comic, which is praise not meant to be faint. If you even just liked Dave, and especially if you loved him, youll get plenty of bang for your book bucks. Youll be entertained, enlightened (albeit on a subject now culturally remote) and even alarmed at the extent of Lettermans chronic self-loathing, if thats really what it was.

Some folks, after all, use self-deprecating remarks to disguise enormous egos, and show business has anything but a shortage of those. Trashing yourself, some theorize, undercuts criticism from others. You may ask, as Zinoman chronicles misery after misery, why poor Dave didnt seek psychiatric help; he didnt even reach for antidepressants until fairly late in life. But ironically or notand irony is a word that pops up very often here, as youd expect if youre familiar with Letterman and his three-decade careercuring Dave of his melancholia might also have cured him of his hilarity. It was said of perhaps the most notable media theorist of all time that his genius was linked to a large tumor inside his brain.

Well never know. And, sadly, generations alive and unborn may never even get an accurate reading on Lettermans brilliance, because unlike almost everything else ever seen on TV, Lettermans work is now largely inaccessible. The electronic ghost of Johnny Carson still quips nightly about such forgotten topics as David Stockman on Carson reruns (over an invaluable cable channel) but Dave, who actually logged more late-night years than Johnny, is nowhere to be found, except maybe as a couch occupant on a Carson rerun.

Its a fairly safe bet that Letterman could make a regular scheduling of Dave Redux possible but just doesnt want to, as would be consistent with his mad haunted bitterness. Not all his shows would stand the test of time but in what seems a permanently existential world, that test may no longer be relevant anyway. The test of what?! Why even wonder what time it is, what year it is, what time period it is, when youre swimming in a quandary of reordered tele-time and trying to figure out which war it is, which recession it is, and which Republicans are screwing what up. Its a losing battle, and the blasted internet makes it even more so.

There are some facts about Letterman that could be considered timeless, and one of them is that no quicker, smarter or sharper ad-libber ever yammered into a microphone. Zinoman makes the case, generously and intelligently, that credit for the best of Lettermans shows must be shared among a small army of writers, producers and performers who rode a wavelength to glory, but Letterman was no empty shell propped up by the tireless efforts of others. Zinoman may go too far in spreading the credit around, because Letterman captained that ship but also had it custom-built for him. His sensibility, his ironic detachment or whatever you (or Zinoman) want to call it, suffused the enterprise.

Clearly a young man who (refreshingly) loves and even respects television, Zinoman acknowledges that TV isnt a performance medium, nor a directors medium, nor a writers or producers mediumbut rather a chameleonic medium whose identity is in continuous flux. Hal Gurnee, whod directed Jack Paars late-night and prime-time shows years earlier, was also Daves director during his arguably most creative, clever time; Gurnee would get extra laughs out of comedy bits by cutting to just the right shot at just the right moment. On the other hand, probably no one contributed more to the comic identity and delirious impudence of Lettermans NBC show than the great Merrill Markoe, for years his head writer and bosom, uh, buddy. Or just plain bosom.

Zinoman celebrates and appreciates many of Lettermans antic trademarks, one of them his delight in language, in word play, and in unearthing old words and phrases seemingly retired. It may sound trifling, but we hadnt heard lovely used so frequently, especially by a man, in many a yeara lovely piece of pie, a lovely evening in the theater, whatever. These word revivals seemed not like affectations and did not make Letterman sound quaint; they were part of his peculiar individuality, part of his stubborn love affair with the language, and could be utterly disarming. He could also, of course, sharpen words to a fine point and use them as weapons. They were part of what made Dave Dave.

Other parts were not so endearing, and Zinoman dutifully covers painful events of Lettermans life that were lived under the harsh spotlight of television, none more disappointing than his confession of having had affairs with members of his staff, an admission prompted by one miffed Romeos attempt to blackmail Letterman over an affair with one particularly attractive young woman. Letterman hit his audience with that one quite unexpectedly one night. Part of the soliloquy was Letterman reassuring disbelievers, Yes, I do have sex; many of his female fans apparently considered Dave to be hot stuff.

Yes, really.

Zinoman takes note of a venerable broadcast tradition that goes back to radio: populating a series with a cast of characters who regularly brighten. This was especially true of Lettermans early late years, when he materialized in the seeming safety zone on the other side of midnight, but stayed true when he moved to CBS and an earlier slot. If youre a true Letterman loyalist, just hearing or seeing such names as Mujibur and Sirajul will make you smile; they were two Bangladeshi merchants who set up shop on Broadway near the Ed Sullivan Theater, home to Lettermans CBS Late Show.

Others live on in memory, or moved on to other gigs even if they hadnt been professionals until Letterman staff discovered them. None was more of an innocent than Larry Bud Melman, a part-time anchor and civil servant who had to revert to his real name, Calvert de Forest, when Letterman moved from NBC to CBS (NBC claimed Larry Bud Melman as the networks intellectual property). There was a night when Lettermans Late Show dispatched Melman to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to welcome travelers arriving in the city on buses when a simple gag ascended to wonderment that had even Letterman helpless with laughter back in the studio.

Less naive but every bit as malleable was Rupert Jee, who operated the tiny Hello Deli around the corner from the theater. Here the joke was not merry incompetence but, in part, Jees willingness to be Daves Fool, to go along with any gag that seemed to amuse the studio audience. That crowdtourists, New Yorkers, deadbeats and drifterswas another of Daves props, and if they werent responding to the material, Dave could be despondent beyond reason. Beyond Reason was his realm.

Daves mother, Dorothy Mengering, was also drafted into the cast; she died only last week, at 95, back home again in Indiana. In the course of their conversations for the book, Zinoman got Letterman to talk about his father, Harry Letterman, a subject that Dave had avoided in most other interviews. Harry Letterman, a florist who had a brief flirtation with show business, died in 1973, and Dorothy remarried.

Most important of the performing contributors during the formative years of Lettermans television show had to be Chris Elliott, son of the great deadpan satirist Bob Elliott who was half of the comedy team of Bob & Ray (Goulding). Elliott talked Letterman into some of the riskiest, nuttiest business ever done on the show. I met Elliott, and got to have lunch with him and his father, during those formative years. I asked Chris why Dave had seemed chilly after our first encounters; Elliott theorized, He was probably afraid you wanted to be his friend. Oh.

I also enjoyed, wildly, a lunch that Dave set up with Jack Paar at the 21 Club in Manhattan, Daves gesture of homage to one of his television icons. I was invited along because I knew Jack (a critic can be friends with TV stars of yesteryear). Revealingly if trivially, Dave chose a table in the basement of 21, definitively nothing fancy, while Jack later complained to me that he wished wed been up on the splashy top floor where celebrities are more readily recognized. Dave even had an NBC limo sent to suburban Connecticut to bring Jack (and wife Miriam, who went shopping) into the city.

I didnt know just how historic the lunch was. Back in the office, for years thereafter, staff members were absolutely incredulous at the idea of Dave going out to lunch and behaving even to that degree like a celebrity. I wasnt trying to psychoanalyze Dave in those days, or ever, but Zinoman does a bang-up job of it. For his whole life, Letterman maintained a ferocious fear of failure, Zinoman writes, but that didnt mean success made him happy. On the same theme, the best of Lettermans succession of producers, Robert Morty Morton, put his finger on the shows decline in adventurousness after moving from a funky NBC studio to the grandiose Ed Sullivan Theater: In the old show, we always celebrated failure. Now we celebrated success.

Dave had a passive-aggressive management (to stretch a term) style that drove the staff(s) crazy, and remained impenetrable pretty much to the end. Nothing he hates more than direct conflict, says no less an authority than Jeff Lewis, whod been one of Daves fraternity brothers at Ball State University back home again in Indiana (Im going to keep quoting lyrics from that state song until forced to stop).

Whether Dave was at his best when his show was riding high in the ratings, or if dreading failure actually made him funnier (somewhat, but only somewhat, the way Carsons monologue struggles could be sublimely hilarious) is one of a million unanswered questions to be saved perhaps for some other book. Or will there be other books? Zinoman subtitles his book The Last Giant of Late Night, which is apt partly because late night itself seems to be all but gone, a time slot rendered obsolete by the vagaries of the infernal internet. To his credit, Letterman never became a Dot-Commie. His most faithful fans will remember him struggling with a keyboard at his desk as he attempted to send a single piece of one-sentence email. And failed.

Coincidentally or not, Dave never stooped to telling a studio audience to give it up for the next guest to walk out. Not to his credit, Dave sucked up to such guests of dubious value as Bill OReilly and Rush Limbaugh, slipping in sly remarks but basically flattering them with a respect they hardly deserved. Tom Brokaw is no demagogue; hes a justifiably respected newsman who came up with a humdinger of a label for his parents: The Greatest Generation. Why, though, did Dave always introduce Brokaw as if he were Ed Murrow, David Brinkley and William Randolph Hearst rolled into one? He was on safer ground flirting playfully with beautiful actresses, though some will wonder how playful the flirtations really were.

Having affected a long, ugly white beard in recent months, Letterman has been quoted as saying that the more people complain about it, the more securely it stays fastened to his face. Still the naughty child, though its not as endearing now that theres another kid in the house, one far more entitled to behave like a brat. Enfants terribles can be sad when they reach their seventies, or is that the moment when they most deserve to pop balloons and pull pigtails, a last hurrah in the schoolyard?

Whats most clear from reading Zinomans painstaking study: Dave probably got a better biographer than he deserved. I laughed out loud, and delightedly, but only during the parts of the book that dealt with Lettermans helter-skelter NBC late-night show, when Markoe called many of the shots and Letterman seemed so strikingly fresh and smart-alecky, and cameras were strapped onto monkeys and dogs or hoisted into the rafters.

Guy Lombardonow theres a memory-tester even for Greatest Generationists and Boomers alikejoked once on an NBC comedy show that when I go, Im taking New Years Eve with me. See, his band specialized in Auld Lang Syne. Oh never mindexcept that when Dave Letterman left, he took late night television with him. I didnt think Id miss him, but Letterman has proven me wrong, and Im grateful.
David Grann was already interested in writing a book about the serial murders of members of the Oklahoma-based Osage Indian tribe when he visited the Osage Nation Museum.

On one wall was a panoramic photo of members of the tribe taken in 1924, but there was a panel missing. When Grann asked the museum director what happened to that part of the photo, she responded Its too painful to show. The devil was standing there.

That devil was a white man named William Hale, ostensibly a friend of the tribe but, as it turned out, a vicious murderer who killed Indians for their money, which was considerable, since the Osage lived on oil-rich land, and at one point were considered the wealthiest people per capita on earth.

Hale wasnt the only white man who killed Osage for profit, a story told in Granns new book, Killers of the Flower Moon. Author of the 2009 bestseller The Lost City of Z, about the search for a vanished civilization in the Amazon (the film version debuted April 14),

Grann tells an entirely different story in his latest work, one that has elements of the Wild West, classic gangster movies, the birth of the FBI, greed, and racism. Why were the Osage killed? asks Grann. They were killed for their money. However, it was racism that made these killings nonchalant, and allowed them to go on for years. What is amazing is how some of the killers did not equate killing a Native American with murder. The prejudices of the time are an essential element to this story.

Also essential to understanding the reason behind the killingswhich extended from 1918 to 1931 and may have involved hundreds of deaths (no one really knows)are the mind-boggling corruption and incompetence of Oklahoma law enforcement agencies and a thoroughly racist federal system of financial guardianship, which mandated that any Indian be given a (white) guardian if the Department of the Interior deemed that person incompetent to handle their own affairs. This gave the unscrupulous the incentive to bump off Indians and take over their oil leases.

One of the things that intrigued me was just how lawless this part of the country was, says Grann. You kind of think that period of American history is over, this last remnant of the Wild West. And I was also intrigued by how corrupt law enforcement was.

Grann says he first heard about this forgotten episode when a historian mentioned the killings. After his visit to the Osage Nation Museum, Grann realized he wanted to figure out the pain the Osage felt, and understand and document this story that most people had forgotten. He spent a year filling out Freedom of Information Act requests for documents relating to the case, then returned to Oklahoma, where he found that many Osage were very welcoming. So many of them have stories that have not been told, so many of them are chasing ghosts. Justice was never brought to their cases.

What Grann discovered, in fact, was that despite FBI intervention, which eventually put Hale and another killer behind bars, many of the murders remain unsolved. Yet that did not stop the young J. Edgar Hoover from touting the convictions as a public relations coup for the Bureau. Hoover actually wanted to get out of the case, because he couldnt solve it, says Grann, but there was a brewing scandal [a criminal the Bureau released from jail to work as an informant committed a robbery-murder instead], and Hoover was partially motivated by that, to avoid scandal. Then he exploited the case for his own purposes.

Grann is a New Yorker staff writer who hit it big with The Lost City of Z, which became a number one New York Times paperback bestseller and was translated into 20 languages. Hes a self-described insecure person who says that before his books come out, you live in such dread, that they might disappear. I spend a lot of time on these projectsIm not a fast writerand the success [of The Lost City of Z] has allowed me time to work within that framework.

Describing himself as a generalist, Grann says he likes to report on subjects I know very little about. You want the story to be about something, have some deeper meaning, but there is also an emotional, almost instinctual, element, which is, does this story seize some part of you and compel you to get to the bottom of it?

With both his new book and the film version of The Lost City of Z (starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, and Siena Miller) being released within days of each other, Grann says he is a bit freaked by all the attention. The Lost City of Z was actually optioned in 2008, so Grann has had a long wait for director James Grays film version, although he and his wife did go to Colombia to watch some of the filming. I had never been to a movie set before, says Grann. It was a little surreal.

Granns two books have this in common: on one level, they deal with the relationship between whites and people of color. In the case of The Lost City of Z, its the indigenous people of the Amazon, described by members of the British scientific establishment as savages.

In Killers of the Flower Moon, that connection between whites and the Osage is best described by a member of the tribe who, during Hales trial is quoted as saying, It is a question in my mind whether this jury is considering a murder case or not. The question for them to decide is whether a white man killing an Osage is murderor merely cruelty to animals.
Once when J. Edgar Hoover was dining in California in the late 40s, he noticed mystery writer Raymond Chandler eating nearby. He sent a waiter over to invite Chandler to come to his table and dine with him. Irascible as always, Chandler sent a message back that if the director wanted to eat with him, then Hoover could make the trek to his table.

True to form, Hoover bellowed about having Chandler investigated. Whether he did so or not is conjecture, but had Hoover done a mail intercept on Chandler, who was a voluminous letter writer, then a file would have been started with possible repercussions.

For these letters, unpublished until three years after Chandlers death, in 1962, painted neither a rosy picture of the FBI, or its allies, the Catholic Church and Joseph McCarthy as well as denouncing loyalty oaths.

In one 1952 letter, Chandler wrote of Hoovers beloved Bureau:

The FBI is a bunch of overpublicized characters, Hoover himself being a first rate publicity hound. The FBI throws up such a smoke screen that they make the public forget all the tough ones they never broke. Sometimes I wonder if they ever did break a really tough one.

Even more astutely, Chandler guessed the truth about Hoovers activities without having to leave his California home and seek proof in Washington.

All secret police forces come to the same end. Ill bet the s.o.b. has a dossier on everybody who could do him damage.

On its own, this would have been damning enough. But despite Chandlers recorded anti-Communism, in which he denounced the Communist Party for "shooting you in the back of the head for being 48 hours behind the Party line, and his disgust with American Communists for defending Stalin, Hoover could have nailed Chandler with the writers attacks on one of the Directors most cherished allies, the Catholic Church. In an era where rightists like Hoover regarded the only true anti-communism to be of the religious variety, Chandlers attacks on the Catholic Church might have sealed his doom. He characterized the Church as having fascist tendencies who played ball with Franco in Spain, and who never in the history of the world has refused to play ball with any scoundrel willing to protect and enrich the Catholic Church.

Hoover would also have found criticism of his ally Joseph McCarthy, a dangerous charge to make in the early 50s when the senator was at the height of his investigative power.

A stevedore on the docks is more articulate than most senators and congressman are here. And McCarthy would last about the length of time necessary to uncover the cesspool, Chandler wrote.

Hoover also could have uncovered Chandlers disgust with having to sign an anti-Communist loyalty oath in order to work for CBS:

My God, what is the country coming to? What are we afraid of?

Even in Chandlers pretend scenario of being a Stalinist spy, with his medals for services rendered buried in his backyard, he still couldnt resist portraying Hoovers boys as inept. Rather than finding the seventeen decorations from Stalin, the FBI in this scenario would uncover only an innocuous note: Good morning Chief.

Knowing how Hoover pursued Hemingway for years when the writer denounced his beloved Bureau as an American Gestapo, Hoover no doubt would have expended the same energy on Chandler had he intercepted his letters. That he did not file away these meager tidbits implies that some reasonable soul at the dinner table the night Chandler spurned Hoover talked the Director out of it.

Ron Capshaws work has appeared in National Review, The Weekly Standard, Human Events, and The Washington Times.
From BJP MLA's threat on beheading people who oppose the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' launch of 'Mee Mukhyamantri Boltoy' (This is me, the CM, speaking) on radio, find out more in this week's Glasshouse.

Vile Talk

BJP MLA T. Raja Singh, who represents Goshamahal in the Telangana assembly, has kicked up a storm by saying that 'traitors' opposing a Ram temple in Ayodhya will be beheaded. His April 5 remark went viral, but an unrepentant Singh repeated it four days later. Muslim leaders are demanding Singh be booked for the hate speech and the police officers, who were at the venue where he made the comment, be taken to task.

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BJP MLA T. Raja Singh

In Modi's Footsteps

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has launched 'Mee Mukhyamantri Boltoy' (This is me, the CM, speaking), on the lines of PM Narendra Modi's 'Mann ki Baat' on radio. The first episode was telecast on AIR's Asmita channel on April 9. The brains behind the initiative is state information secretary Brijesh Singh from Fadnavis's hometown Nagpur.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis

Curtains on a Colonial Past

West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi is ridding Kolkata's Raj Bhavan of colonial vestiges. He has renamed the VVIP Prince of Wales Suite as Rabindranath Room. The John Anderson Suite will now be the Vivekananda Room. The Second Class Suite that housed staff and servants will simply be called the underground chamber.

West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi

Paean to the PM

The 2,322nd birth anniversary celebrations of Emperor Asoka in Patna soon turned into competitive sycophancy among BJP leaders, who lost no time finding his modern equal in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Among them was Bihar's Opposition leader Sushilkumar Modi. The writ of both Asoka and Narendra Modi, Sushilkumar explained, "ran over the world". The BJP has in the past described Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Mauryan empire, and his grandson as members of the Kushwaha community. But something was amiss. Ergo, Sushilkumar has now demanded that the Bihar government rename state capital Patna as Pataliputra, the ancient capital of the Mauryan empire. Nitish Kumar is yet to respond.

Guessing Games

With the file on the appointment of the first chief of defence staff doing the rounds of the PMO, the armed forces brass is speculating if the appointee will be an admiral, general or air chief marshal. The buzz in South Block is the appointment is likely soon. Since the seniority principle was set aside by the government while picking General Bipin Rawat as the army chief, few are willing to hazard a guess on the new appointee.

Flying High

Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, whose birthday falls on April 29, has already got a present-a "crowd-funded" helicopter. Supporters of Jogi's party, the Chhattisgarh Janata Congress, financed the helicopter for their leader so that he can comfortably do the 600-odd public meetings that Jogi hopes to address before the assembly elections next year. The names of a transport company owner and an MLA are doing the rounds as the likely financiers, but Jogi's party denies it.

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Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi

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Austin Fannin, Mathew Mullins and Bill Bielamowicz of Texas A&M's University Center & Special Events recently accepted a Patriotic Employer Award on behalf of the department, which is part of the Division of Student Affairs. The award was presented by George Nelson, far left, on behalf of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a committee of the U.S. Department of Defense. The award was presented in recognition of the department's support of military service members.
A reunion of the Vietnam War-era 183rd Aviation Company took place this month in College Station, with 35 veterans and their wives traveling in from as far as Maine to reconnect with longtime battle buddies.

None of the veterans who spent the first weekend of April in town were Aggies, but the group selected the area to take advantage of the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial, the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, the Museum of the American G.I., the TAMU Sam Houston Sanders Corps of Cadets Center and other historical attractions. Numerous Bryan and College Station businesses and private individuals donated toward the veterans' weekend together. The Ross Volunteer Company of the Corps of Cadets also performed Taps and a 21-gun salute April 1, as the veterans remembered their fallen friends.

Eight members of the company were killed in combat and one is still considered missing in action. Now, 68 more have died of natural/noncombat-related causes since the war. The turnout to this reunion was smaller than normal, said company member John Anderson, but as the former soldiers grow in age, physically it's harder for them to travel. However, Anderson said, the men and their families fell in love with Bryan-College Station and Texas A&M, and were grateful for the Aggie hospitality and respect they received.
Love old or unusual movies but never know when they're on? Here are several I recommend:

A Thousand Clowns (1965): This is the nicely faithful film adaptation of Herb Gardner's hit Broadway play. Jason Robards stars as a disillusioned, cynical out-of-work television comedy writer struggling to maintain custody of his nephew (Barry Gordon) when social workers William Daniels and Barbara Harris threaten to take the boy away from him. Gene Saks is hilarious as the star Robards used to write jokes for, and Martin Balsam won an Oscar as Robard's agent brother. Robards, Gordon, Daniels and Saks all reprise their roles from Broadway.

Turner Classic Movies, 10 p.m. Monday

By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953): Here's the follow-up to On Moonlight Bay. Doris Day and Gordon MacRae reprise their roles as young lovers in World War I-era in rural Indiana. The two leads get to sing and look beautiful, so what's not to like? Leon Ames and Rosemary DeCamp play Doris's parents. MacRae made fewer than 20 movies, which isn't many considering his star power and talent.

Turner Classic Movies, 9 p.m. Thursday

99 Homes (2015): I was utterly bewildered that this movie didn't make a bigger splash when it came out. Perhaps the subject matter was too familiar and painful. It's a devastating portrait of the mortgage loan crisis and how it destroyed lives. Andrew Garfield stars as a young man who gets evicted from the home he shares with his mother (Laura Dern) and son (Noah Lomax). He falls under the spell of an unscrupulous broker (Michael Shannon), who teaches him how to swindle, cheat, and evict. It's a fascinating moral dilemma, and Garfield is superb as a man who's torn between survival and his better moral instincts.

Now streaming on Amazon Prime.

Something's Gotta Give (2003): Nancy Myers wrote and directed this pleasant adult romantic drama starring the beloved Diane Keaton and the ever-irascible Jack Nicholson. Nicholson plays (shock) an aging rake with a taste in younger women, and so he's a bit flummoxed when he finds himself falling for the much more age-appropriate Keaton. Keanu Reeves complicates things as a sexy younger doctor who's also interested in our gal Diane. The movie is fun, smart and sexy.

Now streaming on Netflix.

Trivia Question #681: Jason Robards won Oscars playing a famous writer and a famous editor. Who were they?

Answer to Trivia Question #679: Patricia Clarkson played the wife of a famous U.S. Treasury Agent (Eliot Ness) in The Untouchables.

 Bryan native Ray Ivey is a writer and movie fan in Hollywood, Calif. He would love to hear from you at rayivey@ca.rr.com. You can also visit his blog at www.starkravingray.com.
On his second visit to Gujarat this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is arriving in Surat this evening. He has a power-pact two-day programme in Gujarat and Dadra Nagar Haveli.

By India Today Web Desk: Surat is ready accord grand welcome to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to arrive around 7 o'clock in the evening today.

PM Narendra Modi begins his two-day Gujarat visit by holding a roadshow in Surat.

The diamond city has been bracing for PM Modi's visit as the entire administration was on a cleanliness drive for past one week.

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Various NGOs and social organisations held several programmes including a bicycle rally with the theme, 'I am India'.

Prime Minister Modi acknowledged the efforts put in by all to make Surat ready for his visit in a tweet.

I have been seeing on social media & in the news about a series of events being held across Surat & nearby areas in the run-up to my visit.- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 16, 2017

"The PM is scheduled to land at the Surat airport at 6:45 PM. From there, he will embark on a roadshow over an 11-kilometre stretch between Airport and Circuit House," Surat Collector M S Patel said.

At Circuit House, the PM will meet BJP leaders and stay there for the night. On Monday, the PM will inaugurate Rs 400-crore Kiran Multi Super Specialty Hospital and Research Centre, built by a trust, Patel said.

MODI'S ITINERARY IN GUJARAT

Modi will then go to Hira Bourse SEZ at Icchapur village in the district to inaugurate a diamond polishing unit of Hari Krishna Export Private Limited.

From there, the Prime Minister will go to Bijapur village of Tapi district to inaugurate a cattle feed plant and ice- cream plant of Surat District Cooperative Milk Producers Union, popularly known as Sumul Dairy, and remotely lay foundation stones for dairy products plant at Nava Pardi.

He will also address a gathering there, Sumul Dairy officials said.

Modi will then visit Silvassa in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli where also he will address a gathering apart from inaugurating new projects and distributing assistance to beneficiaries.

Around 21,000 beneficiaries of different schemes of the Centre will be distributed help kits there.

SAUNI PROJECT

Modi will then head to Botad in Saurashtra to inaugurate phase-1 of SAUNI project for Botad and surrounding districts. He will also lay foundation stone for phase-2 of the project.

In August last year, Modi had inaugurated the first phase of ambitious Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (SAUNI) Project from Jamnagar.

Under this project, which is divided in four phases, the Gujarat government plans to fill 115 dams of Saurashtra region with excess overflowing water of Sardar Sarovar Dam across river Narmada through a web of pipeline network.

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This is Narendra Modi's second visit to his home state this year. Modi had earlier visited Gandhinagar on March 8 to address women sarpanchs from across the country on International Women's Day.

(With PTI inputs)

ALSO READ |

Waiting for Narendra Modi, Surat holds 'I am India' rally, removes speed-breakers

Also Watch | Narendra Modi gets rousing welcome during his roadshow in Bhubaneswar

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Brazos County residents will have the opportunity to participate Tuesday night in a tele-town hall with U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, a controversial format that has left some constituents wishing for an in-person opportunity to engage with their congressman.

"It's not going to be a format where there can be a back-and-forth," said Jackie Huff, a nine-year College Station resident.

Flores said it is "absolutely false" that he decided to have the town halls via telephone to avoid constituents. Flores said he would be able to draw a bigger crowd by relying on a telephone format.

Flores will have town halls Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, each for constituents from different counties in the congressman's 12-county district. Two town halls will be over the telephone -- Brazos County's is from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday -- while one will be a call-in radio town hall on Bryan-College Station's WTAW-AM from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday.

"It gives us a lot better reach," Flores said of the tele-town hall format that would help him to "reach the greatest number of people."

Stories from The Eagle's archives reported that more than 50 people attended each of Flores's in-person town halls in April 2015 and 2016; the congressman said those numbers pale in comparison to the roughly 2.800 and 2,300 who participated in tele-town halls in April 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Flores said the remote call-in format allows for the greatest number of participants possible, which he said is more desirable in a time of heightened political activity.

"In this kind of environment, you can't guess what size of venue you need," Flores said. "With the tele-town hall ... it automatically adjusts to the size of your audience."

Flores said that between the telephone town halls and the radio-call in show -- all of which will allow constituents to ask questions through Facebook Live, expanding the number of potential participants -- he hoped to hear from more than 100,000 17th District residents over the three evenings.

David Isenhour, an Aggie junior and chairman of Texas A&M College Republicans, said Flores's tele-town halls are something he "fully supports." He said in-person town halls can "get taken over" and devolve into "a simple yelling fest."

"There's no dialogue," he said.

Judy LeUnes -- a community leader and fundraiser who ran against State Rep. John Raney in 2012 and serves as the elected state Democratic executive committee member for District 5 -- said her congressman is missing out on a valuable opportunity.

"You don't learn from the people who tell you how wonderful you are all the time," she said. "You learn from the people who tell you, 'Hey, this is what happened to my family. This is what happened to my life.' "

Anthony Jackson, a 24-year-old research assistant who has lived in Bryan for 10 years, said he is "skeptical" about the tele-town halls but said he'd have less of a problem if Flores were having the events to supplement in-person town halls.

"If he held an in-person town hall, I would understand him having a follow-up with this telephone format," he said. But more than that, Jackson continued, if Flores is doing these town halls over the phone, why hasn't he done more of them remotely from D.C.?

"I would feel more comfortable if he were doing these telephone town halls more often," Jackson said.

Josh Hebert, a 46-year-old who lives in northwest Austin, part of the "little tentacle" of District 17, said he's worried about Flores' office screening calls before allowing them into the town hall, giving the congressman the luxury of avoiding difficult questions that challenge his conservative stances.

"Tele-town halls are screened," Hebert said. "It's not really a town hall. It's more of a call-in show. It's more of a rally for him on the phone."

Flores said it is "false" that callers will ask pre-approved questions, though his office will conduct a screening of sorts, grouping questions into policy topics such as health care, immigration and education.

"We try to screen by subject matter," he said.

Flores's methodology has the potential to leave thousands of his constituents out of the conversation. In addition to promoting the town halls over the internet, Flores said his office will place around 40,000 calls to constituents before the town halls, alerting them of the times so they can participate. Flores's press secretary, Andre Castro, said those outbound calls will be placed to landline telephone numbers, not cell numbers.

A 2011 report from the National Center for Health Statistics found that around one-third of households in Texas used only a mobile phone and did not have a landline, and more than half of Texas households used mobile phones as a primary means of communication. Nationwide, more than one in four homes had only a wireless phone in June 2010, up from 13.6 percent in 2007. Stephen Blumberg, from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, told the Associated Press in 2011 that these numbers would more than likely increase over time, a prediction affirmed by a December 2016 study conducted by the same organization that showed almost half of American homes used only wireless telephones.

According to the December study, cutting the landline cord in favor of using only a mobile phone was favored by individuals with lower incomes, perhaps because cutting a landline was an easy expense to eliminate. More than two-thirds of adults between 25 and 34 lived in households that didn't have a landline in the December study. Taken together, the studies' results suggest Flores's office's reliance on landline numbers as an outreach campaign favors older constituents with higher incomes.

Flores clarified that constituents could register their mobile phone numbers when signing up for each of the town halls, but the awareness campaign and outreach phone calls conducted before the town halls will be placed to landline numbers only.

Ali Tolsma, a 20-year-old sophomore at Texas A&M University who lives in an apartment without a landline, said Flores's tele-town halls could further affect constituents by requiring they wait long periods to get through to ask their questions.

"What if they have pre-paid cell phones?" Tolsma asked.

TX-17 Indivisible Bryan/College Station, a local chapter of a national grassroots activist organization founded by former Democratic congressional staffers, held a town hall at the Texas A&M Hillel Center in February during Flores's congressional recess that month, which he said he did not attend because of a previously scheduled event. Around 100 of the congressman's constituents recorded their questions and sent them to Flores' office to register their concerns.

The group will host another Flores-less town hall Tuesday, the same night Brazos County is scheduled for its tele-town hall, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at A&M's Hillel Center. Members of the group's Facebook event says they will "prepare questions, call in to his tele-town hall, and follow on Facebook Live while expressing our concerns using signs, banners, etc."

LeUnes, Hebert, Jackson and Tolsma have reluctantly signed up for the tele-town hall. They'd rather ask their questions in person, but they'll take what they can get.

"I'm going to do everything that I can do to try and get my questions answered," Tolsma said. "I'm not optimistic."

Isenhour said he will try to participate if his course schedule gives him the time. He called Flores "the real deal."

"He answers people's questions," said the petroleum engineering major. "He'll do it all day and all night."

To be added to the town hall call list, go to vekeo.com/repbillflores/. Flores said that, as of Wednesday, around 300 people had signed up to participate.
The ground shook. Black smoke filled the sky. And their mother did the only thing she could: She jumped on a bike and headed toward the chaos of one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever, just 10 miles from their home.

For three sisters in Bryan-College Station, today marks the 70th anniversary of their father's death in the Texas City disaster. Though they were too young at the time to understand what exactly happened or to comprehend their father's death, they've spent decades piecing together the events surrounding the tragedy that shaped who they are today.

Helen Kuykendall and Roberta Pitts were 5 and 4 years old, respectively, at the time of the explosion. They say they remember picking wildflowers in their backyard when the ground violently shook, and their mother, who was washing their 2-month-old sister, Gena, became frantic.

"You can imagine -- it registered as an earthquake in Denver -- what it felt like there," Pitts said. "It felt like the whole world was exploding, and of course, we were scared, and we ran inside."

Their mother, Doris Gilcrease, saw the black smoke filling the sky, left the children with a neighbor and began a 10-mile bike trek toward her husband, Charles Gilcrease, who was working as a machinist at the Texas City port at the time.

About 2,200 tons of ammonium nitrate cargo detonated on the French ship SS Grandcamp. The explosion set off a fire on the SS High Flyer, docked 600 feet from the Grandcamp, and that ship exploded 15 hours later, destroying a third vessel. After the disaster, 405 people killed in the explosions were identified, 63 were never identified and another 113 were never found.

"Luckily, she didn't get too close to there," said Gena Gilcrease of her mother, adding that the chain explosions made the whole area chaos.

Their father died of a concussion, making him one of the more than 580 people to die that day.

"Supposedly, one of the survivors came to see [my mother] and told her he remembered Daddy Charles tried to get up, but then he just fell," Pitts said, with Gena Gilcrease adding that her mother later told them their father's head was swollen and his burned hands were covered at the funeral.

Doris Gilcrease received $22.02 per month in Social Security survivors' benefits as well as another $44.07 for her three children -- the Houston Post ran a picture of Doris Gilcrease and her children holding up their checks and smiling. The Gilcreases also later were part of the first class action lawsuit against the U.S. government, which resulted in a payout of around $27,000 between the family members.

The sisters said it was a confusing time in their lives.

"There was something there and then there wasn't, and we asked a million questions, like 'Where's Daddy?' " Kuykendall said.

Kuykendall said the quiet strength of their mother in the face of such questions is why to this day Kuykendall has a closed-off personality.

Charles Gilcrease had survived serving in Germany during World War II, but less than two years later, his wife found herself suddenly a widow with three children.

She moved her children to Marlin -- and as if to make things worse, Kuykendall and Pitts said the furniture Charles Gilcrease had built for the family caught fire while en route.

Through it all, Pitts said her mother held the family together and was careful to not project her sadness onto her children.

"Given our ages at the time, I don't think she would have focused on how horrible it was for her," Kuykendall said.

"Although I know it was -- you can just imagine," Gena Gilcrease added.

The sisters said their mother made a point to tell the children about their father, even after she remarried two years later. She played a vinyl record he sent while serving overseas so often that it became worn out, and the girls and their three half-siblings referred to their father as "Daddy Charles."

"Mother was really good at keeping him alive," she said. "I remember in Marlin, lying on the grass looking up at the stars, and Mother would point out the North Star and say that that was Daddy Charles looking over us."

Doris Gilcrease described Charles as "happy go-lucky" and "a little wild." He had dazzling eyes -- the same eyes Kuykendall's son, Eric Charles, has -- and from what the sisters can gather from their aunts and uncles, their father was the "glue" among his own siblings.

Each of the siblings have handled the loss of their father differently. Gena Gilcrease said having to hear these details second-hand was more difficult growing up.

"Through young adulthood, I thought about it with really a kind of melancholy feeling, because he was just a phantom," Gena Gilcrease said. "I didn't have any bodily sense of him."

Kuykendall said her father has been on her mind more as an adult.

"I've always thought about it on the 16th, but as I've gotten older, I really think about what it must have been like," Kuykendall said.

For all of the sisters -- who moved to Bryan and College Station in the past 10 years to be with their family before their mother died in 2014 -- hearing about their father has made them cherish the loved ones still with them -- and linger a little before saying goodbye.

"Sometimes when I would be leaving, [my mother] would look at me, because she said she didn't really look at Charles that morning when he left," Pitts said, later adding, "You have that sense, I always did anyway, that you might not see someone again, and you just have that with you always."
Today is Easter, the most holy day on the Christian calendar. It is the day when an estimated 2.1 billion people around the world rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus who, in the words of the Apostles Creed, "ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead."

A modern translation uses the term "the living and the dead," a term that should send shivers down the spine of those of us who call ourselves Christian. How should we be judged? Are we truly following the teachings of Jesus? If not, why not?

It appears at times that Christianity is at war with itself -- and with the other great religions of the world.

On the world stage, many Christians routinely condemn people who worship God differently, primarily Muslims. Those Christians confuse Islam and terrorism. To be sure, some terrorists claim to be Muslim, but they certainly are not following the tenets of that faith. Many terrorists are not Muslim; in fact many call themselves Christian.

Because of this confusion over Islam and terrorism, many Christian Americans would ban Muslims from entering this country.

Jesus who lived among lepers, harlots and others on the edge of Judean society surely would not espouse such concerns. He would have stood at the edge of the ocean and welcomed those who come here in fear, in peace and with hope in their hearts. If we follow Him, why don't we truly follow Him?

We watch TV and are horrified at the pain and suffering in Syria. We were appalled at Syrian President Bashar Assad's use of sarin gas on his own people. Many of us who call ourselves Christian applauded -- either publicly or secretly -- President Donald Trump's use of cruise missiles on a Syrian military airbase.

And yet, we stand up and say no Syrian refugees here. At home here in America we seem to be engaged in an often brutal culture war, with both sides proclaiming their actions are "in the name of Jesus."

Both sides cannot be right, and, at times perhaps, neither side is.

We fight over how to deal with poverty, drugs, sexual orientation, transgender rights, race, educational opportunities, health care, ageism, immigrants and politics. Often, those on both sides of an issue quote the Bible to defend their beliefs. And while we quote random portions of the Bible, do we really try to understand them and use them appropriately? Obviously not.

Some Christians say there should be an absolutely separation between church and state. Others claim that our nation was founded on Christianity and, therefore, faith should play a large role in how we govern.

Today, on this day of great rejoicing over Jesus's resurrection, Christians should look within themselves and decide how well we are living and exhibiting our faith. We should stop using Jesus as a club or a crutch.

Instead, we should ask Him for guidance on how to live our lives in a manner worthy of His love and His sacrifice. Christians believe He died for us. Surely, then, we can live for Him.
An FIR has been registered and the govt has ordered a probe into the matter which will be conducted by SDPO Magam.

By Shuja-ul-Haq : The Jammu and Kashmir government has initiated action in the army 'human shield' case. An FIR has been registered and the government has ordered probe into the matter which will be conducted by SDPO Magam.

The row had erupted after a video of a Kashmiri youth tied to the front of an army jeep went viral on Friday after former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah shared it on his Twitter account.

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In his tweet, Omar expressed anger over the Kashmiri boy being tied to the jeep as a warning against stone pelters.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has expressed concern and anguish over the surfacing of few videos reportedly from Budgam. Mehbooba Mufti has sought a detailed report from the police regarding the incident.

Mehbooba Mufti has termed the incident as unacceptable and the chief minister has asked the police to submit a detailed report about these incidents in order to take necessary actions.

FIR AGAINST ARMY

Police sources said that the FIR stands registered against Army at police station Beerwah in Budgam district. Sources also said that the Investigation is being conducted by SDPO Magam in the matter.

The man tied to an Army jeep was identified as Farooq Ahmad Dar from Chill area in Khansahib segment of Budgam district. The incident reportedly happened on April 13 when re-polling was held in 38 polling stations in Budgam.

Farooq Ahmad had told the investigators that he was returning after casting his vote when the army men caught him and thrashed him. After that he was tied to the jeep and paraded in several villages with warning being announced that stone pelters would meet this fate.

Farooq in his statement said he was released only after his brother and elders of his village pleaded with the army. He also said that he was not a stone-pelter.

This comes after Army chief met NSA yesterday. Reports suggest the meeting was in the backdrop of this 'human shield' controversy. The army chief earlier also spoke to Mehbooba Mufti.

Also read:

Viral video shows Kashmiri youth tied to the front of moving army jeep

Video of Kashmiri youth used as human shield: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti seeks police report

WATCH | I'm not even a stone-pelter, says Kashmiri man tied to jeep

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Since the turn of the decade, its been Dannel P. Malloys Democratic Party in Connecticut.

Through the crucible of Newtown and the push for gun control reform. Through a criminal justice system overhaul and raising the minimum wage. Through LGBT protections and accepting refugees from Syria.

But now that the two-term governor will forgo a re-election bid in 2018, whose party is it?

The identity of the states majority party, which controls both chambers of the Legislature by thinning margins, all six constitutional offices and the entire congressional delegation, is in a state of flux moving toward next years midterm election.

I think when it comes to Democrats in the state, its such a complicated mess, said Ned Lamont, the Greenwich cable television entrepreneur who was Malloys 2010 Democratic primary foe.

Lamont said that budget deficits, GOP gains in the Legislature and Malloys dismal job approval ratings will make it difficult for whoever fills the leadership vacuum.

Lets face it, on national issues with Donald Trump, that is the energy for the Democrats in Connecticut, across the board, Lamont said. I think thats how the Democrats have got to make the statewide race.

For many Democrats, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy is emerging as a logical standard bearer for the midterms, when he will be up for re-election and will be atop the ticket. Murphys profile has been an upward trajectory since his Senate filibuster last June on gun control, combined with his opposition to Trumps agenda.

But others say that national issues are more in Murphys wheelhouse, and that there is a opening for others to come off the bench and become Malloys heir apparent. The appetite is there, they say, whether its the state comptroller, Kevin Lembo, or rising state Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr., D-Branford.

Clearly, hes charismatic, said John Olsen, a former state party chairman and past president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. He looks like Kennedy. He talks like a Kennedy. Hes very popular.

Olsen said that Lembo, who has bucked Malloy on the state budget, doesnt want to step on the toes of the current administration, including those of Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman.

Kevin is someone who is very respectful of the governor and lieutenant governor, said Olsen, a Democratic National Committee member.

Wyman has been mum on her plans, but a person close to the popular lieutenant governor told Hearst Connecticut Media that she hasnt ruled out trying to take the reins from Malloy.

Shes still being a little coy, said Jerold Duquette, an associate professor of political science at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. Thats very unusual for a lieutenant governor with an open seat in front of her.

Democrats say it would be mistake to discount Wyman, State Attorney General George Jepsen or Congress members such as Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Rep. Jim Himes as potential standard bearers. Himes has parlayed his House Intelligence Committee role into frequent television appearances on Russia. Theres no hard and fast rule, Democratic insiders say, that any one person pulls the levers of the party.

The Democratic Party in Connecticut is multifaceted, Olsen said.

Dont sleep on Bridgeports Mayor Joe Ganim, either, some party leaders say. The citys voters returned Ganim to the mayors office in 2015 after his imprisonment for corruption. He is currently appealing a prohibition on convicted felons receiving public campaign financing for statewide office under the states clean elections program.

Joe is the mayor of the largest city, Olsen said. The people of Bridgeport made a decision and hes the mayor down there. Clearly, hes someone that has to be heard. His campaign was about second chances.

Those closest to Malloy disputed the idea that the party is longer his, however.

As far Im concerned, it still is until the day he leaves office, said Roy Occhiogrosso, a longtime confidante of Malloy. As the first Democratic governor to be elected since 1986, I think he earned that right.

Former Democratic Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo, who is from Trumbull, echoed Occhiogrosso.

Nothing has changed, DiNardo said. The governor has announced yes hes not running, but hes going to be there until the election. Nick (Balletto) is still the chair and the governor is still the governor.

DiNardo commended Malloy for his organizational efforts since his election in 2010 and re-election in 2014.

To his credit, the governor has always recognized the importance of building the party and building an infrastructure for the party, and you can see it, DiNardo said. Since 2010, weve been more focused.

Regardless of whether its still Malloys party or a party in transition, Democrats say, there is a unifying force for the political left. And that could be the equalizer for a party that has shouldered much of the blame for the states recurring budget deficits and stagnant economy, they said.

At the end of the day it could be a train wreck for the Democrats, but hold on, theres the guy, Donald Trump, who is throwing all the cards in the air, Lamont said.

nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
NORWALK  The Brien McMahon High School Alumni Association will host an Across the Years dance May 13 at the American Legion Hall.

The event will feature a cash bar, dancing, refreshment and the Old School band. The dance will run from 7-11 p.m. All adults 21 or over are invited.
A Wyoming man wanted on a warrant for sexual assault was arrested in Billings on Saturday by members of the Montana Violent Offender Task Force, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Kelby Niebuhr, 19, was arrested shortly after noon at a residence on the 2900 block of Golden Acres Drive, said Rod Ostermiller, chief deputy U.S. Marshal.

The warrant for first degree sexual assault was issued for Niebuhr out of Laramie County on April 4, Ostermiller said.

According to Ostermiller the task force had been monitoring the private residence on the West End "quite a bit" for "the last several days" before Niebuhr was arrested without incident on Saturday.

He said he did not know if Niebuhr was living at the residence but said that he had been frequenting it. There were other people in the house at the time of the arrest but none of them had warrants, Ostermiller said.

Niebuhr is being held in the Yellowstone County Detention Facility and will appear in Yellowstone County Justice Court next week before he is likely extradited back to Wyoming, Ostermiller said.

The Billings Police Department and Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office assisted in the arrest.
People in the Shanti Nagar area threw packs of illicit liquor out in the open in a bid to destroy them.

By Dev Ankur Wadhawan: Peeved at the sale of illicit liquor, residents of Manoharpur area in rural Jaipur came out on the streets protesting against the same.

For years, illicit liquor was allegedly being sold in the area hardly a few metres away from the Manohparpur Police Station. However, despite several complaints, police allegedly turned a blind eye to the bootlegging business.

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So, people in the Shanti Nagar area took the matter in their own hands and threw packs of illicit liquor out in the open in a bid to destroy them.

Ramji Lal Jajoria, a resident of the area, alleged that it wasn't possible to carry out the business in the area without police patronage. Speaking to India Today, he said, "Illicit liquor was being sold for a decade in the area. Police had been aware of it."

Manoharpur Police Station Incharge Umesh Beniwal, however, claimed that the allegations of the collusion were baseless. He stated, "Any allegation can be made. A FIR has been registered against the one about whom the allegation is being made. It was registered five days back." The Incharge also maintained that several people, including Rajesh Sarthi, Jesa Ram and Kaluram Sansi have been booked under the Excise Act.

Also Read:

Dry way on the highway: Supreme Court's 2016 ban on liquor sales comes into effect today

Ban on liquor along highways: Sale of booze continues surreptitiously along Delhi-Panipat route

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NORWALK  Police forces trying to get in get in touch with their communities have gone to where the people are  on social networks. Among the millions of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts online there are now countless agencies using social media to solve crimes, publicize anonymous tip lines and reach out.

Each department has adapted to the social media age at different times, and is using online tools and services in different ways. Some post photos of suspects and others recruit people to join their ranks. Several use accounts to publish missing people reports, public safety warnings and messages that show the lighter side of policing. A few departments even publish lost dog posters and help their constituents search for lost wedding rings.

We utilize social media in a similar way to print media, but this is another way to reach the community with a variety of information, Lt. Terry Blake, a Norwalk Police Department spokesman, said.

The police resource website, policeone.com, lays out four main goals of social media for police departments, which include: Building a trustworthy relationship and a sense of community; gaining control over the departments reputation with the community; providing a forum for people to ask questions and for police to share tips; and spreading knowledge quickly with information to protect the community, find missing persons and help catch suspects.

Within the past week, the Norwalk Police Departments Facebook page has posted reminders for residents to lock their cars after a rash of car burglaries; a release highlighting the achievements of Officers of the Month; notification of weekly Coffee With a Cop outreach events; and a request for help in locating a woman wanted for larceny and credit card theft.

Social media has also been a significant resource for police in crime-solving, Blake said.

More Information Social media sleuthing Affidavits show Facebook message searches by savvy detectives using public information like tweets or posts broadcast to everyone - not just "friends" or "followers" - as a way to investigate everything from teenagers' parties to homicide. Searching through social network records on which people could have the "expectation of privacy" is done by getting a warrant similar to those attained to search phone or text records, police say. - See More Collapse

We receive information via social media, through our website or text tips, that have made a significant difference in some cases, he said.

Blake is referring to anonymous contact information for the public that is posted on every news release from police.

Anonymous tips can be left at any of the following: Norwalk police tip line 203-854-3111; anonymous internet tips sent to www.norwalkpd.com; and text tips by typing NPD into text field, followed by themessage, and sent to CRIMES (274637).

The department uses a variety of social media, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We've been doing this for quite some time, Blake said. It's another way for us to communicate with the community.

Monroe Police Chief John Salvatore, who is president of Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, said hes a fan of his departments social networking. His forces first post, a screenshot of a suspect on Jan. 5, 2016, was a big success.

We received an overwhelming response and several tips, he said. These tips led to an arrest warrant and the person depicted in the photo was arrested.

Salvatore said almost every police force in the state has a social media presence. Some are more savvy than others, he added, but the push to get agencies online has become common.

It helps us solve crimes and it helps with community outreach, Salvatore said. I think everyone sees the value in it.

Some departments handle social media through assigned officers, while others place it in community service or outreach offices.

Connecticut State Police, with 5,543 square miles of coverage, seems to have the most open approach to social media. In Middletown, where it is based, witticisms and public safety messages are posted by spokespeople, said Sgt. Eric Haglund. But throughout the state, several troopers have access to the departments Twitter account to post breaking news, including road closures or significant arrests.

The state police may be the most amusing Connecticut department on the web. During a recent snowstorm, it shared a wanted poster for Mother Nature while publishing photos of police dogs playing around in the snow.

Officers in departments across the state describe their approach to social media as cautious, but encouraged. Potential pitfalls, police say, are mistakenly releasing information that could harm an investigation, pointing to the wrong guy in a search for tips or even getting hacked. Moreover, they say, the webs expansiveness sometimes leads to unnecessary contention.
MANHATTAN, Kan.  Its been nearly 14 years since China allowed sales of U.S. beef in that country, but that may be about to change. And thats very good news for

the U.S. beef and cattle industry, according to a Kansas State University agricultural economist.

As the most populated country in the world, with a large and growing middle-income class, gaining direct access to China is one of the most positive developments the U.S. beef industry could ask for, said Glynn Tonsor, livestock marketing specialist with K-State Research and Extension, commenting on news that a deal was struck between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump in an earlier April meeting.

China, however, agreed previously to end a ban on U.S. beef it had imposed in 2003. But conditions on opening that market have yet to be worked out. China, along with many other countries, imposed the ban in 2003 when a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also called mad cow disease, was confirmed in a cow in the U.S.

With a population of more than 1.3 billion people, China presents a huge potential market for U.S. beef. By comparison, the U.S. population is 324 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Over the past 10 years, Japan, with a population of 127 million, has been the biggest importer of U.S. beef.

Tonsor said he and other economists expect overall meat demand to grow at a faster rate outside the U.S. than inside the country.

While we live in an era of fairly widespread skepticism around the net benefits of global trade, it is important to recognize a key fact as a U.S. cattle producer: Any time you can sell your product to consumers who most value it, the higher the collective sales value of beef products (and the cattle they originate from) will be, Tonsor said. Gaining and retaining access to a larger set of candidate consumers is vital to the ability to accomplish this.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) reported that Japan continued to solidify its position as the leading volume and value market for U.S. beef, with February exports climbing 48 percent from a year ago in volume (23,789 mt) and 55 percent in value ($134.3 million).

Japanese import data showed that U.S. beef overtook Australian beef in the first two months of the year, with U.S. market share climbing to 45.6 percent while Australias dropped to 44 percent.

According to the USMEF, strong momentum continued for U.S. beef in Korea, where February exports increased 11 percent to 13,093 mt valued at $86 million (up 26 percent).

Other highlights for U.S. beef included:

-- Exports within North America are off to a solid start in 2017, with January-February exports to Mexico increasing 14 percent from a year ago in volume (36,235 mt) and 3 percent in value ($147.4 million). Exports to Canada are showing signs of a rebound, with volume up 11 percent to 19,446 mt and value up 18 percent to $123.5 million.

-- Beef exports to two key South American markets increased significantly in value through February, with exports to Chile up 22 percent year-over-year and exports to Peru up 68 percent.

-- A rebound in the Philippines and continued growth in Vietnam pushed January-February beef exports to the ASEAN region up 33 percent in volume.

-- Strong growth to most Asian markets helped offset a slowdown to Hong Kong, where January-February volume was down 21 percent to 16,131 mt, valued at $104.7 million (down 12 percent).
U.S. year-over-year exports of feed grains in all forms increased 33 percent in the first six months of the 2016-17 marketing year, according to recently published trade data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and analysis by the U.S. Grains Council (USGC).

That data showed the United States exported more than 56.6 million metric tons of feed grains in all forms  a calculation that measures grain products in corn equivalent  from September 2016 to February 2017, compared to 42.5 million tons during the same time the prior marketing year.

Leading the increase, exports of U.S. corn increased 71 percent to 27.8 million tons (1.09 billion bushels), compared to 16.3 million tons (641.7 million bushels) the year prior.

In addition, exports of U.S. meat produced with feed grains  including beef, pork and poultry  increased from 9.9 million tons (389.7 million bushels) to 11.5 million tons (452.7 million bushels) in corn equivalent year-over-year, an increase of 15 percent.

U.S. ethanol exports as of February 2017 also increased substantially during the first six months of the marketing year, reaching 82 percent of the total volume for 2015-16 at 711 million gallons  6.45 million tons, or 253.9 million bushels in corn equivalent. That volume represents a 66 percent increase over last marketing year.

U.S. exports of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) also increased slightly at 3 percent year-over-year, despite trade disruptions in two major markets, China and Vietnam. U.S. DDGS exports totaled 5.9 million tons in the first six months of the 2016-17 marketing year, compared to 5.7 million tons the prior year.

While overall feed grain exports increased, exports of both sorghum and barley declined in the first six months of the 2016-17 marketing year.

U.S. sorghum exports decreased from 5 million tons (196.8 million bushels) to 3.4 million tons (133.9 million bushels). Smaller purchases by China drove the sharp decline.

U.S. barley exports decreased from nearly 143,000 tons (6.57 million bushels) to about 41,000 tons (1.88 million bushels) due to a decline in U.S. exports to Mexico.

Support of the elevating exports can be found in the USGC Corn Export Quality Report that showed an above-average crop for American farmers.

The USGC corn export quality report for the 2016-17 marketing year found the average aggregate quality of the corn assembled for export was better than or equal to U.S. No. 2 on all grade factors, and the average moisture content was below that in 2015-16.

Chemical composition attributes indicated higher protein, lower starch and higher oil concentrations than 2015-16. Early 2016-17 corn exports had lower stress cracks and higher density than in 2015-16.

Another report on harvest quality revealed that the U.S. corn crop benefited from excellent conditions during reproductive growth, as well as high yields, particularly from the western Corn Belt, which includes Nebraska.

The resulting quality of the 2016 corn crop was better than the average of the previous five crop years on most attributes, including higher test weight, kernel volume, oil concentration and whole kernels, as well as lower broken corn and foreign material and stress cracks relative.
Dex whimpers, using all his furry might to use his back legs to go forward. He wants to walk on all fours like he once did. He wants to run up to the Vienna sausages and chomp them up right away. But he cant  at least not yet.

Dex is a German shepherd in the Central Nebraska Humane Societys care. He is one of the first animals to benefit from the agencys new HEART program.

HEART stands for Helping Emergency Animal Recovery and Treatment. The HEART fund is used for the cost of additional medical services that some of the shelter animals need beyond the basic medical care the Humane Society provides. Executive Director Laurie Dethloff said the Humane Society provides basic care, such as a behavior and health assessment, and spay and neuter costs. The HEART fund helps cover extra things such as X-rays, blood and urine tests, surgery, amputation and treatment of broken bones. The money comes from outside donations. Dethloff said the program offers animals more care while offering people a specialized opportunity to help the animals.

Dex was recovered by Animal Control from an unsafe environment to which law enforcement responded. When brought to the shelter, Dex had kidney problems, head trauma and many sores on his body.

Dethloff said many of his sores were the result and combination of other dogs beating up on him and being in his own bodily fluids and not being clean. Dex was taken into emergency care for his wounds.

We didnt know if he would even survive with where he was at, she said. But there was just something about the look in his eyes. Even though he was weak and emaciated and you could see the sores, you could see the soul. He was ready to fight.

She estimates Dex to be about 7 years old, but he could be younger or older. Teeth are used in estimating dogs age, and Dexs teeth were in very bad condition.

From what we know, he hasnt had an easy life, Dethloff said.

An MRI for Dex at Kansas State would cost $1,500, so that was out of the question. She said she and others at the Humane Society have been doing everything feasible to care for Dex and make him comfortable. He stays in her office, where he has a place to lounge and rest.

Staff members take him out for therapy so he can regain his strength. His back legs are nearly paralyzed. A dog wheelchair was recently donated to Dex, making it easier for him to try to move. His body is supported, so its easier for him to try to walk.

Workers motivate him by holding out Vienna sausages short distances away so Dex can walk to get the treat. Dethloff said he has been doing better each day since they got him in February, around the time they decided to start the program.

Hes got the desire, she said of Dex.

Though Dex is one of the most severe cases and part of the reason the program was started, many other animals have benefited. A full-time veterinarian on staff makes caring for these animals much more feasible.

Dethloff said the program has helped pregnant cats and dogs, dogs with mange and others. It isnt designated toward abused animals, though those are some of the animals that need more care. The program also helps animals from puppy mills or unclaimed pets that have visible medical needs.

She said on average animals are in the HEART program for about six weeks. Dex, however, will have a longer recovery period.

Dethloff said there can be a misconception when people adopt an animal from the shelter. The shelter invests a lot of money into the animals, often more than the adoption fee covers. But she said its worth it, and the donors and sponsors make that possible.

Thats very important to everybody thats involved. So that adds to the expense of caring, Dethloff said about not euthanizing animals, even if theyre at the shelter for a long time. But theres so many amazing things that happen to animals that have been here six months, a year. When you think, We just wanted this to be a short stay, and then that person comes in when they (the animal) have been here a long time or when weve invested hundreds of dollars in an animal. To see them (the animal) recover and get a family and live the life that they should, that is beyond words to see that and to get to experience that.

Besides the wheelchair, another big donation the Humane Society received is a dental machine. Dethloff said many animals come in with bad teeth, which are very important to animal health. The shelter can now care for those teeth and help prevent health problems for those animals future owners.

The HEART program is inspiring for Dethloff and her staff.

It provides us an opportunity to make a difference when were on the frontlines and were watching those animals struggle, she said. We know that somebody is out there giving us the opportunity to give that care. Its one of the most rewarding experiences in one of the most horrible situations.

Were just always very thankful and grateful for people who look at those hard pictures and say, Im going to get involved.

The HEART program and the Humane Society have wish lists that can be found on the agencys website at centralnebraskahumanesociety.com or on its Facebook page. Right now, Dethloff said, the biggest needs are Purina kitten chow, since its kitten season, Vienna sausages and household cleaning supplies. Monetary donations are always welcome, too.

Donations can be taken to the Humane Society during working hours Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. or Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. For any questions or more information on the Humane Societys needs, to donate or adopt a pet, contact the shelter at (308) 385-5305.
Marketing Director Mike Bockoven said he looks at the summer events calendar for Stuhr Museum and gets tired just thinking about it.

The museum is planning for a number of extra exhibits and events this summer to celebrate its 50th anniversary and Nebraskas 150th anniversary. Kari Stofer, museum curator, said the summer events calendar features something for everyone of all ages.

If there is someone interested in farming or tractors, we have an incredible collection of that, Stofer said. If somebody is interested in artwork, we have that for them. There is something for everyones interests. We can meet a generational gathering of people with their interests and different age groups. You could really spend a couple days out here, immersing yourself in whatever your interests are.

Stuhr Museums summer season will kick off at 10 a.m. May 1 with the opening of Railroad Town. Bockoven said one of the main exhibits on display at the museum this summer is the Off the Shelves exhibit scheduled for May 20 through June 11.

What this is doing is its celebrating an artifact from each year that weve been open for our 50th birthday, Stofer said. We couldnt always keep it to one, so there might be two for some years.

She added the exhibit is called Off the Shelves because there is nothing to connect each item being displayed in the exhibit collection. The museum staff tried to choose a wide variety of items to display.

The items include a hair wreath made out of peoples hair, trench art that is a key ring made out of a bullet, and a device used for making communion wafers. Some of the more unique items are a potato and a 100-year-old wedding cake.

You would think, Why do we have a potato in the collection? This was a cure for rheumatism in the late 1800s, Stofer said. Somebody would have actually kept this in their pocket all day long as a cure.

She said she had two curatorial staff members help her decide on some of the items, but in the end it was kind of a gut feeling on what items to display in the collection.

We hope to have some things going out that otherwise might not have a chance to be seen, Stofer said.

Another exhibit Stuhr Museum will have this summer is the Painting the Legacy exhibit. It will feature 124 paintings by artist Todd Williams, who did a painting for each of Nebraskas 93 counties and then a few more, Bockoven said.

Stofer said Williams 124 paintings will be in the Stuhr Building on the first and second floors. The Painting the Legacy exhibit will be displayed June 17 through Aug. 21.

Its going to be a very huge, gorgeous, challenging exhibit, she said. I think its one of the largest exhibits Stuhr Museum has ever had.

Bockoven said the Painting the Legacy exhibit is unique to the Grand Island area as Stuhr Museum is the only museum this far west that will be getting Williams entire art show. Stofer said the Stuhr Museum staff is very excited about being able to bring the show to Grand Island and have it be somewhere besides Lincoln and Omaha.

Stofer added Williams will be conducting a three-day workshop, teaching how to paint using the techniques he has been taught. The cost for the three-day workshop is $375. Interested individuals can register by calling Stuhr Museum at (308) 385-5316. There are a maximum of 17 spots available.

For children, Stuhr Museum will hold Summer Adventure classes in June and July. Bockoven said some of the class topics are fishing, pie baking, music making, blacksmithing and crime solving.

Our education department gets to have a little bit of fun with what it is that they teach, he said. It really is a wide variety of stuff. Some of it is art-based, some of it is history-based and some of it is just fun. We routinely have 900 to 1,000 kids out every year.

Individuals interested in signing their children up for the Summer Adventure classes can call Stuhr Museum at (308) 385-5316. Costs for the classes start at $30 and can run as high as $70, depending on the cost of class materials. Bockoven said there will be class sessions in the morning and afternoon.

He said the people of Hall County have kept Stuhr Museum going strong for 50 years.

They financially support us by coming through the gates, Bockoven said. I think people who know us tend to remember us. If you came here as a kid, Stuhr Museum works itself into your brain. I think if you visit here once, you tell people about it. It is one of those things where it is never unimpressive, with the grounds and how big the buildings are out here.

Admission to Stuhr Museum is currently $6 for adults, $4 for children and free for museum members. Effective May 1, admission will be $8 for adults, $6 for children and free for museum members, Bockoven said. The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
Police/Sheriff

Anyone with information about any crime in the state may call the Grand Island-Hall County Crime Stoppers, (308) 381-8822. Callers will remain anonymous.

A reward of up to $1,000 will be paid after law enforcement agencies have determined the seriousness of the crime and the usefulness of the information.

Inmate custody status can be obtained by calling the VINE hotline at (877) NE 4 VINE or by visiting www.vinelink.com. Information is available 24 hours a day.

If you see a crime happening, call the Grand Island-Hall County Emergency Center  911.

Grand Island Police

The following felonies were reported:

- Caseys General Store, 1420 S. Locust, reported counterfeit currency Thursday.

- Lacey Hartley reported a theft of property Thursday at 2222 Bellwood Drive.

- Equitable Federal Savings Bank, 113 N. Locust, reported a fraudulent transfer of funds Thursday.

Hall County Sheriff

Law enforcement arrested four people on warrants in seven cases. There were 28 calls for service.

For more information visit www.hallcountyne.gov and click on the sheriff link.

Court report

Hall County District Court

- Salvador Gabriel Gonzalez, 30, 704 E. Eighth St., two counts of possession of a controlled substance, one year in jail for each with credit for 150 days served, 12 months post-release supervision. Sentences will be served concurrently.

- Joshua Wayne Stanford, 25, addresses listed as 210 S. Brookline Drive and 615 W. 10th St., two counts of possession of a controlled substance, one year in jail with 64 days credit, 18 months post-release supervision for each. Also guilty of third-offense DUI, $1,000 fine, six months in jail, 18 months post-release supervision, drivers license revoked 15 years, ordered not to drive 45 days; domestic assault  third degree/prior, one year in jail with 64 days credit, 18 months post-release supervision, and third-degree domestic assault, one year in jail with 64 days credit and 18 months post-release supervision.

Hall County Court

- Deyanira O. Amparan, 21, El Paso, Texas, was charged with two counts of failure to appear when on bail for a felony, both on Jan. 5. Preliminary hearing set for 10:30 a.m. June 26.

- Bryndyn P. Lawrenz, 20, 2918 Dudley St., Lincoln, theft by unlawful taking totaling $0 to $500, fined $150, placed on 12 months probation. Also guilty of attempt of a Class 4 felony, $100 fine, 12 months probation.

Driving Under the Influence  Mary J. McDonald, 55, 2124 N. Broadwell, $500 fine, six months probation, drivers license revoked 60 days. Also guilty of speeding 11-15 mph county/state, fined $75.

Correction

Concert association information

For more information about purchasing memberships for the Grand Island Concert Associations 2017-18 season, call Stanley Urwiler at (308) 382-2309 or Dan Brosz at (308) 384-3554.

Due to incorrect information provided to The Independent, the contact information included in a Your Ticket news item in Thursdays Independent was incorrect.
Khan was fired upon by unidentified gunmen at his home and was shifted to district hospital Shopian where he succumbed to his injuries.

By India Today Web Desk: Former Public Prosecutor and National Conference worker Imtiyaz Ahmad Khan was shot dead in Pinjoora area of Shopian on Sunday evening.

According to initial reports, Khan was fired upon by unidentified gunmen and was shifted to district hospital Shopian where he succumbed to his injuries. Ahmad worked as a public prosecutor during the National Conference government in the state.

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In another incident, notorious pro-government Ikhwan commander Rashid Billa was killed by suspected militants in Hajin town of Kashmir's Bandipora district.

On Saturday evening, a Peoples Democratic Party worker was killed and another was injured after militants opened fire upon them in south Kashmir's Pulwama district.

The incident comes amid heightened tension in the Valley and on a day when the Hurriyat had given a bandh call after a 22-year-old youth Sajad Hussain was killed in Batamaloo area of Srinagar city during clashing with security forces.

Watch the video here

Also read: Kashmir: PDP worker killed in militant attack, youth dies in police firing

Also read: A new low in the Valley

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Two of the major nuclear firms, India is dealing with, have run into financial crisis. As India looks forward to increase its share of nuclear energy in total power generation, the wavering financial condition of the firms raises some serious questions.

By Indo-Asian News Service: For long a pariah in the global nuclear technology market, Indian policymakers are pleasantly discovering how the boot is on the other foot as they are furiously courted by foreign firms themselves facing financial ruin.

American nuclear giant Westinghouse, which is in talks with the Indian government on a proposed project in Andhra Pradesh, filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.

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A year ago, the French energy major Areva, which has offered to build reactors at a Maharashtra site, began a process of major restructuring following huge losses.

WESTINGHOUSE'S N-PROJECT

Westinghouse is proposing to build six reactors of 1,000 MW capacity each at Kovvada in coastal Andhra Pradesh. The government has indicated this site in place of the originally proposed Mithi Virdi in Gujarat, where the local population protested against plans to erect a nuclear plant in their area.

Minister of State for Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh said in Parliament earlier this year that the land acquisition process at Kovvada had begun, while discussions had also started with Westinghouse on the techno-commercial aspects of a project proposal.

"I don't understand why the government is so keen to talk to these nuclear power companies that are in major financial difficulty, unless it is to bail them out," former Union Power Secretary EAS Sarma told IANS.

WHY THIS FUSS

"The inevitable fallout of Westinghouse being in a financially weak position will be delay in completing the project and resulting cost over-runs. In this scenario, our government is looking to bail out American companies... to create jobs in the US," he said.

"On the other hand, the government is going ahead with acquiring land, as if the opposition of locals at Kovvada is of no consequence as compared to the protests at Mithi Virdi," he added.

Sarma said there are also concerns about the fuel for the reactors to be supplied as per contractual practice, by a financially crippled Westinghouse.

"Westinghouse has sold its fuel fabrication facility to the Chinese and so our fuel will come from the latter, which is a cause for concern, and I have written to the government on this," the former Secretary said.

THE AREVA PRECEDENT

The case of Areva, which is proposing six EPR-type 1,650 MW reactors at Jaitapur, is even more complex, with the French firm having signed the agreements with Larsen & Toubro and state-run Nuclear Power Corp during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's France visit in 2015.

Soon after, Areva declared massive losses of 4.8 billion euros and the French government, which owns 87 per cent of the company, announced its nuclear power arm would be sold to another state-run firm, EDF.

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Sarma pointed out that Areva has struggled to complete two identical EPR reactors, one at Olkiluoto in Finland, which is still not operational despite over a decade-long delay and a trebling of costs, and the other in Flamanville, France, plagued by serious construction and security issues, delays and massive cost over-runs.

"The French nuclear security watchdog has issued a number of severe warnings to Areva on major security issues and manufacturing and construction flaws in the reactor being built in Flamanville," Sarma said.

Flamanville is one of four EPRs under construction worldwide, and its cost overrun -- from an estimated 3.3 billion euros to over 10 billion euros -- is at the heart of Areva's current problems.

"Now with their current troubles, there is even more likelihood of Areva compromising on design safety features, on which they have such poor track record," Sarma said.

OTHER CONCERNS

MR Srinivasan, a former Secretary to the Union government and ex-Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, is equally concerned about the time-delays and cost-escalations involved in closing the deals with these beleaguered foreign companies.

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"Both these proposals are facing great uncertainty. Toshiba (the Westinghouse parent) is in serious financial difficulty, while Areva is undergoing major restructuring," Srinivasan said.

"Some technical discussions are on, but the issue of financing will surely come up owing to concerns about cost-escalation," he said.

According to Sarma, in the changed situation, "Westinghouse itself says it can only supply the technology for the nuclear island and does not want to undertake any construction activity."

TIMES HAVE CHANGED

This is a complete reversal of the situation that prevailed before an agreement with the US in 2008 allowed India to engage in nuclear commerce and start importing uranium fuel again for its reactors.

Srinivasan said that in a world where multilateral financing is absolutely scarce for nuclear projects, which have long gestation periods, old allies Russia, whose state-run Rosatom is constructing the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu, provides a tried, tested and less expensive option.

"That is why we are going ahead with the Russians on more Kudankulam units -- 3,4,5 and 6. The agreements with Russia also have provision for government financing," he said.

Rosatom is currently in talks with the Indian government on the site for a second project of six reactors.

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THE RUSSIAN OFFER

Russia has offered India a new range of reactor units -- the VVER Generation 3 pressurised water reactors of 1,200 MW capacity -- for the third and fourth units of the Kudankulam project.

An inter-governmental agreement between India and Russia was signed in December 2008 for setting up Kudankulam's units 3 to 6. The ground-breaking ceremony for construction of units 3 and 4 was performed last year.

"All the Russian built units at Kudankulam, including the first and second, are 'Generation 3 plus' reactors. They meet all current safety requirements," Srinivasan said.

"Their design has benefited from the review conducted of nuclear accidents like Three-Mile Island (US) and Fukushima (Japan)," he added.

ALSO READ |

Global nuclear giants go bust, should India celebrate?

ALSO WATCH | India Today Conclave: Nuclear Energy Session

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Linkedin Inforial (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia  Mon, April 17, 2017 00:00 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde968d06 4 Inforial Advertisement Free

Hundreds of domestic and foreign legal officials, practitioners, corporate counsels, corporations, arbitrators and mediators are expected to join vigorous discussions for the enhancement of arbitration and mediation practices in the whole Asia-Pacific region.

The 3rd Annual Symposium for Arbitrators and Mediators (3rd ASAM), hosted by the Indonesian Academy of Independent Mediators and Arbitrators (MedArbId), will be held in Jakarta on April 26, 2017.

MedArbid was created on 17 August 2015 with a vision to be the Indonesias leading and largest association of independent mediators and arbitrators.

ASAM brings together experienced dispute resolution professionals, relevant government officials, judges, and business community to build relationship and discuss issues that are critical for improving access to justice.

Themed Collaboration between National Courts and Dispute Resolution Professionals, the 3rd ASAM will be the largest and most important symposium on arbitration and mediation in Indonesia as it is supported by various prominent arbitration and mediation institutions in the region, such as the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), Kuala Lumpur Regional Center for Arbitration (KLRCA), Asia Pacific Forum for International Arbitration (AFIA), Resolution Institute , Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC) and International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

For dispute resolution professionals, ASAM is a very rare opportunity for mutual interaction and an building an international network. For the business people, it a forum to acquire greater knowledge of the role of mediators, arbitrators, and judges in the resolution of disputes, said MedArbIds chairman Tony Budidjaja.

the enhancement of arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution practices. The 3rd ASAM will feature speakers from around the world tackling different issues: The Rising Presence of Dispute Resolution Professionals in Indonesia and Asia Pacific Region, The Role of National Courts in Assisting Parties throughout and beyond the Arbitration and Mediation Process, Emerging Issues and Challenges in International Arbitration and How They May Affect Future Practice, Trends and Technologies Likely to Impact the Practice of Mediation and Arbitration in the Future. Keynote speakers will include Prof. Dr. H. Muhamad Hatta Ali, S.H., M.H., the Chief Justice of the Indonesian Supreme Court, Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Indonesian Military Gen. (Ret.) Dr. H. Wiranto, S.H., and Attorney General Drs. H. Muhammad Prasetyo, S.H., M.H. The symposium is further supported by various prominent organizations, such as the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), Kuala Lumpur Regional Center for Arbitration (KLRCA), Asia Pacific Forum for International Arbitration (AFIA), Resolution Institute, Indonesian Capital Market Arbitration Board (BAPMI), Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC) and International Chamber of Commerce (ICC-Asia). For more information, please visit http://medarbid.org/en/event/upcomingevents

.(./.)

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Linkedin Haeril Halim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, April 15 2017

The prolonged dispute among local farmers, environmentalists and cement manufacturers in the North Kendeng Karst Mountains has seen temporarily relief. A comprehensive environmental analysis recently issued a recommendation in favor of local farmers in Rembang regency in Central Java to stop mining activities that have been opposed by farmers over fears of environmental damage.

A strategic environmental assessment (KLHS) team under the Environment and Forestry Ministry recommended that the Watuputih groundwater basin in Rembang, Central Java, which accounts for 10 percent of the North Kendeng Karst Mountains, be granted protected status under the Karst Natural

Landscape (KBAK).

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, April 15 2017

Take a sneak peek at these four shortened articles available at www.thejakartapost.com. Those wanting to read the latest in lifestyle coverage, complete with photos and videos, may want to drop by the J+ section on www.thejakartapost.com. For quick access, simply download a QR scanner application on your smartphone and scan the codes displayed next to the articles below.

Jakpost guide to Jl. Cikini Raya





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Linkedin Winda A. Charmila (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, April 15 2017

Amid massive and fast-paced development across the capital that requires a series of relocations, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) has called on the city administration to draw up technical guidelines to anticipate disputes during the relocation process.

LBH Jakarta advocacy division head Yunita said both the administration and residents needed a technical regulation as reference for the relocation procedure.

[Relocations], which in most cases involve evictions, really need a comprehensive approach. I know that the evictions have to be done for the sake of the citys development, which runs at a fast pace, but being fast should also mean being right, Yunita said at the LBH office in Jakarta on the sidelines of an event to announce a report on forced evictions on Thursday.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, April 15 2017

A United Development Party (PPP) official has called on the partys rank and file to oust leaders of two of the Islamic partys factions for supporting a Christian candidate in the Jakarta gubernatorial race.

The chairman of the Yogyakarta chapter of the United Development Party (PPP), Syukri Fadholi, claimed that the leaders, Djan Faridz and Romahurmuziy, had breached the partys constitution.

Djan and Romahurmuziy previously expressed their support for incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama in the upcoming runoff election.

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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang, Central Java  Sun, April 16, 2017 10:21 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde95bb3a 1 National Unwahas,Wahid-Hasyim,Wahid-Hasyim-University,religion-and-peace-studies,Semarang,religious-tolerance Free

The Wahid Hasyim University (Unwahas) Semarang, which is affiliated with Nahdatul Ulama (NU), launched on Saturday a center for religious and peace studies to help religions become friendly and peaceful in Indonesia's society.

Taslim Sahlan, the director of the new center, said creating the institution was a way for his university to exercise its academic responsibilities.

The main task of this center is to carry out academic work. The presence of this study center would be important amid a spread of religious groups, which often have inhumane faces, said Taslim in the launch of the center in Semarang.

He said the real virtues of religion should be peace, justice and humanity. However, the noble values of a religion have often been distorted by acts that contradict its teachings. Political interests have often used religious symbols to legitimize themselves, said Taslim, a lecturer in religion studies at the university.

Meanwhile, Unwahas rector Mudzakkir Ali said his campus was committed to continuously promoting the spirit of a moderate Islam. As an educational institution of Indonesias largest Islamic organization, Unwahas will strive to become a vanguard in efforts to cultivate Indonesian and nationalist values, he said.

Tedi Kholiludin, one of researchers in the center, said: We will strive to use social sciences efficiently as a scalpel in trying to understand religion-related phenomena.

Tedi said religion-related phenomena could not be understood only from a theological viewpoint. When we talk about conflicts in the name of religion, we cannot deny that there are many factors that can lead to the conflicts, he said. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 16, 2017 17:44 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde967b0e 1 National Jokowi,Jokowi-administration,King-Salman-Abdulaziz-Al-Saud,investment Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has said he was only joking when he said he was a little disappointed that Saudi Arabia had made a meager investment in Indonesia even though he had gone the extra mile in courting King Salman bin Abdul Aziz during his recent visit to Jakarta.

The statements were not serious as they were made during an informal forum, he said after inaugurating the KH Hasyim Asyari Grand Mosque in West Jakarta on Saturday,

The President said the fact that the kingdom had made a larger investment in China was a wake-up call for world's largest Muslim majority country to improve its investment climate. It showed that the Saudis were more comfortable investing in China, he said.

Why cant we get investment? Its because our investment climate and investment ratings are still low. Not to mention legal certainty, which needs to be improved, he said.

On Thursday, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said he was disappointed to learn that Saudi Arabia had invested US$65 billion in China, almost ten times the Rp 89 trillion ($6.71 billion) pledged to Indonesia.

"[Saudi] investment in Indonesia is big, but I am surprised that when the King went to China, he signed [contracts worth over] Rp 870 trillion [$65 billion]," Jokowi said.

"I even held up the umbrella for the King, but we got a smaller amount. I am a little bit disappointed, just a little," he said. (dis/ary)
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Linkedin Jim Gomez (Associated Press) Manila  Sun, April 16, 2017 13:55 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde96192a 2 World #Philippine,#IslamicStateAttack Free

A foiled attack on a central Philippine resort island this week was a kidnapping and bombing mission by at least three extremist groups affiliated with the Islamic State group in one of their most daring terror plots, security officials said Saturday.

The Philippine military initially said that government forces, backed by airstrikes, successfully detected and thwarted a kidnapping plot by Abu Sayyaf militants in the island province of Bohol, a popular tourist destination far from the militants' southern jungle bases.

Three soldiers, a policeman, two villagers and at least four militants, including key Abu Sayyaf commander and spokesman Moammar Askali, were killed in the daylong siege Tuesday in a hinterland village in Bohol's Inabanga town.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said combined military and police forces in Bohol thwarted "major terrorist activities" by the militants, who were aiming to divert the military's focus from intense offensives on the militants' jungle encampments in southern Sulu province and outlying islands.

"The persons who died in the area, some of whom have been identified to be known terrorists, are still the subject of a continuing investigation to ascertain their participation," Padilla said, adding that the result of the investigation would be made public in the near future.

Interviews with three security officials, along with documents and pictures seen by The Associated Press, indicated that three extremist groups that have pledged allegiance to IS deployed their leading bombers and fighters, some of whom wore IS-style black flag patches, for the Bohol assault.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the ongoing investigation of the foiled attack.

While considered a key commander and emerging leader of Abu Sayyaf, Askali had also led a hard-line Abu Sayyaf faction called the Marakat Ansar Battalion, which is among 10 small armed groups that pledged allegiance to IS about three years ago and formed an IS-inspired alliance in the southern Philippines. Askali had been implicated in the beheadings of two Canadian hostages last year and a German tourist in February in Sulu's jungles, the officials said.

Other Abu Sayyaf commanders have refused to align themselves with the Middle East-based extremist group, according to the officials.

Aside from Askali, another key Sulu-based militant killed in Bohol was Edimar Isnain, who had worked with Malaysian and Indonesian militants in assembling bombs and leading bomb-making training for recruits of Abu Sayyaf and another violent group called Dawla Islamiya Ranao, also known as the Maute group, based in southern Lanao del Sur province.

Troops recovered four assault rifles, rifle grenades and a sack load of bomb-making materials, including detonating cords, blasting caps and electronic bomb parts, a military report said.

The AP obtained military pictures of Isnain's body, which was dug up by troops in Inabanga, and the other casualties, including an elderly village couple. It's not clear whether the two Inabanga villagers were killed in the crossfire or gunned down by the cornered Abu Sayyaf militants at the height of the fighting.

The militants, who traveled from Sulu, more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) by motor boat to the south of Bohol, were guided to Inabanga's interior hinterlands by Joselito Melloria, a convert to Islam. Military officials believed he may have been designated to lead another IS-linked extremist band called Ansar Khilafa Philippines had the Bohol attack been successful, the officials said. The AKP group's leader, Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, was killed by Philippine counterterrorism forces in southern Sarangani province in January.

Melloria, who uses the nom de guerre Abu Alih and allowed the militants to stay at his Inabanga home, was wounded in the Bohol fighting and escaped with several other militants, the three officials said.

It remains unclear what the targets of the militants were, but Bohol draws foreign and local tourists for its beach resorts, waterfalls, caves and wildlife. Bohol island lies about 640 kilometers (397 miles) southeast of Manila and is about an hour by boat from Cebu province, a trade and tourism center. Bohol is to host a meeting next week of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the regional bloc the Philippines is leading this year.

Militants from the three IS-linked groups first collaborated by bombing a night market in southern Davao city, President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown, in a 2016 attack that killed 15 people and prompted Duterte to declare a state of lawless violence. The Bohol attack was the farthest and most daring plot so far by the allied militants. Duterte has threatened to place the south under martial law if terrorism threats spiral out of control.

A few days before the Bohol violence, the U.S. Embassy in Manila advised Americans to take precautions amid "unsubstantiated yet credible information" of possible kidnappings by terrorists in Bohol and other central areas. A number of other Western embassies, including Canada and Britain, later issued similar travel warnings to their citizens.

Abu Sayyaf militants on Thursday beheaded a kidnapped Filipino fishing boat captain in Sulu, apparently in retaliation for the death of their comrades in Bohol and the failure of the hostage's family to pay ransom, officials said.
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Linkedin N. Adri (The Jakarta Post) Balikpapan, East Kalimantan  Sun, April 16, 2017 18:21 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde9685b8 1 National #NewZealand,#drugs,#Indonesia Free

Balikpapan District Court of East Kalimantan sentenced New Zealand citizen Gregory John Harland White, 53, earlier this week to 11 years in jail and Rp 800 million (US$61,000) in fines for owning and consuming 29.7 grams of crystal methamphetamine, locally known as sabu-sabu.



Gregory, through his lawyer Yohannes Marokko, said on Sunday they have not decided whether or not to appeal the verdict.



Presiding Judge Purnomo Amin Cahyo said the defendant was proved to have controlled and provided methamphetamine as stipulated by Article 112 of Law No. 35/2009 on narcotics. Gregory pleaded guilty to all charges.



"The indictment points were met. He was proved as having controlled and stored 29.7 grams of crystal meth," Purnomo said.

(Read also: NZ woman sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for drug possession)



Police arrested Harland in October 2016 at the Palm Hills housing complex, South Balikpapan, and confiscated 29.7 grams of crystal meth, a digital scale as well as a car.



Harland brought the methamphetamine from Malaysia via sea into Batam and brought it to Balikpapan by plane. Before he was arrested, Gregory successfully passed the examination at the airport by tying the drugs to his leg with black duct tape. (dis)
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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang, Central Java  Sun, April 16, 2017 10:35 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde95d946 1 National national-anthem,Indonesia-Raya,KPI,Indonesian-Broadcasting-Commission,nationalism Free

The Central Java chapter of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPID) reports that half of the 16 television stations monitored in the country do not air the national anthem routinely when opening and closing their broadcasts.

The KPID reported only 4.3 percent of 23 radio stations monitored did not play Indonesia Raya at some time. However, 30 percent of the radio stations did not routinely play any of the mandatory nationalist songs either in at the beginning or end of their broadcasts.

We are calling on all television and radio stations to air both Indonesia Raya and other nationalist songs routinely. This is mandated by KPI Regulation No. 1/2012 on broadcasting behavior guidelines, KPID Central Java head Budi Setyo Purnomo said on Friday.

The monitoring of the implementation of the KPI regulation was conducted in March and April.

Budi said airing Indonesia Raya and other nationalist songs was important for strengthening the implementation of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution. He said the KPI regulation explicitly required all broadcasting institutions to air Indonesia Raya at the opening of their programs and nationalist songs at the closing of their broadcasts.

If a TV or radio station has a 24-hour broadcasting period, Indonesia Raya must be aired at 6 a.m., while the nationalist songs should be broadcast at midnight. Efforts to adhere to this broadcasting rule are really important for strengthening our spirit of nationalism, said Budi.

Tazkiyatul Muthmainnah, a KPID member in the division that monitors broadcasting content, highlighted the importance of airing nationalist songs.

In this current global era, nationalist songs aired through television and radio are needed to remind people about their country and nation. (ebf)
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat today gave National Security Advisor Ajit Doval updates on the situation in Kashmir, a day after he met Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar on Saturday.

By Manjeet Negi: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat today called on National Security Advisor Ajit Doval at his residence, and updated him on the situation in Kashmir.

General Bipin Rawat's meeting with Doval comes a day after he met Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar on Saturday.

That meeting was held a day after a video showing a youth tied to the bonnet of an Army jeep in Budgam district surfaced.

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Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah shared the video on his Twitter account, and expressed anger over the youth being tied to the jeep as a warning for stone pelters.

Earlier on Saturday, General Rawat met Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra in Jammu, where he briefed him on the prevailing situation in Kashmir.

ALSO READ | Viral video shows Kashmiri youth tied to the front of moving army jeep

ALSO READ | Army Chief General Bipin Rawat apprises Jammu and Kashmir Governor of recent state, Army conflicts

ALSO READ | General Bipin Rawat made honorary General of Nepal Army

ALSO WATCH | Gen Bipin Rawat to India Today on first day of office: Restoring peace in JK top priority

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 16, 2017 14:32 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde963731 2 Business Panasonic,Nadya-Hutagalung Free

PT Panasonic Gobel Indonesia, one of the country's major electronics manufacturers, wants to triple the growth of its sales within the next three years.

To achieve the target, the company said it would boost its promotional activities and advertisement spending to maintain its relations with its dealers and consumers.

With such a strategy, we hope to triple our sales growth by 2020, president director Hiroyoshi Suga said during the recent launch of the companys Lets Live Life Better campaign in Jakarta.

For this year, the company, a subsidiary of Japan's electronics giant Panasonic, said it plans to launch 121 new models in all product categories, such as air conditioners, televisions, refrigerators and washing machines.

(Read also: Panasonic Gobel targets 20% sales growth this year)

With this expansion, the company said it hopes the product varieties between the top-end and low-end markets will be balanced, Suga said.

For the April 2017 to March 2018 fiscal year, the company said it expects its sales to grow by 20 percent, an improvement from the 15 percent growth in the previous fiscal year.

The company claimed that it controls a 23 percent share in Indonesias home appliance market. By far, it said air conditioner sales have made up the largest portion of overall sales, with a 25 percent contribution, followed by the sales of refrigerators, televisions and washing machines. (ecn/hwa)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 16, 2017 16:58 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde966eff 1 City #FPI,#car,#fire,#Jakarta Free

Police are continuing to investigate the burning of a car in the vicinity of a tabligh akbar (mass prayer event) organized by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) in Cawang, East Jakarta, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

We have gathered statements from several witnesses as part of the investigation, said Comr. Wasiem, East Jakarta Police spokesperson on Sunday, as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com.

Wasiem said the car caught fire and exploded on Jl. MT Haryono after midnight. Members of the congregation extinguished the fire and examined two other cars that were parked near the scene of the fire.

(Read also: FPI head urges judges to detain Ahok)

People found a jerry can, which is believed to have been filled with gasoline, said Wasiem.

According to the report, the FPI claim the incident was an act of terror. (kuk/jun)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 16, 2017 13:31 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde9612cd 2 Business tanjung-priok,toll-road,Jokowi,Budi-Karya-Sumadi Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo on Saturday officially opened the Tanjung Priok toll road to traffic. As part of the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR), it was built to improve the efficiency of moving vehicles to and from North Jakartas Tanjung Priok Port, the countrys busiest.

The construction of the 11.4-kilometer toll road, which connects the JORR and the Jakarta Inner Ring Road, began in 2008 and was financed by more than Rp 4.1 trillion (US$307.5 million) in loans from the Japanese government.

The completion of the toll road was delayed for about six years because of issues related to land acquisition and technical matters, including the reconstruction of 69 concrete piles.

(Read also: Tanjung Priok vows to reduce container shipment cost)

President Jokowi said he expected the road would help thousands of container trucks more efficiently access Tanjung Priok Port every day.

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi, meanwhile, estimated that the new toll road would cut about an hour off the trip to the port.

The faster the trip the better our competitiveness in the transportation of goods. This will also help firms reduce their overall production costs, he said.

For the next 30 days, drivers can use the Tanjung Priok toll road free of charge.

Tanjung Priok Port serves as the countrys main gateway for international trade. It handles almost 70 percent of the countrys imports. (yon/hwa)
Hes back: Acting Jakarta governor Sumarsono (left to right), non-active governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama and deputy governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat shake hands during a handover ceremony at City Hall in Jakarta on Saturday. The ceremony marked Ahoks resumption of the governorship after concluding his leave for the election campaign.(Antara/Aprillio Akbar)(left to right), non-active governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama and deputy governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat shake hands during a handover ceremony at City Hall in Jakarta on Saturday. The ceremony marked Ahoks resumption of the governorship after concluding his leave for the election campaign.(Antara/Aprillio Akbar)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 17 2017

Amid the escalating anti-pluralism that has latched onto the April 19 Jakarta gubernatorial runoff election, President Joko Jokowi Widodo is saying the recently inaugurated KH Hasyim Asyari Grand Mosque in Daan Mogot, West Jakarta, should be a pillar of diversity for both the capital and the country.

The first city-owned grand mosque was named after KH Hasyim Asyari, one of the most celebrated Muslim clerics and the founder of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesias largest Muslim organization. Asyari was declared a national hero in 1964.

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Linkedin Winny Tang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 17 2017

Publicly listed property developer Plaza Indonesia Realty expects its revenue this year to remain the same as last year as the economic slowdown keeps peoples purchasing power weak.

The company, which runs hotels, shopping centers and office buildings, projects it will book around Rp 1.6 trillion (US$120 million) in revenue in 2017, the same as it recorded last year. This estimate is based on the presumption that the property markets lackluster performance will continue.

We expect our revenue to remain flat in anticipation of an unpromising property market, finance director Lucy Suyanto said during a public briefing on Thursday.

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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 17 2017

The government recently included energy subsidies in President Joko Jokowi Widodos flagship Prosperous Family Cards (KKS), but whether such inclusion leads to the proper distribution of the subsidies remains to be seen.

The energy subsidy inclusion is made possible with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and Bank Indonesia (BI) on Thursday.

Under the agreement, BI will help facilitate and monitor the distribution of energy subsidies through the KKS, which uses an integrated system connecting four state-owned lenders, namely Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Bank Mandiri and Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN).

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 16, 2017 16:03 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde965eba 1 News aceh,travel,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia Free

Amid the growing popularity of Aceh as the go-to place for halal tourism, the province now wants to promote its central region for adventure travel involving outdoor activities such as rafting, hiking and paragliding.

Aceh Tourism Agency head Reza Fahlevi says the development of the central region as a tourist destination is now possible since the road access connecting Bener Meriah to Lhokseumawe has been improved and more mid-size planes are flying to Rembele airport.

Read also: Aceh: a guide for visitors

The central region of Aceh has the perfect environment to support adventure travel. By promoting the area as a tourist destination it also improves its economy, explains Fahlevi.

According to Fahlevi, there are five areas that can be developed as adventure travel destinations. They are Gayo, Southeast Aceh, Gayo Lues, Bener Meriah and Central Aceh.

Currently, the Tourism Ministry is developing 12 destinations for adventure travel across Indonesia: Krakatau, Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park and Rinjani for hiking, Bali, Ijen Crater and Komodo Island for trekking, Citarik Sukabumi, the Alas River in Aceh and the Elo River in Central Java for rafting and Gunungkidul, Pacitan and Maros for spelunking. (asw)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 16, 2017 14:23 2032 a291276806121264c0bd211cde962f05 1 News France,travel-agents,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism,#tourism Free

The Tourism Ministry is currently conducting a familiarization trip from April 10 to 17 for French tour operators and travel agents to North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Belitung.

The group, led by Visit Indonesia Tourism Officer (VITO) in France, Eka Moncarre, and consisting of representatives from Explorator, Bali Seken, CFA Voyages, the Marco Vasco Travel Agency and La Maison du Voyages tour operators and travel agents, is visiting Sumatras famous tourist attractions, such as Lake Toba and Ngarai Sianok.

The French representatives were also to meet operators from West Sumatra, such as PT. Ora Tour, Bravo Tours Padang, On Amanah Digita, PT. Raun Sumatra, Grand Zuri Hotel, Grand Rocky Hotel, Malalatour Indonesia, Limpapah Tour, Ero Tours and Tibo Balai Tours.

Read also: Govt to develop West Sumatra as halal tourist destination

Seventy percent of overseas tourists that came to West Sumatra were Malaysian, 5 percent were from Australia, while the rest were from Singapore, India and Europe, but the number of tourists from these countries arent that high, said West Sumatra Tourism Agency head Oni Yulfian at the start of the meeting.

Flash back to the 1990s and 2000s and there were a lot of European tourists, especially from German and France, who came here. Now the numbers are quite low. Were hoping [to] bring in more European tourists to visit this place, added the head of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agents (ASITA) in West Sumatra and Ero Tour CEO, Ian Hanafiah.

Moreover, Tom Colmaire of the Marco Vasco Travel Agency said the event could lead to future partnerships with travel agents in West Sumatra. (kes)
The alienation of the people is near total, as manifest in the abysmal turnout during the Srinagar byelection.

Eight civilians, including a 15-year-old schoolboy, killed in police firing; at least 300, including a hundred security personnel injured-but perhaps the most ominous signal from the still-to-be-concluded April 9 Lok Sabha byelection in Srinagar is the abysmal 7.1 per cent voter turnout.

It's the lowest since the beginning of the turmoil in Kashmir in 1989, when Mohammad Shafi Bhat of the National Conference took Srinagar without contest, but the alienation of the people across the Valley was writ in the five per cent turnout in neighbouring Anantnag and Baramulla. Apprehensions of even greater violence and a more embarrassing rejection of the poll process forced the Election Commission of India to defer the other J&K byelection slated for April 12 in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency in volatile South Kashmir.

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Ever since 1996, when despite militancy being at its peak, Kashmiris voted in large numbers (53.9 per cent in assembly polls and 48.1 in Lok Sabha), Delhi has consistently presented the high voter turnouts as evidence of the common Kashmiri's commitment to Indian democracy. This was tom-tommed even more in 2014 when close to 50 per cent voted in the Lok Sabha elections, and a resounding 65.2 per cent turned out in the assembly elections that saw the Peoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party cobble an unlikely alliance to form the state government. Now, the events of the past week, using Delhi's own yardstick, seem to suggest that the Valley is more alienated than ever before.

"It's very quickly getting to a situation worse than the late 1980s," says a former J&K police officer who fears the anger that erupted after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani's killing in July last year "hasn't abated".

During polling in Srinagar on April 9, scores of young men, some with their faces masked, pelted stones and petrol bombs at security forces deployed outside polling stations. J&K's chief electoral officer (CEO) Shantamanu listed "200 incidents of violence" including a polling booth set on fire, polling officials thrashed and vehicles ferrying security personnel and EC staff torched. The handful of voters that did emerge from their homes were fearful of being recognised. Many had their faces covered.

It wasn't unlike the spontaneous protests through 2016 summer, or more recently the crowds of youth pelting stones at army and police personnel battling militants in encounters.

Back in December 2016, amid relative peace in the Valley, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had candidly admitted that it was "a fragile calm". She had also spoken about "building bridges and mending fences". But given the ferocity of the response to the byelections, it would appear that, between Srinagar and Delhi, the opportunity to offer remedies during the winter hiatus may have been lost.

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A museum is asking fans of Jim Hensons Muppets to help pay for an exhibition featuring original puppets of beloved characters like Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog.

The Museum of the Moving Image in New York City has launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking 40,000 dollars (32,000) to help preserve the puppets for posterity.

Jim Hensons work has meant so much to so many people, myself included, actor Neil Patrick Harris says in a video on the Kickstarter page.

His humour and inventiveness have inspired people to find their own creative voices.

The Queens museum owns hundreds of Henson puppets and other objects including costumes and props, all donated by Hensons family in 2013. Henson died in 1990.

Museum staff members are working to conserve the items along with Jim Hensons Creature Shop, which was founded by Henson in 1979 and carries on his work, and fine-arts conservators.

Curator Barbara Miller said the museum has never turned to crowdfunding before but it made sense for the Muppet exhibit because the community of fans is so active.

She said: This is one element of an effort to cross the finish line for fundraising.

Kermit the Frog, Ricky Gervais, Miss Piggy and Constantine at a screening of Muppets Most Wanted in 2014 (Justin Tallis/PA)

Donors will get perks including T-shirts, artisanal chocolate and naming rights to a puppet pedestal.

Museum officials are hoping to open the exhibit this summer.

Besides the puppets, the exhibit will feature rarely seen video footage and photographs going back to Hensons early work in television in the 1950s.

A travelling exhibition using objects from the collection will open on May 20 at Seattles Museum of Pop Culture.
The modeling industry is one that is heavily glamourised and lusted after by many women. And who can blame them? Youve got the parties, the attention, the free gifts and the fame to start with. Just imagine getting paid to strut down a catwalk and strike a pose.

A post shared by 60 Minutes Australia (@60minutes9) on Mar 29, 2017 at 2:17am PDT

The media often sweeps the truth under the carpet, continuing to promote this false representation of glitz and glamour. But this isnt the reality. In fact, its a million miles from it.

60 Minutes' documentary Waist Not, Want Not, aired in Australia earlier this month, sought to highlight the truths behind the spotlight. A particularly revealing segment of the show featured models who have walked away from the industry, leaving their dreams do die behind them, because of horrific battles with eating and body image.

Shocking and quite frankly disturbing comments were made from the two young women, with model Victoire Dauxerre claiming she didnt think models could have a successful career if they didnt have an eating disorder.

The girls employed incredibly unhealthy methods to stay skinny, including taking laxatives, enemas and eating as little as just three apples in an entire day.

A post shared by Ginger Broussard (@willdanceforfood) on Oct 19, 2016 at 9:47am PDT





I feel like I needed to shave a bone off. I dont know how to get smaller, model Edyn Mackney confessed.

Both models admitted that most cases eating disorders within the industry are hidden away from the public eye, while their images are sold to the public as idealised images of how a woman should look.

Its like the only ideal of beauty today is to be skinny, Edyn says.

After seeing more variation of sizes on the front covers of womens glossies, and clothing brands hiring different sized models, you could be forgiven for believing that we were progressing away from the idea that a models' success is reliant upon how skinny they are. But unfortunatley this just isn't happening fast enough.

A post shared by Edyn Mackney (@edynmackney) on Apr 2, 2017 at 2:07am PDT

Sure, theres nothing wrong with being a size 6, and theres nothing wrong with being a size 14 either: but some fashion companies still seem to be promoting this unhealthy trend, costing models to face either giving up their careers, or risking their lives.

The documentary has highlighted the need for more models to speak up about the realities of the modelling industry in order for the world to take further action: but for now, the topic will be brushed beneath us, and these women will have to suffer in silence.

Of course, it's not that every model will face this form of hell day in and day out, but the fact that sort of oppression is happening to any woman in the 21st Century just shows how far we have yet to go.
Glossier is the new budget-beauty brand looking to takeover you make-up bag this year.

The cult beauty brand launched in the US in 2014, and is now the go-to brand of the budget-beauty market. Looking to rival the likes of MUA, Rimmell London and Make-Up Revolution, the high-flying brand has announced a trip across the atlantic, available for all beauty lovers in the UK to get their polished hands later this year.

Here are five reasons why this glossy new brand deserves a spot saving on your dressing table:

1. The packaging is cute AF

Clean cut, super-simple and ultra-girly, these products will be a gorgeous addition to your makeup bag or bathroom counter. We love the bold fonts, chic design and neutral shades: talk about truly insta-worthy stuff.

A post shared by Glossier (@glossier) on Jan 1, 2017 at 5:27pm PST

2. The quality of the products is next level





Glossier products are majorly pigmented, crazily shiny and manage to give a natural, healthy appearance that will give get you vibing off that stripped back look.

A post shared by Glossier (@glossier) on Apr 3, 2017 at 3:06pm PDT

3. Its seriously affordable

Good quality skin products can be soooo pricey, so we were so happy to see that some of their pieces start from as little as $12 (9.62). Now thats a price tag we can certainly get used to

A post shared by Glossier (@glossier) on Apr 4, 2017 at 5:57am PDT

4. Its completely cruelty free!

Thats right girls, Glossier do not test any of their products on animals - so from their lip sheen to their moisturising serum: you can wear it with pride! If that isnt reason enough to love the brand what is?

A post shared by Glossier (@glossier) on Mar 27, 2017 at 3:55pm PDT

5. Theres a ridiculous amount of choice

The brand boasts such a variety of products to cater for all of your beauty fix needs! Rich facemasks, dewy primers and natural brow serums are just some of the fab goodies you need to start collecting asap.
Home to beautiful tropical beaches, exotic wildlife and lush rainforests, Costa Rica has become increasingly popular to British tourists.

According to Caroline King, Rickshaw Travel's Product Manager, 60% more families have chosen to travel to Costa Rica with Rickshaw Travel within the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same time last year.

Here are five reasons for families to visit the land of 'Pura Vida' with the parents/siblings/cousins in tow...



It's been repeatedly ranked the happiest country in the world

In 2009, 2012 and 2016 Costa Rica was ranked number one (out of 140) Happy Planet Index.

Costa Ricans lead long, happy lives and benefit from higher levels of wellbeing than both the UK and the USA. The country chooses to invest more money into things like health and education, which is a large contributor to this.

This quality of life is reflected in the country's 'happy' disposition: one thing that tourists tend to remember about visiting Costa Rica is the friendly and helpful nature of the locals, and the importance placed on the family unity.

Families feel safe

According to the Association of British Travel Agents reports, over the past two years people have been choosing to holiday in places they perceived to be safer. Costa Rica is well-known for its peaceful temperament, ever since former president Jose Figueres Ferrer abolished the army in 1948, so this may be one of the leading things that makes Costa Rica so attractive to families.

Its diverse landscape

Costa Rica is home to 5% of the worlds biodiversity and 3.5% of the world's marine life  making it one of the most biologically rich countries in the world. Its microclimates mean you can enjoy sunny beaches, tropical rainforests, colonial sites and even look into the mouth of a few volcanoes, all in one stunning country!

Families can embark on active microadventures

According to ABTA research one in ten people took an activity holiday in 2016, and its thought this figure is only going to increase in 2017. As society has become more health conscious, holidaymakers are even more likely to opt for microadventures involving a short break or a section of their holiday dedicated to experiencing the destination in a fun and immersive way by being active.

If you want to get outside and enjoy a healthy lifestyle, Costa Rica is the place to go. You could go snorkelling, stay in a jungle lodge, go dolphin spotting or visit a pineapple farm!

Its a pioneer in sustainable tourism

Producing 93% of its electricity from renewable resources, 25% of its landmass being national parks and reserves and ibeing on track to become the first carbon neutral nation within a few years, Costa Rica is a world leader in conservation policies. Costa Rica has its own Sustainable Tourism Certification to measure and promote the level of sustainability in the tourism industry, and all of the country's new initiatives are built around the social and economic development, and the preservation of its cultural and natural richness.
The advice comes a day after masked militants barged into the houses of police personnel and allegedly thrashed them in south Kashmir.

By Ashraf Wani: Director General of Police on Sunday advised all policemen not to visit their homes for few months in wake of the recent attacks on their families in recent past.

"There have been few recent incidents in Valley where (militants), anti-national and anti-social elements have tried to cause damage to life and property of police personnel particularly from south Kashmir. In view of the unfortunate incidents, police personnel particularly from south Kashmir are advised to exercise extreme caution while visiting their homes for next few months as their personal security is of paramount importance," the DGP said in a message sent to all police officers.

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"All the unit heads are directed to brief their officers and men regarding the impeding threat and ensure that the life and property of police personnel is well secured," said the advisory described as "most urgent matter."

The advice comes a day after masked militants barged into the houses of Ct Mehrajdin Shah and constable Abdul Rashid of Hajipora Shopian and allegedly thrashed the former and broke the window panes. They also directed Mehraj to announce from local Masjid loudspeaker that all policemen should resign immediately or face consequences. Another constable was targeted at Chodgam in Shopian when militants forced him to announce resignation publicly through mosque loudspeaker.

Earlier, the DGP, on March 8, issued an indirect warning to militants that their families could be harmed too if they try to target those of policemen in the state.

"My take is; we should not bring the families into this conflict whether those of terrorists or policemen. Families have nothing to do with this. We must keep them away from this," J&K's Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid said.

The threat was issued after militants warned a police officer's family to ask their ward to "quit or face the consequences".

On March 4, some militants had barged into the residence of a police officer of Deputy SP's rank in Chillipora Heff village in southern Shopian district, and reportedly damaged electronic appliances and broke windowpanes and warned his family that he should "quit his job or face the consequences."

Also read:

J&K Police issues advisories to its units on weapon snatching

Militants challenge another senior cop at his residence in Kashmir

WATCH THE VIDEO:

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By Press Trust of India: rejected

Nashik, Apr 16 (PTI) A court here has rejected the anticipatory bail applications of a New Delhi-based woman journalist and a retired army official charged with abetting suicide of Lance Naik D S Roy Mathew.

Mathew had committed suicide after he purportedly figured in an expose by a news portal over alleged abuse of the "buddy" (orderly) system in the army.

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District and Sessions Judge M S Pathan rejected the applications of Poonam Agrawal, a journalist with a news portal, and retired army officer Deepchand Kashmirsing yesterday after the court was informed that they needed to be arrested to get more information in connection with the case.

Both Agrawal and Kashmirsing had moved their bail plea in the court on April 9.

The prosecution told the court that it was necessary to impound the camera and the memory card used by Agarwal in carrying out the sting operation by entering an army area illegally.

The jawan had hanged himself after a video on the "abuse" of buddy system surfaced which showed soldiers, working as sahayaks, walking dogs of senior officials or taking their children to school.

Mathew had gone missing on February 25 soon after the video became public and his body was found in a decomposed state in a barrack at Deolalis Heig Line on March 2.

Deolali police had on March 27 registered a case against Agrawal and Kashmirsing for offences under the stringent sections 3 (spying) and 7 (interfering with officers of the police or membersof the armed forces of the Union) of the Official Secrets Act.

Agrawal was also booked for violating army rules by entering prohibited areas and conducting a shoot there without permission.

She was also charged under sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 451 (criminal trespass), 500 (defamation) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC. PTI HVJ RMT SC

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A Peoples Democratic Party worker and his cousin, also a party worker, were attacked by militants in the Pulwama district, police said.

Tensions are high in the Kashmir Valley (Picture for representation)

By Ashraf Wani: A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) worker was killed and another was injured after militants opened fire upon them in south Kashmir's Pulwama district on Saturday evening.

A police officer told India Today that the militants opened fire at the two workers in the Qasbayar locality of Rajpora, Pulwama.

Both of them sustained bullet injuries and were shifted to the district hospital in Pulwama where one of them was declared brought dead on arrival, the officer said.

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The deceased has been identified as 45-year-old Bashir Ahmad Dar while the other PDP workers is his cousin, Altaf Ahmad Dar.

Altaf was later referred to the Bone and Joint hospital in Barzullah, Srinagar. Bashir, according to reports, used to run a medical shop in Rajpora.

Sources told India Today that both Bashir and Altaf had been warned by militants to disassociate themselves from mainstream politics.

TENSION GRIPS KASHMIR

The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Valley where several civilians were recently killed after clashing with security forces during the Srinagar Parliamentary by-poll.

The violence in during the Srinagar by-election, which saw less than 10 per cent polling, led to the Election Commission postponing the Anantnag by-poll.

On Saturday, National Conference chief and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah won the Srinagar by-poll even as a youngster was killed and several more were injured in police firing in Pulwama.

Yesterday's violence followed two videos, one of youths heckling and kicking CRPF personnel and the other of Indian Army soldiers using a civilian as a human shield, going viral on social media.

ALSO WATCH | I'm not even a stone-pelter, says Kashmiri man tied to jeep

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Woman dies in two-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 12 west of Milbank

One person is dead and two more are injured after a two-vehicle crash Monday morning near Milbank.
Actress Kriti Sanon said her co-star Sushant Singh Rajput kept her on her toes during the shooting of their upcoming film Raabta.

He (Sushant) is fabulous. He is an amazing actor so he keeps you on your toes. He gets into the skin of the character and does a lot of homework in detail. If you have a good co-actor your performance also enhances, Kriti told reporters.

The actress was talking on the sidelines of International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) voting weekend press meet here on Sunday.

Ever since Sushant and Kriti began shooting for their upcoming romantic drama, reports of their growing closeness started doing the rounds.

When asked about the same, Kriti said, It's better to ignore them.

The 26-year-old actress will be seen doing some action sequences in Raabta and she enjoyed every bit of it.

There is a section in the film that requires action. I always wanted to do it. So I am excited about it. It makes you feel little stronger when you doing and learning it. It is very difficult to do it. I have had lot of cuts and bruises but it was a great experience, she said.

Directed by Dinesh Vijan and produced by Homi Adajania and T-Series, the film is set to release on June 9.

Kriti was last seen in 2015 Dilwale and had no release last year, but the actress said absence from big screen did not bother her.

I was working constantly. If I am not working and sitting at home then I get very restless. But I was constantly working. I have finished Raabta and Bareily Ki Barfi. I will have back-to-back releases. Release of a film is unfortunately not in my hands, she said.
Private lender Axis Bank has touched 1 million micro-borrowers mark and is not keen on acquiring stake in any microlender, a senior official has said.

Three years after getting into the segment, the bank touched 1 million borrowers mark recently and all of them are women who have availed of credit through the joint lending group model, Axis Bank's retail banking head Rajiv Anand told PTI.

Stating that the book stands at Rs.1,100 crore now, he hinted that the bank will focus on expanding the business organically rather than buying into a microfinance company.

As of now, we don't believe there is any need for us to take on any equity stake in an MFI, Anand said.

It can be noted that other lenders like Kotak Mahindra Bank and IDFC Bank, among others have acquired stakes in MFIs, while IndusInd Bank is in talks with Bharat Financial (formerly SKS) for what can be one of the biggest acquisitions in the space.

As many as 90 per cent of Axis Bank's borrowers have been tapped by the bank's dedicated team of 1,600 people, while the rest have come from intermediaries, Anand said.

The average ticket size of its micro loans is Rs.18,000 and there is a three-tier rate structure with interest ranging from 12 to 22 per cent, he said, asserting that this is a profitable business for the bank.

Axis Bank is present in 18 states with its microlending offerings and is targeting to take it to 22 states by 2020, he added.

Even as the bank faces regulatory action for alleged irregularities during the note-ban period, Anand said he is proud of the work done by his retail banking staff.

Anand said the average transactions jumped four times of the usual during the period, and the bank also had to work with the rules getting changed every day almost.

Asserting that Axis Bank is not the only one to have been found of indulging in irregularities, Anand admitted that there have been a few stray incidents and we have a zero tolerance on such issues. Strictest action has been taken against all those indulged in irregularities.

He also said, speculation of the bank merging with another one does not have any bearing on its expansion strategies, underlining that such talk has been denied.

Even as the advent of digital banking raises concerns on the relevance of the network-led model, Anand said 90 per cent of customers for the banking system do not use digital alternatives.

He said physical networks are important from a brand trust perspective and that the nature of the work undertaken at the branches can undergo a change eventually.
Just when it seemed India-Pakistan relations couldn't get any worse, came the April 10 announcement that Pakistan was to execute Kulbhushan Jadhav, a retired Indian naval commander supposedly arrested in Balochistan on March 3 last year and charged with spying.

According to a Pakistani military press release, army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed Jadhav's death sentence handed down for "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities". India's external affairs ministry issued a demarche to Pakistan's high commissioner in Delhi, described Jadhav's trial as "farcical" and said the sentence, if carried out, would be viewed as "nothing short of premeditated murder".

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The ministry says Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran. Pakistan has denied Indian diplomats access to Jadhav 13 times since his arrest.

Military law experts say Jadhav's court martial goes against the spirit of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which calls for trial under an independent court. "India does not try civilians in military courts. Even those facing charges ofespionage are tried by our regular judiciary with the full rights available to any other citizen," says Major Navdeep Singh (retired), an expert in military law.

Pakistan's move was clearly aimed at diverting some of the flak it has taken in recent months following cross-border terrorist attacks and a voluble campaign to declare Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder Maulana Masood Azhar a global terrorist. Forcing the Pakistanis to stop Jadhav's execution will now put Indian diplomacy to test. Options on the table could include leaning on Pakistan's patrons and India's friends in the Arab world.

The Pakistani media, meanwhile, was rife with speculation that a retired Pakistani army officer, Lt Colonel Mohammad Habib, who went missing from Lumbini in Nepal on April 6, had been abducted by Indian security agencies in a tit-for-tat response to Jadhav's abduction. Just more smoke and mirrors?

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Two spectators died, one of them gored by a bull, and 80 persons were injured in the 'jallikattu' (bull taming) sport at M Pudur area of the district on Sunday police said.

32-year-old Thirunavakarau, an engineering graduate, died on the spot after he was attacked by the bull, while another man "died of shock" when another bull ran towards him.

The bull dashed into the barricade, behind which the man was standing. Out of shock, he suffered a cardiac arrest, collapsed and died on the spot, police said.

A total of 80 persons, mostly bull tamers, were injured in the event, they said.

Most of the injured were treated as outpatients at the medical outpost set up at the venue, while a few others were hospitalised.

Besides this, five persons were injured in a clash between two groups of bull tamers over the reported wrong announcement of the prize winners by the organisers.

Most of the prizes, including motorbikes, were damaged in the violence, police said.

Ten persons have been detained in connection with the clash, they added.
Unveiling its manifesto for the Delhi municipal polls, the BJP on Sunday promised social security for the unorganised sector, ownership rights for autorickshaw drivers, and more modern schools, among other things.

In its manifesto, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) announced it would give relief to the street vendors and small traders and others from the unorganised sector by providing them with a 'social security card', enabling them to avail of insurance, education, and health facilities through it.

The scheme, it said, will include autorickshaw drivers, daily-wage labourers, factory workers, domestic helps, and other weaker sections of society.

Focussing on the autorickshaw-drivers of Delhi, the manifesto promised to devise a scheme to get ownership rights to them.

It also promised to simplify rules for availing of bank loans and for registration process to make 'battery-driven' electric rickshaws more accessible to drivers.

The party also promised to increase the number of 'Model schools' in the city and vowed to bring government schools up to the level of public and private schools. Every school will have water-purifiers and CCTV cameras, it said.

On the health front, the party envisioned a "permanent health card" for inhabitants to avail of medical facilities at the hospitals.

Complete eradication of whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, and measles from the capital city through vaccination and immunisation programme was also assured to the city.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met the descendants of historical Paika Rebellion martyrs, who undertook an armed rebellion against the British rulers in Odisha in 1817.

He felicitated the families of freedom fighters at Raj Bhawan here in presence of Governor SC Jamir.

"Today, the history was recalled with pride. It is my honour to see the descendants of martyrs. Unfortunately, the long years of freedom movement was confined in few persons and specific period. We should recall the events and contribution of everyone who participated in the freedom struggle," said the Prime Minister.

He said Odisha secured the top position for its immense contribution for freedom movement.

After felicitating the family members of the freedom fighters, Modi also paid a visit to the famous Lingaraj temple here.

The Prime Minister is in the Odisha capital to attend the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's national executive meeting. He arrived here on Saturday amid massive fanfare as he held a roadshow.
Authorities on Sunday stepped up security at Hyderabad Airport following reported threats to hijack an aircraft.

Security was beefed up at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad on the city's outskirts as agencies responsible for different layers of security were put on alert.

Police beefed up the security at the main entry points to the airport area from Bengaluru and Srisailam highways. All vehicles were thoroughly checked.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is responsible for the security at the airport, deployed additional personnel in and around the terminal.

It enhanced baggage scanning, pre-embarkation checks and frisking of passengers.

An alert was also sounded at Mumbai and Chennai airports.

This came after a woman sent an email to a senior police officer in Mumbai stating that she overheard six men at a restaurant discussing simultaneous hijack of flights from the three airports.

Officials said while it could be a fake alarm, they were not taking any chances.

The CISF put the security apparatus on enhanced alert. It called sniffer dog squads and quick reaction teams for sanitisation drills.

The security agencies stepped up the vigil in around the terminal and at parking lot. The airlines were asked to be more vigilant.

Airlines have advised passengers to report on time and avoid last-minute check-ins. Passengers have also been advised to cooperate with the security personnel.
The Telangana legislature on Sunday unanimously passed a bill to hike the reservation quota for backward Muslims and the Scheduled Tribes to 12 and 10 per cent respectively.

Barring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which vehemently opposed the bill both inside and outside the legislature, the entire Opposition supported the Backward Class, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Reservation Bill, 2017.

After the assembly, the legislative council debated and passed the bill unanimously on Sunday evening.

The bill increased from the existing four per cent to 12 per cent the quota for the socially and economically backward among the Muslims under the Backward Classes (E) category, while the reservations for the Scheduled Tribes in educational institutions and government jobs go up from 6 per cent to 10 per cent.

The legislation will be sent for the President's assent with a request to include it in the Constitution's 9th Schedule as was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.

While all five members of BJP were suspended from the assembly, its lone member in council staged a walk-out.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement at BJP meet in Bhubaneswar in support of backwards among Muslims came handy for Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to put the party in a fix.

Speaking in the council, he welcomed the PM's statement and hoped that this will pave the way for implementation of hiked quota for backward among Muslims.

Replying to the debate, Chandrasekhar Rao said if the Centre refuses to accept Telengana's request to include the legislation in the 9th Schedule, the state would approach the Supreme Court.

"Tamil Nadu is implementing 69 per cent reservations for over two decades. Five to six states are providing more than 50 per cent reservation. How can you deny this to Telangana?" he asked.

The Supreme Court has put a cap of 50 per cent on all reservations both at the Centre and in the states.

The Chief Minister clarified that the reservations were being provided purely on the basis of socio-economic backwardness and not on the basis of religion or caste as some parties were projecting.

Terming it as a historic day, Rao said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), had during the election campaign, promised that quota for the Backward Classes (E) and the Scheduled Tribes will be increased in proportion to their population in the state.

He assured the Backward Classes that there will be no injustice to them and quotas for them too will be increased. The state government has directed the Backward Classes Commission to submit a report within six months.

Rao also said that the reservation for SCs, who constitute 16.3 per cent of the state's population, will be increased by one per cent and the government would soon set up an SC Commission.

The SCs currently enjoy 15 per cent reservations while the BCs have a total quota of 25 per cent and the new legislation will increase the total reservations in the state to 62 per cent.

The Chief Minister argued that there is no constitutional bar on providing more than 50 per cent reservation, while noting that as 90 per cent of Telangana's population comprises Backward Classes, SCs, STs and minorities, the state definitely needed more than 50 per cent reservation.

He made it clear that he will not beg the Centre but will fight to get the new quotas included in the 9th Schedule.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, said Telangana would raise this issue at the meeting of the Niti Aayog and in Parliament. He hoped that a debate on the issue will begin and consensus will build at the national level.

He defended the state's hike in quota for Muslims and hit back at the BJP for opposing it.

"Why can't we give them reservation? Why should they be denied reservation just because they are Muslims? Are they not part of this country? Are they not paying taxes?" he asked.

He pointed out that India has the largest Muslim community in the world and even some of the so-called Islamic countries do not have such a large Muslim population.

KCR said the promise to increase the Muslim quota was part of the TRS manifesto and people approved this agenda by giving their mandate to the party.

The AIMIM suggested to the government to take steps to protect the existing four per cent reservation while increasing the quota by eight per cent. Its member Ahmed Pasha Khadri said a new category BC (F) be created for hiked quota.

The Chief Minister, however, said there was no need for any apprehensions as there will be no threat to the existing four percent reservations.
Even the words 'Silk Route' or 'Silk Road' call to mind a tactile experience like touching a Banarasi saree or sipping on a piping hot chai among nomadic shepherds in remote mountains." These words by Hans Utter, who holds a doctorate in Ethnomusicology from Ohio State University and is the winner of 16 national and international awards, take the audience on a nostalgic journey of a bygone era.

The Silk Route represents a journey through time and space interconnecting diverse cultures in an unimaginable fashion, resulting in a potpourri of exotic influences imprinted through permutations and combinations.

The route extended from East Asia all the way to England, from outer Mongolia to Java and Sumatra, from Samarkand to Istanbul, connecting not only East to West, but also urban and nomadic peoples. Utter's deep interest in the Silk Route has been prompted by his study of the language, culture and history of Hindustani music.

He learnt Persian in order to study manuscripts on music written from the 12th century onwards. Subsequently, he studied language in Tajikistan and became fascinated with the parallels between the music systems of Central Asia and those of the Indian sub-continent.

Beginning in 1993, Utter lived in India, studying with some of the great masters of Indian classical music, including Ustad Shujaat Khan, Pt Arvind Parikh, amongst other masters.

Talking about his experience in India, in connection with his lectures (in Delhi at the India International centre), he remarks that though he did not have any time for sight-seeing, his journey through the cities of Delhi, Guwahati and Mumbai were enriching, as he found the spaces interesting and dynamic.

His talks were received with keen interest so much that at times the number of questions led to extension of his lectures by almost an hour! Utter's explanation on the influence of the Silk Route is fascinating when he explains how it had a relatively large impact on Indian culture, especially in the fields of North Indian music and dance forms, as well as languages such as Urdu and the poetry of writers such as Amir Khusrau and Mirza Ghalib.

Did you know that the poetic form of the ghazal originally came from the Arabian Peninsula, but has become a central feature of Indian music and literary culture? There are many other examples, such as the sitar, which developed as a fusion between Indian instruments and the seetar (three strings) found in Central Asia and Turkey.

Vice versa, Indian culture has also influenced many parts of the world through the Silk Route, including the spread of Buddhism. Besides music, how does he feel this important route influenced world cultures ~for example, when applied to languages and costumes? Utter explains, "This route helped to develop various distinct language groups that have common features like Dari, Tajik as well as Urdu, along with various Turkic languages.

Many different styles of dress, fabrics, and types of jewellery became known throughout the world, the influence of which can be seen till today." Like many things in life, what, according to Utter, has been the lessons learnt from this important development in history? He concludes on a philosophical note: "The Silk Route shows us that it is possible to have interactions with various cultures, belief systems and social orders without the destruction of unique local traditions."
Hundred more establishments of oil companies, security personnel, fertiliser companies and others are expected to become less cash townships in next three months, a top official of Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals (GNFC) said.

A township of GNFC at Bharuch has been declared as India's first 100 per cent cashless town and the government has decided to replicate GNFC's model in other big townships to promote digital payments.

Now the company acts as an advisor to entities interested in setting up less cash ecosystem around their facilities.

A township is declared less cash once it starts conducting 80-100 per cent of transactions using digital means.

There is potential of setting up of thousands of less cash townships in the country. We, as nodal agency of Niti Aayog, have received numerous interest for this. We expect there will be at least another 100 less cash townships in next 2-3 months, GNFC Managing Director Rajiv Kumar Gupta told PTI.

He said that 81 less cash townships have been approved as on April 14 which will account for at least about Rs.9 crore digital transactions per year.

Niti Aayog is working with the Human Resource Development Ministry to establish less-cash townships in collaboration with educational institutes. We are working on converting universities and their colonies into less-cash townships, Gupta said.

We earlier went around training and motivating people to use digital wallets. Now the Prime Minister has launched BHIM app linked Aadhar where only thumb impression is required and there are no transaction charges. We will now insist people to use this app, Gupta said.

He said that GNFC is working with Niti Aayog to convert six townships of BSF and five of Central Reserve Police Force into less cash establishments.

The new townships will include colonies and facilities of oil, steel and other fertiliser companies. This will be mainly driven by public sector units because we feel the ecosystem can be easily established in controlled environment, Gupta said.

Niti Aayog is promoting less cash townships as part of its efforts to achieve the target of 2,500 crore digital transactions in the current financial year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 15 launched 75 cashless/less-cash townships, with an overwhelming 56 of them being in Gujarat.

These townships are likely to generate over 1.5 lakh digital transactions every day thereby leading to about 5.5 crore digital transactions in a year.

To qualify as a less-cash township, the establishment must have completed deployment of a payment acceptance infrastructure, and all the families residing there would have to be covered under training programmes.

Also, more than 80 per cent of the total number of transactions must have been done through digital modes of payments.
Parliaments Budget Session which ended on 12 April was historic for several reasons, the most notable being that it began on 31 January, a month earlier than the Budget Session's traditional date of 28 February, and concluded all its financial business by 31 March.

The merger of the Railway Budget with the General Budget was another historic feature of the Session, which ended the tradition of the Railway Ministers separate speech on the rail budget. The two-phase session, which coincided with Assembly elections in five States, gave a go-ahead to four follow-up Bills to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act to allow the Centre and States take steps for implementation of a uniform nationwide indirect tax system.

The Budget Session which happened to be the first Budget exercise of the Central Government after another historic event of last Novembers demonetisation, would be memorable for a few more reasons.

It was perhaps a rare session where the Motion of Thanks to the Presidents address to Parliament was adopted in the Rajya Sabha in the absence of almost the entire Opposition. The development was triggered by the unique occurrence of a point-blank attack on a former Prime Minister by a sitting Prime Minister, while delivering his reply to the Motion of Thanks discussion.

In a packed House of Elders on 8 February, PM Narendra Modi referred to former PM Manmohan Singhs stark critique on demonetisation in the previous Winter Session, and told him, sitting across on the front Opposition bench, that One should learn from him how to take bath in a bathroom with a raincoat on.

Modi said Singh had been associated with the nations financial decision-making for nearly 35 of its 70 years of Independence. In spite of a large number of scams during his tenure, it was strange how he had managed to keep his image intact.

Modis attack was in response to Singhs speech on 24 November last year, when the former PM, in the presence of Mr Modi, said there was monumental mismanagement in implementation of demonetisation, and the way it was carried out, it can be called a case of organised loot and legalised plunder.

The Finance Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on 22 March, was returned by the Rajya Sabha on 29 March but with five recommendatory amendments. The amendments were rejected by the Lok Sabha the very next day, and the Finance Bill received the Presidents assent on 31 March.

Though resigned to the fact that the Rajya Sabha had not much say on Money Bills, and even if the Upper House did not approve them in time, they would be treated as returned in 14 days, the Elders charged the Finance Bill contained amendments to several legislations which were not strictly Money Bills.

Seeking a virtual demonetisation of various Bills, the Elders often said the Government was misusing the Money Bill route to deny them their say.

Before the Session ended, the Congress extended a rare gesture to the government on the advice of Manmohan Singh by not moving its notified amendments on the four GST Bills, and let them be passed without difficulty in the Opposition-majority Rajya Sabha. Jairam Ramesh, who had moved some of the Congress amendments, said Singh had advised him not to move the amendments as it could disturb the fine consensus built on the Bills in the GST Council.
Those using triple talaq recklessly and without justification should be made to face social boycott, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) said on Sunday at the conclusion of its executive meet here.

The body, which represents major sects, also came out with a code of conduct for divorce, in case the separation becomes inevitable. It notably does not recommend instant divorce or triple talaq as a way of separation.

"It has been decided in the executive meet that men who arbitrarily use triple talaq should face social boycott," AIMPLB member Kamal Farooqui said.

He said that the decision comes in the light of the fact that Islam deems divorce as unpleasant and its used only as the last resort.

"We have also formulated a code of conduct for divorce, in case it becomes inevitable. We are appealing to all the imams (prayer leaders) across the country to publicise it during Friday sermons," he added.

The code of conduct put forth by the Board advocates using single talaq as a last resort if other attempts at reconciliation fail. A man can rejoin with his wife in three months after single talalq, and can remarry after three months without the woman having to go through nikah halala.

Farooqui said that the AIMPLB is always ready to help the victims of triple talaq, but noted that is a matter of Shariah and Muslims are free to practise their religion.

"Just as it is unfair to impose Islam on the unwilling, in the same way it is unfair to force Muslims to follow laws from other religions," he said.

Farooqui said that the AIMPLB would ask parents to make it a point to give the girls their share in paternal property rather than giving fancy dowry in marriage.

On the question of Babri Masjid dispute in which AIMPLB is also a party, Farooqui said that the body would go by the Supreme Court's verdict.
The BJP National Executive hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government on Sunday for enacting a bill to grant constitutional status to the OBC Commission and slammed the Congress for blocking it in the Rajya Sabha.

"The OBCs have been demanding constitutional status to the Commission for 30 years. However, the Congress did not do it as it preferred vote bank politics. For the first time, the Modi government took a decision to grant a constitutional status and got the bill passed in the Lok Sabha," Human Resource and Development Minister Prakash Javadekar told the media.

"The Congress and other parties did not allow it to pass in the Rajya Sabha, demanding further discussion on it. It has been sent to the Select Committee. It is unfortunate," the minister said.

Javadekar said the Bharatiya Janata Party's vote share in Manipur, Uttarakhand and Odisha had increased significantly due to the development policies of the party.

"The BJP came to power in 2014 with the message of hope. Now, that hope among people has transformed into trust and confidence in the BJP. Also, the Prime Minister has earned the trust of poor people."

The minister said the poverty alleviation programme, which was earlier associated with the Congress and Indira Gandhi, had now become the BJP's plank
Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua requesting for consular access to Jadhav and also sought a copy of the chargesheet against him.

By Indo-Asian News Service: India is yet to receive copies of the Pakistani chargesheet against alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and the copy of the judgment sentencing him to death, sources said on Sunday.

"We are yet to receive the chargesheet and the copy of the judgment on Jadhav's sentence," said a source in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua in Islamabad with a request for consular access to Jadhav and also sought a copy of the chargesheet against him.

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The request for meeting Jadhav was turned down. "We demanded a meeting (with Jadhav), but they denied," Bambawale told reporters after meeting Janjua.

India said it has sought consular access to Jadhav 13 times earlier, but the permission was refused each time.

Jadhav, sentenced to death by Pakistan's military court on April 10, faced seven charges, including sponsoring IED attacks on important installations and attacks on Shias in Pakistan - according to the list read out by the country's foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz on Friday.

As a fallout of the case, India on Saturday called off bilateral maritime security talks with Pakistan scheduled for April 17.

Watch the video here

Also read: Kulbhushan Jadhav: Pakistan prepares dossier to submit to UN, claims more 'evidence' against him

Also read: Who is Kulbhushan Jadhav, the Indian sentenced to death in Pakistan?

--- ENDS ---
Security at international airports in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai was on Sunday put on maximum alert after the state police forces and the CISF were informed about a possible aircraft hijack attempt.

Mumbai Police on Saturday night received an e-mail, purportedly sent by a Hyderabad-based woman, who claimed to have overheard six men telling each other that all 23 people have to split from here and board flights in three cities and hijack planes.

CISF Director General O P Singh said the security apparatus at these airports has been put on an enhanced alert and protocols have been stepped up.

The e-mail could eventually turn out be a hoax but till investigations conclude all security drills to thwart a hijack- like scenario are being carried out at the three airports, he said.

The unidentified woman wrote in the e-mail that what she heard could be 'true or not' but she chose to inform the authorities as she felt it was her duty to do so as a citizen, Singh said.

The contents of the e-mail were shared by Mumbai Police with all security and intelligence agencies on Saturday night itself and a meeting of all stakeholders at these airports was subsequently convened with the input being declared specific and actionable, officials said.

Special anti-sabotage sweeps are being carried out at the three airports since early Sunday and security agencies, including the CISF, were carrying out proper passenger checks, baggage scanning, pre-embarkation checks, secondary ladder point checking and patrols to thwart any bid to storm the airports.

The CISF has also pressed into service its sniffer dog squads and quick reaction commando teams for undertaking sanitisation drills at the airports, officials said, even as the airlines have been asked to remain extra vigilant.

At the Chennai airport, security has been strengthened at the domestic and international airports.However, flight traffic is unaffected by the enhanced security measures, officials said in Chennai.

Other airports in the country have also been sanitised and officials asked to remain vigilant, the CISF DG said.The police are probing the contents of the e-mail and trying to ascertain the identity of the sender and get in touch with the person.
India has still not got a response from Pakistan on its demand for a certified copy of the charge-sheet as well as the military court order awarding death sentence to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, it is learnt.

The demand was made by Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale when he met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua in Islamabad on Friday.

New Delhi is also said to be weighing the option of internationalising the death sentence awarded to Jadhav without a fair trial. The matter could also be raised with international human rights bodies.

Meanwhile, the death sentence awarded to Jadhav and its confirmation by Pakistan Army chief, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, without taking the civilian leadership into confidence has yet again proved that it is the all-powerful Army which calls the shots in the neighbouring country, observers said.

This has sparked a fresh debate in diplomatic and media circles whether India should consider opening the channels of communication with the Pakistan Army since it is no longer a secret that the Nawaz Sharif government carries little weight like previous civilian regimes when it comes to matters concerning India.

But a source, when asked if India could open a dialogue with the Pakistan Army, said, We know the power structure in Pakistan but we deal only with an elected government in Islamabad as a matter of policy.

New Delhi is well aware of the fact that there are multiple centres of power in Pakistan with the Army being the most powerful, making it difficult to deal with Islamabad. In other countries, the State has an Army but in Pakistan, the Army has got a State, the source remarked.

There is ample evidence to suggest that the Sharif government was kept out of the loop on the proceedings in the alleged espionage case against Jadhav. Even the Parliamentary committees on Defence and Foreign Affairs were not provided information about it.

This ostensibly was the reason why Pakistans Foreign Policy Advisor Sartaj Aziz told the countrys Senate in December last year that the government did not have sufficient evidence to prove that Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, was a RAW agent. This had greatly upset the Army leadership which instructed the Foreign Ministry to immediately issue a clarification. Mr Aziz also was firmly told to make appropriate amendments in the statement he had made in the Senate.
Pakistani is yet to receive copies of the Pakistani chargesheet against alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and the copy of the judgment sentencing him to death, informed sources said on Sunday.

"We are yet to receive the chargesheet and the copy of the judgment on Jadhav's sentence," said a source in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua in Islamabad with a request for consular access to Jadhav and also sought a copy of the chargesheet against him.

The request for meeting Jadhav was turned down. "We demanded a meeting (with Jadhav), but they denied," Bambawale told reporters after meeting Janjua.

India said it has sought consular access to Jadhav 13 times earlier, but the permission was refused each time.

Jadhav, sentenced to death by Pakistan's military court on April 10, faced seven charges, including sponsoring IED attacks on important installations and attacks on Shias in Pakistan  according to the list read out by the country's foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz on Friday.

As a fallout of the case, India on Saturday called off bilateral maritime security talks with Pakistan scheduled for April 17.
Raising the 'triple talaq' issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said justice should be done to Muslim women.

The Prime Minister said if there are social evils, the society should be woken up and efforts made to provide justice to the victims.

In his address to the BJP national executive here, he said there should not be any conflict in the Muslim community over this issue.

He (Modi) talked about social justice. He said our Muslim sisters should also get justice. Injustice should not be done with them. Nobody should be exploited.

We do not want that there is conflict within the Muslim community over this issue. What we have to do is that if there are any scial evils, we have to wake up the society and make efforts to provide justice to them (Muslim women). That was the Prime Minister's spirit, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said while briefing reporters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday offered prayers at the 11th century Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneshwar, officials said.

The Prime Minister spent around 25 minutes in the temple premises.

He offered flowers, bel leaves, milk, coconut water and water to the deity.

Modi also visited the temple of Goddess Bhubaneswari and Parbati, said Manoranjan Panigrahy, CEO of the Lingaraj Temple Administration.

"The Prime Minister was so enthusiastic to know about Lingaraj temple. He prayed for the welfare of the nation and 'Swachh Bharat'," said chief priest of the temple.

The 'seveyats' or temple priests did not miss a chance to take selfies with the Prime Minister.

The 54-metre high temple is spread over a 25,000 sq.ft area and has over 150 small and big subsidiary temples in its premises.

Before his visit to the temple, Modi met the families of freedom fighters who were part of the Paika rebellion against the British East India Company in 1817.

He felicitated them at the Raj Bhawan.

Modi arrived here on Saturday to attend the two-day BJP National Executive meeting that began later in the day.

He also held a roadshow ahead of the meet.

The Prime Minister will address the concluding session on Sunday.
Hundreds of freedom fighters from across the country started arriving here on Sunday to be honoured by President Pranab Mukherjee on April 17 to mark the ongoing year-long centenary celebrations of the Champaran Satyagraha, officials said.

"Hundreds of freedom fighters from different states have started arriving in Patna to be honoured by President Pranab Mukherjee on April 17 at the felicitation ceremony as part of centenary celebrations of Mahatama Gandhi's Champaran satyagraha," Vinodanand Jha, an official of the state education department, said.

Jha said that while some freedom fighters have arrived here on April 15, others will arrive on Sunday. "Most of the freedom fighters would reach here by Sunday night."

According to Jha, freedom fighters from 19 states  including Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi  would be honoured by the President.

In all, 2,972 freedom fighters from across the country, including Bihar, would be honoured. "As per the plan, 264 freedom fighters from 19 states and 554 selected of 2,708 freedom fighters of Bihar will be honoured by the President," Jha said.

The year-long celebrations to mark the 100th year of Mahatma Gandhi's first major resistance against British rule, popularly known as the Champaran Satyagraha, began last week in Bihar.

Mahatma Gandhi launched his Satyagraha  a non-violent agitation  against the forced cultivation of indigo by the British rulers in Champaran district in Bihar on April 10, 1917.


Bollywood celebrities like Karan Johar and Tusshar Kapoor became proud fathers via surrogacy but other aspiring singles may face roadblocks as a proposed law restricts this method by allowing only legally wedded couples.

Several experts including lawyers and doctors, barring a few, were of the view that the window of surrogacy should not be closed for single parents and the couples should have the option to choose anyone who is not a close relative as a surrogate mother.

However, senior advocate Shekhar Naphade had a different and mixed take on the entire issue. While maintaining that it has become a fashion among celebrities to become a single parent, he advocated doing away with the provision to allow only a couple's close relative to become a surrogate mother.

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016, introduced in Lok Sabha last year, also faced criticism from practitioners of family law like Priya Hingorani and Anil Malhotra, who assailed the provisions which take away the rights of gays and lesbians from attaining parenthood with a clause that only legally wedded persons can go for surrogacy.

The proposed law virtually bars all others like unmarried couples, single parents, live-in partners and homosexuals from opting children through surrogacy.

Dr Bikas Kumar Singh, Chief Medical Officer at a major private hospital here who preferred not to comment on the aspect of single parents, expressed reservation on the point of restriction that mandates a surrogate mother to be a close relative.

The last hope for a childless couple should not be curtailed but extended with due filtering, Singh said.

Giving a broader perspective, Hingorani said it was not correct to only allow a close relative to be a surrogate mother as her confidentiality has to be maintained and anyone else should be permitted to do so.

Malhotra said the bar on unmarried couples and others from opting for surrogacy was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution which provides equality before the law and equal protection.

As per the bill, the intending couples should be legally married for at least five years and should be Indian citizens to undertake surrogacy which would be allowed only for altruistic reasons. It also specifies the age limit for an infertile couple, where the woman should be aged between 23-50 years and the man between 26-55 years.

Naphade, who has filed a petition in the Supreme Court opposing commercialisation of surrogacy, said he does not subscribe to the concept of single parent and there should be a time frame after which a married couple can go for surrogacy.'

It should not be a substitute for having a child through an unnatural process. The child should have both a father and a mother. When he goes out in the society, he will have a problem if he does not have a father or a mother. It is in the larger interest of the child, he contended.

However, these experts were united on their view that the clause of close relatives becoming surrogates was objectionable and would create family problems as it could reveal the identity of the surrogate mother, which needs to be kept secret.

Hingorani, who was of the opinion that this clause would be challenged in court, said when a single parent can adopt a child, why can't they go for surrogacy? It is contradictory. The intention of the bill is not to make surrogacy commercial. But you cannot single out gay and lesbian couples. When single mothers and live-in partners are recognised by law, how can you exclude them from surrogacy?

While Naphade said the provision will be a little problematic and it needs to be debated, Dr Singh said the identity of the surrogate mother must be kept secret and if she is their close relative, there are chances that the child would come to know about it at a later stage.

Malhotra was of the view that commercial surrogacy will still flourish and unethical practices continue. So, the better method would be to provide a regulatory authority with statutory powers like CARA is for adoptions.

This clause of close relatives being surrogates will create family problems and conflicts with relatives in the family fold, as current societal practices in India may not find such a practice acceptable in traditional homes, he said.

They, however, differed in their opinion on the provision of disallowing foreigners from opting surrogacy in India.

While Dr Singh agreed with the government in disallowing foreigners saying it would ensure that women from the middle or lower middle classes are not exploited, Hingorani said there should be uniformity on the issue across the world and in many nations, they do not allow surrogacy. So why do people from there come here for it, she asked.

The woman lawyer said surrogacy should be legalised and open to others as well and proper norms should be evolved. People should be allowed only after they fulfill all criteria.
Rising on a 53-run knock by Nitish Rana, Mumbai Indians beat Gujarat Lions by six wickets to register their fourth consecutive victory in the ongoing Indian Premier League.

With this, Mumbais most consistent batsman Rana scored 193 runs, highest so far in the tournament, to clinch the orange cap.

While chasing a competitive target of 177 runs, Mumbai started with a slump as opener Parthiv Patel (0) lost his wicket on the first ball of the innings.

Jos Buttler and Kieron Pollard pushed Mumbai close to the target with scoring 26 and 36 runs respectively.

However, it was Ranas 36-ball 53 runs that helped Mumbai the most. He smashed two sixes and four boundaries in his illustrious innings.

Captain Rohit Sharma (40) and pinch-hitter Hardik Pandya (6) remained unbeaten in the end when Mumbai posted a thumping win.

For Gujarat, Andrew Tye claimed two wickets, while speedsters Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel chipped in by dismissing Patel and Buttler respectively.

Earlier, veteran hitter Brendon McCullum smashed 64 runs off 44 balls to push Gujarat Lions to a strong total of 176/4 against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

After losing the toss in the 16th match of the IPL 2017, Gujarat started hesitantly and lost their opener Dwayne Smith for duck.

Captain Suresh Raina managed to contribute 28 runs with the help of two boundaries.

Raina and McCullum established an 80-run partnership for the second-wicket.

Following the dismissal of top-order, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik gave Gujarat stability at middle-order.

Karthik scored 48 runs (not out) at an impressive strike rate of 184.61. He hit two sixes and two boundaries to excite the Wankhede spectators.

English batsman Jason Roy, who came to play down the order this time, contributed with 14 runs (not out).

For Mumbai, pacer Mitchell McClenaghan was the biggest charm in their bowling attack as he dismissed Smith and Ishan Kishan (11) to claim two wickets.


At least 15 people were arrested after thousands of protesters took to the streets across the US to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

The arrests took place on April 15 in Berkeley, California, when fistfights broke out between supporters and opponents of the President, Efe news reported.

Two people were also injured in the fights.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and quell the fights, reporting that they had found some people in possession of prohibited items including a knife, helmets, clubs and a fake pistol.

Local authorities knew that there would be two demonstrations on April 15 both for and against Trump, while protests elsewhere in the country, however, were reported to be generally peaceful.

The "Tax March" movement had called for protests to begin at noon, coinciding with the day by which Americans traditionally must have filed their tax returns, though this year because April 15 fell on the weekend and Monday is a local holiday in Washington, taxpayers have until April 18, to file their returns.

The largest march took place in Washington, where protesters marched from the Capitol to the White House, but sizable anti-Trump demonstrations were also staged in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Austin, Texas.

In New York, hundreds of people carrying anti-Trump signs and effigies of the President gathered in downtown Bryant Park, from where they marched to Trump Tower.

Activists in Florida held dozens of marches around the state, in front of the condominiums at Trump Plaza in West Palm Beach and the entrance of his Mar-a-Lago mansion, where he is spending the weekend with his family.

The movement calls for "transparency" and complains in a statement on its Web site that "despite intense public pressure, President Trump has not yet done so (published his tax returns)  breaking with 40 years of precedent in the process."

The statement rejects the Trump government's excuse that "people don't care," and recalls an ABC/Washington Post survey that showed 74 per cent of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, want to know the president's tax history.

During Trump's presidential campaign, he kept postponing the release of his tax returns with the excuse that they were under audit.

Two days after he entered the White House, Presidential Adviser Kellyanne Conway said Trump was not going to disclose his tax situation because it became obvious during the campaign that US citizens really did not care about the matter.
As it launched its first-ever military exercise with China on Sunday, Nepal sought to reach out to India lest its growing defence ties with Beijing become an irritant in India-Nepal relations.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari is arriving here Monday on a five-day visit apparently to dispel any notion that the bonhomie between the armed forces of Nepal and China could have implications for India.

She will stay at Rashtrapati Bhavan as a special guest of President Pranab Mukherjee. Apart from meeting a galaxy of India leaders, she will visit Gujarat and Odisha to offer prayers at ancient temples.

Nepal-China joint military drill Sagarmatha Friendship-2017 began at Nepal Armys Para Training School in Maharajgunj. Chinese Peoples Liberation Army and the Nepal Army are participating in the 10-day drills to focus on counter- terrorism and disaster response.

The Nepal Army has for long been conducting joint military drills with Indian and American troops.The exercise was earlier scheduled to be held in February but was subsequently postponed to April.

It is understood that China had proposed the joint exercise to Nepal in May last year when Indias ties with the then K P Oli government in Nepal had cooled somewhat amid growing anti-India rhetoric in the Himalayan nation.

When asked how India looked at the Nepal-China military exercise, Sudhakar Dalela, Joint Secretary (North) in the External Affairs Ministry, merely stated that Nepal has its own relationship with China. As far as India was concerned, it has a unique and time-tested friendship with Nepal, he added.

While the exercise does not go against the terms of the India-Nepal treaty of peace and friendship, India is concerned and will certainly keep a close eye on the exercise, given the strategic environment in the region.

On its part, Nepal has said that the exercise should not be a matter of concern for India. The drill was a part of its regular bilateral and multilateral military exercises aimed at sharing experiences, skills and professional knowledge with friendly countries.

Defence forces of Nepal and China have lately enhanced their engagement. On 19 February, Maj. Gen.l Zhao Jinsong of the western command of the Peoples Liberation Army of China was in Nepal on a three-day visit. That was followed by a visit by Defence Minister and State Councillor Chang Wanquan last month.
UP

Welcome Zoot. Bozeman financial tech company Zoot Enterprises announced its intention to purchase the Billings GE Capital building that GE plans to vacate by years end. The Zoot deal is welcome news, expanding Zoots presence in Billings, keeping a large tech business site in use and adding the potential for new jobs. Big Sky Economic Development built and leased the Hesper Road facility to GE.

DOWN

Dover Park defeat. A bipartisan bill sponsored by Rep. Virginia Court would have helped Yellowstone River Parks Association expand John H. Dover Memorial Park in Billings Heights. But House Bill 422 died on a 25-25 tie Thursday in the Montana Senate with Billings Sens. Doug Kary and Cary Smith voting against the limited tax break for a nonprofit organization that operates a public park for public recreation. While Kary and Smith killed this legislation, most Billings senators supported it. Thanks to Jen Gross, Margie MacDonald, Mary McNally, Tom Richmond and Roger Webb for supporting the great partnership that is developing Dover Park.

UP

New judges. The Legislature has approved the addition of two District Court judges in Yellowstone County, but not until Jan. 1, 2019. Rep. Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, sponsored this bill to ease the overload that has slowed justice in the states busiest courts. We call on Gov. Steve Bullock to sign it.

DOWN

Taxing traffic. Late amendments to a highway safety funding bill (House Bill 473) slashed the amount of revenue that a proposed increase in gas and diesel taxes would provide for state and local highway construction and for the Montana Highway Patrol. After Senate Finance and Claims Committee voted for much lower per gallon gas and diesel tax increases  a tax that millions of tourists would pay  the same committee approved House Bill 650 with increases of up to 9.6 percent in all fees Montanans pay to the Division of Motor Vehicles. Let's make highway funding more adequate and share the costs with everyone who uses our roads.

UP

Downtown leader. Great to hear that Lisa Harmon has agreed to work another year with Downtown Billings while the organization finds her successor. Harmon's enthusiasm and leadership has been a boon to the heart of our city.
The dossier will also include a timeline of Jadhav's alleged militant activities and court proceedings.

By India Today Web Desk: Pakistan has prepared a dossier to be submitted to the United Nations, citing more 'evidence' against former Indian Navy Officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.

The new dossier is based on early confessional statement and also statements of Jadhav that he gave in front of the court, as reported by ANI.

Pakistan Media has reported that Jadhav statements before the court were about his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan. The dossier will also include an attested report of the Court Martial General.

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The dossier will also include a timeline of Jadhav's alleged militant activities and court proceedings. India on Friday sought a copy of the chargesheet filed and the judgment given against Jadhav while strongly condemning the death sentence.

India had earlier sought consular access to Jadhav for about 14 times, however, Pakistan kept repeatedly denying access.

The Indian side also conveyed that it will appeal the order and is studying the Pakistan Army Act for the same.

Earlier spokesperson from UN said that the organisation will not weigh in on the issue of a Pakistani military court handing Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav a death sentence.

"We are not in a position to judge the process to have a position on this particular case," news agency IANS quoted Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as telling reporters.

Dujarric was responding to a question on the recent diplomatic flare up between New Delhi and Islamabad over the Kulbhushan Jadhav death sentence.

Also Read:

Kulbhushan Jadhav death sentence: 10 things about executions in Pakistan

7 RAW rules that prove Kulbhushan Jadhav is not an agent; straight from the mouth of former sleuth

Also Watch:

Musharraf to India Today: On Kulbhushan Jadhav, Pakistan will bow down to nobody

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The defeat of the ISIS in Syria is only a matter of time, but there is a need for a security situation that is conducive to reconstruction in the war-torn country, a top US official said on Sunday.

US national security adviser H R McMaster said the forces who will take over after the defeat of ISIS will be critical for establishing security and legitimacy of the population in the country.

It is a matter of time only until ISIS is defeated there (in Syria), said McMaster, who is currently in Afghanistan.

What's going to be really critical though is what forces can then establish enduring security in those regions that have a legitimacy with the population, that are representative of the population, that can set conditions for reconstruction to begin, he told ABC News in an interview.

McMaster said the US was now supporting partner forces in Syria in certain parts of the country, including the northeastern part along the Euphrates river valley.

"The cities of the Sunni Arab world in that region are in rubble. And so in a very successful conference in Washington two weeks ago, the United States State Department organised a bunch of donors and like-minded allies, part of coalition to pledge money for reconstruction," he said.

"But what we need now is we need a security situation that's conducive to that reconstruction, that can allow so many of these displaced people and refugees to return. And for those long-suffering people to enjoy the security, stability, that they deserve, McMaster said.

War in Syria has killed more than 320,000 people since it began with protests in 2011 that were brutally repressed.

It has involved jihadist groups as well as regional and international powers in a complex multi-sided conflict.

The fighting has caused millions to flee their homes and triggered a major humanitarian and refugee crisis.
Doctors trained in countries like India are suffering from an inherent bias within the UK medical system, a new report has indicated.

An analysis of the UK's General Medical Council (GMC) data between 1996 and 2013 revealed that Indian doctors were five times more likely to undergo "performance assessments within the state-funded National Health Service (NHS).

The research conducted by University College London (UCL) and published in 'BMC Medical Education' journal recently concluded that doctors trained outside the UK had significantly higher rates of GMC performance assessments than UK-trained doctors.

"Bias within the system, particularly in terms of who is complained about, could be and probably is a factor. But I suspect it is not the only factor. We have raised these issues and we think more research is needed to tease apart different explanatory factors," said Dr Henry Potts, the lead author of the research.

The report recommends a more globalised testing arrangement that would help counter this imbalance.

"There may be implications for transnational agreements on freedom of movement of healthcare professionals, and for what testing is required by national governments of individuals trained elsewhere," the report said.

Susan Goldsmith, Deputy Chief Executive of the General Medical Council, said: "We believe doctors and patients are best served by bringing in a single route to UK practice, replacing the multiple routes that exist now.

"We are now consulting on a medical licensing assessment that would be taken by every doctor wishing to practise in the UK, regardless of where they qualified in the world."

While Indian doctors were five times more likely to face investigations, Bangladeshi doctors fared the worst at 13 times. Doctors from Egypt and Nigeria were eight times more likely to be questioned, compared to seven times more likelihood for Iraqi doctors and six times for Germans.

Doctors from India make up a large chunk of the NHS workforce and the GMC currently has 25,281 Indian-trained doctors on its register.

The latest analysis supports the claims of the British Association of Physicians of Indian-origin (BAPIO), which had launched a high court battle in 2014 claiming the GMC failed too many doctors from overseas in GP tests.

"There is no doubt that there is an inherent problem within the system. BAPIO has always spoken up for fairness and equality. We are very proud of the services given by Indian doctors and while we do believe things are gradually improving, we are still concerned there continues to be differential treatment," said BAPIO president Dr Ramesh Mehta.

He welcomed any reform within the testing system as his group is in discussions with the Department of Health on a new international fellowship programme, which would see Indian medical graduates come to the UK for two to three years.

"In all our meetings with ministers, it is very clear that Indian doctors are considered the backbone of the NHS.

They have approached us to help recruit more Indian doctors and we are working on this fellowship programme which will see the NHS get doctors from India to fill shortages and Indian doctors get the excellent British training. We want to ensure it is not a brain drain from India but a win-win situation," Dr Mehta explained.

The UK had recently launched a new placement scheme to bring in doctors from India to plug shortages in NHS emergency departments. The first set of 20 Indian doctors start work in Manchester this year to help out in the region s eight Accident & Emergency (A&E) departments. Their placement is expected to run for up to three years, with the scheme also likely to be extended to other regions of the country.

It is being operated by the Greater Manchester devolution team and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Foundation Trust and backed by the Health Education England (HEE), the Department of Health body in charge of education and training.

"Health Education England (HEE) through its Global Health Exchange is pleased to be helping to support the training and development of overseas doctors by placing them in clinical educational programmes in hospitals in the UK," said Ged Byrne, Director of Education and Quality, HEE  North West.

"This work is helping to increase the number of doctors who are available to support acutely ill patients. The relationship benefits both the UK as it helps to fill an immediate need and the doctors themselves who gain access to high quality training and a unique skills set," he said.

The doctors who will have access to the scheme include those who have completed their basic training but are still learning specialist skills and have yet to qualify as a consultant. After a three-year period, they are expected to return to Indian hospitals.
The first ever joint military drill between Nepal and China  Sagarmatha Friendship-2017  kicked off at Nepal Army's Para Training School in Maharajgunj here on Sunday.

The Chinese Army's squad is participating in the military exercise that will focus on counter terrorism and disaster response. The 10-day exercise will conclude on April 25.

DGMO of Nepal Army General Binod Kumar Shrestha inaugurated the exercise.

Though Nepal and China were planning a big-scale military exercise, the strong opposition from New Delhi given its special diplomatic and military ties with Kathmandu has forced Kathmandu to limit the size and nature of the drill, sources said.

"We hope that such joint military exercise would help the Nepali and Chinese armies to boost their professional capabilities," Gen. Shrestha said.

Highlighting the historic ties between Nepali and Chinese armies, Colonel Yang Shumeng, leading the Chinese side, said such exercise would help understanding on counter terrorism and strengthening military ties.

The joint training with China marks the Nepali Army's extension of military diplomacy.

The army has long been conducting joint military drills with the Indian and US armies.

A small Chinese troop contingent will be participating in the first ever drill with an equal number of Nepal Army personnel whereas it was earlier planned at battalion-level.

The exercise is taking place at the Maharajgunj-based training school where Yuddha Bhairab, Mahabir and Bhairabnath Battalions are located.

Initially it was planned outside Kathmandu.

The country's army said the military exercise with China was a step towards preparations against the possible threat from terrorism.

The Nepal Army maintained that the drill was part of its regular bilateral and multilateral military exercises aimed at sharing experiences, skills and professional knowledge which it has been doing regularly with the nations that Nepal shares diplomatic ties with.

The national defence forces from the two countries have increased their engagement of late.

On February 19, Major General Zhao Jinsong of the western command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was in Nepal on a three-day visit.

This was followed by a visit by Defence Minister and State Councillor Chang Wanquan in March. Chang had announced 300 million Yuan (Rs 4.5 billion) in military aid to Nepal.


The deaths from the collapse of a garbage dump in Sri Lanka rose to 20 on Sunday, the disaster management centre said.

According to the centre, residents of over 130 houses in the location have been advised to evacuate for fear of more garbage collapsing.

There will be no more dumping of garbage at Meetotamulla, just outside Colombo, following the accident on Saturday, Xinhua news agency quoted a government official as saying on Saturday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva said the problem ran for decades, perhaps as long as 20 years, and finally led to the collapse of a part of the garbage mountain.

"Anyway, no more garbage will be dumped at this site," he said.

He said that it was unfortunate that even though payments had been made for those families under risk of landslides to move out, some had not done so and stuck around.

They had been advised to leave two days ago, he complained.
Patriot Subaru of North Attleboro presented a $30,000 check to the Rhode Island Food Bank, proceeds from the 2016-2017 Subaru Share The Love Event. Associates from Patriot Subaru gathered for the presentation to RIFB CEO Andrew Schiff, left of check check, and RIFB Chief Philanthropy Officer Lisa Roth Blackman at the right.
No more Monday to Friday, nine to five? Why these N.L. businesses are choosing a four-day-a-week work model

When it comes to those who work nine-to-five jobs, most will tell you the same thing: the weekends are never long enough. In recent years, especially since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been more talks of hybrid workweek models.
By Press Trust of India: From M Zulqernain

Lahore, Apr 16 (PTI) The 20-year-old woman, who was arrested in a terror bust in Lahore, is a medical student and hadjoined the dreaded Islamic State (IS) militant group on Facebook sometimes ago, the army said today.

Pakistans security forces yesterday claimed to have foiled a "major" terror attack on minority Christians ahead of Easter here after they killed a militant in Punjab Housing Society and arrested his two aides, including the woman.

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Six personnel had suffered injuries in the shootout, the Inter-Services Public Relations, a media wing of Pakistan army, said.

During investigation, the woman has been identified as Naureen Leghari, a second-year student of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) in Jamshoro, Sindh province of Pakistan.

Naureen spent two months in Syria and returned to Lahore almost six days back, Dunya news reported.

Naureen, resident of Hyderabad, had disappeared from the varsity in early February to join the ISIS.

"After reaching Lahore on February 10, Naureen had messaged her brother through a friends Facebook profile that she has reached the land of Khilafah (caliphate)," an official said.

"Brother, I am Naureen, I hope you all are fine, I am fine and happy too, I have contacted you to inform you that by the grace of God, I have migrated to the land of Khilafah (caliphate) and hope that you all will someday migrate (to this land)," the official read the message of Naureen to her brother.

Prof Abdul Jabbar, father of Naureen, had filed a missing reported of his daughter on February 10.

A source in Lahore police told PTI that Naureen was connected with the IS men on Facebook where she took allegiance to the IS chief.

The Facebook administration had blocked her account because of her extremist views.

"On her arrival to Lahore she married an IS activist Ali Tariq, 32. Tariq was an expert in preparing suicide vests. Naureen also got training to use weapons especially Kalashnikov.

"When a raiding team surrounded the couples hideout on Ghazi Road,they opened fire on it. The firing lasted for 35 minutes. Tariq was killed in the cross fire while Naureen engaged the security forces till she ran out of bullets and some commandos managed to nab her," the source said.

He said the couple had been given the task to target a Church or any place where Christians would gather today in connection with Easter celebrations.

"Naureen had presented herself for a suicide mission. God forbidden had she succeeded it would have been a first woman suicide bombing in Pakistan," he said.

"We are interrogating Naureen and another terror suspect taken into custody from the siteas it is believed that a wider network of ISIS is operating in the country," he said.

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Security forces have recovered seven suicide vests and other weapons from the couples hideouts. PTI MZ AMS NSA AMS

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A senior Air Force commander was found dead on Sunday inside the Fort Williams, headquarters of the Indian Armys eastern region, in Kolkata.

Wing commander L.V. Prasad, 43, was found lying in a pool of blood near to his apartment with his head and limbs ruptured. He was taken to Command Hospital in Kolkatas Alipore where he was declared brought dead. The body has been sent for post mortem. Kolkata polices homicide section has been given the responsibility to probe his death.

According to Army officials, Prasad apparently fell from the third floor of his apartment. One havildar spotted him lying in the pool of blood and raised alarm.

It was not known whether he committed suicide or died in an accident, a Fort William spokesperson said.

Army sources said Prasad, whose family stays at Hyderabad, did not have any issue at home. He recently came from home and also had wonderful time with his mates at officers club.

But we are not ruling out anything. We are waiting for post-mortem report. We are open to the cause of death. It could be, accidental, suicide or anything else, said an official of Kolkata polices homicide cell.
The Bharatiya Janta Party feels that the poor in India who were with the Congress because of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi have now shifted their support to the BJP due to Prime Minister Narendra Modis development and anti-corruption agenda. With full endorsement of the policies of Modi, the two-day national executive of the party held at Bhubaneswar has decided to send party office-bearers to each booth in the country before 2019 general elections with a view to making the organisation a pan-Indian behemoth. After its spectacular victory in recently-held assembly elections, BJP national executive took stock of the overall situation with particular stress on ensuring victory in coming assembly elections in Gujrat, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.

While Modi inaugurated the meet formally on April 15 afternoon after reaching Bhubaneswar, it was party president Amit Shah who set the future agenda before the 300 plus executive including its 13 chief ministers present that the party has to capture power from panchayat to parliament and its real golden age will come when BJP comes to power in states like Odisha, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. He said the national executive members would go to booths where they would stay for 15 days before 2019 general elections. Shah himself plans to tour for 95 days before September. Besides, 2,417 party office-bearers will have a year-long programme in whole country while 1,439 office-bearers will visit states for six months during next two years before the elections. The party has also selected 3,78,000 office-bearers from states to go to the nook and corner of the country during next two years to strengthen the organisation.

The national executive expressed concern over attacks on members of the RSS and the BJP in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. It said, particularly after the left-front government came to power in Kerala, physical attack on Sangh and BJP men has increased. Shah said he will make a three-day booth level visit to Kerala. The party will have mass contact programme this year on the occasion of party ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyayas birth centenary and it has selected 3.5 lakh expanists (Vistaraks) who will reach each home to spread policies and programmes of the party and the NDA government. While the government is completing three years on May 26, the executive tried to highlight success of its programmes.

In his address on the second day, Modi, while coining the term of P2 and G2  said 'our approach should be pro-people and good governance' and reiterated his idea of a 'New India' by 2022 to make the country an economic power in the world. He said that work in mission mode was needed to transform Indias social and economic structure, in the way Mahatma Gandhi had worked with aim of bringing independence for India. The prime minister said his focus was on three issuesjandhan, bandhan and jaldhanwith the purpose increasing peoples money which has seen in deposit of Rs 66000 crore in jandhan accounts, development of forest dwellers and creation of forest economy as well as protection of environment and forest, and utilisation of water resources through expansion of irrigation.

Referring to 'triple talaq' issue, he said though the Muslim women needed justice, government did not want a conflict. Through awareness, such odd practices have to be removed. He said partymen should not bother about issues of attacks on church, return of awards, allegations of EVM tampering because some people will manufacture such things always.

The party felt while in 2014 people had voted for the BJP with the hope that latter would do good, now their hope has turned into confidence. The recent victory of the BJP in the assembly elections reflected peoples preference to development, not politics based on caste, religion and appeasement. People supported the prime ministers steps against corruption and black money through demonetisation and other steps, which, along with NDA government's welfare programmes meant for the poor like Ujjwala, Mudra and electrification, helped BJP in assembly elections, the party felt. These are the reasons why the trust of poor people is now on Modi, which was earlier witnessed only on Indira Gandhi.

The BJP felt the vote share of the party was increasing everywhere. While earlier, BJP was considered to be winning only against the Congress, the recent Uttar Pradesh victory has indicated that it could defeat regional parties also, the party leaders felt. Shah and other leaders opined that Modi is now the most popular leader of India since independence, and having such a leader as mascot, the party can achieve its all India ambition.

The party took exception to criticism of alleged EVM tampering in elections held recently. It said if that would have been the case, the party wouldnt have lost Punjab, Bihar and Delhi assembly elections. The party demanded constitutional status for OBC commission and condemned the efforts of opposition parties against it. It said though the commission had been set up during the regime of Congress, it had no teeth. The national executive also passed resolution for creating consciousness in favour of the GST.

The national executive at Bhubaneswar might have been aimed at expanding the party base in eastern India. In the recently held panchayat election in Odisha, BJP significantly improved its position from number three to the main rival of the ruling Biju Janta Dal by displacing Congress. In fact, the prime ministers road show at Bhubaneswar on April 15 was considered to be part of its victory celebrations. In executive, Modi hoped that BJP will improve its position in Odisha.

Shah said he is worried about the problems of the state where the BJD has been in power for last 17 years, and hoped that the BJP would come to power in 2019 and fulfill the dreams of the people. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik didnt turn up to receive or meet the prime minister as the latter had come to the state in connection with his partys work. Of course, the rivalry between the BJD and the BJP is much more than what it was between the Congress and the BJD.
The emphatic wins in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand made the BJP leaders ecstatic. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a message for thembe humble in victory, and work for the poor.

Speaking at the end of BJP's two-day national executive in Bhubaneswar, Modi reminded his party leaders that their party has seen maximum defeats. "We even heard jibes like Hum Do, Hamare Do (reference to BJP's two Lok Sabha seats in 1984). But our workers kept on working. We continue to work to bring transformation," BJP leader and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said quoting Modi speech at the party meet.

Modi hailed his most trusted lieutenant, BJP chief Amit Shah as being strategist for the UP and Uttarakhand victory.

The prime minister said his government and those states ruled by the BJP should push for transformation by 2022, when India would celebrate 75th Independence Day. He talked about Jan Dhan (economic schemes), Van Dhan (schemes for tribals), and Jal Dhan (schemes for irrigation for farmers) as the main ingredients for this transformation.

Modi asked his party to exercise restraint while speaking and ignore issues created by the Opposition. Referring to issues like church attacks, award wapsi, and allegations of EVM tampering, Modi said opposition created these issues in a factory to target his government, Gadkari said quoting Modi.

Earlier during the day, BJP passed two resolutions talking about Modi government's achievements and creation of backward commission.

As Odisha has been the focus of the meet, Modi met families of those who were involved in the 1817 Paika Rebellion against East India Company. He also visited the ancient Lingaraj Temple, devoted to Lord Shiva.

Modi's message for Muslims

Modi twice touched upon issues of the Muslim community on the last day of the BJP's meeting. When a resolution on the creation of a national commission for backward classes was being debated, Modi intervened to say the benefit of this constitutional provision would also be passed to the backwards among the Muslims.

Again, during his speech, Modi talked about the issue of triple talaq saying awareness should be brought within the community to help the women. He added that the aim was not to create a schism within the community but to help them.

Modi's message comes in the backdrop of some sections of Muslims supporting the BJP during the just concluded UP elections. Modi referred to these sectionswomen and backward community of the minority community.
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa recently issued a joint BRICS statement condemning military action in Syria not authorised by the United Nations. The statement also calls for respect of international law, territorial integrity and sovereignty. The recent missile attack by the United States of America in Syria, in retaliation for the chemical attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the rebel-held territory of Idlib Province, evoked strong criticism even within the Trump administration. The 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles targeted the Al Shayrat airfield in western Syria, where the alleged chemical weapons attack originated. The statement issued by Pentagon mentions that: The missile targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defence systems, and radars. As always, the U.S. took extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties and to comply with the Law of Armed Conflict. Every precaution was taken to execute this strike with minimal risk to personnel at the airfield. The strike was intended to deter the regime from using chemical weapons again.

A statement by President Trump mentioned that "it was in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons" and that the resulting refugee crisis "threatened the United States and its allies". However, the primary reason behind the attack is clearly a military intervention to prevent further use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Was the missile attack legally justified? Kremlin strongly condemned the attack and alleged that it was an aggression against a sovereign state in violation of international law. Iraq alleged that unilateral action is dangerous, destructive and violates principles of international law.

At the same time, many of America's allies like Israel, Japan, Australia, and Turkey lauded the attack as timely. Some would argue that the attack was in self-defence, drawing an inference from President Trumps statement that the attacks were for reasons of "national security". However, this argument would not hold up as self-defence' or collective self-defence under Article 51.

The history and evolution of military interventions

The concept of military intervention for the protection of civilians is not a new one. It can be traced back to early modern Europe, if not much earlier. The 19th century Egyptian invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte, claiming the protection of the indigenous Egyptians from the Ottoman Empires suzerainty is one example. The great powers of Europe intervening in the Ottoman provinces of Greece (1827) and Syria (1860-61) is another. The British intervened to abolish slave trade.

Many early philosophers like Cicero, Gentili, Grotius, and Pufendorf held supporting views of the states positive to assist and protect those beyond their borders. However, this concept is contrary to the principle of non-intervention, which emerged in the mid-nineteenth century and was further established through the covenant of the League of Nations, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the United Nations(UN) Charter, and many UN General Assembly (GA) resolutions. During this period, humanitarian intervention was framed as an exception to the rule of non-intervention, rather than as a binding legal obligation.

Legality of military interventions

UN legal norms pertaining to military intervention and non-intervention

The UN Charter lays down clear legal norms regarding intervention and non-intervention. For example, Article 2(4) of UN Charter prohibits members from threat or use of force that would violate the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. The only exceptions to this are actions authorised by UN, especially by the Security Council (UNSC), under Chapter VII and the right of individual and collective self-defence outlined in Article 51. Substantiating this, General Assembly (GA) Resolution 2625 clarifies that no state or group of states has the right to intervene, for whatsoever reason, in the internal or external matters of another state and that such interventions were in violation of international law.

Members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council hold a vote on a draft resolution demanding that the Syrian government cooperate with an investigation of the suspected chemical attack | AFP

However, Article 1 of the UN Charter declares that the purpose of UN is to maintain international peace and security, and, to that end, take effective collective measures for the removal of threats to peace. Article 24 of the Charter delegates the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security to the UNSC on the UNs behalf. In Article 42, the Security Council is empowered to authorise UN members to engage in military intervention to restore international peace and security.

There is no disagreement regarding the UNSCs power to authorise military interventions for international peace and security. Such military interventions have happened in countries like Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti and East Timor. However, the relevant question here is the legality of the intervention made by US.

Is there a Customary International Law on military intervention without UNSC authorisation?

One justification for military intervention without UNSC authorisation is that a Customary International Law (CIL) has developed in this regard. Proponents of this view may argue that some of these crimes, against which such interventions are made, may have achieved the status of peremptory norms. They observe that since the UN Charter was constituted, there have been numerous cases in which military force has been used to intervene in the affairs of the states, arguably for a humanitarian purpose, without UNSC approval. Further, even if a parallel, contradictory CIL were to develop, such a customary rule would not affect the treaty obligations of the UN members under Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. Hence it can be safely concluded that there are no clear CIL principles evolved in this regard which will legalise a military intervention without UNSC authorisation.

Legality of military intervention for protection of civilians through the concept of R2P

More recent discussions on military intervention without Security Council authorisation revolve around three incidents: the inaction of the international community during the Rwandan genocide (more than 8,00,000 people were massacred in 1994), the massacre of 8,000 Bosnians by Serb forces in 1995, the NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999. It is interesting to see that intervention and non-intervention have both been criticised across the board. The viewsexpressed by the secretary-general and the independent international commission on Kosovothat the NATO military intervention was illegal but legitimate also created a dilemma.

A Syrian man bakes a bread at his damaged bakery in the rebel-held town of Douma | AFP

In 2001, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), an independent commission established by the Canadian government, developed the idea of a responsibility to protect (R2P). In fact, ICISS was not the first to frame the concept of R2P. In 1991, the UN secretary-general called for an agreement on the collective obligation of states to bring relief and redress in human rights emergencies. Later in that decade, Francis Deng, a Sudanese diplomat and scholar, developed a principle which he termed sovereignty as responsibility, along similar lines. It postulated that the sovereign right of non-interference was conditional upon the performance of sovereign responsibilities of protecting the populace.

ICISS grounded its arguments in traditional and justified war criteria, including just cause, right intention, last resort, proportionality, reasonable prospects for success, and right authority. It also claimed that the "just war" concept in intervention translated to an obligation to intervene.

In 2004, the high level panel of experts commissioned by UN secretary-general took up the principle of R2P. However, the dilemma here would be that there is no provision in international law for the establishment of this international community. Hence this responsibility is not focused on any clear entity, and it is diluted.

Subsequently, at the UN World Summit in September 2005, member states unanimously endorsed the responsibility to protect'. Paragraphs 138 and 139 of the Summit Outcome Document, adopted by the UN GA, shifted focus from armed foreign intervention of the older doctrine to a delineation of state's responsibility to prevent and respond to genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. Finally, if peaceful methods prove inadequate and "national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populace", there can be coercive action under Chapter VII. Perhaps to build an international consensus, it was much more restrained than the visions offered by the high level panel and the secretary-general. Moreover, the member states were not ready to accept the obligation part of R2P, wanting to take it on as a moral obligation rather than a legal one. They wanted wanted to take the responsibility on a case-to-case basis. It also limited its application only to the four specific crimesgenocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.

The legal sanctity of R2P in international law is very weak, as they do not generate international legal obligations under Article 38 of the International Court of Justice. The Declaration of the South Summit in 2000 by the G77 countries rejected this right of humanitarian intervention, as one that was not legally tenable. In a consent-based international legal system, resolutions of UNSC and GA will contribute the maximum to the determination and interpretation of international law. It may also contribute to the gradual development of CIL, which will take more actions from the states to reach that level. Hence, military intervention for the protection of civilians, evolved in the form of responsibility to protect after the articulation of the independent commission in 2001 through 2011, including the 2005 UN world summit document, presently offers a very weak legal sanctity at the international level.

Conclusion

The evolution of legal sanctions for military interventions for humanitarian purposes are presently limited to actions authorised by the UNSC and only limited to the four crimesgenocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes. This is evidently possible only by Security Council authorisation through Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Unilateral intervention by a state or group of states in another states internal affairslike the recent US missile attack on Syria without Security Council authorisationwill constitute a breach of international law, even if it is for legitimate humanitarian reasons. This would be so because of legally accepted non-intervention obligation of the states through provisions of the UN Charter. Moreover, as discussed above, there are no clear principles of CIL, which may legalise military intervention without Security Council authorisation. In a highly politicised Security Council, unilateral actions like the present one will remain illegal, but morally legitimate.

Prof Sanoj Rajan is an expert on international law. He is presently the Dean of School of Law, Ansal University, and an Affiliate Expert with Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, USA
General Phungting Shimrang sat behind an ancient wooden desk in his little office, arms within arms reach. Guards with weapons stood menacingly outside, and a personal guard hovered around. The evening was dark; the jungle was wet after a drizzle.

He took a sip of green tea from a glass tumbler, and sang:

If you know your history, then you would know where you are coming from.

Then you wouldnt have to ask me, who the heck do I think I am.

Then, all of a sudden, he threw a poser at me: Have you heard of Buffalo Soldier, stolen from Africa brought to America? Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival? This is what I tell the children. Know your history. Thats what Bob Marley said.

Then, smiling, the commander-in-chief of the army of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) drew to his full height to welcome us to Hebron, his secret headquarters deep in the Naga jungle, 110km from Kohima. Named after the town mentioned in the Old Testament (most Nagas are Baptist Christians), Hebron has always been forbidden to outsiders. It is from here that Shimrang and his predecessors have been directing the operations of their 15,000-strong army, against an entire corps of the worlds fourth largest army, in the worlds longest running insurgency.

It is older than Indias independence, by a day. The Naga rebellion was launched on August 14, 1947, by Angami Zapu Phizo. But, the bloodletting in these jungles is even older. It was in these jungles that the retreating British army, soldiered mostly by Indians, had taken the last stand against the Japanese, after the calamitous fall of Singapore, the rout from Malaya and the massacre in the Burmese jungles. Hardly had that war ended, and India become free, when the new war began. Since then, the international boundaries drawn by the departing British, or the provincial boundaries drawn and re-drawn by the rulers of India, have had no relevance for Shimrang, or for any Naga. They have been struggling for a sovereign Naga homeland comprising the entire state of Nagaland, the Naga hills of Manipur, and parts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar. Phizo is gone; the fighters have since split into several groups. Nearly two years ago, the Isak and Muivah-led National Socialist Council of Nagaland, popularly known as NSCN(IM), signed a framework treaty with the Indian government.

Shimrang has been standing tall behind Thuingaleng Muivah, prime minister (atokilonser) of the Government of the Peoples Republic of Nagalim (GPRN) of NSCN(IM), a fully functional regime that flies its own flag, has its own parliament, makes its own laws and punishes those who break them. It exercises control over vast swathes of land covering entire Nagaland, parts of Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and a million people inhabiting neighbouring Myanmar.

Guns and verses: Female soldiers relax in their mess.

This vast territory is administered from Hebron. The capital camp is spread over 200 hectares, and is divided into four zonescivilian headquarters (CHQ), the armys general headquarters (GHQ), the wireless station and the training centre. One has to trek through the jungle for an hour and a half to reach the last two zones.

Muivah, Shimrang and their colleagues believe the struggle would end soon. They draw their confidence from the framework agreement they had signed on August 3, 2015, with R.N. Ravi, representative of the Narendra Modi government.

Most Nagas believe they are going to be sovereign soon. They also know that it is not going to be the sovereignty that Phizo and his generation had dreamt of, but what they have come to call shared sovereignty. The contents of the treaty are still secret, but THE WEEK has been able to gather, from Naga and Indian government sources, its main points. The Indian government is mulling to propose, under the final settlement, autonomous district councils for four hill districts of Manipur, with financial autonomy. They will have a separate flag and control over their mineral wealth. There will also be a pan-Naga body for the preservation of cultural and traditional rights. Muivah would be its chairman.

Though talks are on and there is no war now, the military training has not stopped. Shimrangs army is 15,000 strong. About a thousand are women, commanded by 40-year-old Ami. Most of them joined without telling their families or were selected by the village heads during recruitment drives. Men and women undergo the same training in weapons and guerrilla warfare, spending days in jungles without food.

But, why women in war? Man cannot live by himself, explained Shimrang. When you have division of labour, you should not look down upon one another. A revolution is not complete if there are no women.

Kumthy, 30, completed her training and joined last year. She loves her job. We are like a family. I am a national worker, she said, with a glint in the eye. I love to wear the uniform. I look better in it than in ordinary clothes.

It is not all fighting and training. They have fun, too. When the lights went out at sunset, Aton, Tavi, Matha and Mary, all in their 20s, watched TV while cooking food in the mess. There are four messes for the womens corps. In one mess, 23-year-old Adon Palmei strummed the guitar, leaving her gun on the table. Celebrate the victory of the Lord, He has done magic things yet again. God, Hes good to me! Hallelujah! she sang, as if trying to dispel the enveloping dark. Longti and Rishika, 20 and 21, were reading the Bible. They had enrolled last year.

When we join, we swear by the Bible and the bullet that we wont betray the nation or compromise the security till the last drop of our blood, explained Kumthy. What if there is a change of heart? I asked. No one leaves once they join, she said, with finality. If anyone wants to leave, on grounds of marriage, sickness or some other serious reason, she signs a bond that binds her to secrecy till death. If anyone breaks it, they can be found. We have dossiers on all. The punishment for betrayal is death.

Apparently, Nagas are represented in their parliament, called Tatar Hoho, which is located in a church in the northwest part of Hebron. As we entered, we saw assembled members of parliament raising prayers for Naga unity.

The NSCN(IM) government is headed by a president. The post has been lying vacant since the death of Isak Swu, co-founder of NSCN. Then there is the vice-president, the octogenarian Khole Konyak, who left the rival faction of S.S. Khaplang to join Isak and Muivah last year. After Isaks death, the real power is wielded by prime minister Muivah, a Tangkhul Naga from Manipur, whose tribe dominates the NSCN(IM) leadership today.

Key officials running the government are the cabinet secretary and the kiokilonsers (ministers) running the kilo or home ministry, the finance ministry, the keye or defence ministry, the lota and horti ministry (agriculture and horticulture) and the eidangter (intelligence) bureau. Guarding these ministries, which function out of hutments scattered around the green and hilly campus of Hebron, is a security task force battalion (STF) stationed in CHQ.

Marking history: Civilians arrive for the Nagalim governments republic day celebrations.

It was the home minister who had sent his men to receive us the previous evening at Hebron. From Dimapur airport, we had been driven through dirt tracks through thick tropical jungles. It had been drizzling, and we had been greeted by a group of ordinary-looking men, sitting on plastic chairs outside a hutment with a signboard that read Kilo Ministry.

My name is Akha Ho Asmi. Im the home secretary, a tall, middle-aged man had said, welcoming us to Hebron. I was calling you, you didnt take my call. Then he smiled, as if to make us feel at home. Kilo ministry is one of the 12 departments that make up the civilian headquarters of GPRN at Hebron.

Isak, it is said, had finally agreed to the terms set by the Indian government because he had realised his end was near and he wanted to see the dream of Phizo and the Nagas realised. But, that was not to be. Isak died on June 28, 2016, and, in deference to his memory, Muivah would not have another president till the dream of a sovereign Nagalim was realised.

The balance of power in the NSCN(IM) had always been tenuous, especially between the Nagas from Nagaland and the Nagas from Manipur. Isak, being from Nagaland, had been the balancing factor, and he had had an excellent working relationship with Muivah. But, as happens in most underground movements, factional and clannish feuds crept in. The Nagaland Nagas got suspicious of the Tangkhul Nagas from Manipur, who dominated the group. After Isaks death, the 17 tribes in Nagaland started feeling that if their voice was not heard at the right time, the Tangkhul Nagas would drive the peace accord in their favour.

The prayer for peace we heard in the parliament was heard everywhere on March 21. More than three decades ago, on the same day, Isak and Muivah had denounced the Shillong Accord of November 11, 1975, which said the Naga National Council would accept the Indian Constitution. Subsequently, the GPRN was formed on March 21, 1980. Their main aim was to establish a sovereign and independent Naga country by unifying all areas inhabited by Nagas in India and Burma, based on the Christian socialist spiritual outlook of Nagalim for Christ. So, we were their republic day guestssort of.

Daily fix: People line up to get their ration at Hebron.

Nowadays, at every meeting, Muivah makes one pleabridge the Manipur-Nagaland divide. In both open and closed-door forums, he warns the Nagas of self-destruction, of the NSCN unity blowing itself up almost like a suicide bomber minutes before he reaches his destination. As a gesture of peace and goodwill, the rulers of Hebron had invited all Naga groups to their republic day. Though the Khaplang faction boycotted the event, it did send a message of good luck and goodwill.

There are about 10,000 civilians in Hebron, and home secretary Asmi, who has been living here for 24 years, ensures that they get their daily rationdal, rice and spices. Ration is distributed every day during fixed times in the morning and evening. Asmis wife works at the health and family welfare department of the Nagaland government. Dont you have differences at home? I asked. There are many like us. One member of the family works for the GPRN and another works for the Nagaland government, with the children studying in Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru, explained Asmi. But all are committed to the Naga struggle. My daughter is doing MBBS in Bengaluru. She often asks me, Papa, why dont you retire? I tell her I cant. My grandfather was the first general of the Naga National Army and I have spent my life serving the Naga nation. It is our life. I am reminded of Asmis best friend, the education secretary, telling me about how they run schools and colleges to teach Naga history to the new generation.

In the camp, I was given a room in the girls hostel, which can be reached only after climbing rocks and crossing a dried stream bed. Aphi, 35, who had left home quietly to join the NSCN-IM 15 years ago, gave me her neat and tidy room. The wall sported two posters of Bollywood actor Katrina Kaif. We have dinner at 6pm and lunch at 6am [there is no concept of breakfast; just two extremely heavy meals]. You can tell me your meal timings and preference. We eat rice and chicken or dal both times, Aphi told me as she went out to feed the chicken.

A young man with a rifle approached the brick-and-timber hut. He proceeded towards the chicken, which had hopped out of the bushes to peck at the grains that Aphi scattered. He crouched and took aim. There was blood on the wet ground. He picked up the bird by the neck and tossed it to the girls in the kitchen. Will you have it with or without skin? Aphi asked me.

Law of the land: The home affairs office.

Everyone in Hebron can shoot. People who join Hebron, either as civilians or as part of the military, have to undergo a six-month training. They learn to use firearms, are toughened by getting beaten with sticks, are taught to survive in the jungle on berries and leaves, and learn guerrilla warfare before they choose between the CHQ or the GHQ. Every six months to one year, they have refresher classes.

We travelled 12 kilometres from the CHQ to reach the GHQ within Hebron, crossing a small village called Chandi. There were check-posts. The armed men apologised for checking my bag. We didnt know a lady was coming. Our women soldiers are away, the sentry said, ushering us towards Anthony Shimray, an NSCN(IM) commander accused by the National Investigation Agency of being the chief arms and ammunition procurer for the group.

The NIA had arrested and charge-sheeted Shimray in 2010. The agency said he had struck deals with Chinese firms to secure sophisticated arms. In August, he was granted bail after the NIA chose not to oppose his plea, purportedly in the interest of the peace talks.

Every now and then they arrest our cadres in the name of ceasefire violation, grumbled Shimray. Added General Shimrang: We have not retaliated till date. When Jawaharlal Nehru said Even if the river turns red I will not give the Nagas independence, we decided we will continue fighting till the sun falls down. If the government of India think that its armed forces will bring about a solution, the Naga army is also ready. The Indian Armys human rights violations are horrific.

What about the GPRNs own human rights record? Did they have prisons? A civilian worker took me to the prison on a small hill. It had three cells secured with iron bars. There was a petty criminal inside. He has been jailed for troubling the villagers and creating factionalism, said Aliza, the guard.

Yards from the jail, the Nagalim flag was to be hoisted for republic day. The camp was full of men, women and children. There werent enough chairs. The local people had been allowed inside to attend the function amid heavy security. Many youngsters were seeing Muivah for the first time. Cooks had been brought from outside to give the crowd a grand feast of pork and rice.

Welcome to the jungle: The main gate of the Hebron camp.

The air was thick with hope and expectation. Ikai Chishi, 18, had come all the way from Dimapur along with his pastor, 30-year-old Lovy Naga. Ikais father is a trooper in the Indian Army. I have a separate identity. I need freedom to express myself. I want to be free. Then we can all live as brothers and sisters, he said. Are you a Naga or an Indian? I asked. I am both, he snapped. Most of the ordinary Nagas governed by the parallel government feel so. They said they had no fight with India, they were just separate. There is no hatred; there is even love. But, they are separate.

I realised this when I returned to Aphis room the night before I left Hebron. She had just returned from a busy day at the finance ministry. The budget session was to commence soon and she had tonnes of paperwork. She took out some exotic leaves from a jar and made tea for me. Where can I get these? I asked her as the aroma filled the room. These are not available here. My friend got these from Arunachal, she said. She then pushed the bottle towards me, and said, These are yours.

Seeing my shoes were wet and dirty, she offered hers. They didnt fit. Then she quietly took away mine. Half an hour later, she returned with my shoes, cleaned and dried. We dried them with our hair dryer, she said.

Aphi wasnt there when I was leaving the next day. I decided to leave a note. But, what to write? Wish her good luck in her mission? Could I, a patriotic Indian, wish good luck to a secessionist mission?

Finally, I did it. I wished her and her Nagas all success.
By Press Trust of India: Colombo, Apr 16 (PTI) At least 21 people, including four children, were killed when a mountain of garbage came crashing down on homes following a fire near Sri Lankas capital, with rescuers racing against time to find any survivors.

Police have launched a probe to ascertain whether the collapse of the 91-metre open garbage pile on Friday was a natural calamity or an act of sabotage.

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A 10-member team of geologists of the Peradeniya University has been sent to the spot, Colombo Page reported.

Officials of mining and excavation divisions along with a group of judicial medical officials have also been called for investigation, the report said.

Over 100 houses were completely destroyed and more than 600 people fled in the aftermath of the fire and the collapse in Meetotamulla area in Kolonnawa, near here, police said.

Twenty-one people, including four children, were killed and 12 others injured in the incident, officials said.

More people were feared to be trapped as the military struggled to clear the rubble and rescue people or recover bodies.

As rescuers were racing against time in the search for survivors, hopes of finding anyone alive continued to fade.

On President Maithripala Sirisenas directive, hundreds of military personnel have been deployed to rescue the slum dwellers adjacent to the 300-foot (91-metre) garbage dump.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe issued an apology on behalf of the government to the victims.

"We had all plans in place to relocate the garbage dump at Meetotamulla. But the tragedy struck before we could put them into action. We apologise for the governments inability to complete the task before the disaster," he said.

The residents near the dump had been protesting for months, demanding that the garbage dump be relocated.

The authorities, however, claim that they had given enough warning to the slum dwellers to relocate themselves.

"We had even paid compensation to them to relocate," Harsha de Silva, the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, said, adding the state will bear the funeral expenses of those dead.

The minister said it was only a few weeks back that agreements had been signed to begin waste to energy projects at the dumping site. The mountain of garbage caught fire and collapsed on dozens of homes as the residents were celebrating the traditional New Year. Police said the true scale of the damage remained unclear.

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Sri Lankas Parliament was recently warned that 23 million tonnes of garbage at Kolonnawa dump was a serious health hazard. About 800 tonnes of garbage is being added to the dump on a daily basis.

"This is not a natural disaster but man made due to the sheer negligence by the authorities concerned," M S Marikkar, the ruling party local member of parliament, said. PTI CPS

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You could be a chocolate lover, but do you hold it in your hand, savour its aroma, let it melt in your mouth, explore its subtle flavours and feel satisfied in its lingering aftertaste? If not, perhaps, you dont know this love of your life enough, says the certified chocolate taster L. Nitin Chordia.

The difference between eating and relishing a chocolate was one of the biggest eye-openers for Nitin at International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting (IICT) in London, where he pursued two of the three levels of chocolate tasting certification in 2014 and 2015.

Chocolate tasting is more than eating candy, its a serious but pleasurable experience connecting us with ancient flavours that go back thousands of years into the history of cacao, says IICT co-founder and Nitins mentor, Martin Christy.

At the professional level, chocolate tasting means detecting defects in the manufacturing process and evaluating flavour notes and character. Like wine grapes, each origin of cacao bean has a distinct flavour profile that lends a unique character to the bar. It is not easy to retain the flavour during the chocolate-making process. During production, regular commercial chocolates undergo alkalisation, a chemical process that strips chocolate of its natural character. What you taste in the end product are flavours from added ingredientsfar from what the original chocolate could have been.

Before turning to a career that most people would envy, 38-year-old Nitin lived a monotonous life of a retail consultant for more than 12 years. His love affair with fine chocolates began in 2006, when as part of Godrej Nature Baskets sourcing function, he came face-to-face with many top-notch fine chocolate brands. Held by curiosity, he tracked these brands even after moving to the US, where he explored some of the worlds best chocolates. Coming back to India, in 2013, opened his eyes to the startling difference in quality of bars available here. Looking for fine chocolates, he mostly found imported, sugary, fat-filled and costly versions of chocolates in the market.

A tasty partnership: Nitin Chordia with Vincent Marou (left), co-founder of Marou chocolate.

It was this gap between a chocolate lover and fine chocolates that inspired Nitin to pack his bags and travel to Brussels, the chocolate capital of the world, in 2014. As luck would have it, there he met Martin, one of the worlds foremost chocolate tasting experts, who was formulating a three-level chocolate tasting certification course, similar to that in the wine industry. Martin was all set to open a chocolate tasting school in London and Nitin decided to join him as a student. Recollecting his early days as the only Indian in a batch of 20 chocolate enthusiasts from 15 countries at IICT, Nitin says, My Indian roots [and familiarity with spices] gave me an unexpected advantage. Every time we were to taste chocolate and make note of spicy notes and flavours, all heads in the room would inadvertently turn to me for my opinion.

His knowledge of Indian spices came handy also at the International Chocolate Awards, an independent international fine chocolate competition that he has twice judged. Internationally, a lot of chocolate makers are experimenting with spices. In 2015, a participant from Austria sent a garam masala infusion bar for the final round of the competition. In one bite, I knew it was no garam masala, but only cumin in the chocolate. The entry was disregarded. Other judges may not have got it, he chuckles.

In his three-year tasting career, Nitin has tasted more than 1,500 chocolates. In 2015, he launched Cocoatrait, a chocolate-tasting club in Chennai, where he hosts chocolate tasting sessions, formulates chocolate experiences via food pairings and trains people in bean-to-bar chocolate making.

Chocolates by Vietnam-based Marou

Kochi-based Swaathy Rama-krishnan travelled to Chennai in late March to attend an eight-hour-long intense training session at Cocoatrait. It was her love for chocolates and easy access to cacao beans that grow at her husbands home in Kottayam that prompted her to get trained in bean-to-bar chocolate making. Nitins knowledge on the subject is exhaustive, but what made the session worth it was his willingness to share the knowledge. He even told me about the basics of growing cacao trees to obtain best quality beans, says the 28-year old chocolate enthusiast, who plans to launch her own brand of fine chocolates made from home-grown beans.

Nitin with wife Poonam during a trip to Belgium

Explaining various flavour profiles of Indian-origin cacao beans, Nitin says, Cacao from Karnataka have spicy and coffee notes, those from Kerala are nutty, and Tamil Nadu beans are more fruity. Telangana beans, despite being used for mass production of chocolates, are least explored. Not many local chocolate makers have been successful in extracting these flavour notes to produce a fine chocolate.

However, he is all admiration for a particular bar of fine chocolate by David Belo from Earth Loaf Chocolate, Mysuru. David understands the limitations of Indian cacao bean, and then adds his own natural flavours to it, he says. Nitins favourite Earth Loaf bar is a mango, red chilli and capsicum chocolate. Describing the bar, David says, The chocolate is an after lunch or dinner bar. The red capsicum picks you up from the savoury tones of the meal and delivers the sweet mango and complex cacao flavours to your palate.

This is the first chocolate from India that can get global attention, says Nitin. The appreciation is mutual. David says, He (Nitin) is using his training to help people understand the value of speciality chocolate while making them aware of the differences between industrial and fine chocolates.

With international chocolate makers, Nitin plays a bigger role. He helps them with importer contacts, sorting out regulations and legalities, and promotes them through Cocoatrait. At present, he is promoting two international brandsPacari from Equador and Marou from Vietnam.

Pacari is a tree-to-bar chocolate, which means the company owns the farm, trees and the entire chocolate making proces s. It is like the Ferrari of chocolates because of the typical aggressive character of the cacao bean that drives every flavour profile in the bar, says Nitin. Marou, on the other hand, is a premium brand of chocolate with sophisticated flavours and highly complex notes. Marou is like Rolls-Royce of chocolates. Each variety of the chocolate comes from a different cacao farm in Vietnam, which means each category has a distinct taste profile and character, he says.

Sharing Nitins passion for chocolates, the co-founder of Marou, Vincent Marou says, Cacao is a noble commodity that resonates with millions of people, and it demands to be talked about with passion. Its not just about health and taste but something that satisfies the soul, and Nitin communicates on that level. Worthy chocolate is in good hands.

At home, Nitin brings his expertise to the same table where his wife, Poonam Chordia, moulds her skills to create bars of unique-flavoured chocolates. Nitins decision to steer clear of competition in bean-to-bar chocolate making inspired Poonam to make use of her husbands knowledge and critical approach to launch her own brand of coverture chocolates, Enchante. Unlike bean-to-bar chocolates, coverture chocolates use cacao mass, with very high levels of cacao butter, as the base ingredient. Nitin is very demanding and gets very emotional about the chocolates we create, says Poonam, 36, who too is a trained chocolate maker. Guess he takes advantage of the fact that he has a chocolate maker in me at his disposal. He pushes the envelope and wants us to remain on par with international offerings.

After all, competing with well-established brands of commercial chocolates is no mean feat. The challenges are very unconventional, says Nitin. Mostly people who buy confectionery for retail sale know nothing about chocolates. Getting brands without knowing the product might still get them business, but that ends up bringing wrong chocolates into the market, explains Nitin. Educating the trade is the most difficult task.

Hoping to expand his reach, Nitin opened Indias first bean-to-bar chocolate making school, Cocoashala, in Chennai late last year. Launched in collaboration with IICT, Cocoashala will officially introduce three-level certification courses from December 2017. Excited about the way forward, he says, The Indian market is rather untapped. We have not even yet begun!
Lisa Haydon recently uploaded a picture on Instagram where her baby bump can be seen in all its glory, peeking from under a bubble bath.

By India Today Web Desk: Lisa Haydon, who you have seen in such films as Queen, is going to be a mommy soon. The model-turned-actor is currently in the 3rd trimester of her pregnancy and like Kareena Kapoor Khan, she seems to have made up her mind to flaunt that baby bump of hers for the world and beyond.

In her latest Instagram post, Lisa is seen enjoying a bubble bath in her residence while her big, round tummy peeks from amidst the bubbles. Now, isn't that cute? Have a look:

?? A post shared by Lisa Haydon (@lisahaydon) on Apr 14, 2017 at 11:07am PDT

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Unlike Kareena Kapoor Khan who had been pretty active in the months prior to her delivery, Mira Rajput stayed away from the public limelight while she was pregnant. Looks like Lisa has taken inspiration from Kareena and is in no mood to turn her back to the limelight, so to speak.

London Nights ??? A post shared by Lisa Haydon (@lisahaydon) on Mar 21, 2017 at 12:41pm PDT

?????Polaroids A post shared by Lisa Haydon (@lisahaydon) on Mar 7, 2017 at 6:11am PST

?? A post shared by Lisa Haydon (@lisahaydon) on Feb 18, 2017 at 8:59am PST

Last year in October, Lisa Haydon got hitched to boyfriend Dino Lalvani. Dino is the son of Gullu Lalvani, a Pakistan-born British entrepreneur.

SEE PICS: Lisa Haydon announces pregnancy in style

ALSO READ: Lisa Haydon recounts being bullied for being as skinny as a toothpick

WATCH: Lisa Haydon spills her love secrets

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Thousands of protesters marched through New York City streets Saturday to demand that President Donald Trump release his tax returns.

The protesters chanted, Show me what your taxes look like and We pay our taxes in this town as they marched from Bryant Park toward Trump Tower. Police made the march turn left just before they got to the tower.

The Manhattan march was one of about 150 protests taking place in cities across the United States. Organizers said 20,000 people marched in New York.

Were here to say we care, said Ilene Singh, 71, who took a bus from New Jersey to attend the march along with her friend Geraldine Markowitz, 83.

Richard Rice was covered in pictures of Trump as Adolf Hitler. He said he wanted to make Trump show how much he owes the Russian banks and oligarchs. He is the most corrupt weve ever had, Rice said.

Actress Debra Messing, comedian Sarah Silverman and U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries were among the protesters.

Silverman said she felt beholden to be an active citizen.

A few Trump supporters argued with protesters across police barricades and chanted Build the wall, Back the ban and Obama release your birth certificate.

Trump is the first major party nominee in more than 40 years to not release his tax returns, saying it was because he was under audit. He later said that voters dont care.

Tuesday is the deadline for taxpayers to file returns.

(AP)
By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for The Five Towns Jewish Times

So how exactly do the malachos of Yom Tov differ from Shabbos?

We know, of course, that there are 39 forbidden categories of Malacha on Shabbos. Hashem is the creator of the world and He did so in six days  on the seventh day He stopped creating. To entrench this concept within us, we refrain from the 39 categories of creative acts. We do so both on the Shabbosim as well as on the Yomim Tovim. However, there are six specific creative acts which are slightly different on Yom Tov than they are on Shabbos.

The six malachos which are different are: (1) Carrying, (2) Cooking, (3) Kindling (lighting a fire), (4) Tochain (Grinding), (5) Borer (selecting) and (6) Losh (kneading).

These six Malachos are only permitted on Yom Tov for the needs of Yom Tov. If they are done for a weekday, or even for the second day of Yom Tov, one has violated a Torah prohibition.

As an example, one may not carry on Yom Tov if there is no reason to be carrying that item. If one can throw out a napkin, then it is forbidden to carry out that napkin on Yom Tov.

Why are these malachos modified for Yom Tov? Because there is a verse in the Torah that says one is permitted to do food preparing malachos on Yom Tov for Yom Tov.

Why then are they somewhat restricted? The answer is that there is a Gemorah that tells us that we cannot just do everything. The Mishna in Baitzah (23b) says that we are not permitted to fish. The Gemorah in Baitzah (2b) also tells us that we may not reap or harvest crops.

So far then, we have at least two exceptions: Fishing and reaping. Why these particular exceptions?

TWO REASONS IN THE RISHONIM

There are two possible reasons found in the Rishonim.

Reason #1  The sages did not want us putting off what we could have done before hand if there is no significant difference in taste. In fishing and reaping  the fish tastes the same and so does the fruit, whether it was done on Yom Tov or the day before Yom Tov. {This is the Rambams reason in Hilchos Yom Tov 1:5}. Since this is the case, we should have done these beforehand.

Reason #2  Fishing and harvesting are usually done on a fairly large scale. The sages did not want people doing any of these activities  either because they resemble regular weekday activities or because of a concern that these activities will be done on a larger scale and food will be prepared for the days that follow Yom Tov. {These are the explanations of the Rosh and Ran respectively in Baitzah.}

So how do we Pasken? Do we rule like the Rambam or like the Rosh and Ran? Ashkenazic Jews rule like both of these opinions. In other words, regarding something that would basically taste the same no matter when one prepared it: If one could have done it before Yom Tov but was lazy and did not  then the Malachah may not be done regularly  rather, one must do it with a Shinui (a change in how the Malacha is regularly performed).

Note the term used above was lazy. If the person was not lazy, but just didnt get a chance to do it because they were pressed for time or because the store did not have it until the last minute  then a shinui is not required. [This is really true  see the Mishna Brurah 495:8].

What kind of Shinui do we need? Well, if the issue is cooking then what should be done is to flip the way it is done. Generally speaking, food is often added to the pot while it is on the fire. To make a Shinui  add the food to the pot before it is on the fire. If the situation is grinding  such as nuts for Charoses  then hold the grater upside down or grind the nuts onto the tablecloth rather than the bowl. For sifting pre-sifted flour (to get rid of bugs) invert the sifter.

What about Borer (sorting or selecting) on Yom Tov? Well, if you were confused up until now, it is not going to get any better. But lets give it a go (For a detailed analysis of these halachos see the Mishna Brurah to SA 510:2 and Ramah 506:2).

Borer is defined as selecting or sorting an item when there is a true mixture of two or more items. Believe it or not, the explanations given above also apply to the malacha of Borer. If the food will be tasting better if we delay its preparation until Yom Tov  then Borer is generally permitted. If one did not have time to do the borer beforehand  then borer on Yom Tov itself is also permitted. The only criterion is that one should do the selection in the easiest manner possible. If taking good from bad is easier than taking bad from good  then do it that way. If bad from good is easier  then do it that way. There is also no need for the Shabbos requirement of immediate use  as long as it is used on that day.

If the Borer could have been done before Yom Tov and one was lazy or there is no distinction in taste  then it must be done with a Shinui  a change in how Borer is regularly performed. So, therefore, make sure to take the good from the waste rather than the other way around.

It should be noted that these stringencies about if it could have been done earlier only apply to Ashkenazic Jews. Sephardic Jews may rely upon the opinion of Rabbi Karo in OC 495:1 who permits the food preparation malachos even if they could have been done before Yom Tov.

The author can be reached at [email protected]
By Press Trust of India: Lucknow, Apr 16 (PTI) Lucknow - the City of Nawabs - is likely to host the main event of the International Day of Yoga (IDY) celebrations in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi may also participate.

"Lucknow is likely to hold the main event of the International Day of Yoga, which falls on June 21. However, a final decision in this regard is yet to be taken," a senior state BJP leader said.

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He said that the Ayush Ministry has proposed Lucknow as the venue for the main function for IDY celebrations this year and is waiting for final nod from the Prime Ministers Office.

Earlier, the government was considering Bhopal, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Ranchi and Bengaluru as possible venues for the event.

The Union Ayush Ministry is also planning to organise a major yoga event in at least one city in each district across the country.

The ministry zeroed in on Lucknow as the possible venue at a review meeting on the preparations for the IDY which is observed on June 21.

The official website of the Ayush ministry on its webpage pertaining to International Day of Yoga also requests the people visiting the page to make the following pledge -- "I pledge to make Yoga an integral part of my daily life." So far, 2.6 lakh visitors have pledged to make Yoga an integral part of their daily life.

The first IDY celebration was organised at Rajpath in New Delhi on June 21, 2015 in which representatives of 191 countries had participated. Last year, the main function took place in Chandigarh.

The United Nations General Assembly, heeding to a call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had made a declaration in December 2014 to observe June 21 as IDY every year.

On March 29, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while addressing the three-day UP Yoga Mahotsava in Lucknow, had said that Surya Namaskar was similar to Namaz (prayers) offered by Muslims and those opposing the yogic exercise wanted to divide the society on religious lines.

Adityanath, who had in the past lashed out at a section of Muslims for terming the practice of Surya Namaskar as "un-Islamic", said the Sun salutation was a beautiful example of religious harmony.

"The namaz offered by Muslims resembles different postures and asanas of surya namaskar including pranayama. What a beautiful example of harmony (between two religions). But some bhogis who do not believe in yoga, indulged in dividing the society on lines of caste, creed, religion and region among others," he said.

"All asanas (postures) in surya namaskar, pranayama activities are similar to the way Namaz is offered by our Muslim brothers. But nobody ever tried to bring them together because few people were interested only in bhoga not yoga," he said.

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"Before 2014, even talking about Yoga was considered communal. But things changed after Modi took steps to make Yoga popular across the world," he said.

Lauding the Prime Minister for making Yoga a global phenomenon, Adityanath had said, "PM Modi deserves all the credit for the global recognition which Yoga has got."

"The number of countries which participated in the International Yoga Day celebrations in 2015 was 175, which went up to 192 in the subsequent year," he said.

Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has directed all universities to organise training programmes on common yoga protocol.

It has urged university VCs to personally supervise efforts in their institutions and affiliated colleges to make the plan a success.

Apart from ensuring mass yoga performances on campuses, the universities have been asked to conduct discourses, lectures and talks by eminent yoga experts.

Prof Jaspal S Sandhu, UGC secretary in a letter (dated April 5) has asked the universities and colleges to take support of reputed yoga institutions for providing instructions to trainers for Yoga Day.

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The letter has been sent to 52 central universities, 357 state varsities, 123 deemed universities and 273 private universities of the country.

The main programme would be the mass yoga demonstration from 7.00 am to 8.00 am, which will adhere to Common Yoga Protocol (CYP). Other events would include yoga fests, seminars, workshops, musical and cultural programmes. PTI NAV IKA

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We round up the Sunday newspaper share tips. This week, Midas looks at property group Shaftesbury, the Times analyses BT, and the Telegraph assesses private equity firm 3i.

FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY

Brian Bickell became book-keeper and company secretary of Shaftesbury in 1986, when it was a sleepy family-owned firm and he was the first employee.

Today, aged 62, he is chief executive of this specialised, Central London property group, which is valued on the Stock Exchange at more than 2.7 billion.

Shaftesbury is different from almost every other property business because its portfolio focuses entirely on London's West End, specifically a million square feet of shops, bars and restaurants and almost the same again in offices and residential property.

Read the full Midas columm here.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

One private equity firm that has little choice but remain highly visible is 3i, a FTSE 100 member with a 7.3billion market value.

Its misfiring past  a miserable share price and a long tail of underperforming investments  has been consigned to history during the five-year reign of chief executive Simon Burrows. So much so that the collapse into administration last month of lingerie chain Agent Provocateur was an uncharacteristic flop.

When Borrows was recruited to 3i, its shares were trading at a 20 per cent discount. Now they are at a 30 per cent premium. Don't bet against it continuing to perform. Buy

SUNDAY TIMES

Jan du Plessis is not one for shirking a challenge. As chairman of Rio Tinto he has faced a barrage of questions over a bribery scandal in Guinea and boardroom diversity, and later this year he will swap the miner for BT.

The telecoms operator is not short of problems, either. In January its shares plunged 20 per cent, wiping almost 8billion off its value, because of an accounting scandal in Italy. At 313.1p, the stock is trading at levels last seen in 2013.

It must cut costs aggressively to shrink a debit pile that has swollen to nearly 9billion at the start of the year, thanks to its 12.5billion acquisition mobile operator EE, all the while sticking to its commitment to grow its dividend by at least 10 per cent year-on-year.

Even with du Plessis's steady hand on the tiller, this constellation of problems leaves the Sunday Times cold. Avoid.
Two Manchester University graduates who began brewing beer in a bucket are now selling 50,000 pints per month.

Paul Delamere and George Grant met on their first day at university in 2009 and sold their beer, which cost them 60p a pint to make, at house parties for 2 a pint.

Now their firm, ShinDigger Brewing Co, sells to 130 bars in Manchester and to more than 60 stockists in England and Scotland.

Paul Delamere and George Grant met on their first day at university in 2009

Delamere, 27, studied management and then completed a masters in enterprise in 2013.

He said turning the hobby into a business was 'a daunting challenge', but that the course helped him.

He said: 'When we started home brewing, it was just a bit of fun for cheap beer, really. But we put time into the recipes, bringing styles from around the world into our kitchen in Manchester.

'We tried some American styles. We were brewing from the grain, reading brewers' blogs and coming up with recipes through trial and error.

'We would take plastic kegs to house parties and make a bit of money.

'One good thing about playing around at university was this bubble with other students meant we had the perfect opportunity to see people's reactions.'

The friends spent a 'couple of hundred' pounds of Christmas money on their first homebrew kit, and Delamere said 'it was always a side project. To start a brewery after university was a pipe dream.'

But eventually they decided they should try to brew on a commercial basis and 'see what happens'.

'The revalued rates hit firms at the same time as many other costs

He said: 'We went to the bank for a 60,000-70,000 loan, but being two graduates saying, 'Can I have some money for a brewery?' didn't get us anything.

We got 10,000 from the StartUp Loans Company for branding, the kegs and to keep things ticking. It was on a shoestring.

'We have learned so much about the supply chain and are looking to grow more nationwide now. We were profitable this year and last.'

Grant, 26, who studied international business, finance and economics, said: 'Through a network of breweries we do shadow brewing  we brew on their spare capacity.

'It is a less risky model and we get to use super-high-tech kit. We can be agile and scale quickly in a capital intensive industry.'
For someone who warns of a 'perfect storm' in retailing, John Timpson seems remarkably unfazed: perhaps because his Timpson Group, now opening in China after generations on British high streets, has just posted record profits and paid him a handsome dividend.

The group, founded by his great-grandfather in 1865 and which is 100 per cent family-owned, has just revealed profits of 20 million on sales of 205 million  both records for the company  and a 12.1 million dividend.

However, last year's 33 per cent jump in pre-tax profits is unlikely to be repeated this year, he warns. 'I will be surprised if we are able to increase profits during the coming year,' he says.

In the family: John Timpson has just posted record profits and was a handsome dividend

A combination of a lower pound and a big increase in payroll costs due to the apprentice levy  which he calls a 'travesty' that is set to cost him 400,000 a year  changes to holiday pay calculations and the national living wage are all combining to increase costs for retailers, particularly one which places such a huge emphasis on its staff, or 'colleagues' as does Timpson.

'The materials we use are a small percent of the business,' says Timpson, 'but a large slice of the cost of what we do is the people. I've always said that if we have great people, we have a good business.'

Aside from rising costs, the future is looking bright. The group has expanded beyond its original shoe-repair and key-cutting shops.

Now there are 1,850 outlets offering dry cleaning, photo processing, engraving and watch and phone repairs.

Timpson's opened its first shop in China earlier this year, has acquired the Morrisons and Johnson Cleaners dry-cleaning businesses and even boasts the world's first 'identity shop' (of which more later).

Far east: Timpson's opened its first outlet in China earlier this year

So what's his secret?

'Most businesses do the complete opposite of what we do,' says Timpson. 'We're not a typical retailer, thank God. In every business we've ever bought  and people think we're crazy  we've ripped out the electronic point of sale tills and thrown them away, leaving just an adding machine and a cash drawer.

Anything more is just a waste of time. Those tills take the freedom away from the shops to do what they want. I don't want head office to run the business but the people in the shops.

'We have only two rules  that our people look the part and put money in the till. Other than that they can do whatever they think is right for the business. We don't do market research, we don't have a marketing department, we don't employ a PR company.'

A big driver of company growth is Timpson's tie-ups with supermarket chains such as Tesco

What Timpson Group does have is 3,774 'colleagues' who benefit from having a day off on their birthdays, weekly bonuses and free use of the company holiday cottages.

Timpson recently took 150 of them on holiday to Malta to celebrate the company's 150th birthday  'It was sheer enjoyment,' he recalls.

Four years ago he set up his Dreams Come True initiative, which treats staff to anything from IVF, dental treatment, stair-lifts, trips abroad to see long-lost relatives and even a wedding in Las Vegas.

'We're going to spend more than 100,000 on Dreams Come True this year,' says Timpson. 'It's absolutely fantastic and really makes a huge difference to people.

People don't realise that business leaders have an opportunity to influence other people's lives for good or bad more than anyone else.

Timpson's son James not only looks after the day-to-day running of the group, but is also the chairman of the Prison Reform Trust

'I've discovered that the right way to run a business is through kindness  if you're good to people then it's good for business.'

Timpson Group has been at the forefront of working with offenders for years now, running workshops in prisons and employing people when they come out of prison  ex-offenders make up 10 per cent of the workforce.

Timpson's son James not only looks after the day-to-day running of the group, but is also the chairman of the Prison Reform Trust. 'It's in our DNA,' says Timpson.

A big driver of company growth is Timpson's tie-ups with supermarket chains such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Waitrose and Asda, where it has pop-up shops or even pods in car parks.

Photo processing, including its Max Spielmann business, is the biggest part of the group  it also has the Snappy Snaps franchise  and the passport photo business is booming.

This led to Timpson's experimental foray into 'digital identity', opening the world's first ID shop, called ArkHive, in Henley.

'A substantial part of our business is in passport photos and we want to protect that business in the future,' explains Timpson. 'One thing that we can bring to the party is that we can prove that you are you, because we meet you. So it's face-to-face identity-proofing.'

Visitors to the ArkHive shop can open an account where they can store scanned and verified versions of their driving licence, passport and other documents as well as carrying out employee screening services, passport application and background checks on tenants.

The plan is to enable customers to use the information to carry out transactions online, such as proving identities to open a new bank account, for example.

His new venture, though, is set against a difficult backdrop: retail's 'perfect storm'. Timpson says that the combination of the recent overhaul of business rates, the introduction of the living wage, rising salaries and changes to holiday pay add up to 5 per cent on the cost of employing staff.

But Timpson is confident he can manage. The currency swings won't have much of an impact on a business that does not depend on imports and the controversial changes to business rates are actually going to lower his bill. 'We're going to be slightly better off, which means we've been paying too much for the last five years,' he says.

Timpson, who declines to say how he voted in the referendum, is equally unfazed by Brexit.

'I think things will be fine  if we look back in 20 years' time it won't be seen as a particularly big deal. But I think there's a danger that we're going to fail to take the opportunities which are there.

'It's a great opportunity for business leaders to disagree with the advice they get from lawyers and accountants and insurance companies and to do things that are right.

'Whether people take advantage of it or not is another matter but we're in a much stronger position now than people in Europe  they're the ones who have the problem from our leaving. And I can't see the ability of good people coming to work here will be changed.'

Timpson is in his 70s but is showing no sign of slowing down. He's just written his ninth business book, Keys To Success, visited 500 of his shops in the past six months, is currently researching the history of the business and is also spending time helping schools deal with 'looked-after children'.

Timpson and his late wife Alex fostered 90 children and had five children of their own, of which two were adopted, and the subject is very close to his heart.

He's setting up the Alex Timpson Trust to help children and families and is currently funding research 'to make sure that what we're doing is the right thing'.

His son, Tory MP Edward Timpson, was appointed Minister for Vulnerable Children and Families last year. Alex was a keen racing fan and Timpson still has eight racehorses, one of which ran last week at Haydock.

Last month, Timpson was awarded an Outstanding Contribution to Retail award. 'I got the old bugger's award this year,' he says, 'which was nice for a little cobbler who does things a bit differently.'
Raveena Tandon-starrer Maatr has been banned by the CBFC for having scenes showing graphic and gruesome violence against women.

By India Today Web Desk: The Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) has struck again. This time they have refused to give a certificate to the rape-and-revenge thriller Maatr, starring Raveena Tandon.

Reportedly, an entire group of CBFC members walked out during the screening of the film last week after it was discovered that the film's content was drastically different from the screenplay that was given to the board.

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On Saturday, CBFC viewed the film again and banned it for allegedly violating several guidelines.

"Maatr has graphic and gruesome violence against women. The film is carpeted with maa-behen expletives. We can't even recommend that the abuses be beeped as they run through the course of the film in an ongoing rush of profanity," a source from the CBFC told The Quint.

Showing rape scenes and sequences in cinema is always problematic. Seems like the makers of Maatr have crossed the line this time.

"Rape sequences are always tricky. We never know when they stop becoming shocking and get into the voyeuristic/titillating zone. In Maatr, the women's violation is subject to allegations of excessive elaboration. Though the film is well-intended and hard-hitting, we cannot take the risk of incurring the wrath of organisation devoted to prevention of violation against women," a CBFC insider was quoted as saying.

Maatr's producers will now have to appeal to the Revising Committee. To get a certificate now will take some time and as such, the film won't release next week as was originally planned.

ALSO READ: Stay on Raveena Tandon's Maatr lifted by Bombay High Court

ALSO SEE: Before Maatr, here are 10 mast-mast photos of Raveena Tandon

WATCH: Intolerance wasn't born in India yesterday, says Raveena Tandon

--- ENDS ---
MBABANE  Who is fooling who between government and USA Distillers?



This emanates from the fresh developments regarding the proposed construction of the oil refinery and storage facility by USA Distillers  a project which seemed to be going back and forth.

Just in the last publication, we revealed that the ministry was contradicting itself with the different letters that it sent to USA Distillers subject to their proposal to construct or carry out the above stated project.

The project has been surrounded by a cloud of uncertainty following that government had granted US Distillers the permission to continue with the project only to withdraw it 12 days later through separate letters signed by Principal Secretary Winnie Stewart.



The first letter granting USA Distillers the go ahead was dated March 9, 2017 and the other one of withdrawal was dated March 22, 2017 but there were unclear grounds of the withdrawal except that it was stated that Minister Jabulile Mashwama was not consulted when it was signed.

When withdrawing the permission to continue with the project, Winnie Stewart said: The ministry would like to inform you after consultation with the Honourable Minister something which had not taken place when the letter was issued, hence the ministry would like to officially withdraw it. I was unaware that the letter had been signed and sincerely apologise on behalf of the ministry. You will be informed officially once the minister has been informed.

Stewart claims that allowing the company to proceed with the implementation of the project was an oversight as she was unaware that the letter had been signed.



Astoundingly, the Times SUNDAY have seen another letter from the ministry, signed by Under Secretary Dumisani Mngomezulu who is currently acting PS, which is again giving USA Distillers the green light to continue with the project. Stewart, the substantive PS is reportedly out of the country. This one is dated March 31, 2017.

In the letter, Mngomezulu wrote: The ministry appreciates the update on progress provided in your letter and the ministry believes that a project of this magnitude will benefit the country, both economically and socially. The ministry together with the Swaziland Investment Promotion (SIPA) and the Swaziland Environmental Authority (SEA) appreciates your with the project. Stewart, the substantive PS is reportedly out of the country. This one is dated March 31, 2017.



In the letter, Mngomezulu wrote: The ministry appreciates the update on progress provided in your letter and the ministry believes that a project of this magnitude will benefit the country, both economically and socially. The ministry together with the Swaziland Investment Promotion (SIPA) and the Swaziland Environmental Authority (SEA) appreciates your efforts to date and would like to assure you of its support and assistance to your company as you continue with your planned implementation of the project.
MANZINI  To lure female pupils to bed, public transport drivers and conductors splash money, St Michaels High School parents have alleged.



This transpired during an Annual General Meeting (AGM) last week Saturday. The AGM was to introduce a Career Guidance Syllabus to parents, which is now part of the countrys curriculum.

The parents further accused the drivers and conductors for wooing female pupils by offering incentives that include but not limited cellphones, designer clothes, free rides and money in exchange for sex.

The parents said in most cases, the pupils were given free rides to and from school in exchange for sexual escapades, adding that this conduct was a scourge and needed to be rooted out. However, it could not be established how many of the pupils from the school fell prey to the drivers and conductors.



Nokuthula Dlamini, Career Guidance and Counselling Inspector from the Ministry of Education, narrated an incident while travelling in a kombi to Mjingo High School some time back, where she heard the cab driver reciting antics that he applies when seducing the pupils and subsequently having sex with them inside the vehicle.

Another parent, who identified herself as make Ntshangase, said they welcome the opportunities of life skills syllabus in schools as this would enable the pupils to adopt positive behavioral change in order for them to be in a position to deal with everyday life challenges.



She said the life skills should also be introduced at primary level so that children could grasp the skills at a tender age. Ntshangase said as parents, they were gravely concerned about the public transport drivers and conductors nefarious deed of having willy-nilly sex with the pupils in exchange for cash and other incentives.

Her words were echoed by another parent, who introduced herself as make Simelane who said most of the pupils fell into the drivers and conductors trap more so because some parents could not afford to offer their children enough cash everyday something which then opened the flood gates for the drivers and conductors to entice the children.



Make Nkambule also lamented on the rise of abuse of female pupils attending schools in the city by the conductors and drivers.

To try and deter them from being continuously lured by the public transport workers, Nkambule said it was high time children were taught about life skills. She said it should also cover sexual orientation.

On another note, the parents also said they had noted that some pupils attending schools around Manzini had been turned into drug lords by drug dealers.
MBABANE  Is it a mission possible or impossible?



Can the five star hotel be completed in eight months time?

These two questions arise from the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development Principal Secretary (PS) Bertram Stewart who insisted that by the end of the year the hotel - six storeys high  will be complete and ready for use by the end of 2017.

The project is spearheaded by the Millennium Projects Management Unit within the ministry.



The PS was being questioned on when tenders for the hotel would be released as this would mark the beginning of its construction.

Similarly, Prince Hlangusemphi emphasised the fact that construction work will soon begin on the FISH project. He mentioned, however, that the nation or business community would be informed soon how the ministry will carry out the tendering processes or preliminary preparations before the actual construction commences.

We will soon be making an announcement concerning the hotel construction, the minister said.



When he was probed further on how the ministry intended to carry out the tendering process in order to save time and kick-start the project soon, he referred all questions to the PS, who he said had better technical knowledge.

The only existing structure on the land is currently the International Convention Centre (ICC) and it has taken about three years to build to its current state.

In an interview, Stewart conceded the fact that no tender had yet been issued for the construction of the hotel. However, he vehemently stated that construction would be completed by the end of the current year (2017).

Take my word for it, I am telling you that the hotel will be built and its completion achieved by the end of the year.

However the PS did not have any concrete examples of why he adamantly said the hotel would be ready by the end of this year.



This is because the ministry is yet to advertise tenders for the building and the process takes more than six months to reach its completion, according to a construction expert.

The claims that the hotel will be ready in eight months seem rather farfetched as a another hotel being built a few kilometres from Ezulwini much smaller in terms of the number of rooms being built, has taken more than two years to complete.
NGABEZWENI  Thathile thathile.



Those were the words of His Majesty King Mswati III when speaking against divorce at Engabezweni Royal Residence yesterday.

This comes soon after the office of the Attorney General drafted the Marriage Bill of 2017.

This new Bill carries five grounds of divorce and if passed to law, it will render null and void the existing Marriage Act of 1964.

The King was addressing local pastors who had come for the annual Easter service held at the royal residence.



His Majesty likened marriage to a covenant with God. He said it was wrong for people to break agreements made with God. He said that in siSwati, there was no word for divorce.

He said Swazis got to learn of the word as time went by. In our culture, once you marry someone, there is no turning back, the King said.

The King said pastors had to educate people that once they got married, there was no pulling out. He also said pastors should teach people to clean their closets before entering into marriage.

His Majesty raised his concern over the way some pastors prayed for congregants.



He said it was disturbing to learn that some people who called themselves pastors used insecticides, which they claimed came from heaven, when praying for people.

The King also lamented on pastors who performed miracles, which included people eating and vomiting rats. He said those were not real miracles.

The King said real miracles should be the same as those in the bible. He made an example of Moses who saw the burning bush and also had his rod turn into a snake by God. He said those were real miracles from God.

Labanye bafundisi ubabona sebathandazela ngemphama, labanye bafaka sibhakela, kani labanye bafaka ne karate solo batsi bayathandazela, the King exclaimed.



This can be loosely translated to mean that some pastors slap, punch, while others even exhibit karate skills when praying for people. The King encouraged pastors to emulate Jesus and how he prayed for people.

He said bibles should not be read as if they were novels.

It is disturbing to learn that some pastors even use muti on each other and I cannot help but wonder whether they are fighting each other to win God or what, wondered the King.

The King said that the church should be united. He said unity in the church would foster unity in the nation. He said Christians should not fast for others to die so that they could take their positions or wealth.

The King spoke after a number of pastors had also spoken about the topics he touched on. One of them was Bishop Hebert Mavimbela, from Ekuphileni Church in Zion.




Election Commission had ordered Illayaraja and SP Anil Singh Kushwaha's transfer on April 2, after the controversy over the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) came to the fore.

By Rahul Noronha: Three days after by-election results came out, Madhya Pradesh government on Sunday reinstated T Illaiyararaja and Anil Singh Khushwaha as collector and superintendent of police of Bhind district, respectively Election Commission had ordered Illayaraja and SP Anil Singh Kushwaha's transfer on April 2, after the controversy over the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) came to the fore.

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Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had praised Illaiyaraja during a public rally in Ater, adding to the rumours that he would be posted back once the election process is over.

In the run up to the by-election at Ater, MP Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Saleena Singh had conducted a demo of how to use VVPAT machine, during which the machine dispensed BJP's slip irrespective of which button was pressed.

Opposition parties demanded that paper ballot be used during election, which was denied by the EC saying that the machine had not been calibrated during the demo. However, a day later Bhind Collector T Illairaja, SP Anil Singh Kushwaha and 17 other officials were transferred. Kiran Gopal was appointed as the collector and Shahdol Sushant Saxena was appointed as the SP.

On Sunday, the state government posted T Illaiyaraja back as Bhind Collector and Anil Singh Kushwaha as SP Bhind.

Also ReadMadhya Pradesh by-election: BJP leads in both the constituencies, Ater and Bandhavgarh, says EC

--- ENDS ---
MBABANE - Cash-strapped government is giving out cash incentives to parents who attend school meetings hosted by the Ministry of Education and Training it has been revealed.



The ministry, through its Career Guidance and Counselling department, is said to have given parents from St Michaels High School as well as those from Salesian high school who attended meeting held in the two schools on different occasions, money.

According to a parent, the ministry officials informed them that for being good parents who attend meetings in schools, they would be given chocolate. She said at first parents thought they would receive chocolate such as candy bars but to their surprise, they were given money to cover transportation costs.

She said we should go to another officer who was by a table where we signed a certain document and were given E20 for transport.



It was revealed that the ministry will be visiting all high schools in the country to inform parents as stakeholders on the developments taking place within the curriculum and it is expected that all parents will be given money in return as an incentive.

These over 250 other schools will host similar meetings and all the parents who attend the meetings will be provided with the same cash incentive referred to as chocolate.

At the beginning of the year, government was struggling to meet some of its obligations. Some of the obligations included the payment of companies that supply government with a host of goods and services.

It was previously reported that the situation was so serious that each time the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) remitted tax collections to government weekly, the money was immediately utilised.

A parent who the previous week had attended another meeting at Salesian High School revealed that even then, the ministry made them register their Personal Identity Numbers and they received in return.



She revealed that she actually used the money for her transport as it just about covered her travelling needs. She admitted that as parents they were pleasantly surprised as they had never received any money from the ministry ever.

I have always attended meetings called by my daughters school and have never received a cash incentive. Information revealed that parents had been called to the meeting held at the school by the ministry of education through the career guidance department.
MBABANE  The senior Swazi prince who once met with His Serene Highness Immanuel Sovereign Prince and directed him to the office of the High Commissioner in South Africa has distanced himself from the alleged swindling.



The prince said it was true that he knew him after meeting him a year ago but was quick to strongly emphasise that knowing him does not mean that he was part of the said allegations.

I do not understand where this comes from but I want to set the record straight. I met this guy about a year ago and about two months ago, he returned and told me that he wanted to be introduced to Swaziland, but I made it clear to him that the only way to do that was to go via the office of the High Commissioner who at the time was Phesheya Dlamini, he said.

He then pointed out that recently, he heard that the said head of state was in India in a bid to see the King.



The prince went on to say that he was not sure how he got to know that the King was India. I know the procedures followed when dealing with matters like this, and therefore there was no way I could have carried this guy on my head and took him to the King, its not possible.

Phesheya Dlamini was also reached for comment. He confirmed that he knew the said prince and disclosed that it was his first time to hear of the states name.

He, however, asked to respond on questions that related to his time as a high commissioner not about the alleged fake cabinet.



As a high commissioner, my duty was to screen everyone who wanted to engage the country and I did the same with this person you are talking about. I wrote a letter to the Ministry of foreign affairs informing them about the said prince. Before writing the letter I asked the commissions security officers to investigate about the prince because I do not have the power to investigate.

Dlamini also mentioned that when he left office for his new position, he had not received feedback from the ministry. I cannot comment about issues touching cabinet because Im not in cabinet, he said.

On the other hand, Moses Vilakati, the Minister of Agriculture, confirmed that he was part of the delegation that learnt of the allegations which the prince levelled against the alleged imposters who swindled him.



I wouldnt want to dwell much on this since its in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but I know the matter you are talking about. Since I am very old, I have seen such happening thats why I was not so shocked,Vilakati said.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan must have known by now that there are more Scindia royals within the BJP than in the Congress.

Campaigning for the Ater assembly bypolls on April 9, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan made some scathing references to the Scindia rulers' purported collusion with the British in committing atrocities on the people of Bhind in 1857. It was ostensibly to target Jyotiraditya Scindia, who's expected to be the Congress's face in the 2018 assembly polls. But it's stirred more than the usual summer storm within the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Now Chouhan must have been aware that there are more Scindia royals within the BJP than in the Congress. On cue, Yashodhara Raje, the youngest daughter of the late Vijayaraje Scindia and a minister in the Chouhan cabinet, retorted that the BJP in MP had been built with her mother's "hard work and financial support". To press her point, she also stayed away from the Ater campaign.

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Among the handful of erstwhile royals who have managed to stay politically relevant after Independence, members of the Scindia clan have won most of the elections they have contested. In MP, besides Yashodhara, her maternal aunt Maya Singh too is a minister. Her husband, Vijayaraje's brother Dhyanendra Singh, is an ex-minister. Then there's also Jyotiraditya and the royal lineage in the Congress.

But more than the listing of royals in rival camps, CM Chouhan's statement has put the focus on a rather unique kind of politics at play in what used to be the princely state of Gwalior. Politics where the divisions aren't so much along party lines, but more about being for or against the mahal ('palace' as the Gwalior royals are commonly referred to).

The BJP's anti-mahal group is a powerful coterie including known Scindia baiter and higher education minister Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, state minister Narottam Mishra and Morena MP Anup Mishra (former PM A.B. Vajpayee's nephew). Party insiders say the group has a common agenda-cut the Scindias down to size in the state. And they share this with Congressmen like MLA Govind Singh and former ministers Bhagwan Singh Yadav and Aidal Singh Kansana.

Evidence of the blurring party lines was recently visible in Gwalior when pro-mahal Congress leaders held forth on "Vijayaraje's contributions to the Jan Sangh and BJP", to counter the CM. Predictably, though, anti-mahal leaders in both parties were quick to point out that irrespective of their personal or political equations, the Scindias close ranks when it comes to safeguarding the mahal's interests.

Former Congress MLA Veerendra Raghuvanshi, who lost the assembly polls in Shivpuri in 2013 to Yashodhara, alleges that "Congress workers were told not to work for me as my victory would weaken the Scindias in the region". Raghuvanshi quit the Congress and is now firmly with the BJP's formidable anti-mahal faction.

CM Chouhan would do well to choose his battles wisely if Jyotiraditya is indeed the chief ministerial face of the Congress in 2018, given the retinue of 'royals' in his own party.

--- ENDS ---
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By Larry Penner

No one at the MTA, LIRR or any elected official ever wants to talk about the real full cost for Long Island Rail Road East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal, which may be closer to $15 billion.

This includes other items which are considered indirect and carried off line from the official $10.8 billion project budget (which, according to the USDOT Federal Transit Administration MTA Full Funding Grant Agreement, could grow to $12 billion upon project completion).

These are financing charges ($600 million), additional capacity improvements at Jamaica LIRR station ($450 million), along with numerous capital improvements east of Jamaica.

They include construction of several thousand additional parking spots for new riders at numerous stations, new bus feeder services to stations, construction of new stations, completion of the Ronkonkoma branch double tracking between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma ($450 million), Main Line Third Track between Floral Park and Hicksville ($2 billion), new pocket tracks on other branches, new Huntington/Port Jefferson branch storage yard ($400 million), capacity expansion to other storage yards, purchase of additional rolling stock and even more capital projects which will support implementation of ESA.

Without all of the above, the LIRR will not be able to achieve 100 percent utilization of this investment including the promise of 24 trains per hour during peak service period.

Larry Penner is a transportation historian and advocate who previously worked 31 years for the US Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office
More than 3,000 Syrians were expected to be evacuated Sunday from four areas as part of a population transfer that was briefly stalled a day earlier by a deadly blast that killed more than 120 people, many of them government supporters.

As the evacuations were expected to begin Sunday, shells fired by the Islamic State group on government-held parts of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour wounded two members of a Russian media delegation visiting the area, according to state-run Syrian news agency SANA. Russia is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian journalists enjoy wide access in government-held parts of the country.

The United Nations is not overseeing the transfer deal, which involves residents of the pro-government villages of Foua and Kfarya and the opposition-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani. All four have been under siege for years, their fate linked through a series of reciprocal agreements that the U.N. says have hindered aid deliveries.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and Hezbollah\s Al-Manar TV said 3,000 people will be evacuated from Foua and Kfarya, while 200, the vast majority of them fighters, will be evacuated from Zabadani and Madaya.

Abdurrahman said Saturday\s blast which hit an area where thousands of pro-government evacuees had been waiting for hours  killed 126. He said the dead included 109 people from Foua and Kfarya, among them 80 children and 13 women.

No one has claimed the attack, but both the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Fatah al-Sham Front have targeted civilians in government areas in the past.

A wounded girl, who said she lost her siblings in the blast, told Al-Manar TV from her hospital bed that children who had been deprived of food for years in the two villages were approached by a man in the car who told them to come and eat potato chips. She said once many had gathered, there was an explosion that tore some of the children to pieces.

After the blast, some 60 buses carrying 2,200 people, including 400 opposition fighters, entered areas held by rebels in the northern province of Aleppo, Abdurrahman said. More than 50 buses and 20 ambulances carrying some 5,000 Foua and Kfarya residents entered the government-held city of Aleppo, Syrian state TV said, with some of them later reaching a shelter in the village of Jibreen to the south.

U.N. relief coordinator Stephen O\Brien said he was "horrified" by the deadly bombing, and that while the U.N. was not involved in the transfer it was ready to "scale up our support to evacuees."

He called on all parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, and to "facilitate safe and unimpeded access for the U.N. and its partners to bring life-saving help to those in need."

Residents of Madaya and Zabadani, formerly summer resorts, joined the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad. Both came under government siege in the ensuing civil war. Residents of Foua and Kfraya, besieged by the rebels, have lived under a steady hail of rockets and mortars for years, but were supplied with food and medicine through military airdrops.

Critics say the string of evacuations, which could see some 30,000 people moved across battle lines over the next 60 days, amounts to forced displacement along political and sectarian lines.

In eastern Syria, an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on the village of Sukkarieh near the border with Iraq killed eight civilians who had earlier fled violence in the northern province of Aleppo, according to Deir Ezzor 24, an activist collective, and Sound and Picture Organization, which documents IS violations.

Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition had killed dozens of civilians over the past several weeks as the battle against the extremists intensifies in Syria and Iraq.

SOURCE: Associated Press
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.
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New York

On one of the highest floors of a Lower Manhattan office tower, New York street artists have spent the past year spray-painting and splashing their graffiti, murals and other wild creations across pristine walls, windows, floors and ceilings.

No, it isn't vandalism.

Developer Larry Silverstein allowed the 50 artists to turn 34,000 square-feet of office space that normally would rent for about a quarter of a million dollars a month into their own sprawling canvas. Multi-colored graffiti and other works by sculptors and painters explode with images of fantasy and reality, tragedy and comedy.

At 86, Silverstein is still a force in the rebirth of the World Trade Center site devastated by the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 2,600 people in New York.

"Here I am, an old fogy, but I wanted to do something exciting and different, and to provide a sense of beauty, a sense of peace, in an otherwise difficult world," he says.

His 72-floor tower, 4 World Trade Center, was the first to rise on the 16-acre site a dozen years after the attacks. Now, the unoccupied 69th floor is covered in colors, squiggles, lyrics, faces and sculpted forms. The floor-to-ceiling windows offer stunning views of the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center, the Hudson River and the memorial reflection pools where the twin towers once stood.

The new tower's top 11 floors, including the art-filled space, have been leased by Spotify, the music-streaming company moving into other floors, which hasn't decided how to incorporate the artworks into its style.
Albany

Christopher Hardy was headed to his cousin's baby shower last Saturday afternoon when he stopped at a West Hill corner store for a pack of cigarettes and some soda.

While his friend ran inside the store, Hardy sat alone in his car at the corner of First and Quail streets. The 27-year-old father from Albany texted his siblings as a man approached.

The man opened the car door and fired two shots.

Minutes later, police found Hardy slumped inside his 2017 Hyundai Sonata  bleeding from his abdomen and left hip. He died later and his killer vanished.

Police said they believe Hardy was targeted by a gang enforcer in retaliation for a drive-by shooting earlier that day where more than 50 bullets were fired into a suspected drug house. Investigators are looking into whether Hardy is connected to that incident.

Hardy's death is the latest burst of gun violence in a neighborhood troubled by shootings. Gunfire erupted in Albany 63 times last year, injuring 28 people and killing one man. For those types of crimes, West Hill is the epicenter. Just 10 percent of the city's almost 100,000 people live in the neighborhood, but the blocks where they live were the scenes of 46 percent of last year's reports of shootings, meaning weapons were fired there 29 times.

"Albany is rough  some parts more than ever," said Diamond Alston, the mother of Hardy's 4-year-old son Ciyan. "There is no control over the gun violence."

City police use data to help them determine where to use resources to stem the tide.

"Anytime someone picks up a gun and wants to shoot someone else, there is a failure at so many levels at that point," acting Albany police Chief Robert Sears said. "It's best to try to identify things before they happen but obviously that's very difficult at times."

Yet, gun violence in the city is on the decline. Data shows that reports of gunfire decreased 24 percent last year when compared with the most recent five-year average.

But, "every time someone pulls that trigger, it's a potential homicide," Sears said. "Twenty-nine people shot isn't small to me."

When a gun was fired on city streets in 2016, a bullet hit someone two out of five times. The majority of the shootings had intended targets. In many cases, witnesses and even victims refused to talk to police.

"Either they don't want to be bothered with the prosecution, they don't want to help the police, they want to handle it themselves or they're just scared," Sears said. "We run into people all the time that don't want to go down on paper or write a statement but they'll give us information."

Even so, dozens of perpetrators disappeared, with 66 percent of the shots fired cases yielding zero arrests.

Most of Albany's gun violence can be traced back to local street gangs, not notorious widespread gangs, such as the Bloods and the Crips, Sears said. These informal gangs run the city's lucrative marijuana trade and street robbery rings, he said. Illegal dice games played on city sidewalks are a common target.

"That's one of the reasons why we don't like the dice games to flourish because they are just a magnet for more criminal activity," Sears said. "There could be a lot of money being thrown around and, let's face it, if you're gambling illegally on the street, you're very unlikely going to report a robbery to the police department."

Police know when and where shootings are more likely to occur, and who is most likely to be involved  it's being there at the right time that is difficult, Sears said.

Beat cops on bikes, patrol officers in cars and extra officers on overtime are always "keeping an eye out for the particularly violent folks," he said.

"And, if we think that something is going to be jumping off, we'll put even more extra resources over there," he said. But, "let's face it ... it's very, very difficult for us to stop someone whose mind is made up already."

"The overwhelming majority of folks living in these areas are just normal, decent people going to work, going to school, wanting to live their life, to enjoy themselves and to have their kids grow up without having to worry," Sears said.

But they do worry, he said. Families in West Hill live with the city's highest rate of violent crime and its heaviest policing. "We just try to be an overwhelming presence," Sears said.

Two years ago, city planners wrote in a report that West Hill has "continued to spiral downward" for nearly two decades and is now "in need of major reinvestment." The neighborhood, they concluded, suffers from deteriorating housing, limited investment from landlords and business owners, a lack of strategic planning by the city, unemployment and an aging population.

Seventy percent of the residents of West Hill are black, Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. A third of the neighborhood lives below the poverty line, a rate that's 11 percent higher than the citywide average.

"When you are living in a poverty-stricken neighborhood, you're not getting the best of anything," said Jerome Brown, the director of Albany Cure Violence. "You're not getting the best medical care, your kid isn't getting the best education. You're stuck in this area without the right services."

Cure Violence is a state-funded, locally run violence interruption program that puts formerly incarcerated caseworkers on the streets to help kids try to live an normal life. It's based in West Hill.

"Why is this different than Arbor Hill or the South End? To some extent, it's that there are more resources in other neighborhoods," said Harris Oberlander, who directs the not-for-profit that oversees Albany Cure Violence.

"I'm frustrated. You're frustrated. He's frustrated," Cure Violence caseworker Ardra Wilson said. "You're boiling all the frustration together, so it's bound to explode." She added that residents are most likely going to take it out on one another rather than someone from outside their neighborhood.

"A lot of these young men who are getting shot have young kids and are leaving them fatherless," Wilson said. "And once these kids become teenagers, it's, 'Who cares? Someone took my dad from me.' "

University at Albany professor Alan Lizotte has spent three decades studying gun violence in upstate New York. He said he's concluded that people who illegally own and carry guns do it because "they are afraid of people like themselves who carry guns," he said.

"The very best predictor of whether a kid will carry a gun is  guess what  does their peer carry a gun?" said Lizotte, who teaches criminal justice.

In Albany, the police department has put a premium on reaching out to the children and teens in the communities most often stricken by gun violence. Sears hopes youth programs teach "you don't need to go shoot somebody," Sears said.

Police also routinely identify people who may become a perpetrator or victim of gun violence and steer them into programs that hopefully lead to a different path.

Officers meet with paroled men and women, and knock on the doors of kids in potential peril for face-to-face conversations. They host group violence intervention meetings where mothers who have lost sons and men who have turned their lives around address current gang members.

Sears said, so far, he thinks it's working but the success is "impossible to measure."

"You don't know how many times your message has gotten through and somebody goes, 'You know what, I'm just going to let it go.' I mean, how are you going to measure that?" he said.

Alston, Hardy's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his older son, lives in Long Island now but she grew up on the corner of Third and Ontario streets  "literally walking distance from where Chris was murdered," she said.

"I used to hang out there all the time," she said about the corner of First and Quail streets. "People are out all the time with kids, laughing and joking."

Alston was still living on Third Street when Ciyan was born and Hardy forbid her to walk anywhere in West Hill with their son, she said.

"If I had to go two blocks, he would drive me. He always said to me, 'You just never know,'" she said. "That's why my first instinct was to move my son away. I can't afford to lose him to the streets."

emasters@timesunion.com  518-454-5467  @emilysmasters
Albany

Saturday's blustery conditions struck Emily Marynczak as a suitable metaphor.

"These are the winds of change," Marynczak shouted to a crowd of hundreds outside of the state Capitol as Saturday's windy afternoon whooshed in the microphone and buffeted cheering protesters holding signs decrying President Donald Trump's refusal to release his tax returns.

One of the organizers of the rally, Marynczak is part of Bethlehem Indivisible, a 120-member group formed in the wake of Trump's election. Initially devoted to hosting meetings and speakers to advance a progressive agenda, Bethlehem Indivisible's first large public effort was Saturday's rally and march. It was among approximately 150 such gatherings nationwide collectively called the Tax March, which stemmed from the women's marches that took place the day after Trump's inauguration. Around the country crowds totaling tens of thousands assembled on what is traditionally the deadline for filing tax returns. (This year, because of the weekend and a Washington, D.C., holiday on Monday, the deadline is Tuesday.) Trump is the first U.S. president and first major party nominee in more than 40 years to decline to release his full tax returns.

"Had those taxes been released, there may have been a different result for the election," said Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, who was one of the rally's speakers. Fahy and fellow Assembly member Phil Steck, a Democrat from Colonie, are co-sponsors of pending legislation referred to as the Tax Returns Uniformly Made Public Act, also known as the T.R.U.M.P. Act, which would require candidates seeking to be on the ballot in New York to release the previous five years' returns.

"We need a real movement for change in this country," Steck said at the protest, noting similar legislation has been introduced in 27 other states.

"The first time I came to Albany I was protesting the Vietnam war," said Amy Vastola of Bethlehem. "I'm here now because I can't leave this world to my children. We need to do something about it."

"So many of my friends are involved and aware and passionate about what's going on in this country," said Greg Jusino, a 16-year-old from Slingerlands who was among the rally's organizers. "We're reclaiming patriotism, saying we're Americans, too."

sbarnes@timesunion.com  518-454-5489  @Tablehopping  http://facebook.com/SteveBarnesFoodCritic
A detailed compilation of 'attacks on the press' by the Patrakar Halla Virodhi Kruti Samiti (PHVKS) prompted the Devendra Fadnavis government to act.

It's an ignoble record for a state. The year 2016 saw as many as 82 attacks on mediapersons, one almost every four days. In 2017, there have already been 14 instances of such assaults till April. Indeed, in the past decade, mobs have vandalised the premises of 54 media houses.

A detailed compilation of 'attacks on the press', by the Patrakar Halla Virodhi Kruti Samiti (PHVKS), an umbrella body of journalist unions, prompted the Devendra Fadnavis government to act.

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On April 7, the state legislature (both assembly and council) unanimously endorsed the Maharashtra Mediapersons and Media Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2017, making Maharashtra the first state in the country to offer legal protection to journalists.

Notably, during the passage of the legislation in the legislative council, even Congress leader Narayan Rane, whose committee had initially questioned the need for such a law, acquiesced quietly. He was clearly unwilling to upset journalist associations that have been demanding legal protection for over a decade now.

The new law makes assaulting a journalist a non-bailable offence with three years of jail for the guilty. Conversely, it prescribes similar penalties for journalists found guilty of misusing the law.

PHVKS convenor S.M. Deshmukh believes it will discourage future attacks on reporters and cameramen. "Most attackers belong to political organisations. They will now think twice before assaulting a journalist," he says admitting that loopholes still remain. For example, a Deputy SP rank police officer needs to certify the victim as a 'journalist' before an FIR invoking provisions of the new law can be registered. That being the case, he still wants the legislation to be adopted as federal law.

--- ENDS ---
QUEENSBURY  A SUNY Adirondack student allegedly assaulted and choked his victim during an incident at the college early Saturday, police said.

Liam D. Mullings, 21, is charged with felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault, according to an announcement from the Warren County Sheriff's Office. The department said Mullings was arrested after officers responded to a report of a domestic altercation at the college. Police did not mention where Mullings is from; his Facebook page says he went to high school in London.
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Schenectady

For 19-year-old Angelica DeDona, climate change is walking the shoreline near her home on Long Island's north coast, seeing the beach steadily erode as extreme storms get stronger. For Tina Lieberman, it was having no apples or peaches on fruit trees in her Albany yard when the buds died after a late winter heat wave was followed by killing frost. And for Daniel Carlson, it was helping people clean up ravaged homes in Schoharie County after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

While each has their own observations about climate change, shared conclusions over its dangers is leading them all to the same place. On April 29, the three are expected to be among about 200 Capital Region residents going to Washington, D.C. to join a nationally organized march that will support an international scientific consensus on the reality of ongoing man-made climate change driven by fossil fuel emissions.

"Climate change is real and important to a lot of people," said DeDona, a sophomore at Union College, where she is also president of the school's environmental club. "We should not take our Earth for granted. It should be one of our top priorities."

March organizers are hoping that attendance will top a 2014 march held in New York City that drew some 400,000 people from across the U.S. and around the world. The march has attracted increasing attention as President Donald J. Trump proposes slashing government support for climate science research and seeks to roll back climate protection policies of his predecessor, Barack Obama, including a program meant to limit greenhouse gas emissions from electrical power plants nationwide.

There are 200 local climate marches also planned April 29 across the U.S., including several near the Capital Region  in Hudson Public Square, Seventh and Warren streets, Hudson, at 11 a.m.; Walkway Over the Hudson, Poughkeepsie, at 1 p.m.; Crandall Park in Glens Falls, at 10 a.m; and Cherry Valley Old School in Cherry Valley, Otsego County.

The climate marches are coming a week after an Earth Day rally in Washington on Saturday that is being organized by more than 170 science-based organizations that view proposed Trump budget cuts in climate science, health research and other areas as partisan, misinformed and dangerous.

There are more than 400 local science marches taking place around the world, including one at the lawn outside the state Capitol at 1 p.m. Saturday. Another march is being held at noon that day in Congress Park in Saratoga Springs.

For Carlson, pastor of the First Reformed Church in Schenectady, concern over climate change also has a theological bent. "Over the last several years, our congregation has made an increasing commitment to 'creation care,' " said the 53-year-old.

Creation care claims a scriptural basis for protecting the Earth, and sees climate change and other forms of environmental degradation as consequences of forms of sins, such as materialism, greed, and selfishness.

"We have to be better stewards of faith, stewards of the world, rather an just exploiters," said Carlson, who with members of his church went to Middleburgh in Schoharie County to help clean up after Superstorm Sandy. "There was a lot of destruction, and we saw the community struggling," he said.

Carlson and others from the church also attended the 2014 climate march in New York City, which he called "inspiring." To embrace "creation care," his church now is exploring how to buy community-based solar power to provide to low- and moderate-income people who might not otherwise be able to support it, he said.

The local buses from the Capital Region to Washington for the April 29 march are being organized by the Sierra Club and the People of Albany United for Safe Energy/350.org. Bookings for remaining tickets may be made online through peoplesclimate.org.

Lieberman is an organizer with the Sierra Club. The 53-year-old, a native of New York City, moved to the Catskills about three decades ago, and later to Albany.

"I can remember when snow and ice was normal during the winter. Now spring is becoming all or nothing," she said. "People have to think about turning on their air conditioning in April."

Also making the bus ride to Washington will be Jeffrey Corbin, an associate biology professor at Union College where he studies plant ecology, soil nutrients and biodiversity.

"I have not seen anything like what is happening now in Washington during my whole career," said Corbin. "I have never felt more scared about the politics of climate change than I do right now."

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He credited Union students, who will occupy about 30 seats on one of the buses heading to Washington from Albany, for making the trip happen. "I am more than happy to help them," he said.

On Monday, former Adirondacks resident and author Bill McKibben will speak at Union on the impacts of climate change on the Adirondacks. The free talk is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Nott Memorial Chapel.

The national climate march comes as more Americans are growing concerned over the issue. A national poll of voters by Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Conn., found that more than two-thirds answered that they were worried climate change could hurt them or someone they know.

"It's personal. Climate change is an existential threat, many voters feel," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. "They are concerned, and some are very concerned, about the looming menace of climate change.

And that concern apparently has been growing since the November election of Donald Trump, who has called climate change a "Chinese hoax" meant to reduce U.S. economic strength. The most recent poll, released April 1, found 76 percent of voters were either very or somewhat concerned about climate change. That is up from 68 percent just after the election.

And for younger voters like DeDona, between 18 and 34 years old, that concern was even greater, at 92 percent the poll found.

More people also disagree with President Trump's efforts to undo climate change policies, with 62 percent saying that it is wrong, up from 59 percent after the election. Nearly three voters in four also agreed it was a "bad idea" for President Trump to cut government funding for climate change and environmental research. The poll surveyed 1,171 voters across the U.S.

bnearing@timesunion.com  518-454-5094  @Bnearing10
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Albany

I'm picking through the proverbial Easter basket and offering up these chocolaty tidbits.

I won't claim to be a regular bowler, but count me among those who will be sad to see the old Olympic Lanes in Menands make way for an apartment complex. On a rainy day with kids, bowling alleys are a great and affordable way to have some fun.

Plus, Olympic Lanes is old-school in the best sense of the term.

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

Is there a chance Jerry Jennings will endorse one of the three Albany mayoral candidates in the Democratic primary? The answer is almost certainly no, but it sure would shake up the race if he did.

In my recent column on the many problems with the governor's "free-tuition" plan, I said Andrew Cuomo's rhetoric rarely matches reality. He provided yet another example last week when he claimed the upstate New York economy is "roaring back to life."

What planet is this guy living on?

Actually, Cuomo must see the statistics  the ones showing upstate population declines and anemic job growth. But as the governor prepares his 2020 presidential run, he's spewing more and more "alternative facts."

I had a nice time meeting and talking with the good folks of the Twin Bridges Rotary Club on Thursday. It was my first Rotary gathering, and I came away impressed by the charity-minded group.

If you want to get an argument going, pose the question asked recently by the website All Over Albany: Is it OK to drop a bag of dog poop in a neighbor's garbage can?

My take: Absolutely not, unless it's garbage day and the can will be emptied before it returns to the house.

Here's a much more serious question: What's the best response to a panhandler? Here's how Pope Francis recently answered: "Help is always right," he said, adding that charity should be done with respect and compassion because "tossing money and not looking in (their) eyes is not a Christian" way of behaving.

That might not be the most practical advice, but its compassionate simplicity is beautiful.

One of the surprises of the recently passed state budget is that union dues are now deductible on state income taxes. E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center notes that since most union members don't itemize, it's a gift to those who are relatively well paid.

The average annual tax savings will come to $67, McMahon says on the NY Torch blog. "Think of it as dinner and a movie, on the taxpayers' dime, flowing principally to some of America's best paid public employees," he wrote. "Not incidentally, it's also an indirect subsidy for the state's most politically powerful unions."

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You don't have to be Machiavelli to suspect that the deduction is really about the governor mending fences with unions ahead of that 2020 presidential campaign.

There's been considerable talk lately about housing affordability in Albany, to which I'll pose this question: Don't the 900 vacant buildings in the city show that rents aren't yet high enough to get people to fix them up?

Note to Chelsea Clinton and Donald Trump Jr.: Being the child of a former or current president does not in any way qualify you for public office.

The UAlbany plan to house a new College of Engineering and Applied Science at the old Albany High School is undoubtedly good for the city, but it will make it much more difficult for pizza lovers to get a table at Sovrana on nearby Lake Avenue. And really, shouldn't that be the primary concern?

The developers behind the planned movie theater complex at One Monument Square in Troy recently unveiled renderings of the project, and much of the initial reaction was not positive. I'd agree that the design could use tweaking.

"Rue," the rooster that has taken up residence along Parkwood Avenue in Albany, is one tough bird. Not only did he make it through the winter, but he's evaded attempts by the Catskill Animal Sanctuary to capture him.

Have a wonderful and blessed Passover and Easter. Even for the nonreligious, the holidays can be a reminder, like spring itself, of rebirth, liberation and the enduring power of life.
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.
An Additional Commissioner for the Tribal welfare department and a Deputy Commissioner have been arrested by the Maharashtra Police for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe worth Rs 12 lakh from tribal school employees.

By Divyesh Singh: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the Maharashtra police have arrested an IAS officer and his subordinate, a Deputy Commissioner, for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe worth Rs 12 lakh from employees of tribal schools in Paldghar district.

The accused have been identified as 54-year-old Milind Gawade, Additional Commissioner for the Tribal welfare department and 39-year-old Deputy Commissioner Kiran Mali, who's with the same department in Palghar district.

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Gawade and Mali had demanded a bribe from 12 employees of tribal schools, ACB officials said.

After being posted at Palghar , the duo allegedly threatened the complainants that if they failed to pay the bribe - Rs 1 lakh per person - they would reverse their promotions.

The complainants earlier been asked to pay Rs 2 lakh each, but the bribe amount was later reduced after a negotiation with Gawade and Mali.

ACB OFFICIALS LAY TRAP

The complainants approached the ACB and filed a complaint, after which ACB officials conducted a primary investigation and then laid a trap at the accused's office on Saturday.

As planned, the complainants approached Mali and handed over the Rs 12 lakh bribe amount, after which ACB officials apprehended Mali accepting the cash.

They searched Mali's office and found an additional Rs 12 lakhs, which is suspected to be ill-gotten money earned by the Deputy Commissioner through bribes.

Two ACB teams searched the residences of Mali and Gawade till late last evening.

The accused duo will be produced in court today.

ALSO READ | Maharashtra Police Anti-Terrorism Squad, cyber police investigate disappearance of Mumbai youth

ALSO READ | Mumbai Police arrests 4 students for stealing answer scripts

ALSO WATCH | Mumbai: Non-bailable arrest warrant issued against Sanjay Dutt for threatening filmmaker Shakeel Noorani

--- ENDS ---
I am deeply grateful for your support, encouragement and genuine love of our schools and children. Billings Public Schools has been able to accomplish much over the past several years, and it is because of your dedication to making our public schools  and our community  the best that it can be.

I want to talk about the upcoming high school and elementary mill levy election, and why we are coming to you for continued support. These are uncertain times in our legislature. Funding is tight, and it is likely that schools will see cuts from the state. In addition, however, many of our partners will see cuts, which also will affect our schools both directly and indirectly.

High school levy

The last time a Billings high school levy passed was 10 years ago. Our high schools are projected to have 900 to 1,000 more students in seven years than we have today. This high school levy is vital to our students sitting in classrooms today, as well as those coming through in the years to come.

This levy will purchase desperately needed textbooks. Many books in students hands today are 10-13 years old. The levy would allow for online support for enrichment and mediation for the individualized needs of students.

Today, high school students must be ready for next steps  directly to the workforce, to apprenticeships, or to two- or four-year colleges. Our Career Center does a terrific job focusing on the myriad paths students may choose. Currently, the Career Center allows primarily juniors and seniors to explore its possibilities. We would like to open it to freshmen and sophomores, but doing so will require more teachers, more materials and more resources. This levy will help us achieve this goal.

Our high schools are at accreditation maximum for class size. However, meeting the standard is simply not good enough. When our high schools were recently reviewed, the team was stunned to learn that many of our core classes are at 30 students, a number far from optimal for learning. By expanding our Career Center offerings, and adding resources at our comprehensive high schools, students are able to better explore offerings and make better decisions regarding their futures.

This levy will expand dual credit and Advanced Placement credit offerings that allow students to experience college-level classes and earn college credits at no cost to families.

This levy will allow the district to continue to focus on improving student mental health. Close to 40 percent of Billings Public Schools students are on free or reduced lunch programs. Over 600 students are homeless. And out of the almost 17,000 other students, countless are struggling. The levy will allow us to add vital counselors and social workers who can reach kids in a way we are not currently able to. One hurting child is one too many.

Elementary levy

The elementary levy will be used to:

Update textbooks from the 13-year-old editions now in use.

Add staff to focus on the mental health and well-being of our elementary students.

Expand reading and math interventions for struggling elementary students. It will allow further enrichment for gifted and accelerated learners. Being able to focus on helping our students find their passions as early as possible will result in more kids staying in school, students better-equipped for the work-force, and engaged learners.

Continue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs in each and every K-8 school.

These are ways that a minimal amount of money per month will profoundly help almost 17,000 students today, and thousands more in the future. I welcome you to contact me with your questions. I truly believe that this is a great community that supports our schools.
By Press Trust of India: A married couple in the US shockingly discovered that they were biological twins after getting a routine DNA test done at an IVF clinic because they were struggling to conceive naturally.

The couple, who met in college, had attended the clinic in Mississippi in the hope that it help them have their own child.

A doctor at the clinic in Jackson, Mississippi, revealed the astonishing events and explained how the situation had come about.

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WHAT HAPPENED

"Its just a routine thing and we wouldn't normally check to see if there was a relationship between the two samples, but in this case the lab assistant involved was shocked by the similarity of each profile," the doctor told the Mississippi Herald.

"My first reaction was that they must have been less- closely related; perhaps they were first cousins, which happens sometimes. However, looking closer at samples, I noticed there were way too many similarities," said the doctor, who was not named by the daily.

The doctor consulted the patients files and noted that both had the exact same birth dates listed in 1984.

"With this in mind, I was convinced that both patients were fraternal twins," he said.

However, the doctor did not know if the couple were already aware of this or totally oblivious.

When he brought up the issue at their next appointment, the doctor said they initially "burst out laughing" in disbelief.

"The husband said that a lot of people remarked on the fact they shared the same birthdays and looked similar to each other, but he said it was just a funny coincidence and that the couple were definitely not related," the doctor said.

"The wife kept pleading with me to admit I was joking, and I wish that I was, but they had to know the truth," the medic said.

After talking it through with the man and woman, the doctor was able to establish how this had all happened.

THE LOVE STORY

The couple had met during college and instantly hit it off.

"The fact they had both been adopted, after their parents had died, meant they had both experienced a similar childhood, and they felt they could really connect with each other," the doctor said.

After processing the facts, it emerged that their biological parents had died in a car crash when the couple were infants.

With no family willing to adopt them, they were put into the care of the state and adopted out into separate families. But neither of their new families were told that the child had a twin.

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"I really hope they can work something out. For me, its a particularly unusual case because my job is all about helping couples conceive a child. This is the first time in my career that I've been glad I haven't succeeded in that regard," the doctor said.

--- ENDS ---
Yet Another Fakebook Profile Emerges... You know, I've come to accept the fact that Clay County politics is literally the dumbest thing in Clay County. And, after covering the Clay County Commission for over a year now for TheNorthlandNews.com, I'm thoroughly convinced that there is little hope for our first class county as most of the people are too busy,...

The minor league antics of the Northland persist and remind us that the middle-class across the bridge can be every bit as embarrassing and petty as the their political brethren across the metro. Take a peek:
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Police are on the lookout for a suspect in a shooting that left one man in serious condition Saturday evening. The shooting happened around 4:20 p.m. at Royal Ridge Apartments on 73rd and State Ave. Police say a black male was shot four times.
Authorities are searching for a man who robbed an Independence bank and then fled on foot Saturday morning. The robbery occurred about 10:45 a.m. when a man entered First Federal Bank at 3500 Noland Road and displayed a threatening demand note, according to Matthew J. McPhillips, an FBI supervisory special agent.
KANSAS CITY ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS WARN THAT NICER KANSAS CITY SPRING WEATHER RENEWS THREATS TO LOCAL DOGGIES FROM POLICE!!!

"TKC, just wanted to remind your readers that we're keeping the pressure on City Hall in the effort to save local animals from KCPD gunfire. Our petition Justice for Sierra & All Pets Shot by KCMO PD has more than 50,000 signatures, we have contacted national authorities about our effort and plan to make more announcements in the future. In the meantime, we just want to warn Kansas City that our pets also need protection and justice in order to make KC truly feel safe."

"They didn't announce themselves as police. When the resident opened the door, her 11 yr old rescue dog, a boxer named Sierra, ran outside. One of the officers shot at her instantly & missed. Sierra turned to run back to the house when the officer shot at her, this time killing her as she was seeking cover from the woman who raised and adored her. Sierra's mom, Brandee, was standing in the door screaming "Don't shoot, don't shoot!" when one of the officer's callously responded "too late"."

Fair play for Sunday, in much the same way that our blog community supports 1st responders and hopes for their safety, it's appropriate to examine criticism from animal lovers who object to authorities and their policy in coping with animals.To wit . . .Here's the world:A bit of testimony from the petition:To be fair . . .Kansas City Police are constantly under attack from animals and resist shooting in far more instances than local media will ever report.and our blog community isto announce progress of recent legislative work on the topic of doggie safety coming soon . . .Developing . . .
CHECK THIS KICK-ASS KANSAS CITY INSIDER FEAR THAT THE KANSAS CITY AIRPORT LISTENING SESSIONS ARE NOTHING BUT A PROPAGANDA TOOL TO PUSH THE CITY HALL SINGLE-TERMINAL AGENDA!!!

"In light of the Citys history of controlling and directing airport conversations, I think its important that their presentation for these listening sessions be made public before the sessions begin, affording those who wish to challenge the content a chance to do so in hopes of a more honest outcome. For example, there might be a statement that, The airlines offered to pay for a new terminal when they did not. Or, The airlines told the Aviation Committee that they would not add anymore non-stop flights. This statement is actually true but theyve added 5-10 since they made it. Obviously, the Business Journals recent claim of a 28.8 minute average security wait is easily included in a presentation just like it was at a recent Platte County EDC meeting, But it has since been discredited by TSA themselves and should not be a part of the conversation. Raising these issues at a listening session is counterproductive for everyone . . ."

The struggle to convince the public that Kansas City needs a new single-terminal airport is now in full swing.As our blog community noted previously . . . So-calledare the new hotness and persuasive tactic.However . . .Northland media dude Kevin Koster actually sat through dozens of airport meetings in order to participate and report on the process. Here's a well-informed take:Money line . . .And, as the "listening sessions" approach . . . What we're seeing is a hype campaign underway and not a real effort engage in awith the Kansas City.You decide . . .
A Turkish military reconnaissance aircraft violated Greek airspace for a long time on Thursday. Turkish aircraft illegally entered Greek airspace for 38 times flying over the northeast, central and southeast Aegean Sea, with two flying in formation and two others infringed on the Athens FIR 4 times.

The reconnaissance airplane followed a path over the islands of Rhodes, Lesvos and Limnos. There were no dogfights, but the Turkish planes were recognised and intercepted by the Greek Air-force.

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
By Karishma Kuenzang: The dome-like structure of Monkey Bar in Vasant Kunj, the only outlet remaining in Delhi (the group converted the CP outlet into Lady Baga a few months ago), beckons as we navigate our way through Vasant Kunj, heading to one of the most "first date"-worthy venues in the Capital.

Out of the new menu shipped up by chef Manu Chandra, we begin with the Prawn Pil Pil, prawns tossed in olive oil with chilli, garlic and parsley, served with garlic toast. The slightly spicy, fleshy pieces of prawns, swimming in a sea of garlic, go completely in sync with the thin, well-toasted slices of garlic bread. The Mac and Cheese Croquettes, stuffed with broccoli, peas and cheese, is the ideal chakna if you like peas, which was the strongest flavour in every bite. Do we wish it had been a tad cheesier? Always.

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Also Read: Love a bite of Northeastern food? These restaurants in Delhi serve authentic platters

We can't resist going back to the melt-in-your mouth Galouti Killer - the spiced tenderloin kebabs proving they could be the go-to comfort food for every typical Delhiite, albeit only if you don't mind tenderloin, something our waiter points out as we order. Served with pav, onions and mint chutney, it goes perfectly with our drinks. Sifting through the drinks menu, it's the 'Mad Men', which immediately catches our eye, not because of the title but the ingredients--100 Pipers deluxe, coffee-orange shrub, whiskey, tonic and rosemary--and the fact that whiskey is our preferred poison. The first sip prepares for what's to follow--mouthfuls of zesty and really strong coffee, which almost masks the taste of the whiskey, accompanied with a hint of rosemary.

The Mustard Grilled Fish, comes with creamy and comforting mashed potatoes. The Kolkata-inspired grilled basa with mild mustard flavours (they make their mustard in-house), is a must for seafood lovers. As we listen to renditions of songs that we've grown up listening to, we move to the vodka section of the bar menu, and order the Hipster Smash (vodka, cucumberelderflower spritz, watermelon and mint). It has a really strong and refreshing elderflower flavour, which overpowers the watermelon and cucumber. Dessert is their cinnamon sugardusted churros served with hot chocolate, which would even agree with those who don't like cinnamon. Certain that we're too full to move, we somehow manage to get home and are already looking forward to coming back.

- The Monkey Bar is in Vasant Kunj and the cost for two is Rs 1,200 (plus taxes)

--- ENDS ---
GFH Capital, a subsidiary of Bahrain based GFH Financial Group, has signed for a new investment in a US Virginia-based data center with market value exceeding $100 million.



The investment is being undertaken in partnership with Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT), a $5 billion NYSE-listed REIT and one of the leading data center operators in the US. COPT, in addition to managing the assets, have also made a 20 per cent investment in the portfolio, which is expected to provide investors with attractive semi-annual cash distributions at an annual rate averaging 9.5 per cent over the investment period and an IRR of 12 per cent.



The portfolio consists of two state-of-the-art, built-to-suit data center facilities located in high technology business parks in the US state of Virginia. The investment provides GFH and its investors with exposure to the positive dynamics of the US real estate market and, in particular, increasing demand for data centers in the US led by growth in cloud services and data storage needs with Virginia serving as top data center destination.



Luay Ahmadi, senior executive officer of GFH Capital, said: "We are delighted to announce another key investment in the US Real Estate market building on our growing portfolio and track record of success in this market.



We are particularly pleased to be undertaking this investment with a world-class partner, COPT, which will ensure we maximise both returns and exit on this investment. The data center industry within the US real estate sector provides for further diversification and exposure for GFH and our investors and offers us the opportunity to leverage growth in this dynamic and fast growing technology driven segment. It is also an extension of our broader strategy to continue to acquire and bring to our investors unique and strong income yielding opportunities, he added. - TradeArabia News Service
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), a leading aluminium smelter, has secured commitments of about $700 million from Export Credit Agency (ECA) supported facilities to finance Line 6 Expansion project.



The facilities are made-up of a dual tranche of c. $310 million and c. EUR315 million ($334 million) SERV Guaranteed Export Credit and c. EUR50 million Euler Herms Guaranteed Export Credit.



The SERV-backed facility will fund the companys Power Station 5 (PS5) wherein General Electric (GE), EPC contractor, will provide three 9HA gas turbines, three steam turbines and three heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs).



This facility will have a 15-year tenor and the principal amount will be repaid over 12-year period. The Hermes-backed facility will finance the Power Distribution Systems (PDS) where Siemens will construct and commission High Voltage electrical network and provide Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) up to 220kV. This facility will have a 14-year tenor and the principal amount will be repaid over 12-year period.



Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Bin Daij Al Khalifa, Albas chairman said: Securing the Export Credit Financing for Power Station 5 and power distribution system is a strong vote of confidence in Line 6 Expansion Project.



We look forward to work with the Swiss and German Governments as well as with GE and Siemens to progress with Line 6 as per schedule.



JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.is acting as the ECA coordinator to assist the Company in arranging the ECA facilities. Further information will be provided in due course.



Expected to start metal production in early 2019, Line 6 Expansion Project will boost the per-annum production by 540,000 metric tonnes upon its full ramp-up, bringing Albas total production capacity to 1,500,000 metric tonnes per annum to make Alba the worlds largest single-site aluminium smelter. - TradeArabia News Service
C5s Bahrain-based cloud fund for the Middle East and Africa plans to invest $2.5 million in GCC-based digital recruitment platform OneGCC.

This is C5s first investment through its cloud fund following the launch (in September 2016) of its Cloud 10 technology accelerator programme or Scalerator powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

C5 is a London, Luxembourg, Washington DC and Bahrain-based specialist technology investment firm focusing on cybersecurity, cloud and big data analytics.

OneGCC, a digital, cloud-based platform supporting the nationalisation of GCC jobs, is one of the first intake of companies to graduate the Cloud 10 programme. The $2.5 million investment is based on an overall valuation of $10 million, said a statement.

Cloud 10 is one of the first platforms in the region created to help young, technology firms (B2B firms in the area of cybersecurity, fintech, medtech, energytech, etc.) to scale-up their businesses using the Amazon cloud.

Through the Cloud 10 programme C5 aims to create 300 technology champions across the EMEA region over the next four years. As part of this, C5 set up a cloud fund in Bahrain which has $150 million available to invest in fast growing tech companies in the Mena region that are using the cloud to scale regionally and globally. The fund is a multi-stage fund focusing on Series A to late stage investments, it said.

Hadyah Fathalla, executive director of C5, said: OneGCC is one of a number of high quality, disruptive, young tech companies from the GCC region to come through the Cloud 10 programme. In line with our investment strategy we are investing in OneGCC because of the regional trend to employ GCC nationals and its unique and fast growing Arabic employment and talent platform that runs on AWS.

Dr Fatima Al Balooshi, chief executive officer of OneGCC, said: We expect to exceed a million job seekers and on-board 2000 employers / companies before the end of 2017. We already have an extensive expansion plan ready and are excited to start executing it very soon. Today, at least 20,000 large corporations in Saudi alone suffer from achieving their nationalisation quotas and we are eager to start supporting around the GCC region as soon as possible.

She added: A substantial amount of the investment will also go towards developing specific algorithms that will replace the need to hire recruiters every time a company has a job opening. We are working so that the platform will make use of all the data we are collecting including psychometric analysis, numerical and verbal reasoning and other skills and information to recommend the best candidates for any given job post whilst taking into consideration each company's hiring trends. We are working very hard on developing a new technology that we will be able to later use and replicate for other regions and parts of the world.

Khalid Al Rumaihi, chief executive of Bahrain Economic Development Board, said: The cloud 10 programme encourages technology focused entrepreneurship and OneGCC, being the first of its kind, makes a valuable contribution to Bahrain's technology sector.

It plays a major role in ensuring that Bahrainis remain competitive globally by improving the diversity of skills offered in the kingdom.

The technology and start-up industry is one with great potential for growth, and is one of EDBs target sectors. We look forward to seeing further initiatives which strengthen Bahrains position as a regional and global digital economy.

The three-month rolling programme is divided into a series of sprints or tutorials that cover all aspects of scaling up a technology business such as operational scaling and business planning; customer acquisition and marketing; management and governance; product development and accessing investment. The programme is delivered by a resident CTO and supported by a highly experienced group of prominent international tech entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors.  TradeArabia News Service


Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : WALKING SAFARIS POPULAR WITH FAMILY TRAVELLERS SAYS ACACIA AFRICA Industry: Tour Ops

(TRAVPR.COM) 14th April, 2017 - According to Acacia Africa, walking safaris are in demand when it comes to families booking on their small group tours. The itineraries, which cover East and Southern Africa, are proving to be increasingly popular amongst those with kids in tow especially since the operator opened up their complete collection to parents with children from eight years.



Arno Delport, Sales & Marketing Manager at Acacia Africa comments, All wildlife sightings have the same wow factor whether its discovering a leopard tortoise (one of the small five) quenching its thirst from a puddle, or catching sight of lioness on the prowl. But, being able to view the continents animal kingdom at close quarters on a walking safari heightens the excitement, as its a more intimate encounter in the bush."



A bonus for any families opting for an African safari, Florence Williams, science journalist and author of The Nature Fix (published, February 2017), claims time spent in the great outdoors can not only make you happier, less stressed, but also more creative and "socially connected. In fact, Williams says, "If you can get your kids outside often enough to develop their love for nature...you will be giving them a gift they will have their entire lives."



Acacia launched its 2017 travel catalogue in February, the 32 page brochure including the new 12 day Delta & Chobe Waterways accommodated small group tour. One of many highlights, the itinerary features walking safaris in the 3,200 hectare Polokwane Game Reserve.



Delport comments, The park's main attraction is the amount of ground one can cover on foot in a single afternoon - white rhino, and some very rare game, like the sable and tsessebe antelope often encountered by safari goers.



Additonal walking safaris in Zimbabwes Matobo National Park and Botswanas Okavango Delta are also listed on the itinerary. The trip ends with an insightful 4X4 excursion in the Khama Rhino Sanctuary - a community based project located on the edge of the Kalahari desert. Popular with the growing number of more adventurous parents, Botswana offers more rugged, unique experiences and fewer crowds. Bound to be a safari hotspot this summer, Prince Harry recently put the spotlight back on the country, the royal championing a campaign to protect endangered rhinos.



12 day Delta & Chobe Waterways accommodated small group tour from 1,200pp (two sharing) + Safari Pass from 950pp including transport accommodation (10 nights twin share rooms with en suite facilities, one night twin share pre-erected tent with en-suite) most meals and services of a tour leader/driver. Starts Johannesburg - ends Johannesburg. Price excludes return flight. Year round departures.



-ends-



Acacia Africa (020 7706 4700). SATSA membership No. 1931, ATTA membership no. 20151, ATOL No. 6499 and ABTA No. W4093 PROTECTED. ### Please contact the person or company listed above for information regarding the content of this press release. TravPR.com are not the issuers of this press release and are not responsible for the accuracy of the content. Share Release :



CONTACT INFORMATION Name: Sam Ward Company: Acacia Africa Phone: 020 7706 4700 Email: mseven7studio@gmail.com Web: PRESS RELEASE TAGS
Security has been beefed up at Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad airports after Mumbai Police Commissioner received an anonymous letter threatening blasts and also hinting a hijack.

By Pramod Madhav: After the Mumbai airport allegedly received a threat that a bomb was about to be placed there, security has been beefed up at Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad airports.

Security forces upped the vigil after an anonymous letter was sent to the Mumbai Police Commissioner.

The letter also stated that someone had heard suspects talking about a plot to hijack a plane.

India Today access the letter recieved by Mumbai Police Commissioner.

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Following the alert, security levels at Chennai's Arignar Anna airport have been increased seven-fold.

CISF jawans are patrolling the airport premises with loaded weapons, and Central Intel has also received a tip that terrorist organizations might attempt to hijack an airplane, sources said.

Gates in both Kamaraj Domestic Terminal and the international terminal in Chennai have restricted entry for visitors, and airlines have been instructed to thoroughly check passengers' luggage - including hand luggage.

ALSO READ | Mumbai: 2 people arrested for making hoax bomb threat

ALSO READ | Two blasts near Agra Cantonment Railway Station create panic in the city

ALSO WATCH | Security increased seven-fold at Chennai airport after bomb threat for Mumbai airport

--- ENDS ---
Telangana Assembly saw uproar in over the Telangana Reservation Bill that seeks to provide 12 per cent quota for socially and economically backward Muslims. Five BJP MLAs were suspended for protesting in the well of the House.

By India Today Web Desk: Telangana Assembly today passed a bill to give 12 per cent quota for socially and economically backward among the Muslims n educational institutions and government jobs.

Earlier, the quota for Muslims was fixed at 4 per cent. The Telangana Reservation Bill was passed by the Assembly amid uproar and protest by the BJP MLAs.

Five BJP MLAs were suspended from Telangana Assembly after they created ruckus over the Telangana Reservation Bill. The BJP MLAs came to the well of the House and refused to go back to their respective seats despite repeated requests by the Assembly Speaker.

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Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had moved the Telangana Reservation Bill in the Assembly. Special session of Telangana Assembly was convened today to consider the bill to provide 12 per cent reservation for Muslim in educational institutions and government jobs.

The bill seeks to increase the reservation to Scheduled Tribes and backward sections among Muslims. The state cabinet gave its nod to the bill yesterday.

The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) had promised to provide 12 per cent reservation for backward Muslims and Scheduled Tribes.

KCR GOES BACK TO TRS MANIFESTO

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has said that as the matter requires approval from the Centre, the state would urge Modi government to take up the issue.

The Telangana Reservation Bill takes the percentage of reservation beyond the 50 per cent cap.

The Centre would have to give its assent as 69 per cent quota is already under implementation in Tamil Nadu, K Chandrashekhar Rao argued.

As the TRS government is exactly following the Tamil Nadu model, the increased reservations should be incorporated in the 9th Schedule of Constitution so that it cannot be questioned in court, he said.

BJP CALLS IT UNCONSTITUTIONAL

On the other hand, the BJP gave a call to 'Chalo Assembly' against the TRS' move, which it termed as 'unconstitutional'.

The BJP has alleged that the Muslim quota Bill is against the spirit of Constitution as it is "communal".

Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu had on Friday said the implementation of reservations on the basis of religion may result in social unrest in the country and "lead to creation of another Pakistan".

"We are not opposing (reservation on religion basis) because KCR (Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao) wants to implement it," he said, adding, "The BJP opposed such a move even when Rajasekhara Reddy (late CM of united Andhra Pradesh) and Chandrababu Naidu (present CM) also tried to do that."

"We will oppose any such move because it will lead to creation of another Pakistan. It is an all India policy of the BJP. It is not the policy of Telangana unit of the BJP," he had said.

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The special session of Telangana Assembly will also take up the State GST Bill and the Telangana Heritage Bill today.

(With PTI inputs)

ALSO READ |

K Chandrashekhar Rao clears Telangana State Reservation Bill, Muslims to get 12 per cent quota

Also Watch | PM Narendra Modi offers prayers at Bhubaneswar's Lingaraj temple

--- ENDS ---
M.K. Bhadrakumar

THE Indian policymakers witnessed through the past week an extraordinary display of kinetic force in the United States-Russia-China triangle, which has been at the core of the strategic pattern of the contemporary world. The triangle remains a key variable in the emerging redistribution of global power. Its dynamics can potentially impact Indian interests in regional security. Life is always simpler when clear-cut options are available and sharp choices can be made. But what makes the triangle intriguing is that it is no longer possible to attribute to it a pattern of zero-sum gaming, as in the Cold War era.

In the current mode of the US-Russia-China triangle, contradictions and conflicts go side by side with common interests. Equally, economic globalisation and political multi-polarisation deprive that triangle of the exclusivity it had previously enjoyed. The Indian strategist faces an intellectual challenge to reset his US-centric foreign policy compass to adjust to the new trail for major country relations.Each of the three protagonists in the US-Russia-China triangle enjoys in geopolitical terms varying degrees of strategic depth so that even a teaming up of two of them against the third will not necessarily result in complete triumph. Small-time players walk in and walk out of the stage all the time, too, adding to the unpredictability in regional security environment.

The Russian-Pakistani "thaw", Russia-Taliban proximity, Russian-Iranian strategic cooperation, Russia's "return" to Afghanistan  these are symptomatic of the new challenges  and opportunities, too  that Indian strategists are encountering already. The meeting between the US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida (April 7-8) and the visit by the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow (April 11-12) put new signposts on the trajectory of the US-Russia-China triangle. The summit in Florida principally underscored that the US and China can engage in successful dialogue and place stress on the stability of their relationship. A four-pronged high-level dialogue mechanism was established as an expression of shared interest to follow the "principles of non-confrontation, no conflict, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, as the Chinese side puts it. The US-China Comprehensive Dialogue will henceforth be overseen by the two Presidents, who also established a new cabinet-level framework for negotiations and decided to give themselves 100 days to discuss the issues in trade. Clearly, the path is opening for a more serious strategic Sino-American understanding. There is already some evidence that the US and China supplement each other's efforts to pressure the North Korean regime against conducting more nuclear tests. Trump announced last week that he no longer proposes to label China as a currency manipulator and, interestingly, he explicitly linked this decision to China's helpful role in the North Korean problem. The government-owned China Daily commented that Trump's decision "provides further proof that China and the United States are warming to each other."Again, Trump openly complimented China for its abstention last week in the UN Security Council vote on Syria instead of joining Russia in vetoing the western draft resolution.

Suffice it to say, the world's two dominant powers sense that their long-term interests lie in the deepening of their ties. The bottom line is that neither can lead the world order alone. China understands that although the US may be a depleted power, it is the number one world power and China's interests lie in not choosing to be against America. For the US too, cooperation with China maximises American influence.

The well-known American strategic thinker Zbigniew Brzezinski recently summed up the paradigm: "To the extent we have worked together (with China) over the years since the normalisation of relations, it has not been for the evil purpose of war or conquest, but for the good of enhancing the security and stability required for each to pursue their own interests... To put it in sharper, if seemingly paradoxical terms, if America tries to go it alone in the world without China, it will not be able to assert itself.

On the contrary, Tillerson's talks in Moscow brought out that US-Russia ties are at their lowest point since the Cold-War era. Both sides say they are dissatisfied with this state of affairs. But any significant improvement in the relationship will need much dedicated effort and may take time, given the pervasive Russophobia within the Washington establishment. The talks in Moscow didn't gloss over the fact that stark differences exist on a number of issues ranging from Russian military backing for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Ukraine to colour revolutions, from cyber crimes, hacking and data thefts to election interference. While Trump continues to sound a hopeful note that relations with Putin and Russia might one day improve, his once-warm embrace of Russia has appeared to chill.

What is there in all this for India? For a start, it will be a disservice to the Indian interests if Trump fashions a policy in which China becomes the US' partner both in the quest for regional and wider global stability even if it is with an eye on the far less predictable Russia, which looms large in the American calculus as the likely rival to overreach in near term. Of course, the probability is low that China would lend its shoulders for the US to isolate Russia, because Beijing and Moscow also jointly push back at American hegemony. But then, Chinese pragmatism is legion and the present Chinese leadership's burning desire to become America's leading partner globally cannot be underestimated. Put differently, Indian interests will be profoundly affected if a crucial segment of China's regional geopolitical outreach  its close relations with the Central-Asian states, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran  also become targets of a global Sino-American accommodation. What cannot be overlooked here is that there is no serious conflict of interests involved here. In particular, the US can learn to live with China's growing presence in Afghanistan  unlike the spectre of Russia's return to Afghanistan haunting Washington  or to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Simply put, China and the US are potentially stakeholders in Afghan settlement and in Pakistan's stabilisation, which of course is also linked to Pakistan's tensions with India.

New thinking is needed on India's part to anticipate the evolution of the US-Russia-China triangle. This does not seem to be happening yet, if, for example, its recent unwarranted foray into the "Tibet-related issues, which China regards as affecting its core interests, is any indication  or, for that matter, our so-called muscular policy toward Pakistan, which is a nuclear power with multiple options open to it in the geopolitical realignment.

The writer is a former ambassador.
Dubai, April 16

A 26-year-old Indian worker in Dubai has been jailed for five years for beating another Indian to death with a wooden rod while he was inebriated, according to a media report.

The victim and his 30-year-old countryman were drinking liquor when the accused joined them in December last year.

The victim, who seemed to be troubled, started talking about his family disputes, when his 26-year-old countryman asked him to stop discussing his family problems as he was not interested in listening it, Gulf news reported.

This irritated the victim who beat the accused with a wooden rod. The defendant snatched the rod away and hit back at the victim, who fell down unconscious, the paper said.

The victim died before the arrival of police.

The Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday convicted the accused of beating the victim to death and drinking liquor.

Presiding judge Urfan Omar said the accused, who had pleaded innocent, will be deported after serving jail term.

Prosecutors said the accused battered the victim on the back of his head and caused his death without intending to do so.

The accused admitted to prosecutors that when he refused to listen to the victim discussing his family problems, the latter swore at him and assaulted him with the wooden rod.

We had a heated argument and fought because I had told him that we were not interested in listening to his problems.

Then he swore at me and assaulted me. I hit him back, he accused said.

The 30-year-old worker was fined Dh 2,000 for failing to report the crime to the police and drinking. He admitted to prosecutors that following the assault, he tried to help the victim but had run away once he realised his friend had died.  PTI
New York, April 16

The iconic Times Square was seeped in the colours and tradition of the Sikh culture as members of the community tied turbans to thousands of New Yorkers and tourists to spread awareness about the Sikh identity amid a spike in hate crimes against them in the country.

Non-profit group 'The Sikhs of New York' organised the 'Turban Day' at Times Square here on Saturday, with its volunteers tying colourful turbans to close to 8000 Americans and tourists hailing from different nationalities and ethnicities.

The four-hour event, held as part of Baisakhi celebrations, was aimed at spreading awareness among Americans and other nationalities about the Sikh religion and its articles of faith, especially the turban, which has often been misconceived and misidentified as being associated with terrorism particularly in the years since the 9/11 terror attacks.

During the event, a proclamation by Congressman Gregory Meeks of the 5th Congressional District of New York declared April 15, 2017 as 'Turban Day', lauding The Sikhs of New York for its dedication in educating other communities about the Sikh faith.

The organisation's founder Chanpreet Singh said Turban Day was started in 2013 at Baruch College to promote and educate people about the Sikh religion and identity.

"We are spreading awareness about the Sikh turban and culture. The turban is the crown of each Sikh and represents pride and valour. Turban Day provides an opportunity for those that do not wear a turban to experience a turban and learn about its significance first hand," he said.

Singh added that he had personally experienced hate during his school years and wanted to take the initiative to educate Americans that "Sikh values are American Values".

He said by inviting people from other nationalities to wear the turban, the event also aims to encourage them to avoid discrimination and speak out against hate crimes targeting Sikhs in America going forward.

As Sikhs of New York volunteers tied colourful turbans to excited New Yorkers and tourists, they explained the significance of the Sikh article of faith and informed them of the reasons why Sikhs wear the turban.

They also shared information about the Sikh culture and traditions.

Those who got the turbans tied, including young children, were seen excitedly taking pictures and proudly walking around with their new headgear.

Fallon Mendz, a young student, said she got the turban tied on her head as she liked exploring different cultures.

"Its nice to see a different culture. I am not a Sikh so its nice to learn about different cultures," she said, proudly wearing her pink turban.

She added that the message of the organisation that Sikhs should not be targeted in hate crimes because of their identity is "amazing".

"Everyone should be treated equally, everyone should be welcome no matter what religion you believe in," she said.

Eva John said with so many people sporting the turbans, it seems that there is an Amritsar in New York.

"It is a great event, especially at Times Square where people from all over the world converge. And particularly with the election of President Donald Trump, such an event and its message of harmony and equality is very important."

Sporting a bright green turban, Nikita Madden said: "It's nice to embrace a culture that is different from one's own".

Video courtesy: Facebook account of Sikhs of New York

The organisation, which has about 600 members, also unveiled a new video featuring Sikh physicians and businesspeople sending a message that while Sikh people have different backgrounds, they are not terrorists.

The event also featured cultural performances and prayers.  PTI
Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, April 16

Four persons were killed in an accident as a car rammed into a tractor-trolley on the National Highway 1 here around 12 last night.

Police sources said a group of four youths was travelling in a car and were procedding towards Shimla.

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They all belonged to Kashipur in Uttrakhand.

The car rammed into a tractor-trolley at a flyover near Mini Zoo, Pipli.

The driver of the tractor-trolley and three car occupants died on the spot.

A car occupant, Anil Kumar, was rushed to the PGIMER, Chandigarh, in a critical condition.

Family members of the deceased arrived in Kurukshetra this morning.
Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, April 16

Ignorant of the rules and by-laws, farmers are being made to pay excessive charges by arhtiyas (commission agents) besides, a cut in weighing during the wheat procurement in grain markets in Hisar.

This practice was detected by Mahender Sharma, a resident of Talwandi Rana village here, who sold his produce in the Hisar grain market earlier this week. Showing a hand-written slip given by the arthiya, he said: I brought 40.30 quintals of wheat in the market priced at Rs 65,503 at the rate of Rs 1,625. The arhtiya deducted Rs 648 as labour charge which is Rs 16 per quintals. This is totally illegal. I unloaded the stock on my own and the produce was absolutely clean so no cleaning was needed. The arhtiya was not supposed to charge me on these two counts. He said the empty jute bag was weighed at 850 grams instead of official weight of 580 grams, thus making undue cut of another 270 grams per bag from the farmer.

Many other farmers in the grain market also confirmed this, but have no idea whether they were being fleeced. This seems to be legal as I am supposed to pay for labourers who work in the mandis. I have been keeping faith in the arhtiya and if he does anything wrong, I am not aware, said Dalbir Singh, a farmer from Mirzapur village, who returned home after weighing his wheat stock at 25 quintals but was unaware of the amount he would get. I am busy these days in fields so will clear the accounts with the arhtiya later, he said.

An arhtiya in Bhiwani mandi revealed that they charge Rs 10 to 16 from the farmers and they have no objection to it. We have to meet several other charges and also satisfy the workers in the mandis.

Hisar Food and Supplies Commissioner (DFSC) Subhas Sihag said that the farmers could not be charged in excess to the charges fixed by the government. The farmers can complaint about any such illegal practice to me or the Market Committee and strict action will be taken against those who impose undue charges on the farmers, he said.

Mustard procurement eyewash: Vidrohi

Former HPCC spokesman Ved Prakash Vidrohi has accused the state government of making a mockery of debt-ridden farmers in the name of mustard procurement.

Vidrohi said the governments claim of mustard procurement was a mere eyewash as government agencies had so far procured less than 5 per cent of the mustard crop.

BJP leaders are visiting grain markets just to get media coverage. They are neither directing the government agencies to procure mustard of every farmer nor listening to farmers grievances, he added. TNS

Govt agencies purchase 37.12 lakh MT of wheat

Chandigarh: Over 37.15 lakh metric tonnes of wheat has arrived in the mandis of Haryana. Out of the total arrived wheat, the five government procuring agencies have purchased 37.12 lakh metric tonnes and traders have purchased 3,000 metric tonnes of wheat at the minimum support price. While stating this here today, a spokesman of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department said the procurement process was running smoothly in the mandis. Giving details of the wheat procured by government agencies, he said more than 9.36 lakh metric tonnes of wheat had been procured by Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, whereas Haryana State Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited (HAFED) has purchased more than 12.54 lakh metric tonnes of wheat. He said the Food Corporation of India had purchased more than 4.25 lakh metric tonnes of wheat, Haryana Agro Industries Corporation have purchased more than 3.09 lakh metric tonnes and more than 7.85 lakh metric tonnes of wheat has been procured by Haryana Warehousing Corporation. The spokesman said district Kaithal was leading in wheat arrival where more than 4.71 lakh metric tonnes of the crop had been procured. TNS
On the final day of the BJP national executive meet at Bhubaneswar, Prime Minister Narendra raised the issue of triple talaq. Modi said if an unfair practice is being followed anywhere, it needs to be addressed.

By Himanshu Mishra: Addressing the BJP national executive in Bhubaneswar today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of triple talaq saying that the nation cannot ignore the sufferings of Muslim women.

PM Narendra Modi said, "Muslim women are facing difficulties on the issue of triple talaq. We should work for solution at district level."

Briefing about Narendra Modi's speech at the BJP national executive meet, Union Minister and senior party leader Nitin Gadkari quoted the Prime Minister as saying, "If a wrong practice is being followed anywhere in society then it needs to be woken up and efforts should be made to deliver justice."

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"We have to build a nation, where we can ensure social and economic equality and where no discrimination will be made on the basis of status (of caste)," Gadkari said quoting PM Modi.

MODI AT BJP NATIONAL EXECUTIVE MEET

Addressing over 3,000 BJP functionaries from all parts of the country, Modi said, "We have move forward on the formula of new India."

Prime Minister Modi slammed the Opposition for ignoring the issues of people. "The Opposition has turned into a factory of issue-making. It is not raising issues concerning the people."

PM Modi also gave a piece of advice to the party as to how to avoid making controversial statements. Modi said, "We should learn the art of when to speak and what not to speak because one controversial statement wipes out so many good deeds. It is imperative to learn how to keep quiet in front of camera."

Narendra Modi also emphasised the need to protect the people, water resources and forests (Jandhan, Jaldhan and Vandhan).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Surat from Bhubaneswar, where the two-day BJP national executive meet came to an end today.

ALSO READ |

At BJP national executive meet, PM Modi bats for backward Muslims

Also Watch | Narendra Modi gets rousing welcome during his roadshow in Bhubaneswar

--- ENDS ---
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 16

Farmers bodies and opposition parties in the state are apprehensive that the outcome of proposed April 20 talks on the SYL canal between Haryana and Punjab at the intervention of the Centre may not be in the interest of the state.

Union Water Resources Secretary has invited the Chief Secretaries of Haryana and Punjab to hold talks on April 20 to resolve the ticklish issue at the initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi .

While Punjab CM Amarinder Singh has already welcomed the Centres initiative, BJP leaders have not offered much reaction.

Sources said BJP leaders might not say it in the open but they realise that any negotiations at a stage when the Supreme Court has already given a verdict in favour of construction of the canal would be a climb-down from whatever the state had so far achieved in the long-drawn legal battle.

The Inter-State Water Disputes Tribunal (Amendment) Act introduced in the Lok Sabha last month, proposing a single Standing Tribunal for all water disputes throughout the country, is also being viewed in this context.

The Supreme Court has already ruled it in Haryanas favour and the order has attained finality. If the Centre wants to intervene, it should have called Punjab and told it that the SYL will have to be constructed, said former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda today. Hooda said he would welcome if the Centre decides to start construction of the SYL canal in the April 20 meeting but any attempt to negotiate afresh on the issue of share of waters at this stage would not be tolerated.

State INLD president Ashok Arora said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was yet to give an appointment for a meeting with an all-party delegation from Haryana on the SYL issue, the Centre was now trying to delay the case pending before the SC by holding such meetings with the two states.

Prahlad Singh Bharukhera, president of the Haryana Kisan Manch, said the Haryana government should keep construction of the SYL canal as a precondition for any talks as the state had already won the legal battle.

Rajiv Jain, media In charge of the BJP in the State, however, said the meeting would pave the way for early construction of the SYL canal.
Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Mahendragarh, April 16

The police lathi-charged protesting primary teachers when the latter tried to storm the local residence of Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma at Satnali Chowk today. Some of the protesters who were demanding joining letters from the government suffered minor injuries .

The protesters said they would not go back until the government issued them joining letters. Though Sharma assured them of taking a positive decision on their demand over the phone, they did not disperse. The protesters were staging a dharna at Ambedkar Chowk till filling of this report while police personnel were deputed there in strength to prevent any untoward incident.

We were selected during the Congress regime in August, 2014, through a procedure set for recruitment but the BJP government has not yet issued them joining letters. The government is even terming the recruitment as unconstitutional, said Kishor Jawaliya, a leader of the Primary Teachers Sangharsh Samiti.

He said selected teachers had been staging a peaceful dharna in Panchkula for the past 300 days to get their rights but the government was making hollow assurances instead of issuing them joining letters. They had, therefore, decided not to leave Mahendragarh as the Education Minister had promised to give their joining leatters.

Earlier, hundreds of selected primary teachers from various districts of the state gathered at HUDA Park here this morning and decried the state government for not accepting their demand. Thereafter, they took out a protest march in the city, raising slogans against the BJP government. They wanted to gherao Education Ministers residence on reaching Satnali Chowk but the police had barricaded the house. Sources said the protesters broke the barricades and tried to storm the house. The police then resorted to a mild canecharge, leaving seven/eight protesters injured.
Our Correspondent

Nurpur, April 16

The family members of martyr Havildar Lakhveer Singh of Buskwara village in Maira gram panchayat of the Jawali subdivision have been running from pillar to post seeking fulfilment of promises announced by the government and political leaders of Kangra district after his martyrdom.

He had lost his life in a Naxalite ambush in Chhattisgarh on March 11, 2014. The martyr, son of an ex-serviceman Capt Harnam Singh (retd), earlier served in 10 Para Commando unit of the Army and re-joined the CRPF in 2009 after his retirement from the Army.

Senior leaders of various political parties from Kangra district visited the family of the martyr and announced a number of various steps as a tribute to the martyr. However, all the assurances have remained confined to papar.

His father Harnam Singh, mother Sarla Devi and wife Lalita Devi said the state government had promised government high school at Maira in martyrs name, pucca approach road to his house and a memorial gate in the local gram panchayat.

They lamented that none of these announcements had been fulfilled despite their repeated requests and representations to the state government.

They revealed that former Lok Sabha MP Dr Rajan Sushant, Lok Sabha MP Shanta Kumar, former minister Chander Kumar, Chief Parliamentary Secretary-cum-local MLA Neeraj Bharti and the then Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, had visited their house to condole the killing of Lakhveer Singh in the Naxalite attack and given assurances to the bereaved family. They had also met Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh at Bharmour during his visit to the Jawali Assembly constituency in 2014 who also assured to fulfil these commitments. He had also announced ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the family. But none of the promises has been met so far, they rued.

The family members of the martyr said they had submitted a representation to the state government in 2014 through the SDM, Jawali, with supportive resolutions of the surrounding gram panchayats of Maira, Sidhpur-Ghar and Bharmar and an estimate of Rs 4 lakh had been prepared for the construction of a memorial gate by the local Public Works Department but in vain.

They had appealed to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to implement his commitments forthwith so that the martyrs supreme sacrifice could get recognition.

Lost life in Naxal ambush in 2014
New Delhi, Apr 16

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Sunday apprised National Security Adviser Ajit Doval of the security situation in Kashmir, amidst growing outrage in the Valley over the controversial human shield video.

Rawats meeting with Doval comes a day after he had separate deliberations with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Governor NN Vohra over the law and order situation in Kashmir during his visit to the state.

Government sources said the Army chief called on Doval at his residence and briefed him about the overall state of security in the Kashmir valley.

The video, showing a man tied to an army vehicle purportedly as a shield against stone pelters during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha byelection, has triggered a public outcry prompting civil and Army authorities to launch separate investigations.

In her meeting with Gen Rawat, the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister had raised the issue of the video that has now gone viral on social media.

Gen Rawat has assured the J&K CM of timely action against the personnel who were responsible for the act of tying the man to the vehicle at Budgam.

According to the sources, the Army officials told a probe team that they had received a call from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the local police guarding a polling station to save them from a mob that was out to lynch them.

The Army convoy rushed in from Kandipura and tied 36- year-old Farooq Dar to a jeep, they said.

This incident, which took place on April 9, was shot by unidentified persons on their mobiles and the video showing Dar being used as a shield against stone-pelting protesters was circulated on social media.

The video surfaced days after another clip, showing a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel walking down a street being beaten up by some youths, triggered nationwide outrage.  PTI
Ehsan Fazili &

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 15

National Conference-Congress candidate Farooq Abdullah today won the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat for the third time, defeating Nazir Ahmad Khan of the ruling PDP by a margin of 10,775 votes, polling 48,554 votes. Abdullah had earlier represented this constituency in 1980 and 2009.

In 2014, he was defeated by PDPs Tariq Hameed Karra, who resigned from the party and the Lok Sabha following differences with the Mehbooba Mufti government over the handling of the unrest in the Valley. Hence, a byelection had to be held.

Counting at the highly guarded Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC), overlooking the Dal Lake, began at 8 am and the results were out by late afternoon. In all, 90,759 of the 12,61,395 voters exercised their franchise. While the byelection was held on April 9, re-polling was held at 38 polling stations on April 13.

Soon after the results were declared, Abdullah demanded that the PDP-BJP government be sacked and Governors rule be imposed in the state. He blamed the administration for completely failing to secure a peaceful election that had been marred by violence, claiming eight lives.

He also demanded that byelection to the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency in South Kashmir, which has been deferred to May 25, be held under Governors rule, otherwise we dont see justice happening. The seat was held by Mehbooba Mufti, who had to vacate it to enter state politics.

The National Conference president, a former Union Minister in the UPA-II government, said he would now work towards initiating a dialogue with all stakeholders, including separatists and Pakistan. There is no way forward other than dialogue, which must be started at all costs, he said.

On the dismal poll percentage, he said: It does not make any difference. What do you say to the people who have voted? On Article 370, he said the NC stand had always been that it must be restored to the 1953 level.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 16

Normal life in Kashmir was disrupted today due to the shutdown against the Pulwama college incident and the killing of a youth in the Batamaloo area of Srinagar on Saturday.

The joint call for shutdown was given by separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik to protest the killing of a youth in Batamaloo and the Pulwama incident in which over 50 students were injured in clashes with security personnel over the setting up of a checkpoint near Government Degree College (Boys), Pulwama.

Shops and business establishments remained closed in Srinagar city and other towns of the Valley. The public transport in Srinagar and the interdistrict transport services were affected today.

Though the day passed off peacefully without any major incident, the situation in Batamaloo, where the youth was killed on Saturday in a firing incident, was tense. The authorities had deployed additional forces in the area to maintain law and order.

As per reports, the slain youth, identified as Sajad Hussain Sheikh of Chandoosa, Baramulla, was killed when BSF men allegedly opened fire on stone-throwers in Batamaloo. The police said they were collecting details and looking into the circumstances that lead to the youths killing.

Condemning the youths killing and the Pulwama incident, the J&K High Court Bar Association, in a statement, appealed to the international community to come forward and save the people of Kashmir from what it termed tyranny and brutality of security forces.

In a statement, state Congress chief GA Mir termed the beating up of Pulwama college students by security personnel as unfortunate.

Meanwhile, the district authorities in Pulwama today ordered closure of the college on April 17 and 18.
Manpriya Singh

Seemingly random and incredibly publicwhat makes a flash mob click is the fact that it disperses just like it assembles, in a flash of a second and into the very crowds it came out of. It may or may not shake-up the public but it definitely pulls them out of the thoughtless dreamy existence that seems to invade the crowded lanes, marketplaces or malls.

When the LGBT flash mob was organized in Hauz Khas Village last week, The idea was to generate awareness, promote acceptance and get as many volunteers to join the mob as possible, shares Harsh Agarwal, International Marketing Co-ordinator of LGBT dating App SCRUFF that organized the flash mob. It wasnt just a marketing gimmick but an endeavour to get the crowd to accept these people. We had 12 to 15 volunteers gathered through social media and atleast 12 to 15 volunteers joined us.

Flash mobs@City beautiful

It was more than half a decade back on a sleepy Sunday evening in Sector 17 that a group of 70 to 90 odd people get together and start performing to the likes of Sukhbirs Gal Ban Gayi and Daler Mehendis Dil Te Churiyaan. I remember after a few seconds itself almost 7 to 8 people from the crowds join us. The idea was just to get people together and get them to dance, shares Jasmeet, director of Jas K Shans Dance Dacha (a dance and fitness school) that had just about started operations. She adds, That was the first official flash mob in the city and the idea came after I happened to be talking to an acquaintance who was a part of the SCT terminal flash mob in Mumbai a year before. Theres been no stopping after that.

Flash mob vs smart mob

The very public nature of the activity is often exploited by the corporate sector. Unfortunately, after our first ever flash mob in Chandigarh in Sector 17, I was approached by a lot of people to advertise in a similar way. When factors like product promotions, choreography enter, that is when it becomes like any other public performance. Then they are called smart mobs. I refused most of the offers or refused to at least lend my name, adds Jasmeet, director of Jas K Shans Dance Dacha. A lot of people confuse flash mobs (which is essentially about spontaniety) with smart mobs (where they are paid and for a promotional purpose). In that case it is a performance or a protest, shares Mandira Singh, a PU student who has been a part of one such mob.

Flash mob trivia

New York City is where it all comes from. Cut to 2003, in Manhattan first ever flash mob is conceived of as a social experiment, by a magazine editor Bill Wasik. The idea was to encourage spontaneity and show that people could take over public places.

Are they here to stay?

The idea of random fun has always appealed to both young and old. But nowadays with social media it is extremely easy to organize a flash mob and hence they are not as well publicized as they used to, adds Mandira. Which is why, perhaps, Wasik eventually ended the organizing of flash mobs in New York City, while they were still popular. Before they fizzled out because of lack of volunteers. I think the flash mob culture is here to stay. What makes them very effective is the surprise element, shares Devanshi Mishra from Oorja Danceworks, who has organized a couple of smart mobs at Elante Mall, including a flash mob with 10 to 15 people. If it is a public performance on stage, people know what it is. Suddenly if a prson standing next to you starts dancing, it catches you off guard. Doesnt it?

The interesting one

In 2011, at Mumbais CST, the commuters were taken by complete surprise when they witnessed a flash mob, organized by Shonan Kothari, a researcher for Harvard Business School, with over 200 people. It couldnt have been more meaningful than the third anniversary tribute to people who lost their lives to 26/11 and couldnt have been catchier than title track of Rang De Basanti.

manpriya@tribunemail.com
Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 16

The industry has to incur a large amount on logistics and the cost is one of the highest in the world, say industrialists.

They said the government, both at the Centre and state, should take measures to bring down the cost to aid the industry. The logistics cost in India is the highest in the world, said SC Ralhan, President, Ludhiana Hand Tools Association.

The logistics cost within the country is higher than the cost of sending goods from the port to the final destination. The cost of sending freight from Punjab to Mumbai is higher than the cost of sending it from Mumbai to Dubai. This issue must be addressed by the government. Such cost is much lesser in other countries, he said.

The cost is indeed very high as the cost of sending material Chennai to Shanghai is about Rs1,600 per tonne, whereas the cost of sending freight from here to Chennai is Rs6,000 per tonne, said Upkar Singh Ahuja, general secretary, CICU.

The government needs to regulate the cost of freight, as the amount charged by Container Corporation of India was very high, Ralhan said. The government also needs to regulate the amount charged by the shipping lines to lower the logistics cost, he said. With the increase of international business, the dependency on ports has increased and 70%of the industry is located far from the ports, said Ahuja.

To bring down the cost, the railways need to become more efficient and start door to door service for picking and dropping freight, he said.

Even today, it takes around nine hours for a truck to reach Delhi due to toll barriers. Even small European countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia have automated toll system, but here the goods vehicle remains stuck at toll barriers, Ahuja said.

Even highways are not of international standards. Smart highways and road infrastructure needs to be upgraded for bigger trucks to ply safely, which would also bring down the cost, he said.
Vadodara, April 16

About 20 lions were moved to safer areas after the fire broke out at Sarasiya forest in Amreli district last evening, deputy conservator of forest (DFO), T Kruppasamy said.

"The fire broke out at about 7 pm on Saturday. The district collector sent fire fighters after our request and the blaze was brought under control within one hour. Our team removed the lions to safer places," Kruppasamy told PTI.

The fire had spread over 2 km area where the wildlife has a sizeable presence, said the official.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, said the official.

The fire was first noticed by the officials of forest department and police, who were engaged to remove illegal encroachments in the forest area, said the DFO.

"These officials then immediately took steps to remove atleast 20 lions from the fire affected area," said the official.

As per the census of 2015, there are a total of 523 lions in Junagadh, Amreli and Bhavnagar districts of Gujarat.  PTI
Tribune News Service

Kolkata, April 16

An IAF officer was found dead on Sunday morning under mysterious circumstances. Wing Commander SVR Moorty, who was posted as a legal officer in the Advanced Headquarters of the Eastern Command at Fort William here, may have died last night.

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His body was found in front of the house where he used to stay alone in a second floor apartment.

Moorty, a native of Hyderabad, had come to Kolkata around six months back. His family, including his wife, daughter (22) and son (15), are in Hyderabad.

Moorty died last night after falling from this houses balcony on second floor. It is not known what time he fell since the body was discovered only in the morning at around five, Wing Commander SS Birdi, Ministry of Defence spokesperson in Kolkata, said.

It does not appear to be a case of suicide but rather an accident, Birdi added.

Police are investigating the cause. Side by side the Air Force has also started a departmental inquiry into the death.
During a discussion on the national commission for backward classes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervened at the BJP national executive meet in Bhubaneswar to suggest that the party should hold conferences for backward Muslims.

By Himanshu Mishra: Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unusual intervention during a discussion at the BJP national executive meet in Bhubaneswar today.

Making an intervention during the discussion on the motion for granting constitutional status to the national commission for backward classes, PM Narendra Modi said that there are sections among Muslims, who are backward.

They should be included in the discussion over backward classes, PM Modi said.

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PM Modi suggested that the BJP should approach the backward social groups among Muslims.

"The BJP should organise conferences for the backward Muslim social groups as they, too, are part of the backward classes," PM Narendra Modi said.

The motion for constitutional status to the national commission for backward classes was moved by BJP leader Hukum Dev Narayan Yadav.

Modi's suggestion was welcomed by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and Dharmendra Pradhan.

The OBC leaders of the BJP national executive thanked Narendra Modi for making the suggestion.

FOCUS ON ODISHA

The BJP leaders congregated in Odisha capital for their national executive meet, which was held in the state after 20 years.

This was the fourth BJP national executive meet that was held in Odisha, which figures prominently as the party eyes to expand its hold over eastern and southern states.

The BJP is said to have prepared a blueprint of what they call 'new catchment areas' of around 120 parliamentary seats in the states, where party does not have significant presence.

The Odisha conclave of the BJP national executive was held in accordance with the 'blueprint'.

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Narendra Modi offers prayers at Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar

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Bhubaneswar, April 16

Playing the OBC card, the BJP on Sunday hit out at Opposition parties, including the Congress, for stalling a historic Bill granting constitutional status to the OBC Commission and asserted that the Modi Government is firm on its resolve to ensure justice to backward castes.

Seeking to consolidate its support among the other backward classes (OBC), it passed a separate resolution at its National Executive Meeting hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who comes from an OBC caste, for the legislation and condemning rivals for blocking it in the Rajya Sabha.

It accused the Congress and other rival parties of being anti-backward castes.

The OBCs, comprising over 52 per cent of population, are vital to BJPs fortunes and a large chunk of them had remained indifferent to it before its concerted bid to woo them bore fruits under Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and then in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

It is a must to grant the OBC Commission constitutional status. It will give them justice and help create an equal society. The Congress and other parties have proved that they may preach social justice but practise only vote-bank politics. The Congress did not do justice to them when it was in power and continues to do so now, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters.

He was briefing them on the resolution passed by the national executive.

The present commission is powerless and cannot do justice to the OBCs, he said, asserting that the central government is firm on the Bills passage. It will give the commission powers similar to the SCs and the STs commissions.

He said the OBC MPs belonging to all parties, including the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, had met Modi recently to press for such a Bill but Opposition stalled it when it was brought.

The Lok Sabha, where the government enjoys a big majority, passed the constitutional amendment Bill during the recent Budget Session but the Rajya Sabha, where it is short of a simple majority, stalled it and sent to a parliamentary committee for review and recommendations.

Slamming the Congress, the resolution said opposing a decision aimed at improving the living conditions of backward people cannot be termed right and the people sidelined for long should now get their due in the society.

It is not right to oppose such decision only for politics, it said.

It is yet another pro-poor move by the government, the minister said, adding that various bodies, including the Mandal commission, had made such a suggestion.

The resolution moved by Hukumdev Narayan Yadav and seconded by the partys senior OBC leaders, including Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raghubar Das, said it is after 70 years of Independence, a government has taken this historic decision.

This is fulfillment of the long-pending demand of providing social justice to the backward classes of our society... This step reflects the strong resolve of Modi to bring equality in the society where nobody is treated badly because of their caste or educational backwardness. Justice needs to be delivered to every citizen without any bias or prejudice, it said.

Javadekar said the OBC commission will help people irrespective of religions as socially and educationally backward groups of minorities also fall in the OBC category.  PTI
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Bhubaneswar, April 16

As opponents plan to remain relevant in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP has in place the strategy to wean away the mainstay of regional parties and also the Congress  the vote banks constituting the large numbers of other backward classes in the country.

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Two resolutions were passed by the BJPs national executive today, one a routine combination of all political and economic achievements of the party and the second one focusing completely on the Centers historic decision to ensure delivery of justice to all sections of the society by awarding Constitutional status to the National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and the way Congress and some other parties were stalling it.

Amid the ongoing agitations by several sections of OBCs in the country, clearly delivery of justice to this long-neglected huge chunk of economically, socially and educationally backward classes will be among the top issues for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections and state polls until then.

In a state like Odisha, where the elections are not fought on religious or caste-based issue, the plank of social justice to its large OBC population will also help the BJP overcome some of natural disadvantage it may have otherwise suffered  for example the religion-based polarisation. Political observers say the move may help the large numbers of OBCs in the state polarise in its favour. Notably, the party has called upon all party workers and every social institution to make people aware of the historic step and ensure equal opportunities to the people of backward classes.

It is the duty of every leader of the party to reach this message in the remote parts of the country so that justice can be delivered in far-flung areas.

With the award of Constitutional status to National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes it will become as powerful as National Commission for Schedule Castes and National Commission for Schedule Tribes, it said.

While criticising the Congress, which opposed it in the Rajya Sabha, the resolution details how after 70 years of Indias independence, the BJP-led government had taken this historic decision aimed at fulfilling the interests of the poor who have been living in remote areas without any basic facilities.

It is indeed a very important step forward that will help improve the living conditions of the poor and bring them in the mainstream. This is fulfillment of the long pending demand of providing social justice to the backward classes of our society, it said, while pointing at the anti-backward behavior of the Congress and Other Regional Parties.

The Congress and other regional parties are disappointed and their frustration is so obvious. These parties have always suppressed the interests of the backward classes of the society and only gave them false hopes. The way Congress has opposed the move in the Rajya Sabha shows their real attitude towards backward classes. It is evident that despite being in power for so long, the Congress Party did not initiate any concrete step towards fulfilling interests of backward classes, reminding it of the suggestions of Kaka Kalelkar Commission (1950) and Mandal Commission (1979)

It is known that the OBC Parliamentary Committee made a recommendation in this regard and MPs of all parties had personally requested the Prime Minister to amend the Constitution in this regard.

But this is unfortunate that the move to empower people of the backward classes and making them independent has been opposed by some political parties in the Rajya Sabha.

Till date the NCBC was a simple legal body, whose job is to advise the government regarding inclusion or removal of caste / community lists. But from now onwards, this Commission can now effectively work towards welfare and upliftment (sic) of people who come from socially and educationally backward classes, the resolution stated.
Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, April 16

Border farmers, with land-holdings across the fence along the India-Pakistan border, are being driven to drug peddling. Unable to cope with the spurt in input costs and crop failure, they are increasingly falling into the trap of cross-border smugglers, say sources.

Even if our crops are untouched by the swollen Sutlej, the wild boars destroy our fields, says a desolate Swaran Singh, claiming that government help almost never arrives. If it does, the farmers have to make umpteen rounds of offices. If fortunate to get the dole, it is invariably too meagre to make a difference, he says.

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Also, for every sickness or wedding in the family, the farmers have to borrow money, which they are unable to pay back. More often than not, they are goaded by smugglers into carrying drugs across the fence, and eventually find themselves behind bars, says Karan Singh, secretary, Border Kisan Union. The risk of getting caught and the subsequent disgrace does not stop them from entering the illegal trade, such is the economic distress. Those more conscientious, resort to suicide. It is a Hobsons choice for most, explains farmer Guram Singh.

A former sarpanch, who did not want to be identified, said he once owned 10 acres. He, however, had to sell both the land and his house owing to the mounting debt over the years. He was arrested for stealing a bike and then for drug smuggling.

Another farmer took to drug peddling because of repeated losses. Ironically, his son turned an addict and died of drug overdose. Jarnail Singh owned 8 acres. He had to sell 4 acres to pay a lawyer after his son was booked under the NDPS Act.

Last week, three farmers  Mukhtiar Singh of Gandhu Kilcha, Jarnail Singh of Dullke Ke and Major Singh of Gandhu Kilcha  were caught with drugs. Also, BSF personnel apprehended

Karnail Singh of Gandhu Kilcha with five packets of heroin that he had concealed in his bullock cart. Another farmer Jaswinder Singh was nabbed at the Dona Telu Mal post with two packets of heroin. The list of such cases is endless.

According to Dr Kaustubh Sharma, Zonal Director, Narcotics Control Bureau, the couriers are paid anything between Rs 70,000 - Rs 1 lakh. Hence, penury-struck farmers are easily lured into the trade. Young school and college dropouts, keen to buy cellphones, bikes and branded clothes, too are entrapped by the peddlers.
Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 16

Beset with the problem of surplus power, the Punjab Government is all set to approach the Centre seeking permission to export power to Pakistan and Nepal.

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who will meet senior officials of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) soon to review the power scenario, will write to PM Narendra Modi on the issue, it is learnt.

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Power consumers in the state will have to bear a burden of about Rs 2,750 crore (around 70 paise per unit) this fiscal due to non-utilisation of the fixed quota of power being generated by private sector thermal plants in the state. At the time of setting up such plants, the state entered into agreements with private players that it would pay fixed charges in case its power customers did not utilise the fixed quota of power generated at these plants. In fact, the burden has to be ultimately borne by power consumers in the state.

With the setting up of three thermal plants in the private sector in recent years, there has been an addition of 3,950 MW in power generation against the requirement of 1,400-1,500 MW.

PSPCL has to pay fixed charges to these private plants for not utilising the minimal fixed quota of power generated, said Padamjit Singh, former PSPCL Chief Engineer.

During a visit to Pakistan, a representative of a leading corporate house negotiated to supply 4,000 MW to Pakistan from Gujarat. The power deficit in Pakistan is in the range of 35%. China has also offered to export power to it. Sources said if the deal materialised, the authorities would have to first synchronise the power transporting system of the two countries to match power frequency. The Pakistan power generation and supply system (based on American system) functions on a different frequency than the Indian power system, which follows the British pattern. It would take at least one year to set up high voltage direct current back-to-back module at the 400 KV grid, near Amritsar, to synchronise the supply systems of the two countries.

The financial viability will also have to be examined. The average power generation cost in Punjab is around Rs 4.50 per unit. The power rates (in Indian currency) in Pakistan at the consumer end is said to be Rs 7-8 per unit.
New Delhi, April 16

Citing prevailing environment, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has urged the government to speed up release of funds for timely procurement of paper trail machines so that these can be deployed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In a fresh letter to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad which sounds like an SoS call, he has also said that the Supreme Court, while hearing a contempt petition, has directed the poll panel to bring on record the approximate time within which the entire system of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) can be introduced.

Though the CEC did not elaborate what he meant by prevailing environment, he was apparently referring to Opposition parties questioning the reliability of the EVMs and pressing for the deployment of more VVPATs, which dispel doubts about votes cast using EVMs.

The BSP, the AAP and the Congress had attacked the EC for allegedly using tampered EVMs. Sixteen parties, not including the AAP, had recently petitioned the EC to revert to paper ballot system for greater transparency.

In his letter, Zaidi recalled that he had already informed the government that if the order for supply of VVPAT was not placed by February, 2017, it would be difficult for manufacturers to supply the VVPATs by September, 2018 to meet the requirements of the next general elections.

The Election Commission would need over 16 lakh paper trail machines to cover all polling stations in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The cost is estimated at Rs 3,174 crore.

VVPAT is a machine which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted for. The slip drops in a box but the voter cannot take it home.

The voters see voter-verifiable paper audit trail slip for seven seconds, which would be an acknowledgement receipt for the party they voted for in the election.  PTI
New Delhi, April 16

E-commerce major Snapdeals CEO Kunal Bahl and two others have been summoned by a Delhi court on a criminal complaint of an entrepreneur who alleged that his idea of connecting sellers and buyers through an e-platform was unauthorisedly usurped by the firm and its officials.

Additional Sessions Judge RK Tripathi issued notice to Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl, COO Rohit Bansal and its former chief financial officer (CFO) Vijay Ajmera for allegedly cheating entrepreneur Gaurav Duas concept of non-inventory holding marketplace model for retail in the garb of collaborating with him.

Heard. Record perused. Issue notice of revision petition to respondents vide all prescribed modes returnable for May 17, 2017, the judge said.

Dua had lodged a criminal complaint against the founders and the CFO under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, which was dismissed by a trial court earlier. He had then filed a revision petition before sessions court.

As per his complaint, Dua, an engineer and entrepreneur, founded portals marketsdelhi.com in 1999 and indianretail.net in 2005 and brought the benefits of digital technology to the retail community.

He claimed in his petition that he was the brain behind the non-inventory holding marketplace model for retail in India and alleged that the Snapdeal officials cheated him under the garb of raising funds for his business.

Snapdeal founders, who claimed to champion the approach which put them ahead of other e-commerce companies, cheated Dua in the garb of collaboration with him and raising venture funds for his validated business.

Instead, under the garb of collaboration and funding, held extensive discussions over many months but instead duped him by deploying all criminal tactics to part with the insights and workings of his work done over 10 years, the complaint alleged.

He claimed that for two years, the Delhi Police failed to register an FIR on his complaint after which he knocked the door of the court.

The trial court, however, dismissed his complaint, after which he filed a revision petition before the present judge.  PTI
Simran Sodhi

The last thing you expect from the Mongolian Ambassador to India is fluent Hindi. Gonchig Ganbold recalls with affection his two years of fellowship in India in 1981 when he came to the capital to study and learn Hindi. He has since been in and out of Delhi, serving at various positions in the Mongolian embassy here.

As one of the fellows selected by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Ganbold says his Hindi developed not just through the study of texts and literature, but also when he would go to get his bicycle repaired at the local shops and would strike up conversations with the locals. He looks back at the days when he and his friends would pass through the IIT campus on their bicycles. It was very stimulating to interact with each other in Hindi, he says.

He and the other students in the fellowship would converse with each other in Hindi, thus lending them a fluency which is evident even today.

Aaj bahut garmi hai (today is very hot), he says with a laugh, adding that this is the first Hindi sentence he learned here. He shares his amusement that instead of learning sentences like my name is so and so, his first introduction to Hindi was via the famous Indian summer.

He recalls his first impressions of the country in the early 80s when he saw a caravan of women carrying bundles on their head and moving slowly, steadily forward. Even though geographically the two nations are not neighbours, Ganbold says most Mongolians feel close to India because of the Buddhist link.

The ambassador points to the old, historical links between India and Mongolia even before India gained Independence. India is in the southernmost fringe of Buddhist Asia and we are in the northern border of Buddhist Asia, he says. The ties, he feels, are spiritual and cultural between the two nations.

For Ganbold, his years as a young man in Delhi were formative towards his understanding and affection for India. Taking that experience back, the ambassador says that Mongolia is encouraging young Indian undergraduate students to apply for a fellowship which would enable them to come and study for a fortnight. The idea is to encourage young Indians to learn the language and culture of Mongolia, in a way similar to what India has been doing through cultural outreach.

Ganbold also talks of Bollywood and its popularity in Mongolia and adds how they are taught Rabindranth Tagore and Prem Chand in schools. The ambassador has even written a script for a movie which he plans to pitch for a joint India-Mongolia production because when you make films in a country, people want to travel and visit that place. A movie shot in Mongolia would expose the beauty of his country and tempt many Indians to travel there. Sahi hai.
Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 16

In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court has said candidates availing of age relaxation under reserved categories for government jobs cant claim the right to be appointed under the general category.

We find that there is an express bar for the candidates belonging to SC/ST/OBC who have availed relaxation for being considered for general category, a Bench headed by Justice R Bhanumathi said.

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The Bench dismissed the appeal of one Deepa, belonging to the Dheevara community, who had applied for the post of Lab Assistant Grade II in the Export Inspection Council of India under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry under the OBC category.

The selection went in favour of one Serena Joseph, another OBC candidate who had secured 93 marks as against 82 marks scored by Deepa. Having failed to get the job under the OBC category, Deepa wanted the government to consider her against general category seats as none from the general category secured 70 marks  the minimum cut-off marks. She moved the Kerala High Court, which dismissed her plea. However, the Supreme Court dismissed her appeal, holding that there was an express bar against reserved category candidates being considered for general category seats.

The Bench also rejected her arguments based on an earlier verdict of the top court in a case from Uttar Pradesh, saying there was no such express bar in the state law under which the employment was being considered.
Islamabad, April 16

Pakistan has prepared a new dossier about alleged militant activities of Indian prisoner on death row Kulbhushan Jadhav and will share it with the UN and foreign envoys stationed here, media reports have said.

The new dossier is based on Jadhavs early testimonial and statements given in front of the Field General Court Martial about his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan, reports said.

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The document contains the attested report of Court Martial General, as well as the court proceedings timeline, The Nation reported.

Jadhav, 46, was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and was awarded the death sentence. Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed the death sentence last week.

The documents will also contain details of arrests and raids done by Pakistan security agencies on Jadhavs tip-offs.

The dossier will be handed over to different ambassadors in Islamabad. The Pakistani envoys across the world will also present it to their host states, the paper said.

The document will also be shared with the United Nations and other global organisations, it added.

On Friday, Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale said they would appeal against the death sentence to Jadhav and demanded from Pakistan a certified copy of the charge-sheet as well as the army court order in the case, besides seeking consular access to the retired Indian Navy officer.

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.

The Jadhav episode could further strain the India- Pakistan ties which were hit after attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan-based terrorists last year.  PTI
Bhubaneswar/Lucknow, April 16

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a strong pitch against the divisive issue of 'triple talaq', insisting the exploitation of Muslim women should end and justice be done to them.

He, however, deprecated any attempts at creating a "conflict" within the Muslim community on the issue and suggested tackling it through social awareness.

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"He (Modi) talked about social justice. He said our Muslim sisters should also get justice. Injustice should not be done with them. Nobody should be exploited, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari told journalists briefing about Modi's address to the delegates at the BJP's national executive in Bhubaneshwar.

"We do not want that there is conflict within the Muslim community over this issue. What we have to do is that if there are any social evils, we have to wake up the society and make efforts to provide justice to them (Muslim women). That was the Prime Minister's spirit," Gadkari said quoting Modi.

The Prime Minister's comments came on a day when the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) asserted Muslims have a "constitutional" right to follow their personal law of which 'triple talaq' was a part.

AIMPLBs take

AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani, however, said the board has decided to issue a code of conduct and warned that those who give talaq (divorce) without following the 'Sharia' (Islamic law) will face social boycott.

On the Babri Masjid issue, Rehmani said the board would accept the Supreme Court's decision on the matter while stressing that "no outside settlement was acceptable".

"A code of conduct for talaq is being issued. With its help, the real picture of Shariat directives will be brought out on the talaq issue. If talaq is given without Shariat reasons, those involved will be socially boycotted," Rehmani told reporters in Lucknow.

The board is issuing appeals to all maulanas and imams of mosques to read out the code of conduct during Friday 'namaz' and emphasise on its implementation, he said.

Though the Islamic law provides for a period of separation between estranged couples before 'talaq' is pronounced on three different occasions, husbands have been divorcing wives by pronouncing the word thrice at one go, through postcards, text messages on mobile phones and even twitter.

The board has made it clear that it will not tolerate any interference in the Shariat laws, and claimed an overwhelming majority of the Muslims in the country do not want any change in their personal laws.

The Union government had on October 7 last year opposed in the Supreme Court the practice of triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy among Muslims and favoured a relook on grounds like gender equality and secularism.

The Ministry of Law and Justice, in its affidavit, had referred to constitutional principles like gender equality, secularism, international covenants, religious practices and marital laws prevalent in various Islamic countries to advocate that the practice of triple talaq and polygamy needed to be adjudicated upon afresh by the apex court.

In the Supreme Court, where a batch of petitions by divorced Muslim women is pending, AIMPLB had opposed any move to interfere with the Muslim personal law.

The Yogi Adityanath government had recently said it would submit its views on the subject after eliciting the opinion of Muslim women.  PTI
While some of the freedom fighters mentioned by the Prime Minister were part of the Paika Rebellion, others fought the British at different points in time. Little is known about most of them.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Odisha to attend the BJP national executive meet, felicitated the families of freedom fighters in Bhubaneswar today.

"Today, the history was recalled with pride. It is my honour to see the descendants of martyrs. Unfortunately, the long years of freedom movement was confined in few persons and specific period. We should recall the events and contribution of everyone who participated in the freedom struggle," said the Prime Minister.

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Later, the Prime Minister took to Twitter to "write about the freedom fighters" and also shared photographs of the felicitated relatives of the martyrs.

These freedom fighters participated in the struggle for Independence against the colonial British rulers. Some of them took part in the famous Paika rebellion.

WHAT WAS PAIKA REBELLION?

Paika Rebellion was an armed rebellion under Bakshi Jagabandhu against the British East India Company's rule in Odisha in 1817. The freedom fighters were known as Paiks.

The Paiks served as warriors and undertook policing during peace-time. The Paika rebellion was brutally squashed by East India Company's forces.

"From the Paika warriors to Quit India, Odisha has a rich history of freedom fighters, who fiercely resisted colonialism," the Prime Minister said.

THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS NARENDRA MODI WANTS YOU TO KNOW:

Taking to Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi named more than 15 freedom fighters and paid tributes to them. While some of the freedom fighters mentioned by the Prime Minister were part of the Paika rebellion, others fought the British at different points of time. Little is known about most of them.

"India will never forget these courageous freedom fighters, who lost their lives so that fellow Indians can breathe the air of freedom," said Narendra Modi.

Here are the freedom fighters mentioned by the Prime Minister:

#Jayee Rajguru: Talking about Jayee Rajguru, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he resisted colonialism tooth and nail. "His leadership and valour will always be remembered," he said.

History books remember him as the first person to revolt against the British Raj in the provision.

#Bakshi Jagabandhu: He integrated people from all walks of life in the struggle against colonialism, Narendra Modi said.

Bakshi Jagabandhu was the commander of the forces of the king of Khordha, and widely regarded as one of the earliest freedom fighters of India.

The relatives of Laxmi Panda. Source: Twitter/@narendramodi

#Dinabandhu Samantaray Mohapatra: Narendra Modi described him as an accomplished warrior, who was responsible for protecting 12 forts. He was at the forefront in resisting the British.

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#Dama Subudgi Mangaraj: He was an able organiser, said the Prime Minister. "He went village to village to mobilise people. He was punished by the British and died in jail," Narendra Modi said.

#Samant Madhab Chandra Routray: Narendra Modi described Routray as an expert at guerilla warfare. He was also known for "his care towards the poor and the needy".

#Pindiki Bahubalendra: "He was a fearless warrior, who battled the British at Cuttack and Puri" is how the Prime Minister described him. Bahubalendra was later arrested by British and martyred, said Narendra Modi.

Pindiki Bahubalendra was part of the Paika Rebellion in 1817.

#Krutibas Pattasani: "The courage of Krutibas Pattasani gave sleepless nights to the British. He even defeated the British at Banapur," the Prime Minister said.

Like Pindiki Bahubalendra, Pattasani too was part of the Paika Rebellion.

#Rindo Majhi: He created problems for the colonial forces at Kalahandi, and was eventually arrested and hanged, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The family of Bakshi Jagabandhu. Source: Twitter/@narendramodi

#Veer Surendra Sai: He fought the British from 1830s onward and his struggles continued up till 1864, when he was arrested, said the Prime Minister.

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Surendra Sai eventually died in Asirgarh Jail in February 1884.

#Madho Singh: "He was determined to free India from imperialist powers. He lost his sons while battling the British," the Prime Minister said.

#Chakhi Khuntia: Describing Khuntia, Narendra Modi said, "A 'panda' at Puri, Chakhi Khuntia was drawn towards freeing India from colonialism. He worked closely with the army of Rani Laxmibai".

Khuntia was a priest at the Jagannath Temple in Puri and also a poet. He died in Puri in 1870.

#Chakara Bisoyee and Dora Bisoyee: Both fearlessly fought the British in Kandhamal, said the Prime Minister. "In that era, the prize for Chakara Bisoyee was Rs 10,000," Narendra Modi said.

#Raghunath Mohanty and Dibakar Parida: The Prime Minister described them as friends, who "fought the British in Ranpur in 1930". According to him, both were hanged in 1941.

#Laxman Nayak: "Laxman Nayak galvanised people during the Quit India movement. The British tried everything to break his morale but he remained firm," said Narendra Modi.

A civil rights activist, Nayak led a peaceful demonstration in front of a police station. He was hanged in Berhampur Jail.

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#Laxmi Indira Panda: Of her, Narendra Modi said that she joined Subhash Chandrs Bose's Indian National Army and "was undeterred in the effort to ensure that India is freed from colonial rule".

Laxmi Panda died in 2008.

The relatives of Rindo Majhi. Source: @narendramodi

ALSO READ:

At BJP national executive meet, PM Modi bats for backward Muslims

Freedom fighters of Agra demand Modi's apology on the KVIC calendar issue

Odisha is new laboratory of Modi's pro-poor schemes, says Dharmendra Pradhan

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--- ENDS ---
New Delhi, April 16

Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari will arrive here on Monday on a five-day visit during which she will meet the senior leadership here besides visiting temples in Gujarat and Odisha.

This is her first state visit abroad after assuming the office in October 2015.

She is visiting at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee.

A high-level delegation comprising minister, MPs and senior officials will be accompanying her.

Her visit will reflect the priority that India attaches to further strengthening the age-old and unique partnership with Nepal, shared cultural and historical linkages and strong people-and-people relationship, Joint Secretary (North) in the external affairs ministry Sudhakar Dalela said today.

She will meet President Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and other leaders, he said at an MEA briefing.

The president will host a banquet in her honour on April 18. She will also visit Gujarat and Odisha and pay obeisance at temples of Dwarka, Somnath and Puri, Dalela said.

Bhandari was scheduled to visit India in May last year, but it was cancelled after the then cabinet in Nepal did not endorse the programme citing lack of preparations on the part of the government.

The bilateral ties had faced turbulence last year due to the Madhesi agitation and subsequent blockade which halted the supply of essential goods to landlocked Nepal from India.  PTI
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Bhubaneswar, April 16

Terming triple talaq a kupratha (social evil), Prime Minister Narendra Modi today batted for social justice for his Muslim sisters, but without any sangharsh (divisions or conflict) within the community. His message at the BJPs national executive meeting here coincided with the warning issued by the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board that anyone found misusing the Islamic practice of triple talaq would face social boycott.

The Prime Minister asked his party members to look upon political power as an instrument for social and economic transformation and treat electoral victories with humility. Calling for a giant leap towards building a new India by 2022, he insisted on socio-economic transformation dominating the national discourse, as did Independence in Mahatma Gandhis talk.

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The PM called for making India a leading country in the world by 2022. Its time for taking a giant leap towards building a new India and rewriting history. We have done a lot of work, but it is not adequate. We have to awaken our purusharth (efforts) and work in mission mode, he said.

Reaffirming his commitment to development, he stressed on P2 G2 (pro-people proactive good governance) agenda and rejected the EVM row as another unsustainable product of manufacturing factories set up by Opposition parties.

Invoking Eklavya, he asked party leaders and workers to be their own guru. At a time when the party is registering victories everywhere, it is imperative that their utsah (enthusiasm) does not turn into unmad (unbridled passion), he said. Several BJP leaders have been accused of making provocative statements following the victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Bhubaneswar, April 16

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday paid obeisance at Lingaraj Temple here and responded warmly to the enthusiastic people who greeted him outside the 11th century Shiva shrine.

Soon after his arrival at the temple, Modi was greeted by people who had gathered outside the building and also positioned themselves atop rooftops to have a glimpse of the leader.

A beaming Prime Minister waved at them before being escorted into the shrine by senior BJP leaders and priests.

Modi, who spent around 25 minutes at the temple premises amid tight security, offered flowers, bel leaves, milk, coconut water and sweets in a special puja to Lord Lingaraj, a priest who accompanied the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister then went around the temple premises and offered prayers before other deities including Devi Parvati, he said.

Modi also interacted with sevayats and enquired about different aspects of the famous shrine.

He was apprised about the temples history, rituals and architecture, a servitor said.

The Prime Minister emphasised the need to keep the temple premises clean and ensure Swachhata all over.

Several servitors were also seen taking selfies with the Prime Minister. It was a rare opportunity and we did not want to miss it, said a servitor.

#WATCH Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, Odisha https://t.co/QLqkN6J4KX  ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

Before leaving the temple, Modi put his signature on the register meant for VVIP visitors.

As a cheering crowd waited outside, the PM walked quite a distance barefoot waving at the people, then went upto the barricade to reciprocate as the crowd shouted Modi, Modi before proceeding to Janata Maidan, to attend the second days proceedings of BJPs national executive meeting.  PTI
New Delhi, April 16

The Supreme Court collegium has recommended 51 names for appointment as judges in 10 high courts, including Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, and Delhi, in the country.

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The collegium headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) J S Khehar cleared the names after finalising the memorandum of procedure (MoP) for the appointment of judges, official sources said.

The 51 names were cleared by the collegium by trimming a list of 90 names received from the various high court collegiums, they said.

Of the 51, 20 are judicial officers and 31 are advocates, the sources said.

The collegium has recommended the names for the high courts of Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, Patna, Hyderabad (for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh), Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

The high courts of Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Gauhati and Sikkim are also expected to get judges if the Centre agrees with the apex court collegium's recommendations.  PTI
Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 16

Can paramilitary forces such as CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB be given monetary benefits like the organised services?

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to reconsider its decision on the issue. The Centre has challenged the Delhi High Courts September 2015 verdict asking it to consider all paramilitary forces as organised services.

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If the conferment of monetary benefit can assuage the grievance of the respondents, the Union of India may rethink over the matter without disturbing its sense of discipline as it conceives, a Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said in an order on April 6.

It was perceived that paramilitary personnel were grieved by the non-grant of equal pay for equal work, a benefit granted to the organised services, and if the conferment of monetary benefit could assuage their grievance, the government might think over it, the Bench said, giving 12 weeks to the government to take a decision.

The Delhi HC had said officers of paramilitary forces should be given the benefits, including non-functional financial upgradation (NFU), earlier available to Group A organised services, from 2006 in terms of the 6th Pay Commission.

Under NFU, if all officers of a particular batch cannot move up the ladder owing to lack of vacancies but only one does, the others will automatically get financial upgradation like the one who has been promoted.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said if the paramilitary forces were declared as organised group A services, there cannot be any deputation and no one from IPS cadre can come on deputation.

The SC fixed August 9 for hearing, framed issues for consideration and whether the Home Ministry alone was responsible for taking a decision or other departments can confer the benefit of equivalence subject to Cabinet nod.
Hyderabad, April 16

With all the five BJP members suspended for the day, the Telangana assembly on Sunday unanimously passed a Bill to hike the reservation quota for backward Muslims and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) to 12 and 10 per cent, respectively.

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Barring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which vehemently opposed the bill both inside and outside of the assembly, the entire Opposition supported the Backward Class, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Reservation Bill, 2017, which will be now debated and passed by the state legislative council.

As soon as the daylong special session of the legislature began, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao moved the Bill to raise from the existing 4 per cent to 12 per cent the quota for the socially and economically backward among the Muslims under the Backward Classes (E) category.

The reservations for the Scheduled Tribes in educational institutions and government jobs has been increased from 6 per cent to 10 per cent.

After the state legislative council passes it by late Sunday evening, the Bill will be sent for the President's assent with a request to include it in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution as was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.

Replying to debate on the bill, Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao said if the Centre refuses to accept Telengana's request, the state would approach the Supreme Court.

Rao said, "Tamil Nadu is implementing 69 per cent reservations for over two decades. Five to six states are providing more than 50 per cent reservation. How can you deny this to Telangana?" The Supreme Court has put a cap of 50 per cent on all reservations both at the Centre and in the states.

Quota purely on basis of socio-economic backwardness: CM

The Chief Minister clarified that the reservations were being provided purely on the basis of socio-economic backwardness and not on the basis of religion or caste as some parties were project before the people.

Terming it as a historic day, Rao said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had during the election campaign promised that quota for the Backward Classes (E) and the Scheduled Tribes will be increased in proportion to their population in the state.

He assured the Backward Classes that there will be no injustice to them because of increase in quota for the BC (E) and announced that the quota for the BCs too will be increased. The state government has directed the Backward Classes Commission to submit a report within six months.

Rao also said the reservation for the SCs, who constitute 16.3 per cent of the state's population, will be increased by 1 per cent. He said the government would soon constitute an SC Commission.

The SCs are currently enjoying 15 per cent reservations while the BCs have a total quota of 25 per cent.

The legislation will increase the total reservations in the state to 62 per cent.

The Chief Minister argued that there is no constitutional bar on providing more than 50 per cent reservation.

Rao said with 90 per cent of Telangana's population comprising Backward Classes, SCs, STs and minorities, the state definitely needed more than 50 per cent reservation, and pointed out that states like Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand were already providing more than 50 per cent quota.

The Telangana Chief Minister made it clear that he will not beg the Centre but will fight to get the new quotas included in the 9th Schedule.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, said Telangana would raise this issue at the meeting of the Niti Aayog and in Parliament. He hoped that a debate on the issue will begin and consensus will build at the national level.

He defended the state's hike in quota for Muslims and hit back at the BJP for opposing it.

"Why can't we give them reservation? Why should they be denied reservation just because they are Muslims? Are they not part of this country," asked Chandrasekhar Rao in the absence of all five members of the BJP, who were earlier suspended for the day by the Speaker for disrupting the proceedings.

He pointed out that India has the largest Muslim community in the world and even some of the so-called Islamic countries do not have such a large Muslim population.

KCR said the promise to increase the Muslim quota was part of the TRS manifesto and people approved this agenda by giving their mandate to the party.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) suggested to the government to take steps to protect the existing 4 per cent reservation while increasing the quota by 8 per cent. Its member Ahmed Pasha Khadri said a new category BC (F) be created for hiked quota.

The Chief Minister, however, said there was no need for any apprehensions as there will be no threat to the existing 4 per cent reservation.  IANS
Suresh Dharur

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, April 16

Amid protests from the Opposition BJP, a special session of the Telangana Assembly today passed a Bill to increase the reservation quota for Muslims and Scheduled Tribes in the countrys newest state.

Reservations in jobs and educational institutions for the socially and economically backward sections among Muslims, under the category OBC-E, will go up from the present 4 per cent to 12 per cent while it will be increased from 6 per cent to 10 per cent for STs.

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With this, the total reservations in the state will go up to 62 per cent, exceeding the 50 per cent ceiling fixed by the Supreme Court.

However, states can cross the upper limit, provided the Centre gives consent and includes it in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution, as was done in the case of Tamil Nadu in the past.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao termed it historic, asserting that he would take up with the NDA government the need to allow the increase in reservation in tune with the social realities and include it in the 9th Schedule.

Countering the BJP members objections over quota for Muslims, the CM clarified that it was not based on religion but on social and economic backwardness of certain sections among the Muslim community.
Bundi (Rajasthan), April 16

If you hear someone saying here Rashtrapati has gone to graze goats or Pradhan Mantri has left for the city to purchase essentials, dont be surprised.

Also a doctor being asked to prescribe medicines for Samsungs or Androids suffering from dysentery isnt something uncommon.

Names of people after top-ranking posts, high offices and mobile brands and accessories arent something new in this district.

So apart from Rastrapati, Pradhan Mantri, Samsung and Android, there are others who have names like SIM Card, Chip, Gionee, Miss Call, Rajyapal and High Court.

In Ramnagar village, which is about 10 km from the district headquarters and has a population of a little over 500 people from the Kanjar community, the names are usually after top ranking posts, high offices and popular figures.

Though most of the people in the village are illiterate, their names speak otherwise.

A woman was so impressed by the aura of the district collector during his visit to the village that she named her grandson Collector, who never went to school and is now 50 years old.

Several people in the village often engage in illegal activities and frequent police stations and courts. Influenced by the reputation and dignity of officials, they tend to name their children after posts and offices like IG, SP, Hawaldar and Magistrate, says a teacher in the government school of the village.

Congress, a passionate fan of Indira Gandhi, named all his family members as Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka.

A disabled person named High Court is popular in the village for his fierce nature. At the time of his birth, his grandfather was granted bail by the high court in a criminal case and hence his name.

People of the Moggiya and Banjara communities living in villages in Nainwa region of the district name their children after mobile brands and accessories.

So you will several people named Nokia, Samsung, SIM Card, Chip, Gionee in Bargani, Arniya, Hanumantpura, Suwaliya and Sesola villages of Nainwa, Ramesh Chand Rathore, a government employee at the registration counter of Nainwas Community Health Centre, told PTI.

Women and girls from the Meena community in Arniya village have their own share of names: Namkeen, Photobai, Jelabi, Mithai and Phaltu.

When we were left stunned when he first learnt about these named during registration. But now we are used to writing such names, Rathore says, adding Smartphone and Android are some new entries to the name list.  PTI
Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, April 16

Liquor contractors are in a fix over shifting of vends located on highways, claiming that they are suffering losses because neither the officials concerned are clarifying about the status of the highways, nor the public is allowing them to open vends in residential areas.

The Supreme Court has banned liquor vends in 500-m radius of the highways. Of the total 230 liquor vends in the district, nearly 20 are lying closed, which were earlier located on the highways.

The liquor vends on highways always got more business, but now these are lying shut. We are suffering losses, but no one from the department is ready to help us, said a contractor.

He quoted a recent incident of Malout town where a liquor vend was shifted to Indira Nagar after it was closed from the highway. The public opposed the opening of vend in the residential area, thus we had to close it. If we find space 500 m away from the highway, public starts opposing, said the contractor.

Meanwhile, some residents protested outside the liquor vend at Gidderbaha village on Friday, saying that they would not allow its opening as it was located near a temple and gurdwara.

Liquor contractor Ricky Brar said, We urgently need clarification about the status of highways. Our six vends are lying closed on the Kotkapura road in Muktsar town. Earlier, when this road was scheduled to be widened and a demolition drive being launched, the administration had that time said this was not a state highway. But now we have been directed to close the vends, saying it is a highway. They are not giving us anything in writing about the status of this road.

Muktsar Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) Madhur Bhatia said, As soon as we get clarification about the status of the highways, we will pass on the information to the liquor contractors. Till then we cant allow them to open any vend on the highway as it will amount to contempt of court.
By Brijesh Pandey: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today offered prayers at the 11th century Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar in Odisha.

The Prime Minister spent around half-an-hour in the temple premises. PM Modi offered flowers, bel leaves, milk, coconut water and water to the deity.

Prime Minister Modi also visited the temple of Goddess Bhubaneswari and Parbati, said Manoranjan Panigrahy, CEO of the Lingaraj Temple Administration. The 'seveyats' or temple priests did not miss a chance to take selfies with the Prime Minister. The 54-metre high temple is spread over a 25,000 sq.ft area and has over 150 small and big subsidiary temples in its premises.

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Kamla Kant, the priest who performed pooja for the prime minister said that the PM first went to Siddhivinayk temple and after that a priest guide was arranged for him. "After that he went to Natya Mandir, and from there he went to the sanctum santorum of the Ling Raj temple. PM Modi offered water, milk and then coconut water to Lord Shiva and after that pooja was performed." the priest added.

Visibly pleased with the fact that the prime minister visited the Linga Raj temple, he said that this visit by a PM came after 1952 when the then PM Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru visited along with Biju Patnaik.

Before his visit to the temple, Modi met the families of freedom fighters who were part of the Paika rebellion against the British East India Company in 1817. He felicitated them at the Raj Bhawan.

Modi arrived here on Saturday to attend the two-day BJP National Executive meeting that began later in the day. He also held a roadshow ahead of the meet. The Prime Minister will address the concluding session on Sunday.

Here are the latest updates:

BJP National Executive meet: Narendra Modi offers prayers at Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar

Virtual museums would be set up at 50 places in the country to highlight the 'significant' role of the tribals in the freedom struggle: PM Modi

Unfortunately, the history of freedom struggle was restricted to a few families, years and a few incidents.

It was a massive people's movement for many years and the present generation must know about it.

As several events took place for many years of the freedom struggle, it is important to remember all such events, he said.

The glorious chapters of history serve as inspiration and people should link themselves with the past.

History plays an important role in fulfilment of dreams in the journey of human life: PM Modi

Unfortunately the massive struggle of independence in our country was restricted to few families and incidents: PM Modi in Odisha.

PM meets families of freedom fighters who took part in Paika Rebellion against British East India Company.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

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Also read:

BJP national executive meet: 70,000 people wait for hours to catch glimpse of PM Modi

At national executive meet, BJP dares 'hacking CM' Arvind Kejriwal to hack EVM

BJP national executive meet: Narendra Modi holds roadshow in Bhubaneswar

WATCH | BJP focuses on nationalism in National Executive meet

--- ENDS ---
Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, April 16

The police have booked Charanjit Singh Dhillon, president, Truck Operators Union, Gidderbaha, and Jaspreet Singh Bhalaiana, a personal assistant of local MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, and 15 unidentified persons for allegedly assaulting a journalist of a leading Punjabi daily and vandalising his office at Gidderbaha yesterday. All accused are absconding

The victim, Shivraj Raju (40), in his complaint, alleged that irked over a news report on his family dispute, Charanjit along with his aides barged into his shop-cum-office near Bharu Chowk and thrashed him. He also alleged that the accused forced him to drink urine and alcohol and made a video clip. He has named Jaspreet Singh as the main accused.

Raju is admitted to the Civil Hospital, Bathinda, with injuries on his chest, abdomen, neck and back. I still fear for my life. I have sent my family to an undisclosed location. A senior officer is building pressure on me to get discharged from the hospital, he alleged.

Periwinkle Grewal, SHO, Gidderbaha police station, said: We have registered a case, but the accused are on the run. Efforts are afoot to nab them.

Rajpal Singh, DSP, said: As per the complaint lodged by Raju, two persons have been booked by name and 15 unidentified. The accused are absconding, but they will be arrested soon.

BJP MLA from Abohar Arun Narang and party's state media incharge Amit Taneja threatened to stage protests outside the DC offices across the state if the police failed to take prompt action. Local media associations too have flayed the attack and threatened to begin an agitation if the accused was not arrested till April 20.

Take strict action: AAP

Chandigarh: Condemning the attack, AAP state convener Gurpreet Singh Waraich said on Sunday: All Congress leaders involved in this shameful act should be arrested. Give them exemplary punishment so that no one dares to do it again.

After remaining out of power for 10 years, the Congress is suffering indigestion of power. Time is ripe for Capt Amarinder Singh to rein in his goonda elements well before the people take the law in their hands to teach them a lesson, he added.  TNS

Forced victim to drink urine

Irked over a news report on his family dispute, Charanjit Dhillon along with his aides thrashed Shivraj Raju, a journalist with a Punjabi daily, in Gidderbaha. They allegedly forced him to drink urine and alcohol and made a video clip of the incident. The victim has named Jaspreet Singh, an aide of MLA Raja Warring, as the main accused.

Probe case on merit: CM to cops

Chandigarh: Taking a serious note of the incident, the Chief Minister has directed the officials concerned to treat the case on merit. Raveen Thukral, media adviser to the CM, who spoke to the victim on behalf of the CM, said those found guilty would be brought to book through an impartial investigation. The CM also ordered the DGP to provide security to the journalist and his family.

Word of caution for party men

The CM has warned government officials and party colleagues not to interfere in administrative and police functioning, while sending out a strong message to all departments against succumbing to any political pressure. Amarinder has made it clear that officials acting at the behest of political masters, as they had been doing under the Akali regime, would face stringent action if they did not immediately mend their ways. TNS
Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, April 15

Gurmehar Kaur, daughter of Kargil martyr Captain Mandeep Singh, who was recently trolled by right-wing activists for raising her voice against violence on campuses in the wake of clashes in Ramjas College, Delhi, was among others who were accorded the Punjabi Icon awards here on the occasion of Baisakhi.

Instituted by the Punjabi Cultural Heritage Board, the Punjabi Icon awards were given to Kaur, Manish Paul, Bollywood personalities Neha Kakkar, Urvashi Rautela and others.

In a statement released here, PCHB president and Congress party leader Charan Singh Sapra said the awards were given to Punjabis who had excelled in their respective areas of expertise. The chief guest at the award function was Punjab Cabinet Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

Sapra said Gurmehar Kaur was felicitated in the Courageous Youth category. Gurmehar Kaur had fought against the unlawful behaviour of the ABVP. This was her first public appearance after she went into recluse, when her clash with ABVP turned into a national debate. It requires tremendous courage for a college student from a simple family to raise her voice against such unruly behavior, Sapra said.

Others who were awarded included industrialists and corporate personalities like Maruti Udyog Ltd executive director RS Kalsi, Sonalika Group chairman LD Mittal, PTC Network CEO Rajiee Shinde and Asias strongest man Manoj Chopra.
Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 15

A month in power, and most ministers have begun asserting themselves, directing the administration and the police to do their bidding. This has not gone down too well with Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.

Top officials have been told to send out the message to their subordinates that they are not to succumb to political pressure and rather act in accordance with the law and in favour of the people, say sources.

Barely two days after Punjab Forest Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot threatened a Nabha school principal with suspension for his name appearing third on an inauguration stone, a video of Khadoor Sahib Congress MLA Ramanjit Singh Sikki, threatening the area DSP, has surfaced on the social media.

The MLA is seen warning the DSP to keep his men happy, or he would be forced to visit the police station and take action against cops (Eh na hove ke lamba jisnu paana, us ton pehlan apna number lag jave), even as he is cheered by a crowd.

Nobody has been given the authority to take on the police or civil administration. My instructions to the officials are clear  do what is in public interest, the Chief Minister told The Tribune. He said not much should be read into Sikkis statement.

Jattan di soch eho jahi hundi hai (Jats generally talk in this manner). However, Dharamsots outburst was avoidable. My governments first directive to ministers and MLAs was that we must shun VIP culture. We had mentioned this in our election manifesto too, he said.

Alleging there was a mismatch in the statements issued from Chandigarh and the actions of Congress functionaries in the field, former Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa demanded strict action against Sikki for threatening a government official.
KV Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 15

Canadian Minister of National Defence Harjit Singh Sajjan today preferred to sidestep instead of joining issue with Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh over the latters jibe describing him as a Khalistani sympathiser and preferring not to meet him.

In an interview conducted through email ahead of his first visit to India as a Minister (beginning April 17), Sajjan said the visit is focused on strengthening Canada and Indias bilateral relationship, and deepening collaboration in a number of areas.

Preferring not to respond to Capt Amarinders statement of not meeting him during his Punjab visit, he said, I will continue with my visit to Punjab and remain focused on strengthening the ties that bind Canada and India so closely together. As a Sikh, I look forward to visiting Harmandar Sahib, particularly as it is right around the time of Vaisakhi. My goals for this visit are to attend productive meetings with representatives from the Government of India and the Indian military.

Calling himself a proud Canadian, he said, I have served Canada my entire life, as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, a member of the Vancouver Police Department, and now as an MP for Vancouver South and as Canadas Minister of National Defence. Im focused on serving Canada and Canadians.

Ever since Capt Amarinder hit out at the former Lieutenant Colonel of Canadian army who served in Afghanistan, the Akali Dal and AAP, besides the SGPC, have criticised the statement. The CM hit back that these reactions were lacking in national pride.

On the personal front, Sajjan said he has fond memories of Punjab and returns to visit after a decade when much has changed in his life, as a father and a minister.
Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Toronto, April 16

More than a month on, the outcome of elections in Punjab continues to dominate discussions at private TV channels and radio stations run by NRIs, many blaming the electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the AAP debacle and offering curious alibis.

One of these is that the SAD-BJP and the Congress had struck a deal  while the BJP was to be allowed to win in three states, the Congress was to be aided in winning Punjab, with the help of doctored EVMs.

Tarlochan Sohal, a sheriff of a county in California, US, said the people here were disappointed with the election results. He had canvassed for AAP in Punjab. The NRIs, with their over-enthusiasm, may have turned the locals against the party. I now believe, they should have remained neutral, he said.

Ajmer Singh, a businessman based in Toronto, said people were reluctant to accept that AAP had actually lost. Most suspected some hanky-panky during polling. Compared to the Akalis and the Congress, the fledgling AAP is inexperienced and it erred in its poll strategy. The AAP chorus that the EVMs were hacked is gradually dying out, he observed.

Gurmit Singh and Monu, both taxi drivers in New York, said they felt cheated by the outcome. Several countries in Europe have discarded the EVMs as these can be hacked. Nobody, here believes that EVMs are foolproof, they said. Interestingly, Yudhvir Jaswal from Brampton claimed that the NRIs, who had spent a lot of money and precious time on AAP, continued to back the party.

It may sound absurd, but a majority of NRIs are still passionate about AAP that are all set to provide money and material help to the party for the 2019 parliamentary elections, he said.

However, Satwinder Singh, president of the Calgary-based Punjabi Media Club, held a different viewpoint, claiming that NRI support to the Kejriwal-led party was waning. Observing that AAP activists were barely active on the Facebook now, he said:  I dont believe the EVMs were hacked. Had that been the case, AAP would not have won 67 of the 70 seats in the Delhi elections. Bihar too would have gone to the BJP.

Former Brampton councillor Vicky Dhillon claimed that not only supporters of AAP but those of Akali Dal too were disheartened at the poll outcome. Some AAP supporters did not venture out of their homes for days at a stretch. Those who had donated huge sums were disappointed the most, said Sanjiv Bajaj, who has his business in Toronto.

He said glued to their computers and cellphones, these diehard supporters had run a campaign on the social media for months, certain that AAP would win in view of the massive anti-incumbency wave in Punjab. Believing they could bring about a revolution  back home, they had donated generously, from 500 dollars to 25,000 dollars, to ensure the defeat of the traditional parties  Congress and SAD-BJP  he added.
Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, April 16

The police on Saturday night booked 15 persons, including Charanjit Singh Dhillon, president of Truck Operators Union, Gidderbaha, for assaulting a journalist of a leading Punjabi daily and vandalising his office at Gidderbaha.

On the statement of the victim, Shivraj Raju, a case under Sections 323, 342, 355, 427, 506, 148, 149 of the IPC and 25, 27, 54, 59 of the Indian Arms Act has been registered at Gidderbaha police station. The accused are, however, on the run.

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Raju in his complaint alleged that Dhillon, a close aide of local MLA Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, along with nearly 15 persons had come to his shop-cum-office near Bharu Chowk at Gidderbaha yesterday, where they not only thrashed him but also forced him to drink urine and alcohol and made a video clip.

I had reported on a family dispute of Charanjit Dhillon which angered him. They had even threatened me over the phone on Friday night. Further, they barged into my office (photo studio) on Saturday afternoon, and punched and slapped me, besides hitting me with shoes.

They also forced me to do sit-ups and rub my nose on the floor at gunpoint, and threatened me with dire consequences if I reported the matter to the police. Before fleeing, they even vandalised my office, Raju alleged in the complaint.

Raju is presently admitted at Civil Hospital, Bathinda, with injuries on his chest, abdomen and back.

Meanwhile, Chief Ministers Office taking notice of the news has asked the DGP and IGP Bathinda zone to provide security to Raju at the hospital.

Raveen Thukral, Media Adviser to Chief Minister Capt Amrinder Singh, said, I have spoken to Raju and assured him of all possible help. Besides, he is being provided security.

Notably, Raja Warring had yesterday told The Tribune that if any involvement of Charanjit Dhillon or his aide Jaspreet Bhalaiana proved true, he too would recommend strict action against them.
Tribune News Service

Sangrur, April 16

A woman of Rodewala village climbed a tower in Sangrur city today, alleging gang rape by a policeman and two relatives of her husband. Harpreet Kaur (name changed)alleged that her harvested wheat crop had also been burnt and a false case had been registered against her. She questioned the delay in the registration of a case against the accused.

Senior police officers assured her of justice after which she agreed to come down. She was admitted to the Civil Hospital.

My husband has been in the illegal confinement of his nephew Raju since January and they want to grab our 4 acres of land. On April 14, Raju along with another relative and a policeman raped me in my house and burnt my harvested wheat, the victim alleged.

She alleged that she along with two other villagers Jhanda Singh and Krishan Kumar had harvested the wheat from her 4 acres, but Raju along with some policemen mercilessly thrashed both villagers before setting the harvested wheat on fire.

Raju has forcibly got the registration of land done in his name from my husband. He is now threatening me to leave the village. They have locked my house and the police are openly helping him, she alleged.

Harpreet got married in January but her husbands relatives alleged that it was her third marriage and she had come only to grab their land.

We have recorded her statement of rape against Raju, Seera and policeman Harbans. The relatives of her husband alleged that she herself set the harvested wheat on fire to implicate them in a false case. On April 14, we had registered case against Harpreet and two other villagers on the complaint of Raju, said Dharmveer Singh, Sub-Inspector posted in the Lehra police station.

When contacted, Sangrur DSP Sandeep Wadehra, who convinced her to come down from the tower, said that they were conducting a thorough probe.
Arteev Sharma in Jammu

There is a lot to unlearn from a recent video clip gone viral on social media. A CRPF man carrying EVMs keeps walking nonchalantly even as he is pushed, heckled and abused by a group of youth shouting anti-India slogans,  a predictive ranting tirade. The clip protagonists seemed to expect some elisions reflected in that part of Kashmir: a) security forces are used to such gimmickry of protestors; and b) most youths in the Valley are downright separatists whose writ runs so wantonly.

For outsiders, a message went out: Kashmir is as bad as it has been in last three decades  a perception repeatedly reinforced by a series of violent events. The last years post-Burhan Wanis killing and the death of over 80 people in its wake bear it out. It all climaxed in the lowest voter turnout on Thursday in Budgam, under Srinagar parliamentary constituency, where a re-poll was ordered after April 9s poor voting figures amid large-scale violence leading to the death of eight people.

Maybe all sides  mainstream political parties, separatists and those sitting in Delhi and Islamabad  want to tire each other out before realizing the futility of it all, says a youth in Srinagar, refusing to identify himself.

The frustration stems from peoples perception of betrayal and the anger is because no dialogue process is initiated  either with Pakistan or with the peoples representatives, says Junaid Mattu, spokesperson for the National Conference.

The separatists have their own take that essentially revolves around Pakistan. It is not the fight for votes or power. This is the fight against the betrayal of Indian government for not fulfilling the promises made with the Kashmiri people. It is time to ease tension and ensure stability by settling all disputes, says Abdul Gani Bhat, executive member in moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference.

The separatists poll boycott call was reported from mosques loudspeakers, phone calls, WhatsApp and text messages. And despite several requests by the mainstream parties to postpone the polls, the Election Commission deemed it fit to hold elections. In such an environment, genuine voters would obviously feel frightened, said an NC activist.

Development a non-issue

During his recent visit to Udhampur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the people, particularly Kashmiri youth, to choose tourism over terrorism. Had the people of Kashmir devoted the past 40 years to development of tourism, the Valley would have been blessed with numerous benefits, Modi said at a rally organized to mark South-East Asias biggest tunnel along the Jammu-Srinagar Highway.

The separatists were quick to reject the assertion. Construction of tunnels and roads is futile and wont succeed to lure us, said a joint Hurriyat Conference statement.

The failure of the development mantra was, in fact, clear from the election manifestoes of all parties during the assembly polls. Predominant issues were: a dialogue with Pakistan, opening new routes along the LoC, restoration of autonomy, demilitarization and revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. This explains why, after over a year of assembly polls, the separatist camps slogans of azadi strongly influence the Kashmiri youth.

Poor showing

A senior government officer, who wished not to be named, throws light on areas of concern. Our education is in a shambles. Out of the 96 degree colleges functioning in the state, at least 31 colleges some of them sanctioned about nine years back - function from makeshift accommodations. We have poor health infrastructure. Hundreds of villages dont have electricity and road connectivity. We have the highest number of unemployment in North India. But we have restricted our thought process to unnecessary issues, he says.

Nawang Rigzin Jora, Congress Legislature Party leader and MLA from Leh, rues that politics has taken over everything else. There is no commonality among the people of three regions  Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. We have to have a binding force, which is not there.

Mahesh Koul, a research scholar, says by relegating areas of human development, the government has handed a long leash to the subversives who want the state to waste time in conflict management.

The situation has come to such a pass, says Prof Hari Om, a Jammu-based historian, that leaders in Kashmir dont want development. The three regions  Jammu, Kashmirand Ladakh  are pulling in different directions. And the Indian state simply watches on.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 16

A tourist was detained for having been found with a satellite phone at the Jollygrant airport here today.

Identified as Maria 26, a resident of Columbia (Venezuela), she had been staying in Rishikesh for the past couple of days and was about to take the return flight from Jollygrant airport this morning when she was detained by the authorities as she was carrying a satellite phone. Central Industrial Security Force personnel manning the Jollygrant airport handed over the Venezuelan tourist to the Uttarakhand police. Intelligence agencies personnel also interrogated her.

Uttarakhand Additional DGP, Law and Order, Ram Singh Meena said the Venezuelan woman was being interrogated, adding that the satellite phone found in her possession had been not used till now. He said the woman was being further probed by the Army and Intelligence bureau officials.
Guatemala City, April 16

A former governor of a Mexican state, who has come to symbolise rampant corruption within the party of President Enrique Pena Nieto, was arrested on Saturday in Guatemala, Mexicos attorney generals office said.

Javier Duarte, former governor of Veracruz state wanted on graft and organized crime charges, was detained in a hotel in the colonial town of Panajachel, about 80 miles (129 km) west of Guatemalas capital, the national police said in a statement.

They found him in the lobby of the hotel, police spokesman Pablo Castillo told Reuters.

Duarte will be processed for extradition to Mexico in the next couple months and his arrest was carried out with the help of Interpol agents, Mexicos attorney generals office said.

Agriculture and oil-rich Veracruz, on Mexicos Gulf coast, is one of Mexicos largest states, and it has historically been a stronghold of Pena Nietos Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Duarte was a PRI party stalwart for years in Veracruz until he was formerly expelled from it late last year.

After his six-year term as governor came to an end last year, the governors office was won by the opposition National Action Party in a contest widely seen as a repudiation of rampant corruption and a stinging defeat for the PRI.

An arrest warrant for Duarte was issued in October last year, about the same time he disappeared, and public auditors have since called his administration of state accounts among the worst cases of misappropriation of public funds in years. Reuters
By Press Trust of India: Kathmandu, Apr 16 (PTI) Nepal and China today began their first-ever joint military exercise with a special focus on combating terror, a move that could make India uneasy.

The 10-day-long military drill "Sagarmatha Friendship 2017" that will last till April 25 is being organised by the two countries as part of their preparedness against terrorism that has posed as a serious security threat globally, the Nepal Army said.

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Sagarmatha is the Nepali name of Mt Everest, the worlds highest peak.

The Chinese Peoples Liberation Armys squad has already arrived in the capital to participate in the military exercise that will focus on counter terrorism and disaster response, it said.

The joint training with China marks Nepal Armys extension of military diplomacy. The Nepal Army has long been conducting joint military drills with Indian and American Army.

"A small Chinese troop will be participating in the first ever drill with an equal number of Nepali Army personnel," said military spokesman Jhankar Bahadur Kadayat.

He did not mention the strength of the participating troops. The exercise will take place at the Armys Maharajgunj-based Training School, where Yuddha Bhairab, Mahabir and Bhairabnath Battalions are located.

The Nepali Army has said the joint military exercise with China is a step towards preparations against the possible threat from terrorism.

It maintains that the drill is a part of its regular bilateral and multilateral military exercises aimed at sharing experiences, skills and professional knowledge which it has been doing regularly with the nations that Nepal shares diplomatic ties.

Nepal had proposed joint military exercises during Chinese Defence Minister General Chang Wanquans official visit to Nepal on March 24.

Experts believe that the joint military exercise could make India uneasy as China attempts to exert influence in the region. Nepal, a landlocked country, is dependent on India for its imports.

Nepal had witnessed a shortage in essential supplies from India during the 2015 Madhesi blockade. China at that time had extended its help to Nepal to ease the situation. PTI AMS NSA AMS

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BAGHDAD, April 16

Iraqi forces launched a new attack on Islamic State in Mosul's Old City on Sunday, military officials said, trying to break the stalemate in attempts to seize the militants' last stronghold.

Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, was captured by the Sunni Muslim fighters in 2014, but government forces have retaken much of it during a six-month operation.

The advance has hardly moved for more than a month, though, as the militants are holding out in the densely populated Old City in western Mosul, where tanks and heavy vehicles are not able to operate because of its narrow streets.

Iraq's federal police moved forces 200 metres deeper into the Old City, getting closer to al-Nuri mosque, a statement said.

The mosque is highly symbolic because it was there that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared himself head of a self-proclaimed caliphate.

Troops have had the centuries-old mosque with its leaning minaret in their sights since last month.

A captain in the federal police said Sunday's advance had started in the early morning with troops fighting the militants house to house.

"Daesh suicide motorcycles now are their favourite weapon inside the Old City," he said, using a derogatory name for Islamic State. "We have to watch every single house to avoid attackers on motorcycles packed with explosives." Iraqi government forces, backed by US advisers, artillery and air support, have cleared the east and half of western Mosul and are now focused on the Old City.

Some 400,000 people are trapped in the Old City while more than 300,000 have fled fighting since the operation started in October, officials have said.  Reuters
Lahore, April 16

The 20-year-old woman, who was arrested in a terror bust in Lahore, is a medical student and had joined the dreaded Islamic State (IS) militant group on Facebook sometimes ago, the Pakistan Army said on Sunday.

Pakistans security forces yesterday claimed to have foiled a major terror attack on minority Christians ahead of Easter here after they killed a militant in Punjab Housing Society and arrested his two aides, including the woman.

Six personnel had suffered injuries in the shootout, the Inter-Services Public Relations, a media wing of Pakistan Army, said.

During investigation, the woman has been identified as Naureen Leghari, a second-year student of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) in Jamshoro, Sindh province of Pakistan.

Naureen spent two months in Syria and returned to Lahore almost six days back, Dunya news reported.

Naureen, resident of Hyderabad, had disappeared from the varsity in early February to join the ISIS.

After reaching Lahore on February 10, Naureen had messaged her brother through a friends Facebook profile that she has reached the land of Khilafah (caliphate), an official said.

Brother, I am Naureen, I hope you all are fine, I am fine and happy too, I have contacted you to inform you that by the grace of God, I have migrated to the land of Khilafah (caliphate) and hope that you all will someday migrate (to this land), the official read the message of Naureen to her brother.

Prof Abdul Jabbar, father of Naureen, had filed a missing reported of his daughter on February 10.

A source in Lahore police told PTI that Naureen was connected with the IS men on Facebook where she took allegiance to the IS chief.

The Facebook administration had blocked her account because of her extremist views.

On her arrival to Lahore she married an IS activist Ali Tariq, 32. Tariq was an expert in preparing suicide vests.

Naureen also got training to use weapons especially Kalashnikov.

When a raiding team surrounded the couples hideout on Ghazi Road, they opened fire on it. The firing lasted for 35 minutes. Tariq was killed in the cross fire while Naureen engaged the security forces till she ran out of bullets and some commandos managed to nab her, the source said.

He said the couple had been given the task to target a Church or any place where Christians would gather today in connection with Easter celebrations.

Naureen had presented herself for a suicide mission. God forbidden had she succeeded it would have been a first woman suicide bombing in Pakistan, he said.

We are interrogating Naureen and another terror suspect taken into custody from the site as it is believed that a wider network of ISIS is operating in the country, he said.

Security forces have recovered seven suicide vests and other weapons from the couples hideouts.  PTI
SEOUL/PYONGYANG, April 16

A North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately" on its test launch on Sunday, the US Pacific Command said, hours before US Vice-President Mike Pence landed in South Korea for talks on the North's increasingly defiant arms programme.

The failed launch from North Korea's east coast, ignoring admonitions from major ally China, came a day after North Korea held a grand military parade in its capital, marking the birth anniversary of the state founder, displaying what appeared to be new long-range ballistic missiles.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

South Korea said the combined show of force "threatened the whole world" but a US foreign policy adviser travelling with Pence on Air Force Two appeared to defuse some of the tension, saying the test of what was believed to be a medium-range missile had come as no surprise.

"We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch," the adviser told reporters on condition of anonymity.

"It's a failed test. It follows another failed test. So really no need to reinforce their failure. We don't need to expend any resources against that."

The adviser said the missile's flight lasted four or five seconds.

"It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when. The good news is that after five seconds it fizzled out." Pence is in Seoul at the beginning of a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of US commitment to its ally in the face of rising tension.

The US nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group is also heading to the region. A US Navy attack on a Syrian airfield this month raised questions about US President Donald Trump's plans for reclusive North Korea, which has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of UN sanctions, regularly threatening to destroy the South and the United States.

South Korea, which hosts 28,500 US troops, warned of punitive action if the Sunday launch led to further provocation.

"North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at Sunday's military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world," South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturising a nuclear warhead.

The timing of the test, coinciding with Pence's trip and a day after the military parade, would suggest deliberate defiance.

The North launched a ballistic missile from the same region this month, ahead of a summit between the United States and China in Florida to discuss the North's arms programme.

But that missile, which US officials said appeared to be a liquid-fuelled, extended-range Scud, only flew about 60 km (40 miles), a fraction of its range before spinning out of control.

Tension had escalated sharply amid concern the North may conduct a sixth nuclear test or a ballistic missile test launch around Saturday's 105th birth anniversary of founding father Kim Il Sung that it calls the "Day of the Sun".

The White House has said Trump has put the North "on notice".

US sees 'initial steps' by China

China, which Trump has urged to do more to rein in North Korea, has spoken out against its missile and nuclear tests and has supported UN sanctions. It has repeatedly called for talks to defuse the crisis.

China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exchanged views on the "situation on the Korean peninsula" by phone on Sunday, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. It did not elaborate.

Its national airline, Air China, has cancelled some flights to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, due to poor demand but it has not suspended all flights there, it said on Friday.

China banned imports of North Korean coal on February 26, cutting off its most important export. China's customs department issued an order on April 7 telling traders to return North Korean coal cargoes, said trading sources with knowledge of the order.

Saturdays parade combined with Sundays failed missile launch made a sixth nuclear test increasingly likely, and if one was carried out, China would be compelled to support new sanctions against North Korea, the Global Times, an influential tabloid published by China's official Communist Party paper, the Peoples Daily, said in an editorial.

"Beijing should make clear to Pyongyang through diplomatic channels: if the DPRK in spite of the opposition of the international community (carry out a sixth nuclear test), China should cut off the vast majority of their oil supply and China should support the Security Council to pass new sanctions including this measure," the paper said, referring to North Korea by its official title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Worry about North Korea has led to a deterioration of ties between China and South Korea because China objects to the deployment of a US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in the South. The installation has begun but some opposition politicians have raised questions about it.

"It's moving. There are still some things to work out ... as in any government decision it may slip a couple of weeks or months," the US adviser said of THAAD, whose powerful radar China fears could penetrate its territory.

"It's moving but candidly until they get a president ... It should be a decision for the next president." The South's presidential election is on May 9.

The adviser said there were "a number of steps" that were discussed in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump.

"We've seen the Chinese already take some initial steps towards that," the official said, citing the turning back of the coal ships. "Many steps still to take, but I think it's a good first step."

Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

In Pyongyang, there was a festive atmosphere at a flower show, with families out, taking pictures with North Korean-made smart phones. There was no mention of the test failure on the KCNA state news agency.

Company worker Rim Chung Ryol, 30, said he had not heard of the test.

"If it is a failure, then failure is the mother of success," he said.

Factory worker Ri Gul Chol, 37, also had not heard about the missile test.

"But whatever Kim Jong Un decides and instructs will succeed and all the citizens will support him," he said, referring to the North's young leader.  Reuters
Colombo, April 16

At least 23 persons, including four children, were killed when a mountain of garbage came crashing down on homes following a fire near Sri Lankas Capital, with rescuers racing against time to find any survivors.

Police have launched a probe to ascertain whether the collapse of the 91-metre open garbage pile on Friday was a natural calamity or an act of sabotage.

A 10-member team of geologists of the Peradeniya University has been sent to the spot, Colombo Page reported.

Officials of mining and excavation divisions along with a group of judicial medical officials have also been called for investigation, the report said.

Over 100 houses were completely destroyed and more than 600 people fled in the aftermath of the fire and the collapse in Meetotamulla area in Kolonnawa, near here, police said.

Twenty-three people, including four children, were killed and 11 others injured in the incident, officials said, adding that six persons were missing.

More people were feared to be trapped as the military struggled to clear the rubble and rescue people or recover bodies.

As rescuers were racing against time in the search for survivors, hopes of finding anyone alive continued to fade.

On President Maithripala Sirisenas directive, hundreds of military personnel have been deployed to rescue the slum dwellers adjacent to the 300-foot (91-metre) garbage dump.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe issued an apology on behalf of the government to the victims.

We had all plans in place to relocate the garbage dump at Meetotamulla. But the tragedy struck before we could put them into action. We apologise for the governments inability to complete the task before the disaster, he said.

The residents near the dump had been protesting for months, demanding that the garbage dump be relocated.

The authorities, however, claim that they had given enough warning to the slum dwellers to relocate themselves.

We had even paid compensation to them to relocate, Harsha de Silva, the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, said, adding the state will bear the funeral expenses of those dead.

The minister said it was only a few weeks back that agreements had been signed to begin waste to energy projects at the dumping site. The mountain of garbage caught fire and collapsed on dozens of homes as the residents were celebrating the traditional New Year. Police said the true scale of the damage remained unclear.

Sri Lankas Parliament was recently warned that 23 million tonnes of garbage at Kolonnawa dump was a serious health hazard. About 800 tonnes of garbage is being added to the dump on a daily basis.

This is not a natural disaster but man-made due to the sheer negligence by the authorities concerned, M S Marikkar, the ruling party local member of parliament, said. PTI
The 10-day-long military drill "Sagarmatha Friendship 2017" that will last till April 25 is being organised by the two countries as part of their preparedness against terrorism that has posed as a serious security threat globally, the Nepal Army said.

By Press Trust of India: Nepal and China today began their first-ever joint military exercise with a special focus on combating terror, amidst Beijing's increasing forays into South Asia causing concern in India.

The 10-day-long military drill "Sagarmatha Friendship 2017" that will last till April 25 is being organised by the two countries as part of their preparedness against terrorism that has posed as a serious security threat globally, the Nepal Army said.

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Sagarmatha is the Nepali name of Mt Everest, the worlds highest peak.

The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army's squad has already arrived in the capital to participate in the military exercise that will focus on counter terrorism and disaster response, it said.

The joint training with China marks Nepal Army's extension of military diplomacy. The Nepal Army has long been conducting joint military drills with Indian and American Army.

"A small Chinese troop will be participating in the first ever drill with an equal number of Nepali Army personnel," said military spokesman Jhankar Bahadur Kadayat.

He did not mention the strength of the participating troops. The exercise will take place at the Army's Maharajgunj-based Training School, where Yuddha Bhairab, Mahabir and Bhairabnath Battalions are located.

The Nepali Army has said the joint military exercise with China is a step towards preparations against the possible threat from terrorism.

It maintains that the drill is a part of its regular bilateral and multilateral military exercises aimed at sharing experiences, skills and professional knowledge which it has been doing regularly with the nations that Nepal shares diplomatic ties.

Nepal had proposed joint military exercises during Chinese Defence Minister General Chang Wanquans official visit to Nepal on March 24.

Experts believe that the joint military exercise could make India uneasy as China attempts to exert influence in the region. Nepal, a landlocked country, is dependent on India for its imports.

Nepal had witnessed a shortage in essential supplies from India during the 2015 Madhesi blockade. China at that time had extended its help to Nepal to ease the situation.

China has also developed close relations with Sri Lanka during the regime of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa whose nearly decade-long tenure was ended by Sirisena in 2015.

Also, the USD 1.5 billion Chinese-funded Colombo Port City project had sparked off security concerns in India.

China already has strong ties with Pakistan and the two countries are working closely on developing the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Also read:

China's media warns India not to 'meddle' as their defence minister visits Nepal, Sri Lanka

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China, Nepal discuss defence; PM supports One China policy

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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.
Today is the Christian holy day of Easter. It brings Christians together as it celebrates a foundational belief for some, and yet it is an obstacle to others.

What does it mean to believe in the resurrection?

Biblically, we do not actually have resurrection stories. We have empty tomb stories and we have resurrection appearance stories, but nowhere does the Bible try to describe the resurrection itself.

Based on the Biblical descriptions of the empty tomb, Christians believe in the resurrection of Jesus and celebrate that belief around this time every year. Yet the greater Biblical emphasis is on the implications of this belief. That is  what difference does it make in a persons life if they claim to believe in the resurrection? When we read of the first Christians, it is pretty clear that coming to believe in the resurrection was a life-changing experience.

Unfortunately, too often Christians celebrate the day but miss the life-changing experience.

The life-changing experience is that death does not have the final word, even for mortals. Our physical bodies will expire, yet that does not have to be the overriding theme of our lives. As Christians, we believe the power of the love of God transcends even death. This is what we call resurrection.

Christians, like me, believe that we can give ourselves away in love because of the resurrection.

Life-changing resurrection can look like giving a cup of water to a thirsty person, giving food to a hungry person or giving clothing to a naked person. It could look like offering a genuine welcome to a stranger or to someone identified as unworthy or unacceptable in societys eyes. It could look like healthcare for a sick person or befriending someone who is just out of prison so they might be restored to the community and contribute to the common good.

The Biblical book titled The Acts of the Apostles tells of a Jewish follower of Jesus named Peter, who came to recognize that the resurrection meant not only forgiveness and new life for him but that it meant God accepts all people.

The story records that Peter shares with some acquaintances, who have not been followers of Jesus, that he had thought they were unacceptable to God. But then he says he has come to understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who respects God and does what is right is acceptable to God. It is a radical change of perspective for Peter! I think it is not too strong to say that it was a life-changing moment for him.

Humans tend to be tribal, and yet in this age it serves us better to broaden our perspective. Christians would do well to pay attention to this revelation that comes to Peter as part of his understanding of the meaning of resurrection. Would it not contribute to the common good of our city if we would move from a tribal Christianity to a resurrection Christianity, like Peters, that looks to serve all and love all?

This makes resurrection relevant on this side of death in a profound sense. It might even contribute to bringing all people together for our common good. If Christians will join Peter more readily in extending true love, care and compassion to all, we would serve the world much more effectively. Lucky for us, we have a local initiative that can help us do just that.

The city of Tulsa has endorsed a Charter for Compassion. In June 2015, a joint resolution from the mayor and the City Council designated our city as a Compassionate Community. This started as a grassroots effort to increase the environment of welcome and goodwill for everyone in our city. Now it is a pledge available to each and every citizen in our community as a vehicle to remind us that love is better than hate and care is better than indifference! It reminds us that compassion can pull us together at a time in our society when so many forces pull us apart. You can check out this campaign and learn how to be more like Peter in our city at compassionatetulsa.org.

My hope and encouragement to all Tulsans, but especially to Christians at this time of Easter, is that we would earnestly rededicate ourselves to the powerful forces of love and compassion that come from new life in the resurrection story we celebrate at this time of year.

The Rev. David Wiggs is senior pastor of Boston Avenue United Methodist Church.
BOZEMAN  A Montana State University professor is suing Wal-Mart for libel after he says an employee at the Bozeman store listed his occupation on a fishing license as a "toilet cleaner."

Gilbert Kalonde, assistant professor of technology education at MSU, filed the suit this past week in Gallatin County District Court.

Kalonde is seeking unspecified damages.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that Wal-Mart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the complaint, Kalonde bought a state fishing license in April 2015, showing the Wal-Mart employee identification of his employment at MSU. But the Wal-Mart employee entered "clean toilets" into the state database as Kalonde's occupation.

The suit contends Wal-Mart exposed Kalonde to "hatred, contempt, ridicule" through the incident.
By Press Trust of India: From Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Apr 16 (PTI) The Nepal government has announced public holidays on April 17 and April 22 - the days when Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari begins her first foreign visit to India and returns to the Himalayan country.

Home Ministry officials said the two days will be public holidays in Nepal to mark the departure and arrival of Bhandari after concluding her five-day visit to India.

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As per custom, public holidays are announced in Nepal whenever the head of the state embarks on an official foreign visit.

This will be Bhandaris first foreign trip after assuming the office in October 2015, following the promulgation of the new Constitution in Nepal.

She is visiting India at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee and will stay at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

A high-level delegation comprising several ministers and MPs will accompanying her. PTI SBP ABH

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Survivor contestant Jeff Varner, who clumsily outed a fellow contestant as transgender last week, has now been fired from his job as a real estate agent in North Carolina.

The News & Record newspaper of Greensboro reported he was let go from his job at Allen Tate Real Estate because he was in the middle of a news story that we dont want anything to do with.

Varner notoriously outed fellow contestant Zeke Smith as transgender in a desperate bid to avoid being voted out of tribal council triggering a heated response from both his cast mates and viewers, criticising him through social media.

The openly-gay Varner has since apologised for making the worst decision of my life.

Zeke Smith, and transgender people like him, are not deceiving anyone by being their authentic selves, and it is dangerous and unacceptable to out a transgender person, said Nick Adams, director of GLAADs Transgender Media Program. It is heartening, however, to see the strong support for Zeke from the other people in his tribe. Moments like this prove that when people from all walks of life get to know a transgender person, they accept us for who we are.

Source: Variety
Pope Pius XIII has the hottest naked butt of any Pope youve ever seen.

Yes, The Young Pope is that kind of show. Theres no mistaking this for a respectful bio-pic of Popes Francis, Benedict or John Paul. This 10 part co-production between HBO, Canal+ and Sky Atlantic is a fictional work created and directed by Paolo Sorrentino (Youth, The Great Beauty), pitched at a binge drama audience.

Jude Law plays Lenny Belardo, the newly elected Pius XIII, the youngest Pope in history, and the first American pontiff. He comes to the position with radical ideas, a modern outlook, and all kinds of self-doubt.

The opening sequence, in which he dreams of fronting thousands in St. Peters Square, includes declarations about married priests, homosexuality, contraception, abortion and even masturbation. In a telling revelation about self, he announces, Not only have we forgotten to play, we have forgotten to be happy.

In his waking life the newly-installed Pius is equally radical. He smokes in the Vatican, insists on a Cherry Coke Zero for breakfast, and dismisses years of tradition with a new order.

With his brash American accent, Pius also has all the boorish charm of a Trump-like Pope, revelling in his power, playing games with his cardinals and clerics, and signalling that there is a new sheriff in Vatican town.

He isnt aware that there are forces within his own papacy to undermine him. Indeed, wiser souls including Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Voiello (Silvio Orlando) are used to being masterful puppeteers of the Pontiff, in a drama that wastes no time in setting up a tug of war.

But Pius calls on elderly US nun Sister Mary (Diane Keaton), who raised the young Lenny in her orphanage, to consult as his deputy.

You have to lead the congregation. 1 billion people, she reminds Pius.

From now on you are no longer Lenny Volardo, the fatherless, motherless boy.

Meanwhile Cardinal Michael Spencer (James Cromwell) is also unhappy about being overlooked for a role he expected to inherit. He is filled with anguish following Lennys pontification.

Pius operates with all the Machiavellian cunning of a good TV villain. Jude Law brings plenty of swagger and arrogance to this most contradictory of roles, misbehaving like a bad boy given the keys to the Vatican. But he is also deeply lonely, which should draw upon a deeper well of performance. Filmed largely in Rome and Vienna, the series is swimming in European locales and architecture, albeit drawing upon CGI for exterior shots such as St. Peters Square.

The writing lacks a certain subtlety that might have elevated this to best in show, preferring to draw upon shock tactics and tropes familiar to those employed in crime dramas and thrillers. Purists wont like this work at all, but those prepared to put reality to one side for an indulgent fabrication should be entertained. That said, there is arguably far more drama in a dramatisation of Pope John Paul I, who only lasted 33 days in 1978 amid rumours of an assassination.

The Young Pope is a very modern costume drama for agnostic fans of drama.

The Young Pope screens 10:25pm Wednesday on SBS.
In her first foreign tour, Bhandari is paying a state visit to India from April 17 to 21 at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.

By Indo-Asian News Service: With Nepal's President Bidya Devi Bhandari beginning her state visit on Monday, India said its relations with Nepal are people-centric and are focused on improving connectivity between the neighbours as well as energy infrastructure.

"We have maintained our focus on implementation of ongoing connectivity and development projects such as Terai roads, cross-border rail lines linkages, development of integrated check posts on the border, cross-border oil pipeline -- the first in South Asia -- and cross-border transmission lines," said Joint Secretary, Nepal and Bhutan, in the Indian External Affairs Ministry Sudhakar Dalela while briefing media on the upcoming visit in New Delhi.

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FIRST FOREIGN TOURIn her first foreign tour, Bhandari is paying a state visit to India from April 17 to 21 at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee. Besides meeting top Indian leaders, Bhandari, who will be accompanied by a high-level 33-member delegation, will also visit Gujarat and Odisha.

WHAT'S ON THE AGENDA

The visit reflects "the priority India attaches to further strengthening the age-old unique partnership with Nepal and our shared historical and cultural linkages and strong people to people connection", Dalela said.

On the cooperation between the two neighbours in the area of energy infrastructure, he said this is witnessing a new high with the Indian cabinet last month approving investment of Rs 5,723 crore for Arun 3 power project in Nepal and operationalisation of the Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar high capacity transmission line, which has taken India's electricity supply to Nepal to about 380 MW.

The project, located on Arun River in Sankhuwasabha district of eastern Nepal, will provides 21.9 per cent free power to Nepal for the entire concession period of 25 years while the surplus will go to India.

About the power transmission lines, Dalela said: "We have almost finished work on two more transmission line projects from Raxaul to Parwanipur(Nepal) and Kushaha (Nepal)-Kataiya and we believe with the conclusion of these two projects, we will be able to supply more power to Nepal."

India is supplying 80 MW more through the Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar (Nepal) transmission line from this year.

Dalela also said that India had also agreed to Nepal's proposed 16 road projects and bridges of amount for approximately $300 million under the $550 million line of credit India had extended.

On the trade imbalance, he said that bilateral trade is about $5 billion and Nepal's exports to India about $600 million and both governments are trying to improve the condition of trade including issues related to non-tariff barriers.

He also said that the bilateral oversight mechanism, which was established in last October, has met three times in last six months and has been extremely helpful in addressing implementation challenges of both sides.

On the border Integrated Check Post, he said the one at Birganj is 85 per cent done and will be completed this year while the contract for Birganj has been awarded, while the work on two rail links - Jogbani-Biratnagar and Jayanagar-Bartibas is on.

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On the ongoing consultation for exchange of demonetised Indian currency notes held by Nepalis, he said: "Nepal's Rashtra Bank and the Reserve Bank of India have been in consultation in process of dialogue. Very recently a delegation of RBI visited Nepal to hold discussions. Progress so far has been very good... This issue is in focus of both sides."

To a query on the constitution making process in Nepal, he said: "India has an abiding interest peace stability and development in Nepal" and is supportive of Nepal's "efforts to address all constitutional implementation issues by taking all section of the society on board".

Meanwhile in Kathmandu, the Nepal government said that no MoU will be signed during the visit, which is just a goodwill visit mainly focusing on consolidating and strengthening the bilateral ties.

THE 33-MEMBER DELEGATION

Bhandari's 33-member delegation includes Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat and Peace and Reconstruction Minister Sita Devi Yadav, five women parliament members representing various political parties, two former MPs, senior officials at the President's Office and the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs, security personnel and three media persons.

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The Nepal government has decided to have two public holidays - on Monday and Friday - during the departure and return of the President. Law Minister Ajay Shankar Nayak said that as per custom, public holidays are given whenever the head of state embarks on an official visit to any nation.

Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport has declared no-fly zones for 35 minutes from 10.30 a.m. when the President is due to leave.

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Sophomoreand juniorboth captured individual titles at the 17th annual Lee Krough Invitational on Saturday in St. Peter, Minn., and were among seven Bulldogs who posted top 5 finishes in their respective events.Hesse took top honors in the high jump with a leap of 5'-03.00" while LeBlanc went 10'-10.25" in the pole vault to outdo eight other competitors. Sophomorehad a busy -- and successful -- afternoon as she placed second in both the long jump (17'-08.75') and triple jump (37'-09.50") and third in the javelin throw (111'-03"). In addition, juniorcame in second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (11:47.91) while freshman(4:59.26), sophomore(25.16 in the 200-meter dash) and senior(2:18.29 in the 800-meter run) all turned in fourth-place finishes.In addition, a quartet of Bulldogs -- senior, juniorsandand sophomore-- ventured to California where they competed in the 59th annual Mt. Sac Relays at El Camino College in Torrance and/or the Bryan Clay Invitational, which was hosted by Azusa Pacific University. On Thursday at the Bryan Clay event, Colbenson broke the program's 3,000-meter steeplechase record, finishing fourth overall (the top three placers were all from the NCAA Division I ranks) in a time of 10:10.69 -- the second fastest clocking by an NCAA II runner this spring. That shaved nearly five seconds off the previous team mark of 10:15.40, which Colbenson set earlier this month at the Hamline University Invitational. Trost, meanwhile, ran a 4:13.51 mile on Friday to take fourth in the Invitational Elite Division race at the Mt. Sac Relays and, like Colbenson, did so in record-breaking fashion. That bettered school record of 4:21.09, which Trost also turned in at the Hamline University Invitational two weeks ago, and is the second fastest mark in the nation at the moment. Kohlwey and Kesseh placed 17th (14.18) and 54th (15.32), respectively, in the 100-meter hurdles at the Bryan Clay Invitational while Kesseh also took part in the 100-meter dash (60th in 12.52) at that same meet.On Saturday, three more UMD records fell by the wayside at the Beach Invitational in Long Beach, Calif., with Kohlwey and Trost doing the damage. Kohlwey finished 25th overall and first among non-NCAA I and unattached runners in the 200-meter dash with a school-record effort (automatic time) of 24.53 and was 12th in the 100-meter hurdles with a school-record 13.63 clocking (eclipsing her program-best 13.78 mark which she established last spring at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships). UMD Athletic Hall of Famer Julie Hay's 200-meter dash record of 24.4 was done using manual time. Trost turned in the second-fastest time in the nation this season -- 2:05.82 -- in the 800-meter run which made her the school record holder (All-American Liz Palkie owned the old standard of 2:08.02 from the 2009 NCAA II Outdoor Track and Field Championships.)Next up for the Bulldogs is Concordia University-St. Paul's Holst Invitational next Saturday (April 22).
By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Apr 16 (PTI) In her first overseas tour, Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari will arrive here tomorrow on a five-day visit, during which she will hold talks with top Indian leadership to strengthen bilateral ties.

She will hold talks with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, exploring ways to expand cooperation between the two close neighbours whose ties faced some strain following the agitation by the Madhesi community last year.

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Vice President Hamid Ansari, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will call on the Nepalese President.

Bhandari was scheduled to visit India in May last year, but the trip was cancelled after the then cabinet did not endorse the visit programme, citing lack of preparations on the part of the government.

The bilateral ties between the two countries had faced turbulence last year due to the Madhesi agitation and the subsequent blockade which halted the supply of essential goods to landlocked Nepal from India.

Madhesis, mostly of Indian-origin, had been demanding that the new Constitution be amended to include their concerns about adequate political representation and redrawing of federal boundaries.

It will be Bhandaris first state visit abroad after assuming the charge of the high office in October 2015. She will be staying at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. A high-level delegation comprising several ministers, MPs and senior officials will be accompanying her.

"Her visit will reflect the priority that India attaches to further strengthening the age-old and unique partnership with Nepal, shared cultural and historical linkages, and strong people-to-people relationship," MEAs Joint Secretary (North) Sudhakar Dalela said at a press conference today.

He further said, "It is a special goodwill visit and we hope this will help further cement our ties. The visit would also give us an excellent opportunity to review all aspects of our wide-ranging partnership with Nepal."

On April 18, she will also attend a business event being organised by industry chambers CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM.

"The president will host a banquet in her honour on April 18. She will later visit Gujarat and Odisha and pay obeisance at temples of Dwarka, Somnath and Puri," Dalela said.

In Delhi, she would also visit the Yamuna Biodiversity Park here.

Emphasising the importance of the visit, the senior MEA official said it comes in the backdrop of "intensified bilateral engagements". President Pranab Mukherjee had also visited Nepal in November.

These exchanges have been "immensely useful" in ensuring steady progress in co-operative ties across diverse sectors, such as trade, economic investment, water resources, energy sector including power trading, defence and security, oil and gas sector, culture and more importantly, people to people ties, Dalela added.

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"At the same time, we have maintained our focus on implementation of ongoing connectivity and development projects, such as tarai roads, cross-border rail linkages, development of Integrated Check Posts (ICPs), cross-border oil pipelines and transmission lines.

"Also, the bilateral oversight mechanism set up last October to monitor and expedite implementation of ongoing projects has met three times already, and has been extremely helpful in addressing related issues on both sides," he said.

Dalela said the energy cooperation between the two countries is "witnessing a new high", especially in the backdrop of the Indias approval of the Rs 5,720-crore hydro power project (Arun-III) to be set up in Nepal.

"India supplies 350 MW electricity to Nepal. And their government has proposed 16 road and bridge projects worth USD 300 million under the line of credit of USD 550 million, which we have agreed to and we look forward to its completion in the coming months," he said.

Later, responding to a question on the post- demonetisation effect in Nepal, where Indian currency is accepted, he only said, "The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) and RBI are still in consultation" to smoothen out issues that may have arisen. PTI KND MPB BSA

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The college admissions process is a tough and tedious process. College applicants spend so many hours filling out college applications, writing their essays, studying for the admissions test, and patiently waiting for months to hear back from the schools they have applied for, only to find out in the end they will be rejected in some. While it may be a sad news for students who receive rejections from their dream schools, some colleges actually reap the benefits from it.

There are a number of colleges and universities that earn a lot from rejected applications. How? Because when they offer cheaper admissions test to applicants, it will increase the number of submitted applications, while there will still be a low turn out of qualified applicants. This is how students can benefit from rejected applications in the form of revenue.

An example is Harvard University which earns $3 million in gross profits from rejected applications every year, and that is according to UCEazy. The data from the study also show that universities are able to make over $200 million in total from rejected applications because applicants are not prepared and unqualified.

According to Vinnie Gupta, the founder of the study, the research was conducted in order to understand the struggle that college applicants experience to get into college. Many hopeful applicants are spending money and resources to apply to their dream schools, even if sometimes, they have a very slim chance of getting accepted.

They also shared with USA Today College the results of their study. Here are the five schools that earn the most from rejected applications.

1. University of California-Los Angeles: $5,369,840

2. University of California-Berkeley: $4,681,320

3. Stanford University: $3,632,130

4. University of California-San Diego: $3,608,290

5. University of Southern California: $3,419,440
STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, art and math) has become an essential part of growing future innovators. A lot of companies, including Ford Motor Company, are investing in programs to encourage young students to explore new possibilities in the STEAM fields.

The Ford STEAM Experience Brand Manager Tracy Magee talked about the company's commitment to educational initiatives this morning at the Broadcast House. Magee said Ford has been active in STEAM education for about 30 years. They have invested $63 million in a number of programs for the last 5 years.

She added that STEAM education is a very important topic for Ford and many other companies. There is a big need for problem solvers and future engineers and technical careers.

Ford has most recently partnered with Kode With Klossy to help expand coding camps for young women across the country. The organization was founded by supermodel Karlie Kloss where she hosts free two-week long programs to help motivate girls to pursue careers in STEAM-related fields.

Magee said their investment with Kode With Klossy will help the organization expand from three camps to 15 in 10 cities. The company will offer 300 scholarships to young women ages 13 to 18 nationwide, which will give more students the opportunity to participate. Margee added that they are doing a Detroit-based camp and the applications are open now until the end of April.

A year ago, Ford created a platform called the STEAM Experience. Their mission is to help unify all of the automaker's ongoing efforts to open a window for girls and all children to be able to see what they would be able to do. Magee said they want to be there to have the STEM education part of it, WXYZ reported.

Interested applicants can learn more about Ford's STEAM programs by going to their website.
By Press Trust of India: New York, Apr 16 (PTI) Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have developed a unique camera that can capture detailed images of distant objects without using a long lens, an advance that could lead to telescopes that are less bulky.

The system known as SAVI - for "Synthetic Apertures for long-range, subdiffraction-limited Visible Imaging" - does not need a long lens to take a picture of a faraway object, researchers said.

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The prototype built by researchers reads a spot illuminated by a laser and captures the "speckle" pattern with a camera sensor.

Raw data from dozens of camera positions is fed to a computer programme that interprets it and constructs a high- resolution image.

Researchers including those from Rice University in the US, built and tested the device that compares interference patterns between multiple speckled images.

Like the technique used to achieve the "Matrix" special effect, the images are taken from slightly different angles, but with one camera that is moved between shots instead of many fired in sequence.

The prototype only works with coherent illumination sources such as lasers.

However, it is a step toward a SAVI camera array for use in visible light, researchers said.

The speckles serve as reference beams and essentially replace one of the two beams used to create holograms, researchers said.

When a laser illuminates a rough surface, the viewer sees grain-like speckles in the dot, as some of the returning light scattered from points on the surface has to go farther and throws the collective wave out of phase.

The texture of a piece of paper - or even a fingerprint - is enough to cause the effect.

"Today, the technology can be applied only to coherent (laser) light," said Ashok Veeraraghavan of Rice University.

"That means you cannot apply these techniques to take pictures outdoors and improve resolution for sunlit images - as yet," Veeraraghavan said.

"With a traditional camera, the larger the physical size of the aperture, the better the resolution," he said.

"If you want an aperture that is half a foot, you may need 30 glass surfaces to remove aberrations and create a focused spot. This makes your lens very big and bulky," he added.

SAVIs "synthetic aperture" sidesteps the problem by replacing a long lens with a computer programme the resolves the speckle data into an image, researchers said.

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"You can capture interference patterns from a fair distance," Veeraraghavan said.

The research was published in the journal Science Advances. PTI APA MHN MHN

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Now that the Black-ish Star Yara Shadidi is about to enter another phase of her life, which is the college life, the decision-making could have been tough as there was a lot she had to choose from. Shadidi revealed that she actually got accepted to all the colleges she applied to.

The 17-year old star has shared that she went through the college application different than most of the young people her age, ABC News reported. For one, she got a recommendation letter from the first lady Michelle Obama, and then she told Seventeen in an interview that she got acceptance to all of the colleges she applied to.

She told the magazine that she received all of her college acceptances and got accepted to all of them. She shared how excited she is the moment she found out all about it last week. She added that she does not have any final plans just yet but she will be selecting her top college choice next month.

Shadidi was accepted into two Ivy Leagues, four state schools and one historically black college, but Obama is definitely not the only reason for the acceptance, considering that the young girl is also intelligent, driven and well-rounded. She also managed to get a 4.6 GPA in school while she was starring her hit ABC show.

Whatever college Shadidi chooses, she decides not to take it easy because of her plans to take a double major. She explained that she wants to feel challenged and wants to study as much as possible, and that is why she thinks that taking a double major could be the solution. She has not yet decided what major to take but said that she might go for something in the arts.
"One Punch Man" Season 2 has now official release date schedule and story outline but one important information has been revealed already: "One Punch Man" Season 2 is now ongoing. Since the production has already begun its development, leakers and spoilers already got their first revelation about Saitama's fate.

According to KoreaPortal, "One Punch Man" Season 2 may be the first time Saitama will be defeated in a bloody battle. Back in season 1, this protagonist has been shown in a match against Garou and his nemesis seemed to possess the same power he has.

In a recent fight, Garou was shown capable of resisting the punches of Cape Baldy and it now shocking to learn that this character may land Saitama's first knockout. On the other hand, some claim that the "One Punch Man" Season 2 plot twist could bring in Genos as a powerful opponent to bring Saitama to the ground.

These Season 2 theories are just products of "One Punch Man" fans' creative minds who have been waiting for two years for an update. Meanwhile, for people who are gaining interest to watch "One Punch Man," check out this quick cheat list, StarzPost reported.

First in the "One Punch Man" cheat list is King (Hiroki Yasumoto) also known as the "The Strongest Man on Earth." He is an S-Class Rank 7 professional star for the Hero Association who recognizes Saitama's strength.

"One Punch Man" Cheat List No. 2 regards the secret behind Saitama's strength. Not much has been revealed but expects that Season 2 may shed some light to this. However, Saitama's training regimen consists of 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats and a 10-kilometer run daily for three consecutive years.

Lastly, "One Punch Man" Cheat List No. 3 is about Season 2's release date which is expected to come out between July to November 2017. Nothing has been confirmed but the previous season was released by that time.

Are you excited about "One Punch Man" Season 2?
The University of California - Berkeley has filed an appeal for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruling involving the CRISPR patent. The decision favored the Broad Institute, a research affiliate of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Earlier this year, it was reported that three judges from the PTAB ruled that patents on the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology belong to the Broad Institute of Harvard University and MIT. UC Berkeley filed a patent in May 2012 for ownership of the technology including ownership of its uses in all types of cells.

UC Berkeley's Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, who was with the University of Vienna at the time, described a simple gene-editing system for the precise cutting of DNA in a test tube in their paper which was published in 2012. In Jan. 2013, Broad Institute researcher Feng Zhang used the gene-editing technique within living cells.

The UC Berkeley research team argued that what Zhang did was only a refinement of their original work. The university believes that it should own the IP rights to the CRISPR technology because their research team was the one who invented the system.

This time, UC Berkeley has filed an appeal, seeking a reversal of the decision. Reuters reported that the ruling was done before identifying who first invented the use of CRISPR in eukaryotic cells.

In a press release on its official website, UC Berkeley clarified that the appeal was to overturn a decision to terminate the interference between a UC patent application for CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology and the patent applications and issued patents of the Broad Institute. An interference is a legal proceeding to identify who was the first to invent a certain technology.

Broad Institute has stated its confidence that the appeals court will affirm the ruling and "recognize the contribution of the Broad, MIT and Harvard in developing this transformative technology."

UC Berkeley has already won a patent in the United Kingdom. Back in March, the European Patent Office announced its "intention to grant a patent" to the public institution. It has favored the UC argument that its findings cover CRISPR use in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems.
An intriguing study involving over 1,400 junior cycle students in Munster, Germany finds that the majority of the respondents described science subjects as "extremely hard". Consequently, a lot of them think about dropping the courses if only they are allowed to do so. Basically, they hate science because they do not feel good at it.

Beulah McManus conducted the research and then submitted it to the University of Limerick. In it, McManus suggests that various factors play a role in maintaining student engagement in science subjects. For one, parents and teachers are vital in making their kids and students interested in scientific matters. Moreover, someone must measure whether the introduction of science at primary level really prepares pupils for the subject at secondary level.

Per Irish Examiner, a total of 1,427 students from 10 secondary schools in Munster participated in the survey. Another 77 teachers were also asked. The findings are a bit confusing because while the majority of the respondents believe that science subjects are important, a lot of them also want to drop the course.

Aside from the fact that 76 percent of respondents admitted that they do not "understand the point of studying science in school", two-thirds of the samples agreed that science is still an interesting subject. Meanwhile, 58.4 percent opt to continue taking it for Certificates. The good news is that only 22 percent (so far) decided to drop science.

Apparently, they lose interest because science only gets harder as time passes by. More and more terms are being discovered on a daily basis. Thus, new problems to be solved emerge.

On the contrary, students in the US seem to be reaching new heights in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). US News reported that a student at Giving Kids Wings Flight Academy, who became the first solo female glider in the summer of 2016, found the "love" for science through seminars. In particular, Emma Hall chose to focus on the science of flying.

Hall, 16, is currently a sophomore at Da Vinci Science High School. She told the same source that flying is the "best experience" of her life. Hall added that she just "could not stop smiling". Science gave her "a taste of what she can do" and so she was hooked.
On Thursday night, the United States Military has dropped the "Mother of All Bombs" in Afghanistan. Technically known as the GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, the operation reportedly destroyed underground tunnels used by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) to stage attacks against government forces.

Although huge, the MOAB is surely a non-nuclear weapon. The US military also explains that the attack was only a "tactical move" to stop terrorism. To be specific, the bombing took place in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan. The operation killed 36 ISIS fighters, per Afghan officials.

For the record, American Intel agents estimate that ISIS had 600 to 800 active fighters in the said coordinates. It is still unclear if the US intends to drop more bombs in the area. CNN reported that the "Mother of All Bombs' exploded above ground but still managed to destroy weapons hidden beneath the surface. No civilians were hurt, both US and Afghan forces clarified.

The question now is: Where does the massive power of the MOAB come from? According to IFL Science, Thursday's detonation itself was caused by a mixture of TNT (80 percent) and aluminum powder (20 percent) called "Tritonal". Aluminum helps the TNT ignite and reach an "extremely high pressure" at a faster rate. The energy released by one MOAB is equivalent to a magnitude 6.0 earthquake.

Meanwhile, one MOAB weighs 10.3 tons and measures about 9.2 meters in length. Technically speaking, it has an explosive yield of up to 46 billion joules. Lastly, a GPS on the ground guides it to its target and it does not detonate upon impact. Instead, the MOAB explodes just above its "prey", around 6 feet in height.

For the record, the use of nuclear bombs is still prohibited on anywhere in the world. However, powerful countries still refuse to give up the fight for the most powerful military arsenal to date. Nonetheless, no use of nuclear bombs has been recorded since the Nagasaki bombing.
A swarm of strong earthquakes rattled the Philippines over the past week. Professional SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diver Jan Paul Rodriguez captured one of the most terrifying experiences on Earth as he and his team got caught in an underwater earthquake in the Philippines.

On April 8, a magnitude 5.7 quake jolted the province of Batangas near the municipality of Mabini. Moreover, it was immediately followed by a magnitude 6.0 ground-shake that prompted people to rush out of their homes. Apparently, the disaster first struck on April 4 with an initial strength of magnitude 5.5.

According to IFL Science, the video showed trembling sea bed while sand and rocks slowly rise as the ground rumbled. Rodriguez told various media outfits that the quake felt like a "huge propeller" of a big boat turning directly above them. The shockwave hurt their ears and he and his colleagues experienced heavy breathing due to sudden changes in temperature.

Currently, his video has gained over 413,000 views and 2,700 likes on Facebook. Consequently, roughly 1,900 people shared his post since the time of posting. Local experts believe that Rodriguez's footage may help in seismology, especially in understanding the behavior of marine mammals during an underwater earthquake.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) explained that the series of quakes in Batangas is a result of incremental movements from a still unnamed fault spanning in Tingloy Island. Nevertheless, PHIVOLCS ruled out the possibility of a tsunami in the province famous for beach activities like SCUBA diving. Well, the Philippines is one of the countries located within the "Ring of Fire", where numerous tectonic plates and volcanic belts are constantly moving and erupting.

Another threat to the Filipinos is the anticipated movement of the West Valley Fault that is expected to be around 7.2 in magnitude. Basically, this type of fault would cause serious to severe damages to infrastructures. Dubbed as "The Big One", the West Valley Fault moves every 400 years and this year is about the time for it to do so. PHIVOLCS says there is no way to predict an earthquake so everyone must be prepared.
Artificial intelligence is easily believed as highly logical and objective. However, a new study shows that even AI has the biases that its human creator has. These subjectivities range from the mundane color preferences to more sensitive issues like gender and race.

Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy faculty member, Arvind Narayanan said it is important to identify and address the biases present in machine learning since people are now turning to computers to do a lot of activities like communication, online searches, and more, Eureka Alert reported. Narayanan, who is also an affiliate scholar at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, said these artificial intelligence systems may have acquired the socially unacceptable bias that humans are trying to move away from.

The paper published in "Science" April 14 is called "Semantics derived automatically from language corpora contain human-like biases." It's lead author, Princeton University's Aylin Caliskan, and her team adapted the Implicit Association Test to carry out the textual analysis tool called Word-Embedding Association Test, Geek Wire reported. The system looks at how given words are associated with the other words surrounding them to determine whether it is embedded with an unpleasant or pleasant connotation.

The analysis showed that flowers are better than insects, and musical instruments are better than weapons. These are mundane and ordinary biases. The researchers analyzed 2.2 million Eurpean-American and African-American names, and found out that AI regard European_American names as more pleasant.

When it comes to genders, the researchers found that AI usually associate female with domestic words, like "family" and "wedding," while male is associated with career words such as "salary" and "profession." The study also revealed that female words were embedded with arts, while male words are associated with science and math. This study shows that artificial intelligence is not objective and unbiased as people believe it to be.
By Press Trust of India: Los Angeles, Apr 16 (PTI) Scientists have discovered a new species of a herbivorous dinosaur that lived about 125 million years ago.

The new species belongs to a group of herbivores known as sauropods, which includes giants such as Brontosaurus and Brachiosaurus, who had long necks and pillar-like legs, said researchers from Brigham Young University (BYU) in the US.

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The bones of the dinosaur called Moabosaurus Utahensis were assembled using bones extracted over the course of four decades.

Moabosaurus is most closely related to species found in Spain and Tanzania, which tells researchers that during its time, there were still intermittent physical connections between Europe, Africa and North America.

Moabosaurus lived in Utah at a time when the region was filled with large trees, plentiful streams, lakes and dinosaurs, researchers said.

A previous study indicates that a large number of Moabosaurus and other dinosaurs died in a severe drought.

Survivors trampled their fallen companions bodies, crushing their bones.

After the drought ended, streams eroded the land, and transported the bones a short distance, where they were again trampled, researchers said.

Meanwhile, insects in the soils fed on the bones, leaving behind tell-tale burrow marks.

"We are lucky to get anything out of this site. Most bones we find are fragmentary, so only a small percentage of them are usable," said Brooks Britt from BYU.

"And that is why it took so long to get this animal put together: we had to collect huge numbers of bones in order to get enough that were complete," he said. PTI APA MHN MHN

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By: Koushan Das

Vietnams Ministry of Transport has rejected a bid to set price floors on air tickets as proposed by the countrys national carrier, Vietnam Airlines, as well as its subsidiary, Jetstar Pacific. Under the proposals, Vietnam Airlines advocated for a floor price for domestic travel between US$68 (VND 1.5 million) and US$185 (VND 4.2 million), while Jetstar Pacific proposed rates between US$26 (VND 600,000) and US$53 (VND 1.2 million).

In support of the proposal, Vietnam Airlines cited rising fuel costs and foreign exchange volatility as the primary reasons for a minimum pricing strategy. Others within the industry, however, did not share reservations about aviations prevailing state of affairs and instead expressed concerns over efforts to impose a minimum pricing scheme. Private airline VietJet Air, for example, argued that fixing a floor price would violate Vietnamese competition law and hamper sustainable development of the airline industry.

Instead of adopting the minimum rates requested by either airline, but in response to the concerns raised by parties such as Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific, government regulators have suggested changing the ceiling prices for airfare based on external market factors such as fuel costs. The Ministry of Transport has proposed to increase the ceiling prices for domestic routes by 7 to 16 percent to compensate for rising fuel costs. While this will certainly allow a greater degree of pricing flexibility, the move falls short of requests from some within the industry, such as VietJet, which proposed removing ceiling rates as well to allow airlines to upgrade and provide better services to passengers.

Despite disagreement over governmental involvement, Vietnams aviation industry has posted outstanding progress in recent years and is widely expected to offer continued opportunities for investment in the near to medium term. In the last year alone, the sector witnessed an annual growth of 29 percent, with over 52.2 million passengers being served. By 2020, passenger numbers are expected to grow to 122 million, driven by comparatively low fuel prices, opening up of new routes, and increasing competition. With these factors at play, the sector is predicted to be one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world.

However, even as opportunities continue to emerge in Vietnamese aviation, the rapidly evolving nature of the countrys regulatory environment, exemplified by the Ministry of Transportations recent ruling on price floors, will ultimately dictate the direction that the industry takes. As such, interested parties, as well as those already invested in the country, should be sure to monitor issuances by the Ministry of Transport and other governmental bodies closely in order to stay on top of compliance and to understand opportunities fully.

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Managing Contracts and Severance in Vietnam

In this issue of Vietnam Briefing, we discuss the prevailing state of labor pools in Vietnam and outline key considerations for those seeking to staff and retain workers in the country. We highlight the increasing demand for skilled labor, provide in depth coverage of existing contract options, and showcase severance liabilities that may arise if workers or employers choose to terminate their contracts.
A senior functionary of the party who spoke to us said that ,Some of the senior ministers are pressurizing the Party head to from Vijayabaskkar from the cabinet to wipe out the accusations and blot on the Edappadi Palanisamy government. These ministers have met the LokSabha deputy speaker Thambidurai on Thursday at his Chennai residence and have questioned why there is a delay in taking action against Vijayavaskar. Thambidurai it seems has said that they are waiting for instructions from Sasikala in Bengaluru Jail and further action can happen then only.In the meanwhile ministers, Jayakumar and Dindigul Srinivasan have met senior Minister Sengottian and insisted that action has to be taken against Vijayabaskar to save the party and govt from further embarrassment.But TTV Dinakaran has refused to budge to the pressures and this has created big furor within the party and among the cadres. It is likely that two more MLAs from the Kongu belt may revolt and switch over to OPS camp.
The chairman of HCM Citys Peoples Committee, Nguyen Thanh Phong, is seeking approval from the Prime Minister for the construction of the Thu Thiem Bridge 4 project. Photo cafeland.vn

The city has proposed to carry out the project under a build-transfer (BT) model.

The city also asked for permission to select investors among Phat at Corporation Real Estate, Investment Corporation 620, 168 Construction Development JSC, and Tan Thuan Industrial Promotion Company Limited (IPC) .

The 2.16km bridge, connecting Districts 2 and 7, would have six lanes, with a total investment of over VN5,200 billion (US$2.29 billion).

Last year, the city asked the central Government for early implementation of the project, but was not granted permission.
The US Pacific Command said a North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately" on its test launch on Sunday. The failed launch from North Korea's east coast came a day after North Korea held a grand military parade in its capital, marking the birth anniversary of the state founder.

By Reuters: A North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately" on its test launch on Sunday, the US Pacific Command said, hours before US Vice President Mike Pence landed in South Korea for talks on the North's increasingly defiant arms programme.

The failed launch from North Korea's east coast, ignoring admonitions from major ally China, came a day after North Korea held a grand military parade in its capital, marking the birth anniversary of the state founder, displaying what appeared to be new long-range ballistic missiles.

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South Korea said the combined show of force "threatened the whole world" but a U.S. foreign policy advisor travelling with Pence on Air Force Two appeared to defuse some of the tension, saying the test of what was believed to be a medium-range missile had come as no surprise.

"We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch," the advisor told reporters on condition of anonymity.

"It's a failed test. It follows another failed test. So really no need to reinforce their failure. We don't need to expend any resources against that."

The advisor said the missile's flight lasted four or five seconds.

"It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when. The good news is that after five seconds it fizzled out."

Pence is in Seoul at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of US commitment to its ally in the face of rising tension.

The US nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group is also heading to the region.

A US Navy attack on a Syrian airfield this month raised questions about US President Donald Trump's plans for reclusive North Korea, which has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of UN sanctions, regularly threatening to destroy the South and the United States.

South Korea, which hosts 28,500 US troops, warned of punitive action if the launch led to further provocations.

"North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterday's military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world," South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

TIMING SIGNIFICANT

The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturising a nuclear warhead.

The timing of the test, coinciding with Pence's trip and a day after the military parade, would suggest deliberate defiance.

The North launched a ballistic missile from the same region earlier this month ahead of a summit between the United States and China to discuss the North's arms programme.

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That missile flew about 60 km (40 miles) but what US officials said appeared to be a liquid-fuelled, extended-range Scud missile only travelled a fraction of its range before spinning out of control.

China, which Trump has urged to do more to rein in North Korea, has spoken out against its missile and nuclear tests and has supported UN sanctions. It again called for talks to defuse the crisis on Friday.

China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exchanged views on the "situation on the Korean peninsula" by phone on Sunday, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. It did not elaborate.

Its national airline, Air China, has cancelled some flights to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, due to poor demand but it has not suspended all flights there, it said on Friday.

China banned all imports of North Korean coal on February 26, cutting off the country's most important export product. China's customs department issued an official order on April 7 telling traders to return North Korean coal cargoes, said three trading sources with direct knowledge of the order.

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Sinpo, where the Sunday launch took place, is the site of a North Korean submarine base and where the North has tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile it is developing.

Tension had escalated sharply in the region amid concerns that the North may conduct a sixth nuclear test or a ballistic missile test launch around Saturday's 105th birth anniversary of founding father Kim Il Sung that it calls the "Day of the Sun".

The White House has said Trump has put the North "on notice".

MISSILE TEST? WHAT TEST?

Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Chinese tourists in Dandong, a city bordering North Korea, piled on to ferries and speedboats on Sunday as usual for cruises on the Yalu river and up-close views of North Korean border guards and villages.

"North Korea is just trying to gain more attention and gain more leverage," said tourist Huang Xiaojie.

In Pyongyang, there was a festive atmosphere at a flower show, with families out, taking pictures with North Korean-made smart phones. There was no mention of the test failure on the KCNA state news agency.

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Company worker Rim Chung Ryol, 30, said he had not heard of the test.

"If it is a failure, then failure is the mother of success," he told Reuters. Asked if he believed international media reports, he said no, because "international media often lies and reports negative news about North Korea".

Factory worker Ri Gul Chol, 37, enjoying the exhibition with his wife and child, also had not heard about the missile test.

"But whatever Kim Jong Un decides and instructs will succeed and all the citizens will support him," he said, referring to the North's young leader.

ALSO READ | WW III? Google searches like World War 3 and Syria spike to record highs

ALSO WATCH | Mother of All Bombs dropped to deny operative space to ISIS: US

--- ENDS ---
A woman places flowers in honour of the victims of the Apr 3 blast on the platform of Technological Institute metro station in Saint Petersburg on Apr 4, 2017. (Photo: AFP/Olga Maltseva)

One suspect, aged 32, is accused of recruiting for the Islamic State group, while the other, aged 39, faces allegations of being a recruiter for "terrorist organisations in Syria".

One of the two is from the Osh region of Kyrgyzstan, an area known for the number of recruits it has provided for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Fourteen people died and dozens were injured in the April 3 blast which has been blamed on 22-year-old Akbarjon Djalilov, thought to be a Russian national born in Kyrgyzstan, who died in the blast.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack but investigators say they are probing possible links to Islamic State militants.

Eight people - all from mainly Muslim Central Asia - have been detained in Moscow and Saint Petersburg over alleged involvement in the attack.

As of the beginning of April, police in St Petersburg had arrested seven nationals of Central Asian countries on suspicion of being "terrorist" recruiters.
State President Tran Dai Quang (L) receives Chairman and CEO of General Electric Jeffrey R. Immelt, Hanoi, April 14, 2017 - Photo: VNA

The GE has made practical contributions to the advancement of the economic, trade and investment relations between the two countries.

Viet Nam is focusing on innovating all fields, promoting reform, transforming growth model to create new impetus for socio-economic development and facilitate investment inflows, including from the US, said State President Quang.

He said Viet Nam and the US have built a solid background of the bilateral relations for US businesses to carry out long-term investment in the Southeast Asian country.

Viet Nam also attaches importance to enhancing win-win cooperation with the US in an increasingly practical, comprehensive, stable and long-term manner on the basis of mutual respect for their political system, the State President affirmed.

He also took the occasion to call on the GE and other US businesses to support Viet Nam to successfully host the APEC Year 2017.

The GE has invested in a factory producing wind and steam turbines generators to supply to the groups subsidiaries in Viet Nam and the world, said Mr. Jeffrey R. Immelt.

He said the GE highly valued Vietnamese workers creativity and diligence, saying that they contribute to the success of the group.

GE also proposed to develop a gas-fired power complex with a generation capacity of 1,500 megawatts in the central province of Quang Nam, using gas from the Blue Whale, in partnership with the US' ExxonMobil and Vietnam's oil and gas group PetroVietnam. The group's proposal has been sent to PetroVietnam for consideration.
3 Jewish participants and their sympathizers hold a banner (down) with a text, 'March for Life Hungary' during a demonstration on the oldest Hungarian bridge the 'Lanchid' (Chain Bridge) in Budapest. The "March for Life" commemorates the anniversary of the Holocaust that caused the death of thousands of victims who were deported to the concentration camps by the Nazis.
An art exhibition in New York highlights undocumented immigrants and the items they left behind while crossing hostile desert territory from Mexico into the United States. The show, called State of Exception, stems from the University of Michigan's Undocumented Migration Project, and it uses only discarded objects. Celia Mendoza reports on these traces of human migration from the New Schools Parsons School of Design.
Thousands of people thronged the sides of the eight-kilometer route that Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled through on his way to the BJP national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar.

By Maneesh Pandey: How many hours can you stand in the scorching sun with mercury hovering over 40 degrees, to get a glimpse of your Prime Minister?

Ask Amulya Ranjan Gochhayh, a geologist and Sanjay, an auto rickshaw driver, Paiyo Mohalik from Bhadrak or a delegation of villagers, mostly farmers and poor workers from Cuttack, who had come from different parts of Odisha and waited for several hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his "show stopper" road show, a replay of Varanasi on Bhubaneswar streets on Saturday afternoon.

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They along with thousands others had gathered along the route of the roadshow hours before the PM even touched down at the city airport. But they showed no signs of tiring out before seeing the PM.

The nearly 8-km road show starting from Bhubaneswar Airport to Janta Maidan, where PM Modi was to finally meet his cabinet colleagues, state chief ministers and top BJP leadership for the National Executive meeting, passed through Odisha's capital's landmark spots - Raj Bhavan to Jaidev Vihar Square, giving the ruling Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal so3me jitters and anxious moments.

A FUN AFFAIR

With a simple hope that he is coming to Odisha to change their lives, end unemployment, curb corruption and lift the social status of local poor, people from different parts of the state made waiting for their PM a fun affair amidst blaring music, some traditional dance steps by women and drum beats by their menfolk behind the barricades put up all along the VIP route sanitised for PM upto Janta Maidan.

"Kucch to karega, hum to unko dekhne aaya hai (something he will do, I have come to see him)," said Akul Raut, a farmer from Badamba in Cuttuck district.

While the local party leaders claimed that the crowd on streets to be in lakhs, even by conservative estimates, it was well over 70,000-80,000.

Union petroleum minister and BJP leader from Odisha, Dharmendra Pradhan, told Mail Today, "The people of Odisha gathered on Bhubaneswar's streets to thank their Prime Minister for his pro-poor policies benefitting Odisha poor households. The credibility of the Prime Minister would be a game changer in the state."

Pradhan said: "Odisha is a laboratory for the Modi government's pro-poor policies in the country. His credibility index among the poor is very high and they have conveyed their true feeling about him in the recent zila panchayat elections where we came close second to the ruling BJD."

A farmer echoed his views. "We want to be free of unemployment and poverty."

The BJP sees this as a chance after the results in Uttar Pradesh where the landslide victory conveys voters' belief in Modi's development politics and his style of governance.

Modi's roadshow in Odisha capital is critical to BJP's plan to form the next government in 2019 elections and also extend the saffron surge in other eastern and southern states.

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State BJP vice-president Sameer Mohanty said he was simply 'stunned' by the crowd response to the rally.

Speaking on phone while he was finding it tough to keep pace with PM's car route, he said: "I have not seen such a response in Bhubaneswar for any BJP leader...I am in politics for over 35 years now. This is something unprecedented and a message comes out clear - time to work to change the BJD government."

ALSO READ | Amit Shah kicks off national executive with vow to dominate all political bodies in India

ALSO WATCH | Narendra Modi gets rousing welcome during his roadshow in Bhubaneswar

--- ENDS ---
Christians around the world Sunday celebrate Easter  the day they believe Jesus rose from the dead. It is the holiest day of the Christian calendar.

Easter is Christianitys moveable feast, falling on a different date each year. Western Christian churches celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox.

Easter marks the end of Holy Week, which is the week before Easter and includes Maundy Thursday, the day of Jesus last supper with his disciples, and Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified.

Authorities in Egypt have beefed up security this year for Easter after a suicide bomb attacks on a Coptic Christian church last Sunday left dozens dead and more than 100 wounded.


Pope Francis, leading the world's Roman Catholics into Easter, urged them Saturday not to ignore the plight of immigrants, the poor and other vulnerable people.

In his homily at an Easter vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, Francis recounted the biblical account of Jesus Christ's mother, Mary, and Mary Magdalene, filled with grief, as they went to visit his tomb following the crucifixion.

Their grief, he said during the solemn ceremony, could be seen in the faces of many women today.

"In their faces we can see reflected all those who, walking the streets of our cities, feel the pain of dire poverty, the sorrow born of exploitation and human trafficking," he said.

"We can also see the faces of those who are greeted with contempt because they are immigrants, deprived of country, house and family. We see faces whose eyes bespeak loneliness and abandonment, because their hands are creased with wrinkles."

Serving the needy

Francis has used the period leading up to Easter to stress his vision of service to the neediest. On Good Friday, he lamented that many people had become inured to daily scenes of bombed cities and drowning migrants.

During Saturday's service, he baptized 11 people, most of them adult converts to Catholicism, from Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, the United States, Albania, Malta, Malaysia and China.

On Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, he will read his twice-annual "Urbi et Orbi" ("To the City and the World") message in St. Peter's Square.

Security has been tight for all of the pope's Holy Week activities following recent truck attacks against pedestrians in London and Stockholm.
The former governor of Mexico's Veracruz state who is accused of running a corruption ring that allegedly pilfered millions of dollars from state coffers was detained in Guatemala after six months as a fugitive and high-profile symbol of government graft in his country.



Javier Duarte, pale and visibly tired, was brought Sunday to a prison at a military base in the Guatemalan capital



A statement from Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office said Duarte was detained Saturday with the cooperation of Guatemalan police and the country's Interpol office in Panajachel, a picturesque tourist town on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala's highlands.



It said he is wanted on suspicion of money laundering and organized crime, and prosecutors directed the Foreign Relations Department to request Duarte's extradition via its Guatemalan counterpart.



Manuel Noriega, deputy director of Interpol in Guatemala, said Duarte was located at a hotel where he was staying with his wife. He was asked to leave his room, did so voluntarily and then was arrested without incident in the lobby.



Noriega said Duarte would be presented before a judge to consider his possible extradition.



At least two dozen policemen guarded Duarte as he arrived at Guatemala City's Matamoros prison.



"I have no comment, thank you," he said to a question from The Associated Press.



Duarte, 43, was governor of Veracruz from 2010 until he left office Oct. 12, 2016, two months before the scheduled end of his term, saying he was doing so in order to face the allegations against him.



At the time he denied having links to phantom businesses that allegedly won state contracts, and said he had not stolen a single peso of state money or diverted government funds overseas.



"I don't have foreign accounts," he said last year. "I don't have properties anywhere."



Duarte promptly disappeared and had been sought by Mexican authorities ever since. Earlier this year, Interpol issued a notice for his capture.



The Mexican government has found millions of dollars purportedly linked to Duarte, frozen more than 100 bank accounts and also seized property and businesses tied to the former governor. A reward of 15 million pesos ($730,000) had been offered for his capture.



The detention comes a week after Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Mexico's Tamaulipas state, was arrested in Italy, also on allegations of organized crime and money laundering.



Another ex-governor, Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state, is also wanted on suspicion of corruption and is said to have fled to El Paso, Texas. He is not related to Javier Duarte.



All three ex-governors were members of the ruling Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI, of President Enrique Pena Nieto.



The party, which expelled Javier Duarte on Oct. 25, 2016, and has sought to distance itself from him, applauded the arrest.



"The PRI calls for all the relevant investigations to be carried out and, respecting due process, for the ex-governor of Veracruz to be punished in an exemplary fashion, as well as anyone who is confirmed to have taken part in his criminal ring," the party said in a statement.



Duarte became a powerful symbol of alleged corruption during midterm elections last year in which the PRI lost several governorships, including Veracruz, that it had held uninterrupted since its founding in 1929.



Duarte also has been widely criticized for rampant violence in the state during his administration, as drug cartels warred for territory and thousands of people were killed or disappeared into clandestine graves in cases that mostly remain unsolved. The dead include at least 16 journalists slain in Veracruz during his six years in office.
For the second time in as many votes, the Islamic factor is expected to play a key role in the outcome of Jakartas gubernatorial election. The latest local poll suggests that a run-off vote for the city's de-facto mayor on Wednesday is too close to call.

The run-off quickly became a continuation of a struggle that emerged in the initial vote, when moderates favoring a pluralistic society faced off against conservatives eager for Islam to dominate politics and society in Indonesia's huge capital city.

Violence and protests marked campaigning before a three-way vote in February that left the current governor, Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, who is ethnically Chinese and a Christian, pitted against Anies Baswedan, who is Muslim. With only 164,255 votes separating the two, and third-place candidate Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono holding a 17-percent share of the vote, neither Purnama nor Baswedan won a majority, and a run-off was required.

This stage of the campaign has been punctuated on social media by the frequent use of a word once heard only rarely in public discourse in Jakarta  kafir, or heathen, to describe Purnama and the voters supporting him, even those who are Muslim. Banners commanding Don't vote for a heathen hang throughout Jakarta, the capital of a Muslim-majority nation that recognizes all citizens' right to freedom of religion.

The change in the tone of the campaign reflects Baswedan's changing views. The former education minister in the government of President Joko Widodo has courted conservative and hard-line Muslims. While he once described the Defenders of Islam Front (FPI) as a radical group, photos of him with the FPI chairman taken in January remain popular on social media. After the first round of voting, local media reports said he suggested there may have been fraud at polling stations in predominantly ethnic-Chinese areas.

Baswedan has changed his views very much on issues of pluralism and tolerance, said Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, an assistant professor at the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University, who studies Indonesian elections.

The election, for many, seems like a sort of question for Jakarta  and perhaps to a wider extent for Indonesia  about whether or not it is acceptable to have a non-Muslim as governor of the countrys largest city.

Purnama, popular with middle-class residents for his work to curtail corruption and improve the quality of life, is a so-called double-minority in a majority-Muslim nation. He was accused of blasphemy, a criminal offense, last year, and his trial before a panel of judges continues; a verdict has been delayed until the day following the run-off vote. Purnama has apologized for his comments and denied any wrongdoing.

Protests by hardliners against Purnama have left many concerned about the future of pluralism in Indonesia, said Jeremy Menchick, an assistant professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, whose book Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism was published last year. Theres also a perception that intolerance is winning.

Shair-Rosenfield suggested that while public support for groups such as the FPI fluctuates, it is a little concerning to see candidates who are willing to make deals with hardliners.

Both academics said the race is close, a perception borne out by a survey conducted between March 31 and April 5 by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC). It puts Baswedan as the front-runner, based on 47.9 percent of the respondents saying they would vote for him. Purnama stood at 46.9 percent, and the survey noted that 5.2 percent of voters remained undecided.

The gap between them is too narrow, so we cannot say that Anies [Baswedan] is leading, SMRC researcher Deni Irfani said on Wednesday.

According to the survey, 32.4 percent of Baswedans voter base cited similar religion as the reason they would vote for him. More than 40 percent of Purnamas base credited his track record in governing the city as the factor that earned their votes.

Local media have reported the Jakarta Military Command, the Jakarta police and the Jakarta Public Order Agency will have as many as 64,000 officers deployed for Wednesday's vote.

"Each polling station will be guarded by a police officer and an army officer," and other personnel will be stationed throughout the capital, the military commander of Jakarta, Major General Jaswandi, has told reporters.

This report originated from VOA's Indonesian Service.
Millions of Orthodox Christians around the world have celebrated Easter in overnight services and with "holy fire'' from Jerusalem, commemorating the day followers believe that Jesus was resurrected nearly 2,000 years ago.



This year the Orthodox churches celebrate Easter on the same Sunday that Roman Catholics and Protestants mark the holy festival. The Western Christian church follows the Gregorian calendar, while the Eastern Orthodox uses the older Julian calendar and the two Easters are often weeks apart.



Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christian faithful, delivered a message of peace during the midnight service at the Patriarchate in Istanbul.



"Our faith is alive, because it is based on the event of the resurrection of Christ,'' Bartholomew said.



In his official Easter message issued earlier in the week, Bartholomew urged strong faith in the face of the world's tribulations.



"This message  of the victory of life over death, of the triumph of the joyful light of the [Easter] candle over the darkness of disorder and dissolution  is announced to the whole world from the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the invitation to experience the unwaning light of the resurrection,'' his message said.



In predominantly Orthodox Romania, Patriarch Daniel urged Christians to bring joy to "orphans, the sick, the elderly the poor ... and the lonely."



Late Saturday, Orthodox clerics transported the holy flame from Jerusalem by plane and it was then flown to other churches around the country. According to tradition the flame appears each year at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and is taken to other Orthodox countries.



In Russia, where Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion, President Vladimir Putin along with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana attended midnight Mass at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.



The cathedral is a potent symbol of the revival of observant Christianity in Russia after the fall of the officially atheist Soviet Union. It is a reconstruction of the cathedral that was destroyed by explosion under dictator Josef Stalin.



In Serbia, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, held a liturgy in Belgrade's St. Sava Temple which outgoing president Tomislav Nikolic attended.



Irinej said in his Easter message that "with great sadness and pain in our hearts, we must note that today's world is not following the path of resurrection but the road of death and hopelessness." He also lamented the falling birth rate in Serbia as "a reason to cry and weep, but also an alarm."



Irinej evoked Kosovo, Serbia's former province which declared independence in 2008. Hundreds of medieval Orthodox churches and monasteries are located there.



Orthodoxy is also predominant in Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova.
North Korea conducted a failed missile test Sunday in defiance of increased U.S. warnings that there would be serious consequences for such provocative actions, including a possible military response.

A White House foreign policy adviser said the type of missile that North Korea tried to fire Sunday was medium-range and it exploded 4-5 seconds after it was launched near the countrys submarine base in Sinpo in South Hamgyong Province on the east coast of the country.



According to the adviser, who is traveling with Vice President Mike Pence, the U.S. had good intelligence before and after the launch. No planned response is expected from the Trump administration because there was no need for the U.S. to reinforce the failure.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that had it been a nuclear test, other actions would have been taken by the U.S.



U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was briefed on the failed launch and had been in touch with President Donald Trump, White House aides said.

Pence arrived in Seoul Sunday to begin a 10-day trip to Asia. The vice president was joined by his wife and two adult daughters. After laying a wreath at the Seoul National Cemetery, he was expected to join U.S. and South Korean troops for Easter church services and a dinner later in the day.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis released a statement following the missile test saying, The president and his military team are aware of North Koreas most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment.

Watch: Key Dates in North Korea's Nuclear and Missile Program

Sundays attempted missile launch was reportedly not an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that Trump warned would not be allowed to happen, because it would move North Korea closer to acquiring a long-range nuclear ballistic missile capability that could directly threaten U.S. national security.

The failed test occurred as a U.S. naval strike force moves into the region in a show of force, and amid increasingly tough warnings from the Trump administration that the U.S. is prepared to take increased measures against North Korea that include possible military action.

On Saturday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a massive military parade that prominently displayed what appeared to be new long-range and submarine-based missiles. The parade was part of a celebration of the April 15 birthday of its founding leader, the late Kim Il Sung, the countrys most important holiday known as the Day of the Sun.

North Korea, however, did not go through with a nuclear test Saturday that many expected, based on reports of recent activity at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site indicating a test was imminent.

Pence visit



Vice President Pence and his wife Karen arrived in Seoul Sunday to begin a 10-day trip to Asia. After placing a wreath at the Seoul National Cemetery, he joined U.S. and South Korean troops for Easter Sunday church services and a dinner.

At the fellowship dinner, Pence said North Korea's "provocation" is a reminder of the risks U.S. and South Korean service members face every day "in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world.''

On Monday Pence will meet with acting South Korean President Hwang Kyo-ahn to reinforce the U.S. commitment to its ally in the face of rising tensions over the Norths weapons programs, according to his aides.

South Koreas Foreign Ministry issued a statement Sunday saying, North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterdays military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world.

The leaders Pence are to meet with in Seoul, however, will soon be out of office; South Korea is in the middle of a presidential campaign because of the recent impeachment of conservative President Park Geun-hye. Park was forced from office for her alleged involvement in a multimillion dollar corruption and bribery scandal. She currently sits in prison as prosecutors pursue a possible criminal indictment. The presidential election is scheduled for May 9.

In a recent presidential debate, all the top party candidates, representing both liberal and conservative views, spoke out against the U.S. taking unilateral military action against North Korea. And the two leading candidates, Moon Jae-in with the Democratic Party and Ahn Cheol-soo with the Peoples Party, both support direct dialogue with North Korea to reduce tensions, positions that may put them in opposition to U.S. policy.

Submarine-based missiles

Sundays failed missile test occurred near the naval base in Sinpo where North Korea is reportedly developing a sea-based nuclear deterrent.

Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile from the same region earlier this month ahead of a summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, where they discussed the North Korean nuclear threat.

U.S. officials said that missile appeared to be a liquid-fueled, extended-range Scud missile that flew about 60 km, only a fraction of its range, before spinning out of control.

Analysts say North Korea is years away from developing a submarine launch based missile capability (SLBM), but with each test it moves one step closer. From a strategic standpoint a credible North Korean SLBM capability could nullify the advantage of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system being deployed in South Korea. Analysts say submarines can be positioned outside of the THAAD radar field of vision that is forward looking toward the North.

China opposes THAAD as a threat to its own security, but also has spoken out against North Koreas missile and nuclear tests and has supported U.N. sanctions. China on Friday again called for talks to defuse the crisis.

Youmi Kim and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Pakistani authorities arrested a woman on Saturday on suspicion of planning to target Christian gatherings on Easter Eve in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province.

Punjabs Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said Noreen Laghari, a second year student at Pakistan's Liaquat University of Medical Science, returned from Syria with the intent of targeting minority Christians in Pakistan.



Laghari had left her home in Pakistan for college in early February of this year and never returned home.



On Saturday, the countrys security forces raided a suspected location in Lahore and rounded up four suspected Islamic State militants, including Laghari.



I think the girl [Laghari] established contacts with them [IS militants] through social media. She was apparently influenced by IS propaganda and then left her home, Rana Sanaullah, Provincial Law Minister in Punjab told VOAs Urdu service.



Sanaullah added that Laghari had traveled to Syria to join IS before returning to Pakistan. She has reportedly informed her family through social media that she had reached the Land of Caliphate, a reference to Islamic State-controlled territory in Iraq and Syria.



According to a statement released by Punjabs Counter Terrorism Department, Laghari joined the Islamic State in Syria and returned with an agenda.



Noreen came back to Pakistan six days ago after spending two months in Syria, the CTD statement read, according to BBC.

She apparently received military training in Syria.



Lagharis family, however, rejected allegations against her and charged that Lagharis case is a criminal, not a terrorist case. The family said that she had been kidnapped by unknown people in early February.



She was a passive and calm person and was even afraid of cockroaches, her brother Afzal Laghari told VOA.



Her father Abdul Jabbar Laghari, a professor at Sindh University, said that his daughters views were not radical to have led her to join a militant group.



Islamic State has made inroads in the mountain regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan recently and brands itself as the Islamic State of Khorasan, a title that distinguishes the militant group in the region from its main branch in Iraq and Syria.



In 2016, Aftab Sultan, Pakistans Intelligence Bureau Chief, warned that IS was an emerging threat in the country and that hundreds of fighters linked to local banned religious groups had left for Syria to join IS ranks there.



According to analysts, IS recruiters have been actively attempting to lure educated Pakistani youth, including women, to join the terror group.



IS has been attracting students, educated individuals and youths from well-off families in Pakistan, security analyst Ikram Sehgal told VOA. The challenge is how to present a counter-argument to stop the expansion of the IS ideology in the country.



Last year, authorities in the southern port city of Karachi discovered a network of women raising funds for Islamic State.



Pakistan has come under frequent criticism from U.S. officials over its inability to curb homegrown militancy and extremism in the county.



In its defense, Pakistan says the government is determined to root out extremism from the country and has done a lot to address the issue of terrorism and extremism in the country.



VOAs Muhammad Jalil Ahtar contributed to this report from Islamabad.
Voters in Turkey went to the polls Sunday to decide in a historic referendum whether to approve reforms that would concentrate power in the hands of the president.



If the yes vote prevails, the 18 constitutional changes will convert Turkeys system of government from parliamentary to presidential, abolish the office of the prime minister and grant extensive executive powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.



Erdogan, who called the referendum and has championed the yes campaign, says the proposed Turkish style presidential system will ensure the country no longer risks having weak governments, and insists the stability will lead to a long period of prosperity. But opponents fear the changes will lead to autocratic one-man rule, ensuring that Erdogan, who has been accused of repressing rights and freedoms, could govern until 2029 with few checks and balances.



Polls in eastern Turkey opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) and were to close at 4 p.m. (1300 GMT), while those in the more populous west were opening and closing an hour later. More than 55 million people in this country of about 80 million are registered to vote.

Divisive campaign



A yes vote will grant the president the power to appoint ministers and senior government officials, appoint half the members in Turkeys highest judicial body, issue decrees and declare states of emergency. It sets a limit of two five-year terms for presidents. The changes would come into effect with the next general elections, scheduled for 2019.



The campaign has been highly divisive and heavily one-sided, with the yes side dominating the airwaves and billboards across the country. Supporters of the no vote have complained of an atmosphere of intimidation, with the main opposition party recording more than 100 incidents of obstruction to its campaign efforts, including beatings, detentions and threats.





Coup attempt, crackdown

The vote also comes at a time when Turkey has been buffeted by problems. Erdogan survived a coup attempt last July, which he has blamed on his former ally and current nemesis Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric living in the United States. A state of emergency imposed in the coup aftermath remains in effect. A widespread government crackdown has targeted followers of Gulen and other government opponents, branding them terrorists.



Roughly 100,000 people, including judges, teachers, academics, doctors, journalists and members of the military and police forces, have lost their jobs, and more than 40,000 have been arrested. Hundreds of media outlets and nongovernmental organizations have been shut down.



Turkey has also suffered renewed violence between Kurdish militants and security forces in the countrys volatile southeast, as well as a string of bombings, some attributed to the Islamic State group, which is active across the border in Syria. The war in Syria led to some 3 million refugees crossing the border into Turkey. Turkey has sent troops into Syria to help opposition Syrian forces clear a border area from the threat posed by Islamic State militants.

Meanwhile, Turkeys relations with Europe have been increasingly tense, particularly after Erdogan branded Germany and the Netherlands as Nazis for not allowing Turkish ministers to campaign for the yes vote among expatriate Turks.

Erdogan, who first came to power in 2003 as prime minister and served in that role until becoming Turkeys first directly elected president in 2014, has long sought to expand the powers of the president. The result of Sundays referendum will determine Turkeys long-term political future and will likely have lasting effects on its relations with the European Union and the world.


The United States is calling on regional countries, including Russia and Pakistan, not to support the Taliban in their bid to perpetuate the very long war in Afghanistan.

U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster made the remarks Sunday after talks with Afghan leaders on his first trip to Kabul since taking office.

Afghan officials said the discussions focused on bilateral security matters, fighting regional terrorism and strengthening the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, or ANDSF.

McMaster told local TOLOnews that Taliban insurgents who refuse to engage in a government-led peace and reconciliation process must be defeated on the battlefield. He said the United States is committed to strengthen Afghan forces to enable them to achieve that objective.

He would not say whether President Donald Trump will send more troops to Afghanistan once his administration concludes its review of the Afghan policy.

McMasters visit follows calls by U.S. military commanders for adding a few thousand more troops to the roughly 8,400 American troops already in Afghanistan.

No one should support the Taliban. No one should support armed resistance against the Afghan government and the Afghan people, the adviser said when asked to comment on Russias overt contacts with the Taliban.

What we would like is all countries in the region to play a productive role, a positive role and to help the Afghan people rather than to try to perpetuate this very long conflict, he said.

McMaster said, without elaborating, that those who are perpetuating and helping cause the Afghan violence ought to be exposed and held accountable.

Russia last week hosted a new round of multi-nation talks on security and peace prospects for Afghanistan. Pakistan, China, Iran, India, Afghanistan and five former Soviet Central Asian states were among the participants. The meeting ended with Moscow offering to host peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, though the insurgent group had already dismissed the conference as an event motivated by the political agendas of the organizers.

The American adviser on Monday will travel to neighboring Pakistan, which is accused of harboring Taliban sanctuaries on its soil and covertly supporting the insurgents. He emphasized the need for Islamabad to pursue its interests in Afghanistan through diplomacy and not through violence.

As all of us have hoped for many many years, we have hoped that Pakistani leaders will understand that it is in their interest to go after these groups less selectively than they have in the past, and the best way to pursue their interests in Afghanistan and elsewhere is through diplomacy, not through the use of proxies that engage in violence, McMaster said.

Responding to Thursdays massive bomb attack by the U.S. military against the stronghold of Islamic State in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, McMaster said the terrorist group threatens all civilized people and must be defeated.

Well, it is not just the bomb but it is really what our soldiers are doing every day alongside courageous Afghan soldiers, fighting Daesh, ensuring that these people who victimized women, who shoot people in hospital beds, we cannot tolerate the existence of that kind of an organization, he said.
Turkey's ruling party has claimed victory in a referendum granting broad new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, authorities announced late Sunday.

With 99 percent of the ballots counted, official Turkish media placed the "yes" vote at more than 51 percent, and the "no" vote at just under 49 percent. The head of Turkey's electoral board later confirmed those results and said official tallies would be released within the next 12 days.

Erdogan told cheering supporters outside his official residence in Istanbul that the "yes" camp had secured 25 million votes - 1.3 million more than those cast by opponents of the sweeping changes. He also said the referendum had ended Turkey's decades-long history of military intervention in government.

"For the first time in the history of the republic, we are changing our ruling system through civil politics," he said in a brief address.

The yes vote means the Turkish parliament will be largely sidelined. The prime minister and Cabinet will be abolished, and ministers will be directly appointed by the president and accountable to him. The president also will set the budget.

Watch: Erdogan wins vote but result is disputed



The constitutional amendments also end the official neutrality of the president, allowing him to lead a political party. The president will have the power to dissolve parliament and declare a state of emergency, while enjoying enhanced powers to appoint judges to the high court and constitutional court.

The referendum has divided the nation, with both supporters and opponents arguing that the future of the country is at stake.I voted no, said one man in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul, where voting was brisk earlier Sunday. There is no such constitution in the world like the one they present to us. It is not republic, it is not democracy, it is nothing. All the power is united in one person. Let's assume this president is a good person, but what about the next one? Anyone can use this power in a very bad way.

The Istanbul Kadikoy district is a traditional stronghold of opponents of Erdogan, who has been in the forefront of campaigning for the change. I voted for our future. I don't want a one-man regime, another woman said. Whether it is functioning well or not, we at least have a separate legislative, judiciary and executive powers. I want this system to continue.

But Erdogan supporters were enthusiastic about the proposed constitutional changes. I voted yes, yes! For the benefit to my country, one voter said.

Erdogan insists the reforms will create a fast and efficient system of governance that will allow Turkey to face the challenges of fighting terror and the slowing economy.

Erdogan cast his vote late in the morning amid heavy security, including police snipers on surrounding buildings in Istanbuls Uskudar district. Speaking to reporters, he said he expected a high turnout in support of the referendum. "I believe that our people will decide for a faster development and even a leap forward. I believe that my people will walk toward the future by making their decision, he said.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party and leader of the No campaign, stressed the importance of the vote in remarks to supporters and TV cameramen. We are voting for Turkeys destiny, he declared.

Critics argue the constitutional reforms would usher in an elected dictatorship.



A one-man regime, is how Kemal Klcdaroglu , leader of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party, described the proposed changes at a rally Saturday in the capital, Ankara, saying the country was in danger. We are putting 80 million [people] on a bus with no brakes," he added.

The referendum campaign has added to the deep polarization already plaguing Turkey. Concerns have been expressed that division could spill over into violence after the result. Ahead of the vote, both Erdogan and Klcdaroglu called on their supporters to respect the result and their opponents.

The narrow margin of victory was expected to attract scrutiny to the conduct of the balloting. Turkey has a long tradition of fair voting, but 'no' campaigners had voiced concern that some of their voting observers have been excluded by authorities.

The OSCE, which is monitoring the vote, said it was closely following up those concerns. In its interim report last week it expressed concerns over reports of intimidation of the 'no' campaigners and the lack of fair access to the media.
By Press Trust of India: Chennai, Apr 16 (PTI) The O Panneerselvam-led AIADMK faction today rejected the call by the rival groups deputy chief TTV Dhinakaran to the rebels to return to the "parent party", saying he was "persona non-grata" (person not appreciated) for them.

Leaders in the Puratchi Thalaivi Amma camp said such a possibility does not exist as long as Dhinakaran, deputy general secretary of AIADMK Amma, continued to helm the faction.

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"He (Dhinakaran) is a person who is not in the party and that is the truth," a top leader, close to former chief minister Panneerselvam, said.

Dhinakaran was readmitted into the party and appointed deputy general secretary by its general secretary and his aunt VK Sasikala on February 15, hours before she left for surrendering in a Bengaluru court to serve the jail term in the disproportionate assets case.

The Panneerselvam camp, which has been questioning Dhinakarans locus standi to helm the party, also made it one of the highlights of its campaign in the April 12 RK Nagar bypoll, which was cancelled by the Election Commission over alleged use of money power.

Dhinakaran was the candidate of AIADMK Amma in the bypoll, which was necessitated by the demise of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

The rebel camp has refused to accept his leadership, saying he was expelled from the party in 2011 by Jayalalithaa for "anti-party" activities and the expulsion remained in force till her death.

On the possibility of both the factions coming together, a leader of the Panneerselvam camp told PTI, "What can I say about something that is not going to happen."

He ruled out any talk or exchange of feelers between the camps.

Another senior leader too ruled out any patch-up formula with Dhinakaran being a part of it. "Good things should happen with our leader Panneerselvam at the helm," he said.

Replying to a question, he said the "good thing" will be the "unification" of the party "without that family (Sasikala and her extended family, including Dhinakaran)".

For the past two days, Dhinakaran has been inviting the rebel camp members to come back to the parent party.

"We are prepared to welcome back those who left the parent party if they realise their mistake," he had said in an obvious reference to Panneerselvam and his followers.

On April 14, Dhinakran had also rubbished claims that some ministers had revolted against him.

Meanwhile, former MLA and Coimbatore Mayor T Malaravan today joined the Panneerselvam camp, quitting the Peravai led by Jayalalithaas niece Deepa. PTI VGN VS APR RC

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How nice of the White Houses resident Easter Bunny to take a few moments from his Easter Sunday to apologize  you all got your wish this week, didnt ya?  for his insensitive and dumb comments about Hitler and chemical weapons earlier this week. No matter! Spicey has a special Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dreidel presentation with some Veggietales to tell the story of Passover to make up for it, and, of course, do everything within his power to not-say some more inappropriate things about Jewish people. It goes as smoothly as you would expect.


The college search for any Massachusetts teen is bound to be an annoying process to begin with, but when you inject a double dosage of Jimmy Fallon and Rachel Dratchs wicked rowdy Sully and Denise, Harvard just doesnt stand a chance. Flash-forward a few years and these Boston Teens are now bona fide Boston adults with a smart daughter intent on joining the Crimson  she, unlike her parents, didnt eat radiator paint chips while growing up  but her parentals arent too sure about its worthiness. Theres no in-house Dunkin Donuts and a dorm called Hurlbut, for starters.


Jeff Varner. Photo: CBS

Survivor: Game Changers contestant Jeff Varner is facing real-life consequences after outing fellow contestant Zeke Smith as transgender during last weeks episode. Varner told his local Greensboro, North Carolina, newspaper News & Record that he has been fired from his job as a real-estate agent due to the backlash, with his employers telling him that hes in the middle of a news story that we dont want anything to do with. Varner, who was voted off Survivor soon after his attack on Smith, has faced fierce criticism since the episode aired. Varner offered his deepest, most heart-felt apologies to Smith, and says he has entered therapy as a result of his behavior.
The road show will begin from the Surat airport and continue till the Circuit House where the Prime Minister will spend the night.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday arrived on a two-day visit to Gujarat, to be welcomed by a unique road show where an 11-km saree will list the BJP's achievements.

The road show will begin from the Surat airport and continue till the Circuit House where the Prime Minister will spend the night.

The saree will cover the entire stretch of the road show depicting schemes launched by the Modi government. A convoy of motorcycle-borne girls will accompany Modi's cavalcade.

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Here are the live updates:

PM Modi reaches Circuit House

People switch on their mobile flashlights as PM Modi proceeds with his roadshow in Surat

PM Modi's road show continues in Surat, Gujarat; a bikers rally escorting him to the circuit house

Over 10,000 bikers are rallying for PM Narendra Modi in Surat's mega roadshow

PM Narendra Modi's roadshow begins

PM Modi arrives in Surat

Flower petals showered at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statue in Surat ahead of his arrival Gujarat: Flower petals showered at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statue in Surat ahead of his arrival. pic.twitter.com/joYS9VevF4; ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow in Surat, Gujarat: A sand art for Swachh Bharat at Parle Point. pic.twitter.com/7IWefxR60s; ANI (@ANI_news) April 16, 2017

People gather on Surat roads ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow in the city

Also read: Narendra Modi writes about freedom fighters: Who they are and why you should know about them

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Actress Carole Cook long has been a bragging point for Baylor University even if the former Paul Baker student claims she left more with Baylor's approval than blessing at the time.

She's in the Del Shores comedy "A Very Sordid Wedding," which screens at 7 p.m. Monday at the Waco Hippodrome, and even though it's small part as Hortense, a hyper-religious chairman of the anti-gay Anti-Equality Revival, she's likely the one you remember.

I chatted with Carole recently by phone from her West Hollywood, Calif., home  OK, she chatted and I listened  but ran out of time and space to include the interview in the story that ran in Friday's Tribune-Herald. As my mother would say, and you can see here, she's a live wire.

She came to the filming of "A Very Sordid Wedding," shot in Winnepeg, Canada, and Dallas, after working on her one-woman show "I'm Still Here" and enjoyed the experience. "They were all crazy, but wonderful and extremely professional, but we never lost sight of the fun involved," she said.

Shores set "Sordid Lives" and "A Very Sordid Wedding" in Winters, Texas, where he was born, and that was a selling point for Cook. "I come from Abilene, darling, and you don't kid about that," she said.

She found Shores and producer-actor Emerson Collins, gay and Baylor graduates, kindred souls - appreciative of their time and education there, but constrained by its official religiosity and student code of conduct. At the same time, the actress was named a Baylor Distinguished Alumna in 1995. "I was a rebel. I left Baylor under what we called a dark cloud. Now they call me eccentric," she laughed.

For her role as Hortense  and I'm guessing there's a double entendre in that name  Cook channelled her straitlaced grandmother for inspiration. "I just recalled my childhood. I had my grandmother to think of," she said. "It was really fun to play a villain."

She admits the humor and church-bashing that's in the comedy may step on righteous toes in too-tight shoes, but points out it's all in fun. "That whole movie is fun. It's a sendup. It's outrageous," she said.

Cook came to Baylor as Mildred Frances Cook  friends know her as Cookie  but she adopted Carole as a stage name on the advice of Hollywood actress Lucille Ball, who took the young Texan under her wing. Ball suggested Carole, after actress Carole Lombard, would make more of an impression on audiences and talent scouts than Mildred.

Carole Cook did prove memorable in a long career on stage and before the cameras, but much more likely due to the talent and personality under the name. That name is in the credits for more than a dozen television series from the 1960s to 1990s, more than a half dozen films and many stage roles, including the original productions of "42nd Street" and "Romantic Comedy."

She followed Carol Channing as the flamboyant Dolly Levi in the Broadway production of "Hello Dolly!" and finds that a favorite role to this day. "Wearing a big red dress, coming down the stairs with 40 boys looking at you  you can't beat that," she said.

"Mame," however, might tie that, for reasons she says are obvious. "I've turned into Auntie Mame, a larger-than-life woman  and fun," she said with relish.

She and her actor husband of 53 years, Tom Troupe, are working on plans to go to New York with her show "Dress Up," with its closing Stephen Sondheim song from "Follies," "I'm Still Here," that Cook has performed to standing ovations at revues and AIDS/HIV support fundraisers.

The self-professed Baylor rebel is certainly still here. "I know to some I'm a rebel or an eccentric, but with time, darling, it heals all wounds," she explained.
By India Today Web Desk: Celebrated Yoga guru Baba Ramdev's brainchild Patanjali Ayurveda Limited has now set foot in culinary domain with a restaurant in Chandigarh after taking the retail sector by storm with Patanjali products.

According to reports, Patanjali's first restaurant in Chandigarh called Postik (nutritious) in Hotel Indiano located at Kalghider Encalve, Baltana, Zirakpur has opened its doors to customers .

So, Patanjali has opened new POSTIK Restaurant. Wonder if it serves Non-Veg/Alcohol. ?? pic.twitter.com/uHlDnAd21d- Saral (@SaralPatel007) April 14, 2017

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According to an Indian Express report, the walls of the restaurant are adorned with photographs of Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna, the co-founder of Patanjali Ayurveda Limited. Apart from the food items listed, the menu cards also have health tips.

Patanjali Ayurved Limited has so far not denied or confirmed the story.

The official spokesperson of the FMCG company tweeted that they have only received a proposal in this regard and were considering it.

A proposal for restaurant is received from Chandigarh and senior management of #Patanjali is considering it @Ach_Balkrishna @yogrishiramdev; tijarawala sk (@tijarawala) April 17, 2017

Also read: #BoycottSnapchat: Enraged Indians are uninstalling Snapdeal mistaking it for Snapchat

Also read: Can being admin of Facebook pages, WhatsApp groups land you in jail in Bihar?

Watch: When Baba Ramdev defeated Ranveer Singh in a push-up battle

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When Andre Santiago arrives for work at Georges Restaurant on Hewitt Drive, he immediately becomes the center of attention.

Other staffers give him a high-five or herald his entry into the establishment with a robust greeting. Santiago, 27, grins and waves and then eagerly awaits his instructions.

I love him, and Im glad they hired him. I love his personality, wait staffer Ashley Acuna said, smiling broadly.

Acuna, 21, said she and Andre occasionally boogie down when there is a lull in the action at one of the most popular restaurants in Waco, known for its diverse menu that includes chicken-fried steak and Big O goblets of beer, as well as a lively atmosphere.

Andre was born with Down syndrome, a genetic disorder that can cause developmental and intellectual delays. He cant read or write, but he has an incredible memory and an innocent charm that rubs off on customers and his fellow employees.

Hes just so sweet, greets every guest that walks in the restaurant. He usually has this huge grin on his face when he holds the door open, said Carrie Bender, 29.

Kyle Citrano, a managing partner at Georges, finds himself watching in amazement as Andre interacts with his colleagues.

Hes brought a general happiness to the staff, Citrano said. Hes excited to work, and its good for everybody to see someone who loves having the opportunity to find fulfillment.

Andre said he has enjoyed the job, and his favorite task is letting people in and out of the restaurant.

Besides greeting customers, Andre works in the salad preparation area, rolls silverware and assists in the kitchen with tasks that include filling containers with sauces, Citrano said. He sometimes delivers food to tables with supervision.

He does what he feels comfortable doing and enjoys doing, he said. The staff has been wonderful, teaching him different tasks and giving him the opportunity to know what works for him.

Andre lives with his aunt and uncle, Angela and Rick Gutierrez, who took custody of him eight years ago as a solution to problems in his immediate family, said Angela Gutierrez, 42, a nurse in the surgery department of Providence Health Center.

Angela Gutierrez said Andre attended La Vega and Waco schools but had never mentioned working anywhere until the past few months.

We would eat at Georges frequently, and on one occasion Andre said he wanted to work there, she said. A couple of other times we just passed by the place, and again he said he wanted to work there. I think it was the atmosphere created by the people.

Kevin Chirafis, also a Georges managing partner, said he became aware of Andres desire to work in the restaurant. He encouraged his family to assist him in completing an application.

The next thing they knew, Andre was being fitted for a Georges T-shirt that he wears while working Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

He started there on March 28, Angela Gutierrez said.

1st paycheck

He received his first paycheck last week. It totaled about $130 after taxes and created quite a stir in the household.

But I think he would work for nothing, she said. When he gets home after working a shift, and gets his second wind, he gets excited and starts hopping around as if hes just been to a theme park. . . . A child like him cant get up and do what he wants to do. He has to follow the lead of someone else. With this job, he has gained a certain degree of independence, and hes euphoric.

Andre said he plans to spend his earnings on movies and CDs, prompting his aunt to say music is his inspiration.

Asked if he ever gets tired at work, Andre responded with an emphatic No.

Adding to the excitement of the job is the reaction on Facebook to posts about Andres exploits at Georges, Angela Gutierrez said.

He gets about 300 responses every single time. People seem to enjoy his genuine love of life, she said. If we saw the world as he did, I think it would be a happier place. He doesnt carry burdens like we do. Its not that he doesnt have them. He just doesnt carry them. I seriously think God has given him the purest peace in life. That extra chromosome is like a super-power.

Down syndrome is a result of a full or partial extra copy of Chromosome 21, according to the National Down Syndrome Society website.

Jennifer Deaton, 52, said she and her husband have known the Gutierrez family about eight years. They got acquainted at the families daughters softball games .

Weve been to Georges once since Andre was employed and we made sure to go on a Wednesday night, knowing he would be there, Deaton said. He came out to our table and visited with us a little, but you could tell he was anxious to get back to work.

Deaton praised Citrano for hiring Andre and giving him an equal opportunity to learn responsibility, something he can plug into other aspects of his life and in his service to others.

Angela Gutierrez said Andre shows flashes of intelligence in many ways. He manages his diabetes and is keenly aware of when his body is telling him he needs to check his blood sugar.

He attends activities sponsored by Friends for Life and loves Christian music, dance music, Disney movies and Beyonce.

Citrano knows Andre benefits from his work at Georges but said other employees also are learning life lessons.

His presence teaches the staff to be a little more patient, more understanding and to be good listeners, for sure, Citrano said.

He said the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity he pledged at Texas Christian University worked with children between 6 months and 3 years old who had Down syndrome. He learned a lot about disabilities.

I eliminated the R word from my vocabulary, he said. People take the word retarded, throw it around and dont realize the impact it has. You see someone like Andre come around, and you realize he has a disability and not a handicap. Individuals with disabilities can do a lot more than you might expect.

A social kid

We didnt hire Andre for PR reasons. He was a giving kid we got to know, and we wanted to give him the opportunity to be normal. Some people were a little skeptical at first, didnt know how Andre or the people around him would react. But hes a social kid, funny and outgoing, so he made that part easy.

Rick Gutierrez said Andre was in awe when he watched the servers go by, and made it known he wanted to join their ranks.

He has been given a tremendous opportunity, another gift from God, Rick Gutierrez, 58, said.

Citrano said he had been hoping to add someone with a disability to his staff.

Something I always wanted to do was hire someone with a disability, but I waited for the right situation, Citrano said. Andre perfectly fits what Ive been looking for. Whether I will always have someone with a disability on the staff, I cant say. But this already has been a great experience.
Dr. Darrell Wheeler was presented with the Gold-Headed Cane Award by the McLennan County Medical Society at a March 31 banquet at the Lee Lockwood Library and Museum.

This was the 18th year the member physicians of the McLennan County Medical Society nominated and voted for one of their colleagues to receive this award. Based on a tradition that originated England in the 1600s, the qualifications of the recipient include professional standing, good citizenship and personal integrity.

The award and is a symbol of respect, truth, culture and art in the medical profession. In the United States, many cities have carried it on to honor an outstanding physician with a long history of commitment to quality medicine in their community.

Wheeler, a fifth-generation Texan who grew up in Corpus Christi, attended the University of Connecticut and then the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. He completed his residency in pediatrics and then a fellowship in neonatology, leading to his decision to approach Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center about the development of a neonatal intensive care unit.

Instrumental in the planning and design of the NICU, Wheeler ultimately signed a contract to provide 24-hour care, working as the only neonatologist in Waco for more than 20 years. He has served as medical director since it opened in 1990. Wheeler has been married to wife, Donna, for 33 years. They have three children, including a son and a daughter-in-law pursuing careers as pediatric physicians.

At the same event, state Rep. Charles Doc Anderson was honored by the McLennan County Medical Society with its Patient Protection Award for his work in the Legislature and his dedication to patients and the practice of medicine.

Anderson is serving his seventh term in the Texas House.
Though its no easy task to orchestrate, McLennan Community College hosting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in September will benefit local students and encourage civic discussion, MCC President Johnette McKown said.

Thomas, who President George H.W. Bush nominated to the Supreme Court in 1991, will join former Baylor University President Ken Starr and two MCC government professors for a public conversation Sept. 7 at The Highlands Gym.

This is really the largest event weve ever dealt with, McKown said.

Tickets are free, and the event is open to the public. About 2,200 tickets will be available starting Aug. 1 and are expected to be claimed within hours.

Over coffee with McKown shortly after his removal as Baylors president in May, Starr and his wife, Alice, suggested an event with Thomas at MCC.

I remember the minute he and I talked about it, and Im thinking, Wow,  McKown said.

Starr said he met Thomas during President Ronald Reagans administration, when Starr was chief of staff to Attorney General William Smith and Thomas was chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Their paths often crossed in Washington, D.C., legal circles, mostly in social settings, Starr said.

Whole lot of fun

Hes a whole lot of fun, an enormous sense of the joy of living, Starr said. Hes enormous fun to be around.

At MCC, Thomas will sign copies of his 2007 book, My Grandfathers Son, in which he writes of growing up in rural Georgia and being raised by his grandparents. Thomas also recounts his confirmation hearing, a subject of controversy because of a former staffers allegations of sexual harassment, which Thomas vehemently denied.

Thomas was confirmed by the Senate with a 52-48 vote. Considered a conservative member of the countrys highest court, Thomas rarely speaks from the bench. He broke a 10-year streak of not asking questions during oral arguments shortly after Justice Antonin Scalias death.

I was very inspired by his autobiography from a few years ago, Starr said. The book is a great American story, and I think his story is one that will appeal to the entire community: That with hard work and determination, very good things can happen.

MCC will pay for Thomas travel, McKown said, and the U.S. Marshals Service will provide security. She said donor contributions have also helped with event planning.

Professors Ashley Cruseturner and Andi Ramon will join and assist in the conversation with Thomas and Starr, and audience members can submit questions.

The faculty who were involved in the initial planning were very supportive of our ensuring that this happened, McKown said.

Starr, who had a Supreme Court office while he was U.S. solicitor general from 1989 to 1993, has served as an MCC guest lecturer. This spring he assisted in a Washington, D.C., trip for a Presidential Scholars-Honors College class. The students entered the Supreme Court, Thomas chambers and other locations not readily available to the public, McKown said.

Thomas will participate in an hourlong conversation with students before the 7:30 p.m. event at MCC, which McKown expects will be a life-changing experience for them.

Most every decision I make is in terms of, How is it a positive impact on our students?  she said. Thats really where I focus.
A federal judge has extended a stay until Sept. 1 in the civil rights lawsuits filed by bikers arrested but not indicted in the Twin Peaks shootout until.

However, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks warned McLennan County and city of Waco officials that after that, he would need more than their assurances that cases against the unindicted bikers remain under investigation to convince him to keep the stay in place.

Sparks, of Austin, stayed proceedings in the Twin Peaks civil cases in August, saying the criminal prosecutions of the 155 bikers indicted in the cases took precedent over the civil lawsuits.

Attorneys for those bikers who were arrested but not indicted asked Sparks to lift the stay in their cases, but the judge, in a recent ruling, left the stay in place until at least Sept. 1.

The lawsuits name as defendants former Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman, Waco police Detective Manuel Chavez, McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, the city of Waco and McLennan County.

The bikers claim their civil rights were violated when city and county officials decided to arrest 177 bikers on identical charges and place them under $1 million bonds after the May 17, 2015, shootout in which nine bikers died and dozens were injured.

Im disappointed that Reyna and Stroman continue to hide behind the unsubstantiated claim that even those who have not been indicted are still under investigation,  Dallas attorney Don Tittle said. Not only have they agreed to drop all bond conditions for many of these individuals, many of their lawyers have been told directly that there is little to no chance that their client will be indicted. Regardless, come Sept. 1 well be ready to start putting some people under oath.

Tittle has filed suits on behalf of 31 bikers. Of those, only seven are indicted. Other civil rights lawsuits are expected to be filed before the statute of limitations expires on May 17.

No biker has gone to trial in the criminal case, and several trial dates that were set have been postponed. The first criminal trial is set now for June 5, with Kyle Smith, 50, a Cossack from Kilgore, as the defendant.

Reyna did not return a phone call Friday.

Attorney Mike Dixon, whose firm represents the city of Waco, Stroman and Chavez, said Friday that we will just have to look at those unindicted cases at that time and see where they are at.

Reyna conferred with Stroman by telephone and with Stromans top assistants at the scene of the shootout before the decision was made to arrest the bikers en masse.

Waco police officials already had interviewed and identified a busload of bikers and allowed them to leave Waco before Reyna arrived and conferred with Stroman. After that, every biker with ties to the Cossacks or rival Bandidos went to jail, including some bikers who werent at Twin Peaks when the shooting started.

Sparks instructed the defendants in the case that if the plaintiffs again ask him to lift the stay in cases involving unindicted bikers, they should describe with specificity the status of its criminal investigation into plaintiffs and its expected duration.

An effort to disqualify Reyna from overseeing the prosecution of the biker cases remains pending in Wacos 10th Court of Appeals.
Axtells William Desmuke says the military was the best thing that ever happened to him. Raised in Waco, Desmuke described himself as a punk kid of 17 when he joined the U.S. Navy in 1963.

Desmuke, 71, went to San Diego, California, for approximately 11 weeks of basic training. He came home for a quick break and boarded his first ship, the USS Colahan, a destroyer used at the time to train naval reservists. Desmuke said much of the first year and a half of his service was spent taking reservists out to sea for exercises off the coast of Mexico. Afterward they would spend the weekend there.

He worked in the engine room on pumps and turbines, as well as operating the throttles before the ship, an old World War II vessel, was decommissioned. From there, he went aboard the USS Eversole, another Destroyer Class ship.

He was part of whats known as the Little Beaver Squadron, established during World War II. The Little Beaver, the mascot of Destroyer Squadron 23, was a cartoon figure popular in the comic strip series, Red Ryder, which featured an Indian character known as Little Beaver. The ships crew during WWII was said to be busy as beavers, and the name stuck, as did the mascot of Little Beaver painted by a sailor, depicting the cartoon character shooting an arrow at Japans prime minister, Tojo.

The Eversole was the ship he was deployed on for his first overseas assignment when he was 18.

Across the Pacific

The first stop was Hawaii, where they took in the sights for a couple of days. Then, it was off to Yokosuka, Japan, which turned out to be quite the excursion for Desmuke. While there, the ship needed repairs and was dry-docked for about 30 days, leaving the crew time to explore. The most memorable moment for him was when he was in the chow line and got called out because someone wanted to see him on deck. When he went up, there was his brother, who was also in the Navy.

His ship and my ship happened to be in port at the same time, Desmuke said. Of course, when youre overseas and havent seen family in a while, its always good. Desmuke and his brother visited with each other and saw the sights.

Once the Eversole was repaired, it was on to Naval Base Subic Bay in the Philippines. It was an interesting visit. A lot of people were born and raised on sampans, Desmuke said. Sampans are flat-bottomed Chinese wooden boats, usually with cabins on top. They were extremely poor, he added, saying locals would often scavenge scraps discarded from the base kitchen.

Hot times in the engine room

After a few weeks, the ship moved to Hong Kong for rest and relaxation. Desmuke said they worked six hours on and six hours off, leaving little time to accomplish much between shifts, including badly needed rest. Sailors had to shower after every shift working in the engine room, which could be as hot as 130 degrees.

From Hong Kong, the Eversole deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War, where it supported operations by conducting shore bombardments. Some of the larger ships had guns that target from 15 miles, Desmuke said. Stationed in Subic Bay, there was no real navy to fight back. Desmuke, down in the engine room, said he never really felt in danger. The thing that bothered him was the constant shaking of the ship from the guns.

The Eversole went on to the Taiwan Strait, also known as the Formosa Strait. The U.S. Navy was there to ensure China would not attack Taiwan. At times the sea was so rough, the men lashed themselves into their bunks.

Desmuke returned to the States in 1967 and left the service. He met his wife, Cynthia Crews, in Waco, and they married in June 1967.

In the late 1970s, a friend talked Desmuke into joining the reserves. He eventually applied for active duty and spent four more years in the Navy.

Desmuke started working for the VA but developed rheumatoid arthritis. From there, his health went downhill, and it was determined he had been exposed to asbestos. In 2008, he took full disability. He eventually wound up in a wheelchair.

Today, Desmuke and his wife have been married for nearly 50 years. They have one child, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Desmuke is pleased with the outcome of his service. That was the best thing that ever happened to me, he said. It woke me right up.
Kenny Lenart, age 57, of Abbott, passed away Thursday, April 13, 2017 in Hillsboro, from a sudden heart attack. A Rosary will be recited 6 p.m., Monday, at the Aderhold Funeral Home Chapel in West, with visitation to follow until 8 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 10 a.m., Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Abbott. Burial will follow at St. Mary's Cemetery in West.
RIVERTON, Wyo.  The Shoshone Business Council has filed a lawsuit over federal funds possibly being restored to the Northern Arapaho Tribe.

The Riverton Ranger reports that at the same time, the Shoshone filed a motion this seeking to join the Northern Arapaho's separate lawsuit against the federal government as a plaintiff. The Shoshone contend that that their interests are likely to be affected by any settlement in the Northern Arapaho lawsuit.

The two tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation have been feuding over administration of the reservation since the Northern Arapaho pulled out of the Joint Business Council in 2014.

Both tribes have separately applied for self-determination funds to unilaterally continue programs that had been administered through the Joint Business County.
The brand released its 'What is Sexy' list, and Priyanka Chopra is on it along with Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and others.

By India Today Web Desk: Every time we hear of an Indian, especially someone as adored at home and abroad as Priyanka Chopra, making to one of these lists, we feel this sense of pride--and it doesn't matter if it's the Forbes list or the one just released by Victoria's Secret. Many would be surprised to know that the premium brand of lingerie and womenswear also has a list of who's who, but it does, and it's all about the sexy quotient.

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Their list isn't called the 'What is Sexy' list for nothing. It's basically an annual round-up of all the people this brand considers sexy--from actors to athletes and authors! And our own PeeCee has bagged the title of 'Sexiest Red Carpet Look' in a list that includes world-renowned biggies like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Vanessa Hudgens and Mandy Moore.

Taylor Swift won the title of 'Sexiest Entertainer'. Picture courtesy: Instagram/taylorswift

Also Read: Priyanka Chopra, Lilly Singh get honest about being dark-skinned women who're conquering the world

Moore is at the top of this list with the title of 'Sexiest Actress', followed by Taylor Swift, the winner of the 'Sexiest Entertainer' title. Actor Margot Robbie from the Suicide Squad-fame has made it as the 'Forever Sexy' title-holder. And, remarkably enough, James Corden--the only man on the list--has won the title of the 'Sexiest Late Night Host'.

Lady Gaga got the title of 'Sexiest Songstress'. Picture courtesy: Instagram/ladygaga

And while all may seem perfectly hot and sexy about this list, critics haven't failed to notice something very 'toxic' about it. Apart from PeeCee, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung and Rachel Barnes, every woman on the list is white, thin and young. A Mashable report has criticised this list: "Beyond the lack of racial diversity amongst winners: there is no - repeat no - size diversity on the list, a complaint about the company's 2016 winners that was apparently ignored."

Also Read: Priyanka Chopra's futuristic Oscars look is a divine mix of sexy and elegant

Apparently last year's list had also included women with the best eyes, lips and legs--categories which have now been replaced by the sexiest Breakout Star, Snapper and Festival Style. So despite the tagline of 'Bold.Powerful.Confident', many consider this list to be biased and based on a convoluted idea of beauty, to say the least.

We are quite happy to see PeeCee getting recognition for the beauty she definitely is, but can't help wish the list she's on actually reflected a little more diversity.

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A new article on Search Engine Land says here are seven reasons why people believe in SEO myths and misinformation - and what to do when these situations arise. Some ... [read more]
"Hippie" wasn't always a derisive term.

At least, its origins weren't. It evolved from the words "hep" and "hip", each of which mean "in-the-know" or "knowledgeable".

Image from Hippie Lane: The Cookbook by Taline Gabrielian (Murdoch Books, RRP $39.99). Credit:Omid Daghighi

Although it came to be synonymous with counter-culture, free love and a lax approach to paying rent (or as Ronald Regan so charmingly put it in 1967: "For those of you who don't know what a hippie is, he's a fellow who dresses like Tarzan, has hair like Jane, and smells like Cheetah."), hippies may well have been "in the know" for many of their ideas around health are going mainstream.

"The counter-culture is always ahead of what's happening in mainstream culture," Peter Meehan, the editorial director of Lucky Peach magazine told the New York Times last week. "It's as true in any creative field as it is in food."
My mum followed in the footsteps of her own mother. She loved theatre and dance and worked as an actor and dancer from 17, touring with J.C. Williamson theatre shows including The Sentimental Bloke, My Fair Lady, Sail Away and Camelot.

Edna once chained herself to the Parliament House steps in the 1960s to protest against conscription and war. Her son Mac, my uncle, was a conscientious objector and my grandparents supported his decision to hide from authorities. She marched and was arrested  I am quite proud of that. She felt the war was unjust and was left-wing in her views.

My maternal grandmother, Edna, was a member of the Tivoli Theatre. She was adventurous in spirit. When my grandfather, Mac, went off to war for four years, it was a tough time for her. My mother, Maxine, still recalls seeing him return from war and how strange it was because she'd almost forgotten what he looked like.

Mum married Paul Beaumont, the "catch of Wollongong", and they had a child together, my half-sister Martine. They were young when they married and Mum wanted to do more in life. Paul was popular and good-looking but he played around. My grandfather told Mum to try and make it work. She said, "No way, it's over."

When they split, she got into NIDA as a single mum in her early 20s. She was an original cast member of Hair, the '70s musical. My dad, Jeffrey, was a 10 Pom and they met at a wedding in Sydney while she was doing Hair. He was very persistent. They were like two hippies who never really dropped out because they had such a good work ethic.

Mum had three children in four years. She went back to university to study teaching when we were young. My earliest memory of her is as a four-year-old, seeing her walk up the hill after catching the bus home with groceries in hands, a broken ankle and a determination to get it all done, despite her injury. She is always putting others before herself.

I remember Martine going to Germany as an exchange student when she was 16. We missed having her around. She and my other sisters, Skye and Sacha, were into ballet. But it was their baby brother, who'd only done ballet for six months, who got into the Australian Ballet School at 14. I kind of stole their thunder. That was weird.

My first kiss was with a girl at primary school. She told Sacha, who I often clashed with, that she had a crush on me and arranged for us to hang out. We were playing in her backyard and she called me over and laid one on me. I felt ambushed but I didn't complain.
Hackers have released documents and files that cybersecurity experts say indicate the US National Security Agency had accessed the SWIFT interbank messaging system, allowing it to monitor money flows among some Middle Eastern and Latin American banks.

The release on Friday included computer code that could be adapted by criminals to break into SWIFT servers and monitor messaging activity, said Shane Shook, a cyber security consultant who has helped banks investigate breaches of their SWIFT systems.

Edward Snowden leaked NSA files in 2013, but Mr Inglis said he should have tried harder to make his case without causing so much damage. Credit:AP

The documents and files were released by the Shadow Brokers, a hacking group that has previously leaked malware. Some of the records bear NSA seals, but Fairfax could not confirm their authenticity.

If genuine, such a hack could have enabled the US to covertly monitor financial transactions, researchers said.
Tel Esqof: Hundreds of Iraqi Christians gathered on Sunday in a church damaged by Islamic State north of Mosul, celebrating Easter there for the first time since 2014.

"God willing, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ will also mark the return and rising-up of the Christians in Iraq," said Kyriacos Isho, 75, who was accompanied by his 12 children and grandchildren at Mar Gewargis (St George) Chaldean Catholic church in Tel Esqof.

Christian militiamen stand guard during Easter mass in Qaraqosh, outside Mosul. Credit:AP

Tel Esqof, or Bishop's Hill in Arabic, did not sustain the same amount of damage as other Christian towns overrun by the militants three years ago in the plain of Nineveh.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters dislodged the hardline Sunni militants from Tel Esqof just a week after it had fallen, in August 2014. On Sunday, they stood guard around the church.
The STF, constituted by the Captain Amarinder govt on March 29 to combat the menace of drugs in Punjab, has arrested 1468 people by registering 1277 cases against them under NDPS Act, within a period of four weeks.

By Manjeet Sehgal: After winning a mandate on the basis of a promise that his government will wage an all-out war to wipe out the drugs scourge from the state within a month, the newly-elected Captain Amarinder Singh government has completed a month full of crackdowns on drug mafia.

The Special Task Force (STF), constituted by the Captain Amarinder government on March 29 to combat the menace of drugs in Punjab, has arrested 1468 people by registering 1277 cases against them under NDPS Act, within a period of four weeks.

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"The STF has successfully choked trans-border and interstate-border drugs supply lines. The cases and arrests are approximately double than those reported last year in the same period," STF chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu said.

The STF chief said an extensive operation to apprehend the drug lords and to confiscate their properties is still on. Sources close to the government said Captain Amarinder Singh has given a free hand to Harpreet Singh Sidhu and the STF has been armed with a multi-pronged approach and has been joined by various states police and intelligence agencies. Officers and officials of known credentials have been made a part of the STF to carry out this mammoth task.

Captain Amarinder, who is personally monitoring the progress of SIT, has directed Sidhu to launch an all-out attack on drug mafias .

Sources said the STF chief Sidhu himself has extensively toured the whole state to brief and guide the district police on the action to be taken as part of the anti-drugs campaign.

"The STF has seized 31.804 kg heroin, (including 24.4 kg seized by BSF), 1.527 kg smack, 2.272 kg charas, 81.99 kg opium (including 0.065 kg by BSF), 2812.555 kg of poppy husk, 169.223 kg of ganja, 14.855 kg of hemp, 34.911 kg of intoxicating powder, 3201 byles of injections and 336314 pills and capsules between March 16 to April 14," Harpreet Singh Sidhu said.

A government spokesperson claimed that the prices of narcotics in the state have gone up after the crackdown and has made t difficult for drug addicts to have access to narcotics.

"Hundreds of addicts have reached the rehabilitation centres in these four weeks, with the STF now working on amending its rehabilitation approach to make it even more humane," Sidhu said.

The chief minister has, however, made it clear that there would be no unnecessary harassment as part of the anti-drugs campaign, with only the real culprits of the drugs racket to be brought to book.

"Our government would follow a humanitarian approach towards the drug addicts. Children found to be on drugs would be handed over to the drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centres to detoxify them and would be brought back to the mainstream to lead a happy and normal life. Social counsellors would be involved to motivate the parents of these children to admit them for treatment in these centres, since most of them were wary of doing so on account of the social stigma attached to drugs," Captain Amarinder Singh said.

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Also read:

Punjab: Amarinder Singh government orders crackdown on drugs; 485 peddlers arrested in 10 days

Police stations, sarpanchs and medical stores part of Punjab's deep rooted drugs nexus

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Turks cast their votes in a referendum that could give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers, and will shape the nation's strained relations with the European Union. A 'Yes' vote may see Erdogan in office until at least 2029.

By Reuters: Turks cast their votes in a referendum on Sunday that could place sweeping new powers in the hands of President Tayyip Erdogan and herald the most radical change to the country's political system in its modern history.

Opinion polls have given a narrow lead for a "Yes" vote, which would replace Turkey's parliamentary democracy with an all-powerful presidency and may see Erdogan in office until at least 2029.

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The outcome will also shape Turkey's strained relations with the European Union. The NATO member state has curbed the flow of migrants - mainly refugees from wars in Syria and Iraq - into the bloc but Erdogan says he may review the deal after the vote.

Some 55 million people are eligible to vote at 167,140 polling stations which opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) in the east and 8 a.m. in the rest of Turkey. Voting ends at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT). Turkish voters abroad have already cast their ballots.

"This is our opportunity to take back control of our country," said self-employed Bayram Seker, 42, after voting "Yes" in Istanbul.

"I don't think one-man rule is such a scary thing. Turkey has been ruled in the past by one man," he said, referring to modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.DIVISIVE VOTE

The referendum has bitterly divided the nation. Erdogan and his supporters say the changes are needed to amend the current constitution, written by generals following a 1980 military coup, confront the security and political challenges Turkey faces, and avoid the fragile coalition governments of the past.

Opponents say it is a step towards greater authoritarianism in a country where some 47,000 people have been jailed pending trial and 120,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs in a crackdown following a failed coup last July, drawing criticism from Turkey's Western allies and rights groups.

Relations between Turkey and Europe hit a low during the referendum campaign when EU countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, barred Turkish ministers from holding rallies in support of the changes. Erdogan called the moves "Nazi acts" and said Turkey could reconsider ties with the European Union after many years of seeking EU membership.

"I voted 'No' because I don't want this whole country and its legislative, executive and judiciary ruled by one man. This would not make Turkey stronger or better as they claim. This would weaken our democracy," said Hamit Yaz, 34, a ship's captain, after voting in Istanbul.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim cast his vote at a school in Izmir province, near the Aegean coast in western Turkey.

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"Whatever the outcome, we will give it the highest respect. Our nation's decision is the finest decision," he told reporters after voting.

Kurdish militants overnight killed a guard in an attack on a vehicle carrying a district official from Yildirim's ruling AK Party in southeast Turkey's Van province, security sources said.

They said Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants staged the attack in Van's Muradiye district. A second of the AKP official's guards was wounded and 17 people were detained over the attack, they added.

FLAG-WAVING SUPPORTERS

On the eve of the vote, Erdogan held four separate rallies in Istanbul, urging supporters to turn out in large numbers.

"April 16 will be a turning point for Turkey's political history... Every vote you cast tomorrow will be a cornerstone of our revival," he told a crowd of flag-waving supporters.

"There are only hours left now. Call all your friends, family members, acquaintances, and head to the polls," he said.

Erdogan and the AK Party have enjoyed a disproportionate share of media coverage in the buildup to the vote, overshadowing the secular main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

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Erdogan has sought to ridicule CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, playing videos of his gaffes during rallies, and has associated the "No" vote with support for terrorism.

Kilicdaroglu has accused Erdogan of seeking a "one-man regime", and said the proposed changes would put the country in danger. "This is not about right or left... this is a national issue... We will make our choices with our children and future in mind," he said during his final rally in the capital Ankara.

Proponents of the reform argue that it would end the current "two-headed system" in which both the president and parliament are directly elected, a situation they argue could lead to deadlock. Until 2014, presidents were chosen by parliament.

The government says Turkey, faced with conflict to the south in Syria and Iraq, and a security threat from Islamic State and PKK militants, needs strong and clear leadership to combat terrorism.

The package of 18 amendments would abolish the office of prime minister and give the president the authority to draft the budget, declare a state of emergency and issue decrees overseeing ministries without parliamentary approval.

ALSO READ | Baby on board: Turkish Airlines crew help woman deliver baby at 42,000 feet

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ALSO WATCH | Twin blasts outside a stadium in Turkey

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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Apr. 14, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 14, 2017 | 09:45 PM | PADUCAH, KY

The first total solar eclipse visible in the continental United States within the lasts 38 years will be on August 21, and to prepare for the big event, West Kentucky Community and Technical College is offering a Makerspace event next week and is preparing its eclipse party.



WKCTC's Makerspace event, which is free and open to the public, will be held Wednesday, April 19 from 5-7 pm in the college's Matheson Library.



A Makerspace is place in which people with shared interests, especially in computing or technology, can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment and knowledge.



During the two-hour event, Bill Kunnecke, WKCTC's program director of the science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) initiative, will demonstrate how to use a 3-D printer to create designs in a 10-minute "3-D Printer Nuts & Bolts: Makerbot Style," presentation. Attendees will have a chance to win one of Kunnecke's 3-D creations. Kunnecke will also invite participants to experience several different levels of educational robotics using LEGO and Arduino-based systems.



Challenger Learning Center at Paducah director Mellisa Duncan will demonstrate what happens when Mentos candy is put in a Coke. She will also share information about the upcoming solar eclipse and have star maps and star rocket activities. Attendees can create roll rockets, shape shifters, space sand art, and build Lego space creatures or vehicles.



Matheson Library staff will read Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes as well as share websites and books available about an eclipse.



Pizza, inspired by Toy Story's Pizza Planet, will be served along with mini moon pies, Milky War bars, a rocket fuel drink, and perhaps cheese from the moon.



A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth.



The totality of the solar eclipse on August 21 will last just over two minutes in Paducah. WKCTC is planning its Night at Noon eclipse party on the big day. The event will be a street fair party with vendors, music, games, and a giveaway of an Xbox 1 and game. Kentucky's only astronaut Colonel Terry Wilcutt will also be at WKCTC for the eclipse party and will visit and sign autographs for the attendees. WKCTC will also provide free solar eclipse viewing glasses. For more information, visits nightatnoon.org.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Apr. 15, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 15, 2017 | 04:02 PM | PADUCAH, KY

CenterPoint Recovery Center for Men, a six-month, residential drug treatment facility, knows the importance of a social support system in early recovery. But, in a unique approach, the staff at CenterPoint decided this support can come from anywhere.



Last month, CenterPoint added Sami to the staff. She is young, has brown hair, is a good listener and full of energy. She has already proven to be a huge asset to CenterPoint staff and their clients. The fact that Sami is puppy makes her no less valuable. After rescuing Sami from the local pound, she has wagged her tail into the hearts of staff and residents alike.



Thelma Hunter, Director of CenterPoint said, Sami helps residents learn the values of service, empathy, teamwork, trust, self-expression, cooperation and communication.



Amid the difficult work of recovery, dogs like Sami can offer a nonjudgmental ear and frequent opportunities to laugh and release tension.



She continued, The natural bond that develops between people and dogs can be particularly therapeutic for clients who are treatment-resistant or who have struggled opening up or making connections in past treatment programs.



Research studies have been documenting the therapeutic effects domestic animals have on human recovery for years. When someone who suffers from an acute or chronic illness is placed with a therapy pet, they experience benefits like lower stress levels, diminishment of anxiety and depression, lower blood pressure, higher self-esteem, and even, in some cases, a reduction in severity of physical pain. Furthermore, an emotional bond usually develops between the person and the animal, a relationship that encourages healing and recovery in the individual. Recovery Centers are just now beginning to use animal assisted therapy.



Although Sami has no formal Therapy Dog training (specially trained dogs can costs thousands of dollars) her ability to connect with clients is no less effective.



Jordan Tinnell has been a CenterPoint resident for the last six weeks. He formed a bond with Sami almost the moment she walked in the door.



He said, Shes awesome! There is no better word. She has helped me a lot in my recovery. Her ability to balance out stress and take my mind off my problems has gotten me through some tough times already. Not only is Sami a great listener, she helps me relax and has even taught me some responsibility. She has to be fed, and walked and brushed every day. Before I came to CenterPoint I really didnt even know what it meant to be responsible. Sami has shown me.



Hunter said, Having Sami also adds to the home-like environment we are creating here at CenterPoint. Many of our clients were homeless or had a home life that was full of drugs and even violence. For a lot of residents, CenterPoint is the only home they have ever had.



CenterPoints animal-assisted addiction treatment therapy focuses on two main goals: building nurturing relationships and reassuming adult responsibility. Sami helps residents achieve both of these goals. On an emotional level, she enlivens, encourages, and consoles. Sami gives love and affection without judgment, responds positively to demonstrations of affection and encourages playfulness. This gives clients more confidence in opening up, showing affection, and building emotional bonds.



As Tinnell said, residents care for Sami, and therefore, she is dependent on them for her care. Being held accountable and responsible for Samis well being helps residents rebuild feelings of self-worth. By facing the manageable, yet firm responsibility of caring for Sami, clients are compelled to step outside of themselves and develop meaning and purpose through tasks all while providing love and companionship for another living creature. This develops purpose and proactivity where there was once only dependency.



Information for this article provided by J. Patrick Kerr of Four Rivers Behavioral Health
By Press Trust of India: Colombo, Apr 16 (PTI) Rescuers raced against time today to find survivors after a mountain of garbage collapsed on dozens of homes following a fire near the Sri Lankan capital two days ago, as the death toll in the tragedy climbed to 23.

Several heavy earth-moving equipment were digging through the dump in Meetotamulla area in Kolonnawa to find survivors. Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed for rescue operation.

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The army said troops of the Sri Lanka Light Infantry, Commandos, Gemunu Watch and Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment were carrying out operations at the location, the Colombo Gazette reported.

Security Forces Headquarters (West) commander Major Gen Sudantha Ranasinghe is leading the rescue operation.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harsha De Silva said the military is looking for those who might be still trapped under the dump.

He said nearly hundred people have been shifted to temporarily locations and the government will soon begin moving more people who could be under threat.

Schools and others facilities will be moved as well.

De Silva said the dumping of garbage at the site has been banned. Ironically, the government had signed agreements a few weeks ago to convert the waste into energy, he said in a post on Facebook.

Police were investigating whether the collapse of the 91 -metre open garbage pile was a natural calamity or a sabotage.

A 10-member team of geologists has been sent to the spot. Officials of mining and excavation divisions along with judicial medical officials have been called for investigation.

More than 600 people had to flee in the aftermath of the fire and the collapse. Twenty-three people, including four children, were killed and 11 others injured in the incident, officials said, adding that six persons were still missing.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has apologised to the victims on behalf of the Sri Lankan government.

"We had all plans in place to relocate the garbage dump at Meetotamulla. But the tragedy struck before we could put them into action. We apologise for the governments inability to complete the task before the disaster," he said.

The residents near the dump had been protesting for months, demanding that the garbage dump be relocated.

The authorities, however, claim that they had given enough warning to the slum dwellers to relocate themselves.

"We had even paid compensation to them to relocate," De Silva said. He said the state will bear the funeral expenses of the dead.

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The massive garbage caught fire and collapsed on dozens of homes as the residents celebrated the traditional New Year. Police said the true scale of the damage remained unclear.

Sri Lankas Parliament was recently warned that 23 million tonnes of garbage at Kolonnawa dump was a serious hazard. About 800 tonnes of garbage was added to the dump daily.

"This is not a natural disaster but man made due to the sheer negligence by the authorities concerned," M S Marikkar, the ruling party local member of parliament, said. PTI CPS ASK ABH

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By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 16, 2017 | 06:31 AM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

A Hickman County woman is facing a burglary charge in Graves County.

Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon says the burglary took place early Friday morning at an unoccupied home. According to deputies, forced entry was made through the back door of the home.

The investigation led law enforcement to a Mayfield hotel where police made contact with 35-year-old Michelle Kennedy of Clinton. Inside the hotel room, deputies reportedly found several items that had been stolen from the victim's home. Deputies said Kennedy was also in possession of a handgun when the crime was committed.

Kennedy was placed under arrest and charged with 1st degree burglary. She was lodged in the Graves County Jail.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 16, 2017 | 07:18 AM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

A two vehicle crash Saturday in Graves County left two people injured.

According to the Graves County Sheriff's Office, the collision happened around 3:45 pm on KY 464 near Brittain Lane. Deputies said 32-year-old Josh Hudspeth of Gilbertsville was traveling west on a motorcycle behind a fertilizer spreader, operated by 46-year-old Kevin Jones of Mayfield.

According to police, Hudspeth began to pass the spreader as Jones made a left turn into a driveway. Hudspeth's motorcycle struck the front left tire of the spreader.

Hudspeth, who was not wearing a helmet, suffered multiple injuries. He was treated at the scene by Mayfield/Graves County EMS and then transported by Air Evac to a Nashville hospital.

A passenger on the motorcycle, 31-year-old Caitlin Hudspeth, also of Gilbertsville, was treated at the scene for minor injuries. Deputies said she was wearing a helmet. Jones was not injured in the crash.
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By The Associated Press

Apr. 15, 2017 | SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

By The Associated Press Apr. 15, 2017 | 11:29 PM | SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the failed launch of a North Korean missile from the country's east coast.



In a statement, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says Trump and his military team "are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."



Trump has been leaning on China to put pressure on North Korea, but has also threatened to take on the country alone if necessary. "I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will!" he tweeted Thursday. "U.S.A."



The missile exploded during launch Sunday from the country's east coast, U.S. and South Korean officials said, a high-profile failure that comes as a powerful U.S. aircraft carrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.



It wasn't immediately clear what kind of missile was fired from the city of Sinpo, but the failure will sting in Pyongyang because it comes a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather.



Washington and Seoul will try hard to figure out what exactly North Korea fired. This matters because while North Korea regularly launches short-range missiles, it is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target U.S. troops in Asia and, eventually, the U.S. mainland.
Native Americans have always had many legends that span over thousands of years. Yet despite the many legends, the most sacred one involves the birth of a White Buffalo calf.There are countless stories about the White Buffalo, with a slightly different tale being told for every tribe. But the message is clear in all of them; The Native Americans see the white buffalo calf as a sign to begin mending life's sacred hoop, to connect with each another and with our Mother Earth whom we must stop destroying. The White Buffalo is a very sacred sign and symbol to the Native Americans.It may be that not all white buffaloes are created equal, for there is a herd in Bend, Oregon, that contains 11 white buffaloes. Even so, its safe to say there arent a lot of them; an article on the herd from 2010 said that experts estimate that there are less than 50 white buffaloes in existence. Native Americans are taking this as a sign that something profound is happening to our planet as well as to humanity.The sacredness of the white buffalo is linked to the story of White Buffalo Calf Woman, a Lakota prophet who brought the Lakota the Seven Sacred Rituals.Esteemed Lakota spiritual leader John Lame Deer called the white buffalo the most sacred living thing you could ever encounter. Oglala Sioux spiritual leader Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand, a grandson of Red Cloud, is quoted as saying The arrival of the white buffalo is like the second coming of Christ.  It will bring about purity of mind, body, and spirit and unify all nationsblack, red, yellow, and white.Understanding just how important the white buffalo is then, it becomes extremely hideous and despicable that a canned hunting outfit in Texas called the Texas Hunt Lodge is now offering the chance to kill these majestic and spiritually significant creatures. For $18,500, a person can go there and do exactly that.These are canned hunts which means the animal has no chance for escape and is in an enclosed area that makes it extremely easy to kill them. They are also usually very used to the presence of humans so they do not have the fear of man as would a wild bison. The White Buffalo has a very spiritual significance to the Native American culture.
VIDEO

About a month after an anti-predator device spit sodium cyanide in the face of an unsuspecting boy and killed his dog, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced it is ending its use of the M-44 mechanisms in Idaho indefinitely."We take seriously the incident in Idaho," Jason Suckow, western regional director of the USDA's Wildlife Services agency, told conservation groups in a letter Monday. "We immediately responded by removing all M-44s from the area, initiating an inquiry into the incident, and launching a review of current [Wildlife Services] operating procedures."Suckow noted the agency has "removed all M-44s currently deployed on all land ownerships in Idaho" and has refrained from planting new ones.Then he added: "WS will notify you 30 days prior to placing any new M-44s."The move follows an incident last month in which 14-year-old Canyon Mansfield inspected a half-buried, sprinkler-looking device while walking his dog near his family's house  only to be hit immediately in the face with an "orange, powdery substance."The blast sent Mansfield to the hospital; it killed his dog.As we reported last month, Mansfield, his family and the Bannock County Sheriff's Office later learned the device had been placed there by the federal government:to prevent predators such as coyotes from harming livestock on farm and ranch lands. When triggered, the M-44 spits a potentially lethal dose of sodium cyanide powder at the interloper.' the Bannock County Sheriff's Office said in a statement released the next day. 'If a device such as this is ever located please do not touch or go near the device and contact your local law enforcement agency.' "In response to the incident, the Western Watersheds Project and more than a dozen other conservation groups filed a petition against the use of M-44s in Idaho  a petition that ultimately helped prompt Wildlife Services to reverse its policy in the state., at least a temporary one, for both wildlife and for public safety across Idaho," Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, said in a statement celebrating the reversal. "We thank Wildlife Services for doing the right thing by removing these deadly and indiscriminate killing devices, and urge them to make the moratorium permanent."The Mansfield family, which also submitted a petition of its own, cast the decision as just the first step. They're also pursuing federal legislation, which they call "Canyon's Law," that would ban M-44s across the U.S."We believe the use of these devices is too indiscriminate and imprecise," said Canyon's father, Mark Mansfield, tells the Idaho State Journal."The ban in Idaho is an exciting first step. But we don't want Wildlife Services to issue a temporary ban and then reinstate M-44 use once everything has blown over. That's why we need a federal law like Canyon's Law."
By India Today Web Desk: Shah Rukh Khan attended the 60th San Francisco Film Festival yesterday and the actor apart from entertaining the audience at the festival, danced to Lungi Dance and made Rush Hour director Brett Ratner dance to it as well.

SRK was being honoured specially at the festival. On the ocassion, he sat down with Brett Ratner for an in-depth chat.

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Brett began the conversation by addressing Shah Rukh Khan as "one of the world's most recognised film personalities." Then SRK went on to talk about Bollywood, dealing with losses and failures and even an idea for a Hollywood film collaboration.

When Shah Rukh Khan was asked how a Hindi film could be adapted for an international audience, SRK said that the dress code would need to be reinvented. Apart from this, the film would have to be edited short and some songs would have have to be left out. However, he added, the melodrama, traditions and emotions should be left untouched.

At one point, Brett Ratner said, "One day I want to make Rush Hour's sequel in India with SRK in it."

At the end of the one-on-one conversation, the two did a jig for the fans to Lungi Dance. Here, watch the video:

With #KingKhan @iamsrk doing the #LungiDance during the @sffilm Inspiring, humble, a great dancer, and smells great too!! A post shared by Brett Ratner (@brettrat) on Apr 14, 2017 at 11:17pm PDT

ALSO READ: Better not to ask people to shut up these days, says Shah Rukh Khan

ALSO READ: Difficult explaining scratches on my bum to my wife, says SRK

WATCH: Shah Rukh Khan speaks about his still-in-progress book 20 Years of a Decade and more

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The company denied the remarks reports of which had resulted in the rating of the popular app dropping to a "single star" from an apparent "five star" on the App Store.

By Indo-Asian News Service: A day after Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel's purported disinterest in expanding business to "poor countries" like India created controversy in social media, parent company Snap Inc denied the allegation, saying no such remark was made, reports said on Sunday.

US-based news website Variety on Saturday quoted Snapchat's ex-employee Anthony Pompliano as saying that Spiegel in September 2015 told him that "the app is only for rich people. I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain".

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But the company denied the remarks reports of which had resulted in the rating of the popular app dropping to a "single star" from an apparent "five star" on the App Store.

"The simple fact is that he (Pompliano) knows exactly nothing about Snap's current metrics. He and his lawyers are -- not to put too fine a point on matters -- just making things up," Variety reported Snap's attorneys as saying.

SNAPCHAT DENIES CLAIMS OF BEING 'RICH PEOPLE'S APP'

Denying the claims of Snapchat being termed as a 'rich people's app', the attorneys termed Pompliano a "disgruntled employee fired for poor performance".

The portal YourStory published an official statement from Snap that said: "This is ridiculous. Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! It's available worldwide to download for free."

Meanwhile, the rating of the popular app dropped to a "single star" from "five star" on the App Store.

RATING OF THE POPULAR APP DROPS

According to the app info on App Store, the "Customer Ratings" of the current version of the app was "single star" (based on 6,099 ratings) and all versions' rating was "one and half star" (based on 9,527 ratings) as on Sunday morning.

The rating for the app on Android Play Store was "four star" (based on 11,932,996 ratings).

Indians did not take the comment lightly and took to social media to lash out at the statement from the CEO. As the ratings of the app dropped, the criticism of the CEO and the app increased.

INDIANS LASH OUT AT THE STATEMENT

"First of all, I didn't even want to give any freakin' star to this app. Evan (CEO of Snapchat) shows how stupid he is by saying this. I bet 3/4th of his company is run by Indian employees. If he didn't want to expand it to poor countries, then why is this app free? Why didn't he put any charges on it?" a user wrote on App Store, condemning the CEO.

Some users wrote, "Poor India & Spain need better than Snapchat", "Good bye, My Snapchat Account and Snap Inc. You'll be product of gone by era and derision", and "Poor Evan Spiegel".

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The app was also trolled on Twitter. #boycottsnapchat became the most trending hashtag on Twitter overnight.

"I haven't seen any Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc Tweets yet. Thanks @Snapchat for Uniting us," a user tweeted.

"I was addicted to @Snapchat but I love my country more than this app. Let's see how you earn without Indians. @evanspiegel #boycottsnapchat," another user wrote on twitter.

Some users even flagged the app for hateful content and left a message, "Dear @snapchatsupport, flagged you for hateful content. #boycottsnapchat".

INSTAGRAM SURPASSES SNAPCHAT

According to a report in Forbes on Thursday, Facebook's photo-sharing app Instagram surpassed Snapchat in daily active users of "Stories" feature, though the format was first launched by Snapchat in 2013.

Instagram's "Stories" feature was now used by more than 200 million people every day -- an increase of 50 million since January.

On the other hand, Snapchat which launched the "Stories" format in October 2013, had 161 million daily active users in February.

"Stories" feature is an ephemeral chain of photo and video clips with filters and special effects. More recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also introduced the feature, imitating Snapchat.

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Snapchat has more than four million users in India.

Also read:

#BoycottSnapchat: Twitter rages after Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegal's apparent 'India is too poor' comment #BoycottSnapchat: Enraged Indians are uninstalling Snapdeal mistaking it for Snapchat

Snapchat ratings drop from 'four stars' to 'one star' on App store after CEO remark row

WATCH THE VIDEO:

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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/04/2017 (2032 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every cake box from Jeannes Bakery, located at 931 Notre Dame Ave., comes stamped with the words, We make memories. If you think owner Jerry Penner paid some pricey, high-falutin ad agency to come up with that slogan for his businesss iconic confections  which, through the years, have been enjoyed by prime ministers, Queen Elizabeth II and the king of game shows (Monty Halls a big fan, we understand)  guess again.

A few years ago, Penner was working behind the counter of his store when he got into a conversation with a woman buying a marble slab cake. She lived in Vancouver, she mentioned, but had made the trip to Winnipeg on behalf of her mother, who had passed away that week.

One of her mothers wishes was that there would be a Jeannes cake at her funeral, Penner says, seated in his neat-as-a-pin office.

As she was leaving, she turned to me and said, I just want you to know, this is more than a cake  this is a memory, at which point we both started crying.

PHOTOS BY WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The bakery, in business 81 years, is located on Notre Dame Avenue.

You would be hard-pressed to find many Manitobans who dont have at least a passing acquaintance with Jeannes cakes. After all, its been 81 years since Jeanne Van Landeghem, the West End locales matriarch, began marketing her log-style confections, renowned for their shortbread crust base, Belgian chocolate swirls and butter icing. Except when Penner sat down with Van Landeghems grandson Donald Van Landeghem in 2003 to discuss purchasing the bakery from his family  more about that shortly  the only Jeanne he was familiar with spelled her name with an extra vowel and lived in a glass bottle on TV.

Penner grew up in Steinbach. Because his two older brothers were bakers, he went into that field as well. In 1980, at the tender age of 22, he bought an existing business in Winkler called Valley Bakery & Pastry Shop.

Li Pan and Davian Penner create masterpieces on the cake production line at Jeannes Bakery.

There were 25 employees, and the next youngest person after me was 30, recalls the married father of six.

My first day on the job, I was in the kitchen surveying the workflow when one of the workers, who didnt know I was the new boss, approached me and said, Dont you think youve been standing around doing nothing long enough? You should probably get to work by now.

In 2003, Penner turned the bakery over to his two oldest sons. It wasnt that he wanted to retire; rather, he had decided the time was right to explore business opportunities in slightly warmer parts of the country. He flew to Victoria and Kelowna to check out properties that were for sale, but none of the established bakeries he looked at clicked.

Figuring he would find a place that suited his needs sooner or later, he returned to Winkler, where he kept himself busy running deliveries to Winnipeg for his sons. It was during one of those drop-offs when he heard about Jeannes Bakery for the first time.

One morning, a wholesaler I was delivering to said, Did you hear the news? Jeannes is for sale. I was like, Whats Jeannes?, at which point he gave me a copy of the listing.

Cake decorator Ashley Bradburn writes messages on the desserts.

Penner didnt give the piece of paper much thought, tossing it onto the backseat of his vehicle. He read it over more closely when he returned home, at which point he contacted the listing agent, stating he preferred to meet the owners face-to-face instead of going through a third party.

During Penners initial, two-hour get-together with Donald Van Landeghem, the two men spent maybe five minutes crunching numbers or discussing the companys bottom line. They devoted most of their time chatting about what Jeannes cakes mean to folks from this neck of the woods.

Here, its almost like youre more of a caretaker than an owner because the bakery really belongs to the people of this city and province, Penner says, noting he never gave a seconds thought to changing the name above the door from Jeannes to Jerrys after assuming control.

I havent discussed this with too many others, but Donald saw me, I believe, as a person willing to take on the sort of sacred trust that Jeannes (Bakery) is. While talking with him, I came to appreciate the loyalty people have towards this product and felt, if I bought the business, I would need to steward things accordingly. I still feel that way, to this day.

Over time, umpteen gallons of ink have been spilled detailing how ex-Winnipeggers from all four corners of the globe make pilgrimages to Jeannes Bakery, when theyre back in town visiting friends and family. Some of Penners regular customers work at the airport; they tell him hardly a day passes when they dont spot somebody walking through the terminal with one of the bakerys telltale boxes under their arm.

A couple of former Winnipeg residents who have resettled in Calgary dont have to travel quite so far to get a taste of home.

Abel Penner ices a marble cake.

Sue Ghebari and her husband are the owners of a Food Fare outlet on 19th Street N.E. in Cowtown, a store that just so happens to be the only place west of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border that keeps a healthy supply of Jeannes cakes in stock on a regular basis.

We bought the store in 2008, and the owners before us were originally from Winnipeg, so they stocked Jeannes cakes, Ghebari says over the phone.

When we took over, we decided to carry on that tradition.

Every other week, Ghebari signs for a shipment of 100 Jeannes cakes, which are brought in directly from Winnipeg. That number may seem substantial, Ghebari says, but it isnt to people who need reassurance there will be a cake available when they walk through her doors.

Baker Yuan Gao pulls a rack of cakes out of the oven.

Well get people driving through Calgary on their way to Fort McMurray or wherever who will call ahead and tell us to put a cake aside under their name, Ghebari goes on. Ill tell them not to worry, we have plenty in the cooler, but theyll answer, No, you dont understand. You have to put one aside. I cant take any chances.

Being an Albertan, Ghebari admits she used to be curious why so many ex-Winnipeggers wouldnt dream of toasting a birthday, anniversary or even the arrival of a new puppy without a Jeannes cake.

One time, I even said to a person buying one from us, Whats the big deal with these things anyway? At which point she opened the box of the cake she was paying for and said, Here, have a bite and see for yourself.

Ghebaris review: They dont taste anything like those sweet, store-bought cakes you get everywhere else. Theres texture, but they dont have that same thickness that makes you feel full after eating a slice.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

On a weekly basis, Penners staff bakes between 1,500 and 2,000 cakes  slightly more in busy weeks such as the one that just passed, leading up to the Easter holiday.

Those are hefty sales figures, for sure, but Penner, who stores Van Landeghems original, handwritten recipes in a safety deposit box, isnt exactly resting on his laurels. The bakery recently added its own line of pizza dough to the mix, the owners reasoning being if theres a birthday party taking place, there are usually a few pizzas close by. As well as upping Jeannes presence on social media, via a Twitter feed and Facebook page, Penner is also planning to reintroduce a few items his companys namesake used to offer in the 1940s and 50s.

I have an old (recipe) book of Jeannes, and one of the things in it is a cherry blossom brownie, he says. It has a very unique ingredient I never would have guessed would be in a brownie, so Im really excited to see how thats going to go over.

The only other thing Penner may want to consider somewhere down the line is a table and chairs for customers who cant wait until they get home to dive into their purchases.

We actually began offering plastic knives and forks after we started noticing all these people sitting in their cars in our parking lot for 15 or 20 minutes, eating their cake, he says laughing.

David Sanderson writes about Winnipeg-centric businesses and restaurants.

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/04/2017 (2032 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Its high time Canada legalized pot, people out walking in Assiniboine Park said Saturday.

Under mild, nearly summer skies, it was clear Winnipeggers arent just waiting for the smoke to clear on Ottawas proposed new pot laws.

The Free Press put the question of legal marijuana and how the province should regulate it to a cross-section of people. There was an immigrant couple with a pair of preschool kids, another couple with a matched set of King Charles dogs, a senior with his wife and daughter, a middle-aged woman with a dog, and an international university student out for a stroll with a young woman.

All pretty much agreed legal marijuana was inevitable.

Two, the senior and the foreign student, expressed concern legalizing pot could lead to more teenage crime and more abuse of harder drugs with more dangerous highs.

They seemed to agree, however, the issue will be settling on how to regulate the trade: similar to alcohol sales but not necessarily restricted to government stores, such as liquor sales are now in this province.

There was also consensus that an entirely new source of tax revenue such as marijuana doesnt come along often and the province can use the money right now.

While Ottawa has carefully framed legalization as a public safety issue, not a fiscal one, Canadas parliamentary budget officer put potential pot revenues under scrutiny last November, concluding it could bump up tax revenues, but not right away. The report estimated sales tax revenues at $618 million at the onset, with revenues rising as the market matured.

Sixty per cent of total sale tax revenues would go to the provinces, with Ottawa collecting the rest.

As promised, the Trudeau government introduced new laws last week to legalize recreational marijuana for those over 18 and give the provinces the latitude to raise the legal age. The suite of bills also includes hefty penalties for impaired driving. Once passed, the proposed laws would create new driving offences for those driving while pot-impaired and allow police to use screening devices to check for marijuana impairment.

Ottawa would leave the heavy lifting to the provinces, giving over the power to regulate and govern the distribution of the trade to provincial jurisdiction.

Winnipeggers note that could mean changes beyond where and how to sell pot. Some employers use drug tests as a matter of course, and legalizing pot sales would require new blood levels for the tests.

Manitoba Justice Minister Heather Stefanson has said the Conservative government under Premier Brian Pallister has lots of concerns over legalizing pot, and shes not saying publicly what the provinces next steps will be.

We want to listen to Manitobans and consult on that, Stefanson told reporters Thursday, the day Ottawa tabled the proposed new laws.

Winnipeggers said people are going to get pot anyway, and at least one person emphasized it is worth noting the fentanyl crisis is far more serious a threat to public safety than pot sales.

At an average street price of $10 a gram, its not worth spiking weed with fentanyl powder, not when using it to cut more expensive street drugs, such as cocaine, is easier and more profitable, one park-goer said.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan account for a fraction of pot smokers in Canada, just 5.8 per cent of the total consumption nationwide.

What you said

JONATHAN HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Even the Winnipeggers who arent fully on board agree legal marijuana is an inevitability that should be prepared for.

Kathy Klincke

Over 21, Id say to legalize it. They can get it now; people are going to get it how they get it. We might as well get the tax revenue from it. I think it would be great for people who have health problems or for pain.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Kathy Klincke

Maggie Hodson

I havent been involved with smoking it, so I dont suppose Id benefit from it And taxes? They have a hard time allotting taxes where theyre supposed to go. They make big announcements and six months later, all of a sudden the tax dollars arent there.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Maggie Hodson

Joshua Fang

If the government wants to do that, if people want to legally use marijuana, it would be a problem for teenagers. I come from China, and we have a low percentage of teenage crime back in China because teenagers have little chance to get into that side (of life). Marijuana is hard to get in China.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Joshua Fang and Yiran Wang

Frank Kruszynski

Im right down the middle on that one. If you start using it, youll likely go on to something else. And there are other people who can handle it. So, Im down the middle on it, maybe slightly more against it than for it.

George Dionysoupoulos

Weve been thinking about it. We havent made up our minds. Were quite new in Canada, but in Greece, where we come from, its not legal. And its difficult to think about it (being legal) in Greece. I dont think its quite right to legalize marijuana (to smoke) anywhere. Its not good for the children. Maybe in your own house. If you want to smoke it, you can go ahead and smoke in your own house.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Frank and Alice Kruszynski

Dustin Dolinski

Maybe they should be more worried about the war on street drugs like fentanyl or prescription drugs than they are about marijuana. Ive seen guys I envied turn into scrum bums because of that stuff.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dustin Dolinski

Jason Nichol

Im 100 per cent for it, and I like the fact theyre going to take the criminal element out. I hope the underground economy for pot will disappear. My concern is that they treat it exactly the way they do alcohol, with a legal age and impairment penalties. As for distribution, I dont know whether I see them opening up Manitoba pot marts, like they do with liquor marts. Id rather see it as opening up a new business economy, like they do with wine marts. So if I wanted to, I could open up a shop. And I think it should be regulated, and the taxes should be as high as they are for liquor.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jason Nichol

Barb (no last name given)

Im all for legalizing it completely. I dont see any difference between having a glass of wine and having pot gummies. But what the details are, around distribution and regulations, thats going to be the rub. We should be able to get tax revenue, but its all about how you can regulate it safely.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/04/2017 (2032 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Spring sale

The Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library is having its Spring Artisan Market sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday at Manitoba Hydro Place. Local crafters will be selling their work, including stained glass, sculptures, pottery, jewelry and more.

Night at the museum

For National Canadian Film Day, which is happening Wednesday, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is offering a free tour and in-gallery screening of three short films created for the CMHR. There will also be a screening of the film Memere Metisse (My Metis Grandmother), by local filmmaker Janelle Wookey, with a discussion to follow. The French tour starts at 6 p.m.; the English tour starts at 6:15 p.m.

Maddin movie

The historic Dalnavert Museum is also taking part in National Canadian Film Day and will be screening Guy Maddins My Winnipeg. For those not familiar with his work, its described as docu-fantasia, blending fact and fiction. The screening starts at 8 p.m. and is free to attend. There will be drinks and snacks available for purchase.

Starry night

Oak Hammock Marsh is having Astronomy Night on Thursday, with an indoor presentation by Royal Astronomical Society of Canada member Gerry Smerchanski, followed by a hands-on outdoor rooftop observation session (telescopes will be available). The night event runs from 8 p.m. till 10 p.m.; tickets are $10. One telescope will be given away as a door prize. Register in advance at oakhammockmarsh.ca.

Party like its 1999

On Friday, local DJs DLO, Hunnicutt, Mama Cutsworth and Louie Lovebird will be spinning A Tribute to All Sounds Prince at the Good Will Social Club. Marking one year since his death, the DJs will be playing Prince (of course), Morris Day and the Time, Vanity 6, Apollonia 6 and more. Doors open at 10 p.m.; tickets are $5 before 11 p.m. and $10 after for this adult-only event. Part of the proceeds will be donated to community organizations.

A good, green time

ArtsJunktion MB Inc., which uses repurposed and reclaimed materials creatively, is having an event for Earth Day next Saturday. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the organization is offering $5 art workshops, oven-fired pizza (made in a real handmade oven), music and other activities.

Author awards

For a taste of local literary talent, the Manitoba Book Awards is next Saturday at the Fort Garry Hotel, with 18 awards handed out in various categories. The nights events are hosted by Terry MacLeod and Lara Rae. Tickets are $75 and include a dinner, and are available online at manitobabookawards.com.
#Snapchat and #boycottsnapchat trended on Twitter after Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegal was reported to have said that his photo-sharing app was not for 'poor countries like India'.

By India Today Web Desk: Evan Spiegal, the chief executive officer of Snap Inc., the parent company of ephemeral social media platform Snapchat, has found himself in the eye of a storm and at the receiving end of Indian Twitterati's ire after reportedly saying Snapchat was not for 'poor countries like India'.

The 26-year-old Spiegal's unverified comments were published this week in a Variety report about a lawsuit that an ex-employee filed against Snapchat in the United States.

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Anthony Pompliano, the former Snapchat employee, claims in his lawsuit that Spiegal once said, "This app is only for rich people...I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain."

Never the ones to let a young billionaire from the West disparage the country, Indians back home took to Twitter to slam, ridicule and troll Spiegal, causing #snapchat, #boycottsnapchat and #uninstallsnapchat to trend on the social media platform on Saturday.

On Sunday, Snapchat appeared to have responded to the claim. The Hindustan Times quoted the company as saying, "This is ridiculous. Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! It's available worldwide to download for free."

THE LAWSUIT

Anthony Pompliano's lawsuit deals with Snap Inc. allegedly using inaccurate means to calculate metrics like daily active users (DAU) and user retention.

Pompliano stops short of accusing Snap Inc's senior leadership of deliberately inflating user metrics but says that higher-ups at the company were "completely misinformed" about important metrics.

Pompliano contends that during his three-week stint at the company, he discovered "a wide-spread, systemic failure in Snapchat's internal controls over its user data".

In his lawsuit, Pompliano claims to have uncovered evidence that the tools used by Snapchat were leading to the company claiming higher-than-actual numbers for metrics such as daily active users, month-over-month user growth and user retention.

Alarmed that advertisers were being misled by inflated numbers, Pompliano claims to have approached senior management with his concerns, but says was dismissed by them.

In 2015, the lawsuit says, Pompliano prepared a PowerPoint presentation for CEO Evan Spiegal.

ALSO READ || You're under arrest for 'looking poor': Indians in 20 states, 2 union territories can be arrested for begging

'INDIA TOO POOR FOR US'

It was during the September 11, 2015 presentation when Spiegal allegedly made the comments that have so irked Indians on Twitter.

After going through the presentation on Pompliano's findings, Spiegal is said to have commented, "Yeah I read those, it doesn't matter."

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Pompliano says he then brought up Snapchat's poor showing in Spain and India, both countries with high mobile penetration.

Responding to this, Spiegal allegedly said he was not interested in expanding "into poor countries like India and Spain", before storming out of the meeting.

A few days later, Pompliano says Snapchat fired him. He also alleges that Snap Inc. executives made disparaging comments about him to prospective employers.

Snap Inc. has labelled Pompliano a "disgruntled employee fired for poor performance" and who filed the lawsuit for publicity.

"The simple fact is that he knows exactly nothing about Snap's current metrics...He and his lawyers are - not to put too fine a point on matters - just making things up," the company's attorneys have said.

TWITTER RAGES

Once the Variety report came to light, #Snapchat became a trending topic on Twitter in India. Users initially slammed and trolled Spiegal for his alleged comments.

Soon after #uninstallsnapchat and #boycottsnapchat started to trend as people started extolling others to stop using the app.

Here are a few choice reactions:

#Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel Calls India poor Now if u r indian.1. Uninstall snapchat 2. Rate it 1 star on play store3. RT#boycottsnapchat- Viner Aniket (@viner_aniket) April 15, 2017

Snapchat CEO called India a poor country. advertisement Now a Indian should work hard, become rich, buy Snapchat, and marry his daughter Bollywood style- Pakchikpak Raja Babu (@HaramiParindey) April 15, 2017

Snapchat CEO's net worth is USD 4 Billion and Mukesh ambani's USD 30 Billion. He can purchase #snapchat 7 times lol.??bas itne hi poor hai ??- akhilkoul143 (@akhilkoul143) April 15, 2017

ALSO READ | Instagram Stories is a bigger hit than Snapchat itself

ALSO READ | Facebook copies Snapchat with Stories, digital stickers and new camera features

WATCH | Snapchat CEO draws flak after reportedly calling India 'a poor country'

ALSO READ:

Snapchat plans to unveil Android smartphone

Facebook copies Snapchat with Stories, digital stickers and new camera features

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No Dangal in Pakistan without the national anthem. And you thought Aamir Khan was anti-national?

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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/04/2017 (2033 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ON his last night in office, U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a powerful farewell speech to the nation  words so important that hed spent a year and a half preparing them. Ike famously warned the nation to guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Much of Eisenhowers speech could form part of the mission statement of WikiLeaks today. We publish truths regarding overreaches and abuses conducted in secret by the powerful.

Our most recent disclosures describe the CIAs multibillion-dollar cyberwarfare program, in which the agency created dangerous cyberweapons, targeted private companies consumer products and then lost control of its cyber-arsenal. Our source(s) said they hoped to initiate a principled public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Julian Assange

The truths we publish are inconvenient for those who seek to avoid one of the magnificent hallmarks of American life  public debate. Governments assert that WikiLeaks reporting harms security. Some claim that publishing facts about military and national security malfeasance is a greater problem than the malfeasance itself. Yet, as Eisenhower emphasized, Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defence with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Quite simply, our motive is identical to that claimed by The New York Times and The Washington Post  to publish newsworthy content. Consistent with the U.S. Constitution, we publish material that we can confirm to be true irrespective of whether sources came by that truth legally or have the right to release it to the media.

Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, defended publication of our stolen material last year: I get the argument that the standards should be different if the stuff is stolen and that should influence the decision. But in the end, I think that we have an obligation to report what we can about important people and important events.

David Lauter, Washington bureau chief of The Los Angeles Times, made a similar argument: My default position is democracy works best when voters have as much information as possible And that information often comes from rival campaigns, from old enemies, from all sorts of people who have motives that you might look at and say, Thats unsavory. 

The media has a long history of speaking truth to power with purloined or leaked material  Jack Andersons reporting on the CIAs enlistment of the Mafia to kill Fidel Castro; the Providence Journal-Bulletins release of U.S. president Richard Nixons stolen tax returns; The New York Times publication of the stolen Pentagon Papers; and The Posts tenacious reporting of Watergate leaks, to name a few. I hope historians place WikiLeaks publications in this pantheon. Yet, there are widespread calls to prosecute me.

People who dont like the tune often blame the piano player. Large public segments are agitated by the result of the U.S. presidential election, by public dissemination of the CIAs dangerous incompetence or by evidence of dirty tricks undertaken by senior officials in a political party. But as U.S. president Thomas Jefferson foresaw, the agitation (a free press) produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure.

Vested interests deflect from the facts that WikiLeaks publishes by demonizing its brave staff and me. We are mischaracterized as America-hating servants to hostile foreign powers. But in fact I harbour an overwhelming admiration for both America and the idea of America. WikiLeaks sole interest is expressing constitutionally protected truths, which I remain convinced is the cornerstone of the United States remarkable liberty, success and greatness.

I have given up years of my own liberty for the risks we have taken at WikiLeaks to bring truth to the public. I take some solace in this: Joseph Pulitzer, namesake of journalisms award for excellence, was indicted in 1909 for publishing allegedly libellous information about U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt and the financier J.P. Morgan in the Panama Canal corruption scandal. It was the truth that set him free.

Julian Assange is the editor of WikiLeaks.

 Special to The Washington Post
The summer after Nicholas Hansens freshman year of high school, he went on a mission trip with his local youth group to Washington, D.C. On the bus ride, people stood up and shared one thing their fellow passengers might not know about them.

Nicholas, now a senior at St. Charles High School, stood in front of his peers, gathered his thoughts and gave a nutshell perspective of his personal struggles and family life, sharing hidden pieces of himself unbeknownst to most of his peers.

It took a lot of guts to do what he did at that time, Theresa Nunemacher, Nicholas social worker, said. Hes a pretty resilient kid and I give him a lot of credit for that.

Nicholas has persevered through personal struggles and family strife most of his life. During the last few years hes changed his outlook on life and gained the courage to open up and connect with his peers, earning him the nomination as St. Charles Above and Beyond award recipient. Hes traveled with his local youth mission groups trip every year since the trip to Washington, and plans to go again this year.

After he graduates, Nicholas said he plans to join the Reserve Officers Training Corps and major in either electrical, computer or mechanical engineering.

Opening up

Three years ago, Nicholas, along with his younger brother and sister, sat down with the social worker at St. Charles schools to discuss a meltdown incident in the classroom regarding his younger brother, Michael. It turned out to be an eye-opening session, and for the first time Nicholas opened up about his personal life.

He talked about his personal quarrels, how his parents constantly fought, and how hes struggled to comprehend and handle the situation.

I never really talked to anyone about it before, Nicholas said. I always believed what happened (at home) was supposed to stay there.

As the oldest of three siblings, Nicholas tried to resolve any arguments his parents had and be the protective big brother in his family. His mitigation attempts never worked, and often led to his mom lashing out at him.

He said his mom would constantly say degrading things to him, and her unpredictable behavior caused anxiety, making Nicholas feel like he was trapped in a box.

Even when things were calm around the house, Nicholas said hed still be on edge because an argument could erupt at any time. It eventually got to a point where Nicholas stopped trying to intervene, and hed just stay out of any quarrels at the house.

It just got to a point where I couldnt handle it any longer, Nicholas said.

Opening up to a social worker and discussing his personal life with someone who has his best interests and well-being in mind didnt solve everything for Nicholas.

Personal struggles

Nicholas said one day early sophomore year, he got into an explosive confrontation with his mom that didnt end well.

She said she wanted me out, so I left, Nicholas said.

He was on crutches at the time because of an ankle injury, but managed to stay at a friends house for the night.

The incident pushed Nicholas close to a breaking point, and winter of his sophomore year he was hospitalized and diagnosed with depression.

Upon his release, Nicholas stayed at a friends house for a while, but it didnt last long.

A few weeks later, Nicolas was hospitalized a second time, and he said he was strongly encouraged to stay with his maternal grandparents to recover and let things settle down.

It was only supposed to be temporary, but Nicholas ended up moving in with his maternal grandparents. He said he enjoyed the quiet environment of their home, and not having to worry about interacting with his mom.

A lot of the chaotic life I was used to was a challenge, Nicholas said. (Moving in with my grandparents) helped me see the importance of having a nice foundation in life.

Still, there was work to be done. Moving in with his maternal grandparents didnt make all the problems in Nicholas life go away.

Accepting reality, moving forward

Nicholas still had personal issues to sort out.

At the time he moved into his maternal grandparents house, he had only been talking to the schools social worker for a few months.

He said the hardest part was learning how to talk to someone about his personal problems. He wasnt used to processing his emotions through talking about them with a professional. After a while he started to notice the positive impact it had on his life.

It was hard, Nicholas said, but it was nice being able to talk to someone about it.

Nicholas said after talking with the social worker, he learned that its important he start focusing on changing himself and not expecting others to change.

Hes come a long way, said Nunemacher, his social worker. Hes put trust in the process and learned to grasp the reality of (his) situation.

Nicholas said hes come to understand that he cant change how his mom is, just how he deals with it.

Its easy to say how a person should change for you, but its harder to make changes in yourself, he said.

Those changes have led to improved grades in school and breaking out of his shell and interacting with his classmates more.

He recently returned from Chicago for his classes senior trip, which he said was different than what he expected it to be.

Getting out and seeing the world around you was cool, Nicholas said. The city was spectacular and I saw some classmates more than I have all year.

With a new home environment, and a new outlook on life, Nicholas said hes ready to continue growing and learning from what hes been through over the years.
The revelation that Vice President Mike Pence, a self-described evangelical Catholic, wont dine alone with any woman other than his wife has generated some discussion.

More relevant to millions of women and their families is the fact that Mr. Pence was the tie-breaking vote allowing states to defund Planned Parenthood. Thus a man who professes his Christian faith as the prism for his actions has created the possibility that countless women will be unable to get vital medical care. Mr. Pences opposition to this organization seems to be about abortions, which amount to 3 percent of all the services it provides.

But back to the argument that too much public policy is tied to fundamentalist tenets about women. To wit, they are evil seductresses pitted against men who are weak.

Many Muslims call for women to have modest dress and cover their entire bodies. Some have women swaddled in burkas and hijabs so only the eyes are visible. Since almost a quarter of the world population is Muslim, there is a variance in dress requirements, with most opting for feminine modesty. It also amounts to millions of hidden women.

Ivanka Trump declares herself to be not only a convert to Judaism, but Orthodox as well. This sect separates men and women during prayer. These Jewish women are supposed to remain largely covered in public, thus no tank tops and short skirts. Once married, some who are extremely pious wear wigs while others cover their hair with hats and wraps. The reason is to camouflage their natural hairs beauty.

Attraction is something that must be muted and avoided. People apparently cannot be trusted to feel or sense an array of emotions and sexual desires while staying true to a relationship or their faith.

Thus, if these vestiges of belief cling to policy-making, then the short route to discrimination against women is easy to understand. If faith dictates that sex outside of marriage is wrong and should be used to go forth and multiply, together with the belief of the wanton nature of women, then it may become easier to accept or even ossify the gender pay gap.

If women were not secondary and indistinguishable, then the reward in heaven would not be 40 virgins but rather a kind soul mate who loves and supports you.

If sex werent tinged with lust, perhaps women could have more control over their bodies and their reproductive choices, and their children would be given the same support, legislation and protections offered to fetuses.

Women are getting angry. The day after the presidential inauguration, millions showed up to protest the administration, many of the statements President Trump bandied about during the campaign and the restrictive polices that seemed inevitable.

Not only did women in every state assemble and march, but they were joined by protesters all around the world. The numbers soared into the millions, and it has been recorded as the largest single-day demonstration in our countrys history.

And how did the president respond? Immediately, surrounded by a coterie of middle-aged white men, he re-instituted the global gag order. This Reagan era policy would defund any nongovernmental organization throughout the world if it offered abortion or even discussed it. Thus women facing war, famine or drought, perhaps already raising other children, would have no option nor be told how to control their health and body.

Recently, conservative talk show host Tomi Lahren was fired for expressing support of abortion and limiting government intrusion in womens health care. Tomi is female. Her boss, Glenn Beck, is not.

Not all faiths cleave belief along gender lines. There is a Buddhist fable about the Dragon Kings daughter who reached enlightenment. Thus being a female, a child and a serpent did not prevent her from realizing her Buddha nature.

Faith can be used to navigate the challenges of life. It should make people kinder, more connected. And it can elevate a life to inspire others. But it must shake off any limiting beliefs that harm more than half the world.
A supervisor who proposed term limits for Sauk County Board leadership positions says he wont push for the change when the board reconsiders its rules Tuesday night.

But Supervisor Andy Andrews of Baraboo said that doesnt mean the issue of term limits in general has been placed on the back burner.

Andrews proposed a rule change that would limit the number of consecutive terms a supervisor can serve as the boards chair, vice chair, or as a member of its Executive and Legislative Committee.

The Executive and Legislative Committee declined to put its stamp of approval on Andrews suggested rule change after the countys attorney, Todd Liebman, opined earlier this month that term limits on board chair and vice chair are not permissible. Liebman based his ruling on a 1972 Wisconsin attorney general opinion that said one board cannot act in such a way as to tie the hands of a future board.

Andrews said Sunday that he later followed up with Liebman in an effort to find a legal way to enact his proposal, but was told that state statutes would not permit it either.

Documents show that other Wisconsin counties have enacted or considered term limits for board leadership positions.

In July 2013, the Walworth County Board unanimously passed a resolution that placed term limits on its chairperson. The countys attorney, David Bretl, signed off on the resolution. The rule was short-lived, however, as the board voted in March 2015 to eliminate term limits.

In a January 2016 legal opinion, Green Lake County Attorney Dawn Klockow ruled that county boards may impose term limits for committee members. Klockow, who declined a request for comment, wrote that the statutes are silent on term limits for members of county board committees, and that term limits are not prohibited by Roberts Rules of Order.

Her legal opinion also cited a July 2015 resolution considered by the Washington County Board that would have enacted term limits for its chairperson. That resolution was defeated by a 16-11 vote.

Despite those examples, Andrews said he agrees with Liebmans ruling that term limits on leadership positions are not permissible. However, after further consultation with the countys attorney, Andrews said, he believes that placing limitations on the consecutive number of terms that any citizen can serve as a supervisor may be allowed.

He may propose that change to a special committee that has been formed to study the boards size, structure and pay.

There seems to be less support for revolving leadership than for term limits in general, Andrews said. After speaking with some supervisors, they dont agree with term limits on duties, but on representation.

Andrews said his initial proposal was not personal, but rather was intended to promote new ideas, new experience, and new people in leadership positions on the board. The boards current chair, Marty Krueger of Reedsburg, has held the position since 2006.

The Executive and Legislative Committee did not recommend any of the rule changes that supervisors proposed earlier this month. But the full board still has the opportunity to consider any of the proposed changes during its meeting Tuesday night.

Appointment considered

The board also will consider Kruegers appointment of Andrea Lombard of Baraboo to fill the District 19 supervisors seat left vacant by the resignation of Doug Ament.

Lombard  a retired teacher and former Republican Party of Sauk County chair  previously held the seat until she was narrowly defeated by Ament in the April 2016 election.

After he selected his appointee, Krueger identified the other Baraboo resident who had applied for the position as John Young, a Vietnam veteran and former electrician who now runs a local art studio. Young also draws political cartoons for the Baraboo News Republic.

Other business

The boards agenda also includes possible action on the following items:

Amending tower lease agreements with Bug Tussel Wireless to allow for three additional installations on county communication towers and resulting in additional $300 a month to the county.

Authorizing the $22,210 purchase of a 2017 Dodge Ram from Ewald Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram of Oconomowoc for the countys Conservation, Planning and Zoning Department.

Approving the town of Merrimacs proposed rezoning of property from agricultural to commercial and recreational use.

Extending the work period of a special committee appointed to study and make recommendations on board structure, size, and pay to October 2017.

Carrying forward $3 million in funds that were assigned but not spent during the 2016 budget into 2017.

Authorizing the closure of the Sauk County Courthouse in Baraboo on May 5 from 8 a.m. to noon, and the Sauk County Human Services Building in Reedsburg on May 12 from 8 a.m. to noon, for emergency preparedness drills.

Authorizing a $27,000 contract with Ex-Cell Building Restoration to complete tuckpointing and repairs on the north side of the courthouse.
The bashing started when Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegal was reported to have said that his photo-sharing app was not for 'poor countries like India'.

By India Today Web Desk: A day after Snapchat CEO faced the ire of Indian twitterati who lambasted him for his 'India is too poor' comment, the ratings of the application have plummeted.

According to the application info on App Store, the "Customer Ratings" of the current version of the app was "single star" (based on 6,099 ratings) and all versions rating was "one and half star" (based on 9,527 ratings) as on Sunday morning, reported IANS.

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This comes after Snapchat's ex-employee Anthony Pompliano was quoted by a website Variety as saying that company CEO Evan Spiegel in September 2015 told him that "the app is only for rich people. I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain".

Indians did not take the comment lightly and took to social media to lash out at the statement from the CEO.

Some users wrote, "Poor India & Spain need better than Snapchat", "Good bye, My Snapchat Account and Snap Inc. You'll be product of gone by era and derision", and "Poor Evan Spiegel".

Consequently, the rating of the popular app dropped to a 'single star' from an apparent 'five star' on the App Store. The rating for the app on Android Play Store was "four star" (based on 11,932,996 ratings).

However, on Sunday, Snapchat appeared to have responded to the claim. The Hindustan Times quoted the company as saying, "This is ridiculous. Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! It's available worldwide to download for free."

TWITTER RAGES

The app was also trolled on Twitter. #boycottsnapchat became the most trending hashtag on Twitter overnight.

"I haven't seen any Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc Tweets yet. Thanks @Snapchat for Uniting us," a user tweeted.

"I was addicted to @Snapchat but I love my country more than this app. Let's see how you earn without Indians. @evanspiegel #boycottsnapchat," another user wrote on twitter.

Some users even flagged the app for hateful content and left a message, "Dear @snapchatsupport, flagged you for hateful content. #boycottsnapchat".

INSTAGRAM SURPASSES SNAPCHAT

According to a report in Forbes on Thursday, Facebook's photo-sharing app Instagram surpassed Snapchat in daily active users of "Stories" feature, though the format was first launched by Snapchat in 2013.

Instagram's "Stories" feature was now used by more than 200 million people every day -- an increase of 50 million since January.

On the other hand, Snapchat who launched the "Stories" format in October 2013, had 161 million daily active users in February.

"Stories" feature is an ephemeral chain of photo and video clips with filters and special effects. More recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also introduced the feature, imitating Snapchat.

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Snapchat has more than four million users in India.

(With inputs from IANS)

Also Read:

#BoycottSnapchat: Twitter rages after Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegal's apparent 'India is too poor' comment

Instagram Stories is a bigger hit than Snapchat itself

Watch:

Snapchat CEO draws flak after reportedly calling India 'a poor country'

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Harley-Davidson, Inc. manufactures and sells motorcycles. The company operates in two segments, Motorcycles and Related Products and Financial Services. The Motorcycles and Related Products segment designs, manufactures, and sells Harley-Davidson motorcycles, including cruiser, touring, standard, sportbike, and dual models, as well as motorcycle parts, accessories, apparel, and related services. This segment sells its products to retail customers through a network of independent dealers, as well as e-commerce channels in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The Financial Services segment provides wholesale financing services, such as floorplan and open account financing of motorcycles, and parts and accessories; and retail financing services, including installment lending for the purchase of new and used Harley-Davidson motorcycles, as well as point-of-sale protection products comprising motorcycle insurance, extended service contracts, and motorcycle maintenance protection. This segment also licenses third-party financial institutions that issue credit cards bearing the Harley-Davidson brand. Harley-Davidson, Inc. was founded in 1903 and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
By Press Trust of India: Mumbai, Apr 16 (PTI) NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats, which launched its first solar ferry in Kerala earlier this year, is eyeing Rs 28 crore revenue this fiscal -- a 14 times rise over 2016-17, a top company official said.

NavAlt, founded in 2013 is a joint venture between parent company Navgathi Marine Design and Construction with two French companies -- Alt.En Systems and EVE Systems.

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"In FY17, we clocked revenues of only Rs 2 crore. We already have orders for 10 boats in hand and generally the cost to client is around Rs 2-3 crore. So, we are expecting nearly Rs 28 crore revenue this fiscal," NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats Chief Executive, Sandith Thandasherry told PTI here.

Navgathi, which is into the construction of commercial boats and ferries, decided to develop solar-powered ferries and joined hands with the two French firms for the exercise, he said.

Thandasherry said the first solar ferry was launched in Kerala and now it is looking at opportunities in other states like West Bengal, Gujarat and Goa, among others.

He further said the company is also looking to introduce this solar ferry model in Asian countries where sunshine is abundant.

"Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal and other South East Asian nations are our target markets. Among these, Nepal is the main target as they use the waterways for transportation very effectively," he added. PTI PSK KRK JM SBT

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United Technologies Corporation provides technology products and services to building systems and aerospace industries worldwide. Its Otis segment designs, manufactures, sells, and installs passenger and freight elevators, escalators, and moving walkways; and offers modernization products to upgrade elevators and escalators, as well as maintenance and repair services. The company's Carrier segment provides heating, ventilating, air conditioning, refrigeration, fire, security, and building automation products, solutions, and services for commercial, government, infrastructure, residential, and refrigeration and transportation applications. This segment also offers building services, including audit, design, installation, system integration, repair, maintenance, and monitoring. Its Pratt & Whitney segment supplies aircraft engines for commercial, military, business jet, and general aviation markets; and provides aftermarket maintenance, repair, and overhaul, as well as fleet management services. The company's Collins Aerospace Systems segment provides electric power generation, power management, and distribution systems; air data and aircraft sensing systems; engine control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems; engine components; environmental control systems; fire and ice detection, and protection systems; propeller systems; engine nacelle systems; aircraft lighting, seating, and cargo systems; actuation and landing systems; space products and subsystems; avionics systems; flight controls, communications, navigation, oxygen, and training systems; food and beverage preparation, and storage and galley systems; and lavatory and wastewater management systems. The company offers its services through manufacturers' representatives, distributors, wholesalers, dealers, retail outlets, and sales representatives, as well as directly to customers. United Technologies Corporation was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut.
Baxter International Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops and provides a portfolio of healthcare products worldwide. The company offers peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis, and additional dialysis therapies and services; intravenous therapies, infusion pumps, administration sets, and drug reconstitution devices; remixed and oncology drug platforms, inhaled anesthesia and critical care products and pharmacy compounding services; parenteral nutrition therapies and related products; biological products and medical devices used in surgical procedures for hemostasis, tissue sealing and adhesion prevention; and continuous renal replacement therapies and other organ support therapies focused in the intensive care unit. It also provides connected care solutions, including devices, software, communications, and integration technologies; integrated patient monitoring and diagnostic technologies to help diagnose, treat, and manage a various illness and diseases, including respiratory therapy, cardiology, vision screening, and physical assessment; surgical video technologies, tables, lights, pendants, precision positioning devices and other accessories. In addition, the company offers contracted services to various pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies. Its products are used in hospitals, kidney dialysis centers, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, doctors' offices, and patients at home under physician supervision. The company sells its products through direct sales force, as well as through independent distributors, drug wholesalers, and specialty pharmacy or other alternate site providers in approximately 100 countries. It has an agreement with Celerity Pharmaceutical, LLC to develop acute care generic injectable premix and oncolytic molecules. Baxter International Inc. was incorporated in 1931 and is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.
By Press Trust of India: Mumbai, Apr 16 (PTI) NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats, which launched its first solar ferry in Kerala earlier this year, is eyeing Rs 28 crore revenue this fiscal -- a 14 times rise over 2016-17, a top company official said.

NavAlt, founded in 2013 is a joint venture between parent company Navgathi Marine Design and Construction with two French companies -- Alt.En Systems and EVE Systems.

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"In FY17, we clocked revenues of only Rs 2 crore. We already have orders for 10 boats in hand and generally the cost to client is around Rs 2-3 crore. So, we are expecting nearly Rs 28 crore revenue this fiscal," NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats Chief Executive, Sandith Thandasherry told PTI here.

Navgathi, which is into the construction of commercial boats and ferries, decided to develop solar-powered ferries and joined hands with the two French firms for the exercise, he said.

Thandasherry said the first solar ferry was launched in Kerala and now it is looking at opportunities in other states like West Bengal, Gujarat and Goa, among others.

He further said the company is also looking to introduce this solar ferry model in Asian countries where sunshine is abundant.

"Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal and other South East Asian nations are our target markets. Among these, Nepal is the main target as they use the waterways for transportation very effectively," he added. PTI PSK KRK JM SBT JMF

--- ENDS ---
The turkey

By: Alexis Bell WorldWideWeirdNews.com

(Scroll down for video) An elderly couple is angry after the husband lost his job as a Walmart greeter in Wisconsin.

88-year-old Bob Tallinger worked as a greeter at the Walmart store in Waukesha, when the turkey entered the store.

Tallinger did not stop the turkey from walking into the store. A short time later, the turkey walked out of the store without incident.

However, after the incident, Tallinger was fired from his job.

The 88-year-old man said that he loved his job as he got to know many people while he worked there for the past eight years.

Tallinger said that when asked why he was fired, his boss said that he should have helped get that turkey out of the store or he should at least have informed a manager over the unwelcomed visitor.

His wife, Janet Tallinger, said the termination of her husband is unfair.

aHe was hired to be a greeter and thats what he did. He never saw a rule book that said that if a wild turkey came in the store, he better run and get the manager,a she said.

Janet admitted that her as her husband aged he alost a little memory, but nevertheless, that hasnt prevented him from being an excellent greeter.a

Walmarts corporate headquarter issued a statement after people expressed their support for the elderly man.

aWe appreciate the publics concern and take this situation seriously. While we will not comment on HR matters, we can confirm Mr. Tallinger is no longer with the company,a Walmart said.
JACKSON, Wyo.  Teton County's sheriff is proposing an allowance for deputies who have been pushed out of the area because of the high cost of housing.

Sheriff Jim Whalen says only five of the department's 23 sworn deputies live in the valley, which leaves the county vulnerable during emergencies. In a letter to county commissioners, Whalen pointed to the department's inability to properly respond to a powerful snowstorm that closed the Snake River Canyon and Teton Pass for several days in February.

He says "Teton County needed to have a robust emergency response and we couldn't provide it."

The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports the sheriff has pushed for housing allowances in the past but has been unable to get approval.

Whalen says not incentivizing emergency personnel to live in the area puts people at risk.
After former BJP Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay made racist remarks to prove Indians are not racist and days after actor Abhay Deol called out stars who endorse fairness products actor Sonal Sehgal has started a fight against skin colour-based stereotypes in India.

By India Today Web Desk: Former BJP Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay, while taking part in a debate on Al Jazeera TV, and defending the attack on Nigerians in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida, tried to prove that Indians are not racist by making a racist remark, stabbing irony right in the heart.

Tarun Vijay said, "If we (Indians) were racist, why would we have the entire south (India)? Why do we live with them (if we are racist)? We have blacks, black people around us," made national headlines and received flak from social media. Tarun Vijay's racist remarks made a lot of Indians address the issue of racism. Two such people were model-turned-actor-turned-director Sonal Sehgal and her friend Tannishtha Chatterjee, also an actor. While talking about the deep-rooted racial prejudices in the Indian society, Sonal Sehgal realised she had contributed, knowingly or unknowingly, in spreading the same, for she had been the face of a product, a soap, that was being marketed as a fairness product.

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In a long Facebook post, Sonal said she realised how she failed millions of beautiful dusky women, shattered their confidence and sold the concept of "skin-whiteness = success", when her maid Gangu -- without who Sonal said she wouldn't have survived Mumbai life -- asked her which fairness cream she used.

Saying "Today I feel responsible for letting this kind of racism perpetrate in our society. For not speaking up. So I am finally uploading my voice on film. To try and make a difference. And correct a wrong," Sonal re-upped a short film she directed after she returned from a New York film school.

Here is the movie Sonal Sehgal made:

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida officials say the number of arson wildfires has increased nearly 70 percent compared to last year.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said Friday there have been more than 240 separate arson wildfires so far this year. Anyone convicted of arson, a felony, faces fines up to $5,000 and up to five years in prison.

In Florida's Panhandle, a St. George Island man was charged with reckless burning causing a wildfire last week that burned nearly 70 acres and caused the evacuation of 55 homes.

Authorities told The News Herald (http://bit.ly/2ohM5W5 ) the man would be responsible for the state's firefighting costs. He also faces 60 days in prison and a $500 fine if convicted of the second-degree misdemeanor. No structures were damaged and no injuries were reported.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The man facing murder charges in the death of 33-year-old Tiffany Nance now has a public defender and a judge has ordered that he not be released on bond.

29-year-old Bryon Heath Massey made his first court appearance in Leon County Saturday morning.

In late January, Leon County detectives say a local hunter was walking through an area in the Ochlocknee River Wildlife Management Area, where he found Nance's body.

Massey faces charges after the Leon County Sheriff's Office received information that showed DNA from Massey matching DNA from the crime scene.

Detectives discovered Massey had been wearing a GPA monitor around the time of the homicide, saying that monitor shows Massey at the crime scene on January 28th, and returning to the scene two days later.

Still no word on a motive or how Massey may have known Nance.

Massey was already in the Leon County Jail on other charges. He's also a registered sex offender and has been in and out of prison for the past decade.

According to the Florida Department of Corrections' website, Massey was charged with burglary and grand theft of a motor vehicle in 1997, staying behind bars until 2001.

In 2006, he was charged with a handful of crimes, including sexual battery. Massey was released in 2009 after serving time for those crimes, then wound up back behind bars, four months later.

Nance's family says her death has taken a huge toll.

"She's always had a relationship with her children, no matter what lifestyle she lived," said family member Vanessa Henry. "We returned her to Tallahassee here a few months ago in order for them to be closer with her and unfortunately the tragedy happened, but Im grateful that we were here and they were able to spend time with her. I'm expecting justice for her murder and there is a lot of pain still with the family."

Henry says the Nance family plans to seek the death penalty.

Stick with WTXL as we continue to cover this story.
ATLANTA (AP) - A 33-year-old Connecticut woman was killed when a valet failed to stop a moving car and struck six people.

Multiple media outlets report Ebony McCrae-Curley was standing with a group of people in Midtown Atlanta between two cars as one started to roll backward about 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

Police Lt. Bryan Paden says the valet forgot to put the car in park and jumped back into it to stop it, but inadvertently hit the gas instead of the brake.

There was no immediate word of any charges filed.
An all-party meeting called by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam deputy chief President MK Stalin, was conducted at the party's headquarters today. The attending parties called for a state-wide bandh to demand relief for Tamil Nadu's farmers on April 25, a day on which a group of delegates from various parties will try and meet PM Modi.

By Pramod Madhav: An all-party meeting called by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Working President MK Stalin, was conducted at the party's headquarters today. The attending parties passed a resolution calling for a state-wide bandh on April 25 to demand relief for Tamil Nadu's farmers.

Neither the two factions of the AIADMK, nor the BJP were invited to the meet, which was attended the Congress, CPM, CPI and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK). Stalin made it clear that his move wasn't to form a coalition against BJP but to only find a solution for the farmers' plight.

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The parties passed resolutions on waiving off farmer loans, implementing total prohibition, getting exclusion from NEET exams, and other issues. They also decided to hold a public meeting on April 22 in Chennai.

On April 25, a group of delegates from various parties will try and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The all-party meet also took up the issue of the water shortage Chennai is expected to face this summer, and passed a resolution seeking the government's intervention.

(Inputs from ANI)

ALSO READ | Delhi: Protesting Tamil Nadu farmers up the ante, cut mangalsutras

ALSO READ | To get an audience from Narendra Modi, Tamil Nadu farmers dress as women

ALSO WATCH | Tamil Nadu farmers now resort to cut Mangalsutras to get PM Modi's attention

--- ENDS ---
Police say a 26-year-old man was shot while sitting in a parked car in front of the 8th Street Market and Deli at at 315 N. Eighth St. in Yakima, Wash., April 15, 2017. (WILL MCDONALD / Yakima Herald-Republic)
You are the owner of this article.
Congressman Dan Newhouse heard from voters in Sunnyside on Thursday evening. Reporter Kaitlin Bain was there along with our digital team to document it for readers who could not attend.
The K Chandrasekhar Rao cabinet on Saturday cleared the Telangana State Reservation Bill 2017. In today's special assembly session, the Bill will be introduced in both the Houses of the Legislature.

By Ashish Pandey: Ahead of a crucial Assembly session, the Telangana cabinet on Saturday cleared the Telangana State Reservation Bill 2017.

The cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday afternoon, cleared 12% reservation for Muslims and 10% for Scheduled Tribes, based on their population in state, sources confirmed.

In today's special assembly session, the Bill will be introduced in both the Houses of the Legislature.

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During the 2014 Assembly election, the ruling Telangana Rastr Samiti promised it would provide 12% reservation to the state's Muslims.

Ahead of today's Assembly session - and at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party and its affiliated wings have announced a protest against the TRS government - security has been increased across Hyderabad, Telangana's capital.

Hyderabad Police took several individuals into preventive custody, after the state's DGP held a security review meeting with ADG (L&O), Hyderabad's Commissioner of Police, IG (Intelligence) and other senior police officers.

ALSO READ | Telangana: Ahead of special Assembly session, Cabinet meeting today

ALSO READ | On Ambedkar Jayanti, Chandrababu Nadu's son Nara Lokesh greeted audience on Babasaheb's 'death anniversary'

ALSO WATCH | Amaravati will be India's best city: Chandrababu Naidu at India Today Conclave South

--- ENDS ---
Sheep ranching has been in the Martinez for nearly a century. Simon Martinez Sr. emigrated from Spain and started the business in 1926. Now his grandson Mark Martinez and family run the last remaining large-scale sheep operation, of its kind, in Washington State.

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The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court extended on Saturday the remand of Jamil Tamimi, 57, who murdered the 21-year-old British echange student Hannah Bladon in a stabbing attack on Friday.

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Tamimi, who has a history of mental problems, is set to meet with the district psychiatrist for a mental evaluation.

Jamil Tamimi (Photo: Liran Levi)

When asked why he committed the murder, Tamimi claimed that he "didn't mean it," saying "I apologize" to Bladon's family.

During his questioning, Tamimi revealed that he planned the attack beforehand and had purchased the knife in the Old City. He also confessed that he carried out the attack hoping that the soldiers would shoot and kill him.

As part of his mental problems, Tamimi had already attempted to kill himself this year by swallowing a razor blade while in a psychiatric hospital, from which he was recently released, according to the Shin Bet.

In 2011, he was convicted of molesting his daughter.

Bladon's resuscitation attempts and Tamimi's arrest

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During the deliberations on his remand, a police representative noted that the suspect got out of the psychiatric hostel in which he was staying prior to the attack.

Tamimi's attorney raised questions as to how he was allowed to leave, noting that Tamimi's behavior became more aggressive and hostile towards the hostel's residents. "Who should be held responsible?" the attorney asked.

The scene of the attack

The attorney added that the hostel called Tamimi's children to inform them that he left, to which they responded with indifference, saying they did not care and told the hostel to "do whatever you want with him."





Hannah Bladon

According to the Shin Bet, this is not isolated incident in which mentally unwell Palestinians have carried out terrorist attacks in the hope of being killed by officers or soldiers.

This is another incident of many in which a Palestinian suffering from mental health or personal issues has chosen to carry out an attack as a way out of his problems, the Shin Bet statement said.

(Translated & edited by Lior Mor)
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has lambasted foreign countries for attempting to influence Turkey's historic referendum as he cast his vote in the southern province of Antalya.

Cavusoglu said some "from abroad" ''tried to tell the Turkish nation what to do. They took sides but today the decision belongs to our nation."

He did not specify who he was referring to, but tensions have been high between Turkey and some European countries, particularly Germany and the Netherlands. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan branded both countries Nazis for not allowing Turkish ministers to campaign for a "yes" vote there.

The Netherlands withdrew Cavusoglu's landing permission in March, barring him from addressing expatriate Turks there. Turkey said it would impose sanctions and halted high-level political discussions.

Polls opened Sunday in a crucial referendum on whether to increase presidential powers.
Roommates and friends of Hannah Bladon , who was murdered in a brutal stabbing attack on Jerusalems light rail on Friday, are still struggling to come to terms with the fact that her life has been taken.

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Bladon was living in dormitories at Hebrew University while on a semester-long program from her home institution of Birmingham University where she was studying religious-studies and archaeology.

Hannah Bladon: 'She always loved animals.'

She shared an apartment with Victoria and Christina from Germany, who have both expressed their inability to process the horrifying reality that has befallen them and Bladons family.

For Victoria, the murder was particularly terrifying given that she was also on a different Jerusalem tram during the stabbing one station ahead of Hannah.

The moment news broke of the stabbing, Victoria sent a message via Facebook to Hannah: How are you Hannah? I saw that there was an attack on the light rail. Be careful, she wrote, unaware that Hannahs life had already been taken.

I heard immediately that something happened, but I never thought that Hannah would be involved in anything, Victoria told Ynet, pointing at the belongings of her murdered roommate in the apartment. It is really hard to look at her things.

Hannah (in the pink t-shirt) with her friends.

Christina recounted her final moments with Hannah. On Friday morning I left the apartment at around 10am and went to Tiberias. I wished Hannah a happy Passover and she did the same and said that she was going to travel to celebrate in the Old City. That was the last time that we saw each other. She never returned from there.

Given the shock that has overwhelmed Victoria and Christina, the two are still unsure as to whether they intend to remain in Israel and continue their studies.

I am not sure I will continue with my studies, Chirstina said. I am really in shock and I am waiting to hear what the university says about our security. The first instinct is to fly back to the family in Germany, to hug them and tell them I am ok. On the other hand, I dont want this terrible attack to stop me and spoil my studies.

Echoing the sentiments of Bladons family, Christina described her old roommate as being full of compassion and caring toward people and animals, recalling how she would feed all the cats in the student village with food she purchased with her own money.

Scene of the attack (Photo: EPA)

She always said that she wants to save money to travel to Israel. Christina went on to describe Hannah as such a wonderful person, who had a hobby of walking around the apartment singing.

Victoria also emphasized that Hannah would always do whatever she could to help her friends.

She was an extremely relaxed person. I could look her in the eye and just relax. I cannot believe this happened to her, of all people. I cant digest it, she bemoaned.

Following the attack, Bladons family released a statement announcing that they are devastated by this senseless and tragic attack.

Bladon is one of several foreign nationals to have been slain in a stabbing attack.

In March 2016 for instance, Bashar Masalha went on a stabbing spree in Jaffa, Tel Aviv that ended with the death of American tourist, US Army veteran, and West Point graduate Taylor Force.

(Translated and edited by Alexander J. Apfel)
An American citizen was zapped with a taser gun and arrested at the end of last week after he attacked a guard at the entrance to the Almagor moshav in northern Israel.

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The incident ended after a short standoff with the 31-year-old, during which police called on him, mainly in Hebrew, to drop the long metal bar he was brandishing while repeatedly screaming Fire!

The footage captured on camera attests to a police statement in which he was described as being detached from reality.

Man screaming 'Fire' while brandishing a metal bar. (:  )

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Police made their way to the scene of the unusual incident, which took place overnight Thursday, after receiving an emergency call reporting that the guard had been attacked and lightly wounded.

After assaulting the guard, the apparently deranged individual caused damage to a vehicle nearby before fleeing into the forest next to the moshav.

The police officers immediately began scouring the area and managed to locate the suspect when they heard him screaming the word Fire!

After closing in on the man, who continued to scream In the name of the holy spirit, Jesus Christ...Fire! while intermittently making monster-like noises as he appeared to bolt out an imaginary flame, he began to randomly lunge at the officers with the metal bar.

He refused to heed the warnings of the officers to drop the bar and after he failed to respond to multiple calls and warnings, they fired a taser gun at him.

Photo: Police Spokesperson's Unit

Despite being dropped to the ground, the man managed to quickly get up and recover, prompting police to charge at him and wrestle him back down.

According to the findings of an initial police investigation, the man arrived in Israel two weeks ago for a holiday with his wife and son.

In her testimony, his wife said that he had told her that Jesus had revealed himself to him, and instructed him to destroy the family credit cards before he made his way north.

He was brought before a judge in the Nazareth Magistrates Court on Friday who ordered that he remain in custody until Tuesday.

(Translated and edited by Alexander J. Apfel)
Hopes of finding the three Israelis who went missing in the Kinneret last week are rapidly dwindling, as the intense search enters its fifth successive day without any sign that they are alive.

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Itamar Ohana, 19 from Kiryat Shmona, Nachman Itach, 21 from Beitar Illit and Liron Karadi, 17 from Or Akiva, vanished in Israels northern water jewel last Wednesday, after they entered the lake on inflatable rafts and were then swept away by the winds.

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, who visited the area of the search on Sunday morning, stated that it was highly unlikely that the three missing individuals were alive. The working assumption is that the missing individuals are likely not alive, he said.

Police Chief Roni Alsheikh briefed on search (Photo: Police Spokesperson's Unit)

Once again, authorities deployed the full might of the various rescue teams at their disposal, including the Israel Border Police, the IDF, the Fire Services, ZAKA diving units, Golan Heights rescue crews and other search and rescue teams, frantically searching for the three missing people.

Alsheikh received a briefing on the development of the ongoing rescue efforts from the Commander of the Northern District Alon Asur during a visit to the nearby Ein Gev Kibbutz.

The three missing young men

On Saturday, Asur met with family members of the missing three, who are waiting in the area, desperately hoping and praying that their loved ones are found and brought back to safety.

Despite the gloomy evaluations, Alsheikh said that the search would continue with undiminished vigor, both below water and above water.

Photo: Police Spokesperson's Unit

He went on to say that The sonar from the navy, which is now placed there, will constitute a significant enhancing of the scouring capabilities in the area and we hope that the naval patrols and divers, with the assistance of the navy, will locate the missing people.

Nevertheless, Alsheikh emphasized that the rescue mission could continue for a number of weeks, given the comparatively vast stretch of the Kinneret.

Photo: Police Spokesperson's Unit

From past experience, under-water searches in a large area can take weeks. Thats why with all the difficulties for the family in this tragedy, we need to give the combined forces of sea patrol the required time. We will continue to make every effort in order to locate the missing people and bring them back to their families, he promised.

Last week, Itamars brother, Hananel, called on the public to pray for his brothers safety. Dear friends, my dear brother has drowned in the Kinneret and has not been found so far. Please pray that he be saved, that he return to us, the plea read.

He also urged more members of the public to join the rescue operation and by Thursday afternoon, 250 people had answered his call. The more volunteers there are to help in the search, the more likely it is to find him. Please, people of Israel, help us. We lack spiritual strength.

(Translated and edited by Alexander J. Apfel)
Prime Minister Modi earlier said that even Muslim communities have marginalised and it was the duty of the government to address their concerns.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Dubbing triple talaq a "bad social practice", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said such practices can be ended by social awakening but stressed that the BJP didn't want a conflict in the society for this.

His observation came during his concluding remarks at the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) two-day National Executive meeting here.

"As far as social justice is concerned, our Muslim sisters should also get justice. There should not be injustice to them. No one should be exploited," Union Minister Nitin Gadkari quoted Modi as saying.

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According to Gadkari, Modi added, "We should not allow conflict in the society. We don't want any conflict in Muslim society over the issue. We need to end such bad practices by awakening the society."

ADDRESSING BACKWARD MUSLIMS

Earlier, making an intervention during the discussion over the resolution passed on a new OBC commission, the Prime Minister said that even Muslim communities have backwards and marginalised and it was the duty of the government address their concerns.

Sources said that Modi asked the party leaders and workers to hold district-level conferences over the issues of backward Muslims and women.

Gadkari said Modi in his speech also expressed his desire to rid India of social and economic inequalities.

Accusing the Opposition of creating manufactured issues in a "factory", Modi said, "It seems that Opposition manufactures these issue in some factories. During Delhi elections, church attacks was highlighted and during the Bihar polls 'Award Wapsi' was the issue. And right now, it is the EVM."

The Prime Minister also asked the party workers not to deviate from their path and work with "positive approach".

He also called on the BJP leaders to maintain caution while making statements and to not get carried away by emotions and make untoward remarks.

Watch the video here

Also read: At BJP national executive meet, PM Modi bats for backward Muslims

Also read: To win 2019 election, Modi government can fight war with Pakistan, says Digvijaya Singh

--- ENDS ---
A young Saudi woman's plea for help after she was stopped in an airport in the Philippines en route to Australia where she planned to seek asylum has triggered a firestorm on social media and drawn attention to the plight of female runaways.

For runaway Saudi women, fleeing can be a matter of life and death, and they are almost always doing so to escape male relatives. Under Saudi Arabia's conservative interpretation of Islamic law, a male guardianship system bars women from traveling abroad, obtaining a passport, marrying or even leaving prison without the consent of a male relative.

The mystery around what triggered Dina Ali Lasloom's cry for help has only added to concerns for her safety. In an online video, the 24-year-old says her passport was taken from her at an airport in the Philippines on her way to Australia last week.
IDF's new Cyber Division is starting to pick up the pace of its defense activities, against a silent and deadly threat that grows day by day, threatening to paralyze the Iron Dome air defense system, disrupt tanks' and fighter planes' computer systems, or even steal sensitive classified information.

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IDF Cyber Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Yaron Rozen, a former Apache pilot, spoke with Ynet about the complexities and importance of the unit's operations.

Rozen (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

"Israel must prepare for this front strategically. It's not something that's going to wait for us, it's a global phenomenon thats changing humanity," said Rozen. "The changes in this era are exponential, so that you might not even know what will happen tomorrow.

"The cyber front ignores world order. It has no limits, no rules. Israel is part of this new global game, and only now are other countries starting to grasp the military and political strength that could be gained by proficiency in cyber warfare."

Reading between the lines, one could understand that he was referring to international incidents that changed the reality of billions, created or affected by cyber warfare. Such incidents include claims of hacking against the US's democratic party during the elections, to stealing classified information and implanting it online as "fake news" to influence Geo-political developments.

Photo: IDF

"Its a war of information. How hard is it to hack into your email account, steal sensitive information you do not wish to be public and pressure you into doing something specific?" wondered Rozen aloud. "What if ISIS uses an Israeli server, a civilian one, among many others we have across the country, for a terror attack?"

So why not formulate a national treaty, like the one against the usage of chemical weapons?

"This whole front resides in the civilian world, not in the military one. Look how long it took nations across the globe to sign the Kyoto Treaty, which deals with global warming and affects everyone. The Cyber nations are not just the superpowers, but huge international corporations like Google, Facebook and Kaspersky.

"We want to delay and prevent wars, and cyber defense helps immensely with that." Rozen avoided elaborating on the subject, but admitted that cyber defense is not always reactive, but sometimes an active undertaking.

Photo: IDF

"Cyber defense is not like guarding a mall. There's a continuous stream of operational cyber activity, there are joint missions kinetic reality (referring to the physical reality that includes the Israeli Air Force, the Navy and so forthed).

"Nonetheless, we should be careful, because Israel is a technological power, everything is 'cyber' here. If you would have measured Israel by its cyberspace, it would be one of the biggest nations in the world.

"With that understood, we should keep in mind that if your house is made of glass, you should best avoid getting rocks thrown at it."

The Cyber Division's headache begins with the fact that all of the military's combat systems are computerized: from the terminals in the entrances to IDF bases and the computer that gives the order to launch the Arrow air-defense missiles, to the Merkava (chariot) tank's operating systems and the control and supervision systems through which the General Staff guides Israel's military operations.

Photo: IDF

Rozen, though, is not too worried. "The IDF's operation systems were designed in a way that they cannot be easily compromised. Even so, those with the capabilities can hack even operation systems."

Then why shouldnt we just have a full scale cyber-assault in the next war? Like paralyzing Lebanon without bombing bridges or neighborhoods.

"Cyber capabilities empower physical capabilities, but even if, let's say, you shut down a country's street lights control system, is that an attack against its sovereignty? Does it justify war? Who is going to declare war on whom? Will the ambassador be called to be reprimanded?

"There are no rules on that front. It's not unfounded to claim that when deliberating an attack, a question riseshow should we attack the target? By plane? or remotely, by a cyber attack?"

Photo: IDF

Rozen is not blind to the rising threats by terrorist organizations on the cyber front. "Hezbollah also invests a lot in Cyber warfare, because it is essentially an extension of Iran, and it's not stopping. Out assumption is that whatever Iran has on the cyber front, Hezbollah has it, too."

Is it possible that in the next war your unit will block a massive cyber attack on Israel, but you won't be able to identify the assailant?

"That is very possible, and it is also possible that we'll know who it was, but won't have the evidence to back up our claims, or that I'll have it without them knowing I do. The cyber threat is like the threat of steep trajectory fireit can cover any part of Israel."

(Translated & edited by Lior Mor)
US Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that North Korea's "provocation" underscored the risks faced by American and South Korean service members, hours after the North conducted a failed missile launch shortly before Pence's arrival.

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Pence landed in South Korea at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia and was quickly confronted with the stakes facing the United States as Pyongyang seeks to flex its muscles around the birth anniversary of the country's late founder and advance the regime's nuclear and missile capabilities.

US VP Mike Pence (R) with wife Karen (Photo: Reuters)

While Pence was aboard Air Force Two flying over the Bering Sea, a North Korean missile exploded during launch on Sunday, US and South Korean officials said, representing a high-profile failure that came as a powerful US aircraft supercarrier approaches the Korean Peninsula.

Pence and his wife arrive in Seoul, South Korea (Photo: Reuters)

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After arriving in Seoul, the vice president placed a wreath at Seoul National Cemetery and then worshipped with military personnel at an Easter church service at the US Army Garrison Yongsan. During a fellowship meal after the services, he said the tensions on the Korean peninsula had put into sharp focus the importance of the joint US-South Korean mission.

Pence and wife Karen arrive in Seoul, South Korea (Photo: EPA)

"This morning's provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world," said Pence, who was introduced by Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of US Forces Korea. "Your willingness to step forward, to serve, to stand firm without fear, inspires the nation and inspires the world."

Pence told the military members that he had spoken twice with President Donald Trump during the day.

Pence said that under Trump's leadership, "our resolve has never been stronger, our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger and with your help and God's help, freedom will ever prevail on this peninsula."

Trump has suggested that the US will take a tougher stance against North Korea, telling reporters last week: "North Korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of." He has repeatedly said that if China, North Korea's dominant trading partner, is unwilling to do more to pressure North Korea, the US might take the matter into its own hands.

Photo: Reuters

Along with the deployment of the Naval aircraft carrier and other vessels into waters off the Korean Peninsula, thousands of US and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponry were also deployed last month in their biggest-ever joint military exercises. That led North Korea to issue routine threats of attacks on its rivals if they show signs of aggression.

A White House foreign policy adviser told reporters aboard Air Force Two that the type of missile that North Korea tried to fire on Sunday was medium-range, and that it exploded about 4 to 5 seconds after it was launched.

According to the adviser, the test had been expected and the US had good intelligence both before and after the launch. The adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's initial understanding of the launch, said there was no expected response from the Trump administration because there was no need for the US to reinforce the failure.

The official said that had it been a nuclear test, "other actions would have been taken by the US"

North Korea leader Kim Jong-un (Photo: Reuters)

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any moment.

Despite North Korea's provocations, US officials have said that the US doesn't intend to use military force against North Korea in response to either a nuclear test or a missile launch.

After a two-month policy review, officials settled on a policy dubbed "maximum pressure and engagement," US officials said Friday. The administration's immediate emphasis, the officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.





North Korean army demonstration (Photo: Reuters)

North Korea displays their missiles in a show of power (Photo: Reuters)

The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly on the results of the policy review and requested anonymity.

Pence will be tasked with explaining the policy in meetings with leaders in South Korea and Japan at the start of his trip, which will also include stops in Indonesia and Australia. He will also aim to reassure allies in South Korea and Japan that the US will take appropriate steps to defend them against North Korean aggression.

Pence's first trip to South Korea carries personal meaning as well. He noted to the soldiers that his late father, Edward, served in the US Army during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star on April 15, 195364 years to the day of the vice president's departure for South Korea. Pence displays in his office his father's Bronze Star and a photograph of his father receiving the honor.
700 Security prisoners belonging to Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a small number of Hamas prisoners will begin a hunger strike on Sunday night, with Palestinian Prisoner Day falling on Monday. Earlier Sunday, Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Minister of Information Gilad Erdan (Likud) held an assessment conference call on the matter with the Israel Prison Service (IPS), the police, the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet and the Health Ministry.

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Convicted Palestinian terrorist and prisoner Marwan Barghouti is thought to be behind the strike, as well as the protest leading up to it. As part of said protest, the Palestinian prisoners are demanding that the Israel Prisons Service install public telephones in their wards, as they are installed in criminal prisoner wards.

Marwan Barghouti

The Palestinian prisoners direct their second demand at the Red Cross, requesting that they once again receive two visits of family members each month. This follows a change in policy from nine months ago, when the Red Cross reduced family visits to Palestinian prisoners from twice to once a month, apparently due to monetary issues (the Red Cross finances the buses that drive family members to the prisons, picking them up from the West Bank and Gaza Strip).

The prisoners also demand that Israel not block any first or second-degree family members from visiting them. They also demand longer visitations, from 45 minutes to an hour and a half at a time, in addition to being allowed to take photographs with their families once every three months.

Certain Fatah members have been critical of the strike, as some see it as a power play by Barghouti. In recent months, Barghouti has complained that he and his camp have been shut out of positions of power after the seventh Fatah convention, in which he won first place on the party's list.

The prisoners who announced they will join the strike are mainly from Hadarim Prison, where Barghouti is serving his sentence. It is possible that the impact of the strike will be felt more in the West Bank than inside the prison, especially since it will begin on the night prior to Palestinian Prisoner's Day (April 17). The contacts between the prisoners and IPS have continued and are due to continue even after the strike begins.

For Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the strike's timing is problematic, since it precedes his upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump in early May. The Palestinian leadership sitting in Ramallah has no interest to ignite the area at present, while they still have hope for the Trump government.

'The strike is motivated by internal Palestinian political motives'

In recent months, Minister Erdan has assessed how prepared all the relevant Israeli bodies are to such a strike. This included discussions with the IDF and the Ministry of Health over the use of medical services provided to the IPS, sp as to prevent the hunger strikers from being taken to civilian hospitals, as required by the Ministry of Health. As part of these preparations, Erdan ordered the establishment of a field hospital to provide a response to the hunger strikers.

Erdan also directed the IPS to carry out intensive searches in the coming days to prevent all illegal communications between prisoners staying in different prisons, in addition to carrying out prisoner transfers in accordance to the IPS's discretion.

According to Erdan, "Barghouti's strike is motivated by internal Palestinian political motives and therefore includes unreasonable demands regarding prisoner conditions. I instructed the IPS to act in every possible way to contain the strike inside the prisons and the Israel Police to prepare to offer the IPS the necessary assistance under any scenario that may develop. "
On Sunday, voters decided to approve sweeping constitutional changes that will change the country's system of government from parliamentary to presidential, thus granting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan even more authority. The changes comprise one of the most radical political reforms since the Turkish republic was established in 1923 and could see the 63-year-old president remain in power until 2029.

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With 99 percent of the ballots already counted, the referendum won 51.3 percent of the votes, with 48.7 percent voting against it.

Referendum supporters celebrate results ()

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President Erdogan briefly struck a conciliatory tone in a speech after following the announcement referendum results, saying there were no losers or winners in the race.

Erdogan initially said after unofficial results showed the referendum narrowly passing that "no matter the color of their ballot, I thank every single individual of our nation who went to the ballot boxes and claiming their will."

Celebrating the referendum results in Turkey (Photo: EPA)

But the appeasement was short-lived.

Addressing crowds outside his Istanbul residence minutes later, Erdogan came out against critics whom he said "belittled" the result, telling them their efforts would be "in vain."

Erdogan also told supporters chanting for the death penalty to be reinstated that he would discuss the issue with other political leaders and may even seek a new referendum.





President Erdogan and wife Emine wave to the crowd following referendum victory (Photo: AP)

Among other changes, the amendments give the president the power to appoint ministers and government officials, to name half the members of the country's highest judicial body, to issue decrees and to declare states of emergency.

Erdogan votes on referendum

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Photo: Reuters

Photo: Reuters

The outcome will also shape Turkey's strained relations with the European Union. The NATO member state has curbed the flow of migrantsmainly refugees from war-torn in Syria or Iraqinto the bloc, but Erdogan says he may review the deal following the vote.

Photo: Reuters

In Turkey's three biggest citiesIstanbul, Izmir and the capital Ankarathe "No" camp appeared set to prevail narrowly, according to Turkish television stations.

Supporters and detractors in Turkey reacts to referendum results

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yldrm has declared a victory based on unofficial results for backers of a referendum to greatly expand the powers of the country's president.

Pro-Erdogan Turks celebrate in the street (Photo: AFP)

Addressing thousands of flag-waving supporters on Sunday night, Yldrm said the "unofficial' final result is 'yes'" for the constitutional referendum.

Turkish immigrants await referendum results in Berlin (Photo: AFP)

Yldrm spoke on the balcony of his governing AK Party headquarters in Ankara, addressing a crowd of about 3,000 people who waved flags and chanted the name of the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish immigrants in Berlin await results (Photo: AFP)

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a group of supporters in his hometown of Antalya on Sunday: "As of now, there is a truly new Turkey. There will be stability and trust in the new Turkey."

The leader of Turkey's main nationalist party has declared victory for the referendum to expand the powers of the country's presidency.

Nationalist Action Party head Devlet Bahceli said in a statement that Turkish voters chose of their free will to move the country from a parliamentary to a presidential system of government.

Bahceli called the outcome "a very important success; a win that makes neglect and denial impossible."

He says Turkey rejected international "pressure, blackmail, imposition, force and threats by the whole world to put the 'no' choice forward."

The party, the fourth largest in parliament, backed President Erdogan and the governing Justice and Development Party in their push to change Turkey's parliamentary system into a presidential one.

Erdogan votes for the referendum (Photo: Reuters)

Residents in several neighbourhoods of Turkey's largest city Istanbul, however, were far from pleased. Upon learning the referendum results, many began to bang on pots and pans from their windows, in a traditional form of protest.

Residents protested in at least four districts of Istanbul, witnesses said. Video and pictures posted on social media showed small pockets of protesters taking to the streets in some areas.

Photo: Reuters

Germany weighs in

As those in favor and against the referendum in Turkey continue to express their opinions, officials in Germany mostly voice a sigh of relief at tis completion. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Chief of Staff Peter Altmaier said the close outcome for Turkey's constitutional referendum shows there is "lively political debate" in the country.

Altmaier told ARD television on Sunday: "I think what we can say this evening is that the result was closer than some people feared."

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel added his own opinion, saying that it is "good" that the referendum, which was so hard-fought in Turkey and in Germany, is now over.

Erdogan greets his supporters during a rally leading up to the referendum (Photo: AP)

Earlier in the day, a crowd chanted "Recep Tayyip Erdogan" and applauded as the president shook hands and greeted people after voting in a school near his home in Istanbul. His staff handed out toys for children in the crowd.

"God willing I believe our people will decide to open the path to much more rapid development," Erdogan said in the polling station after casting his vote. "I believe in my people's democratic common sense."

The opposition People's Republican Party (CHP) said a last-minute decision by the electoral board to accept unstamped ballots as valid votes put the vote in question. Following the vote, it demanded that 37 percent of the votes be recounted.

"We will pursue a legal battle. If the irregularities are not fixed, there will be a serious legitimacy discussion," CHP deputy chairman Bulent Tezcan said.

A divisive vote

The referendum has bitterly divided the nation. Erdogan and his supporters say the changes are needed to amend the current constitution, written by generals following a 1980 military coup, confront the security and political challenges Turkey faces, and avoid the fragile coalition that have destabilized past governments.

"This is our opportunity to take back control of our country," said self-employed Bayram Seker, 42, after voting "Yes" in Istanbul.

"I don't think one-man rule is such a scary thing. Turkey has been ruled in the past by one man," he said, referring to modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Opponents say it is a step toward greater authoritarianism in a country where some 47,000 people have been jailed pending trial and 120,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs in a crackdown following a failed coup last July, drawing criticism from Turkey's Western allies and human rights groups.

"I voted 'No' because I don't want this whole country and its legislative, executive and judiciary ruled by one man. This would not make Turkey stronger or better as they claim. This would weaken our democracy," said Hamit Yaz, 34, a ship's captain, after voting in Istanbul.

Relations between Turkey and Europe hit a low during the referendum campaign when EU countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, barred Turkish ministers from holding rallies in support of the changes. Erdogan called the moves "Nazi acts" and said Turkey could reconsider ties with the European Union after many years of seeking EU membership.

On Saturday, Erdogan held four rallies in Istanbul, urging supporters to turn out in large numbers and saying it "will be a turning point for Turkey's political history."

Erdogan and the AK Party enjoyed a disproportionate share of media coverage in the buildup to the vote, overshadowing the secular main opposition CHP and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has accused Erdogan of seeking a "one-man regime," and said the proposed changes would put the country in danger.

Proponents of the reform argue that it would end the current "two-headed system" in which both the president and parliament are directly elected, a situation they argue could lead to deadlock. Until 2014, presidents were chosen by parliament.

The government says Turkey, faced with conflict to the south in Syria and Iraq, and a security threat from ISIS and PKK militants, needs strong and clear leadership to combat terrorism.

Erdogana popular and polarizing figure

Rising from humble origins to take the helm of Turkey's government in 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan quickly attracted a fervent following. But Erdogan, who served as prime minister and then president, also became feared and hated by many who saw him as an increasingly autocratic leader seeking to erode the country's secular traditions by imposing his conservative, religious views.

Erdogan served three consecutive terms as prime minister as head of his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party, before becoming Turkey's first directly elected president in 2014.

Supporters found in him a man who gave a voice to the working- and middle-class religious Turks who long had felt marginalized by the country's Western-leaning elite.

He was seen to have ushered in a period of stability and economic prosperity, building roads, schools, hospitals and airports in previously neglected areas.

"He's a real leadership figure because he is not a politician that comes from the outside. He comes from the street," Birol Akgun, an international relations expert at Ankara's Yildirim Beyazit University, said. "He has 40 years of political experience and is very strong in practical terms."

But with each election win, Erdogan grew more powerful, and, his critics say, more authoritarian.

His election campaigns have been forceful and bitter, with Erdogan lashing out at his opponents, accusing them of endangering the country and even supporting terrorism. After surviving an attempted coup last July, Erdogan launched a wide-ranging crackdown on followers of his former ally, Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Erdogan blames Gulen , who lives in the United States, and his supporters for plotting the coup, an allegation Gulen has denied.

The crackdown saw roughly 100,000 people lose their jobs, including judges, lawyers, teachers, journalists, military officers and police. More than 40,000 people have been arrested and jailed, including pro-Kurdish lawmakers.

Hundreds of non-governmental organizations and news outlets have been shut down, as have many businesses, from schools to fertility clinics.

Erdogan has also blasted European countries, accusing authorities in the Netherlands and Germany of being Nazis for refusing to allow Turkish ministers to campaign for Sunday's referendum among expatriate voters.

Erdogan's critics fear that approving the referendum will cement his grip on power within a system that has practically no room for checks and balances, opposition or dissent.

"One person will determine national security policies, according to the constitutional changes. Why one person? What if he makes a mistake? What if he is deceived? What if he is bought?" said Kemal Klcdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party, during a "no" rally in Ankara Saturday.

"Surrendering the Republic of Turkey to one person is a heavy sin. It's very heavy," Klcdaroglu continued. "Can there be a state without rights and justice?"

As prime minister, Erdogan garnered support from Turkey's Kurdish minority, which is estimated to make up about one-fifth of the country's population of 80 million people. He eased restrictions on the right to be educated in Kurdish and to give children Kurdish names.

He also oversaw a fragile cease-fire in the fight between the state and Kurdish rebels in the country's southeast, a conflict that has claimed an estimated 40,000 lives since 1984.

But the cease-fire collapsed in 2015, and about 2,000 people have died since then, including nearly 800 members of the security forces. With renewed fighting in the southeastern predominantly Kurdish areas, it is unclear whether Erdogan still would have much support from the Kurdish community.

Erdogan has promised the new presidential system will herald a period of stability and prosperity for Turkey, a country that has suffered several coups in the past few decades.

"He is a harsh leader in character," said Ankara academic Akgun, who used to head a pro-government NGO. "But in Turkey, a country that has so many problems, in societies like ours, the image of strong leadership is necessary to command both fear and respect and trust in society."
The death toll from the collapse of a massive garbage mound near Sri Lanka's capital rose to 26 on Sunday, and activists said 20 more people could still be buried underneath the debris.

Maj. Gen. Sudantha Ranasinghe, who is heading the rescue efforts, said authorities were struggling to determine exactly how many people were trapped under the debris. Lawyer and activist Nuwan Bopage, who worked with local residents in protests to have the garbage dump removed, said about 20 were trapped.

Military spokesman Roshan Seneviratne said 26 deaths have been reported so far and military personnel were still searching the site in Meetotamulla, a town outside Colombo, the capital. They were speaking to survivors to determine how many were missing, he said.
Yogi Adityanath's drive against illegal slaughterhouses, anti-Romeo squads, ban on tobacco in government offices were voted as the most popular decisions in the survey.

By Press Trust of India: Nearly a month into his tenure, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's popularity has soared with his swoop on illegal abattoirs and "anti-Romeo" drives capturing the public imagination, a survey has claimed.

The decisions, that critics said were components of a larger saffron project, enjoy a high degree of popularity among the people, suggested the survey that was conducted among 2,000 respondents spread across 20 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

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Yogi Adityanath's drive against illegal slaughterhouses, anti-Romeo squads, action against VIP culture and ban on paan masala and tobacco in government offices came up as the most popular decisions in the survey conducted by Gaon Connection, a rural media platform.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SURVEY'S FINDINGS: While the crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses got 38.1 per cent approval, the formation of the anti-Romeo squads was hailed by around 25.4 per cent of the respondents, Gaon Connection said in a statement. Among women, the anti-Romeo drive emerged as the most popular decision with around 37 per cent approving it, despite instances of alleged police excesses and gender activists highlighting its adverse impact on autonomy and the right to make choices. On the other hand, the action against slaughterhouses have had a debilitating impact on the state's meat industry. It has also reportedly emboldened cow vigilantes and fringe outfits active in this field. Overall, decisions taken by the Adityanath-led BJP government have 62 per cent approval ratings while 71 per cent citizens feel the firebrand Hindu leader, seen as a highly polarising figure in the past by his critics, is working in the "right direction", the survey said. "The districts where the survey was carried out ranged from Lalitpur in the underdeveloped Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh's southwest to Sonbhadra in the remote southeast, from Meerut in the west to Siddharthnagar in the east," Gaon Connection said. Yogi Adityanath's stunning elevation as chief minister, following BJP's landslide victory where it won 325 seats in the 403-member state assembly, was seen as a move to stamp Hindu supremacy and, in this context, many saw the long shadow of his past in his first few decisions.

Source: Gaon Connection (PTI)

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Washington: At least 15 people were arrested after thousands of protesters took to the streets across the US to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

The arrests took place on Saturday in Berkeley, California, when fistfights broke out between supporters and opponents of the President, Efe news reported.

Two people were also injured in the fights.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and quell the fights, reporting that they had found some people in possession of prohibited items including a knife, helmets, clubs and a fake pistol.

Local authorities knew that there would be two demonstrations on Saturday both for and against Trump, while protests elsewhere in the country, however, were reported to be generally peaceful.

The "Tax March" movement had called for protests to begin at noon, coinciding with the day by which Americans traditionally must have filed their tax returns, though this year because April 15 fell on the weekend and Monday is a local holiday in Washington, taxpayers have until Tuesday, April 18, to file their returns.

The largest march took place in Washington, where protesters marched from the Capitol to the White House, but sizable anti-Trump demonstrations were also staged in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Austin, Texas.

In New York, hundreds of people carrying anti-Trump signs and effigies of the President gathered in downtown Bryant Park, from where they marched to Trump Tower.

Activists in Florida held dozens of marches around the state, in front of the condominiums at Trump Plaza in West Palm Beach and the entrance of his Mar-a-Lago mansion, where he is spending the weekend with his family.

The movement calls for "transparency" and complains in a statement on its Web site that "despite intense public pressure, President Trump has not yet done so (published his tax returns) - breaking with 40 years of precedent in the process."

The statement rejects the Trump government's excuse that "people don't care," and recalls an ABC/Washington Post survey that showed 74 per cent of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, want to know the president's tax history.

During Trump's presidential campaign, he kept postponing the release of his tax returns with the excuse that they were under audit.

Two days after he entered the White House, Presidential Adviser Kellyanne Conway said Trump was not going to disclose his tax situation because it became obvious during the campaign that US citizens really did not care about the matter.
Kathmandu: Nepal and China on Sunday began their first-ever joint military exercise with a special focus on combating terror, a move that could make India uneasy.

The 10-day-long military drill "Sagarmatha Friendship 2017" that will last till April 25 is being organised by the two countries as part of their preparedness against terrorism that has posed as a serious security threat globally, the Nepal Army said.

Sagarmatha is the Nepali name of Mt Everest, the world's highest peak.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army's squad has already arrived in the capital to participate in the military exercise that will focus on counter terrorism and disaster response, it said.

The joint training with China marks Nepal Army's extension of military diplomacy. The Nepal Army has long been conducting joint military drills with Indian and American Army.

"A small Chinese troop will be participating in the first ever drill with an equal number of Nepali Army personnel," said military spokesman Jhankar Bahadur Kadayat.

He did not mention the strength of the participating troops. The exercise will take place at the Army's Maharajgunj-based Training School, where Yuddha Bhairab, Mahabir and Bhairabnath Battalions are located.

The Nepali Army has said the joint military exercise with China is a step towards preparations against the possible threat from terrorism.

It maintains that the drill is a part of its regular bilateral and multilateral military exercises aimed at sharing experiences, skills and professional knowledge which it has been doing regularly with the nations that Nepal shares diplomatic ties.

Nepal had proposed joint military exercises during Chinese Defence Minister General Chang Wanquan's official visit to Nepal on March 24.

Experts believe that the joint military exercise could make India uneasy as China attempts to exert influence in the region. Nepal, a landlocked country, is dependent on India for its imports.

Nepal had witnessed a shortage in essential supplies from India during the 2015 Madhesi blockade. China at that time had extended its help to Nepal to ease the situation.
Mumbai: Security at three major international airports in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai has been stepped up after agencies were informed about a possible hijack attempt of an aircraft from these facilities.

Officials said an high alert has been issued to the three facilities after Mumbai Police received an e-mail last night from a woman living there.

The e-mail mentions that the woman overheard six boys talking about a possible aircraft hijack attempt at these facilities, they said.

The Mumbai Police shared the e-mail with all security and intelligence agencies.

A meeting of all stakeholders at these airports was subsequently convened and the input was declared specific and actionable, they said.

CISF Director General O P Singh confirmed to PTI that the security apparatus at these airports has been put on "an enhanced alert and protocols have been stepped up".

Special anti-sabotage sweeps are being undertaken at these airports since morning and security agencies, including the Central Industrial Security Force, have enhanced frisking of passengers, baggage scanning, pre-emabarkation checks and patrols in the vicinity of the airports, they said.

The CISF has called in its sniffer dog squads and quick reaction teams for undertaking sanitisation drills at the airports, they said, adding airlines have been asked to remain extra vigilant.

"However, there is no reason to panic and all the operations at these airports will be normal and without any hassle to passengers," a senior officer who is part of airports security team said.

The police are probing the contents of the e-mail and trying to get in touch with the sender.
Bilaspur: The Chhattisgarh Police on Sunday arrested two suspects related to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sleeper cells for their involvement in anti-national activities.

The police got hold of them after tapping their phone conversations.

Both suspects are related to Satwinder Singh, Razzan Tiwari and Balram, who were arrested earlier from Jammu and Madhya Pradesh by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for their involvement in anti-national activities.

A case of sedition has been registered against the two suspects, who are from Chhattisgarh's Janjgir-Champa.

"We received the information that two suspects Maninder Yadav and Sanjay Devangan, who have several bank accounts in different banks, get money from places and transact that money in separate bank accounts. As soon as we got the information, our officials immediately took the team under the direction of high officials and arrested Maninder from civil lines area," said Bilaspur Superintendent of Police (SP) Mayank Srivastava.

On interrogation, Maninder admitted that he is related to Rajjan Tiwari and he works for him. He also admitted that money is transferred in the accounts on Tiwari's instructions.

The police arrested Devangan from Telipara.
New Delhi: Right from board meeting outcomes to regulatory actions, investors are now getting updates about BSE-listed companies even at midnight with a new corporate announcement filing system where the delay in dissemination is less than 10 seconds.

Moving away from the earlier practice of "pre- verification", the exchange is seeking to provide price sensitive information about companies at the earliest with the new system.

Now, most filings by listed firms on the BSE come with two sets of timings and their difference shows the gap in dissemination of the information by the exchange after receiving the information from the entity concerned.

A cursory glance at the timings of filings on the bourse shows that some of them have come even close to midnight, making the dissemination almost a round-the-clock affair.

Under the new system, introduced last month, corporate announcements would be disseminated "without pre-verification", according to the BSE.

"Corporate Announcement Filing System will be operated 365 days and 24 by 7 to provide up to date, timely, accurate information to the investors and also to news agencies at the fastest possible speed," the exchange said last month.

Presently, the delay between reports by the company and availability of the information on website varies from 2 to 10 seconds in most cases, as per the BSE.

A slew of corporate announcements, including those related to outcome of board meetings, postal ballot, change in directorate, regulatory action and business updates, have been brought under the dissemination system.

More than 5,000 companies are listed on the BSE.

"Post dissemination on the website, the exchange would carry out the verification checks for adequacy and accuracy as mandated by Sebi from time to time, as is being done at present," BSE had said.

Filings made by companies, under the relevant Sebi norms, are key takeaways for investors as they track developments at a particular entity.
New Delhi: A day after news broke out regarding Snapchat`s CEO Evan Spiegel`s disinterest in expanding the business to "poor countries" like India, the rating of the popular app dropped to a "single star" from an apparent "five star" on the App Store. Snapchat users in India have been deleting the app after learning about the comment allegedly made by Snap Inc. CEO in 2015.



According to the app info on App Store, the "Customer Ratings" of the current version of the app was "single star" (based on 6,099 ratings) and all versions rating was "one and half star" (based on 9,527 ratings) as on Sunday morning.



The rating for the app on Android Play Store was "four star" (based on 11,932,996 ratings).



The bashing started when US-based news website Variety on Saturday quoted Snapchat`s ex-employee Anthony Pompliano as saying that company CEO Evan Spiegel in September 2015 told him that "the app is only for rich people. I don`t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain".



Indians did not take the comment lightly and took to social media to lash out at the statement from the CEO. As the ratings of the app dropped, the criticism of the CEO and the app increased.



"First of all, I didn`t even want to give any freakin` star to this app. Evan (CEO of Snapchat) shows how stupid he is by saying this. I bet 3/4th of his company is run by Indian employees. If he didn`t want to expand it to poor countries, then why is this app free? Why didn`t he put any charges on it?" a user wrote on App Store, condemning the CEO.



Some users wrote, "Poor India & Spain need better than Snapchat", "Good bye, My Snapchat Account and Snap Inc. You`ll be product of gone by era and derision", and "Poor Evan Spiegel".

Twitter reactions



The app was also trolled on Twitter. #boycottsnapchat became the most trending hashtag on Twitter overnight.



"I haven`t seen any Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc Tweets yet. Thanks @Snapchat for Uniting us," a user tweeted.



"I was addicted to @Snapchat but I love my country more than this app. Let`s see how you earn without Indians. @evanspiegel #boycottsnapchat," another user wrote on twitter.



Some users even flagged the app for hateful content and left a message, "Dear @snapchatsupport, flagged you for hateful content. #boycottsnapchat".



According to a report in Forbes on Thursday, Facebook`s photo-sharing app Instagram surpassed Snapchat in daily active users of "Stories" feature, though the format was first launched by Snapchat in 2013.



Instagram`s "Stories" feature was now used by more than 200 million people every day -- an increase of 50 million since January.



On the other hand, Snapchat who launched the "Stories" format in October 2013, had 161 million daily active users in February.



"Stories" feature is an ephemeral chain of photo and video clips with filters and special effects. More recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also introduced the feature, imitating Snapchat.



Snapchat has more than four million users in India.

Snapchat comes to CEO's rescue, refutes ''disgruntled'' employee's claim

Amidst the ongoing backlash on Twitter regarding Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel`s recent remark on expansion in India, the parent company `Snap`s` attorneys rubbished claims while stating that no such remark was made.Denying an employee`s claims of Snapchat being termed as a `rich people`s app`, the attorneys while lashing out at the former said he is a `disgruntled employee fired for poor performance`.

"The simple fact is that he knows exactly nothing about Snap`s current metrics. He and his lawyers are - not to put too fine a point on matters - just making things up," said the attorneys, as reported by Variety.The CEO had earlier while discussing the expansion plans in a meeting allegedly dismissed an employee`s concern of the slow growth rate of the app in India, stating that it was only meant for the `rich people`.

According to one of the employees, Spiegel had during a meeting said, "This app is only for rich people. I don`t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain."After reports of Spiegel`s alleged claims of Snapchat being a `rich people`s app` surfaced, the Indian users took to Twitter to express their dissent over the comment, thus paving the way for widespread negativity.Soon after Variety published the alleged comment, the app`s ratings on Google play store witnessed a sharp decline, a 4.4 to a 3.6 rating. Furthermore, the number of one-star rating by the users shot up from 39,102 to 192,906 in just 24 hours.

With IANS/ANI Inputs
There seems to be a new-found assertion in the Hindu community in West Bengal. An assertion that is alien to the state and which is leading to communal flare-ups across Bengal, putting chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her party in a spot.

This year the state saw an unprecedented turnout in Ram Navami celebrations conducted by various saffron outfits

By Anindya Banerjee: A day after Ram Navami, around 50 motorcycle-borne youths sporting saffron bandanas and flags made their way to the Muslim-dominated alleys of Kidderpore, and reportedly chanted 'masjid todenge, mandir banayenge' in front of Ismail mosque.

What followed was an agitated group of Muslims blocking traffic, some of whom broke away to attack the nearby century-old Krishna Chandra Das Modak Sweets shop. WhatsApp messages were being forwarded by both communities about a communal flare-up.

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Fortunately, good sense prevailed among both communities as elders sought to prevent the situation from spiralling out of hand.

But this is not the scenario everywhere. Communal flare-ups are rampant across Bengal of late and some lead to full scale riots, incidents that are mostly hushed up and denied by the administration.

But what's significant is the new found assertion of the Hindu community that has traditionally avoided a confrontation in the state. In some cases as a repercussion and in some as instigation, this Hindu assertion is alien to Bengal.

RSS, VHP PUSH INTO WEST BENGAL

This sense of masculinity has been visible for the last few months when the RSS, VHP and other saffron organisations such as Hindu Samhati, Hindu Jagaran Manch, etc. have been working in block-level in every district, holding discussions, conducting Hindu festivals and door-to-door campaigns that has spurred a significant Hindu consolidation.

And the ultimate manifestation of the same was seen in the week-long celebration of Ram Navami across Bengal, an event that hardly anyone was aware of even a year back in the state. And interestingly the appeal of an apolitical religious movement has attracted members from all political hues including members of the ruling Trinamool Congress, whose brazen Muslim appeasement has put off many of its own supporters.

In one instance, a TMC MLA from West Midnapore was seen on Ram Navami with his face smeared in saffron, forcing the district party secretary to rush in to take stock. The state saw an unprecedented display of enthusiasm over Ram Navami, with an ever-growing BJP parading with swords, tridents and conch shells to drum up support for 'Hindu culture and heritage'.

VHP HOLDS BIKE RALLIES

In all district headquarters, the VHP made a spectacular show of strength with bike rallies. In the interiors, it was upon 'independent' saffron organisations such as Hindu Samhati to match the scale of show. Raths were taken out, thousands including women and children took to the streets and 'Jai Shri Ram' reverberated across towns.

A 52-year-old primary school teacher from Garbeta in West Midnapore, who voted for CPI(M) even after regime change told MAIL TODAY, "I have come here to listen to them. They have come with so much bikes that I am fascinated. I never voted for BJP but I share their concern about indifference meted to us." The bike rally he was referring to saw a participation of 4,000 bikes, all bearing triangular saffron flags that defied the ban by local police.

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"Mamata has made a Bangladesh of Bengal. Here, being a Hindu is seen to be an offence where Durga Puja and Saraswati Puja are not allowed to be celebrated freely. We are exercising our right to pray and making people aware," says young Sourish Mukherjee of the VHP even as he instructs someone about hashtags that needs to be promoted on Twitter.

'EXISTENTIAL CRISIS'

The BJP played the Hindu card and invited all the legislators, including 211 from the ruling party, to take part in Ram Navami celebrations. All the 211 MLAs stayed away fearing the wrath of Mamata Banerjee, only to be jolted out of slumber, and then forced to launch their own version of Ram Navami celebrations later in the day.

But it was too late by then and hardly saw any attendance - not even by Trinamool supporters - who had preferred to join the ones organised by VHP. "People are not fools. They see through it. They are realising it's an existential crisis," Sourish adds.

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This sense of 'existential crisis' that is right to a certain extent by Mamata through brazen appeasements like celebration of Prophet's birthday in schools, while not allowing Saraswati Puja; stipends for imams, financial aid for Muslim students; and replacing Bengali words like 'akashi' (sky blue) with Urdu words like 'asmani'.

And it is this sense of crisis that brought 12,000 people on the streets in the small town of Uluberia and 18,000 in Chuchura for the event. In Birbhum's Suri, hundreds of bikes took out a rally with Jai Shri Ram chants, even as Kharagpur saw a congregation of 25,000 people. All in all, more than 200 rallies were taken out across the length and breadth of Didi's Bengal, with 22 in Kolkata alone.

CHAKRABERIA

In Chakraberia that comes under Mamata's constituency, VHP supporters took out a bike rally brandishing swords. Visuals of scores of women and young girls associated with Durga Vahini taking part in the celebrations carrying machettes took many by surprise.

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State BJP president Dilip Ghosh made a similar show with swords in West Midnapore that got the police to register a case against him. "If tazias during Muharram can have weapons, why not Ram Navami rallies?" he told Mail Today.

And it is this communal turn that has resulted in at least five flare-ups since Ram Navami alone.

In Khardah, a procession was attacked from inside a mosque. Pandabeshwar in Durgapur has also seen flare-ups. But the counter muscle-flexing is also taking place, which is a new phenomenon. In March, a temple was vandalised in Uluberia. Some 18,000 people took to streets in this sleepy town. Interestingly, those comprised almost the half the local unit of TMC and CPI(M).

From October last year to January this year, there have been as many as 10 incidents of communal tensions in those four months alone.

ALSO READ | West Bengal: Eye on general elections 2019, TMC celebrates Ram Navami with full fervour

ALSO WATCH | Cattle mafia exposed at Bangladesh border, West Bengal govt's role under scrutiny

--- ENDS ---
New Delhi: Arresting the trend of withdrawals that began in December, the net balance in Jan Dhan accounts swelled by Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 63,971.38 crore during the week ended April 5.

The net balance in the accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was Rs 62,972.42 crore on March 29, as per the Finance Ministry's data.

Total deposits in these accounts had increased to a record high of Rs 74,610 crore on December 7 and thereafter, started declining gradually.?

As per the PMJDY data for April 5, it is for the first time the net balance in the accounts has shown an increase on a weekly basis.

PMJDY was launched in August 2014 to increase banking penetration and promote financial inclusion in the country.

Meanwhile, the number of Jan Dhan accounts have increased to 28.23 crore of which 18.50 crore have been seeded with Aadhaar.

The deposits in the accounts had surged following demonetisation of old Rs 500/1000 notes in November last year.

After setting a cash deposit limit of Rs 50,000 in Jan Dhan accounts, the government had on November 18 cautioned account holders that they will be prosecuted under the I-T Act for allowing misuse of their bank accounts through deposit of black money in Rs 500/1,000 notes during the 50-day window till December 30.

The directive came against the backdrop of reports that some persons were misusing other people' bank accounts to deposit demonetised notes.
Bhubaneswar (Odisha): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met the family members of the freedom fighters, who undertook an armed rebellion against the British rulers in the state in 1817.

"Unfortunately the massive struggle of independence in our country was restricted to few families and incidents," PM Modi said.

After meeting freedom fighters, Prime Minister Modi visited the famous Lingaraj Temple here.

The Prime Minister arrived here yesterday amid massive fanfare for the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) two-day national executive meeting.

Senior party leader M.M. Joshi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and other party leaders are also expected to be present at the meeting.

Prime Minister Modi landed at Biju Patnaik International Airport around 3:30 PM and was given a grand welcome by ministers.

Supporters thronged the streets as Prime Minister Modi made his way to the venue of the party meet from the airport. He leaned out of his vehicle many times to wave and greet the party workers and admirers who were trying their best to get a glimpse of him.

After reaching the venue, Prime Minister Modi got down at the entrance of the Raj Bhawan to greet onlookers and a few women leaders of the BJP. He also shook hands with many of them before getting into the car again to drive into the Odisha Governor's residence.

On arriving at the venue, Prime Minister Modi lit the lamp while Vande Mataram was played to mark the start of the national executive meet.

All 13 BJP Chief Ministers, including Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath, their deputies and 45 Union ministers are also attending the meet to prepare a roadmap for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

The leaders will discuss the BJP's strategy to increase the party's political footprint ahead of the 2019 general elections, while eyeing the 2019 Odisha state elections.
Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Opposition of manufacturing issues like the faulty EVMs and trying to create a controversy with an eye on the MCD polls.

The Opposition is concoction new issues in a factory of some kind, PM Modi said in his speech at the BJP National Executive meet.

During Delhi elections, the Church attacks were the highlights and during Bihar polls 'Award Wapasi' was the issue. And right now it is the EVM," ANI quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

He cautioned the BJP leaders not to get carried away with emotions and make indecorous remarks.

"If there are any complaints, then the matter should be passed on to the party leaders who will convey it to me," he said.

The prime minister also called on the BJP to not get too excited over the recent victories in the assembly elections and ensure they keep the momentum going.

"The BJP will launch a special campaign for those 120 Lok Sabha seats which have been out of our reach," he added.

The Prime Minister also hailed the efforts of party president Amit Shah saying he was the ideal model of an able strategist.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium has recommended 51 names for appointment as judges in 10 high courts in the country.

The collegium headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) J S Khehar cleared the names after finalising the memorandum of procedure (MoP) for the appointment of judges, official sources said.

The 51 names were cleared by the collegium by trimming a list of 90 names received from the various high court collegiums, they said.

Of the 51, 20 are judicial officers and 31 are advocates, the sources said.

The collegium has recommended the names for the high courts of Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, Patna, Hyderabad (for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh), Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

The high courts of Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Gauhati and Sikkim are also expected to get judges if the Centre agrees with the apex court collegium's recommendations.
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s statement that more inclusiveness is needed for those who are backward among the Muslim community and hoped that this will pave the way for increasing the reservations for Muslims in the state.

"It augurs well," said Rao about Modi`s remark which he made while intervening during a discussion on the Backward Commission at the BJP`s National Executive meeting at Bhubaneswar.

Speaking in the Telangana Legislative Council while introducing a bill to increase reservations for Muslims from four percent to 12 percent, KCR, as Rao is popularly known, referred to the PM`s statement while stressing the need to provide quota to socially and economically backward among Muslims.

The bill, which also increased the quota for the Scheduled Tribes from 6 percent to 10 percent, was earlier passed by by the Assembly.

"If this statement of the PM had come earlier, perhaps the BJP members would not have got suspended," remarked KCR referring to suspension of all five Bharatiya Janata Party members from the Assembly for disrupting the proceedings to protest hike in quota for Muslims.

Pointing out that Muslim population in the state has crossed 14 percent, he told the House that only backward sections among the community will get the reservations, reiterating that the reservations are not based on religion.

As the overall reservations in Telangana will now go up to 62 percent, the state will be sending the legislation to the Union Government for President`s assent and request for including it in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution as was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.

The Chief Minister urged the Union Government to keep in mind the changes which had come over last seven decades and allow states to provide quota to different sections on the basis of their backwardness and in proportion to their population.

Referring to the growing demands from various sections of people for reservations, he cited the example of BJP-ruled Rajasthan which accepted the demands from Gujjars and Jats to provide them reservations and as the overall quota in that state increased to 68 percent, passed a legislation and sent it to the Centre for President`s assent.
New Delhi: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Sunday met National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval during which the duo discussed the recent tension in Kashmir Valley.

The meeting took place a day after the Chief of Army Staff met Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar.

Earlier on Saturday, General Rawat met Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra in Jammu, where he briefed him on the prevailing situation in Kashmir.

In the latest development, a group of terrorists barged into a medical shop owner's house in Srinagar yesterday and shot him dead.

Bashir Ahmad Dar, a resident of Qasba Yaar Rajpora Pulwama who runs a medical shop in his village, was taken to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Another local was also injured during the firing and was rushed to the hospital for treatment.

In another development highlighting the soaring violence in the Valley, a youth was killed after the security forces opened fired at stone-pelters in Batmaloo's S.D. Colony in Srinagar yesterday.

"Police is collecting the details and is looking into the circumstances under which a person identified as Sajad Hussain Sheikh, a resident of Chandoosa Baramulla at present S.D. Colony Srinagar got killed," the police said in a statement.

Some days ago, a video purportedly showing a Kashmiri youth tied to the front of moving army jeep invited protests from human rights groups and criticism from the people including several politicians.

Yesterday, the army said it is investigating the video that was reportedly shot in Beerwah area of Budgam district where miscreants disrupted polling during Sunday's by-poll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency by pelting stones.

Interestingly the video surfaced within days after another video cropped up showing a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel walking down a street while being heckled, kicked and punched by youth, setting off a nationwide outrage.

There was no retaliation by the security personnel, who quietly walked to their camp as they were under instructions to not open fire, officials in the paramilitary said.

Condemning the present state government and its failure to control the situation, the opposition has demanded for the imposition of Governor's Rule in the Valley.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, post winning the Srinagar by-polls, yesterday accused the People's Democratic Party's (PDP) of failing to protect the people of the state and demanded Governor's rule in Jammu and Kashmir.
Bhopal: A community panchayat in a village in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh has asked a man to marry off his five-year-old daughter to expiate his `sin' of killing a calf.

The bizarre development came to light when the girl's mother approached the district administration on Friday.

Tarapur, the village in Aron tehsil where this diktat was issued, is dominated by Banjara community.

"Girl's mother approached us, requesting to stop the marriage. A panchayat (community body, not gram panchayat) was convened four months ago which ordered the family to marry off their child," said additional district magistrate Niaz Khan.

"A team of officials visited the village yesterday. We have asked the woman Anganwadi (pre-primary school) worker in the village to keep an eye on developments and report to us," the ADM said.

The complainant said that some four months ago, her husband hit a calf with a stone to shoo it away from their field, but the animal later died. A community panchayat was convened, which ostracised the family.

To atone, the family should go on pilgrimage and organise a feast for the entire village later, the panchayat said.

The family agreed, but the boycott didn't end even then.

The panchayat allegedly said there were several marriageable youths in the village, but marriages were not being solemnised because of calf's death.

"The panchayat said therefore the family would need to marry off their daughter as per local custom," Khan said.

Not stopping there, the panchayat fixed the girl's marriage with an eight-year-old boy from Vidisha district.

The mother decided to defy this coercion and approached the administration on April 14.

The administration asked four persons including fathers of the girl and the `groom' to execute bonds of Rs 20,000 each under the Criminal Procedure Code. If the bond is violated, police can take action in anticipation of "breach of peace" against the person.

"We are monitoring the situation," the ADM added.
New Delhi: Putting Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's fortress under threat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after aiming for 'Congress Mukt Bharat' seems to be targeting regional players.

The ongoing executive meeting being held in Bhubaneswar has made it clear that the saffron brigade in full force is gearing up to siphon the throne of the state in 2019.

After pushing the Congress on the distant position of number three in the recent panchayat polls, the BJP is plying to avenge it's breakup with ex-ally Biju Janata Dal (BJD) which parted ways with the saffron party in 2008.

Odisha chooses a new assembly in 2019, the same time as the national election and the BJP is aiming to conquer all from panchayat to Parliament.

Prime Minister Modi attending the national executive meeting in Odisha with his trusted lieutenant Amit Shah and brigade of 300 leaders is an indication that the saffron party is firming up its mission 2019.

The BJP was routed, winning just six seats in 2009, as compared to 32 in 2004. The saffron party did only marginally better in the 2014 Assembly polls, bagging just 10 out of the total 147 seats.

Even in the last general election, the BJP won just one seat with the BJD claiming the rest.

Odisha, a third of whose population is below poverty line, was among the few states that defied the Modi surge in 2014.

However, anti-incumbency is acting in favour of the BJP. The BJP is relying heavily on Prime Minister Modi's growing popularity due to lack of a regional face.

The party is also wooing the underprivileged sections of the state. Tribals account for about 23 percent of Odisha's population and the Scheduled Castes more than 24 percent.

Shah, who was felicitated with a garland of 74 lotus flowers, symbolising the halfway mark in the 147-member Odisha assembly yesterday asserted the BJP's golden era will commence when it will have the Chief Ministers in every state. It is crucial for the party to make way in states such as West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where regional parties dominate the political landscape.

The Prime Minister, who was accorded with a grand welcome, will address the national executive meet later in the day during which he is expected to sound the bugle for the electoral battles ahead.
New Delhi: Early last week, astronauts who were a part of Expedition 50 aboard the International Space Station (ISS) made their descent to Earth, to make way for the launch of the next ISS expedition crew.

American astronaut Jack Fischer is a part of the Expedition 52 crew that will take off for the ISS on April 20.

This being his first trip to space, he was subjected to an interview and was asked to reveal what he feels would be his biggest challenge on the space station. His answer was quite amusing, albeit something no one would have expected, however, we're sure it has been on many people's minds.

He said, I have to be honest. Using the toilet. Its all about suction, its really difficult, and Im a bit terrified. Unlike most things, you just cant train for that on the ground  so I approach my space-toilet activities with respect, preparation, and a healthy dose of sheer terror.

The ISS is a place that is exceedingly alluring for space aficionados across the world. Although we are aware of the interiors to a certain extent, we have never really seen what the orbiting laboratory's toilet really looks like and known how it functions in space.

Well, NASA has revealed the photograph and it looks absolutely nothing like what could be expected. No wonder Fischer is stressing out about it!

Have a look!

(Image courtesy: NASA)
By Press Trust of India: Los Angeles, Apr 16 (PTI) Heavy drinkers who believe that they can handle their alcohol may be prone to more accidents or injuries while intoxicated, as they can not correctly judge if they can safely attempt difficult tasks.

Heavy drinkers develop behavioral tolerance to alcohol over time on some fine motor tasks, but not on more complex tasks.

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While heavy drinkers showed less impairment than light drinkers on a rote fine motor test over time, they did not perform better on a test involving more short-term memory, motor speed, and more complex cognitive processing.

Researchers from Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System in the US, tested about 155 young adult volunteers on two cognitive and motor coordination tests at the beginning of the study and again five years later.

They defined a heavy drinker as a person who drank between 10 and 40 alcoholic drinks per week for at least the past two years at the initial testing.

Light drinkers were those who had fewer than six drinks per week. Participants maintained these drinking habits across the five years between initial testing and follow-up.

Participants completed two psychomotor tasks. They were timed moving, inserting, and rotating pegs into slotted holes on a board. This test measures fine motor skills.

Participants were then given a legend with different symbols corresponding to numbers. They then had 90 seconds to fill in the correct symbols on a sheet with numbers.

Before each test, participants were given a dose of alcohol that was calculated based on their body weight to bring them to a specific breath alcohol concentration.

They were then tested at 30, 60, 120, and 180 minutes after the drink.

Researchers found that participants performed worse on both tests when impaired by alcohol.

At the 5-year follow-up, both groups showed improvement on both tasks compared with how they had done earlier.

Heavy drinkers also showed evidence of chemical tolerance to alcohol. Their breath alcohol concentrations decreased faster after drinking at the five-year retest versus the initial test, researchers said.

While both groups did better at the follow-up, heavy drinkers showed less impairment on the pegboard than light drinkers relative to their initial testing scores.

All in all, the results show that sustained heavier drinking may lead to less impairment in simpler fine motor skills relative to lighter drinking.

However, this tolerance does not help performance on tasks involving more complex motor processing and short-term memory, researchers said.

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"Overall, there is a common belief among heavy drinkers that they can handle their alcohol and that many common daily tasks may not be affected by their alcohol use," said Ty Brumback from Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.

"The take-home message here is that tolerance to alcohol is not equal across all tasks and is not protective against accidents or injuries while intoxicated, because it may in fact lead the heavy drinker to judge that they are not impaired and attempt more difficult tasks," Brumback said.

The study was publishe in the journal Psychopharmacology. PTI APA MHN MHN

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Lucknow: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) today said that the community members, who give triple talaq without valid reasons will face social boycott.

AIMPLB member Maulana Khalid R. Firangi said, "It has been decided in the executive body meeting that those misusing triple talaq will face social boycott."

Maulana also informed about the moral code of conduct, which will solve the misunderstanding with regard to the triple talaq issue.

"There has been misunderstanding on this issue, we will issue a code of conduct on it," he added.

The AIMPLB, which has opposed the PILs filed against the triple talaq in the Supreme Court, had earlier on Wednesday said the board will do away with the practice of verbal divorce in one-and-a half years, adding there is no need for government interference.

A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court will start hearing from May 11 the petitions against triple talaq.

The court will hear pleas filed by several Muslim women challenging the practice under which men can divorce their wives instantly by uttering the word talaq thrice.
Rashidin (Syria): A massive car bomb attack on a convoy carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria killed more than 100 people and wounded hundreds, a monitor said Sunday.

The blast on Saturday tore through buses carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.

The evacuations were taking place under a deal between Syria`s regime and rebels that is also seeing residents and rebels transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus which are surrounded by pro-government forces.

The agreement is the latest in a string of evacuation deals, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad says are the best way to end the violence after more than six years of civil war.

Rebels say they amount to forced relocations after years of bombardment and crippling sieges.

Body parts and the belongings of evacuees were still strewn at the scene of the attack on Sunday, an AFP correspondent said.

The shattered buses were parked nearby as was the shell of the pick-up truck -- with little left but its engine block -- that was used to carry out the bombing.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, though the key Ahrar al-Sham rebel group denied any involvement. The government blamed "terrorists" -- a catch-all term for its opponents.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said Sunday that at least 112 people had died, after giving an initial toll of 43 dead on Saturday.

At least 98 of the dead were evacuees, it said, with the rest aid workers and rebels who had been guarding the convoy.Hundreds of people were wounded in the blast, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to monitor the conflict.

It said a petrol station at the transit point was caught up in the explosion, adding to the number of victims.

Maysa, a 30-year-old evacuee from Kafraya, said she was sitting on one of the buses with her six-month-old son Hadi and 10-year-old daughter Narjis when the blast shook the parked convoy.

"Hadi was on my lap and Narjis on a chair next to me. When the explosion happened I hugged them both and we fell to the floor," she told AFP by telephone from near Aleppo.

"I didn`t know what was happening, all I could hear was people crying and shouting," she said.

"All I can think about is how we survived all the death during the last few years and then could have died just after we finally escaped."

More than 5,000 people left Fuaa and Kafraya and about 2,200 left Madaya and Zabadani on Friday, the latest in a series of evacuations from the four towns under the agreement.

The evacuation process resumed after the bombing, the Observatory said, with the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya eventually arriving in Aleppo, Syria`s second city which the government gained full control of last year.

Wounded survivors, including many children, were taken for treatment at an Aleppo hospital.UN aid chief Stephen O`Brien condemned the bombing in a statement, saying: "The perpetrators of such a monstrous and cowardly attack displayed a shameless disregard for human life."

Pope Francis on Sunday also urged an end to the war in Syria as he presided over the traditional Easter mass in Rome.

The pontiff said he hoped that Jesus Christ`s sacrifice might help bring "comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death".

The residents and rebels from Madaya and Zabadani arrived late Saturday in rebel-held territory in Idlib province, where they were greeted with embraces and shots fired into the air.

It was not immediately clear whether further evacuations were taking place on Sunday.

The evacuation deal was brokered by Qatar, a longtime supporter of Syrian opposition forces, and Iran, a key regime ally.

Shiite-dominated Iran has repeatedly raised concerns for the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya, who are mainly Shiites and were besieged by Sunni rebels.

Syria`s war has left more than 320,000 people dead since erupting in 2011, with more than half the population forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands trapped under siege.
Jakarta: Jakarta's controversial Christian Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama is leading polls ahead of the Indonesian capital's municipal elections on Wednesday, despite accusations of blasphemy by Muslim radicals, officials said on Sunday.

The polls on voter intentions conducted by market researcher Charta Politika puts the Governor at the top spot with 47.3 per cent. Efe news reported.

In second place, with 44.8 per cent, appears the academic and former Culture Minister Anies Baswedan Rasyid while the remaining 7.9 per cent are undecided.

The elections of the governor and lieutenant governor of Jakarta, whose first round was held on February 15, have been marked by mass protests by Muslim radicals against the Chinese origin Purnama whom they accused of having offended Islam in statements he made in September 2016.

He alleged that the video with the controversial comments was doctored but nevertheless issued an apology.

The day after the election the judicial process for alleged blasphemy against Purnama will resume.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world with 87 per cent of its 263 million people practicing Islam.
Seoul: Visiting US Vice President Mike Pence described North Korea`s failed missile test Sunday as a "provocation" and assured South Korea of Washington`s full support against the threat from its volatile neighbour.

Pyongyang launched the missile hours before Pence arrived in Seoul for talks on curbing the North`s weapons programmes as fears grow that it is planning another nuclear test.

But US officials said the missile exploded seconds after it was fired.

"This morning`s provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face each and every day in the defence of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defence of America in this part of the world," Pence told US military families at an Easter dinner.

Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in the South.

The latest launch came a day after the North held a defiant massive military parade in Pyongyang which showcased nearly 60 missiles -- including a suspected new intercontinental ballistic missile.

"The missile blew up almost immediately," the US Defense Department said of Sunday`s early-morning launch from near Sinpo on the North`s east coast.

The type of missile was not clear.

The North has a habit of test-firing missiles to mark major dates such as Saturday`s 105th anniversary of the birth of the nation`s founder Kim Il-Sung, or as gestures of defiance when top US officials visit the region.

South Korea`s foreign ministry said that by conducting the latest test just a day after displaying a series of missiles, "North Korea has threatened the whole world".

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the latest test but had "no further comment", while at the Easter dinner at Yongsan military base, Pence brought greetings for the troops from Trump.

"Let me assure you that under President Trump`s leadership our resolve has never been stronger, our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger and with your help and God`s help freedom will ever prevail on this peninsula," he said.Last August a submarine-launched ballistic missile tested from Sinpo flew 500 kilometres (300 miles) towards Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hailed that test as the "greatest success" and said it brought the US mainland within range of a mobile delivery system.

Pyongyang`s rogue atomic ambitions have come into sharp focus in recent weeks, with Trump vowing a tough stance against the North and threatening unilateral action if China failed to help curb its neighbour`s nuclear programme.

Trump has repeatedly said he will prevent Pyongyang from developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

With speculation mounting that the North is preparing to conduct a sixth nuclear test, he sent an aircraft carrier-led strike group to the Korean peninsula.

But a White House foreign policy adviser travelling with Pence played down Sunday`s test, saying the missile -- probably a medium-range one -- failed after about four to five seconds.

While Washington had a "wide array of tools" at the president`s disposal, "for this particular case, if they (North Korea) took the time and energy to launch a missile that failed, we don`t need to expend any resources against that."

The North has reiterated its constant refrain that it is ready for war with the US, and its army Friday vowed a "merciless" response to any US provocation.

Recent satellite images suggest its main nuclear site is "primed and ready," according to specialist US website 38North.

China, the North`s sole major ally, and Russia have both urged restraint.

China`s most senior diplomat Yang Jiechi and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exchanged views on the situation on the Korean peninsula by phone on Sunday, Beijing`s official Xinhua news agency said.

The White House adviser said Trump and China`s President Xi Jinping had discussed a number of steps at their summit this month and "we`ve seen the Chinese already take some initial steps towards that" -- citing the turning back of coal ships from North Korea.

The UN Security Council has imposed six sets of sanctions against the North since 2006, when it staged the first of its five nuclear tests. All have failed to halt its drive for what it insists are defensive weapons.

On Monday Pence is scheduled to meet Acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn for talks expected to focus on the North`s weapons programmes and a controversial US missile defence system known as THAAD.
Vatican City: Pope Francis presided over a traditional Easter vigil ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica amid heavy security in the wake of a series of deadly terror attacks in Egypt and Europe.

The pontiff, in his homily, on Saturday evening said that refugees and migrants, along with the poor and socially marginalised, have their "human dignity crucified" in various ways each day, urging the Christian faithful to maintain their hope, as symbolized by Christ's resurrection.

Francis also said that "human injustices" such as slavery, people trafficking, corruption and bureaucracy inflict suffering and damage the dignity of many around the world.

The ceremony, one of the most important in the Catholic tradition, symbolises the darkness after Jesus' crucifixion and the light that permeated the world with his resurrection.

The ceremony began at 8.30 p.m., and lasted over three hours, during which a number of people were baptised and received communion.

Francis will continue with the rites of Holy Week on Easter Sunday by presiding at the Mass of the Resurrection in St. Peter's, after which he will deliver his regular Easter message and give the traditional "Urbi et Orbi" blessing from the central balcony of the basilica.
Damascus: Syrian government forces have freed territories to the south of the Syrian airbase in Deir ez-Zor from Daesh terrorists.

"The Syrian army regained control over the Faraj territory to the south from the airfield. Several Daesh militants were killed near the cemetery and in Al Arfi quarter," the Sputnik quoted a military source as saying on Saturday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's adviser had earlier on Friday said that the Syrian army continues its military operations to free Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa from terrorists.

Deir ez-Zor and its military air base have been under siege by Daesh for over three years.

The Syrian Army had last month repelled Daesh's attacks near the Deir ez-Zor airfield.
Washington: United Airlines and the city of Chicago have agreed to preserve evidence related to the incident where a passenger was violently dragged off an overbooked flight, according to a lawyer.

Thomas Demetrio, attorney for the passenger David Dao, said on Saturday due to the agreement, a court hearing which was scheduled for next week will not take place, Xinhua news agency reported.

Dao, the 69-year-old Vietnamese American doctor was violently removed by aviation security officers from the United flight at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to make room for its own crew members.

Dao suffered concussion, broke his nose, and lost two front teeth.

The video of this bloody incident went viral and sparked social media uproar, in which many echoed a call to boycott the airline.

Facing public outrage, United Airlines finally apologised and promised that this kind of incidents would never happen again.

However, it is not clear if the United would like to choose a settlement or go to court.

Chicago could also be sued, as the aviation security officers were hired by the city.
New Delhi: In the wake of the MOAB strike against the Islamic State in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump was all praises for the American military saying that the U.S. army is `becoming stronger than ever before.`

"Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!," the President tweeted on Sunday.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed the "mother of all bombs" was dropped at 7:32 p.m. local time Thursday to target a network of fortified underground tunnels that ISIS had been using to stage attacks on government forces in the province, the US said.

Afghan officials claimed that at least 94 Islamic State fighters were killed in the attack.

Also, the U.S. has been expressing concerns over North Koreas escalated efforts to develop its nuclear weapons program and Washington has not ruled out military action to halt it.

In latest developments, President Donald Trump and his military advisors have been briefed on North Korea`s apparent failed missile launch on Sunday.
Travis Mazawasicuna and about 11 other riders rode their horses to the Boissevain border crossing this weekend, where they met with their relatives from the United States.

While an international border separates them, they are united by family, tradition and historical ties.

The Dakota Exile Healing ride is bringing together Dakota people from across North America to follow the footsteps of their ancestors after being forcibly expelled from Minnesota in 1863.

"Dakota people, they have relatives all over, both sides of the border, that's how big it is," said Mazawasicuna.

On Wednesday the group of Manitoba riders left the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, located about 260 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

They're part of the Unity Riders, who usually do awareness rides for different things including addictions and cancer. But Mazawasicuna said this ride was different. It was a chance to make people aware of his ancestors.

"In the United States we have bodies still in museums. We have Indian skeleton museums, artifacts that belong to us," he said.

"The main goal is bringing connection, bringing connection from a lot of people," he said.

Dakota War of 1862

The Dakota War of 1862, also known as Little Crow's War, was linked to treaty violations by the United States leading to hunger, poor hunting and a lack of economic opportunity for the Dakota people.

Following the conflict, 38 Dakota were hanged on the day after Christmas. It was the largest mass execution in American history.

Hundreds of other Dakota were held in a prison camp for years and by the time of their release one third had died.

More than one-quarter of the Dakota people who surrendered died the following year, according to the Minnesota Historical Society's U.S.-Dakota War website.

Survivors, mostly women and children, were held in an internment camp where they were harassed by locals and soldiers, while visiting missionaries tried to convert them. Over the winter, hundreds of people died at that camp.

Story continues

In 1863, U.S. government officials said nearly every Dakota had to leave Minnesota. Steamboats shipped many of the internment camp survivors to South Dakota; other Dakota went to Nebraska, North Dakota and into the further reaches of traditional Dakota territory in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

154 years later

On Saturday, the descendants of the exile stood at the U.S.-Canada border together playing drums. The Canadian horses were unable to cross but the American counterparts would continue the journey south.

"It's beautiful because we are there in the rain, the light rain and the song was just echoing all over," Mazawasicuna said.

"Here's my relative standing at the border on her horse, she was pulling one horse, looking at the custom line on the American side. It was beautiful."

Seth Eastman rode up from Sisseton, a city on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

"The history says that we fled and we didn't flee. Our people, the Dakota People, it was a large nation and before states, before countries were established  United States and Canada  we had our boundaries and our territories already established," he said.

'Your moral obligation to tell'

During the war and the exile, Dakota took their people out of danger in the furthest part of the territory which is now called Sioux Valley, Eastman said

"That's all our territory still, that's our traditional territory."

Eastman said the goal of the ride is education  letting his own people and the rest of North America know the history of the Dakota people.

"Once you know this stuff it's your duty, your moral obligation to tell," he said.

"We talk about moving forward and healing and stuff like that but nothing gets done, nothing gets fixed, nothing mends when these histories go unspoken, go unheard."

While the Canadian leg of the historical ride has been completed, the American journey has just begun.

Riders will stop in different Dakota and other Indigenous communities along the way to Fort Snelling, Minn., which is known as Bdote  a sacred area for Dakota people at the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers.

It's also a place of pain.

"When they forcibly removed us and started doing the process exiling they put us in that concentration camp and where they had this concentration camp was right in the middle of our sacred area in Bdote," Eastman said.

It's an important end for the ride and a start to education and healing, he added.

"This is for the exile, [we are] doing this to honour the exile, to memorialize, to remember to educate."
A Stratford, P.E.I., family is speaking out after their 10-year-old-son was bumped from an Air Canada flight during their March Break vacation to Costa Rica.

Shanna and Brett Doyle booked the trip back in August, but when they tried to pick their seats the day before they left for their flight from Charlottetown to Montreal, they couldn't get a seat for Cole.

Shanna Doyle went to the Charlottetown Airport for some answers, only to be told the flight was overbooked.

She then asked an Air Canada agent if she or another adult they were travelling with could give up their seat for Cole.

"I was told that while yes we could give up our seat, there would be no guarantee that the seat would go to my son," she said.

The agent told her that it was possible the seat would be given to a more frequent flyer.

More problems

Doyle says the family opted to book a flight for Cole and his father out of Moncton later that day, but when they arrived in Moncton, that flight was cancelled.

The pair ended up being rerouted to Halifax to catch another connecting flight.

Doyle estimates the family spent at least an extra $1,000 to get their son to Costa Rica.

'What ... are we paying for?'

Doyle says Air Canada has offered them an e-voucher that can be used for future travel and told them they can submit their expenses for compensation.

But, Doyle says she would have preferred not to have endured the stress in the first place.

"We're spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for airline tickets, and we're not guaranteed a seat. So my question is what in reality are we paying for?" said Doyle.

The situation was also stressful for Cole Doyle, who didn't know if he would be able to join his family in Costa Rica.

"I'm like crying in the back seat, and I don't have a plane. Like how do I get to where I'm going? I don't know if I'm even going to make it with my family," he said.

In an e-mail to CBC News, Air Canada said it has apologized to the family and is working with them to provide compensation.

Story continues

Air Canada responds

The practice of airlines overbooking flights has generated a lot of attention in the last week after a passenger was dragged off a full United Express flight by airport police in Chicago last Sunday.

In its statement to CBC News, Air Canada says it appreciates "customers are inconvenienced when they are affected by an oversold flight and thus we take a very conservative approach to avoid this situation arising, and when it does, we pay significant compensation."

The company says most major airlines oversell because it helps keep costs down for customers.

"Overselling also makes it possible for us to sell flexible tickets, including fully refundable tickets, which many customers desire," Air Canada said in the email.

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People participate in a tax day protest in New York City on Saturday. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

President Trump took to Twitter early Sunday morning to wish a Happy Easter to everyone! He then took swipes at the tax day marches around the country that featured thousands of protesters demanding the president release his tax returns.

I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Trump tweeted. Now Tax Returns are brought up again?

Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday, he added. The election is over!

Throughout his young presidency, Trump has frequently rehashed campaign-related controversies that other presidents would have long let go. Earlier this month, Trump knocked his former rival for one from the Democratic primary debates. (Did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? he tweeted. Just asking!)

I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

The organizers of the Tax March demonstrations said more than 120,000 protesters in nearly 200 cities participated in Saturdays rallies  including more than 25,000 in Washington, D.C., alone.

Releasing your tax returns is the lowest ethical bar for a president, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said at the D.C. protest. And were going to make sure he clears that hurdle.

In the modern political era, Trump is the first U.S. president and first major party nominee not to release his full tax returns. During the campaign, Trump initially indicated he would release the documents, but later balked at the prospect, claiming that he has been under audit and that voters dont care about the issue.

Story continues

Among other things, Trumps critics argue that the tax returns could reveal potential conflicts of interest with actions he takes as commander in chief.

We do care. We want to see his taxes, Ann Demerlis, one of the protesters at the Philadelphia march, told ABC News. Its possible that he can now show his taxes, because his current taxes are not being audited.

SPLIT SCREEN FROM YESTERDAY On the right: This is what democracy looks like! On the left: Our taxpayer dollars at work ????#TaxMarch pic.twitter.com/4ovRQR85Fb  Trump Tax March (@taxmarch) April 16, 2017

But according to the organizers, the demonstrations were not just about his tax returns.

President Trump needs to be straight with the American people, a statement on the Tax March website reads. To whom does he owe favors? Who are his policies really intended to benefit? Who will he put first? Working families are struggling to make ends meet, but we pay our fair share in taxes  does Donald Trump pay any at all?

Trumps Tax March-taunting tweets were bookended by a pair of messages seemingly related to the U.S. military buildup in the Korean Peninsula.

Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens! the president tweeted.

Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before, he added. Frankly, we have no choice!

Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

Last week, Trump boasted of the U.S. Navy strike group he deployed to the region as a show of force against North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns nuclear provocations.

We are sending an armada, very powerful, Trump said in an interview with Fox Business.

On Sunday, a North Korean missile exploded during launch, U.S. and South Korean officials said. It wasnt immediately clear what kind of missile it was, the Associated Press reported. But the failed launch came the same day Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to arrive in Seoul for talks on North Korea.

Read more from Yahoo News:
Southern Azerbaijan: AHRAZ Publishes Report on Death Penalty in Azerbaijani Turkish-populated Cities in Iran (2015-2016)





The Association for the human rights of the Azerbaijani people in Iran (AHRAZ) published a report on the use of the death penalty in Azerbaijani Turkish-populated cities in Iran between October 2015 and October 2016.





The death toll amounted to 588 citizens executed in the country, of whom 187 were hanged in the mostly Azerbaijani-populated provinces.





Half of the executed were accused of drug trafficking, a quarter of adultery and the rest because of political and security reasons. AHRAZ listed a number of cases, specifying the charges.



Below is the report published by AHRAZ:





Report on the death penalty in Azerbaijan's cities in Iran (2015-2016)





From October 2015 to October 2016, totally 588 people were sentenced to death in Iran. Out of this number, 504 people were hanged and executed in this country. During this period, 187 people were hanged in the mostly Azerbaijani Turkish populated provinces such as West Azerbaijan (comprising 10% of the executed in this period), East Azerbaijan (8%), Ardabil (7%), Zanjan (4%), Qazvin (6%), and Hamadan (2%).





57% of the executed were accused of crimes related to drugs, 26% in relation to murder because of adultery, 7% related to political and security reasons, and 4 % other cases.





39% of the executions in this period were reported by the Iranian domestic and official media and 61% were reported by non-governmental and independent media and institutions.





From January-March 2017, 34 people were hanged in the Azerbaijani populated cities in Iran such as Tabriz, Urmia, Ardabil, Zanjan, Qazvin, Maraghe and Maku, who were accused of the crimes related to drugs and murder. Some of the details related to these cases in this short period are mentioned below, as example:





A prisoner, called Rashid Javadi from Jolfa city was hanged in the Tabriz Central Prison on 7 January 2017 because of holding and carrying 106 grams of heroin.





Morteza Heydari from Malekan (East Azerbaijan Province) who was accused of positioning 3 kilos industrial drugs and 3.6 kilos of heroin was hanged in the Maraghe Prison in January 2017. At the time of reporting, 4 other prisoners are to be hanged soon in this prison. These people include: Iraj Ghafouri from Khoy City, accused of crimes in relation to drugs, Akbar Moradi from Maraghe City because of murder, Hoseyn Fatemi from Miandoab (Qoshachay) City as well as Ali Mostofi from Maraghe City.





On 18 January 2017, 3 prisoners accused of holding drugs as well as a child accused of murder at the time of adolescence were executed in the Tabriz Central Prison. These prisoners included Parviz Solati, Qorban Lotfi, Ertekan Karimi, and Hasan Hasan Zadeh, 18 years old who committed murder at the time of 15 years old.





A handicapped prisoner, named Qabl Ali Babir who had missed his 2 legs as well as another prisoner called Sina Hoseyn Pour, both accused of holding drugs, were hanged in the Urmia Central Prison on 21 January 2017.





Hashem Qaraqozlu from Qorveh, accused of holding drugs, was hanged in the Hamadan Central Prison on 29 January 2017.





Taher Saeidi, accused of holding drugs, was hanged in Maku Prison on 01 February 2017.





Kuchak Naji, accused of crimes related to drugs, was hanged in the Urmia Central Prison, on 03 March 2017.





Morad Seyfi from Miandoab (Qoshachay) City, and Mr. Morad Payiz from Maraghe City both accused of crimes related to drugs, were hanged in Maraghe Prison on 05 March 2017.





Four prisoners, accused of crimes related to drugs, were hanged in the Urmia Central Prions on 14 March 2017. These included Changiz Baduzadeh, Akram Hoseyn Pour from Salmas City, Vahed Hamedi from Ardabil City and Kiomars Fridan (nicknamed Delavar) from Urmia City.

Revolutionary Courts Responsible for Majority of Executions

Revolutionary courts were used to try protesters en masse in 2009

The Revolutionary Courts were established in 1979 by the 1st Supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. They were temporary courts designed to deal with the officials of the former regime. However, more than 37 years later they continue to operate.





These courts are responsible for the vast majority of the death sentences issued and carried out over the last 37 years in Iran. The Revolutionary Courts are less transparent than the Public Courts (both criminal and civil) and Revolutionary Court judges are known for greater abuse of their legal powers than other judges.





Revolutionary Court judges often deny access to legal representation during the investigation phase and prevent lawyers from accessing client files on the basis of confidentiality, or the fact that the lawyers have insufficient "qualifications" to review certain files. Trials lasting only a few minutes, no jury, no defence lawyers and death sentences based on no evidence other than confessions extracted under torture are the hallmarks of the Revolutionary Courts.





All cases regarded as security-related, such as cases involving political and civil activists, and others allegedly involved in corruption and drug-related charges, are processed by the Revolutionary Courts.





Revolutionary Courts are most well known for the summary executions of the political opposition in the 1980s. However, data collected by IHR shows that every year several hundred people are executed on the basis of death sentences issued by the Revolutionary Courts.





IHR reports since 2010 show that 3,210 of the 4,741 executions (68%) in the last 7 years were based on death sentences issued by the Revolutionary Courts.





At least 340 of the 530 executions in 2016 (64%) were based on death sentences issued by the Revolutionary Courts.





Revolutionary Courts also play a key role in the crackdown against human rights defenders and the abolitionist movement. In 2016 the Revolutionary Courts sentenced the human rights defenders Narges Mohammadi and Atena Daemi to 10 years and 7 years in prison respectively for their activities against the death penalty.





On the issue of the lack of due process, the spokesperson of IHR, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: "A sustainable reduction in use of the death penalty is impossible as long as there is no due process. Revolutionary Courts which sentence hundreds of people to death every year are among the key institutions responsible for Iran's violations of due process and must be shut down."

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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Source: unpo.org, April 15, 2017 (wr)Source: iranhr.net, April 15, 2017
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

ISTANBUL  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Sunday claimed victory by a narrow margin in a referendum that grants sweeping powers to his office, in a watershed moment that the countrys opposition fears may cement his one-man rule.





With just under 99 percent of ballots counted, Yes had 51.33 percent of votes cast, and No had 48.67 percent, according to the state-run news agency, Anadolu.





The constitutional change has been approved by the Turkish people, an adviser to Mr. Erdogan, Ilnur Cevik, said in a phone call.





But the countrys election commission has yet to announce official results, and Turkeys main opposition party said it would demand a recount of about 37 percent of ballot boxes, containing around 2.5 million votes.





Continue reading the main story

The constitutional change, if it stands, will allow the winner of the 2019 presidential election to assume full control of the government, ending the current parliamentary political system.





The ramifications, however, would be immediate. The yes vote in the referendum would be a validation of the current leadership style of Mr. Erdogan, who has been acting as a de facto head of government since his election in 2014 despite having no constitutional right to wield such power. The office of the president was meant to be an impartial role that lacks full executive authority.





The result would tighten Mr. Erdogans grip on the country, which is one of the leading external actors in the Syrian civil war, a major way station along the migration routes to Europe and a crucial Middle Eastern partner of the United States and Russia.





The referendum was conducted in an atmosphere of fear, with the campaign characterized by prolonged intimidation of opposition members, several of whom were shot at or beaten while on the stump by persons unknown.





The opposition questioned the legitimacy of the referendum after the election board made a last-minute decision to increase the burden needed to prove allegations of ballot-box stuffing. At least one instance of alleged voter fraud appeared to be captured on camera.





We are receiving thousands of complaints on election fraud, said Erdal Aksunger, the deputy head of the opposition Republican Peoples Party, or C.H.P. We are evaluating them one by one.





Since a failed coup last summer, Turkey has been under a state of emergency, a situation that allowed the government to fire about 130,000 people suspected of being connected to the failed putsch, and to arrest about 45,000.





The new system will, among other changes:





 Abolish the post of prime minister and transfer executive power to the president.





 Allow the newly empowered president to issue decrees and appoint many of the judges and officials responsible for scrutinizing his decisions.





 Limit the president to two five-year terms, but give the option of running for a third term if Parliament truncates the second one by calling for early elections.





 Allow the president to order disciplinary inquiries into any of Turkeys 3.5 million civil servants, according to an analysis by the head of the Turkish Bar Association.

Claiming victory, Turkey's Erdogan says may take death penalty to referendum

President Tayyip Erdogan told crowds of flag-waving supporters on Sunday that Turkey could hold another referendum on reinstating the death penalty, as he claimed victory in a vote that will hand him sweeping new powers.





Addressing crowds in Istanbul, Erdogan said he would "immediately" discuss the issue of bringing back the death penalty with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and the leader of the nationalist opposition. Such a move would spell the end of Turkey's accession talks with the European Union.





Erdogan also said votes in favour of constitutional changes to replace Turkey's parliamentary system with an executive presidency stood at 51.5 %. He said everyone should respect the nation's decision, and added Turkey would "shift gears" in the coming period.





 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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Source: The New York Times, Patrick Kingsley, April 16, 2017Source: Reuters, April 17, 2017
Arkansas' death chamber

Ghoulishness envelops Arkansas decision to pump deadly drugs into eight men over the next fortnight. Although two of the eight scheduled executions have definitively been stayed and a temporary restraining order has been issued as to the remaining six, the state plans an emergency appeal.





Articles about midazolam, the drug whose expiration date prompted Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to schedule this unprecedented mass execution are abuzz on the internet and social media. By this point many Americans have heard or are generally aware that while midazolam is supposed to render the condemned unconscious and insensate, it has been linked to a number of gruesome and botched executions in the United States.





These are lethal injections where instead of drifting into a sterile, serene, slumber-like death, the condemned have for minutes and even hours, convulsed, coughed, clenched their fists, writhed and thrashed their bodies, murmured, spoken, or cried out in obvious distress; some have gasped for interminably long periods of time mimicking the discomfiting death-throes of still-live fish thrown flat on a sunbaked pier, to suffocate and to burn.





Importantly, torturous executions linked to midazolam have occurred when just one or at most two executions have been scheduled at one time. This is why a chorus of lawyers, law professors, medical experts, ethicists, and former correctional officials, have all raised their voices in the last few days against Hutchinsons mass-killing decree. Multiple executions create rushed circumstances. Rushed circumstances risk error, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. In other words, the assembly-line nature of Hutchinsons expediency-centric execution schedule exacerbates the risk that one or more of the men to be executed next week will suffer an excruciatingly painful execution; an execution plainly violative of the Constitutions prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.





In January 2016, I wrote about the then-impending execution of Christopher Brooks in Alabama  an execution likely botched by the controversial use of midazolam  a drug that according to competent medical experts, is inappropriate for use in executions.





Specifically, I wrote: In the United States, we rightly condemn barbaric executions in other countries, like in North Korea, where, in front of an audience, Kim Jon-Un executed his defense minister with an anti-aircraft gun, or, in Saudi Arabia, where beheading remains a common practice . We have especially condemned ISIS executions, executions that have included burning and burying people alive.





Highlighting Brooks federal defenders arguments that, because of the documented problems with midazolam, Brooks would feel like he is [both] being buried alive and burn[ed] alive from the inside, I plaintively demanded: How can we countenance the fact that we, as Americans, may also be subjecting human beings  irrespective of their crimes, even heinous ones  to that same end? Can the fact that US executions are not broadcast to the masses from some windswept desert in the Middle East, and occur, instead, in sterile prisons, under the color of law, really make such a difference? Isnt it morally wrong to execute someone by reproducing the sensation of being buried alive followed by burning them from the inside out? I lamented, Arent we, as a nation, and as people, better than that?





Next week, if Arkansas state-sanctioned killing spree goes forward, the answer to that question will resoundingly be no. Itll be no, no, no, no, no, no.





And as far as the title of my one-year-old Huffington Post blog,  When Will The United States Stop Tinkering With The Machinery of Death? , based on the monumentally-high level of depravity promising to be on display next week in Arkansas, not soon enough.




Pulaski County circuit judge Wendell Griffen taking part in an anti-death

penalty demonstration outside the state governors mansion, Arkansas. Republican lawmakers questioned Judge Wendell Griffens impartiality after he lay bound on a cot following his ruling to halt executions





The judge who on Friday barred Arkansas from executing six prisoners in rapid succession followed his ruling by attending an anti-death penalty rally, where he lay down on a cot and bound himself as though he were a condemned man on a gurney.





Judge Wendell Griffens participation in the protest outside the Arkansas governors mansion sparked outrage among death penalty supporters, including Republican lawmakers who described it as judicial misconduct and potential grounds for Griffens removal from the bench.





Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge on Saturday asked the states highest court to vacate Griffens ruling and asked for a new judge to be assigned the case.





Griffen, a Pulaski County circuit judge, ruled against the state because of a dispute over how the state obtained one of its execution drugs . In an interview on Saturday, he said he was morally opposed to the death penalty and that his personal beliefs alone should not disqualify him from taking up certain cases.





We have never, in my knowledge, been so afraid to admit that people can have personal beliefs yet can follow the law, even when to follow the law means they must place their personal feelings aside, he said.





On Friday, Griffen granted a restraining order preventing Arkansas from using its supply of vecuronium bromide, one of three drugs it uses in executions, because the supplier said the state misleadingly obtained the drug





The ruling came a day before a federal judge halted the executions on different grounds. The back-to-back decisions upend what had been a plan to execute eight men in 11 days, starting on Monday, because the states supply of one of the other execution drugs expires at the end of the month.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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Source: The Guardian, April 15, 2017
IRVING, Texas, April 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Excel Corporation (OTCQB:EXCC), a leading provider of integrated financial and transaction processing services to merchants throughout the United States, today reported its consolidated results for the year ended December 31, 2016. Due to the acquisition of the U.S. operations of Calpian, Inc. on November 30, 2015, the results of 2016 and 2015 are not comparable.



2016 Financial and Operational Highlights:

Results for eVance include first full year of operations from Calpian acquisition

Completed new $25 million credit facility in November 2016

Restructured Securus subsidiary operations in April 2016

Reported increased annual revenue of $17,115,210

Earned net income from continuing operations of $1,233,055

Reported a net loss after discontinued operations of $1,796,157

Increased year-end cash and cash equivalents to $1,586,207

Generated positive EBITDA of $3,431,311

Coming off a strong finish last year, 2016 was another eventful and successful year for Excel, setting the stage for our future growth. We completed the integration of our late 2015 acquisition of the U.S. assets of Calpian Inc., restructured our Securus operations - significantly improving profitability and in November 2016, secured a new $25 million credit facility to refinance our existing secured debt and provide for additional acquisitions, stated T. A. Kip Hyde, Jr., Excel's CEO. These three major accomplishments now provide Excel with a more robust operating platform, improved profitability and a great foundation for 2017.

Selected financial information comparisons:

For the full-year 2016, net revenues increased 204.0% to $17,115,210 as compared to $5,629,240 in the prior year. The increase in total revenues was primarily due to the first full year of results from Excels acquisition of the U.S. assets of Calpian, Inc. For the year ended December 31, 2016, net income from continuing operations decreased by $844,521 or 40.6% to $1,233,055. This decrease is primarily due to increased net interest expense of $1,556,105 as compared to $371,596 in the prior year resulting from the Calpian acquisition. In addition, the 2015 results included a non-operating gain from the sale of a residual portfolio of $445,742. The Company recorded a net loss for 2016 of $1,796,157 compared to a net loss of $1,622,494 in 2015, a 10.7% decline. Similar to 2015, this years net loss is primarily due to charges taken on the loss from discontinued operations, as well as an additional loss on disposal of operations taken at our Securus subsidiary of $2,188,571 and $840,641 respectively. EBITDA for 2016 increased to $3,431,311 or up 19.2% compared to 2015 EBITDA of $2,878,749. Lastly, 2016 year-end cash and cash equivalents increased to $1,586,207 or 338.0% over the 2015 year-end balance of $362,130.

For the year ended December 31, 2016, the Company announced the following results. The Table below presents summary financial data; see the Companys Form 10-K filed on April 14, 2017 for additional information:

Excel Corporation Summary Consolidated Financial Results Year ended December 31, 2016 2015 Revenues $ 17,115,210 $ 5,629,240 Costs and expenses 14,292,448 3,625,810 Operating income from continuing operations 2,822,762 2,003,430 Interest expense, net 1,556,105 371,596 Other income (expense) (33,602 ) 445,742 Net income from continuing operations $ 1,233,055 $ 2,077,576 Loss from discontinued operations (2,188,571 ) (3,700,070 ) Loss on disposal of operations (840,641 )  Net income (loss) $ (1,796,157 ) $ (1,622,494 ) Fully diluted earnings per share Net income from continuing operations $ 0.013 $ 0.021 Loss from discontinued operations (0.031 ) (0.038 ) Net loss (0.018 ) (0.017 ) EBITDA calculation Net income from continuing operations $ 1,233,055 $ 2,077,576 Depreciation and amortization 485,784 143,428 Interest expense, net 1,556,105 371,596 Non-cash stock compensation 156,367 286,149 Income tax expense, net   EBITDA $ 3,431,311 $ 2,878,749





Selected Balance Sheet Data Dec 31, Dec 31, 2016 2015 Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,586,207 $ 362,130 Total assets 14,711,950 14,013,270 Current portion of long-term debt 12,809,252 8,984,544 Long-term debt, net of current portion  226,733 Total stockholders equity (deficit) (372,206 ) 1,037,584

Disclosure of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We report our financial results in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP). However, management believes the presentation of certain non-GAAP financial measures provides useful information to management and investors regarding financial and business trends relating to the Companys financial condition and results of operations, and that when GAAP financial measures are viewed in conjunction with the non-GAAP financial measures, investors are provided with a more meaningful understanding of the Companys ongoing operating performance. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures are among the primary indicators management uses as a basis for evaluating performance. For all non-GAAP financial measures in this release, we have provided corresponding GAAP financial measures for comparative purposes in the report.

We refer to the term EBITDA in various places of our financial discussion. EBITDA is defined by us as net income (loss) from continuing operations before interest expense, income tax, depreciation and amortization expense and certain non-cash expenses and is calculated in accordance with our debt covenants. EBITDA is not a measure of operating performance under GAAP and therefore should not be considered in isolation nor construed as an alternative to operating profit, net income (loss) or cash flows from operating, investing or financing activities, each as determined in accordance with GAAP. Also, EBITDA should not be considered as a measure of liquidity. Moreover, since EBITDA is not a measurement determined in accordance with GAAP, and thus is susceptible to varying interpretations and calculations, EBITDA, as presented, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies.

About Excel Corporation

Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Excel Corporation, through its eVance Processing and eVance Capital subsidiaries, is a national electronic payments company, providing integrated credit card payment processing and financial services to small and medium sized businesses processing approximately $1.5 billion in transactions annually. As a merchant acquirer, the company purchases merchant portfolios, as well as sells a selection of payment processing and funding solutions through a network of independent sales organizations (ISOs), direct sales representatives, agent banks and the Internet. Supporting virtually all types of businesses, Excel provides solutions that help merchants run and grow their businesses. eVance Processings card payment and point-of-sale systems provide tools for merchants to run every aspect of their business. eVance Capital offers merchants a suite of financial products ranging from $10,000 to $1,000,000 per funding, designed to help them grow. For more information on our products and services, see www.eVanceProcessing.com and www.eVanceCapital.com.

Excel Corporation common stock is traded Over-The-Counter on the OTCQB under stock symbol: EXCC. Additional information about the Company can be found at www.ExcelCorpUSA.com.

Safe Harbor Statement: All statements from Excel Corporation in this news release that are not based on historical fact are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the PSLRA of 1995 and the provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. While the Companys management has based any forward-looking statements contained herein on its current expectations, the information on which such expectations were based may change. These forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are outside of our control, that could cause actual results to materially differ from such statements. Such risks, uncertainties, and other factors include, among others, statements regarding ability of the Company to comply with the covenants and other terms and conditions of the GACP term loan, to meet the conditions in the GACP term loan necessary to borrow additional funds, to identify and complete acquisitions that meet our investment strategy. For other factors that may cause our actual results to differ from those that are expected, see the information under the caption Risk Factors in the Companys most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q filings, and amendments thereto, as well as other public filings with the SEC since such date. The Company operates in a rapidly changing and competitive environment, and new risks may arise. Accordingly, investors should not place any reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. The Company disclaims any intention to, and undertakes no obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statement.
Re: Margaret Courtney-Clarke has traveled to remote dwellings in the Trans [ #permalink

24 Kudos 24 Bookmarks Expert Reply
smodak wrote:

Could someone explain why #4 does not weaken Scott's argument but #1 does? I don't get it.

Elimination of dense tree cover -> Decline in numbers of Tennessee warbler

Decline in population of spruce budworm -> Decline in numbers of Tennessee warbler

Now option D says that Tennessee warblers have begun migrating to other places. This is not relevant to Scott' point. He states that the decline in the population of the spruce budworm only has caused the decline in the numbers of the Tennessee warbler. So in order to weaken his argument, it is important to show that the decline in the population of the spruce budworm has nothing to do with the decline in the population of the Tennessee warbler. D does not mention anything along those lines. All it says is that the warblers go to different places. It does not, thus, negate or make less likely, Scott's argument. IMO, it does, in fact, weaken Kate's argument by stating that even the tree plantations have nothing to do with the recent decline in the population of the warbler.

A states that a bird similar to the Tennessee warbler has experienced a similar decline in numbers. The similarity between the Baltimore oriole and the Tennessee warbler is that both the birds are dependent on the coffee plantations. The difference is that the Baltimore oriole is NOT dependent on the spruce budworms.

Now, if the elimination of the tree cover in the coffee plantation were to be the cause, it would affect both the Tennessee warbler and the Baltimore oriole. Similarly, if the decline in the population of the spruce budworm were to be the cause, then it would affect only the Tennessee warbler, not the Baltimore oriole because the oriole is not dependent on the budworm.

However, the statement shows that even the oriole has experienced a decline in numbers. This indicates that the decline in the population of the budworm is not likely to be the cause for the decline in the numbers of either bird. Thus, Scott's argument is weakened.

The argument can be summarized as follows:Kate:Scott:D. Many Tennessee warblers have begun migrating in the fall to places other than traditional coffee plantationsA. The numbers of the Baltimore oriole, a songbird that does not eat budworms but is as dependent on South America coffee plantations as is the Tennessee warbler, are decliningHope this helps.
Two achieve at HIT

Branden Boff and Ryan Fugere were named Achieved Excellence Award winners for the first quarter of 2017 at HIT Inc. in Mandan.

Boff has worked for HIT since 2011 and is a direct support professional in the home living program.

Fugere is a direct support professional in the employment/vocational program and has been with HIT since 2014.

Allerdings joins

Rachel Allerdings has joined Integra Realty Group Inc.

Allerdings will specialize in residential sales in the Bismarck-Mandan area.

Three re-elected

Capital Credit Union board members Shawn Deisz, Bismarck, Ken Geiger, Mandan, formerly of Hazen, and Marnie Walth, Bismarck, were re-elected to three-year terms at CCUs 81st annual business meeting and member event in Bismarck.

Agency hires Schaf

Deanna Schaf, of Bismarck, has been hired as an administrative assistant at the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency.

Schaf replaces Kristi Seilinger, who transferred to the agencys homeownership division.

Promoted at CCU

April Schauer and Carlynn Unruh have been promoted at Capital Credit Union.

Schauer, previously an operations training and support specialist in the main office, is now a technology support technician. Schauer has been with CCU since 2005 and has 14 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Unruh, former head teller in the main office, has been named contact center digital branch manager there. She joined CCU in 2015 with 10 years experience in customer service.

Morris recognized

Sherry L. Morris, an American Family Insurance agent in Bismarck and Linton, has been recognized under the American Star Excellence in Customer Experience Certification Program.

Morris has been an agent for American Family since 1996.

Wetzel with council

Tim Wetzel has been hired as a safety consultant for the North Dakota Safety Council in Bismarck.

Wetzel, a native of Glen Ullin, is a former equipment operator and supervisor with more than 16 years of experience in mining and construction. He earned a technical studies degree from Bismarck State College and most recently was a safety manager for an excavation company.

Achieves in sales

Agent Terry Kraft has been named District 388 Dakotas Agent of the Month for March by American Family Insurance for outstanding sales of American Family insurance products.

Martinetti joins

Joseph Martinetti has joined Western Plains Consulting Inc. as an environmental geologist.

Originally from the New York area, Martinetti earned a bachelors degree in earth science from North Dakota State University and a masters degree in economic geology from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Rapid City.

He has experience as a geographic information system specialist and as a wellsite geologist.
U.S. officials secretly ask major banks to continue doing business with some Russian firms

19fortyfive: Is America tired of the war in Ukraine?

EU replaces pipeline Russian gas with imported Russian LNG

Kommersant: China split the 'unity' of the West

Expert estimates level of Azerbaijan's information attack on Armenia in September, comparing it to 44-day war

UK wants to work more with the U.S. on gas supplies

Donald Trump votes in Florida midterm elections

EU admits: It is impossible to set a ceiling on gas prices that will not affect contracts or security of supply

Most valuable metal of year is named

Mehr: Nikolai Patrushev arrives in Tehran

Turkish TV company confesses that Ankara and Israel were arming Azerbaijan against Armenia

Who is Baku threatening? Armenia's former deputy defense minister decodes Aliyev's statements

Army Commander-in-Chief: Even those who claim to be superpowers do not dare to attack Iran

Iran and Russia to build joint pipeline

India to continue buying Russian oil

Businessman Zhong Shanshan becomes richest man in China

Armenia and Poland emphasize OSCE role in promoting stability in South Caucasus

Banks are searched in Germany in case of money laundering by Russian businessman

Armenian President reacts to Aliyev's speech at League of Arab States summit

Armenia increases trade with EEU member states by $1.2 bln

Cavusoglu: Sweden and Finland have not yet fulfilled all Turkey's conditions

Oldest member of Rothschild dynasty die in Britain

Armenian National Security Council head and Polish Secretary of State discuss regional security issues

Stepantsminda-Lars highway faces restrictions

Kyiv realizes if China starts supplying ammunition to Russian troops it will be terrible

State Department: U.S. remains committed to supporting peace in South Caucasus region

Iran condemns thousand protesters and calls for retaliation against rest

Delegation from Israel visits Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide

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

U.S. Ambassador to UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield arrives in Kiev

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

Constitutional Court of Georgia revokes ban on pornography

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
Pope Francis on Sunday encouraged people to hold fast in their "fearful hearts" to faith despite all the wars, sickness and hatred in the world, acknowledging on Easter Sunday that many wonder where God is amid so much evil and suffering.

Tens of thousands of faithful braved heavy security checks  and, later, a brief downpour from what had been sunny skies  to enter St. Peter's Square where Francis celebrated Mass on the steps leading to St. Peter's Basilica.

Pope Francis on Easter Sunday gave his tradition Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) message from the central loggia of St Peter's Basilica. In it he prayed that Risen Lord would walk beside those who are marginalized who are victimized by old and new forms of slavery. The Holy Father also prayed the Lord would bring peace to the Middle East, come to the aid of Ukraine, shed his blessing upon the continent of Europe and build bridges of dialogue in Latin America.
The Fusionist Asta Roseway One researchers bold vision for the future of design, tech  and just about everything else

The Fusionist Asta Roseway One researchers bold vision for the future of design, tech  and just about everything else

FoodFutures, an exhibition addressing food production needs in the year 2050, melds the seemingly strange bedfellows of urban farming, machine learning, research engineering and design.





Fusionism in action See several of Asta Roseways recent projects. Its self-sustaining hydroponic and aquaponic farm modules use computer vision analysis to maximize efficient yield and crop health. The retro-futurist aesthetics nod to 2050 while remaining approachable and inspiring discussion about the challenges of feeding a world facing increasing climate change and urbanization. The project proves how a vision, guided by design, can bridge various technical and scientific disciplines to create solutions and showcase urgent issues like food security, said Asta Roseway, principal research designer at Microsoft Research and co-founder of FoodFutures. And the art infused throughout the project is what connects the technology back to the humanities in meaningful ways. In her Redmond, Washington, office stuffed with research white papers, mannequins in high-tech haute couture and a vintage Ms. Pac-Man mini-arcade, Roseway said, We are entering an era of design-driven collaboration where the designers role will be to act as the fusion between art, research, science and engineering.

We are entering an era of collaboration where the designers role will be to act as the fusion between art, research, science and engineering.

Roseways ability to think critically while collaborating across disciplines and combining their best aspects is not just the future of design careers. It will play a part in broader tech careers and, she believes, careers in general. She calls this new role fusionism, and, whether the modest Roseway will admit it or not, she is one of Microsofts foremost fusionists. The tech industry can be siloed in little groups and Asta brings together the right people with different talents to make a project work, said Paul Johns, a senior developer at Microsoft Research. She approaches projects by enhancing the human experience instead of just the tech experience, and that gives everyone involved a common point of reference. Helene Steiner, another fusionist who is currently a post-doctorate researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge, added, Asta is a conductor who enables relationships across fields and helps them to communicate with each other and articulate their visions. But its her emotional intelligence, empathy and social sensibility that make her such a great fusionist. Born into the hyper-progressive culture of 1970s Oakland, California, Roseway grew up with artist parents, often working with them at the family pizzeria. Her youth was surrounded by a passion for art, music and food. She credits restaurant work with forcing her to develop the skills to interact with a diverse set of strangers at a young age. At 20, she said goodbye to her tight-knit Bay Area community and headed to Paris to study fine art and art history. I was scared out of my mind, but my heart was determined, and that decision changed me forever, she said. Her four years in Paris became the foundation for her own sense of self-reliance, determination and confidence to always jump into something new. As a graphic design student at Parsons School of Design, Roseway teetered between the traditional analog design of hand-set typography and emerging digital tools. The tipping point arrived in the form of Adobe Illustrator. When I tried it, it was like the clouds parted and a ray of light hit the computer, she said. I knew then what my design path would be. For the first time, Roseway could generate designs on the computer at the speed of the ideas percolating within her brain. Stepping toward this digital horizon with a wide-open mind, she started experimenting with early, limited uses of interaction and multimedia to create CD-ROM experiences. In 1996, a few short months after graduation, Roseway was recruited by Microsoft Research to work with a virtual reality team generating online 3D environments. The ambitious goal was to enable people to build and host their own 3D worlds with avatar capabilities, as if they were websites. She admitted that, for the first six months, she didnt understand much of what her computer engineer colleagues were talking about. While I didnt yet have the technical vocabulary to converse with my peers, I remember creating my first avatar, walking her across an open field and chatting with virtual co-workers in various shades of fonts and colors, she said. I knew I was never going back to what I had thought design was supposed to be, and that I was in for a crazy ride.

I knew I was never going back to what I had thought design was supposed to be, and that I was in for a crazy ride.

Over the course of several years, Roseway learned about Microsoft, the tech industry and its acronym-laden jargon, while improvising to bring people together around her design ideas. From interactive TV to instant messaging applications to mobile experiences and advanced search, she took on new challenges and learned by doing. Her concept of fusionism grew out of her own experience working across disciplines and solving for the ever-shifting unknowns in emerging technology, she said. The truth is that change is happening so fast that you can never be fully prepared for whats next. But you can be prepared for change itself. In 2010, a new wave of microprocessors and sensors increasingly made technology agnostic of the PC and even the smartphone, opening new opportunities in the world of wearables. Roseway saw that if technology was to be ubiquitous and on (or in) our bodies, the fusionist approach could help ensure the products are more thoughtful, more personal and beneficial for us all. Her breakthrough piece was 2011s The Printing Dress, co-created with user experience designer Sheridan Martin Small. The dress explored wearable text and its potential impact on the future of fashion. Built almost entirely of paper, the dress enables the wearer to tweet thoughts into the dress and showcase them as public art. It combines the hand-set typography that Roseway studied at Parsons with the contemporary world of social media. It was first and foremost an art piece that invoked questions around privacy, social networks and wearable technology, said Roseway. People could map their own answers and speculations of the future to it. Thats what art does: It bridges to everyone. And thats what counts. The Printing Dress was the first fashion technology piece ever created at Microsoft. It went on to win Best in Show at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers and was featured at CES, New York Fashion Week and SXSW later that year. Since then, Roseways career has vaulted between science fiction and reality with an emphasis on emotional wellness, wearables, sustainability and imagination. She helped create a blue light therapy wearable for Seasonal Affective Disorder that would be more at home on the shelves of Bergdorf than Best Buy, explored early concepts for smart makeup that changes color with pollution and UV exposure and, of course, helped orchestrate FoodFutures. DuoSkin, a recent collaboration with Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao of MIT Media Lab, is an interactive temporary tattoo that can control devices from your skin. Using gold leaf as the conductive agent, these tattoos can be personalized to match the aesthetics of the wearer and can be as expressive as traditional ink tattoos. The project was nominated for the SciFi No Longer Award at the upcoming SXSW festival and was featured in Time Magazine. Sometimes you just have to laugh when you find yourself working with chemists or material scientists and wonder How did I get here? she said. But if you want to be on the bleeding edge, you have to be willing to step outside your core areas and always welcome in other ideas. She recently founded Microsofts first ever artist-in-residence program, called studio99. This grassroots effort, driven by employees, invites unconventional thinkers and artists to collaborate with researchers on the next wave of technologies. Project Florence which grew out of studio99, enables people to converse with a plant by translating text sentiment into a light frequency the plant can recognize and respond to in order to promote a two-way conversational experience. Inspired by then-Artist-in-Residence Helene Steiner, Project Florence is a fusionists cornucopia of biology, natural language research, design and engineering. It was recently showcased at Ars Electronica and was an inspiration for much of the core work in FoodFutures. Roseway has long worked to promote human diversity and inclusion. She knows what it feels like to be on the outside and also sees that outside is where the next great ideas could be born. Ten years ago, she co-founded DigiGirlz, a tech camp for high school girls. The DigiGirlz camp continues to afford high school girls exposure to professional women across Microsofts global footprint, while also offering hands-on workshops and classes. Roseway is optimistic about the potential of the incoming generation of talent. College graduates these days desire and even expect to do something monumental  to change to world, she said. And they intuit that they will have to work across disciplines and use art and design to make it relatable and successful.

College graduates these days desire and even expect to do something monumental  to change the world.
Theres no shortage of articles and television shows that showcase the dishes that chefs love to cook at their restaurants. But what do they love to eat at the end of their exhausting 16-hour days? Or on their days off?

In this series, we ask Milwaukee area chefs to share their favorite dishes  both from area restaurants and for eating at home. In this edition, we talked with Chef Ana Docta of Great Lakes Distillery. Docta will be among eight featured chefs at the upcoming 3rd Annual Moveable Feast event at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Ana Docta notes that, for her, "Food is religion. Its community. Its family." She grew up on the countryside in Argentina, where her father often spent his time hunting small game, including doves, rabbits, quail, pheasants and frogs, all of which hed bring home for dinner. Sundays were a time for cooking and spending time with friends and family. To mark the occasion, the family would indulge in pachamanca, meats cooked over hardwood in an underground pit.

When it came time to choose her career, Docta trained in Spain, where she honed her culinary skills and learned the art of true hospitality, a value system which became central to her goals as a chef. Docta gained experience in a variety of settings, including country clubs and hotels before opening her first restaurant, La Cubana, in Brazil. She also became the first female member of the Porto Alegre Chefs Fraternity, an organization which developed a program to donate soup to organizations to feed the hungry. In 2000, Docta moved to Milwaukee where she launched her catering company and restaurant, KASANA.

Docta says her tastes gravitate toward simple, well-prepared foods, which she loves to explore with family and friends.

Bone marrow at All Purpose

"My husband loves sandwiches, so he often gets the hamburger at AP. Even that is so simple, but its the elegance with which its put together that makes it special. For me, its the bone marrow. It comes simply with a bit of sugar caramelized on top and crostini on the side. And that takes skill to prepare. Its delicious when prepared correctly, but horrible when its undercooked. And if its overcooked, its just oil. And theirs is simplicity at its best."

Carpaccio and ravioli at Ristorante Bartolotta

"Do you know how many places can make a good carpaccio? The meat has to be sliced just right, and you have to be so careful with the ingredients so that you dont overpower the meat. Ristorante makes a very good one. Another thing I love is the house-made ravioli. At my house growing up, my dad was a chef, and he made his own pasta. At Ristorante, the lightness of it, the skill with which its made, its just delicious."

Desserts at Le Reve

"When I go to Le Reve with my husband, we always get two desserts to share. And theres two that I love. One is a raspberry dome. It has a layer of raspberry gelee and a very soft light pound cake in the bottom. And its coated in a layer of chocolate. I think the combination is fantastic. It has a nice tart flavor, and the bitterness from the chocolate is delicious. Its also so moist. And its about the experience, its so playful. When you crack the dome, theres a surprise waiting for you.

"The other is a layered caramel dessert with layers of pound cake, chocolate and vanilla. What I love about it is that when you think about caramel, you think of something very sweet. And this is not. Its just beautiful. And it has so much harmony in the way that its constructed."

Ultimate comfort food

"At home, comfort food is a ridiculous potato casserole. It will not help you to lose any weight. But its one of those dishes that you cant stop eating. Its layers and layers of thinly sliced organic Idaho potatoes with garlic puree, heavy cream and a light white cheese. And then you wrap it up and put it into the oven until the potatoes are soft. And then you remove the cover and allow it to brown. And then you eat it with a spoon ... until you die. So delicious.

"On a day when Im really not wanting to cook, I ask my husband to get really good quality Indian food from places like Cafe India. The curries are so flavorful. And theyre saucy, so its like a heavy, hearty soup. I love vegetarian curries. Theres something about them that makes me want to keep eating, even when Im full. Its like the spices release endorphins. And its so comforting to me."
News

Older Windows Systems Targeted by Newly Released Hack Tools

Microsoft is investigating reports about leaked hacking tools that target older Windows systems.

The tools were announced on Friday by a group calling itself "The Shadow Brokers." A Microsoft spokesperson provided a statement via e-mail, stating that "we are reviewing the report and will take the necessary actions to protect our customers."

The Shadow Brokers has been posting hacking tools to the GitHub repository in an online auction over the last year, according to Wikipedia's account. The tools are alleged to have come from the U.S. National Security Agency.

The tools date from 2013, so they're thought to affect Windows systems older than Windows 10, according to a Motherboard story posted today. One hacking tool, called "FuzzBunch," appears to affect Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista, as well as Windows Server 2000 though Windows Server 2012, according to the story.

The GitHub post of the tools by The Shadow Brokers contains three folders, marked "oddjob," "swift" and "windows," which can be unlocked by a password that was released by the group. The swift folder contains PowerPoint slides suggesting that the Middle East network used by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) for financial transactions was targeted by the NSA, according to a blog post by Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Matt Suiche. Banks in Bangladesh and Ramallah, Palestine were targeted, he indicated, regarding the released materials.

The Windows hacking tools that were released are used for remote exploits. They have names such as "EternalRomance," "EnternalChampion" and "ExternalBlue." Some of the targeted Windows versions, such as Windows Vista and Windows 2008, have fallen out of support. Consequently, their flaws won't get patched, Suiche noted.

The oddjob folder contains various log files and Excel documents, plus PowerPoint files marked "Top Secret," according to Suiche.

The release of the tools comes after WikiLeaks today published documents about purported CIA backend malware with a "public-facing HTTPS interface." WikiLeaks also released more so-called CIA "Vault 7" attack tools earlier this month that are designed to target Windows systems.

This week, CIA Director Mike Pompeo called WikiLeaks a "hostile intelligence service," according to a New York Times article. WikiLeaks, which provides leaked materials to journalists, is perhaps best known for its release of a video showing a U.S. military helicopter gunning down civilians in Iraq.
TASHKENT (Reuters) - France and Uzbekistan need to strengthen security cooperation in order to combat jihadist groups and prevent violent attacks, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told Reuters on Saturday during a visit to the Central Asian nation. Suspected Islamist militants from the mainly Muslim ex-Soviet region of Central Asia have been blamed for two attacks this month: a metro bombing in Russia's second city, St. Petersburg, on April 3 and an attack in Stockholm on April 7, where a truck rammed a crowd of people on a busy street. The Uzbek government said this week it had informed one of its Western partners that Rakhmat Akilov, the Uzbek national suspected of being behind the Stockholm attack, was an Islamic State affiliate. Ayrault, who met Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov and Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov in Tashkent, said security was on the agenda, as well as economic reforms and human rights. "We have actively discussed terrorism and radicalisation issues as both of our countries have some youth who are influenced by such groups and choose jihad," Ayrault said in an interview. "That is why it is very necessary for us to have an exchange of information to fight against such a phenomenon. The terrorist acts that happened in St. Petersburg and Stockholm remind us of such a necessity," he said, speaking through an interpreter. France has suffered a series of attacks by Islamist militants over the past few years that have killed scores of people. The country, which holds the first round of its presidential election on April 23, remains in a state of emergency, with army units patrolling the streets of Paris. Ayrault said the level of cooperation between France and Uzbekistan, a country often criticised by the West in the past over its human rights record and lack of democratic freedoms, was insufficient. "Of course, there is some level of cooperation but we need to strengthen it," he said. Ayrault said he had also discussed in Tashkent the possibility of "displaying the rich Islamic heritage of Uzbekistan as represented by the ancient cities of Samarkand and Bukhara at the Louvre museum in Paris", describing them as an example of "enlightened Islam". "This is just a project but I know that the Louvre curators are working on that," he said. (Reporting by Mukhammadsharif Mamatkulov; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Gareth Jones)
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP)  Germany's foreign minister urged Kosovo's political parties on Thursday to approve the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro to end their status as the only Western Balkan country without free travel rights in Schengen zone countries.

Minister Sigmar Gabriel was in Pristina on Thursday as part of his regional tour.

Opposition parties say Kosovo loses territory in the border agreement signed two years ago, and have blocked the governing coalition from ratifying the deal by continuously disrupting parliament.

U.S. Senator John McCain also visited Kosovo on Thursday, urging Pristina to resume its dialogue with Serbia, saying that's the only way to a prosperous and safe future.

"Taking ahead the dialogue ... is in Kosovars' and Serbs' interest, vital for their joint European future and for the stability of southeastern Europe," McCain said in a speech at the parliament.

Gabriel, who was in Serbia a day earlier, advised Kosovo and Serbia to continue their talks and "first of all to avoid provocations; second, to accept the reality; third, to care about how to make life easier for the people. This has to be the focus of the negotiations."

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. It has been recognized by 114 countries but not by Serbia. Their relations have been especially tense since December following a series of provocations.

McCain assured lawmakers that "a U.S. commitment for a complete, free and peaceful Europe has not changed."

Gabriel and McCain also called on Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders to cooperate and convince the country's Serb minority to approve the creation of the country's armed forces.

"Kosovo, like all other sovereign states, has the right to form an army but it should not be used to raise the emotional tensions," said Gabriel.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci sent a draft law to parliament last month to transform the nation's security force into a regular army, sparking concerns at NATO and the United States.

Story continues

Thaci bowed to international pressure and agreed to postpone the army transformation.

___

Semini reported from Tirana, Albania.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an "arch-terrorist" and it is time Russia realised he is "literally and metaphorically toxic", British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Sunday. Johnson said Assad's ally Moscow still had time to be on the "right side of the argument", in a Sunday Telegraph newspaper article. "Assad uses chemical weapons because they are not only horrible and indiscriminate. They are also terrifying," Johnson wrote. "In that sense he is himself an arch-terrorist, who has caused such an unquenchable thirst for revenge that he can never hope to govern his population again. "He is literally and metaphorically toxic, and it is time Russia awoke to that fact. They still have time to be on the right side of the argument." Johnson was widely criticised for failing to get the G7 to back his bid for new sanctions against senior Russian and Syrian figures following the chemical weapons attack in Syria's Idlib province that killed dozens and caused an international outcry. But he said the chemical assault had changed the West's stance on Syria. "The UK, the US and all our key allies are of one mind: we believe that this was highly likely to be an attack by Assad, on his own people, using poison gas weapons that were banned almost 100 years ago," he wrote. "Let us face the truth: Assad has been clinging on. With the help of Russians and Iranians, and by dint of unrelenting savagery, he has not only recaptured Aleppo. He has won back most of 'operational' Syria." Before the April 4 chemical attack, the West was "on the verge of a grim consensus", which had now changed, said Johnson. The consensus had been that it would be more sensible to concentrate on the fight against Islamic State jihadists and to accept reluctantly that removing Assad, "though ultimately essential -- should await a drawn out political solution". A suicide car bomb attack on buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns killed 43 people on Saturday, as US-backed fighters advanced in their push towards the IS group's Raqa stronghold.
US National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster arrived in Kabul on Sunday days after the American military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on Islamic State group hideouts in eastern Afghanistan, killing nearly a hundred militants. On his first visit to the country as President Donald Trump's envoy, McMaster said on Twitter he was set to hold "very important talks on mutual cooperation" with President Ashraf Ghani and other top officials. A statement from Ghani's office later said McMaster discussed security issues and counter-terrorism efforts as well as reforms aimed at tackling corruption. "As a result of joint Afghan and international forces efforts, no safe havens will be left for terrorists in Afghanistan," McMaster was quoted as saying in a readout that gave few clues to the Trump administration's future course of action in the country. US-led NATO troops have been at war in Afghanistan since 2001, after the ousting of the Taliban regime for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks in the United States. The US has around 8,400 troops in the country with about another 5,000 from NATO allies, as efforts to negotiate a lasting peace settlement between Kabul and the Taliban have repeatedly fallen through. On Thursday the US military in Afghanistan dropped its GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, dubbed the "Mother of All Bombs" in combat for the first time. The target was IS hideouts in the Achin district of Nangarhar province. Afghanistan's defence ministry on Sunday put the death toll at 95 militants and no civilians. The attack triggered global shockwaves, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and against a militant group that is not considered as big a threat as the resurgent Taliban. It came a week after US President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack, and as China warned of the potential for conflict amid rising US tensions with North Korea.
2017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #15

Posted on 16 April 2017 by John Hartz

Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Graphic of the Week... SkS in the News... Photo of the Week... SkS Spotlights... Video of the Week... Reports of Note... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... 97 Hours of Consensus...

Story of the Week...

Ruins, Not Reefs: How Climate Change Is Fast-Forwarding Coral Science

A bleached coral near the Great Barrier Reef on March 16, 2017

At about the same moment that millions of Americans sat staring at their television or laptop or phonewatching the results from the presidential election stream in, seeing state after state called for Donald TrumpKim Cobb was SCUBA diving near the center of the Pacific Ocean. She did not watch the same trickle of news as other Americans. She surfaced, heard the results, and dove in the water again. She was, after all, attending to devastation.

Cobb is a climate scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology. On November 8, she was on her most recent of many research trips to Kiritimati Island reef, the largest coral atoll in the world. (Kirimati is pronounced like Christmas.) She first began studying the reef in 1997, during the last big El Nino warming event; she has returned nearly every year since. Last year, she went three times.

We had been waiting for the big one. And boy did it happen, she told me earlier this year. It really rolled out at an unprecedented magnitude. This particular El Nino event had its maximum temperature loading almost in a bulls-eye almost around Kirimati Island.

Ruins, Not Reefs: How Climate Change Is Fast-Forwarding Coral Science by Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic Magazine, Apr 11, 2017

Editorial of the Week...

Climate Climax

Jitendra Bajracharya

Global measurements of a warming of the earth are more and more frightening. In recent weeks we have learnt that February 2017 was the second-warmest in NASAs global temperature records that go back 137 years. The only warmer Februrary was last year. The hotspot has been the Arctic, which saw the hottest year on record with temperatures 40 above average in February. Arctic sea ice is seeing a record low winter maximum for three consecutive years.

If all this sounds bad, hear this. The Himalaya is warming much faster than the rest of the planets surface. Even if countries meet or exceed their commitments for emission cutbacks, the average global temperature will still rise by 1.4o by 2100, but in the Himalaya, Pamir and Tibetan Plateau, temperatures will go up by 1.8.o The effects will be apocalyptic, and we are already seeing signs of it in Nepals glaciers thinning, retreating and losing mass at an alarming rate. Some of these trends were reviewed at an international conference on Understanding Climate Change and Climate Action this week in Kathmandu organised by the Nepal government with Kathmandu-based ICIMOD and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Climate Climax, Editorial, Nepali Times, Apr 14, 2017

Toon of the Week...

Quote of the Week...

They have it completely backward, Gavin Schmidt, director of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told Gizmodo in an email. No-one uses models blindlythey need to be tested against real-world observations and their predictions have to be evaluated. What Heartland gets wrong is that this has already happenedwe have tested GCM predictions and they have not failed but of course they are not perfect either.

Todays global climate models are sophisticated simulations of the Earth based on literal millions of data points collected by satellites, meteorological stations, and ocean buoys. As Schmidt notes, these models are constantly validated by comparing their outcomes with whats happening in nature. Over time, our models have gotten better at reflecting reality, helping Earth scientists to understand the processes shaping that reality.

Scientists are constantly working to try to improve these models and reduce uncertainty, climate scientist Patrick Brown of the Carnegie Institution for Science told Gizmodo. This is all done openly and honestly in the peer-reviewed literature.

Schmidt added that there are some consequences of climate change that have occurred faster than our models predictedlike the rapid retreat of Arctic sea iceso no one thinks the models are perfect.

The rest of the Heartland statement is just made up, Schmidt said. We include all relevant forcingsincluding natural ones like volcanoes and solar, and anthropogenic effects that cool the climate like aerosols and irrigation....the notion that we are excluding forcings or feedbacks that run against our mission is simply nonsense.

The Most Insane Claims From the Climate Conspiracy Manual Just Sent to Thousands of Teachers by Maddie Stone, Gizmodo, Apr 11, 2017

Graphic of the Week...

SkS in the News...

[To be added.]

Photo of the Week...

Preliminary DMS image of the new rift in Greenlands Petermann Glacier, directly beneath the NASA Operation IceBridge aircraft. (Gary Hoffmann/NASA).

NASA just snapped the first photos of a mysterious crack in one of Greenlands largest glaciers by Chris Mooney, Energy & Environment, Washington Post, Apr 15, 2017

SkS Spotlights...

Mission of the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC)

The OPC will ensure that California maintains healthy, resilient, and productive ocean and coastal ecosystems for the benefit of current and future generations. The OPC is committed to basing its decisions and actions on the best available science, and to promoting the use of science among all entities involved in the management of ocean resources.

Council Guiding Principles and Responsibilities

The Council was created pursuant to the California Ocean Protection Act (COPA), which was signed into law in 2004 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The OPC is guided by principles included in COPA:

Recognizing the interconnectedness of the land and the sea, supporting sustainable uses of the coast, and ensuring the health of ecosystems

Improving the protection, conservation, restoration, and management of coastal and ocean ecosystems through enhanced scientific understanding, including monitoring and data gathering

Recognizing the precautionary principle: where the possibility of serious harm exists, lack of scientific certainty should not preclude action to prevent the harm

Identifying the most effective and efficient use of public funds by identifying funding gaps and creating new and innovative processes for achieving success

Making aesthetic, educational, and recreational uses of the coast and ocean a priority

Involving the public in all aspects of OPC process through public meetings, workshops, public conferences, and other symposia

The council is tasked with the following responsibilities:

Coordinate activities of ocean-related state agencies to improve the effectiveness of state efforts to protect ocean resources within existing fiscal limitations

Establish policies to coordinate the collection and sharing of scientific data related to coast and ocean resources between agencies

Identify and recommend to the Legislature changes in law

Identify and recommend changes in federal law and policy to the Governor and Legislature

2012-2017 Priorities

The Ocean Protection Councils Strategic Plan for 2012  2017 proposes action in areas of critical need where the Councils involvement can yield tangible progress and have the greatest impact. The plan includes goals, objectives and proposed actions that the Council will pursue over the next five years.

Video of the Week...

Michelle Thaller on Science Denial, YouTube, Mar 16, 2017

Reports of Note...

Ocean Protection Council Science Advisory Team Working Group Releases Report on Sea-level Rise Science

A seven-member working group of the Ocean Protection Council Science Advisory Team has provided the State with a report on the best available sea-level rise science  including recent scientific advances on the role of polar ice loss. The report, entitled Rising Seas in California: An Update on Sea-level Rise Science, includes key findings, an analysis of the contributors that affect how much sea levels will rise along Californias coast, as well as new information on the likelihood of sea level changes based on different greenhouse gas emission scenarios.

This report provides the scientific foundation for updating the States Sea-level Rise Guidance Document, which was initially released in 2010 and updated in 2013. Now, the Ocean Protection Council is leading a process to update this statewide guidance document, in collaboration with the California Natural Resources Agency, the Governors Office of Planning and Research, the California Energy Commission and the Ocean Science Trust. The guidance document will reflect recent scientific advances and focus on the needs of local governments and state agencies as they incorporate sea-level rise projections into planning, permitting, investment and other decisions.

Public input will be integrated into the final guidance document, which is scheduled for adoption by the California Ocean Protection Council in January 2018. A series of listening sessions to better understand the needs of those who will use the guidance document are occurring on April 17 and 18, 2017. To register, please visit the Updating Californias Sea Level Rise Guidance Document page. A series of public workshops to share the science findings and solicit feedback on how stakeholders will utilize the guidance document will occur in May and June 2017. A draft guidance document will be circulated for formal public comment in the fall of 2017.

The science report is available here.

The press release on the report is available here.

For additional details on the process, please visit the Updating Californias Sea Level Rise Guidance Document page.

Coming Soon on SkS...

[To be added.]

Poster of the Week...

Climate Feedback Reviews...

Climate Feedback asked its network of scientists to review the article, From extreme drought to record rain: Why California's drought-to-deluge cycle is getting worse by Rong-Gong Lin II and Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times, Apr 12, 2017

Four scientists analyzed the article and estimated its overall scientific credibility to be high.

A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Accurate Sound reasoning<

Click here to access the entire review.

SkS Week in Review...

97 Hours of Consensus...

Reto Knutti's bio page

Quote derived with permission from author from:

"Climate change is a fact and humans are very likely responsible for most of it. Long term impacts will mostly be negative. On the positive side: Costs of mitigation, that is to reduce emissions, are smaller than those for prevented damages."

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A foreigners' real experience at the foreigners police department in Bratislava.

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Day 1, March 3 (36 days before permit expiration)

I debated whether I should stay up all night to get to the office at an early enough hour, spent some time making calculations as to when I would be able to get there, and ultimately made the mistake of finally going to sleep at 1:30 a.m., setting the alarm for 3:00 a.m. I somehow got up, took a shower, and went to the bus stop under Most SNP, where I took a bus at 4:25 to a stop in Petrzalka. Because of the construction at the Slovak National Gallery, this was not the bus I had taken in 2015 and so got off at an unfamiliar location. I got a little lost but found the office by 4:45.

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Read also:

Read also: Blog: What I know about "the list" Read more

As in 2015, there was one spotlight shining, casting everything in an ominous light, but I recognized at least one of the unofficial organizers hanging out by the door and asked about the list. They told me I had to find the last person who arrived before me, which I was able to do rather quickly. As expected, there was no room on the three benches. About half the people there were sleeping, huddled in blankets, and I counted approximately 20 in total, which I took as a possible hopeful sign that I would actually get to see an officer. Four or five of those were among the unofficial organizers, though perhaps more as there were a few women on one bench who looked vaguely familiar. Its always hard to tell in the pitch black. I tried to mentally prepare myself for the wait with nothing to do. Many people were playing on their phones, but I wanted to conserve my battery because I knew I would need to call my friend at some point.

I paced the grounds, but didnt want to get too far away while I knew that I was the last person to arrive. Within a short time, a young man in his twenties arrived and found me, then wandered off. Some time after that, a man about my age asked me if I was last and I told him that someone else was after me, but he couldnt be found at the moment. Eventually the young man returned and it was all sorted. Now I felt like I could relax about my place in line, at least if the person whom I was behind didnt move because I couldnt see his face under his hood thanks to the lighting. I paced. I chewed too much nicotine gum. I checked Facebook more frequently than I should have for saving the battery. I checked the time whenever it seemed like about 30 minutes had passed, and it was almost always closer to 15.

Read also:

Read also: Queues rigged at foreigners police, say clients Read more

Around 6:00 a.m., the unofficial organizers began organizing us. This is about half an hour earlier than in 2015, when the list was in effect, and is perhaps an effect of its loss. After some jostling and confusion, which there always is, even with the list, we were organized into a line that ran the length of the small semi-enclosed area then curled around back to the side near the door. When I did this before, the line would often extend out of the semi-enclosed area entirely, so this is at least fewer people than I feared. I was now far from being the twentieth person in line, but this was to be expected. My experience in 2015 was that some people, usually seemingly paid representatives for those who cant take the time or dont want to wait the whole time themselves, were given places near the front of the line. I found myself at the far end of the semi-enclosed area, about halfway through the line. If memory serves, I was able to see an officer when I had been at about this point before, though that was one of the times the officer discovered something he or she didnt like about my application and sent me away without accepting it so that I could find some other documentation. As a result, I was relatively hopeful about my chances. I texted my friend that perhaps she should come at 7:30 a.m. since I thought there was a chance I could get in during the morning hours. Meanwhile, a few people around me who had been there since about 5:00 a.m. asked why they were being pushed to the back of the line. As it turns out, they did not know to find the last person. One of the people near me in the line explained the situation to them, and I thought a fight was going to break out for a second, but everyone calmed down, knowing this is the closest to an orderly system that can be expected under the circumstances.

While we waited for the door to open, I took out my paperwork and filled out portions of the application form. I asked the people near me a question about the renewal process. I complained about the situation on Facebook. I eavesdropped on the conversations in English. One of the people holding a place in line for someone told his client that he was a law student. Because he stayed there for longer than the other placeholders usually do, I wondered if he would be helping her with the officers, but I lost track of them over the passing time. Just before the door opened, my friend arrived, so I now had some company. We chatted for a while. It took me about 15 or 20 minutes to actually get to the front of the door because the officer at the door checks your passport and asks what service you need. In 2015, one of the unofficial organizers was usually there with him to help keep everything straight and explain the situation to latecomers, but now it was only the officer, who of course had not been there earlier. I got my ticket: 334.

Read also:

Read also: FAQ: Non-EU citizens - dealing with immigration authorities Read more

The way the ticket system works is that there are four sets of three-digit numbers that start with 3, 6, 0, or 8. The 6s are for those collecting their permits, and so tend to move quickly. I believe the 0s are for general inquiries but I dont at all know what for what service one may be assigned an 8. The 3s are for those trying to submit their paperwork to apply for the permit or its renewal. There are two doors through which you enter to speak with officers, each with small screens that display three numbers at a time. Every once in a while, a doorbell sounds and the numbers change. The 3s began with 301. I became less hopeful, but it wasnt outside the realm of possibility that I would get to see an officer.

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
The respondents in most of the countries agreed that the control of their privacy is more important than potential advantages of sharing personal details.

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More than half of consumers do not shop online due to their fear of losing privacy, while only less than 10 percent say they control the processing of their personal data. Meanwhile, six out of 10 people do not read or only quickly read through the privacy policy when entering a certain website.

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This stems from a survey carried out by consulting company KPMG International on 6,900 consumers from 24 countries across the globe between April and May 2016, the TASR newswire reported.

The respondents in most of the countries agreed that the control of their privacy is more important than potential advantages of sharing personal details.

The survey suggests that eight out of 10 consumers would disagree with the sale of personal details to third parties in exchange for swiftness, comfort, broader offer of products, home delivery and better prices when shopping online.

The understanding of exchange value between the access to personal details and trust has never been more important than today, Peter Borak of KPMG branch in Slovakia said, as quoted by TASR.

More than half of the respondents claimed they are willing to share the information about their gender, education or ethnicity. On the other hand, only 16 percent claimed they would share information about current locality, while 14 percent would share information about their address and 13 percent about their medical records.

Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of respondents do not feel good about their personal data being used by smartphone and tablet applications.

The consumers sharing their personal details are mostly afraid of unwanted marketing, the sale of personal data to third parties and insufficiently secured systems when shopping online. One-third of respondents consider well-secured computer systems the most effective tool to get customers to share their personal details with organisations, TASR reported.

The survey also suggests consumers care about online security more. Half of the respondents have erased cookies from their internet browsers and manage the settings of their social networks. Nearly one-third of consumers use incognito mode when searching the internet, while one-quarter encrypts their data.

Despite greater caution regarding the personal details, up to 57 percent of respondents do not read or only quickly scan the private policy rules.
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Jakarta voters head to the polls on Wednesday to elect a governor for Indonesia's capital after a campaign that incited political and religious tensions in the world's most populous Muslim country. The race to lead the city of more than 10 million has been fought by two candidates - an ethnic Chinese Christian and a Muslim. It has triggered mass protests and stirred religious and political tensions in the world's third largest democracy. THE CANDIDATES Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known by his Chinese nickname as "Ahok", is the incumbent governor who took over running Jakarta in 2014 when his then boss, Joko Widodo, won the presidency. Purnama, 50, is the city's first ethnic Chinese and Christian leader and is backed by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Purnama is standing trial on blasphemy charges after allegedly insulting the Koran during the campaign. Hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied after an edited video of his comments about a Koranic verse were circulated. He has appeared in court throughout the campaign. If he wins the election but is convicted of blasphemy, Purnama can assume office as long as an appeals process is going on. Purnama's policies include new infrastructure to fix Jakartas chronic traffic congestion, flood mitigation, better waste management and anti-corruption measures. Anies Baswedan, 47, is the former rector of Jakartas Paramadina University and campaign manager for Widodo during the 2014 election. Widodo appointed him education minister but sacked him less than two years later. Baswedan has shifted allegiance to Widodos presidential rival in the 2014 campaign, Prabowo Subianto, and now represents Subianto's Gerindra Party. Baswedan was criticised for meeting hardline Islamists during the campaign. His platform has focused on improving public education and combating the rising cost of living. He opposes a giant seawall in Jakarta Bay that Purnama has advocated. VOTING IN JAKARTA The April 19 election is a runoff between the two most popular candidates in the first round of polling held on Feb. 15. In the first round, Purnama received 43 per cent of the vote and Baswedan 40 per cent. A third candidate, Agus Yudhoyono, dropped out of the race after receiving only 17 per cent of the vote. A candidate needs a simple majority to win. Private pollsters approved by the General Elections Commission will conduct quick counts of a sample of votes after polls close on April 19, giving an indication of the winner. Official results are expected to be announced by the elections commission by May 5-6. Defeated candidates can dispute the results in the Constitutional Court. About 7.1 million people are registered to vote in Jakarta. The turnout was 77 per cent for the first round of voting. (Compiled by Jakarta bureau; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will ask "no one's permission" to build up its missile capability, President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday, in what appeared to be a defiant response to U.S. efforts to hamper the Iranian military. Facing an election in May where he hopes to secure a second four-year term, Rouhani has had to defend himself from opponents who say he has been too eager to appease the West, after agreeing to curb Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. U.S. President Donald Trump has criticised the nuclear deal and said during his election campaign he would stop Iran's missile programme. After Iran test-fired a new ballistic missile in January, Trump tweeted that it was "playing with fire". Addressing an event showcasing some locally built military hardware, broadcast on state TV, Rouhani said: "The strengthening of the capability of the Iranian armed forces ... is only for defending the country and we will ask no one's permission to build up the armed forces, and to build missiles and aircraft." He said Iran has never had "aggressive aims, but peace is not a one-way road and if we decide to be peaceful the other party ... may not. So there is a need for vigilance." A bill to impose new sanctions on Iran over ballistic missile launches and other non-nuclear activities has been delayed in the U.S. Senate due to concerns about the presidential election. Iran says its missile tests are not covered by the nuclear deal. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  A young Saudi woman's plea for help after she was stopped in an airport in the Philippines en route to Australia where she planned to seek asylum has triggered a firestorm on social media and drawn attention to the plight of female runaways.

For runaway Saudi women, fleeing can be a matter of life and death, and they are almost always doing so to escape male relatives.

Under Saudi Arabia's conservative interpretation of Islamic law, a male guardianship system bars women from traveling abroad, obtaining a passport, marrying or even leaving prison without the consent of a male relative. Most Muslim-majority countries do not have similarly restrictive guardianship laws.

The mystery around what triggered Dina Ali Lasloom's cry for help has only added to concerns for her safety.

In a video that appears to be shot with a mobile phone, the 24-year-old says her passport was taken from her at Manila's international airport in the Philippines on Monday on her way to Australia. She alleges that Philippine airport officials confiscated her passport at the request of Saudi diplomats until her relatives could arrive to take her to Saudi Arabia.

"If my family come, they will kill me. If I go back to Saudi Arabia, I will be dead. Please help me," she pleads in the video. Lasloom says she is recording the video at the airport so the public "know that I'm real and here."

Wearing a beige coat, the woman does not show her face in the video. Most women in Saudi Arabia cover their face with a veil known as a niqab. Many do so believing it is a religious obligation, in addition to covering their hair and body. Some also cover their faces due to social pressure.

"I am kept here as a criminal. I can't do anything," Lasloom says in the video. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video's authenticity.

Women's rights advocates in Saudi Arabia say Lasloom was ultimately forced to board a plane to the kingdom with two of her uncles, who flew from Riyadh. They said authorities then took her to a women's shelter because of the attention around her case.

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She cannot leave, however, without a male guardian's permission. Activists say only officials and relatives can contact her there.

Although there are no official statistics, anecdotal evidence from cases reported in Saudi media and from human rights advocates suggest dozens of Saudi women  some with their children have attempted to flee abroad in recent years. These publicized cases have brought increased attention to what activists say has become a "trend".

This is despite gains made in recent years for Saudi women, including the right to run in, and vote in, local elections in 2015, and a government effort to increase women's participation in the workforce.

Women who have managed to flee abroad say they were barred from marrying or forced into marriages. Others have told rights groups that male relatives were abusive and confiscated their salaries.

"Many of them, they just want to be free," said Moudi Aljohani, who says she spoke with Lasloom when she was at Manila airport. Aljohani herself fled the kingdom last year and is seeking asylum in the U.S.

Aljohani, 26, says her family felt she'd become "too Americanized" after a year of study in Miami. What was supposed to be a weeklong visit home turned into months of confinement, she says.

"The eight months of being locked in Saudi Arabia has created an angry, rebellious person inside of me that I don't want to be silent anymore," she said. "What happened to me in Saudi Arabia created a person who just wants to speak out."

For the past 15 years, four of the late King Abdullah's daughters, Princesses Jawaher, Sahar, Hala and Maha  all in their 40s  have allegedly been held in a royal compound in Saudi Arabia. Their mother, who lives in London, has spoken out in the British press to try and bring attention to their plight. Two of the princesses managed to release videos in recent years pleading for help.

Saudi courts have heard numerous cases of women asking for a transfer of their guardianship to more sympathetic male relatives  in some cases to their own sons.

A Saudi women's rights activist reached by phone in Riyadh said Lasloom was apparently trying to flee relatives in Kuwait who threatened to send her to live in Saudi Arabia.

"There have been a lot of Saudi girls who sought asylum abroad, but now it's a trend. A lot of younger girls in their 20s are seeking asylum," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

"When they say honor killings do not exist, it's not true. It's just invisible," she said, referring to the killing of daughters in the name of family honor.

Sara Leah Whitson, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, says Saudi women fleeing their family can face so-called "honor" violence if returned against their will. She called on Saudi authorities to protect Lasloom from her family.

According to the Philippines' Inquirer news website, Lasloom was barred from her Australian-bound flight by Saudi Embassy officials in Manila who asked airport officials to stop her.

The Saudi Embassy in the Philippines wrote on Twitter that what occurred was "a family matter in which a girl was returned with her family to the homeland."

When asked by The Associated Press whether Saudi diplomats in the Philippines had requested that authorities in Manila stop Lasloom from boarding a flight to Australia, Foreign Ministry official Osama Nugali said: "Saudi embassies abroad respect the institutions and laws of host countries and do not interfere in their affairs."

Manila Airport General Manager Eddie Monreal told the AP he had no knowledge about the case. An immigration official reached by the AP said the airport's immigration officers neither detained nor held any passenger under that name.

In Saudi Arabia, activists tracking her plea for help attempted to meet Lasloom at Riyadh airport overnight Wednesday. They say instead, another activist, Alaa al-Anazi was detained by security officials at the airport and transferred to a girl's detention center in the capital.

The Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A Human Rights Watch report released last year on guardianship laws in Saudi Arabia found that even with greater opportunities for women in the kingdom, a woman's life rests largely on "the good will" of her male guardian.

Powerful clerics in the kingdom support male guardianship based on a verse in the Quran that says men are the protectors and maintainers of women. Other Islamic scholars argue this misinterprets fundamental Quranic concepts like equality and respect between the sexes.

___

Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano in Manila, Philippines contributed to this report.

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BERLIN (AP)  Swiss police say fans of a rival club attacked the team bus of second-division Servette as it headed home from an away match. The team's two drivers were injured by broken glass.

Police in Aargau canton (state) said Sunday that the incident happened at a highway rest area on Saturday evening. The Servette players were returning home from a match at Wil.

As they were about to set off, another bus containing fans of first-division Sion arrived. They attacked the Servette bus, damaging the front and side windows.

Police say they arrived at the scene quickly and brought the situation under control.
The black sky glitters with stars sprinkled like diamond dust behind a reddened petroglyph of spiral galaxies.

Most pueblo stories open with Long ago  The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center is displaying that rich tradition by opening two temporary exhibitions.

IPCC project specialist Leo Vicenti (Jicarilla Apache) gathered stories from each of New Mexicos 19 pueblos reflecting both their differences and collective wisdom. He then translated these stories into colorful, larger-than-life illustrations across curved walls, with text passages.

The various pueblos have a tradition, Vicenti said, especially at Laguna; they would say, A long time ago as a signifier to start a story. Storytelling is evident throughout pueblo culture.

The people brought those tales to life with the help of petroglyphs and pictographs, figurines and effigies, many of them on display in the new exhibits.

The clay reminds us who we are, who we became and what we believe, Vicenti said. Each piece has a different vein of clay.

The wisdom of pueblo elders comes alive through wall text. Visitors can share their own stories through iPads.

Vicenti spent nearly a year researching the exhibit, interviewing pueblo members and combing through the Native American History Collection at the University of New Mexico.

Research into pueblo animal stories often unearthed sad endings a la Grimms Fairy Tales, museum Director Monique Fragua said.

They said, And the animal ate the children.

Organizers decided to focus on the Laguna Pueblo story of a mothers warning to 10 little prairie dogs. Vicenti painted the 10 animals banging a drum on a single side of a curved wall; the opposite side reveals a bald eagle swooping in above them.

They continued to play in the belly of the eagle and the eagle dies, Fragua said. The basic moral is, Listen to your mother. 

A section titled Family Life Lessons displays quotes passed through generations. Famed pueblo painter Pablita Velerades reads, I remember the stories I heard every winter when I was a girl, told by my grandfather or grandmother, my uncle or my father. They are not legends to me. They are real.

Long Ago  leads guests into the second exhibit, Pueblo People & Our Modern Environment, exploring the peoples direct relationship with Mother Earth through agriculture. The display looks through a childs eyes at everything from greeting the sun at dawn to respecting the resources of the earth.

If you go

WHAT: Long Ago  Pueblo People & Our Modern Environment

WHEN: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through July 2018

WHERE: Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 2401 12th NW

HOW MUCH: Adults $8.40; seniors (62+) $6.40; military, $6.40; New Mexico residents $6.40, students/children (ages 5-17) $5.40; children under 5 and members free; call 843-7270 or visit indianpueblo.org
Over the course of 12 years, Bryan Konefsky has seen a lot of films.

The founder of the Experiments in Cinema festival has also brought some of the worlds best experimental films to the Land of Enchantment.

This year, Konefsky says, the festival will have a focus on Cuban experimental cinema.

We will have four Cubans from Havana giving presentations, he says. Ive always been interested in Cuba. Its been wonderful working with these scholars who will come to Albuquerque for their presentations. They give a different aspect of Cuba.

The four media scholars from Havana are Yainet Rodriguez, Magaly Espinosa, Maria de Lourdes Marino Fernandez and Caridad Blanco de la Cruz. The work of each studies such topics as identity politics, expanded cinema and animation.

The focus on Cuban film was inspired by Konefskys trip to Havana, where he participated in the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema.

They invited me out for the festival, and a partnership grew out of it, he says.

Along with the focus on Cuba, the festival will screen more than 100 films from 38 countries. There will also be a program of films made by New Mexico middle and high school students.

Konefsky has also teamed up with 516 Arts, which will help present lectures and workshops.

The goal of Experiments in Cinema is to bring the international community of cinematic experimentalists to New Mexico, he says.
Boston-based Sol y Canto keeps broadening its musical landscape.

We have quite a repertoire of pieces for our shows, and theyre in a wide variety of styles, said Rosi Amador. She and her husband, Brian Amador, are the longtime leaders of the ensemble. Quite a few are nueva cancion, songs with a social content, and mostly theyre originals composed by Brian.

One song, Buen Camino, was inspired by the movie The Way, which is about the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and another is Love Wins, inspired by the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, she said.

Sol y Canto can vary in size, sometimes performing as a large ensemble and sometimes in small ensemble formats.

For its Saturday, April 22, concert in Corrales, Sol y Canto will be a trio. Artistic director/composer Brian Amador plays Spanish guitar, Rosi Amador is lead vocalist and plays Latin percussion instruments and Keala Kaumeheiwa is on upright bass.

Recently, the Amadors have been exploring new ideas when the group downsizes.

So how do we make up for the saxophone and flute that arent with us? Rosi Amador asked rhetorically. One thing were using is vocal improvisation. I think weve made (the small formats) richer and more fun and surprising. And we are using vocal improvisation to interact with the audience more.

Another exploration is making music with body percussion  finger snapping and hand clapping against the chest. Think Bobby McFerrin.

Sol y Canto uses body percussion in the Cuban song Ayudame Mirar, which Brian Amador said is sung from the point of view of a person seeing the ocean for the first time.

For the concert, there will also be a couple of surprises. One is in a Motown style and another is my first country tune, he said.

If you go

WHAT: Sol y Canto

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 22

WHERE: Historic Old San Ysidro Church, 966 Old Church Road, Corrales

HOW MUCH: $22 in advance at www.brownpapertickets.com, at Frame-n-Art, 3563 Corrales Rd., or, if available, at the door
When two upbeat longtime artists show together, they can put the jazz back into the razzmatazz. The Weyrich Gallery is featuring Traces, new work by Roger Green and Suzanne Marshall, through April 28.

With a bit of palimpsest and some hints from the New York and San Francisco abstract expressionists, Green puts the pedal to the canvas in such stunning works as Pueblo Sunset with its surreptitious serpentine linear motif.

Though not exactly the curvilinear arabesque of art nouveau followers like Henri Matisse, Greens writhing gestural lines effortlessly describe Native American pottery designs, architecture and weaving patterns.

The predominantly red and smooth-to-the-touch painting is just a part of his abstract repertoire that continues to evolve from his work shown in July 2014 at the Freestyle Gallery. Green was an award-winning advertising artist, filmmaker and designer.

His be-bop-a-lula multilayered, sanded and re-sanded canvases offer an affirmation in support of his creative shift with a nod to rockabilly star Gene Vincent.

Marshall spent years creating highly detailed etchings, drawings, collage and monotypes that referenced a variety of scientific and real world subjects, including plant forms and other rational living essences.

She was a capital C Contemporary artist, right down to the hand-wringing angst rendered with a black, brown and white palette. Her work was beautiful, albeit a bit sad and filled with hints of omen-like melancholia.

Hello! And look out kids  20 years of schooling and they put you on the day shift  Marshalls back and though not mad, has gone a bit bonkers with a riot of color and brand-new non-objective paintings that can and will knock off your Monday morning blues and not let you find your Monday morning shoes.

Thats a good thing, as the gallery is open only from Tuesdays to Saturdays.

Traces aptly describes Marshalls new paintings, which range in size from 1 square foot to mural-scale works as they only offer pale references, as found in distant dream memories, to her career-building prints, drawings and collage.

Marshalls new work is more a bloodless revolution than painstaking evolution. In Marshalls Projection, I find touches of creamy flat surfaces a la Sally Condon or Kevin Tolman, but these are original marks laid over a possibly familiar desert backdrop. Or am I just projecting?

Marshall chose Balance for the show, with its kinship to Frederick Hammersleys so-called smart paintings, but it exudes an inner poetic strength thats pure Marshall. The juxtaposition between the light half and the dark half is amplified by a red horizontal bar, a mottled gray horizontal bar and a yellow ocher rectilinear shape that floats on the near-black ground.

The landscape first springs to mind while viewing Restart, a lusciously complex small painting that triggered memories of Theodore Stamos Swamp Forest. It feels strange to remember a painting from visits some 55 years ago, but some paintings stay with you through time.

I suspect Restart will become a part of someones long-term aesthetic and conjure thoughts of fecund growth and pure energy into the future.

Her new vision includes hints from Joan Miro and a few others, but they are exciting to view and do offer viewers the opportunity to return the jazz to the razzmatazz and maybe even scare the bird off the wire. Marshall has always had talent, but her revolution has only just begun.

Both artists cut through the current ambient noise that threatens to dim our senses.

If you go

WHAT: Traces abstract paintings by Roger Green and nonobjective paintings by Suzanne Marshall.

WHEN: 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays. Call 883-7410. Through April 28.

WHERE: Weyrich Gallery, 2935 D Louisiana NE

HOW MUCH: Free
CAIRO  On the eve of Christianitys holiest day, Coptic Christian families filed past armed guards and a metal detector to the chapel beside St. Marks Cathedral, where 29 of their loved ones were killed by an Islamic State suicide bomb attack before Christmas. The marble columns still bear large pockmarks gouged out by the explosion.

A week earlier, Islamic State bombers killed 45 people gathered for Palm Sunday at churches to the north in Alexandria and Tanta.

Death is not far from us, said Sandra Joseph, 22, a student at local Ain Shams University who helped usher several hundred people in for the service at the Chapel of St. Peter and Paul. We got used to explosions.

As they had waited to enter the cathedrals walled church complex  on edge after the attacks and fatigued by 55 days of fasting for Lent  some worshippers worried aloud about a possible drive-by shooting. Once inside, they felt a bit safer.

Holy Week, which culminates with the celebration of Easter Sunday, recalls Jesus Christs rejection and journey down the via dolorosa, the sorrowful road, on the way to crucifixion. Across the Middle East this Easter season, Christians are traversing their own difficult path, gathering to worship even as they are attacked and displaced by Muslim extremists.

In Iraq, Christian villages outside Mosul freed from militants remain abandoned, residents unwilling to return for fear they will be killed. In Syria and Jordan, armed guards patrol outside churches where pews sit empty as fearful worshippers stay home. And in Egypt, Coptic Christians face a campaign by Islamic State to attack and displace them on the eve of a visit by Pope Francis on April 28-29 to mend ties with Muslim leaders.

Christians have long been a beleaguered minority in Egypt, 10 percent of the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population of more than 92 million. Last Monday, militants fired a rocket at an Israeli border crossing in the northern Sinai region, where they have been battling both security forces and Christian civilians. Seven Christians were killed in February and hundreds displaced.

But the attacks have spread beyond Sinai. There were reports of Christians attacked by a mob during Maundy, or Holy, Thursday prayers in the southern city of Minya, home to the largest Christian population in the country and a tinderbox of sectarian violence.

Explosions in churches here are a fresh horror. A week before the Tanta church was bombed, authorities had found and diffused another explosive at the church. On Wednesday, St. Michaels Church in Cairo was evacuated after three bombs were discovered inside. The same day, Egyptian authorities claimed to have foiled an attack on a Coptic monastery to the south in Assiut.

But the attacks seem to have galvanized, rather than scared off, many of Egypts Christians. About 3,000 people filled St. Marks Cathedral and the adjoining chapel Saturday for the service known as the Great Vigil. Church regulars said the crowd at the chapel appeared even larger than usual, with people spilling out into the stone courtyard. They pointed out all the repairs since the December blast: New carved wooden doors, windows and shimmering lights.

In the chapel courtyard, a blood stain on a wall has been preserved under glass, and a memorial erected in honor of the victims.

Priests processed into the chapel with a coterie of deacons in white vestments, chanting in the ancient Coptic language and holding golden crosses aloft, including one still scarred by the explosion.

Holding the damaged cross and leading the procession was Emad Tawil, 53, who survived the Dec. 11 bombing but lost his wife and 19-year-old daughter. His wife had grown up attending the Tanta church, which Tawils grandfather helped build.

So the day of the Palm Sunday bombing, he and his son traveled north from Cairo, unafraid, to meet and support fellow victims in Tanta. A massive funeral at the church that night drew thousands, as did the funeral the next day in Alexandria.

Everyone was asking what we should do. We have to have faith, said son Peter Tawil, 21, who joined his father at the front of the chapel for Easter prayers.

In the wake of the Palm Sunday bombings, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a Muslim longtime ally of the Coptic community, declared a three-month state of emergency. Among the provisions: Legislation designed to speed trials in terrorism-related cases and the formation of a Supreme Council to Combat Terrorism and Fanaticism, which gave some Egyptians hope of added security.

El-Sissi also visited Coptic Pope Tawadros II in Cairo on Thursday to offer condolences, and added security outside churches across the country, including a tank and soldiers outside St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in downtown Cairo.

Days before the bombings, el-Sissi had met with President Donald Trump in Washington and promised to battle Islamic extremists. Some still worried Saturday.

Everyone thought the bomb attacks would stop. Its happening here and in Sinai and Minya and the police dont do anything, said Shanuda Roshdy, 34, who brought his 4-year-old daughter, Candy, to Holy Week services, scanning the crowd outside the chapel for possible terrorists. We dont trust Egypt.

Roshdys mother-in-law was killed in the December attack, and his daughter still asks for her daily. He plans to immigrate to Australia or Canada to protect her.

Every moment we are at risk, he said.

It was a sentiment shared by many Assyrian Christians in northern Iraq, forced from their towns two years ago by Islamic State and unwilling to return now that they have been freed by Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition. Tens of thousands of the displaced have moved overseas, or to temporary camps like a trailer park about 50 miles east of Mosul in Irbil.

There, Suad Rahim was making klecha holiday cookies last week with her three daughters, stuffing them with dried coconut and chopped walnuts. Chased from their Christian town of Qaraqosh two years ago by militants who burned their home and church, they were unwilling to return. Electricity and water have yet to be restored. Shops remain gutted. Only a handful of families have moved back, and the city is policed by militias. She recognized some of the officers as former Islamic State militants.

Its not safe, said Rahim, 50. We dont know who is who.

In the city of Homs in Syria, Christians who dared to return marched on Good Friday past bullet-riddled storefronts and bombed-out apartments. Clergymen carried a small coffin of flowers, a symbol of the death of Christ, past a coterie of soldiers and militiamen toting AK-47s, guards against suicide bombers and other attacks. Only about 50,000 of the 300,000 Christians who once filled Homs Old City have returned.

In Jordan, the countrys 2 percent Christian minority marked Holy Week with subdued celebrations. Like Egypt, Jordan is overwhelmingly Sunni, and is thought to have no lack of Islamic State supporters.

Today the church attendance was less than usual, two-thirds of what we expected, said Revered Canon Faeq Haddad at Ammans Arab Evangelical church, where congregation members called to say they were too afraid to attend Good Friday services.

Haddad gestured to the outside of the church, where a gaggle of officers was stationed beside a police SUV.

Fear is part of life, but our job is not to reinforce this feeling. You go to an airport and theres security. Do you stop flying because of it? No. Do you stop going to church because of security posted outside? No, he said.

He insisted that Christians were staying put, no matter the threat.

These nations without the Christians will be ruined, because we are not just the salt of the earth that flavors, but were also the candle that provides light, he said.

In Christian theology, Easter celebrates Christs resurrection and the promise of salvation. It is a joyous holiday, but some worshippers in Cairo wore black out of respect to those recently killed, and planned to stay home Sunday to honor them.

One worshipper at the chapel service, Vivian Aziz Shehata Shenoudah, 58, said she had prayed for those who have targeted Christians.

We dont need them to love us, to like us, just to leave us in peace, she said.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

She left the Mass wearing her matching gold cross necklaces but also a head scarf. Its a habit she developed during the last year, after being harassed on the street for being Christian. She wasnt hopeful about the state of emergency.

We have more security now, but who knows what it will be in the future, she said. Terrorists are not stupid. They will find a way.

The Great Vigil ended without incident, and though the priest did not mention the recent attacks during Mass, when it was over he urged people to leave quickly, for their own safety.



(Times staff writer Patrick McDonnell contributed from Homs, Syria, and special correspondent Nabih Bulos from Amman, Jordan.)



2017 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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PHOTOS (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194): EGYPT-EASTER

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MEXICO CITY  Another journalist has been killed in Mexico  the fourth in just six weeks.

Authorities said reporter Maximino Rodriguez Palacios was shot dead outside a shopping center Friday in La Paz, a coastal city in the state of Baja California Sur.

Rodriguez, 72, wrote about politics and crime for a news organization called the Pericu Collective. He had previously worked as a spokesman for the state attorney generals office.

Fridays shooting is the latest in a string of violent attacks on journalists in Mexico that has claimed four lives since March 2 and has left several others wounded. The attacks have drawn condemnation from human rights advocates, with the Committee to Protect Journalists calling the situation in Mexico a crisis of freedom of expression.

Mexicos human rights commission, which on Saturday said it was sending investigators to La Paz to monitor the police investigation into the killing, has convened emergency talks with law enforcement officials from around the country to discuss how to better protect journalists.

Mexico is the worlds third-most dangerous country for journalists, after Syria and Afghanistan, according to Reporters Without Borders. Since 2000, 124 journalists have been killed, according to Mexicos human rights commission.

But recent weeks have been especially bad.

On March 23, a well-known investigative reporter for the national La Jornada was gunned down in the northern state of Chihuahua while driving with one of her children. On March 19, columnist Ricardo Monlui was shot twice as he left a restaurant with his wife and son in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz. And on March 2, Cecilio Pineda Birto, a freelancer and the founder of La Voz de Tierra Caliente, was shot and killed at a car wash in Guerrero state.

The situation has gotten so bad that one newspaper, in the border city of Juarez, decided this month to shut down because violence against journalists was preventing us from continuing freely with our work, its editor said.

The recent uptick in deaths corresponds with a broader increase in violence across Mexico, where more people were killed in January of this year than in any previous January on record.

Baja California Sur, an international tourist destination that was long untouched by drug war violence in other parts of the country, has become increasingly dangerous as cartels vie for its strategic drug smuggling routes.

The state had a murder rate of 71 per 100,000 people in January. By comparison, the homicide rate in the United States last year was just 5 per 100,000 people.

Rodriguez had covered the increase in crime in his home state for the Pericu Collective. He documented killings on a regular basis, and also wrote a column that touched on controversial topics. He recently wrote about a local union whose boss Rodriguez alleged was corrupt.

According to a statement about the shooting on the Pericu Collectives website, Rodriguez was helping his wife out of their car in a parking lot when assailants in a white truck opened fire. Rodriguez wife, also a journalist, survived the attack.

Cuauhtemoc Morgan, the director of the Pericu Collective, said that authorities must solve this and many other crimes that remain unpunished and have left families shattered by pain.



2017 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

_____
If Saturdays weather was any indicator, the city of Albuquerque is as good a place as any to use the sun for power.

Under a cloudless, sunny sky, next to an array of solar panels at the Albuquerque Fire Department Fire Academy that power several city buildings, City Councilors Pat Davis and Isaac Benton, along with U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and others announced Saturday that the city may soon get started on an effort to equip dozens of city buildings with solar panels. Once operating, the panels would significantly cut the citys power bill, Davis said.

Why on earth would Albuquerque not be a leading solar city nationwide? Heinrich asked. We have all the resources in the world.

Heinrich worked with the city to secure federal renewable energy bonds for the project, and has supported efforts to train New Mexicans for solar industry jobs.

Davis said he and Benton will soon file legislation that will allow the city to issue $25 million in renewable energy bonds. The money will go toward installing solar panels on city buildings throughout Albuquerque.

That would be the first phase of a larger solar project the city is undertaking. The City Council unanimously passed a resolution last year calling for the city to get 25 percent of its energy from solar by 2025. The council will have to vote again to approve the sale of the bonds.

The city currently gets 3 percent of its energy from solar, said Sanders Moore, the director of advocacy group Environment New Mexico.

Davis said the first phase of the project will take the city about halfway to its goal of being 25 percent solar. The legislation will outline which city buildings will be the next ones to get solar energy. He hoped construction could get started this summer and be completed in months.

People should be proud of our city today, Davis said.

According to a recent report by the Frontier Group and the Environment America Research and Policy Center, Albuquerque currently generates the ninth-most solar power of all the major cities in the country, and the Duke City also generates the fourth-most solar power per capita among cities on the same list.

Moore said the citys high ranking is thanks to businesses and homeowners who have made the switch to solar power.

The state as a whole, she said, has pushed back against investing in clean energy, especially in areas of the state with long histories of support for the oil and gas and coal industries. She said New Mexico is the second-sunniest state in the country but solar energy accounts for 3 percent of the states power, which ranks 13th among the states.

We have an evolving energy system and as a country we shouldnt leave anybody behind, Heinrich said. So training for the future so we take advantage of (solar) jobs is key.
CHICAGO  There are a few precious moments in every parents life when you realize you didnt inadvertently torpedo your kids chances at success and happiness. Last week, I had one.

My vindication came courtesy of a new paper to be published in the Summer 2017 issue of Education Next, a policy research journal. The paper focuses on all the reasons that academic redshirting  delaying a childs entry into kindergarten in order to derive benefit from an extra year of physical growth and social-emotional maturity  can potentially do more harm than good.

Redshirting is generally not worth it, write authors Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, a professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University, and Stephanie Howard Larson, the director of a Montessori school in Wilmette, Ill.

In fact, they write, The benefit of being older at the start of kindergarten declines sharply as children move through the school grades. And, notably, For the older students [who were redshirted]  the positive impacts of being more mature are offset by the negative effects of attending class with younger students.

This was music to my ears.

My youngest sons childhood nickname was The Wiggler because even in the womb he was in perpetual motion. He was that toddler who could not sit still and eventually became a troublesome preschooler who irritated his teachers.

There was seemingly no end to the phone calls and notes home to discuss behavioral issues: refusal to sleep at nap time, tugging on peers hair or clothes, reluctance to participate in quiet activities.

His birthday is in early August, close to our states September 1 cutoff, and we agonized over whether to let him proceed to kindergarten. And then, for the next 10 years, we agonized over whether we failed him by not keeping him out an extra year.

Today, as a sophomore in high school, The Wiggler is still one of the youngest in his class. Until recently he was always one of the smallest boys in his class. And also the most annoying to his teachers who, over the years, continued to send notes home begging us to keep him from tapping his pencils, making silly noises and, yes, wiggling himself practically out of his seat.

But, according to Schanzenbach and Larson, The research on relative age indicates that being among the youngest in the class has benefits, in both the short and long term. Why? Because older classmates tend to be higher achieving and better behaved. They model positive behavior, and the younger students achieve greater academic gains from learning and competing with older ones. [Two studies reviewed] find that, with age held constant, learning with older classmates boosts students test scores.

Not only are students who are held back for a year not more likely to be accepted in gifted and talented programs, but the authors conclude that, Both research and experience suggest that the gains that accrue from being an older student are likely to be short-lived. Because of the important role of classroom peer effects, redshirted children can be educationally and socially harmed by being with others who are performing and behaving at lower developmental levels.

Whew! So I didnt ruin my kids life after all.

Schanzenbach hit upon the idea of investigating the veracity of redshirting while chatting with Larson about whether Schanzenbachs daughters development would adequately prepare her to be successful in kindergarten this coming fall.

This is one of the hottest topics on the playground! Parents often struggle with this decision, and want to know what the advice from experts is, and what the research says, Schanzenbach told me via email. I just asked [Larson] what she advises parents. And she immediately started describing the potential for mismatch between a student and his/her peers if he is redshirted, which of course is consistent with my own academic research study that documents the importance of peers, and that having slightly older peers has a positive impact.

This is really the most comforting thing we can hear. So much of what parents do revolves around making the best choices for their kids, and we always worry that we havent chosen well enough.

On any given day we must just do our best with the information we have and hope that the scholarly research eventually pats us on the back for not messing up too badly.

E-mail: estherjcepeda@washpost.com. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.
SANTA FE  State Rep. Jason Harper compares it to Swiss cheese.

New Mexicos gross receipts tax code is full of holes, the Rio Rancho Republican likes to say, making it difficult to understand and forcing the tax rate upward to compensate for the lost revenue.

But figuring out how to melt down that block of cheese is proving to be an incredibly complex task  and more than just the tax code is at stake.

A tax overhaul package, if Democrats and Republicans ever agree on one, could help break the budget impasse thats dominated the Roundhouse for months  producing new revenue in the short term, as sought by the Legislature, and overhauling the tax code in the long run, a goal shared by the governor and lawmakers alike.

I think this reform is clearly the important starting piece, Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said after meeting with Gov. Susana Martinez last week.

But a recent analysis by economists working for the Legislative Finance Committee outlines some of the uncertainty thats made it so difficult to reach agreement.

In a seven-page memo, economists Jon Clark and Dawn Iglesias estimate that eliminating all those holes in the tax code  as proposed in legislation sponsored by Harper  would raise about $512 million a year.

That would be more than enough new revenue to cover the spending proposed in next years budget and boost cash reserves.

But it would also mean new taxes imposed on nonprofit groups, hospitals, schools, newspapers and others.

The goal, however, isnt simply to raise revenue.

Harper, Martinez and other supporters want to eliminate the holes to produce a more level tax environment  one in which the health of an industry or company isnt tied to its tax breaks.

Were open to generating some new revenue for the state, Harper said, only if its part of comprehensive reform that makes our state more competitive, doesnt pick winners and losers, and helps us jump-start our economy.

The final version of Harpers bill left intact some tax breaks. Food, for example, would have remained untaxed. The food tax had been part of his original proposal, but consideration for it was dropped earlier this year.

Pyramiding

One key to Harpers plan is addressing a quirk in New Mexicos tax system: pyramiding, or the imposition of taxes on each step in a larger transaction, the result of which is an exponential increase in the overall taxes paid.

Its a particular problem for small-business owners  who, say, have to pay taxes when they hire an accounting firm to do their taxes, pay another company to package their product and so on, all before they actually sell something to a customer.

The taxes stack up on top of one another and end up being passed onto the consumer.

Harper calls it the black eye of the gross receipts tax system  something that makes New Mexico stand out from other states that use a more simple sales tax on only the final product.

But pyramiding is tough to solve.

The LFC memo  written by economists who work for the Legislature as a whole, not one political party or the other  estimated that Harpers proposal to eliminate the most egregious forms of pyramiding (sales from one business to another) could cost the state anywhere from $260 million to $490 million a year.

And those are just the reasonable estimates. A surprise could push it even higher, the memo said.

There simply isnt much data for an estimate, the economists said, because taxpayers dont have to report separately on each deduction theyre using in the detail needed for a more thorough analysis.

But the amount of lost revenue is critical.

If its near the $490 million estimate, it would almost entirely wipe out the $512 million gained from eliminating the other tax deductions, exemptions and credits.

That, in turn, means theres almost no flexibility to reduce the overall tax rate. A critical goal of the tax overhaul is to lower the rate by broadening the base of things that are taxed  a move that supporters say would make New Mexico more attractive for business growth.

Harper, in any case, believes the LFC memo overstates the potential revenue loss from addressing pyramiding as proposed in his legislation, House Bill 412.

But Democrats in the Legislature say the memo supports their point: The state should move cautiously on the tax overhaul because of uncertainty over how each change would affect government revenue and the broader economy.

Sen. Carlos Cisneros, a Democrat from Questa and vice chairman of the influential Senate Finance Committee, said lawmakers approved a smaller tax overhaul package this year  less ambitious than Harpers proposal  to ensure we didnt inadvertently create more problems.

Martinez vetoed that proposal, House Bill 191.

The changes in the bill are a false attempt at tax reform and fall embarrassingly short, she said in a veto message.

Another option

The LFC economists suggest another option for overhauling the tax code: Eliminate the $512 million in tax exemptions, deductions and credits and then use all of that savings to reduce the overall tax rate.

That doesnt directly address pyramiding, but a lower tax rate would at least help reduce the damage caused by pyramiding and dampen the burden on companies that are brought into the tax base.

This is not a perfect option, the economists wrote, because no perfect option exists.

Whether that idea would win support from either the Legislature or Martinez isnt clear.

Harper said it isnt the meaningful reform he proposed in his own bill, House Bill 412, which failed to advance through the Senate.

The option suggested by LFC economists has some merit, Harper said, but its better to address pyramiding directly, even if it means the overall tax rate cant be reduced as much otherwise.

The LFC option still hasnt addressed the pyramiding left in the code, Harper said.

Sen. John Arthur Smith, a Deming Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he supports the push for a tax overhaul and has for a long time. But it cannot be done in one swoop  as proposed by Harper  because of the complexity and potential for unintended consequences, he said.

Im now convinced its going to have to be done in pieces, Smith said.

Martinez and legislative leaders met privately last week to talk about how to negotiate a budget compromise and overhaul the tax system. They didnt reach agreement but are open to further talks.

The solution, if they succeed in negotiating one, could be adopted in a special or extraordinary session later this month.

The new budget year starts July 1.

By the numbers

$512 million  Annual value of removing tax deductions, exemptions and credits in New Mexicos gross receipts tax system. This would be new revenue for the state. It doesnt include reimposition of the tax on food, which wasnt part of the final proposal.

$260 million to $490 million  Estimate for value of removing business-to-business sales  a form of pyramiding  from the gross receipts tax code. This would be revenue lost for the state.

Source: Legislative staff analysis of House Bill 412, legislation proposed by Republican Rep. Jason Harper of Rio Rancho.


He was a man of God, hoping to rent out his four-bedroom Albuquerque home (already furnished) after his daughter and son-in-law died in a car wreck.

The price was right  $1,200 a month, and the Los Lunas woman who saw the alleged reverends Craigslist ad was interested in the home for use as a short-term rental.

Funny thing, though. Besides the basic application details, the supposed landlord asked what her mortgage payment was and wanted to see a photo of her family. When she complied with both requests, her husband caught on to the scam and put a stop to the transaction.

In fact, he learned that the house the reverend was trying to rent was actually for sale by someone else. And when the husband questioned him about this, the reverend promised to send documents verifying his claims. He also offered to cut the price in half, on the spot, and asked the couple to wire him the money because he was out of town.

In the meantime, he wanted to know, could the husband please swing by the property and take the For Sale sign down?

Sheesh.

Heres advice from Craigslist: Deal locally, face to face. Follow this one rule and avoid 99 percent of scam attempts.

Also, do not rent or purchase sight unseen, never give out financial information and do not ever wire funds. Anyone who asks you to is a scammer, the site says.

In fact, dont give out any information  in person or otherwise  that seems extraneous and has nothing to do with the transaction. In other words, if it sounds weird, it is weird.

* * *

And heres some other advice, courtesy of Joan Andersen, a former switchboard operator who knows her stuff.

Shes 84, and she suggests a decidedly low-tech way of thwarting scammers.

Although the Albuquerque woman does have a caller ID, its a small one and she cant always read the numbers. So, she says, I just fall back on my mid-century (20th century) training as a switchboard operator. If you dont know what a switchboard operator is, Google it.

She says her career involved taking calls for all kinds of bosses, some of whom didnt like talking on the phone. She learned to give callers the runaround.

That means avoiding answering any questions, and instead, she says, ask your own: Who is this? and Whats this about? Follow that with a Shes sick  or out of town or only taking calls between 10 and 2.

The scam callers, she says, usually get mad and hang up. Some leave a phone number and ask for a return call, which of course, they are never going to get.

My thing is to go into my screening mode. I perfected this years ago with all kinds of eccentric people.

* * *

Good news: New Mexico now has a law requiring companies to tell customers when their identity has been stolen. The Data Breach Notification Act passed unanimously in the House and Senate, and Gov. Susana Martinez has signed it.

Once consumers get such notification, they can take steps to prevent financial damage by notifying their credit card companies and placing alerts on their accounts.

Plus, New Mexico gets to be taken off the skimpy list of states without such a law. Alabama and South Dakota are now the only states that dont require such notification, said Paul Stull, president and CEO of the Credit Union Association of New Mexico, who has spent years pushing for change.

Ellen Marks is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal. Contact her at emarks@abqjournal.com or 505-823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-844-255-9210.
MINNEAPOLIS  Court documents unsealed Monday in the investigation into Princes death suggest a doctor and a close friend helped him improperly obtain prescription opioid painkillers, but they shed no new light on how the superstar got the fentanyl that killed him.

The affidavits and search warrants were unsealed in Carver County District Court as the yearlong investigation into Princes death continues. The documents show authorities searched Paisley Park, cellphone records of Princes associates, and Princes email accounts to try to determine how he got the fentanyl, a synthetic opioid drug 50 times more powerful than heroin.

The documents dont reveal answers to that question, but do provide the most details yet seen on Princes struggle with addiction to prescription opioids in the days before he died.

Prince was 57 when he was found alone and unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park estate on April 21. Just six days earlier, he fell ill on a plane and had to be revived with two doses of a drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.

Associates at Paisley Park also told investigators that Prince was recently going through withdrawals, which are believed to be the result of the abuse of prescription medication.

The documents unsealed Monday allege Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg, a family physician who saw the musician twice last April, told authorities he prescribed the opioid painkiller oxycodone to Prince but put it under the name of Princes bodyguard and close friend, Kirk Johnson, for Princes privacy, one affidavit said.

Schulenbergs attorney, Amy Conners, disputed that. She said in a statement that Schulenberg never directly prescribed opioids to Prince, nor did he ever prescribe opioids to any other person with the intent that they would be given to Prince.

F. Clayton Tyler, Johnsons attorney, released a statement saying that after reviewing the documents, we believe that it is clear that Kirk Johnson did not secure nor supply the drugs which caused Princes death.

Schulenberg is practicing family medicine in Minnesota and Conners said there are no restrictions on his license.

It is illegal for a doctor to write a prescription for someone under another persons name.

Joe Tamburino, a Minnesota defense attorney who is not associated with the Prince case, said while Schulenberg and Johnson could face charges if the allegations are true, its unlikely state or federal prosecutors would pursue them. He called them low-level offenses that wouldnt draw prison time.

He said for prosecutors, the source of the fentanyl is the big target.

The oxycodone in this case is only tangential to the whole case, Tamburino said. If this was a fentanyl script, oh boy, it would be a totally different situation.  The real meat and potatoes is going to be that fentanyl thing.

The documents said Prince did not have any prescriptions, including for fentanyl.

James L. Jones, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrations field office in Chicago, said anyone convicted of writing a prescription for someone under another persons name could lose their DEA registration  meaning they could no longer prescribe medications  and could face discipline from their state medical board.

In practice, laws against prescribing drugs for someone under a false name are not usually enforced when a doctor intends to protect a celebritys privacy, said Los Angeles attorney Ellyn Garofalo. She represented a doctor who was acquitted of all charges, including false name allegations, in the death of Anna Nicole Smith, the Playboy model and reality TV star who died of an accidental overdose in 2007.

They would be indicting every pharmacist in Beverly Hills if this were strictly enforced, Garofalo said Monday.

Oxycodone, the generic name for the active ingredient in OxyContin, was not listed as a cause of Princes death. But it is part of a family of painkillers driving the nations overdose and addiction epidemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 2 million Americans abused or were addicted to prescription opioids, including oxycodone, in 2014.

Patients who take prescription opioids eventually build up a tolerance and need to take stronger doses to get the same effect. In some patients, the cycle leads to dependence and addiction.

A search of Princes home yielded numerous pills in various containers. Some were in prescription bottles for Johnson. Some pills in other bottles were marked Watson 853, a label used for a drug that is a mix of acetaminophen and hydrocodone, another opioid painkiller. Last August, an official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press that at least one of those pills tested positive for fentanyl, meaning the pill was counterfeit and obtained illegally. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

In addition to the dozens of pills recovered, authorities also found a pamphlet for an addiction recovery center in California, the documents unsealed Monday show. The day before Prince died, Paisley Park staffers contacted the California addiction specialist as they were trying to get Prince help.

Dr. Howard Kornfeld sent his son, Andrew, to Minnesota that night, and the younger Kornfeld was among those who found Princes body. Andrew Kornfeld was carrying buprenorphine, a medication that can be used to help treat opioid addiction. The Kornfelds attorney, William Mauzy, has said Andrew had intended to give the medication to a doctor.

Prince did not have a cellphone and authorities searched multiple email accounts that they believed he was using, as they tried to determine how he got the drug that killed him, according to the search warrants. The search warrants dont reveal the outcome of the email searches.

The documents also say some of the drugs in Princes bedroom were in a suitcase with the name Peter Bravestrong on it. Police believe Bravestrong was an alias that Prince used when he traveled.

Investigators have said little publicly about the case over the last year, other than it is active.

___

Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti . More of her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/amy-forliti .

___

AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson contributed to this story from Chicago. Doug Glass contributed from Minneapolis.
BEIRUT  The evacuation of more than 3,000 Syrians that was scheduled to take place Sunday from four areas as part of a population transfer has been postponed, opposition activists said, a day after a deadly blast that killed more than 120 people, many of them government supporters.

The reasons for the delay were not immediately clear. It came as shells fired by the Islamic State group on government-held parts of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour wounded two members of a Russian media delegation visiting the area, according to state-run Syrian news agency SANA.

Russia is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian journalists enjoy wide access in government-held parts of the country.

Russias Anna-News military news service, which employs the journalists, said one was wounded in the arm while the other suffered leg and stomach wounds. The news service said the two were evacuated adding that their condition was satisfactory.

The United Nations is not overseeing the transfer deal, which involves residents of the pro-government villages of Foua and Kfarya and the opposition-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani. All four have been under siege for years, their fate linked through a series of reciprocal agreements that the U.N. says have hindered aid deliveries.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and Hezbollahs Al-Manar TV, earlier said that 3,000 people will be evacuated from Foua and Kfarya, while 200, the vast majority of them fighters, will be evacuated from Zabadani and Madaya.

Abdurrahman and opposition activist Hussam Mahmoud, who is from Madaya, said the evacuation has been delayed. Abdurrahman said no permission was given for the evacuation to go ahead while Mahmoud said it has been delayed for logistical reasons.

It was not immediately clear if the evacuees feared attacks similar to Saturdays bombing.

Abdurrahman said Saturdays blast which hit an area where thousands of pro-government evacuees had been waiting for hours  killed 126. He said the dead included 109 people from Foua and Kfarya, among them 80 children and 13 women.

No one has claimed the attack, but both the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Fatah al-Sham Front have targeted civilians in government areas in the past.

A wounded girl, who said she lost her four siblings in the blast, told Al-Manar TV from her hospital bed that children who had been deprived of food for years in the two villages were approached by a man in the car who told them to come and eat potato chips. She said once many had gathered, there was an explosion that tore some of the children to pieces.

Anthony Lake, UNICEFs executive director, said in a statement Sunday that after six years of war and carnage in Syria there comes a new horror that must break the heart of anyone who has one.

We must draw from this not only anger, but renewed determination to reach all the innocent children throughout Syria with help and comfort, he said.

After the blast, some 60 buses carrying 2,200 people, including 400 opposition fighters, entered areas held by rebels in the northern province of Aleppo, Abdurrahman said. More than 50 buses and 20 ambulances carrying some 5,000 Foua and Kfarya residents entered the government-held city of Aleppo, Syrian state TV said, with some of them later reaching a shelter in the village of Jibreen to the south.

U.N. relief coordinator Stephen OBrien said he was horrified by the deadly bombing, and that while the U.N. was not involved in the transfer it was ready to scale up our support to evacuees.

He called on all parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, and to facilitate safe and unimpeded access for the U.N. and its partners to bring life-saving help to those in need.

Residents of Madaya and Zabadani, formerly summer resorts, joined the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad. Both came under government siege in the ensuing civil war. Residents of Foua and Kfraya, besieged by the rebels, have lived under a steady hail of rockets and mortars for years, but were supplied with food and medicine through military airdrops.

Critics say the string of evacuations, which could see some 30,000 people moved across battle lines over the next 60 days, amounts to forced displacement along political and sectarian lines.

In eastern Syria, an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on the village of Sukkarieh near the border with Iraq killed eight civilians who had earlier fled violence in the northern province of Aleppo, according to Deir Ezzor 24, an activist collective, and Sound and Picture Organization, which documents IS violations.

Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition had killed dozens of civilians over the past several weeks as the battle against the extremists intensifies in Syria and Iraq.

____

Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed to this report.
Winston Cheng, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Corporate Finance and Development at LeEco is leaving the Chinese tech giant amidst a major cash crunch, sources close to the company told Bloomberg on Friday. Following a two-year stint with LeEco, Cheng is now reportedly set to join Jingdong Mall, a Beijing-based eCommerce giant at which hell take the role of President of International, managing mergers, acquisitions, and foreign investments. Both LeEco and Jingdong Mall  also known as JD.com  have yet to issue official comments on the matter.

While that has yet to be officially confirmed, the latest report suggests Cheng is leaving LeEco of his own volition, likely because of severe financial troubles that the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer is currently experiencing. Cheng was one of numerous top business executives LeEco recruited from global competitors and financial institutions two years ago when the firm was in the process of aggressively expanding its operations in a bid to diversify its business portfolio and revenue stream and continue fueling its startup-like growth. That strategy is currently being tested due to the fact that LeEco found itself in the middle of a massive tech crunch as the company overextended its resources and was unable to turn most of its units into profitable businesses before it ran out of liquid assets. Due to that state of affairs, LeEco was recently forced to make a number of difficult decisions, including scrapping its planned $2 billion acquisition of VIZIO. While the company officially said it canceled the deal due to regulatory headwinds, industry watchers believe that even if LeEco was granted all necessary approvals, the Chinese firm would have a hard time actually going through with the all-cash deal.

LeEco is currently relying on capital injections to keep most of its businesses afloat and is also reportedly looking to cut costs, as industry insiders claim the company will be laying off approximately a third of its entire workforce in the United States in an effort to put its financial issues under control. Time will tell whether LeEco manages to bounce back from this ordeal, but an update on the situation is expected to follow shortly.
YEREVAN, APRIL 11, ARMENPRESS. Banzragch Delgermaa, newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to Armenia (residence in Moscow), presented her credentials to President Serzh Sargsyan on April 11, press service of the Presidents Office told Armenpress.

President Sargsyan congratulated the Ambassador on her appointment and wished her success. Serzh Sargsyan said Armenia attaches great importance to developing the relations with the countries of Asian region and expressed hope that by her appointment the bilateral inter-state ties will develop and will be strengthened. In this context the President highlighted the need to form a legal framework.

In her turn Ambassador Banzragch Delgermaa thanked the President and assured that during her activity she make efforts to restore the traditional good relations between Armenia and Mongolia and to find new ways in a number of mutually beneficial fields, trade-economic, humanitarian and etc, as well as to develop the mutual cooperation. Mrs. Delgermaa said she is very proud that she is an Ambassador in a wonderful country like Armenia with which Mongolia established diplomatic relations 25 years ago. She said this jubilee is a good chance to revalue the past path and deepen the relations. Mongolias Ambassador said her country is interested in the Eurasian Economic Unions market and expressed hope that Armenia, as an EAEU member state, will assist Mongolias efforts aimed at establishing cooperation.

During the meeting Ambassador Delgermaa also congratulated President Sargsyan on Armenias recent successful parliamentary election.








YEREVAN, APRIL 14, ARMENPRESS. While on a working visit in Kyrgyzstan, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on April 14 took part in the informal meeting of heads of member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Bishkek, press service of the Presidents Office told Armenpress.

Within the frames of the meeting agenda, the CSTO heads of states discussed the draft decision on the CSTO Secretary General and made a unanimous decision to appoint Armenias National Security Council Secretary Yuri G. Khachaturov as CSTO Secretary General from May 2.

The heads of states also decided to award former CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha with CSTO Collective Security Councils 1st Degree of Excellence.

During the meeting issues related to the military-political and military-strategic situation in the CSTO responsibility zone were discussed, a number of additional orders related to countering security threats were adopted.
YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. Despite Israel denies the Armenian Genocide, the people of Israel stand with Armenians. The Jewish people definitely recognize the Armenian Genocide, Israeli researcher and lecturer, Genocide scholar Yair Auron told Armenpress.

I can say for sure that Israel will not recognize the Armenian Genocide this year and during the upcoming years, which is a deep pain and shame for me. But the people of Israel have the same position as me and stand with us for sure. Still 30 years ago the people had no idea about the Armenian Genocide, but now everybody knows. Since those years this issue has been covered by many news outlets and TV programs. And the people by learning about that have come to the conclusion that the genocide of Armenians has really taken place. Today only the genocide of Jews is a subject of studies at Jewish universities and schools, but the Armenian Genocide is bypassed. But at the university where I am a professor a branch has already been opened where the Armenian Genocide is touched upon and discussed, Yair Auron said, adding that already hundreds of students have graduated from the university who know about the Armenian Genocide.

The genocide scholars interest in the Medz Yeghern (Armenian Genocide) arose when he first read in a news outlet in 1986 that Israel support Turkey and denies the Armenian Genocide. He could not understand the denialism of his country. Yair Auron thinks Armenians should go on with their struggle until other countries and peoples also recognize the genocide.

Referring to the position of the international community Yair Auron noted that nearly 200 countries are UN member states, while only 2-3 dozens of them have recognized the Armenian Genocide, which is a great shame for humanity.

Anna Grigoryan
YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Nature Protection of Armenia, member of Armenian Revolutionary Federation Artsvik Minasyan sees himself in the new Cabinet and plans to continue running the office of the Minister of Nature Protection, Minasyan told the reporters on April 15.

I think at the moment there is no reason to insist on the opposite, particularly when currently we hold discussions with the RPA, while this is the sphere of key importance not only for Dashnaktsutyun {ARF}, but also for our partner Republican Party and first of all for the President of the Republic, Armenpress reports Minasyan saying.

Parliamentary elections took place in Armenia on April 2. 4 political forces, Republican Party of Armenia, Tsarukyan bloc, Yelk bloc and ARF will form the new parliament. The RPA and ARF have already officially announced about their discussions on future cooperation. On the day of the first session of the new parliament the Cabinet will resign. Following that, within 10 days, the President of the Republic will appoint a new Prime Minister who enjoys the support of the majority of the parliamentarians. The Cabinet must be formed within 20 days after the appointment of the Prime Minister. The President will appoint Ministers at the proposal of the PM.
With Vice President Pence en route to the Korean Peninsula, North Korea attempted a missile launch that failed on Saturday evening (ET), the South Korean government said.

What it means: Inside of 100 days of his presidency, Trump faces a huge provocation, and a massive challenge to diplomatic and military machinery that are new to his teams. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to want war, and China has warned the tensions could spiral out of control. It's Trump's biggest test.

What we know:
Current president, Hassan Rouhani, is a serious contender. Ebrahim Raisi is another. He is the custodian of Astan Quds Razavi  the countrys richest charity. His position here has gained him the trust of Supreme Leader Khamenei. They are both faithful to the rule of the ayatollahs.

Raisi was a member of the so-called death commission that oversaw the deaths of around 30,000 political prisoners during the 1988 massacre. Most of those who died were members or supporters of the Peoples Mojahedin Organizations of Iran (PMOI/MEK)  the Iranian opposition.

Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, who was supposed to be the successor to Khomeini, told the members of the death commission that they were participating in a serious crime that would go down in history.

On 5th June 2013, the Parliament in Canada said the following: That the House condemn the mass murder of political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988 as a crime against humanity, honors the memory of the victims buried in mass graves at Khavaran cemetery and other locations in Iran, and establishes Sept. 1 as a day of solidarity with political prisoners in Iran.

This is not the extent of Raisis crimes; he has been involved in many other acts of suppression, but the 1988 massacre is one of the most bloody and horrific.

It would be understandable to think that any other candidate in the elections would be less criminal that Raisi, but this is not the case. Rouhani is just as brutal. His justice minister is Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi  another member of the death commission. Pour-Mohammadi, when urged to comment on the 1988 massacre, said: I carried out Gods will and I have not lost sleep over what I did.

During his presidency, Rouhani has overseen an unprecedented number of executions. So far there have been 3,000 executions since he took office in 2013. Speaking about the number of executions carried out, Rouhani too claims it is Gods will. He said: They were carried out according to Gods laws.

The European Union sanctioned Iran for the suppression of the people, stating that the regime is complicit in torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, or the indiscriminate, excessive and increasing application of the death penalty, including public executions, stoning, hangings or executions of juvenile offenders.

The fact that the contenders for the presidency are so loyal to the regime and are unabashed suppressors of the people shows that the Iranian regime is in trouble. It is at a very weak stage and clearly fears another uprising like the one in 2009. And the regime has reason to be fearful, because the people really are on the verge of taking to the streets.
Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns and leases freight railroads. It operates through three segments: North American Operations, Australian Operations, and U.K./European Operations. The company transports various commodities, including agricultural products, autos and auto parts, chemicals and plastics, coal and coke, food and kindred products, lumber and forest products, metallic ores, metals, minerals and stone, petroleum products, pulp and paper, waste, and other commodities. It owns or leases 122 freight railroads, including 105 short line railroads and 2 regional freight railroads located in the United States, 8 short line railroads located in Canada, 3 railroads located in Australia, 1 railroad located in the United Kingdom, 1 railroad in Poland and Germany, and 2 railroads in the Netherlands with a total of approximately 16,200 miles of track. The company also operates 6,200 additional miles of track that is owned or leased by others. In addition, it operates deep sea maritime containers and provides bulk haulage, including coal, aggregates, cement, and infrastructure services. Further, the company provides rail service at approximately 40 ports; rail-ferry service in North America, Australia, and Europe; and contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Darien, Connecticut.
Archbishop of Canterbury: The resurrection changed the world - because it happened

The Archbishop of Canterbury preached a powerful Easter message today on the power of the resurrection to deliver hope even in the face of pain, despair and death.

Archbishop Justin Welby said in his Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral that the Christian gospel runs 'utterly counter' to the world, a world where there is still evil.

'Christians in Egypt live surrounded by bombs and terror. We and those we love know the grim, grey moments of illness, suffering, arguments, poverty, ill health mental and physical, prison, guilt and failure.

'We experience a world of pain and despair, grief and death.'

These things must not be allowed to overshadow our lives, he said.

'They lie, they deceive, they pretend to have power that they do not have, when they say they are final.

'There is only one finality: Jesus the crucified one is alive. In the hard journeys we all face, in every moment of loss, the community of witnesses to the resurrection must come alongside and, with love and gentleness, bring restoration and hope.'

He added: 'In our world today the only certain ground for hopeful expectation is the news of today; it happened, Jesus is alive.'

Archbishop Welby was speaking during sung eucharist.

He said terror cannot triump over Christianity, because the resurrection happened.

'Today across Egypt, but most poignantly at St George's church Tanta and St Mark's church Alexandria, God's people have already gathered to worship the One who was dead and is now alive.

'Seven days after the horrendous bomb attacks on these Christian communities the resurrection will be proclaimed and experienced. Because the church is established by this day.'

The witnesses are those who met him.

'Laid stone cold dead in Joseph's tomb on Friday, on Sunday morning the tomb is empty, he is physically, bodily, tangibly alive. Why would we presume to know better than these first witnesses what took place?'

What brings the faithful out to worship in Tanta and Alexandria is truth. 'It happened. The resurrection is an event which  although never experienced before or since  changes everything because it happened.'
Ex-New Age blogger warns: you're inviting demons into your house if you have these occult objects

Former New-Age blogger turned born-again Christian Steven Bancarz is warning people not to keep occult objects in their houselike books, knickknacks, pictures, and games that have some connections with the occultbecause they may "give demons authority in your household."

In a new video posted on YouTube, Bancarz says these objects "are charged with a spiritual frequency that matches the delusion that powers are trying to create in the spiritual realm."

People who are holding on to these things "are creating a bridge between these supernatural realities ... ruled by demonic principalities" and "our life, our home, our soul," Bancarz says as quoted by Charisma News.

They may seem harmless, but these objects can actually wreak havoc in people's lives, he warns.

Books that should be thrown away, he says, are those on Hinduism, esoteric arts, Gnosticism, transcendentalism, sorcery, magic, mysticism, yoga or any materials that advocate reincarnation, among others.

Bancarz also urges people to dump fictional books that have these elements, citing the Harry Potter books as an example.

In a Facebook post earlier this month, Bancarz said "occult objects, idols, and information can cause you to be spiritually oppressed by giving demons legal ground into your life."

"Your soul will become yoked and energized in the spiritual delusion these objects connect to in the spirit, since both the Bible and every other spiritual tradition on earth believe that these objects contain ties to powers in the spirit."

This is the reason why the Bible equates idol worship with demon worship, as written in Revelation 9 and Deuteronomy 32, he said.

Bancarz has been on a mission to expose demonic deception through dark spirituality since he became a born-again Christian last September, CP previously reported.

Interviewed by The Christian Post, the native of Ontario, Canada recalled how occult forces seized his soul when he was in high school. This led him to build a website (now defunct) called Spirit Science and Metaphysics in January 2014, which generated an average of $40,000 per month in ad revenue.

Two years later, in April 2016, he found Jesus, who released him from the snares of the devil and has since been running a new website dedicated to explaining the Christian faith.

This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
Family grieves for Hannah Bladon, Christian student murdered in knife attack in Israel

Hannah Bladon, the British student stabbed to death in Jerusalem, was passionate, driven and an active member of her local church, her family has said.

In a statement, they said they are 'devastated' by what was a 'senseless and tragic attack' on Bladon, 20, who was stabbed on the light rail line in Jerusalem on Good Friday.

Bladon, from Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire, and who was a server at church, was studying at Rothberg International School, part of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A keen archaeologist, she was on a dig earlier in the day.

The Israel Antiquities Authority sent its 'deepest condolences' to her family over the murder.

'Hannah recently volunteered in the IAA excavation at Wilson's Arch in the Western Wall tunnels, and was supposed to return to the excavation after the holiday. May her memory be a blessing,' the authority said.

Bladon died in hospital after being stabbed repeatedly in the chest.

A 57-year-old Palestinian man, who was recently discharged from mental hospital, has been arrested.

The family described her in their statement as 'the most caring, sensitive and compassionate daughter you could ever wish for' and said she was also a talented musician.

She was also a rugby player and a Derby County supporter.

'She was driven and passionate and her death leaves so much promise unfulfilled,' the family said.

Bladon was a student at Birmingham university. Her tutor Dr Andrew Davies, head of theology and religion, said in a statement: 'I think one of the first things that struck us about her was her enthusiasm.

'She was always the kind of first to be there for lecture, bright-eyed, bushy tailed, even in the early hours of the morning. Really enthusiastic, really dedicated and really committed - clear first-class material and she wanted to be an academic in the future.'

Bishop of Lichfield Michael Ipgrave, said she was active n the life of her local church.

'My thoughts are with her church family in Burton. Through the Dean of Lichfield, we have also made contact with St George's Cathedral in Jerusalem and asked for prayers to be offered for Hannah there.'

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld tweeted a photograph of the knife used:
Matthew's Easter: A gospel for doubters?

Each of the Gospels tells the story of the Resurrection in a slightly different way. They shape it from a point of view. There's a case for saying Matthew's point of view, in chapter 28, is doubt, uncertainty and incompleteness.

First, it's the women who were the first witnesses to the empty tomb. All the gospels agree on that, but for Matthew they are the main witnesses; the male disciples appear right at the end. In 1st century Palestine, women were second class citizens, not taken seriously. As the 18th century Lord Chesterfield said: "A man of sense only trifles with women, plays with them, humours and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with serious matters...' Women were not allowed to testify in a Jewish or a Roman court of law. So having women as the witnesses was an invitation to Matthew's readers to disbelieve him if they wished.

Second: the middle part of the chapter is about the plausible story the Jewish leaders put about to explain the empty tomb. The line that the chief priests are going to take with the guards is that the disciples came and stole the body. From our perspective, it is not really all that plausible, because of what happened to those disciples: many of them were martyred, all of them ran terrible risks, all of them suffered. You'll do that for something you really believe, but you won't do it for a lie. However, rather than just ignoring the possibility that that might have happened, Matthew almost advertises it. It's almost as if he's saying, 'If you want a reason not to believe, here's one.'

Third, almost the last words Matthew writes are, 'Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.' Even some of the 11 disciples were not entirely convinced that Jesus was risen. Why would Matthew write that? If even they didn't wholly believe, why should we? The answer is that Matthew was not just presenting a bald, dry narrative of facts: he was writing for us. He presents those disciples as doubters because that's what people do. It is not as though there was a first generation of spiritual superheroes who knew the truth because they'd seen it with their own eyes, and everyone else has to stumble along in their wake. Being a Christian is now, and has always been, about faith, trust and hope.

In the long run, we don't do ourselves any favours by pretending that Christianity is easy, or sensible, or obvious. If we are Christians, we are going against the stream of how the world works. That's not easy, and Matthew says it never has been.

However: ultimately, this chapter is profoundly encouraging. Matthew is looking over the precipice, into doubt and uncertainty, knowing that we will all look over it at one time or another. But he finishes with Jesus saying: 'All authority is given to me; go and make disciples; I am with you always.'
North Korea missile test fails just hours before Pence arrives in South

A North Korean missile 'blew up almost immediately' on its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said.

The test took place just hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence landed in South Korea for talks on the North's increasingly defiant arms program.

The failed launch from North Korea's east coast, ignoring admonitions from major ally China, came a day after North Korea held a grand military parade in its capital, marking the birth anniversary of the state founder, displaying what appeared to be new long-range ballistic missiles.

South Korea said the combined show of force 'threatened the whole world' but a U.S. foreign policy adviser traveling with Pence on Air Force Two appeared to defuse some of the tension, saying the test of what was believed to be a medium-range missile had come as no surprise.

'We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch,' the adviser told reporters on condition of anonymity.

'It's a failed test. It follows another failed test. So really no need to reinforce their failure. We don't need to expend any resources against that.'

The adviser said the missile's flight lasted four or five seconds.

'It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when. The good news is that after five seconds it fizzled out.'

Pence is in Seoul at the beginning of a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of U.S. commitment to its ally in the face of rising tension.

The U.S. nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group is also heading to the region.

A U.S. Navy attack on a Syrian airfield this month raised questions about U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for reclusive North Korea, which has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions, regularly threatening to destroy the South and the United States.

South Korea, which hosts 28,500 U.S. troops, warned of punitive action if the Sunday launch led to further provocation.

'North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterday's military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world,' South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturizing a nuclear warhead.

The timing of the test, coinciding with Pence's trip and a day after the military parade, would suggest deliberate defiance.

The North launched a ballistic missile from the same region this month, ahead of a summit between the United States and China in Florida to discuss the North's arms program.

But that missile, which U.S. officials said appeared to be a liquid-fuelled, extended-range Scud, only flew about 60 km (40 miles), a fraction of its range before spinning out of control.

Tension had escalated sharply amid concern the North may conduct a sixth nuclear test or a ballistic missile test launch around Saturday's 105th birth anniversary of founding father Kim Il Sung that it calls the 'Day of the Sun'.

The White House has said Trump has put the North 'on notice'.

China, which Trump has urged to do more to rein in North Korea, has spoken out against its missile and nuclear tests and has supported U.N. sanctions. It has repeatedly called for talks to defuse the crisis.

China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exchanged views on the "situation on the Korean peninsula" by phone on Sunday, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. It did not elaborate.

Its national airline, Air China, has canceled some flights to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, due to poor demand but it has not suspended all flights there, it said on Friday.

China banned imports of North Korean coal on Feb. 26, cutting off its most important export. China's customs department issued an order on April 7 telling traders to return North Korean coal cargoes, said trading sources with knowledge of the order.

Saturday's parade combined with Sunday's failed missile launch made a sixth nuclear test increasingly likely, and if one was carried out, China would be compelled to support new sanctions against North Korea, the Global Times, an influential tabloid published by China's official Communist Party paper, the People's Daily, said in an editorial.

"Beijing should make clear to Pyongyang through diplomatic channels: if the DPRK in spite of the opposition of the international community (carry out a sixth nuclear test), China should cut off the vast majority of their oil supply and China should support the Security Council to pass new sanctions including this measure," the paper said, referring to North Korea by its official title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Worry about North Korea has led to a deterioration of ties between China and South Korea because China objects to the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in the South. The installation has begun but some opposition politicians have raised questions about it.

'It's moving. There are still some things to work out ... as in any government decision it may slip a couple of weeks or months," the U.S. adviser said of THAAD, whose powerful radar China fears could penetrate its territory.

'It's moving but candidly until they get a president ... It should be a decision for the next president.'

The South's presidential election is on May 9.

The adviser said there were 'a number of steps' that were discussed in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump.

'We've seen the Chinese already take some initial steps toward that,' the official said, citing the turning back of the coal ships. 'Many steps still to take, but I think it's a good first step.'

Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

In Pyongyang, there was a festive atmosphere at a flower show, with families out, taking pictures with North Korean-made smart phones. There was no mention of the test failure on the KCNA state news agency.

Company worker Rim Chung Ryol, 30, said he had not heard of the test.

'If it is a failure, then failure is the mother of success,' he told Reuters.

Factory worker Ri Gul Chol, 37, also had not heard about the missile test.

'But whatever Kim Jong Un decides and instructs will succeed and all the citizens will support him,' he said, referring to the North's young leader.
What was the charge against Jesus that resulted in His execution by crucifixion?

As hundreds of millions of Christians around the world remember the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday, a group of scholars analyzed what Jesus was charged with.

In an episode of "The Table Podcast" from earlier this week, professors at Dallas Theological Seminary noted that the charges against Jesus were both religious and political, namely blasphemy and treason.

Darrell Bock, executive director of Cultural Engagement and senior research professor of New Testament Studies, explained on the podcast that the first charges against Jesus were religious in nature, specifically the charge of blasphemy.

Bock touched upon a verse from an apocryphal ancient document known as First Enoch, which reads, "the high officials shall see how he sits on the throne of his glory and they'll be terrified, the pain will cease them and they will see the Son of Man sitting on a throne of glory."

Bock explained to those listening to the podcast that while the Enoch passage was not divinely inspired, it provides a good look into how Ancient Jews viewed the Messiah.

And thus, noted Bock, when in Matthew 26 a priest tears his robe in response to Jesus identifying himself as the "Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven," he does so because "he's understanding what it is that Jesus is claiming."

"Now he doesn't believe it, so he tears his robes, but he understands the claim. If Jesus is not who he claims to be, then what he's uttered is blasphemy," noted Bock.

"But if he is who he claims to be, then he's proclaiming that God is going to exalt him and one day, he's going to be their judge."

In addition to the blasphemy charge from the Jewish leadership, the scholars on the podcast explained that a political charge was also included so that Jesus could be executed.

Mark L. Bailey, senior professor of Bible Exposition, explained that the Jewish authorities had to come up with a political charge (sedition) so as to get the Romans to execute Jesus.

"The Jews were not allowed to put somebody to death, even though the Herodians and the Pharisees had taken council earlier in his life [on] how they could get rid of him," explained Bailey, adding, "I think it's the combination of those two that escalates it from the Jewish leadership to the Roman authorities."

"In fact, Pilate will play with the Jews a little bit, 'here's your king. King of the Jews. Now he's not big enough to trump Rome, but he's your king, isn't he?' And he's going to play with that very idea but that is the linkage."

Bock added that the expedience of the trial was due to the Jewish leaders' need to quickly get rid of Jesus and contributed to what Bock described as "a buffer in what happens to Jesus."

Bock described this "buffer" for the Jewish authorities as being that it was a follower of Jesus, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him, and a Roman official, Pontius Pilate, who put him to death.

"So if you came to the Jewish leadership and said 'you're responsible for Jesus' death,' they would go 'wait a minute, slow down, okay, alright? One of his own turned him in and Rome made the call,'" said Bock.

"So they've got insulation on both ends in terms of the events. Now this has to happen of course because only Rome can crucify somebody, so they had to translate the religious into a political charge."

This article was originally published on The Christian Post.
If budget-cutters in Washington decided to eliminate food-stamp benefits to New Yorkers, the citys politicians would be denouncing the cruelty of the Republican war on the poor. Yet Mayor Bill De Blasio and the city council are already inflicting the same sort of pain on low-income New Yorkers by denying them access to one of the nations most effective anti-poverty programs: Walmart.

When he was mayor, Michael Bloomberg supported Walmarts efforts to open a store in New York, but the company faced unremitting resistance from unions and elected officials, and it gave up the fight once de Blasio moved into Gracie Mansion. I have been adamant that I dont think Walmartthe company, the storesbelong in New York City, de Blasio said.

Walmarts benefits are obvious to shoppers and to economists like Jason Furman, who served in the Clinton administration and was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama. In a paper, Walmart: A Progressive Success Story, Furman cited estimates that Walmart, by driving down prices, saved the typical American family more than $2,300 annually. That was about the same amount that a family on food stamps then received from the federal government.

How could any progressive with a conscience oppose an organization that confers such benefits? How could de Blasio and the city council effectively take money out of the pockets of the poorest families in New York? Becausethough they would deny itthey care a lot more about pleasing powerful labor interests, especially the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), which helped lead the long fight to keep Walmart out of the five boroughs.

Labor activists have been spreading horror stories for more than a decade about Walmarts purported mistreatment of workers, yet somehow they havent dissuaded thousands of people in other cities from lining up for jobs whenever a Walmart opens. Often there are five or ten applicants for each job. As the economist Richard Vedder has noted, the pay at Walmart is comparable with that of other large retailers.

Some argue that Walmart exerts downward pressure on retail wages, but even if thats trueand its debatable the effect is tiny compared with the savings at the cash register. According to Furman, Walmart lowered American retail workers pay by less than $5 billion while saving shoppers more than $250 billion with lower prices on food, clothing, and household staples.

Anti-Walmart agitators complain about the government subsidies that some of the companys workers receive for health insurance, which, they argue, burden taxpayers. But these are the same Medicaid subsidies available to low-income workers at other stores and in other industries, or in any kind of employment, including public schools and other government jobs. It makes zero sense to single out Walmart employees, as the state of Maryland did with a law (eventually struck down in court) forcing Walmart alone to forgo government subsidies and shoulder these costs by itself.

If the activists succeed in their quest to transfer these health-care costs to Walmart, theyll be striking yet another blow against the poor. When low-income workers receive subsidized health insurance through Medicaid, the money comes out of general tax revenuepaid mainly by upper-income taxpayers. If Walmart becomes responsible for paying for its own subsidies, the company might offset the expense by reducing its workers cash wages. Or it might raise prices, which would effectively be a new regressive tax hitting its low-income customers hardest. Either way, the burden would shift from affluent taxpayers to the working poor.

These Robin Hood-in-reverse effects prompted Furman to reject his fellow Democrats campaign against Walmart. The collateral damage, Furman wrote, from these efforts to get Walmart to raise its wages and benefits is way too enormous and damaging to working people and the economy more broadly for me to sit by idly and sing Kum-Ba-Ya in the interests of progressive harmony. Not to mention the collateral damage to rational thought from many of the arguments made by the anti-Walmart community.

De Blasio and the city council keep spouting these irrational arguments, but they havent persuaded the public. In a 2015 Quinnipiac poll asking whether Walmart stores should be allowed to open, New Yorkers favored Walmart by a margin of 2-to-1. Overall, 63 percent of New Yorkers wanted Walmart stores in the city, with virtually no difference in favor of the big-box emporium between those living in union and non-union households. Support was higher among blacks, who favored Walmart by 66 to 30, and among Hispanics, who favored Walmart by 71 to 27.

But so far, their feelings dont seem to matter to de Blasio and his fellow progressives on the city council. After all, as long as shoppers go on paying higher prices at unionized stores, some of their money will keep flowing to the mayor and his allies in the form of campaign contributions. To progressive politicians, thats the ultimate in social justice.

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company offers general purpose servers for multi-workload computing and workload-optimized servers; HPE ProLiant rack and tower servers; HPE BladeSystem and HPE Synergy; and solutions for secondary workloads and traditional tape, storage networking, and disk products, such as HPE Modular Storage Arrays and HPE XP. It also offers HPE Apollo and Cray products; and HPE Superdome Flex, HPE Nonstop, HPE Integrity, and HPE Edgeline products. In addition, the company provides HPE Aruba product portfolio that includes wired and wireless local area network hardware products, such as Wi-Fi access points, switches, routers, and sensors; HPE Aruba software and services comprising cloud-based management, network management, network access control, analytics and assurance, and location; and professional and support services, as well as as-a-service and consumption models for the intelligent edge portfolio of products. Further, it offers various leasing, financing, IT consumption, and utility programs and asset management services for customers to facilitate technology deployment models and the acquisition of complete IT solutions, including hardware, software, and services from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others. Additionally, the company invests in communications and media solutions. It has a partnership with Striim, Inc. to offer high performance and mission-critical solutions with real-time analytics. It serves commercial and large enterprise groups, such as business and public sector enterprises; and through various partners comprising resellers, distribution partners, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and advisory firms. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Prison officer Andy Maxfield from Lancashire is aiming to break a six year old Guinness World Record by driving from John OGroats to Lands End on a John Deere lawn tractor, while raising money for Alzheimers Society.

Andy, who works at HMP Kirkham, and his daughter Kathryn, who is a hairdresser at Leckonby Hair Studio in Great Eccleston, are planning to drive non-stop to break the record which stands at four days and 23 hours.

They will be using a standard 24hp X950R lawn tractor (less the rear collection system and mower deck) and support vehicles provided by John Deere. The X950R has cruise control and a top road speed of 10mph, and will also be equipped with a GPS tracker to qualify for the record.

The Driving the Distance for Dementia Challenge is due to set off from John OGroats at 10am on Tuesday 25th July 2017; the traditional distance by road to Lands End is 874 miles.

The planned route goes past the family home in Inskip, where Andy Maxfield spends much of his spare time cutting the grass in public open spaces around the village.

Family history of Alzheimer's

Andy and Kathryn will also be supported by Andys wife Karen, who is a Deafway support worker in Preston, and their other daughter Kaitlyn, a college student who will be blogging and taking videos and photographs of the challenge along the route.

There is a family history of Alzheimers, as it affects Andys 77 year old father James and James mother Theresa was also diagnosed with the condition.

I started thinking about fundraising ideas towards the end of last year, when my dad was going downhill quite quickly, says Andy Maxfield.

It was my birthday in January, so I asked people to make donations to charity instead of giving me presents, and its gone on from there.

I then had the idea of a fundraising ball to raise money for Alzheimers Society, which will be held on Saturday December 9th at Preston Masonic Hall. Alongside that, because friends and neighbours in the village often take the mickey out of me for being into lawnmowers  Ive got eight altogether  I just thought it would be appropriate to choose a lawn tractor for the record breaking attempt.

I asked John Deere, although I dont have one of their mowers at home, as I know they make quality products and I wanted something to get me from A to B without breaking down!

'Very good timing'

John Deere Limited turf division manager Chris Meacock adds: Our UK and Ireland employees select a specific charity each year to support with a variety of fundraising activities. By coincidence we had chosen Alzheimers Society when we were approached by Andy Maxfield to help with the Guinness World Record attempt, so it was very good timing on his part!

We are delighted to back this very worthy cause and are looking forward to the challenge. In addition to providing the X950R for Driving the Distance for Dementia, we have offered Andy a new X350R lawn tractor worth over 5000 as a special raffle prize for the familys charity ball in December. (See Notes to editor below.)

Sue Swire, regional community fundraising officer for Alzheimers Society in Lancashire, says: We are so grateful to Andrew and his daughter Kathryn, who are taking on such a great challenge to raise money for Alzheimers Society to unite against dementia.

Dementia devastates lives, but dementia wont win. Funds raised from the challenge will help us move a step closer to a world without dementia.
A Scottish farmer whose family has farmed the same land for generations has refused to give in to demands for the construction of a new 250m film studio.

Hollywood A-listers could next year be roaming the land after plans to build Scotlands first purpose-built film studio were approved in principle by ministers.

But Jim Telfer, 82, said he and his daughter Mary Begbie, 52, were ready to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to thwart any bid to build on their rented 60-acre plot.

Telfer can trace his roots on the rolling farmland outside Edinburgh back to 1915.

Although the family own the farmhouse and buildings, they do not own the land  it belongs to the Gibsone family, descendants of the local landowners who signed the original lease to Telfers grandfather.

Nick Gibsone, an advertising executive who owns the land, wants the Telfers to leave the farm so that he can turn over his own property to the Hollywood studio development, called Pentland Studios.

Stalemate

But the two sides have been locked in stalemate for almost a year.

Sources told The Guardian that any move to evict the family would have to be approved by the Scottish land court, which can rule over disputes between tenant farmers and landlords.

Friends of Gibsone said he had made a number of offers, including a 250,000 compensation package that would allow Telfer to continue living in the farmhouse until his death, at which point Gibsone would seek to take control of the smallholding.

The proposed studio complex for Telfers smallholding will be built in phases and will eventually feature two backlots, six sound stages up to 70ft high, a hotel, visitor centre, film academy, workshops and a creative industries hub.

It is claimed that up to 1,600 jobs could be created by the project, whose first studios are hoped to be operating by the end of 2018.
Rebecca Young is quick to confess: She doesnt read the Bible every day.

But I feel it, she said. God is in the rain that is coming down the window.

The 65-year-old artist puts her faith to canvas each day as she sketches, paints and prints representations of Christianity.

At her Bismarck home on Thursday afternoon, Young worked on an oil painting of a young woman, arms held out, looking toward the sky  a remembrance of God's forgiveness as commemorated on Easter Sunday.

"When someone looks at this, I want them to have that full feeling that she's giving herself to God," Young said. "It's like she totally wants forgiveness, wants to feel that love that God gives us."

Young will be honored this year at the 10th annual Artists Celebrating Christ show on May 5-7 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 502 N. Fourth St. in Bismarck.

The art sale will feature 76 works by 31 artists from across the country, along with 106 works from student artists. Watercolor workshops will be offered Friday for parochial schoolchildren and Saturday for families. Kids will have the chance to make gifts for Mother and Father's days and families can create a painting together.

At a reception on Friday night, six artists will participate in a "quick draw," in which they create a new work within an hour to be sold at silent auction. Money raised above expenses will be donated to the church's weekly feeding ministry, The Banquet.

The yearly event has moved from the University of Mary in order to attract more local visitors, according to organizer Susan Boyce.

"We want to try to uplift the community with art that is meaningful and beautiful and excellent," Boyce said.

Young, who is also an art teacher at Bismarck High School and South Central High School, says she loves to share her skills with kids. That may be due to the fact she started creating art as a 2-year-old. Her mom was a creative person, stenciling prints of flour sack curtains, so Young grew up without knowing she was poor.

She gave me my art inspiration and the foundation for my faith, said Young, who earned a bachelor's degree in teaching from the University of North Dakota and a master's degree in art from Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D. She has also earned opportunities to study in Japan.

Young estimates she has created more than 5,000 works  many a fitting tribute to the Easter season. But no matter the time of year, she develops her artwork along with her faith and what she sees in the world.
Here's an easy question for you: Would you like to retire someday?

Now here's a tougher question: Do you know how an IRA works?

If you answered "yes" to the first question, then you should also be able to answer "yes" to the second one. In fact, you should learn just about everything there is to know about IRAs, or individual retirement accounts. These simple, easy-to-open accounts reward retirement savers with major tax breaks.

Unfortunately, a January 2017 TIAA IRA survey revealed that the majority (65%) of Americans do not have an IRA. Of those, 28% said they don't know enough about IRAs, and another 17% said IRAs are too complicated. If the only thing stopping you from taking advantage of this powerful savings tool is a lack of knowledge, then stick around to see how simple it is to change your financial picture.

Overview

First, you should know that there are two main types of IRAs: traditional and Roth. You can choose either or both. For 2017, you can contribute the lesser of your annual earned income or $5,500 if you are under age 50. If you are aged 50 or older, you can contribute the lesser of your annual earned income or $6,500.

Regardless of how many accounts you have or what type they are, you can split the contribution however you'd like between the accounts -- you just can't exceed the maximum allowable amount. And generally, any time you withdraw money from an IRA before age 59-1/2, you will face some sort of penalty unless you qualify for an early withdrawal exception (after all, the government created these accounts to reward Americans for saving for retirement). More on that below.

What really separates an IRA from a regular brokerage account is the preferential tax treatment that IRAs are afforded: Money inside any IRA can grow untaxed for decades.

But here's where the traditional and Roth operate differently.

A traditional IRA

Anyone with taxable income can contribute to a traditional IRA, and anyone who meets certain requirements can deduct those contributions from their taxable income in the current tax year.

If you make deductible contributions, meaning you deposit untaxed money into the account, your money can be shielded from taxes until you begin taking distributions, at which time you will owe ordinary income taxes on both principal and any earnings.

If, on the other hand, any or all of your contributions were nondeductible, meaning you deposited after-tax dollars into the account, then that money will not be taxed again when you take it out. However, any earnings on that money will be subject to ordinary income taxes when they are distributed from the account.

Generally, the government requires you to start taking minimum distributions from your traditional IRA at age 70 1/2, at which point you can no longer contribute to the account even if you are still earning income.

A Roth IRA

Not everyone can directly contribute to a Roth IRA, as there are income limits on who can fund a Roth IRA. However, even if you exceed those income limits, there is a loophole in the law that allows high-earning individuals to contribute through what's referred to as the "backdoor."

Regardless of how you get your money into a Roth, all Roth IRA contributions are made with money that has already been taxed. Because you're putting after-tax dollars into the account, any money you contribute to the account can be withdrawn tax- and penalty-free at any time. (Note that any converted contributions must remain in the account for five years before you can withdraw them penalty-free.)

When you take qualified distributions from a Roth IRA (generally, after you are 59 1/2 and have had a Roth IRA for at least five years), any account distributions, including your original after-tax contributions plus any earnings you've made, will all be tax-free. And while you are required to begin drawing down your assets from a traditional IRA because you owe income taxes on that money, you are never required to begin taking distributions from a Roth IRA; your funds can grow untaxed for your lifetime. Additionally, as long as you have earned income, you can continue contributing to the account even past age 70 1/2.

Open an IRA today and invest for your future

Finally, it's important to understand that an IRA is not an investment; it's an investment account. To be more specific, it's a retirement savings vehicle that can hold your investments and is earmarked for long-term savings. You can set up an IRA at various financial institutions, like a discount brokerage firm or even your bank.

An IRA can help you with two main investing components: keeping your fees low and diversification. Unlike a workplace 401(k) or 403(b), where you usually have a limited menu of pre-selected investments and no control over costs and fees, an IRA gives you unlimited access to investments, including low-cost ETFs and mutual funds, which can give you immediate and broad diversification. You can further diversify your portfolio with alternative investments that you may not have access to in a workplace retirement plan, such as real estate and gold funds, among many others.

Remember: All of your retirement accounts are part of one portfolio. You can directly contribute to an IRA, and you can also roll money from old workplace retirement plans into an IRA. And if you have a retirement account at work, you can use an IRA to work in conjunction with it.

Everyone needs to save for their own retirement. And retirement accounts will comprise a large portion of your wealth -- and they will perhaps be one of the most valuable financial tools you have as you spend decades saving for one of your most important life goals: living the retirement that you've dreamed of.
The tax code in the United States is extremely complex, with seven tax brackets, and a list of deductions, exemptions, and tax credits, each of which seem more complicated than the next.

One logical solution to the complex U.S. tax code would be to have a flat tax rate, which means that everyone pays the same percentage of their income -- no deductions or exemptions allowed. This idea has been suggested by several politicians, but a single, universal tax rate is not seriously being considered at this time. With that in mind, here's a discussion of the three main types of taxes, and why the U.S. doesn't use a flat tax system.

The three types of taxes

Of course, there are many different taxes that exist in the United States, and around the world. However, they can be divided into three main categories:

Progressive tax: This refers to a tax whose rate increases as the taxable amount increases. The U.S. federal income tax is a form of a progressive tax system, since higher tax rates are used for higher-income taxpayers. Regressive tax:The opposite of a progressive tax, a regressive tax rate decreases as the amount increases. The Social Security tax in the U.S. is an example of a regressive tax, in that it is only assessed on incomes below a certain cap ($127,200 in 2017). To be fair, however, Social Security benefits are weighted in favor of lower-income workers. Flat tax: Also known as a proportional tax, a flat tax has a constant marginal rate, regardless of the amount of money that can be taxed. Many countries around the world have flat tax rates, as do several U.S. states. The Medicare tax in the United States used to be a flat tax, until the additional Medicare tax on higher earners was implemented.

It's also worth noting that some taxes could fall into more than one of these categories, depending on who you ask. For example, a state sales tax could be considered a form of a flat tax, since everyone pays the same rate, regardless of how much they make or what they're buying. On the other hand, it could also be considered a regressive tax, since lower-income individuals tend to spend more, as a percentage of their income, than wealthy individuals.

Why the United States uses a progressive tax system

In a nutshell, it's the general consensus among U.S. citizens and politicians of all age groups, income levels, and political affiliations, that the wealthy should pay more into the system than the poor.

For a little more color, consider the 2017 U.S. marginal tax brackets:

Tax Bracket Single Married Filing Jointly Married Filing Separately Head of Household 10% $0-$9,325 $0-$18,650 $0-$9,325 $0-$13,350 15% $9,326-$37,950 $18,651-$75,900 $9,326-$37,950 $13,351-$50,800 25% $37,951-$91,900 $75,901-$153,100 $37,951-$76,550 $50,801-$131,200 28% $91,901-$191,650 $153,101-$233,350 $76,551-$116,675 $131,201-$212,500 33% $191,651-$416,700 $233,351-$416,700 $116,676-$208,350 $212,501-$416,700 35% $416,701-$418,400 $416,701-$470,700 $208,351-$235,350 $416,701-$444,550 39.6% $418,401 and above $470,701 and above $235,351 and above $444,551 and above

Also, keep in mind that the income ranges listed here refer to taxable income. There are several deductions and tax credits that are specifically designed to reduce taxes on lower- and middle-income Americans, and specifically exclude the wealthy. The Earned Income Tax Credit is a good example, as is the American Opportunity Credit for college expenses.

In practice, our tax system achieves its goal of being progressive. According to the Tax Policy Center, Americans in the lowest quintile (20%) pay an effective federal tax rate of just 3.7%, including income, payroll, corporate income, estate, and excise taxes. For the middle quintile, the effective rate jumps to 13.6%. And, for the top 1% of Americans, the effective federal tax rate is 33.4%, nearly 10 times what those in the lowest quintile pay.

Will we ever have a flat tax rate in the U.S.?

While it's entirely possible that we could have a flat tax in the United States at some point in the future, it's not under serious discussion by any major political party or organization at this time.

However, some flat tax proposals have gained significant political traction in the recent past. One notable example was 2012 presidential candidate Herman Cain's "9-9-9" plan, which would replace all current federal taxes with a 9% business transactions tax, a 9% personal income tax, and a 9% federal sales tax.
When the Formula 1 paddock arrives in the Kingdom of Bahrain, it's naturally the teams and their drivers that are the focus of attention. But staging a Grand Prix anywhere in the world involves a large circus of people, with many diverse skills and responsibilities, working closely together. Among them, there's a special group of dedicated volunteers responsible for marshalling the circuit and ensuring the track is safe. The marshals, positioned at key points around the track, are ready, in the event of an incident, to signal the hazard to other competitors and render assistance to the driver in trouble, with each marshals post in radio communication with race control. Without these enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers, the race simply could not take place.

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For over a decade Bahrain has been making a significant impact on the global Formula One community. When its first Grand Prix was staged in 2004, there was no shortage of sceptics questioning Bernie Ecclestone's drive to hold races in countries with little motorsport heritage at the expense of more traditional venues. The reality was that Bahrain had plans well beyond simply garnering global media attention for hosting a Grand Prix. Although they were rightly applauded as the first Middle Eastern nation to host a modern Formula One race, the country's plan was also geared towards to developing and gleaning skills and knowledge from the industry in order to create opportunities for its citizens. Earning the respect of the wider motorsport community would naturally follow, and while these aims have successfully been achieved on several fronts, the Bahrain Motorsports Marshals Club (MMC) is arguably the most understated component of this effort. Unsurprisingly, it's being done in a fashion consistent with the traditionally humble approach of all other globally-recognised marshal organisations. Having initially been trained by the Australian Grand Prix marshals in 2003/4, it's not widely known that their expertise and dedication now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the established marshalling communities throughout the world. For example, the MMC was charged with structuring, training and implementing the marshals team for the Grands Prix in India and Azerbaijan. In Baku's first Grand Prix last year, as part of that process, there were 250 MMC marshals on duty to train the local team. This year, there will be 70. After that, Bakus marshals will be on their own. Their senior marshals also fill roles as race directors and stewards at many international races.

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A visit to the marshals briefing on the morning of last years Bahrain Grand Prix - following an invite from Fayez Ramzy Fayez, President of the Bahrain MMC and Director of Circuit Operations - provided the perfect insight into exactly why the event is justifiably proud of its marshalling team and their dedication. On arrival there was a live band playing music in one corner, slices of birthday cake being generously handed out in another, and so much enthusiasm amongst the 650 marshals present that the atmosphere seemed part briefing, part pre-race carnival. Most of these marshals had reported for duty at 5am, and many would work late into the evening - a clear illustration of the passion, pride and commitment they share. Reassuringly, when the marshals were called to order for the briefing, respectful silence quickly descended on the room as the business of the day got underway. Given the turmoil the country faced in 2011, its perhaps no surprise that Fayez is still regularly asked about the background of Bahrains marshals. His team comprises people from very diverse circumstances, brought together as volunteers to play their part in staging a Grand Prix with obvious pride and energy. "They are people from all social, religious and economic backgrounds in the Bahraini community are represented," he confirms. The MMC are also breaking new ground in other ways. A visit to the first-corner marshals post finds it 'manned' by three women, a fact which may surprise many given the common, conservative perception of the Middle East - and, of course, the traditionally male-dominated nature of motorsport.

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Toro Rossos Carlos Sainz has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the next round in Russia after race stewards deemed him predominantly to blame for the crash that eliminated him and Williams Lance Stroll from Sundays race in Sakhir.

Sainz and Stroll collided at Turn 1 at the start of lap 12, with the Toro Rosso driver, who had just left the pits, spearing into the side of the Williams as it rounded the right hander.

Sainz was quick to point the finger of blame at Stroll for the collision, suggesting the rookie had turned in on him, but the stewards saw things otherwise.

Video evidence showed that car 18 [Stroll] was on the normal racing line, read a statement from the FIA.

Car 55 [Sainz] left the pit lane and made a very optimistic attempt to pass car 18 into the corner. The stewards decided that the driver of car 55 was predominantly to blame for causing the collision

Stroll described the coming together as ridiculous and said that a change of fortune cant come soon enough.

I saw Sainz coming out of the pitlane, I was 50 or 60 metres in front of him in the braking zone, and was already turning in and he drove into my side, explained the Canadian, who has now retired from each of his first three Grands Prix.

There is not much else to say, as I have just seen the video and it was ridiculous. I think the race wasnt going badly. I had a bad start and lost a couple of positions, but boxed early and had a really good beginning to the stint on the soft tyres.

"I am just disappointed and hope my luck turns round sometime soon. I can be frustrated, but it wont get me anywhere. On the bright side there are many races to go.

As well as his three-place grid drop, Sainz was awarded three penalty points on his license, bringing his total for the 12 month period to seven. If a driver accrues 12 penalty points in a 12-month period they will have their Super Licence suspended for one race.
New Delhi : Stone-pelting, which has been a major issue in the valley for a long time now; has been disrupting various Army operations and peace measures in Srinagar. As per ABP News secret agency sources, Pakistan has been indulging in cashless funding of these peace-disrupters.

As per sources, Pakistan is indulged in barter system with the stone-pelters that is they are paid goods in lieu of their work. How this barter system is brought to reality would startle anyone.

To site an example, if a truck carrying good worth Rs5 lakh leaves Muzaffarabad for Srinagar, goods worth only Rs 2 lakh would return back to Muzaffarabad; and a cut of Rs 3 lakh would reach the pockets of stone-pelters.

As per agencies, if the movement of these vehicles is barred, then the issue of stone-pelting would automatically come to an end and peace would resume in the valley.

The secret agencies and the Army is therefore, keeping a close check on the movement of these vehicles and are investigating the exchange of goods between the two countries.

Former J&K CM backs stone-pelters

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Thursday virtually defended stone-pelters in Kashmir, and claimed that all stone-pelters are not the same. He also questioned, if the nation is concerned about them and their future.

He was asked whether he was playing with the sentiments of the nation by supporting stone-pelters. Than showing his resentment against the turbulence created by stone-pelters in the valley; former CM was seen sympathizing them instead.

What is sentiments of whole nation? What do you mean by the sentiments of the nation? You have to see whether the boys have some grievances. Dont you think they have some grievances? You only have concern for the nation. Does the nation have concern about them (stone-pelters) and their future? he said.

Source : ABP
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By Peter Certo | (Otherwords.org) |  

Now that he cares about the fate of Syrian children, I hope Trump will open up our country  not bomb theirs.

When I saw footage of the alleged sarin gas attack in Syria, I felt ill.

The whole episode, which killed up to 100 civilians in Syrias Idlib province, was ghastly. But worst of all was the kids  glassy-eyed, discolored, and limp as their little bodies were carried away.

Donald Trump apparently felt the same way.

That attack on children had a big impact on me, he told reporters, condemning the Syrian regimes heinous targeting of innocent people and even beautiful little babies. Then he fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base supposedly used to launch the chemical attack.

Even some of Trumps critics applauded that move. But it was a huge flip-flop.

The Obama administration faced a similar crisis in 2013, following a much deadlier chemical attack on a Damascus suburb. Back then, Trump was unambiguously against intervening. DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA, the billionaire tweeted in all caps. VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN!

World Bank Photo Collection/ Flickr

An informed change of perspective is a good thing  but only if its informed. Though it mightve felt good to see the Syrian regime pay a price for its crimes, theres no way a strike like this can ease civilian suffering.

For one thing, it was a pinprick. Within days, Syrian planes were taking off from the same base and bombing the very same town. But escalating the war risks provoking a devastating conflict with Russia or Iran, Syrian allies who could step up their support in response.

Even if that war succeeded in ousting the regime, the country would only plunge deeper into chaos  just as Iraq and Libya did after we ran their similarly horrible governments out. Islamist extremists would be well positioned to fill the void in Syria, too: Al Qaeda-linked forces currently hold Idlib, while ISIS controls much of the east.

Either way, its innocent people who pay the price. Just ask the families of the 1,700 civilians reportedly killed by U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria last month alone. Many of those were children, too.

Airstrikes, in short, are a recipe for humanitarian catastrophe. But that doesnt mean theres nothing the U.S. can do to help suffering Syrians. Its just going to require another big flip-flop.

For starters, Trump should give up on his Muslim ban. Both versions of that order, now held up in the courts, would have indefinitely banned all migration from Syria  and suspended refugee resettlement from everywhere.

Trumps said thats necessary because Syrian refugees are pouring in and we dont know who they are. But the U.S. admitted just 18,000 Syrians from 2011 to 2016, all after years of vetting. (Syrias tiny neighbor Lebanon, with a population less than metro DC, has taken over 1 million.)

During the campaign, it never bothered Trump that children might be affected by his anti-refugee policies. I can look at their face and say you cant come here, he said about Syrian kids in February 2016. They may be ISIS.

Thats chilling. I hope Trump now understands theres a direct line from that policy to the beautiful little babies murdered in Idlib.

Another welcome about-face would be to ramp up relief for those Syrians who remain. Trumps skinny budget proposal nearly zeroes out humanitarian aid, but food and medicine are much cheaper than Tomahawk missiles, which run $1.4 million apiece. And theyll save a lot more suffering Syrian kids.

Getting more deeply involved in Syrias war is a grievous mistake. The silver lining is that it proves Trump can change his mind. Now that he cares about the fate of Syrian children, I hope hell open up our country  not bomb theirs.

Peter Certo is the editorial manager of the Institute for Policy Studies and the editor of OtherWords.org.

Via Otherwords.org



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Al Jazeera English: Syria, Trump and a media u-turn  The Listening Post (Full)
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by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Someone detonated a car bomb in the (rebel-held) Rashideen district of Aleppo Province Friday night, killing over 100 and wounding over 500. It targeted lead buses that had brought in evacuees from two Shiite villages being evacuated because their sectarian complexion makes them sitting ducks in the civil war. Sunni extremists are being sent north to Idlib and Shiites will be sent south to take over the evacuated formerly Sunni lands.

The Shiites from Kefraya and al-Foua, then, were on their way down south, having been swapped out for Sunni villages on Lebanons border (Madaya and Zabadani) where Salafi Jihadi extremists Syrias al-Qaeda affiliate and its close ally the Freemen of Syria had been starved by the regime (along with women, children and other noncombatants.) The population exchange is controversial because it seems to involve acquiescing in a logic of ethnic cleansing contrary to the values of the nation.

The Saudi press and pro-rebel outlets are trying to blame the bombing on the regime. But since the regime of Bashar al-Assad negotiated this swap with the Qatari government, it is difficult to see the motive for reneging. The people who regularly blow things up with suicide bombings are the al-Qaeda affiliate and its close allies. That is not a government m.o.

Population transfer, like partitioning countries, always occurs to dictatorial or colonial regimes in the midst of civil wars.

Partition seldom works. India and Pakistan were partitioned but went on fighting one another, resulting in 3 major conventional wars and then almost a nuclear exchange in 2002.

As for population transfer, it can save individual lives but no one should doubt that it is hugely disruptive, and creates long-term enmities that do more harm than good. Ben Gurions population exchange beginning in 1948 has left millions of Palestinians stateless and homeless, without rights or even the right to have rights.

Syria would do better to foster political compromise. Then you would not have to move anyone around. The sanguinary bombings this weekend clearly demonstrate that top-down ethnic cleaning does not produce peace.

-

Related video:

Al Jazeera English: Syria: Many killed as blast hits evacuation convoy in Aleppo
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By Natalie Martin | (The Conversation) |  

When the Turkish government announced its plans to transform itself into an executive presidency, no-one was particularly surprised. This plan, which has been described as the most radical political change since the modern republics foundation in 1923, is the culmination of a steady drift towards authoritarianism in Turkey which began a decade ago.

Its set to come to a head on April 16, when the country will vote on whether to endow its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with near-total control over the major state institutions  military, financial and political. If Erdogan wins the day, the nexus of political power in Turkey will become the huge marble encrusted presidential palace which he ordered built on the outskirts of the countrys capital, Ankara, at a reported cost of US$350m. The whole scenario has much more in common with a central Asian dictatorship than an aspirant EU member.

Erdogans camp within the ruling party, the Justice and Development Party or AKP, argues that whats proposed is nothing more than a typical executive presidency, with the head of state doubling as head of government. They are quick to compare it to the American system  but less eager to highlight the proposed systems near-total lack of checks and balances, which have been eroded over the past decade by the same president who now wants to be given full control.

Its been a full decade since Erdogan lost hope that the EU would let Turkey join it, and began to consolidate his domestic power base instead. Turkeys long quest for liberal democracy soon went into reverse. Since then, the countrys scrutinising forces  the military, the news media, the judiciary, the academy  have seen their power and independence incrementally pared back to a point where the rule of law, freedom of expression and association are hopelessly compromised.

This semi-authoritarian state of affairs is a great help to the yes (evet) camp. Government loyalists have a strong presence on social media and control most news outlets. Yet the referendum seems too close to call, and the campaign has polarised Turkeys people into two camps: those who believe everything Erdogan says, and those who believe nothing.

Nearly there

In authoritarian regimes where leaders are used to getting their way, close outcomes can be dangerous, and so it goes in Turkey. Erdogan is a skilful populist operator; he plays to the gallery by demonising anyone who opposes him, whether at home or abroad, as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte found when his Turkish counterpart accused him of behaving like the Nazis. But whereas his foreign targets can lick their wounds at a distance, the consequences are more serious for domestic opponents.

More than 80 journalists are languishing in prison for simply questioning AKP policy. Reports of maltreatment and even torture are commonplace. Many Turks living and working abroad who have criticised the AKP fear they will be arrested if they return home to a country where criticising the president on Twitter is now a criminal offence.

As things stand, Erdogan already exerts something close to the total control he hopes the referendum will formalise. Turkey has been in a state of emergency since the attempted coup detat of July 2016. The attempted coup has also been the pretext to purge state of opposition voices, particularly followers of exiled Sufi cleric Fetullah Gulen.

For Erdogan, this is all the culmination of a ten-year quest to take back control from the secular Kemalist elite which dominated Turkey for so long  and he isnt going to let the chance slip through his fingers now without a struggle.

Close calls

If the yes camp wins, Turkey can expect further AKP domination. If Erdogan loses, he may start to play even tougher than he has done already, especially with the progressive Kurdish HDP party (Halklarn Demokratik Partisi) and the wider Kurdish issue.

The HDPs leaders are already in prison on terrorism charges, and Kurdish areas of eastern Turkey have seen many civilians killed by government forces. There is always a danger the de facto civil war in eastern Turkey could spread westwards.

The international community has said remarkably little to criticise this authoritarian drift  perhaps because Turkey holds serious sway over major problems affecting both the EU and the US.

European leaders worried about anti-migrant populism depend on Ankara to control the number of refugees heading west from Syria. Meanwhile, the US faces the awkward truth that its ostensible NATO ally is mired in the bloody Syrian quagmire, and possibly fighting a different enemy  but so long as Washington needs Turkey in the fight against Islamic State and Bashar al-Assad, it cannot publicly scold its president.

If Turkey ends up voting yes by a close margin, the lid will stay on these problems for a while yet. But they wont go away  and nor will Turkey lose its crucial geopolitical position.

Natalie Martin, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Nottingham Trent University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

-

Related video added by Juan Cole:

The National: Turkey prepares for referendum to expand presidential powers
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Maan News Agency |  

RAMALLAH (Maan)  Israeli authorities have detained approximately one million Palestinians since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in 1967, according to a joint statement released Saturday by the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

The question of Palestinian prisoners is central for the Palestinian cause, the statement affirmed, two days before Palestinians mark Palestinian Prisoners Day on April 17.

The groups said that Israeli forces detained hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the first and second intifadas, which they referred to as one of the most difficult historical stages of Palestine.

During the First Intifada, which lasted from Dec. 1987 until the Madrid Conference in 1991 aimed at reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, scores of Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces as a result of the largely nonviolent uprising which relied on various campaigns of civil disobedience.

In 2000, the Second Intifada broke out  known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada  after then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in an act of provocation, causing heavy clashes to break out between Palestinians and Israeli forces, which developed into a full-scale uprising.

According to the joint statement, by the time the uprising ended in 2005, Israeli authorities detained some 100,000 Palestinians, including 15,000 minors and 1,500 women, and 70 Palestinian lawmakers and former ministers.

In addition, Israeli authorities issued some 27,000 administrative detention orders against Palestinians at the time  an Israeli policy of detention without charge or trial almost exclusively used against Palestinians, the statement read.

The statement added that since October 2015, when a wave of political unrest erupted across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel in what many locals refer to as the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Intifada, some 10,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces, the majority of whom were from occupied East Jerusalem.

About one third of the Palestinian detainees since 2015 were children and teenagers, the statement said. According to Palestinian prisoners rights group Addameer, 300 of the 6,300 Palestinians currently being held in Israeli prisons are minors.

Human rights violations and the torture of children have been documented via lawyers working in these institutions, the statement read. Night arrests, severe beating in front of their parents, shooting at them before detaining them, handcuffing, feet cuffing, and blindfolding, in addition to delayed notification of their right to legal assistance, were among the violations committed by Israeli forces against minors.

The statement also pointed out that 13 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), including a woman, Sameera al-Halayqah, are currently being detained by Israeli forces. The oldest detained MP is Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi who has been detained since 2002 and is serving five life sentences.

Some 210 Palestinian prisoners have died as a result extrajudicial exterminations or from deliberate negligence under torture in Israeli custody, the report highlighted, saying that the most recent case was Muhammad al-Jallad, who died in detention in February after succumbing to a gunshot wound inflicted by Israeli forces months before.

Since the creation of the Israeli occupation state in 1948, collective extrajudicial extermination has been committed against Palestinian prisoners by shooting them after their arrest. the statement continued.

Fatah-affiliated Palestinians held in Israeli prisons announced last month that they would stage a mass hunger strike on Palestinian Prisoners Day, in an action by Marwan Barghouthi. The strike calls for an end to provocative and humiliating searches of prisoners, an end to medical negligence, ensuring regular family visits, an end to isolation and administrative detention, as well as a long list of other demands.

According to the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners Affairs, 65 percent of the Palestinians imprisoned in Israel are affiliated with the Fatah movement. Palestinian prisoners held in Israels Nafha prison affiliated with Islamic Jihad and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) also said they would join the strike.

Every day, Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of struggle, facing torturous interrogation, nighttime raids, solitary confinement, and relentless attacks on their rights at the hands of Israeli occupation forces. Those attacks are aided by international and corporate complicity, support and profiteering, prisoners rights group Addameer said in a statement last month.

Palestinian Prisoners Day is a critical time to stand against state and corporate complicity with Israeli imprisonment of Palestinian political prisoners.

Via Maan News Agency |  

Press TV:  Gazans rally in solidarity with prisoners ahead of mass hunger-strike
By Lee Kyung-min

Tens of thousands of people gathered at numerous locations nationwide, Sunday, to commemorate the third anniversary of the ferry Sewol sinking on April 16, 2014.

More than 1,000 people gathered in front of Paengmok Port on Jindo, South Jeolla Province, the nearest point from the coast where the ill-fated ferry went down, killing more than 300 people, mostly high school students on a school trip to Jeju Island.

The memorial was attended by representatives and residents of Jindo, as well as the bereaved families of nine victims whose bodies have yet to be recovered. Middle and high school students in the region also participated by reciting poems in memory of the victims.

"The Sewol tragedy is not over until the remains of nine missing victims are recovered. Today marks not the end but the beginning," said a father of one of the nine missing victims during the commemoration. "We ask that the public stand by our sides."

The ferry sinking is arguably the worst maritime disaster in Korea's recent history, seared into people's memory as emblematic of the incompetence of the former President Park Geun-hye administration.

The whereabouts of the former president during the first seven crucial hours when the ferry was sinking still remains a mystery, and the failure to disclose what the public considers a duty of an elected leader in this country turned the public further against her. Park's continued refusal to communicate with the public contributed to criticism over how she handled state affairs and other matters in general  cutting off all communication channels and selectively listening to only sycophantic voices.












By Mehmet Fatih Oztarsu





One hundred journalists from 55 countries discussed the role of media in building peace, at the five-day 2017 World Journalists Conference which was organized by Journalists Association of Korea (JAK) in early April. The program included significant topics to discuss especially conflict resolution and the role of media.

The program started in Seoul and continued in other cities such as Suwon, Busan and Incheon. It was a valuable step for South Korea which will host PyeongChang Winter Olympics next year, with the theme of peace against conflict. Asia Journalist Association (AJA) also made an important contribution with its members from Central Asia and Caucasus; it was meaningful to see the post-Soviet approach to the issues of the Korean peninsula. The Korean peninsula has several conflicts, not just the North Korean issue but some others appear in its neighborhood. Historical and geographical conflicts with Japan are in the foreground. Japanese war crimes, including comfort women scandals during the Second World War, stand as a critical problem between the two countries.

On the other hand, Japan stakes out a claim on Dokdo Island of South Korea. At the same time, East Sea is another discussion between two countries. Japanese side calls here as the Sea of Japan. South Korea claims that term appeared while Korea was under the Japanese occupation. As an addition to the conflicts with Japan, the THAAD issue stands as hot discussion nowadays. This negatively affected the relations between South Korea and China.

China opposes South Korea's decision to deploy the missile defense system. Beijing accepts this as a threat to its national security. So, Chinese government enforced sanctions to Korean investments in the country. The agenda about Park Geun-hye, former president of South Korea, who was impeached by the Constitutional Court in March 2017, was also another hot issue. This can be tiring for the country. The initiative of nuclear weapon tests of North Korea is quite another problem of the peninsula. This stands as a radical threat to regional security and also global security. Thus, South Korea follows an effective way to draw world attention. The media plays a key role in this mission and can shape global peace.

The opening ceremony of the program was held at the Seoul Press Center. Jung Kyu-sung, President of Journalists Association of Korea made opening remarks and said: "This event will enable participants to take a close look at the world's last divided country, which is Korea. All participants have one thing in common: striving to deliver the truth and bolster freedom and peace, with warm hearts and cold heads." In the most remarkable moment, Chinese and American participants were delivering their opinions on regional problems. The Chinese side is strongly against the THAAD system and they assume it will bring other problems in the near future. Americans think differently and they believe only the U.S. can play a significant role. One of the most important meetings was held with Choi Moon-soon, the governor of Gangwon province. Along with his hilarious presentation to the world journalists, he mentioned important facts and expectations about the Korean Peninsula.

Before the division of Korea in 1945, Gangwon and its North Korean neighbor Kangwon formed a single province, so the other half is located in North Korea. He pointed out the sharp differences of the two halves by mentioning the rapid progress of South Korea. Also, PyeongChang county which will host the 2018 Winter Olympics, is here. Hereby, 2018 will be a meaningful year to see peaceful initiatives of South Korea. Mr. Choi also underlined another interesting fact about PyeongChang and Pyongyang. According to his words, PyeongChang promotes peace but Pyongyang is becoming a symbol of war and destruction. South Korea rises as a peaceful power in the world. Balance in protecting East Asia is not easy but Seoul's decisions will play a key role in the period of conflict.

Mehmet Fatih Oztarsu is a Turkish journalist in Seoul. Write to oztarsu@gmail.com.
CHARLESTON -- An old red barn turned out to be "something very significant" and could help a local historic site with something on its wish list "since day one."

The group that oversees the Five Mile House southeast of Charleston wants to raise money to move the 137-year-old barn to the site.

Once it's there, the barn could be the location of a replica blacksmith shop. A blacksmith did work at the location years ago so having that represented has been a goal "since day one," said Tom Vance, president of the Five Mile House Foundation.

The barn would serve another purpose, as well, as there's really no place for exhibits or storage at the Five Mile House now, Vance added.

"It would increase our educational opportunities," he said. "It could act somewhat as a visitors center."

The foundation has worked for several years to renovate and improve the Five Mile House site, thought to be the location of the oldest structure in Coles County, and its grounds. The original structure at the site was built in 1840.

The house's name comes from its location at the intersection of Illinois Route 130 and Westfield Road, about five miles southeast of Charleston. Through much of its history, the location served as a stopping point for people traveling through the area.

Vance said the foundation considered other buildings for the site but they were the wrong size or the wrong configuration. The group was close to deciding to construct a new building when someone suggested the barn, he said.

Though money will be needed to move the barn, obtaining it is another matter. Vance said current owner Dallas Nichols is willing to donate it for the effort.

The barn was built in 1880 and is located about three miles east of the Five Mile House, also along Westfield Road. Vance noted that its unusual configuration includes "scissored" or crossing rafters in its roof.

It was built by a local farmer named Commodore Perry Davis. "Commodore" was his actual first name, not a title, and he came to the area in 1829 and farmed all his life.

"It turned out to be something very significant," Vance said of the barn.

Trillium Dell Timberworks, located in Knoxville near Peoria, does restoration work across the country and specializes in disassembling old barns and reusing the lumber.

Vance said the company indicated it could relocate the barn and reconfigure it to fit in the northeast corner of the Five Mile House lot. He said the work would also address some areas where the barn's deteriorated.

A rough estimate of the cost of the project is around $150,000 but a firmer figure hasn't been determined yet, Vance said.

He said the foundation will look at possible grant funding and conduct a fundraising campaign through the summer and fall. If it goes well, the barn could be in place at the site by late this year, he added.

The foundation's annual newsletter is scheduled to be sent out at the first of the month and will include requests for and information about donating, Vance said.

There's also a donation link on the foundation's website, www.fivemilehouse.org, and Vance said they can also be mailed to the foundation at P.O. Box 114, Charleston, IL 61920.

Meanwhile, the foundation is also gearing up for the site's annual open house schedule. It starts with an event on May 28 that features demonstration on cooking practices of Civil War soldiers.

The open houses will feature a variety of demonstrations and activities throughout the summer, foundation member Dick Hummel said.

"The whole point is to encourage interest in local history," he said.

The open houses are scheduled for every other Sunday from May 28 to Aug. 29 with the site's annual fall festival set for Oct. 9.
The following companies are subsidiares of CVS Health: ACS ACQCO CORP., ADMINCO Inc., AE Fourteen Incorporated, AHP Holdings Inc., AMC - Tennessee LLC, APS Acquisition LLC, ASCO HealthCare LLC, ASI Wings LLC, AUSHC Holdings Inc., Accendo Insurance Company, Accordant Health Services L.L.C., Active Health Management Inc., Administrative Enterprises Inc., AdvancePCS SpecialtyRx LLC, AdvanceRx.com L.L.C., Advanced Care Scripts Inc., Aetna, Aetna (Beijing) Enterprise Management Services Co. Ltd., Aetna (Shanghai) Enterprise Services Co. Ltd., Aetna ACO Holdings Inc., Aetna Asset Advisors LLC, Aetna Behavioral Health LLC, Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Premier Plan MMAI Inc., Aetna Better Health of California Inc., Aetna Better Health of Florida Inc., Aetna Better Health of Illinois Inc., Aetna Better Health of Indiana Inc., Aetna Better Health of Kansas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Missouri LLC, Aetna Better Health of Nevada Inc., Aetna Better Health of North Carolina Inc., Aetna Better Health of Oklahoma Inc., Aetna Better Health of Tennessee Inc., Aetna Better Health of Texas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Washington Inc., Aetna Capital Management LLC, Aetna Card Solutions LLC, Aetna Corporate Services LLC, Aetna Dental Inc., Aetna Dental of California Inc., Aetna Financial Holdings LLC, Aetna Florida Inc., Aetna Global Benefits (Asia Pacific) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bermuda) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Europe) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Middle East) LLC, Aetna Global Benefits (Singapore) PTE. LTD., Aetna Health Holdings LLC, Aetna Health Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Aetna Health Insurance Company, Aetna Health Insurance Company of Europe DAC, Aetna Health Insurance Company of New York, Aetna Health Management LLC, Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company, Aetna Health of California Inc., Aetna Health of Iowa Inc., Aetna Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Health of Ohio Inc., Aetna Health of Utah Inc., Aetna HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Aetna Holdco (UK) Limited, Aetna Holdings (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Inc., Aetna Insurance (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Aetna Insurance Company Limited, Aetna Insurance Company of Connecticut, Aetna Integrated Informatics Inc., Aetna International Ex Pat LLC, Aetna International LLC, Aetna Ireland Inc., Aetna Life & Casualty (Bermuda) Ltd., Aetna Life Assignment Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Aetna Medicaid Administrators LLC, Aetna Network Services LLC, Aetna Partners Diversified Fund LLC, Aetna Pharmacy Management Services LLC, Aetna Resources LLC, Aetna Risk Assurance Company of Connecticut Inc., Aetna Rx Home Delivery LLC, Aetna Services (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Aetna Student Health Agency Inc., Aetna Ventures LLC, Aetna Workers Comp Access LLC, Alabama CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Alaska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Allina Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, American Drug Stores Delaware L.L.C., Arbor Drugs, Arizona CVS Stores L.L.C., Arkansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Badger Acquisition LLC, Badger Acquisition of Kentucky LLC, Badger Acquisition of Minnesota LLC, Badger Acquisition of Ohio LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Company, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Beauty Holdings L.L.C., Best Care LTC Acquisition Company LLC, Busse CVS L.L.C., CCI Foreign S.a R.L., CCRx Holdings LLC, CCRx of North Carolina LLC, CHP Acquisition LLC, CP Acquisition LLC, CVS 2948 Henderson L.L.C., CVS 3268 Gilbert L.L.C., CVS 3745 Peoria L.L.C., CVS AL Distribution L.L.C., CVS AOC Corporation, CVS AOC Services L.L.C., CVS Albany L.L.C., CVS Bellmore Avenue L.L.C., CVS Cabot Holdings Inc., CVS Cabot Holdings Inc.  Coram Clinical Trials Inc. 99.72%/Aetna Inc. .28%, CVS Care Concierge LLC, CVS Caremark Advanced Technology Pharmacy L.L.C., CVS Caremark Indemnity Ltd., CVS Caremark Part D Services L.L.C., CVS Caremark TN SUTA LLC, CVS Foreign Inc., CVS Gilbert 3272 L.L.C., CVS Health Applications LLC, CVS Health Solutions LLC, CVS Health Ventures Fund GP LLC, CVS Health Ventures Fund LP, CVS Health Ventures Management LLC, CVS Indiana L.L.C., CVS International L.L.C., CVS Kidney Care Advanced Technologies LLC, CVS Kidney Care Health Services LLC, CVS Kidney Care Home Dialysis LLC, CVS Kidney Care LLC, CVS Management Support LLC, CVS Manchester NH L.L.C., CVS Media Exchange LLC, CVS Michigan L.L.C., CVS Orlando FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS PA Distribution L.L.C., CVS PR Center Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc., CVS Pharmacy Overseas Online LLC, CVS RS Arizona L.L.C., CVS Rx Services Inc., CVS SC Distribution L.L.C., CVS Shaw Holdings Inc., CVS Shaw Holdings Inc.  Coram Clinical Trials Inc. 99.72%/Aetna Inc. .28%, CVS State Capital L.L.C., CVS TN Distribution L.L.C., CVS Transportation L.L.C., CVS Vero FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS-SHC Kidney Care Home Dialysis of Austin LLC, CVS-SHC Kidney Care Home Dialysis of Los Angeles LLC, CVS-SHC Kidney Care Home Dialysis of Philadelphia LLC, CVS-SHC Renal Holdings LLC, Campos Medical Pharmacy LLC, Canal Place LLC, Care Pharmaceutical Services LP, CareCenter Pharmacy L.L.C., Carefree Insurance Services Inc., Caremark Arizona Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Arizona Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark California Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Florida Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Florida Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Hawaii Mail Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Hawaii Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark IPA L.L.C., Caremark Illinois Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Illinois Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Irving Resource Center LLC, Caremark Kansas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark L.L.C., Caremark Logistics LLC, Caremark Louisiana Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Maryland Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Massachusetts Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Michigan Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Minnesota Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark New Jersey Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark North Carolina Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ohio Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Pennsylvania Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark PhC L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Redlands Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Repack LLC, Caremark Rx L.L.C., Caremark Tennessee Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ulysses Holding Corp., Caremark Washington Specialty Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Alabama Mail Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Health L.L.C., CaremarkPCS L.L.C., Central Rx Services LLC, Cofinity Inc., Compscript LLC, Connecticut CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Continental Life Insurance Company of Brentwood Tennessee, Continuing Care Rx LLC, Coram Alternate Site Services Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc.  CVS Pharmacy Inc. 75%/Aetna Life Insurance Company 25%, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Alabama, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater D.C., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater New York, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Indiana, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Massachusetts, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Mississippi, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Nevada, Coram Healthcare Corporation of North Texas, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Northern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Utah, Coram LLC, Coram Rx LLC, Coram Specialty Infusion, Coram Specialty Infusion Services L.L.C., Coventry Consumer Advantage Inc., Coventry Health Care National Accounts Inc., Coventry Health Care National Network Inc., Coventry Health Care of Illinois Inc., Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc., Coventry Health Care of Missouri Inc., Coventry Health Care of Nebraska Inc., Coventry Health Care of Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Care of West Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Plan of Florida Inc., Coventry Health and Life Insurance Company, Coventry HealthCare Management Corporation, Coventry Prescription Management Services Inc., Coventry Transplant Network Inc., Credentials Inc., D & R Pharmaceutical Services LLC, D.A.W. LLC, Delaware CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Delaware Physicians Care Incorporated, District of Columbia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., E.T.B. INC., Echo Merger Sub Inc., Eckerd Corporation of Florida Inc., Employee Assistance Services LLC, Enloe Drugs LLC, Enterprise Patient Safety Organization LLC, EntrustRX, Evergreen Pharmaceutical LLC, Evergreen Pharmaceutical of California LLC, Express Pharmacy Services of PA L.L.C., First Choice of the Midwest LLC, First Health Group Corp., First Health Life & Health Insurance Company, Florida Health Plan Administrators LLC, Garfield Beach CVS L.L.C., Generation Health L.L.C., Geneva Woods Health Services LLC, Geneva Woods LTC Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Management LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Alaska LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Washington LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Wyoming LLC, Geneva Woods Retail Pharmacy LLC, Georgia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., German Dobson CVS L.L.C., Goodhealth Worldwide (Asia) Limited, Goodhealth Worldwide (Global) Limited, Goodyear CVS L.L.C., Grand St. Paul CVS L.L.C., Grandview Pharmacy LLC, Group Dental Service Inc., Health Care Management Co. Ltd., Health Data & Management Solutions Inc., Health Re Inc., Health and Human Resource Center Inc., HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Highland Park CVS L.L.C., Holiday CVS L.L.C., Home Care Pharmacy LLC, Home Pharmacy Services LLC, Hook-SupeRx L.L.C., Horizon Behavioral Services LLC, Idaho CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., IlliniCare Health, Indian Health Organisation Private Limited, Innovation Health Holdings LLC, Innovation Health Insurance Company, Innovation Health Plan Inc., Interlock Pharmacy Systems LLC, Iowa CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., JHC Acquisition LLC, Kansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Kentucky CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., LCPS Acquisition LLC, Langsam Health Services LLC, Lo-Med Prescription Services LLC, Lobos Acquisition LLC, Longs Drug Stores, Longs Drug Stores California L.L.C., Louisiana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., MHHP Acquisition Company LLC, MHNet Specialty Services LLC, MHNet of Florida Inc., Main Street Pharmacy L.L.C., Managed Care Coordinators Inc., Managed Healthcare LLC, Martin Health Services LLC, Maryland CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Med World Acquisition Corp., Medical Arts Health Care LLC, Medical Examinations of New York P.C., Melville Realty Company Inc., MemberHealth LLC, Mental Health Associates Inc., Mental Health Network of New York IPA Inc., Meritain Health Inc., Merwin Long Term Care LLC, Minor Health Enterprise Co Ltd., MinuteClinic, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Alabama L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arizona LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arkansas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Colorado LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Florida LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Georgia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Hawaii L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Illinois LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Kentucky L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Louisiana L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maine L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maryland LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Massachusetts LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Nebraska L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Hampshire L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Mexico L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Ohio LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oklahoma LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oregon LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Pennsylvania LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Rhode Island LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of South Carolina L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Texas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Utah L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Virginia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Washington LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Wisconsin L.L.C., MinuteClinic L.L.C., MinuteClinic Online Diagnostic Services LLC, MinuteClinic Physician Practice of Texas, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services LLC, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services of Texas Association, Mississippi CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Missouri CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Montana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NCS Healthcare of Illinois LLC, NCS Healthcare of Iowa LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kansas LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kentucky LLC, NCS Healthcare of Montana LLC, NCS Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, NCS Healthcare of Ohio LLC, NCS Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, NCS Healthcare of Tennessee LLC, NCS Healthcare of Wisconsin LLC, NIV Acquisition LLC, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Nebraska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NeighborCare Pharmacy Services LLC, NeighborCare of Indiana LLC, NeighborCare of Virginia LLC, New Jersey CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Niagara Re Inc., North Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., North Shore Pharmacy Services LLC, NovoLogix LLC, OCR Services LLC, Ocean Acquisition Sub L.L.C., Ohio CVS Stores L.L.C., Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Omnicare, Omnicare Indiana Partnership Holding Company LLC, Omnicare LLC, Omnicare LLC  Aetna Inc 0.28%/CVS Cabot Holdings Inc. 49.86%/CVS Shaw Holdings Inc. 49.86%, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania West LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of the Great Plains Holding LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy and Supply Services LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of Tennessee LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of the Midwest LLC, Omnicare Property Management LLC, Omnicare of Nebraska LLC, Omnicare of Nevada LLC, Omnicare of New York LLC, Oregon CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., PE Holdings LLC, PHPSNE Parent Corporation, PP Acquisition Company LLC, PRN Pharmaceutical Services LP, PT Aetna Management Consulting, Pamplona Saude e Beleza LTDA, Part D Holding Company L.L.C., PayFlex Systems USA Inc., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Performax Inc., Pharmacy Associates of Glenn Falls LLC, Pharmacy Consultants LLC, Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, Precision Benefit Services Inc., Prime Net Inc., ProCare Pharmacy Direct L.L.C., ProCare Pharmacy L.L.C., Prodigy Health Group Inc., Professional Risk Management Inc., Puerto Rico CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Red Oak Sourcing LLC, Resources for Living LLC, Rhode Island CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Roeschens Healthcare LLC, RxAmerica, Schaller Anderson Medical Administrators Incorporated, Scrip World LLC, Sheffield Avenue CVS L.L.C., Shore Pharmaceutical Providers LLC, Silverscript Insurance Company, Soma Intimates, South Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., South Wabash CVS L.L.C., Specialized Pharmacy Services LLC, Stadtlander Drug Company, Stadtlander Pharmacy, Sterling Healthcare Services LLC, Superior Care Pharmacy LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, T2 Medical Inc., TCPI Acquisition LLC, TargetPharmacy, Tennessee CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Company, Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Texas Health + Aetna Health Plan Inc., The Vasquez Group Inc., Thomas Phoenix CVS L.L.C., Three Forks Apothecary LLC, U.S Healthcare Holdings LLC, U.S. Healthcare Properties Inc., UAC Holding Inc., UC Acquisition LLC, UNI-Care Health Services of Maine LLC, Universal American - Medicare Part D Business, Utah CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., VAPS Acquisition Company LLC, Value Health Care Services LLC, Vermont CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virtual Home Healthcare LLC, Warm Springs Road CVS L.L.C., Washington CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Washington Lamb CVS L.L.C., Weber Medical Systems LLC, Wellpartner LLC, West Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Westhaven Services Co LLC, Williamson Drug Company LLC, Wisconsin CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Woodward Detroit CVS L.L.C., Work and Family Benefits Inc., ZS Acquisition Company LLC, Zinc Health Services LLC, Zinc Health Ventures LLC, bSwift LLC, and iTriage LLC.

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EnerSys provides various stored energy solutions for industrial applications worldwide. It operates in three segments: Energy Systems, Motive Power, and Specialty. The company offers uninterruptible power systems applications for computer and computer-controlled systems, as well as telecommunications systems; switchgear and electrical control systems used in industrial facilities and electric utilities, large-scale energy storage, and energy pipelines; integrated power solutions and services to broadband, telecom, renewable, and industrial customers; and thermally managed cabinets and enclosures for electronic equipment and batteries. It also provides motive power products that are used to provide power for electric industrial forklifts used in manufacturing, warehousing, and other material handling applications. In addition, the company offers mining equipment, diesel locomotive starting, and other rail equipment. Further, it provides specialty batteries for starting, lighting, and ignition applications in transportation; and energy solutions for satellites, military aircraft, submarines, ships, and other tactical vehicles, as well as medical and security systems. Additionally, the company offers battery chargers, power equipment, battery accessories, and outdoor cabinet enclosures, as well as related after-market and customer-support services for industrial batteries. The company sells its products through a network of distributors, independent representatives, and internal sales forces. The company was formerly known as Yuasa, Inc. and changed its name to EnerSys in January 2001. EnerSys was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG provides integrated telecommunication services to private and business customers in Germany. It offers mobile and stationery voice and data services; very high data rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) internet services; fiber-to-the-home lines; broadband services, consisting of VDSL, cable, fiber, and fixed mobile substitution services; and machine to machine communication and managed connectivity services. The company also distributes various terminal devices, such as mobile phones; and offers digital products and services in the fields of Internet of Things, as well as O2 Tv, O2 cloud, and O2 Select & Stream. In addition, it provides access to infrastructure and services for its wholesale partners. The company provides its products and services through a network of independently operated franchise and premium partner shops, and online and telesales channels, as well as indirect selling channels, such as partnerships and co-operations with retailers. It markets its products and services under the O2, Blau, AY YILDIZ, Ortel Mobile, Telefonica, and Geeny brand names. As of December 31, 2021, Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG served approximately 45.7 million mobile accesses and 2.3 million fixed-line customers. The company was formerly known as Telefonica Germany Verwaltungs GmbH and changed its name to Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG in September 2012. The company is based in Munich, Germany. Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG is a subsidiary of Telefonica Germany Holdings Limited.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, a pharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes generic medicines, specialty medicines, and biopharmaceutical products in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers sterile products, hormones, high-potency drugs, and cytotoxic substances in various dosage forms, including tablets, capsules, injectables, inhalants, liquids, transdermal patches, ointments, and creams. It also develops, manufactures, and sells active pharmaceutical ingredients. In addition, it focuses on the central nervous system, pain, respiratory, and oncology areas. Its products in the central nervous system include Copaxone for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis; AJOVY for the preventive treatment of migraine; and AUSTEDO for the treatment of tardive dyskinesia and chorea associated with Huntington disease. The company's products in the respiratory market comprise ProAir, QVAR, ProAir Digihaler, AirDuo Digihaler, and ArmonAir Digihaler, BRALTUS, CINQAIR/CINQAERO, DuoResp Spiromax, and AirDuo RespiClick/ArmonAir RespiClick for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Its products in the oncology market include Bendeka, Treanda, Granix, Trisenox, Lonquex, and Tevagrastim/Ratiograstim. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited has a collaboration MedinCell for the development and commercialization of multiple long-acting injectable products, a risperidone suspension for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. The company was founded in 1901 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
The following companies are subsidiares of UnitedHealth Group: 1070715 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1st Avenue Pharmacy Inc., 310 Canyon Medical LLC, 4C MSO LLC, 4C Medical Group PLC, 5995 Minnetonka LLC, ABCO International Holdings LLC, ACN Group IPA of New York Inc., ACN Group of California Inc., AHN Accountable Care Organization LLC, AHN Central Services LLC, AHN Target Holdings LLC, AMIL International S.a.r.l., APS  Assistencia Personalizada a Saude Ltda., ASC Holdings of New Jersey LLC, ASC Network LLC, ASC Operators-East Bay LLC, ASC Operators-San Francisco LLC, ASC Operators-San Luis Obispo LLC, ASC Operators-Santa Rosa LLC, ASC Operators-South Bay LLC, ASV-HOPCo-SCA Cornerstone LLC, ASV-HOPCo-SCA Florida LLC, AbleTo Behavioral Health Services P.C., AbleTo Inc., Accurate Rx Pharmacy Consulting LLC, Administradora Clinica La Colina S.A.S., Administradora Country S.A.S., Administradora Medica Centromed S.A., Advanced Surgery Center of Clifton LLC, Advanced Surgical Center LLC, Advanced Surgical Hospital LLC, Advocate Condell Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Southwest Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.C., Advocate-SCA Partners LLC, Aliansalud Entidad Promotora de Salud S.A., All Savers Insurance Company, All Savers Life Insurance Company of California, Alliance Surgical Center LLC, Allina Health Heart and Vascular Surgery Center LLC, Allina Health Surgery Center-Brooklyn Park LLC, Aloha Surgical Center LLC, Ambient Healthcare Inc., Ambient Holdings Inc., AmeriChoice, AmeriChoice Corporation, AmeriChoice of New Jersey Inc., American Health Network of Indiana Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Indiana II LLC, American Health Network of Indiana LLC, American Health Network of Kentucky LLC, American Health Network of Ohio Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Ohio II LLC, American Health Network of Ohio LLC, American Physicians Inc., Amico Saude Ltda., Amil, Amil Assistencia Medica Internacional S.A., Angiografia e Hemodinamica Madre Theodora Ltda., Anne Arundel-SCA Holdings LLC, Anne Arundel-SCA Surgicenter LLC, Antelope Valley Surgery Center L.P., Analisis Clinicos ML S.A.C., Apothecary Holdings Inc., AppleCare Medical Management LLC, Aquitania Chilean Holding SpA, Arcadia JV Holdings LLC, Arcadia Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., ArchWell Health LLC, ArchWell Health MSO LLC, ArchWell Health Professional Services Holding Co., ArchWell Health Professional Services of Alabama LLC, ArchWell Health Professional Services of North Carolina P.C., ArchWell Health Professional Services of Oklahoma LLC, Archwell Health Professional Services of Arizona LLC, Archwell Health Professional Services of Nebraska LLC, Arise Physician Group, Arizona Physicians IPA Inc., Arlington Surgery Center LLC, Aspectus Inc., Associacao Lusiadas Knowledge Center  Health Education and Research, Audax Health Solutions LLC, Aurora Hospitalist P.C., Austin Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., Avella Specialty Pharmacy, Aventura Medical Tower Surgery Center LLC, Avery Parent Holdings Inc., Aveta Inc., AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings LLC, AxelaCare LLC, B.R.A.S.S. Partnership in Commendam, BOSC Holdings LLC, BSC Holdings LLC, Ball Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Banmedica Colombia S.A.S., Banmedica Internacional SpA, Banmedica S.A., Barranca Surgery Center LLC, Beach Surgical Holdings II LLC, Beach Surgical Holdings III LLC, Beach Surgical Holdings LLC, Beaver Medical Group P.C., Bedford Physicians Risk Retention Group Inc., Behavioral Healthcare Options Inc., Beltway Surgery Centers L.L.C., Benefit Administration for the Self Employed L.L.C., Benefitter Insurance Solutions Inc., Bergan Mercy Surgery Center LLC, Bergen-Passaic Cataract Laser and Surgery Center LLC, Bessler MD PLLC, Bind Benefits Inc., Bind LH Holdings Inc., Bind Re Inc., Birmingham Outpatient Surgery Center Ltd., Birmingham Outpatient Surgical Center LLC, Bloomfield ASC LLC, Blue Ridge Day Surgery Center L.P., Blue Ridge GP LLC, Blue Ridge Properties LLC, Boca Raton Outpatient Surgery & Laser Center LTD., Bordeaux Barbados Holdings I SRL, Bordeaux Barbados Holdings II SRL, Bordeaux Barbados Holdings III S.r.l., Bordeaux Holding SpA, Bordeaux International Holdings Inc., Bordeaux UK Holdings I Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings II Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings III Limited, Bosque Medical Center Ltda., Brandon Ambulatory Surgery Center LC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 102 LLC, BriovaRx of Florida Inc., BriovaRx of Maine Inc., BriovaRx of Massachusetts LLC, CCEC Anesthesia Management LLC, CDC Holdings Colombia S.A.S., CLISA  Clinica de Santo Antonio S.A., CMO  Centro Medico de Oftalmologia S/S Ltda., CMS  Central de Manipulacao e Servicos Farmaceuticos Ltda., COI  Clinicas Oncologicas Integradas S.A., Cabin Enterprises LLC, Cabin Holdings LLC, California Medical Group Insurance Company Risk Retention Group, Camp Hill Ambulatory Centers, Camp Hill-SCA Centers LLC, Capital City Medical Group L.L.C., Cardinal Holding Company LLC, Care Improvement Plus Group Management LLC, Care Improvement Plus South Central Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus Wisconsin Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus of Texas Insurance Company, Care Logistics LLC, CareMount Dental Member LLC, CareMount Health Solutions ACO LLC, CareMount Health Solutions Employer LLC, CareMount Health Solutions LLC, CareMount Holding LLC, CareMount Medical Foundation Inc., CareMount Value Partners IPA LLC, Carr PLLC, Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha Ltda., Castle Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Castle Rock SurgiCenter LLC, Catalyst360 LLC, Catamaran 2 Unlimited Company, Catamaran Finance Ireland Unlimited Company, Catamaran S.a.r.l., Cedar Park JV Partners LLC, Cedar Park Surgery Center LLC, Cemed Care  Empresa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Center for Quality Improvement LLC, Center for Restorative Surgery at Maple Grove LLC, Center for Surgery of North Coast L.P., Central Indiana Care Organization LLC, Central Ohio Care Organization LLC, CentriHealth Corporation, CentrifyHealth LLC, Centro Medico Hospitalar Pitangueiras Ltda., Centro Odontologico Americano S.A.C., Centro de Entrenamiento Capacitacion en Reanimacion y Prevencion Limitada, Centro de Servicios Compartidos Banmedica SpA, Centromed Quilpue S.A., Centros Medicos y Dentales Multimed Ltda., Centura-SCA Holdings LLC, Centurion Casualty Company, Channel Islands Surgicenter L.P., Channel Islands Surgicenter Properties LLC, Charleston Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Charleston Surgery Properties LLC, Charlotte Surgery Center LLC, Charlotte Surgery Properties LTD., Charlotte-SC LLC, Chatham Orthopaedic ASC LLC, Childrens Surgery Center LLC, Citrus Regional Surgery Center L.P., Claims Management Systems Inc., Cleburne Surgical Center LLC, Clinical Partners of Colorado Springs LLC, Clinton Partners LLC, Clinica Alameda SpA, Clinica Bio Bio SpA, Clinica Ciudad del Mar S.A., Clinica Davila y Servicios Medicos S.p.A., Clinica Iquique S.A., Clinica Medico Cirurgica de Santa Tecla S.A., Clinica Portoazul S.A., Clinica San Felipe S.A., Clinica Santa Maria S.p.A., Clinica Sanchez Ferrer S.A., Clinica Vespucio S.A., Clinica del Country S.A.S., Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare Inc., Coalition for Advanced Pharmacy Services Inc., Cobranzas Banmedica SpA, Cogent Healthcare IPA of New York Inc., Cogent Healthcare Inc., Cogent Healthcare Management of New York Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Arizona P.C., Cogent Healthcare of California Prof. Corp., Cogent Healthcare of Georgia P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Illinois LLC, Cogent Healthcare of Iowa P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Jackson MS LLC, Cogent Healthcare of Jacksonville LLC, Cogent Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Missouri Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Montana P.C., Cogent Healthcare of New Jersey P.C., Cogent Healthcare of North Carolina P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Oregon P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Pensacola L.L.C., Cogent Healthcare of Tennessee P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Washington P.C., Cogent Medical Care P.C., Cogent Patient Safety Organization Inc., Cogent/Endion Medical Care of New York P.C., Collaborative Care Holdings LLC, Collaborative Care Services Inc., Collaborative Realty LLC, Colmedica Medicina Prepagada S.A., Colonial Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Colorado Innovative Physician Solutions Inc., Colorado Springs Surgery Center Ltd., Comfort Care Transportation LLC, Comprehensive Hospital Physicians of Florida Inc., ConnectYourCare Inc., ConnectYourCare LLC, Connecticut Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Connecticut Surgery Properties LLC, Connecticut Surgical Center LLC, Consorcio Regenero S.A., Constructora Inmobiliaria Magapoq S.A., Consumer Wellness Solutions Inc., Continuum Physicians Group Inc., Continuum Physicians Group of Washington PLLC, Cornell Surgicenter LLC, Cornerstone Surgery Center LLC, Cornerstone Surgicare LLC, Corpus Christi Endoscopy Center L.L.P., Country Scan Ltda., Critical Care Physician of New York P.C., Critical Care Physicians of Illinois LLC, Critical Care Physicians of New Jersey PC, Critical Care Physicians of Pennsylvania P.C., Cross Timbers Surgery Center LLC, Cypress Care Inc., DBP Services of New York IPA Inc., DSP Flint Real Estate LLC, DSP-Building C LLC, DTC Surgery Center LLC, DWIC of Tampa Bay Inc., Dallas Inpatient Specialist PLLC, Danbury Surgical Center L.P., Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company LLC, Definity Health, Dental Benefit Providers Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of California Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois Inc., Denton Endoscopy Surgery Center LLC, Denton Surgery Center LLC, Derry Surgical Center LLC, Diagnostico Ecotomografico Centromed Ltda., Diasnostico por Imagenes Centromed Ltda., Digestive Disease Center L.P., Dilab Medicina Nuclear Ltda., Diplomat Blocker LLC, Diplomat Corporate Properties LLC, Diplomat Pharmacy, Diplomat Pharmacy Inc., Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy Great Lakes Distribution Center LLC, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy of Chicago LLC, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy of Ft. Lauderdale LLC, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy of Los Angeles County LLC, Distance Learning Network Inc., Divisadero Holdings LLC, DocASAP Inc., DocASAP India Technologies Private Limited, DocASAP US LLC, Doctor + S.A.C., Dry Creek Surgery Center LLC, Dublin Surgery Center LLC, Duluth Surgical Suites LLC, Durable Medical Equipment Inc., E Street Endoscopy LLC, EM Orange Tree LLC, EP Campus I LLC, EPIC Health Plan, EPIC Management Services LLC, East Bay Endoscopy Center L.P., East Brunswick Surgery Center LLC, Echo Locum Tenens Inc., Electronic Network Systems Inc., Elual Participacoes S.A., Emerald Coast Surgery Center L.P., Emisar Pharma Services LLC, Emmaus Holdings LLC, Emmaus Surgical Center LLC, Empire Physician Management Company LLC, Empremedica S. A., Endion Hospitalist North P.C., Endion Hospitalist of Western New York P.C., Endion Medical Healthcare P.C., Endion Medical Services P.C., Endoscopy Center Affiliates Inc., Enterprise Life Insurance Company, Equian, Equian LLC, Equian Parent Corp., Esho  Empresa de Servicos Hospitalares S.A., Everett MSO Inc., Excelsior Insurance Brokerage Inc., Executive Health Resources Inc., Executive Surgery Center L.L.C., Eye Clinic Oftalmologia Clinico Cirurgica e Diagnostico Ltda., Eye Specialists Surgery Centers LLC, FMG Holdings LLC, Family Health Care Services, Family Home Hospice Inc., Ferrell Physician Services P.C., Fideicomiso Clinica Barranquilla Portoazul FA-517, First Coast Orthopedic Center LLC, First Family Insurance LLC, Florence Surgery Center L.P., For Health Inc., For Health of Arizona Inc., Fort Sutter Medical Building a California Limited Partnership, Fort Worth Endoscopy Centers LLC, Fortified Provider Network Inc., Foundation Surgery Affiliate General of Huntingdon Valley LLC, Foundation Surgery Affiliate of Huntingdon Valley L.P., Franklin Surgical Center LLC, Freedom Life Insurance Company of America, Freeway Surgicenter of Houston LLC, Frontier Medex Tanzania Limited, FrontierMEDEX Inc., FrontierMEDEX Kenya Limited, FrontierMEDEX US Inc., Fundacion Banmedica, GLBESC LLC, GRANTS PASS SURGERY CENTER LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center LLC, Gainesville Surgery Center L.P., Gainesville Surgery Properties LLC, Genoa, Genoa Healthcare Inc., Genoa QoL Wholesale LLC, Genoa Technology Canada Inc., Genoa Technology Inc., Genoa Telepsychiatry Inc., Genoa of Arkansas LLC, Gladiolus Surgery Center L.L.C., Glenwood Surgical Center L.P., Glenwood-SC Inc., Global One Ventures LLC, Golden Gate Endoscopy Center LLC, Golden Outlook Inc., Golden Rule Financial Corporation, Golden Rule Insurance Company, Golden Triangle Surgicenter L.P., Grandview Surgery Center LTD., Greater New Haven ASC LLC, Greensboro Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Greenville Surgery Center LLC, Greenway Surgical Suites LLC, Grossmont Surgery Center L.P., Grove Place Surgery Center L.L.C., H&W Indemnity SPC Ltd., H.I. Investments Holding Company LLC, HCP ACO California LLC, HCentive Technology India Private Limited, HFHS-SCA Holdings LLC, HMG Holding Corporation, HMG Holdings LLC, HMP of Baltimore  USH P.C., Harken Health Insurance Company, Harrison Endo Surgical Center LLC, Hawthorn Place Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Hays JV Partners LLC, Hays Surgery Center LLC, Health Care-ONE Insurance Agency Inc., Health Inventures Employment Solutions LLC, Health Inventures LLC, Health Plan of Nevada Inc., HealthCare Partners ASC-LB LLC, HealthCare Partners Affiliates Medical Group, HealthCare Partners Management Services California LLC, HealthCare Partners RE LLC, HealthEast Surgery Center-Maplewood LLC, HealthFirst IPA Inc., HealthMarkets Group Inc., HealthMarkets Inc., HealthMarkets Insurance Agency Inc., HealthMarkets LLC, HealthMarkets Services Inc., HealthSCOPE Holdings Inc., HealthScope Benefits Inc., Healthcare Solutions Inc., Healthplex America LLC, Healthplex Dental Services Inc., Healthplex I.P.A. Inc., Healthplex Inc., Healthplex Insurance Company, Healthplex of CT Inc., Healthplex of DC Inc., Healthplex of MD Inc., Healthplex of ME Inc., Healthplex of NC Inc., Healthplex of NJ Inc., Healthplex of TX Inc., Heartland Heart and Vascular LLC, Help Seguros de Vida S.A., Help Service S.A., Help SpA, Hemonefro  Hemodialise e Nefrologia Ltda, Highlands Ranch Healthcare LLC, Home Medical S.A., Honodav SpA, Hospice Inspiris Holdings Inc., Hospitais Associados de Pernambuco Ltda., Hospital Alvorada Taguatinga Ltda., Hospital Ana Costa S.A., Hospital Santa Helena S.A., Hospital de Clinicas de Jacarepagua Ltda., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of Broome County PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Binghamton P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Buffalo P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Newburgh P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Nyack P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Patchogue P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alabama  TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alabama  TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alaska  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alaska  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Goodyear Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Nogales Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Phoenix II Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Phoenix Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Sierra Vista Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Tucson II Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Tucson Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona  TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona  TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arkansas  TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arkansas  TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Buncombe County PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Apple Valley PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Bakersfield PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Camarillo PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Crescent City PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Fairfield PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Fremont PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Grass Valley PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Jackson PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Oceanside PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Oxnard PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Salinas PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - San Bernardino II PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - San Bernardino PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - San Leandro PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Sonoma PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Stockton II PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Stockton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Thousand Oaks PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Vacaville PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado - Brighton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado - Denver PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut - Manchester LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut - Rockville LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut - Wallingford LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of DC PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of DC  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of DC  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Delaware  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Delaware  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Ft. Lauderdale LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Jacksonville II LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Jacksonville LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Palm Coast LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Fredericksburg LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - Atlanta PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - East Point PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - Lavonia PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - Savannah PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Hawaii - Kealakekua Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Hawaii  TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Hawaii  TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Idaho - Nampa PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Idaho  TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Idaho  TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Downers Grove LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Elmhurst LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Rockford LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Winfield LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana - Clinton LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana - Mishawaka LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana - Terre Haute LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa - Cedar Rapids PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa - Mason City PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa  TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa  TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas - Topeka LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas - 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Dowagiac PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Escanaba PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Grand Blanc PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Grayling PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Kalamazoo PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Plainwell PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Port Huron PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Saginaw PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Tawas City PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan  TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan  TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Minnesota  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Minnesota  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Mississippi LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Mississippi  TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Mississippi  TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri - Bridgeton Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri - Richmond Heights Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri  TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri  TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Billings PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Butte PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Miles City PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Missoula PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Multiple Practice Sites LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nebraska  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nebraska  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Henderson Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Henderson II Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Las Vegas Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Las Vegas II Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada  TCG Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada  TCS Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Hampshire  TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Hampshire  TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Jersey - 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Casper LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Wyoming  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Wyoming  TCS LLC, Hospitalists Management Group LLC, Humedica, Humedica Inc., Hygeia Corporation, Hygeia Corporation Ontario, IEC Holdings LLC, IHD Holdings LLC, INOV8 Surgical at Memorial City LLC, INSPIRIS of Texas Physician Group, Illinois Independent Care Network LLC, Imagen Technologies Inc., Impel Consulting Experts L.L.C., Impel Management Services L.L.C., InTouch Pharmacy LLC, Indiana Care Organization LLC, Indiana Endoscopy Centers LLC, Inland Surgery Center L.P., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3001 S.A., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3600 Ltda., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo S.A., Inmobiliaria Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Inmobiliaria Vinamed Ltda., Inmobiliaria e Inversiones Alameda S.A., Inpatient Services P.C., Inpatient Specialists of California P.C., Inspiris, Inspiris Inc., Instituto Radium de Cammpinas Ltda, Inter-Hospital Physicians Association Inc., International Healthcare Services Inc., Inversiones Clinicas Santa Maria SpA, Ironman Holdco Inc., Ironman Intermediate Holdco LLC, Isapre Banmedica S.A., JPM Healthcare LLC, Johnston Surgicare L.P., Joliet Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Jordan Ridge Family Medicine LLC, Joyable Inc., Kansal Inc. A Professional Corporation, Knox Diagnostic Imaging Center LLC, Kokomo Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, LDI Holding Company LLC, LDI Management Services LLC, LGH-A/Golf ASTC L.L.C., LHC Group, La Esperanza del Peru S.A., Laboratorio ROE S.A., Laboratorios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., Landmark Group Holdings LLC, Landmark Health Holdings LLC, Landmark Health LLC, Landmark Health NY IPA LLC, Landmark Health NY PO LLC, Landmark Health Technologies Private Limited, Landmark Health of California LLC, Landmark Health of Massachusetts LLC, Landmark Health of North Carolina LLC, Landmark Health of Oregon LLC, Landmark Health of Pennsylvania LLC, Landmark Health of Washington LLC, Landmark India LLC, Landmark Intermediate Holdings LLC, Landmark MSO LLC, Landmark Medical of Idaho PC, Landmark Medical of Massachusetts PLLC, Landmark Medical of Tennessee PC, Landmark Primary Care LLC, Laser Acquisition Holdings III LLC, Leehar Distributors LLC, Lemhi Ventures Fund I LP, Lemhi Ventures Fund II LP, Level2 Medical Services P.C. Alaska, Lexington Surgery Center Ltd., Liberty Anesthesia Services LLC, LifePrint Health Inc., LifeWell. Ltd. Co., Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization LLC, Limestone Medical Center LLC, Litomedica S.A., Logan Surgical Suites LLC, Lotten-Eyes Oftalmologia Clinica e Cirurgica Ltda., Louisville S.C. Ltd., Louisville-SC Properties Inc., Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook Inc., Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook L.P., Lusiadas - Parcerias Cascais S.A., Lusiadas A.C.E., Lusiadas Algarve S.A., Lusiadas S.A., Lusiadas SGPS S.A., Lutheran Campus ASC LLC, MAMSI Life and Health Insurance Company, MCNA Health Care Holdings LLC, MCNA Insurance Company, MCNA Systems Corp., MD Ops Inc., MD-Individual Practice Association Inc., ME AHS UC LLC, MGH/SCA LLC, MHC Real Estate Holdings LLC, MIAMI SURGERY CENTER LLC, MSLA Management LLC, Main Line Spine Surgery Center LLC, Managed Care of North America Inc., Managed Physical Network Inc., Mansfield Endoscopy Center LLC, March Holdings Inc., March Vision Care IPA Inc., March Vision Care Inc., March Vision Care of Texas Inc., Marin Health Ventures LLC, Marin Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Marin Surgery Holdings Inc., Marlin Holding Company LLC, Maryland Ambulatory Centers LLC, Maryland-SCA Centers LLC, Massachusetts Assurance Company Ltd. PIC, Massachusetts Avenue Surgery Center LLC, McKenzie Surgery Center L.P., MedExpress Primary Care West Virginia Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care Alabama LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Inc. - Ohio, MedExpress Urgent Care Maine Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care New Hampshire Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach LLC, MedSynergies, MedSynergies LLC, Medical Clinic of North Texas PLLC, Medical Hilfe S.A., Medical Support Los Angeles Inc., Medical Surgical Centers of America Inc., Medical Transportation Services LLC, Melbourne Surgery Center LLC, Memorial City Holdings LLC, Memorial City Partners LLC, Memorial Houston Surgery Center LLC, MemorialCare Surgical Center at Orange Coast LLC, MemorialCare Surgical Center at Saddleback LLC, Mesquite Liberty LLC, Metro I Stone Management Ltd., Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee, Midlands Orthopaedics Surgery Center LLC, Midwest Center for Day Surgery LLC, Mile High SurgiCenter LLC, Mississippi Medical Plaza L.C., Mobile Medical Services of New Jersey PC, Mobile-SC LTD., Modality Accountable Care Organisation Limited, Moen M.D. P.C., Mohawk Surgery Center LLC, Monarch Management Services Inc., Montgomery Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Monument Health LLC, Moore Orthopaedic Clinic Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Morris County Surgical Center LLC, Mt. Pleasant Surgery Center L.P., Multiangio Ltda., Murrells Inlet ASC LLC, Muskogee Surgical Investors LLC, Mustang Razorback Holdings Inc., My Wellness Solutions LLC, NAMM Holdings Inc., NPN IPA Washington PLLC, NSC Channel Islands LLC, NSC Greensboro LLC, NSC Greensboro West LLC, NSC Lancaster LLC, NSC Seattle Inc., NSC Upland LLC, Naperville Surgical Centre LLC, National Foundation Life Insurance Company, National Pacific Dental Inc., National Surgery Centers LLC, Navigator Health Inc., Nebraska Spine Hospital LLC, Neighborhood Health Partnership Inc., Netwerkes LLC, Nevada Pacific Dental, New Orleans Regional Physician Hospital Organization L.L.C., New West Physicians Inc., New York Proton Management LLC, Newton Holdings LLC, Niagara Hospitalist P.C., Nomad Buyer Inc., North American Medical Management California Inc., North Coast Surgery Center Ltd. a California Limited Partnership, North Dallas Surgical Center LLC, North Kitsap Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, North Puget Sound Oncology Equipment Leasing Company LLC, Northern Nevada Health Network Inc., Northern Rockies Surgery Center L.P., Northern Rockies Surgicenter Inc., Northern Utah Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Hills JV Partners LLC, Northwest Medical Group Alliance LLC, Northwest Spine and Laser Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Surgicare LLC, Northwest Surgicare Ltd. an Illinois Limited Partnership, OC Cardiology Practice Partners LLC, OCC MSO LLC, OSB  Tecnologia e Servicos de Suporte Lda., Omesa SpA, OmniClaim LLC, Oncocare S.A.C., One World Surgery, Ophthalmology Surgery Center of Dallas LLC, Optimum Choice Inc., Optum Bank Inc., Optum Biometrics Inc., Optum Care Inc., Optum Care Networks Inc., Optum Care Services Company, Optum Care of New York Management Inc., Optum Clinics Holdings Inc., Optum Clinics Intermediate Holdings Inc., Optum Compounding Services LLC, Optum Digital Health Holdings LLC, Optum Direct To Consumer Inc., Optum Financial Inc., Optum Frontier Therapies Holdings LLC, Optum Frontier Therapies II LLC, Optum Frontier Therapies LLC, Optum Genomics Inc., Optum Global Solutions Colombia S.A.S., Optum Global Solutions India Private Limited, Optum Global Solutions International B.V., Optum Global Solutions Philippines Inc., Optum Government Solutions Inc., Optum Growth Partners Holdings Inc., Optum Growth Partners LLC, Optum Health & Technology Holdings US Inc., Optum Health & Technology Hong Kong Limited, Optum Health & Technology India Private Limited, Optum Health & Technology Servicos do Brasil Ltda., Optum Health & Technology Singapore Pte. Ltd., Optum Health & Technology US LLC, Optum Health Plan of California, Optum Health Services Canada Ltd., Optum Health Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Optum Health Solutions UK Limited, Optum Health and Technology FZ-LLC, Optum Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services LLC, Optum Inc., Optum Infusion Services 100 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 101 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 103 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 200 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 201 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 202 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 203 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 204 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 205 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 206 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 207 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 208 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 209 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 301 LP, Optum Infusion Services 302 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 305 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 308 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 401 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 402 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 403 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 404 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 500 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 501 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 550 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 551 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 553 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 554 Inc., Optum Insurance of Ohio Inc., Optum Labs Inc., Optum Labs LLC, Optum Life Sciences Canada Inc., Optum Management Consulting Shanghai Co. Ltd., Optum Networks of New Jersey Inc., Optum Operations Ireland Unlimited Company, Optum Oregon MSO LLC, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas Inc., Optum Perks LLC, Optum Pharma Services Holdings Inc., Optum Pharmacy 601 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 700 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 701 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 702 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 704 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 705 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 706 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 707 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 800 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 803 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 805 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 806 Inc., Optum Public Sector Solutions Inc., Optum Rocket LLC, Optum SCA CS JV Holdings LLC, Optum Senior Services LLC, Optum Services Inc., Optum Services Ireland Limited, Optum Services Puerto Rico LLC, Optum Solutions UK Holdings Limited, Optum Technology LLC, Optum UK Solutions Group Limited, Optum Venture Global Partners II LP, Optum Venture Global Partners LP, Optum Venture Partners II LP, Optum Venture Partners III LP, Optum Venture Partners LP, Optum Washington Network LLC, Optum Women's and Children's Health LLC, Optum of New York Inc., Optum360 LLC, Optum360 Services Inc., Optum360 Solutions LLC, OptumCare ACO New Mexico LLC, OptumCare ACO West LLC, OptumCare Clinical Trials LLC, OptumCare Colorado ASC LLC, OptumCare Colorado LLC, OptumCare Colorado Springs LLC, OptumCare Endoscopy Center New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Florida CI LLC, OptumCare Florida LLC, OptumCare Holdings Colorado LLC, OptumCare Holdings LLC, OptumCare Management LLC, OptumCare New Mexico LLC, OptumCare New York IPA Inc., OptumCare Portland LLC, OptumCare South Florida LLC, OptumCare Specialty Practices LLC, OptumHealth Care Solutions LLC, OptumHealth Holdings LLC, OptumHealth International B.V., OptumInsight Holdings LLC, OptumInsight Inc., OptumInsight India Private Limited, OptumInsight Life Sciences Inc., OptumRx Administrative Services LLC, OptumRx Discount Card Services LLC, OptumRx Group Holdings Inc., OptumRx Health Solutions LLC, OptumRx Holdings I LLC, OptumRx Holdings LLC, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio LLC, OptumRx IPA III Inc., OptumRx Inc., OptumRx NY IPA Inc., OptumRx PBM of Illinois Inc., OptumRx PBM of Maryland LLC, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin LLC, OptumRx PD of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx Pharmacy Inc., OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada Inc., OptumRx of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumServe Technology Services Inc., Oregon Healthcare Resources LLC, Oregon Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Orlando Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., OrthoNet Holdings Inc., OrthoNet LLC, OrthoNet New York IPA Inc., OrthoNet West Inc., OrthoNet of the South Inc., OrthoWest MSO LLC, Orthology Inc., Orthopedic Center of Palm Beach County LLC, Orthopedic Surgery Center of Palm Beach County LLC, Orthopro Management LLC, Ovations Inc., Owensboro Ambulatory Surgical Facility Ltd., Oxford Benefit Management Inc., Oxford Health Insurance Inc., Oxford Health Plans CT Inc., Oxford Health Plans LLC, Oxford Health Plans NJ Inc., Oxford Health Plans NY Inc., P2P Link LLC, PCCCV Inc., PHC Subsidiary Holdings LLC, PHYSICIANS DAY SURGERY CENTER LLC, PMI Acquisition LLC, PMSI Holdings LLC, PMSI Settlement Solutions LLC, POMCO Inc., POMCO Network Inc., PPH Holdings LLC, PPH Management Company L.L.C., PPH-Columbia Inc., PPH-Gardendale Inc., PS Center LLC, PacifiCare Health Systems, PacifiCare Life Assurance Company, PacifiCare Life and Health Insurance Company, PacifiCare of Arizona Inc., PacifiCare of Colorado Inc., Pacific Cardiovascular Associates Medical Group Inc., Pacific Casualty Company Inc., Pacifico S.A. Entidad Prestadora de Salud, Panama City Surgery Center LLC, Park Hill Surgery Center LLC, Parkway Surgery Center LLC, Patient Care Associates L.L.C., PatientsLikeMe, Patrimonio Autonomo Nueva Clinica, Payment Resolution Services LLC, Peninsula Eye Surgery Center LLC, Penzo Enterprises LLC, Peoples Health, Peoples Health Inc., Perham Physical Therapy LTD, Perimeter Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., Pharmaceutical Technologies LLC, Physician Alliance of the Rockies LLC, Physicians Health Choice of Texas LLC, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland Inc., Physicians' Surgery Center of Downey LLC, Pinnacle III LLC, Plano de Saude Ana Costa Ltda., Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico Inc., Plus One Holdings Inc., Pocono Ambulatory Surgery Center Limited, Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes Multiestrategia, Polo Holdco LLC, Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Post-Acute Care Center for Research LLC, Practice Partners in Healthcare LLC, Preferred Care Network Inc., Preferred Care Network of Florida Inc., Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp., Preferred Care Partners Inc., Preferred Care Partners Medical Group Inc., PreferredOne, PreferredOne Administrative Services Inc., PreferredOne Insurance Company, Premier Choice ACO Inc., Premier Surgery Center of Louisville L.P., Premiere Medical Resources LLC, Presidio Surgery Center LLC, Prime Health Inc., PrimeCare Medical Network Inc., PrimeCare of Citrus Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Corona Inc., PrimeCare of Hemet Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Inland Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Moreno Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Redlands Inc., PrimeCare of Riverside Inc., PrimeCare of San Bernardino Inc., PrimeCare of Sun City Inc., PrimeCare of Temecula Inc., PrimeDoc St. Francis P.C., PrimeDoc of Richmond P.C., ProHEALTH Care Associates L.L.P., ProHEALTH Care Associates of New Jersey LLP, ProHEALTH Medical Management LLC, ProHealth Physicians ACO LLC, ProHealth Physicians Inc., ProHealth Proton Center Management LLC, ProHealth/CareMount Dental Management LLC, Procura Management Inc., Professional Coverage Services PLLC, Progressive Enterprises Holdings Inc., Progressive Medical LLC, Promotora Country S.A., Pronounced Health Solutions Inc., Prosemedic S.A.C., Prospero Benefits Management LLC, Prospero Care Management LLC, Prospero Management Services LLC, Providence & SCA Development LLC, Providence & SCA Off-Campus Holdings LLC, Providence & SCA On-Campus Holdings LLC, Providence & SCA Outreach Markets Holdings LLC, Pulse Platform LLC, QoL Acquisition Holdings Corp., R Cubed Inc., RABessler M.D. P.C., ROC Surgery LLC, ROCS Holdings LLC, RX Ricardo Campos Ltda., Rally Health Inc., ReMedics LLC, Real Appeal Inc., Redding Surgery Center LLC, Redlands Ambulatory Surgery Center, Redlands-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., Reliant MSO LLC, Reliant Medical Group Inc., Reliant Medical Group The Endoscopy Center LLC, Research Surgical Center LLC, Resonancia Magnetica de Colombia Ltda., Resonancia Magnetica del Country S.A., RightCare Solutions Inc., River Valley ASC LLC, Riverside Corporate Wellness LLC, Riverside Electronic Healthcare Resources Inc., Riverside Medical Management LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Meadowlands LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Newark LLC, Robert A. Bessler MD PLLC, Rockville Eye Surgery Center LLC, Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization Incorporated, Rush Oak Brook Surgery Center LLC, SC Affiliates LLC, SCA AHN JV Holdings LLC, SCA Alaska Surgery Center inc., SCA Athens LLC, SCA Austin Holdings LLC, SCA Austin Medical Center Holdings LLC, SCA Aventura Holdings LLC, SCA BOSC Holdings LLC, SCA Bloomfield Holdings LLC, SCA Cedar Park Holdings LLC, SCA Clifton LLC, SCA Colorado Springs Holdings LLC, SCA Community Service Foundation, SCA Cottonwood Holdings LLC, SCA Danbury Surgical Center LLC, SCA Denver Holdings LLC, SCA Development LLC, SCA Duluth Holdings LLC, SCA Duncanville Holdings LLC, SCA Duncanville MSO LLC, SCA ESSC Holdings LLC, SCA Englewood Holdings LLC, SCA Global One Holdings LLC, SCA Greenway Holdings LLC, SCA Grove Creek Holdings LLC, SCA Guilford Holdings LLC, SCA Hays Holdings LLC, SCA Health Value Enterprise LLC, SCA Heartland Holdings LLC, SCA High Point Holdings LLC, SCA HoldCo Inc., SCA Holding Company Inc., SCA Holdings Inc., SCA IEC Holdings LLC, SCA Indiana Holdings LLC, SCA Lutheran Holdings LLC, SCA Maple Grove Holdings LLC, SCA Mohawk Holdings LLC, SCA Murrells Inlet LLC, SCA Northern Utah Holdings LLC, SCA Northwest Holdings LLC, SCA Outside New Jersey LLC, SCA Pacific Holdings Inc., SCA Pacific Surgery Holdings LLC, SCA Palisades Holdings LLC, SCA Pennsylvania Holdings LLC, SCA Pinnacle Holdings LLC, SCA Premier Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, SCA Providence Holdings LLC, SCA ROCS Holdings LLC, SCA Rockledge JV LLC, SCA Rush Oak Brook Holdings LLC, SCA SSSC Holdings LLC, SCA Sage Medical LLC, SCA Sage Medical MSO LLC, SCA San Diego Holdings LLC, SCA Skyway Holdings LLC, SCA South Ogden Holdings LLC, SCA Southwestern PA LLC, SCA Specialists of Florida LLC, SCA Specialty Holdings of Connecticut LLC, SCA Stonegate Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Holdings LLC, SCA Surgicare of Laguna Hills LLC, SCA Teammate Support Network, SCA West Health Holdings LLC, SCA Westgreen Holdings LLC, SCA Woodbury Holdings LLC, SCA eCode Solutions Private Limited, SCA of Clarksville Inc., SCA-Albuquerque Surgery Properties Inc., SCA-Alliance LLC, SCA-Anne Arundel LLC, SCA-Applecare Partners LLC, SCA-Bethesda LLC, SCA-Blue Ridge LLC, SCA-Bonita Springs LLC, SCA-Brandon LLC, SCA-Castle Rock LLC, SCA-Central Florida LLC, SCA-Charleston LLC, SCA-Chatham LLC, SCA-Chevy Chase LLC, SCA-Citrus Inc., SCA-Colonial Partners LLC, SCA-Colorado Springs LLC, SCA-Connecticut Partners LLC, SCA-DRY CREEK LLC, SCA-Davenport LLC, SCA-Denver LLC, SCA-Denver Physicians Holdings LLC, SCA-Derry LLC, SCA-Doral LLC, SCA-Downey LLC, SCA-Dublin LLC, SCA-Encinitas Inc., SCA-Eugene Inc., SCA-First Coast LLC, SCA-Florence LLC, SCA-Fort Collins Inc., SCA-Fort Walton Inc., SCA-Franklin LLC, SCA-Frederick LLC, SCA-Freeway Holdings LLC, SCA-Ft. Myers LLC, SCA-GRANTS PASS LLC, SCA-Gainesville LLC, SCA-Gladiolus LLC, SCA-Glenwood Holdings LLC, SCA-Grove Place LLC, SCA-Hagerstown LLC, SCA-Hamden LLC, SCA-Hilton Head LLC, SCA-Honolulu LLC, SCA-Houston Executive LLC, SCA-IT Holdings LLC, SCA-Illinois LLC, SCA-JPM Holdings LLC, SCA-Kissing Camels Holdings LLC, SCA-MC VBP Inc., SCA-Main Street LLC, SCA-Marina del Rey LLC, SCA-Mecklenburg Development Corp., SCA-Memorial City LLC, SCA-Memorial LLC, SCA-Merritt LLC, SCA-Midlands LLC, SCA-Midway Management LLC, SCA-Mobile LLC, SCA-Mokena LLC, SCA-Morris Avenue LLC, SCA-Morris County LLC, SCA-Mt. Pleasant LLC, SCA-Naperville LLC, SCA-Naples LLC, SCA-New Jersey LLC, SCA-Newport Beach LLC, SCA-Northeast Georgia Health LLC, SCA-PORTLAND LLC, SCA-Palm Beach LLC, SCA-Palm Beach MSO Holdings LLC, SCA-Panama City Holdings LLC, SCA-Paoli LLC, SCA-Phoenix LLC, SCA-Pocono LLC, SCA-Practice Partners Holdings LLC, SCA-River Valley LLC, SCA-Riverside LLC, SCA-Riverside Partners LLC, SCA-Rockville LLC, SCA-Sacred Heart Holdings LLC, SCA-San Diego Inc., SCA-San Luis Obispo LLC, SCA-Sand Lake LLC, SCA-Santa Rosa Inc., SCA-Somerset LLC, SCA-South Jersey LLC, SCA-Sparta LLC, SCA-Spartanburg Holdings LLC, SCA-St. Louis Holdings LLC, SCA-St. Louis LLC, SCA-St. Lucie LLC, SCA-SurgiCare LLC, SCA-Swiftpath LLC, SCA-VERTA LLC, SCA-VLR Holdings Company LLC, SCA-Wake Forest LLC, SCA-Western Connecticut LLC, SCA-Westover Hills LLC, SCA-Winchester LLC, SCA-Winter Park Inc., SCA-Woodlands Holdings LLC, SCAI Holdings LLC, SCLHS-SCA Holdings LLC, SCP Specialty Infusion LLC, SHC Atlanta LLC, SHC Austin Inc., SHC Hawthorn Inc., SHC Melbourne Inc., SJ East Campus ASC LLC, SRPS LLC, SSSC Holdings LLC, SVHS-SCA Florida JV LLC, Sacred Heart ASC LLC, Saden S.A., Sage Medical Prof. LLC, Salem JV Holdings LLC, Salem Surgery Center LLC, Salveo Specialty Pharmacy Inc., San Diego Endoscopy Center, San Diego Sports and Minimally Invasive Surgery Center LLC, San Francisco Endoscopy Center LLC, San Luis Obispo Surgery Center a California Limited Partnership, Sand Lake SurgiCenter LLC, Santa Barbara Endoscopy Center LLC, Santa Cruz Endoscopy Center LLC, Santa Helena Assistencia Medica S.A., Santa Rosa Surgery Center L.P., Santos Administracao e Participacoes S.A., Sanvello Health Holdings LLC, Sanvello Health Inc., Sanvello Health Limited, Scanner Centromed S.A., Seashore Surgical Institute L.L.C., Seisa Servicos Integrados de Saude Ltda., Senate Street Surgery Center LLC, Senior Benefits L.L.C., Serquinox Holdings LLC, Servicios Integrados de Salud Ltda., Servicios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., Servicios Medicos Bio Bio Ltda., Servicios Medicos Ciudad del Mar Ltda., Servicios Medicos Santa Maria Ltda., Servicios Medicos Vespucio Ltda., Servicios de Entrenamiento en Competencias Clinicas Ltda., Serviclinica Inmobiliaria S.A., Serviclinica S.A. Ex Los Leones La Calera, Servisalud Inmobiliaria S.A., Servisalud S.A. Ex Los Carrera Quilpue, Shark Holdings P.C., Sierra Dental Plan Inc., Sierra Health Services Inc, Sierra Health Services Inc., Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company Inc., Sierra Health-Care Options Inc., Sierra Home Medical Products Inc., Sierra Nevada Administrators Inc., Sistema de Administracion Hospitalaria S.A.C., Small Business Insurance Advisors Inc., Sobam  Centro Medico Hospitalar S.A., Sociedad de Inversiones Santa Maria SpA, Solstice Administration Services Inc., Solstice Administrators Inc., Solstice Administrators of Alabama Inc., Solstice Administrators of Arizona Inc., Solstice Administrators of Missouri Inc., Solstice Administrators of North Carolina Inc., Solstice Administrators of Texas Inc., Solstice Benefit Services Inc., Solstice Benefits Inc., Solstice Health Insurance Company, Solstice Healthplans Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Arizona Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Colorado Inc., Solstice Healthplans of New Jersey Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Ohio Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Tennessee Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Texas Inc., Solstice of Illinois Inc., Solstice of Minnesota Inc., Solstice of New York Inc., Solutran LLC, Somerset Outpatient Surgery L.L.C., Sound Inpatient Physicians Inc., Sound Inpatient Physicians Medical Group Inc., Sound Inpatient Physicians of Ohio LLC, Sound Inpatient Physicians of Texas I Inc., Sound Inpatient Physicians  Michigan PLLC, Sound Intensivists of Nevada RBessler M.D. PLLC, Sound Kenwood Hospitalists of Cincinnati Inc., Sound Kenwood Hospitalists of Cincinnati LLC, Sound Physicians Advisory Services Inc., Sound Physicians Alaska Hospitalist Group LLC, Sound Physicians Anesthesiology of Texas PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Arizona Inc., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Georgia P.C., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Illinois LLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Kansas LLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Kentucky PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Louisiana Inc., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Michigan PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Nevada Bessler PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of South Carolina LLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Southern California P.C., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Texas PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Washington PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of West Virginia PLLC, Sound Physicians Holdings LLC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of Arizona Inc., Sound Physicians Intensivists of Georgia PC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of South Carolina LLC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of Virginia LLC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of Washington PLLC, Sound Physicians Palliative Care of Maryland P.C., Sound Physicians Telemedicine Inc., Sound Physicians of Florida IV LLC, Sound Physicians of Georgia III P.C., Sound Physicians of Hawaii Inc., Sound Physicians of Idaho PLLC, Sound Physicians of Illinois LLC, Sound Physicians of Indiana LLC, Sound Physicians of Iowa PLLC, Sound Physicians of Kankakee Illinois LLC, Sound Physicians of Massachusetts II P.C., Sound Physicians of Massachusetts Inc., Sound Physicians of New Jersey LLC, Sound Physicians of New York PLLC, Sound Physicians of North Carolina PLLC, Sound Physicians of South Carolina LLC, Sound Physicians of Wyoming LLC, South Arlington Surgical Providers LLC, South County Surgical Center LLC, South Sound Inpatient Physicians PLLC, Southern California Medical Practice Concepts LLC, Southland Hospitalists P.C., Southwest Medical Associates Inc., Southwest Michigan Health Network Inc., Southwest Surgery Center LLC, Southwest Surgical Center LLC, Space Coast Surgical Center Ltd., Spartanburg Surgery Center LLC, Specialists in Urology Surgery Center LLC, Specialized Pharmaceuticals Inc., Specialty Benefits LLC, Specialty Billing Solutions LLC, Specialty Surgical Center LLC, Spectera Inc., Spectera of New York IPA Inc., Sports and Spinal Physical Therapy Inc., St. Cloud Outpatient Surgery Ltd. a Minnesota Limited Partnership, St. Cloud Surgical Center LLC, St. Louis Cardiovascular Institute LLC, St. Louis Specialty Surgical Center LLC, Stonegate JV Partners LLC, Stonegate Surgery Center L.P., Summer Street ASC LLC, SunSurgery LLC, Surgery Center Holding LLC, Surgery Center at Cherry Creek LLC, Surgery Center at Cottonwood LLC, Surgery Center at Grove Creek LLC, Surgery Center at Kissing Camels LLC, Surgery Center at South Ogden LLC, Surgery Center at St. Vincent LLC, Surgery Center of Boca Raton Inc., Surgery Center of Colorado Springs LLC, Surgery Center of Des Moines LLC, Surgery Center of Easton LLC, Surgery Center of Ellicott City Inc., Surgery Center of Fairfield County LLC, Surgery Center of Fort Collins LLC, Surgery Center of Lexington LLC, Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, Surgery Center of Maui LLC, Surgery Center of Mt. Scott LLC, Surgery Center of Muskogee LLC, Surgery Center of Rockville L.L.C., Surgery Center of Southern Pines LLC, Surgery Center of The Woodlands LLC, Surgery Centers of Des Moines Ltd. an Iowa Limited Partnership, Surgery Centers-West Holdings LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates, Surgical Care Affiliates LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates Political Action Committee, Surgical Care Partners of Melbourne LLC, Surgical Caregivers of Fort Worth LLC, Surgical Center of Greensboro LLC, Surgical Center of San Diego LLC, Surgical Center of South Jersey Limited Partnership, Surgical Center of Tuscaloosa Holdings LLC, Surgical Eye Experts LLC, Surgical Health LLC, Surgical Health of Orlando LLC, Surgical Hospital Holdings of Oklahoma LLC, Surgical Management Solutions LLC, Surgicare LLC, Surgicare of Central Jersey LLC, Surgicare of Jackson LLC, Surgicare of Jackson Ltd. a Mississippi Limited Partnership, Surgicare of Joliet Inc., Surgicare of La Veta Inc., Surgicare of La Veta Ltd. a California Limited Partnership, Surgicare of Minneapolis LLC, Surgicare of Minneapolis Ltd. a Minnesota Limited Partnership, Surgicare of Mobile LLC, Surgicare of Mobile Ltd., Surgicare of Oceanside Inc., Surgicare of Owensboro LLC, Surgicare of Salem LLC, Surgicenters of Southern California Inc., Symphonix Health Holdings LLC, T.M. Carr M.D. P.C., THE SURGICAL CENTER OF THE TREASURE COAST L.L.C., THR-SCA Holdings LLC, TeamMD Holdings Inc., TeamMD Iowa Inc., TeamMD Physicians of Texas Inc., TeamUP Insurance Services Inc., Tecnologia de Informacion en Salud S.A., Texas Health Craig Ranch Surgery Center LLC, Texas Health Flower Mound Orthopedic Surgery Center LLC, Texas Health Orthopedic Surgery Center Alliance LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Alliance LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Bedford LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Chisholm Trail LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Irving LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Las Colinas LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Preston Plaza LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Rockwall LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Southwest Fort Worth LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Waxahachie LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Willow Park LLC, The Advisory Board Company, The Alaska Hospitalist Group LLC, The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company, The Eye Surgery Center of the Carolinas L.P., The Intensivist Group of Langhorne LLC, The Lewin Group Inc., The Outpatient Surgery Center of Hilton Head LLC, The Polyclinic MSO LLC, The Surgery Center of Easton L.P., The Surgical Center of Connecticut LLC, Thomas Johnson Surgery Center LLC, Three Rivers Holdings Inc., Three Rivers Surgical Care L.P., Tmesys LLC, Topimagem Diagnostico por Imagem Ltda., Touchpoint Health Plan, Trails Edge Surgery Center LLC, Trauma Surgery Affiliates LLC, Travel Express Incorporated, Treasure Valley Emerald Properties LLC, Treasure Valley Hospital Limited Partnership, Tri-City Medical Center ASC Operators LLC, Tri-County Surgery Center LLC, Trinity Cardiovascular Care PLLC, Tufts Health Freedom Insurance Company, Tufts Health Freedom Plans Inc., Tuscaloosa Surgical Center L.P., U.S. Behavioral Health Plan California, UCSD Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, UCSD Center for Surgery of Encinitas L.P., UCSD Surgical Center of San Diego LLC, UCSD-SCA Holdings I LLC, UCSD-SCA Holdings II LLC, UHC Finance Ireland Unlimited Company, UHC International Services Inc., UHC of California, UHCG Holdings Ireland Limited, UHCG Services Ireland Limited, UHCG  FZE, UHG Brasil Participacoes S.A., UHG Holdings UK IV Limited, UHG Holdings UK V Limited, UHG Holdings UK VI Limited, UHIC Holdings Inc., UMR Inc., UPHT-SCA Holdings LLC, USHEALTH Academy Inc., USHEALTH Administrators LLC, USHEALTH Advisors LLC, USHEALTH Career Agency Inc., USHEALTH Funding Inc., USHEALTH Group Inc., USMD ASC IV1 LLC, USMD ASC IV2 LLC, USMD Administrative Services L.L.C., USMD Affiliated Services, USMD Holdings Inc., USMD Hospital at Arlington L.P., USMD Hospital at Fort Worth L.P., USMD Inc., USMD PPM LLC, Unidad Medica Diagnostico S.A., Unimerica Insurance Company, Unimerica Life Insurance Company of New York, Unison Health Plan of Delaware Inc., United Behavioral Health, United Behavioral Health of New York I.P.A. Inc., United Group Reinsurance Inc., United Health Foundation, United HealthCare Services Inc., United Medical Park ASC LLC, United Resource Networks IPA of New York Inc., United in Advancing Health Equity Foundation, UnitedHealth Advisors LLC, UnitedHealth Group Employee Assistance Fund, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, UnitedHealth Group International Finance Ireland Unlimited Company, UnitedHealth International Inc., UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services LLC, UnitedHealthcare Benefits Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare Children's Foundation Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas L.L.C., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service Beijing Co. Ltd., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Global Medical UK Limited, UnitedHealthcare Inc., UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of America, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Designated Activity Company, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services Inc., UnitedHealthcare International Asia LLC, UnitedHealthcare International I B.V., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III B.V., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VIII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International X S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Life Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Parekh Insurance TPA Private Limited, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley Inc., UnitedHealthcare Service LLC, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits LLC, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arizona Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Colorado Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Florida Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Illinois Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky Ltd., UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New England Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New York Inc., UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oregon Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., UnitedHealthcare of South Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Utah Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Washington Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Rockies Inc., Unity Health Network LLC, Upland Holdings LLC, Upland Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Urgent Care Holdings Inc., Urgent Care MSO LLC, Urology Associates of North Texas P.L.L.C., VERTA MANAGEMENT SERVICES LLC, VPay Benefits Corporation, VPay Inc., VPay Intermediate Holdings LLC, Valley Hospital L.L.C., Valley Physicians Network Inc., Vascular Labs of the Rockies ASC LLC, Vascular Labs of the Rockies PLLC, Via Vitae MSO LLC, Vida Integra S.p.A., Vida Tres S.A., Virtua-SCA Holdings II LLC, Virtua-SCA Holdings LLC, Vivify Health Canada Inc., Vivify Health Inc., WESTMED Practice Partners LLC, Wake Forest Ambulatory Ventures LLC, Walnut Creek Endoscopy Center LLC, Walnut Hill Surgery Center LLC, Wauwatosa Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Wauwatosa Surgery Center LLC, Wayland Square Surgicare Acquisition L.P., Wayland Square Surgicare GP Inc., Waypoint Minnesota PC, WellMed Medical Management Inc., WellMed Medical Management of Florida Inc., West Coast Endoscopy Holdings LLC, WestHealth JV Holdings LLC, WestHealth Surgery Center LLC, Western Connecticut Orthopedic Surgical Center LLC, Westgreen Surgical Center LLC, Wilson Creek Surgical Center LLC, Winchester Endoscopy LLC, Winter Park LLC, Winter Park Surgery Center L.P., Woodbury Surgery Center LLC, XAS Infusion Suites Inc., XLHealth Corporation, XLHealth Corporation India Private Limited, divvyDOSE, divvyMED LLC, eCode Solutions LLC, gethealthinsurance.com Agency Inc., hCentive Inc., inPharmative Inc., naviHealth Care at Home LLC, naviHealth Coordinated Care LLC, naviHealth Coordinated Care SC P.C., naviHealth Holdings LLC, naviHealth Inc., naviHealth Michigan HBPC P.C., and naviHealth SM Holdings Inc..

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The following companies are subsidiares of WPP: 24/7 Real Media UK Ltd., 41?29! Media Internet, AD Venture Worldwide Inc, AKQA, AKQA Denmark A/S, AKQA GmbH, AKQA Inc., AKQA Limited, AQuest, Acceleration, Acceleration eMarketing Inc, All Global, Always (Shanghai) Marketing Services Co Ltd, Arctouch LLC, BCW LLC, BWR PR, Beijing Benpao Century Technology Development Co. Ltd., Benenson Strategy Group LLC, Black and Deen, Blast Radius, Blast Radius Inc., Bomtempo Anahory e Ralha, Bottle Rocket, Bottle Rocket LLC, Brindfors Design AB, CB Associes S.A., CMI Media, CMI Media LLC, CONEXANCE MD, CT Finances SA, Catalyst Online LLC, Cavendish Square Holding BV, Center Partners, Cerebra, Cockpit Holdings Limited, Cognifide, Commarco, Commarco GmbH 120274, Cordiant Communications Group Limited, Dawson Integrated Marketing Communications, DeepLocal Inc., Design Bridge, Design Bridge Limited, Dewey Square Group, Ecommera, EffectiveUI, Enduring Organisation, Entreprise de Communications Tank Inc., Essence, Essence Global Group Limited, Essence Global LLC, Eurosem Belgium SA/NV, F.biz, FAST - Financial Administration Solutions & Technologies Srl, Finecast Limited, Finsbury LLC, Forward Limited, GREY Dusseldorf GmbH, GTB Agency LLC, GTB Shanghai Advertising Co. Ltd, GTB Stat LLC, GWE LLC, Geometry Global Japan GK, Geometry Global LLC, Geometry Global Limited, Glendinning Management Consultants, Go Direct Marketing Inc., Gorilla LLC, Grey, Grey Advertising Limited, Grey Global Group LLC, Group M France SAS, Group M Worldwide LLC, Group SJR LLC, GroupM (Shanghai) Advertising Co. Ltd, GroupM Argentina Trading S.A., GroupM B.V., GroupM Chile SAC, GroupM Competence Center GmbH, GroupM Denmark A/S, GroupM Japan KK, GroupM Limited, GroupM Market Advertising Co. Ltd., GroupM Media India Pvt Ltd, GroupM Pakistan (Private) Ltd, GroupM Singapore Pte Ltd, GroupM Srl, GroupM UK Digital Limited, Guangzhou Dawson Marketing Communication Co. Ltd, H-ART, HERING SCHUPPENER Consulting Strategieberatung fur Kommunikation GmbH, HeathWallace, Hill & Knowlton Limited, Hill and Knowlton Strategies LLC, Hirschen Group GmbH, Hogarth California LLC, Hogarth Worldwide Inc., Hogarth Worldwide Limited, Icon Brand Navigation Group, IntelliQuest Information Group Inc, International Meetings & Science LLC, J Walter Thompson Middle East and North Africa E.C., J Walter Thompson Publicidade Ltda, J.Walter Thompson Bridge Advertising Co. Ltd., John Street Inc., KBM Group LLC, KR Media UK Limited, KR Wavemaker SAS, Kantar TNS, Kinetic Advertising (Shanghai) Co. 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Blue Jays right-hander Aaron Sanchez is headed to the disabled list, retroactive to Saturday, with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand, according to the team. Toronto has recalled left-hander Matt Dermody from Triple-A to take Sanchezs roster spot.

Sanchezs blister has been a problem since March, and it played a part in the 24-year-olds poor start against the Orioles on Friday, tweets Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. In 5 1/3 innings, Sanchez gave up five earned runs on seven hits, which paled in comparison to his seven-frame, one-run season debut against Tampa Bay last week. Thanks to his latest outing, Sanchezs early season numbers are no match for his production from 2016, when he logged a 3.00 ERA and a 54.4 percent ground-ball rate over 192 innings.

The Blue Jays are off Monday, meaning they might be able to avoid having to recall a starter from Triple-A if Sanchezs injury only keeps him out for one turn through the rotation. Otherwise, minor league options include a slew of familiar names in Mat Latos, Lucas Harrell, Brett Oberholtzer and T.J. House, though none are on the Jays 40-man roster. Fellow minor leaguer Casey Lawrence is on the 40-man, however, and has already seen action this year with 2-9 Toronto. He contributed to the Jays woes during two relief appearances, allowing three earned runs on five walks in a pair of innings.
Rays right-hander Jake Odorizzi is headed to the 10-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The Rays have recalled righty Chase Whitley from Triple-A to take the roster spot of Odorizzi, whos unlikely to miss much time.

Hes fine. We anticipate this will be a short stay, manager Kevin Cash said of Odorizzis DL stint (via Scott Lauber of ESPN.com).

Making his third start of the year Saturday, Odorizzi left after throwing just one inning against the Red Sox. Odorizzi had lasted six frames in his two previous starts, and has so far allowed six earned runs (with eight strikeouts and three walks) over 13 innings this season. The 27-year-old has been one of the Rays top starters since 2014, his first full season, having posted a 3.74 ERA, 8.35 K/9 and 2.72 BB/9 in 537 innings dating back to then.

Odorizzis next turn through the rotation was scheduled for Thursday against Houston, meaning Tampa Bay will have to settle on a fill-in by then. The Rays could tab swingman Erasmo Ramirez or choose someone from a Triple-A rotation consisting of Ryan Yarbrough, Chih-Wei Hu, Taylor Guerrieri, Jacob Faria and Whitley (Yarbrough is the only one not on the teams 40-man roster). Highly touted prospect Jose De Leon, acquired from the Dodgers for second baseman Logan Forsythe over the winter, hasnt pitched yet this season on account of flexor mass discomfort.
Accra, April 15, GNA - The Tema District Pastor of the Great Commission Church International (GCCI), Reverend Paul Morgan Adorsu, has urged Christians to use the Easter season to reflect on their lives.

He said Easter called for sober reflections on the sacrifices of Jesus on the cross over 2000 years ago for the salvation of mankind.

He, therefore, urged Ghanaians to make selfless sacrifices for the nation's socioeconomic development.

Speaking at the 2017 Easter Convention of the Tema District of the GCCI, Rev. Adorsu said Jesus, by His death on the cross, took away the sins, shame and reproach of Christians.

"When our sins are forgiven, there is nothing that can hinder us," he said.

The four-day convention, on the theme: "Imitating Jesus Christ," is being attended by the five assemblies in the Tema District of GCCI; Grace Temple, Maranatha, Tema Main, Tema Newtown and Prampram.

Speaking on the topic: "Imitating Christ through His Love and Sacrifices", Rev. Adorsu said Christians were of God, and had overcome the world, adding,

"greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world".

He, therefore, urged Christians to be bold and not to fear the devil and his wicked forces.

He said as God parted the Jordan for the Israelites to cross, He would do same for His children in the present circumstance.

Rev Adorsu advised Christians to fear God and eschew evil; adding that Christians must be faithful in the church, home and work places.

GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA
15.04.2017 LISTEN

Atibie (E/R), April 15, GNA - The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts would establish a training centre to train local pilots for the paragliding festival to reduce the high cost of inviting foreign pilots for that purpose.

The centre would also train other nationals from the West Africa sub-region which could bring in some foreign exchange for the country.

The Sector Minister, Ms Catherine Abelema Afeku, said this at the official opening of the Kwahu Paragliding Festival on the Odwenanoma Mountain at Atibie in the Kwahu South District.

She said the paragliding festival, launched in 2005, had assumed international dimension where a large number of foreign nationals travelled to Ghana to participate.

Ms Afeku said this had led to the springing up of hotels, telecommunication companies, breweries and catering services which had created employment for the people in Kwahu.

She said though there were a number of challenges such as poor road infrastructure and accommodation, efforts were being made to solve them to enhance the success of the festival.

Ms Afeku urged Ghanaians to participate in the paragliding festival to sustain it.

Mr Eric Kwakye Darfour, the Eastern Regional Minister and Member of Parliament of Nkawkaw, paid tribute to Jake Obetsebi Lamptey and Ferdinan Ayim for initiating the paragliding festival and called on all Ghanaians to contribute to sustain it.

Seven pilots, including two Ghanaians, from the United States of America, Japan and Romania are handling the paragliding.

GNA
15.04.2017 LISTEN

Abesewa (Ash), April 15, GNA - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Centre has been established for the Abesewa D/A Junior High School 'A' in the Ahafo Ano South District of the Ashanti Region to provide practical training for the children.

The centre was established by the Sunyani Diocese of the Methodist Church, Ghana, and the Methodist Development and Relief Services of the Orangeburg District of South Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, USA.

The state-of-the art centre costs GH410,000.00 and equipped with 60 computers, 10 of which were donated by the former First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama.

Rt. Rev Kofi Asare Bediako, the Sunyani Diocesan Bishop of the Methodist Church, Ghana, during the inauguration, said the church was committed not only to the spiritual growth of the people but their intellectual and technological advancement.

He said the centre would improve the education of children and promote adult literacy in the catchment areas including Nsuta and Bechem.

Rt. Rev Bediako commended all stakeholders who made the project a success especially Mr Adu Kwaku, the Headmaster of the school.

Rev Jim Arant, the Chairman of the Fund Raising Committee of the Orangeburg District Methodist Church, said it was their desire to avail themselves as messengers of God to bring positive change to the people of Abesewa and its environs.

He urged the people to own the centre and use it to improve themselves intellectually and technologically.

Mr Martin Bio, a native of Abesewa and based in the United Kingdom, who was the brain behind the project, said he was touched when he got to know that the school was 60 years yet lacked basic facilities like an ICT centre and a library.

He said he sought for support for the project to help the children to be abreast of ICT as it was part of the Ghana Education Service curriculum.

Mr Bio appealed to telecommunication giants like MTN, Vodafone, Airtel and Tigo to assist the centre with internet connectivity and urged the residents to preserve the centre for posterity.

Abesewa, a predominantly cocoa and plantain growing area, is located between the Brong Ahafo and Ashanti regions.

GNA
15.04.2017 LISTEN

Adweso (E/R), April 15, GNA - The Superintendent Minister of the Adweso Circuit of the Methodist Church, Very Reverend Emmanuel Asare-Kusi, has urged Ghanaians to pray for the Government to remain focused on its mission.

He said many past governments started well but did not end well and there was, therefore, the need to remain focused to achieve the success desired by all Ghanaians.

Very Rev. Asare-Kusi made the call in a sermon to mark the celebration of Good Friday at Adweso Calvary Methodist Church near Koforidua.

He said despite several obstructions, Jesus Christ remained focused on his purpose for coming into the world and ended his mission successfully by sacrificing His life for the sake of mankind.

He advised Ghanaians to take advantage of the great lessons of sacrifice and forgiveness associated with Easter to sacrifice for the good of Ghana and forgive one another for peace to prevail.

GNA
15.04.2017 LISTEN

Accra, April 15, GNA - Reverend Fitzgerald Odonkor, the President of Harvest International Ministries, has reminded Christians that there is no victory anywhere except by the blood of Jesus.

He said the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to meet the needs of every Christian.

Rev. Odonkor was speaking at this year's Harvest Praise dubbed: 'The Victory Edition 2017,' under the theme:' Victory by the Blood of Jesus'.

The Harvest Praise Festival is an annual Christian music outreach programme organised by the Harvest International Ministries.

The programme, held on every Good Friday, is aimed at using music, drama and the spoken word to reach out to the people with the message of salvation.

The festival is the 19th edition and featured both foreign and local gospel artistes.

Some of the artistes who performed were Todd Dulaney of the U.S.A, Joe Mettle, who recently won the Best Gospel Musician Award, and the Evergreen Harvest Gospel Choir.

Rev. Odonkor said in ancient Israel the High Priest sacrificed animals to atone for the sins of the people, however, it was not possible for the blood of animals to take away the sins of man.

He said God's requirement for the remission of sins could only be fully met by the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ.

Rev. Odonkor said the shedding of the Blood of Jesus opened the way for believers to receive forgiveness and enter God's presence hence giving Christians a permanent victory.

'The good news for believers this Easter is that the blood of Jesus has given them victory over every orchestration of the enemy,' he said.

Mr Bethel Agyeman Donkor, an elder of the Church, was honoured with a citation for his immense contribution to Harvest Praise over the years.

A cheque for GH5000.00 and GH4000.00 was presented to the Citi FM Foundation and Harvest Foundation respectively to enable them to continue with the humanitarian work. GNA

By Christopher Arko, GNA
Accra, April 15, GNA - Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has urged Ghanaians to sacrifice towards national development as Christ sacrificed his life on the Cross to save mankind.

'We cannot do things for ourselves if we don't sacrifice,' he said, adding; 'as a nation, we shouldn't be importing things always from outside; we must trade instead of begging for aid,' he said.

He said President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo's Administration would bring transformation that would involve everybody.

'If we continue doing the same things then we don't expect different results, therefore, we should do things differently in order to bring the needed change to our nation,' he said.

Vice President Bawumia was the Guest of Honour during the Annual Good Friday Miracle Service organised by the Lighthouse Chapel International at the Black Star Square to mark the Crucifixion of Christ.

He acknowledged the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to bring salvation to mankind which he described as 'true love', adding; ''there is no greater love than to die for someone.''

Vice President Bawumia, therefore, urged Ghanaians to learn lessons from Christ's sacrifice for mankind and sacrifice for the development of the nation.

'To pass your exams you need to sacrifice and burn the mid-night oil to learn because everything requires sacrifice and God will also reward you for your sacrifice,' he said.

The Vice President assured Ghanaians that the Government would ensure peace and security for everybody irrespective of the person's political affiliation.

Dr Bawumia described Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, the Founder and General Overseer of the Lighthouse Chapel International, as an amazing Man of God who had allowed himself to be used by God to deliver the people from spiritual bondage.

Bishop Heward-Mills, in his sermon, said mankind had become progressively evil after Adam and Eve sinned and separated themselves from God.

Therefore, he said, God sent His son Jesus Christ to die as atonement for man's sins.

'Without the sharing of the blood, your sins cannot be forgiven, therefore, Jesus Christ sacrificed His life to save mankind. He is the way, the truth and the light and whoever believes in Him would have eternal life. No one goes to the Father unless through Him,' he said.

Bishop Heward-Mills said Jesus Christ's crucifixion brought salvation to the world and those who believe and accept Him as their personal saviour would have eternal salvation.

He said Jesus demonstrated He is the true Son of God through various miracles including raising people from the dead, walking on the sea and opening the eyes of the blind.

Bishop Heward-Mills led the congregation to pray for national unity, stability and peace and asked for God's wisdom for the Government - the Judiciary, Legislature and the Executive.

Some members of the congregation received healing during the prayer and deliverance service and gave testimony to the glory of God.

The service attracted a large number of Christians to the Square who joyfully praised God and danced for His abundant mercies.

GNA

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
15.04.2017 LISTEN

Accra, April 15, GNA - Organisations, households, and schools have been called upon to shift to the use of improved institutional stoves to avoid heat emissions and diseases.

The improved stove is to help address domestic heating by using solid fuel such as wood and charcoal for household cooking.

Mr Mchael Kweku Commeh, a Research Fellow of the Technology Consultancy Centre (TCC), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

This was after a five-day capacity-building workshop for stove manufacturers in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) organised by the Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency and West Africa Clean Cooking Alliance in collaboration with Ghana Clean Cooking Alliance.

Mr Commeh said replacing traditional cookstoves with more efficient ones would impact positively on the health of the people, adding that, modern cookstoves emitted less greenhouse gases and reduced fuel use by 30 to 60 per cent.

He said the natural forests were being depleted contributing to climate change with negative repercussions, and that, households that used traditional forms of cooking were exposed to indoor-air pollution.

'This is responsible for the four million premature deaths per year globally as reported by the World Energy Outlook in 2012,' he said.

Mr Commeh said at the ECOWAS regional level, 80 per cent of households still relied on traditional biomass as their primary source of fuel and it posed serious threats to the health of the people, especially women and children.

He said climate change with its inherent health issues called for greater innovation and creativity and, therefore, the need to passionately overcome those challenges.

Mr Commeh said the need to support high quality cooking solutions could not be underestimated, adding; 'it is therefore important to promote cookstove that meets quality standards for fuel efficiency, safety, reduced emissions, affordability, durability and convenience for households cooking needs.'

He said this would guarantee that cookstoves were produced and used to their maximum, especially when local design and manufacturing technologies were promoted.

GNA
Niamey (AFP) - Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou held talks with student leaders Saturday in a bid to defuse the country's university crisis after a violent protest left one person dead, a student union head said.

"We met with the president and commitments were made to renew the dialogue between the USN (Union of Niger Scholars) and the government," Ousseini Sambo, USN secretary-general, said on public radio.

President Issoufou had ordered the University of Niamey campus to reopen on Monday, he added.

The campus has been closed since hundreds of unhappy students joined a demonstration Monday, paralysing traffic by setting up barricades of tree trunks, blocks of stone and burning tyres, mainly on the right bank of the River Niger where the campus is located.

The protest sparked clashes with security forces who used tear gas to disperse protesters, who responded by throwing stones, according to images shown on local television.

According to official figures, 313 people were arrested following that protest, some of whom have since been released.

One protester died after a fall which was not linked to police action, authorities said. An enquiry has been opened into the death.

The USN insists that the death of Mala Bagale, a third-year Sociology student, was a result of having been hit by a police teargas cannister.

A total of 109 people were injured in the melee, 88 protesters and 21 police.

Sambo said another meeting, with Prime Minister Brigi Rafini, would take place "to find adequate solution to the students' demands".

The students are calling for better living and studying conditions and the payment of grants.

"We have promised the president a spirit of appeasement," said Sambo, adding that the students told that those still detained following Monday's violence would be released "in the coming days".
Cairo (AFP) - A court in Cairo on Sunday acquitted a US-Egyptian charity worker imprisoned for nearly three years in a case that drew alarm from Washington and international rights groups.

Supporters broke into applause as the judge announced that Aya Hejazi, her husband Mohamed Hassanein and six others were found not guilty on charges including human trafficking, sexually exploiting children and failure to properly register a non-governmental organisation.

Hejazi, who co-founded a charity which helps Cairo street children, was arrested in May 2014 and has been in jail pending the outcome of the trial.

She and her co-defendants denied the charges and rights groups raised concerns they were not being allowed a fair trial.

Hejazi's supporters say she was targeted at a time when authorities were cracking down on civil society groups and protests, trying to paint protesters as paid agents of foreign entities.

Reunited in the courtroom's cage shortly before the verdict was read, Hejazi and Hassanein embraced and he kissed her forehead, both of them smiling as they chatted while waiting for the judge.

When the verdict was read, supporters jumped up and cheered. The defendants sang as they left the courthouse for a prison vehicle that was to take them back for their final days in detention.

Taher Aboelnasr, Hejazi's lawyer, said the prosecution could appeal the verdict but that would not prevent the defendants' release, which he said should happen this week.

The verdict "must be implemented," Aboelnasr told reporters, adding that the defendants would be released "probably on Tuesday or Wednesday".

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom after the verdict, Hejazi's mother Naglaa Hosny said she was thrilled for her daughter and son-in-law.

"We want to give them another wedding," she said.

Hejazi's mother said the couple was considering starting another charity but that she hoped they would instead go back to school.

"Right before she got arrested, she had applied for the American University in Cairo and was accepted" into a community psychology programme, Hosny said.

"She really wanted to work with street kids and the communities which produce the street kids," said Hosny.

The mother of US-Egyptian charity worker Aya Hejazi celebrates outside the court after her daughter, who was accused of human trafficking and exploitation of children, was aquitted on April 16, 2017

The case caused widespread concern, with Human Rights Watch last month calling the trial "nothing less than a travesty of justice".

"Defendants have been unable to meet privately with lawyers, hearings have been repeatedly adjourned for long periods, while the court has routinely rejected, without explanation, numerous requests for release on bail, resulting in what appears to amount to arbitrary detention," HRW deputy Middle East and North Africa Joe Stork said at the time.

A senior White House official told reporters ahead of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's Washington visit last month that administration officials would raise Hejazi's case during the trip.

The prosecution alleged that children were sexually abused at the offices of the Belady Foundation, which Hejazi co-founded with her husband in 2013.

The defence argued that evidence may have been tampered with and several prosecution witnesses later recanted their testimonies.
Your super station Joy 99.7 FM is today hosting thousands of underprivileged Ghanaians to its annual Easter Soup Kitchen.

Hundreds of participants from all parts of the capital are expected to throng the Accra Community Centre for the lavish ceremony that has just begun.

Staff of Multimedia Group will be serving hot meals, while health officials provide free medical screening and counselling for the vulnerable in society.

Volunteers from schools and other institutions will also attend the event to assist the Multimedia Staff.

A team of health professionals will screen beneficiaries for malaria, blood pressure, breast cancer, eye defects and provided medications.

Others will be registered free of charge onto the National Health Insurance Scheme.

Ahead of the Sundays event, many benevolent organisations made donations to support the event.

Head of Talk at Joy FM, Nhyira Addo, who is on at the event grounds, says tents have been erected and all is set for what is expected to be a mammoth show of benevolence to needy in Ghana.

Joy FM's Easter Soup Kitchen is one of the radio station's corporate social responsibility events that has been running for over a decade.

More soon...

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com
Former Deputy Attorney General, Dr Dominic Ayine, has described as unsatisfactory the attitude of police and other security agencies in responding to the Agbogloshie clash last Tuesday

He said the security agencies could conduct post investigations to unearth the cause of the conflict, however, the team of police and military personnel failed when they did not move in when the violence was heated.

Dr Ayine who was speaking on Joy FM/MultiTVs news analysis programme Newsfile on Saturday said, But staying away from the crime scene or not taking control after a crime has been committed is something that we should not tolerate from our security agencies.

Reports that came through during the clashes accused the police of acting late and staying outside the perimeter where the attacks were ongoing, allegedly gathering intelligent.

Residents told Joy News Favour Nunoo that by the time police got to the scene things were already out of hand with two people dead and some people suffering various degrees of knife wounds.

Dean of Graduate Studies, Institute of Local Government, Dr Oduro Osae

Contributing to the discussion, governance expert, Dr Oduro Osae agreed that it was a clear failure of intelligence on the part of the security agencies adding "Security moves with intelligence...and I was expecting them to put some intelligence on the ground.

Nonetheless, he said the security agencies must look beyond Agbogloshie and put in place measures to curb and control a similar situation if it is to happen anywhere else in the capital.

"Intelligence have failed us in the last few days considering the case of Delta Force attack could have been prevented with good intelligence on the ground.

"They should have their game between intelligence and coordination...it is unfortunate they reported late but I want to believe that they are learning their lesson so there is proper coordination between intelligence and security if any such incident should happen," he added.

The Dean of Graduate Studies at the Institute of Local Government believes isolating an area as a risky zone or the history in gathering intelligence makes them easy to deal with in the event of a clash of such nature.

Media reportage

Dr Dominic Ayine also believes the media could have done better in its reportage.

He said the media did not look at the immediate cause, which is the case of a mobile phone theft by a Dagomba young who from a Konkomba lady.

The alleged phone thief, who was beaten in the cause of retrieving the phone, went to call people from his ethnic group to attack those who beat him.

I am not blaming them [media] but their reportage was not very helpful as they characterised it as a war between Dagombas and Konkombas, without looking at the immediate cause that has led to the situation," he said.

He said the media escalated the issue by characterising it as an ethnic conflict between the two ethnic groups.

According to him, that kind of report can mislead the security agencies as they would not focus on the immediate cause and deal with it as a crime.

He said although the two groups are noted for fighting each other, it was an unjustified stereotype to look at the broad issue rather than the case at hand.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim |[email protected]
16.04.2017 LISTEN

Obomeng (E/R), April 16, GNA - President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has served notice of his determination to fearlessly fight corruption as his government hastened moves to set up the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

He said it was not going to be business as usual and gave the assurance that this would happen soon to ensure that all cases of corruption and misappropriate of public funds were independently and thoroughly investigated for the law to take its course.

He announced this when he joined the chiefs and people of Obomeng in the Kwahu South District at a grand durbar to climax the coronation of the Obomenghene, Nana Effa Opinamang III.

President Akufo-Addo said his government would go to every length to tackle financial leakages and waste so that there would be enough resources for development.

He used the occasion to rally the people to solidly back the fight against illegal mining to stop the alarming destruction of the environment.

He said the pollution of water bodies and massive degradation of the natural vegetation could not continue and would not be allowed.

He stated that they were going to get tough with everybody doing the wrong thing and that the laws on mining would be rigidly enforced.

President Akufo-Addo also spoke of the government's determination to give strong support to the private sector to become more vibrant.

He therefore invited local businesses to take advantage of the deliberate policies and interventions, it was putting in place to expand their operations to create jobs and wealth for the people.

He hinted of plans to build a bridge over the Afram River between Adawso and Akye-Amanfrom to allow for easy evacuation of large quantity of foodstuffs produced in the Afram Plains to the marketing centres.

He said they were already in talks with some South Korean investors to get the project done.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr. Eric Kwakye Darfour, told the people that no part of the nation would be denied its fair share of development.

Nana Pinamang publicly declared the release of a 200-acre stretch of land to be developed into a free zone enclave for investors.

He appealed to the President to do everything to bring lasting solution to the destruction of food crop farms and water bodies by Fulani herdsmen and their cattle in the area.

GNA

By Adams Okae, GNA
16.04.2017 LISTEN

Kumasi, April 16, GNA - Celebrated heart-surgeon and Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has been recognized for his distinguished medical practice over the past two-and-a-half decades.

He was presented with the 'Legend of the Year' award at the '2017 People's Choice Practitioners Awards' held at the Golden Tulip Hotel, in Kumasi, and attended by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

For his prize, he received a gold medal and brass bust. In addition, a yet to be determined first aid facility, would be named after him.

A citation accompanying the award read, 'With an extreme can-do spirit, you were poised to initiate the seemingly impossible dream regardless of the numerous conspicuous obstacles and lack of resources.

Through your unstoppable dream, Ghana now boats of a world-class Cardiothoracic Centre, Red Cross Society and Heart Foundation.'

Seventeen (17) other individuals and organizations were also honoured at the ceremony, the first ever to be organized by the Media Men Ghana Limited - a Consulting Firm.

They included Prof Sir Joseph Acheampong, a Specialist in Internal Medicine, Dr. Ellen Boakye and Dr. Tabitha Botwe, both General Medical Practitioners, Dr. Agyekum Addo, a Pharmacist, Ms. Faustian Tengye, a Nurse, Tamale Teaching Hospital, Pediatokorpe Hospital

and Pfizer a Pharmaceutical Company.

Unity Television and Vodafone - a telecommunications company, were also rewarded for contributing to the growth of the health sector.

Their prizes included sash, citations and certificates.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu applauded the awardees for their service to humanity and encouraged them to continue to do more to save lives.

He asked that healthcare providers showed compassion for the sick and upheld high standards of professionalism.

He suggested to the organizers to strive to institutionalize the event to serve as a motivation for healthcare practitioners.

Dr. Benedicta Ohene-Manu, Managing Director of Media Men Ghana Limited, said the goal was to inspire health professionals to work with passion and dedication to bring relief to their patients.

GNA

By Stephen Asante, GNA
Tripoli (AFP) - Libya's unity government has called for "urgent intervention" by the international community to end military escalation in its south, warning of a possible "civil war".

For more than a week, militias allied to the UN-backed Government of National Accord have fought off rival forces trying to capture an airbase in the south of the North African country.

"We ask you to take a firm and decisive stance with regards to this escalation and we will support all decisions to re-establish security and stability in Libya," GNA head Fayez al-Sarraj wrote in a letter published Saturday.

Sarraj called for an "urgent intervention" from the international community "to end the deterioration of the situation in south Libya", in an open letter addressed to bodies including the European Union, the United Nations and the Arab League.

He did not specify the nature of what form such intervention could take.

Clashes erupted last week after the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, commanded by military strongman Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and loyal to Libya's eastern authorities, battled to seize the Tamenhant air base from militias backing the GNA.

Libyan unity government head Fayez Sarraj called in an open letter for an "urgent intervention" from the international community "to end the deterioration of the situation in south Libya"

"This sudden and unjustified escalation... puts the country on the brink of civil war", Sarraj said.

The GNA, which both Haftar and the eastern-based parliament have refused to recognise, has announced a counter-offensive against the LNA.

The LNA has said the Tamenhant base was a launching pad for fighters who seized key oil terminals from its control last month, before the LNA retook them days later.

But the unity government has denied any link with the attacks on the oil facilities in Libya's northeast.

The GNA, which was born of a UN-brokered deal signed in late 2015, has struggled to assert its authority nationwide since taking office in Tripoli in March last year.

Libya has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with rival militias and authorities vying for control of the oil-rich country.
16.04.2017 LISTEN

Dagbong Youth for Development (DYD) on behalf of all Dagbong youth wish to extend its condolences to families of the victims of the unfortunate incident that occurred at Agbogbloshie on Tuesday April 11, 2017. The clashes were uncalled for and can best be described as shameful at the least. We wish all those injured speedy recovery and pray that nothing of that sort happens again.

We want to however waste no time by stating that the way the incident was reported by certain media houses, specifically, JOY FM was unethical, irresponsible and very risky as far as the peaceful co-existence of Dagombas and Konkombas is concern.

It is hard to understand why a media house that ought to inform the public chose to behave this way without taking into consideration what the impact of such reportage could be. At least if the reporter lacked the basic ethics of reporting on such incidents, we expected the editors to have captured the irresponsibility exhibited by such a report and the damages it could cause if readers were to believe it.

Dagbon youth for development would like to set the records straight as follows as follows;

Two wayward groups at Agbogbloshie had a fight and decided to take the laws into their own hands. This is not new to the slums of Ghana. There were similar instances that happened in 2015, 2014 and 2009. Though unfortunate, these incidents are not unique to Ghanaian slums and are bound to happen as people from diverse backgrounds meet and struggle for ownership of scarce resources. The unfortunate thing is that the chaos happened between Dagomba and Konkomba groups  who are the largest ethnicities at that specific location. Dagbong youth believe and know that there have been similar clashes between individuals from other groups living at the slums in our major cities. In all those cases, nobody reported war between one ethnic group and the other.'' A clash between an Akan Group and Ewe Group would never and has never been reported as war between the two ethnicities; Dagombas and Konkombas and all Northern tribes deserve the same treatment. Anything other than this is illogical, unethical and irresponsible.

We require JOY FM and all media houses that are in love with reporting only horrible stories about the North to cease and desist; and that must be now! There are several good things that have been achieved by northerners and Dagbong specifically. We do not see similar attention given to good things coming from the North  yet, isolated incidents are reported as if the entire Dagbong Kingdom committed such crimes.

In August 2015, Chieftaincy related conflicts led to seven deaths in Tuobodom; this conflict was never labeled a conflict for all Bono people. In March 2016, another clash at Portor in the Brong Ahafo region claimed one life with several injuries; and in May 2016, another chieftaincy clash at Kato, also in the Brong Ahafo led to one death and several injuries. All these were reported as community incidents and never an incident of Bono people. Why do we treat the north different when it comes to such cases? Had any of these incidents happened in the north, the headlines would have been different.

Why will a community or a ghetto fight started by two lawless groups be reported as renewed violence between Dagombas and Konkombas? Why does the north deserve only the worse? This must stop and must stop now. We are not pleading for this  it is our right to receive fair reportage from all media houses  we shall not sit unconcerned whiles our image is being tarnished. Enough is enough!!

To our Dagbong brothers and sisters and all northerners who indulge in these activities, please stop!! Note that you are disgracing us, the Dagbong Kingdom and the north as a whole. Let your names be in the media for doing exceptional things that will make everyone proud. Do not give anybody the chance to disrespect us.

We are called Ntafou for a reason. For anywhere we find ourselves, we bury our differences and take one another as brothers and sisters without regard to how we speak and or are called. This trait is our pride and helps us in coping with life outside our home regions. We come together to defend one another; we come together for social events and that makes us one! We need to keep this trait no matter what; for that is a wonder that our neighbors are yet to understand how and where we acquired it.

We also call on all northern politicians, specifically those in leadership to unite for Dagbong. We deserve more from them  especially our MPs. We believe their silence on some of these issues go a long way to influence people to keep damping such trash on us. Perhaps because this issue has no political benefit, that is why none of them is stepping in to speak on our behalf. It is beyond comprehension that none of them sees the need to clarify the issue so far. But we the youth shall fight for our home if the leaders fail to do so.

To conclude, we want to state without favor that, the way the incident was reported did not only exhibit high level of irresponsibility; it was a very risky and dangerous one that had the potential of burning the North. Our brothers and sisters at home could capitalize on this and resort to violence  after all, JOY FM labeled it as renewed violent clashes between the two northern ethnic groups. I think those of us who were around would attest to how horrible the violence between Dagombas and Konkombas was; and never pray to witness something of that sort in our lifetime. To therefore pronounce that, that unfortunate incident has been renewed is gross irresponsibility, unethical, malicious and Machiavellian that we expect the National Media Commission to caution the media houses on.

We want to assure all Dagbong citizens and all northerners as well as Ghanaians, that there are no renewed clashes between Dagombas and Konkombas. The two ethnic groups are living peacefully together and would continue to do so to perpetuity. This might be Unpleasant to JOY FM, but that is the truth!

God bless Dagbong

God bless northern Ghana

And God bless our homeland Ghana.

ALHAJI JAGBO BAAKO  President

0209093355

ZAKARIA DAWUD  Secretary

0201744141

AYUBA MUIN  PRO/ORGANIZER

0243549989


In the aftermath of the controversy surrounding the ownership of the N13bn ($43.4m, N23m and 27,000) found by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently address country on the matter so as to clarify the issue, and resolve lingering doubts among Nigerians regarding the real owner(s) of the cash.

The organization also called on the president to ensure legal backing for his governments whistle-blowing policy by vigorously pursuing the passing by the National Assembly of the Whistle-blower Bills.

Both Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and the National Intelligence Agency last week reportedly claimed ownership of the cash, casting doubts on the real claimants.

In a statement today by SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni the organization said that, The governments increasing reliance on whistle-blowers tips to fight corruption has to be backed by some level of transparency and accountability in the real identities of those claiming recovered cash. Clearing the doubts surrounding the real identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul would demonstrate that the president values transparency over secrecy, provide further encouragement to blow the whistle on governmental corruption, and enhance the public right to know.

According to the organization, Democracy abhors secrecy, and for Nigerians to be able to hold elected leaders accountable, they must have access to information such as on the real identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul. This transparency is fundamental to the operation of the governments whistle-blower policy, and inextricably rooted in the notions of good governance and the rule of law under the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended).

The statement read in part: No good comes from secrecy in governance, as officials who have become accustomed to operating without accountability are loath to relinquish the power that comes from conducting their business without public scrutiny. When public authorities resist efforts to shine a light on their activities, it gives the impression that there is something to hide. Its counter-productive to overstate national security based secrecy needs, as secrecy encourages poorly informed and under-vetted decision-making.

Public scrutiny is a prerequisite for changing harmful, entrenched practices. Rather than operating the whistle-blowers policy as hidden, mysterious mechanism at the far edge of democracy, this government should make the operation of policy more transparent and accessible to the public. Both transparency and accountability are necessary to uphold the rights of victims of corruption and ensure that suspected perpetrators are held to account. The sky will not fall if the true identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul are revealed.

Its clear that as the EFCC continues to uncover more suspected looted or ill-gotten cash, those blowing the whistle will need greater level of protection. But without outlawing retaliation and attacks against whistle-blowers, and taking a firm stance on protecting them, the incentive of bounty rewards would be negated, as potential whistle-blowers may be discouraged from performing invaluable public interest service.

It shouldnt be the case that the government knows the risks of whistle-blowing and yet fails to provide the needed legal protection against retaliation and attacks, regardless of whether whistle-blowers are entitled to bounties.

The policy of giving whistle-blowers some percentage of recovered loot would seem to be a game changer in the fight against corruption but this government now has to squarely address the significant risks that those who blow the whistle face by urgently working with the National Assembly to ensure the necessary legal backing that would ensure protection against reprisals and attacks.

The government should ensure that the National Assembly expedites the process of passing the Whistle-Blower Bill, as ensuring that the bill is passed without further delay would recognize the necessity of whistleblowers and the value they add to the anti-corruption fight by reporting otherwise unknown corruption-related information. It would also ensure that whistle-blowers are fully protected from any retaliation and attacks they may experience, and that the government fully appreciates the information they provide.

Continuing delay in the passing of the Whistle-Blower Bill would have a chilling effect on potential whistleblowers and hinder the public's ability to learn about the kind of cash haul found in Ikoyi and elsewhere across the country. Its also contrary to Article 33 of the UN Convention on Corruption, which Nigeria has ratified. The convention obligates the government to put in place appropriate measures to provide protection against any unjustified treatment for any person who reports in good faith and on reasonable grounds to the competent authorities any facts concerning offences established in accordance with the convention.







SIGNED

Adetokunbo Mumuni

SERAP Executive Director

16/4/2017

Lagos, Nigeria

Emails: [email protected] ; [email protected]

Twitter: @SERAPNigeria

Website: www.serap-nigeria.org


16.04.2017 LISTEN

Of late, I have not been regular at my column not because I don't have much to write but busy schedules as a student leader have almost rendered by pen redundant. Thank God I am back for good with so many pertinent national issues to write about. Don't forget that writing add up more to every national discourse and I see it as a way of contributing my quota to enriching our democratic credentials as a country where freedom of expression is a fundamental democratic principle. In my today's piece, I write to express my views on the disheartening levels of violence in the country.

Ever since the NPP came into power, there has been a seeming unending violence in this country, violence perpetuated with impunity by nobody either than the NPP own appendages with various scaring nomenclatures. Predominantly known are invincible forces, Delta forces among others dotted across the length and breadth of Ghana. Many Ghanaians living in insecurity have roundly condemned the actions of these party soldiers who think that for the fact that their party is in power, there are above the laws and can torture innocent people with various degrees in the full glare of the Ghanaian public. Apart from the various rhetorical commentary by people, many are those( government inclusive) who fear to criticise these hoodlums for fear of being attacked too.

According to Williams Shakespeare "There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures".

This is the case the NPP has found it self in. While the president is watching helplessly as his boys torture many Ghanaians, the end results could be dangerous to all including the NPP. No individual owns this country more than the other! It is either government take responsibility or the country could be destroyed by such egocentric individuals.

Of all these attacks, the most barbaric are the attack on the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator and subsequently a whole court. A court which suppose to be our umbrella for justice was turned, a jungle for violence. The hypocrisy of the NPP and its surrogates is palpably visible even by the international community. Our country has made strides in consolidating its young democracy through the respect for rule of law.

Happenings today by hungry political footsoldiers only stand to truncate our enviable democratic dispensation. How can a party who claim to be the apostles of democracy denigrate our dignity and our democratic sanctity by these heinous political roaring? It is very pathetic!! Indeed the elephant is home and is on rampage!

The national security is bargained and compromised for private party security. Even that, the various trained party terrorists are competing for daily political debris from their political lords and if care is not taken, there could be a more internal implosion that could ignite an insurgency in this country, putting the security of the country at risks. Yes! that is what changed has done to us. We have probably changed peace for violence to satisfy desperate political vagabonds.

The most worrying situation is how some political ignoramuses shamelessly attempt to defend this dastardly barbaric act perpetuated by a bunch of selfish violent people. The media which is suppose to be the voice of the voiceless rather give media space to these unscrupulous people only to insult the intelligence of discerning Ghanaians, to the extend that the minister for national security has been threatened to be sacked from his post if he dares lay hands on any of the so called forces. Any way, that is just the beginning, we have not seen anything yet.

When the NPP brought in South African Mercenaries to train these private security forces, some of us criticised it but the NPP justified their position and demonstrated that they believed so much in their private security to national security. It is probable the reason why the national security is being overpowered by these party hungry footsoldiers.

We are being told by government that they could employ such hoodlums into national security. Really!!!

So now it is only when you belong to a party in power that you can be employed right? What about the many workers that were chased out of their jobs by these party footsoldiers because their party won elections?

Hehehe... They should go ahead and employ them into the national security and I can assure them of one thing that I will not be surprised should these so called party vigilante groups ever stage a political coup in this country. Well, I'm not a doom monger.

Let me admonish government that it should better use the authority given to it by the constitution and not by hungry party footsoldiers. How can a whole government be dictated left right center by its footsoldiers? I thought the NPP claims to have all the fine brains in this country only to be controlled by a largely unemployed hungry illiterate group. I can't just fathom it. Who is in charge?

Just hundred days in government and all we can see is violence, arrogance and hypocrisy. Government is only consistent on singing rhetorics. I will do this, I will do that while transport fares continue to see astronomical increase and the ordinary Ghanaian is burdened with hardship where as some rich business community or call them the bourgeoisies are enjoying drastic reduction in air transport. Where is the common sense? There is no logic in burdening about 85% of the citizens and injecting incentives to about 15% and still call it an achievement.

What is even very fascinating and makes Dr Bawumia hypocritical is the rapidity at which the NPP is running helter skelter for loans. They made the whole world to believe that it is only an incompetent government that borrows. Dr. Bawumia how much have you borrowed so far per your own formular?

You claim of stabilizing the Ghanaian currency but you will be exposed soon. You alone know how much you have been using to induce the the cedi just for political scores. The in sustainability of that lazy approach will throw you into the web of economic quagmire soon when you begin to do more capital intensive projects in line with your plethora of promises. You can run away but you cannot hide. Only time will expose you.

Let me not waste my time on your promises because you are yet to achieve any. All your political cacophony was out of desperation. You said you have the men but today we know you were referring to your invincible forces and Delta forces. Yes you have the men with bodies which they are using to destroy the country. We don't need that in this era of democratic civilisation!! We need men with brains to continue the progress path of Ghana. Mr President better stop sleeping and put your house in order before time catch up with you. The honeymoon period should be over! Start the work.

Denis Andaban

[email protected]
Each year about 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted and at the same time about 800 million people do not have access to sufficient and nutritious food (Global FoodBanking Network, 2014). This figure represents roughly one third of food produced for human consumption. Food can be either lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial agricultural production down to final household consumption (FAO, 2011).The Cost of Hunger in Ghana report by the National Development Planning Commission in 2016 shows that Ghana loses GH 4.6 billion which is equivalent to 6.4% GDP annually to hunger among children and 24% of all child mortality cases in Ghana are associated with undernutrition.

The difference between losses and waste lies in the supply chain stage where food is no longer usable for human consumption. Loss occurs when food does not reach the final consumer due to improper handling, packing and storage. Such foods are not suitable for human consumption and only have a marginal value to be transformed as low cost fertilizers and fuel.

Waste occurs when the product that reached the final marketplace is not consumed due to improper consumer behavior, bad storage practices as well as to the lack of coordination between different stakeholders in the supply chain. Food and Beverage Association of Ghana estimates shows it members loss over GH200,000 every month to food waste.

In many cases, fresh products are rejected by large supermarket chains if they do not meet certain

quality standards such as shape, size and appearance, regardless of their suitability for human

consumption. In addition, many retail chains discard products before their expiring dates claiming

that the products either are unsellable or generate negative image to the retailer. Consumers

attitudes and the consumption culture also play their part as they reject food that is in good

condition but with not-so-good appearance. Foods that have reached households are also wasted

because they turn unsuitable for human consumption. Restaurants and hotels are other stakeholders

within the food waste menace, because of the large portions served to customers. Since not all the portion is consumed, the rest will end up in the garbage bin.

The role of the local governments in setting up measures and regulations towards food donation is very critical in ensuring reduction of food waste and hunger in society.

The PNDCL 3058 Food and Drugs Act.1992 does not make explicit provision for food donations which has resulted in little contribution towards reducing hunger in Ghana by some stakeholders within the food supply chain.The Ghana School Feeding Programme been an initiative of the comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) Pillar 3 which seeks to enhance food security and reduce hunger in line with the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on hunger, poverty and malnutrition had since 2007 been implemented to encourage child enrollment through the provision of one meal per day. Currently the National School Feeding program faces challenges such as expansion and caterers demand for increase of the cost from Gh0.80p per child however with a National Food Donors Encouragement Act, private stakeholder businesses in Ghana will donate their excess towards the program.

A lot of initiatives have been launched in Ghana by public, private and civil stakeholders towards improving child under nutrition and hunger in Ghana however little or no attention has been drawn on the role of food recovery and redistribution as a tool towards addressing the problem of hunger and the inefficiencies within our food supply chain.

A study by Food for All Africa programme between 2015-2016 showed that 92% of stakeholders in Ghanas food supply chain agreed that,with a national regulation mechanism they would want to donate their excess food to the vulnerable rather than waiting for it to go waste and dispose off.

Donors often fear that they will be held legally responsible if recipients of donated food become ill, and this fear discourages them from donating. However, with the National Food Donors Encouragement laws that protect food donors from liability.

The National Food Donors Act will protect

Persons or gleaners making good faith donations of food or grocery products to nonprofit charitable organizations such as orphanages, schools and vulnerable communities are protected. A gleaner is someone who harvests donated agricultural crops.

Nonprofit organizations that receive the donated food, and ultimately distribute the donations to those in need are also covered.

Private Businesses donating their excess food products or resources towards creating sustainable means of nutrition for the vulnerable in society. Tax incentives must be given to amount donated.

Good faith/CSR donations, made to nonprofit organizations, ultimately going to those in need are protected. The donations must be:

1) Apparently wholesome food.

(2) Apparently fit grocery products.

These items meet the PNDCL 3058 Food and Drugs Act, local labeling and quality standards but may not be readily marketable because of factors like age, appearance, freshness, grade, or size.

Slightly flawed partially complying donations, made in good faith, are also protected if:

(1) The donor informs the nonprofit of the items condition;

(2) The nonprofit knows the standards required to make the item conform;

(3) The nonprofit agrees to recondition the item to meet those standards.

These flaws can include broken packaging or missing labels, or items needing washing or trimming before distribution. Acceptance of such items helps use edible food that might otherwise be thrown away due to a technicality.

How are donors protected?

If the donation is made in good faith (honestly and with sincere intentions), the National Food Donors Encouragement Act will exempt those donors from civil or criminal liability which might arise from the

donations nature, age, packaging or condition. The law will also protect donors of food that is fit for human consumption, regardless of compliance with food labeling/ packaging laws and storage/handling by the recipients.

When are donors not protected?

Liability arises if a food donor or recipient organization knows that their actions will harm or are likely to harm the recipient, and consciously acts anyway  i.e., gross negligence or intentional misconduct.

Under the Food Donors Encouragement bill, gross negligence is a much higher standard than

ordinary negligence. Gross negligence should mean that a donor (or recipient organization) knew

when it acted that its conduct was likely to harm someone else, and consciously acted (or failed to act), regardless of that knowledge.

Under the Bill, Intentional misconduct means a donor (or recipient organization) deliberately acted with knowledge that its actions would be harmful to others.

Why donate?

Donation of surplus food connects those in need with edible food that would otherwise be sent to landfills. 3 out of 5 children out of the 90,000 street children in Accra who are out of school run away from orphanages due to lack of regular means of nutrition. These people are part of the citys population that does not have sufficient access or resources available to obtain and consume enough nutritious food to support a healthy life.

In Ghana,1 out of 4 children goes to bed hungry(UNICEF ,2015) at a time when 45% of food goes uneaten and much of that contributes to the over 15 million tons of food that ends up rotting in landfills. Connecting hungry people with available food helps combat both of these critical problems.

Donations also create savings for donors by lowering the costs of food disposal and the opportunity for charitable food donation tax deductions.

Why Food for All Ghana Programme?

Food for All Ghana programme makes the surplus food donation process easy, by picking up and transporting food and grocery item donations to the places and programs that need them. This helps

valuable programs stretch their limited budgets during a time of decreasing government and foundation funding, keeps edible food out of landfills, and most importantly, helps hungry people have better access to a nutritious meal. Food for All Africa has since 2015 been operating West Africas first community food support centre and have created a forum for stakeholders within Ghanas food supply chain to work together towards reducing hunger in Ghana and accelerate Ghanas effort in attaining the UN SDG 2 and 12.

Considering the outcome of research and report from the 1st Food for All Ghana conference held in 2016, the need for a nationwide protection offered by a National Food Donors Encouragement Act, the valuable incentives for reducing hunger and wasting food, and the ease of expanding the National Food feeding program, Food for All Africa programme on 15th June, 2017 will launch a two years multi-stakeholder National campaign for the passage of the Food Donors Encouragement Bill.
It is an open secret that post-colonial Africa is still meandering its ways between an abyss of decay and an ocean of dependence. In West African country of Ghana for example, frantic efforts by the first president Kwame Nkrumah, to deconstruct the countrys institutions and economy from its colonial and western structures saw the finances and the prospects of that nation condemned to decomposition. Tensions are rising in international politics. As territorial beings, we cannot eschew divine intervention in keeping at bay, possible theatres of war in the world. The purpose of this article is to reflect on the history of global wars and also remind African leaders of the economic challenges ahead of them under global tension. I will limit myself to Ghana.

History bears an ample testimony that the First World War (WWI) was caused by the eastern question. The eastern question centered on one predominant conundrum: what should happen to the Balkans if and when the Ottoman Empire collapsed as a formidable political influence in the Southeastern Europe? Each of the great powers namely: Turkey, Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Germany tackled each crisis with the conviction of becoming advantageous over the other.

The immediate cause of WWI was the relationship between Austria and Serbia. In 1911, a secret society known as the Black Hand was formed under the auspices of Col Dragutin Dimitrijevic of Serbia. Members of the society were predominantly soldiers and some government officials. The Black Hand adopted terrorism approaches to free the Serbs (People from Serbia) in dispersion from Habsburg dynasty in Austria or Ottoman government. The Black Hand master-minded the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. This egregious crime sparked-off the WWI.

The immediate cause of the 2nd world war (WWII) was Adolf Hitler and Nazis territorial aggrandizement which culminated in the invasion of Poland in 1939. Great Britain and France heretofore pledged to protect Polands boarders from Hitlers aggressive expansionism. When Germany invaded Poland, France and Great Britain kept their promise and as a corollary declared war on Germany.

The alliance between Germany under Hitler, Benito Mussolinis Italy and Hideki Tojos Japan became known as the Axis forces. The Axis forces fought against the allies comprising Great Britain (under Prime Minister Arthur Chamberlain), United States (under Franklin D. Roosevelt) and the Soviet Union (under Joseph Stalin). Hitlers invasion of Russia under Operation Barbarossa drove Russia into the conflict. Japanese bombardment of the American fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941 attracted the USA into WWII. Following the defeat of France in 1940, Great Britain became lonely relative to the War under discussion. American General Dwight D. Eisenhower who later became president was instrumental in the Allies successes chalked against the demonic Hitler and his partners in crime. In 1945, two atomic bombs were dropped in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with calamitous consequences. The Axis forces surrendered unconditionally in 1945.

Since its formation in 1945, The United Nations (UN) frowned upon weapons of mass destruction like nuclear weapons. According to the UN office of disarmament affairs Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous weapons on earth. One can destroy a whole city, potentially killing millions, and jeopardizing the natural environment and lives of future generations through its long-term catastrophic effects. The dangers from such weapons arise from their very existence. Although nuclear weapons have only been used twice in warfarein the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945about 22,000 reportedly remain in our world today and there have been over 2,000 nuclear tests conducted to date. Disarmament is the best protection against such dangers, but achieving this goal has been a tremendously difficult challenge. Discerning readers can follow this link: https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/

Campaign against weapon of mass destruction remains an illusion. In Syria chemical weapons attack killed many civilians. According to CNN The United States launched a military strike Thursday on a Syrian government airbase in response to a chemical attack weapons that killed dozens of civilians earlier in the week. On President Donald Trump's orders, US warships launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the airbase that was home to the warplanes that carried out the chemical attacks, US officials said. Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria had been accused of the chemical weapon explosion.

Against the UN orders, North Korea is reported to have conducted five nuclear test. President Donald Trump has vowed to stop the North Korean Nuclear nonsense. Will China be happy with military intervention in North Korea? Japan colonized Korea from 1910 until 1945. Per the agreement between USA and Russia, the latter liberated the northern portion of Korea compelling USA to move to southern part. As the friction between capitalism and communism gathered momentum, Korea was divided into two (North Korea and South Korea). The major Allies of the North Korea now is China and Russia. USA is in loved with South Korea.

Politically China wants to be glorified as a formidable force in the Southeastern Asia. In spite of North Koreas oppressive regime, an attack on the country will strike a lethal blow to Chinas foreign relation with that country orchestrated by diplomatic susurrus and brinkmanship. Strategically, about 25 million North Korean population will increase the number of refugees into China, South Korea or Russia. China is already saddled with lots of North Korean immigrants. Economically, about 80% of the coal and Iron from North Korea are exported to China.

A military intervention in North Korea with subsequent reunification of South and North Korea will harm China economically. China will do everything possible to avoid military intervention in North Korea. President Trump will not tolerate any nuclear test in North Korea. Pyeongyangs Kim Jong-un has promised merciless response to USAs military intervention including the use of nuclear weapon. From the experience of WWI and WWII, what will be the reaction China? Russia also formed an alliance with Assads regime to drive away ISIS. What will be the reaction of Russia? Will United States enemies join forces with North Korea and its allies? Can the four headmasters, Assad, Trump, Kim Jong-un and Putin be trusted with the world peace? Is the world on the verge of destructive rampage? Brethren, let us pray fervently against the spirits of War. United Nation must move in swiftly to clamp down a possible 3rd world war.

Ghana and other African countries which depend on gold, diamond, oil, and cocoa exports will experience major economic setbacks under global conflict. Imported goods will be scarce due to maritime insecurity. A high profile global war will be a catalyst for political instability. The donor support on Ghanas budget may not come. Businesses will collapse with its attendant rising unemployment. Government may not have funds to pay workers and manage the country. African leaders must undertake austerity measures, avoid profligate spending and save funds for unforeseen contingencies. Believers, let us pray for global peace and security. God, redeem this world from another holocaust!

By Nana Yaw Osei (Padigo), Minnesota, USA

[email protected]
Just the use of the word "SUBSTANDARD" has provoked the hell out of a whole party.The party has become so uncomfortable and uneasy like a fish let out of water.(That's the power of words, in fact,political wording).

They are issuing official statements here and there demanding for an official apology from Joy FM and the host Sampson Lardi Ayenini.

Communicators and social media commentators and infact,attention seekers of the party have taken the person of the humble servant of our dear nation(Sampson) to the cleaners and market, probably for sale at a very cheap price.

Unprintable words such as,"fickle minded typical buffon; empty headed village boy talkative" are rained on the person of this gentle man.

I'm told a whole lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST) or is it the information minister jointly started the fray of insults.(Well, they have clarified, it's the lecturer Mustapha Hammeed and not the information minister Mustapha Hamid).

Is it now a crime to hail from a certain part of this country,countrymen? One of their communicators ignorantly wrote, "...now, he never thought where he came from he would ever get that big opportunity to be rubbing shoulders with the BIG NAMES ON RADIO AND ON GH POLITICAL SPACE."

Where does he hail from?Yes, the Northern Part of Ghana,Bolgatanga specifically!And what has that got to do with the work that he does?In your own words, does that mean people from that part of the country cannot "rub shoulders" with others in the political and journalistic space?

I won't be the one to remind you that the current fine vice president is rubbing shoulders with all the big names and he hails from the north.The immediate past president His excellency John Dramani Mahama hails from the north.But he ruled you for close to 6 years.Take this or feel free to burn the sea...Manasseh Azuri Awuni hails from the north,in fact, the same region as Sampson,and they are all big brains when it comes to Journalism in Ghana.So what is the point here!

Now to the substance of the matter,today, the use of "Substandard" we are made to believe is an insult to the NPP and the said communicators.

We were all in this country when the same party took the former president to the cleaners.His name was changed from "His excellency" to "His INCOMPETENCE."The word incompetence became a house hold name in the NPP.Incompetent Mahama.Incompetent Mahama.Incompetent Mahama.They sold this phrase even to the international media.(It's instructive to note that SUBSTANDARD can be SYNONYMOUS to INCOMPETENCE in a way and in some context of usage).

"The poor boy from Bole" was accused of appointing amateurs as deputy ministers and ministers alike.These honourable men were described as "babies with sharp teeth."(Credit to former president Jerry John Rawlings).They were insulted,bastardized and reduced to nothing.

The former president was even pressed to the extent that he had to reply by saying that such critics have come no where near the presidency."You don't know what it takes to be president..."He charged.

That is the power of words.You never saw anything wrong when you were trying to run down a whole president and his appointees just because of the thirst for power.(The golden rule is applicable).

Today, it's a journalist not a politician against just two of your communicators and hell is breaking loose in this country.

Let the young man be.Sampson Lardi and Joy FM do not owe the NPP or its communicators any apology.After all,it's a democracy .It's freedom of speech.And just like Manasseh echoed,Journalist have the right and must begin to dictate the pace.

Sampson Lardi and Joy FM must be bold and stand on principle.They should never render any apology to the NPP or its communicators . It's a matter of principle and not pity.

Happy Easter and May God Bless us all with renew hearts and minds to watch our words and put Ghana first.

ananpansah-ab.blogspot.com

ANANPANSAH,B ABRAHAM(AB)

0241129910/0200704844
A media consultant and an adjunct lecturer of Communication and Journalism at the Blue Crest College in Accra, Mr Akilu Sayibu, says there is absolutely nothing wrong with a perceived opposition media carrying adverts of the ruling government.

Not only is such an action a purely commercial one but also Journalistically ethical and falls within the Journalistic principle of fairness and equality of practice.

Mr Akilu Sayibu, who has practiced journalism for over two decades, believes such practices should rather be encouraged since it can attract more readership as well as viewers or listeners to such media organizations to serve as a source of funding for the sustenance of the private media who are suffering and unable to break even in terms of income.

The Media Professional expressed this sentiment during an interaction with the media in Accra in the wake of criticisms and condemnations of an Accra based Daily Guide newspaper for carrying an advert of President Mahama's second term bid.

According to Mr Sayibu, who is also the Managing Editor of The Voiceless, the marketing department of the DailyGuide newspaper must lobby the government and its agencies for more of such adverts to meet its operational cost.

"The Daily Guide, per my checks, employs more than 200 workers in the country . How can the paper survive without such adverts?", he asked rhetorically.

Mr Sayibu has appealed to the Government to make such adverts available to The New Statesman newspaper as well to encourage the growth of the media in Ghana.

The Voiceless

http://www.thevoicelessonline.com
16.04.2017 LISTEN

I watched the vetting of Dr Ziblim Iddi, Minister-designate for Tourism and Creative Arts, on the 3rd of April, 2017 by Parliament's Appointment Committee. There was no doubt at all that Dr Ziblim did enough research and got substantial literature to face the committee. That he did well at the vetting, is not debatable.

My particular issue on this occasion was a question Alhassan Suhuyini asked about Dr Ziblim's role as a Spokesperson for the Abudu Royal gate of Dagbon. He tried to smuggle tourism into the question to make it relevant. As an indigene of Dagbon, I feel that the question was not only irrelevant but also balderdash. It was yet another example of how Dagombas are trigger happy washing our dirty linen in public.

There are more conflicts in other Regions than even the Northern Region.

In Accra where Parliament is located and where Suhuyini asked that bogus question, there are three people claiming to be Ga Mantses yet no Minister designate from Accra is asked a question about the Chieftaincy crisis in Accra by the Gas on the Appointments Committee. Why can't our Dagomba MPs take a cue from this? Why didn't Suhuyini ask a question about the "Adibo" Battle and how Adibo could be made a tourist destination to generate money at least for the socio-economic development of the area?

Dear readers, did you notice that Suhuyini did not ask a single question on tourism and creative arts in Dagbon?

The Dagombas on the Appointments Committee should not see it as an opportunity to get at other Dagombas appearing before them.

We can not continue to ask questions that will divide Dagbon more than unite us.

I have always said it and I am repeating that Abudu is not a tribe neither is Andani. We are all Dagombas. We either sink or swim together.

We are privileged to see our respected Chiefs and Opinion leaders come to Parliament to support appointees. This is an excellent opportunity to appeal to them to work to bring lasting peace to Dagbon but not what another Dagomba did now or in the past.

If we have suggestions to make about peace in Dagbon, let's direct such suggestions to the various Houses of Chiefs and other bodies.

This populism with the Dagbon conflict in Parliament by Dagombas must stop and now. We can't have eternity to continue to score cheap and populist points from our crisis.

Alhassan Suhuyini, you underperformed in Parliament today. Don't you care about tourism and creative arts in Tamale North and Dagbon? I leave it to you.

By Akilu Sayibu

Tamale North
- Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state has again hit the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido

- The governor accused Sanusi of hypocrisy, saying he cares less about poverty level of his people

- He also advised Emir Sanusi to practise what he preaches rather than throw accusation at others

Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state has again hit the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, for criticising his response to the outbreak of meningitis, accusing him of hypocrisy.

Governor Yari had attributed the recent outbreak of Meningitis in the northern part of country to the wrath of God over adultery and fornication.

READ ALSO: Ikoyi EFCC discovery: Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue releases official statement, says it is the work of enemies

Legit.ng previously reported that in response to Governor Yaris claims on the cause of Meningitis, Emir Sanusi publicly criticized Yari as he emphasized that North-west and North-east zones were the most poorest in the country. He urged the northern leaders, especially the governors to rise up to their responsibilities.

Governor Abdulaziz yari of Zamfara state

But Governor Yari in a statement signed on Saturday April 15 by his Special Adviser on Communication, Mr Ibrahim Dosara, said that Emir Sanusi was riding on Rolls Royce while his subjects are in face of palpable poverty.

The statement reads: For those who consider the emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II to be anything but a first class intellectual, a consummate banker and a bona fide member of Nigerias royalty, the last couple of weeks were a dizzying spectacle of mixed messages on integrity, royalty and wisdom.

Within a perimeter of weeks, HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II, whose royal tentacles and social networks traverse the length and breadth of this country, lambasted the nations economic framework, the northern elite, sub-national leadership especially the governor of Zamfara state, Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar, and the traditional institution of marriage.

With due respect to our highly revered traditional institutions and royal fathers, as a blue-blooded family member himself, Hon Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar holds the emir in very high esteem.

"He believes that the emir as a brother and co-occupant of elite positions in Nigeria, he could advise governors and those in positions of authority in several chains of communication that are richly available to him. But he preferred the public platform, for reasons best known to him.

READ ALSO: Goodluck Jonathan sends Easter message to Nigerians

Governor Yari firmly believes that a country that goes to its pastors and Imams who recommend prayer and fasting as the solution to every social misfortune, from matrimonial disagreements, to social and economic complications needs to be wary of the wrath of God in the event of an epidemic of unquantifiable proportion such as Type C meningitis. And as a country that succumbs to the supremacy of Allah, we must continue to link Him with all things, fair or foul.

Those who want to equate science with God, like HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II, can denounce Yaris statement from the rooftops but that will not change Governor Yaris beliefs in the omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence of Allah.

By a certain bizarre coincidence too, like a prophesy foretold, Sheikh Mahmood Jaafar had before he was assassinated named Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as one of those whose hypocrisy would bring an epidemic of monumental proportions to this country. The tapes are very much in circulation long after Sheikh Jaafars death.

But for a traditional ruler who identifies the problems of his people and utters these words: We are in denial.

"The north-west and the north-east, demographically, constitute the bulk of Nigerias population, but look at human development indices, look at the number of children out of school, look at adult literacy, look at maternal mortality, look at infant mortality, look at girl-child completion rate, look at income per capita

READ ALSO: Presidency blames Jonathan for current problem

"The north-east and the north-west Nigeria are among the poorest parts of the world, and yet when his friends offered help, he asks for a Rolls Royce.

In this Legit.ng video, Emir Lamido Sanusi blames Nigeria's woes on bad leadership.

Source: Legit.ng
- A professor of Christian theology has dismissed the believe that Jesus Christ died to save the world

- Pius Oyeniran Abioje of University of Ilorin says Jesus Christ was killed by haters of truth

- He claimed that the conspiracy that killed Jesus Christ came from the millieu of the chief priest and the political elite

Pius Oyeniran Abioje, a professor of Christian theology at the University of Ilorin, has dismissed the believe that Jesus Christ died to save the world.

The professor said this while delivering the 167th Inaugural Lecture of the university, entitled, Christian Prophets and Other Prophets in Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Primate Ayodele gives chilling prophecies about Nigeria

According to him, Jesus Christ was killed by haters of truth.

He claimed that the conspiracy that killed Jesus Christ came from the millieu of the chief priest and the political elite

The conspiracy that killed Jesus Christ came from the millieu of the chief priest and the political elite.

Regrettably,the interpretations by many Christians is that God wanted Jesus to die so as to save the world. Yet the world continues to persecute innocent critical prophets.

Why cannot Christians emphasise that Jesus was killed by haters of truth, the religio-political powers that be, particularly since the world is still seeking redemption?

Nigerians should learn to see critical prophets as friends of the society,and pardon them whenever they happen to err, since no human being is infallible.

Going further, the professor encouraged Nigerian leaders to see critical prophets as partners in progress towards human edification and not as enemies.

READ ALSO: Governor, dignitaries escape mob attack at APC rally (photo/video)

The university don also called prophets to use their endowment for good purposes and not to exploit the people:

Divinatory/esoteric prophets should avoid fraudulence. They should see their divinatory knowledge as divine endowment to be used altruistically and not for exploitation.

People who consult esoteric prophets should be discerning and not gullible.  They should avoid frequent recourse to divinatory prophecy to avoid mediumistic psychosis

He also called on Nigerians to become critical prophets so as to be able to speak out against evil.

He said: Academic programmes generally should include introduction to critical prophecy, which makes a person to be committed to advocacy in godly words and actions, even as medical doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers and so on and not only as clergy men and women, Virtues for which critical prophets strive is unarguably the key to individual and social progress, even when truth can be very bitter.

In this video below, Legit.ng brings you the reason you need to help the needy during this Easter period.

Source: Legit.ng
- Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state says the government of Muhammadu Buhari has many questions to answer concerning the funds

- Governor Fayose said the All Progressives Congress (APC) has a lot of secrets it is keeping away from the public over the fund

- Read the 6 major questions asked by the Nigeria Bar Association vice president, Monday Ubani

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state has thrown up at least 10 questions that Muhammadu Buharis government as well as the All Progressives Congress (APC) must answer concerning the various sums recently recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

It was made public that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) claimed ownership of the $43,449,947, 27,800 and N23, 218,000 seized on Wednesday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from Osborne Towers, a luxury residential complex in Ikoyi, Lagos.

This, to my mind, is one cover-up too many and this federal governments seeming plot to protect the original owner of both the money and the apartment where it was found has further shown that the anti-corruption fight is political, selective and therefore a ruse, Fayose said.

Fayose alleged a big cover-up in the recently recovered fund

Legit.ng had earlier reported that the Rivers state government, led by Nyesom Wike, had given the federal government a seven-day ultimatum for the money to be returned or it would resort to legal actions.

Wike claims the money was part of the funds looted by Rotimi Amaechi, the former governor of the state who is now a minister in the government of Buhari. Amaechi has denied this claim.

READ ALSO: FRSC officials attacked for demanding bribe (photos/video)

Fayose stressed: Nigerians should recall that I have consistently maintained that the APC-led federal government was not fighting any corruption.

Rather, the government is using the anti-corruption fight as a major political tool to cripple opposition and turn the country to a one party state.

Therefore, for once, the federal government should operate with the mind-set that Nigerians are no fools. They are capable of asking questions and they are already doing that.

According to the governor, some of the questions currently begging for answer are:

1. Who is the owner of the apartment in which the money was found?

2. Does the apartment also belong to the NIA?

3. If the apartment belong to the NIA, when was it bought and from whom?

4. If the apartment does not belong to the NIA, from whom and when was it rented?

5. How could a whistle-blower be aware of movement of money into one out of many apartments in a building without knowing the owner of the apartment?

6. If truly the NIA was carrying out a covert operation as claimed, was President Muhammadu Buhari not briefed of the so-called covert operation when he took over power?

7. Was the National Security Adviser (NSA), whose office controls all intelligence agencies, including the EFCC and DSS not aware of the covert operation?

8. Was there any security presence at the vicinity of the apartment to suggest that it was being used as warehouse for over N13 billion cash belonging to the NIA?

9. Does NIA need an unprotected apartment to keep such huge sum of money purportedly meant for covert operation?

10. How much was released for the so-called covert operation, how much has been spent and to who was account rendered up to date?

As for me, the script being acted on this discovered cash is a cover-up that will mar the EFCC and the federal government. It is a movie well scripted for some alawada (comedians) but acted so badly.

Wike had allleged that the fund belongs to the Rivers state government

It is case of a dog that has been eating other peoples children to the admiration of its owner suddenly attacking the beloved son of the owners friend and they are now trying to cover-up the dog owner.

It is a major test of the integrity of the APC federal governments so-called anti-corruption fight, and the earlier the proponents of the cover-up plot come back to their normal senses and tell Nigerians who owns the apartment in which the money was found, the better for them, Fayose added.

The governor maintained that in the last few weeks, we have been served with dramas of recovery of funds by the EFCC.

READ ALSO: Primate Ayodele gives chilling prophecies about Nigeria

He also noted that N49 million in cash ranging from N200 to N50 was said to have been found in Kaduna Airport and was promptly arrested by EFCC officials.

But up till now, Nigerians have not been told the identities of those who brought the five sacks in which the cash was found into the airport despite the presence of CCTV cameras at the airport.

EFCC also fed Nigerians with tales of recovery of N448,850,000 cash from a shop at LEGICO Shopping Plaza, Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos. We were told that the shop had not been opened for two years and one wonders how the cash got into the shop.

Up till today, EFCC is yet to tell Nigerians the identity of the owner of the shop and Nigerians are asking whether or not the Legico Shopping Plaza, Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos is not owned by anyone and the owner of the Plaza won't be able to identify his or her tenant.

As for this latest drama, which has boomeranged, even though we know that the APC-led federal government has the capacity to sweep it under the carpet like many others before it, Nigerians will have it on record that they are being ruled by a government of the more you look, the less you see, the governor said.

Watch this video as APC chieftain, Timi Frank, speaks about his party and its challenges:

Source: Legit.ng
Legit.ng gathered that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has declared a Nigerian man identified as Kelechi Declan James, wanted for perpetrating scams worth N2 billion.

According to reports posted on the FBI official website, Kelechi has been scamming people and has so far managed to make $5 million (N2,025,000,000) off unsuspecting victims.

The FBI has since declared him wanted, and even went further to offer a reward in exchange for information on his whereabouts.

The general public has been offered a reward of $1,000 (N405,000), to anyone with valuable information.

READ ALSO: Man handcuffs wife to generator overnight in Ogun state

Kelechi Declan James

Here's what they shared on their website:

"FBI agents are looking for the publics assistance in locating Kelechi Declan James. He has federal criminal charges against him from an investigation by FBI New Yorks Cyber Crime Task Force. James is known to frequent the Brooklyn neighborhoods of East New York (Crescent Street and Loring Avenue; Vermont Street between Blake Avenue and Dumont Avenue), Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant (MacDougal and Hull Streets), Crown Heights (Park Place and Utica Avenue), Flatbush (E 29th and Avenue D), and East Flatbush (East 51st and Winthrop Street). The FBI is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to his arrest.

READ ALSO: Nigerian bishop shares photos of his customised church, the first in the world

James is 32 years old, 6'0" tall, and approximately 175 pounds. He is a Nigerian national, has brown eyes and black hair, and may have a beard. Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of James is urged to contact law enforcement immediately. The FBI can be reached 24 hours a day at (212) 384-1000. He is not considered to be violent in nature.

As alleged in a complaint sworn out of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, James, along with four other co-conspirators, ran a business e-mail compromise scheme that resulted victim losses of more than $5 million for their victims.

READ ALSO: Student killed for asking "too many questions" about Islam

As part of scheme, James and his co-conspirators defrauded victims across the U.S. by tricking them into wiring money to bank accounts the victims believed were owned by family members, friends, or business associates. They did this in two ways: by overtaking an e-mail account of an individual trusted by the victim and then requesting money be wired to a bank account; or by developing a relationship of trust with victim like an Internet romance and then asking the victim to wire money. As soon as the money was wired, it would be moved from one account to another, and the funds would be withdrawn. Jamess role in this scheme was to withdraw the money from bank accounts."

Meanwhile, Nigerians have declared popular Ponzi scheme MMM, a fraud, see video below:

Source: Legit.ng
James Valentine returned to his roots, geographic and musical, Saturday when he joined the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

Valentine grew up in Lincoln, planning to be a jazz musician, studying with several NJO members and playing guitar in jazz and rock ensembles. He now lives in Los Angeles and plays guitar in Maroon 5, one of the worlds most successful pop bands.

Appropriately enough, then, Valentines first song with the NJO was Out on a Whim, a Mike Tomaro composition that hed first played in the Southeast High School jazz band. His second number was a big-band version of Maroon 5s Grammy-winning This Love that found Valentine working variations on the repeating guitar sound he recorded with the band.

Links between Valentine, Lincoln and jazz were revealed throughout the 11-song, two-set performance. Like Valentine trading passages with his teacher, Peter Bouffard, on Everybodys Party, a la guitarists John Scofield and Pat Metheny, and the debut of Los Feliz, a song written for Valentine and the NJO by Nate Walcott, one of Valentines best friends growing up who is currently the keyboardist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Even when there seemed to be no obvious connection, Saturdays musical selections tied into Valentine and the NJOs history, right down to the final two numbers, compositions by Dave Stryker, an Omaha native who more than a decade ago was the last guitarist to appear with the NJO.

I was at that show, Valentine quipped, seemingly to the surprise of the NJO members before impressively ending the concert by flying through Blues for Brother Jack.

While he has not regularly played straight-up jazz for years, Valentine doesnt appear to have lost any chops, whether delivering a lyrical solo on Methenys James, demonstrating that theres not a lot of difference between blues in jazz or in pop, or getting out a ways with bends and echoes on Bill Frisells Blues for Los Angeles, a song that belongs in a film noir soundtrack that was, for me, the highlight of the night.

At its core, Saturdays show was fun for all involved  that was Valentines first comment when I talked to him afterward  and a near-perfect homecoming concert.
Just as Nigerians were beginning to heave a sigh of relief over the Southern Kaduna crisis, gunmen have reportedly attacked Asso community in Jemaa local government area of the state.

At the time of this report, the details of the attack were not clear, but a statement by Samuel Aruwan, the spokesperson to Nasir El-Rufai, said the governor condemned the act.

Legit.ng reports that over 200 people have died in the attacks between Fulani herdsmen and natives of Southern Kaduna since the crisis started.

Attacks on Southern Kaduna communities have resulted in deaths and destruction of properties

Premium Times reports the governor as saying: The victims and their families, while affirming that security operations are being ramped to rid the forest areas of the bandits."

READ ALSO: Primate Ayodele gives chilling prophecies about Nigeria

The attack is coming at a time Governor El-Rufai launched an operation to end the attacks in the area.

The governor said in the statement: The forthcoming Operation Harbin Kunama II is a necessary step towards ending the violence in parts of southern Kaduna.

The governor spoke while condemning the weekend attack on Asso community in Gwong Chiefdom of Jemaa local government area of the state."

The governor extended his condolence to the victims and their families, while affirming that security operations are being ramped to rid the forest areas of the bandits.

He charged security agencies to redouble their efforts in fishing out those behind the killings, and to act promptly on carefully vetted intelligence.

The statement said that agencies responsible for emergency services have been directed to offer relief.

READ ALSO: Governor, dignitaries escape mob attack at APC rally (photo/video)

The governor requested support from communities to the security agencies as the Nigerian Army gets set to commence a major operation tagged Operation Harbin Kunama II, including assisting the Nigerian Army with vital information that could aid a successful clampdown on elements responsible for this terror attacks on our citizens.

Watch the second part of the devastation caused by Fulani herdsmen on Southern Kaduna as captured by Legit.ng:

Source: Legit.ng
- A daughter of the former PDP BoT chairman, Chief Tony Anenih has been linked to $50m seized by EFCC

- Mrs Patricia Edo-Osagie is a daughter to Chief Anenihs second wife who died after a protracted illness

A daughter of the former Chairman Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustee, Chief Tony Anenih, Mrs Patricia Edo-Osagie has been allegedly revealed as the owner of $50m recovered by EFCC from in Lagos state.

According to Sahara Reporters, Chief Anenihs second wife, Patricia Anenih who died after a protracted illness, was the mother of Mrs Edo-Osagie.

READ ALSO: Emir Sanusi reveals why he allegedly supported his daughter for slapping a man

Legit.ng previously reported that Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state had said that the $43 million found in the apartment belongs to the Rivers state government, claiming that investigations by the government revealed that the money was the proceed from the sale of gas turbines by the immediate past Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

A bank official assisting EFCC in counting $50m recovered in an Ikoyi apartment, Lagos

Legit.ng also reported that Amaechi, the current minister of Transport under President Muhammadu Buhari, has denied he owns the money.

Addressing journalists at the Government House, Port Harcourt in the night of Friday, April 14, Governor Wike said: The money in question belongs to the former Rivers state Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

We want to confirm that the houses in Ikoyi also belong to Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. If you recollect in 2015, we said that gas turbines built by former Governor Peter Odili were sold to Sahara Energy, business partners of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi at $319 million.

That money was used to sponsor the All Progressives Congress for the 2015 general elections. From the date of sale of the gas turbines to May 29, 2015, the money depleted from $319 million to $204,000. What was stashed at the Ikoyi residence was part of that fund.

"A statement by Simeon Nwakaudu, the special assistant to the governor on electronic media, and obtained by Legit.ng, quoted the governor as saying further: We have facts to prove that the said money belongs to the Rivers state government.

READ ALSO: El-Rufai under attacks over comments on Tinubu, S/Wests role in Buharis victory

The federal government must return our money. "Governor Wike said all the stories being peddled about the money belonging to the National Intelligence Agency are false and mere face saving measures by the embattled APC federal government.

Meanwhile, in the video below by Legit.ng, Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II blasts Nigeria's leaders over poverty.

Source: Legit.ng
China has revealed the first known images of an indigenous scramjet test that it says was successfully conducted at speeds up to Mach 7 and altitudes up to 30 km, in December 2015.



Credit: National Natural Science Foundation of China.



Studies of a folding-wing hypersonic boost-glide vehicle designed for deployment from a launcher at Mach 5 and 30-km altitude show dramatic changes in the center of pressure on release. Credit: China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology



Tests of a magneto-hydrodynamic heat shield system showed performance could be boosted by seeding the flow with potassium particles. Credit: College of Aerospace Science and Engineering



Ground tests of a hydrogen-fueled continuous-rotating detonation ramjet at Mach 4.5 and simulated 18.5-km altitude indicated positive thrust was obtained. Credit: National University of Defense Technology

China will test a prototype combined-cycle hypersonic engine later this year that they hope will pave the way for the first demonstration flight of a full-scale propulsion system by 2025. If successful, the engine could be the first of its type in the world to power a hypersonic vehicle or the first stage of a two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane. Combined-cycle systems have long been studied as a potential means to access to space and long-range hypersonic vehicles.

Chinese Academy of Sciences professor Lihong Chen said: We also developed a low cost near-space science and technology flight test platform. The first flight test was successfully carried out, and key issues of the scramjet were demonstrated at Mach 3.5-7 and at altitudes of 15-30 km [9-18 mi.]. Offering no further details, Chen says the flight test was targeted at fundamental research under a program that she likened to the Australian-U.S. Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) effort.

Zhang Yong, a CASTC engineer, claimed that China will master the spaceplanes technologies in the next three to five years, and a full-scale spaceplane would then enter service by 2030.

Lihong Chen had written a Feb 2016, paper in Acta Mechanica Sinica  Engine performance analysis and optimization of a dual-mode scramjet with varied inlet conditions.

A dual-mode scramjet can operate in a wide range of flight conditions. Higher thrust can be generated by adopting suitable combustion modes. Based on the net thrust, an analysis and preliminary optimal design of a kerosene-fueled parameterized dual-mode scramjet at a crucial flight Mach number of 6 were investigated by using a modified quasi-one-dimensional method and simulated annealing strategy. Engine structure and heat release distributions, affecting the engine thrust, were chosen as analytical parameters for varied inlet conditions (isolator entrance Mach number: 1.53.5). Results show that different optimal heat release distributions and structural conditions can be obtained at five different inlet conditions. The highest net thrust of the parameterized dual-mode engine can be achieved by a subsonic combustion mode at an isolator entrance Mach number of 2.5. Additionally, the effects of heat release and scramjet structure on net thrust have been discussed. The present results and the developed analytical method can provide guidance for the design and optimization of high-performance dual-mode scramjets.
They cannot grieve, they cannot remarry, they cannot sell property, the family has lost their breadwinner.

FADWA MAHMOUD, the wife of a Syrian dissident who disappeared in 2012, describing the plight of Syrian women whose loved ones are among the 100,000 detained or missing.
For the past few months, an elite hacking group calling itself the Shadow Brokers has sporadically leaked sensitive data from the National Security Agency. On Friday, just when its leaks had appeared to slow, the group released what appears to be its most damaging leak so far: a trove of highly classified hacking tools used to break into various Microsoft systems, along with what it said was evidence that the N.S.A. had infiltrated the backbone of the Middle Easts banking infrastructure.

The timing of the leaks coincides with the United States recent shift in policy in Syria, which has escalated the conflict with the Syrian governments main backer, Russia. The Shadow Brokers wrote in broken English in an online post, which cited the American missile attack on a Syrian air base among other reasons for the leak, that after a hiatus, it had returned to leaking because it was upset that President Trump was abandoning the peoples who getting you elected.

Among the leaks on Friday was an extensive list of PowerPoint and Excel documents that, if authentic, indicate that the N.S.A. has successfully infiltrated EastNets, a company based in Dubai that helps to manage transactions in the international bank messaging system called Swift.

Swift, short for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is used by about 11,000 banks to transfer money from one country to another. The vast majority of those banks rely on Swift service bureaus, like EastNets, the largest bureau in the Middle East, to handle their transactions. The latest leaks suggest that, by hacking EastNets, the N.S.A. may have successfully hacked, or at minimum targeted, computers inside some of the biggest banks in the Middle East, including ones in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; Kuwait; Qatar; Syria; Yemen; and the Palestinian territories. Among the leaked documents was a now-patched N.S.A. road map to hacking Swifts back-end infrastructure, which could be used by cybercriminals in the future.
Addressing Mr. Fallon again, he said, Jared, Ive sent you all around the world to represent me, but no ones ever heard you speak. Youre like a little Jewish Amelie. Steve, you may be smart, but I once walked in on you eating a live pig in the Roosevelt Room.

Mr. Baldwin said that whomever he did not pick would have to leave the Oval Office and join Kellyanne Conway in the basement. However, he said, that person will get to come back at the end of all of this and help send me to prison.

He revealed that he had chosen Mr. Kushner, and the Bannon character was taken away by another Grim Reaper. He called Mr. Kushner an inspiration, explaining, Youve shown everybody that if youre born rich and marry my daughter, you can do anything you want.

Instructing Mr. Fallon to fix everything, Mr. Baldwin sat himself at a smaller desk, next to the larger one hed started at, where he and Mr. Fallon proclaimed the start of the show.

Later in the program, Melissa McCarthy (appearing by satellite from Los Angeles) reprised her recurring S.N.L. role as Mr. Spicer, the White House press secretary.

Mr. Spicer had drawn intense criticism over a news briefing on Tuesday in which he said that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria was worse than Hitler, who didnt even sink to using chemical weapons (ignoring his use of gas chambers during the Holocaust), and then clarified his remarks to say, incorrectly, that Hitler was not using the gas on his own people.
1. The United States is flexing its military muscle.

With a U.S. naval strike force off the Korean Peninsula, North Korea conducted a missile test rather than a nuclear one. It fizzled, but military analysts took note of three types of long-range ballistic missiles at a military parade, above, in the North. Vice President Mike Pence is in Seoul.

In Afghanistan, the American use of the mother of all bombs signaled a strategic turn under President Trump  and stirred Afghan political trouble.
Mike Hilgers lives in a diverse and challenging legislative neighborhood.

A committed conservative, Hilgers is surrounded by a circle of moderates, progressives and liberals when state senators are gathered in their assigned seats.

Those seven senators  Vargas, Crawford, Pansing Brooks, Morfeld, Quick, Howard and McCollister, an independent-minded Republican  are his colleagues in a nonpartisan legislature, Hilgers says, and there's a ready opportunity for him to get to know them and exchange views.

"There is no party caucus and no ideological caucus, no one to tell you what to do," Hilgers says.

"We have complete independence and freedom. We are free to pursue our own policy interests. No one is driving the bus here."

"I love the independence," the freshman senator from northwest Lincoln said during an early morning interview in his legislative office.

And in a nonpartisan Legislature, there's a wide-open opportunity to attempt to influence  and learn from  colleagues who have different views. Hilgers is perfectly positioned  or seated  to do just that.

Last week, there was disagreement in his legislative neighborhood. Only one of the seven neighbors voted with him in support of his high-profile, NRA-backed bill to eliminate the authority of cities in Nebraska to enact their own gun regulation laws.

One neighbor, Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln, led the attack on the bill before it squeezed past a legislative filibuster and advanced to the second stage of floor consideration.

Hilgers, a Republican, has used the first three months of his initial legislative session to try to position himself to make a difference, reaching out, roaming the chamber to visit with senators one or two at a time with a ready smile on his face, coming into the day prepared.

He's already successfully maneuvered his way through dangerous terrain as the newbie chairman of the Rules Committee during a year when a pitched battle over the Legislature's filibuster rule exploded on the floor and held the 90-day session captive for its first 30 days.

Hilgers also has negotiated a rocky start with Sen. Ernie Chambers, who took a few early shots at the freshman rules chairman before that tension morphed into what has become a more respectful and sometimes amusing relationship.

Chambers now refers to himself as the old lion and Hilgers as the young cub, and he occasionally likes to engage the cub in floor debate.

"Sen. Chambers is extremely well-prepared and he is very smart," Hilgers said. "I try to be prepared and be thoughtful. And I try to stand my ground."

There's plenty of evidence that Hilgers is persistent and does not give up or retreat from his goals. His 2016 election followed a narrow legislative loss by less than 100 votes in 2012 and a defeat in the Republican primary election for attorney general in 2014.

"I'm a fighter," he said. "When I get knocked down, I get up and just keep fighting."

Hilgers has long held a desire to hold public office and have an impact on public policy; after his third try, he's in position to do that now.

"I'm conservative," he said. "I support smaller government and lower taxes.

"I believe that most people, regardless of political ideology, perceive the same kinds of problems. Health care issues would be one of them, but there are different ways of solving that problem."

And as an attorney, Hilgers said, his experience in litigation has demonstrated that "you can find ways to solve problems between two adversaries."

To be effective in accomplishing that in the Legislature, Hilgers said, it is important to "develop very strong relationships, build a layer of trust, communicate well and listen."

In general terms, his legislative goals include a commitment to "save taxpayer money, support a strong education system, develop good-paying jobs, make this a place where Nebraskans have a great quality of life."

Hilgers grew up in Nebraska, went away to college, and met his wife, Heather, in Texas. They subsequently decided to return to Nebraska to raise a family.

Hilgers earned high marks from colleagues on both sides of the ideological divide for the manner in which he led the Rules Committee through a contentious thicket of proposed rules changes during the perilous opening days of the legislative session.

Senators were at odds and on edge after conservatives had banded together on the first day to elect a slate of committee chairpersons, virtually running the table with Republican conservatives while shutting some more experienced moderates  both Democratic and Republican  out of any leadership positions.

In that heated atmosphere, Hilgers patiently guided the Rules Committee through more than six hours of full public discussion about proposed rules changes and subsequent committee action that all sides later described as open and fair.

While his gun bill has attracted the most attention and will move him into the spotlight in coming days as Lincoln attempts to retain some local control over gun regulation just as Omaha already has, Hilgers points to a highway bill as a particularly significant measure he's sponsored.

That bill would empower the state to conduct environmental studies and perform other requirements now handled by the federal government in advance of highway construction.

That would speed up the process, Hilgers said, and could result in up to $20 million a year in cost reductions and "shave a year off the time required to begin construction of Lincoln's South Beltway."

Like some other senators, Hilgers has a young family  three children range in age from a 5-year-old to a 7-month-old  and he's juggling his legislative duties along with family and his law profession.

His law practice centers on complex intellectual-property fights and his clients include inventors, entrepreneurs and small businesses.

"I don't do lobby events" at night, Hilgers said. "I try to make dinner time at home. And we all have breakfast together."

And life is good.

At last, Hilgers said, his 7-month-old daughter, Clara Jane, has begun sleeping through the night.

"That's a game-changer," he said.
 Vice President Mike Pence called North Koreas missile test a provocation as he started a 10-day tour of Asia with a trip to South Korea. Above, Mr. Pence at the Seoul National Cemetery.

The failed test, a deep embarrassment for the Norths leader, Kim Jong-un, has not quelled fears of U.S. military action. A mix of national ambitions, personal ego and deadly weapons is creating opportunities for miscalculation.
The damaged well is on state land several miles outside Deadhorse, a remote town.

Crews are on the scene and are developing plans to bring the well under control, said Brett Clanton, a BP spokesman, and safety will remain our top priority as we move through this process.

He said that it was unknown how much gas had leaked and that the company would investigate the causes of the accident after repairs were made.

Oil workers operating near the well were evacuated because of the possibility of an explosion.

There are large quantities of gas in the northern Alaskan fields around Prudhoe Bay in part because, without enough pipelines to bring it to market, oil companies have been pumping excess gas back into the ground for decades.

The cause of the discharge is unknown at this time, federal and state officials said in a statement late on Saturday. The statement said that an effort to secure the well on Friday night was unsuccessful due to safety concerns and damage to a well pressure gauge.

BP has struggled to repair its reputation since the disastrous Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 that killed 11 rig workers. The new leak in an established production well, however, has little in common with the blowout of the ill-fated well in the Gulf of Mexico. That well was drilled for exploration purposes, and the accident was caused by a series of errors by BP and its service companies.
Although she has a good job and masters degrees in politics and economics, theres too much insecurity, Ms. Karaklioumi said.

Unemployment among women stands at 27 percent, compared with 20 percent for men.

I dont know if Ill have this job in two months or a year, Ms. Karaklioumi added. If you dont see a light at the end of the tunnel, how can you plan for the future?

Whether the demographic decline slows ultimately depends on the financial fortunes in the south, where most countries suffered double-dip recessions. Without significant improvement, the region is trending toward some of the lowest birthrates in the world, which will accelerate stress on pension and welfare systems and crimp growth as a shrinking work force competes with the rest of Europe and the world.

While dwindling populations threaten all of Europe, the really serious problem is that some of the weakest countries are the ones with the least favorable demographics, said Simon Tilford, the deputy director of the Center for European Reform in London. Lower birthrates in the south will mean weaker growth and productivity, holding the birthrate down and producing more fiscal problems.

Over time, he added, it suggests that the already divergent economic performance between Northern and Southern Europe may become structural rather than cyclical.

The lower birthrates have been aggravated by fiscal pressures that constrained countries from offering robust family support programs. Whereas France offers a monthly family benefit of 130 euros (about $138) per child after the second child, Greece provides just 40 euros.
Vietnams prime minister halted work on a $10.6 billion steel plant on Sunday over environmental concerns, aiming to prevent a chemical spill like the one last year at another steel plant, the local news media reported, citing a government statement.

The steel maker Hoa Sen Group, the plants investor, was not immediately available for comment. The company announced plans last year for the project, a complex of more than 4,200 acres that could produce millions of tons of steel a year.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, saying he did not want another Formosa incident, asked related parties to clarify market demand and environmental impact, the website of the state-run Vietnam Television said.

Early last year, a steel plant run by the Taiwanese company Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation was the site of one of Vietnams worst environmental disasters. A toxic waste spill killed tons of fish and devastated fishing communities along Vietnams central coast.
Dr. Aakriti Garg was married April 15 to Hirsh Shukla. Pandit Yogeendra U. Bhat, a Hindu priest, led the ceremony at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix.

The bride, 29, is a third-year resident in ophthalmology at the Columbia University Medical Center Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute in New York. She graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California, and received a medical degree from Columbia.

She is the daughter of Dr. Shipra Garg and Dr. Ashok Garg of Paradise Valley, Ariz. The brides father, a cardiac electrophysiologist, is the owner of the Arizona Heart and Arrhythmia Clinic in Phoenix. He is also the founder and president of Phoenix Institute of CPR and Defibrillation, a nonprofit that generates awareness and training in India. Her mother is a pediatric pathologist at Phoenix Childrens Hospital. She is the author of a recently published review textbook on pediatric pathology. The brides parents are on the board of the Phoenix chapter of Pratham USA, a nonprofit providing educational opportunities to poor children mainly in the villages of India. The brides mother is the secretary of the chapter.

The groom, 29, is pursuing an M.B.A. at N.Y.U. In July he is to begin working as an associate in the investment banking division at Goldman Sachs Group in New York. He graduated cum laude from Cornell. Until 2015 he was a senior financial analyst in the pharmaceutical research and development division at Johnson & Johnson in Spring House, Pa.
Brenna Lauren Trout and Avalon Jonah Frey were married April 15 at Pond View Farm in White Hall, Md. Bill Duffy, a Universal Life minister, officiated.

Mrs. Frey, 32, is a litigation associate in the Washington office of the New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. She graduated from the University of Delaware and received a law degree from N.Y.U.

She is the daughter of Donna Marie Trout and Gary Lee Trout of Jarrettsville, Md. The brides father is a masonry contractor in Jarrettsville. Her mother is a financial analyst in Lutherville, Md., for NorthMarq Capital, a real estate investment banking company based in Minneapolis.

Mr. Frey, 30, is an associate specializing in investment funds in the Washington office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a Los Angeles law firm. He graduated from the University of Virginia and received a law degree from Washington and Lee University.
Dr. Heather Leigh Leahy, a daughter of Deborah L. Leahy and Philip P. Leahy, Jr. of Chicago, was married April 15 to Alexander Michael Hecht, the son of Robin L. Hecht and the late Kenneth P. Hecht, at Orchard Ridge Farms in Rockton, Ill. Beryl R. Manske, the grooms cousin and a Universal Life minister who was ordained for the occasion, officiated.

The bride, 33, is a mental health clinician in Washington, where she specializes in couples therapy and eating disorder treatments. She graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and received a doctorate in clinical psychology from Argosy University in Arlington, Va.

The brides father is a retired Chicago Fire Department battalion chief. Her mother retired as a vice president of Popular Community Bank in Chicago.

The groom, 30, is a government contractor in Washington working in international affairs. He formerly served as the editor for Molotov Cocktail, the food and culture section of War on the Rocks, a defense and policy blog. He graduated from George Washington University.
Jennifer Shaobo Xu and Louis Lu were married April 15 at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, an event space in Detroit. Nichole Bertucci, a Universal Life minister, officiated.

The couple met in 2013 at the University of Michigan, where they are both fourth-year medical students.

The bride, 25, who is keeping her name, graduated from the University of Michigan. She is the daughter of Liping Wan and Weizhang Xu of Troy, Mich. The brides father is an engineering group manager for vehicle optimization and architecture strategy at General Motors in Warren, Mich. Her mother is a clinical pharmacist for Henry Ford Home Infusion in Southfield, Mich.

The groom, 27, graduated from Stanford. He is the son of Jingyuan Xu and Quinn Lu of Berwyn, Pa. The grooms mother works in West Point, Pa., as a senior scientist for Merck, which is based in Kenilworth, N.J. His father works in Collegeville, Pa., as the director of target and pathway validation at GlaxoSmithKline.
Jessica Chiang and Kristopher Paul Koeller were married April 15 at Rockland Lake State Park in Valley Cottage, N.Y. Garry Bolnick, a friend of the couple who became a Universal Life minister for the event, officiated.

On April 21, the couple are to take part in a ceremony before family and friends at the Rosewood Tuckers Point, a hotel in Hamilton Parish, Bermuda. Mr. Bolnick is to lead the ceremony. 0

The bride, 32, is a senior director of merchandising at Theory, a mens and womens fashion label based in New York. She graduated from N.Y.U. with two bachelors degrees, in accounting and marketing.

She is the daughter of Deborah L. Chiang of Congers, N.Y., and the late Peter T. Chiang.

The groom, 46, is the chief operating officer at Flight Club, a company in New York that sells rare sneakers. He graduated from the University of Kansas and received a masters degree in accounting from Arizona State University.
Karina Vadimova Akhmadikina, a daughter of Farida H. Batyrova and Vadim N. Akhmadikin of Houston was married April 11 to Thomas Michel-Theodore Klocanas, a son of Benedicte C. Brouder of San Diego and Philippe D. Klocanas of Paris. Angel L. Lopez, a staff member in the office of the City Clerk, officiated at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau.

The bride and groom graduated from Bocconi University in Milan, and each received a masters degree in management from HEC Paris.

Mrs. Klocanas, 25, works in New York as a fashion and luxury industry analyst for Barclays Investment Bank.

The brides father is a business development manager at Halliburton, the oil field service company based in Houston. Her mother is a Russian language teacher at Masha Russian Academy, a day care for children in Sugar Land, Tex.
Deborah L. Dilger, 63, Bismarck, slipped peacefully into her Saviors arms on April 11, 2017.

Services will be held on Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Bethel Lutheran Church in Bismarck with Rev. Jonathan Walla officiating. Burial will be on Thursday at 9 a.m. at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery.

Visitation will be Tuesday, April 18, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Eastgate Funeral Service, where a prayer service will begin at 7 p.m.

Born on April 8, 1954, to Donald R. and Donna M. (Bell) Femling in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., Deb was the oldest of five children. She was raised and educated in Wisconsin Rapids until moving to Center, for her junior and senior years of high school. Deb graduated from Center High School in 1972, valedictorian of her class, as well as class president. She married Joseph (Joe) Dilger on Oct. 29, 1972. The children of this marriage were all of the four-legged variety, including numerous dogs and cats.

Although Deb fought a lifelong battle with multiple sclerosis, she never let it dim her beautiful smile or personality. Her amazingly gorgeous eyes let you see deep into her wonderful soul. She loved her four-legged children and they brought her many smiles.

Deb went to work for Job Service of N.D. in December of 1975 as a data entry clerk for On the Job Training (OJT). Deb was a strong advocate for individuals with disabilities and worked tirelessly on their behalf. Her passion was recognized and she was honored with the Bismarck Mayor's "Outstanding Handicapped Citizen Award" in 1989. In 1992 Deb was appointed to the Mayors Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities, and served as President for 1992 and 1993. She received national recognition for her service and was presented the "Service to People with Disability Award" for the ND Chapter of I.A.P.E.S at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. When Deb retired on June 30, 1997, she was presented a letter from then N.D. Governor, Edward Schafer, thanking her for her 22 years of outstanding dedication and service to the citizens of the state of North Dakota.

Debs hobbies included cooking, macrame, crocheting, spending time with family, and she loved shopping. She was a sharp dresser, even on days she never left the house. Her crocheted doilies and afghans are gifts that are cherished by loved ones. Enjoying a margarita on special occasions was a favorite as well.

Deb is survived by her husband, Joe, Bismarck; mother and stepfather, Donna and Victor Ohman, Glenrock, Wyo.; sisters, Sue (Craig) Dills, Glenrock Wyo., Ann (Tom) Simpson, Bozeman, Mont., and Mary (Chuck) Norris, Oil City, Pa.; her brother, Tom (Sandi) Femling, Beulah; her sisters-in-law, Junella (Jeff) Feickert, Mandan, and JoAnn (Bob) Cordova, Bismarck; as well as 16 nieces and nephews.

Deb was preceded in death by her father, Donald Femling; her nephew, Jeremy Femling; and her mother and father-in-law, Joe and Rose Dilger.

Her request to pass away in the comfort of her own home was honored, after her battle with multiple sclerosis and the resulting pneumonia overtook her. A special thank you to her special nurse, Robbin Sweeney, the Good Samaritan Society and Dakota Traveling Nurses, as well as Joes sisters, for making that request possible.

Go to www.eastgatefuneral.com to share memories of Deb and to sign the online guestbook.
Nebraska may become the only state where sexual orientation isn't mentioned in anti-discrimination codes for licensed psychologists.

In other states, sexual orientation is included either directly in state licensing rules for psychologists or by reference to a national associations ethics rules, according to Alex Siegel, director of professional affairs at the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards.

Thirty-three states put the American Psychological Association ethics code in their rules, which identifies sexual orientation and gender identity as specific classes protected from discrimination, said Siegel. And it appears there are no other states that don't include similar language in their regulations.

Anti-discrimination and client-referral issues have not become embroiled in the rule-making process in other states, Siegel said.

But in Nebraska, the administrations of two governors, Dave Heineman and Pete Ricketts, have refused to approve licensing rules for psychologists and other counselors that include discrimination protection for sexual orientation and gender identity.

Now the state Board of Psychology and the Board of Mental Health Practice, which regulates other counselors, appear to be in a no-win position.

The boards must bow to the pressure of the administration to leave out the sexual orientation and gender identity as protected groups in anti-discrimination rules in order to get any new rules approved by the administration.

They will likely also have to agree to referral rules that many psychologists and counselors find offensive. Conservative groups want to make it possible for counselors who have a moral objection to counseling a particular client to send them out the door with, at most, a list of other counselors.

But many psychologists and counselors believe it's their duty to help clients find another professional who fits their mental health needs.

Licensing rule changes help the professionals keep up with changing practices. And with the psychologists, rule changes are needed to help recruit graduate students.

The Nebraska Board of Psychology is looking at the state rules draft, proposed by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, that eliminates the words "sexual orientation" from the board's current anti-discrimination clause.

The words sexual orientation have been part of Nebraska licensing rules for psychologists since at least 1992, said Will Spalding, professor of psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

"This has become a political issue of broad interest to many in the community," Spalding said at a recent meeting of the Board of Psychology.

Spalding pointed to what he sees as the influence of the Nebraska Catholic Conference on state licensing rules.

In a letter about the state administration's rejection of the previous proposed rules, Courtney N. Phillips, CEO of the Department of Health and Human Services, implied that stakeholder concerns were part of the reason for that rejection.

I understand that several stakeholders have been involved in the most-recent draft regulations and hold very strong opinions about what language should or should not be included in the regulations, she wrote.

Nebraska Catholic Conference executive Tom Venzor acknowledged his group is a stakeholder in this discussion and believes state licensing boards cannot put sexual orientation or "gender identity" as protected classes in rules when Nebraska state law doesnt cover either group.

State licensing boards do not have the regulatory authority to add additional protected classes in their regulations that are not part of state law, Venzor said in a telephone interview.

The language issue came up at a recent Board of Psychology meeting where representatives of the Nebraska Psychological Association, the Nebraska Family Alliance and the Nebraska Psychology Association spoke on both sides of this issue.

Psychologists urged the board to deal with the sexual orientation language first, before spending a lot of time on other changes that may be stymied if the board refuses to remove sexual orientation from the rules.

Why do all the work and spend all the hours and reach the same impasse, said David Carver, a psychologist who previously served on the board.

One role of the rules is to protect the vulnerable public, Carver said. The board is being asked to introduce language that could harm a segment of the vulnerable public, he said.

The board, which is reviewing its rules after they were rejected by the administration, has not tackled the sexual orientation language issue yet.

The board is going through the regulations in order and has not gotten to that section yet, said Stephanie Bruhn, a Lincoln psychologist and vice chair of the board.

The board will get input when that section comes up, she said.
Martha Anne Byrd, a daughter of Laura Edwards Byrd and Daryl G. Byrd, both of New Orleans, was married April 15 to Omar Fouad Shalaby, a son of Iman A. Kassem and Fouad Y. Shalaby of Newtown, Pa. M. Cameron Quantz Furber, who received permission to perform the rites of marriage from the City of Richmond, Va., and is a friend of the couples, officiated at Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Va. On April 8, Khabir John McGeehan, a Sufi imam, led a Muslim ceremony at the Lambs Club in New York.

Ms. Byrd, 29, is a recruiter at Henkel Search Partners, a financial services executive search firm in New York. She graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia, from which she also received a masters degree in commerce.

The brides father is based in New Orleans as the president and chief executive of IberiaBank Corporation of Lafayette, La. He is a trustee of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, as well as of the Eaglebrook School, a junior boarding and day school for boys in middle school in Deerfield, Mass.

Mr. Shalaby, 30, is a New York investment director at CVC Capital Partners, a global financial firm based in London. He focuses on investments in high-growth technology companies. He graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University.
Datelines are the pride of The New York Times.

In their breadth, profusion and sheer variety, they convey to readers that Times journalists are deployed globally, in places you wouldnt necessarily want to be  or could only dream of being.

At least, we thought they conveyed that.

However, as with so many newspaper conventions that have migrated to mobile devices, laptops and desktop computers, datelines can mystify contemporary readers.

Why should readers be expected to know that a place name at the beginning of an article, spelled entirely in uppercase letters and followed by an em dash, means that the bylined correspondent was in that very place to report and write the story?
Though she had previously sponsored legislation in New York to combat sex trafficking, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin said she had not realized how big a role hotels and hotel workers could play in the fight until she met with two activists.

They made me aware, Ms. Paulin said of Anneke Lucas, a sex-trafficking victim, and the Rev. Adrian Dannhauser.

Ms. Lucas started an online petition in January calling for legislation mandating that hotels post clearly visible signs explaining what sex trafficking might look like, and that they train employees how to recognize victims and signs of trafficking. The petition has more than 54,000 signatures.

Possible indicators of sex trafficking include guests who book multiple rooms, rent rooms by the hour and pay cash, or men accompanied by young girls who appear downtrodden or do not make eye contact. Girls tattooed with Daddys Girl, Daddys Little Money Maker or bar codes are other potential signs, said Carol Smolenski, the executive director of Ecpat-USA, or End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, a Brooklyn offshoot of the international group.
That most chimerical of creatures, the bunny, was everywhere. His ears could be seen above the crowd all along Fifth Avenue, poking into blue sky. At 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue, he was captured stealthily in silhouette on the side of St. Thomas Church. Shortly after the parade, he was spotted on Bleecker Street in the West Village: Six feet tall, his cotton-ball tail bright pink, he was discussing with two nonrabbit friends where to get a good cup of coffee, in a surprisingly deep male timbre.

(The Easter Bunny! a little boy shouted from across the street, quickening his pace to follow. Candy!)
Mr. de Blasio has pledged, if re-elected, to put body cameras on the entire patrol force in two years, a move that would dwarf some of the largest body-camera programs in the nation. For instance, all 800 patrol officers in Denver and more than 2,600 in Washington wear cameras. Denver plans to equip 500 other officers with cameras this year.

In a letter to the court on Tuesday, the federal monitor, Peter Zimroth, urged Judge Analisa Torres to allow the yearlong pilot to proceed without further input from the court. If she agrees, roughly 1,200 officers on the evening shift in 20 precincts across the city will be wearing the cameras by the fall, starting with Manhattans 34th Precinct, which covers the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods.

But Mr. Charney, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the lawyers in the Floyd case vehemently disagree with the monitors letter. Saying that the court that ordered the pilot should not weigh in on its implementation seems completely contradictory to us, he said.

The proposed policy would require officers to turn their cameras on when responding to a crime in progress; making arrests; issuing summonses; and conducting most searches, traffic stops and pedestrian stops. They would also be required to record housing patrols, the transportation of prisoners and interactions with emotionally disturbed people.

Officers would be able to choose to record other encounters with the public, except things like interviews with victims and strip-searches.

The Police Executive Research Forum, a law-enforcement policy nonprofit, recommends giving officers some discretion over when to record, but the Denver Police Departments pilot program in 2014 offers a cautionary tale. More than half of the 45 episodes in which on-duty officers used force were not recorded because their cameras were off or the resulting footage was not usable, according to a monitors report. The most common reason, the report said, was that the encounters progressed or deteriorated too quickly for officers to safely activate their cameras.

Mr. Charney hopes to prevent that in New York.

The point of the cameras is to get a bigger part of what happened, he said. But if theyre not recording this at the outset, and even if they turn it on in the middle, we would have missed half the story. And that defeats the point of the cameras.
One artist in the show, Andrea Wolf, chose 74 Met slides that rotate in sequence on video screens. One shows a Carousel tray, another a different relic: the typewriter the Met used to make labels for the slides.

Martina Mrongovius, another artist in the exhibition, focused on the slides not as images but as objects. She snapped them apart, lifting the tiny pieces of film out of the frames. As she did so, Ms. Mrongovius thought back to her childhood and postvacation slide shows in Australia, where she grew up.

Youd often fall asleep because there were too many slides, she said. I have a memory of setting up the Carousel, setting up the screen, image after image  Europe, the beach. There was a feeling of sharing a story.

She set the pieces of film she removed from the Met slides on lightboxes and put magnifying glasses above them. That led her to think about the experience of looking at a slide  and how different that is from the experience of looking at a digital image.

When you look at a slide, she said, you really look into it. You dive into the image more. Youd never hold a magnifying glass up to your iPad. Youre not trying to look through it. Youre so aware the image is on the surface, on the screen, where with a slide, you look through the slide, into the image.
NEW DELHI  A lynching is much more than just a murder. A murder may occur in private. A lynching is a public spectacle; it demands an audience.

The lynching of Pehlu Khan, a 55-year-old dairy farmer, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan at the beginning of this month attracted a live audience of dozens and a virtual one in the millions. Mr. Khan, a Muslim, stood accused of smuggling cows, which are sacred to Hindus. A whole nation watched the scene on its smartphones and televisions: Mr. Khan, a lone hunted figure in white, lurches and stumbles along the edge of a dusty highway. He is pursued by cow vigilantes, young men in striped T-shirts and jeans, armed with belts and sticks. Eventually they gain on Mr. Khan, who falls to the ground, clutching his stomach. A crowd with cameras and smartphones circles. In screen within screen, we see Mr. Khan brutally beaten by the vigilantes in broad view of everybody. He died three days later, the sixth fatality since 2015 of a Muslim man subjected to vigilante justice of this kind.

A lynching, unlike, say, a terrorist attack, does not depend on maximizing the loss of life. What matters  whether in the American South a century ago or in India today  are not numbers, but the public, almost orgiastic character of the violence. The crowd surrounding Mr. Khan was baying for him to be doused in gas and set alight. A lynching is a majoritys way of telling a minority population that the law cannot protect it. That is why in the American South so many African-American men were dragged from jails or hanged outside courthouses  unmistakable symbolism of the laws paralysis.

In Mr. Khans case, the law was not merely paralyzed; it actively served the killers. In the first hours after Mr. Khan was attacked, 11 people were rounded up and arrested for cow smuggling  but not one for murder. Three people were arrested for Mr. Khans lynching, but only days later, after he died. But the effect of the arrests was minimized by the role played by Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party.
I was only 15 when I was first imprisoned. I was barely 18 when an Israeli interrogator forced me to spread my legs while I stood naked in the interrogation room, before hitting my genitals. I passed out from the pain, and the resulting fall left an everlasting scar on my forehead. The interrogator mocked me afterward, saying that I would never procreate because people like me give birth only to terrorists and murderers.

A few years later, I was again in an Israeli prison, leading a hunger strike, when my first son was born. Instead of the sweets we usually distribute to celebrate such news, I handed out salt to the other prisoners. When he was barely 18, he in turn was arrested and spent four years in Israeli prisons.

The eldest of my four children is now a man of 31. Yet here I still am, pursuing this struggle for freedom along with thousands of prisoners, millions of Palestinians and the support of so many around the world. What is it with the arrogance of the occupier and the oppressor and their backers that makes them deaf to this simple truth: Our chains will be broken before we are, because it is human nature to heed the call for freedom regardless of the cost.

Israel has built nearly all of its prisons inside Israel rather than in the occupied territory. In doing so, it has unlawfully and forcibly transferred Palestinian civilians into captivity, and has used this situation to restrict family visits and to inflict suffering on prisoners through long transports under cruel conditions. It turned basic rights that should be guaranteed under international law  including some painfully secured through previous hunger strikes  into privileges its prison service decides to grant us or deprive us of.

Palestinian prisoners and detainees have suffered from torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, and medical negligence. Some have been killed while in detention. According to the latest count from the Palestinian Prisoners Club, about 200 Palestinian prisoners have died since 1967 because of such actions. Palestinian prisoners and their families also remain a primary target of Israels policy of imposing collective punishments.
YUMA, Ariz.  The Rev. Victor Venalonzo opened his New Testament to the Book of Revelation on a recent Sunday and offered the men and women assembled at Iglesia Betania for a weekly Bible study a fresh look at its apocalyptic message.

Were failing as stewards of Gods creation, but these changes were seeing, thats not God punishing us  were destroying ourselves, Mr. Venalonzo told them. He alternated between English and Spanish, as he does all day in his Pentecostal church, which sits across from a trailer park and a half-mile from the Mexican border, serving Latinos who have recently arrived in the country and those born in the United States.

Until recently, the environment was never a topic that Mr. Venalonzo included in sermons to his congregants, who are mostly concerned about how they will pay their bills, find work, and keep their children on course in school and away from drugs.

But that has changed as development, drought, overuse and a drier, warming climate threaten the Colorado River, the source of the water they drink and use to irrigate the fields where they work. Our lifeblood, Mr. Venalonzo calls it.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.  Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday described North Koreas failed missile test as a provocation that highlighted the risks plaguing both the region and the United States, as the White House said President Trump had an array of military, diplomatic and other options to respond.

This mornings provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face each and every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world, Mr. Pence said at an Easter dinner at Yongsan military base in Seoul, South Korea, where he was beginning a 10-day tour of Asia.

Mr. Pence said he had spoken with Mr. Trump, who asked him to convey to the troops stationed in South Korea that were proud of you and were grateful for your service.

During a visit to the demilitarized zone on Monday, steps from the line of demarcation between North and South Korea, Mr. Pence said the United States was committed to achieving security through peaceable means, through negotiations, but he also sought to intensify pressure on the North to change course.
Protesters gathered outside the state Capitol on Saturday afternoon to urge President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

Trumps White House adviser, Kellyanne Conway, confirmed in a January interview with ABCs This Week that Trump would not be releasing his tax returns.

People didnt care, she said in the interview.

Saturdays marches across the country were meant to prove otherwise. Lincolns event was just one of the many tax marches and rallies held across the nation on Tax Day.

While its not illegal for Trump to keep his tax records private, the release of tax returns has been a longstanding tradition of American presidents since 1976. A poll by ABC and The Washington Post found 74 percent of those surveyed thought Trump should release his tax returns.

Chris Morton, host of the Show Us Your Taxes Trump Facebook event group, helped organize the Lincoln rally. About 50 people attended.

If we want to hold Donald Trump accountable, we have to know where his money is, Morton told the crowd Saturday. If he has investments in various other foreign countries, or if he has various different financial layouts that would make his tax cuts benefit him more than the people that hes supposed to be serving, we need to know that.

One protester, Sandy Black, said she was concerned the tax returns were hiding the presidents connects with foreign countries.

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, it is a national issue, she said. Everyone in this country should be concerned about our safety and our relationships with foreign powers.

Teresa Stevens, an immigrant from Poland, attended the rally with her husband, Randy. She said shes familiar with Russias history under President Vladimir Putin, and considers the leadership closer to a dictatorship than a democracy.

She worries America is at risk of moving down the same path.

The investigation that is being done right now on Donald Trump and his elected officials is very concerning, Stevens said.

She said its important not to forget the importance of America protecting (the) democratic process.
United Airlines, which is reviewing its policies after the violent removal of a passenger from a flight last week, says it will no longer allow employees to take the place of civilian passengers who have already boarded overbooked flights.

We issued an updated policy to make sure crews traveling on our aircraft are booked at least 60 minutes prior to departure, a spokeswoman, Maggie Schmerin, wrote in an email on Sunday. This is one of our initial steps in a review of our policies.

Ms. Schmerin confirmed the validity of a memo dated April 14, which was published by TMZ, that ordered the new policy. She said the change was meant to ensure that episodes like what happened last week never happen again.
MEXICO CITY  After a six-month manhunt spanning at least three continents, the former governor of Veracruz state in Mexico was captured in Guatemala and will face extradition to Mexico, where he is wanted on suspicion of diverting millions of dollars to phantom companies, Mexican authorities said.

Javier Duarte, who served as governor of Veracruz from 2010 until last October, was found late Saturday night holed up in a hotel with his wife in the resort town of Panajachel, on Lake Atitlan in the highlands of Guatemala, officials said. He has denied the charges against him, which include graft and organized crime.

During his run from the law, Mr. Duarte, once considered a luminary of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, became a quintessential symbol of malfeasance and a huge embarrassment to the party, which has been criticized for its inability to rein in rampant corruption.

But Mr. Duartes capture could provide some political capital to President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose approval ratings have plummeted over the past two years and whose party is preparing for a close, fierce fight to hold onto the presidency in elections next year. His party, known by its Spanish initials, P.R.I., is also locked in a tight race for the governorship of the State of Mexico, a historical stronghold for the party, where corruption has become a central campaign theme.
CHILL-BRASS, Kashmir  As Indian forces have tried to quell a Pakistan-supported insurgency in the Kashmir region, stories have circulated for decades about Indian officers rough treatment of young men accused of backing the militants.

But it is difficult to point to any single image more disturbing over that time than a video clip that started spreading on social media on Thursday. It showed a young man tied to the front bumper of a military jeep as it patrolled villages, apparently serving as a human shield against stone-throwing crowds.

The man looks dazed and miserable, his knees splayed and one of his pants legs pulled up. Tied to his chest is a piece of paper, on which his name is scrawled. Look at the fate of the stone-pelter, a soldier announced over a loudspeaker, a video of the episode shows.

By the weekend, the bound man, a shawl weaver named Farooq Ahmad Dar, was described by some analysts as a defining image in the 27-year insurgency. Authorities in the region on Sunday took the unusual step of filing a criminal complaint against the army for tying Mr. Dar to the jeep, according to Ghulam Hassan Bhat, the deputy inspector general of police for central Kashmir.
ISTANBUL  A slim majority of Turkish voters agreed on Sunday to grant sweeping powers to their president, in a watershed moment that the countrys opposition fears may cement a system of authoritarian rule within one of the critical power brokers of the Middle East.

With nearly 99 percent of votes in a referendum counted on Sunday night, supporters of the proposal had 51.3 percent of votes cast, and opponents had 48.7 percent, the countrys electoral commission announced.

The result will take days to confirm, and the main opposition party said it would demand a recount of about 37 percent of ballot boxes, containing around 2.5 million votes.

But on Sunday night the result was already a political reality, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed his victory in front of a crowd of supporters in Istanbul. We are enacting the most important governmental reform of our history, he said.
CAIRO  After three years in detention, the Egyptian-American aid worker Aya Hijazi was cleared of child abuse and human trafficking charges in Cairo on Sunday, abruptly ending a high-profile case that had become an international symbol of Egypts harsh crackdown on aid groups.

A courtroom in downtown Cairo erupted in cheers after the judge dropped all charges against Ms. Hijazi, her Egyptian husband and all six other defendants in what human rights groups called a weak case driven by defective evidence.

Ms. Hijazi, 30, a graduate of George Mason University in Virginia, embraced her husband after the verdict was announced, then smiled broadly as she was led from a metal cage to a waiting police vehicle to be processed for release.

Her mother, Najla Hosni, embraced her outside the court building. I told Aya that she graduated from their trial with honor, Ms. Hosni said afterward.
It is also not meant as a moneymaker: The hotel, on the site of a former pottery workshop, is owned by a local businessman, Wissam Salsaa. The website says all profits will be returned to the community.

Still, it has a feeling both of humor and commercialism: The coffee is excellent, and the hotel serves the best hummus in the region (according to the kitchen staff, the website jokes).

The motif is best described as decadent colonial, but in place of mounted deer heads are security cameras and slingshots. A gallery upstairs, where paintings by Palestinian artists can run $10,000, features even more valuable works by Banksy himself. Most striking is a mural of an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian man wrapped in a kaffiyeh pounding each other with pillows billowing with feathers, invoking Goyas Fight With Cudgels of two men planted to their knees, condemned to proximity and so endlessly trying to kill each other.

An animatronic Arthur Balfour, the British foreign secretary, signs the paper that established a Jewish state 100 years ago. (Press button for historic re-enactment.) It is 50 years since the 1967 war in which Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, beginning an occupation that, for now, is partly managed, and limned, by the wall.

Finally, there is the wall itself: The concrete  visible from most parts of this hotel only feet away  is covered with graffiti. The Berliners finished their drinks as they gazed at a stencil reading: Mr. Trump. Walls = Hate. Doves perched on barbed wire.

Saher Touna, 17, one of the Palestinian tourists from Nazareth, bought a stencil from the WallMart, next to the hotel, which sells spray paint and offers a ladder.

My home is here, my land is here, she sprayed in Arabic. Its racist, and its here, she said of the wall. Might as well make something beautiful out of it.
From Mai Lai to Mosul, the US has justified killing children to hunt down "the enemy." (Often, the enemy is the enemy of our enemy, often patriots defending their homeland from foreign invaders)

In the late 60's, we marched and chanted, "Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today."

Today, it is time to renew this chant for our current Command in Chief.

Let's make a brief list, in his first few months, of the children he has killed.

We can begin with the latest, the airstrike on the Syrian airbase. This was justified by the alleged dropping of chemical bombs by the Syrian Air Force. The only sources for this allegation are rebel-associated activists, who report that "eyewitnesses' saw chemical bombs being dropped. Chemical bombs look just like conventional bombs and drop at 600 mph, making identification impossible. One of the "humanitarian" groups working in rebel territory is The White Helmet group, recently exposed (and admitting it) of staging fake attacks with mannequins and publishing them as victims of Syrian CW attacks. There are no other sources.

In this original atrocity, many children were killed......and the response, in turn, killed 9 civilians, including 4 children, according to the Syrian government. An eye for an eye; a child for a child.

US wars in the Middle East have resulted in millions of children refugees: who will speak for the children?

In Mosul, over 500 were killed, including 189 children, in "Coalition" bombing in the heart of the city. When Trump said "I will bomb the sh*t out of ISIS," I pointed out that he was promising to kill thousands of children because ISIS is holed up in large cities. The claim that this is collateral damage because ISIS is using human shields is an absurd and obscene excuse for murdering innocent people, since cities, by definition, are dense of human beings.

alaraby.co.uk reported: "The number of victims in alleged Mosul air raids over the past two weeks has risen to 511 people, including 187 children under the age of 15, Iraqi officials have said.

The strikes in western Mosul US-backed troops fighting the Islamic State group are currently under investigation by Iraqi authorities.

"We don't know where more bodies will turn up as some have been blasted hundreds of metres from the location of the airstrike," Laith Sattar of the civil defence force told The New Arab.

"Until now the number of victims has reached 511. Around 200 of the bodies remain unidentified because of the severity of the blast has totally destroyed their facial features," he said.

Sattar said that the toll was the deadliest for civilians since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003."

This was the worst civilian death incident since this war started 13 years ago, and it is not "alleged" that city neighborhoods were bombed, as the Pentagon now admits it and is "investigating" without saying exactly who did the bombing that day. The attack on Mosul, a city of 650,000, is part of a 60 nation coalition, "led by the US."

If the Pentagon cannot even say if US planes did the bombing, how can we trust them to honestly assess the damage and the reason for this atrocity?

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Reprinted from shadowproof.com

Days after a suspected chemical attack in Syria, the very expression of doubt around what President Donald Trump's administration claims happened is marginalized as "far-left" or "far-right." That skepticism is treated as fringe is confounding, as if numerous people forgot all governments lie and are especially prone to lying for the purpose of generating support for the use of military force.

A terrible act or incident definitely took place on April 4. Some chemical, likely a neurotoxin, spread and killed over 70 people, including children. Doctors Without Borders staff described examining eight people, who "display symptoms consistent with exposure to an agent such as sarin gas or similar compounds, including constricted pupils, muscle spasms, and involuntary defecation."

But without any completed fact-finding investigation to confirm doctors' suspicions, Trump authorized a 50-plus Tomahawk missile attack on the Shayrat Airbase in retaliation. Officials effectively sought to foreclose any investigation into whether Syrian President Bashar al Assad's regime or an al Qaida-affiliated group in control of the area was the culprit.

There was no effort by the Trump administration to go to Congress and show senators and representatives evidence related to how a chemical spread through Khan Sheikhoun. Nor did Trump address citizens and articulate proof of what happened in Syria to communicate the gravity of the situation; in particular, that there was a strong likelihood the administration would respond with a show of force before the week was over.

Plenty of reasonable questions existed around media reports on the alleged chemical attack. Who were the sources of eyewitness reports on the alleged attack?

The Tahrir al-Sham alliance "dominated by the Fateh al-Sham Front, formerly known as the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front," controls Idlib, the province where the alleged attack occurred. They have ways of controlling what information goes out and who puts out information from the area to the world. So, were any of the sources affiliated with this alliance? Did they have affiliations with other militant groups?

What kind of stockpiles of chemical weapons did militant groups in the Idlib province possess prior to April 4?

Idlib is one of the last remaining strongholds for the opposition against Assad. Were United States intelligence officials and other world leaders certain that groups in Idlib did not possess sarin gas or other similar toxic materials? How certain?

What interest would President Bashar al Assad have in deploying chemical agents against civilians when Syrian government forces are roundly defeating opposition forces?

Unfortunately, journalists, politicians, campaign operatives, and a select group of activists determined such questions amount to quackery in its purest form. There even is a contingent of left-leaning people, who have observed how neo-Nazis like Richard Spencer do not believe Assad gassed civilians.

Because neo-Nazis are skeptical of Trump, they argue it is borderline fascist or Nazi to question the Trump administration's narrative.

Beirut-based journalist Annia Ciezadlo wrote a column for the Washington Post, "Why would Assad use sarin in a war he's winning? To terrify Syrians." The intent was to show this is a fringe question that has no place in mainstream discourse.

"We still don't know exactly what happened in Syria and who was responsible," wrote the far-left writer and commentator Rania Khalek on Twitter, "but fact remains that Syrian govt gains nothing from a CW attack." The far-right conservative commentator and talk-radio host Michael Savage put it more succinctly: "Now what would Assad have gained by doing that? Is he stupid?" In the increasingly influential world of conspiracy websites like Infowars, this simple question -- and the lack of definitive answers -- has managed to sow doubt. As it spread online, the idea that Assad had nothing to gain from a chemical attack fed into a vortex of claims that the Khan Sheikhoun gas attack was a false flag, an elaborate hoax designed to justify a U.S. military intervention in Syria. President Trump's missile strikes on April 6, and his administration's abrupt about-face on the question of regime change, have only bolstered that theory.

It is telling that Ciezadlo attributed the prevalence of this particular question to the influence of Infowars. Journalists have an obligation to scrutinize what happened instead of rallying around a dominant narrative. The collective and consistent failure of press institutions to challenge government is why a website like Infowars is able to fill a void and spread claims of hoaxes.

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Supplicating the U.S. Capitol

(Image by Marta Steele) Details DMCA



The April 15 Tax March in Washington, DC, reiterating 200 others nationwide and even in some places overseas, drew a crowd of 25,000 protesting Trump's refusal to release his tax returns. This violates a protocol active since the Watergate scandal. President Nixon was the first to comply and all presidents after him did so as well, unquestioningly.

Democracy is hard work, I thought, scribbling, photographing, and later marching nearly three miles. We're doing it.

"Think he's gonna listen?" asked one cynic. "Wanna go to Siberia?" asked another, both of whom I ignored.

Religion opened and closed the two-hours rally. The initial speaker, Rabbi Nehama Benmosche, recited the Hebrew shma as I cringed awaiting anti-Semitic responses that didn't occur. Deo gratias. She spoke of the significance of Passover Week this day before Easter--how the Children of Israel had thrown off Pharoah's oppression. People's power is huge, she told us. I am the rich daughter of the former head of AIG. I see nonetheless that our tax system is wrong. "Let's work together to repair this world!"

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) sounded most progressive with his repeated refrain of "We're taking your gloves off, knock off the tax rip-off!" No more money to Cayman Islands to duck taxes! No more outsourcing employment! Knock off the secrecy and disclose your tax returns!"

Most of our taxes are subtracted from our paychecks, while the select few decide how much they pay.

The ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee compared Trump to a teenager hiding his bad report card from his parents.

"Lock him up" chanted the crowd. A later reference to "crooked Donald" reinforced this reference. By now McConnell would have already impeached Hillary if she'd been elected.



Woman with two signs

(Image by Marta Steele) Details DMCA



Ingenious, often paradoxical or ironic signs were everywhere. "Yo, Donny, what are you hiding?" read one. "Impeach Putin's puppet!" exhorted another. "There are too many Russian ties!" read a third depicting the president wearing three neckties. If police were present, they were in plain clothes. The atmosphere was relaxed--more so than usual, it seemed. There was nothing close to an incident requiring intervention. Uniformed police headed off traffic most cooperatively on the two busy streets of our march, Pennsylvania and Constitution Aves.

Heather McGhee, president of Demos, asked whom Trump was working for anyway. He is raising the Defense budget by $54 billion with funding cuts from We the People, but doesn't mind swallowing up the $23 billion a year in taxes from "illegal" immigrants.

The rich one percent are cheating us out of $400 billion a year, she said, but not to purify the water in Flint, Michigan. . . . "We're sending you the bill!"

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) evoked the American Revolution as he modernized the situation: taxation without representation is the plight of residents of the District of Columbia. "We have no kings here," he said. "In a democracy, the law is king." We want more than tweets reacting to television shows from a president, who is after all not a global CEO but a public servant. Before you rewrite the tax code, show us your taxes! he said. Put the United States, not yourself, first! The Russians we care about are marching in the streets of Moscow.

75 percent of the American people want Trump's taxes disclosed, said Lisa Gilbert of Public Citizen. Trump flies off to Mar-a-Lago on an average of every 2.8 days.

The two chairs of the Women's March were present. Tamika Mallory said that we had made history together. When she asked who among us had been there, every hand went up. Five million people around the world marched. We sparked resistance against sexism, racism, and fascism. We won't end with Donald Trump's taxes!

Three immigrant women speakers followed, defining taxes as a commitment to democracy. One worked at a fast-food restaurant earning $6.15 an hour, living in a single room with her four children. She pays taxes, she said.

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Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Just as The Tipping Point provides an explanation for big changes, Rob Kall offers a unified explanation for the magic behind the success of the biggest tech companies, the Arab Spring, Occupy and the social media revolution An important, big picture, visionary approach weaving together technology, economics, evolution, science and personal relationships -- even happiness -- to describe a wave of change as significant as the invention of the printing press that is well under way -- a wave that could rescue the planet from the top-down system that afflicts the planet."



Thom Hartmann, host of nationally syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, since 2003 and a nightly television show, The Big Picture, since 2008
Implementation of new fraudulent e-government systems in all branches of government over the past 15-20 years amounts to unannounced regime change. The new computer code is the law of the land. The process is correlated with unprecedented corruption of government in Israel. The latest phase has also included usurpation of power by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who established under his control a "Cyber Authority" with no foundation in the law. Israel may be an extreme case, but not unique at all.



(Image by State of Portugal) Details DMCA



OccupyTLV, April 16 -- a paper, reviewing fraudulent e-government systems in Israel, has passed international academic peer-review and has been accepted for publication and presentation in the upcoming European Conference on Digital Government. The conference, sponsored by the European Union, will be held this year in the Portuguese Military Academy in Lisbon.

Reviewers commented that the paper "challenges current theory""

The acceptance of such paper is notable on the background of pronouncements by senior Israeli justice officers that the author is a provocateur, spreading "conspiracy theories""

The paper reviews fraud in e-government system across all branches of government, including the Central Election Committee and the courts. Of particular notice is the usurpation of power by current Prime Minister Netanyahu, who over the past couple of years assumed control over e-government in Israel by establishing under his office a new "Cyber Authority" with no foundation in the law (the obvious public justification is cyber-terror threats). In contrast, the Shin-Bet (like the Secret Service in the US) was charged by law with security and integrity of such systems -- part of the "safeguard of procedures and institutions of a democratic regime" (Shin Bet Act of 2002). Therefore, current conditions also represent the outcome of recent power struggles in the Israeli Deep State.

The paper calls upon IT experts in general and e-government experts in particular to assume a more central civic duty in the safeguard of Human Rights and democratic institutions.

Following is the abstract:

E-government in Israel - Transform ation into the Post-Truth Era

Joseph Zernik, PhD

Human Rights Alert (NGO), Tel-Aviv, Israel

Abstract: Previous reports (e.g., ECEG2015) reviewed e-courts in Israel, documenting large-scale fraud in new IT systems of the Israeli courts, amounting to an unannounced regime change. The current report reviews e-government across the branches of government, re-affirming the same conclusion. The underlying research is based on data mining, system analysis, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, State Ombudsman, Judiciary Ombudsman, UN Human Rights Council reports and case studies. The Knesset (parliament) refuses to duly answer on F OIA requests pertaining to development, validation, operation, and security of its own IT systems and electronic records. T he Knesset's records themselves are patently invalid and insecure. The Central Election Committee' s IT systems have been repeatedly alleged as a tool for a 2015 general election fraud. State Ombudsman's reports document ongoing critical integrity and security failure s in the Committee's systems . The Committee's initial FOIA response states that its IT systems were examined and certified by the Shin-Bet (secret service) . However, the Shin-Bet denied such claims, and subsequently the Committe e ' s amended FOIA response, states that it do es n't have any information regarding validation and certification of its systems. The Ministry of Justice implemented the E-signature Act (2001) in collaboration with Comsign, a private corporation, controlled by senior IDF Unit 8200 (cyber-war) veterans. "Detached" e-signatures were implemented, and public access to e-signature data is universally denied, permitting routine S hell G ame F raud ( C onfidence T rick ) by s tate officers. Such officers issue false and misleading, unsigned official records, which are deemed by them "drafts", but are deceptively represented to others as valid and authoritative s tate legal records. F raudulent IT systems have also been implemented in administrative courts under the Ministry of Justice: T he Debtors' Courts and the Detainees' Courts, as documented in State Ombudsman and UN Human Rights Council reports, respectively. Judges have been repeatedly caught perpetrating Fraud Upon the Court throug h issuing false and deliberately misleading, sham/simulated "drafts" and falsely representing them to others as valid, effectual and enforceable court records . N o such judge has been held criminally accountable . The Israel Bar Association and the legal profession should be generally viewed central to such fraudulent government practices. However, leading law professors have recently voiced their protest in view of patent corruption of the courts and the State Prosecution in the Roman Zadorov affair. CS departments in leading academic institutions are now home to two new ly established, s tate-funded Cyber Security Research Centers . W ith a few exceptions, academic CS experts are unwilling to comment on the fundamental deficiencies of e-government in Israel . The Security Apparatus controls all critical e-government systems, and over the past year the Prime Minister has assumed total authority over such systems with no clear foundation in the law. In an our era, " [computer] code is law". Therefore, e-government systems are a central control tool, which define s the nature of the regime. Israel may present an extreme case, but not a unique one at all . IT experts in general, and e-government experts in particular, should assume a central civic duty in the safeguard of Human Rights and Civil Society in the Post-Truth Era .

Keywords: Shin-Bet, Cyber Authority, Regime Change, Deep State
It's Easter. But I can hardly bring myself to say "Happy Easter." That's because the world is once again rushing towards war -- the antithesis of the holiday's celebration of life. And it's being led in that direction by a nation where 70-75% claim to somehow follow the risen Christ.

[BTW did you notice that just last Thursday Christian fundamentalists dropped (on Afghanistan tribal lands) the largest Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) since Hiroshima and Nagasaki?]

What hypocrisy!

But why the bombing in Syria? Get ready . . . It's because of our "enemy's" deployment of weapons of mass destruction! In Syria, it's about chemical weapons! It's about a leader who absolutely must be removed from office because he so resembles Adolph Hitler.

Sound familiar?

What's his name again?

Wrong if you say Saddam Hussein or Slobodan Milosevic, or Manuel Noriega. This time it's Bashar al-Assad. What a beast! He's killed so many children!

But what about the victims of their WMDs, you ask -- the children poisoned?

What about the poisoned children in Flint Michigan, I might respond? We stand by silent as they're allowed to drink water contaminated by lead. Oh, but I forgot; those are American children -- and they're mostly black. And as we all know, black lives don't matter. They're on their own. We obviously have greater responsibility for poisoned Syrian kids. (Imagine the unborn fetuses that were killed!) We simply must protect them all from death at the hands of the dictator du jour.

Apparently we've forgotten about the 500,000 children our sanctions killed in Iraq during the 1990s. That was o.k. It must have been. Madeleine Albright said so.

Apparently we've forgotten about the millions (!) of children in Yemen currently threatened by famine directly induced by the U.S.-Saudi coalition which has been bombing that country non-stop for more than two years. We do nothing for them except continue the mayhem.

But that's o.k. too. After all, our leaders tell us bombing is the solution to any problem you might care to name. It's all justified. And besides Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East. Poor people (especially so far away) don't really matter either. It's the arms manufacturers Raytheon, Motorola, Boeing, and their billionaire owners who really count. They're our neighbors -- on Wall Street.

Have you noticed; the stock market is soaring?

And, of course, the record shows that our leaders have been right -- in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia. Aren't we proud of the freedom, democracy, and peace our own WMDs have brought those benighted lands?

And (once again!) the press is cheerleading it all. Check the newspapers. Look at CNN. Hardly a single editorial has criticized the rush to war. Brian Williams finds our Cruise Missiles "beautiful."

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1972 South Vietnamese citizens seek shelter during the Vietnam War. Photo by Don McCullin (United Kingdom)

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The other day Mr. Trump gave the order as our new ' Commander in Grief ' to drop the 21,000 pound (that's over 10 tons folks) Monster Bomb. They said they had to totally destroy the tunnel system that ISIS, or whatever the hell these so-called "crazy jihadists" happen to be called, are using in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.

Doesn't it remind you of what our Vietnam era military tried to do against the Viet Cong, what with all their tunnel systems? Did it do anything at all? You should know the answer: "NO!" The more we 'Shock and Awed' the VC, the more they kept on growing. We tried everything at our disposal at the time.

Remember the scene in Coppola's "Apocalypse Now movie when the Robert Duvall Air Calvary (Helicopter corps.) commander shouted "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning!"? He had just ordered an Air Force carpet bombing attack with Napalm on an area nearby to his group... so that they could go surfing, by the way.

The important point is that our military did all we could, dropping more bombs than we dropped for the entire WW2... with no positive result. We tortured, we assassinated, we did it all... to no avail.

This writer was in my home during Hurricane Mathew this past Oct 7th. My wife and I and our two kittens were laying on the floor of our master bedroom when the 100 mph winds and driving rain came through. When I looked out my bedroom window and saw the trees behind our house swaying ominously, I shouted to my wife "I'm scared to sh*t! If a tree goes through our bedroom window we can all be killed!".

Then, as (bad) luck would have it, a tree did go through our home, but not our bedroom window, rather the roof. When we needed to evacuate, we had to wait for one hour for the winds to die down... there were too many trees in our front yard near to our parked car. Can anyone even pretend to imagine what a person must feel being below one of our missiles or bombs (no need to imagine the Monster Bomb) as it whistles down to destroy, or for choice of a more appropriate word, to vaporize?

It seems that each time we decide to 'out' terrorists (or those we think are) the collateral damage kills more innocent people than those we are after. And the idiots out there keep asking "Why do they hate us? Why do their numbers keep increasing? "

Mr. Trump has his approval ratings (which have been at historic lows for a new president) soar whenever he becomes Mr. Tough guy. Like all the chicken hawks from the Bush/ Cheney gang, and there were a myriad in top positions, the new Trump crew is filled with people who cheered for 'War on Iraq 1 and 2', yet never dared join up and serve at the time. For those, like Trump himself and the other 'too old to fight' guys, did any of them dare to push their kids to sign up and 'fight the good fight' against Saddam 1 and Saddam 2?

Trump even has backed off from his friendly relations with Russia, caving in to the pressure. He has joined into the Neo-Con camp that desperately needs a new Cold War with Russia to justify the obscene ballooning of military spending. It seems that these 'short subjects' of war on the "A-rabs" just won't become the feature film the Pentagon and War Economy needs. It needs the "Russkies" in the show. Ms. Hillary, the 'Wicked Witch', is liking her lips right now, along with her Democratic Party stooges.

For all those fools out there who believed that 'Trump the Populist' was going to adjust the economy and back off from 'foreign entanglements'"wake up! The only real paying jobs will be for the war industries, whose top execs and shareholders will make a fortune and trickle down to the serfs a few added crumbs to their tables.

For all those evangelicals who voted for Trump and 'good Christian' Pence: Jesus loves you. I just don't think he blessed that Monster Bomb or all the other WMDs that your tax money is paying for... instead of better roads, infrastructure, health care...

PA Farruggio, Easter 2017
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Its no revolutionary thought to recognize that beer tourism can be a driving force for a region or city, from San Diego, CA to Denver, CO or Asheville, NC. And as such, its no surprise that Baltimore, MD legislators clearly saw dollar signs when Diageo announced their desires to build a $50 million brewery and taproom in the area, which the company claims will draw 250,000 visitors in its first year. Its only natural that the states legislators would probably want to cater to the likes of Diageo, makers of Guinness Stout, as a potential new employer and tourist attraction.

The only problem? In order to do so, they just decided to unilaterally hamstring every small production brewery trying to get its doors open in Maryland. In the blind pursuit of corporate business, Maryland is screwing its local beer industry, forcing new breweries to live by an entirely different set of laws than established ones. Its a shockingly, patently unfair new hurdle for small businesses to clear, and one that came about by rather dubious means when it was railroaded through the Maryland legislature last week.

Heres how messed up this situation is: The Brewers Association of Maryland, the non-profit trade association representing the states small brewers, was completely unaware of the contents of House Bill 1283 until after it had already been passed by the House of Delegates and thus approved for State Senate review. Why were they unaware? Because the Brewery Modernization Act they proposed was apparently thrown out by the legislature and replaced with a different one, without them even being informed it had happened.*

We had our bill that we were working to pass, and we were negotiating with retailers and wholesalers, says Tom Barse, a member of the Brewers Association legislative committee and owner of Milkhouse Brewery, a Maryland farm brewery. But at the same time there were apparently negotiations going on for this other bill, pushed by a delegate from Baltimore, which was greatly in favor of the distributors and retailers, that we didnt know anything about. Leadership in the house was told This is the bill youre going to vote for, and this is the bill that the Brewers Association agrees to, which was a lie. Our bill got shitcanned, and the new bill passed the House unanimously.

That bill, as written, was described by Barse as a horrible mess. It cut back on hours that breweries could be open, and eliminated the ability of brewers to both have their beers contract brewed or do collaboration beers with other breweries. It even would have threatened the feasibility of the Guinness project itself, as the language about contract brewing could have prevented Diageo from importing its Guinness stoutwhich makes little sense, given Marylands desire for a tourist destination brewery. Contract brewing had previously been a grey areait was something that various Maryland breweries took advantage of, and was technically not legal under most interpretations of the law, but there was very little concrete language to make it clear whether or not contract brewing was acceptable. House Bill 1283, on the other hand, left no doubt, which could have put small breweries depending on contract brewing completely out of business.

Thankfully, after learning of the actual contents of House Bill 1283, kept from them in a fairly obvious attempt to get the legislation through the house unchallenged, the Brewers Association jumped into action to protest and amend the bill in the Maryland State Senate. With a big showing of support in the Senate chambers and before the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, combined with a letter and phone call campaign, the organization was able to undo a portion of the damage.

We got enough momentum in order to hammer out some amendments in the Senate that were not thrilled with, but we can live with to fight another day, says Barse. At the very least, breweries can now legally contract brew.

Unfortunately, there are still a host of new problems. Although the amount of beer a production brewery can sell from its taproom was increased to 2,000 barrels per year, if they want to sell any more, theyll have to buy that beer back from their own distributor first. That means those kegs or bottles will physically have to leave the brewery, travel to the distributorship, come to rest and then be brought back and sold to the brewery that made it. Is it stupid? Of course it is.

Then theres the matter of hours of operation. Under the amended bill, existing breweries will be grandfathered in and given the same rights as the planned Guinness brewery, with hours determined by their local licensing districts. Some of those are as late as midnight, and others can legally remain open as late as 2 a.m. New breweries in Maryland, on the other hand, will be required to close their taprooms as early as 9 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and 10 p.m. at latest, Friday and Saturdays. In effect, it strips the taprooms of all future production breweries from being able to operate as all-night hangouts for their customers, encouraging people to take their business elsewhere. It creates an unequal playing field, and the injustice should be obvious to anyone watching.

Edit: Its worth noting that the representatives of Diageo were also unaware of House Bill 1283 and its contents; nor were the makers of Guinness attempting to create an unfair playing field by advocating for altered closing hours or outlawing contract brewing, which would have been against their own self interest. In fact, Diageo worked alongside the Brewers Association of Maryland in lobbying for amendments in the state Senate that lessened the eventual damage. Neither Barse nor Matt Humbard, cited below, believe that Diageo should be scapegoated for the legislation that advanced through the Maryland House of Delegates.

Matt Humbard is one of those brewery owners who stands to be directly affected by the new legislation. The owner of Handsome Beer Co. in the Washington DC metro area, Humbards beer is contract brewed off-site and served in his taproom. Following his dream to open up a brewery of his own, he had been planning a physical brewing operation to be based in Maryland. But after the passage of House Bill 1283, even after the amendments, hes no longer sure this idea makes any sense.

Humbards company, Handsome Beer Co.

Maryland is just completely on the wrong side of this, says Humbard. Its counter to the culture of the whole craft beer industry, which is very collaborative in nature, to allow this kind of grandfathering to happen. Although Im sure specific companies are happy they get to keep their hours, its completely unfair that new breweries will be on a different playing field than existing ones. How can you justify limiting one business differently than another business?

For a new brewery, like the one Humbard intends to open, its the restriction of open hours that stings the most. Taprooms are generally the most profitable part of a brewerys business plan, and the ability to sell directly to customers at a high profit margin is one of the sources of cash flow that can keep a new brewery in business long enough to expand its production.

That extra hour or two on a weekend could be thousands of dollars of revenue per night, says Humbard. Thats not something only new breweries should be forced to give up.

We should note that the legislation only applies to class 5 breweries in Maryland, otherwise known as production breweries. Farm breweries and brewpubs with attached restaurants are not subject to the new rules, but Barse still expects it to negatively impact the chances of new breweries interested in opening in the state.

Theres no question that this makes it harder and less attractive to open a brewery in Maryland, Barse says. Weve just created two separate classes of business with different rights, different hours and different obligations. There will be people who were thinking of investing here who change their minds, without a doubt.

Diageo, the U.K. multinational liquor and beverage company and owner of Guinness, hatched an idea for the first Guinness U.S. brewery, to be located outside Baltimore in the suburb of Relay, MD. The location was one of convenience, as Diageo already owned a former Seagrams facility that could easily be converted into a destination brewery and tourist attraction. As mentioned above, the company projected the brewery to draw some 250,000 tourists in its first year, which gave local legislators and even Republican Governor Larry Hogan reason to support the project.

The only problem was the already archaic Maryland beer laws, which would have made it difficult for Guinness to carry out its business plan of importing Guinness Stout, Smithwicks and Harp Lager to the U.S.A. to sell in the brewery. These core brands would not be brewed in the U.S. at all, still coming straight from Ireland. Rather, Guinness would be brewing its new Blonde American Lager in this location, along with other experimental beers, and importing everything else. Because this wouldnt have been legal under Maryland beer law (because it would have counted as contract brewing), a local bill for Baltimore County was formulated, which would have been exclusively for the sake of Diageo.

They were going to be able to sell 5,000 barrels of beer out of their tasting room, be open to late hours and be able to import their brands that they dont brew there, says Barse. The Maryland wholesalers and retailers were up in arms about that, I think wrongly. I think having a strong Guinness brewery tourist destination in Maryland will only help those businesses grow.

At the same time, though, the Brewers Association of Maryland was also ready to push their own brewery modernization act, which sought to increase the amount breweries could sell in taprooms to a similar 4,000 barrels per year. It was also designed to make the confusing language surrounding contract brewing more clear, leaving no doubt that it would be an option open to Maryland breweries. It only made sense that the BAM team up on some level with Diageo for a combined bill, as Diageo actually attempted to use their leverage to pass on some beneficial aspects to the states craft brewers, such as the higher cap on barrels-per-year that breweries would be allowed to sell from their taprooms. And so, they co-wrote the initial bill with BAM.

Unfortunately for the craft brewers, though, this is the bill that got dropped, replaced by the surprise introduction of House Bill 1283, the one they didnt even know existed. An anti-craft bill designed to restrict brewery hours was confusingly amended to increase the barrels per year they were allowed to produce, creating a strange bill that increased the rights of the grandfathered breweries while decreasing the rights of all future breweries.

Not every state legislator was so willing to sacrifice the rights of Marylands own breweries, though. State Senator Ronald Young is a Democrat who represents Frederick County, the home of Marylands largest craft brewer, Flying Dog. He attempted to introduce amendments to the bill that would have eliminated the penalties against new, non-Guinness breweries opening in Maryland, but his colleagues in the Senate voted against allowing him to introduce that legislation. Frustrated by this favoritism toward a British-owned company rather than the states own brewers, Young told The Baltimore Sun that We trip over ourselves to accommodate international companies, but we dont give a damn about the ones that are already here.

I can hardly argue with that. What Maryland has done is a classic example of putting interest in big business over the very homegrown companies that the state legislators are supposed to be representing. Surely, the likes of AB InBev and MillerCoors are watching this situation and looking into ways they can take advantage of similar scenarios.

As craft beer drinkers, we all need to be vigilant. Guys like Matt Humbard and Tom Barse will continue fighting for the rights of craft breweries in Maryland, but these same battles continue to rage all over the countryprobably in your own state as well, on some level. Dont let a state legislator receiving campaign contributions from your local beer distributorship decide the future of the craft brewing industry in the U.S.A.

If you dont give us an opportunity to grow, youre only going to hurt yourself in the long run, says Barse, referring to the wholesalers and distributors. A rising tide floats all ships. We dont like this result, but it gives us what we need to come back and fight next year.

Jim Vorel is a Paste magazine staff writer, and resident beer guru. You can follow him on Twitter for much more beer content.
Jeff Varner, the Survivor competitor who was booted from the show after outing fellow contestant Zeke Smith at a Tribal Council, says that he was fired from his job as a real estate agent as a result.

The episode was filmed 10 months ago in Fiji, but Varner told the News & Record Greensboro that he was not allowed to speak about it until it aired last Wednesday in the US.

The episode made headlines around the world, the next day, Varner was let go by Allen Tate Realtors, reportedly being told he was in the middle of a news story that we dont want anything to do with.

The former news anchor, who is gay himself, said that he has spent the last several months educating myself and advocating even more so for the LGBTQ community.

I feel like I was able to do some really good work in that time that I hope to continue, he continued. Being unable to talk about it was challenging, but having the episode air, there is a sense of relief that now the true healing can begin.

The CBS network has stood by its decision to air the moment rather than edit it out of the episode in question, saying that it created an unexpected but important dialogue.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter.

Photo: CBS Photo Archive / Getty.
The Lincoln YMCA has branched out and new opportunities await at the Copple Family YMCA.

The newest location for the Lincoln Y will officially open May 1, but the community can get a sneak preview at its open house event Sunday, April 30, from 1-5 p.m. At the event, guests are invited to try out the amenities with their friends and family including the aqua track, indoor pool, gymnasiums, cardio and weight equipment, and free weights.

During the open house, Y staff will be offering personalized facility tours and answering any questions that guests may have regarding membership, swim lessons and swim team, summer day camps, youth programming, and health and wellness offerings.

The day of the open house also coincides with the last chance to join as a charter member. Charter members receive permanent recognition inside the new location, a commemorative gift and have no joiner fee.

Group exercise classes, offered free to Lincoln Y members  and child watch, free to Lincoln Y members with a family/household membership  will begin Monday, May 1.

Current Lincoln Y members are also invited to try out the new facility, as a Lincoln Y membership provides access to all five Lincoln locations and many YMCAs across the country offer traveling Y member privileges.

The Copple Family YMCA is located at 8700 Yankee Woods Drive, Suite B, adjacent to Moore Middle School. However, if you cannot make the open house event, the temporary membership office is open through April 29 inside Union Bank & Trust at 84th and Highway 2, and membership and program registration options are available online at YmcaLincoln.org/CoppleFamilyY.

About the Lincoln YMCA

One of Lincolns largest nonprofit youth-serving organizations, the Lincoln YMCA has served the community for 146 years, promoting positive values through programs that build spirit, mind and body for all. Today, the YMCA serves over 82,000 people each year with facilities in all quadrants of Lincoln through programs including swim lessons, youth sports, Camp Kitaki, afterschool programs, disease management and more. Everyone is welcome, and Open Doors Financial Assistance is available to those in need. For more information, visit YmcaLincoln.org.
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Sombrio has joined forces mountain bike photographer, Margus Riga to present the Sombrio x Margus Riga Forest Collection. With deep roots on Vancouvers North Shore, much like Sombrio, Riga feels most at home when exploring the mountains, climbing up trees and capturing the mountain bike lifestyle from behind the camera.The Forest Collection brings the beauty of British Columbia, as captured through Rigas lens, to life with classic Sombrio silhouettes and now were giving you the chance to win a prize pack including gear from the collaboration and a limited edition Margus Riga print!Contest runs from April 16-30th, 2017. Good luck!For more information on the Forest collection visit Sombrio USA or Sombrio Canada MENTIONS: @SombrioCartel
Writings on the Wall

Many years ago, I got a phone call from Troy Torres at a political candidates office. He had seen an election estimate I had written and didn Read morePower of polls and weekend talks
Jovan Angelov doesnt need to close his eyes and think hard to picture what may happen next. Hes seen it before.

As Macedonia plunges deeper into political gridlock, the effects on the economy are starting to seep into the daily lives of ordinary Macedonians like Angelov, a government worker.

I was in the same situation in 2002 when I was let go from Electro Skopje," he tells RFE/RL's Balkan Service, referring to his dismissal from a state-owned power distributor during struggles the country faced after ethnic tensions brought it to the brink of civil war in 2001. "I expect the same thing now, and I'm afraid."

Tensions have risen more recently in the Balkan state of around 2.1 million, with a Macedonian Slav majority and a large ethnic Albanian minority, as protests over the inclusion of ethnic Albanian partners in a proposed governing coalition led by the Social Democrats enter their seventh week.

Macedonia fell into its current political crisis two years ago amid claims that the governing conservative party, VMRO-DPMNE, led by former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, was responsible for the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people including journalists, politicians, and religious leaders.

Massive antigovernment protests led to a European Union mediation effort that created a Special Public Prosecution (SJO) to investigate the wiretapping and the eventual resignation of Gruevski's government.

Despite four snap elections over the next two years, Macedonia, where nearly one in four people is jobless, is no closer to political stability.

"Unfortunately, there is a direct consequence of this instability, and that is the stagnation of the economic growth, Fatmir Bytyqi, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce of Northwestern Macedonia, tells RFE/RL.



Businesses are struggling with liquidity problems, with their current business operations, with the inability to pay their debts. And this goes along to include state institutions. Some are being forced to terminate their contracts or make layoffs because they are unable to continue because of such problems."

The nationalist VMRO-DPMNE won 51 seats to the Social Democrats' 49 in the December balloting for 120 mandates in parliament, making it impossible to form a government without parties explicitly representing ethnic Albanians, who compose about one-quarter of the population.

Zoran Zaev, the leader of the opposition Social Democratic Union, has agreed to form a coalition with some ethnic Albanian parties in exchange for accepting their demands for greater rights and the establishment of Albanian as a second official language in certain areas of the country.

But President Gjorge Ivanov, a VMRO-DPMNE ally*, has refused to give Zaev the official mandate to move ahead with the plan. Ivanov has argued that the language issue was an attempt to destroy Macedonia's independence, and he has accused Albania of interference in its domestic affairs.

Stalemate Continues

By the numbers, the Macedonian economy appeared to be holding on despite the turmoil. Economic output increased every year between 2012 and 2015.



But in the second half of last year, growth slowed to 2.2 percent due to investment contraction and weaker credit growth reflecting political uncertainties, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



The economy has endured a number of shocks in the last two years, including a prolonged political crisis, analysts at the Washington-based IMF said in their most recent report on Macedonias economy.

Growth has so far shown resilience benefiting from accommodative policies, low commodity prices, sustained foreign investment, and improving labor-market conditions. However, the prolonged domestic political crisis is beginning to take a toll on confidence and the countrys EU accession prospects.

The current crisis is the deepest since diplomatic efforts helped Macedonia avoid a civil war during an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001 through promises of eventual European Union and NATO membership.

At a recent EU summit, leaders of the 28-nation bloc said they remain committed to bringing the Balkans into the blocs fold. That pledge has taken on even more urgency with Russias apparent efforts to increase its influence in the region.



EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn urged Macedonias leaders on March 21 to rise above the political bickering and form a government as soon as possible to break the deadlock with the economy hurting.



One Skopje resident who declined to give his name tells RFE/RL that having endured so much turmoil in recent history, Macedonians have become numb to the pain.





Macedonian citizens are constantly threatened by the financial and economic aspect of these crises. The country is all the time in crisis, from the '90s until today we keep having crises and we keep having problems. The situation just goes from bad to worse, he says.

To be sure, not everyone is feeling down about the countrys economic prospects.



The IMF noted that economic growth should accelerate this year, though that forecast came with the caveat of stability following the December elections.

Gjokica Bozinovski is confident, too, saying he has little concern about the economic outlook and calling the current crisis artificial.



Despite this forced and artificial political crisis, new investments are coming and the country offers young people favorable conditions to open businesses. I have no fears from it, he says.

* CORRECTION: This story has been amended from an earlier version to note that President Ivanov is an ally of the VMRO-DPMNE rather than a member of that party.

With reporting by Vladimir Kalinski of RFE/RLs Balkan Service in Skopje
Despite only being around two months old, Pitbull Labs has already done what a lot of supplement companies havent that are over a year old. The still very new, bright and colorful brand has gone international, with its line now officially picked up by an Australasian distributor.

The Australian company Core Biotech has just added Pitbull Labs to the list of brands it carries, which includes the likes of Black Skull, Nuts N More, and Detour. The company will be putting Pitbull Labs in stores across Australia and New Zealand, making the brands start even bigger than it already was.

At the moment the Pitbull Labs lineup is still on the way to Core Biotech, so there will be a bit of a wait before it is available for purchase down under.
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On April 6 India finally signed a deal to buy $2 billion worth of air defense systems from Israeli firms. The purchase is mainly about customized (for India) Israeli Barak 8 SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems. India wanted a modified naval version (LRSAM) and land version (MRSAM) of the Barak 8. Although this project has been in the works since 2006 it encountered problems, mainly on the Indian side, that held up completing the work, and getting everyone to sign off on the contracts..

Since 2015 India has made extraordinary efforts to get the Indian developed features of the Israeli Barak 8 SAM working. Progress on that was disappointing until 2016. What was embarrassing about all this was that Barak 8 entered Israeli service in 2013. While the Israelis got the missile into service ahead of schedule the Indian version was hobbled by poor management. Indian officials kept insisting on additional changes for both its naval version (LRSAM) and land version (MRSAM) of the Indian Barak 8. As experienced Indian naval officers warned, these simple requests (actually demands) caused a lot of problems. Not surprisingly the LRSAM/MRSAM soon fell way behind schedule but three years after the Israeli version entered service India caught up. Several tests since June 2016 have been successful and the LRSAM/MRSAM Barak 8 did indeed get accepted for Indian service by early 2017. All that remained was for senior Indian officials to sign the purchase agreement.

Endless delays have long been the norm for Indian military procurement and state run defense firms. It was always believed that there was not much anyone could do about a situation like this because Indian politicians and defense officials insisted that Indian (mainly state owned defense firms) do the Barak 8 modifications. The Israelis could have done it more quickly and inexpensively but having Indian involvement has become popular with Indian voters and the Israelis can appreciate how difficult that can be to deal with.

With Barak 8 these minor modifications enabled Indian politicians to claim LRSAM and MRSAM are Indian developed and made. The Israelis go along with this because India is a big customer. A growing number of Indians, especially those in the military who are put at risk by all this political posturing, know what is going on and want change. Israeli firms involved have long struggled to find an effective, and diplomatic, solutions. This has involved a lot of meetings in Israel and India between engineers and managers from both countries. Its been a big help that this issue has gotten a lot more Indian media attention in the last few years. The Indian media has also made it clear that the Barak 8 delays are not unique and show up so often that a growing number of foreign suppliers will not even bid on Indian projects. Something had to change and slowly that is happening for several projects.

This is all about the persistent Indian problems with managing the development of military technology. The Barak 8 fiasco began in 2006 when India and Israel agreed to jointly develop and manufacture Barak 8. India called their naval version LRSAM (Long Range Surface to Air Missile) and the land version MRSAM. Israel designed Barak 8 as a naval system. Both LRSAM and MRSAM will replace older Russian weapons as well as Russian offers of new Russian made replacements.

While most (70 percent) of the Barak 8 development work was done in Israel, India is the major customer because it is buying billions of dollars worth of LRSAM for their warships and to replace older Russian SA-6 and SA-8 land based systems. Since India has larger armed forces (and weapons needs) than Israel they will be the major user. The two countries evenly split the $350 million development cost.

The Indian delays are the result of several problems. In addition to finding Indian engineers to implement features India wanted there were different problems setting up manufacturing facilities for the few Indian made components. There were also disagreements over the transfer of some Israeli technology to India. This has also been a problem with other Western nations and the Indian government has not been willing to change Indian laws and patent protections to avoid these problems. The tech transfer problem was eventually worked out but many foreign firms are fed up with inflexible Indian attitudes when it comes to tech transfer.

The problems with Barak 8 were not really a surprise to anyone involved. As early as 2010 Indian defense officials realized they had a major, and embarrassing, problem because they did not have enough engineers in the government procurement bureaucracy to quickly and accurately transfer the Israeli technical data to the Indian manufacturers. In addition, some of the Indian firms that were to manufacture Barak 8 components either misrepresented their capabilities or did not know until it was too late that they did not have the personnel or equipment to handle the job. In early 2016 another self-inflicted problem arose when two state owned defense manufacturing firms got into a dispute with each other and the government over which of them would be in charge of managing the Indian work on LRSAM/MRSAM. This dispute also involved efforts by state owned defense firms to get more political support for increasing pressure on Israel to give ground on exporting defense tech to India.

What no one wanted to say openly was that the corruption in India, especially in defense matters, is epic and most Western states do not trust the Indians unless there are strong (and embarrassing to Indian officials) legal guarantees about the security of exported tech.

Meanwhile Israel has already manufactured and installed Barak 8 on its three 1,075 ton Saar 5 class corvettes. Thus Barak 8 was ready for action over a year before its scheduled 2015 service date. Israel is believed to have rushed this installation because Russia has sent high speed Yakhont anti-ship missiles to Syria and Barak 8 was designed to deal with this kind of threat. Barak 8 is also Israels first air defense system equal to the American Patriot (and similar systems like the U.S. Navy SM-2, Russian S-300, and European Aster 15). An improved Barak 8 would be able to shoot down short range ballistic missiles.

The Barak 8 is a 275 kg (605 pound) missile with a 60 kg (132 pound) warhead and a range of 70 kilometers. The warhead has its own seeker that can find the target despite most countermeasures. The missiles are mounted in a three ton, eight cell container (which requires little maintenance), and are launched straight up. The compact (for easy installation on a ship) fire control module weighs under two tons.
GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines, and health-related consumer products in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company offers pharmaceutical products comprising medicines in the therapeutic areas, such as respiratory, HIV, immuno-inflammation, oncology, anti-viral, central nervous system, cardiovascular and urogenital, metabolic, anti-bacterial, and dermatology. It also provides consumer healthcare products in wellness, oral health, nutrition, and skin health categories. The company offers its consumer healthcare products in the form of nasal sprays, tablets, syrups, lozenges, gum and trans-dermal patches, caplets, infant syrup drops, liquid filled suspension, wipes, gels, effervescents, toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes, denture adhesives and cleansers, topical creams and non-medicated patches, lip balm, gummies, and soft chews. It has collaboration agreements with 23andMe; Lyell Immunopharma, Inc.; Novartis; Sanofi SA; Surface Oncology; Progentec Diagnostics, Inc.; Alector, Inc.; and CureVac AG., as well as strategic partnership with IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. The company was formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline plc and changed its name to GSK plc in May 2022. GSK plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Brentford, the United Kingdom.
RACINE COUNTY  How about a little bit of local candy-making history to go with that chocolate Easter bunny you just bit into?

Not only is the Racine Confectioners Machinery Co. (formerly the Racine Engine and Machinery Co.) credited with building the first automatic, lollipop-making apparatus (the Racine Automatic Sucker Machine) in 1908, but in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, Racine was also the source for candy molds used by sweets manufacturers around the country.

The Ideal Mould Co., then located at 1417 N. Main St., was run by Peter Drummond, who was originally trained as a cabinet maker and later designed and carved hundreds of plaster molds for penny candy and chocolates, including Easter bunnies.

Drummonds designs were sold to companies such as Brachs of Chicago and the Goelitz Co. of California, one of his daughters told The Journal Times in a 1998 story. And some of his molds are still held by the Smithsonian Institution and exhibited occasionally in the National Museum of American History.

Local historian Gerald Karwowski also has a collection of more than 3,000 plaster candy molds that he says date back to the 1920s and 1930s. Karwowski, who owns the Oak Clearing Farm & Museum in Yorkville, found the collection at an estate sale in the 800 block of Romayne Avenue in Racine back in the mid-1990s.

An avid collector of items made in Racine County, Karwowski asked the sale organizer if there were any such items available and was offered a photographic catalog of plaster candy molds. That led to the discovery of several boxes of the pictured molds, found in the attic of the homes garage. And, as Karwowski was loading his take into his vehicle, the organizer came out to tell him hed discovered more.

He just kept bringing out box after box, Karwowski said.

Also still in the garage, where the molds were stored, Karwowski said he saw some of the old candy-making equipment. And research hes done since then tells him that the molds belonged to the Halberstadt family, who are listed as Confectionery Wholesalers and Jobbers (persons who do occasional work), and were doing business at the Romayne Avenue address, according to the 1929 Racine City Directory.

In addition to molds for just about every holiday, shapes include everything from Chicagos Wrigley Building to Steamboat Willie (the title character from Mickey Mouses first movie) and Charlie Chaplin. Theres even a Kewpie doll.

There are plenty of Easter bunnies, in every shape, size and pose, and a range of Santa Claus styles. Some of Karwowskis favorites are the Halloween molds, as he says they are the rarest.

Each mold is like a little plaster sculpture  one that, for Karwowski, tells a story of Racines candy-making history.

They show us what life was like, in another period of time, he said.
MARK LEWIS: CANADA reads the sign above the gallery door at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in big blocky letters, and youd be forgiven for expecting an epic visual ode to the true north strong and free. The grand sweep of a boreal forest, maybe, the craggy peaks of the Rockies, or the vast, island-flecked waterways of the far west coast  pick your grandiose wilderness venue, bleeding maple-leaf red, at will. Weve got plenty, from sea to shining sea.

Pause to consider, then, what lies beyond the threshold, where three big, silent video works capturing decidedly unheroic, not particularly Canadian scenes await: The sickly green of an industrial canal; a lone swimmer on a beach; a woman reading, seaside, in beatific light. Each of them was shot here, but less as intention than incidental fact.

It could be Pittsburgh, Chicago  anywhere, really, where these kinds of things exist, shrugs Mark Lewis, the London-based artist whose name is clamped so tightly to that of our home and native land, just a few steps away. Canada, the show, explains Lewis, briefly in town for the shows opening last week, is simply drawn from Canada, the Richard Ford novel, about a loose idea of a northern ideal that lies just beyond the grasp of the American psyche.

Canada, the novel, takes place in Canada, but only partly. Stay with me here: Canada, Lewiss show, is a reference to Canada, one of his three films in the exhibition, in which a young woman reads Fords Canada on a sunny shore (which is in Canada, but remember: that doesnt matter).

If Lewiss desire to detach seems strange, given the context  Canada, the country, is approaching its increasingly complicated 150th birthday  then maybe you dont know Mark Lewis.

Raised in Hamilton but living in the UK for two decades, Lewis, 58, has made his name with meditative, languid film works, most often positioned at an ambiguous remove (more Canada: in 2009, he represented his homeland at the Venice Biennale). Recent works have included a slow-tracking film of an awkwardly angular intersection in London, and a dark and shimmering, unhurried visual pirouette through the innards of Torontos infamous Brass Rail (off-hours; no skin here).

In each, the protagonist is the camera itself, drinking in the scene from an ever-evolving perspective. Its as though Lewis, a history painting enthusiast, is devoted less to his subject than a larger pursuit: Of introducing to the age-old, painterly contemplation of image and space the contemporary element of time.

Valley, the first of the films here, puts that on clear view. Hovering drone-like along the murky water, the camera pulls up and away to reveal a parallel freeway, a glass tower, a bridge. Its hypnotic and sinister all at once, as though an alien probe had been sent to earth to survey it for future appropriation.

Its eye drifts slowly, meticulous and fluid, its sweep recalling the vast tableaux of history painting; its content and composition, the early work of fellow Canadian art star, the conceptual photographer Jeff Wall (his 1986 work, The Storyteller, feels almost like its storyboard.)

Locals will quickly recognize the scene as the base of the Don River, a bike path curling nearby, cars on the DVP whizzing past the glass stacks of the BMW dealership. Lewis protests, gently, that its a matter of convenience, and that his interest lies less in place than the grander scope of modernity and its transformative force, which remade land into raw material, energy, and the means to transport it.

The camera reveals what he means to describe: As it pulls back ever further, it drifts over the barricades of an electrical switching station and tilts up to a blue sky sliced into tidy, angular portions by the drab metal of a hydro tower and the taut power lines projecting from it. The idea of containment, apportioning  divisions, claims, property  is powerfully present here, and maybe thats where Canada, and Canada, comes in.

In its sweep, the camera drifts past a man with long black hair, lingering near a squat utility bridge with a corrugated roof of pale fiberglass. Inside, hes pitched a tent; hes homeless, and indigenous, neither of which suggest the neutrality about the shows title Lewis claims.

Its not a political statement per se, but a reflection of something Ive seen, he says. At the same time, I think its important to acknowledge that homelessness and destitution exists at a much higher proportion in that community.

He pauses. I cant say if anything good will come from depicting him. But I do know nothing positive comes from absence.

Its a quietly provocative statement here, on the edge of an anniversary rapidly evolving into an imperative to drag the most glaring absence in our national perspective to the centre of the frame.

Valleys long-look perspective on the mechanics of modernity cant help but brush up against how it came to be: Lands divided, conquered, extracted and claimed from its First People, who have been pushed aside in the full breadth of violent and ugly ways ever since.

Modernity, really, is just a cleaner word for colonialism, which was at the very least its main event. Late-era contemporary art  sanctioned art, museum art  has typically shown not quite enough spleen to connect the two explicitly, hesitant to colour itself with positional politics. Recent years have seen a change (thanks, Ai Weiwei, Kerry James Marshall, Kent Monkman, among others). If there was ever an occasion to drop the veil of ambiguity, Canada 150  a blunt marker of colonial conquest  is it.

Lewis, with a little prompting, allows that Valley absorbs those ideas. If you wanted to stretch the idea of Canada, you could say Canada was built by infrastructure maps of territory, and expropriation, he says. And I think thats very much in its name. Its an Iroquois word  meaning village or settlement  but I think its a sign of its unconscious  that really, it was made through theft.

Maybe Lewis isnt quite so detached, and maybe Canada, the show, isnt really just a tease-out of an American novel after all. In an adjacent room, Things Seen, a spectacular, ominous black-and-white film shows a woman emerging from a turbulent sea (its actually Lake Ontario, and the Scarborough Bluffs, but remember: that doesnt matter).

The camera skitters across the beach as she emerges from the waves, angling left, almost as though to avoid meeting head on. Good choice. In her black wetsuit, shes intimidating, ferocious. As the camera circles, drawing closer with every pass, the confrontation intensifies; things could escalate, and badly. In the end, the camera beats a hasty retreat, revealing its robotic tracks in the sand; she turns, satisfied, and disappears into the waves.

In its cranked-up sense of menace, it seems very un-Lewis like. Maybe its Canada, not Canada, getting to him.

There was an idea of first encounter  what happens when one thing meets another and they dont understand each other? What is the expected denouement? Is it conquest? Equivalence? Fear?

I suggest that we have a lot of history available to compare notes, and not much of it good. Lewis nods. Most of the people who came to the Americas to settle were uneducated, unsophisticated, illiterate, and came because they had nothing. And when they arrived, they often met people who were far more culturally advanced than they were. As we know from todays politics, that can create anger and fear. And violence.

The conversation turns to Champlains Dream, the book on the French explorers travels to New France and his relatively enlightened approach to the indigenous people he found here.

He recognized immediately that this was a sophisticated society, Lewis says. He saw them as worthy partners, people you could learn from and accommodate.

It seems a solid credo for the moment that, like it or not, Lewiss show addresses. (Thats not my intention, he says, and shrugs. It might be the AGOs.)

Either way, by the time we reach Canada, the film, with its Richard Ford conceit, it feels a little flatly pretty. Of the three, Canada has the least to do with Canada, and feels more pale because of it. As it turns out, theres a lot of Canada in Canada, the show, whether Lewis meant for it or not.

Mark Lewis: Canada continues at the Art Gallery of Ontario to December 10.

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OTTAWACanada is moving to strip citizenship from a man accused of slaughtering villagers in Guatemala using a grenade, gun and sledgehammer.

Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes concealed his brutal role in a 1982 massacre by the Guatemalan military in obtaining Canadian citizenship a decade later, the federal government says in newly filed court documents.

Sosa Orantes, 59, is now serving a 10-year sentence for immigration fraud in the United States, where he also held citizenship until it was revoked in 2014.

Canada has opted to strip citizenship in only a handful of modern-day war crimes cases.

The bloody, decades-long conflict between Guatemalan government forces and guerrillas intensified in the early 1980s.

The military junta began a ruthless campaign of destruction that wiped out 440 villages, killing over 75,000 people and displacing more than 250,000, the Canadian government says in documents filed in Federal Court.

The army would typically circle a village, seal it off, gather the people and separate men and women before killing villagers.

Destruction of property, torture, sexual violence towards women and minors was widespread and systematic during these operations, the court submission says.

Sosa Orantes was a senior member of a military special forces group that led a mission to the Guatemalan village of Las Dos Erres in December 1982 to interrogate inhabitants after some military rifles were allegedly stolen during a guerrilla ambush of troops.

The military members killed at least 162 civilians, including 67 children. Women were raped and children were thrown into an 18-metre dry well.

The members of the special forces group killed their victims by hitting them on the head with a sledgehammer, by hitting their heads on a tree, by shooting them, or by slitting their throats, the federal submission says.

In other cases, victims were simply thrown into the well while they were still alive.

At one point, Sosa Orantes fired his rifle into the well, then tossed in a grenade, the documents say.

In supervising the killings at the well, he mocked subordinates who showed any hesitation to commit the murders.

There were only three survivors, and the missing rifles were not found.

Sosa Orantes left Guatemala for California in 1985. After being denied asylum in the U.S., he visited the Canadian Consulate in San Francisco to seek haven in Canada. He was granted refugee status, later becoming a permanent resident and citizen of Canada.

The federal government argues in the court filing that Sosa Orantes failed to disclose details of his military involvement that would have made him inadmissible to Canada.

Sosa Orantes married an American woman and attained U.S. citizenship in September 2008.

In 2010, the U.S. discovered he had committed immigration fraud by concealing his past. He was arrested the following year in Lethbridge, Alta., while visiting family. He was subsequently extradited to the U.S. to face trial.

Sosa Orantes has denied being in Las Dos Erres the day of the massacre.

In ordering his extradition to the U.S., the Alberta Court of Queens Bench said the evidence establishes Sosa Orantes was one of the commanding officers who decided to murder the villagers and that he actively participated in the killings with a sledgehammer, with a firearm and a grenade.

It is difficult for this court to comprehend the murderous acts of depraved cruelty on the scale disclosed by the evidence, it said.

U.S. immigration officials say they will seek to deport Sosa Orantes to Guatemala upon conclusion of his sentence.

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Friends and family have raised more than $15,000 for a Scarborough mans funeral expenses after he was found dead in a parking lot on Chester Le Blvd. early Saturday morning.

A GoFundMe page set up for the mans funeral expenses passed its $15,000 target after just 19 hours on Sunday morning, with donations from more than 400 people.

By the grace of God, we have reached our goal in just a few hours. May Allah bless those of you who have taken the time to donate, the page was updated to read shortly after passing its target.

While police have not released the victims name, friends and community members identified him as 24-year-old Samatar Farah.

Samatar was one of the nicest, kind hearted, easy going people you would ever come across, the GoFundMe page read.

This page is dedicated to help pay for the funeral costs, pay off any debts he might have, and help his family out at this rough time.

On Saturday, the Toronto police homicide unit responded to a call just after 8 a.m. to investigate a body found in the parking lot. Police said they believe the man was shot around 1:30 a.m. and that he was targeted.

Police said they are looking for two suspects.

The GoFundMe page said Farah was killed on his way home from work.

Hed always offer anything he had, and he didnt always have everything, a friend, Nidun Chandrakumar, told the Star on Saturday.

A post-mortem examination is scheduled for Monday, police said.

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Toronto lawyer Paul Lewin jokes that he has been ranting and raving about the evils of drug prohibition for years but no one, outside the cannabis community, paid much attention to what he had to say.

That changed after Justin Trudeaus Liberal Party came to power in 2015, promising to legalize marijuana. The government tabled the enabling legislation Thursday.

Since the Liberal win, Lewins client list has swelled both with would-be pot sellers looking for advice and people accused of criminal and bylaw offences after Toronto police raids targeting dispensaries. This fall, he will be in court fighting a forfeiture order injunction aimed at closing Canna Clinics, a B.C.-based company in the crosshairs of the citys licensing division.

Its kind of exciting being involved in a lot of the action, Lewin said this week sitting in the boardroom of his storefront office on The Danforth, east of Woodbine Ave.

Not all of the attention has been positive.

At a January news conference at police headquarters, Supt. Bryce Evans accused a Toronto defence lawyer  he didnt identify Lewin by name  of being misleading and unprofessional for suggesting the crackdowns had made dispensaries sitting ducks for armed bandits.

It was neither misleading nor unprofessional, responds Lewin. There is abundant peer-reviewed public health research that suggests prohibition creates lawless zones that breed violence.

Lewin shares office space with Julie Sagara, a lawyer specializing in wills and estates. This is no white shoe firm. A black and white photo of a protester standing in front of a row of police officers in riot gear during the G20 summit hangs on the wall in the front waiting area. A pile of glossy Highway magazines sit piled up on a table. Lewin is a contributor.

The self-branded cannabis lawyer  100 per cent of his practice relates to pot  turned 50 in December. He looks younger on a casual work day in jeans and T-shirt, giving a partial peek at the snake tattoo wrapped around his bicep. His daughters name is tattooed on the other arm.

Lewin attended the prestigious Osgoode Hall law school and was called to the bar in 1993. In his early days, divorce cases paid the bills.

That was horrible, he recalls. He switched to criminal after his then fiance urged him to pursue what you love.

In 1999, he took the advice of a pot activist friend who told him to use the great power you have being a lawyer to agitate for change to pot laws outside court as well as in.

Before then, Lewin says he thought Canadas drug laws were wrong, but I just thought it was one of the crappy things of life.

In 2000, he ran as a Marijuana Party candidate in the federal election and was a fringe candidate in the 2003 Toronto mayoralty race on a platform of turning the city into a province.

The young lawyers Free 416 message is probably too radical for Toronto in 2003, read a prescient headline in the Toronto Star.

While his pot activism grew  he joined NORML Canada (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) and is currently the Ontario regional director  his practice also became more pot focused.

In 2011, Lewin represented members of the Church of the Universe who were charged with trafficking pot. Its adherents believed cannabis is sacred to their religion.

Lewin argued the case accepting then, and now, theres spirituality in cannabis.

It makes you have a greater appreciation of things that may be little bit banal, but you can find a greater appreciation of the world . . . it makes you appreciate your fellow man a little more.

In the past, Lewin has predicted the Liberals will officially ruin legalization. But this week, Lewin said he was more hopeful.

He is also mindful of the adage be careful for what you wish for when recreational pot use becomes legal in the summer of 2018.

Theres a strong sense of uncertainty and on some days, a sense of uncertainty slash dread about the future, he says.

He predicts his practice, like everything else these days, will change very fast.

He may have to shift his focus to regulatory work, helping people navigate the red tape in the new pot world. He also predicts new areas of cannabis law will arise. For instance, a wrongful dismissal case centring on an employees use of pot.

You got to do what you got to do. Maybe Ill have to mow a few lawns.

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Emergency Department. Authorized personnel only.

I place my badge on the automatic door.

Click.

Major. Bright lights glare harshly from every corner. At the consultants desks, teams of residents pore over lab tests, scroll over screens looking for a pattern that would fit into a diagnosis. One takes off his glasses and puts his head on the desk. Beside him, a colleague, blinking sleepily, stares at an X-ray of a chest, white bones frozen on a computer screen.

That once was me, but since I graduated my residency, no ones looking over my shoulder to catch mistakes, and I no longer work such long hours, but I do work a range of shifts. Christmas afternoon, midnight on a Sunday, if not me, someone like me. In eight-hour intervals, we cover the clock. From dawn until midnight there are four or five of us scattered through the ER, another waiting by the phone for a serious trauma, but nights, no matter how special they seem at the start, no one wants to work them. Eventually, research says, they make you sick, something you didnt need science to tell you, so in the smallest hours, you work alone.

And quickly. As cities pile people downtown, as people live longer on more medicines that make more side effects, have more surgeries and more complications, as specialization break bodies into smaller and smaller parts, as our population spends more time on screens than outside and grows ever more anxious, there are more people in our ER every day.

Only a few years ago, it was rare to see 200 people register. Now, we rarely have fewer. Soon, well need two of us at night. As it is now, we run all night and never get caught up.

Tom sits at the major desk, looking at a virtual map of the department on a computer screen. Each room is red, meaning full. I put my coffee mug beside him.

Hows it goin? I ask, snatching a piece of paper from a printers tray.

Living the dream, he says, stretching his arms above him, and yawns.

A young woman in a white coat hovers five paces away.

Are you the medical student on tonight?

She nods.

Well, gather close I say, and flop into a chair.

Bed 1, says Tom, is a 70-year-old man with a history of heart failure, came in about an hour ago, quite short of breath. Looked pretty bad at first, but he turned around with nitro and some diuretics. He doesnt even need oxygen anymore.

I nod. Nitroglycerine lets veins fatten, drops the load rushing into the heart such that it can beat more easily. Diuretics kick salt from our kidneys, and with it, the extra water from a failed heart that has leaked across the membrane of our lungs.

Chest X-rays ... here.

He pulls up a silhouette of the mans ribs, plump heart in the middle. The lungs, usually as invisible as the air they hold, are whiter where fluid has seeped from the pressures of a failing pump.

Not bad, I say, pointing out to the medical student where Tom and I are looking.

Turns out he hasnt been taking his pills, and we talked about that. Still waiting on blood work, but if he passes a walk test, I think he should be able to go with followup.

These 10 minutes are the most dangerous ones in the ER. I havent seen any of the people Tom is talking about. I will if asked, but there are new people in beds, more every few minutes. You need to trust the person who is leaving that their plans are good, that they insert no false certainty.

Tom has the knack. And the account makes sense, the details tie into each other. If they didnt, we would go over it again, or he would ask me to start anew.

Bed 2 is a 35-year-old man ...

I scratch down 15 short stories of peoples lives, into a line or two of worries, circle the ones with outstanding business.

This your first night shift here ... Zainab? I ask the medical student, looking at her badge

Yes.

Well, thats exciting, I say, standing up and walking around the nursing desk to the charts of the patients waiting to be seen. She follows.

OK. So, quickly. All these beds  I gesture to the semicircle of curtains around us  are major.

She nods.

Sicker people. Heart attacks, or things that could be them. Strokes and overdoses. Traumas. Low blood pressures, hearts that are too fast or too slow. The unconscious. People who need constant monitoring, because theyre getting sicker, or because the information gathered over time helps us know whether its safer for them to stay in hospital or whether they can go home.

If they have a home, thats where we send them, if its safe to. If its not, or they need treatment only found in hospital, theyre admitted. There are more nurses here in major, like one for every two beds. Thats what makes the difference between here and intermediate. We take over those rooms at 1 a.m. People are on monitors there, but have fewer nurses to check on them, less time per sick person.

A woman in a white coat comes out of bed 11 and joins us. I smile in greeting.

Just orienting Zainab to the ER. In intermediate, we see abdominal pain, kidney stones. Vaginal bleeding. That type of thing. People with mostly normal vital signs, who can wait for an hour or two, though they often wait longer. We also have a security guard there at all times, so thats where we put people who are psychotic, suicidal, or high on drugs. Drug-wise, here at St. Mikes ... a lot of crystal these days for some reason. Some crack, but everything really. GHB, MDMA, heroin, fentanyl, OxyContin. I stop to think. And booze. Lots of booze. People can be pretty agitated, so best to check with me or one of the nurses before you go into a room alone.

Zainab follows my eyes, hangs off my words. I was the same. It was the most exciting place I had been.

Last, minor. Its the busiest. Only a couple nurses, little monitoring. Long waits, small problems. Well, to us. To the person, worst day of their life.

The senior resident smiles, nods.

Heres how it will work. You  I point to Zainab  will see cases, do the history and physical exam, talk to me about what you think is going on, and well come up with a treatment plan together. Make sense? And you  I flip the senior residents badge the right way round, Ellen, visiting final-year resident, on a trauma rotation, maybe wants a job  talk to me before you order any scans or discharge anybody home. Well connect every hour or so to see whats going on. If any traumas come in, theyre all yours.

Oh yeah, and if either of you hear Dr. Maskalyk to wherever, meet me there. Something exciting is happening.

They nod, satisfied.

OK, break. Well work in major for a bit, then let the other docs go home.

I look through the remaining charts. Confused, registered at 23:23 hours. Shortness of breath, 23:40. Its best to not get picky about what you see, just go to whoevers next.

A preference for the sickest, though. Thats what matters most, shuffles the order. The triage nurse makes a first fast pass, glancing at the vital signs, heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, but also how the body is held, the clothes, the worry, asks a few critical questions about chest pain, how suddenly the weakness started.

The inspection continues in finer detail when the patient moves into a room and another nurse spends more minutes on the story, pulling out details, sees them gasp as they change into a gown, what bruises are revealed, then comes back in 20 minutes to note whats changed. The worst sicknesses dont stay still. Short of breath then gulping for it, the confused turn unconscious.

A person tells the story a third time to me, about how they came to be hooked to all these machines. Some get frustrated, but I need to hear it myself. I must be forever suspicious, trust no previous information necessarily, at least not more than what I can gather. I have diagnosis and treatment in mind, decide who gets discharged or referred for admission, the middle and end of their emergency department story. In the eyes of the law, my mistakes matter most, so I ask two questions in enough different ways that the answers are as clear as possible: what exactly are you here for, and why, exactly, today?

Then I look at their shoes. In truth, I probably look at them first, and if they have none, their feet. It tells me how much money they have, what kind of care I can expect them to afford their body once they leave.

Regardless of which bed they start in, the sickest win their way to the front, and we see them first, then everyone else in the order they come, as fast as we can. I say that sentence so often to people frustrated at the wait, I want it flashing underneath the Emergency sign.

I drain the rest of my coffee. One of the nurses turns the lights down. Some of the patients Tom saw are numb, drowsing, morphine washing through their brains, waiting for admission orders to be written by the resident with his head on the desk. Its quiet, at least for now, but you must never, ever say that word in this ER. It is our one superstition. Well, we havent a bed 13, so I suppose there are two.

I walk past the man in bed 1. He breathes easily. A body in bed 6 clicks and whirs on a ventilator, paralyzed and unconscious. Space is being made for her in the intensive care unit. In the rare event there wasnt some, she would be flown to another ICU by helicopter, maybe even wake up in a brand-new city once she could gather her own breaths again. What a surprise.

Around the ER, in major, intermediate, minor, in bright rooms, 20 families sit, anxious. For them, hours of waiting. For us, a series of five-minute encounters until morning.

I stand outside the bed of the confused man. I have seen so many people pass through this bed. Seizing ones. Bleeding ones. A man yelling, bug-eyed, high on amphetamines, while security strained to hold him down.

I glance at his chart. Eighty-six. I pull the curtain aside.

He looks older. He is alone, his eyes closed, mouth drawn over empty gums. His face is freshly shaven.

Who did it? I wonder. So careful. Not even a nick. I lean closer. The smell of aftershave.

Maybe he did it himself.

No stridor. Oxygen in his blood was good, at 98 per cent. His heart tracing is slow and regular on the black screen. He could wait minutes. I shuffle the next chart forward.

Bed 14. Shortness of breath. I draw its curtain back, and the face of a man I have seen half a dozen times looks up. He sits, shirtless, legs dangling, sharp shoulders rounded forward, heaving up and down. His nose flares as he draws in a breath, cheeks blow fat as he puffs it out past the edges of an oxygen mask connected from his face to the wall.

Hey ... Doc ...

Saeed. Asthma again?

Yeah.

Still smoking?

Cuttin ... down ... five ... a day ...

Good. I put the bell of my stethoscope on his back. Wheezes. You coughing anything up? Fevers? Using your puffers?

Nos. I scribble an order on his chart for inhaled medicines, a steroid pill to shrink the inflammation in his scarred lungs. In an hour, he will walk out of here with an inhaler in his pocket and a prescription for more. Same every time. He always says he needs more. He must have a hundred of the things. Whats happened to them all? I dont ask.

I drop the orders off at the nursing station, walk back to the bed of the confused man.

Sir! I shout. He doesnt blink. I move to his ear. Sir!

Nothing. I rap his chest. No response. More unconscious than confused. I rub my knuckles hard, back and forth, on his sternum. He grimaces, moves his hands to mine. Good. Something is infinitely better than nothing.

I feel for a pulse in the arm that clutches mine. The skin at his wrist is paper-thin. Skin does that as we age, fades, its fat and elastics grow loose. Sometimes older people come in after bumping their shins and the skin will just have peeled away. Putting it back together is like sewing wrapping paper; the threads just slide right through. Ive learned to use tape.

I look more carefully at the chart. From nursing home. Alzheimers. History of stroke. Two-person transfer. Not eating, not drinking  3 days. Blood sugar normal. No family. End-of-life form signed by public trustee: transfer to hospital, antibiotics OK. Do not resuscitate.

Ive seen this man before too. Versions of him, I mean, so many Ive lost count, all of them dead now.

I saw two roads when I noted his age and complaint. Review his medicines for sedatives, order blood work, chest X-ray, test for urinary tract infection, a CAT scan of the head to look for blood that, if seen, will cause me to stop the Aspirin hes on.

Or let him die. Hes on his way. Whatever fear of death were treating by pretending to stave it off, this man isnt feeling it. If I could talk to him, I dont know if he would want to stretch this part of his life. But I cant.

Thats the tension that pulls through this place. Not just how to call out the right medicine over a dozen other voices and have the right person hear it, or not to miss a tiny white patch of blood on a CAT scan when youre blinking sleepily at 4 a.m., but how to mete out the great wealth to those who might profit in ways that matter. Admitting to intensive care all the people who will never again open their eyes would fill it in a day. Pour blood into people who wont stop bleeding and youll run dry while theyll still die. These decisions become more real in places like Ethiopia, where for a single person there may be two units of blood to spare, not 20.

I pull the mans lower lids down. The pupils tighten briskly in a blue iris, clouded with cataracts from the suns rays.

Someones son, brother, father, husband, lover. Grandfather. One day, someone will bend to my wrinkled face, put a stethoscope on this chest, and listen to my heart pound down, their mind on their own private thoughts while mine dances with memories.

Or maybe Ill be surrounded by people I love. Or be alone on the floor.

I swish the curtain aside and leave the room.

In minor, charts fall to the floor. I grab the clipboard of the next to be seen and work through the alphabet of rooms. A bug crawled into a mans ear. A young couple share a common cold. A lady dropped a wine glass and tried to pick it up, cutting 

Hiss. Dr. Maskalyk, please call triage. Dr. Maskalyk, call triage. Click.

I look at the clock.

Three a.m. Bars closed. Probably a trauma.

Excuse me, maam, I say, wrapping the bandage back around her finger.

I walk out of the ER through the side door, to the ambulance bay.

Snow loops on the black pavement. An ambulance beeps as it backs quickly to our ramp, stops. A man leaps out, rushes to the back door, springs it open. In the back, another medic sits beside a stretcher, squeezing a bag. They push the bed from the trucks boxed back and two legs click down, two more, and they rush up the ramp.

I hurry beside them, pull my surgical gown tight against the wind. The mans face is swollen, his eyes just slits. Blood burbles out of his snoring mouth, spatters on the clear rubber mask. The medic squeezes the bag and starts to recite the story breathlessly.

Twenty-something male ... assaulted ... to the face and neck. Unwitnessed. Heart rate 120, sat 80 per cent, blood pressure ...

[Ellen] intubates him. It is hard to stand back, but I manage. The surgery resident is beside the patients neck, ready with the scalpel, plastic shield over his eyes. Zainab stands, riveted, eyes wide, three paces back.

While the man is getting his broken face imaged a floor above, another hiss overhead. A woman dancing on her balcony, drunk, high, daring fate, slipped. She arrives in the trauma room, her neck craned behind her in a dull stare, already dead. We tell her brother, an hour later, underneath white lights. He nods bravely. Behind him, his father strokes his daughters hair, whispers loving words into her cold ear.

At 5 a.m., a woman comes to the nursing station where Ellen and I sit looking at the mans fractured face on a computer. Blood has seeped through her bandage. Ive been waiting for more than two hours, you know, she says, angrily, thrusts her wound at me.

Well, maam, I say, Im the only doctor at night, and we see the sickest first.

So much misery in that one little finger.

A half-hour later: Sorry for the wait. Lets see that hand. I carefully unwrap the gauze. Itll come together nicely. Therell hardly be a scar.

She smiles, and in that square space, in the middle of the night, a bit of suffering disappears.

Excerpted from Life on the Ground Floor, by James Maskalyk, M.D. Copyright  2017 Dr. James Maskalyk. Published by Doubleday Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

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In a city as pizza-crazed as New York, pizza wars erupt with some regularity, from dollar slice joints battling for customers in Manhattan to a Mafia-tinted dispute over a stolen sauce recipe between a pizza shop in Brooklyn and another on Staten Island.

But perhaps nothing compares to a kosher pizza war, pitting 21st-century foodie-ism against the decidedly 19th-century world of an insular Hasidic neighbourhood.

Two pizza restaurant owners, both Orthodox Jews, have become entangled in an only-in-Brooklyn lawsuit, not in an august courthouse, but in an obscure hall of justice known as the Rabbinical Court of Borough Park, which hears cases in a simple room above a synagogue on a residential block.

At the centre of the battle are not prices or sauce recipes, but cryptic interpretations of holy law set down in ancient Aramaic thousands of years ago. Both sides have invoked rules dictated by the Torah and the Talmud, as well as a cookbooks worth of interpretations of kosher rules and certification standards.

Armed with their arguments, the two pizza sellers appeared recently in rabbinical court, known as a beth din. There, things proceeded like a Hasidic Peoples Court, with the judges  three rabbis  dressed in traditional all-black garb, facing the litigants.

At one table, the plaintiff: Daniel Branover, an owner of Basil Pizza & Wine Bar, a popular upscale kosher restaurant in Crown Heights that opened in 2010 and offers specialty pies as a menu staple.

At another table, the defendant: Shemi Harel, who this month opened Calabria, a pizza shop directly across the street from Basil.

With its graffiti-style decor and casual, pay-at-the-counter dining, Calabria is very different from sleek, modern Basil, where weekend diners often wait two hours for a table.

But it was Calabrias menu that set off alarms for Branover, whose customers pay as much as $24 for individual pies.

Branover took one look and saw a threat to his thin-crust, sauce-laden business plan: Calabria was offering a similar product at a lower price, mere steps away.

I just couldnt look the other way, Branover said. He didnt want his customers. He wanted my customers.

While some may see this as mere capitalism, Branover considered it a violation of Talmudic law on unfair competition by a new, nearby business  in Hebrew, hasagat gevul.

So he sued in rabbinical court, claiming a case of one business hurting the livelihood of another business.

Branover said he had helped transform dining in the neighbourhood by opening Basil, where Hasidics, local Caribbean immigrants and newly arrived professionals could mix over good kosher food. Now here was this upstart interloper encroaching on his business.

They did everything that was against Jewish code, and thats the reason I went after them, said Branover, whose partner at Basil, Clara Perez, said that Calabrias owners had stealthily debriefed employees about Basils most popular pizzas and how to make them. She also accused Calabrias owners of poaching customers while they waited outside for Basils tables to clear.

Harel dismissed the accusations as nonsense, saying that his restaurants look, menu and pizza were clearly quite different from Basils.

The case provides a window into a merchants dispute rarely heard in rabbinical courts, vestiges of a religious legal system established in ancient times and prevalent today in Orthodox communities as an alternative to the civil court system.

Beth dins are better known for mediating and adjudicating religious bills of divorce, kosher certifications and conversions to Judaism. But, on occasion, they also rule on more enigmatic points of Jewish law, such as claims of ruinous competition.

In 2006, a State Supreme Court ruling upheld a rabbinical court decision blocking one Hasidic-owned bus company from copying anothers route schedule from New York to Washington. And in 1993, a group of kosher restaurants in Teaneck, New Jersey, asked a rabbinical court to stop a nearby restaurant from expanding and stealing its customers.

The pizza ruling was issued in mere days, in Hebrew, with certain citations of the Torah and the Talmud in ancient Aramaic.

The rabbis sided largely with Branover, finding that Calabria was so close both geographically and in food style that it jeopardized Basils livelihood. Calabria was told to switch to offering regular pizza, which the court defined as New York-style pizza, though it did not provide any further guidance.

Since the ruling, however, the case has fallen into a murky divide between ancient Talmudic law and the conventions of a classic New York slice.

To Branover, the ruling means Calabria must stick to basic pizza parlour rules: round pies, sliced into wedges.

Harel called the ruling unfair and mystifying. He said it would hinder his pursuit of the top kosher certification, critical to attracting customers.

To follow the courts New York-style pizza edict, Harel said, he searched online for the best dough recipe that fit the bill. He quickly revised Calabrias website to call its pizza New York-style.

But he continued to sell rectangular slices.

Branover accused Calabria of making nominal changes in a cynical attempt to flout the ruling. He is prepared, he said, to file a civil suit, using the rabbis ruling as leverage.

Harel said Calabria was a family business that cost in the high six figures to open and had required a sizable loan. Branover said that of his annual gross sales of roughly $3 million, pizza sales accounted for roughly $50,000 a month, but that pizza was his biggest attraction for customers.

In an interview, the rabbis who heard the pizza case said they had considered Calabrias location, as well as Branovers substantial investment in his restaurant and the reputation it had won.

While Jewish law does not oppose competition as a rule, there were exceptional circumstances unique to this case, including the similarities in appearance and concept in pizza offerings, said Rabbi Reuven Alt, the senior member of the Borough Park panel.

Like many rabbinical courts, the Borough Park panel is set up like a simple civil courtroom, akin to a traffic court in that it has no gallery, bailiffs or court reporter.

Cases have plaintiffs and defendants, and proceed in Hebrew, with witnesses, evidence presentations, questions from the rabbis and cross-examinations.

In the pizza case, the rabbis took the unusual step of visiting the restaurants, using an Uber car to drive them there.

These are not people who hang around restaurants, but they got into the nuances of the different ovens and atmosphere, Branover said. They really did their homework.

Harel said that Jewish law regarding competition applies only to merchants in the same profession, and that this case is different because Branover owns a profitable energy management company, Satec.

Its not his business, its his hobby, said Harel, 28. He called Branover a wealthy man who got his ego hurt, and Im a young man doing the only thing I know how to do.

Branover said, It doesnt matter how much money I have, the law applies to the business, not the businessman.

Calabria, Harel said, has become a hit with customers because of things no one could contest in any court.

The place is clean, and service is superb, and the ingredients are the freshest, he said. Nobody has a patent on that.

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GUATEMALA CITYJavier Duarte, the fugitive former governor of Mexicos Veracruz state who is accused of running a corruption ring to pilfer from state coffers, was detained in Guatemala on Saturday.

A statement from Mexicos federal Attorney Generals Office said Duarte was detained in the municipality of Panajachel, in Solola department, in co-ordination with Guatemalan police and the local Interpol office.

It said he is wanted on suspicion of money laundering and organized crime, and prosecutors directed the Foreign Relations Department to request Duartes extradition via its Guatemalan counterpart.

Duarte was governor of Veracruz from 2010 until he left office Oct. 12, 2016, shortly before the scheduled end of his term. At the time he said he was doing so in order to face the allegations against him, which he denied.

Duarte promptly disappeared and has been sought by Mexican authorities ever since. Earlier this year Interpol issued a notice for his capture.

The Mexican government has found millions of dollars linked to Duarte, frozen more than 100 bank accounts and also seized property and businesses tied to the former governor. A reward of 15 million pesos ($730,000) had been offered for his capture.

The detention comes a week after Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Mexicos Tamaulipas state, was arrested in Italy, also on allegations of organized crime and money laundering.

And an ex-governor of Chihuahua state, Cesar Duarte, is wanted as well on suspicion of corruption and is believed to have fled to El Paso, Texas. He is not related to the former Veracruz governor.

All three ex-governors were members of the ruling Institutional Revolution Party of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREANorth Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile on Sunday morning that exploded almost immediately after launch, defying warnings from the Trump administration to avoid any further provocations.

U.S. and South Korean military officials are conducting further analysis of the launch at Sinpo on North Koreas eastern coastline. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who is set to arrive in Seoul on Sunday afternoon for a previously planned trip to Asia, was briefed on the incident shortly after leaving Alaska.

The president and his military team are aware of North Koreas most recent unsuccessful missile launch, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said in a statement. The president has no further comment.

Read more:

North Korea displays ballistic missiles at parade amid regional tension

Mike Pence travels to Japan, South Korea as tensions simmer

The incident occurred a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw an elaborate military parade in the centre of Pyongyang as the world watched for any provocations that risk sparking a conflict with the Trump administration. Kims regime has test-fired ballistic missiles five times this year in his quest to develop a device that can carry a nuclear warhead to North America.

North Koreas activities are a threatening demonstration against the entire world, South Koreas foreign ministry said in a statement. We have to warn again that if this leads to a strategic provocation of a nuclear or ICBM test, the North will face strong punitive measures that it will find hard to endure.

President Donald Trump this month dispatched a warship fleet toward the Korean Peninsula as the U.S. weighed retaliation for any missile or nuclear test. Trump has threatened to act unilaterally if China  North Koreas main ally and benefactor  fails to do more to curb its neighbours activities.

Kim showed off a range of long-range missiles at the parade on Saturday, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles for the first time and what appeared to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile, South Koreas Yonhap News reported. In 2012, North Korea unveiled long-range missiles that some arms analysts dismissed as fake.

If the U.S. provokes recklessly, the revolutionary forces will take an annihilating strike, Choe Ryong Hae, a senior regime official, said in a speech at the parade. North Korea is ready for a nuclear or full-scale war if the U.S. wants it, he added.

Kim, wearing a Western-style black suit and white collared shirt, was pictured on state-run television laughing heartily and clapping while watching the parade. He has launched dozens of projectiles and conducted three nuclear tests since he came to power after his fathers death in 2011, and claimed in January to be in the final stages of preparations to test-fire an ICBM.

Two new ICBM launchers were the most striking weapons on display at the military parade, according to Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. It also suggested that North Korea has two different ICBMs under development in addition to the KN-08, a liquid-fueled road-mobile missile capable of reaching the U.S.

We saw more new systems for the first time in this parade than ever before, Lewis said. The North Koreans are committed to deploying a credible nuclear deterrent that is capable of deterring an attack and repelling an invasion.

While the White House said Pence will mostly be dealing with business issues on a 10-day swing through Asia, administration officials said Thursday that he will also discuss economic sanctions and military options for North Korea if a provocation occurs.

While not publicly defining its plans, the White House has said that all options are on the table to prevent North Korea from acquiring the ability to strike the U.S. with a nuclear weapon. Despite the sabre rattling, Trump has found little support  publicly or behind the scenes  from friends in the region.

Any U.S. military strike risks leading to a war between the worlds biggest economies  one that may devastate South Korea and Japan, two American allies in striking range of retaliatory attacks. China has backed North Korea since the peninsula was last at war in the 1950s, in part to prevent having an American ally on its border.

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ISTANBULA Turkish prosecutor has opened an investigation into 17 people accused of fomenting last years failed coup, including many prominent U.S. officials, academics and politicians, state news media reported Saturday.

Among those placed under investigation by the chief prosecutor in Istanbul are John O. Brennan, the former CIA chief; Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer; Preet Bharara, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York; and David Cohen, head of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

The investigation was announced just a day before a national referendum to expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leading to speculation that the two events were linked.

Throughout the referendum campaign, Erdogan and his allies have frequently manufactured diplomatic spats with European countries, in what some analysts described as a bid to persuade nationalist voters to vote yes to his proposed reforms to secure Turkeys place in the world.

The accusations against the Americans may have been launched with similar intentions, said Soner Cagaptay, the author of a coming biography of Erdogan, The New Sultan.

The investigation may also be a tit-for-tat response to the recent arrest in New York of an executive from a state-owned Turkish bank, according to Henri J. Barkey, the director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Its partly Youre arresting our people; we can do the same to you, said Barkey, who was among those placed under investigation.

Bharara, who was ousted from office last month by the Trump administration, had opened an investigation into Reza Zarrab, a wealthy Turkish trader with connections to Erdogan. Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a Turkish banker, was arrested as part of that case after Bharara was fired.

The investigation may also be a reflection of Turkeys dwindling hopes of involvement in the U.S.-led campaign to take the Syrian city of Raqqa, capital of Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL), analysts said. Or it may have been begun by an overzealous prosecutor seeking to demonstrate his loyalty to Erdogan or his party, the AKP, said Cagaptay.

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BURLINGTON  It was only about a year ago when then-mayoral candidate Jeannie Hefty, a member of the all-volunteer Burlington Rescue Squad, made the need to improve the squad's relationship with the Burlington Fire Department a major focus of her campaign.

Today, with Hefty as mayor and Fire Chief Al Babe, who formerly ran an all-volunteer unit in the Town of Raymond, running the Fire Department, the relationship between the two organizations has improved substantially. The newfound harmony contributed to a new agreement to allow BFD full-time firefighters to operate as EMTs on rescue calls.

Rescue Squad EMS Chief Brian Zwiebel said that full-time BFD firefighters can now do things like start intravenous lines and provide certain medications and breathing treatments, since they've now gone through the rescue squad's associate program. Before, they were designated as first responders, which meant rescue squad members had to be called for any complicated procedure.

"First responder is more or less rendering basic first aid," Zwiebel said.

Under the old arrangement, not even Fire Department members with more advanced EMT training could apply their skills on rescue calls.

"Theyll be able to operate at the level theyre certified at," Babe said. "Paramedics were operating as first responders."

Both chiefs emphasized the plan's positive effect on volunteer burnout, as fewer volunteers would have to respond to some of the roughly 1,400 calls the two organizations handle annually.

"Thats a lot of calls and thats a ton of dedication," Babe said. "We want people to stay fresh and to stay excited about what were doing."

The vast majority of firefighters and rescue workers in Burlington are volunteers, since only seven BFD members are paid and both organizations total more than 60 members.

"Its going to help us all," Zwiebel said. "Its hard enough to ask people to give up their free time to go out on these calls."

Hefty praised the two chiefs, as well as former City Deputy Fire Chief Mark Strasser and Town of Burlington Fire Chief Ed Umnus, for mending the previously strained relationship that Hefty attributed to the short reign of former Fire Chief Perry Howard, the department's first full-time administrator who ran the department from mid 2013 to early 2016.

"I want to thank all members of fire and rescue for bringing forth this partnership and developing trust once again among ourselves," Hefty said.

The changes will take effect at the end of April, when both departments meet to plan out their upcoming schedules. The agreement is just another way the two EMS organizations are showing their improved unity.

"City fire and Burlington rescue are partners in providing emergency services to the City of Burlington and the community," Babe said. "Myself and Chief Zwiebel feel very strongly that we are one team."
PARISHundreds of demonstrators in France marched on Sunday to protest far-right National Front leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, saying that basic freedoms would disappear if she were elected.

Some protesters threw firebombs at police during the march from suburban Aubervilliers to a Paris neighbourhood where Le Pen is scheduled to hold a rally on Monday. Officers responded with tear gas during the small skirmishes.

Fernanda Marrucchelli said Le Pens anti-immigration party is fighting our essential freedoms, our rights, no matter if we are French or immigrant.

A banner at the front of the march read Paris-Suburbs Against the National Front. Marchers handed out tracts denouncing xenophobia and racism that they allege Le Pen and her anti-immigration party represent.

Anti-racism activist Omar Slauti said the fight against Le Pen should be in the streets, not the ballot box, denouncing the extreme-right populism that has spread around Europe.

Le Pen, who wants to pull France out of the European Union, is one of the top contenders in Frances first-round presidential vote on April 23. A presidential runoff is being held May 7 between the top two-vote-getters.

The far-right leader has worked to erase the image of racism and anti-Semitism that for years defined her party.

She wants to restore a French identity that she claims has been erased by massive immigration, mainly from former French colonies in Muslim North Africa.

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ISTANBULTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a historic referendum Sunday that will greatly expand the powers of his office, although opposition parties questioned the outcome and said they would challenge the results.

With nearly all ballots counted, the yes vote stood at 51.41 per cent, while the no vote was 48.59 per cent, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. The head of Turkeys electoral board confirmed the yes victory and said final results would be declared in 11-12 days.

Although the margin fell short of the sweeping victory Erdogan had sought in the landmark referendum, it could nevertheless cement his hold on power in Turkey and is expected to have a huge effect on the countrys long-term political future and its international relations.

Read more:Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a popular but divisive figure

The 18 constitutional amendments that will come into effect after the next election, scheduled for 2019, will abolish the office of the prime minister and hand sweeping executive powers to the president.

Erdogan, who first came to power in 2003 as prime minister, had argued a Turkish-style presidential system would bring stability and prosperity to a country rattled by a failed coup last year that left more than 200 people dead, and a series of devastating attacks by Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and Kurdish militants.

"Yes" supporters wave flags during celebrations in Istanbul, on Sunday.









In his first remarks from Istanbul after the vote count showed the amendments winning approval, Erdogan struck a conciliatory tone, thanking all voters no matter how they cast their ballots and calling the referendum a historic decision.

April 16 is the victory of all who said yes or no, of the whole 80 million, of the whole of Turkey, Erdogan told reporters in a live televised address.

But he quickly reverted to a more abrasive style when addressing thousands of flag-waving supporters in Istanbul.

There are those who are belittling the result. They shouldnt try, it will be in vain, he said. Its too late now.

Responding to chants from the crowd to reinstate the death penalty, Erdogan said he would take up the issue with the countrys political leaders, adding that the question could be put to another referendum if the political leaders could not agree.

He also took a dig at international critics. During the referendum campaign, Ankaras relations soured with some European countries, notably Germany and the Netherlands. Erdogan branded officials in the two nations as Nazis for not allowing his ministers to campaign for the expatriate vote there.

We want other countries and organizations to show respect to the decision of our people. We expect countries that we accept as our allies to show more sensitivity to our fight against terrorism, he said.

Opponents had argued the constitutional changes would give too much power to a man who they say has shown increasingly autocratic tendencies. Opposition parties complained of a number of irregularities in the voting, and were particularly incensed by an electoral board decision announced Sunday afternoon to accept as valid ballots that did not bear the official stamp.

The Supreme Electoral Board changed rules midgame, after the ballot envelopes were opened, in a way contrary to laws, said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Peoples Republican Party. Earlier, the partys vice chairman, Erdal Aksunger, said it would challenge between 37 per cent and 60 per cent of the ballot boxes and accused Anadolus results of being inaccurate.

But electoral board head Sadi Guven defended the decision.

There is no question of changing the rules in the middle of the game, he said.

A pro-Kurdish opposition party that also opposed the constitutional changes said it plans to object to two-thirds of the ballots.

Given the contested outcome, Fadi Hakura, Turkey specialist at the London-based think-tank Chatham House, described Erdogans win as a pyrrhic victory that comes at a huge political cost. The result will depend on how far the opposition will take their claim of irregularity in the voting, and what the international reaction will be.

Erdogan has claimed victory, but there are question marks that are being raised, Hakura said.

Initial reaction from abroad was cautious. Three top officials for the European Union  EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn  said in a joint statement they take note of the reported results and were awaiting a report from international election observers.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said the referendum was bound to complicate further co-operation between Ankara and the EU. Kurz said on Twitter the result shows how divided the country is. Cooperation with #EU will become even more complex.

The referendum campaign was highly divisive and heavily one-sided, with the yes side dominating the airwaves and billboards. Supporters of the no vote have complained of intimidation, including beatings, detentions and threats.

Erdogan dominated the national media. He imposed a very restrictive environment for the no camp. He secured a thin majority of 1 per cent, Hakura said. This suggests that Erdogan will become more robust and more challenging to deal with.

More than 55 million people were registered to vote, while another 1.3 million expatriates cast ballots abroad. The ballots themselves did not include the referendum question  it was assumed to be understood.

The changes will allow the president to appoint ministers, senior government officials and half the members of Turkeys highest judicial body, as well as to issue decrees and declare states of emergency. They set a limit of two five-year terms for presidents and also allow the president to remain at the helm of a political party.

Opponents fear the changes will lead to autocratic one-man rule, ensuring that the 63-year-old Erdogan, who has been accused of repressing rights and freedoms, could govern until 2029 with few checks and balances.

In Istanbul, hundreds of demonstrators opposed to the amendments marched in a central neighbourhood late Sunday, clanging pots and pans and chanting, This is just the beginning, the struggle will continue.

The vote came as Turkey has been buffeted by problems. Erdogan survived a coup attempt last July, which he has blamed on his former ally and current nemesis Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric living in the United States. Gulen has denied involvement.

A widespread government crackdown has targeted Gulen followers and other government opponents, branding them terrorists. A state of emergency has been imposed.

About 100,000 people  including judges, teachers, academics, doctors, journalists, military officials and police  have lost their jobs in the crackdown, and more than 40,000 have been arrested. Hundreds of media outlets and non-governmental organizations have been shut down.

Turkey has also suffered renewed violence between Kurdish militants and security forces in the countrys volatile southeast, as well as a string of bombings, some attributed to Daesh, which is active across the border in Syria.

The war in Syria has led to some 3 million refugees crossing into Turkey. Erdogan sent troops into Syria to help opposition Syrian forces clear a border area from the threat posed by Daesh.

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BERLINHundreds of Charlie Chaplin fans dressed as his Tramp character have gathered at the silent-film stars former home in Switzerland, marking what would have been his 128th birthday.

The Chaplins World museum, which opened a year ago, said 662 people sporting the stars distinctive bowler hat and cane gathered Sunday at the Manoir de Ban in Corsier-sur-Vevey, above Lake Geneva.

The Manoir de Ban is where Chaplin lived his last 25 years, raising children, writing music and movie scripts and contemplating his legacy far from the glare of the Hollywood spotlight. He died in 1977.

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MOSCOWChechen state television promised over the weekend to produce a tell-all investigation into reports on the torture of gay men in that Russian republicnot into the question of torture itself, but into how the story saw the light of day.

It said that the existence of gays in Chechnya was invented by opposition media.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Sunday blamed so-called human rights organizations that, he wrote in a social media post, were using the most unworthy methods, distorting reality, trying to blacken our society, lifestyle, traditions and customs.

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No reliable information on Chechen gay killings, Moscow says

UN rights agency condemns abuse of gay men in Chechnya

Chechnya has called on the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which first reported on the abuse and killings of gay men there, to recant its article.

To finish this dangerous conflict between us once and for all, you have to fulfil just three conditions, wrote Djambulat Umarov, the minister for social politics in the Chechen Republic. First, you must apologize to the Chechen people for the disgusting nonsense that you spread. He also demanded that reporters abandon using anonymous sources and stop complaining of threats received from Chechnya.

Elena Milashina, one of two Novaya Gazeta reporters who broke the story, has gone into hiding after threats on her life were sent to her.

Police and other law enforcement under Kadyrov, who fought against the Russian government during Chechnyas civil war before changing sides, and who was named leader of Chechnya by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007, have been accused of torture and collective punishment before. But the details of what appear to be the systematic imprisonment and torture of gay men in the republic, who Kadyrov insists do not exist, were particularly hair-raising.

They attached wires from electroshockers to our hands and turned the dial of a generator, creating a shock. It was painful. I endured as much as I could, then lost consciousness and fell, one man, who sent a photo showing bruises on his buttocks, wrote to Novaya Gazeta.

The newspaper reported that more than 100 men had been detained, and three had been killed. When the current goes and your body starts to shake, you stop thinking and begin to scream. All this time youre sitting and hear the screams of those being tortured.

Russian officials insisted there was not enough information for an investigation. But soon after the story was published on April 1, Novaya Gazetas website was knocked out by a DDOS attack. Authorities in Chechnya, including religious leaders, began making threatening statements against the newspapers journalists.

Insofar as an insult has been made against the age-old foundations of Chechen society and the dignity of male Chechens, as well as our faith, we promise that retribution will reach those who truly instigated this, wherever and whomever they may be, without a statute of limitations, a collection of Islamic leaders supported by Kadyrov wrote in a statement.

For Novaya Gazeta, these are more than just idle threats. Two of the newspapers reporters who covered Chechnya have been murdered. In 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter who covered the war in Chechnya, was shot to death in her apartment building in Moscow. Several Chechen men were convicted in the killing. In 2009, the reporter and human rights worker Natalya Estemirova was kidnapped in Grozny, Chechnyas capital, and killed, her body left in the trunk of a car in a neighbouring region. Both were critics of Kadyrov.

The newspaper issued a defiant statement.

Silence and inaction in such a situation make all of those able to do anything accomplices, the newspaper wrote last week. So Novaya Gazeta is continuing to work in Chechnya. But we understand very well how high a price we may pay. The still uninvestigated murders of our colleagues, Anna Politkovskaya and Natalya Estemirova, are clear proof of that.

Other Russian independent media, including the popular Echo of Moscow radio station, have backed Novaya Gazeta. Aleksei Venediktov, the Echo of Moscow editor in chief, who has also been threatened by Kadyrov, called the Chechen leaders a homegrown ISIS.

I am not surprised by the threats made against our colleagues at Novaya Gazeta from representatives of the Chechen government and religious community, Venediktov wrote in a blog on Echo of Moscows website. These threats so resemble those made by ISIS against journalists recounting the atrocities of their religious fanatics that for a time you can confuse the authors of these messages.

The reports by Novaya Gazeta have also been corroborated in other media, including the Russian-language edition of Radio Free Europe and the Guardian.

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SEOUL, KOREA, REPUBLIC OFU.S. President Donald Trump asserted on Sunday that China was working with the United States on the North Korea problem, and his vice president told American and South Korea service members that the Norths latest provocation, a failed missile launch shortly before his arrival in Seoul, laid bare the risks they face.

While the North did not conduct a nuclear test, the spectre of a potential escalated U.S. response trailed Mike Pence as he began a 10-day trip to Asia amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric. Trumps national security adviser cited Trumps recent decision to order missile strikes in Syria after a chemical attack blamed on the Assad government as a sign that the president is clearly comfortable making tough decisions.

But at the same time, H.R. McMaster said, its time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully.

Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump

In a broadcast interview that aired on Sunday, McMaster said the U.S. would rely on its allies as well as on Chinese leadership to resolve the issues with North Korea. I mean, North Korea is very vulnerable to pressure from the Chinese, McMaster said on ABCs This Week.

The bottom line, McMaster said, is to stop the Norths weapons development and make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free: Its clear that the president is determined not to allow this kind of capability to threaten the United States. And our president will take action that is in the best interest of the American people.

After a two-month policy review, officials settled on a policy dubbed maximum pressure and engagement, U.S. officials said Friday. The administrations immediate emphasis, the officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.

The officials werent authorized to speak publicly on the results of the policy review and requested anonymity.

Pence will be tasked with explaining the policy in meetings with leaders in South Korea and Japan at the start of his trip, which will also include stops in Indonesia and Australia. He will also aim to reassure allies in South Korea and Japan that the U.S. will take appropriate steps to defend them against North Korean aggression.

Pence was aboard Air Force Two flying over the Bering Sea when a North Korean missile exploded during launch on Sunday, U.S. and South Korean officials said. The high-profile failure came as the North tried to showcase its nuclear and missile capabilities around the birth anniversary of the Norths late founder and as a U.S. aircraft carrier neared the Korean Peninsula.

A White House foreign policy adviser travelling with Pence said no U.S. response to the missile launch was expected because there was no need for the U.S. to reinforce the failure. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administrations initial understanding of the launch.

Trump, spending the Easter weekend at his Florida resort, reinforced his commitment to the armed forces under his control. Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before, he tweeted.

Read more:

North Korea conducts failed missile test, say U.S. and South Korean officials

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Missile strikes are a warning to other countries, Tillerson says

More directly on North Korea, the president returned to a theme of placing much onus on China for reining in the North. Last week, he said he would not declare China a currency manipulator, pulling back from a campaign promise, as he looks for help from Beijing, which is the Norths dominant trade partner.

Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens! Trump tweeted on Sunday.

Deputy national adviser K.T. McFarland briefed the president on the failed missile launch. She advised patience with China on the issue.

North Korea is a liability to everybody and its a threat not just to the United States, not just to South Korea, not just to Japan, not just to Russia, but its actually a threat to China as well, McFarland said Sunday on Fox News Sunday.

Into this tense environment, Pence made his first trip to the region since taking office in January. After arriving in the South Korean capital, he placed a wreath at Seoul National Cemetery and then worshipped with military personnel at an Easter church service at the U.S. army Garrison Yongsan.

During a fellowship meal after the services, he said the tensions on the Korean Peninsula had put into sharp focus the importance of the joint U.S.-South Korean mission.

This mornings provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face every day in the defence of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defence of America in this part of the world, said Pence. Your willingness to step forward, to serve, to stand firm without fear, inspires the nation and inspires the world.

Along with the deployment of the U.S. aircraft carrier and other vessels into waters off the Korean Peninsula, thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponry were deployed last month in their biggest joint military exercises. That led North Korea to issue routine threats of attacks on its rivals if they show signs of aggression.

The White House foreign policy adviser travelling with Pence told reporters that the type of missile that North Korea tried to fire on Sunday was medium-range, and that it exploded about 4 to 5 seconds after it was launched.

The North regularly launches short-range missiles, but is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target U.S. troops in Asia and, eventually, the U.S. mainland.

The failed launch will sting in Pyongyang because it came a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year  celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leaders grandfather.

According to the White House adviser, the test had been expected and the U.S. had good intelligence both before and after the launch. The official said, without elaborating, that had it been a nuclear test, other actions would have been taken by the U.S.

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

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ISTANBULRising from humble origins to take the helm of Turkeys government in 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan quickly attracted a fervent following. But Erdogan, who served as prime minister and then president, also became feared and hated by many who saw him as an increasingly autocratic leader seeking to erode the countrys secular traditions by imposing his conservative, religious views.

Constitutional changes that would change the countrys system of government from parliamentary to presidential  and grant Erdogan even more authority  were narrowly approved by Turkeys voters on Sunday, according to unofficial results from the countrys election commission.

The changes, one of the most radical political reforms since the Turkish republic was established in 1923, could see the 63-year-old president remain in power until 2029.

Read more:Erdogan claims victory in historic Turkish referendum, as opponents warn of dictatorship

The votes outcome reinforced Erdogans image as a figure both popular and polarizing. While thousands of flag-waving supporters cheered the referendums approval, political opponents immediately questioned the legitimacy of the balloting and said they intended to challenge a sizable share of the count.

Erdogan served three consecutive terms as prime minister as head of his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party, before becoming Turkeys first directly elected president in 2014.

Supporters found in him a man who gave a voice to the working- and middle-class religious Turks who long had felt marginalized by the countrys Western-leaning elite.

He was seen to have ushered in a period of stability and economic prosperity, building roads, schools, hospitals and airports in previously neglected areas, transforming hitherto backwaters.

Hes a real leadership figure because he is not a politician that comes from the outside. He comes from the street, Birol Akgun, an international relations expert at Ankaras Yildirim Beyazit University, said. He has 40 years of political experience and is very strong in practical terms.

But with each election win, Erdogan grew more powerful, and, his critics say, more authoritarian.

His election campaigns have been forceful and bitter, with Erdogan lashing out at his opponents, accusing them of endangering the country and even supporting terrorism. After surviving an attempted coup last July, Erdogan launched a wide-ranging crackdown on followers of his former ally, Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Erdogan blames Gulen, who lives in the United States, and his supporters for plotting the coup, an allegation Gulen has denied.

The crackdown saw roughly 100,000 people lose their jobs, including judges, lawyers, teachers, journalists, military officers and police. More than 40,000 people have been arrested and jailed, including pro-Kurdish lawmakers.

Hundreds of non-governmental organizations and news outlets have been shut down, as have many businesses, from schools to fertility clinics.

Erdogan has also blasted European countries, accusing authorities in the Netherlands and Germany of being Nazis for refusing to allow Turkish ministers to campaign for Sundays referendum among expatriate voters.

His critics fear that if the yes vote prevails in the referendum, Erdogan will cement his grip on power within a system that has practically no room for checks and balances, opposition or dissent.

One person will determine national security policies, according to the constitutional changes. Why one person? What if he makes a mistake? What if he is deceived? What if he is bought? said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party, during a no rally in Ankara Saturday.

Surrendering the Republic of Turkey to one person is a heavy sin. Its very heavy, Kilicdaroglu continued. Can there be a state without rights and justice?

As prime minister, Erdogan garnered support from Turkeys Kurdish minority, which is estimated to make up about one-fifth of the countrys population of 80 million people. He eased restrictions on the right to be educated in Kurdish and to give children Kurdish names.

He also oversaw a fragile ceasefire in the fight between the state and Kurdish rebels in the countrys southeast, a conflict that has claimed an estimated 40,000 lives since 1984.

But the ceasefire collapsed in 2015, and about 2,000 people have died since then, including nearly 800 members of the security forces. With renewed fighting in the southeastern predominantly Kurdish areas, it is unclear whether Erdogan still would have much support from the Kurdish community.

Erdogan has promised the new presidential system will herald a period of stability and prosperity for Turkey, a country that has suffered several coups in the past few decades.

He is a harsh leader in character, said Ankara academic Akgun, who used to head a pro-government NGO. But in Turkey, a country that has so many problems, in societies like ours, the image of strong leadership is necessary to command both fear and respect and trust in society.

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It seems counterintuitive, but in communications, attempting to side-step risk can prove to be the riskiest strategy of all.

We have seen this again and again in politics and in business.

In a world where a wrongly placed word can create a maelstrom of reaction on social media, it can be tempting to make only safe, by-the-book public statements.

The problem is that these statements sound like only so much corporate jargon to the public, blather filled with meaningless words like leverage, re-accommodate and deliverables.

More than a few businesses and politicians have opted for this supposedly safe approach, rather than speaking in an authentic, and consequently more vulnerable, voice.

But it is a false choice. A company that tries to control the social media and public reaction during a crisis by limiting vulnerability in its public statements is engaging in an exercise in futility.

The reason is simple: a risk-averse approach assumes that people are not capable of consuming or understanding an honest discussion. It shouldnt be surprising that most people dont embrace such an attempt.

Take, for example, last weeks United Airlines fiasco, during which the company opted to have a customer forcibly removed by security from an overbooked flight, an encounter that injured the man and horrified his fellow passengers.

Of course, this being 2017, a number of passengers recorded the entire debacle and immediately posted their videos to social media. The spectacle went viral within hours.

The ham-fisted response by United CEO Oscar Munoz did nothing but exacerbate an already difficult situation. In a painfully jargon-ridden release, Munoz apologized for having to re-accommodate passengers, a sentiment that was almost comical when juxtaposed with video of a screaming passenger being dragged down an aisle.

Munoz later released another statement apologizing unreservedly for the situation, but the damage to the airlines reputation had already been done. It will take millions of dollars and a long time before the debacle is forgotten.

The actions were damaging enough, but the statement insulted peoples intelligence. It was an unnecessary and self-dealt blow to the companys reputation.

Its a lesson that can also be applied to politics.

Politicians have long honed a way of speaking that fails to resonate with the voters they are courting. Political language has become the language of platitudes, something that has frustrated voters. However, in political circles, it is assumed that the risk of misspeaking using genuine arguments and language far outweighs the cynicism bred by political-speak.

But these assumptions are changing. It has become evident that playing it safe no longer works.

During the U.S. presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton offered what seemed like an endless stream of platitudes and slogans. The line trumped-up, trickle-down economics was clearly inserted into the debates by her team as a winning catchphrase. But it found no purchase with viewers who recognized it for what it was  an over-rehearsed line that was too clever by half.

By contrast, Donald Trumps frenetic, shoot-from-the-hip style won over voters who had grown tired of condescending platitudes. He suffered near-daily debunking in the media, but the aura he established as someone who spoke the truth to power earned him the affection of millions.

A similar story unfolded in Canada. Justin Trudeau has been criticized by the Conservatives for his not-infrequent misstatements, including, for instance, his 2014 statement that Canada need not whip out our CF-18s. The Conservative government trumpeted it as further evidence that Liberal leader Trudeau just wasnt ready for prime time.

In reality, voters responded to Trudeaus engaged and energetic presence and forgave him for his missteps, as they did with Trump.

The public understands that the business and political worlds are populated by humans  people who make mistakes and who can be problematic.

What the public demands is a genuine voice  someone who speaks to them as educated and informed individuals, and allows them to make decisions on that basis. People accept that mistakes will be made in the process of implementing good intentions and sound policy. They simply want to see that those mistakes are faced up to and managed in a professional and competent way.

Business and political leaders must learn this lesson if they are to communicate effectively in this era of accountability.

Jaime Watt is the executive chairman of Navigator Ltd. and a Conservative strategist.

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Freedom is never guaranteed. A liberal society should never be taken for granted.

A generation ago Hungary was a shining example of a country shaking off autocratic rule and joining the ranks of full-fledged democracies. Now, however, it is moving rapidly in reverse.

The latest disturbing move by the government of Prime Minister Victor Orban is a law designed to shut down one of the remaining bastions of intellectual freedom in the country. Central European University, headed by former federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, is threatened with closure by a government that makes no bones about its desire to build what it calls an illiberal state.

The stakes are big for Hungary: the Orban government has already clamped down on non-governmental organizations, the judiciary and the media, and extended its control over the economy. Its attempt to put the independent Central European University out of business is another attack on a free institution and part of a slide towards authoritarianism.

Theres much at stake for the wider world, as well. In Europe, anti-liberal forces are on the march as part of the backlash against immigration and globalization. Governments in countries like Russia and Turkey have turned their back on liberal democracy. Its a troubling trend.

In Hungary, the focus of the backlash is the university founded in 1991 by George Soros, the Hungarian-American billionaire who has spent some $12 billion U.S. to promote liberal institutions and values after the fall of communism in eastern Europe.

Nationalist leaders like Orban see that as a threat to their domination and demonize Soros as a meddling outsider. The new law, which went into effect this past week, would effectively shut Central European University by requiring it to have a campus in the country where its degrees are accredited, the United States.

Orban is outspoken about where he wants to take his country. He has said the 2008 financial crisis showed that liberal democratic states cant remain globally competitive. Instead, he wants to establish an illiberal new state built on national foundations  along the lines of Russia, Turkey or China.

In practice that has meant repressing independent institutions and making Hungary one of the most refugee-unfriendly countries in Europe.

Still, the spirit of liberal democracy still lives in Central Europe. Ten thousand Hungarians took to the streets this week in support of the universitys independence, while the U.S., Canada and the European Community have spoken out for it as well.

Its a small institution in a relatively small country, but to see it forced to close would be another sign that democratic values are on the retreat. Ignatieff, who has been the universitys rector since last year, puts it this way: I fear that if Orban takes us down it will be a darker, grimmer, more repressive period for those institutions that remain.

It is tragic to see a country like Hungary sliding backwards so soon after reclaiming its freedom from dictatorship. Its government should reverse course and stop persecuting independent thinking.

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The news was alarming. United Nations peacekeepers in war-ravaged Liberia were accused of exchanging food for sex from girls as young as 8. A Save the Children report on the horror found it was the result of inadequate training, zero threat of punishment, and collusion with top mission officials and NGO workers.

That was back in 2006.

Disturbingly, as numerous news stories and UN reports since then have damningly and repeatedly documented, little has changed.

It would be easy to blame UN intransigence and bureaucracy for the problem. And it is true that plays a major role. But the fault also lies with member countries that send peacekeepers to war-ravaged countries or disaster zones. All parties must be held responsible and measures put in place if peacekeepers are to do a proper job of protecting vulnerable populations, not exploiting them.

An Associated Press investigation published last week, for example, found nearly 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers during the past 12 years. Three hundred of the allegations were from children.

And thats just the tip of the iceberg. Most victims never report sexual abuse and resulting pregnancies for fear of retaliation or because they believe no action will be taken. Sadly, investigations have shown they are correct on both counts.

Worse, some dont report it because they are too young even to understand what was done to them. That was the horror UN investigators discovered in 2014 in the Central African Republic. There, youngsters in a displaced persons camp who approached French peacekeepers for food were regularly abused.

Although the peacekeepers were ultimately sent home in shame by the UN, the case illustrates how the organization and member country both failed these children. First, the UN took too long to investigate and act on the allegations of sexual assaults on children. Second, a panel of French judges chose not to bring charges against the soldiers.

Not that Canada can stand in judgment. In recent years this country has documented alleged sexual abuse by Canadian peacekeepers in Haiti. In one case, an officer was suspended for nine days for his actions. In two cases, Quebec police officers actually retired before facing any discipline.

What can be done to stop the abuse?

The UN can demand better training for peacekeepers from member countries to ensure they do not engage in sexual exploitation of the people they are sent to protect.

UN investigators on the ground must respond more quickly to reports of sexual abuse, send those peacekeepers packing and follow up with member countries to make sure they are held to account.

Countries must prosecute members of their own peacekeeping operations accused of sexual exploitation and assaults.

All UN member countries must contribute to a special UN fund for victims of sexual exploitation and abuse by international peacekeepers. Only a handful of states (including Norway, Japan, India, Cyprus and Bhutan) have contributed to it since it was set up in 2015. Shamefully, Canada has not.

As of February, there were 91,846 UN peacekeepers in 16 operations around the world. The sex assaults that are all too common to these missions must stop now.

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As a former Pentagon official working the Ukraine desk in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I never imagined Russia would invade and succeed in taking territory. We had a robust military-to-military professional development program, and Ukraine was committed to being NATOs partner. The Ukrainians swore that they would "never again" succumb to Russian domination.

But over the next decade, our military support for Ukraine was not enough to withstand a Soviet legacy of weak institutions, corruption that compromised Ukraines independence from Russia, particularly in the industrial and energy sectors, and a low rate of economic development. The result was Ukraines inability to join the European Union and a loss of sovereign territory to Russia.

If we want strong allies to stand up to our nemesis in the international system, we need a development budget as much, or more, than a defense budget. However, the Trump administration put forth a budget proposal to add $54 billion to the Department of Defense  largely by demanding that the money come from other areas of the federal government, including up to 30 percent of the Department of State's budget.

Funding a robust national security apparatus is, in fact, about more than buying planes and bombs. Our service members need the best tools, but they also need the support of diplomatic, development and democracy-building institutions in the State Department to compound their good work and reduce the need to send them into harm's way. President Donald Trump's own secretary of defense, James Mattis, has in the past even been a vocal supporter of State Department funding.

Mattis has argued for the national security value of funding the State Department. Members of the House Armed Services Committee like Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, are warning against the cuts to State, too. And Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says the budget "cannot pass the Senate" in its current form. All this, to say nothing of the drastic cuts to other essential government programs across the board, clearly demonstrates that there is a serious amount of work to do so that more countries do not face futures like Ukraines.

If we had more effective and better funded state building tools for the post-Soviet states  similar to the Marshall Plan under President Harry Truman to strengthen European institutions and infrastructure destroyed during World War II  then we would have a more stable, more economically prosperous Ukraine today. Europe as a whole would be stronger and markets would be open for Western goods. Instead, the former Soviet states are increasingly under the thumb of an authoritarian Russian government.

At the end of the day, this radical budget proposal is damaging to our national security and broader foreign policy capabilities. The Trump administration must listen to the military officials and career diplomats who have seen firsthand the links between State and DoD's work, and revise their budget request so that the U.S. government can plan for the full range of threats and opportunities we face.
The Rev. Michael Mueller may no longer walk through the doors of a church each day to go to work. But as the new, full-time organizer of the Racine Interfaith Coalition  whose motto is Strength through faith, power through community  he is still doing work he feels called to do.

Mueller, who served as pastor of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, 1015 Four Mile Road, for the last 13 years, began his new post in February. He had worked with the coalition for many years, and served as its part-time organizer since 2010, while also serving as half-time pastor at St. Andrew. It was during that time that Mueller said he realized how much more effective the organizer role could be if it was a full-time position.

The pastor said he had been wrestling with what direction he wanted his ministry to go, and hed explored other organizer positions that were available within WISDOM (a statewide interfaith organization of which RIC is an affiliate), including one in Madison. He soon realized, though, that during his time in Racine hed established a lot of relationships  ones he wanted to continue to build on to bring the community together to work on issues of justice.

So, instead of moving his family out of town, he looked into the possibility of expanding his part-time position with RIC into a full-time job.

I enjoy being part of this community, he said. There is a lot of good stuff going on here and a lot of great opportunity for people trying to do more good things.

Community commitment

The kind of work done by RIC  an organization of more than 20 congregations committed to promoting social justice through training and empowerment of people of faith  is something Mueller said he has been passionate about for a long time.

Before coming to St. Andrew in 2003, the graduate of Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary had served Lutheran parishes in Carthage, South Dakota, Madison and Ashippun. And it was while at Ashippuns Zion Lutheran Church that he said he began to see how the vision of faith communities working together could be realized.

Zion had a partnership with a Lutheran church located in Milwaukees inner city  an originally German congregation that chose to stay in the city as the neighborhood changed, he explained. His congregation would go there occasionally for projects or worship, and what they experienced there was a very diverse group of people, including many kids from the neighborhood and 80-year-olds who grew up in the congregation.

They had a pipe organ and a gospel choir, and everyone helped one another, Mueller said. I got to see what Id been preaching about for years. These were people, committed to being in that place for the good of the community and the neighborhood.

Developing leaders

Mueller said he looks forward to having more time to devote to developing leadership teams within RIC congregations  something he feels is a key to bringing the community together effectively. He also realizes that the challenges he faces as RIC's organizer will require a lot of work. But, with support from training resources available at the national level, he sees great possibilities.

When I see how people are transformed (by this work), it drives me to want to be engaged and to want to bring such change about, he said. It feels like Im in the right place.

When asked if he misses his church job, Mueller said that so far, hes been too busy to miss it, and that he is not leaving worship.

It seems that a lot of what I do, I do with a pastoral mindset, he said. In a lot of ways, it doesnt seem so different than what I was doing before.

Ministry and music

Mueller also said that he expects that as he gets established in his new position, there will be occasional opportunities for him to also do some church preaching and leading of worship.

He was called to his full-time RIC position by the Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), so he will still answer to the ELCA, he said.

For those who know Mueller for his musical talents, he said he plans to continue those pursuits, in his own time. He recently sang with the Choral Arts Society of Southeastern Wisconsin in their production Whats Opera Doc? and he hopes to continue performing with the Belle Ensemble, a vocal chamber music group.

The father of three  whose wife, Carol Baumgartner, is also a pastor  said hes also been working with his voice teacher on a recital of sacred music, and hes hoping to be able to schedule that performance as a benefit for RIC. For more information about the Racine Interfaith Coalition and what it does, go to www.ricracine.org.
Knowles Corporation offers micro-acoustic microphones and balanced armature speakers, audio solutions, high performance capacitors, and radio frequency products for the consumer electronics, medtech, defense, electric vehicle, industrial, and communications markets. It operates in two segments, Audio and Precision Devices (PD). The Audio segment designs and manufactures audio products, including microphones, balanced armature speakers, and audio processors used in applications that serve the mobile, hearing health, True Wireless Stereo, Internet of Things, and computing markets. The PD segment is involved in the design and delivery of high-performance capacitor products and RF solutions that are used in applications, such as power supplies and medical implants, satellite communications, and radar systems, as well as for communications equipment. The company sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers and to their contract manufacturers and suppliers, as well as through distributors. It has operations in Asia, the United States, Europe, other Americas, and internationally. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois.
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Indian investors are interested in cooperation with Ukraine in the field of alternative energy.

This has been reported by the Governmental portal.

"A meeting between Indian Ambassador to Ukraine Manoj Kumar Bharti and potential investors was held at the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine. The Indian side stated about opportunities and its interest in cooperation. In particular, there are many representatives who want to invest in alternative energy of Ukraine," the report reads.

The press service has noted that the work on preparation of documents and permits is an important aspect of cooperation, so that the investors can start implementing projects faster.

Following the meeting, the parties announced their readiness to learn strategic plans in the energy sector and move on to the next stage of cooperation.

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The stoic professor taught Sanskrit and linguistics some 20 years ago to students who became Cambodias most accomplished linguists.

He spent months in Cambodias most sparsely-populated province, over a period of years, to document one of the countrys minority languages, Bunong.

Sylvain Vogel, a native French and German speaker who grew up in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, has written and published four books about Bunong while the languages sustained existence in northeastern Cambodia is threatened by modernization and encroachment by a growing population.

Vogel has spent most of the past 25 years in Cambodia studying, researching and teaching, and helping anchor the fledgling re-birth of a culture of scholarship in this Southeast Asian country following the repressive and anti-intellectual Khmer Rouge rule of the 1970s.

In the 1990s, Vogel worked at the Royal University of Phnom Penh in the linguistics department, where he taught and worked in the classroom with Chan Somnoble and Chhom Kunthea, now two of Cambodias top linguists. He began researching the Bunong language in the mid-1990s.

Today he teaches linguistics and Sanskrit in the archaeology department at the Royal University of Fine Arts and is preparing to travel to Mondulkiri province later this year to spend weeks with the most experienced speakers of the Bunong language.

Vogels scholarship and independent research in Cambodia recently received a boost when it was recognized by a US organization. The Fainting Robin Foundation, newly formed to support independent scholars, announced in March that Vogel would be the first recipient of a distinguished scholar award.

Chan Somnoble, one of Vogels first Cambodian students, is now the deputy director of the Royal Academy of Cambodia and head of the prestigious National Council for Khmer Language.

He [Vogel] is a resource that is very important to Cambodia, said Somnoble, who earned a PhD in linguistics in 2002 from Universite Paris Nanterre.

In 1998, Somnoble and Vogel began a process to start a masters program in the linguistics department at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. The program was launched a couple of years later with Somnoble as its head and Vogel as its program coordinator.

Somnoble said Vogel was demanding of his students.

He made me study linguistics harder until I became who I am today, said Somnoble, who also fondly recalled 25 years ago teaching Khmer-language grammar to Vogel. I am very happy to be his student, being taught by him.

Vogel was slightly intimidating as a teacher, Kunthea recalls.

When he entered the class, no one dared move or talk, recalled Kunthea, who earned a doctorate in linguistics last year in France and is now the director of the Preah Norodom Sihanouk Museum in Siem Reap. I liked his classes, both linguistics and Sanskrit, because he explained the lectures clearly. When we did not understand, we asked him, and he tried to explain until we fully understood.

Kunthea attributed her enthusiasm for linguistics and the study of Sanskrit to Vogels instruction. She credited him for helping secure her a place on a masters course in India. She continued to study Sanskrit at one of the top research universities in France, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, becoming the first Cambodian since the Khmer Rouge era to earn a PhD in Sanskrit.

[Sanskrit] is Gods language, Kunthea told VOA Khmer in a recent phone interview. It explains or advises people a lot about Dharma. In addition, the language is special for the Khmer language because it is related to the Khmer language for thousands of years. [We] should know both Khmer and Sanskrit to fully understand our Khmer history.

Vogel arrived in Cambodia in 1991 to work with the French Embassy. He earlier had spent more than 10 years conducting research and studying Pashto in Afghanistan. He earned a PhD in linguistics at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1984.

After years of living in Cambodia, Vogels passion became the language of a forest people who still lived in remote hills and plains in clans and extended families, much as they did 200 years ago, capturing and taming wild elephants up until 30 or 40 years ago.

Becoming a Bunong Researcher

Vogel first visited the remote northeastern province of Mondulkiri, which abuts Vietnam, in 1994.

He met members of the indigenous Bunong community and became intrigued by the unwritten language and the rich folklore which was passed on orally from generation to generation.

Few researchers were studying the Bunong language and culture and Vogel understood he could make a positive contribution with his research.

I know Bunong is in the family of Mon-Khmer language, Vogel said. As a linguist, I had to learn Bunong to compare Khmer and Bunong languages.

He gradually immersed himself in the Bunong community, its distinct way of life and a positive relationship took root. He stayed in remote villages for days and sometimes weeks at a time, eating Bunong food and drinking rice wine.

Vogel, who is an avid hunter and martial arts specialist, enjoyed the work.

I dont think it was hard, Vogel said. If it was, I would not have done it. I do it because I like it.

Vogel noticed over the years that the Bunongs way of living in the rolling hills and jungle was impacted significantly by globalization. Bunong communities for generations were led by local elders and now are managed by administrative officers such as district governors and village chiefs, Vogel noted.

Bunong children now are encouraged to attend school taught in the Khmer language, and increasingly are studying English and using computers. Vogel voiced his concerns over the potential loss of the Bunong language and traditions.

Bunong language is not used much, the society is changing a lot, so I am afraid that Bunong language will disappear, Vogel said.

Yun Lorang is a native Bunong and he also worries that his language is deteriorating.

I am quite worried because language is related to identity, Lorang, secretariat coordinator of Cambodia Indigenous People Alliance, told VOA Khmer by phone. In a crowd, they [Bunong people] rarely speak Bunong, they speak Khmer.

Vogels first book about the language translated Bunong grammar into the international phonetic alphabet. It was published in 2006 in French. Vogel has written two other books about the grammar and aspects of oral literature, such as epics, songs and chants, and one book about Bunong culture.

Lorang thinks that having the Bunong language and culture documented in a written and published form can help prevent it from disappearing.

History is very important for us to recover our own spirit, values, and identities, said Lorang, who lives in Sen Monorom town, the capital of Mondulkiri province.

Most of Vogels research over the years about the Bunong language and people was carried out at his own expense, said Peter Maguire, chairman of the Fainting Robin Foundation.

It was a project that took close to 20 years, with no outside support, with no support or minimal support, said Maguire, an author and historian who set up the foundation in Wilmington, NC, to assist independent scholars.

Maguire has known Vogel for years and spent some time with him in Mondulkiri province. He praised Vogels dedication to studying a language that had received little attention from established researchers and academic institutions, Cambodian or international.

Vogels work as a Sanskrit and linguistics professor, whose instruction helped nurture respected Cambodian scholars such as Kunthea and Somnoble is another key reason the foundation recognized him, Maguire said.

As long as I knew him, he taught linguistics five days a week, and he taught in Khmer, Maguire said. He didn't teach in English. He didn't teach in French. He made a huge effort to learn the language, to learn it well, to learn it grammatically correct, and to learn how to read it and write it. That's a level of commitment very few scholars have.

Shortly after arriving in Phnom Penh, Vogel came to believe it would be more worthwhile for his Cambodian students if he taught Sanskrit and general linguistics rather than French because of historical ties between Khmer and the ancient language.

I started to teach Sanskrit to my students so that they know other families of languages, in addition to Mon-Khmer, Vogel said.

Vogel said not many Cambodian students wanted to study Sanskrit but that even one was enough because more Sanskrit inscriptions may be discovered in the future in Cambodia.

If there are Khmer experts on Sanskrit, they can work with international researchers to translate Sanskrit inscriptions which belong to Cambodia, Vogel said.

He remembers Kunthea, between 1999 and 2001, as an outstanding student. She was interested in the links between Sanskrit and Cambodia and its language, Khmer.

Only one student was interested in Sanskrit, and studied very hard, so I had to help her, Vogel recalled.

To help her prepare for graduate school abroad, Kunthea said that Vogel tutored her in Sanskrit free of charge on weekends at cafes. She said Vogel helped launch her career.

Fifteen years on, she successfully defended her dissertation last year in France on the role of Sanskrit in the development of the Khmer language: an epigraphic study from the 6th to 14th centuries.
Odebrecht SA , the Brazilian engineering company at the center of a historic corruption scandal, paid about $3.3 billion in bribes over a nine-year period that ran through 2014, according to testimony cited by local media Saturday.

Through a department specifically established to pay politicians and other recipients for public works contracts, Odebrecht paid as much as $730 million annually in both 2012 and 2013, the years when bribe payments peaked, according to a spreadsheet that a former executive reportedly gave investigators as part of a plea deal.

The $3.3 billion figure and related annual tallies as laid out in the spreadsheet were reported by the G1 news site of the Globo media group and Estado de S. Paulo, a leading newspaper.

Officials at Odebrecht could not immediately be reached for comment.

A trove of plea deal testimony unsealed this week by a Supreme Court justice is shedding light on how Odebrecht, once Latin America's most successful engineering firm, routinely paid officials in Brazil and other countries in exchange for winning contracts.

Justice authorizes probes

The testimony was unsealed as the justice, Edson Fachin, authorized investigations of eight government ministers, 12 governors and dozens of federal lawmakers implicated in the scandal, uncovered three years ago because of a kickback investigation at the state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras.

Odebrecht, whose former chief executive has been jailed since 2015 in connection with the probe, negotiated a far-reaching plea agreement with Brazilian investigators last year, leading to testimony by about 80 company executives and employees.

Along with an affiliate, Odebrecht also agreed last year to pay at least $3.5 billion to U.S. and Swiss investigators for international charges related to the scandal.

Earlier Saturday, Estado de S. Paulo also reported that Brazilian authorities were investigating whether any of the foreign kickbacks the company has already admitted to violated Brazilian law. The company made those payments in countries including Mexico, Ecuador, Peru and Angola.
Syria's Foreign Ministry says the international community needs to unify its efforts to fight terrorism, and to stop attempts of misleading and ignoring the priority of that fight in order to stabilize the country that has been at war for more than six years.

The ministry's comments came in letters Sunday to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. Security Council. The letters focused on Saturday's bombing of a bus convoy in Rashideen carrying people from pro-government areas involved in an evacuation deal from besieged towns.

Syria's conflict involves many groups, including those with links to terrorism such as al-Qaida. But the Syrian government has also consistently referred to fighters who oppose President Bashar al-Assad as terrorists. Sunday's letters further repeated Syrian accusations that countries such as the United States and Turkey, which support rebel groups, are supporting terrorist organizations.

At least 126 people are killed

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack killed at least 126 people and wounded many more. It is not clear who was responsible for the bombing, but Sunni jihadist groups, including the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida, operate in the area and routinely attack Shi'ites, whom they consider apostates.

In exchange for people leaving the pro-government villages of Foua and Kefraya, which have been besieged by rebels, others are been evacuated from the opposition-held towns of Zabadani and Madaya where they have been under siege by pro-government forces.

A spokesman for Guterres has condemned the attack in Rashideen, and called on all parties involved in the evacuation agreement to ensure the safety of those waiting to be transported.

U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien also urged Syria's warring parties to protect civilians and distinguish between military and civilian targets.

While the United Nations was not involved in this agreement or evacuation process, we are ready to scale up our support to evacuees, O'Brien said in a statement.

U.S. embassy responds

O'Brien said humanitarian organizations, including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and U.N. partners, are providing assistance to the injured, including transfer to hospitals.

The U.S. embassy in Syria tweeted, The United States strongly condemns today's barbaric attacks against innocent civilians, including women & children, in northern Syria.

A deal between the Damascus government and opposition fighters guaranteeing the safety of the villagers stalled Friday, stranding thousands of evacuees for hours before the attack unfolded on the outskirts of Aleppo.

Fighters, civilians on buses

Video on state television later showed charred bodies and mangled buses, which had been carrying pro-government Shi'ite fighters and civilians from the besieged villages toward the government-controlled city. Other footage showed ambulances ferrying the wounded to area hospitals.

Far to the south, the evacuation deal  brokered by Iran and Qatar  simultaneously granted hundreds of Sunni insurgents and their families near Damascus safe passage to Idlib province near the Turkish border.

By late Saturday, monitors from the Syrian Observatory said the convoy near Aleppo was again under way, while official Syrian media said the first buses carrying Shi'ite evacuees had reached government safety in Aleppo.
South Korea's military said a missile launch by North Korea early Sunday from the port city of Sinpo "is presumed to have failed."

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff did not provide details of the launch, and it was not immediately clear what type of missile was fired.

The launch came less than a day after a massive military parade in the North Korean capital that was widely viewed in world capitals as a show of force by the government of Kim Jong Un.

South Korea's official Yonhap News Agency said Seoul's national security chief would convene the National Security Council later Sunday to assess the situation.

There was no immediate comment from Washington, which is engaged in a sharp, multinational diplomatic offensive aimed at persuading North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to end his push to develop nuclear weaponry.

Quick failure

A short while after the launch, a statement from the U.S. Pacific Command said the missile blew up almost immediately and that its type was still being assessed.

The statement also reiterated Washington's full commitment "to working closely with our allies," particularly South Korea and Japan, to maintain security.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, en route to South Korea late Saturday (Washington time), was briefed on the failed launch and conferred with President Donald Trump, according to a statement from his office.

Earlier this week, as tensions worsened between Washington and Pyongyang, Trump ordered a U.S. naval strike group headed by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier to the Korean Peninsula in show of force.

Pyongyang conducted two unauthorized nuclear test explosions last year and nearly two dozen rocket launches in a years-long push to expand its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

North Korean leader Kim declared in a speech on New Year's Day that his country's program to build intercontinental ballistic missiles had "reached its final stage."

Years of sanctions

Pyongyang has been under United Nations sanctions since 2006, along with an international arms embargo aimed at slowing its development of its banned nuclear and missile programs.

Since then, Washington and a vast majority of world governments have repeatedly demanded that the North denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. However, Western leaders have yet to devise a plan that would either compel the North to cooperate or create incentives for it to do so.

Trump has in recent weeks pressed China to persuade its North Korean ally to curb its nuclear ambitions, but results of those efforts are not yet clear.
RACINE  The widow of a Racine delivery driver James Norris, who was gunned down on Racines north side in March 2016, is calling for a ban on hollow-point bullets that reportedly contributed to his death.

The guy bought the ammunition from Walmart that killed him, Stacy Blevins said. You dont buy hollow-point bullets unless you meant to kill him.

According to Racine Police, Norris was shot to death March 25, 2016, in the 3900 block of Green Street. He was found in the street next to his car door at an apartment complex where he had just delivered food from his employer Super Steaks and Lemonade.

Jimmy was shot three times, Blevins said. There was a bullet hole in the car door. The man destroyed my kids and my family.

After an extensive year-long investigation that recovered the Smith and Wesson revolver and the ammunition in the original Walmart bag, Alex Adams, 28, of the same block of Green Street, was charged with felony first-degree intentional homicide and armed robbery.

Police said they obtained surveillance video from Walmart, 3049 S. Oakes Road, Mount Pleasant, allegedly showing Adams buying the jacketed hollow-point ammunition used in the crime.

Why would you sell something like that? Belvins said.

Blevins and Norris mother-in-law, Sandra Stravropoulos, want Walmart to stop selling the ammunition or do background checks for buyers.

If they hadnt sold the bullets that man would be alive. This has got to stop. They shouldnt sell hollow-points, Stravropoulos said.

In a statement to The Journal Times, Charles Crowson, a spokesman for the Arkansas-based retailer, said sales of hollow-point bullets will continue.

The ammunition we carry is legal and in demand for self-defense and sport shooting among our customers. At this time, we dont plan to remove the items, Crowson said.

Wisconsin Bill

Wisconsin Democrats brought up the issue in 2013 following the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut captured the nations attention. Authorities said the shooter, Adam Lanza, wanted to use bullets designed to inflict the maximum amount of damage.

The 2013 Assembly Bill 221 sponsored by Milwaukee Democratic representatives Frederick Kessler and Christine Sinicki would have made possessing the bullets a Class H felony with up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the Legislative Reference Bureau, the bill prohibited a person, with certain exceptions such as for law enforcement, from selling, transporting, manufacturing, or possessing any hollow-point bullet, any bullet that expands or flattens easily in the human body, or any bullet with a hard envelope that does not entirely cover the core of the bullet.

There was much more opposition to the proposal than I anticipated, including law enforcement officers, who said hollow-point bullets were less likely to go through a wall and kill innocent people than other bullets, Kessler said.

The debate centered around the bullets that expand on impact, which do more damage and cause greater hemorrhaging, and the prey dies in a swifter, more humane manner.

Kessler, who is a former Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge and presided over homicide cases, argued at the time that banning such bullets would give a shooting victim in urban areas a better chance of survival.

I talked to medical people who said they would be more likely be able to save the victim of a regular bullet than a hollow-point bullet because theyll explode in the body, Kessler said.

After a public outcry from the hunting community about the impact the ban would have on hunting, the bill failed to pass and died in committee.

Shootings in schools doesnt outrage the public anymore. I am very pessimistic that we can put some controls on the wild west atmosphere of handgun violence, Kessler said.

Blevins still hopes that someday something can be done to ease the gun violence in the city.

I need justice for Jimmy, Blevins said.
Robert W. Taylor, whose ideas for using computers as communication devices were considered visionary, and who fostered several major advances that contributed to the development of the Internet and personal computers, died April 13 at his home in Woodside, Calif. He was 85.

He had Parkinsons disease, said a son, Kurt Taylor.

Mr. Taylor was not strictly an inventor, but as a research director at federal agencies and private research centers he had a knack for finding the right people and ideas to make the digital revolution possible. In the 1960s and 1970s, he had a direct effect on the invention of the computer mouse, the personal computer and the Internet itself.

We have this cult of the inventor, Marc Weber, an Internet historian at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., said Saturday in an interview. We dont talk much about the people who make it happen. Its just as rare to have that talent.

Mr. Taylor said he had never been recognized in public by anyone outside the computer industry. But from his early days as a research manager at NASA, he had an intuitive sense that computers could be used as communications devices, not merely as high-powered adding machines.

Taylor at the Palo Alto Research Center. (Palo Alto Research Center)

In 1961, Mr. Taylor provided funding through NASA to a California researcher, Douglas Engelbart, who invented the computer mouse, which greatly increased the practical applications of computers.

Mr. Taylor soon moved to ARPA (now DARPA), a somewhat secretive agency with wide latitude to explore developments in technology. In the mid-1960s, he helped sponsor projects at three computer research centers, two in California and one in Massachusetts.

He had three computer terminals in his office, one for each project, but because they did not have a shared network, they could not communicate with one another.

It doesnt take much of an imagination to realize this was kind of silly, Mr. Taylor told the Salt Lake Tribune in 2009. You should have only one terminal that can go to any system thats on the network.

In 1968, Mr. Taylor and J.C.R. Licklider co-wrote a paper, The Computer as a Communication Device, that proposed the revolutionary notion that ordinary people would someday communicate directly through their computers.

In a few years, they wrote, men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face.

They predicted that users would take out subscriptions for information services and would form communities in cyberspace. Email and other forms of online interaction will be as natural an extension of individual work as face-to-face communication is now.

By 1969, researchers under Mr. Taylors guidance had developed ARPAnet, a system recognized as a forerunner of the modern Internet.

Mr. Taylor left ARPA in 1969, then spent a year at the University of Utah before moving to California in 1970 to develop a computer science laboratory for Xerox. Mr. Taylor quickly built the Palo Alto Research Center into a premier Silicon Valley think tank.

Asked by a Rolling Stone reporter in 1972 to describe his job, Mr. Taylor said, Its not very sharply defined. You could call me a research planner.

Researchers in his lab built the Alto, one of the first personal computers, along with file-sharing systems and an early word-processing system that allowed users to cut and paste blocks of text. They also invented the first laser printer.

Much to Mr. Taylors frustration, Xerox saw his teams work as largely experimental. Except for making laser printers, the company never became a major player in the computer world. Steve Jobs, however, visited Mr. Taylors research center and reportedly came away with ideas he used in Apple computers.

Robert William Taylor was born Feb. 10, 1932, in Dallas. He was adopted soon after his birth by a Methodist minister and his wife and grew up throughout Texas.

Mr. Taylor served in the Navy during the Korean War, then majored in experimental psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, receiving a bachelors degree in 1957 and masters degree in 1959.

From 1983 until his retirement in 1996, Mr. Taylor directed a research laboratory at Digital Equipment and helped develop AltaVista, an early Internet search engine.

His marriage to Joanne Honnold ended in divorce. Survivors include three sons, Kurt Taylor of Palo Alto, Calif., Erik Taylor of Sunnyvale, Calif., and Derek Taylor of San Jose; and three grandchildren.

In 1999, Mr. Taylor was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Bill Clinton. He had a colleague pick up the medal, saying, I dont intend to travel outside the Bay Area ever again, if I can avoid it.

At his hillside home overlooking Silicon Valley, he grew tomatoes and kept up with new developments in the online world he helped create.

Mr. Taylor had no major patents and said he had no regrets that the discoveries he inspired did not make him wealthy.

I was able to pick and choose who I worked with for close to 40 years, he told the San Jose Mercury News in 2000. Who else can say that? Thats the kind of life I had. I deliberately avoided the business world, because frankly I didnt want to work with the idiots you have to work with in order to build a successful company.
Charleston Gazette-Mail executive editor Robert Byers, left, leads the staff in a toast to reporter Eric Eyre, right, following the announcement of Eyre's 2017 Pulitzer Prize win for investigative reporting. (Kenny Kemp/Gazette-Mail)

In only 15 years, American newspaper companies slashed their workforces by more than half  from 412,000 employees in 2001 to 174,000 last year.

But that troubling trend wasnt on the minds of journalists at the Charleston Gazette-Mail last year as they dug deep into the prescription-drug epidemic that was inflicting mortal wounds on their community.

No, what motivated them was the West Virginia papers unofficial motto: Sustained outrage.

That phrase, coined by former publisher Ned Chilton, means a lot to people here, executive editor Robert Byers told me last week, shortly after the 37,000-circulation paper won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. The family-owned paper (Chiltons daughter is the publisher now) has a newsroom staff of about 50.

You can do a hundred stories on the opioid crisis, Byers said, but we wanted to know where all these drugs were coming from, and how could so many pills be diverted onto the street.

You could see that commitment in every word of reporter Eric Eyres two-part investigation:

Follow the pills and youll find the overdose deaths, it begins. It details what happens in places like Kermit, W.Va., where the population is only 392.

There, out-of-state drug companies shipped nearly 9 million highly addictive  and potentially lethal  hydrocodone pills over two years to a single pharmacy in the Mingo County town. Rural and poor, Mingo County has the fourth-highest prescription opioid death rate of any county in the United States.

Eyre, an 18-year veteran of the paper and its statehouse reporter, needed the help of lawyers  working pro bono  to unseal a lawsuit and to pry loose records from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Buttressed by plenty of hard data, and brought to life by shoe-leather reporting, Eyres series hit hard and prompted reform.

I didnt know a darn thing about this subject a few years ago, Eyre told me, but over time you can specialize and become an expert.

Kelly McBride, vice president of Poynter Institute, has watched Eyres work for years: I so admire his dedication to the people of Appalachia, which he has approached not only as an excellent reporter but as a member of the community.

But that kind of knowledge and depth is precisely whats in trouble as newspaper staffs decline across the country, with many companies struggling to stay solvent after the precipitous  and accelerating  decline in print advertising revenue.

Regional and local newspapers have been decimated, Northeastern Universitys Dan Kennedy wrote last week.

Digital reporting outlets and local TV stations do good work but, as Kennedy noted, research has shown that some 85 percent of accountability journalism is produced by newspapers.

And the need for scrutiny only grows.

Across the country, state lawmakers and agency officials operate with glaring conflicts of interest and engage in brazenly cozy relationships with lobbyists, said a Center for Public Integrity study.



One of the best ways to hold government accountable is by having a skilled beat reporter, like Eyre, in the statehouse. He told me that his opioids series grew out of his long-term knowledge about the state attorney generals connections to the pharmaceutical industry.

But nationwide, the number of statehouse reporters was down even more sharply than overall reporting staffs, a Pew study reported in 2014.

Even weakened, regional newspaper journalism is still making a powerful difference today.

For example, local news outlets sounded the alarm leading to the withdrawal of the Republican health-care proposal meant to replace Obamacare, a recent Columbia Journalism Review article reported.

Editorials and news coverage in numerous American communities responded with a clear message that such measures simply didnt pass muster for their communities, wrote Trudy Lieberman. And voters let their elected officials know their displeasure in phone calls, emails and town-hall meetings.

Last weeks Pulitzer Prize announcement recognized local journalism beyond West Virginia  from reporting on police abuses in New York City, uncovered by the New York Daily News and ProPublica, to editorials about pollution in rural Iowa from the tiny Storm Lake Times. Last year, the investigative prize went to a collaboration between the Tampa Bay Times and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for revealing the appalling treatment of patients at Floridas mental hospitals.

An industry that is dying is still alive, wrote Roy Peter Clark on Poynter.org, in a piece before the Pulitzer awards. While alive, it may continue to perform vital services to a community  services such as news and information, keeping an eye on city hall, on sewage in the bay, on the failures of local schools.

But extend the employment trend lines another 15 years, and face the inevitable: This journalism is disappearing.

Theres no easy fix. Its a much knottier problem than finding digital-age solutions on the national level because the work needs to be done in so many different communities around the country. As McBride puts it: Its hard to make it scale.

Philanthropists, foundations and journalism organizations are working toward solutions.

These efforts, and others, need to ramp up, with an even greater sense of urgency.



Sustained outrage is vitally important. So is keeping it alive.

For more by Margaret Sullivan visit wapo.st/sullivan.
D.C. Council member Brandon T. Todd (D) campaigns for reelection at Sala Thai restaurant in May 2016. Both his 2015 and 2016 bids failed to adequately identify campaign contributions. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)

A D.C. Council member who is facing possible disciplinary action for failing to identify the source of contributions to his 2015 campaign also filed reports with regulators for his reelection last year that omitted information on tens of thousands in reported donations, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Council member Brandon T. Todd (D-Ward 4), a close ally of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), won a special election in 2015 to fill her seat after she became mayor. When he ran for reelection to a full term last year, his campaign failed to report addresses for 136 contributors who gave a total of $18,000.

For those entries, the campaign used a placeholder instead of a home address on campaign disclosure forms, suggesting it was trying to obtain more information on the source of the money: Requested, Washington, D.C. 00000.

For more than 1,200 of nearly 1,400 contributions, Todds campaign did not include a contributors employer or work address, again writing Requested next to contributions, or leaving the space blank.

D.C. law requires campaigns to provide a contributors home address, as well as employer and employment address, to verify the donors identity and make sure individuals who control multiple corporations do not exceed contribution limits by donating through different entities.

The Post found that among contributions to Todds 2016 campaign that were properly recorded, there were dozens of contributions greater than the legal limit of $500 per individual or business.

The D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, which recently released a scathing audit of Todds 2015 special-election campaign, identified some of the same problems with Todds 2016 campaign accounting in letters to his campaign last year. Todds campaign responded by returning more than $7,000 in donations. But the campaign has filed no record of returning about $5,000 in apparent over-limit violations discovered by The Post.

Todd, campaign treasurer Ben Soto and Everett Hamilton, the head of a public relations firm who volunteered for Todds campaign, declined to discuss those contributions.

In a statement provided to The Post, Hamilton said Todds campaign is still finalizing its reports and could amend information it has already filed.

The 2016 Brandon T. Todd for Ward 4 campaign is not the subject of any investigation by the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, Hamilton said. His committee, along with nearly 40 additional campaign committees from the 2016 election, is still open. We continue to file reports, amendments and respond to requests from OCF.

In a subsequent phone interview on Friday, Soto promised the campaign would clean up Todds 2016 filings.

We will return anything we find over the limit, and we will certainly be adding in address information for contributors and employer information, as well, Soto said, although he added that some of the information may be impossible to find. Sometimes someone sends you a check and unless you can Google them, you have no idea where they work . . . and sometimes you get a starter check that doesnt even have an address on it.

The five other successful candidates for council last year routinely filed reports on time, with more complete information on contributors employers, and with home addresses for almost every donation. Combined, the five others elected last year omitted addresses for a total of nine contributions.

Wesley Williams, a spokesman for the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, would not comment directly on the agencys oversight of Todds 2016 campaign. Generally, he said, auditors inform campaigns of missing contributor information and the committee must detail what good-faith efforts they have made to obtain this information.

In the absence of compliance, the matter may be referred for enforcement action, Williams said.

The agency recently did just that after its audit of Todds 2015 campaign that found the campaign did not adequately document more than $100,000 in contributions and failed to report an additional $34,000 in donations.

[Audit: Council member cannot substantiate $100,000 in contributions]

Those findings were presented to Todds campaign more than year ago  before he won reelection  but were not publicly disclosed until last week, when auditors concluded that despite repeated extensions, Todds campaign would not be able to sufficiently answer their questions. They referred the case to the agencys general counsel for possible fines.

Asked about the audit of the 2015 campaign Friday on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on radio station WAMU, Todd said at least five times that he was committed to getting every single piece of documentation that is outstanding to the Office of Campaign Finance and that he hoped to do so within days.

I can assure you that we can account for every single penny that came into our 2015 campaign and every single penny that went out, said Todd, who directed finances for Bowsers run for mayor.

Documents obtained by The Post show that while auditors were still seeking responses from Todd about his 2015 campaign, they were finding new issues with his 2016 campaign. Four times last year they wrote to Soto, the campaign treasurer, to question contributions or expenditures. They listed contributions with identical addresses and asked for more information to verify that they were not violations of city law. The campaign finance office also presented Todds campaign with lists of Questionable Expenditures.

Among those were $25,000 in payments to Todds personal credit card account. The campaign responded by providing copies of credit card statements and saying that purchases such as $2,600 to AAA Party Rentals and $1,600 to the restaurant Sala Thai were campaign expenses.

Candidates for office in the District are required to register the bank accounts they will use for campaign contributions and expenditures. Most often, candidates use credit cards linked to those accounts, reimburse expenses directly to vendors from those accounts or reimburse campaign staffers for expenditures made out of pocket.

But Todds use of a personal credit card issued by Navy Federal Credit Union means he accumulated more than 46,000 rewards points in 2016, according to a statement he provided to regulators in November. Those points can be redeemed for cash, gift cards, travel or merchandise, according to the banks website.

City law prohibits a candidate from personally profiting from a campaign.

Several council members, including Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who heads the committee with oversight of campaign finance, declined to comment. He and others said they first wanted to see what the Office of Campaign Finance would do in the case of Todds audit from his 2015 campaign.

Soto said he is confident questions will be cleared up about all of Todds campaign finances.

Clearly, there have been some unforced errors, but we have copies of everything. I expect us to have a clean bill of health when this is over, he said. In terms of misappropriated money, no, theres none.

Steven Rich contributed to this report.
Kevin Sterne is carried out of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. on Monday, April 16, 2007. (ALAN KIM/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The call came at 9:45 a.m. Shots fired at the Virginia Tech campus. Within minutes, Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, Va., had initiated a code green  the message alerting surgeons, physicians and nurses to prepare the emergency department to respond to a disaster.

Less than 30 minutes later, the first victims from the worst mass shooting in history at that time would arrive. In all, 33 people were killed on April 16, 2007, after a gunman opened fire on the campus and then killed himself.

Seventeen others were wounded by gunfire in an academic building, including 11 treated at Montgomery Regional Hospital. All survived.

It was a small little hospital in the middle of nowhere, and people pulled together, said Demian Yakel, an orthopedic surgeon at the hospital that day. Everyone rose to the occasion.

[Virginia Tech: Rescue & Recovery]

David Stoeckle, who served as chief of surgery at Montgomery Regional at the time, said that despite numerous drills training for masscasualty incidents, no one at the hospital was prepared for what transpired that spring morning.

You dont think its going to happen in your town, said Holly Wheeling, who was working as an emergency physician on the day of the shooting. You certainly dont think its going to be you sitting in the ER.

But the trauma experience resulted in lifesaving lessons that the physicians were able to pass on to peers and medical students.

The day began with two students from the West Ambler Johnston dorm being taken to Montgomery Regional just before 8 a.m. with grievous gunshot wounds. The first student, Ryan Clark, had been shot in the head and was dead on arrival. The second, Emily Hilscher, was intubated at Montgomery Regional and then sent on an Advanced Life Support ambulance to another hospital in Roanoke. She was pronounced dead when she arrived.

Wheeling said the shooting appeared to be the result of a lovers quarrel. Police for a brief time went looking for a person of interest in the slaying.

Soon she would learn that something much more horrific than a domestic dispute had occurred. She later wrote an essay in 2008 for The Post detailing the night terrors she faced in the months after.

[In Blacksburg, an ER physician still tries to heal]

I kind of guess its something you dont ever get over, Wheeling said in an interview. Those things stick with you.

About two hours later, hospital officials learned that there had been a shooting at Norris Hall. Yakel had left for the day when he received a call telling him to return. He remembers snow flurries swirling in the cold air as he sped down the highway toward the hospital.

The first responders on campus had catalogued each victim with color-coded tags: yellow for serious, red for severe and black for nonviable.

In a real disaster you take the people you can save first, Stoeckle said. Youve got to save as many as possible.

By the time the victims reached the hospital, Stoeckle was manning the entry, quickly calculating each patients immediate needs depending on the gravity of their wounds.

In the span of 11 minutes the gunman, Seung Hui Cho, had fired 174 rounds. Victims in four classrooms were hit multiple times. Cho had selected hollow-point bullets, designed to unfurl instantly like flower petals upon impact, creating devastating internal wounds.

In all, Montgomery Regional treated 15 patients from Norris Hall, including 11 with gunshot wounds.

The last to arrive was Kevin Sterne, who was wounded so badly that paramedics had to resuscitate him on the floor of Norris Hall.

He wasnt responding, Stoeckle said, noting that the first responders who initially saw Sterne didnt think he was going to make it.

Sterne was sitting in a German class when he was shot through the leg. The bullet severed his femoral artery.

[A massacres survivors: Recovery and resilience at Va. Tech]

Stoeckle said that Sterne, an Eagle Scout, saved his own life with quick thinking. Sterne stuck a finger into his own leg to try to stop the bleeding before using the electrical cord from an overhead projector to create a tourniquet.

Sterne said that he remembers blacking out  I was just kind of going to sleep, he said  and the moment when he opened his eyes after being revived by paramedics at Norris Hall, he saw sunlight from the windows facing southeast.

A photograph of a bloodied Sterne carried in the arms of four police officers ran in newspapers across the country and came to embody the stunning violence visited to campus that day.

That picture was only a glimpse of the carnage that went on in Norris Hall, said Sternes mother, Suzanna Grimes. They saw their professor and classmates get killed.

At the hospital, Stoeckle and colleagues performed the surgery to repair Sternes femoral artery that saved his life and his leg from amputation.

At any point, he could have died, Grimes said. If it wasnt for them, he wouldnt be there today.

Heidi Miller was a freshman in a French class in Norris Hall when she was shot three times, twice in the thigh and a third time through the knee.

In the emergency department, Miller was treated by Yakel. She said she was soothed by his calming presence and the Virginia Tech Hokies surgical cap he wore in her honor.

I think my mom thought he was sent from heaven to be there that day, Miller said. Everything went really well because of him.

Despite a six-inch scar over her knee, Miller said that she has full mobility. A bullet still lodged in her leg has left no lasting damage at all.

In July, she will take part in her first triathlon.
A man was unresponsiveafter being stabbed in the Capitol Hill neighborhood Sunday afternoon, D.C. police said.

Police spokeswoman Margarita Mikhaylova said the incident occurred about 1:40 p.m in the 600 block of C Street Northeast, near Stanton Park. Mikhaylova said the victim was unconscious and not breathing.

No further details were immediately available on the incident or the circumstances leading up to the stabbing. A description of a possible suspect was not available.

Separately, a police vehicle traveling to the crime scene was involved in a crash nearby, Mikhaylova said. Police said no one was injured in the crash.
The first thing I did when I moved to Langley Park, Md., in 1980 was go to a record store. Or did I go first to the delicatessen next door?

No, probably the record store, since you can walk into a deli holding an LP but its better not to be walking through a record store holding a sub  a cold-cut sub with everything, the seeping oil turning the waxy paper wrapping from opaque to translucent.

Not that the record store was really big enough to walk around in. It wasnt a Kemp Mill, let alone a Peaches. I cant remember the name now  I remember the name of the deli: the Famous Delicatessen (or, since the neon sign outside was normally short a few letters, the Famo Delicate)  but it was a small shop, just a few bins of LPs and 45s, with turntable cartridges and guitar strings behind the counter.

I went there right after moving into an apartment on Merrimac Drive with my college roommate, Pat. I was 17 and considered myself a grown-up.

Even so, for the first couple of weeks I lived there I was befuddled by Langley Park. Its a crossroads  New Hampshire Avenue and University Boulevard  with a strip shopping center at each corner. I got lost every morning on my way to the University of Maryland, certain Id headed toward College Park, only to find myself somehow at the Beltway or the District border, where Id curse and turn around.

Eventually, I came to learn the unique characteristics of each shopping center. There was the quadrant that had the Lang Lin Chinese restaurant, where Id always order the viscous moo goo gai pan. (Do Chinese restaurants even serve moo goo gai pan anymore?)

There was the quadrant with the Safeway, where we did our grocery shopping and where I once won a gallon of milk in a promotional contest.

There was the quadrant with the Kmart. This was actually the same quadrant that our apartment was in, but we seldom shopped in any of the stores there. I came to consider it a cursed quarter, best avoided, after I was yelled at by an itinerant sheet metal worker who offered to pull out a dent in the door of my 1973 Mercury Comet as I drove through the parking lot.

He was in his own ratty car and he leaned out the window and proffered his services: $40, he said, to fix the dent. Dubious about the kind of bodywork done alfresco in a Kmart parking lot, I declined. He shouted profanity, then peeled off in a cloud of tire smoke in search of another customer.

(About that Mercury Comet: It was light metallic green with a black vinyl roof. My dad bought it for me in Myrtle Beach, S.C., the summer between high school and college. My mom mentioned to Pat that Id gotten a car and that she couldnt remember which kind but it began with a C. Pat spent the summer jealous that Id gotten a Camaro, rather than what I had actually gotten: a Ford Maverick with delusions of grandeur.)

And there was the Famo Delicate quadrant, the best quadrant. It had the deli, of course, and the record store. It also had a movie theater. And a liquor store, where a six-pack of Carling Black Label was so cheap it made little sense to drink anything else, including water. There was a Hot Shoppes, too, which struck us as expensive but worth the occasional splurge.

We had everything we could possibly want.

I moved in on a hot summer morning, and in the afternoon  my twin bed assembled, my moms old Smith-Corona electric typewriter set up on the kitchen table  went to the record store. I was giddy with a sense of possibility.

It made perfect sense that behind the counter should be a dark-haired girl who looked a bit like Chrissie Hynde (but preferred  it turned out  Aerosmith).

Her name was Terri and she sold me a Greg Kihn album, Glass House Rock. I thought it odd that there was a sticker on the shrink wrap that read Factory sealed for your protection. Protection from what?

Then I got it home, pulled off the plastic and saw that under the sticker, someone had razored away a thin layer of the cardboard. And when I held the record itself at a certain angle, I could see that a black marker had been run over some words on the center label: FOR RADIO STATION USE ONLY.

It turned out that Terri had a boyfriend who bought promotional copies of LPs from DJs, sliced off the gold stamp that read NOT FOR RESALE and sold them to record stores.

It was too bad she had a boyfriend, but at least I had a source of cheap albums.

Twitter: @johnkelly

For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
Leesburg Pike is one of the major thoroughfares in Baileys Crossroads area of Falls Church, Virginia Tuesday April 11 2017. (J. Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post)

Ever since plans for a streetcar along Northern Virginias Columbia Pike died in 2014, an effort to revitalize the struggling Baileys Crossroads area in Fairfax County has been marked by frustration.

The latest headache: A group of homeless men began squatting in two vacant houses that are part of an idle project for a new shopping center off Leesburg Pike, aggravating neighbors who see their community of roughly 26,000 residents succumbing to crime and other problems instead of the promised improvements that would make Baileys Crossroads a walkable urban center like nearby Shirlington.

I drove back into my yard one day and I saw somebodys butt hanging out of the window, said Nick Ferk, 66, describing a recent party he witnessed inside one of the empty houses that sits next to the home he has owned since 1979. I said, Well, this isnt right. Im so disappointed in the county.

Fairfax County officials say the two houses and an adjacent storefront building that is also vacant are slated to be demolished within the next few weeks after dozens of calls to police about loitering and vagrancy.

A project approved in January 2016 to build a shopping plaza with a drive-through pharmacy at the site experienced a series of delays but is now scheduled to begin construction in May, said Peter Batten, a principal for the sites developer, Spectrum Development.

Weve boarded up all the buildings and secured the buildings, said Batten, whose company acquired the two houses in February. We took it seriously and jumped on it quickly.

Overall, the effort to revitalize the traffic-clogged area of strip malls, apartment complexes and brick rambler homes where Columbia and Leesburg pikes intersect has foundered since Arlington County decided against moving forward with the streetcar project amid controversy over its $550 million price tag, Fairfax officials say.

The loss of the streetcar derailed an effort to revive the Skyline office tower complex, once an economic hub where restaurants and shops catered to the federal employees and government contractors who worked at the 2.6 million-square-foot site.

The complex, which was to be a streetcar destination, went into foreclosure after federal sequestration cuts emptied half the offices. It was sold in a December auction for $200 million, with no current plans for redevelopment, according to county officials.

On Columbia Pike, a project to build townhouses and apartment buildings died last year when the company behind the project  Avalon Bay Communities  pulled out after facing local opposition and several years of bureaucratic delays. Eventually, it got to the point where there were other investment opportunities that were more compelling, said Matt Birenbaum, chief investment officer for Avalon Bay.

The propertys owner, the Weissburg Co., is looking for a new developer, according to the county, which is considering a rezoning application that would allow multifamily residential development.

Fairfax Supervisor Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason), whose district includes Baileys Crossroads, said finding developers for the area without the lure of a streetcar is not an easy job.

Fairfax has targeted the area for revitalization since the mid-1980s  over the years widening roads, building sidewalks and removing a garbage dump.

The area is now partially included in a comprehensive plan adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 2015 that focuses mainly on the Seven Corners community about 2 miles away. The plan calls for three villages to be built around a new street grid over the next 40 years, with restaurants, shops and several thousand homes.

Gross said Baileys Crossroads still has appeal; she pointed to a pending project to build 157 flexible live-work units  or e-lofts  inside a vacant office building on Columbia Pike as proof of its allure for young professionals.

Plans by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission to bring rapid bus transit to a portion of Leesburg Pike that includes Baileys Crossroads could spark more interest, county officials say, but road-widening needed for that is at least 20 years away.

Revitalization does take longer, Gross said. Its a lot more expensive than starting from scratch.

Critics say the countys vision for Baileys Crossroads weakened after the streetcar plans fell through.

Alison Oleson, a member of the board of the Baileys Crossroads/Seven Corners Revitalization Corp., said her community group, serving as a first rung for development, reviews a hodgepodge of proposals for Baileys Crossroads, many of them unviable.

Were not getting anybody saying, Lets make this area the next Springfield or the next Mosaic,  Oleson said, referring to two recently revived neighborhoods in the county. Were not seeing any of those kinds of projects come forward.

She blames a concentration of poverty in Baileys Crossroads, coupled with recent news reports about gang activity and other crime.

The homeless men inside the vacant houses reinforced worries that the area is veering in the wrong direction, she said.

That scares away revitalization efforts, and it affects our housing values around there, Oleson said.

Wayne Valis, 72, has lived in Baileys Crossroads since he was a boy, when it was rural farmland. Lately, his childhood memories have been eclipsed by concerns about traffic and his familys safety.

One night, Valis and his wife, Angela, were returning home when a group of men theyd seen near the vacant houses stepped into their cars path, stopping them briefly before allowing them to pass, he said.

Its been very discouraging, Valis said, lamenting a lack of excitement in his aging community. Theres nothing like in Shirlington, where you can go and walk around or there are little parklike areas or places to sit outside. Its just strip malls and sprawl.
Faisal Ali and his wife Nazia Ali celebrate their 10th anniversary with a trip to Paris. After boarding their return flight to Cleveland, Ohio in July 2016, they were taken off the international Delta after saying a prayer that ended with inshalla, God willing in Arabic. They filed a civil rights complaint. Delta denies the couple was discriminated against. (Nazia and Faisal Ali via CAIR/Nazia and Faisal Ali via CAIR)

One of the most jarring experiences of Nazia Alis life began at the end of a dream 10-year anniversary trip with her husband, Faisal Ali.

After almost a week soaking in the ambient romance of Paris in July, the Alis boarded a return flight to their Cleveland home. The short walk to their second-row seats left time to store their bags, remove their shoes and murmur a few words of prayer asking for safe travel. That prayer ended with inshallah, or God willing in Arabic.

But after 45 minutes, Nazia Ali noticed, the usual orders about electronic devices and tray tables hadnt come. A Delta Air Lines staffer approached.

 Mr. and Mrs. Ali, I need you to get off the plane with me,  recalled Ali, a Pakistani American who wears a hijab over her hair. He said: Please grab all of your things. You are no longer taking this flight. 

The passenger removal that captured national attention last week  in which law enforcement officers peeled David Dao from his seat and dragged him, bleeding, up the aisle  united Americans in righteous indignation. But cases in which airlines force passengers to surrender their seats are regulated and in a long-term pattern of decline. In 2016, 40,629 people were forced off planes because of a need for seats, down slightly from 43,704 the year before and 65,079 in 2010.





What appears to be a growing phenomenon  but less closely monitored by regulators  is the kind of passenger removal the Alis say they encountered, one driven by racial, ethnic or religious profiling.

Although the Transportation Department tracks removals caused by full flights, the agency doesnt tally the number of bumped people who go on to file discrimination complaints. But advocacy groups say the number of complaints filed by people removed after flight crews or passengers raised security concerns related to innocuous conversations in a foreign language or other matters tied to skin color or religion spiked in 2016.

Passengers filed 94 civil rights complaints for all incidents against U.S. airlines and foreign carriers flying into the country in 2016, according to federal data. Thats up almost 45 percent from 2015.

Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group whose work includes assisting passengers who say theyve been profiled, identified more than 60 such incidents by August 2016. The group learned about some of these removals when people called directly seeking help. Some involved situations for which no civil rights complaint has been filed with the Transportation Department.

The Alis story was among several removals that became public last year: the olive-skinned economics professor reported by a passenger for working on a mathematical equation; the man with a generous beard ejected after a passenger complained that he appeared Arabic and scary; the seven black passengers who werent traveling together removed after two had a dispute with a flight attendant; the Muslim woman who joined another passengers complaint about a five-hour tarmac wait; the black minister and civil rights activist escorted off a plane after nearby passengers lobbed racially themed insults his way. In each case, the airlines insisted that security concerns alone motivated events.

The uptick in these cases could represent a new and intense round in the tug of war between national security and civil rights. But they have garnered little outrage, often freighted with nebulous proof of prejudice or indifference to it. Unlike Daos situation, theyre not the kind of customer service disasters that could ensnare any passenger and end in dramatic confrontations on video.

The argument really boils down to, My fears are more important than your rights,  said Corey Saylor, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations department that monitors and combats Islamophobia. Its better to not have a Constitution and still be alive  thats how I would sum this logic up.

A video screengrab shows passenger David Dao being dragged off a United Airlines flight at Chicago O'Hare International Airport in this video filmed by Jayse D. Anspach on April 9, 2017. (Handout/Reuters)

Airlines for America, an industry trade group, points out that there was one civil rights complaint filed against U.S.-based airlines per 10.3 million passengers in 2016.

The countrys air carriers are committed to offering the highest levels of customer service and our members do not tolerate discrimination in any form, the organization said in an emailed statement to The Washington Post.

Many civil rights groups argue that bias-driven plane removals are underreported, because passengers fear that complaints will lead to future trouble on flights, dont know how to file a case or are overwhelmed by the paperwork. By comparison, news reports of Daos dragging prompted a federal transit probe the same week.

Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project, wants airline passengers to make no mistake: Whats happening here matters.

When airlines remove passengers based on how they look or the language that they speak, Shamsi said, they contribute to a climate that has grown recently and that most certainly does not add to security. They take our entire country to a place where people who believe in equality should not want to be.

Nazia Ali says profiling has become a part of flying for her. She and her husband privately joke about how shes subjected to additional Transportation Security Administration screening every time. But what happened last year was different.

Nothing they said to the crew or law enforcement waiting on the jet bridge mattered. A decision had already been made.

Delta first told reporters that a flight attendant had grown uncomfortable with the Alis because Faisal Ali was sweating, Nazia Ali was wearing a headscarf and at least one of them had used the word Allah. Then, the airline issued a statement affirming Deltas commitment to equality, promising to refund the Alis money (they were rebooked on a direct flight to Cleveland the next day) and investigate the incident with care. Later, the airline emailed the Alis their findings: No discrimination occurred.

The couple were so troubled that last year, they drove to Canada and Florida to avoid flying. They also contacted CAIR and filed a civil rights complaint.

We would not accept this in any other industry, said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR Chicago, but because of the magic word  security  that they can flash, that shuts a lot of people up.

Asking all sorts of odd things

Thats the word United Airlines used to explain why it removed Eaman and Mohamed Shebley and their three children from a plane at Chicagos OHare International Airport en route to a spring break trip to Washington in March 2016. The Lebanese American couple say United and its partner operator SkyWest gave them conflicting information about using a booster seat for their 2-year-old daughter. After Mohamed Shebley spoke to crew members on the plane, one began asking questions Shebley found alarming.

They started asking all sorts of odd things, he recalled.  Where did you buy your tickets? 

Eaman Shebley put the booster away. Over the next hour, flight attendants and then the captain told the family to leave the plane. The couple asked repeatedly for an explanation. Some in first class began to stand and point. A United crew member said the next step was to call police.

Nearby strangers tried to convince the crew that the Shebleys hadnt been a problem. But another passenger, a white man, yelled, Get off the plane, you all are going to jail, Eaman Shebley said.

One of the couples children broke into tears. The Shebleys walked off the plane.

Understand that had it not been for that decision, said Rehab, this could have been another dragging.

On the jet bridge, the pilot told the Shebleys that they were noncompliant, a disruptive kind of security risk. Not long after, United had the Shebleys booked on a different flight to Washington.

After the trip, the couple contacted CAIR Chicago and filed a civil rights complaint and a lawsuit.

In an emailed response to The Post, United said, Both SkyWest and United hold our employees to the highest standards of professionalism and have zero tolerance for discrimination. In a separate statement, SkyWest added that we ensure that all employees participate in training that supports our zero tolerance for discrimination.

In the months since that flight, the Shebleys son has been anxious, a 9-year-old who needs every logistical detail before they travel. At school, some kids tease him for getting kicked off a plane.

Fair-skinned and blue-eyed, Eaman Shebley wonders whether her family would have been treated differently if she hadnt worn a hijab.

That tangle of concerns is magnified across millions of Muslim Americans, Rehab said.

These incidents do not happen in a vacuum, said Brenda F. Abdelall, a staff member with Muslim Advocates. They are byproducts of the world around us.

A mirror of broader tensions

Planes are like social microcosms for whatever dynamics exist in the country, said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, a union representing half the U.S. flight attendant workforce. These days, Americans are bringing their politics and politicized anxieties into increasingly tight spaces.

I dont know that we have ever seen tensions like we see today, said Nelson, that are really more related to the political environment than an actual security situation or risk.

In November, at the request of civil rights groups and after input from Nelsons union, the Transportation Department began making public more detailed data about civil rights complaints. Days before President Barack Obama left office, department officials updated the Passenger Bill of Rights, reinforcing that removing a passenger for sporting a beard, reading another language or appearing Muslim is illegal. The agency also issued the first new must-follow guidance to airlines regarding discrimination since November 2001.

Some say a need for stronger regulations remains. In letters to federal transit officials last year, three organizations  CAIR, Muslim Advocates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund  asked the Transportation Department to mandate anti-bias training for flight crews and expand the events that prompt an official investigation.

Nelson agrees that better training is key.

Airlines have always made cultural awareness part of flight crew training, she said. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a spike in removals and transit agency action taken against certain airlines, almost all added training on implicit biases, judgment and distorted assessments of risk. Some provide more than others.

But flight attendants are always trained to keep potential problems on the ground.

Ideally, that [training] would equip a flight attendant to remove actual security risks, Nelson said, and offer a passenger who reports someone for simply speaking Arabic the option of taking another flight.
HALF A century ago, an African American community just off River Road in Bethesda was displaced when developers bought the residents land to construct condo complexes and shopping centers. Now the descendants of those men and women worry someone is about to build atop their history again.

Tiny Macedonia Baptist Church, whose congregation includes members of the black community in Bethesdas Westbard neighborhood, has caused a big stir in response to Montgomery Countys approval of a redevelopment application. The property owner, Florida-based Regency Centers, plans to construct an above-ground garage on a plot of land thought to have housed an African American cemetery. The church wants to install a museum and memorial instead.

Regency has contracted with a firm to conduct an archeological survey that will reveal whether human remains still rest beneath the land, which has since been converted into a parking lot. If the answer is yes, state law would require the developer to request permission to disturb the land, and it could do so only under state supervision.

The church attempted to bring on two independent anthropologists to take charge of the study, but after a dispute with the county planning board over how much control those experts would exercise the plan was nixed  and the board directed Regency to go ahead with its own initial research. Now County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) has proposed mediation, but the church is distrustful.

The church should participate, but once mediation begins it will be the countys job to win back that trust. At the least, Montgomery County should offer to fund a study by the anthropologists the church selected, and Regency should agree to their involvement. Whether bodies still lie under the lot or were disinterred during earlier development, the site retains historical significance, and significance for the descendants of those buried there.

The Montgomery planning board cannot force a private property owner to build a museum  which may not be a viable option for commemorating the burial site anyway. And especially if no remains are found, Regency could go to court if denied permission to build. But the county could offer to purchase the land parcel from Regency and, with the churchs help soliciting donations, find an appropriate way to memorialize it.

Montgomery County has followed protocol from start to finish. But to the church, the cemetery controversy is about more than protocol. Its about a saga of disenfranchisement that started when county covenants pushed African Americans to live in proscribed areas and continued when development pushed them back out. The countys current leaders did not start this chain of events. But they have a chance to point history in a more positive direction.
FOR DECADES, and particularly since President Richard Nixons administration, public pressure has led presidents to become steadily more open with citizens about how they conduct business, and more mindful of ethics. Major party candidates have released their tax returns, revealing information about their finances and any potential conflicts of interest. Presidential relatives have avoided high office. The Justice Department has insulated itself from the Oval Office. And, as of the Barack Obama presidency, the White House has released voluminous records on who visited the executive mansion grounds so citizens could know who was meeting with the president and his staff.

Some of these practices flowed from formal rules, others from norms based on the American notion that the president works for the people and that transparency and ethical guidelines are essential checks against abuse of that trust. Though presidents have chafed at the expectations that follow from this principle, none before President Trump has so brazenly attempted to reverse the decades-long trend toward an above-board presidency.

The latest news is that Mr. Trump will not routinely release White House visitor records, as Mr. Obama did. The White House cited grave national security risks and privacy concerns. The former is not persuasive, since a national security exception was built into the policy. So Mr. Trump must argue that his right to privacy, or that of the lobbyists coming to see him, outweighs the publics interest in knowing who is getting an audience. We dont find that persuasive, either.

Mr. Trumps decision to claw the White House logs back into the shadows follows several other moves that show contempt for the public. As a candidate, Mr. Trump promised to disclose his tax returns; then postponed the release date; then seemed to decide that he never need keep that promise. His excuse  that the IRS is auditing his recent tax forms  has been thoroughly discredited as a rationale, and provides not even phony cover for refusing to release older returns. Given Mr. Trumps sprawling, secretive business, and unanswered questions about its ties to Russians, his departure from tradition in this matter is particularly unsettling. Nor has he made as clean a break from his business as taxpayers have a right to expect.

Judging from his public statements, Mr. Trump calculates that there is little to no political price to be paid for flouting norms of ethics and openness. But his dismal poll numbers consistently show that Americans question his honesty. A time may come when he needs to ask the American people to have confidence in him. After undoing the nations progress toward transparency, he may find that the reservoir of trust is very shallow.
(McKenna Ewen/The Washington Post)

Just days after taking office, President Trump invited American manufacturers to recommend ways the government could cut regulations and make it easier for companies to get their projects approved.

Industry leaders responded with scores of suggestions that paint the clearest picture yet of the dramatic steps that Trump officials are likely to take in overhauling federal policies, especially those designed to advance environmental protection and safeguard worker rights.

Those clues are embedded in the 168 comments submitted to the government after Trump signed a presidential memorandum Jan. 24 instructing the Commerce Department to figure out how to ease permitting and trim regulations with the aim of boosting domestic manufacturing. The Environmental Protection Agency has emerged as the primary target in these comments, accounting for nearly half, with the Labor Department in second place as the subject of more than one-fifth, according to a Commerce Department analysis.

Among the notable items on industrys to-do list:

BP wants to make it easier to drill for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico by reducing how often companies must renew their

leases.

A trade association representing the pavement industry wants to preclude the U.S. Geological Survey from conducting what the group says is advocacy research into the environmental impact of coal tar. The Pavement Coatings Technology Council says this research could limit what it uses to seal parking lots and driveways.



Tearsheet from Pavement Coatings Technology Council letter.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants to reduce the amount of time opponents have to challenge federal approval of projects. Challenges would have to be filed within two years, down from six.

The Chamber also wants to jettison a requirement that employers report their injury and illness records electronically to the Labor Department so they can be posted on the internet for anyone to see.

And in its 51-page comment, Make Federal Agencies Responsible Again, the Associated General Contractors of America recommended repealing 11 of President Barack Obamas executive orders and memorandums, including one establishing paid sick leave for government contractors.



Tearsheet from The Associated General Contractors of America letter under the heading Make Federal Agencies Responsible Again.

Three senior administration officials in different departments said the White House is inclined to accept many of these suggestions. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a process that is underway.

Neil Bradley, the Chambers senior vice president, said in an interview that the EPA has led the government in issuing high-cost, high-impact regulations that harmed businesses. The Chamber estimated that rules issued under Obama would cost businesses more than $70 billion annually.

Now we have an administration whos interested in streamlining federal approvals and rules, Bradley said, and is providing relief from a regulatory onslaught that occurred, principally, during the prior administration.

Across the government, administration officials are beginning to flesh out how they can scale back rules imposed by Obama  and, in some cases, his predecessors. Officials are launching websites to take suggestions, holding meetings with chief executives and industry representatives, and drawing up recommendations to submit to the White House.





Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is scheduled to submit his report on stimulating domestic manufacturing toward the end of next month.

This is the first time any administration has canvassed the private sector to find the worst regulatory and permitting problems, and it is axiomatic that you cant solve a problem until you have identified it, Ross said, adding that officials were refining their recommendations now to take responsible action. We look forward to working further with American workers and businesses, in manufacturing and other sectors, to unshackle the innovative spirit that made this country great.

[Trump undertakes biggest regulatory rollback since Reagan]

The National Association of Manufacturers began preparing its response the day Trump signed the memorandum, according to Rosario Palmieri, its vice president for labor, legal and regulatory policy. On March 27, the NAM hosted a meeting at its offices in which representatives from about 100 companies discussed their recommendations with senior Commerce staff.

This has a tremendous opportunity to be very successful and result in real burden reductions, Palmieri said.

More than 80 percent of the comments Commerce received on the presidential memorandum came from trade associations or manufacturers.

The campaign to roll back regulations has sparked concern among liberal advocacy groups and some former Obama administration officials, who said the federal government must keep long-term consequences in mind as it considers unwinding rules aimed at protecting the environment and workers.

At a time when many CEOs are focused on the short term and looking to maximize their profitability each quarter, I believe that a lot of their aversion to these regulations reflects a short-term mind-set that values reducing costs over anything else, said Jeffrey Zients, who worked on regulatory matters while holding two top economic posts in Obamas White House. Thats unfortunate, because well-crafted regulations are an important part of creating sustainable and fair economic prosperity in the long run.

Marcus Peacock, who served briefly as a senior White House budget adviser under Trump before joining the Business Roundtable advocacy group this month, said previous efforts to streamline regulations have had difficulty sticking as strongly as they should have.

But several of Trumps earliest actions could give this latest drive more punch. Trump signed an executive order requiring that many agencies eliminate two regulations for each new one they propose and that these changes entail no increased cost. Another executive order established a regulatory reform officer and task force in each department.

Several previous administrations, both Republicans and Democrats, have sought to eliminate regulations that were deemed burdensome. Obama launched a regulatory lookback in 2011 that solicited input from the public and saved $13 billion  mostly in paperwork reductions. The Transportation Department, for example, changed a rule requiring truck drivers to file reports on their vehicles every day they hit the road to one mandating reports only when they identify problems or have reason to think theres an issue with their trucks.

But that effort received a tepid response from industry. Some groups, including the Chamber, said the scope was too narrow and that they did not have sufficient time to conduct a full review. In a March 26, 2011, letter, the Chamber wrote the Labor Department that it was given less than a month to submit comments: This compressed time frame has limited our ability to identify regulations that may deserve attention.

Its not like industry sent us a wish list of what it wanted done, said one former Obama administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly.

[At EPA, Trump signs order to unwind Obamas environmental record]

Janet McCabe, who helped craft some of the rules now in jeopardy as head of the EPAs Office of Air and Radiation, said her agency had sought comment from across the ideological spectrum. That contrasted with how Trump2s EPA is seeking public comment, she said.

The signals that theyre sending through the way they describe their initiative is the audience theyre worried about, to the exclusion of everybody else, is industry, McCabe said.

Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said his advocacy organization did not comment and has been struggling to keep up with the overwhelming, pretty much nonstop assault on rules put in place under Obama. The big picture is at every turn, once the transition began, every special interest in the country was signaled, Hey, its all you can eat,  Cook said.

Several business advocates, for their part, say the shift represents a course correction. The National Association of Roofing Contractors wrote in its submission to Commerce, For years, the Obama Administration consistently refused to address the many concerns of NRCA members when issuing new regulations.

Dan Bosch, senior manager of regulatory policy for the National Federation of Independent Business, said his members are still in limbo as they wait to see if Trumps team targets regulations they oppose.

The NFIB has suggested a raft of changes, including one that would designate the Commerce Department  instead of the State Department  as the agency in charge of approving pipelines and other projects that cross borders. The federation says the lead agency should have commercial expertise and an interest in encouraging business.

The NFIB has also objected to a policy adopted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration allowing representatives of an outside union to tour a nonunion shop with an OSHA inspector. Bosch said it is an invasion of privacy to have someone whos not an employee coming into your business and trying to point out things that, potentially, those employees should mention.

But David Michaels, who headed OSHA under Obama and is now a professor at George Washington Universitys School of Public Health, said, The culture of the trade associations in Washington is to attack any new regulation as burdensome, even though the empirical evidence is that theyre easily met, theyre not burdensome and they save lives.

But injured workers dont have a voice in Washington, he added. Trade associations do.
Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) takes a knee on stage to answer a question during a town-hall meeting in Gainesville, Fla., last week. (Phelan Ebenhack/Reuters)

Inside a government building here, far-right Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) scolded his partys leaders for rolling out an ill-advised health-care bill and blamed House Speaker Paul D. Ryan for the ensuing debacle.

The next evening on a college campus nestled in the Rocky Mountains, moderate Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) held the House Freedom Caucus  to which Yoho belongs  culpable for the legislations defeat.

In both places, Republican voters also pointed fingers  at President Trump, Ryan, their members of Congress, or all of them.

Fewer than 100 days after Republicans assumed complete control of Washington, their botched attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and broader struggles to cooperate have stoked widespread distrust and despair inside the party. The friction is evident at town hall meetings across the country during the current congressional recess.

One lifelong Republican attending Coffmans town hall in Colorado exclaimed that he was shocked by the congressmans support for the health-care bill, which both Trump and Ryan backed. At Yohos event, an attendee pressed the congressman on his role in the Freedom Caucus.

(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The open warfare threatens the president and the GOP agenda, but is also dampening enthusiasm with Republican voters who can no longer blame Democrats or divided government for the dysfunction.

I think its just tough working with our conference, Coffman said in an interview, referring to the fact that House Republicans find it almost impossible to agree.

The frustration is visible in both purple areas such as Coffmans district, which will factor heavily into the battle for Congress in 2018; and ruby-red regions, such as Yohos seat, which voted strongly for Trump and could be crucial in 2020. It is present in districts represented by members who supported the bill like Coffman, as well as those who opposed it like Yoho.

Bob White, a Republican who attended Yohos town hall here Tuesday, raised a worrisome question for GOP lawmakers on the ballot next year.

If there was another election Id still vote for Ted Yoho, he said in an interview the next day. But a few moments later, White abruptly raised a different possibility:

Or maybe I would just skip over his name.

We yield a pretty big stick

White asked Yoho about his place in the small but powerful group of hard-line conservatives to which he belongs  the House Freedom Caucus. The group has been a thorn in the side of House leaders since many of its members were elected in the 2010 tea-party wave, promising to slash their way to smaller government.

Maggie MacDonald, 72, reacts to an answer from Rep. Ted Yoho about Planned Parenthood during a town hall meeting in Gainesville, Fla. (Phelan Ebenhack/Reuters)

How big of a stick do you carry with the Freedom Caucus? Is there any influence there? asked White, 74, who voted for Yoho and Trump.

Yeah, I think we yield a pretty big stick, Yoho boasted, giving his own spin  intentionally or not  to the often-used phrase about quiet power than includes carry a big stick.

Many in the group refused to support the American Health Care Act (AHCA)  crafted by Ryan (R-Wis.) and his leadership lieutenants  because it didnt go far enough to repeal the law known as Obamacare and wouldnt, they argued, bring down insurance costs sufficiently.

Yoho, 62, a veterinarian who once mounted an unsuccessful run against John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) for speaker, argued that the Freedom Caucus received disproportionate blame for the bills failure and pointed to resistance from GOP moderates.

White, a retired truck driver and volunteer teacher, said in an interview that he wants Obamacare repealed beyond a shadow of a doubt. But he seemed less sure the Freedom Caucus could make that happen.

The question for me is what clout he had within the Freedom Caucus and did he see any light at the end of the tunnel? he said, adding, Because I dont remember the Freedom Caucus being on the ballot.

In this part of Florida, there was strong support for Trump, who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the district to the south and west of Jacksonville by 16 percentage points, post-

election analyses show.

After his town hall, Yoho told reporters that it was ultimately Ryans fault that Republicans werent able to repeal the ACA before leaving for the recess. Its a function of leadership, he said, before specifically naming the speaker.

In the audience at the town hall, some Republican voters seemed to blame the speaker too.

Uhhhhh, responded Mark Fisher, 67, who said he voted for Yoho and Trump, when asked whether he thought Ryan was doing a good job. He deferred to his wife, Joanne, 62.

I know hes a good person and everything. . . . I dont know, she said.

Yoho was far less critical of Trump than of Ryan, saying he thinks the president was misled on health care by House GOP leaders. But Trump spent weeks pushing the measure, holding photo-ops and meeting with its GOP architects. After the health-care bill collapsed, Trump lashed out against the Freedom Caucus for its failure.

Ryans team does not believe that there is a widespread movement against him among GOP members. Some other members of the Freedom Caucus have not blamed Ryan the way Yoho did.

Thats not who we are here

Coffman, 62, is one of just 23 House Republicans who represent districts won by Clinton in 2016. His suburban Denver seat is a diverse mix of Democrats, Republicans and independents. That demographic split drove Coffman last summer to run an ad promising to stand up to Trump when they disagree.

Many members of the moderate Tuesday Group to which Coffman belongs opposed the House GOP plan. But Coffman said he supported it because every major policy move has to start somewhere. He was quick to blame the Freedom Caucus for the bills failure.

I think the Freedom Caucus was completely unrealistic in terms of their expectations, Coffman said. If youre going to be a legislator, youve got to legislate and compromise is not a pejorative.

Most of the roughly 200 people who showed up at the University of Colorado Anschutz Campus in Aurora on Wednesday were Democrats who angrily demanded that Coffman make good on his pledge to confront Trump.

But they werent alone. Steven Haas, 68, stood up to say he was a lifelong Republican upset that Coffman and his fellow Republicans failed to listen when voters made clear that their plan was unsound.

Im sorry to say I was shocked that you declared your intention to vote for so-called Trumpcare, Haas said. Thats not the way we do things in Colorado. The ACA is the law of the land now.

Haas later said he usually votes for Republicans but doesnt plan to back Coffman next year, because he doesnt trust him to live up to his moderate reputation in the face of Trumps agenda.

When he gets to Washington, he votes 96 percent of the time with the far-right wing, Haas said. Thats not who we are here. Republicans like me dont like it.

In Florida, Yoho faced a different kind of anger  some people in his district were upset that he didnt back Trump in the health-care fight. Yoho explained that the majority of the calls his office received opposed the measure.

As they have at many GOP town halls this year, Democrats made their presence felt in Florida. Although they disagree with Yoho on most everything, some are pleased that he didnt back the GOP proposal  albeit not for the same reasons.

Different ends  same result, said Joy Pitts, a local activist with Indivisible, a national organization formed to oppose Trumps agenda.

Got to start somewhere

Colorado opted to expand Medicaid under the ACA while Florida did not. The House bill would have rolled back Medicaid expansion, causing many Democrats and Republicans to worry about those who obtained coverage as a result of it.

Coffman said he has only heard rumors of revived negotiations on the health-care bill  but he worried that Ryan and Trump might try to resurrect the legislation by making it more palatable to conservatives.

Coffman is in a tough spot  forced to decide between supporting Trumps agenda, much of which appeals to the conservative element of his base, and following through on his own promise to independents, centrist Republicans and Democrats that he would stand up for their needs.

At the town hall, he was steadily attacked by Democrats and independents who wanted to know when hed stand up to Trump.

When I disagree with him, Coffman insisted after an hour of pointed questions. When I disagree with him, I will.

That kind of answer wasnt good enough for people like David Leach, a software engineer and registered Democrat who said he had only supported a Republican once in his life when he voted last year for Coffman.

You position yourself as someone who would vote your conscience and work in a bipartisan manner in Congress, Leach said. I voted for you because I thought you could be a leader in that regard and Im not seeing anything.

Pam Cirbo, a GOP volunteer from Littleton, Colo., said shes generally happy with Trump and is growing tired of people pushing Coffman to resist. Cirbo said she didnt love the GOP health plan but was frustrated that GOP leaders didnt try harder to negotiate a compromise.

Youve got to start somewhere, Cirbo said. Maybe the timeline was a little shorter than it should have been.

Snell reported from Aurora, Colo.

Read more at PowerPost
Dear Doctor: My daughters school recently sent home a flier about potential exposure to hand, foot and mouth disease. How worried should I be?

Dear Reader: Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is very common. It occurs most often in infants and children younger than 7 years of age and is caused by one of 16 types of enterovirus. Outbreaks are more likely in the late summer and early fall, when children are starting a new year of school or preschool.

Because the viruses that lead to HFMD are largely intestinal, theyre usually passed via stool. Small amounts of the virus then make it onto the hands of the child or someone changing the childs diaper. The virus passes from one individual to another when it ends up on food, the fingers or the pacifier of another child, ending up in the mouth. The fecal-oral transmission is the most common way the virus infects others, but it can also be passed through oral secretions, through coughing, and through the fluid from the blisters seen in hand-foot-and-mouth disease.

Regardless, the virus makes its way down to the lower intestine, spreading to the lymph nodes and from there to the rest of the body. The typical time that it takes for the enterovirus to be ingested and for the first symptoms to appear is three to five days.

Symptoms of the disease begin with mouth or throat pain or the refusal to eat. The most striking symptom of hand-foot-and-mouth disease is the blisterlike rash that occurs both within the mouth and on the hands and feet; such blisters can also appear on the legs, arms and buttocks. The lesions are normally not painful and resolve in three or four days. Some species of enterovirus also cause fever, nausea and vomiting. Rarely, enteroviruses can lead to dehydration, viral meningitis or heart inflammation.

I can understand the worry that your school  and you  have regarding this infection. As I noted, the incubation period is typically three to five days, but one study of an outbreak at a day care showed that children were infectious up to seven days. And, not to make you overly worried, but some enteroviruses can be passed in the stool up to 10 weeks after infection.

I would ask school officials at which date the infected child began having symptoms of HFMD. If it was more than five days ago, I would be less concerned about your child now developing the disease.

However, because the virus can be shed long after disease, I would stress the importance of hand-washing. If your daughter does get hand-foot-and-mouth disease, the symptoms likely will not last long, and any discomfort can be treated with acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Watch for warning signs of potential complications, such as listlessness, severe headache or neck stiffness. Consult your pediatrician if your child has these symptoms.

Also, if your daughter does become infected, make sure to practice good hygiene at home, so the virus does not pass to you or other family members.
In this November photo, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov smiles before an exhibition soccer match between Russia and Romania in Grozny, Russia. Kadyrov has lashed out at international organization that have criticised the Russian region for reportedly persecuting and killing gays, accusing them of attempting to blacken Chechen society, lifestyle, traditions and customs. (AP Photo/Denis Tyrin, FILE) (Denis Tyrin/AP)

Chechen state television promised over the weekend to produce a tell-all investigation into reports on the torture of gay men in that Russian republic  not into the question of torture itself, but into how the story saw the light of day.

It said that the existence of gays in Chechnya was invented by opposition media.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, in a social-media post Sunday, blamed so-called human rights organizations that were using the most unworthy methods, distorting reality, trying to blacken our society, lifestyle, traditions and customs.

Chechnya has called on the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which first reported on the abuse and killings of gay men there, to recant its article.

To finish this dangerous conflict between us once and for all, you have to fulfill just three conditions, wrote Dzhambulat Umarov, the minister for social politics in the Chechen Republic. First, you must apologize to the Chechen people for the disgusting nonsense that you spread. He also demanded that reporters abandon the use of anonymous sources and stop complaining of threats received from Chechnya.

Elena Milashina, one of two Novaya Gazeta reporters who broke the story, has gone into hiding after receiving death threats.

Police and other law enforcement officials under Kadyrov, who fought the Russian government during Chechnyas civil war before changing sides and who was named leader of Chechnya by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007, have been accused of torture and collective punishment before. But the details of what appears to be the systematic imprisonment and torture of gay men, who Kadyrov insists do not exist in Chechnya, were particularly hair-raising.

They attached wires from electroshockers to our hands and turned the dial of a generator, creating a shock. It was painful. I endured as much as I could, then lost consciousness and fell, one man, who sent a photo showing bruises on his buttocks, wrote to Novaya Gazeta. The newspaper reported that more than 100 men had been detained and that three had been killed.

When the current goes and your body starts to shake, you stop thinking and begin to scream, the man wrote. All this time youre sitting and hear the screams of those being tortured.

Russian officials insisted that there was not enough information for an investigation. But soon after the story was published on April 1, Novaya Gazetas website was knocked out by a distributed denial-of-service attack. Authorities in Chechnya, including religious leaders, began making threatening statements against the newspapers journalists.

Insofar as an insult has been made against the age-old foundations of Chechen society and the dignity of male Chechens, as well as our faith, we promise that retribution will reach those who truly instigated this, wherever and whomever they may be, without a statute of limitations, a collection of Islamic leaders supported by Kadyrov said in a statement.

For Novaya Gazeta, these are more than just idle threats. Two of the newspapers reporters who covered Chechnya have been murdered. In 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter who covered the war in Chechnya, was shot to death in her apartment building in Moscow. Several Chechen men were convicted in the killing. In 2009, the reporter and human rights worker Natalya Estemirova was kidnapped in Grozny, Chechnyas capital, and killed, her body left in the trunk of a car in a neighboring region. Both were critics of Kadyrov.

The newspaper issued a defiant statement.

Silence and inaction in such a situation make all of those able to do anything accomplices, the newspaper wrote last week. So Novaya Gazeta is continuing to work in Chechnya. But we understand very well how high a price we may pay. The still uninvestigated murders of our colleagues, Anna Politkovskaya and Natalya Estemirova, are clear proof of that.

Other Russian independent media, including the popular Echo of Moscow radio station, have backed Novaya Gazeta. Alexei Venediktov, the Echo of Moscow editor in chief, who has also been threatened by Kadyrov, called the Chechen leaders a homegrown ISIS.

I am not surprised by the threats made against our colleagues at Novaya Gazeta from representatives of the Chechen government and religious community, Venediktov wrote in a blog on Echo of Moscows website. These threats so resemble those made by ISIS against journalists recounting the atrocities of their religious fanatics that for a time you can confuse the authors of these messages.

The reports by Novaya Gazeta have been corroborated by other news organizations, including the Russian-language edition of Radio Free Europe and the Guardian.

Read more:

She broke the story of Chechnyas anti-gay purge. Now, she is fleeing Russia.

Russia labels Jehovahs Witnesses as extremists and tries to ban them

Dont you look away from me!: How a Russian diplomats tirade broke U.N. tradition

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Egyptian American Aya Hijazi and her husband, Mohamed Hassanein, are co-founders of the Belady Foundation. (Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

An Egyptian court on Saturday acquitted a U.S. charity worker who had spent almost three years in pretrial detention for her work with an organization helping street children.

Police arrested Aya Hijazi, her husband and six others in May 2014 on charges of abusing children in her care and engaging in human trafficking, kidnapping, sexual exploitation and torture.

Human rights groups said the charges were fabricated. Hijazis detention came as part of a broader crackdown that has neutered independent civil society in Egypt.

The acquittal comes about two weeks after President Trump met Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi in Washington, the strongmans first visit to the United States since he came to power in a 2013 military coup.

[With visit by Egypts Sissi, Trump administration signals sharp policy shift]

On Saturday, the Cairo Criminal Court dropped all charges against Hijazi and her co-defendants and ordered their release. As Judge Mohamed el-Feqqi read his verdict aloud, the courtroom erupted. Dressed in white prison uniforms, Hijazi and her husband, Mohammed Hassanein, embraced inside the defendants cage as friends and family cried, cheered and chanted for joy.

They were singing, The sun of freedom has risen,  said Tarek Hussein, an activist who attended the hearing.

Hijazi, an Egyptian American, and Hassanein, an Egyptian citizen, are co-founders of the Belady Foundation, which provided services for Cairo street children. Police raided the organizations premises in May 2014, also detaining a cook, an artist who shared the premises and the children present at the time.

A forensic report by the public prosecutor later found no evidence that any of the foundations children had been sexually abused.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and several U.S. lawmakers had spoken out about the case.

[My sister has been jailed in Egypt for 900 days. When will the U.S. help free her?]

Lawyers said Saturday that the states witnesses had offered contradictory and inadequate evidence against the defendants. Even the child and his mother testified at court in defense of Aya and the others, said Taher Abol Nasr, Hijazis attorney, referring to a child whom state prosecutors alleged the group had kidnapped.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians have been detained by security forces or have disappeared since Sissi led a putsch against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in summer 2013.

State officials depict the crackdown as part of a war against Islamist extremists who threaten to destroy the country. Human rights groups and activists say the dragnet has extended to dissidents of all political persuasions.

The Trump administration has proposed massive cuts to U.S. foreign aid, but the White House has said it expects that the $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid to Egypt will continue.

You have a great friend and ally in the United States and in me, Trump told Sissi during their meeting at the Oval Office.

[State Departments 28 percent cuts hit foreign aid, U.N. and climate change]

Nongovernmental organizations in Egypt have faced growing pressure since late 2011, when authorities raided 17 pro-democracy and rights groups, accusing them of joining an international conspiracy against the country.

During Sissis presidency, that pressure has accelerated, and representatives of many of the countrys leading human rights groups have been arrested, subjected to travel bans or had their assets frozen.

Aya Hijazi, her husband, and their colleagues are finally free, but the system that subjected them to a travesty of justice for nearly three years remains unchanged, said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Shouting above the din from his courtroom cage Saturday, Hassanein vowed to continue their charity work. We promised the children they wont return to the streets again, and this promise was hindered for three years. We will return and meet that promise, he said.

Loveluck reported from Beirut.

Read more:

What Trump should ask a brutal dictator as he welcomes him to the White House

Christians flee Sinai Peninsula in fear of Egypts Islamic State affiliate

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster was in Kabul on Sunday for what is the first visit by a Trump administration official to Afghanistan, officials here said, coming just days after U.S. forces dropped a 22,000-pound bomb on militants there and revived debate over the war.

President Trump has said little about the conflict in Afghanistan, spurring concerns among Afghan officials about his administrations commitment to the fight.

More than 8,000 U.S. troops are helping Afghan forces battle the Taliban. The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., has said that he will need thousands of additional troops to better support the international coalitions mission.

On Friday, U.S. forces used the largest conventional bomb in the militarys arsenal  the GBU-43  to hit a stronghold of Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan.

The deployment of such massive weaponry stunned many in Afghanistan and around the world, jolting the publics attention back to what has been a grinding war that began in 2001. The U.S. military has not released its assessment of the bombs impact, but officials here say that more than 90 militants were killed.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster. (Susan Walsh/AP)

Russia and Iran have begun carving out a bigger role in Afghanistan

Senior U.S. officials said last week that a review of the Afghanistan strategy is underway.

The officials, who spoke in a background briefing during a White House visit by the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said there is no specific deadline for the policy review.

Its based on when the president makes a decision, one senior administration official said.

While here, McMaster, who served in Afghanistan for two years, met with Nicholson, senior Afghan officials and other NATO commanders overseeing the mission to advise Afghan security forces.

The leaders discussed regional dynamics and joint efforts to counter terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda and ISIS, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said in a statement, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State.

McMaster also encouraged the government to intensify its reform efforts to strengthen governance in Afghanistan, the embassy said. The office of the Afghan chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, said McMaster praised the government as one of the most reliable allies of the United States, and the Afghan Defense Ministry said the visit marked a new phase of friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

But perhaps the most important task for McMaster is evaluating the progress in the fight against the Taliban insurgency. Taliban militants control more territory than at any other time since 2001, when U.S. troops helped to overthrow the Islamist regime.

The United States has spent about $117 billion on reconstruction in Afghanistan, including $70 billion to support its security forces, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a U.S. government oversight commission. Despite that, desertion rates and civilian casualties are on the rise  and Afghan security forces continue to lose ground.

I have always said that it is better to equip Afghan forces. If we are not equipped better, the situation will not improve, said Sayed Malik Maluk, an official in the policy department of the Afghan Defense Ministry.

Officials here said the government would raise its request for more military aid with McMaster, who is seen as an ally of those pushing for the Trump administration to send more troops. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to make a formal recommendation on troop numbers to the president. But it is unclear how McMasters suggestions will fit into that review.

I have said this repeatedly to foreign commanders, said Maluk, who also served as a corps commander in the volatile Helmand province in the south from 2008 to 2015. We need better and more modern gear, especially for the air force.

[Afghan government disappoints many, but some cling to hope]

McMaster has been critical of deploying small numbers of troops to fight wars, instead advocating for a more comprehensive approach, including the use of development funds and diplomacy. These prescriptions would appear to run counter to the views of the Trump administration, which has scoffed at diplomacy and proposed gutting foreign aid.

In Afghanistan, McMaster has said that the U.S. reliance on militias ended up undermining the government. When serving here from 2010 to 2012, McMaster oversaw the Combined Joint Inter-Agency Task Force Shafafiyat (Transparency), which had a mandate to clean up corruption within the contract system used by the international military forces.

In 2015, he summed up what he saw as one of the key problems.

There was a connection with a criminal underworld and a political upperworld and a political settlement that rested in large measure on criminality and impunity, he told an anticorruption group, Transparency International.

McMaster is a strategic thinker and a good friend of Afghanistan, said Rahmatullah Nabil, former chief of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistans spy agency. He has great knowledge of Afghanistans problems, including corruption and war.

If we only decide to support Afghan troops, it wont work, Nabil said. We also need to focus on political stability.

Sayed Salahuddin and Walid Sharif contributed to this report.

Read more:

Pentagon identifies soldier killed fighting the Islamic State in Afghanistan

Islamic State gunmen assault Kabul hospital disguised as doctors

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Vice President Pence told North Korea on Monday that it should not mistake the resolve of the United States of America to stand with our allies, warning that military action is still a possibility to stop Kim Jong Uns regime from advancing its nuclear and missile programs.

The vice president delivered the message as he stood just a few feet away from the military demarcation line that separates North and South Korea, a line he described as a frontier of freedom.

The people of North Korea, the military of North Korea, should not mistake the resolve of the United States of America to stand with our allies, Pence said, describing links with South Korea as ironclad.

The vice president repeated the Trump administration line that the era of strategic patience is over, referring to the Obama-era policy of putting pressure on North Korea and waiting until it became unbearable.

Pence arrived in South Korea just hours after North Korea launched its latest ballistic missile  which exploded within a few seconds  and amid a weekend of fanfare in North Korea, during which the regime showed off what appeared to be new missiles designed to reach the United States.

North Korea had been expected to do something provocative to mark the most important day on the regimes calendar, the April 15 anniversary of founder Kim Il Sungs birthday.

Although the vice president said that the United States wanted to deal with North Korea through peaceable means, through negotiations, he made it clear that military force would be used if necessary.

[ N. Korea didnt test a nuclear weapon, but it did try to launch another missile ]

All options are on the table as we continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of South Korea for denuclearization of this peninsula and for the long-term prosperity and freedom of the people of South Korea, he said as he stood in a building near the line called Freedom House.

He did not go into any of the blue conference buildings that straddle the line with North Korea. When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited South Korea last month and went into those conference buildings, North Korean soldiers stood on the other side of the windows, a few feet away, taking photos of him.

Pences remarks could reignite fears that military options for dealing with North Korea are still being considered.

The U.S. Navy rerouted an aircraft carrier strike group to the region earlier this month as tensions were building, and President Trump has repeatedly tweeted that the United States will take action to stop North Korea if China, its closest ally, doesnt.

Pence said Monday that he is hopeful that China will do more to solve the problem. We look for them to do more, he said.

[ North Koreas display of new missiles is worrying, analysts say ]

Earlier, a White House foreign policy adviser traveling with Pence said that the United States did not need to take action to reinforce their failure, referring to the missile launch. North Korea has fired numerous medium-range missiles, as Sundays appeared to be, so one more made little difference.

If it had been a nuclear test, then other actions would have been taken from the U.S., the adviser told reporters on the vice presidents plane.

Some analysts were puzzled by this.

Im not sure why failed missile tests, which are still banned by the U.N. Security Council, are considered less provocative, said Kent Boydston, a North Korea-focused research analyst at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The North Koreans know they may fail, but they improve their capabilities each time.

Indeed, while the latest missile exploded soon after launch, experts say North Korea is able to learn from its mistakes and hone its technology. It had repeated failures with other missiles, including the medium-range Musudan and a submarine-launched ballistic missile, before successfully firing both.

North Koreas behavior will be the focus of Pences trip to Asia, with a senior administration official saying the vice president would be discussing the belligerency of North Korea at every stop.

After stopping in Seoul, Pence is to travel to Tokyo; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Sydney.

[ Here are the missiles North Korea just showed off, one by one ]

China on Friday warned that storm clouds were gathering.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the United States and North Korea not to push their recriminations to a point of no return and allow war to break out on the peninsula.

On Sunday, Chinas top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, spoke to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by telephone, and the two exchanged views on the current situation on the Korean Peninsula, Chinas foreign ministry said in a statement.

China said it cut off coal imports from North Korea in February, in accordance with U.N. Security Council sanctions.

The Global Times, an English-language Chinese newspaper that does not necessarily reflect official policy, recommended that Beijing convey a clear message to Pyongyang: that if it conducts a sixth nuclear test, the Chinese government would support stiffer U.N. sanctions to cut off the vast majority of its oil supplies to North Korea.

The U.S. Navy sent a strike group to Korean waters last week, but defense officials have said tougher sanctions and pressure was still the favored approach to dealing with North Korea.

Weve got a range of options, both militarily, diplomatic and others . . . at disposal for the president should he choose to use them, the White House foreign policy adviser told reporters on Air Force Two. But for this particular case [of the failed missile launch] . . . we dont need to expend any resources against that.

Tensions are expected to continue for several weeks at least.

Large-scale annual exercises between the South Korean and U.S. militaries will continue until the end of April, and North Korea will mark another important date  the anniversary of the foundation of the Korean Peoples Army  on April 25.

Military action is strongly opposed in South Korea because it would likely bear the brunt of any retaliation. North Korea is thought to have conventional artillery lined up on its side of the DMZ, trained on Seoul, a city of 10 million people just 30 miles from the border.

The fear of devastation in Seoul  and the risk to the American troops based in and around the South Korean capital  has long restrained U.S. administrations from striking North Korea.

Simon Denyer in Beijing contributed to this report.

Read more:

As North Korea celebrates anniversary, its neighbors are united by jitters

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Gaby Arellano, deputy of the Venezuelan Coalition of Opposition Parties, clashes with national guards during a rally against President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas on April 1. (Marco Bello/Reuters)

Nearly every nation in South America has been jolted by large protests or violent clashes in recent weeks, a continental surge of anti-government anger unlike anything in years.

On the streets of Venezuela, opponents of the left-wing government are squaring off against riot police nearly every day. In Paraguay, angry crowds sacked and firebombed the countrys parliament building after lawmakers tried to alter presidential term limits. Powerful unions in Argentina crippled the countrys transportation networks this month with a general strike.

Whether leftist or right-wing, the governments of Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and even tiny French Guiana are all facing major demonstrations, abysmal approval ratings or both.

The political dynamics vary across the continent, but analysts see common threads. The global commodity boom that ushered millions of South Americans into the middle class has burned out, crimping government finances. And a more politically engaged and plugged-in citizenry has lost patience with rank corruption and the feints of authoritarian leaders who chip away at democratic checks on their power.

In several countries, populist leaders who cast themselves as national saviors and demonized their opponents have turned electoral contests into supercharged life-or-death showdowns, making democratic transitions and ideological compromise all the more difficult.

A man sprayed with tear gas is carried away from protests in Caracas on April 13. (Fernando Llano/AP)

South America is part of a global pattern, marked by a search for fresh and effective political leadership in agitated and often polarized societies, said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank, noting significant protests recently in South Africa, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

[Venezuelas opposition holds its biggest protests in years. Will they change anything?]

That South America is more unstable than it has been in many years shouldnt come as a surprise either, Shifter said, given the level of economic malaise across the continent. The region has a strong tradition of protest that tends to come in waves  and is particularly pronounced when long-standing deficiencies are revealed, he said.

Those shortcomings were a lot easier to gloss over when global prices for oil, iron ore and the regions other export commodities were high, leaving treasuries flush. Spending the money freely was a surefire way for populist leaders to stay in power.

Led by Venezuelas Hugo Chavez, a generation of charismatic left-wing leaders dominated elections through the first decade of the millennium, including Brazils Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ecuadors Rafael Correa and the Argentine power couple of Nestor Kirchner and his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who succeeded him.

With big personalities and an appeal to nationalism, they won support by conspicuously rejecting neoliberal policy nostrums such as reducing the size of government and privatizing state-owned industries. Those leaders also tapped into frustration with state institutions seen as too servile to the wealthy, but in many instances old elites were replaced by new ones with close ties to the government, creating fresh resentment.

Even the most successful populists have also run into problems at times of leadership change, despite electoral wins that kept their parties in power. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has struggled badly in the shadow of Chavez. Lenin Moreno, who narrowly won Ecuadors presidential election this month, ran on a campaign of continuing Correas leftist policies. But Luis Verdesoto, a political analyst in Quito, said Moreno will take office as a weakened figure lacking a strong coalition.

Populist leaders have always struggled to transfer votes, Verdesoto said.

Ecuadors opposition continues to reject its loss and protest in the streets. Election authorities have agreed to a partial recount. International observers declared the vote fair, but the standoff has left the country split.

[A kinder, gentler leftist aims to bridge angry divisions after Ecuador win]

Venezuela remains the regions most explosive crisis. The latest protests erupted after its high court  packed with judges loyal to Maduro  tried to strip the countrys opposition-controlled legislature of its authority last month.

At least five people have been killed since then in the countrys most sustained anti-government protests in three years. Maduros opponents are demanding new elections, a release of political prisoners and respect for democratic norms.

The narrative [of populist leaders] was that the rich had always controlled institutions and the law for their own benefit, and the proposal was: Now we will take over the institutions and use them for the common good, said Gabriela Calderon, a Latin America analyst at the Cato Institute in Washington.

But the reality turned out to be more of the same, only with different faces at the helm, Calderon said. Institutions and laws are still being used to project rather than to limit power, and to protect the powerful from those who would challenge them.

When lawmakers in Paraguay last month passed a constitutional amendment allowing the countrys conservative president, Horacio Cartes, to run for a second term, anti-government crowds stormed the parliament building and set it ablaze. They saw the move as a power grab in a country where democracy returned in 1993 after four decades of military rule.

In Argentina, center-right businessman Mauricio Macri won Argentinas presidency in late 2015 running largely as an anti-populist. But the country remains polarized, and Macri has faced crippling strikes led by activists and unions loyal to Fernandez.

Even nations such as Chile and Colombia that dont fit the populist trend have seen large street protests this month against incumbents weakened by low approval ratings and anemic growth.

The corruption scandals nagging at nearly every government in South America have also brought people into the streets. The true legacy of several of the regions big-spending leaders is just beginning to come to light, but the governments of Lula, Chavez and others are accused of deepening the corruption they claimed to be cleaning up.

The giant Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht won billions of dollars worth of contracts across Latin America to build bridges, ports and other public works projects, but is now at the center of Brazils sprawling Car Wash investigation, the biggest bribery scandal in the countrys history.

[How a scandal in Brazil is now roiling other Latin American countries]

Odebrecht paid nearly $800 million in bribes, according to prosecutors in Brazil, the United States and Switzerland. Dozens of its former executives have provided plea-bargain testimony alleging illegal payouts to politicians, including top members of President Michel Temers cabinet. Temers approval rating hovers around 10 percent, and the latest in a series of major anti-corruption protests occurred in late March.

Anger over corruption is really the one thing that unites Latin Americans right now, said Brian Winter, editor of the Americas Quarterly journal. Its partly a reaction to the economic downturn, he said, but its also the product of a middle class that has grown by 50 million people over the last decade.

Those families are paying taxes now, and they care about good governance, added Winter, and they are smart enough to know thats impossible unless the old way of doing politics in Latin America changes.

Read more

How Brazil, the darling of the developing world, came undone

While Trump promotes coal, other countries are turning to cheap sun power

Brazil swings to the right, setting the stage for a Trump-like leader

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed victory Sunday in a referendum that would grant him vast new powers as the countrys unrivaled head of state, strengthening his influence over the judiciary and his authority over the parliament and extending his divisive tenure in office.

Unofficial vote tallies published by the state news agency showed that 51 percent of voters approved a set of constitutional changes that would transform Turkeys system of government from a parliamentary to a presidential system. The preliminary result, if confirmed, would cap a dramatic ascent for the populist Erdogan, a onetime mayor of Istanbul whose governance, mastery of politics and bare-knuckles approach to adversaries have handed him and his Islamist Justice and Development Party, or AKP, a string of election wins since 2002.

But the narrow margin of victory reflected Turkeys deepening polarization after a failed coup last summer and the anguished arguments over measures that Erdogans critics said firmly entrenched one-man rule. Turkeys main opposition party quickly contested the result of the vote, claiming that up to 2.5 million ballots were invalid and that some election monitors had been removed from polling stations.

Protests were reported in districts of Istanbul and elsewhere Sunday night against a decision by the election board to accept ballots in envelopes lacking official stamps. Vote tallies indicated the referendum had been defeated in Turkeys three largest cities.

[How Erdogan has reshaped Turkey, as told by readers]

1 of 31 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  See photos of the scene as Turkey votes on a tightly-contested referendum View Photos Turkeys referendum on expanding the powers of its president will determine the future course of the key NATO member and EU hopeful. Caption The referendum on expanding the powers of its president will determine the future course of the key NATO member and E.U. hopeful. The president claimed victory, but opponents alleged fraud. April17, 2017 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is greeted by his supporters as he leaves Esenboga Airport in a bus in Ankara,Turkey. Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

Speaking to supporters in Istanbul late Sunday night, Erdogan suggested that criticism of the balloting was unnecessary, adding that unofficial tallies showed that 25 million citizens had voted for the measures. Turkey has spoken its mind, he said.

The changes, he added, would substantially transform Turkeys government, something Erdogans supporters say is long overdue and necessary for the countrys stability.

Regardless of whether they cast a yes vote or a no vote, the president said, I would like to thank all our citizens.

The changes put to the people Sunday would allow Erdogan, who came to power as prime minister in 2003, to run for reelection in 2019 and serve two five-year terms  cementing, in the minds of many here, his status as the most consequential leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic.

Ongoing conflicts in the Middle East have made Erdogan a pivotal partner of Western nations in recent years. That is especially true of the United States, which is leading a military coalition to defeat the Islamic State militant group across Turkeys borders in Iraq and Syria. Turkey also hosts more than 3 million refugees from Syria and has struck a deal with European nations to prevent the refugees from traveling to Europe.

Domestic turmoil, though, has made Turkey an unpredictable ally. A failed coup last summer killed more than 250 people and set off a feverish government purge of its enemies in state institutions  as well as a hunt by Turkeys government for alleged coup participants who had fled abroad, including to Europe.

Turkey has accused Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States, of directing the coup through his vast network of supporters in Turkey. Erdogans government has repeatedly requested Gulens extradition from the United States, causing friction in the relationship.

(The Washington Post)

Turkeys rekindled war with Kurdish militants has also stoked tensions with the United States. Erdogan has objected to American support for Syrian Kurdish forces that Turkey regards as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which is classified as a terrorist group by Ankara and Washington.

Erdogans relatively measured appeal for unity Sunday was in sharp contrast to the tenor of a referendum campaign that saw the government associating its political opponents with terrorists and that further raised tensions with Turkeys foreign allies.

During the campaign, Erdogan pursued a fight with several European allies, including Germany and the Netherlands. The cause, ostensibly, was a ban on Turkish officials campaigning for votes among Turkish expatriates in Europe. Erdogan used the squabble to maximum effect, deriding German and Dutch leaders as Nazis in a series of broadsides that whipped up nationalist support at home.

Terrorist attacks directed at Turkey by Kurdish militants and the Islamic State have kept the country under a state of emergency since the coup. That, along with a crackdown on critical journalists, opposition politicians and other civil society figures, raised questions about whether the referendum could be held under such circumstances.

A leading opposition politician from the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, or HDP, was arrested in November, denying the No campaign one of its most visible and charismatic voices. As independent media outlets were shuttered or their executives dragged into court, the AKPs campaign for Evet, or Yes, dominated Turkeys airwaves and its public spaces.

The playing field was never level, said Semih Idiz, a Turkish political analyst and columnist who writes for the al-Monitor news site. All the states infrastructure and funds went to promote the yes vote, he said.

The claims of irregularities by opposition parties, along with the split vote, meant we are going to have a tense period of domestic debate, unless there is some soul-searching on the part of the government and the presidency, he said.

[Heres why Turkish opposition parties are contesting the referendum results]

Erdogans surrogates have argued that the constitutional changes will make him more accountable, not less. But independent analysts have found that the proposed changes eliminate many constraints on the presidents authority.

A recent report by scholars at the Brookings Institution concluded that the parliaments traditional function as a check-and-balance mechanism on the executive would be reduced. One of the proposed changes would elevate the president above legislative scrutiny  a major and dramatic break from past practice, the authors wrote.

Erdogans most loyal supporters insisted that the referendum vote went beyond the details of the changes and amounted to a verdict on the presidents record. His coalition included his core constituency of conservative Muslims who have delivered unflinching support to Erdogan over the years, regarding him as a champion of their concerns. He also successfully courted a segment of a Turkish nationalist party whose members helped propel the constitutional amendments through the parliament.

At a polling station in Kasimpasa, the Istanbul neighborhood where Erdogan grew up, Ahmet Yeniad, a 40-year-old auto repairman, said Sunday that the choice of how to vote had been a simple matter for him. The constitution, as it was written, was an obstacle to Turkey moving forward, he said. We are certain about our leader, he added.

No voters cited fear of growing autocracy and the governments clampdown since the failed coup. In the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, a focal point of the states war with the PKK that is now heavily patrolled by Turkish security forces, Veysi Adenli, 46, said he viewed his decision to reject the referendum as a vote for peace.

I want everyone to be able to share their opinions and political views in this country. We do not want to be thrown in jail, he said. He was particularly angry, he said, about the arrests of Kurdish politicians, an attack on Turkeys democracy.

We elected them, he said. We elected them with our free will.

An employee of The Washington Post reported from Diyarbakir, Turkey.

Read more:

Turkey arrests pro-Kurdish lawmakers as crackdown widens

Handcuffs and hair-pulling: Turkeys parliament approves new powers for president

Turkish battle over executive presidency prompts tensions abroad

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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It was March 2020, and the world was closing down as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. At first, the news of...
10-day Nepal, China joint army drill starts today

The first ever Nepal-China joint military drill Sagarmatha Friendship-2017 begins at Nepal Armys Para Training School Maharajgunj on Sunday.
A barber in Florida was killed by a customer for refusing to give a $2 haircut. (Photo: Getty Images)

A tragic crime occurred this week in Florida after a barber was slain by a patron for refusing to cut the persons hair for less than the required rate. Witnesses say the man was angered that the barber and shop owner refused to cut his hair for $2 and returned to the business brandishing a handgun.

The shooting took place in Mount Dora, northwest of Orlando. As reported by the Orlando Sentinel, a man entered a barber shop on Old Highway 441 and asked for a haircut at a heavily discounted rate. When he was refused, the angry patron came back to the store and opened fire.

The unidentified victim was struck in the head and succumbed to the wounds, while customers in the shop subdued the unnamed gunman and restrained him until police arrived at the scene. The weapon allegedly used in the killing was found at the scene, and the attacker was taken to the Orlando Regional Medical Center. The nature of his injuries was not revealed.



A reporter for local news outlet WPXI spoke to eyewitnesses, who said the gunman was seriously injured. Witnesses said the victim was real nice and real kind and demanded that the gunman be brought to justice.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.
Two North Carolina sisters were killed after a college student driving the wrong way on the freeway crashed into their car in Arizona early Friday morning.

Karli Arlene Richardson, 20, and her sister Kelsey Mae Richardson, 18, died after 22-year-old Keaton Allison hit them at a speed of 80 mph on Interstate 17, authorities said.

Read: Heroic 5-Year-Old Pulls His 2-Year-Old Brother From Wreck That Killed Their Father

Police said Allison drove the wrong way on the freeway for five to six miles before hitting the sisters. He was also pronounced dead at the scene.

Kelsey, who attended Western Carolina University, was visiting her big sister over the weekend, according to reports. The women were headed to the Grand Canyon to watch the sunrise when the crash happened, according to WBTV.

Karli attended Grand Canyon University, as did Allison.

Cathryn and Gary Hocking, Karli and Kelsey's parents, told WBTV that the reality of what happened hasn't hit them yet.

"I know my children are in heaven, but I do wish they were still here with me," their mother said.

Read: Navy Man Kills 4 in Horrific Plunge From San Diego Bridge in Suspected DUI: Cops

In a statement posted to Facebook, Grand Canyon University said: It is with great sorrow and heavy hearts that we share the news that three people, including two students from Grand Canyon University, were killed in a wrong-way driver accident last night on Interstate 17. As a close-knit community of students, faculty and staff, please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers during this tragic time.

Watch: Driver Steals Police Cruiser After Killing 5 Teens With His Car: Cops

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A 5-year-old boy died Friday after being crushed to death by a revolving restaurant in Atlanta.

The incident occurred at the Sun Dial, a 73-story restaurant at the top of Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel that rotates full circle, offering 360-degree views of the city, police said, USA Today reports.

The child and his family were visiting from Charlotte and had gone to the restaurant for lunch, Atlanta Police Department spokesman Warren Pickard said, according to USA Today. The boy wandered 4 to 5 feet away from his parents table when he became entrapped between a rotating portion of the floor and a wall, a space of about 4 to 5 inches, Pickard said.

We simply think he lost sight of his parents and panicked and found himself in that situation, Pickard said, according to USA Today. A small child doesnt know what to do in those moments, and it crushed his little small body.

Staff and dining guests immediately tried to give the child first aid, Pickard said. They were moving furniture, they were pulling chairs - chairs that were bolted to the floor - they were pulling them up to try to get the child out, he explained.

The hotel manager for the Westin Peachtree Plaza, George Reed, said in a statement that the hotel will continue working with authorities and assist in them in investigation, according to USA Today.

Words cannot express the depths of our sorrow. Our thoughts remain with the family, he said.

This article was originally published on TIME.com
There are dozens of moons in Earths solar system, but not one of them is the same as the next. And because there is so much variety, some of these moons are more important than others, especially for people who are trying to find aliens.

enceladus-afar

Photo: NASA

Enceladus

NASAs Cassini spacecraft has learned a lot while observing Enceladus, as well as its parent planet Saturn and Saturns other moons. But Enceladus is special because the space agency recently announced it might be hosting alien life in an ocean beneath its icy surface. Below the surface there is also a source of heat and, scientists have just discovered, hydrogen that could serve as a source of energy to certain life forms.

We dont have a spacecraft on this moons surface yet, but NASA is preparing for such a scenario. Its Jet Propulsion Laboratory is working on a fleet of robots specifically geared toward crawling over and cutting into the thick surfaces of ice on bodies such as Enceladus. Those robots have tools such as heated prongs to melt ice, drills to dig down, buzz saws to power through tough blocks and catapults to send miniprobes out for more samples.

Read: Saturns Moon Atlas Looks Like a Flying Saucer

europa-surface

Photo: NASA

Europa

Scientists suspect Europa, a moon of Jupiter, has conditions similar to Enceladus, so it could also be harboring extraterrestrial life, even if only microbes. A probe that could launch in the next decade could make this idea more definitive, and some of the new ice-trekking robotic technology NASA is developing could be aboard.

phobos-color

Photo: NASA

Phobos

This oblong moon of Mars, larger and closer to the Red Planet than its only companion Deimos, is crucial because of its position around Earths closest planetary neighbor  a NASA spacecraft narrowly avoided crashing into it earlier this year  and because it is a possible target for a space probe of its own. Officials from France and Japan recently announced those two countries are considering working together to land a craft on Phobos and collect samples. The samples would be the first from a moon other than Earths to be brought back. And because Mars is such a large focus for scientists looking for alien life in the solar system, Phobos would represent one more way to learn more about that planet: A spacecraft settled on Phobos, which orbits Mars three times a day, would have a great vantage point.

Story continues

titan-halo

Photo: NASA

Titan

The largest moon of Saturn is partly on this list because it is electric. Scientists recently found grains of sand on Titans surface are so light, a little breeze makes them rub together enough  causing friction  to produce a ton of static electricity. Enough static electricity, in fact, that if you were to build a sand castle on Titan, you would not even need any water; the particles would stick together on their own for weeks.

Thats cool on its own, but Titan is also a solid candidate for harboring extraterrestrial life because, as NASA notes, it is the only moon in our solar system that has clouds and a dense atmosphere, mostly nitrogen and methane, and the only place we know of where liquid flows on its surface in a way that looks like Earth, even if that liquid is ethane and methane rather than water. These liquids form clouds from which the liquid gases sometimes rain from the sky as water does on Earth.

moon-earth

Photo: NASA

The Moon

What would a list of moons be without Earths only natural satellite? At a most basic level of importance, any observer can look up at the night sky  or sometimes the daytime sky  and see it in all its glory. The gravitational pull between Earth and the Moon influences the movement of ocean water, and the Moon played a key role in motivating humans to invent the technology to travel through space. Space science would not be where it is today without our beloved Moon.

And its not just a boring, dead rock. The Moon holds all sorts of mysteries to help us learn more about our universe. For example, scientists recently solved a mystery of why an iconic crater looks so much younger than the area around it: a special kind of foamy lava that erupted when the Moons volcanic activity was coming to an end billions of years ago.

See also:

This Asteroid Is Coming for Earth

New NASA Images Show Earths Night Lights

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With 100 million new internet users every year, Amazon is betting big on India, but a major new investment in homegrown rival Flipkart means the battle to dominate the fast-growing e-commerce market is set to heat up.

Flipkart announced this week that top international companies including Microsoft, eBay and China's Tencent had pledged investments totalling $1.4 billion, among the largest sums ever raised by an Indian start-up.

The 10-year-old e-commerce company needs all the help it can get to compete with Amazon after the Seattle-based giant made India's 1.25 billion inhabitants a global strategic priority, earmarking $5 billion in investment funds.

"They need to have a substantial amount of cash in order to fight in the market with Amazon," said Jaideep Mehta, South Asia director at the International Data Corporation.

Every three seconds, an Indian connects to the internet for the first time, according to Google.

One in three Indians currently uses the internet, but the number is forecast to swell by 300 million by 2020, mainly due to growing smartphone use.

McKinsey analyst Ashish Tuteja said 70 percent of online sales in India were done on a smartphone.

"It's very much a mobile-first market," he told AFP.

Projections for the size of the market by 2020 differ wildly, ranging from $50 billion to $120 billion.

But all agree that it will be worth considerably more than the current $15 billion, thanks to an expanding middle class and rapidly growing internet use.

Amazon only opened its doors in India in 2013, but quickly overtook local start-up Snapdeal to become the second-biggest player.

E-retailers in India typically adopt a "marketplace" structure, acting as platforms that connect buyers and sellers rather than stocking their own products.

Amazon marketed its services aggressively, touring markets around the country with its "chai carts" to sell the idea of e-commerce to small traders over a cup of tea.

Story continues

Under another initiative dubbed "Feet-on-Street", an Amazon employee would be sent to photograph their products and help them to sign up online.

- Alibaba ambush -

Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal are now engaged in a price war, with each Indian festival an occasion for aggressive cuts.

"At some point, they will have to make money," said Mehta -- something experts say will necessitate consolidation of the sector.

That process has already begun, with Flipkart absorbing two rival portals, Myntra and Jabong. According to Indian media, a deal for Flipkart to buy Snapdeal is next.

India also represents a chance for a rematch after Amazon lost out to Alibaba in China. Although currently more focused on Southeast Asia, billionaire Jack Ma's group has made no secret of its interest in India.

The Chinese giant has taken a stake in Indian online payments company Paytm and has ambitions to develop as an online sales platform in its own right.

For Amazon, India is the "last big frontier", said Mehta.

"Amazon is a 100-billion-dollars-plus retailer. To keep driving growth, they need to keep leadership positions in large markets outside the US," he said.

"They will continue to be very committed."
A dinosaur whose remains were excavated over a period of three decades between 1975 and 2005 has finally been christened. As is evident from its name, Moabosaurus utahensis was found in the vicinity of Moah  Utah's "gold mine for dinosaur bones."

"Were honoring the city of Moab and the State of Utah because they were so supportive of our excavation efforts over the decades its taken us to pull the animal out of the ground," Brooks Britt, a professor of geology at Utah's Brigham Young University and lead author of a paper describing the discovery, said in a statement.

The 32-foot-long herbivore belongs to a group of herbivorous dinosaurs known as sauropods  a group that includes giants like the Brontosaurus. What distinguishes it from its cousin is the age it existed in. The fossil remains show that Moabosaurus lived about 125 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period when the global diversity of sauropods had already dropped.

dinosaur

Photo: Jaren Wilkey/BYU

Analysis of the remains suggests Moabosaurus was closely related to sauropods like Euhelopus and Brachiosaurus.

"It is clear that Moabosaurus can be readily differentiated from other North American Early Cretaceous sauropods, as well as from the Late Jurassic Camarasaurus. We now compare Moabosaurus to two roughly contemporaneous taxa that share a number of similarities, Turiasaurus of Spain and Tendaguria of Tanzania," the researchers wrote in the study. "We suspect that Tendaguria is closely allied with Moabosaurus."

The remains were found scattered among over 5,500 fossils excavated from the Dalton Wells Quarry, which contains dinosaurs of all sizes and ages  something that paleontologists say is indicative of a massive die-off event.

"Were lucky to get anything out of this site, Britt said in the statement. "Most bones we find are fragmentary, so only a small percentage of them are usable. And thats why it took so long to get this animal put together: we had to collect huge numbers of bones in order to get enough that were complete."

Story continues

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When Capt. James Jim Lovell and his fellow NASA astronauts strapped in for the Apollo 13 mission, they were excited about the prospect of putting their hours of preparation, training and experience to work exploring the Fra Mauro area of the Moon. Little did they know 2 1/2 days later, the goal of the mission would change from a moon landing to survival.

The crew, comprised of Lovell, John Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 11, 1970. Everything was going so well that two days into the trip, NASAs Joe Kerwin, a capsule communicator at Mission Control, said: The spacecraft is in real good shape as far as we are concerned. We're bored to tears down here."

But they wouldnt be bored for much longer.

Well, the first time we had the explosion we didnt know what the situation was. We found out the oxygen was escaping and we didnt have much time, Lovell told International Business Times.

Read: NASA Photos: 13 Amazing Images From The First Moon Landing

james

Photo: NASA

An oxygen tank exploded and took out two of three vital fuel cells in the process. The only place for the Apollo 13 astronauts to go was the lunar module, designed to carry just two men to the surface of the Moon, the command module had to be shut down and preserved for re-entry, NASA said.

But none of them panicked.

With the training I had, I thought it was possible to handle the problem, and I think we had a good chance, Lovell said. He was no stranger to space or the challenges that come with it. The Apollo 13 mission was the former Navy test pilots fourth NASA mission. He had previously completed two Gemini missions and Apollo 8, which was the first time a crewed rocket left Earths orbit.

The module designed for two men and to last only two days ended up holding three men for four days. Believe it or not those four days were pretty busy. We had things to do to overcome one problem after another, Lovell said.

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They had to figure out how to distribute power, oxygen, water for consuming and for cooling the craft, food and maybe their biggest challenge: getting carbon dioxide out of the module. We had to overcome each crisis one by one but we finally managed to do it, Lovell told IBT.

During the four days a key concern was getting the vessel on track to make it back to Earth. Mission Control had to make hurried calculations and instruct the astronauts on the necessary controlled burns theyd need to conduct. Luckily the crew transferred the guidance mechanism from the command module to the lunar module, Lovell said. We did that with 15 minutes to spare.

apollo 13 track

Photo: NASA

With help from mission control, Lovell oriented the lunar module so it was aligned using the Sun as a navigation star, this was key to cutting the time it took to return to Earth. Once on track, the crew re-entered the command module, which Mission Control had made plans to restart after it spent days in cold sleep. After it was up and running and the astronauts were in it, they finally shed the damaged service module and got ready for re-entry.

[When we] landed in the Pacific and water came over the window and I realized I wasnt gonna continue to sink, I felt relieved we were finally able to get back safely, Lovell said.

Jim Lovell

Photo: NASA

That was Lovell's final trip with NASA. Even though he made it to the Moon but never walked on it, he said he never asked for another trip because there were so many astronauts waiting for a turn. I didnt feel it would be fair to ask for other flights.

After his space exploration days were over, he and a friend got together to write a book on the experience years later. Their publisher suggested they bring it to movie production companies. Thats when the story got picked up and eventually turned into the hit film Apollo 13.

Lovell said the book and the movie are both highly accurate. Theres nothing in the book or the movie that was exaggerated or not true, he said. Even Tom Hanks portrayal of him was well done, he said. It is kind of strange to see yourself on screen portrayed by someone else, but I have all the admiration for Tom Hanks. He did an excellent job."

When people went to see the movie, they already knew the outcome, and he was able to keep people on the edge of their seat, Lovell said of the film director Ron Howard.

Monday marks the 47th anniversary of the dramatic return home. NASA held an event in 2015 on the 45th anniversary for the astronauts and those who helped guide them home in 1970.

Lovell who recently celebrated his 89th birthday said he still talks to Fred Haise. Unfortunately, Jack Swigert, the third member, died way back in '83, so we didnt have much chance to be with him. Fred and I still talk, we dont live near each other, but we still talk, Lovell said. We get together and talk about old times.

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The Easter Bunny can be a savage creature.

SEE ALSO: Sean Spicer was once a terrifying White House Easter Bunny

During today's presidential mascot race at the Washington Nationals game, the Easter Bunny made what's becoming a traditional appearance to lay the smack down on Teddy Roosevelt.

BAH GAWD HE'S BROKEN IN HALF! pic.twitter.com/MVgQzfkvbT  Washington Nationals (@Nationals) April 16, 2017

Check it out from a different angle.

@teddy26nats meets the Easter Bunny. Oh Teddy. #Nats A post shared by Scott Ableman (@letteddywin) on Apr 16, 2017 at 12:02pm PDT

Brutal. Just brutal.

During fourth inning of each Nationals' home game, the team holds a mascot race involving a group of notable presidents including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt.

And the world's most famous rabbit has been doing this thing for a few years now.

For instance, here's 2014 when the Bunny went for Teddy and took out even more in an apparent deal with William Taft (one of several mascots who have been used in the past by the team).

And in 2015, the Bunny again took out Teddy but only after making sure he made his presence known elsewhere.

"@Cut4: Let's all watch Teddy Roosevelt get taken out by the Easter bunny: http://t.co/M530yKHxX0 pic.twitter.com/8IfVPHXGjo" Lmao  Anthony Garcia (@AnthonyG03) April 7, 2015

The presidents have long had plenty of fun at the Nationals games, including a sword fight and a cameo from VEEP's Selena Meyer.

No word if the savage bunny was actually Sean Spicer in disguise.

WATCH: 45 thoughts I had while watching 'The Fast and the Furious' for the first time
One of the best-known faces on the internet this year stepped out to cast his vote in Turkeys referendum Sunday. Nusret Gokce, better known as Salt Bae, took out some time to click pictures with fans before heading to the ballot box.

The Turkish chef, who owns a small steakhouse chain called Nusr-Et, shared a picture of himself as he cast his ballot in the signature salt bae fashion. The post was captioned in Turkish, but loosely translated to process complete.

In the background, a polling official could be seen looking amused as Salt Bae voted in his internet-famous salt drizzling pose. The referendum, if approved, will result in a major boost to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans power.

Read: Who Is Salt Bae, All You Need To Know About Viral Internet Sensation

Earlier this year, a video of the chef seasoning his steak with salt went viral, earning him the tag of Salt Bae. Even though the term "bae" is often used as a short form for baby or babe, it is also an acronym for before anyone else.

Watch the video that received almost 14 million views and led to Gokce being called Salt Bae, essentially salt before anyone else, below.

Gokce, who has over six million followers on social media, has been making the most of his newfound stardom by expanding his restaurant chain to the United States and the United Kingdom, with eateries in New York City and London.

When Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio visited Salt Baes restaurant in Dubai, Gokce posted a picture with The Revenant star in his typical pose. The picture garnered almost 900,000 likes on Instagram.

DiCaprio was not the only big Hollywood name to be enamored by Salt Bae and fellow Oscar winner Ben Affleck, along with Grammy winner Rihanna, were spotted wearing Salt Bae shirts.

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22-km electric fence erected in Bardiya

Around 22 km of electric fencing work has been completed in the Nepal-India border area of Bardiya district under the initiatives of locals of Rajapur Municipality and Geruwa Village Council.
Associated Press

There has already been two coaching changes halfway through the NFL season with Indianapolis firing Frank Reich this week four weeks after Carolina did the same to Matt Rhule. The NFL had a record-tying 10 coaching changes last offseason and three-quarters of the teams have changed head coaches at least once in the past five years. Here's a look at some coaches who figure to be on the hot seat if things don't turn around in the second half of the season and some assistants who could be in line for head coaching jobs.
You may hate him or love him, but Jimmy McGills (Bob Odenkirk) older brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), is almost always right about him. In Better Call Saul Season 3 so far, the straight-laced attorney recorded Jimmy/Saul Goodman confessing to committing a crime. While it may be inadmissible in court, Chuck has a plan to use it against him.

Ever the strategist, Chuck is always a thorn on Jimmys side. While his older brother worked extremely hard to become the revered lawyer he is today, Jimmy wants to achieve the same level of success without doing the hard work. And no matter how much you love Jimmy, who will soon become a criminal lawyer that will represent Walter White (Bryan Cranston), he is right.

McKean, who dropped by at a Los Pollos Hermanos pop-up restaurant in New York City to promote Season 3 of the AMC series, knows this. You can disagree with him [Chuck], you can root for Jimmy all you want, but Chuck has his point, the 69-year-old actor told TVGuide when he visited the restaurant, If you removed the revenge element from his psyche, which is fairly large, I think youd actually find a human being in there.

READ: What will happen in Better Call Saul Season 3, episode 2?

However, while Chuck remains an important part of the Better Call Saul universe, McKean warned fans not to get too attached to his character. But dont get too attached! Hmm. Is Chuck going to be in some trouble? He does suffer from a psychological problem  a sensitivity to all devices powered by electricity and batteries.

Of course, Jimmys sibling is one of the few people preventing him from becoming Saul. We know that, eventually, Odenkirks character transforms into the law-breaking attorney, so it makes sense to assume that, at some point, Chuck will ultimately fade into the background in his lifes story.

Better Call Saul airs Mondays at 10 p.m. EDT on AMC.

Better Call Saul

Photo: Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

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London (AFP) - The government said it was "concerned" by reports that North Korea conducted a missile test on Sunday, which the US Defence Department said blew up almost immediately.

The Foreign Office said it was "concerned by reports of a missile test by North Korea" and was "monitoring the situation closely".

The failed missile came the day after Pyongyang publicly showcased its ballistic arsenal at a giant military parade.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson earlier urged North Korea to abide by UN resolutions and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

"We have been here before but continue to monitor the situation carefully," Johnson said in a statement.

"We stand alongside our international partners in making clear that North Korea must adhere to UN resolutions designed to secure peace and stability in the region and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons."

The nuclear-armed state is under United Nations sanctions over its weapons programmes.

North Korea's weapons of war rolled through Pyongyang on Saturday and a senior figure in the regime said it could "beat down enemies with the power of nuclear justice", as leader Kim Jong-Un mounted a spectacular show of strength.

Ostensibly Saturday's event was to mark the 105th anniversary of the North's founder Kim Il-Sung's birth.

But it was also intended to send an unmistakable message to Washington about the isolated country's military might.

Tensions over North Korea's nuclear ambitions are stretched to the limit, with US President Donald Trump deploying an aircraft carrier battle group to the region.
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey on Sunday votes in a landmark referendum on a new constitution that would grant President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expanded powers.

While critics say the move is part of a grab by Erdogan for one-man rule, supporters say it will simply put Turkey in line with France and the United States and is needed for efficient government.

The current constitution was adopted in 1982 after the 1980 military coup.

Erdogan has denounced as "lies" claims by opponents that parliament would be neutralised and the judiciary would come under his political authority.

What would change under the proposed 18-article constitution for the nation of 79 million people?

- More powers for Erdogan -

Under the new constitution, the president would have strengthened executive powers to directly appoint top public officials including ministers.

The president would also be able to assign one or several vice presidents. The office and position of prime minister, currently held by Binali Yildirim, would be scrapped.

The changes would implement a shake-up in the judiciary, which Erdogan has accused of being influenced by supporters of his ally-turned-foe, the Pennsylvania-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen is blamed for the July failed coup but denies the government's accusations.

The president and parliament would together be able to choose four members of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), a key judicial council that appoints and removes personnel in the judiciary.

Parliament would choose seven members on its own in what would be renamed the Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK).

Military courts, which have convicted officers and even sentenced former prime minister Adnan Menderes to death following the 1960 coup, would in the future not be allowed.

- Longer state of emergency -

Under the proposed constitution, a state of emergency would be imposed in the event of an "uprising against the homeland" or "acts of violence which put the nation in... danger of being divided".

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The president would decide whether or not to impose a state of emergency and then present it to the parliament.

Initially the emergency would last six months -- as opposed to three now -- then it could be extended by parliament after a presidential request for four months at a time.

Turkey has twice extended the current state of emergency imposed after the failed July 15 coup.

- Erdogan can rejoin AKP -

The number of members of the Turkish parliament would rise from 550 to 600. The minimum age limit for MPs would also be lowered from 25 to 18.

Legislative elections would take place once every five years -- instead of four -- and on the same day as the presidential elections.

The parliament would still have power to enact, modify and remove legislation. If the president were accused or suspected of a crime, then parliament could request an investigation.

The president will also have to be a Turkish citizen at least 40 years old, and can be a member of a political party.

Currently the president must be impartial and without party favour, although opponents have accused Erdogan of blatantly flouting this.

The change would again allow Erdogan to become leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) that he co-founded.

- Erdogan in power to 2029? -

Erdogan was elected president in August 2014 after over a decade as prime minister, in the first ever direct elections for a Turkish head of state.

The proposed constitution states that the next presidential and parliamentary elections are to be held simultaneously on November 3, 2019.

If he won, the president would have a five-year term with a maximum of two mandates.

So the changes would mean that Erdogan could stay in power for another two terms until 2029.
ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan told crowds of flag-waving supporters on Sunday that Turkey could hold another referendum on reinstating the death penalty, as he claimed victory in a vote that will hand him sweeping new powers. Addressing crowds in Istanbul, Erdogan said he would "immediately" discuss the issue of bringing back the death penalty with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and the leader of the nationalist opposition. Such a move would spell the end of Turkey's accession talks with the European Union. Erdogan also said votes in favor of constitutional changes to replace Turkey's parliamentary system with an executive presidency stood at 51.5 percent. He said everyone should respect the nation's decision, and added Turkey would "shift gears" in the coming period. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Nick Tattersall)
BOULDER, Colo. (AP)  A home in the foothills northwest of Denver where three people were found slain was specifically targeted, investigators said Sunday.

Deputies conducting a welfare check at the request of a worried acquaintance found two men and a woman dead in the house Saturday, and investigators quickly ruled out murder-suicide as a possibility.

Cmdr. Mike Wagner with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office said someone targeted the home and there is no general threat to the public. No information about a suspect or a possible motive has been released.

On Sunday evening, the Boulder County Coroner's Office identified the three people found slain as Wallace White, 54, of Golden, Colorado; Kelly Sloat-White, 56, also of Golden; and Emory Fraker, 39, of Broomfield, Colorado.

Investigators earlier said the bodies showed signs of trauma.

The home southwest of Boulder is set about 100 feet back from the road in a remote and wooded area. No immediate neighboring homes are within view.

Deputies initially found two bodies inside the home and backed out so they could secure a search warrant, The Boulder Daily Camera reported (https://goo.gl/gDzN3T ). The investigation also was slowed because investigators found evidence of drugs in the house and called for a hazardous materials team to respond.

Neighbor Todd Kreutzian told the newspaper he did not know the people in the house well, but they were pleasant during the few times he interacted with them.

"They were nice and very friendly," he said. "There was certainly nothing about them that was more odd, strange or threatening than anyone else around here. They were riding their side-by-side ATV and walking their dogs."
DAKAR (Reuters) - Congo's government on Saturday said it had returned the body of a tribal leader whose death last year triggered a conflict in Kasai Central province that has killed more than 400 people. The return of the body of Kamuina Nsapu - the leader of a tribal militia by the same name - has been one of its key demands during a brutal conflict that started last July and worsened when Congolese forces killed Nsapu the following month. In a statement, interior ministry spokesman Louis d'Or Balekalayi also said the government would recognize his successor Jacques Kabeya Ntumba as a customary chief. Failure to do this for Ntumba's predecessor was one cause of the uprising. The fighting in Kasai has become the most serious threat to President Joseph Kabila, whose decision to stay in power even though his mandate ran out in December has stoked rebellion and lawlessness in different parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo. "His body was left with the family who buried him in his village on the same day," the statement said. "The family solemnly declared the end of the war, specifying that anyone who continues to do criminal or terrorist acts does not represent them." It was not immediately possible to reach the family or any of the militia's leaders for a reaction. However, it was unclear whether this gesture by the government would sooth tensions. Initially contained in one area, the rebellion has since spread to five of Congo's 26 provinces. The fighters operating under the name "Kamuina Nsapu" appear to do so independently and without a clear leadership structure, and some recent violence appears to have degenerated into ethnic score-settling. Many of the dead have been dumped in mass graves, a violation of local customs. Analysts fear growing violence in Congo could spark a repeat of the conflicts between 1996-2003, mostly in the east, in which millions died, mainly from hunger and disease. Dozens of armed groups continue to fight over natural resources and prey on the civilian population. Two U.N. officials, one a U.S. citizen and one Swedish, were kidnapped and killed by unknown assailants in Kasai-Central last month. Four Congolese accompanying them were also kidnapped, but their bodies have not been found. Congolese authorities said on Friday they had arrested two people suspected of involvement, but one of the prisoners has escaped. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; Writing by Tim Cocks)
Cairo (AFP) - A court in Cairo on Sunday acquitted a US-Egyptian charity worker imprisoned for nearly three years in a case that drew alarm from Washington and international rights groups.

Supporters broke into applause as the judge announced that Aya Hejazi, her husband Mohamed Hassanein and six others were found not guilty on charges including human trafficking, sexually exploiting children and failure to properly register a non-governmental organisation.

Hejazi, who co-founded a charity which helps Cairo street children, was arrested in May 2014 and has been in jail pending the outcome of the trial.

She and her co-defendants denied the charges and rights groups raised concerns they were not being allowed a fair trial.

Hejazi's supporters say she was targeted at a time when authorities were cracking down on civil society groups and protests, trying to paint protesters as paid agents of foreign entities.

Reunited in the courtroom's cage shortly before the verdict was read, Hejazi and Hassanein embraced and he kissed her forehead, both of them smiling as they chatted while waiting for the judge.

When the verdict was read, supporters jumped up and cheered. The defendants sang as they left the courthouse for a prison vehicle that was to take them back for their final days in detention.

Taher Aboelnasr, Hejazi's lawyer, said the prosecution could appeal the verdict but that would not prevent the defendants' release, which he said should happen this week.

The verdict "must be implemented," Aboelnasr told reporters, adding that the defendants would be released "probably on Tuesday or Wednesday".

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom after the verdict, Hejazi's mother Naglaa Hosny said she was thrilled for her daughter and son-in-law.

"We want to give them another wedding," she said.

Hejazi's mother said the couple was considering starting another charity but that she hoped they would instead go back to school.

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"Right before she got arrested, she had applied for the American University in Cairo and was accepted" into a community psychology programme, Hosny said.

"She really wanted to work with street kids and the communities which produce the street kids," said Hosny.

The case caused widespread concern, with Human Rights Watch last month calling the trial "nothing less than a travesty of justice".

"Defendants have been unable to meet privately with lawyers, hearings have been repeatedly adjourned for long periods, while the court has routinely rejected, without explanation, numerous requests for release on bail, resulting in what appears to amount to arbitrary detention," HRW deputy Middle East and North Africa Joe Stork said at the time.

A senior White House official told reporters ahead of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's Washington visit last month that administration officials would raise Hejazi's case during the trip.

The prosecution alleged that children were sexually abused at the offices of the Belady Foundation, which Hejazi co-founded with her husband in 2013.

The defence argued that evidence may have been tampered with and several prosecution witnesses later recanted their testimonies.
22 local units likely to be added in Provinces 2 and 5

A government panel formed to work on number of local units in the Tarai districts is planning to add around two dozen village or municipal council in Province 2 and Province 5.
A suicidal father in Oregon kidnapped and killed his two daughters before turning the gun on himself.

Jamie Cortinas, 42, shot Janet Cortinas-Duran, 8, and Jasmine Duran-Cortinas, 11, and then set his Land Rover on fire before shooting himself during a gunfight with police Wednesday.

Read: Elizabeth Smart's Father Says Teen Who Vanished With Teacher May Be Brainwashed

Cortinas had reportedly taken the girls, who both attended Glenfair Elementary School, on Wednesday afternoon from their mom, who called 911.

She told police that her husband was armed, dangerous and suicidal, and had disappeared with their daughters early that morning, according to police.

An officer spotted Cortinas Land Rover at a gas station and approached him. Cortinas then reportedly opened fire on the officer and set his own truck on fire.

Officers on the scene tried to rescue the children but they were already dead, according to reports.

The Gresham Police Department said that the girls died of multiple gunshot wounds before Cortinas started the fire.

Read: Retired NFL Star Todd Heap Accidentally Hits and Kills 3-Year-Old Daughter In Driveway

Officers found a .32 caliber handgun in the truck.

No officers were shot during the incident, but a few suffered minor injuries, according to reports.

A GoFundMe page has been set up in honor of the sisters.

Watch: Listen to Dad Tell 911 'I Can't Find My Daughter' Before She's Found Murdered

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By John Davison BEIRUT (Reuters) - The death toll from a bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy outside Aleppo has reached at least 126 in the deadliest such incident in Syria in almost a year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Sunday. The Observatory and the United Nations cited reports that more than 60 children were among the dead. Syrian rescue workers of the Civil Defence said that they had taken away at least 100 bodies from the site of Saturday's blast, which hit buses carrying Shi'ite residents as they waited to cross from rebel into government territory in an evacuation deal between the warring sides. The British-based Observatory said the number was expected to rise. Those killed were mostly residents of the villages of al-Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province, but included rebel fighters guarding the convoy, the Observatory said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which pro-Damascus media said was carried out by a suicide car bomber. Syria's main armed opposition condemned the bombing, with groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army describing it as a "treacherous terrorist attack". Pope Francis, in an Easter message, also condemned the attack, describing it as "ignoble", and asking God to bring healing and comfort to what he called the "beloved and martyred Syria". The convoy was carrying at least 5,000 people including civilians and several hundred pro-government fighters, who were granted safe passage out of the two Shi'ite villages which are besieged by rebels. Under the evacuation deal, more than 2,000 people, including rebel fighters, were granted safe passage out of Madaya, a town near Damascus besieged by government forces and their allies. That convoy was waiting at a bus garage in a government-held area on Aleppo's outskirts, a few miles from where the attack took place. Madaya evacuees said they heard the blast. (Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Andrew Bolton and Robin Pomeroy)
Istanbul (AFP) - If there were a global contest for winning elections, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would see himself as the undisputed -- and undefeated -- heavyweight champion of the world.

In the 15 years since his ruling party came to power, Erdogan has taken part in 11 elections -- five legislative polls, two referenda, three local elections and a presidential vote -- and won them all.

On Sunday, Erdogan claimed victory in his 12t and arguably biggest ballot-box challenge since his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002: a referendum on expanding his powers.

Supporters hail the new system as a historic change that will create efficient government but critics say it is a dangerous step towards one-man rule in the NATO member and EU candidate state.

Fighting for votes in every corner of the country, Erdogan kept up a punishing schedule of daily rallies seeking to woo doubters with his indefatigable campaigning.

Prowling around the stage like a rock star, a wireless microphone in his hand, Erdogan bellows at the crowds: "Do you want a strong Turkey?"

Known to his inner circle as "beyefendi" (sir) and to admirers as "reis" (the chief), Erdogan is supreme on stage, holding the audience with near-matchless public speaking skills.

- 'Balancing act' -

While Erdogan is widely seen in Western media as a near-omnipotent sultan, there are constraints to his rule, according to Asli Aydintasbas, senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

To win Sunday's referendum, Erdogan had to perform a "delicate balancing act" of winning votes from both Kurds and nationalists, she added.

And the result was extremely tight with major cities Ankara and Istanbul voting against him.

Erdogan came to the referendum after the most turbulent year of his political life which saw a slew of terror attacks, worsening relations with Europe and above all a failed coup on July 15.

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In a memorable image, he appeared on the FaceTime app on live TV to urge supporters to flood the streets and defeat the coup, saying he escaped being killed by just 15 minutes before returning in triumph to Istanbul.

The president has courted ever more controversy as authorities jailed more than 47,000 people under a state of emergency which has lasted nine months so far.

There has even been talk of fissures within the AKP and with his two other party co-founders -- former president Abdullah Gul and ex deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc -- both deafening in their silence by failing to endorse the new system.

- 'My crazy projects' -

With the new constitution likely to come into force after elections in November 2019, Erdogan could stay in power until 2029, by which time the energetic president, 63, would be 75.

He seems determined to leave a legacy at least as significant as Turkey's modern founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, whose picture hangs next to his at rallies.

He has embarked on a hugely ambitious drive to modernise Turkey's infrastructure with a new bridge and two tunnels spanning the Bosphorus, high-speed trains and the construction of a third airport for Istanbul -- schemes he affectionately refers to as "my crazy projects".

But critics worry of a creeping Islamisation of Turkey's officially secular society, with a surge in mosque-building, use of Islamic schools and the abolition of all restrictions on the headscarf in public life.

Born in Istanbul but brought up by the Black Sea, Erdogan is intensely proud of rising from humble origins to become Turkey's most powerful politician since Ataturk.

He gained prominence in the nascent Islamic political movements that were starting to challenge secular domination, becoming a popular mayor of Istanbul in 1994.

He was jailed for four months for inciting religious hatred when he recited an Islamist poem, a term which only magnified his profile.

Founding the AKP after the previous Islamic party led by his mentor Necmettin Erbakan was banned, Erdogan spearheaded its 2002 landslide election victory and became premier less than six months later.

It was in these early days that the AKP, lacking allies, forged an alliance with the movement of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen that would end with the sides becoming sworn enemies and Gulen blamed for masterminding the coup bid.

- Return to pragmatism? -

Protests in 2013 over plans to build a shopping mall on an Istanbul park provided a rallying cause for secular Turks but Erdogan came out fighting, famously slamming the protesters as "capulcu" ("hooligans").

In 2014, Erdogan was elected president in the first-ever popular vote for the post and moved into a vast new presidential palace that opponents denounced as an extravagance.

In June 2015 elections, the AKP won the most votes but lost its overall majority for the first time. But Erdogan swatted away any proposal of a coalition and called new elections in November where the majority was restored.

Some analysts predicted the referendum result could soften the rhetoric of Erdogan, who enraged European leaders by frequently referring to "Nazis" after authorities cancelled 'Yes' camp rallies.

But the first signs suggested that yet another ballot box win had only emboldened the "chief", as he called on foreign powers to respect the result and mooted a referendum on restoring the death penalty -- which would sound the death knell for Turkey's EU bid.
VATICAN CITY (AP)  On Christianity's most joyful day, Pope Francis lamented the horrors generated by war and hatred, delivering an Easter Sunday message that also decried the "latest vile" attack on civilians in Syria.

Both in his impromptu homily during Mass in St. Peter's Square and later in his formal "Urbi et Orbi" Easter message delivered from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, Francis reflected on a litany of suffering in the world, including wars, oppressive regimes, human trafficking, corruption, famine and domestic violence.

He encouraged people to hold fast in their "fearful hearts" to faith, acknowledging that many people wonder where God is amid so much evil and suffering in the world.

Some 60,000 people, including multi-national throngs of pilgrims and tourists, endured tight anti-terrorism security checks  and, later, a brief downpour  to hear Francis and receive his blessing.

The crowd size, cited by the Vatican security forces, was smaller in comparison to some other Easters, when about 100,000 turned out for the occasion.

After Mass, Francis toured the square in his open-topped, white popemobile and waved back to well-wishers.

In his balcony address, Francis prayed that God would sustain those working to comfort and help the civilian population in Syria, "prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death."

He cited the explosion Saturday that ripped through a bus depot in the Aleppo area where evacuees were awaiting transfer, killing at least 100 people.

"Yesterday saw the latest vile attack on fleeing refugees," the pope said, also praying for peace in the Holy Land, Iraq and Yemen.

Separately, in a letter he sent to the bishop of Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, whose name he chose for his papacy, the pope decried the "scandalous reality of a world still marked by the divide between the endless number of indigent" and the "tiny portion of those who possess the majority of riches and presume to decide the fates of humanity."

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Francis has repeatedly championed the dignity of migrants fleeing war, persecution or poverty. On Sunday he recalled "all those forced to leave their homelands as a result of armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, famine and oppressive regimes."

The church's first pontiff from Latin America voiced concern over the "political and social tensions" in the world as well as the "scourge of corruption" on his home continent. Francis also mentioned hostilities and famine plaguing parts of Africa.

Speaking of Europe's problems, Francis cited the continued conflict and bloodshed in Ukraine and prayed for hope for those struggling with high unemployment, especially young people.

Traditionally, the pope gives no homily during the late-morning Easter Mass, saving his reflections for the "Urbi et Orbi" message at noon.

But Francis broke with that tradition, giving an off-the-cuff homily during Mass about what he described as a nagging question for many faithful: Why are there so many tragedies and wars if Jesus has risen from the dead, a belief that Christians celebrate each Easter?

"The Church never ceases to say, faced with our defeats, our closed and fearful hearts, 'stop, the Lord is risen.' But if the Lord is risen, how come these things happen?" Francis asked.

He gestured toward the potted hyacinths, tulips and daffodils, which came from the Netherlands, and which were arranged in neat rows on the steps leading to the church.

Easter "isn't a party with lots of flowers. This is pretty, but it's not this, it's more than this," Francis said.

He said having faith on Easter gives sense in the middle of "so many calamities: the sense of looking beyond, the sense of saying, look, there isn't a wall, there's a horizon, there's life, there's joy."

___

Frances D'Emilio is on twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio
Paris (AFP) - French conservative candidate Francois Fillon has seen his hopes of becoming president severely dented by a fake jobs scandal, yet he has clung on in the race and could still spring a surprise.

Fillon was charged in March with misuse of public money and corporate assets, mainly over the employment of his British-born wife Penelope as a parliamentary assistant for 15 years.

It was a severe blow to the 63-year-old former prime minister, who clinched the nomination for the Republicans party in November by claiming he was unsullied by the scandals that surrounded his rival and former boss, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy.

The allegations that Penelope had done little work to earn 680,000 euros ($725,000) were first reported by Le Canard Enchaine newspaper in January.

Fillon's reaction to the accusations has been to deny that either he or his wife have done anything wrong and to claim his left-wing rivals are operating a "secret cell" to blacken his name.

It is a line of attack that has drawn scorn from Socialist President Francois Hollande and surprised even some of Fillon's own allies.

Having backtracked on an early promise to withdraw his candidacy if he was charged, the erstwhile arch-conservative has found himself in the unlikely position of running as an anti-establishment rebel determined to defy the media, the government and magistrates he says are working against him.

Subsequent revelations that a wealthy Franco-Lebanese lawyer bought handmade suits for Fillon worth 13,000 euros each have drawn further ire from his opponents.

The charges have caused Fillon to slip from the position of clear frontrunner he occupied early this year.

Yet despite the charges, support for him is still hovering at around 19 percent, putting him tied for third in the race with the hard-left Jean-Luc Melenchon but behind co-leaders Marine Le Pen of the far-right and centrist Emmanuel Macron.

Some observers believe Fillon is under-estimated in opinion polls and might perform far more strongly in the first round on April 23 than they show.

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One of France's top pollsters, Jerome Fourquet of IFOP, said while many right-wing voters were "highly disappointed" by the scandal surrounding Fillon, "it is not impossible that part of this electorate returns to his camp at the last moment".

- Cuts and competitiveness -

Fillon's policies are based on deep cuts in public spending and slashing hundreds of thousands of jobs from what conservatives believe is a bloated civil service.

He also wants to attack one of the sacred cows of the French left, the 35-hour working week, raising it to 39 hours.

A leaner, meaner France could, he claims, rival Germany as the foremost economy in the eurozone within a decade.

In TV debates, Fillon has stressed that only he among the candidates has experience of running a country.

Supporters have also cheered his hardline stance on immigration.

Fillon raised eyebrows when he told immigrants in a TV debate that "when you enter someone else's house, you do not take over."

His outspokenness stood in contrast to his image as prime minister, of a quiet and urbane man whose steady temperament contrasted with the impulsive Sarkozy who once dismissed him as "Mr Nobody".

Once the youngest member of parliament at age 27, Fillon is a devout Catholic who voted against gay marriage when it was legalised in 2013.

The self-declared "Gaullist" -- a form of nationalism that proposes an independent and strong France -- also has a close bond with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two men overlapped as prime ministers from 2008-2012 and their closeness has led to questions about Fillon's foreign policy.

- Country manor house -

Fillon and his Welsh wife met at university in France when they were in their early twenties.

They soon married and live in an imposing manor house near Le Mans in northern France where they brought up their five children.

Two of their children have also had paid work for their father in parliament, performing roles as "legal advisors" despite not being qualified lawyers at the time.

Penelope Fillon was until recently a low-key political wife, a keen horse-rider who once described herself as a country "peasant" who preferred the countryside to Paris.

In examining Fillon's insistence that his wife has "always" worked to help his career, the French media has honed in on previous comments she made.

"Until now, I have never got involved in my husband's political life," Penelope told regional newspaper Le Bien Public last year, echoing a similar statement to a British newspaper in 2007.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)  Will New York's first-in-the-nation free tuition program for middle-class college students spread to other states?

That's the hope of proponents such as Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, who made debt-free college a key talking point in their Democratic presidential campaigns. And that's the prediction of its main champion, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who called the plan a "model for the nation."

But even as higher education experts applaud the concept of free tuition, they question finer points of New York's plan and whether it's a model that should be replicated elsewhere.

New York's plan would cover in-state public college tuition for full-time students whose families earn $125,000 or less, a benefit that could extend to 32,000 students a year. Some experts are concerned the plan would actually do little to help the neediest students, whose tuition is already covered by other aid. They also question the plan not addressing other college costs beyond tuition.

And there has already been much debate about a restriction  added late in the negotiations  that recipients live and work in the state for the number of years they receive the benefit. If students move out of state, the money would be converted into a loan that must be repaid.

"Students are not going to plan for future debt because they're going to think they don't have any," said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a Temple University expert on college affordability issues. "And then they'll get a job in another state and they're going to get smacked in the face literally by the state of New York for the bill."

Goldrick-Rab said the restriction betrays students by changing the narrative from broad free college tuition to a workforce development initiative.

State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher says the controversy may be overblown, noting that about 85 percent of graduates from the state university system stay in New York after graduation anyway. "It kind of tamps down the drama," she said.

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Even Sanders, who has long advocated addressing the nation's $1.3 trillion student debt problem, acknowledged there are some aspects of New York's plan he disagrees with. But he gave Cuomo and New York lawmakers credit for being first to tackle it.

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"They have paved the way for other states to go forward, for the federal government to go forward to make public colleges and universities tuition free," the Vermont senator said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I see that as a tremendous achievement, and we look forward to other states following New York."

Barmak Nassirian, director of federal relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, agreed New York's program is a strong political move but questioned an execution that "borders on gimmicky."

He was particularly critical of New York's "last-dollar" tuition-only setup, which would keep costs relatively low  an estimated $163 million a year  by paying the tuition only after awards from state and federal sources are applied. Students from families making $50,000 or less wouldn't benefit because their tuition is already covered by other programs.

"Unfortunately, the neediest are left with nothing but a feel-good message," Nassirian said.

SUNY's Zimpher responded that the state's program extends possibilities to kids on the "edge" of other financial assistance programs who might have never thought college was possible.

Other experts have noted that the New York program covers only tuition, with no additional money for other college fees such as room and board and books, which can be substantial. Over the course of four years at a State University of New York college, tuition would make up only about $26,000 of the total $83,000 tab.

Despite such uncertainties, Nassirian also gave credit to Cuomo, who has been mentioned as a possible 2020 presidential candidate, for giving the concept of free college new life.

"The pressure now builds," he said, "for others in deep blue states to do something."

The closest currently is Rhode Island, where Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo is pushing to make two years of public college free for residents, regardless of income. Tennessee and Oregon already offer free in-state tuition at community colleges.

Students at the University of Albany, part of the state university system, say that while grateful for New York's plan, they are wary of its details.

"I hope it works," said Nicole Pitt, a 21-year-old biology major. "But there's going to be a lot of fine print, something hidden that's going to come back and bite the person in the butt later."

Cumorah Reed, a 19-year-old English major who also works at a pharmacy to pay for college, said her mother "lost her mind" with excitement when the proposal passed, only to learn the scholarship would only cover about a third of Reed's annual costs.

"There's still $12,000 for room and board. It's double the tuition," she said. "So that's ... fun."

___

AP reporter Steve Peoples in New York contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the nation has a $1.3 trillion, not $1.2 billion student debt problem.
Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is too extreme, but centrist Emmanuel Macron is too young. Conservative Francois Fillon cannot be trusted, Socialist Benoit Hamon is the establishment, and Communist-backed radical Jean-Luc Melenchon, too risky.

Just a week before the French cast their first votes for the next president, this is how the many undecided voters view this year's cast of candidates: with abject disappointment.

Marc Jaurena lives in the northeastern city of Metz but drives nearly an hour to work in Luxembourg, 63 kilometres (40 miles) away.

"For me, working in Luxembourg, my job will be directly impacted by a Marine Le Pen election," Jaurena said, as the far-right leader has pledged that, if elected, she will pull France out of the euro currency and hold a referendum on whether the country should leave the EU.

The 34-year-old Jaurena said he has also been scandalised by the fake jobs scandals that have embroiled not only Le Pen, but also Fillon.

Fillon's campaign has been rocked by multiple scandals over expenses and conflicts of interest, including allegations that he gave his wife suspected fake jobs as a parliamentary assistant, for which she was paid a total of 680,000 euros ($725,000).

As for Le Pen, the European Parliament has accused her far-right National Front (FN) of using funds allotted for parliamentary assistants to pay staff for party work in France.

She has dismissed the investigation into FN's expenses, saying it is a plot to derail her campaign bid.

Jaurena is also unmoved by the ethos of the Communist-backed eurosceptic Melenchon, and by what he called Macron's "brainwashing".

"I know who I won't vote for, but I don't know who I'll vote for," he said.

- 'Rocked by scandals' -

He is among the nearly 40 percent of voters who have yet to decide which way they'll vote -- or even if they'll show up at on election day next Sunday.

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"This election is unusual. The campaign is rocked by scandals," political scientist Richard Kleinschmager told AFP.

"The situation has become too complex to get people engaged".

Voters' indecision has reinforced the uncertainty of this year's two-round presidential election, in which four candidates -- Le Pen, Macron, Melenchon and Fillon -- are neck-and-neck for the first round of voting on April 23.

Polls give each between 19 and 23 percent of votes.

The top two candidates from that vote will go forward to the second-round run-off on May 7.

"For me, it's unclear," said 41-year-old Fabrice Blanchard, a commercial agent in Lorraine. "Macron, we don't know if he is of the right or the left". As for Hamon, "he is from the outgoing government," which has been marked by high unemployment and low growth.

Only 17 percent of voters questioned in an Ipsos poll in February gave high marks to France's democratic system.

- 'Outraged by scandals' -

In the western city of Rennes, Pierre, 28, voted for the then president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012, but he is leaning towards Macron this time around, "because he's young".

But for retired teacher Jeannette, 77, who is among the undecided voters, said Macron is "too young".

"Undecided voters are a feature of this election," Kleinschmager said. "Voters from the two major parties have been thoroughly weakened.

Francoise, the daughter of a former mayor in the eastern province of Franche-Comte, said she would have voted for Fillon "if there hadn't been the scandals".

"Honesty in life and in politics, it's essential," the 54-year-old pharmaceutical worker said.

"My father was mayor of a town, and when I made copies at city hall, he took out money to pay for them.

"So then when we see the Fillon family... I am outraged by the scandals".

There is a danger in having so many undecided voters at this late stage, said Kleinschmager.

"The danger is when we don't know what to hold on to," he said. "So we grab a lottery ticket while telling ourselves 'why not'. That lottery ticket is Marine Le Pen".

An Ipsos poll for the daily Le Monde out Friday showed Macron and Le Pen -- who have been neck-and-neck for weeks at the head of the pack -- on 22 percent for the first round.
Mexico City (AFP) - A fugitive former governor of Mexico's Veracruz state suspected of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars has been detained in Guatemala after six months on the run, officials said Saturday.

Javier Duarte was arrested arond 8:00 pm at the reception of a luxury hotel in the tourist resort town of Panajachel, Guatemalan police said.

The town, located on the shores of Lake Atitlan, is visited by many tourists during the Easter holiday season.

Duarte had been staying at the four-star hotel for at least two days, where he paid with cash used a false name and was accompanied by his wife, Stu Velasco, deputy director of Guatemala's police, told Milenio television.

The agents handcuffed the ex-governor, who at the time of his capture was wearing a blue summer shirt, a dark vest and his characteristic glasses. He had gained weight since he first fled.

Duarte, 43, will be placed at the disposal of a counternarcotics court.

Mexico requested Guatemala's assistance in capturing the fugitive ex-governor of Veracruz, which borders the Gulf of Mexico. His extradition is pending.

Mexican authorities issued an arrested warrant against Duarte in October for his alleged responsibility in organized crime and embezzlement. Interpol also issued an international arrest warrant against him.

Duarte, of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), resigned last year before the end of his term and then went into hiding.

- Made into example -

After his escape, the PRI expelled him from its ranks. After his capture, it demanded that he be "punished to set an example" along with other members of his criminal network. The party also demanded that proceeds and goods from his illicit activities be recovered.

Duarte is not the only Mexican ex-governor to face justice: Tomas Yarrington, governor of the northern state of Tamaulipas between 1999 and 2005, was arrested a week ago in Italy for ties to drug trafficking.

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And former governor of the eastern state of Quintana Roo Mario Villanueva was arrested in 2001. He was extradited to the United States and convicted of ties to drug trafficking, before being returned to Mexico, where he was again jailed.

In January, authorities got two companies to return $19.3 million obtained illegally from the Duarte government.

A month later, authorities seized a warehouse full of Duarte's artworks, antiques and personal journals. They also found luxurious saddles, silverware sets, ostentatious furniture, school supplies and even wheelchairs presumably owned by the government.

Investigators were said to have found a set of documents linking the ex-governor's wife Karime Macias de Duarte directly to the preparation and execution of actions to divert public resources for the personal benefit of some accomplices.

During Duarte's tenure, Veracruz became one of the most violent states in Mexico, with bloody murders by drug cartels, several cases of enforced disappearance and the murder of 17 journalists.
Archiving poetic history

Archiving the memories of the bygone year or years is a fascinating subject in Nepal because emotions, more than the calendric calculations, are evoked by the changing cycles of years here.
Global carmakers converge on China for the Shanghai auto show this week, with the industry bracing for a sharp sales slowdown and potential price war as competition stiffens in the world's biggest car market.

Manufacturers have reaped a windfall as the fast-expanding Chinese middle class hits the road, but clouds loom as Volkswagen, Toyota, GM, and other top nameplates pitch their latest models starting this Wednesday at China's biggest auto showcase.

Passenger-vehicle sales have nearly quintupled over the past decade and logged another stellar performance in 2016, surging 14.9 percent to a record 24.38 million, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

But volume was skewed upward in 2016 by a government purchase incentive. As China's decades-long economic boom loses lift, sales growth will essentially be flat this year and could even shrink in 2018 for the first time in memory, consultancy IHS Markit said last week.

In a boon for consumers, IHS Markit said there is already "a major price war descending on the market" as manufacturers and dealers slash prices to move growing stock.

"The threat now for international automakers is that if local players begin cutting prices ... there will be a rampant price war across the market as automakers compete to attract new car buyers," it said.

Such troubles must be kept in perspective: China is still El Dorado for carmakers.

Last year's sales set a 26th straight annual high-water mark, handily beating the record 17.55 million cars sold in the United States, which China zoomed past eight years ago to become the planet's top market.

But sales were boosted by the government's halving of a 10-percent purchase tax on small-engine cars in late 2015. That tax has been raised to 7.5 percent this year and will be restored to 10 percent in 2018, with an expected dampening effect on sales.

- Death by suffocation -

More broadly, analysts say China's automotive landscape is rapidly maturing as consumer tastes evolve, and success will depend on manufacturers' capabilities in meeting those tastes.

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China now has a crowded field of mostly domestic carmakers, many of which won't survive, said Johan Karlberg, a Shanghai-based partner with global consultancy Roland Berger.

"There's just not room enough for that many players any more. Many of the smaller ones will simply die a slow, suffocating death," Karlberg said.

Major carmakers remain bullish, but are scrambling to introduce a slew of new models aimed at Chinese consumers during the Shanghai show, which IHS said has taken on "major importance" as the dynamics evolve.

Manufacturers are rushing in particular to capitalise on still fast-growing demand for sport-utility vehicles and "new energy" cars.

Chinese drivers have latched on to both domestic and foreign-made SUVs as leisure interests grow and rising incomes put a second family car in reach. SUV sales are expected to surpass sedans as early as this year.

Electric vehicle sales have been government-subsidised partly to help reduce China's notorious air pollution, and the Chinese market is now the world's biggest and growing quickly.

China market leader Volkswagen, along with giants GM, Ford and a host of electric-car upstarts, all have plans to ramp up their China offerings.

Ford will even try to sell its American-icon pickup trucks, while expanding its electric offerings.

"We think it's a huge opportunity for us to continue to build the Ford brand here in China and continue to grow our business in China," Ford CEO Mark Fields told Bloomberg News.

Analysts say other future drivers lie in China's seemingly never-ending stock of newly-minted middle-class consumers, particularly in populous and fast-growing lower-tier cities, plus the rapid growth in car-hailing and vehicle-sharing services.

"We still have a pretty good period of growth ahead in the Chinese market. It is THE strategic market for global carmakers," said Marc Mechai, an automotive analyst with Accenture in Paris.

"But now, it remains to be seen with which vehicles, and how."
KINDIA, Guinea, April 15 (Reuters) - Police in Guinea have arrested an army colonel on suspicion of animal trafficking and seized a menagerie of animals from two properties he owns that they described as private zoos, a senior officer said on Saturday. Chimpanzees, a baboon, ostriches from Mali and turtles that inhabit the edge of the Sahara were among the 33 animals and 12 species found during police raids, said Charlotte Houpline of the WARA Conservation Project which worked on the investigation. "He was the owner of the animals and planned to sell them. He will be charged with animal trafficking," Gadiri Conde, a divisional police commissioner, told Reuters. A senior police source named the man, arrested in the capital Conakry on Wednesday, as Colonel Ibrahima Bangoura. WARA, a French charity based in Guinea and Senegal, began investigating Bangoura in 2013, suspecting him of being part of a network that trades protected species on the international market, Houpline said. "This is a victory in the fight against corruption and impunity," she said, adding that Interpol has collaborated on the case. Reuters was unable to contact Bangoura for comment. After one of the raids, chimpanzees peered from cages as security officials in army fatigues carried them through the woods and loaded them onto pick-up trucks, Reuters TV pictures showed. A crocodile snapped at its rescuers as it was dragged from a shallow pool. The animals have been released into the wild except for four chimpanzees that have been taken to a sanctuary. Guinea is a major wildlife trafficking hub, with ivory, skins, shark fins and live mammals regularly sold internationally by criminal groups. In March, authorities arrested two senior members of network suspected of trafficking chimpanzees and other endangered animals for over 30 years. In recent years charities have worked with authorities to protect forests from poachers and traffickers. A priority is to protect elephants in the Ziama forest, in the south of the country around 800 km (500 miles) from Conakry. (Additional reporting by Nellie Peyton in Dakar, Saliou Samb in Conakry and Matthew Mpoke Bigg in Accra; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Colombo (AFP) - Hopes of finding anyone alive under a collapsed mountain of garbage in Sri Lanka's capital faded Sunday as the death toll reached 23 with another six reported missing, police said.

Hundreds of soldiers, backed by heavy earth moving equipment were digging through the rubbish and the wreckage of some 145 homes that were destroyed when a side of the 300-foot (90-metre) high dump crashed on Friday.

"The rescue is fast becoming a recovery operation," a senior police official at the site said. "It is difficult to imagine anyone could survive under these toxic conditions."

He said six people were reported missing after Friday's disaster at Kolonnawa on the northeastern edge of the capital.

The Colombo National hospital said four children aged between 11 and 15 were among the 23 people killed. Hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa said a man and a woman pulled out of the dump on Friday were in intensive care while another 11 were also still in hospital.

Police have stepped up security in the area following reports of looting and said they arrested 18 men suspected of stealing victims' belongings.

President Maithripala Sirisena ordered hundreds of troops to search for survivors and bolster rescue efforts of the fire department.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is visiting Japan, said arrangements had been made to remove the garbage dump, but it came crashing down before relocation work could begin.

Wickremesinghe said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered help with the recovery effort and a technical team would be sent to Sri Lanka to evaluate the situation.

About 800 tonnes of solid waste is added per day to the open dump.

Police said a total of 145 homes, mostly shacks, were destroyed when the garbage mountain came crashing down following heavy rain the previous day and a fire hours earlier.

More than 600 people have been given temporary shelter at a government-run school in the area as authorities looked for alternative accommodation for those living near the dump.

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Many residents had evacuated their homes before the disaster because of the heavy rain.

Sri Lanka's parliament was warned recently that the 23 million tonnes of garbage rotting at Kolonnawa was a serious health hazard.

Efforts are under way to generate electricity using solid waste as fuel.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP)  Thousands of Hungarians have taken part in a march remembering the 550,000 Hungarian Jews who died during the Holocaust.

The March of the Living on Sunday was held on Hungary's national Holocaust Memorial Day, which marks the mass detention and deportation of Hungary's Jews in 1944.

Speakers called for tolerance and facing up to the truth.

Hungarian Jewish writer Gabor Szanto said: "No nation bears collective guilt for the past, but we all have a personal responsibility for the present and the future."

This was the 15th year the march has been held.

Near the end of the event, amateur runner Peter Hajdu began an eight-day run covering 420 kilometers (260 miles) to Auschwitz, Poland. Many of Hungary's Jews who died during the Holocaust perished at the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz.
Baghdad (AFP) - Six months since Iraqi forces launched a vast operation to oust the Islamic State group from second city Mosul, they have recaptured its east and are battling for the west.

Here are key dates in offensive:

- The battle begins -

- October 17: Iraqi forces launch the assault. The jihadists had declared an Islamic "caliphate" there in June 2014 after seizing much of northern and western Iraq.

Tens of thousands of army, police and counter-terrorism troops are thrown into the long-awaited offensive with air and ground support from a US-led coalition.

Kurdish militias also take part in operations north and east of the city.

By late October, the army is within 15 kilometres (10 miles) of Mosul.

- Entering Mosul -

- November 1: The army says it has entered Mosul city for the first time since 2014.

- November 3: IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi breaks a year-long silence, urging followers to fight to the death for Mosul. The Iraqi advance begins to slow.

- November 13: Iraq says it has recaptured Nimrud, an ancient city southeast of Mosul.

- November 23: Shiite-dominated paramilitary units known as the Hashed al-Shaabi say they have cut IS supply lines between Mosul and the jihadists' Syrian stronghold Raqa, 400 kilometres (250 miles) to the west.

- Change of tactics -

- December 29: Government troops end a two-week pause and launch the second part of their assault on east Mosul.

- Tigris River bank -

- January 8: Iraqi units reach the Tigris River that divides Mosul and take up positions near one of the city's five bridges, all now destroyed.

- January 14: Elite Counter-Terrorism Service forces seize Mosul University.

- East Mosul taken -

- January 18: The head of special forces announces the "liberation" of Mosul's east bank, but sporadic fighting continues for several days.

- January 24: The Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight says the east has been "fully liberated".

- Battle for west begins -

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- January 24: As Iraqi forces prepare to attack Mosul's west, the UN warns that 750,000 civilians there are at "extreme risk" and a quarter of a million Iraqis could flee their homes.

Western Mosul, home to the densely populated Old City and a traditional jihadist bastion, is expected to offer stiffer resistance than the east.

- February 19: Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announces the start of the campaign for western Mosul, with Iraqi forces backed by coalition air power and increased support from coalition advisers.

- February 20: New Pentagon chief James Mattis makes his first visit to Baghdad as Iraqi forces retake Al-Buseif village overlooking the airport and south Mosul.

- February 24: Iraqi forces seize full control of Mosul airport and enter their first west Mosul neighbourhood.

- February 27: They take control of the fourth bridge over the Tigris, the southernmost of the five bridges partly destroyed by air strikes or IS.

- March 7: Government forces take key buildings including the Nineveh province headquarters and Mosul museum.

- March 12: More than a third of the city's western side has now been retaken, a top military official says.

March 25: Iraqi officials say air strikes in west Mosul killed scores of civilians. The coalition says it bombed an area where civilians were reportedly killed, later saying it "probably" played a role in the civilian casualties.

March 28: The UN says more than 300 civilians have been killed since the start of the west Mosul operation.

April 11: An Iraqi military spokesman says IS now controls less than seven percent of the country, down from 40 percent in 2014.
Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi forces made major gains in the six months since launching the operation to retake Mosul, but the battle for Iraq's second city and the war against the Islamic State group are far from over.

Tough close-quarters fighting in heavily-populated areas of Mosul is still ahead, and IS also holds territory in other parts of Iraq, as well as in neighbouring Syria.

The jihadists will still be able to carry out attacks in Iraq even if they no longer control significant territory, while the impact of the war -- widespread displacement of civilians, cities and towns devastated by the fighting, countless lives disrupted -- will last long after the fighting ends.

Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition supporting them "are nearing the end of the operation to recapture Mosul," said Patrick Martin, Iraq analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.

But "the final neighbourhoods will be the most difficult to recapture, especially the Old City and the remaining neighbourhoods in northwestern Mosul," Martin said.

Progress in the Old City -- a warren of closely-spaced buildings and narrow streets where hundreds of thousands of civilians are thought to reside -- has been difficult and slow.

"You cannot get vehicles in there, so it's gotta be a dismounted operation," Brigadier General Rick Uribe, a senior coalition commander, said of the Old City.

That "makes it very difficult for any offensive manoeuvre in there, but it makes it very easy to defend," Uribe said.

"Sometimes, 50 metres (yards) is a great day," he said of the Iraqi advance.

Iraqi forces launched the Mosul operation in October, moving toward the city from the south, west and north before assaulting its eastern side, which was recaptured earlier this year.

Two special forces units -- the Counter-Terrorism Service and the Rapid Response Division -- have spearheaded the fighting inside Mosul, while soldiers and police have also taken part.

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- Lasting IS threat -

Iraqi Kurdish forces were involved in the initial days of the operation but stopped short of the city, while pro-government paramilitary forces were tasked with moving on the IS-held town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul.

After retaking east Mosul, Iraqi forces set their sights on the far side of the Tigris River, which divides the city.

The battle for west Mosul -- which was launched in mid-February -- has taken a heavy toll on civilians, with hundreds killed or wounded in the fighting, and more than 200,000 displaced.

The coalition has said it "probably" played a role in civilian casualties in Mosul, while residents have been caught up in fighting between Iraqi forces and IS, and the jihadists are intentionally attacking civilians in the city.

Losing Mosul would be a major blow to IS, but would not mark the end of the war against the jihadists.

"Just because we're done in Mosul doesn't mean that Daesh is done in Iraq," Uribe said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"There's still another significant number of areas within Iraq that will... need to be cleared of Daesh, and... the Iraqi security forces are getting themselves ready for that eventuality -- they know that it's coming," he said.

"We will not leave any area under the control of the terrorist organisation," Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command, said at a recent news conference.

- Thousands displaced -

IS holds territory in Iraq's Kirkuk province, as well as areas west of Mosul, and in western Anbar province, and also controls territory including the city of Raqa in Syria.

Losing these areas would still not eliminate the threat of bombings and hit-and-run attacks by the jihadists.

Iraqi "successes in Mosul obscure how (IS) has successfully been resurging in other provinces in Iraq," Martin said.

The jihadists have "reconstituted attack capabilities in Diyala and central Salaheddin," he said, referring to provinces where Iraqi forces had largely reasserted control after heavy fighting earlier in the war against IS.

The end of the battle for Mosul will also leave Iraq struggling with thorny political issues including control of recaptured territory in the north that is claimed by both the country's autonomous Kurdish region and its federal government.

And Iraq will still be contending with the effects of the war -- citizens killed, wounded or missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, houses, shops and infrastructure wrecked, children years behind in school -- for years to come.
The alleged infighting within President Donald Trumps administration served as the inspiration for NBCs Saturday Night Live (SNL) episode late Saturday, with comedian Jimmy Fallon making an appearance as Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

The episode, which was the first to air live simultaneously in all time zones, saw actor Alec Baldwin reprise his impersonation of Trump, as Mikey Day returned as the Grim Reaper version of the president's chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Read: Is SNL Live Tonight? Season 42 Goes Live Coast-To-Coast

The sketch began with Baldwin's Trump listing out his many achievements in office to Vice President Mike Pence, who was played by Beck Bennett.

Ive already done so much, its hard to keep track of it all, Baldwin said. The only thing on Bennetts list of Trumps achievements was the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch, but Baldwin added that the vice president was forgetting all the bombings the president carried out. This included the biggest, fattest bomb youve ever seen on the Islamic State group.

There was also a dig at the presidents weekend trips to his Palm Beach, Florida, estate  Mar-a-Lago  where Trump is known to spend a lot of time.

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Photo: NBC

Im so sad that my presidency is finally coming to an end, Baldwin told Pences impersonator, who reminded him they still have 1,300 days in office. Baldwin, however, corrected him by saying: Have you seen my tweets about North Korea? This could all be over by Monday.

Bennett raised the issue of Kushner and Bannon not getting along, and at that point, Baldwin called the two in. Bannon was his usual Grim Reaper self, while Kushner was shown as a quiet but charming person.

In a typical Apprentice manner, the Trump character played out an elimination, in which Bannon was banished and asked to join Kellyanne Conway in the basement. However, he added: You get to come back at the end of all this and help send me to prison.

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After a bigger Grim Reaper-looking character took Bannon away, Trump vacated his seat in the Oval Office for Kushner, asking him to set things right. Fallons Kushner did not speak a word through it all.

According to many reports, the conflicting opinion between Kushner and Bannon in the White House has led to the president asking his advisers to sort out his issues. However, the administration maintains that things are being exaggerated by the media.

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Paris (AFP) - The five main contenders in France's presidential election span the ideological spectrum from hard left to far right. A week before the first round of voting, here are their main proposals:

- Marine Le Pen: France first -

- Negotiate France's exit from the eurozone and return to the franc. Immediately suspend membership of the European passport-free Schengen area and restore border controls. Hold a "Frexit" referendum after six months of negotiations with Brussels on transforming the union into a club of nation states.

- Reduce legal immigration to 10,000 people per year, require refugees seeking asylum in France to apply in their home region, hold a referendum on reforms including introducing a French-first policy on jobs and housing

- Impose a 35-per-cent tax on products from companies that offshore factory jobs

- Lower the minimum retirement age from 62 to 60 and expand family subsidies.

- Pull France out of NATO's central command and develop closer relations with Russia.

- Emmanuel Macron: Economic 'liberation'

- Cut the corporation tax rate from 33 percent to 25 percent and give bosses more flexibility to negotiate working time with staff at the company level.

- Give all workers, including the self-employed, access to unemployment benefits.

- Accelerate integration in the eurozone by giving it a central parliament, finance minister and budget. Organise democratic conventions in all EU member states to discuss reforming the bloc.

- Create tax incentives to encourage companies to hire jobseekers from underprivileged neighbourhoods

- Introduce one month's obligatory military service for all 18-21-year-olds.

- Francois Fillon: Shrinking the state -

- Cut 500,000 public servant jobs and reduce public spending by 100 billion euros ($106 billion) over five years to reduce France's debt.

- Scrap the official 35-hour working week. Progressively raise the working week for civil servants to 39. Allow companies to negotiate working time directly with employees. In the absence of an accord, apply a 39-hour rule.

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- Ban the full-body Islamic burkini swimsuit and introduce uniforms in public schools.

- Reduce immigration by setting annual quotas.

- Work with Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime in combating the Islamic State.

- Jean-Luc Melenchon: Big spender -

- Renegotiate EU treaties. Get the union to scrap rules on fiscal discipline and allow the European Central Bank to buy up debt from member states. If talks fail hold a referendum on withdrawing from the treaties, leading to possible exit from the euro.

- Move from a presidential system to a parliamentary system. Give citizens more powers to propose referenda and recall lawmakers.

- Tax all annual earnings above 400,000 euros at 100 percent and increase public spending by 173 billion euros ($184 billion) over five years.

- End France's use of nuclear power and fossil fuels. Boost renewables, which would supply 100 percent of the country's needs by 2050.

- Foreign policy: Withdraw from NATO. Improve relations with Russia "to avoid war." Curry ties with the leftist Latin American ALBA grouping founded by late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

- Benoit Hamon: Income for all -

- Introduce a universal basic income, initially targeting the working poor but eventually extended to all citizens, reaching 750 euros a month. Estimated cost of first phase: 35 billion euros a year.

- Move towards a shorter working week by encouraging companies to allow more part-time work and sabbaticals. Tax robots that take human jobs.

- Increase company payroll taxes

- Increase the share of renewables in the energy mix to 50 percent by 2025. Ban harmful pesticides.

- Legalise cannabis.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  The Latest on the failed launch of a North Korean missile from the country's east coast (all times local):

9:50 p.m.

The Japanese government says it has protested to North Korea over its latest attempted missile launch, but that the failed firing had no security impact on Japan.

Japan's Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's office released almost identical statements late Sunday, citing the U.S. announcement about North Korea's failed ballistic missile launch from its east coast.

According to the statements, "Japan does not tolerate repeated provocations like this by North Korea," and protested to the North over the action.

___

7 p.m.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says North Korea's "provocation" is another reminder of the risks that U.S. and South Korean service members face every day "in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world."

Pence said Sunday at a fellowship dinner at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul that the willingness of military members "to stand firm without fear inspires the nation and inspires the world."

The vice president spoke at a dinner after attending Easter church services with service members at the garrison. He arrived in South Korea shortly after a failed missile launch by the North that surrounded the birth anniversary of North Korea's late founder.

___

6 p.m.

China's official Xinhua News Agency says China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed the situation on the Korean Peninsula in a phone call Sunday amid escalating tensions in the region.

It was unclear exactly when the conversation took place on Sunday, but Xinhua's report of the call came out after a failed missile launch by North Korea. The report included no further details on the call between State Councilor Yang and Tillerson. China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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China, North Korea's most important ally and key provider of food and fuel aid, has sought to cool tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile programs, repeatedly calling for dialogue.

U.S. officials say the Trump administration's emphasis will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of China.

___

5:45 p.m.

A White House foreign policy adviser says the type of missile that North Korea tried to fire on Sunday was medium-range, and that it exploded 4-5 seconds after it was launched.

According to the adviser, the U.S. had good intelligence both before and after the launch. The adviser is traveling with Vice President Mike Pence, who arrived in Seoul in the afternoon to start a 10-day trip to Asia.

No planned response is expected from the Trump administration because the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's initial understanding of the launch, said there was no need for the U.S. to reinforce the failure.

The official said that had it been a nuclear test, "other actions would have been taken by the U.S."

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

__ AP writer Ken Thomas, Seoul, South Korea

___

3:40 p.m.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has arrived in South Korea at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia that comes amid turmoil along the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's threats to advance its growing nuclear and defense capabilities. His visit comes just after a failed missile launch by the North.

President Donald Trump's vice president arrived in the region after North Korea celebrated the birth anniversary of the country's late founder with a military parade.

Pence is joined by his wife and two adult daughters and will lay a wreath at the Seoul National Cemetery and join U.S. and South Korean troops for Easter Sunday church services and a dinner.

Pence is the son of a Korean War veteran and displays his late father's Bronze Star in his office.

___

9:44 a.m.

President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the failed launch of a North Korean missile from the country's east coast.

In a statement, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says Trump and his military team "are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."

Trump has been leaning on China to put pressure on North Korea, but has also threatened to take on the country alone if necessary. "I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will!" he tweeted Thursday. "U.S.A."

___

9:34 a.m.

A North Korean missile exploded during launch Sunday from the country's east coast, U.S. and South Korean officials said, a high-profile failure that comes as a powerful U.S. aircraft carrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

It wasn't immediately clear what kind of missile was fired from the city of Sinpo, but the failure will sting in Pyongyang because it comes a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather.

Washington and Seoul will try hard to figure out what exactly North Korea fired. This matters because while North Korea regularly launches short-range missiles, it is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target U.S. troops in Asia and, eventually, the U.S. mainland.

___

8:25 a.m.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff says that North Korea has attempted to launch a missile from an eastern coastal city, but the launch appeared to end in failure.

The statement Sunday said it wasn't clear what kind of missile was involved.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket and conducted two nuclear tests last year, including its most powerful to date, and there have been a slew of shorter range missile firings.

North Korea's goal is a long-range nuclear missile that can strike the continental United States.

Sunday's launch comes a day after the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.
Paris (AFP) - Marine Le Pen was a daddy's girl growing up, and she wept for joy when her father -- the bogeyman of French politics -- beat his Socialist rival for a spot in the final of the 2002 presidential election.

But while Jean-Marie Le Pen never seemed to truly covet the top job, his charismatic daughter is convinced that, come May 7, France will have its first woman president.

Over the past six years her rebranded "party of patriots" from both left and the right has gone from strength to strength, propelled by the kind of anti-globalisation, anti-establishment fury that drove Britain's vote to leave the EU and Donald Trump's election in the United States.

"Against the moneyed right and the moneyed left I am the candidate of the French people," Le Pen declared in a TV debate with four rivals last month.

Since taking over the leadership of the far-right National Front (FN) in 2011 from her father, the telegenic 48-year-old former lawyer has promoted her efforts to purge the party of the anti-Semitism and overt racism that were its hallmarks.

But her recent remarks about the roundup and deportation of around 13,000 French Jews during World War II may have set back those efforts.

Le Pen was criticised for declaring that France was "not responsible" for the roundup carried out by French police acting on orders from the collaborationist Vichy regime -- despite three former presidents admitting France's guilt.

Le Pen said she was thinking of France's youth. "I want them to be proud of being French," she said.

But her remarks inevitably drew comparisons with the revisionism of her father, whom she booted out of the party for describing the Holocaust as "a detail of history".

Le Pen suspended her father in 2015 from the party he co-founded for downplaying the Nazi gas chambers.

A wounded Jean-Marie refused to go quietly, dragging the FN before the courts.

- Mother posed for Playboy -

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The split marked a turning point in the career of Le Pen junior, a politician who developed a tough shell after a tumultuous childhood.

When she was eight, a bomb ripped through the Paris apartment building where the family lived, slightly injuring six people but sparing the Le Pens.

Eight years later Marine's mother Pierrette walked out on her husband and three daughters, sensationally resurfacing shortly afterwards in Playboy magazine for which she posed nude.

"It was a huge shock," Le Pen, who did not see her mother for 15 years after the split, told an M6 television interviewer last year.

Now herself a twice-divorced mother-of-three, she keeps her private life out of the spotlight, appearing rarely as a couple with her partner, FN vice-president Louis Aliot.

Le Pen, who has her father's gravelly voice and flair for sharp putdowns, started out as a lawyer defending illegal immigrants facing deportation as a state-appointed attorney.

Despite that experience she blames migration -- and the European Union, which she has predicted "will die" -- for France's economic woes.

"We are not going to welcome any more people. Stop. We are full up," she insists.

The FN has come a long way since it was launched in 1972 as a refuge for paramilitaries who opposed France granting independence to Algeria. It also drew apologists for the wartime Vichy regime's collaboration with Nazi Germany and ultra-conservative Catholics.

Under Le Pen junior, the party has shown a more progressive face by promoting openly gay politicians to its upper echelons and showing racists and anti-Semites the door.

Critics, however, point to the role of several hard-right Le Pen aides who were once part of violent student groups -- and the recurring chant of "This is our land" at FN rallies -- as evidence that it still attracts hardliners.

- French first -

Like Trump, Le Pen is proposing to pull up the drawbridge and restore French glory with a policy of "economic patriotism" that most economists see as a recipe for ruin.

Her plans to ditch the euro and hold a "Frexit" referendum have caused particular alarm.

Le Pen also wants to pull out of Europe's Schengen border-free area, adopt a French-first policy on jobs and public housing and tax products from French companies that offshore factory jobs by 35 percent.

In the last presidential election in 2012 she finished third on just under 18 percent.

Five years later, with the left in disarray and the conservative candidate Francois Fillon dogged by scandal, polls show her running neck-and-neck with centrist frontrunner Emmanuel Macron in the first round.

But they show her falling at the final hurdle, with voters predicted to rally in the May 7 run-off behind her opponent, just as they plumped for conservative Jacques Chirac when he faced Le Pen senior in 2002.
Boy, 14, dies at police school; kin cry foul play

Friends and relatives of 14-year-old Kundan Thapa, who allegedly jumped to his death from the third floor of Nepal Police School in Samakhusi on March 29, have accused the school administration of covering up the truth behind the incident.
A look at what's happening all around the majors Sunday:

___

NEW YEAR

After going 4-14 against the Cubs last season, the Pirates can take a three-game sweep from Chicago with a win at Wrigley Field. Andrew McCutchen hit a go-ahead, three-run homer during a five-run seventh to lead Pittsburgh to an 8-7 victory Saturday. Right-hander Jameson Taillon (0-0, 1.38 ERA) leads the Pirates' effort in going for the sweep, while lefty Jon Lester (0-0, 1.64) is up for the Cubs.

SIZZLING STREAK

Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman has gone 30 straight appearances against the Cardinals without allowing a run. The streak began in 2012 and spanned 30 1/3 innings, during which he's struck out 51 and allowed just seven hits. Chapman and his 100 mph heat might get a chance to extend the longest consecutive-game shutout string ever vs. St. Louis in the Sunday night game at Yankee Stadium.

MONEY'S WORTH

Jose Ramirez looks to lift Cleveland again in the finale of a series against AL Central foe Detroit. Ramirez had a pair of three-run homers among his four hits in a 13-6 win over the Tigers and ace Justin Verlander on Saturday, setting a career high with six RBIs. The Indians locked up Ramirez with a five-year contract in March and he's playing up to it, batting .341 with three homers, 12 RBIs and a 1.014 OPS.

KID ROX

The Rockies are off to a strong start thanks in part to some impressive performances from their young starting rotation. After Tyler Chatwood threw a two-hitter to beat San Francisco 5-0 on Saturday, rookie Antonio Senzatela (1-0, 1.50) will look to build off getting his first major league win last time out. The 22-year-old righty has shut down the Padres and Brewers in his first two starts. Colorado is 8-5 this season and can win its four-game series against the Giants with a victory in the finale.

ANOTHER CRACK

Toronto faces Orioles righty Dylan Bundy for the second time this season, and the first go-round wasn't encouraging. Bundy (1-1, 2.70) struck out eight and allowed a run and four hits over seven innings on April 5 in a 3-1 Baltimore win. The 24-year-old has started well in what's expected to be his first full season in the rotation. J.A. Happ (0-2, 5.40) is set to pitch for the Blue Jays.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  The Utah woman who suffered a broken leg in a high-profile London attack that left several people dead, including her husband, has returned home.

Melissa Cochran's brother, Clint Payne, says doctors cleared her to fly back home last week and she is healing faster than expected. Cochran lives in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Bountiful.

Cochran and her husband, Kurt Cochran, were on Westminster Bridge when they were struck by an SUV that plowed into a group of pedestrians.

Kurt Cochran was thrown from the bridge and died.

Four others were killed in the March 22 attack.

The Cochrans were on the last day of a European trip celebrating 25th wedding anniversary.
GRAND FORKS -- The director of North Dakotas Governors Schools and its students are bracing for the possibility the program may not be around in the near future.

The program, a six-week summer residential academic program at North Dakota State University for high school sophomores and juniors across the state, receives funding through appropriations to the Department of Public Instruction. Under House Bill 1013, which determines funding for the department in the coming biennium, the program may be eliminated.

I was definitely sad, said director Jeff Boyer. It is a transformative experience for these young people.  I get to watch them evolve and mature in that short time because of the intense nature of the experience.

Boyer said the Governors Schools received about 200 applicants for this summers program, its largest number ever. Boyer said the program has room to accept about 100 students.

HB 1013 currently is in conference committee, where three members from the House and three members of the Senate discuss differing versions of the bill.

The programs schedule runs from the beginning of June through mid-July, which means it crosses two fiscal years. As a result, Boyer said, a shortened version of the program can run this summer through the end of June.

We did let people know were just on hold temporarily until we see what the status is, he said. There will be a program this summer. What it will look like is not clear yet, weve got to work that out.

Tobias Zikmund, a high school junior in Park River who has been accepted to this summers program, said he felt an urge to advocate for Governors Schools funding.

Its in a month or two, and they just cut it off, so it disrupted my summer plans, said Zikmund, whose letter to the Grand Forks Herald about the program was published Tuesday. So I thought Id fight for it.

For the first two years of the program, which started in 1990, the Governors Schools received funding through a federal grant. Boyer said any kind of federal funding again may be an option in the long term but would not be possible in the short term.

There are not opportunities like Governors Schools in this state, Boyer said. There isnt a program that has this intense of an academic experience for young people.
Buddha's birthplace becoming hub of Indian beggars

A historic place Lumbini, better known as the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, is becoming the hub of Indian beggars these days.
Paris (AFP) - "Neither of the right, nor the left" in his own words, Emmanuel Macron is a 39-year-old former banker hoping to convince the French to take a chance on his brand of youthful optimism.

He has never been elected and only launched his party last April, but polls currently show Macron as one of the frontrunners for the two-stage election next Sunday and on May 7.

After quitting his job as economy minister under unpopular President Francois Hollande in August, he has concentrated on building up his own centrist political movement called "En Marche" ("On the Move").

The accomplished pianist and lover of poetry was initially dismissed by sceptics as appealing to a narrow group of young, urban professionals but his packed rallies and voter surveys show otherwise.

"We can't respond with the same men and the same ideas," Macron said as he launched his presidential bid in November at a jobs training centre in a gritty Parisian suburb.

With frustration at France's political class running high, Macron has tapped into a desire for wholesale change that has also propelled far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon.

"I'm here because he's young, he's dynamic. It's like a breath of fresh air," 23-year-old shop worker Marine Gonidou told AFP at a rally in Brittany in January.

At 39, Macron would be the youngest French leader in modern history, upending tradition that has seen voters tend to favour experience in their powerful presidents.

Although positioned as an outsider, the brilliant student followed a well-worn path through elite French universities including ENA, which serves as a finishing school for top civil servants and future leaders.

After going into banking, where he earned nearly 2.4 million euros ($2.6 million) from 2011-2012 at Rothschild, Macron became an economic advisor to Hollande in 2012 and then economy minister two years later.

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During his time in government, he is best known for a free-market law that bears his name which liberalised the bus sector, allowed large stores to open at weekends and offered investment incentives to farmers.

The legislation was strongly contested by France's powerful trade unions and had to be rammed through parliament using executive powers, but it helped cement his image as an economic reformer.

"I want us to be able to start a business more easily, to innovate more easily" is one of his mantras, repeated at rallies and explained in his pre-election book "Revolution".

As well as wanting to improve the business environment, he stresses the need to improve education in deprived areas and has spoken out against stigmatising Muslims with France's strict rules on secularism.

His championing of tech firms and the "Uber-isation" of the economy, in which people increasingly work as independents rather than as employees, has helped burnish his image as a moderniser.

After looking the most likely next president for the last few months, polls have shown support for him falling slightly in recent weeks.

The outcome of the election will be the ultimate test of his claim that France is "contrarian" -- ready to elect a pro-EU, pro-globalisation liberal at a time when rightwing nationalists are making electoral gains across the world.

- Childhood romance -

In his personal life, Macron is anything but orthodox.

The theatre lover from a middle-class family in northeast France fell in love with his secondary school drama teacher, Brigitte Trogneux, in a story that has captivated the French media.

Trogneux, a mother of three children 24 years older than him, went on to divorce her husband and marry the young prodigy in 2007.

"At the age of 17, Emmanuel said to me: 'Whatever you do, I will marry you!'," Trogneux told Paris Match magazine last April.

Some have found the relationship difficult to believe despite their numerous appearances on the front of the Paris Match society magazine, forcing Macron to repeatedly laugh off rumours he is gay.

He has a masters in philosophy and once worked as an assistant to renowned French philosopher Paul Ricoeur, helping him to publish his last book before his death.

While at ease among ordinary voters and charismatic, Macron has been accused of being condescending in the past, whether referring to "illiterate" abattoir workers, "alcoholic" laid-off workers or the "poor people" who travel on buses.

In an infamous exchange, when confronted by a protester in a T-shirt in May last year, he lost his cool, saying: "The best way to buy yourself a suit is to work."
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Fox News host Megyn Kelly was one of the networks most popular hosts, and executives thought of her as the network's star of the future. Kelly held her own against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in a nationally televised Republican debate, and drew increasingly high ratings on her nightly show, The Kelly File.

But by the start of 2017, Kelly was suddenly out, announcing on Facebook that she made the decision to leave the network that made her famous to join NBC News.

The move came in the aftermath of accusations she made in her book Settle for More about being a victim of sexual abuse from former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes. Ailes was ultimately ousted from the network over multiple cases of alleged misbehavior towards female staffers, which included a lawsuit from Kellys former colleague, Gretchen Carlson.

Most observers assumed her decision to leave Fox News was largely due to her experience dealing with harassment from Ailes, but in a New York Times report, Bill O'Reilly reportedly played a large role in causing Kelly to abandon a network that had offered her upwards of $2o million a year.

OReilly is currently embroiled in his own scandal following the revelation he paid millions of dollars to five former Fox News personalities to settle claims of verbal and sexual harassment. The embattled host abruptly announced he was going on vacation last week following the loss of over 60 advertisers from his popular show, The OReilly Factor.

Kellys beef with OReilly came after a 2016 interview on CBS This Morning, when OReilly took exception to Kellys comments about Ailes and defended Fox News against the claims made in her book.

Look, its open season, an irritated OReilly told CBS host Norah O'Donnell. Lets whack the Fox News Channel. Ive had enough of it. Its a good place to work. All right?

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Accoding to Times reporters Emily Steel and Michael Schmidt, OReillys comments angered Kelly, who shot off an email to executives at the network to complain that OReillys words could cause future victims of harassment at the network to remain silent.

Despite the email, OReilly brought up the interview later that day on The OReilly Factor and appeared to rip both Kelly and women who claimed to be victims of misbehavior at Fox News.

"If someones paying you a wage, you owe that person or company allegiance," O'Reilly said. "If you dont like whats happening in the workplace, go to human resources... or leave."

That experience, along with a deep skepticism about whether the network was truly committed to changing its culture after Mr. Ailes was forced out, was a factor in Ms. Kellys decision to leave Fox News for a new role at NBC News, according to two people familiar with the matter, the Times reported.

Neither Kelly or Fox News immediately responded to a request to comment.

Mr. OReilly cannot comment on what Megyn Kelly thought, or did or did not do, except to say she never raised any such issue with him, nor did anyone else, said Marc E. Kasowitz, a lawyer for OReilly. At this time, it is apparent to any objective observer that Mr. OReilly is being subjected to a malicious campaign intent on harming his reputation and family through speculation and innuendo.

OReilly remains on vacation, with the future of his role at the network up in the air. A spokeswoman for Fox News says OReilly will return April 24, but multiple reports say the Murdoch family is awaiting the results of an investigation of his behavior by the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison before deciding the popular hosts fate.

Kelly was most recently seen hanging out with new colleagues Savannah Guthrie and Lester Holt at The Hollywood Reporter's 35 Most Powerful People in Media party.

NBC has yet to announce when Kelly will officially start her new show, slated for 9 a.m. on weekdays, though Guthrie said Kelly is "supposed to start some time in May or June." The network also canceled the 9 a.m. hour of the Today show to make room for Kelly, causing Temple grad Tamron Hall to leave the network.

Kelly, who will also host a yet-unannounced Sunday Night show on NBC, is eager to get started.

"I've spent enough time staring at the refrigerator, it's time to do some news," Kelly told the Hollywood Reporter.

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Paris (AFP) - Jean-Luc Melenchon, a fiery Communist-backed eurosceptic vowing to return "power to the people" as France's next president, says he has mellowed after years spent giving the establishment a tongue-lashing.

"I'm less of a hothead," said the bespectacled 65-year-old in a recent interview. "I'm becoming a reassuring figure."

In an election season marked by widespread disillusionment with the political class, the head of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) is now among the top four candidates in the April 23 first round of the two-stage vote.

Observers say strong debate performances showcasing a milder but still quick-witted Melenchon helped propel him into joint third place with the scandal-hit conservative candidate, Francois Fillon.

Suddenly part of a close-fought four-way affair, they are nipping at the heels of joint frontrunners Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front (FN) and centrist former Socialist Emmanuel Macron.

The two leaders of the first round will go through to a runoff on May 7.

Melenchon "invented political stand-up. He's become a showman," said former Socialist Party colleague Julien Dray. "This style keeps him from being too harsh. He's in teaching mode, the old professor giving lessons about the world and how to change it."

Melenchon also has an internet edge, boasting more than a million followers on Twitter and his own YouTube channel -- a way to circumvent the traditional media, which he accuses of bias.

- Stump rhetoric and social media savvy -

And he has turned heads with simultaneous appearances at campaign rallies using holograms, a technological first for a French presidential campaign and a sign of renewed vigour.

With the Socialist Party split between leftist and reformist camps under President Francois Hollande, its 49-year-old candidate Benoit Hamon is languishing at distant fifth place in the polls.

For many, Melenchon, after emphatically refusing to ally himself with Hamon, has emerged as the main voice on the left.

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Often appearing at rallies wearing a Mao jacket, Melenchon speaks without notes as he rails against the "neoliberal" European Union and stumps for his tax-and-spend agenda.

But while he shares Le Pen's animosity toward the EU -- they are both currently MEPs -- Melenchon is her polar opposite when it comes to immigration.

"Today as yesterday, I am delighted that France is a mix of races and all the children are our children," he has said.

An admirer of late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as well as Bolivian leader Evo Morales, he advocates a policy of non-alignment and wants France to withdraw from NATO.

While his supporters see him as a defender of the people against monied interests, to his detractors the candidate who wants to legalise cannabis is a populist firebrand and dangerous -- Hollande called him a "peril" while the right-leaning Figaro daily called him the "French Chavez".

Born in Tangiers, Morocco, Melenchon, who studied philosophy, was a Trotskyist student activist before joining the Socialist party at age 25.

He became the youngest member of the Senate in 1986.

- 'Our country needs another voice' -

Later he served as vocational education minister under Socialist premier Lionel Jospin from 2000 to 2002.

But in 2008, Melenchon fell out with then party leader Hollande and quit the Socialists, saying "our country needs another voice on the left".

With his virulent attacks against bosses and austerity policies, he won 11 percent of the vote when he ran for president in 2012 as head of the Parti de Gauche (Left Party).

This time he has emerged as a charismatic alternative to Le Pen and the other "outsider", the pro-business Macron, vowing to scrap France's "monarchical presidency" and give far more powers to parliament.

While anger management may have softened Melenchon's image, the candidate insists he still has fire in his belly. "You can't propose what I am proposing with the look of a choir boy... Sometimes there's no choice, you have to kick the doors open."

And he certainly had fighting words last week when he said the French would "spit blood" if Fillon, Macron or Le Pen emerges victorious in May.

"Mr Melenchon may have tried to create a softer, more controlled image, but his true nature is there for all to see," said Fillon.
By Sofia Menchu GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A former Mexican state governor on the run from police for more than five months who has come to symbolize corruption within the country's ruling party was arrested on Saturday night in Guatemala and now awaits extradition. Javier Duarte, wanted on charges of graft and organized crime, was detained in a hotel lobby in the picturesque lakeside town of Panajachel, 80 miles (130 km) west of Guatemala's capital, the national police said in a statement. Local television footage showed a calm Duarte, formerly governor of Veracruz state, being led by police outside the hotel on Saturday night, his hands cuffed behind his back. Duarte, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, was at the hotel for a couple of days using an assumed identity along with his wife; she has not been charged with any crimes. "He wanted to pass as a Mexican tourist," said Stu Velasco, deputy director of Guatemala's national police. Duarte likely entered Guatemala by land sometime in early November, and used private planes within Guatemala while on the run, said Omar Garcia, chief of criminal investigations within Mexico's attorney general's office, at a Sunday news conference at the Mexican embassy in Guatemala. He declined to detail Duarte's travels in the Central American country, or who was helping him, but said he had kept a low profile in Panajachel. "He didn't leave his hotel room," said Garcia. Duarte, 43, was transferred early on Sunday to the Matamoros prison in downtown Guatemala City, a facility known for holding drug traffickers and former Guatemalan government officials charged with corruption. Rodrigo Sandoval, a Guatemalan lawyer representing Duarte, visited him at the prison later on Sunday morning. "I had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Duarte, and he says he's waiting for his extradition and for his lawyers in Mexico. My understanding is that he will accept extradition," said Sandoval. Agriculture and oil-rich Veracruz, on Mexico's Gulf coast, is one of Mexico's largest states, and it has historically been a stronghold of President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Elected governor in 2010, Duarte presided over a sharp deterioration in security in the state punctuated by the discovery of mass graves and a spate of killings of journalists during his watch. He has been accused of carrying out massive personal enrichment schemes with illicit resources, potentially totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars and involving assets in Mexico and abroad. Duarte is charged with using ghost companies to transfer and hide public funds. Once seen as a rising young star within the PRI, Duarte was expelled from its ranks in October as accusations of graft mounted. He resigned as governor that same month, a few weeks before his six-year term was due to end. In June, Miguel Angel Yunes of the opposition National Action Party won a hotly contested race to succeed Duarte in a stinging defeat for the PRI, long the political party of the state's governors. "He plundered our state, and left us in a financial disaster," said Yunes at a news conference in Boca del Rio near Veracruz city, celebrating the arrest. Yunes said 1.2 billion pesos ($65 million) had been recovered from Duarte's illicit diversion of public funds and added that "billions of pesos" still remain in the possession of Duarte family members, former officials and criminals who posed as businessmen. Several of Duarte's top cabinet officials have been arrested on corruption charges, while others are being investigated. ($1 = 18.4977 Mexican pesos) (Additional reporting by Dave Graham, Anahi Rama and David Alire Garcia; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Bill Rigby)
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP)  Millions of Orthodox Christians around the world have celebrated Easter in overnight services and with "holy fire" from Jerusalem, commemorating the day followers believe that Jesus was resurrected nearly 2,000 years ago.

This year the Orthodox churches celebrate Easter on the same Sunday that Roman Catholics and Protestants mark the holy festival. The Western Christian church follows the Gregorian calendar, while the Eastern Orthodox uses the older Julian calendar and the two Easters are often weeks apart.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christian faithful, delivered a message of peace during the midnight service at the Patriarchate in Istanbul.

"Our faith is alive, because it is based on the event of the resurrection of Christ," Bartholomew said.

In his official Easter message issued earlier in the week, Bartholomew urged strong faith in the face of the world's tribulations.

"This message - of the victory of life over death, of the triumph of the joyful light of the (Easter) candle over the darkness of disorder and dissolution - is announced to the whole world from the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the invitation to experience the unwaning light of the resurrection," his message said.

In predominantly Orthodox Romania, Patriarch Daniel urged Christians to bring joy to "orphans, the sick, the elderly the poor ... and the lonely."

Late Saturday, Orthodox clerics transported the holy flame from Jerusalem by plane and it was then flown to other churches around the country. According to tradition the flame appears each year at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and is taken to other Orthodox countries.

In Russia, where Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion, President Vladimir Putin along with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana attended midnight Mass at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.

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The cathedral is a potent symbol of the revival of observant Christianity in Russia after the fall of the officially atheist Soviet Union. It is a reconstruction of the cathedral that was destroyed by explosion under dictator Josef Stalin.

In Serbia, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, held a liturgy in Belgrade's St. Sava Temple which outgoing president Tomislav Nikolic attended.

Irinej said in his Easter message that "with great sadness and pain in our hearts, we must note that today's world is not following the path of resurrection but the road of death and hopelessness." He also lamented the falling birth rate in Serbia as "a reason to cry and weep, but also an alarm."

Irinej evoked Kosovo, Serbia's former province which declared independence in 2008. Hundreds of medieval Orthodox churches and monasteries are located there.

Orthodoxy is also predominant in Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova.

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AP writers Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, Jim Heintz in Moscow and Elena Becatoros, in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.
By Gina Cherelus NEW YORK (Reuters) - After weeks of suspense, April the giraffe finally gave birth on Saturday to a baby boy, delighting of hundreds of thousands of people who have been monitoring a live cam feed from a New York zoo in anticipation of the long-overdue event. April, who had been due to give birth in January or February at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, in western New York, was pregnant for at least 16 months, compared with the typical gestation period of 15 months, according to zoo officials. April's celebrity and the public fascination with her unborn calf blossomed when the zoo began providing a live YouTube stream in February. Hundreds of thousands of viewers have watched the 15-year-old April since then, and more than a million people witnessed the birth on the livestream. The YouTube page on Saturday showed April going into labor and the hooves of the baby first emerging from the standing mother. Afterwards, the spindly 6-foot-tall (1.83-meter) calf, estimated to weigh as much as 150 pounds (68 kg), was seen standing at its mother's side. Zoo officials later announced on their Twitter page that the newborn giraffe was male and posted a photo of the still-unnamed calf and its mother with the message: "All is well." The zoo plans to hold a contest to name the baby. Classed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species in 2016, giraffes are the world's tallest mammals. The species is usually found in dry savanna zones in sub-Saharan Africa. (Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)
Mytishchi (Russia) (AFP) - Property developers are racing to build up prime land in Moscow's leafy outskirts with plans that involve razing entire villages and felling acres of forest.

Now determined locals are fighting back to stop the developers in their tracks and preserve the environment, local heritage and their homes.

And with some success, such as in the village of Vostochnaya Perlovka, a settlement ranging from simple wooden cottages to roomy brick family homes with some 4,000 residents, northeast of the capital.

Local authorities announced a plan to demolish all of its 600 houses to allow a property developer to build high-rise blocks there, increasing the population to 25,000 people.

Horrified at the prospect of losing their beloved homes, the residents immediately teamed up to campaign against the demolition.

"If the project goes through, the population density of this area will be more than 13,000 people per square kilometre -- more than twice that of Hong Kong," which has close to 6,800 people per square kilometre, said lawyer Andrei Yumashev, who represents the residents.

He urged the property company, at the very least, to discuss the details of its plans for Vostochnaya Perlovka with locals.

"I couldn't live in a concrete building," said Viktor Karachun, one of the coordinators of the campaign, who works as a company's commercial director.

"Here, I have a large wooden house and an apple orchard. I have no problem parking and my children can spend the whole day outside."

He published an online petition in July 2016 against the planned development by local company Zemelniye Resursy which has gained 2,000 signatures.

But neither the petition nor dozens of letters and protests made any difference, forcing residents to go to courts.

In December, the Supreme Court responded by reducing the scale of the project -- banning the developers from building 20-storey blocks and massive shopping centres and reducing the number of residents to 10,000 -- something the locals view as a considerable victory.

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- Disappearing forests -

With an already bulging population of at least 12 million, Moscow is a magnet for the upwardly mobile from all over Russia and the former Soviet Union.

But commuting to central Moscow for work while living in the surrounding region is a more affordable option for most.

Just six kilometres (4 miles) from Vostochnaya Perlovka, residents of another small settlement called Stroitel, or Builder, are fighting the felling of 255 acres (103 hectares) of forest, known as Chelyuskinsky Wood, for house building.

Residents accuse the local authorities of illegally selling the forest to a Moscow property developer called Novaya Zemlya, which wants to build a new district with 20,000 inhabitants.

In December, after MPs supported the residents' complaints, local prosecutors launched a probe and determined that the construction plan was against the law.

But the developers have not given up their plans and are continuing to destroy the forest, say residents, who have seen trees felled in recent months.

"We moved here (from Moscow) so our children could breathe fresh air. In this forest, every tree is dear to us," said one resident, Maria Tyabut.

The destruction of natural areas for construction is becoming increasingly common in Russia, said Mikhail Kreindlin of Greenpeace-Russia, since "property developers benefit from loopholes in the law".

"Housing construction is a sector that gives good returns, not just for the investors, but also for the local authorities," Kreindlin said.

"Even if you rule out corruption -- which is frequent -- these projects fill up the coffers of the local authorities with taxes."

But the problem is that "soon people won't have anywhere to go for a walk or fresh air to breathe," he warned.

- Moscow expands -

However officials and property developers argue that such construction projects are essential.

"There is practically no free land left in Moscow," said Vladimir Voronin, who heads a large Russian property developer, FSK Lider.

"Moscow region attracts people from other regions who want to earn money and make careers in the capital," said Voronin, adding that the economic crisis prompted by falling oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine had not stopped them coming.

Last year, 8.8 million square metres of housing was built in the Moscow region, including 5.5 million square metres of highrise blocks, according to the Moscow region's construction ministry, the highest rate in the country.

In 2011 the municipal government massively expanded the area that is part of the capital by extending the limits of "Greater Moscow" by 1,500 square kilometres to the city's southwest.
A mysterious crack has been spreading across a giant Greenland glacier, and it's raising concerns that part of the floating ice shelf could splinter off into the ocean.

That's bad.

Scientists with the NASA field campaign Operation IceBridge recently captured the first photographs of the growing rift while flying over Petermann Glacier, a structure that connects the Greenland ice sheet to the Arctic Ocean.

SEE ALSO: NASA photo reveals a startling 300-foot-wide rift in Antarctic Ice Shelf

The new chasm appears in the center of the glacier's floating ice shelf  the tongue of ice that extends into the water from the grounded glacier on land.

In the photos, the crack appears relatively close to a larger rift spreading toward the shelf's center. Should the two intersect, part of the ice shelf in northwest Greenland could potentially break off.

A portion of the new rift on Petermann Glacier's floating ice shelf is shown near the bottom center. The older rift appears near top center. The shaded feature, near the bottom center, is the "medial flowline."

Image: NASA/Kelly Brunt

There may be a savior for the shelf. A "medial flowline" in the ice could have a "stagnating effect" on the newer rift, helping to slow or halt its advance toward the older chasm, scientists with Operation IceBridge said on Facebook.

Stef Lhermitte, a professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, first alerted the NASA team to the crack's coordinates after spotting it in satellite images, Washington Post reported.

Polar-orbiting satellites showed the chasm for the first time in July 2016, and "it has been growing since then," Lhermitte said on Twitter.

While scientists still aren't sure what caused the crack to form, Lhermitte said a possible culprit might be "ocean forcing," a phenomenon that happens when warm ocean waters melt the ice from underneath.

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Ocean forcing might have been a culprit in creating cracks in another part of the world. Researchers believe it caused deep subsurface cracks to form in Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier, a recent study found. There a 20-mile-long rift eventually split the ice from the inside out and cleaved off a 225-square-mile iceberg in July 2015.

Many of the glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica that end in floating ice shelves have been shrinking due to warming ocean and air temperatures.

Petermann Glacier's east wall near the terminus of the floating ice shelf.

Image: NASA/John Sonntag

When ice shelves break off into icebergs it doesn't directly increase sea levels, because the ice is already floating in the ocean, like an ice cube in a glass.

However, because the ice shelves act like doorstops to the land-based ice behind them, if the shelves disappear, the glaciers can start moving into the sea. This would add new water to the ocean and therefore raise sea levels.

In the case of Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier, researchers said that warming waters causing cracks to form beneath "provides another mechanism for rapid retreat of these glaciers, adding to the probability that we may see significant collapse of West Antarctica in our lifetimes."

Greenland, Antarctica, the message is we're all probably doomed.

Related:

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.

WATCH: Watch how global warming heats up the world from 1880-2016
Just as Vice President Mike Pence took off for South Korea late Saturday, Kim Jong Uns regime in neighboring North Korea test-fired a new missile. The launch, however, was a failure and the missile blew up almost immediately, according to the U.S. military.

The missile was launched from Sinpo, a port city on the North Korea's eastern coast, along the Sea of Japan, shortly before 6 a.m. local time Sunday (5:30 p.m. EDT Saturday).

South Koreas Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement: The North attempted to launch an unidentified missile from near the Sinpo region this morning but it is suspected to have failed.

Read: Will There Be A Nuclear War Between North Korea And US?

The launch came a day after North Korea carried out a massive military parade to marked the 105th birth anniversary of the regimes founder and Kim Jong Uns grandfather Kim Il-Sung. The event saw thousands of North Korean troops, along with the countrys arsenal of missiles, being paraded down the Kim Il-sung square.

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.

Tensions are heightened between North Korea and the U.S., and in a statement ahead of the parade, a spokesman for North Koreas military said: Our toughest counteraction against the U.S. and its vassal forces will be taken in such a merciless manner as not to allow the aggressors to survive.

President Donald Trump has taken a strong position against Pyongyang, tweeting that the country was looking for trouble and that the U.S. would take action against its aggression.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a statement the president and his military team are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. However, he added the president has no further comment.

During his visit to Seoul, which is about 182 miles from the launch site of the latest missile, Vice President Pence is expected to issue a warning to Kim Jong Uns regime that North Korea would face strong consequences if the countrys provocative behavior was not stopped.

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(PYONGYANG, North Korea) - North Korea paraded its intercontinental ballistic missiles in a massive military display in central Pyongyang on Saturday, with ruler Kim Jong Un looking on with delight as his nation flaunted its increasingly sophisticated military hardware amid rising regional tensions.

Kim did not speak during the annual parade, which celebrates the 1912 birthday of his late grandfather Kim Il Sung, North Koreas founding ruler, but a top official warned that the North would stand up to any threat posed by the United States.

Choe Ryong Hae said President Donald Trump was guilty of creating a war situation on the Korean Peninsula by dispatching U.S. forces to the region.

We will respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and a nuclear war with our style of a nuclear attack, said Choe, widely seen by analysts as North Koreas No. 2 official.

The parade, the annual highlight of North Koreas most important holiday, came amid growing international worries that North Korea may be preparing for its sixth nuclear test or a major missile launch, such as its first flight test of an ICBM capable of reaching U.S. shores.

But if the parade signaled a readiness for war, North Korea has long insisted that its goal is peace - and survival - with the growing arsenal a way to ensure that the government in Pyongyang is not easily overthrown.

North Korea saw the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Moammar Gadhafi in Libya - neither of whom had nuclear weapons - as proof of the weapons power.

It will be the largest of miscalculations if the United States treats us like Iraq and Libya, which are living out miserable fates as victims of aggression, and Syria, which didnt respond immediately even after it was attacked, said a Friday statement by the general staff of the North Korean army, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

Also Friday, North Koreas vice foreign minister told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that Trumps tweets - he recently tweeted, for example, that the North is looking for trouble - have inflamed tensions.

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Trump is always making provocations with his aggressive words, Han Song Ryol said.

U.S. retaliatory strikes earlier this month against Syria over a chemical weapons attack on civilians, coupled with Trumps dispatching of what he called an armada of ships to the region, touched off fears in South Korea that the United States was preparing for military action against the North.

Pyongyang has also expressed anger over the ongoing annual spring military exercises the U.S. holds with South Korea, which it considers a rehearsal for invasion.

But U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Friday that the Trump administration had settled on a policy that will emphasize increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of China, North Koreas only major ally, instead of military options or trying to overthrow Kims regime.

A U.S. military official, who requested anonymity to discuss planning, said the United States doesnt intend to use military force against North Korea in response to either a nuclear test or a missile launch.

Kim, wearing a suit and tie, was greeted Saturday with thunderous - and extensively practiced - applause as he stepped into view on a large podium, clapping to acknowledge the thousands of soldiers and civilians taking part in the parade at Kim Il Sung Square.

The parade, an elaborate display of the states immense power, involves tens of thousands of participants, from goose-stepping soldiers to crowds of civilians who have spent weeks perfecting their ability to wave plastic flowers in unison.

For outside military analysts, though, the highlight is the weaponry that the North puts on display.

A series of what appeared to be KN-08 missiles were among the weapons rolled out on trucks. Analysts say the missiles could one day be capable of hitting targets as far as the continental United States, although North Korea has yet to flight test them.

The parade also included large rockets covered by canisters in two different types of transporter erector launcher trucks, or TELs. An official from South Koreas Defense Ministry couldnt immediately confirm whether any of the rockets represented a new type of ICBM.

Kim Dong-yub, a North Korea expert at Seouls Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the canisters and trucks suggested that the North was developing technology to cold launch ICBMs, ejecting them from the canisters before they ignite. This would allow North Korea to prevent its limited number of ICBM-capable launcher trucks from being damaged during launches and also make the missiles harder to detect after theyre fired, he said. Cold launches would also allow the missiles to be fired from silos.

Kim, the analyst, said its likely that North Korea is also developing solid-fuel ICBMs, and that some of the rockets inside the canisters on Saturday might have been prototypes.

Other military hardware at the parade included tanks, multiple rocket launchers and artillery, as well as a solid-fuel missile designed to be fired from submarines. Also on display was a powerful midrange missile that outside analysts call a Musudan, and which can potentially reach U.S. air bases in Guam, as well as a new solid-fuel midrange missile that can be fired from land mobile launchers, making them harder to detect before launch.

Kim Jong Un, a 30-something leader who took power in late 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, emphasizes nuclear weapons as the foundation of his national defense strategy. Under his watch, North Korea has aggressively pursued a goal of putting a nuclear warhead on an ICBM capable of reaching the continental United States.

In his annual New Years address, Kim said North Koreas preparations for an ICBM launch had reached the final stage. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

North Korea conducted two nuclear tests last year alone, advancing its goal to make nuclear weapons small enough to fit on long-range missiles. The North also last year launched a long-range rocket that put a satellite into orbit, which Washington, Seoul and others saw as a banned test of missile technology.

Other senior officials joining Kim at the parade podium included Kim Won Hong, who the South Korean government had said earlier this year was fired from his job as state security minister, presumably over corruption. South Korea has a spotty record of tracking developments in North Korea, as information about the secretive, authoritarian state is often impossible to confirm.

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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

This article was originally published on TIME.com
By Lucia Mutikani and Sue-Lin Wong WASHINGTON/PYONGYANG (Reuters) - The United States, its allies and China are working together on a range of responses to North Korea's latest failed ballistic missile test, U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser said on Sunday, citing what he called an international consensus to act. H.R. McMaster indicated that Trump was not considering military action for now. "It's time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully," he said on ABC's "This Week" program. "We are working together with our allies and partners and with the Chinese leadership to develop a range of options." McMaster added: "There is an international consensus now, including the Chinese leadership, that this is a situation that just cannot continue." The Trump administration is focusing its North Korea strategy on tougher economic sanctions, possibly including an oil embargo, a global ban on its airline, intercepting cargo ships and punishing Chinese banks doing business with Pyongyang, Reuters reported last week, citing U.S. officials. While Trump has employed tough rhetoric in response to North Korea's recent missile tests, the new U.S. president's options appear limited in dealing with a challenge that has vexed his Oval Office predecessors. Most options fall into four categories: economic sanctions, covert action, diplomatic negotiations and military force. The North Korean missile blew up almost immediately after its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said. Hours later, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence landed in South Korea for talks on the North's increasingly defiant arms program. His visit came a day after North Korea held a military parade in its capital, Pyongyang, marking the 105th anniversary of the birth of founding father Kim Il Sung. What appeared to be new long-range ballistic missiles were on display in the parade. RISING TENSIONS Tensions have risen as Trump takes a hard rhetorical line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from China and proceeded with nuclear and missile programs seen by Washington as a direct threat. Trump acknowledged on Sunday that the softer line he had taken on China's management of its currency was linked to China's help on the North Korea issue. "Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!" Trump said on Twitter. Trump has backed away from a campaign promise to label China in that way. South Korea said the North's latest show of force "threatened the whole world." But a U.S. foreign policy adviser traveling with Pence on Air Force Two sought to defuse some of the tension, saying the test of what was believed to be a medium-range missile had come as no surprise. "We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch," the adviser told reporters on condition of anonymity. "It's a failed test. It follows another failed test. So really no need to reinforce their failure. We don't need to expend any resources against that."The adviser said the missile's flight lasted four or five seconds. Pence, addressing an Easter service with American troops in South Korea, said the U.S. commitment to South Korea was unwavering. "Let me assure you under President Trump's leadership, our resolve has never been stronger. Our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger." Pence was beginning a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of U.S. commitment to its ally in the face of mounting tension. The U.S. nuclear-powered Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group is also heading to the region. (http://tmsnrt.rs/2p1yGTQ) China, which Trump has urged to do more to rein in North Korea, has spoken out against its weapons tests and has supported U.N. sanctions. It has repeatedly called for talks while appearing increasingly frustrated with the North. Beijing banned imports of North Korean coal on Feb. 26, cutting off its most important export. China's customs department issued an order on April 7 telling traders to return North Korean coal cargoes, said trading sources with knowledge of the order. 'HOSTILE REGIME' Trump's decision to order a cruise missile strike on a Syrian airfield this month, in response to what he said was Syria's use of chemical weapons, raised questions about his plans for reclusive North Korea. Pyongyang has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions, and regularly threatens to destroy South Korea and the United States. "The president has made clear that he will not accept the United States and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons," McMaster told ABC. But McMaster, who was speaking from Kabul, Afghanistan, acknowledged the likelihood of North Korean retaliation if Washington uses military force in an attempt to stop its weapons programs. "What (is) particularly difficult about - about dealing with this regime, is that it is unpredictable," he said. South Korea, which hosts 28,500 U.S. troops and holds a presidential election on May 9, warned of punitive action if the Sunday launch led to further provocation. Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-1953 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States, but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturizing a nuclear warhead. North Korea launched a ballistic missile from the same region this month, ahead of a summit between the United States and China in Florida to discuss the North's arms program. That missile, which U.S. officials said appeared to be a liquid-fueled, extended-range Scud, only flew about 60 km (40 miles), a fraction of its range, before spinning out of control. Tension had escalated sharply amid concern the North may conduct a sixth nuclear test or a ballistic missile test around Saturday's celebration of Kim Il Sung's birthday, which it calls the "Day of the Sun." In Pyongyang, there was a festive atmosphere at a flower show, with families out, taking pictures with North Korean-made smartphones. There was no mention of the test failure by the KCNA state news agency. Company worker Rim Chung Ryol, 30, said he had not heard of the test. "If it is a failure, then failure is the mother of success," he told Reuters. Factory worker Ri Gul Chol, 37, also had not heard about the missile test. "But whatever Kim Jong Un decides and instructs will succeed and all the citizens will support him," he said. (Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Ju-min Park in SEOUL, Joseph Campbell and Philip Wen in DANDONG, Christian Shepherd in BEIJING, Daniel Trotta in NEW YORK and Caren Bohan in WASHINGTON; Writing by Nick Macfie and Warren Strobel; Editing by Diane Craft and Peter Cooney)
By Lucia Mutikani and Sue-Lin Wong WASHINGTON/PYONGYANG (Reuters) - The United States, its allies and China are working together on a range of responses to North Korea's latest attempted ballistic missile test, U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser said on Sunday, citing what he called an international consensus to act. "We are working together with our allies and partners and with the Chinese leadership to develop a range of options," national security adviser H.R. McMaster said on ABC's "This Week" program. "This latest missile test just fits into a pattern of provocative and destabilizing and threatening behavior on the part of the North Korean regime," McMaster said. He said the president has asked the national security council to integrate the efforts of the Defense and State departments and U.S. intelligence agencies to develop options if "this pattern of behavior continues and if the North Korean Regime refuses to denuclearize." "There is an international consensus now, including the Chinese leadership, that this is a situation that just cannot continue," McMaster said. The North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately" after its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said. Hours later U.S. Vice President Mike Pence landed in South Korea for talks on the North's increasingly defiant arms program. His visit comes a day after North Korea held a grand military parade in its capital city of Pyongyang, marking the birth anniversary of the state founder. What appeared to be new long-range ballistic missiles were on display in the parade. Tensions have been steadily rising as Trump takes a hard rhetorical line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from China and proceeded with nuclear and missile programs seen by Washington as a direct threat. Trump on Sunday acknowledged that the softer line he has taken on China's management of its currency was linked to China's help on the North Korea issue. "Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!" Trump said on Twitter. Trump has backed away from a campaign promise to label China in that way. South Korea said the North's latest show of force "threatened the whole world." But a U.S. foreign policy adviser travelling with Pence on Air Force Two sought to defuse some of the tension, saying the test of what was believed to be a medium-range missile had come as no surprise. "We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch," the adviser told reporters on condition of anonymity. "It's a failed test. It follows another failed test. So really no need to reinforce their failure. We don't need to expend any resources against that."The adviser said the missile's flight lasted four or five seconds. Pence, addressing an Easter service with American troops in South Korea, said the U.S. commitment to South Korea was unwavering. "Let me assure you under President Trump's leadership, our resolve has never been stronger. Our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger." Pence was beginning a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of U.S. commitment to its ally in the face of rising tension. The U.S. nuclear-powered Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group is also heading to the region. (http://tmsnrt.rs/2p1yGTQ) China, which Trump has urged to do more to rein in North Korea, has spoken out against its weapons tests and has supported U.N. sanctions. It has repeatedly called for talks while appearing increasingly frustrated with the North. China banned imports of North Korean coal on Feb. 26, cutting off its most important export. China's customs department issued an order on April 7 telling traders to return North Korean coal cargoes, said trading sources with knowledge of the order. TENSIONS RISE Trump's decision to order a cruise missile strike on a Syrian airfield this month, in response to what he said was Syria's use of chemical weapons, raised questions about his plans for reclusive North Korea. Pyongyang has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions, and regularly threatens to destroy South Korea and the United States. "The president has made clear that he will not accept the United States and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons," McMaster told ABC. But McMaster, who was speaking from Kabul, Afghanistan, acknowledged the likelihood of North Korean retaliation if Washington uses military force in an attempt to stop its weapons programs. "What (is) particularly difficult about -- about dealing with this regime, is that it is unpredictable," he said. "It's time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully," he said. South Korea, which hosts 28,500 U.S. troops and holds a presidential election on May 9, warned of punitive action if the Sunday launch led to further provocation. "North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterday's military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world," South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturising a nuclear warhead. North Korea launched a ballistic missile from the same region this month, ahead of a summit between the United States and China in Florida to discuss the North's arms program. But that missile, which U.S. officials said appeared to be a liquid-fuelled, extended-range Scud, only flew about 60 km (40 miles), a fraction of its range, before spinning out of control. Tension had escalated sharply amid concern the North may conduct a sixth nuclear test or a ballistic missile test around Saturday's 105th anniversary of the birth of founding father Kim Il Sung, what it calls the "Day of the Sun". China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exchanged views on the "situation on the Korean peninsula" by phone on Sunday, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. Yang said the two sides should maintain dialogue. FLOWER SHOW In Pyongyang, there was a festive atmosphere at a flower show, with families out, taking pictures with North Korean-made smart phones. There was no mention of the test failure by the KCNA state news agency. Company worker Rim Chung Ryol, 30, said he had not heard of the test. "If it is a failure, then failure is the mother of success," he told Reuters. Factory worker Ri Gul Chol, 37, also had not heard about the missile test. "But whatever Kim Jong Un decides and instructs will succeed and all the citizens will support him," he said. (Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Ju-min Park in SEOUL, Joseph Campbell and Philip Wen in DANDONG, Christian Shepherd in BEIJING, Daniel Trotta in NEW YORK and Caren Bohan in WASHINGTON; Writing by Nick Macfie and Warren Strobel; Editing by Robert Birsel, Keith Weir and Diane Craft)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  A North Korean medium-range missile exploded seconds after it was launched on Sunday, U.S. officials said, a high-profile failure that came hours before the U.S. vice president arrived in South Korea, and as an American aircraft supercarrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

The U.S. had good intelligence both before and after the launch, said a White House foreign policy adviser traveling with Vice President Mike Pence, who arrived in Seoul in the afternoon to start a 10-day trip to Asia.

No planned response is expected from the Trump administration because the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's initial understanding of the launch, said there was no need for the U.S. to reinforce the failure.

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The official said that had it been a nuclear test, "other actions would have been taken by the U.S."

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

The White House believes that Sunday's test involved a medium-range ballistic missile that failed within 4-5 seconds after launch, and that it did not involve an intercontinental ballistic missile, the foreign policy adviser said.

The North regularly launches short-range missiles, but is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target U.S. troops in Asia and, eventually, the U.S. mainland.

The failed launch will sting in Pyongyang because it came a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather.

President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the failed launch, which was attempted from the east coast city of Sinpo. In a statement, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump and his military team "are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."

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Pence said North Korea's "provocation" was another reminder of the risks that U.S. and South Korean service members face every day "in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world."

The vice president said at a fellowship dinner at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul that the willingness of military members "to stand firm without fear inspires the nation and inspires the world."

North Korea's ultimate goal is to have a full array of nuclear-tipped missiles in response to what Pyongyang says is hostility by Washington and Seoul meant to topple its government. North Korea is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles.

Many outside analysts believe that North Korea has not yet mastered the technology to build warheads small enough to place on long-range missiles, though some civilian experts say it can already build nuclear-tipped shorter range missiles that have South Korea and Japan within its striking range.

The U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement that Sunday's missile exploded on launch. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it was analyzing exactly how the North Korean launch failed.

In Seoul, South Korea's presidential office convened a national security council meeting to examine security postures.

Always high animosity has risen on the Korean Peninsula in recent months, as the United States and South Korea conduct annual war games that North Korea claims are invasion preparation and the North prepared for Saturday's anniversary celebrations. A U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, is heading to waters off Korea in a show of force.

Analysts warn that even failed missile launches provide valuable knowledge to North Korea as it tries to build its weapons program. The country launched a long-range rocket and conducted the two nuclear tests last year, including its most powerful to date.

Aside from improving the technology, North Korean missile and nuclear tests are seen by outside analysts partly as efforts to bolster the domestic image of leader Kim Jong Un and apply political pressure on Seoul and Washington.

Kim has overseen three nuclear tests and a string of missile and rocket launches since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.

Another missile test from Sinpo failed earlier this month, when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean. That launch came shortly before Trump's first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China is North Korea's only major ally.

The extended-range Scud missile in that earlier launch suffered an in-flight failure and fell into the sea off North Korea's east coast, according to U.S. imagery and assessments.

Despite Sunday's failure, the North's previous claim to have used "standardized" warheads has led to worries that it was making headway in its push to develop small and sophisticated warheads to be topped on long-range missiles.

Washington sees North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to world security and to its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea. The United States, South Korea and other countries have vowed to apply more pressure on the North, but so far nothing has worked to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

___

Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.
One soldier enjoys a cigarette, another sits reading quietly on the riverbank: seen from the Chinese side of the border, North Korea's army does not appear to be on a war footing despite all the bellicose language.

Dandong city is the main crossing point to North Korea, and every day hundreds of tourists embark on small boats for a cruise on the Yalu border river and a fleeting glimpse of another world.

The boats approach within a few metres (yards) of the Korean shore, giving residents of the world's second largest economy a view of their impoverished and sanctions-hit but nuclear-armed neighbour.

Further south, the border between North and South Korea is one of the world's most heavily fortified. But the atmosphere is a great deal more relaxed along the Yalu river, even though the North's ally China enforces a range of UN sanctions intended to curb its nuclear and missile programmes.

The sanctions have had a limited effect. After a huge military parade in Pyongyang on Saturday, the North Sunday defied international condemnation to test-fire another missile.

Tensions have been rising for weeks and the US has sent a naval strike group led by an aircraft carrier to the region. The North has reiterated it is ready for war with the US, and its army Friday vowed a "merciless" response to any provocation.

But the soldiers seen Sunday appeared notably relaxed -- whether sitting on a bicycle, immersed in their reading or puffing on a cigarette next to women busily washing clothes in the river.

It's a world away from the thousands of goose-stepping troops and missiles which packed Pyongyang's Kim Il-Sung Square Saturday to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of the nation's eponymous founder.

Unconcerned at the prospect of provoking an incident, one Chinese tourist uses a slingshot to shoot a stone into the river as the boat approaches Sinuiju, the North Korean frontier town linked to Dandong by the Friendship Bridge.

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From a green wooden observation post, a North Korean soldier placidly watches the tourists through binoculars.

The river cruises are an important money-spinner in Dandong, where dozens of boats offer trips for a modest 70 yuan ($10).

The cruise vessels stop off at a boat where an enterprising trader sells North Korean products: eggs, cigarettes and alcohol.

In the wider world the tensions persist. Sunday's missile test was a failure, according to South Korea and the US military.

But it came hours ahead of a visit by US Vice President Mike Pence to the South, where the North's weapons programme will top the agenda.
The Philippine military said Sunday it would hold annual exercises with US troops next month, reaffirming its commitment to the alliance despite cooling relations under President Rodrigo Duterte.

The 10-day exercises will be the first held under Duterte, who has suggested cancelling the drills and called for the withdrawal of American troops, putting into question Manila's 70-year-old alliance with Washington as he looks instead to court China.

The outspoken Filipino leader, who has earned international censure for a war on drugs that has seen thousands killed, has since softened his stance on working with the US military.

The annual military exercises, known as Balikatan (Shoulder-to-Shoulder), will now go ahead in May, focusing on counter-terrorism and disaster response as the Philippines battles Islamic militants in their lawless southern strongholds.

"It will be scenario-based like (preparing for) a big storm hitting the Philippines or the possibility of terrorism," Balikatan spokesman Major Celeste Frank Sayson told AFP.

"We are safe to say there will be no more live-fire exercises. We (will) focus on humanitarian and civil assistance."

In previous years Balikatan had evolved from counter-terrorism manoeuvres against Islamic militants to simulations of protecting or retaking territory, as a dispute with Beijing over islands in the South China Sea escalated.

But Duterte, who took office last year, has sought improved relations with China and has set aside the maritime row in favour of economic concessions.

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had said the exercises would refocus on fighting terrorism, which he described as the Philippines' top security problem.

The Philippines is battling Islamic militants and pirates in the conflict-torn south, where several groups have pledged allegiance to Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.

Security forces in the past week clashed with the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group on a popular resort island, the first attack on a key Philippine tourist destination in recent years.
Easter is the most holy holiday in the Catholic religion, but Pope Francis took a moment during his Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) message to condemn the bus bombing in Syria Saturday, which left at least 126 people death. Nearly 70 of them were children.

Pope Francis slammed the attack in his Easter address, saying the bombing was a vile attack on fleeing refugee.

READ: What Does Pope Francis Believe In? Exorcism Encouraged If Necessary

May [God] sustain the efforts of those who are actively working to bring comfort and relief to the civilian population in beloved Syria, who are greatly suffering from a war that does not cease to sow horror and death, he said Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

The pope prayed God would help in the innocent civilians in Syria who are prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death.

Last month, the pope asked priests to call upon exorcists to assist those that could be experiencing real spiritual disorders, the AFP reported March 17. The notion was shocking to some since The Vatican created a new rule which urged priests discern the difference between mental illness and demonic possession in in 1999.

Discernment is necessary also because those who approach the confessional may come from the most desperate situations, the pope said. When the confessor becomes aware of the presence of genuine spiritual disturbances  that may be in large part psychic, and therefore must be confirmed by means of healthy collaboration with the human sciences  he must not hesitate to refer the issue to those who, in the diocese, are charged with this delicate and necessary ministry, namely, exorcists.

There are training classes available at The Vatican for potential exorcists, according to AFP. The existence of the devil isnt an option, something to take or leave as you wish, Vatican official, Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, said in 1999.

Pope Francis

Photo: Getty Images

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Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis urged an end to "horror and death" in Syria and implored God to bring peace to the Middle East as he delivered the traditional Easter Day mass in Rome on Sunday.

The Easter mass, the highlight of the Christian calendar began under a cloudy sky where worshippers had gathered since the early hours to gain access amid tight security.

After a short bout of heavy rain, the pontiff gave his traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing, to the city and the world, in which he prayed for those suffering from war, famine and political unrest, highlighting Syria, but also Ukraine and conflict zones in Africa.

He expressed hope that Jesus' own sacrifice might "sustain the efforts of all those actively engaged in bringing comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death."

And he prayed for peace "beginning with the Holy Land, as well as in Iraq and Yemen."

He also spoke out against the hostilities and famine in Africa, notably in South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo "who endure continuing hostilities, aggravated by the grave famine affecting" parts of Africa.

He further urged world leaders to hear the message of peace as they contend with "the complex and often dramatic situations of todays world," and to work "to prevent the spread of conflicts and to put a halt to the arms trade."

Without mentioning Venezuela by name, Pope Francis also alluded to political and social tensions in Latin America, expressing the hope that the "common good of societies" would prevail.

"May it be possible for bridges of dialogue to be built, by continuing to fight the scourge of corruption and to seek viable and peaceful solutions to disputes, for progress and the strengthening of democratic institutions in complete respect for the rule of law," he said.

- Bloody start to Holy Week -

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Turning his attention to eastern Europe, he asked that "the Good Shepherd come to the aid of Ukraine, still beset by conflict and bloodshed."

Of the social and political upheaval in Europe, Francis prayed for God's blessing on "those experiencing moments of crisis and difficulty, especially due to high unemployment, particularly among young people."

The mass followed his Good Friday prayer in which he deplored the suffering of migrants, the victims of racism and the persecution of Christians around the world.

Easter week got off to a bloody start last Sunday when 45 people were killed in attacks on two Coptic churches in Egypt which were claimed by the Islamic State group.

The entire area around St Peter's Basilica was blocked off, with only several access points for those admitted after having their bags inspected.

Access to St Peter's Square itself was only possible after security checks similar to those at airports. Hundreds of police and security forces stood guard.

Sunday also saw Francis' retired predecessor Pope Benedict XVI turn 90, marked by a quiet celebration at the restored convent where he lives within the Vatican grounds.

"There will doubtless be something on the menu to mark his birthday," former Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters last week.

Benedict's brother will join a small group of old friends on Monday for a birthday party at which they will celebrate with a few "Bavarian songs," Benedict's personal secretary Georg Gaenswein told Italian media.

"He will see his brother Georg, which will be the best present for him," he said.

To mark the occasion, the Vatican stamp and coin office has released a series of stamps marking important events in the two millennia history of the church.

Benedict stepped down in 2013 citing his increased frailty. He was the first pontiff to do so in 600 years.
Verona (Italy) (AFP) - On paper it seems as obvious a pairing as a glass of spicy Gewurztraminer with crispy duck and pancakes.

Yet Italy, the world's biggest wine producer, is lagging in the fight for sales in China, tipped to become the world's second biggest importer of wine by 2020.

Sales of Chianti, Pinot Grigio and other samples from Italy's 300-plus wine denominations accounted for barely five percent of the $2.4 billion dollars worth of wine that the world's most populous nation imported in 2016.

Of that total, 44 percent by value was sourced from France. Australia, Chile and Spain are also ahead of Italy in seducing the palates of China's burgeoning middle class.

"It's a pity. Italian producers have been slow to get into the market," says Andrew Tan, a Brunello di Montalcino enthusiast in charge of procurement for 1919, one of China's biggest liquor retailers.

With a network of more than 1,000 stores and an online platform, 1919 sent Tan to last week's Vinitaly trade fair in Verona.

His mission: to find Italian wines capable of matching the success of popular Australian brands like 'Jacob's Creek' and 'yellow tail' in the entry-to-middle sections of the Chinese market.

"We are coming in to cooperate with big wineries on branding," Tan told AFP. "We want to co-own the brands and we promote them -- that is what we are talking to several big producers about."

Tan also sees potential for smaller Italian wineries at higher price points, and for Italy's top-end Barolos, Brunellos and Amarones as fine-wine investors expand their horizons beyond Bordeaux and Burgundy.

- Uphill battle -

But first Italy has to find a way into homes where glasses are currently filled by beer or spirits.

"We have to cut short the distribution channel and get a good price for the consumer," Tan says.

The simple brands message is not easy to get across in a country of more than 300,000 wineries with an unrivalled diversity of grape varieties and styles of winemaking.

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"Everyone has to understand that nobody in China knows what Italian wines are," says Stevie Kim, the managing director of Vinitaly International.

Kim has made cracking the Chinese market a joint priority alongside retaining Italy's market-leading role in the United States, whose import market is currently twice the size of China's.

She says Italian producers have a USP of being able to offer better value than rivals at every price point, but accepts it will take time to make gains in China.

"I am not worried about China producing more wine itself," she says.

"Look at what happened in the United States after California took off. It is very important that the Chinese start drinking lots and lots of wine. Only then will they go into other wines and that is when we have to be ready."

Suzanne Mustacich, the author of "Thirsty Dragon", an award-winning account of Bordeaux's phenomenal success in China, says it will be an uphill struggle.

"Italy lacks the brand recognition and association with luxury, history and quality enjoyed by Bordeaux in China," she says. "And Bordeaux's success did not happen overnight, China was on their radar for a very long time."

Italy's gains in the US have been helped by success in restaurants, aided by the large Italian diaspora.

- Strength in diversity -

That's not an option in China but food can still be Italy's way-in, says Marco Pizzoli, a Shanghai-based executive for Italian wine group GIV.

"The potential is clearly there because wine is a trendy product, especially with millennials," Pizzoli said.

"Compared to countries like Italy and France where we have consumption of more than 30 litres per head (per year), in China we are still around 1.2-1.5 litres."

Educating potential consumers is key, he argues. "Italian restaurants are important but we should try to work more with local restaurants, which is where there is really the big potential."

Matching the aromas and flavours of Chinese food to wine is notoriously difficult. In the West, experts frequently recommend aromatic, off-dry wines, such as Gewurztraminer.

Yet in China, it is structured, dry and often tannic reds based on Cabernet Sauvignon that have captured the market - contributing to Australia, Bordeaux and Chile's success.

While the Bordeaux boom was often associated with conspicuous consumption of a kind now frowned upon by the authorities, Tan sees the next stage of China's wine development being about evolving consumer tastes.

Like Pizzoli, he sees the Chinese joining the Prosecco party going on in many mature wine markets.

"Bubbles are getting more popular and it is still on the low end. Prosecco it is not too expensive to drink and I think just given a little bit of hard work it can give a very good volume."

And in the longer run, Italy's complex wine landscape could be an asset, says Pizzoli. "It is difficult in the beginning but later on, when people are looking for something different and special, then we could have an advantage."
Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project: Dhading locals finally receive compensation

The Dhading District Administration Office (DAO) has finally started extending compensation to residents of three areas of the district who have agreed to relinquish their land for the construction of the 1,200MW Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project.
The departure of free agent Latavius Murray to the Minnesota Vikings in the offseason has created an opening in the Oakland Raiders backfield and it appears will be filled by one of the top running backs of the past 10 years. The Raiders and Seattle Seahawks are expected to finally work out a trade or the release of Marshawn Lynch after several weeks of speculation.

Lynch, who visited the Raiders' team facility in Alameda earlier this month, must first re-work his contract after retiring after the 2015 season. Sources told ESPN's Ed Werder that the Raiders were looking into a short-term deal with heavy incentives ahead of any trade. Lynch had signed a three-year, $31 million contract in 2015, that would pay him about $9 million in 2017a figure the Raiders don't want to pay.

The Raiders will almost certainly need to surrender at least one draft pick for Lynch. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the Raiders may only need to give up a conditional seventh-round pick. In a radio interview, Seahawks general manager John Schneider said he expects that Lynch's potential move to Oakland would move "in a smooth manner." Seattle would prefer to not have to pay the remaining year of his contract.

It's unclear how much of a role Lynch will play in 2017 after sitting out the entire 2016 season. The Oakland native only had 111 carries in 2015 but had rushed for over 1,200 yards in four consecutive seasons from 2011 through 2014.

Should Lynch join the Raiders, he would be teamed up with Jalen Richard and DeAndre Washington, who combined for 970 yards on 170 carries, or an average of 5.6 yards per carry. The Raiders drafted Washington in the fifth round in 2016.

Oakland has eight draft picks in 2017, with two picks in the seventh round.
At least 11 civilians were killed when a roadside bomb ripped through their vehicle in the restive southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials said Saturday.

The blast occurred when the passengers were travelling from remote Nawa district to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah on Friday, government spokesman Omar Zhwak told AFP.

"The blast was powerful and all those on board the van were killed," Zhwak said, adding that officials were trying to determine whether any women or children were among the victims.

Helmand police chief Agha Noor Kentoz blamed the Taliban for the blast, saying the road had been mined to target Afghan security forces who frequently use it.

The Taliban were not immediately reachable for comment, but roadside bombs have been the militants' weapon of choice in their war against foreign and Afghan security forces.

The bombs also increasingly kill and wound civilians.

Most of Helmand, the biggest poppy-growing province, is already estimated to be under Taliban control, with the capital Lashkar Gah -- one of the last government-held enclaves -- also at the risk of falling to the Taliban's repeated ferocious assaults.

Around 11,500 civilians -- one third of them children -- were killed or wounded in Afghanistan in 2016, according to the United Nations, the highest recorded by the world body.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP)  A move to regulate roadside memorials can be fraught with peril for elected officials.

They cite the need to set standards for the makeshift sites that appear after people are killed in crashes, fearing the memorials will become eyesores or traffic hazards. But they also have to balance those public concerns with sensitivity for those dealing with a loss.

New Jersey is the latest state to consider regulations for memorials. A bill making its way through the state legislature would allow a victim's relative to pay for a sign honoring the person who died and set certain specifications for the markers.

Some residents have questioned the move, saying this is a personal issue that government leaders should stay away from, unless there are overwhelming public safety concerns.
Salt Bae doesn't just season steaks. He also votes.

Islem tamam#saltbae #saltlife #salt A post shared by Nusr_et#Saltbae (@nusr_et) on Apr 15, 2017 at 10:46pm PDT

Yes, that's chef Nusret Gokce, aka Salt Bae, voting. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed victory Sunday in a referendum that gives him sweeping new powers.

SEE ALSO: 'Salt Bae' seasoned Leonardo DiCaprio's dinner, as is the natural order of things

Are the results bad for democracy? You bet. The 18 additional constitutional amendments will eliminate the position of prime minister, give Erdogan more power over the judiciary, and allow him to run for at least two more five-year terms. He's been criticized around the world for increasingly cracking down on journalists and political opponents in recent years.

(Yes, there are serious questions about the legitimacy of the election results. The opposition party is calling for a recount for around a third of the votes.)

So, as democracy takes a hit, at least the people can turn to memes for comfort.

In case you were wondering, Salt Bae didn't reveal which way he voted. But we're pretty sure he's pro-steak and revealing V-necks.

WATCH: The first teaser for 'The Last Jedi' is here and OMG
Long before Sean Spicer was making waves as White House press secretary, he was moonlighting as the Easter Bunny during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. Spicer donned the fuzzy white bunny suit during his time in the George W. Bush administration.

As a relatively unknown assistant U.S. trade representative for media and public affairs under Bush, Spicer appeared as the bunny several times.

Read: Internet Goes After Sean Spicer For Hitler Comment

Kids love the Easter Bunny. There is something real special about seeing all the families on the White House lawn.every child is special on this day, Spicer told Politico in 2008. Most children are so excited to see the bunny that they are on their best behavior. I really get a kick out of the ones that thank the bunny for their basket or a gift they got on Easter.

Spicer seemed relatively proud of the role, which is listed on his official GOP biography.

Among Seans other distinctions are serving as an Easter Bunny at the White House Easter Egg Roll, being lampooned by the Onion, cited as a 'Moment of Zen' on the Daily Show and being mocked by David Letterman, the biography read.

Its unclear who will don the bunny suit during this years Easter Egg Roll, though its unlikely to be Spicer. The press secretary is likely too busy putting out fires, like his recent controversial comments stating that Hitler did not use chemical weapons during a Tuesday press conference about Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The ambiguous identity of President Donald Trumps Easter Bunny is the least of the administrations concerns surrounding the Egg Roll. The administration reportedly got a late start planning Mondays all-day event, leading to concerns that it might not be as special as those in years past.

Its the single most high-profile event that takes place at the White House each year and the White House and the first lady are judged on how well they put it on, Melinda Bates, who organized Easter Egg Rolls under President Bill Clinton, told the New York Times Tuesday. Im really concerned for the Trump people, because they have failed to fill some really vital posts, and this thing is all hands on deck.

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With or without an Easter Bunny, the event was set to start Monday at 7:30 a.m. and last until 6:45 p.m. on the South Lawn of the White House.

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Miami (AFP) - Putting a prisoner to death "stays with you for a long time," says Ron McAndrew.

The former warden of Florida State Prison says his own mental health had begun to deteriorate by the time he left his position in 1998 after taking part in eight executions.

Now, McAndrew is fighting against the death penalty.

He is particularly concerned about the psychological well-being of the handful of officials who would be involved if Arkansas were to proceed with the rapid-fire executions of several condemned men, originally set for April 17 to 27. Courts in that southern state have blocked those executions for now, as legal appeals continue.

"We wanted the governor (of Arkansas) to understand that he's sitting in his office very comfortable. And these men are going to be partaking in a killing of another human being," McAndrew told AFP. He doesn't use the word "execution," which he considers a euphemism.

"These officers, they get to know these inmates," he explained.

"Twenty-four hours a day they work with these inmates. They feed them. They take them to get their showers, they take them for exercise. They stand in front of their cells and they talk to them when they feel lonely," McAndrew said.

"The only persons that the inmates know are the officers. Suddenly it's the same officer who's taking them to another room to kill them."

"The experience is something that will stay with you for a long time; I don't think it ever goes away."

- Five-person execution team -

McAndrew, who took part in the deaths of eight convicts -- three in Florida, and five in Texas as training -- says that the executions in Arkansas will undoubtedly be carried out by the same five people.

"You can't change the team," he said. "The officers that will carry out the executions, they have practiced the executions several hundred times. They do it over and over and over again," he said.

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An officer volunteers to play the part of an inmate, he said.

"They take him from the cell, they put them on the gurney, they strap him down, they put them on the IVs," or intravenous lines.

Arkansas prison authorities have refused to divulge the makeup of their execution team, fiercely protecting the identities of those involved.

"I can say that they are well-trained and qualified to carry out their respective responsibilities," said Solomon Graves, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Correction.

In the view of anti-death penalty activists, everyone involved pays a price.

"We are concerned for the welfare of the prisoners, we are concerned for the victims' families, we are concerned for the welfare of the prison workers that have to do this," said Abraham Bonowitz, director of the New York-based Death Penalty Action group.

"There's a broader range of collateral damage than simply the prisoner and the victim."

- Risk of error -

Arkansas's original packed schedule would place added pressure on the execution team, increasing the risk of error, critics say. And no one wants to see a repeat of the agony Clayton Lockett suffered during his botched execution in Oklahoma in 2014.

"The rapid schedule will put an extraordinary burden on the men and women required by the state to carry out this most solemn act, and it will increase the risk of mistakes in the execution chamber -- which could haunt them for the rest of their lives," said Allen Ault, Georgia's former commissioner of corrections who has overseen five executions, writing in Time magazine's March 28 edition.

A group of former officials from all over the United States, including McAndrew and Ault, have written to Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas urging him not to impose such a burden on prison staff.

"Even under less demanding circumstances, carrying out an execution can take a severe toll on corrections officers' well-being," the letter said.

"We are gravely concerned that by rushing to complete these executions in April, the state of Arkansas is needlessly exacerbating the strain and stress placed on these officers," increasing the chance of error.

Arkansas's original plan to execute eight men in 10 days this month would have set a rate never seen since the United States resumed the death penalty in 1977, the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center has reported.
JUBA, South Sudan (AP)  South Sudan's army denies charges that its forces killed 14 civilians in the northwestern town of Raga.

"This is a negative media campaign by the rebels. We didn't kill anybody, we're there to protect the citizens," said Col. Santo Domic Chlo, acting spokesman of the army. "We cannot kill citizens who we are responsible for their security. It's a complete lie."

Opposition spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said army troops attacked Raga late Saturday morning.

The report of fighting in Raga comes after residents of the western town of Wau reported ethnically targeted attacks last week, with the U.N. mission in South Sudan saying its workers had seen the bodies of 16 civilians.

South Sudan's three-year civil war has grown more intense in recent weeks. U.N. officials repeatedly have warned of the risk of genocide.

The acting envoy of the U.N. secretary-general, Moustapha Soumare, urged both sides to show restraint and protect all South Sudanese citizens.
Thousands of people marched in cities around the country to demand that President Trump release his tax returns on Tax Day, in a demonstration that echoed the 2009 tax rallies that launched the Tea Party movement.

Saturdays Tax March, which took place in nearly 200 cities around the country, was unusual for a liberal protest both in its subject matter and its specificity: rather than focus on more typically leftist issues like police brutality, climate change or reproductive rights, the Tax March was all about taxes, which is typically a rallying cry of Republicans. Specifically, the marchers had just one demand: to see Trumps taxes.

Most of the protests were largely conflict-free, but at least a dozen demonstrators were arrested in Berkeley after a pro-Trump demonstration resulted in a fistfight against counter-demonstrators, punctuated with pepper and smoke bombs. It did not appear to be related to the Tax March.

The March took place exactly eight years after the first major Tea Party rally to protest Obama policies on April 15, 2009, which was widely credited as the beginning of the far-right Tea Party movement. Saturdays Tax March was superficially similar to that first Tea Party in some ways: many of the protesters were older than the millennials who flocked to earlier anti-Trump rallies, and there were more conspicuous displays of patriotism than one normally sees at liberal rallies.

Older people generally tend to care more about tax issues, and the Tea Party was made up mostly of older Americans: three-quarters of self-identified Tea Party members are over 45, according to a 2012 CBS News poll, and almost a third are over 65. Similarly, the Tax March tended to attract a slightly older set of protesters than other anti-Trump marches have. Many said they had protested against the Vietnam War and segregation in the 1960s and 1970s.

It seems older than the Womens March was, says Betsy Klein, 69. Because a lot of younger people havent had experiences like we have, paying our taxes every year for 40 years. Every other president since weve been adults has released his tax returns. Her friend Kate McMullan, 70, chimed in: Even Nixon.

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Retired woodworker Ellin Rothstein, 72, said the scene looked familiar. I demonstrated in the 60s. I didnt do anything until this Cheeto got into the White House, she says. But she noticed fewer younger faces than she had at the Womens March. Most of the people here have paid taxes for 30 or 40 years. She added that the injustice might not resonate so much with younger people who are just beginning to file their own tax forms. Were longtime taxpayers. Why break with tradition thats been going on for decades? Its so unfair.

There was plenty of Tax March protest art, from paper pussy-hats made of tax returns, to a woman dressed in a tutu made of dollar bills, to another a sign that said You can grab my pussy if you show me your taxes. But marchers also showed more conventional displays of patriotism, like waving flags or wearing red-white-and-blue outfits. Many said they wanted to show that Trumps taxes are a bipartisan issue that all Americans should care about.

James Riti, 49, carried a massive American flag that he waved enthusiastically throughout the March. A lot of these protests let the Republicans have the patriotic slant, but this is an issue for all Americans, he said. Everybody makes it about right vs. left, but its about right vs. wrong.

Dissent is patriotism, said Magdalena Schmidt, a 47-year old registered nurse who marched holding a big American flag. Its not just the Tea Party jackoffs who get to be patriotic. Her husband Roderic Schmidt, who helped her carry the flag, agreed. The right does not have a monopoly on patriotism. Im tired of that story.

While some estimate that more than 300,000 people attended the 2009 Tea Party protests, many of those people attended the hundreds of small local rallies of just a few thousand people. The largest Tea Party rally was in Atlanta, where 15,000 people reportedly showed up. Organizers and experts are still counting up the total number of people who attended Saturdays Tax March, but already organizers say that 25,000 people marched in Washington D.C. and 45,000 marched in New York.

But for Trump supporters who encountered the Tax March protesters, the demands fell on deaf ears. Hes paid his taxes - if not, hed be in jail, said a Trump supporter named Mike who preferred not to give his last name. Hes just playing games, hes busting their balls.

These people having nothing better to do, he added. Theyre crying about this, and then next week theyll be crying about something else.

On this, Mike has a point: next week is the March for Science on April 22, which will feature thousands of scientists marching to protect research funding, and the week after that is the Peoples Climate March on April 29, to protest Trumps climate change policies.

This article was originally published on TIME.com
First-ever Nepal-China joint military training begins

The first ever Nepal-China Special Forces joint training has begun Sunday at the Nepal Army's barrack in Maharajgunj in the Capital city.
Xiongan (China) (AFP) - Business owner Hu Weibing weeps at the prospect of losing everything, including his home, after China's surprise announcement to transform a rural spot outside Beijing into a modern metropolis nearly three times the size of New York City.

Hu's family run-clothing factory in the northern province of Hebei could close at the expense of a new special economic zone similar to those in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

The planned Xiongan New Area currently measures 2,000 square kilometres (772 square miles) and has less than one percent of Beijing's economic output, but last weekends announcement sparked a real estate speculation frenzy as out-of-town home buyers from across the country descended on the previously unknown area.

"Its certainly good for Hebei and the regional economy, but its a disaster for mid- and small-sized business like ours," said Hu, staring at the bare concrete walls of the four-storey dream home he began building last year but will never be able to finish.

Though authorities have not yet told him what is next, he is bracing for things to progress in the fashion that has become typical for government mega-projects: forced relocation and modest monetary compensation.

The changes will scatter his 40 local employees, each painstakingly trained for two years to produce the winter jackets that Hus Yuhua Clothing Manufacturing sells to clients in Moscow.

And land prices elsewhere are guaranteed to be out of his reach.

"To build another factory or another villa like ours will be impossible. It's a terrible shame," he said quietly, unable to stop tears sliding down his face after devoting decades of his life to the business.

"There will be no way to ever compensate us, but this is a huge national issue, so whatever comes we must support it."

- 'It's crazy' -

There are some 19 national-level "New Areas" scattered across China, 13 of which have been established since 2014.

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But Xiongan stands out: President Xi Jinping personally designated its location during a February trip to the fields just outside Hu's village of Dawang, according to Xinhua News.

Following the announcement, housing prices doubled in a single day, as speculators queued outside real estate offices, clogging the streets with luxury vehicles as they battled to snap up properties for cash.

Shocked by the chaos, local authorities quickly imposed strict bans on home sales and ordered brokers to close up shop.

By mid-week, offices across the area were closed, their metal grates pulled down and crosses of white tape over them for good measure.

But individuals with properties for sale were still willing to approach potential buyers with prices that had gone up 300 percent in three days, they told AFP.

An investor surnamed Wang had come to check out opportunities from Beijing, 100 kilometres away, but declined an offer to buy at a rate higher than the average cost of a home in the bustling port city of Tianjin.

"I could've accepted some 13 or 14,000 yuan ($2,000) per square metre, but 30,000 is simply too much for an investment of at least ten years where you dont even know how things will turn out in the end," he said.

"It's crazy -- they're still planting crops here! What if Old Xi steps down and they never build anything here at all?"

- 'Life-changing' -

Currently, the flat fields of the three counties that make up the proposed Xiongan New Area are speckled with traditional tombs -- waist-high mounds of dirt topped with fluttering paper offerings.

The two-lane roads that traverse them are lined with cement producers, factories noisily churning cobs into cornmeal and, thanks to a robust commercial network with Russia, shops selling mink and raccoon furs dyed garish shades of blue and pink.

Yet authorities hope the area will flourish into a new centre for growth in the world's second-largest economy, which last year expanded at its slowest rate in a quarter of a century.

Analysts, however, predict its overall economic punch will be "limited", as the venture lacks measures to spur the types of exciting new financial reforms that were the real drivers of growth for the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, established in the 1980s, and Shanghai's Pudong New Area, set up in the 1990s.

"The project is still effectively just a major push to improve the infrastructure and integration of the Hebei region, rather than a test bed for deeper market reforms that could have a much wider economic impact," said Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics.

But for many who've toiled in the fields around Xiongan for generations, the development is guaranteed to be "life-changing", said a resident surnamed Zhang, 63, who recalled the extraordinary hardships of his childhood in the early 1960s.

"Its such good luck -- living here is better even than in Xiamen," he said, referring to a warm southern Chinese port city popular with retirees. "Now were all special economic zone residents!"
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey on Sunday votes in a referendum on expanding the powers of the head of state under President Tayyip Erdogan that will determine its future political destiny but whose outcome remains in doubt after a bitterly-contested campaign.

Over 55.3 million Turks are able to vote in the referendum on sweeping changes to the president's role which, if agreed, would grant Erdogan more power than any leader of Turkey since its founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his successor Ismet Inonu.

Opinion polls, always treated with caution in Turkey, predicted wildly divergent scenarios with analysts saying the outcome remains too close to call despite the clear advantage in resources and airtime enjoyed by the 'Yes' campaign.

As the rival sides held rallies up until the last hour of legal campaigning Saturday to sway undecided voters, Erdogan confidently predicted that the 'Yes' camp had victory in the bag.

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But he urged people not to succumb to "lethargy" in voting, saying "the stronger result the better".

"A 'Yes' that emerges from the ballot box with the highest margin will be a lesson to the West," he said in the Istanbul district of Sariyer, the last of a stamina-busting sequence of rallies.

- 'Most drastic shake up' -

If passed, the new presidential system would dispense with the office of the prime minister and centralise the entire executive bureaucracy under the presidency, giving Erdogan the direct power to appoint ministers.

The system would come into force after November 2019 elections. Erdogan, who became president in 2014 after serving as premier from 2003, could then seek two more five-year mandates.

But it could also have even wider implications for the key NATO member, which for the last half century has set its sights on joining the European Union.

Erdogan has warned Brussels that in the event of a 'Yes' vote he would sign any bill agreed by parliament to reinstate capital punishment, a move that would automatically end its EU bid.

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Western reactions to the referendum outcome will be crucial, after Erdogan accused Turkey's allies of failing to show sufficient solidarity in the wake of the July 15 failed coup.

"The referendum will mark another turning point, or rather crossroads in Turkey's political history," wrote Hurriyet Daily News chief editor Murat Yetkin.

Sinan Ekim and Kemal Kirisci of the Brookings Institution think-tank said in a report the changes if agreed "would set in motion the most drastic shake-up of the country's politics and system of governance in its 94-year-long history".

- 'Bus with no brakes' -

The opposition has cried foul that the referendum has been conducted on unfair terms, with 'Yes' posters ubiquitous on the streets and opposition voices squeezed from the media.

The poll is also taking place under a state of emergency that has seen 47,000 arrested in an unprecedented crackdown after the botched putsch.

Supporters see the new system as an essential modernisation step for Turkey but opponents fear it risks granting Erdogan authoritarian powers.

The standard-bearer of the 'No' camp, Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, warned at his final rally that Turkey was deciding if "we want to continue with the democratic parliamentary system or one-man rule".

He described the new system as "a bus with no brakes and whose destination is unknown".

Voting in the country's east gets under way at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) and an hour later elsewhere.

Key factors influencing the result will include whether the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) can perform the delicate balancing act of bringing both nationalists and conservative Kurds behind the new system.

- Jihadists nabbed pre-poll -

After a slew of attacks over the last year blamed on Kurdish militants and jihadists, security is set to be a major issue on polling day.

Authorities in Istanbul on Friday detained five people suspected of planning an attack on polling day, following the arrest of 19 alleged Islamist extremists in the Aegean city of Izmir earlier in the week.

The Dogan news agency said a total of 49 IS suspects had been detained in Istanbul alone over the last week.

More than 33,500 police officers will be on duty in Istanbul alone on referendum day, according to Turkish media.
Madrid (AFP) - When she posted jokes on Twitter about a 1973 assassination committed by Spain's Basque separatist group ETA, Cassandra Vera never for one moment thought they would land her a one-year jail sentence.

But last month, one of Spain's top criminal courts found the 21-year-old guilty of "justifying terrorism" and humiliating its victims -- the latest in a series of such convictions for social media pranks that has the country divided, and partisans of free speech worried.

"They ruined my life," Vera tweeted about the 13 posts about the 1973 murder of Luis Carrero Blanco, the prime minister and heir-apparent of dictator Francisco Franco who was killed in an ETA bomb attack that sent his car hurtling into the air.

"ETA combined a policy against the use of official vehicles with a space programme," read one of her posts.

Another said: "Did Carrero Blanco also go back to the future with his car?"

Vera is unlikely to spend time behind bars, as offenders of non-violent crimes with a sentence of under two years do not serve time in jail.

But she now has a criminal record that will prevent her from getting a scholarship for her studies.

The National Court that sentenced her, which specialises in terrorism cases, ruled that her jokes did not form part of a "healthy humoristic environment" and that her attitude was "disrespectful" and "humiliating."

But Carrero Blanco's own granddaughter, Lucia, said in a letter sent to the El Pais daily that she was "scared of a society in which freedom of expression, however regrettable it may be, can lead to jail sentences."

- 'Cult of hate' -

Luis Conde, a historian of comic books, told AFP he remembered more lenient times, even under Franco's dictatorship when people would sing a song that featured the lyrics "Carrero flew," in reference to the attack.

"And now, we can't say it anymore?" he asked.

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But Consuelo Ordonez, head of the Covite association for victims of terrorism, said laughing at the expense of Carrero Blanco -- a man associated with Franco's iron-fist rule that ended after he died in 1975 -- was a big mistake.

"If we had been serious about that fact that nothing justifies violence, we wouldn't be talking about more than 800 ETA deaths," she told AFP, referring to the 829 people killed during the group's four-decade campaign for Basque independence.

"The cult of hate that always moved terrorists has not been defeated," she warned.

- 'Sensitive issue' -

The number of court rulings involving alleged acts of "justifying terrorism" has risen from a dozen a year to 26 in 2015, 37 in 2016 and 12 for the first quarter of this year, according to judicial authorities.

Most of them are linked to organisations that are now inactive, such as ETA, which declared a permanent ceasefire in 2011.

In January, for instance, Spain's Supreme Court sentenced rocker Cesar Strawberry to a year in prison for tweets, including one that joked about the 1996-7 ETA kidnapping of a right-wing politician.

"Terrorism is the most sensitive issue," acknowledged Jose Luis Martin, a former editor at satirical weekly "El Jueves", in a country still reeling from decades of violence brought about by ETA and other extremist groups.

"It doesn't compare to criticism of the monarchy, the Church," he added, which the magazine targets on a regular basis.

- Black humour 'therapeutic' -

Ignacio Gonzalez Vega, spokesman for the "Judges for Democracy" professional association, pointed to a new 2015 anti-jihadist legislation as a possible explanation.

Among other things, the law provides for tougher sentences for "justifying terrorism" online.

But "in a democratic society, there are genres such as comedy, black humour" that should be exempt, he said, calling for the law to be modified.

Martin said black humour often played a "therapeutic role," which he believed Spain still needs as it tries to heal the wounds of its bloody 1936-9 civil war and ensuing dictatorship.

For his part, Cesar Strawberry chose to exorcise his conviction with a song.

"Inquisitor!" he sings to hard-rock music.

"Keep harassing those who disturb you, but you won't shut us up."
By Chris Francescani and Tom Ramstack NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people marched through midtown Manhattan and dozens of U.S. cities on Saturday to demand that President Donald Trump release his tax returns and to dispute his claim that the public does not care about the issue. Organizers of "Tax March" in more than 150 cities across the country and beyond wanted to call attention to Trump's refusal to disclose his tax history, as his White House predecessors have done for more than 40 years. The marches coincide with the traditional April 15 deadline for U.S. federal tax returns, though the filing date was pushed backed two days this year. There were no reports of violence or arrests, in contrast to a clash between Trump supporters and opponents that erupted at a rally in Berkeley, California, where nine people were arrested. Two of the biggest tax marches took place in New York and Los Angeles, with each drawing about 5,000 people, according to estimates by Reuters reporters. No official estimates were immediately available. In Manhattan, a good-natured crowd rallied at Bryant Park before marching up Sixth Avenue to Central Park. Among the marchers was an oversized inflatable rooster, sporting an angry expression and a sweeping metallic orange hairdo meant to resemble Trump's signature style. Thanks to Trump, I think that releasing your taxes when you run for president now has to be a law, said New Yorker Marni Halasa, 51, who arrived in a tutu and leggings made of fake dollar bills and holding a sign that read Show Me The Money! In Washington, more than 1,500 protesters gathered on the front lawn of the U.S. Capitol, where members of Congress addressed the crowd before it marched to the Lincoln Memorial. "We are taking the gloves off to say knock off the secrecy Mr. President," said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which would play a leading role in tax reform measures being considered in Congress. He described Trump's refusal to release his taxes as being "like a teenager trying to hide a lousy report card." TAX REFORM Among the marchers was Melinda Colwell, 34, a stay-at-home-mother from Ledyard, Connecticut. She said she was concerned that conflicts of interest in Trump's tax returns might foreshadow selfish interests in his tax reform policies. "I think it's important to know how that could influence his decisions and how he could benefit from the decisions being made," she said. As a candidate and as president, Trump has refused to release his tax returns, citing an ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS has said that Trump can release his tax returns even while under audit. The White House could not be reached immediately for comment on the marches. Events were also planned in cities in Europe, Japan and New Zealand. The marches were launched by a single tweet, organizers said. A day after the massive Jan. 21 women's march in Washington and other cities, comedy writer Frank Lesser tapped out on Twitter, "Trump claims no one cares about his taxes. The next mass protest should be on Tax Day to prove him wrong." It has been retweeted more than 21,000 times. In Los Angeles, television director Mike Stutz turned up at the march dressed in costume as a Russian general and said he was called General Bullshitski. He carried a sign that read: "What Tax Returns? Putin paid cash. Trust your oligarchs," referring to allegations of contacts between Trump's campaign and Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin. Joe Dinkin, spokesman for the Working Families Party, one of the groups organizing the marches, said investigations into the Trump campaign's alleged connections to Russia underscore the need to disclose his returns. "Without seeing his taxes, we'll never really know who he's working for," said Dinkin, who expects the marches to draw at least 100,000 protesters. There have been some glimpses into Trump's tax history. Last month, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow reported on two pages of Trump's 2005 return that were obtained by investigative reporter David Cay Johnston and released by DCReport.org. They showed Trump paid $38 million in taxes on more than $150 million in income. And in October, The New York Times reported that Trump had declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 federal tax return, citing three pages of documents from the return. (Additional reporting by Dana Feldman in Los Angeles and Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Alistair Bell)
DENVER (Reuters) - Two men and a woman were found dead from traumatic injuries inside a mountain home in Colorado on Saturday in a suspected triple homicide, police said. Three bodies were found in a house in Coal Creek Canyon, about 30 miles northwest of Denver, the Boulder County Sheriffs Office said in a statement. "The initial scene investigation suggests each victim suffered a traumatic injury, the sheriffs office said, without elaborating, adding that a murder investigation was under way. The victims' names and their relationship to one another have not been released, the office said. The cause and manner of the deaths will be determined later by the county coroner. Police were called on Saturday at about 7:30 a.m. by a man who said he had not heard from friends living at the house for several days. Authorities, acting under a search warrant, found the victims later in the day. No suspect was identified, and police are continuing their investigation. (Reporting by Keith Coffman, editing by Chris Michaud)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  President Donald Trump asserted on Sunday that China was working with the United States on "the North Korea problem," and his vice president told American and South Korea service members that the North's latest "provocation," a failed missile launch shortly before his arrival in Seoul, laid bare the risks they face. While the North did not conduct a nuclear test, the specter of a potential escalated U.S. response trailed Pence as he began a 10-day trip to Asia amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric. Trump's national security adviser cited Trump's recent decision to order missile strikes in Syria after a chemical attack blamed on the Assad government as a sign that the president "is clearly comfortable making tough decisions."

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP)  The clouds of war, it might seem, are gathering around the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean government flaunts an increasingly sophisticated arsenal of intercontinental missiles and launches a midrange version, which apparently fails seconds after takeoff. The U.S. moves an immense warship to the waters off the peninsula in a display of military might. President Donald Trump warns he's ready to "solve North Korea," while North Korea's deputy foreign minister says his country will conduct its next nuclear test whenever it sees fit. And in Pyongyang, where war would mean untold horrors, where neighborhoods could be reduced to rubble and tens of thousands of civilians could be killed, few people seem to care much at all.

BEIJING (AP)  Automakers face a dilemma in China's huge but crowded market: Regulators are pushing them to sell electric cars, but buyers want gas-guzzling SUVs. The industry is rattled by Beijing's proposal to require that electric cars make up 8 percent of every brand's production as early as next year. Consumers are steering the other way: First-quarter SUV sales soared 21 percent from a year earlier to 2.4 million, while electric vehicle purchases sank 4.4 percent to just 55,929. "It's tough for someone with an EV to come and take away market share from SUVs," said Ben Cavender of China Market Research Group.

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BEIJING (AP)  A monitoring group and a U.S.-backed radio station say a Tibetan Buddhist monk set himself on fire in western China in an apparent protest against Beijing's rule. Free Tibet and Radio Free Asia said the monk set himself ablaze in a public square in the town of Kardze on Saturday morning. The unidentified monk was taken away after the fire was extinguished by security forces. It was uncertain if he survived. If confirmed, it would be the 148th case of a Tibetan self-immolating since 2009, according to Radio Free Asia. At least 125 have died. Eyewitnesses have said many cried out for Tibetan independence or prayed for the return of Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama.

HONG KONG (AP)  China's economic growth ticked higher to 6.9 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to the latest figures. The official data released Monday show that the world's second-biggest economy grew at a slightly faster pace in the January-March period compared with the previous quarter's 6.8 percent expansion. It's the second straight quarter that China's economy has accelerated, in a sign that a rebound is gaining momentum after last year's economic growth was its slowest pace in nearly three decades. The rebound is being supported by government spending on infrastructure as well as a credit-fueled real estate boom.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  A North Korean medium-range missile exploded seconds after it was launched on Sunday, U.S. officials said, a high-profile failure that came hours before the U.S. vice president arrived in South Korea, and as an American aircraft supercarrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force. The U.S. had good intelligence both before and after the launch, said a White House foreign policy adviser traveling with Vice President Mike Pence, who arrived in Seoul in the afternoon to start a 10-day trip to Asia. No planned response is expected from the Trump administration because the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's initial understanding of the launch, said there was no need for the U.S.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP)  North Korea's big day, the anniversary of the birth of its founding leader, Kim Il Sung, came and went with no underground nuclear test by the North, and no pre-emptive strikes off the deck of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier sent to waters off the Korean Peninsula by President Donald Trump. Just hours before Vice President Mike Pence began his visit to Seoul on Sunday, Pyongyang fired off a ballistic missile  but it appears to have exploded seconds after it got off the ground. So, all clear? Well, yes and no. Though tensions had been rising dangerously between Washington and Pyongyang in the lead-up to the April 15 anniversary, the biggest holiday of the year in North Korea, the heightened rhetoric and saber-rattling on both sides could begin to cool down  a pattern that has been common in recent years, especially in the spring, when the U.S.

HONOLULU (AP)  A man who witnessed a Hawaii shark attack says the victim is a French surfer who had part of a leg amputated but is in remarkably good spirits. Mac Pigott tells KHON-TV he visited the victim on Saturday in a hospital on the island of Kauai following the attack at Davidson's Beach. Pigott did not identify the French man by name, but he provided KHON-TV with a picture of him smiling from his hospital bed. Pigott says doctors amputated one of the man's legs just below the knee. He says the victim is setting goals so he can compete one day in the Paralympic Games.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is embarking on a 10-day, four-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific this weekend, arriving in South Korea after a failed missile launch by the North. His visit comes amid tensions over North Korea's aggressive flaunting of its nuclear and missile program. Pence will visit South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Australia during his trip, meeting with leaders in the region, military troops and business groups. It will be Pence's second foreign trip as vice president  he traveled to Germany and Belgium in February to meet with NATO and European Union officials. Five things to know about President Donald Trump's No.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Afghan President Ashraf Ghani met Sunday with U.S. National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster and discussed mutual cooperation in Afghanistan's fight against the Taliban and Islamic State group. A statement released Sunday said both sides talked about bilateral relations between the two countries in the arenas of security, counter-terrorism, regional issues and economic development. Ghani said in the statement that terrorism is a serious threat to security and stability in the region and the world and that if it is not defeated, it could affect the lives of future generations. In an interview on ABC's "This Week," said that in the past the U.S.
Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump on Sunday hit back at nationwide protests calling for him to release his tax returns, questioning "who paid for" the "small" rallies.

"Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!" the president tweeted Sunday morning.

That message came about an hour after an earlier tweet when he appeared to suggest the matter was a non-issue.

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Trump has previously said Americans don't care about his returns.

"I did what was almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?" Trump tweeted.

His messages came after thousands of protesters gathered Saturday in cities across America to pressure Trump to release his tax returns, a move of transparency he has repeatedly rejected.

The demonstrations were timed to coincide with the traditional April 15 deadline for annual tax filings, a key date on the calendar for US households, and resulted in dozens of arrests.

For decades, US presidents and presidential candidates have released their returns voluntarily, although there is no legal obligation to do so.

US law requires only the publication of a financial statement that estimates assets, including debt and revenue, but does not give details on the amount of taxes paid.

Trump, a billionaire property tycoon, released a financial statement but has kept his tax returns private, both during the election campaign and since taking office in January.

He argues that he cannot release them because he is being audited. But tax officials have said he can in fact release them if he so wishes.

Trump has on at least two previous occasions accused demonstrators of being paid to protest against him.

"Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" he wrote on February 3 during protests against his executive order on immigration.
PALM BEACH, Florida (AP)  President Donald Trump will travel to Wisconsin this week to speak at a local factory.

The White House confirms the president will pay a visit to Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan's home state on Tuesday.

State Rep. Tod Ohnstad told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Trump will visit the Kenosha headquarters of a tool manufacturer named Snap-on.

It will be the president's first visit to the state since taking office.

The president is also expected to travel to Atlanta on April 28 to speak at the National Rifle Association's annual leadership forum. That's according to the organization.

He pledged during the campaign to fight to protect the Second Amendment and was endorsed by the NRA.
(ISTANBUL) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in Sundays referendum that will grant sweeping powers to the presidency, hailing the result as a historic decision.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Erdogan said unofficial results showed the yes side had won by a margin of 1.3 million votes.

The president struck a conciliatory tone, thanking all voters regardless of how they cast their ballots and describing the referendum as a historic decision.

April 16 is the victory of all who said yes or no, of the whole 80 million, of the whole of Turkey of 780,000-square kilometers, Erdogan said.

Returns carried by the state-run Anadolu news agency showed that with nearly 99 percent of the vote counted, the yes vote had about 51.3 percent compared to 48.7 percent for the no vote.

Turkeys main opposition party vowed to challenge the results reported by Anadolu agency, saying they were skewed.

Erdogan has long sought to broaden his powers, but a previous attempt failed after the governing party that he co-founded fell short of enough votes to pass the reforms without holding a referendum.

Opponents argued the plan concentrate too much power in the hands of a man they allege has shown increasingly autocratic tendencies.

The outcome is expected to have a huge effect on Turkeys long-term political future and its international relations. Although the result, if officially confirmed, would fall short of the sweeping victory Erdogan had sought, but nevertheless cements his hold on the countrys governance.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, whose position will be eliminated under the presidential system of government called for in the referendum, also welcomed the results and extended a hand to the opposition.

We are all equal citizens of the Republic of Turkey, he said. Both the ones who said no and the ones who said yes are one and are equally valuable.

There are no losers of this referendum. Turkey won, the beloved people won, Yildirim said, adding that a new page has opened in our democratic history with this vote. Be sure that we will use this result for our peoples welfare and peace in the best way.

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Erdogan supporters gathered outside the AK Party headquarters in Istanbul to celebrate, sending fireworks into the night sky.

But the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, or CHP, cast doubt on the results. CHP vice chairman Erdal Aksunger said they would challenge 37 percent of the ballot boxes.

Our data indicates a manipulation in the range of 3 to 4 percent, the party said on its Twitter account.

The countrys pro-Kurdish opposition party, which also opposed the constitutional changes, said it plans to object to two-thirds of the ballots.

An unprecedented decision by Turkeys Supreme Election board to accept as valid ballot papers that dont have the official stamp also drew the ire of the CHP, with the partys deputy chairman, Bulent Tezcan, saying the decision had left the referendum with a serious legitimacy problem.

The board made the announcement after many voters complained about being given ballot papers without the official stamp, saying ballots would be considered invalid only if proven to have been fraudulently cast.

Sundays vote approved 18 constitutional changes that will replace Turkeys parliamentary system of government with a presidential one, abolishing the office of the prime minister and granting sweeping executive powers to the president. The changes will come into effect with the next general election, scheduled for 2019.

The reforms allow the president to appoint ministers, senior government officials and half the members of Turkeys highest judicial body, as well as to issue decrees and declare states of emergency. They set a limit of two five-year terms for presidents and also allow the president to remain at the helm of a political party.

Erdogan and his supporters had argued the Turkish-style presidential system would bring stability and prosperity in a country rattled by a failed coup last year that left more than 200 people dead, and a series of devastating attacks by the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants.

But opponents fear the changes will lead to autocratic one-man rule, ensuring that the 63-year-old Erdogan, who has been accused of repressing rights and freedoms, could govern until 2029 with few checks and balances.

The ballots themselves did not include the referendum question - it was assumed to be understood. Voters used an official stamp to select between yes and no.

At one Istanbul polling station, eager voters lined up outside before it opened at 8 a.m.

I dont want to get on a bus with no brake system. A one-man system is like that, said Istanbul resident Husnu Yahsi, 61, who said he was voting no.

In another Istanbul neighborhood, a yes voter expressed full support for Erdogan.

Yes, yes, yes! Our leader is the gift of God to us, said Mualla Sengul. We will always support him. Hes governing so well.

Erdogan first came to power in 2003 as prime minister and served in that role until becoming Turkeys first directly elected president in 2014.

The referendum campaign was divisive and heavily one-sided, with the yes side dominating the airwaves and billboards across the country. Supporters of the no vote have complained of intimidation, including beatings, detentions and threats.

The vote comes as Turkey has been buffeted by problems. Erdogan survived a coup attempt last July, which he has blamed on his former ally and current nemesis Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric living in the United States. Gulen has denied knowledge of the coup attempt.

Still, a widespread government crackdown has targeted followers of Gulen and other government opponents, branding them terrorists and a state of emergency has been imposed.

Roughly 100,000 people - including judges, teachers, academics, doctors, journalists, military officials and police - have lost their jobs in the government crackdown, and more than 40,000 have been arrested. Hundreds of media outlets and non-governmental organizations have been shut down.

Turkey has also suffered renewed violence between Kurdish militants and security forces in the countrys volatile southeast, as well as a string of bombings, some attributed to the Islamic State group, which is active across the border in Syria.

The war in Syria has led to some 3 million refugees crossing the border into Turkey. Turkey has sent troops into Syria to help opposition Syrian forces clear a border area from the threat posed by Islamic State militants.

Meanwhile, Turkeys relations with Europe have been increasingly tense, particularly after Erdogan branded Germany and the Netherlands as Nazis for not allowing Turkish ministers to campaign for the yes vote among expatriate Turks.

This article was originally published on TIME.com
Industry Ministry introduces plan to uplift economy

The Ministry of Industry has introduced an ambitious plan that includes employment generation in the country in a decade.
By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Humeyra Pamuk ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in a referendum on Sunday to grant him sweeping powers in the biggest overhaul of modern Turkish politics, but opponents said the vote was marred by irregularities and they would challenge its result. Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast and its three main cities, including the capital Ankara and the largest city Istanbul, looked set to vote "No" after a bitter and divisive campaign. Erdogan said 25 million people had supported the proposal, which will replace Turkey's parliamentary system with an all-powerful presidency and abolish the office of prime minister, giving the "Yes" camp 51.5 percent of the vote. That appeared short of the decisive victory for which he and the ruling AK Party had aggressively campaigned. Nevertheless, thousands of flag-waving supporters rallied in Ankara and Istanbul in celebration. "For the first time in the history of the Republic, we are changing our ruling system through civil politics," Erdogan said, referring to the military coups which marred Turkish politics for decades. "That is why it is very significant." Under the changes, most of which will only come into effect after the next elections due in 2019, the president will appoint the cabinet and an undefined number of vice-presidents, and be able to select and remove senior civil servants without parliamentary approval. Erdogan himself survived a failed coup attempt last July, responding with a crackdown that has seen 47,000 people detained and 120,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs. In Ankara, where Prime Minister Binali Yildirim addressed cheering supporters, convoys of cars honking horns clogged a main avenue as they headed towards the AK Party's headquarters, their passengers waving flags from the windows. But the head of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said the legitimacy of the referendum was open to question. The party earlier said it would demand a recount of up to 60 percent of the votes after Turkey's High Electoral Board (YSK) announced it would count ballots which had not been stamped by its officials as valid unless they could be proved fraudulent. Kilicdaroglu has accused Erdogan of seeking a "one-man regime", and said the proposed changes would put the country in danger. In some affluent neighborhoods in Istanbul, people took to the streets in protest while others banged pots and pans at home - a sign of dissent that was widespread during anti-Erdogan protests in 2013. In Istanbul's Besiktas neighborhood, more than 300 protesters brought traffic on a main street to a standstill, a Reuters cameraman at the scene said. In Ankara, scuffles between AK Party and opposition supporters broke out near the headquarters of the CHP. EUROPEAN UNEASE Turkey's lira firmed to 3.65 to the dollar in Asian trade following the referendum, from 3.72 on Friday. European politicians, however, who have had increasingly strained relations with Turkey, expressed concern. The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, said the close result meant that Ankara should seek "the broadest national consensus" in implementing the vote. Relations hit a low during the referendum campaign when EU countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, barred Turkish ministers from holding rallies in support of the changes. Erdogan called the moves "Nazi acts" and said Turkey could reconsider ties with the European Union after many years of seeking EU membership. Former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, who heads the liberal group of MEPs in the European Parliament, said Erdogan needed to change course, noting the result was very tight. "If Erdogan persists, EU should stop accession talks," he said. Manfred Weber, leader of the center-right grouping tweeted: "No matter the result: with his referendum Pres. Erdogan is splitting his country." After the vote Erdogan repeated his intention to review Turkey's suspension of the death penalty, a step which would almost certainly spell the end of Ankara's EU accession process. Further deterioration in relations with the European Union could also jeopardize last year's deal under which Turkey has curbed the flow of migrants - mainly refugees from wars in Syria and Iraq - into the bloc. NATION DIVIDED The referendum has bitterly divided the nation. Erdogan and his supporters say the changes are needed to amend the current constitution, written by generals following a 1980 military coup, confront the security and political challenges Turkey faces, and avoid the fragile coalition governments of the past. "This is our opportunity to take back control of our country," said self-employed Bayram Seker, 42, after voting "Yes" in Istanbul. "I don't think one-man rule is such a scary thing. Turkey has been ruled in the past by one man," he said, referring to modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Opponents say it is a step towards greater authoritarianism. Erdogan and the AK Party enjoyed a disproportionate share of media coverage in the buildup to the vote while the leaders of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), which opposes the changes, have been in jail for months. "I voted 'No' because I don't want this whole country and its legislative, executive and judiciary ruled by one man," said Hamit Yaz, 34, a ship's captain, after voting in Istanbul. Proponents of the reform argue that it would end the current "two-headed system" in which both the president and parliament are directly elected, a situation they argue could lead to deadlock. Until 2014, presidents were chosen by parliament. The government says Turkey, faced with conflict to the south in Syria and Iraq, and a security threat from Islamic State and PKK militants, needs strong and clear leadership. The package of 18 amendments would give the president the authority to draft the budget, declare a state of emergency and issue decrees overseeing ministries without parliamentary approval. (Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall, Ece Toksabay, Gulsen Solaker, Tulay Karadeniz, Orhan Coskun, Ercan Gurses in Ankara; Isabel Coles, Can Sezer, Birsen Altayli, Behiye Selin Taner, Ceyda Caglayan, Ebru Tuncay and Akin Aytekin in Istanbul, Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Writing by Dominic Evans and Daren Butler; Editing by Keith Weir, Adrian Croft and Bill Rigby)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea launched a missile near Sinpo, on its east coast, and the missile blew up almost immediately, a U.S. military spokesman said on Saturday.

U.S. Pacific Command detected and tracked what it assessed to be a North Korean ballistic missile launch at 11:21 a.m. Hawaii time (1721 ET) on Saturday, said U.S. Navy Commander Dave Benham, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Command.

"The missile blew up almost immediately," Benham said. "The type of missile is still being assessed."

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Uber has had a tough time lately dealing with multiple issues and scandals, including sexual harrasment. In an effort to show its strength, Uber shared financial data with Bloomberg, which shows the company is generating revenue but also losing money.

Uber more than doubled gross bookings to $20 billion in 2016, compared to 2015, the report said. Out of the $20 billion, Uber made $6.5 billion, excluding its China business, which was sold last year. However, Uber still lost $2.8 billion, also excluding China, the company revealed.

Read: Uber 'Hell' Program: Uber Reportedly Used Exploit To Track And Target Lyft Drivers

The numbers show Uber is making money, which is a good sign for investors, however it also shows the company losing tons of money.

Uber said it was fortunate to see revenue growth outpace losses in 2016 and that the company is still performing well this year amid controversies.

Were fortunate to have a healthy and growing business, giving us the room to make the changes we know are needed on management and accountability, our culture and organization, and our relationship with drivers, Rachel Holt, regional GM at Uber, told Bloomberg.

Uber has been dealing sexual abuse accusations within the company, which began earlier this year after a former employee wrote about her experience. Shortly afterwards, Ubers VP of engineering, Amit Singhal, was asked to resign by CEO Travis Kalanick after he failed to disclose he left Google over a sexual harassment accusation.

Read: Italy Bans Uber: Where Else Has The Ride-Hailing Service Run Into Trouble

Separately, a New York Times report detailed Ubers aggressive workplace culture, including drug use, sexual harassment and homophobic verbal abuse. The company has also been criticized for its lack of diversity in its tech workforce.

Uber is currently involved in a dispute with Waymo. Waymo claims Uber stole trade secrets related to its self-driving car technology, accusations Uber denies.

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The company was also hurt by the #DeleteUber campaign earlier this year after President Donald Trump signed his immigration executive order.

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President Trump and members of his administration have recently struck a very friendly tone toward China, particularly with respect to that countrys apparent support for the effort to denuclearize the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-un. But a senior Republican member of Congress on Sunday suggested that, behind the scenes, the administration is working on a different option that would be much more confrontational.

In an appearance on CNN, House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) said that despite indications that Beijing is concerned about nuclear proliferation in North Korea, the Chinese government is still supporting the Korean economy and its nuclear program. He said there are plans being put in place to hit 10 Chinese banks that do business in North Korea with crippling sanctions to cut off funding to the Kim regime.

Related: Why North Korea and Syria Are Bigger Than the Mother of All Bombs

The move would be similar to a highly successful effort in 2007 to cut off money to Pyongyang. At that time, the US imposed sanctions on Banco Delta Asia, a Macao-based bank that did considerable business with the North Korean regime. The impact was severe, on both the bank and North Korea, Royce said. Other banks, intimidated by the US move, restricted or eliminated their dealings with the North Korean government.

Directly harming China's financial institutions would also be a much more aggressive step against China than anything the administration has proposed so far.

What were urging this president to do at this point is what was done once before with Banco Delta Asia and that is, shut down any foreign banks doing any kind of business in hard currency with North Korea, because when we last did that, we shut off the money for their program and we shut it down tight as a drum. And I think thats the next step that has to be deployed.

Asked by host Jake Tapper if he knew of any plans within the Trump administration to implement such sanctions, Royce said, I do and added that he and his colleagues in Congress are exploring other economic penalties as well.

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Related: Trumps Tough Guy Foreign Policy Falls Flat with Russia and China

If China does cut off all transactions with North Korea...the dictator will not be able to pay his generals, Royce said. Thats what happened the last time we had these kinds of sanctions imposed on Chinese banks...Thats the leverage and we need that kind of political leverage because thats the way to get the attention of the regime in North Korea and have them reconsider their nuclear program.

If the Trump administration is indeed working on a sanctions program that would strike Chinese banks, its most senior members are keeping that fact well hidden.

The president himself has gone out of his way to publicly praise President Xi, following their meeting in Florida earlier this month and repeated phone calls since. He even dropped his long-repeated claim that China unfairly manipulates the value of its currency in order to give its manufacturers an advantage over foreign competitors.

Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? he tweeted on Sunday morning. We will see what happens!

Related: Who Is That Man in the Oval Office, and What Has He Done with President Trump?

Trumps deputy National Security Adviser, KT McFarland, said on Fox News Sunday morning that Xi has expressed willingness to do more when it comes to North Korea, and said right now, patience is needed. Give the Chinese president some opportunities and time, she told host Chris Wallace.

On ABC, White House National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster also stressed the need for patience and cooperation. US allies in the region, he said, have recognized that the problem in North Korea, festering through multiple US presidencies, is now coming to a head.

And so its time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully, he said. And so were going to rely on our allies like we always do, but were also going to have to rely on Chinese leadership. I mean, North Korea is very vulnerable to pressure from the Chinese. Eighty percent of North Koreas trade comes from China. All of their energy requirements are fulfilled by China.

So in the coming weeks, months, I think theres a great opportunity for all of us -- all of us who are really the threat now of this unpredictable regime -- to take action short of armed conflict, so we can avoid the worst.

Related: The Army Has a New Supergun That Can Blow Apart a Tank

But its unclear how long members of Congress are going to be willing to stay patient, especially if, as many analysts expect, North Korea conducts another nuclear weapons test in the near future.

Royce, the House Foreign Relations chairman, said that in his opinion, financial sanctions against banks serving North Korea should be immediate. We must do it now because we have so little time left before North Korea could have a nuclear weapon capable of striking the US. This is the urgency, he added.

Another powerful member of Congress, House Armed Services Committee Chair Mac Thornberry, said on Fox that there had been progress getting China to put pressure on North Korea, but that more is needed.

We need to keep the pressure on China to rein in North Korea; and their announcements about restricting coal shipments, for example, is a big step forward. Thats the biggest export North Korea has, coal to China. Thornberry was referring to reports from last week that China was refusing deliveries of North Korean coal.

But the...most important thing is to increase our military presence in the region and our military capability overall, he said. Remember, China does not want to have the new carrier battle group in their backyard. They are not excited about the missile defense deployments in Japan and Korea. Well, the answer for China is to get a hold of this guy in North Korea and that will reduce the necessity of us increasing military presence.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
HARPURSVILLE, N.Y. (AP)  April the giraffe's calf is nursing strongly and his mother is recovering "perfectly," said officials with Animal Adventure Park on Sunday after a morning veterinarian check with the newborn.

April gave birth to a healthy male calf Saturday at the privately owned Animal Adventure Park before an online audience of more than a million viewers.

The 15-year-old giraffe delivered her calf shortly before 10 a.m. EDT in an enclosed pen at the zoo in Harpursville, a rural upstate village about 130 miles (209 kilometers) northwest of New York City.

The calf weighs in at 129 pounds (58.5 kilograms) and stands 5 feet 9 inches tall (1.75 meters).

"April has recovered perfectly and is eating everything in sight!" the team posted on its official Facebook page .

Seconds after birth, April tenderly licked her calf, which began to slowly pick his head up from the floor of the pen. About 45 minutes after he was born, he stood on wobbly legs while mom helped keep him steady.

At least 1.2 million people watched the Adventure Park's YouTube streaming of the event. Zoo owner Jordan Patch said both mom and calf were doing fine.

Patch called the birth "unnerving" to watch. "Giraffes give birth standing up, which means when the calf is ready to be born, it exits its mother hooves first from six feet off the floor, making for a very exciting event," he said in a news release.

The newborn is April's fourth calf but Animal Adventure Park's first giraffe calf. Giraffes are pregnant for 15 months on average. The proud papa, a 5-year-old giraffe named Oliver, watched from an adjacent pen. This is his first offspring.

The zoo began livestreaming from April's enclosure in February. People around the world have been tuning in daily, with some growing impatient as the pregnancy seemed to drag on.

A Farmington, New Hampshire, songwriter even posted a music video on YouTube called, "I'm Going Crazy Waiting (For A Giraffe)."

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April has her own website and even an apparel line. A GoFundMe fundraiser page that initially set a goal of $50,000 sat at more than $134,000 by Saturday night. The money will be used for the care of the animals.

A contest will be held to decide on a name for the calf.

Animal Adventure park is currently closed to the public and will open in mid-May.
Vice President Mike Pence called North Koreas latest missile test a provocation, and Sen. John McCain noted that even though it was a failure, the Pyongyang learns something new with every launch.

The comments came as the New York Times reported the U.S. has been conducting a covert cyberwar to thwart the Norths missile program.

Read: President Trump Says He Will Act Alone If Chinese Don't Help

North Korea fired a ballistic missile early Sunday from its Sinpo submarine base, but it blew up almost immediately. The test followed last weeks military parade in which the North showed off what appeared to be missiles capable of carrying multiple warheads and big enough to reach the United States.

This mornings provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face each and every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world, Pence said during an Easter dinner at Yongsan military base in Seoul at the start of his 10-day tour of Asia. Pence also pledged the U.S. will continue to support its alliance with South Korea.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster echoed Pences remarks in an interview on ABCs This Week, calling the missile test part of a pattern of provocative and destabilizing and threatening behavior. He said there now is an international consensus  that this is a situation that just cant continue.

Read: International Nuclear Head Says Diplomacy Won't Work

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on CNNs State of the Union the Trump administration needs to develop a coherent strategy and must not act unilaterally. President Donald Trump has talked with Chinese President Xi Jinping about North Koreas missile and nuclear programs both at a face-to-face summit at Mar-a-Lago and by phone. Sanders said China needs to be pressed to rein in Pyongyang because comprehensive agreements that have been negotiated in the past did little to dissuade the Hermit Kingdom.

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McCain, R-Ariz., the head of the Armed Services Committee called China the key in stopping Kim Jong Un because of its control over North Koreas economy.

China can shut them down and we should be  we should expect them to act to prevent what could be a cataclysmic event, McCain said on NBCs Meet the Press. McCain noted that the North has made steady progress while we have made agreement after agreement after agreement in the past two decades, no mater whether a Republican or Democrat was in the White House.

This guy in North Korea is not rational. His father and his grandfather were much more rational than he is, said McCain, who has described Kim as a crazy fat kid.

The Times reported former President Barack Obama ordered a surge in electronic warfare against Pyongyang to try to cripple the missile program. Since it was initiated, the missile failure rate has increased but it was unclear whether any individual failure was the result of that sabotage.

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The meaning of work is changing, and with life expectancies growing, the gig economy taking hold and artificial intelligence taking plenty of peoples jobs, millennials will have careers that are worlds away from those of their forebears, says Dr. Linda Sharkey, global managing director of the consulting firm Achieveblue Inc.

Sharkey is the author of The Future-Proof Workplace: Six Strategies to Accelerate Talent Development, Reshape Your Culture and Succeed with Purpose, co-written with Morag Barnett, the chief executive of the business management consultancy SkyeTeam. She talked to International Business Times about the prospects for 21st-century careers, the falling value of a four-year degree and the idea that a robot might be conducting this sort of question-and-answer article in the not-so-far-away future.

Read: How Millennials Spend Money And The Future Of Resale

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

One issue you touch on in your book is your expectation that retirement will cease to be a 21st century phenomenon, and that todays young workers are more likely to take sabbaticals than end their careers by their late sixties. Is this something you think will be born of choice  a desire to work longer  or a consequence of the unsustainability of Social Security as generations live longer and have fewer children?

No, I dont think it has anything to do with Social Security not being sustainable anymore, and I cant imagine that it wont be for a good, long period of time. I think its more that millennials are going to live longer, they are better educated, they have better health, obviously, they have more choices, and theyre not constrained with the same paradigms that we had in the 20th century. They dont necessarily view a job as a 9-to-5, or a 10-to-8, or whatever it is, and they dont necessarily view themselves as having one employer and going to the same corporation day in and day out.

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I think theyre more interested in working on interesting projects and having exciting things to do, and I think, frankly, youre seeing this trend now. You have a lot of people who are retiring at 60, 65, and going on to other careers. I myself have had five careers. My co-authors had five or six different careers and I moved on from different circumstances and took a year of sabbatical myself to write another book, and I think youre going to see more and more of that kind of trend. And I think youre going to see it more as a result of changing perspectives about work.

Do you think the gig economy will play a large role in defining work for younger generations as they age?

Absolutely, because somebody can be working in a gig at Hewlett-Packard, lets say or Uber. People have gigs through Fiverr you make a lot of money, and you jump back on.

Some have pointed to a culture of working yourself to death. Do you think younger workers who embrace that lack of structure will have a tough road ahead in terms of work-life balance?

People have always burned themselves out in the workplace. In the late 90s we talked about work-life balance. Thats a very personal matter for people who entered work in the recession There was a lot of pressure to deliver. There was a lot of burnout and low morale Its really nothing new, and a lot of it is somebodys personal choices. People who work for themselves work long and hard hours  they put a lot of time in it, they get a lot of satisfaction out of it, because theyre working for themselves. So I think thats where its going to be more of a personal balance issue. So my answer is yes, there will be people who burn out over it and stress out over it, but there will be other people who find their work-life balance for themselves, as has always been the case.

Read: Women Closer To Wage Equity In The Gig Economy, Study Finds

What will these sabbaticals be like, for professionals who are not professors, researchers and the like? What is a sabbatical going to look like for a lawyer, a physician, an office worker?

Well, I took a sabbatical for a year from a company to write a book, and I do have a Ph.D. but I wasnt an academic at the time. A friend of mine who was at Google, he took a sabbatical just to travel and reflect on whats the next stage in his career. A woman that I know  I helped her get hired at a company  the company was closing and she looked at this opportunity and said, You know, Ive never had an opportunity like this, and she traveled through South America because she was always fascinated with South America. She came back and she got another job.

Sabbaticals will take all sorts of different looks I think sabbatical is a broad bucket, which people can use as a way to have the freedom to do the things they want to do outside of a normal job. And I think youre going to see a lot less people working for companies more than three or four years. Theyre going to be moving on to something else.

How often do you think millennials will switch careers in their lifetimes, compared to older cohorts?

I think  and the trend is already here  millennials will move around to different jobs at different companies to get different experiences. The career might be the same you might stay in the same general field, but you might be working on various different projects.

You note the declining value of the four-year degree. Will the new standard be a graduate degree, or higher stakes for millennials entry-level jobs?

I think youre going to see people still going to college, people still getting different kinds of degrees, [including from] MOOCs [massive open online courses]. Youre going to see a lot of apprenticeships, where companies are going to be looking at the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed kids out of high school or out of trade schools, out of community colleges. Theyre not as expensive, and theyre going to hire them into their companies and theyre going to train them in apprenticeships  to learn the software, to learn to be a data technician, and those kinds of things. And thats a good thing. Companies have sort of steered away from those kinds of apprenticeships over time because they felt like they were training people for their next job outside of their company.

I think that liberal arts degrees are going to be important because we dont know what jobs are tomorrow, we dont know whats going to happen. Right now theres software that writes columns and writes articles. They may not even need you to conduct this kind of interview  the software can call me up, ask the questions, I give the answers and they put it into an article that can be done through artificial intelligence. So were not really sure what all the jobs of the future are going to be, but one thing is absolutely certain: Youre going to need people in the workplace, and youre going to need people who have empathy, people who know how to build relationships, and know how to think, who are critical thinkers and problem solvers, who can adapt to change and that comes from learning, but that doesnt necessarily have to come from a four-year college degree.

In your book, you describe the ways the workplace is changing for millennials, but how are millennials themselves changing their own workplaces, aside from the obvious  a ubiquitous embrace of social media and tech?

I think, rightly, millennials are really redesigning what it means to have a career. Theyre spending more time in different areas, theyre coming into workplaces to learn and theyre taking that learning to other workplaces. So I think theyre changing the workplace from the point of view that you dont have to work inside a building, you can work from anywhere. Smart companies are understanding that, and theyre putting in place policies and regulations that enable working from anywhere at any time.

There was a great story of some millennials who were just out of college and attended a board meeting at a major corporation. And they were in the board meeting, and they were on their cell phones the whole time. And when they all broke for lunch, people came up to the CEO and said, See, those millennials, they cant get off their phones. Theyre texting and on Facebook and that kind of stuff.  And the CEO said, No, no, theyre taking notes. So, people have to change their view and I think millennials are changing their views of what kind of technology and how technology gets used I do think that redefining how work gets done and what work gets done is going to be a big change. Companies 15 years ago wouldnt let people in the building use their cell phones. Thats not going to happen.

Which companies are adapting to these changes most successfully?

I think Google, Facebook  theyre leading the way with their campuses. Theyre communities. Theyre not in traditional-looking office buildings like you would think. Theres a dry-cleaners, theres a hair place, theres outdoor food kiosks and different restaurants. I think youre going to see more and more of that. People are going to be treating the workplace, or the work community place, as a congregation for creativity and innovation and ideas.

I think youre not going to see hierarchies I dont think youre going to see a manager and 35 people. I think youre going to see leaders, with people working on projects I think its going to be much more fluid.

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Its been a bad week for United Airlines. After a video of a passenger being violently removed from a plane by police went viral, youd think the airline would be trying to stay out of the headlines.

United Airlines had U.S. marshals escort bride and groom Amber Maxwell and Michael Hohl from a flight en route to their wedding this weekend. (Photo: Getty Images)

In the latest passenger-PR nightmare, a couple flying United to their destination wedding in Costa Rica were booted from their plane on Saturday. Michael Hohl and Amber Maxwell were traveling with family and friends when confusion over seating landed them back in the terminal.

The wedding, planned for Thursday, will still happen, but the couple are  quite understandably  not happy with how United handled the situation. We thought not a big deal, its not like we are trying to jump up into a first-class seat, Hohl told News13, an ABC affiliate. We were simply in an economy row a few rows above our economy seat.

The couple had flown into Houston from Salt Lake City. After a layover at George Bush Intercontinental airport, they boarded United Flight 1737 bound for Liberia, Costa Rica. When they went to sit down, they found a man stretched out and sleeping in their row.

According to the couple, they jumped up a few rows on the mostly empty plane and didnt think much of it. When a flight attendant asked them why they werent in their assigned seats, the trouble started.

The airline and the couple have two different versions of events. According to the couple, they tried to explain there was someone sleeping in their assigned seats. Even after they complied with the flight crew and woke the sleeping man, an air marshal approached them and told them they had to get off the plane.

United Airlines in a statement said: Were disappointed anytime a customer has an experience that doesnt measure up to their expectations. These passengers repeatedly attempted to sit in upgraded seating, which they did not purchase, and they would not follow crew instructions to return to their assigned seats. Weve been in touch with them and have rebooked them on flights tomorrow.

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Hohl and Maxwell deny they were being disorderly. I think customer service and the airlines have gone real downhill, said Hohl. The way United Airlines handled this was really absurd.

The stepfather of the bride to be, Michael Gallagher, told KUTV 2News Utah in an interview: Truthfully, we all worried that maybe something would happen in Costa Rica, and we were willing to deal with that. Never in our wildest dreams did we think United was going to screw it up in Houston, Texas.

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A decade ago, he was a young Army soldier training Iraqi troops when he noticed their primitive filing system: handwritten notes threaded with different colors of yarn, stacked in piles. For organizations sake, he built them a simple computer database.

Now an Army reservist, the major is taking a break from his civilian high-tech job to help Americas technological fight against Islamic State extremists, part of a growing force of cyberexperts the Pentagon has assembled to defeat the group.

The ability to participate in some way in a real mission, that is actually something thats rare, that you cant find in private sector, said the 38-year-old Nebraska native who is working at U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Maryland. Youre part of a larger team putting your skills to use, not just optimizing clicks for a digital ad, but optimizing the ability to counter ISIS or contribute to the security of our nation.

Microsoft Says It Has Patched NSA Leaks

Last year, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter expressed frustration that the United States was losing the cyberwar against Islamic States militants. He pushed the Cyber Command to be more aggressive. In response, the Pentagon launched an effort to incorporate cyber technology into its daily military fight, including new ways to disrupt the enemys communications, recruiting, fundraising and propaganda.

To speak with someone at the front lines of the cyber campaign, The Associated Press agreed to withhold the majors name. The military says he could be threatened or targeted by the militants if he is identified publicly. The major and other officials wouldnt provide precise details on the highly classified work he is doing.

But Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander of U.S. Army Cyber Command, said the major is bringing new expertise for identifying enemy networks, pinpointing system administrators or developers, and potentially monitoring how the Islamic States online traffic moves.

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U.S. Seeks to Fight Islamic State, Oust Syrias Assad

He has the ability to bring an analytic focus of what the threat is doing, coupled with a really deep understanding of how networks run, Nakasone said, describing such contributions as really helpful for us. He outlined a key question for the military: How do you impact an adversary thats using cyberspace against us?

The military services are looking for new ways to bring in more civilians with high-tech skills who can help against IS, and prepare for the new range of technological threats the nation will face. Nakasone said that means getting Guard and Reserve members with technical expertise in digital forensics, math crypto-analysis and writing computer code. The challenge is how to find them.

I would like to say its this great database that we have, that weve been able to plug in and say, Show me the best tool developers and analysts that you have out there,' Nakasone said. We dont have that yet. We are going to have one, though, by June.

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The Army Reserve is starting a pilot program cataloging soldiers talents. Among 190,000 Army reservists, Nakasone said there might be up to 15,000 with some type of cyber-related skills. But there are legal and privacy hurdles, and any database hinges on reservists voluntarily and accurately providing information on their capabilities.

Normally, Nakasone said a reservists record includes background, training, assignments and schools attended.

I would like to know every single person that has been trained as a certified ethical hacker, he said.

The Army has been steadily building cyber mission teams, as part of a broader Defense Department undertaking. Of the 41 Army teams, just over half come from the Army National Guard and Army Reserve.

U.S. Military Officials Are Looking Into Whether Russia Participated In Syria Chemical Attack

Nakasone said officials were still working out costs.

The money will come, he said, because building a ready cyber force is necessary.

The Army major said others in the civilian high-tech industry are interested in helping.

Many would like to participate in something bigger than themselves, something that has intrinsic value for the nation, he said.

The major said he has signed up for a second one-year tour in his cyber job. He is looking at options for staying longer.

I find what Im doing very satisfying, because I have an opportunity to implement things, to get things done and see them work and see tangible results, he said. Im not making as much as I was on the civilian side. But the satisfaction is that strong, and is that valuable, that its worth it.

This article was originally published on FORTUNE.com
Madhes-centric parties' agitation a drama, Law Minister Nayak comments

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ajay Shankar Nayak has remarked that the announcement of the Madhes-centric political parties for fresh agitations against the upcoming local level elections was nothing more than a drama.
Professional photographers carrying bulky lenses to capture shots from a distance are a common sight, and even the amateur photographers among us have struggled to focus on the minute details of a small object, even at a close distance. But a new method of photography could both do away with the need of telephoto lenses as well as allow capturing microscopic details from a distance.

Called Synthetic Apertures for long-range, subdiffraction-limited Visible Imaging or SAVI for short, the systems prototype was built and tested by researchers from Rice University in Houston, Texas, and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It extends a well-known technique already used in radio imaging to visual imaging, and the tests showed the system improved the resolution of sundry diffuse objects by as much as six times.

SAVI works by first illuminating a spot with a laser and then capturing the resulting speckle pattern  diffuse reflections caused by the coming together of different phases and amplitudes of monochromatic light such as lasers  with a camera sensor. Different camera positions are used  something like the technique to create the bullet time in the Matrix films  and the raw data is fed into a computer which constructs a high-resolution composite image.

SAVICamera

Photo: Jason Holloway

The system was explained in an open-access paper  titled SAVI: Synthetic apertures for long-range, subdiffraction-limited visible imaging using Fourier ptychography  published Friday in the journal Science Advances.

Using this method allows for a long lens  needed to create a big aperture, which in turn improves the resolution of the image  to be moved out of the picture completely, to be replaced by a computer that can resolve the different speckle images into one photograph.

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SAVIGraphic

Photo: Jason Holloway

a statement that cheap plastic lenses and inexpensive sensors could someday replace telephoto lenses that cost thousands of dollars, without losing on quality.

We should be able to capture that exact same performance but at orders-of-magnitude lower cost, he said.

Currently, SAVI only works with unusual light sources like lasers, but researchers say it is the first step toward designing it to use in visible light.

Ashok Veeraraghavan, a Rice assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and the corresponding author of the paper, said in the statement: Today, the technology can be applied only to coherent (laser) light. That means you cannot apply these techniques to take pictures outdoors and improve resolution for sunlit images  as yet. Our hope is that one day, maybe a decade from now, we will have that ability.

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By Clare Baldwin and Joseph Menn HONG KONG/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Documents and computer files released by hackers provide a blueprint for how the U.S. National Security Agency likely used weaknesses in commercially available software to gain access to the global system for transferring money between banks, a review of the data showed. On Friday, a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers released documents and files indicating NSA had accessed the SWIFT money-transfer system through service providers in the Middle East and Latin America. That release was the latest in a series of disclosures by the group in recent months. Matt Suiche, founder of cybersecurity firm Comae Technologies, wrote in a blog post that screen shots indicated some SWIFT affiliates were using Windows servers that were vulnerable at the time, in 2013, to the Microsoft exploits published by the Shadow Brokers. He said he concluded that the NSA took advantage and got in that way. "As soon as they bypass the firewalls, they target the machines using Microsoft exploits," Suiche told Reuters. Exploits are small programs for taking advantage of security flaws. Hackers use them to insert back doors for continued access, eavesdropping or to insert other tools. "We now have all of the tools the NSA used to compromise SWIFT (via) Cisco firewalls, Windows," Suiche said. Reuters was not able to independently verify the authenticity of the documents released by the hackers. Microsoft acknowledged the vulnerabilities and said they had been patched. Cisco Systems Inc has previously acknowledged that its firewalls had been vulnerable. Cisco and the NSA did not reply to requests for comment. Belgium-based SWIFT on Friday downplayed the risk of attacks employing the code released by hackers and said it had no evidence that the main SWIFT network had ever been accessed without authorization. It was possible that the local messaging systems of some SWIFT client banks had been breached, SWIFT said in a statement, which did not specifically mention the NSA. Because tracking sources of terrorist financing and money flows among criminal groups is a high priority, SWIFT transfers would be a natural espionage target for many national intelligence agencies. BREACH OF FIREWALLS A PowerPoint presentation that was part of the most recent Shadow Brokers release indicates the NSA used a tool codenamed BARGLEE to breach the SWIFT service providers' security firewalls. The NSA's official seal appeared on one of the slides in the presentation, although Reuters could not independently determine the authenticity of the slides. The slide referred to ASA firewalls. Cisco is the only company that makes ASA firewalls, according to a Cisco employee who spoke on condition of anonymity. ASA stands for Adaptive Security Appliance and is a combined firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention and virtual private network, or VPN. Documents included in the Shadow Brokers release suggest that the NSA, after penetrating the firewall of the SWIFT service providers, used Microsoft exploits to target the computers interacting with the SWIFT network, Comae Technologies' Suiche said. The Al Quds Bank for Development and Investment, for example, was running a Windows 2008 server that at the time was vulnerable to newly disclosed Windows exploits, he said. Microsoft late on Friday said it had determined that prior patches to dozens of software versions had fixed the flaws that apparently were exploited by nine of the NSA programs. Four of the vulnerabilities were blocked by comprehensive updates on March 14. That left only older, unsupported versions of Windows operating systems and Exchange email servers at risk to three of the newly released exploits, the company said. Earlier Friday, Microsoft had said the company had not been warned by the government or other outsiders about the stolen programs. Microsoft declined to say how it learned of the exploits without outside help. The company's security systems are capable of detecting attacks against customers, and Microsoft in the past has monitored discussion about exploits on the Internet and also hired former intelligence agency veterans to help it devise programming to protect its software from encroachment. The NSA targeted nine computer servers at a SWIFT contractor, Dubai-based service bureau EastNets, according to the documents. The U.S. intelligence agency then used lines of code to query the SWIFT servers and Oracle databases handling the SWIFT transactions, according to the documents. EastNets on Friday denied it had been hacked. (Reporting by Clare Baldwin and Joseph Menn; Additional reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by David Greising and Cynthia Osterman)
The Samsung CFG70 is the kind of high-end gaming monitor that rarely goes on sale. It's one of the first to use quantum-dot technology and it also boasts a super-fast 1ms response time. Although it traditionally retails for $349.99, Amazon currently has it for $279.99, which is the second-best price we've ever seen for this monitor. (It briefly hit $263 during the holidays).

Samsung CFG70 24-inch Gaming Monitor Samsung CFG70 24-inch Gaming Monitor $279.99 On Amazon See full article here







The 24-inch monitor offers 1080p resolution and a curved design, the latter of which was added to make your gaming sessions more immersive. It also has some useful features that are bound to help gamers of all experience levels.

For instance, it has a dual-hinge design that makes it very easy to adjust. A small LED light beneath the screen also casts a cool, blue glow on the LCD's base. The LED can be programmed to pulsate with the audio of your PC for some epic gaming sessions.

In terms of performance, the CFG70 doesn't disappoint. In our tests, we could easily distinguish characters during crowded battle scenes and in fighting games  where too much latency can mean the difference between losing or winning  the CFG70 again impressed us with no visible lag whatsoever.

Overall, the CFG70 is an amazing monitor that any gamer can appreciate. Impressive color, fast response time, FreeSync support, and its temporary price cut should place this high on any gamer's list.

See also : Here Are the Biggest Video Game Releases of April 2017
Jeff Varner, the Survivor contestant who got booted by his tribemates after outing competitor Zeke Smith as a transgender man, has been kicked out again: Varner says he was fired from his real estate job this week.

In an interview with his local newspaper, Greensboro N.C.s News & Record, Varner says he lost his job as an agent at the North Carolina realty firm Allen Tate Thursday. Varner says he was informed by the company that he was in the middle of a news story that we dont want anything to do with.

Earlier this week, CBS said it had respect for how Jeff Varner has expressed remorse for his mistake, both in the episode and in his subsequent dialogue with the media.

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MINOT AIR FORCE BASE  The number of silos containing Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles in the Minot missile field will be reduced to meet the New START requirements. However, the missile field will retain 150 Minuteman III silos, according to an Air Force Global Strike Command spokesman.

"Minot will have approximately 133 silos with missiles installed at any given time once the final boosters are pulled to meet New START requirements," said Capt. Christopher Mesnard, chief of Public Affairs Operations at headquarters Air Force Global Strike Command at Barksdale Air Force Base, La.

The 91st Missile Wing at Minot AFB, a unit of Global Strike Command, oversees the Minot missile field.

"We'll still maintain 150 Minuteman III silos at Minot with about 17 of those in a non-deployed status, meaning there won't be a missile in it, allowing us to rotate the silos we use and further enable our ability to conduct maintenance and upgrades to the silos without impacting our operational capabilities," Mesnard said.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is the nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russian Federation. Then-President Barack Obama and then-Russian President and now Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed the treaty April 8, 2010, in Prague. The treaty went into effect Feb. 5, 2011, and is expected to last until 2021. Both nations are to comply with the reduction in nuclear arms by February 2018.

"For the bombers, there were 41 B-52H bombers converted to conventional-only  29 jets in active service and 12 boneyard jets at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Tucson, Ariz.," Mesnard said. He said there are a total of 75 B-52Hs in active service with 46 nuclear capable.

"A majority of the active service jets were converted at Barksdale Air Force Base at the 307th Bomb Wing. The remaining conversions were split between Barksdale AFB's 2nd Bomb Wing and Minot AFB's 5th Bomb Wing," Mesnard said.

Currently, 26 B-52s are assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, according to Global Strike Command information. At Barksdale AFB, the 2nd Bomb Wing has 29 B-52s and the 307th Bomb Wing has 18 B-52s. Edwards AFB, Calif., a test facility, also has two B-52s.

Minot AFB has had B-52H bombers since 1961 when the first B-52 arrived. The plane was christened "Peace Persuader."

Construction began in January 1962 on the Minuteman I ICBM missile complex and all 150 missiles were in place and ready to go, if needed, by April 1964. A few years later the 91st Missile Wing's Minuteman I ICBMs were replaced in the Minot missile field by Minuteman III ICBMs, the current missiles in underground facilities located in several counties.

Minot AFB has the notoriety of being the only base with dual nuclear-capable wings  the 5th Bomb Wing and the 91st Missile Wing.
Congress CWC meeting: Province 2 leaders for early deal with SLMM

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GRAND FORKS  Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., hasnt announced if hell run for the U.S. Senate in 2018, but Democrats dont seem to be waiting for him to make a move.

The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee attacked the Republican multiple times this month for his support of the GOP replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act. The committee is dedicated to electing Democrats to the Senate, and political experts say its placed Cramer in its crosshairs because hes a likely candidate to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.

If youre looking at the map of senatorial elections in 2018, its not a very good map for the Democratic Party. Theres a lot more Democrats up for reelection than Republicans  and a lot of Democrats running where Trump won or won big, said Nicholas Bauroth, a professor in the political science department at North Dakota State University. If youre looking at the map, and youre a political operative, the thing that you would consider is that Heidi Heitkamp is someone they need to have win  and the most likely opponent would be the states single representative, Kevin Cramer.

The DSCC hasnt held back. An email sent April 11 references a clip of Cramer discussing the failed GOP health care plan, which he supported, during a conversation with Chris Berg, a television host with KVLY-TV in Fargo. It calls the health care plan toxic and warns that it would increase costs.

If Congressman Cramer decides he actually wants to run for anything besides dogcatcher after his humiliating health care defeat, hell see these clips again, a spokesman says in the email, which announced online ads targeting Cramer.

Early shots

The opening salvo is part of a broader effort launched last week by the DSCC against potential GOP Senate candidates in states around the country, The Hill newspaper reports, and comes amid speculation that Cramer and Heitkamp -- neither of whom have announced their 2018 intentions -- will both vie for the same seat.

The race itself is one of national importance, with the Senate divided at 52 to 48 between Republicans and Democrats, and the math is in Republicans favor for 2018. Of the 34 seats up for grabs, 25 belong to the Democrats, giving them the most to lose.

Bauroth added that the DSCCs messaging makes sense when considering the return on investment. Money goes further swinging a Senate race in a state like North Dakota than in a large one like New York or California.

Though Heitkamp hasnt officially said shell run, she has a growing war chest. According to Politico, she raised $1.6 million during the first quarter this year, giving her more than $2 million cash on hand.

"I'm taking the steps to prepare to run, but am still in the process of making a decision," Heitkamp said Friday.

With strong name recognition, incumbency and experience as North Dakota attorney general, Heitkamp is perhaps the only Democrat poised to make a competitive bid to keep the seat in the party, Bauroth said, considering North Dakotas increasing preference for sending Republicans to Washington. Although the states federal delegation was entirely blue just a few years ago, its begun to vote more and more like a rural, largely white state, Bauroth said -- which is to say, Republican.

Also notable is the states presidential voting record. President Donald Trump trounced Hillary Clinton in November, winning the state with nearly 63 percent of the vote.

Cramer, if he runs, is not guaranteed a path to the general election. Plenty of other North Dakota Republicans, such as Rep. Rick Becker, R-Bismarck, are sizing up a run. Becker said Thursday hes weighing a rewarding career as a plastic surgeon against the rigor of a senators schedule.

Im looking into the Senate race, he said. If that means (Cramer) and I are having a healthy competitive race, then so be it. If not, thats fine, too.

Cramer, asked about his own intentions, said a run as a possibility without suggesting what hell do.

My thoughts on 2018 are that 2018 is a long ways away. I have a two-year term, and were at the front end of that two-year term, he said, placing priorities like an Obamacare repeal and Farm Bill passage ahead of campaigning. He added that he felt complimented that DSCC officials had mentioned him as a potential candidate.

Im kind of liking my chances all of a sudden, he said.

Bauroth, asked if Cramer or Heitkamp had better odds, said its still too soon to say.

Its like making predictions about Donald Trump two years ago or three years ago, he said. You think you know one thing, and it turns out to be something else.
MOTT  Viola LaFontaine headed up the Williston Public School during the biggest boom years of student growth and building frenzy in the districts history.

Up until last school year, she was top administrator for 3,500 students and 500 staff and her involvement in the new school buildings was hands off through a construction management team.

Now, instead of meeting with a construction manager who reports on progress, shes helping make decisions right down to what kind of faucets should be installed in the new bathrooms.

Shes the new superintendent of the Mott-Regent Public School, with its 230 students, 50 staff and a new elementary school rising up from open ground where kids used to play.

Its so hands on and personal in a good way, she says, including all the community support when her husband died just months after they arrived for the school year.

If I had started (my career) at a Class B school, I would have never been Class A, she said. Its such a nice change.

Her experience at Williston makes her well prepared for the ongoing construction of the first new public elementary school in more than 100 years in Mott. Like many things a long time in the coming, itll be worth the wait.

The official groundbreaking was August after voters took their second try at a bond issue  this one smaller by roughly half and for just a new elementary instead of a total replacement K-12. By working through a long and cold winter, the contractor is on schedule for an Aug. 1 occupancy. That means students from Head Start through grade 6, along with the staff and the administration, will start the 2017-18 school year in a building as brand new as their first-day outfits and No. 2 lead pencils.

LaFontaine said shes getting a lot of help from the school board and a smaller construction committee. Shes a believer in committee work and says, Theyre taking time for this and paying attention to details.

The new two-story school, with 37,000 square feet of space, includes spacious classrooms, technology rooms, music, library and a cafeteria and will connect to the high school on both levels.

The new building will be a benefit  a perk for them and something they deserve, the staff and the kids, she says.

Bids came in lower than expected and will allow some improvements to the adjoining high school building, including new siding and windows to tighten it up without exceeding the $8.6 million bond issue.

Mott Mayor Troy Mosbrucker said he enjoys driving past the new school construction, thinking not only of his three young grandchildren, but of all the children in the Mott-Regent district who will benefit from a school built for the kids of today and tomorrow, not for those a century ago.

I love to see the progress. This will be a benefit for Mott and Regent, Mosbrucker said. Theres a lot of excitement.

The school staff is starting to work on a moving plan, aiming to minimize the move-in chaos as summer winds to a close.

LaFontaine said the board plans to demolish the old landmark elementary building in October. Before its gone, during the Sept. 15 homecoming week, there are plans for a walk-through for former students and staff and an auction of whatever is no longer needed. Tours of the new building will be included in the events.

Mosbrucker said the new school is already a source of energy for the communities.

Its something for everyone to look forward to, he said. Its going to be fun.
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.

Vote

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PEMBINA  Hetty Walkers home along the Red River in Pembina has survived a lot of floods.

She doesnt know when it was built, but it was here before her husbands ancestors moved into it in the 1870s, making it one of the older homes in the city with roots dating to the late 18th century.

It is one of the reasons people fought so hard to protect Pembina when the Red River threatened to destroy everything during the Flood of 1997.

Even after residents were ordered to evacuate and county officials told Walker, the mayor at the time, she wouldnt get anymore help due to safety concerns, her town wasnt ready to give up.

If their grandparents could save the city without a dike, we can save it with a dike, she said as she laughed. It was pride and determination. We were going to show them were going to save our town. We can darn well do it.

As Grand Forks was swallowed up by water that spring, residents along the river in other towns didnt know what to expect, nor did they know if they would have a home to return to.

But they were determined to survive and protect their homes. If they couldnt beat the water back, they certainly would return.

Accepting the water

Before the Red consumed Grand Forks, a neighborhood to the south was battling the rising water.

The Burke Addition is home to residents in 59 homes. That includes the Revs. John and Kathy Fick. The two moved there in 1992.

Theres a peace about living out here, Kathy said.

Based on talks with other residents, they thought their home would be safe from floodwaters.

But the two began to wonder as blizzard after blizzard dumped snow on the region, setting the stage for rising water. Neighbors began sandbagging in March.

It was just odd and surreal because it was snowing, but we were trying to do some flood protection, she said.

Thinking Grand Forks would be fine, residents from Grand Forks, National Guard members and UND students came to help in the Burke Addition. The neighbors felt confident in their sandbagging skills and thought they could win the battle, Kathy said.

We were pretty optimistic until the crest came, John said. People in Grand Forks didnt feel a threat.

In a sense, the Burke Addition served as a preview to what Grand Forks would experience. The Ficks described National Guard vehicles driving through the neighborhood and helicopters telling people to evacuate as people tried to leave on April 19.

It was a little bit like a crazy area, almost a war zone at times, John said.

As it became certain they were going to lose the fight, Kathy said people opened the doors of their homes to allow the water to flow in and save the foundation.

It was odd, she said. We had been fighting the water. Youre trying to hold it back, and then you realized it is coming, you have to open and accept the water.

City of survival

Walker had lived in Pembina since 1970 and had seen other floods threaten her home. Whenever floodwaters threatened the town, dikes were built up and residents prepared to sandbag in the city about 75 miles north of Grand Forks. They held meetings, established a central base and organized people for jobs.

It didnt start out to be a bad flood, she said. All of a sudden, things were getting worse.

As April 21 approached, the situation grew dire. The river was swelling, and forecasters predicted a 59-foot crest for Pembina, a level that would swallow the town.

The water was coming to the top, and I had visions of this old house floating down the river, she said.

A Grand Forks Herald article detailed officials giving up hope and ordering an evacuation. Even a shaken Walker knew the city was in trouble.

We have to go, she said in an April 22, 1997, article.

Other communities were in danger as well. The mayor of Drayton, which is 30 miles south of Pembina, urged residents to leave.

If the water comes the way they say it is, (the dikes) not going to hold, Drayton Mayor Bev Jensen said.

Others were in shock. Scott Kosmatka, a former Oslo, Minn., mayor and council member for the city located about 20 miles north of Grand Forks, saw what had happened there and in Fargo, and he wondered how bad it would get in his city.

We were walking the levee every hour to make sure there were no weak spots, he said, though the morale was high and fear was low.

Walker said she and others, including a group of firefighters werent ready to give up the fight. She remembers getting encouragement from then-Sen. Kent Conrad, who called on federal agencies to return to Pembina. The remaining residents worked together to save the city, battling night and day.

I said we have to do the best we can, Walker said. When they had a feeling they could save the community, they went all out.

Somehow, Pembina endured, without losing a single house or getting hit with sewer problems.

Walker said she was proud of her town.

Pembina is a city of survival, she said.

Have your people ready

Some cities were lucky while others lost homes.

No one had to evacuate in Oslo, but Kosmatka said there were a few buyouts. Losing residents affects more than business, he said. Theres also an emotional connection.

Its tough, he said. Personally, you are losing those friends you had forever.

A subdivision known as South Pembina on the Minnesota side of the river lost almost all of its homes. Drayton also lost 16 parcels to buyouts.

The Burke Addition lost only one of its 60 homes  about 40 suffered damage but were repaired and improved. Everyone moved back.

When asked why they came back, the Ficks said it was our home.

It just didnt occur to us to leave, Kathy said. The people out here saw it as a one-time event.

Kosmatka said neighbors came together because they wanted to take care of each other.

They might be in need one day, and you might be in need the next day, he said. You just rely on each other and do what you have to do.

Walker said towns did get financial help from the federal government, including money to rebuild a park on the Minnesota side and to improve the citys infrastructure. And like many communities along the Red, dikes were raised in Pembina to handle future flooding.

Long before the Red rises each spring, Pembina residents host meetings, dust off the sandbagging manual and get ready for any threat that may come their way, Walker said.

In April, you better have your people ready, she said. I would fight a flood anytime in Pembina with the people who are here even now. They are proud of their town.
FARGO  Mark Bittner pointed to an area behind Oak Grove Lutheran School where an emergency levee had been erected two decades ago against the rising Red River.

That was the traditional location for a levee, but the flood of 1997 was different than the others, said the former city engineer.

Ive never seen currents like that. It just chewed that levee up, he said last week in recalling the flood.

On April 17, the river broke through the levee, flowing into the school and about 30 area homes, according to accounts from the time. Today, many homes along the river are gone. The city bought them out and replaced them with long stretches of earthen levees.

The lasting lesson that Bittner said he learned from losing the flood fight in Oak Grove, one of several areas lost to the flood that year, was that some areas are just too difficult to protect.

You have to understand what you can protect and what you cant protect, he said.

By 2009, when Fargo-Moorhead faced an even bigger flood and a more desperate flood fight, many homes in Oak Grove and other vulnerable neighborhoods were gone.

Bittner and other officials involved in both flood fights say the lessons they learned in the 1997 flood helped a lot in 2009. And much of what they learned is still used to fight floods here.

We learned about emergency management operations in 97, and we took it to the next level in 09, said Pat Zavoral, who, as public works director, was the top staff member overseeing the 1997 flood fight before retiring in 2015 as city administrator.

If we hadnt had 1997 what could 2009 have looked like? I doubt we would've been successful, said Moorhead City Engineer Bob Zimmerman, who managed the city sewage system at the time.

First of many

The 1997 flood was the biggest Fargo-Moorhead had fought at that time with a river gauge reading of 39.7 feet. The only flood for which records are available that rivaled it was the 1897 flood at 39.1 feet. So, for 100 years, the cities had no experience fighting such huge floods.

That was the worst flood up to that time, said Bruce Furness, who was mayor then.

Until 1997, the city of Fargo didnt coordinate flood fights at all because flooding never threatened whole neighborhoods, according to the citys lessons-learned reports and interviews with city officials. The city just provided sand and sandbags to homeowners and let them do the work. It didnt even have flood maps that showed where the water would be at river levels higher than 37 feet except for in a few areas, such as lift stations.

The city of Moorhead, which sits on higher ground than Fargo, had storm-sewer outlets that didnt have gates to prevent backwash because the water never got that high. The city had park garbage trucks on some low-lying manholes to prevent water gushing out, according to Zimmerman.

Lay of the land

Today, contour maps and aerial photos of the Red River Valley are available to anyone with access to the internet, a legacy of the 1997 flood fight.

When the National Weather Service issued a forecast suggesting a record or near-record flood on Feb. 14 that year, the city of Fargo only had federal flood plain maps to work from, and those maps didnt show where water would go past 36 feet.

Bittner said he remembers Dennis Walaker  the former mayor, who died in 2014, was then operations manager for public works  calling him on the way back from that weather service briefing. Mark, he said, Tell me what I need to do. I have experience up to 35 feet. Higher than that I dont know what we got to do.

Bittner, as city engineer, was tasked with producing maps that showed elevations up to 40 feet. Using aerial photos taken in 1995, he and his team worked day and night to suss out elevation data for the maps.

City staff would use the maps to formulate a flood-fighting strategy that initially focused on building levees in five high-risk areas along the river, Oak Grove among them, but eventually to make tough decisions in the south end that cut off some homes.

The maps were also critical in motivating homeowners and volunteers by showing them where they were most needed, according to Zavoral.

Flow of information

In 2009, the city provided a constant stream of information about its flood fight through the news media, online and staff answering phone calls. In so doing, it was able to mobilize thousands of residents and volunteers to join government workers in the effort.

That, too, is a legacy of the 1997 flood.

Furness said the city figured about 5,000 volunteers came to help, many out-of-town from places such as the Twin Cities. I was amazed when we tabulated that number. Could be more than that, he said.

Volunteers filled most of the 3.5 million sandbags that were eventually used and helped pile them on dikes.

Zavoral said with such a big flood fight, the cooperation of the public was more important than ever. If youre going to protect the city, youre going to have to go on private property, he said. Whether you sandbag or you put in a dirt levee or whatever, people needed to know what the city was going to do.

Overland flood

One of the biggest surprises of the 1997 flood for Fargo was the danger posed by overland flooding.

Zavoral said he could still remember flying upstream of Fargo with Furness, Walaker and Bittner. Where the Wild Rice River met the Red, he said, they saw a lake eight miles wide and 16 miles long headed towards the city.

There hadnt been enough water in previous floods for overland flooding to occur so the city had no plans for that contingency. With little time to spare, the city built an emergency levee along 52nd Avenue South, cutting off some 200 homes in the Green Fields subdivision. Then, fearing flooding along Rose Creek, the city built a secondary levee along 40th Avenue South, cutting off another 600 homes.

Residents on the wet side of that levee felt abandoned and they were angry.

Zavoral described a scene right out of a movie. As he and the mayor went to Green Fields to deliver the bad news, an angry crowd rocked their car, he said.

The residents ultimately were reassured when Furness said he told them the city would still help them build their own levees, which ended up saving their homes.

In 2009, when the threat of overland flooding was worse, the city was ready with plan, having identified areas at risk.

Today, its the 2009 flood thats best remembered by Fargo residents as the big one. The second biggest flood, the 1997 flood, isnt talked about as much.

But it very much laid the foundation for every subsequent flood fight, Zimmerman said.

Our previous flood fighting experience always drew upon the most recent flood event, he said.

Remembering 97 as diversion breaks ground

The Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Authority will commemorate the 1997 flood fight at 1 p.m. Monday at a groundbreaking for the flood diversion at a construction site near Horace.

The timing of the event is the 20th anniversary of the Red River cresting in Fargo-Moorhead. The location at the intersection of Cass County Roads 17 and 16 is the site of the inlet structure that will be part of dam controlling flow into the diversion channel.

The $2.2 billion flood control project is aimed at protecting Fargo-Moorhead from flooding.

For over 20 years, weve all experienced the unbelievable stories of heartache and heroism from the floods of 1997 and 2009, along with the impact they have made upon the lives of citizens in Fargo-Moorhead and the surrounding area, Tim Mahoney, authority chairman and mayor of Fargo, said in a news release. Our people have waited patiently for many years for this moment and now the wait is finally over. We are officially breaking ground on the project that will keep us safe from flooding.

If the weather is foul, the event will move to the Fargodome.
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Vernon County Sheriff John Spears and Richland County Sheriff James Bindl report the apprehension of 32-year-old, Joseph Jakubowski, the wanted fugitive from Rock County in southeastern Wisconsin.

The Vernon County Sheriffs Office received a credible tip Thursday night at 7:11 p.m., indicating Jakubowski was spotted in a remote location on Estes Road, off Co. U, between Readstown and Viola, in Vernon County. The complainant said the man, who matched Jakubowskis description, was found camping on private property and when asked to leave he refused to do so.

Soon after area law enforcement agencies set up a perimeter where Jakubowski was spotted and multiple law enforcement agencies maintained the perimeter throughout the night. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also responded and Jakubowski was taken into custody, without incident, at approximately 6 a.m., Friday morning, April 14.

According to Vernon County authorities, Jakubowski, gave up peacefully, and charges against the suspect were coming. A news conference was planned for Friday afternoon. Firearms were located in the area Jakubowski was apprehended and he was transported to the Rock County Jail, in Janesville, following the arrest.

Jakubowski was accused of driving through the front window of Armageddon Supplies, a store near Janesville on April 4, where he stole 18 guns. He also mailed a threatening 161-page manifesto to President Donald Trump. Soon after the robbery Jakubowski is believed to have torched his car before vanishing. Jakubowski has been the source of a nationwide manhunt ever since.

The manifesto police believe Jakubowski wrote before going on the run provided multiple insights into his mental state of mind. The manifesto included threatening statements against public officials which detailed specific examples of how the government has wronged him and he calls the government a gang of terrorists.

Assisting the Vernon and Richland County Sheriffs Offices with the apprehension of Jakubowski were: Crawford County Sheriffs Office; La Crosse County Sheriffs Office; Rock County Sheriffs Office; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Wisconsin State Patrol; Readstown Police Department; La Farge Police Department; Richland Center Police Department; Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation; West Central Metropolitan Enforcement Group; Middleton Fire Department (UAV air support); Readstown EMS; Kickapoo Rescue Squad; and Vernon County Emergency Management.

Law Enforcement would like to thank all of the agencies who responded quickly and worked tirelessly and efficiently to bring safe closure to this situation.

Further media inquiries concerning the investigation and custody of Jakubowski can be directed to the Rock County Sheriffs Office at (608) 757-5255.
During my sophomore year at Proviso West High School in Hillside, Ill., my guidance counselor, Mr. Gusloff, refused my request to take auto shop because I was, he said, college-bound and my presence in a vocational program would take space needed by a student who was not so destined. I was disappointed, and I felt then, as I still do, that he was wrong to pigeon-hole me and limit my options, but I had no choice but to accept his decision. I never even told my parents, both of whom held Ph.D.s. They would have only shrugged their shoulders anyway. This was long before parents were involved with their kids.

Back then (the 1960s), nearly every high school in America and especially those, like PWHS, that served lots of kids from blue collar households, offered vocational education. In addition to auto shop, Proviso offered machine shop, woodworking, plumbing and other trades. Today, despite the fact that America still needs mechanics, machinists, plumbers, and so on, and despite the fact that (POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS ALERT!!!) some kids, for various reasons, simply are not college material, it is the rare high school that offers vocational education.

Which is one reason why the outstanding bill for government-issued college loans currently stands at, in round numbers, $1 trillion, a good amount of which will never be repaid. It also goes a long way toward explaining why more than 5 million jobs are currently going begging in the U.S. My solution to this would be to require high school guidance counselors to assume half the college loan debt of former students whom they should have told Sorry, but you arent college material but didnt. If their bad advice cost them something, perhaps theyd think twice before doling it out.

Parents want their kids to go to college, two reasons being they (a) like to brag about their kids and (b) believe college equates to success. High school guidance counselors are also incentivized to encourage college and help kids obtain acceptance letters. School administrators like to brag, too. They like to talk about how many of their graduates go to college. They never talk about the number who dont finish, finish with crippling debt, or cant find jobs after graduation.

The high school dropout rate has declined in recent years to around 7 percent, but the number is misleading because, lets face it, a good number of students drop out but still occupy desks. Vocational-tech would promote student motivation, increase literacy, and significantly reduce dropout rates. Reducing dropout rates would reduce crime, drug use, and various other social ills.

Then theres the matter of the jobs that are waiting for the kids in question. Employment opportunities in skilled trades for high school graduates who arent college material are the best possible antidote to poverty. Employment further reduces crime, drug use, etc. and also fosters the formation of families, thus promoting responsible child-rearing. In short, the societal benefits of voc-tech are numerous and far-reaching.

Every American, regardless of political persuasion, should get behind President Trumps plan to reinstate vocational education in Americas high schools. Im fairly certain that if he was still alive, Mr. Gusloff would.
If the Wisconsin Resistance achieves what past liberal opposition movements have not, activists such as Adam Wood could be among the reasons why.

Wood, 34, is an organizer for Indivisible Madison. Its a local chapter of the national Indivisible movement, which launched after the November election as a tea party of the left.

Wood said the Madison chapter has attracted many like himself: 20- and 30-somethings with little to no political background.

Its just a lot of people that are completely new to political activism, Wood said. The November election was a tipping point that brought a lot of people out, and a lot of people in.

In the rubble of the 2016 election, one of the most dispiriting in decades for Wisconsin Democrats and liberals, newly energized activists are pushing back against Republican control of federal and state government. Many embrace the resistance label, referring to a loose national coalition that sprung up, post-election, in opposition to President Donald Trump.

Some groups are in their infancy but show early signs of momentum. In many cases, theyre more focused on electing like-minded candidates to city councils and school boards than to Congress or the White House.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin says it has gotten nearly 600 new members post-election, fueled by increases in Dane, Milwaukee, Waukesha and Outagamie counties.

A new political nonprofit, Our Wisconsin Revolution, is building what it hopes will be a permanent presence in Wisconsin on the message of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who won the states 2016 Democratic presidential primary.

The activist groundswell has drawn comparisons to six years ago, when liberals and Democrats mobilized against Gov. Scott Walkers proposal to roll back public sector collective bargaining, what became known as Act 10.

That didnt unfold as organizers had hoped: The proposal became law and Walker survived a recall election and went on to win a second term.

For this to have a different ending, activists on the left are highlighting what they call the lessons of Act 10. Chief among them: avoid splintering, find a way to sustain the enthusiasm over time, and dont just oppose someone or something  but offer appealing alternative candidates or platforms.

For now, Indivisible Madison is not endorsing candidates for office. Wood said that could change, and he thinks the group could see candidates emerge from its ranks in 2018 and beyond.

Our Wisconsin Revolution says recruiting and electing local and state candidates will be among its chief aims.

Time will tell if these developments yield progress or more frustration for Wisconsins beleaguered Democrats. But Michael Basford, chairman of the Dane County Democrats, said a post-election bump of about 200 new members is lifting his groups spirits.

Weve had a significant youth movement, Basford said.

Election results a wake-up call

For Gina Walkington, the November election results were a wake-up call.

They spurred Walkington and three friends in the Kenosha area, all with left-of-center viewpoints, to discuss what to do next.

We were feeling like our fundamental values were in jeopardy, Walkington said.

The four womens social-media discussions blossomed into a new group, Forward Kenosha. Describing itself as nonpartisan and progressive, Forward Kenoshas Facebook group has enlisted more than 1,400 members.

The mission: spurring voter engagement in the Kenosha area and keeping an eye on Trump and the areas congressman, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville.

Forward Kenosha is holding monthly in-person meetings with guest speakers, including state lawmakers. Theyre doing podcasts. They held rallies on health care, both in support of President Barack Obamas health care law and in opposition to the American Health Care Act, the failed replacement offered by Trump and Ryan.

Walkington said she did phone calls for Obamas presidential campaigns and for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton last year. After the last election she decided to go all-in, and not just in an election year.

I never fully actually understood how making phone calls was not enough, Walkington said. Engagement needs to be all the time.

Spurring activists to near-constant involvement also is a goal of Indivisible Madison and other Indivisible chapters in Wisconsin, according to Wood.

The group is organizing town hall meetings and group visits to the offices of elected officials. On social media it sends out calls to action that include lawmakers contact information, along with short blurbs about a particular issue or bill.

Its not a script, but it says: Heres the issue and heres what were asking for, Wood said.

Trump has given us many things to sustain people

The January Womens March on Madison, which drew more than 75,000 marchers to State Street shortly after Trumps inauguration, foreshadowed the heightened interest among the partys rank and file, Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairwoman Martha Laning said.

Without a doubt, weve felt the groundswell of grassroots energy throughout the state, Laning said.

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Black Earth, said his office received more than 7,300 constituent contacts  calls, emails and letters  about the American Health Care Act when it appeared it might receive a U.S. House vote. Virtually all opposed the measure. A typical hot topic triggers 2,000 contacts, Pocan said.

Pocan was in the state Assembly during the Act 10 protests. One of the enduring lessons he said that experience provided was the need to sustain activist enthusiasm all the way to Election Day. In the case of Act 10, more than a year passed between passage of the law and the 2012 recall election, Pocan noted.

Now Pocan predicts a different dynamic.

Donald Trump has given us many things to sustain people, Pocan said. Theres always something new to be upset with and organize around.

Not all the energy is rooted in resistance. Bernie Sanders supporters hope to convert his popularity in Wisconsin, particularly among Democrats and liberals, into a lasting political movement.

Sanders launched a national organization, Our Revolution, last year after conceding the Democratic nomination to Clinton. Wisconsin is one of seven states where theres enough interest to form a state-level chapter, said Peter Rickman, an organizer and officer for Our Wisconsin Revolution.

The group has big ambitions: develop into a political nonprofit  funded with member dues, with chapters in every corner of the state  that recruits and elects state and local candidates.

Some would run as Democrats; others, as third-party candidates. Many of the local races are nonpartisan.

Current administration has to be resisted

Wresting control of state and local Democratic parties, as Sanders enthusiasts have done elsewhere, is not the groups plan here, Rickman said.

Many of our activists call themselves Democrats. But were by no means limited to that, Rickman said.

The groups foundation is what Rickman calls the Sanders platform  changing how campaigns are financed, health care for all, reducing the cost of college, retirement security and combating income inequality and climate change.

That message has drawn more than 1,000 attendees to the groups 27 regional organizing meetings held throughout the state in recent months, Rickman said.

Political parties also are feeling the impact.

After Nov. 8, Dane County Democrats say their dues-paying membership hit near 1,300, up from about 1,100 on Election Day. Many new members are in their 20s or 30s, Basford said.

One of the biggest proportional membership increases came in deep-red Waukesha County, which saw a 40-percent post-election increase swell its ranks to more than 400 members. All figures were provided by the Democratic Party and could not be independently verified.

Alec Zimmerman, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said it measures success not by party membership but by voter contacts, of which state GOP activists made 4.7 million in 2016. Electoral victories, not party membership, are what count he said.

Wisconsin Democrats can try to distract from their disarray with meaningless noise all they want, but apparently its having no impact on fielding serious candidates for state Supreme Court or governor, Zimmerman said.

But it may be having an impact elsewhere. In deep-blue Dane County, Democrats saw results in local races in the April 4 spring election. The countys Democrats endorsed a slate of local candidates who cleaned up, winning in 35 of the 38 races in which the party made an endorsement.

Still, tensions among Democrats, some of which flared during and after the presidential campaign, have not evaporated. Much of it is between those who supported Sanders and those who backed Clinton in the presidential campaign.

But many also feel the urgency of opposing total GOP control in Washington, D.C., and Madison, Basford said.

The time for squabbling is winding down, Basford said. People are coming to the understanding that the current administration has to be resisted.
Editor's note: This is a rerun of Sunday's C4 story that misidentified the veteran.

Though he is a little hard of hearing from the concussion of Navy guns fired in Vietnam, Edward Vanover, of Bismarck, knows his experience was a bit more serendipitous than that of many others who served during that tumultuous era.

Vanover, 69, served two tours in Southeast Asia throughout 1968-69, first spending a year aboard the USS Gridley and then some time the following year aboard the USS Samuel Gompers.

During his tour aboard the Gridley, he was among the crew members sweeping and scrubbing the deck twice a day as well as lengthy shifts on watch duty.

We did every crummy job there is on the ship, Vanover recalled.

For the Topeka, Kan., native, he split time between multiple branches of service.

During a single year at Kansas State University, he was drafted into the U.S. Army but got a student deferment.

That was a rude awakening to get that in the mail, Vanover said of the draft notice.

He did serve in the Air Force ROTC program during his college years. Afterward, he moved to a data-processing job with the Santa Fe Railway.

In 1967, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, completing boot camp at Navy Station Great Lakes in Illinois.

From there, he was assigned to the USS Gridley, which was already on its way to Southeast Asia. During his first tour, spent in and around the Gulf of Tonkin, the ship would be out to sea for three to four weeks at a time, then would move closer to shore or docked for several days to a week.

Vanover still finds himself a bit hard of hearing because of the time spent helping load and fire the ships guns at the enemy.

You feel the concussion of every one, Vanover said of the large guns.

During his time aboard the Gridley, he became acquainted with a little-known officer aboard while on watch: John Kerry, who went on to become a U.S. senator, unsuccessful 2004 Democratic candidate for president of the United States and later U.S. Secretary of State.

I talked to him every day, said Vanover, adding that, on a couple of occasions, Kerry claimed hed be president one day.

Toward the end of 1968, the Gridley returned to the United States; within a month, he was assigned to the USS Frank E. Evans and was headed back to Vietnam.

A miracle happened. I was reassigned to the USS Samuel Gompers, Vanover said.

For Vanover, it was a big deal because timing was everything.

Early on the morning of June 3, 1969, the Evans was performing military exercises in the South China Sea with ships from multiple other countries. The Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne collided with the Evans during early morning maneuvers, after the Evans turned in front of the far, far larger ship.

The impact sliced the Evans in two; 74 crew members died.

Vanover had been reassigned shortly before the collision.

During his tour of duty aboard the Samuel Gompers, he was a data processor, a much more desirable job that matched his private sector experience.

After returning to Kansas, he spent time in the Navy Reserves, his service ending in December 1975.

Vanover moved to Bismarck in 1977 and worked in the insurance business, first for a local firm and later independently. He retired about 10 years ago, but, due to the increase in oil activity he now works part-time, managing his mineral acre interests in the western part of the state.

He also served with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary for a few years in the mid-1980s but was never deployed.

Anybody thats been in the military, its changed them in some way forever. Some good and some bad, Vanover said. Probably everyone should have a little taste of the military.
MADISON -- Brightly colored powder dusted the grass in hues of blues, yellows and reds near Dejope Hall on the UW-Madison campus Saturday, but the lawn was nothing compared to the colors smeared on the faces of students participating in a traditional Indian celebration of the return of spring.

The Madison Hindu Students Association and India Students Association hosted the Holi celebration, renowned for its use of colored powder and youthful rejoicing.

The host organizations ordered about half a ton of the pigmented corn starch, which is non-toxic and water soluble. Participants of various cultures and backgrounds swarmed tables to fill their cups with the powder. Then the fun began.

The powder was thrown at and smeared on every person nearby. People chased their friends to dump color on them or rub it into their hair. For some, a sneak attack of color was a way to greet a friend.

Srinand Kodali, president of the India Students Association, said the playful Holi celebration is one of the organizations larger events. Its a way to bring people together and be carefree, he said.

Dont worry about finals, dont worry about all the stress you have, Kodali said. Just come out and have a blast.

The associations mission is to bring Indian culture to campus, Kodali said. The group hosts discussions and other events throughout the year, but Holi is one of the more interactive ones.

With Holi, it is something that everyone can come and enjoy with their friends, said sophomore Amritha Jayashankar, the associations events chair.

Srinidhi Emkay, president of the Madison Hindu Students Association, called Holi a time to celebrate the rejuvenation of life and the joining of different ideals as people come together in a crowd.

Holi is a way to express our ideas and beliefs and for people to embrace culture, Emkay said. I think thats a great thing.

To put on the event, both organizations coordinated with University Housing to use the lawn, order hundreds of pounds of powder and hire a live DJ, who played Indian and American pop songs.

Another traditional element of Holi is water. Members of the associations handed out squirt guns and filled water balloons. Occasionally, a hose was turned on to spray anyone nearby.

The actual day of Holi fell on March 13 this year, which was a warm day in India  Delhi had a high of 85  but in Madison, the high was just 25 and more than two inches of snow fell. The associations decided to hold the event at a time when spring weather was more likely to arrive.

To be near the revelry meant being speckled with colors of the rainbow. To be in the crowd meant being covered. Powder was thrown every which way, and participants would go up to anyone, even perfect strangers, to smear a handful of color on someones face.

Holi has religious roots in Hinduism as a celebration of the triumph of good over evil, but religious beliefs are not paramount to celebrating the day, organizers said.

Professor Mohit Gupta, who was born and raised in India, came to the celebration with his wife and son. Even though he doesnt call himself religious, Gupta and his family go to Holi celebrations each year, he said, because it reminds us of home.

The significance of Holi and its meaning wasnt known by all attendees. Sophomore Emily LaBorde said she didnt know much about Holi, but she went to the celebration after seeing a post about it on Facebook.

I love color, and why wouldnt I want to come to this, LaBorde said.

Senior Sheetal Gowda said she liked the joy and diversity of the Holi celebration on campus.

No ones really having a bad time, Gowda said. The people are being more open with other cultures, which is really nice.
Waupun Correctional Institution inmate Cesar DeLeon said he has punched the wall until his fist is bloody during 15 years in prison in which he has rotated in and out of solitary confinement.

I cant understand why I have to do it, said DeLeon, 34, but the pain somehow gives me a sense of reality.

DeLeon is in prison for armed robbery and kidnapping. He also is facing trial for attempted homicide for stabbing a Columbia Correctional Institution staff member in 2014 with a scissors after he was denied a promotion at the prison library where he worked.

Brandon Christian said he fantasizes about the violence he will commit if he ever leaves solitary, where he has been for more than seven years. One time, allowed additional time out of his cell for good behavior, Christian attacked another inmate.

Someone was talking crap about me, and I didnt know who, so I just picked someone and stabbed him, Christian, who is serving time at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel, wrote in response to a survey by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

After 2 years in isolation  spending at least 22 hours a day alone in a tiny, solid-walled cell  fellow Boscobel prisoner Ernesto Cervantes wrote in response to the survey that he is no longer capable of normal human interaction.

I have not been able to function properly in a social setting, Cervantes said of his experience after release from administrative confinement, a status with no specified end date. I think others are talking about me and feel watched. I also feel like I have lost proper comprehension as when people are speaking to me it sounds like gibberish noise.

These are some of the voices of Wisconsin prisoners kept in administrative confinement  a little-known category of solitary that the state Department of Corrections describes as an involuntary non-punitive status for inmates who pose a serious threat to life, property, self, staff or other inmates, or to the security of the facility.

The agency says these inmates are so dangerous that they must be confined for months, years  even decades  in a cell the size of a parking space with no human contact at least 22 hours a day.

State Department of Corrections officials denied reporters requests to interview inmates in person about their experiences in administrative confinement, so the Center mailed surveys to more than 100 who had been held in 2016.

The Centers survey  conducted in the wake of an inmate hunger strike launched in June aimed at ending long-term solitary confinement in Wisconsin  asked about prisoners living conditions, mental health status, whether they received regular meals and whether they had committed or been a victim of violence while in administrative confinement. Several, including DeLeon, 34, participated in the hunger strike; some of them were force-fed.

Sixty-five inmates, many of whom have committed horrific crimes including multiple murders, violent attacks and sexual assault, responded to the surveys.

One respondent to the Centers survey was in solitary for about 28 years; another has served 20 years.

The results of the survey were stark:

 Ten inmates reported attempting suicide while in administrative confinement. One said administrative confinement makes you numb, violent, hateful, loud, disrespectful (and) suicidal. Most described feelings of isolation, hopelessness, anxiety or paranoia.

 Of the 65 respondents, 26 claimed they have had medications or medical devices withheld or threatened to be withheld by security staff who distribute prescriptions or that they had overheard it happening to other inmates in solitary.

 More than a third of the respondents  28 inmates  said they had been treated violently by other inmates or prison staff; 13 acknowledged harming or threatening to harm staff members or other inmates.

 Several described sleep deprivation from screaming and banging from other inmates and perpetual lighting.

 Thirteen inmates had food complaints, with some saying guards sometimes failed to deliver meals or that portions were inadequate, leaving them hungry.

How to manage such violent or non-compliant inmates  without worsening their behavior or mental health problems  is a big challenge for prison systems. Because of the negative effects of long-term indefinite solitary confinement, Colorado has largely ended this practice, which a top United Nations expert has said is equivalent to torture after 15 days.

In 2015, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections implemented policies  although not all inmates were aware of the changes  to reduce the amount of time inmates spend in solitary for disciplinary reasons and narrowed the types of offenses that can land them there. It also has made moves to remove prisoners with serious mental illnesses from solitary and to require that psychological staff provide input when such inmates are facing placement in solitary, spokesman Tristan Cook said.

The result is a large drop in inmates in all forms of solitary confinement from a high of 1,362 in March 2014 to 1,073 as of Feb. 28, Cook said. Of those, 93 were in administrative confinement.

DOC has made significant reforms to the restrictive housing process with the goal of minimizing  (its) usage for all inmates and eliminating the use of restrictive housing for inmates with serious mental illnesses, he wrote in an email.

As of Oct. 1, 2015, Wisconsin held about 3.7 percent of its inmates in solitary confinement for at least 22 hours a day, 15 continuous days or more, compared to a national average of about 4.9 percent, according to a study released in November by the Association of State Correctional Officials and Yale Law School. The practice has gone from central to prisoner management to one used only when absolutely necessary and for only as long as absolutely required, the report found.

There are signs that Wisconsin is attempting to improve conditions for inmates held in solitary. Gov. Scott Walkers 2017-19 Department of Corrections budget request includes changes to solitary to boost mental health care and to allow some inmates with serious mental illnesses to spend up to 20 hours a week out of their cells for programming and recreation.

'Prison within a prison'

Former Waupun prison psychologist Bradley Boivin said that the lack of an end date while in administrative confinement can be especially damaging to inmates mental health, creating a prison within a prison. The Center approached Boivin last year after inmates raised questions about why he had left DOC.

Imagine being told youre going to prison for five years or youre going to prison for as long as we want to keep you there, Boivin said. The ambiguity of it creates additional levels of psychological distress for the inmates.

Boivin said he resigned after trying unsuccessfully to make changes from within at Waupun.

It wasnt about correction at all, he said. It was about perpetual punitive behavior (toward the inmates). Thats what I couldnt be a part of anymore, I guess.

In solitary units, Boivin said, people with the highest mental health classifications are required to be seen by a psychologist once a week. Inmates with a classification of less severe mental illness are seen every two weeks. The brief sessions take place through the inmates cell door, allowing others to hear. Inmates call them drive-bys.

Theres nothing clinical or therapeutic about (weekly check-ins) whatsoever. Its really just a quick check-in, Boivin said. Thats it, theyll say, Im fine, and you walk away.

Suicide attempts, drugs withheld

In the surveys, most inmates presented bleak descriptions of life in solitary confinement.

Ive tried many times to hang myself with a sheet, overdose on medication. I start to see things or people who isnt there; I talk to myself, wrote Quenton Thompson, 35, who is serving a life sentence at the Boscobel prison for killing his pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child.

Shirell Watkins, 37, said he has tried twice to hang himself. Watkins, who is serving a 25-year sentence for reckless homicide, said he has spent years in various forms of solitary at three institutions, most recently Green Bay Correctional Institution.

He described severe mental anguishment, depression, sleeplessness, high level of stress, constant self-communication, headaches, weight fluctuation, eye aches, hyper-reaction to situations/incidents, isolation/loneliness, short attention span, poor concentration and at times poor memory and difficulty concentrating.

In early 2016, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that one staff member was fired, one resigned and another retired from the DOC-run Milwaukee County Secure Detention Facility after they were caught on audiotape taunting an inmate and withholding his medication. He was being held in solitary confinement.

Thompson, the inmate at Wisconsin Secure Program Facility, said officers sometimes withhold medication from him just to give me a hard time.

Boivin used to hear these kinds of complaints from inmates, and he usually did not believe them. But the psychologist said he witnessed it himself at Waupun in 2015 after a sergeant, upset with an inmate, threatened to withhold his medication.

The problem, Boivin said, is that untrained non-medical staff should not be administering medicine. DOC has acknowledged the practice is not acceptable, requesting more than $1 million over two years for trained medical staff to administer medication at the embattled Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake juvenile prisons.

Cook did not answer questions about whether DOC is considering changes to how medicine is administered in the adult prisons.

Suicide watch 'humiliating'

In Wisconsin, some of the harshest treatment is reserved for inmates who want to kill themselves. Boivin said he personally and professionally felt these suicide watch placements were more torturous than solitary confinement itself.

An inmate in so-called observation status is confined in a cell with a hard bed with a thin rubber mat. The prisoner wears a paper security gown or a quilted security smock. The lights are on 24 hours a day, and, initially, he is not allowed any property, even a book.

In extreme cases, inmates are strapped down, restrained at their shoulders, their wrists, their ankles and their knees, in an eight-point restraint. Boivin said he has seen inmates restrained for hours or days, nude except for a washcloth covering their genitals.

Its humiliating, its degrading, Boivin said. Theyre just kind of there, like a tied down animal.

In 2015, there were 80 inmates with serious mental illnesses in solitary who had a total of 132 placements in suicide watch, according to a DOC budget request.

After a couple of days in observation, Boivin said, the decompensation is noticeable. Inmates eyes become bloodshot and watery, and they can become aggressive, delirious and eventually shut down.

Days of boredom and rage

Inmates were asked to describe a typical day in administrative confinement. Many wrote of repetitiveness, spending the entire day in bed or that the days blur into one another. Reading, watching TV, working out in their cells or the rec cage, and writing letters are some of the ways inmates keep busy.

Eric Conner, 30, is at Boscobel serving 30 years on his most recent sentence after stabbing another inmate and injuring a correctional officer. Cook said in all, Conner has had 56 conduct reports since he was imprisoned in 2008 for murder. During his time in solitary, Conner wrote that he hears his victim telling him to kill or harm himself. Im stuck in the cell and have nothing to distract me from him, he wrote.

Christian, 29, said he has been in solitary confinement for more than seven years  including 3  years in administrative confinement  while serving a 29-year sentence at Wisconsin Secure Program Facility for first-degree sexual assault with a dangerous weapon and armed burglary.

I pace my cell for hours thinking about all the horrible things Ive done and the horrible things I will do, Christian wrote, adding that he would have no problem assaulting an officer if given the chance.
A man from Warrens allegedly threatened law enforcement officers and allegedly made a bizarre claim about seeing zombies after a March 30 incident.

Tyler A. Brudnicki, 26, faces a possible $10,000 fine or six years in jail, or both, for threatening a Juneau County deputy. Brudnicki also faces one count each of criminal damage to property, resisting an officer, and disorderly conduct. Both the damage to property and resisting an officer charge carries possible $10,000 fines or nine months in prison, or both, while the disorderly conduct offense carries a possible $1,000 fine or 90 days imprisonment, or both.

According to a criminal complaint:

On March 30, a Juneau County deputy was called to the Opera House Bar in New Lisbon after Brudnicki allegedly shattered the back screen door window. While on his way to the scene, the deputy was notified Brudnicki left the Opera House Bar and was now at Tuesdays Bar getting physical with other patrons.

When the deputy arrived, Brudnicki was lying on the ground at an intersection in downtown New Lisbon. Bystanders said he was bleeding from his hand and nose, yelling profanities and not making any sense. Brudnicki was handcuffed and taken to Hess Memorial Hospital to receive medical clearance. While at the hospital, Brudnicki continued to not make sense and said he was going to rip (the deputys) throat out and was asking about the officers family. He continued to make threats and hospital staff administered Haldol, a drug used to treat mental/mood disorders and is also aimed to calm people down after being aggressive.

Based on the report, it took four Juneau County officers, two Mauston officers, and one from the State Patrol to contain Brudnicki. Officers placed a spit mask over his head because he was spitting inadvertently while yelling and screaming. He allegedly made comments about zombies and asking authorities if they saw them. Brudnicki also made sexually offensive comments to nurses and was out of control until the Haldol kicked in.

A blood-alcohol test showed Brudnickis level to be at .30. After the Haldol took effect, officers removed the handcuffs and placed a restraint belt on him to remove pressure from the cuffs. After receiving medical clearance, Brudnicki was transported to the Juneau County Jail.

Brudnicki has an initial appearance scheduled for May 3 at 9 a.m. at the Juneau County Justice Center. Brudnicki was released after posting a $2,500 signature bond April 3.
Sunday, April 16, 2017

The United States Tax Court has issued a press release reporting the disbarment of four attorneys based on state court-imposed sanctions.

One matter involved an Arizona order of disbarment based on findings that the attorney had bartered legal services for nude photos

From the Tax Court's release

Mr. Moffatt's disbarment from the practice of law in the State of Arizona was based on his misconduct in communications via Facebook Messenger on October 11,2013. According to the Findings of Fact in the Decision and Order, the exchange was as follows:

MS. CHILDERS: Hi[,] I'm the person [Plat [S]purlin talked to you about ... I just wanted to let you know i'm trying to get the 75.00 round up [for an initial consultation] and hopefully will be in touch with you next week.

MR. MOFFATT: I take all sort of things as trade fyi. C.A.P. Cash, Assets ....

MS. CHILDERS: I've pretty much sold everything I have of value[.] ... So ... I will get it[,] it will just take [the] weekend. Mr. Moffatt then asked Childers to send "me the basics" and stated that he would take "the position that it [the fee] is on the way."

MR. MOFFATT: fyi-I have a bad boy streak in me, just like my father. This allows me to be flexible.

MS. CHILDERS: Awesome. Rock on bad boy.

MR. MOFFATT: How about a pic. And then send me the money later.

MS. CHILDERS: A picture of????

MR. MOFFATT: [W]hatever you think might motivate me. How does that sit with you? Did I offend you or are we ok.

MS. CHILDERS: I am not sure what motivates you. Lol.

MR. MOFFATT: I am a bad boy that likes women. Any shape. Does that focus it[?].

Childers then sent Mr. Moffatt a picture of herself with her grandson.

MR. MOFFATT: [C]ash and assets are best, but a woman has more options. Nice pic.

MR. MOFFATT: How about a pic without [the] kid or?? How much less will I be able to see. Workable or not?

Childers subsequently sent Mr. Moffatt another picture of herself clothed.

MS. CHILDERS: [i]s this what you wanted. MR. MOFFATT: [G]ood start. How about removing something[?] [W]hen are you going to send me the docs. So I can get started.

MR. MOFFATT: [A]re you going to give me the pic with less as well. Lets just call it what I want. Yes I want a nude.

MS. CHILDERS: I don't even take a shower nude. And what would that get me[?]

MR. MOFFATT: Give me a surrogate for you, or cash works. Childers asked Mr. Moffatt what he meant by "a surrogate" and Mr. Moffatt informed her this meant "[a]nother woman."

MS. CHILDERS: [h]ow would I do that[?]

MR. MOFFATT: How many friends do you have[?] Say [cJan I borrow$ [ sic]. No, if not, I need apic for * * .

MS. CHILDERS: [h]ow much in services will that cover[?]

MR. MOFFATT: Pics buys time. Physical attention will be bartered. I could collect when I am in town later in year.

MR. MOFFATT: [W]hich way are we going, pic, cash, physical?

MS. CHILDERS: I'm getting my babies ready for a nap[.] I will get back with you. Mr. Moffatt informed

Complainant he would call her and then subsequently messaged her stating that he tried to call her twice.

He had contested the Arizona matter initially but later defaulted

Mr. Moffatt participated in the disciplinary proceedings before the Presiding Disciplinary Judge. He filed an answer asserting 38 affirmative defenses. He attended the mandatory telephonic initial case management conference. Mr. Moffatt served 106 requests for admission on the Arizona State Bar. He moved for a stay of proceedings. Mr. Moffatt filed a Motion for Expanded Request for Admissions in which he requested a hearing. Mr. Moffatt also moved for recusal of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge, to quash a subpoena for his deposition, to strike the State Bar of Arizona's request for admissions, to strike the State Bar of Arizona's request for production of documents, and to recommend an investigation of the Arizona Inspector General. However, Mr. Moffatt failed to file an initial disclosure statement. On December 30, 2015, the State Bar of Arizona moved for sanctions alleging that Mr. Moffatt had failed and refused to file an initial disclosure statement. Mr. Moffatt did not respond to this motion and did not appear at the hearing to determine if sanctions were appropriate on January 26, 2016. As mentioned above, the Presiding Disciplinary Judge found that Mr. Moffatt non willfully failed to submit an initial disclosure statement and sanctioned Mr. Moffatt by striking his Answer, rendering a default judgment against him. In addition, the Presiding Disciplinary Judge found that Mr. Moffatt willfully failed to appear and submit answers at his deposition. Mr. Moffatt also failed to appear at his aggravation/mitigation hearing on February 18,2016.

New Mexico had considered the matter and apparently reached a different result

After the [Tax Court] hearing, Mr. Moffatt provided us with a copy of the confidential letter that he received from the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of New Mexico. The letter was an official Letter of Caution issued pursuant to Rule 17 I05(B)(3)(b) of the New Mexico Supreme Court Rules Governing Discipline for Mr. Moffatt's communication with Ms. Childers.

The Arizona case generated some controversy.

The Santa Clarita Valley the-signal.com reported

Moffatt  a candidate for the congressional seat that takes in the Santa Clarita Valley and is now held by Steve Knight, R-Palmdale  said his actions were a mistake, but he believes he did nothing illegal.

I happen to have a male drive that on occasion will come out, he said. In this case, it was an inopportune time.

The woman who received the request filed a complaint in New Mexico, where she was at the time, according to Moffatt. He said the State Bar of New Mexico investigated the claims and determined by December 2013 that no attorney-client relationship existed and that the conduct was not illegal.

Moffatt said he believed the case was a done deal until November 2015, when the State Bar of Arizona filed charges against him. Although Moffatt is based in Lancaster, he handles federal cases and his license to practice law is through Arizona.

Judge William J. ONeil signed the order of disbarment April 19. Moffatt appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District.

Moffatt believes he is being targeted for political reasons, arguing that other attorneys have done worse and not been barred from practicing law.

Im being taken down for asking an out-of-state chick for a nude over Facebook three years ago, he said.

His appeal notes that the State Bar of Arizona filed charges only a week after his wife, Star Moffatt, announced her candidacy for California Senate District 21, which takes in most of the Santa Clarita Valley.

Moffatt alleges the judge who issued the order has a history of targeting high-profile Republican attorneys.

Law360 reported that the Ninth Circuit declined to stay the disbarment. (Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2017/04/the-united-states-tax-court-mr-moffatts-disbarment-from-the-practice-of-law-in-the-state-of-arizona-was-based-on-his-miscon.html
VOA Learning English presents Americas Presidents.

Today we are talking about William Henry Harrison. Although he was elected in 1840, many Americans still remember his catchy campaign slogan: Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.

Tyler referred to John Tyler, Harrisons partner on the ticket. In other words, Harrison was the candidate for president, and Tyler was the candidate for vice president.

That seems straightforward enough. But Tippecanoe? That was Harrisons nickname. It came from a battle he had fought nearly 30 years before the presidential campaign.

At that time, Harrison led troops against an alliance of Native American tribes. The alliance was fighting white American settlers who were taking native peoples territory.

Harrison and his men wanted to prevent the alliance from getting the supplies and warriors it needed to fight a long war. They planned to attack an important Native American base in what is today the state of Indiana.

But Native American warriors attacked first. They struck at dawn, when Harrisons men were still sleeping in a camp near the River Tippecanoe.

The battle was confused and bloody. Many fighters on both sides died. After several hours, Harrisons troops pushed the Native American fighters away from the camp.

It was not really clear who won, but Harrison declared victory.

His presidential campaign reminded voters about the battle. The nickname Tippecanoe suggested Harrison was a simple yet tough westerner who would fight for white Americans.

But that image of Harrison was not entirely true.

Early life

Harrison did not come from a simple, western family.

Instead, he was the youngest child of a wealthy family from the southern state of Virginia. The Harrisons were active in the politics of the young nation. His father signed the Declaration of Independence and became the governor of Virginia.

Young William Harrison received a good education. But he did not want to become a doctor or lawyer. He joined the military instead.

Harrison succeeded quickly as an Army officer. He earned a reputation as an able leader in fights against Native Americans.

Harrison became the governor of what was known as Indiana Territory.

In that job, he persuaded Native Americans to enter into treaties that sold their land to the U.S. government  often for very little money.

Harrisons insistence on securing land for white settlers was one reason Native American tribes formed an alliance against the United States. A member of the Shawnee tribe, Tecumseh, was one of their most prominent leaders.

It was Tecumsehs men who fought against Harrison in the Battle of Tippecanoe.

Tecumsehs men clashed again with Harrison during the War of 1812 at a battle in Ontario, Canada near the River Thames.

In that battle, both the British and Native Americans were clearly defeated. Tecumseh was killed.

After that, the Native American alliance fell apart. And Harrison became famous again.

Political career

Although Harrison was a well-known fighter against Native Americans, he could not find lasting success as a politician.

He served briefly in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but he did not stay in those positions long.

He struggled with debt. His home in Indiana was very expensive.

He also had to provide for his ten children.

The emotional cost of his family was also high: only four of his children lived past the age of 40.

In 1836, Harrisons fortunes seemed to change. A new party, called the Whigs, looked to him as a presidential candidate.

The Whigs strongly opposed President Andrew Jackson and his policies. They did not want Jacksons vice president and right-hand man, Martin Van Buren, to become president. But they understood that Jackson was very popular with everyday Americans.

So the Whigs thought that Harrison  a military hero from the west, just as Jackson was  would appeal to voters. (At the time, voting was limited mostly to white men.)

The Whigs nominated Harrison as one of their candidates.

Harrison did well  but not well enough. Van Buren won the 1836 election.

But the next election belonged to Harrison.

His campaign developed that memorable song about Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.

Supporters also turned an insult against Harrison into an advantage.

Harrisons opposition said he would be happy to spend the rest of his life just sitting in a log cabin and drinking hard cider  an alcoholic drink made from apples.

The opposition wanted to suggest that Harrison was not really interested in becoming president and working hard for the American people.

But Harrisons supporters used the images of a log cabin and hard cider to portray Harrison as a humble man who could relate to common Americans.

The plan was a success: Harrison won the election.

A surprising turn of events

At 68, Harrison was the oldest person yet to take office.

On his Inauguration Day, he reportedly wanted to show that he was strong enough to serve as president by delivering a very long speech without wearing a coat or hat.

Several weeks later, Harrison became sick. He complained of many problems: anxiety, fatigue, and pain in his stomach.

His health grew worse and worse.

One month after he was sworn-in, Harrison died. It was the first time in the countrys history that a president had died in office.

The event raised many questions about who would become president. That question is answered in the next episode of this series.

For future generations, it also raised a question about what Harrison died of. The traditional story is that his long inaugural speech led to a fatal pneumonia.

But researchers in 2014 proposed a different reason.

Jane McHugh and Philip Mackowiak wrote in the New York Times that, while Harrison was in office, Washington, DC did not have a good sewer system. Human waste simply flowed onto public grounds a short distance from the White House.

The researchers conclude that Harrison probably died from problems related to drinking dirty water in the presidents house.

So, for Harrison, winning the White House may not have been good fortune at all.

Im Kelly Jean Kelly.

______________________________________________________________

See how well you understand the story by taking this listening quiz.

Quiz - America's Presidents: William Henry Harrison Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

catchy - adj. appealing and easy to remember

slogan - n. a word or phrase that is easy to remember

prominent - adj. well known

right-hand man - n. very important assistant

advantage - n. a good position or condition more likely to succeed

[Editor's note: An earlier version of this story said that Harrison won the 1842 election. The election was in 1840.]


Well known businesses across the United States are facing hard decisions about keeping their stores open.

Experts say Americans are changing the way they buy clothing and other products. They say people are making more purchases over the Internet and looking for better shopping experiences.

After years of falling sales, department store chains, like Sears, Kmart and Macys, are closing stores around the country. So are Abercrombie and Fitch, JCPenney and other businesses.

In February, Sears announced plans to close 150 stores it owns in the United States. That number includes more than 100 Kmart stores. The company recently said it is not sure about keeping its remaining stores open.

The Sears name remains well known

Sears was established in 1893 as Sears, Roebuck & Co. It offered a catalogue that became famous all over the U.S. Americans could choose from a large number of goods pictured in the book. Shoppers would send their orders to Sears and receive products in the mail, even if they lived far from a big city.

Denise Lee Yohn wrote a book called, What Great Brands Do. She told VOAs Victor Beattie that department stores have faced a difficult time in recent years because of competition from internet businesses.

The department store category, on the whole, has been declining, even as online sales and Amazon specifically has been on the rise.

But she added that Sears has a long history and a name that is still recognizable to many Americans.

Sears has struggled under ownership by Eddie Lampert, who operates a hedge fund. The company has had to sell some of its best-known brands, including Lands End clothing and Craftsman tools.

Lee Yohn said the company did not do enough to develop its online business. Sears also did not invest in the appearance of their stores, she added.

However, she thinks companies like Sears can come back to life. She said car maker Ford is an example of a company that was able to revive its business.

The company also must show its employees they are valued as a way to improve customer service. Otherwise, she said, Sears may not survive.

Sears is not the only nationwide business closing stores.

Macys Incorporated has said in recent months that it plans to close more than 60 Macys department stores. The move could affect thousands of jobs.

Some business experts believe the future of retail sales will be different from what traditional department stores have had to offer.

Are stores outdated?

Last month, the financial research company Synchrony Financial released a report about changes in the retail sales industry.

The report said that there will likely be department stores in the future, but just not as many as there used to be. It also said stores should seek to provide more reasons for shoppers to visit.

People are social by nature and will be drawn to gathering places to share ideas and be entertained, the report noted. Its not just about making money. Its about building trust. Retailers who tap into this trend will be rewarded.

The report pointed to some new ideas linked to the future of shopping. These include stores where people shop and pay for products by themselves, so called do-it-yourself shopping.

Synchrony Financial also said that shoppers will expect stores to use their personal information to deliver better customized products and offers.

Many experts say stores need to better use technology in order to interest their customers.

Not all retail stores are cutting back. One example is Urban Outfitters, a company that operates about 200 stores under its own name and also the name Anthropologie. Urban Outfitters says it plans to open 15 stores across the country. The company, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has not had sharp losses reported by other retail stores.

And online seller Amazon recently started to open its own stores in U.S. cities. The company that changed the way people bought things online hopes to do the same with stores focused on its own line of products.

Im Mario Ritter.

Mario Ritter wrote this report for VOA Learning English. His story was based on information from VOAs Victor Beattie and stories from The Guardian, Reuters and the Associated Press. George Grow was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

brand n. a group of products made by a specific company under a specific name

customer n someone who buys goods and services

trend n. the general direction of change

hedge fund n. an investment group that takes financial risks in order to get high returns

retail adj. related to the business of selling products directly to customers

shopping n. visiting places were goods are sold

department store n. a large store that sells many different products in different areas such as clothing, toys, furniture and appliances

chain n. many stores of the same business that appear across a state or nationwide

catalog n. a book provided by a business that shows what products it has to offer
Prehistoric people may have hunted and killed other members of their own species and eaten them, but probably not for food.

That is what a new study written by James Cole of the University of Brighton in England says. Cole says compared to large animals, humans do not provide much food. His study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Cole studied nine places where fossils have been found and where researchers have found evidence of cannibalism. Such signs include cutting marks on the bones.

Scientists dated the sites to between 14,000 and more than 900,000 years ago. That is the so-called Paleolithic period, also known as the Stone Age.

Five of the sites had Neanderthal fossils, the remains of earlier human ancestors. Two sites had fossils of prehistoric members of our own species and the others had fossils from much earlier human ancestors.

Cole estimated how many calories each of the bodies at each site had. He used earlier studies that found eating an average-sized modern-day human could provide up to 144,000 calories. He then made his estimates, based on the ages of the bodies at the sites.

The researcher found that the hunters would not get as much energy from the humans as they would from one large animal -- like a mammoth, a woolly rhino or a bear. So, Cole asked, why would the early humans hunt and kill their own species?

Youre dealing with an animal that is as smart as you are, as resourceful as you are, and can fight back in the way you fight them, Cole noted.

He says our ancestors may have eaten members of their species who had died because they did not have to be hunted. But he says cannibalism probably took place for reasons other than the need for food. He said it could have happened after times of violence or to defend territory.

Tim White of the University of California, Berkeley and Paola Villa of the University of Colorado Museum in Boulder said they do not know any scientists who believe our ancestors hunted each other for food. In an email, Villa said the new study does not change our general understanding of human cannibalism.

But Palmira Saladie, of the Catalan Institute for Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution near Barcelona, Spain, said Coles study will undoubtedly be key in the interpretation of new sites (and) the reevaluation of old interpretations.

In an email, she wrote that, to understand why our ancestors sometimes ate each other, we still have a long way to go.

Im Dorothy Gundy.

The Associated Press news agency reported this story. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the report for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

fossil  n. something (such as a leaf, skeleton, or footprint) that is from a plant or animal which lived in ancient times and that you can see in some rocks

cannibal  n. a person who eats the flesh of human beings

date  v. to show or find out when (something) was made or produced

Paleolithic  adj. of or relating to the time during the early Stone Age when people made rough tools and weapons out of stone

calorie  n. a unit of heat used to indicate the amount of energy that foods will produce in the human body

resourceful  adj. able to deal well with new or difficult situations and to find solutions to problems

key  adj. extremely important

interpretation  n. the act or result of explaining or interpreting something; the way something is explained or understood

reevaluate  v. to judge the value or condition of (someone or something) again
The Gwinnett County Police Department(ATLANTA) -- Days after two officers in suburban Atlanta were fired when videos surfaced showing them kicking and punching a motorist, authorities have reportedly dismissed nearly 90 cases involving the pair.



The Gwinnett County Solicitor said she is dropping all cases in which Robert McDonald or Michael Bongiovanni were either the principal officer or a necessary witness. Sixty-three cases were dismissed in Gwinnett County Recorder's Court and 26 in Gwinnett County State Court, according to ABC affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta.



All were misdemeanor or traffic offenses, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.



McDonald and Bongiovanni were fired Thursday after videos emerged online showing a man being punched and kicked during a traffic stop, police said.



The Gwinnett County Police Department in Lawrenceville, Georgia -- about 30 miles outside of Atlanta -- called the videos "shocking" and "disturbing" and announced today that two officers had been fired and that criminal investigations had begun.



The first video to surface shows an officer, identified as McDonald, kicking a handcuffed man in the head as he lays in the middle of a major roadway during a traffic stop.



A second video discovered by police, taken by a witness from a different angle, "shows the man getting out of the car with both hands up," according to police. "As he stands with his hands up, [Sergeant] Michael Bongiovanni strikes the man in the face," the police said in a statement.



Bongiovanni was hired in 1999 while McDonald joined the department in 2013.



Gwinnett County Police Chief Butch Ayers said of McDonald: "This officer and his actions do not represent the men and women of this police department who put their lives on the line."



He said McDonald apologized for what occurred and for embarrassing the department.



"It shouldn't have happened," Ayers said McDonald told him.



The Gwinnett Police Department said in a press release that it has launched a criminal investigation that will be handed over to the District Attorney's Office.



Bongiovanni and McDonald did not immediately respond to ABC News' requests for comment.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
EAGLE  The annual arrival of the Idaho Potato Commissions Great Big Idaho Potato Truck has become one of the years most eagerly anticipated moments for 7-year-old Jacob Walker, who is believed to be the worlds smallest boy.

The truck, which hauls a 6-ton replica Russet Burbank, departed from Boise March 20 on its sixth U.S. tour. Though IPC receives more than 300 requests for the truck to make appearances at events throughout the country each tour, the organization has prioritized a stop at Walkers Virginia home for a third consecutive year.

Once again, Walker, who has a rare form of dwarfism, will be riding with the Tater Team during the National Memorial Day Parade at Arlington National Cemetery.

He and the team have built a wonderful friendship, said his mother, Ashley Walker. The people of Idaho are represented well by everyone involved with the trucks tour and how they have made a child from so far away feel like he is part of the Idaho potato family.

After learning about the boy, the Tater Team visited Walker dressed as super heroes, and gave him his own cape. IPC also donated $500 toward Walkers Make A Wish trip to Florida. The team returned the following year to pick him up for a road trip to the Memorial Day parade.

The day was filled with fun, and Jacob enjoyed talking on the CB to other truckers, his mother said.

IPC President and CEO Frank Muir said the truck has logged more than 100,000 miles during its previous tours and is scheduled to drive another 23,000 miles over the next six months. IPC will map the trucks progress on its website, idahopotato.com. Some highlights of sixth trek will include a Houston childrens festival, the Kentucky Derby, a NASCAR race at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania, a Five Guys Burgers and Fries corporate meeting, a potato chip festival in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Spud Days in Shelley, Idaho.

The current tour budget is about $700,000, and covers the tours charitable program, called A Big Helping, Muir said. The truck makes donations of up to $500 per event, supporting a broad range of local charities. Muir said IPC intends to air one or two new truck-centered commercials this season. He said the truck continues to generate a social media buzz and local news coverage wherever it travels.

Its getting bigger and bigger, Muir said. I dont see any reason to stop it.

Laura Martin, who directs the truck tour with Foerstel Designs in Boise, said about 300 people from throughout the world applied to serve as new Tater Team members. IPC ultimately chose two recent Idaho college graduates, Boise State University graduate Kaylee Wells and University of Idaho graduate Jessica Coulthard. The women, who call themselves the Tater Twins, are friends who have traveled abroad together, Martin said. Larry Bathe has returned to drive the truck.
Warren Buffett's company reported a $2.7 billion loss Saturday as the paper value of its investment portfolio fell during the third quarter, but most of its operating businesses performed well with the notable exception of Geico.
I would like to start this week by saying happy 27th birthday to my daughter today (No, I dont feel a bit old).

Q: You a real police man? If so, quick question I got an open container ticket in Idaho but Im from Wyoming where I can buy an alcoholic slushy and drive home if I dont put a straw through the lid, Whats the difference between that and a bottle of vodka under my luggage in the back of my truck? And whats the best way to deal with it in court when I didnt realize the law difference? Larry

A: To answer your first question the answer is yes, according to the certificate I have from the Idaho Police Officers Standards Training, although I have been accused of also TRYING to be a comedian.

In Idaho, no matter what state you reside in, a driver, having an open container of alcohol while driving constitutes a misdemeanor offense. If youre a passenger the charge would be an infraction.

Idaho Code 23-505 reads: TRANSPORTATION OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES. (1) Alcoholic liquor lawfully purchased may be transported, but no person shall break open, or allow to be broken or opened any container of alcoholic liquor, or drink, or use, or allow to be drunk, or used any alcoholic liquor therein while the same is being transported.

This means that you can take alcohol to wherever you were going, even if that was out of state, but you cant crack one open on the way to your destination. I would add that not drinking would not prevent a citation from being issued as the code specifically deals with open container only. This also pertains to having a broken seal liquor bottle in your immediate possession.

If furtherance of this code, you can however transport a broken sealed bottle of liquor if your do the following: An unsealed alcoholic beverage container may be transported in an enclosed trunk compartment or behind the last upright seat of a vehicle which has no trunk compartment. This is in accordance with Idaho law.

As far as not knowing the laws of Idaho unfortunately the courts have decided that ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse for unknowingly committing crimes in Idaho.

Officer down:

Please put these officers, killed in the line of duty, and their families in your prayers. They fought the good fight, now may they rest in peace. God bless these heroes.

Sergeant Curtis Blackbird, Omaha Nation Law Enforcement Services, Tribal Police

Officer Justin Terney, Tecumseh Police, Oklahoma

Officer Nick Rodman, Louisville Metro Police, Kentucky

Assistant Chief Deputy Clint Greenwood, Harris County Constable Precinct 3, Texas

Deputy Sheriff Carl Cosper, Barry County Sheriff, Missouri

K9 Rico, Alaska State Troopers

Have a question for Policeman Dan? Email your question(s) to policemandan@yahoo.com or look for Ask PolicemanDan on Facebook and click the like button. Mail to: Box 147, Heyburn, Idaho 83336
Lower Goose Creek Reservoir, formed by a dam constructed in 1910-12, filled with water in June 1921, and its spillway released the excess.

The reservoir wouldnt fill again until 1984.

The Idaho Supreme Court in 1974 declared the old Goose Creek channel below the dam no longer a natural channel because it had not carried water since 1921 and had been altered or eliminated in places. The ruling came after the city of Burley diverted water into the channel after a storm, the water flooded a residents home and the resident sued the city.

When the big water of 1984 arrived, nobody was ready.

Jan. 7: South Idaho Press headline reads "Oakley Dam may spill water." Ranchers along Goose Creek had seen record winter precipitation, and a few others were paying attention to the reservoir's water level, but most of Mini-Cassia remained oblivious.

April 27: Oakley Canal Co. directors approve dumping water into several nearby gravel pits.

Early May: The canal company fills irrigation ditches fed by Lower Goose Creek Reservoir, and farmers are required to water already saturated fields  sometimes to the crops' detriment. Officials discuss creating Goose Lake in the desert where water could percolate into the ground; the plan is later scrapped.

May 5: Construction on the first, 23-mile diversion canal to Murtaugh Lake begins. The canal is meant to take floodwater out of its natural channel and  using culverts and siphons  cross Milner Low Lift Irrigation District canals, Twin Falls Canal Co. canals, two highway districts and farmland.

May 8: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers receives permission to build 14 miles of the canal to Murtaugh Lake; that includes enlarging the west canal  which feeds water from the reservoir into irrigation canals  and some natural drainage. The last landowners sign easements allowing the work to proceed. Landowners, farmers, business owners and volunteers will construct the remainder: the first five miles of the west canal and the last four miles of natural drainage.

May 13: Construction begins on a 3-foot spillway extension that buys canal workers three more days before water will top the spillway. The same day, however, Cottonwood Creek spring runoff breaks into the diversion canal to Murtaugh Lake, washing away banks and dashing hopes that it will be the answer for release of Lower Goose Creek Reservoir water.

May 16: Local officials and other leaders call a meeting in Burley and tell residents the reservoir's water will reach the top of the spillway by May 20. A caravan of officials and farmers looks for a route for new canal. County commissioners enact a local police-powers ordinance, allowing the government to use or damage private property without compensation to landowners to protect the public during an emergency.

May 17: Workers begin digging the second, 24-mile diversion channel from Lower Goose Creek Reservoir to the Snake River.

May 20: Water begins to flow from the reservoir down that diversion canal to the Snake, even as workers scramble to complete the canal.

May 21: By early morning, the water reaches the Snake River. The National Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members and other citizens patrol the canal banks 24 hours a day to keep water from eroding the banks. Crews start putting temporary bridges in place.

June 8: Diversion gates at the dam are closed, shutting off the flow in the emergency canal.

Aug. 6: Cassia County commissioners issue warrants from a $1.3 million bank loan that will be paid back with a one-time mill levy in 1985, raising property taxes throughout the county by 27 percent. Everyone with expenses related to construction is paid except the farmers.

Sept. 4: LDS church leaders begin gathering financial loss information from the farmers and other landowners and set a $300,000 fundraising goal. Business leaders have already donated $40,000.

Dec. 11: LDS church leaders start meeting with each landowner with flood damage to settle the claims.

Sources: Rex Gerratt, Keith Ramsey, Norman Dayley commissioners notes, South Idaho Press, Kathleen Hedbergs book A Flood Cannot Happen Here, Cassia County Museum, Oakley Valley Historical Museum.
Floyd William Southwick, 78, of Rupert, passed away Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at his home. Arrangements are under the direction of Joel Heward Hansen Mortuary.

Myrtle L. Orbe, 92, of Twin Falls, passed away Thursday April 13, 2017 at Bridgeview Estates. Arrangements are under the direction of Roseau Funeral Home.

Mary Doreen Reed, 53, of Twin Falls, died Friday, April 14, 2017, at her home. Arrangements are pending and will be announced by the Rasmussen Funeral Home of Burley.

Marvin Chamberlain, 62, of Twin Falls, passed away Sunday, April 9, 2017 at the Twin Falls Care Center. Services are under the direction of Reynolds Funeral Chapel, Twin Falls.
December 19, 1956  April 9, 2017

SHOSHONE  Roger Paulson, 60, of Shoshone, Idaho, died Sunday, April 9, 2017 Twin Falls Center due to a sudden illness.

Roger was born December 19, 1956 to Carl and Wanda Paulson at Gooding, Idaho. He was the fourth of five boys, and grew up in Richfield, Idaho. Roger did what every kid growing up in a small town did at that time, from shooting rock chucks to shooting hoops. He loved swimming at Rocky Ledge, fishing, driving fast, and other any other trouble he could get into. After high school, Roger enlisted into the United States Navy where he was honorably discharged in 1978. He then rode his 1975, Kawasaki 900 from Norfolk, Virginia to Richfield.

Roger worked in the family business, Paulson Motor Service, for many years. He later became a blackjack dealer at Cactus Petes Casino in Jackpot, Nevada for 13 plus years. Roger then bought a house in Shoshone and retired.

Roger was quite fit as he walked five to six miles per day. His favorite pastime was writing letters to the editor that werent always politically correct and sometimes controversial. Roger was a private man who didnt speak often, but when he did it was to the point. Roger was very close with his mother. They enjoyed making friendly wagers on major sporting events.

Roger is survived by his four brothers, John (Chris), Alan, Clyde (Louise), and Stan (Kim).

He was preceded in death by his mother, father, and numerous aunts and uncles.

God speed our brother, you left us way too soon!

There will be a celebration of life at a later date. Cremation is under the direction of Serenity Funeral Chapel Life Celebration Center & Cremation Services of Idaho, Twin Falls. Condolences may be shared at www.serenityfuneralchapel.com.
Jim Schmidt

SPOKANE, Wash.  Jim Schmidt formerly of Twin Falls, funeral mass at 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 18 at St. Peter Parish, 3520 E 18th Ave., Spokane, Wash..

Floyd Southwick

RUPERT  Floyd Southwick of Rupert, memorial services at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 22, 2017 at First Christian Praise. Arrangements are under the direction of Joel Heward Hansen Mortuary.

Marvin Chamberlain

TWIN FALLS  Marvin Chamberlain of Twin Falls celebration of life at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 29, 2017 at the Snake River Elks Lodge, 412 East 200 south in Jerome. A reception will follow in Marvins honor. Arrangements are under the direction of Reynolds Funeral Chapel, Twin Falls.
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1 What was the Legislatures single greatest achievement this session? What went right?

With K-12 Public Schools representing 50% of the state budget, I was pleased to see the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee increase K-12 funding by $100 million. As a co-sponsor of the 2015 Career Ladder, the $62 million third installment demonstrates the important commitment to teacher salaries.

This year we addressed concerns with the evaluation requirements of the Career Ladder. While I can say that the Twin Falls School District has embraced both the funding within the Career Ladder and performance evaluations, consistency throughout the state required more direction and training. New legislation has provided the resources to meet the statutory evaluation requirements of the Career Ladder.

The states public school funding formula is complex and outdated. The formula includes too many special line items addressing the evolving challenges. The legislature has approved and funded the second year of an interim committee to provide alternative school funding formulas.

The severe winter has created a series of transportation challenges this year. I was pleased to support the $320 million transportation bill, which includes support for local transportation needs.

2. What do you wish lawmakers had accomplished but did not? What went wrong?

I was disappointed that plans to provide primary health care for uninsured adults through community health centers, like Family Health Services, did not advance. The proposals had something for most everyone to support, unfortunately they also had something that most everyone could oppose. These were not Medicaid expansion proposals. These proposals would have provided uninsured adults access to primary care, which could improve the patient wellness and avoid costly emergency room visits. The bills momentum faded when the congressional efforts to replace of the Affordable Care Act stalled.

I, also, expected to see an effort to reduce income tax rates, but did not see the groundswell of support for the repeal of the Grocery Tax Credit and related exemption of sales tax on food. We just learned that Governor Otter used the veto for at least the 8th time this year, which is four more than the past five years combined.

3. What was your single best contribution to the session? Maybe sponsoring a key bill or working behind the scenes on high-profile legislation. Tell us something you did that youre proud of.

After a couple of years of research, I was pleased to get a bill into law that provides the State Board of Education the authority to consider future bachelorette degrees for Community Colleges. I do not expect any immediate change, but it will allow CSI, CWI and NIC to consider this non-property tax option in their long term planning.

Additionally, we were able to lower the age from 62 to 60 for teachers, who have reached their rule-of-90 retirement age and would like to begin distribution of their vested PERSI retirement while on contract. This will allow schools to retain experienced, yet retired, teachers.

4. What will be your focus over the interim?

During the interim I will be working on a committee to study the risk of bias within administrative hearings. I also plan to work on options to provide some balanced personal tax relief by reducing the number of tax brackets. My work this session to reduce to four brackets was met with positive interest. Idaho has seven individual tax brackets between $0 and $10,890.
1 What was the Legislatures single greatest achievement this session? What went right?

The signature bill of the session was the transportation package, which will help grow commerce in Idaho and in the Magic Valley. We all know how important the movement of goods and services are. Putting this on a more secure financial setting for highway needs was a major step. We also moved to repair damaged roads and bridges from winter flooding.

We also made major improvements to state contracting law and purchasing, as well as changes in how foster care is to be better provided. This last issue will take some additional work, but we are on our way to improving this important social service.

2 What do you wish lawmakers had accomplished but did not? What went wrong?

Id like to have seen us make some state-funded steps to improve health care delivery to the gap population. This was within our reach, but we could not muster the votes for any one proposal. Well work on it again next session.

Also, I was disappointed we did not pass a major tax cut bill. The governors veto of the grocery tax repeal is likely to be challenged, but I do not expect it to be overturned. That veto left us without any major tax relief this session, which I think we should have passed. I have long been an advocate for tax cuts, but we didnt do enough in this area. Well work on it again next session.

3 What was your single best contribution to the session? Maybe sponsoring a key bill or working behind the scenes on high-profile legislation. Tell us something you did that youre proud of.

I worked hard behind the scenes as a senior member of the Revenue & Taxation Committee to try to get some major tax cuts passed. I supported both the income tax cuts for individuals and businesses, as well as the grocery tax cut. We will work on tax cuts again next session....Its always good policy, in my view, to leave more money in peoples pockets. Either of these tax cuts would have done that.

4 What will be your focus over the interim?

Im on an interim committee on administrative hearings and how to make sure they are fair and effective for state employees....I think we will be able to make some proposals in this area which will benefit Idaho. Beyond that, I intend to work on some legislation involving PERSI (Public Employees Retirement System of Idaho)....and making sure it is transparent, secure and sound. Some groups want to dismantle PERSI and move to a less secure system, but I think we should be very cautious about that. PERSI is regarded as one of the best state employee retirement systems in the nation. We should not allow ultra-right politics to damage it.

Beyond that, I expect to be out and about in the community as much as I can, representing common sense Republican principles of sound fiscal policy, strong commitment to traditional Republican values and sound conservative principles of governance and public policy. I welcome people contacting me at any time, by phone (733-5790) email (shartgen@house.idaho.gov) and surface mail (Rep. Stephen Hartgen, 1681 Wildflower Lane, Twin Falls, Idaho 83301) I also have an open and public Facebook page with hundreds of followers at www.facebook.com and a website at www.stephenhartgen.com. Please feel free to get in touch at any time.
1 What was the Legislatures single greatest achievement this session? What went right?

The appropriation of emergency funding for Idahos roads and related infrastructure. Although this funding will not solve all of Idahos needs or problems, it was an important step in the right direction. Well-maintained transportation infrastructure is vital to Idahos economic health, safety for our families, and opportunity for us all.

2 What do you wish lawmakers had accomplished but did not? What went wrong?

The Idaho Legislature must continue to reevaluate the governments role in the private sector. Business thrives when taxes are low and regulation is minimal and predictable. Several bills this year set forth licensure, certification, and business regulations that were arguably unnecessary.

3 What was your single best contribution to the session? Maybe sponsoring a key bill or working behind the scenes on high-profile legislation. Tell us something you did that youre proud of. Over the last year, I have worked with an interim Legislative committee to explore changes to the State of Idahos foster care system. My hopes are that we can build on system improvements for some of Idahos most vulnerable citizens  the neglected or abandoned children placed in the care of the state. In general, I believe the Magic Valley can be proud of our legislative delegation who, in spite of the occasional policy disagreement, work well together to represent our regions needs and interests.

4 What will be your focus over the interim?

During the interim, I will work with committees studying foster care, administrative hearing processes, and transportation fees. I will also work on economic development projects with the Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission (IGEM) and the Idaho Department of Commerce. I am currently exploring legislation to close loopholes in Idahos mortgage law that are not favorable to Idahos family farmers.
Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. has called for the creation of commercial trial courts to help suppress pyramiding and Ponzi scams that have so far hit more than a million Filipinos with over P25 billion in combined financial losses.

The establishment of commercial courts is long overdue. Once we have the new courts in place, theres no question a greater number of embezzlers will be put behind bars faster, and this in turn should help discourage other would-be swindlers, Campos, a deputy minority leader, said in a statement on Sunday.

Under Campos House Bill No. 5339, commercial courts shall be established in every province or city in the country.

They shall have sole jurisdiction to hear and resolve all cases of investment fraud, as well as those involving theft of corporate funds; intellectual property violations; financial rehabilitation and liquidation; intra-corporate disputes; and violations of admiralty and maritime laws.

Under the bill, the trial of every case before a commercial court, once begun, shall be non-stop. The proceedings shall be completed within three months from the filing of a case. Judgment shall be delivered within 30 days from the submission of the case for decision.

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Due to the lack of commercial courts, Campos said only two individuals have been convicted of investment fraud under the 16-year-old Securities Regulation Code, namely pyramiding queen Rosario Baladjay, who ran the Multinational Telecom Investors Corp. rip-off in the early 2000s, and Francisco Borromeo, who defrauded his clients at Asian Capital Equity Inc. from 1993 to 2003.

Baladjay and Borromeo were convicted in 2015 and 2013 respectively.

Campos said many investment scams that victimized tens of thousands of Filipinos remain unresolved.

These include the cases against Performance Investment Products Corp. and Aman Futures Group Philippines Inc., each of which had robbed some P12 billion from unsuspecting investors, as well as

the cases against the Legacy Group of Companies, Emgoldex Philippines, Forward Direct Selling Corp., One Lightning Corp., and Hyper Program International Direct Sales and Trading Corp., among others.

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CHICAGO  Many teens spend their summers lifeguarding or ice-cream scooping. Not Evon Lopez.

Lopez, at 16, spent the summer between her sophomore and junior years of high school interning at Abbott Laboratories. At graduation from the eight-week program last August, she delivered a PowerPoint presentation detailing, among other things, corporate safety initiatives at the health care company headquartered outside Chicago.

Sound like a snooze? To the contrary, Lopez said the experience reinforced her interest in architectural engineering.

Asked to name the highlights of the program, the teen described a visit to Abbott's nutrition facility in Ohio where employees explained how they created formula to save infants' lives.

"It just shows that their goal is to help as many people as they can in any way possible," Lopez said of the company, "and that's a place that I would like to work in."

An interest in jobs with a greater social purpose is a hallmark of the millennial generation. But Lopez is a member of Generation Z, the post-millennial group that is just starting to graduate from high school and college and catch the interest of employers.

Gen Z is composed of the kids who were born, roughly, between 1995 and 2010 and came of age during the Great Recession.

Though it's too soon to say how Gen Z might shape the workplace, early surveys paint a portrait distinct from the wide-eyed, self-involved image of their millennial predecessors. Gen Zers, an emerging trove of research suggests, are entrepreneurial yet pragmatic, hardworking yet easily distracted, with a streak of realism running through their desire to make a social impact.

Some employers are trying to appeal to Gen Z early, with versions of internships normally reserved for college students now being extended to high schoolers to create a pipeline of talent.

At Abbott, which started its high school internship five years ago, starting younger also is meant to address the shortfall of women and minorities in the STEM  science, technology, engineering and math  workforce, which is important as it serves an increasingly diverse customer base.

"What we want to do is increase the possibility that they will enter STEM, be successful at it and be able to go on and have meaningful careers in these areas," said Corlis Murray, Abbott's top engineer and leader of the high school internship program. "The younger we reach them, the higher we increase that probability."

With the rise of early professional exposure, members of Gen Z are positioned for powerful careers, said Jeanne Meister, partner at Future Workplace, a human resources research firm in New York.

"They are definitely more serious and mature entering the workforce" than millennials, Meister said.

Assigning sweeping generalizations to a generation of 60 million people is, at best, an inexact exercise, but that doesn't stop a steady drip of research from offering varied takes on Gen Z.

"They are radically different from millennials," said David Stillman, co-author, with his 17-year-old son Jonah, of the book "Gen Z @ Work," released in March.

If everyone-gets-a-trophy millennials, reared by baby boomers during flush times, prioritized passion and teamwork, then Gen Z, raised by independent Generation Xers during times of financial distress, learned that you have to fight hard to win, Stillman said.

"We have a generation entering the workforce that is extremely competitive," said Stillman, who has written several books on how generations interact in the workplace.

Some Gen Z traits seem old-school.

Three-quarters of Gen Zers say they are willing to start at the bottom and work their way to the top, implying a respect for paying dues, Stillman's research found. More than 60 percent said they are willing to stay at a company for 10 years, suggesting a return to employer loyalty after the job-hopping tendencies of millennials. Only 8 percent said they want an open-office concept, despite workspace design trends that have been knocking down walls to emphasize collaboration.

But other traits are less traditional. For example, more than half of Gen Zers want to write their own job description, reflecting a desire for a hypercustomized career experience that could be driven by the personal branding that social media has pushed since they were kids, Stillman said.

That preference could draw them to small and medium-sized businesses, where employees can more easily wear multiple hats than at large companies, he said.

Indeed, a survey last year by Accenture of the 2016 graduating college class, by some measures the vanguard of Gen Z, found they are three times more likely to want to work at a small or medium company than a large one, presenting big companies with a recruiting challenge.

Some employers are being proactive by planting a seed early.

Southwest Airlines last summer hosted its third class of high school interns, who worked for eight weeks at the company's Dallas headquarters. This fall it plans to host its first "aviation day" for kids in third through eighth grade, a free event that will include guest speakers and a tour of an aircraft maintenance hangar.

Anticipating a massive skills shortage as baby boomers retire, Greg Muccio, a senior manager in Southwest's "people department," said the airline industry needs to drum up excitement among youth.

"We have consciously set down a path to start reaching a much younger audience to encourage them and make them aware of a career in aviation," he said. Some of the industry's biggest needs are in hourly entry-level jobs that don't require higher education, so Muccio wants to appeal to high schoolers who may not be interested in or ready for college.

Southwest this summer also will host its third summer camp for the high-school aged children of employees across the country. The three-day event of tours and games in Dallas, which last year drew 150 teens, aims to steer those already familiar with the company to careers there by showing what it takes to be a pilot or a mechanic.

The camp left an impression on Chicagoan Kyle Norbut, who participated just before starting his freshman year at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana last year. The 18-year-old acting major, who was impressed by the family atmosphere and the sense that employees were "having a ball," intends to pursue a career in theater  but now is considering a flexible side job at Southwest.

Hitting Gen Z early can set both teens and employers up for success.

At Abbott, about 97 percent of those who complete the high school internship go on to work or major in a STEM field, said Murray, the engineer who leads the program. She has found that kids who do the high school internship are more mature and able to take complex assignments when they start the company's college program, and she is studying whether the early work affects college academic performance.

The demands are sophisticated. High school interns get meaningful assignments  no making copies  and have to deliver results.

That can be terrifying.

"On my first day I was very freaked out," said Emily Voigt, who was among 35 interns in last summer's high school intern class, her second year in the program. Abbott recruits interns with at least a 3.0 GPA from 10 schools in seven markets, including two in Chicago.

Voigt, who is now a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studies civil and environmental engineering, said she avoided talking to her manager at first for fear that that she would be dismissed because of her age or wouldn't know the answers to technical questions.

But Voigt, who exuded confidence as she gave a presentation at the program graduation, said her interpersonal skills improved once she realized it was OK to ask questions and make mistakes.

"I think that creates an environment that allows the most growth, because you feel comfortable doing those things you might not do and asking the questions you might not ask," she said.

Murray said a consistent thread she sees among the interns is an interest in the company's sustainable and socioeconomic responsibilities.

But some surveys paint Gen Z as a practical, hardworking generation with money on the brain.

Monster.com, the job search site, found Gen Zers are motivated by pay more than other generations are, and are more willing to relocate for a good job and work nights and weekends for a better salary than their older counterparts.

They are also more entrepreneurial: Nearly half of Gen Zers want to own their own business, compared with a third across all generations, Monster's survey found.

Some companies are considering how to put emergent Gen Z research to use.

Meister, from the consultancy Future Workplace, said one distinctive quality employers can count on is that these young workers, who grew up teaching themselves through massive open online courses and other online tools, will expect to have growth opportunities at their fingertips.

"Investment in on-demand learning and development is going to be critical to attract and keep talent," Meister said. "This is going to be seen as the make or break benefit as to whether to join a company or not."

Other studies suggest pay transparency will be a must.

Equity in pay and promotion was cited by those in Gen Z as the most important factor for gaining trust in an employer, according to a survey last year by EY, the accounting firm once known as Ernst & Young. That differs from the general population, which cited an employer's ability to deliver on promises as No.1  perhaps because of media and celebrity attention to gender and racial pay gaps.

In addition, market researchers say Gen Z will be the last generation in the U.S. to have a white majority, so diversity and inclusion are core values, according to BridgeWorks, a consultancy that helps employers overcome generation gaps. BridgeWorks prefers to call the group "Generation Edge," in part because it's on the cusp of a demographic shift.

***

Back at Abbott, the company is starting to see the fruits of its high school investment.

Nick Urh, who was in Abbott's first high school internship class, went back as a college intern and now is in its professional development program, rotating through various divisions at the company. He is currently in the diabetes division in Alameda, California, working on glucose meters that will no longer require finger pricks.

"It really opened my eyes to the potential we had to impact so many lives," he said.

Urh, 23, who grew up in Gurnee, Illinois, and graduated last year from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is on the generational cusp. He says he identifies with both the millennial eagerness to make a social difference and the Gen Z appetite for job security  and, thanks to the internship, sees a path to achieve both.

Urh expects to be hired as a permanent employee at Abbott once the program finishes in June and hopes to pursue a career there in manufacturing operations.

"Why should I leave?" Urh said.

Music to an employer's ears.
The book and movie worlds collided rather prestigiously last week, with the announcement that Barry Jenkins, writer/director of the Oscar-winning drama Moonlight, will adapt and direct Colson Whiteheads National Book Award-winning novel The Underground Railroad as a television series, in development at Amazon. While we wait to see how that promising-sounding project unfolds, lets check in with a few other upcoming book-to-movie transformations:

My Cousin Rachel. The 1951 romantic-mystery novel by Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca) arrives on screens this summer, with Rachel Weisz in the title role. Roger Michell (Notting Hill) directs; expect bonnets, moody candlelight and some strong supporting work by the Cornish coastline. (June 9)

The Glass Castle. Jeannette Walls widely popular 2005 memoir of her troubled, nomadic childhood (the book spent more than 250 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list) was filmed last year, with Brie Larson as Jeanette and Naomi Watts and Woody Harrelson as her parents. No release date set yet, but its likely to be out sometime this year.

On Chesil Beach. Ian McEwan adapted his delicate novella, about a young couple on their wedding night in 1962, for the screen; Saorise Ronan, who starred in the excellent movie version of McEwans Atonement, plays the new bride. Again, no date set, but this sounds like the sort of movie that gets held for end-of-year release.

The Snowman. Harry Hole, the hard-boiled detective created by Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbo, finally comes to the screen, played by Michael Fassbender. At one point, Martin Scorsese was set to direct this film  in which Harry must solve a brutal murder case involving a very ominous snowman  but ended up as executive producer, with Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) directing a strong cast that also includes Rebecca Ferguson, J.K. Simmons, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Chloe Sevigny. (Oct. 13)
Outdoors enthusiasts of all ages can come learn about the history of Canadas Mountain National Parks when Montana author and historical researcher Sharon Randolph presents the program Canadian Mountain National Parks: A Celebration of Canada's 150th Anniversary of Confederation in 2017, which occurs at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the librarys Large Meeting Room.

During her presentation, Randolph will explore the story of a rich and active history portrayed in a slide show thats accompanied by informative dialogue gained through historical research and personal experiences in Canada's Mountain National Parks.

Randolph is the author of the four volume series "Connecting Us to the Sun," which focuses on Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park history. In addition, she has presented Waterton-Glacier history programs throughout Montana and Waterton along with teaching seven Senior Institute classes at Flathead Valley Community College.

Library Peeps Show returns

Let your love of marshmallow candy blend with your passion for literature when you participate in MPLs fifth annual Library Peeps Show, a contest where patrons create a shoebox sized diorama using Peeps candy to showcase a literary allusion or theme. This is your chance to pay homage to a favorite character or recreate a scene from a beloved book using those ever popular marshmallow candies. The contest kicks off on April 17, which is when patrons can drop off their creations at the childrens department. Visit tinyurl.com/mplpeepsshow2017 for details.

National Poetry Month movie screening

The library continues its celebration of National Poetry Month with a special movie screening on Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the Large Meeting Room. The film is an episodic look at the life of Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. Persecuted by his government, he takes a courageous stand against censorship and oppression. Call 406-721-BOOK (2665) for the film title.

MPL offers workshops on early literacy training

With funding from a Washington Foundation grant, the library is delighted to offer early literacy training for librarians, caregivers and parents on Saturday, April 22, in the Large Meeting Room.

The training sessions will be hosted by Megan Egbert of the Meridian District Library System in Idaho. The first training session runs from 9 a.m. to noon and is titled Early Literacy Training for Library Professionals. It will be followed from 1 to 4 p.m. with the session Early Literacy in Childcare and Home Settings. Both workshops are free and open to the public.

Staff Reviews

Pounce by Seth Casteel (Little, Brown and Co., New York, 2016) Call number: 779.3297 CASTEEL

Readers do not have to be cat lovers to enjoy Seth Casteels latest furry friend book. Casteel, who is a professional photographer, shot his first book Underwater Dogs when he was supposed to be doing a shoot of a dog playing outside when the dog chased a ball into the pool. From there, he continued with Underwater Puppies and now has Pounce, which follows kittens pouncing, pirouetting, flying through the air and peeking out of tubs, stuffed toy mounds and elsewhere. The kittens look wild, calm, inquisitive and mischievous.

My first thought in picking up this book, well maybe my second thought, was what a good conversation tool this would be working with older adults, especially those with dementia related diseases. Any of Casteels books found in the library could spark storytelling sessions about pets, what the animal was doing, or just as story creation.

Reviewed by Marjorie Doyle

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MakerSpace Offerings

Zentangle Tuesday

Tuesday, April 18, noon-2 p.m.

Come learn beginning level Zentangle drawing.Class is open to those aged 18 and up. Online registration required. Visit http://tinyurl.com/MakersZenTangleTues041817 to register.

Computer Electronics

Mondays from 3 to 7 p.m. and Thursdays from 3 to 6 p.m.

Monday Night Jewelry Workshop (meets upstairs in the library directors office)

Mondays from 6:15-7:15 p.m.

Open Hours

Tuesdays from 3:30 to 6 p.m. and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays from 1 to 6 p.m.

Community Creative Writing Workshop

Tuesdays from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Watercolor Painting Class

Fridays from noon to 2 p.m. in the Large Meeting Room.

Open to adults ages 18 and older. Bring your own watercolor paper, paints, brushes, and palette. For questions, call Robert at 406-258-3867 and leave a message.

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Computer Classes

Intro to Email

Monday, April 17, from 6 to 7 p.m.

Learn the basics of creating an email account including writing a message, adding attachments and sending messages.

Intermediate Facebook

Wednesday, April 19, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

For those that already have Facebook accounts and know the basics. Well discuss the finer points of using this social media and social networking site. Bring your questions!

Registration is required to attend MPLs computer classes. Call 406-721-BOOK (2665) to secure your spot.

The Missoula Public Library will be closed Sunday for Easter. It will reopen at 10 a.m. Monday.
Surely you've seen those Japanese scroll paintings in which tiny figures trail up the side of an enormous mountain? Here's a poem about one such life by Lucia Cherciu, who lives in Poughkeepsie, New York. She gathers an enormous amount of human experience in these few lines. Her most recent book is Train Ride to Bucharest (Sheep Meadow Press, 2017). This poem appeared first in The Broadkill Review.

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The old cupola glinted above the clouds, shone

among fir trees, but it took him an hour

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for the half mile all the way up the hill. As he trailed,

the village passed him by, greeted him,

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asked about his health, but everybody hurried

to catch the mass, left him leaning against fences,

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measuring the road with the walking stick he sculpted.

He yearned for the day when the new church

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would be builtright across the road. Now

it rises above the moon: saints in frescoes

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meet the eye, and only the rain has started to cut

through the shingles on the roof of his empty

***

house. The apple trees have taken over the sky,

sequestered the gate, sidled over the porch.
Editors note: The Doolittle Raid on Japan in April 18, 1942, marked a turning point in World War II. The 75th anniversary of the raid led by famed aviator Jimmy Doolittle will be celebrated Monday and Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio

Dick Cole, 101 and the lone remaining Raider after the death last June of David Thatcher of Missoula, is expected to be on hand. Hell be joined by members of Thatchers family: widow, Dawn, and daughter and son-in-law Sandy and Jeff Miller, all of Missoula; son Jeff; daughter Becky Thatcher-Keller of Jamestown, North Dakota, and granddaughter Brooke Zimmerman of Bismarck, North Dakota.

Jeff Thatcher, director of communications for the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce in Little Rock, grew up in Missoula and graduated from Sentinel High School. Hes president of the Children of the Doolittle Raiders, Inc., a nonprofit group dedicated to keeping the legacy of the Doolittle Raiders alive.

In September 2015, Thatcher traveled to China and was the first American to set foot on the beach on Nantien Island since his fathers plane, nicknamed the Ruptured Duck, crash-landed in the surf 73 years earlier. During his visit to the beach Thatcher was presented a piece of the Ruptured Duck, a fire suppression rod, that a Chinese villager had found on the beach as a child following the crash.

Thatcher submitted the following article to mark the poignant and historic occasion.

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Thirty Seconds into Eternity

By Jeff Thatcher

On the morning of April 18 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force (NMUSAF) in Dayton, Ohio, 101-year-old Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole will turn over the silver goblet of my late father, S. Sgt. David J. Thatcher, in a private ceremony that has become famous in the annals of modern aviation.

Coles action will conclude the final chapter in the symbolic ceremony birthed by the Doolittle Raid, a daring bombing attack on five Japanese cities on April 18, 1942  75 years ago  in retaliation for Japans surprise attack on Pearl Harbor 4 months earlier. The attack was executed by 80 volunteer U.S. Army Air Corps flyers in five-man crews aboard B-25B Mitchell twin-engine bombers. All 16 planes were launched from the deck of the carrier USS Hornet.

Cole and my 94-year-old father were the last two surviving members of the raid led by legendary aviator Lt. Col. James H. Jimmy Doolittle, until my father passed away on June 22, 2016, in Missoula.

At age 20, my father was one of the youngest members of the raid. A Bridger native, he enlisted on December 3, 1940, after graduating high school. Inspired to fly after seeing a plane overhead as a teenager, he hoped to see the Pacific Northwest during his military service. Instead he saw much of the world after participating in one of the most daring missions in military history.

The Raid

On December 7, 1941, my father and some of his buddies were at a movie in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was undergoing engine and airplane mechanic training. When the group emerged from the theater, they heard the news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. None of them had ever heard of Pearl Harbor.

Shortly afterwards, my father, along with 78 other young Army Air Corps fliers, volunteered for the Doolittle Raid, a secret mission whose details were not fully divulged to the 79 Raiders under Doolittle until they were on board the Hornet and on their way to their appointment with destiny.

My father, a corporal at the time, was the engineer/gunner on Crew #7, The Ruptured Duck, piloted by Lt. Ted Lawson. After bombing designated targets in Tokyo, Lawson headed the plane toward China.

Running low on fuel in darkness and heavy rain, Lawson tried to land the plane on an island beach. Instead the plane crashed in the surf after hitting a wave, causing it to flip over. The crash seriously injured the crew members except for my father, who was briefly knocked out.

Regaining consciousness, freeing himself from the wreckage and wading to the shore, my father reached the other crew members who had washed up. Friendly Chinese fishermen who witnessed the crash and ran down to the Americans carried the injured crewmen to a primitive hut. There my father bound their wounds with the bandage from his first-aid kit, torn pieces of clothing and Chinese rags.

The next day Charlie, a local guerrilla leader who spoke rough English, agreed to coordinate the crews passage inland. A group of locals accompanying him built rough stretchers out of bamboo poles, rope and latticework squares, and carried the injured officers to the other side of the island. That night the group secured a sampan to carry the crew to the mainland past searching Japanese gunboats.

After a four-day journey that included a close call involving a Japanese patrol and a 40-mile trek over difficult mountainous terrain by Chinese coolies carrying the injured officers, the crew finally reached Enze Hospital in Linghai, where they received needed medical attention. Throughout the ordeal, my father constantly looked after the wounded officers. For his efforts to save their lives, he received the Silver Star.

In 1943 Lawson wrote the first account of the Doolittle Raid, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. It became a best-selling book later made into an Academy Award-winning movie of the same name directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Spencer Tracy as Doolittle, Van Johnson as Lawson and Robert Walker as my father.

Following the Doolittle Raid, my father served in England and Africa until January 1944, flying 26 missions in a Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber over North Africa and Europe, including the first bombing raid over Rome. In July 1945 he was honorably discharged from active duty at the rank of Staff Sergeant.

Fate of the Raiders

I have often wondered how my father survived the Doolittle Raid and his subsequent 26 bombing missions when many of the other Raiders perished. His closest friend on the raid, Leland Faktor, also 20 and the engineer/gunner on Crew 3, was killed after bailing out over Zhejiang Province in China.

Of the 80 Raiders who bombed Japan, 61 survived the Raid and World War II. Three were killed after exiting their aircraft the night of the Raid. Eight were captured by the Japanese, three of whom were executed on Oct. 15, 1942. One man starved to death in captivity, and the other four were held captive for 40 months. Ten Raiders were killed in action in Europe, North Africa and Indo-China, and two died in U.S. plane crashes.

The remainder lived to gather and reminisce at annual reunions held throughout the U.S. until death thinned their ranks. The reunions, beginning the year after Doolittle and his Raiders gathered to celebrate his birthday in December 1946, were held around April 18, the anniversary of the Raid.

Silver Goblets

During the 1959 reunion the city of Tucson, Arizona, presented the Raiders a set of sterling silver goblets housed in a special glass-enclosed case, each bearing the name of one of the 80 men who flew on the mission. After the April 1961 reunion in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Doolittle turned them over to the Air Force Academy for safekeeping and display between reunions.

In 1973 Dick Cole, Doolittles co-pilot, built a portable display case for the goblets for easier transport to the reunions. In 2005 the surviving Raiders voted to move the goblets from the Air Force Academy to the NMUSAF where they are now permanently displayed.

At each reunion, the 80 silver goblets gleamed in their velvet-lined case, consisting of four attached folding compartments. Twenty goblets stood in each compartment, placed five high and four across. Left to right they represented the crews  1 to 16  based upon their takeoff positions in the raid. Each column from top to bottom consisted of the pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier and gunner. On each goblet a Raider's name was engraved twice, so it could be read right side up or upside down.

Two uniformed Air Force cadets escorting the goblets placed the case atop a table in a private room and stood guard. On the morning of April 18, the surviving Raiders would meet privately in front of the goblets to conduct their solemn ceremony. After calling the roll and toasting the Raiders who had died since their last reunion, with cognac poured by the white-gloved cadets into the goblets, they would turn the deceased Raiders goblets upside down.

Like the goblets harkening back to the times of the Vikings, Roman legions and King Arthurs Knights of the Round Table, the Raider goblets symbolize the attributes of the 80 men who participated  duty, honor and courage. Reflecting the missions difficult nature are the words inscribed on the Doolittle Raider crest: Toujours au Danger  Always into Danger.

Last man standing

In discussing his position last June as the last man standing among the 80 Doolittle Raiders after my fathers funeral in Missoula, Cole said: Mathematically, it shouldn't have worked out this way. I was quite a bit older, six years older, than David. Figuring the way gamblers figure, he would have been the last man.

Instead Cole is the last man standing. And when he raises his silver goblet for the final time to toast his 79 departed comrades, the longstanding tradition of the Raiders private ceremony, which cemented the bond between courageous volunteers, both enlisted men and officers, into a well-trained group who placed their collective duty as Americans above their individual lives, will end.
While judges are empowered to grant temporary leaves from custody to people being held in jail, there are no firm guidelines on who is eligible for such a furlough or how they should be supervised when released.

The result is defendants with a variety of different charges, violent and nonviolent, have been allowed to leave custody for brief periods to attend to personal matters without an officer watching over them.

In January, Missoula County jail officials believe a prisoner who had been out on a temporary, unescorted furlough brought methamphetamine and opiates back to the jail and shared them with his cellmates.

After several of those inmates tested positive for drugs, an investigation was conducted, but did not turn up enough evidence to lead back to any particular prisoner, and charges werent filed.

After the incident, jail staff spoke with Missoula County District Court judges, alerting them to the security concerns that came with prisoners being let out for brief periods without supervision.

Administration at the jail said in the past, leave from the jail was granted in a limited set of circumstances and was done with escort by a detention officer. Last summer, jail officials said judges began to grant furloughs for a broader variety of reasons and were not requiring officer escorts.

Over the past year, Missoulas four district court judges have issued specific orders for furlough nine times, nearly all to people awaiting trial.

That number doesnt represent all furloughs that have been granted, only the number of orders that solely dealt with granting such a leave. Furloughs sometimes are included in broader court orders. For example, the furlough granted to one of the inmates implicated in the jail drug incident was included in a court order that addressed a variety of issues.

Jordan Gross, a professor at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana who teaches a course in criminal procedure, said judges are fully within their power under state law to grant requests for things like a leave from the jail.

Generally speaking, since a judge can set bail a judge can let people out, she said. Judges have a tremendous amount of discretion to hold someone or release someone.

Another state statute specifically provides for judges to grant temporary release from detention during necessary and reasonable hours for a variety of purposes, including work, medical treatment or family needs.

Gross said asking a judge for a temporary leave is not much different than routine requests from attorneys to have the bail amount a judge has already set lowered to a level their client can afford.

In both situations, the judge would weigh the nature of the charges against an accused along with other factors like the potential danger they represent to the community and the chance of them absconding if released.

Of the nine specific orders granted in the past year, the defendants were facing charges ranging from crashing a stolen car to drug possession and robbing their ex-girlfriend to writing dozens of bad checks. One of those furloughs was granted to a man who already had pleaded guilty to pointing a gun at a deputy and who was awaiting trial on charges of assaulting his wife.

The reasons the defendants and their attorneys cited for the furlough requests were also broad. For a pair of defendants awaiting trial, they requested and were granted the ability to go to a family members funeral, one under GPS and alcohol monitoring and another released into the custody of his brother.

Others were allowed to be picked up by family members to attend doctor appointments or collect personal items from a landlord who was going to dispose of them. One person was allowed to leave custody because his mother was having surgery, another to visit a grandfather who had a heart attack.

One man, in custody on allegations of theft and drug possession, was released to his civil attorneys control to be able to go meet with his creditors in an ongoing bankruptcy hearing.

In only one of the nine furloughs did the judge specify that the prisoner must be accompanied at all times by an officer, who would be paid for at the defendants expense.

Several defense attorneys working in Missoula concurred with Gross views, saying not having hard and fast rules governing prisoner releases allows the judge to look at the specific factors of each defendant and case without having their hands tied by mandates.

Commander Jason Kowalski, who oversees the jail, said the concern with furloughs done without an officer escort isnt just that inmates might want to sneak drugs back in for their own use, but also the possibility that other inmates who learn someone will be out on unsupervised release will pressure and threaten them to smuggle something back in.

District Court Judge John Larson said since the discussion with the jail, no other furlough requests have been granted. But he didn't rule out that judges may grant them in the future.
MOIESE  Last week, the first bison calf was spotted by the staff here at the National Bison Range.

It is the signal for them to prepare for their opening weekend, which they try to schedule near Mothers Day, when all the calves are roaming around, said National Bison Range Project Leader Jeff King.

Between 300 and 400 bison are kept on 18,500 fenced acres surrounded by the Flathead Indian Reservation.

In a year, the range can receive up to 200,000 visitors. In 2011, they produced an economic impact to the surrounding area of about $13 million, according to a report commissioned by U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

Today, six people are employed here, with four vacant positions. The position of refuge officer sat empty for about a year, but is expected to be filled next month. That will be in time for the opening of Red Sleep Drive and the start of the summer visitation season, King said.

The park is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. The visitor center also used to be open daily, but those hours have been cut back and an iron ranger has been installed to collect fees when the center is closed.

The National Wildlife Refuge Association said the refuge system, including the Bison Range, is operating with approximately 20 percent less funds than six years ago.

In January, the Bison Range was stepping up efforts to recruit unpaid volunteers. The list of things that needed doing ranged from staffing the Visitor Center, to mowing public use areas, to clerical duties, to assisting on biological projects.

Besides federal budget cuts, the range's future was put in limbo after a federal judge in 2010 pulled the plug on an annual funding agreement that split refuge jobs between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

A year ago, FWS said the agency would back transferring management of the Bison Range to the tribes if legislation were introduced in Congress to remove the range from the National Wildlife Refuge system, and FWS control.

But Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose department oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, announced last week that he was rescinding the offer to transfer control of the Bison Range to Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, which would have allowed the CSKT to manage the range.

Saying he was committed to not selling or transferring public land, Zinke said the tribes would play a pivotal role in our discussions about the best path forward'' but gave no details about what direction that path would take.

Range staff members said Friday they couldn't talk about the future of the refuge. King was giving his supervisor, Bernie Petersen of U.S. Fish and Wildlife, a tour of the range that day. But Peterson said couldn't he talk about its status because he had to catch a plane to Colorado.

A spokesperson in Colorado directed all questions to an Interior Department spokesperson in Washington D.C. But no one from the department responded to requests for information about the range's future.

On Jan 18, the Federal Register asked for public comment on transferring the land to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and creating a new comprehensive conservation plan for the refuge.

Zinkes office reported most of the public comments came from Montanans and a majority of said comments were against the preferred alternative'' of transferring the range to BIA and giving management to the tribes.

CSK Tribal Chairman Vernon Finley said Zinke spoke to him before making his announcement last week. The prospect of managing the range would have been exciting, Finley said. But there were sizable obstacles to that dream becoming reality, including the negative voices that always accompany change, especially if it involves tribal self governance.

The disappointing part is the voice and the ear that they are given, Finley said.

Finley said when CSKT took over the management of Mission Valley Power, you would have thought the world was coming to an end. But today, he said, the tribe offers some of the lowest energy rates in the state.

A tribe managing a bison herd should seem logical, Finley said. But "people seem so worried what might happen.''

"They are afraid if were given the power to do so, well get even, get revenge, Finley said. To try to get revenge would be a larger betrayal to our cultural world view than the rewards for doing so.

The herd roaming the Bison Range descends from bison saved by Native Americans, Finley said.

Millions of bison roamed the West before they were hunted to near extinction by non-Indians. It wasnt for the meat, Finley said. It was a way of destroying a food source of the then-perceived enemy.

Dani Lyday and her mother, Tammy Wadsworth, own and run The 44 Bar & Outwest Grill in St. Ignatius, about 20 minutes from the refuge.

The business it brings in is nice, Lyday said. With the lake nearby, though, she said she wouldnt be worried about the restaurant hurting without the range. People may travel from all over the country to see the bison, but she said locals go there more than anybody.

Lyday has heard some of the debate about the future of the range and whether it should be transferred to tribal ownership. She said she doesnt have strong feelings, either way.

The bison range is a beautiful, positive place, Lyday said. I think most people just want to enjoy it, without looking at any politics.

Finley said the tribes will always be invested in maintaining and protecting bison herds because of what happened to them both.

Millions and millions of Native Americans nearly wiped to extinction,'' he said. Kind of have a shared history.
HAMILTON  Hamilton Farmers Market Co-op will hold a smaller Early Market in American Legion Park two weeks prior to the regular market opening on May 6 and then two weeks after the regular market ends in October.

The Early Market will be open Saturdays, April 22 and 29 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. American Legion Park is directly across from Hamilton City Hall on South Second and Bedford Streets.

Mary Bricker, co-owner of Sweetroot Farm and a board member of the Hamilton Farmers Market Co-op, explains that some farmers have suggested that the market should stay open later in the fall, and the early market became part of that wish. This year enough farmers, craftspeople and food vendors wanted to be part of it to make it viable.

Not enough vendors wanted an earlier and later extension to the regular Hamilton Farmers Market, and so we thought that having a mini-market in the park would work well for those who did want to try it, Bricker said. Its been warmer earlier in the spring for the last five years or so. And last season, we were as busy on the last day of market as we were all season.

Bricker says that farmers are extending their earlier and later growing season with hoop houses and row covers. More storage crops could be grown to supply customers at a later fall market.

About a dozen vendors have decided to give the early market a try. If it works well, the regular market may extend its dates.

Expect to find early produce, microgreens, baked goods, Mexican food, coffee, eggs, pasties, cheese and fine crafts at the Early Farmers Market.

In the fall, the smaller Late Market will be held in the park after the regular market closes. Dates are set for two Saturdays: Oct. 21 and 28. For more information about the Hamilton Farmers Market or the Early and Late Markets, contact market manager Laura Craig at 406-961-0004.

On April 22, in addition to the Mini Farmers Market, a day full of events is planned in Hamilton.

The Hamilton March for Science will begin in American Legion Park at 9:30 a.m. and circle around to end at the park later. The March for Science is made up of people who value science: science advocates, educators, scientists and concerned citizens. More than 170 partner organizations are members.

The main march will be held in Washington, D.C., and there will also be over 500 satellite marches, including Hamilton, to celebrate the critical role that science plays.

The Race to End Hunger begins at 9 a.m. at Hamilton High School, and at 6 p.m., the Hamilton Downtown Association Wine Fest will be held at the City Hall Community Center.
At Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS), we believe that every student will achieve regardless of circumstances or abilities. As a classroom teacher, building principal and district administrator, I have seen students do just that  day in and day out. This school year I continue to witness determination, curiosity and a love of learning among our students district-wide.

On May 2 the voters in the MCPS elementary district will be asked to vote on a request for a general fund operating levy. MCPS has worked to be good stewards of the publics resources, having run only one operating levy in the past five years  representing 3 percent of the total budgetary increase. In fact, the elementary district levied only 1.7 more general fund mills in 2017 (104.21 mills) than it did in 2007 (103.04 mills). However, since 2010 the elementary districts enrollment (K-8) has grown by 461 students, which represents a 9.6 percent enrollment increase. In order to continue to meet state accreditation standards and provide the quality instructional programming our students deserve, we must increase capacity in our operating budget.

In November 2015, Missoula voters generously supported MCPSs request to sell bonds for a major facilities upgrade. Revenue generated from the sale of those bonds is directed only to the construction projects identified in the bond language approved by the voters. This includes addressing deferred maintenance (boilers and roofs), technology infrastructure, safety/security/Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility and increased capacity/learning spaces. No bond money may be directed toward operating budgets. The 2015 bonds ensure that our school facilities are up to the standards that Missoulians identified as part of the communitys development of the 21st Century Model of Education.

The request before the voters on May 2 is to generate revenue to support our general fund operating budget, which funds staff salaries and benefits, utilities, insurance, curriculum materials and educational programming.

Our students achievement ranks among the best in the state. MCPS has the highest graduation rate among the class AA districts in Montana. Our ACT test results significantly exceed the Montana average, as does the percentage of students demonstrating proficiency on our state exams. Currently, MCPS students occupy 690 seats in dual credit (college) courses while still in high school. Recently, seven MCPS students were named candidates for the prestigious U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, representing 26 percent of the candidates selected from the class AA districts in Montana. This student success begins in kindergarten and continues through high school graduation. At MCPS, we believe our charge is to maintain rigorous and relevant instructional programming that supports all students reaching their potential.

Therefore, after careful reflection, the MCPS Board of Trustees voted to place an elementary general fund operating levy on the May 2 ballot. The request is in the amount of $804,861, which would impact homeowners $9.92 per year, or $0.83 per month for each $100,000 of assessed property value. If approved by the voters, this levy will allow the general fund operating budget in the elementary district to grow 2.4 percent for fiscal year 2018.

Approximately 8,900 children are enrolled in Missoula County Public Schools. Maintaining high-quality public schools and preparing students to enter post-secondary education and the workforce is vital to Missoulas economy, benefiting the entire community. Without this funding, Missoulas schools will be challenged to meet state accreditation standards and provide the quality instruction and programming our students deserve.

Ballots will be mailed in mid-April and must be returned no later than May 2. I respectfully request that you vote "yes" for the Missoula County Public Schools general fund operating levy. Consider it an investment in our kids, our community and our future.
WASHINGTONWith a mellifluous name suggesting bucolic tranquility, Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, is an unlikely object of the caterwauling recently directed at him and the House Freedom Caucus he leads. The vituperation was occasioned by the HFC's role rescuing Republicans from embracing an unpopular first draft of legislation to replace Obamacare.

Although just a little over two years old, the HFC signals a revival of congressional resistance to the dangerous waxing of executive power under presidents of both parties. The HFC is a rarity, a heartening political development: People giving priority to their legislative craft and institution rather than to a president of their party barking at them.

The HFC's 30 members, and six others informally affiliated, are barely 8 percent of the House, but their cohesion is a force multiplier. The cohesion comes, Meadows says, from its members being "here for a purpose." And, he adds dryly, from the fact that, for many, "This is not the best job they've ever had." Among the never more than 537 people who are in Washington because they won elections, none are more threatening to tranquility than the few who are not desperate to be here. They do not respond to the usual incentives for maintaining discipline.

The HFC has rules, bylaws and weekly meetings, often featuring experts on particular issues. HFC members have, Meadows believes, "a competitive advantage" in the House because they hone their arguments together in what Meadows calls "the best debating club on Capitol Hill." If 80 percent of the HFC agree on an issue, it votes as a bloc, although members can receive two exemptions per Congress.

Meadows was contented as a businessman for whom politics was an avocation. About 30 years ago, he was the only person to attend a precinct meeting, thereby becoming the precinct's chair. He rose in Republican ranks until redistricting after the 2010 census produced a congenial district, which he won in 2012.

Meadows came to the nation's attention by doing something eccentric: He read the House rules. Therein he learned about a "motion to vacate the chair." Such a motion requires a vote on the Speaker. John Boehner resigned as speaker and from the House rather than rely on Democratic votes to make up for lost votes from the HFC, whose members had felt the sting of his disapproval of their insufficient docility.

In last month's dispute about Speaker Paul Ryan's health care bill, the president thought it was wise to tweet a demand that the HFC "get on the team." And for Steve Bannon to summon HFC members to reportedly be instructed by him that "this is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no choice but to vote for this bill." And for the White House director of social media  your tax dollars at work  to tweet that an HFC member, Michigan's Justin Amash, "is a big liability" who should be defeated in a primary.

The 32nd president, a somewhat more accomplished politician than the 45th, tried to purge some members of his party's congressional caucus. Franklin Roosevelt became angry when some conservative Southern Democrats helped to defeat his plan to break the Supreme Court to his saddle by enlarging it and filling the new seats with compliant liberals. He recruited and supported primary opponents against the offending Democrats.

All survived. One of them, Georgia's Sen. Walter George, told that FDR was "his own worst enemy," replied: "Not as long as I'm alive." Republicans gained eight Senate seats in 1938 and their House ranks almost doubled, from 88 to 169. FDR never again had a liberal legislating majority in Congress. Today's president should have second, or perhaps first, thoughts about a purge.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke should follow up on his baffling announcement last week concerning changing course on the National Bison Range with some actual leadership on this critical issue.

That means he will need to explain exactly what his opposition is to the plan to transfer management of the range to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and explain what actions he is taking to stop the proposal that is currently wending its way through the federal system.

Most of all, Zinke will need to articulate to Montanans and especially to members of the tribe whose lands completely surround the range, in meaningful detail, what steps he will be taking to ensure the Department of Interior takes better care of the National Bison Range because right now, his agency is failing on that count.

The National Bison Range covers 18,500 acres within the heart of the Flathead Reservation, and offers the public the unparalleled opportunity to witness wild bison roam one of the most beautiful landscapes in the state. The bison range is actually part of a larger complex that includes four wildlife refuges and a wetland management district. In addition to open grasslands and aspen groves, countless species of native plants and animals call these acres home.

But more than 200,000 visitors come from all over the world each year mainly to see the ranges primary attraction: a herd of more than 300 adult American bison, the largest mammal on the continent and the United States official national mammal.

The range was established more than 100 years ago when President Theodore Roosevelt authorized the land purchase to establish it. Essentially, the U.S. government bought land that was never for sale, and at a fraction of its value.

Of course, the history of the bison in this area goes back much, much farther, to the days when millions of these animals once roamed freely. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are among the many American Indian tribes whose history, traditions and culture are inextricably linked to bison.

The United States has too often failed to respect that link, choosing instead to repeatedly trample on the rights of Native peoples to manage these animals. While the CSKT has repeatedly sought to take a stronger hand in managing the bison range, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has drug its feet, changed plans numerous times and ultimately left the range without the resources it needs to do right by both the bison, the people who live on the reservation and the American people, for whom the bison are held in trust.

That lack is evident in the maintenance backlog and unfilled positions at the National Bison Range. Earlier this year, the ranges managers put out an unprecedented call for volunteers to help officials prepare for the upcoming calving and tourist seasons. The range has several full-time staff positions open, some of which have been left open for almost five years.

Tribal management of the range, on the other hand, is not unprecedented. For some 20 years, off and on, the CSKT and FWS shared management through funding agreements that were often challenged in court, with the most recent agreement pulled in 2010 by a federal judge. The ensuing years brought no further substantial action on the part of the federal government.

That is, until about a year ago, when FWS announced that it would support a legislative effort to transfer the range out of the National Wildlife Refuge system to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which would hold the range in trust for the CSKT and allow the tribes to assume management. The Interior Department oversees both FWS and the BIA.

Again: the proposal, which has been entered in the federal register but not yet introduced in Congress, would transfer the National Bison Range from one federal agency to another federal agency, within the same federal department. It would not mean selling or transferring public land out of federal ownership in any way.

So when Zinke says I have said I will not sell or transfer public land in the same statement in which he announces his decision not to support the ranges transfer to CSKT management, he is confusing two unrelated issues. Far from benefiting the range in any way, his statements last week darkened the clouds over its future.

President Trumps proposed budget includes a 12 percent reduction for the Interior Department  a loss of $1.6 billion. Notwithstanding his donation of $78,333 from his presidential salary to the National Park Service, that leaves a lot of funding to make up for, and the bison range is already struggling.

How is Zinke going to provide the range with the money it needs to hire a sufficient number of staff? Without a plan for the tribes to assume management or even a shared management agreement, how will he ensure that the CSKT have a significant voice in future management decisions?

Without answers to these urgent questions, Zinkes vague opposition to the draft legislation released by CSKT does nothing to help the bison range.

The range is facing an uncertain future. It lacks adequate funding, is understaffed, and the continued rejection of tribal authority over land and wildlife in the heart of their own reservation is a national embarrassment.

For some still-unexplained reason, Zinke doesnt like the solution that was proposed to fix these problems. So what is his solution?

Montanans, tribal members and the American public deserve more than platitudes and recycled campaign boilerplate. Its time for Zinke to provide some definite answers, come up with substantial solutions  and show some real leadership.
Donald Trump may think he is a dictator. We are a democracy and he failed to get approval from Congress as required by our statutes before striking at Syria.

There are consequences to such unstudied actions. His single conclusion on action forgets the broader picture. He needs to be brought before our democratic Congress and warned that if it happens again he will be impeached.

This is scary behavior and must be stopped. In World War II we got rid of two dictators with the loss of thousands of lives.

I will support our democracy with my last breath. Syria is a serious issue but the more fundamental issue is: shall we stop this self-imposed dictator or keep our democracy intact? All veterans and like-minded people should contact their senators and representatives.

Randall E. Morey,

Missoula
Concerning the upcoming election to replace Ryan Zinke in the U.S. House of Representatives:

President Trump and Greg Gianforte are similarly both wealthy and both lacking in previous political experience. I see no evidence whatsoever that wealth or business success has any connection with being an effective political advocate for the common man. The political success of such men, I feel, depends on deceptive campaigning and voter gullibility.

Rob Quist, who also lacks political experience, is nevertheless a real Montanan of long standing and good reputation. It seems to me he has much more reason to advocate for the benefit of the average Montanan than does Gianforte.

Now is not a time to think Republican versus Democrat. It is time to think "wealthy people and big corporations versus the average Montanan, ethical and hardworking."

I invite you to join with me to help elect Rob Quist to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ray Jacobs,

Eureka
HELENA  Seven Montana brewers and distillers, including Lewis and Clark Brewing and Gulch Distillers in Helena, are considering exporting their products to Japan after attending a trade show in Tokyo last week.

While no Montana businesses have exported alcohol to Japan yet, the Montana Department of Commerce said an existing trade relationship and Japans growing affinity for craft beer and spirits creates an opportunity for the state. Japan was Montanas sixth largest trading partner in 2016, Daniel Iverson, DOC communications manager, said.

Iverson said Montana already has a trade office in Japan with one full-time contractor. Montana also has a sister-state relationship with Kumamoto.

The Office of Trade and International Relations at the DOC used funds from a federal trade assistance program to pay for the trade show and provide a travel stipend. Iverson said they invited every business in the sector to attend the trade show, and seven businesses were interested and could realistically export their product in the near future.

The trade show lasted from April 12-14. All seven businesses had separate booths, but were grouped together with branded imagery to promote Montana. Iverson said the trade show has a secondary goal of attracting tourists to Montana.

Lewis and Clark Brewing was the only brewery from Montana to attend the trade show. Owner Max Pigman said he already has his own connection to Japan after living there in the late 80s while in the U.S. Air Force. He learned a bit of the language and appreciates the culture, he said.

In addition to a personal connection, he said Japan has an appreciation for craft beer and distilled spirits.

With a major expansion underway, the brewery is already prepared to increase its capacity and export to Japan. Lewis and Clark was founded in 2002 by Pigman and has grown rapidly since then. Pigman said theres a chance he could be exporting out of the country before he distributes out of state.

Our number one goal is to become the number one Montana craft beer, but we will have additional capacity, he said. Craft beer is really on a high growth mode in Japan as well.

Pigman said Lewis and Clark would have to alter its label requirements to export in Japan and adhere to different regulations.

We kind of planned that when we built the new setup to have some flexibility in that regard, he said. We could ramp this up and do this fairly quickly if we decided it makes good business sense.

Lewis and Clark could realistically start exporting late this summer or early fall, Pigman said. The brewery has plans to build a loading dock right near the railroad. Refrigerated rail cars would carry beer to Seattle, which would be transferred onto a ship for a 12 to 14 day trip to Japan.

Gulch Distillers also attended the trade show in Tokyo and is also considering exporting to New York and Colorado. Co-owner Tyrrell Hibbard said his partner Steffen Rasile was already planning a trip to visit his wife's sister in Japan. He decided to attend the trade show to see if Japan has a good market for expansion.

"We dont know if its going to work out. Ill find out more once they get back," Hibbard said. "But were just exploring opportunities."

He said the potential to export outside of Montana could be limited by space.

"We have the ability to grow where we are, but we will be limited by our space before we are limited by the license," he said.

Gulch Distillers recently won a silver medal at the American Distilling Institute's Judging of Craft Spirits competition for its Burrone Fernet, an herbal liqueur. It's distilled from a base of Montana grains and herbs and spices including chamomile, myrrh, rhubarb, saffron and mint. Burrone comes from the Italian word for gulch.

Hibbard said the award-winning Fernet is one of the most unique products they distill and would likely have the most interest in Japan.

Other Montana businesses that attended include Headframe Spirits in Butte, Bozeman Spirits and Montana Malting and Wildrye Distilling in Bozeman and Whistling Andy Distilling in Bigfork.
HELENA  Montanas program to detect and stop the spread of aquatic invasive species went fully operational Sunday with regulations in place and staff ready to inspect, and if necessary, decontaminate watercraft.

About 75 Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks seasonal employees were trained in Helena last week on operating inspection stations and power washers that spray hot enough to kill a major threat to the states waters: invasive aquatic mussels.

By and large, the people Ive talked to have been really supportive and understanding of what were doing, said Greg Lemon with FWP. Everything comes back to the Clean, Drain, Dry campaign. That cup of water left in a ballast or live well is just not acceptable this year.

For the first time in the Northwest, larvae from either zebra or quagga mussels were detected in Montana last year. A confirmed sample at Tiber Reservoir and suspected hit at Canyon Ferry Reservoir trigged a governors emergency declaration.

Once established the mussels quickly spread, covering any hard surface and clogging infrastructure, adding clean-out costs for dams, municipal water and irrigators. As plankton feeders, the mollusks send ripple effects up the food chain negatively impacting aquatic life.

There is no known way to control the mussels once established. Costs in the Great Lakes where populations have thrived exceed $5 billion in a 10-year period. The estimated annual cost to the currently mussel-free Columbia River basin is $500 million.

With Montana now considered a source-state for mussels, the state including FWP and the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation stood up a program aimed at stopping the spread. The program includes doubling the number of watercraft inspection stations across the state, mandatory decontamination at Tiber and Canyon Ferry and mandatory inspection for all out-of-state watercraft. Mussels attached to boats or microscopic larvae living in standing water is a main means of unwittingly spreading invasives.

The states program includes the hiring of 180 seasonal employees as watercraft inspectors. About 350 people applied for the positions, Lemon said, and trainings like the one at Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds walked those on the front lines through techniques and safety.

Not all watercraft is the same and inspectors will spend more time with complex boats containing interworkings that could hide standing water.

Sometimes a decontamination is as simple as an inspection, he said. If boaters practice Clean, Drain, Dry, that will make it a whole lot easier to go through than the full decon, which could average 30 minutes.

I think the smart boater this year will have a towel and have all the standing water gone when they get off the water.

If a boat does come through inspection with mud or vegetation attached, thats when staff will likely decontaminate with the pressure washer, he said. Water hitting a scalding 140 degrees will kill mussels and larvae, including flushing pumps or ballasts. In the most extreme cases, the motors cooling system will need to be flushed.

Mussels are not the only target of the inspections, as exotic aquatic plants are easily transported attached to boats.

While more than 30 inspection stations open Saturday, some roadside stations at places such as Clearwater Junction have operated since February.

Tiber and Canyon Ferry decontamination stations have also been in place since ice-off, Lemon said. Launches are either designated for all boats or for local boaters only. Those who plan to only boat Tiber or Canyon Ferry may sign up for the local boater decal. Once certified, local boaters need not decontaminate their boats each time they leave the water, but must still stop at inspection stations.

Ramps currently open to all boaters on Tiber are located at Tiber Marina and the VFW ramp.

All boaters may currently launch on Canyon Ferry at the Silos on the southwest side and Shannon near the dam.

As boat traffic picks up, plans call for opening additional ramps to all boaters funneled to designated decontamination stations, Lemon said.

More information, including reservoir maps and open ramps, as well as local boater certification, is available at musselresponse.mt.gov.
County and state officials continued last week to press the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on plans for dealing with PCBs beneath the surface of the former Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. site near Frenchtown and the earthen berms above it.

Sara Sparks, EPAs remedial project manager, said she hopes two areas with polychlorinated biphenyls on the abandoned Superfund site will be cleaned up by the end of the year.

The agencies are working with the PRPs (potentially responsible parties) to develop a removal plan, Sparks said in the second quarterly teleconference update of 2017.

The plan will be posted on the EPA Smurfit-Stone website, precipitating a two-week comment period for stakeholders, she said.

Sparks also reported that after a March 29 walk-through, officials still arent overly worried that a flooding Clark Fork River will breach the berms that separate it from sludge ponds at the long-time pulp mill.

We did not see any immediate problems with the berms, Sparks said. We are negotiating with the PRPs to continue berm inspection and investigation of the berms on-site.

Asked by Missoula County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier for a timeline for disposal of the berms, Sparks replied, We hope to have something in place in the near term.

EPA and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality have the same concerns as others, she added  making sure the Clark Fork River does not enter into the site.

We are working on that very quickly, Sparks assured.

Robert Moler, who was facilitating the teleconference as the EPAs community involvement coordinator, apologized for the lack of a more specific timeline.

We try to collaborate as much as we can (with the responsible parties), he said. We dont want to promise one date and not deliver.

Missoula County commissioners last October criticized EPAs slow pace in investigating the more polluted areas of the site and a lack of transparency.

We would like to see the data beforehand instead of being told what has already been decided, Commissioner Cola Rowley told Sparks at the time.

Moler said Tuesday the four teleconferences in 2017 are meant to help shine more light on the process. Strohmaier and Peter Nielsen, from the countys water quality district, agreed the first two have been useful.

But it doesnt substitute for other forms of communication as well, Nielsen said.

The responsible parties at the Smurfit-Stone site are M2Green Redevelopment, LLC; WestRock CP, LLC; and International Paper Co.

In November 2015, the three companies reached an agreement with EPA to conduct an investigation of soils, river sediments and ground and surface water to determine the nature and extent of contamination at the site. They also agreed to collectively reimburse EPA more than $600,000 for past costs incurred.

The parties are involved in negotiations related to the work being conducted at the site and have equally contributed to past costs and site investigation, Moler said after the teleconference. We look forward to continued cooperation among all parties in addressing environmental concerns at the site.

Illinois-based M2Green bought the property in 2011, the year after Smurfit-Stone shuttered it. By 2013 most of the industrial structures were removed and the company rebranded the site the Frenchtown Technology and Industrial Center.

WestRock, one of the worlds largest paper and packing companies, is the second iteration of Smurfit-Stone, which in 2011 emerged from bankruptcy and merged into Rock-Tenn CP. In 2015, Rock-Tenn and MeadWestvaco Corp. combined to create WestRock.

International Papers responsibility dates to 1977-1986, when the Frenchtown mill was operated by Champion International Corp. Champion merged with International Paper in 2000.

Participation in Tuesdays meeting reflected the wide range of interest and stakeholders in the Superfund site. Involved were representatives of EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the federal side; the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes; Montana DEQ, Natural Resource Damage Program from the Department of Justice, the University of Montana and the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks; Missoula County; the Clark Fork Coalition; Clark Fork Cattle Ranch; consulting firms Newfields and Pacific West Technologies; and three media outlets.

Future teleconferences are slated for the second Tuesdays of July and October.

Meanwhile, a New York Times report this week cast further questions on EPA's ability to handle Superfund and Brownfields cleanups. President Donald Trump has proposed to slash Superfund enforcement and remedial components by 45 percent, from $404 million to $221 million. Funding to states under the Brownfields program, which helps cities and towns redevelop former industrial sites, would be cut by 30 percent, from $48 million to $33 million.
HELENA  Seven Montana brewers and distillers, including Lewis and Clark Brewing and Gulch Distillers in Helena, are considering exporting their products to Japan after attending a trade show in Tokyo recently.

While no Montana businesses have exported alcohol to Japan yet, the Montana Department of Commerce said an existing trade relationship and Japans growing affinity for craft beer and spirits creates an opportunity for the state. Japan was Montanas sixth largest trading partner in 2016, Daniel Iverson, DOC communications manager, said.

Iverson said Montana already has a trade office in Japan with one full-time contractor. Montana also has a sister-state relationship with Kumamoto.

The Office of Trade and International Relations at the DOC used funds from a federal trade assistance program to pay for the trade show and provide a travel stipend. Iverson said they invited every business in the sector to attend the trade show, and seven businesses were interested and could realistically export their product in the near future.

The trade show lasted from April 12-14. All seven businesses had separate booths, but were grouped together with branded imagery to promote Montana. Iverson said the trade show has a secondary goal of attracting tourists to Montana.

Lewis and Clark Brewing was the only brewery from Montana to attend the trade show. Owner Max Pigman said he already has his own connection to Japan after living there in the late 80s while in the U.S. Air Force. He learned a bit of the language and appreciates the culture, he said.

In addition to a personal connection, he said Japan has an appreciation for craft beer and distilled spirits.

With a major expansion underway, the brewery is already prepared to increase its capacity and export to Japan. Lewis and Clark was founded in 2002 by Pigman and has grown rapidly since then. Pigman said theres a chance he could be exporting out of the country before he distributes out of state.

Our number one goal is to become the number one Montana craft beer, but we will have additional capacity, he said. Craft beer is really on a high growth mode in Japan as well.

Pigman said Lewis and Clark would have to alter its label requirements to export in Japan and adhere to different regulations.

We kind of planned that when we built the new setup to have some flexibility in that regard, he said. We could ramp this up and do this fairly quickly if we decided it makes good business sense.

Lewis and Clark could realistically start exporting late this summer or early fall, Pigman said. The brewery has plans to build a loading dock right near the railroad. Refrigerated rail cars would carry beer to Seattle, which would be transferred onto a ship for a 12 to 14 day trip to Japan.

Gulch Distillers also attended the trade show in Tokyo and is also considering exporting to New York and Colorado. Co-owner Tyrrell Hibbard said his partner Steffen Rasile was already planning a trip to visit his wife's sister in Japan. He decided to attend the trade show to see if Japan has a good market for expansion.

"We dont know if its going to work out. Ill find out more once they get back," Hibbard said. "But were just exploring opportunities."

He said the potential to export outside of Montana could be limited by space.

"We have the ability to grow where we are, but we will be limited by our space before we are limited by the license," he said.

Gulch Distillers recently won a silver medal at the American Distilling Institute's Judging of Craft Spirits competition for its Burrone Fernet, an herbal liqueur. It's distilled from a base of Montana grains and herbs and spices including chamomile, myrrh, rhubarb, saffron and mint. Burrone comes from the Italian word for gulch.

Hibbard said the award-winning Fernet is one of the most unique products they distill and would likely have the most interest in Japan.

Other Montana businesses that attended include Headframe Spirits in Butte, Bozeman Spirits and Montana Malting and Wildrye Distilling in Bozeman and Whistling Andy Distilling in Bigfork.
According to shop owner Matison Hiner, Overdressed secondhand clothing store on Park Street in Uptown Butte is where brand-name fashion meets practicality.

Instead of throwing your clothes away, or not getting anything from them, its kind of a way to recycle them almost, said Hiner, 19.

The upscale used-clothing store opened April 1 in the lower level of Beauty on Broadway hair salon, where Hiner buys and sells brand-name, gently-used womens clothing and accessories.

No rips, no tears, no stains, said Hiner.

Labels include popular youth brands like Frye, Miss Me, BIG STAR, Rock Revival, Under Armour, Lululemon, Victoria Secret, Nike and private labels by The Buckle, in addition to quality on-trend clothing from less familiar brands.

Unlike many used-clothing stores, Overdressed purchases its inventory and doesnt sell on consignment.

When someone brings clothing to the store, Hiner selects and prices the items she thinks she can sell and makes an offer. The seller can either get 30 percent of the clothings value in cash or 40 percent of the clothings value in store credit.

Sellers have the option of donating their rejected clothing to charity.

Hiner said she plans to raise money for various charities of her choice through periodic bag sales in which customers are given a bag for $10 and are able to walk away with as much donated clothing as they can fit into the bag. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the bag sales will go to the selected charity, Hiner said, adding that shes especially interested in donating to a cystic-fibrosis organization. Any remaining items will be given to organizations that accept clothing donations.

I just thought it was a really good idea, said Hiner, pointing out that she got the bag sale idea from a used clothing store in Missoula. Its always good to give back to the community.

A native of Deer Lodge, Hiner said shes always had an interest in fashion and had a group of friends who liked to go shopping together in high school.

I just think that everybody has their own fashion, said Hiner. They just have to find it.

But Hiner started to notice that it was difficult to find trendy, brand-name clothing in the 3,000-person town and that she often had to go to other cities to find the styles she liked, sometimes traveling more than an hour away.

Hiner said those early experiences helped to form the idea behind her store. She said she wants to give Butte residents access to affordable, brand-name clothes and keep more retail sales in the Mining City.

When asked why she decided to go the used-clothing route instead of launching a store with new apparel, Hiner said it all comes down to affordability.

Clothing now-a-days is so expensive new, especially higher end brands, said Hiner. (But) maybe someone who couldnt afford it brand new can (now) still have it.

At only 19, some would say Hiner is ambitious for her age. But shes not the only entrepreneur in the family.

Hiners sister Jessica Holmes, 27, is the owner of Beauty on Broadway, located in the same building as Overdressed at 449 E. Park St. Jessica started her business on Broadway Street but later moved to a property on Montana Street to accommodate a growing clientele. Afterward, she moved to the Park Street location. Recently Jessica was named Female Entrepreneur of the Year by the Butte Local Development Corporation for the expansion of her business.

Matison Hiner, meanwhile, attributes the entrepreneurial spirit she shares with her sister to her parents, who Hiner said always encouraged their children to work hard.

My moms a really strong person, said Hiner. She always taught us to always just go for it, but be smart about it at the same time.

To push for what you want in life, she said.

A former Montana state legislator, Hiners mother is currently the Medical Services Bureau Chief at the Montana State Prison, while Hiners father works for the Montana Department of Transportation.

Hiner said her family has been crucial in providing the advice and support she needed to launch her own business.

They just supported me through it all, said Hiner. Theyve spent tons and tons of hours down here helping me hang clothes, price clothes, go through clothes. They helped me to manage my money and keep my books.

Hiners ultimate vision for Overdressed is for it to become a Mining City mainstay, a place where people leave with something they love.

She said shes learned a lot through the process of starting her own business, including the ins and outs of the apparel industry. But most of all, she said, shes learned that becoming an entrepreneur isnt as easy as it looks.

Ive learned how much effort it takes to start your business, she said. But its all going to be worth it.
BILLINGS  Though Christians agree on resurrection of Jesus Christ, they celebrate the Lenten and Easter seasons in different ways.

For the Western Church, Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, while it begins on Sunday evening for the Orthodox Church. Fasting among Orthodox church-goers is more stringent, said the Rev. Moses Hibbard of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church.

We dont eat meat, dairy products or eggs, said Hibbard. Its beans and rice and that kind of thing.

The end of Lent is Lazarus Saturday, Hibbard said, but fasting doesnt stop until Easter. Holy Week begins after Palm Sunday, with Holy Week services each night.

The Orthodox Easter, or Pascha, celebration begins late Saturday, at 11:30 p.m., he said. It follows the Jewish tradition that that evening is the start of the liturgical day.

Hibbard comes out of the altar area, with the church interior mostly dark. He lifts the burial shroud off the tomb in the middle of the room and takes it to the altar table, behind the altar screen.

Then right at midnight one candle is lit at the altar, and thats the light of Christ coming forth from the tomb, Hibbard said.

Altar servers light the candles of everyone in the room, and then all those present join in a procession three times around the church exterior. The three times represent Christs three days in the tomb.

Then we knock on the door, and when we come in, all the lights are on, the tomb is removed and there are flowers everywhere, he said. Its very bright, very festive.

The service continues until about 2:30 a.m. And then, with the fast over, they enjoy a feast with the Pascha baskets filled with favorite foods that everyone brings, staying until about 5:30 a.m. and then returning at 1 p.m. for another service.

Catholic tradition

For Catholics, fasting during Lent includes eating less on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, including consuming no meat, and then abstaining from meat every Friday. They also focus on prayer and alms giving, or helping others who are in need.

Holy Week, for Catholics and many Protestants, begins on Thursday and goes through Sunday. Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper Jesus had with his disciples, and Good Friday focuses on Christs crucifixion, Pittard said.

Jesus says on the cross, forgive them for they do not know what they do, said the Rev. Wayne Pittard of St. Pius X church. That is serious love. Wow.

And like the early church, Easter in the Catholic tradition is a time when new members, who have been preparing for months, are received into the Catholic Church. At the Easter vigil on Holy Saturday they will also be baptized if they have not received that sacrament before.

The Easter candle is also lit that night, Pittard said.

Its that sense of new life, he said. Going from darkness to light, original sin to being saved, you have to come through Jesus Christ.

Protestant tradition

Among Protestants, Holy Week activities and liturgy varies by denomination and even by church. This year on Holy Thursday, Evangelical United Methodist Church in Billings planned to do a foot- and hand-washing ceremony, mirroring what Jesus did for his disciples at the Last Supper, the Rev. Wendy Ochs said.

What a beautiful image of a savior who would get down on his hands and knees and wash the dirty feet of his disciples, and then say, this is what youre supposed to do for other people, she said.
HELENA  Rep. Kimberly Dudik is on track to have more bills become law than any other member of the Montana House.

She is someone who has been able to work behind the scenes to get some really impressive pieces of legislation moved by working across the aisle, House Minority Leader Jenny Eck, D-Helena, said.

Dudik, a third-term legislator, was one of three women Democrats from Missoula who led bipartisan groups in the legislative off-season to craft massive reforms on criminal justice issues: updating criminal sentencing to reflect scientific research on recidivism, modernizing sexual assault definitions, restructuring the embattled public defender's office, and fixing a flaw in an anti-bullying law, among others.

A typical legislator might carry a handful of bills and see two or three become law. Of the 19 bills Dudik introduced this session, 13 are likely to pass. Thats in addition to helping build the budget for the departments of Justice and Corrections as well as the Office of the Public Defender. Other state leaders say her success stems from a history of commitment to and bipartisan collaboration on criminal justice and child welfare issues.

Rep. Kelly McCarthy, a Billings Democrat who serves with Dudik on the House Appropriations Committee, said she has earned a reputation for professionalism while sorting out solutions to thorny issues.

She doesnt poke people in the eye, he said. One of the most significant things thats going to happen this session is criminal justice reform, and it has happened quietly because of the way Kim and (Senators Cynthia Wolken and Diane Sands) have worked on this.

Attorney General Tim Fox described Dudik as very smart and just tireless.

This isnt just a three- or four-month proposition for her, the Republican said. She owns the issues, becomes an expert about them, and then if its something that needs to be continually raised in public awareness, she does that.

In 2015, for example, Dudik successfully carried Foxs bill to combat human trafficking in Montana. She has continued to work on the issue by creating and leading the Montana Anti-Trafficking Project.

We had legislators that said we dont have a human trafficking problem in Montana. A lot of it is just education and awareness. Kim went the extra mile, Fox said. Shes prepared, shes persuasive. She knows more about the issues than anyone else in the room.

While proud of what shes accomplished this session, Dudik is quick to highlight her colleagues on interim committees who also worked to smooth out issues before the session even started.

Its remarkable the changes weve been able to get through with such strong bipartisan support, she said.

Not all of her bills have survived the session. Among those dead are measures to require online escort services to confirm the identity and age of all people advertised, to screen children in youth court for child abuse or neglect if certain indicators are present, and to require a public defender workload study.

Dudik remains optimistic. A benefit of her third term is that she has learned to take the long view.

In 18 months, well be back here again, she said. It didnt work this time. Well fine tune it, and hopefully it will go through.

Dudiks legislative priorities reflect her professional experience.

The Frenchtown native worked as a YWCA domestic violence advocate before studying at Montana State University to become a nurse who specialized in neonatal intensive care. She later graduated from the University of Montana School of Law and earned a Masters of Public Health Degree from John Hopkins. With a focus on child protection cases, Dudik worked as a Gallatin County prosecutor and then Assistant Attorney General of Montana. She now works in private practice and serves in a leadership role at the nonpartisan Council of State Governments. Dudik also was a founding member of the Missoula Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Team, works on the attorney generals task force to manage a backlog of untested rape kits in the state, and serves on a number of boards and advisory councils.

Its truly outstanding that someone of her academic accomplishments is willing to commit this time to public service, Sands said, also highlighting Dudiks commitment to mentoring future leaders through groups such as the University of Montanas Womens Leadership Initiative and the National Foundation for Women Legislators. Womens voices have to be here. Hers is a strong one on behalf of her own issues and constituents, but its important that shes concerned about the system as a whole.

Among the most memorable moments of Dudiks session had nothing to do with her work at the Capitol. She was pregnant and due to give birth to her fourth child in the final days of the legislative session.

People asked me at first, Well, are you going to be back for the rest of the session?, she said. I was like, Why wouldnt I be? Ive got a lot going on.

Sands noted that most male legislators are not asked that kind of question and, unlike women, are less likely to consider childcare obligations when deciding whether to run for public office.

What are you going to do about the fact youve got small children at home? For a lot of men, it was never a consideration. It should be, she said. While acknowledging women have additional responsibilities such as giving birth and breastfeeding, Sands said those do not have to be barriers to public service.

Dudik hopes her own story inspires more young Montanans with families to consider public service, noting many legislators currently serving are retired.

People I know say, Oh, I couldnt do that. I have kids. Well, I have kids. Look. I just gave birth and Im still here, she said.

Dudik said her supportive family made it feasible for her to commit to the Legislature. Her own parents still live in Frenchtown. Her in-laws agreed to fly in and care for their three other children so her husband could come to Helena for the final days of the session and care for the baby while she was at the Capitol.

But that was if everything went according to schedule, she said. This baby came four weeks early.

On March 15, Dudik was scheduled to speak to the Senate Taxation Committee for a hearing about House Bill 516, which would allow local governments to sue for the payment of certain delinquent property taxes. Instead, she was at the hospital. Cosponsor Rep. Adam Hertz, R-Missoula, introduced the measure in her absence that Wednesday.

On Monday, Dudik was back on the House floor, likely the first legislator to give birth during a session. This time, her family joined her.

She rose to introduce Senate Bill 113, a bill to allow Child Family Services to disclose some case records to legislators.

This would provide a small window into that agency to know whether we need to make changes so things work better, she said during discussion.

Rep. Frank Garner, R-Kalispell, held the newborn Marcutio for part of the discussion. Rep. Nate McConnell, D-Missoula, took a photo and quipped on Twitter: a Dudik literally working across the aisle. Dudiks two daughters and oldest son sat behind her eating fudgesicles. One would fall asleep in the lap of Rep. Kathy Kelker, smearing chocolate over a bill the Billings Democrat had to file that day.

At the end of the floor session, Dudik introduced each member of her family, holding the sleeping Marcutio in one arm.

He will be a future legislator, I am sure, she said. And he is thrilled to meet all of you.

Her colleagues stood to clap, a customary welcome for legislators families.

Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen of Culbertson added: The Republican caucus will gladly welcome him.

When the laughs subsided, business as usual resumed at the Capitol. That week, Dudik spoke at three bill hearings.

Here I am, she said. Life hasnt changed so much.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.  Danielle Randolph squinted through rain-splattered windows as the sea freighter lunged upward sharply, then fell into the trough of a 30-foot-tall wave. The skies were black. The second mate stood on the navigation bridge high above El Faro's main deck, which spread out before her like an aircraft carrier stacked high with red, white and blue cargo containers.

News blurted through the bridge's radio speaker: Forecasters had named the storm Hurricane Joaquin as it built into a Category 3, with winds of 130 mph. "Oh my God," she said to the helmsman standing nearby, bracing when the ship she called "the rust bucket" shuddered over another wave.

"Can't pound your way through them waves. Break the ship in half," the helmsman said.

It was 1:15 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2015, and the Atlantic was boiling over. El Faro, sailing near San Salvador Island in the Bahamas, was being knocked about by the strongest October storm to hit these waters since 1866. In the coming hours, El Faro and its crew would fight desperately for survival.

Another wave slammed into them. "Oh (expletive)," said Randolph. "That was a bad one." The alarm sounded. The ship was now pushed in another direction, off the captain's chosen course. After a few tense seconds, El Faro righted herself.

"She's doin' good. I'm impressed. Knock on wood," said Randolph.

El Faro was one of two ships owned by TOTE Maritime Inc. that navigated in constant rotation between Jacksonville, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. It brought everything from milk to Mercedes Benzes to the island. If El Faro missed its run store shelves sat empty, an economy suffered and TOTE lost money.

This run was to be El Faro's last before a major retrofit. Inspectors had found parts of the vessel's boilers that were "deteriorated severely" and service was scheduled in the next month. This came as no surprise: One Coast Guard inspector had identified a "disturbing" uptick in safety discrepancies during El Faro's inspections from 2013 to 2014. The Guard was in the process of adding the 40-year-old ship to its "target list" of U.S. cargo vessels that needed a higher level of scrutiny.

To add to the danger, El Faro was equipped with open-top lifeboats similar to those used on the Titanic or Lusitania. Modern ships carry the round, tent-like lifeboats with electronic beacons that dramatically increase survival chances in a shipwreck.

Once, Randolph texted pictures of El Faro's lifeboats to her mom. "Is that your lifeboat? It's open," her mom replied, aghast. A coastal Mainer, Laurie Bobillot knew open life boats to be a thing of the past. "Let's hope you never get into some rough seas," she wrote, "because you know kid, you're screwed."

"Yes, I know," Randolph replied. "Mom, if I ever die at sea, that's where I want to be."

___

Randolph had a cordial relationship with the captain of El Faro. She respected him, but told her mother and friends she didn't like his dismissive attitude. The storm had been growing, so Randolph suggested they consider taking a longer, slower route south through the Old Bahama Channel. But the captain had the final word on voyage planning, and he refused to deviate.

She'd noticed the captain was sound asleep when she'd called. It rang a few times before he answered.

The ship was taking a beating, she'd said, but was holding course. The captain asked about the latest weather reports. He would return to the bridge in a few hours. She hung up the phone as the ship took on another huge wave.

"He said to run it. Hooold on to your ass!" Randolph shouted.

"Figured the captain would be up here," the helmsman said. Microphones on the bridge picked up their conversations, which were sent to a voyage data recorder, the ship's "black box."

"I thought so too. I'm surprised," Randolph replied.

"Damn," the helmsman said with disappointment. "He'll play hero tomorrow," he said laughing. The captain would be praised for the ship making it through Hurricane Joaquin to San Juan on time.

Even after a decade at sea, Randolph, 34, maintained a youthful air. Her round, freckled face was slightly weathered from the sun, and her dumb jokes endeared her to the 32 crewmates who relied on her skillful navigation. She stood only 5-foot-3, but her mariner toughness was displayed in the large anchor tattoo on her chest, which peeked over the neckline of the vintage '50s dresses she liked to wear on shore.

Randolph was one of only two women on this cargo run. Raised in a military family whose motto was "suck it up," she worked hard and asked few questions.

But now, she was helpless against the crushing waves, wind and rain. "It would help if I knew which direction the swell was coming from," Randolph said to the helmsman. "I could alter course a little more. I can't see." They heard a massive thump from below, in the bowels of the ship. El Faro carried heavy cargo in its interior holds: If that was a car or something else coming loose, it was a sailor-crushing danger.

"Whoooo!" Randolph exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's startin' to get a little bit more active around here," the helmsman replied. The swelling seas shoved El Faro around like a cork.

Randolph could not know exactly how hard the wind was blowing. El Faro's anemometer, or wind gauge, had been broken for years. To adapt, the sailors usually stepped out on deck to gauge wind speed the old-fashioned way, by checking the flap of the boat's flags. That was impossible in the dark. Randolph scanned the radar for a fellow vessel in the area, but every other ship had diverted to avoid the storm. El Faro was alone.

"Hello, Joaquin," Randolph said to the storm. "It's just getting bigger  our path is going right through it."

At 3:34 a.m. the captain emerged from his stateroom. Randolph greeted him, grateful for the chance to go down to her room for a quick rest. She'd found time to fire off a quick email to her mother. "We are heading straight into it, Category 3, last we checked. Winds are super bad. Love to everyone."

Later that day, reading the email in Denmark, Wisconsin, Randolph's mother knew something was wrong. Randolph never signed her emails, "Love to everyone." Her mother understood that her daughter was sending a coded message: I may never see you again.

___

With his square chin, salt-and-pepper hair and thick Mainer's brogue, El Faro's captain was a meticulous master who struck a commanding presence. Yet Michael Davidson's detached, hands-off style led Randolph and some others to describe the 53-year-old master as a "stateroom captain." Stateroom captains didn't get their hands dirty and weren't seen a lot on deck. They didn't share smokes and chit chat with the crew.

On the bridge, he greeted Randolph's replacement, chief mate Steve Shultz, and a new helmsman, Frank Hamm. He set out to calm their nerves. "There's nothing bad about this ride," the captain announced, despite the hurricane raging outside. "I was sleepin' like a baby. This is every day in Alaska," the captain continued. No one could see out of the windows, except for when brief sparks of lightning illuminated the rain. "A typical winter day in Alaska."

Earlier in his career Davidson had navigated freighters in the Alaska trade, known in the industry as one of the most bruising theaters of sailing. But his leadership had been questioned by TOTE's upper management, and after initially leaning toward offering Davidson the job heading one of its new ships the company decided to go in a different direction. Now favored were younger captains who could drive the new high-tech freighters.

Before leaving port in Jacksonville, Davidson expressed disappointment to colleagues that he hadn't been chosen to command the modern, liquefied natural gas-fueled ship that was to replace El Faro. The captain had been disappointed by the news, but he was a professional. Perhaps he thought he could show them that they'd made a mistake by making El Faro's cargo run on time, even with a major storm system in his way. Davidson knew what could happen to masters who raised safety concerns that weren't considered serious enough by the company. He had been fired by a prior employer after an incident with another ship. The steering was bad on that one, and he'd refused an order to take it to port, requiring the company to hire tugboats to drag it there instead.

The course alarm, which blared every time the ship deviated from its programmed route, was now ringing every few seconds as the seas flung the vessel around. The captain ordered it turned off, along with the auto-piloting system, nicknamed the "Iron Mike." They would have to steer the ship manually, to use their human senses to feel the swell and winds, as they piloted blindly into the waves.

Containers the size of Mack trucks were breaking free from their chain lashings. They'd left port not expecting the heavy weather and didn't ask the longshoremen for extra storm lashes, the ship's third mate had said ruefully earlier in the day, as the storm worsened. Now, thrown off balance, El Faro tilted precariously to the right, or starboard, as it plunged into the pounding waves.

Unsure why his boat was listing, the captain searched for a solution. The steep angling of the ship was making it hard to stand up straight. If he knew the hurricane-force wind's direction  difficult to detect at night in a hurricane with a broken wind gauge  the helmsman could position the freighter so that the wind hit its left, port side, correcting the vessel's pitch. Flooding in the cavern-like interior holds could be battled with pumps to redirect the water into other areas for balance. If the ship lost some of its 20-ton containers, he could use the pumps to help compensate for that, too.

None of that mattered without power, though. The captain called down to the engine room to check that the ship's boilers, its only source of power, were still operational. Without propulsion in a Category 3 storm, El Faro would be lost.

"How you guys doing down there?" he asked. The engineer replied that they were "blowin' tubes," or trying to remove obstructions from the engine as it chugged. There was another problem: the intake tube that sucked oil like a straw from a large tank into the engines was starting to lose contact with the oil due to the ship's tilt. Without oil, the engines would stop running altogether.

Standing with the captain on the bridge, chief mate Shultz noted the barometer readings were headed downward, which could indicate they were closer to Joaquin's eye. That ran counter to the storm track models Davidson had used  those showed the storm farther away. He still planned to outrun it.

"We won't be goin' through the eye," the captain said: If they could skirt a bit further south, away from the eye toward Crooked Island, they would reach its backside more quickly.

With the ship tilting and oil pressure decreasing, the captain decided to use the wind to force the ship more upright. If he could do that, he could get oil pressure back, and increase the ship's power. "Just steer that heading right there the best you can. That'll work for us," the captain instructed Hamm and Shultz.

The ship dropped down a three-story-tall swell. "Feel the pressure droppin' in your ears just then? Feel that?" Davidson said, trying to make light of the situation.

Hamm's large frame was bent over in fear at his console. Two days earlier, the 49-year-old father of five had called Rochelle, his wife, just before he sailed out of range. He said everything was OK  Hamm liked and trusted the captain, with whom he'd often worked. But in the chaos of the storm, he had been unable to send his customary daily email home.

"Take your time and relax," Davidson said. Hamm managed to find his breath, then took the helm back. "I am relaxed, Captain."

Davidson turned quickly to the ship's computer. He needed to check the Bon Voyage System, or BVS, an online subscription weather forecasting tool, to get the latest hard data on Joaquin. "Hanging in there (Frank)?" Shultz said, trying to keep the jittery helmsman engaged as the captain scanned his email for the weather updates. "Still got us on course. You're doin' great."

The captain grew confused. Though the forecasting tool told him the storm was still farther north, clearly they were right in it. "We're gettin' conflicting reports as to where the center of the storm is," he said.

Davidson didn't know that there was a problem with the BVS system emails he was receiving: One update he'd received had storm tracking information that was 21 hours old. While he had access to other forecasts on the internet, Davidson relied on BVS. The storm they now faced was far more advanced than his weather models showed.

"Our biggest enemy here right now is we can't see," he said. He believed they were nearing the back side of the storm, but had no way of knowing for sure. By overruling his crew's suggested alternate routes, he had made a horrible mistake.

An engineer from below deck appeared on the bridge. Something wasn't right. "I've never seen it list like this," the engineer reported. El Faro's steep list was not just from sliding shipping containers, the engineer reasoned  something else was to blame.

The phone rang with a call from the engine room. The ship was losing oil pressure, and needed to be righted now.

"I'm tryin' to get her steadied up," the captain replied.

Water surged over the ship's stern, and the sound of the ocean pounding the old ship was deafening. Another electric ring of the telephone. Davidson answered, "Bridge, captain."

A moment passed and he turned to his chief mate: "We got a prrroooblem."

Water had started flooding one of the ship's warehouse-sized holds used to store cars and other large containers. He ordered Shultz, a 54-year-old former Navy captain and seasoned mariner, below deck immediately to start pumping out the hold. It was a perilous assignment. Any piece of heavy cargo afloat in the hold could easily pulverize Shultz. The chief mate grabbed a walkie-talkie and climbed down from the bridge.

The captain took the ship's helm from Hamm. With water flooding into El Faro's insides, he knew why he'd been unable to right the ship. He turned the steering wheel hard, trying to use the wind again  anything to decrease the ship's angle. Shultz radioed from down below, in the flooded cargo chamber.

"About knee deep in here," he said.

___

At 6 a.m., Randolph came back to the bridge from her stateroom. She'd changed out of her work clothes, and hadn't changed back before coming up.

She moved over to the dead radar screen  it'd gone dark, maybe from water coming through a gap in one of the bridge's windows  to try and get the ship's current position. After a few minutes, the radar fluttered and suddenly blinked back to life. "All right, good," the captain said. He ordered Randolph to sync the latest BVS weather models with their current position, still not realizing the data was hours old, and useless.

The ship groaned over yet another tall wave. "Nooooo," Randolph said, bracing. "There goes the lawn furniture."

"Let's hope that's all," said the captain.

Randolph wasn't supposed to be on the bridge, but Davidson didn't question her. "You want me to stay with you?" Randolph asked. "Please," the captain said. "It's just the ..." He couldn't finish his sentence.

Shultz called from the flooded hold again. He wanted the bridge to move the ship so the water below would shift to the other side.

All at once, a terrifying silence gripped them. The rumble and vibration of ship's engines ceased. El Faro was adrift.

"I think we just lost the plant," Davidson said.

Somehow, he needed to balance the ship  an almost impossible feat without propulsion.

Down below, the whirring pumps continued to push thousands of gallons a minute from the flooded holds. Up top, everyone had to use their leg muscles to stay standing on the angling ship. "Feeling those thighs burn?" Randolph asked Hamm, as he dug in to turn the rudder.

Just after 7 a.m., Davidson picked up the ship's emergency satellite phone. He dialed the cellphone number of TOTE's designated person ashore, the only human in charge of knowing what was going on with the fleet.

The call went to voicemail.

Davidson rattled out a brief message, then called the company's answering service. A woman picked up with a pleasant hello.

"We had a hull breach; a scuttle blew open during a storm," Davidson explained tersely. "We have water down in three hold, with a heavy list. We've lost the main propulsion unit, the engineers cannot get it going." He asked for her to patch him through to a TOTE official immediately.

"Can you please give me your satellite phone number and spell the name of the vessel?" she asked slowly. "Spell your name, please?"

TOTE safety officials had identified the answering service as a problem previously, but it had not been fixed.

"The clock is ticking" the captain said, his voice calm despite the chaos. He tried again. "This is a marine emergency, and I am tryin' to also notify management!" He gave the operator his name and number and hung up.

Electronic alarms echoed throughout the steel freighter. Randolph read out their current position. The captain called down to the flooding hold. "Can you tell if it's decreasing or increasing?" he asked. "I can't tell captain. Seems as if it's goin' down," the chief mate replied. He turned to Randolph. "Say second mate. How 'bout our range and bearing from like San Miguel Island? Or San Salvador? Whatever that island is there," he said, looking for any sign of land they might be able to reach. He grabbed El Faro's emergency beacon that would aid rescuers in finding their position.

The satellite phone rang, it was his boss. "Yeah, I'm real good," Davidson said matter-of-factly. "Three hold's got considerable amount of water in it. Uh, we have a very, very healthy port list. The engineers cannot get lube oil pressure on the plant, therefore we've got no main engine. And let me give you, um, a latitude and longitude. I just wanted to give you a heads up before I push that, push that button," he said, referring to the Ship Security Alert System, or SSAS, an emergency beacon. It was 7:07 a.m.

"The crew is safe," he said into the phone. "Right now we're tryin' to save the ship. But it's not gettin' any better. No one's panicking. Our safest bet is to stay with the ship during this particular time. The weather is ferocious out here." Davidson told his boss it was time to alert the Coast Guard. "I wanna wake everybody up," he said. "I just wanted to give you that courtesy, so you wouldn't be blindsided by it. Everybody's safe right now, we're in survival mode."

Randolph stood at the ready. "All right now, push the SSAS button," he commanded.

"Roger," she said.

"Wake everybody up. WAKE 'EM UP!" Davidson shouted. "We're gonna be good. We're gonna make it right here."

Chief Mate Shultz radioed from the flooded hold again. "I think the water level's rising captain," he said. He could think of nothing more to do.

"All right, chief," the captain replied.

Davidson's tinny voice sounded over the ship's intercom ordering the crew to muster. He wanted everyone accounted for. The high-frequency bell of the abandon ship alarm rang out.

"Can I get my vest?" Randolph asked.

"Yup, bring mine up too and bring one for (Frank)" the captain replied. The helmsman, a large man and diabetic, yelled out as Randolph left the bridge: "I need two!"

"OK buddy, relax," the captain said. The ship heaved, the tip of its bow sinking beneath the black water.

"Bow is down. Bow is down," Davidson said over the ship intercom.

"Get into your rafts. Throw all your rafts in the water," he yelled. "Everybody. EVERYBODY GET OFF THE SHIP! STAY TOGETHER!" he screamed.

Hamm was unable to move. "Cap, Cap," he said.

"You gotta get up," Davidson ordered. "You gotta snap out of it and we gotta get out!" he said, his voice firm, urgent.

"Help me!" Hamm pleaded.

"Ya gotta get to safety!" the captain yelped. Hamm couldn't move.

The shrill beat of alarms continued as the ship's tilt worsened.

The captain reached for Hamm. "Don't panic. Don't panic," he said. "Work your way up here. Don't freeze up! Follow me," he pleaded with Hamm.

"I can't! My feet are slipping! I'm goin' down!"

Davidson looked at his terrified helmsman. "You're not goin' down. COME ON!" he yelled.

"You gonna leave me," Hamm cried.

"I'm not leavin' you. Let's go," the captain responded.

"I'M A GONER!" Hamm screamed.

"NO, YOU'RE NOT!" the captain replied.

El Faro's bridge reared up as the ship sank deeper.

"IT'S TIME TO COME THIS WAY!" Davidson shouted, as El Faro slipped beneath the sea.

___

It would be months before search crews found the wreckage. El Faro had come to rest 15,000 feet down, on the seafloor near the Bahamas. The bridge where Hamm and Davidson struggled for survival had separated from the vessel's hull, and lay a quarter mile away.

No bodies were ever recovered. It was the worst maritime disaster for a U.S.-flagged vessel since 1983.

The U.S. Coast Guard has held six weeks of investigative hearings over the past year, and the National Transportation Safety Board is conducting its own probe. Both agencies are expected to issue findings later this year.

TOTE defended its safety record, and emphasized that El Faro was permitted to operate by the Coast Guard despite the issues flagged by inspectors. The company also said it had been working on fixing the problems with its emergency answering service, but had not gotten to it before El Faro's voyage. It now is paying for a more expensive storm forecasting tool for its entire fleet.

In December 2015, about two months after El Faro sank, a couple picking up trash on Ormond Beach in Florida found a green hard hat among the plastic bottles and other garbage. The name "FRANK" was scrawled in Hamm's writing across the front.

Rochelle Hamm recognized it immediately as her husband's. It's encrusted with sand and bits of dried seaweed.

She keeps it in a bag by the side of her bed.
In Uptown Butte stands a striking billboard. The words always catch my attention: DEAD. Then in smaller letters - Drugs End All Dreams. It represents a form of warning: You are now entering the land of Death by Despair.

This land is not a neighborhood in Butte, or a region of Montana. Every community in this country has been deeply affected by it.

Recently, with the title: Explaining the Rising Death Rate among Middle Aged White People, National Public Radio interviewed two economists, Angus Deaton and Anne Case. Together, they have studied the epidemic crisis of suicide, illegal drugs and alcohol abuse. They included the abuse of extraordinarily addicting prescription pain medication. All contribute, for the first time in centuries, to shortening life expectancy. Case, bleakly, confirms that: There is not a part of the country that has not been touched by this. And Deaton adds:  ... People affected have lost a sense of status and belonging. And these are classic preconditions for suicide.

We now risk losing a generation whose dreams are inexorably vanishing into depression. The deep malaise is largely ignored. History counts numerous generations discarded by a majority oblivious to their screams for help.

IN SEARCH OF A SOLUTION

U.S. politics is conducted in a state of semi-permanent anger. The growing trend to use the tragedy of others to score political points is despicable. The truth, in my view, is that both parties have neglected the white working class for years. Yet elected officials can help immensely by facilitating economic opportunities, fund effective programs of rehabilitation and rein in over-prescription practices.

Ultimately, politics and economics are unequipped to end a crisis of hopelessness. What follow are suggested areas of enquiry.

 What is the Purpose of Education? There is more to education than preparing someone to be professionally productive. My life would have been dull if I had not been exposed to philosophy, art, great music and poetry. There is something barbaric about reducing human worth to functionality. If one is systematically conditioned to seek value in productivity alone, periods of dysfunction will result in despair.

 The Role of Law Enforcement: When communities are routinely flooded with drugs, law enforcement needs our full support. Expecting law enforcement alone to resolve a multilevel crisis is unrealistic. Putting an end to epidemic self-destructive behavior is a communitywide effort.

 The Price of the Spiritual Wasteland: At the beginning of the Age of Reason, two, among the most brilliant mathematicians and scientists, issued stark prophesies about the dangers of reducing all human reality to the empirical. Kepler (1571-1630) and Pascal (1623-1662) both warned that reason alone would never fully satisfy the human spirit. Pascal succinctly expressed it: The heart has its reasons, which reason cannot understand. Religion has been where humanity searched for meaning and a sense of its place in the universe. Existence is a mystery meant to be lived and not a problem to be resolved. If society, bluntly, tears away from public education and popular culture this timeless quest, the result is a spiritual wasteland. About Post-Modernity, the brilliant historian, Karen Armstrong, observed:  At the same time, that they celebrated the achievements of modern society, men and women, would also experience an emptiness, a void that rendered life meaningless.

 The Forces of Culture. Cultural values no longer evolve organically, they are dictated by the forceful voices of, among others, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, etc. A multitude is left confused and alienated by a culture that no longer feels like home. Since Antiquity very wealthy patrons have supported the Arts but, unlike today, they had practically no influence on popular culture.

 The Promise of Hope: The components of the Death by Despair calamity are towering but not insurmountable. When I visit a patient recovering from a suicide attempt or a drug overdose, I give myself two imperatives. First, I never bring up the reason for the hospital stay. Then, I only leave after I am able to get, from the patient, a smile or a laugh. I also tell family members: Enough gloom! This room needs flowers and music. Despairing people do not need advice. It is not a time for moralism, it is time for expressing compassionate support.

A tirelessly, hopeful attitude is infectious. It pulls apart the dark curtains to let in the light of a brighter future. To the existentially drowning, a smile is a life vest. Circles of people sincerely dedicated to hope within a community have a power that social programs often lack. Cells of compassion can grow spontaneously and bring caring and positive energy to every place people gather. Rejecting the national anger, they can do wonder in giving many, in our Butte community, reasons to dream again.

We are losing a lot of people because we have purged society of hope and joy. Without a deep understanding of the vulnerabilities and aspirations of human nature, we are doomed to perpetuate a meaningless environment.

The Easter season can inspire us with the moral courage to answer this desperate call for help!
Butte already stands to benefit from decades of clean drinking water when the $30-million treatment plant south of town goes online this week, but there's another big prize  a cherry on top, you might say.

About a year from now, thanks to the treatment plant, the pristine Basin Creek Reservoir, its smaller, higher-up cousin and their surrounding hills and pines should be accessible to everyone.

They will eventually include hikers, bikers, horseback riders, picnickers, and anglers who could cast into a "rather robust, genetically pure westslope cutthroat trout fishery," as Jason Lindstrom, a fisheries biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks put it.

"This unique fishery can provide area residents with a quality angling experience, the likes of which has not been available in Butte for several generations," he wrote in a letter supporting public access to the area.

The overall plan is still in its infancy, and there are plenty of partners, spearheaded by the nonprofit George Grant Chapter of Trout Unlimited (GGTU) and Butte-Silver Bow government, with a big hand from Water and Environmental Technologies (W.E.T.) in Butte. Other state agencies and the U.S. Forest Service are on board, too.

There's a lot of work to be done and money to be raised, but the hope is to have walk-in access to the reservoir and surrounding areas by June 2018. Eventually, trails might link with Thompson Park and national forest lands.

"It's a diamond in the rough, and we're going to turn it into a diamond after we're all done," said John Trudnowski, senior engineer for W.E.T. who is playing a big part in the project.

Roy Morris, president of the George Grant chapter, noted that Hyalite Canyon is part of Bozeman's municipal supply and is also one of Montana's most popular outdoor recreation venues.

"This will be bigger and better than Hyalite," he said.

But he and other supporters know things must be done right to keep the trout thriving and the area beautiful.

"We are all concerned that it doesn't get ruined by being loved to death," Morris said.

GETTING HERE

The Basin Creek reservoirs  a lower one and a smaller one higher up about a 25-minute walk away  were created in the late 1890s to serve as one of Butte's primary sources of drinking water.

Men took granite from a nearby area, chiseled it into giant, square blocks and stacked them side-by-side to form a dam that to this day pools mountain water flowing into Basin Creek. Headwaters to Fish Creek are also diverted across the Continental Divide into the upper reservoir.

Even following more stringent federal requirements in the late 1980s and early 1990s under the Safe Drinking Water Act, Basin Creek was granted a waiver that allowed its water to go unfiltered.

"Butte made the case that Basin Creek water was so pristine and the turbidity so low we didn't need filtration," said Butte-Silver Bow Public Works Director Dave Schultz.

But that waiver also required that the reservoir be off limits to people so the watershed wasn't harmed.

So while folks could go to Basin Creek Park a short distance from the dam, they weren't allowed in areas surrounding the reservoirs.

In 2011, however, the water exceeded levels of acceptable disinfection byproducts for about six months, and the filtration waiver was revoked, meaning the water had to be treated.

A high-tech, ceramic-membrane treatment plant was funded through mine-pollution settlement money overseen by the state's Natural Resource Damage Program.

About $20 million came from money benefiting the Upper Clark Fork River Basin, and $10 million came from the Butte Natural Resource Damage Program Council (BNRC). That group tacked on a requirement that once the treatment plant was built, the reservoir area would be opened up  though it was always the intent of county officials to do that.

"That's how important it was to them (BNRC)," said Pat Cunneen, an environmental science specialist with the NRDP. "Had they (county officials) not agreed to open up Basin Creek, they probably wouldn't have gotten the $10 million."

The Trout Unlimited chapter is now seeking the first big chunk of funding for the project from the NRDC. Grants are limited to $100,000 for any one project, so that's what GGTU has applied for.

Butte-Silver Bow, which owns the reservoirs and areas closest to them, is contributing time and assistance and is working with GGTU on a plan to provide access without compromising water-system operations.

"We are going to open up a tremendous area for people," Schultz said.

FRAMEWORKS OF THE PLAN

GGTU has estimated "conceptual costs" for improving the area for access and says  roughly  they total about $840,000. They are broken down into more than 30 items, including designs, engineering, fencing, a safe dam walkway, paved trails, benches, picnic tables, and a fishing dock.

Schultz and Brian Wilkins, operations manager for the county's Water Division, took a reporter and photographer from The Montana Standard to the area this week and explained how some key aspects might work.

The downslope of the dam and its associated water-system works would be fenced off from the public, and no motorized vehicles  cars, trucks, four-wheelers, or boats  would be allowed in the reservoir areas. People would walk up on one side from Basin Creek Park.

The plan likely will be done in phases, with some access allowed in the summer of 2018. At some point, people would be allowed to bring their bicycles and paddleboats, kayaks, and canoes.

There's a cove in the reservoir near the dam called Bear Gulch that could be a good place to launch non-motorized watercraft. Swimming probably won't cause cleanliness problems that can't be eliminated by the treatment plant, Wilkins says, and if further analysis confirms that, Bear Gulch would be a great spot to wade or splash in.

The lower reservoir is bigger than it seems because much of it twists back beyond immediate sight, and there would be trails all around that also reach the upper reservoir, Schultz said.

There is an area just before Basin Creek flows into the top of the lower reservoir that is used to catch and stop sediment. The county removes the sediment periodically, and that area, which creates a barrier preventing trout from moving upstream, must stay intact.

A key part of the plan is to create a passage around it, perhaps via a stair-stepped fish ladder, so the trout can move upstream and spawn in the creek above. Currently they can only move downstream from the upper reservoir.

Cutthroat trout are a great sport fish, in part because they are easy to catch, but they can't survive with other, more aggressive fish, including brook trout. So they will need more space to spawn to remain a wild, self-sustaining population if fishing is allowed.

Lindstrom said he's confident a bypass can be established, but he and Trudnowski say the precise manner and mechanism must be worked out.

TEAMWORK TOWARD THE BIG VISION

Details about most everything else must be worked out, too, and that effort could get an initial boost if GGTU lands the $100,000 grant.

"Right now, everything has just been ideas we have been discussing back and forth," said Trudnowski, who helped prepare an application proposal for the money. "The purpose of getting the first grant is to get a plan on paper so everyone is on the same page and we can move forward."

The proposal already includes goals and cost estimates and identifies a number of additional funding opportunities, including local, state, and federal grants.

Several people with several entities, including Jocelyn Dodge, who has worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Butte for 26 years, have met to discuss the effort.

"We look at is an opportunity to make connections with our trail system in the area along with potentially Thompson Park," Dodge said.

Cunneen said the effort has been championed for years by BNRC member Emmett Riordan and was an "an amazing project." Among other benefits, it could create a cohesive habitat for cutthroat trout by connecting several area waterways, including Basin Creek, Moulton Reservoir, Upper Blacktail Creek, German Gulch, and Browns Gulch.

"They are a fairly exotic fish, and you cannot find them in many places," he said.

Before it can be opened up, he said, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality must change its classification that deems it a closed, premier watershed  one of only a few pristine ones in Montana.

Morris gives a lot of credit to W.E.T. co-founder Josh Vincent, who also is a member of the Trout Unlimited chapter, and the environmental firm overall. But there are lots of groups coming together, including nonprofits such as GGTU.

"George Grant likes doing cooperative projects with other conservation groups," Morris said. "We like to get as many groups as involved as we can."

A ceremony is planned Wednesday to mark the opening of the water treatment plant. The access project will take more time to pan out, but Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Dave Palmer says it should be worth the wait.

"It's a big bonus," he said.
Even if Anthony had a year to analyze and dissect each piece...(he couldn't tell if it would)... stand the harsh light of public exposure.

WUWT insider Willis Eschenbach tells you all you need to know about Anthony Watts and his blog, WattsUpWithThat (WUWT). As part of his scathing commentary , Wondering Willis accuses Anthony Watts of being clueless about the blog articles he posts. To paraphrase: Click here to read more.
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A wastewater treatment problem in Columbus Junction may be solved with a new technology using algae, but the Iowa Department of Natural Resources must first give its blessing.

Matt Walker, an engineer with French-Reneker Associates, Fairfield, outlined the process to the Columbus Junction City Council Wednesday.

According to Walker, the Gross-Wen process has been used in smaller pilot projects since being developed by Martin Gross while conducting research for his doctorate at Iowa State University.

However, the process has not been tested in as large a system as the Columbus Junction wastewater treatment facility and that is causing the DNR to look closely at the process.

Were hoping to implement (the process) in (its) first full-flow (system), Walker told the council.

Although cost estimates have not been provided on the various alternatives being investigated by the city, Walker suggested the new technology could be significantly less expensive.

It looked quite a bit cheaper than other alternatives, Walker said.

The city has been investigating possible designs to the facility in an effort to solve an ammonia problem that plagues the city during winter months. According to previous discussions, the city does not meet revised discharge standards during the colder months and that has forced officials to look into possible solutions.

The Gross-Wen technology uses algae to recover nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. Those chemical elements are apparently contributing to the citys compliance problems. The algae can then be pelletized and used as a slow-release fertilizer.

Walker said he would continue to discuss the new idea with DNR officials and Gross and keep the city council updated.

Walking Wednesday

Meanwhile, the citys parks and recreation board is trying its own pilot program to get people into the citys parks. Bev Nielsen, a member of the park board, told the council the board had recently developed a schedule that would give local residents a daily opportunity to get outdoors and exercise.

Beginning with next weeks Walking Wednesday, the park board will host Thirsty Thursday, Touring Tuesday and Market Monday events throughout the week.

Well try it out for three months, she said, explaining the board hoped to draw 200 people out for the first event.

Thats 10 percent of our population and I think thats doable, she said.

The Walking Wednesday event will feature a 3-mile walk, although Nielsen said it would be looped, so participants could vary their distance. The event is scheduled to begin at 4:15 p.m. at the Methodist Church.

Nielsen said the Touring Tuesday would feature group bicycle rides, while Market Mondays would focus on the downtown and the Farmers Market, which is scheduled to open on May 8. She cautioned the council members on Thirsty Thursdays.

I know what you are thinking, but everyone is thirsty for bargains, she told the group, explaining the board hoped local business owners would draw people to town that day with sales, promotions and other attractions.

Nielsen also announced the park board was establishing an Adopt the Park program that would help beautify the citys outdoor areas and encourage more people to use the local parks.

In final action, the council approved a proposal from the Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission (SEIRPC) to generate GIS maps of the citys sewer and water systems.

The $6,500 project is expected to take between six and 12 months.
MUSCATINE  Children and their families filled the VFW Post 1565 on Saturday morning for a time-honored traditionthe posts 73rd annual egg hunt.

The younger children searched for eggs in a fenced area in back of the post, with their parents helping and documenting the big moment on their smartphones. The older children had their own area, and running in groups or alone, they fanned across a larger swath of land, looking for plastic eggs.

As in previous years, volunteers hid two special eggs per area and children who found them got $5 or $10, depending on the egg.

From her vantage point on the bar stool near the back exit of the post, Doris Watson, 84, could see the toddlers and their parents milling about in the sunshine. She had been involved with the post since the first egg hunt in the spring of 1944. Much has changed since then.

The post had departed with tradition a few years ago, foregoing the classic hard-boiled eggs in favor of plastic ones. The plastic eggs take a few hours to stuff, but real eggs required more patience. Watson, who was 11 at the time of the first egg hunt, remembers helping her mom and other volunteers boil and dye 150 dozen eggs with food coloring.

It was a process that took all day.

In those days, we used to have big pots like they used in the Army, she said.

They spray painted a few special eggs silver and gold and when children handed those eggs back, they received a stuffed toy or moneyWatson cant remember exactly how much, but it was far less than todays $5 or 10 dollars.

You couldnt eat those spray painted ones. We would take them away, she said.

The children would eat the other eggs they found. The eggs were reward enough since it was a time when sugar, meat and other goods were rationed.

Volunteers hid the eggs at Weed Park, creating sections for the younger and older kids.

The little kids were by the cannon, the next group (was) by the toys as you first come in, and the oldest group was by the swimming hole. Its gone now, she said.

By the time of the egg hunt, Watsons dad, Albert Weeks, had already returned from his post in the Pacific and he drove Watson, her mom and her five siblings to Weed Park.

Watson cant remember if she participated in the hunt, but she remembers a police siren signaled the start of the egg hunt.

When that siren goes off, there is just a mass of kids, she recalled with a smile.

Within about 15 minutes, she said, all the eggs were gone.

Of course, back then, there were no cellphones to document the moment, but even with a camera, Watson is sure no one could photograph the children.

You couldnt take a picture of them, they were so fast, she said.

The egg hunt, she said, gained popularity after the war.

It became the thing after the second World War, she said. From all the kids thats here, its still popular.
The Quad-City Times analyzed Scott County property data for taxes paid in 2016/2017, measuring how much the taxes are for parcels under the new system of determining commercial and industrial property taxes and compared those figures to what would have been paid under the old system, before Iowa passed a property tax cut in 2013.

The analysis found that the highest valued properties in Scott County are garnering the bulk of the savings from Iowas 2013 change. However, its the smaller parcels that are seeing the largest drop in the share of taxes they would have paid under the former system.

For the top 20 parcels, in terms of assessed value, the savings amounted to $1.5 million, or nearly 10 percent of the nearly $15.7 million in reductions to commercial and industrial properties in the county.

County-wide, there are roughly 5,600 parcels, according to the assessor offices for Scott County and the City of Davenport.

(Not all property owners may have seen tax savings from 2013/2014, the last tax year for the former system. Thats because local governments could have changed assessments and rates since then, which would affect how much actual taxes were paid. In 2016, for example, the City of Davenport re-evaluated commercial and industrial properties, which will be reflected on taxes paid this fall and next spring. That will show up on 2017/18 tax bills.)

The larger dollar savings for higher valued properties are mostly driven by the fact that part of the law sought to help commercial and industrial properties by only taxing 90 percent of their overall value.

In pure dollar terms, the average savings for those top 20 properties was $74,675.

For years, business owners have said that they were picking up a disproportionate share of the property tax load, because a state rollback lowered the proportion of values for agriculture and residential properties subject to taxation. Only about half a single family home's actual value is subject to property taxes in Iowa.

The largest property in Scott County, at $52.2 million assessed value, is NorthPark Mall, which is owned by California-based Macerich. Taxing only 90 percent of its value would mean a nearly $210,000 savings for 2016/17 compared with what it would have paid under the old system, according to the Times analysis.

The mall's ownership did not respond to a request for comment.

Isle of Capri Casino, at $50 million, is 2nd largest in the county.

The casino estimates the company has had its taxes reduced about $200,000 per year as a result of the change in the law. However, property taxes are only a part of what the company pays, said Jill Alexander, a spokesperson. She noted the casino also pays 22 percent of its gross gaming revenues to state, city and county governments.

"As a result, the overall taxes paid by Isle to the city, county and state exceed those paid by other businesses," Alexander said in an email.

John Riches, an Arconic spokesman, another of the largest property owners in the county, said a number of factors affect decision making at the company, and that taxes are but one of the factors.

Arconic expanded its Riverdale operation with a $300 million investment, completed in 2014. But that was announced in 2011, before the Legislature changed the commercial and industrial property taxes. This week it completed a $150 million investment in a plate stretcher. Iowa does not levy property taxes on investments in machinery and equipment.

"Anything that makes Iowa more attractive for businesses to locate is a good thing and helps increase the number of jobs in the community," Riches said.

As for smaller commercial and industrial properties, the savings are smaller.

For the 20 commercial and industrial properties whose assessed values were closest to the county median -- roughly $146,000 -- their savings resulting from the new system averaged $1,467 for the 2016/17 tax year.

That number is smaller than for larger properties. But the percentage reduction in their taxes amounted to about 26 percent over what they would have paid under the old system, more than twice the average 10.5 percent reduction for the top 20 properties.

This difference results in part from the reduction in the amount of value subject to taxes, but mostly it's driven by creation of the Business Property Tax Credit, which was another important part of the 2013 law.

The business credit is available to commercial and industrial parcels. And for those mid-sized properties, it can amount to a sizeable chunk of the overall tax load. For the 20 medium-sized properties, the credit made up roughly two-thirds of their savings.

Senate Democrats pushed the tax credit as a way to help Main Street businesses.

However, the size of the reduction, at less than $1,500, is relatively small and some analysts are skeptical that it's enough to lead a business to expand its operations.

"The combined benefits affect small operations in a way that most likely boosts their bottom lines and enhances their abilities to remain going concerns. The values are not enough to induce significant levels of new investment, but they are nonetheless meaningful," said Dave Swenson, an economist at Iowa State University.
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
iStock/Thinkstock(SEOUL) -- An attempted missile launch by North Korea failed when it exploded immediately after liftoff, a U.S. official says.



An official said a missile was launched near Sinpo, North Korea, at 5:21 p.m. ET on Saturday, and it exploded immediately.



"U.S. Pacific Command detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at 11:21 a.m. Hawaii time April 15. The launch of the ballistic missile occurred near Sinpo," U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham said.



According to a Defense Department official, the missile that was launched was land-based, and there was a high degree of confidence that it was not an ICBM, but an assessment was still under way.



"It looks like it was probably a medium-range ballistic missile," said a White House foreign policy adviser. "It failed after about 4, 5 seconds, it was not an ICBM." The official added that the launch had taken place from the same location as another failed launch on April 5 from the Sinpo naval base.



An administration official said President Trump has been briefed at Mar-a-Lago on the failed North Korean missile launch.



Defense Secretary Jim Mattis released a statement saying: "The president and his military team are aware of North Korea's most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment."



Vice President Mike Pence was briefed on what the vice presidents office called a failed missile launch on Air Force 2, while en route to South Korea.



Pence was briefed on the situation in North Korea within an hour of his departure from Anchorage, Alaska, and was in contact with President Trump, aides to the vice president told reporters.



While speaking with U.S. members of the military in Seoul on Sunday, Pence described it as a "provocation."



"This morning's provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world," Pence said. "Your willingness to step forward, to serve, to stand firm without fear inspires our nation and inspires the world, and its an honor for us to share this meal with you today."



As of Sunday evening local time, North Korea had not yet commented on the failed launch. The country's main Saturday news program did not mention it either.



According to the South Korean Yonhap News Agency, National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin called a session of the national security council.



The South Korean foreign ministry said in statement that the launch "has again violated the resolution of the UN Security Council and threatened the security of the Korean Peninsula and the international society. Therefore the government strongly condemns it."



The statement continued, "We warn once again that if it leads to a nuclear experiment and or the ICBM launch, North Korea will have to face punitive consequences. The government is discussing necessary agreements with the related countries."



The foreign ministry also said the country is "speeding up procedures to suppress the expansion and strengthening the ROK - US combined defense to protect the security of our nation and the lives of our people."



The launch attempt comes hours after North Korea rolled out intercontinental ballistic missiles and other military hardware at a massive parade to celebrate the birthday of the country's late founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un.



State television showed leader Kim Jong Un addressing the thousands of soldiers and civilians taking part in the parade at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, the capital.



The festivities took place amid concerns that North Korea is possibly preparing for its sixth nuclear test or a significant rocket launch, such as its first flight test of an ICBM.



Tensions continue to rise between North Korea and the U.S.



Trump tweeted on Thursday that he had "great confidence" in China's ability to "properly deal with North Korea."



"If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will!" the tweet added.



"We will go to war if they choose," the official said of the U.S.



Last week, the Pentagon announced that the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson strike group would head to the Sea of Japan, instead of its planned port visit to Australia.



Deploying the strike group is a show of American military force during a critical time in North Korea's missile and nuclear development.



This is North Korea's fifth missile test this year.



The last test, conducted on April 4, occurred just days before Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.



U.S. officials assessed that the SCUD-type missile spun out of control and landed in the Sea of Japan after traveling just 34 miles.



A mobile-launched missile tested on March 21 also exploded "within seconds of launch," according to U.S. Pacific Command. U.S. officials had not identified what type of missile was tested since it exploded so soon after launch.



But not all of North Korea's tests have been failures. On March 6, the country launched five medium-range SCUD missiles.



Four traveled more than 600 miles, the upper limit of their range, into the Sea of Japan. The fifth took off, but later crashed. Three of the missiles landed in waters in Japan's economic exclusion zone, which extends 200 miles from its shoreline.



The first test of this year -- the successful test of a land-based KN-15 missile on February 12 -- was considered "a major advancement" by North Korea.



Gen. John Hyten, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, told a congressional panel that its success was significant because it was "a new solid medium range ballistic missile off a new transporter erector launcher."

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.




This year's Regatta Lepa 2017 will be taking place from 21-23 April in the town of Semporna, in east coast Sabah. This is also the 24th year that the unique Regatta has been taking place here.





Originally paying homage to the nomadic sea Bajau people, the event has now been accepted as one of the important traditional and cultural events of Sabah Borneo.





Regatta Lepa Sabah





The Regatta Lepa is also the most unique sea festival in Malaysia as no other culture has anything close to this. Seeing it take place live is an experience of a lifetime and for anyone who loves traditional cultures plus seafaring, this is one event not to be missed.





As I travel all over Malaysia and Sabah, I have personally witnessed this event twice. and the uniqueness of the event is something totally extraordinary.





Of you are a photographer, this is one of the best captures of people and traditions, all happening in the sea.





A Bajau dancer on board one of the Lepa's during the Regatta

What is the Regatta Lepa?





It is a cultural celebration for the Bajau people of the east coast of Sabah, namely around the Semporna area and its vicinity. The highlight of the Regatta Lepa is no other than the floating boat parade. The Lepa is actually a single mast sailing boat of the Bajau people.





During the festival, the Lepa's are decorated in the village colours, complete with a musical troupe and dancers.





The music plays while the dancers perform traditional Bajau dances while the boats head to the main Regatta Lepa Square for judging. The overall judging will be based on the most beautiful and colourful Lepa.





Come evening, a special Lepa Beauty Pageant is held at the nearby stadium where thousands of locals will witness the process of the pageant and the crowning of the new Lepa Queen.





During this session, ministers will convey their speeches while VIP's will be invited and special guest artists will perform a show. A beautiful fireworks display is then followed to close the ceremony.





The Regatta Lepa has been running for 24 years wherein 2003, it was officially declared as a national festival in Sabah and Malaysia.





Regatta Lepa Boats heading for the contest in Semporna

Why Should You See The Regatta Lepa?





Basically, it is a one-of-a-kind event that is unique to Sabah. If you are in Sabah or heading to Sipadan, Mabul or islands on the east coast during 21-23 April, you should consider making some time to witness this cultural event at the main town area of Semporna.





Below is a list of activities that take place through the three days of the Regatta Lepa in Semporna. Some of the main activities take place in the day, while the others take place at night at the Semporna Stadium.





The list is;

Lepa Boat Parade

Boat Race (Kelleh-Kelleh Race)

Duck Catching Contest

Sea Tug-of-War

Lepa Beauty Pageant Contest

Igal-Igal Dance (Traditional Bajau Dance)

Lepa Car Contest (Stadium Semporna)

Craft & Food Stalls (Around Semporna)

Fireworks Display (Stadium Semporna)

Regatta Lepa 2017

Date: 21 - 23 Apr 2017

Venue: Seafest Hotel Area and the Semporna Town Jetty Area

Time: Entire Day





A Bajau dancer with musicians on board one of the Lepa boats

What to take note during Regatta Lepa





With a weekend of festivals and events, hotels, guest houses and lodges will be full. You need to book well ahead to secure a room at any of the accommodations.





The best hotel in Semporna is also the Seafest Hotel, which is a 3-Star hotel and this hotel will be fully booked with VIP and state officials.





The weather may be humid and hot, therefore, drink lots of water and apply sunscreen. There will also be thousands of people around there, best to be careful with your personal belongings. And if you are exploring Sabah, you can also read this article on where to go in Sabah





Conclusion





For more detailed information, read my earlier story on the Regatta Lepa in Semporna Sabah which I did in 2012. It highlights everything you need to know about this unique cultural festival and event in Sabah.





Again, if you are by any chance visiting the islands of east coast Sabah, do take some time to experience the unique Regatta Lepa 2017.
A motorcyclist who crashed into a guardrail in northern Napa County on Saturday night was transported to the hospital with major injuries, according to Cal Fire.

The motorcyclist, who was not identified, crashed in the area of Howell Mountain Road and Chiles Pope Valley Road at about 5:33 p.m., Cal Fire said. The motorcyclist was flown by REACH Air Medical Services to an area hospital.
The Napa County Sheriffs Office K9 Unit assisted in the arrest of two individuals suspected of transporting methamphetamine in Napa on Saturday morning.

Diane Shaunelle Herrick, 40, and Jeremy Gray, 38, both transients out of Sacramento, gave deputies consent to search their vehicle when they were contacted during a traffic stop at the intersection of Soscol and Imola avenues at about 11:08 a.m., deputies said.

The deputy brought in Nash, a police dog, to assist in the search. Upon searching the vehicle, Nash located a hidden compartment containing what is suspected to be an ounce of meth, deputies said.

Herrick and Gray were arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance, being under the influence of a controlled substance, transporting a controlled substance and concealing a controlled substance in a false compartment.
Flosden Road in American Canyon was closed for several hours Saturday afternoon after a vehicle crashed into a light pole, according to the American Canyon Police.

The non-injury wreck occurred northbound on the 2500 block of Flosden Road at 1 p.m. when a motorist allowed her vehicle to veer off the road, striking a sign and a light pole, police said. The impact dislodged the light pole, which then became caught in a tree hanging over the road.
The letter about keeping the Electoral College (Keep the Electoral College, March 11) asks whether we would really want California to select the president of the United States in every election. I have to truthfully say, Yes, what a wonderful idea.

But, seriously, it is deceptive to think President Trump scored better than Secretary Clinton in the popular vote if only uber-liberal California was omitted.

Why not reverse the idea and omit Oklahoma or Kansas, etc.? Actually, there are so many liberals in California because most of them migrated here from uber-conservative states, so liberals have gerrymandered themselves.

If they all went home to states where they were born, the middle of the country might not look so red, and of course the 2,864,974 overall vote margin for Clinton would still stand.

Brian Hunt

Napa
ANN ARBOR, Mich.  University of Michigan mechanical engineering students have made one of the most popular puzzle games much larger. And tougher to solve.

Seven former and current students unveiled a 1,500-pound Rubik's Cube during a ceremony Thursday inside the G.G. Brown engineering building on the Ann Arbor campus. The massive, mostly aluminum structure is meant to be played by students and others on campus.

Four students came up with the idea three years ago and handed down the project to other students.

"It's the largest solvable mechanical stationary Rubik's Cube," said Ryan Kuhn, a 22-year-old senior who helped assemble the giant puzzle this week. "It was kind of an urban myth of North Campus, this giant Rubik's Cube that's been going on for a while."

The oversized version of the brain-teasing 3-D puzzle, which has flummoxed players since its heyday in the 1980s, is much harder to decipher than its diminutive counterpart, said Kuhn, who called it an "interactive mechanical art piece."

The puzzle is solved when the player is able to manipulate the cube until all nine squares on each of its six sides display an individual color.

"It's very reasonable that it could take at least an hour" to solve, said Martin Harris, who helped conceive the project in 2014 while hanging out in the College of Engineering honors office.
PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Florida  Five Georgia teenagers were rescued from dangerous rip currents on Friday while on a JROTC field trip in Florida.



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The National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida had issued a strong surf and rip current advisory on Friday. Apparently unaware of the danger, the teens and their chaperones from Marietta, Georgia were in a chartered bus that had stopped at a beach parking lot across from Patrick Air Force Base to go swimming just before 6 p.m.

That particular stretch of beach along Floridas Space Coast does not have civilian Brevard County Ocean Rescue lifeguards on duty because it is part of a federal military base. Luckily, there were Good Samaritans nearby who aided the teens minutes before airmen and Brevard County Fire Rescue crews arrived.

The five rip current victims were transported to Cape Canaveral Hospital in nearby Cocoa Beach, Florida. All of the swimmers survived and were later released from the hospital.

The National Weather Service advises that strong surf and an elevated rip current threat will continue throughout Easter weekend and into next week.

Rip currents are powerful channels of water flowing quickly away from shore, which occur most often at low spots or breaks in the sandbar and in the vicinity of structures such as groins, jetties, and piers. Remember to swim near a lifeguard and do not swim alone. Ask the beach patrol about ocean hazards when you arrive at the beach.

If you become caught in a rip current  do not panic  but yell for help. Remain calm and do not exhaust yourself. Stay afloat while waiting for help. If you have to swim out of a rip current, begin to swim parallel to shore. Once you are away from the force of the rip current, begin to swim back to the beach. Do not attempt to swim directly against a rip current. Even a strong swimmer can become exhausted quickly.

Photo credit: Brevard County Fire Rescue
Schools reinforce societal values...but should they? It is part of the intention of public schools, isnt it? Preparing children to grow into contributing citizens in our society is certainly part of the curriculum. Educators carry with them the limits and biases of the society as well as the mores that make us a civil society. Without realizing it, and with no bad intention, schools reinforce the effects of racism and send graduates off who are holding those very societal values we have to change.

Racism Affects Everyone

Race and racism are serious topics. They flow beneath the surface and occasionally erupt just to show us, if we are paying attention, that they are still alive. Only if we intentionally tap into that hidden stream can we stop it at its source. Watch an Asian man, bloodied on a plane, or a Middle Eastern doctor wearing a hijab enter a hospital room or a person on a phone whose English is difficult to understand or a black man in a hoodie at your front door, it surges up and we put it down. Our purpose in having this conversation is not to teach, but hopefully to enter a place where we can reflect and reveal our own and others hidden voices so we can explore and listen and choose with awareness. It is prompted by a recent story we were told of an experience some teaching students had in a foreign country. It made us think about the nexus of cultural differences and racism and when and how one becomes the other. Heres the story.

A student studying to be a teacher chose to be sent to Africa for some of her student teaching. She had been there before on a mission and loved the people she met, so the idea of doing a six-week practicum in Ethiopia was exciting. Upon arriving at the school she, along with the two other candidates who came from the US, came up against their first culture shock. In the town, they were surrounded by a group of men and each of them had their pockets picked. Because they were somewhat prepared, their valuables were safely tucked away but things like sunglasses and loose change were taken. It was the physical grabbing and the intrusion into personal space that led them to their first feelings of vulnerability. Next they reported for duty at the school. Although there was a language barrier, the teachers they were working with all spoke English, but often not when speaking to eachother leaving the students aside. This presented a second assault resulting in vulnerability. Questions they were asked included, What does your name mean? In Ethiopian culture names have important meanings and the fact that these Americans has no idea what their names meant resulted in a third feeling of estrangement and vulnerability. With Internet access, each of the students looked up the meanings their names held and shared them. That was received as a bridge of understanding. Yet the three American students still felt the sting of being viewed as a minority, as outsiders, a new experience for these three white women from America. They felt vulnerable and they wondered if those feelings were a result of racism or cultural differences with an awakening awareness about how people back home felt and were treated when they were part of the minority.

For them, we are hopeful that bridge building continues and common ground of professionalism and care will allow them to learn what they went there to learn and give what they went there to give. We also hope they can be teachers about white American women and our culture to those Ethiopians who become part of their lives for these six weeks.

White Privilege is Omnipresent

There are multilayerd lessons for those of us who live with white privilege in America and take it for granted. The first thing that came to mind was how our ELL students must feel. Just like these nursing students, the language they are surrounded by is not one they understand. The efforts on our part to teach them our language are important, but the underlying message is their language must be changed so we can unite and communicate and so they can learn in ours. We are teaching them to be like us. With the best of intentions, our message is clear or it can be so subtly misconstrued...they are less, we are more. The slide from culture into racism and the gap between intent and receipt.

We attach stories to things and people. Things have meaning as they become stories to us. Humans have always told stories. Team logos, car logos, and sneaker brands carry stories and meanings for all of us. So does the color of peoples skin. In her book, Waking up White, Debby Irving wrote:

I realize that for years, when I spoke about an encounter with a white person, I would say something like, I met the sweetest lady this morning or One of my students brought me a delicious brownie today. The term white was always assumed. On the other hand, for people of color, I was more likely to insert a label. I met the funniest guy, a black buy, waiting for the bus today, or Rosie, my Haitian student, made a beautiful bracelet for me today. People of color get labels, complete with narratives and stereotypes (p.89).

The media reinforces stories connected to skin color all the time. We see black men portrayed as criminals in television shows, news reports arrests referring to suspects as black, or Hispanic, or now Syrian or Iraqi, or Muslim. If a suspect is white, or Christian, it goes unsaid. This all perpetrates the underlying belief that those descriptors separate and identify someone not of the mainstream.

The media reinforces a very negative story about poverty and race. As white educators in order to best serve all of our students, waking up to the nuance of racism and how it plays out in our words and actions is important. If we dont admit that we have bias, and reach for new stories, and question our own actions students wont question their own. Consider this from Anais Nin We dont see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Opening Minds Begins with the Adults

Begin somewhere. Have a book study, or watch one of the many movies that have graced the screen recently. Reading or watching with others and having safe and open and courageous conversations can open doors. It will require patience because we all have learned to survive together even if we are beneath the surface feeling superior or fearful. The population of students in our classrooms now are growing more diverse. And, certainly, the adult world our students will enter will be more diverse. In the words of Hillel, If not now, when? If you want a starting place, these are some of the current films and books driving our thinking.

Books:

Waking Up White And Finding Myself In The Story Of Race by Debby Irving

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story Of Americas Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

The New Jim Crow Mass: Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Film:

I Am Not Your Negro

13th

Moonlight

Hidden Figures

Fences

Resource:

Irving, D. (2014). Waking Up White and Finding Myself in theStory of Race. Cambridge, MA: Elephant Room Press

Photo by Emily Nickerson

Ann Myers and Jill Berkowicz are the authors of The STEM Shift (2015, Corwin) a book about leading the shift into 21st century schools. Connect with Ann and Jill on Twitter or Email .
21:34

US President Donald Trump says he is unimpressed with this weekend's tax protests and indicated he has no plans to release his tax returns anytime soon.





"Someone should look into who paid for the small organised rallies yesterday. The election is over!" Trump tweeted Sunday.





Organisers said more than 100,000 people some with inflatable rubber chickens marched in cities across the United State on Saturday to protest Trump's refusal to release his tax returns.





With this year's tax deadline approaching on Tuesday, Trump is expected to maintain his refusal as president, breaking a four-decade precedent followed by presidents of both parties.





In blasting the protesters, Trump tweeted that "I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?"
Tampopo was billed as a Ramen Western, playing off the name of Italy's Spaghetti Western genre. Although the film certainly does have some aspects reminiscent of a Western, particularly Shane as writer/director Juzo Itami makes clear in "The Making of Tampopo," that is too limiting of a name because Tampopo offers much more than what one might expect from a Western.

The film opens with the Man in White Suit (Kji Yakusho) dressed like a gangster in a movie theater. He brings to mind Michel from Godard's Breathless, a criminal who took inspiration from Humphrey Bogart. The Man talks directly to the camera about people eating in the movie theater, almost like a PSA, and directs his ire at the man eating chips out of a crinkly bag, threatening to kill him if he makes that noise after the movie starts. He's a hero after my own heart.

The film cuts to a tanker truck driving on a rainy night in black and white followed by a cut back to color with two men, a narrator and an older man who studied ramen for forty years, out to eat. The camera delivers close-ups to lovingly show off the ingredients. The kid wants to rush in while older man appreciates the looks and smell first. Then he details his thorough ritual of eating ramen that includes apologizing to the pork about to be eaten. The film cuts back to the tanker truck but in color, revealing that the previous scene was in a book Gun (Ken Watanabe) is reading while Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki) drives. It's clear after these few scenes Itami will likely play with narrative as the story unfolds.

Goro and Gun stop for a bite at a ramen house run by a woman named Tampopo. They see her young son getting roughed up by fellow students and discover a bunch thugs hanging around her restaurant. Goro amusingly takes on the gang, off camera, and gets them to move on. He also discovers she is not good in the kitchen and takes on the task of educating her on how to become a real ramen cook, mirroring training regimens for soldiers.

Itami sends the plot off on tangents. There are a number of scenes involving food at a local hotel. The funniest is when a group of businessmen eat at a well-known and pricey French restaurant. After looking at the menu, one by one the men decide to have something light: sole, consomme, and a Heineken beer, but a young, clueless man decides to order a variety of fancy items, even after his superior repeatedly kicks him under the table. The sexiest involves the unexpected return of the Man in White and his girl who turn their meal into a memorable sensuous experience.

Tampopo begins a serious study, visiting other ramen shops in an attempt to surreptitiously learn their secrets. People come in to help her learn how to cook and one man helps fix up the building. More amusing food vignettes take place until the main story reaches its climax. Those already familiar with Shane know how it ends, but Tampopo is a marvelously entertaining movie that will likely leave the viewer hungry because of how joyous an experience it suggests food can be.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray

Tampopo (#868) comes on a 50GB Region A Blu-ray disc in their standard clear keepcase. The disc boots up directly to the menu screen without any promotional advertisements. "Ramen for the People," an essay by journalist Willy Blackmore, appears in the accompanying fold-out poster
After facing a lot of backlash for his recent controversial interview, actor Tyrese Gibson has finally apologised to his female fans. The 38-year-old-actor took to his Instagram and posted a couple of photos alongside his "most sincere apologies" for the interview, directing his posts to all the women out there. The first photo he posted was of a quote saying that a sincere apology has three parts: 'I am sorry,' 'It is my fault' and 'What can I do to make it right?' Alongside the photo he wrote, "Ladies....... My most sincere apology is coming in ny next post....... Likely no one will see it but it's coming anyway........ I just got off with my mentor and she just came down on me in a major way, checked me caved my chest in with reality and made it plane..... Damn I've said some super stupid shit..... See my next post..... read my full message on my Facebook.com/Tyrese live love and embrace growth." He went onto say that he has learned "it's not always "what" you say, it's the "how" we choose to say it." "My mother taught me better than this..... lesson learned in life you will learn that It's not always "what" you say, it's the "how" we choose to say it. For the record I'm far from a misogynist, a male chauvinist or flat out mean..... My intentions were there but my delivery fucking horrible.... And clearly all the way off.... And for that I sincerely apologize to all of the ladies." He continued, "Even after this apology.... Some may likely decide to NOT forgive me.... Time and consistency heals all wounds.... Although I've been consistently for years speaking on these topics and some of the same words in my message, I have never experienced what I am experiencing right now. - I've been getting dragged and feel the heat from my poor choice of words and approach to my messages, trust me......" The 'Fate of the Furious' star concluded by saying "ladies you deserve better". "This is about a man owning up to his actions, taking responsibility, recognizing how to do better, and actually doing better. Ladies you deserve better...." For the unversed, in an interview given to BET, Gibson delivered a message to "promiscuous women," where he said, "s***s, s****ers, h**s, t***ps and overly aggressive promiscuous women" are "never without a man because they don't have no standards". He encouraged single women to "hold out," not settle and know their self-worth. (ANI)
Union Water Resource Minister Uma Bharati today took a dig at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for not cooperating with the Centre to solve the Mahanadi river issue.Ms Bharati, who came to Puri to offer prayers at Lord Jagannath temple, later told media that the water of Teesta and Sankosh rivers will be brought to Mahanadi to recharge it and the water will be utilised fordrinking and irrigation in drought-hit areas of the state while the surplus water will be sent to Godavari River."I want to clarify about Mahanadi that the river water will be recharged by linking Teesta River and Sankosh River and that water will be used for irrigation and drinking in the drought-hit areas on banks of Mahanadi.But Mr Patnaik and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee are opposing and agitating over the project, she said, adding that without their support and cooperation the project could not be taken up. On the eve of BJP national executive, Ms Bharati came to Puri by train and offered prayers to Lord Jagannath in the temple and visited Goberdhan peeth, the seat of Sankaracharya.On large scale encroachment of underground drinking water reserves, the life line of residents and pilgrims, she said it was protected and preserved by the British government. It is now occupied by many powerful persons and hoteliers causing damage to the reserves. The Union Minister said her department would take adequate steps to preserve it for the greater interest of people at large.She said the central ground water board would shortly notify the area as protected zone and initiate steps to remove all encroachments. She left Puri by road to attend the national executive meeting at Bhubaneswar.Rajasthan Chief Minister Basundhara Raje too visited Puri. She also went to the Jagannath temple and offered prayer to deities in the sanctum sanctorum of temple and left for state capital by helicopter. Tight security arrangements were made by the district and temple administration for the visit of the ministers.UNI XC DP AD AN2143 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0298-856042.Xml
Bashir Ahmad Dar, a resident of Qasba Yaar Rajpora Pulwama who runs a medical shop in his village was taken to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Another local was also injured during the firing and was rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Earlier in March this year, suspected terrorists barged into residence of two police officers in Shopian, ransacked their houses and fired gunshots in air before fleeing from the spot.

Last year, terrorists barged into a house, shot and critically wounded a woman in Batpora Nyaina village of southern Pulwama district. She was rushed to hospital but died soon. (ANI)
According to Bengali Sakabdi, the first day of the year is considered to be the most auspicious day.

On the new year, homes are cleaned and decorated to welcome the Goddess Lakshmi and God Ganesha.

People wearing new dresses go to temples to pray and get blessings from god.

Monimala Sengupta, a visitor said, "I have come here to pray to Lord Narayana on the first day of the Bengali New Year so that our children, brothers, sisters and all can live healthily. Every year we come to the temple on this day as a ritual."

Shopkeepers start the day by performing Laxmi-Narayan and Ganesh pooja wishing for a prosperous year ahead.

Harisankar Saha, a businessman said, "We come to the temple seeking blessings and pray to god for good and prosperity as we start new account books of our business in the name of god. This is our ritual."

As a custom, priests draw a Swastik symbol with vermilion on trader's accounts book to bring good fortune in business.

Poila Boishakh is also known as 'Noboborsho' as it is the first day of the first month of Boishakh in the Bengali calendar.

Other than Tripura, Poila Boishakh is also celebrated in a festive manner in both Bangladesh and West Bengal.

Hence, Poila Boishakh connects all ethnic Bengalis irrespective of religious and regional differences in Tripura. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today will be meeting the family members of the freedom fighters, who undertook an armed rebellion against the British rulers in the state in 1817. He will be felicitating the families of freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives during the freedom struggle termed as Paika Rebellion. After meeting freedom fighters, Prime Minister Modi will visit the famous Lingaraj Temple here. The Prime Minister arrived here yesterday amid massive fanfare for the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) two-day national executive meeting. Senior party leader M.M. Joshi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and other party leaders are also expected to be present at the meeting. Prime Minister Modi landed at Biju Patnaik International Airport around 3:30 PM and was given a grand welcome by ministers. Supporters thronged the streets as Prime Minister Modi made his way to the venue of the party meet from the airport. He leaned out of his vehicle many times to wave and greet the party workers and admirers who were trying their best to get a glimpse of him. After reaching the venue, Prime Minister Modi got down at the entrance of the Raj Bhawan to greet onlookers and a few women leaders of the BJP. He also shook hands with many of them before getting into the car again to drive into the Odisha Governor's residence. On arriving at the venue, Prime Minister Modi lit the lamp while Vande Mataram was played to mark the start of the national executive meet. All 13 BJP Chief Ministers, including Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath, their deputies and 45 Union ministers are also attending the meet to prepare a roadmap for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 2019. The leaders will discuss the BJP's strategy to increase the party's political footprint ahead of the 2019 general elections, while eyeing the 2019 Odisha state elections. (ANI)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to fly to Bhubaneswar tomorrow for a two-day visit to Odisha in a bid to rejuvenate Trinamool Congress functionaries there, a political move comes a day after President Amit Shah announced that BJP's golden period would be when they win elections in Odisha, Bengal and Kerala.Ms Banerjee's visit has a huge political significance in the region since the BJP was having its national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar and successful 8-km road show of Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday.Saffronisation in West Bengal's politics has been on upward graph since 2014 Parliament polls.Bengal recently witnessed two new things of religious fervor first huge armed processions to celebrate the Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti - across the state.The surge of people on roads with saffron flags also being politicised, which resulted that the BJP candidate for Contai South assembly seat by-poll in East Medinipur emerged runners up to the winner of TMC nominee.The Left parties and Congress candidates forfeited their deposits.BJP president Amit Shah is expected to land West Bengal on April 25 for three-day booth level tour as part of party's "Purvanchal Aviyan".TMC sources said Ms Banerjee, who is also chairperson, would fly to Bhubaneswar tomorrow and meet party's functionaries to boost up the organisation in Odisha.She is also expected to meet party's MP Sudip Banerjee, accused of the Rose Valley scam case and arrested by the CBI, in jail.She might also visit to the Puri temple and offer her prayers there before return to Kolkata on the following day.On April 21 in this city Ms Banerjee would chair an organisational meet at the Netaji Indoor Stadium where she is expected to be re-elected as party chief and spell out programes and policies in view of panchayat and civic bodies polls in 2018- 2019.UNI PC RN ADG 1250 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0431-856275.Xml
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Sunday met National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval during which the duo discussed the recent tension in Kashmir Valley. The meeting took place a day after the Chief of Army Staff met Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar. Earlier on Saturday, General Rawat met Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra in Jammu, where he briefed him on the prevailing situation in Kashmir. In the latest development, a group of terrorists barged into a medical shop owner's house in Srinagar yesterday and shot him dead. Bashir Ahmad Dar, a resident of Qasba Yaar Rajpora Pulwama who runs a medical shop in his village, was taken to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Another local was also injured during the firing and was rushed to the hospital for treatment. In another development highlighting the soaring violence in the Valley, a youth was killed after the security forces opened fired at stone-pelters in Batmaloo's S.D. Colony in Srinagar yesterday. "Police is collecting the details and is looking into the circumstances under which a person identified as Sajad Hussain Sheikh, a resident of Chandoosa Baramulla at present S.D. Colony Srinagar got killed," the police said in a statement. Some days ago, a video purportedly showing a Kashmiri youth tied to the front of moving army jeep invited protests from human rights groups and criticism from the people including several politicians. Yesterday, the army said it is investigating the video that was reportedly shot in Beerwah area of Budgam district where miscreants disrupted polling during Sunday's by-poll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency by pelting stones. Interestingly the video surfaced within days after another video cropped up showing a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel walking down a street while being heckled, kicked and punched by youth, setting off a nationwide outrage. There was no retaliation by the security personnel, who quietly walked to their camp as they were under instructions to not open fire, officials in the paramilitary said. Condemning the present state government and its failure to control the situation, the opposition has demanded for the imposition of Governor's Rule in the Valley. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, post winning the Srinagar by-polls, yesterday accused the People's Democratic Party's (PDP) of failing to protect the people of the state and demanded Governor's rule in Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI)
The BJP today lashed out at the Congress and other Opposition parties for delaying the Bill that would give 'constitutional status' to the National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and cater to the OBC communities. The party's national executive here said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government should be complimented for taking the "noble step" towards creating an "equal society"."...The BJP-led government took strong steps and was successful in bringing consensus on the issue in the Lok Sabha. But this is unfortunate that the move to empower people of the backward classes and making them independent has been opposed by some political parties in the Rajya Sabha," a resolution adopted at the BJP National Executive here said."It is a noble step taken by the Prime Minister towards creating an equal society. It is the duty of the every leader of the party to reach this message in remote parts of the country," the resolution said.Briefing reporters, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said the resolution thanked the Prime Minister and government for steering a much important legislative measure that would give constitutional status to the National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes."This issue is directly linked to interests of backward classes, so it needs to be supported by every single political party. But the Congress is not supporting it," the resolution said.Dwelling at length on various facets of OBC reservation issue and the high-voltage politics associated with it, the resolution moved by senior parliamentarian from Bihar, Hukmdev Narayan Yadav said, "the way Congress opposed the move shows their real attitude towards the backward classes".The OBC reservation issue had in 1990s created a major political row in relation to the political assertions of communities like Yadavs and the subsequent changes it brought to the political landscape in the cow-belt especially.The resolution - seconded by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, claims that now that BJP is handling the OBC issues with priority, the Congress party is feeling frustrated."People who have been sidelined for long should now get their due in the society. It is not right to oppose such decisions only for politics," the resolution said.Mr Javadekar said prior to the government's move, the National Commission for OBC set up in 1993 hardly had any functional power and thus the Modi government and the cabinet came out with a "milestone" new Bill to grant Constitutional status. Mr Javadekar said the party fails to understand why this "delay" strategy was adopted after the OBC MPs including from Congress has number of times urged none other than Prime Minister for the same."Finally, we hope better sense will prevail and the Bill will be passed," Mr Javadekar hoped.More UNI DEVN RSA ADG 1503 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-856422.Xml
SpiceJet, the country's low-cost carrier, flagged off its first direct flight on the Delhi Bangkok Delhi route yesterday. First few passengers were handed over their boarding passes and a goody bag by Isra Stapanaseth, Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand.The service on the Delhi Bangkok route, will be operational six days a week (except Tuesday) and after May 9 the service would be a daily one. Similarly the service on the Bangkok Delhi route will be operational on all days except Wednesday till May 10 after which it would be available on all days.On the occasion Shilpa Bhatia - Senior VP, Commercial, SpiceJet Ltd. said, ''We have received an overwhelming response for our Delhi Bangkok offering. This sector has always been popular with business travelers and with the onset of vacations we will see a large number of family and leisure travelers also availing our service on this route.''Tourism Authority of Thailand congratulates SpiceJet on the launch of the new flight. The direct flights will convenience corporates, family travellers and also benefit the wedding segment. The new service by SpiceJet will provide a big boost to tourism,'' said Mr Stapanaseth.The new flight will connect the cities of Jaipur, Srinagar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Jammu, Gorakhpur, Dharamshala, Surat and Jabalpur through convenient onward connections to Bangkok from Delhi. Besides Delhi, SpiceJet also serves Bangkok with a direct flight from Kolkata.Incessantly famed for its local cuisines, floating markets, happening night life and extravagant hospitality, Bangkok the city rich with contrasts is known to welcome more visitors than any other city in the world making it one of the global hot spots.Bangkok is one of SpiceJet's seven international destinations Dubai, Dhaka, Colombo, Kabul, Male (Maldives), and Muscat. Bookings for tickets are now open on www.spicejet.com and through online travel portals and travel agents.UNI ADP RSA 1450 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0429-856407.Xml
Chairmen of both the faction of Hurriyat Conference (HC) Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq remained under house arrest in Kashmir, where a complete shutdown is being observed today against the killing of a youth in security force firing. However, there was no restriction on Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik, who was released yesterday from detention after one month.However, majority of other separatist leaders, who were kept under house arrest or detained to stop them from holding anti-election campaign, have been released."Mr Geelani remained under house arrest since May last year and he was not even allowed to offer Friday prayers in a mosque since then,'' a spokesman of the amalgam Aiyaz Akbar told UNI.However, he said other leaders of the amalgam, including Mohammad Ashraf Sehrayee, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Peer Saifullah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin, Mohammad Ashraf Laya and himself, have been released. A large number of security forces and state police personnel remained deployed outside the Hyderpora residence of Mr Geelani who was arrested a number of time for defying restrictions. However, he was being released every time.Meanwhile, chairman of moderate HC Mirwaiz also remained under house arrest, a spokesman of the amalgam told UNI.Security forces and state police personnel remained deployed outside the Nigeen house of Mirwaiz, who remained under house arrest for the past around a month.Restriction was imposed on separatists after they issued call for poll boycott in both Srinagar and Anantnag parliamentary constituencies.Polling was held in Srinagar on April 9 during which eight persons were killed and over 20 others injured in security force and police action. About 150 paramilitary forces were also injured in stone pelting. In view of the violence, Election Commission of India (ECI) deferred polling in Anantnag constituency, which was scheduled to be held on April 12.UNI BAS ADG 1407 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-856235.Xml
Genres : Adventure, Crime, Science Fiction, TV

Starring : Hannah John-Kamen, Luke MacFarlane, Aaron Ashmore, Sarah Power

Plot Synopsis

From the producers of Orphan Black (Temple Street Productions) and the creator of Lost Girl (Michelle Lovretta), Killjoys follows a fun-loving, hard living trio of interplanetary bounty hunters sworn to remain impartial as they chase deadly warrants throughout the Quad, a distant system on the brink of a bloody, multiplanetary class war. Starring Hannah John-Kamen, Aaron Ashmore, and Luke Macfarlane.



The galaxy's most bad-ass bounty hunters are back in Killjoys: Season Two. It's now up to Johnny and Dutch to rescue a kidnapped D'avin. As our trio continues to hunt deadly warrants threatening a bloody, multiplanetary war - they face old enemies, the tyrannical Company and the mysterious agenda of Khylen, Dutch's former mentor
World-renowned management guru and Padam recipient Professor Shoji Shiba today said that there is a need to create an Indian way of management, as the one being followed at present has been imported from US and Japan. Professor Shiba expressed these views at the launch of the Visionary Learning Community of India (VLCI) program at Solan based Shoolini University. Shoolini is the academia partner of this program. The one-year management-training program for small and medium enterprises is being implemented in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)to create visionary leaders to lead India's manufacturing sector into future growth. Over 30 managers from eight industries and four faculty of Shoolini have enrolled for VLCI.Speaking about the launch, Professor Shiba said that with VLCI, they have tried to create an excellent model of 'Skill India' because of the country's young population."The young people of the country are increasing every day, but is difficult for them to get jobs as they lack the skills and concepts required by the industry. There is a big gap between the academia and industry. Through VLCI, we make the faculty come to industry and work with them. Later, the faculty implements the gained knowledge in training the younger generation," exhorted Prof. Shiba.UNI XC KS SDR 1410 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0292-856306.Xml
"Hundreds of freedom fighters from different states have started arriving in Patna to be honoured by President Pranab Mukherjee on April 17 at the felicitation ceremony as part of centenary celebrations of Mahatama Gandhi's Champaran satyagraha," Vinodanand Jha, an official of the state education department, said.

Jha said that while some freedom fighters have arrived here on Saturday, others will arrive on Sunday. "Most of the freedom fighters would reach here by Sunday night."

According to Jha, freedom fighters from 19 states -- including Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi -- would be honoured by the President.

In all, 2,972 freedom fighters from across the country, including Bihar, would be honoured. "As per the plan, 264 freedom fighters from 19 states and 554 selected of 2,708 freedom fighters of Bihar will be honoured by the President," Jha said.

The year-long celebrations to mark the 100th year of Mahatma Gandhi's first major resistance against British rule, popularly known as the Champaran Satyagraha, began last week in Bihar.

Mahatma Gandhi launched his Satyagraha -- a non-violent agitation -- against the forced cultivation of indigo by the British rulers in Champaran district in Bihar on April 10, 1917.

--IANS ik/vgu/dg

( 249 Words)

2017-04-16-16:52:06 (IANS)
Asserting that Triple Talaq was a menace crippling the lives of Muslim women in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to attack the issue on a grass-root level. "Our Muslim sisters deserve justice. We should try to solve this issue at the district level. We should also proceed on the formula of a new India. We can't simply move forward on a slow pace, but charge ahead with full speed," the Prime Minister said during the BJP National Executive Meeting here. During a discussion on the National Commission for Backward Classes, Prime Minister suggested that the party should hold conferences for 'backward Muslims'. Making an intervention during the discussion on the motion for granting constitutional status to the national commission for backward classes, the Prime Minister highlighted that there are sections among Muslims, who are backward, adding that they should be included in the discussion over backward classes. Meanwhile, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMLPB) today stated that those who give triple talaq without the reasons prescribed by the Sharia law will face social boycott. The Board further noted that there has been misunderstanding on this issue, and that it will issue a code of conduct on it. The AIMPLB, which has opposed the PILs filed against the triple talaq in the Supreme Court, had earlier on Wednesday said the board will do away with the practice of verbal divorce in one-and-a half years, adding there is no need for government interference. A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court will start hearing from May 11 the petitions against triple talaq. The court will hear pleas filed by several Muslim women challenging the practice under which men can divorce their wives instantly by uttering the word talaq thrice. (ANI)
Special prayers and services were held in all churches acrossthe State.

Thousands of faithfuls, including women and children, throngedthe churches to attend the special midnight mass.

The churches were tastefully decorated and illuminated to markthe occasion.

Processions marking the resurrection were also held in churches.

The largest congregation was held at the Santhome Basilica in the city and at the Shrine Velankanni Chuurch at Nagapattinam.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, leaders of various political parties greeted the Christians on the occasion.UNI GV CS 1646

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-856554.Xml
As part of her 70th weekend morning round visit on her bicycle, Puducherry Lt.Governor Kiran Bedi today visited the Varadarajaperumal and Sithananda Swami temples here. A Rajnivas release said, she also visited an NGO Sharna, enroute, involved in educational needs of street children. The Lt.Governor suggested that scientific maintenance of ponds of the temples to be tried out and rain water harvesting be ensured. She asked the temple authorities to improve the facilities to the devotees. Ms Bedi also suggested that important information about the deities, the cultural heritage should be displayed in bilingual to promote temple tourism and pictorial narrative pamphlets be printed for distribution to temple tourists. The Lt Governor suggested the Commissioner, Hindu Religious Institutions to prepare a directory of temples of the UT and also a Whatsaap group to connect the temple special officers , executive officers, and trustees to share best practice and important information. She appreciated the efforts taken by the NGO to educate street children and also the awareness on waste management through games and advised the NGO to document their learning and share ideas with law enforcing agencies.UNI PAB CS 1727 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-856600.Xml
The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) today warned the senior Congressleaders venting their ire against the Siddaramaiah government inthe state, and said that strict action will be taken against themif they 'crossed the line', again. KPCC Working President Dinesh Gundurao gave another warning to the disgruntled senior leaders to desist from giving statements against the party government in the state, when the main focus was to retain power in the state in the 2018Assembly election. Mr Siddaramaiah led Congress government in the state is in upbeatmood, after winning bypolls in Nanjangud and Gundlupet. United partyleadership ensured that the BJP, led by Mr B S Yeddyurappa met the defeat. Mr Gundurao, while welcoming over 50 local leaders in his homeconstituency Gandhi Nagar the central district of Bengaluru, saidthe party will not take kindly to adverse comments made by somesenior leaders. Without naming Congress veterans and former Union MinistersJarnarhan Poojary, Jaffer Sharieff and former Lok Sabha member HVishwanath, Mr Rao warned that the party was not happy with them and they will face actions. ''Things may go to the extent that strict action is taken by theKPCC against dissidence. There is no wave against Congress inKarnataka as evidenced by the two bypoll results. The BJP is daydreaming and Congress will retain power in 2018 Assembly poll,'' he said.UNI RS MSP CS 1747 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0284-856635.Xml
Punjab Congress leader Rana Gurjit Singh has lashed out at the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for its accusations against Captain Amarinder Singh and the Gandhi family over the row involving Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan. Rana Gurjit, who is Power & Irrigation Minister in Capt Singh Government, said the wild allegations made by the SAD had exposed their pro-Khalistani leanings, considering that many Canadian liberals themselves had charged Sajjan with indulging in such sympathies. The SAD, by siding with a `Khalistani sympathiser' like Sajjan, had proven that it did not have the welfare of the state or its people at heart, but was only keen on promoting its own political interests even if it meant communalising the environment of Punjab, alleged the Congress leader. Noting that the Badal-led SAD's nefarious designs to communalise the state's fabric had failed in the past, with the voters of Punjab rejecting their efforts outright in the recent Assembly elections, Rana Gurjit said the people of Punjab would not allow their peace and harmony to be disrupted again at any cost. "We have suffered enough at the hands of extremists and will do everything in our power to prevent revival of militancy in any form in the state," he said. Rana Gurjit also flayed the SAD for unnecessarily dragging the Gandhi family into the Sajjan controversy. Capt Singh had never shied away from taking a principled stand on any issue, even if it meant breaking away from the party as he had done in the wake of Operation Bluestar, the Congress leader pointed out, adding that the Chief Minister believes in standing by his values and principles, irrespective of the impact it might have on his political career. The minister said Capt Singh stand on the 1984 riots issue was more than clear and he had publicly articulated the same on several occasions. The Chief Minister was not answerable to the SAD, but was only accountable to the people of Punjab, who had given him a resounding mandate in the recent Assembly polls, Rana Gurjit added.UNI JS AKC RSA 1747 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-856604.Xml
Former Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today condemned the assault on a Gidderbaha journalist by Congress workers aligned withthe Indian Youth Congress (IYC) chief and Gidderbaha legislator Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and said it was unfortunate that now even the media was taken into the ambit of vendetta politics unleashed by Congress elements in Punjab.In a statement here, Mr Badal said it was even more condemnable that the State Police was sleeping on the case despite a full and complete disclosure about the accused by the Punjabi daily journalist Shivraj Raju as well as another reporter present on the spot. "No arrests have been made in the case. What is stopping the police from arresting the accused who are close associates of the Gidderbaha legislator?" he asked.Stating that the Congress elements were assaulting anyone who opposed them, including the media, Mr Badal said the assault on Shivraj Raju was a clear message to the media that dissent would not be tolerated in the present regime and would be muzzled brutally."Shivraj was not only beaten mercilessly but was forced to drink alcohol as well as urine which is sure to emotionally scar him for life". This is a fit case for inquiry by the State Human Rights Commission also, the SAD president said while demanding the immediate arrest of Warring's personal assistant Jaspreet Singh and Gidderbaha truck union president Charanjit Singh Dhillon.UNI JS AKC SNU 1833 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-856636.Xml
Condemning the manhandling of a journalist by Congress leaders, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today claimed that Congress was engulfed with the "Power Hangover" within 30 days of coming into power. In a statement here, State Convener of AAP, Gurpreet Singh Waraich termed the incident as an inhuman act and attack on the freedom of press. "All Congress leaders, who were involved in this shameful act should be immediately arrested to give them an exemplary punishment, so that no one could dare to do in again," he demanded."After remaining out of power for 10 years, Congress is suffering with indigestion of power and time is ripe that Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh controls his goonda elements well before people take law in their own hands to teach them the lesson," Mr Waraich added.Within a month, Congress MLAs and even Minister were seen misbehaving with the people, who voted them to power as earlier Forest Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot misbehaved with a woman principal and a day before an MLA Ramanjit Singh was seen scolding a police officer to compel him to toe the line of Congress, he said adding that even another MLA Sangat Singh Giljian also threatened a journalist.Mr Waraich said that instead of fulfilling the promises made in the Congress manifesto, the party leaders were behaving like "Goondas" to threaten people, which is highly deplorable and condemnable.UNI JS SHS SNU 1938 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-856787.Xml
Genres : Crime, Thriller

Starring : Marcello Mastroianni, Micheline Presle, Cristina Gaioni

Director : Elio Petri

Plot Synopsis

Released within months of Fellini's La Dolce Vita and Antonioni's La Notte, Elio Petri's dazzling first feature The Assassin (L'Assassino) also stars Marcello Mastroianni, this time as dandyish thirtysomething antiques dealer Alfredo Martelli, arrested on suspicion of murdering his older, far wealthier lover Adalgisa (Micheline Presle). But as the increasingly Kafkaesque police investigation proceeds, it becomes less and less important whether Martelli actually committed the crime as his entire lifestyle is effectively put on trial. Best known for Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion and The Tenth Victim, Petri was one of the finest and yet most underrated Italian directors of the 1960s and 70s. Highly acclaimed on its original release but unjustly neglected since, The Assassin is a remarkably assured debut from one of the cinema's sharpest chroniclers of Italian social and political realities. Petri said that he wanted to reflect the changes wrought by the early sixties, and to examine ''a new generation of upstarts who lacked any kind of moral scruple''.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy chief of Shiv Sena, Kunwar Gaurav Upadhayay, was shown the door hours after he joined the Congress party today. Mr Upadhayay along with hundred of his supporters had joined the Congress party in the presence of senior party leaders Sanjay Singh, Fazle Masood and others. Party's State Vice-president Madan Mohan Shukla administered the oath to the Shiv Sainiks, while Lucknow city Congress president Bodh Lal Shukla conducted the programme.But surprisingly after two hours, the Party rejected the membership of Mr Upadhayay and his supporters. On such a hurried rejection, the Congress party in a statement said that several complaints were received against Mr Upadhyay. The statement further said that several daily wage labourers were brought by the leader during his joining in the Congress who were not paid and it was against the ethics of the party.UNI MB SHS SNU 2025 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0329-856885.Xml
Keeping its thrust on development agenda, the BJP has embarked on a mission to retain power in 2019, fine-tuning its strategy to woo the poor and a section of Muslims to expand its base. On the concluding day of the two-day National Executive meet, the BJP political resolution indicated that it would focus on adding new socio-groups into its fold even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to attract some in the Muslim community, especially women and the poor. Dubbing Triple Talaq a "bad social practice", Modi said such things can be ended by social awakening but stressed that the Bharatiya Janata Party didn't want a conflict on this issue. Modi's observation came at his concluding remarks. "As far as social justice is concerned, our Muslim sisters should also get justice. There should not be injustice to them. No one should be exploited," Union Minister Nitin Gadkari quoted Modi as saying. Modi added: "We should not allow conflict in the society. We don't want any conflict in Muslim society over the issue. We need to end such bad practices by awakening the society." Earlier, making an intervention during the discussion over the resolution passed on a new OBC Commission, Modi said even Muslims have backwards and marginalised and the government must address their concerns. BJP sources said Modi asked the party leaders and workers to hold district-level meetings over the issues of backward Muslims and women. Modi also expressed his desire to rid India of social and economic inequities. Accusing the opposition of concocting issues, Modi said: "It seems the opposition manufactures these issues in some factories. During the Delhi election, Church attacks was highlighted and during the Bihar polls 'Award Wapsi' was the issue. And right now it is EVM." The Prime Minister told party workers to stick to "positive approach". Earlier, two resolutions were passed by the National Executive focusing on the poor and backward communities in the society. Coming down heavily on the Congress and other opposition parties for blocking in the Rajya Sabha a bill to grant constitutional status to the OBC Commission, the BJP accused them of depriving the poor of their benefits. Human Resource and Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said: "These parties have always suppressed the interests of the backward classes and only given them false hopes." He said the manner in which the bill was opposed exposed their attitude towards backward classes. The resolution was moved by BJP's OBC MP Hukumdev Narayan Yadav and seconded by Chief Ministers like Raghubar Das of Jharkhand, Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The BJP's focus on OBCs and Modi's remarks on the backwardness of Muslim society and Triple Talaq is seen as the party's effort to woo these social groups ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP also has to face assembly elections in Gujarat, Himachal, Karnataka and Odisha. BJP President Amit Shah has begun micro management for these contests. Where the BJP is not a major player, it is targeting new social groups. Shah has asked party workers to go the extra mile to strengthen the party in 120 Lok Sabha constituencies where it is weak. Noting that Modi had worked hard and translated his words into action, the political resolution said: "The BJP calls upon the people of our country to take a pledge to form a government under the leadership of Narendra Modi in 2019 in order to have the continuity of development and welfare policies for all." --IANS bns/mr ( 600 Words) 2017-04-16-21:08:06 (IANS)
His two day visit kick started with a road show where Prime Minister Modi received a grand welcome in his home state which will go to the polls later this year.

The crowd chanted "Modi-Modi" as he showed up in his open-top SUV.

The entire stretch of road from Surat airport to the circuit house was decked up and people from different communities and groups felicitate him after every 200 metres on the 11-km stretch decorated with sarees imprinted with the titles of various development schemes and projects.

All government and commercial buildings on the route was illuminated

A bikers rally escorted him to the circuit house.

Earlier, Prime Minister was welcomed by Gujarat chief minister and deputy chief minister upon his arrival in Surat.

On Monday Prime Minister Modi will inaugurate Kiran Hospital in Katargam, a drinking water scheme in Tapi district, cattle feed plant, and a diamond manufacturing unit in Ichhapur, and irrigation project in Botad.

Prime Minister Modi would then head to Bajipura village in the neighbouring Tapi district to inaugurate a cattle feed plant and an ice-cream plant of Surat District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union, popularly known as Sumul Dairy. He will also address a large gathering at Bajipura.

Expressing excitment over his visit, Prime Minister Modi tweeted, "My gratitude to all those who are participating in the various programmes. Visiting the vibrant city of Surat is a matter of great joy."

The BJP has been in power Gujarat since 1998 and it is seeking a fifth consecutive term. The party has deployed the slogan "UP mein 325, Gujarat mein 150" (325 seats in UP, 150 in Gujarat) to indicate it wants to win the upcoming election with the sort of record margin it accrued in India's most-populous state.

(ANI)
A kingpin of a drug cartel which used to supply drugs in Delhi and adjoining states and who was carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head, has been arrested, police said on Sunday. Police said the accused, identified as Nazir Hussain of Assam, was arrested from Anand Vihar railway station in east Delhi on Friday evening, on a tip off, as he was coming from Guwahati to Delhi. "On questioning, Hussain told interrogators that illegal farming of opium is rampant in north-east states like Manipur, Assam and Nagaland and the gang members have become a major source of supply of opium and heroin to Punjab via Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Yadav. Hussain and his associates used trucks and other heavy vehicles to avoid detection by intelligence agencies. It was also revealed that middlemen were regular customers who used to place orders on phone and pay through banks, he said. "The police teams earlier in last year 2016 had arrested five drug traffickers and recovered total 69 kg of high grade opium valued several crores in international market from their possession. They disclosed that they were working for Hussain," Yadav added. --IANS sp/vd ( 210 Words) 2017-04-16-22:24:08 (IANS)
The United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), an alliance of seven Madhes-based parties, and the Federal Alliance (FA), an alliance of disgruntled federal parties, are set to hold fresh protests as their demands are yet to be addressed. The UDMF and FA on Sunday disclosed their plans of nationwide baton protest aiming to disrupt the local-level elections scheduled for May 14. "The leaders of three main parties promulgated the Constitution in name of Fast Track violating the provisions in interim constitution, agreements made at time of Constituent Assembly, State Restructuring Commission's report," Om Gurung, the spokesperson of Federal Alliance, said in press meet. As per the schedule, the protest will go into effect from April 18 with a torch rally in every district headquarter and major city and will be held on several dates until May 10 that will witness indefinite general strikes across the nation. Though the government recently tabled a new amendment proposal in the Parliament to appease the disgruntled parties, it has been rejected by both the FA and the UDMF. The UDMF and the FA have been demanding constitutional amendment promulgated in 2015 that includes amendments in the provisions of citizenship. Delineation is their primary demand to go for the May polls. An attempt to amend the Constitution has already failed as the present government withdrew the second amendment replacing it with a new one, not accepted by the agitating parties. (ANI)
The US Supreme Court is set this week to hear a closely watched case testing the limits of religious rights, and new Justice Neil Gorsuch's judicial record indicates he could tip the court toward siding with a church challenging Missouri's ban on state funding of religious entities.Trinity Lutheran Church, which is located in Columbia, Missouri and runs a preschool and daycare center, said Missouri unlawfully excluded it from a grant program providing state funds to nonprofit groups to buy rubber playground surfaces. Missouri's constitution prohibits "any church, sect or denomination of religion" from receiving state taxpayer money.Gorsuch, who embraced an expansive view of religious rights as a Colorado-based federal appeals court judge, tomorrow hears his first arguments since becoming a justice last week. He will be on the bench on Wednesday when the justices hear the Trinity Lutheran case, one of the most important of their current term.Gorsuch, appointed by President Donald Trump, restored the Supreme Court's 5-4 conservative majority.Trinity Lutheran wanted public funds to replace its playground's gravel with a rubber surface made from recycled tires that would be safer for children to play on.The US Constitution calls for a separation of church and state and guarantees the free exercise of religion.At the very least, a victory for Trinity Lutheran would help religious organizations nationwide win public dollars for certain purposes, such as health and safety.But it also could bolster the case for using public money for vouchers to help pay for children to attend religious schools rather than public schools in "school choice" programs backed by many conservatives. For example, Colorado's top court in 2015 found that a Douglas County voucher program violated a state constitutional provision similar to Missouri's.Trinity Lutheran's legal effort is being spearheaded by the Alliance Defending Freedom conservative Christian legal activist group, which argues Missouri's policy violates the US Constitution's guarantees of free exercise of religion and equal protection under the law.If the church wins, "religious organizations cannot be excluded from general public welfare benefits that apply to everybody," said Erik Stanley, an alliance lawyer representing the church.Referring to Gorsuch, Stanley said, "He has definitely been a friend of religious liberty. So we are hopeful that will continue when he's on the court, and we're grateful he gets to participate on this important case."In 2013, Gorsuch sided with the evangelical Christian owners of arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby and allowed owners of private companies to object on religious grounds to a provision in federal healthcare law requiring employers to provide medical insurance that pays for women's birth control.Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion that Hobby Lobby's owners faced a choice "between exercising their faith or saving their business." The Supreme Court later affirmed the ruling.Missouri said there is nothing unconstitutional about its grant program."Trinity Lutheran remains free, without any public subsidy, to worship, teach, pray and practice any other aspect of its faith however it wishes. The state merely declines to offer financial support," the state said in legal papers.The church has drawn support from the religious community including the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Mormon Church and Jewish groups.'OPEN THE FLOODGATES'Groups filing legal papers opposing Trinity Lutheran, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said government funding of churches is precisely what the Constitution forbids."Forcing states to provide cash to build church property could open the floodgates to programs that coerce taxpayers to underwrite religion," said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU's program on freedom of religion and belief.Mach said three-quarters of the US states have provisions like Missouri's.Alliance Defending Freedom, which also opposes gay marriage, transgender protections and abortion, has another major case involving religion that the Supreme Court could take up in its term beginning in October. It represents a Colorado bakery's Christian owner who argues the Constitution's promise of religious freedom means he should not have to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.Trinity Lutheran sued in federal court in 2012. The St. Louis-based 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals in 2015 upheld a trial court's dismissal of the suit. The appeals court said accepting the church's arguments would be "unprecedented," noting the Supreme Court's 2004 decision in the case Locke v. Davey that upheld a bar on Washington state scholarships for students preparing for the ministry.The justice who Gorsuch replaced, the late fellow conservative Antonin Scalia, was one of two dissenters in the Locke ruling. When a state withholds a generally available benefit solely on religious grounds, it is like an unconstitutional "special tax" on religion, Scalia said.Judicial observers have described Gorsuch as very much in the mold of Scalia.Missouri's grant program was meant to keep tires out of landfills while also fostering children's safety. The church's brief to the high court stated, "A rubber playground surface accomplishes the state's purposes whether it cushions the fall of the pious or the profane."REUTERS AKC RAI1650 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-856546.Xml
Flooding has made all bridges across the Tigris in and out of western Mosul impassable, cutting off aid supplies and escape routes for people fleeing the Islamic State-held part of the Iraqi city.With the bridges down, hundreds of civilians crossed the surging river on small wooden boats today, some carrying babies and all carting suitcases or bags full of clothes.They were some of the around 400,000 people still in western Mosul where Iraqi military forces are trying to dislodge IS from the Old City.Mosul's permanent bridges over the Tigris river have been destroyed during the fighting, but the army had built two pontoon bridges which had allowed people to flee to safety in the east, and aid to get through to a camp for the displaced on the western side of the river.But since the bridges were closed on Friday, no aid convoy has reached the Hammam al-Alil camp, southwest of Mosul, the main arrival point for displaced fleeing the fighting, a camp and a UN official said.It was unlcear whether the bridges had become submerged or damaged by the floods, but soldiers blocking the approach roads said they were unusable."The flooding has had a big impact. All road traffic has stopped," said an official at Hammam al-Alil, home to some 30,000 displaced people."We have limited supplies left."The camp, like other facilities in western Mosul, is supplied by road from Erbil, some 80 km to the east, in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region where aid agencies are based.Issam al-Jibouri, a displaced resident who went by boat to western Mosul to take supplies to needy relatives, said: "We urge more efforts to reconstruct the bridges or bring larger boats."Like others, he had to pay 1,000 Iraqi dinars (1 dollar) for the brief trip."People are suffering," said Mohammed Ahmed, a villager.REUTERS SHS BL2028 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0329-856888.Xml
US President Donald Trump on Sunday issued a number of tweets in a bid to downplay Saturday's protests across the country demanding the release of his tax returns. "Someone should look into who paid for the small organised rallies yesterday (Saturday)," Xinhua news agency quoted Trump as saying in a tweet. "The election is over!" "I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?" Trump tweeted minutes earlier. Demonstrators in dozens of US cities and towns, including Washington D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Palm Beach, where Trump was spending Easter Weekend at his resort Mar-a-Lago, marched on Saturday to demand Trump release his tax returns. Some rallies were joined by thousands of people. During his campaign and after the election victory, the Trump camp repeatedly refused to release Trump's tax returns, saying Trump's tax returns were under audit. However, many tax experts say Trump is not barred from releasing the information during the audit. While US Presidents are not required to release their tax returns, nearly all US Presidents had voluntarily released them since 1970s. Shortly after Trump's inauguration in January, Kellyanne Conway, senior counsellor to Trump, told US media that Trump would not release his tax returns, citing voters' indifference to the issue as one of the reasons. However, multiple polls have found that the majority of Americans want Trump to release his tax returns. Comedy writer Frank Lesser, whose tweet in January sparked the idea for the Tax March, said the participation in the nationwide marches proves that people want to see Trump's returns. "We march to demand that the President release his returns, as he has repeatedly promised, but failed, to do," the Tax March website reads. "We march because it is in the best interest of the American people to know what financial entanglements and conflicts of interest our leaders have." A petition demanding Trump release his tax returns garnered more than 1 million signatures. Many lawmakers, including some Republicans, have also called on Trump to make them public. --IANS lok/ ( 365 Words) 2017-04-17-03:16:08 (IANS)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-15 18:31:39|Editor: Mengjiao Liu

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai (C) attends an event in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April, 15, 2017. Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday strongly condemned the use of a massive bomb by U.S. military in eastern province of Nangarhar. (Xinhua/Jiang Chao)

KABUL, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday strongly condemned the use of a massive bomb by U.S. military in eastern province of Nangarhar.

"I strongly condemn the dropping of the latest weapon, the largest non-nuclear bomb on Afghanistan by the U.S. military," Karzai told audience at an event here.

On Thursday evening, the U.S. military dropped a GBU-43 or Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, on an Islamic State (IS) complex in Achin district of the mountainous province bordering Pakistan.

"It has been an insult, and the blast caused by the strike has severely damaged our environment," he said.

"The latest bombing was not an act against terrorism but the inhuman misuse of our country as a testing ground for dangerous weapons," he added.

The ex-president also questioned the United States for failing to fight the terror groups in Afghanistan, "You came to Afghanistan to fight terrorism but why terrorism and extremis have been spreading day by day and the bloodshed increased across Afghanistan,"

While Afghan officials stated that the strike was conducted with close coordination with Afghan security forces, Karzai also strongly criticize the government for allowing the U.S. military to conduct the raid.

More than 1,900 IS militants, several Afghan security forces and two U.S. soldiers have been killed in Achin and neighboring districts since early 2015 when IS emerged there, according to Afghan military officials.

A U.S. Special Forces member was killed in Achin over the weekend.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 00:57:44|Editor: Liangyu

Photo taken on Feb. 22, 2017 shows rime scenery at Huangshizhai scenic spot in Zhangjiajie, central China's Hunan Province. (Xinhua/Wu Yongbing)

by Xinhua writer Yang Shilong

NEW YORK, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Hollywood 3D blockbuster Avatar has recently got a new role -- promoting tourism for a unique national forest park located in Zhangjiajie City in central China's Hunan Province.

"These pillar-like mountain formations are the prototype for Avatar's fictive diorama of hanging, mist-shrouded peaks where Pandora's fearsome 'ikran' dragon birds had their nesting grounds," said Wang Zhaoye, Vice Secretary General of Zhangjiajie City, to a group of representatives from New York's tourism industry on Friday.

Wang was showing a video clip about the immense, scenic spread of mountain pillars in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, located 32 km from Zhangjiajie City, that appeared in the 2009 James Cameron movie.

Over 61 million tourists visited Zhangjiajie in 2016, an increase of 21 percent over the year before, said Wang, who is leading a tourism marketing team in the United States.

"Yet among all the tourists, Americans only account for 0.0003 percent," Wang said. "That's why we are here."

The Chinese official has every reason to use Avatar to draw attention of his American audience to the city. In the 160-minute movie, there are about 20 minutes of scenes that were inspired by the strikingly beautiful Zhangjiajie.

"It is other worldly, it is from other world, we were not prepared to see it, everything is unbelievable, just say, otherworldly, you thought you were in another world, so it is an extraordinary experience," Simone Olivier Bassous, executive director, Pacific Asia Travel Association New York Chapter, told Xinhua about her visit to Zhangjiajie in the 1980s.

"I am among the first Americans who visited Zhangjiajie," Bassous said. "If you don't go, you don't feel it. You have to see to believe it. I wish telling my clients, this is the Grand Canyon in China, same extraordinary, huge experience."

She said the Grand Canyon is "very special," so is Zhangjiajie.

"Everybody who goes there has a spiritual connection with it, it is there, it is how you connect it with, Zhang Jiajie is the same place, you see it, it does something to you."

When visiting Zhangjiajie in 1986, the then lieutenant governor of the Colorado State of America, Nancy. E. Dick, exclaimed that visitors to Zhangjiajie should pay five dollars for every breath. Indeed, Zhangjiajie is a huge "natural oxygen bar."

Bassous has great confidence in the future of Zhangjiajie's tourism.

"It has a future which is extraordinary for tourism. I should go back because since those days, you have arranged so many other ways to visit it, say the glass sky walk."

Bassous was referring to the world's longest and highest glass bridge in Zhangjiajie.

The Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge opened to the public on Aug. 20, 2016. It offers a way to enjoy a panoramic view of the stunning Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon -- if you dare to walk on it!
For me, Studio Ghibli is typically always on point with their films. As wild, odd and out-there as they may be, I can always find something that I love in each one  that is, until now. I blindly walked into Ocean Waves and, while watching it, sat there emotionlessly asking myself, 'Ghibli made this?!'

One element that I appreciate the most about Ghibli is that all of their films  be it a childish kids movie like Ponyo or a serious adult-themed film like The Wind Rises - is that there's always a deeper underlying meaning for the grown-up viewers. In other words, all Ghibli films are designed with deeper meanings. The big disappointment with Ocean Waves stems from that blanket statement no longer holding true to all Ghibli films. What you see is what you get, and what you see isn't very good.

Have you ever seen a film about two characters bound to a "will they or won't they" relationship? That dynamic can be compelling. It can emotionally pull you in - but if you mentally recognize that the combination of character personalities is toxic, then everything is for naught. With a character clash like that, you don't care if the two end up together or not. Let me introduce you to Ocean Waves.

Ghibli's 24-year-old film tells the story of a boy, Taku, and the one that got away from him. Their story begins in Taku's hometown of Kochi, Japan. While working as an after-school dishwasher, Taku gets a phone call from a friend, Yutaka, claiming to need Taku in that very moment. As if Yutaka's world was being burned down by a fire that only Taku could put out, Taku races from the restaurant. When he gets to Yutaka, he finds Yutaka sitting at a window entirely speechless. We immediately fear that he has terrible news; however, that's not the case. It turns out that Yutaka called Taku in distress because of a beautiful new girl, Rikako, that just moved to town and will be joining their middle school classes. For me, this classic act of adolescent boyhood started the film off on the right foot. I recall attractive girls having that same effect on me as a teenage boy. And the way the filmmakers executed it was perfect.

Unfortunately, that's the only charm that exists within the film. Our two leading characters, Taku and Rikako, are entirely selfish. We follow their friendship/relationship as they mature, yet their selfishness never reduces. They constantly throw others  and even one another  under the bus just to fulfill their selfish desires. This results in each of them being extremely unlikable. If you don't root for at least one of your main characters, then there's nothing worth investing in.

After watching the film, I did my due diligence of online research as prep for this review. It was then that I learned the sad history of the film: Ocean Waves isn't a Ghibli film; it's a Ghibli made-for-television movie. It wasn't created by the bright and creative minds of the studio's beloved titles. It was made by a bunch of youngsters that the studio heads deemed up-and-coming. Ocean Waves was their experiment. Considering it was made for television, it's no wonder that it has the feel of a '90s teenage high school drama. Series like 90210 and Dawson's Creek were popular at this time. Ocean Waves is like an animated version of those.

I didn't like teenage drama as a teenager and I certainly don't like it as thirty-something seeking on-screen entertainment. With Ocean Waves playing out like a standard CW high school series  love triangle and all  it didn't take long to not only lose me, but keep me at a great distance. Nothing that happens after the stellar opening sequence had the power to make me smile or believe that the film was headed in the right direction. Nothing that follows is worthy of the movie's great intro scene, making this Ghibli production a total bust.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray

Universal has given Ocean Waves a combo pack release that includes a Region-free BD-50 and a DVD  but not a digital copy. Both discs come in a standard two-disc Elite keepcase. A glossy and embossed cardboard slipcover is included that features a classy banner on the top that reads "A Studio Ghibli Film." (As good as it looks, I personally prefer Disney's consistent packaging style of Ghibli releases over Universal's.) Some pre-menu content plays when you start the disc, including trailers for Only Yesterday, When Marnie Was There and Miss Hokusaki, but all of it is skippable.

It's worth pointing out that Ocean Waves does not contain an English-language audio track. Instead, it features a solitary Japanese 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track and optional English subtitles.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 01:22:47|Editor: yan

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LUSAKA, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Saturday warned diplomats not to interfere in the country's internal affairs.

Various local media quoted the Zambian leader warning the diplomats in the wake of the arrest of the country's leading opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema who has been charged with treason, a move that has heightened tension in the southern African nation.

The United States (US) and the European Union (EU) have issued statements expressing concern over the heightened political tension in the country.

The News Diggers, a local online publication quoted the Zambian leader warning the diplomats not to meddle in the affairs of the country as Zambia was a sovereign state.

"Let me warn those who are accredited to Zambia as diplomats, those who run civil society organizations, who believe that I can interfere with the process, that they are wasting their time," the Zambian leader is quoted as saying.

"I want the diplomats to hear me loud and clear that they will not interfere with our sovereign matters here in Zambia. They came to represent their countries not to interfere in our governance, please," he added.

Lungu said he could not interfere in the matter and that the law should be allowed to take its course.

Hichilema, who narrowly lost to Lungu in last year's presidential election and has refused to recognize the Zambian leader as winner as he believes the vote was stolen, was arrested last Wednesday and charged with four counts, among them treason, together with five other party supporters.

His party said he may appear in court on Tuesday and 20 lawyers have been arranged to defend him.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 02:43:18|Editor: yan

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By Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, April 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 48 refugees, among them 13 children, were rescued by the Greek Coast Guard off the coast of Kephalonia on Saturday, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

The boat which was carrying them to Italy sent a distress call while sailing in the Ionian Sea off western Greece. It has not been clarified yet where they boarded the vessel.

Shortly before sunset, the boat was safely towed to the island's port of Argostoli where medical crews in ambulances were waiting to provide first care to people in need.

According to local authorities, the refugees, who are mainly Syrians and Kurds according to early information, will be temporarily accommodated at the premises of the local scouts association.

"These people need help and will remain on our island as long as necessary and they will be offered humanitarian aid and when the necessary procedures are completed they will be included in the readmission procedures," read a statement issued by the Regional Authority of Kephalonia.

After the closure of Greece's northern borders in February 2016, more than 62,000 refugees and migrants are stranded in Greece according to the latest official data released by the Greek government earlier this week.

As the procedures for their relocation under an EU program drag on for several months and the 2016 EU-Turkey deal has succeeded in stemming the flow via the Aegean Sea, some choose to risk their lives to continue their journey to central Europe via the Ionian Sea.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem (L), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (C) and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attend a joint press conference in Moscow, Russia, on April 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn)

MOSCOW, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Moscow and Doha support the strengthening of ceasefire in Syria and an objective investigation into a chemical attack in the country's Idlib, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said here on Saturday.

"With regard to Syria, our common position is the need to ensure a fully comprehensive ceasefire between the government and the armed opposition forces," Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.

Russia and Qatar also agree on the need to "continue anti-terror fight against the Islamic State and the Nusra Front terrorist groups, and accelerate the pursuit for a political solution to this crisis on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions," Lavrov said.

Lavrov said that the two parties had a regular dialogue covering key issues in the Middle East and North Africa, including the situation in Syria, Libya, Yemen and the Middle East settlement, as well as fighting international terrorism.

"We are interested in comparing our assessments of efforts on settling the Syrian crisis, efforts in which Qatar plays a significant role," the minister said.

Al-Thani, for his part, said that Qatar and Russia share similar views on the Syrian crisis settlement and that he hopes to bring the positions of Moscow and Doha on Syria closer in the negotiations.

"Speaking of Syria, we agree on many issues ... We have certain differences on how to achieve these goals, but I hope that through constructive dialogue we will manage to work through the contradictions and we will achieve security and stability in Syria soon," Al-Thani said.

According to Lavrov, the ministers also talked about the recent chemical weapons incident in Idlib, and both parties found it necessary to conduct "a thorough, objective, impartial and professional investigation."

"Within the framework of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations, we will insist on the urgent dispatch of inspectors both to the scene of the incident and to the airport where, as our Western colleagues' claim, the projectiles with chemical substances were loaded."

A reported April 4 toxic gas attack hit the rebel-held Idlib Province in northwestern Syria, killing over 80 people.

The West accused the Syrian government of planning and launching the attack, while the latter denied the accusation, saying that its air strikes hit an arms depot containing toxic gas and blaming the rebels for storing such chemical materials.

"It is necessary to bring all those responsible to justice, and therefore we will support all efforts aimed at that," Al-Thani said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 07:14:27|Editor: Mengjiao Liu

Photo taken on April 13, 2017 shows houses being built for the victims of the earthquake in 2016 in the province of Manabi, Ecuador. April 16 marks the first anniversary of the strongest earthquake Ecuador has ever faced since 1979. The powerful 7.8-magnitude quake killed 673 people and left some 12,000 people homeless.(Xinhua/Carlos Rodriguez/ANDES)

QUITO, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador will hold an open-air mass on Sunday to mark the one-year anniversary of a deadly earthquake that rumbled through the country's north coast on April 16, 2016, President Rafael Correa said on Saturday.

The powerful 7.8-magnitude quake killed 673 people and devastated coastal communities, causing more than 3.3 billion U.S. dollars in losses and leaving some 12,000 people homeless.

The department of Manabi, the epicenter of the quake, and neighboring Esmeraldas were the worst hit.

During his regularly scheduled weekly broadcast, Correa said the ceremony to be held at the central park of Pedernales, the nearest town of the epicenter, will pay homage to the hundreds who died in the natural disaster.

"Tomorrow, with thousands of Manabi residents and Ecuadorians from all over the country, in Pedernales, the quake's epicenter, we will remember the tragedy a year on, we will remember those who died," said Correa, adding the rebuilding effort has made "very rapid progress."

He also touted one of his government's key projects, the Chinese-designed emergency hotline ECU 911, for making the search and rescue efforts in the immediate aftermath of the quake so effective.

"It is the best integrated security system in all of Latin America," said Correa.
Thousands of protesters call on U.S. President Donald Trump to release his tax returns in downtown of Chicago, the United States, April 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

NEW YORK/CHICAGO, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of protesters took to the streets across the United States Saturday to demand that President Donald Trump release his tax returns.

The crowd in New York City stretched for blocks as speakers stood next to a giant inflatable rooster, bearing Trump's golden hairdo, on a stage in Bryant Park Saturday afternoon.

Comedy writer Frank Lesser, whose tweet in January sparked the idea for the Tax March, said the participation in the nationwide marches proves that people want to see Trump's returns.

The demonstrators left Bryant Park at about 2:30 p.m. to march to Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, chanting, "No more secrets, no more lies. Show your taxes, show your ties" as they walked.

"We march to demand that the president release his returns, as he has repeatedly promised, but failed, to do," the Tax March website reads. "We march because it is in the best interest of the American people to know what financial entanglements and conflicts of interest our leaders have."

An inflatable "Trump Chicken" is seen during the "Tax March" to call on U.S. President Donald Trump to release his tax records on Capitol in Washington D.C., the United States, on April 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

Trump has repeatedly said he can not release his tax returns because they are under audit, though many tax experts have said he is not barred from releasing the information during the audit.

In Chicago, the protest started at Daley Square in downtown. It is more like an outdoor gathering: an orchestra band playing at intervals, many protestors dancing to the tune of the music; toddlers sat in strollers, and infants carried in parents' arms.

Protesters holding placards and banners that read "I demand transparency," "Donald, release your taxes," and "What are you hiding?"

"We are not reporters, but we care," said a protester, referring to Trump's remarks that only reporters care about his tax return.

After the organizers took turn to give speeches, the protestors marched northward and stopped on the bank of the Chicago River across the Trump Tower.

Other tax marches took place in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and dozens of other cities. They coincide with the April 18 deadline for tax returns in 2017.

A petition demanding him release them garnered more than 1 million signatures. Many lawmakers, including some Republicans, have also called on Trump to make them public.
SEOUL, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) attempted early Sunday to test-fire an unidentified missile on its east coast, which was believed to have failed, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The JCS confirmed the botched missile launch, saying it is still analyzing what type of missile was launched.

On April 5, the DPRK test-fired a ballistic missile at a nearby region on the east coast, but it fell in eastern waters after abnormally flying about 60 km.

At the time, the South Korean military identified it as Pukguksong-2, an intermediate-range ballistic missile known to be newly developed based on a technology of submarine-launched ballistic missile.

The failed show of force by the DPRK came amid mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which was caused by the USS Carl Vinson and its accompanying warships that have re-routed and headed to the peninsula about a week earlier.

The DPRK held a massive military parade on Saturday to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of DPRK founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current top leader Kim Jong Un.

During the parade, the DPRK showed off what were believed to be three types of intercontinental ballistic missile.

South Korea's top presidential advisor for security affairs, Kim Kwan-jin, planned to convene a meeting of national security council at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Sunday morning.

The security council meeting would be attended by ministers of foreign affairs, unification and defense as well as intelligence agency chief and senior presidential secretary for security and foreign affairs.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is serving as acting South Korean president following the impeachment of Park Geun-hye.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is set to arrive in South Korea later Sunday for his trip to Asia. Pence is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Hwang and hold a joint press conference in Seoul on Monday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 10:55:12|Editor: Liangyu

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LONDON, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Following its well-received tours to New York and Sydney, dancers from Hong Kong, China on Saturday night staged here the British premiere of its signature dance drama The Legend of Mulan, one of the most legendary women of ancient China.

The performance at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Center in London by the Hong Kong Dance Company (HKDC) is in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, sponsored and supported by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, London.

Organizers said it is an exclusive performance of the time-honored folktale about love, peace and virtue.

The British audience was fascinated by the stunning moves of Hong Kong's finest dancers.

The story centers around Hua Mulan, a peasant girl who disguised herself as a man to join the army in place of her aged father. Mulan fought for a decade and gained much respect. She gave up a position at court and retired to her hometown instead. Mulan showed extraordinary courage when it came to protecting her country and family.

A heroine with moral courage and intelligence, Mulan's exceptional wisdom and vision transcend fame and fortune. Over time, the unusual adventures and touching story of Mulan rose in popularity as a folktale and was widely taught in schools. It has also inspired a number of screen and stage adaptations, including the hit animated Disney movie released in 1998.

The Legend of Mulan received two Hong Kong Dance Awards in 2014 for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Ensemble Performance for its spectacular dancing featuring "thrilling battle scenes balanced by a touching portrayal of Mulan's relationship with her father."

As the show's director and choreographer, Yang Yuntao said the classic Chinese story of Hua Mulan is familiar to most Chinese. Artists, in particular, have a penchant for this tale, because the universal values embedded in it enable people from different cultural backgrounds to find their own perspective of appreciation.

In capturing its poetic spirit, he said HKDC transforms the narrative voice into dance movement, and pays meticulous attention to the aesthetical effect of the dance.

"When choreographing the dance, I am most impressed by the spiritual congruity between the bodily semantics of Chinese dance and the Mulan tale. Chinese dance is distinct from ballet or modern dance and is, in fact, an embodiment of the traits of various forms of art. It is a synthesis of traditional Chinese dance, xiqu (Chinese operas), as well as martial arts, ballet, and many more," Yang said.

"As a dance company from Hong Kong, we are closely identified with the city. This metropolis has, perhaps unexpectedly, a very good connection between tradition and modernity. It never loses its root, but it is always open to newness; it embraces almost everything, every kind of things in whatever styles; it bonds with China, and is nurtured by the traditional culture of China. Born in such a city, Hong Kong Dance Company is youthful and vibrant," he said.

"It is, like its home, seeking to reinterpret traditional Chinese culture in a new, contemporary perspective," Yang added.

HKDC was established in 1981 with the aim of promoting Chinese dance. The company has toured internationally as well as cities in China to boost cultural exchange. It has staged over 100 productions, many of which received critical and public acclaim alike.

Yang is of the Bai ethnic minority in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan. He has won many awards for both his dance performances and choreographic works. He has been HKDC's artistic director since 2013.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 12:05:21|Editor: Xiang Bo

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ANKARA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- More than 167,000 polling stations across Turkey opened at 7 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) on Sunday for a referendum on expanding presidential powers.

More than 55 million Turkish citizens will vote on constitutional amendment that proposes replacement of the current parliamentary system with an executive presidential system.
ANKARA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- More than 167,000 polling stations across Turkey opened at 7 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) on Sunday for a referendum on expanding presidential powers.

More than 55 million Turkish citizens, including 1 million first-time voters, will vote on constitutional amendment that proposes replacing the current parliamentary system with an executive presidential system.

The referendum, initiated by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will end at 4 p.m.(1300 GMT).

In Turkey's western provinces, the voting process will start and end one hour later than the official time. Ballot counting will begin as soon as the polls close.

The referendum is expected to attract a high turnout, with 1.2 million young people eligible to vote for the first time.

The "Yes" campaign is backed by the ruling Justice and Development Party and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party, whereas the main opposition Republican People's Party is in favor of "No."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 13:35:36|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- A convoy sent by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy rescued a Panamanian ship that was being attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday.

The PLA Daily reported Sunday that Frigate Hengyang of China's 25th convoy fleet received a report around 9:30 p.m. Saturday Beijing Time from the Mercury system saying that the ship ALHEERA was under attack by five pirates and was requesting help.

Hengyang set out immediately and dispatched its shipboard helicopter to the area. The helicopter arrived at the oil tanker at around 10:30 p.m. and drove away the suspected pirates.

The ALHEERA was deemed safe and continued its passage, said the newspaper.

Since 2008, Chinese fleet have escorted more than 6,000 ships through this vital sea route and have successfully rescued or aided more than 60 Chinese and foreign ships.
Genres : Documentary

Starring : Paul Ainsworth, Dave Alexander, Andrea Alvin, Joe Dante

Plot Synopsis

24x36: A Movie About Movie Posters" is a documentary that explores the world of illustrated movie poster art; the artists who create it, companies and studios that commission it, galleries that display it and collectors and fans who hang it.



Through interviews with a number of key art personalities from the '70s and '80s, as well as many modern, alternative poster artists  "24x36" aims to answer the question  What happened to the illustrated movie poster? Where did it disappear to and why?



In the mid 2000s, filling the void left behind by Hollywoods abandonment of illustrated movie posters, independent artists and galleries began selling limited edition screenprinted posters. This movement has quickly exploded into a multi-million dollar industry, with prints selling out online in seconds, inspiring Hollywood studios to take notice of illustration in movie posters once more.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 13:40:37|Editor: Lu Hui

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MEXICO CITY, April 15 (Xinhua) -- The head bodyguard of the sons of captive drug baron Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been killed in a clash with Mexico's naval forces, officials said on Saturday.

Francisco Zazueta, alias "Pancho Chimal," died in a gunfight Friday between naval troops and members of the Sinaloa Cartel, the international drug trafficking and organized crime syndicate headed by Guzman in northwest Sinaloa state, according to Mexico's Navy.

The clash took place in Badiraguato, El Chapo's foothold. Five soldiers also died in the fighting.

Zazueta, suspected of aiding attacks against soldiers last year, was arrested in February but escaped with four other prisoners from a state penitentiary in March, less than a month after he was imprisoned.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 15:10:51|Editor: ZD

A worker counts Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB) at a bank in Linyi, east China's Shandong Province, Aug. 11, 2015. (Xinhua/Zhang Chunlei)

BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Despite speculation to the contrary, the U.S. government has decided not to brand China a currency manipulator. After seeking truth from facts, the United States has chosen a direction that will benefit the two economies and the world at large.

In a semiannual report to the U.S. Congress published late Friday, the Treasury Department declared that no major trading partner of the U.S., including China, was manipulating its currency.

While it is a sharp reversal from the rhetoric of U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign trail, nearly three months into his presidency, this different tone chimes with a more realistic view of China's currency.

It shows his tough talk on China was only campaign rhetoric, said Wei Benhua, a senior researcher at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University.

Economists have argued that China currently does not merit the label of currency manipulator, and the Chinese currency, RMB, has been at equilibrium level in recent years.

The Treasury uses three measures to decide if a country is being manipulated: whether the country runs a sizeable surplus in trade with America; whether its current-account surplus exceeds 3 percent of GDP; and whether it spends more than 2 percent a year to buy foreign assets to suppress the value of its currency.

China only meets the first criteria by running over 20 billion U.S. dollars of trade surplus with the United States, said Zhu Jianfang, chief economist with the Citic Securities.

China has spared no efforts to keep the RMB at a stable level over the past few years; exactly the opposite of currency manipulation, he added.

Over the last decade, China's effective exchange rate has appreciated more than any other major currency, rising more than 40 percent, said David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Brad Setser, a researcher with the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that the RMB exchange rate is now close to equilibrium. He expects the RMB will remain stable at the current level with China's current account surplus and its efforts to deal with capital outflows.

The U.S. administration's new stance on the currency issue was likely influenced by the recent meeting of the leaders of the two countries in Florida, where they were able to better understand each other, said Zhao Xijun, a finance professor with Renmin University.

With the currency spat subduing, economists said the chance of a trade war between the world's two largest economies will be slim at most.

"The possibility of a trade war could be ruled out as the U.S. government has dropped the manipulator claim, " Zhu Jianfang said, adding the two countries have huge space for cooperation, which is good for both sides.

"It would be hard for me to imagine a full on trade war between the U.S. and China as it would be too damaging to the two greatest economies in the world, and it could easily pull the rest of the world into the biggest recession we will ever see," said John Ling, president of the Council of American States in China.

As many of the new U.S. cabinet members have experience in the private sector working with China, he said, it was a positive sign that there would be disputes and issues, but both sides will try to maintain a relationship that will benefit the citizens in both countries.

Economists also foresee that the news will help keep the RMB stable.

It seems the market was given a stable expectation for the RMB trading and big fluctuations of the RMB will not occur, as the market could always be greatly influenced by significant government talks, Zhao Xijun said.

Observers also said the RMB's exchange rate is essentially decided by China's economic fundamentals which currently do not warrant a weaker RMB.

Thanks to China's consistent efforts to allow the market to decide the exchange rates, the International Monetary Fund declared the RMB as no longer undervalued in 2015.

Under Obama administration, the Treasury also dropped its previous assessment that the RMB was "significantly undervalued".
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 15:30:57|Editor: ZD

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BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exchanged views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula via phone on Sunday.

They also discussed the implementation of those agreements reached by the two countries' presidents during their first meeting in U.S. state of Florida earlier this month.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 16:11:03|Editor: xuxin

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SEOUL, April 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea on Sunday as part of his first trip to Asia, and is expected to talk with the South Korean side about issues related to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Pence is scheduled to pay a visit to the Seoul National Cemetery and have dinner with combined forces of South Korea and the United States later in the day. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed here.

His visit to South Korea followed the DPRK's failed test-launch of an unidentified missile earlier in the day.

The missile was fired from the DPRK's eastern coastal city of Sinpo, but it exploded during launch.

Tensions escalated on the Korean Peninsula as an U.S. aircraft carrier re-routed and headed to the peninsula, just after participating in the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises last month.

The rare re-routing of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships triggered concerns here about possible U.S. airstrike on DPRK targets.

The U.S. vice president is set to meet Monday with South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is serving as acting president following the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye.

Hwang and Pence are said to talk about the DPRK issues amid the growing tensions on the peninsula.

Pence is also scheduled to meet with South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun and businessmen here, before leaving for Japan on Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 16:26:07|Editor: ZD

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A woman recieves her ballot at a polling station in Ankara, Turkey, on April 16, 2017. More than 167,000 polling stations across Turkey opened at 7 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) on Sunday for a referendum on expanding presidential powers. (Xinhua/Qin Yanyang)

ANKARA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Turkish people are going to polling stations on Sunday to vote for "Yes" or "No" on a 18-article constitutional amendment that will shift Turkey's administrative system to executive presidency.

The referendum is to decide whether to abolish the office of the prime minister and hand all executive power to the president, in the meanwhile weaken the parliament's role.

The voting started at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) and will end at 4 p.m.(1300 GMT).

Pollsters expect a high turnout among some 55 million eligible voters. Last week, many polls indicated a neck-and-neck race among nay and yea.

Turkey's Supreme Board of Election announced that 167,140 boxes are ready for the referendum with 461 of them installed in prisons.

Overseas Turkish people had till April 9 to cast their votes, with more than 1 million registered to have voted in 57 countries. Besides that, a total of 120 boxes placed at 31 customs gates will open on Sunday to those who have missed the two-week voting period.

Some 251,800 policemen and 128,455 gendarmerie members are deployed to secure the voting, while 17,000 security forces are safeguarding critical locations such as power supplies and transmission units.

The country goes to referendum under a state of emergency declared after a failed coup attempt in July and extended several times.

In October, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) raised the issue of presidential system that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been pursuing for years.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the MHP alliance enabled related constitutional amendments to pass the parliament with 339 votes.

The amendments have been criticized by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the People's Democratic Party (HDP) for breaking the principle of separation of powers in the parliamentary democracy, while the ruling party defends it, citing inefficiency of the existing administrative system.

Opponents argue that Erdogan, who has been in power as prime minister or president for 14 years, is becoming increasingly autocratic. They believe that the move will simply cement his hold on power in a "Turkish style" presidential system, which will have few checks and balances.

In addition, the AKP and MHP stress that the current constitution is not efficient enough to meet the economic and executive needs of the country.

Should the constitutional amendment pass the referendum, a new administrative system would take effect after the elections in 2019 when Erdogan's current term ends.

The changes are expected to enable a re-elected Erdogan to head the ruling AKP while serving as the president, and make high-level appointments including members of Turkey's top judicial body without the parliament's approval.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 16:36:08|Editor: An

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TAIYUAN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- A donation ceremony was held Sunday for a Taiwanese monastery to return an ancient pagoda body that was stolen 19 years ago from Shanxi Province.

Dengyu stone tower, originally located in Dengyu village of Yushe county, Shanxi, features Buddha images carved into the four-faced tower body. The colorful piece was made in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The tower was 320 centimeters high and composed of a base, a 177-centimeter body, a tower eave and spire. It is an excellent example of Tang Dynasty stone carving and was given provincial-level protection in 1965.

In 1996, the spire was stolen and is still missing. The tower body was stolen in 1998, taken out of the Chinese mainland, and donated by a private collector to Taiwan's Chung Tai Chan Monastery in 2015. The monastery decided to return the tower to Shanxi after it confirmed its origins in 2016.

The tower arrived at Shanxi Provincial Museum on January 24, 2017.

"We really appreciate the temple's decision," said Wang Taiming, head of Yushe county's cultural relic bureau.

"The donation is an excellent example of cultural exchange between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland," said Master Jian Deng, abbot of the Chung Tai Chan Monastery.

The museum said it will speed up improvements to safety facilities to preserve the pagoda and organize an exhibition.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 17:06:12|Editor: ZD

Death toll has risen to 112 in blast against Shiite evacuees in northern Syria on Sunday. (Xinhua Photo)

DAMASCUS, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the bombing that rocked the convoy of Shiite evacuees in northern Syria rose to 112, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group reported on Sunday.

The blast, carried out by a suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped potato truck, rocked the rebel-held Rashideen area in the countryside of Aleppo province, where buses carrying 5,000 pro-government Shiite people were waiting the reactivation of a deal designed to secure their transportation to government-controlled area in Aleppo.

The deal, recently reached between the rebels and the government under the supervision of Iran, Turkey and Qatar, was designed to secure evacuation of the people from the pro-government Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa in Idlib province toward government areas in Aleppo province.

In return, the government will allow rebels and their families to leave the rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani in northern Damascus to reach Idlib province.

The evacuation started on Friday, with 5,000 Shiite people leaving Kafaraya and Foa, and 2,300 rebels and their families leaving the town of Madaya as first batches.

The Shiite people reached the rebel-held town of Rashideen, while the rebels reached the government-controlled Ramouseh crossing in Aleppo.

Both convoys were set to leave to their respective destinations, before the rebels in Rashideen held the convoy of the Shiite people, adding new demands to the original deal.

But after the deadly bombing, the rebels apparently succumbed to the pressure of their regional backers and allowed the buses to proceed to the government-controlled Aleppo city, marking thus the implementation of first part of the deal, through a prisoner swap that began on Wednesday and the evacuation that started on Friday and ended on Saturday.

Still, around 3,000 people are still in the Shiite towns waiting their turn in evacuation. Once they are out, both towns will be completely emptied of their population, and the rebels will take over, after besieging the towns for years.

It's the same with Madaya and Zabadani, as the army entered Madaya on Friday following the evacuation of the first batch of rebels and their families.

The next step of evacuation will be in Zadabani, where 500 rebel commanders and civilians are set to leave next.

Still, it's not clear when the second batch will leave the four towns, particularly after the explosion.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 17:36:22|Editor: xuxin

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BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exchanged views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula via phone on Sunday.

The talk came after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had reportedly fired an unidentified missile early on Sunday from its eastern coastal city of Sinpo.

But the missile was believed to have exploded on launch, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Yang and Tillerson also discussed the implementation of those agreements reached by the two countries' presidents during their first meeting in the U.S. state of Florida earlier this month.

The successful meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate has set a constructive tone, defined the direction and made a plan for the development of bilateral ties, Yang told Tillerson, noting that the two leaders also held a good phone conversation just a few days ago.

For the next stage, the two sides should make joint efforts, in accordance with the spirit and consensus reached in the two heads of state's meeting and phone conversation, to strengthen high-level exchanges and dialogues and expand mutually beneficial cooperation, Yang said.

China and the United States should manage their differences on the basis of mutual respect and promote greater development of bilateral ties, so as to better serve the two peoples and peoples of the world, he added.

For his part, Tillerson noted that the two presidents' meeting at Mar-a-Lago and the phone conversation are positive and fruitful.

The United States looks forward to enhancing communication with China, preparing for the next stage's high-level exchanges and dialogues, and jointly pushing forward bilateral relations, said Tillerson.

Xi and Trump met in Florida on April 6 and 7, the first face-to-face communication between the Chinese and U.S. heads of state since the new U.S. administration took office.

The pair on Wednesday held a telephone conversation to discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Syria.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 18:01:34|Editor: xuxin

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by Ronald Ssekandi and Yuan Qing

YUMBE, Uganda, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Uganda is paying the price of having an open refugee policy that has attracted thousands of refugees from neighboring countries.

The east African country has the biggest Refugee Settlement in the world, hosting over 270,000 South Sudanese refugees. The country is host to over 1.5 million refugees from neighboring countries.

Once a refugee arrives in Uganda and goes through the necessary documentations, he or she is allocated a piece of land where they can cultivate their own food instead of entirely depending on relief especially in the face of dwindling financial support to humanitarian agencies.

The country last year announced that refugees will be allowed to work to gain income to cater for their families. The skills gained would also be helpful when they return home.

All these measures are geared towards empowering refugees to become self-reliant and reduce their dependence on humanitarian aid.

These measures are summed up in the country's five-year 350 million U.S. dollar project dubbed Refugee and Host Population Empowerment.

The project has already received endorsements from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

UNHCR head Filippo Grandi on a visit to the refugee settlements in northern Uganda last year, he urged the world to embrace the policy noting that it can be a global model on refugee management and response in the longer term.

Since then, Uganda and humanitarian agencies have been calling for support but it has not been coming in as expected.

Uganda is now arguing that it is at a breaking point because the influx of refugees is already putting pressure on the meagre resources government has to cater for the rest of its citizens.

Experts are now arguing that the world should come to the rescue of Uganda noting that the country should not pay the price for being good to refugees.

Wellington Carneiro, who has experience with working on humanitarian crises in Chad, Cameroon, Sudan argues that the world should not let Uganda's policy die off.

"Uganda has turned out to be the biggest refugee host country in Africa with over 1.3 million refugees. Uganda needs support and this operation is critically underfunded," Carneiro told Xinhua in an interview at Ngomoromo, a border post between Uganda and South Sudan through which refugees are fleeing to Uganda. Carneiro works for the UNHCR as a field officer at Ngomoromo.

Gilbert Kamanga, National Director, World Vision Uganda argues that if the international community is hailing Uganda for its open refugee policy, it should be able to fund it because the policy is an example to the world.

"In Uganda, we have a better model that can work for both the host community and the refugees because this problem is not coming to an end soon. The international community should think and act responsibly," Kamanga said.

He said in the face of dwindling international support to humanitarian crises, the Uganda model is critical in ensuring self-sustenance.

Uganda's refugee policy is perhaps an example to the world on how to manage the refugee question if the world is for a bright future.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 18:06:36|Editor: xuxin

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JUBA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's rebel group of SPLA-IO said on Sunday that at least 14 civilians were killed during the fighting between their forces and government troops in the western town of Raga.

SPLA-IO Deputy Spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel told Xinhua that the government troops attacked Raga town on Saturday morning, killing at least 10 civilians they accused of being sympathizers of the opposition.

Gabriel said four other civilians died in crossfire, adding that the death toll could be higher after government forces retook Raga town.

"The government forces launched air and ground attacks on Raga town after we captured it on Friday. Four civilians were killed in crossfire and ten others were killed by government troops who accused them of being our supporters. These are the ones we counted but the number would be more," Lam said.

The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) urged the country's warring parties to show restraint and commit themselves to respect international humanitarian laws and protect civilians in conflict.

South Sudan plunged into civil war in December 2013, leading to deaths of tens of thousands of people and displacement of 1.5 million others into neighboring countries.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 under international pressure from the UN and regional blocs has failed to end the violence as it was shattered in July 2016 after fresh fighting erupted between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar.
News / Local

by Staff Reporter

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has blamed civil servants salaries for continued cash crisis which has forced several banks to reduce daily withdrawal limits to as low as $20.RBZ boss John Mangudya said monthly cash demand of more than $200 million to meet by civil servants salaries was 'putting a strain on the supply of bank notes in the market'."We are advising that queues for cash at banks occur mainly on Government paydays as Government employees convert their virtual earnings into physical cash," he told state controlled Sunday Mail."This mismatch (of physical cash demand) is the one causing queues at banks as banks and the Reserve Bank would be required to find and or import foreign exchange cash to meet the physical cash demands for Government and other sectors' employees."Government is the biggest employer in the country and its employees need cash demands of more than US$200 million monthly."We hope the continuous unavailability of high value denominations of US$50 and US$100 bills will mitigate against money laundering and capital flight."
File photo shows relatives of the 36 construction workers killed by Al-Shabaab militants in Mandera county, Kenya, on Dec. 3, 2014. The East African nation has witnessed several attacks since 2011 when it participated in fights against the Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia. (Xinhua/Simbi Kusimba)

by Joy Nabukeya

KILIFI, Kenya, April 16 (Xinhua) -- As Kenya intensifies the war against terrorism, relatives of suspected Al-Shabaab militants are enduring immense stigma, threats and blackmail from combatants on both sides of the battle.

Speaking during a recent forum in the coastal town of Kilifi, the female relatives of terror suspects narrated how they have become unwitting victims of a complex fight between the militants and security forces.

Those who agreed to be interviewed by Xinhua on condition of anonymity revealed an intricate but harrowing account of what they have undergone either as victims of terrorism or target for interrogation by security apparatus.

Fatihiya (not her real name) only learnt about her son's involvement in the terror group Al-Shabaab when he was injured during one of the raids by African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) troops based in Somalia.

She had suspected that her son, who had earlier disappeared without notice, might have been recruited by the al-Qaida-linked militant group, but when the news came, Fatihiya was still devastated immensely.

"As a mother, when I was lured to a nondescript place at the mention of the condition of my son, I readily obliged, little did I know that it would be the beginning of this traumatic experience dealing with the members of a dreaded militant group," said Fatihiya.

"I was put in a very difficult position because Al-Shabaab still had my injured son and kept threatening me that if I did not do their bidding they would kill my son. In any case, they said, he was useless to them because of the injuries he sustained," she said.

Fatihiya is now deeply entangled in Al-Shabaab messy affairs, though not as a fighter or suicide bomber.

She revealed to Xinhua that she has been running errands for the terror network and occasionally met her son in an undisclosed location to evade surveillance by security forces.

"The Al-Shabaab militants are heartless and use very crude means to get supplies like drugs to their camp. It is as if they are aware my son is so dear to me and because of that I would go at whatever length to ensure that he is not killed," said Fatihiya.

"But deep down I know they are just using me and my son as an excuse. The mode of transporting drugs-both medicinal and hard drugs is the most painful exercise and even more dangerous because I have to use some routes that are not frequently used to get to Somalia," she added.

She decried the degrading treatment she always undergoes while delivering the consignment of drugs in the Al-Shabaab hideouts.

"It is so dehumanizing," Fatihiya said, adding that she was stripped naked to get the drugs stashed into her private parts for safe delivery.

She disclosed that she had reported the disappearance of her son to Kenyan authorities, though no positive response has been forthcoming.

Likewise, many rights campaigners were yet to honor her request for help and only paraded her before donors only to worsen her vulnerability, said Fatihiya.

The heartbroken woman has terminated engagement with security personnel or rights groups and has reconciled with the tragic reality of her son not escaping from the snares of a vicious terrorist network.

A female trauma counselor who spoke to Xinhua on condition of anonymity said female relatives of terror suspects hardly share their traumatic experience to loved ones or friends.

She noted Fatihiya represents a growing rank of women who have been forced by circumstances to cooperate with Al-Shabaab because their husbands, sons or brothers have joined the militant group as combatants.

Such women, the expert said, run a number of errands for the Al-Shabaab including spying and smuggling supplies and weapons into their base in exchange for the lives and wellbeing of their relatives.

"Some of these women have sought help from state security agencies and rights groups but their pleas are yet to be answered. Consequently, they have become hopeless, scared and traumatized. They literally live at the mercy of the rebel group that watches their every move," said the therapist.

"At the moment there is no legal framework in Kenya to deal with such cases and that is why female relatives of terror suspects dread to come out in the open and share their traumatic experiences," she added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 18:16:39|Editor: Liu

Container freighter Netherlands of China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO) anchors at a wharf in east China's Shanghai Municipality, April 15, 2017. Container freighter Netherlands will stop by Singapore, the Suez Canal, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp and the Pireaus Port in Greece after it leaves Shanghai. (Xinhua/Chen Fei)

by Xinhua writers Yan Liang, Zheng Kaijun

SHANGHAI, April 16 (Xinhua) -- One of today's most technically-advanced ships in the world set sail from here on Sunday to retrace the oldest maritime route that linked China with the rest of the world.

Merchant Vessel (M.V.) COSCO Netherlands is leaving Yangshan Deep Water Port at 7 p.m. local time (1100 GMT), in Shanghai, the world's largest cargo port, and will dock in the Port of Ningbo in east China, the Port of Singapore, the Suez Canal, the Pireaus Port in Greece, and ports in Rotterdam of Netherlands, Hamburg of Germany, and Antwerp of Belgium, in its about 40-day journey.

Products with internationally well-known brand, like Hewlett-Packard (HP) computers, Sony LCD monitors, Hisense TV, Haier refrigerators, automobile spare parts and bicycles, assembled or made in China, are on board for export to northwestern European and other countries.

An over 150,000 ton oceangoing container vessel, the giant is 366-meter long, 51.2-meter wide and 67-meter high, and can carry up to 13,386 TEU (20 foot equivalent unit). It was manufactured by China's Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co., Ltd. in 2013.

China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited, owner of M.V. COSCO Netherlands, offers service on more than 100 routes globally, including those from the Far East to northwestern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Africa, as well as regional feeders within Europe and Southeast Asia nations. Part of the route that M.V.COSCO Netherlands travels overlaps with the ancient Maritime Silk Road and its history can be traced back to ancient time.

Yao Wei, a 30-year-old engine room engineman from Jiangsu Province, first time on board M.V. COSCO Netherlands, told Xinhua, "I am very looking forward to this new journey, from history to reality, from China to Europe. It must be very impressive."

The ancient Maritime Silk Road was a crucial conduit for trade and cultural exchanges between China's southeastern coastal regions and countries in Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.

It was first formed in the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.-220 A.D.), developed from the Three Kingdoms Period to Sui Dynasty (220-618 A.D.), flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties (618-1279 A.D.), and fell into decline in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911 A.D.).

Through the sea route, silk, tea and china were exported, while spices and rare treasures like precious stones were brought to China.

During the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368 A.D.), renowned Italian traveler and explorer Marco Polo headed for China along the Silk Road. After living in China for 17 years, he left from Quanzhou, a coastal city in southeast China's Fujian Province, or one of the starting points of the ancient Maritime Silk Road.

Marco Polo's remarks and memories of China were recorded in the book -- the Travels of Marco Polo, which described China's politics, economy, culture and prosperity in detail at that time.

As ancient trade through sailing driven by monsoons and ocean currents gave way to the transoceanic trade via container freighters between China and Europe, the Maritime Silk Road has also witnessed the growth of cultural exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.

Now, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, or together the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, aim to build an even stronger trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes and promote common development among all countries involved.

In May this year, China will host the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, during which participants will have an opportunity to explore cooperation opportunities, build cooperation platforms and share the outcomes of cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 18:16:40|Editor: xuxin

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BAGHDAD, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Iraq on Sunday condemned the massive bomb attack on a convoy of buses evacuating some 5,000 civilians to government-controlled areas in Syria.

"Iraq expresses its strong condemnation for the criminal terrorist act that targeted innocent civilians evacuated from the Syrian towns of Kefraya and Foah," the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

"Iraq also calls on the international community to make this horrible crime, which has claimed the lives of dozens of children, women and the elderly, enough reason to show seriousness in solving the Syrian crisis peacefully and away from the pursuit of some countries to achieve their political interests," the statement said.

The direct attack on innocent civilians by some armed parties in the Syrian conflict "requires a real international stand to curb those brutal groups and punish them," the statement added.

At least 112 people were killed and 124 others wounded in a blast on Saturday targeting the gathering point of buses transporting Shiites evacuating from two pro-government towns in northern Syria.

The blast, carried out by a suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped potato truck, rocked the rebel-held rural Rashideen area in Aleppo province.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 18:36:43|Editor: Mengjiao Liu

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Zhang Dejiang (L), chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, meets with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, April 14, 2017. Zhang paid an official goodwill visit to Lithuania on April 14-16. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

VILNIUS, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China and Lithuania have agreed to facilitate closer cooperation and stronger ties as China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang concluded his visit to the Baltic country on Sunday.

Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress (NPC), paid an official goodwill visit to Lithuania on April 14-16.

"The history of China-Lithuania ties shows that it could achieve stable and healthy growth as long as the two countries respect each other, treat one another equally, understand and support each other on issues regarding respective core interests and major concerns," Zhang told Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

Zhang said China-Lithuania relations have entered a mature and stable new stage.

China has always advocated that all countries, no matter big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal members of the international community, Zhang said.

He vowed joint efforts with Lithuania to cement understanding and trust, and boost bilateral ties up to a new high.

China's stable economic growth will offer more development opportunities for various countries including Lithuania, Zhang said.

Grybauskaite, for her part, said Lithuania highly values its relations with China, sticks to the one-China policy and respects China's core interests.

She pledged to strengthen high-level exchanges and practical cooperation with China.

In his meeting with Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, Zhang hailed the sound momentum of bilateral cooperation in all areas. "The two-way trade volume saw an increase last year regardless of the sluggish world economy, which reflected the potential of bilateral trade cooperation," Zhang said.

The cooperation between both sides in such areas as transport logistics and infrastructure has witnessed remarkable progress under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the cooperation mechanism between China and 16 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, Zhang said.

Launched in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative is a massive economic and trade project for common development and prosperity in countries along its routes in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Zhang called for Lithuania to offer policy support for cooperation between companies of both sides.

China highly treasures its relations with Europe, firmly supports the European integration, and regards Lithuania as an important partner in the European Union (EU), Zhang said, urging the country to contribute to closer China-EU ties.

Skvernelis told Zhang that Lithuania is ready to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and the CEE-China cooperation, vowing to cement cooperation with China in transportation, agriculture, technology and tourism.

He appreciated China's support for Lithuania's export of agricultural products.

Zhang also held talks with Speaker Viktoras Pranckietis of Seimas, the Lithuanian parliament.

Calling parliamentary exchanges an important component of bilateral ties, Zhang urged the two legislative bodies to forge closer links, consolidate political trust, enhance communications of policies and laws, share governance experience and expand exchanges between the people, parties and localities.

Pranckietis vowed to boost exchanges with the Chinese NPC to contribute to bilateral friendship and overall relations.

During his stay in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, Zhang visited Vilnius University and its Confucius Institute.

Lithuania is the second leg of Zhang's four-nation tour on April 12-21. After winding up his visits to Latvia and Lithuania, he will travel to Belarus and Russia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 19:06:47|Editor: xuxin

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ISLAMABAD, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan army said on Sunday that the security forces have recovered huge cache of arms in two tribal regions that were used for terrorist activities in the country.

The army and other law enforcement agencies are currently engaged in intelligence-based operations across the country to target the hideouts of the militants and their facilitators.

The military announced on Feb. 22 the start of the operation codenamed "Radd-ul-Fasaad," or "Reject Discord" in English, after a series of terrorist attacks that killed over 100 people in the country.

"Security forces recover huge cache of arms and ammunition including rockets, prepared IEDs, explosive, grenades, mortar bombs, different types of weapons and communication equipment" from Kalaya area in Orakzai tribal agency and Parachinar in Kurram tribal agency, the army said.

The operations were launched on credible intelligence, a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations said.

The army said that a center of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan that was established in underground tunnels in Kalaya was destroyed during the operation.

In a separate operation in Parachinar, a main city in Kurram agency, the paramilitary Frontier Corps and intelligence agencies recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition including rockets, IEDs, grenade, mines, mortar ammo, explosives different types of weapons and communication equipment.

Kurram agency, which bordering Afghanistan, has been the focus of the Taliban groups and their bombers killed dozens in deadly attacks in recent months.

"The recovery of such huge cache indicates planning for major terrorist attack which has been averted", the army said.
MOGADISHU, April 16 (Xinhua) -- At least two Al-Shabaab militants were killed in a mortar attack in Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday, a government official confirmed.

At least three mortars landed into a residential area in Wadajir district which is near the heavily guarded Mogadishu airport, which has seen mortar attacks by the militants in the past few days.

Minister of Internal Security, Mohamed Abukar Islow told reporters that the security forces engaged the armed fighters in a shootout after the vehicle which was being used to fire the mortar exploded.

"Security forces shot dead two Al-Shabaab militants who had tried to carry out mortar attacks near the airport. The militants engaged the security forces in gunfight but were overpowered. The security forces recovered weapons but the vehicle exploded without causing any casualties," Islow said.

Witnesses said the militants slammed three shells at residences near Mogadishu airport, causing civilian casualties.

"Three mortar shells hit my house and into two other houses nearby and they injured two children and an old woman who were rushed to Madina hospital in Mogadishu," said the witnesses who sought anonymity.

The latest attack comes days after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared an all-out war against the insurgents and offered them 60 days to surrender.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 19:21:51|Editor: xuxin

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TOKYO, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government lodged a protest with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday over the test-firing of a missile by the country earlier in the day.

Japan's foreign ministry said that the missile launch was a clear violation of the UN Security Council resolutions and it has communicated the protest to the DPRK through a diplomatic channel.

The DPRK fired an unidentified missile at about 6:20 a.m. local time from its eastern coastal city of Sinpo, but it was believed to have exploded on launch, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Pentagon of the United States has also confirmed the DPRK's missile launch, saying that the missile blew up almost immediately and the type of missile is still being assessed.

A crisis management center at the Japanese prime minister's office said later that it has reached the same conclusion as the United States that the DPRK launched a missile but it exploded.

Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan has been trying to gather and analyze information about the test-launch but refrained from giving more details.

The test-launch came amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, following the dispatching of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships to the peninsula.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 19:21:51|Editor: xuxin

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ISLAMABAD, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Sunday sent condolence to Iran over the losses triggered by floods in Irans northwest.

Reports suggested that heavy rains in Iran's East Azerbaijan province in northwest of the country has claimed the lives of dozens of people.

The downpours, which started Friday, has been the heaviest last seen 40 years ago, according to Press TV.

"The government and the people of Pakistan offer their heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the brotherly government and people of Iran at the tragic loss of life caused by heavy rains, flash floods and consequent landslides that have hit the Iranian provinces of East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Kordestan, and Zanjan," the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said.

"We extend our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims, injured and the affectees of this natural calamity. Our prayers are with those who are still missing as a result of this natural disaster. We pray for their early and safe recovery," a statement said.

Pir-Hossein Koulivand, head of Iran's Center for Emergency Medical Services, said in reported comments that several people were also injured in what he called the unprecedented floods.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 19:26:52|Editor: xuxin

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HO CHI MINH CITY, April 16 (Xinhua) -- A Vietnamese woman and a man were detained at Tan Son Nhat international airport in Ho Chi Minh City after their luggage bags were found to have hidden five kilograms of rhino horns worth nearly 270,000 U.S. dollars.

The detainees, Nguyen Thi Thao from central Phu Yen province, and Phung Anh Quan from northern Vinh Phuc province, on Friday night flew to Vietnam from Africa, the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said on Sunday, adding that the horns were cut into pieces and hidden in different items in their luggage bags.

The horns were from a very rare species of African two-horned rhino, and could be sold at over 6 billion Vietnamese dong (269,000 U.S. dollars) on the black market.
PARIS, April 16 (Xinhua) -- A man was arrested by police in the French city of Nice Sunday after he entered a church uttering threatening words, the regional newspaper Nice Matin reported.

The church was evacuated, according to the report.

The man entered the church around 11:30 a.m. local time, dressed in a trellis and ski gloves, and "sweated a lot and looked excited," Nice Matin reported.

The police quickly set up a security perimeter in the neighborhood and the man was arrested, according to the newspaper.

The French prefecture of Alpes-Maritimes informed on twitter that there was no major event and the situation is now under control.
1. Following the petition and recommendation by the Zanu-PF Mashonaland Central Provincial Executive and Co-ordination Committee and peaceful demonstration held on 3rd April 2017 by concerned Zanu-PF party activists which were presented to the party leadership and His Excellency, the President, Cde RG Mugabe;2. Cognisant of the directive given to Zanu-PF rank and file members at the recent Central Committee meeting held on 7 April 2017 in Harare in particular, that forthwith no party structures or functionaries or membership should engage in demonstrations for whatever reason and cause and, further that the First Secretary and President of Zanu-PF, Cde RG Mugabe, had taken note of grievances, complaints and petitions raised from Mashonaland Central Province against Cde ID Mafios, acting chairman, and the National Political Commissar, Cde S Kasukuwere, and further that the party is seized with this matter and would attend and deliberate on it at Politburo and National Disciplinary Committee level;3. Taking note of political actions and activities where warring parties ie acting chairman Cde ID Mafios and his secretary for administration, W Mashange, and others on one hand, and the acting chairman, Cde Kazembe Kazembe, and Cde Makunde and others on the other side, are holding competing and parallel Provincial Executive Council and Provincial Co-ordinating Committee meetings and inter-district meetings in the province of Mashonaland Central and aware that such meetings are causing divisions and animosity among party members.The head of the province and Minister for Provincial Affairs, Cde Advocate MT Dinha, as directed by His Excellency, the President, Cde RG Mugabe, hereby, in the interest of law and order, public good and preservation of party discipline and protocol, while we await due process on matters referred to relevant authorities and in conformity to the Principal's position aforementioned, direct that:

(a) Until the matter referred to the First Secretary and President, Politburo and National Disciplinary Committee are disposed of and until these organs make a pronouncement on the outcome or resolution of the referred to grievances or petitions, none of the above provincial authorities that is Cde ID Mafios and his Provincial Executive comprising youth, women and main wings of Zanu-PF, and Cde Kazembe Kazembe and his Provincial Executive of the same composition, shall call or convene or cause to be called or convened any Provincial Executive Council or Provincial Council or Provincial Co-ordinating Committee or inter-district meetings in Mashonaland Central province forthwith.Any such meeting called for the above purposes will be adjudged illegal and unlawful and law enforcement authorities will deal with any breach thereof in accordance to the law.(b) Further, the province, in particular, and our office will not tolerate any victimisation or intimidation of party members.(c) Party members should follow the President's directive and desist from communicating on Twitter, WhatsApp or Facebook or using the Press to discuss or air views on Zanu-PF matters.Advocate MT Dinha (MP),Minister of State for Provincial Affairs,Mashonaland Central Province.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 20:27:05|Editor: xuxin

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SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Muslim majority areas of Indian-controlled Kashmir Sunday observed complete shutdown to protest the killing of a civilian, police said.

The call for shutdown was jointly given by separatist groups against the Saturday evening killing of a civilian at the hands of Indian troops in Batamaloo locality of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The shutdown and restrictions have affected normal life in the region. Shops and businesses remained closed in the wake of the shutdown. Public transport was also off roads.

Fearing clashes and street protests, authorities have deployed police and paramilitary in full-strength as a precautionary measure in sensitive areas.

On Saturday night, a man was killed and his cousin wounded when unidentified gunmen entered their house in southern Pulwama district and fired upon them from a point-blank range.
BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China remained Africa's biggest trading partner as bilateral economic relations boomed, said Jiang Zengwei, head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Bilateral trade between China and Africa reached 149.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, Jiang said at a meeting on investment opportunities between China and Sao Tome and Principe in Beijing on Friday.

While trade relations between China and Africa had been growing rapidly, investment ties have also prospered, with Chinese companies investing 3.2 billion dollars in the continent in 2016, said Jiang.

Investment by Chinese firms, mainly in construction, manufacturing, services, mining, agriculture and infrastructure, has brought about benefits and development for both Africa and China, he said.

As for Sao Tome and Principe, Jiang said China, as the world's second largest economy, is equipped with ample funding, a complete industrial system and advanced technological equipment to contribute to the economic and social development of the African country.

Sao Tome and Principe Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada is on his first official visit to China from April 12 to 18.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 21:42:20|Editor: xuxin

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DAMASCUS, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the bombing that rocked the convoy of Shiite evacuees in northern Syria rose to 126, including 80 children and women, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group reported on Sunday.

The blast, carried out by a suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped potato truck, rocked the rebel-held Rashideen area in the countryside of Aleppo province, where buses carrying 5,000 pro-government Shiite people were waiting the reactivation of a deal designed to secure their transportation to government-controlled area in Aleppo.

The deal, recently reached between the rebels and the government under the supervision of Iran, Turkey and Qatar, was designed to secure evacuation of the people from the pro-government Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa in Idlib province toward government areas in Aleppo province.

In return, the government will allow rebels and their families to leave the rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani in northern Damascus to reach Idlib province.

The evacuation started on Friday, with 5,000 Shiite people leaving Kafaraya and Foa, and 2,300 rebels and their families leaving the town of Madaya as first batches.

The Shiite people reached the rebel-held town of Rashideen, while the rebels reached the government-controlled Ramouseh crossing in Aleppo.

Both convoys were set to leave for their respective destinations, before the rebels in Rashideen held the convoy of the Shiite people, adding new demands to the original deal.

But after the deadly bombing, the rebels apparently succumbed to the pressure of their regional backers and allowed the buses to proceed to the government-controlled Aleppo city, marking thus the implementation of first part of the deal, through a prisoner swap that began on Wednesday and the evacuation that started on Friday and ended on Saturday.

Still, around 3,000 people are still in the Shiite towns waiting their turn in evacuation. Once they are out, both towns will be completely emptied of their population, and the rebels will take over, after besieging the towns for years.

It's the same with Madaya and Zabadani, as the army entered Madaya on Friday following the evacuation of the first batch of rebels and their families.

The next step of evacuation will be in Zadabani, where 500 rebel commanders and civilians are set to leave next.

Still, it's not clear when the second batch will leave the four towns, particularly after the explosion.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 21:52:21|Editor: xuxin

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ANKARA, April 16 (Xinhua) --Three people were killed on Sunday during an exchange of gunfire at a referendum polling station in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakir.

The clash occurred between two groups due to differing political views in a schoolyard, which is used as a polling station, Dogan News Agency has reported.

Mehmet Yildiz, son of Yabanardi village chief, was detained as he opened fire after quarrelling with others.

Security forces were dispatched to the area as part of security measures. An investigation was ongoing by gendarmerie forces.

Over 55 million Turkish citizens began voting across the country on Sunday in a historic referendum proposing key constitutional changes, including giving wide-ranging executive powers to the president.
DUBLIN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Ireland on Sunday held a state ceremony to mark the 101st anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, a rebellion against British rule that paved the way for independence.

The state ceremony took place outside the General Post Office on Dublin's bustling O'Connell Street, the building that served as the headquarters of the 1916 rebels.

The ceremony, led by Irish President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny, involved the lowering of the Irish tricolour, a reading of the Proclamation, the inspection of an honor guard and laying of a wreath by the president.

The wreath-laying was followed by a minute's silence to remember the hundreds of people who died during the six-day rebellion, among them the 16 leaders who were executed.

The Irish Defense Forces personnel, including a brass band, a pipe band and representatives of the army, the air corps and the naval service, took part in the ceremony, which concluded with an air corps fly past.

The uprising began on April 24, 1916, when over 1,000 militants took over prominent buildings in the city center. Britain sent reinforcements and began shelling the city, and rebels were forced to abandon their headquarters, eventually surrendering on April 29. Thousands were arrested over the uprising, but the response caused outrage and a surge in support for Irish independence.

Within six years, Britain had agreed to the creation of an independent nation, though without the northeastern part of the island, which remains part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland.
KHARTOUM, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Sudan on Sunday announced that it is hosting over 600,000 South Sudanese refugees, according to Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC).

"Sudan is hosting more than 600,000 South Sudanese refugees. Sudan has provided more than 12,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to the citizens of South Sudan," said HAC Commissioner Ahmed Mohamed Adam in a statement Sunday.

The Sudanese official further urged the international community to support the efforts being made by Sudan to provide more aid to the South Sudanese citizens before the arrival of the rainy season.

Last March 26, the Sudanese Government agreed to open a new humanitarian corridor for delivering humanitarian aid to the people of South Sudan who are facing the spectre of famine.

Earlier United Nations High Commission for refugees (UNHCR) and its partners have appealed for USD 166 million from international donors to help refugees and host communities in Sudan.

According to official statistics last month, around 495,000 South Sudanese are present in Sudan.

Recently famine was officially declared in South Sudan, where the South Sudanese government and the UN said 100,000 people are 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| 2017-04-16 23:32:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HARBIN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Students at a Chinese university woke up Sunday to find a surprising new adding to their vending machine. On sale alongside their beloved instant noodles and soft drinks were HIV test kits.

Harbin Medical University is the second university in the province of Heilongjiang to sell the kits in a vending machine.

It is part of a program launched by the Chinese Association of STD and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control to address HIV transmission on campus.

Nine such vending machines had been installed in five universities across the country by the end of 2016, the association says.

The machine is designed with a deposit drawer, but looks just like any other and, alongside the kits, sells snacks, cup noodle, and drinks, Xinhua reporters saw.

A kit is sold at a discounted price of 30 yuan (4.38 U.S. dollars), compared to 286 yuan on the market.

Zhao Donghui, an HIV specialist with the Heilongjiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), explained the procedure: a test-taker buys the kit, collects his urine sample, and drops it back to the deposit drawer.

Staff at the provincial CDC will be notified by a sensor wired to the drawer. They come to retrieve the sample, do the testing, and post it online, he added.

Only the test taker can view the results once they log on the center's website and enter a specific code number, Zhao said.

"The whole process is anonymous," he said.

China had 654,000 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) at the end of September 2016, according to figures revealed by the China CDC.

Sexual transmission accounted for 94 percent of the 96,000 new cases reported in the nine months last year, it said. Young students and retirees are found to be the two groups where infection rose most rapidly.

There were 2,321 students aged between 15 to 24 tested positive, more than four times the figure in 2010, it added.

Wu Zunyou, head of the AIDS and HIV prevention under China CDC, said the rise of new HIV cases on campus, especially among young men, should sound a warning.

"I interviewed 100 HIV positive students and was saddened to learn that they did not know enough to protect themselves," Wu said.

Health specialists said intervention among this high-risk group was difficult due to the taboo surrounding homosexuality and HIV/AIDS.

A student who revealed his homosexuality to Xinhua said he and his boyfriend plan to use the machine. He said he has been so cautious that he goes to the local CDC to get tested every three months.

"It is all about health and there is nothing to be shy about," said the student, who chose to remain anonymous.

But many on campus do not have such an open attitude toward testing.

Peng Tao, an official with Harbin Medical University, said many students may still be reticent to take the test.

A vending machine was installed in Harbin University of Science and Technology last November, but sadly less than ten students have taken the test, said Zhao, the provincial CDC official.

Peng said as infection rises, the school has a responsibility to help those who want to try to use the machine.

It was as important as sex education in class, he said.

Nigerian exchange student Akinkunmi Okekunli said it is a right thing to do that students should have the means to know their health status.

He said in the University of Ibadan, where he came from, free testing and counseling are also available.

Health authorities said more Chinese living with HIV/AIDS know their status through testing.

The number of HIV tests people took in China grew from 60 million in 2010 to 140 million in 2015.

"We can't eliminate the virus for now, but at least we can prevent it from spreading," said Wang Mengjiao, a third-year student of Harbin Medical University. "For that purpose, it is important to take part in voluntary testing."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-16 23:52:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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WASHINGTON, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Sunday strongly condemned the "barbaric" attacks against innocent civilians, including women and children, in northern Syria.

"We remain firmly committed to defeating terrorists, including ISIS (IS) and al-Qaeda, as our top priority in Syria," Mark Toner, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said in a statement.

The death toll of the bombing that rocked the convoy of Shiite evacuees in northern Syria rose to 126, including 80 children and women, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group reported on Sunday.

"We deplore any act that sustains and empowers extremists on all sides including today's attacks, as well as forced migration, increased displacement, and all forms of violence directed against civilians in Syria," Toner said.

The blast, carried out by a suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped potato truck, rocked the rebel-held Rashideen area in the countryside of Aleppo province, where buses carrying 5,000 pro-government Shiite people were waiting the reactivation of a deal designed to secure their transportation to government-controlled area in Aleppo.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-17 00:07:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HANGZHOU, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese police have detained a man over the weekend for smoking on a Thai AirAsia flight from Bangkok.

The man, a 54-year-old Chinese national surnamed Wang, was apprehended upon arrival of the flight FD568 in Hangzhou City, eastern Zhejiang Province Saturday night.

Wang admitted that he smoked in the toilet while the aircraft was in air. A cabin attendant smelt the smoke and reported him to the captain, who alerted the airport police in Hangzhou.

Wang was punished to spend five days in detention for disturbing the order of public transport.

China has more than 300 million smokers. There have been reports of Chinese on long-haul flights succumbing to urge to smoke.

Police warned that people who smoke in flight can be fined up to 5,000 yuan (735 U.S. dollars) and face detention.
NAIROBI, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese solar firms are keen to venture into the Kenyan market where uptake of cleaner energy sources has accelerated amid policy and regulatory incentives alongside greater awareness on their benefits.

Senior executives from these companies who told Xinhua recently at an energy and power expo held in Nairobi were upbeat about the future of Kenya's market for solar lighting technologies.

Susan Lee, vice president of Shenzhen Power Solution Limited said Kenya presents a lucrative and expanding market for solar equipment as the East African Nation accelerates the shift to renewable energy sources.

"Our main focus in household solar solutions that are affordable but are of high quality. We are scouting for a Kenyan franchise to distribute our products that include solar lanterns, torches and solar study lamps," Lee said.

Shenzhen power solution has established a strong footprint in several African countries in the recent past.

According to Lee, the solar company that was founded 30 years ago has prioritized expansion in Southeast Asia and Africa where millions of poor households are not connected to the national grid.

"In the last eight years, we have invested in solar solutions that are tailor made for populations that are not connected to power. We have a strong presence in many parts of Africa and Asia," said Lee.

Shenzhen Power Solution Ltd is a leading manufacturer of solar LED lighting, solar study lamps and torches that have struck a chord with Kenyan consumers due to their durability and affordable cost.

The company's unique products such as solar lantern with radio and mobile charging capability could provide respite to Kenya's air pollution challenges linked to rampant use of kerosene and wax candles.

"We are here to help Kenyans get rid of indoor pollution associated with kerosene lamps. Our products will help clear smog that is a leading cause of respiratory diseases," she told Xinhua.

She revealed that a solar study lamp and torch will retail for 2 dollars in the Kenyan market while a solar lantern with phone charger will cost 13 U.S. dollars.

"The idea is to ensure consumers have access to low cost but high quality and durable integrated solar solutions," she said, adding that discussions with additional local distributors are at an advanced stage.

Isaac Mbugua, a local vendor for Shenzhen Power Solution's products since 2015 said Kenyan consumers have been receptive to Chinese manufactured solar technologies.

"Based on my observation, there is a higher demand for solar lighting solutions from China. The products have met our quality benchmarks and so far no customer has complained of breakages," said Mbugua.

He revealed that 80 percent of clients for Shenzhen Power Solution's products like solar lanterns and torches are in rural areas.

Kenya's quest to become a green energy powerhouse has not escaped the attention of well-endowed Chinese solar firms.

Leo Leung, the Sales Director of Guangzhou-based manufacturer of integrated solar solutions, Esavior, said Kenya presents a formidable market for solar technologies as households and industries embrace cleaner energy sources.

"We are already in fifteen African countries but Kenya has better prospects especially in household solar lighting. County governments and charities are the biggest market for solar panels and LED solar street lights," said Leung.

Evans Kamau, a local distributor for Esavior products for the last two years said they are highly rated by household and corporate clients.

"The market has been receptive to our products and currently, we have partnered with five counties to install solar street lights," said Kamau, adding that Esavior's local franchise has the capacity to install up to 10,000 units of solar power.

Chinese manufacturers and distributors of solar technologies are keen to venture into the Kenyan market which promises better returns thanks to rising purchasing power.

Daniel Liu, general manager of Divine New Energy expressed confidence in the Kenyan market, saying it presents new opportunities for investors in green technologies.

"We are looking for partners in Kenya to distribute solar portable lighting equipment that is both durable and cheaper," said Liu.

On her part, business manager of Qingdoo Sunflare New Energy Company Ltd, Lauren Liu said her company is in the process of partnering with a local vendor to distribute solar panels and lanterns.

"Kenya is a big market for solar lighting systems and we are looking for a local distributor to make them accessible to clients at cheaper rates," said Lauren.
News / Local

by Staff Reporter

THE Bulawayo City Council has set aside a whooping half a million dollars for brand new car for its executives.According to the arrangement, Town Clerk, Christopher Dube will be given $119 000 to purchase his vehicle while directors who form the executive group can spend up to $80 000.Recently, the local authority splashed $118 000 on mayor, Councillor Martin Moyo luxurious Mercedes Benz GLE 250 class model.It has now budgeted $599 000 for new vehicles and Zanu PF led Cabinet has sanctioned the move, Sunday News reported.The executive group comprises the city's Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube; Chamber Secretary, Mrs Sikhangele Zhou; Finance Director, Mr Kimpton Ndimande; Engineering Services Director, Engineer Simela Dube and is also set to include the human resources manager, Mr Makhosi Tshalebwa who, according to the council's restructuring scheme will be elevated to directorship position.However, Mr Tshabelwa will only receive the vehicle after the confirmation of the new department of human capital according to recommendations of the staff rationalisation, restructuring and job evaluation exercise.Council last gave their top officials loans to purchase top-of-the-range vehicles in 2011.According to Dube as quoted by Sunday News, the move is not strange as that is the in-thing in all local authorities."These vehicles are part of conditions of services where they will use them for five years then be able to buy them at book value."The local authority came up with this perk after the salary rationalisation exercise which was ordered by the Government, where we were then given the mandate to further negotiate with our directors to come up with other perks."This move is not a BCC move but it is synonymous with all other local authorities where directors are given these conditions of service vehicles. For now we had budgeted for six directors and the town clerk but we are now waiting for the confirmation of the sixth department which is that of human capital. The directors have a budget of $80 000 each while the Town Clerk's budget is $119 000,".
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-17 02:23:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LUSAKA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The police in Zambia on Sunday refuted reports that it had denied the country's leading opposition leader medical attention while in detention.

Hakainde Hichilema, leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND), was detained last week and charged with treason.

Charles Kakoma, the party's spokesperson said the opposition leader's health was deteriorating and he has not been feeling well from the time he was detained due to the brutal attack and inhuman gassing when the police raided his home.

The party has since demanded that the opposition leader should be subjected to rigorous medical tests and treatment by independent doctors.

But police spokesperson Esther Mwaata-Katongo dispelled the claims that the opposition leader's health was deteriorating and that he has been denied medical attention.

She said from the time the opposition leader was detained, the police have been allowing his personal doctor to visit him and conduct routine medical checkups on him.

She wondered why the police could deny the opposition leader medical attention when he was just a suspect when people who have been convicted were usually accorded their rights to medical attention.

"As police, we will not take such unjustified statements lightly because they are aimed at disturbing the security of the nation," she said in a statement.
An International Red Cross doctor checks a Honduran migrant before his entrance to a shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, on Feb. 6, 2017. (Xinhua/File Photo/David de la Paz)

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Xinhua) -- When it comes to career options, Americans most likely recommend medical and technology jobs for both young men and women, a new Gallup poll has found.

The March 9-29 poll showed that 14 percent of Americans recommend young men pursue a job in the medical field, while 24 percent recommend it to young women.

Meanwhile, 13 percent of Americans recommend young men pursue a job in the technology field, while 11 percent recommend it to young women.

The other top career recommendations by Americans include a job in the fields of trades/industrial/blue collar, at 9 percent for young men and 5 percent for young women, in the fields of business/self-employed/sales, at 7 percent for young men and 5 percent for young women, and in engineering field, at 5 percent for young men and 3 percent for young women.

Apart from recommending specific career fields, nearly one in five Americans say young men (19 percent) and women (18 percent) should work in a field they like or that they are going to school for, according to the poll.

After declining in the 1980s and 1990s, the medical field re-emerged as a suggested career in the 2000s, with steady increases for both men and women. Recommendations for women to enter the field peaked at 37 percent in 2009, Gallup said.

From 1949 to 1973, from 9 percent to 19 percent of Americans recommended that young men seek a profession in law or government. But recommendations for a job in law or government have declined to 3 percent to 5 percent since 1985.

During this same period, blue-collar jobs -- including industrial, trade and construction jobs -- received few if any mentions. But blue-collar jobs have become more popular as the recommendations to young men for a blue-collar job have increased to 12 percent in 2017 -- the highest since 1950.

When Gallup first asked about career advice for young women in 1950, teaching (16 percent) and secretarial jobs (8 percent) were among the top recommendations.

Americans' recommendations to young women for teaching and secretarial jobs have steadily declined since 1950 when Gallup first did this survey.

The recommendations for a teaching job for young women have declined to 3 percent in 2017 from 16 percent in 1950, while recommendations for a secretarial job have declined to only 1 percent.

The survey shows that Americans are now more inclined to advise young people to seek careers that suit them best, rather than make a specific recommendation.

"This could reflect a number of changes in the nation's job market -- the rise of the gig economy, in which short-term and freelance work is common, uncertainty for the future of some fields, or a growing tendency for people to change jobs multiple times in their career," it said.
by Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Greece's political leaders conveyed messages for progress on Sunday, as the debt-laden country celebrated the Orthodox Christian Easter.

"Let's wish that this country will make it. All of us united can keep our country standing on its feet and move forward," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said during his visit to the island of Corfu in western Greece, according to an e-mailed statement released by his office.

From Kalamata in southern Greece, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos wished that suffering Greeks will soon pass "from the period of the crisis to the period of hope and creation," Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

The Greek president also wished that the European family will pass to "integration with focus on the people" and the world "from war to peace and safety against the threat of terrorism."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-17 02:58:19|Editor: Yamei

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WASHINGTON, April 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday issued a number of tweets in a bid to play down a number of protests across the country demanding the release of his tax returns.

"Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday," Trump tweeted Sunday. "The election is over!"

"I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?", he tweeted minutes earlier.

Trump's latest remarks imply that he has no intention to issue his tax returns, some U.S. media reports commented.

Demonstrators in dozens of U.S. cities and towns, including Washington D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Palm Beach, where Trump was spending Easter Weekend at his resort Mar-a-Lago, marched on Saturday to demand Trump release his tax returns. Some rallies were joined by thousands of people.

During his campaign and after the election victory, the Trump camp repeatedly refused to release Trump's tax returns, saying Trump's tax returns were under audit. However, many tax experts say Trump is not barred from releasing the information during the audit.

While U.S. presidents are not required to release their tax returns, nearly all U.S. presidents had voluntarily released them since 1970s.

Shortly after Trump's inauguration in January, Kellyanne Conway, senior counselor to Trump, told U.S. media that Trump would not release his tax returns, citing voters' indifference to the issue as one of the reasons.

However, multiple polls have found that the majority of Americans want Trump to release his tax returns.

Comedy writer Frank Lesser, whose tweet in January sparked the idea for the Tax March, said the participation in the nationwide marches proves that people want to see Trump's returns.

"We march to demand that the president release his returns, as he has repeatedly promised, but failed, to do," the Tax March website reads. "We march because it is in the best interest of the American people to know what financial entanglements and conflicts of interest our leaders have."

A petition demanding Trump release his tax returns garnered more than 1 million signatures. Many lawmakers, including some Republicans, have also called on Trump to make them public.

The tax marches coincided with the April 18 deadline for tax returns in 2017.
BUJUMBURA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Widespread poverty has prevented the Burundians from celebrating Easter Sunday in style, the most important holiday on the Christian calendar that marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Most people met in shops and marketplaces in the east African country's capital Bujumbura said their limited budget has ruled out buying meat and refreshments -- food items that people buy on special occasions such as Easter.

"Life has become too hard. It is difficult to get money because there is no business. Before, we could buy some kilograms of meat and celebrate. But now we just go to pray, and if we get potatoes, we thank God. That's all," Clovis Nizigiyimana, a cell-phone airtime seller said.

Sellers of food items also said that fewer clients bought food items like meat because it is expensive.

"A kilogram of boneless meat is 8,500 Burundi francs (5 U.S. dollars). We used to have clients at special days like Easter, Christmas or New Year, but this time very few are coming to buy meat," said Francois Niyibigira, who sells meat at Bujumbura Grocery Store.

Philippe Baragunzwa, a secondary school teacher said that he is unable to celebrate Easter because he has used up his entire monthly salary.

"There is no special meal or drinks planned for Easter. We are going to eat what we usually take. We will eat rice and beans. There's no money. The political and economic situation Burundi is facing these days is bad," he said.

Leonie Niyonzima, an accountant working for a private company said that he will not celebrate as he has to pay hospital fees for his family members.

Over 80 percent of Burundians are Christians while some 20 percent are Muslims.

Burundi has been facing a political and economic crisis following the controversial third term bid of President Pierre Nkurunziza in April 2015.
CAPE TOWN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- South African President Jacob Zuma on Sunday rejected calls for him to step down, saying his fate is to be determined by the majority.

"I will only step down once the majority says so," Zuma said at an Easter Service at the Twelve Apostles of Christ Church in Umgababa, south of Durban.

Zuma said he would not walk away unless most South Africans want him to do so.

"Only the people of South Africa will remove me from office," Zuma said.

He said some people wanted him to step down because he's "telling the truth."

Zuma was responding to widespread protests taking place on April 7 and onwards amid growing calls for him to step down.

The protests were sparked by a cabinet reshuffle effected by Zuma on March 31. The reshuffle, which saw the sacking of well-respected Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and nine other ministers, led international rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch to downgrade South Africa's sovereign credit rating to junk status, respectively on April 3 and April 7.

In his remarks on Sunday, Zuma linked the protests to colonialism.

The recent civic action calling for him to step down "is merely a defence of colonialism," said Zuma.

Zuma said he would continue to strive for economic transformation so as to fix problems that have existed for long.

The economic power should be shifted to the people so everyone can enjoy it, he said.

Zuma called for an end to poverty among blacks, saying: "Even if they remove the president who says this, the next one will do the same."

The president urged members of the church to pray for the country and its leaders.

"I wish you to pray very hard for our nation so that the respect should come back ... and (pray) that our country should have good governance," Zuma said.
Belarus' Interior Minister Igor Shunevich (R) shakes hands with Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun in Minsk, Belarus, April 8, 2017. (Xinhua/Wu Zhuang)

MINSK, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Intensive and fruitful parliamentary exchanges formed one of the foundations for the comprehensive strategic partnership between Belarus and China, said top Belarusian legislator Mikhail Myasnikovich.

Myasnikovich, chairman of the Council of Belarus's National Assembly, or the parliament speaker, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Xinhua prior to a visit to Belarus by Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress.

"The parliamentary exchanges between Belarus and China were activated immediately after the establishment of diplomatic relations," Myasnikovich said, adding Belarus spoke highly of the results of earlier visits by the two countries' parliament leaders.

He stressed that it is very important to continue the constructive contacts between the two countries' parliament leaders, which also involve the practical cooperation in economy.

He said that Belarus thinks the exchanges between parliament leaders and the coordination of the two countries' law-makers in international organizations are significant for bilateral relations.

The parliament leader called for promoting the role of parliamentary exchanges in the two nations' promising cooperation.

During a state visit to China by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in September 2016,the two countries agreed to build mutual trust and win-win cooperation as part of the comprehensive strategic partnership. The bilateral relations have reached an unprecedented level since then.

"Over the 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties between Belarus and China, the forging of such a high level of partnership is the main political achievement in the development of the bilateral relations", Myasnikovich noted.

In recent years, the high-level visits between the two countries have become increasingly active. Almost all the state organs of Belarus have established partnerships with their Chinese counterparts.

Both sides have formulated and implemented relevant projects. States and the capital city of Belarus have established the twin-city relationship with the Chinese side, Myasnikovich said.

"I want to emphasize the achievements of the scientific and technical cooperation between Belarus researchers and China's local centers of scientific research, which we believe has a great prospect," he said.

Speaking of the two countries' plan to further develop their friendship, Myasnikovich noted that the idea fully corresponds to the spirit of mutual trust and win-win cooperation agreed upon by the two sides.

"For our small country, China becomes an 'umbrella' in the world's political bad weather. Today, there are too many uncertainties in the politics of large countries, and China takes the responsibility to act as a stabilizer" on global issues, Myasnikovich said.

He also stressed that the friendship between the two countries enables them to move further towards a community of shared future for mankind, an idea championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and, in the eyes of many, represents the ultimate goal of human development.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-17 04:38:59|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Cannons are fired with 27 shots as a salute to the Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, at Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark, April 16, 2017. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark celebrated her 77th birthday on Sunday. (Xinhua/Shi Shouhe)

COPENHAGEN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Queen Margrethe II of Denmark celebrated her 77th birthday on Sunday at Marselisborg Palace in Aarhus, the second largest city in the country.

Surrounded by her family, including her husband Prince Henrik and their children and grandchildren, the Queen posed for photographs at the rear of the palace and greeted the locals who had come to pay their tribute.

The royal family also attended an Easter church service at Aarhus Cathedral as this year's birthday coincides with the Easter Sunday.

The Queen's birthday was celebrated around the country with various events and activities. At Kronborg Castle, a World Heritage stronghold-turned palace in the town of Elsinore, cannons were fired with 27 thunderous shots at 12:00 p.m. as a salute to the Queen.

Margrethe II was born on April 16, 1940 at Amalienborg Palace in the capital city of Copenhagen.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-17 04:54:33|Editor: Mengjiao Liu

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Tourists pass by the Republic Monument at Istanbul's Taksim Square, Turkey, on April 17, 2017. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared victory in a constitutional reform referendum that will give him sweeping powers, amid an outcry from the opposition that the voting was rigged. (Xinhua/He Canling)

ISTANBUL, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Sunday night that the proposed constitutional changes were accepted in a referendum, paying the way for the country to introduce the presidential system.



In a televised address to the press in Istanbul, Erdogan said the amendments passed in the referendum held in the country the same day with 25 million "Yes" votes, or by leading the "No" camp by 1.3 million votes.

"Today Turkey made an historic decision about the governance system," he remarked, calling for countries that Turkey accepts as allies to "respect the decision of our nation."

The constitutional package voted on the day has 18 articles, the most controversial one being the switch to an executive presidency from the parliamentary system put in place ever since the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923.

The package shall grant the office of the presidency sweeping powers with less checks and balances, a scenario that has been rejected by main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party.

CHP is calling for a recount after the initial result was unveiled, citing reported irregularities. Naysayers were protesting against the result in different districts of Istanbul on Sunday night, with some banging pots and pans from their windows and others holding a march.

Turkey will not turn to the presidential system until 2019, when Erdogan's current term ends and fresh parliamentary elections will be held concurrently.

In his later address to supporters, Erdogan said his first job after the victory is to discuss the reintroduction of death penalty and that another referendum on this issue is possible.

The issue of capital punishment was raised in the wake of a failed military coup in July last year, which the Turkish government says was masterminded by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric now living in the United States.

The European Union has responded by threatening to terminate the accession talks with Turkey in a row that has contributed to chilled bilateral ties.
BRUSSELS, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The European Union(EU) on Sunday called on the Turkish authorities to seek the broadest possible national consensus.

In a joint statement issued by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and EU enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, the top brass said they "take note of the reported results of the referendum, and "are awaiting the assessment of the OSCE/ODIHR International Observation Mission, also with regard to alleged irregularities."

"The constitutional amendments, and especially their practical implementation, will be assessed in light of Turkey's obligations as a EU candidate country and as a member of the Council of Europe(CoE),"they said,urging Turkey to "address the CoE's concerns and recommendations."

"In view of the close referendum result and the far-reaching implications of the constitutional amendments, we also call on the Turkish authorities to seek the broadest possible national consensus in their implementation." they added.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim declared late Sunday victory for the "Yes" camp in the referendum for constitutional amendments that will change the governing system of the country from parliamentary system to presidential system.

With 99 percent of votes counted, 51.35 percent backed the constitutional changes, compared to 48.65 percent for the "No" side, according to figures by state-run Anadolu Agency.

More than 86 percent of 55 million Turkish electorates, including 1.3 million voters abroad, cast vote on Sunday.
As the Trump Administration conducts a policy review about how best to break the stalemate in Afghanistan, it must weigh a wide and complicated array of options between two highly fraught extremes: outright withdrawal from Afghanistan and a continuation of business-as-usual with Pakistan, or military escalation in Afghanistan coupled with a designation of Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism.





Decisions made about policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan will have a crucial impact on the outcome of the global war on terrorism and Islamist extremism.





Hudson Institutes South Asia Program hosted a discussion about U.S. options in Afghanistan and Pakistan with Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, and Ambassador Robin Raphel, former Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia.




News / National

by Staff reporter

The Zanu-PF Harare Provincial Executive Council yesterday passed a no-confidence on National Political Commissar Saviour Kasukuwere and provincial commissar Shadreck Mashayamombe in a day of high drama that witnessed skirmishes at the ruling party's provincial headquarters.The Sunday Mail understands police briefly detained Mashayamombe for allegedly instigating the disturbances.Yesterday, 28 Harare PEC members appended their signatures to a petition calling for the dismissal of the pair over a raft of allegations, including plotting to topple President Mugabe and insulting First Lady and Women's League Secretary Amai Grace Mugabe.Zanu-PF's Constitution says a motion of no-confidence can be passed by a simple majority of an organ's members.The PEC has 50 members.The Harare petition will be transmitted to Zanu-PF's national leadership in keeping with the party's disciplinary code.Harare becomes the fifth province to call for Kasukuwere's sacking, joining Mashonaland Central, Bulawayo, Midlands and Masvingo.The Zimbabwe Congress of Student Unions has also asked Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Dr Ignatius Chombo to transmit to President Mugabe their own petition calling for Kasukuwere's ouster for meddling in their affairs at institutions of higher learning.Yesterday evening, Zanu-PF Harare provincial chair Charles Tavengwa said he was unaware of the petitions."I am not aware of anything of that nature. I haven't attended any meeting with that issue on the agenda. I only heard that there were people who had gathered at the party offices and police were later called to disperse them."Mashayamombe would not go down without a fight yesterday and led a group of youths to lay siege on the party's provincial HQ on Simon Muzenda Street.The mob hurled stones at people at the premises as well as at by-standers, leading to a tempowrary closure of the offices and anti-riot police being called in.Police kept watch throughout the day as the mob milled around.National police spokespersons Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba and Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi could not be reached to comment on the skirmishes and Mashayamombe's reported arrest.Announcing the no-confidence vote, provincial secretary for administration George Mashavave said the petition was in accordance with Article 29 (Section 251) of Zanu-PF's constitution.He was flanked by Tafirenyika Nerwande (secretary for security), Dumisani Chipango (treasurer), Moffat Siwizani (secretary for economic affairs), Forward Mazviterera (secretary for transport and welfare), and Shupikayi Nyakawo (deputy secretary for security).Part of the petition reads: "We, the undersigned members of the Zanu-PF Harare Provincial Executive Council do hereby and irrevocably resolve as follows:"That in terms of Article 29 (Section 251) of the party's constitution, we do hereby cast a vote of no confidence on the National Political Commissar S Kasukuwere and provincial commissar Mashayamombe. This petition is an expression of our vote of no confidence against the two when it comes to demonstrating honesty integrity and respect for the fundamental values of the party. We believe that they have failed to respect and uphold the party's principles and values and constitution."(1) Kasukuwere and Mashayamombe have been planning and preparing to topple the elected President, His Excellency, President Mugabe, by putting in place party structures that will ensure that their goal is achieved."(2) They have been fanning factionalism, running parallel structures and creating divisions in the party by victimising everyone they suspect to be a threat to their mission."(3) They have been promoting tribalism. (4) Their leadership has been characterised by dictatorship, as anyone of contrary opinion would be victimised. (5) They have been disrespectful of the party leadership."(6) Mashayamombe insulted the First Lady in the media, which prompted our only First Lady to demand an apology from him."The two disrespected the party constitution by imposing candidates wherever there was a primary election; eg the Norton saga. The two have put the party and the province in disrepute."Mashayamombe told The Sunday Mail he was unaware of the petition, and blamed former Harare provincial youth chairperson Mr Godwin Gomwe for the violence."I am not aware of the petition. I do not know anything about the violence you are talking about either. You should ask Gomwe; he is the one who, I was told, was planning to unleash violence."On the other hand, the Zicosu petition alleges that Kasukuwere was victimising student leaders for refusing to be "co-opted into his faction".The petition reads, "We condemn the activities of one Saviour Kasukuwere who happens to be the party Political Commissar who we believe is hell-bent on leading Zanu-PF to a disastrous defeat in 2018 by his unpatriotic and reactionary activities."Our resistance has resulted in many threats, including physical ones and even attempted bribery on some of our membership. All these failed to bear fruition and this led to the unfair dismissal of many youth activists in our organisation from Zanu-PF."
Probe of Central police leak

Central Division head Snr Supt Kenny McIntyre, speaking during an interview with i95.5 FM, said a probe has been launched to determine who was responsible for leaking the document which also included the names of officers scheduled to be on duty.

He said the probe was ongoing and the matter was being taken very seriously.

He noted that if the leak was from an internal source then the matter can dealt with using police regulations.

McIntyre said that the officers feel betrayed by the leak and it forced them to rework the schedule of the roadblock exercises.

He stressed, however, that it would not deter them from their crime-fighting.
COPs Cuffy-Dowlat dies at 59

Cuffy-Dowlat fell into a coma last Wednesday and was warded at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, where she passed away peacefully two days later.

She leaves to mourn her two children, Dr Kevin Cuffy, an orthopaedic surgeon and a captain in the TT Regiment, and his brother Anderson.

Cuffy-Dowlat was a founding member of the Congress of the People (COP) and served as a senator and a councillor for Les Efforts West/San Fernando municipal district on the council of the San Fernando City Corporation.

Cuffy-Dowlat also served as a parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Housing, when she was appointed in 1996, under the Basdeo Panday-led United National Congress (UNC) government and served for three years under former minister John Humphrey.

COP chairman Dr Anirudh Mahabir, in tribute to her yesterday, said Cuffy-Dowlat had been with the party since its inception in 2006 and first fought a general election against Dr Roodal Moonilal, of the United National Congress (UNC), in the Oropouche East constituency in 2007 but lost.

She ran again in 2010 against late prime minister Patrick Manning, who was also the political leader of the Peoples National Movement, in San Fernando East where she had captured 6,109 votes but was defeated by Manning who had 9,736 votes.

Carol was with us since inception and was very loyal. She carried the flag of the Congress and spoke out on many national issues. She was a radio talk-show host and said what she wanted to say. In the last few months, she was not able carry on as diabetes got the better of her. She will be sadly missed, Mahabir told Sunday Newsday.

Cuffy-Dowlat, who is from Chickland Village, Freeport, attended Holy Faith Convent, Couva, and was a prize-winning student at the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School.

She practised law in the civil courts and became a director of Sou Sou Lands Ltd up until her passing.

Sou Sou Lands Ltd managing director Dr Allen Sammy described Cuffy-Dowlat as a director who gave yeoman service to most of the companys projects which focussed on lowcost housing for low-income earners.

She was a strong social activist and gave tireless advice to Sou Sou Lands for 40 years on land law, as it related to acquisition of State lands, said Sammy. Sou Sou Lands Co-operative Society Ltd chairman Lennox Sankersingh yesterday said Cuffy-Dowlat had a full political life and was committed to local government reform.

Her drive and dedication to local government will always be remembered.

She almost single- handedly organised a Caribbean conference of non-government organisations to discuss housing issues for the low income, said Sankersingh.

In extending condolences, UNC chairman and Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee described Cuffy-Dowlat as someone extremely passionate about the governance of TT. She was extremely passionate about the governance of our country and the welfare of citizens, and from my last conversations with her, she had a lot more that she wanted to give and to accomplish in the pursuit of national development, Lee said in a release.

Independent Liberal Party political leader Rekha Ramjit, in a statement, also praised Cuffy-Dowlat for her passion for good governance and the welfare of citizens. From my last conversations with her, she had a lot more that she wanted to give and to accomplish in the pursuit of national development, Ramjit said.

Humphrey hailed Cuffy-Dowlat as someone who helped the poor to receive land deeds under the Sou Sou Lands project. She had the courage, he added, to run against Manning, when she could have easily been given a safe seat and won. Rural Development and Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein also spoke highly Cuffy-Dowlat, noting they served together on the San Fernando City Council from 2003 to 2010. She was a true team player throughout her tenure, and a brave servant to the burgesses, he said in a statement.

Her desire to serve our country was unceasing from her pro-bono legal contributions, to her human rights advocacy, to her political activism. Hosein disclosed Cuffy-Dowlat had approached him two weeks ago about joining the ministrys project to set up volunteer networks in the municipalities.

Cuffy-Dowlats funeral will be held on Wednesday but details of where were not released yesterday.
Sailing still not smooth on sea-bridge

Every Easter the country suffers this problem  a big increase in demand for available seats. This year, however, we had some additional delays so we brought in the water taxi as a backup this time. Sinanan said after the initial Easter weekend rush to get to Tobago, there were many empty seats on the vessels heading both ways.

The main issue, he said, was with the schedule. I admit there were some challenges when it came to timing but, bar the delays, everyone will get where they are going and come back. We are doing the best we can with the vessels that we have. In the meantime, the new board intends to deal with that. In fact the board is working on it now and they are on top of the situation, he said.

When Sunday Newsday visited the Port-of-Spain (PoS) Ferry Terminal on Wrightson Road yesterday the atmosphere was calm as passengers waited for the last two vessels for the day - the Galicia at 2 pm and the TT Spirit fast ferry at 4 pm. However, passenger Anson Webster said he had been waiting since 6.30 am for the 8.30 am sailing.

He said he was he was told the 8.30 am vessel would not sail until 11 am, so he went to the airport in the hopes of getting a confirmed ticket. Unfortunately, there were only standby tickets and by the time he returned to the terminal, he had missed the 11 am boat. He therefore bought a ticket for the Galicias 2 pm sailing. It is a bit frustrating. I knew the boats were giving trouble but I didnt think it would have been so bad today (Saturday), he said.

Verma Lewis-Cockburn, manager, marketing and public relations of the Trinidad and Tobago Inter-Island Transportation Co, also noted that the water taxi, which usually runs from Portof- Spain to San Fernando, was recruited to assist the fast ferries, the TT Express and TT Spirit, by making one round trip on Friday, yesterday and today.

She said the water taxi was able to take up some of the 6.30 am passengers at the unscheduled time of 6 am and it was at full capacity.

However, she admitted that the 8.30 am sailing was delayed to 11 am, and the 4 pm sailing was also delayed.

She also advised that the 9.30 am sailing from PoS today was rescheduled to depart at 3 pm, and that passengers could be accommodated on the water taxi at 7 am.

The sailings have been delayed and everything is running a bit late. Once a vessel comes in late they cant just reach in and sail right out because of the international requirement for the crews rest. Everything runs eve
Fuad defends HPV vaccine

Let me tell you something, said Khan in an interview with Sunday Newsday, that vaccine is the best vaccine in preventing cancer of the cervix in young ladies, if they ever are susceptible to it. The Ministry of Health introduced a voluntary vaccination programme in 2013, its first round targeting 20,000 girls, ages 11 and 12, in primary schools. As HPV was found to cause 90 percent of cervical cancer worldwide, the intention of the programme was to decrease local cervical cancer rates which, according to the ministrys website, was twice that of the worldwide average.

Since its introduction in 2013, more than 30,000 girls have been vaccinated and, according to Khan, none have shown any symptoms like 13-year-old Danielle Flavinney of New Grant, Princes Town.

There is no proof of it, but yet it is given prominence above the millions of people who had it and had no side effects. So rather than giving prominence to the one person who say it is so, and have no proof, give prominence to the millions who have had the vaccine and had absolutely none of those complications, Khan said.

This is unheard of, and to attribute it to the vaccine is completely erroneous. It is going to cause fear-mongering. This, Khan said, may cause young people to think twice about the vaccine, adding that, if they are susceptible to cervical cancer you will be denying them the chance to prevent it. Flavinney began losing feeling in, and control of her left hand and arm in January. San Fernando Teaching Hospital doctors could find no physical causes for her complications.

On two separate hospital visits, doctors diagnosed her with conversion disorder, a psychological phenomena where a psychological conflict or trauma manifests itself in physical ways, from paralysis to even blindness. Her condition worsened over the next three months until she finally lost feeling in her left torso, left leg, and the left side of her face.

Flavinneys mother, Jamie, refused to accept the conversion disorder diagnosis. She turned to the internet for answers and found articles highlighting girls in the United States, Costa Rica and Japan around her daughters age who experienced similar symptoms. The parents of these girls asked the question, does Gardasil cause Guillain- Barr? syndrome (GBS)? and Jamie asked the same for her daughter.

Gardasil is the primary HPV vaccine.

GBS is a rare condition in which your immune system attacks your nerves, leading to muscle weakness and even paralysis. Causes are unknown, but most victims recover completely over time. Sometimes it lasts weeks, sometimes several years.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) answered this question in a fact sheet on its website.

The CDCs Vaccine Safety Datalink conducted monitoring for GBS following Gardasil vaccination from August 2006 to February 2012. During this period just over 1.4 million doses of Gardasil were administered in the Vaccine Safety Datalink population. CDC did not identify any cases of GBS among females aged 9-26 years old following Gardasil vaccination. Sunday Newsday contacted Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh yesterday on whether any such cases had occurred under his term. Deyalsingh shared Khans concerns about Flavinneys story inciting panic, but declined to comment further. The Chief Medical Officer will respond to you after he investigates the matter, he said.

Gynaecological oncologist Dr Gordon Narayansingh, however, said he had never seen a case like Flavinneys since Gardasils introduction locally.

Flavinneys mother yesterday promised to take her daughter to see Professor Gerard Hutchinson, head of Clinical Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, who has offered to conduct a clinical assessment at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope.
Bush fire sinks South Trunk Road

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan gave this explanation yesterday as he visited the damaged roadway yesterday, personally supervising as a contractor began repairs.

Sinanan said the incident pressed home the need to complete the San Fernando to Point Fortin Highway, and disclosed that tenders for the project, originally estimated at $7 billion, were being evaluated.

He expects construction to resume no later than June.

Tenders are being evaluated now. We expect an award to be made within about a month. I would say in a maximum two months we should have contractors mobilised and work should resume, Sinanan told reporters on his visit.

Last Friday, the minister said the tenders were first for three construction packages, with an additional five to be awarded in May.

As the work progresses, he added, more packages would be issued until the highway is built.

Sinanan said his ministry wanted to ensure that as many contractors participate in the tendering process, and for this reason the phases of construction were divided into packages.

While contractors may also be from foreign countries, Sinanan said he expected more local contractors to participate in the project.

He said, What we are actually trying to do is to ensure that as many contractors are able to participate in the tendering process, so that is why we broke it down into packages. Regarding the sink hole, Sinanan said a bush fire spread from the road side to three exposed plastic culverts which were not capped with a concrete barrier.

The fire melted the culvert, he explained, which eventually led to the caving in of the road.

Sinanan said the ministry, the National Infrastructure Development Company Ltd and Penal-based contractor Total Field Execution Services Ltd, were to work overnight to replace the culverts and repair the road for use by drivers today. Excavators began widening the the sink-hole to reinforce the sub-terrain before refilling and paving works.

Also present to inspect the works yesterday was UNC Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe who thanked the minister for his prompt response.

Brazilian contractor OAS Construtora, which had been hired by the Peoples Partnership government in 2010 after being shortlisted by the previous PNM administration, was fired after the 2015 general election when the PNM returned to power.

The company had fallen behind schedule, resulting in cost overruns and faced bankruptcy and a corruption scandal in Brazil.
Fire guts couples home

Safiyah Gibson-Morel and her her husband, Jason Morel, were asleep when their house on Scotts Road, Morne Diablo, began to burn at about 7 am.

The couple awoke to see a thick blanket of smoke in their bedroom and they ran to safety.

Fire-fighters were able to contain the blaze but the interior of the concrete house sustained significant damage.

The Morels were not at the scene when Sunday Newsday visited yesterday.

Residents said the couple went to Arima to stay with relatives.

A resident said the couple moved into Scotts Road about five years ago, and was saddened by the damage to the house they had built.

I did not see nor hear anything.

Now, they have gone back to Arima, the resident said.

Cpl Harripersad and PCs Khallie and Ratool, of the Penal Police Station, visited the scene and interviewed the couple.

According to a preliminary report, the fire may have been caused by an electrical problem.

Police are yet to estimate the cost of the damage to the house and household articles.
AG: Galicia contract no value for money

It appears that the value for money considerations and the procurement exercise, under the UNC are really significant issues on the table which will be the subject of the advice and opinion to be proffered.

I prefer to have all of the material properly examined to make a comprehensive statement in relation to the matter. The award of the contract to lease the Super Fast Galicia was undertaken in 2014 during the term of the former Peoples Partnership Government.

Al-Rawi has already given an undertaking to complete his analysis of the documents this week, following which he will provide his legal opinion and recommendation as to whether there was any wrongdoing in the award of the contract.

The AGs statement came as Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal chastised the Peoples National Movement (PNM) Government for failing to implement procurement measures since assuming office in 2015.

The steadfast refusal by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to implement procurement measures has made the Galicia corruption possible, Moonilal said in a statement.

He recalled that the Government, in its 2016-2017 Budget, had said the the procurement regulator and Board of Procurement Regulation would have been established within a six-month period and that by the end of March, if not before, all agencies that procure and dispose of public property would old be able to do so in accordance with the Public Procurement Act.

But this has turned into yet another failed promise fro m the bungling and clueless Rowley regime, Moonilal said. The MP said Rowleys revelation of the Galicia bobol is a raw admission of incompetence and recklessness by his useless regime.

He must be held directly responsible for the theft of taxpayers money, which has taken during the PNMs term of office. In response, Al-Rawi said Moonilal ought to know that the appointment of the procurement regulator was contingent upon an amendment to the legislation which the UNC agreed to in its Governments Joint Select Committee as it relates to the term of the regulator.

He said this was only recently passed in the Senate.

The AG said Moonilal also ought to know that the law prescribed that the President is responsible for the appointment of the regulator and could obviously not complete the appointment with the amendment to the law in place.

Al-Rawi said Moonilals statement is intended to mask the real scandal of the UNC government coming to the publics attention. Government is on the hunt for an alternative inter-island cargo vessel.
Kamla: Learn sacrifice from Jesus

In her Easter message, Persad-Bissessar said that citizens can all learn from the teachings and life of Jesus Christ and of the principles of sacrifice, compassion, charity and forgiveness __ values that we should all celebrate and share. The message of the Resurrection is that we have been given a new opportunity to reach out to those in need with kindness, hope and love. She said that during this sacred time citizens must pause and reflect on where they are in terms of national development, and must also be conscious of the importance of family, harmony and goodwill.

She called on citizens to take a moment to consider all those who may be troubled, whether it is anxiety over the safety and security of their loved ones, or concerns over their health and well-being. We must keep in our hearts and minds those who are suffering, as thousands of our citizens have lost their jobs and are finding it difficult to provide for their families.

These are challenging times, but we in the Opposition remain hopeful that by working together, we can build a stronger, more prosperous Trinidad and Tobago. Persad-Bissessar called on citizens to be inspired by Christ and pledge to work together, to do your part to help your fellow citizens, to love thy neighbour. A collective effort is needed, and I also call on the countrys leaders to take this time to listen to the people and take necessary action to correct the problems facing us, including arresting the spiralling crime rate, rebuilding the economy, and ensuring that our citizens have access to proper health care. She added: This Easter, let us recommit to advancing our nation-building efforts; let us undertake to be kind, and to treat each other with respect and compassion.
News / National

by Staff reporter

THE new owners of Freda Rebecca Mine - led by Mr Yat Hoi Ning, the group CEO and executive director of Asa Resources - are on a collision course with workers, suppliers and the Bindura community, amid allegations of asset stripping and externalisation of funds. China International Mining Group, in which Mr Ning is also a director, holds 16,3 percent of Asa while the businessman directly owns 6,3 percent of Freda Rebecca.The new shareholders wrestled control of Freda Rebecca from its founder, Mr Kaala Mpinga. Asa's other local assets, such as Shangani and Trojan nickel mines, are under care and maintenance, and it is Freda Rebecca that is literally their golden egg.Centralising controlWorkers are displeased with the new mine owners whom they accuse of asset stripping and mismanagement.They say an elaborate plan, which has centralised control of the mining asset through expatriate employees like Mr Roy Shum, Mr Edmund Zhang and Mr Eugene Chen has allowed the new shareholders to see through their designs largely unopposed. It is alleged that the trio holds sway over the mine's payment processes, procurement and cash flows. Another claim is that Mr Shum together with Messrs Ning, Yim Kwan and Jan Lampen are now the only signatories for Freda Rebecca's bank accounts.The allegations are contained in a 10-page document compiled by the Freda Rebecca workers' committee on March 6, 2017 and forwarded to the group's human resources department and legal and corporate services manager, the Labour and Mines ministries, and Mashonaland Central Minister of State Advocate Martin Dinha."The employees are concerned about contraventions by the shareholder with respect to the national laws and Government blueprints . . . (there is) perceived externalisation of foreign currency and possible corruption in the payment of shareholder loans and management fees in contravention of the Finance Act. "We are also advocating for the immediate suspension of shareholder loan and management fees payments until the company has cleared all outstanding arrears with critical suppliers and contractors as these are not primarily critical for the sustenance of this business."Furthermore, we cannot be spectators whilst our foreign currency is being siphoned out of the country through these bogus means. We are also requesting that no purchase orders be given to (foreign) companies with immediate effect, as this is delaying operations; killing our local industries and it is also another way of externalising our foreign currency," reads part of the document.There are allegations that many workers have been retrenched, while others have had their salaries cut.'Asset stripping'But the most damaging allegation relates to a pattern of mismanagement and asset stripping. The employees say as three of company's milling plants are malfunctioning, gold ore is being shipped to China for processing, a development that might potentially prejudice the mine."They are now shipping raw ore to China after stopping the concentrator at BNC. The work on the smelter has been stopped. Mill 1, Mill 2 and Mill 4 are down at FRGM (Freda Rebecca Gold Mine). This is unprecedented," said the workers.And as gold ore is shipped out of the country, there are claims that the shareholders are being paid about US$500 000 per week in management fees.The employees further want the new management to be investigated about the suspicious sale of two of the company's properties - Number 21 Selous Avenue and Number 2 Denmark Avenue in Harare.Unhappy ContractorsLocal contractors under the banner of the Mashonaland Central Contractors are also unhappy. The grouping, which represents 25 firms offering services such as engineering and consumables, wrote to Freda Rebecca on March 7, 2017 complaining that since the new investors took over, local suppliers were struggling to get payments on time."We are now feeling that every penalty charged by Zimra on us, we must charge back to Freda Rebecca. We feel our presence on the mine is under threat," the said.While Asa's non-executive director Mr Niall Henry last week conceded that the group is presently engaging restive workers, he however described allegations of shipping gold ore to China for processing as "completely wrong information".He also dismissed talk of the alleged management fees as "wholly inaccurate"."The matter (of restive workers) has conclusively been handled at the in house Works Council level and we believe that we have a robust employee engagement system that is capable to address such issues and as of now the worker leadership have called off the intended strike and matters are being handled internally," he said.Share fightIn addition to containing raising tensions within its own backyard, including demand for a 10 percent stake by employees as per empowerment regulations, Asa also has to contend with a potential legal fight from a local consortium which is demanding 26 percent shareholding in the gold miner. Zindico Corporation claims it is entitled to the stake under an empowerment deal negotiated in 2011 with former shareholders and directors of Mwana Africa.So far, only Suncraft Enterprises is understood to have benefited via a 15 percent stake in Freda Rebecca under Zimbabwe's indigenisation laws. Asa has interests in Angola, South Africa and Ghana where it mines diamonds and gold.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The National Apostolic Faith Mission of the Holy Ghost leader Bishop Emmanuel Chindiya has urged churches to unite in prayer to promote peace in the country.Bishop Chindiya led congregants in a seven-day conference that started on April 8 to commemorate the feast of Passover at their Skyline headquarters in Harare."My encouragement is that a time of prayer should always be there. It brings forth peace and tranquillity in a nation. Remember the time when Christ was on Earth preaching for three years, he emphasised that we ought to pursue a good way of life and forgiveness just as he did at the cross."As the church we also have to keep ourselves under the law of God and the laws of the Government.''In that regard we need to respect the leadership of the day that we may have harmony and to pray for them that whatever they do be guided in wisdom."Even when Jesus' disciple Peter, at the moment he faced crucifixion, took a sword and cut the ear of one of the centurions. (Jesus) took the initiative of peace and healed him again. Jesus was conveying a message that we don't fight with the sword. It's a message of forgiveness," said Bishop Chindiya.The church observes three festivals - the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.Said Bishop Chindiya, "We are here observing the feast of Passover which was ordered by God that there may be three festivals.''This is in accordance with God's instruction to Moses in the month of Abib, when He was to release the Israelites from bondage."As a result, Deuteronomy 16: 1 is clear on observing this Passover and then the special day of Pentecost to receive the Holy Ghost just as the disciples in Acts 2 waited for the release of the Holy Spirit. We also then have to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles."John 13 gives us guidance as Jesus came to fulfil the Word that people may partake of Passover. He also, with his body and blood, is resembled by the bread and wine respectively, having been crucified for the ultimate sacrifice He made on Earth."
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People needing additional information about death notices and obituaries can call the Daily News at 371-1020 or (877) 371-1020 and ask for the newsroom.
Speaker of the Lower House of the Moroccan Parliament, Habib El Malki, welcomed the draft report submitted by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to the Security Council calling for an immediate retreat of the Polisario militias from the buffer strip and warning of the degrading humanitarian conditions prevailing in Tindouf.

Antonio Guterres expressed concerns regarding the presence of separatist armed men in the buffer zone and called for an immediate return of these forces, El Malki said at the opening of the Parliament Spring session on Friday.

El Malki added that the gravity of the conditions endured by the population held against their will in the Polisario-run camps in Tindouf (southwestern Algeria) have also been raised in Gueterres report.

The Lower House Speaker recalled that the holding of the Spring Parliamentary session coincides with the 10th anniversary of the autonomy proposal put forward by Morocco to find a lasting political solution to the regional dispute over the Sahara within the framework of the Kingdoms territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

In his report, the UN Secretary General called on Algeria to play a positive role in the negotiation process. He also expressed support for the negotiations parameters launched by the UN Security Council since 2007 in order to reach a mutually acceptable political solution in good faith.

He added that the violations of the Polisario, which maintains forces in the area after the withdrawal of Morocco, poses serious danger to regional security and stability.

By fueling tension in the region, the Polisario is also venting its disappointment at the election of the Portuguese Gueterres who shows more understanding for the Moroccan stand on the conflict unlike his predecessor Ban ki-moon whose verbal blunders and biased statements created a crisis between Morocco and the UN.
NATO is planning to set up an intelligence hub in Tunisia, which has been battered by terrorist attacks in the fallout of the chaos that rolled out of the Arab Spring in Libya.

Tunisian officials look at the new NATO center, dubbed the Intelligence Fusion Centre, as a chance to further strengthen cooperation to counter the jihadist threat that has negatively impacted their economy and tarred the image of the country as a safe tourist destination.

Tunisian news website, Kapitalis.com, reported that Tunisian authorities have launched negotiations with senior NATO officials to prepare for the setting up of the new intelligence center.

The creation of this intelligence center will see the international Atlantic alliance providing support to Tunisias security services as well as training for Tunisian Special Operation forces, the same website added.

The center is part of decisions taken by NATO to protect stability beyond the Alliances borders with a particular interest in North Africa.

The establishment of the center was announced by NATO in July 2016. It will be tasked with collating intelligence assessments and coordinating between different national intelligence teams.
Opinion / Columnist

AFTER years of pain and confusion, the opposition have of late had something to chuckle about. Stinking with pessimism, they have ignorantly said "yekela zibambane". They have short-sightedly forgotten their misery in temporary terms.Even Gift Nyandoro who proved less gifted at throwing punches and was left nursing a fractured knee amid an array of pain, for a moment forgot to take his pain-killing tablets and several litres of "holy" waters prescribed by prophets.Helicopter fame queen mother Joice Mujuru also gave a sigh of relief as she temporarily ceased to be a laughing stock after that BBC interview which embarrassingly laid bare her leadership deficiencies.Even Morgan Tsvangirai, the father of oppositions took a breather. Come to think of it, added to being tormented by cancer, being constantly bombarded with questions from your foot soldiers: " . . . but Master, with such a bumper harvest, coupled with these Zanu-PF's successful Command stories all over the news, can we still use donor food as a campaign tool?And for Morgan's supporters, is it really worth anything to look up to a dead master and say, "Master, the tempest is raging, don't you care that we perish while you sleep"? Obviously, he won't hear you. Come on guys.Events staged in Zanu-PF colours stole the limelight. It was so impactful to an extent that even the easily carried away oppositions joined the demonstrations in Bulawayo, Midlands and Mashonaland Central. Of course I knew but I had never imagined that powerful organisations can draw such attention. The impact was felt from Zambezi to Limpopo.The prophets of doom said the revolutionary movement, that great revolutionary movement called Zanu-PF, was as good as gone. In reference to the ruling party's cleansing exercise, terms like pandemonium and implosion have shaped discourse in the private media political columns. Political liabilities in pathetic and ineffective oppositions, like maggots, found some wounds for penetration and I repeat, they joined the demonstrations.In schizophrenia, they were already living in some utopia, an imagined dreamland. Imagining Sir Morgan probably as Prime Minister of The Republic of Do-As-You-Like, Joice as Minister of Short Memory Affairs, Tendai Biti as Minister of Donor Aid and maybe Simba Makoni as Minister Responsible for Whites Resettlement. Umdal' uSipepa laye sethiwe khoxo kuVP post.Ye bantu.They were already in a world where they could live to satisfy their western funders. That Republic of do as you like. A world where gays and lesbians could become husbands and wives all in the name of "democracy". But alas, they still wake up to find themselves in dystopia, coming face to face with realities.I wonder how they will look like on that great Election Day in 2018 when real politicians will be winnowed and separated from opportunists and counterfeits. Zanu-PF rules with the people's mandate and there is nothing wrong with the people freely expressing themselves and the party leadership addressing the concerns through the proper channels. The ruling party is cruising and cruising fast towards 2018 and nobody in the opposition confines can dare throw a spike.Just let these guys accelerate because they are living up to their tradition of having exemplary leaders who put people first. Leaders who would respect the electorate which perpetually gives them the mandate to rule. Probably "Queen Bee" can deduce a few lessons with regards to putting people first. Or is it the reason why her version of putting people first was not understood by those who still continue to leave her alone on her political deathbed?May those who have visited her with oranges and bananas please tell me, is she talking? If not, Oh My God! Who will speak for her now that Jealousy is gone? Anyway, Let me save trivial issues for kids since the Trade Fair is around the corner, in case they pester me, "Uncle Meloe, please tell us a story."History has proven that when it comes to the electorate Zanu-PF has no sacred cows. Nobody can be bigger than that revolutionary movement, which among other things, seeks to establish and sustain a society that cherishes African values and to create conditions for economic independence, prosperity and equitable distribution of wealth.Failure to shape up to the ideals of the ruling party has seen many ship out. Joice Mujuru, Didymus Mutasa, Rugare Gumbo, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti (that one who recently chickened out of the Mwenezi East by-election to avoid embarrassment, but at least he saved his face) and many others collectively fill up the basket of rotten tomatoes. They have been weighed in the balances and have been found wanting.As the English say "the guilty are afraid", hopefully many are at peace out there because it seems no stone will be left unturned towards 2018 as the electorate will be pampered with transparent and good standing candidates, with love from Zanu-PF.Transparency and determination have arguably been instrumental in securing resounding victories for the ruling party from east to west. The recent victories in Mwenezi East and Bikita West allude to this.In Mwenezi East, despite the much hyped so-called pandemonium in the ruling party, Zanu-PF's Joosbi Omar harvested 18 700 votes whilst his opponents of some little known formations called National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and Free Zimbabwe Congregation . . . Oops! I mean Congress, garnered a mere 482 and 386 votes, respectively.One of Zimbabwe's departed music legends, Professor Solomon Mutsvairo once penned: Oh God, we beseech Thee to bless our native land; the land of our fathers bestowed upon us all; From Zambezi to Limpopo May leaders be exemplary; And may the Almighty protect and bless our land.May Mutswairo's sharp and articulate soul rest in melody. Leaders are elected out of trust and must thrive to live up to that.The First Lady, Dr Grace Mugabe has on record advised that leaders are not elected to line their pockets, but to work for the development of their communities. Above all, corruption has a potential of killing the entire nation and the organs which exist for its progress. There is nothing wrong with an organisation putting its members on some reality check, letting justice take its course? Only idle opposition elements would make headlines of this.Unlike Morgan who has lost control of his beleaguered MDC resulting in numerous known factions, President Mugabe has demonstrated good leadership qualities. His voice goes synonymous with authority. Bob is indeed in the office! And by the way, what happened to that demonstrations culture? In dusty faces, Morgan's children are now scattered all over the political compound.They are already shivering at their imminent demise and final straw and resorting to their usual disdaining tactics of shifting blame and crying foul. Who would vote for cry babies who have fuelled voter apathy in their previously known strongholds?They have haplessly turned attention to the Zimbabwe Electorla Commission (ZEC), blaming the constitutional electoral body for being partisan. With this, they desperately hope to cast a spell and illegitimise the 2018 elections before they are even held. But we all know they are seeing defeat coming! Fact is, Zanu-PF remains the largest mobilisation machinery in the land and the oppositions cannot blame ZEC for their failure to mobilise. By the way, was ZEC responsible for the low turnout at the Nera demonstrations attended by a handful, including passers-by in Harare recently?Feedback:melumoyo86@gmail.com
Opinion / Columnist

A soldier looks at buildings ravaged by war in SyriaIT is perhaps true that human beings in their true state of nature began as citizens of a small world in a huge planet; through intelligence and technologisation they have become proprietors of a big world in a fragile small planet.In modernising and developing himself and his surroundings, with superior intelligence, man has not only mastered nature and conquered the universe but has also severely eroded chances of his continual existence on the planet, at the apex of his brilliance man has been silliest. With capitalist ideology of profit and power, in no time man reduced nature and the entire planet to a big heap of natural resources to be exploited and turned into goods and services for consumption and decoration.Thanks to man's true science of the silly, the planet presently hangs on a thin thread, it is a titanic manmade natural disaster in the process of happening, the ecological crisis combined with the ever present threat of a nuclear powered World War III make the world a truly dangerous place.The Girl who sold clouds to bored sangomasIt is the power and privilege of any newspaper columnist to burden readers with mundane and sometimes banal details whose doubtful importance is their very novelty. It is with that licence of irrelevance that Dora finds herself here. She is probably one of those teens that were sent to school as a good riddance to a terrible irritation to their families, and good for her she is gifted with a devilish intellect that saw her up the ladder past her General Degree to the Honours level. Of all the important developmental degrees that the university offers, she chose to study "Play," a truly dubious province of the performance arts that is not drama or any regular performance arts but a preoccupation with doing strange and bizarre activities in public places for nothing but public attention and the appetite to shock and disgust.For her final exam, with her curious examiners in tail Dora took a long thin rope and tied it six metres high on the bridge above the Mayi Mayi Sangoma market in the peripheries of Johannesburg. With monkey like agility, she scaled down the rope and started to swing, forwards and backwards, and side to side, her dress flying away from her petite frame, treating bored sangomas and taxi touts to her shameless nakedness.Within minutes a good crowd of whistling men and shocked muthi traders had assembled below this swinging little butterfly that sat precariously on a thin rope sling. With a witchy voice she screamed out "I am here to sell you the clouds, five rand a piece" and she continued swinging, frying her dress purposely to expose her "netherlands". With relish, the whistling and screaming onlookers pelted her with five rand coins which her companions picked up like manna from the heavens, the more the coins flew the more she swung, her left hand now clutching on her underwear in a clear threat or promise to remove it; and the money flew.Dora later blamed her tragic fall on the witchcraft of ungrateful sangomas and the evil attention of taxi drivers and touts that had started using their camera phones to film her swinging bottoms. The truth is that the thin rope could no longer contain her excited swings and it gave up, sending her flying onto the tarmac, one broken leg and two missing front teeth and a distinction in Performance Art in the category of Play.As Dora lay down groaning, waiting for the emergency services crew to arrive, dutifully but also heartlessly her examiners surrounded her, red pens and note pads in hand, collecting her statements that according to the genre of "Play" were still a performance and an examination in spite of the tragic fall. I am told that what gave her the high marks was her poetry about that fall "oh my gosh, I was just playing but look how I have been played!" and such other sayings.World Power and Political PlayDora should have seen it coming. Dora rigged a degree. Dora is an artist of the stupid and the ridiculous. All these and others are the judgements that graduate Dora receives beside the walk with a limp and the two missing teeth that she will have to expensively replace or otherwise she will have to resign to looks that are cheaper than the pieces of her clouds. The human silliness of one artistic individual who surrenders themselves to tragedy is one thing. The international silliness of nuclear powers that are willing to endanger the whole of humanity and the planet in power games is at another level.As I write, two nuclear powers, Russia and the United States are in a proxy war in Syria, and the war has all the potential to escalate to global tragedy. But the two historical enemies continue to swing. Even more threatening, is the nuclear standoff between the USA and North Korea. Donald Trump has boisterously "put North Korea on notice" and warned that "we are sending an armada, very powerful," referring to USS Carl Vinson, a massive mega arms carrier that is accompanied by war submarines and is headed to the sea line of the irritable and trumpy North Korean "kingdom". All this is nothing more than what Donald Trump himself calls "show of force" and power play.The display of power, celebration of dominance and relish of world hegemony cannot be missed in the words of Donald Trump: "We have submarines. Very Powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. That I can tell you," he told Fox News. On its own North Korea has openly threatened nuclear warfare if attacked or provoked. In their speech and textuality, both Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un carry the tone of bullish toddlers that enjoy video war games and toy wars, swinging threats and rumours of war in saddening playground simplicity, toying of the end of the world as it is known.A permanent World WarWith the conquest of the Americas in 1492 began a permanent world military, economic and politic war against non-Western peoples. There is a flourish of world historical literature on the First World War and World War II. The absence of literary flourish is found on the history of how the West has since conquest and the colonial encounters waged war on the rest, military here, political there and economic everywhere. In 2015, Marxist scholar Yash Tandon published a disturbingly important book, Trade Is War: The West's War Against the World, a book that demonstrates how a continuous economic world war upon the Global South has always been in effect. This war by the West on the rest is pushed by a capitalist neoliberal economic regime that has NATO as its military wing.Democracy, development and human rights are its political rhetoric that conceals the logic of war behind the chimera of a global humanitarian agenda. While the super powers of the world are swinging from one war to another, slowly the entire planet, with the escalation of the ecological crisis that is most felt in fast increasing global warming, is being reduced to a huge cemetery on which even man the wisest animal will bury himself. Human difference, in terms of culture, religion, skin colour and geographic location could have been found to be an opportunity for diversity and creativity, but it has been criminalised as a source enmity and hatred. Except in name, what the powers of the world are visiting on the powerless, economically, politically and otherwise is true fundamentalist terrorism. Neoliberalism itself in its certainty about its political and economic correctness has become an ideological fundamentalism that brooks no difference and no opposition.The promise of a free world where all ideas and policies were open to contestation and to democratic challenge has proven to be another chimera and myth of the centuries. The world faces a dystopic future because absolute power believes in its absolute truth, the feelings, ideas and perceptions of those that have always lived in the receiving end of the permanent world war are not about to matter. Man-made disasters, at a world scale are squeezing life out of the poor and the poor out of life, driving the world to war as one day the poor will surely have nothing to eat but the rich and powerful.Back to the Sticks and StonesThe principal manufacturer of the atomic bomb, the weapon of modern day super prowess had wisdom as powerful as his bomb for human beings. On the prospect of a nuclear powered World War III Albert Einstein said "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." A brilliant suggestion, by Einstein, that a global nuclear war will return humanity to the state of nature, back to the age of sticks and stones as tools and weapons.To Einstein it had long become clear as early as then that "our technology has exceeded our humanity," and what is left is for man to use the same technology of his genius to destroy the world and himself. After all, in the wise world of Einstein "only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity."Stupidity in the hands of the powerful that hold keys to nuclear arsenal is really costly stupidity.----Cetshwayo Zindabazezwe Mabhena writes from South Africa: decoloniality2016@gmail.com
Opinion / Columnist

THREE decades after Independence, villagers in Mudzi district still live in terror of the seeds the colonial military sowed in their soil.Here, Ian Smith - dead and buried - still controls people's lives.Movement is restricted, even livestock cannot graze as freely as it would in other parts of Zimbabwe. Large tracts of land lie fallow, the rich soil nourishing weeds and wild grasses even as people go hungry. Tree branches sag under the weight of ripe fruit, while at the base of the trunks spoiling produce adds manure to already fecund earth.This is landmine territory.Mahwinei Chareka (57) is still haunted by the day she ventured into a landmine-infested part of the village."This area is heavily infested with anti-personal mines planted in the 1970s by the Smith regime during the liberation war. Unfortunately, I am a victim of these anti-personal mines and I have lost a limb as a result," Chareka says."It was in 2000, I accidentally stepped on an anti-personal mine on my way home from collecting firewood. I remember a deafening sound and I fell down. At that moment I felt no pain, it was when I tried to stand that I realised I no longer had a leg."The leg was completely shattered, only tiny broken bone fragments showed evidence that I once had a leg. I had never seen so much blood in my life. I think due to shock I immediately became unconscious."Though Chareka has learnt to live with her disability, it is the emotional wounds  the trauma  that may never heal."Three years after the accident, my husband (name provided) left me. He would often say I was now an embarrassment in the family, that he could not publicly declare that I was his wife," she narrates in a low voice."One morning I woke up to an empty house, he had left. I was three-months pregnant with my last child who is now in Grade Seven."I was hurt and up to this day I still have nightmares. I often dream about losing my other leg and the deafening sound often recurs in the dreams. I am afraid my children might end up crossing into restricted areas. As such they are always within in my sight whenever possible."In villages such as St Pius, Nyahuku, Mkota and Nyakabao, the minefields lie as close as 30m from the main road.Warning and danger signs are pasted on trees and rocks, and villagers dare not walk on the other side of the road.Located close to Mozambique, Mudzi district witnessed much of the fighting during the Second Chimurenga as colonial forces tried to stop liberation forces from entering the country from Zimbabwe's eastern neighbour.Minefields were a strategy of choice for Rhodesian security forces.The minefields were mapped, but some records were lost during the 1980 transition from colonial Rhodesia to Independent Zimbabwe.At independence, Zimbabwe was left with six distinct major mined areas along its borders with Mozambique and Zambia.Zimbabwe Mine Action Clearance (Zimac) reports that anti-personnel mines were laid in very dense belts of as much as 5 500 mines per kilometre. Chief Mkota (Mr Amos Tsuro) told The Sunday Mail Extra recently that, "The younger generation in the area are victims of a war that ended years before they were born and they are captives in their own land. We have resorted to distributing land to areas that are less fertile, that receive less rainfall compared to land in the restricted areas."It is sad to note that many decades later we are still feeling the Rhodesian forces' cruelty, there are so many disabled people in the area and we are appealing to the Government to do something about the issue."Zimac estimates that between 1980 and 2014, at least 1 561 people were killed or injured by mines, and more than 120 000 heads of livestock and thousands of wild animals were also lost. The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, to which Zimbabwe is signatory, set 2025 as the deadline for the worldwide clearance of these most horrible of weapons.In 2016, it was reported that every year since 2010, US$500 000 had been committed to fund mine clearance in Zimbabwe.It estimated that approximately US$15 million is required annually from 2016 to 2024 to meet the mine ban convention target.
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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..Honest Reporting..13 April '17..If an uninformed observer were to read the recent headlines in the British newspaper and web site, such a reader would most likely conclude that Palestinians are infallible and that Israel is nothing more than a uniquely destructive force in the Middle East.The widespread publication of falsehoods like these is nothing new in the media  it was brutally exposed by former Associated Press journalist Matti Friedman in 2014  but a new HonestReporting study illustrates the shocking intensity of anti-Israel narratives across several online newspapers.With over 20 million unique website visitors per month,is positioned to inform millions about events occurring in Israel and the Middle East. But when reporting on the Jewish state, the publication operates on a double standard, muddling the truth in its disproportionate coverage of alleged Israeli wrongs.In Bias by the Numbers, HonestReporting has analyzed the headlines of non-syndicated online articles that were principally related to the Israeli-Arab conflict or to Israeli or Palestinian political, diplomatic, or security events.The findings have been stunning.
En la manana de este domingo, 16 de abril, el expresidente Alvaro Uribe publico en sus redes sociales una carta que tiene como destino el Congreso de los Estados Unidos.

La misiva que se divide en 8 puntos, critica la politica del actual Gobierno con respecto a los cultivos ilicitos, la Jurisdiccion Especial de Paz y la dejacion de armas de esa guerrilla.

Dice Uribe: Las plantaciones de coca fueron reducidas de 170.000 a 42.000 hectareas. Hoy estan en cerca de 188.000 con las estimaciones mas bajas. Hay un paralelo en el incremento del consumo, la extorsion y la criminalidad. El gobierno ha detenido la aspersion a cultivos ilicitos para complacer a los terroristas de las Farc.

Sobre el tema de la Jurisdiccion Especial de Paz, hay que recordar que el Centro Democratico ha reiterado en varias ocasiones que acudira a las firmas de los ciudadanos para impedir que ese sistema se consolide y ha dicho que no se puede remplazar a la justicia ordinaria. Las Farc han disenado su propia justicia. Los jueces seran nombrados por personas permisivas con el terrorismo y cercanas a la ideologia de las Farc. Simon Trinidad esta preso en una carcel estadounidense por cargos de narcotrafico y el secuestro de tres ciudadanos norteamericanos. Sin embargo, sus complices disfrutan de la impunidad en Colombia.

Uribe anade que la constitucion ha sido remplazada por el acuerdo con las Farc y eso no podra ser transformado en 12 anos.

En un apartado de la carta el congresista dice que en estudios de su Gobierno se establecio que las Farc tendrian alrededor de 40.000 armas. El presidente de Colombia dijo recientemente que se entregarian 14.000. Sin embargo los miembros de las Farc, anunciaron 7.000 y nada ha sido informado acerca de misiles y otras armas peligrosas que pertenecen a ese grupo.

Finalmente, el expresidente compara la situacion de Colombia con la de Venezuela y dice que el presidente Maduro y su regimen deben ser removidos para fortalecer las instituciones de ese pais, asi como a la inversion privada. Caracol Radio conocio que Uribe hara llegar esta carta a todos los miembros del Congreso de Estados Unidos y al presidente Donald Trump.

Aqui el texto original:

Message to the authorities and the Congress of the United States of America

From: Alvaro Uribe Velez

Former President of Colombia and

current Senator

Some comments, from my perspective, on the current situation in Colombia and its links with Maduro in Venezuela:

1. PRODUCTION OF NARCOTICS: Coca plantations were reduced from 170,000 ha to 42,000 ha, now there are 188,000 ha according to the lowest estimate. There is a parallel increase in consumption, addiction and criminality such as extortion. Our economy is not in recession because of this plague of narco trafficking.

2. THE CAUSE OF THIS DANGEROUS TREND: The government has stopped spraying illicit crops to please the terrorist FARC. Manual eradication was reduced and it moves forward preferably with communities consent, that is, with FARCs consent.

3. JUSTICE FOR FARC: FARC has designed its own justice. Judges will be appointed by people permissive with terrorism and akin to FARCs alleged ideology. FARCs kingpins and their aides have been granted impunity and political eligibility in the case of any crime. Atrocious crimes, such as child recruitment and abuses on women, will remain in impunity. There is some restriction of freedom for the ringleaders. These sanctions are inadequate, they lack incarceration, and are inapplicable because those who are guilty will enjoy simultaneous eligibility for Congress or any other political post. Narco trafficking is accepted as a political related crime for funding rebellion, with full impunity, eligibility and no extradition. Simon Trinidad serves a sentence in the United States because of narco trafficking and the kidnapping of three American citizens, however, his accomplices enjoy impunity in Colombia.

4. CONSTITUTIONAL REPLACEMENT: Our Constitution has been substituted by the agreement with FARC. This amendment will be in place during 12 years.

5. THE GOVERNMENT DISREGARDED THE PLEBISCITE NO VOTE: The NO VOTE won the Plebiscite. The government reduced the legal threshold from 50% to 13% of YES VOTE. This victory was regardless of the massive international support, the limitless amount of money and the propaganda machine. The Government did not include substantial changes, and, with the non-understandable support from the Constitutional Court, did ratify the agreement through a proposition in Congress, in clear contradiction to the Plebiscite outcome.

6. PRESENT AND FUTURE: In suffocating democracy, the independence of institutions and the guarantees for the private sector, the current Government has not gone as far as Maduro in Venezuela, but the inheritance will allow the possible weak or pro FARC Governments of the future to adopt the same path. Poor people in despair, without hope because of the absence of private investment and affected by violence, will not appreciate the difference between our rule of law and the neighboring tyranny. Colombia needs deep changes, otherwise we are condemned to become Maduros second thought.

7. RULE OF LAW, ARMY, POVERTY AND PRIVATE SECTOR: Colombia has been a solid democracy, not a dictatorship in transit to the rule of law. Our army has been respectful of the democratic institutions. Colombia has poverty and unequal income distribution not because of the private sector, but because the lack of many more and robust private enterprises. The agreement with FARC is a limitation and a threat to the private sector.

8. CHILDREN AND GUNS: Only a few children have returned to their families out of more than 11,000 that were kidnapped. Our secret services, some years ago, estimated at 40,000 the number of guns in the hands of FARC. The President of Colombia expressed recently that the organization was going to give up 14,000, however, FARCs members have announced that 7,000 guns will be let down. Nothing has been informed about the missiles and other dangerous weapons owned by FARC.

We cannot separate the case of Venezuela from our risky situation. Chavez and Maduro have been the supporters of terrorism in our country. The two largest organizations, FARC and ELN, have been protected in Venezuela, and with large presence in this country, they kidnap, extort, threaten and attack its citizens. Venezuela needs to remove Maduro and his regime and to adopt the rule of law with a strong private sector to overcome poverty. Maduro supports himself upon corruption, narco trafficking, the military, war planes, civilians with guns provided by the regime (Colectivos), and repression. They apply the Cuban version of dialogue as a way to scale up repression.

With all the respect,

Alvaro Uribe Velez

April 16, 2017
Photos: All These People Want Trump To Release His Tax Returns

By aaroncynic in News on Apr 16, 2017 5:00AM

Despite assertions from President Donald Trump that no one cares about his tax returns, thousands rallied and marched in the Chicago Loop Saturday to demand he release them to the public.

In government, sunlight is the best of disinfectants, Representative Mike Quigley told the crowd amassed at Daley Plaza in the late morning.

Trump is the first president in four decades to buck the tradition of releasing tax returns while in office. Shortly before his inauguration, the real estate mogul turned reality television star turned politician told reporters they were the only ones who cared about his tax returns and that the public did not.

I won. And became president," Trump said. "No, I don't think they care at all. I don't think they care at all. I think you care."



Several polls at the time however, showed that some 3/4 of Americans actually did care, and more than likely still do. The Chicago rally was one of more than 180 demonstrations planned across the country in 48 states to coincide with the traditional April 15th deadline to file taxes. Among many reasons, participants and organizers say that Trump needs to release his returns to shed light on whether or not he and his businesses are profiting off of his position as president.

We need to know how much he is really making off his presidency, Representative Jan Schakowsky told the crowd. Standing on a large stage which featured a large inflatable chicken sporting a golden coif of hair, Schakowsky ticked off a list of reasons she believed the American people deserved to see the presidents returns.

We need to know how much money Donald Trump and his family, his cronies, would make if they are able to repeal Obamacare. If they are able to repeal meals on wheels for senior citizens. If they are able to get rid of school luncheshow much money would they give to billionaires in tax relief? Schakowsky also questioned whether or not Trump has actually paid taxes, how much he has actually donated to charity, and what the returns could show about his potential personal, financial and political relationship with Russia.

The rally began with a large brass band playing the chicken dance, and after several speakers demonstrators marched through the Loop towards Trump Tower, chanting show us your taxes and Trump has got to go.



Matt Enloe, a second year student at the University of Chicago Law School was directing people to a makeshift resist Trump wall made of cardboard, where attendees wrote various reasons for their dissatisfaction with the president.

Im just an individual who cares about politics and our country and thinks its important to have accountability and transparency from a president, said Enloe. There are a lot of concerns he might have debts to foreign governments or other institutions that could impact his ability to make decisions neutrally and in the best interests of our country...if anything - if theres nothing in there, that would be great. The concern is that if he waited this long to release them, it doesnt make any sense if theres nothing in there.

In addition to Trump, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner was also on the receiving end of some criticism.

I wish that Donald Trump was the only self interested billionaire whos enriching himself at the expense of the public were dealing with here in Illinois, but weve got another onehis name is Bruce Rauner, said State Senator Daniel Biss. Biss, who is challenging the governor for his post in the 2018 election, is sponsoring a bill in the state legislature which would require candidates who want to appear on the ballot in Illinois to release tax returns for the previous five years. On Friday, the Senator released his own.

What did Bruce Rauner do when he became governor? Step 1, cut his own taxes. Step 2, triple his income to $188 million dollars. Is he willing to release all of his tax returns with every schedule? He is not. How is he enriching himself at our expense, Biss asked the crowd.
Vice-President Mike Pence and his daughter Audrey look across to the north side of the border in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, on April 17, 2017. Photo: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

North Korea did not celebrate its founders birthday on Saturday by testing a new nuclear weapon, as many had feared it would. Instead the North Korean regime literally paraded its missiles through Pyongyang, including new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems that arms experts had never seen before. North Korea conducted a missile test on Sunday, but it failed, according to military officials in the U.S. and South Korea. It was likely a medium-range missile, which exploded almost immediately after launch.

Defense Secretary James Mattis responded to the launch on Saturday night (U.S. time), seemingly speaking for the president and White House.The president and his military team are aware of North Koreas most recent unsuccessful missile launch, he said in a statement. The president has no further comment.

A White House official told the New York Times that while President Trump has many options available, he probably wont respond to North Koreas failed missile launch. If it had been a nuclear test, then other actions would have been taken from the U.S., the official said.

Vice-President Mike Pence called the test a provocation when he arrived in South Korea on Sunday at the start of a four-nation Asia tour. Then, during a surprise visit to the Demilitarized Zone on Monday, Pence called the U.S. alliance with South Korea ironclad, and said North Korea should not mistake the resolve of the United States of America to stand with our allies.

[T]he era of strategic patience is over, Pence said. President Trump has made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out and we want to see change. We want to see North Korea abandon its reckless path of the development of nuclear weapons, and also its continual use and testing of ballistic missiles is unacceptable.

Related Stories The Problem With Trumps Attempt to Scare North Korea

Sundays missile test was North Koreas fifth of the year. The reason it blew up is unknown, but such failures are a regular outcome for the regime. The Times reported that the U.S. began conducting a covert electronic war against North Koreas missile program three years ago, though the extent of its success is not clear. President Obama apparently accelerated the program last year, and the Times notes that there has been a corresponding increase in the failure rate of North Koreas tests since then.

The large collection of missile systems displayed during Saturdays parade in Pyongyang still alarmed arms and nonproliferation experts. There were both new configurations of existing missile systems, as well as what appeared to be two new canister ICBM launching systems that may have held new ICBMs.

Whatever the canisters contained, the regime was clearly trying to demonstrate that, as it has repeatedly promised, it is developing long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles that are capable of hitting the U.S., as well as missiles that utilize solid-fuel technology, which would enable North Korea to more easily transport and hide its missiles and launch them with less warning to international monitors.

Turns out the submarine-launched ballistic missile wasn't the big unveil. This is: pic.twitter.com/s2mNBMuON2  Martyn Williams (@martyn_williams) April 15, 2017

N.Korea showcases probable intercontinental ballistic missiles at massive military parade https://t.co/OevF5NYsQs pic.twitter.com/c4KVjfdmAx  NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) April 16, 2017

Ultimately, the regime is trying to convince the world that it possesses second-strike capability, or will soon  which means that it would be able to respond to any first strike on North Korea with a devastating counterattack on the U.S. or its allies in the region, possibly including a nuclear-weapon payload.

Some experts warn that appearances can be deceiving, especially when it comes to North Korea. For instance, its possible that the country was only displaying mock-ups of new ICBM systems on Saturday, rather than the functioning, or near-functioning, weapons themselves.

Regardless, analysts seem to agree that the world should be concerned about what Saturdays parade said about North Koreas gains and goals. Even if the regime was only displaying mock-ups, they show what North Korea intends to build, and that the government has made progress toward that aim. As one surprised nonproliferation analyst commented in response to the parade:

This is a lot of new stuff for a country with an economy 1/4 of Ethiopia to suddenly pull out of a hat.  Kyle Mizokami (@KyleMizokami) April 15, 2017

Another expert, Duyeon Kim, explained to the Japan Times that North Koreas missile pageant was meant to send a message to its own citizens and the international community that the regime is powerful, has made leaps in technological advancements and will not cave under U.S. pressure.

In an interview with NPR, Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, added:

I think in the United States we sort of laugh at [the North Korean regime]. We treat them like theyre a little bit of a joke, but they dont think theyre a joke. And I think the North Koreans long ago concluded that their weapons programs are a way of getting us to take them seriously. And so I think a lot of times, we have expectations for the North Koreans, and the North Koreans like to defy those expectations. They like to show us that theyre serious about this, that they really can do this and that if there is a joke, its on us, not them.

In Lewiss opinion, the regime may have shown as many as three new ICBM systems on Saturday, and the overall demonstration was bewildering to him and other experts. While there have been many stumbles along the way, North Korea has continued to develop the weapons technology they see as integral to their survival.

On the other hand, the regime has never successfully tested a long-range ICBM that could reach the U.S. Its unclear if the regime has been able to build a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a missile or to survive reentry from space.

More ballistic missiles on display during the Day of the Sun parade. Photo: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

Aside from the new ICBM canisters, many of the rocket and missile systems on display during the parade on Saturday did not appear to be new; some were just variations of older models, or weapons that had been reconfigured or cosmetically altered. The regime unveiled two solid-fuel missiles, which have been tested but never before seen: a submarine-launched ballistic missile (with an intermediate range of 600 miles) that the country tested last year, and a similar land-based version that the North Koreans launched into the Sea of Japan in February. Most of North Koreas missiles run on liquid fuel, which means they have to be fueled before firing, making the launches slower and missile systems easier to detect. Solid fuel missiles are preloaded and ready to fire, require a smaller fleet of support vehicles, and can be stored on submarines or easily hidden mobile launchers.

Amid the still-heightening tensions between North Korea and the U.S., The Diplomats Ankit Panda sees the new missile systems, whether they are ready to use or not, as an ominous development:

[M]ore so than ever, North Korea seems to be highlighting the perils of a preemptive first strike to the United States and South Korea. With every nuclear and ballistic missile test, its threat of inflicting unacceptable retaliatory damage against Seoul and, eventually, Washington becomes more credible.



Whats more, were likely still in for a sixth nuclear test sooner or later. Even though Pyongyang withheld from testing this weekend amid rumors of possible retaliation by the United States, North Korea is still looking to improve its missile know-how. Moreover, the long-dreaded ICBM flight test also might not be too far off now. Given the ever-growing number of TELs  both wheeled and tracked  North Korea may soon field nuclear forces amply large that a conventional U.S.-South Korea first strike may find it impossible to fully disarm Pyongyang of a nuclear retaliatory capability. That would give the North Korean regime what its always sought with its nuclear and ballistic missile program: an absolute guarantee against coercive removal.

This post has been updated throughout.
Inventories 350 MMBO above historical average

An extension of the OPEC production cuts should normalize global inventories this year, according to research by KLR Group.

Announced on September 28, 2016, OPEC agreed to limit production to 32.5 MMBOEPD in the first half of 2017. According to KLR, OPEC production over this period will actually average 32 MMBOEPD, due to lower than agreed Saudi output and Nigerian and Libyan unrest.

Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia want extended cuts

Many OPEC member countries have expressed support at extending the cuts, which will expire in June. Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria and Angola have all stated that prolonging the production cuts is necessary to rebalance the markets. While global inventories have declined, according to KLR total inventory is still about 350 MMBO above the 2010-2014 average.

On Tuesday Saudi Arabia told OPEC officials that it wants to extend production cuts for an additional six months. According to the Wall Street Journal, OPEC ministers hope to reduce storage inventories by about 260 MMBO before resuming full production. Related: China Ready To Cut Oil Supplies To North Korea

KLRs analysis seems to confirm that another six months of reduced production are needed to reduce inventories, projecting that the oil market will be meaningfully undersupplied if cuts are extended. Most of the supply drawdown will occur in the second half of 2017, and after 2018 markets will become more balanced.

(Click to enlarge)

The IEA reaches similar conclusions in its most recent Oil Market Report. The IEA predicts a total stock change of about 1 MBOPD in Q2 2017, with further reductions later in the year if cuts are extended. However, the IEA has revised its demand growth expectations downward, meaning balancing will take longer than previously predicted.

(Click to enlarge)

Saudi Arabias motivations go beyond reducing the global oil surplus.

The kingdom is planning to complete an IPO for Saudi Aramco, its national oil company. While only 5 percent of the company will be offered in the IPO, Saudi Arabia hopes to raise $100 billion, giving the NOC a $2 trillion valuation. The plan by Saudi Arabia, if workable, would create by far the largest valuation in the market today. But the high price, and therefore Saudi Arabias proceeds from the IPO, is in doubt.

The downturn in oil prices affected not just American producers, but nations with nationalized oil production. Saudi Arabia is highly dependent on Aramco for revenue, and lower prices created significant government budget deficits. Russia is another example. Putting forth an Aramco IPO is seen as a way for the nation to raise revenue, replenishing cash reserves that were decimated during the downturn.

Analyzing the market conditions, the background of oil development in Saudi Arabia and the geopolitics of the Middle East, Tom Petrie, founder and chairman of Petrie Partners, gave his perspective on the Aramco IPO at the EnerCom Dallas investor conference in early March:

Theres a determined effort to bring Saudi Aramco public.  This really is transformational if they can pull it off, Petrie said. The deputy crown prince who is now 32 years old is beginning to put into place a dramatic set of changes: cutbacks in subsidies to the Saudi citizens, looking to instill the notion that work in itself is a worthy activitythats not part of the historic Saudi culture.

Petrie pointed out that this is not just the deputy crown prince talking to the royal family and the extended family of about 30,000-40,000 people, but rather he is talking to 19 million citizens of Saudi Arabia. And we still have the last vestiges of ten sons of the founder of the country of almost 120 years ago, a number of whom are less than fully committed to the changes that the deputy crown prince is putting forth."

Related: Chinas Electric Vehicle Market Is Unbeatable

That said they made the decision and theyre fully committed, Petrie said. He said that when they first put forward the idea of selling a part of Saudi Aramco there was a lot of talk in the West about selling the downstream, selling the midstream, selling the tankers or the refineries, and then it became clearno, were talking about selling 5 percent of the company and by the way we think its worth $2 trillion dollars at the price we want to get for that 5 percent.

$2 trillion not realistic

Petrie said that valuation of the company will be center stage. Wood Mackenzie has come out with a controversial reportas far as the Saudis are concernedthat [the 5 percent of Saudi Aramco] would be valued at far less than the $2 trillion.

At the end of March, Saudi Arabia sharply cut taxes on Aramco, from 85 percent to 50 percent. This is viewed as a move to make the company more attractive to global energy investors, and raising its potential valuation.

If continued cuts can serve to stabilize oil prices at higher levels, this will also buoy the valuationan additional motivation for the kingdom to lobby its coalition to extend production cuts past June.

By Oil and Gas 360

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
Ghana in the next few months will have its own indigenous paragliding pilots as the Ministry of Tourism makes frantic efforts to establish a pilot training school at Kwahu in the Eastern Region.



In an interview with Citi News at the grand opening of this years Kwahu Easter Paragliding Festival, the Minister of Tourism Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku, said the training school will help nurture prospective pilots.



We are in talks to establish the pilot training school to help nurture indigenous people, you know there are a lot of Ghanaians interested in learning so we have spoken to the pilots from USA who have agreed to train our local people. Three of the pilots have their own schools in USA so it wont be difficult.



Madame Afeku added that, the youth who will go through the training will get jobs as well, adding that our youth who will have the chance to be trained in this program will also be employed and this will reduce the unemployment rate in the country. We turn to have a lot of foreign nationals who visit the country day in day out, and not only during Easter, so this will also boost the tourism sector and bring foreign exchange.



She added that, the initiative will be a legacy the Akufo-Addo government wants to leave behind.



The establishment of the school will be a thing Ghanaians especially people of Kwahu will forever be grateful for and this will be one of President Nana Addos legacies, she said.



On his part, the Eastern Regional Minister, Eric Kwakye Darfour, who was also at the opening ceremony. shared his excitement with Citi News.



He said the people of Kwahu will always welcome people from all shades of life to come and experience how Easter is well celebrated in the world, Kwahu is Easter and Easter is Kwahu, you cannot enjoy the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus without coming to Kwahu.



The Director of Ghana AIDS Commission in the Eastern Region, Madame Golda Asante, in an interview with Citi News also encouraged patrons to take advantage of the celebration and know their status.

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.

Featured Video
This is the latest in a series of posts about political news reported in antiquarian issues of The Glens Falls Messenger, on file at The Folklife Center at Crandall Publican Library.

The weekly newspaper dates back to the era when the village of Glen's Falls used an apostrophe in its name.

Say it isn't so!

The Warren County Republican Convention in 1875 rejected Henry Crandall's bid for state Assembly.

Crandall, the lumber baron who later became famous as a Glens Falls real estate investor and philanthropist, placed third on the first ballot for nomination for state Assembly at the Convention in Warrensburg, The Glen's Falls Messenger reported on Oct. 22, 1875.

Nominations were decided by party convention at that time, and there was no option for primary.

Crandall, with six votes, was among eight candidates that received votes on the first ballot.

Robert Wadell, who was unanimously nominated on the third ballot, received 28 votes on the first ballot.

Others received votes on the first ballot are as follows:

F.G. Crosby, 10; T. Coolidge, 3; J.L. Cunningham, 1; George W. Cheney, 1; Joseph Woodward, 1; Andrew Thurston, 1.

Crandall received three votes on the second ballot, in which Waddell, had 35 votes.

Waddell, a merchant from Weavertown, won election to the Assembly and served a two-year term in 1876-77, according to political graveyard.com.

He previously represented Warren County in the Assembly in 1864, when the term was just for one year.

Waddell was an alternate delegate from New York to the Republican National Convention in 1868 and 1872.

He was Johnsburg supervisor in 1862-1865, according to Johnsburg Historian Jo A. Smith.

Waddell died in 1878.

Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series.
ON THE FARM  Its easy to pine for the life of a farmer who raises cute, cuddly, luxuriously soft animals that dont seem to mind regular nuzzles, cuddles and all-day-long smooches.

Its easy to imagine strolling along rolling pastures just before dawn with a cup of steaming, excessively dark French-pressed coffee before feeding and mucking stalls.

To dream of being lulled into the tranquility of hand-spinning fibers into yarns that will someday become scarves, hats and socks. Or of lining jackets with the milled fleece captured from babies you have nurtured.

Its comforting to daydream about spending a cold winters night with a big bunny secreted from the barn into the house and onto your lap by the fire; or perhaps curling up in the barn atop a bed of freshly lain straw to bury your face into the thick, woolly coat of a sheep in need of shearing.

And what about visions of springs new babies and piles upon piles of fiber from the just-shorn adults?

There are exquisitely fluffy bunnies, curly haired lambs, sassy, sweet and thick-coated alpacas, angora goats and merino, Icelandic and blue-faced Leicester sheep who easily share the fibers of their living, season after season.

Raising animals for their fiber is romantic, enticing and a lot of work.

The daydream of such a life rarely includes the sun-up to sunset work days, the round-the-clock watch over an animal who needs extra care, the feeding, cleaning, grooming, clipping and shearing, watering and veterinary care. Not to mention trips to the mill, fiber shows and never getting to leave the farm or go on vacation without finding reliable help to care for things while away.

Nonetheless, its a lifestyle choice thats growing among mid-life career changers and those who never farmed before in what has been called a farm-to-spindle movement.

For freshly anointed farmer Jim Lawless, who owns Truthville Fiber Farm in Granville along with his lawyer husband, Jeff McMorris, and James Joseph and Jeremy Sharp, it started with chickens. And he is quick to admit he never farmed before.

I wanted some chickens, he said in an interview Thursday on the farm. We are brand new. We have 35 alpacas and 40 chickens.

Want to get a taste of this idyllic-seeming life?

Visitors can experience the fun of Truthville Farm and 11 others at the end of this month during the 25th annual Washington County Fiber Tour, which is free and self-guided. Stop by an area fiber farm, see the animals in their natural home, learn about spinning and weaving and talk with farmers about their farms.

We might do some type of wet felting for kids and bring the sheep out so they can pet them, said Lawless, adding that although they worked the Hudson Falls Farmers Market, this will be their first experience with the fiber tour.

Fiber Kingdom

137 E. Broadway, Salem

When Sylvia Graham started raising argyle bunnies for fiber at her New Jersey home, she got hooked.

I said to my husband, Were gonna have to buy these rabbits a farm,  said the CUNY professor emeritus who has been knitting since she was 4.

In 1987, they found the perfect location: an old farm in Salem that did not have any fiber shops nearby.

We just started going north. I knew for at least a few years one of us would have to continue teaching, she said, adding that the farm needed to be within driving distance of New York City. I got out a map and put red dots where there were already shops. We were looking for a vacant area.

She continued.

When I moved up here, alpacas were not here yet, she said. All these little specialty farms cropped up.

Initially, Graham was breeding to meet her personal fiber needs for weaving. And today, she still breeds for wool and for the health of the animal. I try to carry bread-and-butter yarns, not fad yarns, she said.

Graham, who has a Ph.D. in zoology and biology, has also done advanced course work in fiber arts and has nearly completed a Master of Fine Arts degree.

I taught biology and geology and chaired the academic department, she said. And then at night, I was going to art school.

When they bought their Salem farm, it had been sitting vacant for several years and the historic structure and barns needed work, she said. So her husband traveled several hours north each weekend to care for it.

Today, Graham teaches weaving and other fiber arts at her beautifully vintage weaving studio; she sells equipment like looms and spinning wheels; she sells addictingly soft angora socks, hats and gloves; and best of all, there are 40 gorgeous argyle rabbits that she herself clips four times a year.

I can get two pounds a year per rabbit; thats 25 percent of their body weight, she said. They put out a very soft, luxuriant fiber.

Truthville Fiber Farm

69 county Route 12a, North Granville

Lawless said after they bought their farm about two years ago, they were interested in fiber farming and were thinking about raising alpacas. Their partners had raised them in Michigan. But as it turned out, a woman in western New York was looking for a home for her alpacas, and so they started fiber farming with nine girls and four boys.

The herd has grown to 35, along with 40 chickens, some ducks, two sheep and a few argyle bunnies, not to mention four children and three dogs.

Still, the farm is peaceful, like everyone is happy in their home, with fresh-smelling stuffed hay bins on the rolling eight acres dotted with trees, barns and large chicken coops.

Lawless admits he is busy and has to juggle in-house and farming chores. And even their children are learning about keeping up with farm animals.

Spend even five minutes with Lawless and its easy to see he loves the animals. And when he tells tales of their antics, his laughter is contagious.

Then he points out that alpacas and chickens are like potato chips. You just cant have one, he said, adding that he has six ducks inside, brooding.

Truthvilles alpacas are Huacaya, from Peru.

They are funny, inquisitive and aloof, and when visiting the farm, most of the alpacas cant resist peeking around each other to see who just walked up.

The alpacas get shorn once a year, and for the alpacas at Truthville, it happens in May.

Our fiber is 100 percent alpaca, there are no blends, he said, adding that the alpaca fiber does not have the lanolin like sheep do. We sell raw, cleaned fleece, roving for spinning and processed for knitting  we just had our second batch processed.

Dancing Ewe Farm

181 county Route 12, Granville

There are already babies on the ground, and within days there will be more, since 130 sheep at Dancing Ewe Farm are about to give birth, said co-owner Jody Somers.

Much like with Graham and Lawless, fiber farming evolved from other endeavors. And along with their Granville farm, Jody and Luisa Somers are currently resurrecting Luisas family farm in Manciano, Italy, where they grow olives and learn specialty cheese-making, among other things.

Dancing Ewe, initially purchased in 2000, was a run-down dairy farm. Its neglected pastures were riddled with honeysuckle and briars ... deteriorating buildings, Jody said, adding that at the time, he was pursuing a career in Large Animal Veterinary Medicine and training sheepdogs.

But an epiphany of sorts set him on a new course and he moved to Tuscany to learn the tradition of making sheeps milk cheeses.

By 2003, he returned to the Granville farm and began transforming the crumbling structures, and Dancing Ewe took shape. For a while, they took the sheep fiber and stuffed it into cracks in the barn for insulation, but they then decided to stockpile it. When they had 1,000 pounds, they drove 14 hours with the fiber to Prince Edward Island for processing.

A thousand pounds translated into 85 queen-sized wool blankets. Some of the remaining fiber was vacuum-packed and sent to a seamstress in Italy, where the wool will insulate their Marema Region vests.

It is a brushed cotton with the wool on the inside, Somers said. They are stunning.

Today, in addition to fibers, Dancing Ewe produces authentic Italian cheeses and olive oils and hosts farm-to-table dinners on weekends.

We started the farm-to-table dinners once a month, he said. Now we do them every weekend.
QUEENSBURY -- A Glens Falls man who stole a pickup truck from an organization that had been assisting him was sentenced Wednesday to a year in Warren County Jail.

Dylan J. Johnson, 22, pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor, in connection with a Jan. 30 theft of a Toyota pickup from Warren-Washington Association for Mental Health on Maple Street in Glens Falls. He had been a client of the agency, and took the keys, police said.

The truck was recovered in Glens Falls the next day.

He was initially charged with felony grand larceny, but agreed to a plea deal that allowed him to plead guilty to the misdemeanor and a sentence of one year in Warren County Jail.
GREENWICH  The latest version of a community event that stretches back to the 1970s is scheduled for 2 p.m. May 7, when the annual Greenwich CROP Hunger Walk steps off from the Mowry Park Gazebo at Main and Church Streets.

The first year, they wanted to walk 16 miles. I dont think I could have done that, said the Rev. Sandra Spaulding, the pastor of two of the eight congregations of the Greenwich Interfaith Fellowship.

This years walk includes choices of three walks, a half-mile, three-quarters of a mile and one that is just short of 2 miles.

But the majority of the work will be done in advance, during the rest of this month, while parishioners are collecting throughout the community for the event.

One-quarter of the funds each walker raises will go to a food pantry of the walkers choice, with the balance going to help end hunger worldwide through programs of Church World Service, an organization that began shortly after World War II with a mission to feed the hungry and help those in need.

The participating congregations are Bottskill Baptist, Centenary United Methodist, Easton Friends Meeting, Easton Methodist, Stump Methodist, St. Josephs Catholic, St. Pauls Episcopal and United Church.

All area residents are encouraged to sign up to walk. It is not necessary to be a member of one of these congregations to participate.

Its critical for us to do this, Spaulding said. Food and security are things we really care about in our local community. There is a sense of community here, and we support the local food community. Its really important.

Devin Bulger, executive director of the Comfort Food Community in Greenwich, said the CROP Walk is vital, because it is such a public event.

I think it is the most visible community event about food and security issues, because it goes outside of the four walls of the food pantry, and in the case of the Greenwich walk, it is right downtown in the heart of our community, Bulger said. It is a great opportunity for people to show their support for organizations like ours.

Bulger said it is also important because the proceeds are used both locally and internationally.

Its one example where you are not only helping the local community, but helping with the famines in places like South Sudan and Yemen and in other parts of the world, he said.

For more information on the walk, or to donate, contact Spaulding at 692-0284.

Contributions may also be sent by check, made out to CWS/CROP, to Greenwich Interfaith Fellowship, P.O. Box 124, Greenwich, NY 12834.